Preys on the issue of his mother's body, Q. Mar. Bear with me, I am hungry for revenge, The adulterate Hastings, Rivers, Vaughan, Grey, Q. Eliz. O, thou didst prophesy, the time would come, That I should wish for thee to help me curse I call'd thee then, poor shadow, painted queen; queen? Where be the bending peers that flatter'd thee? Where be the thronging troops that follow'd thee? Decline all this, and see what now thou art. or happy wife, a most distressed widow; For joyful mother, one that wails the name; For one being sued to, one that humbly sues; For queen, a very caitiff crown'd with care; For one that scorn'd at me, now scorn'd of me; For one being fear'd of all, now fearing one; For one commanding all, obey'd of none. Thus hath the course of justice wheel'd 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 burden'd yoke; From which even here I slip my wearied 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. Q. Eliz. O thou well skill'd in curses, stay a while, And teach me how to curse mine enemies. Q. Mar. Forbear to sleep the night, and fast the Compare dead happiness with living woe: Q. Eliz. My words are dull, O, quicken them Q. Mar. Thy woes will make them sharp, and pierce like mine. [Exit Q. MARGARET. Duch. Why should calamity be full of words? Q. Eliz. Windy attorneys to their client woes, Airy succeeders of intestate joys,' 10 Poor breathing orators of miseries! Let them have scope: though what they do impart Help nothing else, yet do they case the heart.1 Duch. If So, then be not tongue-ty'd: go with me, I hear his drum,-be copious in exclaims. crown, Where should be branded, if that right were right, Q. Eliz. Where is the gentle Rivers, Vaughan, Duch. Where is kind Hastings? K. Rich. A flourish, trumpets!-strike alarum, Let not the heavens hear these tell-tale women K. Rich. Ay; I thank God, my father, and your self. Duch. Then patiently hear my impatience. That cannot brook the accent of reproof. K. Rich. haste. Duch. Art thou so hasty? I have staid for thee, K. Rich. And came I not at last to comfort you? 1 i. e. partaker of or participator in the grief of others. The word appears to have been used metapho-Thou cam'st on earth to make the earth my hell. rically for an equal, a companion, or old and intimate acquaintance. 2 i. e. thrown into the bargain. Shakspeare employed the word for the sake of the an 3 Adulterate is stained with adultery. Adulterata, tithesis between better and loss. Lat. That roars so loud and thunders in the inder. Mr. Nares suggests that the inder of a pageant was probably a painted cloth hung up before a booth where a pageant was to be exhibited. 6 Alluding to the dangerous situation of those persons to whose care the standards of armies were entrusted. 6 i. e. run through all this from first to last. 7 Fast has no connection with the preceding word forbear; the meaning being sleep not at night, and fast during the day. • Bettering is amplifying, magnifying thy loss. 9 Thus in Venus and Adonis : 6 So of concealed sorrow may be said: 11 Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak. A grievous burden was thy birth to me; Thy prime of manhood, daring, bold, and venturous: K. Rich. 'Faith, none, but Humphrey Hour,2 To breakfast once, forth of: my company. If I be so disgracious in your sight, Let me march on, and not offend you, madam.— Duch I pr'ythee, hear me speak. K. Rich. You speak too bitterly. Duch. Hear me a word; For I shall never speak to thee again. K. Rich. So. Duch. Either thou wilt die, by God's just ordi nance, Ere from this war thou turn a conqueror; Therefore take with thee my most heavy curse; 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 you. 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, So she may live unscarr'd of bleeding slaughter, 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, K. Rich. You speak, as if that I had slain my cousins. 1 Touchy, fretful. No doubt the murderous knife was dull and blunt, 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 heaven, 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 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. Q. Eliz. Be brief, lest that the process of thy kindness Q. Eliz. How canst thou woo her? K. Rich. That I would learn of you As one being best acquainted with her humour. A pair of bleeding hearts; thereon engrave, 5 This conceit seems to have been a favourite with Shakspeare. 6 i. e. constant use. 7 i. e. the crown, the emblem of royalty. See note on King Henry VI. Part III. Act i. Sc. 4. 2 I know not what to make of this, unless we suppose with Steevens that it is an allusion to some affair of galantry of which the duchess had been suspected. There Do mention of any thing of the kind in the Chronicles. Malone conjectures that Humphrey Hour is merely sed as a ludicrous periphrasis for hour, like Tom Troth, for truth, in Gabriel Harvey's Letter to Spenser. 8 To demise is to grant, from demittere, Lat. But as There can hardly be any allusion to the phrase of no example of the use of the word, except in legal instru dining with Duke Humphrey,' used to express those ments, offers itself, I cannot help thinking we should who dined upon air, or passed their dinner hour in ad-read devise, with the second folio. K. Rich. You mock me, madam; this is not the way To win your daughter. Q. Eliz. There is no other way; Having bought love with such a bloody spoil. K. Rich. Look, what is done cannot be now Men shall deal unadvisedly sometimes, The king, that calls your beauteous daughter,-wife, Q. Eliz. What were I best to say? her father's Would be her lord? Or shall I say, her uncle? Q. Eliz. Which she shall purchase with al still K. Rich. Tell her, the king, that may command, entreats. Q. Eliz. That at her hands, which the king's King K. Rich. Say, she shall be a high and mighty queen. K. Rich. As long as heaven, and nature, length- Q. Eliz. As long as hell, and Richard, likes of it. K. Rich. Be cloquent in my behalf to her. K. Rich. Then in plain terms tell her my loving Q. Eliz. Plain, and not honest, is too harsh a style. K. Rich. Your reasons are too shallow and too quick. Q. Eliz. O, no, my reasons are too deep and dead; Too deep and dead, poor infants, in their graves. K. Rich. Harp not on that string, madam; that is past. 1 Tyrwhitt suggested that the sense seemed to require we should read but love thee,' ironically. Mason proposed but have thee,' which Steevens admitted into the text. It is by no means evident that this is spoken ironically (says Mr. Boswell,) and, if not, the old reading affords a perfectly clear meaning. A virtuous woman would hate the man who thought to purchase her love by the commission of crimes.' Q. Eliz. Harp on it still shall I, till heartstrings break. K. Rich. Now, by my George, my garter, and my crown, Q. Eliz. Profan'd, dishonour'd, and the third K. Rich. I swear. Q. Eliz. "Tis full of thy foul wrongs. K. Rich. My father's death,- Thy life hath that dishonour'd. K. Rich. Then, by myself,- Thyself is self misus'd. K. Rich. Why then, by God,- K. Rich. Ungovern'd youth, to wail it in their age: K. Rich. As I intend to prosper, and repent! To my proceeding, if with pure heart's love, 2 Endur'd of her for whom you bid like sorrow.' Of is used for by; bid is the past tense from bide. 3 i. e. recount. 4 She means that his crimes would render such a marriage offensive to heaven. 6 Young has borrowed this thought : But say, my all, my mistress, and my friend, What day next week the eternity shall end." Immaculate devotion, holy thoughts, I tender not thy beauteous princely daughter! Plead what I will be, not what I have been; Q. Eliz. But thou didst kill my children. K. Rich. But in your daughter's womb I bury them: Where, in the nest of spicery,2 they shall breed Q. Eliz. Shall I go win my daughter to thy will? [Kissing her. Exit Q. ELIZABETH. Relenting fool, and shallow, changing-woman!3 How now? what news? Enter RATCLIFF; CATESBY following. Rat. Most mighty sovereign, on the western coast Rideth a puissant navy; to the shore Throng many doubtful hollow-hearted friends, Unarm'd, and unresolv'd to beat them back; 'Tis thought, that Richmond is their admiral; And there they hull, expecting but the aid Of Buckingham, to welcome them ashore. K. Rich. Some lightfoot friend post to the duke of Norfolk:4 Ratcliff, thyself,-or Catesby; where is he? What from your grace I shall deliver to him. The greatest strength and power he can make, Cate. I go. [Exit. Rat. What, may it please you, shall I do at Salisbury? K. Rich. Why, what would'st thou do there, be- Rat. Your highness told me, I should post before. K. Rich. Heyday, a riddle! neither good nor bad' Stan. White-liver'd runagate, what doth he there? 4 Richard's precipitation and confusion is in this scene very happily represented by inconsistent orders and sudden variation of opinion. 5 Richard asks this question in the plenitude of power, and no one dares to answer him. But they whom he addresses, had they not been intimidated, might have Stan. Stirr'd up by Dorset, Buckingham, and Morton, He makes for England, here to claim the crown. K. Rich. Is the chair empty? is the sword unsway'd? Is the king dead, the empire unpossess'd? Stan. Unless for that, my liege, I cannot guess. K. Rich. Unless for that he comes to be your liege, You cannot guess wherefore the Welshman comes. Thou wilt revolt, and fly to him, I fear. Stan. No, mighty liege; therefore mistrust me not. K. Rich. Where is thy power then, to beat him back? Where be thy tenants, and thy followers? K. Rich. Cold friends to me: what do they in the north, When they should serve their sovereign in the west? Stun. They have not been commanded, mighty king: Pleaseth your majesty to give me leave, I'll muster up my friends; and meet your grace, I will not trust you, sir. K. Rich. Well, go, muster men. But, hear you, leave behind Your son, George Stanley: look your heart be firm, 3 Mess. My lord, the army of great BuckinghamK. Rich. Out on ye, owls! nothing but songs of death? [He strikes him. There, take thou that, till thou bring better news. 3 Mess. The news I have to tell your majesty, told him that there was a male heir of the house of York alive, who had a better claim to the throne than he. Edward earl of Warwick, the only son of the usurper's eldest brother, George duke of Clarence; but Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Edward IV. and all her sisters, had a better title than either of them. He had however been careful to have the issue of King Edward pronounced illegitimate; and as the duke of Clarence had been attainted of high treason, he had some colour for his bravado. 6 Competitors here means confederates. Is,-that, by sudden floods and fall of waters, No man knows whither. K. Rich. O, I cry you mercy : There is my purse to cure that blow of thine. Hath any well-advised friend proclaim'd Reward to him that brings the traitor in? 3 Mess. Such proclamation hath been made, my liege. Enter another Messenger. 4 Mess. Sir Thomas Lovel, and lord marquis 'Tis said, my liege, in Yorkshire are in arms. Hois'd sail, and made his course again for Bretagne. If not to fight with foreign enemies, Yet to beat down these rebels here at home. Enter CATESBY. Cate. My liege, the duke of Buckingham is taken, He shall espouse Elizabeth her daughter. ACT V. SCENE I. Salisbury. An open Place. Enter the Sheriff, and Guard, with BUCKINGHAM, led to execution. Buck. Will not King Richard let me speak with Sher. No, my good lord; therefore be patient. Holy King Henry, and thy fair son Edward, Sher. It is, my lord. Buck. Why, then All-Souls' day is my body's This is the day, which, in King Edward's time, K. Rich. Away towards Salisbury; while we That high All-seer which I dallied with, reason here, A royal battle might be won and lost :- [Exeunt. Stan. Sir Christopher, tell Richmond this from me: That in the sty of this most bloody boar, Stan. What men of name resort to him? Tell him, the queen hath heartily consented 1 The earl of Richmond embarked with about two thousand men at Harfleur, in Normandy, August 1, 1495, and landed at Milford Haven on the 7th. He directed his course to Wales, hoping the Welsh would receive him cordially as their countryman, he having been born at Pembroke, and his grandfather being Owen Tudor, who married Katharine of France, the widow of King Henry V. 2 News was considered as plural by our ancient writers. Hath turn'd my feigned prayer on my head, 10 Richm. Fellows in arms, and my most loving friends, Bruis'd underneath the yoke of tyranny, In your embowell'd bosoms, this foul swine 5 There is reason to think that Buckingham's execution took place at Shrewsbury, but this is not the place to discuss the question. 6 The reason why the duke of Buckingham solicited an interview with Richard is explained in King Henry VIII. Act i. 7 The time to which the punishment of his injurious practices or the wrongs done by him was respited. 8 Johnson thinks this scene should be added to the 3 Sir Christopher Urswick, a priest, chaplain to the fourth act, which would give it a more full and striking Countess of Richmond, who was married to the Lord conciusion. In the original quarto copy, 1597, this play Stanley. This priest, the chronicles tell us, frequently is not divided into acts and scenes: Malone suggests went backwards and forwards, unsuspected, on mes-that the short scene between Stanley and Sir Christosages between the countess of Richmond and her hus-pher may have been the opening of the fifth act. band, and the young earl of Richmond, whilst he was 9 John de Vere, earl of Oxford, a zealous Lancas preparing to make his descent on England. He was trian, who, after a long confinement in Hammes Castle, afterwards almoner to King Henry VII. and refused the in Picardy, escaped in 1484, and joined Richmond at bishopric of Norwich. He retired to Hackney, where Paris. He commanded the archers at the battle of Boshe died in 1527, and his tomb is, I believe, still to be seen worth. in the church there. 4 Vide note on p. 96, ante. 10 Sir James Blunt had been captain of the Castle of Hammes, and assisted Oxford in his escape. |