Original Text |
Translated Text |
| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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Enter Queen Elizabeth, the Lord Marquess of Dorset,
Lord Rivers, and Lord Grey. RIVERS
Have patience, madam. There’s no doubt his
Majesty
Will soon recover his accustomed health. GREY
In that you brook it ill, it makes him worse.
Therefore, for God’s sake, entertain good comfort 5
And cheer his Grace with quick and merry eyes. QUEEN ELIZABETH
If he were dead, what would betide on me? GREY
No other harm but loss of such a lord. QUEEN ELIZABETH
The loss of such a lord includes all harms. GREY
The heavens have blessed you with a goodly son 10
To be your comforter when he is gone. QUEEN ELIZABETH
Ah, he is young, and his minority
Is put unto the trust of Richard Gloucester,
A man that loves not me nor none of you. RIVERS
Is it concluded he shall be Protector? 15 QUEEN ELIZABETH
It is determined, not concluded yet;
But so it must be if the King miscarry. | At the royal palace of Westminster, Queen Elizabeth (the wife of the current King Edward IV) is wringing her hands because her husband is at death's door. Like any devoted wife, Elizabeth wants to know what's going to happen to her if her husband dies. Dorset and Gray (her two sons from her previous marriage) try to cheer her up, but Elizabeth is inconsolable. To make matters worse, Elizabeth points out that when her husband dies, evil Richard will become the guardian of their young son, who is set to inherit the crown but is a bit too young to rule. In other words, Richard will have way too much power and way too much access to her little boy. |
Enter Buckingham and Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby. GREY
Here comes the lord of Buckingham, and Derby. BUCKINGHAM, to Queen Elizabeth
Good time of day unto your royal Grace. STANLEY
God make your Majesty joyful, as you have been. 20 QUEEN ELIZABETH
The Countess Richmond, good my lord of Derby,
To your good prayer will scarcely say amen.
Yet, Derby, notwithstanding she’s your wife
And loves not me, be you, good lord, assured
I hate not you for her proud arrogance. 25 | Two noblemen enter: Buckingham and Lord Stanley, the Earl of Derby. Queen Elizabeth has lukewarm greetings for Derby. He is the third husband of the Countess Richmond, and apparently that lady has been spreading nasty rumors about the queen. The queen promises she doesn't hold this against Derby, but she subtly suggests that he might want to put a leash on his wife. (This is a seemingly random aside, but you should know that the Countess Richmond's son from her first marriage is Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, who will eventually come to the throne as Henry VII. He's also the grandfather of Queen Elizabeth I, patron of Shakespeare.) |
STANLEY
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. 30 QUEEN ELIZABETH
Saw you the King today, my lord of Derby? STANLEY
But now the Duke of Buckingham and I
Are come from visiting his Majesty. QUEEN ELIZABETH
What likelihood of his amendment, lords? BUCKINGHAM
Madam, good hope. His Grace speaks cheerfully. 35 QUEEN ELIZABETH
God grant him health. Did you confer with him? BUCKINGHAM
Ay, madam. He desires to make atonement
Between the Duke of Gloucester and your brothers,
And between them and my Lord Chamberlain,
And sent to warn them to his royal presence. 40 QUEEN ELIZABETH
Would all were well—but that will never be.
I fear our happiness is at the height. | The noblemen report that they've just come from visiting King Edward IV, who seems to be doing much better. He'd like to call a meeting between his brother Richard and the queen's brothers to heal the animosity between them. The queen is skeptical, and though she says she'd like to be hopeful about this meeting, she fears things will only go downhill from here. |
Enter Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Hastings. RICHARD
They do me wrong, and I will not endure it!
Who is it that complains unto the King
That I, forsooth, am stern and love them not? 45
By holy Paul, they love his Grace but lightly
That fill his ears with such dissentious rumors.
Because I cannot flatter and look fair,
Smile in men’s faces, smooth, deceive, and cog,
Duck with French nods and apish courtesy, 50
I must be held a rancorous enemy.
Cannot a plain man live and think no harm,
But thus his simple truth must be abused
With silken, sly, insinuating Jacks? GREY
To who in all this presence speaks your Grace? 55 RICHARD
To thee, that hast nor honesty nor grace.
When have I injured thee? When done thee
wrong?—
Or thee?—Or thee? Or any of your faction?
A plague upon you all! His royal Grace, 60
Whom God preserve better than you would wish,
Cannot be quiet scarce a breathing while
But you must trouble him with lewd complaints. QUEEN ELIZABETH
Brother of Gloucester, you mistake the matter.
The King, on his own royal disposition, 65
And not provoked by any suitor else,
Aiming belike at your interior hatred
That in your outward action shows itself
Against my children, brothers, and myself,
Makes him to send, that he may learn the ground. 70 RICHARDI cannot tell. The world is grown so bad
That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch.
Since every Jack became a gentleman,
There’s many a gentle person made a Jack. QUEEN ELIZABETHCome, come, we know your meaning, brother 75Gloucester.
You envy my advancement, and my friends’.
God grant we never may have need of you. | Just then Richard enters in a rage. He's furious about the news he's just heard about the king's meeting, because it suggests that he hates the queen's kinsmen, which he says is a lie (though in fact it's quite true). Richard says he's never done anything to the queen's men to suggest that he hates them, and that now is really not the time to be pouring this kind of poison into the sick king's ear. The queen begs to differ; she says it's clear that Richard envies the advancement of her and her friends, so the king's meeting is a good idea. |
RICHARD
Meantime God grants that we have need of
you. 80
Our brother is imprisoned by your means,
Myself disgraced, and the nobility
Held in contempt, while great promotions
Are daily given to ennoble those
That scarce some two days since were worth a 85
noble. QUEEN ELIZABETH
By Him that raised me to this careful height
From that contented hap which I enjoyed,
I never did incense his Majesty
Against the Duke of Clarence, but have been 90
An earnest advocate to plead for him.
My lord, you do me shameful injury
Falsely to draw me in these vile suspects. RICHARD
You may deny that you were not the mean
Of my Lord Hastings’ late imprisonment. 95 RIVERS She may, my lord, for— RICHARD
She may, Lord Rivers. Why, who knows not so?
She may do more, sir, than denying that.
She may help you to many fair preferments
And then deny her aiding hand therein, 100
And lay those honors on your high desert.
What may she not? She may, ay, marry, may she— RIVERS What, marry, may she? RICHARD
What, marry, may she? Marry with a king,
A bachelor, and a handsome stripling too. 105
Iwis, your grandam had a worser match. QUEEN ELIZABETH
My lord of Gloucester, I have too long borne
Your blunt upbraidings and your bitter scoffs.
By heaven, I will acquaint his Majesty
Of those gross taunts that oft I have endured. 110
I had rather be a country servant-maid
Than a great queen with this condition,
To be so baited, scorned, and stormèd at. Enter old Queen Margaret, apart from the others. Small joy have I in being England’s queen. | Richard then rails against Elizabeth, claiming that Clarence was imprisoned upon her urging, and that it's also her fault that Lord Hastings was recently jailed. Richard continues to curse her for marrying his brother and collecting the rewards, while disgracing the rightful nobles. Queen Elizabeth complains about Richard's abuse and says she'd rather be a country maid than the queen under these conditions. (Richard would probably rather it be that way too.) |
QUEEN MARGARET, aside
And lessened be that small, God I beseech Him! 115
Thy honor, state, and seat is due to me. RICHARD, to Queen Elizabeth
What, threat you me with telling of the King?
Tell him and spare not. Look, what I have said,
I will avouch ’t in presence of the King;
I dare adventure to be sent to th’ Tower. 120
’Tis time to speak. My pains are quite forgot. QUEEN MARGARET, aside
Out, devil! I do remember them too well:
Thou killed’st my husband Henry in the Tower,
And Edward, my poor son, at Tewkesbury. | Meanwhile, the former Queen Margaret, the widow of King Henry VI (who
was recently killed by Richard) enters unnoticed. She's muttering under
her breath, bitterly lamenting what she sees as Elizabeth's theft of her
crown, not to mention Richard's murder of her husband and son, Edward
Prince of Wales. |
RICHARD, to Queen Elizabeth
Ere you were queen, ay, or your husband king, 125
I was a packhorse in his great affairs,
A weeder-out of his proud adversaries,
A liberal rewarder of his friends.
To royalize his blood, I spent mine own. QUEEN MARGARET, aside
Ay, and much better blood than his or thine. 130 RICHARD, to Queen Elizabeth
In all which time, you and your husband Grey
Were factious for the House of Lancaster.—
And, Rivers, so were you.—Was not your husband
In Margaret’s battle at Saint Albans slain?
Let me put in your minds, if you forget, 135
What you have been ere this, and what you are;
Withal, what I have been, and what I am. QUEEN MARGARET, aside
A murd’rous villain, and so still thou art. RICHARD, to Queen Elizabeth
Poor Clarence did forsake his father Warwick,
Ay, and forswore himself—which Jesu pardon!— 140 QUEEN MARGARET, aside Which God revenge! RICHARD
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. 145
I am too childish-foolish for this world. QUEEN MARGARET, aside
Hie thee to hell for shame, and leave this world,
Thou cacodemon! There thy kingdom is. | Richard, meanwhile, is filling us in on the family history. Apparently, while Richard was busy fighting the Lancaster family so his brother Edward would be made king, Elizabeth was married to Lord Gray, who fought on the Lancaster side against the Yorks (Edward and Richard). Lord Gray was killed in the battle at Saint Albion's, which undid the Lancasters and gave Edward of York the English crown. When Edward and the Yorks came out victorious, Elizabeth married Edward, effectively switching sides to the Yorks, and trading up big-time. Her brother Lord Rivers followed suit. Richard also notes that his other brother, Clarence, was a traitor too – he married Isabella of Lancaster (sister of Lady Anne in this play) and switched temporarily over to the Lancaster side before returning to the Yorks. |
RIVERS
My lord of Gloucester, in those busy days
Which here you urge to prove us enemies, 150
We followed then our lord, our sovereign king.
So should we you, if you should be our king. RICHARD
If I should be? I had rather be a peddler.
Far be it from my heart, the thought thereof. QUEEN ELIZABETH
As little joy, my lord, as you suppose 155
You should enjoy were you this country’s king,
As little joy you may suppose in me
That I enjoy, being the queen thereof. QUEEN MARGARET, aside
As little joy enjoys the queen thereof,
For I am she, and altogether joyless. 160
I can no longer hold me patient. She steps forward. Hear me, you wrangling pirates, that fall out
In sharing that which you have pilled from me!
Which of you trembles not that looks on me?
If not, that I am queen, you bow like subjects, 165
Yet that, by you deposed, you quake like rebels.—
Ah, gentle villain, do not turn away. RICHARD
Foul, wrinkled witch, what mak’st thou in my
sight? QUEEN MARGARET
But repetition of what thou hast marred. 170
That will I make before I let thee go. RICHARD
Wert thou not banishèd on pain of death? QUEEN MARGARET
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; 175
To Queen Elizabeth. 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. | Lord Rivers, brother to Queen Elizabeth (and beneficiary of all her good fortunes) tries to say that he and his sister are not really traitors – they were just doing the loyal thing by following whoever happened to be King at the time. So really, though they seem like opportunistic snakes, they're model citizens of England. The old Queen Margaret has been muttering bitterly to herself this whole time, cursing everyone within spitting distance. She finally steps forward and says she can no longer be silent.
Margaret calls everybody present "pirates." She also declares that Queen Elizabeth owes her a throne and that Richard owes her a husband and son (whom Richard murdered). Richard calls her a "foul wrinkled witch" and asks what the heck she's doing here. |
RICHARD
The curse my noble father laid on thee 180
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— 185
His curses then, from bitterness of soul
Denounced against thee, are all fall’n upon thee,
And God, not we, hath plagued thy bloody deed. QUEEN ELIZABETH
So just is God to right the innocent. HASTINGS
O, ’twas the foulest deed to slay that babe, 190
And the most merciless that e’er was heard of! RIVERS
Tyrants themselves wept when it was reported. DORSET
No man but prophesied revenge for it. BUCKINGHAM
Northumberland, then present, wept to see it. | Richard points out that nobody should be feeling sorry for Queen Margaret because, back in the day, Margaret did some pretty nasty things. (FYI: In Shakespeare's play Henry VI, Part 3, she taunted Richard's dad by putting a paper crown on his head and waving a bloody handkerchief in his face. By the way, the handkerchief was dipped in his son Rutland's blood, which is why Richard's dad cursed Margaret.) Richard points out that it's "God" who "hath plagued [Margaret's] bloody deed." In other words, God's making sure Margaret gets what she deserves. (Get your highlighters out, because this is important.) Everyone in the room begins to gang up on Margaret, kind of like a pack of wild dogs. (What else do we expect from the family at the center of the Wars of the Roses?) |
QUEEN MARGARET
What, were you snarling all before I came, 195
Ready to catch each other by the throat,
And turn you all your hatred now on me?
Did York’s dread curse prevail so much with
heaven
That Henry’s death, my lovely Edward’s death, 200
Their kingdom’s loss, my woeful banishment,
Should all but answer for that peevish brat?
Can curses pierce the clouds and enter heaven?
Why then, give way, dull clouds, to my quick
curses! 205
Though not by war, by surfeit die your king,
As ours by murder to make him a king.
To Queen Elizabeth. Edward thy son, that now is
Prince of Wales,
For Edward our son, that was Prince of Wales, 210
Die in his youth by like untimely violence.
Thyself a queen, for me that was a queen,
Outlive thy glory, like my wretched self.
Long mayst thou live to wail thy children’s death
And see another, as I see thee now, 215
Decked in thy rights, as thou art stalled in mine.
Long die thy happy days before thy death,
And, after many lengthened hours of grief,
Die neither mother, wife, nor England’s queen.—
Rivers and Dorset, you were standers-by, 220
And so wast thou, Lord Hastings, when my son
Was stabbed with bloody daggers. God I pray Him
That none of you may live his natural age,
But by some unlooked accident cut off. RICHARD
Have done thy charm, thou hateful, withered hag. 225 QUEEN MARGARET
And leave out thee? Stay, dog, for thou shalt hear
me.
If heaven have any grievous plague in store
Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,
O, let them keep it till thy sins be ripe 230
And then hurl down their indignation
On thee, the troubler of the poor world’s peace.
The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul.
Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liv’st,
And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends. 235
No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine,
Unless it be while some tormenting dream
Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils.
Thou elvish-marked, abortive, rooting hog,
Thou that wast sealed in thy nativity 240
The slave of nature and the son of hell,
Thou slander of thy heavy mother’s womb,
Thou loathèd issue of thy father’s loins,
Thou rag of honor, thou detested— RICHARD Margaret. 245 | Queen Margaret lashes out with a few curses of her own: she hopes Queen Elizabeth's young son Edward (in line to be the king) will be struck down, the same way her young son Edward was struck down. Margaret also hopes that Queen Elizabeth will live to see all her children die and some other woman take the throne from her. Then Margaret also curses Hastings, Rivers, and Dorset to die some nasty unnatural death, as she says they stood by and witnessed her son Edward murdered at Tewksbury. But Queen Margaret saves the worst curses for Richard of Gloucester. She says she hopes his life will be plagued by suspicion: that he will always suspect his friends as traitors, and that only traitors will be his closest friends. Without coming up for air, Margaret rattles off some of the nastiest insults in Western literature, calling Richard an "elvish-mark'd, abortive, rooting hog," a "slave of nature and the son of hell," a "slander of thy mother's heavy womb," and so on. Richard stops Margaret's rant by pulling the old "I know you are but what am I" trick. Here's how: Just as she starts to say "thou detested..." Richard interrupts her and yells out "Margaret!" |
QUEEN MARGARET Richard! RICHARD Ha? QUEEN MARGARET I call thee not. RICHARD
I cry thee mercy, then, for I did think
That thou hadst called me all these bitter names. 250 QUEEN MARGARET
Why, so I did, but looked for no reply.
O, let me make the period to my curse! RICHARD
’Tis done by me and ends in “Margaret.” QUEEN ELIZABETH, to Queen Margaret
Thus have you breathed your curse against yourself. QUEEN MARGARET
Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my fortune, 255
Why strew’st thou sugar on that bottled spider,
Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about?
Fool, fool, thou whet’st a knife to kill thyself.
The day will come that thou shalt wish for me
To help thee curse this poisonous bunch-backed 260
toad. HASTINGS
False-boding woman, end thy frantic curse,
Lest to thy harm thou move our patience. QUEEN MARGARET
Foul shame upon you, you have all moved mine. RIVERS
Were you well served, you would be taught your 265
duty. QUEEN MARGARET
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! DORSET, to Rivers
Dispute not with her; she is lunatic. 270 QUEEN MARGARET
Peace, Master Marquess, you are malapert.
Your fire-new stamp of honor is scarce current.
O, that your young nobility could judge
What ’twere to lose it and be miserable!
They that stand high have many blasts to shake 275
them,
And if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces. RICHARD
Good counsel, marry.—Learn it, learn it, marquess. DORSET
It touches you, my lord, as much as me. RICHARD
Ay, and much more; but I was born so high. 280
Our aerie buildeth in the cedar’s top,
And dallies with the wind and scorns the sun. QUEEN MARGARET
And turns the sun to shade. Alas, alas,
Witness my son, now in the shade of death,
Whose bright out-shining beams thy cloudy wrath 285
Hath in eternal darkness folded up.
Your aerie buildeth in our aerie’s nest.
O God, that seest it, do not suffer it!
As it is won with blood, lost be it so. BUCKINGHAM
Peace, peace, for shame, if not for charity. 290 QUEEN MARGARET
Urge neither charity nor shame to me.
Addressing the others. Uncharitably with me have
you dealt,
And shamefully my hopes by you are butchered.
My charity is outrage, life my shame, 295
And in that shame still live my sorrows’ 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 noble house! 300
Thy garments are not spotted with our blood,
Nor thou within the compass of my curse. BUCKINGHAM
Nor no one here, for curses never pass
The lips of those that breathe them in the air. QUEEN MARGARET
I will not think but they ascend the sky, 305
And there awake God’s gentle sleeping peace.
Aside to Buckingham. 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. 310
Have not to do with him. Beware of him.
Sin, death, and hell have set their marks on him,
And all their ministers attend on him. | Margaret tries to warn Buckingham that Richard will betray him eventually, but Buckingham isn't having any of this. |
RICHARD
What doth she say, my lord of Buckingham? BUCKINGHAM
Nothing that I respect, my gracious lord. 315 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.— 320
Live each of you the subjects to his hate,
And he to yours, and all of you to God’s. She exits. BUCKINGHAM
My hair doth stand an 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, 325
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.
I was too hot to do somebody good 330
That is too cold in thinking of it now.
Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repaid;
He is franked up to fatting for his pains.
God pardon them that are the cause thereof. RIVERS
A virtuous and a Christian-like conclusion 335
To pray for them that have done scathe to us. RICHARD
So do I ever—(speaks to himself) being well advised,
For had I cursed now, I had cursed myself. | Richard pretends to defend Margaret. He says he understands why
Margaret is so upset, especially after everything she's suffered. He
plays the martyr, seemingly taking the high road and forgiving the woman
who curses him. |
Enter Catesby. CATESBY
Madam, his Majesty doth call for you,—
And for your Grace,—and yours, my gracious 340
lords. QUEEN ELIZABETH
Catesby, I come.—Lords, will you go with me? RIVERS We wait upon your Grace. All but Richard, Duke of Gloucester exit. RICHARD
I do the wrong and first begin to brawl.
The secret mischiefs that I set abroach 345
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 350
That stir the King against the Duke my brother.
Now they believe it and withal whet 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; 355
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, resolvèd mates? 360
Are you now going to dispatch this thing? | As everyone is marveling at Richard's charity, Catesby, a nobleman, enters with the news that King Edward IV has called everyone to come see him. Everyone leaves except Richard, who stays behind and tells us his evil plan to have his imprisoned brother Clarence murdered. Not so kind and charitable after all, eh? Richard gloats over the fact that he's been able to convince Derby, Hastings, and Buckingham that Clarence's imprisonment is the fault of Queen Elizabeth and her supporters. Richard is interrupted by the entrance of two murderers. |
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. He gives a paper. When you have done, repair to Crosby Place. 365
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. MURDERER
Tut, tut, my lord, we will not stand to prate. 370
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
tears.
I like you lads. About your business straight. 375
Go, go, dispatch. MURDERERS We will, my noble lord. They exit. | They've shown up to collect Clarence's death warrant. Richard hands over the paper, making it absolutely clear that he's behind the plot to kill Clarence. Richard instructs the murderers to be quick with the execution so Clarence doesn't get a chance to talk them out of it. The murderers promise to do their job quickly and mercilessly. Richard says, "Hey, you guys are great," and sends them on their way. |