| ACT I. | |
| 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. |
| RIVER. | |
| 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 searce 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 to 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 pack-horse 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 banished 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 loathed 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 out-shining 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 resolved 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 obdurate, 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.] |