Page 1123 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

ELIZABET H

Would all were well - but that will never be; [40]
I fear our happiness is at the height.

Enter Richard [and Hastings].

RICHARD

They do me wrong, and I will not endure it!
Who is it that complains unto the King
That I, forsooth, am stern, and love them not?
By holy Paul, they love his Grace but lightly [45]
That fill his ears with such dissentious rumours.
Because I cannot flatter, and look fair.
Smile in men’s faces, smooth, deceive and cog,
Duck with French nods and apish courtesy,
I must be held a rancorous enemy. [50]
Cannot a plain man live and think no harm,
But thus his simple truth must be abus’d
With silken, sly, insinuating Jacks?

GREY

To who in all this presence speaks your Grace?

RICHARD

To thee, that hast nor honesty nor grace. [55]
When have I injur’d thee? When done thee wrong?
Or thee? Or thee? Or any of your faction?
A plague upon you all! His royal Grace
(Whom God preserve better than you would wish)
Cannot be quiet scarce a breathing while [60]
But you must trouble him with lewd complaints.

ELIZABET H

Brother of Gloucester, you mistake the matter:
The King, on his own royal disposition,
And not provok’d by any suitor else,
Aiming, belike, at your interior hatred, [65]
That in your outward action shows itself
Against my children, brothers, and myself,
Makes him to send, that he may learn the ground
Of your ill will, and thereby to remove it.