Ah, aunt, you wept not for our father’s death

Boy, to Queen Elizabeth
Ah, aunt, you wept not for our father’s death.
How can we aid you with our kindred tears?
Daughter, to Queen Elizabeth
Our fatherless distress was left unmoaned.
Your widow-dolor likewise be unwept!

Alas, I am the mother of these griefs.

Queen Elizabeth
Give me no help in lamentation.
I am not barren to bring forth complaints.
All springs reduce their currents to mine eyes,
That I, being governed by the watery moon,
May send forth plenteous tears to drown the world.
Ah, for my husband, for my dear lord Edward!
Children
Ah, for our father, for our dear lord Clarence!
Duchess of York
Alas for both, both mine, Edward and Clarence!
Queen Elizabeth
What stay had I but Edward? And he’s gone.
Children
What stay had we but Clarence? And he’s gone.
Duchess of York
What stays had I but they? And they are gone.
Queen Elizabeth
Was never widow had so dear a loss.
Children
Were never orphans had so dear a loss.
Duchess of York
Was never mother had so dear a loss.Stichomythia
Alas, I am the mother of these griefs.
Their woes are parceled; mine is general.
She for an Edward weeps, and so do I;
I for a Clarence weep; so doth not she.
These babes for Clarence weep, and so do I;
I for an Edward weep; so do not they.
Alas, you three, on me, threefold distressed,
Pour all your tears. I am your sorrow’s nurse,
And I will pamper it with lamentation.
Dorset, to Queen Elizabeth
Comfort, dear mother. God is much displeased
That you take with unthankfulness His doing.
In common worldly things, ’tis called ungrateful
With dull unwillingness 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.
Rivers
Madam, bethink you, like a careful mother,
Of the young prince your son. Send straight for him.
Let him be crowned. In him your comfort lives.
Drown desperate sorrow in dead Edward’s grave
And plant your joys in living Edward’s throne.