Transcript:
QUEEN MARGARET
Now is the winter of our discontent,
My proud heart sues and prompts my tongue to speak.
If I unwittingly, or in my rage,
Have aught committed that is hardly borne
By any in this presence, I desire
To reconcile me to his dear God’s peace.
By such despair, I should accuse myself,
And thee, that hast nor honesty nor grace
That cropped the golden prime of this sweet prince.
‘Tis time to speak,—my pains are quite forgot.—
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil,
And seem a saint, when most you play the devil.
O, he hath kept an evil diet long,
And overmuch consumed his royal person.
Revoke that doom of mercy.
You’ll have her;—but will not keep her long,
You that killed her husband and his father.
So wise so young, they say, do not live long.
England’s crown is too heavy for your Grace to wear.
But I, that am cheated of majesty,
With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes,
And no thing to back my suit withal
I do the wrong and first begin to brawl.
Heaven and fortune bar me happy hours!
Day, yield me not thy light; nor, night, thy rest!
Be opposite all planets of good luck
To my proceeding, if, with pure heart’s love,
Immaculate devotion, holy thoughts,
I tender not thy death, desolation, ruin, and decay.
Shall I be plain?—I wish the bastard dead;
And I would have it suddenly performed.
My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns you for a villain.
Perjury, perjury in the high’st degree;
Murdern, stern murder, in the dir’st degree.
Deformed, unfinished, bloody, and usurping boar.
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to kill this king, the wretched beast.