Richard II (5 page)

Exit Gaunt

KING RICHARD
    We were not born to
sue
¹⁹⁷
, but to command,
    Which since we cannot do to make you friends,
    Be ready, as your lives shall answer it,
    At Coventry upon
Saint Lambert’s day
²⁰⁰
:
    There shall your swords and lances arbitrate
    The
swelling
²⁰²
difference of your settled hate.
    Since we cannot
atone
²⁰³
you, we shall see
    Justice
design
²⁰⁴
the victor’s chivalry.
    Lord Marshal, command our officers at arms
    Be ready to direct these
home alarms
²⁰⁶
.

Exeunt

Location:
unspecified, probably assumed to be Ely House, London

Enter Gaunt and Duchess of Gloucester

GAUNT
    Alas, the
part I had in Gloucester’s blood
¹
    Doth more
solicit
²
me than your exclaims,
    To
stir
³
against the butchers of his life.
    But since correction lieth in
those hands
⁴
    Which made the fault that we cannot correct,
    Put we our quarrel to the will of heaven,
    Who, when they see the hours ripe on earth,
    Will rain hot vengeance on offenders’ heads.

DUCHESS
    Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper spur?
    Hath love in thy old blood no living fire?
    
Edward
¹¹
’s seven sons, whereof thyself art one,
    Were as seven vials of his sacred blood,
    Or seven fair branches springing from one root:
    Some of those seven are dried by nature’s course,
    Some of those branches by the
Destinies
¹⁵
cut.
    But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Gloucester,
    One vial full of Edward’s sacred blood,
    One flourishing branch of his most royal root,
    Is cracked, and all the precious
liquor
¹⁹
spilt,
    Is hacked down, and his summer leaves all
faded
²⁰
,
    By
envy’s
²¹
hand and murder’s bloody axe.
    Ah, Gaunt, his blood was thine! That bed, that womb,
    That
metal
²³
, that self-mould that fashioned thee
    Made him a man. And though thou liv’st and breath’st,
    Yet art thou slain in him. Thou dost
consent
²⁵
    In some large measure to thy father’s death,
    In that thou see’st thy wretched brother die,
    Who was the
model
²⁸
of thy father’s life.
    Call it not patience, Gaunt, it is despair.
    In
suff’ring
³⁰
thus thy brother to be slaughtered,
    Thou show’st the
naked
³¹
pathway to thy life,
    Teaching stern murder how to butcher thee.
    That which in
mean
³³
men we entitle patience
    Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.
    What shall I say? To safeguard thine own life,
    The best way is to
venge
³⁶
my Gloucester’s death.

GAUNT
    
Heaven’s is the quarrel, for heaven’s substitute,
    His deputy
³⁷
anointed in his sight
³⁸
,
    Hath caused his death, the which if wrongfully,
    Let heaven revenge, for I may never lift
    An angry arm against his minister.

DUCHESS
    Where then, alas, may I
complaint myself
⁴²
?

GAUNT
    To heaven, the widow’s
champion
⁴³
to defence.

DUCHESS
    Why, then, I will. Farewell, old Gaunt.
    Thou go’st to Coventry, there to behold
    Our
cousin
⁴⁶
Hereford and fell Mowbray fight.
    O, sit my husband’s wrongs on Hereford’s spear,
    That it may enter butcher Mowbray’s breast!
    Or if misfortune miss the first
career
⁴⁹
,
    Be Mowbray’s sins so heavy in his bosom,
    That they may break his foaming
courser
⁵¹
’s back,
    And throw the rider headlong in the
lists
⁵²
,
    A
caitiff
⁵³
recreant to my cousin Hereford!
    Farewell, old Gaunt:
thy sometimes
⁵⁴
brother’s wife
    With her companion grief must end her life.

GAUNT
    Sister, farewell. I must to Coventry.
    As much good stay with thee as go with me!

DUCHESS
    Yet one word more: grief
boundeth
⁵⁸
where it falls,
    Not with the empty hollowness, but weight.
    I take my leave before I have begun,
    For sorrow ends not when it seemeth done.
    Commend me to my
brother
⁶²
, Edmund York.
    
Lo
⁶³
, this is all. Nay, yet depart not so:
    Though this be all, do not so quickly go.
    I shall remember more. Bid him — O, what? —
    With all good speed at
Plashy
⁶⁶
visit me.
    Alack, and what shall good old York there see
    But empty lodgings and unfurnished walls,
    Unpeopled
offices
⁶⁹
, untrodden stones?
    And what hear there for welcome but my groans?
    Therefore commend me, let him not come there
    To seek out sorrow that dwells everywhere.
    Desolate, desolate, will I hence and die:
    The last leave of thee takes my weeping eye.

Exeunt

Location:
the area of combat at Coventry

Enter
[
the Lord
]
Marshal and Aumerle

LORD MARSHAL
    My Lord Aumerle, is Harry Hereford armed?

AUMERLE
    Yea,
at all points
²
, and longs to enter in.

LORD MARSHAL
    The Duke of Norfolk,
sprightfully
³
and bold,
    
Stays
⁴
but the summons of the appellant’s trumpet.

AUMERLE
    Why, then, the
champions
⁵
are prepared, and stay
    For nothing but his majesty’s approach.

Flourish. Enter King, Gaunt, Bushy, Bagot, Green and others.
[
When they are set,
]
then Mowbray in armour and
[
a
]
Herald

KING RICHARD
    Marshal,
demand
⁷
of yonder champion
    The cause of his arrival here in arms.
    Ask him his name and
orderly
⁹
proceed
    To swear him in the justice of his cause.

LORD MARSHAL
    In God’s name and the king’s, say who thou art
    And why thou com’st thus knightly clad in arms,
    Against what man thou com’st, and what’s thy
quarrel
¹³
.
    Speak truly, on thy knighthood and thine oath,
    As so defend thee heaven and thy valour!

MOWBRAY
    My name is Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk,
    Who hither comes engagèd by my oath —
    Which heaven
defend
¹⁸
a knight should violate! —
    Both to defend my loyalty and truth
    To God, my king and his
succeeding
²⁰
issue,
    Against the Duke of Hereford that appeals me,
    And, by the grace of God and this mine arm,
    To prove him, in defending of myself,
    A traitor to my God, my king, and me.
    And as I truly fight, defend me heaven!

Tucket. Enter Hereford
[
Bullingbrook
]
and Herald

KING RICHARD
    Marshal, ask yonder knight in arms,
    Both who he is and why he cometh hither
    Thus
plated
²⁸
in habiliments of war,
    And formally, according to our law,
    
Depose him
³⁰
in the justice of his cause.

LORD MARSHAL
    What is thy name? And
wherefore
³¹
com’st thou hither,

To Bullingbrook

    Before King Richard in his royal lists?
    Against whom com’st thou? And what’s thy quarrel?
    Speak like a true knight, so defend thee heaven!

BULLINGBROOK
    Harry of Hereford, Lancaster and Derby
    Am I, who ready here do stand in arms
    To prove, by heaven’s grace and my body’s valour,
    In lists, on Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk,
    That he’s a traitor, foul and dangerous,
    To God of heaven, King Richard and to me.
    And as I truly fight, defend me heaven!

LORD MARSHAL
    On pain of death, no person be so bold
    Or
daring-hardy
⁴³
as to touch the lists,
    Except the marshal and such officers
    Appointed to direct these
fair
⁴⁵
designs.

BULLINGBROOK
    Lord Marshal, let me kiss my sovereign’s hand,
    And bow my knee before his majesty.
    For Mowbray and myself are like two men
    That vow a long and weary pilgrimage,
    Then let us take a ceremonious leave
    And loving farewell of our
several
⁵¹
friends.

LORD MARSHAL
    The appellant in all duty greets your highness,
    And craves to kiss your hand and take his leave.

KING RICHARD
    We will descend and fold him in our arms.

Comes down and embraces Bullingbrook

    Cousin of Hereford,
as
⁵⁵
thy cause is just,

    So be thy fortune in this
royal fight
⁵⁶
!

    Farewell,
my blood
⁵⁷
, which if today thou shed,
    Lament we may, but not revenge thee dead.

BULLINGBROOK
    O, let no noble eye
profane
⁵⁹
a tear
    For me, if I be gored with Mowbray’s spear.
    As confident as is the falcon’s flight
    Against a bird, do I with Mowbray fight.—
    My loving lord, I take my leave of you.—

To Richard

    Of you, my noble cousin, Lord Aumerle,
    Not sick, although I have to do with death,
    But
lusty
⁶⁶
, young, and cheerly drawing breath.
    Lo, as at English feasts, so I
regreet
⁶⁷
    The
daintiest
⁶⁸
last, to make the end most sweet.—
    O thou, the earthy author of my blood,

To Gaunt

    Whose youthful spirit, in me
regenerate
⁷⁰
,
    Doth with a
twofold
⁷¹
rigour lift me up
    To reach at victory above my head,
    Add
proof
⁷³
unto mine armour with thy prayers,
    And with thy blessings steel my lance’s point,
    That it may enter Mowbray’s
waxen
⁷⁵
coat,
    And
furbish
⁷⁶
new the name of John a Gaunt,
    Even in the lusty
’haviour
⁷⁷
of his son.

GAUNT
    Heaven in thy good cause make thee prosp’rous!
    Be swift like lightning in the execution,
    And let thy blows, doubly redoublèd,
    Fall like
amazing
⁸¹
thunder on the casque
    Of thy amazed
pernicious
⁸²
enemy,
    Rouse up thy youthful blood, be valiant and live.

BULLINGBROOK
    Mine innocence and
Saint George
⁸⁴
to thrive!

MOWBRAY
    However heaven or fortune cast my lot,
    There lives or dies, true to King Richard’s throne,
    A loyal, just and upright gentleman.
    Never did captive with a freer heart
    Cast off his chains of bondage and embrace
    His golden uncontrolled
enfranchisement
⁹⁰
    More than my dancing soul doth celebrate
    This feast of battle with mine adversary.
    Most mighty liege, and my companion peers,
    Take from my mouth the wish of happy years.
    As
gentle
⁹⁵
and as jocund as to jest
    Go I to fight. Truth hath a quiet breast.

KING RICHARD
    Farewell, my lord.
Securely
⁹⁷
I espy
    Virtue with valour
couchèd
⁹⁸
in thine eye.
    
Order
⁹⁹
the trial, marshal, and begin.

LORD MARSHAL
    Harry of Hereford, Lancaster and Derby,
    Receive thy lance. And heaven defend thy right!

Attendant gives a lance to Bullingbrook

BULLINGBROOK
    Strong as a tower, in hope I cry ‘Amen’.

LORD MARSHAL
    Go bear this lance to Thomas,

        Duke of Norfolk.

Attendant gives a lance to Mowbray

FIRST HERALD
    Harry of Hereford, Lancaster and Derby,

    Stands here for God, his sovereign and himself,
    On pain to be found false and
recreant
¹⁰⁶
,
    To prove the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray,
    A traitor to his God, his king and
him
¹⁰⁸
,
    And dares him to set forwards to the fight.