Page 1151 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1
P. 1151
More than the infant that is born tonight -
I thank my God for my humility.
ELIZABET H
A holy day shall this be kept hereafter;
I would to God all strifes were well compounded. [75]
My sovereign lord, I do beseech your Highness
To take our brother Clarence to your grace.
RICHARD They all start.
Why, madam, have I offer’d love for this,
To be so flouted in this royal presence?
Who knows not that the gentle Duke is dead? [80]
You do him injury to scorn his corse!
RIVERS
Who knows not he is dead! Who knows he is?
ELIZABET H
All-seeing heaven, what a world is this?
BUCKINGHAM
Look I so pale, Lord Dorset, as the rest?
DORSET
Ay, my good lord, and no man in the presence [85]
But his red colour hath forsook his cheeks.
KING
Is Clarence dead? The order was revers’d.
RICHARD
But he, poor man, by your first order died,
And that a winged Mercury did bear;
Some tardy cripple bore the countermand, [90]
That came too lag to see him buried.
God grant that some, less noble and less loyal,
Nearer in bloody thoughts, but not in blood,
Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence did,
