Tear-falling pity dwells not in this eye.—

Enter Sir James Tyrrell; ⌈he kneels⌉

Is thy name Tyrrell?

TYRRELL

James Tyrrell, and your most obedient subject.

KING RICHARD

Art thou indeed?

TYRRELL

Prove me, my gracious lord.

KING RICHARD

Dar’st thou resolve to kill a friend of mine?

TYRRELL

Please you, but I had rather kill two enemies.

KING RICHARD

Why there thou hast it: two deep enemies,

Foes to my rest, and my sweet sleep’s disturbers,

Are they that I would have thee deal upon.

Tyrrell, I mean those bastards in the Tower.

TYRRELL

Let me have open means to come to them,

And soon I’ll rid you from the fear of them.

KING RICHARD

Thou sing’st sweet music. Hark, come hither, Tyrrell.

Go, by this token. Rise, and lend thine ear.

Richard whispers in his ear

‘Tis no more but so. Say it is done,

And I will love thee, and prefer thee for it.

TYRRELL I will dispatch it straight. ⌈KING RICHARD⌉

Shall we hear from thee, Tyrrell, ere we sleep?

Enter Buckingham

⌈TYRRELL⌉ Ye shall, my lord. Exit

BUCKINGHAM

My lord, I have considered in my mind

The late request that you did sound me in.

KING RICHARD

Well, let that rest. Dorset is fled to Richmond.

BUCKINGHAM I hear the news, my lord.

KING RICHARD

Stanley, he is your wife’s son. Well, look to it.

BUCKINGHAM

My lord, I claim the gift, my due by promise,

For which your honour and your faith is pawned:

Th’earldom of Hereford, and the movables

Which you have promised I shall possess.

KING RICHARD

Stanley, look to your wife. If she convey

Letters to Richmond, you shall answer it.

BUCKINGHAM

What says your highness to my just request?

KING RICHARD

I do remember me, Henry the Sixth

Did prophesy that Richmond should be king,

When Richmond was a little peevish boy.

A king... perhaps... perhaps.

BUCKINGHAM

My lord?

KING RICHARD

How chance the prophet could not at that time

Have told me, I being by, that I should kill him?

BUCKINGHAM

My lord, your promise for the earldom.

KING RICHARD

Richmond? When last I was at Exeter,

The Mayor in courtesy showed me the castle,

And called it ‘Ruge-mount’—at which name I started,

Because a bard of Ireland told me once

I should not live long after I saw ‘Richmond’.

BUCKINGHAM My lord?

KING RICHARD Ay? What’s o’clock?

BUCKINGHAM

I am thus bold to put your grace in mind

Of what you promised me.

KING RICHARD

But what’s o’clock?

BUCKINGHAM Upon the stroke of ten.

KING RICHARD Well, let it strike!

BUCKINGHAM Why ‘let it strike’?

KING RICHARD

Because that, like a jack, thou keep’st the stroke

Betwixt thy begging and my meditation.

I am not in the giving vein today.

BUCKINGHAM

Why then resolve me, whe’er you will or no?

KING RICHARD

Thou troublest me. I am not in the vein.

Exit Richard, followed by all but Buckingham

BUCKINGHAM

And is it thus? Repays he my deep service

With such contempt? Made I him king for this?

O let me think on Hastings, and be gone

To Brecon, while my fearful head is on.

Exit ⌈at another door⌉

4.3 Enter Sir James Tyrrell

TYRRELL

The tyrannous and bloody act is done—

The most arch deed of piteous massacre

That ever yet this land was guilty of.

Dighton and Forrest, whom I did suborn

To do this piece of ruthless butchery,

Albeit they were fleshed villains, bloody dogs,

Melted with tenderness and mild compassion,

Wept like two children in their deaths’ sad story.

‘O thus’, quoth Dighton, ‘lay the gentle babes’;

‘Thus, thus’, quoth Forrest, ‘girdling one another

Within their alabaster innocent arms.

Their lips were four red roses on a stalk,

And in their summer beauty kissed each other.

A book of prayers on their pillow lay,

Which once’, quoth Forrest, ‘almost changed my mind.

But O, the devil’—there the villain stopped,

When Dighton thus told on, ‘We smothered

The most replenishèd sweet work of nature,

That from the prime creation e’er she framed.’

Hence both are gone, with conscience and remorse.

They could not speak, and so I left them both,

To bear this tidings to the bloody king.

Enter King Richard

And here he comes.—AH health, my sovereign lord.

KING RICHARD

Kind Tyrrell, am I happy in thy news?

TYRRELL

If to have done the thing you gave in charge

Beget your happiness, be happy then,

For it is done.

KING RICHARD

But didst thou see them dead?

TYRRELL

I did, my lord.

KING RICHARD

And buried, gentle Tyrrell?

TYRRELL

The chaplain of the Tower hath buried them;

But where, to say the truth, I do not know.

KING RICHARD

Come to me, Tyrrell, soon, at after-supper,

When thou shalt tell the process of their death.

Meantime, but think how I may do thee good,

And be inheritor of thy desire.

Farewell till then.

TYRRELL

I humbly take my leave.

Exit

KING RICHARD

The son of Clarence have I pent up close.

His daughter meanly have I matched in marriage.

The sons of Edward sleep in Abraham’s bosom,

And Anne, my wife, hath bid this world goodnight.

Now, for I know the Breton Richmond aims

At young Elizabeth, my brother’s daughter,

And by that knot looks proudly o’er the crown,