Richard III (8 page)

BUCKINGHAM
    My hair doth stand on end to hear her curses.

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

RICHARD
    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.

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

RICHARD
    Yet you have all the
vantage
of
her wrong.
³¹¹

I was too
hot
to
do somebody good
³¹²
,

That is too
cold
³¹³
in thinking of it now.

Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repaid:

He is
franked up to fatting
³¹⁵
for his pains —

God pardon them that are the cause thereof!

RIVERS
    A virtuous and a Christian-like conclusion,

To pray for them that have done
scathe
³¹⁸
to us.

RICHARD
    So do I ever, being
well advised.
³¹⁹
—

For had I cursed now, I had cursed myself.

CATESBY
    Madam, his majesty doth call for you,

And for your grace, and yours, my gracious lord.

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

RIVERS
    We
wait upon
³²⁴
your grace.

RICHARD
    I do the wrong, and first begin to brawl.

The secret
mischiefs
that I set
abroach
³²⁶

I
lay unto the grievous charge of
³²⁷
others.

Clarence, who I indeed have
cast in darkness
³²⁸
,

I do
beweep
to many simple
gulls
³²⁹
—

Namely, to Derby, Hastings, Buckingham —

And tell them ’tis the queen and her
allies
³³¹

That
stir
³³²
the king against the duke my brother.

Now they believe it, and withal
whet
³³³
me

To be revenged on Rivers, Dorset, 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 villainy

With odd old
ends
³³⁸
stol’n forth of holy writ,

And seem a saint when most I play the devil.

But, soft, here come my executioners.—

How now, my
hardy
³⁴¹
, stout-resolvèd mates,

Are you now going to
dispatch
³⁴²
this thing?

FIRST MURDERER
    We are, my lord, and come to have the warrant

That we may be admitted where he is.

RICHARD
    Well thought upon. I have it here about me.

Gives the warrant

When you have done,
repair
³⁴⁶
to Crosby Place.

But, sirs, be
sudden
³⁴⁷
in the execution,

Withal
obdurate
³⁴⁸
, do not hear him plead;

For Clarence is
well-spoken
³⁴⁹
, and perhaps

May move your hearts to pity if you
mark
³⁵⁰
him.

FIRST MURDERER
    Tut, tut! My lord, we will not stand to
prate
³⁵¹
:

Talkers are no good doers. Be assured

We go to use our hands and not our tongues.

RICHARD
    Your
eyes drop
millstones when fools’ eyes
fall
³⁵⁴
tears.

I like you, lads. About your business
straight.
³⁵⁵

Go, go, dispatch.

FIRST MURDERER
    We will, my noble lord.

KEEPER
    Why looks your grace so
heavily
¹
today?

CLARENCE
    O, I have passed a miserable night,

So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights,

That, as I am a Christian faithful man,

I would not
spend
⁵
another such a night,

Though ’twere
⁶
to buy a world of happy days,

So full of
dismal
⁷
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 embarked to cross to Burgundy,

And in my company my brother Gloucester,

Who from my cabin tempted me to walk

Upon the
hatches
¹³
: there we looked toward England,

And
cited up
¹⁴
a thousand heavy times,

During the wars of York and Lancaster

That had befall’n us. As we paced along

Upon the
giddy
¹⁷
footing of the hatches,

Methought that Gloucester stumbled, and in falling

Struck me, that thought to
stay
¹⁹
him, overboard,

Into the tumbling billows of the
main.
²⁰

O lord, methought, what pain it was to drown!

What dreadful noise of water in mine ears,

What sights of ugly death within mine eyes.

Methoughts I saw a thousand fearful wrecks:

A thousand men that fishes gnawed upon:

Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,

Inestimable
stones,
unvalued
²⁷
jewels,

All scattered 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 wooed the slimy bottom of the deep,

And mocked the dead bones that lay scattered 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
³⁷

Stopped in
³⁸
my soul, and would not let it forth

To find the empty,
vast
³⁹
and wand’ring air,

But smothered it within my panting
bulk
⁴⁰
,

Which almost burst to belch it in the sea.

KEEPER
    Awaked you not in this
sore
⁴²
agony?

CLARENCE
    No, no, my dream was lengthened after life.

O, then began the tempest to my soul,

I passed, methought, the
melancholy flood
⁴⁵
,

With that
sour ferryman
⁴⁶
which poets write of,

Unto the
kingdom of perpetual night.
⁴⁷

The first that there did greet my
stranger
⁴⁸
soul,

Was my great father-in-law, renownèd Warwick,

Who spake aloud, ‘What scourge for
perjury
⁵⁰

Can this dark
monarchy
afford
⁵¹
false Clarence?’

And so he vanished. Then came wand’ring by

A
shadow
⁵³
like an angel, with bright hair

Dabbled in blood, and he
shrieked
⁵⁴
out aloud,

‘Clarence is come: false,
fleeting
⁵⁵
, perjured Clarence,

That stabbed me in the
field
⁵⁶
by Tewkesbury.

Seize on him,
Furies
⁵⁷
, take him unto torment!’

With that, methought, a
legion
⁵⁸
of foul fiends

Environed
⁵⁹
me, and howlèd in mine ears

Such hideous cries, that with the very noise

I trembling waked, and for a
season
⁶¹
after

Could not believe but that I was in hell,

Such terrible impression made the dream.

KEEPER
    No marvel, lord,
though
⁶⁴
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
⁶⁸
me.

O God! If my deep prayers cannot appease thee,

But thou wilt be avenged on my misdeeds,

Yet execute thy wrath in me alone,

O, spare my guiltless wife and my poor children.

Keeper, I
prithee
⁷³
sit by me awhile.

My soul is
heavy
⁷⁴
, and I fain would sleep.

KEEPER
    I will, my lord. God give your grace good rest.

BRACKENBURY
    Sorrow
breaks
seasons
and
reposing hours
⁷⁶
,

Makes the night morning, and the
noontide
⁷⁷
night.

Princes have but their titles
for
⁷⁸
their glories,

An outward honour
for
⁷⁹
an inward toil,

And,
for
unfelt imaginations
⁸⁰
,

They often feel a world of restless
cares
⁸¹
:

So that between their titles and
low name
⁸²
,

There’s nothing differs but the outward
fame.
⁸³

FIRST MURDERER
    Ho, who’s here?

BRACKENBURY
    What wouldst thou, fellow? And how cam’st thou hither?

SECOND MURDERER
    I would speak with Clarence, and I came

hither on my legs.

BRACKENBURY
    What, so brief?

FIRST MURDERER
    ’Tis better, sir, than to be tedious. Let

him see our commission, and talk no more.

BRACKENBURY
    I am in this commanded to deliver

The noble Duke of Clarence to your hands.

I will not
reason
⁹³
what is meant hereby,

Because I
will
⁹⁴
be guiltless from the meaning.

There lies the duke asleep, and there the keys.

I’ll to the king and
signify to
⁹⁶
him

That thus I have resigned to you my charge.

FIRST MURDERER
    You may, sir, ’tis a point of wisdom. Fare you

well.

SECOND MURDERER
    What, shall we stab him as he sleeps?

FIRST MURDERER
    No: he’ll say ’twas done cowardly, when he

wakes.

SECOND MURDERER
    Why he shall never wake until the great

judgement day.

FIRST MURDERER
    Why, then he’ll say we stabbed him

sleeping.

SECOND MURDERER
    The
urging
¹⁰⁷
of that word ‘judgement’ hath

bred a kind of remorse in me.

FIRST MURDERER
    What? Art thou afraid?

SECOND MURDERER
    Not to kill him, having a warrant, but to be

damned for killing him, from the which no warrant can

defend me.

FIRST MURDERER
    I thought thou hadst been resolute.

SECOND MURDERER
    So I am, to let him live.

FIRST MURDERER
    I’ll back to the Duke of Gloucester and tell him

so.

SECOND MURDERER
    Nay, I prithee
stay
¹¹⁷
a little. I hope this

passionate humour
of mine will change.
It was wont to hold
¹¹⁸

me but while one
tells twenty.
¹¹⁹

They pause or count to twenty

FIRST MURDERER
    How dost thou feel thyself now?

SECOND MURDERER
    Some certain dregs of conscience are yet

within me.

FIRST MURDERER
    Remember our reward, when the deed’s done.

SECOND MURDERER
    Come, he dies. I had forgot the reward.

FIRST MURDERER
    Where’s thy conscience now?

SECOND MURDERER
    O, in the Duke of Gloucester’s purse.

FIRST MURDERER
    When he opens his purse to give us our

reward, thy conscience flies out.

SECOND MURDERER
    ’Tis no matter, let it go. There’s few or none

will
entertain
¹³⁰
it.

FIRST MURDERER
    What if it come to thee again?

SECOND MURDERER
    I’ll not meddle with it: it makes a man a

coward. A man cannot steal, but it accuseth him: a man

cannot swear, but it
checks
him: a man cannot
lie
¹³⁴
with his

neighbour’s wife, but it detects him. ’Tis a blushing

shamefaced spirit that mutinies in a man’s bosom: it fills a

man full of obstacles: it made me once
restore
¹³⁷
a purse of gold

that, by chance, I found: it beggars any man that
keeps
¹³⁸
it: it

is turned out of towns and cities
for
¹³⁹
a dangerous thing: and

every man that means to live
well
¹⁴⁰
endeavours to trust to

himself and live without it.

FIRST MURDERER
    ’Tis even now at my elbow, persuading me not

to kill the duke.

SECOND MURDERER
    Take the devil in thy mind, and believe
him
¹⁴⁴

not: he would
insinuate
¹⁴⁵
with thee but to make thee sigh.

FIRST MURDERER
    I am strong-framed, he cannot prevail with

me.

SECOND MURDERER
    Spoke like a
tall
¹⁴⁸
man that respects thy

reputation. Come, shall we fall to work?

FIRST MURDERER
    
Take
him on the
costard
¹⁵⁰
with the hilts of thy

sword, and then throw him into the
malmsey-butt
¹⁵¹
in the

next room.

SECOND MURDERER
    O, excellent
device
; and make a
sop
¹⁵³
of him.

FIRST MURDERER
    Soft, he wakes.

SECOND MURDERER
    Strike!

FIRST MURDERER
    No, we’ll
reason
¹⁵⁶
with him.

CLARENCE
    Where art thou, keeper? Give me a cup of wine.

SECOND MURDERER
    You shall have wine enough, my lord,
anon.
¹⁵⁸

CLARENCE
    In God’s name, what art thou?

FIRST MURDERER
    A man, as you are.

CLARENCE
    But not, as I am, royal.

FIRST MURDERER
    Nor you, as we are, loyal.

CLARENCE
    Thy voice is thunder, but thy looks are humble.

FIRST MURDERER
    My voice is now the king’s, my looks mine own.

CLARENCE
    How darkly and how deadly dost thou speak!

Your eyes do menace me: why look you pale?

Who sent you hither?
Wherefore
¹⁶⁷
do you come?

SECOND MURDERER
    To, to, to—

CLARENCE
    To murder me?

BOTH
    Ay, ay.

CLARENCE
    You scarcely have the hearts to tell me so,

And therefore cannot have the hearts to do it.

Wherein, my friends, have I offended you?

FIRST MURDERER
    Offended us you have not, but the king.

CLARENCE
    I shall be reconciled to him again.

SECOND MURDERER
    Never, my lord: therefore prepare to die.

CLARENCE
    Are you
drawn forth
¹⁷⁷
among a world of men

To slay the innocent? What is my offence?

Where is the evidence that doth accuse me?

What lawful
quest
¹⁸⁰
have given their verdict up

Unto the frowning judge? Or who pronounced

The bitter sentence of poor Clarence’ death,

Before I be
convict
¹⁸³
by course of law?

To threaten me with death is most unlawful.

I
charge
¹⁸⁵
you, as you hope for any goodness

That you depart and lay no hands on me.

The deed you undertake is damnable.

FIRST MURDERER
    What we will do, we do upon command.

SECOND MURDERER
    And he that hath commanded is our king.

CLARENCE
    
Erroneous
vassals
, the great
king of kings
¹⁹⁰

Hath in the
table of his law
¹⁹¹
commanded

That thou shalt
do no murder.
¹⁹²
Will you then

Spurn at
¹⁹³
his edict and fulfil a man’s?

Take heed, for he holds vengeance in his hand,

To hurl upon their heads that break his law.

SECOND MURDERER
    And that same vengeance doth he hurl on thee,

For
false forswearing
¹⁹⁷
and for murder, too.

Thou didst
receive the sacrament
¹⁹⁸
to fight

In quarrel of
¹⁹⁹
the house of Lancaster.

FIRST MURDERER
    And, like a traitor to the name of God,

Didst break that vow, and with thy treacherous blade

Unripp’dst
the
bowels
of thy
sovereign’s son.
²⁰²

SECOND MURDERER
    Whom thou wast sworn to cherish and defend.

FIRST MURDERER
    How canst thou urge God’s
dreadful
²⁰⁴
law to us,

When thou hast broke it in such
dear
²⁰⁵
degree?

CLARENCE
    Alas, for whose sake did I that ill deed?

For Edward, for my brother, for his sake.

He sends you not to murder me for this,

For in that sin he is as deep as I.

If God will be avengèd for the deed,

O, know you yet he doth it publicly.

Take not the
quarrel
²¹²
from his powerful arm:

He needs no
indirect
²¹³
or lawless course

To
cut off
²¹⁴
those that have offended him.

FIRST MURDERER
    Who made thee, then, a
bloody
²¹⁵
minister,

When
gallant-springing
²¹⁶
brave Plantagenet,

That princely
novice
²¹⁷
, was struck dead by thee?

CLARENCE
    
My brother’s love
²¹⁸
, the devil and my rage.

FIRST MURDERER
    Thy brother’s love, our duty and thy faults,

Provoke us hither now to slaughter thee.

CLARENCE
    If you do love my brother, hate not me.

I am his brother and I love him well.

If you are hired for
meed
²²³
, go back again,

And I will send you to my brother Gloucester,

Who shall reward you better for my life

Than Edward will for tidings of my death.

SECOND MURDERER
    You are deceived, your brother Gloucester hates you.

CLARENCE
    O no, he loves me, and he holds me dear.

Go you to him from me.

FIRST MURDERER
    Ay, so we will.

CLARENCE
    Tell him, when that our princely father York

Blessed his three sons with his victorious arm,

He little thought of this divided
friendship.
²³³

Bid Gloucester think on this, and he will weep.

FIRST MURDERER
    Ay, millstones, as he
lessoned
²³⁵
us to weep.

CLARENCE
    O, do not slander him, for he
is kind.
²³⁶

FIRST MURDERER
    Right, as snow in harvest.

Come, you deceive yourself:

’Tis he that sends us to destroy you here.

LARENCE
    It cannot be, for he bewept my fortune,

And hugged me in his arms, and swore, with sobs

That he would
labour my delivery.
²⁴²

FIRST MURDERER
    Why, so he doth, when he delivers you

From this earth’s
thraldom
²⁴⁴
to the joys of heaven.

SECOND MURDERER
    Make peace with God, for you must die, my lord.

CLARENCE
    Have you that holy
feeling
²⁴⁶
in your souls

To counsel me to make my peace with God,

And are you yet to your own souls so blind

That you will war with God by murd’ring me?

O, sirs, consider, they that set you on

To do this deed will hate you for the deed.