Act 4, Scene 2

London. A Room of State in the Palace.

[Flourish of trumpets. RICHARD, as King, upon his throne; BUCKINGHAM, CATESBY, RATCLIFF, LOVEL, a Page, and others.]
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2424 Stand all apart—Cousin of Buckingham,—
Duke of Buckingham
2425 My gracious sovereign?
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2426 Give me thy hand. Thus high, by thy advice
2427 And thy assistance, is King Richard seated:—
2428 But shall we wear these glories for a day?
2429 Or shall they last, and we rejoice in them?
Duke of Buckingham
2430 Still live they, and for ever let them last!
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2431 Ah, Buckingham, now do I play the touch,
2432 To try if thou be current gold indeed:—
2433 Young Edward lives;—think now what I would speak.
Duke of Buckingham
2434 Say on, my loving lord.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2435 Why, Buckingham, I say I would be king.
Duke of Buckingham
2436 Why, so you are, my thrice-renowned lord.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2437 Ha! am I king? 'tis so: but Edward lives.
Duke of Buckingham
2438 True, noble prince.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2439 O bitter consequence,
2440 That Edward still should live,—true, noble Prince!—
2441 Cousin, thou wast not wont to be so dull:—
2442 Shall I be plain?—I wish the bastards dead;
2443 And I would have it suddenly perform'd.
2444 What say'st thou now? speak suddenly, be brief.
Duke of Buckingham
2445 Your grace may do your pleasure.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2446 Tut, tut, thou art all ice, thy kindness freezes:
2447 Say, have I thy consent that they shall die?
Duke of Buckingham
2448 Give me some little breath, some pause, dear lord,
2449 Before I positively speak in this:
2450 I will resolve your grace immediately.
[Exit.]
[Aside.]
Sir William Catesby
2451 The king is angry: see, he gnaws his lip.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2452 I will converse with iron-witted fools
[Descends from his throne.]
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2453 And unrespective boys; none are for me
2454 That look into me with considerate eyes:
2455 High-reaching Buckingham grows circumspect.
2456 Boy!—
Page
2457 My lord?
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2458 Know'st thou not any whom corrupting gold
2459 Will tempt unto a close exploit of death?
Page
2460 I know a discontented gentleman
2461 Whose humble means match not his haughty spirit:
2462 Gold were as good as twenty orators,
2463 And will, no doubt, tempt him to anything.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2464 What is his name?
Page
2465 His name, my lord, is Tyrrel.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2466 I partly know the man: go, call him hither, boy.
[Exit PAGE.]
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2467 The deep-revolving witty Buckingham
2468 No more shall be the neighbour to my counsels:
2469 Hath he so long held out with me untir'd,
2470 And stops he now for breath?—well, be it so.
[Enter STANLEY.]
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2471 How now, Lord Stanley! what's the news?
Lord Stanley (Derby)
2472 Know, my loving lord,
2473 The Marquis Dorset, as I hear, is fled
2474 To Richmond, in the parts where he abides.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2475 Come hither, Catesby: rumour it abroad
2476 That Anne, my wife, is very grievous sick;
2477 I will take order for her keeping close:
2478 Inquire me out some mean poor gentleman,
2479 Whom I will marry straight to Clarence' daughter;—
2480 The boy is foolish, and I fear not him.—
2481 Look how thou dream'st!—I say again, give out
2482 That Anne, my queen, is sick and like to die:
2483 About it; for it stands me much upon,
2484 To stop all hopes whose growth may damage me.
[Exit CATESBY.]
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2485 I must be married to my brother's daughter,
2486 Or else my kingdom stands on brittle glass:—
2487 Murder her brothers, and then marry her!
2488 Uncertain way of gain! But I am in
2489 So far in blood that sin will pluck on sin:
2490 Tear-falling pity dwells not in this eye.
[Re-enter PAGE, with TYRREL.]
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2491 Is thy name Tyrrel?
Sir James Tyrrel
2492 James Tyrrel, and your most obedient subject.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2493 Art thou, indeed?
Sir James Tyrrel
2494 Prove me, my gracious lord.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2495 Dar'st thou resolve to kill a friend of mine?
Sir James Tyrrel
2496 Please you. But I had rather kill two enemies.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2497 Why, then thou hast it: two deep enemies,
2498 Foes to my rest, and my sweet sleep's disturbers,
2499 Are they that I would have thee deal upon:—
2500 Tyrell, I mean those bastards in the Tower.
Sir James Tyrrel
2501 Let me have open means to come to them,
2502 And soon I'll rid you from the fear of them.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2503 Thou sing'st sweet music. Hark, come hither, Tyrrel:
2504 Go, by this token:—rise, and lend thine ear:
[Whispers.]
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2505 There is no more but so:—say it is done,
2506 And I will love thee, and prefer thee for it.
Sir James Tyrrel
2507 I will despatch it straight.
[Exit.]
[Re-enter BUCKINGHAM.]
Duke of Buckingham
2508 My lord, I have consider'd in my mind
2509 The late request that you did sound me in.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2510 Well, let that rest. Dorset is fled to Richmond.
Duke of Buckingham
2511 I hear the news, my lord.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2512 Stanley, he is your wife's son:—well, look to it.
Duke of Buckingham
2513 My lord, I claim the gift, my due by promise,
2514 For which your honour and your faith is pawn'd:
2515 The earldom of Hereford, and the movables
2516 Which you have promised I shall possess.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2517 Stanley, look to your wife: if she convey
2518 Letters to Richmond, you shall answer it.
Duke of Buckingham
2519 What says your highness to my just request?
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2520 I do remember me:—Henry the Sixth
2521 Did prophesy that Richmond should be king,
2522 When Richmond was a little peevish boy.
2523 A king!—perhaps,—
Duke of Buckingham
2524 My lord,—
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2525 How chance the prophet could not at that time
2526 Have told me, I being by, that I should kill him?
Duke of Buckingham
2527 My lord, your promise for the earldom,—
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2528 Richmond!—When last I was at Exeter,
2529 The mayor in courtesy show'd me the castle
2530 And call'd it Rougemount; at which name I started,
2531 Because a bard of Ireland told me once
2532 I should not live long after I saw Richmond.
Duke of Buckingham
2533 My lord—
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2534 Ay, what's o'clock?
Duke of Buckingham
2535 I am thus bold to put your grace in mind
2536 Of what you promis'd me.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2537 Well, but what's o'clock?
Duke of Buckingham
2538 Upon the stroke of ten.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2539 Well, let it strike.
Duke of Buckingham
2540 Why let it strike?
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2541 Because that, like a Jack, thou keep'st the stroke
2542 Betwixt thy begging and my meditation.
2543 I am not in the giving vein to-day.
Duke of Buckingham
2544 Why then, resolve me whether you will or no.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III)
2545 Thou troublest me; I am not in the vein.
[Exeunt KING RICHARD and Train.]
Duke of Buckingham
2546 And is it thus? repays he my deep service
2547 With such contempt? made I him king for this?
2548 O, let me think on Hastings, and be gone
2549 To Brecknock while my fearful head is on!
[Exit.]

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Notes

TLN 2431archaic vocab
“do I play the touch, To try if thou be current gold”
'Touch' is a touchstone — a smooth black stone used to test gold by the streak it left; 'current gold' means coin that passes as genuine. Richard is saying he will use this moment to discover whether Buckingham is the real article or counterfeit.
TLN 2442historical topical
“I wish the bastards dead; And I would have it suddenly perform'd”
Richard has already had Parliament declare Edward IV's sons illegitimate ('bastards') on the pretext that Edward's marriage was invalid. 'Bastards' is therefore not a slur here but the official legal label Richard arranged for the princes, stripping them of the right to inherit and clearing his own path to the crown.
historical The Princes in the Towerhistorical More's History of King Richard III
TLN 2446rhetorical device
“thou art all ice, thy kindness freezes”
Richard uses a cold/warm antithesis: Buckingham's evasive 'your grace may do your pleasure' is read as frozen kindness — the warmth of loyalty turned to ice. The image captures Richard's impatience with anything less than instant, enthusiastic assent to murder.
TLN 2452archaic vocab
“converse with iron-witted fools And unrespective boys”
'Iron-witted' means dull-brained, with wits as blunt and unyielding as iron — unable to read between the lines and ask awkward questions. 'Unrespective' means taking no notice, not looking too closely. Richard decides he needs simple instruments, not clever ones.
TLN 2467archaic vocab
“The deep-revolving witty Buckingham No more shall be the neighbour to my counsels”
'Deep-revolving' means deeply deliberating or slowly turning things over in the mind; 'witty' here means clever and mentally agile, not merely funny. Richard is saying that Buckingham's very intelligence has become a liability: a co-plotter who stops to think is too dangerous to keep inside the circle of power.
TLN 2473historical topical
“The Marquis Dorset, as I hear, is fled To Richmond”
Thomas Grey, Marquess of Dorset, was Queen Elizabeth Woodville's eldest son by her first marriage and therefore the princes' half-brother. His flight to Henry Tudor in Brittany signals that even members of the Woodville family — Richard's own political network — are defecting to the rival claimant.
historical Richmond and the Tudor Myth
TLN 2475historical topical
“rumour it abroad That Anne, my wife, is very grievous sick”
Richard orders Catesby to spread a false report that Queen Anne is dying — the first step toward removing her. He intends to marry his niece Elizabeth of York to strengthen his title, and Anne must be disposed of first. 'Take order for her keeping close' means arranging her confinement so she cannot contradict the rumor.
historical More's History of King Richard III
TLN 2488rhetorical device
“I am in So far in blood that sin will pluck on sin”
Richard acknowledges that each crime he commits draws him into committing more: murder leads to murder because each victim creates a new threat. The phrase 'so far in blood' echoes Macbeth's 'I am in blood / Stepp'd in so far' — a shared image of wading deeper into a current of bloodshed until turning back is as impossible as going forward.
historical The Stage Machiavel
TLN 2500historical topical
“those bastards in the Tower”
The two princes — Edward V and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York — are imprisoned in the Tower of London. Richard again uses 'bastards,' the official legal label Parliament has given them. Tyrrel's commission to enter the Tower and kill them is the scene's decisive transaction.
historical The Princes in the Tower
TLN 2520historical topical
“Henry the Sixth Did prophesy that Richmond should be king, When Richmond was a little peevish boy”
Henry VI was known for prophetic utterances, and the tradition that he had predicted Henry Tudor's kingship was current in Tudor sources. In 3 Henry VI (4.6) Shakespeare stages this prophecy directly: Henry touches the young Richmond's head and foretells his future greatness. Richard's reference here confirms the connection while his contempt ('peevish boy') signals how little he credits the danger — a dramatic irony the audience recognizes as fatal.
historical Richmond and the Tudor Myth
TLN 2530historical topical
“call'd it Rougemount; at which name I started, Because a bard of Ireland told me once I should not live long after I saw Richmond”
The castle at Exeter is Rougemont — 'red hill' in French — and Richard's ear snaps on the syllable 'mount,' hearing 'Richmond' (which means 'strong hill' in French). The joke turns on a Welsh or Irish travelling bard's punning prophecy. This is the scene's moment of unguarded superstition: Richard, who dismisses Henry VI's prophecy, flinches at a pun.
TLN 2541archaic vocab
“like a Jack, thou keep'st the stroke Betwixt thy begging and my meditation”
A 'Jack' was the mechanical figure on a striking clock — a small automaton that hammered the bell on the hour. Richard insults Buckingham by comparing him to this mindless, repetitive mechanism: he just keeps banging the same note between the hours, interrupting Richard's thoughts exactly as the Jack interrupts the silence.
TLN 2546historical topical
“repays he my deep service With such contempt? made I him king for this?”
Buckingham's closing couplet is his moment of recognition: he made Richard king — managed the citizens, staged the 'begging,' arranged the council theatre — and now receives not the Hereford earldom he was promised but cold dismissal. His mention of Hastings ('let me think on Hastings') signals that he knows what fate awaits those Richard no longer needs.
historical The fall of princes (de casibus tragedy)