King Richard The Second

1 Enter Bolingbroke and Northumberland with Forces.
2 BOLINGBROKE.
3 How far is it, my lord, to Berkeley now?
4 NORTHUMBERLAND.
5 Believe me, noble lord,
6 I am a stranger here in Gloucestershire.
7 These high wild hills and rough uneven ways
8 Draws out our miles and makes them wearisome.
9 And yet your fair discourse hath been as sugar,
10 Making the hard way sweet and delectable.
11 But I bethink me what a weary way
12 From Ravenspurgh to Cotshall will be found
13 In Ross and Willoughby, wanting your company,
14 Which, I protest, hath very much beguiled
15 The tediousness and process of my travel.
16 But theirs is sweetened with the hope to have
17 The present benefit which I possess;
18 And hope to joy is little less in joy
19 Than hope enjoyed. By this the weary lords
20 Shall make their way seem short as mine hath done
21 By sight of what I have, your noble company.
22 BOLINGBROKE.
23 Of much less value is my company
24 Than your good words. But who comes here?
25 Enter Harry Percy.
26 NORTHUMBERLAND.
27 It is my son, young Harry Percy,
28 Sent from my brother Worcester, whencesoever.
29 Harry, how fares your uncle?
30 PERCY.
31 I had thought, my lord, to have learned his health of you.
32 NORTHUMBERLAND.
33 Why, is he not with the Queen?
34 PERCY.
35 No, my good lord. He hath forsook the court,
36 Broken his staff of office, and dispersed
37 The household of the King.
38 NORTHUMBERLAND.
39 What was his reason?
40 He was not so resolved when last we spake together.
41 PERCY.
42 Because your lordship was proclaimed traitor.
43 But he, my lord, is gone to Ravenspurgh
44 To offer service to the Duke of Hereford,
45 And sent me over by Berkeley to discover
46 What power the Duke of York had levied there,
47 Then with directions to repair to Ravenspurgh.
48 NORTHUMBERLAND.
49 Have you forgot the Duke of Hereford, boy?
50 PERCY.
51 No, my good lord; for that is not forgot
52 Which ne’er I did remember. To my knowledge,
53 I never in my life did look on him.
54 NORTHUMBERLAND.
55 Then learn to know him now. This is the Duke.
56 PERCY.
57 My gracious lord, I tender you my service,
58 Such as it is, being tender, raw, and young,
59 Which elder days shall ripen and confirm
60 To more approved service and desert.
61 BOLINGBROKE.
62 I thank thee, gentle Percy; and be sure
63 I count myself in nothing else so happy
64 As in a soul rememb’ring my good friends;
65 And as my fortune ripens with thy love,
66 It shall be still thy true love’s recompense.
67 My heart this covenant makes, my hand thus seals it.
68 NORTHUMBERLAND.
69 How far is it to Berkeley, and what stir
70 Keeps good old York there with his men of war?
71 PERCY.
72 There stands the castle by yon tuft of trees,
73 Manned with three hundred men, as I have heard.
74 And in it are the Lords of York, Berkeley, and Seymour,
75 None else of name and noble estimate.
76 Enter Ross and Willoughby.
77 NORTHUMBERLAND.
78 Here come the Lords of Ross and Willoughby,
79 Bloody with spurring, fiery-red with haste.
80 BOLINGBROKE.
81 Welcome, my lords. I wot your love pursues
82 A banished traitor. All my treasury
83 Is yet but unfelt thanks, which, more enriched,
84 Shall be your love and labour’s recompense.
85 ROSS.
86 Your presence makes us rich, most noble lord.
87 WILLOUGHBY.
88 And far surmounts our labour to attain it.
89 BOLINGBROKE.
90 Evermore thanks, the exchequer of the poor;
91 Which, till my infant fortune comes to years,
92 Stands for my bounty. But who comes here?
93 Enter Berkeley.
94 NORTHUMBERLAND.
95 It is my Lord of Berkeley, as I guess.
96 BERKELEY.
97 My Lord of Hereford, my message is to you.
98 BOLINGBROKE.
99 My lord, my answer is—to “Lancaster”,
100 And I am come to seek that name in England;
101 And I must find that title in your tongue
102 Before I make reply to aught you say.
103 BERKELEY.
104 Mistake me not, my lord, ’tis not my meaning
105 To rase one title of your honour out.
106 To you, my lord, I come, what lord you will,
107 From the most gracious regent of this land,
108 The Duke of York, to know what pricks you on
109 To take advantage of the absent time,
110 And fright our native peace with self-borne arms.
111 Enter York, attended.
112 BOLINGBROKE.
113 I shall not need transport my words by you.
114 Here comes his Grace in person. My noble uncle!
115 [_Kneels._]
116 YORK.
117 Show me thy humble heart, and not thy knee,
118 Whose duty is deceivable and false.
119 BOLINGBROKE.
120 My gracious uncle—
121 YORK.
122 Tut, tut!
123 Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle.
124 I am no traitor’s uncle, and that word “grace”
125 In an ungracious mouth is but profane.
126 Why have those banished and forbidden legs
127 Dared once to touch a dust of England’s ground?
128 But then more why: why have they dared to march
129 So many miles upon her peaceful bosom,
130 Frighting her pale-faced villages with war
131 And ostentation of despised arms?
132 Com’st thou because the anointed king is hence?
133 Why, foolish boy, the King is left behind,
134 And in my loyal bosom lies his power.
135 Were I but now lord of such hot youth
136 As when brave Gaunt, thy father, and myself
137 Rescued the Black Prince, that young Mars of men,
138 From forth the ranks of many thousand French,
139 O, then how quickly should this arm of mine,
140 Now prisoner to the palsy, chastise thee
141 And minister correction to thy fault!
142 BOLINGBROKE.
143 My gracious uncle, let me know my fault.
144 On what condition stands it and wherein?
145 YORK.
146 Even in condition of the worst degree,
147 In gross rebellion and detested treason.
148 Thou art a banished man, and here art come,
149 Before the expiration of thy time,
150 In braving arms against thy sovereign.
151 BOLINGBROKE.
152 As I was banished, I was banished Hereford;
153 But as I come, I come for Lancaster.
154 And, noble uncle, I beseech your Grace
155 Look on my wrongs with an indifferent eye.
156 You are my father, for methinks in you
157 I see old Gaunt alive. O then, my father,
158 Will you permit that I shall stand condemned
159 A wandering vagabond, my rights and royalties
160 Plucked from my arms perforce and given away
161 To upstart unthrifts? Wherefore was I born?
162 If that my cousin king be King in England,
163 It must be granted I am Duke of Lancaster.
164 You have a son, Aumerle, my noble cousin.
165 Had you first died and he been thus trod down,
166 He should have found his uncle Gaunt a father
167 To rouse his wrongs and chase them to the bay.
168 I am denied to sue my livery here,
169 And yet my letters patents give me leave.
170 My father’s goods are all distrained and sold,
171 And these, and all, are all amiss employed.
172 What would you have me do? I am a subject,
173 And challenge law. Attorneys are denied me,
174 And therefore personally I lay my claim
175 To my inheritance of free descent.
176 NORTHUMBERLAND.
177 The noble Duke hath been too much abused.
178 ROSS.
179 It stands your Grace upon to do him right.
180 WILLOUGHBY.
181 Base men by his endowments are made great.
182 YORK.
183 My lords of England, let me tell you this:
184 I have had feeling of my cousin’s wrongs
185 And laboured all I could to do him right.
186 But in this kind to come, in braving arms,
187 Be his own carver and cut out his way
188 To find out right with wrong, it may not be.
189 And you that do abet him in this kind
190 Cherish rebellion and are rebels all.
191 NORTHUMBERLAND.
192 The noble Duke hath sworn his coming is
193 But for his own; and for the right of that
194 We all have strongly sworn to give him aid;
195 And let him never see joy that breaks that oath!
196 YORK.
197 Well, well, I see the issue of these arms.
198 I cannot mend it, I must needs confess,
199 Because my power is weak and all ill-left;
200 But if I could, by Him that gave me life,
201 I would attach you all and make you stoop
202 Unto the sovereign mercy of the King.
203 But since I cannot, be it known unto you
204 I do remain as neuter. So fare you well—
205 Unless you please to enter in the castle
206 And there repose you for this night.
207 BOLINGBROKE.
208 An offer, uncle, that we will accept;
209 But we must win your Grace to go with us
210 To Bristol Castle, which they say is held
211 By Bushy, Bagot, and their complices,
212 The caterpillars of the commonwealth,
213 Which I have sworn to weed and pluck away.
214 YORK.
215 It may be I will go with you; but yet I’ll pause,
216 For I am loath to break our country’s laws.
217 Nor friends nor foes, to me welcome you are.
218 Things past redress are now with me past care.
219 [_Exeunt._]