KING RICHARD III. William Shakespeare

with our wives,

       Ravish our daughters?—Hark! I hear their drum.

       [Drum afar off.]

       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!

       [Enter a MESSENGER.]

       What says Lord Stanley? will he bring his power?

       MESSENGER

       My lord, he doth deny to come.

       KING RICHARD

       Off with his son George’s head!

       NORFOLK

       My lord, the enemy is pass’d 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.

       [Exeunt.]

      SCENE IV. Another part of the Field

       [Alarum; excursions. Enter NORFOLK and forces; to him CATESBY.]

       CATESBY

       Rescue, my Lord of Norfolk, rescue, rescue!

       The king enacts more wonders than a man,

       Daring an opposite to every danger:

       His horse is slain, and all on foot he fights,

       Seeking for Richmond in the throat of death.

       Rescue, fair lord, or else the day is lost!

       [Alarum. Enter KING RICHARD.]

       KING RICHARD

       A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

       CATESBY

       Withdraw, my lord! I’ll help you to a horse.

       KING RICHARD

       Slave, I have set my life upon a cast,

       And I will stand the hazard of the die:

       I think there be six Richmonds in the field:

       Five have I slain to-day instead of him.—

       A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

       [Exeunt.]

      SCENE V. Another part of the Field

       [Alarums. Enter, from opposite sides, KING RICHARD and RICHMOND; and exeunt fighting. Retreat and flourish. Then re-enter RICHMOND, with STANLEY bearing the crown, and divers other Lords and Forces.]

       RICHMOND

       God and your arms be prais’d, victorious friends;

       The day is ours, the bloody dog is dead.

       STANLEY

       Courageous Richmond, well hast thou acquit thee!

       Lo, here, this long-usurpèd royalty

       From the dead temples of this bloody wretch

       Have I pluck’d off, to grace thy brows withal.

       Wear it, enjoy it, and make much of it.

       RICHMOND

       Great God of heaven, say Amen to all!—

       But, tell me is young George Stanley living?

       STANLEY

       He is, my lord, and safe in Leicester town,

       Whither, if it please you, we may now withdraw us.

       RICHMOND

       What men of name are slain on either side?

       STANLEY

       John Duke of Norfolk, Walter Lord Ferrers,

       Sir Robert Brakenbury, and Sir William Brandon.

       RICHMOND

       Inter their bodies as becomes their births:

       Proclaim a pardon to the soldiers fled

       That in submission will return to us:

       And then, as we have ta’en the sacrament,

       We will unite the white rose and the red:—

       Smile heaven upon this fair conjunction,

       That long have frown’d upon their emnity!

       What traitor hears me, and says not Amen?

       England hath long been mad, and scarr’d herself;

       The brother blindly shed the brother’s blood,

       The father rashly slaughter’d his own son,

       The son, compell’d, been butcher to the sire:

       All this divided York and Lancaster,

       Divided in their dire division,—

       O, now let Richmond and Elizabeth,

       The true succeeders of each royal house,

       By God’s fair ordinance conjoin together!

       And let their heirs,—God, if Thy will be so,—

       Enrich the time to come with smooth’d-fac’d peace,

       With smiling plenty, and fair prosperous days!

       Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord,

       That would reduce these bloody days again,

       And make poor England weep in streams of blood!

       Let them not live to taste this land’s increase

       That would with treason wound this fair land’s peace!

       Now civil wounds are stopp’d, peace lives again:

       That she may long live here, God say Amen!

       [Exeunt.]

       THE END