Stanley enters with the news that Dorset has fled to Richmond.

The page suggests one Tyrrell for whom 'gold were as good as orators to tempt.' While the page goes to get Tyrrell, the king resolves to confide no more in Buckingham. He calls a page over to ask if he knows of anyone who would do murder for money. Angry, Richard rails against Buckingham, saying he will speak only to unfeeling and thoughtless boys hereafter. Now Buckingham's reply is circumspect, and when Richard taunts him, he asks leave to consider. The wary Buckingham does not pick up Richard's indirect suggestion, and the newly crowned king is forced to speak openly: He wishes the 'bastards' dead. He enters the palace in pomp, acknowledges Buckingham, his right-hand man, and tries the duke's loyalty to the utmost by inciting him to arrange for the immediate murder of the little princes. In Scene 2, the climax of the play has been reached. She prays that it will use her young children well, knowing perhaps too well that her entreaty to the stones is useless. With grief and foreboding the women part, the old duchess wishing for the grave and Queen Elizabeth remaining behind to look back at the rough outline of the Tower. She fears that Richard will do away with her. Now she realizes that she is the victim of her own curse, for she has not known a moment's rest since her marriage because of Richard's 'timorous' dreams. Anne recalls how she had denounced Richard for making her a widow and had uttered a curse on the woman who married him. Elizabeth, so far from being offended at Anne, voices words of commiseration. She replies that she would rather be tortured by the ancient method of encircling her brow with red hot steel than be crowned queen. The old duchess curses the womb that brought forth Richard. Stanley, stepfather to Richmond (to whom he refers as his son), strongly approves of her counsel. When Dorset tries to comfort his mother, she immediately thinks of his danger and commands him to join Richmond in Brittany. Both women express utter horror at the news. He has come to escort Anne to Westminster for the coronation. The Earl of Derby (Stanley) enters and greets the Duchess of York as 'the looker-on of two fair queens,' meaning, of course, Elizabeth and Anne. But Brakenbury insists that he cannot violate his oath. The women are now thoroughly alarmed, and each protests that she has special right to see the children. Brakenbury begs her pardon and says that he means the lord protector. The reference to 'the King' appalls Elizabeth, and she demands an explanation. He replies that they are well but that the king has ordered that they are to have no visitors. Queen Elizabeth immediately asks how the princes are. They are also on their way to the Tower.ДЄs they exchange greetings and make their errands known to one another, Brakenbury enters. At the same moment Richard's wife, Anne, Duchess of Gloucester, comes in leading Clarence's young daughter, Lady Margaret Plantagenet. They are on their way to visit the princes in the Tower. Queen Elizabeth, the old Duchess of York, and Dorset enter from one side. This act opens with a gathering of those whom Richard has wronged and who will suffer far more acutely in the future.

Utterly appalls