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DUCHESS.

O, she that might have intercepted thee,

By strangling thee in her accursed womb,

From all the slaughters, wretch, that thou hast done!

QUEEN ELIZABETH.

Hidest thou that forehead with a golden crown

Where't should be branded, if that right were right,

The slaughter of the Prince that ow'd that crown,

And the dire death of my poor sons and brothers?

Tell me, thou villain slave, where are my children?

DUCHESS.

Thou toad, thou toad, where is thy brother Clarence?

And little Ned Plantagenet, his son?

QUEEN ELIZABETH.

Where is the gentle Rivers, Vaughan,

Grey?

DUCHESS.

Where is kind Hastings?

KING RICHARD.

A flourish, trumpets! Strike alarum, drums!

Let not the heavens hear these tell-tale women

Rail on the Lord's anointed. Strike, I say!

[Flourish. Alarums]

Either be patient and entreat me fair,

Or with the clamorous report of war

Thus will I drown your exclamations.

DUCHESS.

Art thou my son?

KING RICHARD.

Ay, I thank God, my father, and yourself.

DUCHESS.

Then patiently hear my impatience.

KING RICHARD.

Madam, I have a touch of your condition

That cannot brook the accent of reproof.

DUCHESS.

O, let me speak!

KING RICHARD.

Do, then; but I'll not hear.

DUCHESS.

I will be mild and gentle in my words.

KING RICHARD.

And brief, good mother; for I am in haste.

DUCHESS.

Art thou so hasty? I have stay'd for thee,

God knows, in torment and in agony.

KING RICHARD.

And came I not at last to comfort you?

DUCHESS.

No, by the holy rood, thou know'st it well

Thou cam'st on earth to make the earth my hell.

A grievous burden was thy birth to me;

Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy;

Thy school-days frightful, desp'rate, wild, and furious;

Thy prime of manhood daring, bold, and venturous;

Thy age confirm'd, proud, subtle, sly, and bloody,

More mild, but yet more harmful-kind in hatred.

What comfortable hour canst thou name

That ever grac'd me with thy company?

KING RICHARD.

Faith, none but Humphrey Hour, that call'd

your Grace

To breakfast once forth of my company.

If I be so disgracious in your eye,

Let me march on and not offend you, madam.

Strike up the drum.

DUCHESS.

I prithee hear me speak.

KING RICHARD.

You speak too bitterly.

DUCHESS.

Hear me a word;

For I shall never speak to thee again.

KING RICHARD.

So.

DUCHESS.

Either thou wilt die by God's just ordinance

Ere from this war thou turn a conqueror;

Or I with grief and extreme age shall perish

And never more behold thy face again.

Therefore take with thee my most grievous curse,

Which in the day of battle tire thee more

Than all the complete armour that thou wear'st!

My prayers on the adverse party fight;

And there the little souls of Edward's children

Whisper the spirits of thine enemies

And promise them success and victory.

Bloody thou art; bloody will be thy end.

Shame serves thy life and doth thy death attend. Exit

QUEEN ELIZABETH. Though far more cause, yet much less spirit to curse

Abides in me; I say amen to her.

KING RICHARD.

Stay, madam, I must talk a word with you.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.

I have no moe sons of the royal blood

For thee to slaughter. For my daughters, Richard,

They shall be praying nuns, not weeping queens;

And therefore level not to hit their lives.

KING RICHARD.

You have a daughter call'd Elizabeth.

Virtuous and fair, royal and gracious.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.

And must she die for this? O, let her live,

And I'll corrupt her manners, stain her beauty,

Slander myself as false to Edward's bed,

Throw over her the veil of infamy;

So she may live unscarr'd of bleeding slaughter,

I will confess she was not Edward's daughter.

KING RICHARD.

Wrong not her birth; she is a royal Princess.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.

To save her life I'll say she is not so.

KING RICHARD.

Her life is safest only in her birth.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.

And only in that safety died her brothers.

KING RICHARD.

Lo, at their birth good stars were opposite.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.

No, to their lives ill friends were contrary.