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 spy 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 determinèd to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams
To set my brother Clarence and the king
In deadly hate the one against the other.
And if King Edward be as true and just
As I am subtle, false, and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mewed up
About a prophecy which says that ʼG’
Of Edward’s heirs the murderer shall be.
Dive, thoughts, down to my soul, here Clarence comes.
Enter Clarence and Brakenbury, guarded.
Brother, good day. What means this armèd guard
That waits upon your grace?
Clarence
His majesty,
Tend’ring my person’s safety, hath appointed
This conduct to convey me to the Tower.
Richard
Upon what cause?
Clarence
Because my name is George.
Richard
Alack, my lord, that fault is none of yours.
He should for that commit your godfathers.
Oh, belike his majesty hath some intent
That you shall be new christened in the Tower.
But what’s the matter, Clarence? May I know?
Clarence
Yea, Richard, when I know, but I protest
As yet I do not. But as I can learn,
He hearkens after prophecies and dreams,
And from the cross-row plucks the letter ʼG’.
And says a wizard told him that by ʼG’
His issue disinherited should be.
And for my name of George begins with ʼG’,
It follows in his thought that I am he.
These, as I learn, and such like toys as these
Hath moved his highness to commit me now.
Richard
Why, this it is when men are ruled by women.
ʼTis not the king that sends you to the Tower.
My lady Grey, his wife, Clarence, ʼtis she
That tempts him to this harsh extremity.
Was it not she and that good man of worship,
Anthony Woodville, her brother there,
That made him send Lord Hastings to the Tower,
From whence this present day he is delivered?
We are not safe, Clarence, we are not safe.
Clarence
By heaven, I think there is no man secure
But the queen’s kindred and night-walking heralds
That trudge betwixt the king and Mistress Shore.
Heard you not what an humble suppliant
Lord Hastings was for her delivery?
Richard
Humbly complaining to her deity
Got my Lord Chamberlain his liberty.
I’ll tell you what, I think it is our way,
If we will keep in favour with the king,
To be her men and wear her livery.
The jealous, o’er-worn widow and herself,
Since that our brother dubbed them gentlewomen,
Are mighty gossips in our monarchy.
Brakenbury
I beseech your graces both to pardon me;
His majesty hath straitly given in charge
That no man shall have private conference,
Of what degree soever, with your brother.
Richard
Even so. And please your worship, Brakenbury,
You may partake of any thing we say.
We speak no treason, man. We say the king
Is wise and virtuous, and his noble queen
Well struck in years, fair, and not jealous.
We say that Shore’s wife hath a pretty foot,
A cherry lip, a bonny eye, a passing pleasing tongue,
And that the queen’s kindred are made gentlefolks.
How say you, sir? Can you deny all this?
Brakenbury
With this, my lord, myself have nought to do.
Richard
Naught to do with Mistress Shore? I tell thee, fellow,
He that doth naught with her (excepting one)
Were best to do it secretly alone.
Brakenbury
What one, my lord?
Richard
Her husband, knave. Wouldst thou betray me?
Brakenbury
I do beseech your grace to pardon me, and withal
Forbear your conference with the noble duke.
Clarence
We know thy charge, Brakenbury, and will obey.
Richard
We are the queen’s abjects and must obey.
Brother, farewell. I will unto the king,
And whatsoe’er you will employ me in,
I will perform it to enfranchise you.
Meantime, this deep disgrace in brotherhood
Touches me deeper than you can imagine.
Clarence
I know it pleaseth neither of us well.
Richard
Well, your imprisonment shall not be long.
I will deliver you or else Lie for you.
Meantime, have patience.
Clarence
I must perforce. Farewell.
Exeunt Clarence, Brakenbury, and guards.
Richard
Go, tread the path that thou shalt ne’er return.
Simple, plain Clarence, I do love thee so
That I will shortly send thy soul to heaven,
If heaven will take the present at our hands.
But who comes here? The new-delivered Hastings?
Enter Lord Hastings.
Hastings
Good time of day unto my gracious lord.
Richard
As much unto my good Lord Chamberlain.
Well are you welcome to this open air.
How hath your lordship brooked imprisonment?
Hastings
With patience, noble lord, as prisoners must.
But I shall live, my lord, to give them thanks
That were the cause of my imprisonment.
Richard
No doubt, no doubt, and so shall Clarence too,
For they that were your enemies are his
And have prevailed as much on him as you.
Hastings
More pity that the eagles should be mewed
While kites and buzzards play at liberty.
Richard
What news abroad?
Hastings
No news so bad abroad as this at home:
The king is sickly, weak, and melancholy,
And his physicians fear him mightily.
Richard
Now by Saint John, that news is bad indeed.
Oh, he hath kept an evil diet long
And over-much consumed his royal person.
ʼTis very grievous to be thought upon.
Where is he, in his bed?
Hastings
He is.
Richard
Go you before, and I will follow you.
Exit Hastings.
He cannot live, I hope, and must not die
Till George be packed with post-horse up to heaven.
I’ll in to urge his hatred more to Clarence
With lies well steeled with weighty arguments,
And if I fail not in my deep intent,
Clarence hath not another day to live:
Which done, God take King Edward to his mercy
And leave the world for me to bustle in!
For then I’ll marry Warwick’s youngest daughter.
What though I killed her husband and her father?
The readiest way to make the wench amends
Is to become her husband and her father,
The which will I, not all so much for love
As for another secret close intent
By marrying her which I must reach unto.
But yet I run before my horse to market.
Clarence still breathes, Edward still lives and reigns;
When they are gone, then must I count my gains.
Exit.
Enter the corpse of Henry the Sixth, Halberds to guard it, lady Anne being the mourner [attended by Tressel, Berkeley, and other Gentlemen].
Anne
Set down, set down your honourable load,
If honour may be shrouded in a hearse,
Whilst I awhile obsequiously lament
Th’untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster.
The bearers set down the hearse.
Poor key-cold figure of a holy king,
Pale ashes of the house of Lancaster,
Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood,
Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghost
To hear the lamentations of poor Anne,
Wife to thy Edward, to thy slaughtered son,
Stabbed by the selfsame hand that made these wounds.
Lo, in these windows that let forth thy life,
I pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes.
Oh, cursèd be the hand that made these holes,