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Richard the Third (Modern)
Enter Richard Duke of Gloucester [alone].
3Richard Now is the winter of our discontent
4Made glorious summer by this sun of York,
5And all the clouds that loured upon our House
6In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
7Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths,
8Our bruisèd arms hung up for monuments,
9Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
10Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
11Grim-visaged War hath smoothed his wrinkled front,
12And now instead of mounting barbèd steeds
13To fright the souls of fearful adversaries
14He capers nimbly in a ladies' chamber
15To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
16But I that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
17Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass:
18I that am rudely stamped and want love's majesty
19To strut before a wanton, ambling nymph:
20I that am curtailed of this fair proportion,
21Cheated of feature by dissembling Nature,
22Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time
23Into this breathing world scarce half made up,
24And that so lamely and unfashionable
25That dogs bark at me as I halt by them:
26Why I in this weak piping time of peace
27Have no delight to pass away the time,
28Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
29And descant on mine own deformity.
30And therefore since I cannot prove a lover
31To entertain these fair, well-spoken days,
32I am determinèd to prove a villain
33And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
34Plots have I laid, inductious, dangerous,
35By drunken prophesies, libels and dreams
36To set my brothers, Clarence and the King,
37In deadly hate, the one against the other.
38And if King Edward be as true and just
39As I am subtle, false and treacherous,
40This day should Clarence closely be mewed up
41About a prophecy which says that "G"
42Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be.
43Dive, thoughts, down to my soul, | |
44 Enter Clarence with a guard of men [under the command of Brakenbury]. | |
Here Clarence comes. |
45Brother, good days -- What means this armèd guard
46That waits upon your grace?
This conduct to convey me to the Tower.
49Richard Upon what cause?
50Clarence Because my name is George.
51Richard Alack, my lord, that fault is none of yours;
52He should for that commit your godfathers --
53Oh, belike his majesty hath some intent
54That you shall be new christened in the Tower.
55But what's the matter, Clarence, may I know?
56Clarence Yea, Richard, when I know; for I protest
57As yet I do not, but as I can learn,
58He harkens after prophecies and dreams,
59And from the cross-row plucks the letter "G"
60And says a wizard told him that by "G"
61His issue disinherited should be;
62And for my name of George begins with "G"
63It follows in his thought that I am he.
64These, as I learn, and such like toys as these
65Have moved his highness to commit me now.
66Richard Why, this it is when men are ruled by women;
67'Tis not the King that sends you to the Tower:
68My Lady Grey his wife, Clarence, 'tis she
69That tempers him to this extremity.
70Was it not she, and that good man of worship
71Anthony Woodville her brother there,
72That made him send Lord Hastings to the Tower,
73From whence this present day he is delivered?
74We are not safe, Clarence, we are not safe.
75Clarence By heaven, I think there is no man is secured
76But the Queen's kindred and night-walking heralds
77That trudge betwixt the King and Mistress Shore.
78Heard ye not what an humble suppliant
79Lord Hastings was to her for his delivery?
80Richard Humbly complaining to her deity
81Got my Lord Chamberlain his liberty.
82I'll tell you what, I think it is our way,
83If we will keep in favor with the King,
84To be her men and wear her livery.
85The jealous o'er-worn widow and herself,
86Since that our brother dubbed them gentlewomen,
87Are mighty gossips in this monarchy.
88Brakenbury I beseech your graces both to pardon me;
89His majesty hath straitly given in charge
90That no man shall have private conference,
91Of what degree soever, with his brother.
92Richard Even so? And please your worship Brakenbury,
93You may partake of anything we say.
94We speak no treason, man: we say the King
95Is wise and virtuous, and his noble Queen
96Well struck in years, fair and not jealous.
97We say that Shore's wife hath a pretty foot,
98A cherry lip, a bonny eye, a passing pleasing tongue,
99And that the Queen's kindred are made gentlefolks.
100How say you, sir, can you deny all this?
103Richard Naught to do with Mistress Shore? I tell thee fellow,
104He that doth naught with her, excepting one,
105Were best he do it secretly, alone.
106Brakenbury What one, my lord?
107Richard Her husband, knave; wouldst thou betray me?
110Your conference with the noble Duke.
111Clarence We know thy charge, Brakenbury, and will obey.
112Richard We are the Queen's abjects and must obey.
113Brother, farewell. | |
114And whatsoever you will employ me in,
115Were it to call King Edward's widow "sister",
116I will perform it to enfranchise you.
117Meantime this deep disgrace in brotherhood
118Touches me deeper than you can imagine.
[He weeps.]
I know it pleaseth neither of us well.
120Richard Well, your imprisonment shall not be long:
121I will deliver you or lie for you;
122Meantime, have patience.
123Clarence I must perforce; farewell.
Exit Clar[ence with Brakenbury and guards].
124Richard Go, tread the path that thou shalt ne'er return,
125Simple, plain Clarence, I do love thee so
126That I will shortly send thy soul to heaven --
127If heaven will take the present at our hands.
128But who comes here, the new delivered Hastings?
Enter Lord Hastings.
130Hastings Good time of day unto my gracious lord.
131Richard As much unto my good Lord Chamberlain.
132Well are you welcome to the open air.
133How hath your lordship brooked imprisonment?
134Hastings With patience, noble lord, as prisoners must;
135But I shall live, my lord, to give them thanks
136That were the cause of my imprisonment.
137Richard No doubt, no doubt, and so shall Clarence too,
138For they that were your enemies are his
139And have prevailed as much on him as you.
140Hastings More pity that the eagle should be mewed
141While kites and buzzards prey at liberty.
142Richard What news abroad?
143Hastings No news so bad abroad as this at home:
144The King is sickly, weak and melancholy,
145And his physicians fear him mightily.
146Richard Now, by Saint Paul, this news is bad indeed;
147Oh, he hath kept an evil diet long
148And overmuch consumed his royal person;
149'Tis very grievous to be thought upon.
150What, is he in his bed?
151Hastings He is.
152Richard Go you before and I will follow you.
Exit Hast[ings].
154He cannot live, I hope, and must not die
155'Till George be packed with post-horse up to heaven.
156I'll in to urge his hatred more to Clarence
157With lies well steeled with weighty arguments
158And, if I fail not in my deep intent,
159Clarence hath not another day to live.
160Which done, God take King Edward to his mercy
161And leave the world for me to bustle in;
162For then I'll marry Warwick's youngest daughter.
163What though I killed her husband? And her father?
164The readiest way to make the wench amends
165Is to become her husband and her father,
166The which will I, not all so much for love
167As for another secret close intent
168By marrying her which I must reach unto.
169But yet I run before my horse to market:
170Clarence still breathes, Edward still lives and reigns;
171When they are gone, then must I count my gains.
Enter 174Lady Anne [in mourning, attended by Tressill and Barkley] with the hearse of [King Henry VI, carried by pallbearers, and guards bearing halberds].
175Anne Set down, set down your honorable load,
176If honor may be shrouded in a hearse,
177Whilst I a while obsequiously lament
178The untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster.
[The hearse is set down.]
179Poor key-cold figure of a holy king,
180Pale ashes of the House of Lancaster,
181Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood;
182Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghost
183To hear the lamentations of poor Anne,
184Wife to thy Edward, to thy slaughtered son,
185Stabbed by the selfsame hands that made these holes,
186Lo, in those windows that let forth thy life
187I pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes.
188Cursed be the hand that made these fatal holes,
189Cursed be the heart that had the heart to do it.
191More direful hap betide that hated wretch
192That makes us wretched by the death of thee
193Than I can wish to adders, spiders, toads,
194Or any creeping, venomed thing that lives.
195If ever he have child, abortive be it,
196Prodigious and untimely brought to light,
197Whose ugly and unnatural aspect
198May fright the hopeful mother at the view.
200If ever he have wife, let her be made
201As miserable by the death of him
202As I am made by my poor lord and thee.
203Come now, towards Chertsey with your holy load,
[The pallbearers pick up the hearse.]
204Taken from Paul's to be interrèd there,
205And still as you are weary of the weight,
206Rest you whiles I lament King Henry's corse.
Enter [Richard].
208Richard Stay, you that bear the corse, and set it down.
209Anne What black magician conjures up this fiend
210To stop devoted charitable deeds?
212I'll make a corse of him that disobeys.
213Gentleman My lord, stand back and let the coffin pass.
[A guard levels his halberd at Richard.]
216Advance thy halberd higher than my breast
217Or by Saint Paul I'll strike thee to my foot
218And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.
[The hearse is set down.]
219Anne What? Do you tremble, are you all afraid?
220Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal
221And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.
222[To Richard] Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell.
223Thou hadst but power over his mortal body;
224His soul thou canst not have; therefore be gone.
225Richard Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst.
228For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,
229Filled it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.
230If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
231Behold this pattern of thy butcheries.
[She indicates, or uncovers, the dead body.]
232Oh gentlemen, see, see, dead Henry's wounds
233Open their congealed mouths and bleed afresh.
234Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity,
235For 'tis thy presence that exhales this blood
236From cold and empty veins where no blood dwells.
237Thy deed, inhuman and unnatural,
238Provokes this deluge most unnatural.
239O God which this blood madest, revenge his death;
240O Earth which this blood drink'st, revenge his death.
241Either heaven with lightning strike the murderer dead
242Or Earth gape open wide and eat him quick
243As thou dost swallow up this good King's blood
244Which his hell-governed arm hath butchered.
245Richard Lady, you know no rules of charity,
246Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.
247Anne Villain, thou knowest no law of God nor man:
248No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.
249Richard But I know none, and therefore am no beast.
250Anne Oh wonderful, when devils tell the truth!
251Richard More wonderful when angels are so angry.
252Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman,
253Of these supposèd evils to give me leave
254By circumstance but to acquit myself.
255Anne Vouchsafe, defused infection of a man,
256For these known evils but to give me leave
257By circumstance to curse thy cursèd self.
258Richard Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have
259Some patient leisure to excuse myself.
260Anne Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make
263Richard By such despair I should accuse myself.
264Anne And by despairing shouldst thou stand excused
265For doing worthy vengeance on thyself
266Which didst unworthy slaughter upon others.
267Richard Say that I slew them not.
268Anne Why then they are not dead,
269But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee.
270Richard I did not kill your husband.
271Anne Why then he is alive.
272Richard Nay, he is dead, and slain by Edward's hand.
275Thy bloody falchion smoking in his blood,
276The which thou once didst bend against her breast,
277But that thy brothers beat aside the point.
278Richard I was provokèd by her slanderous tongue
279Which laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders.
280Anne Thou wast provokèd by thy bloody mind
281Which never dreamed on aught but butcheries;
282Didst thou not kill this King? | |
283Richard | |
I grant ye, yea. |
286Thou mayest be damnèd for that wicked deed;
287Oh, he was gentle, mild and virtuous.
288Richard The fitter for the King of Heaven that hath him.
289Anne He is in heaven where thou shalt never come.
292For he was fitter for that place than earth.
293Anne And thou unfit for any place but hell.
294Richard Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.
295Anne Some dungeon.
296Richard Your bedchamber.
297Anne Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest!
298Richard So will it, madam, till I lie with you.
299Anne I hope so.
300Richard I know so; but gentle Lady Anne,
301To leave this keen encounter of our wits
302And fall somewhat into a slower method,
303Is not the causer of the timeless deaths
304Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
305As blameful as the executioner?
306Anne Thou art the cause (*of that most cursed effect.
307Richard Your beauty was the cause of that effect,
308Your beauty which did haunt me in my sleep
309To undertake the death of all the world
310So I might rest one hour in your sweet bosom.
311Anne If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,
312These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.
313Richard These eyes could never endure sweet beauty's wrack.
314You should not blemish them if I stood by.
315As all the world is cheerèd by the sun,
316So I by that, it is my day, my life.
317Anne Black night overshade thy day, and death thy life.
320Anne I would I were, to be revenged on thee.
321Richard It is a quarrel most unnatural
322To be revenged on him that loveth you.
323Anne It is a quarrel just and reasonable
324To be revenged on him that slew my husband.
325Richard He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband
326Did it to help thee to a better husband.
327Anne His better doth not breathe upon the earth.
328Richard Go to, he lives that loves you better than he could.
329Anne Name him.
330Richard Plantagenet.
331Anne Why that was he.
332Richard The self-same name, but one of better nature.
333Anne Where is he?
334Richard Here.
She spit[s] at him.
335Why dost thou spit at me?
336Anne Would it were mortal poison for thy sake.
337Richard Never came poison from so sweet a place.
338Anne Never hung poison on a fouler toad;
339Out of my sight, thou dost infect my eyes.
340Richard Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.
341Anne Would they were basilisks to strike thee dead.
342Richard I would they were, that I might die at once,
343For now they kill me with a living death.
[He weeps.]
344Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,
345Shamed their aspect with store of childish drops.
358I never sued to friend nor enemy,
359My tongue could never learn sweet soothing words,
360But now thy beauty is proposed my fee
361My proud heart sues and prompts my tongue to speak.
[She looks scornfully at him.]
363Teach not thy lips such scorn, for they were made
364For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.
365If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,
366Lo, here I lend thee this sharp pointed sword,
[Richard hands Anne his sword.]
367Which, if thou please to hide in this true bosom
368And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,
369I lay it naked to the deadly stroke
370And humbly beg the death upon my knee.
[He kneels and lays his breast open. She offers at it with his sword.]
372Nay, do not pause, 'twas I that killed your husband,
373But 'twas thy beauty that provokèd me.
374Nay, now dispatch, 'twas I that killed King Henry,
375But 'twas thy heavenly face that set me on.
Here she lets fall the sword.
377Take up the sword again or take up me.
378Anne Arise dissembler, though I wish thy death,
379I will not be the executioner.
380Richard Then bid me kill myself and I will do it.
381Anne I have already.
382Richard Tush, that was in thy rage.
[Richard takes up the sword and points it toward his heart.]
383Speak it again and, even with the word,
384That hand which for thy love did kill thy love
385Shall for thy love kill a far truer love.
386To both their deaths shalt thou be accessory.
387Anne I would I knew thy heart.
388Richard 'Tis figured in my tongue.
389Anne I fear me both are false.
390Richard Then never was man true.
391Anne Well, well, put up your sword.
392Richard Say then my peace is made.
[Richard stands and sheathes the sword.]
393Anne That shall you know hereafter.
394Richard But shall I live in hope?
395Anne All men, I hope, live so.
396Richard Vouchsafe to wear this ring.
[Richard offers Anne a ring.]
396.1Anne To take is not to give.
[He puts it on her finger.]
397Richard Look how this ring encompasseth thy finger:
398Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart.
399Wear both of them, for both of them are thine,
400And if thy poor, devoted suppliant may
401But beg one favor at thy gracious hand
402Thou dost confirm his happiness for ever.
403Anne What is it?
404Richard That it would please thee leave these sad designs
405To him that hath more cause to be a mourner
406And presently repair to Crosby Place
407Where, after I have solemnly interred
408At Chertsey Monastery this noble King
409And wet his grave with my repentant tears,
410I will with all expedient duty see you.
411For divers unknown reasons, I beseech you
412Grant me this boon.
413Anne With all my heart, and much it joys me too
414To see you are become so penitent.
415Tressill and Barkley, go along with me.
416Richard Bid me farewell.
417Anne 'Tis more than you deserve:
418But since you teach me how to flatter you,
419Imagine I have said farewell already.
Exit [with Tressill and Barkley.]
420Richard Sirs, take up the corse.
[The pallbearers take up the hearse.]
421Servant Towards Chertsey, noble lord?
422Richard No, to Whitefriars; there attend my coming.
424Was ever woman in this humor wooed?
425Was ever woman in this humor won?
426I'll have her, but I will not keep her long.
427What, I that killed her husband and his father,
428To take her in her heart's extremest hate,
429With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes,
430The bleeding witness of her hatred by,
431Having God, her conscience, and these bars against me,
432And I nothing to back my suit at all
433But the plain devil and dissembling looks,
436Hath she forgot already that brave Prince,
437Edward, her lord, whom I some three months since
438Stabbed in my angry mood at Tewkesbury?
439A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman
440Framed in the prodigality of nature,
441Young, valiant, wise, and no doubt right royal,
442The spacious world cannot again afford.
443And will she yet debase her eyes on me
444That cropped the golden prime of this sweet Prince
445And made her widow to a woeful bed;
446On me whose all not equals Edward's moiety;
447On me that halt, and am unshapen thus --
448My dukedom to a beggarly denier,
449I do mistake my person all this while!
450Upon my life she finds, although I cannot,
451Myself to be a marvellous proper man.
452I'll be at charges for a looking glass
453And entertain some score or two of tailors
454To study fashions to adorn my body.
455Since I am crept in favor with myself
456I will maintain it with some little cost --
457But first I'll turn yon fellow in his grave
458And then return lamenting to my love.
459Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass
460That I may see my shadow as I pass.
464Rivers Have patience, madam, there's no doubt his majesty
465Will soon recover his accustomed health.
466Grey In that you brook it ill, it makes him worse.
467Therefore, for God's sake, entertain good comfort,
468And cheer his grace with quick and merry words.
469Queen Elizabeth If he were dead, what would betide of me?
471Rivers No other harm but loss of such a lord.
472Queen Elizabeth The loss of such a lord includes all harm.
473Grey The heavens have blessed you with a goodly son
474To be your comforter when he is gone.
475Queen Elizabeth Oh, he is young, and his minority
476Is put unto the trust of Richard Gloucester,
477A man that loves not me, nor none of you.
478Rivers Is it concluded he shall be Protector?
479Queen Elizabeth It is determined, not concluded yet,
480But so it must be, if the King miscarry.
Enter Buck[ingham and Stanley].
482Grey Here come the Lords of Buckingham and Stanley.
484Stanley God make your majesty joyful as you have been.
485Queen Elizabeth The Countess Richmond, good my Lord of Stanley,
486To your good prayers will scarcely say "Amen".
487Yet Stanley, notwithstanding she's your wife
488And loves not me, be you, good lord, assured
489I hate not you for her proud arrogance.
490Stanley I do beseech you, either not believe
491The envious slanders of her false accusers
492Or, if she be accused in true report,
493Bear with her weakness which I think proceeds
494From wayward sickness, and no grounded malice.
495Rivers Saw you the King today, my Lord of Stanley?
496Stanley But now the Duke of Buckingham and I
497Came from visiting his majesty.
498Queen Elizabeth With likelihood of his amendment, lords?
499Buckingham Madam, good hope, his grace speaks cheerfully.
500Queen Elizabeth God grant him health! Did you confer with him?
501Buckingham Madam, we did. He desires to make atonement
502Betwixt the Duke of Gloucester and your brothers,
503And betwixt them and my Lord Chamberlain,
504And sent to warn them to his royal presence.
505Queen Elizabeth Would all were well, but that will never be.
506I fear our happiness is at the highest.
Enter [Richard and Hastings].
508Richard They do me wrong and I will not endure it!
509Who are they that complains unto the King
510That I forsooth am stern and love them not?
511By holy Paul, they love his grace but lightly
512That fill his ears with such dissentious rumors.
513Because I cannot flatter and speak fair,
514Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive and cog,
515Duck with French nods and apish courtesy,
516I must be held a rancorous enemy.
517Cannot a plain man live and think no harm
518But thus his simple truth must be abused
519By silken, sly, insinuating jacks?
520Rivers To whom in all this presence speaks your grace?
521Richard To thee that hast nor honesty nor grace!
522When have I injured thee, when done thee wrong?
523Or thee, or thee, or any of your faction?
524A plague upon you all! His royal person,
525Whom God preserve better than you would wish,
526Cannot be quiet scarce a breathing while
527But you must trouble him with lewd complaints.
528Queen Elizabeth Brother of Gloucester, you mistake the matter.
529The King, of his own royal disposition
530And not provoked by any suitor else,
531Aiming belike at your interior hatred
532Which in your outward actions shows itself
533Against my kindred, brother, and myself,
534Makes him to send that thereby he may gather
534.1The ground of your ill will and to remove it.
535Richard I cannot tell, the world is grown so bad
536That wrens make pray where eagles dare not perch.
537Since every jack became a gentleman
538There's many a gentle person made a jack.
539Queen Elizabeth Come, come, we know your meaning brother Gloucester.
540You envy my advancement and my friends'.
541God grant we never may have need of you.
542Richard Meantime God grants that we have need of you.
543Our brother is imprisoned by your means,
544Myself disgraced, and the nobility
545Held in contempt, whilst many fair promotions
546Are daily given to enoble those
547That scarce some two days since were worth a noble.
548Queen Elizabeth By him that raised me to this careful height
549From that contented hap which I enjoyed,
550I never did incense his majesty
551Against the Duke of Clarence, but have been
552An earnest advocate to plead for him.
553My lord, you do me shameful injury
554Falsely to draw me in these vile suspects.
555Richard You may deny that you were not the cause
556Of my Lord Hastings' late imprisonment.
557Rivers She may, my lord.
558Richard She may, Lord Rivers, why, who knows not so?
559She may do more, sir, than denying that;
560She may help you to many fair preferments
561And then deny her aiding hand therein
562And lay those honors on your high deserts.
563What may she not? She may, yea, marry, may she --
564Rivers What, marry, may she?
565Richard What marry may she? Marry with a king,
566A bachelor, a handsome stripling too.
567Iwis your grandam had a worser match.
568Queen Elizabeth My Lord of Gloucester, I have too long borne
569Your blunt upbraidings and your bitter scoffs.
570By heaven, I will acquaint his majesty
571With those gross taunts I often have endured.
572I had rather be a country servant maid
573Than a great queen with this condition,
574To be thus taunted, scorned, and baited at.
Enter Qu[een] Margaret[, unseen by the others].
575Small joy have I in being England's queen.
578Thy honor, state, and seat is due to me.
579Richard What? Threat you me with telling of the King?
579.1Tell him and spare not. Look, what I have said
580I will avouch in presence of the King;
586Thou slewest my husband Henry in the Tower,
587And Edward my poor son at Tewkesbury.
590I was a packhorse in his great affairs,
591A weeder out of his proud adversaries,
592A liberal rewarder of his friends.
593To royalize his blood I spilled mine own. . .
596Richard In all which time you and your husband Grey
597Were factious for the House of Lancaster --
599In Margaret's battle at St Albans slain?
600Let me put in your minds, if yours forget,
601What you have been ere now, and what you are;
602Withal what I have been, and what I am.
604Richard Poor Clarence did forsake his father Warwick,
605Yea, and forswore himself, which Jesu pardon. . .
607Richard To fight on Edward's party for the crown,
608And for his meed, poor lord, he is mewed up.
609I would to God my heart were flint like Edward's,
610Or Edward's soft and pitiful like mine;
611I am too childish, foolish for this world.
613Thou cacodemon: there thy kingdom is.
614Rivers My Lord of Gloucester, in those busy days,
615Which here you urge to prove us enemies,
616We followed then our lord, our lawful king;
617So should we you, if you should be our king.
618Richard If I should be? I had rather be a pedlar!
619Far be it from my heart, the thought of it.
620Queen Elizabeth As little joy, my lord, as you suppose
621You should enjoy, were you this country's king,
622As little joy may you suppose in me
623That I enjoy, being the queen thereof.
625For I am she, and altogether joyless.
626I can no longer hold me patient:
627[Coming forward.] Hear me you wrangling pirates that fall out
628In sharing that which you have pilled from me:
629Which of you trembles not that looks on me?
630If not that, I being queen, you bow like subjects,
631Yet that, by you deposed, you quake like rebels.
632[To Richard]O gentle villain, do not turn away.
633Richard Foul wrinkled witch, what mak'st thou in my sight?
634Queen Margaret But repetition of what thou hast marred,
635That will I make, before I let thee go:
639[To Richard] A husband and a son thou owest to me,
641The sorrow that I have by right is yours,
642And all the pleasures you usurp are mine.
643Richard The curse my noble father laid on thee
644When thou didst crown his warlike brows with paper
645And with thy scorn drew'st rivers from his eyes --
646And then to dry them gav'st the Duke a clout
647Steeped in the faultless blood of pretty Rutland --
648His curses then from bitterness of soul
649Denounced against thee, are all fallen upon thee,
650And God, not we, hath plagued thy bloody deed.
651Queen Elizabeth So just is God to right the innocent.
652Hastings Oh, 'twas the foulest deed to slay that babe,
653And the most merciless that ever was heard of.
654Rivers Tyrants themselves wept when it was reported.
655Dorset No man but prophesied revenge for it.
656Buckingham Northumberland, then present, wept to see it.
657Queen Margaret What? Were you snarling all before I came,
658Ready to catch each other by the throat,
659And turn you all your hatred now on me?
660Did York's dread curse prevail so much with heaven
661That Henry's death, my lovely Edward's death,
662Their kingdom's loss, my woeful banishment
663Could all but answer for that peevish brat?
664Can curses pierce the clouds and enter heaven?
665Why then, give way dull clouds to my quick curses:
666If not by war, by surfeit die your King,
667As ours by murder to make him a King.
668Edward thy son, which now is Prince of Wales,
669For Edward my son, which was Prince of Wales,
670Die in his youth by like untimely violence.
671Thyself a queen, for me that was a queen,
672Outlive thy glory like my wretched self;
673Long mayst thou live to wail thy children's loss
674And see another, as I see thee now,
675Decked in thy rights as thou art stalled in mine;
676Long die thy happy days before thy death
677And, after many lengthened hours of grief,
678Die neither mother, wife, nor England's queen;
679Rivers and Dorset, you were standers by --
680And so wast thou, Lord Hastings -- when my son
681Was stabbed with bloody daggers. God, I pray him
682That none of you may live your natural age,
683But by some unlooked accident cut off.
684Richard Have done thy charm, thou hateful, withered hag.
685Queen Margaret And leave out thee? Stay, dog, for thou shalt hear me:
686If heaven have any grievous plague in store
687Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,
688Oh, let them keep it till thy sins be ripe
689And then hurl down their indignation
690On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace;
691The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul;
692Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou livest
693And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends;
694No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine
695Unless it be whilst some tormenting dream
696Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils,
697Thou elvish-marked, abortive, rooting hog!
698Thou that wast sealed in thy nativity
699The slave of Nature and the son of Hell,
700Thou slander of thy mother's heavy womb,
701Thou loathèd issue of thy father's loins,
702Thou rag of honor, thou detested --
703Richard Margaret.
704Queen Margaret Richard.
Richard Ha?
705Queen Margaret I call thee not.
706Richard Then I cry thee mercy, for I had thought
707That thou hadst called me all these bitter names.
708Queen Margaret Why so I did, but looked for no reply.
709Oh, let me make the period to my curse.
710Richard 'Tis done by me, and ends in "Margaret".
711Queen Elizabeth Thus have you breathed your curse against yourself.
712Queen Margaret Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my fortune,
713Why strewest thou sugar on that bottled spider
714Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about?
715Fool, fool, thou whet'st a knife to kill thyself.
716The time will come that thou shalt wish for me
717To help thee curse that poisonous bunch-backed toad.
718Hastings False-boding woman, end thy frantic curse,
719Lest to thy harm thou move our patience.
720Queen Margaret Foul shame upon you, you have all moved mine.
721Rivers Were you well served, you would be taught your duty.
722Queen Margaret To serve me well, you all should do me duty.
723Teach me to be your queen and you my subjects;
724Oh, serve me well and teach yourselves that duty.
725Dorset Dispute not with her, she is lunatic.
726Queen Margaret Peace, Master Marquess, you are malapert,
727Your fire-new stamp of honor is scarce current.
728Oh, that your young nobility could judge
729What 'twere to lose it and be miserable;
730They that stand high have many blasts to shake them,
731And if they fall they dash themselves to pieces.
734Dorset It toucheth you, my lord, as much as me.
735Richard Yea, and much more, but I was born so high;
736Our eyrie buildeth in the cedar's top
737And dallies with the wind and scorns the sun.
738Queen Margaret And turns the sun to shade, alas, alas.
739Witness my son, now in the shade of death,
740Whose bright outshining beams thy cloudy wrath
741Hath in eternal darkness folded up;
742Your eyrie buildeth in our eyrie's nest;
743O God that seest it, do not suffer it.
744As it was won with blood, lost be it so.
745Buckingham Have done, for shame if not for charity.
746Queen Margaret Urge neither charity nor shame to me;
747Uncharitably with me have you dealt,
748And shamefully by you my hopes are butchered;
749My charity is outrage, life my shame,
750And in my shame, still live my sorrow's rage.
751Buckingham Have done.
752Queen Margaret O princely Buckingham, I will kiss thy hand
753In sign of league and amity with thee:
754Now fair befall thee and thy princely House;
755Thy garments are not spotted with our blood,
756Nor thou within the compass of my curse.
757Buckingham Nor no one here, for curses never pass
758The lips of those that breathe them in the air.
759Queen Margaret I'll not believe but they ascend the sky
760And there awake God's gentle, sleeping peace.
761[Aside, to Buckingham] O Buckingham, beware of yonder dog;
762Look, when he fawns he bites, and when he bites
763His venom tooth will rankle thee to death;
764Have not to do with him, beware of him,
765Sin, Death and Hell have set their marks on him,
766And all their ministers attend on him.
767Richard What doth she say, my Lord of Buckingham?
768Buckingham Nothing that I respect, my gracious lord.
771And soothe the devil that I warn thee from?
772O but remember this another day
773When he shall split thy very heart with sorrow
774And say poor Margaret was a prophetess:
775Live each of you the subjects of his hate,
776And he to yours, and all of you to God's.
777Hastings My hair doth stand on end to hear her curses.
778Rivers And so doth mine; I wonder she's at liberty.
779Richard I cannot blame her, by God's holy mother.
780She hath had too much wrong, and I repent
781My part thereof that I have done.
782Queen Elizabeth I never did her any to my knowledge.
783Richard But you have all the vantage of this wrong.
784I was too hot to do somebody good
785That is too cold in thinking of it now.
786Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repaid;
787He is franked up to fatting for his pains;
788God pardon them that are the cause of it.
789Rivers A virtuous and a Christian-like conclusion
790To pray for them that have done scathe to us.
793For had I cursed now, I had cursed myself.
[Enter Catesby.]
795Catesby Madam, his majesty doth call for you,
796And for your grace, and you my noble lord.
797Queen Elizabeth Catesby, we come. Lords, will you go with us?
798Rivers Madam, we will attend your grace.
Exeunt [all except Richard.]
800Richard I do the wrong, and first began to brawl.
801The secret mischiefs that I set abroach
802I lay unto the grievous charge of others;
803Clarence, whom I indeed have laid in darkness,
804I do beweep to many simple gulls --
805Namely to Hastings, Stanley, Buckingham --
806And say it is the Queen and her allies
807That stir the King against the Duke my brother.
808Now they believe me, and withal whet me
809To be revenged on Rivers, Vaughan, Grey;
810But then I sigh, and with a piece of scripture
811Tell them that God bids us do good for evil,
812And thus I clothe my naked villainy
813With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ,
814And seem a saint when most I play the devil --
816But soft, here come my executioners.
Enter executioners.
817How now, my hardy, stout-resolvèd mates,
818Are you now going to despatch this deed?
8191 Executioner We are my lord, and come to have the warrant
820That we may be admitted where he is.
821Richard It was well thought upon, I have it here about me.
[Richard gives the executioner a warrant.]
822When you have done, repair to Crosby Place.
823But sirs, be sudden in the execution,
824Withal obdurate, do not hear him plead,
825For Clarence is well spoken and perhaps
826May move your hearts to pity if you mark him.
8271 Executioner Tush, fear not, my lord, we will not stand to prate;
828Talkers are no good doers; be assured
829We come to use our hands and not our tongues.
832I like you lads, about your business.
Enter Clarence, Brakenbury.
837Brakenbury Why looks your grace so heavily today?
838Clarence Oh, I have passed a miserable night,
839So full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams,
840That as I am a Christian, faithful man
841I would not spend another such a night
842Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days,
843So full of dismal terror was the time.
844Brakenbury What was your dream? I long to hear you tell it.
845Clarence Methoughts I was embarked for Burgundy,
847And in my company my brother Gloucester
848Who from my cabin tempted me to walk
849Upon the hatches; thence we looked toward England
850And cited up a thousand fearful times
851During the wars of York and Lancaster
852That had befallen us. As we paced along
853Upon the giddy footing of the hatches
854Methought that Gloucester stumbled, and in stumbling
855Struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard
856Into the tumbling billows of the main.
857Lord, Lord, methought what pain it was to drown,
858What dreadful noise of waters in my ears,
859What ugly sights of death within my eyes:
860Methought I saw a thousand fearful wracks,
861Ten thousand men that fishes gnawed upon,
862Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
863Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels;
865Some lay in dead men's skulls, and in those holes
866Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept,
867As 'twere in scorn of eyes, reflecting gems
868Which wooed the slimy bottom of the deep
869And mocked the dead bones that lay scattered by.
870Brakenbury Had you such leisure in the time of death
871To gaze upon the secrets of the deep?
874Kept in my soul, and would not let it forth
875To seek the empty, vast and wandering air,
876But smothered it within my panting bulk
877Which almost burst to belch it in the sea.
878Brakenbury Awaked you not with this sore agony?
879Clarence Oh no, my dream was lengthened after life.
880Oh, then began the tempest to my soul,
881Who passed, methought, the melancholy flood,
882With that grim ferryman which poets write of,
883Unto the kingdom of perpetual night.
884The first that there did greet my stranger soul
885Was my great father-in-law, renownèd Warwick,
886Who cried aloud, "What scourge for perjury
887Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?"
888And so he vanished; then came wandring by
889A shadow like an angel in bright hair,
890Dabbled in blood, and he squeaked out aloud,
891"Clarence is come, false, fleeting, perjured Clarence
892That stabbed me in the field by Tewkesbury.
893Seize on him, Furies, take him to your torments."
894With that, methoughts, a legion of foul fiends
895Environed me about and howled in mine ears
896Such hideous cries that with the very noise
897I trembling waked, and for a season after
898Could not believe but that I was in hell,
899Such terrible impression made the dream.
900Brakenbury No marvel, my lord, though it affrighted you.
901I promise you, I am afraid to hear you tell it.
902Clarence O Brakenbury, I have done those things
903Which now bear evidence against my soul
904For Edward's sake, and see how he requites me.
909I pray thee, gentle keeper, stay by me;
910My soul is heavy and I fain would sleep.
911Brakenbury I will, my lord, God give your grace good rest.
[Clarence sleeps.]
913Sorrow breaks seasons, and reposing hours
914Makes the night morning and the noontide night.
915Princes have but their titles for their glories,
916An outward honor for an inward toil,
917And for unfelt imagination
918They often feel a world of restless cares;
919So that betwixt their titles and low names
920There's nothing differs but the outward fame.
The executioners enter.
927Brakenbury Yea, are you so brief?
9282 Executioner Oh sir, it is better to be brief than tedious.
929[To the first executioner] Show him our commission, talk no more.
[The first executioner gives the commission to Brakenbury, who] reads it.
930Brakenbury I am in this commanded to deliver
931The noble Duke of Clarence to your hands.
932I will not reason what is meant hereby
933Because I will be guiltless of the meaning.
934Here are the keys, there sits the Duke asleep;
935I'll to his majesty, and certify his grace
936That thus I have resigned my charge to you.
9371 Executioner Do so, it is a point of wisdom.
9392 Executioner What, shall I stab him as he sleeps?
9401 Executioner No, then he will say it was done cowardly when he wakes.
9431 Executioner Why, then he will say we stabbed him sleeping.
9461 Executioner What? Art thou afraid?
9472 Executioner Not to kill him, having a warrant for it, 948but to be damned for killing him, from which 949no warrant can defend us.
9521 Executioner Back to the Duke of Gloucester, tell him so.
9532 Executioner I pray thee stay a while, 954I hope my holy humor will change; 955'twas wont to hold me but while one would tell twenty.
[He counts to twenty.]
9561 Executioner How dost thou feel thyself now?
9591 Executioner Remember our reward when the deed is done.
9602 Executioner Zounds, he dies! I had forgot the reward.
9611 Executioner Where is thy conscience now?
9622 Executioner In the Duke of Gloucester's purse.
9671 Executioner How if it come to thee again?
9682 Executioner I'll not meddle with it, it is a dangerous thing. It makes a man a coward: 969a man cannot steal but it accuses him; he cannot 970swear but it checks him; he cannot lie with his 971neighbor's wife but it detects him. It is a blushing 972shamefaced spirit that mutinies in a man's bosom: it 973fills one full of obstacles. It made me once restore a 974purse of gold that I found. It beggars any 975man that keeps it: it is turned out of all towns and cit976ies for a dangerous thing, and every man that means to 977live well endeavors to trust to himself, and to live with978out it.
9812 Executioner Take the devil in thy mind and believe him not. 982He would insinuate with thee to make thee sigh.
9831 Executioner Tut, I am strong in fraud, he cannot prevail with me, I warrant thee.
9842 Executioner Spoke like a tall fellow that respects his reputation. 985Come, shall we to this gear?
9861 Executioner Take him over the costard with the hilts of thy 987sword, and then we will chop him in the malmsey butt in 988the next room.
9892 Executioner Oh, excellent device, make a sop of him.
9922 Executioner No, first let's reason with him.
993Clarence Where art thou, keeper, give me a cup of wine.
9941 Executioner You shall have wine enough, my lord, anon.
995Clarence In God's name, what art thou?
9962 Executioner A man, as you are.
997Clarence But not as I am, royal.
9982 Executioner Nor you as we are, loyal.
999Clarence Thy voice is thunder, but thy looks are humble.
10002 Executioner My voice is now the King's, my looks mine own.
1001Clarence How darkly and how deadly dost thou speak.
1003Tell me who are you, wherefore come you hither?
1004Both To, to, to. . .
1005Clarence To murder me?
1006Both Aye.
1007Clarence You scarcely have the hearts to tell me so,
1008And therefore cannot have the hearts to do it.
1009Wherein, my friends, have I offended you?
10101 Executioner Offended us you have not, but the King.
1011Clarence I shall be reconciled to him again.
10122 Executioner Never, my lord, therefore prepare to die.
1013Clarence Are you called forth from out a world of men
1014To slay the innocent? What is my offence?
1015Where are the evidence that do accuse me?
1016What lawful quest have given their verdict up
1017Unto the frowning judge, or who pronounced
1018The bitter sentence of poor Clarence' death
1019Before I be convict by course of law?
1020To threaten me with death is most unlawful.
1021I charge you as you hope to have redemption,
1021.1By Christ's dear blood shed for our grievous sins,
1022That you depart and lay no hands on me.
1023The deed you undertake is damnable.
10241 Executioner What we will do, we do upon command.
10252 Executioner And he that hath commanded is the King.
1026Clarence Erroneous vassal, the great King of Kings
1027Hath in the tables of his law commanded
1028That thou shalt do no murder, and wilt thou then
1029Spurn at his edict and fulfill a man's?
1030Take heed, for he holds vengeance in his hands
1031To hurl upon their heads that break his law.
10322 Executioner And that same vengeance doth he throw on thee
1033For false forswearing, and for murder too.
1034Thou didst receive the holy sacrament
1035To fight in quarrel of the House of Lancaster . . .
10361 Executioner And like a traitor to the name of God
1037Didst break that vow, and with thy treacherous blade
1038Unripped the bowels of thy sovereign's son. . .
10392 Executioner Whom thou wert sworn to cherish and defend.
10401 Executioner How canst thou urge God's dreadful law to us
1041When thou hast broke it in so dear degree?
1042Clarence Alas, for whose sake did I that ill deed?
1043For Edward, for my brother, for his sake.
1044Why, sirs, he sends ye not to murder me for this,
1045For in this sin he is as deep as I.
1046If God will be revengèd for this deed,
1048Take not the quarrel from his powerful arm.
1049He needs no indirect nor lawless course
1050To cut off those that have offended him.
10511 Executioner Who made thee then a bloody minister
1052When gallant, springing, brave Plantagenet,
1053That princely novice, was struck dead by thee?
1054Clarence My brother's love, the devil, and my rage.
10551 Executioner Thy brother's love, the devil and thy fault
1056Have brought us hither now to murder thee.
1057Clarence Oh, if you love my brother, hate not me;
1058I am his brother and I love him well.
1059If you be hired for meed, go back again
1060And I will send you to my brother Gloucester
1061Who will reward you better for my life
1062Than Edward will for tidings of my death.
1065Clarence Oh no, he loves me, and he holds me dear.
1066Go you to him from me.
1067Both Aye, so we will.
1068Clarence Tell him, when that our princely father York
1069Blessed his three sons with his victorious arm
1069.1And charged us from his soul to love each other,
1070He little thought of this divided friendship.
1071Bid Gloucester think of this and he will weep.
1072Both Aye, millstones, as he lessoned us to weep.
1073Clarence Oh do not slander him for he is kind.
1076'Tis he hath sent us hither now to slaughter thee.
1077Clarence It cannot be, for when I parted with him
1078He hugged me in his arms, and swore with sobs
1079That he would labor my delivery.
10802 Executioner Why so he doth, now he delivers thee
1081From this world's thralldom to the joys of heaven.
10821 Executioner Make peace with God, for you must die, my lord.
1083Clarence Hast thou that holy feeling in thy soul
1084To counsel me to make my peace with God,
1085And art thou yet to thy own soul so blind
1086That thou wilt war with God by murdering me?
1087Ah sirs, consider, he that set you on
1088To do this deed will hate you for this deed.
10892 Executioner What shall we do?
1090Clarence Relent, and save your souls.
10961 Executioner Relent, 'tis cowardly and womanish.
1097Clarence Not to relent is beastly, savage, devilish.
[to the second executioner]
1098My friend, I spy some pity in thy looks.
1099Oh, if thy eye be not a flatterer,
1100Come thou on my side and entreat for me;
1101A begging prince, what beggar pities not?
11031 Executioner | |
1104I'll chop thee in the malmsey butt in the next room.
[Exit with the wounded or unconscious Clarence.]
11052 Executioner A bloody deed and desperately performed.
1106How fain like Pilate would I wash my hand
1107Of this most grievous, guilty murder done.
[The first executioner re-enters.]
11081 Executioner Why dost thou not help me?
11112 Executioner I would he knew that I had saved his brother.
1112Take thou the fee and tell him what I say,
1113For I repent me that the Duke is slain.
11141 Executioner So do not I; go, coward as thou art.
1115Now must I hide his body in some hole
1116Until the Duke take order for his burial,
1117And when I have my meed I must away
1118For this will out and here I must not stay.
1124King Edward So, now I have done a good day's work.
1125You peers, continue this united league;
1126I every day expect an embassage
1127From my Redeemer to redeem me hence:
1128And now in peace my soul shall part to heaven
1129Since I have set my friends at peace on earth.
1130Rivers and Hastings, take each other's hand,
1131Dissemble not your hatred, swear your love.
1132Rivers By heaven, my heart is purged from grudging hate,
1133And with my hand I seal my true heart's love.
[Rivers and Hastings clasp each other by the hand.]
1134Hastings So thrive I as I truly swear the like.
1135King Edward Take heed you dally not before your King
1136Lest he that is the supreme King of Kings
1137Confound your hidden falsehood, and award
1138Either of you to be the other's end.
1139Hastings So prosper I, as I swear perfect love.
1140Rivers And I, as I love Hastings with my heart.
1141King Edward Madam, yourself are not exempt in this,
1142Nor your son Dorset, Buckingham nor you.
1143You have been factious one against the other:
1144Wife, love Lord Hastings, let him kiss your hand,
1145And what you do, do it unfeignedly.
[She offers Hastings her hand to kiss.]
1146Queen Elizabeth Here, Hastings, I will never more remember
1147Our former hatred, so thrive I and mine.
1150Dorset This interchange of love I here protest
1151Upon my part shall be inviolable.
1152Hastings And so swear I, my lord.
[Hastings and Dorset embrace.]
1153King Edward Now, princely Buckingham, seal thou this league
1154With thy embracements to my wife's allies
1155And make me happy in your unity.
1156Buckingham Whenever Buckingham doth turn his hate
1157On you or yours; but with all duteous love
1158Doth cherish you and yours, God punish me
1159With hate in those where I expect most love:
1160When I have most need to employ a friend,
1161And most assurèd that he is a friend,
1162Deep, hollow, treacherous and full of guile
1163Be he unto me; this do I beg of God
1164When I am cold in zeal to you or yours.
[Buckingham embraces Rivers and Dorset.]
1165King Edward A pleasing cordial, princely Buckingham,
1166Is this thy vow unto my sickly heart.
1167There wanteth now our brother Gloucester here
1168To make the perfect period of this peace.
Enter [Richard].
1172Richard Good morrow to my sovereign King and Queen,
1173And princely peers, a happy time of day.
1174King Edward Happy indeed as we have spent the day:
1175Brother we have done deeds of charity,
1176Made peace of enmity, fair love of hate
1177Between these swelling, wrong-incensèd peers.
1178Richard A blessèd labor, my most sovereign liege;
1179Amongst this princely heap, if any here
1180By false intelligence or wrong surmise
1181Hold me a foe; if I unwittingly or in my rage
1182Have aught committed that is hardly borne
1183By any in this presence, I desire
1184To reconcile me to his friendly peace.
1185'Tis death to me to be at enmity;
1186I hate it, and desire all good men's love.
1187First, madam, I entreat true peace of you
1188Which I will purchase with my duteous service;
1189Of you my noble cousin Buckingham
1190If ever any grudge were lodged between us.
1191Of you Lord Rivers, and Lord Grey of you,
1192That all without desert have frowned on me,
1194Dukes, earls, lords, gentlemen, indeed of all:
1195I do not know that Englishman alive
1196With whom my soul is any jot at odds
1197More than the infant that is born tonight;
1198I thank my God for my humility.
1199Queen Elizabeth A holy day shall this be kept hereafter.
1200I would to God all strifes were well compounded:
1201My sovereign liege, I do beseech your majesty
1202To take our brother Clarence to your grace.
1203Richard Why madam, have I offered love for this,
1204To be thus scornèd in this royal presence?
1205Who knows not that the noble Duke is dead?
[They all start.]
1206You do him injury to scorn his corse.
1209Queen Elizabeth All seeing heaven, what a world is this?
1210Buckingham Look I so pale, Lord Dorset, as the rest?
1211Dorset Aye my good lord, and no one in this presence
1212But his red color hath forsook his cheeks.
1213King Edward Is Clarence dead! The order was reversed.
1214Richard But he, poor soul, by your first order died,
1215And that a winged Mercury did bear.
1216Some tardy cripple bore the countermand
1217That came too lag to see him burièd.
1218God grant that some less noble and less loyal,
1219Nearer in bloody thoughts but not in blood,
1220Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence did,
1221And yet go current from suspicion.
[Stanley enters and kneels.]
1223Stanley A boon, my sovereign, for my service done.
1224King Edward I pray thee, peace, my soul is full of sorrow.
1225Stanley I will not rise unless your highness grant.
1226King Edward Then speak at once, what is it thou demand'st.
1227Stanley The forfeit, sovereign, of my servant's life
1228Who slew today a riotous gentleman
1229Lately attendant on the Duke of Norfolk.
1230King Edward Have I a tongue to doom my brother's death
1231And shall the same give pardon to a slave?
1232My brother slew no man, his fault was thought,
1233And yet his punishment was cruel death.
1234Who sued to me for him? Who in my rage
1235Kneeled at my feet and bade me be advised?
1236Who spoke of brotherhood? who spoke of love?
1237Who told me how the poor soul did forsake
1238The mighty Warwick and did fight for me;
1239Who told me, in the field by Tewkesbury
1240When Oxford had me down, he rescued me
1241And said, "Dear brother, live and be a king?"
1242Who told me, when we both lay in the field
1243Frozen almost to death, how he did lap me
1244Even in his own garments, and gave himself
1245All thin and naked to the numbcold night?
1246All this from my remembrance brutish wrath
1247Sinfully plucked, and not a man of you
1248Had so much grace to put it in my mind.
1249But when your carters or your waiting vassals
1250Have done a drunken slaughter, and defaced
1251The precious image of our dear Redeemer,
1252You straight are on your knees for "Pardon, pardon!"
1253And I, unjustly too, must grant it you. [Stanley rises.]
1254But for my brother, not a man would speak,
1255Nor I, ungracious, speak unto myself
1256For him, poor soul. The proudest of you all
1257Have been beholding to him in his life,
1258Yet none of you would once plead for his life.
1259O God, I fear thy justice will take hold
1260On me, and you, and mine, and yours for this.
[He] exit[s, followed by Queen Elizabeth, Hastings, Rivers, Dorset and Stanley. Richard and Buckingham remain.]
1263Richard This is the fruit of rashness. Marked you not
1264How that the guilty kindred of the Queen
1265Looked pale when they did hear of Clarence' death?
1266Oh, they did urge it still unto the King.
1267God will revenge it. But come, let's in
1268To comfort Edward with our company.
Exeunt [Richard and Buckingham].
1273Boy Tell me, good granam, is our father dead?
1274Duchess No, boy.
1275Boy Why do you wring your hands and beat your breast
1276And cry, "Oh Clarence, my unhappy son?"
1277Girl Why do you look on us and shake your head
1278And call us wretches, orphans, castaways
1279If that our noble father be alive?
1280Duchess My pretty cousins, you mistake me much.
1281I do lament the sickness of the King,
1282As loath to lose him, not your father's death.
1283It were lost labor to weep for one that's lost.
1284Boy Then granam, you conclude that he is dead.
1285The King my uncle is too blame for this:
1286God will revenge it, whom I will importune
1287With daily prayers, all to that effect.
1289Duchess Peace, children, peace, the King doth love you well.
1290Incapable and shallow innocents,
1291You cannot guess who caused your father's death.
1292Boy Granam we can: for my good uncle Gloucester
1293Told me the King, provokèd by the Queen,
1294Devised impeachments to imprison him.
1295And when he told me so he wept,
1296And hugged me in his arm, and kindly kissed my cheek,
1297And bade me rely on him as in my father,
1298And he would love me dearly as his child.
1299Duchess Oh, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes,
1300And with a virtuous vizard hide foul guile.
1301He is my son, yea, and therein my shame,
1302Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit.
1303Boy Think you my uncle did dissemble, granam?
1304Duchess Aye, boy.
Enter the Quee[n, in distress].
1308Queen Elizabeth Oh, who shall hinder me to wail and weep,
1309To chide my fortune and torment myself?
1310I'll join with black despair against my soul,
1311And to myself become an enemy.
1312Duchess What means this scene of rude impatience?
1313Queen Elizabeth To make an act of tragic violence:
1314Edward, my lord, your son, our king is dead.
1315Why grow the branches now the root is withered?
1316Why wither not the leaves, the sap being gone?
1317If you will live, lament; if die, be brief
1318That our swift-wingèd souls may catch the King's,
1319Or like obedient subjects, follow him
1320To his new kingdom of perpetual rest.
1322As I had title in thy noble husband:
1323I have bewept a worthy husband's death
1324And lived by looking on his images.
1325But now two mirrors of his princely semblance
1326Are cracked in pieces by malignant death,
1327And I for comfort have but one false glass
1328Which grieves me when I see my shame in him.
1329Thou art a widow, yet thou art a mother
1330And hast the comfort of thy children left thee,
1331But death hath snatched my children from mine arms
1332And plucked two crutches from my feeble limbs,
1333Edward and Clarence. Oh, what cause have I
1334Thine being but moiety of my grief,
1335To overgo thy plaints and drown thy cries?
1337How can we aid you with our kindred's tears?
1339Your widow's dolors likewise be unwept.
1340Queen Elizabeth Give me no help in lamentation;
1341I am not barren to bring forth laments:
1342All springs reduce their currents to mine eyes,
1343That I, being governed by the watery moon,
1344May send forth plenteous tears to drown the world.
1345Oh, for my husband, for my dear Lord Edward.
1346Both children Oh, for our father, for our dear Lord Clarence.
1347Duchess Alas for both, both mine, Edward and Clarence.
1348Queen Elizabeth What stay had I but Edward, and he is gone?
1349Boy, Girl What stay had we but Clarence, and he is gone?
1350Duchess What stays had I but they, and they are gone?
1351Queen Elizabeth Was never widow had so dear a loss.
1352Both children Was never orphans had a dearer loss.
1353Duchess Was never mother had a dearer loss.
1354Alas, I am the mother of these moans;
1355Their woes are parcelled, mine are general.
1356She for an Edward weeps, and so do I.
1357I for a Clarence weep, so doth not she.
1358These babes for Clarence weep, and so do I.
1358.1I for an Edward weep, so do not they.
1359Alas, you three, on me, threefold distressed,
1360Pour all your tears, I am your sorrow's nurse,
1361And I will pamper it with lamentations.
Enter [Richard] with others [including Buckingham].
1376Richard Madam, have comfort, all of us have cause
1377To wail the dimming of our shining star
1378But none can cure their harms by wailing them.
1379Madam my mother, I do cry you mercy,
1380I did not see your grace; humbly on my knee[Kneels.]
1381I crave your blessing.
1382Duchess God bless thee, and put meekness in thy mind,
1383Love, charity, obedience, and true duty.
1385That's the butt end of a mother's blessing.
1386I marvel why her grace did leave it out.
1387Buckingham You cloudy princes and heart-sorrowing peers
1388That bear this mutual heavy load of moan,
1389Now cheer each other in each other's love;
1390Though we have spent our harvest of this King
1391We are to reap the harvest of his son.
1392The broken rancor of your high-swollen hearts,
1393But lately splinted, knit, and joined together,
1394Must gently be preserved, cherished and kept.
1395Me seemeth good that with some little train
1396Forthwith from Ludlow the young Prince be fetched
1397Hither to London, to be crowned our King.
1417Richard Then it be so, and go we to determine
1418Who they shall be that straight shall post to Ludlow.
1419Madam, and you my mother, will you go
1420To give your censures in this weighty business?
1420.1Both With all our hearts.
Exeunt, [Richard and Buckingham remain].
1422Buckingham My lord, whoever journeys to the Prince,
1423For God's sake let not us two stay behind,
1424For by the way I'll sort occasion,
1425As index to the story we late talked of,
1426To part the Queen's proud kindred from the King.
1427Richard My other self, my counsel's consistory,
1428My oracle, my prophet, my dear cousin!
1429I like a child will go by thy direction.
1430Towards Ludlow then, for we will not stay behind.
Enter two citizens [at separate doors.]
14362 Citizen I promise you, I scarcely know myself.
14371 Citizen Hear you the news abroad?
14382 Citizen Aye, that the King is dead.
14391 Citizen Bad news by'rlady, seldom comes the better;
1440I fear, I fear, 'twill prove a troublous world.
Ent[er] another cit[izen].
14423 Citizen Good morrow neighbors.
1444Doth this news hold of good King Edward's death?
14451 Citizen It doth.
14463Then masters, look to see a troublous world.
14471 Citizen No no, by God's good grace his son shall reign.
14483 Citizen Woe to that land that's governed by a child.
14492 Citizen In him there is a hope of government
1450That, in his nonage, council under him,
1451And in his full and ripened years himself,
1452No doubt shall then, and till then, govern well.
14531 Citizen So stood the state when Harry the Sixth
1454Was crowned at Paris but at nine months old.
14553 Citizen Stood the state so? No, good my friend, not so,
1456For then this land was famously enriched
1457With politic grave counsel; then the King
1458Had virtuous uncles to protect his grace.
14592 Citizen So hath this, both by the father and mother.
14603 Citizen Better it were they all came by the father,
1461Or by the father there were none at all.
1462For emulation now, who shall be nearest
1463Will touch us all too near, if God prevent not.
1464Oh, full of danger is the Duke of Gloucester,
1465And the Queen's kindred haughty and proud,
1466And were they to be ruled and not to rule,
1467This sickly land might solace as before.
14682 Citizen Come, come, we fear the worst, all shall be well.
14693 Citizen When clouds appear, wise men put on their cloaks;
1470When great leaves fall, the winter is at hand;
1471When the sun sets, who doth not look for night?
1472Untimely storms make men expect a dearth;
1473All may be well, but if God sort it so
1474'Tis more than we deserve or I expect.
14751 Citizen Truly the souls of men are full of dread.
1476Ye cannot almost reason with a man
1477That looks not heavily and full of fear.
14783 Citizen Before the times of change still is it so.
1479By a divine instinct men's minds mistrust
1480Ensuing dangers, as by proof we see
1481The waters swell before a boisterous storm.
1482But leave it all to God. Whither away?
14832 Citizen We are sent for to the justice.
14843 Citizen And so was I, I'll bear you company.
Enter Cardinal [Rotherham], Duchess of York, Queen [Elizabeth], young [Duke of] York.
1488Cardinal Rotherham Last night I hear they lay at Northampton.
1489At Stony Stratford will they be tonight;
1490Tomorrow or next day they will be here.
1491Duchess I long with all my heart to see the Prince;
1492I hope he is much grown since last I saw him.
1493Queen Elizabeth But I hear no, they say my son of York
1494Hath almost overta'en him in his growth.
1495York Aye mother, but I would not have it so.
1496Duchess Why, my young cousin, it is good to grow.
1497York Grandam, one night as we did sit at supper,
1498My uncle Rivers talked how I did grow
1499More than my brother. "Aye", quoth my Nuncle Gloucester,
1500"Small herbs have grace, great weeds grow apace",
1501And since, methinks, I would not grow so fast:
1502Because sweet flowers are slow, and weeds make haste.
1503Duchess Good faith, good faith, the saying did not hold
1504In him that did object the same to thee;
1505He was the wretched'st thing when he was young,
1506So long a growing, and so leisurely,
1507That if this were a true rule, he should be gracious.
1508Cardinal Rotherham Why, madam, so no doubt he is.
1509Duchess I hope so too, but [yet] let mothers doubt.
1510York Now, by my troth, if I had been remembered
1511I could have given my uncle's grace a flout
1512That should have nearer touched his growth than he did mine.
1515York Marry, they say my uncle grew so fast
1516That he could gnaw a crust at two hours old;
1517'Twas full two years ere I could get a tooth.
1518Granam, this would have been a biting jest.
1519Duchess I pray thee pretty York, who told thee so?
1520York Granam, his nurse.
1521Duchess His nurse? Why she was dead ere thou wert born.
1522York If 'twere not she, I cannot tell who told me.
1523Queen Elizabeth A perilous boy, go to, you are too shrewd.
1524Cardinal Rotherham Good madam, be not angry with the child.
1525Queen Elizabeth Pitchers have ears.
Enter Dorset.
1527Cardinal Rotherham Here comes your son, Lord Marquess Dorset.
What news, Lord Marquess?
1528Dorset Such news, my lord, as grieves me to unfold.
1529Queen Elizabeth How fares the Prince?
1530Dorset Well, madam, and in health.
1531Duchess What is thy news then?
With them 1534Sir Thomas Vaughan, prisoners.
1535Duchess Who hath committed them?
1536Dorset The mighty Dukes, Gloucester and Buckingham.
1537Cardinal Rotherham For what offence?
1538Dorset The sum of all I can I have disclosed.
1539Why or for what these nobles were committed
1540Is all unknown to me, my gracious lady.
1541Queen Elizabeth Aye me, I see the downfall of our House;
1542The tiger now hath seized the gentle hind,
1543Insulting tyranny begins to jet
1544Upon the innocent and lawless throne.
1545Welcome destruction, death and massacre:
1546I see as in a map the end of all.
1547Duchess Accursèd and unquiet wrangling days,
1548How many of you have mine eyes beheld?
1549My husband lost his life to get the crown,
1550And often up and down my sons were tossed
1551For me to joy and weep their gain and loss;
1552And, being seated and domestic broils
1553Clean overblown, themselves the conquerors
Self against self. O preposterous
1556And frantic Outrage, end thy damnèd spleen,
1557Or let me die, to look on death no more.
1558Queen Elizabeth Come, come, my boy, we will to sanctuary.
1560Duchess I'll go along with you.
1561Queen Elizabeth You have no cause.
1562Cardinal Rotherham My gracious lady, go,
1563And thither bear your treasure and your goods;
1564For my part, I'll resign unto your grace
1565The seal I keep, and so betide to me
1566As well I tender you and all of yours.
1567Come, I'll conduct you to the sanctuary.
1574Richard Welcome dear cousin, my thought's sovereign;
1575The weary way hath made you melancholy.
1576Prince Edward No, uncle, but our crosses on the way
1577Have made it tedious, wearisome and heavy.
1578I want more uncles here to welcome me.
1579Richard Sweet Prince, the untainted virtue of your years
1580Hath not yet dived into the world's deceit,
1581Nor more can you distinguish of a man
1582Than of his outward show, which God he knows,
1583Seldom or never jumpeth with the heart.
1584Those uncles which you want were dangerous;
1585Your grace attended to their sugared words
1586But looked not on the poison of their hearts.
1587God keep you from them, and from such false friends.
Enter Lord Mayor.
1595Prince Edward I thank you, good my lord, and thank you all.
1596I thought my mother and my brother York
1597Would long ere this have met us on the way.
1598Fie, what a slug is Hastings that he comes not
1599To tell us whether they will come or no.
Enter L[ord] Hast[ings].
1605Hastings On what occasion, God he knows, not I,
1606The Queen your mother and your brother York
1607Have taken sanctuary. The tender Prince
1608Would fain have come with me to meet your grace
1609But by his mother was perforce withheld.
1610Buckingham Fie, what an indirect and peevish course
1611Is this of hers! Lord Cardinal, will your grace
1612Persuade the Queen to send the Duke of York
1613Unto his princely brother presently?
1614If she deny, Lord Hastings go with him,
1615And from her jealous arms pluck him perforce.
1616Cardinal Bourchier My Lord of Buckingham, if my weak oratory
1617Can from his mother win the Duke of York,
1618Anon expect him here, but if she be obdurate
1619To mild entreaties, God in heaven forbid
1620We should infringe the holy privilege
1621Of blessèd sanctuary; not for all this land
1622Would I be guilty of so deep a sin.
1623Buckingham You are too senseless-obstinate my lord,
1624Too ceremonious and traditional.
1625Weigh it but with the grossness of this age.
1626You break not sanctuary in seizing him;
1627The benefit thereof is always granted
1628To those whose dealings have deserved the place
1629And those who have the wit to claim the place.
1630This Prince hath neither claimed it nor deserved it
1631And therefore, in mine opinion, cannot have it.
1632Then taking him from thence that is not there
1633You break no privilege nor charter there.
1634Oft have I heard of sanctuary men,
1635But sanctuary children, never till now.
1636Cardinal Bourchier My lord you shall overrule my mind for once.
1637Come on Lord Hastings, will you go with me?
1638Hastings I go my lord. [Exeunt Hastings and the Cardinal.]
1639Prince Edward Good lords, make all the speedy haste you may.
1640Say uncle Gloucester, if our brother come,
1641Where shall we sojourn till our coronation?
1642Richard Where it seems best unto your royal self.
1643If I may counsel you, some day or two
1644Your highness shall repose you at the Tower;
1645Then where you please, and shall be thought most fit
1646For your best health and recreation.
1647Prince Edward I do not like the Tower of any place.
1648Did Julius Caesar build that place, my lord?
1649Buckingham He did, my gracious lord, begin that place
1650Which, since, succeeding ages have re-edified.
1651Prince Edward Is it upon record, or else reported
1652Successively from age to age, he built it?
1653Buckingham Upon record my gracious lord.
1654Prince Edward But say, my lord, it were not registered,
1655Methinks the truth should live from age to age,
1656As 'twere retailed to all posterity,
1657Even to the general, all-ending day.
1659Prince Edward What say you, uncle?
1660Richard I say, without characters fame lives long.
1661[Aside] Thus like the formal Vice, Iniquity,
1662I moralize two meanings in one word.
1663Prince Edward That Julius Caesar was a famous man;
1664With what his valor did enrich his wit,
1665His wit set down to make his valor live:
1666Death makes no conquest of this conqueror
1667For now he lives in fame, though not in life.
1668I'll tell you what, my cousin Buckingham.
1669Buckingham What, my gracious lord?
1670Prince Edward And if I live until I be a man
1671I'll win our ancient right in France again
1672Or die a soldier as I lived a king.
Enter young York, Hastings, Cardinal.
1679York Well, my dread lord, so must I call you now.
1680Prince Edward Aye, brother, to our grief as it is yours;
1681Too late he died that might have kept that title,
1682Which by his death hath lost much majesty.
1683Richard How fares our cousin, noble Lord of York?
1684York I thank you, gentle uncle. Oh, my lord,
1685You said that idle weeds are fast in growth:
1686The Prince my brother hath outgrown me far.
1687Richard He hath, my lord.
1688York And therefore is he idle?
1689Richard Oh, my fair cousin, I must not say so.
1690York Then he is more beholding to you than I.
1691Richard He may command me as my sovereign,
1692But you have power in me as in a kinsman.
1693York I pray you uncle, give me this dagger.
1694Richard My dagger, little cousin, with all my heart.
1695Prince Edward A beggar, brother?
1696York Of my kind uncle that I know will give,
1697And being but a toy, which is no grief to give.
1698Richard A greater gift than that I'll give my cousin.
1699York A greater gift, oh, that's the sword to it.
1700Richard Aye, gentle cousin, were it light enough.
1701York Oh, then I see you will part but with light gifts;
1702In weightier things you'll say a beggar nay.
1703Richard It is too heavy for your grace to wear.
1704York I weigh it lightly, were it heavier.
1705Richard What, would you have my weapon, little lord?
1708Richard How?
1709York Little.
1710Prince Edward My Lord of York will still be cross in talk;
1711Uncle, your grace knows how to bear with him.
1712York You mean, to bear me, not to bear with me:
1713Uncle, my brother mocks both you and me:
1714Because that I am little, like an ape,
1715He thinks that you should bear me on your shoulder.
1717To mitigate the scorn he gives his uncle
1718He prettily and aptly taunts himself;
1719So cunning and so young is wonderful.
1720Richard My lord, will't please you pass along?
1721Myself and my good cousin Buckingham
1722Will to your mother, to entreat of her
1723To meet you at the Tower and welcome you.
1725Prince Edward My Lord Protector needs will have it so.
1726York I shall not sleep in quiet at the Tower.
1727Richard Why, what should you fear?
1728York Marry, my uncle Clarence' angry ghost.
1729My granam told me he was murdered there.
1730Prince Edward I fear no uncles dead.
1731Richard Nor none that live, I hope.
1732Prince Edward And if they live, I hope I need not fear.
1733But come my lord, with a heavy heart,
1734Thinking on them, go I unto the Tower.
Exeunt Prin[ce Edward], [Duke of] Yor[k, Cardinal,] Hast[ings, and Mayor]. 1736Rich[ard], Buck[ingham and Catesby remain].
1737Buckingham Think you, my lord, this little prating York
1738Was not incensèd by his subtle mother
1739To taunt and scorn you thus opprobriously?
1740Richard No doubt, no doubt, oh, 'tis a perilous boy,
1741Bold, quick, ingenious, forward, capable,
1742He is all the mother's, from the top to toe.
1743Buckingham Well, let them rest. Come hither, Catesby.[Catesby approaches Richard and Buckingham.]
1744Thou art sworn as deeply to effect what we intend
1745As closely to conceal what we impart.
1746Thou knowest our reasons urged upon the way;
1747What thinkest thou? Is it not an easy matter
1748To make William Lord Hastings of our mind
1749For the installment of this noble Duke
1750In the seat royal of this famous isle?
1751Catesby He for his father's sake so loves the Prince
1752That he will not be won to aught against him.
1755Catesby He will do all in all as Hastings doth.
1756Buckingham Well then, no more but this:
1757Go, gentle Catesby, and as it were afar off,
Unto our purpose; if he be willing,
1763Encourage him and show him all our reasons.
1764If he be leaden, icy, cold, unwilling,
1765Be thou so too, and so break off your talk
1766And give us notice of his inclination,
1767For we tomorrow hold divided councils,
1768Wherein thyself shalt highly be employed.
1769Richard Commend me to Lord William, tell him Catesby,
1770His ancient knot of dangerous adversaries
1771Tomorrow are let blood at Pomfret Castle;
1772And bid my friend, for joy of this good news,
1773Give Mistress Shore one gentle kiss the more.
1774Buckingham Good Catesby, effect this business soundly.
1775Catesby My good lords both, with all the heed I may.
1776Richard Shall we hear from you, Catesby, ere we sleep?
1777Catesby You shall my lord.
1778Richard At Crosby Place, there shall you find us both.
[Exit Catesby.]
1782William Lord Hastings will not yield to our complots?
1785And look when I am King, claim thou of me
1786The earldom of Hereford and the moveables
1787Whereof the King my brother stood possessed.
1788Buckingham I'll claim that promise at your grace's hands.
1789Richard And look to have it yielded with all willingness.
1790Come let us sup betimes, that afterwards
1791We may digest our complots in some form.
Enter a messenger to Lo[rd] Hastings.
1797Messenger A messenger from the Lord Stanley.
Enter L[ord] Hast[ings].
1798Hastings What's o'clock?
1799Messenger Upon the stroke of four.
1803Messenger So it should seem by that I have to say:
1804First he commends him to your noble lordship.
1805Hastings And then?
1806Messenger And then he sends you word
1807He dreamed tonight the boar had razed his helm.
1808Besides, he says there are two councils held,
1809And that may be determined at the one
1810Which may make you and him to rue at the other.
1811Therefore he sends to know your lordship's pleasure,
1812If presently you will take horse with him
1813And with all speed post into the north
1814To shun the danger that his soul divines.
1815Hastings Go fellow, go, return unto thy lord,
1816Bid him not fear the separated councils:
1817His honor and myself are at the one,
1818And at the other is my servant Catesby,
1819Where nothing can proceed that toucheth us
1820Whereof I shall not have intelligence.
1821Tell him his fears are shallow, wanting instance,
1822And for his dreams, I wonder he is so fond
1823To trust the mockery of unquiet slumbers;
1824To fly the boar before the boar pursues us
1825Were to incense the boar to follow us
1826And make pursuit where he did mean no chase.
1827Go bid thy master rise and come to me
1828And we will both together to the Tower
1829Where he shall see the boar will use us kindly.
1830Messenger My gracious lord, I'll tell him what you say.
Enter Cates[by].
1833Catesby Many good morrows to my noble lord.
1834Hastings Good morrow Catesby, you are early stirring;
1835What news, what news in this our tottering state?
1836Catesby It is a reeling world indeed, my lord,
1837And I believe it will never stand upright
1838Till Richard wear the garland of the realm.
1841Catesby Aye, my good lord.
1842Hastings I'll have this crown of mine cut from my shoulders
1843Ere I will see the crown so foul misplaced.
1844But canst thou guess that he doth aim at it?
1845Catesby Upon my life, my lord, and hopes to find you forward
1846Upon his party for the gain thereof,
1847And thereupon he sends you this good news,
1848That this same very day your enemies,
1849The kindred of the Queen, must die at Pomfret.
1850Hastings Indeed I am no mourner for that news
1851Because they have been still mine enemies;
1852But that I'll give my voice on Richard's side
1853To bar my master's heirs in true descent,
1854God knows I will not do it, to the death.
1857Hastings But I shall laugh at this a twelve-month hence
1858That they who brought me in my master's hate,
1859I live to look upon their tragedy.
1860I tell thee Catesby.
1860.1Catesby | |
What, my lord? | |
Hastings | |
Ere a fortnight make me elder |
1861I'll send some packing that yet think not on it.
1862Catesby 'Tis a vile thing to die my gracious lord
1863When men are unprepared and look not for it.
1864Hastings Oh, monstrous, monstrous, and so falls it out
1865With Rivers, Vaughan, Grey, and so 'twill do
1866With some men else, who think themselves as safe
1867As thou and I, who as thou knowest are dear
1868To princely Richard and to Buckingham.
1869Catesby The Princes both make high account of you,
1870[Aside] For they account his head upon the bridge.
1871Hastings I know they do, and I have well deserved it.
Enter Lord Stanley.
1873What my lord, where is your boar spear, man?
1874Fear you the boar and go so unprovided?
1875Stanley My lord, good morrow; good morrow Catesby.
1876You may jest on: but by the holy rood
1877I do not like these several councils, I.
1878Hastings My lord I hold my life as dear as you do yours,
1879And never in my life I do protest
1880Was it more precious to me than it is now.
1881Think you, but that I know our state secure,
1882I would be so triumphant as I am?
1883Stanley The lords at Pomfret when they rode from London
1884Were jocund, and supposed their states was sure,
1885And they indeed had no cause to mistrust,
1886But yet you see how soon the day overcast.
1887This sudden stab of rancor I misdoubt;
1888Pray God, I say, I prove a needless coward.
1889But come, my lord, shall we to the Tower?
1892This day those men you talked of are beheaded.
1893Stanley They for their truth might better wear their heads
1894Than some that have accused them wear their hats.
1895But come my lord, let us away.
Enter Hastin[gs], a pursuivant.
1897Hastings Go you before, I'll follow presently.
Ex[eun]t Lord Stanley and Catesby.
1899 Well met Hastings, how goes the world with thee?
1900Pursuivant The better that it please your lordship to ask.
1901Hastings I tell thee fellow, 'tis better with me now
1902Than when I met thee last where now we meet:
1903Then was I going prisoner to the Tower
1904By the suggestion of the Queen's allies,
1905But now I tell thee -- keep it to thyself --
1906This day those enemies are put to death
1907And I in better state than ever I was.
1908Pursuivant God hold it to your Honor's good content.
1909Hastings Gramercy Hastings -- hold, spend thou that.
He gives him his purse.
1911Pursuivant God save your lordship!
[Exit pursuivant.]
Enter a priest.
1915Hastings What Sir John, you are well met,
1916I am beholding to you for your last day's exercise;
1917Come the next Sabbath and I will content you.
He whispers in his ear.
Enter Buckingham.
1920Buckingham How now Lord Chamberlain, what, talking with a priest?
1921Your friends at Pomfret, they do need the priest;
1922Your honor hath no shriving work in hand.
1923Hastings Good faith, and when I met this holy man
1924Those men you talk of came into my mind.
1925What, go you to the Tower my lord?
1926Buckingham I do, but long I shall not stay;
1927I shall return before your lordship thence.
1928Hastings 'Tis like enough, for I stay dinner there.
1930Come shall we go along?
Enter Sir Richard Ratcliffe [and guards], with the lords Rivers, 1934Grey and Vaughan, prisoners.
1934.1Ratcliffe Come, bring forth the prisoners.
1935Rivers Sir Richard Ratcliffe, let me tell thee this:
1936To day shalt thou behold a subject die
1937For truth, for duty, and for loyalty.
1938Grey God keep the Prince from all the pack of you:
1939A knot you are of damnèd bloodsuckers.
1943Rivers O Pomfret, Pomfret, O thou bloody prison,
1944Fatal and ominous to noble peers.
1945Within the guilty closure of thy walls
1946Richard the Second here was hacked to death,
1947And for more slander to thy dismal soul
1948We give thee up our guiltless bloods to drink.
1949Grey Now Margaret's curse is fallen upon our heads
1951For standing by when Richard stabbed her son.
1954Then cursed she Richard. O remember, God,
1955To hear her prayers for them as now for us,
1956And for my sister and her princely son:
1957Be satisfied, dear God, with our true bloods,
1958Which as thou knowest unjustly must be spilled.
1942Ratcliffe Come, come, dispatch, the limit of your lives is out.
1960Rivers Come Grey, come Vaughan, let us all embrace 1961And take our leave until we meet in heaven.
Enter the lords to Council, [including Hastings, Buckingham, Stanley and the Bishop of Ely, at a table].
1967Hastings My lords, at once the cause why we are met
1968Is to determine of the coronation.
1969In God's name say, when is this royal day?
1970Buckingham Are all things fitting for that royal time?
1971Stanley It is, and wants but nomination.
1972Ely Tomorrow then I guess a happy time.
1973Buckingham Who knows the Lord Protector's mind herein?
1974Who is most inward with the noble Duke?
1977Buckingham Who I, my lord? We know each other's faces,
1978But for our hearts, he knows no more of mine
1979Than I of yours; nor I no more of his than you of mine.
1980Lord Hastings, you and he are near in love.
1981Hastings I thank his grace, I know he loves me well,
1982But for his purpose in the coronation,
1983I have not sounded him nor he delivered
1984His grace's pleasure any way therein:
1985But you my noble lords may name the time
1986And in the Duke's behalf I'll give my voice,
1987Which I presume he will take in gentle part.
1989Ely Now in good time, here comes the Duke himself.
Ent[er Richard].
1990Richard My noble lords and cousins all, good morrow,
1991I have been long a sleeper, but I hope
1992My absence doth neglect no great designs
1993Which by my presence might have been concluded.
1994Buckingham Had not you come upon your cue, my lord,
1995William Lord Hastings had now pronounced your part --
1996I mean, your voice for crowning of the King.
1997Richard Than my Lord Hastings no man might be bolder:
1998His lordship knows me well, and loves me well.
1998.1Hastings I thank your grace.
1999Richard My Lord of Ely.
Ely My lord?
Richard When I was last in Holborn
2000I saw good strawberries in your garden there.
2001I do beseech you, send for some of them.
2002Ely I go, my lord.
2004Richard Cousin Buckingham, a word with you.
[They move aside.]
2005Catesby hath sounded Hastings in our business
2006And finds the testy gentleman so hot,
2007As he will lose his head ere give consent
2008His master's son as, worshipful, he terms it,
2009Shall lose the royalty of England's throne.
2010Buckingham Withdraw you hence, my lord, I'll follow you.
Ex[eunt Richard and Buckingham].
2012Stanley We have not yet set down this day of triumph.
2013Tomorrow in mine opinion is too sudden
2014For I myself am not so well provided
Enter B[ishop] of Ely.
2015As else I would be were the day prolonged.
2019Hastings His grace looks cheerfully and smooth today;
2020There's some conceit or other likes him well
2021When he doth bid good morrow with such a spirit.
2022I think there is never a man in Christendom
2023That can lesser hide his love or hate than he,
2024For by his face straight shall you know his heart.
2025Stanley What of his heart perceive you in his face
2026By any likelihood he showed today?
2027Hastings Marry, that with no man here he is offended,
2028For if he were, he would have shown it in his looks.
2028.1Stanley I pray God he be not, I say.
Enter [Richard with Buckingham and Catesby].
2030Richard I pray you all, what do they deserve
2031That do conspire my death with devilish plots
2032Of damnèd witchcraft, and that have prevailed,
2033Upon my body with their hellish charms?
2034Hastings The tender love I bear your grace, my lord,
2035Makes me most forward in this noble presence
2036To doom the offenders, whatsoever they be.
2037I say my lord, they have deservèd death.
2038Richard Then be your eyes the witness of this ill:
2039See how I am bewitched: behold mine arm
2040Is like a blasted sapling withered up.
2041This is that Edward's wife, that monstrous witch,
2042Consorted with that harlot strumpet Shore,
2043That by their witchcraft thus have markèd me.
2044Hastings If they have done this thing, my gracious lord --
2045Richard If! Thou protector of this damnèd strumpet,
2046Tell'st thou me of ifs? Thou art a traitor.
2047Off with his head! Now by Saint Paul
2048I will not dine today, I swear,
2049Until I see the same. Some see it done,
2050The rest that love me, come and follow me.
2053Hastings Woe, woe for England, not a whit for me,
2054For I, too fond, might have prevented this.
2055Stanley did dream the boar did race his helm
2056But I disdained it and did scorn to fly.
2057Three times today my footcloth horse did stumble
2058And startled when he looked upon the Tower
2059As loath to bear me to the slaughterhouse.
2060Oh, now I want the priest that spake to me,
2061I now repent I told the pursuivant,
2062As 'twere triumphing at mine enemies,
2063How they at Pomfret bloodily were butchered,
2064And I myself secure in grace and favor.
2065O Margaret, Margaret, now thy heavy curse
2066Is lighted on poor Hastings' wretched head.
2067Catesby Dispatch, my lord, the Duke would be at dinner:
2068Make a short shrift, he longs to see your head.
2069Hastings O momentary state of worldly men
2070Which we more hunt for than the grace of heaven,
2071Who builds his hopes in air of your fair looks
2072Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast,
2073Ready with every nod to tumble down
2074Into the fatal bowels of the deep.
2079Come, lead me to the block, bear him my head,
2080They smile at me that shortly shall be dead.
The table is removed.
2086Murder thy breath in middle of a word,
2087And then begin again, and stop again,
2088As if thou wert distraught and mad with terror?
2089Buckingham Tut, fear not me.
I can counterfeit the deep tragedian,
2090Speak, and look back, and pry on every side
2092Intending deep suspicion; ghastly looks
2093Are at my service like enforcèd smiles,
2094And both are ready in their offices
2095To grace my stratagems.
Enter Mayor.
2097Richard Here comes the Mayor.
2103Buckingham The reason we have sent for you --
2102[Calling offstage.]Catesby, overlook the walls!
2101Buckingham Hark, I hear a drum!
2104Richard Look back, defend thee, here are enemies!
2105Buckingham God and our innocence defend us!
Enter Catesby with Hast[ings's] head.
2107Richard Oh, oh, be quiet, it is Catesby.
2108Catesby Here is the head of that ignoble traitor,
2109The dangerous and unsuspected Hastings.
[Gives the head to Richard.]
2110Richard So dear I loved the man that I must weep:
[He weeps.]
2111I took him for the plainest, harmless man
2112That breathed upon this earth a Christian,
2112.1Look ye, my Lord Mayor,
[Shows, or gives, the head to the Mayor.]
2113Made him my book wherein my soul recorded
2114The history of all her secret thoughts.
2115So smooth he daubed his vice with show of virtue
2116That, his apparent open guilt omitted --
2117I mean his conversation with Shore's wife --
2118He lived from all attainder of suspect.
2119Buckingham Well, well, he was the covertest sheltered traitor
Or almost believe, 2122wert not by great preservation
2123We live to tell it you, the subtle traitor
2124Had this day plotted, in the Council House
2125To murder me and my good Lord of Gloucester?
2126Mayor What, had he so?
2127Richard What? Think you we are Turks or Infidels,
2128Or that we would, against the form of law,
2129Proceed thus rashly to the villain's death
2130But that the extreme peril of the case,
2131The peace of England and our person's safety
2132Enforced us to this execution?
2133Mayor Now fair befall you, he deserved his death,
2134And you my good lords both have well proceeded
2135To warn false traitors from the like attempts.
2136I never looked for better at his hands
2137After he once fell in with Mistress Shore.
2138Buckingham Yet had not we determined he should die
2139Until your lordship came to see his death,
2140Which now the loving haste of these our friends,
2141Somewhat against our meaning, have prevented,
2142Because, my lord, we would have had you heard
2143The traitor speak, and timorously confess
2144The manner and the purpose of his treason,
2145That you might well have signified the same
2146Unto the citizens, who haply may
2147Misconster us in him, and wail his death.
2148Mayor But, my good lord, your grace's word shall serve
2149As well as I had seen or heard him speak,
2150And doubt you not, right noble Princes both,
2151But I'll acquaint your duteous citizens,
2152With all your just proceedings in this cause.
2153Richard And to that end we wished your lordship here
2154To avoid the carping censures of the world.
2155Buckingham But since you come too late of our intents,
Exit Mayor.
2159Richard After, after, cousin Buckingham,
2160The Mayor towards Guildhall hies him in all post.
2161There at your meet'st advantage of the time
2162Infer the bastardy of Edward's children.
2163Tell them how Edward put to death a citizen
2164Only for saying he would make his son
2165Heir to the Crown, meaning indeed his house
2166Which by the sign thereof was termèd so.
2167Moreover, urge his hateful luxury
2168And bestial appetite in change of lust
2169Which stretchèd to their servants, daughters, wives,
2170Even where his lustful eye or savage heart
2171Without control listed to make his prey;
2172Nay, for a need, thus far come near my person:
2173Tell them, when that my mother went with child
2174Of that insatiate Edward, noble York
2175My princely father then had wars in France,
2176And, by just computation of the time,
2177Found that the issue was not his begot,
2178Which well appearèd in his lineaments,
2179Being nothing like the noble Duke my father.
2180But touch this sparingly, as it were far off,
2181Because, you know, my lord, my mother lives.
2182Buckingham Fear not, my lord, I'll play the orator,
2183As if the golden fee for which I plead
2184Were for myself.
2185Richard If you thrive well, bring them to Baynard's Castle
2186Where you shall find me well accompanied
2187With reverend fathers and well-learned bishops.
2188Buckingham About three or four o'clock look to hear
2189What news Guildhall affordeth, and so my lord, farewell.
Exit Buc[kingham].
2194Richard Now will I in to take some privy order
2195To draw the brats of Clarence out of sight,
2196And to give notice that no manner of person
2197At any time have recourse unto the Princes.
[Exeunt Richard and Catesby.]
Enter a scrivener with a paper in his hand.
2199Scrivener This is the indictment of the good Lord Hastings,
2200Which in a set hand fairly is engrossed
2201That it may be this day read over in Paul's,
2202And mark how well the sequel hangs together:
2203Eleven hours I spent to write it over,
2204For yesternight by Catesby was it brought me.
2205The precedent was full as long adoing,
2206And yet within these five hours lived Lord Hastings
2207Untainted, unexamined, free, at liberty.
That sees not this palpable device?
2210Yet who's so bold but says he sees it not?
2211Bad is the world and all will come to naught
2212When such bad dealing must be seen in thought.
Enter [Richard] at one door, Buckingham at another.
2214Richard How now, my lord, what say the citizens?
2215Buckingham Now by the holy mother of our Lord,
2216The citizens are mum, and speak not a word.
2217Richard Touched you the bastardy of Edward's children?
2220Buckingham I did, with the insatiate greediness of his desires,
2222His tyranny for trifles, his own bastardy,
2223As being got, your father then in France;
2225Withal I did infer your lineaments,
2226Being the right idea of your father
2227Both in your form and nobleness of mind;
2228Laid open all your victories in Scotland,
2229Your discipline in war, wisdom in peace,
2230Your bounty, virtue, fair humility;
2231Indeed left nothing fitting for the purpose
2232Untouched, or slightly handled in discourse.
2233And when mine oratory grew to an end
2234I bid them that did love their country's good
2235Cry, "God save Richard, England's royal King!"
2236Richard Ah, and did they so?
2237Buckingham No, so God help me,
2238But like dumb statues or breathing stones
2239Gazed each on other and looked deadly pale,
2240Which, when I saw, I reprehended them,
2241And asked the Mayor what meant this wilful silence.
2242His answer was, the people were not wont
2243To be spoke to but by the Recorder.
2244Then he was urged to tell my tale again.
2245"Thus saith the Duke, thus hath the Duke inferred,"
2246But nothing spake in warrant from himself.
2247When he had done, some followers of mine own
2248At the lower end of the hall hurled up their caps
2249And some ten voices cried, "God save King Richard."
2251"Thanks loving citizens and friends," quoth I.
2252"This general applause and loving shout
2253Argues your wisdoms and your love to Richard,"
2254And so broke off and came away.
2256.1Buckingham No, by my troth, my lord.
2257Richard Will not the Mayor then and his brethren come?
2258Buckingham The Mayor is here at hand, intend some fear,
2259Be not spoken withal but with mighty suit,
2260And look you get a prayer book in your hand,
2261And stand betwixt two churchmen, good my lord,
2262For on that ground I'll build a holy descant.
2263Be not easily won to our request,
2264Play the maid's part: say no, but take it.
2265Richard Fear not me, if thou canst plead as well for them
2266As I can say nay to thee for myself,
2267No doubt we'll bring it to a happy issue.
2268Buckingham You shall see what I can do, get you up to the leads.
Exit [Richard.]
[Enter the Mayor and citizens].
Enter Catesby.
2273Here comes his servant. How now, Catesby, what says he?
2275Catesby My lord, he doth entreat your grace
2276To visit him tomorrow or next day.
2277He is within with two right reverend fathers
2278Divinely bent to meditation
2279And in no worldly suit would he be moved
2280To draw him from his holy exercise.
2281Buckingham Return, good Catesby, to thy lord again,
2282Tell him myself, the Mayor and citizens
2283In deep designs and matters of great moment
2284No less importing than our general good
2285Are come to have some conference with his grace.
2286Catesby I'll tell him what you say, my lord.
2287Buckingham Aha, my lord, this Prince is not an Edward;
2288He is not lulling on a lewd day bed
2289But on his knees at meditation;
2290Not dallying with a brace of courtesans
2291But meditating with two deep divines;
2292Not sleeping to engross his idle body
2293But praying to enrich his watchful soul.
2294Happy were England would this gracious Prince
2295Take on himself the sovereignty thereon,
2296But sure, I fear, we shall never win him to it.
2299Buckingham I fear he will -- How now Catesby,
Enter Cates[by].
2301What says your lord?
2302Catesby My lord, he wonders to what end you have assembled
2303Such troops of citizens to speak with him,
2304His grace not being warned thereof before.
2305My lord, he fears you mean no good to him.
2306Buckingham Sorry I am my noble cousin should
2307Suspect me that I mean no good to him.
Exit Catesby.
2310[To the Mayor.] When holy and devout religious men
2311Are at their beads, 'tis hard to draw them thence,
2312So sweet is zealous contemplation.
Enter Rich[ard] with two bishops, alo[f]t.
2316Buckingham Two props of virtue for a Christian prince
2317To stay him from the fall of vanity.
2320Famous Plantagenet, most gracious Prince,
2321Lend favorable ears to our request
2322And pardon us the interruption
2323Of thy devotion and right Christian zeal.
[Re-enter Catesby.]
2324Richard My lord, there needs no such apology.
2325I rather do beseech you pardon me
2326Who, earnest in the service of my God,
2327Neglect the visitation of my friends.
2328But leaving this, what is your grace's pleasure?
2329Buckingham Even that I hope which pleaseth God above
2330And all good men of this ungoverned isle.
2331Richard I do suspect I have done some offense
2332That seems disgracious in the city's eyes
2333And that you come to reprehend my ignorance.
2336At our entreaties to amend that fault.
2337Richard Else wherefore breathe I in a Christian land?
2338Buckingham Then know it is your fault that you resign
2339The supreme seat, the throne majestical,
2340The sceptered office of your ancestors,
2342The lineal glory of your royal House
2343To the corruption of a blemished stock,
2344Whilst in the mildness of your sleepy thoughts,
2345Which here we waken to our country's good,
2346This noble isle doth want her proper limbs,
2347Her face defaced with scars of infamy,
2349And almost shouldered in the swallowing gulf
2350Of blind forgetfulness and dark oblivion,
2351Which to recure, we heartily solicit
2352Your gracious self to take on you the sovereignty thereof,
2354Not as protector, steward, substitute,
2355Or lowly factor for another's gain,
2356But as successively from blood to blood,
2357Your right of birth, your empery, your own.
2358For this, consorted with the citizens,
2359Your very worshipful and loving friends,
2360And by their vehement instigation,
2361In this just suit come I to move your grace.
2362Richard I know not, whether to depart in silence
2363Or bitterly to speak in your reproof
2364Best fitteth my degree or your condition.
2375Your love deserves my thanks, but my desert
2376Unmeritable shuns your high request.
2377First, if all obstacles were cut away,
2378And that my path were even to the crown
2379As my ripe revenue and due by birth,
2380Yet so much is my poverty of spirit,
2381So mighty and so many my defects,
2382As I had rather hide me from my greatness,
2383Being a bark to brook no mighty sea,
2384Than in my greatness covet to be hid,
2385And in the vapor of my glory smothered:
2386But God be thankèd there's no need of me,
2387And much I need to help you if need were;
2388The royal tree hath left us royal fruit
2389Which, mellowed by the stealing hours of time,
2390Will well become the seat of majesty
2391And make, no doubt, us happy by his reign;
2392On him I lay what you would lay on me:
2393The right and fortune of his happy stars,
2394Which God defend that I should wring from him.
2395Buckingham My lord, this argues conscience in your grace,
2396But the respects thereof are nice and trivial,
2397All circumstances well considerèd:
2398You say that Edward is your brother's son;
2399So say we too, but not by Edward's wife,
2400For first he was contract to Lady Lucy --
2401Your mother lives a witness to that vow --
2402And afterward by substitute betrothed
2403To Bona, sister to the King of France.
2404These both put by, a poor petitioner,
2405A care-crazed mother of a many children,
2406A beauty-waning and distressèd widow,
2407Even in the afternoon of her best days
2408Made prise and purchase of his lustful eye,
2409Seduced the pitch and height of all his thoughts
2410To base declension and loathed bigamy:
2411By her in his unlawful bed he got
2412This Edward, whom our manners term the Prince.
2413More bitterly could I expostulate,
2414Save that for reverence to some alive
2415I give a sparing limit to my tongue.
2416Then good my lord, take to your royal self
2417This proffered benefit of dignity,
2418If not to bless us and the land withal,
2419Yet to draw out your royal stock
2420From the corruption of abusing time
2421Unto a lineal, true-derivèd course.
2422Mayor Do, good my lord, your citizens entreat you.
2424Catesby Oh, make them joyful, grant their lawful suit.
2425Richard Alas, why would you heap these cares on me?
2426I am unfit for state and dignity;
2427I do beseech you take it not amiss,
2428I cannot nor I will not yield to you.
2429Buckingham If you refuse it, as in love and zeal
2430Loath to depose the child, your brother's son,
2431As well we know your tenderness of heart
2432And gentle, kind, effeminate remorse,
2433Which we have noted in you, to your kin
2434And equally indeed to all estates,
2435Yet whether you accept our suit or no,
2436Your brother's son shall never reign our king
2437But we will plant some other in the throne
2438To the disgrace and downfall of your House,
2439And in this resolution here we leave you.
2440Come citizens. Zounds! I'll entreat no more.
[They start to leave.]
2440.1Richard Oh, do not swear, my Lord of Buckingham.
2441Catesby Call them again, my lord, and accept their suit.
2442Another citizen Do, good my lord, lest all the land do rue it.
2443Richard Would you enforce me to a world of care?
2444Well, call them again, | |
[Exit Catesby.] | |
I am not made of stones |
2445But penetrable to your kind entreats,
2446Albeit against my conscience and my soul.
[Re-enter Buckingham, Mayor, Catesby and citizens.]
2448Cousin of Buckingham, and you sage, grave men,
2449Since you will buckle fortune on my back
2450To bear her burden whether I will or no,
2451I must have patience to endure the load,
2452But if black scandal or foul-faced reproach
2453Attend the sequel of your imposition,
2454Your mere enforcement shall acquittance me
2455From all the impure blots and stains thereof,
2456For God he knows, and you may partly see,
2457How far I am from the desire thereof.
2460Richard In saying so, you shall but say the truth.
2461Buckingham Then I salute you with this kingly title:
2462Long live Richard, England's royal King!
2463Mayor Amen.
2464Buckingham Tomorrow will it please you to be crowned?
2465Richard Even when you will, since you will have it so.
2466Buckingham Tomorrow then we will attend your grace.
2468Richard Come, let us to our holy task again --
2469Farewell good cousin, farewell gentle friends.
Enter [Elizabeth the ]Queen Mother, Duchess of York, Marquess Dorset, at one door, [Anne] Duchess of Gloucest[er] at another door.
2481Queen Elizabeth Sister well met; whither away so fast?
2482Duchess No farther than the Tower, and as I guess
2483Upon the like devotion as yourselves:
2484To gratulate the tender princes there.
2485Queen Elizabeth Kind sister thanks, we'll enter all together,
Enter [Brakenbury,] Lieutenant [of the Tower].
2487And in good time, here the Lieutenant comes.
2488Master Lieutenant, pray you by your leave,
2489How fares the Prince?
2490Brakenbury Well, madam, and in health, but by your leave
2491I may not suffer you to visit him.
2492The King hath straitly charged the contrary.
2493Queen Elizabeth The King? Why, who's that?
2494Brakenbury I cry you mercy, I mean the Lord Protector.
2495Queen Elizabeth The Lord protect him from that kingly title.
2496Hath he set bounds betwixt their love and me?
2497I am their mother, who should keep me from them?
2500Anne Their aunt I am in law, in love their mother;
2501Then fear not thou, I'll bear thy blame
2502And take thy office from thee on my peril.
2503Brakenbury I do beseech your graces all to pardon me:
2504I am bound by oath, I may not do it.
Enter L[ord] Stanley.
2507Stanley Let me but meet you ladies an hour hence,
2508And I'll salute your grace of York as mother
2509And reverent looker-on of two fair queens.
2510Come, madam, you must go with me to Westminster,
2511There to be crownèd Richard's royal queen.
2512Queen Elizabeth Oh, cut my lace asunder, that my pent heart
2513May have some scope to beat, or else I swoon
2514With this dead-killing news.
2518Queen Elizabeth Oh, Dorset, speak not to me, get thee hence;
2519Death and destruction dog thee at the heels.
2520Thy mother's name is ominous to children.
2521If thou wilt outstrip death, go cross the seas
2522And live with Richmond, from the reach of hell --
2523Go, hie thee, hie thee from this slaughter house
2524Lest thou increase the number of the dead
2525And make me die the thrall of Margaret's curse,
2526Nor mother, wife, nor England's counted queen.
2527Stanley Full of wise care is this your counsel, madam --
2528[To Dorset] Take all the swift advantage of the time;
2529You shall have letters from me to my son
2530To meet you on the way and welcome you.
2531Be not ta'en tardy by unwise delay.
2532Duchess O ill-dispersing wind of misery,
2533O my accursèd womb, the bed of death:
2534A cockatrice hast thou hatch to the world
2535Whose unavoided eye is murderous.
2537Anne And I in all unwillingness will go.
2538I would to God that the inclusive verge
2539Of golden metal that must round my brow
2540Were red-hot steel, to sear me to the brain;
2541Annointed let me be with deadly poison
2542And die ere men can say, "God save the Queen."
2543Queen Elizabeth Alas, poor soul, I envy not thy glory;
2544To feed my humor, wish thyself no harm.
2545Anne No. When he that is my husband now
2546Came to me, as I followed Henry's corse,
2547When scarce the blood was well washed from his hands
2548Which issued from my other angel-husband
2549And that dead saint which then I weeping followed,
2550O when, I say, I looked on Richard's face,
2551This was my wish, "Be thou" quoth I, "accursed,
2552For making me, so young, so old a widow;
2553And when thou wed'st, let sorrow haunt thy bed,
2554And be thy wife, if any be so, made
2555As miserable by the death of thee
2556As thou hast made me by my dear lord's death."
2557Lo, ere I can repeat this curse again,
2558Even in so short a space my woman's heart
2559Grossly grew captive to his honey words
2560And proved the subject of my own soul's curse,
2561Which ever since hath kept my eyes from sleep,
2562For never yet one hour in his bed
2563Have I enjoyed the golden dew of sleep,
2564But have been wakèd by his timorous dreams.
2565Besides, he hates me for my father Warwick,
2566And will, no doubt, shortly be rid of me.
2567Queen Elizabeth Alas poor soul, I pity thy complaints.
2574[To Anne] Go thou to Richard, and good angels guard thee;
2575[To Elizabeth] Go thou to sanctuary, good thoughts possess thee;
2576I to my grave where peace and rest lie with me.
2577Eighty-odd years of sorrow have I seen,
2578And each hour's joy wracked with a week of teen.
[A throne is set forth.] The trumpets sound. Enter Richard crowned, 2589Buckingham, Catesby, with other nobles [and a page boy].
2590King Richard Stand all apart!
[The courtiers stand back.] Cousin of Buckingham,
2592Give me thy hand:
Here he ascends the throne[, assisted by Buckingham].
2593Thus high by thy advice
And thy assistance 2594is King Richard seated;
2595But shall we wear these honors for a day?
2596Or shall they last, and we rejoice in them?
2597Buckingham Still live they, and for ever may they last.
2598King Richard Oh, Buckingham, now do I play the touch
2599To try if thou be current gold indeed:
2600Young Edward lives -- think now what I would say.
2601Buckingham Say on, my gracious sovereign.
2602King Richard Why, Buckingham, I say I would be king.
2603Buckingham Why so you are, my thrice renownèd liege.
2604King Richard Ha! Am I king? 'Tis so, but Edward lives.
2605Buckingham True, noble Prince.
2606King Richard Oh, bitter consequence
2607That Edward still should live true noble prince. . .
2608Cousin, thou wert not wont to be so dull:
2609Shall I be plain? I wish the bastards dead
2610And I would have it suddenly performed.
2611What say'st thou? Speak suddenly, be brief.
2612Buckingham Your grace may do your pleasure.
2613King Richard Tut, tut, thou art all ice, thy kindness freezeth;
2614Say, have I thy consent that they shall die?
2615Buckingham Give me some breath, some little pause, my lord
2620And unrespective boys, none are for me
2621That look into me with considerate eyes.
[A page approaches the throne.]
2622[Aside] High reaching Buckingham grows circumspect.
2624Boy My lord.
2625King Richard Know'st thou not any whom corrupting gold
2626Would tempt unto a close exploit of death?
2627Boy My lord, I know a discontented gentleman
2628Whose humble means match not his haughty mind;
2629Gold were as good as twenty orators
2630And will no doubt tempt him to anything.
2631King Richard What is his name?
2632Boy His name, my lord, is Tyrrel.
2633King Richard Go call him hither presently.
[Exit boy.]
2635The deep-revolving, witty Buckingham
2636No more shall be the neighbor to my counsel.
2637Hath he so long held out with me untired
2638And stops he now for breath?
Enter Stanley.
2640How now, what news with you?
2641Stanley My lord, I hear the Marquess Dorset
2642Is fled to Richmond, in those parts beyond the seas where he
[Richard dismisses Stanley, who retreats.]
2644King Richard Catesby.
Catesby [Approaching King Richard.] My lord.
King Richard Rumor it abroad
2645That Anne my wife is sick and like to die;
2646I will take order for her keeping close.
2647Enquire me out some mean-born gentleman
2648Whom I will marry straight to Clarence' daughter;
2649The boy is foolish, and I fear not him:
2650Look how thou dream'st! I say again, give out
2651That Anne my wife is sick and like to die.
2652About it,
[Exit Catesby.]
for it stands me much upon
2653To stop all hopes whose growth may damage me.
2654I must be married to my brother's daughter
2655Or else my kingdom stands on brittle glass.
2656Murder her brothers, and then marry her. . .
2657Uncertain way of gain, but I am in
Enter Tyrrel. [King Richard beckons him.]
2661Is thy name Tyrrel?
2662Tyrrel James Tyrrel, and your most obedient subject.
2663King Richard Art thou indeed?
2664Tyrrel Prove me my gracious sovereign.
2665King Richard Dar'st thou resolve to kill a friend of mine?
2668King Richard Why, there thou hast it, two deep enemies,
2669Foes to my rest, and my sweet sleep's disturbers
2670Are they that I would have thee deal upon:
2671Tyrrel, I mean those bastards in the Tower.
2672Tyrrel Let me have open means to come to them
2673And soon I'll rid you from the fear of them.
[Tyrrel moves closer to King Richard and kneels; Richard gives him a token.] 2676Go by that token; rise and lend thine ear --
[Tyrrel stands; Richard] whispers in his ear.
2677'Tis no more but so, say is it done
2678And I will love thee and prefer thee too.
2679Tyrrel | |
'Tis done, my gracious lord. | |
2679.1 King Richard Shall we hear from thee, Tyrrel, ere we sleep?
Tyrrel Ye shall, my lord.
Enter Buc[kingham. He approaches King Richard].
2681Buckingham My lord, I have considered in my mind
2682The late demand that you did sound me in.
2683King Richard Well, let that pass. Dorset is fled to Richmond.
2684Buckingham I hear that news, my lord.
2687Buckingham My lord, I claim your gift, my due by promise
2688For which your honor and your faith is pawned:
2689The Earldom of Hereford and the moveables
2690The which you promisèd I should possess.
2691King Richard Stanley, look to your wife; if she convey
2692Letters to Richmond you shall answer it.
2693Buckingham What says your highness to my just demand?
2694King Richard As I remember, Henry the Sixth
2695Did prophesy that Richmond should be king
2696When Richmond was a little peevish boy:
2697A king perhaps, perhaps.
Buckingham My lord.
2697.1King Richard How chance the prophet could not at that time
2697.2Have told me, I being by, that I should kill him.
2697.3Buckingham My lord, your promise for the Earldom.
2697.4King Richard Richmond. When last I was at Exeter
.5The Mayor in courtesy showed me the Castle
2697.6And called it Rouge-mount, at which name I started,
2697.7Because a bard of Ireland told me once
2697.8I should not live long after I saw Richmond.
2697.9Buckingham My lord.
.10King Richard Aye, what's o'clock?
2697.11Buckingham I am thus bold to put your grace in mind
2697.12Of what you promised me.
2697.13King Richard Well, but what's o'clock?
2697.14Buckingham Upon the stroke of ten.
.15King Richard Well, let it strike.
2697.16Buckingham Why let it strike?
2697.17King Richard Because that like a Jack thou keep'st the stroke
2697.18Betwixt thy begging and my meditation.
2697.19I am not in the giving vein today.
2698Buckingham Why then, resolve me whether you will or no!
2699King Richard Tut, tut, thou troublest me, I am not in the vein.
Exit[. All follow except Buckingham].
2700Buckingham Is it even so, reward'st he my true service
2701With such deep contempt, made I him King for this?
Enter Tyrrel.
2705Tyrrel The tyrannous and bloody deed is done,
2706The most arch-act of piteous massacre
2707That ever yet this land was guilty of.
2708Dighton and Forrest whom I did suborn
2709To do this ruthless piece of butchery --
2710Although they were fleshed villains, bloody dogs --
2711Melting with tenderness and kind compassion
2712Wept like two children in their deaths' sad stories:
2713"Lo, thus," quoth Dighton, "lay those tender babes."
2714"Thus, thus," quoth Forrest, "girdling one another
2715Within their innocent alabaster arms;
2716Their lips were four red roses on a stalk
2717Which in their summer beauty kissed each other;
2718A book of prayers on their pillow lay
2719Which once," quoth Forrest, "almost changed my mind,
2720But oh, the devil -- " There the villain stopped
2721Whilst Dighton thus told on: "We smotherèd
2722The most replenishèd sweet work of Nature,
2723That from the prime creation ever she framed."
2724Thus both are gone with conscience and remorse;
2725They could not speak and so I left them both
2726To bring this tidings to the bloody king.
Enter Ki[ng] Richard.
2728And here he comes: All hail, my sovereign liege.
2729King Richard Kind Tyrrel, am I happy in thy news?
2730Tyrrel If to have done the thing you gave in charge
2731Beget your happiness, be happy then
2732For it is done, my lord.
2733King Richard But didst thou see them dead?
2734Tyrrel I did, my lord.
2735King Richard And buried, gentle Tyrrel?
2736Tyrrel The chaplain of the Tower hath buried them,
2737But how or in what place I do not know.
2738King Richard Come to me Tyrrel soon, at after-supper
2739And thou shalt tell the process of their death.
2740Meantime, but think how I may do thee good
2741And be inheritor of thy desire.
2742Farewell till soon.
Exit Tyrrel.
2744The son of Clarence have I pent up close,
2745His daughter meanly have I matched in marriage,
2746The sons of Edward sleep in Abraham's bosom,
2747And Anne my wife hath bid the world goodnight.
2748Now for I know the Breton Richmond aims
2749At young Elizabeth, my brother's daughter,
Enter Catesby.
2753Catesby My lord.
2756Catesby Bad news my lord, Ely is fled to Richmond,
2757And Buckingham backed with the hardy Welshmen
2758Is in the field, and still his power increaseth.
2759King Richard Ely with Richmond troubles me more near
2760Than Buckingham and his rash-levied army.
2761Come, I have heard that fearful commenting
2762Is leaden servitor to dull delay;
2763Delay leads impotent and snail-paced beggary.
2764Then fiery expedition be my wing,
2765Jove's Mercury and herald for a king:
[The throne is taken away.]
Enter Queen Margaret [alone].
2771Queen Margaret So, now prosperity begins to mellow
2772And drop into the rotten mouth of death;
2773Here in these confines slyly have I lurked
2774To watch the waning of mine adversaries;
2775A dire induction am I witness to,
2776And will to France, hoping the consequence
2777Will prove as bitter, black and tragical.
2778Withdraw thee, wretched Margaret, who comes here?
Enter [Queen Elizabeth] and the Duchess of York.
2780Queen Elizabeth Ah, my young princes, ah, my tender babes!
2781My unblown flowers, new-appearing sweets,
2782If yet your gentle souls fly in the air
2783And be not fixed in doom perpetual,
2784Hover about me with your airy wings,
2785And hear your mother's lamentation.
2787Hath dimmed your infant morn to aged night.
2793Queen Elizabeth Wilt thou, O God, fly from such gentle lambs
2794And throw them in the entrails of the wolf?
2795When didst thou sleep when such a deed was done?
2797Duchess Blind sight, dead life, poor mortal living ghost,
2798Woe's scene, world's shame, grave's due by life usurped,
2800Rest thy unrest on England's lawful earth
2801Unlawfully made drunk with innocents' blood.
2802Queen Elizabeth O that thou wouldst as well afford a grave
2803As thou canst yield a melancholy seat, [Sitting on the ground]
2804Then would I hide my bones, not rest them here.
2805Oh, who hath any cause to mourn but I!
2788Duchess So many miseries have crazed my voice
2789That my woe-wearied tongue is mute and dumb. [Sitting on the ground]
2790Edward Plantagenet, why art thou dead?
2807Give mine the benefit of seniory,
2808And let my woes frown on the upper hand;
2809If sorrow can admit society,
2809.1Tell over your woes again by viewing mine:
2810I had an Edward, till a Richard killed him:
2811I had a Harry, till a Richard killed him:
2812Thou had'st an Edward, till a Richard killed him:
2813Thou had'st a Richard, till a Richard killed him.
2814Duchess I had a Richard too, and thou didst kill him;
2815I had a Rutland too, thou holp'st to kill him.
2818From forth the kennel of thy womb hath crept
2819A hell-hound that doth hunt us all to death:
2820That dog, that had his teeth before his eyes
2821To worry lambs and lap their gentle bloods:
2822That foul defacer of God's handiwork
2825Thy womb let loose, to chase us to our graves.
2826O upright, just, and true-disposing God,
2827How do I thank thee that this carnal cur
2828Preys on the issue of his mother's body
2829And makes her pew-fellow with others' moan!
2830Duchess Oh, Harry's wife, triumph not in my woes,
2831God witness with me, I have wept for thine.
2832Queen Margaret Bear with me, I am hungry for revenge
2833And now I cloy me with beholding it.
2834Thy Edward, he is dead, that stabbed my Edward,
2835Thy other Edward dead, to quit my Edward;
2836Young York, he is but boot because both they
2837Match not the high perfection of my loss;
2838Thy Clarence, he is dead, that killed my Edward,
2839And the beholders of this tragic play,
2840The adulterate Hastings, Rivers, Vaughan, Grey,
2841Untimely smothered in their dusky graves.
2842Richard yet lives, hell's black intelligencer,
2843Only reserved their factor to buy souls
2844And send them thither: but at hand, at hand
2845Ensues his piteous, and unpitied end;
2846Earth gapes, hell burns, fiends roar, saints pray
2847To have him suddenly conveyed away.
2848Cancel his bond of life, dear God I pray,
2849That I may live to say, "The dog is dead."
2850Queen Elizabeth Oh, thou didst prophesy the time would come
2851That I should wish for thee to help me curse
2852That bottled spider, that foul bunch-backed toad.
2853Queen Margaret I called thee then vain flourish of my fortune,
2854I called thee then poor shadow, painted queen,
2855The presentation of but what I was,
2856The flattering index of a direful pageant,
2857One heaved a high, to be hurled down below,
2858A mother only mocked with two sweet babes,
2859A dream of which thou wert, a breath, a bubble,
2861A sign of dignity, a garish flag
2860To be the aim of every dangerous shot,
2862A queen in jest, only to fill the scene.
2863Where is thy husband now? Where be thy brothers?
2864Where are thy children? Wherein dost thou joy?
2865Who sues to thee and cries, "God save the Queen?"
2866Where be the bending peers that flattered thee?
2867Where be the thronging troops that followed thee?
2868Decline all this, and see what now thou art,
2869For happy wife, a most distressèd widow,
2870For joyful mother, one that wails the name,
2872For queen, a very caitiff crowned with care,
2871For one being sued to, one that humbly sues,
2875For one commanding all, obeyed of none,
2873For one that scorned at me, now scorned of me;
2876Thus hath the course of justice wheeled about
2877And left thee but a very prey to time,
2878Having no more but thought of what thou wert
2879To torture thee the more, being what thou art.
2880Thou didst usurp my place, and dost thou not
2881Usurp the just proportion of my sorrow?
2882Now thy proud neck bears half my burdened yoke,
2883From which, even here, I slip my weary neck
2884And leave the burden of it all on thee.
2885Farewell, York's wife and queen of sad mischance,
2886These English woes will make me smile in France.
2887Queen Elizabeth Oh, thou well skilled in curses, stay a while
2888And teach me how to curse mine enemies.
2889Queen Margaret Forbear to sleep the nights, and fast the days,
2890Compare dead happiness with living woe,
2891Think that thy babes were fairer than they were,
2892And he that slew them fouler than he is;
2893Bett'ring thy loss makes the bad causer worse,
2894Revolving this will teach thee how to curse.
2895Queen Elizabeth My words are dull, oh, quicken them with thine.
Exit Mar[garet].
2898Duchess Why should calamity be full of words?
2899Queen Elizabeth Windy attorneys to your client woes
2900Airy succeeders of intestate joys,
2901Poor breathing orators of miseries,
2902Let them have scope; though what they do impart
2903Help not at all, yet do they ease the heart.
2904Duchess If so, then be not tongue-tied, go with me,
2905And in the breath of bitter words let's smother
2906My damnèd son, which thy two sweet sons smothered --
[Offstage drumming is heard.]
2907I hear his drum, be copious in exclaims.
Enter K[ing] Richard [with attendants, including Catesby,] marching with drums and trumpets.
2909King Richard Who intercepts my expedition?
2910Duchess A she, that might have intercepted thee
2911By strangling thee in her accursèd womb
2912From all the slaughters, wretch, that thou hast done.
2913Queen Elizabeth Hid'st thou that forehead with a golden crown
2914Where should be graven, if that right were right,
2915The slaughter of the Prince that owned that Crown,
2916And the dire death of my two sons and brothers;
2917Tell me, thou villain slave, where are my children?
2920And little Ned Plantagenet, his son?
2921Queen Elizabeth Where is kind Hastings, Rivers, Vaughan, Gray?
2923King Richard A flourish, trumpets! strike alarum, drums!
2924Let not the heavens hear these tell-tale women
2925Rail on the Lord's anointed. Strike, I say!
The trumpets [and drums sound].
2927Either be patient and entreat me fair,
2928Or with the clamorous report of war
2929Thus will I drown your exclamations.
2930Duchess Art thou my son?
2931King Richard Aye, I thank God, my father and yourself.
2932Duchess Then patiently hear my impatience.
2933King Richard Madam, I have a touch of your condition,
2934Which cannot brook the accent of reproof.
2937Duchess I will be mild and gentle in my speech.
2938King Richard And brief, good mother, for I am in haste.
2939Duchess Art thou so hasty? I have stayed for thee,
2940God knows, in anguish, pain and agony.
2941King Richard And came I not at last to comfort you?
2942Duchess No, by the holy rood, thou know'st it well:
2943Thou cam'st on earth to make the earth my hell;
2944A grievous burden was thy birth to me,
2945Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy,
2946Thy school-days frightful, desperate, wild and furious,
2947Thy prime of manhood daring, bold and venturous,
2948Thy age confirmed, proud, subtle, bloody, treacherous;
2950What comfortable hour canst thou name
2951That ever graced me in thy company?
2954To breakfast once, forth of my company.
2955If I be so disgracious in your sight,
2956Let me march on, and not offend your grace.
2958Duchess Oh hear me speak, for I shall never see thee more.
2959King Richard Come, come, you are too bitter.
2963Duchess Either thou wilt die by God's just ordinance
2964Ere from this war thou turn a conqueror,
2965Or I with grief and extreme age shall perish
2966And never look upon thy face again.
2967Therefore take with thee my most heavy curse
2968Which in the day of battle tire thee more
2969Than all the complete armor that thou wear'st;
2970My prayers on the adverse party fight,
2971And there the little souls of Edward's children
2972Whisper the spirits of thine enemies
2973And promise them success and victory.
2976Queen Elizabeth Though far more cause, yet much less spirit to curse
2977Abides in me, I say "Amen" to all.
2978King Richard Stay, madam, I must speak a word with you.
2979Queen Elizabeth I have no more sons of the royal blood
2980For thee to murder. For my daughters, Richard,
2981They shall be praying nuns, not weeping queens,
2982And therefore level not to hit their lives.
2983King Richard You have a daughter called Elizabeth,
2984Virtuous and fair, royal and gracious.
2985Queen Elizabeth And must she die for this? Oh, let her live
2986And I'll corrupt her manners, stain her beauty,
2987Slander myself as false to Edward's bed,
2988Throw over her the veil of infamy.
2989So she may live unscarred from bleeding slaughter
2990I will confess she was not Edward's daughter.
2991King Richard Wrong not her birth, she is of royal blood.
2992Queen Elizabeth To save her life, I'll say she is not so.
2993King Richard Her life is only safest in her birth.
2994Queen Elizabeth And only in that safety died her brothers.
2995King Richard Lo, at their births good stars were opposite.
2996Queen Elizabeth No, to their lives bad friends were contrary.
2997King Richard All unavoided is the doom of destiny.
2998Queen Elizabeth True, when avoided grace makes destiny;
2999My babes were destined to a fairer death
3000If grace had blessed thee with a fairer life.
3017As I intend more good to you and yours
3018Than ever you or yours were by me wronged.
3019Queen Elizabeth What good is covered with the face of heaven
3020To be discovered that can do me good?
3021King Richard The advancement of your children, mighty lady.
3022Queen Elizabeth Up to some scaffold, there to lose their heads.
3023King Richard No, to the dignity and height of honor,
3024The high imperial tipe of this earth's glory.
3025Queen Elizabeth Flatter my sorrows with report of it:
3026Tell me, what state, what dignity, what honor
3027Canst thou demise to any child of mine?
3028King Richard Even all I have, yea, and myself and all
3029Will I withal endow a child of thine,
3030So in the Lethe of thy angry soul
3031Thou drown the sad remembrance of those wrongs
3032Which thou supposest I have done to thee.
3033Queen Elizabeth Be brief, lest that the process of thy kindness
3034Last longer telling than thy kindness do.
3037Queen Elizabeth My daughter's mother thinks it with her soul.
3038King Richard What do you think?
3039Queen Elizabeth That thou dost love my daughter from thy soul;
3040So from thy soul's love didst thou love her brothers,
3041And from my heart's love I do thank thee for it.
3042King Richard Be not so hasty to confound my meaning;
3043I mean that with my soul I love thy daughter
3044And mean to make her Queen of England.
3045Queen Elizabeth Say then, who dost thou mean shall be her King?
3048Queen Elizabeth What, thou?
3049King Richard Aye, even I; what think you of it, madam?
3050Queen Elizabeth How canst thou woo her?
3051King Richard That would I learn of you,
3052As one that are best acquainted with her humor.
3053Queen Elizabeth And wilt thou learn of me?
3054King Richard Madam, with all my heart.
3055Queen Elizabeth Send to her, by the man that slew her brothers,
3056A pair of bleeding hearts; thereon engrave
3057"Edward" and "York"; then haply she will weep.
3058Therefore present to her as sometimes Margaret
3059Did to thy father, a handkercher steeped in Rutland's blood
3062And bid her dry her weeping eyes therewith;
3063If this inducement force her not to love,
3064Send her a story of thy noble acts:
3065Tell her thou mad'st away her uncle Clarence,
3066Her uncle Rivers, yea, and for her sake
3067Mad'st quick conveyance with her good aunt Anne.
3068King Richard Come, come, you mock me, this is not the way
3069To win your daughter.
3070Queen Elizabeth There is no other way
3071Unless thou couldst put on some other shape
3072And not be Richard that hath done all this.
3128King Richard Infer fair England's peace by this alliance.
3129Queen Elizabeth Which she shall purchase with still-lasting war.
3130King Richard Say that the King, which may command, entreats.
3131Queen Elizabeth That, at her hands, which the King's King forbids.
3132King Richard Say she shall be a high and mighty Queen.
3133Queen Elizabeth To wail the title, as her mother doth.
3134King Richard Say I will love her everlastingly.
3135Queen Elizabeth But how long shall that title, "ever", last?
3136King Richard Sweetly in force unto her fair life's end.
3137Queen Elizabeth But how long fairly shall her sweet life last?
3138King Richard So long as heaven and nature lengthens it.
3139Queen Elizabeth So long as hell and Richard likes of it.
3140King Richard Say I, her sovereign, am her subject love.
3141Queen Elizabeth But she, your subject, loathes such sovereignty.
3142King Richard Be eloquent in my behalf to her.
3143Queen Elizabeth An honest tale speeds best being plainly told.
3144King Richard Then in plain terms tell her my loving tale.
3145Queen Elizabeth Plain and not honest is too harsh a style.
3146King Richard Madam, your reasons are too shallow and too quick.
3147Queen Elizabeth Oh no, my reasons are too deep and dead.
3148Too deep and dead, poor infants, in their grave.
3150King Richard Harp not on that string, madam; that is past.
3149Queen Elizabeth Harp on it still shall I, till heartstrings break.
3151King Richard Now by my George, my Garter and my crown --
3152Queen Elizabeth Profaned, dishonored, and the third usurped.
3153King Richard I swear --
3154Queen Elizabeth By nothing, for this is no oath.
3155The George, profaned, hath lost his holy honor,
3156The Garter, blemished, pawned his knightly virtue,
3157The crown, usurped, disgraced his kingly dignity.
3158If something thou wilt swear, to be believed
3159Swear then by something that thou hast not wronged.
3162King Richard Now by the world --
3163Queen Elizabeth 'Tis full of thy foul wrongs.
3164King Richard My father's death --
3165Queen Elizabeth Thy life hath that dishonored.
3160King Richard Then by myself --
3161Queen Elizabeth Thyself, thyself misusest.
3166King Richard Why then, by God --
3167Queen Elizabeth God's wrong is most of all:
3168If thou had'st feared to break an oath by him,
3169The unity the King thy brother made
3170Had not been broken, nor my brother slain.
3171If thou had'st feared to break an oath by him,
3172The imperial metal circling now thy brow
3173Had graced the tender temples of my child,
3174And both the Princes had been breathing here;
3175Which now, two tender play-fellows for dust,
3176Thy broken faith hath made a prey for worms.
3178King Richard By the time to come --
3179Queen Elizabeth That thou hast wronged in time o'er-past,
3180For I myself have many tears to wash
3181Hereafter time, for time past, wronged by thee.
3182The children live whose parents thou hast slaughtered,
3183Ungoverned youth, to wail it in their age;
3184The parents live whose children thou hast butchered,
3185Old withered plants, to wail it in their age.
3186Swear not by time to come, for that thou hast
3187Misused, ere used, by time misused o're-past.
3188King Richard As I intend to prosper and repent,
3189So thrive I in my dangerous attempt
3190Of hostile arms; myself myself confound,
3192Day yield me not thy light, nor night thy rest,
3193Be opposite all planets of good luck
3194To my proceedings if with pure heart's love,
3195Immaculate devotion, holy thoughts
3196I tender not thy beauteous, princely daughter;
3197In her consists my happiness and thine.
3198Without her, follows to this land, and me,
3199To thee, herself, and many a Christian soul
3200Sad desolation, ruin, and decay.
3201It cannot be avoided but by this;
3202It will not be avoided but by this.
3203Therefore, good mother -- I must call you so --
3204Be the attorney of my love to her:
3205Plead what I will be, not what I have been;
3206Not my deserts, but what I will deserve;
3207Urge the necessity and state of times,
3208And be not peevish, fond in great designs.
3209Queen Elizabeth Shall I be tempted of the devil thus?
3210King Richard Aye, if the devil tempt thee to do good.
3211Queen Elizabeth Shall I forget myself, to be myself?
3212King Richard Aye, if your self's remembrance wrong yourself.
3213Queen Elizabeth But thou didst kill my children.
3214King Richard But in your daughter's womb I bury them
3215Where, in that nest of spicery, they shall breed
3216Selves of themselves to your recomforture.
3217Queen Elizabeth Shall I go win my daughter to thy will?
3218King Richard And be a happy mother by the deed.
3219Queen Elizabeth I go, write to me very shortly.
3221King Richard | |
Bear her my true love's kiss, | |
Exit [Queen Elizabeth].
3222Relenting fool, and shallow, changing woman.
Enter Rat[cliffe].
3225Ratcliffe My gracious sovereign, on the western coast
3226Rideth a puissant navy. To the shore
3227Throng many doubtful, hollow-hearted friends
3228Unarmed, and unresolved to beat them back.
3229'Tis thought that Richmond is their admiral,
3230And there they hull, expecting but the aid
3231Of Buckingham to welcome them ashore.
3232King Richard Some light-foot friend, post to the Duke of Norfolk.
3233Ratcliffe thyself, or Catesby, where is he?
3234Catesby Here my lord.
3238When thou com'st there -- [To Catesby] Dull, unmindful villain,
3239Why standst thou still and goest not to the Duke?
3240Catesby First, mighty sovereign, let me know your mind,
3241What from your grace I shall deliver him.
3242King Richard Oh, true, good Catesby, bid him levy straight
3243The greatest strength and power he can make,
3244And meet me presently at Salisbury.
[Exit Catesby.]
3250Ratcliffe Your highness told me I should post before.
3251King Richard My mind is changed, sir, my mind is changed.
3253How now, what news with you?
Enter Stanley.
3254Stanley None, good my lord, to please you with the hearing,
3255Nor none so bad but it may well be told.
3256King Richard Hoyday, a riddle, neither good nor bad:
3257Why dost thou run so many mile about
3258When thou mayst tell thy tale a nearer way.
3259Once more, what news?
3260Stanley Richmond is on the seas.
3261King Richard There let him sink, and be the seas on him!
3262White livered runnagate, what doth he there?
3263Stanley I know not mighty sovereign, but by guess.
3264King Richard Well sir, as you guess, as you guess.
3265Stanley Stirred up by Dorset, Buckingham and Ely
3266He makes for England, here to claim the crown.
3267King Richard Is the chair empty? Is the sword unswayed?
3268Is the King dead? The Empire unpossessed?
3269What heir of York is there alive but we?
3270And who is England's king but great York's heir?
3271Then tell me, what doth he upon the sea?
3272Stanley Unless for that, my liege, I cannot guess.
3273King Richard Unless for that he comes to be your liege
3274You cannot guess wherefore the Welshman comes.
3275Thou wilt revolt and fly to him, I fear.
3276Stanley No, mighty liege, therefore mistrust me not.
3277King Richard Where is thy power then to beat him back?
3278Where are thy tenants and thy followers?
3279Are they not now upon the western shore
3280Safe-conducting the rebels from their ships?
3283King Richard Cold friends to Richard; what do they in the north
3284When they should serve their sovereign in the west?
3285Stanley They have not been commanded, mighty sovereign.
3286Please it your majesty to give me leave,
3287I'll muster up my friends and meet your grace
3288Where and what time your majesty shall please.
3289King Richard Aye, aye, thou wouldest be gone, to join with Richmond;
3290I will not trust you, sir.
3291Stanley Most mighty sovereign,
3292You have no cause to hold my friendship doubtful;
3293I never was nor never will be false.
3294King Richard Well, go muster men, but hear you, leave behind
3295Your son, George Stanley; look your faith be firm
3296Or else his head's assurance is but frail.
3297Stanley So deal with him as I prove true to you.
Enter a messenger.
33001 Messenger My gracious sovereign, now in Devonshire
3301As I by friends am well advertisèd,
3302Sir William Courtney and the haughty prelate
3303Bishop of Exeter, his brother there,
3304With many more confederates are in arms.
Enter another messenger.
33062 Messenger My liege, in Kent the Guilfords are in arms
3307And every hour more competitors
3308Flock to their aid, and still their power increaseth.
Enter another messenger.
33103 Messenger My lord, the army of the Duke of Buckingham --
3311King Richard Out on you, owls, nothing but songs of death?
[He strikes him.]
3313Take that! until thou bring me better news.
3313.13 Messenger Your grace mistakes, the news I bring is good:
3316The Duke of Buckingham's army is dispersed and scattered,
3319King Richard Oh, I cry you mercy, I did mistake.
3320Ratcliffe, reward him for the blow I gave him.
[Ratcliffe rewards the messenger.]
3321Hath any well-advisèd friend given out
3322Rewards for him that brings in Buckingham?
33233 Messenger Such proclamation hath been made, my liege.
Enter another messenger.
33254 Messenger Sir Thomas Lovell and Lord Marquess Dorset,
3326'Tis said, my liege, are up in arms;
3327Yet this good comfort bring I to your grace,
Sent out a boat 3330to ask them on the shore
3331If they were his assistants, yea or no:
3332Who answered him they came from Buckingham
3333Upon his party. He, mistrusting them,
3334Hoist sail and made away for Brittany.
3335King Richard March on, march on, since we are up in arms,
3336If not to fight with foreign enemies,
3337Yet to beat down these rebels here at home.
Enter Catesby.
3339Catesby My liege, the Duke of Buckingham is taken.
3340That's the best news; that the Earl of Richmond
3341Is with a mighty power landed at Milford
3342Is colder tidings, yet they must be told.
3343King Richard Away towards Salisbury! While we reason here
3344A royal battle might be won and lost.
Enter Stanley, [and] Sir Christopher.
3349Stanley Sir Christopher, tell Richmond this from me,
3350That in the sty of this most bloody boar
3351My son, George Stanley, is franked up in hold;
3352If I revolt, off goes young George's head.
3353The fear of that withholds my present aid.
3357But tell me, where is princely Richmond now?
3358Christopher At Pembroke, or at Harford-west in Wales.
3359Stanley What men of name resort to him?
3360Christopher Sir Walter Herbert, a renownèd soldier,
3361Sir Gilbert Talbot, Sir William Stanley,
3362Oxford, redoubted Pembroke, Sir James Blunt,
3363Rhys ap Thomas with a valiant crew,
3364With many more of noble fame and worth;
3365And towards London they do bend their course,
3366If by the way they be not fought withal.
3367Stanley Return unto thy lord, commend me to him;
3355Tell him the Queen hath heartily consented
3356He shall espouse Elizabeth, her daughter.
3373Buckingham Will not King Richard let me speak with him?
3374Ratcliffe No, my lord, therefore be patient.
3375Buckingham Hastings, and Edward's children, Rivers, Grey,
3376Holy King Henry and thy fair son Edward,
3377Vaughan, and all that have miscarried
3378By underhand, corrupted, foul injustice,
3379If that your moody, discontented souls
3380Do through the clouds behold this present hour,
3381Even for revenge, mock my destruction.
3382This is All Souls' Day, fellows, is it not?
3383Ratcliffe It is, my lord.
3384Buckingham Why then, All Souls' Day is my body's doomsday:
3385This is the day that, in King Edward's time,
3386I wished might fall on me when I was found
3387False to his children or his wife's allies;
3388This is the day wherein I wished to fall
3389By the false faith of him I trusted most.
3390This, this All Souls' Day, to my fearful soul
3391Is the determined respite of my wrongs;
3392That high All-Seer that I dallied with
3393Hath turned my feignèd prayer on my head
3394And given in earnest what I begged in jest.
3395Thus doth he force the swords of wicked men
3396To turn their own points on their masters' bosom.
3397Now Margaret's curse is fallen upon my head:
3398"When he," quoth she, "shall split thy heart with sorrow,
3399Remember Margaret was a Prophetess."
3400Come sirs, convey me to the block of shame,
3401Wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of blame.
3406Richmond Fellows in arms, and my most loving friends
3407Bruised underneath the yoke of tyranny,
3408Thus far into the bowels of the land
3409Have we marched on without impediment;
3410[Shows the letters.] And here receive we from our father Stanley
3411Lines of fair comfort and encouragement.
3412The wretched, bloody and usurping boar
3413That spoiled your summer fields and fruitful vines,
3414Swills your warm blood like wash, and makes his trough
3415In your embowelled bosoms, this foul swine
3416Lies now even in the center of this isle,
3417Near to the town of Leicester as we learn;
3418From Tamworth thither is but one day's march.
3419In God's name, cheerly on, courageous friends,
3420To reap the harvest of perpetual peace
3421By this one bloody trial of sharp war.
34221 Lord Every man's conscience is a thousand swords
3423To fight against that bloody homicide.
34242 Lord I doubt not but his friends will fly to us.
34253 Lord He hath no friends but who are friends for fear,
3426Which in his greatest need will shrink from him.
3427Richmond All for our vantage then, in God's name, march!
3428True hope is swift, and flies with swallows' wings;
3429Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.
3433King Richard Here pitch our tents, even here in Bosworth field.
[Two tents are brought on.]
3434Why, how now Catesby, why look'st thou so sad?
3435Catesby My heart is ten times lighter than my looks.
3436King Richard Norfolk, come hither.
[Norfolk approaches King Richard.]
3440Norfolk We must both give and take, my gracious lord.
3441King Richard Up with my tent there, here will I lie tonight,
[Soldiers put up the tents.]
3442But where tomorrow? Well, all is one for that.
3443Who hath descried the number of the foe?
3444Norfolk Six or seven thousand is their utmost number.
3445King Richard Why, our battalion trebles that account!
3446Besides, the King's name is a tower of strength
3447Which they upon the adverse party want.
[To the soldiers pitching the tent]
3448Up with my tent there. Valiant gentlemen,
3449Let us survey the vantage of the field.
3450Call for some men of sound direction:
3451Let's want no discipline, make no delay,
3452For lords, tomorrow is a busy day.
3455Richmond The weary sun hath made a golden set,
3456And by the bright track of his fiery car
3457Gives signal of a goodly day tomorrow.
3458Where is Sir William Brandon? He shall bear my standard;
3465The Earl of Pembroke keep his regiment.
3466Good Captain Blunt, bear my good night to him,
3467And by the second hour in the morning
3468Desire the Earl to see me in my tent.
3469Yet one thing more, good Blunt, before thou goest:
3470Where is Lord Stanley quartered, dost thou know?
3471Blunt Unless I have mista'en his colors much,
3472Which well I am assured I have not done,
3473His regiment lies half a mile at least
3474South from the mighty power of the King.
3475Richmond If without peril it be possible,
3476Sweet Blunt, make some good means to speak with him
3477And give him from me this most needful scroll.
3478Blunt Upon my life, my lord, I'll undertake it.
3480Richmond Farewell, good Blunt. [Exit Blunt.]
3459Give me some ink and paper in my tent;
3460I'll draw the form and model of our battle,
3461Limit each leader to his several charge,
3462And part in just proportion our small strength.
3483Into our tent, the air is raw and cold.
[They withdraw into the tent.]
Enter King Richard, Norf[olk], Ratcliffe, Catesby, and [others].
3486King Richard What is o'clock?
3487Catesby It is six o'clock, full supper time.
[A soldier exits.]
3490What? Is my beaver easier than it was?
3491And all my armor laid into my tent?
3492Catesby It is, my liege, and all things are in readiness.
3493King Richard Good Norfolk, hie thee to thy charge,
3494Use careful watch, choose trusty sentinel.
3495Norfolk I go, my lord.
3496King Richard Stir with the lark tomorrow, gentle Norfolk.
3497Norfolk I warrant you, my lord.
3498King Richard Catesby.
3499Catesby My lord?
3500King Richard Send out a pursuivant-at-arms
3501To Stanley's regiment; bid him bring his power
3502Before sun rising lest his son George fall
3503Into the blind cave of eternal night.
[Exit Catesby.]
3504Fill me a bowl of wine, give me a watch,
3505Saddle white Surrey for the field tomorrow;
3506Look that my staves be sound and not too heavy. Ratcliffe.
[Exeunt all except Richard and Ratcliffe.]
3507Ratcliffe My lord?
3508King Richard Saw'st thou the melancholy Lord Northumberland?
3509Ratcliffe Thomas the Earl of Surrey and himself
3510Much about cockshut time from troop to troop
3511Went through the army cheering up the soldiers.
3512King Richard So, I am satisfied; give me a bowl of wine.
[Ratcliffe fetches or pours wine.]
3513I have not that alacrity of spirit
3514Nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have.
3515Set it down. | |
3516Ratcliffe It is, my lord.
3517King Richard Bid my guard watch, leave me.
[Ratcliffe starts to exit.]
3518Ratcliffe, about the mid of night come to my tent
3519And help to arm me. Leave me I say.
Exit Ratcliffe. [Richard remains in his tent.]
Enter [Stanley] to Richmond [and the lords] in his tent.
3521Stanley Fortune and victory sit on thy helm!
3522Richmond All comfort that the dark night can afford
3523Be to thy person, noble father-in-law.
3524Tell me, how fares our loving mother?
3525Stanley I by attorney bless thee from thy mother
3526Who prays continually for Richmond's good;
3527So much for that. The silent hours steal on
3528And flaky darkness breaks within the east.
3529In brief, for so the season bids us be:
3530Prepare thy battle early in the morning,
3531And put thy fortune to the arbitrement
3532Of bloody strokes and mortal-staring War.
3533I as I may, (that which I would, I cannot),
3534With best advantage will deceive the time
3535And aid thee in this doubtful shock of arms,
3536But on thy side I may not be too forward,
3537Lest being seen, thy brother, tender George
3538Be executed in his father's sight.
3539Farewell. The leisure and the fearful time
3540Cuts off the ceremonious vows of love
3541And ample interchange of sweet discourse
3542Which so-long-sundered friends should dwell upon.
3543God give us leisure for these rites of love!
3544Once more adieu, be valiant and speed well.
3545Richmond Good lords, conduct him to his regiment;
3546I'll strive with troubled thoughts to take a nap
3547Lest leaden slumber peise me down tomorrow,
3548When I should mount with wings of victory.
3549Once more good night, kind lords and gentlemen.
Exeunt. [Richmond stays. He kneels in prayer.]
3551O thou, whose captain I account myself,
3552Look on my forces with a gracious eye:
3553Put in their hands thy bruising irons of wrath
3554That they may crush down with a heavy fall
3555The usurping helmets of our adversaries.
3556Make us thy ministers of chastisement
3557That we may praise thee in the victory;
3558To thee I do commend my watchful soul
3559Ere I let fall the windows of mine eyes;
3560Sleeping and waking, O defend me still.
3564Think how thou stabd'st me in my prime of youth
3565At Tewkesbury; despair therefore and die.
3568Of butchered princes fight in thy behalf;
3569King Henry's issue, Richmond, comforts thee.
Enter the ghost of Henry the Sixt[h].
3572By thee was punchèd full of deadly holes;
3573Think on the Tower and me, despair and die;
3574Harry the Sixth bids thee despair and die.
3575To Rich[mond] Virtuous and holy, be thou conqueror;
3576Harry that prophesied thou shouldst be King
3577Doth comfort thee in thy sleep; live and flourish.
Enter the Ghost of Clarence.
3580I that was washed to death with fulsome wine,
3581Poor Clarence, by thy guile betrayed to death:
3582Tomorrow in the battle think on me
3583And fall thy edgeless sword; despair and die.
3584To Rich[mond] Thou offspring of the House of Lancaster,
3585The wrongèd heirs of York do pray for thee.
3586Good angels guard thy battle, live and flourish.
Enter the ghosts of Rivers, Grey, Vaughan.
3589Rivers that died at Pomfret; despair and die.
3592Let fall thy lance, despair and die.
3595Will conquer him: awake and win the day.
Enter the ghosts of the two young Princes.
3606Let us be lead within thy bosom, Richard,
3607And weigh thee down to ruin, shame and death;
3608Thy nephews' souls bid thee despair and die.
3611Good angels guard thee from the boar's annoy;
3612Live and beget a happy race of kings;
3613Edward's unhappy sons do bid thee flourish.
Enter the ghost of Hastings.
3598And in a bloody battle end thy days;
3599Think on Lord Hastings, despair and die.
3602Arm, fight and conquer for fair England's sake.
Enter the ghost of Lady Anne, his wife.
3617That never slept a quiet hour with thee
3618Now fills thy sleep with perturbations;
3619Tomorrow in the battle think on me
3620And fall thy edgeless sword; despair and die.
3623Dream of success and happy victory,
3624Thy adversary's wife doth pray for thee.
Enter the Ghost of Buckingham.
3628The last was I that felt thy tyranny;
3629Oh, in the battle think on Buckingham
3630And die in terror of thy guiltiness.
3631Dream on, dream on of bloody deeds and death,
3632Fainting, despair; despairing, yield thy breath. 3633To Rich[mond] I died for hope 3634ere I could lend thee aid,
3635But cheer thy heart and be thou not dismayed;
3636God and good angels fight on Richmond's side,
3637And Richard falls in height of all his pride.
Richard starts up out of a dream.
3639King Richard Give me another horse! Bind up my wounds!
3640Have mercy Jesu -- soft, I did but dream.
3641O coward Conscience, how dost thou afflict me?
3642The lights burn blue, it is now dead midnight,
3643Cold, fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh.
3644What do I fear? Myself? There's none else by;
3645Richard loves Richard, that is I, and I,
3646Is there a murderer here? No -- Yes, I am.
3647Then fly -- what, from myself? Great reason, why?
3648Lest I revenge. What, myself upon myself?
3649Alack, I love myself -- Wherefore? For any good
3650That I myself have done unto myself?
3651O no, alas, I rather hate myself
3652For hateful deeds committed by myself:
3653I am a villain -- yet I lie, I am not.
3654Fool, of thyself speak well -- fool do not flatter,
3655My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
3656And every tongue brings in a several tale,
3657And every tale condemns me for a villain.
3658Perjury, perjury in the highest degree,
3659Murder, stern murder, in the direst degree.
3660All several sins, all used in each degree
3661Throng to the bar, crying all, "Guilty, guilty!"
3662I shall despair, there is no creature loves me,
3663And if I die no soul will pity me;
3664And wherefore should they, since that I myself
3665Find in myself no pity to myself.
3666Methought the souls of all that I had murdered,
3667Came to my tent, and every one did threat
3668Tomorrow's vengeance on the head of Richard.
Enter Ratcliffe.
3670Ratcliffe My lord.
3671King Richard Zounds! Who is there?
3672Ratcliffe Ratcliffe, my lord, 'tis I; the early village cock
3673Hath twice done salutation to the morn;
3674Your friends are up, and buckle on their armor.
3674.1King Richard Oh, Ratcliffe, I have dreamed a fearful dream;
3674.2What think'st thou, will our friends prove all true?
3674.3Ratcliffe No doubt, my lord.
3675King Richard O Ratcliffe, I fear, I fear.
3676Ratcliffe Nay, good my lord, be not afraid of shadows.
3677King Richard By the Apostle Paul, shadows tonight
3678Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard
3679Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers
3680Armèd in proof and led by shallow Richmond.
3681'Tis not yet near day; come, go with me:
3682Under our tents I'll play the eavesdropper
3683To see if any mean to shrink from me.
3687Lords Good morrow, Richmond.
3688Richmond Cry mercy, lords and watchful gentlemen,
3689That you have ta'en a tardy sluggard here.
3690Lord How have you slept, my lord?
3693That ever entered in a drowsy head
3694Have I since your departure had, my lords;
3695Methought their souls whose bodies Richard murdered
3696Came to my tent and cried on victory.
3697I promise you, my soul is very jocund
3698In the remembrance of so fair a dream.
3699How far into the morning is it, lords?
3700Lord Upon the stroke of four.
3701Richmond Why then, 'tis time to arm and give direction.
His oration to his soldiers.
3703More than I have said, loving countrymen,
3704The leisure and enforcement of the time
3705Forbids to dwell upon; yet remember this:
3706God and our good cause fight upon our side;
3707The prayers of holy saints and wrongèd souls,
3708Like high-reared bulwarks stand before our faces.
3709Richard except, those whom we fight against
3710Had rather have us win than him they follow;
3711For what is he they follow? Truly, gentlemen,
3712A bloody tyrant and a homicide.
3713One raised in blood, and one in blood established,
3714One that made means to come by what he hath
3715And slaughtered those that were the means to help him;
3716A base, foul stone, made precious by the foil
3717Of England's chair, where he is falsely set;
3718One that hath ever been God's enemy.
3719Then, if you fight against God's enemy,
3720God will in justice ward you as his soldiers;
3721If you do sweat to put a tyrant down,
3722You sleep in peace, the tyrant being slain;
3723If you do fight against your country's foes,
3724Your country's fat shall pay your pains the hire;
3725If you do fight in safeguard of your wives,
3726Your wives shall welcome home the conquerors;
3727If you do free your children from the sword,
3728Your children's children quits it in your age:
3729Then, in the name of God and all these rights,
3730Advance your standards! Draw your willing swords!
3731For me, the ransom of my bold attempt
3732Shall be this cold corpse on the earth's cold face:
3733But if I thrive, the gain of my attempt,
3734The least of you shall share his part thereof.
3735Sound drums and trumpets boldly and cheerfully,
[Trumpets and drums sound.]
3736God and Saint George! Richmond and victory!
Enter King Richard, Rat[cliffe, Catesby and others].
3738King Richard What said Northumberland as touching Richmond?
3739Ratcliffe That he was never trainèd up in arms.
3740King Richard He said the truth, and what said Surrey then?
3741Ratcliffe He smiled and said, "The better for our purpose".
3742King Richard He was in the right, and so indeed it is --
The clock strikes.
3743Tell the clock there!
3744Give me a calendar;
Who saw the sun today?
[Richard is given and consults the calendar.]
3745Ratcliffe Not I, my lord.
3746King Richard Then he disdains to shine, for by the book
3747He should have braved the east an hour ago;
3748A black day will it be to somebody. Ratcliffe.
3749Ratcliffe My lord.
3750King Richard The sun will not be seen today,
3751The sky doth frown and lour upon our army.
3752I would these dewy tears were from the ground.
3753Not shine today? Why, what is that to me
3754More than to Richmond, for the self-same heaven
3755That frowns on me looks sadly upon him.
Enter Norfolk.
3757Norfolk Arm, arm my lord, the foe vaunts in the field.
3758King Richard Come, bustle, bustle, caparison my horse,
3759Call up Lord Stanley, bid him bring his power.
[Exit a messenger.]
3760I will lead forth my soldiers to the plain
3761And thus my battle shall be ordered:
3762My forward shall be drawn out all in length
3763Consisting equally of horse and foot;
3764Our archers shall be placèd in the midst;
3765John Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Earl of Surrey
3766Shall have the leading of this foot and horse.
3767They thus directed, we will follow
3768In the main battle, whose puissance on either side
3769Shall be well wingèd with our chiefest horse;
3772Norfolk A good direction, warlike sovereign,
He shows him a paper.
3773This found I on my tent this morning.
Jockey of Norfolk, be not so bold,
3775For Dickon thy master is bought and sold.
3776King Richard A thing devisèd by the enemy.
3777Go, gentlemen, every man unto his charge;
3778Let not our babbling dreams affright our souls;
3779Conscience is but a word that cowards use,
3780Devised at first to keep the strong in awe.
3781Our strong arms be our conscience, swords our law.
3782March on, join bravely, let us to it pell mell,
3783If not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell!
His oration to his army.
3784What shall I say more than I have inferred?
3785Remember whom you are to cope withal,
3786A sort of vagabonds, rascals and runaways,
3787A scum of Bretons and base lackey peasants
3788Whom their o'er-cloyèd country vomits forth
3789To desperate adventures and assured destruction;
3790You sleeping safe, they bring to you unrest,
3791You having lands and blest with beauteous wives,
3792They would restrain the one, distain the other;
3793And who doth lead them but a paltry fellow,
3794Long kept in Brittany at our mother's cost,
3795A milksop, one that never in his life
3796Felt so much cold as over shoes in snow.
3797Let's whip these stragglers o'er the seas again,
3798Lash hence these overweening rags of France,
3799These famished beggars weary of their lives
3800Who, but for dreaming on this fond exploit,
3801For want of means, poor rats, had hanged themselves;
3802If we be conquered, let men conquer us
3803And not these bastard Bretons, whom our fathers
3804Have in their own land beaten, bobbed and thumped,
3805And in record left them the heirs of shame.
3806Shall these enjoy our lands? lie with our wives?
3807Ravish our daughters? -- | |
[Drums offstage] | |
3808hark, I hear their drum: |
3809Fight, gentlemen of England; fight, bold yeomen;
3810Draw archers, draw your arrows to the head;
3811Spur your proud horses hard and ride in blood;
3812Amaze the welkin with your broken staves!
[Enter a messenger.]
3814[To the messenger] What says Lord Stanley, will he bring his power?
3815Messenger My lord, he doth deny to come.
3816King Richard Off with his son George's head!
3817Norfolk My lord, the enemy is past the marsh;
3818After the battle let George Stanley die.
3819King Richard A thousand hearts are great within my bosom;
3820Advance our standards, set upon our foes,
3821Our ancient word of courage, fair Saint George,
3822Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons.
3823Upon them! Victory sits on our helms!
Alarum, excursions. Enter Catesby.
3827The King enacts more wonders than a man,
3828Daring an opposite to every danger;
3829His horse is slain and all on foot he fights,
3830Seeking for Richmond in the throat of death;
3831Rescue, fair lord, or else the day is lost.
Enter King Richard.
3834King Richard A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!
3835Catesby Withdraw, my lord, I'll help you to a horse.
3836King Richard Slave, I have set my life upon a cast
3837And I will stand the hazard of the die;
3838I think there be six Richmonds in the field;
3839Five have I slain today instead of him.
3840A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!
[Exeunt King Richard and Catesby.]
3843Then retreat is sounded.
Enter Richmond, Stanley bearing the3844 crown, with other lords.
3847The day is ours, the bloody dog is dead.
3850Lo, here this long-usurpèd royalty
3851From the dead temples of this bloody wretch
3852Have I plucked off to grace thy brows withal;
3853Wear it, enjoy it, and make much of it.
[Stanley offers the crown to Richmond.]
3854Richmond Great God of heaven, say "Amen" to all.
3855But tell me, is young George Stanley living?
3856Stanley He is, my lord, and safe in Leicester town,
3857Whither, if it please you, we may now withdraw us.
3858Richmond What men of name are slain on either side?
3860Robert Brakenbury, and Sir William Brandon.
3861Richmond Inter their bodies as become their births,
3862Proclaim a pardon to the soldiers fled
3863That in submission will return to us
3864And then, as we have ta'en the sacrament,
3865We will unite the white rose and the red;
3866Smile, heaven, upon this fair conjunction
3867That long have frowned upon their enmity.
3868What traitor hears me and says not "Amen?"
3869England hath long been mad and scarred herself,
3870The brother blindly shed the brother's blood,
3871The father rashly slaughtered his own son,
3872The son, compelled, been butcher to the sire;
3873All this divided York and Lancaster,
3874Divided in a dire division.
3875Oh, now let Richmond and Elizabeth,
3876The true succeeders of each royal House,
3877By God's fair ordinance conjoin together,
3878And let their heirs, God, if thy will be so,
3879Enrich the time to come with smooth-faced peace,
3880With smiling plenty and fair, prosperous days;
3881Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord,
3882That would reduce these bloody days again
3883And make poor England weep in streams of blood:
3884Let them not live to taste this land's increase
3885That would with treason wound this fair land's peace.
3886Now civil wounds are stopped, peace lives again;
3887That she may long live here, God say "Amen."