King Richard The Second

1 Flourish: drums and trumpets. Enter King Richard, the Bishop of
2 Carlisle, Aumerle and soldiers.
3 KING RICHARD.
4 Barkloughly Castle call they this at hand?
5 AUMERLE.
6 Yea, my lord. How brooks your Grace the air
7 After your late tossing on the breaking seas?
8 KING RICHARD.
9 Needs must I like it well. I weep for joy
10 To stand upon my kingdom once again.
11 Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand,
12 Though rebels wound thee with their horses’ hoofs.
13 As a long-parted mother with her child
14 Plays fondly with her tears and smiles in meeting,
15 So weeping-smiling greet I thee, my earth,
16 And do thee favours with my royal hands.
17 Feed not thy sovereign’s foe, my gentle earth,
18 Nor with thy sweets comfort his ravenous sense,
19 But let thy spiders, that suck up thy venom,
20 And heavy-gaited toads lie in their way,
21 Doing annoyance to the treacherous feet
22 Which with usurping steps do trample thee.
23 Yield stinging nettles to mine enemies;
24 And when they from thy bosom pluck a flower,
25 Guard it, I pray thee, with a lurking adder
26 Whose double tongue may with a mortal touch
27 Throw death upon thy sovereign’s enemies.
28 Mock not my senseless conjuration, lords.
29 This earth shall have a feeling, and these stones
30 Prove armed soldiers, ere her native king
31 Shall falter under foul rebellion’s arms.
32 CARLISLE.
33 Fear not, my lord. That Power that made you king
34 Hath power to keep you king in spite of all.
35 The means that heaven yields must be embraced
36 And not neglected; else if heaven would,
37 And we will not. Heaven’s offer we refuse,
38 The proffered means of succour and redress.
39 AUMERLE.
40 He means, my lord, that we are too remiss,
41 Whilst Bolingbroke, through our security,
42 Grows strong and great in substance and in power.
43 KING RICHARD.
44 Discomfortable cousin, know’st thou not
45 That when the searching eye of heaven is hid
46 Behind the globe that lights the lower world,
47 Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen
48 In murders and in outrage boldly here;
49 But when from under this terrestrial ball
50 He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines
51 And darts his light through every guilty hole,
52 Then murders, treasons, and detested sins,
53 The cloak of night being plucked from off their backs,
54 Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves?
55 So when this thief, this traitor, Bolingbroke,
56 Who all this while hath revelled in the night
57 Whilst we were wand’ring with the Antipodes,
58 Shall see us rising in our throne, the east,
59 His treasons will sit blushing in his face,
60 Not able to endure the sight of day,
61 But self-affrighted, tremble at his sin.
62 Not all the water in the rough rude sea
63 Can wash the balm off from an anointed king;
64 The breath of worldly men cannot depose
65 The deputy elected by the Lord.
66 For every man that Bolingbroke hath pressed
67 To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown,
68 God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay
69 A glorious angel. Then, if angels fight,
70 Weak men must fall, for heaven still guards the right.
71 Enter Salisbury.
72 Welcome, my lord. How far off lies your power?
73 SALISBURY.
74 Nor near nor farther off, my gracious lord,
75 Than this weak arm. Discomfort guides my tongue
76 And bids me speak of nothing but despair.
77 One day too late, I fear me, noble lord,
78 Hath clouded all thy happy days on earth.
79 O, call back yesterday, bid time return,
80 And thou shalt have twelve thousand fighting men!
81 Today, today, unhappy day, too late,
82 O’erthrows thy joys, friends, fortune, and thy state;
83 For all the Welshmen, hearing thou wert dead,
84 Are gone to Bolingbroke, dispersed, and fled.
85 AUMERLE.
86 Comfort, my liege. Why looks your Grace so pale?
87 KING RICHARD.
88 But now, the blood of twenty thousand men
89 Did triumph in my face, and they are fled;
90 And till so much blood thither come again
91 Have I not reason to look pale and dead?
92 All souls that will be safe, fly from my side,
93 For time hath set a blot upon my pride.
94 AUMERLE.
95 Comfort, my liege. Remember who you are.
96 KING RICHARD.
97 I had forgot myself. Am I not king?
98 Awake, thou coward majesty! thou sleepest!
99 Is not the King’s name twenty thousand names?
100 Arm, arm, my name! A puny subject strikes
101 At thy great glory. Look not to the ground,
102 Ye favourites of a king. Are we not high?
103 High be our thoughts. I know my uncle York
104 Hath power enough to serve our turn. But who comes here?
105 Enter Sir Stephen Scroop.
106 SCROOP.
107 More health and happiness betide my liege
108 Than can my care-tuned tongue deliver him.
109 KING RICHARD.
110 Mine ear is open and my heart prepared.
111 The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold.
112 Say, is my kingdom lost? Why, ’twas my care,
113 And what loss is it to be rid of care?
114 Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we?
115 Greater he shall not be. If he serve God,
116 We’ll serve Him too, and be his fellow so.
117 Revolt our subjects? That we cannot mend.
118 They break their faith to God as well as us.
119 Cry woe, destruction, ruin, loss, decay.
120 The worst is death, and death will have his day.
121 SCROOP.
122 Glad am I that your highness is so armed
123 To bear the tidings of calamity.
124 Like an unseasonable stormy day
125 Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores
126 As if the world were all dissolved to tears,
127 So high above his limits swells the rage
128 Of Bolingbroke, covering your fearful land
129 With hard bright steel and hearts harder than steel.
130 Whitebeards have armed their thin and hairless scalps
131 Against thy majesty; boys with women’s voices
132 Strive to speak big and clap their female joints
133 In stiff unwieldy arms against thy crown;
134 Thy very beadsmen learn to bend their bows
135 Of double-fatal yew against thy state;
136 Yea, distaff-women manage rusty bills
137 Against thy seat. Both young and old rebel,
138 And all goes worse than I have power to tell.
139 KING RICHARD.
140 Too well, too well thou tell’st a tale so ill.
141 Where is the Earl of Wiltshire? Where is Bagot?
142 What is become of Bushy? Where is Green?
143 That they have let the dangerous enemy
144 Measure our confines with such peaceful steps?
145 If we prevail, their heads shall pay for it.
146 I warrant they have made peace with Bolingbroke.
147 SCROOP.
148 Peace have they made with him indeed, my lord.
149 KING RICHARD.
150 O villains, vipers, damned without redemption!
151 Dogs, easily won to fawn on any man!
152 Snakes, in my heart-blood warmed, that sting my heart!
153 Three Judases, each one thrice worse than Judas!
154 Would they make peace? Terrible hell
155 Make war upon their spotted souls for this!
156 SCROOP.
157 Sweet love, I see, changing his property,
158 Turns to the sourest and most deadly hate.
159 Again uncurse their souls. Their peace is made
160 With heads, and not with hands. Those whom you curse
161 Have felt the worst of death’s destroying wound
162 And lie full low, graved in the hollow ground.
163 AUMERLE.
164 Is Bushy, Green, and the Earl of Wiltshire dead?
165 SCROOP.
166 Ay, all of them at Bristol lost their heads.
167 AUMERLE.
168 Where is the Duke my father with his power?
169 KING RICHARD.
170 No matter where. Of comfort no man speak!
171 Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs,
172 Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes
173 Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth.
174 Let’s choose executors and talk of wills.
175 And yet not so, for what can we bequeath
176 Save our deposed bodies to the ground?
177 Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke’s,
178 And nothing can we call our own but death
179 And that small model of the barren earth
180 Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.
181 For God’s sake let us sit upon the ground
182 And tell sad stories of the death of kings—
183 How some have been deposed, some slain in war,
184 Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed,
185 Some poisoned by their wives, some sleeping killed,
186 All murdered. For within the hollow crown
187 That rounds the mortal temples of a king
188 Keeps Death his court; and there the antic sits,
189 Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
190 Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
191 To monarchize, be feared, and kill with looks,
192 Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
193 As if this flesh which walls about our life
194 Were brass impregnable; and, humoured thus,
195 Comes at the last, and with a little pin
196 Bores through his castle wall, and farewell, king!
197 Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood
198 With solemn reverence. Throw away respect,
199 Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty,
200 For you have but mistook me all this while.
201 I live with bread like you, feel want,
202 Taste grief, need friends. Subjected thus,
203 How can you say to me I am a king?
204 CARLISLE.
205 My lord, wise men ne’er sit and wail their woes,
206 But presently prevent the ways to wail.
207 To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength,
208 Gives in your weakness strength unto your foe,
209 And so your follies fight against yourself.
210 Fear and be slain—no worse can come to fight;
211 And fight and die is death destroying death,
212 Where fearing dying pays death servile breath.
213 AUMERLE.
214 My father hath a power. Enquire of him,
215 And learn to make a body of a limb.
216 KING RICHARD.
217 Thou chid’st me well. Proud Bolingbroke, I come
218 To change blows with thee for our day of doom.
219 This ague fit of fear is overblown;
220 An easy task it is to win our own.
221 Say, Scroop, where lies our uncle with his power?
222 Speak sweetly, man, although thy looks be sour.
223 SCROOP.
224 Men judge by the complexion of the sky
225 The state in inclination of the day;
226 So may you by my dull and heavy eye.
227 My tongue hath but a heavier tale to say.
228 I play the torturer by small and small
229 To lengthen out the worst that must be spoken:
230 Your uncle York is joined with Bolingbroke,
231 And all your northern castles yielded up,
232 And all your southern gentlemen in arms
233 Upon his party.
234 KING RICHARD.
235 Thou hast said enough.
236 [_To Aumerle_.] Beshrew thee, cousin, which didst lead me forth
237 Of that sweet way I was in to despair.
238 What say you now? What comfort have we now?
239 By heaven, I’ll hate him everlastingly
240 That bids me be of comfort any more.
241 Go to Flint Castle. There I’ll pine away;
242 A king, woe’s slave, shall kingly woe obey.
243 That power I have, discharge, and let them go
244 To ear the land that hath some hope to grow,
245 For I have none. Let no man speak again
246 To alter this, for counsel is but vain.
247 AUMERLE.
248 My liege, one word.
249 KING RICHARD.
250 He does me double wrong
251 That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue.
252 Discharge my followers. Let them hence away,
253 From Richard’s night to Bolingbroke’s fair day.
254 [_Exeunt._]