William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The Oxford Shakespeare. 1914.
Act IV. Scene I.The Tragedy of King Richard the Second
Boling.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.
Bagot.Then set before my face the Lord Aumerle.
Boling.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,
I heard you say, ‘Is not my arm of length,
That reacheth from the restful English court
As far as Calais, to my uncle’s head?’
Amongst much other talk, that very time,
I heard you say that you had rather refuse
The offer of a hundred thousand crowns
Than Bolingbroke’s return to England;
Adding withal, how blest this land would be
In this your cousin’s death.
Aum.Princes and noble lords,
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.
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.
Boling.Bagot, forbear; thou shalt not take it up.
Aum.Excepting one, I would he were the best
In all this presence that hath mov’d me so.
Fitz.If that thy valour stand on sympathies,
There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine:
By that fair sun which shows me where thou stand’st,
I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spak’st 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,
Where it was forged, with my rapier’s point.
Aum.Thou dar’st not, coward, live to see that day.
Fitz.Now, by my soul, I would it were this hour.
Aum.Fitzwater, thou art damn’d to hell for this.
H. Percy.Aumerle, thou liest; his honour is as true
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 dar’st.
Aum.And if I do not may my hands rot off
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 holla’d in thy treacherous ear
From sun to sun: there is my honour’s pawn;
Engage it to the trial if thou dar’st.
Aum.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.
Surrey.My Lord Fitzwater, I do remember well
The very time Aumerle and you did talk.
Fitz.’Tis very true: you were in presence then;
And you can witness with me this is true.
Surrey.As false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true.
Fitz.Surrey, thou liest.
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
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 dar’st.
Fitz.How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse!
If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live,
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,
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.
Aum.Some honest Christian trust me with a gage.
That Norfolk lies, here do I throw down this,
If he may be repeal’d to try his honour.
Boling.These differences shall all rest under gage
Till Norfolk be repeal’d: repeal’d he shall be,
And though mine enemy, restor’d again
To all his lands and signories; when he’s return’d,
Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial.
Car.That honourable day shall ne’er be seen.
Many a time hath banish’d Norfolk fought
For Jesu Christ in glorious Christian field,
Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross
Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens;
And toil’d with works of war, retir’d himself
To Italy; and there at Venice gave
His body to that pleasant country’s earth,
And his pure soul unto his captain Christ,
Under whose colours he had fought so long.
Boling.Why, bishop, is Norfolk dead?
Car.As surely as I live, my lord.
Boling.Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bosom
Of good old Abraham! Lords appellants,
Your differences shall all rest under gage
Till we assign you to your days of trial.
York.Great Duke of Lancaster, I come to thee
From plume-pluck’d Richard; who with willing soul
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, of that name the fourth!
Boling.In God’s name, I’ll ascend the regal throne.
Car.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
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 judg’d but they are by to hear,
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 judg’d by subject and inferior breath,
And he himself not present? O! forfend it, God,
That in a Christian climate souls refin’d
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.
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;
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
The field of Golgotha and dead men’s skulls.
O! if you rear 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,
Lest child, child’s children, cry against you ‘woe!’
North.Well have you argu’d, 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.
May it please you, lords, to grant the commons’ suit?
Boling.Fetch hither Richard, that in common view
He may surrender; so we shall proceed
Without suspicion.
York.I will be his conduct.[Exit.
Boling.Lords, you that here are under our arrest,
Procure your sureties for your days of answer.
[To C
And little look’d for at your helping hands.
K. Rich.Alack! why am I sent for to a king
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
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?
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?
York.To do that office of thine own good will
Which tired majesty did make thee offer,
The resignation of thy state and crown
To Henry Bolingbroke.
K. Rich.Give me the crown. Here, cousin, seize the crown;
Here cousin,
On this side my hand and on that side thine.
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:
That bucket down and full of tears am I,
Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high.
Boling.I thought you had been willing to resign.
K. Rich.My crown, I am; but still my griefs are mine.
You may my glories and my state depose,
But not my griefs; still am I king of those.
Boling.Part of your cares you give me with your crown.
K. Rich.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.
The cares I give I have, though given away;
They tend the crown, yet still with me they stay.
Boling.Are you contented to resign the crown?
K. Rich.Ay, no; no, ay; for I must nothing be;
Therefore no no, for I resign to thee.
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,
With mine own hands I give away my crown,
With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,
With mine own breath release all duteous rites:
All pomp and majesty I do forswear;
My manors, rents, revenues, I forego;
My acts, decrees, and statutes I deny:
God pardon all oaths that are broke to me!
God keep all vows unbroke are made to thee!
Make me, that nothing have, with nothing griev’d,
And thou with all pleas’d, that hast all achiev’d!
Long mayst thou live in Richard’s seat to sit,
And soon lie Richard in an earthy pit!
God save King Henry, unking’d Richard says,
And send him many years of sunshine days!
What more remains?
North.[Offering a paper.]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
May deem that you are worthily depos’d.
K. Rich.Must I do so? and must I ravel out
My weav’d-up follies? Gentle Northumberland,
If thy offences were upon record,
Would it not shame thee in so fair a troop
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.
Nay, all of you that stand and look upon me,
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,
And water cannot wash away your sin.
North.My lord, dispatch; read o’er these articles.
K. Rich.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.
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,
Proud majesty a subject, state a peasant.
North.My lord,—
K. Rich.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,
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,
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,
Since it is bankrupt of his majesty.
Boling.Go some of you and fetch a looking-glass.[Exit an Attendant.
North.Read o’er this paper while the glass doth come.
K. Rich.Fiend! thou torment’st me ere I come to hell.
Boling.Urge it no more, my Lord Northumberland.
North.The commons will not then be satisfied.
K. Rich.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.
Give me the glass, and therein will I read.
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
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 fac’d so many follies,
And was at last out-fac’d by Bolingbroke?
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.
Boling.The shadow of your sorrow hath destroy’d
The shadow of your face.
K. Rich.Say that again.
The shadow of my sorrow! Ha! let’s see:
’Tis very true, my grief lies all within;
And these external manners of laments
Are merely shadows to the unseen grief
That swells with silence in the tortur’d soul;
There lies the substance: and I thank thee, king,
For thy great bounty, that not only giv’st
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?
Boling.Name it, fair cousin.
K. Rich.‘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.
Boling.Yet ask.
K. Rich.And shall I have?
Boling.You shall.
K. Rich.Then give me leave to go.
Boling.Whither?
K. Rich.Whither you will, so I were from your sights.
Boling.Go, some of you convey him to the Tower.
K. Rich.O, good! convey? conveyers are you all,
That rise thus nimbly by a true king’s fall.[Exeunt K
Boling.On Wednesday next we solemnly set down
Our coronation: lords, prepare yourselves.[Exeunt all except the B
Abbot.A woeful pageant have we here beheld.
Bishop.The woe’s to come; the children yet unborn