King Richard The Second

1 Enter Richard.
2 RICHARD.
3 I have been studying how I may compare
4 This prison where I live unto the world;
5 And for because the world is populous
6 And here is not a creature but myself,
7 I cannot do it. Yet I’ll hammer it out.
8 My brain I’ll prove the female to my soul,
9 My soul the father, and these two beget
10 A generation of still-breeding thoughts,
11 And these same thoughts people this little world,
12 In humours like the people of this world,
13 For no thought is contented. The better sort,
14 As thoughts of things divine, are intermixed
15 With scruples, and do set the word itself
16 Against the word, as thus: “Come, little ones”;
17 And then again:
18 “It is as hard to come as for a camel
19 To thread the postern of a needle’s eye.”
20 Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot
21 Unlikely wonders: how these vain weak nails
22 May tear a passage through the flinty ribs
23 Of this hard world, my ragged prison walls,
24 And, for they cannot, die in their own pride.
25 Thoughts tending to content flatter themselves
26 That they are not the first of fortune’s slaves,
27 Nor shall not be the last, like silly beggars
28 Who sitting in the stocks refuge their shame
29 That many have and others must sit there;
30 And in this thought they find a kind of ease,
31 Bearing their own misfortunes on the back
32 Of such as have before endured the like.
33 Thus play I in one person many people,
34 And none contented. Sometimes am I king;
35 Then treasons make me wish myself a beggar,
36 And so I am. Then crushing penury
37 Persuades me I was better when a king;
38 Then am I kinged again, and by and by
39 Think that I am unkinged by Bolingbroke,
40 And straight am nothing. But whate’er I be,
41 Nor I nor any man that but man is
42 With nothing shall be pleased till he be eased
43 With being nothing.
44 Music do I hear? [_Music_.]
45 Ha, ha! keep time! How sour sweet music is
46 When time is broke and no proportion kept!
47 So is it in the music of men’s lives.
48 And here have I the daintiness of ear
49 To check time broke in a disordered string;
50 But for the concord of my state and time
51 Had not an ear to hear my true time broke.
52 I wasted time, and now doth time waste me;
53 For now hath time made me his numb’ring clock.
54 My thoughts are minutes, and with sighs they jar
55 Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch,
56 Whereto my finger, like a dial’s point,
57 Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears.
58 Now, sir, the sound that tells what hour it is
59 Are clamorous groans which strike upon my heart,
60 Which is the bell. So sighs and tears and groans
61 Show minutes, times, and hours. But my time
62 Runs posting on in Bolingbroke’s proud joy,
63 While I stand fooling here, his Jack o’ the clock.
64 This music mads me! Let it sound no more;
65 For though it have holp madmen to their wits,
66 In me it seems it will make wise men mad.
67 Yet blessing on his heart that gives it me,
68 For ’tis a sign of love; and love to Richard
69 Is a strange brooch in this all-hating world.
70 Enter a Groom of the stable.
71 GROOM.
72 Hail, royal Prince!
73 RICHARD.
74 Thanks, noble peer.
75 The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear.
76 What art thou, and how comest thou hither
77 Where no man never comes but that sad dog
78 That brings me food to make misfortune live?
79 GROOM.
80 I was a poor groom of thy stable, king,
81 When thou wert king; who, travelling towards York,
82 With much ado at length have gotten leave
83 To look upon my sometimes royal master’s face.
84 O, how it erned my heart when I beheld
85 In London streets, that coronation day,
86 When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary,
87 That horse that thou so often hast bestrid,
88 That horse that I so carefully have dressed.
89 RICHARD.
90 Rode he on Barbary? Tell me, gentle friend,
91 How went he under him?
92 GROOM.
93 So proudly as if he disdained the ground.
94 RICHARD.
95 So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back!
96 That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand;
97 This hand hath made him proud with clapping him.
98 Would he not stumble? Would he not fall down,
99 Since pride must have a fall, and break the neck
100 Of that proud man that did usurp his back?
101 Forgiveness, horse! Why do I rail on thee,
102 Since thou, created to be awed by man,
103 Wast born to bear? I was not made a horse,
104 And yet I bear a burden like an ass,
105 Spurred, galled and tired by jauncing Bolingbroke.
106 Enter Keeper with a dish.
107 KEEPER. [_To the Groom_.]
108 Fellow, give place. Here is no longer stay.
109 RICHARD.
110 If thou love me, ’tis time thou wert away.
111 GROOM.
112 My tongue dares not, that my heart shall say.
113 [_Exit._]
114 KEEPER.
115 My lord, will’t please you to fall to?
116 RICHARD.
117 Taste of it first as thou art wont to do.
118 KEEPER.
119 My lord, I dare not. Sir Pierce of Exton,
120 Who lately came from the King, commands the contrary.
121 RICHARD.
122 The devil take Henry of Lancaster and thee!
123 Patience is stale, and I am weary of it.
124 [_Strikes the Keeper._]
125 KEEPER.
126 Help, help, help!
127 Enter Exton and Servants, armed.
128 RICHARD.
129 How now! What means death in this rude assault?
130 Villain, thy own hand yields thy death’s instrument.
131 [_Snatching a weapon and killing one._]
132 Go thou and fill another room in hell.
133 [_He kills another, then Exton strikes him down._]
134 That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire
135 That staggers thus my person. Exton, thy fierce hand
136 Hath with the King’s blood stained the King’s own land.
137 Mount, mount, my soul! Thy seat is up on high,
138 Whilst my gross flesh sinks downward, here to die.
139 [_Dies._]
140 EXTON.
141 As full of valour as of royal blood!
142 Both have I spilled. O, would the deed were good!
143 For now the devil that told me I did well
144 Says that this deed is chronicled in hell.
145 This dead king to the living king I’ll bear.
146 Take hence the rest, and give them burial here.
147 [_Exeunt._]