RICHARD I grant ye.
ANNE Dost grant me, hedgehog?105 Then, God grant me too
Thou mayst be damnèd for that wicked deed.
O, he was gentle, mild and virtuous!
RICHARD The better for the king of heaven that hath him.
ANNE He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come,
RICHARD Let him thank me, that holp110 to send him thither,
For he was fitter for that place than earth.
ANNE And thou unfit for any place but hell.
RICHARD Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.
ANNE Some dungeon.
RICHARD Your bedchamber.115
ANNE Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest.
RICHARD So will it, madam, till I lie with you.
ANNE I hope so.118
RICHARD I know so, But, gentle Lady Anne,
To leave this keen encounter of our wits120,
And fall something into a slower method:
Is not the causer of the timeless122 deaths
Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
As blameful as the executioner?
ANNE Thou wast the cause and most accursed effect.
RICHARD Your beauty was the cause of that effect.125
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, homicide130,
These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.
RICHARD These eyes could never endure that beauty’s wreck.
You should not blemish it, if I stood by:
As all the world is cheerèd by the sun,
So I by that: it is my day, my life.
ANNE Black night o’ershade thy day, and death thy life.
RICHARD Curse not thyself, fair creature: thou art both.137
ANNE I would138 I were, to be revenged on thee.
RICHARD It is a quarrel most unnatural
To be revenged on him that loveth thee.
ANNE It is a quarrel just and reasonable
To be revenged on him that killed my husband.
RICHARD 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.
RICHARD He lives146 that loves thee better than he could.
ANNE Name him.
RICHARD Plantagenet.148
ANNE Why, that was he.
RICHARD The selfsame name, but one of better nature.
ANNE Where is he?
RICHARD Here.
Spits at him
Why dost thou spit at me?
ANNE Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake.
RICHARD 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.
RICHARD Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.157
ANNE Would they were basilisks158, to strike thee dead.
RICHARD I would they were, that I might die159 at once,
For now they kill me with a living death.
Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,
Shamed their aspects162 with store of childish drops:
These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear —
No, when164 my father York and Edward wept,
To hear the piteous moan that Rutland165 made
When black-faced166 Clifford shook his sword at him,
Nor when thy warlike father167, like a child,
Told the sad story of my father’s death,
And twenty times made pause to sob and weep,
That170 all the standers-by had wet their cheeks
Like trees bedashed171 with rain: in that sad time,
My manly eyes did scorn an humble172 tear.
And what these sorrows could not thence exhale173,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
I never sued175 to friend nor enemy:
My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing176 word.
But now thy beauty is proposed my fee177,
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,
Gives her his sword
Which if thou please to hide in this true breast.
↓Kneels↓
And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,
I lay it naked to the deadly stroke
And humbly beg the death upon my knee.
He lays his breast open: she offers at [it] with his sword
Nay, do not pause, for I did kill King Henry —
But ’twas thy beauty that provokèd me.
Nay, now dispatch: ’twas I that stabbed young Edward —
But ’twas thy heavenly face that set me on.190
She falls the sword
Take up the sword again, or take up me.191
ANNE Arise, dissembler.192 Though I wish thy death,
I will not be thy executioner.
RICHARD Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.
Takes his sword back
ANNE I have already.
RICHARD 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.199
To both their deaths shalt thou be accessory.
ANNE I would I knew thy heart.
RICHARD ’Tis figured in202 my tongue.
ANNE I fear me both are false.
RICHARD Then never man was true.
ANNE Well, well, put up your sword.
RICHARD Say, then, my peace is made.
ANNE That shalt thou know hereafter.
RICHARD But shall I live in hope?
ANNE All men, I hope, live so.
RICHARD Vouchsafe to wear this ring.
Puts a ring on her
Look how my ring encompasseth thy finger.
Even so212 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 House220,
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 duty224 see you.
For divers unknown225 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 Berkeley229, go along with me.
RICHARD Bid me farewell.
ANNE ’Tis more than you deserve,
But since you teach me ho
w to flatter you,
Imagine I have said farewell already.
Exeunt two [Tressell and Berkeley] with Anne
GENTLEMEN Towards Chertsey, noble lord?
RICHARD No, to Whitefriars.235 There attend my coming.
Exit corpse [borne by the other gentlemen]
Was ever woman in this humour236 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 by242,
Having God, her conscience, and these bars243 against me,
And I no friends to back my suit withal244,
But the plain devil and dissembling looks?
And yet to win her, all the world to nothing?246
Ha!
Hath she forgot already that brave248 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 nature252,
Young, valiant, wise, and, no doubt, right royal253,
The spacious world cannot again afford.
And will she yet abase her eyes on me,
That cropped the golden prime256 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 misshapen259 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 proper263 man.
I’ll be at charges for264 a looking-glass,
And entertain a score or two of265 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 in269 his grave,
And then return lamenting to my love.
Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass271,
That I may see my shadow272 as I pass.
Exit
Act 1 Scene 3
running scene 2
Enter [Elizabeth] the Queen Mother, Lord Rivers and Lord Grey
RIVERS Have patience, madam. There’s no doubt his majesty
Will soon recover his accustomed health.
To Queen Elizabeth
GREY In that you brook it ill3, it makes him worse:
Therefore, for God’s sake, entertain good comfort4,
And cheer his grace with quick and merry eyes.
QUEEN ELIZABETH If he were dead, what would betide on6 me?
GREY No other harm but loss of such a lord.
QUEEN ELIZABETH The loss of such a lord includes8 all harms.
GREY The heavens have blessed you with a goodly9 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
Enter Buckingham and [Stanley, Earl of] Derby
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 my20 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 envious26 slanders of her false accusers,
Or, if she be accused on true report,
Bear with her weakness, which I think proceeds
From wayward29 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 atonement36
Between the Duke of Gloucester and your brothers37,
And between them and my Lord Chamberlain,
And sent to warn39 them to his royal presence.
QUEEN ELIZABETH Would all were well! But that will never be.
I fear our happiness41 is at the height.
Enter Richard [with Hastings and Dorset]
RICHARD They do me wrong, and I will not endure it.
Who is it that complains unto the king
That I, forsooth, am stern44 and love them not?
By holy Paul, they love his grace but lightly45
That fill his ears with such dissentious46 rumours.
Because I cannot flatter and look fair47,
Smile in men’s faces, smooth, deceive and cog48,
Duck with French nods and apish49 courtesy,
I must be held a rancorous enemy.
Cannot a plain51 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 presence54 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-while60,
But you must trouble him with lewd61 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, belike65, at your interior hatred,
That in your outward action shows itself
Against my children, brothers, and myself,
Makes him to send68, that he may learn the ground.
RICHARD I cannot tell. The world is grown so bad
That wrens70 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 brother77 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 careful82 height
From that contented hap83 which I enjoyed,
I never did incense his majesty
Against the Duke of Clarence, but have been
An earnest advocate to plead for him.
Falsely to draw me in these vile suspects.88
RICHARD You may deny that you were not the mean
Of my lord Hastings’ late90 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 preferments94,
And then deny her aiding hand therein,
And lay those honours on your high desert.96
What may she not? She may, ay, marry97, may she—
RIVERS What, marry, may she?
RICHARD What, marry, may she? Marry with a king,
A bachelor and a handsome stripling100 too.
Iwis your grandam101 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 gross105 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.
Enter old Queen Margaret [unseen by the others]
Small joy have I in being England’s queen.
Speaks aside throughout
QUEEN MARGARET And lessened be that small, God, I beseech him!
Thy honour, state and seat111 is due to me.
To Queen Elizabeth
RICHARD What? Threat112 you me with telling of the king?
I will avouch’t113 in presence of the king.
I dare adventure114 to be sent to th’Tower.
’Tis time to speak, my pains115 are quite forgot.
QUEEN MARGARET Out116, devil! I do remember them too well:
Thou kill’dst my husband Henry in the Tower,
And Edward, my poor son, at Tewkesbury.
To Queen Elizabeth
RICHARD Ere119 you were queen, ay, or your husband king,
I was a packhorse120 in his great affairs,
A weeder-out of his proud121 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 for126 the House of Lancaster.—
Richard III Page 4
