DIALOGUE INTRODUCTION
A Venomous Proposal: The Dialogue Between Queen Elizabeth and King Richard III
The dialogue between King Richard III and Elizabeth occurs in the fourth act of Shakespeare's King Richard III. Elizabeth is the former queen and widow to King Edward IV. When her husband and sons were murdered, she was left bereft of her status and loved ones. As she watches Richard's ascension to the throne, she remains in anguish over her daughter who may also be targeted by Richard. Lamenting over her dead husband and children, she strongly voices her disagreement with Richard when he proposes marriage to her daughter Elizabeth. Throughout the entire dialogue, Queen Elizabeth displays her intelligence in quick-witted retorts to Richard's proposition.
dialogue
Richard: Stay, madam. I must talk a word with you.
Elizabeth: I have no more sons of the royal blood for thee to slaughter. For my daughters, Richard, they shall be praying nuns, not weeping queens, and therefore level not to hit their lives.
Richard: You have a daughter called Elizabeth, virtuous and fair, royal and gracious.
Elizabeth: And must she die for this? Oh, let her live, And I’ll corrupt her manners, stain her beauty, slander myself as false to Edward’s bed, throw over her the veil of infamy. So she may live unscarred of bleeding slaughter, I will confess she was not Edward’s daughter.
Richard: Wrong not her birth; she is a royal princess
Elizabeth: To save her life, I’ll say she is not so.
Richard: Her life is safest only in her birth.
Elizabeth: And only in that safety died her brothers
Richard: Lo, at their birth good stars were opposite.
Elizabeth: No, to their lives ill friends were contrary.
Richard: All unavoided is the doom of destiny
Elizabeth: True, when avoided grace makes destiny. My babes were destined to fairer death, If grace had blest thee with a fairer life.
Richard: You speak as if that I had slain my cousins.
Elizabeth: Cousins indeed, and by their uncle cozened of comfort, kingdom, kindred, freedom, life. My tongue should to thy ears not name my boys till that my nails were anchored in thine eyes, And I in such a desperate bay of death, like a poor bark of sails and tackling reft, rush to all pieces on thy rocky bosom.
Richard: Madam, so thrive I in my enterprise and dangerous success of bloody wars as I intend more good to you and yours than ever you and yours by me were harmed.
Elizabeth: What good is covered with the face of heaven to be discovered, that can do me good?
Richard: Th’ advancement of your children, gentle lady.
Elizabeth: Up to some scaffold, there to lose their heads.
Richard: Unto the dignity and height of fortune, the high imperial type of this earth’s glory.
Elizabeth: Flatter my sorrow with report of it. Tell me what state, what dignity, what honour, canst thou demise to any child of mine?
Richard: Even all I have, ay, and myself and all, will I withal endow a child of thine, so in the Lethe of thy angry soul thou drown the sad remembrance of those wrongs which thou supposest I have done to thee.
Elizabeth: Be brief, lest that the process thy kindness last longer than thy kindness’s date.
Richard: Then know that from my soul I love thy daughter.
Elizabeth: My daughter’s mother thinks it with her soul.
Richard: What do you think?
Elizabeth: That thou dost love my daughter from thy soul. So from thy soul’s love didst thou love her brothers, And from my heart’s love I do thank thee for it.
Richard: Be not so hasty to confound my meaning. I mean that with my soul I love thy daughter and do intend to make her Queen of England.
dialogue analysis
An Untimely Proposal: The Dialogue between Queen Elizabeth and King Richard III in Shakespeare’s King Richard III
In Shakespeare’s King Richard III, former Queen Elizabeth and King Richard III engage in a conversation filled with verses of stichomythia, lists, and a simile. When King Richard III proposes marrying Elizabeth’s daughter, Elizabeth engages in a quick-witted disagreement. She intelligently expresses her abhorrence of Richard by sending retorts that confound the meaning of his words. Richard tries to convince Elizabeth that her daughter will be safe only in marriage with him. However, Elizabeth quickly pinpoints that in his protection, her sons died (4.4.215). Answering his questions in contrasting words proves her disloyalty and bold opposition to Richard’s ascension to the throne. Her irreverence towards Richard proves her a worthy adversary as she figuratively amplifies the voices of all the people Richard has murdered out of a venomous desire for power. Additionally, Elizabeth lists ways that she will protect her daughter from the snares of a marriage with her uncle, Richard. She promises to “corrupt her [daughter’s] manners, stain her beauty / … / [t]hrow over her the veil of infamy… [and] confess she was not Edward’s daughter” (4.4.207-11). Elizabeth’s motherly instincts kick in; her willingness to do anything possible to dissuade Richard from marrying her demonstrates the extreme love she holds for her precious daughter. Finally, the simile Elizabeth develops also serves to intensify the drama occurring in this dialogue. Angered by Richard’s denial of murdering her sons, Elizabeth compares herself to a boat with broken sails to establish her desire to destroy Richard, the man that ruined her family.