| ACT III SCENE III | Wales. Before Flint castle. | |
| [
Enter, with drum and colours, HENRY BOLINGBROKE,
DUKE OF YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND, Attendants, and forces
] |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | So that by this intelligence we learn |
| The Welshmen are dispersed, and Salisbury |
| Is gone to meet the king, who lately landed |
| With some few private friends upon this coast. |
| NORTHUMBERLAND | The news is very fair and good, my lord: | 5 |
| Richard not far from hence hath hid his head. |
| DUKE OF YORK | It would beseem the Lord Northumberland |
| To say 'King Richard:' alack the heavy day |
| When such a sacred king should hide his head. |
| NORTHUMBERLAND | Your grace mistakes; only to be brief | 10 |
| Left I his title out. |
| DUKE OF YORK | The time hath been, |
| Would you have been so brief with him, he would |
| Have been so brief with you, to shorten you, |
| For taking so the head, your whole head's length. | 15 |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Mistake not, uncle, further than you should. |
| DUKE OF YORK | Take not, good cousin, further than you should. |
| Lest you mistake the heavens are o'er our heads. |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | I know it, uncle, and oppose not myself |
| Against their will. But who comes here? | 20 |
[Enter HENRY PERCY] |
| Welcome, Harry: what, will not this castle yield? |
| HENRY PERCY | The castle royally is mann'd, my lord, |
| Against thy entrance. |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Royally! |
| Why, it contains no king? | 25 |
| HENRY PERCY | Yes, my good lord, |
| It doth contain a king; King Richard lies |
| Within the limits of yon lime and stone: |
| And with him are the Lord Aumerle, Lord Salisbury, |
| Sir Stephen Scroop, besides a clergyman | 30 |
| Of holy reverence; who, I cannot learn. |
| NORTHUMBERLAND | O, belike it is the Bishop of Carlisle. |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Noble lords, |
| Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle; |
| Through brazen trumpet send the breath of parley | 35 |
| Into his ruin'd ears, and thus deliver: |
| Henry Bolingbroke |
| On both his knees doth kiss King Richard's hand |
| And sends allegiance and true faith of heart |
| To his most royal person, hither come | 40 |
| Even at his feet to lay my arms and power, |
| Provided that my banishment repeal'd |
| And lands restored again be freely granted: |
| If not, I'll use the advantage of my power |
| And lay the summer's dust with showers of blood | 45 |
| Rain'd from the wounds of slaughter'd Englishmen: |
| The which, how far off from the mind of Bolingbroke |
| It is, such crimson tempest should bedrench |
| The fresh green lap of fair King Richard's land, |
| My stooping duty tenderly shall show. | 50 |
| Go, signify as much, while here we march |
| Upon the grassy carpet of this plain. |
| Let's march without the noise of threatening drum, |
| That from this castle's tatter'd battlements |
| Our fair appointments may be well perused. | 55 |
| Methinks King Richard and myself should meet |
| With no less terror than the elements |
| Of fire and water, when their thundering shock |
| At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven. |
| Be he the fire, I'll be the yielding water: | 60 |
| The rage be his, whilst on the earth I rain |
| My waters; on the earth, and not on him. |
| March on, and mark King Richard how he looks. |
[
Parle without, and answer within. Then a flourish.
Enter on the walls, KING RICHARD II, the BISHOP OF
CARLISLE, DUKE OF AUMERLE, SIR STEPHEN SCROOP, and
EARL OF SALISBURY
] |
| See, see, King Richard doth himself appear, |
| As doth the blushing discontented sun | 65 |
| From out the fiery portal of the east, |
| When he perceives the envious clouds are bent |
| To dim his glory and to stain the track |
| Of his bright passage to the occident. |
| DUKE OF YORK | Yet looks he like a king: behold, his eye, | 70 |
| As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth |
| Controlling majesty: alack, alack, for woe, |
| That any harm should stain so fair a show! |
| KING RICHARD II | We are amazed; and thus long have we stood |
| To watch the fearful bending of thy knee, | 75 |
[To NORTHUMBERLAND] |
| Because we thought ourself thy lawful king: |
| And if we be, how dare thy joints forget |
| To pay their awful duty to our presence? |
| If we be not, show us the hand of God |
| That hath dismissed us from our stewardship; | 80 |
| For well we know, no hand of blood and bone |
| Can gripe the sacred handle of our sceptre, |
| Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp. |
| And though you think that all, as you have done, |
| Have torn their souls by turning them from us, | 85 |
| And we are barren and bereft of friends; |
| Yet know, my master, God omnipotent, |
| Is mustering in his clouds on our behalf |
| Armies of pestilence; and they shall strike |
| Your children yet unborn and unbegot, | 90 |
| That lift your vassal hands against my head |
| And threat the glory of my precious crown. |
| Tell Bolingbroke--for yond methinks he stands-- |
| That every stride he makes upon my land |
| Is dangerous treason: he is come to open | 95 |
| The purple testament of bleeding war; |
| But ere the crown he looks for live in peace, |
| Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' sons |
| Shall ill become the flower of England's face, |
| Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace | 100 |
| To scarlet indignation and bedew |
| Her pastures' grass with faithful English blood. |
| NORTHUMBERLAND | The king of heaven forbid our lord the king |
| Should so with civil and uncivil arms |
| Be rush'd upon! Thy thrice noble cousin | 105 |
| Harry Bolingbroke doth humbly kiss thy hand; |
| And by the honourable tomb he swears, |
| That stands upon your royal grandsire's bones, |
| And by the royalties of both your bloods, |
| Currents that spring from one most gracious head, | 110 |
| And by the buried hand of warlike Gaunt, |
| And by the worth and honour of himself, |
| Comprising all that may be sworn or said, |
| His coming hither hath no further scope |
| Than for his lineal royalties and to beg | 115 |
| Enfranchisement immediate on his knees: |
| Which on thy royal party granted once, |
| His glittering arms he will commend to rust, |
| His barbed steeds to stables, and his heart |
| To faithful service of your majesty. | 120 |
| This swears he, as he is a prince, is just; |
| And, as I am a gentleman, I credit him. |
| KING RICHARD II | Northumberland, say thus the king returns: |
| His noble cousin is right welcome hither; |
| And all the number of his fair demands | 125 |
| Shall be accomplish'd without contradiction: |
| With all the gracious utterance thou hast |
| Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends. |
| We do debase ourselves, cousin, do we not, |
[To DUKE OF AUMERLE] |
| To look so poorly and to speak so fair? | 130 |
| Shall we call back Northumberland, and send |
| Defiance to the traitor, and so die? |
| DUKE OF AUMERLE | No, good my lord; let's fight with gentle words |
| Till time lend friends and friends their helpful swords. |
| KING RICHARD II | O God, O God! that e'er this tongue of mine, | 135 |
| That laid the sentence of dread banishment |
| On yon proud man, should take it off again |
| With words of sooth! O that I were as great |
| As is my grief, or lesser than my name! |
| Or that I could forget what I have been, | 140 |
| Or not remember what I must be now! |
| Swell'st thou, proud heart? I'll give thee scope to beat, |
| Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me. |
| DUKE OF AUMERLE | Northumberland comes back from Bolingbroke. |
| KING RICHARD II | What must the king do now? must he submit? | 145 |
| The king shall do it: must he be deposed? |
| The king shall be contented: must he lose |
| The name of king? o' God's name, let it go: |
| I'll give my jewels for a set of beads, |
| My gorgeous palace for a hermitage, | 150 |
| My gay apparel for an almsman's gown, |
| My figured goblets for a dish of wood, |
| My sceptre for a palmer's walking staff, |
| My subjects for a pair of carved saints |
| And my large kingdom for a little grave, | 155 |
| A little little grave, an obscure grave; |
| Or I'll be buried in the king's highway, |
| Some way of common trade, where subjects' feet |
| May hourly trample on their sovereign's head; |
| For on my heart they tread now whilst I live; | 160 |
| And buried once, why not upon my head? |
| Aumerle, thou weep'st, my tender-hearted cousin! |
| We'll make foul weather with despised tears; |
| Our sighs and they shall lodge the summer corn, |
| And make a dearth in this revolting land. | 165 |
| Or shall we play the wantons with our woes, |
| And make some pretty match with shedding tears? |
| As thus, to drop them still upon one place, |
| Till they have fretted us a pair of graves |
| Within the earth; and, therein laid,--there lies | 170 |
| Two kinsmen digg'd their graves with weeping eyes. |
| Would not this ill do well? Well, well, I see |
| I talk but idly, and you laugh at me. |
| Most mighty prince, my Lord Northumberland, |
| What says King Bolingbroke? will his majesty | 175 |
| Give Richard leave to live till Richard die? |
| You make a leg, and Bolingbroke says ay. |
| NORTHUMBERLAND | My lord, in the base court he doth attend |
| To speak with you; may it please you to come down. |
| KING RICHARD II | Down, down I come; like glistering Phaethon, | 180 |
| Wanting the manage of unruly jades. |
| In the base court? Base court, where kings grow base, |
| To come at traitors' calls and do them grace. |
| In the base court? Come down? Down, court! |
| down, king! | 185 |
| For night-owls shriek where mounting larks |
| should sing. |
| [Exeunt from above] |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | What says his majesty? |
| NORTHUMBERLAND | Sorrow and grief of heart |
| Makes him speak fondly, like a frantic man | 190 |
| Yet he is come. |
| [Enter KING RICHARD and his attendants below] |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Stand all apart, |
| And show fair duty to his majesty. |
[He kneels down] |
| My gracious lord,-- |
| KING RICHARD II | Fair cousin, you debase your princely knee | 195 |
| To make the base earth proud with kissing it: |
| Me rather had my heart might feel your love |
| Than my unpleased eye see your courtesy. |
| Up, cousin, up; your heart is up, I know, |
| Thus high at least, although your knee be low. | 200 |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | My gracious lord, I come but for mine own. |
| KING RICHARD II | Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all. |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | So far be mine, my most redoubted lord, |
| As my true service shall deserve your love. |
| KING RICHARD II | Well you deserve: they well deserve to have, | 205 |
| That know the strong'st and surest way to get. |
| Uncle, give me your hands: nay, dry your eyes; |
| Tears show their love, but want their remedies. |
| Cousin, I am too young to be your father, |
| Though you are old enough to be my heir. | 210 |
| What you will have, I'll give, and willing too; |
| For do we must what force will have us do. |
| Set on towards London, cousin, is it so? |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Yea, my good lord. |
| KING RICHARD II | Then I must not say no. | 215 |
| [Flourish. Exeunt] |
