Richard III (18 page)

These English woes shall make me smile in France.

Starts to leave

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    O thou well skilled in curses, stay awhile,

And teach me how to curse mine enemies!

QUEEN MARGARET
    
Forbear
¹¹⁷
to sleep the night, and fast the day:

Compare dead happiness with living woe:

Think that thy babes were sweeter than they were,

And he that slew them fouler than he is.

Bett’ring
thy loss makes the
bad causer
¹²¹
worse:

Revolving
¹²²
this will teach thee how to curse.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    My words are
dull.
O,
quicken
¹²³
them with thine!

QUEEN MARGARET
    Thy woes will make them sharp, and pierce like mine.

DUCHESS OF YORK
    Why should calamity be full of words?

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    
Windy attorneys to their client’s woes
¹²⁶
,

Airy succeeders of
intestine
¹²⁷
joys,

Poor breathing orators of miseries!

Let them have
scope
¹²⁹
: though what they will impart

Help nothing else, yet do they ease the heart.

DUCHESS OF YORK
    If so, then be not tongue-tied: go with me.

And in the breath of bitter words let’s smother

My damned son, that thy two sweet sons smothered.

Trumpet

The trumpet sounds: be copious in
exclaims.
¹³⁴

RICHARD
    Who intercepts me in my
expedition?
¹³⁵

DUCHESS OF YORK
    O, she that
might
¹³⁶
have intercepted thee,

By strangling thee in her accursed womb,

From
¹³⁸
all the slaughters, wretch, that thou hast done!

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    Hid’st thou that forehead with a golden crown

Where’t should be
branded
¹⁴⁰
, if that right were right,

The slaughter of the prince that
owed
¹⁴¹
that crown,

And the dire death of my poor sons and brothers?

Tell me, thou
villain
¹⁴³
slave, where are my children?

DUCHESS OF YORK
    Thou toad, thou toad, where is thy brother Clarence?

And little Ned Plantagenet, his son?

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    Where is the gentle Rivers, Vaughan, Grey?

DUCHESS OF YORK
    Where is kind Hastings?

RICHARD
    A
flourish
, trumpets! Strike
alarum
¹⁴⁸
, drums!

Let not the heavens hear these
tell-tale
¹⁴⁹
women

Rail
on the
lord’s anointed.
¹⁵⁰
Strike, I say!

Either be patient and
entreat me fair
¹⁵¹
,

Or with the clamorous
report
¹⁵²
of war

Thus will I drown your exclamations.

DUCHESS OF YORK
    Art thou my son?

RICHARD
    Ay, I thank God, my father, and yourself.

DUCHESS OF YORK
    Then patiently hear my
impatience.
¹⁵⁶

RICHARD
    Madam, I have a touch of your
condition
¹⁵⁷
,

That cannot
brook the accent of reproof.
¹⁵⁸

DUCHESS OF YORK
    O, let me speak!

RICHARD
    Do then, but I’ll not hear.

DUCHESS OF YORK
    I will be mild and gentle in my words.

RICHARD
    And brief, good mother, for I am in haste.

DUCHESS OF YORK
    Art thou so hasty? I have
stayed
¹⁶³
for thee,

God knows, in torment and in agony.

RICHARD
    And came I not at last to comfort you?

DUCHESS OF YORK
    No, by the holy
rood
¹⁶⁶
, thou know’st it well,

Thou cam’st on earth to make the earth my hell.

A grievous burden was thy birth to me:

Tetchy
and
wayward
¹⁶⁹
was thy infancy:

Thy schooldays
frightful
,
desp’rate
¹⁷⁰
, wild, and furious:

Thy
prime
¹⁷¹
of manhood daring, bold, and venturous:

Thy
age confirmed
¹⁷²
, proud, subtle, sly and bloody.

More mild, but yet more harmful,
kind in hatred.
¹⁷³

What
comfortable
¹⁷⁴
hour canst thou name,

That ever graced me with thy company?

RICHARD
    Faith, none, but
Humphrey Hour
, that called your
grace
¹⁷⁶

To breakfast once
forth
¹⁷⁷
of my company.

If I be so disgracious in your eye,

Let me march on and not offend you, madam.

Strike up the drum.

Drums

DUCHESS OF YORK
    I prithee hear me speak.

RICHARD
    You speak too bitterly.

DUCHESS OF YORK
    Hear me a word,

For I shall never speak to thee again.

RICHARD
    So.

DUCHESS OF YORK
    Either thou wilt die, by God’s just
ordinance
¹⁸⁶

Ere from this war thou
turn
¹⁸⁷
a conqueror,

Or I with grief and extreme age shall perish

And never more behold thy face again.

Therefore take with thee my most grievous curse,

Which in the day of battle
tire
¹⁹¹
thee more

Than all the
complete
¹⁹²
armour that thou wear’st!

My prayers on the adverse party fight,

And there the little souls of Edward’s children

Whisper
¹⁹⁵
the spirits of thine enemies

And promise them success and victory.

Bloody thou art, bloody will be thy end:

Shame
serves
thy life and
doth
¹⁹⁸
thy death attend.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    Though far more cause, yet much less spirit to curse

Abides in me: I say amen to her.

RICHARD
    Stay, madam, I must talk a word with you.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    I have no more sons of the royal blood

For thee to slaughter: for my daughters, Richard,

They shall be praying nuns, not weeping queens,

And therefore
level
²⁰⁵
not to hit their lives.

RICHARD
    You have a daughter called Elizabeth,

Virtuous and fair, royal and gracious.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    And must she die for this? O, let her live,

And I’ll corrupt her
manners
²⁰⁹
, stain her beauty,

Slander myself as
false
²¹⁰
to Edward’s bed,

Throw over her the
veil
²¹¹
of infamy:

So
she may live unscarred
of
²¹²
bleeding slaughter.

I will confess she was not Edward’s daughter.

RICHARD
    Wrong not her birth, she is a royal princess.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    To save her life, I’ll say she is not so.

RICHARD
    Her life is
safest only in her birth.
²¹⁶

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    And only in that safety died her brothers.

RICHARD
    Lo, at their birth good stars were
opposite.
²¹⁸

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    No, to their lives ill
friends
were
contrary.
²¹⁹

RICHARD
    All
unavoided
is the
doom
²²⁰
of destiny.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    True, when
avoided grace
²²¹
makes destiny.

My babes were destined to a
fairer
²²²
death,

If grace had blessed thee with a fairer life.

RICHARD
    You speak as if that I had slain my cousins.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    Cousins, indeed, and by their uncle
cozened
²²⁵

Of comfort, kingdom, kindred, freedom, life.

Whose hand soever
lanched
²²⁷
their tender hearts,

Thy
head
,
all indirectly
²²⁸
, gave direction.

No doubt the murd’rous knife was dull and blunt

Till it was whetted on thy stone-hard heart,

To revel in the entrails of my lambs.

But that still use
²³²
of grief makes wild grief tame,

My tongue should to thy ears not name my boys

Till that my nails were anchored in thine eyes,

And I, in such a desp’rate
bay
²³⁵
of death,

Like a
poor bark
, of sails and
tackling
reft
²³⁶
,

Rush
²³⁷
all to pieces on thy rocky bosom.

RICHARD
    Madam, so
thrive
I in my
enterprise
²³⁸

And
dangerous success
²³⁹
of bloody wars,

As
²⁴⁰
I intend more good to you and yours,

Than ever you and yours by me were harmed.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    What good is
covered with the face of heaven
²⁴²
,

To be
discovered
²⁴³
, that can do me good?

RICHARD
    
Th’advancement
²⁴⁴
of your children, gentle lady.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    Up to some
scaffold
²⁴⁵
, there to lose their heads?

RICHARD
    Unto the
dignity
²⁴⁶
and height of fortune,

The high imperial
type
²⁴⁷
of this earth’s glory.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    
Flatter
²⁴⁸
my sorrow with report of it:

Tell me what
state
²⁴⁹
, what dignity, what honour,

Canst thou
demise
²⁵⁰
to any child of mine?

RICHARD
    
Even
²⁵¹
all I have; ay, and myself and all,

Will I withal
endow
²⁵²
a child of thine,

So
in the
Lethe
²⁵³
of thy angry soul

Thou drown the sad
remembrance
²⁵⁴
of those wrongs

Which thou supposest I have done to thee.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    Be brief, lest that the
process
²⁵⁶
of thy kindness

Last longer
telling
than thy kindness’
date.
²⁵⁷

RICHARD
    Then know, that from my soul I love thy daughter.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    My daughter’s mother
thinks
²⁵⁹
it with her soul.

RICHARD
    What do you think?

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    That thou dost love my daughter
from
²⁶¹
thy soul.

So from thy soul’s love didst thou love her brothers,

And from my heart’s love I do thank thee for it.

RICHARD
    Be not so hasty to
confound
²⁶⁴
my meaning:

I mean that with my soul I love thy daughter

And do intend to make her Queen of England.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    Well then, who dost thou mean shall be her king?

RICHARD
    Even he that makes her queen. Who else should be?

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    What, thou?

RICHARD
    Even so.
How
²⁷⁰
think you of it?

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    How canst thou woo her?

RICHARD
    That I would learn of you,

As one being best acquainted with her
humour.
²⁷³

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    And wilt thou learn of me?

RICHARD
    Madam, with all my heart.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    Send to her, by the man that slew her brothers,

A pair of bleeding hearts: thereon
engrave
²⁷⁷

‘Edward’ and ‘York’, then
haply
²⁷⁸
will she weep:

Therefore present to her — as
sometime
²⁷⁹
Margaret

Did to thy father, steeped in Rutland’s blood —

A handkerchief, which, say to her, did drain

The
purple
²⁸²
sap from her sweet brother’s body,

And bid her wipe her weeping eyes
withal.
²⁸³

If this inducement move her not to love,

Send her a letter of thy noble deeds:

Tell her thou
mad’st away
²⁸⁶
her uncle Clarence,

Her uncle Rivers, ay, and, for her sake,

Mad’st quick
conveyance
²⁸⁸
with her good aunt Anne.

RICHARD
    You mock me, madam: this is not the way

To win your daughter.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    There is no other way,

Unless thou couldst put on some other
shape
²⁹²
,

And not be Richard that hath done all this.

RICHARD
    Say that I did all this for love of her.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    Nay, then indeed she cannot choose but hate thee,

Having bought love with such a bloody
spoil.
²⁹⁶

RICHARD
    
Look what
²⁹⁷
is done cannot be now amended:

Men shall
deal
²⁹⁸
unadvisedly sometimes,

Which
after-hours
²⁹⁹
give leisure to repent.

If I did take the kingdom from your sons,

To make amends, I’ll give it to your daughter.

If I have killed the
issue
³⁰²
of your womb,

To
quicken
your
increase
, I will
beget
³⁰³

Mine issue of your blood
upon
³⁰⁴
your daughter.

A grandam’s name is little less in love

Than is the doting title of a mother;

They are as children but one step below,

Even of your
mettle
³⁰⁸
, of your very blood,

Of all one
³⁰⁹
pain, save for a night of groans

Endured
of her
, for whom you
bid like sorrow.
³¹⁰

Your children were vexation to your youth,

But mine shall be a comfort to your age.

The loss you have is but a son being king,

And by that loss your daughter is made queen.

I cannot make you what amends I
would
³¹⁵
:

Therefore accept such kindness as I
can.
³¹⁶

Dorset your son, that with a fearful soul

Leads discontented steps in foreign soil,

This fair alliance quickly shall call home

To high promotions and great dignity.

The king that calls your beauteous daughter wife

Familiarly
³²²
shall call thy Dorset brother.

Again shall you be mother to a king,

And all the ruins of distressful times

Repaired with double riches of content.

What? We have many goodly days to see.

The liquid drops of tears that you have shed

Shall come again, transformed to
orient
³²⁸
pearl,

Advantaging
their love
³²⁹
with interest

Of ten times double gain of happiness.

Go then, my
mother
³³¹
, to thy daughter go:

Make
bold
³³²
her bashful years with your experience,

Prepare her ears to hear a wooer’s tale,

Put in her tender heart th’aspiring flame

Of golden sovereignty, acquaint the princess

With the sweet silent hours of marriage joys.

And when this arm of mine hath chastisèd

The petty rebel, dull-brained Buckingham,

Bound with triumphant garlands will I come

And lead thy daughter to a conqueror’s bed:

To whom I will
retail
³⁴¹
my conquest won,

And she shall be sole
victoress
,
Caesar’s Caesar.
³⁴²

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    What were I best to say? Her father’s brother

Would be her
lord?
³⁴⁴
Or shall I say her uncle?

Or he that slew her brothers and her uncles?

Under what title shall I woo for thee,

That God, the law, my honour and her love,

Can make seem pleasing to her tender years?

RICHARD
    
Infer
³⁴⁹
fair England’s peace by this alliance.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    Which she shall
purchase with still lasting war.
³⁵⁰

RICHARD
    Tell her the king, that may command, entreats.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    
That
at her hands which the
king’s king
³⁵²
forbids.

RICHARD
    Say she shall be a high and mighty queen.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    To
vail
³⁵⁴
the title, as her mother doth.

RICHARD
    Say I will love her everlastingly.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    But how long shall that
title
³⁵⁶
‘ever’ last?

RICHARD
    Sweetly
in force
³⁵⁷
unto her fair life’s end.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    But how long
fairly
³⁵⁸
shall her sweet life last?

RICHARD
    As long as heaven and nature lengthens it.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    As long as hell and Richard likes of it.

RICHARD
    Say I, her sovereign, am her subject low.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    But she, your subject,
loathes
³⁶²
such sovereignty.

RICHARD
    Be eloquent
in
³⁶³
my behalf to her.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    An honest tale
speeds
best being
plainly
³⁶⁴
told.

RICHARD
    Then plainly to her tell my loving tale.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    Plain and not honest is too harsh a style.

RICHARD
    Your reasons are too shallow and too
quick.
³⁶⁷

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    O no, my reasons are
too
deep
³⁶⁸
and dead: