Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Adrian Kiernander
Not Peer Reviewed

Richard the Third (Modern)

3370[5.1]
Enter Buckingham[, led] to execution [by Ratcliffe and guard].
Buckingham
Will not King Richard let me speak with him?
Ratcliffe
No, my lord, therefore be patient.
3375Buckingham
Hastings, and Edward's children, Rivers, Grey,
Holy King Henry and thy fair son Edward,
Vaughan, and all that have miscarried
By underhand, corrupted, foul injustice,
If that your moody, discontented souls
3380Do through the clouds behold this present hour,
Even for revenge, mock my destruction.
This is All Souls' Day, fellows, is it not?
Ratcliffe
It is, my lord.
Buckingham
Why then, All Souls' Day is my body's doomsday:
3385This is the day that, in King Edward's time,
I wished might fall on me when I was found
False to his children or his wife's allies;
This is the day wherein I wished to fall
By the false faith of him I trusted most.
3390This, this All Souls' Day, to my fearful soul
Is the determined respite of my wrongs;
That high All-Seer that I dallied with
Hath turned my feignèd prayer on my head
And given in earnest what I begged in jest.
3395Thus doth he force the swords of wicked men
To turn their own points on their masters' bosom.
Now Margaret's curse is fallen upon my head:
"When he," quoth she, "shall split thy heart with sorrow,
Remember Margaret was a Prophetess."
3400Come sirs, convey me to the block of shame,
Wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of blame.
[Exeunt.]