KING RICHARD III. William Shakespeare

STANLEY

       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 Gloster 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.

       [Enter GLOSTER, HASTINGS, and DORSET.]

       GLOSTER

       They do me wrong, and I will not endure it:—

       Who are they that complain 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?

       GLOSTER

       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 scarce a breathing while,

       But you must trouble him with lewd complaints.

       QUEEN ELIZABETH

       Brother of Gloster, 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 thereby he may gather

       The ground of your ill-will, and so remove it.

       GLOSTER

       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 Gloster;

       You envy my advancement, and my friends’;

       God grant we never may have need of you!

       GLOSTER

       Meantime, God grants that we 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.

       GLOSTER

       You may deny that you were not the mean

       Of my Lord Hastings’ late imprisonment.

       RIVERS

       She may, my lord; for,—

       GLOSTER

       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?

       GLOSTER.

       What, marry, may she! marry with a king,

       A bachelor, and a handsome stripling too:

       I wis your grandam had a worser match.

       QUEEN ELIZABETH

       My Lord of Gloster, 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.

       [Enter old QUEEN MARGARET, behind.]

       Small joy have I in being England’s queen.

       QUEEN MARGARET

       And lessen’d be that small, God, I beseech Him!

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

       GLOSTER

       What! Threat you me with telling of the king?

       Tell him, and spare not: look what I have said

       I will avouch in presence of the king:

       I dare adventure to be sent to the Tower.

       ‘Tis time to speak,—my pains are quite forgot.

       QUEEN MARGARET

       Out, devil! I do remember them too well:

       Thou kill’dst my husband Henry in the Tower,

       And Edward, my poor son, at Tewksbury.

       GLOSTER

       Ere you were queen, ay, or your husband king,

       I was a packhorse in his great affairs;

       A weeder-out of his proud adversaries,

       A liberal rewarder of his friends;

       To royalize his blood I spilt mine own.

       QUEEN MARGARET

       Ay, and much better blood than his or thine.