READ:
Extract taken from Act 3, Scene 7, lines 90-133.
Enter Richard Duke of Gloucester, between two bishops, aloft
MAYOR See where he stands between two clergymen. 90
BUCKINGHAM Two props of virtue for a Christian prince,
To stay him from the fall of vanity;
And see, a book of prayer in his hand,
True ornaments to know a holy man. –
Famous Plantagenet, most gracious prince, 95
Lend favourable ears to our request,
And pardon us the interruption
Of thy devotion and right Christian zeal.
RICHARD My lord, there needs no such apology.
I rather do beseech you to pardon me, 100
Who, earnest in the service of my God,
Neglect the visitation of my friends.
But, leaving this, what is your grace’s pleasure?
BUCKINGHAM Even that, I hope, which pleaseth God above,
And all good men of this ungoverned isle. 105
RICHARD I do suspect I have done some offence
That seems disgracious in the City’s eyes,
And that you come to reprehend my ignorance.
BUCKINGHAM You have, my lord, would it might please your grace
At our entreaties to amend that fault. 110
RICHARD Else wherefore breathe I in a Christian land?
BUCKINGHAM Then know it is your fault that you resign
The supreme seat, the throne majestical,
The sceptred office of your ancestors,
The lineal glory of your royal house, 115
To the corruption of a blemished stock,
Whilst in the mildness of your sleepy thoughts,
Which here we waken to our country’s good,
This noble isle doth want her proper limbs,
Her face defaced with scars of infamy, 120
And almost shouldered in the swallowing gulf
Of blind forgetfulness and dark oblivion.
Which to recure, we heartily solicit
Your gracious self
To take on you the sovereignty thereof, 125
Not as Protector, steward, substitute,
Or lowly factor for another’s gain,
But as successively from blood to blood
Your right of birth, your empery, your own.
For this, consorted with the citizens, 130
Your very worshipful and loving friends,
And by their vehement instigation,
In this just suit come I to move your grace.