King Richard The Third

1 Enter the corse of King Henry the Sixth, with Halberds to guard it,
2 Lady Anne, being the mourner, Tressel and Berkeley and other Gentlemen.
3 ANNE.
4 Set down, set down your honourable load,
5 If honour may be shrouded in a hearse,
6 Whilst I awhile obsequiously lament
7 Th’ untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster.
8 Poor key-cold figure of a holy king,
9 Pale ashes of the house of Lancaster.
10 Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood,
11 Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghost
12 To hear the lamentations of poor Anne,
13 Wife to thy Edward, to thy slaughtered son,
14 Stabbed by the selfsame hand that made these wounds.
15 Lo, in these windows that let forth thy life
16 I pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes.
17 O, cursed be the hand that made these holes;
18 Cursed the heart that had the heart to do it;
19 Cursed the blood that let this blood from hence.
20 More direful hap betide that hated wretch
21 That makes us wretched by the death of thee
22 Than I can wish to adders, spiders, toads,
23 Or any creeping venomed thing that lives.
24 If ever he have child, abortive be it,
25 Prodigious, and untimely brought to light,
26 Whose ugly and unnatural aspect
27 May fright the hopeful mother at the view,
28 And that be heir to his unhappiness.
29 If ever he have wife, let her be made
30 More miserable by the death of him
31 Than I am made by my young lord and thee.
32 Come now towards Chertsey with your holy load,
33 Taken from Paul’s to be interred there;
34 And still, as you are weary of this weight,
35 Rest you, whiles I lament King Henry’s corse.
36 [_They take up the bier._]
37 Enter Richard, Duke of Gloucester.
38 RICHARD.
39 Stay, you that bear the corse, and set it down.
40 ANNE.
41 What black magician conjures up this fiend
42 To stop devoted charitable deeds?
43 RICHARD.
44 Villains, set down the corse or, by Saint Paul,
45 I’ll make a corse of him that disobeys!
46 GENTLEMAN.
47 My lord, stand back, and let the coffin pass.
48 RICHARD.
49 Unmannered dog, stand thou, when I command!
50 Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,
51 Or by Saint Paul I’ll strike thee to my foot
52 And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.
53 [_They set down the bier._]
54 ANNE.
55 What, do you tremble? Are you all afraid?
56 Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal,
57 And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.
58 Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
59 Thou hadst but power over his mortal body;
60 His soul thou canst not have; therefore begone.
61 RICHARD.
62 Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst.
63 ANNE.
64 Foul devil, for God’s sake, hence, and trouble us not;
65 For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,
66 Filled it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.
67 If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
68 Behold this pattern of thy butcheries.
69 O, gentlemen, see, see dead Henry’s wounds
70 Open their congealed mouths and bleed afresh!
71 Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity,
72 For ’tis thy presence that exhales this blood
73 From cold and empty veins where no blood dwells.
74 Thy deeds, inhuman and unnatural,
75 Provokes this deluge most unnatural.
76 O God, which this blood mad’st, revenge his death!
77 O earth, which this blood drink’st, revenge his death!
78 Either heaven with lightning strike the murderer dead,
79 Or earth gape open wide and eat him quick,
80 As thou dost swallow up this good King’s blood,
81 Which his hell-governed arm hath butchered.
82 RICHARD.
83 Lady, you know no rules of charity,
84 Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.
85 ANNE.
86 Villain, thou know’st nor law of God nor man.
87 No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.
88 RICHARD.
89 But I know none, and therefore am no beast.
90 ANNE.
91 O wonderful, when devils tell the truth!
92 RICHARD.
93 More wonderful when angels are so angry.
94 Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman,
95 Of these supposed crimes to give me leave,
96 By circumstance, but to acquit myself.
97 ANNE.
98 Vouchsafe, diffused infection of a man,
99 Of these known evils but to give me leave,
100 By circumstance, to accuse thy cursed self.
101 RICHARD.
102 Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have
103 Some patient leisure to excuse myself.
104 ANNE.
105 Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make
106 No excuse current but to hang thyself.
107 RICHARD.
108 By such despair I should accuse myself.
109 ANNE.
110 And by despairing shalt thou stand excused
111 For doing worthy vengeance on thyself
112 That didst unworthy slaughter upon others.
113 RICHARD.
114 Say that I slew them not?
115 ANNE.
116 Then say they were not slain.
117 But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee.
118 RICHARD.
119 I did not kill your husband.
120 ANNE.
121 Why then he is alive.
122 RICHARD.
123 Nay, he is dead, and slain by Edward’s hand.
124 ANNE.
125 In thy foul throat thou liest. Queen Margaret saw
126 Thy murd’rous falchion smoking in his blood,
127 The which thou once didst bend against her breast,
128 But that thy brothers beat aside the point.
129 RICHARD.
130 I was provoked by her sland’rous tongue,
131 That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders.
132 ANNE.
133 Thou wast provoked by thy bloody mind,
134 That never dream’st on aught but butcheries.
135 Didst thou not kill this King?
136 RICHARD.
137 I grant ye.
138 ANNE.
139 Dost grant me, hedgehog? Then, God grant me too
140 Thou mayst be damned for that wicked deed.
141 O, he was gentle, mild, and virtuous.
142 RICHARD.
143 The better for the King of Heaven that hath him.
144 ANNE.
145 He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come.
146 RICHARD.
147 Let him thank me that holp to send him thither,
148 For he was fitter for that place than earth.
149 ANNE.
150 And thou unfit for any place but hell.
151 RICHARD.
152 Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.
153 ANNE.
154 Some dungeon.
155 RICHARD.
156 Your bed-chamber.
157 ANNE.
158 Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest!
159 RICHARD.
160 So will it, madam, till I lie with you.
161 ANNE.
162 I hope so.
163 RICHARD.
164 I know so. But, gentle Lady Anne,
165 To leave this keen encounter of our wits,
166 And fall something into a slower method:
167 Is not the causer of the timeless deaths
168 Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
169 As blameful as the executioner?
170 ANNE.
171 Thou wast the cause and most accursed effect.
172 RICHARD.
173 Your beauty was the cause of that effect:
174 Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep
175 To undertake the death of all the world,
176 So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.
177 ANNE.
178 If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,
179 These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.
180 RICHARD.
181 These eyes could not endure that beauty’s wrack;
182 You should not blemish it if I stood by.
183 As all the world is cheered by the sun,
184 So I by that; it is my day, my life.
185 ANNE.
186 Black night o’ershade thy day, and death thy life.
187 RICHARD.
188 Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art both.
189 ANNE.
190 I would I were, to be revenged on thee.
191 RICHARD.
192 It is a quarrel most unnatural,
193 To be revenged on him that loveth thee.
194 ANNE.
195 It is a quarrel just and reasonable,
196 To be revenged on him that killed my husband.
197 RICHARD.
198 He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband,
199 Did it to help thee to a better husband.
200 ANNE.
201 His better doth not breathe upon the earth.
202 RICHARD.
203 He lives that loves thee better than he could.
204 ANNE.
205 Name him.
206 RICHARD.
207 Plantagenet.
208 ANNE.
209 Why, that was he.
210 RICHARD.
211 The selfsame name, but one of better nature.
212 ANNE.
213 Where is he?
214 RICHARD.
215 Here.
216 [_She spits at him._]
217 Why dost thou spit at me?
218 ANNE.
219 Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake.
220 RICHARD.
221 Never came poison from so sweet a place.
222 ANNE.
223 Never hung poison on a fouler toad.
224 Out of my sight! Thou dost infect mine eyes.
225 RICHARD.
226 Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.
227 ANNE.
228 Would they were basilisks to strike thee dead!
229 RICHARD.
230 I would they were, that I might die at once;
231 For now they kill me with a living death.
232 Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,
233 Shamed their aspects with store of childish drops.
234 These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear,
235 No, when my father York and Edward wept
236 To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made
237 When black-faced Clifford shook his sword at him;
238 Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
239 Told the sad story of my father’s death,
240 And twenty times made pause to sob and weep,
241 That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks
242 Like trees bedashed with rain. In that sad time
243 My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;
244 And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
245 Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
246 I never sued to friend nor enemy;
247 My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing word;
248 But now thy beauty is proposed my fee,
249 My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak.
250 [_She looks scornfully at him._]
251 Teach not thy lip such scorn; for it was made
252 For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.
253 If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,
254 Lo, here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword,
255 Which if thou please to hide in this true breast
256 And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,
257 I lay it naked to the deadly stroke,
258 And humbly beg the death upon my knee,
259 [_He kneels and lays his breast open; she offers at it with his
260 sword._]
261 Nay, do not pause, for I did kill King Henry—
262 But ’twas thy beauty that provoked me.
263 Nay, now dispatch; ’twas I that stabbed young Edward—
264 But ’twas thy heavenly face that set me on.
265 [_She falls the sword._]
266 Take up the sword again, or take up me.
267 ANNE.
268 Arise, dissembler. Though I wish thy death,
269 I will not be thy executioner.
270 RICHARD.
271 Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.
272 ANNE.
273 I have already.
274 RICHARD.
275 That was in thy rage.
276 Speak it again, and even with the word,
277 This hand, which for thy love did kill thy love,
278 Shall for thy love kill a far truer love.
279 To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary.
280 ANNE.
281 I would I knew thy heart.
282 RICHARD.
283 ’Tis figured in my tongue.
284 ANNE.
285 I fear me both are false.
286 RICHARD.
287 Then never was man true.
288 ANNE.
289 Well, well, put up your sword.
290 RICHARD.
291 Say then my peace is made.
292 ANNE.
293 That shalt thou know hereafter.
294 RICHARD.
295 But shall I live in hope?
296 ANNE.
297 All men, I hope, live so.
298 RICHARD.
299 Vouchsafe to wear this ring.
300 ANNE.
301 To take is not to give.
302 [_He places the ring on her hand._]
303 RICHARD.
304 Look how my ring encompasseth thy finger;
305 Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart;
306 Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.
307 And if thy poor devoted servant may
308 But beg one favour at thy gracious hand,
309 Thou dost confirm his happiness for ever.
310 ANNE.
311 What is it?
312 RICHARD.
313 That it may please you leave these sad designs
314 To him that hath most cause to be a mourner,
315 And presently repair to Crosby Place;
316 Where, after I have solemnly interred
317 At Chertsey monastery this noble King,
318 And wet his grave with my repentant tears,
319 I will with all expedient duty see you.
320 For divers unknown reasons, I beseech you,
321 Grant me this boon.
322 ANNE.
323 With all my heart, and much it joys me too
324 To see you are become so penitent.
325 Tressel and Berkeley, go along with me.
326 RICHARD.
327 Bid me farewell.
328 ANNE.
329 ’Tis more than you deserve;
330 But since you teach me how to flatter you,
331 Imagine I have said farewell already.
332 [_Exeunt Lady Anne, Tressel and Berkeley._]
333 RICHARD.
334 Sirs, take up the corse.
335 GENTLEMAN.
336 Towards Chertsey, noble lord?
337 RICHARD.
338 No, to White Friars; there attend my coming.
339 [_Exeunt Halberds and Gentlemen with corse._]
340 Was ever woman in this humour wooed?
341 Was ever woman in this humour won?
342 I’ll have her, but I will not keep her long.
343 What, I that killed her husband and his father,
344 To take her in her heart’s extremest hate,
345 With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes,
346 The bleeding witness of her hatred by,
347 Having God, her conscience, and these bars against me,
348 And I no friends to back my suit at all,
349 But the plain devil and dissembling looks?
350 And yet to win her, all the world to nothing!
351 Ha!
352 Hath she forgot already that brave prince,
353 Edward, her lord, whom I, some three months since,
354 Stabbed in my angry mood at Tewksbury?
355 A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman,
356 Framed in the prodigality of nature,
357 Young, valiant, wise, and, no doubt, right royal,
358 The spacious world cannot again afford.
359 And will she yet abase her eyes on me,
360 That cropped the golden prime of this sweet prince,
361 And made her widow to a woeful bed?
362 On me, whose all not equals Edward’s moiety?
363 On me, that halt and am misshapen thus?
364 My dukedom to a beggarly denier,
365 I do mistake my person all this while!
366 Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,
367 Myself to be a marvellous proper man.
368 I’ll be at charges for a looking-glass,
369 And entertain a score or two of tailors
370 To study fashions to adorn my body.
371 Since I am crept in favour with myself,
372 I will maintain it with some little cost.
373 But first I’ll turn yon fellow in his grave,
374 And then return lamenting to my love.
375 Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass,
376 That I may see my shadow as I pass.
377 [_Exit._]