William Shakespeare - King Richard the Third

GLOUCESTER

The curse my noble father laid on thee,

When thou didst crown his warlike brows with paperAnd with thy scorns drew'st rivers from his eyes,And then, to dry them, gavest the duke a cloutSteep'd in the faultless blood of pretty Rutland--His curses, then from bitterness of soulDenounced against thee, are all fall'n upon thee;And God, not we, hath plagued thy bloody deed.

QUEEN ELIZABETH

So just is God, to right the innocent.

HASTINGS

O, 'twas the foulest deed to slay that babe,

And the most merciless that e'er was heard of!

RIVERS

Tyrants themselves wept when it was reported.

DORSET

No man but prophesied revenge for it.

BUCKINGHAM

Northumberland, then present, wept to see it.

QUEEN MARGARET

What were you snarling all before I came,

Ready to catch each other by the throat,And turn you all your hatred now on me?Did York's dread curse prevail so much with heaven?That Henry's death, my lovely Edward's death,Their kingdom's loss, my woful banishment,Could all but answer for that peevish brat?Can curses pierce the clouds and enter heaven?Why, then, give way, dull clouds, to my quick curses!If not by war, by surfeit die your king,As ours by murder, to make him a king!Edward thy son, which now is Prince of Wales,For Edward my son, which was Prince of Wales,Die in his youth by like untimely violence!Thyself a queen, for me that was a queen,Outlive thy glory, like my wretched self!Long mayst thou live to wail thy children's loss;And see another, as I see thee now,Deck'd in thy rights, as thou art stall'd in mine!Long die thy happy days before thy death;And, after many lengthen'd hours of grief,Die neither mother, wife, nor England's queen!Rivers and Dorset, you were standers by,And so wast thou, Lord Hastings, when my sonWas stabb'd with bloody daggers: God, I pray him,That none of you may live your natural age,But by some unlook'd accident cut off!

GLOUCESTER

Have done thy charm, thou hateful wither'd hag!

QUEEN MARGARET

And leave out thee? stay, dog, for thou shalt hear me.

If heaven have any grievous plague in storeExceeding those that I can wish upon thee,O, let them keep it till thy sins be ripe,And then hurl down their indignationOn thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace!The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul!Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou livest,And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends!No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine,Unless it be whilst some tormenting dreamAffrights thee with a hell of ugly devils!Thou elvish-mark'd, abortive, rooting hog!Thou that wast seal'd in thy nativityThe slave of nature and the son of hell!Thou slander of thy mother's heavy womb!Thou loathed issue of thy father's loins!Thou rag of honour! thou detested--

GLOUCESTER

Margaret.

QUEEN MARGARET

Richard!

GLOUCESTER

Ha!

QUEEN MARGARET

I call thee not.

GLOUCESTER

I cry thee mercy then, for I had thought

That thou hadst call'd me all these bitter names.

QUEEN MARGARET

Why, so I did; but look'd for no reply.

O, let me make the period to my curse!

GLOUCESTER

'Tis done by me, and ends in 'Margaret.'

QUEEN ELIZABETH

Thus have you breathed your curse against yourself.

QUEEN MARGARET

Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my fortune!

Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider,Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about?Fool, fool! thou whet'st a knife to kill thyself.The time will come when thou shalt wish for meTo help thee curse that poisonous bunchback'd toad.

HASTINGS

False-boding woman, end thy frantic curse,

Lest to thy harm thou move our patience.

QUEEN MARGARET

Foul shame upon you! you have all moved mine.

RIVERS

Were you well served, you would be taught your duty.

QUEEN MARGARET

To serve me well, you all should do me duty,

Teach me to be your queen, and you my subjects:O, serve me well, and teach yourselves that duty!

DORSET

Dispute not with her; she is lunatic.

QUEEN MARGARET

Peace, master marquess, you are malapert:

Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current.O, that your young nobility could judgeWhat 'twere to lose it, and be miserable!They that stand high have many blasts to shake them;And if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces.

GLOUCESTER

Good counsel, marry: learn it, learn it, marquess.

DORSET

It toucheth you, my lord, as much as me.

GLOUCESTER

Yea, and much more: but I was born so high,

Our aery buildeth in the cedar's top,And dallies with the wind and scorns the sun.

QUEEN MARGARET

And turns the sun to shade; alas! alas!

Witness my son, now in the shade of death;Whose bright out-shining beams thy cloudy wrathHath in eternal darkness folded up.Your aery buildeth in our aery's nest.O God, that seest it, do not suffer it!As it was won with blood, lost be it so!

BUCKINGHAM

Have done! for shame, if not for charity.

QUEEN MARGARET

Urge neither charity nor shame to me:

Uncharitably with me have you dealt,And shamefully by you my hopes are butcher'd.My charity is outrage, life my shameAnd in that shame still live my sorrow's rage.

BUCKINGHAM

Have done, have done.

QUEEN MARGARET

O princely Buckingham I'll kiss thy hand,

In sign of league and amity with thee:Now fair befal thee and thy noble house!Thy garments are not spotted with our blood,Nor thou within the compass of my curse.

BUCKINGHAM

Nor no one here; for curses never pass

The lips of those that breathe them in the air.

QUEEN MARGARET

I'll not believe but they ascend the sky,

And there awake God's gentle-sleeping peace.O Buckingham, take heed of yonder dog!Look, when he fawns, he bites; and when he bites,His venom tooth will rankle to the death:Have not to do with him, beware of him;Sin, death, and hell have set their marks on him,And all their ministers attend on him.

GLOUCESTER

What doth she say, my Lord of Buckingham?

BUCKINGHAM

Nothing that I respect, my gracious lord.

QUEEN MARGARET

What, dost thou scorn me for my gentle counsel?

And soothe the devil that I warn thee from?O, but remember this another day,When he shall split thy very heart with sorrow,And say poor Margaret was a prophetess!Live each of you the subjects to his hate,And he to yours, and all of you to God's!

Exit

HASTINGS

My hair doth stand on end to hear her curses.

RIVERS

And so doth mine: I muse why she's at liberty.

GLOUCESTER

I cannot blame her: by God's holy mother,

She hath had too much wrong; and I repentMy part thereof that I have done to her.

QUEEN ELIZABETH

I never did her any, to my knowledge.

GLOUCESTER

But you have all the vantage of her wrong.

I was too hot to do somebody good,That is too cold in thinking of it now.Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repaid,He is frank'd up to fatting for his painsGod pardon them that are the cause of it!

RIVERS

A virtuous and a Christian-like conclusion,

To pray for them that have done scathe to us.

GLOUCESTER

So do I ever:

Aside

being well-advised.

For had I cursed now, I had cursed myself.

Enter CATESBY

CATESBY

Madam, his majesty doth call for you,

And for your grace; and you, my noble lords.

QUEEN ELIZABETH

Catesby, we come. Lords, will you go with us?

RIVERS

Madam, we will attend your grace.

Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER

GLOUCESTER

I do the wrong, and first begin to brawl.

The secret mischiefs that I set abroachI lay unto the grievous charge of others.Clarence, whom I, indeed, have laid in darkness,I do beweep to many simple gullsNamely, to Hastings, Derby, Buckingham;And say it is the queen and her alliesThat stir the king against the duke my brother.Now, they believe it; and withal whet meTo be revenged on Rivers, Vaughan, Grey:But then I sigh; and, with a piece of scripture,Tell them that God bids us do good for evil:And thus I clothe my naked villanyWith old odd ends stolen out of holy writ;And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.