Richard II (11 page)
Authors: William Shakespeare
CARLISLE
My lord, wise men ne’er wail their present woes,
But
presently
174
prevent the ways to wail.
To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength,
Gives in your weakness strength unto your foe,
And so your follies fight against yourself
177
.
Fear and be slain.
No worse can come to fight
178
.
And fight and die is
death destroying death
179
,
Where fearing dying pays death servile breath.
AUMERLE
My father hath a power. Enquire of him
And learn to make
a body of a limb
182
.
KING RICHARD
Thou
chid’st
183
me well. Proud Bullingbrook, I come
To
change
184
blows with thee for our day of doom:
This
ague
185
fit of fear is over-blown,
An easy task it is to win our own.
Say, Scroop, where lies our uncle with his power?
Speak sweetly, man, although thy looks be sour.
SCROOP
Men judge by the complexion of the sky
The state and inclination of the day;
So may you by my dull and
heavy
191
eye,
My tongue hath but a heavier tale to say.
I play the torturer,
by small
193
and small
To lengthen out the worst that must be spoken.
Your uncle York is joined with Bullingbrook,
And all your northern castles yielded up,
And all your southern gentlemen in arms
Upon his faction.
KING RICHARD
Thou hast said enough.
Beshrew
200
thee, cousin, which didst lead me forth
To Aumerle
Of that sweet way I was in to despair!
What say you now? What comfort have we now?
By heaven, I’ll hate him everlastingly
That bids me be of comfort any more.
Go to
Flint Castle
205
: there I’ll pine away.
A king, woe’s slave, shall kingly woe obey.
That
power
207
I have, discharge, and let ’em go
To
ear
208
the land that hath some hope to grow,
For I have none. Let no man speak again
To alter this, for counsel is but vain.
AUMERLE
My liege, one word.
KING RICHARD
He does me double wrong
That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue.
Discharge my followers. Let them hence away,
From Richard’s night to Bullingbrook’s fair day.
Exeunt
running scene 11
Location:
outside Flint Castle
Enter, with Drum and Colours, Bullingbrook, York, Northumberland
[
and
]
Attendants
BULLINGBROOK
So that
1
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.
Richard not far from hence hath hid his head.
YORK
It would
beseem
7
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
Left I his title out.
YORK
The time hath been,
Would you have been so brief with him, he would
Have been so brief with you
to
14
shorten you,
For
taking so the head
15
, your whole head’s length.
BULLINGBROOK
Mistake
16
not, uncle, further than you should.
YORK
Take
17
not, good cousin, further than you should,
Lest you
mistake
18
the heavens are o’er your head.
BULLINGBROOK
I know it, uncle, and oppose not myself
Against their will. But who comes here?
Enter Percy
Welcome, Harry. What, will not this castle yield?
PERCY
The castle royally is manned, my lord,
Against thy entrance.
BULLINGBROOK
Royally? Why, it contains no king?
PERCY
Yes, my good lord,
It doth contain a king: King Richard
lies
26
Within the limits of yond lime and stone,
And with him the Lord Aumerle, Lord Salisbury,
Sir Stephen Scroop, besides a clergyman
Of holy reverence,
who
30
, I cannot learn.
NORTHUMBERLAND
O,
belike
31
it is the Bishop of Carlisle.
BULLINGBROOK
Noble lord,
Go to the
rude
33
ribs of that ancient castle.
Through
brazen
34
trumpet send the breath of parle
Into
his
35
ruined ears, and thus deliver:
Henry Bullingbrook
Upon his knees doth kiss King Richard’s hand
And sends allegiance and true faith of heart
To his most royal person, hither come
Even at his feet to lay my arms and power
Provided that
my banishment repealed
And lands restored again
41
be freely granted.
If not, I’ll use
th’advantage of my power
43
And
lay
44
the summer’s dust with showers of blood
Rained from the wounds of slaughtered Englishmen;
The which, how far off from the mind of Bullingbrook
It is,
such
47
crimson tempest should bedrench
The fresh green lap of fair King Richard’s land,
My stooping duty
tenderly
49
shall show.
Go signify as much, while here we march
Upon the grassy carpet of this plain.
Let’s march without the noise of threat’ning drum,
That from this castle’s
tattered
53
battlements
Our
fair appointments
54
may be well perused.
Methinks King Richard and myself should meet
With no less terror than the elements
Of
fire and water
57
, when their thund’ring smoke
At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven.
Be he the fire, I’ll be the yielding water;
The rage be his, while on the earth I
rain
60
My waters on the earth, and not on him.
March on, and
mark
62
King Richard how he looks.
Parley without, and answer within. Then a flourish. Enter on the walls, Richard, Carlisle, Aumerle, Scroop
[
and
]
Salisbury
See, see, King Richard doth himself appear,
As doth the
blushing
64
discontented sun
From out the fiery portal of the east,
When he perceives the
envious
66
clouds are bent
To dim his glory and to
stain
67
the tract
Of his bright passage to the
occident
68
.
YORK
Yet looks he like a king. Behold, his eye,
As bright as is the eagle’s,
lightens forth
70
Controlling majesty. Alack, alack, for woe,
That any harm should stain so fair a show!
KING RICHARD
We are
amazed
73
; and thus long have we stood
To Northumberland
To
watch
74
the fearful bending of thy knee
Because we thought ourself thy lawful king.
And if we be, how dare thy joints forget
To pay their
awful
77
duty to our presence?
If we be not, show us the
hand
78
of God
That hath dismissed us from our stewardship,
For well we know, no hand of blood and bone
Can grip the sacred handle of our sceptre,
Unless he do
profane
82
, steal, or usurp.
And though you think that all, as you have done,
Have
torn
84
their souls by turning them from us,
And we are barren and bereft of friends,
Yet know, my master, God omnipotent,
Is must’ring in his clouds on our behalf
Armies of pestilence, and they shall
strike
88
Your children yet unborn and
unbegot
89
,
That
90
lift your vassal hands against my head
And threat the glory of my precious crown.
Tell Bullingbrook — for yond methinks he is —
That every stride he makes upon my land
Is dangerous treason. He is come to
ope
94
The
purple testament
95
of bleeding war;
But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,
Ten thousand bloody
crowns
97
of mothers’ sons
Shall ill become the flower of England’s face,
Change the complexion of her
maid-pale
99
peace
To scarlet indignation and bedew
Her
pastor’s
101
grass with faithful English blood.
NORTHUMBERLAND
The king of heaven forbid our lord the king
Should so with
civil
103
and uncivil arms
Be rushed upon! Thy thrice-noble cousin,
Harry Bullingbrook, 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
109
—
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
113
Than for his
lineal royalties
114
and to beg
Enfranchisement
115
immediate on his knees,
Which on thy royal
party
116
granted once,
His glittering arms he will
commend
117
to rust,
His
barbèd
118
steeds to stables, and his heart
To faithful service of your majesty.
This swears he, as he
is
120
a prince, is just:
And, as I am a gentleman, I
credit
121
him.
KING RICHARD
Northumberland, say thus the king
returns
122
.
His noble cousin is right welcome hither,
And all the number of his fair demands
Shall be
accomplished
125
without contradiction.
With all the
gracious
126
utterance thou hast,
Speak to his gentle hearing kind
commends
127
.—
We do debase ourself, cousin, do we not,
To Aumerle
To look so
poorly
129
and to speak so fair?
Shall we call back Northumberland, and send
Defiance to the traitor, and so die?
AUMERLE
No, good my lord, let’s fight with gentle words
Till time lend friends and friends their helpful swords.
KING RICHARD
O God, O God, that
e’er
134
this tongue of mine,
That laid the sentence of dread banishment
On
yond
136
proud man, should take it off again
With words of
sooth
137
! O, that I were as great
As is my grief, or lesser than my name!
Or that I could forget what I have been,
Or not remember what I must be now!
Swell’st thou, proud heart? I’ll give thee
scope
141
to beat,
Since foes have scope to
beat
142
both thee and me.
AUMERLE
Northumberland comes back from Bullingbrook.
KING RICHARD
What must the king do now? Must he submit?
The king shall do it. Must he be deposed?
The king shall
be contented
146
. Must he lose
The name of king? O’God’s name, let it go.
I’ll give my jewels for a
set of beads
148
,
My gorgeous palace for a hermitage,
My gay apparel for an
almsman
150
’s gown,
My
figured
151
goblets for a dish of wood,
My sceptre for a
palmer
152
’s walking staff,
My subjects for a pair of carvèd saints,
And my large kingdom for a little grave,
A little little grave, an obscure grave.
Or I’ll be buried in the king’s highway,
Some way of common
trade
157
, where subjects’ feet
May hourly trample on their sovereign’s head,
For on my heart they tread now whilst I live,
And
buried once
160
, why not upon my head?—
Aumerle, thou weep’st, my tender-hearted cousin!
We’ll make foul weather with
despisèd
162
tears,
Our sighs and they shall
lodge
163
the summer corn,
And make a
dearth
164
in this revolting land.
Or shall we
play the wantons
165
with our woes,
And
make
166
some pretty match with shedding tears?
As thus, to drop them
still
167
upon one place,
Till they have
fretted us
168
a pair of graves
Within the earth, and, therein laid — there lies
Two kinsmen digged their graves with weeping eyes.
Would not this
ill
171
do well?— Well, well, I see
I talk but idly, and you mock at me.—
Most mighty prince, my lord Northumberland,
What says King Bullingbrook? Will his majesty
Give Richard leave to live till Richard die?
You
make a leg
176
, and Bullingbrook says ‘Ay’.
