Fourth Mess. Sir Thomas Lovel and Lord Marquis
Dorset,

'Tis said, my liege, in Yorkshire are in arms.
Yet this good comfort bring I to your grace,
The Breton navy is dispersed by tempest:
Richmond, in Dorsetshire, sent out a boat
Unto the shore, to ask those on the banks
If they were his assistants, yea or no;

520

Who answer'd him, they came from Bucking. ham

Upon his party: he, mistrusting them,

Hoised sail and made away for Brittany.

K. Rich. March on, march on, since we are up in

arms;

530

528. “He, mistrusting them." On October 12, 1483, Richmond set sail from St. Malo in Brittany with forty ships and five thousand men. In the course of that very day his fleet was seized by a storm, shattered, and utterly dispersed. The rest we give in the words of Holinshed: "In the morning after, when the rage of the tempest was asswaged, about the houre of noone the earle approched to the mouth of the haven of Pole in the countie of Dorset, where he might plainlie perceive all the bankes and shores garnished and furnished with men of warre and souldiers, appointed there to defend his arrivall and landing. Wherefore he gave streict charge that no person should presume to take land, untill such time as the whole navie were come togither. And while he taried he sent out a shipboate toward the land side, to know whether they which stood there were enimies or else freends. They that were sent were instantlie desired of the men of warre keeping the coast to take land, affirming that they were appointed by the duke of Buckingham there to await for the arrival of the earle of Richmond, and to conduct him safelie into the campe, where the duke not far off laie with a mightie armie. The earle, suspecting their request to be but a fraud, as it was indeed, after he perceived none of his ships to appeare in sight, weied up his anchors, halsed up his sailes, and, having a fresh gale sent by God to deliver him from that perill, arrived safe in the duchie of Normandie.”—H. N. H.

Yet to beat down these rebels here at home.

Re-enter Catesby.

Cate. My liege, the Duke of Buckingham is taken; That is the best news: that the Earl of Rich

mond

Is with a mighty power landed at Milford,
Is colder tidings, yet they must be told.

K. Rich. Away towards Salisbury! while we reason here,

A royal battle might be won and lost:

Some one take order Buckingham be brought
To Salisbury; the rest march on with me.

540

[Flourish. Exeunt.

SCENE V

Lord Derby's house.

Enter Derby and Sir Christopher Urswick. Der. Sir Christopher, tell Richmond this from me: That in the sty of this most bloody boar

534-536. "That the earl of Richmond told." The earl of Richmond embarked with about two thousand men at Harfleur, in Normandy, August 1, 1485, and landed at Milford Haven on the 7th. He directed his course to Wales, hoping the Welch would receive him cordially as their countryman, he having been born at Pembroke, and his grandfather being Owen Tudor, who married Katharine of France, the widow of King Henry V.-H. N. H.

"Sir Christopher Urswick," a priest, chaplain to the Countess of Richmond, who was married to the lord Stanley. This priest, the Chronicles tell us, frequently went backwards and forwards, unsuspected, on messages between the countess of Richmond and her

My son George Stanley is frank'd up in hold:
If I revolt, off goes young George's head;
The fear of that withholds my present aid.

But, tell me, where is princely Richmond now? Chris. At Pembroke, or at Ha'rford-west, in Wales.

10

Der. What men of name resort to him?
Chris. Sir Walter Herbert, a renowned soldier';
Sir Gilbert Talbot, Sir William Stanley;
Oxford, redoubted Pembroke, Sir James Blunt,
And Rice ap Thomas, with a valiant crew,
And many moe of noble fame and worth:
And towards London they do bend their course,
If by the way they be not fought withal.
Der. Return unto thy lord; commend me to him:
Tell him the queen hath heartily consented
He shall espouse Elizabeth her daughter.
These letters will resolve him of my mind.
Farewell.

[Exeunt.

20

husband and the young earl of Richmond, whilst he was preparing to make his descent on England. He was afterwards almoner to King Henry VII, and refused the bishopric of Norwich. He retired to Hackney, where he died in 1527.-H. N. H.

ACT FIFTH

SCENE I

Salisbury. An open place.

Enter the Sheriff, and Buckingham, with halberds, led to execution.

Buck. Will not King Richard let me speak with him?

Sher. No, my good lord; therefore be patient.
Buck. Hastings, and Edward's children, Rivers,
Grey,

Holy King Henry, and thy fair son Edward,
Vaughan, and all that have miscarried
By underhand corrupted foul injustice,
If that your moody discontented souls

Do through the clouds behold this present hour,
Even for revenge mock my destruction!

1. "Buckingham"; Buckingham was executed on All-saints' day, November 1, 1483. The story is told thus by the chroniclers: "The duke, being by certeine of the kings councell diligentlie examined, what things he knew prejudiciall unto the kings person, declared franklie all the conjuration, without glosing; trusting, because he had plainlie revealed all things, that he should have licence to speake to the king; which, whether it were to sue for pardon, or whether he, being brought to his presence, would have sticked him with a dagger, as men thought, he sore desired. But when he had confessed the whole conspiracie, upon All-soules daie, without arreigment or judgement, he was at Salisburie, in the open marketplace, on a new scaffold, beheaded and put to death." See, also, King Henry VIII, Act i. sc. 2.-H. N. H.

This is All-Souls' day, fellows, is it not? 10 Sher. It is, my lord.

Buck. Why, then All-Souls' day is my body's dooms-day.

This is the day that, in King Edward's time,
I wish'd might fall on me when I was found
False to his children or his wife's allies;
This is the day wherein I wish'd to fall
By the false faith of him I trusted most;
This, this All-Souls' day to my fearful soul
Is the determined respite of my wrongs:
That high All-seer that I dallied with
Hath turn'd my feigned prayer on my head,
And given in earnest what I begg'd in jest.
Thus doth he force the swords of wicked men
To turn their own points on their masters' bos-

oms:

20

Now Margaret's curse is fallen upon my head; 'When he,' quoth she, 'shall split thy heart with

sorrow,

Remember Margaret was a prophetess.'

Come, sirs, convey me to the block of shame;
Wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of
blame.
[Exeunt.

19. "Respite of my wrongs"; the time to which the punishment of his injurious practices or the wrongs done by him was respited.-H. N. H.

28. "Come : shame." Johnson thinks this scene should be added to the fourth act, which would give it a more full and striking conclusion. In the original quarto copy, 1597, this play is not divided into acts and scenes. Malone suggests that the short scene between Stanley and Sir Christopher may have been the opening of the fifth act.-H. N. H.