Richard III by William Shakespeare
Act 4 - Scene 1
Before the Tower.
Duchess of York : Who meets us here? my niece Plantagenet
[p]Led in the hand of her kind
aunt of Gloucester?
[p]Now, for my life, she's wandering to the
Tower,
[p]On pure heart's love to greet the tender
princes.
[p]Daughter, well met.
Lady Anne : God give your graces both
[p]A happy and a joyful time of day!
Lady Anne : No farther than the Tower; and, as I guess,
[p]Upon the like devotion
as yourselves,
[p]To gratulate the gentle princes there.
Sir Robert Brakenbury : Right well, dear madam. By your patience,
[p]I may not suffer you to
visit them;
[p]The king hath straitly charged the contrary.
Sir Robert Brakenbury : I cry you mercy: I mean the lord protector.
Duchess of York : I am their fathers mother; I will see them.
Lady Anne : Their aunt I am in law, in love their mother:
[p]Then bring me to
their sights; I'll bear thy blame
[p]And take thy office from thee, on
my peril.
Sir Robert Brakenbury : No, madam, no; I may not leave it so:
[p]I am bound by oath, and
therefore pardon me.
Lady Anne : Despiteful tidings! O unpleasing news!
Marquis of Dorset : Be of good cheer: mother, how fares your grace?
Duchess of York : O ill-dispersing wind of misery!
[p]O my accursed womb, the bed of
death!
[p]A cockatrice hast thou hatch'd to the world,
[p]Whose
unavoided eye is murderous.
Lady Anne : And I in all unwillingness will go.
[p]I would to God that the
inclusive verge
[p]Of golden metal that must round my brow
[p]Were
red-hot steel, to sear me to the brain!
[p]Anointed let me be with
deadly venom,
[p]And die, ere men can say, God save the queen!
Lady Anne : No! why? When he that is my husband now
[p]Came to me, as I follow'd
Henry's corse,
[p]When scarce the blood was well wash'd from his
hands
[p]Which issued from my other angel husband
[p]And that dead
saint which then I weeping follow'd;
[p]O, when, I say, I look'd on
Richard's face,
[p]This was my wish: 'Be thou,' quoth I, '
accursed,
[p]For making me, so young, so old a widow!
[p]And, when
thou wed'st, let sorrow haunt thy bed;
[p]And be thy wife--if any be
so mad--
[p]As miserable by the life of thee
[p]As thou hast made me
by my dear lord's death!
[p]Lo, ere I can repeat this curse
again,
[p]Even in so short a space, my woman's heart
[p]Grossly grew
captive to his honey words
[p]And proved the subject of my own soul's
curse,
[p]Which ever since hath kept my eyes from rest;
[p]For never
yet one hour in his bed
[p]Have I enjoy'd the golden dew of
sleep,
[p]But have been waked by his timorous dreams.
[p]Besides, he
hates me for my father Warwick;
[p]And will, no doubt, shortly be rid
of me.
Lady Anne : No more than from my soul I mourn for yours.
Lady Anne : Adieu, poor soul, that takest thy leave of it!
Duchess of York : [To DORSET]
[p]Go thou to Richmond, and good fortune guide
thee!
[p][To LADY ANNE]
[p]Go thou to Richard, and good angels guard
thee!
[p][To QUEEN ELIZABETH]
[p]Go thou to sanctuary, and good
thoughts possess thee!
[p]I to my grave, where peace and rest lie with
me!
[p]Eighty odd years of sorrow have I seen,
[p]And each hour's joy
wrecked with a week of teen.
Previous: Act 3 - Scene 7
Next: Act 4 - Scene 2
