Page 1157 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

What stays had I but they, and they are gone.

ELIZABET H

Was never widow had so dear a loss.

CHILDREN

Were never orphans had so dear a loss.

DUCHESS

Was never mother had so dear a loss.
Alas, I am the mother of these griefs: [80]
Their woes are parcell’d, mine is general.
She for an Edward weeps, and so do I;
I for a Clarence weep, so doth not she;
These babes for Clarence weep, and so do I;
I for an Edward weep, so do not they. [85]
Alas, you three, on me, threefold distress’d,
Pour all your tears: I am your sorrow’s nurse,
And I will pamper it with lamentation.

DORSET

Comfort, dear mother: God is much displeas’d
That you take with unthankfulness His doing. [90]
In common worldly things, ’tis call’d ungrateful
With dull unwillingness to repay a debt
Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent:
Much more to be thus opposite with Heaven,
For it requires the royal debt it lent you. [95]

RIVERS

Madam, bethink you, like a careful mother,
Of the young prince your son: send straight for him;
Let him be crown’d; in him your comfort lives.
Drown desperate sorrow in dead Edward’s grave,
And plant your joys in living Edward’s throne. [100]

Enter Richard, Buckingham, Stanley Earl of Derby, Hastings and
Ratcliffe.

RICHARD