Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider, Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about?
Fool, fool! thou whet'st a knife to kill thyself.
The time will come when thou shalt wish for me To help thee curse that poisonous bunchback'd toad. HASTINGS False-boding woman, end thy frantic curse, Lest to thy harm thou move our patience. QUEEN MARGARET Foul shame upon you! you have all moved mine. RIVERS Were you well served, you would be taught your duty. QUEEN MARGARET To serve me well, you all should do me duty, Teach me to be your queen, and you my subjects:
O, serve me well, and teach yourselves that duty! DORSET Dispute not with her; she is lunatic. QUEEN MARGARET Peace, master marquess, you are malapert:
Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current.
O, that your young nobility could judge What 'twere to lose it, and be miserable!
They that stand high have many blasts to shake them;
And if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces. GLOUCESTER Good counsel, marry: learn it, learn it, marquess. DORSET It toucheth you, my lord, as much as me. GLOUCESTER Yea, and much more: but I was born so high, Our aery buildeth in the cedar's top, And dallies with the wind and scorns the sun. QUEEN MARGARET And turns the sun to shade; alas! alas!
Witness my son, now in the shade of death;
Whose bright out-shining beams thy cloudy wrath Hath in eternal darkness folded up.
Your aery buildeth in our aery's nest.
O God, that seest it, do not suffer it!
As it was won with blood, lost be it so! BUCKINGHAM Have done! for shame, if not for charity. QUEEN MARGARET Urge neither charity nor shame to me:
Uncharitably with me have you dealt, And shamefully by you my hopes are butcher'd.
My charity is outrage, life my shame And in that shame still live my sorrow's rage. BUCKINGHAM Have done, have done. QUEEN MARGARET O princely Buckingham I'll kiss thy hand, In sign of league and amity with thee:
Now fair befal thee and thy noble house!
Thy garments are not spotted with our blood, Nor thou within the compass of my curse. BUCKINGHAM Nor no one here; for curses never pass The lips of those that breathe them in the air. QUEEN MARGARET I'll not believe but they ascend the sky, And there awake God's gentle-sleeping peace.
O Buckingham, take heed of yonder dog!
Look, when he fawns, he bites; and when he bites, His venom tooth will rankle to the death:
Have not to do with him, beware of him;
Sin, death, and hell have set their marks on him, And all their ministers attend on him. GLOUCESTER What doth she say, my Lord of Buckingham? BUCKINGHAM Nothing that I respect, my gracious lord. QUEEN MARGARET What, dost thou scorn me for my gentle counsel?
And soothe the devil that I warn thee from?
O, but remember this another day, When he shall split thy very heart with sorrow, And say poor Margaret was a prophetess!
Live each of you the subjects to his hate, And he to yours, and all of you to God's!
Exit HASTINGS My hair doth stand on end to hear her curses. RIVERS And so doth mine: I muse why she's at liberty. GLOUCESTER I cannot blame her: by God's holy mother, She hath had too much wrong; and I repent My part thereof that I have done to her. QUEEN ELIZABETH I never did her any, to my knowledge. GLOUCESTER But you have all the vantage of her wrong.
I was too hot to do somebody good, That is too cold in thinking of it now.
Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repaid, He is frank'd up to fatting for his pains God pardon them that are the cause of it! RIVERS A virtuous and a Christian-like conclusion, To pray for them that have done scathe to us. GLOUCESTER So do I ever:
Aside being well-advised.
For had I cursed now, I had cursed myself.
Enter CATESBY CATESBY Madam, his majesty doth call for you, And for your grace; and you, my noble lords. QUEEN ELIZABETH Catesby, we come. Lords, will you go with us? RIVERS Madam, we will attend your grace.
Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER GLOUCESTER I do the wrong, and first begin to brawl.
The secret mischiefs that I set abroach I lay unto the grievous charge of others.
Clarence, whom I, indeed, have laid in darkness, I do beweep to many simple gulls Namely, to Hastings, Derby, Buckingham;
And say it is the queen and her allies That stir the king against the duke my brother.
Now, they believe it; and withal whet me To be revenged on Rivers, Vaughan, Grey:
But then I sigh; and, with a piece of scripture, Tell them that God bids us do good for evil:
And thus I clothe my naked villany With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ;
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.
Enter two Murderers But, soft! here come my executioners.
How now, my hardy, stout resolved mates!
Are you now going to dispatch this deed? First Murderer We are, my lord; and come to have the warrant That we may be admitted where he is. GLOUCESTER Well thought upon; I have it here about me.
Gives the warrant When you have done, repair to Crosby Place.
But, sirs, be sudden in the execution, Withal obdurate, do not hear him plead;
For Clarence is well-spoken, and perhaps May move your hearts to pity if you mark him. First Murderer Tush!
Fear not, my lord, we will not stand to prate;
Talkers are no good doers: be assured We come to use our hands and not our tongues. GLOUCESTER Your eyes drop millstones, when fools' eyes drop tears:
I like you, lads; about your business straight;
Go, go, dispatch. First Murderer We will, my noble lord.
