Richard III (7 page)

RICHARD
    
Ere
¹¹⁹
you were queen, ay, or your husband king,

I was a
packhorse
¹²⁰
in his great affairs,

A weeder-out of his
proud
¹²¹
adversaries,

A liberal rewarder of his friends.

To royalize his blood, I spent mine own.

QUEEN MARGARET
    Ay, and much better blood than his or thine.

RICHARD
    In all which time you and your husband Grey

Were
factious for
¹²⁶
the House of Lancaster.—

And, Rivers, so were you.— Was not your
husband
¹²⁷

In Margaret’s
battle
¹²⁸
at St Albans slain?

Let me put in your minds, if you forget,

What you have been
ere this
¹³⁰
, and what you are:

Withal
¹³¹
, what I have been, and what I am.

QUEEN MARGARET
    A murd’rous villain, and so still thou art.

RICHARD
    Poor
Clarence did forsake his
father
¹³³
, Warwick,

Ay, and
forswore himself
¹³⁴
— which Jesu pardon! —

QUEEN MARGARET
    Which God revenge!

RICHARD
    To fight on Edward’s party for the crown.

And for his
meed
¹³⁷
, poor lord, he is mewed up.

I would to God my heart were flint, like Edward’s,

Or Edward’s soft and
pitiful
¹³⁹
, like mine.

I am too
childish-foolish
¹⁴⁰
for this world.

QUEEN MARGARET
    
Hie
¹⁴¹
thee to hell for shame, and leave this world,

Thou
cacodemon!
¹⁴²
There thy kingdom is.

RIVERS
    My lord of Gloucester, in those busy days

Which here you
urge
¹⁴⁴
to prove us enemies,

We followed then our lord, our sovereign king.

So should we you, if you should be our king.

RICHARD
    If I should be? I had rather be a pedlar.

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
    A little joy enjoys the queen thereof,

For I am she, and altogether joyless.

I can no longer hold me patient.—

Comes forward

Hear me, you wrangling pirates, that fall out

In sharing that which you have
pilled
¹⁵⁷
from me.

Which of you trembles not that looks on me?

If not, that I am queen, you bow like subjects
¹⁵⁹
,

Yet that, by you deposed, you quake like rebels.

Ah,
gentle
villain
¹⁶¹
, do not turn away.

RICHARD
    Foul wrinkled witch, what
mak’st thou
¹⁶²
in my sight?

QUEEN MARGARET
    
But repetition of
what thou hast
marred
¹⁶³
,

That will I
make
¹⁶⁴
before I let thee go.

RICHARD
    Wert thou not banishèd 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.
¹⁶⁷

A husband and a son thou ow’st to me,

And
thou
¹⁶⁹
a kingdom; all of you allegiance.

The sorrow that I have, by right is yours,

And all the pleasures you usurp are mine.

RICHARD
    The
curse my noble father laid on thee
¹⁷²
,

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
¹⁷⁵

Steeped in the faultless blood of
pretty
Rutland
¹⁷⁶
—

His curses then, from bitterness of soul

Denounced against thee, are all fall’n upon thee,

And God, not we, hath
plagued
¹⁷⁹
thy bloody deed.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    So just is God, to right the innocent.

HASTINGS
    O, ’twas the foulest deed to slay
that babe
¹⁸¹
,

And the most merciless that e’er was heard of!

RIVERS
    Tyrants themselves wept when it was reported.

DORSET
    
No man but prophesied
¹⁸⁴
revenge for it.

BUCKINGHAM
    Northumberland, then present, wept to see it.

QUEEN MARGARET
    What? Were you snarling all before I came,

Ready to
catch
¹⁸⁷
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
¹⁹²
brat?

Can curses pierce the clouds and enter heaven?

Why then give way,
dull
clouds, to my
quick
¹⁹⁴
curses.

Though not by war, by
surfeit
¹⁹⁵
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
¹⁹⁹
untimely violence!

Thyself a queen, for me that was a queen,

Outlive thy glory, like my wretched self!

Long mayst thou live to wail thy children’s death,

And see another, as I see thee now,

Decked
in thy rights, as thou art
stalled
²⁰⁴
in mine.

Long die thy happy days before thy death,

And, after many lengthened hours of grief,

Die neither mother, wife, nor England’s queen.—

Rivers and Dorset, you were
standers-by
²⁰⁸
,

And so wast thou, Lord Hastings, when my son

Was stabbed with bloody daggers: God, I pray him,

That none of you may live his natural age,

But by some
unlooked
²¹²
accident cut off.

RICHARD
    Have done thy
charm
, thou hateful withered
hag.
²¹³

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
²¹⁷
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
begnaw
²²⁰
thy soul.

Thy friends suspect
for
²²¹
traitors while thou liv’st,

And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends.

No sleep close up that
deadly
²²³
eye of thine,

Unless it be while some tormenting dream

Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils.

Thou
elvish-marked
,
abortive
,
rooting hog
²²⁶
,

Thou that wast
sealed in thy nativity
²²⁷

The
slave of nature
²²⁸
and the son of hell.

Thou
slander
of thy
heavy
²²⁹
mother’s womb,

Thou loathèd
issue
²³⁰
of thy father’s loins,

Thou
rag
²³¹
of honour, thou detested—

RICHARD
    
Margaret.
²³²

QUEEN MARGARET
    Richard.

RICHARD
    Ha?

QUEEN MARGARET
    I call thee not.

RICHARD
    I
cry thee mercy
²³⁶
then, for I did think

That thou hadst called me all these bitter names.

QUEEN MARGARET
    Why, so I did, but
looked for
²³⁸
no reply.

O, let me make the
period
²³⁹
to my curse.

RICHARD
    ’Tis done by me, and ends in ‘Margaret’.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    Thus have you breathed your curse against yourself.

QUEEN MARGARET
    Poor
painted
queen,
vain flourish
of my
fortune.
²⁴²

Why strew’st thou sugar on that
bottled
²⁴³
spider,

Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about?

Fool, fool,
thou whet’st
²⁴⁵
a knife to kill thyself.

The day will come that thou shalt wish for me

To help thee curse this poisonous
bunch-backed
²⁴⁷
toad.

HASTINGS
    
False-boding
woman, end thy
frantic
²⁴⁸
curse,

Lest to thy harm thou move our patience.

QUEEN MARGARET
    Foul shame upon you! You have all moved mine.

RIVERS
    Were you
well served
²⁵¹
, you would be taught your duty.

QUEEN MARGARET
    To serve me well, you all should do me
duty
²⁵²
,

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
²⁵⁶
:

Your
fire-new
stamp of honour is scarce
current.
²⁵⁷

O, that your young
nobility
²⁵⁸
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.

RICHARD
    Good counsel, marry. Learn it, learn it, marquis.

DORSET
    It touches you, my lord, as much as me.

RICHARD
    Ay, and much more. But I was born
so high
²⁶⁴
,

Our
eyrie
²⁶⁵
buildeth in the cedar’s top,

And
dallies with
the wind and
scorns the sun.
²⁶⁶

QUEEN MARGARET
    And turns the
sun
²⁶⁷
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 eyrie buildeth in our eyrie’s nest.

O God, that see’st it, do not
suffer
²⁷²
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 butchered.

My charity
is
outrage
,
life my shame
²⁷⁸
,

And in that shame
still
²⁷⁹
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
²⁸³
befall thee and thy noble house.

Thy garments are not spotted with our blood,

Nor thou within the
compass
²⁸⁵
of my curse.

BUCKINGHAM
    Nor no one here, for curses never
pass
²⁸⁶

The lips of those that breathe them in the air.

QUEEN MARGARET
    I will not think
but
²⁸⁸
they ascend the sky,

And there awake God’s gentle-sleeping peace.

O Buckingham, take heed of yonder dog:

Look when
²⁹¹
he fawns, he bites; and when he bites,

His
venom
tooth will
rankle
²⁹²
to the death.

Have not to do with him, beware of him.

Sin, death and hell have set their
marks
²⁹⁴
on him,

And all their ministers attend on him.

RICHARD
    What doth she say, my lord of Buckingham?

BUCKINGHAM
    Nothing that I
respect
²⁹⁷
, my gracious lord.

QUEEN MARGARET
    What, dost thou scorn me for my gentle counsel?

And
soothe
²⁹⁹
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.