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?
Duck. Where is kind Hastings?
K. Rich. A flourish, trumpets!-strike alarum, 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 ?
K. Rich. Ay; I thank God, my father, and 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? Duck. No, by the holy rood, thou know'st it well, Thou camist 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
Thy prime of manhood, daring, bold, and venturous; 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. Rick. '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.
I pr'ythee, hear me speak. K. Rich. You speak too bitterly.
Duch. For I shall never speak to thee again.
Duck. Either thou wilt die,byGod'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. Q. Eliz. Though far more cause, yet much less spirit to curse
Abides in me; I say amen to her.
[Going K. Rich. Stay, madam, I must speak a word with
Q. Eliz. 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.
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. Rick. Her life is safest only in her birth. Q.Elis. And only in that safety died her brothers. K.Rich. Lo,at their births good stars were opposite. Q.Eliz. No, to their lives bad friends were contrary. K. Rich. All unavoided is the doom of destiny. Q. Eliz. True, when avoided grace makes destiny: My babes were destin'd to a fairer death, If grace had bless'd thee with a fairer life.
K. Rich. You speak, as if that I had slain my
Q.Eliz. Cousins,indeed; and by their uncle cozen'd 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 enterprise, 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
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 their heads?"
K. Rich. No, to the dignity and height of fortune, 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, Will 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.
Q.Eliz.Be brief,lest that the process of thy kindness Last longer telling than thy kindness' date.
K. Rich. Then know, that from my soul, I love thy daughter.
2. Eliz. My daughter's mother thinks it with her soul.
K. Rich. What do you think?
Q. Eliz. 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.
K. Rich. Be not so hasty to confound my meaning: I mean, that with my soul I love thy daughter, And do intend to make her queen of England. 2. Eliz. Well then, who dost thou mean shall be her king?
K. Rich. Even he, that makes her queen: Who
else should be?
Q. Eliz. What, thou?
you of it, madam?
O. Eliz. How canst thou woo her?
That I would learn of you,
Madam, with all my heart.
As one being best acquainted with her humour. Q. Eliz. And wilt thou learn of me?
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 blood, 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, K. Rich. You mock me, madam; this is not the way To win your daughter.
There is no other way; Q. Eliz. Unless thou couldst put on some other shape, And not be Richard that hath done all this. K. Rich. Say, that I did all this for love of her. Q. Eliz. Nay, then indeed, she cannot choose but have thee,
Having bought love with such a bloody spoil. K. Rich. 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, I'll 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.
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. What! we have many goodly days to see: 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 experience; 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. 2. Eliz. What were I best to say? her father'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. Q. Elix. Which she shall purchase with still lasting war.
K. Rich. Tell her, the king, that may command,
Q. Eliz. That at her hands, which the king's King forbids.
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