Act 3, Scene 2

The palace.

[Enter KING EDWARD, GLOSTER, CLARENCE, and LADY GREY.]
Edward IV
1394 Brother of Gloster, at Saint Alban's field
1395 This lady's husband, Sir John Grey, was slain,
1396 His land then seiz'd on by the conqueror;
1397 Her suit is now to repossess those lands,
1398 Which we in justice cannot well deny,
1399 Because in quarrel of the house of York
1400 The worthy gentleman did lose his life.
Richard Plantagenet (Gloucester)
1401 Your highness shall do well to grant her suit;
1402 It were dishonour to deny it her.
Edward IV
1403 It were no less; but yet I'll make a pause.
[Aside to Clarence.]
Richard Plantagenet (Gloucester)
1404 Yea; is it so?
1405 I see the lady hath a thing to grant
1406 Before the king will grant her humble suit.
[Aside to Gloster.]
George, Duke of Clarence
1407 He knows the game;
1408 how true he keeps the wind!
[Aside to Clarence.]
Richard Plantagenet (Gloucester)
1409 Silence!
Edward IV
1410 Widow, we will consider of your suit,
1411 And come some other time to know our mind.
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1412 Right gracious lord, I cannot brook delay;
1413 May it please your highness to resolve me now,
1414 And what your pleasure is shall satisfy me.
[Aside to Clarence.]
Richard Plantagenet (Gloucester)
1415 Ay, widow?
1416 then I'll warrant you all your lands,
1417 An if what pleases him shall pleasure you.
1418 Fight closer, or, good faith, you'll catch a blow.
[Aside to Gloster.]
George, Duke of Clarence
1419 I fear her not, unless she chance
1420 to fall.
[Aside to CLARENCE.]
Richard Plantagenet (Gloucester)
1421 God forbid that, for he'll take
1422 vantages.
Edward IV
1423 How many children hast thou, widow? tell me.
[Aside to Gloster.]
George, Duke of Clarence
1424 I think he means to beg a child of
1425 her.
[Aside to Clarence.]
Richard Plantagenet (Gloucester)
1426 Nay, whip me then; he'll rather
1427 give her two.
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1428 Three, my most gracious lord.
[Aside to Clarence.]
Richard Plantagenet (Gloucester)
1429 You shall have four if you'll be
1430 rul'd by him.
Edward IV
1431 'T were pity they should lose their father's lands.
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1432 Be pitiful, dread lord, and grant it then.
Edward IV
1433 Lords, give us leave; I'll try this widow's wit.
[Aside to Clarence.]
Richard Plantagenet (Gloucester)
1434 Ay, good leave have you;
1435 for you will have leave
1436 Till youth take leave and leave you to the crutch.
[Gloster and Clarence stand apart.]
Edward IV
1437 Now tell me, madam, do you love your children?
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1438 Ay, full as dearly as I love myself.
Edward IV
1439 And would you not do much to do them good?
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1440 To do them good I would sustain some harm.
Edward IV
1441 Then get your husband's lands to do them good.
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1442 Therefore I came unto your majesty.
Edward IV
1443 I'll tell you how these lands are to be got.
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1444 So shall you bind me to your highness' service.
Edward IV
1445 What service wilt thou do me if I give them?
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1446 What you command that rests in me to do.
Edward IV
1447 But you will take exceptions to my boon.
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1448 No, gracious lord, except I cannot do it.
Edward IV
1449 Ay, but thou canst do what I mean to ask.
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1450 Why, then, I will do what your grace commands.
Richard Plantagenet (Gloucester)
1451 He plies her hard; and much rain wears the marble.
George, Duke of Clarence
1452 As red as fire! nay, then her wax must melt.
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1453 Why stops my lord? shall I not hear my task?
Edward IV
1454 An easy task; 't is but to love a king.
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1455 That's soon perform'd, because I am a subject.
Edward IV
1456 Why, then, thy husband's lands I freely give thee.
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1457 I take my leave with many thousand thanks.
Richard Plantagenet (Gloucester)
1458 The match is made; she seals it with a curtsy.
Edward IV
1459 But stay thee; 't is the fruits of love I mean.
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1460 The fruits of love I mean, my loving liege.
Edward IV
1461 Ay, but, I fear me, in another sense.
1462 What love, thinkst thou, I sue so much to get?
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1463 My love till death, my humble thanks, my prayers;
1464 That love which virtue begs, and virtue grants.
Edward IV
1465 No, by my troth, I did not mean such love.
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1466 Why, then, you mean not as I thought you did.
Edward IV
1467 But now you partly may perceive my mind.
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1468 My mind will never grant what I perceive
1469 Your Highness aims at, if I aim aright.
Edward IV
1470 To tell thee plain, I aim to lie with thee.
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1471 To tell you plain, I had rather lie in prison.
Edward IV
1472 Why, then thou shalt not have thy husband's lands.
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1473 Why, then mine honesty shall be my dower,
1474 For by that loss I will not purchase them.
Edward IV
1475 Therein thou wrong'st thy children mightily.
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1476 Herein your highness wrongs both them and me.
1477 But, mighty lord, this merry inclination
1478 Accords not with the sadness of my suit;
1479 Please you dismiss me either with ay or no.
Edward IV
1480 Ay, if thou wilt say ay to my request.
1481 No, if thou dost say no to my demand.
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1482 Then no, my lord. My suit is at an end.
Richard Plantagenet (Gloucester)
1483 The widow likes him not, she knits her brows.
George, Duke of Clarence
1484 He is the bluntest wooer in Christendom.
[Aside.]
Edward IV
1485 Her looks doth argue her replete with
1486 modesty,
1487 Her words doth show her wit incomparable,
1488 All her perfections challenge sovereignty;
1489 One way or other she is for a king,
1490 And she shall be my love, or else my queen.—
1491 Say that King Edward take thee for his queen?
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1492 'T is better said than done, my gracious lord;
1493 I am a subject fit to jest withal,
1494 But far unfit to be a sovereign.
Edward IV
1495 Sweet widow, by my state I swear to thee,
1496 I speak no more than what my soul intends;
1497 And that is to enjoy thee for my love.
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1498 And that is more than I will yield unto.
1499 I know I am too mean to be your queen,
1500 And yet too good to be your concubine.
Edward IV
1501 You cavil, widow; I did mean my queen.
Lady Grey (Queen Elizabeth)
1502 'T will grieve your grace my sons should call you
1503 father.
Edward IV
1504 No more than when my daughters call thee mother.
1505 Thou art a widow, and thou hast some children;
1506 And, by God's mother, I, being but a bachelor,
1507 Have other some; why, 't is a happy thing
1508 To be the father unto many sons.
1509 Answer no more, for thou shalt be my queen.
Richard Plantagenet (Gloucester)
1510 The ghostly father now hath done his shrift.
George, Duke of Clarence
1511 When he was made a shriver, 't was for shift.
Edward IV
1512 Brothers, you muse what chat we two have had.
[Gloster and Clarence come forward.]
Richard Plantagenet (Gloucester)
1513 The widow likes it not, for she looks very sad.
Edward IV
1514 You'd think it strange if I should marry her.
George, Duke of Clarence
1515 To whom, my lord?
Edward IV
1516 Why, Clarence, to myself.
Richard Plantagenet (Gloucester)
1517 That would be ten days' wonder, at the least.
George, Duke of Clarence
1518 That's a day longer than a wonder lasts.
Richard Plantagenet (Gloucester)
1519 By so much is the wonder in extremes.
Edward IV
1520 Well, jest on, brothers; I can tell you both,
1521 Her suit is granted for her husband's lands.
[Enter a Nobleman.]
Nobleman
1522 My gracious lord, Henry your foe is taken,
1523 And brought your prisoner to your palace gate.
Edward IV
1524 See that he be convey'd unto the Tower.—
1525 And go we, brothers, to the man that took him,
1526 To question of his apprehension.—
1527 Widow, go you along.—Lords, use her honourably.
[Exeunt King Edward, Lady Grey, Clarence, and Nobleman.]
Richard Plantagenet (Gloucester)
1528 Ay, Edward will use women honourably.
1529 Would he were wasted, marrow, bones, and all,
1530 That from his loins no hopeful branch may spring,
1531 To cross me from the golden time I look for!
1532 And yet, between my soul's desire and me—
1533 The lustful Edward's title buried—
1534 Is Clarence, Henry, and his son young Edward,
1535 And all the unlook'd-for issue of their bodies,
1536 To take their rooms ere I can place myself;
1537 A cold premeditation for my purpose!
1538 Why, then I do but dream on sovereignty,
1539 Like one that stands upon a promontory,
1540 And spies a far-off shore where he would tread,
1541 Wishing his foot were equal with his eye,
1542 And chides the sea that sunders him from thence,
1543 Saying, he'll lade it dry to have his way.
1544 So do I wish the crown, being so far off,
1545 And so I chide the means that keeps me from it;
1546 And so I say I'll cut the causes off,
1547 Flattering me with impossibilities.—
1548 My eye's too quick, my heart o'erweens too much,
1549 Unless my hand and strength could equal them.
1550 Well, say there is no kingdom then for Richard,
1551 What other pleasure can the world afford?
1552 I'll make my heaven in a lady's lap,
1553 And deck my body in gay ornaments,
1554 And witch sweet ladies with my words and looks.
1555 O miserable thought! and more unlikely
1556 Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns.
1557 Why, love forswore me in my mother's womb;
1558 And, for I should not deal in her soft laws,
1559 She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe
1560 To shrink mine arm up like a wither'd shrub;
1561 To make an envious mountain on my back,
1562 Where sits deformity to mock my body;
1563 To shape my legs of an unequal size;
1564 To disproportion me in every part,
1565 Like to a chaos, or an unlick'd bear-whelp
1566 That carries no impression like the dam.
1567 And am I then a man to be belov'd?
1568 O, monstrous fault, to harbour such a thought!
1569 Then, since this earth affords no joy to me
1570 But to command, to check, to o'erbear such
1571 As are of better person than myself,
1572 I'll make my heaven to dream upon the crown,
1573 And, whiles I live, to account this world but hell
1574 Until my mis-shap'd trunk that bear this head
1575 Be round impaled with a glorious crown.
1576 And yet I know not how to get the crown,
1577 For many lives stand between me and home,
1578 And I, like one lost in a thorny wood,
1579 That rends the thorns, and is rent with the thorns,
1580 Seeking a way, and straying from the way,
1581 Not knowing how to find the open air,
1582 But toiling desperately to find it out,
1583 Torment myself to catch the English crown;
1584 And from that torment I will free myself,
1585 Or hew my way out with a bloody axe.
1586 Why, I can smile, and murther while I smile,
1587 And cry 'Content!' to that which grieves my heart,
1588 And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,
1589 And frame my face to all occasions.
1590 I'll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall,
1591 I'll slay more gazers than the basilisk;
1592 I'll play the orator as well as Nestor,
1593 Deceive more slyly than Ulysses could,
1594 And like a Sinon take another Troy.
1595 I can add colours to the chameleon,
1596 Change shapes with Protheus for advantages,
1597 And set the murtherous Machiavel to school.
1598 Can I do this, and cannot get a crown?
1599 Tut, were it farther off, I'll pluck it down.
[Exit.]

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Notes

TLN 1394historical topical
“at Saint Alban's field This lady's husband, Sir John Grey, was slain”
Sir John Grey was killed fighting for the Lancastrians at the second battle of St Albans (17 February 1461). His widow Elizabeth Woodville — Lady Grey here — comes to petition Edward IV to restore her late husband's lands, which were forfeit because Grey died on the losing side. Edward's willingness to restore them reflects both legal grace and, as the scene quickly reveals, personal attraction.
historical The First Battle of St Albans
TLN 1407archaic vocab
“He knows the game; how true he keeps the wind”
Clarence is using hunting language: a hunter 'keeps the wind' by staying downwind of the quarry so it cannot smell him and flee. He means Edward is a skilled stalker who knows exactly how to approach his prey — Lady Grey — without alarming her.
TLN 1435rhetorical device
“you will have leave Till youth take leave and leave you to the crutch”
Richard plays on three meanings of 'leave' in two lines: 'good leave' (permission), 'take leave' (depart), and the final 'leave you' (abandon you). The triple pun is a polyptoton — the same word used in rapid succession with shifting meanings — and the effect is caustic: Edward's youthful energy will run out long before his lust does, and he will end up leaning on a crutch, abandoned by his vigor.
TLN 1451rhetorical device
“much rain wears the marble”
Richard observes from the sidelines that Edward is pressing Lady Grey hard ('plies her hard') and quotes a proverb: persistent rain, drop by drop, will eventually wear down even marble. The maxim anticipates that Edward's sustained pressure — and the threat of losing her dead husband's lands — must eventually erode Lady Grey's resistance.
TLN 1470wordplay
“I aim to lie with thee. To tell you plain, I had rather lie in prison”
Edward finally drops the pretense and states plainly that he wants to sleep with Lady Grey ('lie with thee'). She parries by echoing his word 'lie' in a different sense: she would rather lie (be imprisoned) in a prison cell. The chiastic exchange — each using the same verb to mean something opposite — marks the pivot of the negotiation: Edward has lost his diplomatic cover and she has refused him without once losing composure.
TLN 1473archaic vocab
“mine honesty shall be my dower, For by that loss I will not purchase them”
'Dower' is the portion of a husband's estate a widow was legally entitled to keep. Lady Grey uses it as a metaphor: her chastity ('honesty') is her sole remaining inheritance — and she refuses to sell it to buy back her late husband's lands. 'Honesty' here means sexual virtue and chastity, its primary Elizabethan sense.
TLN 1510wordplay
“The ghostly father now hath done his shrift. When he was made a shriver, 't was for shift”
Richard and Clarence mock Edward's private conversation with Lady Grey using religious language. A 'ghostly father' is a confessor — a priest who hears confession. 'Shrift' is the act of receiving a confession and granting absolution. Clarence's pun on 'shriver' (a confessor) / 'shift' (a woman's undergarment, with an obvious sexual suggestion) reduces Edward's 'confession' to seduction. The joke equates his amorous proposition with a priest hearing confession in private.
TLN 1517wordplay
“That would be ten days' wonder, at the least. That's a day longer than a wonder lasts”
Richard plays on the proverb 'A wonder lasts but nine days' — a commonplace in Elizabethan English for how quickly people lose interest in a novelty. He says Edward's marriage to a widow would be a ten-day wonder, meaning an even bigger scandal than usual. Clarence immediately deflates this: since wonders only last nine days, ten days means the amazement has already outlasted itself and entered absurdity.
TLN 1529historical topical
“Would he were wasted, marrow, bones, and all, That from his loins no hopeful branch may spring”
Alone on stage, Richard reveals his true intent: he wants Edward not merely defeated or dead but 'wasted' to nothing — marrow, bones, and all — so that no children ('hopeful branch') can be born to inherit before him. The genealogical obstacle is the point: any son born to Edward stands between Richard and the crown. This soliloquy is Richard's first full declaration of his ambition for the throne.
historical Edward III and his seven sons
TLN 1539rhetorical device
“stands upon a promontory, And spies a far-off shore where he would tread, Wishing his foot were equal with his eye”
Richard compares his desire for the crown to a man standing on a clifftop ('promontory') who can see a distant shore he wants to reach — his eye ranges farther than his feet can carry him. It is a sustained simile (a classical 'comparatio') for the gap between ambition and current power. The fantastical conclusion — that the man would 'lade it dry' (bail out the sea one bucket at a time) to get there — captures the reckless scale of Richard's determination.
TLN 1557historical topical
“love forswore me in my mother's womb; And, for I should not deal in her soft laws, She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe To shrink mine arm up like a wither'd shrub”
Richard describes his physical deformities as Venus's deliberate revenge: because he was not to 'deal in' love's business (i.e., was unfit for romance and sexual life), Love bribed Nature in the womb to cripple him — a withered arm, a hump on his back, unequal legs, a general disproportion. Shakespeare builds on the Tudor chronicle tradition that Richard of Gloucester was deformed; here Richard himself turns the deformity into a dramatic origin story that explains and justifies his murderous ambition.
historical The Stage Machiavel
TLN 1565cultural context
“like to a chaos, or an unlick'd bear-whelp That carries no impression like the dam”
An 'unlick'd bear-whelp' refers to a popular belief that bear cubs were born as formless lumps of flesh and that their mother's licking literally shaped them into proper bears. Richard calls himself such a whelp — unfinished, shapeless, carrying no resemblance to its parent ('no impression like the dam'). The image extends to 'chaos': both mean a mass before order or proper form has been imposed on it.
TLN 1590classical allusion
“I'll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall, I'll slay more gazers than the basilisk”
Richard lists two mythological killers he will surpass. Mermaids (or Sirens) lured sailors to their deaths with song. The basilisk was a legendary serpent or reptile whose mere gaze was lethal — it killed by looking at you. Richard claims he will outdo both: he will use charm and deceit to destroy more people than either creature ever did.
TLN 1592classical allusion
“I'll play the orator as well as Nestor, Deceive more slyly than Ulysses could, And like a Sinon take another Troy”
Richard invokes three figures from the Trojan War. Nestor was the oldest and most eloquent Greek counsellor — a byword for persuasive oratory. Ulysses (Odysseus) was the cleverest and most deceptive of the Greeks. Sinon was the Greek spy who talked the Trojans into dragging the wooden horse inside their walls, thereby destroying Troy from within. Richard claims he will outdo all three — speak, deceive, and hollow out a kingdom as Sinon did Troy.
classical The fall of Troy: Pyrrhus and Priam
TLN 1595classical allusion
“I can add colours to the chameleon, Change shapes with Protheus for advantages”
The chameleon was famous for changing its skin colour to blend with its surroundings — a Renaissance emblem of the flatterer and dissembler. Proteus (or Protheus) was the shape-shifting sea-god of Greek myth who could change into any form to escape being held. Richard claims he can out-chameleon the chameleon and out-Proteus Proteus: his disguise and adaptability will exceed anything nature or myth has produced.
TLN 1597historical topical
“set the murtherous Machiavel to school”
'Machiavel' refers to the Italian writer Niccolo Machiavelli, whose book The Prince was read in England as a handbook for amoral statecraft — using deceit, cruelty, and hypocrisy to seize and hold power. To 'set him to school' means to teach even Machiavelli a lesson, to outdo the master of villainy. Richard is boasting that his ruthlessness and cunning surpass the worst tyrant the imagination can supply.
historical The Stage Machiavel