Richard III

rascals, and runaways,
A scum of Bretons, and base lackey peasants,
Whom their o’er-cloyed country vomits forth
To desperate ventures and assured destruction.
You sleeping safe, they bring to you unrest;
You having lands, and blest with beauteous wives,
They would restrain the one, distain the other.
And who doth lead them but a paltry fellow,
Long kept in Bretagne at our mother’s cost?
A milk-sop, one that never in his life
Felt so much cold as over shoes in snow?
Let’s whip these stragglers o’er the seas again;
Lash hence these overweening rags of France,
These famish’d beggars, weary of their lives;
Who, but for dreaming on this fond exploit,
For want of means, poor rats, had hang’d themselves:
If we be conquer’d, let men conquer us,
And not these bastard Bretons; whom our fathers
Have in their own land beaten, bobb’d, and thump’d,
And in record, left them the heirs of shame.
Shall these enjoy our lands? lie with our wives?
Ravish our daughters? Drum afar off. Hark! I hear their drum.
Fight, gentlemen of England! fight, bold yoemen!
Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head!
Spur your proud horses hard, and ride in blood;
Amaze the welkin with your broken staves! Enter a Messenger. What says Lord Stanley? will he bring his power? Messenger My lord, he doth deny to come. King Richard Off with his son George’s head! Norfolk

My lord, the enemy is past the marsh:
After the battle let George Stanley die.

King Richard

A thousand hearts are great within my bosom:
Advance our standards, set upon our foes;
Our ancient word of courage, fair Saint George,
Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons!
Upon them! victory sits on our helms. Exeunt.

Scene IV

Another part of the field.

	Alarum: excursions. Enter Norfolk and forces fighting; to him Catesby.
Catesby	Rescue, my Lord of Norfolk, rescue, rescue! The king enacts more wonders than a man, Daring an opposite to every danger: His horse is slain, and all on foot he fights, Seeking for Richmond in the throat of death. Rescue, fair lord, or else the day is lost!
	Alarums. Enter King Richard.
King Richard	A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!
Catesby	Withdraw, my lord; I’ll help you to a horse.
King 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 to-day instead of him. A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse! Exeunt.

Scene V

Another part of the field.

	Alarum. Enter Richard and Richmond; they fight. Richard is slain. Retreat and flourish. Re-enter Richmond, Derby bearing the crown, with divers other Lords.
Richmond	God and your arms be praised, victorious friends; The day is ours, the bloody dog is dead.
Derby	Courageous Richmond, well hast thou acquit thee. Lo, here, this long-usurped royalty From the dead temples of this bloody wretch Have I pluck’d off, to grace thy brows withal: Wear it, enjoy it, and make much of it.
Richmond	Great God of heaven, say Amen to all! But, tell me, is young George Stanley living?
Derby	He is, my lord, and safe in Leicester town; Whither, if it please you, we may now withdraw us.
Richmond	What men of name are slain on either side?
Derby	John Duke of Norfolk, Walter Lord Ferrers, Sir Robert Brakenbury, and Sir William Brandon.
Richmond	Inter their bodies as becomes their births: Proclaim a pardon to the soldiers fled That in submission will return to us: And then, as we have ta’en the sacrament, We will unite the white rose and the red: Smile heaven upon this fair conjunction, That long have frown’d upon their enmity! What traitor hears me, and says not amen? England hath long been mad, and scarr’d herself; The brother blindly shed the brother’s blood, The father rashly slaughter’d his own son, The son, compell’d, been butcher to the sire: All this divided York and Lancaster, Divided in their dire division, O, now, let Richmond and Elizabeth, The true succeeders of each royal house, By God’s fair ordinance conjoin together! And let their heirs, God, if thy will be so, Enrich the time to come with smooth-faced peace, With smiling plenty and fair prosperous days! Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord, That would reduce these bloody days again, And make poor England weep in streams of blood! Let them not live to taste this land’s increase That would with treason wound this fair land’s peace! Now civil wounds are stopp’d, peace lives again: That she may long live here, God say amen! Exeunt.

Colophon

Richard III
was published in 1592 by
William Shakespeare.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Emma Sweeney,
and is based on a transcription produced in 1993 by
Jeremy Hylton
for the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and on digital scans available at the
HathiTrust Digital Library.

The cover page is adapted from
Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and the Lady Anne,
a painting completed in 1896 by
Edwin Austin Abbey.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.

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