But beg one favour at thy gracious hand, Glo. That it may please you leave these sad designs To him that hath more cause to be a mourner, Anne. With all my heart: and much it joys me too To see you are become so penitent.- 'Tis more than you deserve: But since you teach me how to flatter you, Gent. Towards Chertsey, noble lord? And I no friends to back my suit withal Ha! hath she forgot already that brave prince, Young, valiant, wise, and no doubt right royal, On me, whose all not equals Edward's moiety: I do mistake my person all this while : [Exit. SCENE III.-The same. A Room in the Palace. Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH, LORD RIVERS, and LORD GREY. Riv. Have patience, madam: there's no doubt his majesty Will soon recover his accustomed health. worse: Therefore for God's sake entertain good comfort, And cheer his grace with quick and merry words. Q. Eliz. If he were dead what would betide of me? Grey. No other harm but loss of such a lord. Q. Eliz. The loss of such a lord includes all harms. Grey. The heavens have blessed you with a goodly son, To be your comforter when he is gone. Q. Eliz. Ah he is young; and his minority Is put into the trust of Richard Gloster, A man that loves not me nor none of you. Riv. Is it concluded he shall be protector? Q. Eliz. It is determined, not concluded yet: But so it must be if the King miscarry. Enter BUCKINGHAM and STANLEY. Grey. Here come the lords of Buckingham and Stanley. Buck. Good time of day unto your royal grace. Stan. God make your majesty joyful as you have been. Q. Eliz. The Countess Richmond, good my lord of Stanley, To your good prayer will scarcely say amen. Yet, Stanley, notwithstanding she 's your wife, And loves not me, be you, good lord, assured I hate not you for her proud arrogance. Stan. I do beseech you, either not believe The envious slanders of her false accusers, Or, if she be accused on true report, Bear with her weakness; which I think proceeds From wayward sickness, and no grounded malice. Q. Eliz. Saw you the King to-day, my lord of Stanley? Stan. But now the Duke of Buckingham and I Are come from visiting his majesty. Q. Eliz. What likelihood of his amendment, lords? Buck. Madam, good hope: his grace speaks cheerfully. Q. Eliz. God grant him health! Did you confer with him? Buck. Ay, Madam: he desires to make atone ment Between the Duke of Gloster and your brothers, I fear our happiness is at the height. Enter GLOSTER, HASTINGS, ana DORSET. Glo. They do me wrong, and I will not endure it. Who are they that complain unto the King That I, forsooth, am stern and love them not? By holy Paul, they love his grace but lightly That fill his ears with such dissentious rumours. Because I cannot flatter and speak fair, Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive, and cog, Duck with French nods and apish courtesy, I must be held a rancorous enemy. Cannot a plain man live and think no harm, But thus his simple truth must be abused By silken, sly, insinuating Jacks? Grey. To whom in all this presence speaks Q. Eliz. Brother of Gloster, you mistake the matter: The King, of his own royal disposition, Q. Eliz. Come, come, we know your meaning, You envy my advancement and my friends'. Q. Eliz. By Him that raised me to this careful height From that contented hap which I enjoyed, Against the Duke of Clarence, but have been Glo. You may deny that you were not the cause Glo. She may, Lord Rivers ?-Why, who knows She may do more, sir, than denying that: Riv. What, marry, may she? Glo. What marry, may she? marry with a king; A bachelor, a handsome stripling too. I wis your grandam had a worser match. Q. Eliz. My lord of Gloster, I have too long Your blunt upbraidings and your bitter scoffs: Enter QUEEN MARGARET, behind. Q. Mar. And lessened be that small, God I beseech thee!— Thy honour, state, and seat, is due to me. Tell him, and spare not. Look, what I have said I dare adventure to be sent to the Tower. "T is time to speak; my pains are quite forgot. Q. Mar. Out, devil! I remember them too well: Thou kill'dst my husband Henry in the Tower, And Edward, my poor son, at Tewkesbury. Glo. Ere you were queen, ay or your husband king, I was a packhorse in his great affairs; Q. Mar. Ay, and much better blood than his Glo. In all which time you and your husband Were factious for the house of Lancaster: Q. Mar. A murd'rous villain; and so still Glo. Poor Clarence did forsake his father Ay, and forswore himself,-which Jesu pardon!- Glo. To fight on Edward's party, for the crown: And for his meed, poor lord, he is mewed up. I would to God my heart were flint, like Edward's, Or Edward's soft and pitiful, like mine: I am too childish-foolish for this world. Q. Mar. Hie thee to hell for shame, and leave this world Thou cacodæmon! there thy kingdom is. Riv. My lord of Gloster, in those busy days, Which here you urge to prove us enemies, We followed then our lord, our lawful king: So should we you, if you should be our king. Glo. If I should be!-I had rather be a pedlar: Far be it from my heart the thought thereof! Q. Eliz. As little joy, my lord, as you suppose You should enjoy were you this country's king; As little joy you may suppose in me That I enjoy, being the queen thereof. Q. Mar. A little joy enjoys the queen thereof: For I am she, and altogether joyless. In sharing that which you have pilled from ine: Glo. Foul wrinkled witch, what mak'st thou Q. Mar. But repetition of what thou hast marred: That will I make before I let thee go. Glo. Wert thou not banished on pain of death? Q. Mar. I was: but I do find more pain in banishment Than death can yield me here by my abode. A husband and a son thou ow'st to me ;And thou a kingdom :—all of you, allegiance. This sorrow that I have by right is yours; And all the pleasures you usurp are mine. Glo. The curse my noble father laid on thee, When thou didst crown his warlike brows with paper, And with thy scorns drew'st rivers from his eyes; And then, to dry them, gav'st the duke a clout Steeped in the faultless blood of pretty Rutland ; — His curses, then from bitterness of soul Denounced against thee, are all fallen upon thee; And God, not we, hath plagued thy bloody deed. Q. Eliz. So just is God to right the innocent. Hast. O't was the foulest deed to slay that babe, And the most merciless, that e'er was heard of. Riv. Tyrants themselves wept when it was reported. Dors. No man but prophesied revenge for it. Buck. Northumberland, then present, wept to see it. Q. Mar. What! were you snarling all before Ready to catch each other by the throat, Heaven, That Henry's death, my lovely Edward's death, Though not by war, by surfeit die your king, Long die thy happy days before thy death; him That none of you may live your natural age, Glo. Have done thy charm, thou hateful withered hag. Q. Mar. And leave out thee? stay, dog, for thou shalt hear me. If heaven have any grievous plague in store Q. Mar. Richard! Q. Mar. I call thee not. Glo. I cry thee mercy, then; for I did think That thou had'st called me all these bitter names. Q. Mar. Why so I did, but looked for no reply. O let me make the period to my curse. Glo. "T is done by me, and ends in "Margaret." Q. Eliz. Thus have you breathed your curse against yourself. Q. Mar. Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my fortune! Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider, Hast. False-boding woman, end thy frantic curse, Lest to thy harm thou move our patience. moved mine. Riv. Were you well served, you would be taught your duty. Q. Mar. 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. Dor. Dispute not with her; she is lunatic. Q. Mar. Peace, master marquis; you are Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current. And if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces. marquis. Dor. It touches you, my lord, as much as me. Glo. Ay, and much more: but I was born so high, Our aiery buildeth in the cedar's top, And dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun. Q. Mar. And turns the sun to shade :-alas, alas ! Witness my son, now in the shade of death, Buck. Peace,peace, for shame, if not for charity. Q. Mar. O princely Buckingham, I kiss thy In sign of league and amity with thee. Buck. Nor no one here: for curses never pass And there awake God's gentle-sleeping peace. bites, His venom tooth will rankle to the death. Glo. What doth she say, my lord of Bucking ham ? Buck. Nothing that I respect, my gracious lord. Q. Mar. What, dost thou scorn me for my gentle counsel, And soothe the devil that I warn thee from? curses. Riv. And so doth mine: I muse why she's at liberty. Glo. I cannot blame her, by God's holy mother: She hath had too much wrong, and I repent My part thereof that I have done to her. Q. Eliz. I never did her any, to my knowledge. Glo. Yet you have all the 'vantage of her wrong. I was too hot to do somebody good, To pray for them that have done scathe to us. Enter CATESBY. Cates. Madam, his majesty doth call for you: And for your grace and you, my noble lords. Q. Eliz. Catesby, I come.-Lords, will you go with me? Riv. Madam, we will attend upon your grace. [Exeunt all but GLOSTER. Glo. 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, whom I indeed have laid in darkness, I do beweep to many simple gulls; Namely, to Stanley, Hastings, Buckingham; And tell them 't is the Queen and her allies That stir the King against the duke my brother. Now they believe it; and withal whet me To 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 villany With old odd 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.— |