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The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 5 of 9]

Chapter 227: ACT V.
By William Shakespeare
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About This Book

The volume presents a connected sequence of historical dramas that dramatize the disintegration of centralized power and the violent struggle among rival claimants for the crown. Through scenes of political intrigue, popular unrest, pitched battles, and calculated betrayals, it shows how shifting alliances and personal ambition accelerate dynastic collapse and reshape leadership. The plays interweave public spectacle with intimate moments of downfall and remorse, exploring themes of legitimacy, governance, and the human cost of civil war. Scholarly apparatus accompanies the texts, offering prefatory and editorial commentary, variant readings, and notes on publication history.

ACT V.

fea SCENE I. Salisbury. An open place.

Enter the Sheriff, and BUCKINGHAM, with halberds, led to execution.
♦ Buck. Will not King Richard let me speak with him?
♦ Sher. No, my good lord; therefore be patient.
♦ Buck. Hastings, and Edward’s children, Rivers, Grey,
Holy King Henry, and thy fair son Edward,
5 Vaughan, and all that have miscarried
By underhand corrupted foul injustice,
If that your moody discontented souls
Do through the clouds behold this present hour,
Even for revenge mock my destruction!
10 This is All-Souls’ day, fellows, is it not?
♦ Sher. It is, my lord.
♦ Buck. Why, then All-Souls’ day is my body’s doomsday.
♦ This is the day that in King Edward’s time
♦ I wish’d might fall on me when I was found
15 False to his children or his wife’s allies;
This is the day wherein I wish’d to fall
♦ By the false faith of him I trusted most;
♦ This, this All-Souls’ day to my fearful soul
♦ Is the determined respite of my wrongs:
20 That high All-seer that I dallied with
Hath turn’d my feigned prayer on my head,
And given in earnest what I begg’d in jest.
♦ Thus doth he force the swords of wicked men
♦ To turn their own points on their masters’ bosoms:
25 Now Margaret’s curse is fallen upon my head;
‘When he,’ quoth she, ‘shall split thy heart with sorrow,
Remember Margaret was a prophetess.’
♦ Come, sirs, convey me to the block of shame;
♦ Wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of blame. [Exeunt.