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Richard III - Act 2, scene 2
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Richard III - Act 2, scene 2Act 2, scene 2
Scene 2
Synopsis:
As the Duchess of York mourns Clarence’s death, Queen Elizabeth enters grieving for the death of King Edward IV. Richard and Buckingham make plans to escort King Edward’s heir, Prince Edward, to London.
Enter the old Duchess of York with the twochildren of Clarence.
BOY
1269 Good grandam, tell us, is our father dead?
DUCHESS 1270 No, boy.
DAUGHTER
1271 Why do ⟨you⟩ weep so oft, and beat your breast,
1272 And cry “O Clarence, my unhappy son”?
BOY
1273 5 Why do you look on us and shake your head,
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1274
And call us orphans, wretches, castaways,1275 If that our noble father were alive?
DUCHESS
1276 My pretty cousins, you mistake me both.
1277 I do lament the sickness of the King,
1278 10 As loath to lose him, not your father’s death.
1279 It were lost sorrow to wail one that’s lost.
BOY
1280 Then, you conclude, my grandam, he is dead.
1281 The King mine uncle is to blame for it.
1282 God will revenge it, whom I will importune
1283 15 With earnest prayers, all to that effect.
DAUGHTER 1284 And so will I.
DUCHESS
1285 Peace, children, peace. The King doth love you
1286 well.
1287 Incapable and shallow innocents,
1288 20 You cannot guess who caused your father’s death.
BOY
1289 Grandam, we can, for my good uncle Gloucester
1290 Told me the King, provoked to it by the Queen,
1291 Devised impeachments to imprison him;
1292 And when my uncle told me so, he wept,
1293 25 And pitied me, and kindly kissed my cheek,
1294 Bade me rely on him as on my father,
1295 And he would love me dearly as a child.
DUCHESS
1296 Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle shape,
1297 And with a virtuous visor hide deep vice.
1298 30 He is my son, ay, and therein my shame,
1299 Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit.
BOY
1300 Think you my uncle did dissemble, grandam?
DUCHESS 1301 Ay, boy.
BOY
1302 I cannot think it. Hark, what noise is this?
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Enter Queen ⌜Elizabeth⌝ with her hair about her ears,Rivers and Dorset after her.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
1303 35 Ah, who shall hinder me to wail and weep,
1304 To chide my fortune and torment myself?
1305 I’ll join with black despair against my soul
1306 And to myself become an enemy.
DUCHESS
1307 What means this scene of rude impatience?
QUEEN ELIZABETH
1308 40 To make an act of tragic violence.
1309 Edward, my lord, thy son, our king, is dead.
1310 Why grow the branches when the root is gone?
1311 Why wither not the leaves that want their sap?
1312 If you will live, lament. If die, be brief,
1313 45 That our swift-wingèd souls may catch the King’s,
1314 Or, like obedient subjects, follow him
1315 To his new kingdom of ne’er-changing night.
DUCHESS
1316 Ah, so much interest have ⟨I⟩ in thy sorrow
1317 As I had title in thy noble husband.
1318 50 I have bewept a worthy husband’s death
1319 And lived with looking on his images;
1320 But now two mirrors of his princely semblance
1321 Are cracked in pieces by malignant death,
1322 And I, for comfort, have but one false glass
1323 55 That grieves me when I see my shame in him.
1324 Thou art a widow, yet thou art a mother,
1325 And hast the comfort of thy children left,
1326 But death hath snatched my husband from mine
1327 arms
1328 60 And plucked two crutches from my feeble hands,
1329 Clarence and Edward. O, what cause have I,
1330 Thine being but a moiety of my moan,
1331 To overgo thy woes and drown thy cries!
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BOY, ⌜to Queen Elizabeth⌝ 1332 Ah, aunt, you wept not for our father’s death.
1333 65 How can we aid you with our kindred tears?
DAUGHTER, ⌜to Queen Elizabeth⌝
1334 Our fatherless distress was left unmoaned.
1335 Your widow-dolor likewise be unwept!
QUEEN ELIZABETH
1336 Give me no help in lamentation.
1337 I am not barren to bring forth complaints.
1338 70 All springs reduce their currents to mine eyes,
1339 That I, being governed by the watery moon,
1340 May send forth plenteous tears to drown the world.
1341 Ah, for my husband, for my dear lord Edward!
CHILDREN
1342 Ah, for our father, for our dear lord Clarence!
DUCHESS
1343 75 Alas for both, both mine, Edward and Clarence!
QUEEN ELIZABETH
1344 What stay had I but Edward? And he’s gone.
CHILDREN
1345 What stay had we but Clarence? And he’s gone.
DUCHESS
1346 What stays had I but they? And they are gone.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
1347 Was never widow had so dear a loss.
CHILDREN
1348 80 Were never orphans had so dear a loss.
DUCHESS
1349 Was never mother had so dear a loss.
1350 Alas, I am the mother of these griefs.
1351 Their woes are parceled; mine is general.
1352 She for an Edward weeps, and so do I;
1353 85 I for a Clarence ⟨weep;⟩ so doth not she.
1354 These babes for Clarence weep, ⟨and so do I;
1355 I for an Edward weep;⟩ so do not they.
1356 Alas, you three, on me, threefold distressed,
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1357
Pour all your tears. I am your sorrow’s nurse,1358 90 And I will pamper it with lamentation.
DORSET, ⌜to Queen Elizabeth⌝
1359 Comfort, dear mother. God is much displeased
1360 That you take with unthankfulness His doing.
1361 In common worldly things, ’tis called ungrateful
1362 With dull unwillingness to repay a debt
1363 95 Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent;
1364 Much more to be thus opposite with heaven,
1365 For it requires the royal debt it lent you.
RIVERS
1366 Madam, bethink you, like a careful mother,
1367 Of the young prince your son. Send straight for
1368 100 him.
1369 Let him be crowned. In him your comfort lives.
1370 Drown desperate sorrow in dead Edward’s grave
1371 And plant your joys in living Edward’s throne.
Enter Richard, ⌜Duke of Gloucester,⌝ Buckingham, ⌜Lord
Stanley, Earl of⌝ Derby, Hastings, and Ratcliffe.
RICHARD, ⌜to Queen Elizabeth⌝
1372 Sister, have comfort. All of us have cause
1373 105 To wail the dimming of our shining star,
1374 But none can help our harms by wailing them.—
1375 Madam my mother, I do cry you mercy;
1376 I did not see your Grace. Humbly on my knee
1377 I crave your blessing.⌜He kneels.⌝
DUCHESS
1378 110 God bless thee, and put meekness in thy breast,
1379 Love, charity, obedience, and true duty.
RICHARD, ⌜standing⌝
1380 Amen. ⌜Aside.⌝ And make me die a good old man!
1381 That is the butt end of a mother’s blessing;
1382 I marvel that her Grace did leave it out.
BUCKINGHAM
1383 115 You cloudy princes and heart-sorrowing peers
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1384
That bear this heavy mutual load of moan,1385 Now cheer each other in each other’s love.
1386 Though we have spent our harvest of this king,
1387 We are to reap the harvest of his son.
1388 120 The broken rancor of your high-swoll’n hates,
1389 But lately splintered, knit, and joined together,
1390 Must gently be preserved, cherished, and kept.
1391 Meseemeth good that with some little train
1392 Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fet
1393 125 Hither to London, to be crowned our king.
RIVERS
1394 Why “with some little train,” my lord of
1395 Buckingham?
BUCKINGHAM
1396 Marry, my lord, lest by a multitude
1397 The new-healed wound of malice should break out,
1398 130 Which would be so much the more dangerous
1399 By how much the estate is green and yet
1400 ungoverned.
1401 Where every horse bears his commanding rein
1402 And may direct his course as please himself,
1403 135 As well the fear of harm as harm apparent,
1404 In my opinion, ought to be prevented.
RICHARD
1405 I hope the King made peace with all of us;
1406 And the compact is firm and true in me.
RIVERS
1407 And so in me, and so, I think, in all.
1408 140 Yet since it is but green, it should be put
1409 To no apparent likelihood of breach,
1410 Which haply by much company might be urged.
1411 Therefore I say with noble Buckingham
1412 That it is meet so few should fetch the Prince.
HASTINGS 1413 145And so say I.
RICHARD
1414 Then be it so, and go we to determine
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1415
Who they shall be that straight shall post to1416 ⟨Ludlow.⟩—
1417 Madam, and you, my sister, will you go
1418 150 To give your censures in this business?
All but Buckingham and Richard exit.
BUCKINGHAM
1419 My lord, whoever journeys to the Prince,
1420 For ⟨God’s⟩ sake let not us two stay at home.
1421 For by the way I’ll sort occasion,
1422 As index to the story we late talked of,
1423 155 To part the Queen’s proud kindred from the Prince.
RICHARD
1424 My other self, my council’s consistory,
1425 My oracle, my prophet, my dear cousin,
1426 I, as a child, will go by thy direction.
1427 Toward ⟨Ludlow⟩ then, for we’ll not stay behind.
They exit.