King Richard II

    See, see, King Richard doth himself appear,    As doth the blushing discontented sun    From out the fiery portal of the east,    When he perceives the envious clouds are bent    To dim his glory and to stain the track    Of his bright passage to the occident.  YORK. Yet he looks like a king. Behold, his eye,    As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth    Controlling majesty. Alack, alack, for woe,    That any harm should stain so fair a show!  KING RICHARD. [To NORTHUMBERLAND] We are amaz'd; and thus long      have we stood    To watch the fearful bending of thy knee,    Because we thought ourself thy lawful King;    And if we be, how dare thy joints forget    To pay their awful duty to our presence?    If we be not, show us the hand of God    That hath dismiss'd us from our stewardship;    For well we know no hand of blood and bone    Can gripe the sacred handle of our sceptre,    Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp.    And though you think that all, as you have done,    Have torn their souls by turning them from us,    And we are barren and bereft of friends,    Yet know-my master, God omnipotent,    Is mustering in his clouds on our behalf    Armies of pestilence; and they shall strike    Your children yet unborn and unbegot,    That lift your vassal hands against my head    And threat the glory of my precious crown.    Tell Bolingbroke, for yon methinks he stands,    That every stride he makes upon my land    Is dangerous treason; he is come to open    The purple testament of bleeding war;    But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,    Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' sons    Shall ill become the flower of England's face,    Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace    To scarlet indignation, and bedew    Her pastures' grass with faithful English blood.  NORTHUMBERLAND. The King of Heaven forbid our lord the King    Should so with civil and uncivil arms    Be rush'd upon! Thy thrice noble cousin,    Harry Bolingbroke, doth humbly kiss thy hand;    And by the honourable tomb he swears    That stands upon your royal grandsire's bones,    And by the royalties of both your bloods,    Currents that spring from one most gracious head,    And by the buried hand of warlike Gaunt,    And by the worth and honour of himself,    Comprising all that may be sworn or said,    His coming hither hath no further scope    Than for his lineal royalties, and to beg    Enfranchisement immediate on his knees;    Which on thy royal party granted once,    His glittering arms he will commend to rust,    His barbed steeds to stables, and his heart    To faithful service of your Majesty.    This swears he, as he is a prince, is just;    And as I am a gentleman I credit him.  KING RICHARD. Northumberland, say thus the King returns:    His noble cousin is right welcome hither;    And all the number of his fair demands    Shall be accomplish'd without contradiction.    With all the gracious utterance thou hast    Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends.    [To AUMERLE] We do debase ourselves, cousin, do we not,    To look so poorly and to speak so fair?    Shall we call back Northumberland, and send    Defiance to the traitor, and so die?  AUMERLE. No, good my lord; let's fight with gentle words    Till time lend friends, and friends their helpful swords.  KING RICHARD. O God, O God! that e'er this tongue of mine    That laid the sentence of dread banishment    On yon proud man should take it off again    With words of sooth! O that I were as great    As is my grief, or lesser than my name!    Or that I could forget what I have been!    Or not remember what I must be now!    Swell'st thou, proud heart? I'll give thee scope to beat,    Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me.  AUMERLE. Northumberland comes back from Bolingbroke.  KING RICHARD. What must the King do now? Must he submit?    The King shall do it. Must he be depos'd?    The King shall be contented. Must he lose    The name of king? A God's name, let it go.    I'll give my jewels for a set of beads,    My gorgeous palace for a hermitage,    My gay apparel for an almsman's gown,    My figur'd goblets for a dish of wood,    My sceptre for a palmer's walking staff,    My subjects for a pair of carved saints,    And my large kingdom for a little grave,    A little little grave, an obscure grave-    Or I'll be buried in the king's high way,    Some way of common trade, where subjects' feet    May hourly trample on their sovereign's head;    For on my heart they tread now whilst I live,    And buried once, why not upon my head?    Aumerle, thou weep'st, my tender-hearted cousin!    We'll make foul weather with despised tears;    Our sighs and they shall lodge the summer corn    And make a dearth in this revolting land.    Or shall we play the wantons with our woes    And make some pretty match with shedding tears?    As thus: to drop them still upon one place    Till they have fretted us a pair of graves    Within the earth; and, therein laid-there lies    Two kinsmen digg'd their graves with weeping eyes.    Would not this ill do well? Well, well, I see    I talk but idly, and you laugh at me.    Most mighty prince, my Lord Northumberland,    What says King Bolingbroke? Will his Majesty    Give Richard leave to live till Richard die?    You make a leg, and Bolingbroke says ay.  NORTHUMBERLAND. My lord, in the base court he doth attend    To speak with you; may it please you to come down?  KING RICHARD. Down, down I come, like glist'ring Phaethon,    Wanting the manage of unruly jades.    In the base court? Base court, where kings grow base,    To come at traitors' calls, and do them grace.    In the base court? Come down? Down, court! down, king!    For night-owls shriek where mounting larks should sing.[Exeunt from above]  BOLINGBROKE. What says his Majesty?  NORTHUMBERLAND. Sorrow and grief of heart    Makes him speak fondly, like a frantic man;    Yet he is come.

[Enter the KING, and his attendants, below]

  BOLINGBROKE. Stand all apart,    And show fair duty to his Majesty. [He kneels down]    My gracious lord-  KING RICHARD. Fair cousin, you debase your princely knee    To make the base earth proud with kissing it.    Me rather had my heart might feel your love    Than my unpleas'd eye see your courtesy.    Up, cousin, up; your heart is up, I know,    [Touching his own head] Thus high at least, although your      knee be low.  BOLINGBROKE. My gracious lord, I come but for mine own.  KING RICHARD. Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all.  BOLINGBROKE. So far be mine, my most redoubted lord,    As my true service shall deserve your love.  KING RICHARD. Well you deserve. They well deserve to have    That know the strong'st and surest way to get.    Uncle, give me your hands; nay, dry your eyes:    Tears show their love, but want their remedies.    Cousin, I am too young to be your father,    Though you are old enough to be my heir.    What you will have, I'll give, and willing too;    For do we must what force will have us do.    Set on towards London. Cousin, is it so?  BOLINGBROKE. Yea, my good lord.  KING RICHARD. Then I must not say no. [Flourish. Exeunt]

SCENE 4 The DUKE OF YORK's garden

[Enter the QUEEN and two LADIES]

  QUEEN. What sport shall we devise here in this garden    To drive away the heavy thought of care?  LADY. Madam, we'll play at bowls.  QUEEN. 'Twill make me think the world is full of rubs    And that my fortune runs against the bias.  LADY. Madam, we'll dance.  QUEEN. My legs can keep no measure in delight,    When my poor heart no measure keeps in grief;    Therefore no dancing, girl; some other sport.  LADY. Madam, we'll tell tales.  QUEEN. Of sorrow or of joy?  LADY. Of either, madam.  QUEEN. Of neither, girl;    For if of joy, being altogether wanting,    It doth remember me the more of sorrow;    Or if of grief, being altogether had,    It adds more sorrow to my want of joy;    For what I have I need not to repeat,    And what I want it boots not to complain.  LADY. Madam, I'll sing.  QUEEN. 'Tis well' that thou hast cause;    But thou shouldst please me better wouldst thou weep.  LADY. I could weep, madam, would it do you good.  QUEEN. And I could sing, would weeping do me good,    And never borrow any tear of thee.

[Enter a GARDENER and two SERVANTS]

    But stay, here come the gardeners.    Let's step into the shadow of these trees.    My wretchedness unto a row of pins,    They will talk of state, for every one doth so    Against a change: woe is forerun with woe.[QUEEN and LADIES retire]  GARDENER. Go, bind thou up yon dangling apricocks,    Which, like unruly children, make their sire    Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight;    Give some supportance to the bending twigs.    Go thou, and like an executioner    Cut off the heads of too fast growing sprays    That look too lofty in our commonwealth:    All must be even in our government.    You thus employ'd, I will go root away    The noisome weeds which without profit suck    The soil's fertility from wholesome flowers.  SERVANT. Why should we, in the compass of a pale,    Keep law and form and due proportion,    Showing, as in a model, our firm estate,    When our sea-walled garden, the whole land,    Is full of weeds; her fairest flowers chok'd up,    Her fruit trees all unprun'd, her hedges ruin'd,    Her knots disordered, and her wholesome herbs    Swarming with caterpillars?  GARDENER. Hold thy peace.    He that hath suffer'd this disorder'd spring    Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf;    The weeds which his broad-spreading leaves did shelter,    That seem'd in eating him to hold him up,    Are pluck'd up root and all by Bolingbroke-    I mean the Earl of Wiltshire, Bushy, Green.  SERVANT. What, are they dead?  GARDENER. They are; and Bolingbroke    Hath seiz'd the wasteful King. O, what pity is it    That he had not so trimm'd and dress'd his land    As we this garden! We at time of year    Do wound the bark, the skin of our fruit trees,    Lest, being over-proud in sap and blood,    With too much riches it confound itself;    Had he done so to great and growing men,    They might have liv'd to bear, and he to taste    Their fruits of duty. Superfluous branches    We lop away, that bearing boughs may live;    Had he done so, himself had home the crown,    Which waste of idle hours hath quite thrown down.  SERVANT. What, think you the King shall be deposed?  GARDENER. Depress'd he is already, and depos'd    'Tis doubt he will be. Letters came last night    To a dear friend of the good Duke of York's    That tell black tidings.  QUEEN. O, I am press'd to death through want of speaking![Coming forward]    Thou, old Adam's likeness, set to dress this garden,    How dares thy harsh rude tongue sound this unpleasing news?    What Eve, what serpent, hath suggested thee    To make a second fall of cursed man?    Why dost thou say King Richard is depos'd?    Dar'st thou, thou little better thing than earth,    Divine his downfall? Say, where, when, and how,    Cam'st thou by this ill tidings? Speak, thou wretch.  GARDENER. Pardon me, madam; little joy have I    To breathe this news; yet what I say is true.    King Richard, he is in the mighty hold    Of Bolingbroke. Their fortunes both are weigh'd.    In your lord's scale is nothing but himself,    And some few vanities that make him light;    But in the balance of great Bolingbroke,    Besides himself, are all the English peers,    And with that odds he weighs King Richard down.    Post you to London, and you will find it so;    I speak no more than every one doth know.  QUEEN. Nimble mischance, that art so light of foot,    Doth not thy embassage belong to me,    And am I last that knows it? O, thou thinkest    To serve me last, that I may longest keep    Thy sorrow in my breast. Come, ladies, go    To meet at London London's King in woe.    What, was I born to this, that my sad look    Should grace the triumph of great Bolingbroke?    Gard'ner, for telling me these news of woe,    Pray God the plants thou graft'st may never grow![Exeunt QUEEN and LADIES]  GARDENER. Poor Queen, so that thy state might be no worse,    I would my skill were subject to thy curse.    Here did she fall a tear; here in this place    I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace.    Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen,    In the remembrance of a weeping queen. [Exeunt]

ACT 4 SCENE 1 Westminster Hall

[Enter, as to the Parliament, BOLINGBROKE, AUMERLE, NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, FITZWATER, SURREY, the BISHOP OF CARLISLE, the ABBOT OF WESTMINSTER, and others; HERALD, OFFICERS, and BAGOT]

  BOLINGBROKE. Call forth Bagot.    Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind-    What thou dost know of noble Gloucester's death;    Who wrought it with the King, and who perform'd    The bloody office of his timeless end.  BAGOT. Then set before my face the Lord Aumerle.  BOLINGBROKE. Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that man.  BAGOT. My Lord Aumerle, I know your daring tongue    Scorns to unsay what once it hath deliver'd.    In that dead time when Gloucester's death was plotted    I heard you say 'Is not my arm of length,    That reacheth from the restful English Court    As far as Calais, to mine uncle's head?'    Amongst much other talk that very time    I heard you say that you had rather refuse    The offer of an hundred thousand crowns    Than Bolingbroke's return to England;    Adding withal, how blest this land would be    In this your cousin's death.  AUMERLE. Princes, and noble lords,    What answer shall I make to this base man?    Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars    On equal terms to give him chastisement?    Either I must, or have mine honour soil'd    With the attainder of his slanderous lips.    There is my gage, the manual seal of death    That marks thee out for hell. I say thou liest,    And will maintain what thou hast said is false    In thy heart-blood, through being all too base    To stain the temper of my knightly sword.  BOLINGBROKE. Bagot, forbear; thou shalt not take it up.  AUMERLE. Excepting one, I would he were the best    In all this presence that hath mov'd me so.  FITZWATER. If that thy valour stand on sympathy,    There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine.    By that fair sun which shows me where thou stand'st,    I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spak'st it,    That thou wert cause of noble Gloucester's death.    If thou deniest it twenty times, thou liest;    And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart,    Where it was forged, with my rapier's point.  AUMERLE. Thou dar'st not, coward, live to see that day.  FITZWATER. Now, by my soul, I would it were this hour.  AUMERLE. Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this.  PERCY. Aumerle, thou liest; his honour is as true    In this appeal as thou art an unjust;    And that thou art so, there I throw my gage,    To prove it on thee to the extremest point    Of mortal breathing. Seize it, if thou dar'st.  AUMERLE. An if I do not, may my hands rot off    And never brandish more revengeful steel    Over the glittering helmet of my foe!  ANOTHER LORD. I task the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle;    And spur thee on with full as many lies    As may be halloa'd in thy treacherous ear    From sun to sun. There is my honour's pawn;    Engage it to the trial, if thou darest.  AUMERLE. Who sets me else? By heaven, I'll throw at all!    I have a thousand spirits in one breast    To answer twenty thousand such as you.  SURREY. My Lord Fitzwater, I do remember well    The very time Aumerle and you did talk.  FITZWATER. 'Tis very true; you were in presence then,    And you can witness with me this is true.  SURREY. As false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true.  FITZWATER. Surrey, thou liest.  SURREY. Dishonourable boy!    That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword    That it shall render vengeance and revenge    Till thou the lie-giver and that lie do lie    In earth as quiet as thy father's skull.    In proof whereof, there is my honour's pawn;    Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st.  FITZWATER. How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse!    If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live,    I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness,    And spit upon him whilst I say he lies,    And lies, and lies. There is my bond of faith,    To tie thee to my strong correction.    As I intend to thrive in this new world,    Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal.    Besides, I heard the banish'd Norfolk say    That thou, Aumerle, didst send two of thy men    To execute the noble Duke at Calais.  AUMERLE. Some honest Christian trust me with a gage    That Norfolk lies. Here do I throw down this,    If he may be repeal'd to try his honour.  BOLINGBROKE. These differences shall all rest under gage    Till Norfolk be repeal'd-repeal'd he shall be    And, though mine enemy, restor'd again    To all his lands and signories. When he is return'd,    Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial.  CARLISLE. That honourable day shall never be seen.    Many a time hath banish'd Norfolk fought    For Jesu Christ in glorious Christian field,    Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross    Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens;    And, toil'd with works of war, retir'd himself    To Italy; and there, at Venice, gave    His body to that pleasant country's earth,    And his pure soul unto his captain, Christ,    Under whose colours he had fought so long.  BOLINGBROKE. Why, Bishop, is Norfolk dead?  CARLISLE. As surely as I live, my lord.  BOLINGBROKE. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bosom    Of good old Abraham! Lords appellants,    Your differences shall all rest under gage    Till we assign you to your days of trial

[Enter YORK, attended]

  YORK. Great Duke of Lancaster, I come to the    From plume-pluck'd Richard, who with willing soul    Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields    To the possession of thy royal hand.    Ascend his throne, descending now from him-    And long live Henry, fourth of that name!  BOLINGBROKE. In God's name, I'll ascend the regal throne.  CARLISLE. Marry, God forbid!    Worst in this royal presence may I speak,    Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth.    Would God that any in this noble presence    Were enough noble to be upright judge    Of noble Richard! Then true noblesse would    Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.    What subject can give sentence on his king?    And who sits here that is not Richard's subject?    Thieves are not judg'd but they are by to hear,    Although apparent guilt be seen in them;    And shall the figure of God's majesty,    His captain, steward, deputy elect,    Anointed, crowned, planted many years,    Be judg'd by subject and inferior breath,    And he himself not present? O, forfend it, God,    That in a Christian climate souls refin'd    Should show so heinous, black, obscene a deed!    I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks,    Stirr'd up by God, thus boldly for his king.    My Lord of Hereford here, whom you call king,    Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford's king;    And if you crown him, let me prophesy-    The blood of English shall manure the ground,    And future ages groan for this foul act;    Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels,    And in this seat of peace tumultuous wars    Shall kin with kin and kind with kind confound;    Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny,    Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd    The field of Golgotha and dead men's skulls.    O, if you raise this house against this house,    It will the woefullest division prove    That ever fell upon this cursed earth.    Prevent it, resist it, let it not be so,    Lest child, child's children, cry against you woe.  NORTHUMBERLAND. Well have you argued, sir; and, for your pains,    Of capital treason we arrest you here.    My Lord of Westminster, be it your charge    To keep him safely till his day of trial.    May it please you, lords, to grant the commons' suit?  BOLINGBROKE. Fetch hither Richard, that in common view    He may surrender; so we shall proceed    Without suspicion.  YORK. I will be his conduct. [Exit]  BOLINGBROKE. Lords, you that here are under our arrest,    Procure your sureties for your days of answer.    Little are we beholding to your love,    And little look'd for at your helping hands.

[Re-enter YORK, with KING RICHARD, and OFFICERS bearing the regalia]

  KING RICHARD. Alack, why am I sent for to a king,    Before I have shook off the regal thoughts    Wherewith I reign'd? I hardly yet have learn'd    To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my knee.    Give sorrow leave awhile to tutor me    To this submission. Yet I well remember    The favours of these men. Were they not mine?    Did they not sometime cry 'All hail!' to me?    So Judas did to Christ; but he, in twelve,    Found truth in all but one; I, in twelve thousand, none.    God save the King! Will no man say amen?    Am I both priest and clerk? Well then, amen.    God save the King! although I be not he;    And yet, amen, if heaven do think him me.    To do what service am I sent for hither?  YORK. To do that office of thine own good will    Which tired majesty did make thee offer-    The resignation of thy state and crown    To Henry Bolingbroke.  KING RICHARD. Give me the crown. Here, cousin, seize the crown.    Here, cousin,    On this side my hand, and on that side thine.    Now is this golden crown like a deep well    That owes two buckets, filling one another;    The emptier ever dancing in the air,    The other down, unseen, and full of water.    That bucket down and full of tears am I,    Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high.  BOLINGBROKE. I thought you had been willing to resign.  KING RICHARD. My crown I am; but still my griefs are mine.    You may my glories and my state depose,    But not my griefs; still am I king of those.  BOLINGBROKE. Part of your cares you give me with your crown.  KING RICHARD. Your cares set up do not pluck my cares down.    My care is loss of care, by old care done;    Your care is gain of care, by new care won.    The cares I give I have, though given away;    They tend the crown, yet still with me they stay.  BOLINGBROKE. Are you contented to resign the crown?  KING RICHARD. Ay, no; no, ay; for I must nothing be;    Therefore no no, for I resign to thee.    Now mark me how I will undo myself:    I give this heavy weight from off my head,    And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand,    The pride of kingly sway from out my heart;    With mine own tears I wash away my balm,    With mine own hands I give away my crown,    With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,    With mine own breath release all duteous oaths;    All pomp and majesty I do forswear;    My manors, rents, revenues, I forgo;    My acts, decrees, and statutes, I deny.    God pardon all oaths that are broke to me!    God keep all vows unbroke are made to thee!    Make me, that nothing have, with nothing griev'd,    And thou with all pleas'd, that hast an achiev'd.    Long mayst thou live in Richard's seat to sit,    And soon lie Richard in an earthly pit.    God save King Henry, unking'd Richard says,    And send him many years of sunshine days!    What more remains?  NORTHUMBERLAND. No more; but that you read    These accusations, and these grievous crimes    Committed by your person and your followers    Against the state and profit of this land;    That, by confessing them, the souls of men    May deem that you are worthily depos'd.  KING RICHARD. Must I do so? And must I ravel out    My weav'd-up follies? Gentle Northumberland,    If thy offences were upon record,    Would it not shame thee in so fair a troop    To read a lecture of them? If thou wouldst,    There shouldst thou find one heinous article,    Containing the deposing of a king    And cracking the strong warrant of an oath,    Mark'd with a blot, damn'd in the book of heaven.    Nay, all of you that stand and look upon me    Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait myself,    Though some of you, with Pilate, wash your hands,    Showing an outward pity-yet you Pilates    Have here deliver'd me to my sour cross,    And water cannot wash away your sin.  NORTHUMBERLAND. My lord, dispatch; read o'er these    articles.  KING RICHARD. Mine eyes are full of tears; I cannot see.    And yet salt water blinds them not so much    But they can see a sort of traitors here.    Nay, if I turn mine eyes upon myself,    I find myself a traitor with the rest;    For I have given here my soul's consent    T'undeck the pompous body of a king;    Made glory base, and sovereignty a slave,    Proud majesty a subject, state a peasant.  NORTHUMBERLAND. My lord-  KING RICHARD. No lord of thine, thou haught insulting man,    Nor no man's lord; I have no name, no title-    No, not that name was given me at the font-    But 'tis usurp'd. Alack the heavy day,    That I have worn so many winters out,    And know not now what name to call myself!    O that I were a mockery king of snow,    Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke    To melt myself away in water drops!    Good king, great king, and yet not greatly good,    And if my word be sterling yet in England,    Let it command a mirror hither straight,    That it may show me what a face I have    Since it is bankrupt of his majesty.  BOLINGBROKE. Go some of you and fetch a looking-glass.[Exit an attendant]  NORTHUMBERLAND. Read o'er this paper while the glass doth come.  KING RICHARD. Fiend, thou torments me ere I come to hell.  BOLINGBROKE. Urge it no more, my Lord Northumberland.  NORTHUMBERLAND. The Commons will not, then, be satisfied.  KING RICHARD. They shall be satisfied. I'll read enough,    When I do see the very book indeed    Where all my sins are writ, and that's myself.

[Re-enter attendant with glass]