William Shakespeare
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Tragedies
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- Coriolanus
- Hamlet
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- Macbeth
- Othello
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Histories
- King Henry IV Part 1
- King Henry IV Part 2
- King Henry V
- King Henry VI Part 1
- King Henry VI Part 2
- King Henry VI Part 3
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- King John
- Richard II
- Richard III
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- Measure for Measure
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- The Comedy of Errors
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- A Lover's Complaint
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- Sonnets 50 to 100
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- The Passionate Pilgrim
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- Venus and Adonis
Richard III (1591)
William Hogarth, David Garrick as Richard III, 1745" style="width: 200px; height: 153px; float: right;" class="PopBoxImageSmall" title="Click to magnify/shrink" onclick="Pop(this,50,'/');"/>ACT ONE
SCENE 1. London. A street.
[Enter GLOSTER.]
GLOSTER
- Now is the winter of our discontent
- Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
- And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
- In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
- Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
- Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
- Our stern alarums chang'd to merry meetings,
- Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
- Grim-visag'd war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
- And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds
- To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
- He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
- To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
- But I,—that am not shap'd for sportive tricks,
- Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
- I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
- To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
- I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
- Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
- Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time
- Into this breathing world scarce half made up,
- And that so lamely and unfashionable
- That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;—
- Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
- Have no delight to pass away the time,
- Unless to spy my shadow in the sun,
- And descant on mine own deformity:
- And therefore,—since I cannot prove a lover,
- To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
- I am determined to prove a villain,
- And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
- Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
- By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams,
- To set my brother Clarence and the king
- In deadly hate: the one against the other.
- And if King Edward be as true and just
- As I am subtle, false, and treacherous,
- This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up,
- About a prophecy which says that "G"
- Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be.
- Dive, thoughts, down to my soul:—here Clarence comes.
[Enter CLARENCE, guarded, and BRAKENBURY.]
- Brother, good day: what means this armed guard
- That waits upon your grace?
CLARENCE.
- His majesty,
- Tendering my person's safety, hath appointed
- This conduct to convey me to the Tower.
GLOSTER.
- Upon what cause?
CLARENCE.
- Because my name is George.
GLOSTER.
- Alack, my lord, that fault is none of yours;
- He should, for that, commit your godfathers:—
- O, belike his majesty hath some intent
- That you should be new-christen'd in the Tower.
- But what's the matter, Clarence? may I know?
CLARENCE.
- Yea, Richard, when I know; for I protest
- As yet I do not: but, as I can learn,
- He hearkens after prophecies and dreams;
- And from the cross-row plucks the letter G,
- And says a wizard told him that by G
- His issue disinherited should be;
- And, for my name of George begins with G,
- It follows in his thought that I am he.
- These, as I learn, and such like toys as these,
- Hath mov'd his highness to commit me now.
GLOSTER.
- Why, this it is when men are rul'd by women:—
- 'Tis not the king that sends you to the Tower;
- My Lady Grey his wife, Clarence, 'tis she
- That tempers him to this extremity.
- Was it not she and that good man of worship,
- Antony Woodville, her brother there,
- That made him send Lord Hastings to the Tower,
- From whence this present day he is deliver'd?
- We are not safe, Clarence; we are not safe.
CLARENCE.
- By heaven, I think there is no man is secure
- But the queen's kindred, and night-walking heralds
- That trudge betwixt the king and Mistress Shore.
- Heard you not what an humble suppliant
- Lord Hastings was to her for his delivery?
GLOSTER.
- Humbly complaining to her deity
- Got my Lord Chamberlain his liberty.
- I'll tell you what,—I think it is our way,
- If we will keep in favour with the king,
- To be her men and wear her livery:
- The jealous o'er-worn widow, and herself,
- Since that our brother dubb'd them gentlewomen,
- Are mighty gossips in our monarchy.
BRAKENBURY.
- I beseech your graces both to pardon me;
- His majesty hath straitly given in charge
- That no man shall have private conference,
- Of what degree soever, with your brother.
GLOSTER.
- Even so; an't please your worship, Brakenbury,
- You may partake of any thing we say:
- We speak no treason, man;—we say the king
- Is wise and virtuous; and his noble queen
- Well struck in years, fair, and not jealous;—
- We say that Shore's wife hath a pretty foot,
- A cherry lip, a bonny eye, a passing pleasing tongue;
- And that the queen's kindred are made gentlefolks:
- How say you, sir? can you deny all this?
BRAKENBURY.
- With this, my lord, myself have naught to do.
GLOSTER.
- Naught to do with Mistress Shore! I tell thee, fellow,
- He that doth naught with her, excepting one,
- Were best to do it secretly alone.
BRAKENBURY.
- What one, my lord?
GLOSTER.
- Her husband, knave:—wouldst thou betray me?
BRAKENBURY.
- I do beseech your grace to pardon me; and, withal,
- Forbear your conference with the noble duke.
CLARENCE.
- We know thy charge, Brakenbury, and will obey.
GLOSTER.
- We are the queen's abjects and must obey.—
- Brother, farewell: I will unto the king;
- And whatsoe'er you will employ me in,—
- Were it to call King Edward's widow sister,—
- I will perform it to enfranchise you.
- Meantime, this deep disgrace in brotherhood
- Touches me deeper than you can imagine.
CLARENCE.
- I know it pleaseth neither of us well.
GLOSTER.
- Well, your imprisonment shall not be long;
- I will deliver or else lie for you:
- Meantime, have patience.
CLARENCE.
- I must perforce: farewell.
[Exeunt CLARENCE, BRAKENBURY, and guard.]
GLOSTER.
- Go tread the path that thou shalt ne'er return.
- Simple, plain Clarence!—I do love thee so
- That I will shortly send thy soul to heaven,
- If heaven will take the present at our hands.—
- But who comes here? The new-delivered Hastings?
[Enter HASTINGS.]
HASTINGS.
- Good time of day unto my gracious lord!
GLOSTER.
- As much unto my good Lord Chamberlain!
- Well are you welcome to the open air.
- How hath your lordship brook'd imprisonment?
HASTINGS.
- With patience, noble lord, as prisoners must;
- But I shall live, my lord, to give them thanks
- That were the cause of my imprisonment.
GLOSTER.
- No doubt, no doubt; and so shall Clarence too;
- For they that were your enemies are his,
- And have prevail'd as much on him as you.
HASTINGS.
- More pity that the eagles should be mew'd
- Whiles kites and buzzards prey at liberty.
GLOSTER.
- What news abroad?
HASTINGS.
- No news so bad abroad as this at home,—
- The king is sickly, weak, and melancholy,
- And his physicians fear him mightily.
GLOSTER.
- Now, by Saint Paul, that news is bad indeed.
- O, he hath kept an evil diet long,
- And overmuch consum'd his royal person:
- 'Tis very grievous to be thought upon.
- What, is he in his bed?
HASTINGS.
- He is.
GLOSTER.
- Go you before, and I will follow you.
[Exit HASTINGS.]
- He cannot live, I hope; and must not die
- Till George be pack'd with posthorse up to heaven.
- I'll in, to urge his hatred more to Clarence
- With lies well steel'd with weighty arguments;
- And, if I fail not in my deep intent,
- Clarence hath not another day to live;
- Which done, God take King Edward to his mercy,
- And leave the world for me to bustle in!
- For then I'll marry Warwick's youngest daughter:
- What though I kill'd her husband and her father?
- The readiest way to make the wench amends
- Is to become her husband and her father:
- The which will I; not all so much for love
- As for another secret close intent,
- By marrying her, which I must reach unto.
- But yet I run before my horse to market:
- Clarence still breathes; Edward still lives and reigns:
- When they are gone, then must I count my gains.
[Exit.]
SCENE 2. London. Another street.
[Enter the corpse of King Henry the Sixth, borne in an open coffin, Gentlemen bearing halberds to guard it; and Lady Anne as mourner.]
ANNE.
- Set down, set down your honourable load,—
- If honour may be shrouded in a hearse,—
- Whilst I awhile obsequiously lament
- Th' untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster.—
- Poor key-cold figure of a holy king!
- Pale ashes of the house of Lancaster!
- Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood!
- Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghost,
- To hear the lamentations of poor Anne,
- Wife to thy Edward, to thy slaughter'd son,
- Stabb'd by the self-same hand that made these wounds!
- Lo, in these windows that let forth thy life,
- I pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes:—
- O, cursed be the hand that made these holes!
- Cursed the heart that had the heart to do it!
- Cursed the blood that let this blood from hence!
- More direful hap betide that hated wretch
- That makes us wretched by the death of thee,
- Than I can wish to adders, spiders, toads,
- Or any creeping venom'd thing that lives!
- If ever he have child, abortive be it,
- Prodigious, and untimely brought to light,
- Whose ugly and unnatural aspect
- May fright the hopeful mother at the view;
- And that be heir to his unhappiness!
- If ever he have wife, let her be made
- More miserable by the death of him
- Than I am made by my young lord and thee!—
- Come, now towards Chertsey with your holy load,
- Taken from Paul's to be interred there;
- And still, as you are weary of this weight,
- Rest you, whiles I lament King Henry's corse.
[The Bearers take up the Corpse and advance.]
[Enter GLOSTER.]
GLOSTER.
- Stay, you that bear the corse, and set it down.
ANNE.
- What black magician conjures up this fiend,
- To stop devoted charitable deeds?
GLOSTER.
- Villains, set down the corse; or, by Saint Paul,
- I'll make a corse of him that disobeys!
FIRST GENTLEMAN.
- My lord, stand back, and let the coffin pass.
GLOSTER.
- Unmanner'd dog! stand thou, when I command:
- Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,
- Or, by Saint Paul, I'll strike thee to my foot
- And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.
[The Bearers set down the coffin.]
ANNE.
- What, do you tremble? are you all afraid?
- Alas, I blame you not; for you are mortal,
- And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.—
- Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
- Thou hadst but power over his mortal body,
- His soul thou canst not have; therefore, be gone.
GLOSTER.
- Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst.
ANNE.
- Foul devil, for God's sake, hence and trouble us not;
- For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,
- Fill'd it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.
- If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
- Behold this pattern of thy butcheries.—
- O, gentlemen, see, see! dead Henry's wounds
- Open their congeal'd mouths and bleed afresh!
- Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity;
- For 'tis thy presence that exhales this blood
- From cold and empty veins, where no blood dwells;
- Thy deeds, inhuman and unnatural,
- Provokes this deluge most unnatural.—
- O God, which this blood mad'st, revenge his death!
- O earth, which this blood drink'st, revenge his death!
- Either, heaven, with lightning strike the murderer dead;
- Or, earth, gape open wide and eat him quick,
- As thou dost swallow up this good king's blood,
- Which his hell-govern'd arm hath butchered!
GLOSTER.
- Lady, you know no rules of charity,
- Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.
ANNE.
- Villain, thou knowest nor law of God nor man:
- No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.
GLOSTER.
- But I know none, and therefore am no beast.
ANNE.
- O wonderful, when devils tell the truth!
GLOSTER.
- More wonderful when angels are so angry.—
- Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman,
- Of these supposed crimes to give me leave,
- By circumstance, but to acquit myself.
ANNE.
- Vouchsafe, diffus'd infection of a man,
- Of these known evils but to give me leave,
- By circumstance, to accuse thy cursed self.
GLOSTER.
- Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have
- Some patient leisure to excuse myself.
ANNE.
- Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make
- No excuse current but to hang thyself.
GLOSTER.
- By such despair I should accuse myself.
ANNE.
- And by despairing shalt thou stand excus'd;
- For doing worthy vengeance on thyself,
- That didst unworthy slaughter upon others.
GLOSTER.
- Say that I slew them not?
ANNE.
- Then say they were not slain:
- But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee.
GLOSTER.
- I did not kill your husband.
ANNE.
- Why, then he is alive.
GLOSTER.
- Nay, he is dead; and slain by Edward's hand.
ANNE.
- In thy foul throat thou liest: Queen Margaret saw
- Thy murderous falchion smoking in his blood;
- The which thou once didst bend against her breast,
- But that thy brothers beat aside the point.
GLOSTER.
- I was provoked by her slanderous tongue
- That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders.
ANNE.
- Thou wast provoked by thy bloody mind,
- That never dreamt on aught but butcheries:
- Didst thou not kill this king?
GLOSTER.
- I grant ye.
ANNE.
- Dost grant me, hedgehog? then, God grant me too
- Thou mayst be damned for that wicked deed!
- O, he was gentle, mild, and virtuous.
GLOSTER.
- The better for the king of Heaven, that hath him.
ANNE.
- He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come.
GLOSTER.
- Let him thank me that holp to send him thither,
- For he was fitter for that place than earth.
ANNE.
- And thou unfit for any place but hell.
GLOSTER.
- Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.
ANNE.
- Some dungeon.
GLOSTER.
- Your bed-chamber.
ANNE.
- Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest!
GLOSTER.
- So will it, madam, till I lie with you.
ANNE.
- I hope so.
GLOSTER.
- I know so.—But, gentle Lady Anne,—
- To leave this keen encounter of our wits,
- And fall something into a slower method,—
- Is not the causer of the timeless deaths
- Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
- As blameful as the executioner?
ANNE.
- Thou wast the cause and most accurs'd effect.
GLOSTER.
- Your beauty was the cause of that effect;
- Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep
- To undertake the death of all the world,
- So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.
ANNE.
- If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,
- These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.
GLOSTER.
- These eyes could not endure that beauty's wreck;
- You should not blemish it if I stood by:
- As all the world is cheered by the sun,
- So I by that; it is my day, my life.
ANNE.
- Black night o'ershade thy day, and death thy life!
GLOSTER.
- Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art both.
ANNE.
- I would I were, to be reveng'd on thee.
GLOSTER.
- It is a quarrel most unnatural,
- To be reveng'd on him that loveth thee.
ANNE.
- It is a quarrel just and reasonable,
- To be reveng'd on him that kill'd my husband.
GLOSTER.
- He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband,
- Did it to help thee to a better husband.
ANNE.
- His better doth not breathe upon the earth.
GLOSTER.
- He lives that loves thee better than he could.
ANNE.
- Name him.
GLOSTER.
- Plantagenet.
ANNE.
- Why, that was he.
GLOSTER.
- The self-same name, but one of better nature.
ANNE.
- Where is he?
GLOSTER.
- Here.
[She spits at him.]
- Why dost thou spit at me?
ANNE.
- Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake!
GLOSTER.
- Never came poison from so sweet a place.
ANNE.
- Never hung poison on a fouler toad.
- Out of my sight! thou dost infect mine eyes.
GLOSTER.
- Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.
ANNE.
- Would they were basilisks to strike thee dead!
GLOSTER.
- I would they were, that I might die at once;
- For now they kill me with a living death.
- Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,
- Sham'd their aspects with store of childish drops:
- These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear,
- No, when my father York and Edward wept,
- To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made
- When black-fac'd Clifford shook his sword at him;
- Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
- Told the sad story of my father's death,
- And twenty times made pause, to sob and weep,
- That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks,
- Like trees bedash'd with rain; in that sad time
- My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;
- And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
- Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
- I never su'd to friend nor enemy;
- My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing word;
- But, now thy beauty is propos'd my fee,
- My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak.
[She looks scornfully at him.]
- Teach not thy lip such scorn; for it was made
- For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.
- If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,
- Lo, here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword;
- Which if thou please to hide in this true breast
- And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,
- I lay it naked to the deadly stroke,
- And humbly beg the death upon my knee,
- Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry,—
[He lays his breast open; she offers at it with his sword.]
- But 'twas thy beauty that provoked me.
- Nay, now dispatch; 'twas I that stabb'd young Edward,—
[She again offers at his breast.]
- But 'twas thy heavenly face that set me on.
[She lets fall the sword.]
- Take up the sword again, or take up me.
ANNE.
- Arise, dissembler: though I wish thy death,
- I will not be thy executioner.
GLOSTER.
- Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.
ANNE.
- I have already.
GLOSTER.
- That was in thy rage:
- Speak it again, and even with the word,
- This hand, which for thy love did kill thy love;
- Shall, for thy love, kill a far truer love;
- To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary.
ANNE.
- I would I knew thy heart.
GLOSTER.
- 'Tis figured in my tongue.
ANNE.
- I fear me both are false.
GLOSTER.
- Then never was man true.
ANNE.
- Well, well, put up your sword.
GLOSTER.
- Say, then, my peace is made.
ANNE.
- That shalt thou know hereafter.
GLOSTER.
- But shall I live in hope?
ANNE.
- All men, I hope, live so.
GLOSTER.
- Vouchsafe to wear this ring.
ANNE.
- To take is not to give.
[She puts on the ring.]
GLOSTER.
- Look, how this ring encompasseth thy finger,
- Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart;
- Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.
- And if thy poor devoted servant may
- But beg one favour at thy gracious hand,
- Thou dost confirm his happiness for ever.
ANNE.
- What is it?
GLOSTER.
- That it may please you leave these sad designs
- To him that hath most cause to be a mourner,
- And presently repair to Crosby Place;
- Where,—after I have solemnly interr'd
- At Chertsey monastery, this noble king,
- And wet his grave with my repentant tears,—
- I will with all expedient duty see you:
- For divers unknown reasons, I beseech you,
- Grant me this boon.
ANNE.
- With all my heart; and much it joys me too
- To see you are become so penitent.—
- Tressel and Berkeley, go along with me.
GLOSTER.
- Bid me farewell.
ANNE.
- 'Tis more than you deserve;
- But since you teach me how to flatter you,
- Imagine I have said farewell already.
[Exeunt Lady Anne, Tress, and Berk.]
GLOSTER.
- Sirs, take up the corse.
GENTLEMEN.
- Towards Chertsey, noble lord?
GLOSTER.
- No, to White Friars; there attend my coming.
[Exeunt the rest, with the Corpse.]
- Was ever woman in this humour woo'd?
- Was ever woman in this humour won?
- I'll have her; but I will not keep her long.
- What! I that kill'd her husband and his father,
- To take her in her heart's extremest hate;
- With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes,
- The bleeding witness of her hatred by;
- Having God, her conscience, and these bars against me,
- And I no friends to back my suit withal,
- But the plain devil and dissembling looks,
- And yet to win her,—all the world to nothing!
- Ha!
- Hath she forgot already that brave prince,
- Edward, her lord, whom I, some three months since,
- Stabb'd in my angry mood at Tewksbury?
- A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman,—
- Fram'd in the prodigality of nature,
- Young, valiant, wise, and, no doubt, right royal,—
- The spacious world cannot again afford:
- And will she yet abase her eyes on me,
- That cropp'd the golden prime of this sweet prince,
- And made her widow to a woeful bed?
- On me, whose all not equals Edward's moiety?
- On me, that halt and am misshapen thus?
- My dukedom to a beggarly denier,
- I do mistake my person all this while:
- Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,
- Myself to be a marvellous proper man.
- I'll be at charges for a looking-glass;
- And entertain a score or two of tailors,
- To study fashions to adorn my body:
- Since I am crept in favour with myself,
- I will maintain it with some little cost.
- But first I'll turn yon fellow in his grave;
- And then return lamenting to my love.—
- Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass,
- That I may see my shadow as I pass.
[Exit.]
SCENE 3. London. A room in the palace.
[Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH, LORD RIVERS, and LORD GREY.]
RIVERS.
- Have patience, madam: there's no doubt his majesty
- Will soon recover his accustom'd health.
GREY.
- In that you brook it ill, it makes him worse:
- Therefore, for God's sake, entertain good comfort,
- And cheer his grace with quick and merry eyes.
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
- If he were dead, what would betide on me?
GREY.
- No other harm but loss of such a lord.
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
- The loss of such a lord includes all harms.
GREY.
- The heavens have bless'd you with a goodly son
- To be your comforter when he is gone.
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
- Ah, he is young; and his minority
- Is put unto the trust of Richard Gloster,
- A man that loves not me, nor none of you.
RIVERS.
- Is it concluded he shall be protector?
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
- It is determin'd, not concluded yet:
- But so it must be, if the king miscarry.
[Enter BUCKINGHAM and STANLEY.]
GREY.
- Here come the Lords of Buckingham and Stanley.
BUCKINGHAM.
- Good time of day unto your royal grace!
STANLEY.
- God make your majesty joyful as you have been!
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
- The Countess Richmond, good my Lord of Stanley,
- To your good prayer will scarcely say amen.
- Yet, Stanley, notwithstanding she's your wife,
- And loves not me, be you, good lord, assur'd
- I hate not you for her proud arrogance.
STANLEY.
- I do beseech you, either not believe
- The envious slanders of her false accusers;
- Or, if she be accus'd on true report,
- Bear with her weakness, which I think proceeds
- From wayward sickness, and no grounded malice.
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
- Saw you the king to-day, my Lord of Stanley?
STANLEY.
- But now the Duke of Buckingham and I
- Are come from visiting his majesty.
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
- What likelihood of his amendment, lords?
BUCKINGHAM.
- Madam, good hope; his grace speaks cheerfully.
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
- God grant him health! Did you confer with him?
BUCKINGHAM.
- Ay, madam; he desires to make atonement
- Between the Duke of Gloster and your brothers,
- And between them and my lord chamberlain;
- And sent to warn them to his royal presence.
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
- Would all were well!—but that will never be:
- I fear our happiness is at the height.
[Enter GLOSTER, HASTINGS, and DORSET.]
GLOSTER.
- They do me wrong, and I will not endure it:—
- Who are they that complain unto the king
- That I, forsooth, am stern and love them not?
- By holy Paul, they love his grace but lightly
- That fill his ears with such dissentious rumours.
- Because I cannot flatter and look fair,
- Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive, and cog,
- Duck with French nods and apish courtesy,
- I must be held a rancorous enemy.
- Cannot a plain man live, and think no harm,
- But thus his simple truth must be abus'd
- With silken, sly, insinuating Jacks?
GREY.
- To who in all this presence speaks your grace?
GLOSTER.
- To thee, that hast nor honesty nor grace.
- When have I injur'd thee? when done thee wrong?—
- Or thee?—or thee?—or any of your faction?
- A plague upon you all! His royal grace,—
- Whom God preserve better than you would wish!—
- Cannot be quiet scarce a breathing while,
- But you must trouble him with lewd complaints.
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
- Brother of Gloster, you mistake the matter.
- The king, on his own royal disposition,
- And not provok'd by any suitor else—
- Aiming, belike, at your interior hatred
- That in your outward action shows itself
- Against my children, brothers, and myself—
- Makes him to send; that thereby he may gather
- The ground of your ill-will, and so remove it.
GLOSTER.
- I cannot tell: the world is grown so bad
- That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch:
- Since every Jack became a gentleman,
- There's many a gentle person made a Jack.
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
- Come, come, we know your meaning, brother Gloster;
- You envy my advancement, and my friends';
- God grant we never may have need of you!
GLOSTER.
- Meantime, God grants that we have need of you:
- Our brother is imprison'd by your means,
- Myself disgrac'd, and the nobility
- Held in contempt; while great promotions
- Are daily given to ennoble those
- That scarce, some two days since, were worth a noble.
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
- By Him that rais'd me to this careful height
- From that contented hap which I enjoy'd,
- I never did incense his majesty
- Against the Duke of Clarence, but have been
- An earnest advocate to plead for him.
- My lord, you do me shameful injury
- Falsely to draw me in these vile suspects.
GLOSTER.
- You may deny that you were not the mean
- Of my Lord Hastings' late imprisonment.
RIVERS.
- She may, my lord; for,—
GLOSTER.
- She may, Lord Rivers?—why, who knows not so?
- She may do more, sir, than denying that:
- She may help you to many fair preferments;
- And then deny her aiding hand therein,
- And lay those honours on your high desert.
- What may she not? She may,—ay, marry, may she,—
RIVERS.
- What, marry, may she?
GLOSTER.
- What, marry, may she! marry with a king,
- A bachelor, and a handsome stripling too:
- I wis your grandam had a worser match.
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
- My Lord of Gloster, I have too long borne
- Your blunt upbraidings and your bitter scoffs:
- By heaven, I will acquaint his majesty
- Of those gross taunts that oft I have endur'd.
- I had rather be a country servant-maid
- Than a great queen with this condition,—
- To be so baited, scorn'd, and stormed at.
[Enter old QUEEN MARGARET, behind.]
- Small joy have I in being England's queen.
QUEEN MARGARET.
- And lessen'd be that small, God, I beseech Him!
- Thy honour, state, and seat, is due to me.
GLOSTER.
- What! Threat you me with telling of the king?
- Tell him, and spare not: look what I have said
- I will avouch in presence of the king:
- I dare adventure to be sent to the Tower.
- 'Tis time to speak,—my pains are quite forgot.
QUEEN MARGARET.
- Out, devil! I do remember them too well:
- Thou kill'dst my husband Henry in the Tower,
- And Edward, my poor son, at Tewksbury.
GLOSTER.
- Ere you were queen, ay, or your husband king,
- I was a pack-horse in his great affairs;
- A weeder-out of his proud adversaries,
- A liberal rewarder of his friends;
- To royalize his blood I spilt mine own.
QUEEN MARGARET.
- Ay, and much better blood than his or thine.
GLOSTER.
- In all which time you and your husband Grey
- Were factious for the house of Lancaster;—
- And, Rivers, so were you: was not your husband
- In Margaret's battle at Saint Albans slain?
- Let me put in your minds, if you forget,
- What you have been ere this, and what you are;
- Withal, what I have been, and what I am.
QUEEN MARGARET.
- A murderous villain, and so still thou art.
GLOSTER.
- Poor Clarence did forsake his father, Warwick;
- Ay, and forswore himself,—which Jesu pardon!—
QUEEN MARGARET.
- Which God revenge!
GLOSTER.
- To fight on Edward's party for the crown;
- And for his meed, poor lord, he is mew'd up.
- I would to God my heart were flint, like Edward's,
- Or Edward's soft and pitiful, like mine:
- I am too childish-foolish for this world.
QUEEN MARGARET.
- Hie thee to hell for shame and leave this world,
- Thou cacodemon! there thy kingdom is.
RIVERS.
- My Lord of Gloster, in those busy days
- Which here you urge to prove us enemies,
- We follow'd then our lord, our sovereign king:
- So should we you, if you should be our king.
GLOSTER.
- If I should be!—I had rather be a pedler:
- Far be it from my heart, the thought thereof!
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
- As little joy, my lord, as you suppose
- You should enjoy, were you this country's king,—
- As little joy you may suppose in me,
- That I enjoy, being the queen thereof.
QUEEN MARGARET.
- As little joy enjoys the queen thereof;
- For I am she, and altogether joyless.
- I can no longer hold me patient.—
[Advancing.]
- Hear me, you wrangling pirates, that fall out
- In sharing that which you have pill'd from me!
- Which of you trembles not that looks on me?
- If not that, I am queen, you bow like subjects,
- Yet that, by you depos'd, you quake like rebels?
- Ah, gentle villain, do not turn away!
GLOSTER.
- Foul wrinkled witch, what mak'st thou in my sight?
QUEEN MARGARET.
- But repetition of what thou hast marr'd,
- That will I make before I let thee go.
GLOSTER.
- Wert thou not banished on pain of death?
QUEEN MARGARET.
- I was; but I do find more pain in banishment
- Than death can yield me here by my abode.
- A husband and a son thou ow'st to me,—
- And thou a kingdom,—all of you allegiance:
- This sorrow that I have, by right is yours;
- And all the pleasures you usurp are mine.
GLOSTER.
- The curse my noble father laid on thee,
- When thou didst crown his warlike brows with paper,
- And with thy scorns drew'st rivers from his eyes;
- And then to dry them gav'st the Duke a clout
- Steep'd in the faultless blood of pretty Rutland;—
- His curses, then from bitterness of soul
- Denounc'd against thee, are all fallen upon thee;
- And God, not we, hath plagu'd thy bloody deed.
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
- So just is God, to right the innocent.
HASTINGS.
- O, 'twas the foulest deed to slay that babe,
- And the most merciless that e'er was heard of.
RIVERS.
- Tyrants themselves wept when it was reported.
DORSET.
- No man but prophesied revenge for it.
BUCKINGHAM.
- Northumberland, then present, wept to see it.
QUEEN MARGARET.
- What, were you snarling all before I came,
- Ready to catch each other by the throat,
- And turn you all your hatred now on me?
- Did York's dread curse prevail so much with heaven
- That Henry's death, my lovely Edward's death,
- Their kingdom's loss, my woeful banishment,
- Should all but answer for that peevish brat?
- Can curses pierce the clouds and enter heaven?—
- Why, then, give way, dull clouds, to my quick curses!—
- Though not by war, by surfeit die your king,
- As ours by murder, to make him a king!
- Edward thy son, that now is Prince of Wales,
- For Edward our son, that was Prince of Wales,
- Die in his youth by like untimely violence!
- Thyself a queen, for me that was a queen,
- Outlive thy glory, like my wretched self!
- Long mayest thou live to wail thy children's death;
- And see another, as I see thee now,
- Deck'd in thy rights, as thou art stall'd in mine!
- Long die thy happy days before thy death;
- And, after many lengthen'd hours of grief,
- Die neither mother, wife, nor England's queen!—
- Rivers and Dorset, you were standers by,—
- And so wast thou, Lord Hastings,—when my son
- Was stabb'd with bloody daggers: God, I pray Him,
- That none of you may live his natural age,
- But by some unlook'd accident cut off!
GLOSTER.
- Have done thy charm, thou hateful wither'd hag.
QUEEN MARGARET.
- And leave out thee? stay, dog, for thou shalt hear me.
- If heaven have any grievous plague in store
- Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,
- O, let them keep it till thy sins be ripe,
- And then hurl down their indignation
- On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace!
- The worm of conscience still be-gnaw thy soul!
- Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liv'st,
- And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends!
- No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine,
- Unless it be while some tormenting dream
- Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils!
- Thou elvish-mark'd, abortive, rooting hog!
- Thou that wast seal'd in thy nativity
- The slave of nature and the son of hell!
- Thou slander of thy heavy mother's womb!
- Thou loathed issue of thy father's loins!
- Thou rag of honour! thou detested—
GLOSTER.
- Margaret.
QUEEN MARGARET.
- Richard!
GLOSTER.
- Ha!
QUEEN MARGARET.
- I call thee not.
GLOSTER.
- I cry thee mercy then; for I did think
- That thou hadst call'd me all these bitter names.
QUEEN MARGARET.
- Why, so I did; but look'd for no reply.
- O, let me make the period to my curse!
GLOSTER.
- 'Tis done by me, and ends in—Margaret.
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
- Thus have you breath'd your curse against yourself.
QUEEN MARGARET.
- Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my fortune!
- Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider,
- Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about?
- Fool, fool! thou whett'st a knife to kill thyself.
- The day will come that thou shalt wish for me
- To help thee curse this poisonous bunch-back'd toad.
HASTINGS.
- False-boding woman, end thy frantic curse,
- Lest to thy harm thou move our patience.
QUEEN MARGARET.
- Foul shame upon you! you have all mov'd mine.
RIVERS.
- Were you well serv'd, you would be taught your duty.
QUEEN MARGARET.
- To serve me well, you all should do me duty,
- Teach me to be your queen, and you my subjects:
- O, serve me well, and teach yourselves that duty!
DORSET.
- Dispute not with her,—she is lunatic.
QUEEN MARGARET.
- Peace, master marquis, you are malapert:
- Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current:
- O, that your young nobility could judge
- What 'twere to lose it, and be miserable!
- They that stand high have many blasts to shake them;
- And if they fall they dash themselves to pieces.
GLOSTER.
- Good counsel, marry:—learn it, learn it, marquis.
DORSET.
- It touches you, my lord, as much as me.
GLOSTER.
- Ay, and much more: but I was born so high,
- Our aery buildeth in the cedar's top,
- And dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun.
QUEEN MARGARET.
- And turns the sun to shade;—alas! alas!—
- Witness my son, now in the shade of death;
- Whose bright out-shining beams thy cloudy wrath,
- Hath in eternal darkness folded up.
- Your aery buildeth in our aery's nest:—
- O God that seest it, do not suffer it;
- As it is won with blood, lost be it so!
BUCKINGHAM.
- Peace, peace, for shame, if not for charity.
QUEEN MARGARET.
- Urge neither charity nor shame to me:
- Uncharitably with me have you dealt,
- And shamefully my hopes by you are butcher'd.
- My charity is outrage, life my shame,—
- And in that shame still live my sorrow's rage!
BUCKINGHAM.
- Have done, have done.
QUEEN MARGARET.
- O princely Buckingham, I'll kiss thy hand,
- In sign of league and amity with thee:
- Now fair befall thee and thy noble house!
- Thy garments are not spotted with our blood,
- Nor thou within the compass of my curse.
BUCKINGHAM.
- Nor no one here; for curses never pass
- The lips of those that breathe them in the air.
QUEEN MARGARET.
- I will not think but they ascend the sky,
- And there awake God's gentle-sleeping peace.
- O Buckingham, take heed of yonder dog!
- Look, when he fawns he bites; and when he bites,
- His venom tooth will rankle to the death:
- Have not to do with him, beware of him;
- Sin, death, and hell have set their marks on him,
- And all their ministers attend on him.
GLOSTER.
- What doth she say, my Lord of Buckingham?
BUCKINGHAM.
- Nothing that I respect, my gracious lord.
QUEEN MARGARET.
- What, dost thou scorn me for my gentle counsel?
- And soothe the devil that I warn thee from?
- O, but remember this another day,
- When he shall split thy very heart with sorrow,
- And say, poor Margaret was a prophetess!—
- Live each of you the subjects to his hate,
- And he to yours, and all of you to God's!
[Exit.]
BUCKINGHAM.
- My hair doth stand an end to hear her curses.
RIVERS.
- And so doth mine: I muse why she's at liberty.
GLOSTER.
- I cannot blame her: by God's holy mother,
- She hath had too much wrong; and I repent
- My part thereof that I have done to her.
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
- I never did her any, to my knowledge.
GLOSTER.
- Yet you have all the vantage of her wrong.
- I was too hot to do somebody good,
- That is too cold in thinking of it now.
- Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repaid;
- He is frank'd up to fatting for his pains;
- God pardon them that are the cause thereof!
RIVERS.
- A virtuous and a Christian-like conclusion,
- To pray for them that have done scathe to us!
GLOSTER.
- So do I ever being well advis'd;
- [Aside.] For had I curs'd now, I had curs'd myself.
[Enter CATESBY.]
CATESBY.
- Madam, his majesty doth can for you,—
- And for your grace,—and you, my noble lords.
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
- Catesby, I come.—Lords, will you go with me?
RIVERS.
- We wait upon your grace.
[Exeunt all but GLOSTER.]
GLOSTER.
- I do the wrong, and first begin to brawl.
- The secret mischiefs that I set abroach
- I lay unto the grievous charge of others.
- Clarence,—whom I indeed have cast in darkness,—
- I do beweep to many simple gulls;
- Namely, to Stanley, Hastings, Buckingham;
- And tell them 'tis the queen and her allies
- That stir the king against the duke my brother.
- Now they believe it; and withal whet me
- To be reveng'd on Rivers, Vaughn, Grey:
- But then I sigh; and, with a piece of Scripture,
- Tell them that God bids us do good for evil:
- And thus I clothe my naked villany
- With odd old ends stol'n forth of holy writ;
- And seem a saint when most I play the devil.—
- But, soft, here come my executioners.
[Enter two MURDERERS.]
- How now, my hardy stout resolved mates!
- Are you now going to dispatch this thing?
FIRST MURDERER.
- We are, my lord, and come to have the warrant,
- That we may be admitted where he is.
GLOSTER.
- Well thought upon;—I have it here about me:
[Gives the warrant.]
- When you have done, repair to Crosby Place.
- But, sirs, be sudden in the execution,
- Withal obdurate, do not hear him plead;
- For Clarence is well-spoken, and perhaps
- May move your hearts to pity, if you mark him.
FIRST MURDERER.
- Tut, tut, my lord, we will not stand to prate;
- Talkers are no good doers: be assur'd
- We go to use our hands, and not our tongues.
GLOSTER.
- Your eyes drop millstones when fools' eyes fall tears:
- I like you, lads;—about your business straight;
- Go, go, despatch.
FIRST MURDERER.
- We will, my noble lord.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE 4. London. A room in the Tower.
[Enter CLARENCE and BRAKENBURY.]
BRAKENBURY.
- Why looks your grace so heavily to-day?
CLARENCE.
- O, I have pass'd a miserable night,
- So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights,
- That, as I am a Christian faithful man,
- I would not spend another such a night
- Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days,—
- So full of dismal terror was the time!
BRAKENBURY.
- What was your dream, my lord? I pray you tell me.
CLARENCE.
- Methoughts that I had broken from the Tower,
- And was embark'd to cross to Burgundy;
- And, in my company, my brother Gloster;
- Who from my cabin tempted me to walk
- Upon the hatches: thence we look'd toward England,
- And cited up a thousand heavy times,
- During the wars of York and Lancaster,
- That had befall'n us. As we pac'd along
- Upon the giddy footing of the hatches,
- Methought that Gloster stumbled; and, in falling,
- Struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard
- Into the tumbling billows of the main.
- O Lord, methought what pain it was to drown!
- What dreadful noise of waters in my ears!
- What sights of ugly death within my eyes!
- Methoughts I saw a thousand fearful wrecks;
- A thousand men that fishes gnaw'd upon;
- Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
- Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,
- All scatt'red in the bottom of the sea:
- Some lay in dead men's skulls; and in the holes
- Where eyes did once inhabit there were crept,—
- As 'twere in scorn of eyes,—reflecting gems,
- That woo'd the slimy bottom of the deep,
- And mock'd the dead bones that lay scatter'd by.
BRAKENBURY.
- Had you such leisure in the time of death
- To gaze upon these secrets of the deep?
CLARENCE.
- Methought I had; and often did I strive
- To yield the ghost: but still the envious flood
- Stopp'd in my soul, and would not let it forth
- To find the empty, vast, and wandering air;
- But smother'd it within my panting bulk,
- Who almost burst to belch it in the sea.
BRAKENBURY.
- Awak'd you not in this sore agony?
CLARENCE.
- No, no, my dream was lengthen'd after life;
- O, then began the tempest to my soul!
- I pass'd, methought, the melancholy flood
- With that grim ferryman which poets write of,
- Unto the kingdom of perpetual night.
- The first that there did greet my stranger soul
- Was my great father-in-law, renowned Warwick;
- Who spake aloud, "What scourge for perjury
- Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?"
- And so he vanish'd: then came wandering by
- A shadow like an Angel, with bright hair
- Dabbled in blood; and he shriek'd out aloud
- "Clarence is come,—false, fleeting, perjur'd Clarence,—
- That stabb'd me in the field by Tewksbury;—
- Seize on him, Furies, take him to your torments!"
- With that, methoughts, a legion of foul fiends
- Environ'd me, and howled in mine ears
- Such hideous cries that, with the very noise,
- I trembling wak'd, and for a season after
- Could not believe but that I was in hell,—
- Such terrible impression made my dream.
BRAKENBURY.
- No marvel, lord, though it affrighted you;
- I am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it.
CLARENCE.
- Ah, Brakenbury, I have done these things
- That now give evidence against my soul,
- For Edward's sake; and see how he requites me!—
- O God! If my deep prayers cannot appease Thee,
- But Thou wilt be aveng'd on my misdeeds,
- Yet execute Thy wrath in me alone,—
- O, spare my guiltless wife and my poor children!—
- Keeper, I prithee sit by me awhile;
- My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep.
BRAKENBURY.
- I will, my lord; God give your grace good rest!—
[CLARENCE reposes himself on a chair.]
- Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours,
- Makes the night morning and the noontide night.
- Princes have but their titles for their glories,
- An outward honour for an inward toil;
- And, for unfelt imaginations,
- They often feel a world of restless cares:
- So that, between their tides and low name,
- There's nothing differs but the outward fame.
[Enter the two MURDERERS.]
FIRST MURDERER.
- Ho! who's here?
BRAKENBURY.
- What wouldst thou, fellow, and how cam'st thou hither?
FIRST MURDERER.
- I would speak with Clarence, and I came hither on my legs.
BRAKENBURY.
- What, so brief?
SECOND MURDERER.
- 'Tis better, sir, than to be tedious.—Let
- him see our commission and talk no more.
[A paper is delivered to BRAKENBURY, who reads it.]
BRAKENBURY.
- I am, in this, commanded to deliver
- The noble Duke of Clarence to your hands:—
- I will not reason what is meant hereby,
- Because I will be guiltless of the meaning.
- There lies the Duke asleep,—and there the keys;
- I'll to the king and signify to him
- That thus I have resign'd to you my charge.
FIRST MURDERER.
- You may, sir; 'tis a point of wisdom: fare you well.
[Exit BRAKENBURY.]
SECOND MURDERER.
- What, shall we stab him as he sleeps?
FIRST MURDERER.
- No; he'll say 'twas done cowardly, when he wakes.
SECOND MURDERER.
- When he wakes! why, fool, he shall never wake until the great
- judgment-day.
FIRST MURDERER.
- Why, then he'll say we stabb'd him sleeping.
SECOND MURDERER.
- The urging of that word "judgment" hath bred a kind of remorse in
- me.
FIRST MURDERER.
- What, art thou afraid?
SECOND MURDERER.
- Not to kill him, having a warrant for it; but to be damned
- for killing him, from the which no warrant can defend me.
FIRST MURDERER.
- I thought thou hadst been resolute.
SECOND MURDERER.
- So I am, to let him live.
FIRST MURDERER.
- I'll back to the Duke of Gloster and tell him so.
SECOND MURDERER.
- Nay, I pr'ythee, stay a little: I hope my holy humour will
- change; it was wont to hold me but while one tells twenty.
FIRST MURDERER.
- How dost thou feel thyself now?
SECOND MURDERER.
- Faith, some certain dregs of conscience are yet within me.
FIRST MURDERER.
- Remember our reward, when the deed's done.
SECOND MURDERER.
- Zounds, he dies: I had forgot the reward.
FIRST MURDERER.
- Where's thy conscience now?
SECOND MURDERER.
- O, in the Duke of Gloster's purse.
FIRST MURDERER.
- So, when he opens his purse to give us our reward,
- thy conscience flies out.
SECOND MURDERER.
- 'Tis no matter; let it go; there's few or none will entertain it.
FIRST MURDERER.
- What if it come to thee again?
SECOND MURDERER.
- I'll not meddle with it,—it makes a man coward;
- a man cannot steal, but it accuseth him; a man
- cannot swear, but it checks him; a man cannot lie with his
- neighbour's wife, but it detects him: 'tis a blushing shame-
- faced spirit that mutinies in a man's bosom; it fills a man
- full of obstacles: it made me once restore a purse of gold
- that by chance I found; it beggars any man that keeps it:
- it is turned out of towns and cities for a dangerous thing;
- and every man that means to live well endeavours to trust
- to himself and live without it.
FIRST MURDERER.
- Zounds,'tis even now at my elbow, persuading me
- not to kill the duke.
SECOND MURDERER.
- Take the devil in thy mind, and believe him not; he would
- insinuate with thee but to make thee sigh.
FIRST MURDERER.
- I am strong-framed; he cannot prevail with me.
SECOND MURDERER.
- Spoke like a tall man that respects thy reputation.
- Come, shall we fall to work?
FIRST MURDERER.
- Take him on the costard with the hilts of thy sword,
- and then throw him in the malmsey-butt in the next room.
SECOND MURDERER.
- O excellent device! and make a sop of him.
FIRST MURDERER.
- Soft! he wakes.
SECOND MURDERER.
- Strike!
FIRST MURDERER.
- No, we'll reason with him.
CLARENCE.
- Where art thou, keeper? give me a cup of wine.
SECOND MURDERER.
- You shall have wine enough, my lord, anon.
CLARENCE.
- In God's name, what art thou?
FIRST MURDERER.
- A man, as you are.
CLARENCE.
- But not as I am, royal.
SECOND MURDERER.
- Nor you as we are, loyal.
CLARENCE.
- Thy voice is thunder, but thy looks are humble.
FIRST MURDERER.
- My voice is now the king's, my looks mine own.
CLARENCE.
- How darkly and how deadly dost thou speak!
- Your eyes do menace me; why look you pale?
- Who sent you hither? Wherefore do you come?
SECOND MURDERER.
- To, to, to—
CLARENCE.
- To murder me?
BOTH MURDERERS.
- Ay, ay.
CLARENCE.
- You scarcely have the hearts to tell me so,
- And therefore cannot have the hearts to do it.
- Wherein, my friends, have I offended you?
FIRST MURDERER.
- Offended us you have not, but the king.
CLARENCE.
- I shall be reconcil'd to him again.
SECOND MURDERER.
- Never, my lord; therefore prepare to die.
CLARENCE.
- Are you drawn forth among a world of men
- To slay the innocent? What is my offence?
- Where is the evidence that doth accuse me?
- What lawful quest have given their verdict up
- Unto the frowning judge? or who pronounc'd
- The bitter sentence of poor Clarence' death?
- Before I be convict by course of law,
- To threaten me with death is most unlawful.
- I charge you, as you hope to have redemption
- By Christ's dear blood shed for our grievous sins,
- That you depart, and lay no hands on me:
- The deed you undertake is damnable.
FIRST MURDERER.
- What we will do, we do upon command.
SECOND MURDERER.
- And he that hath commanded is our king.
CLARENCE.
- Erroneous vassals! the great King of kings
- Hath in the table of his law commanded
- That thou shalt do no murder: will you then
- Spurn at His edict and fulfil a man's?
- Take heed; for He holds vengeance in His hand
- To hurl upon their heads that break His law.
SECOND MURDERER.
- And that same vengeance doth He hurl on thee
- For false forswearing, and for murder too:
- Thou didst receive the sacrament to fight
- In quarrel of the house of Lancaster.
FIRST MURDERER.
- And like a traitor to the name of God
- Didst break that vow; and with thy treacherous blade
- Unripp'dst the bowels of thy sovereign's son.
SECOND MURDERER.
- Whom thou wast sworn to cherish and defend.
FIRST MURDERER.
- How canst thou urge God's dreadful law to us,
- When thou hast broke it in such dear degree?
CLARENCE.
- Alas! for whose sake did I that ill deed?
- For Edward, for my brother, for his sake:
- He sends you not to murder me for this;
- For in that sin he is as deep as I.
- If God will be avenged for the deed,
- O, know you yet He doth it publicly.
- Take not the quarrel from His powerful arm;
- He needs no indirect or lawless course
- To cut off those that have offended Him.
FIRST MURDERER.
- Who made thee, then, a bloody minister
- When gallant-springing brave Plantagenet,
- That princely novice, was struck dead by thee?
CLARENCE.
- My brother's love, the devil, and my rage.
FIRST MURDERER.
- Thy brother's love, our duty, and thy faults,
- Provoke us hither now to slaughter thee.
CLARENCE.
- If you do love my brother, hate not me;
- I am his brother, and I love him well.
- If you are hir'd for meed, go back again,
- And I will send you to my brother Gloster,
- Who shall reward you better for my life
- Than Edward will for tidings of my death.
SECOND MURDERER.
- You are deceiv'd, your brother Gloster hates you.
CLARENCE.
- O, no, he loves me, and he holds me dear:
- Go you to him from me.
FIRST MURDERER.
- Ay, so we will.
CLARENCE.
- Tell him when that our princely father York
- Bless'd his three sons with his victorious arm
- And charg'd us from his soul to love each other,
- He little thought of this divided friendship:
- Bid Gloster think of this, and he will weep.
FIRST MURDERER.
- Ay, millstones; as he lesson'd us to weep.
CLARENCE.
- O, do not slander him, for he is kind.
FIRST MURDERER.
- Right, as snow in harvest.—Come, you deceive yourself:
- 'Tis he that sends us to destroy you here.
CLARENCE.
- It cannot be; for he bewept my fortune,
- And hugg'd me in his arms, and swore, with sobs,
- That he would labour my delivery.
FIRST MURDERER.
- Why, so he doth, when he delivers you
- From this earth's thraldom to the joys of heaven.
SECOND MURDERER.
- Make peace with God, for you must die, my lord.
CLARENCE.
- Have you that holy feeling in your souls,
- To counsel me to make my peace with God,
- And are you yet to your own souls so blind
- That you will war with God by murdering me?—
- O, sirs, consider, they that set you on
- To do this deed will hate you for the deed.
SECOND MURDERER.
- What shall we do?
CLARENCE.
- Relent, and save your souls.
FIRST MURDERER.
- Relent! 'tis cowardly and womanish.
CLARENCE.
- Not to relent is beastly, savage, devilish.
- Which of you, if you were a prince's son,
- Being pent from liberty, as I am now,—
- If two such murderers as yourselves came to you,—
- Would not entreat for life?—
- My friend, I spy some pity in thy looks;
- O, if thine eye be not a flatterer,
- Come thou on my side, and entreat for me,
- As you would beg, were you in my distress:
- A begging prince what beggar pities not?
SECOND MURDERER.
- Look behind you, my lord.
FIRST MURDERER. [Stabs him.]
- Take that, and that: if all this will not do,
- I'll drown you in the malmsey-butt within.
[Exit with the body.]
SECOND MURDERER.
- A bloody deed, and desperately dispatch'd!
- How fain, like Pilate, would I wash my hands
- Of this most grievous murder!
[Re-enter FIRST MURDERER.]
FIRST MURDERER.
- How now, what mean'st thou that thou help'st me not?
- By heavens, the duke shall know how slack you have
- been!
SECOND MURDERER.
- I would he knew that I had sav'd his brother!
- Take thou the fee, and tell him what I say;
- For I repent me that the duke is slain.
[Exit.]
FIRST MURDERER.
- So do not I: go, coward as thou art.—
- Well, I'll go hide the body in some hole,
- Till that the duke give order for his burial:
- And when I have my meed, I will away;
- For this will out, and then I must not stay.
[Exit.]