These English woes fhall make me fmile in France.

QUEEN. O thou well skill'd in curfes! stay a while, And teach me how to curfe mine enemies.

Q. MAR. Forbear to fleep the night, and fast the day, Compare dead happiness with living woe;

Think, that thy babes were sweeter than they were,
And he, that flew them, fouler than he is;
Bett 'ring thy lofs makes the bad caufer worse,
Revolving this will teach thee how to curfe

QUEEN. My words are dull, O! quicken them with thine. Q. MAR. Thy woes will make them fharp, and pierce [Exit Margaret. DUTCH. Why should calamity be full of words?

like mine.

QUEEN. Windy attorneys to their client-woes, Airy fucceeders of intestate joys,

Poor breathing orators of miferies!

Let them have scope, tho' what they do impart
Help nothing else, yet they do ease the heart.

DUTCH. If fo, then be not tongue-ty'd; go with me.
And in the breath of bitter words let's fmother

My damned fon, that thy two fweet fons fmother'd.

I hear his drum, be copious in exclaims.

[Drum within.

SCENE V. Enter King Kichard, and his train.
K. RICH. Who intercepts me in my expedition ?
DUTCH. O, she, that might have intercepted thee,
By ftrangling thee in her accurfed womb,

From all the flaughters, wretch, that thou haft done.
QUEEN. Hid'st thou that forehead with a golden crown,
Where should be branded, if that right were right,
The flaughter of the prince that own'd that crown,

And the dire death of my poor sons and brothers ?
Tell me, thou villain-flave, where are my children?

DUTCH. Thou toad, thou toad, where is thy brother And little Ned Plantagenet, his fon?

[Clarence? QUEEN. Where is kind Haftings, Rivers, Vaughan,

Gray?

K. RICH. A flourish, trumpets! ftrike alarum, drums! Let not the heavens hear thefe tell-tale women

Rail on the Lord's anointed. Strike, I fay.

Either be patient, and intreat me fair, Or with the clamorous report of war Thus will I drown your exclamations. DUTCH. Art thou my fon?

[Flourish, Alarms.

K. RICH. Ay, I thank God, my father, and yourself. DUTCH. Then patiently hear my impatience.

K. RICH. Madam, I have a touch of your condition, That cannot brook the accent of reproof.

DUTCH. I will be mild and gentle in my words.

K. RICH. And brief, good mother, for I am in hafte. DUTCH. Art thou fo hafty? I have staid for thee, God knows, in anguish, pain and agony.

K. RICH. And came I not at last to comfort you? DUTCH. No, by the holy rood, thou know'ft it well, Thou cam'ft on earth to make the earth my hell. A grievous burden was thy birth to me,

Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy;

Thy school-days frightful, desp'rate, wild and furious;
Thy prime of manhood, daring, bold, and venturous;
Thy age confirm❜d, proud, subtle, fly and bloody.
What comfortable hour canft thou name,

That ever grac'd me in thy company?

K. RICH. Faith none but Humphry Houre, that call'd

your grace

To breakfast once, forth of my company.

If I be fo difgracious in your fight,

Let me march on, and not offend your grace.

-Strike up the drum.

DUTCH. I pry'thee, hear me speak.

K. RICH. You speak too bitterly.
DUTCH. Hear me a word,

For I fhall never speak to thee again.
K. RICH. So ?.

DUTCH. Either thou'lt die by God's juft ordinance,
Ere from this war thou turn a conqueror;

Or I with grief or extream age fhall perish,
And never look upon thy face again.

Therefore take with thee my moft heavy curfe;
Which, in the day of battle tire thee more,
Than all the compleat armour that thou wear'st!
My prayers on the adverse party fight,

And there the little fouls of Edward's children
Whisper the spirits of thine enemies,

And promise them fuccefs and victory!

Bloody thou art, bloody will be thy end!

Shame ferves thy life, and doth thy death attend.

[Exit.

QUEEN. Tho' far more caufe, yet much less spirit to

curfe

Abides in me. I fay Amen to her.

[Going

K. RICH. Stay, madam, I must speak a word with you. QUEEN. I have no more fons of the royal blood For thee to flaughter; for my daughters, Richard, They fhall be praying nuns, not weeping queens; And therefore level not to hit their lives.

K. RICH. You have a daughter call'd Elizabeth,
Virtuous and fair, royal and gracious.

QUEEN. And must she die for this? O let her live,
And I'll corrupt her manners, stain her beauty,
Slander myself as falfe to Edward's bed,
Throw over her the veil of infamy;

So fhe may live un carr'd from bleeding flaughter,
I will confefs she was not Edward's daughter.

K. RICH. Wrong not her birth, she is of royal blood.
QUEEN. To fave her life, I'll fay, fhe is not fo.
K. RICH. Her life is fafeft only in her birth.
QUEEN. And only in that fafety dy'd her brothers.
K. RICH. No, at their births good stars were opposite.
QUEEN. No, to their lives bad friends were contrary.
K. RICH. All unavoided is the doom of deftiny.
QUEEN. True; when avoided grace makes destiny.
My babes were deftin'd to a fairer death,

If grace had bleft thee with a fairer life.

K. RICH. You speak, as if that I had flain my cousins? QUEEN. Coufins, indeed: and by their uncle cozen'd Of comfort, kingdom, kindred, freedom, life. Whofe hands foever lanc'd their tender hearts,

Thy head, all indirectly gave direction.

No doubt, the murd'rous knife was dull and blunt
Till it was whetted on thy ftone-hard heart,
To revel in the intrails 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 fuch a defp'rate bay of death,
Like a poor bark, of fails and tackling reft,
Rufh all to pieces on thy rocky bofom..

K. RICH. Madam, fo thrive I in my enterprize, And dangerous fuccefs of bloody wars,

As I intend more good to you and yours,

Than ever you or yours by me were harm'd.

QUEEN. What good is cover'd with the face of heav'n, To be difcover'd, that can do me good?

K. RICH. Th? advancement of your children, gentle lady. QUEEN. Up to fome scaffold, there to lose their heads. K. RICH. No, to the dignity and height of fortune The high imperial type of this earth's glory.

QUEEN. Flatter my forrows with report of it. Tell me, what state, what dignity, what honour, Canft thou demise to any child of mine?

K. RICH. Ev'n all I have; ay, and myself and all, Will I withal endow a child of thine :

So in the Lethe of thy angry foul

Thou drown the fad remembrance of thofe wrongs;
Which, thou fuppofeft, I have done to thee.

QUEEN. Be brief, left that the procefs of thy kindness Laft longer telling than thy kindness do.

K. RICH. Then know, that from my foul I love thy daughter.

QUEEN. My daughter's mother thinks it with her foul.

K. RICH. What do you think?

QUEEN. That thou dost love my daughter, from thy foul. So from thy foul's love, didft thou love her brothers;

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

K. RICH. Be not so hasty to confound my meaning;

I mean, that with my foul I love thy daughter,

And do intend to make her queen of England.

QUEEN. Say then who doft thou mean fhall be her king?