TPTT The Tragedy of King Richard the Second: ACT III
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
SCENE I. Bristol. Before the castle.
SCENE II. The coast of Wales. A castle in view.
SCENE III. Wales. Before Flint castle.
SCENE IV. LANGLEY. The DUKE OF YORK's garden.
ACT IV
ACT V
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SCENE III. Wales. Before Flint castle.
Enter, with drum and colours, HENRY BOLINGBROKE, DUKE OF YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND, Attendants, and forces
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
      So that by this intelligence we learn
      The Welshmen are dispersed, and Salisbury
      Is gone to meet the king, who lately landed
      With some few private friends upon this coast.
NORTHUMBERLAND
5     The news is very fair and good, my lord:
      Richard not far from hence hath hid his head.
DUKE OF YORK
      It would beseem the Lord Northumberland
      To say 'King Richard:' alack the heavy day
      When such a sacred king should hide his head.
NORTHUMBERLAND
10    Your grace mistakes; only to be brief
      Left I his title out.
DUKE OF YORK
      The time hath been,
      Would you have been so brief with him, he would
      Have been so brief with you, to shorten you,
15    For taking so the head, your whole head's length.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
      Mistake not, uncle, further than you should.
DUKE OF YORK
      Take not, good cousin, further than you should.
      Lest you mistake the heavens are o'er our heads.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
      I know it, uncle, and oppose not myself
20    Against their will. But who comes here?

Enter HENRY PERCY

      Welcome, Harry: what, will not this castle yield?
HENRY PERCY
      The castle royally is mann'd, my lord,
      Against thy entrance.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
      Royally!
25    Why, it contains no king?
HENRY PERCY
      Yes, my good lord,
      It doth contain a king; King Richard lies
      Within the limits of yon lime and stone:
      And with him are the Lord Aumerle, Lord Salisbury,
30    Sir Stephen Scroop, besides a clergyman
      Of holy reverence; who, I cannot learn.
NORTHUMBERLAND
      O, belike it is the Bishop of Carlisle.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
      Noble lords,
      Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle;
35    Through brazen trumpet send the breath of parley
      Into his ruin'd ears, and thus deliver:
      Henry Bolingbroke
      On both his knees doth kiss King Richard's hand
      And sends allegiance and true faith of heart
40    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 restored again be freely granted:
      If not, I'll use the advantage of my power
45    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,
50    My stooping duty tenderly shall show.
      Go, signify as much, while here we march
      Upon the grassy carpet of this plain.
      Let's march without the noise of threatening drum,
      That from this castle's tatter'd battlements
55    Our fair appointments may be well perused.
      Methinks King Richard and myself should meet
      With no less terror than the elements
      Of fire and water, when their thundering shock
      At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven.
60    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.
      March on, and mark King Richard how he looks.

Parle without, and answer within. Then a flourish. Enter on the walls, KING RICHARD II, the BISHOP OF CARLISLE, DUKE OF AUMERLE, SIR STEPHEN SCROOP, and EARL OF SALISBURY

      See, see, King Richard doth himself appear,
65    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.
DUKE OF YORK
70    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!
KING RICHARD II
      We are amazed; and thus long have we stood
75    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
80    That hath dismissed 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,
85    Have torn their souls by turning them from us,
      And we are barren and bereft of friends;
      Yet know, my master, God omnipotent,
      Is mustering in his clouds on our behalf
      Armies of pestilence; and they shall strike
90    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 stands--
      That every stride he makes upon my land
95    Is dangerous treason: he is come to open
      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,
100   Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace
      To scarlet indignation and bedew
      Her pastures' grass with faithful English blood.
NORTHUMBERLAND
      The king of heaven forbid our lord the king
      Should so with civil and uncivil arms
105   Be rush'd upon! Thy thrice noble cousin
      Harry Bolingbroke doth humbly kiss thy hand;
      And by the honourable tomb he swears,
      That stands upon your royal grandsire's bones,
      And by the royalties of both your bloods,
110   Currents that spring from one most gracious head,
      And by the buried hand of warlike Gaunt,
      And by the worth and honour of himself,
      Comprising all that may be sworn or said,
      His coming hither hath no further scope
115   Than for his lineal royalties and to beg
      Enfranchisement immediate on his knees:
      Which on thy royal party granted once,
      His glittering arms he will commend to rust,
      His barbed steeds to stables, and his heart
120   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.
KING RICHARD II
      Northumberland, say thus the king returns:
      His noble cousin is right welcome hither;
125   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 ourselves, cousin, do we not,

To DUKE OF AUMERLE

130   To look so poorly and to speak so fair?
      Shall we call back Northumberland, and send
      Defiance to the traitor, and so die?
DUKE OF AUMERLE
      No, good my lord; let's fight with gentle words
      Till time lend friends and friends their helpful swords.
KING RICHARD II
135   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! O that I were as great
      As is my grief, or lesser than my name!
140   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.
DUKE OF AUMERLE
      Northumberland comes back from Bolingbroke.
KING RICHARD II
145   What must the king do now? must he submit?
      The king shall do it: must he be deposed?
      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,
150   My gorgeous palace for a hermitage,
      My gay apparel for an almsman's gown,
      My figured goblets for a dish of wood,
      My sceptre for a palmer's walking staff,
      My subjects for a pair of carved saints
155   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, where subjects' feet
      May hourly trample on their sovereign's head;
160   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!
      We'll make foul weather with despised tears;
      Our sighs and they shall lodge the summer corn,
165   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
170   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 laugh at me.
      Most mighty prince, my Lord Northumberland,
175   What says King Bolingbroke? will his majesty
      Give Richard leave to live till Richard die?
      You make a leg, and Bolingbroke says ay.
NORTHUMBERLAND
      My lord, in the base court he doth attend
      To speak with you; may it please you to come down.
KING RICHARD II
180   Down, down I come; like glistering Phaethon,
      Wanting the manage of unruly jades.
      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!
185   down, king!
      For night-owls shriek where mounting larks
      should sing.
Exeunt from above
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
      What says his majesty?
NORTHUMBERLAND
      Sorrow and grief of heart
190   Makes him speak fondly, like a frantic man
      Yet he is come.
Enter KING RICHARD and his attendants below
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
      Stand all apart,
      And show fair duty to his majesty.

He kneels down

      My gracious lord,--
KING RICHARD II
195   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 unpleased eye see your courtesy.
      Up, cousin, up; your heart is up, I know,
200   Thus high at least, although your knee be low.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
      My gracious lord, I come but for mine own.
KING RICHARD II
      Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
      So far be mine, my most redoubted lord,
      As my true service shall deserve your love.
KING RICHARD II
205   Well you deserve: they well deserve to have,
      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,
210   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?
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
      Yea, my good lord.
KING RICHARD II
215   Then I must not say no.
Flourish. Exeunt
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