William Shakespeare: The Life and Death of King Richard III

ACT I. 3. SCENE III. London. A Room in the Palace. (continued)

GLOSTER.
If I should be!--I had rather be a pedler:
Far be it from my heart, the thought thereof!

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
As little joy, my lord, as you suppose
You should enjoy, were you this country's king,--
As little joy you may suppose in me,
That I enjoy, being the queen thereof.

QUEEN MARGARET.
As little joy enjoys the queen thereof;
For I am she, and altogether joyless.
I can no longer hold me patient.--

[Advancing.]

Hear me, you wrangling pirates, that fall out
In sharing that which you have pill'd from me!
Which of you trembles not that looks on me?
If not that, I am queen, you bow like subjects,
Yet that, by you depos'd, you quake like rebels?
Ah, gentle villain, do not turn away!

GLOSTER.
Foul wrinkled witch, what mak'st thou in my sight?

QUEEN MARGARET.
But repetition of what thou hast marr'd,
That will I make before I let thee go.

GLOSTER.
Wert thou not banished on pain of death?

QUEEN MARGARET.
I was; but I do find more pain in banishment
Than death can yield me here by my abode.
A husband and a son thou ow'st to me,--
And thou a kingdom,--all of you allegiance:
This sorrow that I have, by right is yours;
And all the pleasures you usurp are mine.

GLOSTER.
The curse my noble father laid on thee,
When thou didst crown his warlike brows with paper,
And with thy scorns drew'st rivers from his eyes;
And then to dry them gav'st the Duke a clout
Steep'd in the faultless blood of pretty Rutland;--
His curses, then from bitterness of soul
Denounc'd against thee, are all fallen upon thee;
And God, not we, hath plagu'd thy bloody deed.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
So just is God, to right the innocent.

HASTINGS.
O, 'twas the foulest deed to slay that babe,
And the most merciless that e'er was heard of.