And bids me speak of nothing but despair. And thou shalt have twelve thousand fighting men! O'erthrows thy joys, friends, fortune, and thy state; Aum. Comfort, my liege; why looks your grace so pale? K. Rich. But now, the blood of twenty thousand men Did triumph in my face, and they are fled; And, till so much blood thither come again, Have I not reason to look pale and dead? All souls that will be safe, fly from my side; For time hath set a blot upon my pride. Aum. Comfort, my liege; remember who you are. K. Rich. I had forgot myself. Am I not king? Awake, thou sluggard1 majesty! thou sleep'st. 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 favorites of a king. Are we not high? High be our thoughts: I know, my uncle York Hath power enough to serve our turn. But who Comes here? Enter SCROOP. Scroop. More health and happiness betide my liege, Than can my care-tuned tongue deliver him. K. Rich. Mine ear is open, and my heart prepared; The worst is worldly loss, thou canst unfold. Say, is my kingdom lost? why, 'twas my care! Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we? 1 The first quarto reads "coward majesty." We'll serve him too, and be his fellow so. The worst is-death, and death will have his day. Scroop. Glad am I, that your highness is so armed To bear the tidings of calamity. Like an unseasonable, stormy day, Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores, With hard, bright steel, and hearts harder than steel. K. Rich. Too well, too well, thou tell'st a tale so ill: Where is the earl of Wiltshire? where is Bagot? What is become of Bushy? where is Green? I warrant, they have made peace with Bolingbroke. Scroop. Peace have they made with him, indeed, my lord. K. Rich. O villains, vipers, damned without redemption ! Dogs, easily won to fawn on any man! Snakes, in my heart-blood warmed, that sting my heart, 1 Yew is called double-fatal, because of the poisonous quality of the leaves, and on account of the wood being used for instruments of death. Scroop. Sweet love, I see, changing his property, Turns to the sourest and most deadly hate. Again uncurse their souls; their peace is made Aum. Is Bushy, Green, and the earl of Wiltshire, 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. 2 Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs; To monarchize, be feared, and kill with looks 1 i. e. buried. The verb is not peculiar to Shakspeare. 2 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." Comes at the last, and with a little pin Bores through his castle wall, and-farewell, king! 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, K. Rich. Thou chid'st me well.-Proud Bolingbroke, To change blows with thee for our day of doom. An easy task it is, to win our own. Say, Scroop, where lies our uncle with his power? So may you, by my dull and heavy eye, I play the torturer, by small and small, To lengthen out the worst that must be spoken. Your uncle York hath joined with Bolingbroke; And all your northern castles yielded up, And all your southern gentlemen in arms 1 Tradition here seems to mean traditional practices, i. e. established or customary homage. 2 That is, to die fighting is to return the evil that we suffer, to destroy the destroyers. K. Rich. Thou hast said enough. Beshrew thee, cousin, which didst lead me forth Of that sweet way I was in to despair! [TO AUMERLE. What say you now? What comfort have we now? Aum. My liege, one word. [Exeunt. SCENE III. Wales. A Plain before Flint Castle. Enter, with drum and colors, BOLINGBROKE and York. It would beseem the lord Northumberland York. 2 The time hath been, 1 To ear the land is to till it, to plough it. 2 The word me, which is wanting in the old copies, was supplied by Hanmer. |