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Richard III - Act 5, scene 5
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Last updated: Fri, Jul 31, 2015
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Richard III - Act 5, scene 5Act 5, scene 5
⌜Scene 5⌝
Synopsis:
Richmond kills Richard and is given the crown that he will wear as King Henry VII. His coming marriage to Elizabeth of York is hailed as the end of the Wars of the Roses and the beginning of a time of “smooth-faced peace.”
Alarum. Enter Richard and Richmond. They fight.Richard is slain. Then retreat being sounded, ⌜Richmond
exits, and Richard’s body is removed.⌝ [Flourish.] Enter
Richmond, ⌜Stanley, Earl of⌝ Derby, bearing the crown,
with other Lords, ⌜and Soldiers.⌝
RICHMOND
3725 God and your arms be praised, victorious friends!
3726 The day is ours; the bloody dog is dead.
STANLEY, ⌜offering him the crown⌝
3727 Courageous Richmond, well hast thou acquit thee.
3728 Lo, here this long-usurpèd royalty
3729 5 From the dead temples of this bloody wretch
3730 Have I plucked off, to grace thy brows withal.
3731 Wear it, enjoy it, and make much of it.
RICHMOND
3732 Great God of heaven, say amen to all!
3733 But tell me, is young George Stanley living?
STANLEY
3734 10 He is, my lord, and safe in Leicester town,
3735 Whither, if it please you, we may now withdraw us.
RICHMOND
3736 What men of name are slain on either side?
[STANLEY]
3737 John, Duke of Norfolk, [Walter], Lord ⌜Ferrers,⌝
3738 Sir Robert Brakenbury, and Sir William Brandon.
p.
303
RICHMOND 3739 15 Inter their bodies as ⌜becomes⌝ their births.
3740 Proclaim a pardon to the soldiers fled
3741 That in submission will return to us.
3742 And then, as we have ta’en the sacrament,
3743 We will unite the white rose and the red;
3744 20 Smile heaven upon this fair conjunction,
3745 That long have frowned upon their enmity.
3746 What traitor hears me and says not “Amen”?
3747 England hath long been mad and scarred herself:
3748 The brother blindly shed the brother’s blood;
3749 25 The father rashly slaughtered his own son;
3750 The son, compelled, been butcher to the sire.
3751 All this divided York and Lancaster,
3752 Divided in their dire division.
3753 O, now let Richmond and Elizabeth,
3754 30 The true succeeders of each royal house,
3755 By God’s fair ordinance conjoin together,
3756 And let their heirs, God, if Thy will be so,
3757 Enrich the time to come with smooth-faced peace,
3758 With smiling plenty and fair prosperous days.
3759 35 Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord,
3760 That would reduce these bloody days again
3761 And make poor England weep in streams of blood.
3762 Let them not live to taste this land’s increase,
3763 That would with treason wound this fair land’s peace.
3764 40 Now civil wounds are stopped, peace lives again.
3765 That she may long live here, God say amen.
[They exit.]