Cancel his bond of life, dear God, I pray, Q. Eliz. O, thou didst prophesy, the time would come, I call'd thee then, poor shadow, painted queen; The flattering index of a direful pageant, for Where is thy husband now? where be thy brothers? Farewell, York's wife,-and queen of sad mischance,- Q. Eliz. O thou well skill'd in curses, stay awhile, And teach me how to curse mine enemies. Q. Mar. Forbear to sleep the night, and fast the day'; Compare dead happiness with living woe; Think that thy babes were fairer than they were; And, he that slew them, fouler than he is: Bettering thy loss makes the bad-causer worse; Revolving this will teach thee how to curse. Q. Eliz. My words are dull, O, quicken them with thine! like mine. Q. Mar. Thy woes will make them sharp, and pierce [Exit Queen Margaret. Duch. Why should calamity be full of words? Q. Eliz. Windy attorneys to their client woes, Airy succeeders of intestate joys, Poor breathing orators of miseries! Let them have scope: though what they do impart 'Help nothing else, yet do they ease the heart. Duch. If so, then be not tongue-tied: go with me, And in the breath of bitter words let's smother My dainned son, that thy two sweet sons smother'd. [Drum within. I hear his drum,-be copious in exclaims. Enter KING RICHARD and his Train, marching. K. Rich. Who intercepts me in my expedition?. Duch. O, she, that might have intercepted thee, By strangling thee in her accursed womb, From all the slaughters, wretch, that thou hast done. Q. Eliz. Hid'st thou that forehead with a golden crown, Where should be branded, if that right were right, And little Ned Plantagenet, his son? Q. Eliz. Where is the gentle Rivers, Vaughan, Grey? K. Rich. A flourish, trumpets!-strike alarum, drums! Let not the heavens hear these tell-tale women [Flourish. Alarums. Either be patient, and entreat me fair, K. Rich. Ay; I thank God, my father, and yourself. K. Rich. Madam, I have a touch of your condition, That cannot brook the accent of reproof. Duch. O let me speak. K. Rich. Do, then; but I'll not hear. Duch. I will be mild and gentle in my words. K. Rich. And brief, good mother; for I am in haste. Duch. Art thou so hasty? I have staid for thee, God knows, in torment and in agony. K. Rich. And came I not at last to comfort you? Duch. 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 school-days, frightful, desperate, wild, and furious; Thy prime of manhood, daring, bold, and venturous; Thy age confirm'd, proud, subtle, sly, and bloody, More mild, but yet more harmful, kind in hatred: What comfortable hour canst thou name, That ever grac'd me in thy company? K. Rich. '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 you, madam.- Duch. I pr'ythee, hear me speak. K. Rich. You speak too bitterly. F Hear me a word, K. Rich. So. Duch. 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, Therefore, take with thee my most heavy curse; And promise them success and victory. Shame serves thy life, and doth thy death attend. [Exit. 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, 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, K. Rich. Wrong not her birth, she is of royal blood. K. Rich. You speak, as if that I had slain my cousins. No doubt the murderous knife was dull and blunt, But that still use of grief makes wild grief tame, K. Rich. Madam, so thrive I in my enterprize, Q. Eliz. What good is cover'd with the face of 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, Q. Eliz. Be brief, lest that the process of thy kind ness Last longer telling than thy kindness' date. K. Rich. Then know, that, from my soul, I love thy daughter. |