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supper,

When thou shalt tell the process of their death.
Mean time, but think how I may do thee good,
And be inheritor of thy desire.
Farewell, till then.

Tyr. I humbly take my leave.
[Exit.
K. Rich. The son of Clarence have I penn'd
up close;

His daughter meanly have I match'd in marriage;
The sons of Edward sleep in Abraham's bosom,
And Anne my wife hath bid the world good-night.
Now, for I know the Bretagne Richmond aims
At young Elizabeth, my brother's daughter,
And, by that knot, looks proudly on the crown,
To her go I, a jolly thriving wooer.

Enter CATESBY.

Cate. My lord,

My unblown flowers, new-appearing sweets!
If yet your gentle souls fly in the air,
And be not fix'd in doom perpetual,
Hover about me with your airy wings,
And hear your mother's lamentation!

Q. Mar. Hover about her; say, that right
for right

Hath dimm'd your infant morn to aged night.
Duch. So many miseries have craz'd my voice,
That my woe-wearied tongue is still and mute,-
Edward Plantagenet, why art thou dead?

Q. Mar. Plantagenet doth quit Plantagenet,
Edward for Edward pays a dying debt.

Q. Eliz. Wilt thou, O God, fly from such gentle lambs,

And throw them in the entrails of the wolf? When didst thou sleep, when such a deed was done?

Q. Mar. When holy Harry died, and my sweet

son.

Duch. Dead life, blind sight, poor mortal-li-
ving ghost,

Woe's scene, world's shame, grave's due by life
usurp'd,
Brief abstract and record of tedious days,
Rest thy unrest on England's lawful earth,
[Sitting down.

K. Rich. Good news or bad, that thou com'st | Unlawfully made drunk with innocent blood!

in so bluntly? Cate. Bad news, my lord: Morton is fled to Richmond;

And Buckingham, back'd with the hardy Welsh

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SCENE IV. The same. Before the palace.

Enter Queen MARGARET.

Q. Mar. So, now prosperity begins to mellow,
And drop into the rotten mouth of death.
Here in these confines slily have I lurk'd,
To watch the waning of mine enemies.
A dire induction am I witness to,
And will to France; hoping, the consequence
Will prove as bitter, black, and tragical.
Withdraw thee, wretched Margaret! who comes

Q. Eliz. Ah, that thou would'st as soon afford
a grave,
As thou canst yield a melancholy seat;
Then would I hide my bones, not rest them here!
Ah, who hath any cause to mourn, but we?
[Sitting down by her.

Q. Mar. If ancient sorrow be most reverent,
Give mine the benefit of seniory,
And let my griefs frown on the upper hand.
If sorrow can admit society,

[Sitting down with them.
Tell o'er your woes again, by viewing mine :-
I had an Edward, till a Richard kill'd him;
I had a husband, till a Richard kill'd him:
Thou hadst an Edward, till a Richard kill'd
him;

Thou hadst a Richard, till a Richard kill'd
him.
Duch. I had a Richard too, and thou didst kill
him;

I had a Rutland too, thou holp'st to kill him.
Q. Mar. Thou hadst a Clarence too, and
Richard kill'd him.

From forth the kennel of thy womb hath crept A hell-hound, that doth hunt us all to death: That dog, that had his teeth before his eyes, To worry lambs, and lap their gentle blood; That foul defacer of God's handy-work; That excellent grand tyrant of the earth, That reigns in galled eyes of weeping souls, Thy womb let loose to chase us to our graves.O upright, just, and true-disposing God, How do I thank thee, that this carnal cur Q. Eliz. Ah, my poor princes! ah, my tender Preys on the issue of his mother's body, And makes her pew-fellow with others' moan!

here?

Enter Queen ELIZABETH and the Duchess of
YORK.

babes!

Duch. O, Harry's wife, triumph not in my | And leave the burden of it all on thee.

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ward;

And the beholders of this tragic play,
The adulterate Hastings, Rivers, Vaughan, Grey,
Untimely smother'd in their dusky graves.
Richard yet lives, hell's black intelligencer;
Only reserv'd their factor, to buy souls,
And send them thither: But at hand, at hand,
Ensues his piteous and unpitied end :
Earth gapes, hell burns, fiends roar, saints pray,
To have him suddenly convey'd from hence :-
Cancel his bond of life, dear God, I pray,
That I may live to say, The dog is dead!
Q. Eliz. O, thou didst prophecy, the time
would come,

That I should wish for thee to help me curse
That bottled spider, that foul bunch-back'd toad.
Q. Mar. I call'd thee then, vain flourish of

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Where be thy two sons? wherein dost thou joy? Who sues, and kneels, and says-God save the queen?

Where be the bending peers that flatter'd thee? Where be the thronging troops that follow'd thee?

Decline all this, and see what now thou art.
For happy wife, a most distressed widow ;
For joyful mother, one that wails the name;
For one being sued to, one that humbly sues;
For queen, a very caitiff crown'd with care:
For one that scorn'd at me, now scorn'd of me;
For one being fear'd of all, now fearing one;
For one commanding all, obey'd of none.
Thus hath the course of justice wheel'd about,
And left thee but a very prey to time;
Having no more but thought of what thou wert,
To torture thee the more, being what thou art.
Thou didst usurp my place, And dost thou not
Usurp the just proportion of my sorrow?
Now thy proud neck bears half my burden'd

yoke;

From which even here I slip my wearied head, VOL. II.

Farewell, York's wife, and queen of sad mis

chance,

These English woes shall make me smile in

Q. Eliz. O thou well skill'd in curses, stay a while,

France.

And teach me how to curse mine enemies. Q. Mar. Forbear to sleep the night, and fast the day;

Compare dead happiness with living woe; Think, that thy babes were fairer than they were, And he, that slew them, fouler than he is: Bettering thy loss makes the bad-causer worse; Revolving this will teach thee how to curse.

Q. Eliz. My words are dull, O, quicken them with thine!

Q. Mar. Thy woes will make them sharp, and pierce like mine. [Exit Q. Margaret. Duch. Why should calamity be full of words? Q. Eliz. Windy attorneys to their client woes, Airy succeeders of intestate joys, Poor breathing orators of miseries! Let them have scope: though what they do im

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And in the breath of bitter words let's smother My damned son, that thy two sweet sons smo[Drum within.

ther'd.

I hear his drum, -be copious in exclaims.

Enter King RICHARD, and his Train,
marching.

K. Rich. Who intercepts me in my expedition? Duch. O, she, that might haveintercepted thee, By strangling thee in her accursed womb, From all the slaughters, wretch, that thou hast done.

Q. Eliz. Hid'st thou that forehead with a golden crown,

Where should be branded, if that right were right, The slaughter of the prince that ow'd that crown, And the dire death of my poor sons, and brothers?

Tell me, thou villain-slave, where are my children?

Duch. Thou toad, thou toad, where is thy brother Clarence?

And little Ned Plantagenet, his son?

Q. Eliz. Where is the gentle Rivers, Vaughan,

Grey?
Duch. Where is kind Hastings?

K. Rich. A flourish, trumpets!-strike ala

rum, drums!

Let not the heavens hear these tell-tale women Rail on the Lord's anointed: Strike, I say.[Flourish. Alarums

Either be patient, and entreat me fair,
Or with the clamorous report of war
Thus will I drown your exclamations.
Duch. Art thou my son ?

L

K. Rich. Ay; I thank God, my father, and | They shall be praying nuns, not weeping queens; Thou drown the sad remembrance of those | If I have kill'd the issue of your womb,

yourself.

Duch. Then patiently hear my impatience. K. Rich. Madam, I have a touch of your condition,

That cannot brook the accent of reproof.
Duch. O, let me speak.

K. Rich. Do, then; but I'll not hear.
Duch. I will be mild and gentle in my words.
K. Rich. And brief, good mother; for I am
in haste.

Duch. Art thou so hasty? I have staid for thee, God knows, in torment and in agony.

K. Rich. And came I not at last to comfort you?

Duch. No, by the holy rood, thou know'st it well,

Thou cam'st on earth to make the earth my hell.
A grievous burden was thy birth to me;
Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy;
'Thy school-days, frightful, desperate, wild, and

furious;

Thy prime of manhood, daring, bold, and ven

turous;

Thy age confirm'd, proud, subtle, sly, and bloody,
More mild, but yet more harmful, kind in hatred:
What comfortable hour canst thou name,
That ever grac'd me in thy company?

K. Rich. 'Faith, none, but Humphrey Hour, that call'd your grace

To breakfast once, forth of my company.
If I be so disgracious in your sight,
Let me march on, and not offend you, madam.-
Strike up the drum.

Duch. I pr'ythee, hear me speak.
K. Rich. You spcak too bitterly.
Duch. Hear me a word;

For I shall never speak to thee again.

K. Rich. So.

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And therefore level not to hit their lives.

K. Rich. You have a daughter call'd-Elizabeth,

Virtuous and fair, royal and gracious.

Q. Eliz. And must she die for this? O, let her live,

And I'll corrupt her manners, stain her beauty;
Slander myself, as false to Edward's bed;
Throw over her the veil of infamy:
So she may live unscarr'd of bleeding slaughter,
I will confess she was not Edward's daughter.
K. Rich. Wrong not her birth, she is of royal
blood.

Q. Eliz. To save her life, I'll say she is not so.
K. Rich. Her life is safest only in her birth.
Q. Eliz. And only in that safety died her

brothers.

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Of comfort, kingdom, kindred, freedom, life.
Whose hands soever lanc'd their tender hearts,
Thy head, all indirectly, gave direction :
No doubt the murderous knife was dull and blunt,
Till it was whetted on thy stone-hard heart,
To revel in the entrails of my lambs.

But that still use of grief makes wild grief tame,
My tongue should to thy ears not name my boys,
Till that my nails were anchor'd in thine eyes;
And I, in such a desperate bay of death,
Like a poor bark, of sails and tackling reft,
Rush all to pieces on thy rocky bosom.

K. Rich. Madam, so thrive I in my enterprize,
And dangerous success of bloody wars,
As I intend more good to you and yours,
Than ever you or yours by me were harm'd!
Q. Eliz. What good is cover'd with the face
of heaven,

Whisper the spirits of thine enemies,
And promise them success and victory.
Bloody thou art, bloody will be thy end;
Shame serves thy life, and doth thy death at-

To be discover'd, that can do me good?
K. Rich. The advancement of your children,

gentle lady.

Q. Eliz. Up to some scaffold, there to lose

tend.

[Exit.

their heads?

Q. Eliz. Though far more cause, yet much less spirit to curse

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Abides in me; I say amen to her. [Going. K. Rich. Stay, madam, I must speak a word

with you.

Q. Eliz. I have no more sons of the royal blood,

For thee to murder: for my daughters, Richard,

The high imperial type of this earth's glory.
Q. Eliz. Flatter my sorrows with report of it;
Tell me, what state, what dignity, what honour,
Canst thou demise to any child of mine?

K. Rich. Even all I have; ay, and myself and all,

If I did take the kingdom from your sons,
To make amends, I'll give it to your daughter.

Will I withal endow a child of thine;

So in the Lethe of thy angry soul

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Q. Eliz. What, thou?

To quicken your increase, I will beget
Mine issue of your blood upon your daughter.
A grandam's name is little less in love,
Than is the doting title of a mother;
They are as children, but one step below,
Even of your mettle, of your very blood;
Of all one pain,-save for a night of groans
Endur'd of her, for whom you bid like sorrow.
Your children were vexation to your youth,
But mine shall be a comfort to your age.
The loss, you have, is but-a son being king,
And, by that loss, your daughter is made queen.
I cannot make you what amends I would,
Therefore accept such kindness as I can.
Dorset, your son, that, with a fearful soul,
Leads discontented steps in foreign soil,
This fair alliance quickly shall call home
To high promotions and great dignity:
The king, that calls your beauteous daughter,-

wife,

Familiarly shall call thy Dorset-brother;
Again shall you be mother to a king,
And all the ruins of distressful times
Repair'd with double riches of content.

K. Rich. Even so: What think you of it, What! we have many goodly days to see: madam?

Q. Eliz. How canst thou woo her?

K. Rich. That I would learn of you,

As one being best acquainted with her humour. Q. Eliz. And wilt thou learn of me?

K. Rich. Madam, with all my heart.

Q. Eliz. Send to her, by the man that slew

her brothers,

A pair of bleeding hearts; thereon engrave,
Edward, and York; then, haply, will she weep:
Therefore present to her, -as sometime Margaret
Did to thy father, steep'd in Rutland's Wood,
A handkerchief; which, say to her, did drain
The purple sap from her sweet brother's body,
And bid her wipe her weeping eyes withal.
If this inducement move her not to love,
Send her a letter of thy noble deeds;
Tell her, thou mad'st away her uncle Clarence,
Her uncle Rivers; ay, and for her sake,

Mad'st quick conveyance with her good aunt

Anne.

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The liquid drops of tears, that you have shed,
Shall come again, transform'd to orient pearl;
Advantaging their loan, with interest
Of ten-times double gain of happiness.
Go then, my mother, to thy daughter go;
Make bold her bashful years with your expe-

rience;

Prepare her ears to hear a wooer's tale;
Put in her tender heart the aspiring flame
Of golden sov'reignty; acquaint the princess
With the sweet silent hours of marriage joys:
And when this arm of mine hath chastised
The petty rebel, dull-brain'd Buckingham,
Bound with triumphant garlands will I come,
And lead thy daughter to a conqueror's bed;
To whom I will retail my conquest won,
And she shall be sole victress, Cæsar's Cæsar.
Q. Eliz. What were I best to say? her fa-
ther's brother

Would be her lord? Or, shall I say, her uncle?
Or, he that slew her brothers, and her uncles ?
Under what title shall I woo for thee,
That God, the law, my honour, and her love,
Can make seem pleasing to her tender years?
K. Rich. Infer fair England's peace by this

alliance.

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Q. Eliz. That at her hands, which the king's

K. Rich. Look, what is done cannot be now

amended:

K. Rich. Say, she shall be a high and mighty

Men shall deal unadvisedly sometimes, Which after-hours give leisure to repent.

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King forbids.

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Q Eliz. As long as hell, and Richard, likes of it.

Ungovern'd youth, to wail it in their age: The parents live, whose children thou hast butcher'd,

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virtue;

Thy crown, usurp'd, disgrac'd his kingly glory : If something thou would'st swear to be believ'd, Swear then by something, that thou hast not wrong'd.

K. Rich. Now, by the world,

Q. Eliz. 'Tis full of thy foul wrongs.

K. Rich. My father's death,

Q. Eliz. Thy life hath that dishonour'd.

K. Rich. Then, by myself,

Q. Elix. Thyself is self misus'd.

K. Rich. Why then, by God,

Q. Eliz. God's wrong is most of all.

If thou had'st fear'd to break an oath by him,
The unity, the king thy brother made,
Had not been broken, nor my brother slain.
If thou had'st fear'd to break an oath by him,
The imperial metal, circling now thy head,
Had grac'd the tender temples of my child;
And both the princes had been breathing here,
Which now, two tender bed-fellows for dust,
Thy broken faith hath made a prey for worms.
What canst thou swear by now?

Old barren plants, to wail it with their age.
Swear not by time to come; for that thou hast
Misus'd ere used, by times ill-us'd cer-past.
K. Rich. As I intend to prosper, and repent!
So thrive I in my dangerous attempt
Of hostile arms! myself myself confound!
Heaven, and fortune, bar me happy hours!
Day, yield me not thy light; nor, night, thy rest!
Be opposite all planets of good luck
To my proceeding, if, with pure heart's love,
Immaculate devotion, holy thoughts,
I tender not thy beauteous princely daughter!
In her consists my happiness, and thine;
Without her, follows to myself, and thee,
Herself, the land, and many a Christian soul,
Death, desolation, ruin, and decay:
It cannot be avoided, but by this;
It will not be avoided, but by this.
Therefore, dear mother, (I must call you so,)
Be the attorney of my love to her.
Plead what I will be, not what I have boon;
Not my deserts, but what I will deserve:
Urge the necessity and state of times,
And be not peevish found in great designs.
Q. Eliz. Shall I be tempted of of th the devil thus?
K. Rich. Ay, if the devil tempt thee to do

good.

Q. Eliz. Shall I forget myself, to be myself? K. Rich. Ay, if your self's remembrance

wrong yourself.

Q. Eliz. But thou didst kill my children. K. Rich. But in your daughter's womb I bury them:

Where, in that nest of spicery, they shall breed Selves of themselves to your recomforture.

Q. Eliz. Shall I go win my daughter to thy will?

K. Rich. And be a happy mother by the deed. Q. Eliz. I go. Write to me very shortly, And you shall understand from me her mind. K. Rich. Bear her my true love's kiss, and so [Kissing her. Exit Q. Elizabeth. Relenting fool, and shallow, changing-woman! How now? what news?

farewell.

Enter RATCLIFF; CATESBY following.

Rat. Most mighty sovereign, on the western

coast

Rideth a puissant navy; to the shore
Throng many doubtful hollow-hearted friends,
Unarm'd, and unresolv'd to beat them back:

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