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DUCHESS OF YORK:
Art thou my son?
KING RICHARD III:
Ay, I thank God, my father, and yourself.
DUCHESS OF YORK:
Then patiently hear my impatience.
KING RICHARD III:
Madam, I have a touch of your condition,
Which cannot brook the accent of reproof.
DUCHESS OF YORK:
O, let me speak!
KING RICHARD III:
Do then: but I'll not hear.
DUCHESS OF YORK:
I will be mild and gentle in my speech.
KING RICHARD III:
And brief, good mother; for I am in haste.
DUCHESS OF YORK:
Art thou so hasty? I have stay'd for thee,
God knows, in anguish, pain and agony.
KING RICHARD III:
And came I not at last to comfort you?
DUCHESS OF YORK:
No, by the holy rood, thou know'st it well,
Thou camest on earth to make the earth my hell.
A grievous burthen was thy birth to me;
Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy;
Thy school-days frightful, desperate, wild, and furious,
Thy prime of manhood daring, bold, and venturous,
Thy age confirm'd, proud, subdued, bloody,
treacherous,
More mild, but yet more harmful, kind in hatred:
What comfortable hour canst thou name,
That ever graced me in thy company?
KING RICHARD III:
Faith, none, but Humphrey Hour, that call'd
your grace
To breakfast once forth of my company.
If I be so disgracious in your sight,
Let me march on, and not offend your grace.
Strike the drum.
DUCHESS OF YORK:
I prithee, hear me speak.
KING RICHARD III:
You speak too bitterly.
DUCHESS OF YORK:
Hear me a word;
For I shall never speak to thee again.
KING RICHARD III:
So.
DUCHESS OF YORK:
Either thou wilt die, by God's just ordinance,
Ere from this war thou turn a conqueror,
Or I with grief and extreme age shall perish
And never look upon thy face again.
Therefore take with thee my most heavy curse;
Which, in the day of battle, tire thee more
Than all the complete armour that thou wear'st!
My prayers on the adverse party fight;
And there the little souls of Edward's children
Whisper the spirits of thine enemies
And promise them success and victory.
Bloody thou art, bloody will be thy end;
Shame serves thy life and doth thy death attend.
QUEEN ELIZABETH:
Though far more cause, yet much less spirit to curse
Abides in me; I say amen to all.
KING RICHARD III:
Stay, madam; I must speak a word with you.
QUEEN ELIZABETH:
I have no more sons of the royal blood
For thee to murder: for my daughters, Richard,
They shall be praying nuns, not weeping queens;
And therefore level not to hit their lives.
KING RICHARD III:
You have a daughter call'd Elizabeth,
Virtuous and fair, royal and gracious.
QUEEN ELIZABETH: