Richard III William Shakespeare (good english books to read .txt) đ
- Author: William Shakespeare
Book online «Richard III William Shakespeare (good english books to read .txt) đ». Author William Shakespeare
And all the pleasures you usurp are mine. Gloucester
The curse my noble father laid on thee,
When thou didst crown his warlike brows with paper
And with thy scorns drewâst rivers from his eyes,
And then, to dry them, gavest the duke a clout
Steepâd in the faultless blood of pretty Rutlandâ â
His curses, then from bitterness of soul
Denounced against thee, are all fallân upon thee;
And God, not we, hath plagued thy bloody deed.
O, âtwas the foulest deed to slay that babe,
And the most merciless that eâer was heard of!
What! were you snarling all before I came,
Ready to catch each other by the throat,
And turn you all your hatred now on me?
Did Yorkâs dread curse prevail so much with heaven
That Henryâs death, my lovely Edwardâs death,
Their kingdomâs loss, my woeful banishment,
Could all but answer for that peevish brat?
Can curses pierce the clouds and enter heaven?
Why, then, give way, dull clouds, to my quick curses!
If not by war, by surfeit die your king,
As ours by murder, to make him a king!
Edward thy son, which now is Prince of Wales,
For Edward my son, which was Prince of Wales,
Die in his youth by like untimely violence!
Thyself a queen, for me that was a queen,
Outlive thy glory, like my wretched self!
Long mayst thou live to wail thy childrenâs loss;
And see another, as I see thee now,
Deckâd in thy rights, as thou art stallâd in mine!
Long die thy happy days before thy death;
And, after many lengthenâd hours of grief,
Die neither mother, wife, nor Englandâs queen!
Rivers and Dorset, you were standers by,
And so wast thou, Lord Hastings, when my son
Was stabbâd with bloody daggers: God, I pray him,
That none of you may live your natural age,
But by some unlookâd accident cut off!
And leave out thee? stay, dog, for thou shalt hear me.
If heaven have any grievous plague in store
Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,
O, let them keep it till thy sins be ripe,
And then hurl down their indignation
On thee, the troubler of the poor worldâs peace!
The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul!
Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou livest,
And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends!
No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine,
Unless it be whilst some tormenting dream
Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils!
Thou elvish-markâd, abortive, rooting hog!
Thou that wast sealâd in thy nativity
The slave of nature and the son of hell!
Thou slander of thy motherâs heavy womb!
Thou loathed issue of thy fatherâs loins!
Thou rag of honour! thou detestedâ â
I cry thee mercy then, for I had thought
That thou hadst callâd me all these bitter names.
Why, so I did; but lookâd for no reply.
O, let me make the period to my curse!
Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my fortune!
Why strewâst thou sugar on that bottled spider,
Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about?
Fool, fool! thou whetâst a knife to kill thyself.
The time will come when thou shalt wish for me
To help thee curse that poisonous bunch-backâd toad.
False-boding woman, end thy frantic curse,
Lest to thy harm thou move our patience.
To serve me well, you all should do me duty,
Teach me to be your queen, and you my subjects:
O, serve me well, and teach yourselves that duty!
Peace, master marquess, you are malapert:
Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current.
O, that your young nobility could judge
What âtwere to lose it, and be miserable!
They that stand high have many blasts to shake them;
And if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces.
Yea, and much more: but I was born so high,
Our aery buildeth in the cedarâs top,
And dallies with the wind and scorns the sun.
And turns the sun to shade; alas! alas!
Witness my son, now in the shade of death;
Whose bright out-shining beams thy cloudy wrath
Hath in eternal darkness folded up.
Your aery buildeth in our aeryâs nest.
O God, that seest it, do not suffer it;
As it was won with blood, lost be it so!
Urge neither charity nor shame to me:
Uncharitably with me have you dealt,
And shamefully by you my hopes are butcherâd.
My charity is outrage, life my shame;
And in that shame still live my sorrowâs rage!
O princely Buckingham, Iâll kiss thy hand,
In sign of league and amity with thee:
Now fair befal thee and thy noble house!
Thy garments are not spotted with our blood,
Nor thou within the compass of my curse.
Nor no one here; for curses never pass
The lips of those that breathe them in the air.
Iâll not believe but they ascend the sky,
And there awake Godâs gentle-sleeping peace.
O Buckingham, take heed of yonder dog!
Look, when he fawns, he bites; and when he bites,
His venom tooth will rankle to the death:
Have not to do with him, beware of him;
Sin, death, and hell have set their marks on him,
And all their ministers attend on him.
What, dost thou scorn me for my gentle counsel?
And soothe the devil that I warn thee from?
O, but remember this another day,
When he shall split thy very heart with sorrow,
And say poor Margaret was a prophetess!
Live each of you the subjects to his hate,
And he to yours, and all of you
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