KING RICHARD III. William Shakespeare

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KING RICHARD III - William Shakespeare

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style="font-size:15px;">       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 of royal blood.

       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 births good stars were opposite.

       QUEEN ELIZABETH

       No, to their lives bad friends were contrary.

       KING RICHARD

       All unavoided is the doom of destiny.

       QUEEN ELIZABETH

       True, when avoided grace makes destiny:

       My babes were destined to a fairer death,

       If grace had bless’d thee with a fairer life.

       KING RICHARD

       You speak as if that I had slain my cousins.

       QUEEN ELIZABETH

       Cousins, indeed; and by their uncle cozen’d

       Of comfort, kingdom, kindred, freedom, life.

       Whose hand soever lanc’d their tender hearts,

       Thy head, all indirectly, gave direction:

       No doubt the murderous knife was dull and blunt

       Till it was whetted on thy stone-hard heart,

       To revel in the entrails of my lambs.

       But that still use of grief makes wild grief tame,

       My tongue should to thy ears not name my boys

       Till that my nails were anchor’d in thine eyes;

       And I, in such a desperate bay of death,

       Like a poor bark, of sails and tackling reft,

       Rush all to pieces on thy rocky bosom.

       KING RICHARD

       Madam, so thrive I in my enterprise

       And dangerous success of bloody wars,

       As I intend more good to you and yours

       Than ever you or yours by me were harm’d!

       QUEEN ELIZABETH

       What good is cover’d with the face of heaven,

       To be discover’d, that can do me good?

       KING RICHARD

       Advancement of your children, gentle lady.

       QUEEN ELIZABETH

       Up to some scaffold, there to lose their heads?

       KING RICHARD

       Unto the dignity and height of honour,

       The high imperial type of this earth’s glory.

       QUEEN ELIZABETH

       Flatter my sorrows with report of it;

       Tell me what state, what dignity, what honour,

       Canst thou demise to any child of mine?

       KING RICHARD

       Even all I have; ay, and myself and all

       Will I withal endow a child of thine;

       So in the Lethe of thy angry soul

       Thou drown the sad remembrance of those wrongs

       Which thou supposest I have done to thee.

       QUEEN ELIZABETH

       Be brief, lest that the process of thy kindness

       Last longer telling than thy kindness’ date.

       KING RICHARD

       Then know, that from my soul I love thy daughter.

       QUEEN ELIZABETH

       My daughter’s mother thinks it with her soul.

       KING RICHARD

       What do you think?

       QUEEN ELIZABETH

       That thou dost love my daughter from thy soul:

       So from thy soul’s love didst thou love her brothers;

       And from my heart’s love I do thank thee for it.

       KING RICHARD

       Be not so hasty to confound my meaning:

       I mean that with my soul I love thy daughter,

       And do intend to make her Queen of England.

       QUEEN ELIZABETH

       Well, then, who dost thou mean shall be her king?

       KING RICHARD

       Even he that makes her queen: who else should be?

       QUEEN ELIZABETH

       What, thou?

       KING RICHARD

       I, even I: what think you of it, madam?

       QUEEN ELIZABETH

       How canst thou woo her?

       KING RICHARD

      

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