Richard III (9 page)

SECOND MURDERER
    What shall we do?

CLARENCE
    Relent, and save your souls.

Which of you, if you were a prince’s son,

Being
pent
²⁵⁵
from liberty, as I am now,

If two such murderers as yourselves came to you,

Would not entreat for life as you would beg,

Were you in my distress?

FIRST MURDERER
    Relent? No: ’tis cowardly and womanish.

CLARENCE
    Not to relent is
beastly
²⁶⁰
, savage, devilish.

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,

A begging prince what beggar pities not?

SECOND MURDERER
    Look behind you, my lord.

FIRST MURDERER
    Take that, and that: if all this will not do,

I’ll drown you in the malmsey-butt within.

SECOND MURDERER
    A bloody deed, and
desperately dispatched.
²⁶⁸

How
fain
, like
Pilate, would I wash my hands
²⁶⁹

Of this most grievous murder!

FIRST MURDERER
    How now? What mean’st thou, that thou help’st me not?

By heaven, the duke shall know how slack you have been!

SECOND MURDERER
    I would he knew that I had saved his brother.

Take thou the fee, and tell him what I say,

For I repent me that the duke is slain.

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
²⁸⁰
, and then I must not stay.

KING EDWARD IV
    Why, so. Now have I done a good day’s work.

You peers, continue this united league.

I every day expect an
embassage
³

From my redeemer to redeem me hence,

And more to peace my soul shall part to heaven,

Since I have made my friends at peace on earth.—

Dorset and Rivers, take each other’s hand:

Dissemble not
⁸
your hatred, swear your love.

RIVERS
    By heaven, my soul is purged
from
⁹
grudging hate,

And with my hand I seal my
true
¹⁰
heart’s love.

Gives his hand to Hastings

HASTINGS
    So
thrive
¹¹
I, as I truly swear the like!

KING EDWARD IV
    Take heed you
dally
¹²
not before your fking,

Lest he that is the supreme
king of kings
¹³

Confound
your hidden falsehood, and
award
¹⁴

Either of you to be the other’s
end.
¹⁵

HASTINGS
    So prosper I, as I swear perfect love.

RIVERS
    And I, as I love Hastings with my heart.

KING EDWARD IV
    Madam, yourself is not exempt from this,

Nor you,
son
¹⁹
Dorset, Buckingham, nor you;

You have been
factious
²⁰
one against the other.

Wife, love Lord Hastings: let him kiss your hand,

And what you do, do it
unfeignedly.
²²

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    There, Hastings, I will never more remember

Our former hatred, so thrive I and mine.

KING EDWARD IV
    Dorset, embrace him.— Hastings, love Lord Marquis.

DORSET
    This interchange of love, I here
protest
²⁶
,

Upon my part shall be inviolable.

HASTINGS
    And so swear I.

They embrace

KING EDWARD IV
    Now, princely Buckingham, seal thou this league

With thy embracements to my wife’s
allies
³⁰
,

And make me happy in your unity.

BUCKINGHAM
    Whenever Buckingham doth turn his hate

Upon your grace,
but with all duteous love
³³

Doth cherish you and yours, God punish me

With hate in those where I expect most love.

When I have most need to employ a friend,

And most assurèd that he is a friend,

Deep
,
hollow
, treacherous, and full of
guile
³⁸

Be he unto me. This do I beg of heaven,

When I am cold in love to you or yours.

KING EDWARD IV
    A pleasing
cordial
⁴¹
, princely Buckingham,

Is this thy vow unto my sickly heart.

There
wanteth
⁴³
now our brother Gloucester here,

To make the blessèd
period
⁴⁴
of this peace.

BUCKINGHAM
    And,
in good time
⁴⁵
,

Here comes Sir Richard Ratcliffe and the duke.

RICHARD
    Good
morrow
⁴⁷
to my sovereign king and queen.

And, princely peers, a happy time of day!

KING EDWARD IV
    Happy, indeed, as we have spent the day.

Gloucester, we have done deeds of charity,

Made peace of enmity, fair love of hate,

Between these
swelling
wrong-incensèd
⁵²
peers.

RICHARD
    A blessèd labour, my most sovereign lord.

Among this princely
heap
⁵⁴
, if any here,

By false
intelligence
, or wrong
surmise
⁵⁵
,

Hold me a foe, if I unwillingly, or in my rage,

Have aught committed that
is hardly borne
⁵⁷

To any in this presence, I desire

To reconcile me to his friendly peace.

’Tis death to me to be at enmity:

I hate it, and desire all good men’s love.—

First, madam, I entreat true peace of you,

Which I will purchase with my duteous service.—

Of you, my noble cousin Buckingham,

If ever any grudge were lodged between us.—

Of you and you, Lord Rivers, and of Dorset,

That all without
desert
⁶⁷
have frowned on me.—

Of you, Lord Woodville, and,
Lord Scales
⁶⁸
, of you:

Dukes, earls, lords, gentlemen, indeed, of all.

I do not know that Englishman alive

With whom my soul is any jot at odds

More than
the infant that is born tonight.
⁷²

I thank my God for my humility.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    A holy day shall this be kept hereafter.

I would to God all strifes were
well compounded.
⁷⁵
—

My sovereign lord, I do beseech your highness

To take our brother Clarence
to your grace.
⁷⁷

RICHARD
    Why, madam, have I offered love for this

To be so
flouted
⁷⁹
in this royal presence?

Who knows not that the
gentle
⁸⁰
duke is dead?

You do him injury to scorn his corpse.

KING EDWARD IV
    Who knows not he is dead? Who knows he is?

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    All-seeing heaven, what a world is this?

BUCKINGHAM
    Look I so pale, Lord Dorset, as the rest?

DORSET
    Ay, my good lord, and no man in the presence

But his red colour hath
forsook
⁸⁶
his cheeks.

KING EDWARD IV
    Is Clarence dead? The order was reversed.

RICHARD
    But he, poor man, by your first order died,

And
that
a wingèd
Mercury
⁸⁹
did bear:

Some
tardy
cripple
bare the countermand
⁹⁰
,

That came too
lag
⁹¹
to see him burièd.

God grant that some, less noble and less loyal
⁹²
,

Nearer in bloody thoughts, and not in blood,

Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence did,

And yet
go current
⁹⁵
from suspicion.

DERBY
    A
boon
⁹⁶
, my sovereign, for my service done.

KING EDWARD IV
    I prithee peace. My soul is full of sorrow.

DERBY
    I will not rise, unless your highness hear me.

KING EDWARD IV
    Then say at once what is it thou requests.

DERBY
    The
forfeit, sovereign, of my servant’s life
¹⁰⁰
,

Who slew today a riotous gentleman

Lately attendant on the Duke of Norfolk.

KING EDWARD IV
    Have I a tongue to
doom my brother’s death
¹⁰³
,

And shall that tongue give pardon to a slave?

My brother killed no man: his fault was thought,

And yet his punishment was bitter death.

Who
sued
¹⁰⁷
to me for him? Who, in my wrath,

Kneeled at my feet, and bid me
be advised?
¹⁰⁸

Who spoke of brotherhood? Who spoke of love?

Who told me how the poor soul did
forsake
¹¹⁰

The mighty Warwick and did fight for me?

Who told me, in the
field
¹¹²
at Tewkesbury

When Oxford had me
down
¹¹³
, he rescued me,

And said, ‘Dear brother, live, and be a king’?

Who told me, when we both lay in the field,

Frozen almost to death, how he did
lap
¹¹⁶
me

Even in his garments, and did give himself,

All
thin
and naked, to the
numb
¹¹⁸
cold night?

All this from my
remembrance
¹¹⁹
brutish wrath

Sinfully plucked, and not a man of you

Had so much grace to put it in my mind.

But when your
carters
or your
waiting vassals
¹²²

Have done a drunken slaughter, and
defaced
¹²³

The precious image of our dear Redeemer,

You
straight
¹²⁵
are on your knees for pardon, pardon,

And I, unjustly too, must grant it you.

But
¹²⁷
for my brother not a man would speak,

Nor I,
ungracious
¹²⁸
, speak unto myself

For him, poor soul. The
proudest
¹²⁹
of you all

Have been
beholding
¹³⁰
to him in his life,

Yet none of you would once beg for his life.

O God, I fear thy justice will take hold

On
me, and
you
¹³³
, and mine, and yours for this!—

Come, Hastings, help me to my
closet.
¹³⁴

Ah, poor Clarence.

RICHARD
    This is the fruits of rashness.
Marked
¹³⁶
you not

How that the guilty kindred of the queen

Looked pale when they did hear of Clarence’ death?

O, they did urge it
still
¹³⁹
unto the king!

God will revenge it. Come, lords, will you go

To comfort Edward with our company.

BUCKINGHAM
    We wait upon your grace.

BOY
    Good
grandam
¹
, tell us, is our father dead?

DUCHESS OF YORK
    No, boy.

DAUGHTER
    Why do you weep so oft, and beat your breast,

And cry ‘O Clarence, my unhappy son’?

BOY
    Why do you look on us, and shake your head,

And call us orphans,
wretches
,
castaways
⁶
,

If that our noble father were alive?

DUCHESS OF YORK
    My pretty
cousins
⁸
, you mistake me both:

I do lament the sickness of the king,

As
¹⁰
loath to lose him, not your father’s death.

It were
lost
¹¹
sorrow to wail one that’s lost.

BOY
    Then you conclude, my grandam, he is dead.

The king mine uncle is to blame for it.

God will revenge it, whom I will
importune
¹⁴

With earnest prayers all to that effect.

DAUGHTER
    And so will I.

DUCHESS OF YORK
    Peace, children, peace. The king doth love you well.

Incapable
and
shallow
¹⁸
innocents,

You cannot guess who caused your father’s death.

BOY
    Grandam, we can, for my good uncle Gloucester

Told me the king, provoked to it by the queen,

Devised
impeachments
²²
to imprison him;

And when my uncle told me so, he wept,

And pitied me, and
kindly
²⁴
kissed my cheek,

Bade me rely on him as on my father,

And he would love me dearly as a child.

DUCHESS OF YORK
    Ah, that deceit should steal such
gentle shape
²⁷
,

And with a virtuous
visor
²⁸
hide deep vice!

He is my son — ay, and therein my shame.

Yet from my
dugs
³⁰
he drew not this deceit.

BOY
    Think you my uncle did dissemble, grandam?

DUCHESS OF YORK
    Ay, boy.