Richard II (10 page)
Authors: William Shakespeare
NORTHUMBERLAND
The noble duke hath been too much abused.
ROSS
It
stands your grace upon
138
to do him right.
WILLOUGHBY
Base men by his
endowments
139
are made great.
YORK
My lords of England, let me tell you this:
I have had feeling of my cousin’s wrongs
And laboured all I could to do him right.
But in this
kind
143
to come, in braving arms,
Be his own carver and cut out his way
144
,
To find out right with wrongs, it may not be,
And you that do abet him in this kind
Cherish rebellion and are rebels all.
NORTHUMBERLAND
The noble duke hath sworn his coming is
But for his own; and for the right of that
We all have strongly sworn to give him aid.
And let him ne’er see joy that breaks that oath!
YORK
Well, well, I see the
issue
152
of these arms.
I cannot mend it, I must needs confess,
Because my
power
154
is weak and all ill left.
But if I could, by him that gave me life,
I would
attach
156
you all and make you stoop
Unto the sovereign mercy of the king.
But since I cannot, be it known to you
I do remain
as neuter
159
. So, fare you well,
Unless you please to enter in the castle
And there repose you for this night.
BULLINGBROOK
An offer, uncle, that we will accept.
But we must
win
163
your grace to go with us
To Bristol Castle, which they say is held
By Bushy, Bagot and their complices,
The
caterpillars
166
of the commonwealth,
Which I have sworn to weed and pluck away.
YORK
It may be I will go with you: but yet I’ll pause,
For I am loath to break our country’s laws.
Nor friends nor foes, to me welcome you are:
Things past redress are now with me past care.
Exeunt
running scene 8
Location:
Wales
Enter Salisbury and a
[
Welsh
]
Captain
CAPTAIN
My lord of Salisbury, we have
stayed
1
ten days,
And
hardly
2
kept our countrymen together,
And yet we hear no tidings from the king;
Therefore we will disperse ourselves: farewell.
SALISBURY
Stay yet another day, thou trusty Welshman:
The king reposeth all his confidence in thee.
CAPTAIN
’Tis thought the king is dead: we will not stay.
The
bay-trees
8
in our country all are withered
And
meteors
9
fright the fixèd stars of heaven;
The pale-faced moon looks bloody on the earth
And
lean-looked
11
prophets whisper fearful change;
Rich men look sad and ruffians dance and leap,
The one
13
in fear to lose what they enjoy,
The other to enjoy by rage and war.
These signs forerun the death of kings.
Farewell. Our countrymen are gone and fled,
As well assured Richard their king is dead.
Exit
SALISBURY
Ah, Richard, with eyes of heavy mind
I see thy glory like a shooting star
Fall to the base earth from the
firmament
20
.
Thy sun sets weeping in the lowly west,
Witnessing
22
storms to come, woe and unrest.
Thy friends are fled to
wait upon
23
thy foes,
And
crossly
24
to thy good all fortune goes.
Exit
running scene 9
Location:
Bristol
Enter Bullingbrook, York, Northumberland, Ross, Percy, Willoughby, with Bushy and Green, prisoners
BULLINGBROOK
Bring forth these men.
Bushy and Green, I will not vex your souls —
Since
presently
3
your souls must part your bodies —
With too much
urging
4
your pernicious lives,
For ’twere no charity. Yet to wash your blood
From off my hands, here in the view of men
I will unfold some
causes of
7
your deaths.
You have misled a prince, a royal king,
A
happy
9
gentleman in blood and lineaments,
By you
unhappied
10
and disfigured clean.
You have
in manner
11
with your sinful hours
Made a
divorce
12
betwixt his queen and him,
Broke the possession of a royal bed
13
And stained the beauty of a fair queen’s cheeks
With tears drawn from her eyes with your foul wrongs.
Myself, a prince by fortune of my birth,
Near to the king in blood, and near in love
Till you did make him misinterpret me,
Have stooped my neck under your injuries,
And sighed my English breath in foreign
clouds
20
,
Eating the bitter bread of banishment;
While you have fed upon my
signories
22
,
Disparked my parks
23
and felled my forest woods,
From mine own windows torn my household
coat
24
,
Razed out my
imprese
25
, leaving me no sign,
Save men’s opinions and my living blood,
To show the world I am a gentleman.
This and much more, much more than twice all this,
Condemns you to the
death
29
.— See them delivered over
To execution and the hand of death.
BUSHY
More welcome is the stroke of death to me
Than Bullingbrook to England.
GREEN
My comfort is that heaven will take our souls
And plague injustice with the pains of hell.
BULLINGBROOK
My Lord Northumberland, see them
dispatched
35
.—
[
Exeunt Northumberland and others, with the prisoners
]
Uncle, you say the queen is at your house:
For heaven’s sake, fairly let her be
entreated
37
.
Tell her I send to her my kind
commends
38
;
Take special care my greetings be delivered.
YORK
A gentleman of mine I have dispatched
With letters of your love to her
at large
41
.
BULLINGBROOK
Thanks, gentle uncle.— Come, lords, away.
To fight with Glendower and his complices;
A while to work, and after holiday.
Exeunt
running scene 10
Location:
Barkloughly (Harlech) Castle, northern Wales
Drums. Flourish and
colours
. Enter Richard, Aumerle, Carlisle and Soldiers
KING RICHARD
Barkloughly Castle
1
call you this at hand?
AUMERLE
Yea, my lord. How
brooks
2
your grace the air,
After your late tossing on the breaking seas?
KING RICHARD
Needs must I like it well: I weep for joy
To stand upon my kingdom once again.
Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand,
Though rebels wound thee with their horses’ hoofs.
As a long-parted mother with her child
Plays
fondly
9
with her tears and smiles in meeting,
So, weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my earth,
And do thee favour with my royal hands.
Feed not thy sovereign’s foe, my gentle earth,
Nor with thy sweets comfort his ravenous
sense
13
,
But let thy
spiders
14
, that suck up thy venom,
And heavy-gaited toads lie in their way,
Doing
annoyance
16
to the treacherous feet
Which with usurping steps do trample thee.
Yield stinging nettles to mine enemies;
And when they from thy bosom pluck a flower,
Guard
20
it, I prithee, with a lurking adder
Whose
double
21
tongue may with a mortal touch
Throw death upon thy sovereign’s enemies.
Mock not my
senseless conjuration
23
, lords:
This earth shall have a feeling and these stones
Prove armèd soldiers, ere her
native
25
king
Shall falter under foul rebellion’s arms.
CARLISLE
Fear not, my lord. That power that made you king
Hath power to keep you king in spite of all.
AUMERLE
He means, my lord, that we are too remiss,
Whilst Bullingbrook, through our
security
30
,
Grows strong and great in substance and in friends.
KING RICHARD
Discomfortable
32
cousin! Know’st thou not
That when the searching
eye of heaven is hid,
Behind the globe that lights the lower world
33
,
Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen
In murders and in outrage bloody here:
But when from under this terrestrial ball
He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines
And darts his lightning through ev’ry guilty hole,
Then murders, treasons and detested sins —
The cloak of night being plucked from off their backs —
Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves?
So when this thief, this traitor, Bullingbrook,
Who all this while hath revelled in the night,
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
rude
49
sea
Can wash the
balm
50
from an anointed king;
The breath of worldly men cannot depose
The deputy elected by the Lord.
For every man that Bullingbrook hath
pressed
53
To lift
shrewd
54
steel against our golden crown,
Heaven for his Richard hath in heavenly pay
A glorious
angel
56
. 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 near
59
nor farther off, my gracious lord,
Than this weak arm.
Discomfort
60
guides my tongue
And bids me speak of nothing but despair.
One day too late, I fear, my noble lord,
Hath clouded all thy
happy
63
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
state
67
;
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 now
71
the blood of twenty thousand men
Did
triumph
72
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
high
83
?
High be our thoughts. I know my uncle York
Hath
power enough to serve our turn
85
. But who comes here?
Enter Scroop
SCROOP
More health and happiness
betide
86
my liege
Than can my
care-tuned
87
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
care
90
,
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
fellow
94
so.
Revolt our subjects? That we cannot
mend
95
.
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
his
104
limits swells the rage
Of
Bullingbrook
105
, covering your fearful land
With hard bright steel and hearts harder than steel.
Whitebeards
107
have armed their thin and hairless scalps
Against thy majesty, and boys with women’s voices
Strive to speak
big
109
and clap their female joints
In stiff unwieldy
arms
110
against thy crown.
Thy very
beadsmen
111
learn to bend their bows
Of
double-fatal
112
yew against thy state.
Yea,
distaff-women
113
manage rusty bills
Against thy
seat
114
. 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 confines
120
with such peaceful steps?
If we prevail, their heads shall pay for it.
I warrant
122
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
Judas
127
es, each one thrice worse than Judas!
Would they make peace? Terrible hell make war
Upon their
spotted
129
souls for this offence!
SCROOP
Sweet love, I see, changing his
property
130
,
Turns to the sourest and most deadly hate.
Again uncurse their souls; their peace is made
With heads, and not with
hands
133
: those whom you curse
Have felt the worst of death’s destroying hand
And lie full low,
graved
135
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
model
148
of the barren earth
Which serves as
paste and cover
149
to our bones.
For heaven’s sake let us sit upon the ground
And tell
sad
151
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
rounds
156
the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court and there the
antic
157
sits,
Scoffing
his state
158
and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
To
monarchize
160
, be feared and kill with looks,
Infusing him with
self
161
and vain conceit,
As if this flesh which walls about our life,
Were brass impregnable. And
humoured thus
163
,
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.
Subjected
171
thus,
How can you say to me, I am a king?
