The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works
Page 78
QUEEN MARGARET (aside)
Plantagenet doth quit Plantagenet;
Edward for Edward pays a dying debt.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
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?
QUEEN MARGARET (aside)
When holy Harry died, and my sweet son.
DUCHESS OF YORK
Dead life, blind sight, poor mortal living ghost,
Woe’s scene, world’s shame, grave’s due by life
usurped,
Brief abstract and record of tedious days,
Rest thy unrest on England’s lawful earth,
Unlawfully made drunk with innocents’ blood.
They sit
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Ah that thou wouldst 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?
QUEEN MARGARET (coming forward)
If ancient sorrow be most reverend,
Give mine the benefit of seniory,
And let my griefs frown on the upper hand.
If sorrow can admit society,
Tell o’er your woes again by viewing mine.
I had an Edward, till a Richard killed him;
I had a husband, till a Richard killed him.
(To Elizabeth) Thou hadst an Edward, till a Richard killed him;
Thou hadst a Richard, till a Richard killed him.
DUCHESS OF YORK rising
I had a Richard too, and thou didst kill him;
I had a Rutland too, thou holpst to kill him.
QUEEN MARGARET
Thou hadst a Clarence too, and Richard killed 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 handiwork,
That reigns in galled eyes of weeping souls;
That excellent grand tyrant of the earth
Thy womb let loose to chase us to our graves.
O upright, just, and true-disposing God,
How do I thank thee that this charnel cur
Preys on the issue of his mother’s body,
And makes her pewfellow with others’ moan.
DUCHESS OF YORK
O Harry’s wife, triumph not in my woes.
God witness with me, I have wept for thine.
QUEEN MARGARET
Bear with me. I am hungry for revenge,
And now I cloy me with beholding it.
Thy Edward, he is dead, that killed my Edward;
Thy other Edward dead, to quite my Edward;
Young York, he is but boot, because both they
Matched not the high perfection of my loss;
Thy Clarence, he is dead, that stabbed my Edward,
And the beholders of this frantic plays—
Th’adulterate Hastings, Rivers, Vaughan, Gray—
Untimely smothered in their dusky graves.
Richard yet lives, hell’s black intelligencer,
Only reserved 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 conveyed from hence.
Cancel his bond of life, dear God, I plead,
That I may live and say, ‘The dog is dead’.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
O thou didst prophesy the time would come
That I should wish for thee to help me curse
That bottled spider, that foul bunch-backed toad.
QUEEN MARGARET
I called thee then ‘vain flourish of my fortune’;
I called thee then, poor shadow, ‘painted queen’—
The presentation of but what I was,
The flattering index of a direful pageant,
One heaved a-high to be hurled down below,
A mother only mocked with two fair babes,
A dream of what thou wast, a garish flag
To be the aim of every dangerous shot,
A sign of dignity, a breath, a bubble,
A queen in jest, only to fill the scene.
Where is thy husband now? Where be thy brothers?
Where are thy two sons? Wherein dost thou joy?
Who sues, and kneels, and says ‘God save the Queen’?
Where be the bending peers that flattered thee?
Where be the thronging troops that followed 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 queen, a very caitiff, crowned with care;
For one being sued to, one that humbly sues;
For she that scorned at me, now scorned of me;
For she being feared of all, now fearing one;
For she commanding all, obeyed of none.
Thus hath the course of justice whirled 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 burdened yoke—
From which, even here, I slip my weary head,
And leave the burden of it all on thee.
Farewell, York’s wife, and queen of sad mischance.
These English woes shall make me smile in France.
QUEEN ELIZABETH (rising)
O thou, well skilled in curses, stay a while,
And teach me how to curse mine enemies.
QUEEN MARGARET
Forbear to sleep the nights, and fast the days;
Compare dead happiness with living woe;
Think that thy babes were sweeter than they were,
And he that slew them fouler than he is.
Bett’ring thy loss makes the bad causer worse.
Revolving this will teach thee how to curse.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
My words are dull. O quicken them with thine!
QUEEN MARGARET
Thy woes will make them sharp and pierce like mine.
Exit
DUCHESS OF YORK
Why should calamity be full of words?
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Windy attorneys to their client woes,
Airy recorders of intestate joys,
Poor breathing orators of miseries.
Let them have scope. Though what they will impart
Help nothing else, yet do they ease the heart.
DUCHESS OF YORK
If so, then be not tongue-tied; go with me,
And in the breath of bitter words let’s smother
My damned son, that thy two sweet sons smothered.
A march within
The trumpet sounds. Be copious in exclaims.Enter King Richard and his train marching with drummers and trumpeters⌉
KING RICHARD
Who intercepts me in my expedition?
DUCHESS OF YORK
O, she that might have intercepted thee,
By strangling thee in her accursed womb,
From all the slaughters, wretch, that thou hast done.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Hid’st thou that forehead with a golden crown,
Where should be branded—if that right were right—
The slaughter of the prince that owed that crown,
And the dire death of my poor sons and brothers?
Tell me, thou villain-slave, where are my children?
DUCHESS OF YORK
And little Ned Plantagenet his son?
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Where is the gentle Rivers, Vaughan, Gray?
DUCHESS OF YORK Where is kind Hastings?
KING RICHARD (to his train)
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
(To the women) Either be patient and entreat me fair,
Or with the clamorous report of war
Thus will I drown your exclamations.
DUCHESS OF YORK Art thou my son?
KING RICHARD
Ay, I thank God, my father, and yourself.
DUCHESS OF YORK
Then patiently hear my impatience.
KING RICHARD
Madam, I have a touch of your condition,
That cannot brook the accent of reproof.
DUCHESS OF YORK
O let me speak!
KING RICHARD
Do, then; but I’ll not hear.
DUCHESS OF YORK
I will be mild and gentle in my words.
KING RICHARD
And brief, good mother, for I am in haste.
DUCHESS OF YORK
Art thou so hasty? I have stayed for thee,
God knows, in torment and in agony—
KING RICHARD
And came I not at last to comfort you?
DUCHESS OF YORK
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 schooldays frightful, desp’rate, wild, and furious;
Thy prime of manhood daring, bold, and venturous;
Thy age confirmed, proud, subtle, sly, and bloody;
More mild, but yet more harmful; kind in hatred.
What comfortable hour canst thou name
That ever graced me in thy company?
KING RICHARD
Faith, none but Humphrey Hewer, that called your grace
To breakfast once, forth of my company.
If I be so disgracious in your eye,
Let me march on, and not offend you, madam.—
Strike up the drum.
DUCHESS OF YORK
I pray thee, hear me speak.
KING RICHARD
You speak too bitterly.
DUCHESS OF YORK
Hear me a word,
For I shall never speak to thee again.
KING RICHARD SO.
DUCHESS OF YORK
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 more behold 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 talk a word with you.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
I have no more sons of the royal blood
For thee to slaughter. 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 called 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 unscarred of bleeding slaughter,
I will confess she was not Edward’s daughter.
KING RICHARD
Wrong not her birth. She is a royal princess.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
To save her life I’ll say she is not so.
KING RICHARD
Her life is safest only 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 ill 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 blessed thee with a fairer life.
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 by me were harmed.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
What good is covered with the face of heaven,
To be discovered, that can do me good?
KING RICHARD
Th’advancement of your children, gentle lady.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Up to some scaffold, there to lose their heads.
KING RICHARD
Unto the dignity and height of fortune,
The high imperial type of this earth’s glory.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Flatter my sorrow 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—ay, 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 the 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 that 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 do intend to make her queen of England.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Well then, who dost thou mean shall be her king?
KING RICHARD
Even he that makes her queen. Who else should be?
QUEEN ELIZABETH
What, thou?
KING RICHARD Even so. How think you of it?
QUEEN ELIZABETH
How canst thou woo her?
KING RICHARD
That would I learn of you,
As one being 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 will she weep.
Therefore present to her—as sometimes Margaret
Did to thy father, steeped 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.
KING RICHARD
You mock me, madam. This is not the way
To win your 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
Infer fair England’s peace by this alliance.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Which she shall purchase with still-lasting war.
KING RICHARD
Tell her the King, that may command, entreats.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
That at her hands which the King’s King forbids.
KING RICHARD
Say she shall be a high and mighty queen.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
To vail the title, as her mother doth.
KING RICHARD
Say I will love her everlastingly.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
But how long shall that title ‘ever’ last?
KING RICHARD
Sweetly in force unto her fair life’s end.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
But how long fairly shall her sweet life last?
KING RICHARD
As long as heaven and nature lengthens it.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
As long as hell and Richard likes of it.
KING RICHARD
Say I, her sovereign, am her subject love.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
But she, your subject, loathes such sovereignty.
KING RICHARD
Be eloquent in my behalf to her.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
An honest tale speeds best being plainly told.
KING RICHARD
Then plainly to her tell my loving tale.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Plain and not honest is too harsh a style.
KING RICHARD
Your reasons are too shallow and too quick.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
O no, my reasons are too deep and dead—
Too deep and dead, poor infants, in their graves.
KING RICHARD
Harp not on that string, madam. That is past.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Harp on it still shall I, till heart-strings break.
KING RICHARD
Now by my George, my garter, and my crown—
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Profaned, dishonoured, and the third usurped.