Let them have scope: though what they do impart Help not all, 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, which thy two sweet sons smother'd.
I hear his drum: be copious in exclaims.
Enter KING RICHARD III, marching, with drums and trumpets KING RICHARD III Who intercepts 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 Hidest thou that forehead with a golden crown, Where should be graven, if that right were right, The slaughter of the prince that owed that crown, And the dire death of my two sons and brothers?
Tell me, thou villain slave, where are my children? DUCHESS OF YORK Thou toad, thou toad, where is thy brother Clarence?
And little Ned Plantagenet, his son? QUEEN ELIZABETH Where is kind Hastings, Rivers, Vaughan, Grey? KING RICHARD III A flourish, trumpets! strike alarum, drums!
Let not the heavens hear these tell-tale women Rail on the Lord's enointed: 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. DUCHESS OF YORK Art thou my son? KING RICHARD III Ay, I thank God, my father, and yourself. DUCHESS OF YORK Then patiently hear my impatience. KING RICHARD III Madam, I have a touch of your condition, Which cannot brook the accent of reproof. DUCHESS OF YORK O, let me speak! KING RICHARD III Do then: but I'll not hear. DUCHESS OF YORK I will be mild and gentle in my speech. KING RICHARD III And brief, good mother; for I am in haste. DUCHESS OF YORK Art thou so hasty? I have stay'd for thee, God knows, in anguish, pain and agony. KING RICHARD III And came I not at last to comfort you? DUCHESS OF YORK No, by the holy rood, thou know'st it well, Thou camest on earth to make the earth my hell.
A grievous burthen was thy birth to me;
Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy;
Thy school-days frightful, desperate, wild, and furious, Thy prime of manhood daring, bold, and venturous, Thy age confirm'd, proud, subdued, bloody, treacherous, More mild, but yet more harmful, kind in hatred:
What comfortable hour canst thou name, That ever graced me in thy company? KING RICHARD III 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 your grace.
Strike the drum. DUCHESS OF YORK I prithee, hear me speak. KING RICHARD III You speak too bitterly. DUCHESS OF YORK Hear me a word;
For I shall never speak to thee again. KING RICHARD III 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 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 III 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 III 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 III Wrong not her birth, she is of royal blood. QUEEN ELIZABETH To save her life, I'll say she is not so. KING RICHARD III Her life is only safest in her birth. QUEEN ELIZABETH And only in that safety died her brothers. KING RICHARD III Lo, at their births good stars were opposite. QUEEN ELIZABETH No, to their lives bad friends were contrary. KING RICHARD III 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 III 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 III 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 III The advancement of your children, gentle lady. QUEEN ELIZABETH Up to some scaffold, there to lose their heads? KING RICHARD III 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 III Even all I have; yea, and myself and all, Will I withal endow a child of thine;
