William Shakespeare - King Richard the Third

LADY ANNE

If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,

These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.

GLOUCESTER

These eyes could never endure sweet beauty's wreck;

You should not blemish it, if I stood by:As all the world is cheered by the sun,So I by that; it is my day, my life.

LADY ANNE

Black night o'ershade thy day, and death thy life!

GLOUCESTER

Curse not thyself, fair creature thou art both.

LADY ANNE

I would I were, to be revenged on thee.

GLOUCESTER

It is a quarrel most unnatural,

To be revenged on him that loveth you.

LADY ANNE

It is a quarrel just and reasonable,

To be revenged on him that slew my husband.

GLOUCESTER

He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband,

Did it to help thee to a better husband.

LADY ANNE

His better doth not breathe upon the earth.

GLOUCESTER

He lives that loves thee better than he could.

LADY ANNE

Name him.

GLOUCESTER

Plantagenet.

LADY ANNE

Why, that was he.

GLOUCESTER

The selfsame name, but one of better nature.

LADY ANNE

Where is he?

GLOUCESTER

Here.

She spitteth at him

Why dost thou spit at me?

LADY ANNE

Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake!

GLOUCESTER

Never came poison from so sweet a place.

LADY ANNE

Never hung poison on a fouler toad.

Out of my sight! thou dost infect my eyes.

GLOUCESTER

Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.

LADY ANNE

Would they were basilisks, to strike thee dead!

GLOUCESTER

I would they were, that I might die at once;

For now they kill me with a living death.Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,Shamed their aspect with store of childish drops:These eyes that never shed remorseful tear,No, when my father York and Edward wept,To hear the piteous moan that Rutland madeWhen black-faced Clifford shook his sword at him;Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,Told the sad story of my father's death,And twenty times made pause to sob and weep,That all the standers-by had wet their cheeksLike trees bedash'd with rain: in that sad timeMy manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.I never sued to friend nor enemy;My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing word;But now thy beauty is proposed my fee,My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak.

She looks scornfully at him

Teach not thy lips such scorn, for they were made

For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,Lo, here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword;Which if thou please to hide in this true bosom.And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,I lay it naked to the deadly stroke,And humbly beg the death upon my knee.

He lays his breast open: she offers at it with his sword

Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry,

But 'twas thy beauty that provoked me.Nay, now dispatch; 'twas I that stabb'd young Edward,But 'twas thy heavenly face that set me on.

Here she lets fall the sword

Take up the sword again, or take up me.

LADY ANNE

Arise, dissembler: though I wish thy death,

I will not be the executioner.

GLOUCESTER

Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.

LADY ANNE

I have already.

GLOUCESTER

Tush, that was in thy rage:

Speak it again, and, even with the word,That hand, which, for thy love, did kill thy love,Shall, for thy love, kill a far truer love;To both their deaths thou shalt be accessary.

LADY ANNE

I would I knew thy heart.

GLOUCESTER

'Tis figured in my tongue.

LADY ANNE

I fear me both are false.

GLOUCESTER

Then never man was true.

LADY ANNE

Well, well, put up your sword.

GLOUCESTER

Say, then, my peace is made.

LADY ANNE

That shall you know hereafter.

GLOUCESTER

But shall I live in hope?

LADY ANNE

All men, I hope, live so.

GLOUCESTER

Vouchsafe to wear this ring.

LADY ANNE

To take is not to give.

GLOUCESTER

Look, how this ring encompasseth finger.

Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart;Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.And if thy poor devoted suppliant mayBut beg one favour at thy gracious hand,Thou dost confirm his happiness for ever.

LADY ANNE

What is it?

GLOUCESTER

That it would please thee leave these sad designs

To him that hath more cause to be a mourner,And presently repair to Crosby Place;Where, after I have solemnly interr'dAt Chertsey monastery this noble king,And wet his grave with my repentant tears,I will with all expedient duty see you:For divers unknown reasons. I beseech you,Grant me this boon.

LADY ANNE

With all my heart; and much it joys me too,

To see you are become so penitent.Tressel and Berkeley, go along with me.

GLOUCESTER

Bid me farewell.

LADY ANNE

'Tis more than you deserve;

But since you teach me how to flatter you,Imagine I have said farewell already.

Exeunt LADY ANNE, TRESSEL, and BERKELEY

GLOUCESTER

Sirs, take up the corse.

GENTLEMEN

Towards Chertsey, noble lord?

GLOUCESTER

No, to White-Friars; there attend my coining.

Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER

Was ever woman in this humour woo'd?

Was ever woman in this humour won?I'll have her; but I will not keep her long.What! I, that kill'd her husband and his father,To take her in her heart's extremest hate,With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes,The bleeding witness of her hatred by;Having God, her conscience, and these barsagainst me,And I nothing to back my suit at all,But the plain devil and dissembling looks,And yet to win her, all the world to nothing!Ha!Hath she forgot already that brave prince,Edward, her lord, whom I, some three months since,Stabb'd in my angry mood at Tewksbury?A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman,Framed in the prodigality of nature,Young, valiant, wise, and, no doubt, right royal,The spacious world cannot again affordAnd will she yet debase her eyes on me,That cropp'd the golden prime of this sweet prince,And made her widow to a woful bed?On me, whose all not equals Edward's moiety?On me, that halt and am unshapen thus?My dukedom to a beggarly denier,I do mistake my person all this while:Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,Myself to be a marvellous proper man.I'll be at charges for a looking-glass,And entertain some score or two of tailors,To study fashions to adorn my body:Since I am crept in favour with myself,Will maintain it with some little cost.But first I'll turn yon fellow in his grave;And then return lamenting to my love.Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass,That I may see my shadow as I pass.

Exit

The palace.

Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH, RIVERS, and GREY

RIVERS

Have patience, madam: there's no doubt his majesty

Will soon recover his accustom'd health.

GREY

In that you brook it in, it makes him worse:

Therefore, for God's sake, entertain good comfort,And cheer his grace with quick and merry words.

QUEEN ELIZABETH

If he were dead, what would betide of me?

RIVERS

No other harm but loss of such a lord.

QUEEN ELIZABETH

The loss of such a lord includes all harm.

GREY

The heavens have bless'd you with a goodly son,

To be your comforter when he is gone.

QUEEN ELIZABETH

Oh, he is young and his minority

Is put unto the trust of Richard Gloucester,A man that loves not me, nor none of you.

RIVERS

Is it concluded that he shall be protector?

QUEEN ELIZABETH

It is determined, not concluded yet: