King Richard The Second

1 The Lords spiritual on the right side of the throne; the Lords
2 temporal on the left; the Commons below. Enter Bolingbroke, Aumerle,
3 Surrey, Northumberland, Harry Percy, Fitzwater, another Lord, the
4 Bishop of Carlisle, the Abbot of Westminster and attendants.
5 BOLINGBROKE.
6 Call forth Bagot.
7 Enter Officers with Bagot.
8 Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind,
9 What thou dost know of noble Gloucester’s death,
10 Who wrought it with the King, and who performed
11 The bloody office of his timeless end.
12 BAGOT.
13 Then set before my face the Lord Aumerle.
14 BOLINGBROKE.
15 Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that man.
16 BAGOT.
17 My Lord Aumerle, I know your daring tongue
18 Scorns to unsay what once it hath delivered.
19 In that dead time when Gloucester’s death was plotted,
20 I heard you say “Is not my arm of length,
21 That reacheth from the restful English Court
22 As far as Calais, to mine uncle’s head?”
23 Amongst much other talk that very time
24 I heard you say that you had rather refuse
25 The offer of an hundred thousand crowns
26 Than Bolingbroke’s return to England,
27 Adding withal, how blest this land would be
28 In this your cousin’s death.
29 AUMERLE.
30 Princes and noble lords,
31 What answer shall I make to this base man?
32 Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars
33 On equal terms to give him chastisement?
34 Either I must, or have mine honour soiled
35 With the attainder of his slanderous lips.
36 There is my gage, the manual seal of death
37 That marks thee out for hell. I say thou liest,
38 And will maintain what thou hast said is false
39 In thy heart-blood, though being all too base
40 To stain the temper of my knightly sword.
41 BOLINGBROKE.
42 Bagot, forbear. Thou shalt not take it up.
43 AUMERLE.
44 Excepting one, I would he were the best
45 In all this presence that hath moved me so.
46 FITZWATER.
47 If that thy valour stand on sympathy,
48 There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine.
49 By that fair sun which shows me where thou stand’st,
50 I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spak’st it,
51 That thou wert cause of noble Gloucester’s death.
52 If thou deniest it twenty times, thou liest!
53 And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart,
54 Where it was forged, with my rapier’s point.
55 AUMERLE.
56 Thou dar’st not, coward, live to see that day.
57 FITZWATER.
58 Now, by my soul, I would it were this hour.
59 AUMERLE.
60 Fitzwater, thou art damned to hell for this.
61 HARRY PERCY.
62 Aumerle, thou liest. His honour is as true
63 In this appeal as thou art an unjust;
64 And that thou art so, there I throw my gage,
65 To prove it on thee to the extremest point
66 Of mortal breathing. Seize it if thou dar’st.
67 AUMERLE.
68 And if I do not, may my hands rot off
69 And never brandish more revengeful steel
70 Over the glittering helmet of my foe!
71 ANOTHER LORD.
72 I task the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle,
73 And spur thee on with full as many lies
74 As may be holloaed in thy treacherous ear
75 From sun to sun. There is my honour’s pawn.
76 Engage it to the trial if thou dar’st.
77 AUMERLE.
78 Who sets me else? By heaven, I’ll throw at all.
79 I have a thousand spirits in one breast
80 To answer twenty thousand such as you.
81 SURREY.
82 My Lord Fitzwater, I do remember well
83 The very time Aumerle and you did talk.
84 FITZWATER.
85 ’Tis very true. You were in presence then,
86 And you can witness with me this is true.
87 SURREY.
88 As false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true.
89 FITZWATER.
90 Surrey, thou liest.
91 SURREY.
92 Dishonourable boy!
93 That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword
94 That it shall render vengeance and revenge
95 Till thou the lie-giver and that lie do lie
96 In earth as quiet as thy father’s skull.
97 In proof whereof, there is my honour’s pawn.
98 Engage it to the trial if thou dar’st.
99 FITZWATER.
100 How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse!
101 If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live,
102 I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness
103 And spit upon him, whilst I say he lies,
104 And lies, and lies. There is my bond of faith
105 To tie thee to my strong correction.
106 As I intend to thrive in this new world,
107 Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal.
108 Besides, I heard the banished Norfolk say
109 That thou, Aumerle, didst send two of thy men
110 To execute the noble duke at Calais.
111 AUMERLE.
112 Some honest Christian trust me with a gage.
113 That Norfolk lies, here do I throw down this,
114 If he may be repealed to try his honour.
115 BOLINGBROKE.
116 These differences shall all rest under gage
117 Till Norfolk be repealed. Repealed he shall be,
118 And, though mine enemy, restored again
119 To all his lands and signories. When he is returned,
120 Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial.
121 CARLISLE.
122 That honourable day shall ne’er be seen.
123 Many a time hath banished Norfolk fought
124 For Jesu Christ in glorious Christian field,
125 Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross
126 Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens;
127 And, toiled with works of war, retired himself
128 To Italy, and there at Venice gave
129 His body to that pleasant country’s earth
130 And his pure soul unto his captain, Christ,
131 Under whose colours he had fought so long.
132 BOLINGBROKE.
133 Why, Bishop, is Norfolk dead?
134 CARLISLE.
135 As surely as I live, my lord.
136 BOLINGBROKE.
137 Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bosom
138 Of good old Abraham! Lords appellants,
139 Your differences shall all rest under gage
140 Till we assign you to your days of trial.
141 Enter York, attended.
142 YORK.
143 Great Duke of Lancaster, I come to thee
144 From plume-plucked Richard, who with willing soul
145 Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields
146 To the possession of thy royal hand.
147 Ascend his throne, descending now from him,
148 And long live Henry, of that name the fourth!
149 BOLINGBROKE.
150 In God’s name, I’ll ascend the regal throne.
151 CARLISLE.
152 Marry, God forbid!
153 Worst in this royal presence may I speak,
154 Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth.
155 Would God that any in this noble presence
156 Were enough noble to be upright judge
157 Of noble Richard! Then true noblesse would
158 Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.
159 What subject can give sentence on his king?
160 And who sits here that is not Richard’s subject?
161 Thieves are not judged but they are by to hear,
162 Although apparent guilt be seen in them;
163 And shall the figure of God’s majesty,
164 His captain, steward, deputy elect,
165 Anointed, crowned, planted many years,
166 Be judged by subject and inferior breath,
167 And he himself not present? O, forfend it, God,
168 That in a Christian climate souls refined
169 Should show so heinous, black, obscene a deed!
170 I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks,
171 Stirred up by God, thus boldly for his king.
172 My Lord of Hereford here, whom you call king,
173 Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford’s king.
174 And if you crown him, let me prophesy
175 The blood of English shall manure the ground
176 And future ages groan for this foul act.
177 Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels,
178 And in this seat of peace tumultuous wars
179 Shall kin with kin and kind with kind confound.
180 Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny
181 Shall here inhabit, and this land be called
182 The field of Golgotha and dead men’s skulls.
183 O, if you raise this house against this house,
184 It will the woefullest division prove
185 That ever fell upon this cursed earth.
186 Prevent it, resist it, let it not be so,
187 Lest child, child’s children, cry against you, “woe!”
188 NORTHUMBERLAND.
189 Well have you argued, sir; and, for your pains,
190 Of capital treason we arrest you here.
191 My Lord of Westminster, be it your charge
192 To keep him safely till his day of trial.
193 May it please you, lords, to grant the commons’ suit?
194 BOLINGBROKE.
195 Fetch hither Richard, that in common view
196 He may surrender. So we shall proceed
197 Without suspicion.
198 YORK.
199 I will be his conduct.
200 [_Exit._]
201 BOLINGBROKE.
202 Lords, you that here are under our arrest,
203 Procure your sureties for your days of answer.
204 Little are we beholding to your love,
205 And little looked for at your helping hands.
206 Enter York with King Richard and Officers bearing the Crown, &c.
207 KING RICHARD.
208 Alack, why am I sent for to a king
209 Before I have shook off the regal thoughts
210 Wherewith I reigned? I hardly yet have learned
211 To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my knee.
212 Give sorrow leave awhile to tutor me
213 To this submission. Yet I well remember
214 The favours of these men. Were they not mine?
215 Did they not sometime cry “All hail!” to me?
216 So Judas did to Christ, but He in twelve,
217 Found truth in all but one; I, in twelve thousand, none.
218 God save the King! Will no man say, “Amen”?
219 Am I both priest and clerk? Well then, amen.
220 God save the King, although I be not he,
221 And yet, Amen, if heaven do think him me.
222 To do what service am I sent for hither?
223 YORK.
224 To do that office of thine own good will
225 Which tired majesty did make thee offer:
226 The resignation of thy state and crown
227 To Henry Bolingbroke.
228 KING RICHARD.
229 Give me the crown. Here, cousin, seize the crown.
230 Here, cousin,
231 On this side my hand, and on that side thine.
232 Now is this golden crown like a deep well
233 That owes two buckets, filling one another,
234 The emptier ever dancing in the air,
235 The other down, unseen, and full of water.
236 That bucket down and full of tears am I,
237 Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high.
238 BOLINGBROKE.
239 I thought you had been willing to resign.
240 KING RICHARD.
241 My crown I am, but still my griefs are mine.
242 You may my glories and my state depose,
243 But not my griefs; still am I king of those.
244 BOLINGBROKE.
245 Part of your cares you give me with your crown.
246 KING RICHARD.
247 Your cares set up do not pluck my cares down.
248 My care is loss of care, by old care done;
249 Your care is gain of care, by new care won.
250 The cares I give I have, though given away;
251 They ’tend the crown, yet still with me they stay.
252 BOLINGBROKE.
253 Are you contented to resign the crown?
254 KING RICHARD.
255 Ay, no; no, ay; for I must nothing be.
256 Therefore no “no”, for I resign to thee.
257 Now mark me how I will undo myself:
258 I give this heavy weight from off my head,
259 And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand,
260 The pride of kingly sway from out my heart;
261 With mine own tears I wash away my balm,
262 With mine own hands I give away my crown,
263 With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,
264 With mine own breath release all duteous oaths.
265 All pomp and majesty I do forswear;
266 My manors, rents, revenues, I forgo;
267 My acts, decrees, and statutes, I deny.
268 God pardon all oaths that are broke to me;
269 God keep all vows unbroke are made to thee.
270 Make me, that nothing have, with nothing grieved,
271 And thou with all pleased that hast all achieved.
272 Long mayst thou live in Richard’s seat to sit,
273 And soon lie Richard in an earthly pit!
274 God save King Henry, unkinged Richard says,
275 And send him many years of sunshine days!
276 What more remains?
277 NORTHUMBERLAND.
278 [_Offering a paper_.] No more, but that you read
279 These accusations, and these grievous crimes
280 Committed by your person and your followers
281 Against the state and profit of this land;
282 That, by confessing them, the souls of men
283 May deem that you are worthily deposed.
284 KING RICHARD.
285 Must I do so? And must I ravel out
286 My weaved-up follies? Gentle Northumberland,
287 If thy offences were upon record,
288 Would it not shame thee in so fair a troop
289 To read a lecture of them? If thou wouldst,
290 There shouldst thou find one heinous article
291 Containing the deposing of a king
292 And cracking the strong warrant of an oath,
293 Marked with a blot, damned in the book of heaven.
294 Nay, all of you that stand and look upon me
295 Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait myself,
296 Though some of you, with Pilate, wash your hands,
297 Showing an outward pity, yet you Pilates
298 Have here delivered me to my sour cross,
299 And water cannot wash away your sin.
300 NORTHUMBERLAND.
301 My lord, dispatch. Read o’er these articles.
302 KING RICHARD.
303 Mine eyes are full of tears; I cannot see:
304 And yet salt water blinds them not so much
305 But they can see a sort of traitors here.
306 Nay, if I turn mine eyes upon myself,
307 I find myself a traitor with the rest;
308 For I have given here my soul’s consent
309 T’ undeck the pompous body of a king,
310 Made glory base and sovereignty a slave,
311 Proud majesty a subject, state a peasant.
312 NORTHUMBERLAND.
313 My lord—
314 KING RICHARD.
315 No lord of thine, thou haught insulting man,
316 Nor no man’s lord! I have no name, no title,
317 No, not that name was given me at the font,
318 But ’tis usurped. Alack the heavy day!
319 That I have worn so many winters out
320 And know not now what name to call myself.
321 O, that I were a mockery king of snow,
322 Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke,
323 To melt myself away in water-drops!
324 Good king, great king, and yet not greatly good,
325 An if my word be sterling yet in England,
326 Let it command a mirror hither straight,
327 That it may show me what a face I have,
328 Since it is bankrupt of his majesty.
329 BOLINGBROKE.
330 Go, some of you, and fetch a looking-glass.
331 [_Exit an Attendant._]
332 NORTHUMBERLAND.
333 Read o’er this paper while the glass doth come.
334 KING RICHARD.
335 Fiend, thou torments me ere I come to hell!
336 BOLINGBROKE.
337 Urge it no more, my Lord Northumberland.
338 NORTHUMBERLAND.
339 The commons will not then be satisfied.
340 KING RICHARD.
341 They shall be satisfied. I’ll read enough
342 When I do see the very book indeed
343 Where all my sins are writ, and that’s myself.
344 Re-enter Attendant with glass.
345 Give me that glass, and therein will I read.
346 No deeper wrinkles yet? Hath sorrow struck
347 So many blows upon this face of mine
348 And made no deeper wounds? O flatt’ring glass,
349 Like to my followers in prosperity,
350 Thou dost beguile me. Was this face the face
351 That every day under his household roof
352 Did keep ten thousand men? Was this the face
353 That like the sun did make beholders wink?
354 Is this the face which faced so many follies,
355 That was at last outfaced by Bolingbroke?
356 A brittle glory shineth in this face.
357 As brittle as the glory is the face!
358 [_Dashes the glass against the ground._]
359 For there it is, cracked in an hundred shivers.
360 Mark, silent king, the moral of this sport,
361 How soon my sorrow hath destroyed my face.
362 BOLINGBROKE.
363 The shadow of your sorrow hath destroyed
364 The shadow of your face.
365 KING RICHARD.
366 Say that again.
367 The shadow of my sorrow? Ha, let’s see.
368 ’Tis very true, my grief lies all within;
369 And these external manner of laments
370 Are merely shadows to the unseen grief
371 That swells with silence in the tortured soul.
372 There lies the substance. And I thank thee, king,
373 For thy great bounty, that not only giv’st
374 Me cause to wail, but teachest me the way
375 How to lament the cause. I’ll beg one boon,
376 And then be gone and trouble you no more.
377 Shall I obtain it?
378 BOLINGBROKE.
379 Name it, fair cousin.
380 KING RICHARD.
381 “Fair cousin”? I am greater than a king;
382 For when I was a king, my flatterers
383 Were then but subjects. Being now a subject,
384 I have a king here to my flatterer.
385 Being so great, I have no need to beg.
386 BOLINGBROKE.
387 Yet ask.
388 KING RICHARD.
389 And shall I have?
390 BOLINGBROKE.
391 You shall.
392 KING RICHARD.
393 Then give me leave to go.
394 BOLINGBROKE.
395 Whither?
396 KING RICHARD.
397 Whither you will, so I were from your sights.
398 BOLINGBROKE.
399 Go, some of you, convey him to the Tower.
400 KING RICHARD.
401 O, good! “Convey”? Conveyers are you all,
402 That rise thus nimbly by a true king’s fall.
403 [_Exeunt King Richard and Guard._]
404 BOLINGBROKE.
405 On Wednesday next we solemnly set down
406 Our coronation. Lords, prepare yourselves.
407 [_Exeunt all but the Bishop of Carlisle, the Abbot of Westminster and
408 Aumerle._]
409 ABBOT.
410 A woeful pageant have we here beheld.
411 CARLISLE.
412 The woe’s to come. The children yet unborn
413 Shall feel this day as sharp to them as thorn.
414 AUMERLE.
415 You holy clergymen, is there no plot
416 To rid the realm of this pernicious blot?
417 ABBOT.
418 My lord,
419 Before I freely speak my mind herein,
420 You shall not only take the sacrament
421 To bury mine intents, but also to effect
422 Whatever I shall happen to devise.
423 I see your brows are full of discontent,
424 Your hearts of sorrow, and your eyes of tears.
425 Come home with me to supper. I will lay
426 A plot shall show us all a merry day.
427 [_Exeunt._]