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- Edition: Richard II
Richard II (Modern)
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1360[3.2]
[Drums. Flourish and colors.]
Enter King [Richard,] Aumerle, Carlisle, etc.[, and soldiers.]
1361King Richard
Barkloughly Castle call they this at hand?
1362Aumerle
Yea, my lord. How brooks your grace the air
1363After your late tossing on the breaking seas?
1364King Richard
Needs must I like it well. I weep for joy
1365To stand upon my kingdom once again.
5.1[He places his hand on the ground.]
1366Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand,
1367Though rebels wound thee with their horses' hoofs.
1368As a long-parted mother with her child
1369Plays fondly with her tears and smiles in meeting,
1370So weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my earth,
1371And do thee favors with my royal hands.
1372Feed not thy sovereign's foe, my gentle earth,
1373Nor with thy sweets comfort his ravenous sense,
1374But let thy spiders that suck up thy venom
1375And heavy-gaited toads, lie in their way,
1376Doing annoyance to the treacherous feet
1377Which with usurping steps do trample thee.
1378Yield stinging nettles to mine enemies,
1379And when they from thy bosom pluck a flower,
1380Guard it, I pray thee, with a lurking adder
1381Whose double tongue may with a mortal touch
1382Throw death upon thy sovereign's enemies.
1383Mock not my senseless conjuration, lords.
1384This earth shall have a feeling, and these stones
1385Prove armèd soldiers, ere her native king
1386Shall falter under foul rebellion's arms.
1387Carlisle
Fear not, my lord. That power that made you king
1388Hath power to keep you king in spite of all.
1388.1The means that heavens yield must be embraced
1388.2And not neglected; else heaven would,
1388.3And we will not. Heaven's offer we refuse,
1388.4The proffered means of succor and redress.
1389Aumerle
He means, my lord, that we are too remiss,
1390Whilst Bolingbroke, through our security,
1391Grows strong and great in substance and in power.
1392King Richard
Discomfortable cousin! Know'st thou not
1393That when the searching eye of heaven is hid
1394Behind the globe that lights the lower world,
1395Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen
1396In murders and in outrage boldly here?
1397But when from under this terrestrial ball
1398He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines
1399And darts his light through every guilty hole,
1400Then murders, treasons, and detested sins,
1401The cloak of night being plucked from off their backs,
1402Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves?
1403So when this thief, this traitor, Bolingbroke,
1404Who all this while hath reveled in the night
1404.1Whilst we were wand'ring with the Antipodes,
1405Shall see us rising in our throne, the east,
1406His treasons will sit blushing in his face,
1407Not able to endure the sight of day,
1408But, self-affrighted, tremble at his sin.
1409Not all the water in the rough rude sea
1410Can wash the balm off from an anointed king.
1411The breath of worldly men cannot depose
1412The deputy elected by the lord.
1413For every man that Bolingbroke hath pressed
1414To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown,
1415God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay
1416A glorious angel. Then, if angels fight,
1417Weak men must fall, for heaven still guards the right.
1418Enter Salisbury.
1419King Richard
Welcome, my lord. How far off lies your power?
1420Salisbury
Nor near nor farther off, my gracious lord,
1421Than this weak arm. Discomfort guides my tongue
1422And bids me speak of nothing but despair.
1423One day too late, I fear me, noble lord,
1424Hath clouded all thy happy days on earth.
1425Oh, call back yesterday, bid time return,
1426And thou shalt have twelve thousand fighting men!
1427Today, today, unhappy day too late,
1428O'erthrows thy joys, friends, fortune, and thy state;
1429For all the Welshmen, hearing thou wert dead,
1430Are gone to Bolingbroke, dispersed, and fled.
1431Aumerle
Comfort, my liege. Why looks your grace so pale?
1433King Richard
But now the blood of twenty thousand men
1434Did triumph in my face, and they are fled;
1435And till so much blood thither come again,
1436Have I not reason to look pale and dead?
1437All souls that will be safe, fly from my side,
1438For time hath set a blot upon my pride.
1439Aumerle
Comfort, my liege. Remember who you are.
1440King Richard
I had forgot myself. Am I not King?
1441Awake, thou coward majesty, thou sleepest!
1442Is not the King's name twenty thousand names?
1443Arm, arm, my name! A puny subject strikes
1444At thy great glory. Look not to the ground,
1445Ye favorites of a king. Are we not high?
1446High be our thoughts! I know my uncle York
1447Hath power enough to serve our turn. -- But who comes here?
1448 Enter [Sir Stephen] Scroop.
1449Scroop
More health and happiness betide my liege
1450Than can my care-tuned tongue deliver him.
1451King Richard
Mine ear is open and my heart prepared.
1452The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold.
1453Say, is my kingdom lost? Why, 'twas my care,
1454And what loss is it to be rid of care?
1455Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we?
1456Greater he shall not be. If he serve God,
1457We'll serve Him too, and be his fellow so.
1458Revolt our subjects? That we cannot mend.
1459They break their faith to God as well as us.
1460Cry woe, destruction, ruin, and decay.
1461The worst is death, and death will have his day.
1462Scroop
Glad am I that your highness is so armed
1463To bear the tidings of calamity.
1464Like an unseasonable stormy day,
1465Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores
1466As if the world were all dissolved to tears,
1467So high above his limits swells the rage
1468Of Bolingbroke, covering your fearful land
1469With hard bright steel, and hearts harder than steel.
1470Whitebeards have armed their thin and hairless scalps
1471Against thy majesty; boys with women's voices
1472Strive to speak big, and clap their female joints
1473In stiff unwieldy arms against thy crown.
1474Thy very beadsmen learn to bend their bows
1475Of double-fatal yew against thy state.
1476Yea, distaff-women manage rusty bills
1477Against thy seat. Both young and old rebel,
1478And all goes worse than I have power to tell.
1479King Richard
Too well, too well thou tell'st a tale so ill.
1480Where is the Earl of Wiltshire? Where is Bagot?
1481What is become of Bushy? Where is Green,
1482That they have let the dangerous enemy
1483Measure our confines with such peaceful steps?
1484If we prevail, their heads shall pay for it!
1485I warrant they have made peace with Bolingbroke.
1486Scroop
Peace have they made with him indeed, my lord.
1488King Richard
Oh villains, vipers, damned without redemption!
1489Dogs easily won to fawn on any man!
1490Snakes, in my heart-blood warmed, that sting my heart!
1491Three Judases, each one thrice worse than Judas!
1492Would they make peace? Terrible hell
1493Make war upon their spotted souls for this!
1494Scroop
Sweet love, I see, changing his property,
1495Turns to the sourest and most deadly hate.
1496Again uncurse their souls. Their peace is made
1497With heads, and not with hands. Those whom you curse
1498Have felt the worst of death's destroying wound
1499And lie full low, graved in the hollow ground.
1500Aumerle
Is Bushy, Green, and the Earl of Wiltshire dead?
1502Scroop
Ay, all of them at Bristol lost their heads.
1503Aumerle
Where is the Duke my father with his power?
1504King Richard
No matter where. Of comfort no man speak!
1505Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs,
1506Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes
1507Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth.
1508Let's choose executors and talk of wills.
1509And yet not so, for what can we bequeath
1510Save our deposèd bodies to the ground?
1511Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke's,
1512And nothing can we call our own but death,
1513And that small model of the barren earth
1514Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.
1515For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground
1516And tell sad stories of the death of kings --
1517How some have been deposed, some slain in war,
1518Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed,
1519Some poisoned by their wives, some sleeping killed --
1520All murdered. For within the hollow crown
1521That rounds the mortal temples of a king
1522Keeps death his court; and there the antic sits,
1523Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
1524Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
1525To monarchize, be feared, and kill with looks,
1526Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
1527As if this flesh which walls about our life
1528Were brass impregnable; and humored thus,
1529Comes at the last, and with a little pin
1530Bores thorough his castle wall, and -- farewell, king!
1531Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood
1532With solemn reverence. Throw away respect,
1533Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty,
1534For you have but mistook me all this while.
1535I live with bread like you, feel want,
1536Taste grief, need friends. Subjected thus,
1537How can you say to me I am a king?
1538Carlisle
My lord, wise men ne'er sit and wail their woes,
1539But presently prevent the ways to wail.
1540To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength,
1541Gives in your weakness strength unto your foe,
1541.1And so your follies fight against yourself.
1542Fear, and be slain. No worse can come to fight;
1543And fight and die is death destroying death,
1544Where fearing dying pays death servile breath.
1545Aumerle
My father hath a power. Inquire of him,
1546And learn to make a body of a limb.
1547King Richard
Thou chid'st me well. -- Proud Bolingbroke, I come
1548To change blows with thee for our day of doom. --
1549This ague fit of fear is overblown.
1550An easy task it is to win our own. --
1551Say, Scroop, where lies our uncle with his power?
1552Speak sweetly, man, although thy looks be sour.
1553Scroop
Men judge by the complexion of the sky
1554The state and inclination of the day;
1555So may you by my dull and heavy eye.
1556My tongue hath but a heavier tale to say.
1557I play the torturer by small and small
1558To lengthen out the worst that must be spoken.
1559Your uncle York is joined with Bolingbroke,
1560And all your northern castles yielded up,
1561And all your southern gentlemen in arms
1562Upon his party.
1563King Richard
Thou hast said enough.
1564[To Aumerle] Beshrew thee, cousin, which didst lead me forth
1565Of that sweet way I was in to despair.
1566What say you now? What comfort have we now?
1567By heaven, I'll hate him everlastingly
1568That bids me be of comfort any more.
1569Go to Flint Castle. There I'll pine away.
1570A king, woe's slave, shall kingly woe obey.
1571That power I have, discharge, and let them go
1572To ear the land that hath some hope to grow,
1573For I have none. Let no man speak again
1574To alter this, for counsel is but vain.
1575Aumerle
My liege, one word.
1576King Richard
He does me double wrong
1577That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue.
1578Discharge my followers. Let them hence away,
1579From Richard's night to Bolingbroke's fair day.
[Exeunt.]