King Richard The Second

1 Gaunt on a couch; the Duke of York and Others standing by him.
2 GAUNT.
3 Will the King come, that I may breathe my last
4 In wholesome counsel to his unstaid youth?
5 YORK.
6 Vex not yourself, nor strive not with your breath,
7 For all in vain comes counsel to his ear.
8 GAUNT.
9 O, but they say the tongues of dying men
10 Enforce attention like deep harmony.
11 Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain,
12 For they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain.
13 He that no more must say is listened more
14 Than they whom youth and ease have taught to glose.
15 More are men’s ends marked than their lives before.
16 The setting sun and music at the close,
17 As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,
18 Writ in remembrance more than things long past.
19 Though Richard my life’s counsel would not hear,
20 My death’s sad tale may yet undeaf his ear.
21 YORK.
22 No, it is stopped with other flattering sounds,
23 As praises, of whose state the wise are fond;
24 Lascivious metres, to whose venom sound
25 The open ear of youth doth always listen;
26 Report of fashions in proud Italy,
27 Whose manners still our tardy-apish nation
28 Limps after in base imitation.
29 Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity—
30 So it be new, there’s no respect how vile—
31 That is not quickly buzzed into his ears?
32 Then all too late comes counsel to be heard,
33 Where will doth mutiny with wit’s regard.
34 Direct not him whose way himself will choose.
35 ’Tis breath thou lack’st, and that breath wilt thou lose.
36 GAUNT.
37 Methinks I am a prophet new inspired,
38 And thus expiring do foretell of him:
39 His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last,
40 For violent fires soon burn out themselves;
41 Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short;
42 He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes;
43 With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder.
44 Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,
45 Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.
46 This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle,
47 This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
48 This other Eden, demi-paradise,
49 This fortress built by Nature for herself
50 Against infection and the hand of war,
51 This happy breed of men, this little world,
52 This precious stone set in the silver sea,
53 Which serves it in the office of a wall
54 Or as a moat defensive to a house,
55 Against the envy of less happier lands;
56 This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
57 This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
58 Feared by their breed, and famous by their birth,
59 Renowned for their deeds as far from home,
60 For Christian service and true chivalry,
61 As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry
62 Of the world’s ransom, blessed Mary’s Son,
63 This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
64 Dear for her reputation through the world,
65 Is now leased out—I die pronouncing it—
66 Like to a tenement or pelting farm.
67 England, bound in with the triumphant sea,
68 Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
69 Of wat’ry Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
70 With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds
71 That England that was wont to conquer others
72 Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.
73 Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life,
74 How happy then were my ensuing death!
75 Enter King Richard and Queen; Aumerle, Bushy, Green, Bagot, Ross and
76 Willoughby.
77 YORK.
78 The King is come. Deal mildly with his youth,
79 For young hot colts, being raged, do rage the more.
80 QUEEN.
81 How fares our noble uncle, Lancaster?
82 KING RICHARD.
83 What comfort, man? How is’t with aged Gaunt?
84 GAUNT.
85 O, how that name befits my composition!
86 Old Gaunt indeed, and gaunt in being old.
87 Within me grief hath kept a tedious fast,
88 And who abstains from meat that is not gaunt?
89 For sleeping England long time have I watched;
90 Watching breeds leanness, leanness is all gaunt.
91 The pleasure that some fathers feed upon
92 Is my strict fast—I mean my children’s looks,
93 And therein fasting, hast thou made me gaunt.
94 Gaunt am I for the grave, gaunt as a grave,
95 Whose hollow womb inherits nought but bones.
96 KING RICHARD.
97 Can sick men play so nicely with their names?
98 GAUNT.
99 No, misery makes sport to mock itself.
100 Since thou dost seek to kill my name in me,
101 I mock my name, great king, to flatter thee.
102 KING RICHARD.
103 Should dying men flatter with those that live?
104 GAUNT.
105 No, no, men living flatter those that die.
106 KING RICHARD.
107 Thou, now a-dying, sayest thou flatterest me.
108 GAUNT.
109 O, no, thou diest, though I the sicker be.
110 KING RICHARD.
111 I am in health, I breathe, and see thee ill.
112 GAUNT.
113 Now, He that made me knows I see thee ill,
114 Ill in myself to see, and in thee seeing ill.
115 Thy death-bed is no lesser than thy land,
116 Wherein thou liest in reputation sick;
117 And thou, too careless patient as thou art,
118 Committ’st thy anointed body to the cure
119 Of those physicians that first wounded thee.
120 A thousand flatterers sit within thy crown,
121 Whose compass is no bigger than thy head;
122 And yet, encaged in so small a verge,
123 The waste is no whit lesser than thy land.
124 O, had thy grandsire with a prophet’s eye
125 Seen how his son’s son should destroy his sons,
126 From forth thy reach he would have laid thy shame,
127 Deposing thee before thou wert possessed,
128 Which art possessed now to depose thyself.
129 Why, cousin, wert thou regent of the world,
130 It were a shame to let this land by lease;
131 But for thy world enjoying but this land,
132 Is it not more than shame to shame it so?
133 Landlord of England art thou now, not king.
134 Thy state of law is bondslave to the law,
135 And thou—
136 KING RICHARD.
137 A lunatic lean-witted fool,
138 Presuming on an ague’s privilege,
139 Darest with thy frozen admonition
140 Make pale our cheek, chasing the royal blood
141 With fury from his native residence.
142 Now, by my seat’s right royal majesty,
143 Wert thou not brother to great Edward’s son,
144 This tongue that runs so roundly in thy head
145 Should run thy head from thy unreverent shoulders.
146 GAUNT.
147 O! spare me not, my brother Edward’s son,
148 For that I was his father Edward’s son.
149 That blood already, like the pelican,
150 Hast thou tapped out, and drunkenly caroused.
151 My brother Gloucester, plain well-meaning soul,
152 Whom fair befall in heaven ’mongst happy souls!—
153 May be a precedent and witness good
154 That thou respect’st not spilling Edward’s blood.
155 Join with the present sickness that I have,
156 And thy unkindness be like crooked age
157 To crop at once a too-long withered flower.
158 Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee!
159 These words hereafter thy tormentors be!
160 Convey me to my bed, then to my grave.
161 Love they to live that love and honour have.
162 [_Exit, borne off by his Attendants._]
163 KING RICHARD.
164 And let them die that age and sullens have,
165 For both hast thou, and both become the grave.
166 YORK.
167 I do beseech your Majesty, impute his words
168 To wayward sickliness and age in him.
169 He loves you, on my life, and holds you dear
170 As Harry, Duke of Hereford, were he here.
171 KING RICHARD.
172 Right, you say true: as Hereford’s love, so his;
173 As theirs, so mine; and all be as it is.
174 Enter Northumberland.
175 NORTHUMBERLAND.
176 My liege, old Gaunt commends him to your Majesty.
177 KING RICHARD.
178 What says he?
179 NORTHUMBERLAND.
180 Nay, nothing; all is said.
181 His tongue is now a stringless instrument;
182 Words, life, and all, old Lancaster hath spent.
183 YORK.
184 Be York the next that must be bankrupt so!
185 Though death be poor, it ends a mortal woe.
186 KING RICHARD.
187 The ripest fruit first falls, and so doth he.
188 His time is spent; our pilgrimage must be.
189 So much for that. Now for our Irish wars:
190 We must supplant those rough rug-headed kerns,
191 Which live like venom where no venom else
192 But only they have privilege to live.
193 And, for these great affairs do ask some charge,
194 Towards our assistance we do seize to us
195 The plate, coin, revenues, and moveables
196 Whereof our uncle Gaunt did stand possessed.
197 YORK.
198 How long shall I be patient? Ah, how long
199 Shall tender duty make me suffer wrong?
200 Not Gloucester’s death, nor Hereford’s banishment,
201 Nor Gaunt’s rebukes, nor England’s private wrongs,
202 Nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke
203 About his marriage, nor my own disgrace,
204 Have ever made me sour my patient cheek,
205 Or bend one wrinkle on my sovereign’s face.
206 I am the last of noble Edward’s sons,
207 Of whom thy father, Prince of Wales, was first.
208 In war was never lion raged more fierce,
209 In peace was never gentle lamb more mild,
210 Than was that young and princely gentleman.
211 His face thou hast, for even so looked he,
212 Accomplished with the number of thy hours;
213 But when he frowned, it was against the French
214 And not against his friends. His noble hand
215 Did win what he did spend, and spent not that
216 Which his triumphant father’s hand had won.
217 His hands were guilty of no kindred’s blood,
218 But bloody with the enemies of his kin.
219 O Richard! York is too far gone with grief,
220 Or else he never would compare between.
221 KING RICHARD.
222 Why, uncle, what’s the matter?
223 YORK.
224 O my liege.
225 Pardon me, if you please; if not, I, pleased
226 Not to be pardoned, am content withal.
227 Seek you to seize and gripe into your hands
228 The royalties and rights of banished Hereford?
229 Is not Gaunt dead? And doth not Hereford live?
230 Was not Gaunt just? And is not Harry true?
231 Did not the one deserve to have an heir?
232 Is not his heir a well-deserving son?
233 Take Hereford’s rights away, and take from Time
234 His charters and his customary rights;
235 Let not tomorrow then ensue today;
236 Be not thyself; for how art thou a king
237 But by fair sequence and succession?
238 Now, afore God—God forbid I say true!—
239 If you do wrongfully seize Hereford’s rights,
240 Call in the letters patents that he hath
241 By his attorneys-general to sue
242 His livery, and deny his offered homage,
243 You pluck a thousand dangers on your head,
244 You lose a thousand well-disposed hearts,
245 And prick my tender patience to those thoughts
246 Which honour and allegiance cannot think.
247 KING RICHARD.
248 Think what you will, we seize into our hands
249 His plate, his goods, his money, and his lands.
250 YORK.
251 I’ll not be by the while. My liege, farewell.
252 What will ensue hereof there’s none can tell;
253 But by bad courses may be understood
254 That their events can never fall out good.
255 [_Exit._]
256 KING RICHARD.
257 Go, Bushy, to the Earl of Wiltshire straight.
258 Bid him repair to us to Ely House
259 To see this business. Tomorrow next
260 We will for Ireland, and ’tis time, I trow.
261 And we create, in absence of ourself,
262 Our Uncle York Lord Governor of England,
263 For he is just, and always loved us well.
264 Come on, our queen. Tomorrow must we part;
265 Be merry, for our time of stay is short.
266 [_Exeunt King, Queen, Bushy, Aumerle, Green and Bagot._]
267 NORTHUMBERLAND.
268 Well, lords, the Duke of Lancaster is dead.
269 ROSS.
270 And living too, for now his son is Duke.
271 WILLOUGHBY.
272 Barely in title, not in revenues.
273 NORTHUMBERLAND.
274 Richly in both, if justice had her right.
275 ROSS.
276 My heart is great, but it must break with silence
277 Ere’t be disburdened with a liberal tongue.
278 NORTHUMBERLAND.
279 Nay, speak thy mind, and let him ne’er speak more
280 That speaks thy words again to do thee harm!
281 WILLOUGHBY.
282 Tends that thou wouldst speak to the Duke of Hereford?
283 If it be so, out with it boldly, man.
284 Quick is mine ear to hear of good towards him.
285 ROSS.
286 No good at all that I can do for him,
287 Unless you call it good to pity him,
288 Bereft and gelded of his patrimony.
289 NORTHUMBERLAND.
290 Now, afore God, ’tis shame such wrongs are borne
291 In him, a royal prince, and many moe
292 Of noble blood in this declining land.
293 The King is not himself, but basely led
294 By flatterers; and what they will inform,
295 Merely in hate ’gainst any of us all,
296 That will the King severely prosecute
297 ’Gainst us, our lives, our children, and our heirs.
298 ROSS.
299 The commons hath he pilled with grievous taxes,
300 And quite lost their hearts. The nobles hath he fined
301 For ancient quarrels and quite lost their hearts.
302 WILLOUGHBY.
303 And daily new exactions are devised,
304 As blanks, benevolences, and I wot not what.
305 But what, i’ God’s name, doth become of this?
306 NORTHUMBERLAND.
307 Wars hath not wasted it, for warred he hath not,
308 But basely yielded upon compromise
309 That which his ancestors achieved with blows.
310 More hath he spent in peace than they in wars.
311 ROSS.
312 The Earl of Wiltshire hath the realm in farm.
313 WILLOUGHBY.
314 The King’s grown bankrupt like a broken man.
315 NORTHUMBERLAND.
316 Reproach and dissolution hangeth over him.
317 ROSS.
318 He hath not money for these Irish wars,
319 His burdenous taxations notwithstanding,
320 But by the robbing of the banished Duke.
321 NORTHUMBERLAND.
322 His noble kinsman. Most degenerate king!
323 But, lords, we hear this fearful tempest sing,
324 Yet seek no shelter to avoid the storm;
325 We see the wind sit sore upon our sails,
326 And yet we strike not, but securely perish.
327 ROSS.
328 We see the very wrack that we must suffer;
329 And unavoided is the danger now
330 For suffering so the causes of our wrack.
331 NORTHUMBERLAND.
332 Not so. Even through the hollow eyes of death
333 I spy life peering; but I dare not say
334 How near the tidings of our comfort is.
335 WILLOUGHBY.
336 Nay, let us share thy thoughts as thou dost ours.
337 ROSS.
338 Be confident to speak, Northumberland.
339 We three are but thyself, and, speaking so,
340 Thy words are but as thoughts. Therefore be bold.
341 NORTHUMBERLAND.
342 Then thus: I have from Le Port Blanc, a bay
343 In Brittany, received intelligence
344 That Harry Duke of Hereford, Rainold Lord Cobham,
345 That late broke from the Duke of Exeter,
346 His brother, Archbishop late of Canterbury,
347 Sir Thomas Erpingham, Sir John Ramston,
348 Sir John Norbery, Sir Robert Waterton, and Francis Coint,
349 All these well furnished by the Duke of Brittany
350 With eight tall ships, three thousand men of war,
351 Are making hither with all due expedience,
352 And shortly mean to touch our northern shore.
353 Perhaps they had ere this, but that they stay
354 The first departing of the king for Ireland.
355 If then we shall shake off our slavish yoke,
356 Imp out our drooping country’s broken wing,
357 Redeem from broking pawn the blemished crown,
358 Wipe off the dust that hides our sceptre’s gilt,
359 And make high majesty look like itself,
360 Away with me in post to Ravenspurgh.
361 But if you faint, as fearing to do so,
362 Stay and be secret, and myself will go.
363 ROSS.
364 To horse, to horse! Urge doubts to them that fear.
365 WILLOUGHBY.
366 Hold out my horse, and I will first be there.
367 [_Exeunt._]