Richard II (13 page)
Authors: William Shakespeare
BULLINGBROOK
Are you contented to resign the crown?
KING RICHARD
Ay
195
, no; no, ay, for I must nothing be:
Therefore no ‘no’, for I resign to thee.
Now
mark me
197
how I will undo myself:
I give this heavy weight from off my head,
Bullingbrook accepts crown
And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand,
Bullingbrook accepts sceptre
The pride of kingly
sway
200
from out my heart.
With mine own tears I wash away my balm,
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
204
.
All pomp and majesty I do
forswear
205
:
My manors, rents, revenues I forgo:
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
210
,
And thou with all pleased, that hast all achieved.
Long mayst thou live in Richard’s seat to sit,
And soon lie Richard in an earthy pit!
‘God save King Henry’, unkinged Richard says,
‘And send him many years of sunshine days!’ —
What more remains?
NORTHUMBERLAND
No more, but that you read
Gives 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.
KING RICHARD
Must I do so? And must I
ravel out
223
My weaved-up follies?
Gentle
224
Northumberland,
If thy offences were upon record,
Would it not shame thee in so fair a
troop
226
To
read a lecture
227
of them? If thou wouldst,
There shouldst thou find one heinous
article
228
,
Containing the deposing of a king
And cracking the strong
warrant
230
of an oath,
Marked with a blot, damned in the book of heaven.
Nay, all of you that stand and look upon me,
Whilst that my wretchedness doth
bait
233
myself,
Though some of you with
Pilate
234
wash your hands
Showing an outward pity, yet you Pilates
Have here delivered me to my
sour
236
cross,
And water cannot wash away your sin.
NORTHUMBERLAND
My lord,
dispatch
238
. Read o’er these articles.
KING RICHARD
Mine eyes are full of tears, I cannot see.
And yet salt water blinds them not so much
But they can see a
sort
241
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
T’undeck
245
the pompous body of a king;
Made glory base and sovereignty a slave,
Proud majesty a subject, state a peasant.
NORTHUMBERLAND
My lord—
KING RICHARD
No lord of thine, thou
haught
249
insulting man,
No, nor no man’s lord.— I have no name, no title;
No, not that name was given me
at the font
251
,
But ’tis usurped. 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
255
king of snow,
Standing before the sun of Bullingbrook,
To melt myself away in water-drops!
Good king, great king — and yet not greatly good —
An if
259
my word be sterling yet in England,
Let it command a mirror hither straight,
That it may show me
what
261
a face I have,
Since it is bankrupt of
his
262
majesty.
BULLINGBROOK
Go
some
263
of you and fetch a looking-glass.
[
Exit an Attendant
]
NORTHUMBERLAND
Read o’er this paper while the glass doth come.
KING RICHARD
Fiend, thou torments me ere I come to hell!
BULLINGBROOK
Urge it no more, my lord Northumberland.
NORTHUMBERLAND
The commons will not then be satisfied.
KING RICHARD
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.
Enter one, with a glass
Give me that glass, and therein will I read.
Takes the mirror
No deeper wrinkles yet? Hath sorrow struck
So many blows upon this face of mine,
And made no deeper wounds? O flatt’ring glass,
Like to my followers in prosperity,
Thou dost
beguile
276
me! Was this face the face
That every day under his household roof
Did
keep
278
ten thousand men? Was this the face
That like the sun did make beholders
wink
279
?
Is this the face which
faced
280
so many follies,
That was at last
out-faced
281
by Bullingbrook?
A brittle glory shineth in this face,
As brittle as the glory is the face.
Throws the mirror down against the ground
For there it is, cracked in an hundred
shivers
284
.
Mark, silent king, the
moral
285
of this sport,
How soon my sorrow hath destroyed my face.
BULLINGBROOK
The
shadow
287
of your sorrow hath destroyed
The shadow of your face.
KING RICHARD
Say that again.
The shadow of my sorrow? Ha? Let’s see,
’Tis very true, my grief lies all within,
And these external
manner
292
of laments
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 giv’st
Me cause to wail, but teachest me the way
How to lament the cause. I’ll beg one
boon
298
,
And then be gone and trouble you no more.
Shall I obtain it?
BULLINGBROOK
Name it, fair cousin.
KING RICHARD
‘Fair cousin’? 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
305
my flatterer.
Being so great, I have no need to beg.
BULLINGBROOK
Yet ask.
KING RICHARD
And shall I have?
BULLINGBROOK
You shall.
KING RICHARD
Then give me leave to go.
BULLINGBROOK
Whither?
KING RICHARD
Whither you will, so I were from your sights.
BULLINGBROOK
Go, some of you
convey
313
him to the Tower.
KING RICHARD
O, good! ‘Convey’? Conveyers are you all,
That rise thus nimbly by a true king’s fall.
[
Exeunt Richard, some Lords and a Guard
]
BULLINGBROOK
On Wednesday next we solemnly
set down
316
Our coronation. Lords, prepare yourselves.
Exeunt
[
all except Carlisle, the Abbot and Aumerle
]
ABBOT
A woeful pageant have we here beheld.
CARLISLE
The woe’s to come. The children yet unborn
Shall feel this day as sharp to them as thorn.
AUMERLE
You holy clergymen, is there no plot
To rid the realm of this
pernicious
322
blot?
ABBOT
Before I freely speak my mind herein,
You shall not only
take the sacrament
324
To
bury
325
mine intents, but also to effect
Whatever I shall happen to devise.
I see your brows are full of discontent,
Your heart of sorrow and your eyes of tears.
Come home with me to supper. I’ll lay
A plot shall show us all a merry day.
Exeunt
running scene 14
Location:
London, near the Tower
Enter Queen and Ladies
QUEEN
This way the king will come. This is the way
To
Julius Caesar’s
2
ill-erected tower,
To whose
flint
3
bosom my condemnèd lord
Is
doomed
4
a prisoner by proud Bullingbrook.
Here let us rest, if this rebellious earth
Have any resting for her true king’s queen.
Enter Richard and Guard
But soft, but see, or rather do not see,
My fair rose wither. Yet look up, behold,
That you in pity may dissolve to dew,
And wash him fresh again with true-love tears.
Ah, thou, the
model
11
where old Troy did stand,
Thou
map
12
of honour, thou King Richard’s tomb,
And not King Richard. Thou most beauteous
inn
13
,
Why should
hard-favoured
14
grief be lodged in thee,
When triumph is become an
ale-house
15
guest?
KING RICHARD
Join not with grief, fair woman, do not so,
To make my end too sudden. Learn, good soul,
To think our former
state
18
a happy dream;
From which awaked, the truth of what we are
Shows us but this. I am
sworn brother
20
, sweet,
To grim Necessity, and he and I
Will keep a
league
22
till death. Hie thee to France
And
cloister
23
thee in some religious house.
Our holy lives must win a
new world’s
24
crown,
Which our profane hours here have stricken down.
QUEEN
What, is my Richard both in
shape
26
and mind
Transformed and weakened? Hath Bullingbrook deposed
Thine intellect? Hath he been in thy heart?
The lion dying thrusteth forth his paw,
And wounds the earth, if nothing else, with rage
To be
31
o’erpowered. And wilt thou, pupil-like,
Take thy correction mildly, kiss the
rod
32
,
And fawn on rage with base humility,
Which art a lion and a king of beasts?
KING RICHARD
A king of
beasts
35
, indeed. If aught but beasts,
I had been
still
36
a happy king of men.
Good
sometime
37
queen, prepare thee hence for France:
Think I am dead and that even here thou tak’st,
As from my death-bed, thy last living leave.
In winter’s tedious nights sit by the fire
With good old folks and let them tell thee tales
Of woeful ages
long ago betid
42
.
And ere thou bid good night, to
quit
43
their grief,
Tell thou the lamentable fall of me
And send the hearers weeping to their beds.
For
why
46
the senseless brands will sympathize
The
heavy accent
47
of thy moving tongue
And in compassion
weep
48
the fire out,
And
some
49
will mourn in ashes, some coal-black,
For the deposing of a rightful king.
Enter Northumberland
[
and others
]
NORTHUMBERLAND
My lord, the mind of Bullingbrook is changed.
You must to
Pomfret
52
, not unto the Tower.—
And, madam, there is
order ta’en
53
for you:
To the Queen
With all swift speed you must away to France.
KING RICHARD
Northumberland, thou ladder
wherewithal
55
The mounting Bullingbrook ascends my throne,
The time shall not be
many hours of age
57
More than it is ere foul sin, gathering
head
58
,
Shall break into
corruption
59
. Thou shalt think,
Though he
60
divide the realm and give thee half,
It is too little,
helping
61
him to all.
He shall think that thou,
which
62
know’st the way
To plant
unrightful
63
kings, wilt know again,
Being ne’er so little urged, another way
To pluck him headlong from th’usurpèd throne.
The love of wicked friends converts to fear;
That fear to hate, and hate turns
one or both
67
To
worthy
68
danger and deservèd death.
NORTHUMBERLAND
My guilt be on my head, and there an end.
Take leave and
part
70
, for you must part forthwith.
KING RICHARD
Doubly divorced? Bad men, ye violate
A twofold marriage,
’twixt
72
my crown and me
And then betwixt me and my married wife.—
Let me
unkiss
74
the oath ’twixt thee and me;
To Queen
And yet not so, for with a kiss ’twas made.—
Part us, Northumberland. I towards the north,
Where shivering cold and sickness
pines
77
the clime.
My queen to France,
from whence
78
, set forth in pomp,
She came adornèd hither like sweet May,
Sent back like
Hallowmas
80
or short’st of day.
QUEEN
And must we be divided? Must we part?
KING RICHARD
Ay, hand from hand, my love, and heart from heart.
QUEEN
Banish us both and send the king with me.
NORTHUMBERLAND
That
were
84
some love but little policy.
QUEEN
Then whither he goes, thither let me go.
KING RICHARD
So two, together weeping, make one woe.
Weep thou for me in France, I for thee here.
Better far off than, near
88
, be ne’er the near.
Go, count thy way with sighs; I mine with groans.
QUEEN
So longest way shall have the longest moans.
KING RICHARD
Twice for one step I’ll groan, the way being short,
And
piece the way out
92
with a heavy heart.
Come, come, in wooing sorrow let’s be brief,
Since, wedding it, there is such length in grief.
One kiss shall
stop
95
our mouths, and dumbly part;
They kiss
Thus give I mine, and thus take I thy heart.
QUEEN
Give me mine own again.
’Twere no good part
To take on me
97
to keep and
kill
98
thy heart.
They kiss
So, now I have mine own again, be gone,
That I may strive to kill it with a groan.
KING RICHARD
We make woe
wanton
101
with this fond delay.
Once more,
adieu
102
; the rest let sorrow say.
Exeunt
running scene 15
Location:
the Duke of York’s house
Enter York and his Duchess
DUCHESS OF YORK
My lord, you told me you would tell the rest,
When weeping made you break the story off,
Of our two
cousins
3
coming into London.
YORK
Where did I
leave
4
?
DUCHESS OF YORK
At that sad stop, my lord,
Where
rude
6
misgoverned hands from windows’ tops
Threw dust and rubbish on King Richard’s head.
YORK
Then, as I said, the duke, great Bullingbrook,
Mounted upon a hot and fiery steed
Which
10
his aspiring rider seemed to know,
With slow but stately pace kept on his course,
While all tongues cried ‘God save thee, Bullingbrook!’
You would have thought the very windows spake,
So many greedy looks of young and old
Through
casements
15
darted their desiring eyes
Upon his visage, and that all the walls
With
painted imagery
17
had said at once
‘Jesu preserve thee! Welcome, Bullingbrook!’
Whilst he, from one side to the other turning,
Bareheaded
20
, lower than his proud steed’s neck,
Bespake
21
them thus: ‘I thank you, countrymen’,
And thus
still
22
doing, thus he passed along.
DUCHESS OF YORK
Alas, poor Richard! Where rides he
the whilst
23
?
YORK
As in a theatre, the eyes of men,
After a
well-graced
25
actor leaves the stage,
Are
idly
26
bent on him that enters next,
Thinking his prattle to be tedious,
Even so, or with much more contempt, men’s eyes
Did scowl on Richard. No man cried ‘God save him’,
No joyful tongue gave him his welcome home,
But dust was thrown upon his sacred head,
Which with such gentle sorrow he shook off,
His face still
combating with
33
tears and smiles,
The
badges
34
of his grief and patience,
That had not God, for some strong purpose, steeled
The hearts of men, they must
perforce
36
have melted
And barbarism itself have pitied him.
But heaven hath a hand in these events,
To whose high will we
bound
39
our calm contents.
To Bullingbrook are we sworn subjects now,
Whose
state
41
and honour I for aye allow.
Enter Aumerle
DUCHESS OF YORK
Here comes my son Aumerle.
YORK
Aumerle that was,
But that is lost for being Richard’s friend.
And, madam, you must call him
Rutland
45
now.
I am in parliament
pledge for his truth
46
And lasting
fealty
47
to the new-made king.
DUCHESS OF YORK
Welcome, my son. Who are the
violets
48
now
That strew the green lap of the new come
spring
49
?
AUMERLE
Madam, I know not, nor I greatly care not.
God knows I had
as lief
51
be none as one.
YORK
Well,
bear you
52
well in this new spring of time,
Lest you be
cropped
53
before you come to prime.
What news from Oxford?
Hold
54
those jousts and triumphs?
AUMERLE
For aught I know, my lord, they do.
YORK
You will be there, I know.
AUMERLE
If God prevent not, I purpose so.
YORK
What
seal
58
is that, that hangs without thy bosom?
Yea, look’st thou pale? Let me see the writing.
AUMERLE
My lord, ’tis nothing.
YORK
No matter, then, who sees it.
I will be satisfied. Let me see the writing.
AUMERLE
I do beseech your grace to pardon me.
It is a matter of small consequence,
Which for some reasons I would not have seen.
YORK
Which for some reasons, sir, I mean to see.
I fear, I fear—
DUCHESS OF YORK
What should you fear?
’Tis nothing but some
bond
69
that he is entered into
For gay apparel
against
70
the triumph.
YORK
Bound to himself? What doth he with a bond
That he is bound to? Wife, thou art a fool.
Boy, let me see the writing.
AUMERLE
I do beseech you pardon me. I may not show it.
YORK
I will be satisfied. Let me see it, I say.
Snatches it
Treason, foul treason! Villain, traitor, slave!
DUCHESS OF YORK
What’s the matter, my lord?
YORK
Ho! Who’s within there?
[
Enter a Servant
]
Saddle my horse.
Heaven for his mercy, what treachery is here!
DUCHESS OF YORK
Why, what is’t, my lord?
YORK
Give me my boots, I say. Saddle my horse.—
