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 confound:
Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny

Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd
The field of Golgotha, and dead men's sculls.
O, if you rear 16 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's child's children17 cry against you-woe! North. Well have you argu'd, 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't please you, lords, to grant the commons' suit18. Boling. Fetch hither Richard, that in common view may surrender; so we shall proceed

He

Without suspicion.

16 The quarto reads raise.

17 i. e. grandchildren. Pope altered it to 'children's children,' and was followed by others. The old copies read, 'Lest child, childs children.'

18 What follows, almost to the end of the act, is not found in the first two quartos. The addition was made in the quarto of 1608. In the quarto, 1597, after the words 'his day of trial,' the scene thus closes :

'Bol. Let it be so: and lo! on Wednesday next
We solemnly proclaim our coronation.
Lords, be ready all.'

York.

I will be his conduct 19. [Exit.

Boling. Lords, you that are here under our arrest, Procure your sureties for your days of answer :Little are we beholden to your love,

[To CAR. 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 20 :— Give sorrow leave a while to tutor me

To this submission. Yet I well remember
The favours 21 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.

K. Rich. Give me the crown;-Here, cousin,

seize the crown;

On this side, my hand; and on that side, yours.
Now is this golden crown like a deep well,

That owes

22 two buckets filling one another;

19 j. c. conductor. So in King Henry VI. Part II. :Although thou hast been conduct of

20 The quarto reads limbs.

21 Countenances, features.

my shame.'

22 Owns.

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.
Boling. I thought, you had been willing to resign.
K. Rich. 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.

Boling. Part of your cares you give me with your

crown.

K. Rich. Your cares set up, do not pluck my cares down.

My care is loss of care, by old care done 23;
Your care is gain of care, by new care won:
The cares I give, I have, though given away;
They tend 24 the crown, yet still with me they stay.
Boling. Are
you contented to resign the crown?
K. Rich. 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 25,
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 26:
All pomp and majesty I do forswear;
My manors, rents, revenues, I forego;
My acts, decrees, and statutes, I deny:

23 Shakspeare often obscures his meaning by playing with sounds. Richard seems to say here that 'his cares are not made less by the increase of Bolingbroke's cares;'—his grief is, that his regal cares are at an end, by the cessation of care to which he had been accustomed.'

24 Attend.
25 Oil of consecration.
26 The first quarto reads duty's rites.

God pardon all oaths, that are broke to me!
God keep all vows unbroke, are made 27 to thee!
Make me, that nothing have, with nothing griev'd;
And thou with all pleas'd, that hast all achiev'd!
Long mayst 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 depos'd.

K. Rich. 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 would'st 28,
There should'st 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.

North. My lord, despatch; read o'er these articles. K. Rich. Mine eyes are full of tears, I cannot see: And yet salt water blinds them not so much,

27 Thus the folio. The quarto reads that swear.

28 That is, if thou would'st read over a list of thy own deeds.

But they can see a sort 29 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; e, a peasant.
North. My lord,

K. Rich. No lord of thine, thou haught 30, 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),
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 31 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.

K. Rich. Fiend! thou torment'st me ere I come to hell.

Boling. Urge it no more, my Lord Northumberland.

29 A sort is a set or company. So in King Richard III. :'A sort of vagabonds, rascals, and runaways.'

30 i. e. haughty. Thus in King Richard III. :—

'And the queen's sons and brothers haught and proud.'

31 His for its. It was common in the poet's time to use the personal for the neutral pronoun.