Your blunt upbraidings, and your bitter scoffs: Enter Queen MARGARET, behind. Q. Mar. And lessen'd be that small, God, I beseech thee! Thy honour, state, and seat, is due to me. Glo. What? threat you me with telling of the king? Tell him, and spare not : look, what I have said I dare adventure to be sent to the Tower. Glo. Ere you were queen, ay, or your husband king, I was a pack-horse in his great affairs; To royalize his blood, I spilt mine own. Q. Mar. Ay, and much better blood than his, or thine. Glo. In all which time, you, and your husband Grey, Were factious for the house of Lancaster ; -: And, Rivers, so were you:· band Was not your hus In Margaret's battle at Saint Alban's slain? What you have been ere now, and what you are; Q. Mar. A murd'rous villain, and so still thou art. Glo. Poor Clarence did forsake his father Warwick, Ay, and forswore himself,-which Jesu pardon!Q. Mar. Which God revenge! Glo. To fight on Edward's party, for the crown; And, for his meed, poor lord, he is mew'd up: I would to heaven, my heart were flint like Edward's, Or Edward's soft and pitiful, like mine; I am too childish-foolish for this world. Q. Mar. Hie thee to hell for shame, and leave this world. Riv. My lord of Gloster, in those busy days, Which here you urge, to prove us enemies, We follow'd then our lord, our lawful king; So should we you, if you should be our king. Glo. If I should be? I had rather be a pedlar: Far be it from my heart, the thought thereof! Q. Eliz. As little joy, my lord, as you suppose You should enjoy, were you this country's king; As little joy you may suppose in me, That I enjoy, being the queen thereof. Q. Mar. A little joy enjoys the queen thereof; For I am she, and altogether joyless. I can no longer hold me patient.- [Advancing. Hear me, you wrangling pirates, that fall out In sharing that which you have pill'd 3 from me: Which of you trembles not, that looks on me? If not, that I being queen, you bow like subjects; Yet that, by you depos'd you quake like rebels? Ah, gentle villain, do not turn away! Glo. Foul wrinkled witch, what mak'st thou in my sight? Q. Mar. But repetition of what thou hast marr'd, That will I make, before I let thee go. Glo. Wert thou not banished on pain of death? ¿ Pillaged. Q. Mar. I was; but I do find more pain in ba- Than death can yield me here by my abode. Glo. The curse my noble father laid on thee, – When thou didst crown his warlike brows with paper, And with thy scorns drew'st rivers from his eyes; And then, to dry them, gav'st the duke a clout, Steep'd in the faultless blood of pretty Rutland;His curses, then from bitterness of soul Denounc'd against thee, are all fall'n upon thee; And God, not we, hath plagu'd thy bloody deed. Q. Eliz. So just is God, to right the innocent. Hast. O, 'twas the foulest deed to slay that babe, And the most merciless, that e'er was heard of. Riv. Tyrants themselves wept when it was reported, Dors. No man but prophesied revenge for it. Buck. Northumberland, then present, wept to see it. Q. Mar. What! were you snarling all, before I came, Ready to catch each other by the throat, Though not by war, by surfeit die your king, Thyself a queen, for me that was a queen, Deck'd in thy rights, as thou art stall'd in mine! Die neither mother, wife, nor England's queen! Rivers, - and Dorset, you were standers by, And so wast thou, lord Hastings, when my son Was stabb'd with bloody daggers; God, I pray him, Glo. Have done thy charm, thou hateful wither'd hag. Q. Mar. And leave out thee? stay, dog, for thou shalt hear me. If heaven have any grievous plague in store, On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace! Glo. Margaret. Glo. I cry thee mercy then; for I did think, That thou hadst call'd me all these bitter names. Q. Mar. Why, so I did; but look'd for no reply. O, let me make the period to my curse. Glo. 'Tis done by me; and ends in Margaret. Q. Eliz. Thus have you breath'd your curse against yourself. Q. Mar. Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my fortune! Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider, 4 Riv. Were you well serv'd, you would be taught your duty. Q. Mar. To serve me well, you all should do me duty, 5 Teach me to be your queen, and you my subjects: And, if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces. Glo. Good counsel, marry; - learn it, learn it, marquis. Dors. It touches you, my lord, as much as me. Glo. Ay, and much more: But I was born so high, Our aiery 6 buildeth in the cedar's top, And dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun. 4 Alluding to Gloster's form and venom. 5 He was just created marquis of Dorset. 6 Nest. |