William Shakespeare: The Life and Death of King Richard III

ACT II. 4. SCENE IV. London. A Room in the Palace. (continued)

DUCHESS.
I pr'ythee, pretty York, who told thee this?

YORK.
Grandam, his nurse.

DUCHESS.
His nurse! why she was dead ere thou wast born.

YORK.
If 'twere not she, I cannot tell who told me.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
A parlous boy!--go to, you are too shrewd.

ARCHBISHOP.
Good madam, be not angry with the child.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
Pitchers have ears.

ARCHBISHOP.
Here comes a messenger.

[Enter a MESSENGER.]

What news?

MESSENGER.
Such news, my lord, as grieves me to report.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
How doth the prince?

MESSENGER.
Well, madam, and in health.

DUCHESS.
What is thy news?

MESSENGER.
Lord Rivers and Lord Grey are sent to Pomfret,
With them Sir Thomas Vaughan, prisoners.

DUCHESS.
Who hath committed them?

MESSENGER.
The mighty dukes, Gloster and Buckingham.

ARCHBISHOP.
For what offence?

MESSENGER.
The sum of all I can, I have disclos'd;
Why or for what the nobles were committed
Is all unknown to me, my gracious lady.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
Ah me, I see the ruin of my house!
The tiger now hath seiz'd the gentle hind;
Insulting tyranny begins to jet
Upon the innocent and aweless throne:--
Welcome, destruction, blood, and massacre!
I see, as in a map, the end of all.