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Richard the Third (Folio 1, 1623)

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Adrian Kiernander
Peer Reviewed
Scena Tertia.
Enter one Citizen at one doore, and another at
the other.
1. Cit. Good morrow Neighbour, whether away so
1435fast?
2. Cit. I promise you, I scarsely know my selfe:
Heare you the newes abroad?
1. Yes, that the King is dead.
2. Ill newes byrlady, seldome comes the better:
1440I feare, I feare, 'twill proue a giddy world.
Enter another Citizen.
3. Neighbours, God speed.
1. Giue you good morrow sir.
3. Doth the newes hold of good king Edwards death?
14452. I sir, it is too true, God helpe the while.
3. Then Masters looke to see a troublous world.
1. No, no, by Gods good grace, his Son shall reigne.
3. Woe to that Land that's gouern'd by a Childe.
2. In him there is a hope of Gouernment,
1450Which in his nonage, counsell vnder him,
And in his full and ripened yeares, himselfe
No doubt shall then, and till then gouerne well.
1. So stood the State, when Henry the sixt
Was crown'd in Paris, but at nine months old.
14553. Stood the State so? No, no, good friends, God wot
For then this Land was famously enrich'd
With politike graue Counsell; then the King
Had vertuous Vnkles to protect his Grace.
1. Why so hath this, both by his Father and Mother.
14603. Better it were they all came by his Father:
Or by his Father there were none at all:
For emulation, who shall now be neerest,
Will touch vs all too neere, if God preuent not.
O full of danger is the Duke of Glouster,
1465And the Queenes Sons, and Brothers, haught and proud:
And were they to be rul'd, and not to rule,
This sickly Land, might solace as before.
1. Come, come, we feare the worst: all will be well.
3. When Clouds are seen, wisemen put on their clokes;
1470When great leaues fall, then Winter is at hand;
When the Sun sets, who doth not looke for night?
Vntimely stormes, makes men expect a Dearth:
All may be well; but if God sort it so,
'Tis more then we deserue, or I expect.
14752. Truly, the hearts of men are full of feare:
You cannot reason (almost) with a man,
That lookes not heauily, and full of dread.
3. Before the dayes of Change, still is it so,
By a diuine instinct, mens mindes mistrust
1480Pursuing danger: as by proofe we see
The Water swell before a boyst'rous storme:
But leaue it all to God. Whither away?
2 Marry we were sent for to the Iustices.
3 And so was I: Ile beare you company.
Exeunt.