Page:Richard III (1927) Yale.djvu/90

76 

Rich. Be patient, they are friends, Ratcliff and Lovel.

Lov. Here is the head of that ignoble traitor,

The dangerous and unsuspected Hastings.

Rich. So dear I lov'd the man that I must weep.

I took him for the plainest harmless creature

That breath'd upon the earth a Christian;

Made him my book, wherein my soul recorded

The history of all her secret thoughts:

So smooth he daub'd his vice with show of virtue,

That, his apparent open guilt omitted,

I mean his conversation with Shore's wife,

He liv'd from all attainder of suspects.

Buck. Well, well, he was the covert'st shelter'd traitor

That ever liv'd.

Would you imagine, or almost believe,—

Were 't not that by great preservation

We live to tell it,—that the subtle traitor

This day had plotted, in the council-house,

To murther me and my good Lord of Gloucester?

May. Had he done so?

Rich. What! think you we are Turks or infidels?

Or that we would, against the form of law,

Proceed thus rashly in the villain's death,

But that the extreme peril of the case,

The peace of England and our person's safety,

Enforc'd us to this execution?

May. Now, fair befall you! he deserv'd his death;

And your good Graces both have well proceeded,

 28 daub'd: glossed

30 conversation: criminal conversation

31 from: free from

attainder of suspects: stain of suspicions

32 covert'st: most secret

34 almost: even

40 Turks; cf. n.

46 fair befall: good fortune attend

