The First Web Folio Edition of Shakespeare's Works
London. The palace. |
[Enter KING EDWARD IV, GLOUCESTER, CLARENCE, and | ||
LADY GREY] |
KING EDWARD IV | Brother of Gloucester, at Saint Alban's field | ||
This lady's husband, Sir Richard Grey, was slain, | |||
His lands then seized on by the conqueror: | |||
Her suit is now to repossess those lands; | |||
Which we in justice cannot well deny, | 5 | ||
Because in quarrel of the house of York | |||
The worthy gentleman did lose his life. |
GLOUCESTER | Your highness shall do well to grant her suit; | ||
It were dishonour to deny it her. |
KING EDWARD IV | It were no less; but yet I'll make a pause. | 10 |
GLOUCESTER | [Aside to CLARENCE] Yea, is it so? | ||
I see the lady hath a thing to grant, | |||
Before the king will grant her humble suit. |
CLARENCE | [Aside to GLOUCESTER] He knows the game: how true | ||
he keeps the wind! | 15 |
GLOUCESTER | [Aside to CLARENCE] Silence! |
KING EDWARD IV | Widow, we will consider of your suit; | ||
And come some other time to know our mind. |
LADY GREY | Right gracious lord, I cannot brook delay: | ||
May it please your highness to resolve me now; | 20 | ||
And what your pleasure is, shall satisfy me. |
GLOUCESTER | [Aside to CLARENCE] Ay, widow? then I'll warrant | ||
you all your lands, | |||
An if what pleases him shall pleasure you. | |||
Fight closer, or, good faith, you'll catch a blow. | 25 |
CLARENCE | [Aside to GLOUCESTER] I fear her not, unless she | ||
chance to fall. |
GLOUCESTER | [Aside to CLARENCE] God forbid that! for he'll | ||
take vantages. |
KING EDWARD IV | How many children hast thou, widow? tell me. | 30 |
CLARENCE | [Aside to GLOUCESTER] I think he means to beg a | ||
child of her. |
GLOUCESTER | [Aside to CLARENCE] Nay, whip me then: he'll rather | ||
give her two. |
LADY GREY | Three, my most gracious lord. | 35 |
GLOUCESTER | [Aside to CLARENCE] You shall have four, if you'll | ||
be ruled by him. |
KING EDWARD IV | 'Twere pity they should lose their father's lands. |
LADY GREY | Be pitiful, dread lord, and grant it then. |
KING EDWARD IV | Lords, give us leave: I'll try this widow's wit. | 40 |
GLOUCESTER | [Aside to CLARENCE] Ay, good leave have you; for | ||
you will have leave, | |||
Till youth take leave and leave you to the crutch. | |||
[GLOUCESTER and CLARENCE retire] |
KING EDWARD IV | Now tell me, madam, do you love your children? |
LADY GREY | Ay, full as dearly as I love myself. | 45 |
KING EDWARD IV | And would you not do much to do them good? |
LADY GREY | To do them good, I would sustain some harm. |
KING EDWARD IV | Then get your husband's lands, to do them good. |
LADY GREY | Therefore I came unto your majesty. |
KING EDWARD IV | I'll tell you how these lands are to be got. | 50 |
LADY GREY | So shall you bind me to your highness' service. |
KING EDWARD IV | What service wilt thou do me, if I give them? |
LADY GREY | What you command, that rests in me to do. |
KING EDWARD IV | But you will take exceptions to my boon. |
LADY GREY | No, gracious lord, except I cannot do it. | 55 |
KING EDWARD IV | Ay, but thou canst do what I mean to ask. |
LADY GREY | Why, then I will do what your grace commands. |
GLOUCESTER | [Aside to CLARENCE] He plies her hard; and much rain | ||
wears the marble. |
CLARENCE | [Aside to GLOUCESTER] As red as fire! nay, then | 60 | |
her wax must melt. |
LADY GREY | Why stops my lord, shall I not hear my task? |
KING EDWARD IV | An easy task; 'tis but to love a king. |
LADY GREY | That's soon perform'd, because I am a subject. |
KING EDWARD IV | Why, then, thy husband's lands I freely give thee. | 65 |
LADY GREY | I take my leave with many thousand thanks. |
GLOUCESTER | [Aside to CLARENCE] The match is made; she seals it | ||
with a curtsy. |
KING EDWARD IV | But stay thee, 'tis the fruits of love I mean. |
LADY GREY | The fruits of love I mean, my loving liege. | 70 |
KING EDWARD IV | Ay, but, I fear me, in another sense. | ||
What love, think'st thou, I sue so much to get? |
LADY GREY | My love till death, my humble thanks, my prayers; | ||
That love which virtue begs and virtue grants. |
KING EDWARD IV | No, by my troth, I did not mean such love. | 75 |
LADY GREY | Why, then you mean not as I thought you did. |
KING EDWARD IV | But now you partly may perceive my mind. |
LADY GREY | My mind will never grant what I perceive | ||
Your highness aims at, if I aim aright. |
KING EDWARD IV | To tell thee plain, I aim to lie with thee. | 80 |
LADY GREY | To tell you plain, I had rather lie in prison. |
KING EDWARD IV | Why, then thou shalt not have thy husband's lands. |
LADY GREY | Why, then mine honesty shall be my dower; | ||
For by that loss I will not purchase them. |
KING EDWARD IV | Therein thou wrong'st thy children mightily. | 85 |
LADY GREY | Herein your highness wrongs both them and me. | ||
But, mighty lord, this merry inclination | |||
Accords not with the sadness of my suit: | |||
Please you dismiss me either with 'ay' or 'no.' |
KING EDWARD IV | Ay, if thou wilt say 'ay' to my request; | 90 | |
No if thou dost say 'no' to my demand. |
LADY GREY | Then, no, my lord. My suit is at an end. |
GLOUCESTER | [Aside to CLARENCE] The widow likes him not, she | ||
knits her brows. |
CLARENCE | [Aside to GLOUCESTER] He is the bluntest wooer in | 95 | |
Christendom. |
KING EDWARD IV | [Aside] Her looks do argue her replete with modesty; | ||
Her words do show her wit incomparable; | |||
All her perfections challenge sovereignty: | |||
One way or other, she is for a king; | 100 | ||
And she shall be my love, or else my queen.-- | |||
Say that King Edward take thee for his queen? |
LADY GREY | 'Tis better said than done, my gracious lord: | ||
I am a subject fit to jest withal, | |||
But far unfit to be a sovereign. | 105 |
KING EDWARD IV | Sweet widow, by my state I swear to thee | ||
I speak no more than what my soul intends; | |||
And that is, to enjoy thee for my love. |
LADY GREY | And that is more than I will yield unto: | ||
I know I am too mean to be your queen, | 110 | ||
And yet too good to be your concubine. |
KING EDWARD IV | You cavil, widow: I did mean, my queen. |
LADY GREY | 'Twill grieve your grace my sons should call you father. |
KING EDWARD IV | No more than when my daughters call thee mother. | ||
Thou art a widow, and thou hast some children; | 115 | ||
And, by God's mother, I, being but a bachelor, | |||
Have other some: why, 'tis a happy thing | |||
To be the father unto many sons. | |||
Answer no more, for thou shalt be my queen. |
GLOUCESTER | [Aside to CLARENCE] The ghostly father now hath done | 120 | |
his shrift. |
CLARENCE | [Aside to GLOUCESTER] When he was made a shriver, | ||
'twas for shift. |
KING EDWARD IV | Brothers, you muse what chat we two have had. |
GLOUCESTER | The widow likes it not, for she looks very sad. | 125 |
KING EDWARD IV | You'll think it strange if I should marry her. |
CLARENCE | To whom, my lord? |
KING EDWARD IV | Why, Clarence, to myself. |
GLOUCESTER | That would be ten days' wonder at the least. |
CLARENCE | That's a day longer than a wonder lasts. |
GLOUCESTER | By so much is the wonder in extremes. | 130 |
KING EDWARD IV | Well, jest on, brothers: I can tell you both | ||
Her suit is granted for her husband's lands. | |||
[Enter a Nobleman] |
Nobleman | My gracious lord, Henry your foe is taken, | ||
And brought your prisoner to your palace gate. |
KING EDWARD IV | See that he be convey'd unto the Tower: | 135 | |
And go we, brothers, to the man that took him, | |||
To question of his apprehension. | |||
Widow, go you along. Lords, use her honourably. | |||
[Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER] |
GLOUCESTER | Ay, Edward will use women honourably. | ||
Would he were wasted, marrow, bones and all, | 140 | ||
That from his loins no hopeful branch may spring, | |||
To cross me from the golden time I look for! | |||
And yet, between my soul's desire and me-- | |||
The lustful Edward's title buried-- | |||
Is Clarence, Henry, and his son young Edward, | 145 | ||
And all the unlook'd for issue of their bodies, | |||
To take their rooms, ere I can place myself: | |||
A cold premeditation for my purpose! | |||
Why, then, I do but dream on sovereignty; | |||
Like one that stands upon a promontory, | 150 | ||
And spies a far-off shore where he would tread, | |||
Wishing his foot were equal with his eye, | |||
And chides the sea that sunders him from thence, | |||
Saying, he'll lade it dry to have his way: | |||
So do I wish the crown, being so far off; | 155 | ||
And so I chide the means that keeps me from it; | |||
And so I say, I'll cut the causes off, | |||
Flattering me with impossibilities. | |||
My eye's too quick, my heart o'erweens too much, | |||
Unless my hand and strength could equal them. | 160 | ||
Well, say there is no kingdom then for Richard; | |||
What other pleasure can the world afford? | |||
I'll make my heaven in a lady's lap, | |||
And deck my body in gay ornaments, | |||
And witch sweet ladies with my words and looks. | 165 | ||
O miserable thought! and more unlikely | |||
Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns! | |||
Why, love forswore me in my mother's womb: | |||
And, for I should not deal in her soft laws, | |||
She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe, | 170 | ||
To shrink mine arm up like a wither'd shrub; | |||
To make an envious mountain on my back, | |||
Where sits deformity to mock my body; | |||
To shape my legs of an unequal size; | |||
To disproportion me in every part, | 175 | ||
Like to a chaos, or an unlick'd bear-whelp | |||
That carries no impression like the dam. | |||
And am I then a man to be beloved? | |||
O monstrous fault, to harbour such a thought! | |||
Then, since this earth affords no joy to me, | 180 | ||
But to command, to cheque, to o'erbear such | |||
As are of better person than myself, | |||
I'll make my heaven to dream upon the crown, | |||
And, whiles I live, to account this world but hell, | |||
Until my mis-shaped trunk that bears this head | 185 | ||
Be round impaled with a glorious crown. | |||
And yet I know not how to get the crown, | |||
For many lives stand between me and home: | |||
And I,--like one lost in a thorny wood, | |||
That rends the thorns and is rent with the thorns, | 190 | ||
Seeking a way and straying from the way; | |||
Not knowing how to find the open air, | |||
But toiling desperately to find it out,-- | |||
Torment myself to catch the English crown: | |||
And from that torment I will free myself, | 195 | ||
Or hew my way out with a bloody axe. | |||
Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile, | |||
And cry 'Content' to that which grieves my heart, | |||
And wet my cheeks with artificial tears, | |||
And frame my face to all occasions. | 200 | ||
I'll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall; | |||
I'll slay more gazers than the basilisk; | |||
I'll play the orator as well as Nestor, | |||
Deceive more slily than Ulysses could, | |||
And, like a Sinon, take another Troy. | 205 | ||
I can add colours to the chameleon, | |||
Change shapes with Proteus for advantages, | |||
And set the murderous Machiavel to school. | |||
Can I do this, and cannot get a crown? | |||
Tut, were it farther off, I'll pluck it down. | 210 | ||
[Exit] |
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