Richard II
Page 9
My sceptre for a palmer152’s walking staff,
My subjects for a pair of carvèd 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 highway,
Some way of common trade157, where subjects’ feet
May hourly trample on their sovereign’s head,
For on my heart they tread now whilst I live,
And buried once160, why not upon my head?—
Aumerle, thou weep’st, my tender-hearted cousin!
We’ll make foul weather with despisèd162 tears,
Our sighs and they shall lodge163 the summer corn,
And make a dearth164 in this revolting land.
Or shall we play the wantons165 with our woes,
And make166 some pretty match with shedding tears?
As thus, to drop them still167 upon one place,
Till they have fretted us168 a pair of graves
Within the earth, and, therein laid — there lies
Two kinsmen digged their graves with weeping eyes.
Would not this ill171 do well?— Well, well, I see
I talk but idly, and you mock at me.—
Most mighty prince, my lord Northumberland,
What says King Bullingbrook? Will his majesty
Give Richard leave to live till Richard die?
You make a leg176, and Bullingbrook says ‘Ay’.
NORTHUMBERLAND My lord, in the base court177 he doth attend
To speak with you. May it please you to come down?
KING RICHARD Down, down I come, like glist’ring179 Phaethon,
Wanting the manage180 of unruly jades.
In the base court? Base court where kings grow base,
To come at traitors’ calls and do them grace182.
In the base court, come down: down court, down king,
For night-owls shriek184 where mounting larks should sing.
[Exeunt from above]
BULLINGBROOK What says his majesty?
NORTHUMBERLAND Sorrow and grief of heart
Makes him speak fondly187, like a frantic man
Yet he is come.
[Enter King Richard and his Attendants below]
BULLINGBROOK Stand all apart189,
And show fair duty to his majesty.
My gracious lord—
Kneels
KING RICHARD Fair cousin, you debase192 your princely knee
To make the base earth proud with kissing it.
Me rather had194 my heart might feel your love
Than my unpleased eye see your courtesy195.
Up196, cousin, up! Your heart is up, I know,
Thus high at least, although your knee be low.
BULLINGBROOK My gracious lord, I come but for mine own.
KING RICHARD Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all.
BULLINGBROOK So far be mine, my most redoubted200 lord,
As my true service shall deserve your love.
KING RICHARD Well you deserved. They well deserve to have,
That know the strong’st and surest way to get.—
Bullingbrook rises
To York
Uncle, give me your hand: nay, dry your eyes.
Tears show their love, but want their remedies205.—
Cousin, I am too young to be your father,
To Bullingbrook
Though you are old enough to be my heir.
What you will have, I’ll give, and willing208 too,
For do we must what force will have us do.
Set on towards London, cousin, is it so?
BULLINGBROOK Yea, my good lord.
KING RICHARD Then I must not say no.
Flourish. Exeunt
Act 3 Scene 4
running scene 12
Location: 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 heavy2 thought of care?
LADY Madam, we’ll play at bowls.
QUEEN ’Twill make me think the world is full of rubs4,
And that my fortune runs against the bias5.
LADY Madam, we’ll dance.
QUEEN My legs can keep no measure7 in delight
When my poor heart no measure8 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 wanting14,
It doth remember15 me the more of sorrow.
Or if of grief, being altogether had16,
It adds more sorrow to my want17 of joy.
For what I have I need not to repeat,
And what I want it boots not19 to complain.
LADY Madam, I’ll sing.
QUEEN ’Tis well that thou hast cause21,
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.
My28 wretchedness unto a row of pins,
They’ll talk of state29, for everyone doth so
Against30 a change; woe is forerun with woe.
Queen and Ladies stand aside
GARDENER Go bind thou up yond dangling apricocks31,
Which, like unruly children, make their sire32
Stoop with oppression33 of their prodigal weight.
Give some supportance34 to the bending twigs.
Go thou, and like an executioner,
Cut off the heads of too fast-growing sprays36,
That look too lofty37 in our commonwealth:
All must be even38 in our government.
You thus employed, I will go root away
The noisome40 weeds, that without profit suck
The soil’s fertility from wholesome41 flowers.
SERVANT Why should we in the compass42 of a pale
Keep law and form and due proportion,
Showing, as in a model44, our firm estate,
When our sea-wallèd garden, the whole land,
Is full of weeds, her fairest flowers choked up,
Her fruit-trees all unpruned, her hedges ruined,
Her knots48 disordered and her wholesome herbs
Swarming with caterpillars?
GARDENER Hold thy peace.
He that hath suffered51 this disordered spring
Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf52.
The weeds that his broad-spreading leaves did shelter,
That seemed in eating him to hold him up,
Are pulled up root and all by Bullingbrook —
I mean the Earl of Wiltshire, Bushy, Green.
SERVANT What, are they dead?
GARDENER They are. And Bullingbrook
Hath seized59 the wasteful king. O, what pity is it
That he had not so trimmed60 and dressed his land
As we this garden: we at time of year61
Do wound the bark, the skin of our fruit-trees,
Lest, being over-proud63 with sap and blood,
With too much riches it confound64 itself.
Had he done so to great and growing men,
They might have lived to bear and he to taste
Their fruits of duty. Superfluous branches
We lop away, that bearing68 boughs may live.
Had he done so, himself had borne the crown69,
Which waste and idle hours hath quite thrown down.
SERVANT What, think you the king shall be deposed?
GARDENER Depressed72 he is already, and deposed
; ’Tis doubted73 he will be. Letters came last night
To a dear friend of the Duke of York’s,
That tell black tidings.
QUEEN O, I am pressed to death76 through want of speaking!
Comes forward
Thou, old Adam77’s likeness, set to dress this garden,
How dares thy harsh rude tongue sound this unpleasing news?
What Eve, what serpent, hath suggested79 thee
To make a second fall of cursèd man?
Why dost thou say King Richard is deposed?
Dar’st thou, thou little better thing than earth,
Divine83 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 these news; yet what I say is true.
King Richard, he is in the mighty hold87
Of Bullingbrook. Their fortunes both are weighed:
In your lord’s scale is nothing but himself,
And some few vanities90 that make him light.
But in the balance of great Bullingbrook,
Besides himself, are all the English peers,
And with that odds93 he weighs King Richard down.
Post94 you to London, and you’ll find it so,
I speak no more than everyone doth know.
QUEEN Nimble mischance, that art so light of foot,
Doth not thy embassage97 belong to me,
And am I last that knows it? O, thou think’st
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 triumph103 of great Bullingbrook?
Gard’ner, for telling me this news of woe,
I would the plants thou graft’st may never grow.
Exeunt
[Queen and Ladies]
GARDENER Poor queen, so106 that thy state might be no worse,
I would my skill were subject to thy curse.
Here did she drop a tear. Here in this place
I’ll set a bank of rue109, sour herb of grace.
Rue, e’en for ruth110, here shortly shall be seen,
In the remembrance of a weeping queen.
Exeunt
Act 4 Scene 1
running scene 13
Location: Westminster Hall, London
Enter, as to the Parliament, Bullingbrook, Aumerle, Northumberland, Percy, Fitzwaters, Surrey, Carlisle, Abbot of Westminister, Herald, Officers and Bagot
BULLINGBROOK Call forth Bagot.—
Bagot is brought forward
Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind,
What thou dost know of noble Gloucester’s death,
Who wrought4 it with the king, and who performed
The bloody office5 of his timeless end.
BAGOT Then set before my face the lord Aumerle.
BULLINGBROOK Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that man.
To Aumerle
BAGOT My lord Aumerle, I know your daring tongue
Scorns to unsay9 what it hath once delivered.
In that dead10 time when Gloucester’s death was plotted,
I heard you say, ‘Is not my arm of length11,
That reacheth from the restful English court
As far as Calais, to my 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 crowns16
Than17 Bullingbrook’s return to England;
Adding withal18 how blest this land would be
In this your cousin’s death.
AUMERLE Princes and noble lords,
What answer shall I make to this base21 man?
Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars22,
On equal terms to give him chastisement?23
Either I must, or have mine honour soiled
With th’attainder25 of his sland’rous lips.—
Throws down his gage
There is my gage, the manual seal of death26
That marks thee out for hell. I say thou liest,
And will maintain what thou hast said is false
In thy heart-blood, though being all too base
To stain the temper30 of my knightly sword.
BULLINGBROOK Bagot, forbear31. Thou shalt not take it up.
AUMERLE Excepting one32, I would he were the best
In all this presence that hath moved33 me so.
FITZWATERS If that thy valour stand34 on sympathy,
To Aumerle
There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage35 to thine.
Throws down his gage
By that fair sun that shows me where thou stand’st,
I heard thee say, and vauntingly37 thou spak’st it,
That thou wert cause of noble Gloucester’s death.
If thou deniest39 it twenty times, thou liest,
And I will turn40 thy falsehood to thy heart,
Where it was forgèd, with my rapier’s point.
AUMERLE Thou dar’st not, coward, live to see the day.
FITZWATERS Now by my soul, I would it were this hour.
AUMERLE Fitzwaters, thou art damned to hell for this.
PERCY Aumerle, thou liest: his honour is as true
In this appeal46 as thou art all unjust.
And that thou art so, there I throw my gage,
To prove it on thee to th’extremest point
Of mortal breathing48. Seize it, if thou dar’st.
Throws down his gage
AUMERLE An if50 I do not, may my hands rot off
Picks up the gage
And never brandish more51 revengeful steel
Over the glittering helmet of my foe!
SURREY My lord Fitzwaters, I do remember well
The very time Aumerle and you did talk.
FITZWATERS My lord, ’tis very true. You were in presence55 then
And you can witness with me this is true.
SURREY As false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true.
FITZWATERS Surrey, thou liest.
SURREY Dishonourable boy!
That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword
That it shall render61 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 mine honour’s pawn.
Throws down his gage
Engage it to the trial65, if thou dar’st.
FITZWATERS How fondly66 dost thou spur a forward horse!
If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live,
I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness68,
And spit upon him, whilst I say he lies,
And lies, and lies. There is my bond of faith,
Throws down his gage
To tie71 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 banished 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.
Borrows a gage, then throws it down
That78 Norfolk lies, here do I throw down this,
If he may be repealed79, to try his honour.
BULLINGBROOK These differences80 shall all rest under gage
Till Norfolk be repealed. Repealed he shall be,
And, though mine enemy, restored again
To all his lands and signories83. When he’s returned,
Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial84.
CARLISLE That honourable day shall ne’er be seen.
Many a time hath banished Norfolk fought
For Jesu Christ in glorious Christian field87,
Streaming the ensign88 of the Christian cross
Against black pagans, Turks and Saracens,
And toiled90 with works of war, retired 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 colours94 he had fought so long.
BULLINGBROOK Why, bishop, is Norfolk dead?
CARLISLE As sure as I live, my lord.
BULLINGBROOK Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bosom
Of good old Abraham97! Lords appellants98,
Your differences shall all rest under gage
Till we assign you to your days of trial.
Enter York
YORK Great Duke of Lancaster, I come to thee
From plume-plucked102 Richard, who with willing soul
Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields
To the possession of thy royal hand.
Ascend his throne, descending105 now from him,
And long live Henry, of that name the fourth!
BULLINGBROOK In God’s name, I’ll ascend the regal throne.
CARLISLE Marry108, heaven forbid!
Worst109 in this royal presence may I speak,
Yet best beseeming110 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 noblesse113 would
Learn114 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 judged but they are by117 to hear,
Although apparent118 guilt be seen in them.
And shall the figure119 of God’s majesty,
His captain, steward, deputy-elect,
Anointed, crownèd, planted many years,
Be judged by subject122 and inferior breath,
And he himself not present? O, forbid it, God,
That in a Christian climate souls refined
Should show so heinous125, black, obscene a deed.
I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks,
Stirred up by heaven, 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 manure131 the ground,
And future ages groan for his foul act.
Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels,
And in this seat of peace tumultuous wars
Shall kin with kin and kind135 with kind confound.
Disorder, horror, fear and mutiny
Shall here inhabit, and this land be called
The field138 of Golgotha and dead men’s skulls.