Richard II (15 page)
Authors: William Shakespeare
DUCHESS OF YORK
A god on earth thou art.
York, Duchess and Aumerle rise
BULLINGBROOK
But
for
139
our trusty brother-in-law, the abbot,
With all the rest of that
consorted
140
crew,
Destruction straight shall dog them at the heels.
Good uncle, help to order
several
142
powers
To Oxford, or where’er these traitors are:
They shall not live within this world, I swear,
But I will have them, if I once know where.
Uncle, farewell, and, cousin, adieu:
Your mother well hath prayed, and
prove
147
you true.
DUCHESS OF YORK
Come, my old son. I pray heaven make thee new.
Exeunt
running scene 16 continues
Enter Exton and Servants
EXTON
Didst thou not mark the king, what words he spake —
‘Have I no friend will rid me of this living fear?’
Was it not so?
SERVANT
Those were his very words.
EXTON
‘Have I no friend?’ quoth he: he spake it twice,
And urged it twice together, did he not?
SERVANT
He did.
EXTON
And speaking it, he
wistly
8
looked on me,
As
9
who should say, ‘I would thou wert the man
That would divorce this terror from my heart’,
Meaning the king at Pomfret. Come, let’s go:
I am the king’s friend, and will rid his foe.
Exeunt
running scene 17
Location:
Pomfret (Pontefract) Castle
Enter Richard
KING RICHARD
I have been
studying
1
how to compare
This prison where I live unto the world.
And
for because
3
the world is populous
And here is not a creature but myself,
I cannot do it. Yet I’ll hammer’t out.
My brain I’ll prove the female to my soul,
My soul the father, and these two
beget
7
A generation of
still-breeding
8
thoughts;
And these same thoughts people this little world,
In
humours
10
like the people of this world,
For no thought is contented. The better sort,
As
12
thoughts of things divine, are intermixed
With
scruples
13
and do set the faith itself
Against the faith: as thus,
‘Come, little ones’
14
,
And then again:
‘It is as hard to come as for a camel
16
To thread the
postern
17
of a 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
Of this hard world, my
ragged
21
prison walls,
And,
for
22
they cannot, die in their own pride.
Thoughts tending to
content
23
flatter themselves
That they are not the first of fortune’s slaves,
Nor shall not be the last, like
silly
25
beggars
Who sitting in the
stocks
26
refuge their shame,
That
27
many have and others must sit there;
And in this thought they find a kind of ease,
Bearing their own misfortune on the back
Of such as have before endured the like.
Thus play I in one
prison
31
many people,
And none contented. Sometimes am I king;
Then
treason
33
makes me wish myself a beggar,
And so I am. Then crushing
penury
34
Persuades me I was better when a king.
Then am I kinged again, and
by and by
36
Think that I am unkinged by Bullingbrook,
And
straight
38
am nothing. But whate’er I am,
Music
Nor I nor any man that
but man is
39
With
nothing
40
shall be pleased, till he be eased
With being
nothing
41
. Music do I hear?
Ha, ha! Keep time. How sour sweet music is
When time is broke and no
proportion
43
kept!
So is it in the music of men’s lives.
And here have I the
daintiness
45
of ear
To hear time broke in a disordered
string
46
,
But for the
concord
47
of my state and time
Had not an ear to hear my true time broke.
I
waste
49
d time, and now doth time waste me,
For now hath time made me his
numb’ring clock
50
.
My thoughts are minutes; and with sighs they
jar
51
Their
watches
52
on unto mine eyes, the outward watch,
Whereto my finger, like a
dial’s point
53
,
Is pointing
still
54
, in cleansing them from tears.
Now sir, the sound that
tells
55
what hour it is
Are clamorous groans, that
strike
56
upon my heart,
Which is the bell. So sighs and tears and groans
Show minutes, hours and
times
58
. But my time
Runs
posting
59
on in Bullingbrook’s proud joy,
While I stand fooling here, his
Jack o’th’clock
60
.
This music
mads
61
me. Let it sound no more,
↓
Music stops
↓
For though it have
holp madmen to their wits
62
,
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
65
Richard
Is a
strange brooch
66
in this all-hating world.
Enter Groom
GROOM
Hail, royal prince!
KING RICHARD
Thanks, noble
peer
68
.
The cheapest of us
69
is ten groats too dear.
What art thou? And how com’st thou hither
Where no man ever comes but that
sad
71
dog
That brings me food to make
misfortune
72
live?
GROOM
I was a poor groom of thy stable, king,
When thou wert king, who, travelling towards York,
With much
ado
75
, at length have gotten leave
To look upon my
sometimes
76
royal master’s face.
O, how it
yearned
77
my heart when I beheld
In London streets, that coronation-day,
When Bullingbrook rode on
roan
79
Barbary,
That horse that thou so often hast
bestrid
80
,
That horse that I so carefully have dressed!
KING RICHARD
Rode he on Barbary? Tell me,
gentle
82
friend,
How went he under him?
GROOM
So proudly as if he had disdained the ground.
KING RICHARD
So proud that Bullingbrook was on his back?
That
jade
86
hath eat bread from my royal hand,
This hand hath made him proud with
clapping
87
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?
Forgiveness, horse. Why do I
rail on
91
thee,
Since thou, created to be
awed
92
by man,
Wast born to bear? I was not made a horse,
And yet I bear a burden like an ass,
Spurred,
galled
95
and tired by jauncing Bullingbrook.
Enter Keeper, with a dish
KEEPER
Fellow
96
, give place. Here is no longer stay.
KING RICHARD
If thou love me, ’tis time thou wert away.
To Groom
GROOM
What my tongue dares not, that my heart shall say.
Exit
KEEPER
My lord, will’t please you to
fall to
99
?
KING RICHARD
Taste of it first, as thou wert
wont
100
to do.
KEEPER
My lord, I dare not. Sir Pierce of Exton, who
Lately came from th’king, commands the contrary.
KING RICHARD
The devil take Henry of Lancaster and thee!
Patience is stale, and I am weary of it.
Beats him
KEEPER
Help, help, help!
Enter Exton and Servants
[
armed
]
KING RICHARD
How now? What means death in this
rude
106
assault?
Villain, thine own hand yields thy death’s instrument.—
Takes a weapon from one man and kills him with it
Go thou, and fill another
room
108
in hell.—
Kills another man
Exton strikes him down
That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire
That
staggers
110
thus my person. Exton, thy fierce hand
Hath with the king’s blood stained the king’s own land.
Mount, mount, my soul! Thy
seat
112
is up on high,
Whilst my
gross
113
flesh sinks downward, here to die.
Dies
EXTON
As full of valour as of royal blood.
Both have I spilled. O, would the deed were good!
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
running scene 18
Location:
the royal court
Flourish. Enter Bullingbrook, York, with other Lords and Attendants
BULLINGBROOK
Kind uncle York, the latest news we hear
Is that the rebels have consumed with fire
Our town of
Cicester
3
in Gloucestershire,
But whether they be
ta’en
4
or slain we hear not.
Enter Northumberland
Welcome, my lord. What is the news?
NORTHUMBERLAND
First, to thy sacred state wish I all happiness.
The
next
7
news is, I have to London sent
The heads of Salisbury, Spencer, Blunt and Kent.
The manner of their
taking
9
may appear
At large discoursèd
10
in this paper here.
Gives a paper
BULLINGBROOK
We thank thee, gentle Percy, for thy pains,
And to thy worth will add right
worthy
12
gains.
Enter Fitzwaters
FITZWATERS
My lord, I have from Oxford sent to London
The heads of Brocas and Sir Bennet Seely,
Two of the dangerous consorted traitors
That sought at Oxford thy
dire
16
overthrow.
BULLINGBROOK
Thy pains, Fitzwaters, shall not be forgot.
Right noble is thy merit, well I
wot
18
.
Enter Percy and Carlisle
PERCY
The
grand
19
conspirator, Abbot of Westminster,
With
clog
20
of conscience and sour melancholy
Hath yielded up his body to the grave,
But here is Carlisle living, to
abide
22
Thy kingly
doom
23
and sentence of his pride.
BULLINGBROOK
Carlisle, this is your doom:
Choose out some secret place, some
reverend room
25
,
More
26
than thou hast, and with it joy thy life.
So as thou liv’st in peace, die free from strife:
For though mine enemy thou hast ever been,
High
29
sparks of honour in thee have I seen.
Enter Exton, with
[
Attendants carrying
]
a coffin
EXTON
Great king, within this coffin I present
Thy buried fear. Herein all breathless lies
The mightiest of thy greatest enemies,
Richard of
Bordeaux
33
, by me hither brought.
BULLINGBROOK
Exton, I thank thee not, for thou hast
wrought
34
A deed of slaughter with thy fatal hand
Upon my head and all this famous land.
