Another Room in the Palace.
 Enter the old DUCHESS of York with the two CHILDREN of Clarence.

Boy	Good grandam, tell us - is our father dead?

Duchess	No, boy.

Girl	Why do you weep so oft, and beat your breast?
	And cry "O Clarence, my unhappy son"?

Boy	Why do you look on us, and shake your head,
	And call us orphans, wretches, castaways,
	If that our noble father were alive?

Duchess	My pretty cousins, you mistake me both.
	I do lament the sickness of the king,
	As loath to lose him, not your father's death.
	It were lost sorrow to wail one that's lost.

Boy	Then you conclude, my grandam, he is dead.
	The king mine uncle is to blame for it.
	God will revenge it, whom I will importune
	With earnest prayers, all to that effect.

Girl	And so will I.

Duchess	Peace, children, peace! The king doth love you well.
	Incapable and shallow innocents,
	You cannot guess who caused your father's death.

Boy	Grandam, we can; for my good uncle Gloucester
	Told me the king, provokd by the queen,
	Devised impeachments to imprison him;
	And when my uncle told me so he wept,
	And pitied me, and kindly kissed my cheek;
	Bade me rely on him as on my father,
	And he would love me dearly as a child.

Duchess	Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle shape,
	And with a virtuous visor hide deep vice!
	He is my son, ay, and therein my shame;
	Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit.

Boy	Think you my uncle did dissemble, grandam?

Duchess	Ay, boy.

Boy	I cannot think it. Hark, what noise is this?

           Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH with her hair about her ears,
                       RIVERS and DORSET after her.

Elizabeth	Ah, who shall hinder me to wail and weep,
	To chide my fortune, and torment myself?
	I'll join with black despair against my soul,
	And to myself become an enemy.

Duchess	What means this scene of rude impatience?

Elizabeth	To make an act of tragic violence.
	Edward, my lord, thy son, our king, is dead.
	Why grow the branches when the root is gone?
	Why wither not the leaves that want their sap?
	If you will live, lament; if die, be brief,
	That our swift-wingd souls may catch the king's,
	Or like obedient subjects follow him
	To his new kingdom of ne'er-changing night.

Duchess	Ah, so much interest have I in thy sorrow
	As I had title in thy noble husband.
	I have bewept a worthy husband's death,
	And lived with looking on his images;
	But now two mirrors of his princely semblance
	Are cracked in pieces by malignant death,
	And I for comfort have but one false glass,
	That grieves me when I see my shame in him.
	Thou art a widow: yet thou art a mother,
	And hast the comfort of thy children left;
	But death hath snatched my husband from mine arms,
	And plucked two crutches from my feeble hands,
	Clarence and Edward. O, what cause have I,
	Thine being but a moiety of my moan,
	To overgo thy woes and drown thy cries.

Boy	Ah, aunt, you wept not for our father's death-
	How can we aid you with our kindred tears?

Girl	Our fatherless distress was left unmoaned;
	Your widow-dolour likewise be unwept.

Elizabeth	Give me no help in lamentation;
	I am not barren to bring forth complaints.
	All springs reduce their currents to mine eyes,
	That I, being governed by the watery moon,
	May send forth plenteous tears to drown the world.
	Ah, for my husband, for my dear lord Edward!

Children	Ah, for our father, for our dear lord Clarence!

Duchess	Alas for both, both mine, Edward and Clarence!

Elizabeth	What stay had I but Edward? - and he's gone.

Children	What stay had we but Clarence?  - and he's gone.

Duchess	What stays had I but they? - and they are gone.

Elizabeth	Was never widow had so dear a loss!

Children	Were never orphans had so dear a loss!

Duchess	Was never mother had so dear a loss!
	Alas, I am the mother of these griefs;
	Their woes are parcelled, mine is general.
	She for an Edward weeps, and so do I;
	I for a Clarence weep, so doth not she;
	These babes for Clarence weep, and so do I;
	I for an Edward weep, so do not they.
	Alas, you three on me, threefold distressed,
	Pour all your tears. I am your sorrow's nurse,
	And I will pamper it with lamentation.

Dorset	Comfort, dear mother. God is much displeased
	That you take with unthankfulness His doing.
	In common worldly things 'tis called ungrateful
	With dull unwillingness to repay a debt
	Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent;
	Much more to be thus opposite with heaven,
	For it requires the royal debt it lent you.

Rivers	Madam, bethink you like a careful mother
	Of the young prince your son. Send straight for him;
	Let him be crowned; in him your comfort lives.
	Drown desperate sorrow in dead Edward's grave,
	And plant your joys in living Edward's throne.

    Enter RICHARD, BUCKINGHAM, STANLEY, LORD HASTINGS, and RATCLIFFE.

Richard	Sister, have comfort. All of us have cause
	To wail the dimming of our shining star,
	But none can help our harms by wailing them.
	Madam my mother, I do cry you mercy;
	I did not see your grace. Humbly on my knee
	I crave your blessing.

Duchess	God bless thee, and put meekness in thy breast,
	Love, charity, obedience, and true duty.

Richard	Amen! [Aside.] And make me die a good old man-
	That is the butt-end of a mother's blessing;
	I marvel that her grace did leave it out.

Buckingham	You cloudy princes and heart-sorrowing peers
	That bear this heavy mutual load of moan,
	Now cheer each other in each other's love.
	Though we have spent our harvest of this king,
	We are to reap the harvest of his son.
	The broken rancour of your high-swol'n hearts,
	But lately splintered, knit, and joined together,
	Must gently be preserved, cherished, and kept.
	Meseemeth good that with some little train
	Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fet
	Hither to London to be crowned our king.

Rivers	Why with some little train, my lord of Buckingham?

Buckingham	Marry, my lord, lest by a multitude
	The new-healed wound of malice should break out,
	Which would be so much the more dangerous
	By how much the estate is green and yet ungoverned.
	Where every horse bears his commanding rein
	And may direct his course as please himself,
	As well the fear of harm, as harm apparent,
	In my opinion ought to be prevented.

Richard	I hope the king made peace with all of us,
	And the compact is firm and true in me.

Rivers	And so in me, and so, I think, in all;
	Yet, since it is but green, it should be put
	To no apparent likelihood of breach,
	Which haply by much company might be urged.
	Therefore I say with noble Buckingham
	That it is meet so few should fetch the prince.

Lord Hastings	And so say I.

Richard	Then be it so; and go we to determine
	Who they shall be that straight shall post to Ludlow.
	Madam, and you, my sister, will you go
	To give your censures in this business?

Elizabeth &
Duchess	With all our hearts.
							  [Exeunt all but BUCKINGHAM and RICHARD.

Buckingham	My lord, whoever journeys to the prince,
	For God's sake let not us two stay at home;
	For by the way I'll sort occasion,
	As index to the story we late talked of,
	To part the queen's proud kindred from the prince.

Richard	My other self, my counsel's consistory,
	My oracle, my prophet, my dear cousin,
	I, as a child, will go by thy direction.
	Toward Ludlow then, for we'll not stay behind.
														[Exeunt.
