Page 1205 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1
P. 1205
Ah, cut my lace asunder
That my pent heart may have some scope to beat,
Or else I swoon with this dead-killing news. [35]
ANNE
Despiteful tidings! O unpleasing news!
DORSET
Be of good cheer, mother: how fares your Grace?
ELIZABET H
O Dorset, speak not to me; get thee gone.
Death and destruction dogs thee at thy heels;
Thy mother’s name is ominous to children. [40]
If thou wilt outstrip death, go, cross the seas
And live with Richmond, from the reach of hell.
Go: hie thee, hie thee from this slaughter-house
Lest thou increase the number of the dead,
And make me die the thrall of Margaret’s curse: [45]
Nor mother, wife, nor England’s counted Queen.
ST ANLEY
Full of wise care is this your counsel, madam.
[To Dorset]
Take all the swift advantage of the hours;
You shall have letters from me to my son
In your behalf, to meet you on the way. [50]
Be not ta’en tardy by unwise delay.
DUCHESS
O ill-dispersing wind of misery!
O my accursed womb, the bed of death!
A cockatrice hast thou hatch’d to the world
Whose unavoided eye is murderous. [55]
ST ANLEY
Come madam, come: I in all haste was sent.
ANNE
And I with all unwillingness will go.
