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204<<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
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2181596
219
220KING RICHARD THE SECOND
221
222by William Shakespeare
223
224
225
226DRAMATIS PERSONAE
227
228 KING RICHARD THE SECOND
229 JOHN OF GAUNT, Duke of Lancaster - uncle to the King
230 EDMUND LANGLEY, Duke of York - uncle to the King
231 HENRY, surnamed BOLINGBROKE, Duke of Hereford, son of
232 John of Gaunt, afterwards King Henry IV
233 DUKE OF AUMERLE, son of the Duke of York
234 THOMAS MOWBRAY, Duke of Norfolk
235 DUKE OF SURREY
236 EARL OF SALISBURY
237 EARL BERKELEY
238 BUSHY - favourites of King Richard
239 BAGOT - " " " "
240 GREEN - " " " "
241 EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND
242 HENRY PERCY, surnamed HOTSPUR, his son
243 LORD Ross LORD WILLOUGHBY
244 LORD FITZWATER BISHOP OF CARLISLE
245 ABBOT OF WESTMINSTER LORD MARSHAL
246 SIR STEPHEN SCROOP SIR PIERCE OF EXTON
247 CAPTAIN of a band of Welshmen TWO GARDENERS
248
249 QUEEN to King Richard
250 DUCHESS OF YORK
251 DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER, widow of Thomas of Woodstock,
252 Duke of Gloucester
253 LADY attending on the Queen
254
255 Lords, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Keeper, Messenger,
256 Groom, and other Attendants
257
258
259
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269
270
271
272SCENE:
273England and Wales
274
275
276ACT I. SCENE I.
277London. The palace
278
279Enter RICHARD, JOHN OF GAUNT, with other NOBLES and attendants
280
281 KING RICHARD. Old John of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster,
282 Hast thou, according to thy oath and band,
283 Brought hither Henry Hereford, thy bold son,
284 Here to make good the boist'rous late appeal,
285 Which then our leisure would not let us hear,
286 Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?
287 GAUNT. I have, my liege.
288 KING RICHARD. Tell me, moreover, hast thou sounded him
289 If he appeal the Duke on ancient malice,
290 Or worthily, as a good subject should,
291 On some known ground of treachery in him?
292 GAUNT. As near as I could sift him on that argument,
293 On some apparent danger seen in him
294 Aim'd at your Highness-no inveterate malice.
295 KING RICHARD. Then call them to our presence: face to face
296 And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear
297 The accuser and the accused freely speak.
298 High-stomach'd are they both and full of ire,
299 In rage, deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.
300
301 Enter BOLINGBROKE and MOWBRAY
302
303 BOLINGBROKE. Many years of happy days befall
304 My gracious sovereign, my most loving liege!
305 MOWBRAY. Each day still better other's happiness
306 Until the heavens, envying earth's good hap,
307 Add an immortal title to your crown!
308 KING RICHARD. We thank you both; yet one but flatters us,
309 As well appeareth by the cause you come;
310 Namely, to appeal each other of high treason.
311 Cousin of Hereford, what dost thou object
312 Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?
313 BOLINGBROKE. First-heaven be the record to my speech!
314 In the devotion of a subject's love,
315 Tend'ring the precious safety of my prince,
316 And free from other misbegotten hate,
317 Come I appellant to this princely presence.
318 Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee,
319 And mark my greeting well; for what I speak
320 My body shall make good upon this earth,
321 Or my divine soul answer it in heaven-
322 Thou art a traitor and a miscreant,
323 Too good to be so, and too bad to live,
324 Since the more fair and crystal is the sky,
325 The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly.
326 Once more, the more to aggravate the note,
327 With a foul traitor's name stuff I thy throat;
328 And wish-so please my sovereign-ere I move,
329 What my tongue speaks, my right drawn sword may prove.
330 MOWBRAY. Let not my cold words here accuse my zeal.
331 'Tis not the trial of a woman's war,
332 The bitter clamour of two eager tongues,
333 Can arbitrate this cause betwixt us twain;
334 The blood is hot that must be cool'd for this.
335 Yet can I not of such tame patience boast
336 As to be hush'd and nought at an to say.
337 First, the fair reverence of your Highness curbs me
338 From giving reins and spurs to my free speech;
339 Which else would post until it had return'd
340 These terms of treason doubled down his throat.
341 Setting aside his high blood's royalty,
342 And let him be no kinsman to my liege,
343 I do defy him, and I spit at him,
344 Call him a slanderous coward and a villain;
345 Which to maintain, I would allow him odds
346 And meet him, were I tied to run afoot
347 Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps,
348 Or any other ground inhabitable
349 Where ever Englishman durst set his foot.
350 Meantime let this defend my loyalty-
351 By all my hopes, most falsely doth he lie
352 BOLINGBROKE. Pale trembling coward, there I throw my gage,
353 Disclaiming here the kindred of the King;
354 And lay aside my high blood's royalty,
355 Which fear, not reverence, makes thee to except.
356 If guilty dread have left thee so much strength
357 As to take up mine honour's pawn, then stoop.
358 By that and all the rites of knighthood else
359 Will I make good against thee, arm to arm,
360 What I have spoke or thou canst worst devise.
361 MOWBRAY. I take it up; and by that sword I swear
362 Which gently laid my knighthood on my shoulder
363 I'll answer thee in any fair degree
364 Or chivalrous design of knightly trial;
365 And when I mount, alive may I not light
366 If I be traitor or unjustly fight!
367 KING RICHARD. What doth our cousin lay to Mowbray's charge?
368 It must be great that can inherit us
369 So much as of a thought of ill in him.
370 BOLINGBROKE. Look what I speak, my life shall prove it true-
371 That Mowbray hath receiv'd eight thousand nobles
372 In name of lendings for your Highness' soldiers,
373 The which he hath detain'd for lewd employments
374 Like a false traitor and injurious villain.
375 Besides, I say and will in battle prove-
376 Or here, or elsewhere to the furthest verge
377 That ever was survey'd by English eye-
378 That all the treasons for these eighteen years
379 Complotted and contrived in this land
380 Fetch from false Mowbray their first head and spring.
381 Further I say, and further will maintain
382 Upon his bad life to make all this good,
383 That he did plot the Duke of Gloucester's death,
384 Suggest his soon-believing adversaries,
385 And consequently, like a traitor coward,
386 Sluic'd out his innocent soul through streams of blood;
387 Which blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries,
388 Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth,
389 To me for justice and rough chastisement;
390 And, by the glorious worth of my descent,
391 This arm shall do it, or this life be spent.
392 KING RICHARD. How high a pitch his resolution soars!
393 Thomas of Norfolk, what say'st thou to this?
394 MOWBRAY. O, let my sovereign turn away his face
395 And bid his ears a little while be deaf,
396 Till I have told this slander of his blood
397 How God and good men hate so foul a liar.
398 KING RICHARD. Mowbray, impartial are our eyes and cars.
399 Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom's heir,
400 As he is but my father's brother's son,
401 Now by my sceptre's awe I make a vow,
402 Such neighbour nearness to our sacred blood
403 Should nothing privilege him nor partialize
404 The unstooping firmness of my upright soul.
405 He is our subject, Mowbray; so art thou:
406 Free speech and fearless I to thee allow.
407 MOWBRAY. Then, Bolingbroke, as low as to thy heart,
408 Through the false passage of thy throat, thou liest.
409 Three parts of that receipt I had for Calais
410 Disburs'd I duly to his Highness' soldiers;
411 The other part reserv'd I by consent,
412 For that my sovereign liege was in my debt
413 Upon remainder of a dear account
414 Since last I went to France to fetch his queen:
415 Now swallow down that lie. For Gloucester's death-
416 I slew him not, but to my own disgrace
417 Neglected my sworn duty in that case.
418 For you, my noble Lord of Lancaster,
419 The honourable father to my foe,
420 Once did I lay an ambush for your life,
421 A trespass that doth vex my grieved soul;
422 But ere I last receiv'd the sacrament
423 I did confess it, and exactly begg'd
424 Your Grace's pardon; and I hope I had it.
425 This is my fault. As for the rest appeal'd,
426 It issues from the rancour of a villain,
427 A recreant and most degenerate traitor;
428 Which in myself I boldly will defend,
429 And interchangeably hurl down my gage
430 Upon this overweening traitor's foot
431 To prove myself a loyal gentleman
432 Even in the best blood chamber'd in his bosom.
433 In haste whereof, most heartily I pray
434 Your Highness to assign our trial day.
435 KING RICHARD. Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be rul'd by me;
436 Let's purge this choler without letting blood-
437 This we prescribe, though no physician;
438 Deep malice makes too deep incision.
439 Forget, forgive; conclude and be agreed:
440 Our doctors say this is no month to bleed.
441 Good uncle, let this end where it begun;
442 We'll calm the Duke of Norfolk, you your son.
443 GAUNT. To be a make-peace shall become my age.
444 Throw down, my son, the Duke of Norfolk's gage.
445 KING RICHARD. And, Norfolk, throw down his.
446 GAUNT. When, Harry, when?
447 Obedience bids I should not bid again.
448 KING RICHARD. Norfolk, throw down; we bid.
449 There is no boot.
450 MOWBRAY. Myself I throw, dread sovereign, at thy foot;
451 My life thou shalt command, but not my shame:
452 The one my duty owes; but my fair name,
453 Despite of death, that lives upon my grave
454 To dark dishonour's use thou shalt not have.
455 I am disgrac'd, impeach'd, and baffl'd here;
456 Pierc'd to the soul with slander's venom'd spear,
457 The which no balm can cure but his heart-blood
458 Which breath'd this poison.
459 KING RICHARD. Rage must be withstood:
460 Give me his gage-lions make leopards tame.
461 MOWBRAY. Yea, but not change his spots. Take but my shame,
462 And I resign my gage. My dear dear lord,
463 The purest treasure mortal times afford
464 Is spotless reputation; that away,
465 Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.
466 A jewel in a ten-times barr'd-up chest
467 Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast.
468 Mine honour is my life; both grow in one;
469 Take honour from me, and my life is done:
470 Then, dear my liege, mine honour let me try;
471 In that I live, and for that will I die.
472 KING RICHARD. Cousin, throw up your gage; do you begin.
473 BOLINGBROKE. O, God defend my soul from such deep sin!
474 Shall I seem crest-fallen in my father's sight?
475 Or with pale beggar-fear impeach my height
476 Before this outdar'd dastard? Ere my tongue
477 Shall wound my honour with such feeble wrong
478 Or sound so base a parle, my teeth shall tear
479 The slavish motive of recanting fear,
480 And spit it bleeding in his high disgrace,
481 Where shame doth harbour, even in Mowbray's face.
482 Exit GAUNT
483 KING RICHARD. We were not born to sue, but to command;
484 Which since we cannot do to make you friends,
485 Be ready, as your lives shall answer it,
486 At Coventry, upon Saint Lambert's day.
487 There shall your swords and lances arbitrate
488 The swelling difference of your settled hate;
489 Since we can not atone you, we shall see
490 Justice design the victor's chivalry.
491 Lord Marshal, command our officers-at-arms
492 Be ready to direct these home alarms. Exeunt
493
494
495
496
497SCENE 2.
498London. The DUKE OF LANCASTER'S palace
499
500Enter JOHN OF GAUNT with the DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER
501
502 GAUNT. Alas, the part I had in Woodstock's blood
503 Doth more solicit me than your exclaims
504 To stir against the butchers of his life!
505 But since correction lieth in those hands
506 Which made the fault that we cannot correct,
507 Put we our quarrel to the will of heaven;
508 Who, when they see the hours ripe on earth,
509 Will rain hot vengeance on offenders' heads.
510 DUCHESS. Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper spur?
511 Hath love in thy old blood no living fire?
512 Edward's seven sons, whereof thyself art one,
513 Were as seven vials of his sacred blood,
514 Or seven fair branches springing from one root.
515 Some of those seven are dried by nature's course,
516 Some of those branches by the Destinies cut;
517 But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Gloucester,
518 One vial full of Edward's sacred blood,
519 One flourishing branch of his most royal root,
520 Is crack'd, and all the precious liquor spilt;
521 Is hack'd down, and his summer leaves all faded,
522 By envy's hand and murder's bloody axe.
523 Ah, Gaunt, his blood was thine! That bed, that womb,
524 That mettle, that self mould, that fashion'd thee,
525 Made him a man; and though thou livest and breathest,
526 Yet art thou slain in him. Thou dost consent
527 In some large measure to thy father's death
528 In that thou seest thy wretched brother die,
529 Who was the model of thy father's life.
530 Call it not patience, Gaunt-it is despair;
531 In suff'ring thus thy brother to be slaught'red,
532 Thou showest the naked pathway to thy life,
533 Teaching stern murder how to butcher thee.
534 That which in mean men we entitle patience
535 Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.
536 What shall I say? To safeguard thine own life
537 The best way is to venge my Gloucester's death.
538 GAUNT. God's is the quarrel; for God's substitute,
539 His deputy anointed in His sight,
540 Hath caus'd his death; the which if wrongfully,
541 Let heaven revenge; for I may never lift
542 An angry arm against His minister.
543 DUCHESS. Where then, alas, may I complain myself?
544 GAUNT. To God, the widow's champion and defence.
545 DUCHESS. Why then, I will. Farewell, old Gaunt.
546 Thou goest to Coventry, there to behold
547 Our cousin Hereford and fell Mowbray fight.
548 O, sit my husband's wrongs on Hereford's spear,
549 That it may enter butcher Mowbray's breast!
550 Or, if misfortune miss the first career,
551 Be Mowbray's sins so heavy in his bosom
552 That they may break his foaming courser's back
553 And throw the rider headlong in the lists,
554 A caitiff recreant to my cousin Hereford!
555 Farewell, old Gaunt; thy sometimes brother's wife,
556 With her companion, Grief, must end her life.
557 GAUNT. Sister, farewell; I must to Coventry.
558 As much good stay with thee as go with me!
559 DUCHESS. Yet one word more- grief boundeth where it falls,
560 Not with the empty hollowness, but weight.
561 I take my leave before I have begun,
562 For sorrow ends not when it seemeth done.
563 Commend me to thy brother, Edmund York.
564 Lo, this is all- nay, yet depart not so;
565 Though this be all, do not so quickly go;
566 I shall remember more. Bid him- ah, what?-
567 With all good speed at Plashy visit me.
568 Alack, and what shall good old York there see
569 But empty lodgings and unfurnish'd walls,
570 Unpeopled offices, untrodden stones?
571 And what hear there for welcome but my groans?
572 Therefore commend me; let him not come there
573 To seek out sorrow that dwells every where.
574 Desolate, desolate, will I hence and die;
575 The last leave of thee takes my weeping eye. Exeunt
576
577
578
579
580SCENE 3.
581The lists at Coventry
582
583Enter the LORD MARSHAL and the DUKE OF AUMERLE
584
585 MARSHAL. My Lord Aumerle, is Harry Hereford arm'd?
586 AUMERLE. Yea, at all points; and longs to enter in.
587 MARSHAL. The Duke of Norfolk, spightfully and bold,
588 Stays but the summons of the appelant's trumpet.
589 AUMERLE. Why then, the champions are prepar'd, and stay
590 For nothing but his Majesty's approach.
591
592 The trumpets sound, and the KING enters with his nobles,
593 GAUNT, BUSHY, BAGOT, GREEN, and others. When they are set,
594 enter MOWBRAY, Duke of Nor folk, in arms, defendant, and
595 a HERALD
596
597 KING RICHARD. Marshal, demand of yonder champion
598 The cause of his arrival here in arms;
599 Ask him his name; and orderly proceed
600 To swear him in the justice of his cause.
601 MARSHAL. In God's name and the King's, say who thou art,
602 And why thou comest thus knightly clad in arms;
603 Against what man thou com'st, and what thy quarrel.
604 Speak truly on thy knighthood and thy oath;
605 As so defend thee heaven and thy valour!
606 MOWBRAY. My name is Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk;
607 Who hither come engaged by my oath-
608 Which God defend a knight should violate!-
609 Both to defend my loyalty and truth
610 To God, my King, and my succeeding issue,
611 Against the Duke of Hereford that appeals me;
612 And, by the grace of God and this mine arm,
613 To prove him, in defending of myself,
614 A traitor to my God, my King, and me.
615 And as I truly fight, defend me heaven!
616
617 The trumpets sound. Enter BOLINGBROKE, Duke of Hereford,
618 appellant, in armour, and a HERALD
619
620 KING RICHARD. Marshal, ask yonder knight in arms,
621 Both who he is and why he cometh hither
622 Thus plated in habiliments of war;
623 And formally, according to our law,
624 Depose him in the justice of his cause.
625 MARSHAL. What is thy name? and wherefore com'st thou hither
626 Before King Richard in his royal lists?
627 Against whom comest thou? and what's thy quarrel?
628 Speak like a true knight, so defend thee heaven!
629 BOLINGBROKE. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
630 Am I; who ready here do stand in arms
631 To prove, by God's grace and my body's valour,
632 In lists on Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk,
633 That he is a traitor, foul and dangerous,
634 To God of heaven, King Richard, and to me.
635 And as I truly fight, defend me heaven!
636 MARSHAL. On pain of death, no person be so bold
637 Or daring-hardy as to touch the lists,
638 Except the Marshal and such officers
639 Appointed to direct these fair designs.
640 BOLINGBROKE. Lord Marshal, let me kiss my sovereign's hand,
641 And bow my knee before his Majesty;
642 For Mowbray and myself are like two men
643 That vow a long and weary pilgrimage.
644 Then let us take a ceremonious leave
645 And loving farewell of our several friends.
646 MARSHAL. The appellant in all duty greets your Highness,
647 And craves to kiss your hand and take his leave.
648 KING RICHARD. We will descend and fold him in our arms.
649 Cousin of Hereford, as thy cause is right,
650 So be thy fortune in this royal fight!
651 Farewell, my blood; which if to-day thou shed,
652 Lament we may, but not revenge thee dead.
653 BOLINGBROKE. O, let no noble eye profane a tear
654 For me, if I be gor'd with Mowbray's spear.
655 As confident as is the falcon's flight
656 Against a bird, do I with Mowbray fight.
657 My loving lord, I take my leave of you;
658 Of you, my noble cousin, Lord Aumerle;
659 Not sick, although I have to do with death,
660 But lusty, young, and cheerly drawing breath.
661 Lo, as at English feasts, so I regreet
662 The daintiest last, to make the end most sweet.
663 O thou, the earthly author of my blood,
664 Whose youthful spirit, in me regenerate,
665 Doth with a twofold vigour lift me up
666 To reach at victory above my head,
667 Add proof unto mine armour with thy prayers,
668 And with thy blessings steel my lance's point,
669 That it may enter Mowbray's waxen coat
670 And furbish new the name of John o' Gaunt,
671 Even in the lusty haviour of his son.
672 GAUNT. God in thy good cause make thee prosperous!
673 Be swift like lightning in the execution,
674 And let thy blows, doubly redoubled,
675 Fall like amazing thunder on the casque
676 Of thy adverse pernicious enemy.
677 Rouse up thy youthful blood, be valiant, and live.
678 BOLINGBROKE. Mine innocence and Saint George to thrive!
679 MOWBRAY. However God or fortune cast my lot,
680 There lives or dies, true to King Richard's throne,
681 A loyal, just, and upright gentleman.
682 Never did captive with a freer heart
683 Cast off his chains of bondage, and embrace
684 His golden uncontroll'd enfranchisement,
685 More than my dancing soul doth celebrate
686 This feast of battle with mine adversary.
687 Most mighty liege, and my companion peers,
688 Take from my mouth the wish of happy years.
689 As gentle and as jocund as to jest
690 Go I to fight: truth hath a quiet breast.
691 KING RICHARD. Farewell, my lord, securely I espy
692 Virtue with valour couched in thine eye.
693 Order the trial, Marshal, and begin.
694 MARSHAL. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
695 Receive thy lance; and God defend the right!
696 BOLINGBROKE. Strong as a tower in hope, I cry amen.
697 MARSHAL. [To an officer] Go bear this lance to Thomas,
698 Duke of Norfolk.
699 FIRST HERALD. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
700 Stands here for God, his sovereign, and himself,
701 On pain to be found false and recreant,
702 To prove the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray,
703 A traitor to his God, his King, and him;
704 And dares him to set forward to the fight.
705 SECOND HERALD. Here standeth Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk,
706 On pain to be found false and recreant,
707 Both to defend himself, and to approve
708 Henry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
709 To God, his sovereign, and to him disloyal,
710 Courageously and with a free desire
711 Attending but the signal to begin.
712 MARSHAL. Sound trumpets; and set forward, combatants.
713 [A charge sounded]
714 Stay, the King hath thrown his warder down.
715 KING RICHARD. Let them lay by their helmets and their spears,
716 And both return back to their chairs again.
717 Withdraw with us; and let the trumpets sound
718 While we return these dukes what we decree.
719
720 A long flourish, while the KING consults his Council
721
722 Draw near,
723 And list what with our council we have done.
724 For that our kingdom's earth should not be soil'd
725 With that dear blood which it hath fostered;
726 And for our eyes do hate the dire aspect
727 Of civil wounds plough'd up with neighbours' sword;
728 And for we think the eagle-winged pride
729 Of sky-aspiring and ambitious thoughts,
730 With rival-hating envy, set on you
731 To wake our peace, which in our country's cradle
732 Draws the sweet infant breath of gentle sleep;
733 Which so rous'd up with boist'rous untun'd drums,
734 With harsh-resounding trumpets' dreadful bray,
735 And grating shock of wrathful iron arms,
736 Might from our quiet confines fright fair peace
737 And make us wade even in our kindred's blood-
738 Therefore we banish you our territories.
739 You, cousin Hereford, upon pain of life,
740 Till twice five summers have enrich'd our fields
741 Shall not regreet our fair dominions,
742 But tread the stranger paths of banishment.
743 BOLINGBROKE. Your will be done. This must my comfort be-
744 That sun that warms you here shall shine on me,
745 And those his golden beams to you here lent
746 Shall point on me and gild my banishment.
747 KING RICHARD. Norfolk, for thee remains a heavier doom,
748 Which I with some unwillingness pronounce:
749 The sly slow hours shall not determinate
750 The dateless limit of thy dear exile;
751 The hopeless word of 'never to return'
752 Breathe I against thee, upon pain of life.
753 MOWBRAY. A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege,
754 And all unlook'd for from your Highness' mouth.
755 A dearer merit, not so deep a maim
756 As to be cast forth in the common air,
757 Have I deserved at your Highness' hands.
758 The language I have learnt these forty years,
759 My native English, now I must forgo;
760 And now my tongue's use is to me no more
761 Than an unstringed viol or a harp;
762 Or like a cunning instrument cas'd up
763 Or, being open, put into his hands
764 That knows no touch to tune the harmony.
765 Within my mouth you have engaol'd my tongue,
766 Doubly portcullis'd with my teeth and lips;
767 And dull, unfeeling, barren ignorance
768 Is made my gaoler to attend on me.
769 I am too old to fawn upon a nurse,
770 Too far in years to be a pupil now.
771 What is thy sentence, then, but speechless death,
772 Which robs my tongue from breathing native breath?
773 KING RICHARD. It boots thee not to be compassionate;
774 After our sentence plaining comes too late.
775 MOWBRAY. Then thus I turn me from my countrv's light,
776 To dwell in solemn shades of endless night.
777 KING RICHARD. Return again, and take an oath with thee.
778 Lay on our royal sword your banish'd hands;
779 Swear by the duty that you owe to God,
780 Our part therein we banish with yourselves,
781 To keep the oath that we administer:
782 You never shall, so help you truth and God,
783 Embrace each other's love in banishment;
784 Nor never look upon each other's face;
785 Nor never write, regreet, nor reconcile
786 This louring tempest of your home-bred hate;
787 Nor never by advised purpose meet
788 To plot, contrive, or complot any ill,
789 'Gainst us, our state, our subjects, or our land.
790 BOLINGBROKE. I swear.
791 MOWBRAY. And I, to keep all this.
792 BOLINGBROKE. Norfolk, so far as to mine enemy.
793 By this time, had the King permitted us,
794 One of our souls had wand'red in the air,
795 Banish'd this frail sepulchre of our flesh,
796 As now our flesh is banish'd from this land-
797 Confess thy treasons ere thou fly the realm;
798 Since thou hast far to go, bear not along
799 The clogging burden of a guilty soul.
800 MOWBRAY. No, Bolingbroke; if ever I were traitor,
801 My name be blotted from the book of life,
802 And I from heaven banish'd as from hence!
803 But what thou art, God, thou, and I, do know;
804 And all too soon, I fear, the King shall rue.
805 Farewell, my liege. Now no way can I stray:
806 Save back to England, an the world's my way. Exit
807 KING RICHARD. Uncle, even in the glasses of thine eyes
808 I see thy grieved heart. Thy sad aspect
809 Hath from the number of his banish'd years
810 Pluck'd four away. [To BOLINGBROKE] Six frozen winters spent,
811 Return with welcome home from banishment.
812 BOLINGBROKE. How long a time lies in one little word!
813 Four lagging winters and four wanton springs
814 End in a word: such is the breath of Kings.
815 GAUNT. I thank my liege that in regard of me
816 He shortens four years of my son's exile;
817 But little vantage shall I reap thereby,
818 For ere the six years that he hath to spend
819 Can change their moons and bring their times about,
820 My oil-dried lamp and time-bewasted light
821 Shall be extinct with age and endless night;
822 My inch of taper will be burnt and done,
823 And blindfold death not let me see my son.
824 KING RICHARD. Why, uncle, thou hast many years to live.
825 GAUNT. But not a minute, King, that thou canst give:
826 Shorten my days thou canst with sullen sorrow
827 And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow;
828 Thou can'st help time to furrow me with age,
829 But stop no wrinkle in his pilgrimage;
830 Thy word is current with him for my death,
831 But dead, thy kingdom cannot buy my breath.
832 KING RICHARD. Thy son is banish'd upon good advice,
833 Whereto thy tongue a party-verdict gave.
834 Why at our justice seem'st thou then to lour?
835 GAUNT. Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour.
836 You urg'd me as a judge; but I had rather
837 You would have bid me argue like a father.
838 O, had it been a stranger, not my child,
839 To smooth his fault I should have been more mild.
840 A partial slander sought I to avoid,
841 And in the sentence my own life destroy'd.
842 Alas, I look'd when some of you should say
843 I was too strict to make mine own away;
844 But you gave leave to my unwilling tongue
845 Against my will to do myself this wrong.
846 KING RICHARD. Cousin, farewell; and, uncle, bid him so.
847 Six years we banish him, and he shall go.
848 Flourish. Exit KING with train
849 AUMERLE. Cousin, farewell; what presence must not know,
850 From where you do remain let paper show.
851 MARSHAL. My lord, no leave take I, for I will ride
852 As far as land will let me by your side.
853 GAUNT. O, to what purpose dost thou hoard thy words,
854 That thou returnest no greeting to thy friends?
855 BOLINGBROKE. I have too few to take my leave of you,
856 When the tongue's office should be prodigal
857 To breathe the abundant dolour of the heart.
858 GAUNT. Thy grief is but thy absence for a time.
859 BOLINGBROKE. Joy absent, grief is present for that time.
860 GAUNT. What is six winters? They are quickly gone.
861 BOLINGBROKE. To men in joy; but grief makes one hour ten.
862 GAUNT. Call it a travel that thou tak'st for pleasure.
863 BOLINGBROKE. My heart will sigh when I miscall it so,
864 Which finds it an enforced pilgrimage.
865 GAUNT. The sullen passage of thy weary steps
866 Esteem as foil wherein thou art to set
867 The precious jewel of thy home return.
868 BOLINGBROKE. Nay, rather, every tedious stride I make
869 Will but remember me what a deal of world
870 I wander from the jewels that I love.
871 Must I not serve a long apprenticehood
872 To foreign passages; and in the end,
873 Having my freedom, boast of nothing else
874 But that I was a journeyman to grief?
875 GAUNT. All places that the eye of heaven visits
876 Are to a wise man ports and happy havens.
877 Teach thy necessity to reason thus:
878 There is no virtue like necessity.
879 Think not the King did banish thee,
880 But thou the King. Woe doth the heavier sit
881 Where it perceives it is but faintly home.
882 Go, say I sent thee forth to purchase honour,
883 And not the King exil'd thee; or suppose
884 Devouring pestilence hangs in our air
885 And thou art flying to a fresher clime.
886 Look what thy soul holds dear, imagine it
887 To lie that way thou goest, not whence thou com'st.
888 Suppose the singing birds musicians,
889 The grass whereon thou tread'st the presence strew'd,
890 The flowers fair ladies, and thy steps no more
891 Than a delightful measure or a dance;
892 For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite
893 The man that mocks at it and sets it light.
894 BOLINGBROKE. O, who can hold a fire in his hand
895 By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?
896 Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite
897 By bare imagination of a feast?
898 Or wallow naked in December snow
899 By thinking on fantastic summer's heat?
900 O, no! the apprehension of the good
901 Gives but the greater feeling to the worse.
902 Fell sorrow's tooth doth never rankle more
903 Than when he bites, but lanceth not the sore.
904 GAUNT. Come, come, my son, I'll bring thee on thy way.
905 Had I thy youtli and cause, I would not stay.
906 BOLINGBROKE. Then, England's ground, farewell; sweet soil,
907adieu;
908 My mother, and my nurse, that bears me yet!
909 Where'er I wander, boast of this I can:
910 Though banish'd, yet a trueborn English man. Exeunt
911
912
913
914
915SCENE 4.
916London. The court
917
918Enter the KING, with BAGOT and GREEN, at one door;
919and the DUKE OF AUMERLE at another
920
921 KING RICHARD. We did observe. Cousin Aumerle,
922 How far brought you high Hereford on his way?
923 AUMERLE. I brought high Hereford, if you call him so,
924 But to the next high way, and there I left him.
925 KING RICHARD. And say, what store of parting tears were shed?
926 AUMERLE. Faith, none for me; except the north-east wind,
927 Which then blew bitterly against our faces,
928 Awak'd the sleeping rheum, and so by chance
929 Did grace our hollow parting with a tear.
930 KING RICHARD. What said our cousin when you parted with him?
931 AUMERLE. 'Farewell.'
932 And, for my heart disdained that my tongue
933 Should so profane the word, that taught me craft
934 To counterfeit oppression of such grief
935 That words seem'd buried in my sorrow's grave.
936 Marry, would the word 'farewell' have length'ned hours
937 And added years to his short banishment,
938 He should have had a volume of farewells;
939 But since it would not, he had none of me.
940 KING RICHARD. He is our cousin, cousin; but 'tis doubt,
941 When time shall call him home from banishment,
942 Whether our kinsman come to see his friends.
943 Ourself, and Bushy, Bagot here, and Green,
944 Observ'd his courtship to the common people;
945 How he did seem to dive into their hearts
946 With humble and familiar courtesy;
947 What reverence he did throw away on slaves,
948 Wooing poor craftsmen with the craft of smiles
949 And patient underbearing of his fortune,
950 As 'twere to banish their affects with him.
951 Off goes his bonnet to an oyster-wench;
952 A brace of draymen bid God speed him well
953 And had the tribute of his supple knee,
954 With 'Thanks, my countrymen, my loving friends';
955 As were our England in reversion his,
956 And he our subjects' next degree in hope.
957 GREEN. Well, he is gone; and with him go these thoughts!
958 Now for the rebels which stand out in Ireland,
959 Expedient manage must be made, my liege,
960 Ere further leisure yicld them further means
961 For their advantage and your Highness' loss.
962 KING RICHARD. We will ourself in person to this war;
963 And, for our coffers, with too great a court
964 And liberal largess, are grown somewhat light,
965 We are enforc'd to farm our royal realm;
966 The revenue whereof shall furnish us
967 For our affairs in hand. If that come short,
968 Our substitutes at home shall have blank charters;
969 Whereto, when they shall know what men are rich,
970 They shall subscribe them for large sums of gold,
971 And send them after to supply our wants;
972 For we will make for Ireland presently.
973
974 Enter BUSHY
975
976 Bushy, what news?
977 BUSHY. Old John of Gaunt is grievous sick, my lord,
978 Suddenly taken; and hath sent poste-haste
979 To entreat your Majesty to visit him.
980 KING RICHARD. Where lies he?
981 BUSHY. At Ely House.
982 KING RICHARD. Now put it, God, in the physician's mind
983 To help him to his grave immediately!
984 The lining of his coffers shall make coats
985 To deck our soldiers for these Irish wars.
986 Come, gentlemen, let's all go visit him.
987 Pray God we may make haste, and come too late!
988 ALL. Amen. Exeunt
989
990
991
992
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1001
1002
1003
1004ACT II. SCENE I.
1005London. Ely House
1006
1007Enter JOHN OF GAUNT, sick, with the DUKE OF YORK, etc.
1008
1009 GAUNT. Will the King come, that I may breathe my last
1010 In wholesome counsel to his unstaid youth?
1011 YORK. Vex not yourself, nor strive not with your breath;
1012 For all in vain comes counsel to his ear.
1013 GAUNT. O, but they say the tongues of dying men
1014 Enforce attention like deep harmony.
1015 Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain;
1016 For they breathe truth that breathe their words -in pain.
1017 He that no more must say is listen'd more
1018 Than they whom youth and ease have taught to glose;
1019 More are men's ends mark'd than their lives before.
1020 The setting sun, and music at the close,
1021 As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,
1022 Writ in remembrance more than things long past.
1023 Though Richard my life's counsel would not hear,
1024 My death's sad tale may yet undeaf his ear.
1025 YORK. No; it is stopp'd with other flattering sounds,
1026 As praises, of whose taste the wise are fond,
1027 Lascivious metres, to whose venom sound
1028 The open ear of youth doth always listen;
1029 Report of fashions in proud Italy,
1030 Whose manners still our tardy apish nation
1031 Limps after in base imitation.
1032 Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity-
1033 So it be new, there's no respect how vile-
1034 That is not quickly buzz'd into his ears?
1035 Then all too late comes counsel to be heard
1036 Where will doth mutiny with wit's regard.
1037 Direct not him whose way himself will choose.
1038 'Tis breath thou lack'st, and that breath wilt thou lose.
1039 GAUNT. Methinks I am a prophet new inspir'd,
1040 And thus expiring do foretell of him:
1041 His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last,
1042 For violent fires soon burn out themselves;
1043 Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short;
1044 He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes;
1045 With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder;
1046 Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,
1047 Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.
1048 This royal throne of kings, this scept'red isle,
1049 This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
1050 This other Eden, demi-paradise,
1051 This fortress built by Nature for herself
1052 Against infection and the hand of war,
1053 This happy breed of men, this little world,
1054 This precious stone set in the silver sea,
1055 Which serves it in the office of a wall,
1056 Or as a moat defensive to a house,
1057 Against the envy of less happier lands;
1058 This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
1059 This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
1060 Fear'd by their breed, and famous by their birth,
1061 Renowned for their deeds as far from home,
1062 For Christian service and true chivalry,
1063 As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry
1064 Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son;
1065 This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
1066 Dear for her reputation through the world,
1067 Is now leas'd out-I die pronouncing it-
1068 Like to a tenement or pelting farm.
1069 England, bound in with the triumphant sea,
1070 Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
1071 Of wat'ry Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
1072 With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds;
1073 That England, that was wont to conquer others,
1074 Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.
1075 Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life,
1076 How happy then were my ensuing death!
1077
1078 Enter KING and QUEEN, AUMERLE, BUSHY, GREEN, BAGOT,
1079 Ross, and WILLOUGHBY
1080
1081 YORK. The King is come; deal mildly with his youth,
1082 For young hot colts being rag'd do rage the more.
1083 QUEEN. How fares our noble uncle Lancaster?
1084 KING RICHARD. What comfort, man? How is't with aged Gaunt?
1085 GAUNT. O, how that name befits my composition!
1086 Old Gaunt, indeed; and gaunt in being old.
1087 Within me grief hath kept a tedious fast;
1088 And who abstains from meat that is not gaunt?
1089 For sleeping England long time have I watch'd;
1090 Watching breeds leanness, leanness is an gaunt.
1091 The pleasure that some fathers feed upon
1092 Is my strict fast-I mean my children's looks;
1093 And therein fasting, hast thou made me gaunt.
1094 Gaunt am I for the grave, gaunt as a grave,
1095 Whose hollow womb inherits nought but bones.
1096 KING RICHARD. Can sick men play so nicely with their names?
1097 GAUNT. No, misery makes sport to mock itself:
1098 Since thou dost seek to kill my name in me,
1099 I mock my name, great king, to flatter thee.
1100 KING RICHARD. Should dying men flatter with those that live?
1101 GAUNT. No, no; men living flatter those that die.
1102 KING RICHARD. Thou, now a-dying, sayest thou flatterest me.
1103 GAUNT. O, no! thou diest, though I the sicker be.
1104 KING RICHARD. I am in health, I breathe, and see thee ill.
1105 GAUNT. Now He that made me knows I see thee ill;
1106 Ill in myself to see, and in thee seeing ill.
1107 Thy death-bed is no lesser than thy land
1108 Wherein thou liest in reputation sick;
1109 And thou, too careless patient as thou art,
1110 Commit'st thy anointed body to the cure
1111 Of those physicians that first wounded thee:
1112 A thousand flatterers sit within thy crown,
1113 Whose compass is no bigger than thy head;
1114 And yet, incaged in so small a verge,
1115 The waste is no whit lesser than thy land.
1116 O, had thy grandsire with a prophet's eye
1117 Seen how his son's son should destroy his sons,
1118 From forth thy reach he would have laid thy shame,
1119 Deposing thee before thou wert possess'd,
1120 Which art possess'd now to depose thyself.
1121 Why, cousin, wert thou regent of the world,
1122 It were a shame to let this land by lease;
1123 But for thy world enjoying but this land,
1124 Is it not more than shame to shame it so?
1125 Landlord of England art thou now, not King.
1126 Thy state of law is bondslave to the law;
1127 And thou-
1128 KING RICHARD. A lunatic lean-witted fool,
1129 Presuming on an ague's privilege,
1130 Darest with thy frozen admonition
1131 Make pale our cheek, chasing the royal blood
1132 With fury from his native residence.
1133 Now by my seat's right royal majesty,
1134 Wert thou not brother to great Edward's son,
1135 This tongue that runs so roundly in thy head
1136 Should run thy head from thy unreverent shoulders.
1137 GAUNT. O, Spare me not, my brother Edward's son,
1138 For that I was his father Edward's son;
1139 That blood already, like the pelican,
1140 Hast thou tapp'd out, and drunkenly carous'd.
1141 My brother Gloucester, plain well-meaning soul-
1142 Whom fair befall in heaven 'mongst happy souls!-
1143 May be a precedent and witness good
1144 That thou respect'st not spilling Edward's blood.
1145 Join with the present sickness that I have;
1146 And thy unkindness be like crooked age,
1147 To crop at once a too long withered flower.
1148 Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee!
1149 These words hereafter thy tormentors be!
1150 Convey me to my bed, then to my grave.
1151 Love they to live that love and honour have.
1152 Exit, borne out by his attendants
1153 KING RICHARD. And let them die that age and sullens have;
1154 For both hast thou, and both become the grave.
1155 YORK. I do beseech your Majesty impute his words
1156 To wayward sickliness and age in him.
1157 He loves you, on my life, and holds you dear
1158 As Harry Duke of Hereford, were he here.
1159 KING RICHARD. Right, you say true: as Hereford's love, so his;
1160 As theirs, so mine; and all be as it is.
1161
1162 Enter NORTHUMBERLAND
1163
1164 NORTHUMBERLAND. My liege, old Gaunt commends him to your
1165Majesty.
1166 KING RICHARD. What says he?
1167 NORTHUMBERLAND. Nay, nothing; all is said.
1168 His tongue is now a stringless instrument;
1169 Words, life, and all, old Lancaster hath spent.
1170 YORK. Be York the next that must be bankrupt so!
1171 Though death be poor, it ends a mortal woe.
1172 KING RICHARD. The ripest fruit first falls, and so doth he;
1173 His time is spent, our pilgrimage must be.
1174 So much for that. Now for our Irish wars.
1175 We must supplant those rough rug-headed kerns,
1176 Which live like venom where no venom else
1177 But only they have privilege to live.
1178 And for these great affairs do ask some charge,
1179 Towards our assistance we do seize to us
1180 The plate, coin, revenues, and moveables,
1181 Whereof our uncle Gaunt did stand possess'd.
1182 YORK. How long shall I be patient? Ah, how long
1183 Shall tender duty make me suffer wrong?
1184 Not Gloucester's death, nor Hereford's banishment,
1185 Nor Gaunt's rebukes, nor England's private wrongs,
1186 Nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke
1187 About his marriage, nor my own disgrace,
1188 Have ever made me sour my patient cheek
1189 Or bend one wrinkle on my sovereign's face.
1190 I am the last of noble Edward's sons,
1191 Of whom thy father, Prince of Wales, was first.
1192 In war was never lion rag'd more fierce,
1193 In peace was never gentle lamb more mild,
1194 Than was that young and princely gentleman.
1195 His face thou hast, for even so look'd he,
1196 Accomplish'd with the number of thy hours;
1197 But when he frown'd, it was against the French
1198 And not against his friends. His noble hand
1199 Did win what he did spend, and spent not that
1200 Which his triumphant father's hand had won.
1201 His hands were guilty of no kindred blood,
1202 But bloody with the enemies of his kin.
1203 O Richard! York is too far gone with grief,
1204 Or else he never would compare between-
1205 KING RICHARD. Why, uncle, what's the matter?
1206 YORK. O my liege,
1207 Pardon me, if you please; if not, I, pleas'd
1208 Not to be pardoned, am content withal.
1209 Seek you to seize and gripe into your hands
1210 The royalties and rights of banish'd Hereford?
1211 Is not Gaunt dead? and doth not Hereford live?
1212 Was not Gaunt just? and is not Harry true?
1213 Did not the one deserve to have an heir?
1214 Is not his heir a well-deserving son?
1215 Take Hereford's rights away, and take from Time
1216 His charters and his customary rights;
1217 Let not to-morrow then ensue to-day;
1218 Be not thyself-for how art thou a king
1219 But by fair sequence and succession?
1220 Now, afore God-God forbid I say true!-
1221 If you do wrongfully seize Hereford's rights,
1222 Call in the letters patents that he hath
1223 By his attorneys-general to sue
1224 His livery, and deny his off'red homage,
1225 You pluck a thousand dangers on your head,
1226 You lose a thousand well-disposed hearts,
1227 And prick my tender patience to those thoughts
1228 Which honour and allegiance cannot think.
1229 KING RICHARD. Think what you will, we seize into our hands
1230 His plate, his goods, his money, and his lands.
1231 YORK. I'll not be by the while. My liege, farewell.
1232 What will ensue hereof there's none can tell;
1233 But by bad courses may be understood
1234 That their events can never fall out good. Exit
1235 KING RICHARD. Go, Bushy, to the Earl of Wiltshire straight;
1236 Bid him repair to us to Ely House
1237 To see this business. To-morrow next
1238 We will for Ireland; and 'tis time, I trow.
1239 And we create, in absence of ourself,
1240 Our Uncle York Lord Governor of England;
1241 For he is just, and always lov'd us well.
1242 Come on, our queen; to-morrow must we part;
1243 Be merry, for our time of stay is short.
1244 Flourish. Exeunt KING, QUEEN, BUSHY, AUMERLE,
1245 GREEN, and BAGOT
1246 NORTHUMBERLAND. Well, lords, the Duke of Lancaster is dead.
1247 Ross. And living too; for now his son is Duke.
1248 WILLOUGHBY. Barely in title, not in revenues.
1249 NORTHUMBERLAND. Richly in both, if justice had her right.
1250 ROSS. My heart is great; but it must break with silence,
1251 Ere't be disburdened with a liberal tongue.
1252 NORTHUMBERLAND. Nay, speak thy mind; and let him ne'er speak
1253more
1254 That speaks thy words again to do thee harm!
1255 WILLOUGHBY. Tends that thou wouldst speak to the Duke of
1256Hereford?
1257 If it be so, out with it boldly, man;
1258 Quick is mine ear to hear of good towards him.
1259 ROSS. No good at all that I can do for him;
1260 Unless you call it good to pity him,
1261 Bereft and gelded of his patrimony.
1262 NORTHUMBERLAND. Now, afore God, 'tis shame such wrongs are
1263borne
1264 In him, a royal prince, and many moe
1265 Of noble blood in this declining land.
1266 The King is not himself, but basely led
1267 By flatterers; and what they will inform,
1268 Merely in hate, 'gainst any of us an,
1269 That will the King severely prosecute
1270 'Gainst us, our lives, our children, and our heirs.
1271 ROSS. The commons hath he pill'd with grievous taxes;
1272 And quite lost their hearts; the nobles hath he find
1273 For ancient quarrels and quite lost their hearts.
1274 WILLOUGHBY. And daily new exactions are devis'd,
1275 As blanks, benevolences, and I wot not what;
1276 But what, a God's name, doth become of this?
1277 NORTHUMBERLAND. Wars hath not wasted it, for warr'd he hath
1278not,
1279 But basely yielded upon compromise
1280 That which his noble ancestors achiev'd with blows.
1281 More hath he spent in peace than they in wars.
1282 ROSS. The Earl of Wiltshire hath the realm in farm.
1283 WILLOUGHBY. The King's grown bankrupt like a broken man.
1284 NORTHUMBERLAND. Reproach and dissolution hangeth over him.
1285 ROSS. He hath not money for these Irish wars,
1286 His burdenous taxations notwithstanding,
1287 But by the robbing of the banish'd Duke.
1288 NORTHUMBERLAND. His noble kinsman-most degenerate king!
1289 But, lords, we hear this fearful tempest sing,
1290 Yet seek no shelter to avoid the storm;
1291 We see the wind sit sore upon our sails,
1292 And yet we strike not, but securely perish.
1293 ROSS. We see the very wreck that we must suffer;
1294 And unavoided is the danger now
1295 For suffering so the causes of our wreck.
1296 NORTHUMBERLAND. Not so; even through the hollow eyes of death
1297 I spy life peering; but I dare not say
1298 How near the tidings of our comfort is.
1299 WILLOUGHBY. Nay, let us share thy thoughts as thou dost ours.
1300 ROSS. Be confident to speak, Northumberland.
1301 We three are but thyself, and, speaking so,
1302 Thy words are but as thoughts; therefore be bold.
1303 NORTHUMBERLAND. Then thus: I have from Le Port Blanc, a bay
1304 In Brittany, receiv'd intelligence
1305 That Harry Duke of Hereford, Rainold Lord Cobham,
1306 That late broke from the Duke of Exeter,
1307 His brother, Archbishop late of Canterbury,
1308 Sir Thomas Erpingham, Sir John Ramston,
1309 Sir John Norbery, Sir Robert Waterton, and Francis Quoint-
1310 All these, well furnish'd by the Duke of Britaine,
1311 With eight tall ships, three thousand men of war,
1312 Are making hither with all due expedience,
1313 And shortly mean to touch our northern shore.
1314 Perhaps they had ere this, but that they stay
1315 The first departing of the King for Ireland.
1316 If then we shall shake off our slavish yoke,
1317 Imp out our drooping country's broken wing,
1318 Redeem from broking pawn the blemish'd crown,
1319 Wipe off the dust that hides our sceptre's gilt,
1320 And make high majesty look like itself,
1321 Away with me in post to Ravenspurgh;
1322 But if you faint, as fearing to do so,
1323 Stay and be secret, and myself will go.
1324 ROSS. To horse, to horse! Urge doubts to them that fear.
1325 WILLOUGHBY. Hold out my horse, and I will first be there.
1326 Exeunt
1327
1328
1329
1330
1331SCENE 2.
1332Windsor Castle
1333
1334Enter QUEEN, BUSHY, and BAGOT
1335
1336 BUSHY. Madam, your Majesty is too much sad.
1337 You promis'd, when you parted with the King,
1338 To lay aside life-harming heaviness
1339 And entertain a cheerful disposition.
1340 QUEEN. To please the King, I did; to please myself
1341 I cannot do it; yet I know no cause
1342 Why I should welcome such a guest as grief,
1343 Save bidding farewell to so sweet a guest
1344 As my sweet Richard. Yet again methinks
1345 Some unborn sorrow, ripe in fortune's womb,
1346 Is coming towards me, and my inward soul
1347 With nothing trembles. At some thing it grieves
1348 More than with parting from my lord the King.
1349 BUSHY. Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows,
1350 Which shows like grief itself, but is not so;
1351 For sorrow's eye, glazed with blinding tears,
1352 Divides one thing entire to many objects,
1353 Like perspectives which, rightly gaz'd upon,
1354 Show nothing but confusion-ey'd awry,
1355 Distinguish form. So your sweet Majesty,
1356 Looking awry upon your lord's departure,
1357 Find shapes of grief more than himself to wail;
1358 Which, look'd on as it is, is nought but shadows
1359 Of what it is not. Then, thrice-gracious Queen,
1360 More than your lord's departure weep not-more is not seen;
1361 Or if it be, 'tis with false sorrow's eye,
1362 Which for things true weeps things imaginary.
1363 QUEEN. It may be so; but yet my inward soul
1364 Persuades me it is otherwise. Howe'er it be,
1365 I cannot but be sad; so heavy sad
1366 As-though, on thinking, on no thought I think-
1367 Makes me with heavy nothing faint and shrink.
1368 BUSHY. 'Tis nothing but conceit, my gracious lady.
1369 QUEEN. 'Tis nothing less: conceit is still deriv'd
1370 From some forefather grief; mine is not so,
1371 For nothing hath begot my something grief,
1372 Or something hath the nothing that I grieve;
1373 'Tis in reversion that I do possess-
1374 But what it is that is not yet known what,
1375 I cannot name; 'tis nameless woe, I wot.
1376
1377 Enter GREEN
1378
1379 GREEN. God save your Majesty! and well met, gentlemen.
1380 I hope the King is not yet shipp'd for Ireland.
1381 QUEEN. Why hopest thou so? 'Tis better hope he is;
1382 For his designs crave haste, his haste good hope.
1383 Then wherefore dost thou hope he is not shipp'd?
1384 GREEN. That he, our hope, might have retir'd his power
1385 And driven into despair an enemy's hope
1386 Who strongly hath set footing in this land.
1387 The banish'd Bolingbroke repeals himself,
1388 And with uplifted arms is safe arriv'd
1389 At Ravenspurgh.
1390 QUEEN. Now God in heaven forbid!
1391 GREEN. Ah, madam, 'tis too true; and that is worse,
1392 The Lord Northumberland, his son young Henry Percy,
1393 The Lords of Ross, Beaumond, and Willoughby,
1394 With all their powerful friends, are fled to him.
1395 BUSHY. Why have you not proclaim'd Northumberland
1396 And all the rest revolted faction traitors?
1397 GREEN. We have; whereupon the Earl of Worcester
1398 Hath broken his staff, resign'd his stewardship,
1399 And all the household servants fled with him
1400 To Bolingbroke.
1401 QUEEN. So, Green, thou art the midwife to my woe,
1402 And Bolingbroke my sorrow's dismal heir.
1403 Now hath my soul brought forth her prodigy;
1404 And I, a gasping new-deliver'd mother,
1405 Have woe to woe, sorrow to sorrow join'd.
1406 BUSHY. Despair not, madam.
1407 QUEEN. Who shall hinder me?
1408 I will despair, and be at enmity
1409 With cozening hope-he is a flatterer,
1410 A parasite, a keeper-back of death,
1411 Who gently would dissolve the bands of life,
1412 Which false hope lingers in extremity.
1413
1414 Enter YORK
1415
1416 GREEN. Here comes the Duke of York.
1417 QUEEN. With signs of war about his aged neck.
1418 O, full of careful business are his looks!
1419 Uncle, for God's sake, speak comfortable words.
1420 YORK. Should I do so, I should belie my thoughts.
1421 Comfort's in heaven; and we are on the earth,
1422 Where nothing lives but crosses, cares, and grief.
1423 Your husband, he is gone to save far off,
1424 Whilst others come to make him lose at home.
1425 Here am I left to underprop his land,
1426 Who, weak with age, cannot support myself.
1427 Now comes the sick hour that his surfeit made;
1428 Now shall he try his friends that flatter'd him.
1429
1430 Enter a SERVINGMAN
1431
1432 SERVINGMAN. My lord, your son was gone before I came.
1433 YORK. He was-why so go all which way it will!
1434 The nobles they are fled, the commons they are cold
1435 And will, I fear, revolt on Hereford's side.
1436 Sirrah, get thee to Plashy, to my sister Gloucester;
1437 Bid her send me presently a thousand pound.
1438 Hold, take my ring.
1439 SERVINGMAN. My lord, I had forgot to tell your lordship,
1440 To-day, as I came by, I called there-
1441 But I shall grieve you to report the rest.
1442 YORK. What is't, knave?
1443 SERVINGMAN. An hour before I came, the Duchess died.
1444 YORK. God for his mercy! what a tide of woes
1445 Comes rushing on this woeful land at once!
1446 I know not what to do. I would to God,
1447 So my untruth had not provok'd him to it,
1448 The King had cut off my head with my brother's.
1449 What, are there no posts dispatch'd for Ireland?
1450 How shall we do for money for these wars?
1451 Come, sister-cousin, I would say-pray, pardon me.
1452 Go, fellow, get thee home, provide some carts,
1453 And bring away the armour that is there.
1454 Exit SERVINGMAN
1455 Gentlemen, will you go muster men?
1456 If I know how or which way to order these affairs
1457 Thus disorderly thrust into my hands,
1458 Never believe me. Both are my kinsmen.
1459 T'one is my sovereign, whom both my oath
1460 And duty bids defend; t'other again
1461 Is my kinsman, whom the King hath wrong'd,
1462 Whom conscience and my kindred bids to right.
1463 Well, somewhat we must do.-Come, cousin,
1464 I'll dispose of you. Gentlemen, go muster up your men
1465 And meet me presently at Berkeley.
1466 I should to Plashy too,
1467 But time will not permit. All is uneven,
1468 And everything is left at six and seven.
1469 Exeunt YORK and QUEEN
1470 BUSHY. The wind sits fair for news to go to Ireland.
1471 But none returns. For us to levy power
1472 Proportionable to the enemy
1473 Is all unpossible.
1474 GREEN. Besides, our nearness to the King in love
1475 Is near the hate of those love not the King.
1476 BAGOT. And that is the wavering commons; for their love
1477 Lies in their purses; and whoso empties them,
1478 By so much fills their hearts with deadly hate.
1479 BUSHY. Wherein the King stands generally condemn'd.
1480 BAGOT. If judgment lie in them, then so do we,
1481 Because we ever have been near the King.
1482 GREEN. Well, I will for refuge straight to Bristow Castle.
1483 The Earl of Wiltshire is already there.
1484 BUSHY. Thither will I with you; for little office
1485 Will the hateful commons perform for us,
1486 Except Eke curs to tear us all to pieces.
1487 Will you go along with us?
1488 BAGOT. No; I will to Ireland to his Majesty.
1489 Farewell. If heart's presages be not vain,
1490 We three here part that ne'er shall meet again.
1491 BUSHY. That's as York thrives to beat back Bolingbroke.
1492 GREEN. Alas, poor Duke! the task he undertakes
1493 Is numb'ring sands and drinking oceans dry.
1494 Where one on his side fights, thousands will fly.
1495 Farewell at once-for once, for all, and ever.
1496 BUSHY. Well, we may meet again.
1497 BAGOT. I fear me, never. Exeunt
1498
1499
1500
1501
1502SCENE 3.
1503Gloucestershire
1504
1505Enter BOLINGBROKE and NORTHUMBERLAND, forces
1506
1507 BOLINGBROKE. How far is it, my lord, to Berkeley now?
1508 NORTHUMBERLAND. Believe me, noble lord,
1509 I am a stranger here in Gloucestershire.
1510 These high wild hills and rough uneven ways
1511 Draws out our miles, and makes them wearisome;
1512 And yet your fair discourse hath been as sugar,
1513 Making the hard way sweet and delectable.
1514 But I bethink me what a weary way
1515 From Ravenspurgh to Cotswold will be found
1516 In Ross and Willoughby, wanting your company,
1517 Which, I protest, hath very much beguil'd
1518 The tediousness and process of my travel.
1519 But theirs is sweet'ned with the hope to have
1520 The present benefit which I possess;
1521 And hope to joy is little less in joy
1522 Than hope enjoy'd. By this the weary lords
1523 Shall make their way seem short, as mine hath done
1524 By sight of what I have, your noble company.
1525 BOLINGBROKE. Of much less value is my company
1526 Than your good words. But who comes here?
1527
1528 Enter HARRY PERCY
1529
1530 NORTHUMBERLAND. It is my son, young Harry Percy,
1531 Sent from my brother Worcester, whencesoever.
1532 Harry, how fares your uncle?
1533 PERCY. I had thought, my lord, to have learn'd his health of
1534you.
1535 NORTHUMBERLAND. Why, is he not with the Queen?
1536 PERCY. No, my good lord; he hath forsook the court,
1537 Broken his staff of office, and dispers'd
1538 The household of the King.
1539 NORTHUMBERLAND. What was his reason?
1540 He was not so resolv'd when last we spake together.
1541 PERCY. Because your lordship was proclaimed traitor.
1542 But he, my lord, is gone to Ravenspurgh,
1543 To offer service to the Duke of Hereford;
1544 And sent me over by Berkeley, to discover
1545 What power the Duke of York had levied there;
1546 Then with directions to repair to Ravenspurgh.
1547 NORTHUMBERLAND. Have you forgot the Duke of Hereford, boy?
1548 PERCY. No, my good lord; for that is not forgot
1549 Which ne'er I did remember; to my knowledge,
1550 I never in my life did look on him.
1551 NORTHUMBERLAND. Then learn to know him now; this is the Duke.
1552 PERCY. My gracious lord, I tender you my service,
1553 Such as it is, being tender, raw, and young;
1554 Which elder days shall ripen, and confirm
1555 To more approved service and desert.
1556 BOLINGBROKE. I thank thee, gentle Percy; and be sure
1557 I count myself in nothing else so happy
1558 As in a soul rememb'ring my good friends;
1559 And as my fortune ripens with thy love,
1560 It shall be still thy true love's recompense.
1561 My heart this covenant makes, my hand thus seals it.
1562 NORTHUMBERLAND. How far is it to Berkeley? And what stir
1563 Keeps good old York there with his men of war?
1564 PERCY. There stands the castle, by yon tuft of trees,
1565 Mann'd with three hundred men, as I have heard;
1566 And in it are the Lords of York, Berkeley, and Seymour-
1567 None else of name and noble estimate.
1568
1569 Enter Ross and WILLOUGHBY
1570
1571 NORTHUMBERLAND. Here come the Lords of Ross and Willoughby,
1572 Bloody with spurring, fiery-red with haste.
1573 BOLINGBROKE. Welcome, my lords. I wot your love pursues
1574 A banish'd traitor. All my treasury
1575 Is yet but unfelt thanks, which, more enrich'd,
1576 Shall be your love and labour's recompense.
1577 ROSS. Your presence makes us rich, most noble lord.
1578 WILLOUGHBY. And far surmounts our labour to attain it.
1579 BOLINGBROKE. Evermore thanks, the exchequer of the poor;
1580 Which, till my infant fortune comes to years,
1581 Stands for my bounty. But who comes here?
1582
1583 Enter BERKELEY
1584
1585 NORTHUMBERLAND. It is my Lord of Berkeley, as I guess.
1586 BERKELEY. My Lord of Hereford, my message is to you.
1587 BOLINGBROKE. My lord, my answer is-'to Lancaster';
1588 And I am come to seek that name in England;
1589 And I must find that title in your tongue
1590 Before I make reply to aught you say.
1591 BERKELEY. Mistake me not, my lord; 'tis not my meaning
1592 To raze one title of your honour out.
1593 To you, my lord, I come-what lord you will-
1594 From the most gracious regent of this land,
1595 The Duke of York, to know what pricks you on
1596 To take advantage of the absent time,
1597 And fright our native peace with self-borne arms.
1598
1599 Enter YORK, attended
1600
1601 BOLINGBROKE. I shall not need transport my words by you;
1602 Here comes his Grace in person. My noble uncle!
1603 [Kneels]
1604 YORK. Show me thy humble heart, and not thy knee,
1605 Whose duty is deceivable and false.
1606 BOLINGBROKE. My gracious uncle!-
1607 YORK. Tut, tut!
1608 Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle.
1609 I am no traitor's uncle; and that word 'grace'
1610 In an ungracious mouth is but profane.
1611 Why have those banish'd and forbidden legs
1612 Dar'd once to touch a dust of England's ground?
1613 But then more 'why?'-why have they dar'd to march
1614 So many miles upon her peaceful bosom,
1615 Frighting her pale-fac'd villages with war
1616 And ostentation of despised arms?
1617 Com'st thou because the anointed King is hence?
1618 Why, foolish boy, the King is left behind,
1619 And in my loyal bosom lies his power.
1620 Were I but now lord of such hot youth
1621 As when brave Gaunt, thy father, and myself
1622 Rescued the Black Prince, that young Mars of men,
1623 From forth the ranks of many thousand French,
1624 O, then how quickly should this arm of mine,
1625 Now prisoner to the palsy, chastise the
1626 And minister correction to thy fault!
1627 BOLINGBROKE My gracious uncle, let me know my fault;
1628 On what condition stands it and wherein?
1629 YORK. Even in condition of the worst degree-
1630 In gross rebellion and detested treason.
1631 Thou art a banish'd man, and here art come
1632 Before the expiration of thy time,
1633 In braving arms against thy sovereign.
1634 BOLINGBROKE. As I was banish'd, I was banish'd Hereford;
1635 But as I come, I come for Lancaster.
1636 And, noble uncle, I beseech your Grace
1637 Look on my wrongs with an indifferent eye.
1638 You are my father, for methinks in you
1639 I see old Gaunt alive. O, then, my father,
1640 Will you permit that I shall stand condemn'd
1641 A wandering vagabond; my rights and royalties
1642 Pluck'd from my arms perforce, and given away
1643 To upstart unthrifts? Wherefore was I born?
1644 If that my cousin king be King in England,
1645 It must be granted I am Duke of Lancaster.
1646 You have a son, Aumerle, my noble cousin;
1647 Had you first died, and he been thus trod down,
1648 He should have found his uncle Gaunt a father
1649 To rouse his wrongs and chase them to the bay.
1650 I am denied to sue my livery here,
1651 And yet my letters patents give me leave.
1652 My father's goods are all distrain'd and sold;
1653 And these and all are all amiss employ'd.
1654 What would you have me do? I am a subject,
1655 And I challenge law-attorneys are denied me;
1656 And therefore personally I lay my claim
1657 To my inheritance of free descent.
1658 NORTHUMBERLAND. The noble Duke hath been too much abused.
1659 ROSS. It stands your Grace upon to do him right.
1660 WILLOUGHBY. Base men by his endowments are made great.
1661 YORK. My lords of England, let me tell you this:
1662 I have had feeling of my cousin's wrongs,
1663 And labour'd all I could to do him right;
1664 But in this kind to come, in braving arms,
1665 Be his own carver and cut out his way,
1666 To find out right with wrong-it may not be;
1667 And you that do abet him in this kind
1668 Cherish rebellion, and are rebels all.
1669 NORTHUMBERLAND. The noble Duke hath sworn his coming is
1670 But for his own; and for the right of that
1671 We all have strongly sworn to give him aid;
1672 And let him never see joy that breaks that oath!
1673 YORK. Well, well, I see the issue of these arms.
1674 I cannot mend it, I must needs confess,
1675 Because my power is weak and all ill left;
1676 But if I could, by Him that gave me life,
1677 I would attach you all and make you stoop
1678 Unto the sovereign mercy of the King;
1679 But since I cannot, be it known unto you
1680 I do remain as neuter. So, fare you well;
1681 Unless you please to enter in the castle,
1682 And there repose you for this night.
1683 BOLINGBROKE. An offer, uncle, that we will accept.
1684 But we must win your Grace to go with us
1685 To Bristow Castle, which they say is held
1686 By Bushy, Bagot, and their complices,
1687 The caterpillars of the commonwealth,
1688 Which I have sworn to weed and pluck away.
1689 YORK. It may be I will go with you; but yet I'll pause,
1690 For I am loath to break our country's laws.
1691 Nor friends nor foes, to me welcome you are.
1692 Things past redress are now with me past care. Exeunt
1693
1694
1695
1696
1697SCENE 4.
1698A camp in Wales
1699
1700Enter EARL OF SALISBURY and a WELSH CAPTAIN
1701
1702 CAPTAIN. My Lord of Salisbury, we have stay'd ten days
1703 And hardly kept our countrymen together,
1704 And yet we hear no tidings from the King;
1705 Therefore we will disperse ourselves. Farewell.
1706 SALISBURY. Stay yet another day, thou trusty Welshman;
1707 The King reposeth all his confidence in thee.
1708 CAPTAIN. 'Tis thought the King is dead; we will not stay.
1709 The bay trees in our country are all wither'd,
1710 And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven;
1711 The pale-fac'd moon looks bloody on the earth,
1712 And lean-look'd prophets whisper fearful change;
1713 Rich men look sad, and ruffians dance and leap-
1714 The one in fear to lose what they enjoy,
1715 The other to enjoy by rage and war.
1716 These signs forerun the death or fall of kings.
1717 Farewell. Our countrymen are gone and fled,
1718 As well assur'd Richard their King is dead. Exit
1719 SALISBURY. Ah, Richard, with the eyes of heavy mind,
1720 I see thy glory like a shooting star
1721 Fall to the base earth from the firmament!
1722 The sun sets weeping in the lowly west,
1723 Witnessing storms to come, woe, and unrest;
1724 Thy friends are fled, to wait upon thy foes;
1725 And crossly to thy good all fortune goes. Exit
1726
1727
1728
1729
1730<<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
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1739
1740
1741ACT III. SCENE I.
1742BOLINGBROKE'S camp at Bristol
1743
1744Enter BOLINGBROKE, YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, ROSS, WILLOUGHBY,
1745BUSHY and GREEN, prisoners
1746
1747 BOLINGBROKE. Bring forth these men.
1748 Bushy and Green, I will not vex your souls-
1749 Since presently your souls must part your bodies-
1750 With too much urging your pernicious lives,
1751 For 'twere no charity; yet, to wash your blood
1752 From off my hands, here in the view of men
1753 I will unfold some causes of your deaths:
1754 You have misled a prince, a royal king,
1755 A happy gentleman in blood and lineaments,
1756 By you unhappied and disfigured clean;
1757 You have in manner with your sinful hours
1758 Made a divorce betwixt his queen and him;
1759 Broke the possession of a royal bed,
1760 And stain'd the beauty of a fair queen's cheeks
1761 With tears drawn from her eyes by your foul wrongs;
1762 Myself-a prince by fortune of my birth,
1763 Near to the King in blood, and near in love
1764 Till you did make him misinterpret me-
1765 Have stoop'd my neck under your injuries
1766 And sigh'd my English breath in foreign clouds,
1767 Eating the bitter bread of banishment,
1768 Whilst you have fed upon my signories,
1769 Dispark'd my parks and fell'd my forest woods,
1770 From my own windows torn my household coat,
1771 Raz'd out my imprese, leaving me no sign
1772 Save men's opinions and my living blood
1773 To show the world I am a gentleman.
1774 This and much more, much more than twice all this,
1775 Condemns you to the death. See them delivered over
1776 To execution and the hand of death.
1777 BUSHY. More welcome is the stroke of death to me
1778 Than Bolingbroke to England. Lords, farewell.
1779 GREEN. My comfort is that heaven will take our souls,
1780 And plague injustice with the pains of hell.
1781 BOLINGBROKE. My Lord Northumberland, see them dispatch'd.
1782 Exeunt NORTHUMBERLAND, and others, with the prisoners
1783 Uncle, you say the Queen is at your house;
1784 For God's sake, fairly let her be entreated.
1785 Tell her I send to her my kind commends;
1786 Take special care my greetings be delivered.
1787 YORK. A gentleman of mine I have dispatch'd
1788 With letters of your love to her at large.
1789 BOLINGBROKE. Thanks, gentle uncle. Come, lords, away,
1790 To fight with Glendower and his complices.
1791 Awhile to work, and after holiday. Exeunt
1792
1793
1794
1795
1796SCENE 2.
1797The coast of Wales. A castle in view
1798
1799Drums. Flourish and colours. Enter the KING, the BISHOP OF
1800CARLISLE,
1801AUMERLE, and soldiers
1802
1803 KING RICHARD. Barkloughly Castle can they this at hand?
1804 AUMERLE. Yea, my lord. How brooks your Grace the air
1805 After your late tossing on the breaking seas?
1806 KING RICHARD. Needs must I like it well. I weep for joy
1807 To stand upon my kingdom once again.
1808 Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand,
1809 Though rebels wound thee with their horses' hoofs.
1810 As a long-parted mother with her child
1811 Plays fondly with her tears and smiles in meeting,
1812 So weeping-smiling greet I thee, my earth,
1813 And do thee favours with my royal hands.
1814 Feed not thy sovereign's foe, my gentle earth,
1815 Nor with thy sweets comfort his ravenous sense;
1816 But let thy spiders, that suck up thy venom,
1817 And heavy-gaited toads, lie in their way,
1818 Doing annoyance to the treacherous feet
1819 Which with usurping steps do trample thee;
1820 Yield stinging nettles to mine enemies;
1821 And when they from thy bosom pluck a flower,
1822 Guard it, I pray thee, with a lurking adder,
1823 Whose double tongue may with a mortal touch
1824 Throw death upon thy sovereign's enemies.
1825 Mock not my senseless conjuration, lords.
1826 This earth shall have a feeling, and these stones
1827 Prove armed soldiers, ere her native king
1828 Shall falter under foul rebellion's arms.
1829 CARLISLE. Fear not, my lord; that Power that made you king
1830 Hath power to keep you king in spite of all.
1831 The means that heaven yields must be embrac'd
1832 And not neglected; else, if heaven would,
1833 And we will not, heaven's offer we refuse,
1834 The proffered means of succour and redress.
1835 AUMERLE. He means, my lord, that we are too remiss;
1836 Whilst Bolingbroke, through our security,
1837 Grows strong and great in substance and in power.
1838 KING RICHARD. Discomfortable cousin! know'st thou not
1839 That when the searching eye of heaven is hid,
1840 Behind the globe, that lights the lower world,
1841 Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen
1842 In murders and in outrage boldly here;
1843 But when from under this terrestrial ball
1844 He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines
1845 And darts his light through every guilty hole,
1846 Then murders, treasons, and detested sins,
1847 The cloak of night being pluck'd from off their backs,
1848 Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves?
1849 So when this thief, this traitor, Bolingbroke,
1850 Who all this while hath revell'd in the night,
1851 Whilst we were wand'ring with the Antipodes,
1852 Shall see us rising in our throne, the east,
1853 His treasons will sit blushing in his face,
1854 Not able to endure the sight of day,
1855 But self-affrighted tremble at his sin.
1856 Not all the water in the rough rude sea
1857 Can wash the balm off from an anointed king;
1858 The breath of worldly men cannot depose
1859 The deputy elected by the Lord.
1860 For every man that Bolingbroke hath press'd
1861 To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown,
1862 God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay
1863 A glorious angel. Then, if angels fight,
1864 Weak men must fall; for heaven still guards the right.
1865
1866 Enter SALISBURY
1867
1868 Welcome, my lord. How far off lies your power?
1869 SALISBURY. Nor near nor farther off, my gracious lord,
1870 Than this weak arm. Discomfort guides my tongue,
1871 And bids me speak of nothing but despair.
1872 One day too late, I fear me, noble lord,
1873 Hath clouded all thy happy days on earth.
1874 O, call back yesterday, bid time return,
1875 And thou shalt have twelve thousand fighting men!
1876 To-day, to-day, unhappy day, too late,
1877 O'erthrows thy joys, friends, fortune, and thy state;
1878 For all the Welshmen, hearing thou wert dead,
1879 Are gone to Bolingbroke, dispers'd, and fled.
1880 AUMERLE. Comfort, my liege, why looks your Grace so pale?
1881 KING RICHARD. But now the blood of twenty thousand men
1882 Did triumph in my face, and they are fled;
1883 And, till so much blood thither come again,
1884 Have I not reason to look pale and dead?
1885 All souls that will be safe, fly from my side;
1886 For time hath set a blot upon my pride.
1887 AUMERLE. Comfort, my liege; remember who you are.
1888 KING RICHARD. I had forgot myself; am I not King?
1889 Awake, thou coward majesty! thou sleepest.
1890 Is not the King's name twenty thousand names?
1891 Arm, arm, my name! a puny subject strikes
1892 At thy great glory. Look not to the ground,
1893 Ye favourites of a king; are we not high?
1894 High be our thoughts. I know my uncle York
1895 Hath power enough to serve our turn. But who comes here?
1896
1897 Enter SCROOP
1898
1899 SCROOP. More health and happiness betide my liege
1900 Than can my care-tun'd tongue deliver him.
1901 KING RICHARD. Mine ear is open and my heart prepar'd.
1902 The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold.
1903 Say, is my kingdom lost? Why, 'twas my care,
1904 And what loss is it to be rid of care?
1905 Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we?
1906 Greater he shall not be; if he serve God,
1907 We'll serve him too, and be his fellow so.
1908 Revolt our subjects? That we cannot mend;
1909 They break their faith to God as well as us.
1910 Cry woe, destruction, ruin, and decay-
1911 The worst is death, and death will have his day.
1912 SCROOP. Glad am I that your Highness is so arm'd
1913 To bear the tidings of calamity.
1914 Like an unseasonable stormy day
1915 Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores,
1916 As if the world were all dissolv'd to tears,
1917 So high above his limits swells the rage
1918 Of Bolingbroke, covering your fearful land
1919 With hard bright steel and hearts harder than steel.
1920 White-beards have arm'd their thin and hairless scalps
1921 Against thy majesty; boys, with women's voices,
1922 Strive to speak big, and clap their female joints
1923 In stiff unwieldy arms against thy crown;
1924 Thy very beadsmen learn to bend their bows
1925 Of double-fatal yew against thy state;
1926 Yea, distaff-women manage rusty bills
1927 Against thy seat: both young and old rebel,
1928 And all goes worse than I have power to tell.
1929 KING RICHARD. Too well, too well thou tell'st a tale so in.
1930 Where is the Earl of Wiltshire? Where is Bagot?
1931 What is become of Bushy? Where is Green?
1932 That they have let the dangerous enemy
1933 Measure our confines with such peaceful steps?
1934 If we prevail, their heads shall pay for it.
1935 I warrant they have made peace with Bolingbroke.
1936 SCROOP. Peace have they made with him indeed, my lord.
1937 KING RICHARD. O villains, vipers, damn'd without redemption!
1938 Dogs, easily won to fawn on any man!
1939 Snakes, in my heart-blood warm'd, that sting my heart!
1940 Three Judases, each one thrice worse than Judas!
1941 Would they make peace? Terrible hell make war
1942 Upon their spotted souls for this offence!
1943 SCROOP. Sweet love, I see, changing his property,
1944 Turns to the sourest and most deadly hate.
1945 Again uncurse their souls; their peace is made
1946 With heads, and not with hands; those whom you curse
1947 Have felt the worst of death's destroying wound
1948 And lie full low, grav'd in the hollow ground.
1949 AUMERLE. Is Bushy, Green, and the Earl of Wiltshire dead?
1950 SCROOP. Ay, all of them at Bristow lost their heads.
1951 AUMERLE. Where is the Duke my father with his power?
1952 KING RICHARD. No matter where-of comfort no man speak.
1953 Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;
1954 Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes
1955 Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth.
1956 Let's choose executors and talk of wills;
1957 And yet not so-for what can we bequeath
1958 Save our deposed bodies to the ground?
1959 Our lands, our lives, and an, are Bolingbroke's.
1960 And nothing can we can our own but death
1961 And that small model of the barren earth
1962 Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.
1963 For God's sake let us sit upon the ground
1964 And tell sad stories of the death of kings:
1965 How some have been depos'd, some slain in war,
1966 Some haunted by the ghosts they have depos'd,
1967 Some poison'd by their wives, some sleeping kill'd,
1968 All murder'd-for within the hollow crown
1969 That rounds the mortal temples of a king
1970 Keeps Death his court; and there the antic sits,
1971 Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp;
1972 Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
1973 To monarchize, be fear'd, and kill with looks;
1974 Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
1975 As if this flesh which walls about our life
1976 Were brass impregnable; and, humour'd thus,
1977 Comes at the last, and with a little pin
1978 Bores through his castle wall, and farewell, king!
1979 Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood
1980 With solemn reverence; throw away respect,
1981 Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty;
1982 For you have but mistook me all this while.
1983 I live with bread like you, feel want,
1984 Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus,
1985 How can you say to me I am a king?
1986 CARLISLE. My lord, wise men ne'er sit and wail their woes,
1987 But presently prevent the ways to wail.
1988 To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength,
1989 Gives, in your weakness, strength unto your foe,
1990 And so your follies fight against yourself.
1991 Fear and be slain-no worse can come to fight;
1992 And fight and die is death destroying death,
1993 Where fearing dying pays death servile breath.
1994 AUMERLE. My father hath a power; inquire of him,
1995 And learn to make a body of a limb.
1996 KING RICHARD. Thou chid'st me well. Proud Bolingbroke, I come
1997 To change blows with thee for our day of doom.
1998 This ague fit of fear is over-blown;
1999 An easy task it is to win our own.
2000 Say, Scroop, where lies our uncle with his power?
2001 Speak sweetly, man, although thy looks be sour.
2002 SCROOP. Men judge by the complexion of the sky
2003 The state in inclination of the day;
2004 So may you by my dull and heavy eye,
2005 My tongue hath but a heavier tale to say.
2006 I play the torturer, by small and small
2007 To lengthen out the worst that must be spoken:
2008 Your uncle York is join'd with Bolingbroke;
2009 And all your northern castles yielded up,
2010 And all your southern gentlemen in arms
2011 Upon his party.
2012 KING RICHARD. Thou hast said enough.
2013 [To AUMERLE] Beshrew thee, cousin, which didst lead me
2014forth
2015 Of that sweet way I was in to despair!
2016 What say you now? What comfort have we now?
2017 By heaven, I'll hate him everlastingly
2018 That bids me be of comfort any more.
2019 Go to Flint Castle; there I'll pine away;
2020 A king, woe's slave, shall kingly woe obey.
2021 That power I have, discharge; and let them go
2022 To ear the land that hath some hope to grow,
2023 For I have none. Let no man speak again
2024 To alter this, for counsel is but vain.
2025 AUMERLE. My liege, one word.
2026 KING RICHARD. He does me double wrong
2027 That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue.
2028 Discharge my followers; let them hence away,
2029 From Richard's night to Bolingbroke's fair day. Exeunt
2030
2031
2032
2033
2034SCENE 3.
2035Wales. Before Flint Castle
2036
2037Enter, with drum and colours, BOLINGBROKE, YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND,
2038and forces
2039
2040 BOLINGBROKE. So that by this intelligence we learn
2041 The Welshmen are dispers'd; and Salisbury
2042 Is gone to meet the King, who lately landed
2043 With some few private friends upon this coast.
2044 NORTHUMBERLAND. The news is very fair and good, my lord.
2045 Richard not far from hence hath hid his head.
2046 YORK. It would beseem the Lord Northumberland
2047 To say 'King Richard.' Alack the heavy day
2048 When such a sacred king should hide his head!
2049 NORTHUMBERLAND. Your Grace mistakes; only to be brief,
2050 Left I his title out.
2051 YORK. The time hath been,
2052 Would you have been so brief with him, he would
2053 Have been so brief with you to shorten you,
2054 For taking so the head, your whole head's length.
2055 BOLINGBROKE. Mistake not, uncle, further than you should.
2056 YORK. Take not, good cousin, further than you should,
2057 Lest you mistake. The heavens are over our heads.
2058 BOLINGBROKE. I know it, uncle; and oppose not myself
2059 Against their will. But who comes here?
2060
2061 Enter PERCY
2062
2063 Welcome, Harry. What, will not this castle yield?
2064 PIERCY. The castle royally is mann'd, my lord,
2065 Against thy entrance.
2066 BOLINGBROKE. Royally!
2067 Why, it contains no king?
2068 PERCY. Yes, my good lord,
2069 It doth contain a king; King Richard lies
2070 Within the limits of yon lime and stone;
2071 And with him are the Lord Aumerle, Lord Salisbury,
2072 Sir Stephen Scroop, besides a clergyman
2073 Of holy reverence; who, I cannot learn.
2074 NORTHUMBERLAND. O, belike it is the Bishop of Carlisle.
2075 BOLINGBROKE. [To NORTHUMBERLAND] Noble lord,
2076 Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle;
2077 Through brazen trumpet send the breath of parley
2078 Into his ruin'd ears, and thus deliver:
2079 Henry Bolingbroke
2080 On both his knees doth kiss King Richard's hand,
2081 And sends allegiance and true faith of heart
2082 To his most royal person; hither come
2083 Even at his feet to lay my arms and power,
2084 Provided that my banishment repeal'd
2085 And lands restor'd again be freely granted;
2086 If not, I'll use the advantage of my power
2087 And lay the summer's dust with showers of blood
2088 Rain'd from the wounds of slaughtered Englishmen;
2089 The which how far off from the mind of Bolingbroke
2090 It is such crimson tempest should bedrench
2091 The fresh green lap of fair King Richard's land,
2092 My stooping duty tenderly shall show.
2093 Go, signify as much, while here we march
2094 Upon the grassy carpet of this plain.
2095 [NORTHUMBERLAND advances to the Castle, with a
2096trumpet]
2097 Let's march without the noise of threat'ning drum,
2098 That from this castle's tottered battlements
2099 Our fair appointments may be well perus'd.
2100 Methinks King Richard and myself should meet
2101 With no less terror than the elements
2102 Of fire and water, when their thund'ring shock
2103 At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven.
2104 Be he the fire, I'll be the yielding water;
2105 The rage be his, whilst on the earth I rain
2106 My waters-on the earth, and not on him.
2107 March on, and mark King Richard how he looks.
2108
2109 Parle without, and answer within; then a flourish.
2110 Enter on the walls, the KING, the BISHOP OF CARLISLE,
2111 AUMERLE, SCROOP, and SALISBURY
2112
2113 See, see, King Richard doth himself appear,
2114 As doth the blushing discontented sun
2115 From out the fiery portal of the east,
2116 When he perceives the envious clouds are bent
2117 To dim his glory and to stain the track
2118 Of his bright passage to the occident.
2119 YORK. Yet he looks like a king. Behold, his eye,
2120 As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth
2121 Controlling majesty. Alack, alack, for woe,
2122 That any harm should stain so fair a show!
2123 KING RICHARD. [To NORTHUMBERLAND] We are amaz'd; and thus long
2124 have we stood
2125 To watch the fearful bending of thy knee,
2126 Because we thought ourself thy lawful King;
2127 And if we be, how dare thy joints forget
2128 To pay their awful duty to our presence?
2129 If we be not, show us the hand of God
2130 That hath dismiss'd us from our stewardship;
2131 For well we know no hand of blood and bone
2132 Can gripe the sacred handle of our sceptre,
2133 Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp.
2134 And though you think that all, as you have done,
2135 Have torn their souls by turning them from us,
2136 And we are barren and bereft of friends,
2137 Yet know-my master, God omnipotent,
2138 Is mustering in his clouds on our behalf
2139 Armies of pestilence; and they shall strike
2140 Your children yet unborn and unbegot,
2141 That lift your vassal hands against my head
2142 And threat the glory of my precious crown.
2143 Tell Bolingbroke, for yon methinks he stands,
2144 That every stride he makes upon my land
2145 Is dangerous treason; he is come to open
2146 The purple testament of bleeding war;
2147 But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,
2148 Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' sons
2149 Shall ill become the flower of England's face,
2150 Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace
2151 To scarlet indignation, and bedew
2152 Her pastures' grass with faithful English blood.
2153 NORTHUMBERLAND. The King of Heaven forbid our lord the King
2154 Should so with civil and uncivil arms
2155 Be rush'd upon! Thy thrice noble cousin,
2156 Harry Bolingbroke, doth humbly kiss thy hand;
2157 And by the honourable tomb he swears
2158 That stands upon your royal grandsire's bones,
2159 And by the royalties of both your bloods,
2160 Currents that spring from one most gracious head,
2161 And by the buried hand of warlike Gaunt,
2162 And by the worth and honour of himself,
2163 Comprising all that may be sworn or said,
2164 His coming hither hath no further scope
2165 Than for his lineal royalties, and to beg
2166 Enfranchisement immediate on his knees;
2167 Which on thy royal party granted once,
2168 His glittering arms he will commend to rust,
2169 His barbed steeds to stables, and his heart
2170 To faithful service of your Majesty.
2171 This swears he, as he is a prince, is just;
2172 And as I am a gentleman I credit him.
2173 KING RICHARD. Northumberland, say thus the King returns:
2174 His noble cousin is right welcome hither;
2175 And all the number of his fair demands
2176 Shall be accomplish'd without contradiction.
2177 With all the gracious utterance thou hast
2178 Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends.
2179 [To AUMERLE] We do debase ourselves, cousin, do we not,
2180 To look so poorly and to speak so fair?
2181 Shall we call back Northumberland, and send
2182 Defiance to the traitor, and so die?
2183 AUMERLE. No, good my lord; let's fight with gentle words
2184 Till time lend friends, and friends their helpful swords.
2185 KING RICHARD. O God, O God! that e'er this tongue of mine
2186 That laid the sentence of dread banishment
2187 On yon proud man should take it off again
2188 With words of sooth! O that I were as great
2189 As is my grief, or lesser than my name!
2190 Or that I could forget what I have been!
2191 Or not remember what I must be now!
2192 Swell'st thou, proud heart? I'll give thee scope to beat,
2193 Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me.
2194 AUMERLE. Northumberland comes back from Bolingbroke.
2195 KING RICHARD. What must the King do now? Must he submit?
2196 The King shall do it. Must he be depos'd?
2197 The King shall be contented. Must he lose
2198 The name of king? A God's name, let it go.
2199 I'll give my jewels for a set of beads,
2200 My gorgeous palace for a hermitage,
2201 My gay apparel for an almsman's gown,
2202 My figur'd goblets for a dish of wood,
2203 My sceptre for a palmer's walking staff,
2204 My subjects for a pair of carved saints,
2205 And my large kingdom for a little grave,
2206 A little little grave, an obscure grave-
2207 Or I'll be buried in the king's high way,
2208 Some way of common trade, where subjects' feet
2209 May hourly trample on their sovereign's head;
2210 For on my heart they tread now whilst I live,
2211 And buried once, why not upon my head?
2212 Aumerle, thou weep'st, my tender-hearted cousin!
2213 We'll make foul weather with despised tears;
2214 Our sighs and they shall lodge the summer corn
2215 And make a dearth in this revolting land.
2216 Or shall we play the wantons with our woes
2217 And make some pretty match with shedding tears?
2218 As thus: to drop them still upon one place
2219 Till they have fretted us a pair of graves
2220 Within the earth; and, therein laid-there lies
2221 Two kinsmen digg'd their graves with weeping eyes.
2222 Would not this ill do well? Well, well, I see
2223 I talk but idly, and you laugh at me.
2224 Most mighty prince, my Lord Northumberland,
2225 What says King Bolingbroke? Will his Majesty
2226 Give Richard leave to live till Richard die?
2227 You make a leg, and Bolingbroke says ay.
2228 NORTHUMBERLAND. My lord, in the base court he doth attend
2229 To speak with you; may it please you to come down?
2230 KING RICHARD. Down, down I come, like glist'ring Phaethon,
2231 Wanting the manage of unruly jades.
2232 In the base court? Base court, where kings grow base,
2233 To come at traitors' calls, and do them grace.
2234 In the base court? Come down? Down, court! down, king!
2235 For night-owls shriek where mounting larks should sing.
2236 Exeunt from above
2237 BOLINGBROKE. What says his Majesty?
2238 NORTHUMBERLAND. Sorrow and grief of heart
2239 Makes him speak fondly, like a frantic man;
2240 Yet he is come.
2241
2242 Enter the KING, and his attendants, below
2243
2244 BOLINGBROKE. Stand all apart,
2245 And show fair duty to his Majesty. [He kneels down]
2246 My gracious lord-
2247 KING RICHARD. Fair cousin, you debase your princely knee
2248 To make the base earth proud with kissing it.
2249 Me rather had my heart might feel your love
2250 Than my unpleas'd eye see your courtesy.
2251 Up, cousin, up; your heart is up, I know,
2252 [Touching his own head] Thus high at least, although your
2253 knee be low.
2254 BOLINGBROKE. My gracious lord, I come but for mine own.
2255 KING RICHARD. Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all.
2256 BOLINGBROKE. So far be mine, my most redoubted lord,
2257 As my true service shall deserve your love.
2258 KING RICHARD. Well you deserve. They well deserve to have
2259 That know the strong'st and surest way to get.
2260 Uncle, give me your hands; nay, dry your eyes:
2261 Tears show their love, but want their remedies.
2262 Cousin, I am too young to be your father,
2263 Though you are old enough to be my heir.
2264 What you will have, I'll give, and willing too;
2265 For do we must what force will have us do.
2266 Set on towards London. Cousin, is it so?
2267 BOLINGBROKE. Yea, my good lord.
2268 KING RICHARD. Then I must not say no. Flourish. Exeunt
2269
2270
2271
2272
2273SCENE 4.
2274The DUKE OF YORK's garden
2275
2276Enter the QUEEN and two LADIES
2277
2278 QUEEN. What sport shall we devise here in this garden
2279 To drive away the heavy thought of care?
2280 LADY. Madam, we'll play at bowls.
2281 QUEEN. 'Twill make me think the world is full of rubs
2282 And that my fortune runs against the bias.
2283 LADY. Madam, we'll dance.
2284 QUEEN. My legs can keep no measure in delight,
2285 When my poor heart no measure keeps in grief;
2286 Therefore no dancing, girl; some other sport.
2287 LADY. Madam, we'll tell tales.
2288 QUEEN. Of sorrow or of joy?
2289 LADY. Of either, madam.
2290 QUEEN. Of neither, girl;
2291 For if of joy, being altogether wanting,
2292 It doth remember me the more of sorrow;
2293 Or if of grief, being altogether had,
2294 It adds more sorrow to my want of joy;
2295 For what I have I need not to repeat,
2296 And what I want it boots not to complain.
2297 LADY. Madam, I'll sing.
2298 QUEEN. 'Tis well' that thou hast cause;
2299 But thou shouldst please me better wouldst thou weep.
2300 LADY. I could weep, madam, would it do you good.
2301 QUEEN. And I could sing, would weeping do me good,
2302 And never borrow any tear of thee.
2303
2304 Enter a GARDENER and two SERVANTS
2305
2306 But stay, here come the gardeners.
2307 Let's step into the shadow of these trees.
2308 My wretchedness unto a row of pins,
2309 They will talk of state, for every one doth so
2310 Against a change: woe is forerun with woe.
2311 [QUEEN and LADIES retire]
2312 GARDENER. Go, bind thou up yon dangling apricocks,
2313 Which, like unruly children, make their sire
2314 Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight;
2315 Give some supportance to the bending twigs.
2316 Go thou, and Eke an executioner
2317 Cut off the heads of too fast growing sprays
2318 That look too lofty in our commonwealth:
2319 All must be even in our government.
2320 You thus employ'd, I will go root away
2321 The noisome weeds which without profit suck
2322 The soil's fertility from wholesome flowers.
2323 SERVANT. Why should we, in the compass of a pale,
2324 Keep law and form and due proportion,
2325 Showing, as in a model, our firm estate,
2326 When our sea-walled garden, the whole land,
2327 Is full of weeds; her fairest flowers chok'd up,
2328 Her fruit trees all unprun'd, her hedges ruin'd,
2329 Her knots disordered, and her wholesome herbs
2330 Swarming with caterpillars?
2331 GARDENER. Hold thy peace.
2332 He that hath suffer'd this disorder'd spring
2333 Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf;
2334 The weeds which his broad-spreading leaves did shelter,
2335 That seem'd in eating him to hold him up,
2336 Are pluck'd up root and all by Bolingbroke-
2337 I mean the Earl of Wiltshire, Bushy, Green.
2338 SERVANT. What, are they dead?
2339 GARDENER. They are; and Bolingbroke
2340 Hath seiz'd the wasteful King. O, what pity is it
2341 That he had not so trimm'd and dress'd his land
2342 As we this garden! We at time of year
2343 Do wound the bark, the skin of our fruit trees,
2344 Lest, being over-proud in sap and blood,
2345 With too much riches it confound itself;
2346 Had he done so to great and growing men,
2347 They might have Ev'd to bear, and he to taste
2348 Their fruits of duty. Superfluous branches
2349 We lop away, that bearing boughs may live;
2350 Had he done so, himself had home the crown,
2351 Which waste of idle hours hath quite thrown down.
2352 SERVANT. What, think you the King shall be deposed?
2353 GARDENER. Depress'd he is already, and depos'd
2354 'Tis doubt he will be. Letters came last night
2355 To a dear friend of the good Duke of York's
2356 That tell black tidings.
2357 QUEEN. O, I am press'd to death through want of speaking!
2358 [Coming forward]
2359 Thou, old Adam's likeness, set to dress this garden,
2360 How dares thy harsh rude tongue sound this unpleasing news?
2361 What Eve, what serpent, hath suggested the
2362 To make a second fall of cursed man?
2363 Why dost thou say King Richard is depos'd?
2364 Dar'st thou, thou little better thing than earth,
2365 Divine his downfall? Say, where, when, and how,
2366 Cam'st thou by this ill tidings? Speak, thou wretch.
2367 GARDENER. Pardon me, madam; little joy have
2368 To breathe this news; yet what I say is true.
2369 King Richard, he is in the mighty hold
2370 Of Bolingbroke. Their fortunes both are weigh'd.
2371 In your lord's scale is nothing but himself,
2372 And some few vanities that make him light;
2373 But in the balance of great Bolingbroke,
2374 Besides himself, are all the English peers,
2375 And with that odds he weighs King Richard down.
2376 Post you to London, and you will find it so;
2377 I speak no more than every one doth know.
2378 QUEEN. Nimble mischance, that art so light of foot,
2379 Doth not thy embassage belong to me,
2380 And am I last that knows it? O, thou thinkest
2381 To serve me last, that I may longest keep
2382 Thy sorrow in my breast. Come, ladies, go
2383 To meet at London London's King in woe.
2384 What, was I born to this, that my sad look
2385 Should grace the triumph of great Bolingbroke?
2386 Gard'ner, for telling me these news of woe,
2387 Pray God the plants thou graft'st may never grow!
2388 Exeunt QUEEN and LADIES
2389 GARDENER. Poor Queen, so that thy state might be no worse,
2390 I would my skill were subject to thy curse.
2391 Here did she fall a tear; here in this place
2392 I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace.
2393 Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen,
2394 In the remembrance of a weeping queen. Exeunt
2395
2396
2397
2398
2399<<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
2400SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
2401PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY
2402WITH PERMISSION. ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
2403DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
2404PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
2405COMMERCIALLY. PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
2406SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
2407
2408
2409
2410ACT IV. SCENE 1.
2411Westminster Hall
2412
2413Enter, as to the Parliament, BOLINGBROKE, AUMERLE,
2414NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY,
2415FITZWATER, SURREY, the BISHOP OF CARLISLE, the ABBOT OF
2416WESTMINSTER,
2417and others; HERALD, OFFICERS, and BAGOT
2418
2419 BOLINGBROKE. Call forth Bagot.
2420 Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind-
2421 What thou dost know of noble Gloucester's death;
2422 Who wrought it with the King, and who perform'd
2423 The bloody office of his timeless end.
2424 BAGOT. Then set before my face the Lord Aumerle.
2425 BOLINGBROKE. Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that man.
2426 BAGOT. My Lord Aumerle, I know your daring tongue
2427 Scorns to unsay what once it hath deliver'd.
2428 In that dead time when Gloucester's death was plotted
2429 I heard you say 'Is not my arm of length,
2430 That reacheth from the restful English Court
2431 As far as Calais, to mine uncle's head?'
2432 Amongst much other talk that very time
2433 I heard you say that you had rather refuse
2434 The offer of an hundred thousand crowns
2435 Than Bolingbroke's return to England;
2436 Adding withal, how blest this land would be
2437 In this your cousin's death.
2438 AUMERLE. Princes, and noble lords,
2439 What answer shall I make to this base man?
2440 Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars
2441 On equal terms to give him chastisement?
2442 Either I must, or have mine honour soil'd
2443 With the attainder of his slanderous lips.
2444 There is my gage, the manual seal of death
2445 That marks thee out for hell. I say thou liest,
2446 And will maintain what thou hast said is false
2447 In thy heart-blood, through being all too base
2448 To stain the temper of my knightly sword.
2449 BOLINGBROKE. Bagot, forbear; thou shalt not take it up.
2450 AUMERLE. Excepting one, I would he were the best
2451 In all this presence that hath mov'd me so.
2452 FITZWATER. If that thy valour stand on sympathy,
2453 There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine.
2454 By that fair sun which shows me where thou stand'st,
2455 I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spak'st it,
2456 That thou wert cause of noble Gloucester's death.
2457 If thou deniest it twenty times, thou liest;
2458 And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart,
2459 Where it was forged, with my rapier's point.
2460 AUMERLE. Thou dar'st not, coward, live to see that day.
2461 FITZWATER. Now, by my soul, I would it were this hour.
2462 AUMERLE. Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this.
2463 PERCY. Aumerle, thou liest; his honour is as true
2464 In this appeal as thou art an unjust;
2465 And that thou art so, there I throw my gage,
2466 To prove it on thee to the extremest point
2467 Of mortal breathing. Seize it, if thou dar'st.
2468 AUMERLE. An if I do not, may my hands rot of
2469 And never brandish more revengeful steel
2470 Over the glittering helmet of my foe!
2471 ANOTHER LORD. I task the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle;
2472 And spur thee on with fun as many lies
2473 As may be halloa'd in thy treacherous ear
2474 From sun to sun. There is my honour's pawn;
2475 Engage it to the trial, if thou darest.
2476 AUMERLE. Who sets me else? By heaven, I'll throw at all!
2477 I have a thousand spirits in one breast
2478 To answer twenty thousand such as you.
2479 SURREY. My Lord Fitzwater, I do remember well
2480 The very time Aumerle and you did talk.
2481 FITZWATER. 'Tis very true; you were in presence then,
2482 And you can witness with me this is true.
2483 SURREY. As false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true.
2484 FITZWATER. Surrey, thou liest.
2485 SURREY. Dishonourable boy!
2486 That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword
2487 That it shall render vengeance and revenge
2488 Till thou the lie-giver and that lie do he
2489 In earth as quiet as thy father's skull.
2490 In proof whereof, there is my honour's pawn;
2491 Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st.
2492 FITZWATER. How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse!
2493 If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live,
2494 I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness,
2495 And spit upon him whilst I say he lies,
2496 And lies, and lies. There is my bond of faith,
2497 To tie thee to my strong correction.
2498 As I intend to thrive in this new world,
2499 Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal.
2500 Besides, I heard the banish'd Norfolk say
2501 That thou, Aumerle, didst send two of thy men
2502 To execute the noble Duke at Calais.
2503 AUMERLE. Some honest Christian trust me with a gage
2504 That Norfolk lies. Here do I throw down this,
2505 If he may be repeal'd to try his honour.
2506 BOLINGBROKE. These differences shall all rest under gage
2507 Till Norfolk be repeal'd-repeal'd he shall be
2508 And, though mine enemy, restor'd again
2509 To all his lands and signories. When he is return'd,
2510 Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial.
2511 CARLISLE. That honourable day shall never be seen.
2512 Many a time hath banish'd Norfolk fought
2513 For Jesu Christ in glorious Christian field,
2514 Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross
2515 Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens;
2516 And, toil'd with works of war, retir'd himself
2517 To Italy; and there, at Venice, gave
2518 His body to that pleasant country's earth,
2519 And his pure soul unto his captain, Christ,
2520 Under whose colours he had fought so long.
2521 BOLINGBROKE. Why, Bishop, is Norfolk dead?
2522 CARLISLE. As surely as I live, my lord.
2523 BOLINGBROKE. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bosom
2524 Of good old Abraham! Lords appellants,
2525 Your differences shall all rest under gage
2526 Till we assign you to your days of trial
2527
2528 Enter YORK, attended
2529
2530 YORK. Great Duke of Lancaster, I come to the
2531 From plume-pluck'd Richard, who with willing soul
2532 Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields
2533 To the possession of thy royal hand.
2534 Ascend his throne, descending now from him-
2535 And long live Henry, fourth of that name!
2536 BOLINGBROKE. In God's name, I'll ascend the regal throne.
2537 CARLISLE. Marry, God forbid!
2538 Worst in this royal presence may I speak,
2539 Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth.
2540 Would God that any in this noble presence
2541 Were enough noble to be upright judge
2542 Of noble Richard! Then true noblesse would
2543 Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.
2544 What subject can give sentence on his king?
2545 And who sits here that is not Richard's subject?
2546 Thieves are not judg'd but they are by to hear,
2547 Although apparent guilt be seen in them;
2548 And shall the figure of God's majesty,
2549 His captain, steward, deputy elect,
2550 Anointed, crowned, planted many years,
2551 Be judg'd by subject and inferior breath,
2552 And he himself not present? O, forfend it, God,
2553 That in a Christian climate souls refin'd
2554 Should show so heinous, black, obscene a deed!
2555 I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks,
2556 Stirr'd up by God, thus boldly for his king.
2557 My Lord of Hereford here, whom you call king,
2558 Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford's king;
2559 And if you crown him, let me prophesy-
2560 The blood of English shall manure the ground,
2561 And future ages groan for this foul act;
2562 Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels,
2563 And in this seat of peace tumultuous wars
2564 Shall kin with kin and kind with kind confound;
2565 Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny,
2566 Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd
2567 The field of Golgotha and dead men's skulls.
2568 O, if you raise this house against this house,
2569 It will the woefullest division prove
2570 That ever fell upon this cursed earth.
2571 Prevent it, resist it, let it not be so,
2572 Lest child, child's children, cry against you woe.
2573 NORTHUMBERLAND. Well have you argued, sir; and, for your pains,
2574 Of capital treason we arrest you here.
2575 My Lord of Westminster, be it your charge
2576 To keep him safely till his day of trial.
2577 May it please you, lords, to grant the commons' suit?
2578 BOLINGBROKE. Fetch hither Richard, that in common view
2579 He may surrender; so we shall proceed
2580 Without suspicion.
2581 YORK. I will be his conduct. Exit
2582 BOLINGBROKE. Lords, you that here are under our arrest,
2583 Procure your sureties for your days of answer.
2584 Little are we beholding to your love,
2585 And little look'd for at your helping hands.
2586
2587 Re-enter YORK, with KING RICHARD, and OFFICERS
2588 bearing the regalia
2589
2590 KING RICHARD. Alack, why am I sent for to a king,
2591 Before I have shook off the regal thoughts
2592 Wherewith I reign'd? I hardly yet have learn'd
2593 To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my knee.
2594 Give sorrow leave awhile to tutor me
2595 To this submission. Yet I well remember
2596 The favours of these men. Were they not mine?
2597 Did they not sometime cry 'All hail!' to me?
2598 So Judas did to Christ; but he, in twelve,
2599 Found truth in all but one; I, in twelve thousand, none.
2600 God save the King! Will no man say amen?
2601 Am I both priest and clerk? Well then, amen.
2602 God save the King! although I be not he;
2603 And yet, amen, if heaven do think him me.
2604 To do what service am I sent for hither?
2605 YORK. To do that office of thine own good will
2606 Which tired majesty did make thee offer-
2607 The resignation of thy state and crown
2608 To Henry Bolingbroke.
2609 KING RICHARD. Give me the crown. Here, cousin, seize the crown.
2610 Here, cousin,
2611 On this side my hand, and on that side thine.
2612 Now is this golden crown like a deep well
2613 That owes two buckets, filling one another;
2614 The emptier ever dancing in the air,
2615 The other down, unseen, and full of water.
2616 That bucket down and fun of tears am I,
2617 Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high.
2618 BOLINGBROKE. I thought you had been willing to resign.
2619 KING RICHARD. My crown I am; but still my griefs are mine.
2620 You may my glories and my state depose,
2621 But not my griefs; still am I king of those.
2622 BOLINGBROKE. Part of your cares you give me with your crown.
2623 KING RICHARD. Your cares set up do not pluck my cares down.
2624 My care is loss of care, by old care done;
2625 Your care is gain of care, by new care won.
2626 The cares I give I have, though given away;
2627 They tend the crown, yet still with me they stay.
2628 BOLINGBROKE. Are you contented to resign the crown?
2629 KING RICHARD. Ay, no; no, ay; for I must nothing be;
2630 Therefore no no, for I resign to thee.
2631 Now mark me how I will undo myself:
2632 I give this heavy weight from off my head,
2633 And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand,
2634 The pride of kingly sway from out my heart;
2635 With mine own tears I wash away my balm,
2636 With mine own hands I give away my crown,
2637 With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,
2638 With mine own breath release all duteous oaths;
2639 All pomp and majesty I do forswear;
2640 My manors, rents, revenues, I forgo;
2641 My acts, decrees, and statutes, I deny.
2642 God pardon all oaths that are broke to me!
2643 God keep all vows unbroke are made to thee!
2644 Make me, that nothing have, with nothing griev'd,
2645 And thou with all pleas'd, that hast an achiev'd.
2646 Long mayst thou live in Richard's seat to sit,
2647 And soon lie Richard in an earthly pit.
2648 God save King Henry, unking'd Richard says,
2649 And send him many years of sunshine days!
2650 What more remains?
2651 NORTHUMBERLAND. No more; but that you read
2652 These accusations, and these grievous crimes
2653 Committed by your person and your followers
2654 Against the state and profit of this land;
2655 That, by confessing them, the souls of men
2656 May deem that you are worthily depos'd.
2657 KING RICHARD. Must I do so? And must I ravel out
2658 My weav'd-up follies? Gentle Northumberland,
2659 If thy offences were upon record,
2660 Would it not shame thee in so fair a troop
2661 To read a lecture of them? If thou wouldst,
2662 There shouldst thou find one heinous article,
2663 Containing the deposing of a king
2664 And cracking the strong warrant of an oath,
2665 Mark'd with a blot, damn'd in the book of heaven.
2666 Nay, all of you that stand and look upon me
2667 Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait myself,
2668 Though some of you, with Pilate, wash your hands,
2669 Showing an outward pity-yet you Pilates
2670 Have here deliver'd me to my sour cross,
2671 And water cannot wash away your sin.
2672 NORTHUMBERLAND. My lord, dispatch; read o'er these
2673 articles.
2674 KING RICHARD. Mine eyes are full of tears; I cannot see.
2675 And yet salt water blinds them not so much
2676 But they can see a sort of traitors here.
2677 Nay, if I turn mine eyes upon myself,
2678 I find myself a traitor with the rest;
2679 For I have given here my soul's consent
2680 T'undeck the pompous body of a king;
2681 Made glory base, and sovereignty a slave,
2682 Proud majesty a subject, state a peasant.
2683 NORTHUMBERLAND. My lord-
2684 KING RICHARD. No lord of thine, thou haught insulting man,
2685 Nor no man's lord; I have no name, no tide-
2686 No, not that name was given me at the font-
2687 But 'tis usurp'd. Alack the heavy day,
2688 That I have worn so many winters out,
2689 And know not now what name to call myself!
2690 O that I were a mockery king of snow,
2691 Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke
2692 To melt myself away in water drops!
2693 Good king, great king, and yet not greatly good,
2694 An if my word be sterling yet in England,
2695 Let it command a mirror hither straight,
2696 That it may show me what a face I have
2697 Since it is bankrupt of his majesty.
2698 BOLINGBROKE. Go some of you and fetch a looking-glass.
2699 Exit an attendant
2700 NORTHUMBERLAND. Read o'er this paper while the glass doth come.
2701 KING RICHARD. Fiend, thou torments me ere I come to hell.
2702 BOLINGBROKE. Urge it no more, my Lord Northumberland.
2703 NORTHUMBERLAND. The Commons will not, then, be satisfied.
2704 KING RICHARD. They shall be satisfied. I'll read enough,
2705 When I do see the very book indeed
2706 Where all my sins are writ, and that's myself.
2707
2708 Re-enter attendant with glass
2709
2710 Give me that glass, and therein will I read.
2711 No deeper wrinkles yet? Hath sorrow struck
2712 So many blows upon this face of mine
2713 And made no deeper wounds? O flatt'ring glass,
2714 Like to my followers in prosperity,
2715 Thou dost beguile me! Was this face the face
2716 That every day under his household roof
2717 Did keep ten thousand men? Was this the face
2718 That like the sun did make beholders wink?
2719 Is this the face which fac'd so many follies
2720 That was at last out-fac'd by Bolingbroke?
2721 A brittle glory shineth in this face;
2722 As brittle as the glory is the face;
2723 [Dashes the glass against the ground]
2724 For there it is, crack'd in a hundred shivers.
2725 Mark, silent king, the moral of this sport-
2726 How soon my sorrow hath destroy'd my face.
2727 BOLINGBROKE. The shadow of your sorrow hath destroy'd
2728 The shadow of your face.
2729 KING RICHARD. Say that again.
2730 The shadow of my sorrow? Ha! let's see.
2731 'Tis very true: my grief lies all within;
2732 And these external manner of laments
2733 Are merely shadows to the unseen grief
2734 That swells with silence in the tortur'd soul.
2735 There lies the substance; and I thank thee, king,
2736 For thy great bounty, that not only giv'st
2737 Me cause to wail, but teachest me the way
2738 How to lament the cause. I'll beg one boon,
2739 And then be gone and trouble you no more.
2740 Shall I obtain it?
2741 BOLINGBROKE. Name it, fair cousin.
2742 KING RICHARD. Fair cousin! I am greater than a king;
2743 For when I was a king, my flatterers
2744 Were then but subjects; being now a subject,
2745 I have a king here to my flatterer.
2746 Being so great, I have no need to beg.
2747 BOLINGBROKE. Yet ask.
2748 KING RICHARD. And shall I have?
2749 BOLINGBROKE. You shall.
2750 KING RICHARD. Then give me leave to go.
2751 BOLINGBROKE. Whither?
2752 KING RICHARD. Whither you will, so I were from your sights.
2753 BOLINGBROKE. Go, some of you convey him to the Tower.
2754 KING RICHARD. O, good! Convey! Conveyers are you all,
2755 That rise thus nimbly by a true king's fall.
2756 Exeunt KING RICHARD, some Lords and a Guard
2757 BOLINGBROKE. On Wednesday next we solemnly set down
2758 Our coronation. Lords, prepare yourselves.
2759 Exeunt all but the ABBOT OF WESTMINSTER, the
2760 BISHOP OF CARLISLE, and AUMERLE
2761 ABBOT. A woeful pageant have we here beheld.
2762 CARLISLE. The woe's to come; the children yet unborn
2763 Shall feel this day as sharp to them as thorn.
2764 AUMERLE. You holy clergymen, is there no plot
2765 To rid the realm of this pernicious blot?
2766 ABBOT. My lord,
2767 Before I freely speak my mind herein,
2768 You shall not only take the sacrament
2769 To bury mine intents, but also to effect
2770 Whatever I shall happen to devise.
2771 I see your brows are full of discontent,
2772 Your hearts of sorrow, and your eyes of tears.
2773 Come home with me to supper; I will lay
2774 A plot shall show us all a merry day. Exeunt
2775
2776
2777
2778
2779<<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
2780SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
2781PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY
2782WITH PERMISSION. ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
2783DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
2784PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
2785COMMERCIALLY. PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
2786SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
2787
2788
2789
2790ACT V. SCENE 1.
2791London. A street leading to the Tower
2792
2793Enter the QUEEN, with her attendants
2794
2795 QUEEN. This way the King will come; this is the way
2796 To Julius Caesar's ill-erected tower,
2797 To whose flint bosom my condemned lord
2798 Is doom'd a prisoner by proud Bolingbroke.
2799 Here let us rest, if this rebellious earth
2800 Have any resting for her true King's queen.
2801
2802 Enter KING RICHARD and Guard
2803
2804 But soft, but see, or rather do not see,
2805 My fair rose wither. Yet look up, behold,
2806 That you in pity may dissolve to dew,
2807 And wash him fresh again with true-love tears.
2808 Ah, thou, the model where old Troy did stand;
2809 Thou map of honour, thou King Richard's tomb,
2810 And not King Richard; thou most beauteous inn,
2811 Why should hard-favour'd grief be lodg'd in thee,
2812 When triumph is become an alehouse guest?
2813 KING RICHARD. Join not with grief, fair woman, do not so,
2814 To make my end too sudden. Learn, good soul,
2815 To think our former state a happy dream;
2816 From which awak'd, the truth of what we are
2817 Shows us but this: I am sworn brother, sweet,
2818 To grim Necessity; and he and
2819 Will keep a league till death. Hie thee to France,
2820 And cloister thee in some religious house.
2821 Our holy lives must win a new world's crown,
2822 Which our profane hours here have thrown down.
2823 QUEEN. What, is my Richard both in shape and mind
2824 Transform'd and weak'ned? Hath Bolingbroke depos'd
2825 Thine intellect? Hath he been in thy heart?
2826 The lion dying thrusteth forth his paw
2827 And wounds the earth, if nothing else, with rage
2828 To be o'erpow'r'd; and wilt thou, pupil-like,
2829 Take the correction mildly, kiss the rod,
2830 And fawn on rage with base humility,
2831 Which art a lion and the king of beasts?
2832 KING RICHARD. A king of beasts, indeed! If aught but beasts,
2833 I had been still a happy king of men.
2834 Good sometimes queen, prepare thee hence for France.
2835 Think I am dead, and that even here thou takest,
2836 As from my death-bed, thy last living leave.
2837 In winter's tedious nights sit by the fire
2838 With good old folks, and let them tell thee tales
2839 Of woeful ages long ago betid;
2840 And ere thou bid good night, to quit their griefs
2841 Tell thou the lamentable tale of me,
2842 And send the hearers weeping to their beds;
2843 For why, the senseless brands will sympathize
2844 The heavy accent of thy moving tongue,
2845 And in compassion weep the fire out;
2846 And some will mourn in ashes, some coal-black,
2847 For the deposing of a rightful king.
2848
2849 Enter NORTHUMBERLAND attended
2850
2851 NORTHUMBERLAND. My lord, the mind of Bolingbroke is chang'd;
2852 You must to Pomfret, not unto the Tower.
2853 And, madam, there is order ta'en for you:
2854 With all swift speed you must away to France.
2855 KING RICHARD. Northumberland, thou ladder wherewithal
2856 The mounting Bolingbroke ascends my throne,
2857 The time shall not be many hours of age
2858 More than it is, ere foul sin gathering head
2859 Shall break into corruption. Thou shalt think
2860 Though he divide the realm and give thee half
2861 It is too little, helping him to all;
2862 And he shall think that thou, which knowest the way
2863 To plant unrightful kings, wilt know again,
2864 Being ne'er so little urg'd, another way
2865 To pluck him headlong from the usurped throne.
2866 The love of wicked men converts to fear;
2867 That fear to hate; and hate turns one or both
2868 To worthy danger and deserved death.
2869 NORTHUMBERLAND. My guilt be on my head, and there an end.
2870 Take leave, and part; for you must part forthwith.
2871 KING RICHARD. Doubly divorc'd! Bad men, you violate
2872 A twofold marriage-'twixt my crown and me,
2873 And then betwixt me and my married wife.
2874 Let me unkiss the oath 'twixt thee and me;
2875 And yet not so, for with a kiss 'twas made.
2876 Part us, Northumberland; I towards the north,
2877 Where shivering cold and sickness pines the clime;
2878 My wife to France, from whence set forth in pomp,
2879 She came adorned hither like sweet May,
2880 Sent back like Hallowmas or short'st of day.
2881 QUEEN. And must we be divided? Must we part?
2882 KING RICHARD. Ay, hand from hand, my love, and heart from
2883heart.
2884 QUEEN. Banish us both, and send the King with me.
2885 NORTHUMBERLAND. That were some love, but little policy.
2886 QUEEN. Then whither he goes thither let me go.
2887 KING RICHARD. So two, together weeping, make one woe.
2888 Weep thou for me in France, I for thee here;
2889 Better far off than near, be ne'er the near.
2890 Go, count thy way with sighs; I mine with groans.
2891 QUEEN. So longest way shall have the longest moans.
2892 KING RICHARD. Twice for one step I'll groan, the way being
2893short,
2894 And piece the way out with a heavy heart.
2895 Come, come, in wooing sorrow let's be brief,
2896 Since, wedding it, there is such length in grief.
2897 One kiss shall stop our mouths, and dumbly part;
2898 Thus give I mine, and thus take I thy heart.
2899 QUEEN. Give me mine own again; 'twere no good part
2900 To take on me to keep and kill thy heart.
2901 So, now I have mine own again, be gone.
2902 That I may strive to kill it with a groan.
2903 KING RICHARD. We make woe wanton with this fond delay.
2904 Once more, adieu; the rest let sorrow say. Exeunt
2905
2906
2907
2908
2909SCENE 2.
2910The DUKE OF YORK's palace
2911
2912Enter the DUKE OF YORK and the DUCHESS
2913
2914 DUCHESS. My Lord, you told me you would tell the rest,
2915 When weeping made you break the story off,
2916 Of our two cousins' coming into London.
2917 YORK. Where did I leave?
2918 DUCHESS. At that sad stop, my lord,
2919 Where rude misgoverned hands from windows' tops
2920 Threw dust and rubbish on King Richard's head.
2921 YORK. Then, as I said, the Duke, great Bolingbroke,
2922 Mounted upon a hot and fiery steed
2923 Which his aspiring rider seem'd to know,
2924 With slow but stately pace kept on his course,
2925 Whilst all tongues cried 'God save thee, Bolingbroke!'
2926 You would have thought the very windows spake,
2927 So many greedy looks of young and old
2928 Through casements darted their desiring eyes
2929 Upon his visage; and that all the walls
2930 With painted imagery had said at once
2931 'Jesu preserve thee! Welcome, Bolingbroke!'
2932 Whilst he, from the one side to the other turning,
2933 Bareheaded, lower than his proud steed's neck,
2934 Bespake them thus, 'I thank you, countrymen.'
2935 And thus still doing, thus he pass'd along.
2936 DUCHESS. Alack, poor Richard! where rode he the whilst?
2937 YORK. As in a theatre the eyes of men
2938 After a well-grac'd actor leaves the stage
2939 Are idly bent on him that enters next,
2940 Thinking his prattle to be tedious;
2941 Even so, or with much more contempt, men's eyes
2942 Did scowl on gentle Richard; no man cried 'God save him!'
2943 No joyful tongue gave him his welcome home;
2944 But dust was thrown upon his sacred head;
2945 Which with such gentle sorrow he shook off,
2946 His face still combating with tears and smiles,
2947 The badges of his grief and patience,
2948 That had not God, for some strong purpose, steel'd
2949 The hearts of men, they must perforce have melted,
2950 And barbarism itself have pitied him.
2951 But heaven hath a hand in these events,
2952 To whose high will we bound our calm contents.
2953 To Bolingbroke are we sworn subjects now,
2954 Whose state and honour I for aye allow.
2955 DUCHESS. Here comes my son Aumerle.
2956 YORK. Aumerle that was
2957 But that is lost for being Richard's friend,
2958 And madam, you must call him Rudand now.
2959 I am in Parliament pledge for his truth
2960 And lasting fealty to the new-made king.
2961
2962 Enter AUMERLE
2963
2964 DUCHESS. Welcome, my son. Who are the violets now
2965 That strew the green lap of the new come spring?
2966 AUMERLE. Madam, I know not, nor I greatly care not.
2967 God knows I had as lief be none as one.
2968 YORK. Well, bear you well in this new spring of time,
2969 Lest you be cropp'd before you come to prime.
2970 What news from Oxford? Do these justs and triumphs hold?
2971 AUMERLE. For aught I know, my lord, they do.
2972 YORK. You will be there, I know.
2973 AUMERLE. If God prevent not, I purpose so.
2974 YORK. What seal is that that without thy bosom?
2975 Yea, look'st thou pale? Let me see the writing.
2976 AUMERLE. My lord, 'tis nothing.
2977 YORK. No matter, then, who see it.
2978 I will be satisfied; let me see the writing.
2979 AUMERLE. I do beseech your Grace to pardon me;
2980 It is a matter of small consequence
2981 Which for some reasons I would not have seen.
2982 YORK. Which for some reasons, sir, I mean to see.
2983 I fear, I fear-
2984 DUCHESS. What should you fear?
2985 'Tis nothing but some bond that he is ent'red into
2986 For gay apparel 'gainst the triumph-day.
2987 YORK. Bound to himself! What doth he with a bond
2988 That he is bound to? Wife, thou art a fool.
2989 Boy, let me see the writing.
2990 AUMERLE. I do beseech you, pardon me; I may not show it.
2991 YORK. I will be satisfied; let me see it, I say.
2992 [He plucks it out of his bosom, and reads it]
2993 Treason, foul treason! Villain! traitor! slave!
2994 DUCHESS. What is the matter, my lord?
2995 YORK. Ho! who is within there?
2996
2997 Enter a servant
2998
2999 Saddle my horse.
3000 God for his mercy, what treachery is here!
3001 DUCHESS. Why, York, what is it, my lord?
3002 YORK. Give me my boots, I say; saddle my horse.
3003 Exit servant
3004 Now, by mine honour, by my life, my troth,
3005 I will appeach the villain.
3006 DUCHESS. What is the matter?
3007 YORK. Peace, foolish woman.
3008 DUCHESS. I will not peace. What is the matter, Aumerle?
3009 AUMERLE. Good mother, be content; it is no more
3010 Than my poor life must answer.
3011 DUCHESS. Thy life answer!
3012 YORK. Bring me my boots. I will unto the King.
3013
3014 His man enters with his boots
3015
3016 DUCHESS. Strike him, Aumerle. Poor boy, thou art amaz'd.
3017 Hence, villain! never more come in my sight.
3018 YORK. Give me my boots, I say.
3019 DUCHESS. Why, York, what wilt thou do?
3020 Wilt thou not hide the trespass of thine own?
3021 Have we more sons? or are we like to have?
3022 Is not my teeming date drunk up with time?
3023 And wilt thou pluck my fair son from mine age
3024 And rob me of a happy mother's name?
3025 Is he not like thee? Is he not thine own?
3026 YORK. Thou fond mad woman,
3027 Wilt thou conceal this dark conspiracy?
3028 A dozen of them here have ta'en the sacrament,
3029 And interchangeably set down their hands
3030 To kill the King at Oxford.
3031 DUCHESS. He shall be none;
3032 We'll keep him here. Then what is that to him?
3033 YORK. Away, fond woman! were he twenty times my son
3034 I would appeach him.
3035 DUCHESS. Hadst thou groan'd for him
3036 As I have done, thou wouldst be more pitiful.
3037 But now I know thy mind: thou dost suspect
3038 That I have been disloyal to thy bed
3039 And that he is a bastard, not thy son.
3040 Sweet York, sweet husband, be not of that mind.
3041 He is as like thee as a man may be
3042 Not like to me, or any of my kin,
3043 And yet I love him.
3044 YORK. Make way, unruly woman! Exit
3045 DUCHESS. After, Aumerle! Mount thee upon his horse;
3046 Spur post, and get before him to the King,
3047 And beg thy pardon ere he do accuse thee.
3048 I'll not be long behind; though I be old,
3049 I doubt not but to ride as fast as York;
3050 And never will I rise up from the ground
3051 Till Bolingbroke have pardon'd thee. Away, be gone.
3052 Exeunt
3053
3054
3055
3056
3057SCENE 3.
3058Windsor Castle
3059
3060Enter BOLINGBROKE as King, PERCY, and other LORDS
3061
3062 BOLINGBROKE. Can no man tell me of my unthrifty son?
3063 'Tis full three months since I did see him last.
3064 If any plague hang over us, 'tis he.
3065 I would to God, my lords, he might be found.
3066 Inquire at London, 'mongst the taverns there,
3067 For there, they say, he daily doth frequent
3068 With unrestrained loose companions,
3069 Even such, they say, as stand in narrow lanes
3070 And beat our watch and rob our passengers,
3071 Which he, young wanton and effeminate boy,
3072 Takes on the point of honour to support
3073 So dissolute a crew.
3074 PERCY. My lord, some two days since I saw the Prince,
3075 And told him of those triumphs held at Oxford.
3076 BOLINGBROKE. And what said the gallant?
3077 PERCY. His answer was, he would unto the stews,
3078 And from the common'st creature pluck a glove
3079 And wear it as a favour; and with that
3080 He would unhorse the lustiest challenger.
3081 BOLINGBROKE. As dissolute as desperate; yet through both
3082 I see some sparks of better hope, which elder years
3083 May happily bring forth. But who comes here?
3084
3085 Enter AUMERLE amazed
3086
3087 AUMERLE. Where is the King?
3088 BOLINGBROKE. What means our cousin that he stares and looks
3089 So wildly?
3090 AUMERLE. God save your Grace! I do beseech your Majesty,
3091 To have some conference with your Grace alone.
3092 BOLINGBROKE. Withdraw yourselves, and leave us here alone.
3093 Exeunt PERCY and LORDS
3094 What is the matter with our cousin now?
3095 AUMERLE. For ever may my knees grow to the earth,
3096 [Kneels]
3097 My tongue cleave to my roof within my mouth,
3098 Unless a pardon ere I rise or speak.
3099 BOLINGBROKE. Intended or committed was this fault?
3100 If on the first, how heinous e'er it be,
3101 To win thy after-love I pardon thee.
3102 AUMERLE. Then give me leave that I may turn the key,
3103 That no man enter till my tale be done.
3104 BOLINGBROKE. Have thy desire.
3105 [The DUKE OF YORK knocks at the door and crieth]
3106 YORK. [Within] My liege, beware; look to thyself;
3107 Thou hast a traitor in thy presence there.
3108 BOLINGBROKE. [Drawing] Villain, I'll make thee safe.
3109 AUMERLE. Stay thy revengeful hand; thou hast no cause to fear.
3110 YORK. [Within] Open the door, secure, foolhardy King.
3111 Shall I, for love, speak treason to thy face?
3112 Open the door, or I will break it open.
3113
3114 Enter YORK
3115
3116 BOLINGBROKE. What is the matter, uncle? Speak;
3117 Recover breath; tell us how near is danger,
3118 That we may arm us to encounter it.
3119 YORK. Peruse this writing here, and thou shalt know
3120 The treason that my haste forbids me show.
3121 AUMERLE. Remember, as thou read'st, thy promise pass'd.
3122 I do repent me; read not my name there;
3123 My heart is not confederate with my hand.
3124 YORK. It was, villain, ere thy hand did set it down.
3125 I tore it from the traitor's bosom, King;
3126 Fear, and not love, begets his penitence.
3127 Forget to pity him, lest thy pity prove
3128 A serpent that will sting thee to the heart.
3129 BOLINGBROKE. O heinous, strong, and bold conspiracy!
3130 O loyal father of a treacherous son!
3131 Thou sheer, immaculate, and silver fountain,
3132 From whence this stream through muddy passages
3133 Hath held his current and defil'd himself!
3134 Thy overflow of good converts to bad;
3135 And thy abundant goodness shall excuse
3136 This deadly blot in thy digressing son.
3137 YORK. So shall my virtue be his vice's bawd;
3138 And he shall spend mine honour with his shame,
3139 As thriftless sons their scraping fathers' gold.
3140 Mine honour lives when his dishonour dies,
3141 Or my sham'd life in his dishonour lies.
3142 Thou kill'st me in his life; giving him breath,
3143 The traitor lives, the true man's put to death.
3144 DUCHESS. [Within] I What ho, my liege, for God's sake, let me
3145in.
3146 BOLINGBROKE. What shrill-voic'd suppliant makes this eager cry?
3147 DUCHESS. [Within] A woman, and thine aunt, great King; 'tis I.
3148 Speak with me, pity me, open the door.
3149 A beggar begs that never begg'd before.
3150 BOLINGBROKE. Our scene is alt'red from a serious thing,
3151 And now chang'd to 'The Beggar and the King.'
3152 My dangerous cousin, let your mother in.
3153 I know she is come to pray for your foul sin.
3154 YORK. If thou do pardon whosoever pray,
3155 More sins for this forgiveness prosper may.
3156 This fest'red joint cut off, the rest rest sound;
3157 This let alone will all the rest confound.
3158
3159 Enter DUCHESS
3160
3161 DUCHESS. O King, believe not this hard-hearted man!
3162 Love loving not itself, none other can.
3163 YORK. Thou frantic woman, what dost thou make here?
3164 Shall thy old dugs once more a traitor rear?
3165 DUCHESS. Sweet York, be patient. Hear me, gentle liege.
3166 [Kneels]
3167 BOLINGBROKE. Rise up, good aunt.
3168 DUCHESS. Not yet, I thee beseech.
3169 For ever will I walk upon my knees,
3170 And never see day that the happy sees
3171 Till thou give joy; until thou bid me joy
3172 By pardoning Rutland, my transgressing boy.
3173 AUMERLE. Unto my mother's prayers I bend my knee.
3174 [Kneels]
3175 YORK. Against them both, my true joints bended be.
3176 [Kneels]
3177 Ill mayst thou thrive, if thou grant any grace!
3178 DUCHESS. Pleads he in earnest? Look upon his face;
3179 His eyes do drop no tears, his prayers are in jest;
3180 His words come from his mouth, ours from our breast.
3181 He prays but faintly and would be denied;
3182 We pray with heart and soul, and all beside.
3183 His weary joints would gladly rise, I know;
3184 Our knees still kneel till to the ground they grow.
3185 His prayers are full of false hypocrisy;
3186 Ours of true zeal and deep integrity.
3187 Our prayers do out-pray his; then let them have
3188 That mercy which true prayer ought to have.
3189 BOLINGBROKE. Good aunt, stand up.
3190 DUCHESS. do not say 'stand up';
3191 Say 'pardon' first, and afterwards 'stand up.'
3192 An if I were thy nurse, thy tongue to teach,
3193 'Pardon' should be the first word of thy speech.
3194 I never long'd to hear a word till now;
3195 Say 'pardon,' King; let pity teach thee how.
3196 The word is short, but not so short as sweet;
3197 No word like 'pardon' for kings' mouths so meet.
3198 YORK. Speak it in French, King, say 'pardonne moy.'
3199 DUCHESS. Dost thou teach pardon pardon to destroy?
3200 Ah, my sour husband, my hard-hearted lord,
3201 That sets the word itself against the word!
3202 Speak 'pardon' as 'tis current in our land;
3203 The chopping French we do not understand.
3204 Thine eye begins to speak, set thy tongue there;
3205 Or in thy piteous heart plant thou thine ear,
3206 That hearing how our plaints and prayers do pierce,
3207 Pity may move thee 'pardon' to rehearse.
3208 BOLINGBROKE. Good aunt, stand up.
3209 DUCHESS. I do not sue to stand;
3210 Pardon is all the suit I have in hand.
3211 BOLINGBROKE. I pardon him, as God shall pardon me.
3212 DUCHESS. O happy vantage of a kneeling knee!
3213 Yet am I sick for fear. Speak it again.
3214 Twice saying 'pardon' doth not pardon twain,
3215 But makes one pardon strong.
3216 BOLINGBROKE. With all my heart
3217 I pardon him.
3218 DUCHESS. A god on earth thou art.
3219 BOLINGBROKE. But for our trusty brother-in-law and the Abbot,
3220 With all the rest of that consorted crew,
3221 Destruction straight shall dog them at the heels.
3222 Good uncle, help to order several powers
3223 To Oxford, or where'er these traitors are.
3224 They shall not live within this world, I swear,
3225 But I will have them, if I once know where.
3226 Uncle, farewell; and, cousin, adieu;
3227 Your mother well hath pray'd, and prove you true.
3228 DUCHESS. Come, my old son; I pray God make thee new.
3229Exeunt
3230
3231
3232
3233
3234SCENE 4.
3235Windsor Castle
3236
3237Enter SIR PIERCE OF EXTON and a servant
3238
3239 EXTON. Didst thou not mark the King, what words he spake?
3240 'Have I no friend will rid me of this living fear?'
3241 Was it not so?
3242 SERVANT. These were his very words.
3243 EXTON. 'Have I no friend?' quoth he. He spake it twice
3244 And urg'd it twice together, did he not?
3245 SERVANT. He did.
3246 EXTON. And, speaking it, he wishtly look'd on me,
3247 As who should say 'I would thou wert the man
3248 That would divorce this terror from my heart';
3249 Meaning the King at Pomfret. Come, let's go.
3250 I am the King's friend, and will rid his foe. Exeunt
3251
3252
3253
3254
3255SCENE 5.
3256Pomfret Castle. The dungeon of the Castle
3257
3258Enter KING RICHARD
3259
3260 KING RICHARD. I have been studying how I may compare
3261 This prison where I live unto the world
3262 And, for because the world is populous
3263 And here is not a creature but myself,
3264 I cannot do it. Yet I'll hammer it out.
3265 My brain I'll prove the female to my soul,
3266 My soul the father; and these two beget
3267 A generation of still-breeding thoughts,
3268 And these same thoughts people this little world,
3269 In humours like the people of this world,
3270 For no thought is contented. The better sort,
3271 As thoughts of things divine, are intermix'd
3272 With scruples, and do set the word itself
3273 Against the word,
3274 As thus: 'Come, little ones'; and then again,
3275 'It is as hard to come as for a camel
3276 To thread the postern of a small needle's eye.'
3277 Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot
3278 Unlikely wonders: how these vain weak nails
3279 May tear a passage through the flinty ribs
3280 Of this hard world, my ragged prison walls;
3281 And, for they cannot, die in their own pride.
3282 Thoughts tending to content flatter themselves
3283 That they are not the first of fortune's slaves,
3284 Nor shall not be the last; like silly beggars
3285 Who, sitting in the stocks, refuge their shame,
3286 That many have and others must sit there;
3287 And in this thought they find a kind of ease,
3288 Bearing their own misfortunes on the back
3289 Of such as have before endur'd the like.
3290 Thus play I in one person many people,
3291 And none contented. Sometimes am I king;
3292 Then treasons make me wish myself a beggar,
3293 And so I am. Then crushing penury
3294 Persuades me I was better when a king;
3295 Then am I king'd again; and by and by
3296 Think that I am unking'd by Bolingbroke,
3297 And straight am nothing. But whate'er I be,
3298 Nor I, nor any man that but man is,
3299 With nothing shall be pleas'd till he be eas'd
3300 With being nothing. [The music plays]
3301 Music do I hear?
3302 Ha, ha! keep time. How sour sweet music is
3303 When time is broke and no proportion kept!
3304 So is it in the music of men's lives.
3305 And here have I the daintiness of ear
3306 To check time broke in a disorder'd string;
3307 But, for the concord of my state and time,
3308 Had not an ear to hear my true time broke.
3309 I wasted time, and now doth time waste me;
3310 For now hath time made me his numb'ring clock:
3311 My thoughts are minutes; and with sighs they jar
3312 Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch,
3313 Whereto my finger, like a dial's point,
3314 Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears.
3315 Now sir, the sound that tells what hour it is
3316 Are clamorous groans which strike upon my heart,
3317 Which is the bell. So sighs, and tears, and groans,
3318 Show minutes, times, and hours; but my time
3319 Runs posting on in Bolingbroke's proud joy,
3320 While I stand fooling here, his Jack of the clock.
3321 This music mads me. Let it sound no more;
3322 For though it have holp madmen to their wits,
3323 In me it seems it will make wise men mad.
3324 Yet blessing on his heart that gives it me!
3325 For 'tis a sign of love; and love to Richard
3326 Is a strange brooch in this all-hating world.
3327
3328 Enter a GROOM of the stable
3329
3330 GROOM. Hail, royal Prince!
3331 KING RICHARD. Thanks, noble peer!
3332 The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear.
3333 What art thou? and how comest thou hither,
3334 Where no man never comes but that sad dog
3335 That brings me food to make misfortune live?
3336 GROOM. I was a poor groom of thy stable, King,
3337 When thou wert king; who, travelling towards York,
3338 With much ado at length have gotten leave
3339 To look upon my sometimes royal master's face.
3340 O, how it ern'd my heart, when I beheld,
3341 In London streets, that coronation-day,
3342 When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary-
3343 That horse that thou so often hast bestrid,
3344 That horse that I so carefully have dress'd!
3345 KING RICHARD. Rode he on Barbary? Tell me, gentle friend,
3346 How went he under him?
3347 GROOM. So proudly as if he disdain'd the ground.
3348 KING RICHARD. So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back!
3349 That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand;
3350 This hand hath made him proud with clapping him.
3351 Would he not stumble? would he not fall down,
3352 Since pride must have a fall, and break the neck
3353 Of that proud man that did usurp his back?
3354 Forgiveness, horse! Why do I rail on thee,
3355 Since thou, created to be aw'd by man,
3356 Wast born to bear? I was not made a horse;
3357 And yet I bear a burden like an ass,
3358 Spurr'd, gall'd, and tir'd, by jauncing Bolingbroke.
3359
3360 Enter KEEPER with meat
3361
3362 KEEPER. Fellow, give place; here is no longer stay.
3363 KING RICHARD. If thou love me, 'tis time thou wert away.
3364 GROOM. my tongue dares not, that my heart shall say.
3365 Exit
3366 KEEPER. My lord, will't please you to fall to?
3367 KING RICHARD. Taste of it first as thou art wont to do.
3368 KEEPER. My lord, I dare not. Sir Pierce of Exton,
3369 Who lately came from the King, commands the contrary.
3370 KING RICHARD. The devil take Henry of Lancaster and thee!
3371 Patience is stale, and I am weary of it.
3372 [Beats the KEEPER]
3373 KEEPER. Help, help, help!
3374 The murderers, EXTON and servants, rush in, armed
3375 KING RICHARD. How now! What means death in this rude assault?
3376 Villain, thy own hand yields thy death's instrument.
3377 [Snatching a weapon and killing one]
3378 Go thou and fill another room in hell.
3379 [He kills another, then EXTON strikes him down]
3380 That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire
3381 That staggers thus my person. Exton, thy fierce hand
3382 Hath with the King's blood stain'd the King's own land.
3383 Mount, mount, my soul! thy seat is up on high;
3384 Whilst my gross flesh sinks downward, here to die.
3385 [Dies]
3386 EXTON. As full of valour as of royal blood.
3387 Both have I spill'd. O, would the deed were good!
3388 For now the devil, that told me I did well,
3389 Says that this deed is chronicled in hell.
3390 This dead King to the living King I'll bear.
3391 Take hence the rest, and give them burial here. Exeunt
3392
3393
3394
3395
3396SCENE 6.
3397Windsor Castle
3398
3399Flourish. Enter BOLINGBROKE, the DUKE OF YORK, With other LORDS
3400and attendants
3401
3402 BOLINGBROKE. Kind uncle York, the latest news we hear
3403 Is that the rebels have consum'd with fire
3404 Our town of Ciceter in Gloucestershire;
3405 But whether they be ta'en or slain we hear not.
3406
3407 Enter NORTHUMBERLAND
3408
3409 Welcome, my lord. What is the news?
3410 NORTHUMBERLAND. First, to thy sacred state wish I all
3411happiness.
3412 The next news is, I have to London sent
3413 The heads of Salisbury, Spencer, Blunt, and Kent.
3414 The manner of their taking may appear
3415 At large discoursed in this paper here.
3416 BOLINGBROKE. We thank thee, gentle Percy, for thy pains;
3417 And to thy worth will add right worthy gains.
3418
3419 Enter FITZWATER
3420
3421 FITZWATER. My lord, I have from Oxford sent to London
3422 The heads of Brocas and Sir Bennet Seely;
3423 Two of the dangerous consorted traitors
3424 That sought at Oxford thy dire overthrow.
3425 BOLINGBROKE. Thy pains, Fitzwater, shall not be forgot;
3426 Right noble is thy merit, well I wot.
3427
3428 Enter PERCY, With the BISHOP OF CARLISLE
3429
3430 PERCY. The grand conspirator, Abbot of Westminster,
3431 With clog of conscience and sour melancholy,
3432 Hath yielded up his body to the grave;
3433 But here is Carlisle living, to abide
3434 Thy kingly doom, and sentence of his pride.
3435 BOLINGBROKE. Carlisle, this is your doom:
3436 Choose out some secret place, some reverend room,
3437 More than thou hast, and with it joy thy life;
3438 So as thou liv'st in peace, die free from strife;
3439 For though mine enemy thou hast ever been,
3440 High sparks of honour in thee have I seen.
3441
3442 Enter EXTON, with attendants, hearing a coffin
3443
3444 EXTON. Great King, within this coffin I present
3445 Thy buried fear. Herein all breathless lies
3446 The mightiest of thy greatest enemies,
3447 Richard of Bordeaux, by me hither brought.
3448 BOLINGBROKE. Exton, I thank thee not; for thou hast wrought
3449 A deed of slander with thy fatal hand
3450 Upon my head and all this famous land.
3451 EXTON. From your own mouth, my lord, did I this deed.
3452 BOLINGBROKE. They love not poison that do poison need,
3453 Nor do I thee. Though I did wish him dead,
3454 I hate the murderer, love him murdered.
3455 The guilt of conscience take thou for thy labour,
3456 But neither my good word nor princely favour;
3457 With Cain go wander thorough shades of night,
3458 And never show thy head by day nor light.
3459 Lords, I protest my soul is full of woe
3460 That blood should sprinkle me to make me grow.
3461 Come, mourn with me for what I do lament,
3462 And put on sullen black incontinent.
3463 I'll make a voyage to the Holy Land,
3464 To wash this blood off from my guilty hand.
3465 March sadly after; grace my mournings here
3466 In weeping after this untimely bier. Exeunt
3467
3468THE END
3469
3470
3471
3472
3473
3474<<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
3475SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
3476PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY
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3482
3483
3484
3485
3486
3487End of this Etext of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
3488King Richard the Second
3489