| ACT III SCENE I | Bristol. Before the castle.. | |
| [
Enter HENRY BOLINGBROKE, DUKE OF YORK,
NORTHUMBERLAND, LORD ROSS, HENRY PERCY, LORD
WILLOUGHBY, with BUSHY and GREEN, prisoners
] |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Bring forth these men. |
| Bushy and Green, I will not vex your souls-- |
| Since presently your souls must part your bodies-- |
| With too much urging your pernicious lives, |
| For 'twere no charity; yet, to wash your blood | 5 |
| From off my hands, here in the view of men |
| I will unfold some causes of your deaths. |
| You have misled a prince, a royal king, |
| A happy gentleman in blood and lineaments, |
| By you unhappied and disfigured clean: | 10 |
| You have in manner with your sinful hours |
| Made a divorce betwixt his queen and him, |
| Broke the possession of a royal bed |
| And stain'd the beauty of a fair queen's cheeks |
| With tears drawn from her eyes by your foul wrongs. | 15 |
| 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 stoop'd my neck under your injuries, |
| And sigh'd my English breath in foreign clouds, | 20 |
| Eating the bitter bread of banishment; |
| Whilst you have fed upon my signories, |
| Dispark'd my parks and fell'd my forest woods, |
| From my own windows torn my household coat, |
| Razed out my imprese, leaving me no sign, | 25 |
| 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. See them deliver'd over |
| To execution and the hand of death. | 30 |
| BUSHY | More welcome is the stroke of death to me |
| Than Bolingbroke to England. Lords, farewell. |
| GREEN | My comfort is that heaven will take our souls |
| And plague injustice with the pains of hell. |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | My Lord Northumberland, see them dispatch'd. | 35 |
[
Exeunt NORTHUMBERLAND and others, with the
prisoners
] |
| Uncle, you say the queen is at your house; |
| For God's sake, fairly let her be entreated: |
| Tell her I send to her my kind commends; |
| Take special care my greetings be deliver'd. |
| DUKE OF YORK | A gentleman of mine I have dispatch'd | 40 |
| With letters of your love to her at large. |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Thank, gentle uncle. Come, lords, away. |
| To fight with Glendower and his complices: |
| Awhile to work, and after holiday. |
| [Exeunt] |
