Richard III - William Shakespeare (ebooks online reader txt) 📗

speak too bitterly. Duchess

Hear me a word;
For I shall never speak to thee again.

King Richard So. Duchess

Either thou wilt die, by God’s just ordinance,
Ere from this war thou turn a conqueror,
Or I with grief and extreme age shall perish
And never look upon thy face again.
Therefore take with thee my most heavy curse;
Which, in the day of battle, tire thee more
Than all the complete armour that thou wear’st!
My prayers on the adverse party fight;
And there the little souls of Edward’s children
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 attend. Exit.

Queen Elizabeth

Though far more cause, yet much less spirit to curse
Abides in me; I say amen to all.

King Richard Stay, madam; I must speak a word with you. Queen Elizabeth

I have no more sons of the royal blood
For thee to murder: for my daughters, Richard,
They shall be praying nuns, not weeping queens;
And therefore level not to hit their lives.

King Richard

You have a daughter call’d Elizabeth,
Virtuous and fair, royal and gracious.

Queen Elizabeth

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.

King Richard Wrong not her birth, she is of royal blood. Queen Elizabeth To save her life, I’ll say she is not so. King Richard Her life is only safest in her birth. Queen Elizabeth And only in that safety died her brothers. King Richard Lo, at their births good stars were opposite. Queen Elizabeth No, to their lives bad friends were contrary. King Richard All unavoided is the doom of destiny. Queen Elizabeth

True, when avoided grace makes destiny:
My babes were destined to a fairer death,
If grace had bless’d thee with a fairer life.

King Richard You speak as if that I had slain my cousins. Queen Elizabeth

Cousins, indeed; and by their uncle cozen’d
Of comfort, kingdom, kindred, freedom, life.
Whose hand soever lanced 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.

King Richard

Madam, so thrive I in my enterprise
And dangerous success of bloody wars,
As I intend more good to you and yours
Than ever you or yours were by me wrong’d!

Queen Elizabeth

What good is cover’d with the face of heaven,
To be discover’d, that can do me good?

King Richard The advancement of your children, gentle lady. Queen Elizabeth Up to some scaffold, there to lose their heads? King Richard

No, to the dignity and height of honour,
The high imperial type of this earth’s glory.

Queen Elizabeth

Flatter my sorrows with report of it;
Tell me what state, what dignity, what honour,
Canst thou demise to any child of mine?

King Richard

Even all I have; yea, and myself and all,
Will I withal endow a child of thine;
So in the Lethe of thy angry soul
Thou drown the sad remembrance of those wrongs
Which thou supposest I have done to thee.

Queen Elizabeth

Be brief, lest that be process of thy kindness
Last longer telling than thy kindness’ date.

King Richard Then know, that from my soul I love thy daughter. Queen Elizabeth My daughter’s mother thinks it with her soul. King Richard What do you think? Queen Elizabeth

That thou dost love my daughter from thy soul:
So from thy soul’s love didst thou love her brothers;
And from my heart’s love I do thank thee for it.

King Richard

Be not so hasty to confound my meaning:
I mean, that with my soul I love thy daughter,
And mean to make her queen of England.

Queen Elizabeth Say then, who dost thou mean shall be her king? King Richard Even he that makes her queen: who should be else? Queen Elizabeth What, thou? King Richard I, even I: what think you of it, madam? Queen Elizabeth How canst thou woo her? King Richard

That would I learn of you,
As one that are best acquainted with her humour.

Queen Elizabeth And wilt thou learn of me? King Richard Madam, with all my heart. Queen Elizabeth

Send to her, by the man that slew her brothers,
A pair of bleeding-hearts; thereon engrave
Edward and York; then haply she will weep:
Therefore present to her⁠—as sometime Margaret
Did to thy father, steep’d in Rutland’s blood⁠—
A handkerchief; which, say to her, did drain
The purple sap from her sweet brother’s body.
And bid her dry her weeping eyes therewith.
If this inducement force her not to love,
Send her a story of thy noble acts;
Tell her thou madest away her uncle Clarence,
Her uncle Rivers; yea, and, for her sake,
Madest quick conveyance with her good aunt Anne.

King Richard

Come, come, you mock me; this is not the way
To win our daughter.

Queen Elizabeth

There is no other way;
Unless thou couldst put on some other shape,
And not be Richard that hath done all this.

King Richard Say that I did all this for love of her. Queen Elizabeth

Nay, then indeed she cannot choose but hate thee,
Having bought love with such a bloody spoil.

King Richard

Look, what is done cannot be now amended:
Men shall deal unadvisedly sometimes,
Which after hours give leisure to repent.
If I did take the kingdom from your sons,
To make amends, Ill give it to your daughter.
If I have kill’d the issue of your womb,
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
Endured of her, for whom you bid like sorrow.
Your children were vexation to