Richard III

no man is secure
But the queen’s kindred and night-walking heralds
That trudge betwixt the king and Mistress Shore.
Heard ye not what an humble suppliant
Lord hastings was to her for his delivery? Gloucester

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’erworn widow and herself,
Since that our brother dubb’d them gentlewomen.
Are mighty gossips in this 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 his brother.

Gloucester

Even so; an’t 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. Gloucester

Naught to do with Mistress Shore! I tell thee, fellow,
He that doth naught with her, excepting one,
Were best he do it secretly, alone.

Brakenbury What one, my lord? Gloucester Her husband, knave: wouldst thou betray me? Brakenbury

I beseech your grace to pardon me, and withal
Forbear your conference with the noble duke.

Clarence We know thy charge, Brakenbury, and will obey. Gloucester

We are the queen’s abjects, and must obey.
Brother, farewell: I will unto the king;
And whatsoever you will employ me in,
Were it to call King Edward’s widow sister,
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. Gloucester

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 Guard. Gloucester

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-deliver’d Hastings?

Enter Lord Hastings. Hastings Good time of day unto my gracious lord! Gloucester

As much unto my good lord chamberlain!
Well are you welcome to the open air.
How hath your lordship brook’d 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.

Gloucester

No doubt, no doubt; and so shall Clarence too;
For they that were your enemies are his,
And have prevail’d as much on him as you.

Hastings

More pity that the eagle should be mew’d,
While kites and buzzards prey at liberty.

Gloucester 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.

Gloucester

Now, by Saint Paul, this news is bad indeed.
O, he hath kept an evil diet long,
And overmuch consumed his royal person:
’Tis very grievous to be thought upon.
What, is he in his bed?

Hastings He is. Gloucester

Go you before, and I will follow you. Exit Hastings.
He cannot live, I hope; and must not die
Till George be pack’d with post-horse up to heaven.
I’ll in, to urge his hatred more to Clarence,
With lies well steel’d with weighty arguments;
And, if I fall 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 kill’d 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.

Scene II

The same. Another street.

	Enter the corpse of King Henry the Sixth, Gentlemen with halberds to guard it; Lady Anne being the mourner.
Anne	Set down, set down your honourable load, If honour may be shrouded in a hearse, Whilst I awhile obsequiously lament The untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster. 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 slaughter’d son, Stabb’d 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. Cursed be the hand that made these fatal holes! Cursed be the heart that had the heart to do it! Cursed the blood that let this blood from hence! More direful hap betide that hated wretch, That makes us wretched by the death of thee, Than I can wish to adders, spiders, toads, Or any creeping venom’d thing that lives! If ever he have child, abortive be it, Prodigious, and untimely brought to light, Whose ugly and unnatural aspect May fright the hopeful mother at the view; And that be heir to his unhappiness! If ever he have wife, let her be made As miserable by the death of him As I am made by my poor lord and thee! Come, now towards Chertsey with your holy load, Taken from Paul’s to be interred there; And still, as you are weary of the weight, Rest you, whiles I lament King Henry’s corse.
	Enter Gloucester.
Gloucester	Stay, you that bear the corse, and set it down.
Anne	What black magician conjures up this fiend, To stop devoted charitable deeds?
Gloucester	Villains, set down the corse; or, by Saint Paul, I’ll make a corse of him that disobeys.
Gentleman	My lord, stand back, and let the coffin pass.
Gloucester	Unmanner’d dog! stand thou, when I command: Advance thy halberd higher than my breast, Or, by Saint Paul, I’ll strike thee to my foot, And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.
Anne