Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Adrian Kiernander
Peer Reviewed

Richard the Third (Quarto 1, 1597)

of Richard the third.
Buck. My Lord who euer iourneies to the Prince,
For Gods sake let not vs two stay behinde:
For by the way Ile sort occasion,
1425As index to the story we late talkt of,
To part the Queenes proud kindred from the King.
Glo. My other selfe, my counsels consistory:
My Oracle, my Prophet, my deare Cosen:
I like a childe will go by thy direction:
1430Towards Ludlow then, for we will not stay behinde.
Enter two Cittizens.
1 Cit. Neighbour well met, whither away so fast?
2 Cit. I promise you, I scarcely know my selfe.
1 Heare you the newes abroad?
2 I, that the King is dead.
1 Bad newes birlady, seldome comes the better,
1440I feare, I feare, twill prooue a troublous world. Ent. ano- ther Citt.
3 Cit. Good morrow neighbours.
Doth this newes hold of good King Edwards death?
14451 It doth.3Then masters looke to see a troublous world
1 No no, by Gods good grace his sonne shall raigne.
3 Woe to that land thats gouernd by a childe.
2 In him there is a hope of gouernement,
1450That in his nonage counsell vnder him,
And in his full and ripened yeres himselfe,
No doubt shall then, and till then gouerne well.
1 So stoode the state when Harry the sixt
Was crownd at Paris, but at ix. moneths olde.
14553 Stoode the state so? no good my friend not so
For then this land was famously enricht
With pollitike graue counsell: then the King
Had vertuous Vnckles to protect his Grace.
2 So hath this, both by the father and mother.
14603 Better it were they all came by the father,
Or by the father there were none at all:
For emulation now, who shall be neerest:
Will touch vs all too neare, if God preuent not.
Oh full of danger is the Duke of Glocester,
1465And the Queenes kindred hauty and proud,
E3 And