Act 3, Scene 1

London. A street.

[The trumpets sound. Enter the PRINCE OF WALES, GLOSTER, BUCKINGHAM, CATESBY, CARDINAL BOURCHIER, and others.]
Duke of Buckingham
1495 Welcome, sweet prince, to London, to your chamber.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1496 Welcome, dear cousin, my thoughts' sovereign:
1497 The weary way hath made you melancholy.
Edward, Prince of Wales
1498 No, uncle; but our crosses on the way
1499 Have made it tedious, wearisome, and heavy:
1500 I want more uncles here to welcome me.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1501 Sweet prince, the untainted virtue of your years
1502 Hath not yet div'd into the world's deceit:
1503 Nor more can you distinguish of a man
1504 Than of his outward show; which, God He knows,
1505 Seldom or never jumpeth with the heart.
1506 Those uncles which you want were dangerous;
1507 Your grace attended to their sugar'd words
1508 But look'd not on the poison of their hearts:
1509 God keep you from them and from such false friends!
Edward, Prince of Wales
1510 God keep me from false friends! but they were none.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1511 My lord, the mayor of London comes to greet you.
[Enter the LORD MAYOR and his train.]
Lord Mayor of London
1512 God bless your grace with health and happy days!
Edward, Prince of Wales
1513 I thank you, good my lord;—and thank you all.
[Exeunt MAYOR, &c.]
Edward, Prince of Wales
1514 I thought my mother and my brother York
1515 Would long ere this have met us on the way:
1516 Fie, what a slug is Hastings, that he comes not
1517 To tell us whether they will come or no!
Duke of Buckingham
1518 And, in good time, here comes the sweating lord.
[Enter HASTINGS.]
Edward, Prince of Wales
1519 Welcome, my lord: what, will our mother come?
Lord Hastings
1520 On what occasion, God He knows, not I,
1521 The queen your mother and your brother York
1522 Have taken sanctuary: the tender prince
1523 Would fain have come with me to meet your grace,
1524 But by his mother was perforce withheld.
Duke of Buckingham
1525 Fie, what an indirect and peevish course
1526 Is this of hers?—Lord cardinal, will your grace
1527 Persuade the queen to send the Duke of York
1528 Unto his princely brother presently?
1529 If she deny, Lord Hastings, go with him,
1530 And from her jealous arms pluck him perforce.
Cardinal Bourchier
1531 My Lord of Buckingham, if my weak oratory
1532 Can from his mother win the Duke of York,
1533 Anon expect him here; but if she be obdurate
1534 To mild entreaties, God in heaven forbid
1535 We should infringe the holy privilege
1536 Of blessed sanctuary! not for all this land
1537 Would I be guilty of so deep a sin.
Duke of Buckingham
1538 You are too senseless-obstinate, my lord,
1539 Too ceremonious and traditional:
1540 Weigh it but with the grossness of this age,
1541 You break not sanctuary in seizing him.
1542 The benefit thereof is always granted
1543 To those whose dealings have deserv'd the place
1544 And those who have the wit to claim the place:
1545 This prince hath neither claim'd it nor deserv'd it;
1546 And therefore, in mine opinion, cannot have it:
1547 Then, taking him from thence that is not there,
1548 You break no privilege nor charter there.
1549 Oft have I heard of sanctuary-men;
1550 But sanctuary-children ne'er till now.
Cardinal Bourchier
1551 My lord, you shall o'errule my mind for once.—
1552 Come on, Lord Hastings, will you go with me?
Lord Hastings
1553 I go, my lord.
Edward, Prince of Wales
1554 Good lords, make all the speedy haste you may.
[Exeunt CARDINAL and HASTINGS.]
Edward, Prince of Wales
1555 Say, uncle Gloster, if our brother come,
1556 Where shall we sojourn till our coronation?
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1557 Where it seems best unto your royal self.
1558 If I may counsel you, some day or two
1559 Your highness shall repose you at the Tower:
1560 Then where you please and shall be thought most fit
1561 For your best health and recreation.
Edward, Prince of Wales
1562 I do not like the Tower, of any place.—
1563 Did Julius Caesar build that place, my lord?
Duke of Buckingham
1564 He did, my gracious lord, begin that place;
1565 Which, since, succeeding ages have re-edified.
Edward, Prince of Wales
1566 Is it upon record, or else reported
1567 Successively from age to age, he built it?
Duke of Buckingham
1568 Upon record, my gracious lord.
Edward, Prince of Wales
1569 But say, my lord, it were not register'd,
1570 Methinks the truth should live from age to age,
1571 As 'twere retail'd to all posterity,
1572 Even to the general all-ending day.
[Aside.]
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1573 So wise so young, they say, do never live long.
Edward, Prince of Wales
1574 What say you, uncle?
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1575 I say, without characters, fame lives long.—
[Aside.]
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1576 Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity,
1577 I moralize two meanings in one word.
Edward, Prince of Wales
1578 That Julius Caesar was a famous man;
1579 With what his valour did enrich his wit,
1580 His wit set down to make his valour live;
1581 Death makes no conquest of this conqueror;
1582 For now he lives in fame, though not in life.—
1583 I'll tell you what, my cousin Buckingham,—
Duke of Buckingham
1584 What, my gracious lord?
Edward, Prince of Wales
1585 An if I live until I be a man,
1586 I'll win our ancient right in France again,
1587 Or die a soldier as I liv'd a king.
[Aside.]
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1588 Short summers lightly have a forward spring.
Duke of Buckingham
1589 Now, in good time, here comes the Duke of York.
[Enter YORK, HASTINGS, and the CARDINAL.]
Edward, Prince of Wales
1590 Richard of York! how fares our loving brother?
Richard, Duke of York (the young prince)
1591 Well, my dread lord; so must I call you now.
Edward, Prince of Wales
1592 Ay brother,—to our grief, as it is yours:
1593 Too late he died that might have kept that title,
1594 Which by his death hath lost much majesty.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1595 How fares our cousin, noble Lord of York?
Richard, Duke of York (the young prince)
1596 I thank you, gentle uncle. O, my lord,
1597 You said that idle weeds are fast in growth:
1598 The prince my brother hath outgrown me far.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1599 He hath, my lord.
Richard, Duke of York (the young prince)
1600 And therefore is he idle?
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1601 O, my fair cousin, I must not say so.
Richard, Duke of York (the young prince)
1602 Then he is more beholding to you than I.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1603 He may command me as my sovereign;
1604 But you have power in me as in a kinsman.
Richard, Duke of York (the young prince)
1605 I pray you, uncle, give me this dagger.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1606 My dagger, little cousin? with all my heart!
Edward, Prince of Wales
1607 A beggar, brother?
Richard, Duke of York (the young prince)
1608 Of my kind uncle, that I know will give,
1609 And being but a toy, which is no grief to give.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1610 A greater gift than that I'll give my cousin.
Richard, Duke of York (the young prince)
1611 A greater gift! O, that's the sword to it!
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1612 Ay, gentle cousin, were it light enough.
Richard, Duke of York (the young prince)
1613 O, then, I see you will part but with light gifts;
1614 In weightier things you'll say a beggar nay.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1615 It is too heavy for your grace to wear.
Richard, Duke of York (the young prince)
1616 I weigh it lightly, were it heavier.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1617 What, would you have my weapon, little lord?
Richard, Duke of York (the young prince)
1618 I would, that I might thank you as you call me.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1619 How?
Richard, Duke of York (the young prince)
1620 Little.
Edward, Prince of Wales
1621 My Lord of York will still be cross in talk:—
1622 Uncle, your grace knows how to bear with him.
Richard, Duke of York (the young prince)
1623 You mean, to bear me, not to bear with me:—
1624 Uncle, my brother mocks both you and me;
1625 Because that I am little, like an ape,
1626 He thinks that you should bear me on your shoulders.
Duke of Buckingham
1627 With what a sharp-provided wit he reasons!
1628 To mitigate the scorn he gives his uncle,
1629 He prettily and aptly taunts himself:
1630 So cunning and so young is wonderful.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1631 My lord, wil't please you pass along?
1632 Myself and my good cousin Buckingham
1633 Will to your mother, to entreat of her
1634 To meet you at the Tower and welcome you.
Richard, Duke of York (the young prince)
1635 What, will you go unto the Tower, my lord?
Edward, Prince of Wales
1636 My lord protector needs will have it so.
Richard, Duke of York (the young prince)
1637 I shall not sleep in quiet at the Tower.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1638 Why, what should you fear?
Richard, Duke of York (the young prince)
1639 Marry, my uncle Clarence' angry ghost:
1640 My grandam told me he was murder'd there.
Edward, Prince of Wales
1641 I fear no uncles dead.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1642 Nor none that live, I hope.
Edward, Prince of Wales
1643 An if they live, I hope I need not fear.
1644 But come, my lord; and with a heavy heart,
1645 Thinking on them, go I unto the Tower.
[Sennet. Exeunt PRINCE, YORK, HASTINGS, CARDINAL, and Attendants.]
Duke of Buckingham
1646 Think you, my lord, this little prating York
1647 Was not incensed by his subtle mother
1648 To taunt and scorn you thus opprobriously?
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1649 No doubt, no doubt: O, 'tis a parlous boy;
1650 Bold, quick, ingenious, forward, capable:
1651 He is all the mother's, from the top to toe.
Duke of Buckingham
1652 Well, let them rest.—Come hither, Catesby.
1653 Thou art sworn as deeply to effect what we intend
1654 As closely to conceal what we impart:
1655 Thou know'st our reasons urg'd upon the way;—
1656 What think'st thou? is it not an easy matter
1657 To make William Lord Hastings of our mind,
1658 For the instalment of this noble duke
1659 In the seat royal of this famous isle?
Sir William Catesby
1660 He for his father's sake so loves the prince
1661 That he will not be won to aught against him.
Duke of Buckingham
1662 What think'st thou then of Stanley? will not he?
Sir William Catesby
1663 He will do all in all as Hastings doth.
Duke of Buckingham
1664 Well then, no more but this: go, gentle Catesby,
1665 And, as it were far off, sound thou Lord Hastings
1666 How he doth stand affected to our purpose;
1667 And summon him to-morrow to the Tower,
1668 To sit about the coronation.
1669 If thou dost find him tractable to us,
1670 Encourage him, and tell him all our reasons:
1671 If he be leaden, icy, cold, unwilling,
1672 Be thou so too; and so break off the talk,
1673 And give us notice of his inclination:
1674 For we to-morrow hold divided councils,
1675 Wherein thyself shalt highly be employ'd.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1676 Commend me to Lord William: tell him, Catesby,
1677 His ancient knot of dangerous adversaries
1678 To-morrow are let blood at Pomfret Castle;
1679 And bid my lord, for joy of this good news,
1680 Give Mistress Shore one gentle kiss the more.
Duke of Buckingham
1681 Good Catesby, go, effect this business soundly.
Sir William Catesby
1682 My good lords both, with all the heed I can.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1683 Shall we hear from you, Catesby, ere we sleep?
Sir William Catesby
1684 You shall, my lord.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1685 At Crosby Place, there shall you find us both.
[Exit CATESBY.]
Duke of Buckingham
1686 Now, my lord, what shall we do if we perceive
1687 Lord Hastings will not yield to our complots?
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1688 Chop off his head. man;—somewhat we will do:—
1689 And, look when I am king, claim thou of me
1690 The earldom of Hereford, and all the movables
1691 Whereof the king my brother was possess'd.
Duke of Buckingham
1692 I'll claim that promise at your grace's hand.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
1693 And look to have it yielded with all kindness.
1694 Come, let us sup betimes, that afterwards
1695 We may digest our complots in some form.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 1495historical topical
“London, to your chamber”
Buckingham greets the young Edward V as his arrival in London as the presumptive king. 'Your chamber' means 'your royal chamber' — London was called 'the King's Chamber' in Tudor formal usage, a title acknowledging it as the crown's principal seat. The phrase signals that Buckingham is performing smooth, ceremonial deference while Richard's coup is already in motion.
historical Holinshed's Chronicles
TLN 1498archaic vocab
“crosses on the way”
'Crosses' here means troubles, vexations, or obstructions — not literal crosses. Prince Edward is saying that the difficulties (specifically the arrest of his guardian, the Earl Rivers, by Richard's men) have made the journey 'tedious, wearisome, and heavy.' He also says he wants 'more uncles' with him — meaning Rivers and the Woodville relations who were intercepted.
TLN 1501historical topical
“untainted virtue of your years”
Richard tells the Prince that his youth and innocence prevent him from seeing through the 'outward show' of men to the 'poison of their hearts.' The speech is a masterpiece of manipulation: Richard blames the arrested Woodville lords — 'those uncles which you want' — as dangerous deceivers, while himself performing exactly the deceit he describes. He is praising the boy for the very blindness Richard is exploiting.
historical More's History of King Richard IIIhistorical The Stage Machiavel
TLN 1505archaic vocab
“jumpeth with the heart”
'Jumpeth with' means 'agrees with' or 'coincides with.' Richard is saying that outward appearances seldom match what people truly feel inside. The word 'jump' in this sense — to match, tally, or correspond — was common in Shakespeare's day but is now obsolete.
TLN 1521historical topical
“queen your mother and your brother York have taken sanctuary”
Queen Elizabeth (widow of Edward IV) has taken her younger son, Richard Duke of York, into the sanctuary of Westminster Abbey — church ground where the law had no jurisdiction. Sanctuary was a recognized protection: anyone who reached consecrated ground could not be forcibly removed without violating canon law. She is using the church as a shield against Richard's power.
historical The Princes in the Tower
TLN 1538rhetorical device
“You are too senseless-obstinate, my lord”
Buckingham's long speech (TLN 1538-1550) is a legal argument designed to override the Cardinal's scruples about sanctuary. His logic: sanctuary protects those who have personally committed wrong or who have deliberately claimed its privilege; a child who has neither committed an offence nor knowingly claimed sanctuary cannot lawfully shelter there. The argument is technically clever and morally bankrupt, serving only to extract the prince for Richard's purposes.
historical More's History of King Richard III
TLN 1559historical topical
“shall repose you at the Tower”
Richard suggests the Prince stay at the Tower of London before his coronation, framing it as the natural lodging place for a king. The Tower had historically been used as a royal residence before a coronation — but it was also England's most famous prison and place of execution. For the audience, who knows the princes will be murdered there, the proposal is sinister. The Prince's reply, 'I do not like the Tower,' shows his unease.
historical The Princes in the Tower
TLN 1563classical allusion
“Did Julius Caesar build that place, my lord”
Edward V asks whether Julius Caesar built the Tower. It was a genuine popular belief in Tudor England that Caesar had founded the Tower of London; more careful historians knew it was built by William the Conqueror in 1078. Buckingham confirms the legend, and the Prince develops it into a meditation on how great deeds outlive their doers in fame rather than in record. The irony is terrible: a boy pondering immortality at the site of his own imminent murder.
TLN 1573rhetorical device
“So wise so young, they say, do never live long”
Richard's aside — spoken to the audience, not to the Prince — takes the familiar proverb 'so wise so young, they say, do never live long' and uses it as a death sentence he is already planning to carry out. When the Prince asks what he said, Richard gives a different answer: 'I say, without characters, fame lives long' (TLN 1575), pivoting the murderous thought into an apparent compliment. His comment in the next aside (TLN 1576-1577) explains the trick.
TLN 1576historical topical
“like the formal vice, Iniquity, I moralize two meanings in one word”
Richard names exactly what he is doing: performing the Vice, the gleeful comic villain of earlier morality plays, who spoke double meanings — one for the innocent character on stage, one carrying hidden menace that only the audience understood. 'I moralize two meanings in one word' means he just delivered two different messages with the same sentence: to the Prince's face, a compliment about fame; privately, a prediction of his death.
historical The Vice of the morality playshistorical The Stage Machiavel
TLN 1581classical allusion
“Death makes no conquest of this conqueror”
The Prince's miniature oration on Caesar is a schoolboy exercise in the theme that brave deeds live on in fame after death. 'His wit set down to make his valour live' refers to Caesar's own writings — the Gallic Wars and Civil Wars — which preserved the record of his military achievements. 'Death makes no conquest of this conqueror' is a deliberate antithesis: the conqueror is himself unconquerable by death because fame survives him.
TLN 1597wordplay
“idle weeds are fast in growth”
The young Duke of York (Richard's other nephew) uses a proverb — 'idle weeds grow fast' — to explain why his brother has outgrown him, then turns it into a jab at Richard: if his brother grew fast because he is an 'idle weed,' does that mean he is idle? When Richard deflects ('O, my fair cousin, I must not say so'), York fires back: 'Then he is more beholding to you than I' — meaning, Richard is being kinder to his brother than the proverb warrants. The exchange shows the boy is sharp and needling even in compliment.
TLN 1605wordplay
“I pray you, uncle, give me this dagger”
The young Duke of York's request for Richard's dagger launches a rapid exchange of puns on 'light' and 'heavy,' 'bear' and 'weight.' When Richard says the sword would be 'light enough' only were it lighter, York retorts he sees Richard will 'part but with light gifts' — meaning gifts of little value — and 'in weightier things you'll say a beggar nay.' The wit is precocious and pointed: the boy is simultaneously begging a toy and accusing his uncle of pettiness.
TLN 1639historical topical
“my uncle Clarence' angry ghost: My grandam told me he was murder'd there”
The young Duke of York says he fears the ghost of his uncle Clarence, who was murdered in the Tower — and that his grandmother told him so. Clarence (George, Duke of Clarence) was Richard's brother, drowned in a butt of malmsey wine in the Tower of 1478 on Richard's orders. The boy's casual reference, in Richard's presence, to a murder Richard committed is a devastating dramatic irony: the boy fears a ghost while standing next to the murderer.
historical The Princes in the Tower
TLN 1678historical topical
“are let blood at Pomfret Castle”
'Let blood' is a medical metaphor for bleeding — the standard treatment for almost every illness in the period, performed by cutting a vein to drain off excess blood. Richard uses it here as a cool euphemism for the executions of the Queen's kindred (Earl Rivers, Lord Grey, and Sir Thomas Vaughan), who are being beheaded at Pontefract Castle in Yorkshire on this same day. The clinical language expresses his contempt for their lives.
historical Holinshed's Chronicles
TLN 1688historical topical
“Chop off his head. man;—somewhat we will do”
Richard's instantaneous and casual answer to 'what if Hastings won't go along?' — 'Chop off his head' — is the scene's most chilling moment. In the next act this is exactly what happens: Hastings, refusing to support Richard's claim to the throne, is accused of treason at a council meeting and beheaded within hours. Richard then pivots immediately to the promise of the earldom of Hereford for Buckingham, binding his accomplice with a reward he plans never to pay.
historical More's History of King Richard III