Enter Lovel and Ratcliff, with Hastings' head.
Rich. Be patient, they are friends, Ratcliff and Lovel. 20
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 24
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, 28
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 32
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 36
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? 40
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, 44
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
