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Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Adrian Kiernander
Peer Reviewed

Richard the Third (Quarto 1, 1597)

Enter Queene, Lord Riuers, Gray.
Ri. Haue patience Madame, theres no doubt his Maie-(stie
465Will soone recouer his accustomed health.
Gray In that you brooke it, ill it makes him worse,
Therefore for Gods sake entertaine good comfort,
And cheere his grace quick and mery words,
Qu. If he were dead what would betide of me.
Ry. No other harme but losse of such a Lord.
Qu. The losse of such a Lord includes all harme.
Gr. The heauens haue blest you with a goodly sonne,
To be your comforter when he is gone.
475Qu. Oh he is young, and his minority
Is put vnto the trust of Rich. Glocester,
A man that loues not me nor none of you.
Ri. Is it concluded he shall be protector?
Qu. It is determinde, not concluded yet,
480But so it must be if the King miscarry. ( Enter Buck. Darby
Gr. Here come the Lords of Buckingham and Darby.
Buck. Good time of day vnto your royall grace.
Dar. God make your Maiesty ioyfull as you haue been.
485Qu. The Countesse Richmond good my Lo: of Darby,
To your good praiers will scarcely say, Amen:
Yet Darby notwithstanding, shees your wife,
And
of Richard the third.
And loues not me, be you good Lo. assurde
I hate not you for her proud arrogance.
490Dar. I doe beseech you either not beleeue
The enuious slaunders of her false accusers,
Or if she be accusde in true report,
Beare with her weakenes which I thinke proceedes
From wayward sicknesse, and no grounded malice.
495Ry. Saw you the King to day, my Lo: of Darby?
Dar. But now the Duke of Buckingham and I
Came from visiting his Maiesty.
Qu. With likelihood of his amendment Lords?
Buc. Madame good hope, his Grace speakes cheerfully.
500Qu. God grant him health, did you confer with him.
Buc. Madame we did: He desires to make attonement
Betwixt the Duke of Glocester and your brothers,
And betwixt them and my Lord chamberlaine,
And sent to warne them to his royall presence.
505Qu. Would all were well, but that will neuer be.
I feare our happines is at the highest. Enter Glocester.
Glo. They doe me wrong and I will not endure it,
Who are they that complaines vnto the King,
510That I forsooth am sterne and loue them not:
By holy Paul they loue his grace but lightly,
That fill his eares with such discentious rumors:
Because I cannot flatter and speake faire,
Smile in mens faces, smoothe, dcceiue and cog,
515Ducke with french nods and apish courtesie,
I must be held a rankerous enimy.
Cannot a plaine man liue and thinke no harme,
But thus his simple truth must be abusde,
By silken slie insinuating iackes?
520Ry. To whom in all this presence speakes your Grace?
Glo. To thee that hast nor honesty nor grace,
When haue I iniured thee, when done thee wrong,
Or thee or thee or any of your faction:
A plague vpon you all. His royall person
525(Whom God preserue better then you would wish)
Cannot be quiet scarce a breathing while,
But
The Tragedy
But you must trouble him with lewd complaints.
Qu. Brother of Glocester, you mistake the matter:
The King of his owne royall disposition,
530And not prouokt by any suiter else,
Ayming belike at your interiour hatred,
Which in your outward actions shewes it selfe,
Against my kindred, brother, and my selfe:
Makes him to send that thereby he may gather
The ground of your ill will and to remoue it.
535Glo. I cannot tell, the world is growen so bad
That wrens make pray where Eagles dare not pearch,
Since euery Iacke became a Gentleman:
Theres many a gentle person made a Iacke.
Qu. Come come, we know your meaning brother Gl.
540You enuy my aduancement and my friends,
God graunt we neuer may haue neede of you.
Glo. Meane time God grants that we haue neede of you,
Our brother is imprisoned by your meanes,
My selfe disgract, and the nobility
545Held in contempt, whilst many faire promotions,
Are daily giuen to enoble those
That scarce some two daies since were worth a noble.
Qu. By him that raisde me to this carefull height,
From that contented hap which I enioyd,
550I neuer did incense his Maiesty
Against the Duke of Clarence: but haue beene,
An earnest aduocate to pleade for him.
My Lord you doe me shamefull iniury,
Falsely to draw me in these vile suspects.
555Glo. You may deny that you were not the cause,
Of my Lord Hastings late imprisonment.
Ryu. She may my Lord.
Glo. She may Lo: Ryuers, why who knowes not so?
She may doe more Sir then denying that:
560She may helpe you to many faire preferments,
And then deny her ayding hand therein,
And lay those honours on your high deserts,
What may she not, she may, yea marry may she.
Ryu.
of Richard the third.
Ry. What mary may she.
565Glo. What mary may she, marry with a King,
A batchelor, a handsome stripling too.
Iwis your Grandam had a worser match.
Qu. My Lo: of Glocester, I haue too long borne
Your blunt vpbraidings and your bitter scoffes,
570By heauen I will acquaint his Maiesty
With those grose taunts I often haue endured:
I had rather be a countrey seruant maid,
Then a great Queene with this condition,
To be thus taunted, scorned, and baited at: Enter Qu. Margaret.
575Small ioy haue I in being Englands Queene.
Qu. Mar. And lesned be that smal, God I beseech thee,
Thy honour, state, and seate is due to me.
Glo. What? threat you me with telling of the King,
580Tell him and spare not, looke what I haue said,
I will auouch in presence of the King:
Tis time to speake, my paines are quite forgot.
Qu. Mar. Out diuell I remember them too well,
Thou slewest my husband Henry in the tower,
And Edward my poore sonne at Teuxbery.
Glo. Ere you were Queene, yea or your husband King.
590I was a packhorse in his great affaires,
A weeder out of his proud aduersaries,
A liberall rewarder of his friends:
To royalize his bloud I spilt mine owne.
Qu. Mar. Yea and much better bloud then his or thine.
Glo. In all which time you and your husband Gray,
Were factious for the house of Lancaster:
And Ryuers, so were you, was not your husband
In Margarets battaile at Saint Albones slaine:
600Let me put in your mindes, if yours forget
What you haue beene ere now, and what you are.
Withall, what I haue been, and what I am.
Qu. Ma. A murtherous villaine, and so still thou art.
Glo. Poore Clarence did forsake his father Warwicke,
605Yea and forswore himselfe (which Iesu pardon.)
Qu. Ma. Which God reuenge.
C Clo.
The Tragedy
Glo. To fight on Edwards party for the crowne,
And for his meede poore Lo: he is mewed vppe:
I would to God my heart were flint like Edwards,
610Or Edwards soft and pittifull like mine,
I am too childish, foolish for this world.
Qu. Ma. Hie thee to hell for shame and leaue the world
Thou Cacodemon, there thy kingdome is.
Ry. My Lo: of Glocester in those busie daies,
615Which here you vrge to proue vs enemies,
We followed then our Lo: our lawfull King,
So should we you if you should be our King.
Glo. If I should be? I had rather be a pedler,
Farre be it from my heart the thought of it.
620Qu. As little ioy my Lord as you suppose
You should enioy, were you this countries King,
As little ioy may you suppose in me,
That I enioy being the Queene thereof.
Qu. M . A little ioy enioies the Queene thereof,
625For I am she and altogether ioylesse.
I can no longer hold me patient:
Heare me you wrangling Pyrats that fall out,
In sharing that which you haue pild from me:
Which of you trembles not that lookes on me?
630If not, that I being Queene you bow like subiects,
Yet that by you deposde you quake like rebels:
O gentle villaine doe not turne away.
Glo. Foule wrinckled witch what makst thou in my sight?
Q. Ma. But repetition of what thou hast mard,
635That will I make before I let thee go:
A husband and a son thou owest to me,
640And thou a kingdome, all of you allegeance:
The sorrow that I haue by right is yours,
And all the pleasures you vsurpe are mine.
Glo. The curse my noble father laid on thee,
When thou didst crowne his warlike browes with paper,
645And with thy scorne drewst riuers from his eies,
And then to drie them gau'st the Duke a clout,
Steept in the faultlesse bloud of pretty Rutland:
His
of Richard the third.
His curses then from bitternes of soule
Denounst, against thee, are all fallen vpon thee,
650And God, not we, hath plagde thy bloudy deede.
Qu. So iust is God to right the innocent.
Hast. O twas the foulest deede to slaie that babe,
And the most mercilesse that euer was heard of.
Riu. Tyrants themselues wept when it was reported.
655Dors. No man but prophecied reuenge for it.
Buch. Northumberland then present wept to see it.
Qu. M. What? were you snarling all before I came,
Ready to catch each other by the throat,
And turne you all your hatred now on me?
660Did Yorkes dread curse preuaile so much with heauen,
That Henries death my louely Edwards death,
Their kingdomes losse, my wofull banishment,
Could all but answere for that peeuish brat?
Can curses pierce the clouds and enter heauen?
665Why then giue way dull cloudes to my quicke curses:
If not, by war, by surfet die your King,
As ours by murder to make him a King.
Edward thy sonne which now is Prince of Wales,
For Edward my sonne which was Prince of Wales,
670Die in his youth by like vntimely violence,
Thy selfe a Queene, for me that was a Queene,
Outliue thy glory like my wretched selfe:
Long maiest thou liue to waile thy childrens losse,
And see another as I see thee now
675Deckt in thy rights, as thou art stald in mine:
Long die thy happy daies before thy death,
And after many lengthened houres of griefe,
Die neither mother, wife, nor Englands Queene:
Riuers and Dorset you were standers by,
680And so wast thou Lo: Hastings when my sonne
Was stabd with bloudy daggers, god I pray him,
That none of you may liue your naturall age,
But by some vnlookt accident cut off.
Glo. Haue done thy charme thou hatefull withred hag.
685Q M. And leaue out the stay dog for thou shalt hear me
C2 Excee
The Tragedy
If heauen haue any grieuous plague in store,
Exceeding those that I can wish vpon thee:
O let them keepe it till thy sinnes be ripe,
And then hurle downe their indignation
690On thee the troubler of the poore worlds peace:
The worme of conscience still begnaw thy soule,
Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liuest,
And take deepe traitors for thy dearest friends:
No sleepe, close vp that deadly eye of thine,
695Vnlesse it be whilest some tormenting dreame
Affrights thee with a hell of vgly diuels.
Thou eluish markt abortiue rooting hog,
Thou that wast seald in thy natiuity
The slaue of nature, and the sonne of hell,
700Thou slaunder of thy mothers heauy wombe,
Thou lothed issue of thy fathers loynes,
Thou rag of honour, thou detested, &c.
Glo. Margaret.
Qu. M. Richard.Glo. Ha.
705Qu. M . I call thee not.
Glo. Then I crie thee mercy, for I had thought
That thou hadst cald me all these bitter names.
Qu M. Why so I did, but lookt for no reply,
O Let me make the period to my curse.
710Glo. Tis done by me, and ends in Margaret.
Qu. Thus haue you breathed your curse against your (selfe.
Qu. M . Poore painted Queene, vaine flourish of my for- (tune
Why strewest thou suger on that bottled spider,
Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about?
715Foole foole, thou whetst a knife to kill thy selfe,
The time will come that thou shalt wish for me,
To helpe thee curse that poisenous bunchbackt toade.
Hast. False boading woman, end thy frantike curse,
Lest to thy harme thou moue our patience.
720Q. M . Foule shame vpon you, you haue all mou'd mine,
Ri. Were you well seru'd you would be taught your duty.
Q. M . To serue me well, you all should doe me duty,
Teach me to be your Queene, and you my subiects:
O
of Richard the third.
O serue me well, and teach your selues that duty.
725Dors. Dispute not with her, she is lunatique.
Q M . Peace Master Marques you are malapert,
Your fire-new stampe of honour is scarse currant:
O that your young nobility could iudge,
What twere to loose it and be miserable:
730They that stand high haue many blast to shake them,
And if they fall they dash themselues to pieces.
Glo. Good counsell mary, learne it learne it Marques.
Dor. It toucheth you my Lo: asmuch as me.
735Glo. Yea and much more, but I was borne so high,
Our aiery buildeth in the Cedars top,
And dallies with the winde, and scornes the sunne.
Qu. M . And turnes the sun to shade, alas, alas,
Witnes my son, now in the shade of death,
740Whose bright outshining beames, thy cloudy wrath
Hath in eternall darkenes foulded vp:
Your aiery buildeth in our aieries nest,
O God that seest it, doe not suffer it:
As it was wonne with bloud, lost be it so.
745Buck. Haue done for shame, if not for charity.
Qu. M . Vrge neither charity nor shame to me,
Vncharitably with me haue you dealt,
And shamefully by you my hopes are butcherd,
My charity is outrage, life my shame,
750And in my shame, still liue my sorrowes rage.
Buck. Haue done.
Q. M . O Princely Buckingham, I will kisse thy hand
In signe of league and amity with thee:
Now faire befall thee and thy Princely house,
755Thy garments are not spotted with our bloud,
Nor thou within the compasse of my curse.
Buc. Nor no one here, for curses neuer passe
The lips of those that breath them in the aire.
Q. M. Ile not beleeue but they ascend the skie,
760And there awake gods gentle sleeping peace.
O Buckingham beware of yonder dog,
Looke when he fawnes, he bites, and when he bites,
C3 His
The Tragedy
His venome tooth will rackle thee to death,
Haue not to doe with him, beware of him:
765Sinne, death and hell, haue set their markes on him,
And all their ministers attend on him.
Glo. What doth she say my Lo: of Buckingham?
Buck. Nothing that I respect my gratious Lord.
Qu. M. What doest thou scorne me for my gentle coun-(sell,
And sooth the diuell that I warne thee from:
O but remember this another day,
When he shall split thy very heart with sorrow,
And say poore Margaret was a prophetesse:
775Liue each of you the subiects of his hate,
And he to your, and all of you to Gods. Exit.
Hast. My haire doth stand on end to heare her curses.
Ryu. And so doth mine, I wonder shees at liberty.
Glo. I cannot blame her by gods holy mother,
780She hath had too much wrong, and I repent
My part thereof that I haue done.
Qu. I neuer did her any to my knowledge.
Glo. But you haue all the vantage of this wrong.
I was too hoat to doe some body good,
785That is too cold in thinking of it now:
Marry as for Clarence he is well repaid,
He is franckt vp to fatting for his paines,
God pardon them that are the cause of it.
Ryu. A vertuous and a Christianlike conclusion,
790To pray for them that haue done scathe to vs.
Glo. So doe I euer being well aduisde,
For had I curst, now I had curst my selfe.
795Cates. Madam his Maiesty doth call for you,
And for your Grace, and you my noble Lo:
Qu Catesby we come, Lords will you go with vs.
Ry. Madame we will attend your grace. Exeunt man. Ri.
800Glo. I doe the wrong, and first began to braule
The secret mischiefes that I set abroach,
I lay vnto the grieuous charge of others:
Clarence whom I indeed haue laid in darkenes,
I doe beweepe to many simple guls:
Name
of Richard the third.
805Namely to Hastings, Darby, Buckingham,
And say it is the Queene and her allies,
That stirre the King against the Duke my brother.
Now they beleeue me, and withall whet me,
To be reuenged on Ryuers, Vaughan, Gray:
810But then I sigh, and with a piece of scripture,
Tell them that God bids vs doe good for euill:
And thus I clothe my naked villany,
With old odde ends stolne out of holy writ,
And seeme a Saint when most I play the Diuell:
But soft here come my executioners. Enter Executioners.
How now my hardy stout resolued mates,
Are you now going to dispatch this deede.
Execu. We are my Lord, and come to haue the warrant,
820That we may be admitted where he is.
Glo. It was well thought vpon, I haue it here about me,
When you haue done repaire to Crosby place;
But sirs; be sudden in the execution,
Withall, obdurate, doe not heare him pleade,
825For Clarence is well spoken, and perhaps,
May, moue your harts to pitty if you marke him.
Exec. Tush feare not my Lo: we will not stand to prate,
Talkers are no good doers be assured:
We come to vse our hands, and not our tongues.
830Gl. Your eies drop milstones when fooles eies drop tears,
I like you lads, about your busines. Exeunt.
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