Therefore, for God's sake, entertain good comfort,
And cheer his grace with quick and merry words.
Q. Eliz. If he were dead, what would betide of
me?

Riv. No other harm but loss of such a lord.
Q. Eliz. The loss of such a lord includes all harm.
Grey. The heavens have blessed you with a
goodly son

To be your comforter when he is gone.

Q. Eliz. Oh, he is young, and his minority
Is put unto the trust of Richard Gloster,
A man that loves not me, nor none of you.
Riv. Is it concluded he shall be protector?
Q. Eliz. It is determined, not concluded yet:
But so it must be, if the king miscarry.

Enter BUCKINGHAM and Stanley.

Grey. Here come the lords of Buckingham and Stanley.

Buck. Good time of day unto your royal grace! Stan. God make your majesty joyful as you have been!

Q. Eliz. The Countess Richmond, good my lord of Stanley,

To your good prayers will scarcely say amen.
Yet, Stanley, notwithstanding she 's your wife,
And loves not me, be you, good lord, assured
I hate not you for her proud arrogance.

Stan. I do beseech yo", either not believe
The envious slanders of her false accusers;
Or, if she be accused in true report,

Bear with her weakness, which, I think, proceeds From wayward sickness, and no grounded malice.

Riv. Saw you the king to-day, my Lord of Stanley?

KING RICHARD THE THIRD.

31

Stan. But now the Duke of Buckingham and I Are come from visiting his majesty.

Q. Eliz. What likelihood of his amendment, lords? Buck. Madam, good hope; his grace speaks cheerfully.

Q. Eliz. God grant him health! Did

with him?

you confer

Buck. Ay, madam : he desires to make atonement Betwixt the Duke of Gloster and your brothers, And betwixt them and my lord chamberlain ; And sent to warn them to his royal presence. Q. Eliz. Would all were well!-but that will never be :

I fear our happiness is at the height.

Enter GLOSTER, HASTINGS, and DORSET.

Glo. They do me wrong, and I will not endure 't: Who are they that complain unto the king That I, forsooth, am stern and love them not? By holy Paul, they love his grace but lightly That fill his ears with such dissentious rumours. Because I cannot flatter and speak fair, Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive and cog, Duck with French nods and apish courtesy, I must be held a rancorous enemy. Cannot a plain man live and think no harm, But thus his simple truth must be abused By silken, sly, insinuating Jacks?

Riv. To whom in all this presence speaks your grace?

Glo. To thee, that hast nor honesty nor grace. When have I injured thee? when done thee wrong! Or thee? or thee? or any of your faction?

A plague upon you all ! His

would wish!-

Whom God
preserve better than you
Cannot be quiet scarce a breathing-while,

But you must trouble him with lewd complaints.
Q. Eliz. Brother of Gloster, you mistake the

matter.

The king, of his own royal disposition,
And not provoked by any suitor else,
Aiming, belike, at your interior hatred
Which in your outward actions shows itself
Against my kindred, brothers, and myself,
Makes him to send; that thereby he may gather
The ground of your ill-will, and so remove it.

Glo. I cannot tell the world is grown so bad, That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch: Since every Jack became a gentleman,

There's many a gentle person made a Jack.

Q. Eliz. Come, come, we know your meaning, brother Gloster;

You envy my advancement and my friends':
God grant we never may have need of you!
Glo. Meantime, God grants that we have need of
you :

Our brother is imprisoned by your means,
Myself disgraced, and the nobility

Held in contempt; whilst many fair promotions
Are daily given to ennoble those

That scarce, some two days since, were worth a noble. Q. Eliz. By him that raised me to this careful height

From that contented hap which I enjoyed,

I never did incense his majesty

Against the Duke of Clarence, but have been

An earnest advocate to plead for him.

My lord, you do me shameful injury,

Falsely to draw me in these vile suspects.

Glo. You may deny that you were not the cause Of my Lord Hastings' late imprisonment.

Riv. She may, my lord, for

Glo. She may, Lord Rivers! why, who knows not so?

She may do more, sir, than denying that:
She may help you to many fair preferments,
And then deny her aiding hand therein
And lay those honours on your high deserts.
What may she not? She may, yea, marry, may she,—
Riv. What, marry, may she?

Glo. What, marry, may she marry with a king, A bachelor, a handsome stripling too :

I wis your grandam had a worser match.

Q. Eliz. My Lord of Gloster, I have too long borne Your blunt upbraidings and your bitter scoffs: By heaven, I will acquaint his majesty With those gross taunts I often have endured. I had rather be a country servant-maid Than a great queen, with this condition, To be thus taunted, scorned, and stormed at:

Enter QUEEN MARGARET, behind.

Small joy have I in being England's queen.-
Q. Mar. [Aside.] And lessened be that small,
God, I beseech thee!

Thy honour, state and seat is due to me.

Glo. What! threat you me with telling of the king?

Tell him, and spare not: look, what I have said
I will avouch in presence of the king:

I dare adventure to be sent to the Tower.

"Tis time to speak,-my pains are quite forgot.

Q. Mar. [Aside.] Out, devil! I remember them

too well:

Thou slew'st my husband Henry in the Tower,
And Edward, my poor son, at Tewksbury.-

Glo. Ere you were queen, yea, or your husband king,

I was a pack-horse in his great affairs;
A weeder-out of his proud adversaries,
A liberal rewarder of his friends:

To royalise his blood I spilt mine own.—

Q. Mar. [Aside.] Ay, and much better blood

than his or thine.

Glo. In all which time you and your husband

Grey

Were factious for the house of Lancaster:

And, Rivers, so were you. Was not your husband
In Margaret's battle at Saint Alban's slain ?
Let me put in your minds, if you forget,

What you have been ere now, and what you are;
Withal, what I have been, and what I am.-

Q. Mar. [Aside.] A murderous villain, and so still thou art.

Glo. Poor Clarence did forsake his father, Warwick:

Yea, and forswore himself,-which Jesu pardon !Q. Mar. [Aside.] Which God revenge!—

Glo. To fight on Edward's party for the crown; And for his meed, poor lord, he is mewed up. I would to God my heart were flint, like Edward's ; Or Edward's soft and pitiful, like mine:

I am too childish-foolish for this world.—

Q. Mar. [Aside.] Hie thee to hell for shame, and leave the world,

Thou cacodemon! There thy kingdom is.