London. Another Street.
 Enter the corpse of HENRY THE SIXTH, with HALBERDS to guard it,
 borne in an open coffin by GENTLEMEN;
 LADY ANNE being the mourner, attended by TRESSEL and BERKELEY.

Lady 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.
								 [The GENTLEMEN set down the coffin.
	Poor key-cold figure of a holy king,
	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,
	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, cursd be the hand that made these holes!
	Cursd the heart that had the heart to do it!
	Cursd 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 adders, spiders, toads,
	Or any creeping venomed thing that lives.
	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.
	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 interrd there.
					 [The GENTLEMEN take up the coffin and advance.

	And still, as you are weary of this weight,
	Rest you, whiles I lament King Henry's corse.

                              Enter RICHARD.

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

Lady Anne	What black magician conjures up this fiend
	To stop devoted charitable deeds?

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

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

Richard	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.
								 [The GENTLEMEN set down the coffin.

Lady 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.
	Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
	Thou hadst but power over his mortal body-
	His soul thou canst not have; therefore, be gone.

Richard	Sweet saint, for charity be not so curst.

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
	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 deed inhuman and unnatural
	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 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 butcherd.

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

Lady Anne	Villain, thou know'st nor law of God nor man.
	No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.

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

Lady Anne	O wonderful, when devils tell the truth!

Richard	More wonderful, when angels are so angry.
	Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman,
	Of these supposd 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 cursd self.

Richard	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	By such despair I should accuse myself.

Lady 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?

Lady Anne								Then say they were not slain:
	But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee.

Richard	I did not kill your husband.

Lady Anne									Why, then he is alive.

Richard	Nay, he is dead, and slain by Edward's hands.

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	I was provokd by her sland'rous tongue,
	That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders.

Lady Anne	Thou wast provokd by thy bloody mind,
	That never dream'st on aught but butcheries.
	Didst thou not kill this king?

Richard									I grant ye, yea.

Lady Anne	Dost grant me, hedgehog! Then God grant me too
	Thou mayst be damnd for that wicked deed.
	O he was gentle, mild, and virtuous.

Richard	The better for the King of heaven that hath him.

Lady 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.

Lady Anne	And thou unfit for any place but hell.

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

Lady Anne	Some dungeon?

Richard	Your bedchamber.

Lady Anne	Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest.

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

Lady 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
	Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
	As blameful as the executioner?

Lady Anne	Thou wast the cause and most accursed effect.

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

Lady 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;
	You should not blemish it if I stood by.
	As all the world is cheerd by the sun,
	So I by that; it is my day, my life.

Lady Anne	Black night o'ershade thy day, and death thy life!

Richard	Curse not thyself, fair creature: thou art both.

Lady 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.

Lady Anne	It is a quarrel just and reasonable
	To be revenged on him that killed my husband.

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

Lady Anne	His better doth not breathe upon the earth.

Richard	He lives that loves thee better than he could.

Lady Anne	Name him.

Richard				Plantagenet.

Lady Anne								Why, that was he.

Richard	The selfsame name, but one of better nature.

Lady Anne	Where is he?

Richard					Here.
														[Spits at him.

							Why dost thou spit at me?

Lady Anne	Would it were mortal poison for thy sake!

Richard	Never came poison from so sweet a place.

Lady Anne	Never hung poison on a fouler toad.
	Out of my sight: thou dost infect mine eyes.

Richard	Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.

Lady 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.
	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
	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
	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;
	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.
	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,
	And humbly beg the death upon my knee.
											  [He 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 provokd me.
	Nay, now dispatch; 'twas I that stabbed young Edward-
	But 'twas thy heavenly face that set me on.
														[She falls the sword.
	Take up the sword again, or take up me.

Lady 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.

Lady Anne	I have already.

Richard						That was in thy rage;
	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 accessory.

Lady Anne	I would I knew thy heart.

Richard	'Tis figured in my tongue.

Lady Anne	I fear me both are false.

Richard	Then never was man true.

Lady Anne	Well, well, put up your sword.

Richard	Say then my peace is made.

Lady Anne	That shalt thou know hereafter.

Richard	But shall I live in hope?

Lady Anne	All men, I hope, live so.

Richard	Vouchsafe to wear this ring.

Lady Anne	To take is not to give.
														[She wears the ring.

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,
	Thou dost confirm his happiness for ever.

Lady 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,
	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 divers unknown reasons, I beseech you,
	Grant me this boon.

Lady 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.

Lady Anne							'Tis more than you deserve;
	But since you teach me how to flatter you,
	Imagine I have said farewell already.
						 [Exeunt TRESSEL and BERKELEY with LADY ANNE.

Richard	Sirs, take up the corse.

Gentleman								Towards Chertsey, noble lord?

Richard	No, to Whitefriars; there attend my coming.
												[Exeunt all but RICHARD.
	Was ever woman in this humour wooed?
	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,
	The bleeding witness of my hatred by,
	Having God, her conscience, and these bars against me,
	And I no friends to back my suit at all
	But the plain devil and dissembling looks,
	And yet to win her, all the world to nothing?
	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,
	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,
	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!
	Upon my life, she finds - although I cannot-
	Myself to be a marv'llous 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.
	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,
	That I may see my shadow as I pass.
														[Exit.
