Richard III: Act V, Scene i

Richard III.         Act 5, Scene 1.      Buckingham

(This text is featured in our interview with Yao Dogbe)

Click here for a First Folio Version of the Speech

Click here for a Scanned Version of the Speech.

12  Why, then, All Souls’ Day is my body’s doomsday.
13  This is the day which, in King Edward’s time,
14  I wished might fall on me when I was found
15  False to his children and his wife’s allies.
16  This is the day wherein I wished to fall
17  By the false faith of him whom most I trusted.
18  This, this All Souls’ Day to my fearful soul
19  Is the determined respite of my wrongs.
20  That high All-seer which I dallied with
21  Hath turned my feignèd prayer on my head
22  And given in earnest what I begged in jest.
23  Thus doth he force the swords of wicked men
24  To turn their own points in their masters’ bosoms.
25  Thus Margaret’s curse falls heavy on my neck:
26  “When he,” quoth she, “shall split thy heart with sorrow,
27  Remember Margaret was a prophetess.”—
28  Come, lead me, officers, to the block of shame.
29  Wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of blame.