Open Source Shakespeare

History of Richard III

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Act III, Scene 3

Pomfret Castle.

       

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

  • Sir Richard Ratcliff. Come, bring forth the prisoners.
  • Lord (Earl) Rivers. Sir Richard Ratcliff, let me tell thee this: 1920
    To-day shalt thou behold a subject die
    For truth, for duty, and for loyalty.
  • Lord Grey. God keep the prince from all the pack of you!
    A knot you are of damned blood-suckers!
  • Sir Thomas Vaughan. You live that shall cry woe for this after. 1925
  • Sir Richard Ratcliff. Dispatch; the limit of your lives is out.
  • Lord (Earl) Rivers. 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; 1930
    And, for more slander to thy dismal seat,
    We give thee up our guiltless blood to drink.
  • Lord Grey. Now Margaret's curse is fall'n upon our heads,
    For standing by when Richard stabb'd her son.
  • Lord (Earl) Rivers. Then cursed she Hastings, then cursed she Buckingham, 1935
    Then cursed she Richard. O, remember, God
    To hear her prayers 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. 1940
  • Sir Richard Ratcliff. Make haste; the hour of death is expiate.
  • Lord (Earl) Rivers. Come, Grey, come, Vaughan, let us all embrace:
    And take our leave, until we meet in heaven.

[Exeunt]