Act VScene V
Another part of the Field
Alarum. Enter King Richard and Richmond. They fight. Richard is slain. Then retreat being sounded. Richmond exits, and Richard’s body is carried off. Flourish. Enter Richmond, Stanley Earl of Derby, bearing the crown, with other Lords and Soldiers.
Richmond
God and your arms be praised, victorious friends!The day is ours, the bloody dog is dead.
Stanley
Courageous Richmond, well hast thou acquit thee!Lo, here, this long-usurped royaltyFrom the dead temples of this bloody wretchHave I plucked off, to grace thy brows withal.Wear it, enjoy it, and make much of it.
Richmond
Great God of heaven, say Amen to all!But tell me, is young George Stanley living?
Stanley
He is, my lord, and safe in Leicester town,Whither, if it please you, we may now withdraw us.
Richmond
What men of name are slain on either side?
Stanley
John, Duke of Norfolk, Walter, Lord Ferrers,Sir Robert Brakenbury, and Sir William Brandon.
Richmond
Inter their bodies as becomes their births.Proclaim a pardon to the soldiers fledThat in submission will return to us.And then, as we have ta’en the sacrament,We will unite the white rose and the red.Smile heaven upon this fair conjunction,That long have frowned upon their enmity.What traitor hears me and says not Amen?England hath long been mad, and scarred herself:The brother blindly shed the brother’s blood;The father rashly slaughtered his own son;The son, compelled, been butcher to the sire.All this divided York and Lancaster,Divided in their dire division.O, now let Richmond and Elizabeth,The true succeeders of each royal house,By God’s fair ordinance conjoin together,And let their heirs, God, if Thy will be so,Enrich the time to come with smoothed-faced peace,With smiling plenty, and fair prosperous days.Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord,That would reduce these bloody days again,And make poor England weep in streams of blood.Let them not live to taste this land’s increase,That would with treason wound this fair land’s peace.Now civil wounds are stopped, peace lives again.That she may long live here, God say Amen.
Exeunt.