Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves?
So when this thief, this traitor, Bolingbroke,-
Who all this while hath revell'd in the night,
Whilft we were wand'ring with the antipodes,-
Shall fee us rifing in our throne the east,
His treasons will fit blushing in his face,
Not able to endure the fight of day,
But, felf-affrighted, tremble at his fin.
Not all the water in the rough rude fea
Can wash the balm from an anointed king;
The breath of worldly men cannot depose
The deputy elected by the Lord:

For every man that Bolingbroke hath preft,
To lift fhrewd steel against our golden crown,
God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay
A glorious angel: then, if angels fight,
Weak men must fall; for heaven still guards the
right.

[Cry, woe, destruction, ruin, lofs, 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.

5 Like an unfeasonable stormy day,

Which makes the filver rivers drown their shores,
As if the world were all diffolv'd to tears;
So high above his limits fwells the rage
Of Bolingbroke, covering your fearful land
10 With hard bright fteel, and hearts harder than steel.
White beards have arm'd their thin and hairlessscalps
Against thy majefty; boys, with women's voices,
Strive to fpeak big, and clafp their female joints
In ftiff unwieldy arms against thy crown :
|15 Thy very beadsmen 1 learn to bend their bows
Of double-fatal 2 yew against thy state;
Yea, diftaff women manage rusty bills
Againft. thy feat: both young and old rebel,
And all goes worse than I have power to tell. [ill.
K. Rich. Too well, too well, thou tell'ft a tale fo
Where is the earl of Wiltshire? where is Bagot?
What is become of Bufhy? where is Green?
That they have let the dangerous enemy
Measure our confines with fuch peaceful steps?
25 If we prevail, their heads fhall pay for it.

Enter Salisbury.
Welcome, my lord; How far off lies your power?20
Sal. Nor near, nor further off, my gracious lord,
Than this weak arm: Difcomfort guides my
tongue,

And bids me fpeak of nothing but despair.
One day too late, I fear, my noble lord,
Hath clouded all thy happy days on earth:
Oh, call back yesterday, bid time return,
And thou shalt have twelve thousand fighting men!
To-day, to-day, unhappy day, too late,

I warrant, they have made peace with Bolingbroke.
Scroop. Peace have they made with him, indeed,
my lord.
[demption!
K. Rich. O villains, vipers, damned without re-

O'erthrows thy joys, friends, fortune, and thy state; 30 Dogs, eafily won to fawn on any man! [heart!
For all the Weshmen, hearing thou wert dead,
Are gone to Bolingbroke, difpers'd, and fled.

Aum. Comfort, my liege; Why looks your grace fo pale?

[men

K. Rich. But now the blood of twenty thousand 35
Did triumph in my face, and they are fled;
And 'till fo much blood thither come again,

Have I not reason to look pale, and dead?
All fouls that will be fafe, fly from my fide;
For time hath fet a blot upon my pride.

Snakes, in my heart-blood warm'd, that fting my
Three Judaffes, each one thrice worse than Judas!
Would they make peace? Terrible hell make war
Upon their spotted fouls for this offence!

Scroop. Sweet love, I fee, changing his property,
Turns to the fourest and most deadly hate :-
Again uncurfe their fouls; their peace is made
With heads, and not with hands; those whom you
curfe,

[are. 40 Have felt the worst of death's deftroying wound, And lie full low, grav'd in the hollow ground.

Aum. Comfort, my liege; remember who you
K. Rich. I had forgot myself: Am I not king?
Awake, thou cowardly majefty! thou sleepest.
Is not the king's name forty thousand names?
Arm, arm, my name; a puny subject strikes
At thy great glory.-Look not to the ground,
Ye favourites of a king; Are we not high?
High be our thoughts: I know, my uncle York
Hath power enough to ferve our turn. But who
Comes here?

Enter Scroop.

Scroop. More health and happiness betide my liege,
Than can my care-tun'd tongue deliver him!

K. Rich. Mine ear is open, and my heart prepar'd
The worst is worldly lofs, thou canst unfold.
Say, is my kingdom loft? why, 'twas my care;
And what lofs is it, to be rid of care?
Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we ?
Greater he shall not be; if he ferve God,
We'll ferve him too, and be his fellow fo;
Revolt our subjects? that we cannot mend;
They break their faith to God, as well as us:

;

Aum. Is Bufhy, Green, and the earl of Wilt

fhire dead?

Scroop. Yea, all of them at Bristol loft their heads. 45 Aum. Where is the duke my father with his [Speak:

power?

K. Rich. No matter where; of comfort no man
Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;
Make duft our paper, and with rainy eyes
50 Write forrow on the bofom of the earth.
Let's chufe executors, and talk of wills :-
And yet not fo,-for what can we bequeath,
Save our depofed bodies to the ground?
Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke's,
55 And nothing can we call our own, but death;
And that fmall model 3 of the barren earth,
Which ferves as paste and cover to our bones.
For heaven's fake, let us fit upon the ground,
And tell fad ftories of the death of kings:
60 How fome have been depos'd, fome flain in war;
Some haunted by the ghosts they have depos'd;
Some poifon'd by their wives, fome fleeping kill'd;

Called fo, because the leaves of the yew are poison,
3 i. c. mould.

'The king's beadsmen were his chaplains. and the wood is employed for inftruments of death.

All

All murder'd:For within the hollow crown,
That rounds the mortal temples of a king,
Keeps Death his court: and there the antic' fits,
Scoffing his ftate, and grinning at his pomp;
Allowing him a breath, a little scene

To monarchize, be fear'd, and kill with looks ;
Infufing him with self and vain conceit,-
As if this flesh, which walls about our life,
Were brafs impregnable; and, humour'd thus,
Comes at the last, and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall, and farewel king!
Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood
With folemn reverence; throw away respect,
Tradition 2, form, and ceremonious duty,
For you have but mistook me all this while :
I live on bread like you, feel want, taste grief,
Need friends;-Subjected thus,

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

Carl. My lord, wife men ne'er wail their pre-
fent woes,

But presently prevent the ways to wail.
To fear the foe, fince fear oppreffeth strength,
Gives, in your weakness, strength unto your foe,
And fo your follies fight against yourself.
Fear, and be slain; no worse can come, to fight:
And fight and die, is death destroying death 3;
Where fearing dying, pays death fervile breath.

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

5

15

20

The Camp of Bolingbroke, before Flint Cafile.
Enter with drums and colours, Bolingbroke, Yerk,
Northumberland, and Attendants.

Boling. So that by this intelligence we learn,
The Welfhmen are difpers'd; and Salisbury
Is gone to meet the king, who lately landed,
With fome few private friends upon this coaft.
North. The news is very fair and good, my lord;
Richard, not far from hence, hath hid his head.
York. It would befeem the lord Northumberland,
To fay-king Richard :—Alack the heavy day,
When fuch a facred king should hide his head!
North. Your grace mistakes; only to be brief,
Left I his title out.

York. The time hath been,

Would you have been so brief with him, he would
Have been fo brief with you, to shorten you,

25 For taking fo the head 5, the whole head's length.
Boling. Miftake not, uncle, farther than you
fhould.
[should,
York. Take not, good coufin, farther than you
Left you mif-take: The heavens are o'er your head.
Boling. I know it, uncle; and oppose not
Myfelf against their will.-But who comes here?
Enter Percy.

K. Rich. Thou chid'ft me well:-Proud Boling-30
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.

Welcome, Harry; what, will not this castle yield?
Percy. The caftle royally is mann'd, my lord,

Beling. Royally! Why, it contains no king?
Percy. Yes, my good lord,

Say, Scroop, where lies our uncle with his power? 35 Against thy entrance.
Speak fweetly, man, although thy looks be four.
Scroop. Men judge by the complexion of the sky
The ftate 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 worft that must be spoken :—
Your uncle York hath join'd with Bolingbroke ;
And all your northern castles yielded up;
And all your fouthern gentlemen in arms
Upon his party.

K. Rith. Thou haft faid enough.--
Befhrew thee, cousin, which didst lead me forth
[To Aumerle.

Of that fweet way I was in to defpair!
What say you now? What comfort have we now?
By heaven, I'll hate him everlastingly,
That bids me be of comfort any more.
Go, to Flint caftle; there I'll pine away;
A king, woe's flave, fhall kingly woe obey.
That power I have, discharge; and let them go
To ear the land 4 that hath fome hope to grow,
For I have none :-Let no man fpeak again
To alter this, for counsel is but vain.

Aum. My liege, one word.

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

40 And with him lord Aumerle, lord Salisbury,
Sir Stephen Scroop; befides a clergyman
Of holy reverence, who, I cannot learn.
North. Belike, it is the bishop of Carlisle.
Boling. Noble lord,
[To North

45 Go to the rude ribs of that ancient caftle;
Through brazen trumpet fend the breath of parle
Into his ruin'd ears, and thus deliver:
Harry of Bolingbroke, on both his knees,
Doth kifs king Richard's hand;

50 And fends allegiance, and true faith of heart,
To his moft royal perfon; hither come
Even at his feet to lay my arms and power;
Provided that, my banishment repeal'd,
And lands reftor'd again, be freely granted:
55 If not, I'll ufe the advantage of my power,
And lay the fummer's dust with showers of blood,
Rain'd from the wounds of flaughter'd Englishmen:
The which, how far off from the mind of Boling-
broke

60lIt is, fuch crimson tempest should bedrench

This alludes to the antic or fool of old farces, whose principal business is to ridicule the graver and more fplendid perfonages. 2 Tradition feems here used for traditional practices. 3 The meaning is, to die fighting, is to return the evil that we fuffer, to destroy the destroyers. i. e. to plough it. 5. To take the bead is, to take undue liberties.

The

The fresh green lap of fair king Richard's land,
My stooping duty tenderly shall fhew.
Go, fignify as much: while here we march
Upon the graffy carpet of this plain.—
Let's march without the noise of threat'ning drum,
That from this 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 :
The rage be his, while on the earth I rain
My waters; on the earth, and not on him.
March on, and mark king Richard how he looks.

Aparle founded, and answered by another trumpet within.
Flourish. Enter on the walls King Richard, the Bi-
fhop of Carlisle, Aumerle, Scroop, and Salisbury..

Harry Bolingbroke, doth humbly kifs thy hand,
And by the honourable tomb he swears,
That ftands upon thy royal grandfire's bones;
And by the royalties of both your bloods,
5 Currents that fpring from one moft gracious head;
And by the bury'd hand of warlike Gaunt;
And by the worth and honour of himself,
Comprifing all that may be fworn or said ;-
His coming hither hath no farther scope,
10 Than for his lineal royalties, and to beg
Enfranchifement immediate on his knees:
Which on thy royal party granted once,
His glittering arms he will commend to rust,
His barbed feeds to stables, and his heart
15 To faithful service of your majefty.
This fwears he, as he is a prince, is just;
And, as I am a gentleman, I credit him.
K. Rich. Northumberland, fay, thus the king

returns:

York. See, fee, king Richard doth himself appear, 20 His noble coufin is right welcome hither;
As doth the blushing discontented fun

From out the fiery portal of the east;
When he perceives, the envious clouds are bent
To dim his glory, and to stain the tract
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 majefty: Alack, alack, for woe,
That any harm should stain so fair a show!

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.
25 We do debafe ourself, coufin, do we not, [To Aux.
To look fo poorly, and to speak so fair?
Shall we call back Northumberland, and fend
Defiance to the traitor, and fo die?

K. Rich. We are amaz'd; and thus long have 30
we stood

To watch the fearful bending of thy knee, [ToNorth.
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, fhew us the hand of God
That hath difmifs'd us from our stewardship;
For well we know, no hand of blood and bone
Can gripe the facred handle of our sceptre,
Unless he do prophane, steal, or ufurp.
And though you think, that all, as you have done,
Have torn their fouls, by turning them from us,
And we are barren, and bereft of friends ;-------
Yet know, my master, God omnipotent,
Is muft'ring in his clouds, on our behalf,
Armies of peftilence; and they shall strike
Your children yet unborn, and unbegot,
That lift your vaffal hands against my head,
And threat the glory of my precious crown.
Tell Bolingbroke (for yond', methinks, he is)
That every ftride he makes upon my land,
Is dangerous treason: He is come to ope
The purple teftament of bleeding war;
But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,
Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' fons
Shall ill become the flower of England's face 1;
Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace
To fcarlet indignation, and bedew
Her pasture's grafs with faithful English blood.

[words,
Aum. No, good my lord; let's fight with gentle
Till time lend friends, and friends their helpful
fwords.
[of mine,

K. Rich. Oh God! oh God! that e'er this tongue
That laid the fentence of dread banishment
On yon proud man, should take it off again
35 With words of footh! Oh, that I were as great
As is my grief, or leffer than my name !
Or that I could forget what I have been!
Or not remember what I must be now!
Swell'ft thou, proud heart? I'll give thee fcope to
40 Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me.

[beat,

Aum. Northumberland comes back from Bo

K. Rich. What must the king do now? Must he
The king fhall do it. Muft he be depos'd?
45 The king fhall be contented. Must he lofe
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 ;
50My figur'd goblets, for a difh of wood;
My fceptre, for a palmer's walking-staff;
My fubjects, for a pair of carved faints;
And my large kingdom, for a little grave,
A little little grave, an obfcure grave :-
55 Or I'll be bury'd in the king's highway,
Some way of common trade, where fsubjects' feet
May hourly trample on their fovereign's head:
For on my heart they tread, now whilft I live;
And, bury'd once, why not upon my head ?-

North. The King of heaven forbid, our lord 60 Aumerle, thou weep'ft; My tender-hearted

K. Rich. Down, down, I come; like glift'ring
Phaeton,

20

Wanting the manage of unruly jades.
[North. retires to Bol.
In the base court? Base court where kings grow
To come at traitors' calls, and do them grace.[bafe,
In the base court? Come down? Down, court! 25
down, king!

For night-owls fhriek, where mounting larks
[Exeunt, from above.

fhould fing.

Boling. What fays his majesty?

North. Sorrow and grief of heart

Makes him speak fondly 2, like a frantic man:

30

Yet he is come.

[Enter Richard, &c. below.

Boling. Stand all apart,

And fhew fair duty to his majesty.

My gracious lord,

K. Rich. Fair coufin, you debase your princely||

knee,

SCENE IV.

Langley.

The Duke of York's garden.

Enter the Queen, and two Ladies.

Queen. What sport shall we devife 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.
Queen. Of forrow, 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 forrow;
Or if of grief, being altogether had,

It adds more forrow 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 fing.

Queen. 'Tis well, that thou hast cause:
But thou fhould'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. [Kneels. 35 But ftay, here come the gardeners : Let's ftep into the shadow of these trees.My wretchedness unto a row of pins, Enter a Gardener, and two feruants. They'll talk of state; for every one doth fo 40 Against a change; Woe is fore-run with woe. [Queen and Ladies retire. Gard. Go, bind thou up you dangling apricocks, |Which, like unruly children, make their fire Stoop with oppreffion of their prodigal weight; Give fome fupportance to the bending twigs.Go thou, and like an executioner,

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, coufin, up; your heart is up, I know,
Thus high at leaft, although your knee be low.
[Touching bis own bead.
Baling. My gracious lord, I come but for mine

own.

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

45

Cut off the heads of too-fast growing sprays,
That look too lofty in our commonwealth :
All must be even in our government.-

Boling. So far be mine, my most redoubted lord,
As my true fervice fhall deferve your love.
K. Rich. Well you deferve:-They well de- 50 You thus employ'd, I will go root away

ferve to have,

That know the strongest and surest way to get.-
Uncle, give me your hand: nay, dry your eyes;
Tears fhow their love, but want their remedies.
Coufin, 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 muft, what force will have us do.-
Set on towards London :-Cousin, is it so ?
Beling. Yea, my good lord.

K. Rich. Then I must not say, no.

Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf:
The weeds, that his broad fpreading leaves did
shelter,

That feem'd, în eating him, to hold him up,
Are pull'd up, root and all, by Bolingbroke;
I mean, the earl of Wiltshire, Buthy, Green.
Serv. What, are they dead?

5

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

Gard. Pardon me, madam : little joy have I
To breathe these news, yet, what I fay, is true.
King Richard, he is in the mighty hold
Of Bolingbroke; their fortunes both are weigh'd:
In your lord's fcale is nothing but himself,
10 And fome few vanities that make him light;
But in the balance of great Bolingbroke,
Befides himself, are all the English peers,
And with that odds he weighs kingRichard down.
Poft you to London, and you'll find it fo:
151 fpeak no more than every one doth know.

Gard. They are; and Bolingbroke
Hath feiz'd the wasteful king.-What pity is it,
That he had not so trimm'd and drefs'd his land,
As we this garden! who at time of year
Do wound the bark, the skin of our fruit-trees;
Left, being over-proud with fap and blood,
With too much riches it confound itself:
Had he done fo to great and growing men,
They might have liv'd to bear, and he to taste
Their fruits of duty. All fuperfluous branches
We lop away, that bearing boughs may live :
Had he done fo, himself had borne the crown,
Whichwaste and idle hours hath quite thrown down. 20
Serv. What think you then, the king fhall be
depos'd?

Gard. Deprefs'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!

[Coming from ber concealment. Thou old Adam's likeness, fet to drefs this garden, How dares thy harsh tongue found this unpleafing news?

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

Queen. Nimble mischance, that art so light of foot,
Doth not thy embassage belong to me,
And am I laft that knows it? Oh, thou think'st
To ferve me laft, that I may longest keep
Thy forrow in my breast.-Come, ladies, go,
To meet at London London's king in woe.-
What, was I born to this! that my fad look
Should grace the triumph of great Bolingbroke!-
Gard'ner, for telling me these news of woe,
25I would, the plants, thou graft'st, may never grow.
[Exeunt Queen and Ladies.
Gard. Poor queen! fo that thy state might be

3c

1351

no worse,

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

[Excunt Gard, and ferro.

SCENE I.

ACT

London. The Parliament-Houfe.

Enter Bolingbroke, Aumerle, Northumberland, Percy, 45
Fitzwater, Surry, Bishop of Carlisle, Abbot of
Weftminster, Herald, Officers, and Baget.

Boling.

C

ALL forth Bagot:

Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind;
What thou dost know of noble Glofter's death;
Who wrought it with the king, and who perform'd
The bloody office of his timeless ' end.

Bagot. Then fet before my face the lord Aumerle.
Boling. Coufin, stand forth, and look upon that

man.

IV.

I heard you say, "You rather had refuse
"The offer of an hundred thousand crowns
"Than Bolingbroke return to England;
"Adding withal, how bleft this land would be,
"In this your coufin's death."

Aum. Princes, and noble lords,
What anfwer thall I make to this base man?
Shall I fo much dishonour my fair stars 2,
50 On equal terms to give him chastisement ?
Either I muft, or have mine honour foil'd
With the attainder of his fland'rous lips.-
There is my gage, the manual feal of death,
That marks thee out for hell: Thou lieft, and

[tongue 55I will maintain what thou hast said, is false,

Baget. My lord Aumerle, I know, your daring] Scorns to unfay what once it hath deliver'd. In that dead time when Glofter's death was plotted, I heard you fay," 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,

60

In thy heart-blood, though being all too base
To ftain the temper of my knightly swor..
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 fo.
Fitzw. If that thy valour stand on sympathies 3,
There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine:

▪ Timeless for untimely.

2 Meaning, his high or noble birth. 3. e. upon equality of blood.

By