Cuts for Act 3, Scene 7

Cuts are preceded by a '[' and end with a ']'.  If multiple speeches are cut, each
speech will be bracketed separately.
 

Page 86 - after line 41

GLOUCESTER

What tongueless blocks were they!
[would not they speak?]

[No, by my troth, my lord.]

Page 87 - after line 44

BUCKINGHAM

The mayor is here at hand: intend some fear;
Be not you spoke with, but by mighty suit:
And look you get a prayer-book in your hand,
And stand betwixt two churchmen, good my lord;
For on that ground I'll build a holy descant:
[And be not easily won to our request:
Play the maid's part, still answer nay, and take it.]

[I go; and if you plead as well for them
As I can say nay to thee for myself,
No doubt well bring it to a happy issue.]

[Go, go, up to the leads; the lord mayor knocks.]

Exit GLOUCESTER

Enter the Lord Mayor and Citizens

Welcome my lord; I dance attendance here;
I think the duke will not be spoke withal.

Enter CATESBY

Here comes his servant: how now, Catesby,
What says he?

BUCKINGHAM

Return, good Catesby, to the gracious Duke.
Tell him, myself, the mayor and alderman,
In deep designs and matters of great moment,
No less importing than our general good,
Are come to have some conference with his grace.

BUCKINGHAM

[Sorry I am my noble cousin should
Suspect me, that I mean no good to him:]
By heaven, I come to him in perfect love,
And so once more return and tell his grace.
 

Exit CATESBY

When holy and devout religious men
Are at their beads, 'tis hard to draw them thence,
So sweet is zealous contemplation.

BUCKINGHAM

[You have, my lord: would it might please your grace,
At our entreaties, to amend that fault!]
 

[Else wherefore breathe I in a Christian land?]

Then know, it is your fault that you resign
The supreme seat, the throne majestical,
The scepter'd office of your ancestors,
Your state of fortune and your due of birth,
The lineal glory of your royal house,
To the corruption of a blemished stock:
Whiles, 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,
Her royal stock graft with ignoble plants,
And almost shoulder'd in the swallowing gulf
Of blind forgetfulness and dark oblivion.
Which to recure, we heartily solicit
Your gracious self to take on you the charge
And kingly government of this your land,
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,
Your very worshipful and loving friends,
And by their vehement instigation,
In this just cause come I to move your grace.
 

[I know not whether to depart in silence,
Or bitterly to speak in your reproof.
Best fitteth my degree or your condition
If not to answer, you might haply think
Tongue-tied ambition, not replying, yielded
To bear the golden yoke of sovereignty,
Which fondly you would here impose on me;
If to reprove you for this suit of yours,
So season'd with your faithful love to me.
Then, on the other side, I cheque'd my friends.
Therefore, to speak, and to avoid the first,
And then, in speaking, not to incur the last,
Definitively thus I answer you.]
Your love deserves my thanks; but my desert
Unmeritable shuns your high request.
First if all obstacles were cut away,
And that my path were even to the crown,
[As my ripe revenue and due by birth]
Yet so much is my poverty of spirit,
So mighty and so many my defects,
As I had rather hide me from my greatness,
[Being a bark to brook no mighty sea,
Than in my greatness covet to be hid,
And in the vapour of my glory smother'd.]
But, God be thank'd, there's no need of me,
[And much I need to help you, if need were;]
The royal tree hath left us royal fruit,
[Which, mellow'd by the stealing hours of time,
Will well become the seat of majesty,
And make, no doubt, us happy by his reign.]
On him I lay what you would lay on me,
[The right and fortune of his happy stars;]
Which God defend that I should wring from him!

BUCKINGHAM

If you refuse it,--as, in love and zeal,
Loath to depose the child, Your brother's son;
[As well we know your tenderness of heart
And gentle, kind, effeminate remorse,
Which we have noted in you to your kin,
And equally indeed to all estates,--]
Yet know, whe'er you accept our suit or no,
Your brother's son shall never reign our king;
But we will plant some other in the throne,
To the disgrace and downfall of your house:
And in this resolution here we leave you.--
Come, citizens: 'zounds! I'll entreat no more.
 

O, do not swear, my lord of Buckingham.

Exit BUCKINGHAM with the Citizens

Call them again, my lord, and accept their suit.
If you deny them, all the land will rue it.

Would you enforce me to a world of care?
Well, call them again. I am not made of stones,
But penetrable to your. kind entreats,
[Albeit against my conscience and my soul.]
 

Re-enter BUCKINGHAM and the rest

Cousin of Buckingham, and sage, grave men,
Since you will buckle fortune on my back,
To bear her burthen, whe'er I will or no,
I must have patience to endure the load.
[But if black scandal or foul-faced reproach
Attend the sequel of your imposition,
Your mere enforcement shall acquittance me
From all the impure blots and stains thereof;]
For God doth know, and you may partly see,
How far I am from the desire of this.
 

God bless your grace! we see it, and will say it.

[In saying so, you shall but say the truth.]

Then I salute you with this kingly title:
Long live Richard, England's worthy king!
 

Amen.

To-morrow will it please you to be crown'd?

Even when you please, since you will have it so.

To-morrow, then, we will attend your grace:
And so most joyfully we take our leave.
 

Come, let us to our holy task again.
[Farewell, good cousin; farewell, gentle friends.]
 

Exeunt