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  • Title: Richard the Third (Modern)
  • Editor: Adrian Kiernander

    • Copyright Internet Shakespeare Editions. This text may be freely used for educational, non-proift purposes; for all other uses contact the Coordinating Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Editor: Adrian Kiernander
    Not Peer Reviewed

    Richard the Third (Modern)

    [5.5]
    Alarum. Enter Richard and Richmond; they fight, Richard is slain [Exit Richmond.]
    Then retreat is sounded.Enter Richmond, Stanley bearing the crown, with other lords.
    3845Richmond
    God and your arms be praised, victorious friends,
    The day is ours, the bloody dog is dead.
    Stanley
    Courageous Richmond, well hast thou acquit thee;
    3850Lo, here this long-usurpèd royalty
    From the dead temples of this bloody wretch
    Have I plucked off to grace thy brows withal;
    Wear it, enjoy it, and make much of it.
    [Stanley offers the crown to Richmond.]
    Richmond
    Great God of heaven, say "Amen" to all.
    3855But tell me, is young George Stanley living?
    Stanley
    He is, my lord, and safe in Leicester town,
    Whither, if it please you, we may now withdraw us.
    Richmond
    What men of name are slain on either side?
    [Stanley] [Reads.]
    John Duke of Norfolk, Walter Lord Ferris, Sir
    3860Robert Brakenbury, and Sir William Brandon.
    Richmond
    Inter their bodies as become their births,
    Proclaim a pardon to the soldiers fled
    That in submission will return to us
    And then, as we have ta'en the sacrament,
    3865We will unite the white rose and the red;
    Smile, heaven, upon this fair conjunction
    That long have frowned upon their enmity.
    What traitor hears me and says not "Amen?"
    England hath long been mad and scarred herself,
    3870The brother blindly shed the brother's blood,
    The father rashly slaughtered his own son,
    The son, compelled, been butcher to the sire;
    All this divided York and Lancaster,
    Divided in a dire division.
    3875Oh, now let Richmond and Elizabeth,
    The true succeeders of each royal House,
    By God's fair ordinance conjoin together,
    And let their heirs, God, if thy will be so,
    Enrich the time to come with smooth-faced peace,
    3880With smiling plenty and fair, prosperous days;
    Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord,
    That would reduce these bloody days again
    And make poor England weep in streams of blood:
    Let them not live to taste this land's increase
    3885That would with treason wound this fair land's peace.
    Now civil wounds are stopped, peace lives again;
    That she may long live here, God say "Amen."
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