ACT V SCENE V | Pomfret castle. | |
[Enter KING RICHARD] |
KING RICHARD II | I have been studying how I may compare |
| This prison where I live unto the world: |
| And for because the world is populous |
| And here is not a creature but myself, |
| I cannot do it; yet I'll hammer it out. | 5 |
| My brain I'll prove the female to my soul, |
| My soul the father; and these two beget |
| A generation of still-breeding thoughts, |
| And these same thoughts people this little world, |
| In humours like the people of this world, | 10 |
| For no thought is contented. The better sort, |
| As thoughts of things divine, are intermix'd |
| With scruples and do set the word itself |
| Against the word: |
| As thus, 'Come, little ones,' and then again, | 15 |
| 'It is as hard to come as for a camel |
| To thread the postern of a small needle's eye.' |
| Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot |
| Unlikely wonders; how these vain weak nails |
| May tear a passage through the flinty ribs | 20 |
| Of this hard world, my ragged prison walls, |
| And, for they cannot, die in their own pride. |
| Thoughts tending to content flatter themselves |
| That they are not the first of fortune's slaves, |
| Nor shall not be the last; like silly beggars | 25 |
| Who sitting in the stocks refuge their shame, |
| That many have and others must sit there; |
| And in this thought they find a kind of ease, |
| Bearing their own misfortunes on the back |
| Of such as have before endured the like. | 30 |
| Thus play I in one person many people, |
| And none contented: sometimes am I king; |
| Then treasons make me wish myself a beggar, |
| And so I am: then crushing penury |
| Persuades me I was better when a king; | 35 |
| Then am I king'd again: and by and by |
| Think that I am unking'd by Bolingbroke, |
| And straight am nothing: but whate'er I be, |
| Nor I nor any man that but man is |
| With nothing shall be pleased, till he be eased | 40 |
| With being nothing. Music do I hear? |
[Music] |
| Ha, ha! keep time: how sour sweet music is, |
| When time is broke and no proportion kept! |
| So is it in the music of men's lives. |
| And here have I the daintiness of ear | 45 |
| To cheque time broke in a disorder'd string; |
| But for the concord of my state and time |
| Had not an ear to hear my true time broke. |
| I wasted time, and now doth time waste me; |
| For now hath time made me his numbering clock: | 50 |
| My thoughts are minutes; and with sighs they jar |
| Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch, |
| Whereto my finger, like a dial's point, |
| Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears. |
| Now sir, the sound that tells what hour it is | 55 |
| Are clamorous groans, which strike upon my heart, |
| Which is the bell: so sighs and tears and groans |
| Show minutes, times, and hours: but my time |
| Runs posting on in Bolingbroke's proud joy, |
| While I stand fooling here, his Jack o' the clock. | 60 |
| This music mads me; let it sound no more; |
| For though it have holp madmen to their wits, |
| In me it seems it will make wise men mad. |
| Yet blessing on his heart that gives it me! |
| For 'tis a sign of love; and love to Richard | 65 |
| Is a strange brooch in this all-hating world. |
[Enter a Groom of the Stable] |
Groom | Hail, royal prince! |
KING RICHARD II | Thanks, noble peer; |
| The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear. |
| What art thou? and how comest thou hither, | 70 |
| Where no man never comes but that sad dog |
| That brings me food to make misfortune live? |
Groom | I was a poor groom of thy stable, king, |
| When thou wert king; who, travelling towards York, |
| With much ado at length have gotten leave | 75 |
| To look upon my sometimes royal master's face. |
| O, how it yearn'd my heart when I beheld |
| In London streets, that coronation-day, |
| When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary, |
| That horse that thou so often hast bestrid, | 80 |
| That horse that I so carefully have dress'd! |
KING RICHARD II | Rode he on Barbary? Tell me, gentle friend, |
| How went he under him? |
Groom | So proudly as if he disdain'd the ground. |
KING RICHARD II | So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back! | 85 |
| That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand; |
| This hand hath made him proud with clapping him. |
| Would he not stumble? would he not fall down, |
| Since pride must have a fall, and break the neck |
| Of that proud man that did usurp his back? | 90 |
| Forgiveness, horse! why do I rail on thee, |
| Since thou, created to be awed by man, |
| Wast born to bear? I was not made a horse; |
| And yet I bear a burthen like an ass, |
| Spurr'd, gall'd and tired by jouncing Bolingbroke. | 95 |
[Enter Keeper, with a dish] |
Keeper | Fellow, give place; here is no longer stay. |
KING RICHARD II | If thou love me, 'tis time thou wert away. |
Groom | What my tongue dares not, that my heart shall say. |
[Exit] |
Keeper | My lord, will't please you to fall to? |
KING RICHARD II | Taste of it first, as thou art wont to do. | 100 |
Keeper | My lord, I dare not: Sir Pierce of Exton, who |
| lately came from the king, commands the contrary. |
KING RICHARD II | The devil take Henry of Lancaster and thee! |
| Patience is stale, and I am weary of it. |
[Beats the keeper] |
Keeper | Help, help, help! | 105 |
[Enter EXTON and Servants, armed] |
KING RICHARD II | How now! what means death in this rude assault? |
| Villain, thy own hand yields thy death's instrument. |
[Snatching an axe from a Servant and killing him] |
| Go thou, and fill another room in hell. |
[He kills another. Then Exton strikes him down] |
| That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire |
| That staggers thus my person. Exton, thy fierce hand | 110 |
| Hath with the king's blood stain'd the king's own land. |
| Mount, mount, my soul! thy seat is up on high; |
| Whilst my gross flesh sinks downward, here to die. |
[Dies] |
EXTON | As full of valour as of royal blood: |
| Both have I spill'd; O would the deed were good! | 115 |
| For now the devil, that told me I did well, |
| Says that this deed is chronicled in hell. |
| This dead king to the living king I'll bear |
| Take hence the rest, and give them burial here. |
[Exeunt] |