Richard II (8 page)

KING RICHARD
    Think what you will, we seize into our hands
    His plate, his goods, his money and his lands.

YORK
    I’ll not be
by
²¹³
the while. My liege, farewell:
    What will ensue hereof, there’s none can tell.
    But by bad
courses
²¹⁵
may be understood
    That their
events
²¹⁶
can never fall out good.

Exit

KING RICHARD
    Go, Bushy, to the Earl of Wiltshire straight.
    Bid him
repair
²¹⁸
to us to Ely House
    To
see
²¹⁹
this business.— Tomorrow next
    We will for Ireland, and  ’tis time, I
trow
²²⁰
.
    And we create, in absence of ourself,
    Our uncle York Lord Governor of England,
    For he is just and always loved us well.—
    Come on, our queen. Tomorrow must we part.
    Be merry, for our time of stay is short.

Flourish.
[
Exeunt all
]
except Northumberland, Willoughby and Ross

NORTHUMBERLAND
    Well, lords, the Duke of Lancaster is dead.

ROSS
    And living too, for now his son is duke.

WILLOUGHBY
    Barely in title, not in revenue.

NORTHUMBERLAND
    Richly in both, if justice had her right.

ROSS
    My heart is
great
²³⁰
, but it must break with silence,
    Ere’t be disburdened with a
liberal
²³¹
tongue.

NORTHUMBERLAND
    Nay, speak thy mind, and let him ne’er speak more
    That speaks thy words again to do thee harm!

WILLOUGHBY
    
Tends that thou wouldst speak to
²³⁴
th’Duke of Hereford?
    If it be so, out with it boldly, man.
    Quick is mine ear to hear of good towards him.

ROSS
    No good at all that I can do for him,
    Unless you call it good to pity him,
    
Bereft
²³⁹
and gelded of his patrimony.

NORTHUMBERLAND
    Now, afore heaven, ’tis shame such wrongs are borne
    In him, a royal prince, and many more
    Of noble blood in this declining land.
    The king is not himself, but basely led
    By flatterers. And what they will inform,
    Merely in hate, gainst any of us all,
    That will the king severely
prosecute
²⁴⁶
    Gainst us, our lives, our children, and our heirs.

ROSS
    The commons hath he
piled
²⁴⁸
with grievous taxes,
    And quite lost their hearts. The nobles hath he fined
    For
ancient
²⁵⁰
quarrels, and quite lost their hearts.

WILLOUGHBY
    And daily new
exactions
²⁵¹
are devised,
    As
blanks
²⁵²
, benevolences, and I wot not what.
    But what, o’God’s name, doth become of
this
²⁵³
?

NORTHUMBERLAND
    Wars hath not wasted it, for warred he hath not,
    But
basely yielded upon compromise
²⁵⁵
    That which his ancestors achieved with blows.
    More hath he spent in peace than they in wars.

ROSS
    The Earl of Wiltshire hath the realm
in farm
²⁵⁸
.

WILLOUGHBY
    The king’s grown bankrupt, like a
broken
²⁵⁹
man.

NORTHUMBERLAND
    Reproach and dissolution hangeth over him.

ROSS
    He hath not money for these Irish wars,
    His burdenous taxations notwithstanding,
    But by the robbing of the banished duke.

NORTHUMBERLAND
    His noble kinsman. Most degenerate king!
    But, lords, we hear this fearful tempest sing,
    Yet seek no shelter to avoid the storm.
    We see the wind sit
sore
²⁶⁷
upon our sails,
    And yet we
strike
²⁶⁸
not, but securely perish.

ROSS
    We see the very wreck that we must suffer,
    And unavoided is the danger now,
    For
suffering
²⁷¹
so the causes of our wreck.

NORTHUMBERLAND
    Not so: even through the hollow eyes of death
    I spy life peering, but I dare not say
    How near the
tidings
²⁷⁴
of our comfort is.

WILLOUGHBY
    Nay, let us share thy thoughts, as thou dost ours.

ROSS
    Be confident to speak, Northumberland.
    We three are but thyself, and speaking so,
    Thy words are but as thoughts: therefore be bold.

NORTHUMBERLAND
    Then thus: I have from Port le Blanc, a bay
    In Brittany, received intelligence
    That Harry Duke of Hereford,
Rainold Lord Cobham
²⁸¹
,
    That late
broke
²⁸²
from the Duke of Exeter,
    
His
²⁸³
brother, Archbishop late of Canterbury,
    Sir Thomas Erpingham, Sir John Rainston,
    Sir John Norbery, Sir Robert Waterton and Francis Quoint,
    All these well
furnished
²⁸⁶
by the Duke of Brittany
    With eight
tall
²⁸⁷
ships, three thousand men of war,
    Are making hither with all due
expedience
²⁸⁸
    And shortly mean to touch our northern shore.
    Perhaps they
had ere this
²⁹⁰
, but that they stay
    The first departing of the king for Ireland.
    If then we shall shake off our slavish yoke,
    
Imp out
²⁹³
our drooping country’s broken wing,
    Redeem from
broking pawn
²⁹⁴
the blemished crown,
    Wipe off the dust that hides our sceptre’s
gilt
²⁹⁵
    And make high majesty look like itself,
    Away with me in
post
²⁹⁷
to Ravenspurgh.
    But if you
faint
²⁹⁸
, as fearing to do so,
    Stay and be secret, and myself will go.

ROSS
    To horse, to horse! Urge doubts to them that fear.

WILLOUGHBY
    
Hold out my horse
³⁰¹
, and I will first be there.

Exeunt

Location:
the royal court

Enter Queen, Bushy and Bagot

BUSHY
    Madam, your majesty is too much sad.
    You promised, when you parted with the king,
    To lay aside life-harming
heaviness
³
    And
entertain
⁴
a cheerful disposition.

QUEEN
    To please the king I did. To please myself
    I cannot do it. Yet I know no cause
    Why I should welcome such a guest as grief,
    Save bidding farewell to so sweet a guest
    As my sweet Richard. Yet again, methinks,
    Some unborn sorrow, ripe in fortune’s womb,
    Is coming towards me, and my inward soul
    With nothing trembles. At something it grieves,
    More than with parting from my lord the king.

BUSHY
    Each substance of a grief hath twenty
shadows
¹⁴
,
    Which shows like grief itself, but is not so.
    For sorrow’s eye,
glazèd
¹⁶
with blinding tears,
    Divides one
thing entire to
¹⁷
many objects,
    Like
perspectives
¹⁸
, which rightly gazed upon
    Show nothing but confusion: eyed
awry
¹⁹
    
Distinguish form
²⁰
. So your sweet majesty,
    Looking awry upon your lord’s departure,
    Find shapes of grief, more than
himself
²²
to wail,
    Which, looked on as it is, is naught but shadows
    Of what it is not. Then, thrice-gracious queen,
    
More
²⁵
than your lord’s departure weep not. More’s not seen;
    Or if it be,  ’tis with false sorrow’s eye,
    Which
for
²⁷
things true weeps things imaginary.

QUEEN
    It may be so, but yet my inward soul
    Persuades me it is otherwise. Howe’er it be,
    I cannot but be sad, so
heavy
³⁰
sad
    As though
on thinking
³¹
on no thought I think,
    Makes me with heavy nothing faint and shrink.

BUSHY
    ’Tis nothing but
conceit
³³
, my gracious lady.

QUEEN
    ’Tis
nothing less
³⁴
. Conceit is still derived
    From some forefather grief. Mine is not so,
    For nothing hath
begot
³⁶
my something grief,
    Or something hath the nothing that I
grieve
³⁷
.
    ’Tis
in reversion
³⁸
that I do possess —
    But what it is, that is not yet known — what
    I cannot name. ’Tis nameless woe, I
wot
⁴⁰
.

Enter Green

GREEN
    Heaven save your majesty! And well met, gentlemen.
    I hope the king is not yet shipped for Ireland.

QUEEN
    Why hop’st thou so? ’Tis  better hope he is,
    For his designs crave haste, his haste good hope.
    Then
wherefore
⁴⁵
dost thou hope he is not shipped?

GREEN
    That he, our hope, might have
retired
⁴⁶
his power,
    And driven into despair an enemy’s hope,
    Who
strongly
⁴⁸
hath set footing in this land.
    The banished Bullingbrook
repeals himself
⁴⁹
,
    And with
uplifted arms
⁵⁰
is safe arrived
    At Ravenspurgh.

QUEEN
    Now God in heaven forbid!

GREEN
    O, madam, ’tis too true. And that is worse,
    The Lord Northumberland, his son young Henry Percy,
    The Lords of Ross, Beaumond and Willoughby,
    With all their powerful friends, are fled to him.

BUSHY
    Why have you not proclaimed Northumberland
    And the rest of the revolted faction, traitors?

GREEN
    We have: whereupon the Earl of Worcester
    Hath broke his
staff
⁶⁰
, resigned his stewardship,
    And all the
household
⁶¹
servants fled with him
    To Bullingbrook.

QUEEN
    So, Green, thou art the midwife of my woe,
    And Bullingbrook my sorrow’s dismal
heir
⁶⁴
.
    Now hath my soul brought forth her
prodigy
⁶⁵
,
    And I, a gasping new-delivered mother,
    Have woe to woe, sorrow to sorrow joined.

BUSHY
    Despair not, madam.

QUEEN
    Who shall hinder me?
    I will despair, and be at enmity
    With
cozening
⁷¹
hope; he is a flatterer,
    A parasite, a keeper-back of death,
    Who gently would dissolve the
bands
⁷³
of life,
    Which false hope
lingers
⁷⁴
in extremity.

Enter York

GREEN
    Here comes the Duke of York.

QUEEN
    With signs of war about his agèd neck.
    O, full of
careful
⁷⁷
business are his looks!
    Uncle, for heaven’s sake, speak
comfortable
⁷⁸
words.

YORK
    Comfort’s in heaven, and we are on the earth,
    Where nothing lives but
crosses
⁸⁰
, care and grief.
    Your husband, he is gone to
save
⁸¹
far off,
    Whilst others come to make him lose at home.
    Here am I left to
underprop
⁸³
his land,
    Who, weak with age, cannot support myself.
    Now comes the sick hour that his
surfeit
⁸⁵
made,
    Now shall he
try
⁸⁶
his friends that flattered him.

Enter a Servant

SERVANT
    My lord, your
son
⁸⁷
was gone before I came.

YORK
    He was? Why, so! Go all which way it will!
    The nobles they are fled, the commons they are
cold
⁸⁹
,
    And will, I fear, revolt on Hereford’s side.
    
Sirrah
⁹¹
, get thee to Plashy, to my sister Gloucester:
    Bid her send me
presently
⁹²
a thousand pound.
    Hold,
take my ring
⁹³
.

SERVANT
    My lord, I had forgot to tell your lordship:
    Today as I came by, I callèd there —
    But I shall grieve you to report the rest.