Henry VI, part III; Act III, scene ii: Jim Devita Version
Henry 6, Part 3. Act 3, Scene 2. Richard of Gloucester
(This text is featured in our interview with Jim Devita)
- Ay, Edward will use women honorably.
- Would he were wasted, marrow, bones and all,
- That from his loins no hopeful branch may spring,
- To cross me from the golden time I look for!
- And yet, between my soul’d desire and me –
- The lustful Edward’s title buried –
- Is Clarence, Henry, and his son young Edward
- To take their rooms, ere I can place myself.
- Why, then, I do but dream on sovereignty.
- Well, say there is no kingdom then for Richard;
- What other pleasures can the world afford?
- I’ll make my heaven in a lady’s lap,
- And deck my body with gay ornaments,
- And witch sweet ladies with my words and looks.
- Miserable thought! And more unlikely
- Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns.
- Why, love forswore me in my mother’s womb:
- And, for I should not deal in her soft laws,
- She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe,
- To shrink mine arm up like a withered shrub;
- To make an envious mountain on my back,
- Where sits deformity to mock my body;
- To shape my legs of an unequal size;
- To disproportion me in every part,
- Like to a chaos.
- And am I then a man to be beloved?
- Monstrous fault, to harbor such a thought!
- Then, since this earth affords no joy to me,
- I’ll make my heaven to dream upon the crown –
- And yet I know not how to get the crown,
- For many lives stand between me and home:
- And I, like one lost in a thorny wood,
- Seeking a way and straying from the way;
- Not knowing how to find the open air,
- But toiling desperately to find it out, –
- Torment myself to catch the English crown:
- And from that torment I will free myself,
- Or hew my way out with a bloody axe.
- Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile,
- And cry ‘content’ to that which grieves my heart,
- And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,
- And frame my face to all occasions.
- I can add colors to the chameleon,
- And set the murderous Machiavelli to school.
- Can I do this, and cannot get a crown?
- Tut, were it farther off, I’ll pluck it down.