Your king’s father killed me, it was in a war
Where we had had too many killings before.
And the fight it was fair, though I did not survive,
but my honor remained until you did arrive.
For the pen is more mighty by far than the sword:
For murder by words you deserve an award.
To get past the censors, and then to gain fame
you’ve written that farce that has sullied my name.
You’re a bard, you’re a fart, you’re a liar.
I’m a man, I’m a king, I’m a knight.
I’m a lover, a husband, a father –
Bardic slander’s not easy to fight.
I am Richard the Third and your play is absurd
Now you are The Bard and pretend you are good –
but the quill in your hand’s dripping red with my blood.
You say I’m a hunchback, a killer, a fiend,
a madman, a monster, by mankind demeaned;
through regicide, fratricide, nepocide, war
I strive to gain power and hunger for more.
But regicide is just the thing you have done,
Though the king that you slew had been long dead and gone.
You made me a wretch for the Tudors’ delight,
Now history books spread the lies you did write.… Weiterlesen
