King Richard III Part 4

BUCKINGHAM. Peace, peace, for shame, if not for charity!

QUEEN MARGARET. Urge neither charity nor shame to me.

Uncharitably with me have you dealt, And shamefully my hopes by you are butcher'd.

My charity is outrage, life my shame; And 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 befall thee and thy n.o.ble house!

Thy garments are not spotted with our blood, Nor thou within the compa.s.s of my curse.

BUCKINGHAM. Nor no one here; for curses never pa.s.s The lips of those that breathe them in the air.

QUEEN MARGARET. I will not think but they ascend the sky And there awake G.o.d'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 h.e.l.l, 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 G.o.d's! Exit BUCKINGHAM. My hair doth stand an end to hear her curses.

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

GLOUCESTER. I cannot blame her; by G.o.d's holy Mother, She hath had too much wrong; and I repent My part thereof that I have done to her.

QUEEN ELIZABETH. I never did her any to my knowledge.

GLOUCESTER. Yet 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 pains; G.o.d pardon them that are the cause thereof!

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 advis'd; For had I curs'd now, I had curs'd myself.

Enter CATESBY

CATESBY. Madam, his Majesty doth can for you, And for your Grace, and you, my gracious lords.

QUEEN ELIZABETH. Catesby, I come. Lords, will you go with me?

RIVERS. We wait upon your Grace.

Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER GLOUCESTER. I do the wrong, and first begin to brawl.

The secret mischiefs that I set abroach I lay unto the grievous charge of others.

Clarence, who I indeed have cast in darkness, I do beweep to many simple gulls; Namely, to Derby, Hastings, Buckingham; And tell them 'tis the Queen and her allies That stir the King against the Duke my brother.

Now they believe it, and withal whet me To be reveng'd on Rivers, Dorset, Grey; But then I sigh and, with a piece of Scripture, Tell them that G.o.d bids us do good for evil.

And thus I clothe my naked villainy With odd old ends stol'n forth of holy writ, And seem a saint when most I play the devil.

Enter two MURDERERS

But, soft, here come my executioners.

How now, my hardy stout resolved mates!

Are you now going to dispatch this thing?

FIRST MURDERER. We are, my lord, and come to have the warrant, That we may be admitted where he is.

GLOUCESTER. Well thought upon; I have it here about me.

[Gives the warrant]

When you have done, repair to Crosby Place.

But, sirs, be sudden in the execution, Withal obdurate, do not hear him plead; For Clarence is well-spoken, and perhaps May move your hearts to pity, if you mark him.

FIRST MURDERER. Tut, tut, my lord, we will not stand to prate; Talkers are no good doers. Be a.s.sur'd We go to use our hands and not our tongues.

GLOUCESTER. Your eyes drop millstones when fools' eyes fall tears.

I like you, lads; about your business straight; Go, go, dispatch.

FIRST MURDERER. We will, my n.o.ble lord. Exeunt

SCENE 4.

London. The Tower

Enter CLARENCE and KEEPER

KEEPER. Why looks your Grace so heavily to-day?

CLARENCE. O, I have pa.s.s'd a miserable night, So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights, That, as I am a Christian faithful man, I would not spend another such a night Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days- So full of dismal terror was the time!

KEEPER. What was your dream, my lord? I pray you tell me.

CLARENCE. Methoughts that I had broken from the Tower And was embark'd to cross to Burgundy; And in my company my brother Gloucester, Who from my cabin tempted me to walk Upon the hatches. Thence we look'd toward England, And cited up a thousand heavy times, During the wars of York and Lancaster, That had befall'n us. As we pac'd along Upon the giddy footing of the hatches, Methought that Gloucester stumbled, and in falling Struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard Into the tumbling billows of the main.

O Lord, methought what pain it was to drown, What dreadful noise of waters in my ears, What sights of ugly death within my eyes!

Methoughts I saw a thousand fearful wrecks, A thousand men that fishes gnaw'd upon, Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels, All scatt'red in the bottom of the sea; Some lay in dead men's skulls, and in the holes Where eyes did once inhabit there were crept, As 'twere in scorn of eyes, reflecting gems, That woo'd the slimy bottom of the deep And mock'd the dead bones that lay scatt'red by.

KEEPER. Had you such leisure in the time of death To gaze upon these secrets of the deep?

CLARENCE. Methought I had; and often did I strive To yield the ghost, but still the envious flood Stopp'd in my soul and would not let it forth To find the empty, vast, and wand'ring air; But smother'd it within my panting bulk, Who almost burst to belch it in the sea.

KEEPER. Awak'd you not in this sore agony?

CLARENCE. No, no, my dream was lengthen'd after life.

O, then began the tempest to my soul!

I pa.s.s'd, methought, the melancholy flood With that sour ferryman which poets write of, Unto the kingdom of perpetual night.

The first that there did greet my stranger soul Was my great father-in-law, renowned Warwick, Who spake aloud 'What scourge for perjury Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?'

And so he vanish'd. Then came wand'ring by A shadow like an angel, with bright hair Dabbled in blood, and he shriek'd out aloud 'Clarence is come-false, fleeting, perjur'd Clarence, That stabb'd me in the field by Tewksbury.

Seize on him, Furies, take him unto torment!'

With that, methoughts, a legion of foul fiends Environ'd me, and howled in mine ears Such hideous cries that, with the very noise, I trembling wak'd, and for a season after Could not believe but that I was in h.e.l.l, Such terrible impression made my dream.

KEEPER. No marvel, lord, though it affrighted you; I am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it.

CLARENCE. Ah, Keeper, Keeper, I have done these things That now give evidence against my soul For Edward's sake, and see how he requites me!

O G.o.d! If my deep prayers cannot appease Thee, But Thou wilt be aveng'd on my misdeeds, Yet execute Thy wrath in me alone; O, spare my guiltless wife and my poor children!

KEEPER, I prithee sit by me awhile; My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep.

KEEPER. I will, my lord. G.o.d give your Grace good rest.

[CLARENCE sleeps]

Enter BRAKENBURY the Lieutenant

BRAKENBURY. Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours, Makes the night morning and the noontide night.

Princes have but their t.i.tles for their glories, An outward honour for an inward toil; And for unfelt imaginations They often feel a world of restless cares, So that between their tides and low name There's nothing differs but the outward fame.

Enter the two MURDERERS

FIRST MURDERER. Ho! who's here?

BRAKENBURY. What wouldst thou, fellow, and how cam'st thou hither?

FIRST MURDERER. I would speak with Clarence, and I came hither on my legs.

BRAKENBURY. What, so brief?

SECOND MURDERER. 'Tis better, sir, than to be tedious. Let him see our commission and talk no more.

[BRAKENBURY reads it]

BRAKENBURY. I am, in this, commanded to deliver The n.o.ble Duke of Clarence to your hands.

I will not reason what is meant hereby, Because I will be guiltless from the meaning.

There lies the Duke asleep; and there the keys.