Richard II
Page 8
Shall see us rising in our throne, the east,
His treasons will sit blushing in his face,
Not able to endure the sight of day,
But, self-affrighted, tremble at his sin.
Not all the water in the rough rude49 sea
Can wash the balm50 from an anointed king;
The breath of worldly men cannot depose
The deputy elected by the Lord.
For every man that Bullingbrook hath pressed53
To lift shrewd54 steel against our golden crown,
Heaven for his Richard hath in heavenly pay
A glorious angel56. Then, if angels fight,
Weak men must fall, for heaven still guards the right.
Enter Salisbury
Welcome, my lord. How far off lies your power?
SALISBURY Nor near59 nor farther off, my gracious lord,
Than this weak arm. Discomfort60 guides my tongue
And bids me speak of nothing but despair.
One day too late, I fear, my noble lord,
Hath clouded all thy happy63 days on earth.
O, call back yesterday, bid time return,
And thou shalt have twelve thousand fighting men!
Today, today, unhappy day too late,
O’erthrows thy joys, friends, fortune and thy state67;
For all the Welshmen, hearing thou wert dead,
Are gone to Bullingbrook, dispersed and fled.
AUMERLE Comfort, my liege. Why looks your grace so pale?
KING RICHARD But now71 the blood of twenty thousand men
Did triumph72 in my face, and they are fled.
And till so much blood thither come again,
Have I not reason to look pale and dead?
All souls that will be safe fly from my side,
For time hath set a blot upon my pride.
AUMERLE Comfort, my liege. Remember who you are.
KING RICHARD I had forgot myself. Am I not king?
Awake, thou sluggard majesty, thou sleepest.
Is not the king’s name forty thousand names?
Arm, arm, my name! A puny subject strikes
At thy great glory. Look not to the ground,
Ye favourites of a king. Are we not high83?
High be our thoughts. I know my uncle York
Hath power enough to serve our turn85. But who comes here?
Enter Scroop
SCROOP More health and happiness betide86 my liege
Than can my care-tuned87 tongue deliver him!
KING RICHARD Mine ear is open and my heart prepared.
The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold.
Say, is my kingdom lost? Why, ’twas my care90,
And what loss is it to be rid of care?
Strives Bullingbrook to be as great as we?
Greater he shall not be. If he serve God,
We’ll serve him too and be his fellow94 so.
Revolt our subjects? That we cannot mend95.
They break their faith to God as well as us.
Cry woe, destruction, ruin, loss, decay.
The worst is death, and death will have his day.
SCROOP Glad am I that your highness is so armed
To bear the tidings of calamity.
Like an unseasonable stormy day,
Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores,
As if the world were all dissolved to tears,
So high above his104 limits swells the rage
Of Bullingbrook105, covering your fearful land
With hard bright steel and hearts harder than steel.
Whitebeards107 have armed their thin and hairless scalps
Against thy majesty, and boys with women’s voices
Strive to speak big109 and clap their female joints
In stiff unwieldy arms110 against thy crown.
Thy very beadsmen111 learn to bend their bows
Of double-fatal112 yew against thy state.
Yea, distaff-women113 manage rusty bills
Against thy seat114. Both young and old rebel,
And all goes worse than I have power to tell.
KING RICHARD Too well, too well thou tell’st a tale so ill.
Where is the Earl of Wiltshire? Where is Bagot?
What is become of Bushy, where is Green,
That they have let the dangerous enemy
Measure our confines120 with such peaceful steps?
If we prevail, their heads shall pay for it.
I warrant122 they have made peace with Bullingbrook.
SCROOP Peace have they made with him indeed, my lord.
KING RICHARD O, villains, vipers, damned without redemption!
Dogs, easily won to fawn on any man!
Snakes, in my heart-blood warmed, that sting my heart!
Three Judas127es, each one thrice worse than Judas!
Would they make peace? Terrible hell make war
Upon their spotted129 souls for this offence!
SCROOP Sweet love, I see, changing his property130,
Turns to the sourest and most deadly hate.
Again uncurse their souls; their peace is made
With heads, and not with hands133: those whom you curse
Have felt the worst of death’s destroying hand
And lie full low, graved135 in the hollow ground.
AUMERLE Is Bushy, Green and the Earl of Wiltshire dead?
SCROOP Yea, all of them at Bristol lost their heads.
AUMERLE Where is the duke my father with his power?
KING RICHARD No matter where; of comfort no man speak.
Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs,
Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth.
Let’s choose executors and talk of wills.
And yet not so; for what can we bequeath
Save our deposèd bodies to the ground?
Our lands, our lives and all are Bullingbrook’s,
And nothing can we call our own but death
And that small model148 of the barren earth
Which serves as paste and cover149 to our bones.
For heaven’s sake let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad151 stories of the death of kings:
How some have been deposed, some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed,
Some poisoned by their wives, some sleeping killed,
All murdered. For within the hollow crown
That rounds156 the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court and there the antic157 sits,
Scoffing his state158 and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
To monarchize160, be feared and kill with looks,
Infusing him with self161 and vain conceit,
As if this flesh which walls about our life,
Were brass impregnable. And humoured thus163,
Comes at the last and with a little pin
Bores through his castle walls, and farewell king!
Cover your heads and mock not flesh and blood
With solemn reverence. Throw away respect,
Tradition, form and ceremonious duty,
For you have but mistook me all this while:
I live with bread like you, feel want,
Taste grief, need friends. Subjected171 thus,
How can you say to me, I am a king?
CARLISLE My lord, wise men ne’er wail their present woes,
But presently174 prevent the ways to wail.
To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength,
Gives in your weakness strength unto your foe,
And so your follies fight against yourself177.
Fear and be slain. No worse can come to fight178.
And fight and die is death destroying death179,
Where fearing dying pays death servile breath.
AUMERLE My father hath a
power. Enquire of him
And learn to make a body of a limb182.
KING RICHARD Thou chid’st183 me well. Proud Bullingbrook, I come
To change184 blows with thee for our day of doom:
This ague185 fit of fear is over-blown,
An easy task it is to win our own.
Say, Scroop, where lies our uncle with his power?
Speak sweetly, man, although thy looks be sour.
SCROOP Men judge by the complexion of the sky
The state and inclination of the day;
So may you by my dull and heavy191 eye,
My tongue hath but a heavier tale to say.
I play the torturer, by small193 and small
To lengthen out the worst that must be spoken.
Your uncle York is joined with Bullingbrook,
And all your northern castles yielded up,
And all your southern gentlemen in arms
Upon his faction.
KING RICHARD Thou hast said enough.
Beshrew200 thee, cousin, which didst lead me forth
To Aumerle
Of that sweet way I was in to despair!
What say you now? What comfort have we now?
By heaven, I’ll hate him everlastingly
That bids me be of comfort any more.
Go to Flint Castle205: there I’ll pine away.
A king, woe’s slave, shall kingly woe obey.
That power207 I have, discharge, and let ’em go
To ear208 the land that hath some hope to grow,
For I have none. Let no man speak again
To alter this, for counsel is but vain.
AUMERLE My liege, one word.
KING RICHARD He does me double wrong
That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue.
Discharge my followers. Let them hence away,
From Richard’s night to Bullingbrook’s fair day.
Exeunt
Act 3 Scene 3
running scene 11
Location: outside Flint Castle
Enter, with Drum and Colours, Bullingbrook, York, Northumberland [and] Attendants
BULLINGBROOK So that1 by this intelligence we learn
The Welshmen are dispersed, and Salisbury
Is gone to meet the king, who lately landed
With some few private friends upon this coast.
NORTHUMBERLAND The news is very fair and good, my lord.
Richard not far from hence hath hid his head.
YORK It would beseem7 the Lord Northumberland
To say ‘King Richard’. Alack the heavy day
When such a sacred king should hide his head.
NORTHUMBERLAND Your grace mistakes. Only to be brief
Left I his title out.
YORK The time hath been,
Would you have been so brief with him, he would
Have been so brief with you to14 shorten you,
For taking so the head15, your whole head’s length.
BULLINGBROOK Mistake16 not, uncle, further than you should.
YORK Take17 not, good cousin, further than you should,
Lest you mistake18 the heavens are o’er your head.
BULLINGBROOK I know it, uncle, and oppose not myself
Against their will. But who comes here?
Enter Percy
Welcome, Harry. What, will not this castle yield?
PERCY The castle royally is manned, my lord,
Against thy entrance.
BULLINGBROOK Royally? Why, it contains no king?
PERCY Yes, my good lord,
It doth contain a king: King Richard lies26
Within the limits of yond lime and stone,
And with him the Lord Aumerle, Lord Salisbury,
Sir Stephen Scroop, besides a clergyman
Of holy reverence, who30, I cannot learn.
NORTHUMBERLAND O, belike31 it is the Bishop of Carlisle.
BULLINGBROOK Noble lord,
Go to the rude33 ribs of that ancient castle.
Through brazen34 trumpet send the breath of parle
Into his35 ruined ears, and thus deliver:
Henry Bullingbrook
Upon his knees doth kiss King Richard’s hand
And sends allegiance and true faith of heart
To his most royal person, hither come
Even at his feet to lay my arms and power
Provided that my banishment repealed
And lands restored again41 be freely granted.
If not, I’ll use th’advantage of my power43
And lay44 the summer’s dust with showers of blood
Rained from the wounds of slaughtered Englishmen;
The which, how far off from the mind of Bullingbrook
It is, such47 crimson tempest should bedrench
The fresh green lap of fair King Richard’s land,
My stooping duty tenderly49 shall show.
Go signify as much, while here we march
Upon the grassy carpet of this plain.
Let’s march without the noise of threat’ning drum,
That from this castle’s tattered53 battlements
Our fair appointments54 may be well perused.
Methinks King Richard and myself should meet
With no less terror than the elements
Of fire and water57, when their thund’ring smoke
At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven.
Be he the fire, I’ll be the yielding water;
The rage be his, while on the earth I rain60
My waters on the earth, and not on him.
March on, and mark62 King Richard how he looks.
Parley without, and answer within. Then a flourish. Enter on the walls, Richard, Carlisle, Aumerle, Scroop [and] Salisbury
See, see, King Richard doth himself appear,
As doth the blushing64 discontented sun
From out the fiery portal of the east,
When he perceives the envious66 clouds are bent
To dim his glory and to stain67 the tract
Of his bright passage to the occident68.
YORK Yet looks he like a king. Behold, his eye,
As bright as is the eagle’s, lightens forth70
Controlling majesty. Alack, alack, for woe,
That any harm should stain so fair a show!
KING RICHARD We are amazed73; and thus long have we stood
To Northumberland
To watch74 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 awful77 duty to our presence?
If we be not, show us the hand78 of God
That hath dismissed us from our stewardship,
For well we know, no hand of blood and bone
Can grip the sacred handle of our sceptre,
Unless he do profane82, steal, or usurp.
And though you think that all, as you have done,
Have torn84 their souls by turning them from us,
And we are barren and bereft of friends,
Yet know, my master, God omnipotent,
Is must’ring in his clouds on our behalf
Armies of pestilence, and they shall strike88
Your children yet unborn and unbegot89,
That90 lift your vassal hands against my head
And threat the glory of my precious crown.
Tell Bullingbrook — for yond methinks he is —
That every stride he makes upon my land
Is dangerous treason. He is come to ope94
The purple testament95 of bleeding war;
But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,
Ten thousand bloody crowns97 of mothers’ sons
Shall ill become the flower of England’s face,
Change the complexion of her maid-pale99 peace
To scarlet indignation and bedew
Her pastor’s101 grass with faithful
English blood.
NORTHUMBERLAND The king of heaven forbid our lord the king
Should so with civil103 and uncivil arms
Be rushed upon! Thy thrice-noble cousin,
Harry Bullingbrook, 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 head109 —
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 scope113
Than for his lineal royalties114 and to beg
Enfranchisement115 immediate on his knees,
Which on thy royal party116 granted once,
His glittering arms he will commend117 to rust,
His barbèd118 steeds to stables, and his heart
To faithful service of your majesty.
This swears he, as he is120 a prince, is just:
And, as I am a gentleman, I credit121 him.
KING RICHARD Northumberland, say thus the king returns122.
His noble cousin is right welcome hither,
And all the number of his fair demands
Shall be accomplished125 without contradiction.
With all the gracious126 utterance thou hast,
Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends127.—
We do debase ourself, cousin, do we not,
To Aumerle
To look so poorly129 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’er134 this tongue of mine,
That laid the sentence of dread banishment
On yond136 proud man, should take it off again
With words of sooth137! 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 scope141 to beat,
Since foes have scope to beat142 both thee and me.
AUMERLE Northumberland comes back from Bullingbrook.
KING RICHARD What must the king do now? Must he submit?
The king shall do it. Must he be deposed?
The king shall be contented146. Must he lose
The name of king? O’God’s name, let it go.
I’ll give my jewels for a set of beads148,
My gorgeous palace for a hermitage,
My gay apparel for an almsman150’s gown,
My figured151 goblets for a dish of wood,