Richard
Lady, you know no rules of charity,
Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.
Anne
Villain, thou knowʼst no law of God nor man.
No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.
Richard
But I know none, and therefore am no beast.
Anne
Oh, wonderful, when devils tell the truth!
Richard
More wonderful, when angels are so angry.
Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman,
Of these supposèd crimes to give me leave
By circumstance but to acquit myself.
Anne
Vouchsafe, defused infection of a man,
Of these known evils but to give me leave
By circumstance to curse thy cursèd self.
Richard
Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have
Some patient leisure to excuse myself.
Anne
Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make
No èxcuse current but to hang thyself.
Richard
By such despair I should accuse myself.
Anne
And by despairing, shalst thou stand excused
For doing worthy vengeance on thyself,
Which didst unworthy slaughter upon others.
Richard
Say that I slew them not.
Anne
Then say they were not slain.
But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee.
Richard
I did not kill your husband.
Anne
Why, then he is alive.
Richard
Nay, he is dead, and slain by Edward’s hands.
Anne
In thy foul throat thou liest. Queen Margaret saw
Thy murd’rous falchion smoking in his blood,
The which thou once didst bend against her breast,
But that thy brothers beat aside the point.
Richard
I was provokèd by her sland’rous tongue,
That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders.
Anne
Thou wast provokèd by thy bloody mind,
Which never dream’st on aught but butcheries.
Didst thou not kill this king?
Richard
I grant ye.
Anne
Dost grant me, hedgehog? Then God grant me too
Thou mayst be damnèd for that wicked deed.
Oh, he was gentle, mild, and virtuous.
Richard
The better for the king of heaven that hath him.
Anne
He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come.
Richard
Let him thank me, that holp to send him thither,
For he was fitter for that place than earth.
Anne
And thou unfit for any place but hell.
Richard
Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.
Anne
Some dungeon.
Richard
Your bedchamber.
Anne
Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest.
Richard
So will it, madam, till I lie with you.
Anne
I hope so.
Richard
I know so. But gentle Lady Anne,
To leave this keen encounter of our wits
And fall something into a slower method,
Is not the causer of the timeless deaths
Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
As blameful as the executioner?
Anne
Thou wast the cause and most accursed effect.
Richard
Your beauty was the cause of that effect:
Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep
To undertake the death of all the world,
So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.
Anne
If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,
These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.
Richard
These eyes could never endure sweet beauty’s wreck.
You should not blemish it if I stood by.
As all the world is cheered by the sun,
So I by that. It is my day, my life.
Anne
Black night o’ershade thy day, and death thy life.
Richard
Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art both.
Anne
I would I were, to be revenged on thee.
Richard
It is a quarrel most unnatural
To be revenged on him that loveth you.
Anne
It is a quarrel just and reasonable
To be revenged on him that killed my husband.
Richard
He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband
Did it to help thee to a better husband.
Anne
His better doth not breathe upon the earth.
Richard
He lives that loves thee better than he could.
Anne
Name him.
Richard