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  • Title: Richard the Third (Quarto 1, 1597)
  • 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
    Peer Reviewed

    Richard the Third (Quarto 1, 1597)

    of Richard the third.
    So long a growing, and so leisurely,
    That if this were a true rule, he should be gratious.
    Car. Why Madame, so no doubt he is.
    Dut. I hope so too, but yer let mothers doubt.
    1510Yor. Now by my troth if I had beene remembred,
    I could haue giuen my Vnckles grace a flout,
    That should haue neerer toucht his growth then he did mine.
    Dut. How my prety Yorke? I pray thee let me heare it.
    1515Yor. Mary they say, my Vnckle grew so fast,
    That he could gnaw a crust at two houres olde:
    Twas full two yeares ere I could get a tooth.
    Granam this would haue heene a biting iest.
    Dut. I pray thee prety Yorke who tolde thee so.
    1520Yor. Granam his nurse.
    Dut. His nurse: why she was dead ere thou wert borne.
    Yor. If twere not she, I cannot tell who tolde me.
    Qu. A perilous boy, go to, you are too shrewde.
    Car. Good Madame be not angry with the childe.
    1525Qu. Pitchers haue eares. Enter Dorset.
    Car. Here comes your sonne, Lo: M. Dorset.
    What newes Lo: Marques?
    Dor. Such newes my Lo: as grieues me to vnfolde.
    Qu. How fares the Prince?
    1530Dor. Well Madame, and in health.
    Dut. What is thy newes then?
    Dor. Lo: Riuers and Lo: Gray are sent to Pomfret,
    With them, Sir Thomas Vaughan, prisoners.
    1535Dut. Who hath committed them?
    Dor. The mighty Dukes, Glocester and Buckingham.
    Car. For what offence.
    Dor. The summe of all I can, I haue disclosed:
    Why, or for what, these nobles were committed,
    1540Is all vnknowen to me my gratious Lady.
    Qu. Ay me I see the downfall of our house,
    The tyger now hath ceazd the gentle hinde:
    Insulting tyranny beginnes to iet,
    Vpon the innocent and lawlesse throane:
    1545Welcome destruction, death and massacre,
    I see