KING RICHARD

Why, what wouldst thou do there before I go?

RATCLIFFE

Your highness told me I should post before.

KING RICHARD

My mind is changed.

Enter Lord Stanley

Stanley, what news with you?

STANLEY

None, good my liege, to please you with the hearing,

Nor none so bad but well may be reported.

KING RICHARD

Hoyday, a riddle! Neither good nor bad.

Why need’st thou run so many mile about

When thou mayst tell thy tale the nearest way?

Once more, what news?

STANLEY Richmond is on the seas.

KING RICHARD

There let him sink, and be the seas on him.

White-livered renegade, what doth he there?

STANLEY

I know not, mighty sovereign, but by guess.

KING RICHARD Well, as you guess?

STANLEY

Stirred up by Dorset, Buckingham, and Ely,

He makes for England, here to claim the crown.

KING RICHARD

Is the chair empty? Is the sword unswayed?

Is the King dead? The empire unpossessed?

What heir of York is there alive but we?

And who is England’s king but great York’s heir?

Then tell me, what makes he upon the seas?

STANLEY

Unless for that, my liege, I cannot guess.

KING RICHARD

Unless for that he comes to be your liege,

You cannot guess wherefore the Welshman comes.

Thou wilt revolt and fly to him, I fear.

STANLEY

No, my good lord, therefore mistrust me not.

KING RICHARD

Where is thy power then? To beat him back,

Where be thy tenants and thy followers?

Are they not now upon the western shore,

Safe-conducting the rebels from their ships?

STANLEY

No, my good lord, my friends are in the north.

KING RICHARD

Cold friends to me. What do they in the north,

When they should serve their sovereign in the west?

STANLEY

They have not been commanded, mighty King.

Pleaseth your majesty to give me leave,

I’ll muster up my friends and meet your grace

Where and what time your majesty shall please.

KING RICHARD

Ay, ay, thou wouldst be gone to join with Richmond.

But I’ll not trust thee.

STANLEY

Most mighty sovereign,

You have no cause to hold my friendship doubtful.

I never was, nor never will be, false.

KING RICHARD

Go then and muster men—but leave behind

Your son George Stanley. Look your heart be firm,

Or else his head’s assurance is but frail.

STANLEY

So deal with him as I prove true to you. Exit

Enter a Messenger

MESSENGER

My gracious sovereign, now in Devonshire,

As I by friends am well advertised,

Sir Edward Courtenay and the haughty prelate,

Bishop of Exeter, his elder brother,

With many more confederates are in arms.

Enter another Messenger

SECOND MESSENGER

In Kent, my liege, the Guildfords are in arms,

And every hour more competitors

Flock to the rebels, and their power grows strong.

Enter another Messenger

THIRD MESSENGER

My lord, the army of great Buckingham—

KING RICHARD

Out on ye, owls! Nothing but songs of death?

He striketh him

There, take thou that, till thou bring better news.

THIRD MESSENGER

The news I have to tell your majesty

Is that, by sudden flood and fall of water,

Buckingham’s army is dispersed and scattered,

And he himself wandered away alone,

No man knows whither.

KING RICHARD I cry thee mercy.—

Ratcliffe, reward him for the blow I gave him.—

Hath any well-advisèd friend proclaimed

Reward to him that brings the traitor in?

THIRD MESSENGER

Such proclamation hath been made, my lord.

Enter another Messenger

FOURTH MESSENGER

Sir Thomas Lovell and Lord Marquis Dorset—

‘Tis said, my liege—in Yorkshire are in arms.

But this good comfort bring I to your highness:

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?

Who answered him they came from Buckingham

Upon his party. He, mistrusting them,

Hoist sail and made his course again for Bretagne.

KING RICHARD

March on, march on, since we are up in arms,

If not to fight with foreign enemies,

Yet to beat down these rebels here at home.

Enter Catesby

CATESBY

My liege, the Duke of Buckingham is taken.

That is the best news. That the Earl of Richmond

Is with a mighty power landed at Milford

Is colder tidings, yet they must be told.

KING RICHARD

Away, towards Salisbury! While we reason here,

A royal battle might be won and lost.

Someone take order Buckingham be brought

To Salisbury. The rest march on with me.

Flourish. Exeunt

4.5 Enter Lord Stanley Earl of Derby and Sir Christopher, a priest

STANLEY

Sir Christopher, tell Richmond this from me:

That in the sty of this most deadly boar

My son George Stanley is franked up in hold.

If I revolt, off goes young George’s head.

The fear of that holds off my present aid.

But tell me, where is princely Richmond now?

SIR CHRISTOPHER

At Pembroke, or at Ha’rfordwest in Wales.

STANLEY

What men of name resort to him?

SIR CHRISTOPHER

Sir Walter Herbert, a renowned soldier,

Sir Gilbert Talbot, Sir William Stanley,

Oxford, redoubted Pembroke, Sir James Blunt,

And Rhys-ap-Thomas with a valiant crew,

And many other of great name and worth—

And towards London do they bend their power,