Part 42
_Glou._ Have done thy charm, thou hateful wither’d hag! ·fac215·
_Q. Mar._ And leave out thee? stay, dog, for thou shalt hear me. [fac216] If heaven have any grievous plague in store [fac217] Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee, O, let them keep it till thy sins be ripe, And then hurl down their indignation ·fac220· On thee, the troubler of the poor world’s peace! [fac221] The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul! Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou livest, And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends! [fac224] No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine, [fac225] Unless it be whilst some tormenting dream [fac226] Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils! [fac227] Thou elvish-mark’d, abortive, rooting hog! [fac228] Thou that wast seal’d in thy nativity The slave of nature and the son of hell! [fac230] Thou slander of thy mother’s heavy womb! [fac231] Thou loathed issue of thy father’s loins! Thou rag of honour! thou detested-- [fac233]
_Glou._ Margaret.
_Q. Mar._ Richard!
_Glou._ Ha!
_Q. Mar._ I call thee not. [fac234]
_Glou._ I cry thee mercy then, for I had thought [fac235] That thou hadst call’d me all these bitter names. [fac236]
_Q. Mar._ Why, so I did; but look’d for no reply. [fac237] O, let me make the period to my curse!
_Glou._ ’Tis done by me, and ends in ‘Margaret.’ [fac239]
_Q. Eliz._ Thus have you breathed your curse against yourself. [fac240]
_Q. Mar._ Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my fortune! Why strew’st thou sugar on that bottled spider, [fac242] Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about? Fool, fool! thou whet’st a knife to kill thyself. The time will come that thou shalt wish for me [fac245] To help thee curse that poisonous bunch-back’d toad. [fac246]
_Hast._ False-boding woman, end thy frantic curse, [fac247] Lest to thy harm thou move our patience.
_Q. Mar._ Foul shame upon you! you have all moved mine. [fac249]
_Riv._ Were you well served, you would be taught your duty. ·fac250·
_Q. Mar._ To serve me well, you all should do me duty, [fac251] Teach me to be your queen, and you my subjects: [fac252] O, serve me well, and teach yourselves that duty! [fac253]
_Dor._ Dispute not with her; she is lunatic.
_Q. Mar._ Peace, master marquess, you are malapert: ·fac255· Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current. O, that your young nobility could judge [fac257] What ’twere to lose it, and be miserable! They that stand high have many blasts to shake them; [fac259] And if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces. [fac260]
_Glou._ Good counsel, marry: learn it, learn it, marquess.
_Dor._ It toucheth you, my lord, as much as me. [fac262]
_Glou._ Yea, and much more: but I was born so high, [fac263] Our aery buildeth in the cedar’s top, And dallies with the wind and scorns the sun. ·fac265·
_Q. Mar._ And turns the sun to shade; alas! alas! Witness my son, now in the shade of death; [fac267] Whose bright out-shining beams thy cloudy wrath Hath in eternal darkness folded up. Your aery buildeth in our aery’s nest. [fac270] O God, that seest it, do not suffer it; As it was won with blood, lost be it so! [fac272]
_Buck._ Have done! for shame, if not for charity. [fac273]
_Q. Mar._ Urge neither charity nor shame to me: Uncharitably with me have you dealt, ·fac275· And shamefully by you my hopes are butcher’d. [fac276] My charity is outrage, life my shame; And in that shame still live my sorrow’s rage! [fac278]
_Buck._ Have done, have done. [fac279]
_Q. Mar._ O princely Buckingham, I’ll kiss thy hand, [fac280] In sign of league and amity with thee: Now fair befal thee and thy noble house! [fac282] Thy garments are not spotted with our blood, Nor thou within the compass of my curse.
_Buck._ Nor no one here; for curses never pass [fac285] The lips of those that breathe them in the air. [fac286]
_Q. Mar._ I’ll not believe but they ascend the sky, [fac287] And there awake God’s gentle-sleeping peace. [fac288] O Buckingham, take heed of yonder dog! [fac289] Look, when he fawns, he bites; and when he bites, ·fac290· His venom tooth will rankle to the death: [fac291] Have not to do with him, beware of him; [fac292] Sin, death, and hell have set their marks on him, [fac293] And all their ministers attend on him.
_Glou._ What doth she say, my Lord of Buckingham? ·fac295·
_Buck._ Nothing that I respect, my gracious lord.
_Q. Mar._ What, dost thou scorn me for my gentle counsel? [fac297] And soothe the devil that I warn thee from? [fac298] O, but remember this another day, When he shall split thy very heart with sorrow, ·fac300· And say poor Margaret was a prophetess. [fac301] Live each of you the subjects to his hate, [fac302] And he to yours, and all of you to God’s! [_Exit._ [fac303]
_Hast._ My hair doth stand on end to hear her curses. [fac304]
_Riv._ And so doth mine: I muse why she’s at liberty. [fac305]
_Glou._ 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. [fac308]
_Q. Eliz._ I never did her any, to my knowledge. [fac309]
_Glou._ But you have all the vantage of her wrong. [fac310] I was too hot to do somebody good, [fac311] That is too cold in thinking of it now. [fac312] Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repaid; [fac313] He is frank’d up to fatting for his pains: God pardon them that are the cause of it! [fac315]
_Riv._ A virtuous and a Christian-like conclusion, [fac316] To pray for them that have done scathe to us.
_Glou._ So do I ever: [_Aside_] being well advised: [fac318] For had I cursed now, I had cursed myself. [fac319]
_Enter_ CATESBY.
_Cates._ Madam, his majesty doth call for you; ·fac320· And for your grace; and you, my noble lords. [fac321]
_Q. Eliz._ Catesby, we come. Lords, will you go with us? [fac322]
_Riv._ Madam, we will attend your grace. [fac323] [_Exeunt all but Gloucester._
_Glou._ I do the wrong, and first begin to brawl. [fac324] The secret mischiefs that I set abroach [fac325] I lay unto the grievous charge of others. [fac326] Clarence, whom I, indeed, have laid in darkness, [fac327] I do beweep to many simple gulls; Namely, to Hastings, Derby, Buckingham; [fac329] And say it is the queen and her allies [fac330] That stir the king against the duke my brother. [fac331] Now, they believe it; and withal whet me [fac332] To be revenged on Rivers, Vaughan, Grey: [fac333] But then I sigh; and, with a piece of Scripture, [fac334] Tell them that God bids us do good for evil: [fac335] And thus I clothe my naked villany With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ; [fac337] And seem a saint, when most I play the devil. [fac338]
_Enter two_ Murderers.
But, soft! here come my executioners. [fac339] How now, my hardy stout resolved mates! [fac340] Are you now going to dispatch this deed? [fac341]
_First Murd._ We are, my lord; and come to have the warrant, [fac342] That we may be admitted where he is.
_Glou._ Well thought upon; I have it here about me. [fac344] [_Gives the warrant._ When you have done, repair to Crosby Place. ·fac345· 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 Murd._ Tush! [fac350] Fear not, my lord, we will not stand to prate; Talkers are no good doers: be assured [fac352] We come to use our hands and not our tongues. [fac353]
_Glou._ Your eyes drop millstones, when fools’ eyes drop tears. [fac354] I like you, lads: about your business straight. [fac355] Go, go, dispatch. [fac356]
_First Murd._ We will, my noble lord. [_Exeunt._
## SCENE IV. _London. The Tower_.
_Enter_ CLARENCE _and_ BRAKENBURY.
_Brak._ Why looks your grace so heavily to-day? [fad001]
_Clar._ O, I have pass’d a miserable night, So full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams, [fad003] That, as I am a Christian faithful man, I would not spend another such a night, ·fad005· Though ’twere to buy a world of happy days, [fad006] So full of dismal terror was the time!
_Brak._ What was your dream? I long to hear you tell it. [fad008]
_Clar._ Methoughts that I had broken from the Tower, [fad009] And was embark’d to cross to Burgundy; ·fad010· And, in my company, my brother Gloucester; Who from my cabin tempted me to walk Upon the hatches: thence we look’d toward England, [fad013] And cited up a thousand fearful times, [fad014] During the wars of York and Lancaster [fad015] That had befall’n us. As we paced along [fad016] Upon the giddy footing of the hatches, Methought that Gloucester stumbled; and, in falling, [fad018] Struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard, [fad019] Into the tumbling billows of the main. ·fad020· Lord, Lord! methought, what pain it was to drown! [fad021] What dreadful noise of waters in mine ears! [fad022] What ugly sights of death within mine eyes! [fad023] Methought I saw a thousand fearful wrecks; [fad024] Ten thousand men that fishes gnaw’d upon; [fad025] Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels, All scatter’d in the bottom of the sea: [fad028] Some lay in dead men’s skulls; and in those holes [fad029] Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept, ·fad030· As ’twere in scorn of eyes, reflecting gems, [fad031] Which woo’d the slimy bottom of the deep, [fad032] And mock’d the dead bones that lay scatter’d by.
_Brak._ Had you such leisure in the time of death To gaze upon the secrets of the deep? [fad035]
_Clar._ Methought I had; and often did I strive [fad036] To yield the ghost: but still the envious flood [fad037] Kept in my soul, and would not let it forth [fad038] To seek the empty, vast and wandering air; [fad039] But smother’d it within my panting bulk, ·fad040· Which almost burst to belch it in the sea. [fad041]
_Brak._ Awaked you not with this sore agony? [fad042]
_Clar._ O no, my dream was lengthen’d after life; [fad043] O, then began the tempest to my soul, [fad044] Who pass’d, methought, the melancholy flood, ·fad045· With that grim ferryman which poets write of, [fad046] Unto the kingdom of perpetual night. The first that there did greet my stranger soul, [fad048] Was my great father-in-law, renowned Warwick; [fad049] Who cried aloud, ‘What scourge for perjury [fad050] Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?’ [fad051] And so he vanish’d: then came wandering by A shadow like an angel, with bright hair [fad053] Dabbled in blood; and he squeak’d out aloud, [fad054] ‘Clarence is come; false, fleeting, perjured Clarence, ·fad055· That stabb’d me in the field by Tewksbury: [fad056] Seize on him, Furies, take him to your torments!’ [fad057] With that, methoughts, a legion of foul fiends [fad058] Environ’d me about, and howled in mine ears [fad059] Such hideous cries that with the very noise ·fad060· I trembling waked, and for a season after Could not believe but that I was in hell, Such terrible impression made the dream. [fad063]
_Brak._ No marvel, my lord, though it affrighted you; [fad064] I promise you, I am afraid to hear you tell it. [fad065]
_Clar._ O Brakenbury, I have done those things, [fad066] Which now bear evidence against my soul, [fad067]
For Edward’s sake; and see how he requites me! [fad068] O God! if my deep prayers cannot appease thee, [fad069] But thou wilt be avenged on my misdeeds, ·fad070· Yet execute thy wrath in me alone; [fad071] O, spare my guiltless wife and my poor children! I pray thee, gentle keeper, stay by me; [fad073] My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep.
_Brak._ I will, my lord: God give your grace good rest! [fad075] [_Clarence sleeps._ Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours, [fad076] Makes the night morning and the noon-tide night. Princes have but their titles for their glories, [fad078] An outward honour for an inward toil; And, for unfelt imagination, [fad080] They often feel a world of restless cares: So that, betwixt their titles and low names, [fad082] There’s nothing differs but the outward fame. [fad083]
_Enter the two_ Murderers.
_First Murd._ Ho! who’s here? [fad084]
_Brak._ In God’s name what are you, and how came you hither? [fad085]
_First Murd._ I would speak with Clarence, and I came [fad086] hither on my legs.
_Brak._ Yea, are you so brief? [fad088]
_Sec. Murd._ O sir, it is better to be brief than tedious. [fad089] Show him our commission; talk no more. [_Brakenbury reads it._ [fad090]
_Brak._ I am in this commanded to deliver The noble Duke of Clarence to your hands: I will not reason what is meant hereby, [fad093] Because I will be guiltless of the meaning. [fad094] Here are the keys, there sits the duke asleep: [fad095] I’ll to the king; and signify to him [fad096] That thus I have resign’d my charge to you. [fad097]
_First Murd._ Do so, it is a point of wisdom: fare you [fad098] well. [_Exit Brakenbury._ [fad099]
_Sec. Murd._ What, shall we stab him as he sleeps? [fad100]
_First Murd._ No; then he will say ’twas done cowardly, [fad101] when he wakes.
_Sec. Murd._ When he wakes! why, fool, he shall never [fad103] wake till the judgement-day. [fad104]
_First Murd._ Why, then he will say we stabbed him [fad105] sleeping.
_Sec. Murd._ The urging of that word ‘judgement’ hath bred a kind of remorse in me.
_First Murd._ What, art thou afraid? [fad109]
_Sec. Murd._ Not to kill him, having a warrant for it; [fad110] but to be damned for killing him, from which no warrant [fad111] can defend us. [fad112]
_First Murd._ I thought thou hadst been resolute. [fad113]
_Sec. Murd._ So I am, to let him live.
_First Murd._ Back to the Duke of Gloucester, tell him [fad115] so.
_Sec. Murd._ I pray thee, stay a while: I hope my holy [fad117] humour will change; ’twas wont to hold me but while one [fad118] would tell twenty. [fad119]
_First Murd._ How dost thou feel thyself now? ·fad120·
_Sec. Murd._ Faith, some certain dregs of conscience [fad121] are yet within me.
_First Murd._ Remember our reward, when the deed is [fad123] done.
_Sec. Murd._ ’Zounds, he dies: I had forgot the reward. [fad125]
_First Murd._ Where is thy conscience now? [fad126]
_Sec. Murd._ In the Duke of Gloucester’s purse. [fad127]
_First Murd._ So when he opens his purse to give us [fad128] our reward, thy conscience flies out.
_Sec. Murd._ Let it go; there’s few or none will entertain it. [fad130]
_First Murd._ How if it come to thee again? [fad131]
_Sec. Murd._ I’ll not meddle with it: it is a dangerous [fad132] thing: it makes a man a coward: a man cannot steal, but it accuseth him; he cannot swear, but it checks him; he [fad134] cannot lie with his neighbour’s wife, but it detects him: it is [fad135] a blushing shamefast spirit that mutinies in a man’s bosom; [fad136] it fills one full of obstacles: it made me once restore a [fad137] purse of gold, that I found; it beggars any man that keeps [fad138] it: it is turned out of all towns and cities for a dangerous [fad139] thing; and every man that means to live well endeavours [fad140] to trust to himself and to live without it. [fad141]
_First Murd._ ’Zounds, it is even now at my elbow, persuading [fad142] me not to kill the duke.
_Sec. Murd._ Take the devil in thy mind, and believe him [fad144] not: he would insinuate with thee but to make thee sigh. [fad145]
_First Murd._ Tut, I am strong-framed, he cannot prevail [fad146] with me, I warrant thee. [fad147]
_Sec. Murd._ Spoke like a tall fellow that respects his [fad148] reputation. Come, shall we to this gear? [fad149]
_First Murd._ Take him over the costard with the hilts [fad150] of thy sword, and then we will chop him in the malmsey-butt [fad151] in the next room.
_Sec. Murd._ O excellent device! make a sop of him. [fad153]
_First Murd._ Hark! he stirs: shall I strike? [fad154]
_Sec. Murd._ No, first let’s reason with him. ·fad155·
_Clar._ Where art thou, keeper? give me a cup of wine.
_Sec. Murd._ You shall have wine enough, my lord, anon. [fad157]
_Clar._ In God’s name, what art thou? [fad158]
_Sec. Murd._ A man, as you are. [fad159]
_Clar._ But not, as I am, royal. ·fad160·
_Sec. Murd._ Nor you, as we are, loyal. [fad161]
_Clar._ Thy voice is thunder, but thy looks are humble.
_Sec. Murd._ My voice is now the king’s, my looks mine own.
_Clar._ How darkly and how deadly dost thou speak! Your eyes do menace me: why look you pale? [fad165] Who sent you hither? Wherefore do you come? [fad166]
_Both._ To, to, to-- [fad167]
_Clar._ To murder me? [fad168]
_Both._ Ay, ay. [fad169]
_Clar._ You scarcely have the hearts to tell me so, [fad170] And therefore cannot have the hearts to do it. [fad171] Wherein, my friends, have I offended you?
_First Murd._ Offended us you have not, but the king.
_Clar._ I shall be reconciled to him again.
_Sec. Murd._ Never, my lord; therefore prepare to die. ·fad175·
_Clar._ Are you call’d forth from out a world of men [fad176] To slay the innocent? What is my offence? [fad177] Where are the evidence that do accuse me? [fad178] What lawful quest have given their verdict up [fad179] Unto the frowning judge? or who pronounced ·fad180· The bitter sentence of poor Clarence’ death? [fad181] Before I be convict by course of law, To threaten me with death is most unlawful, [fad183] I charge you, as you hope to have redemption [fad184] By Christ’s dear blood shed for our grievous sins, ·fad185· That you depart and lay no hands on me: [fad186] The deed you undertake is damnable.
_First Murd._ What we will do, we do upon command.
_Sec. Murd._ And he that hath commanded is the king. [fad189]
_Clar._ Erroneous vassal! the great King of kings [fad190] Hath in the tables of his law commanded [fad191] That thou shalt do no murder: and wilt thou then [fad192] Spurn at his edict, and fulfil a man’s? Take heed; for he holds vengeance in his hands, [fad194] To hurl upon their heads that break his law. ·fad195·
_Sec. Murd._ And that same vengeance doth he hurl on thee, [fad196] For false forswearing, and for murder too: Thou didst receive the holy sacrament, [fad198] To fight in quarrel of the house of Lancaster. [fad199]
_First Murd._ And, like a traitor to the name of God, ·fad200· Didst break that vow; and with thy treacherous blade Unrip’dst the bowels of thy sovereign’s son. [fad202]
_Sec. Murd._ Whom thou wert sworn to cherish and defend. [fad203]
_First Murd._ How canst thou urge God’s dreadful law to us, When thou hast broke it in so dear degree? [fad205]
_Clar._ Alas! for whose sake did I that ill deed? For Edward, for my brother, for his sake: Why, sirs, [fad208] He sends ye not to murder me for this; [fad209] For in this sin he is as deep as I. [fad210] If God will be revenged for this deed, [fad211] O, know you yet, he doth it publicly: [fad212] Take not the quarrel from his powerful arm; He needs no indirect nor lawless course [fad214] To cut off those that have offended him. ·fad215·
_First Murd._ Who made thee then a bloody minister, When gallant-springing brave Plantagenet, [fad217] That princely novice, was struck dead by thee? [fad218]
_Clar._ My brother’s love, the devil, and my rage.
_First Murd._ Thy brother’s love, our duty, and thy fault, [fad220] Provoke us hither now to slaughter thee. [fad221]
_Clar._ Oh, if you love my brother, hate not me; [fad222] I am his brother, and I love him well. If you be hired for meed, go back again, [fad224] And I will send you to my brother Gloucester, ·fad225· Who shall reward you better for my life [fad226] Than Edward will for tidings of my death.
_Sec. Murd._ You are deceived, your brother Gloucester hates you. [fad228]
_Clar._ O, no, he loves me, and he holds me dear: Go you to him from me.
_Both._ Ay, so we will. [fad230]
_Clar._ Tell him, when that our princely father York Bless’d his three sons with his victorious arm, And charged us from his soul to love each other, [fad233] He little thought of this divided friendship: Bid Gloucester think of this, and he will weep. [fad235]
_First Murd._ Ay, millstones; as he lesson’d us to weep. [fad236]
_Clar._ O, do not slander him, for he is kind.
_First Murd._ Right, [fad238] As snow in harvest. Thou deceivest thyself: [fad239] ’Tis he that sent us hither now to slaughter thee. [fad240]
_Clar._ It cannot be; for when I parted with him, [fad241] He hugg’d me in his arms, and swore, with sobs, [fad242] That he would labour my delivery.
_Sec. Murd._ Why, so he doth, now he delivers thee [fad244] From this world’s thraldom to the joys of heaven. [fad245]
_First Murd._ Make peace with God, for you must die, my lord. [fad246]
_Clar._ Hast thou that holy feeling in thy soul, [fad247] To counsel me to make my peace with God, And art thou yet to thy own soul so blind, That thou wilt war with God by murdering me? [fad250] Ah, sirs, consider, he that set you on [fad251] To do this deed will hate you for the deed. [fad252]
_Sec._ Murd. What shall we do?
_Clar._ Relent, and save your souls.
_First Murd._ Relent! ’tis cowardly and womanish. [fad254]
_Clar._ Not to relent is beastly, savage, devilish. [fad255] Which of you, if you were a prince’s son, [fad256] Being pent from liberty, as I am now, If two such murderers as yourselves came to you, Would not entreat for life? My friend, I spy some pity in thy looks; [fad260] O, if thine eye be not a flatterer, [fad261] Come thou on my side, and entreat for me, As you would beg, were you in my distress: A begging prince what beggar pities not?
_Sec. Murd._ Look behind you, my lord. [fad265]
_First Murd._ Take that, and that: if all this will not do, [fad266] [_Stabs him._ I’ll drown you in the malmsey-butt within. [fad267] [_Exit, with the body._
_Sec. Murd._ A bloody deed, and desperately dispatch’d! [fad268] How fain, like Pilate, would I wash my hands [fad269] Of this most grievous guilty murder done! [fad270]
_Re-enter_ First Murderer.
_First Murd._ How now! what mean’st thou, that thou help’st me not? [fad271] By heavens, the duke shall know how slack thou art! [fad272]
_Sec. Murd._ I would he knew that I had saved his brother! Take thou the fee, and tell him what I say; For I repent me that the duke is slain. [_Exit._ ·fad275·
_First Murd._ So do not I: go, coward as thou art. Now must I hide his body in some hole, [fad277] Until the duke take order for his burial: [fad278] And when I have my meed, I must away; [fad279] For this will out, and here I must not stay. [_Exit._ [fad280]
## ACT II.
## SCENE I. _London. The palace_.
_Flourish. Enter_ KING EDWARD _sick,_ QUEEN ELIZABETH, DORSET, RIVERS, HASTINGS, BUCKINGHAM, GREY, _and others_.