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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)

    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
    The Tragedy
    And were they to be rulde, and not to rule,
    This sickly land might solace as before.
    2 Come come, we feare the worst, all shalbe well.
    3 When cloudes appeare, wise men put on their clokes:
    1470When great leaues fall, the winter is at hand:
    When the sunne sets, who doth not looke for night:
    Vntimely stormes, make men expect a darth:
    All may be well: but if God sort it so,
    Tis more then we deserue or I expect.
    14751 Truely the soules of men are full of bread:
    Yee cannot almost reason with a man
    That lookes not heauily, and full of feare.
    3 Before the times of change still is it so:
    By a diuine instinct mens mindes mistrust
    1480Ensuing dangers, as by proofe we see.
    The waters swell before a boistrous storme:
    But leaue it all to God: whither away?
    2 We are sent for to the Iustice.
    3 And so was I, Ile beare you company. Exeunt.
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