RATCLIFFE Bad news, my lord: Morton50 is fled to Richmond.
And Buckingham, backed with the hardy51 Welshmen,
Is in the field, and still his power52 increaseth.
RICHARD Ely with Richmond troubles me more near53
Than Buckingham and his rash-levied54 strength.
Come, I have learned that fearful commenting55
Is leaden servitor56 to dull delay:
Delay leads impotent and snail-paced beggary.57
Then fiery expedition58 be my wing,
Jove’s Mercury59, and herald for a king!
Go, muster men. My counsel is my shield60:
We must be brief when traitors brave the field.61
Exeunt
[Act 4 Scene 4]
running scene 16
Enter old Queen Margaret
QUEEN MARGARET So, now prosperity begins to mellow1
And drop into the rotten mouth of death.
Here in these confines3 slyly have I lurked.
To watch the waning of mine enemies.
A dire induction5 am I witness to,
And will to France, hoping the consequence6
Will prove as bitter, black, and tragical.
Withdraw thee, wretched Margaret. Who comes here?
Enter Duchess [of York] and Queen [Elizabeth]
QUEEN ELIZABETH Ah, my poor princes! Ah, my tender babes!
My unblowed flowers, new-appearing sweets!10
If yet your gentle souls fly in the air
And be not fixed in doom perpetual12,
Hover about me with your airy wings
And hear your mother’s lamentation!
Aside
QUEEN MARGARET Hover about her: say that right for right15
Hath dimmed your infant morn to aged night.
DUCHESS OF YORK So many miseries have crazed17 my voice,
That my woe-wearied tongue is still and mute.
Edward Plantagenet19, why art thou dead?
Aside
QUEEN MARGARET Plantagenet doth quit20 Plantagenet:
Edward for Edward21 pays a dying debt.
QUEEN ELIZABETH Wilt thou, O God, fly from such gentle lambs,
And throw them in the entrails23 of the wolf?
When didst thou sleep when such a deed was done?
Aside
QUEEN MARGARET When holy Harry25 died, and my sweet son.
DUCHESS OF YORK Dead life, blind sight, poor mortal living ghost,
Woe’s scene, world’s shame, grave’s due by life usurped27,
Brief abstract28 and record of tedious days,
Rest thy unrest on England’s lawful29 earth,
Sits down
Unlawfully made drunk with innocent blood!
QUEEN ELIZABETH Ah, that thou wouldst as soon afford31 a grave
As thou canst yield a melancholy seat!
Then would I hide my bones, not rest them here.
Sits with her
Ah, who hath any cause to mourn but we?
Comes forward
QUEEN MARGARET If ancient sorrow be most reverend,
Give mine the benefit of seniory36,
And let my griefs frown on the upper hand.37
Sits with them
If sorrow can admit society38,
I had an Edward39, till a Richard killed him:
I had a husband40, till a Richard killed him:
Thou hadst an Edward41, till a Richard killed him:
Thou hadst a Richard42, till a Richard killed him.
DUCHESS OF YORK I had a Richard43 too, and thou didst kill him;
I had a Rutland too, thou holp’st44 to kill him.
QUEEN MARGARET Thou hadst a Clarence too, and Richard killed him.
From forth the kennel of thy womb hath crept
A hell-hound that doth hunt us all to death:
That dog, that had his teeth before his eyes48,
To worry49 lambs and lap their gentle blood,
That foul defacer of God’s handiwork50,
That reigns in galled51 eyes of weeping souls,
That excellent52 grand tyrant of the earth,
Thy womb let loose, to chase us to our graves.
O upright, just, and true-disposing54 God,
How do I thank thee, that this carnal cur55
Preys on the issue56 of his mother’s body.
And makes her pew-fellow with others’ moan!57
DUCHESS OF YORK O Harry’s wife, triumph58 not in my woes!
God witness with me, I have wept for thine,
QUEEN MARGARET Bear with me: I am hungry for revenge,
And now I cloy me61 with beholding it.
Thy Edward he is dead, that killed my Edward62:
The other Edward63 dead, to quit my Edward:
Young York he is but boot, because both they64
Matched not the high perfection of my loss.65
Thy Clarence he is dead that stabbed my Edward,
And the beholders of this frantic67 play,
Th’adulterate68 Hastings, Rivers, Vaughan, Grey,
Untimely smothered in their dusky graves.
Richard yet lives, hell’s black intelligencer70,
Only reserved their factor71 to buy souls
And send them thither. But at hand, at hand
Ensues his piteous and unpitied end:
Earth gapes, hell burns, fiends roar, saints pray,
To have him suddenly conveyed from hence.
Cancel his bond of life, dear God, I pray,
That I may live and say, ‘The dog is dead!’
QUEEN ELIZABETH O, thou didst prophesy the time would come
That I should wish for thee to help me curse
That bottled spider, that foul bunch-backed80 toad!
QUEEN MARGARET I called thee then vain flourish81 of my fortune:
I called thee then poor shadow, painted82 queen,
The presentation83 of but what I was,
The flattering index of a direful pageant84,
One heaved a-high, to be hurled down below,
A mother only mocked86 with two fair babes,
A dream of what thou wast, a garish flag87,
To be the aim of every dangerous shot;
A sign of dignity89, a breath, a bubble;
A queen in jest, only to fill the90 scene.
Where is thy husband now? Where be thy brothers?
Where be thy two sons? Wherein dost thou joy?
Who sues93, and kneels and says, ‘God save the queen!’
Where be the bending94 peers that flattered thee?
Where be the thronging troops95 that followed thee?
Decline96 all this, and see what now thou art:
For97 happy wife, a most distressed widow:
For joyful mother, one that wails the name98:
For one being sued to, one that humbly sues:
For queen, a very caitiff crowned with care100:
For she that scorned at me, now scorned of101 me:
For she being feared of all, now fearing one:
For she commanding all, obeyed of none.
Thus hath the course of justice whirled about104,
And left thee but a very105 prey to time,
Having no more but thought106 of what thou wast,
To torture thee the more, being what thou art.
Thou didst usurp my place, and dost thou not
Usurp the just proportion of my sorrow??
Now thy proud neck bears half my burdened yoke,
From which even here I slip my wearied head,
And leave the burden of it all on thee.
Farewell, York’s wife, and queen of sad mischance113:
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 Forbear117 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 causer121 worse:
Revolving122 this will teach thee how to curse.
QUEEN ELIZABETH My words are dull. O, quicken123 them with thine!
QUEEN MARGARET Thy woes will make them sharp, and pierce like mine.
Exit Margaret
DUCHESS OF YORK Why should calamity be full of words?
QUEEN ELIZABETH Windy attorneys to their client’s woes126,
Airy succeeders of intestine127 joys,
Poor breathing orators of miseries!
Let them have scope129: 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
Enter King Richard and his train
RICHARD Who intercepts me in my expedition?135
DUCHESS OF YORK O, she that might136 have intercepted thee,
By strangling thee in her accursed womb,
From138 all the slaughters, wretch, that thou hast done!
QUEEN ELIZABETH Hid’st thou that forehead with a golden crown
Where’t should be branded140, if that right were right,
The slaughter of the prince that owed141 that crown,
And the dire death of my poor sons and brothers?
Tell me, thou villain143 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 alarum148, drums!
Let not the heavens hear these tell-tale149 women
Rail on the lord’s anointed.150 Strike, I say!
Flourish. Alarums
Either be patient and entreat me fair151,
Or with the clamorous report152 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 condition157,
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 stayed163 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 rood166, 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 wayward169 was thy infancy:
Thy schooldays frightful, desp’rate170, wild, and furious:
Thy prime171 of manhood daring, bold, and venturous:
Thy age confirmed172, proud, subtle, sly and bloody.
More mild, but yet more harmful, kind in hatred.173
What comfortable174 hour canst thou name,
That ever graced me with thy company?
RICHARD Faith, none, but Humphrey Hour, that called your grace176
To breakfast once forth177 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 ordinance186
Ere from this war thou turn187 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 tire191 thee more
Than all the complete192 armour that thou wear’st!
My prayers on the adverse party fight,
And there the little souls of Edward’s children
Whisper195 the spirits of thine enemies
And promise them success and victory.
Bloody thou art, bloody will be thy end:
Shame serves thy life and doth198 thy death attend.
Exit
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 level205 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 manners209, stain her beauty,
Slander myself as false210 to Edward’s bed,
Throw over her the veil211 of infamy:
So she may live unscarred of212 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 doom220 of destiny.
QUEEN ELIZABETH True, when avoided grace221 makes destiny.
My babes were destined to a fairer222 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 cozened225
Of comfort, kingdom, kindred, freedom, life.
Whose hand soever lanched227 their tender hearts,
Thy head, all indirectly228, 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 use232 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 bay235 of death,
Like a poor bark, of sails and tackling reft236,
Rush237 all to pieces on thy rocky bosom.
RICHARD Madam, so thrive I
in my enterprise238
And dangerous success239 of bloody wars,
As240 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 heaven242,
To be discovered243, that can do me good?
RICHARD Th’advancement244 of your children, gentle lady.
QUEEN ELIZABETH Up to some scaffold245, there to lose their heads?
RICHARD Unto the dignity246 and height of fortune,
The high imperial type247 of this earth’s glory.
QUEEN ELIZABETH Flatter248 my sorrow with report of it:
Tell me what state249, what dignity, what honour,
Canst thou demise250 to any child of mine?
RICHARD Even251 all I have; ay, and myself and all,
Will I withal endow252 a child of thine,
So in the Lethe253 of thy angry soul
Thou drown the sad remembrance254 of those wrongs
Which thou supposest I have done to thee.
QUEEN ELIZABETH Be brief, lest that the process256 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 thinks259 it with her soul.
RICHARD What do you think?
QUEEN ELIZABETH That thou dost love my daughter from261 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 confound264 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. How270 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 engrave277
Richard III Page 12
