Enter the old Duchess of York with the two
children of Clarence.BOY Good grandam, tell us, is our father dead?DUCHESS No, boy.DAUGHTER Why do ⟨you⟩ weep so oft, and beat your breast, And cry “O Clarence, my unhappy son”?BOY 5 Why do you look on us and shake your head,
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And call us orphans, wretches, castaways, If that our noble father were alive?DUCHESS My pretty cousins, you mistake me both. I do lament the sickness of the King,10 As loath to lose him, not your father’s death. It were lost sorrow to wail one that’s lost.BOY Then, you conclude, my grandam, he is dead. The King mine uncle is to blame for it. God will revenge it, whom I will importune15 With earnest prayers, all to that effect.DAUGHTER And so will I.DUCHESS Peace, children, peace. The King doth love you well. Incapable and shallow innocents,20 You cannot guess who caused your father’s death.BOY Grandam, we can, for my good uncle Gloucester Told me the King, provoked to it by the Queen, Devised impeachments to imprison him; And when my uncle told me so, he wept,25 And pitied me, and kindly kissed my cheek, Bade me rely on him as on my father, And he would love me dearly as a child.DUCHESS Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle shape, And with a virtuous visor hide deep vice.30 He is my son, ay, and therein my shame, Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit.BOY Think you my uncle did dissemble, grandam?DUCHESS Ay, boy.BOY I cannot think it. Hark, what noise is this?
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Enter Queen ⌜Elizabeth⌝ with her hair about her ears,
Rivers and Dorset after her.QUEEN ELIZABETH 35 Ah, who shall hinder me to wail and weep, To chide my fortune and torment myself? I’ll join with black despair against my soul And to myself become an enemy.DUCHESS What means this scene of rude impatience?QUEEN ELIZABETH 40 To make an act of tragic violence. Edward, my lord, thy son, our king, is dead. Why grow the branches when the root is gone? Why wither not the leaves that want their sap? If you will live, lament. If die, be brief,45 That our swift-wingèd souls may catch the King’s, Or, like obedient subjects, follow him To his new kingdom of ne’er-changing night.DUCHESS Ah, so much interest have ⟨I⟩ in thy sorrow As I had title in thy noble husband.50 I have bewept a worthy husband’s death And lived with looking on his images; But now two mirrors of his princely semblance Are cracked in pieces by malignant death, And I, for comfort, have but one false glass55 That grieves me when I see my shame in him. Thou art a widow, yet thou art a mother, And hast the comfort of thy children left, But death hath snatched my husband from mine arms60 And plucked two crutches from my feeble hands, Clarence and Edward. O, what cause have I, Thine being but a moiety of my moan, To overgo thy woes and drown thy cries!
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BOY, ⌜to Queen Elizabeth⌝ Ah, aunt, you wept not for our father’s death.65 How can we aid you with our kindred tears?DAUGHTER, ⌜to Queen Elizabeth⌝ Our fatherless distress was left unmoaned. Your widow-dolor likewise be unwept!QUEEN ELIZABETH Give me no help in lamentation. I am not barren to bring forth complaints.70 All springs reduce their currents to mine eyes, That I, being governed by the watery moon, May send forth plenteous tears to drown the world. Ah, for my husband, for my dear lord Edward!CHILDREN Ah, for our father, for our dear lord Clarence!DUCHESS 75 Alas for both, both mine, Edward and Clarence!QUEEN ELIZABETH What stay had I but Edward? And he’s gone.CHILDREN What stay had we but Clarence? And he’s gone.DUCHESS What stays had I but they? And they are gone.QUEEN ELIZABETH Was never widow had so dear a loss.CHILDREN 80 Were never orphans had so dear a loss.DUCHESS Was never mother had so dear a loss. Alas, I am the mother of these griefs. Their woes are parceled; mine is general. She for an Edward weeps, and so do I;85 I for a Clarence ⟨weep;⟩ so doth not she. These babes for Clarence weep, ⟨and so do I; I for an Edward weep;⟩ so do not they. Alas, you three, on me, threefold distressed,
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Pour all your tears. I am your sorrow’s nurse,90 And I will pamper it with lamentation.DORSET, ⌜to Queen Elizabeth⌝ Comfort, dear mother. God is much displeased That you take with unthankfulness His doing. In common worldly things, ’tis called ungrateful With dull unwillingness to repay a debt95 Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent; Much more to be thus opposite with heaven, For it requires the royal debt it lent you.RIVERS Madam, bethink you, like a careful mother, Of the young prince your son. Send straight for100 him. Let him be crowned. In him your comfort lives. Drown desperate sorrow in dead Edward’s grave And plant your joys in living Edward’s throne.Enter Richard, ⌜Duke of Gloucester,⌝ Buckingham, ⌜Lord
Stanley, Earl of⌝ Derby, Hastings, and Ratcliffe.RICHARD, ⌜to Queen Elizabeth⌝ Sister, have comfort. All of us have cause105 To wail the dimming of our shining star, But none can help our harms by wailing them.— Madam my mother, I do cry you mercy; I did not see your Grace. Humbly on my knee I crave your blessing.⌜He kneels.⌝DUCHESS 110 God bless thee, and put meekness in thy breast, Love, charity, obedience, and true duty.RICHARD, ⌜standing⌝ Amen. ⌜Aside.⌝ And make me die a good old man! That is the butt end of a mother’s blessing; I marvel that her Grace did leave it out.BUCKINGHAM 115 You cloudy princes and heart-sorrowing peers
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That bear this heavy mutual load of moan, Now cheer each other in each other’s love. Though we have spent our harvest of this king, We are to reap the harvest of his son.120 The broken rancor of your high-swoll’n hates, But lately splintered, knit, and joined together, Must gently be preserved, cherished, and kept. Meseemeth good that with some little train Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fet125 Hither to London, to be crowned our king.RIVERS Why “with some little train,” my lord of Buckingham?BUCKINGHAM Marry, my lord, lest by a multitude The new-healed wound of malice should break out,130 Which would be so much the more dangerous By how much the estate is green and yet ungoverned. Where every horse bears his commanding rein And may direct his course as please himself,135 As well the fear of harm as harm apparent, In my opinion, ought to be prevented.RICHARD I hope the King made peace with all of us; And the compact is firm and true in me.RIVERS And so in me, and so, I think, in all.140 Yet since it is but green, it should be put To no apparent likelihood of breach, Which haply by much company might be urged. Therefore I say with noble Buckingham That it is meet so few should fetch the Prince.HASTINGS 145And so say I.RICHARD Then be it so, and go we to determine
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Who they shall be that straight shall post to ⟨Ludlow.⟩— Madam, and you, my sister, will you go150 To give your censures in this business?All but Buckingham and Richard exit.BUCKINGHAM My lord, whoever journeys to the Prince, For ⟨God’s⟩ sake let not us two stay at home. For by the way I’ll sort occasion, As index to the story we late talked of,155 To part the Queen’s proud kindred from the Prince.RICHARD My other self, my council’s consistory, My oracle, my prophet, my dear cousin, I, as a child, will go by thy direction. Toward ⟨Ludlow⟩ then, for we’ll not stay behind.They exit.
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