Читать книгу King Richard III - Уильям Шекспир, William Szekspir, the Simon Studio - Страница 5

  RIVERS. Have patience, madam; there's no doubt his Majesty

    Will soon recover his accustom'd health.

  GREY. In that you brook it ill, it makes him worse;

    Therefore, for God's sake, entertain good comfort,

    And cheer his Grace with quick and merry eyes.

  QUEEN ELIZABETH. If he were dead, what would betide on

    me?

  GREY. No other harm but loss of such a lord.

  QUEEN ELIZABETH. The loss of such a lord includes all

    harms.

  GREY. The heavens have bless'd you with a goodly son

    To be your comforter when he is gone.

  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.

  RIVER. Is it concluded he shall be Protector?

  QUEEN ELIZABETH. It is determin'd, not concluded yet;

    But so it must be, if the King miscarry.

  GREY. Here come the Lords of Buckingham and Derby.

  BUCKINGHAM. Good time of day unto your royal Grace!

  DERBY. God make your Majesty joyful as you have been.

  QUEEN ELIZABETH. The Countess Richmond, good my Lord

    of Derby,

    To your good prayer will scarcely say amen.

    Yet, Derby, notwithstanding she's your wife

    And loves not me, be you, good lord, assur'd

    I hate not you for her proud arrogance.

  DERBY. I do beseech you, either not believe

    The envious slanders of her false accusers;

    Or, if she be accus'd on true report,

    Bear with her weakness, which I think proceeds

    From wayward sickness and no grounded malice.

  QUEEN ELIZABETH. Saw you the King to-day, my Lord of

    Derby?

  DERBY. But now the Duke of Buckingham and I

    Are come from visiting his Majesty.

  QUEEN ELIZABETH. What likelihood of his amendment,

    Lords?

  BUCKINGHAM. Madam, good hope; his Grace speaks

    cheerfully.

  QUEEN ELIZABETH. God grant him health! Did you confer

    with him?

  BUCKINGHAM. Ay, madam; he desires to make atonement

    Between the Duke of Gloucester and your brothers,

    And between them and my Lord Chamberlain;

    And sent to warn them to his royal presence.

  QUEEN ELIZABETH. Would all were well! But that will

    never be.

    I fear our happiness is at the height.

  GLOUCESTER. They do me wrong, and I will not endure it.

    Who is it that complains unto the King

    That I, forsooth, am stern and love them not?

    By holy Paul, they love his Grace but lightly

    That fill his ears with such dissentious rumours.

    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 abus'd

    With silken, sly, insinuating Jacks?

  GREY. To who in all this presence speaks your Grace?

  GLOUCESTER. To thee, that hast nor honesty nor grace.

    When have I injur'd thee? when done thee wrong,

    Or thee, or thee, or any of your faction?

    A plague upon you all! His royal Grace-

    Whom God preserve better than you would wish! -

    Cannot be quiet searce a breathing while

    But you must trouble him with lewd complaints.

  QUEEN ELIZABETH. Brother of Gloucester, you mistake the

    matter.

    The King, on his own royal disposition

    And not provok'd by any suitor else-

    Aiming, belike, at your interior hatred

    That in your outward action shows itself

    Against my children, brothers, and myself-

    Makes him to send that he may learn the ground.

  GLOUCESTER. I cannot tell; the world is grown so bad

    That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch.

    Since every Jack became a gentleman,

    There's many a gentle person made a Jack.

  QUEEN ELIZABETH. Come, come, we know your meaning,

    brother Gloucester:

    You envy my advancement and my friends';

    God grant we never may have need of you!

  GLOUCESTER. Meantime, God grants that I have need of you.

    Our brother is imprison'd by your means,

    Myself disgrac'd, and the nobility

    Held in contempt; while great promotions

    Are daily given to ennoble those

    That scarce some two days since were worth a noble.

  QUEEN ELIZABETH. By Him that rais'd me to this careful

    height

    From that contented hap which I enjoy'd,

    I never did incense his Majesty

    Against the Duke of Clarence, but have been

    An earnest advocate to plead for him.

    My lord, you do me shameful injury

    Falsely to draw me in these vile suspects.

  GLOUCESTER. You may deny that you were not the mean

    Of my Lord Hastings' late imprisonment.

  RIVERS. She may, my lord; for-

  GLOUCESTER. She may, Lord Rivers? Why, who knows

    not so?

    She may do more, sir, than denying that:

    She may help you to many fair preferments

    And then deny her aiding hand therein,

    And lay those honours on your high desert.

    What may she not? She may-ay, marry, may she-

  RIVERS. What, marry, may she?

  GLOUCESTER. What, marry, may she? Marry with a king,

    A bachelor, and a handsome stripling too.

    Iwis your grandam had a worser match.

  QUEEN ELIZABETH. My Lord of Gloucester, I have too long

    borne

    Your blunt upbraidings and your bitter scoffs.

    By heaven, I will acquaint his Majesty

    Of those gross taunts that oft I have endur'd.

    I had rather be a country servant-maid

    Than a great queen with this condition-

    To be so baited, scorn'd, and stormed at.

    Small joy have I in being England's Queen.

  QUEEN MARGARET. And less'ned be that small, God, I

    beseech Him!

    Thy honour, state, and seat, is due to me.

  GLOUCESTER. What! Threat you me with telling of the

    King?

    Tell him and spare not. Look what I have said

    I will avouch't in presence of the King.

    I dare adventure to be sent to th' Tow'r.

    'Tis time to speak-my pains are quite forgot.

  QUEEN MARGARET. Out, devil! I do remember them to

    well:

    Thou kill'dst my husband Henry in the Tower,

    And Edward, my poor son, at Tewksbury.

  GLOUCESTER. Ere you were queen, ay, or your husband

    King,

    I was a pack-horse in his great affairs,

    A weeder-out of his proud adversaries,

    A liberal rewarder of his friends;

    To royalize his blood I spent mine own.

  QUEEN MARGARET. Ay, and much better blood than his or

    thine.

  GLOUCESTER. In all which time you and your husband Grey

    Were factious for the house of Lancaster;

    And, Rivers, so were you. Was not your husband

    In Margaret's battle at Saint Albans slain?

    Let me put in your minds, if you forget,

    What you have been ere this, and what you are;

    Withal, what I have been, and what I am.

  QUEEN MARGARET. A murd'rous villain, and so still thou art.

  GLOUCESTER. Poor Clarence did forsake his father, Warwick,

    Ay, and forswore himself-which Jesu pardon! -

  QUEEN MARGARET. Which God revenge!

  GLOUCESTER. To fight on Edward's party for the crown;

    And for his meed, poor lord, he is mewed up.

    I would to God my heart were flint like Edward's,

    Or Edward's soft and pitiful like mine.

    I am too childish-foolish for this world.

  QUEEN MARGARET. Hie thee to hell for shame and leave this

    world,

    Thou cacodemon; there thy kingdom is.

  RIVERS. My Lord of Gloucester, in those busy days

    Which here you urge to prove us enemies,

    We follow'd then our lord, our sovereign king.

    So should we you, if you should be our king.

  GLOUCESTER. If I should be! I had rather be a pedlar.

    Far be it from my heart, the thought thereof!

  QUEEN ELIZABETH. As little joy, my lord, as you suppose

    You should enjoy were you this country's king,

    As little joy you may suppose in me

    That I enjoy, being the Queen thereof.

  QUEEN MARGARET. As little joy enjoys the Queen thereof;

    For I am she, and altogether joyless.

    I can no longer hold me patient. [Advancing]

    Hear me, you wrangling pirates, that fall out

    In sharing that which you have pill'd from me.

    Which of you trembles not that looks on me?

    If not that, I am Queen, you bow like subjects,

    Yet that, by you depos'd, you quake like rebels?

    Ah, gentle villain, do not turn away!

  GLOUCESTER. Foul wrinkled witch, what mak'st thou in my

    sight?

  QUEEN MARGARET. But repetition of what thou hast marr'd,

    That will I make before I let thee go.

  GLOUCESTER. Wert thou not banished on pain of death?

  QUEEN MARGARET. I was; but I do find more pain in

    banishment

    Than death can yield me here by my abode.

    A husband and a son thou ow'st to me;

    And thou a kingdom; all of you allegiance.

    This sorrow that I have by right is yours;

    And all the pleasures you usurp are mine.

  GLOUCESTER. The curse my noble father laid on thee,

    When thou didst crown his warlike brows with paper

    And with thy scorns drew'st rivers from his eyes,

    And then to dry them gav'st the Duke a clout

    Steep'd in the faultless blood of pretty Rutland-

    His curses then from bitterness of soul

    Denounc'd against thee are all fall'n upon thee;

    And God, not we, hath plagu'd thy bloody deed.

  QUEEN ELIZABETH. So just is God to right the innocent.

  HASTINGS. O, 'twas the foulest deed to slay that babe,

    And the most merciless that e'er was heard of!

  RIVERS. Tyrants themselves wept when it was reported.

  DORSET. No man but prophesied revenge for it.

  BUCKINGHAM. Northumberland, then present, wept to see it.

  QUEEN MARGARET. What, were you snarling all before I came,

    Ready to catch each other by the throat,

    And turn you all your hatred now on me?

    Did York's dread curse prevail so much with heaven

    That Henry's death, my lovely Edward's death,

    Their kingdom's loss, my woeful banishment,

    Should all but answer for that peevish brat?

    Can curses pierce the clouds and enter heaven?

    Why then, give way, dull clouds, to my quick curses!

    Though not by war, by surfeit die your king,

    As ours by murder, to make him a king!

    Edward thy son, that now is Prince of Wales,

    For Edward our son, that was Prince of Wales,

    Die in his youth by like untimely violence!

    Thyself a queen, for me that was a queen,

    Outlive thy glory, like my wretched self!

    Long mayest thou live to wail thy children's death,

    And see another, as I see thee now,

    Deck'd in thy rights, as thou art stall'd in mine!

    Long die thy happy days before thy death;

    And, after many length'ned hours of grief,

    Die neither mother, wife, nor England's Queen!

    Rivers and Dorset, you were standers by,

    And so wast thou, Lord Hastings, when my son

    Was stabb'd with bloody daggers. God, I pray him,

    That none of you may live his natural age,

    But by some unlook'd accident cut off!

  GLOUCESTER. Have done thy charm, thou hateful wither'd

    hag.

  QUEEN MARGARET. And leave out thee? Stay, dog, for thou

    shalt hear me.

    If heaven have any grievous plague in store

    Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,

    O, let them keep it till thy sins be ripe,

    And then hurl down their indignation

    On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace!

    The worm of conscience still be-gnaw thy soul!

    Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liv'st,

    And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends!

    No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine,

    Unless it be while some tormenting dream

    Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils!

    Thou elvish-mark'd, abortive, rooting hog,

    Thou that wast seal'd 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-

  GLOUCESTER. Margaret!

  QUEEN MARGARET. Richard!

  GLOUCESTER. Ha?

  QUEEN MARGARET. I call thee not.

  GLOUCESTER. I cry thee mercy then, for I did think

    That thou hadst call'd me all these bitter names.

  QUEEN MARGARET. Why, so I did, but look'd for no reply.

    O, let me make the period to my curse!

  GLOUCESTER. 'Tis done by me, and ends in-Margaret.

  QUEEN ELIZABETH. Thus have you breath'd your curse

    against yourself.

  QUEEN MARGARET. Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my

    fortune!

    Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider

    Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about?

    Fool, fool! thou whet'st a knife to kill thyself.

    The day will come that thou shalt wish for me

    To help thee curse this poisonous bunch-back'd toad.

  HASTINGS. False-boding woman, end thy frantic curse,

    Lest to thy harm thou move our patience.

  QUEEN MARGARET. Foul shame upon you! you have all

    mov'd mine.

  RIVERS. Were you well serv'd, you would be taught your

      duty.

  QUEEN MARGARET. To serve me well you all should do me

    duty,

    Teach me to be your queen and you my subjects.

    O, serve me well, and teach yourselves that duty!

  DORSET. Dispute not with her; she is lunatic.

  QUEEN MARGARET. Peace, Master Marquis, you are malapert;

    Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current.

    O, that your young nobility could judge

    What 'twere to lose it and be miserable!

    They that stand high have many blasts to shake them,

    And if they fall they dash themselves to pieces.

  GLOUCESTER. Good counsel, marry; learn it, learn it, Marquis.

  DORSET. It touches you, my lord, as much as me.

  GLOUCESTER. Ay, and much more; but I was born so high,

    Our aery buildeth in the cedar's top,

    And dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun.

  QUEEN MARGARET. And turns the sun to shade-alas! alas!

    Witness my son, now in the shade of death,

    Whose bright out-shining beams thy cloudy wrath

    Hath in eternal darkness folded up.

    Your aery buildeth in our aery's nest.

    O God that seest it, do not suffer it;

    As it is won with blood, lost be it so!

  BUCKINGHAM. Peace, peace, for shame, if not for charity!

  QUEEN MARGARET. Urge neither charity nor shame to me.

    Uncharitably with me have you dealt,

    And shamefully my hopes by you are butcher'd.

    My charity is outrage, life my shame;

    And in that shame still live my sorrow's rage!

  BUCKINGHAM. Have done, have done.

  QUEEN MARGARET. O princely Buckingham, I'll kiss thy

    hand

    In sign of league and amity with thee.

    Now fair befall thee and thy noble house!

    Thy garments are not spotted with our blood,

    Nor thou within the compass of my curse.

  BUCKINGHAM. Nor no one here; for curses never pass

    The lips of those that breathe them in the air.

  QUEEN MARGARET. I will not think but they ascend the sky

    And there awake God's gentle-sleeping peace.

    O Buckingham, take heed of yonder dog!

    Look when he fawns, he bites; and when he bites,

    His venom tooth will rankle to the death:

    Have not to do with him, beware of him;

    Sin, death, and hell, have set their marks on him,

    And all their ministers attend on him.

  GLOUCESTER. What doth she say, my Lord of Buckingham?

  BUCKINGHAM. Nothing that I respect, my gracious lord.

  QUEEN MARGARET. What, dost thou scorn me for my gentle

    counsel,

    And soothe the devil that I warn thee from?

    O, but remember this another day,

    When he shall split thy very heart with sorrow,

    And say poor Margaret was a prophetess!

    Live each of you the subjects to his hate,

    And he to yours, and all of you to God's! Exit

  BUCKINGHAM. My hair doth stand an end to hear her curses.

  RIVERS. And so doth mine. I muse why she's at liberty.

  GLOUCESTER. I cannot blame her; by God's holy Mother,

    She hath had too much wrong; and I repent

    My part thereof that I have done to her.

  QUEEN ELIZABETH. I never did her any to my knowledge.

  GLOUCESTER. Yet you have all the vantage of her wrong.

    I was too hot to do somebody good

    That is too cold in thinking of it now.

    Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repaid;

    He is frank'd up to fatting for his pains;

    God pardon them that are the cause thereof!

  RIVERS. A virtuous and a Christian-like conclusion,

    To pray for them that have done scathe to us!

  GLOUCESTER. So do I ever- [Aside] being well advis'd;

    For had I curs'd now, I had curs'd myself.

  CATESBY. Madam, his Majesty doth can for you,

    And for your Grace, and you, my gracious lords.

  QUEEN ELIZABETH. Catesby, I come. Lords, will you go

    with me?

  RIVERS. We wait upon your Grace.

                                       Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER

  GLOUCESTER. I do the wrong, and first begin to brawl.

    The secret mischiefs that I set abroach

    I lay unto the grievous charge of others.

    Clarence, who I indeed have cast in darkness,

    I do beweep to many simple gulls;

    Namely, to Derby, Hastings, Buckingham;

    And tell them 'tis the Queen and her allies

    That stir the King against the Duke my brother.

    Now they believe it, and withal whet me

    To be reveng'd on Rivers, Dorset, Grey;

    But then I sigh and, with a piece of Scripture,

    Tell them that God bids us do good for evil.

    And thus I clothe my naked villainy

    With odd old ends stol'n forth of holy writ,

    And seem a saint when most I play the devil.

    But, soft, here come my executioners.

    How now, my hardy stout resolved mates!

    Are you now going to dispatch this thing?

  FIRST MURDERER. We are, my lord, and come to have the

    warrant,

    That we may be admitted where he is.

  GLOUCESTER. Well thought upon; I have it here about me.

                                             [Gives the warrant]

    When you have done, repair to Crosby Place.

    But, sirs, be sudden in the execution,

    Withal obdurate, do not hear him plead;

    For Clarence is well-spoken, and perhaps

    May move your hearts to pity, if you mark him.

  FIRST MURDERER. Tut, tut, my lord, we will not stand to

    prate;

    Talkers are no good doers. Be assur'd

    We go to use our hands and not our tongues.

  GLOUCESTER. Your eyes drop millstones when fools' eyes fall

    tears.

    I like you, lads; about your business straight;

    Go, go, dispatch.

  FIRST MURDERER. We will, my noble lord. Exeunt