No Fear Shakespeare
Richard III
Get this No Fear to go!
Act 1, Scene 2, Page 12
Original Text | Modern Text | |
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ANNE
'Tis more than you deserve;
But since you teach me how to flatter you,
Imagine I have said “farewell” already.
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ANNE
It’s more than you deserve. But since you’re already teaching me how to flatter you, pretend I’ve said goodbye already.
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Exeunt Lady ANNE and two others |
ANNE and two others exit. | |
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RICHARD
Sirs, take up the corse.
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RICHARD
Sirs, take up the corpse.
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GENTLEMAN
Towards Chertsey, noble lord?
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GENTLEMAN
Toward Chertsey, noble lord?
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RICHARD
No, to Whitefriars. There attend my coming.
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RICHARD
No, to the Whitefriars monastery. Wait for me there.
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Exeunt all but RICHARD
| Everyone exits except RICHARD. | |
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Was ever woman in this humor wooed?
Was ever woman in this humor won?
I’ll have her, but I will not keep her long.
What, I that killed her husband and his father,
To take her in her heart’s extremest hate,
With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes,
The bleeding witness of my hatred by,
Having God, her conscience, and these bars against me,
And I no friends to back my suit at all
But the plain devil and dissembling looks?
And yet to win her, all the world to nothing!
Ha!
Hath she forgot already that brave prince,
Edward, her lord, whom I some three months since
Stabbed in my angry mood at Tewkesbury?
A sweeter and a Lovellier gentleman,
Framed in the prodigality of nature,
Young, valiant, wise, and, no doubt, right royal,
The spacious world cannot again afford.
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Has anyone ever courted a woman in this state of mind? And has anyone ever won her, as I’ve done? I’ll get her, but I won’t keep her long. What! I, who killed her husband and his father, managed to win her over when her hatred for me was strongest, while she’s swearing her head off, sobbing her eyes out, and the bloody corpse, proof of why she should hate me, right in front of her? She has God, her conscience, and my own acts against me, and I have nothing on my side but the ugly devil and my false looks. And yet, against all odds, I win her over! Ha! Has she already forgotten her brave husband, Prince Edward, whom I stabbed on the battlefield three months ago in my anger? The world will never again produce such a sweet, lovely gentleman. He was graced with lots of natural gifts, he was young, valiant, wise, and no doubt meant to be king.
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