| ACT IV SCENE I | Westminster Hall. | |
| [
Enter, as to the Parliament, HENRY BOLINGBROKE,
DUKE OF AUMERLE, NORTHUMBERLAND, HENRY PERCY, LORD
FITZWATER, DUKE OF SURREY, the BISHOP OF CARLISLE,
the Abbot Of Westminster, and another Lord, Herald,
Officers, and BAGOT
] |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Call forth Bagot. |
| Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind; |
| What thou dost know of noble Gloucester's death, |
| Who wrought it with the king, and who perform'd |
| The bloody office of his timeless end. | 5 |
| BAGOT | Then set before my face the Lord Aumerle. |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that man. |
| BAGOT | My Lord Aumerle, I know your daring tongue |
| Scorns to unsay what once it hath deliver'd. |
| In that dead time when Gloucester's death was plotted, | 10 |
| I heard you say, 'Is not my arm of length, |
| That reacheth from the restful English court |
| As far as Calais, to mine uncle's head?' |
| Amongst much other talk, that very time, |
| I heard you say that you had rather refuse | 15 |
| The offer of an hundred thousand crowns |
| Than Bolingbroke's return to England; |
| Adding withal how blest this land would be |
| In this your cousin's death. |
| DUKE OF AUMERLE | Princes and noble lords, | 20 |
| What answer shall I make to this base man? |
| Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars, |
| On equal terms to give him chastisement? |
| Either I must, or have mine honour soil'd |
| With the attainder of his slanderous lips. | 25 |
| There is my gage, the manual seal of death, |
| That marks thee out for hell: I say, thou liest, |
| And will maintain what thou hast said is false |
| In thy heart-blood, though being all too base |
| To stain the temper of my knightly sword. | 30 |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Bagot, forbear; thou shalt not take it up. |
| DUKE OF AUMERLE | Excepting one, I would he were the best |
| In all this presence that hath moved me so. |
| LORD FITZWATER | If that thy valour stand on sympathy, |
| There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine: | 35 |
| By that fair sun which shows me where thou stand'st, |
| I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spakest it |
| That thou wert cause of noble Gloucester's death. |
| If thou deny'st it twenty times, thou liest; |
| And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart, | 40 |
| Where it was forged, with my rapier's point. |
| DUKE OF AUMERLE | Thou darest not, coward, live to see that day. |
| LORD FITZWATER | Now by my soul, I would it were this hour. |
| DUKE OF AUMERLE | Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this. |
| HENRY PERCY | Aumerle, thou liest; his honour is as true | 45 |
| In this appeal as thou art all unjust; |
| And that thou art so, there I throw my gage, |
| To prove it on thee to the extremest point |
| Of mortal breathing: seize it, if thou darest. |
| DUKE OF AUMERLE | An if I do not, may my hands rot off | 50 |
| And never brandish more revengeful steel |
| Over the glittering helmet of my foe! |
| Lord | I task the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle; |
| And spur thee on with full as many lies |
| As may be holloa'd in thy treacherous ear | 55 |
| From sun to sun: there is my honour's pawn; |
| Engage it to the trial, if thou darest. |
| DUKE OF AUMERLE | Who sets me else? by heaven, I'll throw at all: |
| I have a thousand spirits in one breast, |
| To answer twenty thousand such as you. | 60 |
| DUKE OF SURREY | My Lord Fitzwater, I do remember well |
| The very time Aumerle and you did talk. |
| LORD FITZWATER | 'Tis very true: you were in presence then; |
| And you can witness with me this is true. |
| DUKE OF SURREY | As false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true. | 65 |
| LORD FITZWATER | Surrey, thou liest. |
| DUKE OF SURREY | Dishonourable boy! |
| That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword, |
| That it shall render vengeance and revenge |
| Till thou the lie-giver and that lie do lie | 70 |
| In earth as quiet as thy father's skull: |
| In proof whereof, there is my honour's pawn; |
| Engage it to the trial, if thou darest. |
| LORD FITZWATER | How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse! |
| If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live, | 75 |
| I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness, |
| And spit upon him, whilst I say he lies, |
| And lies, and lies: there is my bond of faith, |
| To tie thee to my strong correction. |
| As I intend to thrive in this new world, | 80 |
| Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal: |
| Besides, I heard the banish'd Norfolk say |
| That thou, Aumerle, didst send two of thy men |
| To execute the noble duke at Calais. |
| DUKE OF AUMERLE | Some honest Christian trust me with a gage | 85 |
| That Norfolk lies: here do I throw down this, |
| If he may be repeal'd, to try his honour. |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | These differences shall all rest under gage |
| Till Norfolk be repeal'd: repeal'd he shall be, |
| And, though mine enemy, restored again | 90 |
| To all his lands and signories: when he's return'd, |
| Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial. |
| BISHOP OF CARLISLE | That honourable day shall ne'er be seen. |
| Many a time hath banish'd Norfolk fought |
| For Jesu Christ in glorious Christian field, | 95 |
| Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross |
| Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens: |
| And toil'd with works of war, retired himself |
| To Italy; and there at Venice gave |
| His body to that pleasant country's earth, | 100 |
| And his pure soul unto his captain Christ, |
| Under whose colours he had fought so long. |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Why, bishop, is Norfolk dead? |
| BISHOP OF CARLISLE | As surely as I live, my lord. |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bosom | 105 |
| Of good old Abraham! Lords appellants, |
| Your differences shall all rest under gage |
| Till we assign you to your days of trial. |
| [Enter DUKE OF YORK, attended] |
| DUKE OF YORK | Great Duke of Lancaster, I come to thee |
| From plume-pluck'd Richard; who with willing soul | 110 |
| Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields |
| To the possession of thy royal hand: |
| Ascend his throne, descending now from him; |
| And long live Henry, fourth of that name! |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | In God's name, I'll ascend the regal throne. | 115 |
| BISHOP OF CARLISLE | Marry. God forbid! |
| Worst in this royal presence may I speak, |
| Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth. |
| Would God that any in this noble presence |
| Were enough noble to be upright judge | 120 |
| Of noble Richard! then true noblesse would |
| Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong. |
| What subject can give sentence on his king? |
| And who sits here that is not Richard's subject? |
| Thieves are not judged but they are by to hear, | 125 |
| Although apparent guilt be seen in them; |
| And shall the figure of God's majesty, |
| His captain, steward, deputy-elect, |
| Anointed, crowned, planted many years, |
| Be judged by subject and inferior breath, | 130 |
| And he himself not present? O, forfend it, God, |
| That in a Christian climate souls refined |
| Should show so heinous, black, obscene a deed! |
| I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks, |
| Stirr'd up by God, thus boldly for his king: | 135 |
| My Lord of Hereford here, whom you call king, |
| Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford's king: |
| And if you crown him, let me prophesy: |
| The blood of English shall manure the ground, |
| And future ages groan for this foul act; | 140 |
| Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels, |
| And in this seat of peace tumultuous wars |
| Shall kin with kin and kind with kind confound; |
| Disorder, horror, fear and mutiny |
| Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd | 145 |
| The field of Golgotha and dead men's skulls. |
| O, if you raise this house against this house, |
| It will the woefullest division prove |
| That ever fell upon this cursed earth. |
| Prevent it, resist it, let it not be so, | 150 |
| Lest child, child's children, cry against you woe! |
| NORTHUMBERLAND | Well have you argued, sir; and, for your pains, |
| Of capital treason we arrest you here. |
| My Lord of Westminster, be it your charge |
| To keep him safely till his day of trial. | 155 |
| May it please you, lords, to grant the commons' suit. |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Fetch hither Richard, that in common view |
| He may surrender; so we shall proceed |
| Without suspicion. |
| DUKE OF YORK | I will be his conduct. | 160 |
| [Exit] |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Lords, you that here are under our arrest, |
| Procure your sureties for your days of answer. |
| Little are we beholding to your love, |
| And little look'd for at your helping hands. |
| [
Re-enter DUKE OF YORK, with KING RICHARD II, and
Officers bearing the regalia
] |
| KING RICHARD II | Alack, why am I sent for to a king, | 165 |
| Before I have shook off the regal thoughts |
| Wherewith I reign'd? I hardly yet have learn'd |
| To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my limbs: |
| Give sorrow leave awhile to tutor me |
| To this submission. Yet I well remember | 170 |
| The favours of these men: were they not mine? |
| Did they not sometime cry, 'all hail!' to me? |
| So Judas did to Christ: but he, in twelve, |
| Found truth in all but one: I, in twelve thousand, none. |
| God save the king! Will no man say amen? | 175 |
| Am I both priest and clerk? well then, amen. |
| God save the king! although I be not he; |
| And yet, amen, if heaven do think him me. |
| To do what service am I sent for hither? |
| DUKE OF YORK | To do that office of thine own good will | 180 |
| Which tired majesty did make thee offer, |
| The resignation of thy state and crown |
| To Henry Bolingbroke. |
| KING RICHARD II | Give me the crown. Here, cousin, seize the crown; |
| Here cousin: | 185 |
| On this side my hand, and on that side yours. |
| Now is this golden crown like a deep well |
| That owes two buckets, filling one another, |
| The emptier ever dancing in the air, |
| The other down, unseen and full of water: | 190 |
| That bucket down and full of tears am I, |
| Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high. |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | I thought you had been willing to resign. |
| KING RICHARD II | My crown I am; but still my griefs are mine: |
| You may my glories and my state depose, | 195 |
| But not my griefs; still am I king of those. |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Part of your cares you give me with your crown. |
| KING RICHARD II | Your cares set up do not pluck my cares down. |
| My care is loss of care, by old care done; |
| Your care is gain of care, by new care won: | 200 |
| The cares I give I have, though given away; |
| They tend the crown, yet still with me they stay. |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Are you contented to resign the crown? |
| KING RICHARD II | Ay, no; no, ay; for I must nothing be; |
| Therefore no no, for I resign to thee. | 205 |
| Now mark me, how I will undo myself; |
| I give this heavy weight from off my head |
| And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand, |
| The pride of kingly sway from out my heart; |
| With mine own tears I wash away my balm, | 210 |
| With mine own hands I give away my crown, |
| With mine own tongue deny my sacred state, |
| With mine own breath release all duty's rites: |
| All pomp and majesty I do forswear; |
| My manors, rents, revenues I forego; | 215 |
| My acts, decrees, and statutes I deny: |
| God pardon all oaths that are broke to me! |
| God keep all vows unbroke that swear to thee! |
| Make me, that nothing have, with nothing grieved, |
| And thou with all pleased, that hast all achieved! | 220 |
| Long mayst thou live in Richard's seat to sit, |
| And soon lie Richard in an earthly pit! |
| God save King Harry, unking'd Richard says, |
| And send him many years of sunshine days! |
| What more remains? | 225 |
| NORTHUMBERLAND | No more, but that you read |
| 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 | 230 |
| May deem that you are worthily deposed. |
| KING RICHARD II | Must I do so? and must I ravel out |
| My weaved-up folly? Gentle Northumberland, |
| If thy offences were upon record, |
| Would it not shame thee in so fair a troop | 235 |
| To read a lecture of them? If thou wouldst, |
| There shouldst thou find one heinous article, |
| Containing the deposing of a king |
| And cracking the strong warrant of an oath, |
| Mark'd with a blot, damn'd in the book of heaven: | 240 |
| Nay, all of you that stand and look upon, |
| Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait myself, |
| Though some of you with Pilate wash your hands |
| Showing an outward pity; yet you Pilates |
| Have here deliver'd me to my sour cross, | 245 |
| And water cannot wash away your sin. |
| NORTHUMBERLAND | My lord, dispatch; read o'er these articles. |
| KING RICHARD II | Mine eyes are full of tears, I cannot see: |
| And yet salt water blinds them not so much |
| But they can see a sort of traitors here. | 250 |
| 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 |
| To undeck the pompous body of a king; |
| Made glory base and sovereignty a slave, | 255 |
| Proud majesty a subject, state a peasant. |
| NORTHUMBERLAND | My lord,-- |
| KING RICHARD II | No lord of thine, thou haught insulting man, |
| Nor no man's lord; I have no name, no title, |
| No, not that name was given me at the font, | 260 |
| But 'tis usurp'd: 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 king of snow, |
| Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke, | 265 |
| To melt myself away in water-drops! |
| Good king, great king, and yet not greatly good, |
| An if my word be sterling yet in England, |
| Let it command a mirror hither straight, |
| That it may show me what a face I have, | 270 |
| Since it is bankrupt of his majesty. |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Go some of you and fetch a looking-glass. |
| [Exit an attendant] |
| NORTHUMBERLAND | Read o'er this paper while the glass doth come. |
| KING RICHARD II | Fiend, thou torment'st me ere I come to hell! |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Urge it no more, my Lord Northumberland. | 275 |
| NORTHUMBERLAND | The commons will not then be satisfied. |
| KING RICHARD II | 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. |
[Re-enter Attendant, with a glass] |
| Give me the glass, and therein will I read. | 280 |
| No deeper wrinkles yet? hath sorrow struck |
| So many blows upon this face of mine, |
| And made no deeper wounds? O flattering glass, |
| Like to my followers in prosperity, |
| Thou dost beguile me! Was this face the face | 285 |
| That every day under his household roof |
| Did keep ten thousand men? was this the face |
| That, like the sun, did make beholders wink? |
| Was this the face that faced so many follies, |
| And was at last out-faced by Bolingbroke? | 290 |
| A brittle glory shineth in this face: |
| As brittle as the glory is the face; |
[Dashes the glass against the ground] |
| For there it is, crack'd in a hundred shivers. |
| Mark, silent king, the moral of this sport, |
| How soon my sorrow hath destroy'd my face. | 295 |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | The shadow of your sorrow hath destroy'd |
| The shadow or your face. |
| KING RICHARD II | Say that again. |
| The shadow of my sorrow! ha! let's see: |
| 'Tis very true, my grief lies all within; | 300 |
| And these external manners 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 givest | 305 |
| Me cause to wail but teachest me the way |
| How to lament the cause. I'll beg one boon, |
| And then be gone and trouble you no more. |
| Shall I obtain it? |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Name it, fair cousin. | 310 |
| KING RICHARD II | '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 my flatterer. |
| Being so great, I have no need to beg. | 315 |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Yet ask. |
| KING RICHARD II | And shall I have? |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | You shall. |
| KING RICHARD II | Then give me leave to go. |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Whither? | 320 |
| KING RICHARD II | Whither you will, so I were from your sights. |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | Go, some of you convey him to the Tower. |
| KING RICHARD II | O, good! convey? conveyers are you all, |
| That rise thus nimbly by a true king's fall. |
| [Exeunt KING RICHARD II, some Lords, and a Guard] |
| HENRY BOLINGBROKE | On Wednesday next we solemnly set down | 325 |
| Our coronation: lords, prepare yourselves. |
| [
Exeunt all except the BISHOP OF CARLISLE, the Abbot
of Westminster, and DUKE OF AUMERLE
] |
| Abbot | A woeful pageant have we here beheld. |
| BISHOP OF CARLISLE | The woe's to come; the children yet unborn. |
| Shall feel this day as sharp to them as thorn. |
| DUKE OF AUMERLE | You holy clergymen, is there no plot | 330 |
| To rid the realm of this pernicious blot? |
| Abbot | My lord, |
| Before I freely speak my mind herein, |
| You shall not only take the sacrament |
| To bury mine intents, but also to effect | 335 |
| Whatever I shall happen to devise. |
| I see your brows are full of discontent, |
| Your hearts of sorrow and your eyes of tears: |
| Come home with me to supper; and I'll lay |
| A plot shall show us all a merry day. | 340 |
| [Exeunt] |
