KING RICHARD III
Then he disdains to shine; for by the book He should have braved the east an hour ago A black day will it
be to somebody. Ratcliff! RATCLIFF
My lord? KING RICHARD III
The sun will not be seen to-day; The sky doth frown and lour upon our army. I would these dewy tears
were from the ground. Not shine to-day! Why, what is that to me More than to Richmond? for the selfsame
heaven That frowns on me looks sadly upon him.
Enter NORFOLK NORFOLK
Arm, arm, my lord; the foe vaunts in the field. KING RICHARD III
Come, bustle, bustle; caparison my horse. Call up Lord Stanley, bid him bring his power: I will lead forth
my soldiers to the plain, And thus my battle shall be ordered: My foreward shall be drawn out all in length, Consisting
equally of horse and foot; Our archers shall be placed in the midst John Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Earl of
Surrey, Shall have the leading of this foot and horse. They thus directed, we will follow In the main battle,
whose puissance on either side Shall be well winged with our chiefest horse. This, and Saint George to
boot! What think'st thou, Norfolk? NORFOLK
A good direction, warlike sovereign. This found I on my tent this morning.
He sheweth him a paper KING RICHARD III
[Reads] 'Jockey of Norfolk, be not too bold, For Dickon thy master is bought and sold.' A thing devised by
the enemy. Go, gentleman, every man unto his charge Let not our babbling dreams affright our souls: Conscience
is but a word that cowards use, Devised at first to keep the strong in awe: Our strong arms be our conscience,
swords our law. March on, join bravely, let us to't pell-mell If not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell.
His oration to his Army
What shall I say more than I have inferr'd? Remember whom you are to cope withal; A sort of vagabonds,
rascals, and runaways, A scum of Bretons, and base lackey peasants, Whom their o'er-cloyed country
vomits forth To desperate ventures and assured destruction. You sleeping safe, they bring to you unrest; You
having lands, and blest with beauteous wives, They would restrain the one, distain the other. And who
doth lead them but a paltry fellow, Long kept in Bretagne at our mother's cost? A milk-sop, one that never
in his life Felt so much cold as over shoes in snow? Let's whip these stragglers o'er the seas again; Lash
hence these overweening rags of France, These famish'd beggars, weary of their lives; Who, but for dreaming
on this fond exploit, For want of means, poor rats, had hang'd themselves: If we be conquer'd, let men
conquer us, And not these bastard Bretons; whom our fathers Have in their own land beaten, bobb'd, and
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