Richard III (6 page)

RICHARD
    Vouchsafe to wear this ring.

Puts a ring on her

Look how my ring encompasseth thy finger.

Even so
²¹²
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?

RICHARD
    That it may please you leave these sad designs

To him that hath most cause to be a mourner,

And
presently
repair to
Crosby House
²²⁰
,

Where after I have solemnly interred

At Chertsey monast’ry this noble king,

And wet his grave with my repentant tears —

I will with all
expedient duty
²²⁴
see you.

For
divers
unknown
²²⁵
reasons, I beseech you,

Grant me this
boon.
²²⁶

ANNE
    With all my heart, and much it joys me too,

To see you are become so penitent.—

Tressell and Berkeley
²²⁹
, go along with me.

RICHARD
    Bid me farewell.

ANNE
    ’Tis more than you deserve,

But since you teach me how to flatter you,

Imagine I have said farewell already.

GENTLEMEN
    Towards Chertsey, noble lord?

RICHARD
    No, to
Whitefriars.
²³⁵
There attend my coming.

Was ever woman in this
humour
²³⁶
wooed?

Was ever woman in this humour won?

I’ll have her, but I will not keep her long.

What? I, that killed 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 my hatred
by
²⁴²
,

Having God, her conscience, and these
bars
²⁴³
against me,

And I no friends to back my
suit
withal
²⁴⁴
,

But the plain devil and dissembling looks?

And yet to win her,
all the world to nothing?
²⁴⁶

Ha!

Hath she forgot already that
brave
²⁴⁸
prince,

Edward, her lord, whom I, some three months since,

Stabbed in my angry
mood
at
Tewkesbury?
²⁵⁰

A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman,

Framed in the prodigality of nature
²⁵²
,

Young, valiant, wise, and, no doubt, right
royal
²⁵³
,

The spacious world cannot again afford.

And will she yet abase her eyes on me,

That cropped the golden
prime
²⁵⁶
of this sweet prince,

And made her widow to a woeful bed?

On me,
whose all not equals Edward’s moiety?
²⁵⁸

On me, that
halts
and am
misshapen
²⁵⁹
thus?

My dukedom to a beggarly
denier!
²⁶⁰

I do mistake my person all this while.

Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,

Myself to be a marv’llous
proper
²⁶³
man.

I’ll
be at charges for
²⁶⁴
a looking-glass,

And
entertain
a
score or two of
²⁶⁵
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
²⁶⁹
his grave,

And then return lamenting to my love.

Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a
glass
²⁷¹
,

That I may see my
shadow
²⁷²
as I pass.

RIVERS
    Have patience, madam. There’s no doubt his majesty

Will soon recover his accustomed health.

GREY
    In that you
brook it ill
³
, it makes him worse:

Therefore, for God’s sake,
entertain good comfort
⁴
,

And cheer his grace with quick and merry eyes.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    If he were dead, what would
betide on
⁶
me?

GREY
    No other harm but loss of such a lord.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    The loss of such a lord
includes
⁸
all harms.

GREY
    The heavens have blessed you with a
goodly
⁹
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 Gloucester,

A man that loves not me, nor none of you.

RIVERS
    Is it
concluded
he shall be
Protector?
¹⁴

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    It is determined, not concluded yet:

But so it must be, if the king
miscarry.
¹⁶

GREY
    Here come the lords of Buckingham and Derby.

BUCKINGHAM
    Good time of day unto your royal grace.

DERBY
    God make your majesty joyful as you have been.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    The
Countess Richmond
,
good my
²⁰
lord of Derby,

To your good prayer will scarcely say amen.

Yet, Derby, notwithstanding she’s your wife,

And loves not me, be you, good lord, assured

I hate not you for her proud arrogance.

DERBY
    I do beseech you either not believe

The
envious
²⁶
slanders of her false accusers,

Or, if she be accused on true report,

Bear with her weakness, which I think proceeds

From
wayward
²⁹
sickness and no grounded malice.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    Saw you the king today, my lord of Derby?

DERBY
    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?

BUCKINGHM
    Ay, madam. He desires to make
atonement
³⁶

Between the Duke of Gloucester and your
brothers
³⁷
,

And between them and my Lord Chamberlain,

And sent to
warn
³⁹
them to his royal presence.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    Would all were well! But that will never be.

I fear our
happiness
⁴¹
is at the height.

RICHARD
    They do me wrong, and I will not endure it.

Who is it that complains unto the king

That I,
forsooth
, am
stern
⁴⁴
and love them not?

By holy Paul, they love his grace but
lightly
⁴⁵

That fill his ears with such
dissentious
⁴⁶
rumours.

Because I cannot flatter and look
fair
⁴⁷
,

Smile in men’s faces,
smooth
, deceive and
cog
⁴⁸
,

Duck with French nods
and
apish
⁴⁹
courtesy,

I must be held a rancorous enemy.

Cannot a
plain
⁵¹
man live and think no harm,

But thus his simple truth must be abused

By
silken
, sly, insinuating
jacks?
⁵³

GREY
    To who in all this
presence
⁵⁴
speaks your grace?

RICHARD
    To thee, that hast
nor
honesty nor
grace.
⁵⁵

When have I injured 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
⁶⁰
,

But you must trouble him with
lewd
⁶¹
complaints.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    Brother of Gloucester, you mistake the matter.

The king, on his own royal disposition,

And not provoked by any suitor else,

Aiming,
belike
⁶⁵
, at your interior hatred,

That in your outward action shows itself

Against my children, brothers, and myself,

Makes him
to send
⁶⁸
, that he may learn the ground.

RICHARD
    I cannot tell. The world is grown so bad

That
wrens
⁷⁰
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 Gloucester:

You envy my advancement and my
friends’.
⁷⁴

God grant we never may have need of you.

RICHARD
    Meantime, God grants that I have need of you.

Our
brother
⁷⁷
is imprisoned by your means,

Myself disgraced, 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.
⁸¹

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    By him that raised me to this
careful
⁸²
height

From that contented
hap
⁸³
which I enjoyed,

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.
⁸⁸

RICHARD
    You may deny that you were not the mean

Of my lord Hastings’
late
⁹⁰
imprisonment.

RIVERS
    She may, my lord, for—

RICHARD
    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
⁹⁴
,

And then deny her aiding hand therein,

And lay those honours on your high
desert.
⁹⁶

What may she not? She may, ay,
marry
⁹⁷
, may she—

RIVERS
    What, marry, may she?

RICHARD
    What, marry, may she? Marry with a king,

A bachelor and a handsome
stripling
¹⁰⁰
too.

Iwis
your
grandam
¹⁰¹
had a worser match.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    My lord of Gloucester, I have too long borne

Your blunt upbraidings and your bitter scoffs.

By heaven, I will acquaint his majesty

Of those
gross
¹⁰⁵
taunts that oft I have endured.

I had rather be a country servant-maid

Than a great queen, with this condition,

To be so bated, scorned and stormèd at.

Small joy have I in being England’s queen.

QUEEN MARGARET
    And lessened be that small, God, I beseech him!

Thy honour,
state
and
seat
¹¹¹
is due to me.

RICHARD
    What?
Threat
¹¹²
you me with telling of the king?

I will
avouch’t
¹¹³
in presence of the king.

I dare
adventure
¹¹⁴
to be sent to th’Tower.

’Tis time to speak, my
pains
¹¹⁵
are quite forgot.

QUEEN MARGARET
    
Out
¹¹⁶
, devil! I do remember them too well:

Thou kill’dst my husband Henry in the Tower,

And Edward, my poor son, at Tewkesbury.