Wiliam Shakespeare, Richard III

 

William Shakespeare, Richard III, Arden 2009

 

Richard: Now is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by this son of York,

And all the clouds that loured upon our house

In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. (1.1.1-4)

 

Richard: But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,

Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;

I, that am rudely stamped, and want love’s majesty

To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;

I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion,

Cheated of feature by dissembling Nature,

Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time

Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,

And that so lamely and unfashionable

That dogs bark at me as I halt by them—

Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,

Have no delight to pass away the time,

Unless to see my shadow in the sun

And descant on mine own deformity.

And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover

To entertain these fair well-spoken days,

I am determined to prove a villain

And hate the idle pleasures of these days. (1.1.14-31)

 

Richard: And if King Edward be as true and just

As I am subtle, false and treacherous, (1.1.36-7)

 

Richard: We are the Queen’s abjects, and must obey. (1.1.106)

 

Richard: Simple, plain Clarence, I do love thee so

That I will shortly send thy soul to heaven, (1.1.118-9)

 

Richard: Now by Saint John, the news is bad indeed.

O, he hath kept an evil diet long, (1.1.138-9)

 

Richard: Say that I slew them not.

Anne: Then say they were not slain.

But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee. (1.2.88-91)     

 

Anne: Thou wast provoked by thy bloody mind,

That never dream’st on aught but butcheries.

Didst thou not kill this king?

Richard: I grant ye.

Anne: Dost grant me, hedgehog? Then God grant me too

Thou mayst be damned for that wicked deed.

O, he was gentle, mild and virtuous. (1.2.101-6)

 

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. (1.3.11-13)

 

Richard: Because I cannot flatter, and look fair,

Smile in men’s faces, smooth, deceive and cog,

Duck with French nods and apish courtesy,

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? (1.3.46-52)

 

Queen Margaret: Thou elvish-marked, abortive, rooting hog,

Thou that wast sealed in thy nativity

The slave of nature and the son of hell;

Thou slander of thy heavy mother’s womb,

Thou loathed issue of thy father’s loins,

Thou rag of honour, thou detested—(1.3.227-32)

 

Queen Margaret: Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my fortune,

Why strew’st thou sugar on that bottled spider, (1.3.240-1)

 

York: Grandam, one night as we did sit at supper,

My uncle Rivers talked how I did grow

More than my brother. ‘Ay,’ quoth my uncle Gloucester,

‘Small herbs have grace; great weeds do grow apace.’

And since, methinks I would not grow so fast

Because sweet flowers are slow and weeks make haste.

Duchess: Good faith, good faith, the saying did not hold

In him that did object the same to thee.

He was the wretched’st thing when he was young,

So long a-growing, and so leisurely,

That if his rule were true, he should be gracious. (2.4.9-20)

 

Hastings: This day those enemies are put to death,

And I in better state than e’er I was.

Pursuivant: God hold it to your honour’s good content.

Hastings: Gramercy, fellow. There, drink that for me.

Throws him his purse.

Pursuivant: I thank your honour. (3.1.101-6) [Gramercy – thank you; drink that – i.e. enjoy this]

 

Richard: —My Lord of Ely, when I was last in Holdborn

I saw good strawberries in your garden there;

I do beseech you, send for some of them. (3.4.31-3) [strawberries have emblematic connections to unseen treachery. The episode conveys Richard’s ‘careless ease, in the midst of all his crimes’ (Griffith, 317). Relaxed improvisation amid otherwise tense circumstances is characteristic of Richard until he gets the crown.]

 

Buckingham: The Mayor is here at hand. Intend some fear.

Be not you spoke with but by mighty suit;

And look you get a prayer book in your hand,

And stand between two churchmen, good my lord,

For on that ground I’ll make a holy descant.

And be not easily won to our requests;

Play the maid’s part: still answer nay, and take it. (3.7.44-50)

 

Buckingham: Know then, it is your fault that you resign

The supreme seat, the throne majestical,

The sceptered office of your ancestors,

Your state of fortune, and your due of birth,

The lineal glory of your royal house,

To the corruption of a blemished stock; (3.7.116-21)

 

Buckingham: Her royal stock graft with ignoble plants, (3.7.126)

Queen Elizabeth: Ah, cut my lace asunder

That my pent heart may have some scope to beat,

Or else I swoon with this dead-kiling news. (4.1.33-5)

 

Queen Elizabeth: O Dorset, speak not to me. Get thee gone.

Death and destruction dogs thee at thy heels.

Thy mother’s name is ominous to children.

If thou wilt outstrip death, go, cross the seas

And live with Richmond, from the reach of hell. (4.1.38-42)

 

Queen Margaret: I called thee then vain flourish of my fortune;

I called them then, poor shadow, painted queen, (4.4.82-3)

…

A queen in jest, only to fill the scene.

Where is thy husband now? Where by thy brothers?

Where be thy two sons? Wherein dost thou joy?

Who sues, and kneels, and says, ‘God save the Queen’?

Where by the bending peers that flattered thee?

Where be the thronging troops that followed thee?

Decline all this, and see what now thou art:

For happy wife, a most distressed widow;

For joyful mother, one that wails the name;

For one being sued to, one that humbly sues;

For queen, a very caitiff crowned with care;

For she that scorned at me, now scorned of me;

For she being feared of all, now fearing one;

For she commanding all, obeyed of none.

Thus hath the course of justice whirled about

And left thee but a very prey to time,

Having no more but thought of what thou wast

To torture thee the more, being what thou art.

Thou didst usurp my place, and dost thou not

Usurp the just proportion of my sorrow?

Now thy proud neck bears half my burdened yoke,

From which, even here I slip my wearied head

And leave the burden of it all on thee.

Farewell, York’s wife, and queen of sad mischance.

These English woes shall make me smile in France.

Queen Elizabeth: O thou, well skilled in curses, stay awhile

And teach me how to curse mine enemies.

Queen Margaret: Forbear to sleep the night, and fast the day;

Compare dead happiness with living woe;

Think that thy babes were sweeter than they were,

And he that slew them fouler than he is.

Bettering thy loss makes the bad causer worse.

Revolving this will teach thee how to curse.

Queen Elizabeth: My words are dull. O, quicken them with thine.

Queen Margaret: Thy woes will make them sharp and pierce like mine.

Duchess: Why should calamity be full of words?

Queen Elizabeth: Windy attorneys to their clients’ woes,

Airy succeeders of intestate joys,

Poor breathing orators of miseries,

Let them have scope, though what they will impart

Help nothing else, yet do they east the heart.

Duchess: If so, then be not tongue-tied. Go with me,

And in the breath of bitter words let’s smother

My damned son, that thy two sweet sons smothered.

[Trumpet sounds]

The trumpet sounds. Be copious in exclaims. (4.4.92-135)

 

Richmond: The wretched, bloody and usurping boar,

That spoiled your summer fields and fruitful vines,

Swills your warm blood like wash, and makes his trough

In your embowelled bosoms, this foul swine

Is now even in the centre of this isle, (5.2.7-11)

 

Richmond: A base foul stone, made precious by the foil

Of England’s chair, … (5.3.250-1)

 

Richard: March on, join bravely, let us to it pell-mell,

If not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell. (5.3.312-3)

 

Richard: If we be conquered, let me conquer us,

And not these bastard Bretons, whom our fathers

Have in their own land beaten, bobbed and thumped,

And in record left them the heirs of shame.

Shall these enjoy our lands? Lie with our wives?

Ravish our daughters? (5.3.332-7)

 

Richard: A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!

Catesby: Withdraw, my lord. I’ll help you to a horse.

Richard: Slave, I have set my life upon a cast,

And I will stand the hazard of the die.

I think there be six Richmonds in the field;

Five have I slain today instead of him.

A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse! (5.4.7-13)