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Boling. Stand all apart,

My gracious lord,

And shew fair duty to his majesty.

30

[Kneels. 35

K. Rich. Fair cousin, you debase your princely

knee,

To make the base earth proud with kissing it:
Me rather had, 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, although your knee be low.
[Touching his own head.
Boling. My gracious lord, I come but for mine

own.

K. Rich. Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all.

The Duke of York's garden.

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.
Lady. Madam, we'll 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.
Lady. Madam, we will tell tales.
Ritzen. 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;
Or if of grief, being altogether had,
It adds more sorow to my want of joy:
For what I have, I need not to repeat;
And what I want, it boots not to complain.
Lady. Madam, I'll sing.

Queen. 'Tis well, that thou hast cause: But thou should'st please me better, would'st thou weep. [good.

Lady. I could weep, madam, would it do you 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.—
My wretchedness unto a row of pins,

Enter a Gardener, and two servants.
They'll talk of state; for every one doth so
40 Against a change; Woe is fore-run with woe.
[Queen and Ladies retire.
Gard. Go, bind thou up yon dangling apricocks,
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,

45

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-50
serve to have,

That know the strongest and surest way to get.-
Uncle, give me your hand: nay, dry your eyes;
Tears shew their love, but want their remedies.-
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.

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.

Serv. Why should we, in the compass of a pale,
Keep law, and form, and due proportion,
55 Shewing, as in a model, our firin state;
When our sea-walled garden, the whole land,
Is full of weeds; her fairest flowers choak'd up,
Her fruit-trees all unprun'd, her hedges ruin'd,
Her knots disorder'd, and her wholesome herbs
60 Swarming with caterpillars?

Gard. Hold thy peace:

He that hath suffer'd this disorder'd spring,

! Bas cour, Fr.

? i. e. foolishly.

*

Hath

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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 pull'd up, root and all, by Bolingbroke;
I mean, the earl of Wiltshire, Bushy, Green.
Serv. What, are they dead?

Gard. They are; and Bolingbroke
Hath seiz'd the wasteful king.-What pity is it,
That he had not so trimm'd and dress'd his land,
As we this garden! who at time of year
Do wound the bark, the skin of our fruit-trees;
Lest, being over-proud with sap and blood,
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
Their fruits of duty. All superfluous branches
We lop away, that bearing boughs may live:
Had he done so, himself had borne the crown,
Whichwaste and idle hours hath quite thrown down.
Serv. What think you then, the king shall be
depos'd?

Gard. Depress'd he is already; and depos'd,
"Tis doubt, he will be: Letters came last night
To a dear friend of the good duke of York's
That tell black tidings.

Queen. Oh, I am press'd to death, through want of speaking!

Dar'st thou, thou little better thing than earth,
Divine his downfal? Say, where, when, and how,
Cam'st thou by these ill tidings? Speak, thou
wretch.

Gard. Pardon me, madam: little joy have I
To breathe these news, yet, what I say is true.
King Richard, he is in the mighty hold

your

Of Bolingbroke; their fortunes both are weigh'd
In lord's scale is nothing but himself,
10 And some few vanities that make him light;
But in the balance of great Bolingbroke,
Besides himself, are all the English peers,
And with that odds he weighs king Richard down.-
Post you to London, and you'll find it so:
15 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? Oh, thou think'st
To serve me last, that I may longest keep
20 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 Bolingbroke !-
Gard'ner, for telling me these news of woe,
25 I would, the plants, thou graft'st, may nevergrow.
[Exeunt Queen and Ladies.
Gard. Poor queen! so that thy state might be

[Coming from her concealment. Thou old Adam's likeness, set to dress this garden, 30 How dares thy harsh tongue sound this unpleasing

news?

What Eve, what serpent hath suggested thee
To make a second fall of cursed man?
Why dost thou say, king Richard is depos'd?

35

no worse,

I would my skill were subject to thy curse.-
Here did she drop a tear; here, in this place,
I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace:
Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen,
In the remembrance of a weeping queen.

[Exeunt Gard. and Serv.

SCENE I.

ACT

IV.

I heard you say,

"You rather had refuse

London. The Parliament-House.

Enter Bolingbroke, Aumerle, Northumberland,

"The offer of an hundred thousand crowns,

"Than Bolingbroke return to England;

Percy, Fitzwater, Surry, Bishop of Carlisle, 45" Adding withal, how blest this land would be,

Abbot of Westminster, Herald, Officers, and
Bagot.

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 perform'd The bloody office of his timeless' end.

"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 stars2,
50 On equal terms to give him chastisement?
Either I must, or have mine honour soil'd
With the attainder of his sland'rous lips.-
There is my gage, the manual seal of death,
That marks thee out for hell: Thou liest, and
I 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.

Bagot. Then set before my face the lordAumerle.
Boling. Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that
[tongue 55

man.

Bagot. My lord Aumerle, I know, your daring Scorns to unsay what once it hath deliver'd. In that dead time whenGloster'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,

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Boling. Bagot, forbear, thou shalt not take it up. Aum. Excepting one, I would he were the best In all this presence, that hath mov'd me so.

Fitzw. If that thy valour stand on sympathies', There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine:

Timeless for untimely. Meaning, his high or noble birth.

'i, e. upon equality of blood.

By

By that fair sun that shews me where thou stand'st,
I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spak'st it,
That thou 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 the day.
Fitzw. Now, by my soul, I would it were the

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 iny foe!
Another Lord. I take the earth' to the like, for-
sworn Aumerle;

[all:

5

10

15

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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'dRichard; who with willing soul
Adopts thee heir, and his high scepter yields
To the possession of thy royal hand:

20 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
Carl. Marry, God forbid!-
[throne.
Worst in his 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

And spur thee on with full as many lies
As may be halloo'd in thy treacherous ear
From sin to sin: there is my honour's pawn:
Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st.
Aum. Who sets me else? By heaven, I'll throw at 25
I have a thousand spirits in one breast,
To answer twenty thousand such as you.

Surry. My lord Fitzwater, I do remember well
The very time Aumerie and you did talk.
Fitzw. Tis very true: you were in presence then; 30
And you can witness with me, this is true.

Surry. As false,by heaven, as heaven itself is true.
Fitzw. Surry, thou liest.

Surry. 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 darʼst. [horse
Fitzw. How fondly dost thou spur a forward
If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live,
I dare meet Surry in a wilderness,
And spit upon him, 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.

Aum. Some honest Christian trust me with a gage,
That Norfolk lies: here do I throw down this,
If he may be repeal'd to try his honour.

Of noble Richard; then true nobleness would
Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.
What subject can give sentence on his king?
And who sits here, that is not Richard's subject?
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,
35 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
40 Should shew 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:
45 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
50 Shall kin with kin, and kind with kind confound;
Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny,

Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd
The field of Golgotha and dead men's sculls.
O, if you rear this house against this house,

Boling. These differences shall all rest under gage, 55 It will the wofullest division prove,

'Till Norfolk be repeal'd: repeal'd he shall be, And, though mine enemy, restor❜d again

To all his land and signories; when he's return'd,

Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial.

Car. That honourable day shall ne'er be seen.

Many a time hath banis'd Norfolk fought

For Jesu Christ; in glorious Christian field

60

That ever fell upon this cursed earth:
Prevent, resist it, let it not be so,

Lest children's children cry against you-woe!
North. Well have you argu'd, sir: and, for
your pains,

Of capital treason we arrest you here:-
My lord of Westminster, be it your charge

Dr. Johnson supposes, that for the earth we should read thy outh. where I have just begun to be an actor. Surry has just before called him boy.

Meaning, in this world,

Το

Act 4. Scene 1.]

KING RICHARD II.

To keep him safely 'till his day of trial.- [suit?]
May't please you, lords, to grant the commons
Boling. Fetch hither Richard, that in common
He may surrender; so we shall proceed
Without suspicion.

York. I will be his.conduct.

[view

[Exit.

Boling. Lords, you that here are under our

arrest,

Procure your sureties for your days of answer:-
Little are we beholden to your love, [To Carlisle.
And little look'd for at your helping hands.

Re-enter York, with King Richard.

my

knee:

K. Rich. Alack, why am I sent for to a king.
Before I have skook off the regal thoughts
Wherewith I reign'd? I hardly yet have learn'd
To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend
Give sorrow leave a while to tutor me
To this submission. Yet I well remember
The favours' of these men: Were they not mine?
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 hither?

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;

5

With mine own tears I wash away my balm2,
With mine own hands I give away my crown,
With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,
With mine own breath release all duteous oaths:
All pomp and 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!
10 Make me, that nothing have, with nothing griev'd;
And thou with all pleas'd, that hast all atchiev'd;
Long may'st thou live in Richard's seat to sit,
And soon lie Richard in an earthy pit! |
God save king Henry, unking'd Richard says,
15 And send him many years of sun-shine days!—
What more remains?

North. No more, but that you read
These accusations, and these grievous crimes,
Committed by your person and your followers,
20 Against the state and profit of this land;
That, by confessing them, the souls of men
May deem that you are worthily depos'd.

K. Rich. Must I do so? and must I ravel out My weav'd-up follies? Gentle Northumberland, 25 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 an heinous article,-
Containing the deposing of a king,

30 And cracking the strong warrant of an oath,-
Mark'd with a blot, damn'd in the book of heaven:--
upon me,
Nay, all of you, that stand and look
Whilst that my wretchednesss doth bait myself,—
Though some of you, with Pilate, wash your hands,
Pilates
Shewing an outward pity; yet you
Have here deliver'd me to my sour cross,
And water cannot wash away your sin.

[thine.
Here, cousin, on this side, my hand; on that side, 35
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:
The bucket down, and full of tears, am I,
Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high.
Boling. I thought you had been willing to resign.
K. Rich. My crown, I am; but still my griefs

are mine:

You may my glories and my state dispose,
Lut 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.

[ticles.

North. My lord, dispatch; read o'er these ar-
K. Rich. Mine eyes are full of tears, I cannot sec:
40 And yet salt-water blinds them not so much,
But they can see a sort3 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,
45 To undeck the pompous body of a king;
Make glory base; a sovereign, a slave;
Proud majesty, a subject; state, a peasant.
North. My lord,—

50

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 crown? 55
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;

1i. e. the eircumstances; the features.
haughty.

K. Rich. No lord of thine, thou haught', in-
sulting man,

Nor no man's lord; I have no name, no 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!
Oh, that I were a mockery king of snow,
Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke,
To melt myself away in water-drops!-
Goodking-great king-(and yet not greatlygood)
60 An if my word be sterling yet in England.

[To Boling.

Let it command a mirror hither straight;

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That it may shew me what a face I have,
Since it is bankrupt of his majesty.

come.

Boling. Go some of you and fetch a looking-glass.
North. Read o'er this paper, while the glass doth
[to hell. 5
K. Rich. Fiend! thou torment'st me ere I come
Boling. Urge it no more, my lord Northum-
berland.

North. The commons will not then be satisfy'd.
K. Rich. They shall be satisfy'd; I'll read enough, 10
When I do see the very book indeed
Where all my sins are writ, and that's-myself.
Enter one, with a glass.

Give me that glass, and therein will I read.-
No deeper wrinkles yet? Hath sorrow struck
So many blows upon this face of mine,
And made no deeper wounds?--Oh, flattering glass,
Like to my followers in prosperity,
Thou dost beguile me!-Was this face the face
That every day under his houshold roof
Did keep ten thousand men? Was this the face,
That, like the sun, did make beholders wink?
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:

[Dashes the glass against the ground.
As brittle as the glory, is the face;
For there it is, crack'd in an 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 manners of lament,
Are merely shadows to the unseen grief,
That swells with silence in the tortur'd soul;

15

20

25

There lies the substance: and I thank thee, king,
For thy great bounty, that not only giv❜st
Me cause to wail, but teachest me the way
How to lament the cause. I'll beg one boon,
And then be gone, and trouble you no more.
Shall I obtain it?

Boting. Naine it, fair cousin.

[a king:
K. Rich. Fair cousin? Why, I am greater than
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?

[sights

K. Rich. Whither you will, so I were from your
Boling Gosome of you,convey him to the Tower.
K. Rich. Oh, good! convey?-conveyors' are
you all,

That rise thus nimbly by a true king's fall. [Erit.
Boling On Wednesday next, we solemnly set
Our coronation: lords, prepare yourselves. [down
[Ex. all but the Abbot, Bishop of Carlisle, and Aumerie.
Abbot. A woeful pageant have we here beheld
Carl. The woes to come; the childrenyet unborn
Shall feel this day as sharp to them as thorn.

Aum. You holy clergymen, is there no plot 30 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 also to effect
Whatever I shall happen to devise:-
35I see, your brows are full of discontent,
Your hearts of sorrow, and your eyes of tears;
Come home with me to supper, and I'll lay
A plot, shall shew us all a merry day. [Exeunt.

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Ah, thou the model where old Troy did stand;
[To K. Rich.
Thou map of honour; thou king Richard's tomb,
And not king Richard; thou most beauteous inn,

Queen. THIS way the king will come; this is 50 Why should hard favour'd grief be lodg’d in thee,

the way

To Julius Cæsar's ill-erected tower',
To whose flint bosom my condemned lord
Is doom'd a prisoner by proud Bolingbroke:
Here let us rest, if this rebellious earth
Have any resting for her true king's queen.
Enter King Richard, and guards.
But soft, but see, or rather do not see,
My fair rose wither: Yet look up; behold;
That you in pity may dissolve to dew,
And wash him fresh again with true-love tears.

1i. e. jugglers.

Julius Cæsar

When triumph is become an ale-house guest?
K.Rich.Join not with grief, fair woman, do not so,
To make my end too sudden: learn, good soul,
To think our former state a happy dream;
55 From which awak'd, the truth of what we are
Shews us but this: I am sworn brother, sweet,
To grim necessity; and he and I

Will keep a league 'till death. Hiethee to France,
And cloister thee in some religious house:
60 Our holy lives must win a new world's crown,
Which our profane hours here have stricken down.

The Tower of London is said to have been erected by

3 .e. to conceal.

Queen.

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