KING RICHARD THE THIRD

Act 2 Scene 2

(Enter the old Duchess of York with the two children of Clarence)
l1l	Boy	 Good grannam, tell us, is our father dead?
l2l	Duchess	No, boy.
l3l	Girl	Why do you weep so oft, and beat your breast,
l4l		And cry, “O Clarence, my unhappy son”?
l5l	Boy	Why do you look on us and shake your head,
l6l		And call us orphans, wretches, castaways,
l7l		If that our noble father were alive?
l8l	Duchess Of York	My pretty cousins, you mistake me both.
l9l		I do lament the sickness of the King,
l10l		As loath to lose him, not your father’s death.
l11l		It were lost sorrow to wail one that’s lost.
l12l	Boy	Then you conclude, my grannam, he is dead.
l13l		The King mine uncle is to blame for this.
l14l		God will revenge it—whom I will importune
l15l		With earnest prayers, all to that effect.
l16l	Girl	And so will I.
l17l	Duchess Of York	Peace, children, peace! The King doth love you well.
l18l		Incapable and shallow innocents,
l19l		You cannot guess who caused your father’s death.
l20l	Boy	Grannam, we can. For my good uncle Gloucester
l21l		Told me the King, provoked to it by the Queen,
l22l		Devised impeachments to imprison him,
l23l		And when my uncle told me so he wept,
l24l		And pitied me, and kindly kissed my cheek,
l25l		Bade me rely on him as on my father,
l26l		And he would love me dearly as his child.
l27l	Duchess Of York	Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes,
l28l		And with a virtuous visor hide deep vice!
l29l		He is my son, ay, and therein my shame#
l30l		Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit.
l31l	Boy	Think you my uncle did dissemble, grannam?
l32l	Duchess Of York	Ay, boy.
l33l	Boy	I cannot think it. Hark, what noise is this?
		(Enter Queen Elizabeth with her hair about her ears)
l34l	Queen Elizabeth	 Ah, who shall hinder me to wail and weep?
l35l		To chide my fortune, and torment myself?
l36l		I’ll join with black despair against my soul,
l37l		And to myself become an enemy.
l38l	Duchess Of York	What means this scene of rude impatience?
l39l	Queen Elizabeth	To mark an act of tragic violence.
l40l		Edward, my lord, thy son, our king, is dead.
l41l		Why grow the branches when the root is gone?
l42l		Why wither not the leaves that want their sap?
l43l		If you will live, lament# if die, be brief,
l44l		That our swift-wingèd souls may catch the King’s,
l45l		Or like obedient subjects follow him
l46l		To his new kingdom of ne’er-changing night.
l47l	Duchess Of York	Ah, so much interest have I in thy sorrow
l48l		As I had title in thy noble husband.
l49l		I have bewept a worthy husband’s death,
l50l		And lived with looking on his images.
l51l		But now two mirrors of his princely semblance
l52l		Are cracked in pieces by malignant death,
l53l		And I for comfort have but one false glass,
l54l		That grieves me when I see my shame in him.
l55l		Thou art a widow, yet thou art a mother,
l56l		And hast the comfort of thy children left.
l57l		But death hath snatched my husband from mine arms
l58l		And plucked two crutches from my feeble hands,
l59l		Clarence and Edward. O what cause have I,
l60l		Thine being but a moiety of my moan,
l61l		To overgo thy woes, and drown thy cries?
l62l	Boy	(to Elizabeth)
		 Ah, aunt, you wept not for our father’s death.
l63l		How can we aid you with our kindred tears?
l64l	Daughter	(to Elizabeth)
		 Our fatherless distress was left unmoaned#
l65l		Your widow-dolour likewise be unwept.
l66l	Queen Elizabeth	Give me no help in lamentation.
l67l		I am not barren to bring forth complaints.
l68l		All springs reduce their currents to mine eyes,
l69l		That I, being governed by the wat’ry moon,
l70l		May send forth plenteous tears to drown the world.
l71l		Ah, for my husband, for my dear Lord Edward!
l72l	Children	Ah, for our father, for our dear Lord Clarence!
l73l	Duchess Of York	Alas, for both, both mine, Edward and Clarence!
l74l	Queen Elizabeth	What stay had I but Edward, and he’s gone?
l75l	Children	What stay had we but Clarence, and he’s gone?
l76l	Duchess Of York	What stays had I but they, and they are gone?
l77l	Queen Elizabeth	Was never widow had so dear a loss!
l78l	Children	Were never orphans had so dear a loss!
l79l	Duchess Of York	Was never mother had so dear a loss!
l80l		Alas, I am the mother of these griefs.
l81l		Their woes are parcelled# mine is general.
l82l		She for an Edward weeps, and so do I#
l83l		I for a Clarence weep, so doth not she.
l84l		These babes for Clarence weep, and so do I#
l85l		I for an Edward weep, so do not they.
l86l		Alas, you three on me, threefold distressed,
l87l		Pour all your tears. I am your sorrow’s nurse,
l88l		And I will pamper it with lamentation.
		(Enter Richard Duke of Gloucester, the Duke of Buckingham, Lord Stanley Earl of Derby, Lord Hastings, and Sir Richard Ratcliffe)
l89l	Richard Gloucester	(to Elizabeth)
		 Sister, have comfort. All of us have cause
l90l		To wail the dimming of our shining star,
l91l		But none can help our harms by wailing them.—
l92l		Madam, my mother, I do cry you mercy.
l93l		I did not see your grace. Humbly on my knee
l94l		I crave your blessing.
l95l	Duchess Of York	God bless thee, and put meekness in thy breast,
l96l		Love, charity, obedience, and true duty.
l97l	Richard Gloucester	Amen.
		(Aside)
		 “And make me die a good old man.”
l98l		That is the butt-end of a mother’s blessing#
l99l		I marvel that her grace did leave it out.
l100l	Buckingham	You cloudy princes and heart-sorrowing peers
l101l		That bear this heavy mutual load of moan,
l102l		Now cheer each other in each other’s love.
l103l		Though we have spent our harvest of this king,
l104l		We are to reap the harvest of his son.
l105l		The broken rancour of your high-swoll’n hearts
l106l		But lately splinted, knit, and joined together,
l107l		Must gently be preserved, cherished, and kept.
l108l		Meseemeth good that, with some little train,
l109l		Forthwith from Ludlow the young Prince be fet
l110l		Hither to London to be crowned our king.
l111l	Richard Gloucester	Then be it so, and go we to determine
l112l		Who they shall be that straight shall post to Ludlow.—
l113l		Madam, and you my sister, will you go
l114l		To give your censures in this weighty business?
l115l	Queen Elizabeth And Duchess Of York	With all our hearts.
		( 115A Exeunt all but Richard and Buckingham)
l116l	Buckingham	 My lord, whoever journeys to the Prince,
l117l		For God’s sake let not us two stay at home,
l118l		For by the way I’ll sort occasion,
l119l		As index to the story we late talked of,
l120l		To part the Queen’s proud kindred from the Prince.
l121l	Richard Gloucester	My other self, my counsel’s consistory,
l122l		My oracle, my prophet, my dear cousin!
l123l		I, as a child, will go by thy direction.
l124l		Towards Ludlow then, for we’ll not stay behind.
		(Exeunt)