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- Herausgeber: Musaicum Books
- Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
- Sprache: Englisch
William Shakespeare's 'King Richard III' is a historical play that delves into the Machiavellian tactics and moral corruption of its title character as he schemes his way to the English throne. Written during the Elizabethan era, the play is filled with political intrigue, betrayal, and manipulation, offering a glimpse into the volatile power dynamics of the period. Shakespeare's masterful use of language and verse enhances the dramatic tension, creating a captivating narrative that continues to resonate with audiences today. The character of Richard III, with his infamous hunchback and cunning nature, serves as a cautionary tale of unchecked ambition and the destructive nature of power. The play's exploration of themes such as destiny, loyalty, and the consequences of evil actions make it a timeless classic of English literature. William Shakespeare, widely regarded as one of the greatest playwrights in history, drew inspiration from historical sources and contemporary events to craft 'King Richard III.' His profound understanding of human nature and ability to create complex characters have solidified his place in the literary canon. Shakespeare's enduring legacy is evident in his iconic works, which continue to be studied, performed, and celebrated worldwide. I highly recommend 'King Richard III' to readers who appreciate rich character development, thought-provoking themes, and masterful storytelling. This play offers a compelling exploration of power and morality, making it a must-read for anyone interested in Shakespearean drama or historical fiction.
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KING RICHARD III
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Table of Contents
King Richard III
Persons Represented
KING EDWARD THE FOURTH
Sons to the king EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES, afterwards KING EDWARD V RICHARD, DUKE OF YORK
Brothers to the king GEORGE, DUKE OF CLARENCE RICHARD, DUKE OF GLOSTER, afterwards KING RICHARD III
A YOUNG SON OF CLARENCE HENRY, EARL OF RICHMOND, afterwards KING HENRY VII CARDINAL BOURCHIER, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY THOMAS ROTHERHAM, ARCHBISHOP OF YORK JOHN MORTON, BISHOP OF ELY DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM DUKE OF NORFOLK EARL OF SURREY, his son EARL RIVERS, brother to King Edward’s Queen MARQUIS OF DORSET and LORD GREY, her sons EARL OF OXFORD LORD HASTINGS LORD STANLEY LORD LOVEL SIR THOMAS VAUGHAN SIR RICHARD RATCLIFF SIR WILLIAM CATESBY SIR JAMES TYRREL SIR JAMES BLOUNT SIR WALTER HERBERT SIR ROBERT BRAKENBURY, Lieutenant of the Tower CHRISTOPHER URSWICK, a priest Another Priest LORD MAYOR OF LONDON SHERIFF OF WILTSHIRE
ELIZABETH, Queen to King Edward IV MARGARET, widow to King Henry VI DUCHESS OF YORK, mother to King Edward IV, Clarence, and Gloster LADY ANNE, widow to Edward, Prince of Wales, son to King Henry VI; afterwards married to the Duke of Gloster A YOUNG DAUGHTER OF CLARENCE
Lords, and other Attendants; two Gentlemen, a Pursuivant, Scrivener, Citizens, Murderers, Messengers, Ghosts, Soldiers, &c.
SCENE: England
ACT I
SCENE I. London. A street
[Enter GLOSTER.] GLOSTER Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York; And all the clouds that lour’d upon our house In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths; Our bruisèd arms hung up for monuments; Our stern alarums chang’d to merry meetings, Our dreadful marches to delightful measures. Grim-visag’d war hath smooth’d his wrinkled front; And now,—instead of mounting barbèd steeds To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,— He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber To the lascivious pleasing of a lute. But I,—that am not shap’d for sportive tricks, Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass; I, that am rudely stamp’d, and want love’s majesty To strut before a wanton ambling nymph; I, that am curtail’d of this fair proportion, Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, Deform’d, unfinish’d, sent before my time Into this breathing world scarce half made up, And that so lamely and unfashionable That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;— Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace, Have no delight to pass away the time, Unless to spy my shadow in the sun, And descant on mine own deformity: And therefore,—since I cannot prove a lover, To entertain these fair well-spoken days,— I am determinèd to prove a villain, And hate the idle pleasures of these days. Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous, By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams, To set my brother Clarence and the king In deadly hate the one against the other: And if King Edward be as true and just As I am subtle, false, and treacherous, This day should Clarence closely be mew’d up,— About a prophecy which says that G Of Edward’s heirs the murderer shall be. Dive, thoughts, down to my soul:—here Clarence comes.
[Enter CLARENCE, guarded, and BRAKENBURY.] Brother, good day: what means this armèd guard That waits upon your grace?
CLARENCE His majesty, Tendering my person’s safety, hath appointed This conduct to convey me to the Tower.
GLOSTER Upon what cause?
CLARENCE Because my name is George.
GLOSTER Alack, my lord, that fault is none of yours; He should, for that, commit your godfathers:— O, belike his majesty hath some intent That you should be new-christen’d in the Tower. But what’s the matter, Clarence? may I know?
CLARENCE Yea, Richard, when I know; for I protest As yet I do not: but, as I can learn, He hearkens after prophecies and dreams; And from the cross-row plucks the letter G, And says a wizard told him that by G His issue disinherited should be; And, for my name of George begins with G, It follows in his thought that I am he. These, as I learn, and such like toys as these, Hath mov’d his highness to commit me now.
GLOSTER Why, this it is when men are rul’d by women:— ‘Tis not the king that sends you to the Tower; My Lady Grey his wife, Clarence, ‘tis she That tempers him to this extremity. Was it not she and that good man of worship, Antony Woodville, her brother there, That made him send Lord Hastings to the Tower, From whence this present day he is deliver’d? We are not safe, Clarence; we are not safe.
CLARENCE By heaven, I think there is no man is secure But the queen’s kindred, and night-walking heralds That trudge betwixt the king and Mistress Shore. Heard you not what an humble suppliant Lord Hastings was to her for his delivery?
GLOSTER Humbly complaining to her deity Got my Lord Chamberlain his liberty. I’ll tell you what,—I think it is our way, If we will keep in favour with the king, To be her men and wear her livery: The jealous o’er-worn widow, and herself, Since that our brother dubb’d them gentlewomen, Are mighty gossips in our monarchy.
BRAKENBURY I beseech your graces both to pardon me; His majesty hath straitly given in charge That no man shall have private conference, Of what degree soever, with your brother.
GLOSTER Even so; an’t please your worship, Brakenbury, You may partake of any thing we say: We speak no treason, man;—we say the king Is wise and virtuous; and his noble queen Well struck in years, fair, and not jealous;— We say that Shore’s wife hath a pretty foot, A cherry lip, a bonny eye, a passing pleasing tongue; And that the queen’s kindred are made gentlefolks: How say you, sir? can you deny all this?
BRAKENBURY With this, my lord, myself have naught to do.
GLOSTER Naught to do with Mistress Shore! I tell thee, fellow, He that doth naught with her, excepting one, Were best to do it secretly alone.
BRAKENBURY What one, my lord?
GLOSTER Her husband, knave:—wouldst thou betray me?
BRAKENBURY I do beseech your grace to pardon me; and, withal, Forbear your conference with the noble duke.
CLARENCE We know thy charge, Brakenbury, and will obey.
GLOSTER We are the queen’s abjects and must obey.— Brother, farewell: I will unto the king; And whatsoe’er you will employ me in,— Were it to call King Edward’s widow sister,— I will perform it to enfranchise you. Meantime, this deep disgrace in brotherhood Touches me deeper than you can imagine.
CLARENCE I know it pleaseth neither of us well.
GLOSTER Well, your imprisonment shall not be long; I will deliver or else lie for you: Meantime, have patience.
CLARENCE I must perforce: farewell. [Exeunt CLARENCE, BRAKENBURY, and guard.] GLOSTER Go tread the path that thou shalt ne’er return. Simple, plain Clarence!—I do love thee so That I will shortly send thy soul to heaven, If heaven will take the present at our hands.— But who comes here? The new-delivered Hastings? [Enter HASTINGS.] HASTINGS Good time of day unto my gracious lord!
GLOSTER As much unto my good Lord Chamberlain! Well are you welcome to the open air. How hath your lordship brook’d imprisonment?
HASTINGS With patience, noble lord, as prisoners must; But I shall live, my lord, to give them thanks That were the cause of my imprisonment.
GLOSTER No doubt, no doubt; and so shall Clarence too; For they that were your enemies are his, And have prevail’d as much on him as you.
HASTINGS More pity that the eagles should be mew’d Whiles kites and buzzards prey at liberty.
GLOSTER What news abroad?
HASTINGS No news so bad abroad as this at home,— The king is sickly, weak, and melancholy, And his physicians fear him mightily.
GLOSTER Now, by Saint Paul, that news is bad indeed. O, he hath kept an evil diet long, And overmuch consum’d his royal person: ‘Tis very grievous to be thought upon. What, is he in his bed?
HASTINGS He is.
GLOSTER Go you before, and I will follow you. [Exit HASTINGS.] He cannot live, I hope; and must not die Till George be pack’d with posthorse up to heaven. I’ll in, to urge his hatred more to Clarence With lies well steel’d with weighty arguments; And, if I fail not in my deep intent, Clarence hath not another day to live; Which done, God take King Edward to his mercy, And leave the world for me to bustle in! For then I’ll marry Warwick’s youngest daughter: What though I kill’d her husband and her father? The readiest way to make the wench amends Is to become her husband and her father: The which will I; not all so much for love As for another secret close intent, By marrying her, which I must reach unto. But yet I run before my horse to market: Clarence still breathes; Edward still lives and reigns: When they are gone, then must I count my gains. [Exit.]
SCENE II. London. Another street
[Enter the corpse of King Henry the Sixth, borne in an open coffin, Gentlemen bearing halberds to guard it; and Lady Anne as mourner.] ANNE Set down, set down your honourable load,— If honour may be shrouded in a hearse,— Whilst I awhile obsequiously lament Th’ untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster.— Poor key-cold figure of a holy king! Pale ashes of the house of Lancaster! Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood! Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghost, To hear the lamentations of poor Anne, Wife to thy Edward, to thy slaughter’d son, Stabb’d by the selfsame hand that made these wounds! Lo, in these windows that let forth thy life, I pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes:— O, cursèd be the hand that made these holes! Cursèd the heart that had the heart to do it! Cursèd the blood that let this blood from hence! More direful hap betide that hated wretch That makes us wretched by the death of thee, Than I can wish to adders, spiders, toads, Or any creeping venom’d thing that lives! If ever he have child, abortive be it, Prodigious, and untimely brought to light, Whose ugly and unnatural aspect May fright the hopeful mother at the view; And that be heir to his unhappiness! If ever he have wife, let her be made More miserable by the death of him Than I am made by my young lord and thee!— Come, now towards Chertsey with your holy load, Taken from Paul’s to be interrèd there; And still, as you are weary of this weight, Rest you, whiles I lament King Henry’s corse. [The Bearers take up the Corpse and advance.] [Enter GLOSTER.] GLOSTER Stay, you that bear the corse, and set it down.
ANNE What black magician conjures up this fiend, To stop devoted charitable deeds?
GLOSTER Villains, set down the corse; or, by Saint Paul, I’ll make a corse of him that disobeys!
FIRST GENTLEMAN My lord, stand back, and let the coffin pass.
GLOSTER Unmanner’d dog! stand thou, when I command: Advance thy halberd higher than my breast, Or, by Saint Paul, I’ll strike thee to my foot And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness. [The Bearers set down the coffin.] ANNE What, do you tremble? are you all afraid? Alas, I blame you not; for you are mortal, And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.— Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell! Thou hadst but power over his mortal body, His soul thou canst not have; therefore, be gone.
GLOSTER Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst.
ANNE Foul devil, for God’s sake, hence and trouble us not; For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell, Fill’d it with cursing cries and deep exclaims. If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds, Behold this pattern of thy butcheries.— O, gentlemen, see, see! dead Henry’s wounds Open their congeal’d mouths and bleed afresh! Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity; For ‘tis thy presence that exhales this blood From cold and empty veins, where no blood dwells; Thy deeds, inhuman and unnatural, Provokes this deluge most unnatural.— O God, which this blood mad’st, revenge his death! O earth, which this blood drink’st, revenge his death! Either, heaven, with lightning strike the murderer dead; Or, earth, gape open wide and eat him quick, As thou dost swallow up this good king’s blood, Which his hell-govern’d arm hath butchered!
GLOSTER Lady, you know no rules of charity, Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.
ANNE Villain, thou knowest nor law of God nor man: No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.
GLOSTER But I know none, and therefore am no beast.
ANNE O wonderful, when devils tell the truth!
GLOSTER More wonderful when angels are so angry.— Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman, Of these supposèd crimes to give me leave, By circumstance, but to acquit myself.
ANNE Vouchsafe, diffus’d infection of a man, Of these known evils but to give me leave, By circumstance, to accuse thy cursèd self.
GLOSTER Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have Some patient leisure to excuse myself.
ANNE Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make No excuse current but to hang thyself.
GLOSTER By such despair I should accuse myself.
ANNE And by despairing shalt thou stand excus’d; For doing worthy vengeance on thyself, That didst unworthy slaughter upon others.
GLOSTER Say that I slew them not?
ANNE Then say they were not slain: But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee.
GLOSTER I did not kill your husband.
ANNE Why, then he is alive.
GLOSTER Nay, he is dead; and slain by Edward’s hand.
ANNE In thy foul throat thou liest: Queen Margaret saw Thy murderous falchion smoking in his blood; The which thou once didst bend against her breast, But that thy brothers beat aside the point.
GLOSTER I was provokèd by her slanderous tongue That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders.
ANNE Thou wast provokèd by thy bloody mind, That never dreamt on aught but butcheries: Didst thou not kill this king?
GLOSTER I grant ye.
ANNE Dost grant me, hedgehog? then, God grant me too Thou mayst be damnèd for that wicked deed! O, he was gentle, mild, and virtuous.
GLOSTER The better for the king of Heaven, that hath him.
ANNE He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come.
GLOSTER Let him thank me that holp to send him thither, For he was fitter for that place than earth.
ANNE And thou unfit for any place but hell.
GLOSTER Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.
ANNE Some dungeon.
GLOSTER Your bedchamber.
ANNE Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest!
GLOSTER So will it, madam, till I lie with you.
ANNE I hope so.
GLOSTER I know so.—But, gentle Lady Anne,— To leave this keen encounter of our wits, And fall something into a slower method,— Is not the causer of the timeless deaths Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward, As blameful as the executioner?
ANNE Thou wast the cause and most accurs’d effect.
GLOSTER Your beauty was the cause of that effect; Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep To undertake the death of all the world, So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.
ANNE If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide, These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.
GLOSTER These eyes could not endure that beauty’s wreck; You should not blemish it if I stood by: As all the world is cheerèd by the sun, So I by that; it is my day, my life.
ANNE Black night o’ershade thy day, and death thy life!
GLOSTER Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art both.
ANNE I would I were, to be reveng’d on thee.
GLOSTER It is a quarrel most unnatural, To be reveng’d on him that loveth thee.
ANNE It is a quarrel just and reasonable, To be reveng’d on him that kill’d my husband.
GLOSTER He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband, Did it to help thee to a better husband.
ANNE His better doth not breathe upon the earth.
GLOSTER He lives that loves thee better than he could.
ANNE Name him.
GLOSTER Plantagenet.
ANNE Why, that was he.
GLOSTER The selfsame name, but one of better nature.
ANNE Where is he?
GLOSTER Here. [She spits at him.] Why dost thou spit at me?
ANNE Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake!
GLOSTER Never came poison from so sweet a place.
ANNE Never hung poison on a fouler toad. Out of my sight! thou dost infect mine eyes.
GLOSTER Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.
ANNE Would they were basilisks to strike thee dead!
GLOSTER I would they were, that I might die at once; For now they kill me with a living death. Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears, Sham’d their aspects with store of childish drops: These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear, No, when my father York and Edward wept, To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made When black-fac’d Clifford shook his sword at him; Nor when thy warlike father, like a child, Told the sad story of my father’s death, And twenty times made pause, to sob and weep, That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks, Like trees bedash’d with rain; in that sad time My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear; And what these sorrows could not thence exhale, Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping. I never su’d to friend nor enemy; My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing word; But, now thy beauty is propos’d my fee, My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak. [She looks scornfully at him.] Teach not thy lip such scorn; for it was made For kissing, lady, not for such contempt. If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive, Lo, here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword; Which if thou please to hide in this true breast And let the soul forth that adoreth thee, I lay it naked to the deadly stroke, And humbly beg the death upon my knee, Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry,— [He lays his breast open; she offers at it with his sword.] But ‘twas thy beauty that provokèd me. Nay, now dispatch; ‘twas I that stabb’d young Edward,— [She again offers at his breast.] But ‘twas thy heavenly face that set me on. [She lets fall the sword.] Take up the sword again, or take up me.
ANNE Arise, dissembler: though I wish thy death, I will not be thy executioner.
GLOSTER Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.
ANNE I have already.
GLOSTER That was in thy rage: Speak it again, and even with the word, This hand, which for thy love did kill thy love; Shall, for thy love, kill a far truer love; To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary.
ANNE I would I knew thy heart.
GLOSTER ‘Tis figured in my tongue.
ANNE I fear me both are false.
GLOSTER Then never was man true.
ANNE Well, well, put up your sword.
GLOSTER Say, then, my peace is made.
ANNE That shalt thou know hereafter.
GLOSTER But shall I live in hope?
ANNE All men, I hope, live so.
GLOSTER Vouchsafe to wear this ring.
ANNE To take is not to give. [She puts on the ring.] GLOSTER Look, how this ring encompasseth thy finger, Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart; Wear both of them, for both of them are thine. And if thy poor devoted servant may But beg one favour at thy gracious hand, Thou dost confirm his happiness for ever.
ANNE What is it?
GLOSTER That it may please you leave these sad designs To him that hath most cause to be a mourner, And presently repair to Crosby Place; Where,—after I have solemnly interr’d At Chertsey monastery, this noble king, And wet his grave with my repentant tears,— I will with all expedient duty see you: For divers unknown reasons, I beseech you, Grant me this boon.
ANNE With all my heart; and much it joys me too To see you are become so penitent.— Tressel and Berkeley, go along with me.
GLOSTER Bid me farewell.
ANNE ‘Tis more than you deserve; But since you teach me how to flatter you, Imagine I have said farewell already. [Exeunt Lady Anne, Tress, and Berk.] GLOSTER Sirs, take up the corse.
GENTLEMEN Towards Chertsey, noble lord?
GLOSTER No, to White Friars; there attend my coming. [Exeunt the rest, with the Corpse.] Was ever woman in this humour woo’d? Was ever woman in this humour won? I’ll have her; but I will not keep her long. What! I that kill’d her husband and his father, To take her in her heart’s extremest hate; With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes, The bleeding witness of her hatred by; Having God, her conscience, and these bars against me, And I no friends to back my suit withal, But the plain devil and dissembling looks, And yet to win her,—all the world to nothing! Ha! Hath she forgot already that brave prince, Edward, her lord, whom I, some three months since, Stabb’d in my angry mood at Tewksbury? A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman,— Fram’d in the prodigality of nature, Young, valiant, wise, and, no doubt, right royal,— The spacious world cannot again afford: And will she yet abase her eyes on me, That cropp’d the golden prime of this sweet prince, And made her widow to a woeful bed? On me, whose all not equals Edward’s moiety? On me, that halt and am misshapen thus? My dukedom to a beggarly denier, I do mistake my person all this while: Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot, Myself to be a marvellous proper man. I’ll be at charges for a looking-glass; And entertain a score or two of tailors, To study fashions to adorn my body: Since I am crept in favour with myself, I will maintain it with some little cost. But first I’ll turn yon fellow in his grave; And then return lamenting to my love.— Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass, That I may see my shadow as I pass. [Exit.]
SCENE III. London. A Room in the Palace
[Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH, LORD RIVERS, and LORD GREY.] RIVERS Have patience, madam: there’s no doubt his majesty Will soon recover his accustom’d health.
GREY. In that you brook it ill, it makes him worse: Therefore, for God’s sake, entertain good comfort, And cheer his grace with quick and merry eyes.
QUEEN ELIZABETH If he were dead, what would betide on me?
GREY No other harm but loss of such a lord.
QUEEN ELIZABETH The loss of such a lord includes all harms.
GREY The heavens have bless’d you with a goodly son To be your comforter when he is gone.
QUEEN ELIZABETH Ah, he is young; and his minority Is put unto the trust of Richard Gloster, A man that loves not me, nor none of you.
RIVERS Is it concluded he shall be protector?
QUEEN ELIZABETH It is determin’d, not concluded yet: But so it must be, if the king miscarry. [Enter BUCKINGHAM and STANLEY.] GREY Here come the Lords of Buckingham and Stanley.
BUCKINGHAM Good time of day unto your royal grace!
STANLEY God make your majesty joyful as you have been!
QUEEN ELIZABETH The Countess Richmond, good my Lord of Stanley, To your good prayer will scarcely say amen. Yet, Stanley, notwithstanding she’s your wife, And loves not me, be you, good lord, assur’d I hate not you for her proud arrogance.
STANLEY I do beseech you, either not believe The envious slanders of her false accusers; Or, if she be accus’d on true report, Bear with her weakness, which I think proceeds From wayward sickness, and no grounded malice.
QUEEN ELIZABETH Saw you the king to-day, my Lord of Stanley?
STANLEY But now the Duke of Buckingham and I Are come from visiting his majesty.
QUEEN ELIZABETH What likelihood of his amendment, lords?
BUCKINGHAM Madam, good hope; his grace speaks cheerfully.
QUEEN ELIZABETH God grant him health! Did you confer with him?
BUCKINGHAM Ay, madam; he desires to make atonement Between the Duke of Gloster and your brothers, And between them and my lord chamberlain; And sent to warn them to his royal presence.
QUEEN ELIZABETH Would all were well!—but that will never be: I fear our happiness is at the height. [Enter GLOSTER, HASTINGS, and DORSET.] GLOSTER They do me wrong, and I will not endure it:— Who are they that complain unto the king That I, forsooth, am stern and love them not? By holy Paul, they love his grace but lightly That fill his ears with such dissentious rumours. Because I cannot flatter and look fair, Smile in men’s faces, smooth, deceive, and cog, Duck with French nods and apish courtesy, I must be held a rancorous enemy. Cannot a plain man live, and think no harm, But thus his simple truth must be abus’d With silken, sly, insinuating Jacks?
GREY To who in all this presence speaks your grace?
GLOSTER To thee, that hast nor honesty nor grace. When have I injur’d thee? when done thee wrong?— Or thee?—or thee?—or any of your faction? A plague upon you all! His royal grace,— Whom God preserve better than you would wish!— Cannot be quiet scarce a breathing while, But you must trouble him with lewd complaints.
QUEEN ELIZABETH Brother of Gloster, you mistake the matter. The king, on his own royal disposition, And not provok’d by any suitor else— Aiming, belike, at your interior hatred That in your outward action shows itself Against my children, brothers, and myself— Makes him to send; that thereby he may gather The ground of your ill-will, and so remove it.
GLOSTER I cannot tell: the world is grown so bad That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch: Since every Jack became a gentleman, There’s many a gentle person made a Jack.
QUEEN ELIZABETH Come, come, we know your meaning, brother Gloster; You envy my advancement, and my friends’; God grant we never may have need of you!
GLOSTER Meantime, God grants that we have need of you: Our brother is imprison’d by your means, Myself disgrac’d, and the nobility Held in contempt; while great promotions Are daily given to ennoble those That scarce, some two days since, were worth a noble.
QUEEN ELIZABETH By Him that rais’d me to this careful height From that contented hap which I enjoy’d, I never did incense his majesty Against the Duke of Clarence, but have been An earnest advocate to plead for him. My lord, you do me shameful injury Falsely to draw me in these vile suspects.
GLOSTER You may deny that you were not the mean Of my Lord Hastings’ late imprisonment.
RIVERS She may, my lord; for,—
GLOSTER She may, Lord Rivers?—why, who knows not so? She may do more, sir, than denying that: She may help you to many fair preferments; And then deny her aiding hand therein, And lay those honours on your high desert. What may she not? She may,—ay, marry, may she,—
RIVERS What, marry, may she?
GLOSTER. What, marry, may she! marry with a king, A bachelor, and a handsome stripling too: I wis your grandam had a worser match.
QUEEN ELIZABETH My Lord of Gloster, I have too long borne Your blunt upbraidings and your bitter scoffs: By heaven, I will acquaint his majesty Of those gross taunts that oft I have endur’d. I had rather be a country servant-maid Than a great queen with this condition,— To be so baited, scorn’d, and stormed at. [Enter old QUEEN MARGARET, behind.] Small joy have I in being England’s queen.
QUEEN MARGARET And lessen’d be that small, God, I beseech Him! Thy honour, state, and seat, is due to me.
GLOSTER What! Threat you me with telling of the king? Tell him, and spare not: look what I have said I will avouch in presence of the king: I dare adventure to be sent to the Tower. ‘Tis time to speak,—my pains are quite forgot.
QUEEN MARGARET Out, devil! I do remember them too well: Thou kill’dst my husband Henry in the Tower, And Edward, my poor son, at Tewksbury.
GLOSTER Ere you were queen, ay, or your husband king, I was a packhorse in his great affairs; A weeder-out of his proud adversaries, A liberal rewarder of his friends; To royalize his blood I spilt mine own.
QUEEN MARGARET Ay, and much better blood than his or thine.
GLOSTER In all which time you and your husband Grey Were factious for the house of Lancaster;— And, Rivers, so were you: was not your husband In Margaret’s battle at Saint Albans slain? Let me put in your minds, if you forget, What you have been ere this, and what you are; Withal, what I have been, and what I am.
QUEEN MARGARET A murderous villain, and so still thou art.
GLOSTER Poor Clarence did forsake his father, Warwick; Ay, and forswore himself,—which Jesu pardon!—
QUEEN MARGARET Which God revenge!
GLOSTER To fight on Edward’s party for the crown; And for his meed, poor lord, he is mew’d up. I would to God my heart were flint, like Edward’s, Or Edward’s soft and pitiful, like mine: I am too childish-foolish for this world.
QUEEN MARGARET Hie thee to hell for shame and leave this world, Thou cacodemon! there thy kingdom is.
RIVERS My Lord of Gloster, in those busy days Which here you urge to prove us enemies, We follow’d then our lord, our sovereign king: So should we you, if you should be our king.
GLOSTER If I should be!—I had rather be a pedler: Far be it from my heart, the thought thereof!
QUEEN ELIZABETH As little joy, my lord, as you suppose You should enjoy, were you this country’s king,— As little joy you may suppose in me, That I enjoy, being the queen thereof.
QUEEN MARGARET As little joy enjoys the queen thereof; For I am she, and altogether joyless. I can no longer hold me patient.— [Advancing.] Hear me, you wrangling pirates, that fall out In sharing that which you have pill’d from me! Which of you trembles not that looks on me? If not that, I am queen, you bow like subjects, Yet that, by you depos’d, you quake like rebels? Ah, gentle villain, do not turn away!
GLOSTER Foul wrinkled witch, what mak’st thou in my sight?
QUEEN MARGARET But repetition of what thou hast marr’d, That will I make before I let thee go.
GLOSTER Wert thou not banishèd on pain of death?
QUEEN MARGARET I was; but I do find more pain in banishment Than death can yield me here by my abode. A husband and a son thou ow’st to me,— And thou a kingdom,—all of you allegiance: This sorrow that I have, by right is yours; And all the pleasures you usurp are mine.
GLOSTER The curse my noble father laid on thee, When thou didst crown his warlike brows with paper, And with thy scorns drew’st rivers from his eyes; And then to dry them gav’st the Duke a clout Steep’d in the faultless blood of pretty Rutland;— His curses, then from bitterness of soul Denounc’d against thee, are all fallen upon thee; And God, not we, hath plagu’d thy bloody deed.
QUEEN ELIZABETH So just is God, to right the innocent.
HASTINGS O, ‘twas the foulest deed to slay that babe, And the most merciless that e’er was heard of.
RIVERS Tyrants themselves wept when it was reported.
DORSET No man but prophesied revenge for it.
BUCKINGHAM Northumberland, then present, wept to see it.
QUEEN MARGARET What, were you snarling all before I came, Ready to catch each other by the throat, And turn you all your hatred now on me? Did York’s dread curse prevail so much with heaven That Henry’s death, my lovely Edward’s death, Their kingdom’s loss, my woeful banishment, Should all but answer for that peevish brat? Can curses pierce the clouds and enter heaven?— Why, then, give way, dull clouds, to my quick curses!— Though not by war, by surfeit die your king, As ours by murder, to make him a king! Edward thy son, that now is Prince of Wales, For Edward our son, that was Prince of Wales, Die in his youth by like untimely violence! Thyself a queen, for me that was a queen, Outlive thy glory, like my wretched self! Long mayest thou live to wail thy children’s death; And see another, as I see thee now, Deck’d in thy rights, as thou art stall’d in mine! Long die thy happy days before thy death; And, after many lengthen’d hours of grief, Die neither mother, wife, nor England’s queen!— Rivers and Dorset, you were standers by,— And so wast thou, Lord Hastings,—when my son Was stabb’d with bloody daggers: God, I pray Him, That none of you may live his natural age, But by some unlook’d accident cut off!
GLOSTER Have done thy charm, thou hateful wither’d hag.
QUEEN MARGARET And leave out thee? stay, dog, for thou shalt hear me. If heaven have any grievous plague in store Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee, O, let them keep it till thy sins be ripe, And then hurl down their indignation On thee, the troubler of the poor world’s peace! The worm of conscience still be-gnaw thy soul! Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liv’st, And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends! No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine, Unless it be while some tormenting dream Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils! Thou elvish-mark’d, abortive, rooting hog! Thou that wast seal’d in thy nativity The slave of nature and the son of hell! Thou slander of thy heavy mother’s womb! Thou loathèd issue of thy father’s loins! Thou rag of honour! thou detested— GLOSTER Margaret.
QUEEN MARGARET Richard!
GLOSTER Ha!
QUEEN MARGARET I call thee not.
GLOSTER I cry thee mercy then; for I did think That thou hadst call’d me all these bitter names.
QUEEN MARGARET Why, so I did; but look’d for no reply. O, let me make the period to my curse!
GLOSTER ‘Tis done by me, and ends in—Margaret.
QUEEN ELIZABETH Thus have you breath’d your curse against yourself.
QUEEN MARGARET Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my fortune! Why strew’st thou sugar on that bottled spider, Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about? Fool, fool! thou whett’st a knife to kill thyself. The day will come that thou shalt wish for me To help thee curse this poisonous bunch-back’d toad.
HASTINGS False-boding woman, end thy frantic curse, Lest to thy harm thou move our patience.
QUEEN MARGARET Foul shame upon you! you have all mov’d mine.
RIVERS Were you well serv’d, you would be taught your duty.
QUEEN MARGARET To serve me well, you all should do me duty, Teach me to be your queen, and you my subjects: O, serve me well, and teach yourselves that duty!
DORSET Dispute not with her,—she is lunatic.
QUEEN MARGARET Peace, master marquis, you are malapert: Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current: O, that your young nobility could judge What ‘twere to lose it, and be miserable! They that stand high have many blasts to shake them; And if they fall they dash themselves to pieces.
GLOSTER Good counsel, marry:—learn it, learn it, marquis.
DORSET It touches you, my lord, as much as me.
GLOSTER Ay, and much more: but I was born so high, Our aery buildeth in the cedar’s top, And dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun.
QUEEN MARGARET And turns the sun to shade;—alas! alas!— Witness my son, now in the shade of death; Whose bright outshining beams thy cloudy wrath, Hath in eternal darkness folded up. Your aery buildeth in our aery’s nest:— O God that seest it, do not suffer it; As it is won with blood, lost be it so!
BUCKINGHAM Peace, peace, for shame, if not for charity.
QUEEN MARGARET Urge neither charity nor shame to me: Uncharitably with me have you dealt, And shamefully my hopes by you are butcher’d. My charity is outrage, life my shame,— And in that shame still live my sorrow’s rage!
BUCKINGHAM Have done, have done.
QUEEN MARGARET O princely Buckingham, I’ll kiss thy hand, In sign of league and amity with thee: Now fair befall thee and thy noble house! Thy garments are not spotted with our blood, Nor thou within the compass of my curse.
BUCKINGHAM Nor no one here; for curses never pass The lips of those that breathe them in the air.
QUEEN MARGARET I will not think but they ascend the sky, And there awake God’s gentle-sleeping peace. O Buckingham, take heed of yonder dog! Look, when he fawns he bites; and when he bites, His venom tooth will rankle to the death: Have not to do with him, beware of him; Sin, death, and hell have set their marks on him, And all their ministers attend on him.
GLOSTER What doth she say, my Lord of Buckingham?
BUCKINGHAM Nothing that I respect, my gracious lord.
QUEEN MARGARET What, dost thou scorn me for my gentle counsel? And soothe the devil that I warn thee from? O, but remember this another day, When he shall split thy very heart with sorrow, And say, poor Margaret was a prophetess!— Live each of you the subjects to his hate, And he to yours, and all of you to God’s! [Exit.] BUCKINGHAM My hair doth stand an end to hear her curses.
RIVERS And so doth mine: I muse why she’s at liberty.
GLOSTER I cannot blame her: by God’s holy mother, She hath had too much wrong; and I repent My part thereof that I have done to her.
QUEEN ELIZABETH I never did her any, to my knowledge.
GLOSTER Yet you have all the vantage of her wrong. I was too hot to do somebody good, That is too cold in thinking of it now. Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repaid; He is frank’d up to fatting for his pains; God pardon them that are the cause thereof!
RIVERS A virtuous and a Christian-like conclusion, To pray for them that have done scathe to us!
GLOSTER So do I ever being well advis’d; [Aside] For had I curs’d now, I had curs’d myself. [Enter CATESBY.] CATESBY Madam, his majesty doth can for you,— And for your grace,—and you, my noble lords.
QUEEN ELIZABETH Catesby, I come.—Lords, will you go with me?
RIVERS We wait upon your grace. [Exeunt all but GLOSTER.] GLOSTER I do the wrong, and first begin to brawl. The secret mischiefs that I set abroach I lay unto the grievous charge of others. Clarence,—whom I indeed have cast in darkness,— I do beweep to many simple gulls; Namely, to Stanley, Hastings, Buckingham; And tell them ‘tis the queen and her allies That stir the king against the duke my brother. Now they believe it; and withal whet me To be reveng’d on Rivers, Vaughn, Grey: But then I sigh; and, with a piece of Scripture, Tell them that God bids us do good for evil: And thus I clothe my naked villany With odd old ends stol’n forth of holy writ; And seem a saint when most I play the devil.— But, soft, here come my executioners. [Enter two MURDERERS.] How now, my hardy stout resolvèd mates! Are you now going to dispatch this thing?
FIRST MURDERER We are, my lord, and come to have the warrant, That we may be admitted where he is.
GLOSTER Well thought upon;—I have it here about me: [Gives the warrant.] When you have done, repair to Crosby Place. But, sirs, be sudden in the execution, Withal obdúrate, do not hear him plead; For Clarence is well-spoken, and perhaps May move your hearts to pity, if you mark him.
FIRST MURDERER Tut, tut, my lord, we will not stand to prate; Talkers are no good doers: be assur’d We go to use our hands, and not our tongues.
GLOSTER Your eyes drop millstones when fools’ eyes fall tears: I like you, lads;—about your business straight; Go, go, despatch.
FIRST MURDERER We will, my noble lord. [Exeunt.]
SCENE IV. London. A Room in the Tower
[Enter CLARENCE and BRAKENBURY.] BRAKENBURY Why looks your grace so heavily to-day?
CLARENCE O, I have pass’d a miserable night, So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights, That, as I am a Christian faithful man, I would not spend another such a night Though ‘twere to buy a world of happy days,— So full of dismal terror was the time!
BRAKENBURY What was your dream, my lord? I pray you tell me.
CLARENCE Methoughts that I had broken from the Tower, And was embark’d to cross to Burgundy; And, in my company, my brother Gloster; Who from my cabin tempted me to walk Upon the hatches: thence we look’d toward England, And cited up a thousand heavy times, During the wars of York and Lancaster, That had befall’n us. As we pac’d along Upon the giddy footing of the hatches, Methought that Gloster stumbled; and, in falling, Struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard Into the tumbling billows of the main. O Lord, methought what pain it was to drown! What dreadful noise of waters in my ears! What sights of ugly death within my eyes! Methoughts I saw a thousand fearful wrecks; A thousand men that fishes gnaw’d upon; Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels, All scatt’red in the bottom of the sea: Some lay in dead men’s skulls; and in the holes Where eyes did once inhabit there were crept,— As ‘twere in scorn of eyes,—reflecting gems, That woo’d the slimy bottom of the deep, And mock’d the dead bones that lay scatter’d by.
BRAKENBURY Had you such leisure in the time of death To gaze upon these secrets of the deep?
CLARENCE Methought I had; and often did I strive To yield the ghost: but still the envious flood Stopp’d in my soul, and would not let it forth To find the empty, vast, and wandering air; But smother’d it within my panting bulk, Who almost burst to belch it in the sea.
BRAKENBURY Awak’d you not in this sore agony?
CLARENCE No, no, my dream was lengthen’d after life; O, then began the tempest to my soul! I pass’d, methought, the melancholy flood With that grim ferryman which poets write of, Unto the kingdom of perpetual night. The first that there did greet my stranger soul Was my great fatherin-law, renownèd Warwick; Who spake aloud, “What scourge for perjury Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?” And so he vanish’d: then came wandering by A shadow like an Angel, with bright hair Dabbled in blood; and he shriek’d out aloud “Clarence is come,—false, fleeting, perjur’d Clarence,— That stabb’d me in the field by Tewksbury;— Seize on him, Furies, take him to your torments!” With that, methoughts, a legion of foul fiends Environ’d me, and howlèd in mine ears Such hideous cries that, with the very noise, I trembling wak’d, and for a season after Could not believe but that I was in hell,— Such terrible impression made my dream.
BRAKENBURY No marvel, lord, though it affrighted you; I am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it.
CLARENCE Ah, Brakenbury, I have done these things That now give evidence against my soul, For Edward’s sake; and see how he requites me!— O God! If my deep prayers cannot appease Thee, But Thou wilt be aveng’d on my misdeeds, Yet execute Thy wrath in me alone,— O, spare my guiltless wife and my poor children!— Keeper, I prithee sit by me awhile; My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep.
BRAKENBURY I will, my lord; God give your grace good rest!— [CLARENCE reposes himself on a chair.] Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours, Makes the night morning and the noontide night. Princes have but their titles for their glories, An outward honour for an inward toil; And, for unfelt imaginations, They often feel a world of restless cares: So that, between their tides and low name, There’s nothing differs but the outward fame. [Enter the two MURDERERS.] FIRST MURDERER Ho! who’s here?
BRAKENBURY What wouldst thou, fellow, and how cam’st thou hither?
FIRST MURDERER I would speak with Clarence, and I came hither on my legs.
BRAKENBURY What, so brief?
SECOND MURDERER ‘Tis better, sir, than to be tedious.—Let him see our commission and talk no more. [A paper is delivered to BRAKENBURY, who reads it.] BRAKENBURY I am, in this, commanded to deliver The noble Duke of Clarence to your hands:— I will not reason what is meant hereby, Because I will be guiltless of the meaning. There lies the Duke asleep,—and there the keys; I’ll to the king and signify to him That thus I have resign’d to you my charge.
FIRST MURDERER You may, sir; ‘tis a point of wisdom: fare you well. [Exit BRAKENBURY.] SECOND MURDERER What, shall we stab him as he sleeps?
FIRST MURDERER No; he’ll say ‘twas done cowardly, when he wakes.
SECOND MURDERER When he wakes! why, fool, he shall never wake until the great judgment-day.
FIRST MURDERER Why, then he’ll say we stabb’d him sleeping.
SECOND MURDERER The urging of that word “judgment” hath bred a kind of remorse in me.
FIRST MURDERER What, art thou afraid?
SECOND MURDERER Not to kill him, having a warrant for it; but to be damned for killing him, from the which no warrant can defend me.
FIRST MURDERER I thought thou hadst been resolute.
SECOND MURDERER So I am, to let him live.
FIRST MURDERER I’ll back to the Duke of Gloster and tell him so.
SECOND MURDERER Nay, I pr’ythee, stay a little: I hope my holy humour will change; it was wont to hold me but while one tells twenty.
FIRST MURDERER How dost thou feel thyself now?
SECOND MURDERER Faith, some certain dregs of conscience are yet within me.
FIRST MURDERER Remember our reward, when the deed’s done.
SECOND MURDERER Zounds, he dies: I had forgot the reward.
FIRST MURDERER Where’s thy conscience now?
SECOND MURDERER O, in the Duke of Gloster’s purse.
FIRST MURDERER So, when he opens his purse to give us our reward, thy conscience flies out.
SECOND MURDERER ‘Tis no matter; let it go; there’s few or none will entertain it.
FIRST MURDERER What if it come to thee again?
SECOND MURDERER I’ll not meddle with it,—it makes a man coward; a man cannot steal, but it accuseth him; a man cannot swear, but it checks him; a man cannot lie with his neighbour’s wife, but it detects him: ‘tis a blushing shame-faced spirit that mutinies in a man’s bosom; it fills a man full of obstacles: it made me once restore a purse of gold that by chance I found; it beggars any man that keeps it: it is turned out of towns and cities for a dangerous thing; and every man that means to live well endeavours to trust to himself and live without it.
FIRST MURDERER Zounds,‘tis even now at my elbow, persuading me not to kill the duke.
SECOND MURDERER Take the devil in thy mind, and believe him not; he would insinuate with thee but to make thee sigh.
FIRST MURDERER I am strong-framed; he cannot prevail with me.
SECOND MURDERER Spoke like a tall man that respects thy reputation. Come, shall we fall to work?
FIRST MURDERER Take him on the costard with the hilts of thy sword, and then throw him in the malmsey-butt in the next room.
SECOND MURDERER O excellent device! and make a sop of him.
FIRST MURDERER Soft! he wakes.
SECOND MURDERER Strike!
FIRST MURDERER No, we’ll reason with him.
CLARENCE Where art thou, keeper? give me a cup of wine.
SECOND MURDERER You shall have wine enough, my lord, anon.
CLARENCE In God’s name, what art thou?
FIRST MURDERER A man, as you are.
CLARENCE But not as I am, royal.
SECOND MURDERER Nor you as we are, loyal.
CLARENCE Thy voice is thunder, but thy looks are humble.
FIRST MURDERER My voice is now the king’s, my looks mine own.
CLARENCE How darkly and how deadly dost thou speak! Your eyes do menace me; why look you pale? Who sent you hither? Wherefore do you come?
SECOND MURDERER To, to, to—
CLARENCE To murder me?
BOTH MURDERERS Ay, ay.
CLARENCE You scarcely have the hearts to tell me so, And therefore cannot have the hearts to do it. Wherein, my friends, have I offended you?
FIRST MURDERER Offended us you have not, but the king.
CLARENCE I shall be reconcil’d to him again.
SECOND MURDERER Never, my lord; therefore prepare to die.
CLARENCE Are you drawn forth among a world of men To slay the innocent? What is my offence? Where is the evidence that doth accuse me? What lawful quest have given their verdict up Unto the frowning judge? or who pronounc’d The bitter sentence of poor Clarence’ death? Before I be convíct by course of law, To threaten me with death is most unlawful. I charge you, as you hope to have redemption By Christ’s dear blood shed for our grievous sins, That you depart, and lay no hands on me: The deed you undertake is damnable.
FIRST MURDERER What we will do, we do upon command.
SECOND MURDERER And he that hath commanded is our king.
CLARENCE Erroneous vassals! the great King of kings Hath in the table of his law commanded That thou shalt do no murder: will you then Spurn at His edict and fulfil a man’s? Take heed; for He holds vengeance in His hand To hurl upon their heads that break His law.
SECOND MURDERER And that same vengeance doth He hurl on thee For false forswearing, and for murder too: Thou didst receive the sacrament to fight In quarrel of the house of Lancaster.
FIRST MURDERER And like a traitor to the name of God Didst break that vow; and with thy treacherous blade Unripp’dst the bowels of thy sovereign’s son.
SECOND MURDERER Whom thou wast sworn to cherish and defend.
FIRST MURDERER How canst thou urge God’s dreadful law to us, When thou hast broke it in such dear degree?
CLARENCE Alas! for whose sake did I that ill deed? For Edward, for my brother, for his sake: He sends you not to murder me for this; For in that sin he is as deep as I. If God will be avengèd for the deed, O, know you yet He doth it publicly. Take not the quarrel from His powerful arm; He needs no indirect or lawless course To cut off those that have offended Him.
FIRST MURDERER Who made thee, then, a bloody minister When gallant-springing brave Plantagenet, That princely novice, was struck dead by thee?
CLARENCE My brother’s love, the devil, and my rage.
FIRST MURDERER Thy brother’s love, our duty, and thy faults, Provoke us hither now to slaughter thee.
CLARENCE If you do love my brother, hate not me; I am his brother, and I love him well. If you are hir’d for meed, go back again, And I will send you to my brother Gloster, Who shall reward you better for my life Than Edward will for tidings of my death.
SECOND MURDERER You are deceiv’d, your brother Gloster hates you.
CLARENCE O, no, he loves me, and he holds me dear: Go you to him from me.
FIRST MURDERER Ay, so we will.
CLARENCE Tell him when that our princely father York Bless’d his three sons with his victorious arm And charg’d us from his soul to love each other, He little thought of this divided friendship: Bid Gloster think of this, and he will weep.
FIRST MURDERER Ay, millstones; as he lesson’d us to weep.
CLARENCE O, do not slander him, for he is kind.
FIRST MURDERER Right, as snow in harvest.—Come, you deceive yourself:
