Scene
Arden 3 | 2009

[ 1.2 ]

The corse of Henry the Sixth with Halberds to guard it, Lady Anne being the mourner [,attended by Tressel, Berkeley and other Gentlemen].

RICHARD
Stay, you that bear the corse, and set it down.

ANNE
What black magician conjures up this fiend
To stop devoted charitable deeds?                                                    35

RICHARD
Villains , set down the corse, or by Saint Paul,
I’ll make a corse of him that disobeys.

GENTLEMEN
My lord, stand back and let the coffin pass.

RICHARD
Unmannered dog, stand thou when I command!
Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,                                   40
Or by Saint Paul, I’ll strike thee to my foot
And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.

ANNE
What, do you tremble? Are you all afraid?
Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal,
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.                                         45
– Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
Thou hadst but power over his mortal body;
His soul thou canst not have. Therefore begone.

RICHARD
Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst.

ANNE
Foul devil, for God’s sake hence, and trouble us not,                     50
For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,
Filled it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.
If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
Behold this pattern of thy butcheries.
– O gentlemen, see, see dead Henry’s wounds                               55
Open their congealed mouths, and bleed afresh.
– Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity,
For ’tis thy presence that exhales this blood
From cold and empty veins where no blood dwells.
Thy deeds , inhuman and unnatural,                                                    60
Provokes this deluge most unnatural.
– O God! which this blood mad’st, revenge his death.
O earth! which this blood drink’st, revenge his death.
Either heaven with lightning strike the murderer dead,
Or earth gape open wide and eat him quick,                                      65
As thou dost swallow up this good king’s blood,
Which his hell-governed arm hath butchered.

RICHARD
Lady, you know no rules of charity,
Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.

ANNE
Villain, thou knowst nor law of God nor man.                                     70
No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.

RICHARD
But I know none, and therefore am no beast.

ANNE
O wonderful, when devils tell the truth !

RICHARD
More wonderful, when angels are so angry.
Vouchsafe , divine perfection of a woman,                                        75
Of these supposed crimes, to give me leave
By circumstance, but to acquit myself.

ANNE
Vouchsafe, diffused infection of a man,
Of these known evils, but to give me leave
By circumstance, to curse thy cursed self.                                        80

RICHARD
Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have
Some patient leisure to excuse myself.

ANNE
Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make
No excuse current but to hang thyself.

RICHARD
By such despair I should accuse myself.                                            85

ANNE
And by despairing shalt thou stand excused
For doing worthy vengeance on thyself
That didst unworthy slaughter upon others.

RICHARD
Say that I slew them not.

ANNE
Then say they were not slain.                                                                  90
But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee.

RICHARD
I did not kill your husband.

ANNE
Why then he is alive.

RICHARD
Nay, he is dead, and slain by Edward’s hands .

ANNE
In thy foul throat thou liest; Queen Margaret saw                            95
Thy murderous falchion smoking in his blood,
The which thou once didst bend against her breast,
But that thy brothers beat aside the point.

RICHARD
I was provoked by her slanderous tongue,
That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders.                          100

ANNE
Thou wast provoked by thy bloody mind,
That never dream’st on aught but butcheries.
Didst thou not kill this king?

RICHARD
—————————I grant ye .

ANNE
Dost grant me, hedgehog? Then God grant me too
Thou mayst be damned for that wicked deed.                              105
O, he was gentle, mild and virtuous.

RICHARD
The better for the King of Heaven that hath him.

ANNE
He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come.

RICHARD
Let him thank me that holp to send him thither,
For he was fitter for that place than earth.                                      110

ANNE
And thou unfit for any place but hell.

RICHARD
Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.

ANNE
Some dungeon.

RICHARD
Your bedchamber.

ANNE
Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest.                                115

RICHARD
So will it, madam, till I lie with you.

ANNE
I hope so.

RICHARD
———-I know so. But, gentle Lady Anne,
To leave this keen encounter of our wits
And fall something into a slower method:
Is not the causer of the timeless deaths                                     120
Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
As blameful as the executioner?

ANNE
Thou wast the cause, and most accurst effect.

RICHARD
Your beauty was the cause of that effect:
Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep                              125
To undertake the death of all the world,
So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.

ANNE
If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,
These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.

RICHARD
These eyes could not endure that beauty’s wrack;               130
You should not blemish it, if I stood by.
As all the world is cheered by the sun,
So I by that. It is my day, my life.

ANNE
Black night o’ershade thy day, and death thy life.

RICHARD
Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art both.                         135

ANNE
I would I were, to be revenged on thee.

RICHARD
It is a quarrel most unnatural,
To be revenged on him that loveth thee.

ANNE
It is a quarrel just and reasonable,
To be revenged on him that killed my husband.                      140

RICHARD
He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband,
Did it to help thee to a better husband.

ANNE
His better doth not breathe upon the earth.

RICHARD
He lives that loves thee better than he could.

ANNE
Name him.

RICHARD
———–Plantagenet.

ANNE
————————–Why, that was he.                            145

RICHARD
The selfsame name, but one of better nature.

ANNE
Where is he?

RICHARD
————-Here.(She spits at him)
——————–Why dost thou spit at me?

ANNE
Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake.

RICHARD
Never came poison from so sweet a place.

ANNE
Never hung poison on a fouler toad.                                              150
Out of my sight! Thou dost infect mine eyes.

RICHARD
Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.

ANNE
Would they were basilisks, to strike thee dead.

RICHARD
I would they were, that I might die at once;
For now they kill me with a living death.                                       155
Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,
Shamed their aspects with store of childish drops;
These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear –
No, when my father York and Edward wept
To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made                              160
When black-faced Clifford shook his sword at him;
Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
Told the sad story of my father’s death
And twenty times made pause to sob and weep,
That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks                            165
Like trees bedashed with rain – in that sad time
My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;
And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
I never sued to friend, nor enemy;                                                    170
My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing word.
But now thy beauty is proposed my fee,
My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak.

She looks scornfully at him.

Teach not thy lip such scorn, for it was made
For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.                                        175
If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,
Lo, here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword,
Which if thou please to hide in this true breast
And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,
I lay it naked to the deadly stroke                                                      180
And humbly beg the death upon my knee.

He [kneels and] lays his breast open, she offers at [it] with his sword.

Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry,
But ’twas thy beauty that provoked me.
Nay, now dispatch; ’twas I that stabbed young Edward,
But ’twas thy heavenly face that set me on.                                  185

She falls the sword.

Take up the sword again, or take up me.

ANNE
Arise, dissembler; though I wish thy death,
I will not be thy executioner.

RICHARD
Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.

ANNE
I have already.

RICHARD
————–That was in thy rage.                                                190
Speak it again and, even with the word,
This hand, which for thy love did kill thy love,
Shall for thy love kill a far truer love;
To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary.

ANNE
I would I knew thy heart.                                                                      195

RICHARD
’Tis figured in my tongue.

ANNE
I fear me both are false.

RICHARD
Then never man was true.

ANNE
Well, well, put up your sword.

RICHARD
Say then my peace is made.                                                              200

ANNE
That shalt thou know hereafter.

RICHARD
But shall I live in hope?

ANNE
All men I hope live so.

RICHARD
Vouchsafe to wear this ring.

ANNE
To take is not to give.                                                                            205

RICHARD
Look how my ring encompasseth thy finger;
Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart.
Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.
And if thy poor devoted servant may
But beg one favour at thy gracious hand,                                      210
Thou dost confirm his happiness forever.

ANNE
What is it?

RICHARD
That it may please you leave these sad designs
To him that hath most cause to be a mourner,
And presently repair to Crosby House,                                          215
Where, after I have solemnly interred
At Chertsey Monastery this noble king
And wet his grave with my repentant tears,
I will with all expedient duty see you.
For diverse unknown reasons, I beseech you,                              220
Grant me this boon.

ANNE
With all my heart, and much it joys me too
To see you are become so penitent.
– Tressel and Berkeley, go along with me.

RICHARD
Bid me farewell.

ANNE
—————–’Tis more than you deserve;                             225
But since you teach me how to flatter you,
Imagine I have said farewell already.

Exeunt two with Anne.

Words and Pronunciation +
Arden 3 | 2009

Words

O God: one of several apostrophes to the Deity by Juliet. (Weis)

honey: sweet, used here adjectivally; honey was the standard sweetener in Shakespeare’s day, and Juliet is humouring Nurse. (Weis)

aweary: tired (Leung); weary, tired (SW)

jaunt: fatiguing journey (cited in OED) (Weis)

have I: have I had (Weis)

would: 3. a. Denoting expression (usually authoritative) of a wish or intention: Determine, decree, ordain, enjoin, give order (that something be done). Obs. (OED)

Jesu: not yet banned at this date and, outside RJ, used exclusively in the history plays, particularly in the Henry IVs (Weis)

stay the circumstance: wait for the detail (see without circumstance, 5.3.181) (Weis)

circumstance: special argument, detailed explanation (SW); circumlocution, verbiage, unnecessary detail (SW): pageantry, ceremony, spectacle (SW)

simple: foolish; Nurse picks up Juliet’s formal dichotomy of good and bad while ignoring the substance of her question. (Weis); foolish, silly, stupid (SW)

flower of courtesy: effectively a non sequitur after flower of courtesy since gentleness could be thought to be part of courtesy; ‘as gentle as a lamb’ is proverbial (Dent, L34). (Weis)

go thy ways: ‘Lucky you!’ ways: well done (SW), carry on, go ahead (SW); get along, be off (SW)

wench:  a term of endearment for a young woman (OED sb. c) (Weis)

serve God: ‘Be good.’ (Weis)

dined: had your midday meal (Weis)

as: as if (Weis, re: line 49)

beshrew your heart: a mild and humorous imprecation on Juliet’s romantic heart for sending Nurse on this ‘back-breaking’ trip (cf. MA 5.1.55) (Weis)

beshrew: blame, censure, take to task, wish mischief on (SW); curse, devil take, evil befall (SW)

jauncing: prancing about (cited under OED jaunce v.)(Weis); jaunce: jaunt, trudge about, run around (SW); jaunt, fatiguing journey (SW)

honest: honourable (Weis); honourable, respectable, upright (SW); genuine, real, true (SW); innocent, well-intentioned, innocuous (SW)

warrant: assure, promise, guarantee, confirm (SW)

oddly: unequally, unevenly; or unusually, in a peculiar way (SW)

O God’s Lady: ‘by the Virgin Mary’ (Weis)

hot: eager, with a teasing intimation of unbecoming sexual passion (Weis); active, vigourous (SW); hot-tempered, angry, passionate (SW); fast, hasty (SW); lecherous, lustful, hot-blooded (SW); amorous, sexually eager, ardent, appetent (Partridge)

marry come up: a proverbial expression of indignant or amused surprise (Dent, M699.2) (Weis); expression of (real or playful) impatience (SW)

marry: [exclamation] by Mary (SW)

I trow: here meaning ‘surely’ (OED v. 4b glosses ‘I suppose’) (Weis); trow: (I) wonder, (I) ask you (SW); think, expect, believe (SW); believe, give credence to, accept as true (SW); hope, trust, suppose (SW); think, be sure (SW); know, guess, imagine (SW)

poultice: soothing dressing (Shakespeare’s only usage of the word) (Weis);1. A moist, usually heated mass of a substance with a soft, pasty consistency, applied to the skin, usually by means of a bandage or dressing, in order to promote healing, reduce swelling, relieve pain, etc.; a fomentation, a cataplasm. Also figurative. (OED)

coil: ado, fuss; cf. ‘I am not worth this coil that’s made for me’ (KJ 2.1.165).(Weis); turmoil, disturbance, fuss (SW); 1. Noisy disturbance, ‘row’; ‘tumult, turmoil, bustle, stir, hurry, confusion’ (Johnson).2. Confused noise of inanimate things; clutter, rattle, confused din. 3. Fuss, ado; a ‘business’.  4.a. to keep a coil: to keep up a disturbance; make a fuss, bustle, much ado.

shrift:  confession (Leung, SW); absolution (SW); confessional, place for hearing confession (SW)

hie: hasten, go quickly (also at 72, 77, 78) (Weis); hasten, hurry, speed (SW)

cell: small, humble dwelling (SW)

stays: waits (Leung); stay: stay in hiding, remain hidden (SW); staying, remaining, continued presence (SW); remain, continue, endure (SW); wait (for), await (SW)

wanton blood: Juliet is starting to blush (Weis)

blood: spirit, vigour, mettle (SW); anger, temper, passion (SW); colouring, healthy complexion, blushing (SW); hot blood, the blood as affected by sexual passion (Partridge, 67)

wanton: feminine; or: childlike (SW); lascivious, lewd, obscene (SW); carefree, lighthearted, frolicsome, playful (SW)

climb: to climb a woman’s legs (as though they were the limb of a tree) and then enjoy her (Partridge, 80)

bird’s nest: i.e. Juliet’s bedroom; the idiom ‘to climb a bird’s nest’ may have been proverbial (Dent, N124.1). (Weis) pudend and pubic hair (Partridge, 66)

at any: hasten, go quickly (also at 72, 77, 78) (Weis)

drudge and toil in your delight: ‘I am a mean labourer and hack, and I labour for your pleasure.’ (Weis)

drudge: slave, serf, lackey (SW)

bear the burden: assume responsibility for what will ensue; but also suggesting that Juliet will experience the weight of Romeo’s body during love-making (cf. AC 1.5.22).(Weis); bear: to bear children; to bear, support, a superincumbent man (Partridge, 63)

soon at night: tonight (proverbial; Dent, S639.1) (Weis); quickly, in a short time (SW)

hie to high fortune: Wish me luck. (No Fear Shakespeare Translation)

Pronunciation +

lookest: possibly “look’st” (Leung, also: Arden CWRE, 1998)

shamest: (line 23) Q2–3; sham’st Q4, F; not in Q1 (Weis)

Jesu: (line 29) jeez-yoo or jee-zoo; jayz-yoo or jay-zoo

you: (line 29) The more formal pronoun is used consistently by Nurse when addressing Juliet, while the 13-year-old uses the familiar thou, thee, thy to her servant, in conformity with the etiquette of the day in which social class overrides age. (Weis)

marry: (line 62) mah-ree (UK); meh-ree (US) (OED)

trow: (line 62) tr-ah-oo (UK); tr-oh (US) (OED)

hie: (line 68) hah-ee

wanton: (line 70) want-en or want-in

+prose: (lines 38-45) The nurse switches to prose for this speech.

Translation
No Fear Shakespeare

[ 1.2 ]

The corse of Henry the Sixth with Halberds to guard it, Lady Anne being the mourner [,attended by Tressel, Berkeley and other Gentlemen].

RICHARD
Stay, you that bear the corse, and set it down.

ANNE
What black magician conjures up this fiend
To stop devoted charitable deeds?                                                    35

RICHARD
Villains , set down the corse, or by Saint Paul,
I’ll make a corse of him that disobeys.

GENTLEMEN
My lord, stand back and let the coffin pass.

RICHARD
Unmannered dog, stand thou when I command!
Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,                                   40
Or by Saint Paul, I’ll strike thee to my foot
And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.

ANNE
What, do you tremble? Are you all afraid?
Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal,
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.                                         45
– Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
Thou hadst but power over his mortal body;
His soul thou canst not have. Therefore begone.

RICHARD
Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst.

ANNE
Foul devil, for God’s sake hence, and trouble us not,                     50
For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,
Filled it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.
If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
Behold this pattern of thy butcheries.
– O gentlemen, see, see dead Henry’s wounds                               55
Open their congealed mouths, and bleed afresh.
– Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity,
For ’tis thy presence that exhales this blood
From cold and empty veins where no blood dwells.
Thy deeds , inhuman and unnatural,                                                    60
Provokes this deluge most unnatural.
– O God! which this blood mad’st, revenge his death.
O earth! which this blood drink’st, revenge his death.
Either heaven with lightning strike the murderer dead,
Or earth gape open wide and eat him quick,                                      65
As thou dost swallow up this good king’s blood,
Which his hell-governed arm hath butchered.

RICHARD
Lady, you know no rules of charity,
Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.

ANNE
Villain, thou knowst nor law of God nor man.                                     70
No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.

RICHARD
But I know none, and therefore am no beast.

ANNE
O wonderful, when devils tell the truth !

RICHARD
More wonderful, when angels are so angry.
Vouchsafe , divine perfection of a woman,                                        75
Of these supposed crimes, to give me leave
By circumstance, but to acquit myself.

ANNE
Vouchsafe, diffused infection of a man,
Of these known evils, but to give me leave
By circumstance, to curse thy cursed self.                                        80

RICHARD
Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have
Some patient leisure to excuse myself.

ANNE
Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make
No excuse current but to hang thyself.

RICHARD
By such despair I should accuse myself.                                            85

ANNE
And by despairing shalt thou stand excused
For doing worthy vengeance on thyself
That didst unworthy slaughter upon others.

RICHARD
Say that I slew them not.

ANNE
Then say they were not slain.                                                                  90
But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee.

RICHARD
I did not kill your husband.

ANNE
Why then he is alive.

RICHARD
Nay, he is dead, and slain by Edward’s hands .

ANNE
In thy foul throat thou liest; Queen Margaret saw                            95
Thy murderous falchion smoking in his blood,
The which thou once didst bend against her breast,
But that thy brothers beat aside the point.

RICHARD
I was provoked by her slanderous tongue,
That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders.                          100

ANNE
Thou wast provoked by thy bloody mind,
That never dream’st on aught but butcheries.
Didst thou not kill this king?

RICHARD
—————————I grant ye .

ANNE
Dost grant me, hedgehog? Then God grant me too
Thou mayst be damned for that wicked deed.                              105
O, he was gentle, mild and virtuous.

RICHARD
The better for the King of Heaven that hath him.

ANNE
He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come.

RICHARD
Let him thank me that holp to send him thither,
For he was fitter for that place than earth.                                      110

ANNE
And thou unfit for any place but hell.

RICHARD
Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.

ANNE
Some dungeon.

RICHARD
Your bedchamber.

ANNE
Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest.                                115

RICHARD
So will it, madam, till I lie with you.

ANNE
I hope so.

RICHARD
———-I know so. But, gentle Lady Anne,
To leave this keen encounter of our wits
And fall something into a slower method:
Is not the causer of the timeless deaths                                     120
Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
As blameful as the executioner?

ANNE
Thou wast the cause, and most accurst effect.

RICHARD
Your beauty was the cause of that effect:
Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep                              125
To undertake the death of all the world,
So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.

ANNE
If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,
These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.

RICHARD
These eyes could not endure that beauty’s wrack;               130
You should not blemish it, if I stood by.
As all the world is cheered by the sun,
So I by that. It is my day, my life.

ANNE
Black night o’ershade thy day, and death thy life.

RICHARD
Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art both.                         135

ANNE
I would I were, to be revenged on thee.

RICHARD
It is a quarrel most unnatural,
To be revenged on him that loveth thee.

ANNE
It is a quarrel just and reasonable,
To be revenged on him that killed my husband.                      140

RICHARD
He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband,
Did it to help thee to a better husband.

ANNE
His better doth not breathe upon the earth.

RICHARD
He lives that loves thee better than he could.

ANNE
Name him.

RICHARD
———–Plantagenet.

ANNE
————————–Why, that was he.                            145

RICHARD
The selfsame name, but one of better nature.

ANNE
Where is he?

RICHARD
————-Here.(She spits at him)
——————–Why dost thou spit at me?

ANNE
Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake.

RICHARD
Never came poison from so sweet a place.

ANNE
Never hung poison on a fouler toad.                                              150
Out of my sight! Thou dost infect mine eyes.

RICHARD
Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.

ANNE
Would they were basilisks, to strike thee dead.

RICHARD
I would they were, that I might die at once;
For now they kill me with a living death.                                       155
Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,
Shamed their aspects with store of childish drops;
These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear –
No, when my father York and Edward wept
To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made                              160
When black-faced Clifford shook his sword at him;
Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
Told the sad story of my father’s death
And twenty times made pause to sob and weep,
That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks                            165
Like trees bedashed with rain – in that sad time
My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;
And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
I never sued to friend, nor enemy;                                                    170
My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing word.
But now thy beauty is proposed my fee,
My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak.

She looks scornfully at him.

Teach not thy lip such scorn, for it was made
For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.                                        175
If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,
Lo, here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword,
Which if thou please to hide in this true breast
And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,
I lay it naked to the deadly stroke                                                      180
And humbly beg the death upon my knee.

He [kneels and] lays his breast open, she offers at [it] with his sword.

Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry,
But ’twas thy beauty that provoked me.
Nay, now dispatch; ’twas I that stabbed young Edward,
But ’twas thy heavenly face that set me on.                                  185

She falls the sword.

Take up the sword again, or take up me.

ANNE
Arise, dissembler; though I wish thy death,
I will not be thy executioner.

RICHARD
Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.

ANNE
I have already.

RICHARD
————–That was in thy rage.                                                190
Speak it again and, even with the word,
This hand, which for thy love did kill thy love,
Shall for thy love kill a far truer love;
To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary.

ANNE
I would I knew thy heart.                                                                      195

RICHARD
’Tis figured in my tongue.

ANNE
I fear me both are false.

RICHARD
Then never man was true.

ANNE
Well, well, put up your sword.

RICHARD
Say then my peace is made.                                                              200

ANNE
That shalt thou know hereafter.

RICHARD
But shall I live in hope?

ANNE
All men I hope live so.

RICHARD
Vouchsafe to wear this ring.

ANNE
To take is not to give.                                                                            205

RICHARD
Look how my ring encompasseth thy finger;
Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart.
Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.
And if thy poor devoted servant may
But beg one favour at thy gracious hand,                                      210
Thou dost confirm his happiness forever.

ANNE
What is it?

RICHARD
That it may please you leave these sad designs
To him that hath most cause to be a mourner,
And presently repair to Crosby House,                                          215
Where, after I have solemnly interred
At Chertsey Monastery this noble king
And wet his grave with my repentant tears,
I will with all expedient duty see you.
For diverse unknown reasons, I beseech you,                              220
Grant me this boon.

ANNE
With all my heart, and much it joys me too
To see you are become so penitent.
– Tressel and Berkeley, go along with me.

RICHARD
Bid me farewell.

ANNE
—————–’Tis more than you deserve;                             225
But since you teach me how to flatter you,
Imagine I have said farewell already.

Exeunt two with Anne.

Assonance
Arden 3 | 2009

[ 1.2 ]

The corse of Henry the Sixth with Halberds to guard it, Lady Anne being the mourner [,attended by Tressel, Berkeley and other Gentlemen].

RICHARD
Stay, you that bear the corse, and set it down.

ANNE
What black magician conjures up this fiend
To stop devoted charitable deeds?                                                    35

RICHARD
Villains , set down the corse, or by Saint Paul,
I’ll make a corse of him that disobeys.

GENTLEMEN
My lord, stand back and let the coffin pass.

RICHARD
Unmannered dog, stand thou when I command!
Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,                                   40
Or by Saint Paul, I’ll strike thee to my foot
And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.

ANNE
What, do you tremble? Are you all afraid?
Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal,
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.                                         45
– Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
Thou hadst but power over his mortal body;
His soul thou canst not have. Therefore begone.

RICHARD
Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst.

ANNE
Foul devil, for God’s sake hence, and trouble us not,                     50
For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,
Filled it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.
If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
Behold this pattern of thy butcheries.
– O gentlemen, see, see dead Henry’s wounds                               55
Open their congealed mouths, and bleed afresh.
– Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity,
For ’tis thy presence that exhales this blood
From cold and empty veins where no blood dwells.
Thy deeds , inhuman and unnatural,                                                    60
Provokes this deluge most unnatural.
– O God! which this blood mad’st, revenge his death.
O earth! which this blood drink’st, revenge his death.
Either heaven with lightning strike the murderer dead,
Or earth gape open wide and eat him quick,                                      65
As thou dost swallow up this good king’s blood,
Which his hell-governed arm hath butchered.

RICHARD
Lady, you know no rules of charity,
Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.

ANNE
Villain, thou knowst nor law of God nor man.                                     70
No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.

RICHARD
But I know none, and therefore am no beast.

ANNE
O wonderful, when devils tell the truth !

RICHARD
More wonderful, when angels are so angry.
Vouchsafe , divine perfection of a woman,                                        75
Of these supposed crimes, to give me leave
By circumstance, but to acquit myself.

ANNE
Vouchsafe, diffused infection of a man,
Of these known evils, but to give me leave
By circumstance, to curse thy cursed self.                                        80

RICHARD
Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have
Some patient leisure to excuse myself.

ANNE
Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make
No excuse current but to hang thyself.

RICHARD
By such despair I should accuse myself.                                            85

ANNE
And by despairing shalt thou stand excused
For doing worthy vengeance on thyself
That didst unworthy slaughter upon others.

RICHARD
Say that I slew them not.

ANNE
Then say they were not slain.                                                                  90
But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee.

RICHARD
I did not kill your husband.

ANNE
Why then he is alive.

RICHARD
Nay, he is dead, and slain by Edward’s hands .

ANNE
In thy foul throat thou liest; Queen Margaret saw                            95
Thy murderous falchion smoking in his blood,
The which thou once didst bend against her breast,
But that thy brothers beat aside the point.

RICHARD
I was provoked by her slanderous tongue,
That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders.                          100

ANNE
Thou wast provoked by thy bloody mind,
That never dream’st on aught but butcheries.
Didst thou not kill this king?

RICHARD
—————————I grant ye .

ANNE
Dost grant me, hedgehog? Then God grant me too
Thou mayst be damned for that wicked deed.                              105
O, he was gentle, mild and virtuous.

RICHARD
The better for the King of Heaven that hath him.

ANNE
He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come.

RICHARD
Let him thank me that holp to send him thither,
For he was fitter for that place than earth.                                      110

ANNE
And thou unfit for any place but hell.

RICHARD
Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.

ANNE
Some dungeon.

RICHARD
Your bedchamber.

ANNE
Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest.                                115

RICHARD
So will it, madam, till I lie with you.

ANNE
I hope so.

RICHARD
———-I know so. But, gentle Lady Anne,
To leave this keen encounter of our wits
And fall something into a slower method:
Is not the causer of the timeless deaths                                     120
Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
As blameful as the executioner?

ANNE
Thou wast the cause, and most accurst effect.

RICHARD
Your beauty was the cause of that effect:
Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep                              125
To undertake the death of all the world,
So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.

ANNE
If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,
These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.

RICHARD
These eyes could not endure that beauty’s wrack;               130
You should not blemish it, if I stood by.
As all the world is cheered by the sun,
So I by that. It is my day, my life.

ANNE
Black night o’ershade thy day, and death thy life.

RICHARD
Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art both.                         135

ANNE
I would I were, to be revenged on thee.

RICHARD
It is a quarrel most unnatural,
To be revenged on him that loveth thee.

ANNE
It is a quarrel just and reasonable,
To be revenged on him that killed my husband.                      140

RICHARD
He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband,
Did it to help thee to a better husband.

ANNE
His better doth not breathe upon the earth.

RICHARD
He lives that loves thee better than he could.

ANNE
Name him.

RICHARD
———–Plantagenet.

ANNE
————————–Why, that was he.                            145

RICHARD
The selfsame name, but one of better nature.

ANNE
Where is he?

RICHARD
————-Here.(She spits at him)
——————–Why dost thou spit at me?

ANNE
Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake.

RICHARD
Never came poison from so sweet a place.

ANNE
Never hung poison on a fouler toad.                                              150
Out of my sight! Thou dost infect mine eyes.

RICHARD
Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.

ANNE
Would they were basilisks, to strike thee dead.

RICHARD
I would they were, that I might die at once;
For now they kill me with a living death.                                       155
Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,
Shamed their aspects with store of childish drops;
These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear –
No, when my father York and Edward wept
To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made                              160
When black-faced Clifford shook his sword at him;
Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
Told the sad story of my father’s death
And twenty times made pause to sob and weep,
That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks                            165
Like trees bedashed with rain – in that sad time
My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;
And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
I never sued to friend, nor enemy;                                                    170
My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing word.
But now thy beauty is proposed my fee,
My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak.

She looks scornfully at him.

Teach not thy lip such scorn, for it was made
For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.                                        175
If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,
Lo, here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword,
Which if thou please to hide in this true breast
And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,
I lay it naked to the deadly stroke                                                      180
And humbly beg the death upon my knee.

He [kneels and] lays his breast open, she offers at [it] with his sword.

Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry,
But ’twas thy beauty that provoked me.
Nay, now dispatch; ’twas I that stabbed young Edward,
But ’twas thy heavenly face that set me on.                                  185

She falls the sword.

Take up the sword again, or take up me.

ANNE
Arise, dissembler; though I wish thy death,
I will not be thy executioner.

RICHARD
Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.

ANNE
I have already.

RICHARD
————–That was in thy rage.                                                190
Speak it again and, even with the word,
This hand, which for thy love did kill thy love,
Shall for thy love kill a far truer love;
To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary.

ANNE
I would I knew thy heart.                                                                      195

RICHARD
’Tis figured in my tongue.

ANNE
I fear me both are false.

RICHARD
Then never man was true.

ANNE
Well, well, put up your sword.

RICHARD
Say then my peace is made.                                                              200

ANNE
That shalt thou know hereafter.

RICHARD
But shall I live in hope?

ANNE
All men I hope live so.

RICHARD
Vouchsafe to wear this ring.

ANNE
To take is not to give.                                                                            205

RICHARD
Look how my ring encompasseth thy finger;
Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart.
Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.
And if thy poor devoted servant may
But beg one favour at thy gracious hand,                                      210
Thou dost confirm his happiness forever.

ANNE
What is it?

RICHARD
That it may please you leave these sad designs
To him that hath most cause to be a mourner,
And presently repair to Crosby House,                                          215
Where, after I have solemnly interred
At Chertsey Monastery this noble king
And wet his grave with my repentant tears,
I will with all expedient duty see you.
For diverse unknown reasons, I beseech you,                              220
Grant me this boon.

ANNE
With all my heart, and much it joys me too
To see you are become so penitent.
– Tressel and Berkeley, go along with me.

RICHARD
Bid me farewell.

ANNE
—————–’Tis more than you deserve;                             225
But since you teach me how to flatter you,
Imagine I have said farewell already.

Exeunt two with Anne.

Alliteration
Arden 3 | 2009

[ 1.2 ]

The corse of Henry the Sixth with Halberds to guard it, Lady Anne being the mourner [,attended by Tressel, Berkeley and other Gentlemen].

RICHARD
Stay, you that bear the corse, and set it down.

ANNE
What black magician conjures up this fiend
To stop devoted charitable deeds?                                                    35

RICHARD
Villains , set down the corse, or by Saint Paul,
I’ll make a corse of him that disobeys.

GENTLEMEN
My lord, stand back and let the coffin pass.

RICHARD
Unmannered dog, stand thou when I command!
Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,                                   40
Or by Saint Paul, I’ll strike thee to my foot
And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.

ANNE
What, do you tremble? Are you all afraid?
Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal,
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.                                         45
– Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
Thou hadst but power over his mortal body;
His soul thou canst not have. Therefore begone.

RICHARD
Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst.

ANNE
Foul devil, for God’s sake hence, and trouble us not,                     50
For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,
Filled it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.
If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
Behold this pattern of thy butcheries.
– O gentlemen, see, see dead Henry’s wounds                               55
Open their congealed mouths, and bleed afresh.
– Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity,
For ’tis thy presence that exhales this blood
From cold and empty veins where no blood dwells.
Thy deeds , inhuman and unnatural,                                                    60
Provokes this deluge most unnatural.
– O God! which this blood mad’st, revenge his death.
O earth! which this blood drink’st, revenge his death.
Either heaven with lightning strike the murderer dead,
Or earth gape open wide and eat him quick,                                      65
As thou dost swallow up this good king’s blood,
Which his hell-governed arm hath butchered.

RICHARD
Lady, you know no rules of charity,
Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.

ANNE
Villain, thou knowst nor law of God nor man.                                     70
No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.

RICHARD
But I know none, and therefore am no beast.

ANNE
O wonderful, when devils tell the truth !

RICHARD
More wonderful, when angels are so angry.
Vouchsafe , divine perfection of a woman,                                        75
Of these supposed crimes, to give me leave
By circumstance, but to acquit myself.

ANNE
Vouchsafe, diffused infection of a man,
Of these known evils, but to give me leave
By circumstance, to curse thy cursed self.                                        80

RICHARD
Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have
Some patient leisure to excuse myself.

ANNE
Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make
No excuse current but to hang thyself.

RICHARD
By such despair I should accuse myself.                                            85

ANNE
And by despairing shalt thou stand excused
For doing worthy vengeance on thyself
That didst unworthy slaughter upon others.

RICHARD
Say that I slew them not.

ANNE
Then say they were not slain.                                                                  90
But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee.

RICHARD
I did not kill your husband.

ANNE
Why then he is alive.

RICHARD
Nay, he is dead, and slain by Edward’s hands .

ANNE
In thy foul throat thou liest; Queen Margaret saw                            95
Thy murderous falchion smoking in his blood,
The which thou once didst bend against her breast,
But that thy brothers beat aside the point.

RICHARD
I was provoked by her slanderous tongue,
That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders.                          100

ANNE
Thou wast provoked by thy bloody mind,
That never dream’st on aught but butcheries.
Didst thou not kill this king?

RICHARD
—————————I grant ye .

ANNE
Dost grant me, hedgehog? Then God grant me too
Thou mayst be damned for that wicked deed.                              105
O, he was gentle, mild and virtuous.

RICHARD
The better for the King of Heaven that hath him.

ANNE
He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come.

RICHARD
Let him thank me that holp to send him thither,
For he was fitter for that place than earth.                                      110

ANNE
And thou unfit for any place but hell.

RICHARD
Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.

ANNE
Some dungeon.

RICHARD
Your bedchamber.

ANNE
Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest.                                115

RICHARD
So will it, madam, till I lie with you.

ANNE
I hope so.

RICHARD
———-I know so. But, gentle Lady Anne,
To leave this keen encounter of our wits
And fall something into a slower method:
Is not the causer of the timeless deaths                                     120
Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
As blameful as the executioner?

ANNE
Thou wast the cause, and most accurst effect.

RICHARD
Your beauty was the cause of that effect:
Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep                              125
To undertake the death of all the world,
So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.

ANNE
If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,
These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.

RICHARD
These eyes could not endure that beauty’s wrack;               130
You should not blemish it, if I stood by.
As all the world is cheered by the sun,
So I by that. It is my day, my life.

ANNE
Black night o’ershade thy day, and death thy life.

RICHARD
Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art both.                         135

ANNE
I would I were, to be revenged on thee.

RICHARD
It is a quarrel most unnatural,
To be revenged on him that loveth thee.

ANNE
It is a quarrel just and reasonable,
To be revenged on him that killed my husband.                      140

RICHARD
He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband,
Did it to help thee to a better husband.

ANNE
His better doth not breathe upon the earth.

RICHARD
He lives that loves thee better than he could.

ANNE
Name him.

RICHARD
———–Plantagenet.

ANNE
————————–Why, that was he.                            145

RICHARD
The selfsame name, but one of better nature.

ANNE
Where is he?

RICHARD
————-Here.(She spits at him)
——————–Why dost thou spit at me?

ANNE
Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake.

RICHARD
Never came poison from so sweet a place.

ANNE
Never hung poison on a fouler toad.                                              150
Out of my sight! Thou dost infect mine eyes.

RICHARD
Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.

ANNE
Would they were basilisks, to strike thee dead.

RICHARD
I would they were, that I might die at once;
For now they kill me with a living death.                                       155
Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,
Shamed their aspects with store of childish drops;
These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear –
No, when my father York and Edward wept
To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made                              160
When black-faced Clifford shook his sword at him;
Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
Told the sad story of my father’s death
And twenty times made pause to sob and weep,
That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks                            165
Like trees bedashed with rain – in that sad time
My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;
And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
I never sued to friend, nor enemy;                                                    170
My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing word.
But now thy beauty is proposed my fee,
My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak.

She looks scornfully at him.

Teach not thy lip such scorn, for it was made
For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.                                        175
If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,
Lo, here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword,
Which if thou please to hide in this true breast
And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,
I lay it naked to the deadly stroke                                                      180
And humbly beg the death upon my knee.

He [kneels and] lays his breast open, she offers at [it] with his sword.

Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry,
But ’twas thy beauty that provoked me.
Nay, now dispatch; ’twas I that stabbed young Edward,
But ’twas thy heavenly face that set me on.                                  185

She falls the sword.

Take up the sword again, or take up me.

ANNE
Arise, dissembler; though I wish thy death,
I will not be thy executioner.

RICHARD
Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.

ANNE
I have already.

RICHARD
————–That was in thy rage.                                                190
Speak it again and, even with the word,
This hand, which for thy love did kill thy love,
Shall for thy love kill a far truer love;
To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary.

ANNE
I would I knew thy heart.                                                                      195

RICHARD
’Tis figured in my tongue.

ANNE
I fear me both are false.

RICHARD
Then never man was true.

ANNE
Well, well, put up your sword.

RICHARD
Say then my peace is made.                                                              200

ANNE
That shalt thou know hereafter.

RICHARD
But shall I live in hope?

ANNE
All men I hope live so.

RICHARD
Vouchsafe to wear this ring.

ANNE
To take is not to give.                                                                            205

RICHARD
Look how my ring encompasseth thy finger;
Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart.
Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.
And if thy poor devoted servant may
But beg one favour at thy gracious hand,                                      210
Thou dost confirm his happiness forever.

ANNE
What is it?

RICHARD
That it may please you leave these sad designs
To him that hath most cause to be a mourner,
And presently repair to Crosby House,                                          215
Where, after I have solemnly interred
At Chertsey Monastery this noble king
And wet his grave with my repentant tears,
I will with all expedient duty see you.
For diverse unknown reasons, I beseech you,                              220
Grant me this boon.

ANNE
With all my heart, and much it joys me too
To see you are become so penitent.
– Tressel and Berkeley, go along with me.

RICHARD
Bid me farewell.

ANNE
—————–’Tis more than you deserve;                             225
But since you teach me how to flatter you,
Imagine I have said farewell already.

Exeunt two with Anne.

Consonance
Arden 3 | 2009

[ 1.2 ]

The corse of Henry the Sixth with Halberds to guard it, Lady Anne being the mourner [,attended by Tressel, Berkeley and other Gentlemen].

RICHARD
Stay, you that bear the corse, and set it down.

ANNE
What black magician conjures up this fiend
To stop devoted charitable deeds?                                                    35

RICHARD
Villains , set down the corse, or by Saint Paul,
I’ll make a corse of him that disobeys.

GENTLEMEN
My lord, stand back and let the coffin pass.

RICHARD
Unmannered dog, stand thou when I command!
Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,                                   40
Or by Saint Paul, I’ll strike thee to my foot
And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.

ANNE
What, do you tremble? Are you all afraid?
Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal,
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.                                         45
– Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
Thou hadst but power over his mortal body;
His soul thou canst not have. Therefore begone.

RICHARD
Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst.

ANNE
Foul devil, for God’s sake hence, and trouble us not,                     50
For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,
Filled it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.
If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
Behold this pattern of thy butcheries.
– O gentlemen, see, see dead Henry’s wounds                               55
Open their congealed mouths, and bleed afresh.
– Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity,
For ’tis thy presence that exhales this blood
From cold and empty veins where no blood dwells.
Thy deeds , inhuman and unnatural,                                                    60
Provokes this deluge most unnatural.
– O God! which this blood mad’st, revenge his death.
O earth! which this blood drink’st, revenge his death.
Either heaven with lightning strike the murderer dead,
Or earth gape open wide and eat him quick,                                      65
As thou dost swallow up this good king’s blood,
Which his hell-governed arm hath butchered.

RICHARD
Lady, you know no rules of charity,
Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.

ANNE
Villain, thou knowst nor law of God nor man.                                     70
No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.

RICHARD
But I know none, and therefore am no beast.

ANNE
O wonderful, when devils tell the truth !

RICHARD
More wonderful, when angels are so angry.
Vouchsafe , divine perfection of a woman,                                        75
Of these supposed crimes, to give me leave
By circumstance, but to acquit myself.

ANNE
Vouchsafe, diffused infection of a man,
Of these known evils, but to give me leave
By circumstance, to curse thy cursed self.                                        80

RICHARD
Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have
Some patient leisure to excuse myself.

ANNE
Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make
No excuse current but to hang thyself.

RICHARD
By such despair I should accuse myself.                                            85

ANNE
And by despairing shalt thou stand excused
For doing worthy vengeance on thyself
That didst unworthy slaughter upon others.

RICHARD
Say that I slew them not.

ANNE
Then say they were not slain.                                                                  90
But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee.

RICHARD
I did not kill your husband.

ANNE
Why then he is alive.

RICHARD
Nay, he is dead, and slain by Edward’s hands .

ANNE
In thy foul throat thou liest; Queen Margaret saw                            95
Thy murderous falchion smoking in his blood,
The which thou once didst bend against her breast,
But that thy brothers beat aside the point.

RICHARD
I was provoked by her slanderous tongue,
That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders.                          100

ANNE
Thou wast provoked by thy bloody mind,
That never dream’st on aught but butcheries.
Didst thou not kill this king?

RICHARD
—————————I grant ye .

ANNE
Dost grant me, hedgehog? Then God grant me too
Thou mayst be damned for that wicked deed.                              105
O, he was gentle, mild and virtuous.

RICHARD
The better for the King of Heaven that hath him.

ANNE
He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come.

RICHARD
Let him thank me that holp to send him thither,
For he was fitter for that place than earth.                                      110

ANNE
And thou unfit for any place but hell.

RICHARD
Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.

ANNE
Some dungeon.

RICHARD
Your bedchamber.

ANNE
Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest.                                115

RICHARD
So will it, madam, till I lie with you.

ANNE
I hope so.

RICHARD
———-I know so. But, gentle Lady Anne,
To leave this keen encounter of our wits
And fall something into a slower method:
Is not the causer of the timeless deaths                                     120
Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
As blameful as the executioner?

ANNE
Thou wast the cause, and most accurst effect.

RICHARD
Your beauty was the cause of that effect:
Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep                              125
To undertake the death of all the world,
So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.

ANNE
If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,
These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.

RICHARD
These eyes could not endure that beauty’s wrack;               130
You should not blemish it, if I stood by.
As all the world is cheered by the sun,
So I by that. It is my day, my life.

ANNE
Black night o’ershade thy day, and death thy life.

RICHARD
Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art both.                         135

ANNE
I would I were, to be revenged on thee.

RICHARD
It is a quarrel most unnatural,
To be revenged on him that loveth thee.

ANNE
It is a quarrel just and reasonable,
To be revenged on him that killed my husband.                      140

RICHARD
He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband,
Did it to help thee to a better husband.

ANNE
His better doth not breathe upon the earth.

RICHARD
He lives that loves thee better than he could.

ANNE
Name him.

RICHARD
———–Plantagenet.

ANNE
————————–Why, that was he.                            145

RICHARD
The selfsame name, but one of better nature.

ANNE
Where is he?

RICHARD
————-Here.(She spits at him)
——————–Why dost thou spit at me?

ANNE
Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake.

RICHARD
Never came poison from so sweet a place.

ANNE
Never hung poison on a fouler toad.                                              150
Out of my sight! Thou dost infect mine eyes.

RICHARD
Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.

ANNE
Would they were basilisks, to strike thee dead.

RICHARD
I would they were, that I might die at once;
For now they kill me with a living death.                                       155
Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,
Shamed their aspects with store of childish drops;
These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear –
No, when my father York and Edward wept
To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made                              160
When black-faced Clifford shook his sword at him;
Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
Told the sad story of my father’s death
And twenty times made pause to sob and weep,
That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks                            165
Like trees bedashed with rain – in that sad time
My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;
And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
I never sued to friend, nor enemy;                                                    170
My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing word.
But now thy beauty is proposed my fee,
My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak.

She looks scornfully at him.

Teach not thy lip such scorn, for it was made
For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.                                        175
If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,
Lo, here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword,
Which if thou please to hide in this true breast
And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,
I lay it naked to the deadly stroke                                                      180
And humbly beg the death upon my knee.

He [kneels and] lays his breast open, she offers at [it] with his sword.

Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry,
But ’twas thy beauty that provoked me.
Nay, now dispatch; ’twas I that stabbed young Edward,
But ’twas thy heavenly face that set me on.                                  185

She falls the sword.

Take up the sword again, or take up me.

ANNE
Arise, dissembler; though I wish thy death,
I will not be thy executioner.

RICHARD
Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.

ANNE
I have already.

RICHARD
————–That was in thy rage.                                                190
Speak it again and, even with the word,
This hand, which for thy love did kill thy love,
Shall for thy love kill a far truer love;
To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary.

ANNE
I would I knew thy heart.                                                                      195

RICHARD
’Tis figured in my tongue.

ANNE
I fear me both are false.

RICHARD
Then never man was true.

ANNE
Well, well, put up your sword.

RICHARD
Say then my peace is made.                                                              200

ANNE
That shalt thou know hereafter.

RICHARD
But shall I live in hope?

ANNE
All men I hope live so.

RICHARD
Vouchsafe to wear this ring.

ANNE
To take is not to give.                                                                            205

RICHARD
Look how my ring encompasseth thy finger;
Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart.
Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.
And if thy poor devoted servant may
But beg one favour at thy gracious hand,                                      210
Thou dost confirm his happiness forever.

ANNE
What is it?

RICHARD
That it may please you leave these sad designs
To him that hath most cause to be a mourner,
And presently repair to Crosby House,                                          215
Where, after I have solemnly interred
At Chertsey Monastery this noble king
And wet his grave with my repentant tears,
I will with all expedient duty see you.
For diverse unknown reasons, I beseech you,                              220
Grant me this boon.

ANNE
With all my heart, and much it joys me too
To see you are become so penitent.
– Tressel and Berkeley, go along with me.

RICHARD
Bid me farewell.

ANNE
—————–’Tis more than you deserve;                             225
But since you teach me how to flatter you,
Imagine I have said farewell already.

Exeunt two with Anne.

Thoughts
Arden 3 | 2012

[ 1.2 ]

The corse of Henry the Sixth with Halberds to guard it, Lady Anne being the mourner [,attended by Tressel, Berkeley and other Gentlemen].

RICHARD
Stay, you that bear the corse, and set it down.

ANNE
What black magician conjures up this fiend
To stop devoted charitable deeds?                                                    35

RICHARD
Villains , set down the corse, or by Saint Paul,
I’ll make a corse of him that disobeys.

GENTLEMEN
My lord, stand back and let the coffin pass.

RICHARD
Unmannered dog, stand thou when I command!
Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,                                   40
Or by Saint Paul, I’ll strike thee to my foot
And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.

ANNE
What, do you tremble? Are you all afraid?
Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal,
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.                                         45
– Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
Thou hadst but power over his mortal body;
His soul thou canst not have. Therefore begone.

RICHARD
Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst.

ANNE
Foul devil, for God’s sake hence, and trouble us not,                     50
For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,
Filled it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.
If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
Behold this pattern of thy butcheries.
– O gentlemen, see, see dead Henry’s wounds                               55
Open their congealed mouths, and bleed afresh.
– Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity,
For ’tis thy presence that exhales this blood
From cold and empty veins where no blood dwells.
Thy deeds , inhuman and unnatural,                                                    60
Provokes this deluge most unnatural.
– O God! which this blood mad’st, revenge his death.
O earth! which this blood drink’st, revenge his death.
Either heaven with lightning strike the murderer dead,
Or earth gape open wide and eat him quick,                                      65
As thou dost swallow up this good king’s blood,
Which his hell-governed arm hath butchered.

RICHARD
Lady, you know no rules of charity,
Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.

ANNE
Villain, thou knowst nor law of God nor man.                                     70
No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.

RICHARD
But I know none, and therefore am no beast.

ANNE
O wonderful, when devils tell the truth !

RICHARD
More wonderful, when angels are so angry.
Vouchsafe , divine perfection of a woman,                                        75
Of these supposed crimes, to give me leave
By circumstance, but to acquit myself.

ANNE
Vouchsafe, diffused infection of a man,
Of these known evils, but to give me leave
By circumstance, to curse thy cursed self.                                        80

RICHARD
Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have
Some patient leisure to excuse myself.

ANNE
Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make
No excuse current but to hang thyself.

RICHARD
By such despair I should accuse myself.                                            85

ANNE
And by despairing shalt thou stand excused
For doing worthy vengeance on thyself
That didst unworthy slaughter upon others.

RICHARD
Say that I slew them not.

ANNE
Then say they were not slain.                                                                  90
But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee.

RICHARD
I did not kill your husband.

ANNE
Why then he is alive.

RICHARD
Nay, he is dead, and slain by Edward’s hands .

ANNE
In thy foul throat thou liest; Queen Margaret saw                            95
Thy murderous falchion smoking in his blood,
The which thou once didst bend against her breast,
But that thy brothers beat aside the point.

RICHARD
I was provoked by her slanderous tongue,
That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders.                          100

ANNE
Thou wast provoked by thy bloody mind,
That never dream’st on aught but butcheries.
Didst thou not kill this king?

RICHARD
—————————I grant ye .

ANNE
Dost grant me, hedgehog? Then God grant me too
Thou mayst be damned for that wicked deed.                              105
O, he was gentle, mild and virtuous.

RICHARD
The better for the King of Heaven that hath him.

ANNE
He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come.

RICHARD
Let him thank me that holp to send him thither,
For he was fitter for that place than earth.                                      110

ANNE
And thou unfit for any place but hell.

RICHARD
Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.

ANNE
Some dungeon.

RICHARD
Your bedchamber.

ANNE
Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest.                                115

RICHARD
So will it, madam, till I lie with you.

ANNE
I hope so.

RICHARD
———-I know so. But, gentle Lady Anne,
To leave this keen encounter of our wits
And fall something into a slower method:
Is not the causer of the timeless deaths                                     120
Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
As blameful as the executioner?

ANNE
Thou wast the cause, and most accurst effect.

RICHARD
Your beauty was the cause of that effect:
Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep                              125
To undertake the death of all the world,
So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.

ANNE
If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,
These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.

RICHARD
These eyes could not endure that beauty’s wrack;               130
You should not blemish it, if I stood by.
As all the world is cheered by the sun,
So I by that. It is my day, my life.

ANNE
Black night o’ershade thy day, and death thy life.

RICHARD
Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art both.                         135

ANNE
I would I were, to be revenged on thee.

RICHARD
It is a quarrel most unnatural,
To be revenged on him that loveth thee.

ANNE
It is a quarrel just and reasonable,
To be revenged on him that killed my husband.                      140

RICHARD
He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband,
Did it to help thee to a better husband.

ANNE
His better doth not breathe upon the earth.

RICHARD
He lives that loves thee better than he could.

ANNE
Name him.

RICHARD
———–Plantagenet.

ANNE
————————–Why, that was he.                            145

RICHARD
The selfsame name, but one of better nature.

ANNE
Where is he?

RICHARD
————-Here.(She spits at him)
——————–Why dost thou spit at me?

ANNE
Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake.

RICHARD
Never came poison from so sweet a place.

ANNE
Never hung poison on a fouler toad.                                              150
Out of my sight! Thou dost infect mine eyes.

RICHARD
Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.

ANNE
Would they were basilisks, to strike thee dead.

RICHARD
I would they were, that I might die at once;
For now they kill me with a living death.                                       155
Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,
Shamed their aspects with store of childish drops;
These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear –
No, when my father York and Edward wept
To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made                              160
When black-faced Clifford shook his sword at him;
Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
Told the sad story of my father’s death
And twenty times made pause to sob and weep,
That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks                            165
Like trees bedashed with rain – in that sad time
My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;
And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
I never sued to friend, nor enemy;                                                    170
My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing word.
But now thy beauty is proposed my fee,
My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak.

She looks scornfully at him.

Teach not thy lip such scorn, for it was made
For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.                                        175
If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,
Lo, here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword,
Which if thou please to hide in this true breast
And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,
I lay it naked to the deadly stroke                                                      180
And humbly beg the death upon my knee.

He [kneels and] lays his breast open, she offers at [it] with his sword.

Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry,
But ’twas thy beauty that provoked me.
Nay, now dispatch; ’twas I that stabbed young Edward,
But ’twas thy heavenly face that set me on.                                  185

She falls the sword.

Take up the sword again, or take up me.

ANNE
Arise, dissembler; though I wish thy death,
I will not be thy executioner.

RICHARD
Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.

ANNE
I have already.

RICHARD
————–That was in thy rage.                                                190
Speak it again and, even with the word,
This hand, which for thy love did kill thy love,
Shall for thy love kill a far truer love;
To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary.

ANNE
I would I knew thy heart.                                                                      195

RICHARD
’Tis figured in my tongue.

ANNE
I fear me both are false.

RICHARD
Then never man was true.

ANNE
Well, well, put up your sword.

RICHARD
Say then my peace is made.                                                              200

ANNE
That shalt thou know hereafter.

RICHARD
But shall I live in hope?

ANNE
All men I hope live so.

RICHARD
Vouchsafe to wear this ring.

ANNE
To take is not to give.                                                                            205

RICHARD
Look how my ring encompasseth thy finger;
Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart.
Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.
And if thy poor devoted servant may
But beg one favour at thy gracious hand,                                      210
Thou dost confirm his happiness forever.

ANNE
What is it?

RICHARD
That it may please you leave these sad designs
To him that hath most cause to be a mourner,
And presently repair to Crosby House,                                          215
Where, after I have solemnly interred
At Chertsey Monastery this noble king
And wet his grave with my repentant tears,
I will with all expedient duty see you.
For diverse unknown reasons, I beseech you,                              220
Grant me this boon.

ANNE
With all my heart, and much it joys me too
To see you are become so penitent.
– Tressel and Berkeley, go along with me.

RICHARD
Bid me farewell.

ANNE
—————–’Tis more than you deserve;                             225
But since you teach me how to flatter you,
Imagine I have said farewell already.

Exeunt two with Anne.

RICHARD

Long:
Medium:
Short:
Complex:

End stopped:
Midline:

Period:
Exclamation:
Question:
Dash:

Total:

LADY ANNE

Long:
Medium:
Short:
Complex:

End stopped:
Midline:

Period:
Exclamation:
Question:
Dash:

Total:

Rhythm
Arden 3 | 2012

[ 1.2 ]

The corse of Henry the Sixth with Halberds to guard it, Lady Anne being the mourner [,attended by Tressel, Berkeley and other Gentlemen].

RICHARD
Stay, you that bear the corse, and set it down.

ANNE
What black magician conjures up this fiend
To stop devoted charitable deeds?                                                    35

RICHARD
Villains , set down the corse, or by Saint Paul,
I’ll make a corse of him that disobeys.

GENTLEMEN
My lord, stand back and let the coffin pass.

RICHARD
Unmannered dog, stand thou when I command!
Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,                                   40
Or by Saint Paul, I’ll strike thee to my foot
And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.

ANNE
What, do you tremble? Are you all afraid?
Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal,
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.                                         45
– Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
Thou hadst but power over his mortal body;
His soul thou canst not have. Therefore begone.

RICHARD
Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst.

ANNE
Foul devil, for God’s sake hence, and trouble us not,                     50
For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,
Filled it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.
If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
Behold this pattern of thy butcheries.
– O gentlemen, see, see dead Henry’s wounds                               55
Open their congealed mouths, and bleed afresh.
– Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity,
For ’tis thy presence that exhales this blood
From cold and empty veins where no blood dwells.
Thy deeds , inhuman and unnatural,                                                    60
Provokes this deluge most unnatural.
– O God! which this blood mad’st, revenge his death.
O earth! which this blood drink’st, revenge his death.
Either heaven with lightning strike the murderer dead,
Or earth gape open wide and eat him quick,                                      65
As thou dost swallow up this good king’s blood,
Which his hell-governed arm hath butchered.

RICHARD
Lady, you know no rules of charity,
Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.

ANNE
Villain, thou knowst nor law of God nor man.                                     70
No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.

RICHARD
But I know none, and therefore am no beast.

ANNE
O wonderful, when devils tell the truth !

RICHARD
More wonderful, when angels are so angry.
Vouchsafe , divine perfection of a woman,                                        75
Of these supposed crimes, to give me leave
By circumstance, but to acquit myself.

ANNE
Vouchsafe, diffused infection of a man,
Of these known evils, but to give me leave
By circumstance, to curse thy cursed self.                                        80

RICHARD
Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have
Some patient leisure to excuse myself.

ANNE
Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make
No excuse current but to hang thyself.

RICHARD
By such despair I should accuse myself.                                            85

ANNE
And by despairing shalt thou stand excused
For doing worthy vengeance on thyself
That didst unworthy slaughter upon others.

RICHARD
Say that I slew them not.

ANNE
Then say they were not slain.                                                                  90
But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee.

RICHARD
I did not kill your husband.

ANNE
Why then he is alive.

RICHARD
Nay, he is dead, and slain by Edward’s hands .

ANNE
In thy foul throat thou liest; Queen Margaret saw                            95
Thy murderous falchion smoking in his blood,
The which thou once didst bend against her breast,
But that thy brothers beat aside the point.

RICHARD
I was provoked by her slanderous tongue,
That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders.                          100

ANNE
Thou wast provoked by thy bloody mind,
That never dream’st on aught but butcheries.
Didst thou not kill this king?

RICHARD
—————————I grant ye .

ANNE
Dost grant me, hedgehog? Then God grant me too
Thou mayst be damned for that wicked deed.                              105
O, he was gentle, mild and virtuous.

RICHARD
The better for the King of Heaven that hath him.

ANNE
He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come.

RICHARD
Let him thank me that holp to send him thither,
For he was fitter for that place than earth.                                      110

ANNE
And thou unfit for any place but hell.

RICHARD
Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.

ANNE
Some dungeon.

RICHARD
Your bedchamber.

ANNE
Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest.                                115

RICHARD
So will it, madam, till I lie with you.

ANNE
I hope so.

RICHARD
———-I know so. But, gentle Lady Anne,
To leave this keen encounter of our wits
And fall something into a slower method:
Is not the causer of the timeless deaths                                     120
Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
As blameful as the executioner?

ANNE
Thou wast the cause, and most accurst effect.

RICHARD
Your beauty was the cause of that effect:
Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep                              125
To undertake the death of all the world,
So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.

ANNE
If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,
These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.

RICHARD
These eyes could not endure that beauty’s wrack;               130
You should not blemish it, if I stood by.
As all the world is cheered by the sun,
So I by that. It is my day, my life.

ANNE
Black night o’ershade thy day, and death thy life.

RICHARD
Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art both.                         135

ANNE
I would I were, to be revenged on thee.

RICHARD
It is a quarrel most unnatural,
To be revenged on him that loveth thee.

ANNE
It is a quarrel just and reasonable,
To be revenged on him that killed my husband.                      140

RICHARD
He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband,
Did it to help thee to a better husband.

ANNE
His better doth not breathe upon the earth.

RICHARD
He lives that loves thee better than he could.

ANNE
Name him.

RICHARD
———–Plantagenet.

ANNE
————————–Why, that was he.                            145

RICHARD
The selfsame name, but one of better nature.

ANNE
Where is he?

RICHARD
————-Here.(She spits at him)
——————–Why dost thou spit at me?

ANNE
Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake.

RICHARD
Never came poison from so sweet a place.

ANNE
Never hung poison on a fouler toad.                                              150
Out of my sight! Thou dost infect mine eyes.

RICHARD
Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.

ANNE
Would they were basilisks, to strike thee dead.

RICHARD
I would they were, that I might die at once;
For now they kill me with a living death.                                       155
Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,
Shamed their aspects with store of childish drops;
These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear –
No, when my father York and Edward wept
To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made                              160
When black-faced Clifford shook his sword at him;
Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
Told the sad story of my father’s death
And twenty times made pause to sob and weep,
That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks                            165
Like trees bedashed with rain – in that sad time
My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;
And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
I never sued to friend, nor enemy;                                                    170
My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing word.
But now thy beauty is proposed my fee,
My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak.

She looks scornfully at him.

Teach not thy lip such scorn, for it was made
For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.                                        175
If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,
Lo, here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword,
Which if thou please to hide in this true breast
And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,
I lay it naked to the deadly stroke                                                      180
And humbly beg the death upon my knee.

He [kneels and] lays his breast open, she offers at [it] with his sword.

Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry,
But ’twas thy beauty that provoked me.
Nay, now dispatch; ’twas I that stabbed young Edward,
But ’twas thy heavenly face that set me on.                                  185

She falls the sword.

Take up the sword again, or take up me.

ANNE
Arise, dissembler; though I wish thy death,
I will not be thy executioner.

RICHARD
Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.

ANNE
I have already.

RICHARD
————–That was in thy rage.                                                190
Speak it again and, even with the word,
This hand, which for thy love did kill thy love,
Shall for thy love kill a far truer love;
To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary.

ANNE
I would I knew thy heart.                                                                      195

RICHARD
’Tis figured in my tongue.

ANNE
I fear me both are false.

RICHARD
Then never man was true.

ANNE
Well, well, put up your sword.

RICHARD
Say then my peace is made.                                                              200

ANNE
That shalt thou know hereafter.

RICHARD
But shall I live in hope?

ANNE
All men I hope live so.

RICHARD
Vouchsafe to wear this ring.

ANNE
To take is not to give.                                                                            205

RICHARD
Look how my ring encompasseth thy finger;
Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart.
Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.
And if thy poor devoted servant may
But beg one favour at thy gracious hand,                                      210
Thou dost confirm his happiness forever.

ANNE
What is it?

RICHARD
That it may please you leave these sad designs
To him that hath most cause to be a mourner,
And presently repair to Crosby House,                                          215
Where, after I have solemnly interred
At Chertsey Monastery this noble king
And wet his grave with my repentant tears,
I will with all expedient duty see you.
For diverse unknown reasons, I beseech you,                              220
Grant me this boon.

ANNE
With all my heart, and much it joys me too
To see you are become so penitent.
– Tressel and Berkeley, go along with me.

RICHARD
Bid me farewell.

ANNE
—————–’Tis more than you deserve;                             225
But since you teach me how to flatter you,
Imagine I have said farewell already.

Exeunt two with Anne.

Pacing
Arden 3 | 2009

[ 1.2 ]

The corse of Henry the Sixth with Halberds to guard it, Lady Anne being the mourner [,attended by Tressel, Berkeley and other Gentlemen].

RICHARD
Stay, you that bear the corse, and set it down.

ANNE
What black magician conjures up this fiend
To stop devoted charitable deeds?                                                    35

RICHARD
Villains , set down the corse, or by Saint Paul,
I’ll make a corse of him that disobeys.

GENTLEMEN
My lord, stand back and let the coffin pass.

RICHARD
Unmannered dog, stand thou when I command!
Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,                                   40
Or by Saint Paul, I’ll strike thee to my foot
And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.

ANNE
What, do you tremble? Are you all afraid?
Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal,
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.                                         45
– Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
Thou hadst but power over his mortal body;
His soul thou canst not have. Therefore begone.

RICHARD
Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst.

ANNE
Foul devil, for God’s sake hence, and trouble us not,                     50
For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,
Filled it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.
If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
Behold this pattern of thy butcheries.
– O gentlemen, see, see dead Henry’s wounds                               55
Open their congealed mouths, and bleed afresh.
– Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity,
For ’tis thy presence that exhales this blood
From cold and empty veins where no blood dwells.
Thy deeds , inhuman and unnatural,                                                    60
Provokes this deluge most unnatural.
– O God! which this blood mad’st, revenge his death.
O earth! which this blood drink’st, revenge his death.
Either heaven with lightning strike the murderer dead,
Or earth gape open wide and eat him quick,                                      65
As thou dost swallow up this good king’s blood,
Which his hell-governed arm hath butchered.

RICHARD
Lady, you know no rules of charity,
Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.

ANNE
Villain, thou knowst nor law of God nor man.                                     70
No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.

RICHARD
But I know none, and therefore am no beast.

ANNE
O wonderful, when devils tell the truth !

RICHARD
More wonderful, when angels are so angry.
Vouchsafe , divine perfection of a woman,                                        75
Of these supposed crimes, to give me leave
By circumstance, but to acquit myself.

ANNE
Vouchsafe, diffused infection of a man,
Of these known evils, but to give me leave
By circumstance, to curse thy cursed self.                                        80

RICHARD
Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have
Some patient leisure to excuse myself.

ANNE
Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make
No excuse current but to hang thyself.

RICHARD
By such despair I should accuse myself.                                            85

ANNE
And by despairing shalt thou stand excused
For doing worthy vengeance on thyself
That didst unworthy slaughter upon others.

RICHARD
Say that I slew them not.

ANNE
Then say they were not slain.                                                                  90
But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee.

RICHARD
I did not kill your husband.

ANNE
Why then he is alive.

RICHARD
Nay, he is dead, and slain by Edward’s hands .

ANNE
In thy foul throat thou liest; Queen Margaret saw                            95
Thy murderous falchion smoking in his blood,
The which thou once didst bend against her breast,
But that thy brothers beat aside the point.

RICHARD
I was provoked by her slanderous tongue,
That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders.                          100

ANNE
Thou wast provoked by thy bloody mind,
That never dream’st on aught but butcheries.
Didst thou not kill this king?

RICHARD
—————————I grant ye .

ANNE
Dost grant me, hedgehog? Then God grant me too
Thou mayst be damned for that wicked deed.                              105
O, he was gentle, mild and virtuous.

RICHARD
The better for the King of Heaven that hath him.

ANNE
He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come.

RICHARD
Let him thank me that holp to send him thither,
For he was fitter for that place than earth.                                      110

ANNE
And thou unfit for any place but hell.

RICHARD
Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.

ANNE
Some dungeon.

RICHARD
Your bedchamber.

ANNE
Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest.                                115

RICHARD
So will it, madam, till I lie with you.

ANNE
I hope so.

RICHARD
———-I know so. But, gentle Lady Anne,
To leave this keen encounter of our wits
And fall something into a slower method:
Is not the causer of the timeless deaths                                     120
Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
As blameful as the executioner?

ANNE
Thou wast the cause, and most accurst effect.

RICHARD
Your beauty was the cause of that effect:
Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep                              125
To undertake the death of all the world,
So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.

ANNE
If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,
These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.

RICHARD
These eyes could not endure that beauty’s wrack;               130
You should not blemish it, if I stood by.
As all the world is cheered by the sun,
So I by that. It is my day, my life.

ANNE
Black night o’ershade thy day, and death thy life.

RICHARD
Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art both.                         135

ANNE
I would I were, to be revenged on thee.

RICHARD
It is a quarrel most unnatural,
To be revenged on him that loveth thee.

ANNE
It is a quarrel just and reasonable,
To be revenged on him that killed my husband.                      140

RICHARD
He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband,
Did it to help thee to a better husband.

ANNE
His better doth not breathe upon the earth.

RICHARD
He lives that loves thee better than he could.

ANNE
Name him.

RICHARD
———–Plantagenet.

ANNE
————————–Why, that was he.                            145

RICHARD
The selfsame name, but one of better nature.

ANNE
Where is he?

RICHARD
————-Here.(She spits at him)
——————–Why dost thou spit at me?

ANNE
Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake.

RICHARD
Never came poison from so sweet a place.

ANNE
Never hung poison on a fouler toad.                                              150
Out of my sight! Thou dost infect mine eyes.

RICHARD
Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.

ANNE
Would they were basilisks, to strike thee dead.

RICHARD
I would they were, that I might die at once;
For now they kill me with a living death.                                       155
Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,
Shamed their aspects with store of childish drops;
These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear –
No, when my father York and Edward wept
To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made                              160
When black-faced Clifford shook his sword at him;
Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
Told the sad story of my father’s death
And twenty times made pause to sob and weep,
That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks                            165
Like trees bedashed with rain – in that sad time
My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;
And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
I never sued to friend, nor enemy;                                                    170
My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing word.
But now thy beauty is proposed my fee,
My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak.

She looks scornfully at him.

Teach not thy lip such scorn, for it was made
For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.                                        175
If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,
Lo, here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword,
Which if thou please to hide in this true breast
And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,
I lay it naked to the deadly stroke                                                      180
And humbly beg the death upon my knee.

He [kneels and] lays his breast open, she offers at [it] with his sword.

Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry,
But ’twas thy beauty that provoked me.
Nay, now dispatch; ’twas I that stabbed young Edward,
But ’twas thy heavenly face that set me on.                                  185

She falls the sword.

Take up the sword again, or take up me.

ANNE
Arise, dissembler; though I wish thy death,
I will not be thy executioner.

RICHARD
Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.

ANNE
I have already.

RICHARD
————–That was in thy rage.                                                190
Speak it again and, even with the word,
This hand, which for thy love did kill thy love,
Shall for thy love kill a far truer love;
To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary.

ANNE
I would I knew thy heart.                                                                      195

RICHARD
’Tis figured in my tongue.

ANNE
I fear me both are false.

RICHARD
Then never man was true.

ANNE
Well, well, put up your sword.

RICHARD
Say then my peace is made.                                                              200

ANNE
That shalt thou know hereafter.

RICHARD
But shall I live in hope?

ANNE
All men I hope live so.

RICHARD
Vouchsafe to wear this ring.

ANNE
To take is not to give.                                                                            205

RICHARD
Look how my ring encompasseth thy finger;
Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart.
Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.
And if thy poor devoted servant may
But beg one favour at thy gracious hand,                                      210
Thou dost confirm his happiness forever.

ANNE
What is it?

RICHARD
That it may please you leave these sad designs
To him that hath most cause to be a mourner,
And presently repair to Crosby House,                                          215
Where, after I have solemnly interred
At Chertsey Monastery this noble king
And wet his grave with my repentant tears,
I will with all expedient duty see you.
For diverse unknown reasons, I beseech you,                              220
Grant me this boon.

ANNE
With all my heart, and much it joys me too
To see you are become so penitent.
– Tressel and Berkeley, go along with me.

RICHARD
Bid me farewell.

ANNE
—————–’Tis more than you deserve;                             225
But since you teach me how to flatter you,
Imagine I have said farewell already.

Exeunt two with Anne.

Beats
Arden 3 | 2009

[ 1.2 ]

The corse of Henry the Sixth with Halberds to guard it, Lady Anne being the mourner [,attended by Tressel, Berkeley and other Gentlemen].

Beat 0

---

RICHARD
Stay, you that bear the corse, and set it down.

ANNE
What black magician conjures up this fiend
To stop devoted charitable deeds?                                                    35

RICHARD
Villains , set down the corse, or by Saint Paul,
I’ll make a corse of him that disobeys.

GENTLEMEN
My lord, stand back and let the coffin pass.

RICHARD
Unmannered dog, stand thou when I command!
Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,                                   40
Or by Saint Paul, I’ll strike thee to my foot
And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.

ANNE
What, do you tremble? Are you all afraid?
Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal,
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.                                         45

Beat 1

---

ANNE
– Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
Thou hadst but power over his mortal body;
His soul thou canst not have. Therefore begone.

RICHARD
Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst.

ANNE
Foul devil, for God’s sake hence, and trouble us not,                     50
For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,
Filled it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.
If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
Behold this pattern of thy butcheries.

 

Beat 2

---

ANNE
– O gentlemen, see, see dead Henry’s wounds                               55
Open their congealed mouths, and bleed afresh.
– Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity,
For ’tis thy presence that exhales this blood
From cold and empty veins where no blood dwells.
Thy deeds , inhuman and unnatural,                                                    60
Provokes this deluge most unnatural.
– O God! which this blood mad’st, revenge his death.
O earth! which this blood drink’st, revenge his death.
Either heaven with lightning strike the murderer dead,
Or earth gape open wide and eat him quick,                                      65
As thou dost swallow up this good king’s blood,
Which his hell-governed arm hath butchered.

RICHARD
Lady, you know no rules of charity,
Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.

ANNE
Villain, thou knowst nor law of God nor man.                                     70
No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.

RICHARD
But I know none, and therefore am no beast.

ANNE
O wonderful, when devils tell the truth !

 

Beat 3

---

RICHARD
More wonderful, when angels are so angry.
Vouchsafe , divine perfection of a woman,                                        75
Of these supposed crimes, to give me leave
By circumstance, but to acquit myself.

ANNE
Vouchsafe, diffused infection of a man,
Of these known evils, but to give me leave
By circumstance, to curse thy cursed self.                                        80

RICHARD
Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have
Some patient leisure to excuse myself.

ANNE
Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make
No excuse current but to hang thyself.

RICHARD
By such despair I should accuse myself.                                            85

ANNE
And by despairing shalt thou stand excused
For doing worthy vengeance on thyself
That didst unworthy slaughter upon others.

 

Beat 4

---

RICHARD
Say that I slew them not.

ANNE
Then say they were not slain.                                                                  90
But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee.

RICHARD
I did not kill your husband.

ANNE
Why then he is alive.

RICHARD
Nay, he is dead, and slain by Edward’s hands .

ANNE
In thy foul throat thou liest; Queen Margaret saw                            95
Thy murderous falchion smoking in his blood,
The which thou once didst bend against her breast,
But that thy brothers beat aside the point.

RICHARD
I was provoked by her slanderous tongue,
That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders.                          100

ANNE
Thou wast provoked by thy bloody mind,
That never dream’st on aught but butcheries.

 

Beat 5

---

ANNE
Didst thou not kill this king?

RICHARD
—————————I grant ye .

ANNE
Dost grant me, hedgehog? Then God grant me too
Thou mayst be damned for that wicked deed.                              105
O, he was gentle, mild and virtuous.

RICHARD
The better for the King of Heaven that hath him.

ANNE
He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come.

RICHARD
Let him thank me that holp to send him thither,
For he was fitter for that place than earth.                                      110

ANNE
And thou unfit for any place but hell.

 

Beat

---

RICHARD
Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.

ANNE
Some dungeon.

RICHARD
Your bedchamber.

ANNE
Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest.                                115

RICHARD
So will it, madam, till I lie with you.

ANNE
I hope so.

RICHARD
———-I know so.

 

Beat

---

RICHARD
———————-But, gentle Lady Anne,
To leave this keen encounter of our wits
And fall something into a slower method:
Is not the causer of the timeless deaths                                     120
Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
As blameful as the executioner?

ANNE
Thou wast the cause, and most accurst effect.

RICHARD
Your beauty was the cause of that effect:
Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep                              125
To undertake the death of all the world,
So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.

ANNE
If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,
These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.

RICHARD
These eyes could not endure that beauty’s wrack;               130
You should not blemish it, if I stood by.
As all the world is cheered by the sun,
So I by that. It is my day, my life.

ANNE
Black night o’ershade thy day, and death thy life.

RICHARD
Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art both.                         135

ANNE
I would I were, to be revenged on thee.

RICHARD
It is a quarrel most unnatural,
To be revenged on him that loveth thee.

ANNE
It is a quarrel just and reasonable,
To be revenged on him that killed my husband.                      140

 

Beat X

---

RICHARD
He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband,
Did it to help thee to a better husband.

ANNE
His better doth not breathe upon the earth.

RICHARD
He lives that loves thee better than he could.

ANNE
Name him.

RICHARD
———–Plantagenet.

ANNE
————————–Why, that was he.                            145

RICHARD
The selfsame name, but one of better nature.

ANNE
Where is he?

RICHARD
————-Here.(She spits at him)

 

Beat X

---

RICHARD
——————–Why dost thou spit at me?

ANNE
Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake.

RICHARD
Never came poison from so sweet a place.

ANNE
Never hung poison on a fouler toad.                                              150

 

Beat

---

ANNE
Out of my sight! Thou dost infect mine eyes.

RICHARD
Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.

ANNE
Would they were basilisks, to strike thee dead.

RICHARD
I would they were, that I might die at once;
For now they kill me with a living death.                                       155
Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,
Shamed their aspects with store of childish drops;
These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear –
No, when my father York and Edward wept
To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made                              160
When black-faced Clifford shook his sword at him;
Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
Told the sad story of my father’s death
And twenty times made pause to sob and weep,
That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks                            165
Like trees bedashed with rain – in that sad time
My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;
And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
I never sued to friend, nor enemy;                                                    170
My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing word.
But now thy beauty is proposed my fee,
My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak.

She looks scornfully at him.

Teach not thy lip such scorn, for it was made
For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.                                        175

 

Beat

---

RICHARD
If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,
Lo, here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword,
Which if thou please to hide in this true breast
And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,
I lay it naked to the deadly stroke                                                      180
And humbly beg the death upon my knee.

He [kneels and] lays his breast open, she offers at [it] with his sword.

Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry,
But ’twas thy beauty that provoked me.
Nay, now dispatch; ’twas I that stabbed young Edward,
But ’twas thy heavenly face that set me on.                                  185

She falls the sword.

 

Beat X

---

RICHARD
Take up the sword again, or take up me.

ANNE
Arise, dissembler; though I wish thy death,
I will not be thy executioner.

 

Beat X

---

RICHARD
Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.

ANNE
I have already.

RICHARD
————–That was in thy rage.                                                190
Speak it again and, even with the word,
This hand, which for thy love did kill thy love,
Shall for thy love kill a far truer love;
To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary.

 

Beat X

---

ANNE
I would I knew thy heart.                                                                      195

RICHARD
’Tis figured in my tongue.

ANNE
I fear me both are false.

RICHARD
Then never man was true.

ANNE
Well, well, put up your sword.

 

Beat X

---

RICHARD
Say then my peace is made.                                                              200

ANNE
That shalt thou know hereafter.

RICHARD
But shall I live in hope?

ANNE
All men I hope live so.

 

Beat

---

RICHARD
Vouchsafe to wear this ring.

ANNE
To take is not to give.                                                                            205

RICHARD
Look how my ring encompasseth thy finger;
Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart.
Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.

 

Beat

---

RICHARD
And if thy poor devoted servant may
But beg one favour at thy gracious hand,                                      210
Thou dost confirm his happiness forever.

ANNE
What is it?

RICHARD
That it may please you leave these sad designs
To him that hath most cause to be a mourner,
And presently repair to Crosby House,                                          215
Where, after I have solemnly interred
At Chertsey Monastery this noble king
And wet his grave with my repentant tears,
I will with all expedient duty see you.
For diverse unknown reasons, I beseech you,                              220
Grant me this boon.

ANNE
With all my heart, and much it joys me too
To see you are become so penitent.

 

Beat

---

ANNE
– Tressel and Berkeley, go along with me.

 

Beat

---

RICHARD
Bid me farewell.

ANNE
—————–’Tis more than you deserve;                             225
But since you teach me how to flatter you,
Imagine I have said farewell already.

Exeunt two with Anne.

 

Beat

---

 

Top

Pronunciation +

shamest: (line 23) Q2–3; sham’st Q4, F; not in Q1 (Weis)

Jesu: (line 29) jeez-yoo or jee-zoo; jayz-yoo or jay-zoo

you: (line 29) The more formal pronoun is used consistently by Nurse when addressing Juliet, while the 13-year-old uses the familiar thou, thee, thy to her servant, in conformity with the etiquette of the day in which social class overrides age. (Weis)

marry: (line 62) mah-ree (UK); meh-ree (US) (OED)

trow: (line 62) tr-ah-oo (UK); tr-oh (US) (OED)

hie: (line 68) hah-ee

wanton: (line 70) want-en or want-in

Full Scene
Arden 3 | 2009

[ 1.2 ]

Enter the corse of Henry the Sixth with Halberds to guard it, Lady Anne being the mourner [,attended by Tressel, Berkeley and other Gentlemen].

ANNE
Set down, set down your honourable load,
If honour may be shrouded in a hearse,
Whilst I awhile obsequiously lament
Th’untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster.
Poor key-cold figure of a holy king,                                                      5
Pale ashes of the house of Lancaster,
Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood,
Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghost
To hear the lamentations of poor Anne,
Wife to thy Edward, to thy slaughtered son,                                    10
Stabbed by the selfsame hand that made these wounds.
Lo, in these windows that let forth thy life
I pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes.
O, cursed be the hand that made these holes;
Cursed the heart that had the heart to do it;                                   15
Cursed the blood that let this blood from hence.
More direful hap betide that hated wretch
That makes us wretched by the death of thee
Than I can wish to wolves, to spiders, toads
Or any creeping venomed thing that lives.                                      20
If ever he have child, abortive be it,
Prodigious, and untimely brought to light,
Whose ugly and unnatural aspect
May fright the hopeful mother at the view,
And that be heir to his unhappiness.                                                 25
If ever he have wife, let her be made
More miserable by the death of him
Than I am made by my young lord and thee.
– Come now towards Chertsey with your holy load,
Taken from Paul’s to be interred there;                                              30
And still, as you are weary of this weight,
Rest you, whiles I lament King Henry’s corse.
Enter Richard, Duke Of Gloucester.

RICHARD
Stay, you that bear the corse, and set it down.

ANNE
What black magician conjures up this fiend
To stop devoted charitable deeds?                                                    35

RICHARD
Villains , set down the corse, or by Saint Paul,
I’ll make a corse of him that disobeys.

GENTLEMEN
My lord, stand back and let the coffin pass.

RICHARD
Unmannered dog, stand thou when I command!
Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,                                   40
Or by Saint Paul, I’ll strike thee to my foot
And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.

ANNE
What, do you tremble? Are you all afraid?
Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal,
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.                                         45
– Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
Thou hadst but power over his mortal body;
His soul thou canst not have. Therefore begone.

RICHARD
Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst.

ANNE
Foul devil, for God’s sake hence, and trouble us not,                     50
For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,
Filled it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.
If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
Behold this pattern of thy butcheries.
– O gentlemen, see, see dead Henry’s wounds                               55
Open their congealed mouths, and bleed afresh.
– Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity,
For ’tis thy presence that exhales this blood
From cold and empty veins where no blood dwells.
Thy deeds , inhuman and unnatural,                                                    60
Provokes this deluge most unnatural.
– O God! which this blood mad’st, revenge his death.
O earth! which this blood drink’st, revenge his death.
Either heaven with lightning strike the murderer dead,
Or earth gape open wide and eat him quick,                                      65
As thou dost swallow up this good king’s blood,
Which his hell-governed arm hath butchered.

RICHARD
Lady, you know no rules of charity,
Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.

ANNE
Villain, thou knowst nor law of God nor man.                                     70
No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.

RICHARD
But I know none, and therefore am no beast.

ANNE
O wonderful, when devils tell the truth !

RICHARD
More wonderful, when angels are so angry.
Vouchsafe , divine perfection of a woman,                                        75
Of these supposed crimes, to give me leave
By circumstance, but to acquit myself.

ANNE
Vouchsafe, diffused infection of a man,
Of these known evils, but to give me leave
By circumstance, to curse thy cursed self.                                        80

RICHARD
Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have
Some patient leisure to excuse myself.

ANNE
Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make
No excuse current but to hang thyself.

RICHARD
By such despair I should accuse myself.                                            85

ANNE
And by despairing shalt thou stand excused
For doing worthy vengeance on thyself
That didst unworthy slaughter upon others.

RICHARD
Say that I slew them not.

ANNE
Then say they were not slain.                                                                  90
But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee.

RICHARD
I did not kill your husband.

ANNE
Why then he is alive.

RICHARD
Nay, he is dead, and slain by Edward’s hands .

ANNE
In thy foul throat thou liest; Queen Margaret saw                            95
Thy murderous falchion smoking in his blood,
The which thou once didst bend against her breast,
But that thy brothers beat aside the point.

RICHARD
I was provoked by her slanderous tongue,
That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders.                          100

ANNE
Thou wast provoked by thy bloody mind,
That never dream’st on aught but butcheries.
Didst thou not kill this king?

RICHARD
—————————I grant ye .

ANNE
Dost grant me, hedgehog? Then God grant me too
Thou mayst be damned for that wicked deed.                              105
O, he was gentle, mild and virtuous.

RICHARD
The better for the King of Heaven that hath him.

ANNE
He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come.

RICHARD
Let him thank me that holp to send him thither,
For he was fitter for that place than earth.                                      110

ANNE
And thou unfit for any place but hell.

RICHARD
Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.

ANNE
Some dungeon.

RICHARD
Your bedchamber.

ANNE
Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest.                                115

RICHARD
So will it, madam, till I lie with you.

ANNE
I hope so.

RICHARD
———-I know so. But, gentle Lady Anne,
To leave this keen encounter of our wits
And fall something into a slower method:
Is not the causer of the timeless deaths                                     120
Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
As blameful as the executioner?

ANNE
Thou wast the cause, and most accurst effect.

RICHARD
Your beauty was the cause of that effect:
Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep                              125
To undertake the death of all the world,
So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.

ANNE
If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,
These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.

RICHARD
These eyes could not endure that beauty’s wrack;               130
You should not blemish it, if I stood by.
As all the world is cheered by the sun,
So I by that. It is my day, my life.

ANNE
Black night o’ershade thy day, and death thy life.

RICHARD
Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art both.                         135

ANNE
I would I were, to be revenged on thee.

RICHARD
It is a quarrel most unnatural,
To be revenged on him that loveth thee.

ANNE
It is a quarrel just and reasonable,
To be revenged on him that killed my husband.                      140

RICHARD
He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband,
Did it to help thee to a better husband.

ANNE
His better doth not breathe upon the earth.

RICHARD
He lives that loves thee better than he could.

ANNE
Name him.

RICHARD
———–Plantagenet.

ANNE
————————–Why, that was he.                            145

RICHARD
The selfsame name, but one of better nature.

ANNE
Where is he?

RICHARD
————-Here.(She spits at him)
——————–Why dost thou spit at me?

ANNE
Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake.

RICHARD
Never came poison from so sweet a place.

ANNE
Never hung poison on a fouler toad.                                              150
Out of my sight! Thou dost infect mine eyes.

RICHARD
Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.

ANNE
Would they were basilisks, to strike thee dead.

RICHARD
I would they were, that I might die at once;
For now they kill me with a living death.                                       155
Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,
Shamed their aspects with store of childish drops;
These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear –
No, when my father York and Edward wept
To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made                              160
When black-faced Clifford shook his sword at him;
Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
Told the sad story of my father’s death
And twenty times made pause to sob and weep,
That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks                            165
Like trees bedashed with rain – in that sad time
My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;
And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
I never sued to friend, nor enemy;                                                    170
My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing word.
But now thy beauty is proposed my fee,
My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak.

She looks scornfully at him.

Teach not thy lip such scorn, for it was made
For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.                                        175
If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,
Lo, here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword,
Which if thou please to hide in this true breast
And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,
I lay it naked to the deadly stroke                                                      180
And humbly beg the death upon my knee.

He [kneels and] lays his breast open, she offers at [it] with his sword.

Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry,
But ’twas thy beauty that provoked me.
Nay, now dispatch; ’twas I that stabbed young Edward,
But ’twas thy heavenly face that set me on.                                  185

She falls the sword.

Take up the sword again, or take up me.

ANNE
Arise, dissembler; though I wish thy death,
I will not be thy executioner.

RICHARD
Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.

ANNE
I have already.

RICHARD
————–That was in thy rage.                                                190
Speak it again and, even with the word,
This hand, which for thy love did kill thy love,
Shall for thy love kill a far truer love;
To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary.

ANNE
I would I knew thy heart.                                                                      195

RICHARD
’Tis figured in my tongue.

ANNE
I fear me both are false.

RICHARD
Then never man was true.

ANNE
Well, well, put up your sword.

RICHARD
Say then my peace is made.                                                              200

ANNE
That shalt thou know hereafter.

RICHARD
But shall I live in hope?

ANNE
All men I hope live so.

RICHARD
Vouchsafe to wear this ring.

ANNE
To take is not to give.                                                                            205

RICHARD
Look how my ring encompasseth thy finger;
Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart.
Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.
And if thy poor devoted servant may
But beg one favour at thy gracious hand,                                      210
Thou dost confirm his happiness forever.

ANNE
What is it?

RICHARD
That it may please you leave these sad designs
To him that hath most cause to be a mourner,
And presently repair to Crosby House,                                          215
Where, after I have solemnly interred
At Chertsey Monastery this noble king
And wet his grave with my repentant tears,
I will with all expedient duty see you.
For diverse unknown reasons, I beseech you,                              220
Grant me this boon.

ANNE
With all my heart, and much it joys me too
To see you are become so penitent.
– Tressel and Berkeley, go along with me.

RICHARD
Bid me farewell.

ANNE
—————–’Tis more than you deserve;                             225
But since you teach me how to flatter you,
Imagine I have said farewell already.

Exeunt two with Anne.

GENTLEMEN
Towards Chertsey, noble lord?

RICHARD
No, to Whitefriars; there attend my coming.

Exeunt [the rest with the] corse.

Was ever woman in this humour wooed?                                      230
Was ever woman in this humour won?
I’ll have her, but I will not keep her long.
What? I that killed her husband and his father,
To take her in her heart’s extremest hate,
With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes,                                 235
The bleeding witness of my hatred by,
Having God, her conscience and these bars against me,
And I, no friends to back my suit withal
But the plain devil and dissembling looks?
And yet to win her? All the world to nothing!                                 240
Ha!
Hath she forgot already that brave prince,
Edward, her lord, whom I, some three months since,
Stabbed in my angry mood at Tewkesbury?
A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman,                                                245
Framed in the prodigality of Nature,
Young, valiant, wise and, no doubt, right royal,
The spacious world cannot again afford;
And will she yet abase her eyes on me,
That cropped the golden prime of this sweet prince                  250
And made her widow to a woeful bed?
On me, whose all not equals Edward’s moiety?
On me, that halts and am misshapen thus?
My dukedom to a beggarly denier,
I do mistake my person all this while!                                              255
Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,
Myself to be a marvellous proper man.
I’ll be at charges for a looking-glass
And entertain a score or two of tailors
To study fashions to adorn my body;                                               260
Since I am crept in favour with myself,
I will maintain it with some little cost.
But first I’ll turn yon fellow in his grave
And then return lamenting to my love.
Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass,                                  265
That I may see my shadow as I pass.

(Exit.)

Rhetoric
Arden 3 | 2009

[ 1.2 ]

The corse of Henry the Sixth with Halberds to guard it, Lady Anne being the mourner [,attended by Tressel, Berkeley and other Gentlemen].

RICHARD
Stay, you that bear the corse, and set it down.

ANNE
What black magician conjures up this fiend
To stop devoted charitable deeds?                                                    35

RICHARD
Villains , set down the corse, or by Saint Paul,
I’ll make a corse of him that disobeys.

GENTLEMEN
My lord, stand back and let the coffin pass.

RICHARD
Unmannered dog, stand thou when I command!
Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,                                   40
Or by Saint Paul, I’ll strike thee to my foot
And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.

ANNE
What, do you tremble? Are you all afraid?
Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal,
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.                                         45
– Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
Thou hadst but power over his mortal body;
His soul thou canst not have. Therefore begone.

RICHARD
Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst.

ANNE
Foul devil, for God’s sake hence, and trouble us not,                     50
For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,
Filled it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.
If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
Behold this pattern of thy butcheries.
– O gentlemen, see, see dead Henry’s wounds                               55
Open their congealed mouths, and bleed afresh.
– Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity,
For ’tis thy presence that exhales this blood
From cold and empty veins where no blood dwells.
Thy deeds , inhuman and unnatural,                                                    60
Provokes this deluge most unnatural.
– O God! which this blood mad’st, revenge his death.
O earth! which this blood drink’st, revenge his death.
Either heaven with lightning strike the murderer dead,
Or earth gape open wide and eat him quick,                                      65
As thou dost swallow up this good king’s blood,
Which his hell-governed arm hath butchered.

RICHARD
Lady, you know no rules of charity,
Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.

ANNE
Villain, thou knowst nor law of God nor man.                                     70
No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.

RICHARD
But I know none, and therefore am no beast.

ANNE
O wonderful, when devils tell the truth !

RICHARD
More wonderful, when angels are so angry.
Vouchsafe , divine perfection of a woman,                                        75
Of these supposed crimes, to give me leave
By circumstance, but to acquit myself.

ANNE
Vouchsafe, diffused infection of a man,
Of these known evils, but to give me leave
By circumstance, to curse thy cursed self.                                        80

RICHARD
Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have
Some patient leisure to excuse myself.

ANNE
Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make
No excuse current but to hang thyself.

RICHARD
By such despair I should accuse myself.                                            85

ANNE
And by despairing shalt thou stand excused
For doing worthy vengeance on thyself
That didst unworthy slaughter upon others.

RICHARD
Say that I slew them not.

ANNE
Then say they were not slain.                                                                  90
But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee.

RICHARD
I did not kill your husband.

ANNE
Why then he is alive.

RICHARD
Nay, he is dead, and slain by Edward’s hands .

ANNE
In thy foul throat thou liest; Queen Margaret saw                            95
Thy murderous falchion smoking in his blood,
The which thou once didst bend against her breast,
But that thy brothers beat aside the point.

RICHARD
I was provoked by her slanderous tongue,
That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders.                          100

ANNE
Thou wast provoked by thy bloody mind,
That never dream’st on aught but butcheries.
Didst thou not kill this king?

RICHARD
—————————I grant ye .

ANNE
Dost grant me, hedgehog? Then God grant me too
Thou mayst be damned for that wicked deed.                              105
O, he was gentle, mild and virtuous.

RICHARD
The better for the King of Heaven that hath him.

ANNE
He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come.

RICHARD
Let him thank me that holp to send him thither,
For he was fitter for that place than earth.                                      110

ANNE
And thou unfit for any place but hell.

RICHARD
Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.

ANNE
Some dungeon.

RICHARD
Your bedchamber.

ANNE
Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest.                                115

RICHARD
So will it, madam, till I lie with you.

ANNE
I hope so.

RICHARD
———-I know so. But, gentle Lady Anne,
To leave this keen encounter of our wits
And fall something into a slower method:
Is not the causer of the timeless deaths                                     120
Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
As blameful as the executioner?

ANNE
Thou wast the cause, and most accurst effect.

RICHARD
Your beauty was the cause of that effect:
Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep                              125
To undertake the death of all the world,
So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.

ANNE
If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,
These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.

RICHARD
These eyes could not endure that beauty’s wrack;               130
You should not blemish it, if I stood by.
As all the world is cheered by the sun,
So I by that. It is my day, my life.

ANNE
Black night o’ershade thy day, and death thy life.

RICHARD
Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art both.                         135

ANNE
I would I were, to be revenged on thee.

RICHARD
It is a quarrel most unnatural,
To be revenged on him that loveth thee.

ANNE
It is a quarrel just and reasonable,
To be revenged on him that killed my husband.                      140

RICHARD
He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband,
Did it to help thee to a better husband.

ANNE
His better doth not breathe upon the earth.

RICHARD
He lives that loves thee better than he could.

ANNE
Name him.

RICHARD
———–Plantagenet.

ANNE
————————–Why, that was he.                            145

RICHARD
The selfsame name, but one of better nature.

ANNE
Where is he?

RICHARD
————-Here.(She spits at him)
——————–Why dost thou spit at me?

ANNE
Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake.

RICHARD
Never came poison from so sweet a place.

ANNE
Never hung poison on a fouler toad.                                              150
Out of my sight! Thou dost infect mine eyes.

RICHARD
Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.

ANNE
Would they were basilisks, to strike thee dead.

RICHARD
I would they were, that I might die at once;
For now they kill me with a living death.                                       155
Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,
Shamed their aspects with store of childish drops;
These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear –
No, when my father York and Edward wept
To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made                              160
When black-faced Clifford shook his sword at him;
Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
Told the sad story of my father’s death
And twenty times made pause to sob and weep,
That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks                            165
Like trees bedashed with rain – in that sad time
My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;
And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
I never sued to friend, nor enemy;                                                    170
My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing word.
But now thy beauty is proposed my fee,
My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak.

She looks scornfully at him.

Teach not thy lip such scorn, for it was made
For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.                                        175
If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,
Lo, here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword,
Which if thou please to hide in this true breast
And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,
I lay it naked to the deadly stroke                                                      180
And humbly beg the death upon my knee.

He [kneels and] lays his breast open, she offers at [it] with his sword.

Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry,
But ’twas thy beauty that provoked me.
Nay, now dispatch; ’twas I that stabbed young Edward,
But ’twas thy heavenly face that set me on.                                  185

She falls the sword.

Take up the sword again, or take up me.

ANNE
Arise, dissembler; though I wish thy death,
I will not be thy executioner.

RICHARD
Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.

ANNE
I have already.

RICHARD
————–That was in thy rage.                                                190
Speak it again and, even with the word,
This hand, which for thy love did kill thy love,
Shall for thy love kill a far truer love;
To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary.

ANNE
I would I knew thy heart.                                                                      195

RICHARD
’Tis figured in my tongue.

ANNE
I fear me both are false.

RICHARD
Then never man was true.

ANNE
Well, well, put up your sword.

RICHARD
Say then my peace is made.                                                              200

ANNE
That shalt thou know hereafter.

RICHARD
But shall I live in hope?

ANNE
All men I hope live so.

RICHARD
Vouchsafe to wear this ring.

ANNE
To take is not to give.                                                                            205

RICHARD
Look how my ring encompasseth thy finger;
Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart.
Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.
And if thy poor devoted servant may
But beg one favour at thy gracious hand,                                      210
Thou dost confirm his happiness forever.

ANNE
What is it?

RICHARD
That it may please you leave these sad designs
To him that hath most cause to be a mourner,
And presently repair to Crosby House,                                          215
Where, after I have solemnly interred
At Chertsey Monastery this noble king
And wet his grave with my repentant tears,
I will with all expedient duty see you.
For diverse unknown reasons, I beseech you,                              220
Grant me this boon.

ANNE
With all my heart, and much it joys me too
To see you are become so penitent.
– Tressel and Berkeley, go along with me.

RICHARD
Bid me farewell.

ANNE
—————–’Tis more than you deserve;                             225
But since you teach me how to flatter you,
Imagine I have said farewell already.

Exeunt two with Anne.