Most mighty prince, my lord Northumberland,
What says king Bolingbroke? will his majesty
Give Richard leave to live till Richard die ?
You make a leg, and Bolingbroke says-ay.
North. My lord, in the base court he doth
attend
[down?
To speak with yon; may't please you to come
K. Rich. Down, down, I come; like glister-
ing Phaeton,
Wanting the manage of unruly jades.
[NORTH. retires to BOLING. In the base court? Base court, where kings grow base,
To come at traitors' calls, and do them grace.
In the base court? Come down? Down, court!
down, king!
For night-owls shriek, where mounting larks
should sing. Exeant, from above.
Boling. What says his majesty ?
North. Sorrow and grief of heart
Makes him speak foudly, like a frantic man :
Yet he is come.
Enter King RICHARD, and his Attendants
below.
Boling. Stand all apart,
And show fair duty to his majesty.--
My gracious lord,-
[Kneeling. K. Rich. Fair cousin, you debase your princely knee,
To make the base earth proud with kissing it;
Me rather bad, my heart might feel your love,
Than my unpleas'd eye see your courtesy.
Up, cousin, up; your heart is up, I know,
Thus high at least, [Touching his own head.
although your knee be low.
Boling. My gracious lord, I come but for
K. Rich. Your own is your's, and I am your's, and all.
Boling. So far be mine, my most redoubted
lord,
As my true service shall deserve your love.
K. Rich. Well you deserve :-They well de-
serve to have,
[get.
That know the strong'st and surest way to
Uncle, give me your hand: nay, dry your eyes;
Tears show their love, but want their reme-
dies.-
Cousin, I am too young to be your father,
Though you are old enough to be my heir.
What you will have, I'll give, and willing too;
For do we must, what force will have us do.-
Set on towards London :-Cousin, is it so?
Boling. Yea, my good lord.
K. Rich. Then I must not say, no.
[Flourish. Exeunt.
SCENE IV.-Langley.-The Duke of YORK'S
Enter the QUEEN, and two LADIES.
Or if of grief, being altogether had,
It adds more sorrow to my want of joy:
For what I have, I need not to repeat;
And what I want, it boots not to complain.
1 Lady. Madam, I'll sing.
Queen 'Tis well that thou hast cause;
But thou should'st please me better, would'st
thou weep.
1 Lady. I could weep, madam, would it do you good.
Queen. And I could weep, would weeping do
me good,
And never borrow any tear of thee.
But stay, here come the gardeners :
Let's step into the shadow of these trees.-
Enter a GARDENER, and two SERVANTS.
My wretchedness unto a row of pins,
They'll talk of state; for every one doth so
Against a change: Woe is forerun with woe.
[QUEEN and LADIES retire.
Gard. Go, bind thou up yon' dangling apri-
cocks,
Which, like unruly children, make their sire
Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight;
Give some supportance to the bending twigs.-
Go thou, and like an executioner,
Cut off the heads of too-fast-growing sprays,
That look too lofty in our commonwealth:
All must be even in our government.
You thus employ'd, I will go root away
The noisome weeds, that without profit suck
The soil's fertility from wholesome flowers.
1 Serv. Why should we in the compass of a
pale,+
Showing, as in a model, our firm estate?
Keep law, and form, and due proportion,
Is full of weeds; her fairest flowers chok'd up,
When our sea-walled garden, the whole land,
Her fruit-trees all unprun'd, her hedges ruin'd,
Her knots disorder'd, and her wholesome
herbs
Swarming with caterpillars ?
Gard. Hold thy peace :-
He that hath suffer'd this disorder'd spring,
Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf:
The weeds that his broad-spreading leaves did
shelter,
That seem'd in eating him to hold him up,
Are pluck'd up, root and all, by Bolingbroke
I mean, the earl of Wiltshire, Busby, Green.
1 Serv. What, are they dead?
Gard. They are; and Bolingbroke
Hath seiz'd the
wasteful king.-Oh! What
pity is it,
(land,
That he had not so trimm'd and dress'd his
As we this garden! We at time of year
Lest being over-proud with sap and blood,
Do wound the bark, the skin of our fruit-trees;
With too much riches it confound itself:
Had he done so to great and growing men,
They might have liv'd to bear, and he to taste
Queen. What sport shall we devise here in Their fruits of duty. All superfluous branches
To drive away the heavy thought of care?
1 Lady. Madam, we'll play at bowls.
Queen. Twill make me think,
The world is full of rubs, and that my fortune
Runs 'gainst the bias.
1 Lady. Madam, we will dance.
Queen. My legs can keep no measure in delight,
When my poor heart no measure keeps in grief:
Therefore, no dancing, girl; some other sport. 1 Lady. Madam, we'll tell tales.
Queen. Of sorrow or of joy?
Lady. Of either, madam.
Queen. Of neither, girl:
For if of joy, being altogether wanting,
It doth remember me the more of sorrow;
We lop away, that bearing boughs may live :
Had he done so, himself had borne the crown,
Which waste of idle hours hath quite throw
down.
1 Serv. What think you then the king sha!
be depos'd?
Gard. Depress'd he is already; and depos'd, 'Tis doubt, he will be: Letters came las
To a dear friend of the good duke of York's,
That tell black tidings.
Queen. O I am press'd to death,
Through want of speaking!-Thou,old Adam's like
ness, [Coming from her concealment
Set to dress this garden, how dares
Thy harsh rude tongue sound this unpleasin
Why dost thou say king Richard is depos'd?
Dar'st thou, thou little better thing than earth,
Divine his downfal? Say, where, when, and
how,
[wretch.
Cam'st thou by these ill tidings? speak, thou
Gard. Pardon me, madam: little joy have I,
To breathe this news; yet, what I say, is true.
King Richard, he is in the mighty hold
Of Bolinbroke; their fortunes both are weigh'd:
In your lord's scale is nothing but himself,
And some few vanities that make bim light;
But in the balance of great Bolingbroke,
Besides himself, are all the Eugiish peers,
And with that odds he weighs King Richard
down.
Post you to London, and you'll find it so;
I speak no more than every one doth know.
Queen. Nimble mischance, that art so light
of foot,
Doth not thy embassage belong to me,
And am I last that knows it? O thou think'st
To serve me last, that I may longest keep
Thy sorrow in my breast.-Come, ladies, go,
To meet at London London's king in woe.—
What, was I born to this! that my sad look
Should grace the triumph of great Boling-
SCENE 1.-London.-Westminster Hall. The Lords spiritual on the right side of the Throne; the Lords temporal on the left; the Commons below. Enter BOLINGBROKE, AUMERLE, SURREY, NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, FITZWATER, another LORD, Bishop of CARLISLE, Abbot of WESTMINSTER, and Attendants. Officers behind, with
Boling. Call forth Bagot :--
Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind;
What thou dost know of noble Gloster's death;
Who wrought it with the king, and who per-
form'd
The bloody office of his timeless + end.
Bagot. Then set before my face the lord
merle.
Boling. Cousin, stand forth, and look
that man.
Bagot. My lord Aumerle, I know your
ing tongue
There is my gage, the manual seal of death, if
That marks thee out for hell: I say thou liest,
Aud 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 bath mov'd me so.
Fitz. If that thy valour stand on sympathies
There is my gage, Aumerie, in gage to thine:
By that fair sun that shows me where thou
stand'st,
I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spak'st it,
That thon wert cause of noble Gloster'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
Fitz. Now, by my soul, I would it were this hour.
Aum. Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this.
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 take 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;
Eugage it to the trial, if thou dar'st.
Aum. Who sets ine eise? by heaven, I'l
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
The very time Aumerle and you did talk.
Fitz. My lord, 'tis true: you were in presener
then;
And you can witness with me, this is true.
Surrey. As false, by heaven, as heaven itsel
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 scull.
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,
dar-I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness,
And spit upon bin, 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.
Scorus to unsay what once it hath deliver'd.
In that dead time when Gloster'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 sland'rous lips.-
Many a time hath banish'd Norfolk fought
For Jesu Christ, in glorious Christian field,
Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross,
Against black Pagaus, 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 sure as I live, my lord.
Procure your sureties for your days of answer :i
Little are we beholden to your love, [To CAR-
LISLE.]
And little look'd for at your helping hands.
Re-enter YORK, with King RICHARD, and
Officers bearing the Crown, &c.
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 knee;→
Boling. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul Give sorrow leave a while to tutor me
Of good old Abraham !-Lords appellants,
Your differences shall all rest under gage,
Till we assign you to your days of trial.
Enter YORK, attended.
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 nobless would
Learn him ferbearance from so foul a wrong.
What subject can give sentence on his king?
And who sits here, that is not Richard's sub-
ject?
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 forbid 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 heaven 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 con-
found?
Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny,
Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd
The field of Golgotha, and dead men's sculls.
Oh! if you rear this house against this house,
It will the woefullest division prove,
That ever fell upon this cursed earth:
Prevent, resist it, let it not be so,
Lest child, child's children, cry against you-
woe! +
North. We'll 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't please you, lords, to grant the commons'
suit.
Boling. Fetch hither Richard, that in common
To this submission. Yet I well remember
The favours of these men: Were they not
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 thou-
sand, 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 bither?
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, on this side, my band; 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 grief, whilst you mount up on
Boling. I thought you had been willing to re
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
K. Rich. Ay, no;-no, ay; for I must no thing 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, ý
With mine own bands I give away my crown,
With mine own tougue deny my sacred state,
With mine own breath release all duteous
oaths;
All pomp aud 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 may'st thou live in Richard's seat to sit,
And soon lie Richard in an earthly pit!
God save king Henry, unking'd Richard says,
And send him many years of sunshine days!-
What more remains ?
North. No more, but that you read
[Offering a Paper.
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 inen
May deem that you are worthily depos'd.
K. Rich. Must I do so? and must I ravel
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 would'st,
There should'st thou find one heinous article,-
Containing the deposing of a king,
And cracking the strong warrant of an oath,-
Mark'd with a blot, damu'd in the book of
heaven:-
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 mauners of lament
Are merely shadows to the uuseen 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
my-Me cause to wail, but teachest me the way
How to lament the cause. I'll beg one boon,
Aud then be gone, and trouble you no more.
Shall I obtain it?
Nay, all of you, that stand and look upon me, Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait self.
Though some of you, with Pilate, wash 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, despatch; read o'er these
articles,
K. Rich. Mine eyes are full of tears, I cannot
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;
Make glory base; and sovereignty a slave;
Proud majesty a subject; state a peasant.
North. My lord,-
K. Rich. No lord of thine, thou haught,
sulting man,
Nor no man's lord; I have no name, uo 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 1
come to hell.
Boling. Name it, fair cousin.
K. Rich. Fair cousin? Why, I am greater thair
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
Boling. Go, some of you, convey him to the
That rise thus nimbly by a true king's fall.
[Exeunt K. RICHARD, Some Lords, and a Guard.
Boling. On Wednesday next, we solemnly set down
Our coronation : lords, prepare yourselves.
[Exeunt all but the ABBOT, Bishop of CARLISLE, and AUMBRLE. Abbot. A woeful pageant have we here beheld.
Car. The woe's to come; the children yet uu-
born
Shall feel this day as sharp to them as thorn.
Aum. You holy clergymen, is there no plot
To rid the realm of this pernicious blot ?
Abbot. Before I freely speak my mind herein,
You shall not only take the sacrament
To bury mine intents, but to effect
Whatever I shall happen to devise :--
I see your brows are full of discontent,
Boling. Urge it no more, my lord Northum-Your hearts of sorrow, and your eyes of tea.s:
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-my-
To be o'erpower'd; and wilt thou, pupil-like, Take thy correction mildly? kiss the rod ; And fawn on rage with base humility,
Which art a lion, and a king of beasts?
And piece the way out with a heavy heart, Come, come, in wooing sorrow let's be brief,
K. Rich. A king of beasts, indeed; if aught Since, wedding it, there is such length in grief.
I had been still a happy king of men.
One kiss shall stop our mouths, and dumbly part;
Good sometime queen, prepare thee hence for Thus give I inine, and thus I take thy heart.
Think I am dead; and that even here thou
As from my death-bed, my last living leave.
In winter's tedious nights, sit by the fire
With good old folks; and let them tell thee tales
Of woful ages, long ago betid: +
And, ere thou bid good night, to quit
Tell thou the lamentable fall of me,
And send the hearers weeping to their beds.
For why, the senseless brands will sympathize
The heavy accent of thy moving tongue,
And, in compassion, weep the fire out:
And some will mourn in ashes, some coal-black,
For the deposing of a rightful king.
Enter NORTHUMBERLAND attended. North. My lord, the mind of Bolingbroke is ebang'd;
You must to Pomfret, not unto the Tower.--
And, madain, there is order ta'en for you;
With all swift speed you must away to France.
K. Rich. Northumberland, thou ladder where-
withal
The mounting Bolingbroke ascends my throne,
The time shall not be many hours of age
More than it is, ere foul sin, gathering head,
Shall break into corruption: thou shalt think,
Though he divide the realm, and give thee half,
It is too little, helping him to all;
And he shall think that thou, which know'st the way
To plant unrightful kings, wilt know again,
Being ne'er so little urg'd, another way
To pluck him headlong from the usurped
throne.
The love of wicked friends converts to fear;
That fear, to hate; and bate turns one, or both,
To worthy danger, and deserved death.
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[They kiss. Queen. Give me mine own again; 'twere no good part,
To take on me to keep, and kill thy heart. [Kiss again. So, now I have my own again, begone, That I may strive to kill it with a groan. K. Rich. We make woe wanton with this fond delay: Once more, adieu; the rest let sorrow say.
Threw dust and rubbish on King Richard's head.
York. Then, as I said, the duke, great Bolingbroke,
Mounted upon a hot and flery steed,
Which his aspiring rider seem'd to know.-
With slow but stately pace, kept on his course,
While all tongues cried-God save thee, Bol-
ingbroke!
You would have thought the very windows spake,
So many greedy looks of young and old Through casements darted their desiring eyes Upon his visage; and that all the walls, With painted imag'ry, ‡ had said at once,
All-hallows, i. e. All-saints, Nov. 1. t Never the nigher." Tapestry hung from the windows.
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