King Richard III - Act 3 Scene 3

King Richard the Third

Pomfret. Before the Castle.

<< King Richard III - Act 3 Scene 2

Pomfret. Before the Castle.

Enter RATCLIFF, with halberds, carrying RIVERS, GREY, and VAUGHAN to death.

Riv. Sir Richard Ratcliff, let me tell thee this:

To-day shalt thou behold a subject die

For truth, for duty, and for loyalty.

Grey. God bless the prince from all the pack of you!

A knot you are of damned blood-suckers.

Vaugh. You live that shall cry woe for this hereafter.

Rat. Dispatch; the limit of your lives is out.

Riv. O Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prison!

Fatal and ominous to noble peers!

Within the guilty closure of thy walls

Richard the Second here was hack'd to death;

And, for more slander to thy dismal seat,

We give thee up our guiltless blood to drink.

Grey. Now Margaret's curse is fall'n upon our heads,

When she exclaim'd on Hastings, you, and I,

For standing by when Richard stabb'd her son.

Riv. Then curs'd she Richard, then curs'd she Buckingham,

Then curs'd she Hastings: O! remember. God,

To hear her prayer for them, as now for us;

And for my sister and her princely sons,

Be satisfied, dear God, with our true blood,

Which, as thou know'st, unjustly must be spilt.

Rat. Make haste; the hour of death is expiate.

Riv. Come, Grey, come, Vaughan; let us here embrace:

And take our leave until we meet in heaven. [Exeunt.