But I shall laugh at this a twelvemonth hence, That they who brought me in my master's hate, I live to look upon their tragedy.
He even forgets his dignity as a nobleman, and stops on his way to the Tower to chat with a mere officer of the court, [=iii.= ii. 97.] in order to tell him the news of which he is full, that his enemies are to die that day at Pomfret. Yet this very journey of Hastings is his journey to the block; the same cruel fate which had descended upon his opponents, from the same agent and by the same unscrupulous doom, is dealt out to Hastings in his turn. [_Buckingham._] In this treacherous casting off of Hastings when he is no longer useful, Buckingham has been a prime agent. [=iii.= ii, from 114.] Buckingham amused himself with the false security of Hastings, adding to Hastings's innocent expression of his intention to stay dinner at the Tower the aside
And supper too, although thou know'st it not;
while in the details of the judicial murder he plays second to Richard. By precisely similar treachery he is himself cast off when he hesitates to go further with Richard's villainous schemes; [=iv.= ii, from 86.] and in precisely similar manner the treachery is flavoured with contempt.
_Buck._ I am thus bold to put your grace in mind Of what you promised me.
_K. Rich._ Because that, like a Jack, thou keep'st the stroke Betwixt thy begging and my meditation. I am not in the giving vein to-day.
_Buck._ Why, then resolve me whether you will or no.
_K. Rich._ Tut, tut. Thou troublest me; I am not in the vein.
_Buck._ Is it even so? rewards he my true service With such deep contempt? made I him king for this? O, let me think on Hastings, and be gone To Brecknock, while my fearful head is on!
[_The four nemeses formed into a system by nemesis as a link._]
These four Nemesis Actions, it will be observed, are not separate trains of incident going on side by side, they are linked together into a system, the law of which is seen to be that those who triumph in one nemesis become the victims of the next; so that the whole suggests a 'chain of destruction,' like that binding together the orders of the brute creation which live by preying upon one another. When Clarence perished it was the King who dealt the doom and the Queen's party who triumphed: the wheel of Nemesis goes round and the King's death follows the death of his victim, the Queen's kindred are naked to the vengeance of their enemies, and Hastings is left to exult. Again the wheel of Nemesis revolves, and Hastings at the moment of his highest exultation is hurled to destruction, while Buckingham stands by to point the moral with a gibe. Once more the wheel goes round, and Buckingham hears similar gibes addressed to himself and points the same moral in his own person. Thus the portion of the drama we have so far considered yields us a pattern within a pattern, a series of Nemesis Actions woven into a complete underplot by a connecting-link which is also Nemesis.
