Riv. My Lord of Gloster, in those busy days Which here you urge to prove us enemies, We followed 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 of it! Q. Eliz. As little joy, my lord, as you suppose You should enjoy, were you this country's king, As little joy may you suppose in me, That I enjoy, being the queen thereof.— Q. Mar. [Aside.] As 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 pilled 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 deposed, you quake like rebels ? O 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 marred; That will I make before I let thee go. Glo. Wert thou not banishéd on pain of death } But I do find more pain in banishment 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, Dor. 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, Did York's dread curse prevail so much with heaven curses! If not by war, by surfeit die your king, As ours by murder, to make him a king! ; Decked in thy rights, as thou art stalled in mine! And so wast thou, Lord Hastings,-when my son Glo. Have done thy charm, thou hateful withered 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. Q. Mar. Glo. Q. Mar. Richard! Ha! I call thee not. Glo. I cry thee mercy then, for I had thought That thou hadst called me all these bitter names. Q. Mar. Why, so I did; but looked 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 breathed your curse against yourself. Q. Mar. Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my fortune! Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider Fool, fool! thou whet'st a knife to kill thyself. Hast. False-boding woman, end thy frantic curse, Lest to thy harm thou move our patience. Q. Mar. Foul shame upon you! you have all moved mine. Riv. Were you well served, you would be taught your duty. Q. Mar. 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! Dor. Dispute not with her; she is lunatic. Q. Mar. Peace, master marquess, you are malapert: Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current. O, that your young nobility could judge What 'twere 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. Glo. Good counsel, marry: learn it, learn it, marquess. Dor. It toucheth you, my lord, as much as me. Glo. Yea, and much more: but I was born so high, Our aery buildeth in the cedar's top, And dallies with the wind and scorns the sun. Q. Mar. 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 aery's nest. Buck. Peace, peace! for shame, if not for charity. Q. Mar. Urge neither charity nor shame to me : Uncharitably with me have you dealt, And shamefully by you my hopes are butchered. And in that shame still live my sorrow's rage ! Q. Mar. O princely Buckingham, I'll kiss thy hand, In sign of league and amity with thee: Buck. Nor no one here; for curses never pass The lips of those that breathe them in the air. Q. Mar. I'll not believe but they ascend the sky, Look, when he fawns, he bites; and when he hites, |