Richard III by William Shakespeare
Act 2 - Scene 2
The palace.
Boy : Tell me, good grandam, is our father dead?
Duchess of York : No, boy.
Boy : Why do you wring your hands, and beat your breast,
[p]And cry 'O
Clarence, my unhappy son!'
Girl : Why do you look on us, and shake your head,
[p]And call us wretches,
orphans, castaways
[p]If that our noble father be alive?
Duchess of York : My pretty cousins, you mistake me much;
[p]I do lament the sickness of
the king.
[p]As loath to lose him, not your father's death;
[p]It were
lost sorrow to wail one that's lost.
Boy : Then, grandam, you conclude that he is dead.
[p]The king my uncle is
to blame for this:
[p]God will revenge it; whom I will
importune
[p]With daily prayers all to that effect.
Girl : And so will I.
Duchess of York : Peace, children, peace! the king doth love you well:
[p]Incapable and
shallow innocents,
[p]You cannot guess who caused your father's
death.
Boy : Grandam, we can; for my good uncle Gloucester
[p]Told me, the king,
provoked by the queen,
[p]Devised impeachments to imprison him
:
[p]And when my uncle told me so, he wept,
[p]And hugg'd me in his
arm, and kindly kiss'd my cheek;
[p]Bade me rely on him as on my
father,
[p]And he would love me dearly as his child.
Duchess of York : Oh, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes,
[p]And with a
virtuous vizard hide foul guile!
[p]He is my son; yea, and therein my
shame;
[p]Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit.
Boy : Think you my uncle did dissemble, grandam?
Duchess of York : Ay, boy.
Boy : I cannot think it. Hark! what noise is this?
[p][Enter QUEEN
ELIZABETH, with her hair about her]
[p]ears; RIVERS, and DORSET after
her]
Duchess of York : What means this scene of rude impatience?
Duchess of York : Ah, so much interest have I in thy sorrow
[p]As I had title in thy
noble husband!
[p]I have bewept a worthy husband's death,
[p]And lived
by looking on his images:
[p]But now two mirrors of his princely
semblance
[p]Are crack'd in pieces by malignant death,
[p]And I for
comfort have but one false glass,
[p]Which grieves me when I see my
shame in him.
[p]Thou art a widow; yet thou art a mother,
[p]And hast
the comfort of thy children left thee:
[p]But death hath snatch'd my
husband from mine arms,
[p]And pluck'd two crutches from my feeble
limbs,
[p]Edward and Clarence. O, what cause have I,
[p]Thine being
but a moiety of my grief,
[p]To overgo thy plaints and drown thy
cries!
Boy : Good aunt, you wept not for our father's death;
[p]How can we aid you
with our kindred tears?
Girl : Our fatherless distress was left unmoan'd;
[p]Your widow-dolour
likewise be unwept!
Children : Oh for our father, for our dear lord Clarence!
Duchess of York : Alas for both, both mine, Edward and Clarence!
Children : What stay had we but Clarence? and he's gone.
Duchess of York : What stays had I but they? and they are gone.
Children : Were never orphans had so dear a loss!
Duchess of York : Was never mother had so dear a loss!
[p]Alas, I am the mother of these
moans!
[p]Their woes are parcell'd, mine are general.
[p]She for an
Edward weeps, and so do I;
[p]I for a Clarence weep, so doth not
she:
[p]These babes for Clarence weep and so do I;
[p]I for an Edward
weep, so do not they:
[p]Alas, you three, on me, threefold
distress'd,
[p]Pour all your tears! I am your sorrow's nurse,
[p]And I
will pamper it with lamentations.
Marquis of Dorset : Comfort, dear mother: God is much displeased
[p]That you take with
unthankfulness, his doing:
[p]In common worldly things, 'tis call'd
ungrateful,
[p]With dull unwilligness to repay a debt
[p]Which with a
bounteous hand was kindly lent;
[p]Much more to be thus opposite with
heaven,
[p]For it requires the royal debt it lent you.
Duchess of York : God bless thee; and put meekness in thy mind,
[p]Love, charity,
obedience, and true duty!
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Next: Act 2 - Scene 3
