Richard III by William Shakespeare (good novels to read txt) 📕
- Author: William Shakespeare
Book online «Richard III by William Shakespeare (good novels to read txt) 📕». Author William Shakespeare
By William Shakespeare.
Table of Contents Titlepage Imprint Dramatis Personae Richard III Act I Scene I Scene II Scene III Scene IV Act II Scene I Scene II Scene III Scene IV Act III Scene I Scene II Scene III Scene IV Scene V Scene VI Scene VII Act IV Scene I Scene II Scene III Scene IV Scene V Act V Scene I Scene II Scene III Scene IV Scene V Colophon Uncopyright ImprintThis ebook is the product of many hours of hard work by volunteers for Standard Ebooks, and builds on the hard work of other literature lovers made possible by the public domain.
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Dramatis PersonaeKing Edward the Fourth
Edward, Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward V, son to the King
Richard, Duke of York, son to the King
George, Duke of Clarence, brother to the King
Richard, Duke of Gloucester, afterwards King Richard III, brother to the King
A young son of Clarence
Henry, Earl of Richmond, afterwards King Henry VII
Cardinal Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury
Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York
John Morton, Bishop of Ely
Duke of Buckingham
Duke of Norfolk
Earl of Surrey, his son
Earl Rivers, brother to Elizabeth
Marquis of Dorset and Lord Grey, sons to Elizabeth
Earl of Oxford
Lord Hastings
Lord Stanley, called also Earl of Derby
Lord Lovel
Sir Thomas Vaughan
Sir Richard Ratcliff
Sir William Catesby
Sir James Tyrrel
Sir James Blount
Sir Walter Herbert
Sir Robert Brakenbury, Lieutenant of the Tower
Christopher Urswick, priest
Another priest
Tressel and Berkeley, gentlemen attending on the Lady Anne
Lord Mayor of London. Sheriff of Wiltshire
Elizabeth, queen to King Edward IV
Margaret, widow of King Henry VI
Duchess of York, mother to King Edward IV
Lady Anne, widow of Edward Prince of Wales, son to King Henry VI; afterwards married to Richard
A young daughter of Clarence (Margaret Plantagenet)
Ghosts of those murdered by Richard III, lords and other attendants; a pursuivant, scrivener, citizens, murderers, messengers, soldiers, etc.
Scene: England.
Richard III Act I Scene ILondon. A street.
Enter Richard, Duke of Gloucester, solus. GloucesterNow is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour’d upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged war hath smooth’d his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamp’d, and want love’s majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail’d of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deform’d, unfinish’d, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity:
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams,
To set my brother Clarence and the king
In deadly hate the one against the other:
And if King Edward be as true and just
As I am subtle, false and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mew’d up,
About a prophecy, which says that g
Of Edward’s heirs the murderer shall be.
Dive, thoughts, down to my soul: here Clarence comes.
Brother, good day: what means this armed guard
That waits upon your grace?
His majesty,
Tendering my person’s safety, hath appointed
This conduct to convey me to the Tower.
Alack, my lord, that fault is none of yours;
He should, for that, commit your godfathers:
O, belike his majesty hath some intent
That you shall be new-christen’d in the Tower.
But what’s the matter, Clarence? may I know?
Yea, Richard, when I know; for I protest
As yet I do not: but, as I can learn,
He hearkens after prophecies and dreams;
And from the cross-row plucks the letter g,
And says a wizard told him that by g
His issue disinherited should be;
And, for my name of George begins with g,
It follows in his thought that I am he.
These, as I learn, and such like toys as these
Have moved his highness to commit me now.
Why, this it is, when men are ruled by women:
’Tis not the king that sends you to the Tower;
My Lady Grey his wife, Clarence, ’tis she
That tempers him to this extremity.
Was it not she and that good man of worship,
Anthony Woodville, her brother there,
That made him send Lord Hastings to the Tower,
From whence this present day he is deliver’d?
We are not safe, Clarence; we are not safe.
By heaven, I think there’s
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