Act I, Scene 3

The palace.

[Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH, RIVERS, and GREY]

• Lord (Earl) Rivers. Have patience, madam: there's no doubt his majesty 460
  Will soon recover his accustom'd health.

• Lord Grey. In that you brook it in, it makes him worse:
  Therefore, for God's sake, entertain good comfort,
  And cheer his grace with quick and merry words.

• Queen Elizabeth. If he were dead, what would betide of me? 465

• Lord (Earl) Rivers. No other harm but loss of such a lord.

• Queen Elizabeth. The loss of such a lord includes all harm.

• Lord Grey. The heavens have bless'd you with a goodly son,
  To be your comforter when he is gone.

• Queen Elizabeth. Oh, he is young and his minority 470
  Is put unto the trust of Richard Gloucester,
  A man that loves not me, nor none of you.

• Lord (Earl) Rivers. Is it concluded that he shall be protector?

• Queen Elizabeth. It is determined, not concluded yet:
  But so it must be, if the king miscarry. 475

[Enter BUCKINGHAM and DERBY]

• Lord Grey. Here come the lords of Buckingham and Derby.

• Duke of Buckingham. Good time of day unto your royal grace!

• Sir William Stanley. God make your majesty joyful as you have been!

• Queen Elizabeth. The Countess Richmond, good my Lord of Derby. 480
  To your good prayers will scarcely say amen.
  Yet, Derby, notwithstanding she's your wife,
  And loves not me, be you, good lord, assured
  I hate not you for her proud arrogance.

• Sir William Stanley. I do beseech you, either not believe 485
  The envious slanders of her false accusers;
  Or, if she be accused in true report,
  Bear with her weakness, which, I think proceeds
  From wayward sickness, and no grounded malice.

• Lord (Earl) Rivers. Saw you the king to-day, my Lord of Derby? 490

• Sir William Stanley. But now the Duke of Buckingham and I
  Are come from visiting his majesty.

• Queen Elizabeth. What likelihood of his amendment, lords?

• Duke of Buckingham. Madam, good hope; his grace speaks cheerfully.

• Queen Elizabeth. God grant him health! Did you confer with him? 495

• Duke of Buckingham. Madam, we did: he desires to make atonement
  Betwixt the Duke of Gloucester and your brothers,
  And betwixt them and my lord chamberlain;
  And sent to warn them to his royal presence.

• Queen Elizabeth. Would all were well! but that will never be 500
  I fear our happiness is at the highest.

[Enter GLOUCESTER, HASTINGS, and DORSET]

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). They do me wrong, and I will not endure it:
  Who are they that complain unto the king,
  That I, forsooth, am stern, and love them not? 505
  By holy Paul, they love his grace but lightly
  That fill his ears with such dissentious rumours.
  Because I cannot flatter and speak fair,
  Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive and cog,
  Duck with French nods and apish courtesy, 510
  I must be held a rancorous enemy.
  Cannot a plain man live and think no harm,
  But thus his simple truth must be abused
  By silken, sly, insinuating Jacks?

• Lord (Earl) Rivers. To whom in all this presence speaks your grace? 515

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). To thee, that hast nor honesty nor grace.
  When have I injured thee? when done thee wrong?
  Or thee? or thee? or any of your faction?
  A plague upon you all! His royal person,—
  Whom God preserve better than you would wish!— 520
  Cannot be quiet scarce a breathing-while,
  But you must trouble him with lewd complaints.

• Queen Elizabeth. Brother of Gloucester, you mistake the matter.
  The king, of his own royal disposition,
  And not provoked by any suitor else; 525
  Aiming, belike, at your interior hatred,
  Which in your outward actions shows itself
  Against my kindred, brothers, and myself,
  Makes him to send; that thereby he may gather
  The ground of your ill-will, and so remove it. 530

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). I cannot tell: the world is grown so bad,
  That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch:
  Since every Jack became a gentleman
  There's many a gentle person made a Jack.

• Queen Elizabeth. Come, come, we know your meaning, brother 535
  Gloucester;
  You envy my advancement and my friends':
  God grant we never may have need of you!

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Meantime, God grants that we have need of you:
  Your brother is imprison'd by your means, 540
  Myself disgraced, and the nobility
  Held in contempt; whilst many fair promotions
  Are daily given to ennoble those
  That scarce, some two days since, were worth a noble.

• Queen Elizabeth. By Him that raised me to this careful height 545
  From that contented hap which I enjoy'd,
  I never did incense his majesty
  Against the Duke of Clarence, but have been
  An earnest advocate to plead for him.
  My lord, you do me shameful injury, 550
  Falsely to draw me in these vile suspects.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). You may deny that you were not the cause
  Of my Lord Hastings' late imprisonment.

• Lord (Earl) Rivers. She may, my lord, for—

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). She may, Lord Rivers! why, who knows not so? 555
  She may do more, sir, than denying that:
  She may help you to many fair preferments,
  And then deny her aiding hand therein,
  And lay those honours on your high deserts.
  What may she not? She may, yea, marry, may she— 560

• Lord (Earl) Rivers. What, marry, may she?

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). What, marry, may she! marry with a king,
  A bachelor, a handsome stripling too:
  I wis your grandam had a worser match.

• Queen Elizabeth. My Lord of Gloucester, I have too long borne 565
  Your blunt upbraidings and your bitter scoffs:
  By heaven, I will acquaint his majesty
  With those gross taunts I often have endured.
  I had rather be a country servant-maid
  Than a great queen, with this condition, 570
  To be thus taunted, scorn'd, and baited at:
  [Enter QUEEN MARGARET, behind]
  Small joy have I in being England's queen.

• Queen Margaret. And lessen'd be that small, God, I beseech thee!
  Thy honour, state and seat is due to me. 575

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). What! threat you me with telling of the king?
  Tell him, and spare not: look, what I have said
  I will avouch in presence of the king:
  I dare adventure to be sent to the Tower.
  'Tis time to speak; my pains are quite forgot. 580

• Queen Margaret. Out, devil! I remember them too well:
  Thou slewest my husband Henry in the Tower,
  And Edward, my poor son, at Tewksbury.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Ere you were queen, yea, or your husband king,
  I was a pack-horse in his great affairs; 585
  A weeder-out of his proud adversaries,
  A liberal rewarder of his friends:
  To royalize his blood I spilt mine own.

• Queen Margaret. Yea, and much better blood than his or thine.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). In all which time you and your husband Grey 590
  Were factious for the house of Lancaster;
  And, Rivers, so were you. Was not your husband
  In Margaret's battle at Saint Alban's slain?
  Let me put in your minds, if you forget,
  What you have been ere now, and what you are; 595
  Withal, what I have been, and what I am.

• Queen Margaret. A murderous villain, and so still thou art.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Poor Clarence did forsake his father, Warwick;
  Yea, and forswore himself,—which Jesu pardon!—

• Queen Margaret. Which God revenge! 600

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). To fight on Edward's party for the crown;
  And for his meed, poor lord, he is mew'd up.
  I would to God my heart were flint, like Edward's;
  Or Edward's soft and pitiful, like mine
  I am too childish-foolish for this world. 605

• Queen Margaret. Hie thee to hell for shame, and leave the world,
  Thou cacodemon! there thy kingdom is.

• Lord (Earl) Rivers. My Lord of Gloucester, in those busy days
  Which here you urge to prove us enemies,
  We follow'd then our lord, our lawful king: 610
  So should we you, if you should be our king.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). If I should be! I had rather be a pedlar:
  Far be it from my heart, the thought of it!

• Queen Elizabeth. As little joy, my lord, as you suppose
  You should enjoy, were you this country's king, 615
  As little joy may you suppose in me.
  That I enjoy, being the queen thereof.

• Queen Margaret. A little joy enjoys the queen thereof;
  For I am she, and altogether joyless.
  I can no longer hold me patient. 620
  [Advancing]
  Hear me, you wrangling pirates, that fall out
  In sharing that which you have pill'd from me!
  Which of you trembles not that looks on me?
  If not, that, I being queen, you bow like subjects, 625
  Yet that, by you deposed, you quake like rebels?
  O gentle villain, do not turn away!

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Foul wrinkled witch, what makest thou in my sight?

• Queen Margaret. But repetition of what thou hast marr'd;
  That will I make before I let thee go. 630

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Wert thou not banished on pain of death?

• Queen Margaret. I was; but I do find more pain in banishment
  Than death can yield me here by my abode.
  A husband and a son thou owest to me;
  And thou a kingdom; all of you allegiance: 635
  The sorrow that I have, by right is yours,
  And all the pleasures you usurp are mine.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). The curse my noble father laid on thee,
  When thou didst crown his warlike brows with paper
  And with thy scorns drew'st rivers from his eyes, 640
  And then, to dry them, gavest the duke a clout
  Steep'd in the faultless blood of pretty Rutland—
  His curses, then from bitterness of soul
  Denounced against thee, are all fall'n upon thee;
  And God, not we, hath plagued thy bloody deed. 645

• Queen Elizabeth. So just is God, to right the innocent.

• Lord Hastings. O, 'twas the foulest deed to slay that babe,
  And the most merciless that e'er was heard of!

• Lord (Earl) Rivers. Tyrants themselves wept when it was reported.

• Marquis of Dorset. No man but prophesied revenge for it. 650

• Duke of Buckingham. Northumberland, then present, wept to see it.

• Queen Margaret. What were you snarling all before I came,
  Ready to catch each other by the throat,
  And turn you all your hatred now on me?
  Did York's dread curse prevail so much with heaven? 655
  That Henry's death, my lovely Edward's death,
  Their kingdom's loss, my woful banishment,
  Could all but answer for that peevish brat?
  Can curses pierce the clouds and enter heaven?
  Why, then, give way, dull clouds, to my quick curses! 660
  If not by war, by surfeit die your king,
  As ours by murder, to make him a king!
  Edward thy son, which now is Prince of Wales,
  For Edward my son, which was Prince of Wales,
  Die in his youth by like untimely violence! 665
  Thyself a queen, for me that was a queen,
  Outlive thy glory, like my wretched self!
  Long mayst thou live to wail thy children's loss;
  And see another, as I see thee now,
  Deck'd in thy rights, as thou art stall'd in mine! 670
  Long die thy happy days before thy death;
  And, after many lengthen'd hours of grief,
  Die neither mother, wife, nor England's queen!
  Rivers and Dorset, you were standers by,
  And so wast thou, Lord Hastings, when my son 675
  Was stabb'd with bloody daggers: God, I pray him,
  That none of you may live your natural age,
  But by some unlook'd accident cut off!

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Have done thy charm, thou hateful wither'd hag!

• Queen Margaret. And leave out thee? stay, dog, for thou shalt hear me. 680
  If heaven have any grievous plague in store
  Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,
  O, let them keep it till thy sins be ripe,
  And then hurl down their indignation
  On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace! 685
  The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul!
  Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou livest,
  And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends!
  No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine,
  Unless it be whilst some tormenting dream 690
  Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils!
  Thou elvish-mark'd, abortive, rooting hog!
  Thou that wast seal'd in thy nativity
  The slave of nature and the son of hell!
  Thou slander of thy mother's heavy womb! 695
  Thou loathed issue of thy father's loins!
  Thou rag of honour! thou detested—

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Margaret.

• Queen Margaret. Richard!

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Ha! 700

• Queen Margaret. I call thee not.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). I cry thee mercy then, for I had thought
  That thou hadst call'd me all these bitter names.

• Queen Margaret. Why, so I did; but look'd for no reply.
  O, let me make the period to my curse! 705

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). 'Tis done by me, and ends in 'Margaret.'

• Queen Elizabeth. Thus have you breathed your curse against yourself.

• Queen Margaret. Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my fortune!
  Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider,
  Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about? 710
  Fool, fool! thou whet'st a knife to kill thyself.
  The time will come when thou shalt wish for me
  To help thee curse that poisonous bunchback'd toad.

• Lord Hastings. False-boding woman, end thy frantic curse,
  Lest to thy harm thou move our patience. 715

• Queen Margaret. Foul shame upon you! you have all moved mine.

• Lord (Earl) Rivers. Were you well served, you would be taught your duty.

• Queen Margaret. To serve me well, you all should do me duty,
  Teach me to be your queen, and you my subjects:
  O, serve me well, and teach yourselves that duty! 720

• Marquis of Dorset. Dispute not with her; she is lunatic.

• Queen Margaret. Peace, master marquess, you are malapert:
  Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current.
  O, that your young nobility could judge
  What 'twere to lose it, and be miserable! 725
  They that stand high have many blasts to shake them;
  And if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Good counsel, marry: learn it, learn it, marquess.

• Marquis of Dorset. It toucheth you, my lord, as much as me.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Yea, and much more: but I was born so high, 730
  Our aery buildeth in the cedar's top,
  And dallies with the wind and scorns the sun.

• Queen Margaret. And turns the sun to shade; alas! alas!
  Witness my son, now in the shade of death;
  Whose bright out-shining beams thy cloudy wrath 735
  Hath in eternal darkness folded up.
  Your aery buildeth in our aery's nest.
  O God, that seest it, do not suffer it!
  As it was won with blood, lost be it so!

• Duke of Buckingham. Have done! for shame, if not for charity. 740

• Queen Margaret. Urge neither charity nor shame to me:
  Uncharitably with me have you dealt,
  And shamefully by you my hopes are butcher'd.
  My charity is outrage, life my shame
  And in that shame still live my sorrow's rage. 745

• Duke of Buckingham. Have done, have done.

• Queen Margaret. O princely Buckingham I'll kiss thy hand,
  In sign of league and amity with thee:
  Now fair befal thee and thy noble house!
  Thy garments are not spotted with our blood, 750
  Nor thou within the compass of my curse.

• Duke of Buckingham. Nor no one here; for curses never pass
  The lips of those that breathe them in the air.

• Queen Margaret. I'll not believe but they ascend the sky,
  And there awake God's gentle-sleeping peace. 755
  O Buckingham, take heed of yonder dog!
  Look, when he fawns, he bites; and when he bites,
  His venom tooth will rankle to the death:
  Have not to do with him, beware of him;
  Sin, death, and hell have set their marks on him, 760
  And all their ministers attend on him.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). What doth she say, my Lord of Buckingham?

• Duke of Buckingham. Nothing that I respect, my gracious lord.

• Queen Margaret. What, dost thou scorn me for my gentle counsel?
  And soothe the devil that I warn thee from? 765
  O, but remember this another day,
  When he shall split thy very heart with sorrow,
  And say poor Margaret was a prophetess!
  Live each of you the subjects to his hate,
  And he to yours, and all of you to God's! 770

[Exit]

• Lord Hastings. My hair doth stand on end to hear her curses.

• Lord (Earl) Rivers. And so doth mine: I muse why she's at liberty.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). I cannot blame her: by God's holy mother,
  She hath had too much wrong; and I repent 775
  My part thereof that I have done to her.

• Queen Elizabeth. I never did her any, to my knowledge.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). But you have all the vantage of her wrong.
  I was too hot to do somebody good,
  That is too cold in thinking of it now. 780
  Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repaid,
  He is frank'd up to fatting for his pains
  God pardon them that are the cause of it!

• Lord (Earl) Rivers. A virtuous and a Christian-like conclusion,
  To pray for them that have done scathe to us. 785

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). So do I ever:
  [Aside]
  being well-advised.
  For had I cursed now, I had cursed myself.

[Enter CATESBY]

• Sir William Catesby. Madam, his majesty doth call for you,
  And for your grace; and you, my noble lords.

• Queen Elizabeth. Catesby, we come. Lords, will you go with us?

• Lord (Earl) Rivers. Madam, we will attend your grace.

[Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER]

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). I do the wrong, and first begin to brawl.
  The secret mischiefs that I set abroach
  I lay unto the grievous charge of others.
  Clarence, whom I, indeed, have laid in darkness,
  I do beweep to many simple gulls 800
  Namely, to Hastings, Derby, Buckingham;
  And say it is the queen and her allies
  That stir the king against the duke my brother.
  Now, they believe it; and withal whet me
  To be revenged on Rivers, Vaughan, Grey: 805
  But then I sigh; and, with a piece of scripture,
  Tell them that God bids us do good for evil:
  And thus I clothe my naked villany
  With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ;
  And seem a saint, when most I play the devil. 810
  [Enter two Murderers]
  But, soft! here come my executioners.
  How now, my hardy, stout resolved mates!
  Are you now going to dispatch this deed?

• First Murderer. We are, my lord; and come to have the warrant 815
  That we may be admitted where he is.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Well thought upon; I have it here about me.
  [Gives the warrant]
  When you have done, repair to Crosby Place.
  But, sirs, be sudden in the execution, 820
  Withal obdurate, do not hear him plead;
  For Clarence is well-spoken, and perhaps
  May move your hearts to pity if you mark him.

• First Murderer. Tush!
  Fear not, my lord, we will not stand to prate; 825
  Talkers are no good doers: be assured
  We come to use our hands and not our tongues.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Your eyes drop millstones, when fools' eyes drop tears:
  I like you, lads; about your business straight;
  Go, go, dispatch. 830

• First Murderer. We will, my noble lord.

[Exeunt]