Speeches (Lines) for Lord (Earl) Rivers
in "Richard III"
Total: 24

1

I,3,460

(stage directions). [Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH, RIVERS, and GREY]

Lord (Earl) Rivers. Have patience, madam: there's no doubt his majesty
Will soon recover his accustom'd health.

2

I,3,466

Queen Elizabeth. If he were dead, what would betide of me?

Lord (Earl) Rivers. No other harm but loss of such a lord.

3

I,3,473

Queen Elizabeth. Oh, he is young and his minority
Is put unto the trust of Richard Gloucester,
A man that loves not me, nor none of you.

Lord (Earl) Rivers. Is it concluded that he shall be protector?

4

I,3,490

Sir William Stanley. I do beseech you, either not believe
The envious slanders of her false accusers;
Or, if she be accused in true report,
Bear with her weakness, which, I think proceeds
From wayward sickness, and no grounded malice.

Lord (Earl) Rivers. Saw you the king to-day, my Lord of Derby?

5

I,3,515

Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). They do me wrong, and I will not endure it:
Who are they that complain unto the king,
That I, forsooth, am stern, and love them not?
By holy Paul, they love his grace but lightly
That fill his ears with such dissentious rumours.
Because I cannot flatter and speak fair,
Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive and cog,
Duck with French nods and apish courtesy,
I must be held a rancorous enemy.
Cannot a plain man live and think no harm,
But thus his simple truth must be abused
By silken, sly, insinuating Jacks?

Lord (Earl) Rivers. To whom in all this presence speaks your grace?

6

I,3,554

Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). You may deny that you were not the cause
Of my Lord Hastings' late imprisonment.

Lord (Earl) Rivers. She may, my lord, for—

7

I,3,561

Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). She may, Lord Rivers! why, who knows not so?
She may do more, sir, than denying that:
She may help you to many fair preferments,
And then deny her aiding hand therein,
And lay those honours on your high deserts.
What may she not? She may, yea, marry, may she—

Lord (Earl) Rivers. What, marry, may she?

8

I,3,608

Queen Margaret. Hie thee to hell for shame, and leave the world,
Thou cacodemon! there thy kingdom is.

Lord (Earl) Rivers. My Lord of Gloucester, in those busy days
Which here you urge to prove us enemies,
We follow'd then our lord, our lawful king:
So should we you, if you should be our king.

9

I,3,649

Lord Hastings. O, 'twas the foulest deed to slay that babe,
And the most merciless that e'er was heard of!

Lord (Earl) Rivers. Tyrants themselves wept when it was reported.

10

I,3,717

Queen Margaret. Foul shame upon you! you have all moved mine.

Lord (Earl) Rivers. Were you well served, you would be taught your duty.

11

I,3,773

Lord Hastings. My hair doth stand on end to hear her curses.

Lord (Earl) Rivers. And so doth mine: I muse why she's at liberty.

12

I,3,784

Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). But you have all the vantage of her wrong.
I was too hot to do somebody good,
That is too cold in thinking of it now.
Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repaid,
He is frank'd up to fatting for his pains
God pardon them that are the cause of it!

Lord (Earl) Rivers. A virtuous and a Christian-like conclusion,
To pray for them that have done scathe to us.

13

I,3,794

Queen Elizabeth. Catesby, we come. Lords, will you go with us?

Lord (Earl) Rivers. Madam, we will attend your grace.

14

II,1,1129

King Edward IV (Plantagenet). Why, so: now have I done a good day's work:
You peers, continue this united league:
I every day expect an embassage
From my Redeemer to redeem me hence;
And now in peace my soul shall part to heaven,
Since I have set my friends at peace on earth.
Rivers and Hastings, take each other's hand;
Dissemble not your hatred, swear your love.

Lord (Earl) Rivers. By heaven, my heart is purged from grudging hate:
And with my hand I seal my true heart's love.

15

II,1,1137

Lord Hastings. So prosper I, as I swear perfect love!

Lord (Earl) Rivers. And I, as I love Hastings with my heart!

16

II,1,1206

Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Why, madam, have I offer'd love for this
To be so bouted in this royal presence?
Who knows not that the noble duke is dead?
[They all start]
You do him injury to scorn his corse.

Lord (Earl) Rivers. Who knows not he is dead! who knows he is?

17

II,2,1368

Marquis of Dorset. Comfort, dear mother: God is much displeased
That you take with unthankfulness, his doing:
In common worldly things, 'tis call'd ungrateful,
With dull unwilligness to repay a debt
Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent;
Much more to be thus opposite with heaven,
For it requires the royal debt it lent you.

Lord (Earl) Rivers. Madam, bethink you, like a careful mother,
Of the young prince your son: send straight for him
Let him be crown'd; in him your comfort lives:
Drown desperate sorrow in dead Edward's grave,
And plant your joys in living Edward's throne.

18

II,2,1396

Duke of Buckingham. You cloudy princes and heart-sorrowing peers,
That bear this mutual heavy load of moan,
Now cheer each other in each other's love
Though we have spent our harvest of this king,
We are to reap the harvest of his son.
The broken rancour of your high-swoln hearts,
But lately splinter'd, knit, and join'd together,
Must gently be preserved, cherish'd, and kept:
Me seemeth good, that, with some little train,
Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fetch'd
Hither to London, to be crown'd our king.

Lord (Earl) Rivers. Why with some little train, my Lord of Buckingham?

19

II,2,1407

Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). I hope the king made peace with all of us
And the compact is firm and true in me.

Lord (Earl) Rivers. And so in me; and so, I think, in all:
Yet, since it is but green, it should be put
To no apparent likelihood of breach,
Which haply by much company might be urged:
Therefore I say with noble Buckingham,
That it is meet so few should fetch the prince.

20

III,3,1920

Sir Richard Ratcliff. Come, bring forth the prisoners.

Lord (Earl) Rivers. Sir Richard Ratcliff, let me tell thee this:
To-day shalt thou behold a subject die
For truth, for duty, and for loyalty.

21

III,3,1927

Sir Richard Ratcliff. Dispatch; the limit of your lives is out.

Lord (Earl) Rivers. O Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prison,
Fatal and ominous to noble peers!
Within the guilty closure of thy walls
Richard the second here was hack'd to death;
And, for more slander to thy dismal seat,
We give thee up our guiltless blood to drink.

22

III,3,1935

Lord Grey. Now Margaret's curse is fall'n upon our heads,
For standing by when Richard stabb'd her son.

Lord (Earl) Rivers. Then cursed she Hastings, then cursed she Buckingham,
Then cursed she Richard. O, remember, God
To hear her prayers for them, as now for us
And for my sister and her princely sons,
Be satisfied, dear God, with our true blood,
Which, as thou know'st, unjustly must be spilt.

23

III,3,1942

Sir Richard Ratcliff. Make haste; the hour of death is expiate.

Lord (Earl) Rivers. Come, Grey, come, Vaughan, let us all embrace:
And take our leave, until we meet in heaven.

24

V,3,3623

(stage directions). [Enter the Ghosts of RIVERS, GRAY, and VAUGHAN]

Lord (Earl) Rivers. [To KING RICHARD III]
Let me sit heavy on thy soul to-morrow,
Rivers. that died at Pomfret! despair, and die!