University of Virginia Library

[Editor's note: The following soliloquy appears in the 1718 edition, but not in the 1700 text which goes immediately to the beginning of the murder scene.]:

RICHARD
Enter Richard.
Wou'd it were done: There is a busie something here,
That foolish Custom has made terrible,
To the intent of evil Deeds;
And Nature too, as if she knew
Me Womanish, and Weak, tugs at
My Heart-Strings with complaining Cries,
To talk me from my Purpose —
And then the thought of what
Mens Tongues will say, of what their Hearts must think;
To have no Creature love me Living, nor
My Memory when Dead.
Shall future Ages, when these Childrens Tale
Is told, drop Tears in pity of their hapless Fate,
And read with Detestation the Misdeeds of Richard,
The crook-back Tyrant, Cruel, Barbarous,
And Bloody — will they not say too,
That to possess the Crown, nor Laws Divine
Nor Humane stopt my way — why let 'em say it;
They can't but say I had the Crown;
I was not Fool as well as Villain.
Hark! the Murder's doing; Princes farewel,
To me there's Musick in your Passing-Bell.[Exit.