KING RICHARD
Here pitch our tent, even here in Bosworth field.
My Lord of Surrey, why look you so sad?
SURREY
My heart is ten times lighter than my looks.
KING RICHARD
My lord of Norfolk.
NORFOLK
Here, most gracious liege.
KING RICHARD
Norfolk, we must have knocks, ha, must we not?
NORFOLK
We must both give and take, my loving lord.
KING RICHARD
Up with my tent! Here will I lie tonight.
But where tomorrow? Well, all’s one for that.
Who descried the number of the traitors?
NORFOLK
Six or seven thousand is their utmost power.
KING RICHARD
Why, our battalia trebles that account.
Besides, the King’s name is a tower of strength
Which they upon the adverse faction want.
Up with the tent! Come, noble gentlemen,
Let us survey the vantage of the ground.
Call for some men of sound direction;
Let’s lack no discipline, make no delay,
For, lords, tomorrow is a busy day.
RICHMOND
The weary sun made a golden set,
And by the bright track of his fiery car
Gives token of a goodly day tomorrow.
Sir William Brandon, you shall bear my standard.
Give me some ink and paper in my tent;
I’ll draw the form and model of our battle,
Limit each leader to his several charge,
And part in just proportion our small power.
My Lord of Oxford, you, Sir William Brandon,
And you, Sir Walter Herbert, stay with me.
The Earl of Pembroke keeps his regiment.—
Good Captain Blunt, bear my goodnight to him,
And by the second hour in the morning
Desire the Earl to see me in my tent.
Yet one thing more, good captain, do for me.
Where is Lord Stanley quartered, do you know?
BLUNT
Unless I have mista’en his colours much,
Which well I am assured I have not done,
His regiment lies half a mile at least
South from the mighty power of the King.
RICHMOND
If without peril it be possible,
Sweet Blunt, make some good means to speak with him,
And give him from me this most needful note.
BLUNT
Upon my life, my lord, I’ll undertake it;
And so God give you quiet rest tonight.
RICHMOND
Good night, good Captain Blunt.
RICHMOND
Come, gentlemen,
Let us consult upon tomorrow’s business;
Into my tent. The dew is raw and cold.
KING RICHARD
What is’t o’clock?
CATESBY
It’s supper time, my lord. It’s nine o’clock.
KING RICHARD
I will not sup tonight. Give me some ink and paper.
What, is my beaver easier than it was?
And all my armour laid into my tent?
CATESBY
It is, my liege, and all things are in readiness.
KING RICHARD
Good Norfolk, hie to charge;
Use careful watch; choose trusty sentinels.
NORFOLK
I go, my lord.
KING RICHARD
Stir with the lark tomorrow, gentle Norfolk.
NORFOLK
I warrant you, my lord.
KING RICHARD
Catesby!
CATESBY
My lord?
KING RICHARD
Send out a pursuivant-at-arms
To Stanley’s regiment. Bid him bring his power
Before sunrising, lest his son George fall
Into the blind cave of eternal night.
KING RICHARD
Fill me a bowl of wine. Give me a watch.
Saddle white Surrey for the field tomorrow.
Look that my staves be sound, and not too heavy.
Ratcliffe!
RATCLIFFE
My lord?
KING RICHARD
Saw’st the melancholy Lord Northumberland?
RATCLIFFE
Thomas the Earl of Surrey and himself,
Much about cockshut time, from troop to troop
Went through the army, cheering up the soldiers.
KING RICHARD
So, I am satisfied. Give me a bowl of wine.
I have not that alacrity of spirit
Nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have.
Set it down. Is ink and paper ready?
RATCLIFFE
It is, my lord.
KING RICHARD
Bid my guard watch; leave me.
Ratcliffe, about the mid of night come to my tent
And help to arm me. Leave me, I say.
STANLEY
Fortune and victory sit on helm!
RICHMOND
All comfort that the dark night can afford
Be to person, noble father-in-law.
Tell me, how fares our loving mother?
STANLEY
I, by attorney, bless from mother,
Who prays continually for Richmond’s good.
So much for that. The silent hours steal on,
And flaky darkness breaks within the east.
In brief, for so the season bids us be,
Prepare battle early in the morning,
And put fortune to the arbitrement
Of bloody strokes and mortal-staring war.
I, as I may—that which I would I cannot—
With best advantage will deceive the time,
And aid in this doubtful shock of arms.
But on side I may not be too forward,
Lest, being seen, brother, tender George,
Be executed in his father’s sight.
Farewell; the leisure and the fearful time
Cuts off the ceremonious vows of love
And ample interchange of sweet discourse,
Which so-long-sundered friends should dwell upon.
God give us leisure for these rites of love!
Once more, adieu. Be valiant, and speed well.
RICHMOND
Good lords, conduct him to his regiment.
I’ll strive with troubled thoughts to take a nap,
Lest leaden slumber peise me down tomorrow
When I should mount with wings of victory.
Once more, good night, kind lords and gentlemen.
RICHMOND
O , whose captain I account myself,
Look on my forces with a gracious eye;
Put in their hands bruising irons of wrath,
That they may crush down with a heavy fall
Th’ usurping helmets of our adversaries;
Make us ministers of chastisement,
That we may praise in the victory.
To I do commend my watchful soul
I let fall the windows of mine eyes.
Sleeping and waking, O, defend me still!
GHOST OF EDWARD
Let me sit heavy on soul tomorrow.
Think how stabbed’st me in my prime of youth
At Tewksbury; despair therefore, and die!
Be cheerful, Richmond, for the wronged souls
Of butchered princes fight in behalf.
King Henry’s issue, Richmond, comforts .
GHOST OF HENRY
When I was mortal, my anointed body
By was punched full of deadly holes.
Think on the Tower and me. Despair, and die;
Harry the Sixth bids despair and die.
Virtuous and holy, be conqueror.
Harry, that prophesied be King,
comfort in sleep. Live, and flourish!
GHOST OF CLARENCE
Let me sit heavy in soul tomorrow,
I, that was washed to death with fulsome wine,
Poor Clarence, by guile betrayed to death.
Tomorrow in the battle think on me,
And fall edgeless sword. Despair, and die!
offspring of the house of Lancaster,
The wronged heirs of York do pray for .
Good angels guard battle; live, and flourish.
GHOST OF RIVERS
Let me sit heavy in soul tomorrow,
Rivers that died at Pomfret. Despair and die!
GHOST OF GREY
Think upon Grey, and let soul despair!
GHOST OF VAUGHAN
Think upon Vaughan, and with guilty fear
Let fall lance. Despair and die!
ALL THREE
Awake, and think our wrongs in Richard’s bosom
Will conquer him. Awake, and win the day.
GHOST OF HASTINGS
Bloody and guilty, guiltily awake,
And in a bloody battle end days.
Think on Lord Hastings. Despair and die!
Quiet untroubled soul, awake, awake.
Arm, fight, and conquer for fair England’s sake.
GHOSTS OF PRINCES
Dream on cousins smothered in the Tower.
Let us be lead within bosom, Richard,
And weigh down to ruin, shame, and death;
nephews’ souls bid despair and die.
Sleep, Richmond, sleep in peace, and wake in joy;
Good angels guard from the boar’s annoy.
Live, and beget a happy race of kings;
Edward’s unhappy sons do bid flourish.
GHOST OF ANNE
Richard, wife, that wretched Anne wife,
That never slept a quiet hour with ,
Now fills sleep with perturbations.
Tomorrow in the battle think on me,
And fall edgeless sword. Despair and die!
quiet soul, sleep a quiet sleep;
Dream of success and happy victory.
adversary’s wife pray for .
GHOST OF BUCKINGHAM
The first was I that helped to the crown;
The last was I that felt tyranny.
O, in the battle think on Buckingham,
And die in terror of guiltiness.
Dream on, dream on of bloody deeds and death.
Fainting, despair; despairing, yield breath.
I died for hope I could lend aid,
But cheer heart, and be not dismayed.
God and good angels fight on Richmond’s side;
And Richard fall in height of all his pride.
KING RICHARD
Give me another horse! Bind up my wounds!
Have mercy, Jesu!—Soft! I did but dream.
O coward conscience, how afflict me!
The lights burn blue; it is now dead midnight.
Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh.
What do I fear? Myself? There’s none else by.
Richard loves Richard, that is, I am I.
Is there a murderer here? No. Yes, I am.
Then fly. What, from myself? Great reason why,
Lest I revenge. What, myself upon myself?
, I love myself. ? For any good
That I myself have done unto myself?
O, no, alas, I rather hate myself
For hateful deeds committed by myself.
I am a villain. Yet I lie, I am not.
Fool, of thyself speak well. Fool, do not flatter.
My conscience a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain.
Perjury, perjury, in the highest degree;
Murder, stern murder, in the direst degree;
All several sins, all used in each degree,
Throng to the bar, crying all “Guilty, guilty!”
I shall despair. There is no creature loves me,
And if I die no soul will pity me.
And should they, since that I myself
Find in myself no pity to myself?
Methought the souls of all that I had murdered
Came to my tent, and everyone did threat
Tomorrow’s vengeance on the head of Richard.
RATCLIFFE
My lord!
KING RICHARD
Zounds! Who’s there?
RATCLIFFE
Ratcliffe, my lord; I. The early village cock
twice done salutation to the morn;
Your friends are up and buckle on their armour.
KING RICHARD
O Ratcliffe, I have dreamed a fearful dream!
What think’st , will our friends prove all true?
RATCLIFFE
No doubt, my lord.
KING RICHARD
O Ratcliffe, I fear, I fear!
RATCLIFFE
Nay, good my lord, be not afraid of shadows.
KING RICHARD
By the apostle Paul, shadows tonight
Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard
Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers
Armed in proof and led by shallow Richmond.
not yet near day. Come, go with me.
Under our tents I’ll play the eavesdropper,
To see if any mean to shrink from me.
LORDS
Good morrow, Richmond.
RICHMOND
Cry mercy, lords and watchful gentlemen,
That you have ta’en a tardy sluggard here.
LORDS
How have you slept, my lord?
RICHMOND
The sweetest sleep and fairest-boding dreams
That ever entered in a drowsy head
Have I since your departure had, my lords.
Methought their souls whose bodies Richard murdered
Came to my tent and cried on victory.
I promise you, my heart is very jocund
In the remembrance of so fair a dream.
How far into the morning is it, lords?
LORDS
Upon the stroke of four.
RICHMOND
Why, then time to arm and give direction.
RICHMOND
More than I have said, loving countrymen,
The leisure and enforcement of the time
Forbids to dwell upon. Yet remember this:
God, and our good cause, fight upon our side;
The prayers of holy saints and wronged souls,
Like high-reared bulwarks, stand before our faces.
Richard except, those whom we fight against
Had rather have us win than him they follow.
For what is he they follow? Truly, gentlemen,
A bloody tyrant and a homicide;
One raised in blood, and one in blood established;
One that made means to come by what he ,
And slaughtered those that were the means to help him;
A base foul stone, made precious by the foil
Of England’s chair, where he is falsely set;
One that ever been God’s enemy.
Then, if you fight against God’s enemy,
God will, in justice, ward you as his soldiers;
If you do sweat to put a tyrant down,
You sleep in peace, the tyrant being slain;
If you do fight against your country’s foes,
Your country’s fat shall pay your pains the hire;
If you do fight in safeguard of your wives,
Your wives shall welcome home the conquerors;
If you do free your children from the sword,
Your children’s children quits it in your age.
Then, in the name of God and all these rights,
Advance your standards, draw your willing swords.
For me, the ransom of my bold attempt
Shall be this cold corpse on the earth’s cold face;
But if I thrive, the gain of my attempt
The least of you shall share his part thereof.
Sound drums and trumpets boldly and cheerfully!
God, and Saint George! Richmond and victory!
KING RICHARD
What said Northumberland as touching Richmond?
RATCLIFFE
That he was never trained up in arms.
KING RICHARD
He said the truth. And what said Surrey then?
RATCLIFFE
He smiled, and said, “The better for our purpose.”
KING RICHARD
He was in the right, and so indeed it is.
KING RICHARD
Tell the clock there. Give me a calendar.
Who saw the sun today?
RATCLIFFE
Not I, my lord.
KING RICHARD
Then he disdains to shine, for by the book
He should have braved the east an hour ago.
A black day will it be to somebody.
Ratcliffe!
RATCLIFFE
My lord?
KING RICHARD
The sun will not be seen today!
The sky frown and lour upon our army.
I would these dewy tears were from the ground.
Not shine today? Why, what is that to me
More than to Richmond? For the selfsame heaven
That frowns on me looks sadly upon him.
NORFOLK
Arm, arm, my lord. The foe vaunts in the field.
KING RICHARD
Come, bustle, bustle! Caparison my horse.
Call up Lord Stanley; bid him bring his power.
I will lead forth my soldiers to the plain,
And thus my battle shall be ordered:
My foreward shall be drawn out all in length,
Consisting equally of horse and foot;
Our archers shall be placed in the midst.
John Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Earl of Surrey,
Shall have the leading of this foot and horse.
They thus directed, we will follow
In the main battle, whose puissance on either side
Shall be well winged with our chiefest horse.
This, and Saint George to boot! What think’st , Norfolk?
NORFOLK
A good direction, warlike sovereign.
NORFOLK
This found I on my tent this morning.
KING RICHARD
“Jockey of Norfolk, be not too bold.
For Dickon master is bought and sold.”
A thing devised by the enemy.
Go, gentlemen, every man unto his charge.
Let not our babbling dreams affright our souls;
Conscience is but a word that cowards use,
Devised at first to keep the strong in awe.
Our strong arms be our conscience, swords our law.
March on. Join bravely. Let us to it pell-mell,
If not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell.
KING RICHARD
What shall I say more than I have inferred?
Remember whom you are to cope ,
A sort of vagabonds, rascals, and runaways,
A scum of Bretons and base lackey peasants,
Whom their o’er-cloyed country vomits forth
To desperate adventures and assured destruction.
You sleeping safe, they bring to you unrest;
You having lands, and blessed with beauteous wives,
They would restrain the one, distain the other.
And who lead them but a paltry fellow,
Long kept in Brittany at our mother’s cost?
A milksop, one that never in his life
Felt so much cold as over-shoes in snow?
Let’s whip these stragglers the seas again,
Lash these overweening rags of France,
These famished beggars, weary of their lives,
Who, but for dreaming on this fond exploit,
For want of means, poor rats, had hanged themselves.
If we be conquered, let men conquer us,
And not these bastard Bretons, whom our fathers
Have in their own land beaten, bobbed, and thumped,
And in record left them the heirs of shame.
Shall these enjoy our lands? Lie with our wives,
Ravish our daughters?
KING RICHARD
Hark, I hear their drum.
Fight, gentlemen of England! Fight, bold yeomen!
Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head!
Spur your proud horses hard, and ride in blood!
Amaze the welkin with your broken staves!
KING RICHARD
What says Lord Stanley? Will he bring his power?
MESSENGER
My lord, he deny to come.
KING RICHARD
Off with his son George’s head!
NORFOLK
My lord, the enemy is past the marsh.
After the battle let George Stanley die.
KING RICHARD
A thousand hearts are great within my bosom.
Advance our standards! Set upon our foes!
Our ancient word of courage, fair Saint George,
Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons!
Upon them! Victory sits on our helms.