Folger Shakespeare Library

http://www.folgerdigitaltexts.org

Contents

Front Matter |
ACT 1 |
ACT 2 |
ACT 3 |
ACT 4 |
ACT 5 |

From the Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library

It is hard to imagine a world without Shakespeare. Since their composition four hundred years ago, Shakespeare’s plays and poems have traveled the globe, inviting those who see and read his works to make them their own.

Readers of the New Folger Editions are part of this ongoing process of “taking up Shakespeare,” finding our own thoughts and feelings in language that strikes us as old or unusual and, for that very reason, new. We still struggle to keep up with a writer who could think a mile a minute, whose words paint pictures that shift like clouds. These expertly edited texts are presented to the public as a resource for study, artistic adaptation, and enjoyment. By making the classic texts of the New Folger Editions available in electronic form as Folger Digital Texts, we place a trusted resource in the hands of anyone who wants them.

The New Folger Editions of Shakespeare’s plays, which are the basis for the texts realized here in digital form, are special because of their origin. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is the single greatest documentary source of Shakespeare’s works. An unparalleled collection of early modern books, manuscripts, and artwork connected to Shakespeare, the Folger’s holdings have been consulted extensively in the preparation of these texts. The Editions also reflect the expertise gained through the regular performance of Shakespeare’s works in the Folger’s Elizabethan Theater.

I want to express my deep thanks to editors Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine for creating these indispensable editions of Shakespeare’s works, which incorporate the best of textual scholarship with a richness of commentary that is both inspired and engaging. Readers who want to know more about Shakespeare and his plays can follow the paths these distinguished scholars have tread by visiting the Folger either in-person or online, where a range of physical and digital resources exists to supplement the material in these texts. I commend to you these words, and hope that they inspire.

Michael Witmore
Director, Folger Shakespeare Library

Textual Introduction
By Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine

Until now, with the release of the Folger Digital Texts, readers in search of a free online text of Shakespeare’s plays had to be content primarily with using the Moby™ Text, which reproduces a late-nineteenth century version of the plays. What is the difference? Many ordinary readers assume that there is a single text for the plays: what Shakespeare wrote. But Shakespeare’s plays were not published the way modern novels or plays are published today: as a single, authoritative text. In some cases, the plays have come down to us in multiple published versions, represented by various Quartos (Qq) and by the great collection put together by his colleagues in 1623, called the First Folio (F). There are, for example, three very different versions of Hamlet, two of King Lear, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, and others. Editors choose which version to use as their base text, and then amend that text with words, lines or speech prefixes from the other versions that, in their judgment, make for a better or more accurate text.

Other editorial decisions involve choices about whether an unfamiliar word could be understood in light of other writings of the period or whether it should be changed; decisions about words that made it into Shakespeare’s text by accident through four hundred years of printings and misprinting; and even decisions based on cultural preference and taste. When the Moby™ Text was created, for example, it was deemed “improper” and “indecent” for Miranda to chastise Caliban for having attempted to rape her. (See The Tempest, 1.2: “Abhorred slave,/Which any print of goodness wilt not take,/Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee…”). All Shakespeare editors at the time took the speech away from her and gave it to her father, Prospero.

The editors of the Moby™ Shakespeare produced their text long before scholars fully understood the proper grounds on which to make the thousands of decisions that Shakespeare editors face. The Folger Library Shakespeare Editions, on which the Folger Digital Texts depend, make this editorial process as nearly transparent as is possible, in contrast to older texts, like the Moby™, which hide editorial interventions. The reader of the Folger Shakespeare knows where the text has been altered because editorial interventions are signaled by square brackets (for example, from Othello: “If she in chains of magic were not bound,”), half-square brackets (for example, from Henry V: “With blood and sword and fire to win your right,”), or angle brackets (for example, from Hamlet: “O farewell, honest soldier. Who hath relieved/you?”). At any point in the text, you can hover your cursor over a bracket for more information.

Because the Folger Digital Texts are edited in accord with twenty-first century knowledge about Shakespeare’s texts, the Folger here provides them to readers, scholars, teachers, actors, directors, and students, free of charge, confident of their quality as texts of the plays and pleased to be able to make this contribution to the study and enjoyment of Shakespeare.

Synopsis

As Richard III opens, Richard is Duke of Gloucester and his brother, Edward IV, is king. Richard is eager to clear his way to the crown. He manipulates Edward into imprisoning their brother, Clarence, and then has Clarence murdered in the Tower. Meanwhile, Richard succeeds in marrying Lady Anne, even though he killed her father-in-law, Henry VI, and her husband.

When the ailing King Edward dies, Prince Edward, the older of his two young sons, is next in line for the throne. Richard houses the Prince and his younger brother in the Tower. Richard then stages events that yield him the crown.

After Richard’s coronation, he has the boys secretly killed. He also disposes of Anne, his wife, in order to court his niece, Elizabeth of York. Rebellious nobles rally to Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond. When their armies meet, Richard is defeated and killed. Richmond becomes Henry VII. His marriage to Elizabeth of York ends the Wars of the Roses and starts the Tudor dynasty.

Characters in the Play
Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later King Richard III
Lady Anne, widow of Edward, son to the late King Henry VI;
later wife to Richard
King Edward IV, brother to Richard
Queen Elizabeth, Edward’s wife, formerly the Lady Grey
Prince Edward
Richard, Duke of York
their sons
George, Duke of Clarence, brother to Edward and Richard
Clarence’s Boy
Clarence’s Daughter
Duchess of York, mother of Richard, Edward, and Clarence
Queen Margaret, widow of King Henry VI
Duke of Buckingham
William, Lord Hastings, Lord Chamberlain
Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby
Earl Rivers, brother to Queen Elizabeth
Lord Grey
Marquess of Dorset
sons of Queen Elizabeth by her
former marriage
Sir Thomas Vaughan
Sir William Catesby
Sir Richard Ratcliffe
Lord Lovell
Duke of Norfolk
Earl of Surrey
Richard’s supporters
Earl of Richmond, Henry Tudor, later King Henry VII
Earl of Oxford
Sir James Blunt
Sir Walter Herbert
Sir William Brandon
Sir Christopher, a priest
Richmond’s supporters
Archbishop
Cardinal
John Morton, Bishop of Ely
Sir Robert Brakenbury, Lieutenant of the Tower in London
James Tyrrel, gentleman
Gentleman, attending Lady Anne
Two Murderers
Keeper in the Tower
Three Citizens
Lord Mayor of London
Pursuivant
Sir John, a priest
Scrivener
Page
Sheriff
Seven Messengers
Ghosts of King Henry VI, his son Prince Edward, Clarence, Rivers, Grey, Vaughan, the two Princes, Hastings, Lady Anne, and Buckingham
Guards, Tressel, Berkeley, Halberds, Gentlemen, Anthony Woodeville and Lord Scales (brothers to Queen Elizabeth), Two Bishops, Sir William Brandon, Lords, Attendants, Citizens, Aldermen, Councillors, Soldiers

ACT 1
Scene 1
Enter Richard, Duke of Gloucester, alone.
RICHARD
FTLN 0001 Now is the winter of our discontent
FTLN 0002 Made glorious summer by this son of York,
FTLN 0003 And all the clouds that loured upon our house
FTLN 0004 In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
FTLN 0005 5 Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths,
FTLN 0006 Our bruisèd arms hung up for monuments,
FTLN 0007 Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
FTLN 0008 Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
FTLN 0009 Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front;
FTLN 0010 10 And now, instead of mounting barbèd steeds
FTLN 0011 To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
FTLN 0012 He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber
FTLN 0013 To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
FTLN 0014 But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
FTLN 0015 15 Nor made to court an amorous looking glass;
FTLN 0016 I, that am rudely stamped and want love’s majesty
FTLN 0017 To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
FTLN 0018 I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion,
FTLN 0019 Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
FTLN 0020 20 Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time
FTLN 0021 Into this breathing world scarce half made up,
FTLN 0022 And that so lamely and unfashionable
FTLN 0023 That dogs bark at me as I halt by them—
9

11
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 1
FTLN 0024 Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
FTLN 0025 25 Have no delight to pass away the time,
FTLN 0026 Unless to see my shadow in the sun
FTLN 0027 And descant on mine own deformity.
FTLN 0028 And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover
FTLN 0029 To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
FTLN 0030 30 I am determinèd to prove a villain
FTLN 0031 And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
FTLN 0032 Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
FTLN 0033 By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams,
FTLN 0034 To set my brother Clarence and the King
FTLN 0035 35 In deadly hate, the one against the other;
FTLN 0036 And if King Edward be as true and just
FTLN 0037 As I am subtle, false, and treacherous,
FTLN 0038 This day should Clarence closely be mewed up
FTLN 0039 About a prophecy which says that “G”
FTLN 0040 40 Of Edward’s heirs the murderer shall be.
FTLN 0041 Dive, thoughts, down to my soul. Here Clarence
FTLN 0042 comes.
Enter Clarence, guarded, and Brakenbury.
FTLN 0043 Brother, good day. What means this armèd guard
FTLN 0044 That waits upon your Grace?
CLARENCE FTLN 0045 45 His Majesty,
FTLN 0046 Tend’ring my person’s safety, hath appointed
FTLN 0047 This conduct to convey me to the Tower.
RICHARD
FTLN 0048 Upon what cause?
CLARENCE FTLN 0049 Because my name is
FTLN 0050 50 George.
RICHARD
FTLN 0051 Alack, my lord, that fault is none of yours.
FTLN 0052 He should, for that, commit your godfathers.
FTLN 0053 O, belike his Majesty hath some intent
FTLN 0054 That you should be new christened in the Tower.
FTLN 0055 55 But what’s the matter, Clarence? May I know?

13
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 1
CLARENCE
FTLN 0056 Yea, Richard, when I know, for I protest
FTLN 0057 As yet I do not. But, as I can learn,
FTLN 0058 He hearkens after prophecies and dreams,
FTLN 0059 And from the crossrow plucks the letter G,
FTLN 0060 60 And says a wizard told him that by “G”
FTLN 0061 His issue disinherited should be.
FTLN 0062 And for my name of George begins with G,
FTLN 0063 It follows in his thought that I am he.
FTLN 0064 These, as I learn, and such like toys as these
FTLN 0065 65 Hath moved his Highness to commit me now.
RICHARD
FTLN 0066 Why, this it is when men are ruled by women.
FTLN 0067 ’Tis not the King that sends you to the Tower.
FTLN 0068 My Lady Grey his wife, Clarence, ’tis she
FTLN 0069 That tempers him to this extremity.
FTLN 0070 70 Was it not she and that good man of worship,
FTLN 0071 Anthony Woodeville, her brother there,
FTLN 0072 That made him send Lord Hastings to the Tower,
FTLN 0073 From whence this present day he is delivered?
FTLN 0074 We are not safe, Clarence; we are not safe.
CLARENCE
FTLN 0075 75 By heaven, I think there is no man secure
FTLN 0076 But the Queen’s kindred and night-walking heralds
FTLN 0077 That trudge betwixt the King and Mistress Shore.
FTLN 0078 Heard you not what an humble suppliant
FTLN 0079 Lord Hastings was to her for his delivery?
RICHARD
FTLN 0080 80 Humbly complaining to her Deity
FTLN 0081 Got my Lord Chamberlain his liberty.
FTLN 0082 I’ll tell you what: I think it is our way,
FTLN 0083 If we will keep in favor with the King,
FTLN 0084 To be her men and wear her livery.
FTLN 0085 85 The jealous o’erworn widow and herself,
FTLN 0086 Since that our brother dubbed them gentlewomen,
FTLN 0087 Are mighty gossips in our monarchy.

15
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 1
BRAKENBURY
FTLN 0088 I beseech your Graces both to pardon me.
FTLN 0089 His Majesty hath straitly given in charge
FTLN 0090 90 That no man shall have private conference,
FTLN 0091 Of what degree soever, with your brother.
RICHARD
FTLN 0092 Even so. An please your Worship, Brakenbury,
FTLN 0093 You may partake of anything we say.
FTLN 0094 We speak no treason, man. We say the King
FTLN 0095 95 Is wise and virtuous, and his noble queen
FTLN 0096 Well struck in years, fair, and not jealous.
FTLN 0097 We say that Shore’s wife hath a pretty foot,
FTLN 0098 A cherry lip, a bonny eye, a passing pleasing tongue,
FTLN 0099 And that the Queen’s kindred are made gentlefolks.
FTLN 0100 100 How say you, sir? Can you deny all this?
BRAKENBURY
FTLN 0101 With this, my lord, myself have naught to do.
RICHARD
FTLN 0102 Naught to do with Mistress Shore? I tell thee,
FTLN 0103 fellow,
FTLN 0104 He that doth naught with her, excepting one,
FTLN 0105 105 Were best to do it secretly, alone.
BRAKENBURY
FTLN 0106 I do beseech your Grace to pardon me, and withal
FTLN 0107 Forbear your conference with the noble duke.
CLARENCE
FTLN 0108 We know thy charge, Brakenbury, and will obey.
RICHARD
FTLN 0109 We are the Queen’s abjects and must obey.—
FTLN 0110 110 Brother, farewell. I will unto the King,
FTLN 0111 And whatsoe’er you will employ me in,
FTLN 0112 Were it to call King Edward’s widow “sister,”
FTLN 0113 I will perform it to enfranchise you.
FTLN 0114 Meantime, this deep disgrace in brotherhood
FTLN 0115 115 Touches me deeper than you can imagine.

17
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 1
CLARENCE
FTLN 0116 I know it pleaseth neither of us well.
RICHARD
FTLN 0117 Well, your imprisonment shall not be long.
FTLN 0118 I will deliver you or else lie for you.
FTLN 0119 Meantime, have patience.
CLARENCE FTLN 0120 120 I must, perforce. Farewell.
Exit Clarence, Brakenbury, and guard.
RICHARD
FTLN 0121 Go tread the path that thou shalt ne’er return.
FTLN 0122 Simple, plain Clarence, I do love thee so
FTLN 0123 That I will shortly send thy soul to heaven,
FTLN 0124 If heaven will take the present at our hands.
FTLN 0125 125 But who comes here? The new-delivered Hastings?
Enter Lord Hastings.
HASTINGS
FTLN 0126 Good time of day unto my gracious lord.
RICHARD
FTLN 0127 As much unto my good Lord Chamberlain.
FTLN 0128 Well are you welcome to the open air.
FTLN 0129 How hath your Lordship brooked imprisonment?
HASTINGS
FTLN 0130 130 With patience, noble lord, as prisoners must.
FTLN 0131 But I shall live, my lord, to give them thanks
FTLN 0132 That were the cause of my imprisonment.
RICHARD
FTLN 0133 No doubt, no doubt; and so shall Clarence too,
FTLN 0134 For they that were your enemies are his
FTLN 0135 135 And have prevailed as much on him as you.
HASTINGS
FTLN 0136 More pity that the eagles should be mewed,
FTLN 0137 Whiles kites and buzzards prey at liberty.
RICHARD FTLN 0138 What news abroad?
HASTINGS
FTLN 0139 No news so bad abroad as this at home:

19
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 1
FTLN 0140 140 The King is sickly, weak, and melancholy,
FTLN 0141 And his physicians fear him mightily.
RICHARD
FTLN 0142 Now, by Saint John, that news is bad indeed.
FTLN 0143 O, he hath kept an evil diet long,
FTLN 0144 And overmuch consumed his royal person.
FTLN 0145 145 ’Tis very grievous to be thought upon.
FTLN 0146 Where is he, in his bed?
HASTINGS FTLN 0147 He is.
RICHARD
FTLN 0148 Go you before, and I will follow you.
Exit Hastings.
FTLN 0149 He cannot live, I hope, and must not die
FTLN 0150 150 Till George be packed with post-horse up to heaven.
FTLN 0151 I’ll in to urge his hatred more to Clarence
FTLN 0152 With lies well steeled with weighty arguments,
FTLN 0153 And, if I fail not in my deep intent,
FTLN 0154 Clarence hath not another day to live;
FTLN 0155 155 Which done, God take King Edward to His mercy,
FTLN 0156 And leave the world for me to bustle in.
FTLN 0157 For then I’ll marry Warwick’s youngest daughter.
FTLN 0158 What though I killed her husband and her father?
FTLN 0159 The readiest way to make the wench amends
FTLN 0160 160 Is to become her husband and her father;
FTLN 0161 The which will I, not all so much for love
FTLN 0162 As for another secret close intent
FTLN 0163 By marrying her which I must reach unto.
FTLN 0164 But yet I run before my horse to market.
FTLN 0165 165 Clarence still breathes; Edward still lives and reigns.
FTLN 0166 When they are gone, then must I count my gains.
He exits.

21
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 2
Scene 2
Enter the corse of Henry the Sixth on a bier, with
Halberds to guard it, Lady Anne being the mourner,
accompanied by Gentlemen.
ANNE
FTLN 0167 Set down, set down your honorable load,
FTLN 0168 If honor may be shrouded in a hearse,
FTLN 0169 Whilst I awhile obsequiously lament
FTLN 0170 Th’ untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster.
They set down the bier.
FTLN 0171 5 Poor key-cold figure of a holy king,
FTLN 0172 Pale ashes of the house of Lancaster,
FTLN 0173 Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood,
FTLN 0174 Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghost
FTLN 0175 To hear the lamentations of poor Anne,
FTLN 0176 10 Wife to thy Edward, to thy slaughtered son,
FTLN 0177 Stabbed by the selfsame hand that made these
FTLN 0178 wounds.
FTLN 0179 Lo, in these windows that let forth thy life
FTLN 0180 I pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes.
FTLN 0181 15 O, cursèd be the hand that made these holes;
FTLN 0182 Cursèd the heart that had the heart to do it;
FTLN 0183 Cursèd the blood that let this blood from hence.
FTLN 0184 More direful hap betide that hated wretch
FTLN 0185 That makes us wretched by the death of thee
FTLN 0186 20 Than I can wish to wolves, to spiders, toads,
FTLN 0187 Or any creeping venomed thing that lives.
FTLN 0188 If ever he have child, abortive be it,
FTLN 0189 Prodigious, and untimely brought to light,
FTLN 0190 Whose ugly and unnatural aspect
FTLN 0191 25 May fright the hopeful mother at the view,
FTLN 0192 And that be heir to his unhappiness.
FTLN 0193 If ever he have wife, let her be made
FTLN 0194 More miserable by the death of him
FTLN 0195 Than I am made by my young lord and thee.—

23
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0196 30 Come now towards Chertsey with your holy load,
FTLN 0197 Taken from Paul’s to be interrèd there.
They take up the bier.
FTLN 0198 And still, as you are weary of this weight,
FTLN 0199 Rest you, whiles I lament King Henry’s corse.
Enter Richard, Duke of Gloucester.
RICHARD
FTLN 0200 Stay, you that bear the corse, and set it down.
ANNE
FTLN 0201 35 What black magician conjures up this fiend
FTLN 0202 To stop devoted charitable deeds?
RICHARD
FTLN 0203 Villains, set down the corse or, by Saint Paul,
FTLN 0204 I’ll make a corse of him that disobeys.
GENTLEMAN
FTLN 0205 My lord, stand back and let the coffin pass.
RICHARD
FTLN 0206 40 Unmannered dog, stand thou when I command!—
FTLN 0207 Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,
FTLN 0208 Or by Saint Paul I’ll strike thee to my foot
FTLN 0209 And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.
They set down the bier.
ANNE , to the Gentlemen and Halberds
FTLN 0210 What, do you tremble? Are you all afraid?
FTLN 0211 45 Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal,
FTLN 0212 And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.—
FTLN 0213 Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell.
FTLN 0214 Thou hadst but power over his mortal body;
FTLN 0215 His soul thou canst not have. Therefore begone.
RICHARD
FTLN 0216 50 Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst.
ANNE
FTLN 0217 Foul devil, for God’s sake, hence, and trouble us
FTLN 0218 not,
FTLN 0219 For thou hast made the happy Earth thy hell,

25
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0220 Filled it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.
FTLN 0221 55 If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
FTLN 0222 Behold this pattern of thy butcheries.
She points to the corpse.
FTLN 0223 O, gentlemen, see, see dead Henry’s wounds
FTLN 0224 Open their congealed mouths and bleed afresh!—
FTLN 0225 Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity,
FTLN 0226 60 For ’tis thy presence that exhales this blood
FTLN 0227 From cold and empty veins where no blood dwells.
FTLN 0228 Thy deeds, inhuman and unnatural,
FTLN 0229 Provokes this deluge most unnatural.—
FTLN 0230 O God, which this blood mad’st, revenge his death!
FTLN 0231 65 O Earth, which this blood drink’st, revenge his
FTLN 0232 death!
FTLN 0233 Either heaven with lightning strike the murderer
FTLN 0234 dead,
FTLN 0235 Or Earth gape open wide and eat him quick,
FTLN 0236 70 As thou dost swallow up this good king’s blood,
FTLN 0237 Which his hell-governed arm hath butcherèd.
RICHARD
FTLN 0238 Lady, you know no rules of charity,
FTLN 0239 Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.
ANNE
FTLN 0240 Villain, thou know’st nor law of God nor man.
FTLN 0241 75 No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.
RICHARD
FTLN 0242 But I know none, and therefore am no beast.
ANNE
FTLN 0243 O, wonderful, when devils tell the truth!
RICHARD
FTLN 0244 More wonderful, when angels are so angry.
FTLN 0245 Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman,
FTLN 0246 80 Of these supposèd crimes to give me leave
FTLN 0247 By circumstance but to acquit myself.
ANNE
FTLN 0248 Vouchsafe, defused infection of a man,

27
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0249 Of these known evils but to give me leave
FTLN 0250 By circumstance to curse thy cursèd self.
RICHARD
FTLN 0251 85 Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have
FTLN 0252 Some patient leisure to excuse myself.
ANNE
FTLN 0253 Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make
FTLN 0254 No excuse current but to hang thyself.
RICHARD
FTLN 0255 By such despair I should accuse myself.
ANNE
FTLN 0256 90 And by despairing shalt thou stand excused
FTLN 0257 For doing worthy vengeance on thyself
FTLN 0258 That didst unworthy slaughter upon others.
RICHARD FTLN 0259 Say that I slew them not.
ANNE FTLN 0260 Then say they were not slain.
FTLN 0261 95 But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee.
RICHARD FTLN 0262 I did not kill your husband.
ANNE FTLN 0263 Why then, he is alive.
RICHARD
FTLN 0264 Nay, he is dead, and slain by Edward’s hands.
ANNE
FTLN 0265 In thy foul throat thou liest. Queen Margaret saw
FTLN 0266 100 Thy murd’rous falchion smoking in his blood,
FTLN 0267 The which thou once didst bend against her breast,
FTLN 0268 But that thy brothers beat aside the point.
RICHARD
FTLN 0269 I was provokèd by her sland’rous tongue,
FTLN 0270 That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders.
ANNE
FTLN 0271 105 Thou wast provokèd by thy bloody mind,
FTLN 0272 That never dream’st on aught but butcheries.
FTLN 0273 Didst thou not kill this king?
RICHARD FTLN 0274 I grant you.
ANNE
FTLN 0275 Dost grant me, hedgehog? Then, God grant me too

29
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0276 110 Thou mayst be damnèd for that wicked deed.
FTLN 0277 O, he was gentle, mild, and virtuous.
RICHARD
FTLN 0278 The better for the King of heaven that hath him.
ANNE
FTLN 0279 He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come.
RICHARD
FTLN 0280 Let him thank me, that holp to send him thither,
FTLN 0281 115 For he was fitter for that place than Earth.
ANNE
FTLN 0282 And thou unfit for any place but hell.
RICHARD
FTLN 0283 Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.
ANNE FTLN 0284 Some dungeon.
RICHARD FTLN 0285 Your bedchamber.
ANNE
FTLN 0286 120 Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest!
RICHARD
FTLN 0287 So will it, madam, till I lie with you.
ANNE
FTLN 0288 I hope so.
RICHARD FTLN 0289 I know so. But, gentle Lady Anne,
FTLN 0290 To leave this keen encounter of our wits
FTLN 0291 125 And fall something into a slower method:
FTLN 0292 Is not the causer of the timeless deaths
FTLN 0293 Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
FTLN 0294 As blameful as the executioner?
ANNE
FTLN 0295 Thou wast the cause and most accursed effect.
RICHARD
FTLN 0296 130 Your beauty was the cause of that effect—
FTLN 0297 Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep
FTLN 0298 To undertake the death of all the world,
FTLN 0299 So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.
ANNE
FTLN 0300 If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,

31
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0301 135 These nails should rend that beauty from my
FTLN 0302 cheeks.
RICHARD
FTLN 0303 These eyes could not endure that beauty’s wrack.
FTLN 0304 You should not blemish it, if I stood by.
FTLN 0305 As all the world is cheerèd by the sun,
FTLN 0306 140 So I by that. It is my day, my life.
ANNE
FTLN 0307 Black night o’ershade thy day, and death thy life.
RICHARD
FTLN 0308 Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art both.
ANNE
FTLN 0309 I would I were, to be revenged on thee.
RICHARD
FTLN 0310 It is a quarrel most unnatural
FTLN 0311 145 To be revenged on him that loveth thee.
ANNE
FTLN 0312 It is a quarrel just and reasonable
FTLN 0313 To be revenged on him that killed my husband.
RICHARD
FTLN 0314 He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband
FTLN 0315 Did it to help thee to a better husband.
ANNE
FTLN 0316 150 His better doth not breathe upon the earth.
RICHARD
FTLN 0317 He lives that loves thee better than he could.
ANNE
FTLN 0318 Name him.
RICHARD FTLN 0319 Plantagenet.
ANNE FTLN 0320 Why, that was he.
RICHARD
FTLN 0321 155 The selfsame name, but one of better nature.
ANNE
FTLN 0322 Where is he?
RICHARD FTLN 0323 Here. (She spits at him.) Why dost
FTLN 0324 thou spit at me?

33
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 2
ANNE
FTLN 0325 Would it were mortal poison for thy sake.
RICHARD
FTLN 0326 160 Never came poison from so sweet a place.
ANNE
FTLN 0327 Never hung poison on a fouler toad.
FTLN 0328 Out of my sight! Thou dost infect mine eyes.
RICHARD
FTLN 0329 Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.
ANNE
FTLN 0330 Would they were basilisks’ to strike thee dead.
RICHARD
FTLN 0331 165 I would they were, that I might die at once,
FTLN 0332 For now they kill me with a living death.
FTLN 0333 Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt
FTLN 0334 tears,
FTLN 0335 Shamed their aspects with store of childish drops.
FTLN 0336 170 These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear—
FTLN 0337 No, when my father York and Edward wept
FTLN 0338 To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made
FTLN 0339 When black-faced Clifford shook his sword at him;
FTLN 0340 Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
FTLN 0341 175 Told the sad story of my father’s death
FTLN 0342 And twenty times made pause to sob and weep,
FTLN 0343 That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks
FTLN 0344 Like trees bedashed with rain—in that sad time,
FTLN 0345 My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;
FTLN 0346 180 And what these sorrows could not thence exhale
FTLN 0347 Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with
FTLN 0348 weeping.
FTLN 0349 I never sued to friend nor enemy;
FTLN 0350 My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing word.
FTLN 0351 185 But now thy beauty is proposed my fee,
FTLN 0352 My proud heart sues and prompts my tongue to
FTLN 0353 speak. She looks scornfully at him.
FTLN 0354 Teach not thy lip such scorn, for it was made

35
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0355 For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.
FTLN 0356 190 If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,
FTLN 0357 Lo, here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword,
FTLN 0358 Which if thou please to hide in this true breast
FTLN 0359 And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,
FTLN 0360 I lay it naked to the deadly stroke
FTLN 0361 195 And humbly beg the death upon my knee.
He kneels and lays his breast open;
she offers at it with his sword.
FTLN 0362 Nay, do not pause, for I did kill King Henry—
FTLN 0363 But ’twas thy beauty that provokèd me.
FTLN 0364 Nay, now dispatch; ’twas I that stabbed young
FTLN 0365 Edward—
FTLN 0366 200 But ’twas thy heavenly face that set me on.
She falls the sword.
FTLN 0367 Take up the sword again, or take up me.
ANNE
FTLN 0368 Arise, dissembler. Though I wish thy death,
FTLN 0369 I will not be thy executioner.
RICHARD , rising
FTLN 0370 Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.
ANNE
FTLN 0371 205 I have already.
RICHARD FTLN 0372 That was in thy rage.
FTLN 0373 Speak it again and, even with the word,
FTLN 0374 This hand, which for thy love did kill thy love,
FTLN 0375 Shall for thy love kill a far truer love.
FTLN 0376 210 To both their deaths shalt thou be accessory.
ANNE FTLN 0377 I would I knew thy heart.
RICHARD FTLN 0378’Tis figured in my tongue.
ANNE FTLN 0379 I fear me both are false.
RICHARD FTLN 0380 Then never was man true.
ANNE FTLN 0381 215 Well, well, put up your sword.
RICHARD FTLN 0382 Say then my peace is made.
ANNE FTLN 0383 That shalt thou know hereafter.
RICHARD FTLN 0384 But shall I live in hope?

37
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 2
ANNE FTLN 0385 All men I hope live so.
RICHARD FTLN 0386 220 Vouchsafe to wear this ring.
ANNE FTLN 0387 To take is not to give.
He places the ring on her hand.
RICHARD
FTLN 0388 Look how my ring encompasseth thy finger;
FTLN 0389 Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart.
FTLN 0390 Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.
FTLN 0391 225 And if thy poor devoted servant may
FTLN 0392 But beg one favor at thy gracious hand,
FTLN 0393 Thou dost confirm his happiness forever.
ANNE FTLN 0394 What is it?
RICHARD
FTLN 0395 That it may please you leave these sad designs
FTLN 0396 230 To him that hath most cause to be a mourner,
FTLN 0397 And presently repair to Crosby House,
FTLN 0398 Where, after I have solemnly interred
FTLN 0399 At Chertsey monast’ry this noble king
FTLN 0400 And wet his grave with my repentant tears,
FTLN 0401 235 I will with all expedient duty see you.
FTLN 0402 For divers unknown reasons, I beseech you,
FTLN 0403 Grant me this boon.
ANNE
FTLN 0404 With all my heart, and much it joys me too
FTLN 0405 To see you are become so penitent.—
FTLN 0406 240 Tressel and Berkeley, go along with me.
RICHARD
FTLN 0407 Bid me farewell.
ANNE FTLN 0408 ’Tis more than you deserve;
FTLN 0409 But since you teach me how to flatter you,
FTLN 0410 Imagine I have said “farewell” already.
Two exit with Anne. The bier is taken up.
GENTLEMAN FTLN 0411 245 Towards Chertsey, noble lord?
RICHARD
FTLN 0412 No, to Whitefriars. There attend my coming.
Halberds and gentlemen exit with corse.

39
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0413 Was ever woman in this humor wooed?
FTLN 0414 Was ever woman in this humor won?
FTLN 0415 I’ll have her, but I will not keep her long.
FTLN 0416 250 What, I that killed her husband and his father,
FTLN 0417 To take her in her heart’s extremest hate,
FTLN 0418 With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes,
FTLN 0419 The bleeding witness of my hatred by,
FTLN 0420 Having God, her conscience, and these bars against
FTLN 0421 255 me,
FTLN 0422 And I no friends to back my suit at all
FTLN 0423 But the plain devil and dissembling looks?
FTLN 0424 And yet to win her, all the world to nothing!
FTLN 0425 Ha!
FTLN 0426 260 Hath she forgot already that brave prince,
FTLN 0427 Edward, her lord, whom I some three months since
FTLN 0428 Stabbed in my angry mood at Tewkesbury?
FTLN 0429 A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman,
FTLN 0430 Framed in the prodigality of nature,
FTLN 0431 265 Young, valiant, wise, and, no doubt, right royal,
FTLN 0432 The spacious world cannot again afford.
FTLN 0433 And will she yet abase her eyes on me,
FTLN 0434 That cropped the golden prime of this sweet prince
FTLN 0435 And made her widow to a woeful bed?
FTLN 0436 270 On me, whose all not equals Edward’s moiety?
FTLN 0437 On me, that halts and am misshapen thus?
FTLN 0438 My dukedom to a beggarly denier,
FTLN 0439 I do mistake my person all this while!
FTLN 0440 Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,
FTLN 0441 275 Myself to be a marv’lous proper man.
FTLN 0442 I’ll be at charges for a looking glass
FTLN 0443 And entertain a score or two of tailors
FTLN 0444 To study fashions to adorn my body.
FTLN 0445 Since I am crept in favor with myself,
FTLN 0446 280 I will maintain it with some little cost.
FTLN 0447 But first I’ll turn yon fellow in his grave

41
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 3
FTLN 0448 And then return lamenting to my love.
FTLN 0449 Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass,
FTLN 0450 That I may see my shadow as I pass.
He exits.
Scene 3
Enter Queen Elizabeth, the Lord Marquess of Dorset,
Lord Rivers, and Lord Grey.
RIVERS
FTLN 0451 Have patience, madam. There’s no doubt his
FTLN 0452 Majesty
FTLN 0453 Will soon recover his accustomed health.
GREY
FTLN 0454 In that you brook it ill, it makes him worse.
FTLN 0455 5 Therefore, for God’s sake, entertain good comfort
FTLN 0456 And cheer his Grace with quick and merry eyes.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 0457 If he were dead, what would betide on me?
GREY
FTLN 0458 No other harm but loss of such a lord.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 0459 The loss of such a lord includes all harms.
GREY
FTLN 0460 10 The heavens have blessed you with a goodly son
FTLN 0461 To be your comforter when he is gone.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 0462 Ah, he is young, and his minority
FTLN 0463 Is put unto the trust of Richard Gloucester,
FTLN 0464 A man that loves not me nor none of you.
RIVERS
FTLN 0465 15 Is it concluded he shall be Protector?
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 0466 It is determined, not concluded yet;
FTLN 0467 But so it must be if the King miscarry.

43
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 3
Enter Buckingham and Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby.
GREY
FTLN 0468 Here comes the lord of Buckingham, and Derby.
BUCKINGHAM , to Queen Elizabeth
FTLN 0469 Good time of day unto your royal Grace.
STANLEY
FTLN 0470 20 God make your Majesty joyful, as you have been.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 0471 The Countess Richmond, good my lord of Derby,
FTLN 0472 To your good prayer will scarcely say amen.
FTLN 0473 Yet, Derby, notwithstanding she’s your wife
FTLN 0474 And loves not me, be you, good lord, assured
FTLN 0475 25 I hate not you for her proud arrogance.
STANLEY
FTLN 0476 I do beseech you either not believe
FTLN 0477 The envious slanders of her false accusers,
FTLN 0478 Or if she be accused on true report,
FTLN 0479 Bear with her weakness, which I think proceeds
FTLN 0480 30 From wayward sickness and no grounded malice.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 0481 Saw you the King today, my lord of Derby?
STANLEY
FTLN 0482 But now the Duke of Buckingham and I
FTLN 0483 Are come from visiting his Majesty.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 0484 What likelihood of his amendment, lords?
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 0485 35 Madam, good hope. His Grace speaks cheerfully.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 0486 God grant him health. Did you confer with him?
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 0487 Ay, madam. He desires to make atonement
FTLN 0488 Between the Duke of Gloucester and your brothers,
FTLN 0489 And between them and my Lord Chamberlain,
FTLN 0490 40 And sent to warn them to his royal presence.

45
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 3
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 0491 Would all were well—but that will never be.
FTLN 0492 I fear our happiness is at the height.
Enter Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Hastings.
RICHARD
FTLN 0493 They do me wrong, and I will not endure it!
FTLN 0494 Who is it that complains unto the King
FTLN 0495 45 That I, forsooth, am stern and love them not?
FTLN 0496 By holy Paul, they love his Grace but lightly
FTLN 0497 That fill his ears with such dissentious rumors.
FTLN 0498 Because I cannot flatter and look fair,
FTLN 0499 Smile in men’s faces, smooth, deceive, and cog,
FTLN 0500 50 Duck with French nods and apish courtesy,
FTLN 0501 I must be held a rancorous enemy.
FTLN 0502 Cannot a plain man live and think no harm,
FTLN 0503 But thus his simple truth must be abused
FTLN 0504 With silken, sly, insinuating Jacks?
GREY
FTLN 0505 55 To who in all this presence speaks your Grace?
RICHARD
FTLN 0506 To thee, that hast nor honesty nor grace.
FTLN 0507 When have I injured thee? When done thee
FTLN 0508 wrong?—
FTLN 0509 Or thee?—Or thee? Or any of your faction?
FTLN 0510 60 A plague upon you all! His royal Grace,
FTLN 0511 Whom God preserve better than you would wish,
FTLN 0512 Cannot be quiet scarce a breathing while
FTLN 0513 But you must trouble him with lewd complaints.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 0514 Brother of Gloucester, you mistake the matter.
FTLN 0515 65 The King, on his own royal disposition,
FTLN 0516 And not provoked by any suitor else,
FTLN 0517 Aiming belike at your interior hatred
FTLN 0518 That in your outward action shows itself
FTLN 0519 Against my children, brothers, and myself,
FTLN 0520 70 Makes him to send, that he may learn the ground.

47
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 3
RICHARD
FTLN 0521 I cannot tell. The world is grown so bad
FTLN 0522 That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch.
FTLN 0523 Since every Jack became a gentleman,
FTLN 0524 There’s many a gentle person made a Jack.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 0525 75 Come, come, we know your meaning, brother
FTLN 0526 Gloucester.
FTLN 0527 You envy my advancement, and my friends’.
FTLN 0528 God grant we never may have need of you.
RICHARD
FTLN 0529 Meantime God grants that we have need of
FTLN 0530 80 you.
FTLN 0531 Our brother is imprisoned by your means,
FTLN 0532 Myself disgraced, and the nobility
FTLN 0533 Held in contempt, while great promotions
FTLN 0534 Are daily given to ennoble those
FTLN 0535 85 That scarce some two days since were worth a
FTLN 0536 noble.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 0537 By Him that raised me to this careful height
FTLN 0538 From that contented hap which I enjoyed,
FTLN 0539 I never did incense his Majesty
FTLN 0540 90 Against the Duke of Clarence, but have been
FTLN 0541 An earnest advocate to plead for him.
FTLN 0542 My lord, you do me shameful injury
FTLN 0543 Falsely to draw me in these vile suspects.
RICHARD
FTLN 0544 You may deny that you were not the mean
FTLN 0545 95 Of my Lord Hastings’ late imprisonment.
RIVERS FTLN 0546 She may, my lord, for—
RICHARD
FTLN 0547 She may, Lord Rivers. Why, who knows not so?
FTLN 0548 She may do more, sir, than denying that.
FTLN 0549 She may help you to many fair preferments

49
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 3
FTLN 0550 100 And then deny her aiding hand therein,
FTLN 0551 And lay those honors on your high desert.
FTLN 0552 What may she not? She may, ay, marry, may she—
RIVERS FTLN 0553 What, marry, may she?
RICHARD
FTLN 0554 What, marry, may she? Marry with a king,
FTLN 0555 105 A bachelor, and a handsome stripling too.
FTLN 0556 Iwis, your grandam had a worser match.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 0557 My lord of Gloucester, I have too long borne
FTLN 0558 Your blunt upbraidings and your bitter scoffs.
FTLN 0559 By heaven, I will acquaint his Majesty
FTLN 0560 110 Of those gross taunts that oft I have endured.
FTLN 0561 I had rather be a country servant-maid
FTLN 0562 Than a great queen with this condition,
FTLN 0563 To be so baited, scorned, and stormèd at.
Enter old Queen Margaret, apart from the others.
FTLN 0564 Small joy have I in being England’s queen.
QUEEN MARGARET , aside
FTLN 0565 115 And lessened be that small, God I beseech Him!
FTLN 0566 Thy honor, state, and seat is due to me.
RICHARD , to Queen Elizabeth
FTLN 0567 What, threat you me with telling of the King?
FTLN 0568 Tell him and spare not. Look, what I have said,
FTLN 0569 I will avouch ’t in presence of the King;
FTLN 0570 120 I dare adventure to be sent to th’ Tower.
FTLN 0571 ’Tis time to speak. My pains are quite forgot.
QUEEN MARGARET , aside
FTLN 0572 Out, devil! I do remember them too well:
FTLN 0573 Thou killed’st my husband Henry in the Tower,
FTLN 0574 And Edward, my poor son, at Tewkesbury.
RICHARD , to Queen Elizabeth
FTLN 0575 125 Ere you were queen, ay, or your husband king,
FTLN 0576 I was a packhorse in his great affairs,
FTLN 0577 A weeder-out of his proud adversaries,

51
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 3
FTLN 0578 A liberal rewarder of his friends.
FTLN 0579 To royalize his blood, I spent mine own.
QUEEN MARGARET , aside
FTLN 0580 130 Ay, and much better blood than his or thine.
RICHARD , to Queen Elizabeth
FTLN 0581 In all which time, you and your husband Grey
FTLN 0582 Were factious for the House of Lancaster.—
FTLN 0583 And, Rivers, so were you.—Was not your husband
FTLN 0584 In Margaret’s battle at Saint Albans slain?
FTLN 0585 135 Let me put in your minds, if you forget,
FTLN 0586 What you have been ere this, and what you are;
FTLN 0587 Withal, what I have been, and what I am.
QUEEN MARGARET , aside
FTLN 0588 A murd’rous villain, and so still thou art.
RICHARD , to Queen Elizabeth
FTLN 0589 Poor Clarence did forsake his father Warwick,
FTLN 0590 140 Ay, and forswore himself—which Jesu pardon!—
QUEEN MARGARET , aside FTLN 0591 Which God revenge!
RICHARD
FTLN 0592 To fight on Edward’s party for the crown;
FTLN 0593 And for his meed, poor lord, he is mewed up.
FTLN 0594 I would to God my heart were flint, like Edward’s,
FTLN 0595 145 Or Edward’s soft and pitiful, like mine.
FTLN 0596 I am too childish-foolish for this world.
QUEEN MARGARET , aside
FTLN 0597 Hie thee to hell for shame, and leave this world,
FTLN 0598 Thou cacodemon! There thy kingdom is.
RIVERS
FTLN 0599 My lord of Gloucester, in those busy days
FTLN 0600 150 Which here you urge to prove us enemies,
FTLN 0601 We followed then our lord, our sovereign king.
FTLN 0602 So should we you, if you should be our king.
RICHARD
FTLN 0603 If I should be? I had rather be a peddler.
FTLN 0604 Far be it from my heart, the thought thereof.

53
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 3
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 0605 155 As little joy, my lord, as you suppose
FTLN 0606 You should enjoy were you this country’s king,
FTLN 0607 As little joy you may suppose in me
FTLN 0608 That I enjoy, being the queen thereof.
QUEEN MARGARET , aside
FTLN 0609 As little joy enjoys the queen thereof,
FTLN 0610 160 For I am she, and altogether joyless.
FTLN 0611 I can no longer hold me patient.
She steps forward.
FTLN 0612 Hear me, you wrangling pirates, that fall out
FTLN 0613 In sharing that which you have pilled from me!
FTLN 0614 Which of you trembles not that looks on me?
FTLN 0615 165 If not, that I am queen, you bow like subjects,
FTLN 0616 Yet that, by you deposed, you quake like rebels.—
FTLN 0617 Ah, gentle villain, do not turn away.
RICHARD
FTLN 0618 Foul, wrinkled witch, what mak’st thou in my
FTLN 0619 sight?
QUEEN MARGARET
FTLN 0620 170 But repetition of what thou hast marred.
FTLN 0621 That will I make before I let thee go.
RICHARD
FTLN 0622 Wert thou not banishèd on pain of death?
QUEEN MARGARET
FTLN 0623 I was, but I do find more pain in banishment
FTLN 0624 Than death can yield me here by my abode.
FTLN 0625 175 A husband and a son thou ow’st to me;
FTLN 0626 To Queen Elizabeth. And thou a kingdom;—all
FTLN 0627 of you, allegiance.
FTLN 0628 This sorrow that I have by right is yours,
FTLN 0629 And all the pleasures you usurp are mine.
RICHARD
FTLN 0630 180 The curse my noble father laid on thee
FTLN 0631 When thou didst crown his warlike brows with
FTLN 0632 paper,

55
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 3
FTLN 0633 And with thy scorns drew’st rivers from his eyes,
FTLN 0634 And then, to dry them, gav’st the Duke a clout
FTLN 0635 185 Steeped in the faultless blood of pretty Rutland—
FTLN 0636 His curses then, from bitterness of soul
FTLN 0637 Denounced against thee, are all fall’n upon thee,
FTLN 0638 And God, not we, hath plagued thy bloody deed.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 0639 So just is God to right the innocent.
HASTINGS
FTLN 0640 190 O, ’twas the foulest deed to slay that babe,
FTLN 0641 And the most merciless that e’er was heard of!
RIVERS
FTLN 0642 Tyrants themselves wept when it was reported.
DORSET
FTLN 0643 No man but prophesied revenge for it.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 0644 Northumberland, then present, wept to see it.
QUEEN MARGARET
FTLN 0645 195 What, were you snarling all before I came,
FTLN 0646 Ready to catch each other by the throat,
FTLN 0647 And turn you all your hatred now on me?
FTLN 0648 Did York’s dread curse prevail so much with
FTLN 0649 heaven
FTLN 0650 200 That Henry’s death, my lovely Edward’s death,
FTLN 0651 Their kingdom’s loss, my woeful banishment,
FTLN 0652 Should all but answer for that peevish brat?
FTLN 0653 Can curses pierce the clouds and enter heaven?
FTLN 0654 Why then, give way, dull clouds, to my quick
FTLN 0655 205 curses!
FTLN 0656 Though not by war, by surfeit die your king,
FTLN 0657 As ours by murder to make him a king.
FTLN 0658 To Queen Elizabeth. Edward thy son, that now is
FTLN 0659 Prince of Wales,
FTLN 0660 210 For Edward our son, that was Prince of Wales,
FTLN 0661 Die in his youth by like untimely violence.
FTLN 0662 Thyself a queen, for me that was a queen,

57
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 3
FTLN 0663 Outlive thy glory, like my wretched self.
FTLN 0664 Long mayst thou live to wail thy children’s death
FTLN 0665 215 And see another, as I see thee now,
FTLN 0666 Decked in thy rights, as thou art stalled in mine.
FTLN 0667 Long die thy happy days before thy death,
FTLN 0668 And, after many lengthened hours of grief,
FTLN 0669 Die neither mother, wife, nor England’s queen.—
FTLN 0670 220 Rivers and Dorset, you were standers-by,
FTLN 0671 And so wast thou, Lord Hastings, when my son
FTLN 0672 Was stabbed with bloody daggers. God I pray Him
FTLN 0673 That none of you may live his natural age,
FTLN 0674 But by some unlooked accident cut off.
RICHARD
FTLN 0675 225 Have done thy charm, thou hateful, withered hag.
QUEEN MARGARET
FTLN 0676 And leave out thee? Stay, dog, for thou shalt hear
FTLN 0677 me.
FTLN 0678 If heaven have any grievous plague in store
FTLN 0679 Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,
FTLN 0680 230 O, let them keep it till thy sins be ripe
FTLN 0681 And then hurl down their indignation
FTLN 0682 On thee, the troubler of the poor world’s peace.
FTLN 0683 The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul.
FTLN 0684 Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liv’st,
FTLN 0685 235 And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends.
FTLN 0686 No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine,
FTLN 0687 Unless it be while some tormenting dream
FTLN 0688 Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils.
FTLN 0689 Thou elvish-marked, abortive, rooting hog,
FTLN 0690 240 Thou that wast sealed in thy nativity
FTLN 0691 The slave of nature and the son of hell,
FTLN 0692 Thou slander of thy heavy mother’s womb,
FTLN 0693 Thou loathèd issue of thy father’s loins,
FTLN 0694 Thou rag of honor, thou detested—
RICHARD FTLN 0695 245 Margaret.

59
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 3
QUEEN MARGARET FTLN 0696 Richard!
RICHARD FTLN 0697 Ha?
QUEEN MARGARET FTLN 0698 I call thee not.
RICHARD
FTLN 0699 I cry thee mercy, then, for I did think
FTLN 0700 250 That thou hadst called me all these bitter names.
QUEEN MARGARET
FTLN 0701 Why, so I did, but looked for no reply.
FTLN 0702 O, let me make the period to my curse!
RICHARD
FTLN 0703 ’Tis done by me and ends in “Margaret.”
QUEEN ELIZABETH , to Queen Margaret
FTLN 0704 Thus have you breathed your curse against yourself.
QUEEN MARGARET
FTLN 0705 255 Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my fortune,
FTLN 0706 Why strew’st thou sugar on that bottled spider,
FTLN 0707 Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about?
FTLN 0708 Fool, fool, thou whet’st a knife to kill thyself.
FTLN 0709 The day will come that thou shalt wish for me
FTLN 0710 260 To help thee curse this poisonous bunch-backed
FTLN 0711 toad.
HASTINGS
FTLN 0712 False-boding woman, end thy frantic curse,
FTLN 0713 Lest to thy harm thou move our patience.
QUEEN MARGARET
FTLN 0714 Foul shame upon you, you have all moved mine.
RIVERS
FTLN 0715 265 Were you well served, you would be taught your
FTLN 0716 duty.
QUEEN MARGARET
FTLN 0717 To serve me well, you all should do me duty:
FTLN 0718 Teach me to be your queen, and you my subjects.
FTLN 0719 O, serve me well, and teach yourselves that duty!
DORSET , to Rivers
FTLN 0720 270 Dispute not with her; she is lunatic.

61
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 3
QUEEN MARGARET
FTLN 0721 Peace, Master Marquess, you are malapert.
FTLN 0722 Your fire-new stamp of honor is scarce current.
FTLN 0723 O, that your young nobility could judge
FTLN 0724 What ’twere to lose it and be miserable!
FTLN 0725 275 They that stand high have many blasts to shake
FTLN 0726 them,
FTLN 0727 And if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces.
RICHARD
FTLN 0728 Good counsel, marry.—Learn it, learn it, marquess.
DORSET
FTLN 0729 It touches you, my lord, as much as me.
RICHARD
FTLN 0730 280 Ay, and much more; but I was born so high.
FTLN 0731 Our aerie buildeth in the cedar’s top,
FTLN 0732 And dallies with the wind and scorns the sun.
QUEEN MARGARET
FTLN 0733 And turns the sun to shade. Alas, alas,
FTLN 0734 Witness my son, now in the shade of death,
FTLN 0735 285 Whose bright out-shining beams thy cloudy wrath
FTLN 0736 Hath in eternal darkness folded up.
FTLN 0737 Your aerie buildeth in our aerie’s nest.
FTLN 0738 O God, that seest it, do not suffer it!
FTLN 0739 As it is won with blood, lost be it so.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 0740 290 Peace, peace, for shame, if not for charity.
QUEEN MARGARET
FTLN 0741 Urge neither charity nor shame to me.
FTLN 0742 Addressing the others. Uncharitably with me have
FTLN 0743 you dealt,
FTLN 0744 And shamefully my hopes by you are butchered.
FTLN 0745 295 My charity is outrage, life my shame,
FTLN 0746 And in that shame still live my sorrows’ rage.
BUCKINGHAM FTLN 0747 Have done, have done.
QUEEN MARGARET
FTLN 0748 O princely Buckingham, I’ll kiss thy hand

63
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 3
FTLN 0749 In sign of league and amity with thee.
FTLN 0750 300 Now fair befall thee and thy noble house!
FTLN 0751 Thy garments are not spotted with our blood,
FTLN 0752 Nor thou within the compass of my curse.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 0753 Nor no one here, for curses never pass
FTLN 0754 The lips of those that breathe them in the air.
QUEEN MARGARET
FTLN 0755 305 I will not think but they ascend the sky,
FTLN 0756 And there awake God’s gentle sleeping peace.
FTLN 0757 Aside to Buckingham. O Buckingham, take heed of
FTLN 0758 yonder dog!
FTLN 0759 Look when he fawns, he bites; and when he bites,
FTLN 0760 310 His venom tooth will rankle to the death.
FTLN 0761 Have not to do with him. Beware of him.
FTLN 0762 Sin, death, and hell have set their marks on him,
FTLN 0763 And all their ministers attend on him.
RICHARD
FTLN 0764 What doth she say, my lord of Buckingham?
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 0765 315 Nothing that I respect, my gracious lord.
QUEEN MARGARET
FTLN 0766 What, dost thou scorn me for my gentle counsel,
FTLN 0767 And soothe the devil that I warn thee from?
FTLN 0768 O, but remember this another day,
FTLN 0769 When he shall split thy very heart with sorrow,
FTLN 0770 320 And say poor Margaret was a prophetess.—
FTLN 0771 Live each of you the subjects to his hate,
FTLN 0772 And he to yours, and all of you to God’s. She exits.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 0773 My hair doth stand an end to hear her curses.
RIVERS
FTLN 0774 And so doth mine. I muse why she’s at liberty.
RICHARD
FTLN 0775 325 I cannot blame her. By God’s holy mother,

65
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 3
FTLN 0776 She hath had too much wrong, and I repent
FTLN 0777 My part thereof that I have done to her.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 0778 I never did her any, to my knowledge.
RICHARD
FTLN 0779 Yet you have all the vantage of her wrong.
FTLN 0780 330 I was too hot to do somebody good
FTLN 0781 That is too cold in thinking of it now.
FTLN 0782 Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repaid;
FTLN 0783 He is franked up to fatting for his pains.
FTLN 0784 God pardon them that are the cause thereof.
RIVERS
FTLN 0785 335 A virtuous and a Christian-like conclusion
FTLN 0786 To pray for them that have done scathe to us.
RICHARD
FTLN 0787 So do I ever— (speaks to himself) being well advised,
FTLN 0788 For had I cursed now, I had cursed myself.
Enter Catesby.
CATESBY
FTLN 0789 Madam, his Majesty doth call for you,—
FTLN 0790 340 And for your Grace,—and yours, my gracious
FTLN 0791 lords.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 0792 Catesby, I come.—Lords, will you go with me?
RIVERS FTLN 0793 We wait upon your Grace.
All but Richard, Duke of Gloucester exit.
RICHARD
FTLN 0794 I do the wrong and first begin to brawl.
FTLN 0795 345 The secret mischiefs that I set abroach
FTLN 0796 I lay unto the grievous charge of others.
FTLN 0797 Clarence, who I indeed have cast in darkness,
FTLN 0798 I do beweep to many simple gulls,
FTLN 0799 Namely, to Derby, Hastings, Buckingham,
FTLN 0800 350 And tell them ’tis the Queen and her allies
FTLN 0801 That stir the King against the Duke my brother.

67
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 3
FTLN 0802 Now they believe it and withal whet me
FTLN 0803 To be revenged on Rivers, Dorset, Grey;
FTLN 0804 But then I sigh and, with a piece of scripture,
FTLN 0805 355 Tell them that God bids us do good for evil;
FTLN 0806 And thus I clothe my naked villainy
FTLN 0807 With odd old ends stol’n forth of Holy Writ,
FTLN 0808 And seem a saint when most I play the devil.
Enter two Murderers.
FTLN 0809 But soft, here come my executioners.—
FTLN 0810 360 How now, my hardy, stout, resolvèd mates?
FTLN 0811 Are you now going to dispatch this thing?
MURDERER
FTLN 0812 We are, my lord, and come to have the warrant
FTLN 0813 That we may be admitted where he is.
RICHARD
FTLN 0814 Well thought upon. I have it here about me.
He gives a paper.
FTLN 0815 365 When you have done, repair to Crosby Place.
FTLN 0816 But, sirs, be sudden in the execution,
FTLN 0817 Withal obdurate; do not hear him plead,
FTLN 0818 For Clarence is well-spoken and perhaps
FTLN 0819 May move your hearts to pity if you mark him.
MURDERER
FTLN 0820 370 Tut, tut, my lord, we will not stand to prate.
FTLN 0821 Talkers are no good doers. Be assured
FTLN 0822 We go to use our hands and not our tongues.
RICHARD
FTLN 0823 Your eyes drop millstones when fools’ eyes fall
FTLN 0824 tears.
FTLN 0825 375 I like you lads. About your business straight.
FTLN 0826 Go, go, dispatch.
MURDERERS FTLN 0827 We will, my noble lord.
They exit.

69
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 4
Scene 4
Enter Clarence and Keeper.
KEEPER
FTLN 0828 Why looks your Grace so heavily today?
CLARENCE
FTLN 0829 O, I have passed a miserable night,
FTLN 0830 So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights,
FTLN 0831 That, as I am a Christian faithful man,
FTLN 0832 5 I would not spend another such a night
FTLN 0833 Though ’twere to buy a world of happy days,
FTLN 0834 So full of dismal terror was the time.
KEEPER
FTLN 0835 What was your dream, my lord? I pray you tell me.
CLARENCE
FTLN 0836 Methoughts that I had broken from the Tower
FTLN 0837 10 And was embarked to cross to Burgundy,
FTLN 0838 And in my company my brother Gloucester,
FTLN 0839 Who from my cabin tempted me to walk
FTLN 0840 Upon the hatches. Thence we looked toward
FTLN 0841 England
FTLN 0842 15 And cited up a thousand heavy times,
FTLN 0843 During the wars of York and Lancaster,
FTLN 0844 That had befall’n us. As we paced along
FTLN 0845 Upon the giddy footing of the hatches,
FTLN 0846 Methought that Gloucester stumbled, and in falling
FTLN 0847 20 Struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard
FTLN 0848 Into the tumbling billows of the main.
FTLN 0849 O Lord, methought what pain it was to drown,
FTLN 0850 What dreadful noise of waters in my ears,
FTLN 0851 What sights of ugly death within my eyes.
FTLN 0852 25 Methoughts I saw a thousand fearful wracks,
FTLN 0853 A thousand men that fishes gnawed upon,
FTLN 0854 Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
FTLN 0855 Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,
FTLN 0856 All scattered in the bottom of the sea.

71
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 4
FTLN 0857 30 Some lay in dead men’s skulls, and in the holes
FTLN 0858 Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept—
FTLN 0859 As ’twere in scorn of eyes—reflecting gems,
FTLN 0860 That wooed the slimy bottom of the deep
FTLN 0861 And mocked the dead bones that lay scattered by.
KEEPER
FTLN 0862 35 Had you such leisure in the time of death
FTLN 0863 To gaze upon these secrets of the deep?
CLARENCE
FTLN 0864 Methought I had, and often did I strive
FTLN 0865 To yield the ghost, but still the envious flood
FTLN 0866 Stopped in my soul and would not let it forth
FTLN 0867 40 To find the empty, vast, and wand’ring air,
FTLN 0868 But smothered it within my panting bulk,
FTLN 0869 Who almost burst to belch it in the sea.
KEEPER
FTLN 0870 Awaked you not in this sore agony?
CLARENCE
FTLN 0871 No, no, my dream was lengthened after life.
FTLN 0872 45 O, then began the tempest to my soul.
FTLN 0873 I passed, methought, the melancholy flood,
FTLN 0874 With that sour ferryman which poets write of,
FTLN 0875 Unto the kingdom of perpetual night.
FTLN 0876 The first that there did greet my stranger-soul
FTLN 0877 50 Was my great father-in-law, renownèd Warwick,
FTLN 0878 Who spake aloud “What scourge for perjury
FTLN 0879 Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?”
FTLN 0880 And so he vanished. Then came wand’ring by
FTLN 0881 A shadow like an angel, with bright hair
FTLN 0882 55 Dabbled in blood, and he shrieked out aloud
FTLN 0883 “Clarence is come—false, fleeting, perjured
FTLN 0884 Clarence,
FTLN 0885 That stabbed me in the field by Tewkesbury.
FTLN 0886 Seize on him, furies. Take him unto torment.”
FTLN 0887 60 With that, methoughts, a legion of foul fiends

73
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 4
FTLN 0888 Environed me and howlèd in mine ears
FTLN 0889 Such hideous cries that with the very noise
FTLN 0890 I trembling waked, and for a season after
FTLN 0891 Could not believe but that I was in hell,
FTLN 0892 65 Such terrible impression made my dream.
KEEPER
FTLN 0893 No marvel, lord, though it affrighted you.
FTLN 0894 I am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it.
CLARENCE
FTLN 0895 Ah keeper, keeper, I have done these things,
FTLN 0896 That now give evidence against my soul,
FTLN 0897 70 For Edward’s sake, and see how he requites me.—
FTLN 0898 O God, if my deep prayers cannot appease thee,
FTLN 0899 But thou wilt be avenged on my misdeeds,
FTLN 0900 Yet execute thy wrath in me alone!
FTLN 0901 O, spare my guiltless wife and my poor children!—
FTLN 0902 75 Keeper, I prithee sit by me awhile.
FTLN 0903 My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep.
KEEPER
FTLN 0904 I will, my lord. God give your Grace good rest.
Clarence sleeps.
Enter Brakenbury the Lieutenant.
BRAKENBURY
FTLN 0905 Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours,
FTLN 0906 Makes the night morning, and the noontide night.
FTLN 0907 80 Princes have but their titles for their glories,
FTLN 0908 An outward honor for an inward toil,
FTLN 0909 And, for unfelt imaginations,
FTLN 0910 They often feel a world of restless cares,
FTLN 0911 So that between their titles and low name
FTLN 0912 85 There’s nothing differs but the outward fame.
Enter two Murderers.
FIRST MURDERER FTLN 0913 Ho, who’s here?

75
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 4
BRAKENBURY
FTLN 0914 What wouldst thou, fellow? And how cam’st thou
FTLN 0915 hither?
SECOND MURDERER FTLN 0916 I would speak with Clarence, and I
FTLN 0917 90 came hither on my legs.
BRAKENBURY FTLN 0918 What, so brief?
FIRST MURDERER FTLN 0919’Tis better, sir, than to be tedious.—
FTLN 0920 Let him see our commission, and talk no more.
Brakenbury reads the commission.
BRAKENBURY
FTLN 0921 I am in this commanded to deliver
FTLN 0922 95 The noble Duke of Clarence to your hands.
FTLN 0923 I will not reason what is meant hereby
FTLN 0924 Because I will be guiltless from the meaning.
FTLN 0925 There lies the Duke asleep, and there the keys.
He hands them keys.
FTLN 0926 I’ll to the King and signify to him
FTLN 0927 100 That thus I have resigned to you my charge.
FIRST MURDERER FTLN 0928 You may, sir. ’Tis a point of wisdom.
FTLN 0929 Fare you well.
Brakenbury and the Keeper exit.
SECOND MURDERER FTLN 0930 What, shall I stab him as he
FTLN 0931 sleeps?
FIRST MURDERER FTLN 0932 105 No. He’ll say ’twas done cowardly,
FTLN 0933 when he wakes.
SECOND MURDERER FTLN 0934 Why, he shall never wake until the
FTLN 0935 great Judgment Day.
FIRST MURDERER FTLN 0936 Why, then he’ll say we stabbed him
FTLN 0937 110 sleeping.
SECOND MURDERER FTLN 0938 The urging of that word “judgment”
FTLN 0939 hath bred a kind of remorse in me.
FIRST MURDERER FTLN 0940 What, art thou afraid?
SECOND MURDERER FTLN 0941 Not to kill him, having a warrant,
FTLN 0942 115 but to be damned for killing him, from the which
FTLN 0943 no warrant can defend me.
FIRST MURDERER FTLN 0944 I thought thou hadst been resolute.

77
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 4
SECOND MURDERER FTLN 0945 So I am—to let him live.
FIRST MURDERER FTLN 0946 I’ll back to the Duke of Gloucester
FTLN 0947 120 and tell him so.
SECOND MURDERER FTLN 0948 Nay, I prithee stay a little. I hope
FTLN 0949 this passionate humor of mine will change. It was
FTLN 0950 wont to hold me but while one tells twenty.
FIRST MURDERER FTLN 0951 How dost thou feel thyself now?
SECOND MURDERER FTLN 0952 125 Faith, some certain dregs of conscience
FTLN 0953 are yet within me.
FIRST MURDERER FTLN 0954 Remember our reward when the
FTLN 0955 deed’s done.
SECOND MURDERER FTLN 0956 Zounds, he dies! I had forgot the
FTLN 0957 130 reward.
FIRST MURDERER FTLN 0958 Where’s thy conscience now?
SECOND MURDERER FTLN 0959 O, in the Duke of Gloucester’s
FTLN 0960 purse.
FIRST MURDERER FTLN 0961 When he opens his purse to give us
FTLN 0962 135 our reward, thy conscience flies out.
SECOND MURDERER FTLN 0963’Tis no matter. Let it go. There’s
FTLN 0964 few or none will entertain it.
FIRST MURDERER FTLN 0965 What if it come to thee again?
SECOND MURDERER FTLN 0966 I’ll not meddle with it. It makes a
FTLN 0967 140 man a coward: a man cannot steal but it accuseth
FTLN 0968 him; a man cannot swear but it checks him; a man
FTLN 0969 cannot lie with his neighbor’s wife but it detects
FTLN 0970 him. ’Tis a blushing, shamefaced spirit that mutinies
FTLN 0971 in a man’s bosom. It fills a man full of
FTLN 0972 145 obstacles. It made me once restore a purse of gold
FTLN 0973 that by chance I found. It beggars any man that
FTLN 0974 keeps it. It is turned out of towns and cities for a
FTLN 0975 dangerous thing, and every man that means to live
FTLN 0976 well endeavors to trust to himself and live without it.
FIRST MURDERER FTLN 0977 150 Zounds, ’tis even now at my elbow,
FTLN 0978 persuading me not to kill the Duke.
SECOND MURDERER FTLN 0979 Take the devil in thy mind, and

79
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 4
FTLN 0980 believe him not. He would insinuate with thee but
FTLN 0981 to make thee sigh.
FIRST MURDERER FTLN 0982 155 I am strong-framed. He cannot prevail
FTLN 0983 with me.
SECOND MURDERER FTLN 0984 Spoke like a tall man that respects
FTLN 0985 thy reputation. Come, shall we fall to work?
FIRST MURDERER FTLN 0986 Take him on the costard with the
FTLN 0987 160 hilts of thy sword, and then throw him into the
FTLN 0988 malmsey butt in the next room.
SECOND MURDERER FTLN 0989 O, excellent device—and make a
FTLN 0990 sop of him!
FIRST MURDERER FTLN 0991 Soft, he wakes.
SECOND MURDERER FTLN 0992 165 Strike!
FIRST MURDERER FTLN 0993 No, we’ll reason with him.
Clarence wakes.
CLARENCE
FTLN 0994 Where art thou, keeper? Give me a cup of wine.
SECOND MURDERER
FTLN 0995 You shall have wine enough, my lord, anon.
CLARENCE
FTLN 0996 In God’s name, what art thou?
FIRST MURDERER FTLN 0997 170 A man, as you are.
CLARENCE FTLN 0998 But not, as I am, royal.
FIRST MURDERER FTLN 0999 Nor you, as we are, loyal.
CLARENCE
FTLN 1000 Thy voice is thunder, but thy looks are humble.
FIRST MURDERER
FTLN 1001 My voice is now the King’s, my looks mine own.
CLARENCE
FTLN 1002 175 How darkly and how deadly dost thou speak!
FTLN 1003 Your eyes do menace me. Why look you pale?
FTLN 1004 Who sent you hither? Wherefore do you come?
SECOND MURDERER FTLN 1005 To, to, to—
CLARENCE FTLN 1006 To murder me?
BOTH FTLN 1007 180 Ay, ay.

81
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 4
CLARENCE
FTLN 1008 You scarcely have the hearts to tell me so
FTLN 1009 And therefore cannot have the hearts to do it.
FTLN 1010 Wherein, my friends, have I offended you?
FIRST MURDERER
FTLN 1011 Offended us you have not, but the King.
CLARENCE
FTLN 1012 185 I shall be reconciled to him again.
SECOND MURDERER
FTLN 1013 Never, my lord. Therefore prepare to die.
CLARENCE
FTLN 1014 Are you drawn forth among a world of men
FTLN 1015 To slay the innocent? What is my offense?
FTLN 1016 Where is the evidence that doth accuse me?
FTLN 1017 190 What lawful quest have given their verdict up
FTLN 1018 Unto the frowning judge? Or who pronounced
FTLN 1019 The bitter sentence of poor Clarence’ death
FTLN 1020 Before I be convict by course of law?
FTLN 1021 To threaten me with death is most unlawful.
FTLN 1022 195 I charge you, as you hope to have redemption,
FTLN 1023 By Christ’s dear blood shed for our grievous sins,
FTLN 1024 That you depart, and lay no hands on me.
FTLN 1025 The deed you undertake is damnable.
FIRST MURDERER
FTLN 1026 What we will do, we do upon command.
SECOND MURDERER
FTLN 1027 200 And he that hath commanded is our king.
CLARENCE
FTLN 1028 Erroneous vassals, the great King of kings
FTLN 1029 Hath in the table of His law commanded
FTLN 1030 That thou shalt do no murder. Will you then
FTLN 1031 Spurn at His edict and fulfill a man’s?
FTLN 1032 205 Take heed, for He holds vengeance in His hand
FTLN 1033 To hurl upon their heads that break His law.
SECOND MURDERER
FTLN 1034 And that same vengeance doth He hurl on thee

83
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 4
FTLN 1035 For false forswearing and for murder too.
FTLN 1036 Thou didst receive the sacrament to fight
FTLN 1037 210 In quarrel of the House of Lancaster.
FIRST MURDERER
FTLN 1038 And, like a traitor to the name of God,
FTLN 1039 Didst break that vow, and with thy treacherous
FTLN 1040 blade
FTLN 1041 Unrippedst the bowels of thy sovereign’s son.
SECOND MURDERER
FTLN 1042 215 Whom thou wast sworn to cherish and defend.
FIRST MURDERER
FTLN 1043 How canst thou urge God’s dreadful law to us
FTLN 1044 When thou hast broke it in such dear degree?
CLARENCE
FTLN 1045 Alas! For whose sake did I that ill deed?
FTLN 1046 For Edward, for my brother, for his sake.
FTLN 1047 220 He sends you not to murder me for this,
FTLN 1048 For in that sin he is as deep as I.
FTLN 1049 If God will be avengèd for the deed,
FTLN 1050 O, know you yet He doth it publicly!
FTLN 1051 Take not the quarrel from His powerful arm;
FTLN 1052 225 He needs no indirect or lawless course
FTLN 1053 To cut off those that have offended Him.
FIRST MURDERER
FTLN 1054 Who made thee then a bloody minister
FTLN 1055 When gallant-springing, brave Plantagenet,
FTLN 1056 That princely novice, was struck dead by thee?
CLARENCE
FTLN 1057 230 My brother’s love, the devil, and my rage.
FIRST MURDERER
FTLN 1058 Thy brother’s love, our duty, and thy faults
FTLN 1059 Provoke us hither now to slaughter thee.
CLARENCE
FTLN 1060 If you do love my brother, hate not me.
FTLN 1061 I am his brother, and I love him well.
FTLN 1062 235 If you are hired for meed, go back again,

85
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 4
FTLN 1063 And I will send you to my brother Gloucester,
FTLN 1064 Who shall reward you better for my life
FTLN 1065 Than Edward will for tidings of my death.
SECOND MURDERER
FTLN 1066 You are deceived. Your brother Gloucester hates
FTLN 1067 240 you.
CLARENCE
FTLN 1068 O no, he loves me, and he holds me dear.
FTLN 1069 Go you to him from me.
FIRST MURDERER FTLN 1070 Ay, so we will.
CLARENCE
FTLN 1071 Tell him, when that our princely father York
FTLN 1072 245 Blessed his three sons with his victorious arm,
FTLN 1073 He little thought of this divided friendship.
FTLN 1074 Bid Gloucester think of this, and he will weep.
FIRST MURDERER
FTLN 1075 Ay, millstones, as he lessoned us to weep.
CLARENCE
FTLN 1076 O, do not slander him, for he is kind.
FIRST MURDERER
FTLN 1077 250 Right, as snow in harvest. Come, you deceive
FTLN 1078 yourself.
FTLN 1079 ’Tis he that sends us to destroy you here.
CLARENCE
FTLN 1080 It cannot be, for he bewept my fortune,
FTLN 1081 And hugged me in his arms, and swore with sobs
FTLN 1082 255 That he would labor my delivery.
FIRST MURDERER
FTLN 1083 Why, so he doth, when he delivers you
FTLN 1084 From this Earth’s thralldom to the joys of heaven.
SECOND MURDERER
FTLN 1085 Make peace with God, for you must die, my lord.
CLARENCE
FTLN 1086 Have you that holy feeling in your souls
FTLN 1087 260 To counsel me to make my peace with God,
FTLN 1088 And are you yet to your own souls so blind

87
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 4
FTLN 1089 That you will war with God by murd’ring me?
FTLN 1090 O sirs, consider: they that set you on
FTLN 1091 To do this deed will hate you for the deed.
SECOND MURDERER , to First Murderer
FTLN 1092 265 What shall we do?
CLARENCE FTLN 1093 Relent, and save your souls.
FTLN 1094 Which of you—if you were a prince’s son
FTLN 1095 Being pent from liberty, as I am now—
FTLN 1096 If two such murderers as yourselves came to you,
FTLN 1097 270 Would not entreat for life? Ay, you would beg,
FTLN 1098 Were you in my distress.
FIRST MURDERER
FTLN 1099 Relent? No. ’Tis cowardly and womanish.
CLARENCE
FTLN 1100 Not to relent is beastly, savage, devilish.
FTLN 1101 To Second Murderer. My friend, I spy some pity
FTLN 1102 275 in thy looks.
FTLN 1103 O, if thine eye be not a flatterer,
FTLN 1104 Come thou on my side and entreat for me.
FTLN 1105 A begging prince what beggar pities not?
SECOND MURDERER FTLN 1106 Look behind you, my lord.
FIRST MURDERER
FTLN 1107 280 Take that, and that. (Stabs him.) If all this will not
FTLN 1108 do,
FTLN 1109 I’ll drown you in the malmsey butt within.
He exits with the body.
SECOND MURDERER
FTLN 1110 A bloody deed, and desperately dispatched.
FTLN 1111 How fain, like Pilate, would I wash my hands
FTLN 1112 285 Of this most grievous murder.
Enter First Murderer.
FIRST MURDERER
FTLN 1113 How now? What mean’st thou that thou help’st me
FTLN 1114 not?

89
Richard III
ACT 1. SC. 4
FTLN 1115 By heavens, the Duke shall know how slack you
FTLN 1116 have been.
SECOND MURDERER
FTLN 1117 290 I would he knew that I had saved his brother.
FTLN 1118 Take thou the fee, and tell him what I say,
FTLN 1119 For I repent me that the Duke is slain. He exits.
FIRST MURDERER
FTLN 1120 So do not I. Go, coward as thou art.
FTLN 1121 Well, I’ll go hide the body in some hole
FTLN 1122 295 Till that the Duke give order for his burial.
FTLN 1123 And when I have my meed, I will away,
FTLN 1124 For this will out, and then I must not stay.
He exits.

ACT 2
Scene 1
Flourish. Enter King Edward, sick, Queen Elizabeth,
Lord Marquess Dorset, Rivers, Hastings, Buckingham,
Woodeville, Grey, and Scales.
KING EDWARD
FTLN 1125 Why, so. Now have I done a good day’s work.
FTLN 1126 You peers, continue this united league.
FTLN 1127 I every day expect an embassage
FTLN 1128 From my Redeemer to redeem me hence,
FTLN 1129 5 And more in peace my soul shall part to heaven
FTLN 1130 Since I have made my friends at peace on Earth.
FTLN 1131 Rivers and Hastings, take each other’s hand.
FTLN 1132 Dissemble not your hatred. Swear your love.
RIVERS , taking Hastings’ hand
FTLN 1133 By heaven, my soul is purged from grudging hate,
FTLN 1134 10 And with my hand I seal my true heart’s love.
HASTINGS
FTLN 1135 So thrive I as I truly swear the like.
KING EDWARD
FTLN 1136 Take heed you dally not before your king,
FTLN 1137 Lest He that is the supreme King of kings
FTLN 1138 Confound your hidden falsehood and award
FTLN 1139 15 Either of you to be the other’s end.
HASTINGS
FTLN 1140 So prosper I as I swear perfect love.
93

95
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 1
RIVERS
FTLN 1141 And I as I love Hastings with my heart.
KING EDWARD , to Queen Elizabeth
FTLN 1142 Madam, yourself is not exempt from this,—
FTLN 1143 Nor you, son Dorset,—Buckingham, nor you.
FTLN 1144 20 You have been factious one against the other.—
FTLN 1145 Wife, love Lord Hastings. Let him kiss your hand,
FTLN 1146 And what you do, do it unfeignedly.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 1147 There, Hastings, I will never more remember
FTLN 1148 Our former hatred, so thrive I and mine.
Hastings kisses her hand.
KING EDWARD
FTLN 1149 25 Dorset, embrace him.—Hastings, love Lord
FTLN 1150 Marquess.
DORSET
FTLN 1151 This interchange of love, I here protest,
FTLN 1152 Upon my part shall be inviolable.
HASTINGS FTLN 1153 And so swear I. They embrace.
KING EDWARD
FTLN 1154 30 Now, princely Buckingham, seal thou this league
FTLN 1155 With thy embracements to my wife’s allies
FTLN 1156 And make me happy in your unity.
BUCKINGHAM , to Queen Elizabeth
FTLN 1157 Whenever Buckingham doth turn his hate
FTLN 1158 Upon your Grace, but with all duteous love
FTLN 1159 35 Doth cherish you and yours, God punish me
FTLN 1160 With hate in those where I expect most love.
FTLN 1161 When I have most need to employ a friend,
FTLN 1162 And most assurèd that he is a friend,
FTLN 1163 Deep, hollow, treacherous, and full of guile
FTLN 1164 40 Be he unto me: this do I beg of God,
FTLN 1165 When I am cold in love to you or yours.
Queen Elizabeth and Buckingham embrace.
KING EDWARD
FTLN 1166 A pleasing cordial, princely Buckingham,

97
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 1167 Is this thy vow unto my sickly heart.
FTLN 1168 There wanteth now our brother Gloucester here
FTLN 1169 45 To make the blessèd period of this peace.
BUCKINGHAM FTLN 1170 And in good time
FTLN 1171 Here comes Sir Richard Ratcliffe and the Duke.
Enter Ratcliffe, and Richard, Duke of Gloucester.
RICHARD
FTLN 1172 Good morrow to my sovereign king and queen,
FTLN 1173 And, princely peers, a happy time of day.
KING EDWARD
FTLN 1174 50 Happy indeed, as we have spent the day.
FTLN 1175 Gloucester, we have done deeds of charity,
FTLN 1176 Made peace of enmity, fair love of hate,
FTLN 1177 Between these swelling, wrong-incensèd peers.
RICHARD
FTLN 1178 A blessèd labor, my most sovereign lord.
FTLN 1179 55 Among this princely heap, if any here
FTLN 1180 By false intelligence or wrong surmise
FTLN 1181 Hold me a foe,
FTLN 1182 If I unwittingly, or in my rage,
FTLN 1183 Have aught committed that is hardly borne
FTLN 1184 60 By any in this presence, I desire
FTLN 1185 To reconcile me to his friendly peace.
FTLN 1186 ’Tis death to me to be at enmity;
FTLN 1187 I hate it, and desire all good men’s love.
FTLN 1188 First, madam, I entreat true peace of you,
FTLN 1189 65 Which I will purchase with my duteous service;—
FTLN 1190 Of you, my noble cousin Buckingham,
FTLN 1191 If ever any grudge were lodged between us;—
FTLN 1192 Of you and you, Lord Rivers and of Dorset,
FTLN 1193 That all without desert have frowned on me;—
FTLN 1194 70 Of you, Lord Woodeville and Lord Scales;—of you,
FTLN 1195 Dukes, earls, lords, gentlemen; indeed, of all.
FTLN 1196 I do not know that Englishman alive
FTLN 1197 With whom my soul is any jot at odds

99
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 1198 More than the infant that is born tonight.
FTLN 1199 75 I thank my God for my humility.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 1200 A holy day shall this be kept hereafter.
FTLN 1201 I would to God all strifes were well compounded.
FTLN 1202 My sovereign lord, I do beseech your Highness
FTLN 1203 To take our brother Clarence to your grace.
RICHARD
FTLN 1204 80 Why, madam, have I offered love for this,
FTLN 1205 To be so flouted in this royal presence?
FTLN 1206 Who knows not that the gentle duke is dead?
They all start.
FTLN 1207 You do him injury to scorn his corse.
KING EDWARD
FTLN 1208 Who knows not he is dead! Who knows he is?
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 1209 85 All-seeing heaven, what a world is this!
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1210 Look I so pale, Lord Dorset, as the rest?
DORSET
FTLN 1211 Ay, my good lord, and no man in the presence
FTLN 1212 But his red color hath forsook his cheeks.
KING EDWARD
FTLN 1213 Is Clarence dead? The order was reversed.
RICHARD
FTLN 1214 90 But he, poor man, by your first order died,
FTLN 1215 And that a wingèd Mercury did bear.
FTLN 1216 Some tardy cripple bare the countermand,
FTLN 1217 That came too lag to see him burièd.
FTLN 1218 God grant that some, less noble and less loyal,
FTLN 1219 95 Nearer in bloody thoughts, and not in blood,
FTLN 1220 Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence did,
FTLN 1221 And yet go current from suspicion.
Enter Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby.

101
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 1
STANLEY , kneeling
FTLN 1222 A boon, my sovereign, for my service done.
KING EDWARD
FTLN 1223 I prithee, peace. My soul is full of sorrow.
STANLEY
FTLN 1224 100 I will not rise unless your Highness hear me.
KING EDWARD
FTLN 1225 Then say at once what is it thou requests.
STANLEY
FTLN 1226 The forfeit, sovereign, of my servant’s life,
FTLN 1227 Who slew today a riotous gentleman
FTLN 1228 Lately attendant on the Duke of Norfolk.
KING EDWARD
FTLN 1229 105 Have I a tongue to doom my brother’s death,
FTLN 1230 And shall that tongue give pardon to a slave?
FTLN 1231 My brother killed no man; his fault was thought,
FTLN 1232 And yet his punishment was bitter death.
FTLN 1233 Who sued to me for him? Who, in my wrath,
FTLN 1234 110 Kneeled at my feet, and bade me be advised?
FTLN 1235 Who spoke of brotherhood? Who spoke of love?
FTLN 1236 Who told me how the poor soul did forsake
FTLN 1237 The mighty Warwick and did fight for me?
FTLN 1238 Who told me, in the field at Tewkesbury,
FTLN 1239 115 When Oxford had me down, he rescued me,
FTLN 1240 And said “Dear brother, live, and be a king”?
FTLN 1241 Who told me, when we both lay in the field
FTLN 1242 Frozen almost to death, how he did lap me
FTLN 1243 Even in his garments and did give himself,
FTLN 1244 120 All thin and naked, to the numb-cold night?
FTLN 1245 All this from my remembrance brutish wrath
FTLN 1246 Sinfully plucked, and not a man of you
FTLN 1247 Had so much grace to put it in my mind.
FTLN 1248 But when your carters or your waiting vassals
FTLN 1249 125 Have done a drunken slaughter and defaced
FTLN 1250 The precious image of our dear Redeemer,

103
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 2
FTLN 1251 You straight are on your knees for pardon, pardon,
FTLN 1252 And I, unjustly too, must grant it you.
Stanley rises.
FTLN 1253 But for my brother, not a man would speak,
FTLN 1254 130 Nor I, ungracious, speak unto myself
FTLN 1255 For him, poor soul. The proudest of you all
FTLN 1256 Have been beholding to him in his life,
FTLN 1257 Yet none of you would once beg for his life.
FTLN 1258 O God, I fear Thy justice will take hold
FTLN 1259 135 On me and you, and mine and yours for this!—
FTLN 1260 Come, Hastings, help me to my closet.—
FTLN 1261 Ah, poor Clarence.
Some exit with King and Queen.
RICHARD
FTLN 1262 This is the fruits of rashness. Marked you not
FTLN 1263 How that the guilty kindred of the Queen
FTLN 1264 140 Looked pale when they did hear of Clarence’ death?
FTLN 1265 O, they did urge it still unto the King.
FTLN 1266 God will revenge it. Come, lords, will you go
FTLN 1267 To comfort Edward with our company?
BUCKINGHAM FTLN 1268 We wait upon your Grace.
They exit.
Scene 2
Enter the old Duchess of York with the two
children of Clarence.
BOY
FTLN 1269 Good grandam, tell us, is our father dead?
DUCHESS FTLN 1270 No, boy.
DAUGHTER
FTLN 1271 Why do you weep so oft, and beat your breast,
FTLN 1272 And cry “O Clarence, my unhappy son”?
BOY
FTLN 1273 5 Why do you look on us and shake your head,

105
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 2
FTLN 1274 And call us orphans, wretches, castaways,
FTLN 1275 If that our noble father were alive?
DUCHESS
FTLN 1276 My pretty cousins, you mistake me both.
FTLN 1277 I do lament the sickness of the King,
FTLN 1278 10 As loath to lose him, not your father’s death.
FTLN 1279 It were lost sorrow to wail one that’s lost.
BOY
FTLN 1280 Then, you conclude, my grandam, he is dead.
FTLN 1281 The King mine uncle is to blame for it.
FTLN 1282 God will revenge it, whom I will importune
FTLN 1283 15 With earnest prayers, all to that effect.
DAUGHTER FTLN 1284 And so will I.
DUCHESS
FTLN 1285 Peace, children, peace. The King doth love you
FTLN 1286 well.
FTLN 1287 Incapable and shallow innocents,
FTLN 1288 20 You cannot guess who caused your father’s death.
BOY
FTLN 1289 Grandam, we can, for my good uncle Gloucester
FTLN 1290 Told me the King, provoked to it by the Queen,
FTLN 1291 Devised impeachments to imprison him;
FTLN 1292 And when my uncle told me so, he wept,
FTLN 1293 25 And pitied me, and kindly kissed my cheek,
FTLN 1294 Bade me rely on him as on my father,
FTLN 1295 And he would love me dearly as a child.
DUCHESS
FTLN 1296 Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle shape,
FTLN 1297 And with a virtuous visor hide deep vice.
FTLN 1298 30 He is my son, ay, and therein my shame,
FTLN 1299 Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit.
BOY
FTLN 1300 Think you my uncle did dissemble, grandam?
DUCHESS FTLN 1301 Ay, boy.
BOY
FTLN 1302 I cannot think it. Hark, what noise is this?

107
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 2
Enter Queen Elizabeth with her hair about her ears,
Rivers and Dorset after her.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 1303 35 Ah, who shall hinder me to wail and weep,
FTLN 1304 To chide my fortune and torment myself?
FTLN 1305 I’ll join with black despair against my soul
FTLN 1306 And to myself become an enemy.
DUCHESS
FTLN 1307 What means this scene of rude impatience?
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 1308 40 To make an act of tragic violence.
FTLN 1309 Edward, my lord, thy son, our king, is dead.
FTLN 1310 Why grow the branches when the root is gone?
FTLN 1311 Why wither not the leaves that want their sap?
FTLN 1312 If you will live, lament. If die, be brief,
FTLN 1313 45 That our swift-wingèd souls may catch the King’s,
FTLN 1314 Or, like obedient subjects, follow him
FTLN 1315 To his new kingdom of ne’er-changing night.
DUCHESS
FTLN 1316 Ah, so much interest have I in thy sorrow
FTLN 1317 As I had title in thy noble husband.
FTLN 1318 50 I have bewept a worthy husband’s death
FTLN 1319 And lived with looking on his images;
FTLN 1320 But now two mirrors of his princely semblance
FTLN 1321 Are cracked in pieces by malignant death,
FTLN 1322 And I, for comfort, have but one false glass
FTLN 1323 55 That grieves me when I see my shame in him.
FTLN 1324 Thou art a widow, yet thou art a mother,
FTLN 1325 And hast the comfort of thy children left,
FTLN 1326 But death hath snatched my husband from mine
FTLN 1327 arms
FTLN 1328 60 And plucked two crutches from my feeble hands,
FTLN 1329 Clarence and Edward. O, what cause have I,
FTLN 1330 Thine being but a moiety of my moan,
FTLN 1331 To overgo thy woes and drown thy cries!

109
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 2
BOY , to Queen Elizabeth
FTLN 1332 Ah, aunt, you wept not for our father’s death.
FTLN 1333 65 How can we aid you with our kindred tears?
DAUGHTER , to Queen Elizabeth
FTLN 1334 Our fatherless distress was left unmoaned.
FTLN 1335 Your widow-dolor likewise be unwept!
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 1336 Give me no help in lamentation.
FTLN 1337 I am not barren to bring forth complaints.
FTLN 1338 70 All springs reduce their currents to mine eyes,
FTLN 1339 That I, being governed by the watery moon,
FTLN 1340 May send forth plenteous tears to drown the world.
FTLN 1341 Ah, for my husband, for my dear lord Edward!
CHILDREN
FTLN 1342 Ah, for our father, for our dear lord Clarence!
DUCHESS
FTLN 1343 75 Alas for both, both mine, Edward and Clarence!
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 1344 What stay had I but Edward? And he’s gone.
CHILDREN
FTLN 1345 What stay had we but Clarence? And he’s gone.
DUCHESS
FTLN 1346 What stays had I but they? And they are gone.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 1347 Was never widow had so dear a loss.
CHILDREN
FTLN 1348 80 Were never orphans had so dear a loss.
DUCHESS
FTLN 1349 Was never mother had so dear a loss.
FTLN 1350 Alas, I am the mother of these griefs.
FTLN 1351 Their woes are parceled; mine is general.
FTLN 1352 She for an Edward weeps, and so do I;
FTLN 1353 85 I for a Clarence weep; so doth not she.
FTLN 1354 These babes for Clarence weep, and so do I;
FTLN 1355 I for an Edward weep; so do not they.
FTLN 1356 Alas, you three, on me, threefold distressed,

111
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 2
FTLN 1357 Pour all your tears. I am your sorrow’s nurse,
FTLN 1358 90 And I will pamper it with lamentation.
DORSET , to Queen Elizabeth
FTLN 1359 Comfort, dear mother. God is much displeased
FTLN 1360 That you take with unthankfulness His doing.
FTLN 1361 In common worldly things, ’tis called ungrateful
FTLN 1362 With dull unwillingness to repay a debt
FTLN 1363 95 Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent;
FTLN 1364 Much more to be thus opposite with heaven,
FTLN 1365 For it requires the royal debt it lent you.
RIVERS
FTLN 1366 Madam, bethink you, like a careful mother,
FTLN 1367 Of the young prince your son. Send straight for
FTLN 1368 100 him.
FTLN 1369 Let him be crowned. In him your comfort lives.
FTLN 1370 Drown desperate sorrow in dead Edward’s grave
FTLN 1371 And plant your joys in living Edward’s throne.
Enter Richard, Duke of Gloucester, Buckingham, Lord
Stanley, Earl of Derby, Hastings, and Ratcliffe.
RICHARD , to Queen Elizabeth
FTLN 1372 Sister, have comfort. All of us have cause
FTLN 1373 105 To wail the dimming of our shining star,
FTLN 1374 But none can help our harms by wailing them.—
FTLN 1375 Madam my mother, I do cry you mercy;
FTLN 1376 I did not see your Grace. Humbly on my knee
FTLN 1377 I crave your blessing. He kneels.
DUCHESS
FTLN 1378 110 God bless thee, and put meekness in thy breast,
FTLN 1379 Love, charity, obedience, and true duty.
RICHARD , standing
FTLN 1380 Amen. Aside. And make me die a good old man!
FTLN 1381 That is the butt end of a mother’s blessing;
FTLN 1382 I marvel that her Grace did leave it out.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1383 115 You cloudy princes and heart-sorrowing peers

113
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 2
FTLN 1384 That bear this heavy mutual load of moan,
FTLN 1385 Now cheer each other in each other’s love.
FTLN 1386 Though we have spent our harvest of this king,
FTLN 1387 We are to reap the harvest of his son.
FTLN 1388 120 The broken rancor of your high-swoll’n hates,
FTLN 1389 But lately splintered, knit, and joined together,
FTLN 1390 Must gently be preserved, cherished, and kept.
FTLN 1391 Meseemeth good that with some little train
FTLN 1392 Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fet
FTLN 1393 125 Hither to London, to be crowned our king.
RIVERS
FTLN 1394 Why “with some little train,” my lord of
FTLN 1395 Buckingham?
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1396 Marry, my lord, lest by a multitude
FTLN 1397 The new-healed wound of malice should break out,
FTLN 1398 130 Which would be so much the more dangerous
FTLN 1399 By how much the estate is green and yet
FTLN 1400 ungoverned.
FTLN 1401 Where every horse bears his commanding rein
FTLN 1402 And may direct his course as please himself,
FTLN 1403 135 As well the fear of harm as harm apparent,
FTLN 1404 In my opinion, ought to be prevented.
RICHARD
FTLN 1405 I hope the King made peace with all of us;
FTLN 1406 And the compact is firm and true in me.
RIVERS
FTLN 1407 And so in me, and so, I think, in all.
FTLN 1408 140 Yet since it is but green, it should be put
FTLN 1409 To no apparent likelihood of breach,
FTLN 1410 Which haply by much company might be urged.
FTLN 1411 Therefore I say with noble Buckingham
FTLN 1412 That it is meet so few should fetch the Prince.
HASTINGS FTLN 1413 145 And so say I.
RICHARD
FTLN 1414 Then be it so, and go we to determine

115
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 3
FTLN 1415 Who they shall be that straight shall post to
FTLN 1416 Ludlow.—
FTLN 1417 Madam, and you, my sister, will you go
FTLN 1418 150 To give your censures in this business?
All but Buckingham and Richard exit.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1419 My lord, whoever journeys to the Prince,
FTLN 1420 For God’s sake let not us two stay at home.
FTLN 1421 For by the way I’ll sort occasion,
FTLN 1422 As index to the story we late talked of,
FTLN 1423 155 To part the Queen’s proud kindred from the Prince.
RICHARD
FTLN 1424 My other self, my council’s consistory,
FTLN 1425 My oracle, my prophet, my dear cousin,
FTLN 1426 I, as a child, will go by thy direction.
FTLN 1427 Toward Ludlow then, for we’ll not stay behind.
They exit.
Scene 3
Enter one Citizen at one door, and another at the other.
FIRST CITIZEN
FTLN 1428 Good morrow, neighbor, whither away so fast?
SECOND CITIZEN
FTLN 1429 I promise you I scarcely know myself.
FTLN 1430 Hear you the news abroad?
FIRST CITIZEN FTLN 1431 Yes, that the King is dead.
SECOND CITIZEN
FTLN 1432 5 Ill news, by ’r Lady. Seldom comes the better.
FTLN 1433 I fear, I fear, ’twill prove a giddy world.
Enter another Citizen.
THIRD CITIZEN
FTLN 1434 Neighbors, God speed.
FIRST CITIZEN FTLN 1435 Give you good morrow, sir.

117
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 3
THIRD CITIZEN
FTLN 1436 Doth the news hold of good King Edward’s death?
SECOND CITIZEN
FTLN 1437 10 Ay, sir, it is too true, God help the while.
THIRD CITIZEN
FTLN 1438 Then, masters, look to see a troublous world.
FIRST CITIZEN
FTLN 1439 No, no, by God’s good grace, his son shall reign.
THIRD CITIZEN
FTLN 1440 Woe to that land that’s governed by a child.
SECOND CITIZEN
FTLN 1441 In him there is a hope of government,
FTLN 1442 15 Which, in his nonage, council under him,
FTLN 1443 And, in his full and ripened years, himself,
FTLN 1444 No doubt shall then, and till then, govern well.
FIRST CITIZEN
FTLN 1445 So stood the state when Henry the Sixth
FTLN 1446 Was crowned in Paris but at nine months old.
THIRD CITIZEN
FTLN 1447 20 Stood the state so? No, no, good friends, God wot,
FTLN 1448 For then this land was famously enriched
FTLN 1449 With politic grave counsel; then the King
FTLN 1450 Had virtuous uncles to protect his Grace.
FIRST CITIZEN
FTLN 1451 Why, so hath this, both by his father and mother.
THIRD CITIZEN
FTLN 1452 25 Better it were they all came by his father,
FTLN 1453 Or by his father there were none at all,
FTLN 1454 For emulation who shall now be nearest
FTLN 1455 Will touch us all too near if God prevent not.
FTLN 1456 O, full of danger is the Duke of Gloucester,
FTLN 1457 30 And the Queen’s sons and brothers haught and
FTLN 1458 proud,
FTLN 1459 And were they to be ruled, and not to rule,
FTLN 1460 This sickly land might solace as before.

119
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 4
FIRST CITIZEN
FTLN 1461 Come, come, we fear the worst. All will be well.
THIRD CITIZEN
FTLN 1462 35 When clouds are seen, wise men put on their
FTLN 1463 cloaks;
FTLN 1464 When great leaves fall, then winter is at hand;
FTLN 1465 When the sun sets, who doth not look for night?
FTLN 1466 Untimely storms makes men expect a dearth.
FTLN 1467 40 All may be well; but if God sort it so,
FTLN 1468 ’Tis more than we deserve or I expect.
SECOND CITIZEN
FTLN 1469 Truly, the hearts of men are full of fear.
FTLN 1470 You cannot reason almost with a man
FTLN 1471 That looks not heavily and full of dread.
THIRD CITIZEN
FTLN 1472 45 Before the days of change, still is it so.
FTLN 1473 By a divine instinct, men’s minds mistrust
FTLN 1474 Ensuing danger, as by proof we see
FTLN 1475 The water swell before a boist’rous storm.
FTLN 1476 But leave it all to God. Whither away?
SECOND CITIZEN
FTLN 1477 50 Marry, we were sent for to the Justices.
THIRD CITIZEN
FTLN 1478 And so was I. I’ll bear you company.
They exit.
Scene 4
Enter Archbishop, the young Duke of York,
Queen Elizabeth, and the Duchess of York.
ARCHBISHOP
FTLN 1479 Last night, I hear, they lay at Stony Stratford,
FTLN 1480 And at Northampton they do rest tonight.
FTLN 1481 Tomorrow or next day they will be here.

121
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 4
DUCHESS
FTLN 1482 I long with all my heart to see the Prince.
FTLN 1483 5 I hope he is much grown since last I saw him.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 1484 But I hear no; they say my son of York
FTLN 1485 Has almost overta’en him in his growth.
YORK
FTLN 1486 Ay, mother, but I would not have it so.
DUCHESS
FTLN 1487 Why, my good cousin? It is good to grow.
YORK
FTLN 1488 10 Grandam, one night as we did sit at supper,
FTLN 1489 My uncle Rivers talked how I did grow
FTLN 1490 More than my brother. “Ay,” quoth my uncle
FTLN 1491 Gloucester,
FTLN 1492 “Small herbs have grace; great weeds do grow
FTLN 1493 15 apace.”
FTLN 1494 And since, methinks I would not grow so fast
FTLN 1495 Because sweet flowers are slow and weeds make
FTLN 1496 haste.
DUCHESS
FTLN 1497 Good faith, good faith, the saying did not hold
FTLN 1498 20 In him that did object the same to thee!
FTLN 1499 He was the wretched’st thing when he was young,
FTLN 1500 So long a-growing and so leisurely,
FTLN 1501 That if his rule were true, he should be gracious.
YORK
FTLN 1502 And so no doubt he is, my gracious madam.
DUCHESS
FTLN 1503 25 I hope he is, but yet let mothers doubt.
YORK
FTLN 1504 Now, by my troth, if I had been remembered,
FTLN 1505 I could have given my uncle’s Grace a flout
FTLN 1506 To touch his growth nearer than he touched mine.
DUCHESS
FTLN 1507 How, my young York? I prithee let me hear it.

123
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 4
YORK
FTLN 1508 30 Marry, they say my uncle grew so fast
FTLN 1509 That he could gnaw a crust at two hours old.
FTLN 1510 ’Twas full two years ere I could get a tooth.
FTLN 1511 Grandam, this would have been a biting jest.
DUCHESS
FTLN 1512 I prithee, pretty York, who told thee this?
YORK FTLN 1513 35 Grandam, his nurse.
DUCHESS
FTLN 1514 His nurse? Why, she was dead ere thou wast born.
YORK
FTLN 1515 If ’twere not she, I cannot tell who told me.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 1516 A parlous boy! Go to, you are too shrewd.
DUCHESS
FTLN 1517 Good madam, be not angry with the child.
QUEEN ELIZABETH FTLN 1518 40 Pitchers have ears.
Enter a Messenger.
ARCHBISHOP FTLN 1519 Here comes a messenger.—What news?
MESSENGER
FTLN 1520 Such news, my lord, as grieves me to report.
QUEEN ELIZABETH FTLN 1521 How doth the Prince?
MESSENGER FTLN 1522 Well, madam, and in health.
DUCHESS FTLN 1523 45 What is thy news?
MESSENGER
FTLN 1524 Lord Rivers and Lord Grey are sent to Pomfret,
FTLN 1525 And, with them, Sir Thomas Vaughan, prisoners.
DUCHESS FTLN 1526 Who hath committed them?
MESSENGER
FTLN 1527 The mighty dukes, Gloucester and Buckingham.
ARCHBISHOP FTLN 1528 50 For what offense?
MESSENGER
FTLN 1529 The sum of all I can, I have disclosed.
FTLN 1530 Why, or for what, the nobles were committed
FTLN 1531 Is all unknown to me, my gracious lord.

125
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 4
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 1532 Ay me! I see the ruin of my house.
FTLN 1533 55 The tiger now hath seized the gentle hind.
FTLN 1534 Insulting tyranny begins to jut
FTLN 1535 Upon the innocent and aweless throne.
FTLN 1536 Welcome, destruction, blood, and massacre.
FTLN 1537 I see, as in a map, the end of all.
DUCHESS
FTLN 1538 60 Accursèd and unquiet wrangling days,
FTLN 1539 How many of you have mine eyes beheld?
FTLN 1540 My husband lost his life to get the crown,
FTLN 1541 And often up and down my sons were tossed
FTLN 1542 For me to joy, and weep, their gain and loss.
FTLN 1543 65 And being seated, and domestic broils
FTLN 1544 Clean overblown, themselves the conquerors
FTLN 1545 Make war upon themselves, brother to brother,
FTLN 1546 Blood to blood, self against self. O, preposterous
FTLN 1547 And frantic outrage, end thy damnèd spleen,
FTLN 1548 70 Or let me die, to look on Earth no more.
QUEEN ELIZABETH , to York
FTLN 1549 Come, come, my boy. We will to sanctuary.—
FTLN 1550 Madam, farewell.
DUCHESS FTLN 1551 Stay, I will go with you.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 1552 You have no cause.
ARCHBISHOP , to Queen Elizabeth FTLN 1553 75 My gracious lady, go,
FTLN 1554 And thither bear your treasure and your goods.
FTLN 1555 For my part, I’ll resign unto your Grace
FTLN 1556 The seal I keep; and so betide to me
FTLN 1557 As well I tender you and all of yours.
FTLN 1558 80 Go. I’ll conduct you to the sanctuary.
They exit.

ACT 3
Scene 1
The trumpets sound. Enter young Prince Edward,
Richard Duke of Gloucester, Buckingham,
the Cardinal, Catesby, and others.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1559 Welcome, sweet prince, to London, to your chamber.
RICHARD , to Prince
FTLN 1560 Welcome, dear cousin, my thoughts’ sovereign.
FTLN 1561 The weary way hath made you melancholy.
PRINCE
FTLN 1562 No, uncle, but our crosses on the way
FTLN 1563 5 Have made it tedious, wearisome, and heavy.
FTLN 1564 I want more uncles here to welcome me.
RICHARD
FTLN 1565 Sweet prince, the untainted virtue of your years
FTLN 1566 Hath not yet dived into the world’s deceit;
FTLN 1567 Nor more can you distinguish of a man
FTLN 1568 10 Than of his outward show, which, God He knows,
FTLN 1569 Seldom or never jumpeth with the heart.
FTLN 1570 Those uncles which you want were dangerous.
FTLN 1571 Your Grace attended to their sugared words
FTLN 1572 But looked not on the poison of their hearts.
FTLN 1573 15 God keep you from them, and from such false
FTLN 1574 friends.
129

131
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 1
PRINCE
FTLN 1575 God keep me from false friends, but they were none.
RICHARD
FTLN 1576 My lord, the Mayor of London comes to greet you.
Enter Lord Mayor with others.
MAYOR
FTLN 1577 God bless your Grace with health and happy days.
PRINCE
FTLN 1578 20 I thank you, good my lord, and thank you all.—
FTLN 1579 I thought my mother and my brother York
FTLN 1580 Would long ere this have met us on the way.
FTLN 1581 Fie, what a slug is Hastings that he comes not
FTLN 1582 To tell us whether they will come or no!
Enter Lord Hastings.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1583 25 And in good time here comes the sweating lord.
PRINCE
FTLN 1584 Welcome, my lord. What, will our mother come?
HASTINGS
FTLN 1585 On what occasion God He knows, not I,
FTLN 1586 The Queen your mother and your brother York
FTLN 1587 Have taken sanctuary. The tender prince
FTLN 1588 30 Would fain have come with me to meet your Grace,
FTLN 1589 But by his mother was perforce withheld.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1590 Fie, what an indirect and peevish course
FTLN 1591 Is this of hers!—Lord Cardinal, will your Grace
FTLN 1592 Persuade the Queen to send the Duke of York
FTLN 1593 35 Unto his princely brother presently?—
FTLN 1594 If she deny, Lord Hastings, go with him,
FTLN 1595 And from her jealous arms pluck him perforce.
CARDINAL
FTLN 1596 My lord of Buckingham, if my weak oratory

133
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 1
FTLN 1597 Can from his mother win the Duke of York,
FTLN 1598 40 Anon expect him here; but if she be obdurate
FTLN 1599 To mild entreaties, God in heaven forbid
FTLN 1600 We should infringe the holy privilege
FTLN 1601 Of blessèd sanctuary! Not for all this land
FTLN 1602 Would I be guilty of so deep a sin.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1603 45 You are too senseless obstinate, my lord,
FTLN 1604 Too ceremonious and traditional.
FTLN 1605 Weigh it but with the grossness of this age,
FTLN 1606 You break not sanctuary in seizing him.
FTLN 1607 The benefit thereof is always granted
FTLN 1608 50 To those whose dealings have deserved the place
FTLN 1609 And those who have the wit to claim the place.
FTLN 1610 This prince hath neither claimed it nor deserved it
FTLN 1611 And therefore, in mine opinion, cannot have it.
FTLN 1612 Then taking him from thence that is not there,
FTLN 1613 55 You break no privilege nor charter there.
FTLN 1614 Oft have I heard of sanctuary men,
FTLN 1615 But sanctuary children, never till now.
CARDINAL
FTLN 1616 My lord, you shall o’errule my mind for once.—
FTLN 1617 Come on, Lord Hastings, will you go with me?
HASTINGS FTLN 1618 60 I go, my lord.
PRINCE
FTLN 1619 Good lords, make all the speedy haste you may.
The Cardinal and Hastings exit.
FTLN 1620 Say, uncle Gloucester, if our brother come,
FTLN 1621 Where shall we sojourn till our coronation?
RICHARD
FTLN 1622 Where it seems best unto your royal self.
FTLN 1623 65 If I may counsel you, some day or two
FTLN 1624 Your Highness shall repose you at the Tower;
FTLN 1625 Then where you please and shall be thought most fit
FTLN 1626 For your best health and recreation.

135
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 1
PRINCE
FTLN 1627 I do not like the Tower, of any place.—
FTLN 1628 70 Did Julius Caesar build that place, my lord?
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1629 He did, my gracious lord, begin that place,
FTLN 1630 Which, since, succeeding ages have re-edified.
PRINCE
FTLN 1631 Is it upon record, or else reported
FTLN 1632 Successively from age to age, he built it?
BUCKINGHAM FTLN 1633 75 Upon record, my gracious lord.
PRINCE
FTLN 1634 But say, my lord, it were not registered,
FTLN 1635 Methinks the truth should live from age to age,
FTLN 1636 As ’twere retailed to all posterity,
FTLN 1637 Even to the general all-ending day.
RICHARD , aside
FTLN 1638 80 So wise so young, they say, do never live long.
PRINCE FTLN 1639 What say you, uncle?
RICHARD
FTLN 1640 I say, without characters fame lives long.
FTLN 1641 Aside. Thus, like the formal Vice, Iniquity,
FTLN 1642 I moralize two meanings in one word.
PRINCE
FTLN 1643 85 That Julius Caesar was a famous man.
FTLN 1644 With what his valor did enrich his wit,
FTLN 1645 His wit set down to make his valor live.
FTLN 1646 Death makes no conquest of this conqueror,
FTLN 1647 For now he lives in fame, though not in life.
FTLN 1648 90 I’ll tell you what, my cousin Buckingham—
BUCKINGHAM FTLN 1649 What, my gracious lord?
PRINCE
FTLN 1650 An if I live until I be a man,
FTLN 1651 I’ll win our ancient right in France again
FTLN 1652 Or die a soldier, as I lived a king.
RICHARD , aside
FTLN 1653 95 Short summers lightly have a forward spring.

137
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 1
Enter young Duke of York, Hastings, and the
Cardinal.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1654 Now in good time here comes the Duke of York.
PRINCE
FTLN 1655 Richard of York, how fares our loving brother?
YORK
FTLN 1656 Well, my dread lord—so must I call you now.
PRINCE
FTLN 1657 Ay, brother, to our grief, as it is yours.
FTLN 1658 100 Too late he died that might have kept that title,
FTLN 1659 Which by his death hath lost much majesty.
RICHARD
FTLN 1660 How fares our cousin, noble lord of York?
YORK
FTLN 1661 I thank you, gentle uncle. O my lord,
FTLN 1662 You said that idle weeds are fast in growth.
FTLN 1663 105 The Prince my brother hath outgrown me far.
RICHARD
FTLN 1664 He hath, my lord.
YORK FTLN 1665 And therefore is he idle?
RICHARD
FTLN 1666 O my fair cousin, I must not say so.
YORK
FTLN 1667 Then he is more beholding to you than I.
RICHARD
FTLN 1668 110 He may command me as my sovereign,
FTLN 1669 But you have power in me as in a kinsman.
YORK
FTLN 1670 I pray you, uncle, give me this dagger.
RICHARD
FTLN 1671 My dagger, little cousin? With all my heart.
PRINCE FTLN 1672 A beggar, brother?
YORK
FTLN 1673 115 Of my kind uncle, that I know will give,
FTLN 1674 And being but a toy, which is no grief to give.

139
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 1
RICHARD
FTLN 1675 A greater gift than that I’ll give my cousin.
YORK
FTLN 1676 A greater gift? O, that’s the sword to it.
RICHARD
FTLN 1677 Ay, gentle cousin, were it light enough.
YORK
FTLN 1678 120 O, then I see you will part but with light gifts.
FTLN 1679 In weightier things you’ll say a beggar nay.
RICHARD
FTLN 1680 It is too heavy for your Grace to wear.
YORK
FTLN 1681 I weigh it lightly, were it heavier.
RICHARD
FTLN 1682 What, would you have my weapon, little lord?
YORK
FTLN 1683 125 I would, that I might thank you as you call me.
RICHARD FTLN 1684 How?
YORK FTLN 1685 Little.
PRINCE
FTLN 1686 My lord of York will still be cross in talk.
FTLN 1687 Uncle, your Grace knows how to bear with him.
YORK
FTLN 1688 130 You mean, to bear me, not to bear with me.—
FTLN 1689 Uncle, my brother mocks both you and me.
FTLN 1690 Because that I am little, like an ape,
FTLN 1691 He thinks that you should bear me on your
FTLN 1692 shoulders.
BUCKINGHAM , aside
FTLN 1693 135 With what a sharp-provided wit he reasons!
FTLN 1694 To mitigate the scorn he gives his uncle,
FTLN 1695 He prettily and aptly taunts himself.
FTLN 1696 So cunning and so young is wonderful.
RICHARD , to Prince
FTLN 1697 My lord, will ’t please you pass along?

141
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 1
FTLN 1698 140 Myself and my good cousin Buckingham
FTLN 1699 Will to your mother, to entreat of her
FTLN 1700 To meet you at the Tower and welcome you.
YORK , to Prince
FTLN 1701 What, will you go unto the Tower, my lord?
PRINCE
FTLN 1702 My Lord Protector needs will have it so.
YORK
FTLN 1703 145 I shall not sleep in quiet at the Tower.
RICHARD FTLN 1704 Why, what should you fear?
YORK
FTLN 1705 Marry, my uncle Clarence’ angry ghost.
FTLN 1706 My grandam told me he was murdered there.
PRINCE FTLN 1707 I fear no uncles dead.
RICHARD FTLN 1708 150 Nor none that live, I hope.
PRINCE
FTLN 1709 An if they live, I hope I need not fear.
FTLN 1710 To York. But come, my lord. With a heavy heart,
FTLN 1711 Thinking on them, go I unto the Tower.
A sennet. Prince Edward, the Duke of York,
and Hastings exit. Richard, Buckingham,
and Catesby remain.
BUCKINGHAM , to Richard
FTLN 1712 Think you, my lord, this little prating York
FTLN 1713 155 Was not incensèd by his subtle mother
FTLN 1714 To taunt and scorn you thus opprobriously?
RICHARD
FTLN 1715 No doubt, no doubt. O, ’tis a parlous boy,
FTLN 1716 Bold, quick, ingenious, forward, capable.
FTLN 1717 He is all the mother’s, from the top to toe.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1718 160 Well, let them rest.—Come hither, Catesby.
FTLN 1719 Thou art sworn as deeply to effect what we intend
FTLN 1720 As closely to conceal what we impart.
FTLN 1721 Thou knowest our reasons, urged upon the way.

143
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 1
FTLN 1722 What thinkest thou? Is it not an easy matter
FTLN 1723 165 To make William Lord Hastings of our mind
FTLN 1724 For the installment of this noble duke
FTLN 1725 In the seat royal of this famous isle?
CATESBY
FTLN 1726 He, for his father’s sake, so loves the Prince
FTLN 1727 That he will not be won to aught against him.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1728 170 What think’st thou then of Stanley? Will not he?
CATESBY
FTLN 1729 He will do all in all as Hastings doth.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1730 Well then, no more but this: go, gentle Catesby,
FTLN 1731 And, as it were far off, sound thou Lord Hastings
FTLN 1732 How he doth stand affected to our purpose
FTLN 1733 175 And summon him tomorrow to the Tower
FTLN 1734 To sit about the coronation.
FTLN 1735 If thou dost find him tractable to us,
FTLN 1736 Encourage him and tell him all our reasons.
FTLN 1737 If he be leaden, icy, cold, unwilling,
FTLN 1738 180 Be thou so too, and so break off the talk,
FTLN 1739 And give us notice of his inclination;
FTLN 1740 For we tomorrow hold divided councils,
FTLN 1741 Wherein thyself shalt highly be employed.
RICHARD
FTLN 1742 Commend me to Lord William. Tell him, Catesby,
FTLN 1743 185 His ancient knot of dangerous adversaries
FTLN 1744 Tomorrow are let blood at Pomfret Castle,
FTLN 1745 And bid my lord, for joy of this good news,
FTLN 1746 Give Mistress Shore one gentle kiss the more.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1747 Good Catesby, go effect this business soundly.
CATESBY
FTLN 1748 190 My good lords both, with all the heed I can.
RICHARD
FTLN 1749 Shall we hear from you, Catesby, ere we sleep?

145
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 2
CATESBY FTLN 1750 You shall, my lord.
RICHARD
FTLN 1751 At Crosby House, there shall you find us both.
Catesby exits.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1752 Now, my lord, what shall we do if we perceive
FTLN 1753 195 Lord Hastings will not yield to our complots?
RICHARD
FTLN 1754 Chop off his head. Something we will determine.
FTLN 1755 And look when I am king, claim thou of me
FTLN 1756 The earldom of Hereford, and all the movables
FTLN 1757 Whereof the King my brother was possessed.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1758 200 I’ll claim that promise at your Grace’s hand.
RICHARD
FTLN 1759 And look to have it yielded with all kindness.
FTLN 1760 Come, let us sup betimes, that afterwards
FTLN 1761 We may digest our complots in some form.
They exit.
Scene 2
Enter a Messenger to the door of Hastings.
MESSENGER , knocking FTLN 1762 My lord, my lord.
HASTINGS , within FTLN 1763 Who knocks?
MESSENGER FTLN 1764 One from the Lord Stanley.
HASTINGS , within FTLN 1765 What is ’t o’clock?
MESSENGER FTLN 1766 5 Upon the stroke of four.
Enter Lord Hastings.
HASTINGS
FTLN 1767 Cannot my Lord Stanley sleep these tedious nights?
MESSENGER
FTLN 1768 So it appears by that I have to say.
FTLN 1769 First, he commends him to your noble self.

147
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 2
HASTINGS FTLN 1770 What then?
MESSENGER
FTLN 1771 10 Then certifies your Lordship that this night
FTLN 1772 He dreamt the boar had razèd off his helm.
FTLN 1773 Besides, he says there are two councils kept,
FTLN 1774 And that may be determined at the one
FTLN 1775 Which may make you and him to rue at th’ other.
FTLN 1776 15 Therefore he sends to know your Lordship’s
FTLN 1777 pleasure,
FTLN 1778 If you will presently take horse with him
FTLN 1779 And with all speed post with him toward the north
FTLN 1780 To shun the danger that his soul divines.
HASTINGS
FTLN 1781 20 Go, fellow, go. Return unto thy lord.
FTLN 1782 Bid him not fear the separated council.
FTLN 1783 His Honor and myself are at the one,
FTLN 1784 And at the other is my good friend Catesby,
FTLN 1785 Where nothing can proceed that toucheth us
FTLN 1786 25 Whereof I shall not have intelligence.
FTLN 1787 Tell him his fears are shallow, without instance.
FTLN 1788 And for his dreams, I wonder he’s so simple
FTLN 1789 To trust the mock’ry of unquiet slumbers.
FTLN 1790 To fly the boar before the boar pursues
FTLN 1791 30 Were to incense the boar to follow us
FTLN 1792 And make pursuit where he did mean no chase.
FTLN 1793 Go, bid thy master rise and come to me,
FTLN 1794 And we will both together to the Tower,
FTLN 1795 Where he shall see the boar will use us kindly.
MESSENGER
FTLN 1796 35 I’ll go, my lord, and tell him what you say. He exits.
Enter Catesby.
CATESBY
FTLN 1797 Many good morrows to my noble lord.

149
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 2
HASTINGS
FTLN 1798 Good morrow, Catesby. You are early stirring.
FTLN 1799 What news, what news in this our tott’ring state?
CATESBY
FTLN 1800 It is a reeling world indeed, my lord,
FTLN 1801 40 And I believe will never stand upright
FTLN 1802 Till Richard wear the garland of the realm.
HASTINGS
FTLN 1803 How “wear the garland”? Dost thou mean the
FTLN 1804 crown?
CATESBY FTLN 1805 Ay, my good lord.
HASTINGS
FTLN 1806 45 I’ll have this crown of mine cut from my shoulders
FTLN 1807 Before I’ll see the crown so foul misplaced.
FTLN 1808 But canst thou guess that he doth aim at it?
CATESBY
FTLN 1809 Ay, on my life, and hopes to find you forward
FTLN 1810 Upon his party for the gain thereof;
FTLN 1811 50 And thereupon he sends you this good news,
FTLN 1812 That this same very day your enemies,
FTLN 1813 The kindred of the Queen, must die at Pomfret.
HASTINGS
FTLN 1814 Indeed, I am no mourner for that news,
FTLN 1815 Because they have been still my adversaries.
FTLN 1816 55 But that I’ll give my voice on Richard’s side
FTLN 1817 To bar my master’s heirs in true descent,
FTLN 1818 God knows I will not do it, to the death.
CATESBY
FTLN 1819 God keep your Lordship in that gracious mind.
HASTINGS
FTLN 1820 But I shall laugh at this a twelve-month hence,
FTLN 1821 60 That they which brought me in my master’s hate,
FTLN 1822 I live to look upon their tragedy.
FTLN 1823 Well, Catesby, ere a fortnight make me older
FTLN 1824 I’ll send some packing that yet think not on ’t.

151
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 2
CATESBY
FTLN 1825 ’Tis a vile thing to die, my gracious lord,
FTLN 1826 65 When men are unprepared and look not for it.
HASTINGS
FTLN 1827 O monstrous, monstrous! And so falls it out
FTLN 1828 With Rivers, Vaughan, Grey; and so ’twill do
FTLN 1829 With some men else that think themselves as safe
FTLN 1830 As thou and I, who, as thou know’st, are dear
FTLN 1831 70 To princely Richard and to Buckingham.
CATESBY
FTLN 1832 The Princes both make high account of you—
FTLN 1833 Aside. For they account his head upon the Bridge.
HASTINGS
FTLN 1834 I know they do, and I have well deserved it.
Enter Lord Stanley.
FTLN 1835 Come on, come on. Where is your boar-spear, man?
FTLN 1836 75 Fear you the boar and go so unprovided?
STANLEY
FTLN 1837 My lord, good morrow.—Good morrow, Catesby.—
FTLN 1838 You may jest on, but, by the Holy Rood,
FTLN 1839 I do not like these several councils, I.
HASTINGS
FTLN 1840 My lord, I hold my life as dear as you do yours,
FTLN 1841 80 And never in my days, I do protest,
FTLN 1842 Was it so precious to me as ’tis now.
FTLN 1843 Think you but that I know our state secure,
FTLN 1844 I would be so triumphant as I am?
STANLEY
FTLN 1845 The lords at Pomfret, when they rode from London,
FTLN 1846 85 Were jocund and supposed their states were sure,
FTLN 1847 And they indeed had no cause to mistrust;
FTLN 1848 But yet you see how soon the day o’ercast.
FTLN 1849 This sudden stab of rancor I misdoubt.
FTLN 1850 Pray God, I say, I prove a needless coward!
FTLN 1851 90 What, shall we toward the Tower? The day is spent.

153
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 2
HASTINGS
FTLN 1852 Come, come. Have with you. Wot you what, my lord?
FTLN 1853 Today the lords you talked of are beheaded.
STANLEY
FTLN 1854 They, for their truth, might better wear their heads
FTLN 1855 Than some that have accused them wear their hats.
FTLN 1856 95 But come, my lord, let’s away.
Enter a Pursuivant.
HASTINGS
FTLN 1857 Go on before. I’ll talk with this good fellow.
Lord Stanley and Catesby exit.
FTLN 1858 How now, sirrah? How goes the world with thee?
PURSUIVANT
FTLN 1859 The better that your Lordship please to ask.
HASTINGS
FTLN 1860 I tell thee, man, ’tis better with me now
FTLN 1861 100 Than when thou met’st me last where now we meet.
FTLN 1862 Then was I going prisoner to the Tower
FTLN 1863 By the suggestion of the Queen’s allies.
FTLN 1864 But now, I tell thee—keep it to thyself—
FTLN 1865 This day those enemies are put to death,
FTLN 1866 105 And I in better state than e’er I was.
PURSUIVANT
FTLN 1867 God hold it, to your Honor’s good content!
HASTINGS
FTLN 1868 Gramercy, fellow. There, drink that for me.
Throws him his purse.
PURSUIVANT FTLN 1869 I thank your Honor. Pursuivant exits.
Enter a Priest.
PRIEST
FTLN 1870 Well met, my lord. I am glad to see your Honor.
HASTINGS
FTLN 1871 110 I thank thee, good Sir John, with all my heart.

155
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 3
FTLN 1872 I am in your debt for your last exercise.
FTLN 1873 Come the next sabbath, and I will content you.
PRIEST FTLN 1874 I’ll wait upon your Lordship. Priest exits.
Enter Buckingham.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1875 What, talking with a priest, Lord Chamberlain?
FTLN 1876 115 Your friends at Pomfret, they do need the priest;
FTLN 1877 Your Honor hath no shriving work in hand.
HASTINGS
FTLN 1878 Good faith, and when I met this holy man,
FTLN 1879 The men you talk of came into my mind.
FTLN 1880 What, go you toward the Tower?
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1881 120 I do, my lord, but long I cannot stay there.
FTLN 1882 I shall return before your Lordship thence.
HASTINGS
FTLN 1883 Nay, like enough, for I stay dinner there.
BUCKINGHAM , aside
FTLN 1884 And supper too, although thou know’st it not.—
FTLN 1885 Come, will you go?
HASTINGS FTLN 1886 125 I’ll wait upon your Lordship.
They exit.
Scene 3
Enter Sir Richard Ratcliffe, with Halberds, carrying the
nobles Rivers, Grey, and Vaughan to death at Pomfret.
RIVERS
FTLN 1887 Sir Richard Ratcliffe, let me tell thee this:
FTLN 1888 Today shalt thou behold a subject die
FTLN 1889 For truth, for duty, and for loyalty.
GREY , to Ratcliffe
FTLN 1890 God bless the Prince from all the pack of you!
FTLN 1891 5 A knot you are of damnèd bloodsuckers.

157
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 3
VAUGHAN , to Ratcliffe
FTLN 1892 You live that shall cry woe for this hereafter.
RATCLIFFE
FTLN 1893 Dispatch. The limit of your lives is out.
RIVERS
FTLN 1894 O Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prison,
FTLN 1895 Fatal and ominous to noble peers!
FTLN 1896 10 Within the guilty closure of thy walls,
FTLN 1897 Richard the Second here was hacked to death,
FTLN 1898 And, for more slander to thy dismal seat,
FTLN 1899 We give to thee our guiltless blood to drink.
GREY
FTLN 1900 Now Margaret’s curse is fall’n upon our heads,
FTLN 1901 15 When she exclaimed on Hastings, you, and I,
FTLN 1902 For standing by when Richard stabbed her son.
RIVERS
FTLN 1903 Then cursed she Richard. Then cursed she
FTLN 1904 Buckingham.
FTLN 1905 Then cursed she Hastings. O, remember, God,
FTLN 1906 20 To hear her prayer for them as now for us!
FTLN 1907 And for my sister and her princely sons,
FTLN 1908 Be satisfied, dear God, with our true blood,
FTLN 1909 Which, as thou know’st, unjustly must be spilt.
RATCLIFFE
FTLN 1910 Make haste. The hour of death is expiate.
RIVERS
FTLN 1911 25 Come, Grey. Come, Vaughan. Let us here embrace.
They embrace.
FTLN 1912 Farewell until we meet again in heaven.
They exit.

159
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 4
Scene 4
Enter Buckingham, Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby,
Hastings, Bishop of Ely, Norfolk, Ratcliffe, Lovell, with
others, at a table.
HASTINGS
FTLN 1913 Now, noble peers, the cause why we are met
FTLN 1914 Is to determine of the coronation.
FTLN 1915 In God’s name, speak. When is the royal day?
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1916 Is all things ready for the royal time?
STANLEY
FTLN 1917 5 It is, and wants but nomination.
ELY
FTLN 1918 Tomorrow, then, I judge a happy day.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1919 Who knows the Lord Protector’s mind herein?
FTLN 1920 Who is most inward with the noble duke?
ELY
FTLN 1921 Your Grace, we think, should soonest know his
FTLN 1922 10 mind.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1923 We know each other’s faces; for our hearts,
FTLN 1924 He knows no more of mine than I of yours,
FTLN 1925 Or I of his, my lord, than you of mine.—
FTLN 1926 Lord Hastings, you and he are near in love.
HASTINGS
FTLN 1927 15 I thank his Grace, I know he loves me well.
FTLN 1928 But for his purpose in the coronation,
FTLN 1929 I have not sounded him, nor he delivered
FTLN 1930 His gracious pleasure any way therein.
FTLN 1931 But you, my honorable lords, may name the time,
FTLN 1932 20 And in the Duke’s behalf I’ll give my voice,
FTLN 1933 Which I presume he’ll take in gentle part.
Enter Richard, Duke of Gloucester.

161
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 4
ELY
FTLN 1934 In happy time here comes the Duke himself.
RICHARD
FTLN 1935 My noble lords and cousins all, good morrow.
FTLN 1936 I have been long a sleeper; but I trust
FTLN 1937 25 My absence doth neglect no great design
FTLN 1938 Which by my presence might have been concluded.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1939 Had you not come upon your cue, my lord,
FTLN 1940 William Lord Hastings had pronounced your part—
FTLN 1941 I mean your voice for crowning of the King.
RICHARD
FTLN 1942 30 Than my Lord Hastings no man might be bolder.
FTLN 1943 His Lordship knows me well and loves me well.—
FTLN 1944 My lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn
FTLN 1945 I saw good strawberries in your garden there;
FTLN 1946 I do beseech you, send for some of them.
ELY
FTLN 1947 35 Marry and will, my lord, with all my heart.
Exit Bishop of Ely.
RICHARD
FTLN 1948 Cousin of Buckingham, a word with you.
They move aside.
FTLN 1949 Catesby hath sounded Hastings in our business
FTLN 1950 And finds the testy gentleman so hot
FTLN 1951 That he will lose his head ere give consent
FTLN 1952 40 His master’s child, as worshipfully he terms it,
FTLN 1953 Shall lose the royalty of England’s throne.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 1954 Withdraw yourself awhile. I’ll go with you.
Richard and Buckingham exit.
STANLEY
FTLN 1955 We have not yet set down this day of triumph.
FTLN 1956 Tomorrow, in my judgment, is too sudden,
FTLN 1957 45 For I myself am not so well provided
FTLN 1958 As else I would be, were the day prolonged.

163
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 4
Enter the Bishop of Ely.
ELY
FTLN 1959 Where is my lord the Duke of Gloucester?
FTLN 1960 I have sent for these strawberries.
HASTINGS
FTLN 1961 His Grace looks cheerfully and smooth this
FTLN 1962 50 morning.
FTLN 1963 There’s some conceit or other likes him well
FTLN 1964 When that he bids good morrow with such spirit.
FTLN 1965 I think there’s never a man in Christendom
FTLN 1966 Can lesser hide his love or hate than he,
FTLN 1967 55 For by his face straight shall you know his heart.
STANLEY
FTLN 1968 What of his heart perceive you in his face
FTLN 1969 By any livelihood he showed today?
HASTINGS
FTLN 1970 Marry, that with no man here he is offended,
FTLN 1971 For were he, he had shown it in his looks.
Enter Richard and Buckingham.
RICHARD
FTLN 1972 60 I pray you all, tell me what they deserve
FTLN 1973 That do conspire my death with devilish plots
FTLN 1974 Of damnèd witchcraft, and that have prevailed
FTLN 1975 Upon my body with their hellish charms?
HASTINGS
FTLN 1976 The tender love I bear your Grace, my lord,
FTLN 1977 65 Makes me most forward in this princely presence
FTLN 1978 To doom th’ offenders, whosoe’er they be.
FTLN 1979 I say, my lord, they have deservèd death.
RICHARD
FTLN 1980 Then be your eyes the witness of their evil.
He shows his arm.
FTLN 1981 Look how I am bewitched! Behold mine arm
FTLN 1982 70 Is like a blasted sapling withered up;

165
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 4
FTLN 1983 And this is Edward’s wife, that monstrous witch,
FTLN 1984 Consorted with that harlot, strumpet Shore,
FTLN 1985 That by their witchcraft thus have markèd me.
HASTINGS
FTLN 1986 If they have done this deed, my noble lord—
RICHARD
FTLN 1987 75 If? Thou protector of this damnèd strumpet,
FTLN 1988 Talk’st thou to me of “ifs”? Thou art a traitor.—
FTLN 1989 Off with his head. Now by Saint Paul I swear
FTLN 1990 I will not dine until I see the same.—
FTLN 1991 Lovell and Ratcliffe, look that it be done.—
FTLN 1992 80 The rest that love me, rise and follow me.
They exit. Lovell and Ratcliffe remain,
with the Lord Hastings.
HASTINGS
FTLN 1993 Woe, woe for England! Not a whit for me,
FTLN 1994 For I, too fond, might have prevented this.
FTLN 1995 Stanley did dream the boar did raze his helm,
FTLN 1996 And I did scorn it and disdain to fly.
FTLN 1997 85 Three times today my foot-cloth horse did stumble,
FTLN 1998 And started when he looked upon the Tower,
FTLN 1999 As loath to bear me to the slaughterhouse.
FTLN 2000 O, now I need the priest that spake to me!
FTLN 2001 I now repent I told the pursuivant,
FTLN 2002 90 As too triumphing, how mine enemies
FTLN 2003 Today at Pomfret bloodily were butchered,
FTLN 2004 And I myself secure in grace and favor.
FTLN 2005 O Margaret, Margaret, now thy heavy curse
FTLN 2006 Is lighted on poor Hastings’ wretched head.
RATCLIFFE
FTLN 2007 95 Come, come, dispatch. The Duke would be at
FTLN 2008 dinner.
FTLN 2009 Make a short shrift. He longs to see your head.
HASTINGS
FTLN 2010 O momentary grace of mortal men,
FTLN 2011 Which we more hunt for than the grace of God!

167
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 5
FTLN 2012 100 Who builds his hope in air of your good looks
FTLN 2013 Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast,
FTLN 2014 Ready with every nod to tumble down
FTLN 2015 Into the fatal bowels of the deep.
LOVELL
FTLN 2016 Come, come, dispatch. ’Tis bootless to exclaim.
HASTINGS
FTLN 2017 105 O bloody Richard! Miserable England,
FTLN 2018 I prophesy the fearfull’st time to thee
FTLN 2019 That ever wretched age hath looked upon.—
FTLN 2020 Come, lead me to the block. Bear him my head.
FTLN 2021 They smile at me who shortly shall be dead.
They exit.
Scene 5
Enter Richard and Buckingham, in rotten armor,
marvelous ill-favored.
RICHARD
FTLN 2022 Come, cousin, canst thou quake and change thy
FTLN 2023 color,
FTLN 2024 Murder thy breath in middle of a word,
FTLN 2025 And then again begin, and stop again,
FTLN 2026 5 As if thou were distraught and mad with terror?
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2027 Tut, I can counterfeit the deep tragedian,
FTLN 2028 Speak, and look back, and pry on every side,
FTLN 2029 Tremble and start at wagging of a straw,
FTLN 2030 Intending deep suspicion. Ghastly looks
FTLN 2031 10 Are at my service, like enforcèd smiles,
FTLN 2032 And both are ready, in their offices,
FTLN 2033 At any time to grace my stratagems.
FTLN 2034 But what, is Catesby gone?
RICHARD
FTLN 2035 He is; and see he brings the Mayor along.

169
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 5
Enter the Mayor and Catesby.
BUCKINGHAM FTLN 2036 15 Lord Mayor—
RICHARD FTLN 2037 Look to the drawbridge there!
BUCKINGHAM FTLN 2038 Hark, a drum!
RICHARD FTLN 2039 Catesby, o’erlook the walls.
Catesby exits.
BUCKINGHAM FTLN 2040 Lord Mayor, the reason we have sent—
RICHARD
FTLN 2041 20 Look back! Defend thee! Here are enemies.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2042 God and our innocence defend and guard us!
Enter Lovell and Ratcliffe, with Hastings’ head.
RICHARD
FTLN 2043 Be patient. They are friends, Ratcliffe and Lovell.
LOVELL
FTLN 2044 Here is the head of that ignoble traitor,
FTLN 2045 The dangerous and unsuspected Hastings.
RICHARD
FTLN 2046 25 So dear I loved the man that I must weep.
FTLN 2047 I took him for the plainest harmless creature
FTLN 2048 That breathed upon the Earth a Christian;
FTLN 2049 Made him my book, wherein my soul recorded
FTLN 2050 The history of all her secret thoughts.
FTLN 2051 30 So smooth he daubed his vice with show of virtue
FTLN 2052 That, his apparent open guilt omitted—
FTLN 2053 I mean his conversation with Shore’s wife—
FTLN 2054 He lived from all attainder of suspects.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2055 Well, well, he was the covert’st sheltered traitor
FTLN 2056 35 That ever lived.—
FTLN 2057 Would you imagine, or almost believe,
FTLN 2058 Were ’t not that by great preservation
FTLN 2059 We live to tell it, that the subtle traitor

171
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 5
FTLN 2060 This day had plotted, in the council house,
FTLN 2061 40 To murder me and my good lord of Gloucester?
MAYOR FTLN 2062 Had he done so?
RICHARD
FTLN 2063 What, think you we are Turks or infidels?
FTLN 2064 Or that we would, against the form of law,
FTLN 2065 Proceed thus rashly in the villain’s death,
FTLN 2066 45 But that the extreme peril of the case,
FTLN 2067 The peace of England, and our persons’ safety
FTLN 2068 Enforced us to this execution?
MAYOR
FTLN 2069 Now fair befall you! He deserved his death,
FTLN 2070 And your good Graces both have well proceeded
FTLN 2071 50 To warn false traitors from the like attempts.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2072 I never looked for better at his hands
FTLN 2073 After he once fell in with Mistress Shore.
FTLN 2074 Yet had we not determined he should die
FTLN 2075 Until your Lordship came to see his end
FTLN 2076 55 (Which now the loving haste of these our friends,
FTLN 2077 Something against our meanings, have prevented),
FTLN 2078 Because, my lord, I would have had you heard
FTLN 2079 The traitor speak and timorously confess
FTLN 2080 The manner and the purpose of his treasons,
FTLN 2081 60 That you might well have signified the same
FTLN 2082 Unto the citizens, who haply may
FTLN 2083 Misconster us in him, and wail his death.
MAYOR
FTLN 2084 But, my good lord, your Graces’ words shall serve
FTLN 2085 As well as I had seen and heard him speak;
FTLN 2086 65 And do not doubt, right noble princes both,
FTLN 2087 But I’ll acquaint our duteous citizens
FTLN 2088 With all your just proceedings in this case.
RICHARD
FTLN 2089 And to that end we wished your Lordship here,
FTLN 2090 T’ avoid the censures of the carping world.

173
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 5
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2091 70 Which since you come too late of our intent,
FTLN 2092 Yet witness what you hear we did intend.
FTLN 2093 And so, my good Lord Mayor, we bid farewell.
Mayor exits.
RICHARD
FTLN 2094 Go after, after, cousin Buckingham.
FTLN 2095 The Mayor towards Guildhall hies him in all post.
FTLN 2096 75 There, at your meetest vantage of the time,
FTLN 2097 Infer the bastardy of Edward’s children.
FTLN 2098 Tell them how Edward put to death a citizen
FTLN 2099 Only for saying he would make his son
FTLN 2100 Heir to the Crown—meaning indeed his house,
FTLN 2101 80 Which, by the sign thereof, was termèd so.
FTLN 2102 Moreover, urge his hateful luxury
FTLN 2103 And bestial appetite in change of lust,
FTLN 2104 Which stretched unto their servants, daughters,
FTLN 2105 wives,
FTLN 2106 85 Even where his raging eye or savage heart,
FTLN 2107 Without control, lusted to make a prey.
FTLN 2108 Nay, for a need, thus far come near my person:
FTLN 2109 Tell them when that my mother went with child
FTLN 2110 Of that insatiate Edward, noble York
FTLN 2111 90 My princely father then had wars in France,
FTLN 2112 And, by true computation of the time,
FTLN 2113 Found that the issue was not his begot,
FTLN 2114 Which well appearèd in his lineaments,
FTLN 2115 Being nothing like the noble duke my father.
FTLN 2116 95 Yet touch this sparingly, as ’twere far off,
FTLN 2117 Because, my lord, you know my mother lives.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2118 Doubt not, my lord. I’ll play the orator
FTLN 2119 As if the golden fee for which I plead
FTLN 2120 Were for myself. And so, my lord, adieu.
RICHARD
FTLN 2121 100 If you thrive well, bring them to Baynard’s Castle,

175
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 6
FTLN 2122 Where you shall find me well accompanied
FTLN 2123 With reverend fathers and well-learnèd bishops.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2124 I go; and towards three or four o’clock
FTLN 2125 Look for the news that the Guildhall affords.
Buckingham exits.
RICHARD
FTLN 2126 105 Go, Lovell, with all speed to Doctor Shaa.
FTLN 2127 To Ratcliffe. Go thou to Friar Penker. Bid them
FTLN 2128 both
FTLN 2129 Meet me within this hour at Baynard’s Castle.
Ratcliffe and Lovell exit.
FTLN 2130 Now will I go to take some privy order
FTLN 2131 110 To draw the brats of Clarence out of sight,
FTLN 2132 And to give order that no manner person
FTLN 2133 Have any time recourse unto the Princes.
He exits.
Scene 6
Enter a Scrivener.
SCRIVENER
FTLN 2134 Here is the indictment of the good Lord Hastings,
FTLN 2135 Which in a set hand fairly is engrossed,
FTLN 2136 That it may be today read o’er in Paul’s.
FTLN 2137 And mark how well the sequel hangs together:
FTLN 2138 5 Eleven hours I have spent to write it over,
FTLN 2139 For yesternight by Catesby was it sent me;
FTLN 2140 The precedent was full as long a-doing,
FTLN 2141 And yet within these five hours Hastings lived,
FTLN 2142 Untainted, unexamined, free, at liberty.
FTLN 2143 10 Here’s a good world the while! Who is so gross
FTLN 2144 That cannot see this palpable device?
FTLN 2145 Yet who so bold but says he sees it not?

177
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 7
FTLN 2146 Bad is the world, and all will come to naught
FTLN 2147 When such ill dealing must be seen in thought.
He exits.
Scene 7
Enter Richard and Buckingham at several doors.
RICHARD
FTLN 2148 How now, how now? What say the citizens?
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2149 Now, by the holy mother of our Lord,
FTLN 2150 The citizens are mum, say not a word.
RICHARD
FTLN 2151 Touched you the bastardy of Edward’s children?
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2152 5 I did; with his contract with Lady Lucy
FTLN 2153 And his contract by deputy in France;
FTLN 2154 Th’ unsatiate greediness of his desire
FTLN 2155 And his enforcement of the city wives;
FTLN 2156 His tyranny for trifles; his own bastardy,
FTLN 2157 10 As being got, your father then in France,
FTLN 2158 And his resemblance being not like the Duke.
FTLN 2159 Withal, I did infer your lineaments,
FTLN 2160 Being the right idea of your father,
FTLN 2161 Both in your form and nobleness of mind;
FTLN 2162 15 Laid open all your victories in Scotland,
FTLN 2163 Your discipline in war, wisdom in peace,
FTLN 2164 Your bounty, virtue, fair humility;
FTLN 2165 Indeed, left nothing fitting for your purpose
FTLN 2166 Untouched or slightly handled in discourse.
FTLN 2167 20 And when mine oratory drew toward end,
FTLN 2168 I bid them that did love their country’s good
FTLN 2169 Cry “God save Richard, England’s royal king!”
RICHARD FTLN 2170 And did they so?

179
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 7
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2171 No. So God help me, they spake not a word
FTLN 2172 25 But, like dumb statues or breathing stones,
FTLN 2173 Stared each on other and looked deadly pale;
FTLN 2174 Which when I saw, I reprehended them
FTLN 2175 And asked the Mayor what meant this willful silence.
FTLN 2176 His answer was, the people were not used
FTLN 2177 30 To be spoke to but by the Recorder.
FTLN 2178 Then he was urged to tell my tale again:
FTLN 2179 “Thus saith the Duke. Thus hath the Duke
FTLN 2180 inferred”—
FTLN 2181 But nothing spoke in warrant from himself.
FTLN 2182 35 When he had done, some followers of mine own,
FTLN 2183 At lower end of the hall, hurled up their caps,
FTLN 2184 And some ten voices cried “God save King Richard!”
FTLN 2185 And thus I took the vantage of those few.
FTLN 2186 “Thanks, gentle citizens and friends,” quoth I.
FTLN 2187 40 “This general applause and cheerful shout
FTLN 2188 Argues your wisdoms and your love to Richard”—
FTLN 2189 And even here brake off and came away.
RICHARD
FTLN 2190 What tongueless blocks were they! Would they not
FTLN 2191 speak?
FTLN 2192 45 Will not the Mayor then and his brethren come?
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2193 The Mayor is here at hand. Intend some fear;
FTLN 2194 Be not you spoke with but by mighty suit.
FTLN 2195 And look you get a prayer book in your hand
FTLN 2196 And stand between two churchmen, good my lord,
FTLN 2197 50 For on that ground I’ll make a holy descant.
FTLN 2198 And be not easily won to our requests.
FTLN 2199 Play the maid’s part: still answer “nay,” and take it.
RICHARD
FTLN 2200 I go. An if you plead as well for them
FTLN 2201 As I can say “nay” to thee for myself,
FTLN 2202 55 No doubt we bring it to a happy issue.
Knocking within.

181
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 7
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2203 Go, go, up to the leads. The Lord Mayor knocks.
Richard exits.
Enter the Mayor and Citizens.
FTLN 2204 Welcome, my lord. I dance attendance here.
FTLN 2205 I think the Duke will not be spoke withal.
Enter Catesby.
FTLN 2206 Now, Catesby, what says your lord to my request?
CATESBY
FTLN 2207 60 He doth entreat your Grace, my noble lord,
FTLN 2208 To visit him tomorrow or next day.
FTLN 2209 He is within, with two right reverend fathers,
FTLN 2210 Divinely bent to meditation,
FTLN 2211 And in no worldly suits would he be moved
FTLN 2212 65 To draw him from his holy exercise.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2213 Return, good Catesby, to the gracious duke.
FTLN 2214 Tell him myself, the Mayor, and aldermen,
FTLN 2215 In deep designs, in matter of great moment
FTLN 2216 No less importing than our general good,
FTLN 2217 70 Are come to have some conference with his Grace.
CATESBY
FTLN 2218 I’ll signify so much unto him straight. He exits.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2219 Ah ha, my lord, this prince is not an Edward!
FTLN 2220 He is not lolling on a lewd love-bed,
FTLN 2221 But on his knees at meditation;
FTLN 2222 75 Not dallying with a brace of courtesans,
FTLN 2223 But meditating with two deep divines;
FTLN 2224 Not sleeping, to engross his idle body,
FTLN 2225 But praying, to enrich his watchful soul.
FTLN 2226 Happy were England would this virtuous prince

183
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 7
FTLN 2227 80 Take on his Grace the sovereignty thereof.
FTLN 2228 But sure I fear we shall not win him to it.
MAYOR
FTLN 2229 Marry, God defend his Grace should say us nay.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2230 I fear he will. Here Catesby comes again.
Enter Catesby.
FTLN 2231 Now, Catesby, what says his Grace?
CATESBY
FTLN 2232 85 He wonders to what end you have assembled
FTLN 2233 Such troops of citizens to come to him,
FTLN 2234 His Grace not being warned thereof before.
FTLN 2235 He fears, my lord, you mean no good to him.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2236 Sorry I am my noble cousin should
FTLN 2237 90 Suspect me that I mean no good to him.
FTLN 2238 By heaven, we come to him in perfect love,
FTLN 2239 And so once more return and tell his Grace.
Catesby exits.
FTLN 2240 When holy and devout religious men
FTLN 2241 Are at their beads, ’tis much to draw them thence,
FTLN 2242 95 So sweet is zealous contemplation.
Enter Richard aloft, between two Bishops.
Catesby reenters.
MAYOR
FTLN 2243 See where his Grace stands, ’tween two clergymen.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2244 Two props of virtue for a Christian prince,
FTLN 2245 To stay him from the fall of vanity;
FTLN 2246 And, see, a book of prayer in his hand,
FTLN 2247 100 True ornaments to know a holy man.—
FTLN 2248 Famous Plantagenet, most gracious prince,
FTLN 2249 Lend favorable ear to our requests,

185
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 7
FTLN 2250 And pardon us the interruption
FTLN 2251 Of thy devotion and right Christian zeal.
RICHARD
FTLN 2252 105 My lord, there needs no such apology.
FTLN 2253 I do beseech your Grace to pardon me,
FTLN 2254 Who, earnest in the service of my God,
FTLN 2255 Deferred the visitation of my friends.
FTLN 2256 But, leaving this, what is your Grace’s pleasure?
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2257 110 Even that, I hope, which pleaseth God above
FTLN 2258 And all good men of this ungoverned isle.
RICHARD
FTLN 2259 I do suspect I have done some offense
FTLN 2260 That seems disgracious in the city’s eye,
FTLN 2261 And that you come to reprehend my ignorance.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2262 115 You have, my lord. Would it might please your
FTLN 2263 Grace,
FTLN 2264 On our entreaties, to amend your fault.
RICHARD
FTLN 2265 Else wherefore breathe I in a Christian land?
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2266 Know, then, it is your fault that you resign
FTLN 2267 120 The supreme seat, the throne majestical,
FTLN 2268 The sceptered office of your ancestors,
FTLN 2269 Your state of fortune, and your due of birth,
FTLN 2270 The lineal glory of your royal house,
FTLN 2271 To the corruption of a blemished stock,
FTLN 2272 125 Whiles in the mildness of your sleepy thoughts,
FTLN 2273 Which here we waken to our country’s good,
FTLN 2274 The noble isle doth want her proper limbs—
FTLN 2275 Her face defaced with scars of infamy,
FTLN 2276 Her royal stock graft with ignoble plants,
FTLN 2277 130 And almost shouldered in the swallowing gulf
FTLN 2278 Of dark forgetfulness and deep oblivion;
FTLN 2279 Which to recure, we heartily solicit

187
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 7
FTLN 2280 Your gracious self to take on you the charge
FTLN 2281 And kingly government of this your land,
FTLN 2282 135 Not as Protector, steward, substitute,
FTLN 2283 Or lowly factor for another’s gain,
FTLN 2284 But as successively, from blood to blood,
FTLN 2285 Your right of birth, your empery, your own.
FTLN 2286 For this, consorted with the citizens,
FTLN 2287 140 Your very worshipful and loving friends,
FTLN 2288 And by their vehement instigation,
FTLN 2289 In this just cause come I to move your Grace.
RICHARD
FTLN 2290 I cannot tell if to depart in silence
FTLN 2291 Or bitterly to speak in your reproof
FTLN 2292 145 Best fitteth my degree or your condition.
FTLN 2293 If not to answer, you might haply think
FTLN 2294 Tongue-tied ambition, not replying, yielded
FTLN 2295 To bear the golden yoke of sovereignty,
FTLN 2296 Which fondly you would here impose on me.
FTLN 2297 150 If to reprove you for this suit of yours,
FTLN 2298 So seasoned with your faithful love to me,
FTLN 2299 Then on the other side I checked my friends.
FTLN 2300 Therefore, to speak, and to avoid the first,
FTLN 2301 And then, in speaking, not to incur the last,
FTLN 2302 155 Definitively thus I answer you:
FTLN 2303 Your love deserves my thanks, but my desert
FTLN 2304 Unmeritable shuns your high request.
FTLN 2305 First, if all obstacles were cut away
FTLN 2306 And that my path were even to the crown
FTLN 2307 160 As the ripe revenue and due of birth,
FTLN 2308 Yet so much is my poverty of spirit,
FTLN 2309 So mighty and so many my defects,
FTLN 2310 That I would rather hide me from my greatness,
FTLN 2311 Being a bark to brook no mighty sea,
FTLN 2312 165 Than in my greatness covet to be hid
FTLN 2313 And in the vapor of my glory smothered.
FTLN 2314 But, God be thanked, there is no need of me,

189
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 7
FTLN 2315 And much I need to help you, were there need.
FTLN 2316 The royal tree hath left us royal fruit,
FTLN 2317 170 Which, mellowed by the stealing hours of time,
FTLN 2318 Will well become the seat of majesty,
FTLN 2319 And make, no doubt, us happy by his reign.
FTLN 2320 On him I lay that you would lay on me,
FTLN 2321 The right and fortune of his happy stars,
FTLN 2322 175 Which God defend that I should wring from him.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2323 My lord, this argues conscience in your Grace,
FTLN 2324 But the respects thereof are nice and trivial,
FTLN 2325 All circumstances well considerèd.
FTLN 2326 You say that Edward is your brother’s son;
FTLN 2327 180 So say we too, but not by Edward’s wife.
FTLN 2328 For first was he contract to Lady Lucy—
FTLN 2329 Your mother lives a witness to his vow—
FTLN 2330 And afterward by substitute betrothed
FTLN 2331 To Bona, sister to the King of France.
FTLN 2332 185 These both put off, a poor petitioner,
FTLN 2333 A care-crazed mother to a many sons,
FTLN 2334 A beauty-waning and distressèd widow,
FTLN 2335 Even in the afternoon of her best days,
FTLN 2336 Made prize and purchase of his wanton eye,
FTLN 2337 190 Seduced the pitch and height of his degree
FTLN 2338 To base declension and loathed bigamy.
FTLN 2339 By her in his unlawful bed he got
FTLN 2340 This Edward, whom our manners call “the Prince.”
FTLN 2341 More bitterly could I expostulate,
FTLN 2342 195 Save that, for reverence to some alive,
FTLN 2343 I give a sparing limit to my tongue.
FTLN 2344 Then, good my lord, take to your royal self
FTLN 2345 This proffered benefit of dignity,
FTLN 2346 If not to bless us and the land withal,
FTLN 2347 200 Yet to draw forth your noble ancestry
FTLN 2348 From the corruption of abusing times
FTLN 2349 Unto a lineal, true-derivèd course.

191
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 7
MAYOR
FTLN 2350 Do, good my lord. Your citizens entreat you.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2351 Refuse not, mighty lord, this proffered love.
CATESBY
FTLN 2352 205 O, make them joyful. Grant their lawful suit.
RICHARD
FTLN 2353 Alas, why would you heap this care on me?
FTLN 2354 I am unfit for state and majesty.
FTLN 2355 I do beseech you, take it not amiss;
FTLN 2356 I cannot, nor I will not, yield to you.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2357 210 If you refuse it, as in love and zeal
FTLN 2358 Loath to depose the child, your brother’s son—
FTLN 2359 As well we know your tenderness of heart
FTLN 2360 And gentle, kind, effeminate remorse,
FTLN 2361 Which we have noted in you to your kindred
FTLN 2362 215 And equally indeed to all estates—
FTLN 2363 Yet know, whe’er you accept our suit or no,
FTLN 2364 Your brother’s son shall never reign our king,
FTLN 2365 But we will plant some other in the throne,
FTLN 2366 To the disgrace and downfall of your house.
FTLN 2367 220 And in this resolution here we leave you.—
FTLN 2368 Come, citizens. Zounds, I’ll entreat no more.
RICHARD
FTLN 2369 O, do not swear, my lord of Buckingham!
Buckingham and some others exit.
CATESBY
FTLN 2370 Call him again, sweet prince. Accept their suit.
FTLN 2371 If you deny them, all the land will rue it.
RICHARD
FTLN 2372 225 Will you enforce me to a world of cares?
FTLN 2373 Call them again. I am not made of stones,
FTLN 2374 But penetrable to your kind entreaties,
FTLN 2375 Albeit against my conscience and my soul.
Enter Buckingham and the rest.

193
Richard III
ACT 3. SC. 7
FTLN 2376 Cousin of Buckingham and sage, grave men,
FTLN 2377 230 Since you will buckle Fortune on my back,
FTLN 2378 To bear her burden, whe’er I will or no,
FTLN 2379 I must have patience to endure the load;
FTLN 2380 But if black scandal or foul-faced reproach
FTLN 2381 Attend the sequel of your imposition,
FTLN 2382 235 Your mere enforcement shall acquittance me
FTLN 2383 From all the impure blots and stains thereof,
FTLN 2384 For God doth know, and you may partly see,
FTLN 2385 How far I am from the desire of this.
MAYOR
FTLN 2386 God bless your Grace! We see it and will say it.
RICHARD
FTLN 2387 240 In saying so, you shall but say the truth.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2388 Then I salute you with this royal title:
FTLN 2389 Long live Richard, England’s worthy king!
ALL FTLN 2390 Amen.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2391 Tomorrow may it please you to be crowned?
RICHARD
FTLN 2392 245 Even when you please, for you will have it so.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2393 Tomorrow, then, we will attend your Grace,
FTLN 2394 And so most joyfully we take our leave.
RICHARD , to the Bishops
FTLN 2395 Come, let us to our holy work again.—
FTLN 2396 Farewell, my cousin. Farewell, gentle friends.
They exit.

ACT 4
Scene 1
Enter Queen Elizabeth, with the Duchess of York, and
the Lord Marquess of Dorset, at one door; Anne,
Duchess of Gloucester with Clarence’s daughter, at
another door.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2397 Who meets us here? My niece Plantagenet
FTLN 2398 Led in the hand of her kind aunt of Gloucester?
FTLN 2399 Now, for my life, she’s wandering to the Tower,
FTLN 2400 On pure heart’s love, to greet the tender prince.—
FTLN 2401 5 Daughter, well met.
ANNE FTLN 2402 God give your Graces both
FTLN 2403 A happy and a joyful time of day.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2404 As much to you, good sister. Whither away?
ANNE
FTLN 2405 No farther than the Tower, and, as I guess,
FTLN 2406 10 Upon the like devotion as yourselves,
FTLN 2407 To gratulate the gentle princes there.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2408 Kind sister, thanks. We’ll enter all together.
Enter Brakenbury, the Lieutenant.
FTLN 2409 And in good time here the Lieutenant comes.—
FTLN 2410 Master Lieutenant, pray you, by your leave,
FTLN 2411 15 How doth the Prince and my young son of York?
197

199
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 1
BRAKENBURY
FTLN 2412 Right well, dear madam. By your patience,
FTLN 2413 I may not suffer you to visit them.
FTLN 2414 The King hath strictly charged the contrary.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2415 The King? Who’s that?
BRAKENBURY FTLN 2416 20 I mean, the Lord Protector.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2417 The Lord protect him from that kingly title!
FTLN 2418 Hath he set bounds between their love and me?
FTLN 2419 I am their mother. Who shall bar me from them?
DUCHESS
FTLN 2420 I am their father’s mother. I will see them.
ANNE
FTLN 2421 25 Their aunt I am in law, in love their mother.
FTLN 2422 Then bring me to their sights. I’ll bear thy blame
FTLN 2423 And take thy office from thee, on my peril.
BRAKENBURY
FTLN 2424 No, madam, no. I may not leave it so.
FTLN 2425 I am bound by oath, and therefore pardon me.
Brakenbury the Lieutenant exits.
Enter Stanley.
STANLEY
FTLN 2426 30 Let me but meet you ladies one hour hence,
FTLN 2427 And I’ll salute your Grace of York as mother
FTLN 2428 And reverend looker-on of two fair queens.
FTLN 2429 To Anne. Come, madam, you must straight to
FTLN 2430 Westminster,
FTLN 2431 35 There to be crownèd Richard’s royal queen.
QUEEN ELIZABETH FTLN 2432 Ah, cut my lace asunder
FTLN 2433 That my pent heart may have some scope to beat,
FTLN 2434 Or else I swoon with this dead-killing news!
ANNE
FTLN 2435 Despiteful tidings! O, unpleasing news!

201
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 1
DORSET , to Queen Elizabeth
FTLN 2436 40 Be of good cheer, mother. How fares your Grace?
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2437 O Dorset, speak not to me. Get thee gone.
FTLN 2438 Death and destruction dogs thee at thy heels.
FTLN 2439 Thy mother’s name is ominous to children.
FTLN 2440 If thou wilt outstrip death, go, cross the seas,
FTLN 2441 45 And live with Richmond, from the reach of hell.
FTLN 2442 Go, hie thee, hie thee from this slaughterhouse,
FTLN 2443 Lest thou increase the number of the dead
FTLN 2444 And make me die the thrall of Margaret’s curse,
FTLN 2445 Nor mother, wife, nor England’s counted queen.
STANLEY
FTLN 2446 50 Full of wise care is this your counsel, madam.
FTLN 2447 To Dorset. Take all the swift advantage of the
FTLN 2448 hours.
FTLN 2449 You shall have letters from me to my son
FTLN 2450 In your behalf, to meet you on the way.
FTLN 2451 55 Be not ta’en tardy by unwise delay.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2452 O ill-dispersing wind of misery!
FTLN 2453 O my accursèd womb, the bed of death!
FTLN 2454 A cockatrice hast thou hatched to the world,
FTLN 2455 Whose unavoided eye is murderous.
STANLEY , to Anne
FTLN 2456 60 Come, madam, come. I in all haste was sent.
ANNE
FTLN 2457 And I with all unwillingness will go.
FTLN 2458 O, would to God that the inclusive verge
FTLN 2459 Of golden metal that must round my brow
FTLN 2460 Were red-hot steel to sear me to the brains!
FTLN 2461 65 Anointed let me be with deadly venom,
FTLN 2462 And die ere men can say “God save the Queen.”
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2463 Go, go, poor soul, I envy not thy glory.
FTLN 2464 To feed my humor, wish thyself no harm.

203
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 1
ANNE
FTLN 2465 No? Why? When he that is my husband now
FTLN 2466 70 Came to me as I followed Henry’s corse,
FTLN 2467 When scarce the blood was well washed from his
FTLN 2468 hands
FTLN 2469 Which issued from my other angel husband
FTLN 2470 And that dear saint which then I weeping followed—
FTLN 2471 75 O, when, I say, I looked on Richard’s face,
FTLN 2472 This was my wish: be thou, quoth I, accursed
FTLN 2473 For making me, so young, so old a widow;
FTLN 2474 And, when thou wedd’st, let sorrow haunt thy bed;
FTLN 2475 And be thy wife, if any be so mad,
FTLN 2476 80 More miserable by the life of thee
FTLN 2477 Than thou hast made me by my dear lord’s death.
FTLN 2478 Lo, ere I can repeat this curse again,
FTLN 2479 Within so small a time my woman’s heart
FTLN 2480 Grossly grew captive to his honey words
FTLN 2481 85 And proved the subject of mine own soul’s curse,
FTLN 2482 Which hitherto hath held my eyes from rest,
FTLN 2483 For never yet one hour in his bed
FTLN 2484 Did I enjoy the golden dew of sleep,
FTLN 2485 But with his timorous dreams was still awaked.
FTLN 2486 90 Besides, he hates me for my father Warwick,
FTLN 2487 And will, no doubt, shortly be rid of me.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2488 Poor heart, adieu. I pity thy complaining.
ANNE
FTLN 2489 No more than with my soul I mourn for yours.
DORSET
FTLN 2490 Farewell, thou woeful welcomer of glory.
ANNE
FTLN 2491 95 Adieu, poor soul that tak’st thy leave of it.
DUCHESS , to Dorset
FTLN 2492 Go thou to Richmond, and good fortune guide thee.
FTLN 2493 To Anne. Go thou to Richard, and good angels
FTLN 2494 tend thee.

205
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 2
FTLN 2495 To Queen Elizabeth. Go thou to sanctuary, and
FTLN 2496 100 good thoughts possess thee.
FTLN 2497 I to my grave, where peace and rest lie with me.
FTLN 2498 Eighty-odd years of sorrow have I seen,
FTLN 2499 And each hour’s joy wracked with a week of teen.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2500 Stay, yet look back with me unto the Tower.—
FTLN 2501 105 Pity, you ancient stones, those tender babes
FTLN 2502 Whom envy hath immured within your walls—
FTLN 2503 Rough cradle for such little pretty ones.
FTLN 2504 Rude ragged nurse, old sullen playfellow
FTLN 2505 For tender princes, use my babies well.
FTLN 2506 110 So foolish sorrows bids your stones farewell.
They exit.
Scene 2
Sound a sennet. Enter Richard in pomp; Buckingham,
Catesby, Ratcliffe, Lovell, and others, including a Page.
RICHARD
FTLN 2507 Stand all apart.—Cousin of Buckingham.
The others move aside.
BUCKINGHAM FTLN 2508 My gracious sovereign.
RICHARD
FTLN 2509 Give me thy hand.
Here he ascendeth the throne. Sound trumpets.
FTLN 2510 Thus high, by thy advice
FTLN 2511 5 And thy assistance is King Richard seated.
FTLN 2512 But shall we wear these glories for a day,
FTLN 2513 Or shall they last and we rejoice in them?
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2514 Still live they, and forever let them last.
RICHARD
FTLN 2515 Ah, Buckingham, now do I play the touch,
FTLN 2516 10 To try if thou be current gold indeed:
FTLN 2517 Young Edward lives; think now what I would speak.

207
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 2
BUCKINGHAM FTLN 2518 Say on, my loving lord.
RICHARD
FTLN 2519 Why, Buckingham, I say I would be king.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2520 Why so you are, my thrice-renownèd lord.
RICHARD
FTLN 2521 15 Ha! Am I king? ’Tis so—but Edward lives.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2522 True, noble prince.
RICHARD FTLN 2523 O bitter consequence
FTLN 2524 That Edward still should live “true noble prince”!
FTLN 2525 Cousin, thou wast not wont to be so dull.
FTLN 2526 20 Shall I be plain? I wish the bastards dead,
FTLN 2527 And I would have it suddenly performed.
FTLN 2528 What sayst thou now? Speak suddenly. Be brief.
BUCKINGHAM FTLN 2529 Your Grace may do your pleasure.
RICHARD
FTLN 2530 Tut, tut, thou art all ice; thy kindness freezes.
FTLN 2531 25 Say, have I thy consent that they shall die?
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2532 Give me some little breath, some pause, dear lord,
FTLN 2533 Before I positively speak in this.
FTLN 2534 I will resolve you herein presently.
Buckingham exits.
CATESBY , aside to the other Attendants
FTLN 2535 The King is angry. See, he gnaws his lip.
RICHARD , aside
FTLN 2536 30 I will converse with iron-witted fools
FTLN 2537 And unrespective boys. None are for me
FTLN 2538 That look into me with considerate eyes.
FTLN 2539 High-reaching Buckingham grows circumspect.—
FTLN 2540 Boy!
PAGE , coming forward FTLN 2541 35 My lord?
RICHARD
FTLN 2542 Know’st thou not any whom corrupting gold
FTLN 2543 Will tempt unto a close exploit of death?

209
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 2
PAGE
FTLN 2544 I know a discontented gentleman
FTLN 2545 Whose humble means match not his haughty spirit.
FTLN 2546 40 Gold were as good as twenty orators,
FTLN 2547 And will, no doubt, tempt him to anything.
RICHARD
FTLN 2548 What is his name?
PAGE FTLN 2549 His name, my lord, is Tyrrel.
RICHARD
FTLN 2550 I partly know the man. Go, call him hither, boy.
Page exits.
FTLN 2551 45 Aside. The deep-revolving witty Buckingham
FTLN 2552 No more shall be the neighbor to my counsels.
FTLN 2553 Hath he so long held out with me, untired,
FTLN 2554 And stops he now for breath? Well, be it so.
Enter Stanley.
FTLN 2555 How now, Lord Stanley, what’s the news?
STANLEY FTLN 2556 50 Know, my loving lord,
FTLN 2557 The Marquess Dorset, as I hear, is fled
FTLN 2558 To Richmond, in the parts where he abides.
He walks aside.
RICHARD
FTLN 2559 Come hither, Catesby. Rumor it abroad
FTLN 2560 That Anne my wife is very grievous sick.
FTLN 2561 55 I will take order for her keeping close.
FTLN 2562 Inquire me out some mean poor gentleman,
FTLN 2563 Whom I will marry straight to Clarence’ daughter.
FTLN 2564 The boy is foolish, and I fear not him.
FTLN 2565 Look how thou dream’st! I say again, give out
FTLN 2566 60 That Anne my queen is sick and like to die.
FTLN 2567 About it, for it stands me much upon
FTLN 2568 To stop all hopes whose growth may damage me.
Catesby exits.
FTLN 2569 Aside. I must be married to my brother’s daughter,
FTLN 2570 Or else my kingdom stands on brittle glass.

211
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 2
FTLN 2571 65 Murder her brothers, and then marry her—
FTLN 2572 Uncertain way of gain. But I am in
FTLN 2573 So far in blood that sin will pluck on sin.
FTLN 2574 Tear-falling pity dwells not in this eye.
Enter Tyrrel.
FTLN 2575 Is thy name Tyrrel?
TYRREL
FTLN 2576 70 James Tyrrel, and your most obedient subject.
RICHARD
FTLN 2577 Art thou indeed?
TYRREL FTLN 2578 Prove me, my gracious lord.
RICHARD
FTLN 2579 Dar’st thou resolve to kill a friend of mine?
TYRREL
FTLN 2580 Please you. But I had rather kill two enemies.
RICHARD
FTLN 2581 75 Why then, thou hast it. Two deep enemies,
FTLN 2582 Foes to my rest, and my sweet sleep’s disturbers,
FTLN 2583 Are they that I would have thee deal upon.
FTLN 2584 Tyrrel, I mean those bastards in the Tower.
TYRREL
FTLN 2585 Let me have open means to come to them,
FTLN 2586 80 And soon I’ll rid you from the fear of them.
RICHARD
FTLN 2587 Thou sing’st sweet music. Hark, come hither, Tyrrel.
Tyrrel approaches Richard and kneels.
FTLN 2588 Go, by this token. Rise, and lend thine ear.
Tyrrel rises, and Richard whispers
to him. Then Tyrrel steps back.
FTLN 2589 There is no more but so. Say it is done,
FTLN 2590 And I will love thee and prefer thee for it.
TYRREL FTLN 2591 85 I will dispatch it straight. He exits.
Enter Buckingham.

213
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 2
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2592 My lord, I have considered in my mind
FTLN 2593 The late request that you did sound me in.
RICHARD
FTLN 2594 Well, let that rest. Dorset is fled to Richmond.
BUCKINGHAM FTLN 2595 I hear the news, my lord.
RICHARD
FTLN 2596 90 Stanley, he is your wife’s son. Well, look unto it.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2597 My lord, I claim the gift, my due by promise,
FTLN 2598 For which your honor and your faith is pawned—
FTLN 2599 Th’ earldom of Hereford and the movables
FTLN 2600 Which you have promisèd I shall possess.
RICHARD
FTLN 2601 95 Stanley, look to your wife. If she convey
FTLN 2602 Letters to Richmond, you shall answer it.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2603 What says your Highness to my just request?
RICHARD
FTLN 2604 I do remember me, Henry the Sixth
FTLN 2605 Did prophesy that Richmond should be king,
FTLN 2606 100 When Richmond was a little peevish boy.
FTLN 2607 A king perhaps—
BUCKINGHAM FTLN 2608 My lord—
RICHARD
FTLN 2609 How chance the prophet could not at that time
FTLN 2610 Have told me, I being by, that I should kill him?
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2611 105 My lord, your promise for the earldom—
RICHARD
FTLN 2612 Richmond! When last I was at Exeter,
FTLN 2613 The Mayor in courtesy showed me the castle
FTLN 2614 And called it Rougemont, at which name I started,
FTLN 2615 Because a bard of Ireland told me once
FTLN 2616 110 I should not live long after I saw Richmond.
BUCKINGHAM FTLN 2617 My lord—

215
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 3
RICHARD FTLN 2618 Ay, what’s o’clock?
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2619 I am thus bold to put your Grace in mind
FTLN 2620 Of what you promised me.
RICHARD FTLN 2621 115 Well, but what’s o’clock?
BUCKINGHAM FTLN 2622 Upon the stroke of ten.
RICHARD FTLN 2623 Well, let it strike.
BUCKINGHAM FTLN 2624 Why let it strike?
RICHARD
FTLN 2625 Because that, like a jack, thou keep’st the stroke
FTLN 2626 120 Betwixt thy begging and my meditation.
FTLN 2627 I am not in the giving vein today.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2628 Why then, resolve me whether you will or no.
RICHARD
FTLN 2629 Thou troublest me; I am not in the vein.
He exits, and is followed by all but Buckingham.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 2630 And is it thus? Repays he my deep service
FTLN 2631 125 With such contempt? Made I him king for this?
FTLN 2632 O, let me think on Hastings and be gone
FTLN 2633 To Brecknock, while my fearful head is on!
He exits.
Scene 3
Enter Tyrrel.
TYRREL
FTLN 2634 The tyrannous and bloody act is done,
FTLN 2635 The most arch deed of piteous massacre
FTLN 2636 That ever yet this land was guilty of.
FTLN 2637 Dighton and Forrest, who I did suborn
FTLN 2638 5 To do this piece of ruthless butchery,
FTLN 2639 Albeit they were fleshed villains, bloody dogs,
FTLN 2640 Melted with tenderness and mild compassion,

217
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 3
FTLN 2641 Wept like two children in their deaths’ sad story.
FTLN 2642 “O thus,” quoth Dighton, “lay the gentle babes.”
FTLN 2643 10 “Thus, thus,” quoth Forrest, “girdling one another
FTLN 2644 Within their alabaster innocent arms.
FTLN 2645 Their lips were four red roses on a stalk,
FTLN 2646 And in their summer beauty kissed each other.
FTLN 2647 A book of prayers on their pillow lay,
FTLN 2648 15 Which once,” quoth Forrest, “almost changed my
FTLN 2649 mind,
FTLN 2650 But, O, the devil—” There the villain stopped;
FTLN 2651 When Dighton thus told on: “We smotherèd
FTLN 2652 The most replenishèd sweet work of nature
FTLN 2653 20 That from the prime creation e’er she framed.”
FTLN 2654 Hence both are gone with conscience and remorse;
FTLN 2655 They could not speak; and so I left them both
FTLN 2656 To bear this tidings to the bloody king.
Enter Richard.
FTLN 2657 And here he comes.—All health, my sovereign lord.
RICHARD
FTLN 2658 25 Kind Tyrrel, am I happy in thy news?
TYRREL
FTLN 2659 If to have done the thing you gave in charge
FTLN 2660 Beget your happiness, be happy then,
FTLN 2661 For it is done.
RICHARD FTLN 2662 But did’st thou see them dead?
TYRREL
FTLN 2663 30 I did, my lord.
RICHARD FTLN 2664 And buried, gentle Tyrrel?
TYRREL
FTLN 2665 The chaplain of the Tower hath buried them,
FTLN 2666 But where, to say the truth, I do not know.
RICHARD
FTLN 2667 Come to me, Tyrrel, soon at after-supper,
FTLN 2668 35 When thou shalt tell the process of their death.
FTLN 2669 Meantime, but think how I may do thee good,

219
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 3
FTLN 2670 And be inheritor of thy desire.
FTLN 2671 Farewell till then.
TYRREL FTLN 2672 I humbly take my leave.
Tyrrel exits.
RICHARD
FTLN 2673 40 The son of Clarence have I pent up close,
FTLN 2674 His daughter meanly have I matched in marriage,
FTLN 2675 The sons of Edward sleep in Abraham’s bosom,
FTLN 2676 And Anne my wife hath bid this world goodnight.
FTLN 2677 Now, for I know the Breton Richmond aims
FTLN 2678 45 At young Elizabeth, my brother’s daughter,
FTLN 2679 And by that knot looks proudly on the crown,
FTLN 2680 To her go I, a jolly thriving wooer.
Enter Ratcliffe.
RATCLIFFE FTLN 2681 My lord.
RICHARD
FTLN 2682 Good or bad news, that thou com’st in so bluntly?
RATCLIFFE
FTLN 2683 50 Bad news, my lord. Morton is fled to Richmond,
FTLN 2684 And Buckingham, backed with the hardy Welshmen,
FTLN 2685 Is in the field, and still his power increaseth.
RICHARD
FTLN 2686 Ely with Richmond troubles me more near
FTLN 2687 Than Buckingham and his rash-levied strength.
FTLN 2688 55 Come, I have learned that fearful commenting
FTLN 2689 Is leaden servitor to dull delay;
FTLN 2690 Delay leads impotent and snail-paced beggary;
FTLN 2691 Then fiery expedition be my wing,
FTLN 2692 Jove’s Mercury, and herald for a king.
FTLN 2693 60 Go, muster men. My counsel is my shield.
FTLN 2694 We must be brief when traitors brave the field.
They exit.

221
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 4
Scene 4
Enter old Queen Margaret.
QUEEN MARGARET
FTLN 2695 So now prosperity begins to mellow
FTLN 2696 And drop into the rotten mouth of death.
FTLN 2697 Here in these confines slyly have I lurked
FTLN 2698 To watch the waning of mine enemies.
FTLN 2699 5 A dire induction am I witness to,
FTLN 2700 And will to France, hoping the consequence
FTLN 2701 Will prove as bitter, black, and tragical.
FTLN 2702 Withdraw thee, wretched Margaret. Who comes
FTLN 2703 here? She steps aside.
Enter Duchess of York and Queen Elizabeth.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2704 10 Ah, my poor princes! Ah, my tender babes,
FTLN 2705 My unblown flowers, new-appearing sweets,
FTLN 2706 If yet your gentle souls fly in the air
FTLN 2707 And be not fixed in doom perpetual,
FTLN 2708 Hover about me with your airy wings
FTLN 2709 15 And hear your mother’s lamentation.
QUEEN MARGARET , aside
FTLN 2710 Hover about her; say that right for right
FTLN 2711 Hath dimmed your infant morn to agèd night.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2712 So many miseries have crazed my voice
FTLN 2713 That my woe-wearied tongue is still and mute.
FTLN 2714 20 Edward Plantagenet, why art thou dead?
QUEEN MARGARET , aside
FTLN 2715 Plantagenet doth quit Plantagenet;
FTLN 2716 Edward for Edward pays a dying debt.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2717 Wilt thou, O God, fly from such gentle lambs
FTLN 2718 And throw them in the entrails of the wolf?
FTLN 2719 25 When didst thou sleep when such a deed was done?

223
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 4
QUEEN MARGARET , aside
FTLN 2720 When holy Harry died, and my sweet son.
DUCHESS , to Queen Elizabeth
FTLN 2721 Dead life, blind sight, poor mortal living ghost,
FTLN 2722 Woe’s scene, world’s shame, grave’s due by life
FTLN 2723 usurped,
FTLN 2724 30 Brief abstract and record of tedious days,
FTLN 2725 Rest thy unrest on England’s lawful earth,
FTLN 2726 Unlawfully made drunk with innocent blood.
QUEEN ELIZABETH , as they both sit down
FTLN 2727 Ah, that thou wouldst as soon afford a grave
FTLN 2728 As thou canst yield a melancholy seat,
FTLN 2729 35 Then would I hide my bones, not rest them here.
FTLN 2730 Ah, who hath any cause to mourn but we?
QUEEN MARGARET , coming forward
FTLN 2731 If ancient sorrow be most reverend,
FTLN 2732 Give mine the benefit of seigniory,
FTLN 2733 And let my griefs frown on the upper hand.
FTLN 2734 40 If sorrow can admit society,
FTLN 2735 Tell over your woes again by viewing mine.
FTLN 2736 I had an Edward till a Richard killed him;
FTLN 2737 I had a husband till a Richard killed him.
FTLN 2738 Thou hadst an Edward till a Richard killed him;
FTLN 2739 45 Thou hadst a Richard till a Richard killed him.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2740 I had a Richard too, and thou did’st kill him;
FTLN 2741 I had a Rutland too; thou holp’st to kill him.
QUEEN MARGARET
FTLN 2742 Thou hadst a Clarence too, and Richard killed him.
FTLN 2743 From forth the kennel of thy womb hath crept
FTLN 2744 50 A hellhound that doth hunt us all to death—
FTLN 2745 That dog, that had his teeth before his eyes,
FTLN 2746 To worry lambs and lap their gentle blood;
FTLN 2747 That excellent grand tyrant of the Earth,
FTLN 2748 That reigns in gallèd eyes of weeping souls;
FTLN 2749 55 That foul defacer of God’s handiwork

225
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 4
FTLN 2750 Thy womb let loose to chase us to our graves.
FTLN 2751 O upright, just, and true-disposing God,
FTLN 2752 How do I thank thee that this carnal cur
FTLN 2753 Preys on the issue of his mother’s body
FTLN 2754 60 And makes her pew-fellow with others’ moan!
DUCHESS , standing
FTLN 2755 O Harry’s wife, triumph not in my woes!
FTLN 2756 God witness with me, I have wept for thine.
QUEEN MARGARET
FTLN 2757 Bear with me. I am hungry for revenge,
FTLN 2758 And now I cloy me with beholding it.
FTLN 2759 65 Thy Edward he is dead, that killed my Edward,
FTLN 2760 Thy other Edward dead, to quit my Edward;
FTLN 2761 Young York, he is but boot, because both they
FTLN 2762 Matched not the high perfection of my loss.
FTLN 2763 Thy Clarence he is dead that stabbed my Edward,
FTLN 2764 70 And the beholders of this frantic play,
FTLN 2765 Th’ adulterate Hastings, Rivers, Vaughan, Grey,
FTLN 2766 Untimely smothered in their dusky graves.
FTLN 2767 Richard yet lives, hell’s black intelligencer,
FTLN 2768 Only reserved their factor to buy souls
FTLN 2769 75 And send them thither. But at hand, at hand
FTLN 2770 Ensues his piteous and unpitied end.
FTLN 2771 Earth gapes, hell burns, fiends roar, saints pray,
FTLN 2772 To have him suddenly conveyed from hence.
FTLN 2773 Cancel his bond of life, dear God I pray,
FTLN 2774 80 That I may live and say “The dog is dead.”
QUEEN ELIZABETH , standing
FTLN 2775 O, thou didst prophesy the time would come
FTLN 2776 That I should wish for thee to help me curse
FTLN 2777 That bottled spider, that foul bunch-backed toad!
QUEEN MARGARET
FTLN 2778 I called thee then “vain flourish of my fortune.”
FTLN 2779 85 I called thee then poor shadow, “painted queen,”
FTLN 2780 The presentation of but what I was,
FTLN 2781 The flattering index of a direful pageant,

227
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 4
FTLN 2782 One heaved a-high to be hurled down below,
FTLN 2783 A mother only mocked with two fair babes,
FTLN 2784 90 A dream of what thou wast, a garish flag
FTLN 2785 To be the aim of every dangerous shot,
FTLN 2786 A sign of dignity, a breath, a bubble,
FTLN 2787 A queen in jest, only to fill the scene.
FTLN 2788 Where is thy husband now? Where be thy brothers?
FTLN 2789 95 Where are thy two sons? Wherein dost thou joy?
FTLN 2790 Who sues and kneels and says “God save the
FTLN 2791 Queen?”
FTLN 2792 Where be the bending peers that flattered thee?
FTLN 2793 Where be the thronging troops that followed thee?
FTLN 2794 100 Decline all this, and see what now thou art:
FTLN 2795 For happy wife, a most distressèd widow;
FTLN 2796 For joyful mother, one that wails the name;
FTLN 2797 For one being sued to, one that humbly sues;
FTLN 2798 For queen, a very caitiff crowned with care;
FTLN 2799 105 For she that scorned at me, now scorned of me;
FTLN 2800 For she being feared of all, now fearing one;
FTLN 2801 For she commanding all, obeyed of none.
FTLN 2802 Thus hath the course of justice whirled about
FTLN 2803 And left thee but a very prey to time,
FTLN 2804 110 Having no more but thought of what thou wast
FTLN 2805 To torture thee the more, being what thou art.
FTLN 2806 Thou didst usurp my place, and dost thou not
FTLN 2807 Usurp the just proportion of my sorrow?
FTLN 2808 Now thy proud neck bears half my burdened yoke,
FTLN 2809 115 From which even here I slip my weary head
FTLN 2810 And leave the burden of it all on thee.
FTLN 2811 Farewell, York’s wife, and queen of sad mischance.
FTLN 2812 These English woes shall make me smile in France.
She begins to exit.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2813 O, thou well-skilled in curses, stay awhile,
FTLN 2814 120 And teach me how to curse mine enemies.

229
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 4
QUEEN MARGARET
FTLN 2815 Forbear to sleep the nights, and fast the days;
FTLN 2816 Compare dead happiness with living woe;
FTLN 2817 Think that thy babes were sweeter than they were,
FTLN 2818 And he that slew them fouler than he is.
FTLN 2819 125 Bettering thy loss makes the bad causer worse.
FTLN 2820 Revolving this will teach thee how to curse.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2821 My words are dull. O, quicken them with thine!
QUEEN MARGARET
FTLN 2822 Thy woes will make them sharp and pierce like
FTLN 2823 mine. Margaret exits.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2824 130 Why should calamity be full of words?
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2825 Windy attorneys to their clients’ woes,
FTLN 2826 Airy succeeders of intestate joys,
FTLN 2827 Poor breathing orators of miseries,
FTLN 2828 Let them have scope; though what they will impart
FTLN 2829 135 Help nothing else, yet do they ease the heart.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2830 If so, then be not tongue-tied. Go with me,
FTLN 2831 And in the breath of bitter words let’s smother
FTLN 2832 My damnèd son that thy two sweet sons smothered.
A trumpet sounds.
FTLN 2833 The trumpet sounds. Be copious in exclaims.
Enter King Richard and his train, including Catesby.
RICHARD
FTLN 2834 140 Who intercepts me in my expedition?
DUCHESS
FTLN 2835 O, she that might have intercepted thee,
FTLN 2836 By strangling thee in her accursèd womb,
FTLN 2837 From all the slaughters, wretch, that thou hast done.

231
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 4
QUEEN ELIZABETH , to Richard
FTLN 2838 Hid’st thou that forehead with a golden crown
FTLN 2839 145 Where should be branded, if that right were right,
FTLN 2840 The slaughter of the prince that owed that crown
FTLN 2841 And the dire death of my poor sons and brothers?
FTLN 2842 Tell me, thou villain-slave, where are my children?
DUCHESS , to Richard
FTLN 2843 Thou toad, thou toad, where is thy brother Clarence,
FTLN 2844 150 And little Ned Plantagenet his son?
QUEEN ELIZABETH , to Richard
FTLN 2845 Where is the gentle Rivers, Vaughan, Grey?
DUCHESS , to Richard FTLN 2846 Where is kind Hastings?
RICHARD
FTLN 2847 A flourish, trumpets! Strike alarum, drums!
FTLN 2848 Let not the heavens hear these telltale women
FTLN 2849 155 Rail on the Lord’s anointed. Strike, I say!
Flourish. Alarums.
FTLN 2850 Either be patient and entreat me fair,
FTLN 2851 Or with the clamorous report of war
FTLN 2852 Thus will I drown your exclamations.
DUCHESS FTLN 2853 Art thou my son?
RICHARD
FTLN 2854 160 Ay, I thank God, my father, and yourself.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2855 Then patiently hear my impatience.
RICHARD
FTLN 2856 Madam, I have a touch of your condition,
FTLN 2857 That cannot brook the accent of reproof.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2858 O, let me speak!
RICHARD FTLN 2859 165 Do then, but I’ll not hear.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2860 I will be mild and gentle in my words.
RICHARD
FTLN 2861 And brief, good mother, for I am in haste.

233
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 4
DUCHESS
FTLN 2862 Art thou so hasty? I have stayed for thee,
FTLN 2863 God knows, in torment and in agony.
RICHARD
FTLN 2864 170 And came I not at last to comfort you?
DUCHESS
FTLN 2865 No, by the Holy Rood, thou know’st it well.
FTLN 2866 Thou cam’st on Earth to make the Earth my hell.
FTLN 2867 A grievous burden was thy birth to me;
FTLN 2868 Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy;
FTLN 2869 175 Thy school days frightful, desp’rate, wild, and
FTLN 2870 furious;
FTLN 2871 Thy prime of manhood daring, bold, and venturous;
FTLN 2872 Thy age confirmed, proud, subtle, sly, and bloody,
FTLN 2873 More mild, but yet more harmful, kind in hatred.
FTLN 2874 180 What comfortable hour canst thou name,
FTLN 2875 That ever graced me with thy company?
RICHARD
FTLN 2876 Faith, none but Humfrey Hower, that called your
FTLN 2877 Grace
FTLN 2878 To breakfast once, forth of my company.
FTLN 2879 185 If I be so disgracious in your eye,
FTLN 2880 Let me march on and not offend you, madam.—
FTLN 2881 Strike up the drum.
DUCHESS FTLN 2882 I prithee, hear me speak.
RICHARD
FTLN 2883 You speak too bitterly.
DUCHESS FTLN 2884 190 Hear me a word,
FTLN 2885 For I shall never speak to thee again.
RICHARD FTLN 2886 So.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2887 Either thou wilt die by God’s just ordinance
FTLN 2888 Ere from this war thou turn a conqueror,
FTLN 2889 195 Or I with grief and extreme age shall perish
FTLN 2890 And nevermore behold thy face again.
FTLN 2891 Therefore take with thee my most grievous curse,

235
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 4
FTLN 2892 Which in the day of battle tire thee more
FTLN 2893 Than all the complete armor that thou wear’st.
FTLN 2894 200 My prayers on the adverse party fight,
FTLN 2895 And there the little souls of Edward’s children
FTLN 2896 Whisper the spirits of thine enemies
FTLN 2897 And promise them success and victory.
FTLN 2898 Bloody thou art; bloody will be thy end.
FTLN 2899 205 Shame serves thy life and doth thy death attend.
She exits.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2900 Though far more cause, yet much less spirit to
FTLN 2901 curse
FTLN 2902 Abides in me. I say amen to her.
RICHARD
FTLN 2903 Stay, madam. I must talk a word with you.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2904 210 I have no more sons of the royal blood
FTLN 2905 For thee to slaughter. For my daughters, Richard,
FTLN 2906 They shall be praying nuns, not weeping queens,
FTLN 2907 And therefore level not to hit their lives.
RICHARD
FTLN 2908 You have a daughter called Elizabeth,
FTLN 2909 215 Virtuous and fair, royal and gracious.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2910 And must she die for this? O, let her live,
FTLN 2911 And I’ll corrupt her manners, stain her beauty,
FTLN 2912 Slander myself as false to Edward’s bed,
FTLN 2913 Throw over her the veil of infamy.
FTLN 2914 220 So she may live unscarred of bleeding slaughter,
FTLN 2915 I will confess she was not Edward’s daughter.
RICHARD
FTLN 2916 Wrong not her birth. She is a royal princess.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2917 To save her life, I’ll say she is not so.
RICHARD
FTLN 2918 Her life is safest only in her birth.

237
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 4
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2919 225 And only in that safety died her brothers.
RICHARD
FTLN 2920 Lo, at their birth good stars were opposite.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2921 No, to their lives ill friends were contrary.
RICHARD
FTLN 2922 All unavoided is the doom of destiny.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2923 True, when avoided grace makes destiny.
FTLN 2924 230 My babes were destined to a fairer death
FTLN 2925 If grace had blessed thee with a fairer life.
RICHARD
FTLN 2926 You speak as if that I had slain my cousins.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2927 Cousins, indeed, and by their uncle cozened
FTLN 2928 Of comfort, kingdom, kindred, freedom, life.
FTLN 2929 235 Whose hand soever launched their tender hearts,
FTLN 2930 Thy head, all indirectly, gave direction.
FTLN 2931 No doubt the murd’rous knife was dull and blunt
FTLN 2932 Till it was whetted on thy stone-hard heart,
FTLN 2933 To revel in the entrails of my lambs.
FTLN 2934 240 But that still use of grief makes wild grief tame,
FTLN 2935 My tongue should to thy ears not name my boys
FTLN 2936 Till that my nails were anchored in thine eyes,
FTLN 2937 And I, in such a desp’rate bay of death,
FTLN 2938 Like a poor bark of sails and tackling reft,
FTLN 2939 245 Rush all to pieces on thy rocky bosom.
RICHARD
FTLN 2940 Madam, so thrive I in my enterprise
FTLN 2941 And dangerous success of bloody wars
FTLN 2942 As I intend more good to you and yours
FTLN 2943 Than ever you or yours by me were harmed!
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2944 250 What good is covered with the face of heaven,
FTLN 2945 To be discovered, that can do me good?

239
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 4
RICHARD
FTLN 2946 Th’ advancement of your children, gentle lady.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2947 Up to some scaffold, there to lose their heads.
RICHARD
FTLN 2948 Unto the dignity and height of fortune,
FTLN 2949 255 The high imperial type of this Earth’s glory.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2950 Flatter my sorrow with report of it.
FTLN 2951 Tell me what state, what dignity, what honor,
FTLN 2952 Canst thou demise to any child of mine?
RICHARD
FTLN 2953 Even all I have—ay, and myself and all—
FTLN 2954 260 Will I withal endow a child of thine;
FTLN 2955 So in the Lethe of thy angry soul
FTLN 2956 Thou drown the sad remembrance of those wrongs
FTLN 2957 Which thou supposest I have done to thee.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2958 Be brief, lest that the process of thy kindness
FTLN 2959 265 Last longer telling than thy kindness’ date.
RICHARD
FTLN 2960 Then know that from my soul I love thy daughter.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2961 My daughter’s mother thinks it with her soul.
RICHARD FTLN 2962 What do you think?
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2963 That thou dost love my daughter from thy soul.
FTLN 2964 270 So from thy soul’s love didst thou love her brothers,
FTLN 2965 And from my heart’s love I do thank thee for it.
RICHARD
FTLN 2966 Be not so hasty to confound my meaning.
FTLN 2967 I mean that with my soul I love thy daughter
FTLN 2968 And do intend to make her Queen of England.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2969 275 Well then, who dost thou mean shall be her king?

241
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 4
RICHARD
FTLN 2970 Even he that makes her queen. Who else should be?
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2971 What, thou?
RICHARD FTLN 2972 Even so. How think you of it?
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2973 How canst thou woo her?
RICHARD FTLN 2974 280 That would I learn of you,
FTLN 2975 As one being best acquainted with her humor.
QUEEN ELIZABETH FTLN 2976 And wilt thou learn of me?
RICHARD FTLN 2977 Madam, with all my heart.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2978 Send to her, by the man that slew her brothers,
FTLN 2979 285 A pair of bleeding hearts; thereon engrave
FTLN 2980 “Edward” and “York.” Then haply will she weep.
FTLN 2981 Therefore present to her—as sometime Margaret
FTLN 2982 Did to thy father, steeped in Rutland’s blood—
FTLN 2983 A handkerchief, which say to her did drain
FTLN 2984 290 The purple sap from her sweet brother’s body,
FTLN 2985 And bid her wipe her weeping eyes withal.
FTLN 2986 If this inducement move her not to love,
FTLN 2987 Send her a letter of thy noble deeds;
FTLN 2988 Tell her thou mad’st away her uncle Clarence,
FTLN 2989 295 Her uncle Rivers, ay, and for her sake
FTLN 2990 Mad’st quick conveyance with her good aunt Anne.
RICHARD
FTLN 2991 You mock me, madam. This is not the way
FTLN 2992 To win your daughter.
QUEEN ELIZABETH FTLN 2993 There is no other way,
FTLN 2994 300 Unless thou couldst put on some other shape
FTLN 2995 And not be Richard, that hath done all this.
RICHARD
FTLN 2996 Say that I did all this for love of her.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 2997 Nay, then indeed she cannot choose but hate thee,
FTLN 2998 Having bought love with such a bloody spoil.

243
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 4
RICHARD
FTLN 2999 305 Look what is done cannot be now amended.
FTLN 3000 Men shall deal unadvisedly sometimes,
FTLN 3001 Which after-hours gives leisure to repent.
FTLN 3002 If I did take the kingdom from your sons,
FTLN 3003 To make amends I’ll give it to your daughter.
FTLN 3004 310 If I have killed the issue of your womb,
FTLN 3005 To quicken your increase I will beget
FTLN 3006 Mine issue of your blood upon your daughter.
FTLN 3007 A grandam’s name is little less in love
FTLN 3008 Than is the doting title of a mother.
FTLN 3009 315 They are as children but one step below,
FTLN 3010 Even of your metal, of your very blood,
FTLN 3011 Of all one pain, save for a night of groans
FTLN 3012 Endured of her for whom you bid like sorrow.
FTLN 3013 Your children were vexation to your youth,
FTLN 3014 320 But mine shall be a comfort to your age.
FTLN 3015 The loss you have is but a son being king,
FTLN 3016 And by that loss your daughter is made queen.
FTLN 3017 I cannot make you what amends I would;
FTLN 3018 Therefore accept such kindness as I can.
FTLN 3019 325 Dorset your son, that with a fearful soul
FTLN 3020 Leads discontented steps in foreign soil,
FTLN 3021 This fair alliance quickly shall call home
FTLN 3022 To high promotions and great dignity.
FTLN 3023 The king that calls your beauteous daughter wife
FTLN 3024 330 Familiarly shall call thy Dorset brother.
FTLN 3025 Again shall you be mother to a king,
FTLN 3026 And all the ruins of distressful times
FTLN 3027 Repaired with double riches of content.
FTLN 3028 What, we have many goodly days to see!
FTLN 3029 335 The liquid drops of tears that you have shed
FTLN 3030 Shall come again, transformed to orient pearl,
FTLN 3031 Advantaging their love with interest
FTLN 3032 Of ten times double gain of happiness.
FTLN 3033 Go then, my mother; to thy daughter go.

245
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 4
FTLN 3034 340 Make bold her bashful years with your experience;
FTLN 3035 Prepare her ears to hear a wooer’s tale;
FTLN 3036 Put in her tender heart th’ aspiring flame
FTLN 3037 Of golden sovereignty; acquaint the Princess
FTLN 3038 With the sweet silent hours of marriage joys;
FTLN 3039 345 And when this arm of mine hath chastisèd
FTLN 3040 The petty rebel, dull-brained Buckingham,
FTLN 3041 Bound with triumphant garlands will I come
FTLN 3042 And lead thy daughter to a conqueror’s bed,
FTLN 3043 To whom I will retail my conquest won,
FTLN 3044 350 And she shall be sole victoress, Caesar’s Caesar.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 3045 What were I best to say? Her father’s brother
FTLN 3046 Would be her lord? Or shall I say her uncle?
FTLN 3047 Or he that slew her brothers and her uncles?
FTLN 3048 Under what title shall I woo for thee,
FTLN 3049 355 That God, the law, my honor, and her love
FTLN 3050 Can make seem pleasing to her tender years?
RICHARD
FTLN 3051 Infer fair England’s peace by this alliance.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 3052 Which she shall purchase with still-lasting war.
RICHARD
FTLN 3053 Tell her the King, that may command, entreats—
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 3054 360 That, at her hands, which the King’s King forbids.
RICHARD
FTLN 3055 Say she shall be a high and mighty queen.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 3056 To vail the title, as her mother doth.
RICHARD
FTLN 3057 Say I will love her everlastingly.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 3058 But how long shall that title “ever” last?
RICHARD
FTLN 3059 365 Sweetly in force unto her fair life’s end.

247
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 4
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 3060 But how long fairly shall her sweet life last?
RICHARD
FTLN 3061 As long as heaven and nature lengthens it.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 3062 As long as hell and Richard likes of it.
RICHARD
FTLN 3063 Say I, her sovereign, am her subject low.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 3064 370 But she, your subject, loathes such sovereignty.
RICHARD
FTLN 3065 Be eloquent in my behalf to her.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 3066 An honest tale speeds best being plainly told.
RICHARD
FTLN 3067 Then plainly to her tell my loving tale.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 3068 Plain and not honest is too harsh a style.
RICHARD
FTLN 3069 375 Your reasons are too shallow and too quick.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 3070 O no, my reasons are too deep and dead—
FTLN 3071 Too deep and dead, poor infants, in their graves.
RICHARD
FTLN 3072 Harp not on that string, madam; that is past.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 3073 Harp on it still shall I till heart-strings break.
RICHARD
FTLN 3074 380 Now by my George, my Garter, and my crown—
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 3075 Profaned, dishonored, and the third usurped.
RICHARD
FTLN 3076 I swear—
QUEEN ELIZABETH FTLN 3077 By nothing, for this is no oath.
FTLN 3078 Thy George, profaned, hath lost his lordly honor;

249
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 4
FTLN 3079 385 Thy Garter, blemished, pawned his knightly virtue;
FTLN 3080 Thy crown, usurped, disgraced his kingly glory.
FTLN 3081 If something thou wouldst swear to be believed,
FTLN 3082 Swear then by something that thou hast not
FTLN 3083 wronged.
RICHARD
FTLN 3084 390 Then, by myself—
QUEEN ELIZABETH FTLN 3085 Thyself is self-misused.
RICHARD
FTLN 3086 Now, by the world—
QUEEN ELIZABETH FTLN 3087 ’Tis full of thy foul wrongs.
RICHARD
FTLN 3088 My father’s death—
QUEEN ELIZABETH FTLN 3089 395 Thy life hath it dishonored.
RICHARD
FTLN 3090 Why then, by God.
QUEEN ELIZABETH FTLN 3091 God’s wrong is most of all.
FTLN 3092 If thou didst fear to break an oath with Him,
FTLN 3093 The unity the King my husband made
FTLN 3094 400 Thou hadst not broken, nor my brothers died.
FTLN 3095 If thou hadst feared to break an oath by Him,
FTLN 3096 Th’ imperial metal circling now thy head
FTLN 3097 Had graced the tender temples of my child,
FTLN 3098 And both the Princes had been breathing here,
FTLN 3099 405 Which now, two tender bedfellows for dust,
FTLN 3100 Thy broken faith hath made the prey for worms.
FTLN 3101 What canst thou swear by now?
RICHARD FTLN 3102 The time to come.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 3103 That thou hast wrongèd in the time o’erpast;
FTLN 3104 410 For I myself have many tears to wash
FTLN 3105 Hereafter time, for time past wronged by thee.
FTLN 3106 The children live whose fathers thou hast
FTLN 3107 slaughtered,
FTLN 3108 Ungoverned youth, to wail it in their age;

251
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 4
FTLN 3109 415 The parents live whose children thou hast
FTLN 3110 butchered,
FTLN 3111 Old barren plants, to wail it with their age.
FTLN 3112 Swear not by time to come, for that thou hast
FTLN 3113 Misused ere used, by times ill-used o’erpast.
RICHARD
FTLN 3114 420 As I intend to prosper and repent,
FTLN 3115 So thrive I in my dangerous affairs
FTLN 3116 Of hostile arms! Myself myself confound,
FTLN 3117 Heaven and fortune bar me happy hours,
FTLN 3118 Day, yield me not thy light, nor night thy rest,
FTLN 3119 425 Be opposite all planets of good luck
FTLN 3120 To my proceeding if, with dear heart’s love,
FTLN 3121 Immaculate devotion, holy thoughts,
FTLN 3122 I tender not thy beauteous princely daughter.
FTLN 3123 In her consists my happiness and thine.
FTLN 3124 430 Without her follows to myself and thee,
FTLN 3125 Herself, the land, and many a Christian soul,
FTLN 3126 Death, desolation, ruin, and decay.
FTLN 3127 It cannot be avoided but by this;
FTLN 3128 It will not be avoided but by this.
FTLN 3129 435 Therefore, dear mother—I must call you so—
FTLN 3130 Be the attorney of my love to her;
FTLN 3131 Plead what I will be, not what I have been;
FTLN 3132 Not my deserts, but what I will deserve.
FTLN 3133 Urge the necessity and state of times,
FTLN 3134 440 And be not peevish found in great designs.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 3135 Shall I be tempted of the devil thus?
RICHARD
FTLN 3136 Ay, if the devil tempt you to do good.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 3137 Shall I forget myself to be myself?
RICHARD
FTLN 3138 Ay, if your self’s remembrance wrong yourself.
QUEEN ELIZABETH FTLN 3139 445 Yet thou didst kill my children.

253
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 4
RICHARD
FTLN 3140 But in your daughter’s womb I bury them,
FTLN 3141 Where, in that nest of spicery, they will breed
FTLN 3142 Selves of themselves, to your recomforture.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
FTLN 3143 Shall I go win my daughter to thy will?
RICHARD
FTLN 3144 450 And be a happy mother by the deed.
QUEEN ELIZABETH FTLN 3145 I go. Write to me very shortly,
FTLN 3146 And you shall understand from me her mind.
RICHARD
FTLN 3147 Bear her my true love’s kiss; and so, farewell.
Queen exits.
FTLN 3148 Relenting fool and shallow, changing woman!
Enter Ratcliffe.
FTLN 3149 455 How now, what news?
RATCLIFFE
FTLN 3150 Most mighty sovereign, on the western coast
FTLN 3151 Rideth a puissant navy. To our shores
FTLN 3152 Throng many doubtful hollow-hearted friends,
FTLN 3153 Unarmed and unresolved to beat them back.
FTLN 3154 460 ’Tis thought that Richmond is their admiral;
FTLN 3155 And there they hull, expecting but the aid
FTLN 3156 Of Buckingham to welcome them ashore.
RICHARD
FTLN 3157 Some light-foot friend post to the Duke of
FTLN 3158 Norfolk—
FTLN 3159 465 Ratcliffe thyself, or Catesby. Where is he?
CATESBY
FTLN 3160 Here, my good lord.
RICHARD FTLN 3161 Catesby, fly to the Duke.
CATESBY
FTLN 3162 I will, my lord, with all convenient haste.
RICHARD
FTLN 3163 Ratcliffe, come hither. Post to Salisbury.

255
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 4
FTLN 3164 470 When thou com’st thither— To Catesby. Dull,
FTLN 3165 unmindful villain,
FTLN 3166 Why stay’st thou here and go’st not to the Duke?
CATESBY
FTLN 3167 First, mighty liege, tell me your Highness’ pleasure,
FTLN 3168 What from your Grace I shall deliver to him.
RICHARD
FTLN 3169 475 O true, good Catesby. Bid him levy straight
FTLN 3170 The greatest strength and power that he can make
FTLN 3171 And meet me suddenly at Salisbury.
CATESBY FTLN 3172 I go. He exits.
RATCLIFFE
FTLN 3173 What, may it please you, shall I do at Salisbury?
RICHARD
FTLN 3174 480 Why, what wouldst thou do there before I go?
RATCLIFFE
FTLN 3175 Your Highness told me I should post before.
RICHARD
FTLN 3176 My mind is changed.
Enter Lord Stanley.
FTLN 3177 Stanley, what news with you?
STANLEY
FTLN 3178 None good, my liege, to please you with the hearing,
FTLN 3179 485 Nor none so bad but well may be reported.
RICHARD
FTLN 3180 Hoyday, a riddle! Neither good nor bad.
FTLN 3181 What need’st thou run so many miles about
FTLN 3182 When thou mayst tell thy tale the nearest way?
FTLN 3183 Once more, what news?
STANLEY FTLN 3184 490 Richmond is on the seas.
RICHARD
FTLN 3185 There let him sink, and be the seas on him!
FTLN 3186 White-livered runagate, what doth he there?
STANLEY
FTLN 3187 I know not, mighty sovereign, but by guess.

257
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 4
RICHARD FTLN 3188 Well, as you guess?
STANLEY
FTLN 3189 495 Stirred up by Dorset, Buckingham, and Morton,
FTLN 3190 He makes for England, here to claim the crown.
RICHARD
FTLN 3191 Is the chair empty? Is the sword unswayed?
FTLN 3192 Is the King dead, the empire unpossessed?
FTLN 3193 What heir of York is there alive but we?
FTLN 3194 500 And who is England’s king but great York’s heir?
FTLN 3195 Then tell me, what makes he upon the seas?
STANLEY
FTLN 3196 Unless for that, my liege, I cannot guess.
RICHARD
FTLN 3197 Unless for that he comes to be your liege,
FTLN 3198 You cannot guess wherefore the Welshman comes.
FTLN 3199 505 Thou wilt revolt and fly to him, I fear.
STANLEY
FTLN 3200 No, my good lord. Therefore mistrust me not.
RICHARD
FTLN 3201 Where is thy power, then, to beat him back?
FTLN 3202 Where be thy tenants and thy followers?
FTLN 3203 Are they not now upon the western shore,
FTLN 3204 510 Safe-conducting the rebels from their ships?
STANLEY
FTLN 3205 No, my good lord. My friends are in the north.
RICHARD
FTLN 3206 Cold friends to me. What do they in the north
FTLN 3207 When they should serve their sovereign in the west?
STANLEY
FTLN 3208 They have not been commanded, mighty king.
FTLN 3209 515 Pleaseth your Majesty to give me leave,
FTLN 3210 I’ll muster up my friends and meet your Grace
FTLN 3211 Where and what time your Majesty shall please.
RICHARD
FTLN 3212 Ay, thou wouldst be gone to join with Richmond,
FTLN 3213 But I’ll not trust thee.

259
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 4
STANLEY FTLN 3214 520 Most mighty sovereign,
FTLN 3215 You have no cause to hold my friendship doubtful.
FTLN 3216 I never was nor never will be false.
RICHARD
FTLN 3217 Go then and muster men, but leave behind
FTLN 3218 Your son George Stanley. Look your heart be firm,
FTLN 3219 525 Or else his head’s assurance is but frail.
STANLEY
FTLN 3220 So deal with him as I prove true to you.
Stanley exits.
Enter a Messenger.
FIRST MESSENGER
FTLN 3221 My gracious sovereign, now in Devonshire,
FTLN 3222 As I by friends am well advertisèd,
FTLN 3223 Sir Edward Courtney and the haughty prelate,
FTLN 3224 530 Bishop of Exeter, his elder brother,
FTLN 3225 With many more confederates are in arms.
Enter another Messenger.
SECOND MESSENGER
FTLN 3226 In Kent, my liege, the Guilfords are in arms,
FTLN 3227 And every hour more competitors
FTLN 3228 Flock to the rebels, and their power grows strong.
Enter another Messenger.
THIRD MESSENGER
FTLN 3229 535 My lord, the army of great Buckingham—
RICHARD
FTLN 3230 Out on you, owls! Nothing but songs of death.
He striketh him.
FTLN 3231 There, take thou that till thou bring better news.
THIRD MESSENGER
FTLN 3232 The news I have to tell your Majesty
FTLN 3233 Is that by sudden floods and fall of waters
FTLN 3234 540 Buckingham’s army is dispersed and scattered,

261
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 4
FTLN 3235 And he himself wandered away alone,
FTLN 3236 No man knows whither.
RICHARD FTLN 3237 I cry thee mercy.
FTLN 3238 There is my purse to cure that blow of thine.
He gives money.
FTLN 3239 545 Hath any well-advisèd friend proclaimed
FTLN 3240 Reward to him that brings the traitor in?
THIRD MESSENGER
FTLN 3241 Such proclamation hath been made, my lord.
Enter another Messenger.
FOURTH MESSENGER
FTLN 3242 Sir Thomas Lovell and Lord Marquess Dorset,
FTLN 3243 ’Tis said, my liege, in Yorkshire are in arms.
FTLN 3244 550 But this good comfort bring I to your Highness:
FTLN 3245 The Breton navy is dispersed by tempest.
FTLN 3246 Richmond, in Dorsetshire, sent out a boat
FTLN 3247 Unto the shore to ask those on the banks
FTLN 3248 If they were his assistants, yea, or no—
FTLN 3249 555 Who answered him they came from Buckingham
FTLN 3250 Upon his party. He, mistrusting them,
FTLN 3251 Hoised sail and made his course again for Brittany.
RICHARD
FTLN 3252 March on, march on, since we are up in arms,
FTLN 3253 If not to fight with foreign enemies,
FTLN 3254 560 Yet to beat down these rebels here at home.
Enter Catesby.
CATESBY
FTLN 3255 My liege, the Duke of Buckingham is taken.
FTLN 3256 That is the best news. That the Earl of Richmond
FTLN 3257 Is with a mighty power landed at Milford
FTLN 3258 Is colder tidings, yet they must be told.
RICHARD
FTLN 3259 565 Away towards Salisbury! While we reason here,
FTLN 3260 A royal battle might be won and lost.

263
Richard III
ACT 4. SC. 5
FTLN 3261 Someone take order Buckingham be brought
FTLN 3262 To Salisbury. The rest march on with me.
Flourish. They exit.
Scene 5
Enter Stanley, Earl of Derby, and Sir Christopher.
STANLEY
FTLN 3263 Sir Christopher, tell Richmond this from me:
FTLN 3264 That in the sty of the most deadly boar
FTLN 3265 My son George Stanley is franked up in hold;
FTLN 3266 If I revolt, off goes young George’s head;
FTLN 3267 5 The fear of that holds off my present aid.
FTLN 3268 So get thee gone. Commend me to thy lord.
FTLN 3269 Withal, say that the Queen hath heartily consented
FTLN 3270 He should espouse Elizabeth her daughter.
FTLN 3271 But tell me, where is princely Richmond now?
CHRISTOPHER
FTLN 3272 10 At Pembroke, or at Ha’rfordwest in Wales.
STANLEY FTLN 3273 What men of name resort to him?
CHRISTOPHER
FTLN 3274 Sir Walter Herbert, a renownèd soldier;
FTLN 3275 Sir Gilbert Talbot, Sir William Stanley,
FTLN 3276 Oxford, redoubted Pembroke, Sir James Blunt,
FTLN 3277 15 And Rice ap Thomas, with a valiant crew,
FTLN 3278 And many other of great name and worth;
FTLN 3279 And towards London do they bend their power,
FTLN 3280 If by the way they be not fought withal.
STANLEY , giving Sir Christopher a paper
FTLN 3281 Well, hie thee to thy lord. I kiss his hand.
FTLN 3282 20 My letter will resolve him of my mind.
FTLN 3283 Farewell.
They exit.

ACT 5
Scene 1
Enter Buckingham, with Sheriff and Halberds, led to
execution.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 3284 Will not King Richard let me speak with him?
SHERIFF
FTLN 3285 No, my good lord. Therefore be patient.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 3286 Hastings and Edward’s children, Grey and Rivers,
FTLN 3287 Holy King Henry and thy fair son Edward,
FTLN 3288 5 Vaughan, and all that have miscarrièd
FTLN 3289 By underhand, corrupted, foul injustice,
FTLN 3290 If that your moody, discontented souls
FTLN 3291 Do through the clouds behold this present hour,
FTLN 3292 Even for revenge mock my destruction.—
FTLN 3293 10 This is All Souls’ Day, fellow, is it not?
SHERIFF FTLN 3294 It is.
BUCKINGHAM
FTLN 3295 Why, then, All Souls’ Day is my body’s doomsday.
FTLN 3296 This is the day which, in King Edward’s time,
FTLN 3297 I wished might fall on me when I was found
FTLN 3298 15 False to his children and his wife’s allies.
FTLN 3299 This is the day wherein I wished to fall
FTLN 3300 By the false faith of him whom most I trusted.
FTLN 3301 This, this All Souls’ Day to my fearful soul
267

269
Richard III
ACT 5. SC. 2
FTLN 3302 Is the determined respite of my wrongs.
FTLN 3303 20 That high All-seer which I dallied with
FTLN 3304 Hath turned my feignèd prayer on my head
FTLN 3305 And given in earnest what I begged in jest.
FTLN 3306 Thus doth he force the swords of wicked men
FTLN 3307 To turn their own points in their masters’ bosoms.
FTLN 3308 25 Thus Margaret’s curse falls heavy on my neck:
FTLN 3309 “When he,” quoth she, “shall split thy heart with
FTLN 3310 sorrow,
FTLN 3311 Remember Margaret was a prophetess.”—
FTLN 3312 Come, lead me, officers, to the block of shame.
FTLN 3313 30 Wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of blame.
Buckingham exits with Officers.
Scene 2
Enter Richmond, Oxford, Blunt, Herbert, and others,
with Drum and Colors.
RICHMOND
FTLN 3314 Fellows in arms, and my most loving friends,
FTLN 3315 Bruised underneath the yoke of tyranny,
FTLN 3316 Thus far into the bowels of the land
FTLN 3317 Have we marched on without impediment,
FTLN 3318 5 And here receive we from our father Stanley
FTLN 3319 Lines of fair comfort and encouragement.
FTLN 3320 The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar,
FTLN 3321 That spoiled your summer fields and fruitful vines,
FTLN 3322 Swills your warm blood like wash, and makes his
FTLN 3323 10 trough
FTLN 3324 In your embowelled bosoms—this foul swine
FTLN 3325 Is now even in the center of this isle,
FTLN 3326 Near to the town of Leicester, as we learn.
FTLN 3327 From Tamworth thither is but one day’s march.
FTLN 3328 15 In God’s name, cheerly on, courageous friends,

271
Richard III
ACT 5. SC. 3
FTLN 3329 To reap the harvest of perpetual peace
FTLN 3330 By this one bloody trial of sharp war.
OXFORD
FTLN 3331 Every man’s conscience is a thousand men
FTLN 3332 To fight against this guilty homicide.
HERBERT
FTLN 3333 20 I doubt not but his friends will turn to us.
BLUNT
FTLN 3334 He hath no friends but what are friends for fear,
FTLN 3335 Which in his dearest need will fly from him.
RICHMOND
FTLN 3336 All for our vantage. Then, in God’s name, march.
FTLN 3337 True hope is swift, and flies with swallow’s wings;
FTLN 3338 25 Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.
All exit.
Scene 3
Enter King Richard, in arms, with Norfolk, Ratcliffe, and
the Earl of Surrey, with Soldiers.
RICHARD
FTLN 3339 Here pitch our tent, even here in Bosworth field.
Soldiers begin to pitch the tent.
FTLN 3340 My lord of Surrey, why look you so sad?
SURREY
FTLN 3341 My heart is ten times lighter than my looks.
RICHARD
FTLN 3342 My lord of Norfolk—
NORFOLK FTLN 3343 5 Here, most gracious liege.
RICHARD
FTLN 3344 Norfolk, we must have knocks, ha, must we not?
NORFOLK
FTLN 3345 We must both give and take, my loving lord.
RICHARD
FTLN 3346 Up with my tent!—Here will I lie tonight.

273
Richard III
ACT 5. SC. 3
FTLN 3347 But where tomorrow? Well, all’s one for that.
FTLN 3348 10 Who hath descried the number of the traitors?
NORFOLK
FTLN 3349 Six or seven thousand is their utmost power.
RICHARD
FTLN 3350 Why, our battalia trebles that account.
FTLN 3351 Besides, the King’s name is a tower of strength
FTLN 3352 Which they upon the adverse faction want.—
FTLN 3353 15 Up with the tent!—Come, noble gentlemen,
FTLN 3354 Let us survey the vantage of the ground.
FTLN 3355 Call for some men of sound direction;
FTLN 3356 Let’s lack no discipline, make no delay,
FTLN 3357 For, lords, tomorrow is a busy day.
The tent now in place, they exit.
Enter Richmond, Sir William Brandon, Oxford,
Dorset, Herbert, Blunt, and others who set up
Richmond’s tent.
RICHMOND
FTLN 3358 20 The weary sun hath made a golden set,
FTLN 3359 And by the bright track of his fiery car
FTLN 3360 Gives token of a goodly day tomorrow.—
FTLN 3361 Sir William Brandon, you shall bear my standard.—
FTLN 3362 Give me some ink and paper in my tent;
FTLN 3363 25 I’ll draw the form and model of our battle,
FTLN 3364 Limit each leader to his several charge,
FTLN 3365 And part in just proportion our small power.—
FTLN 3366 My Lord of Oxford, you, Sir William Brandon,
FTLN 3367 And you, Sir Walter Herbert, stay with me.
FTLN 3368 30 The Earl of Pembroke keeps his regiment.—
FTLN 3369 Good Captain Blunt, bear my goodnight to him,
FTLN 3370 And by the second hour in the morning
FTLN 3371 Desire the Earl to see me in my tent.
FTLN 3372 Yet one thing more, good captain, do for me.
FTLN 3373 35 Where is Lord Stanley quartered, do you know?

275
Richard III
ACT 5. SC. 3
BLUNT
FTLN 3374 Unless I have mista’en his colors much,
FTLN 3375 Which well I am assured I have not done,
FTLN 3376 His regiment lies half a mile, at least,
FTLN 3377 South from the mighty power of the King.
RICHMOND
FTLN 3378 40 If without peril it be possible,
FTLN 3379 Sweet Blunt, make some good means to speak with
FTLN 3380 him,
FTLN 3381 And give him from me this most needful note.
He gives a paper.
BLUNT
FTLN 3382 Upon my life, my lord, I’ll undertake it,
FTLN 3383 45 And so God give you quiet rest tonight.
RICHMOND
FTLN 3384 Good night, good Captain Blunt. Blunt exits.
FTLN 3385 Come, gentlemen,
FTLN 3386 Let us consult upon tomorrow’s business.
FTLN 3387 Into my tent. The dew is raw and cold.
Richmond, Brandon, Dorset, Herbert, and Oxford
withdraw into the tent. The others exit.
Enter to his tent Richard, Ratcliffe, Norfolk, and
Catesby, with Soldiers.
RICHARD FTLN 3388 50 What is ’t o’clock?
CATESBY
FTLN 3389 It’s suppertime, my lord. It’s nine o’clock.
RICHARD
FTLN 3390 I will not sup tonight. Give me some ink and paper.
FTLN 3391 What, is my beaver easier than it was,
FTLN 3392 And all my armor laid into my tent?
CATESBY
FTLN 3393 55 It is, my liege, and all things are in readiness.
RICHARD
FTLN 3394 Good Norfolk, hie thee to thy charge.
FTLN 3395 Use careful watch. Choose trusty sentinels.

277
Richard III
ACT 5. SC. 3
NORFOLK FTLN 3396 I go, my lord.
RICHARD
FTLN 3397 Stir with the lark tomorrow, gentle Norfolk.
NORFOLK FTLN 3398 60 I warrant you, my lord. He exits.
RICHARD FTLN 3399 Catesby.
CATESBY FTLN 3400 My lord.
RICHARD FTLN 3401 Send out a pursuivant-at-arms
FTLN 3402 To Stanley’s regiment. Bid him bring his power
FTLN 3403 65 Before sunrising, lest his son George fall
FTLN 3404 Into the blind cave of eternal night. Catesby exits.
FTLN 3405 To Soldiers. Fill me a bowl of wine. Give me a
FTLN 3406 watch.
FTLN 3407 Saddle white Surrey for the field tomorrow.
FTLN 3408 70 Look that my staves be sound and not too heavy.—
FTLN 3409 Ratcliffe.
RATCLIFFE FTLN 3410 My lord.
RICHARD
FTLN 3411 Sawst thou the melancholy Lord Northumberland?
RATCLIFFE
FTLN 3412 Thomas the Earl of Surrey and himself,
FTLN 3413 75 Much about cockshut time, from troop to troop
FTLN 3414 Went through the army cheering up the soldiers.
RICHARD
FTLN 3415 So, I am satisfied. Give me a bowl of wine.
FTLN 3416 I have not that alacrity of spirit
FTLN 3417 Nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have.
Wine is brought.
FTLN 3418 80 Set it down. Is ink and paper ready?
RATCLIFFE
FTLN 3419 It is, my lord.
RICHARD FTLN 3420 Bid my guard watch. Leave me.
FTLN 3421 Ratcliffe, about the mid of night come to my tent
FTLN 3422 And help to arm me. Leave me, I say.
Ratcliffe exits. Richard sleeps in his tent,
which is guarded by Soldiers.

279
Richard III
ACT 5. SC. 3
Enter Stanley, Earl of Derby to Richmond in his tent.
STANLEY
FTLN 3423 85 Fortune and victory sit on thy helm!
RICHMOND
FTLN 3424 All comfort that the dark night can afford
FTLN 3425 Be to thy person, noble father-in-law.
FTLN 3426 Tell me, how fares our loving mother?
STANLEY
FTLN 3427 I, by attorney, bless thee from thy mother,
FTLN 3428 90 Who prays continually for Richmond’s good.
FTLN 3429 So much for that. The silent hours steal on,
FTLN 3430 And flaky darkness breaks within the east.
FTLN 3431 In brief, for so the season bids us be,
FTLN 3432 Prepare thy battle early in the morning,
FTLN 3433 95 And put thy fortune to the arbitrament
FTLN 3434 Of bloody strokes and mortal-staring war.
FTLN 3435 I, as I may—that which I would I cannot—
FTLN 3436 With best advantage will deceive the time
FTLN 3437 And aid thee in this doubtful shock of arms.
FTLN 3438 100 But on thy side I may not be too forward,
FTLN 3439 Lest, being seen, thy brother, tender George,
FTLN 3440 Be executed in his father’s sight.
FTLN 3441 Farewell. The leisure and the fearful time
FTLN 3442 Cuts off the ceremonious vows of love
FTLN 3443 105 And ample interchange of sweet discourse,
FTLN 3444 Which so-long-sundered friends should dwell upon.
FTLN 3445 God give us leisure for these rites of love!
FTLN 3446 Once more, adieu. Be valiant and speed well.
RICHMOND
FTLN 3447 Good lords, conduct him to his regiment.
FTLN 3448 110 I’ll strive with troubled thoughts to take a nap,
FTLN 3449 Lest leaden slumber peise me down tomorrow
FTLN 3450 When I should mount with wings of victory.
FTLN 3451 Once more, good night, kind lords and gentlemen.

281
Richard III
ACT 5. SC. 3
All but Richmond leave his tent and exit.
Richmond kneels.
FTLN 3452 O Thou, whose captain I account myself,
FTLN 3453 115 Look on my forces with a gracious eye.
FTLN 3454 Put in their hands Thy bruising irons of wrath,
FTLN 3455 That they may crush down with a heavy fall
FTLN 3456 The usurping helmets of our adversaries.
FTLN 3457 Make us Thy ministers of chastisement,
FTLN 3458 120 That we may praise Thee in the victory.
FTLN 3459 To Thee I do commend my watchful soul,
FTLN 3460 Ere I let fall the windows of mine eyes.
FTLN 3461 Sleeping and waking, O, defend me still! Sleeps.
Enter the Ghost of young Prince Edward, son to Harry
the Sixth.
GHOST OF EDWARD , (to Richard)
FTLN 3462 Let me sit heavy on thy soul tomorrow.
FTLN 3463 125 Think how thou stabbed’st me in my prime of
FTLN 3464 youth
FTLN 3465 At Tewkesbury. Despair therefore, and die!
FTLN 3466 (To Richmond.) Be cheerful, Richmond, for the
FTLN 3467 wrongèd souls
FTLN 3468 130 Of butchered princes fight in thy behalf.
FTLN 3469 King Henry’s issue, Richmond, comforts thee.
He exits.
Enter the Ghost of Henry the Sixth.
GHOST OF HENRY , (to Richard)
FTLN 3470 When I was mortal, my anointed body
FTLN 3471 By thee was punchèd full of deadly holes.
FTLN 3472 Think on the Tower and me. Despair and die!
FTLN 3473 135 Harry the Sixth bids thee despair and die.
FTLN 3474 (To Richmond.) Virtuous and holy, be thou conqueror.
FTLN 3475 Harry, that prophesied thou shouldst be king,
FTLN 3476 Doth comfort thee in thy sleep. Live and flourish.
He exits.

283
Richard III
ACT 5. SC. 3
Enter the Ghost of Clarence.
GHOST OF CLARENCE , (to Richard)
FTLN 3477 Let me sit heavy in thy soul tomorrow,
FTLN 3478 140 I, that was washed to death with fulsome wine,
FTLN 3479 Poor Clarence, by thy guile betrayed to death.
FTLN 3480 Tomorrow in the battle think on me,
FTLN 3481 And fall thy edgeless sword. Despair and die!
FTLN 3482 (To Richmond.) Thou offspring of the house of
FTLN 3483 145 Lancaster,
FTLN 3484 The wrongèd heirs of York do pray for thee.
FTLN 3485 Good angels guard thy battle. Live and flourish.
He exits.
Enter the Ghosts of Rivers, Grey, and Vaughan.
GHOST OF RIVERS , (to Richard)
FTLN 3486 Let me sit heavy in thy soul tomorrow,
FTLN 3487 Rivers, that died at Pomfret. Despair and die!
GHOST OF GREY , (to Richard)
FTLN 3488 150 Think upon Grey, and let thy soul despair!
GHOST OF VAUGHAN , (to Richard)
FTLN 3489 Think upon Vaughan, and with guilty fear
FTLN 3490 Let fall thy lance. Despair and die!
ALL , (to Richmond)
FTLN 3491 Awake, and think our wrongs in Richard’s bosom
FTLN 3492 Will conquer him. Awake, and win the day.
They exit.
Enter the Ghosts of the two young Princes.
GHOSTS OF PRINCES , (to Richard)
FTLN 3493 155 Dream on thy cousins smothered in the Tower.
FTLN 3494 Let us be lead within thy bosom, Richard,
FTLN 3495 And weigh thee down to ruin, shame, and death.
FTLN 3496 Thy nephews’ souls bid thee despair and die.
FTLN 3497 (To Richmond.) Sleep, Richmond, sleep in peace
FTLN 3498 160 and wake in joy.

285
Richard III
ACT 5. SC. 3
FTLN 3499 Good angels guard thee from the boar’s annoy.
FTLN 3500 Live, and beget a happy race of kings.
FTLN 3501 Edward’s unhappy sons do bid thee flourish.
They exit.
Enter the Ghost of Hastings.
GHOST OF HASTINGS , (to Richard)
FTLN 3502 Bloody and guilty, guiltily awake,
FTLN 3503 165 And in a bloody battle end thy days.
FTLN 3504 Think on Lord Hastings. Despair and die!
FTLN 3505 (To Richmond.) Quiet, untroubled soul, awake, awake.
FTLN 3506 Arm, fight, and conquer for fair England’s sake.
He exits.
Enter the Ghost of Lady Anne his wife.
GHOST OF ANNE , (to Richard)
FTLN 3507 Richard, thy wife, that wretched Anne thy wife,
FTLN 3508 170 That never slept a quiet hour with thee,
FTLN 3509 Now fills thy sleep with perturbations.
FTLN 3510 Tomorrow, in the battle, think on me,
FTLN 3511 And fall thy edgeless sword. Despair and die!
FTLN 3512 (To Richmond.) Thou quiet soul, sleep thou a quiet
FTLN 3513 175 sleep.
FTLN 3514 Dream of success and happy victory.
FTLN 3515 Thy adversary’s wife doth pray for thee. She exits.
Enter the Ghost of Buckingham.
GHOST OF BUCKINGHAM , (to Richard)
FTLN 3516 The first was I that helped thee to the crown;
FTLN 3517 The last was I that felt thy tyranny.
FTLN 3518 180 O, in the battle think on Buckingham,
FTLN 3519 And die in terror of thy guiltiness.
FTLN 3520 Dream on, dream on, of bloody deeds and death.
FTLN 3521 Fainting, despair; despairing, yield thy breath.
FTLN 3522 (To Richmond.) I died for hope ere I could lend
FTLN 3523 185 thee aid,

287
Richard III
ACT 5. SC. 3
FTLN 3524 But cheer thy heart, and be thou not dismayed.
FTLN 3525 God and good angels fight on Richmond’s side,
FTLN 3526 And Richard fall in height of all his pride.
He exits.
Richard starteth up out of a dream.
RICHARD
FTLN 3527 Give me another horse! Bind up my wounds!
FTLN 3528 190 Have mercy, Jesu!—Soft, I did but dream.
FTLN 3529 O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me!
FTLN 3530 The lights burn blue; it is now dead midnight.
FTLN 3531 Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh.
FTLN 3532 What do I fear? Myself? There’s none else by.
FTLN 3533 195 Richard loves Richard, that is, I am I.
FTLN 3534 Is there a murderer here? No. Yes, I am.
FTLN 3535 Then fly! What, from myself? Great reason why:
FTLN 3536 Lest I revenge. What, myself upon myself?
FTLN 3537 Alack, I love myself. Wherefore? For any good
FTLN 3538 200 That I myself have done unto myself?
FTLN 3539 O, no. Alas, I rather hate myself
FTLN 3540 For hateful deeds committed by myself.
FTLN 3541 I am a villain. Yet I lie; I am not.
FTLN 3542 Fool, of thyself speak well. Fool, do not flatter.
FTLN 3543 205 My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
FTLN 3544 And every tongue brings in a several tale,
FTLN 3545 And every tale condemns me for a villain.
FTLN 3546 Perjury, perjury, in the highest degree;
FTLN 3547 Murder, stern murder, in the direst degree;
FTLN 3548 210 All several sins, all used in each degree,
FTLN 3549 Throng to the bar, crying all “Guilty, guilty!”
FTLN 3550 I shall despair. There is no creature loves me,
FTLN 3551 And if I die no soul will pity me.
FTLN 3552 And wherefore should they, since that I myself
FTLN 3553 215 Find in myself no pity to myself?
FTLN 3554 Methought the souls of all that I had murdered
FTLN 3555 Came to my tent, and every one did threat
FTLN 3556 Tomorrow’s vengeance on the head of Richard.

289
Richard III
ACT 5. SC. 3
Enter Ratcliffe.
RATCLIFFE FTLN 3557 My lord.
RICHARD FTLN 3558 220 Zounds, who is there?
RATCLIFFE
FTLN 3559 Ratcliffe, my lord, ’tis I. The early village cock
FTLN 3560 Hath twice done salutation to the morn.
FTLN 3561 Your friends are up and buckle on their armor.
RICHARD
FTLN 3562 O Ratcliffe, I have dreamed a fearful dream!
FTLN 3563 225 What think’st thou, will our friends prove all true?
RATCLIFFE
FTLN 3564 No doubt, my lord.
RICHARD FTLN 3565 O Ratcliffe, I fear, I fear.
RATCLIFFE
FTLN 3566 Nay, good my lord, be not afraid of shadows.
RICHARD
FTLN 3567 By the apostle Paul, shadows tonight
FTLN 3568 230 Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard
FTLN 3569 Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers
FTLN 3570 Armed in proof and led by shallow Richmond.
FTLN 3571 ’Tis not yet near day. Come, go with me.
FTLN 3572 Under our tents I’ll play the eavesdropper
FTLN 3573 235 To see if any mean to shrink from me.
Richard and Ratcliffe exit.
Enter the Lords to Richmond, in his tent.
LORDS FTLN 3574 Good morrow, Richmond.
RICHMOND
FTLN 3575 Cry mercy, lords and watchful gentlemen,
FTLN 3576 That you have ta’en a tardy sluggard here.
A LORD FTLN 3577 How have you slept, my lord?
RICHMOND
FTLN 3578 240 The sweetest sleep and fairest-boding dreams
FTLN 3579 That ever entered in a drowsy head
FTLN 3580 Have I since your departure had, my lords.

291
Richard III
ACT 5. SC. 3
FTLN 3581 Methought their souls whose bodies Richard
FTLN 3582 murdered
FTLN 3583 245 Came to my tent and cried on victory.
FTLN 3584 I promise you, my soul is very jocund
FTLN 3585 In the remembrance of so fair a dream.
FTLN 3586 How far into the morning is it, lords?
A LORD FTLN 3587 Upon the stroke of four.
RICHMOND , leaving the tent
FTLN 3588 250 Why, then ’tis time to arm and give direction.
His oration to his soldiers.
FTLN 3589 More than I have said, loving countrymen,
FTLN 3590 The leisure and enforcement of the time
FTLN 3591 Forbids to dwell upon. Yet remember this:
FTLN 3592 God, and our good cause, fight upon our side.
FTLN 3593 255 The prayers of holy saints and wrongèd souls,
FTLN 3594 Like high-reared bulwarks, stand before our faces.
FTLN 3595 Richard except, those whom we fight against
FTLN 3596 Had rather have us win than him they follow.
FTLN 3597 For what is he they follow? Truly, gentlemen,
FTLN 3598 260 A bloody tyrant and a homicide;
FTLN 3599 One raised in blood, and one in blood established;
FTLN 3600 One that made means to come by what he hath,
FTLN 3601 And slaughtered those that were the means to help
FTLN 3602 him;
FTLN 3603 265 A base foul stone, made precious by the foil
FTLN 3604 Of England’s chair, where he is falsely set;
FTLN 3605 One that hath ever been God’s enemy.
FTLN 3606 Then if you fight against God’s enemy,
FTLN 3607 God will, in justice, ward you as his soldiers.
FTLN 3608 270 If you do sweat to put a tyrant down,
FTLN 3609 You sleep in peace, the tyrant being slain.
FTLN 3610 If you do fight against your country’s foes,
FTLN 3611 Your country’s fat shall pay your pains the hire.
FTLN 3612 If you do fight in safeguard of your wives,
FTLN 3613 275 Your wives shall welcome home the conquerors.

293
Richard III
ACT 5. SC. 3
FTLN 3614 If you do free your children from the sword,
FTLN 3615 Your children’s children quits it in your age.
FTLN 3616 Then, in the name of God and all these rights,
FTLN 3617 Advance your standards; draw your willing swords.
FTLN 3618 280 For me, the ransom of my bold attempt
FTLN 3619 Shall be this cold corpse on the Earth’s cold face,
FTLN 3620 But if I thrive, the gain of my attempt
FTLN 3621 The least of you shall share his part thereof.
FTLN 3622 Sound drums and trumpets boldly and cheerfully.
FTLN 3623 285 God, and Saint George, Richmond, and victory!
They exit.
Enter King Richard, Ratcliffe, and Soldiers.
RICHARD
FTLN 3624 What said Northumberland as touching Richmond?
RATCLIFFE
FTLN 3625 That he was never trainèd up in arms.
RICHARD
FTLN 3626 He said the truth. And what said Surrey then?
RATCLIFFE
FTLN 3627 He smiled and said “The better for our purpose.”
RICHARD
FTLN 3628 290 He was in the right, and so indeed it is.
The clock striketh.
FTLN 3629 Tell the clock there. Give me a calendar.
He looks in an almanac.
FTLN 3630 Who saw the sun today?
RATCLIFFE FTLN 3631 Not I, my lord.
RICHARD
FTLN 3632 Then he disdains to shine, for by the book
FTLN 3633 295 He should have braved the east an hour ago.
FTLN 3634 A black day will it be to somebody.
FTLN 3635 Ratcliffe!
RATCLIFFE
FTLN 3636 My lord.
RICHARD FTLN 3637 The sun will not be seen today.

295
Richard III
ACT 5. SC. 3
FTLN 3638 300 The sky doth frown and lour upon our army.
FTLN 3639 I would these dewy tears were from the ground.
FTLN 3640 Not shine today? Why, what is that to me
FTLN 3641 More than to Richmond, for the selfsame heaven
FTLN 3642 That frowns on me looks sadly upon him.
Enter Norfolk.
NORFOLK
FTLN 3643 305 Arm, arm, my lord. The foe vaunts in the field.
RICHARD
FTLN 3644 Come, bustle, bustle. Caparison my horse.—
FTLN 3645 Call up Lord Stanley; bid him bring his power.—
FTLN 3646 I will lead forth my soldiers to the plain,
FTLN 3647 And thus my battle shall be orderèd:
FTLN 3648 310 My foreward shall be drawn out all in length,
FTLN 3649 Consisting equally of horse and foot;
FTLN 3650 Our archers shall be placèd in the midst.
FTLN 3651 John Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Earl of Surrey,
FTLN 3652 Shall have the leading of this foot and horse.
FTLN 3653 315 They thus directed, we will follow
FTLN 3654 In the main battle, whose puissance on either side
FTLN 3655 Shall be well wingèd with our chiefest horse.
FTLN 3656 This, and Saint George to boot!—What think’st
FTLN 3657 thou, Norfolk?
NORFOLK
FTLN 3658 320 A good direction, warlike sovereign.
He sheweth him a paper.
FTLN 3659 This found I on my tent this morning.
RICHARD reads
FTLN 3660 Jockey of Norfolk, be not so bold.
FTLN 3661 For Dickon thy master is bought and sold.
FTLN 3662 A thing devisèd by the enemy.—
FTLN 3663 325 Go, gentlemen, every man unto his charge.
FTLN 3664 Let not our babbling dreams affright our souls.
FTLN 3665 Conscience is but a word that cowards use,
FTLN 3666 Devised at first to keep the strong in awe.

297
Richard III
ACT 5. SC. 3
FTLN 3667 Our strong arms be our conscience, swords our law.
FTLN 3668 330 March on. Join bravely. Let us to it pell mell,
FTLN 3669 If not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell.
His oration to his army.
FTLN 3670 What shall I say more than I have inferred?
FTLN 3671 Remember whom you are to cope withal,
FTLN 3672 A sort of vagabonds, rascals, and runaways,
FTLN 3673 335 A scum of Bretons and base lackey peasants,
FTLN 3674 Whom their o’ercloyèd country vomits forth
FTLN 3675 To desperate adventures and assured destruction.
FTLN 3676 You sleeping safe, they bring to you unrest;
FTLN 3677 You having lands and blessed with beauteous wives,
FTLN 3678 340 They would restrain the one, distain the other.
FTLN 3679 And who doth lead them but a paltry fellow,
FTLN 3680 Long kept in Brittany at our mother’s cost,
FTLN 3681 A milksop, one that never in his life
FTLN 3682 Felt so much cold as overshoes in snow?
FTLN 3683 345 Let’s whip these stragglers o’er the seas again,
FTLN 3684 Lash hence these overweening rags of France,
FTLN 3685 These famished beggars weary of their lives,
FTLN 3686 Who, but for dreaming on this fond exploit,
FTLN 3687 For want of means, poor rats, had hanged
FTLN 3688 350 themselves.
FTLN 3689 If we be conquered, let men conquer us,
FTLN 3690 And not these bastard Bretons, whom our fathers
FTLN 3691 Have in their own land beaten, bobbed, and
FTLN 3692 thumped,
FTLN 3693 355 And in record left them the heirs of shame.
FTLN 3694 Shall these enjoy our lands, lie with our wives,
FTLN 3695 Ravish our daughters? Drum afar off.
FTLN 3696 Hark, I hear their drum.
FTLN 3697 Fight, gentlemen of England.—Fight, bold
FTLN 3698 360 yeomen.—
FTLN 3699 Draw, archers; draw your arrows to the head.—

299
Richard III
ACT 5. SC. 4
FTLN 3700 Spur your proud horses hard, and ride in blood.
FTLN 3701 Amaze the welkin with your broken staves.—
Enter a Messenger.
FTLN 3702 What says Lord Stanley? Will he bring his power?
MESSENGER FTLN 3703 365 My lord, he doth deny to come.
RICHARD FTLN 3704 Off with his son George’s head!
NORFOLK
FTLN 3705 My lord, the enemy is past the marsh.
FTLN 3706 After the battle let George Stanley die.
RICHARD
FTLN 3707 A thousand hearts are great within my bosom.
FTLN 3708 370 Advance our standards. Set upon our foes.
FTLN 3709 Our ancient word of courage, fair Saint George,
FTLN 3710 Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons.
FTLN 3711 Upon them! Victory sits on our helms.
They exit.
Scene 4
Alarum. Excursions. Enter Norfolk, with Soldiers, and
Catesby.
CATESBY
FTLN 3712 Rescue, my lord of Norfolk, rescue, rescue!
FTLN 3713 The King enacts more wonders than a man,
FTLN 3714 Daring an opposite to every danger.
FTLN 3715 His horse is slain, and all on foot he fights,
FTLN 3716 5 Seeking for Richmond in the throat of death.
FTLN 3717 Rescue, fair lord, or else the day is lost.
Norfolk exits with Soldiers.
Alarums. Enter Richard.
RICHARD
FTLN 3718 A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!
CATESBY
FTLN 3719 Withdraw, my lord. I’ll help you to a horse.

301
Richard III
ACT 5. SC. 5
RICHARD
FTLN 3720 Slave, I have set my life upon a cast,
FTLN 3721 10 And I will stand the hazard of the die.
FTLN 3722 I think there be six Richmonds in the field;
FTLN 3723 Five have I slain today instead of him.
FTLN 3724 A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!
They exit.
Scene 5
Alarum. Enter Richard and Richmond. They fight.
Richard is slain. Then retreat being sounded, Richmond
exits, and Richard’s body is removed. Flourish. Enter
Richmond, Stanley, Earl of Derby, bearing the crown,
with other Lords, and Soldiers.
RICHMOND
FTLN 3725 God and your arms be praised, victorious friends!
FTLN 3726 The day is ours; the bloody dog is dead.
STANLEY , offering him the crown
FTLN 3727 Courageous Richmond, well hast thou acquit thee.
FTLN 3728 Lo, here this long-usurpèd royalty
FTLN 3729 5 From the dead temples of this bloody wretch
FTLN 3730 Have I plucked off, to grace thy brows withal.
FTLN 3731 Wear it, enjoy it, and make much of it.
RICHMOND
FTLN 3732 Great God of heaven, say amen to all!
FTLN 3733 But tell me, is young George Stanley living?
STANLEY
FTLN 3734 10 He is, my lord, and safe in Leicester town,
FTLN 3735 Whither, if it please you, we may now withdraw us.
RICHMOND
FTLN 3736 What men of name are slain on either side?
STANLEY
FTLN 3737 John, Duke of Norfolk, Walter, Lord Ferrers,
FTLN 3738 Sir Robert Brakenbury, and Sir William Brandon.

303
Richard III
ACT 5. SC. 5
RICHMOND
FTLN 3739 15 Inter their bodies as becomes their births.
FTLN 3740 Proclaim a pardon to the soldiers fled
FTLN 3741 That in submission will return to us.
FTLN 3742 And then, as we have ta’en the sacrament,
FTLN 3743 We will unite the white rose and the red;
FTLN 3744 20 Smile heaven upon this fair conjunction,
FTLN 3745 That long have frowned upon their enmity.
FTLN 3746 What traitor hears me and says not “Amen”?
FTLN 3747 England hath long been mad and scarred herself:
FTLN 3748 The brother blindly shed the brother’s blood;
FTLN 3749 25 The father rashly slaughtered his own son;
FTLN 3750 The son, compelled, been butcher to the sire.
FTLN 3751 All this divided York and Lancaster,
FTLN 3752 Divided in their dire division.
FTLN 3753 O, now let Richmond and Elizabeth,
FTLN 3754 30 The true succeeders of each royal house,
FTLN 3755 By God’s fair ordinance conjoin together,
FTLN 3756 And let their heirs, God, if Thy will be so,
FTLN 3757 Enrich the time to come with smooth-faced peace,
FTLN 3758 With smiling plenty and fair prosperous days.
FTLN 3759 35 Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord,
FTLN 3760 That would reduce these bloody days again
FTLN 3761 And make poor England weep in streams of blood.
FTLN 3762 Let them not live to taste this land’s increase,
FTLN 3763 That would with treason wound this fair land’s peace.
FTLN 3764 40 Now civil wounds are stopped, peace lives again.
FTLN 3765 That she may long live here, God say amen.
They exit.