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.

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,

⌈The gentlemen lift the coffin⌉

And still as you are weary of this weight

Rest you, whiles I lament King Henry’s corpse.

Enter Richard Duke of Gloucester

RICHARD GLOUCESTER (to the gentlemen)

Stay, you that bear the corpse, and set it down.

LADY ANNE

What black magician conjures up this fiend

To stop devoted charitable deeds?

RICHARD GLOUCESTER (to the gentlemen)

Villains, set down the corpse, or by Saint Paul

I’ll make a corpse of him that disobeys.

⌈HALBERDIER⌉

My lord, stand back and let the coffin pass.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

Unmannered dog, stand thou when I command.

Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,

Or by Saint Paul I’ll strike thee to my foot

And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.

They set the coffin down

LADY ANNE (to gentlemen and halberdiers)

What, do you tremble? Are you all afraid?

Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal,

And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.—

Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell.

Thou hadst but power over his mortal body;

His soul thou canst not have; therefore be gone.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

Sweet saint, for charity be not so cursed.

LADY ANNE

Foul devil, for God’s sake hence and trouble us not,

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

Ope their congealed mouths and bleed afresh.—

Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity,

For ‘tis thy presence that ex-hales this blood

From cold and empty veins where no blood dwells.

Thy deed, inhuman and unnatural,

Provokes this deluge supernatural.

O God, which this blood mad’st, revenge his death.

O earth, which this blood drink‘st, revenge his death.

Either heav’n with lightning strike the murd’rer dead,

Or earth gape open wide and eat him quick

As thou dost swallow up this good king’s blood,

Which his hell-governed arm hath butchered.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

Lady, you know no rules of charity,

Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.

LADY ANNE

Villain, thou know’st no law of God nor man.

No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

But I know none, and therefore am no beast.

LADY ANNE

O wonderful, when devils tell the truth!

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

More wonderful, when angels are so angry.

Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman,

Of these supposed crimes to give me leave

By circumstance but to acquit myself.

LADY ANNE

Vouchsafe, diffused infection of a man,

Of these known evils but to give me leave

By circumstance t’accuse thy cursèd self.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have

Some patient leisure to excuse myself.

LADY ANNE

Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make

No excuse current but to hang thyself.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

By such despair I should accuse myself. 85

LADY ANNE

And by despairing shalt thou stand excused,

For doing worthy vengeance on thyself

That didst unworthy slaughter upon others.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

Say that I slew them not.

LADY ANNE

Then say they were not slain.

But dead they are—and, devilish slave, by thee.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

I did not kill your husband.

LADY ANNE

Why, then he is alive.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

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

LADY ANNE

In thy foul throat thou liest. Queen Margaret saw

Thy murd’rous falchion smoking in his blood,

The which thou once didst bend against her breast,

But that thy brothers beat aside the point.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

I was provoked by her sland’rous tongue,

That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders.

LADY ANNE

Thou wast provoked by thy bloody mind,

That never dream’st on aught but butcheries.

Didst thou not kill this king?

RICHARD GLOUCESTER I grant ye.

LADY ANNE

Dost grant me, hedgehog? Then God grant me, too,

Thou mayst be damned for that wicked deed.

O he was gentle, mild, and virtuous.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

The better for the King of Heaven that hath him.

LADY ANNE

He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

Let him thank me that holp to send him thither,

For he was fitter for that place than earth.

LADY ANNE

And thou unfit for any place but hell.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

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

LADY ANNE

Some dungeon.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER Your bedchamber.

LADY ANNE

III rest betide the chamber where thou liest.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

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

LADY ANNE

I hope so.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER 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

Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,

As blameful as the executioner?

LADY ANNE

Thou wast the cause of that accursed effect.