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 lengthen’d 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!
GLOSTER
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 loathèd issue of thy father’s loins!
Thou rag of honour! thou detested— GLOSTER
Margaret.
QUEEN MARGARET
Richard!
GLOSTER
Ha!
QUEEN MARGARET
I call thee not.
GLOSTER
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!
GLOSTER
‘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 whett’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.
GLOSTER
Good counsel, marry:—learn it, learn it, marquis.
DORSET
It touches you, my lord, as much as me.
GLOSTER
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 outshining beams thy cloudy wrath,
Hath in eternal darkness folded up.
Your aery buildeth in our aery’s nest:—
