The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

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The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 299

by William Shakespeare

10

  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 shorten you,

  For taking so the head, your whole head’s length

  BOLINGBROKE

  Mistake not, uncle, further than you should.

  15

  YORK Take not, good cousin, further than you should,

  Lest you mistake: the heavens are o’er our heads.

  BOLINGBROKE 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?

  20

  PERCY The castle royally is mann’d, my lord,

  Against thy entrance.

  BOLINGBROKE Royally!

  Why, it contains no king?

  PERCY Yes, my good lord,

  It doth contain a king; King Richard lies

  25

  Within the limits of yon lime and stone;

  And with him are the Lord Aumerle, Lord Salisbury,

  Sir Stephen Scroope, besides a clergyman

  Of holy reverence; who, I cannot learn.

  NORTHUMBERLAND O belike it is the Bishop of Carlisle.

  30

  BOLINGBROKE Noble lord,

  Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle,

  Through brazen trumpet send the breath of parle

  Into his ruin’d ears, and thus deliver:

  Henry Bolingbroke

  35

  On both 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 repeal’d

  40

  And lands restor’d again be freely granted;

  If not, I’ll use the advantage of my power

  And lay the summer’s dust with showers of blood

  Rain’d from the wounds of slaughtered Englishmen –

  The which, how far off from the mind of Bolingbroke

  45

  It is such crimson tempest should bedrench

  The fresh green lap of fair King Richard’s land,

  My stooping duty tenderly shall show.

  Go, signify as much, while here we march

  Upon the grassy carpet of this plain.

  50

  Let’s march without the noise of threat’ning drum,

  That from this castle’s tottered battlements

  Our fair appointments may be well perus’d.

  Methinks King Richard and myself should meet

  With no less terror than the elements

  55

  Of fire and water, when their thund’ring shock

  At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven.

  Be he the fire, I’ll be the yielding water;

  The rage be his, whilst on the earth I rain

  My waters – on the earth, and not on him.

  60

  March on, and mark King Richard how he looks.

  Parle without, and answer within: then a flourish. Enter on the walls RICHARD, CARLISLE, AUMERLE, SCROOPE, SALISBURY.

  See, see, King Richard doth himself appear,

  As doth the blushing discontented sun

  From out the fiery portal of the East,

  When he perceives the envious clouds are bent

  65

  To dim his glory and to stain the track

  Of his bright passage to the occident.

  YORK Yet looks he like a king. Behold, his eye,

  As bright as is the eagle’s, lightens forth

  Controlling majesty; alack, alack for woe

  70

  That any harm should stain so fair a show!

  RICHARD [to Northumberland]

  We are amaz’d, and thus long have we stood

  To watch the fearful bending of thy knee,

  Because we thought ourself thy lawful king;

  And if we be, how dare thy joints forget

  75

  To pay their awful duty to our presence?

  If we be not, show us the hand of God

  That hath dismiss’d us from our stewardship;

  For well we know no hand of blood and bone

  Can gripe the sacred handle of our sceptre,

  80

  Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp.

  And though you think that all, as you have done,

  Have torn their souls by turning them from us,

  And we are barren and bereft of friends,

  Yet know, my master, God omnipotent,

  85

  Is mustering in his clouds, on our behalf,

  Armies of pestilence, and they shall strike

  Your children yet unborn, and unbegot,

  That lift your vassal hands against my head,

  And threat the glory of my precious crown.

  90

  Tell Bolingbroke, for yon methinks he stands,

  That every stride he makes upon my land

  Is dangerous treason. He is come to open

  The purple testament of bleeding war.

  But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,

  95

  Ten thousand bloody crowns of mother’s sons

  Shall ill become the flower of England’s face,

  Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace

  To scarlet indignation and bedew

  Her pastures’ grass with faithful English blood.

  100

  NORTHUMBERLAND

  The King of Heaven forbid our lord the king

  Should so with civil and uncivil arms

  Be rush’d upon! Thy thrice noble cousin,

  Harry Bolingbroke, doth humbly kiss thy hand,

  And by the honourable tomb he swears,

  105

  That stands upon your royal grandsire’s bones,

  And by the royalties of both your bloods,

  Currents that spring from one most gracious head,

  And by the buried hand of warlike Gaunt,

  And by the worth and honour of himself,

  110

  Comprising all that may be sworn or said,

  His coming hither hath no further scope

  Than for his lineal royalties, and to beg

  Infranchisement immediate on his knees,

  Which on thy royal party granted once,

  115

  His glittering arms he will commend to rust,

  His barbed steeds to stables, and his heart

  To faithful service of your Majesty.

  This, swears he as he is a prince and just;

  And, as I am a gentleman, I credit him.

  120

  RICHARD

  Northumberland, say thus the king returns:

  His noble cousin is right welcome hither,

  And all the number of his fair demands

  Shall be accomplish’d without contradiction;

  With all the gracious utterance that thou hast

  125

  Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends.

  [to Aumerle] We do debase ourselves, cousin, do we not,

  To look so poorly, and to speak so fair?

  Shall we call back Northumberland and send

  Defiance to the traitor, and so die?

  130

  AUMERLE

  No, good my lord, let’s fight with gentle words.

  Till time lend friends, and friends their helpful swords.

  RICHARD

  O God! O God! that e’er this tongue of mine,

  That laid the sentence of dread banishment

  On yon proud man, should take it off again

  135

  With words of sooth! 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 wha
t I must be now!

  Swell’st thou, proud heart? I’ll give thee scope to beat,

  140

  Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me.

  AUMERLE

  Northumberland comes back from Bolingbroke.

  RICHARD

  What must the king do now? Must he submit?

  The king shall do it. Must he be depos’d?

  The king shall be contented. Must he lose

  145

  The name of king? a God’s name, let it go.

  I’ll give my jewels for a set of beads;

  My gorgeous palace for a hermitage;

  My gay apparel for an almsman’s gown;

  My figur’d goblets for a dish of wood;

  150

  My sceptre for a palmer’s walking staff;

  My subjects for a pair of carved 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,

  155

  Some way of common trade, where subjects’ feet

  May hourly trample on their sovereign’s head;

  For on my heart they tread now whilst I live:

  And buried once, why not upon my head?

  Aumerle, thou weep’st (my tender-hearted cousin!),

  160

  We’ll make foul weather with despised tears;

  Our sighs and they shall lodge the summer corn,

  And make a dearth in this revolting land.

  Or shall we play the wantons with our woes,

  And make some pretty match with shedding tears?

  165

  As thus to drop them still upon one place,

  Till they have fretted us a pair of graves

  Within the earth, and therein laid – there lies

  Two kinsmen digg’d their graves with weeping eyes!

  Would not this ill do well? Well, well, I see

  170

  I talk but idly, and you laugh at me.

  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’.

  175

  NORTHUMBERLAND

  My lord, in the base court he doth attend

  To speak with you; may it please you to come down?

  RICHARD Down, down I come, like glist’ring Phaeton,

  Wanting the manage of unruly jades.

  In the base court? Base court, where kings grow base,

  180

  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. Exeunt from above.

  BOLINGBROKE What says his Majesty?

  NORTHUMBERLAND Sorrow and grief of heart

  Makes him speak fondly like a frantic man;

  185

  Yet he is come.

  Enter KING RICHARD and his attendants below.

  BOLINGBROKE Stand all apart,

  And show fair duty to his Majesty. [He kneels down.]

  My gracious lord.

  RICHARD Fair cousin, you debase your princely knee

  190

  To make the base earth proud with kissing it.

  Me rather had my heart might feel your love,

  Than my unpleased eye see your courtesy.

  Up, cousin, up; your heart is up, I know,

  Thus high at least, although your knee be low.

  195

  BOLINGBROKE

  My gracious lord, I come but for mine own.

  RICHARD Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all.

  BOLINGBROKE So far be mine, my most redoubted lord,

  As my true service shall deserve your love.

  RICHARD Well you deserve. They well deserve to have

  200

  That know the strong’st and surest way to get.

  Uncle, give me your hands; nay, dry your eyes –

  Tears show their love, but want their remedies.

  Cousin, I am too young to be your father,

  Though you are old enough to be my heir;

  205

  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?

  BOLINGBROKE Yea, my good lord.

  RICHARD Then I must not say no.

  Flourish. Exeunt.

  3.4 Enter the QUEEN and two Ladies.

  QUEEN What sport shall we devise here in this garden,

  To drive away the heavy thought of care?

  LADY Madam, we’ll play at bowls.

  QUEEN ’Twill make me think the world is full of rubs

  And that my fortune runs against the bias.

  5

  LADY Madam, we’ll dance.

 

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