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North.

Sorrow and grief of heart Makes him speak fondly *, like a frantic man; Yet he is come.

Enter King RICHARD, and his Attendants, below.

Boling. Stand all apart,

And show fair duty to his majesty.-
My gracious lord,-

[Kneeling. K. Rich. 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 unpleased eye see your courtesy.
Up, cousin, up; your heart is up, I know,
Thus high at least, [Touching his own head.]
although your knee be low..

Boling. My gracious lord, I come but for
mine own.
[yours, and all.
K. Rich. Your own is yours, and I am
Boling. So far be mine, my most redoubted
lord,

As my true service shall deserve your love. K. Rich. Well you deserve:-They well deserve to have,

That know the strong'st and surest way to get.
Uncle, give me your hand: 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?
Boling. Yea, my good lord.
K. Rich.

Then I must not say, no. [Flourish. Exeunt. SCENE IV. Langley. 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?
1 Lady. Madam, we'll play at bowls.
Queen.
Twill make me think,
The world is full of rubs, and that my fortune
Runs 'gainst the bias +.
1 Lady.
Madam, we will dance.
Queen. My legs can keep no measure in de-
light,

When my poor heart no measure keeps in grief:
Therefore, no dancing, girl; some other sport.
1 Lady. Madam, we'll tell tales.
Queen.

Of sorrow, or of joy?

1 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. 1 Lady. Madam, I'll sing.

Queen. Tis well, that thou hast cause; But thou shouldst please me better, wouldst thou weep.

• Foolishly.

Profits.

1 Lady. I could weep, madam, woula do you good.

Queen. And I could weep, would weeping do me good.

And never borrow any tear of thee.
But stay, here come the gardeners:
Let's step into the shadow of these trees.-
Enter a Gardener, and two Servants.
My wretchedness unto a row of pins,
They'll talk of state: for every one doth so
Against a change: Woe is forerun with woe.
[Queen and Ladies retire.
Gard. Go, bind thou up you' daugling
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 commor.wealth:
All must be even in our government.
You thus employ'd, I will go root away
The noisome weeds, that without profit suck
The soil's fertility from wholesome flowers.

Serv. Why should we, in the compass of

a paleý,

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 choked up,
Her fruit-trees all unpruned, her hedges ruin'd,
Her knots disorder'd, and her wholesome
Swarming with caterpillars?
[herbs
Gard,
Hold thy peace :-
He that hath suffer'd this disorder'd spring,
Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf:
The weeds, that 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.
1 Serv. What, are they dead?
Gard. They are; and Bolingbroke (is it,
Hath seized the wasteful king.-Oh! what pity
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 with sap and blood,
With too much riches it confound itself:
Had he done so to great and growing men,
They might have lived to bear, and he to taste
Their fruits of duty. All superfluous branches
We lop away, that bearing boughs may live:
Had he done so, himself had borne the

crown,

Which waste of idle hours hath quite thrown down.

1 Serv. What, think you then, the king shall be deposed?

Gard. Depress'd he is already; and deposed, 'Tis doubt T, 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 presɛ'd to death,

+A weight fixed on one side of the bowl which turns it from the straight line.

Enclosure.

Figures planted in box.

¶ No doubt.

likeness,

Through want of speaking!-Thou, old Adam's | Post you to London, and you'll find it so;
I speak no more than every one doth know.
Queen. Nimble mischance, that art so light
of foot,

[Coming from her concealment. Set to dress this garden, how dares * [news? Thy harsh-rude tongue sound this unpleasing What Eve, what serpent hath suggested thee To make a second fall of cursed man? Why dost thou say, king Richard is deposed? Darest thou, thou little better thing than earth, Divine his downfal? Say, where, when, and how, [wretch. Camest thou by these ill tidings? speak, thon Gard. 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.

Doth not thy embassage belong to me,
And am I last that knows it? Ŏ, 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 triumph of great Bolingbroke?
Gardener, for telling me this news of woe,
I would, the plants thou graft'st, may never
grow. [Exeunt Queen and Ladies.
Gard. Poor queen! so that thy state might
be no worse,

I would, my skill were subject to thy carse.—
Here did she drop 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 IV

SCENE I. London. Westminster Hall. The Lords spiritual on the right side of the Throne; the Lords temporal on the left;

the Commons below. Enter BOLINGBROKE, AUMERLE, SURREY, NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, FITZWATER, another Lord, Bishop of Carlisle, Abbot of Westminster, and Attendants. Officers behind,

with BAGOT.

Boling. Call forth Bagot:Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind; What thou dost know of noble Gloster's death; Who wrought it with the king, and who per. The bloody office of his timeless + end. [form'd Bagot. Then set before my face the lord Aumerle. [that man. Boling. Cousin, stand forth, and look upon Bagot. My lord Aumerle, I know your

daring tongue

Scorns to unsay what once it hath deliver'd. In that dead time when Gloster's death was plotted,

I heard you say,-Is not my arm of length,
That reacheth from the restful English
As far as Calais, to my uncle's head? [court
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.
Aum.
Princes, and noble lords,
What answer shall I make to this base man?
Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars,
Ou equal terms to give him chastisement?
Either I must, or have mine honour soil'd
With the attainder of his sland'rous lips.-
There is my gage, the manual seal of death,

• Pity.

[blocks in formation]

[hour.

Fitz. Now, by my soul, I would it were this Aum. Fitzwater thou art damn'd to hell for this. [as true, Percy. Aumerle, thou liest; his honour is In this appeal, as thou art all 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 darest.

Aum. And if I do not, may my hands rot off, And never brandish more revengeful steel Over the glittering helmet of my foe!

Lord. I take the earth to the like, forsworn
Aumerle;

And spur thee on with full as many lies
As may be holla'd in thy treacherous ear
From sun to sun: there is my honour's pawn;
Engage it to the trial if thou darest.

Aum. Who sets me else? by heaven I'll

throw at all:

I have a thousand spirits in one breast,

+ Untimely.

To answer twenty thousand such as you. [well
Surrey. My lord Fitzwater, I do remember
The very timeAumerle and you did talk. [then;
*Fitz. My lord,'tis true: you were in presence
And you can witness with me, this is true.
Surrey. As false, by heaven, as heaven itself
Fitz. Surrey, thou liest.
[is true.
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 scull.
In proof whereof, there is my honour's pawn;
Engage it to the trial, if thou darest. [horse!
Fitz. How fondly dost thou spur a forward
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. [a gage,
Aum. Some honest Christian trust me with
That Norfolk lies: here I do throw down this,
If he may be repeal'd to try his honour. [gage,
Boling. These differences shall all rest under
Till Norfolk be repeal'd: repeal'd he shall be,
And,though mine enemy,restored again [turn'd,
To all his land and signories: when he's re-
Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial.

Car. That honourable day shall ne'er 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, 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 colours he had fought so long.
Boling. Why, bishop, is Norfolk dead?
Car. As sure as I live, my lord. [the bosom
Boling. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to
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
thee
[ing soul
From plume-pluck'd Richard; who with will-
Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields
To the possession of thy royal hand:
Ascend his throne, descending now from him-
Aud long live Henry, of that name the fourth!
Boling. In God's name, I'll ascend the regal
Car. Marry, God forbid !- [throne.
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 nobless would
Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.
What subject can give sentence on his king?
• Nobleness.

And who sits here, that is not Richard's subject?
Thieves are not judged, 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 judged by subject and inferior breath,
And he himself not present? O, forbid it, God,
That, in a Christian climate, souls refined
Should show so heinous, black, obscene a deed!
I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks,
Stirr'd 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 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 con.
Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny, [found;
Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd
The field of Golgotha, and dead men's skulls.
O, if you rear this house against this house
It will the wofullest division prove,
That ever fell upon this cursed earth:
Prevent, resist it, let it not be so,
Lest child, child's children, cry against you-
[your pains,
North. Well have you argued, sir; and, for
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't please you, lords, to grant the common's
[mon view
Boling. Fetch hither Richard, that in com.
He may surrender; so we shall proceed
Without suspicion.
York.
I will be his conductt. [Erit
Boling. Lords, you that are here under our

woe!

suit.

arrest,

Procure your sureties for your days of answer: Little are we beholden to your love,

[To CARLISLE. And little look'd for at your helping hands. Re-enter YORK, with King RICHARD, and Officers bearing the crown, &c.

K. Rich. 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 a while 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? [will,

York. To do that office, of thine own good Which tired majesty did make thee offer,The resignation of thy state and crown

+ Conductor.

t Countenances.

To Henry Bolingbroke.

[seize the crown;
K. Rich. Give me the crown:-Here, cousin,
Here, on this side, my hand; 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 oftears, am I, [high.
Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on
Boling, I thought you had been willing to
resign.
[are mine:
K. Rich. My crown, I am; but still my griefs
You may my glories and my state depose,
But not my griefs; still am I king of those.
Boling. Part of your cares you give me with
your crown.
[my cares down.

K. Rich. Your cares set up, do not pluck
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 giveu away;
They tend the crown, yet still with me they
stay.
[crown?
Boling. Are you contented to resign the
K. Rich. Ay, no;-no, ay; for I must no-
Therefore no no, for I resign to thee. [thing be;
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 balmi,
With mine own hands I give away my crown,
With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,
With mine own breath release all duteous
All pomp, and majesty I do forswear; [oaths;
My manors, rents, revenues, I forego;
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
grieved;

And thou with all pleased, that hast all achieved!
Long may'st thou live in Richard's seat to sit,
And soon lie Richard in an earthy pit!
God save king Henry, unking'd Richard says,
And send him many years of sunshine days!
What more remains?
North.
No more, but that you read
[Offering a Paper.
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 deposed..
K.Rich. Must I do so? and must I ravel out
My weaved-up follies? Gentle Northumber-
If thy offences were upon record, [land,
Would it not shame thee in so fair a troop, i
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

| Showing an outward pity; yet you Pilates
Have here deliver'd me to any sour cross,
And water cannot wash away your sin.
North. My lord, despatch; read o'er these
articles.
[cannot see:

K. Rich. Mine eyes are full of tears, I
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,
To undeck the pompous body of a king;
Make glory base; and sovereignty, a slave;
Proud majesty, a subject; state, a peasant.
North. My lord,

K. Rich. No lord of thine, thou haught,
insulting man,

Nor no man's lord: Ihave no name, no title,-
No, not that name was given me at the font,→
But 'tis usurp'd:-Alack the beavy 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,)

An 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.
Boling. Go some of you, and fetch a
looking-glass. [Exit an Attendant.
North. Read o'er this paper, while the
glass doth come. [I come to hell.
K. Rich. Fiend! thon torment'st me ere
Boling. Urge it no more, my lord Nor-
thumberland.
[satisfied.

North. The commons will not then be
K. Rich. 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 a Glass.
Give me that glass, and therein will I read.—
No deeper wrinkles yet? Hath sorrow struck
So many blows upon this face of mine,
And made no deeper wounds? O, flattering
Like to my followers in prosperity, [glass,
Thou dost beguile me! Was this face the face,
That every day under his household roof
Did keep ten thousand men? Was this the face,
That, like the sun, did make beholders wink?
Was this the face, that faced so many follies,
And was at last out-faced by Bolingbroke?
A brittle glory shineth in this, face;
As brittle as the glory is the face;

[Dushes the Glass against the ground. For there it is, crack'd in a hundred shivers.Mark, silent king, the moral of this sport, How soon my sorrow hath destroy'd my face. Boling. The shadow of your sorrow hath The shadow of your face. [destroy'd Say that again. The shadow of my sorrow? Hal let's see:[hands, 'Tis very true, my grief lies all within; Though some of you, with Pilate, wash your | And these external manners of lament

heaven:

Nay, all of you, that stand and look upon me, Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait myself,

K. Rich.

• Owns.

Attend.

Oil of consecration.

Pack.

Haughty.

Are merely shadows to the unseen grief,
That swells with silence in the tortured soul;
There lies the substance: and I thank thee,
king,

For thy great bounty, that not only givest
Me cause to wail, but teachest me the way
How to lament the cause. I'll beg one boon,
And then be gone, and trouble you no more.
Shall I obtain it?

Boling.

Name it, fair cousin.

K. Rich. Fair cousin? Why, I am greater than a king:

For, when I was a king, my flatterers
Were then but subjects; being now a subject,
I have a king here to my flatterer.
Being so great, I have no need to beg.
Boling. Yet ask.

K. Rich. And shall I have?
Boling. You shall.

K. Rich. Then give me leave to go.
Boling. Whither?

K. Rich. Whither you will, so I were from
your sights.
[the Tower.
Boling. Go, some of you, convey him to

[blocks in formation]

That rise thus nimbly by a true king's fall. [Exeunt K. RICHARD, some Lords, and a Guard.

Boling. On Wednesday next, we solemnly set down

Our coronation: lords, prepare yourselves.
[Exeunt all but the Abbot, Bishop
of Carlisle, and AUMERLE.
Abbot. woful pageant have we here be-
held.
[unborn
Car. The woe's to come; the children yet
Shall feel this day as sharp to them as thorn.
Aum. You holy clergymen, is there no plot
To rid the realm of this pernicious blot?
Abbot. Before I freely speak my mind herein,
You shall not only take the sacrament
To bury mine intents, but to effect
Whatever I shall happen to devise:-
I see your brows are full of discontent,
Your hearts of sorrow, and your eyes of tears;
Come home with me to supper; I will lay
A plot, shall show us all a merry day. [Exeunt.

ACT V.

SCENE I. London. A Street leading to the Tower.

Enter Queen, and Ladies.

Queen. This way the king will come;
this is the way

To Julius Cæsar's ill-erected tower‡,
To whose flint bosom my condemned lord
Is doom'd a prisoner, by proud Bolingbroke:
Here let us rest, if this rebellions earth
Have any resting for her true king's queen.

Enter King RICHARD, and Guards. But soft, but see, or rather do not see, My fair rose wither: Yet look up; bebold; That you in pity may dissolve to dew, And wash him fresh again with true-love tears.[stand; Ah, thou, the model where old Troy did Thou map of honour; thou king Richard's tomb, [teous inn And not king Richard; thou most beau Why should hard-favour'd grief be lodged in thee,

When triumph is become an ale-house guest?
K. Rich. Join not with grief, fair woman,
do not so,
[soul,
To make my end too sudden: learn, good
To think our former state a happy dream;
From which awaked, the truth of what we are
Shows us but this: I am sworn brother, sweet,
To grim necessity; and he and I [France,
Will keep a league till death. Hie thee to
And cloister thee in some religious house:
Our holy lives must win a new world's crown,
Which our profane hours here have stricken
down.
[and mind
Queen. What, is my Richard both in shape

• Jugglers, also robbers. + Conceal.
Passed.

Transform'd, and weaken'd? Hath Bolingbroke [heart? Deposed thine intellect? hath he been in thy The lion, dying, thrusteth forth his paw, And wounds the earth, if nothing else, with

rage

To be o'erpower'd; and wilt thou, pupil-like,
Take thy correction mildly? kiss the rod;
And fawn on rage with base humility,
Which art a lion, and a king of beasts?

K. Rich. A king of beasts, indeed; if aught but beast,

I had been still a happy king of men.
Good sometime queen, prepare thee hence
for France:
[takest,
Think, I am dead: and that even here thou
As from my death-bed, my last living leave.
In winter's tedious nights, sit by the fire
With good old folks; and let them tell thee
Of woful ages, long ago betid ||: [tales
And, ere thou bid good night, to quit their
Tell thou the lamentable fall of me, [grief,
And send the hearers weeping to their beds.
For why, the senseless brands will sympathize
The heavy accent of thy moving tongue,
And, in compassion, weep the fire out:
And some will mourn in ashes, some coal-
For the deposing of a rightful king. [black,
Enter NORTHUMBERLAND, attended.
North. My lord, the mind of Bolingbroke

is changed;

You must to Pomfret, not unto the Tower.--
And, madam, there is order ta'en for you;
With all swift speed you must away to
France.
[wherewithal

K. Rich. Northumberland, thou ladder The mounting Bolingbroke ascends my throne,

i Tower of London. Be even with them.

Picture of greatness,

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