I do not sue to stand, Pardon is all the suit I have in hand. Boling. I pardon him, as God shall pardon me. Duch. O happy vantage of a kneeling knee! Yet am I sick for fear: speak it again; Twice saying pardon, doth not pardon twain, But makes one pardon strong. Boling.
I pardon him. Duch. A god on earth thou art. Boling. But for our trusty brother-in-law,-and the abbot,
With all the rest of that consorted crew,- Destruction straight shall dog them at the heels. Good uncle, help to order several 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 too, adieu : Your mother well hath pray'd, and prove you true. Duch. Come, my old son;-I pray God make [Exeunt. SCENE IV.-Enter Exton, and a Servant. 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?
Those were his very words.
Exton. Have I no friend? quoth he: he spake it twice,
And urg'd it twice together; did he not? Serv. He did.
Exton. And, speaking it, he wistfully look'd on
As 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. [Exe. SCENE V.-Pomfret. The dungeon of the castle. Enter King Richard.
K. Rich. I have been studying how I may com
This prison, where I live, unto the world: And, for because the world is populous, And here is not a creature but myself, I cannot do it ;-Yet I'll hammer it out. My brain I'll prove the female to my soul; My soul, the father: and these two beget A generation of still-breeding thoughts, And these same thoughts people this little world; In humours, like the people of this world, For no thought is contented. The better sort,- As thoughts of things divine,-are intermix'd With scruples, and do set the word itself Against the word :3
As thus,-Come, little ones; and then again,- It is as hard to come, as for a camel To thread the postern 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 prison walls; And, for they cannot, die in their own pride. Thoughts tending to content, flatter themselves,- That they are not the first of fortune's slaves, Nor shall not be the last; like silly beggars, Who, sitting in the stocks, refuge their shame,-
(2) His own body. (4) Little gate. (5) Tick. like the figure of a man on
That 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 endur'd the like. Thus play I, in one person, many people, And none contented: Sometimes am I king; Then treason makes me wish myself a beggar, And so I am: Then crushing penury Persuades me I was better when a king; Then am I king'd again: and, by-and-by, Think that I am unking'd by Bolingbroke, And straight am nothing :-But, whate'er I am, Nor I, nor any man, that but man is, With nothing shall be pleas'd, till he be eas'd, With being nothing.-Music do I hear? [Music Ha, ha! keep time:-How sour sweet music is, When time is broke, and no proportion kept! So is it in the music of men's lives. And here have I the daintiness of ear, To check time broke in a disorder'd string; But, for the concord of my state and time, Had not an ear to hear my true time broke. I wasted time, and now doth time waste me. For now hath time made me his numb'ring clock: My thoughts are minutes; and, with sighs, they jar' Their watches on to mine eyes, the outward watch, Whereto my finger, like a dial's point,
Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears. Now, sir, the sound, that tells what hour it is, Are clamorous groans, that strike upon my heart, Which is the bell; So sighs, and tears, and groans, Show minutes, times, and hours:-but my time Runs posting on in Bolingbroke's proud joy, While I stand fooling here, his Jack o'the clock." This music mads me, let it sound no more; For, though it have holp madmen to their wits, 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 Richard Is a strange brooch' in this all-hating world. Enter Groom.
Groom. Hail, royal prince! Thanks, noble peer; K. Rich. The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear. What art thou? and how comest thou hither, Where no man never comes, but that sad dog That brings me food, to make misfortune live?
Groom. I was a poor groom of thy stable, king, When thou wert king; who, travelling towards York,
With much ado, at length have gotten leave To look upon my sometimes master's face. O, how it yearn'd my heart, when I beheld, In London streets, that coronation day, When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary! That horse, that thou so often hast bestrid; That horse, that I so carefully have dress'd! K. Rich. Rode he on Barbary? Tell me gentle friend,
How went he under him?
Groom. So proudly, as if he disdain'd the ground. K. Rich. So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back!
That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand; This hand hath made him proud with clapping 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'
(7) An ornamented buckle, and also a jewel ir general. (8) Former.
Forgiveness, horse! why do I rail on thee, Since thou, created to be aw'd by man, Wast born to bear? I was not made a horse; And yet I bear a burden like an ass, Spur-gall'd, and tir'd, by jauncing' Bolingbroke.
Boling. We thank thee, gentle Percy, for thy pains;
And to thy worth will add right worthy gains.
Enter Keeper, with a dish. Keep. Fellow, give place; here is no longer stay. The heads of Brocas, and sir Bennet Seely; [To the Groom. Two of the dangerous and consorted traitors, K. Rich. If thou love me, 'tis time thou wert That sought at Oxford thy dire overthrow.
Fitz. My lord, I have from Oxford sent to London
Groom. What my tongue dares not, that my
[Exit. Keep. My lord, will't please you to fall to? K. Rich. Taste of it first, as thou art wont to do. Keep. My lord, I dare not; sir Pierce of Exton, who
Lately came from the king, commands the contrary. K. Rich. The devil take Henry of Lancaster and
Boling. Thy pains, Fitzwater, shall not be forgot, Right noble is thy merit, well I'wot.
Enter Percy, with the Bishop of Carlisle. Percy. The grand conspirator, abbot of Westminster,
With clog of conscience, and sour melancholy, Hath yielded up his body to the grave; But here is Carlisle, living, to abide Thy kingly doom, and sentence of his pride. [Beats the Keeper. Boling. Carlisle, this is your doom :-
Patience is stale, and I am weary of it.
Keep. Help, help, help!
Enter Exton, and servants, armed. K. Rich. How now? what means death in this rude assault?
Villain, thy own hand yields thy death's instrument. [Snatching a weapon, and killing one. Go thou, and fill another room in hell. [He kills another, then Exton strikes him down. That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire, That staggers thus my person.-Exton, thy fierce
Hath with the king's blood stain'd the king's own land.
Mount, mount, my soul! thy seat is up on high; Whilst my gross flesh sinks downward, here to die. [Dies.
Exton. As full of valour, as of royal blood: Both have I spilt; 0, 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.
Choose out some secret place, some reverend room, More 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 sparks of honour in thee have I seen.
Enter Exton, with attendants bearing 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, by me hither brought. Boling. Exton, I thank thee not; for thou hast wrought
A deed of slander, with thy fatal hand, Upon my head, and all this famous land. Exton. From your own mouth, my lord, did I this deed.
Nor do I thee; though I did wish him dead, Boling. They love not poison that do poison need, I hate the murderer, love him murdered. The guilt of conscience take thou for thy labour, But neither my good word, nor princely favour: With Cain go wander through the shade of night, And never show thy head by day nor night.SCENE VI.-Windsor. A room in the castle. Lords, I protest, my soul is full of wo, Flourish. Enter Bolingbroke, and York, with lords and attendants.
Boling. Kind uncle York, the latest news we hear Is-that the rebels have consum'd with fire Our town of Cicester in Glostershire;
But whether they be ta'en, or slain, we hear not. Enter Northumberland.
Welcome, my lord: What is the news?
North. First, to thy sacred state wish I all hap- piness.
The next news is,-I have to London sent The heads of Salisbury, Spencer, Blunt, and Kent: The manner of their taking may appear At large discoursed in this paper here.
[Presenting a paper.
(1) Jaunting. (2) Immediately.
That blood should sprinkle me, to make me grow Come, mourn with me for what I do lament, And put on sullen black incontinent;2 I'll make a voyage to the Holy Land, To wash this blood off from my guilty hand :- March sadly after; grace my mournings here, In weeping after this untimely bier. [Exeunt.
This play is one of those which Shakspeare has apparently revised; but as success in works of invention is not always proportionate to labour, it is not finished at last with the happy force of some other of his tragedies, nor can be said much to affect the passions, or enlarge the understanding.
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