RICHARD III
A monologue from the
play by William
Shakespeare
- CLARENCE: O, I have passed a miserable night,
- So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights,
- That, as I am a Christian faithful man,
- I would not spend another such night
- Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days--
- So full of dismal terror was the time.
- Methoughts that I had broken from the Tower
- And was embarked to cross the Bergundy,
- And in my company my brother Gloucester,
- Who from my cabin tempted me to walk
- Upon the hatches: thence we looked toward England
- And cited up a thousand heavy times,
- During the wars of York and Lancaster,
- That had befall'n us. As we paced along
- Upon the giddy footing of the hatches,
- Methought that Gloucester stumblèd, and in falling
- Struck me (that thought to stay him) overboard
- Into the tumbling billows of the main.
- O Lord! methought what pain it was to drown!
- What dreadful noise of waters in mine ears!
- What sights of ugly death within mine eyes!
- Methoughts I saw a thousand fearful wracks;
- A thousand men that fishes gnawed upon;
- Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
- Inestimable stones, unvaluèd jewels,
- All scatt'red in the bottom of the sea:
- Some lay in dead men's skulls, and in the holes
- Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept
- (As 'twere in scorn of eyes) reflecting gems,
- That wooed the slimy bottom of the deep
- And mocked the dead bones that lay scatt'red by.
- I passed (methought) the melancholy flood,
- With that sour ferryman which poets write of,
- Unto the kingdom of perpetual night.
- The first that there did greet my stranger soul
- Was my great father-in-law, renownèd Warwick,
- Who spake aloud, 'What scourge for perjury
- Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?'
- And so he vanished. Then came wand'ring by
- A shadow like an angel, with bright hair
- Dabbled in blood, and he shrieked aloud,
- 'Clarence is come -- false, fleeting, perjured Clarence,
- That stabbed me in the field by Tewkesbury:
- Seize on him, Furies, take him unto torment!'
- With that (methoughts) a legion of foul fiends
- Environed me, and howlèd in mine ears
- Such hideous cries that with the very noise
- I, trembling, waked, and for a season after
- Could not believe but that I was in hell,
- Such terrible impression made my dream.
MORE MONOLOGUES BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE |
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