And, nobie uncle, I beseech your grace,
Look on my wrongs with an indifferent1 eye:
You are my father, for, methinks, in you
I see old Gaunt alive; O, then, my father!
Will you permit that I shall stand condemn'd
A wand'ring vagabond; my rights and royalties
Pluck'd from my arms perforce, and given away
To upstart unthrifts? Wherefore was I born?
If that my cousin king be king of England,
It must be granted, I am duke of Lancaster.
You have a son, Aumerle, my noble kinsman;
Had you first died, and he been thus trod down,
He should have found his uncle Gaunt a father,
To rouse his wrongs,2 and chase them to the bay.
I am denied to sue my livery3 here,
And yet my letters patent give me leave:
My father's goods are all distrain'd, and sold;
And these, and all, are all amiss employ'd.
What would you have me do? I am a subject,
And challenge law: Attornies are denied me;
And therefore personally I lay my claim
To my inheritance of free descent.

North. The noble duke hath been too much

abus'd.

Ross. It stands your grace upon to do him right.
Willo. Base men by his endowments are made

great.

York. My lords of England, let me tell you this,-
I have had feeling of my cousin's wrongs,
And labour'd all I could to do him right:
But in this kind to come, in braving arms,
Be his own carver, and cut out his way,

To find out right with wrong,-it may not be;
And you, that do abet him in this kind,
Cherish rebellion, and are rebels all.

Cap. 'Tis thought, the king is dead: we will not
stay.

The bay-trees in our country are all wither'd,"
And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven;
The pale-fac'd moon looks bloody on the earth,
And lean-look'd prophets whisper fearful change;
Rich men look sad, and ruffians dance and leapy-
The one in fear to lose what they enjoy,
The other, to enjoy by rage and war:
These signs forerun the death or fall of kings.-
Farewell; our countrymen are gone and fled,
As well assur'd, Richard their king is dead. [Eri
Sal. Ah, Richard! with the eyes of heavy mind,
I see thy glory, like a shooting star,
Fall to the base earth from the firmament!
Thy sun sets weeping in the lowly west,
Witnessing storms to come, woe, and unrest:
Thy friends are fled, to wait upon thy foes:
And crossly to thy good all fortune goes.

SCENE I.

ACT III.

[Erit.

Bolingbroke's Camp at Bristol. ERter BOLINGBROKE, YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, WILLOUGHBY, Ross: Officers behind with BUSHY and GREEN, prisoners.

Boling. Bring forth these men.

North. The noble duke hath sworn, his coming is Bushy and Green, I will not vex your souls

But for his own: and, for the right of that,
We all have strongly sworn to give him aid;
And let him ne'er see joy, that breaks that oath.
York. Well, well, I see the issue of these arms;

I cannot mend it, I must needs confess,
Because my power is weak, and all ill left:
But, if I could,-by him that gave me life!-
I would attach you all, and make you stoop
Un'o the sovereign mercy of the king;
But, since I cannot, be it known to you,
I do remain as neuter. So, fare you well;-
Unless you please to enter in the castle,
And there repose you for this night.

Boling. An offer, uncle, that we will accept.
But we must win your grace, to go with us
To Bristol Castle; which, they say, is held
By Bushy, Bagot, and their complices,
The caterpillars of the commonwealth,
Which I have sworn to weed, and pluck away.
York. It may be, I will go with you:-but yet
I'll pause;

For I am loath to break our country's laws.
Nor friends, nor foes, to me welcome you are:
Things past redress, are now with me past care."
[Exeunt.
SCENE IV. A Camp in Wales. Enter SALIS-
BURY, and a Captain.

Cap. My lord of Salisbury, we have staid ten
days,

1 Ind fferent is impartial. The instances of this use of the word among the poet's contemporaries are very

numerous.

(Since presently your souls must part your bodies,)
With too much urging your pernicious lives,
For 'twere no charity: yet, to wash your blood
From off my hands, here, in the view of men,
I will unfold some causes of your deaths.
You have misled a prince, a royal king,
A happy gentleman in blood and lineaments,
By you unhappied and disfigur'd clean."
You have, in manner, with your sinful hours,
Made a divorce betwixt his queen and him;
Broke the possession of a roval bed,1°
And stain'd the beauty of a fair queen's cheeks
With tears drawn from her eyes by your foul wrongs.
Myself a prince, by fortune of my birth,
Near to the king in blood; and near in love,
Till you did make him misinterpret me,-
Have stoop'd my neck under your injuries,
And sigh'd my English breath in foreign clouds,
Eating the bitter bread of banishment:
Whilst you have fed upon my signories,
Dispark'd my parks, and fell'd my forest woods;
From my own windows torn my household coat,
Raz'd out my impress, 12 leaving me no sign,-

9 This enumeration of prodigies is in the highest deree poetical and striking. The poet received the hint

from Holinshed: In this yeare, in a manner through out all the realme of Englande, old baie trees withered, &c. This, as it appears from T. Lupton's Syxt Books of Notable Things, bl. 4to. was esteemed a bad omen. Neyther falling sickness, neyther devyll, wyll infest Romaynes call it the plant of the good angel, &c.' Sco or hurt one in that place whereas a bay tree is. The also Evelyn's Sylva, to. 1776, p. 296.

9 i. e. quite, completely.

10 There seems to be no authority for this. Isabel period; his first queen, Anne, died in 1392, and be was Richard's second queen, was but nine years old at this very fond of her.

2 Wogs is probably here used for wrongers. 3 See the former scene, p. 412, n. 7. 4 Steevens explains the phrase, It stands your grace upon,' to mean, it is your interest: it is matter of consequence to you.' But hear Baret, The heyre is bound: the hevre ought, or it is the heyre's part to de- and character, by destroying the enclosures, and the 11 To dispark signifies to divest a park of its name fend; it standeth him upon; or is in his charge. cumbit defensio mortis hæredi. The phrase is there-underwood,) and the beasts of the chase therein; laying vert (or whatever bears green leaves, whether wood er fore equivalent to it is incumbent upon your grace.

5

Things without remedy

Should be without regard.'

In

6 Johnson thought this scene had been by some acci Macbeth. dent transposed, and that it should stand as the second

scane in the third act.

7 John Montacute, earl of Salisbury.

it open.

12 The impress was a device, or motto. Ferne, in his Blazon of Gentry, 1588, observes that the arms, wheresoever they are fixed or set. For the punish &c. of traitors and rebels may be defaced and removed ment of a base knight see Spenser's Faerie Queen, b v. c. iii. st. 37.

have been taught to think false or foolish to the reign of King James I. But this doctrine was never carried further in any country, than in this island, while the

2 Johnson says, 'here may be properly inserted the house of Tudor sat on the throne. last scene of the second act.'

418

KING RICHARD II.

The worst is worldly loss, thou canst unfold.
Say, is my kingdom lost? why, 'twas my care!
And what loss is it, to be rid of care?
Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we?
Greater he shall not be; if he serve God,
We'll serve him too, and be his fellow so:
Revolt our subjects? that we cannot mend ;
They break their faith to God, as well as us:
Cry woe, destruction, ruin, loss, decay:
The worst is death, and death will have his day.
Scroop. Glad am I, that your highness is so
arm'd

To bear the tidings of calamity
Like an unseasonable stormy day,

Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores,
As if the world were all dissolv'd to tears,
So high above his limits swells the rage
Of Bolingbroke, covering your fearful land
With hard bright steel, and hearts harder than steel.
White-beards have arm'd their thin and hairless
scalps

Against the majesty; and boys, with women's
voices,

Strive to speak big, and clap their female joints
In stiff unwieldy arms against thy crown:
The very beadsmen learn to bend their bows
Of double-fatal yew against thy state;
Yea, distaff-women manage rusty bills
Against thy seat: both young and old rebel,
And all goes worse than I have power to tell.
K. Rich. Too well, too well, thou tell'st a tale
so ill:

Where is the earl of Wiltshire? where is Bagot ?2
What is become of Bushy? where is Green?
That they have let the dangerous enemy
Measure our confines with such peaceful steps?
pay for it.
If we prevail, their heads shall
I warrant, they have made peace with Bolingbroke.
Scroop. Peace have they made with him, indeed,
my lord.

K. Rich. O villains, vipers, damn'd without re-
demption!

Dogs, easily won to fawn on any man!
Snakes, in my heart-blood warm'd, that sting my
heart!

Three Judases, each one thrice worse than Judas!
Would they make peace? terrible hell make war
Upon their spotted souls for this offence!

Scroop. Sweet love, I see, changing his property,
Turns to the sourest and most deadly hate;-
Again uncurse their souls; their peace is made
With heads, and not with hands: those whom you

curse,

Have felt the worst of death's destroying wound,
And lie full low, grav'd3 in the hollow ground.
Aum. Is Bushy, Green, and the earl of Wilt-
shire dead?

Scroop. Yea, all of them at Bristol lost their
heads.

Aum. Where is the duke, my father, with his
power?

K. Rich. No matter where; of comfort no man
speak:
Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;
Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth.

1 Yeu is called double-fatal, because of the poison-
ous quality of the leaves, and on account of the wood
being used for instruments of death. From some an-
cient statutes it appears that every Englishman, while
archery was practised, was obliged to keep in his house
either a bow of yew or some other wood. It has been
supposed that yews were anciently planted in church-
yards not only to defend the church from the wind, but
on account of their use in making bows; while their
poisonous quality was kept from doing mischief to the
cattle, in that sacred enclosure.

2 The mention of Bagot here is a lapse of the poet or the king; but perhaps it may have been intended to mark more strongly the perturbation of the king's mind, by making him inquire at first for Bagot, whose loyalty, on further recollection, might show him the impropriety of the question.

3 i. e. buried. The verb is not peculiar to Shakspeare.

Let's choose executors, and talk of wills:
And yet not so,-for what can we bequeath,
Save our deposed bodies to the ground?
Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke's,
And nothing can we call our own, but death;
And that small model of the barren earth,
Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.
For heaven's sake, let us sit upon the ground,
And tell sad stories of the death of kings:-
How some have been depos'd, some slain in war;
Some haunted by the ghosts they have depos'd;
Some poison'd by their wives, some sleeping kill'à;
All murder'd:-For within the hollow crown,
That rounds the mortal temples of a king,
Keeps death his court: and there the antick sits,
Scoffing his state, and grinning at his pomp;
Allowing him a breath, a little scene
To monarchise, be fear'd, and kill with looks;
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,—
As if this flesh, which walls about our life,
Were brass impregnable; and humour'd thus,
Comes at the last, and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall, and-farewell, king!
Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood
With solemn reverence; throw away respect,
Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty,
For you have but mistook me all this while :
I live with bread like you, feel want, taste grief,
Need friends :-Subjected thus,

How can you say to me-I am a king?

Car. My lord, wise men ne'er wail their present

woes,

But presently prevent the ways to wail.
To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength,
Gives, in your weakness, strength unto your foe,
And so your follies fight against yourself.
Fear, and be slain; no worse can come, to fight:
And fight and die, is death destroying death;"
Where fearing dying, pays death servile breath.

Aum. My father hath a power, inquire of him;
And learn to make a body of a limb.

K. Rich. Thou chid'st me well:-Proud Boling-
broke, I come

To change blows with thee for our day of doom.
This ague-fit of fear is over-blown ;
An easy task it is, to win our own.-
Say, Scroop, where lies our uncle with his power?
Speak sweetly, man, although thy looks be sour.
Scroop. Men judge by the complexion of the sky
The state and inclination of the day:
So may you by my dull and heavy eye,

My tongue hath but a heavier tale to say.
I play the torturer, by small and small,
To lengthen out the worst that must be spoken:-
Your uncle York hath join'd with Bolingbroke;
And all your northern castles yielded up,
And all your southern gentlemen in arms
Thou hast said enough.—
Upon his party.
K. Rich.
[To AUMERLE.
Beshrew thee, cousin, which didst lead me forth

?
What comfort have we now
Of that sweet way I was in to despair!
What say you now
By heaven, I'll hate him everlastingly,
That bids me be of comfort any more."
Go, to Flint Castle; there I'll pine away;

4 A small model, or module, for they were the same in Shakspeare's time, seems to mean in this place a small portion or quantity. It is a Latinism, from 'modulus, the measure or quantity of a thing.'

5 It is not impossible that Shakspeare borrowed this idea from that most exquisite emblematic book of engra vings on wood, the Dance of Death, or Imagines Mortis, attributed to Holbein. See the seventh print.

6 Tradition here seems to mean traditional practi ces, i. e. established or customary homage.

7 That is, to die fighting is to return the evil that we suffer, to destroy the destroyers.

8 This sentiment is drawn from nature. Nothing is more offensive to a mind convinced that its distress is without remedy, and preparing to submit quietly to irre sistible calamity, than these petty and conjectured comforts, which unskilful officiousness thinks it virtue to administer.

A king, woe's slave, shall kingly woe obey.
That power I have, discharge; and let them go
To ear the land that hath some hope to grow,
For I have none :-Let no man speak again
To alter this, for counsel is but vain.

Aum. My liege, one word.

K. Rich.
He does me double wrong,
That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue.
Discharge my followers, let them hence:-Away,
From Richard's night, to Bolingbroke's fair day.
[Exeunt.
SCENE III. Wales. A Plain before Flint Cas-
Enter, with Drum and Colours, BOLING-
BROKE and Forces; YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND,

tle.

and others.

Boling. So that by this intelligence we learn,
The Welshmen are dispers'd; and Salisbury
Is gone to meet the king, who lately landed,
With some few private friends, upon this coast.
North. The news is very fair and good, my lord;
Richard not far from hence, hath hid his head.

York. It would beseem the lord Northumberland,
To say-King Richard:-Alack the heavy day,
When such a sacred king should hide his head!
North. Your grace mistakes me;2 only to be
brief,

Left I his title out.

The time hath been,

York.
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.
Boling. Mistake not, uncle, further than you
should.

York. Take not, good cousin, further than you
should,

Lest you mis-take: The heavens are o'er your

head.

Boling. I know it, uncle; and oppose not
Myself against their will.-But who comes here?
Enter PERCY.

Well,' Harry; what, will not this castle yield?
Percy. The castle royally is mann'd, my lord,
Against thy entrance.

Boling. Royally!

Why, it contains no king?

Percy.

Yes, my good lord,

It doth contain a king: King Richard lies
Within the limits of yon lime and stone:

Go, signify as much; while here we march
Upon the grassy carpet of this plain.—

[NORTHUMBERLAND advances to the
Castle, with a Trumpet.
Let's march without the noise of threat'ning drum,
That from the castle's totter'd' battlements
Our fair appointments may be well perus'd.
Methinks, King Richard and myself should meet
With no less terror than the elements

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:
be his, while on the earth I rain
March on, and mark King Richard how he looks.
My waters; on the earth, and not on him.

The rage

A Parley sounded, and answered by another Trum-
pet within. Flourish. Enter on the walls KING
RICHARD, the Bishop of Carlisle, AUMERLE,
SCROOP, and SALISBURY.

York. See, see, King Richard doth himself ap-
pear,

As doth the blushing discontented sun
From out the fiery portal of the east ;
When he perceives the envious clouds are bent
To dim his glory, and to stain the track
Of his bright passage to the occident.
Yet looks he like a king; behold, his eye,
As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth
Controlling majesty; Alack, alack, for woe,
That any harm should stain so fair a show!
K. Rich. We are amaz'd; and thus long have
we stood

To watch the fearful bending of thy knee,
[To NORTHUMBERLAND.
Because we thought ourself thy lawful king:
And if we be, how dare thy joints forget
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,
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,
Is must'ring in his clouds, on our behalf,

And with him are the Lord Aumerle, Lord Salis- Armies of pestilence; and they shall strike

bury,

Sir Stephen Scroop; besides a clergyman
Of holy reverence; who, I cannot learn.

North. Belike, it is the bishop of Carlisle.
Boling. Noble lord,*

[To NORTH.

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 :
Harry Bolingbroke

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,
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 slaughter'd Englishmen
The which, how far off from the mind of Bolingbroke
It is, such crimson tempest should bedrench
The fresh green lap of fair King Richard's land,
My stooping duty tenderly shall show.

1 To ear the land is to fill it, to plough it.

2 The word me, which is wanting in the old copies, was supplied by Hanmer.

3 The old copy reads, Welcome, Harry: the emendation is Hanmer's.

:

4 Shakspeare frequently, in his addresses to persons, begins with an hemistich; and sometimes blends short prosaic sentences with his metrical dialogues.

Your children yet unborn, and unbegot,
That lift your vassal hands against my head,
And threat the glory of my precious crown.
Tell Bolingbroke (for yond', methinks, he is,)
stride he makes upon my land,

That every

Is dangerous treason: He is come to ope
The purple testament of bleeding war;
But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,
Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' 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.
North. The king of heaven forbid, our lord the
king

Should so with civil and uncivil arms

Harry Bolingbroke, doth humbly kiss thy hand :
Be rush'd upon! Thy thrice-noble cousin,
And by the honourable tomb he swears,
That stands upon thy 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,

6 The six first lines of this speech are erroneously given to Bolingbroke in the old copies.

7 Shakspeare uses the word testament in its legal sense. Bolingbroke is come to open the testament of war, that he may peruse what is decreed there in his favour. Purple is an epithet referring to the future effusion of blood.

8 i. e. England's flowery face, the flowery surface of

5 Totter'd, the reading of the two first quartos, is here probably used for tottering, according to the fre quent age of our poet. The other copies read tatter’d. | England's soil.

Comprising all that may be sworn or said,→→
His coming hither hath no further scope,
Than for his lineal royalties, and to beg
Enfranchisement immediate on his knees:
Which on the royal party granted once,
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, is just;
And, as I am a gentleman, I credit him.

K. Rich. 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 thou hast,
Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends.-
We do debase ourself, cousin, do we not,

[To AUMERLE.
To look so poorly, and to speak so fair?
Shall we call back Northumberland, and send
Defiance to the traitor, and so die?

Aum. No, good my lord; let's fight with gentle
words,

Till time lend friends, and friends their helpful

swords.

K. Rich. 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
With words of sooth!2 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 what I must be now!

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

beat,

Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me.
Aum. Northumberland comes back from Boling-

broke.

K. Rich. 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
The name of king? o'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 alms-man's gown;
My figur'd goblets, for a dish of wood;
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,
Some way of common trade,4 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 cou-

sin!

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
I talk but idly, and you mock 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.

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?
As thus:-To drop them still upon one place,
Till they have fretted us a pair of graves

1 Commend for commit.

2 Sooth is sweet, as well as true. In this place sooth means sweetness or softness. Thus to soothe still means to calm and sweeten the mind.

North. My lord, in the base' court he doth attend To speak with you; may't please you to come down? K. Rich. Down, down, I come; like glistering 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.
[Exeunt from above.

Boling. What says his majesty?

North.

Sorrow and grief of heart like a frantic man:

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

Madam, we will dance. being advertised that the duke was coming, even at hand, he caused all his gentlemen to wait upon him down through the hall into the base court-Edition

9 Foolishly.

3 Richard's expense in regard to dress was very ex-1925, p. 211. traordinary. He had one coate which he caused to be made for him of gold and stone, valued at 3000 marks.' -Holinshed.

10 The duke, with a sharpe high voyce bade bring forth the king's horses; and then two little nagges, not worth 4 Some way of common trade' is some way of fre-forty franks, were brought forth the king was set on quent resort, a common course; as, at present," a road of much traffic,' i. e. frequent resort.

one, and the earle of Salisburie on the other; and thus the duke brought the king from Flint to Chester, where he was delivered to the duke of Gloucester's sonne (that loved him but little, for he had put their father to death,) who led him straight to the castle.'-Stowe (p. 521. edit. 1605,) from a manuscript account written by a person who was present.

bowl, which gave it a particular inclination in bowling 11 The bias was a weight inserted in one side of a