Ay,if thou wilt say ay to my request;No,if thou dost say no to my demand.LADY GREY.Then,no,my lord.My suit is at an end.GLOUCESTER.The widow likes him not;she knits her brows.CLARENCE.He is the bluntest wooer in Christendom.KING EDWARD.[Aside]Her looks doth argue her replete with modesty;Her words doth show her wit incomparable;All her perfections challenge sovereignty.One way or other,she is for a king;And she shall be my love,or else my queen.Say that King Edward take thee for his queen?LADY GREY.'Tis better said than done,my gracious lord.I am a subject fit to jest withal,But far unfit to be a sovereign.KING EDWARD.Sweet widow,by my state I swear to thee I speak no more than what my soul intends;And that is to enjoy thee for my love.LADY GREY.And that is more than I will yield unto.I know I am too mean to be your queen,And yet too good to be your concubine.KING EDWARD.You cavil,widow;I did mean my queen.LADY GREY.'Twill grieve your Grace my sons should call you father.KING EDWARD.No more than when my daughters call thee mother.Thou art a widow,and thou hast some children;And,by God's Mother,I,being but a bachelor,Have other some.Why,'tis a happy thing To be the father unto many sons.Answer no more,for thou shalt be my queen.GLOUCESTER.The ghostly father now hath done his shrift.CLARENCE.When he was made a shriver,'twas for shrift.KING EDWARD.Brothers,you muse what chat we two have had.GLOUCESTER.The widow likes it not,for she looks very sad.KING EDWARD.You'd think it strange if I should marry her.CLARENCE.To who,my lord?KING EDWARD.Why,Clarence,to myself.GLOUCESTER.That would be ten days'wonder at the least.CLARENCE.That's a day longer than a wonder lasts.GLOUCESTER.By so much is the wonder in extremes.KING EDWARD.Well,jest on,brothers;I can tell you both Her suit is granted for her husband's lands.
Enter a NOBLEMAN
NOBLEMAN.My gracious lord,Henry your foe is taken And brought your prisoner to your palace gate.KING EDWARD.See that he be convey'd unto the Tower.And go we,brothers,to the man that took him To question of his apprehension.Widow,go you along.Lords,use her honourably.Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER GLOUCESTER.Ay,Edward will use women honourably.Would he were wasted,marrow,bones,and all,That from his loins no hopeful branch may spring To cross me from the golden time I look for!And yet,between my soul's desire and me-The lustful Edward's title buried-Is Clarence,Henry,and his son young Edward,And all the unlook'd for issue of their bodies,To take their rooms ere I can place myself.A cold premeditation for my purpose!Why,then I do but dream on sovereignty;Like one that stands upon a promontory And spies a far-off shore where he would tread,Wishing his foot were equal with his eye;And chides the sea that sunders him from thence,Saying he'll lade it dry to have his way-So do I wish the crown,being so far off;And so I chide the means that keeps me from it;And so I say I'll cut the causes off,Flattering me with impossibilities.My eye's too quick,my heart o'erweens too much,Unless my hand and strength could equal them.Well,say there is no kingdom then for Richard;What other pleasure can the world afford?I'll make my heaven in a lady's lap,And deck my body in gay ornaments,And witch sweet ladies with my words and looks.O miserable thought!and more unlikely Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns.Why,love forswore me in my mother's womb;And,for I should not deal in her soft laws,She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe To shrink mine arm up like a wither'd shrub To make an envious mountain on my back,Where sits deformity to mock my body;To shape my legs of an unequal size;To disproportion me in every part,Like to a chaos,or an unlick'd bear-whelp That carries no impression like the dam.And am I,then,a man to be belov'd?O monstrous fault to harbour such a thought!Then,since this earth affords no joy to me But to command,to check,to o'erbear such As are of better person than myself,I'll make my heaven to dream upon the crown,And whiles I live t'account this world but hell,Until my misshap'd trunk that bear this head Be round impaled with a glorious crown.And yet I know not how to get the crown,For many lives stand between me and home;And I-like one lost in a thorny wood That rents the thorns and is rent with the thorns,Seeking a way and straying from the way Not knowing how to find the open air,But toiling desperately to find it out-Torment myself to catch the English crown;And from that torment I will free myself Or hew my way out with a bloody axe.Why,I can smile,and murder whiles I smile,And cry 'Content!'to that which grieves my heart,And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,And frame my face to all occasions.I'll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall;I'll slay more gazers than the basilisk;I'll play the orator as well as Nestor,Deceive more slily than Ulysses could,And,like a Sinon,take another Troy.I can add colours to the chameleon,Change shapes with Protheus for advantages,And set the murderous Machiavel to school.Can I do this,and cannot get a crown?Tut,were it farther off,I'll pluck it down.Exit
SCENE III.France.The KING'S palace
Flourish.Enter LEWIS the French King,his sister BONA,his Admiral call'd BOURBON;PRINCE EDWARD,QUEEN MARGARET,and the
EARL of OXFORD.LEWIS sits,and riseth up again.
