Ye Omens on the Birth of Richard III. The owl shriek'd at thy birth, an evil sign; The night-crow cried, aboding luckless time; Dogs howl'd, and hideous tempests shook down trees. The raven rook'd* her on the chimney's top, And chattering pies in dismal discord sung. -000 KING RICHARD III. This historical tragedy describes the sanguinary career of King Richard, his murder of his brother (the Duke of Clarence), and the two young princes in the Tower, and his final overthrow and death, at the battle of Bosworth Field, by the Earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry the Seventh, who unites the rival houses of York and Lancaster, and ends the wars of the white and red roses. Dr. Johnson describes this play as one of the most celebrated of Shakspere's performances, but adds:"I know not whether it has not happened to him, as to others, to be praised most when praise is not most deserved. That this play has scenes, noble in themselves, and very well contrived to strike in the exhibition, cannot be denied; but some parts are trifling, others shocking, and some improbable." * To rook signified to squat down or lodge on any thing. Аст I. The Duke of Gloster on his Deformity. Now is the winter of our discontent Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths; But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks, * Dances. † Armed. Gloster's Love for Lady Anne. Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears, Sham'd their aspects with store of childish drops: These eyes which never shed remorseful* tear,— Not, when my father York and Edward wept, To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made When black-faced Clifford shook his sword at him : Nor when thy warlike father, like a child, Told the sad story of my father's death ; And twenty times made pause, to sob and That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks, Like trees bedash'd with rain; in that sad time My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear; weep, And what these sorrows could not thence exhale My tongue could never learn sweet soothing word; My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak. Gloster's praises of his own Person after his successful My dukedom to a beggarly denier,† * Pitiful. † A small French coin. Queen Margaret's Execrations on Gloster. I was born so high, Our aiery buildeth in the cedar's top, And dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun. Gloster's Hypocrisy. But then I sigh, and, with a piece of Scripture, With old odd ends stolen forth of Holy Writ; Clarence's Dream; Scene between Clarence and BRAKENBURY. What was your dream, my lord? 1 pray you tell me. CLARENCE. Methought that I had broken from the And was embark'd to cross to Burgundy : Upon the hatches; thence we look'd toward England, Upon the giddy footing of the hatches, Methought that Gloster stumbled; and, in falling O Lord! methought what pain it was to drown! All scatter'd in the bottom of the sea. Some lay in dead men's skulls; and, in those holes Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept (As 't were in scorn of eyes) reflecting gems, That woo'd the slimy bottom of the deep, And mock'd the dead bones that lay scatter'd by. BRAKENBURY. Had you such leisure in the time of death To gaze upon these secrets of the deep ? CLARENCE. Methought I had; and often did I strive To yield the ghost: but still the envious flood Kept in my soul, and would not let it forth To seek the empty, vast, and wand'ring air. But smother'd it within my panting bulk,* Which almost burst to belch it in the sea. BRAKENBURY. Awak'd you not with this sore agony? CLARENCE. O, no, my dream was lengthen'd after life; O, then began the tempest to my soul; I pass'd, methought, the melancholy flood, With that grim ferryman which poets write of, * Body. |