Folger Shakespeare Library

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Contents

Front Matter |
ACT 1 |
ACT 2 |
ACT 3 |
ACT 4 |
ACT 5 |

From the Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library

It is hard to imagine a world without Shakespeare. Since their composition four hundred years ago, Shakespeare’s plays and poems have traveled the globe, inviting those who see and read his works to make them their own.

Readers of the New Folger Editions are part of this ongoing process of “taking up Shakespeare,” finding our own thoughts and feelings in language that strikes us as old or unusual and, for that very reason, new. We still struggle to keep up with a writer who could think a mile a minute, whose words paint pictures that shift like clouds. These expertly edited texts are presented to the public as a resource for study, artistic adaptation, and enjoyment. By making the classic texts of the New Folger Editions available in electronic form as Folger Digital Texts, we place a trusted resource in the hands of anyone who wants them.

The New Folger Editions of Shakespeare’s plays, which are the basis for the texts realized here in digital form, are special because of their origin. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is the single greatest documentary source of Shakespeare’s works. An unparalleled collection of early modern books, manuscripts, and artwork connected to Shakespeare, the Folger’s holdings have been consulted extensively in the preparation of these texts. The Editions also reflect the expertise gained through the regular performance of Shakespeare’s works in the Folger’s Elizabethan Theater.

I want to express my deep thanks to editors Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine for creating these indispensable editions of Shakespeare’s works, which incorporate the best of textual scholarship with a richness of commentary that is both inspired and engaging. Readers who want to know more about Shakespeare and his plays can follow the paths these distinguished scholars have tread by visiting the Folger either in-person or online, where a range of physical and digital resources exists to supplement the material in these texts. I commend to you these words, and hope that they inspire.

Michael Witmore
Director, Folger Shakespeare Library

Textual Introduction
By Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine

Until now, with the release of the Folger Digital Texts, readers in search of a free online text of Shakespeare’s plays had to be content primarily with using the Moby™ Text, which reproduces a late-nineteenth century version of the plays. What is the difference? Many ordinary readers assume that there is a single text for the plays: what Shakespeare wrote. But Shakespeare’s plays were not published the way modern novels or plays are published today: as a single, authoritative text. In some cases, the plays have come down to us in multiple published versions, represented by various Quartos (Qq) and by the great collection put together by his colleagues in 1623, called the First Folio (F). There are, for example, three very different versions of Hamlet, two of King Lear, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, and others. Editors choose which version to use as their base text, and then amend that text with words, lines or speech prefixes from the other versions that, in their judgment, make for a better or more accurate text.

Other editorial decisions involve choices about whether an unfamiliar word could be understood in light of other writings of the period or whether it should be changed; decisions about words that made it into Shakespeare’s text by accident through four hundred years of printings and misprinting; and even decisions based on cultural preference and taste. When the Moby™ Text was created, for example, it was deemed “improper” and “indecent” for Miranda to chastise Caliban for having attempted to rape her. (See The Tempest, 1.2: “Abhorred slave,/Which any print of goodness wilt not take,/Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee…”). All Shakespeare editors at the time took the speech away from her and gave it to her father, Prospero.

The editors of the Moby™ Shakespeare produced their text long before scholars fully understood the proper grounds on which to make the thousands of decisions that Shakespeare editors face. The Folger Library Shakespeare Editions, on which the Folger Digital Texts depend, make this editorial process as nearly transparent as is possible, in contrast to older texts, like the Moby™, which hide editorial interventions. The reader of the Folger Shakespeare knows where the text has been altered because editorial interventions are signaled by square brackets (for example, from Othello: “If she in chains of magic were not bound,”), half-square brackets (for example, from Henry V: “With blood and sword and fire to win your right,”), or angle brackets (for example, from Hamlet: “O farewell, honest soldier. Who hath relieved/you?”). At any point in the text, you can hover your cursor over a bracket for more information.

Because the Folger Digital Texts are edited in accord with twenty-first century knowledge about Shakespeare’s texts, the Folger here provides them to readers, scholars, teachers, actors, directors, and students, free of charge, confident of their quality as texts of the plays and pleased to be able to make this contribution to the study and enjoyment of Shakespeare.

Synopsis

In Richard II, anger at a king’s arbitrary rule leads to his downfall—and sets in motion a decades-long struggle for the crown that continues in several more history plays.

Richard II begins as Richard’s cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, charges Thomas Mowbray with serious crimes, including the murder of the Duke of Gloucester. Bolingbroke’s father, John of Gaunt, privately blames the king for Gloucester’s death. At Richard’s command, Bolingbroke and Mowbray prepare for a trial by combat. The king halts the fight at the last minute, banishing both men from England.

When John of Gaunt dies, Richard seizes his possessions to help finance a war in Ireland, thus dispossessing Bolingbroke. Bolingbroke returns to England, quickly gathering support. By the time Richard returns from Ireland, many of his former allies have joined Bolingbroke. Richard abdicates, yielding the crown to Bolingbroke.

Richard is held at Pomfret Castle and Bolingbroke becomes King Henry IV. A murder plot against him is uncovered and stopped. Richard is murdered by a follower of Henry.

Characters in the Play
King Richard II
Sir John Bushy
Sir John Bagot
Sir Henry Green
Richard’s friends
Richard’s Queen
Queen’s Ladies-in-waiting
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster
Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, son to John of Gaunt,
and later King Henry IV
Duchess of Gloucester, widow to Thomas, Duke of Gloucester
Edmund, Duke of York
Duchess of York
Duke of Aumerle, Earl of Rutland, son to Duke and Duchess of York
York’s Servingmen
Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk
Lord Marshal
First Herald
Second Herald
officials in trial by combat
Earl of Salisbury
Bishop of Carlisle
Sir Stephen Scroop
Lord Berkeley
Abbot of Westminster
Welsh Captain
supporters of King Richard
Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland
Lord Ross
Lord Willoughby
Harry Percy, son of Northumberland,
later known as “Hotspur”
supporters of
Bolingbroke
Lord Fitzwater
Duke of Surrey
Another Lord
Gardener
Gardener’s Servingmen
Groom of Richard’s stable
Keeper of prison at Pomfret Castle
Sir Pierce of Exton
Servingmen to Exton
Lords, Attendants, Officers, Soldiers, Servingmen, Exton’s Men

ACT 1
Scene 1
Enter King Richard, John of Gaunt, with other Nobles
and Attendants.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0001 Old John of Gaunt, time-honored Lancaster,
FTLN 0002 Hast thou, according to thy oath and band,
FTLN 0003 Brought hither Henry Hereford, thy bold son,
FTLN 0004 Here to make good the boist’rous late appeal,
FTLN 0005 5 Which then our leisure would not let us hear,
FTLN 0006 Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?
GAUNT FTLN 0007 I have, my liege.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0008 Tell me, moreover, hast thou sounded him
FTLN 0009 If he appeal the Duke on ancient malice
FTLN 0010 10 Or worthily, as a good subject should,
FTLN 0011 On some known ground of treachery in him?
GAUNT
FTLN 0012 As near as I could sift him on that argument,
FTLN 0013 On some apparent danger seen in him
FTLN 0014 Aimed at your Highness, no inveterate malice.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0015 15 Then call them to our presence.
An Attendant exits.
FTLN 0016 Face to face
FTLN 0017 And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear
7

9
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 1
FTLN 0018 The accuser and the accusèd freely speak.
FTLN 0019 High stomached are they both and full of ire,
FTLN 0020 20 In rage deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.
Enter Bolingbroke and Mowbray.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 0021 Many years of happy days befall
FTLN 0022 My gracious sovereign, my most loving liege.
MOWBRAY
FTLN 0023 Each day still better other’s happiness
FTLN 0024 Until the heavens, envying earth’s good hap,
FTLN 0025 25 Add an immortal title to your crown.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0026 We thank you both. Yet one but flatters us,
FTLN 0027 As well appeareth by the cause you come:
FTLN 0028 Namely, to appeal each other of high treason.
FTLN 0029 Cousin of Hereford, what dost thou object
FTLN 0030 30 Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 0031 First—heaven be the record to my speech!—
FTLN 0032 In the devotion of a subject’s love,
FTLN 0033 Tend’ring the precious safety of my prince
FTLN 0034 And free from other misbegotten hate,
FTLN 0035 35 Come I appellant to this princely presence.—
FTLN 0036 Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee;
FTLN 0037 And mark my greeting well, for what I speak
FTLN 0038 My body shall make good upon this earth
FTLN 0039 Or my divine soul answer it in heaven.
FTLN 0040 40 Thou art a traitor and a miscreant,
FTLN 0041 Too good to be so and too bad to live,
FTLN 0042 Since the more fair and crystal is the sky,
FTLN 0043 The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly.
FTLN 0044 Once more, the more to aggravate the note,
FTLN 0045 45 With a foul traitor’s name stuff I thy throat,
FTLN 0046 And wish, so please my sovereign, ere I move,

11
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 1
FTLN 0047 What my tongue speaks my right-drawn sword may
FTLN 0048 prove.
MOWBRAY
FTLN 0049 Let not my cold words here accuse my zeal.
FTLN 0050 50 ’Tis not the trial of a woman’s war,
FTLN 0051 The bitter clamor of two eager tongues,
FTLN 0052 Can arbitrate this cause betwixt us twain.
FTLN 0053 The blood is hot that must be cooled for this.
FTLN 0054 Yet can I not of such tame patience boast
FTLN 0055 55 As to be hushed and naught at all to say.
FTLN 0056 First, the fair reverence of your Highness curbs me
FTLN 0057 From giving reins and spurs to my free speech,
FTLN 0058 Which else would post until it had returned
FTLN 0059 These terms of treason doubled down his throat.
FTLN 0060 60 Setting aside his high blood’s royalty,
FTLN 0061 And let him be no kinsman to my liege,
FTLN 0062 I do defy him, and I spit at him,
FTLN 0063 Call him a slanderous coward and a villain,
FTLN 0064 Which to maintain I would allow him odds
FTLN 0065 65 And meet him, were I tied to run afoot
FTLN 0066 Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps
FTLN 0067 Or any other ground inhabitable
FTLN 0068 Wherever Englishman durst set his foot.
FTLN 0069 Meantime let this defend my loyalty:
FTLN 0070 70 By all my hopes, most falsely doth he lie.
BOLINGBROKE , throwing down a gage
FTLN 0071 Pale trembling coward, there I throw my gage,
FTLN 0072 Disclaiming here the kindred of the King,
FTLN 0073 And lay aside my high blood’s royalty,
FTLN 0074 Which fear, not reverence, makes thee to except.
FTLN 0075 75 If guilty dread have left thee so much strength
FTLN 0076 As to take up mine honor’s pawn, then stoop.
FTLN 0077 By that and all the rites of knighthood else
FTLN 0078 Will I make good against thee, arm to arm,
FTLN 0079 What I have spoke or thou canst worse devise.

13
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 1
MOWBRAY , picking up the gage
FTLN 0080 80 I take it up, and by that sword I swear
FTLN 0081 Which gently laid my knighthood on my shoulder,
FTLN 0082 I’ll answer thee in any fair degree
FTLN 0083 Or chivalrous design of knightly trial;
FTLN 0084 And when I mount, alive may I not light
FTLN 0085 85 If I be traitor or unjustly fight.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0086 What doth our cousin lay to Mowbray’s charge?
FTLN 0087 It must be great that can inherit us
FTLN 0088 So much as of a thought of ill in him.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 0089 Look what I speak, my life shall prove it true:
FTLN 0090 90 That Mowbray hath received eight thousand nobles
FTLN 0091 In name of lendings for your Highness’ soldiers,
FTLN 0092 The which he hath detained for lewd employments,
FTLN 0093 Like a false traitor and injurious villain.
FTLN 0094 Besides I say, and will in battle prove,
FTLN 0095 95 Or here or elsewhere to the furthest verge
FTLN 0096 That ever was surveyed by English eye,
FTLN 0097 That all the treasons for these eighteen years
FTLN 0098 Complotted and contrivèd in this land
FTLN 0099 Fetch from false Mowbray their first head and
FTLN 0100 100 spring.
FTLN 0101 Further I say, and further will maintain
FTLN 0102 Upon his bad life to make all this good,
FTLN 0103 That he did plot the Duke of Gloucester’s death,
FTLN 0104 Suggest his soon-believing adversaries,
FTLN 0105 105 And consequently, like a traitor coward,
FTLN 0106 Sluiced out his innocent soul through streams of
FTLN 0107 blood,
FTLN 0108 Which blood, like sacrificing Abel’s, cries
FTLN 0109 Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth
FTLN 0110 110 To me for justice and rough chastisement.
FTLN 0111 And, by the glorious worth of my descent,
FTLN 0112 This arm shall do it, or this life be spent.

15
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 1
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0113 How high a pitch his resolution soars!—
FTLN 0114 Thomas of Norfolk, what sayst thou to this?
MOWBRAY
FTLN 0115 115 O, let my sovereign turn away his face
FTLN 0116 And bid his ears a little while be deaf,
FTLN 0117 Till I have told this slander of his blood
FTLN 0118 How God and good men hate so foul a liar.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0119 Mowbray, impartial are our eyes and ears.
FTLN 0120 120 Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom’s heir,
FTLN 0121 As he is but my father’s brother’s son,
FTLN 0122 Now by my scepter’s awe I make a vow:
FTLN 0123 Such neighbor nearness to our sacred blood
FTLN 0124 Should nothing privilege him nor partialize
FTLN 0125 125 The unstooping firmness of my upright soul.
FTLN 0126 He is our subject, Mowbray; so art thou.
FTLN 0127 Free speech and fearless I to thee allow.
MOWBRAY
FTLN 0128 Then, Bolingbroke, as low as to thy heart,
FTLN 0129 Through the false passage of thy throat, thou liest.
FTLN 0130 130 Three parts of that receipt I had for Calais
FTLN 0131 Disbursed I duly to his Highness’ soldiers;
FTLN 0132 The other part reserved I by consent,
FTLN 0133 For that my sovereign liege was in my debt
FTLN 0134 Upon remainder of a dear account
FTLN 0135 135 Since last I went to France to fetch his queen.
FTLN 0136 Now swallow down that lie. For Gloucester’s death,
FTLN 0137 I slew him not, but to my own disgrace
FTLN 0138 Neglected my sworn duty in that case.—
FTLN 0139 For you, my noble Lord of Lancaster,
FTLN 0140 140 The honorable father to my foe,
FTLN 0141 Once did I lay an ambush for your life,
FTLN 0142 A trespass that doth vex my grievèd soul.
FTLN 0143 But ere I last received the sacrament,
FTLN 0144 I did confess it and exactly begged

17
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 1
FTLN 0145 145 Your Grace’s pardon, and I hope I had it.—
FTLN 0146 This is my fault. As for the rest appealed,
FTLN 0147 It issues from the rancor of a villain,
FTLN 0148 A recreant and most degenerate traitor,
FTLN 0149 Which in myself I boldly will defend,
FTLN 0150 150 And interchangeably hurl down my gage
FTLN 0151 Upon this overweening traitor’s foot,
He throws down a gage.
FTLN 0152 To prove myself a loyal gentleman,
FTLN 0153 Even in the best blood chambered in his bosom;
FTLN 0154 In haste whereof most heartily I pray
FTLN 0155 155 Your Highness to assign our trial day.
Bolingbroke picks up the gage.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0156 Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be ruled by me.
FTLN 0157 Let’s purge this choler without letting blood.
FTLN 0158 This we prescribe, though no physician.
FTLN 0159 Deep malice makes too deep incision.
FTLN 0160 160 Forget, forgive; conclude and be agreed.
FTLN 0161 Our doctors say this is no month to bleed.—
FTLN 0162 Good uncle, let this end where it begun;
FTLN 0163 We’ll calm the Duke of Norfolk, you your son.
GAUNT
FTLN 0164 To be a make-peace shall become my age.—
FTLN 0165 165 Throw down, my son, the Duke of Norfolk’s gage.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0166 And, Norfolk, throw down his.
GAUNT FTLN 0167 When, Harry, when?
FTLN 0168 Obedience bids I should not bid again.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0169 Norfolk, throw down, we bid; there is no boot.
MOWBRAY
FTLN 0170 170 Myself I throw, dread sovereign, at thy foot.
Mowbray kneels.
FTLN 0171 My life thou shalt command, but not my shame.
FTLN 0172 The one my duty owes, but my fair name,

19
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 1
FTLN 0173 Despite of death that lives upon my grave,
FTLN 0174 To dark dishonor’s use thou shalt not have.
FTLN 0175 175 I am disgraced, impeached, and baffled here,
FTLN 0176 Pierced to the soul with slander’s venomed spear,
FTLN 0177 The which no balm can cure but his heart-blood
FTLN 0178 Which breathed this poison.
KING RICHARD FTLN 0179 Rage must be withstood.
FTLN 0180 180 Give me his gage. Lions make leopards tame.
MOWBRAY , standing
FTLN 0181 Yea, but not change his spots. Take but my shame
FTLN 0182 And I resign my gage. My dear dear lord,
FTLN 0183 The purest treasure mortal times afford
FTLN 0184 Is spotless reputation; that away,
FTLN 0185 185 Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.
FTLN 0186 A jewel in a ten-times-barred-up chest
FTLN 0187 Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast.
FTLN 0188 Mine honor is my life; both grow in one.
FTLN 0189 Take honor from me and my life is done.
FTLN 0190 190 Then, dear my liege, mine honor let me try.
FTLN 0191 In that I live, and for that will I die.
KING RICHARD , to Bolingbroke
FTLN 0192 Cousin, throw up your gage. Do you begin.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 0193 O, God defend my soul from such deep sin!
FTLN 0194 Shall I seem crestfallen in my father’s sight?
FTLN 0195 195 Or with pale beggar-fear impeach my height
FTLN 0196 Before this out-dared dastard? Ere my tongue
FTLN 0197 Shall wound my honor with such feeble wrong
FTLN 0198 Or sound so base a parle, my teeth shall tear
FTLN 0199 The slavish motive of recanting fear
FTLN 0200 200 And spit it bleeding in his high disgrace,
FTLN 0201 Where shame doth harbor, even in Mowbray’s face.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0202 We were not born to sue, but to command,
FTLN 0203 Which, since we cannot do, to make you friends,
FTLN 0204 Be ready, as your lives shall answer it,

21
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0205 205 At Coventry upon Saint Lambert’s day.
FTLN 0206 There shall your swords and lances arbitrate
FTLN 0207 The swelling difference of your settled hate.
FTLN 0208 Since we cannot atone you, we shall see
FTLN 0209 Justice design the victor’s chivalry.—
FTLN 0210 210 Lord Marshal, command our officers-at-arms
FTLN 0211 Be ready to direct these home alarms.
They exit.
Scene 2
Enter John of Gaunt with the Duchess of Gloucester.
GAUNT
FTLN 0212 Alas, the part I had in Woodstock’s blood
FTLN 0213 Doth more solicit me than your exclaims
FTLN 0214 To stir against the butchers of his life.
FTLN 0215 But since correction lieth in those hands
FTLN 0216 5 Which made the fault that we cannot correct,
FTLN 0217 Put we our quarrel to the will of heaven,
FTLN 0218 Who, when they see the hours ripe on Earth,
FTLN 0219 Will rain hot vengeance on offenders’ heads.
DUCHESS
FTLN 0220 Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper spur?
FTLN 0221 10 Hath love in thy old blood no living fire?
FTLN 0222 Edward’s seven sons, whereof thyself art one,
FTLN 0223 Were as seven vials of his sacred blood
FTLN 0224 Or seven fair branches springing from one root.
FTLN 0225 Some of those seven are dried by nature’s course,
FTLN 0226 15 Some of those branches by the Destinies cut.
FTLN 0227 But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Gloucester,
FTLN 0228 One vial full of Edward’s sacred blood,
FTLN 0229 One flourishing branch of his most royal root,
FTLN 0230 Is cracked and all the precious liquor spilt,
FTLN 0231 20 Is hacked down, and his summer leaves all faded,
FTLN 0232 By envy’s hand and murder’s bloody ax.

23
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0233 Ah, Gaunt, his blood was thine! That bed, that
FTLN 0234 womb,
FTLN 0235 That metal, that self mold that fashioned thee
FTLN 0236 25 Made him a man; and though thou livest and
FTLN 0237 breathest,
FTLN 0238 Yet art thou slain in him. Thou dost consent
FTLN 0239 In some large measure to thy father’s death
FTLN 0240 In that thou seest thy wretched brother die,
FTLN 0241 30 Who was the model of thy father’s life.
FTLN 0242 Call it not patience, Gaunt. It is despair.
FTLN 0243 In suff’ring thus thy brother to be slaughtered,
FTLN 0244 Thou showest the naked pathway to thy life,
FTLN 0245 Teaching stern murder how to butcher thee.
FTLN 0246 35 That which in mean men we entitle patience
FTLN 0247 Is pale, cold cowardice in noble breasts.
FTLN 0248 What shall I say? To safeguard thine own life,
FTLN 0249 The best way is to venge my Gloucester’s death.
GAUNT
FTLN 0250 God’s is the quarrel; for God’s substitute,
FTLN 0251 40 His deputy anointed in His sight,
FTLN 0252 Hath caused his death, the which if wrongfully
FTLN 0253 Let heaven revenge, for I may never lift
FTLN 0254 An angry arm against His minister.
DUCHESS
FTLN 0255 Where, then, alas, may I complain myself?
GAUNT
FTLN 0256 45 To God, the widow’s champion and defense.
DUCHESS
FTLN 0257 Why then I will. Farewell, old Gaunt.
FTLN 0258 Thou goest to Coventry, there to behold
FTLN 0259 Our cousin Hereford and fell Mowbray fight.
FTLN 0260 O, sit my husband’s wrongs on Hereford’s spear,
FTLN 0261 50 That it may enter butcher Mowbray’s breast!
FTLN 0262 Or if misfortune miss the first career,
FTLN 0263 Be Mowbray’s sins so heavy in his bosom

25
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 3
FTLN 0264 That they may break his foaming courser’s back
FTLN 0265 And throw the rider headlong in the lists,
FTLN 0266 55 A caitiff recreant to my cousin Hereford!
FTLN 0267 Farewell, old Gaunt. Thy sometime brother’s wife
FTLN 0268 With her companion, grief, must end her life.
GAUNT
FTLN 0269 Sister, farewell. I must to Coventry.
FTLN 0270 As much good stay with thee as go with me.
DUCHESS
FTLN 0271 60 Yet one word more. Grief boundeth where it falls,
FTLN 0272 Not with the empty hollowness, but weight.
FTLN 0273 I take my leave before I have begun,
FTLN 0274 For sorrow ends not when it seemeth done.
FTLN 0275 Commend me to thy brother, Edmund York.
FTLN 0276 65 Lo, this is all. Nay, yet depart not so!
FTLN 0277 Though this be all, do not so quickly go;
FTLN 0278 I shall remember more. Bid him—ah, what?—
FTLN 0279 With all good speed at Plashy visit me.
FTLN 0280 Alack, and what shall good old York there see
FTLN 0281 70 But empty lodgings and unfurnished walls,
FTLN 0282 Unpeopled offices, untrodden stones?
FTLN 0283 And what hear there for welcome but my groans?
FTLN 0284 Therefore commend me; let him not come there
FTLN 0285 To seek out sorrow that dwells everywhere.
FTLN 0286 75 Desolate, desolate, will I hence and die.
FTLN 0287 The last leave of thee takes my weeping eye.
They exit.
Scene 3
Enter Lord Marshal and the Duke of Aumerle.
MARSHAL
FTLN 0288 My Lord Aumerle, is Harry Hereford armed?
AUMERLE
FTLN 0289 Yea, at all points, and longs to enter in.

27
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 3
MARSHAL
FTLN 0290 The Duke of Norfolk, sprightfully and bold,
FTLN 0291 Stays but the summons of the appellant’s trumpet.
AUMERLE
FTLN 0292 5 Why then, the champions are prepared and stay
FTLN 0293 For nothing but his Majesty’s approach.
The trumpets sound and the King enters with his Nobles
and Officers; when they are set, enter Mowbray, the
Duke of Norfolk in arms, defendant, with a Herald.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0294 Marshal, demand of yonder champion
FTLN 0295 The cause of his arrival here in arms,
FTLN 0296 Ask him his name, and orderly proceed
FTLN 0297 10 To swear him in the justice of his cause.
MARSHAL , to Mowbray
FTLN 0298 In God’s name and the King’s, say who thou art
FTLN 0299 And why thou comest thus knightly clad in arms,
FTLN 0300 Against what man thou com’st, and what thy quarrel.
FTLN 0301 Speak truly on thy knighthood and thy oath,
FTLN 0302 15 As so defend thee heaven and thy valor.
MOWBRAY
FTLN 0303 My name is Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk,
FTLN 0304 Who hither come engagèd by my oath—
FTLN 0305 Which God defend a knight should violate!—
FTLN 0306 Both to defend my loyalty and truth
FTLN 0307 20 To God, my king, and my succeeding issue,
FTLN 0308 Against the Duke of Hereford that appeals me,
FTLN 0309 And by the grace of God and this mine arm
FTLN 0310 To prove him, in defending of myself,
FTLN 0311 A traitor to my God, my king, and me;
FTLN 0312 25 And as I truly fight, defend me heaven.
The trumpets sound. Enter Bolingbroke, Duke of
Hereford, appellant, in armor, with a Herald.
KING RICHARD FTLN 0313 Marshal, ask yonder knight in arms

29
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 3
FTLN 0314 Both who he is and why he cometh hither
FTLN 0315 Thus plated in habiliments of war,
FTLN 0316 And formally, according to our law,
FTLN 0317 30 Depose him in the justice of his cause.
MARSHAL , to Bolingbroke
FTLN 0318 What is thy name? And wherefore com’st thou hither,
FTLN 0319 Before King Richard in his royal lists?
FTLN 0320 Against whom comest thou? And what’s thy quarrel?
FTLN 0321 Speak like a true knight, so defend thee heaven.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 0322 35 Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby
FTLN 0323 Am I, who ready here do stand in arms
FTLN 0324 To prove, by God’s grace and my body’s valor,
FTLN 0325 In lists, on Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk,
FTLN 0326 That he is a traitor foul and dangerous
FTLN 0327 40 To God of heaven, King Richard, and to me.
FTLN 0328 And as I truly fight, defend me heaven.
MARSHAL
FTLN 0329 On pain of death, no person be so bold
FTLN 0330 Or daring-hardy as to touch the lists,
FTLN 0331 Except the Marshal and such officers
FTLN 0332 45 Appointed to direct these fair designs.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 0333 Lord Marshal, let me kiss my sovereign’s hand
FTLN 0334 And bow my knee before his Majesty;
FTLN 0335 For Mowbray and myself are like two men
FTLN 0336 That vow a long and weary pilgrimage.
FTLN 0337 50 Then let us take a ceremonious leave
FTLN 0338 And loving farewell of our several friends.
MARSHAL , to King Richard
FTLN 0339 The appellant in all duty greets your Highness
FTLN 0340 And craves to kiss your hand and take his leave.
KING RICHARD , coming down
FTLN 0341 We will descend and fold him in our arms.
He embraces Bolingbroke.
FTLN 0342 55 Cousin of Hereford, as thy cause is right,

31
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 3
FTLN 0343 So be thy fortune in this royal fight.
FTLN 0344 Farewell, my blood—which, if today thou shed,
FTLN 0345 Lament we may but not revenge thee dead.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 0346 O, let no noble eye profane a tear
FTLN 0347 60 For me if I be gored with Mowbray’s spear.
FTLN 0348 As confident as is the falcon’s flight
FTLN 0349 Against a bird do I with Mowbray fight.
FTLN 0350 My loving lord, I take my leave of you.—
FTLN 0351 Of you, my noble cousin, Lord Aumerle;
FTLN 0352 65 Not sick, although I have to do with death,
FTLN 0353 But lusty, young, and cheerly drawing breath.—
FTLN 0354 Lo, as at English feasts, so I regreet
FTLN 0355 The daintiest last, to make the end most sweet.
FTLN 0356 O, thou the earthly author of my blood,
FTLN 0357 70 Whose youthful spirit in me regenerate
FTLN 0358 Doth with a twofold vigor lift me up
FTLN 0359 To reach at victory above my head,
FTLN 0360 Add proof unto mine armor with thy prayers,
FTLN 0361 And with thy blessings steel my lance’s point
FTLN 0362 75 That it may enter Mowbray’s waxen coat
FTLN 0363 And furbish new the name of John o’ Gaunt,
FTLN 0364 Even in the lusty havior of his son.
GAUNT
FTLN 0365 God in thy good cause make thee prosperous.
FTLN 0366 Be swift like lightning in the execution,
FTLN 0367 80 And let thy blows, doubly redoubled,
FTLN 0368 Fall like amazing thunder on the casque
FTLN 0369 Of thy adverse pernicious enemy.
FTLN 0370 Rouse up thy youthful blood, be valiant, and live.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 0371 Mine innocence and Saint George to thrive!
MOWBRAY
FTLN 0372 85 However God or fortune cast my lot,
FTLN 0373 There lives or dies, true to King Richard’s throne,
FTLN 0374 A loyal, just, and upright gentleman.

33
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 3
FTLN 0375 Never did captive with a freer heart
FTLN 0376 Cast off his chains of bondage and embrace
FTLN 0377 90 His golden uncontrolled enfranchisement
FTLN 0378 More than my dancing soul doth celebrate
FTLN 0379 This feast of battle with mine adversary.
FTLN 0380 Most mighty liege and my companion peers,
FTLN 0381 Take from my mouth the wish of happy years.
FTLN 0382 95 As gentle and as jocund as to jest
FTLN 0383 Go I to fight. Truth hath a quiet breast.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0384 Farewell, my lord. Securely I espy
FTLN 0385 Virtue with valor couchèd in thine eye.—
FTLN 0386 Order the trial, marshal, and begin.
MARSHAL
FTLN 0387 100 Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
FTLN 0388 Receive thy lance; and God defend the right.
He presents a lance to Bolingbroke.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 0389 Strong as a tower in hope, I cry “Amen!”
MARSHAL , to an Officer
FTLN 0390 Go bear this lance to Thomas, Duke of Norfolk.
An Officer presents a lance to Mowbray.
FIRST HERALD
FTLN 0391 Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby
FTLN 0392 105 Stands here for God, his sovereign, and himself,
FTLN 0393 On pain to be found false and recreant,
FTLN 0394 To prove the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray,
FTLN 0395 A traitor to his God, his king, and him,
FTLN 0396 And dares him to set forward to the fight.
SECOND HERALD
FTLN 0397 110 Here standeth Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk,
FTLN 0398 On pain to be found false and recreant,
FTLN 0399 Both to defend himself and to approve
FTLN 0400 Henry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby
FTLN 0401 To God, his sovereign, and to him disloyal,

35
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 3
FTLN 0402 115 Courageously and with a free desire
FTLN 0403 Attending but the signal to begin.
MARSHAL
FTLN 0404 Sound, trumpets, and set forward, combatants.
Trumpets sound. Richard throws down his warder.
FTLN 0405 Stay! The King hath thrown his warder down.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0406 Let them lay by their helmets and their spears,
FTLN 0407 120 And both return back to their chairs again.
FTLN 0408 To his council. Withdraw with us, and let the
FTLN 0409 trumpets sound
FTLN 0410 While we return these dukes what we decree.
Trumpets sound while Richard consults with Gaunt
and other Nobles.
FTLN 0411 To Bolingbroke and Mowbray. Draw near,
FTLN 0412 125 And list what with our council we have done.
FTLN 0413 For that our kingdom’s earth should not be soiled
FTLN 0414 With that dear blood which it hath fosterèd;
FTLN 0415 And for our eyes do hate the dire aspect
FTLN 0416 Of civil wounds plowed up with neighbor’s sword;
FTLN 0417 130 And for we think the eagle-wingèd pride
FTLN 0418 Of sky-aspiring and ambitious thoughts,
FTLN 0419 With rival-hating envy, set on you
FTLN 0420 To wake our peace, which in our country’s cradle
FTLN 0421 Draws the sweet infant breath of gentle sleep,
FTLN 0422 135 Which, so roused up with boist’rous untuned
FTLN 0423 drums,
FTLN 0424 With harsh resounding trumpets’ dreadful bray,
FTLN 0425 And grating shock of wrathful iron arms,
FTLN 0426 Might from our quiet confines fright fair peace
FTLN 0427 140 And make us wade even in our kindred’s blood:
FTLN 0428 Therefore we banish you our territories.
FTLN 0429 You, cousin Hereford, upon pain of life,
FTLN 0430 Till twice five summers have enriched our fields
FTLN 0431 Shall not regreet our fair dominions,
FTLN 0432 145 But tread the stranger paths of banishment.

37
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 3
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 0433 Your will be done. This must my comfort be:
FTLN 0434 That sun that warms you here shall shine on me,
FTLN 0435 And those his golden beams to you here lent
FTLN 0436 Shall point on me and gild my banishment.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0437 150 Norfolk, for thee remains a heavier doom,
FTLN 0438 Which I with some unwillingness pronounce:
FTLN 0439 The sly, slow hours shall not determinate
FTLN 0440 The dateless limit of thy dear exile.
FTLN 0441 The hopeless word of “never to return”
FTLN 0442 155 Breathe I against thee, upon pain of life.
MOWBRAY
FTLN 0443 A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege,
FTLN 0444 And all unlooked-for from your Highness’ mouth.
FTLN 0445 A dearer merit, not so deep a maim
FTLN 0446 As to be cast forth in the common air,
FTLN 0447 160 Have I deservèd at your Highness’ hands.
FTLN 0448 The language I have learnt these forty years,
FTLN 0449 My native English, now I must forgo;
FTLN 0450 And now my tongue’s use is to me no more
FTLN 0451 Than an unstringèd viol or a harp,
FTLN 0452 165 Or like a cunning instrument cased up,
FTLN 0453 Or, being open, put into his hands
FTLN 0454 That knows no touch to tune the harmony.
FTLN 0455 Within my mouth you have enjailed my tongue,
FTLN 0456 Doubly portcullised with my teeth and lips,
FTLN 0457 170 And dull unfeeling barren ignorance
FTLN 0458 Is made my jailor to attend on me.
FTLN 0459 I am too old to fawn upon a nurse,
FTLN 0460 Too far in years to be a pupil now.
FTLN 0461 What is thy sentence then but speechless death,
FTLN 0462 175 Which robs my tongue from breathing native
FTLN 0463 breath?
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0464 It boots thee not to be compassionate.
FTLN 0465 After our sentence plaining comes too late.

39
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 3
MOWBRAY
FTLN 0466 Then thus I turn me from my country’s light,
FTLN 0467 180 To dwell in solemn shades of endless night.
He begins to exit.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0468 Return again, and take an oath with thee.
FTLN 0469 To Mowbray and Bolingbroke. Lay on our royal
FTLN 0470 sword your banished hands.
They place their right hands on the hilts of
Richard’s sword.
FTLN 0471 Swear by the duty that you owe to God—
FTLN 0472 185 Our part therein we banish with yourselves—
FTLN 0473 To keep the oath that we administer:
FTLN 0474 You never shall, so help you truth and God,
FTLN 0475 Embrace each other’s love in banishment,
FTLN 0476 Nor never look upon each other’s face,
FTLN 0477 190 Nor never write, regreet, nor reconcile
FTLN 0478 This louring tempest of your homebred hate,
FTLN 0479 Nor never by advisèd purpose meet
FTLN 0480 To plot, contrive, or complot any ill
FTLN 0481 ’Gainst us, our state, our subjects, or our land.
BOLINGBROKE FTLN 0482 195 I swear.
MOWBRAY FTLN 0483 And I, to keep all this.
They step back.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 0484 Norfolk, so far as to mine enemy:
FTLN 0485 By this time, had the King permitted us,
FTLN 0486 One of our souls had wandered in the air,
FTLN 0487 200 Banished this frail sepulcher of our flesh,
FTLN 0488 As now our flesh is banished from this land.
FTLN 0489 Confess thy treasons ere thou fly the realm.
FTLN 0490 Since thou hast far to go, bear not along
FTLN 0491 The clogging burden of a guilty soul.
MOWBRAY
FTLN 0492 205 No, Bolingbroke; if ever I were traitor,
FTLN 0493 My name be blotted from the book of life,

41
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 3
FTLN 0494 And I from heaven banished as from hence.
FTLN 0495 But what thou art, God, thou, and I do know,
FTLN 0496 And all too soon, I fear, the King shall rue.—
FTLN 0497 210 Farewell, my liege. Now no way can I stray;
FTLN 0498 Save back to England, all the world’s my way.
He exits.
KING RICHARD , to Gaunt
FTLN 0499 Uncle, even in the glasses of thine eyes
FTLN 0500 I see thy grievèd heart. Thy sad aspect
FTLN 0501 Hath from the number of his banished years
FTLN 0502 215 Plucked four away. To Bolingbroke. Six frozen
FTLN 0503 winters spent,
FTLN 0504 Return with welcome home from banishment.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 0505 How long a time lies in one little word!
FTLN 0506 Four lagging winters and four wanton springs
FTLN 0507 220 End in a word; such is the breath of kings.
GAUNT
FTLN 0508 I thank my liege that in regard of me
FTLN 0509 He shortens four years of my son’s exile.
FTLN 0510 But little vantage shall I reap thereby;
FTLN 0511 For, ere the six years that he hath to spend
FTLN 0512 225 Can change their moons and bring their times
FTLN 0513 about,
FTLN 0514 My oil-dried lamp and time-bewasted light
FTLN 0515 Shall be extinct with age and endless night;
FTLN 0516 My inch of taper will be burnt and done,
FTLN 0517 230 And blindfold death not let me see my son.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0518 Why, uncle, thou hast many years to live.
GAUNT
FTLN 0519 But not a minute, king, that thou canst give.
FTLN 0520 Shorten my days thou canst with sullen sorrow,
FTLN 0521 And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow.
FTLN 0522 235 Thou canst help time to furrow me with age,
FTLN 0523 But stop no wrinkle in his pilgrimage.

43
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 3
FTLN 0524 Thy word is current with him for my death,
FTLN 0525 But dead, thy kingdom cannot buy my breath.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0526 Thy son is banished upon good advice,
FTLN 0527 240 Whereto thy tongue a party verdict gave.
FTLN 0528 Why at our justice seem’st thou then to lour?
GAUNT
FTLN 0529 Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour.
FTLN 0530 You urged me as a judge, but I had rather
FTLN 0531 You would have bid me argue like a father.
FTLN 0532 245 O, had it been a stranger, not my child,
FTLN 0533 To smooth his fault I should have been more mild.
FTLN 0534 A partial slander sought I to avoid,
FTLN 0535 And in the sentence my own life destroyed.
FTLN 0536 Alas, I looked when some of you should say
FTLN 0537 250 I was too strict, to make mine own away.
FTLN 0538 But you gave leave to my unwilling tongue
FTLN 0539 Against my will to do myself this wrong.
KING RICHARD , to Bolingbroke
FTLN 0540 Cousin, farewell.—And, uncle, bid him so.
FTLN 0541 Six years we banish him, and he shall go.
Flourish. King Richard exits with his Attendants.
AUMERLE , to Bolingbroke
FTLN 0542 255 Cousin, farewell. What presence must not know,
FTLN 0543 From where you do remain let paper show.
MARSHAL , to Bolingbroke
FTLN 0544 My lord, no leave take I, for I will ride,
FTLN 0545 As far as land will let me, by your side.
GAUNT , to Bolingbroke
FTLN 0546 O, to what purpose dost thou hoard thy words,
FTLN 0547 260 That thou returnest no greeting to thy friends?
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 0548 I have too few to take my leave of you,
FTLN 0549 When the tongue’s office should be prodigal
FTLN 0550 To breathe the abundant dolor of the heart.

45
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 3
GAUNT
FTLN 0551 Thy grief is but thy absence for a time.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 0552 265 Joy absent, grief is present for that time.
GAUNT
FTLN 0553 What is six winters? They are quickly gone.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 0554 To men in joy; but grief makes one hour ten.
GAUNT
FTLN 0555 Call it a travel that thou tak’st for pleasure.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 0556 My heart will sigh when I miscall it so,
FTLN 0557 270 Which finds it an enforcèd pilgrimage.
GAUNT
FTLN 0558 The sullen passage of thy weary steps
FTLN 0559 Esteem as foil wherein thou art to set
FTLN 0560 The precious jewel of thy home return.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 0561 Nay, rather every tedious stride I make
FTLN 0562 275 Will but remember me what a deal of world
FTLN 0563 I wander from the jewels that I love.
FTLN 0564 Must I not serve a long apprenticehood
FTLN 0565 To foreign passages, and in the end,
FTLN 0566 Having my freedom, boast of nothing else
FTLN 0567 280 But that I was a journeyman to grief?
GAUNT
FTLN 0568 All places that the eye of heaven visits
FTLN 0569 Are to a wise man ports and happy havens.
FTLN 0570 Teach thy necessity to reason thus:
FTLN 0571 There is no virtue like necessity.
FTLN 0572 285 Think not the King did banish thee,
FTLN 0573 But thou the King. Woe doth the heavier sit
FTLN 0574 Where it perceives it is but faintly borne.
FTLN 0575 Go, say I sent thee forth to purchase honor,
FTLN 0576 And not the King exiled thee; or suppose
FTLN 0577 290 Devouring pestilence hangs in our air
FTLN 0578 And thou art flying to a fresher clime.

47
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 4
FTLN 0579 Look what thy soul holds dear, imagine it
FTLN 0580 To lie that way thou goest, not whence thou com’st.
FTLN 0581 Suppose the singing birds musicians,
FTLN 0582 295 The grass whereon thou tread’st the presence
FTLN 0583 strewed,
FTLN 0584 The flowers fair ladies, and thy steps no more
FTLN 0585 Than a delightful measure or a dance;
FTLN 0586 For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite
FTLN 0587 300 The man that mocks at it and sets it light.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 0588 O, who can hold a fire in his hand
FTLN 0589 By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?
FTLN 0590 Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite
FTLN 0591 By bare imagination of a feast?
FTLN 0592 305 Or wallow naked in December snow
FTLN 0593 By thinking on fantastic summer’s heat?
FTLN 0594 O no, the apprehension of the good
FTLN 0595 Gives but the greater feeling to the worse.
FTLN 0596 Fell sorrow’s tooth doth never rankle more
FTLN 0597 310 Than when he bites but lanceth not the sore.
GAUNT
FTLN 0598 Come, come, my son, I’ll bring thee on thy way.
FTLN 0599 Had I thy youth and cause, I would not stay.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 0600 Then, England’s ground, farewell; sweet soil, adieu,
FTLN 0601 My mother and my nurse that bears me yet.
FTLN 0602 315 Where’er I wander, boast of this I can,
FTLN 0603 Though banished, yet a trueborn Englishman.
They exit.
Scene 4
Enter the King with Green and Bagot, at one door,
and the Lord Aumerle at another.
KING RICHARD FTLN 0604 We did observe.—Cousin Aumerle,
FTLN 0605 How far brought you high Hereford on his way?

49
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 4
AUMERLE
FTLN 0606 I brought high Hereford, if you call him so,
FTLN 0607 But to the next highway, and there I left him.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0608 5 And say, what store of parting tears were shed?
AUMERLE
FTLN 0609 Faith, none for me, except the northeast wind,
FTLN 0610 Which then blew bitterly against our faces,
FTLN 0611 Awaked the sleeping rheum and so by chance
FTLN 0612 Did grace our hollow parting with a tear.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0613 10 What said our cousin when you parted with him?
AUMERLE FTLN 0614“Farewell.”
FTLN 0615 And, for my heart disdainèd that my tongue
FTLN 0616 Should so profane the word, that taught me craft
FTLN 0617 To counterfeit oppression of such grief
FTLN 0618 15 That words seemed buried in my sorrow’s grave.
FTLN 0619 Marry, would the word “farewell” have lengthened
FTLN 0620 hours
FTLN 0621 And added years to his short banishment,
FTLN 0622 He should have had a volume of farewells.
FTLN 0623 20 But since it would not, he had none of me.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0624 He is our cousin, cousin, but ’tis doubt,
FTLN 0625 When time shall call him home from banishment,
FTLN 0626 Whether our kinsman come to see his friends.
FTLN 0627 Ourself and Bushy, Bagot here and Green,
FTLN 0628 25 Observed his courtship to the common people,
FTLN 0629 How he did seem to dive into their hearts
FTLN 0630 With humble and familiar courtesy,
FTLN 0631 What reverence he did throw away on slaves,
FTLN 0632 Wooing poor craftsmen with the craft of smiles
FTLN 0633 30 And patient underbearing of his fortune,
FTLN 0634 As ’twere to banish their affects with him.
FTLN 0635 Off goes his bonnet to an oysterwench;
FTLN 0636 A brace of draymen bid God speed him well

51
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 4
FTLN 0637 And had the tribute of his supple knee,
FTLN 0638 35 With “Thanks, my countrymen, my loving friends,”
FTLN 0639 As were our England in reversion his
FTLN 0640 And he our subjects’ next degree in hope.
GREEN
FTLN 0641 Well, he is gone, and with him go these thoughts.
FTLN 0642 Now for the rebels which stand out in Ireland,
FTLN 0643 40 Expedient manage must be made, my liege,
FTLN 0644 Ere further leisure yield them further means
FTLN 0645 For their advantage and your Highness’ loss.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0646 We will ourself in person to this war.
FTLN 0647 And, for our coffers, with too great a court
FTLN 0648 45 And liberal largess, are grown somewhat light,
FTLN 0649 We are enforced to farm our royal realm,
FTLN 0650 The revenue whereof shall furnish us
FTLN 0651 For our affairs in hand. If that come short,
FTLN 0652 Our substitutes at home shall have blank charters,
FTLN 0653 50 Whereto, when they shall know what men are rich,
FTLN 0654 They shall subscribe them for large sums of gold
FTLN 0655 And send them after to supply our wants,
FTLN 0656 For we will make for Ireland presently.
Enter Bushy.
FTLN 0657 Bushy, what news?
BUSHY
FTLN 0658 55 Old John of Gaunt is grievous sick, my lord,
FTLN 0659 Suddenly taken, and hath sent posthaste
FTLN 0660 To entreat your Majesty to visit him.
KING RICHARD FTLN 0661 Where lies he?
BUSHY FTLN 0662 At Ely House.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0663 60 Now put it, God, in the physician’s mind
FTLN 0664 To help him to his grave immediately!
FTLN 0665 The lining of his coffers shall make coats

53
Richard II
ACT 1. SC. 4
FTLN 0666 To deck our soldiers for these Irish wars.
FTLN 0667 Come, gentlemen, let’s all go visit him.
FTLN 0668 65 Pray God we may make haste and come too late.
ALL FTLN 0669 Amen!
They exit.

ACT 2
Scene 1
Enter John of Gaunt sick, with the Duke of York, and
Attendants.
GAUNT
FTLN 0670 Will the King come, that I may breathe my last
FTLN 0671 In wholesome counsel to his unstaid youth?
YORK
FTLN 0672 Vex not yourself nor strive not with your breath,
FTLN 0673 For all in vain comes counsel to his ear.
GAUNT
FTLN 0674 5 O, but they say the tongues of dying men
FTLN 0675 Enforce attention like deep harmony.
FTLN 0676 Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in
FTLN 0677 vain,
FTLN 0678 For they breathe truth that breathe their words in
FTLN 0679 10 pain.
FTLN 0680 He that no more must say is listened more
FTLN 0681 Than they whom youth and ease have taught to
FTLN 0682 gloze.
FTLN 0683 More are men’s ends marked than their lives before.
FTLN 0684 15 The setting sun and music at the close,
FTLN 0685 As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,
FTLN 0686 Writ in remembrance more than things long past.
FTLN 0687 Though Richard my life’s counsel would not hear,
FTLN 0688 My death’s sad tale may yet undeaf his ear.
57

59
Richard II
ACT 2. SC. 1
YORK
FTLN 0689 20 No, it is stopped with other flattering sounds,
FTLN 0690 As praises, of whose taste the wise are fond;
FTLN 0691 Lascivious meters, to whose venom sound
FTLN 0692 The open ear of youth doth always listen;
FTLN 0693 Report of fashions in proud Italy,
FTLN 0694 25 Whose manners still our tardy-apish nation
FTLN 0695 Limps after in base imitation.
FTLN 0696 Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity—
FTLN 0697 So it be new, there’s no respect how vile—
FTLN 0698 That is not quickly buzzed into his ears?
FTLN 0699 30 Then all too late comes counsel to be heard
FTLN 0700 Where will doth mutiny with wit’s regard.
FTLN 0701 Direct not him whose way himself will choose.
FTLN 0702 ’Tis breath thou lack’st, and that breath wilt thou
FTLN 0703 lose.
GAUNT
FTLN 0704 35 Methinks I am a prophet new inspired
FTLN 0705 And thus expiring do foretell of him:
FTLN 0706 His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last,
FTLN 0707 For violent fires soon burn out themselves;
FTLN 0708 Small showers last long, but sudden storms are
FTLN 0709 40 short;
FTLN 0710 He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes;
FTLN 0711 With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder;
FTLN 0712 Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,
FTLN 0713 Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.
FTLN 0714 45 This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle,
FTLN 0715 This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
FTLN 0716 This other Eden, demi-paradise,
FTLN 0717 This fortress built by Nature for herself
FTLN 0718 Against infection and the hand of war,
FTLN 0719 50 This happy breed of men, this little world,
FTLN 0720 This precious stone set in the silver sea,
FTLN 0721 Which serves it in the office of a wall
FTLN 0722 Or as a moat defensive to a house,

61
Richard II
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0723 Against the envy of less happier lands,
FTLN 0724 55 This blessèd plot, this earth, this realm, this
FTLN 0725 England,
FTLN 0726 This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
FTLN 0727 Feared by their breed and famous by their birth,
FTLN 0728 Renownèd for their deeds as far from home
FTLN 0729 60 For Christian service and true chivalry
FTLN 0730 As is the sepulcher in stubborn Jewry
FTLN 0731 Of the world’s ransom, blessèd Mary’s son,
FTLN 0732 This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
FTLN 0733 Dear for her reputation through the world,
FTLN 0734 65 Is now leased out—I die pronouncing it—
FTLN 0735 Like to a tenement or pelting farm.
FTLN 0736 England, bound in with the triumphant sea,
FTLN 0737 Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
FTLN 0738 Of wat’ry Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
FTLN 0739 70 With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds.
FTLN 0740 That England that was wont to conquer others
FTLN 0741 Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.
FTLN 0742 Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life,
FTLN 0743 How happy then were my ensuing death!
Enter King and Queen, Aumerle, Bushy, Green, Bagot,
Ross, Willoughby, etc.
YORK
FTLN 0744 75 The King is come. Deal mildly with his youth,
FTLN 0745 For young hot colts being reined do rage the more.
QUEEN , to Gaunt
FTLN 0746 How fares our noble uncle Lancaster?
KING RICHARD , to Gaunt
FTLN 0747 What comfort, man? How is ’t with agèd Gaunt?
GAUNT
FTLN 0748 O, how that name befits my composition!
FTLN 0749 80 Old Gaunt indeed and gaunt in being old.
FTLN 0750 Within me grief hath kept a tedious fast,
FTLN 0751 And who abstains from meat that is not gaunt?

63
Richard II
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0752 For sleeping England long time have I watched;
FTLN 0753 Watching breeds leanness, leanness is all gaunt.
FTLN 0754 85 The pleasure that some fathers feed upon
FTLN 0755 Is my strict fast—I mean my children’s looks—
FTLN 0756 And, therein fasting, hast thou made me gaunt.
FTLN 0757 Gaunt am I for the grave, gaunt as a grave,
FTLN 0758 Whose hollow womb inherits naught but bones.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0759 90 Can sick men play so nicely with their names?
GAUNT
FTLN 0760 No, misery makes sport to mock itself.
FTLN 0761 Since thou dost seek to kill my name in me,
FTLN 0762 I mock my name, great king, to flatter thee.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0763 Should dying men flatter with those that live?
GAUNT
FTLN 0764 95 No, no, men living flatter those that die.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0765 Thou, now a-dying, sayest thou flatterest me.
GAUNT
FTLN 0766 O, no, thou diest, though I the sicker be.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0767 I am in health, I breathe, and see thee ill.
GAUNT
FTLN 0768 Now He that made me knows I see thee ill,
FTLN 0769 100 Ill in myself to see, and in thee, seeing ill.
FTLN 0770 Thy deathbed is no lesser than thy land,
FTLN 0771 Wherein thou liest in reputation sick;
FTLN 0772 And thou, too careless-patient as thou art,
FTLN 0773 Commit’st thy anointed body to the cure
FTLN 0774 105 Of those physicians that first wounded thee.
FTLN 0775 A thousand flatterers sit within thy crown,
FTLN 0776 Whose compass is no bigger than thy head,
FTLN 0777 And yet encagèd in so small a verge,
FTLN 0778 The waste is no whit lesser than thy land.

65
Richard II
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0779 110 O, had thy grandsire with a prophet’s eye
FTLN 0780 Seen how his son’s son should destroy his sons,
FTLN 0781 From forth thy reach he would have laid thy shame,
FTLN 0782 Deposing thee before thou wert possessed,
FTLN 0783 Which art possessed now to depose thyself.
FTLN 0784 115 Why, cousin, wert thou regent of the world,
FTLN 0785 It were a shame to let this land by lease;
FTLN 0786 But, for thy world enjoying but this land,
FTLN 0787 Is it not more than shame to shame it so?
FTLN 0788 Landlord of England art thou now, not king.
FTLN 0789 120 Thy state of law is bondslave to the law,
FTLN 0790 And thou—
KING RICHARD FTLN 0791 A lunatic lean-witted fool,
FTLN 0792 Presuming on an ague’s privilege,
FTLN 0793 Darest with thy frozen admonition
FTLN 0794 125 Make pale our cheek, chasing the royal blood
FTLN 0795 With fury from his native residence.
FTLN 0796 Now, by my seat’s right royal majesty,
FTLN 0797 Wert thou not brother to great Edward’s son,
FTLN 0798 This tongue that runs so roundly in thy head
FTLN 0799 130 Should run thy head from thy unreverent shoulders.
GAUNT
FTLN 0800 O, spare me not, my brother Edward’s son,
FTLN 0801 For that I was his father Edward’s son!
FTLN 0802 That blood already, like the pelican,
FTLN 0803 Hast thou tapped out and drunkenly caroused.
FTLN 0804 135 My brother Gloucester—plain, well-meaning soul,
FTLN 0805 Whom fair befall in heaven ’mongst happy souls—
FTLN 0806 May be a precedent and witness good
FTLN 0807 That thou respect’st not spilling Edward’s blood.
FTLN 0808 Join with the present sickness that I have,
FTLN 0809 140 And thy unkindness be like crooked age
FTLN 0810 To crop at once a too-long withered flower.
FTLN 0811 Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee!
FTLN 0812 These words hereafter thy tormentors be!—

67
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ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0813 Convey me to my bed, then to my grave.
FTLN 0814 145 Love they to live that love and honor have.
He exits, carried off by Attendants.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0815 And let them die that age and sullens have,
FTLN 0816 For both hast thou, and both become the grave.
YORK
FTLN 0817 I do beseech your Majesty, impute his words
FTLN 0818 To wayward sickliness and age in him.
FTLN 0819 150 He loves you, on my life, and holds you dear
FTLN 0820 As Harry, Duke of Hereford, were he here.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0821 Right, you say true: as Hereford’s love, so his;
FTLN 0822 As theirs, so mine; and all be as it is.
Enter Northumberland.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 0823 My liege, old Gaunt commends him to your Majesty.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0824 155 What says he?
NORTHUMBERLAND FTLN 0825 Nay, nothing; all is said.
FTLN 0826 His tongue is now a stringless instrument;
FTLN 0827 Words, life, and all, old Lancaster hath spent.
YORK
FTLN 0828 Be York the next that must be bankrupt so!
FTLN 0829 160 Though death be poor, it ends a mortal woe.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0830 The ripest fruit first falls, and so doth he;
FTLN 0831 His time is spent, our pilgrimage must be.
FTLN 0832 So much for that. Now for our Irish wars:
FTLN 0833 We must supplant those rough rugheaded kern,
FTLN 0834 165 Which live like venom where no venom else
FTLN 0835 But only they have privilege to live.
FTLN 0836 And, for these great affairs do ask some charge,
FTLN 0837 Towards our assistance we do seize to us

69
Richard II
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0838 The plate, coin, revenues, and movables
FTLN 0839 170 Whereof our uncle Gaunt did stand possessed.
YORK
FTLN 0840 How long shall I be patient? Ah, how long
FTLN 0841 Shall tender duty make me suffer wrong?
FTLN 0842 Not Gloucester’s death, nor Hereford’s banishment,
FTLN 0843 Nor Gaunt’s rebukes, nor England’s private wrongs,
FTLN 0844 175 Nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke
FTLN 0845 About his marriage, nor my own disgrace,
FTLN 0846 Have ever made me sour my patient cheek
FTLN 0847 Or bend one wrinkle on my sovereign’s face.
FTLN 0848 I am the last of noble Edward’s sons,
FTLN 0849 180 Of whom thy father, Prince of Wales, was first.
FTLN 0850 In war was never lion raged more fierce,
FTLN 0851 In peace was never gentle lamb more mild,
FTLN 0852 Than was that young and princely gentleman.
FTLN 0853 His face thou hast, for even so looked he,
FTLN 0854 185 Accomplished with the number of thy hours;
FTLN 0855 But when he frowned, it was against the French
FTLN 0856 And not against his friends. His noble hand
FTLN 0857 Did win what he did spend, and spent not that
FTLN 0858 Which his triumphant father’s hand had won.
FTLN 0859 190 His hands were guilty of no kindred blood,
FTLN 0860 But bloody with the enemies of his kin.
FTLN 0861 O, Richard! York is too far gone with grief,
FTLN 0862 Or else he never would compare between.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0863 Why, uncle, what’s the matter?
YORK FTLN 0864 195 O, my liege,
FTLN 0865 Pardon me if you please. If not, I, pleased
FTLN 0866 Not to be pardoned, am content withal.
FTLN 0867 Seek you to seize and gripe into your hands
FTLN 0868 The royalties and rights of banished Hereford?
FTLN 0869 200 Is not Gaunt dead? And doth not Hereford live?
FTLN 0870 Was not Gaunt just? And is not Harry true?
FTLN 0871 Did not the one deserve to have an heir?

71
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ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0872 Is not his heir a well-deserving son?
FTLN 0873 Take Hereford’s rights away, and take from time
FTLN 0874 205 His charters and his customary rights;
FTLN 0875 Let not tomorrow then ensue today;
FTLN 0876 Be not thyself; for how art thou a king
FTLN 0877 But by fair sequence and succession?
FTLN 0878 Now afore God—God forbid I say true!—
FTLN 0879 210 If you do wrongfully seize Hereford’s rights,
FTLN 0880 Call in the letters patents that he hath
FTLN 0881 By his attorneys general to sue
FTLN 0882 His livery, and deny his offered homage,
FTLN 0883 You pluck a thousand dangers on your head,
FTLN 0884 215 You lose a thousand well-disposèd hearts,
FTLN 0885 And prick my tender patience to those thoughts
FTLN 0886 Which honor and allegiance cannot think.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0887 Think what you will, we seize into our hands
FTLN 0888 His plate, his goods, his money, and his lands.
YORK
FTLN 0889 220 I’ll not be by the while. My liege, farewell.
FTLN 0890 What will ensue hereof there’s none can tell;
FTLN 0891 But by bad courses may be understood
FTLN 0892 That their events can never fall out good. He exits.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 0893 Go, Bushy, to the Earl of Wiltshire straight.
FTLN 0894 225 Bid him repair to us to Ely House
FTLN 0895 To see this business. Tomorrow next
FTLN 0896 We will for Ireland, and ’tis time, I trow.
FTLN 0897 And we create, in absence of ourself,
FTLN 0898 Our uncle York Lord Governor of England,
FTLN 0899 230 For he is just and always loved us well.—
FTLN 0900 Come on, our queen. Tomorrow must we part.
FTLN 0901 Be merry, for our time of stay is short.
King and Queen exit with others;
Northumberland, Willoughby, and Ross remain.

73
Richard II
ACT 2. SC. 1
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 0902 Well, lords, the Duke of Lancaster is dead.
ROSS
FTLN 0903 And living too, for now his son is duke.
WILLOUGHBY
FTLN 0904 235 Barely in title, not in revenues.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 0905 Richly in both, if justice had her right.
ROSS
FTLN 0906 My heart is great, but it must break with silence
FTLN 0907 Ere ’t be disburdened with a liberal tongue.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 0908 Nay, speak thy mind, and let him ne’er speak more
FTLN 0909 240 That speaks thy words again to do thee harm!
WILLOUGHBY , to Ross
FTLN 0910 Tends that thou wouldst speak to the Duke of
FTLN 0911 Hereford?
FTLN 0912 If it be so, out with it boldly, man.
FTLN 0913 Quick is mine ear to hear of good towards him.
ROSS
FTLN 0914 245 No good at all that I can do for him,
FTLN 0915 Unless you call it good to pity him,
FTLN 0916 Bereft and gelded of his patrimony.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 0917 Now, afore God, ’tis shame such wrongs are borne
FTLN 0918 In him, a royal prince, and many more
FTLN 0919 250 Of noble blood in this declining land.
FTLN 0920 The King is not himself, but basely led
FTLN 0921 By flatterers; and what they will inform
FTLN 0922 Merely in hate ’gainst any of us all,
FTLN 0923 That will the King severely prosecute
FTLN 0924 255 ’Gainst us, our lives, our children, and our heirs.
ROSS
FTLN 0925 The commons hath he pilled with grievous taxes,
FTLN 0926 And quite lost their hearts. The nobles hath he fined
FTLN 0927 For ancient quarrels, and quite lost their hearts.

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ACT 2. SC. 1
WILLOUGHBY
FTLN 0928 And daily new exactions are devised,
FTLN 0929 260 As blanks, benevolences, and I wot not what.
FTLN 0930 But what i’ God’s name doth become of this?
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 0931 Wars hath not wasted it, for warred he hath not,
FTLN 0932 But basely yielded upon compromise
FTLN 0933 That which his noble ancestors achieved with blows.
FTLN 0934 265 More hath he spent in peace than they in wars.
ROSS
FTLN 0935 The Earl of Wiltshire hath the realm in farm.
WILLOUGHBY
FTLN 0936 The King grown bankrupt like a broken man.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 0937 Reproach and dissolution hangeth over him.
ROSS
FTLN 0938 He hath not money for these Irish wars,
FTLN 0939 270 His burdenous taxations notwithstanding,
FTLN 0940 But by the robbing of the banished duke.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 0941 His noble kinsman. Most degenerate king!
FTLN 0942 But, lords, we hear this fearful tempest sing,
FTLN 0943 Yet seek no shelter to avoid the storm;
FTLN 0944 275 We see the wind sit sore upon our sails,
FTLN 0945 And yet we strike not, but securely perish.
ROSS
FTLN 0946 We see the very wrack that we must suffer,
FTLN 0947 And unavoided is the danger now
FTLN 0948 For suffering so the causes of our wrack.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 0949 280 Not so. Even through the hollow eyes of death
FTLN 0950 I spy life peering; but I dare not say
FTLN 0951 How near the tidings of our comfort is.
WILLOUGHBY
FTLN 0952 Nay, let us share thy thoughts, as thou dost ours.

77
Richard II
ACT 2. SC. 1
ROSS
FTLN 0953 Be confident to speak, Northumberland.
FTLN 0954 285 We three are but thyself, and speaking so
FTLN 0955 Thy words are but as thoughts. Therefore be bold.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 0956 Then thus: I have from Le Port Blanc,
FTLN 0957 A bay in Brittany, received intelligence
FTLN 0958 That Harry Duke of Hereford, Rainold Lord
FTLN 0959 290 Cobham,
FTLN 0960 That late broke from the Duke of Exeter,
FTLN 0961 His brother, archbishop late of Canterbury,
FTLN 0962 Sir Thomas Erpingham, Sir John Ramston,
FTLN 0963 Sir John Norbery, Sir Robert Waterton, and Francis
FTLN 0964 295 Coint—
FTLN 0965 All these well furnished by the Duke of Brittany
FTLN 0966 With eight tall ships, three thousand men of war,
FTLN 0967 Are making hither with all due expedience
FTLN 0968 And shortly mean to touch our northern shore.
FTLN 0969 300 Perhaps they had ere this, but that they stay
FTLN 0970 The first departing of the King for Ireland.
FTLN 0971 If then we shall shake off our slavish yoke,
FTLN 0972 Imp out our drooping country’s broken wing,
FTLN 0973 Redeem from broking pawn the blemished crown,
FTLN 0974 305 Wipe off the dust that hides our scepter’s gilt,
FTLN 0975 And make high majesty look like itself,
FTLN 0976 Away with me in post to Ravenspurgh.
FTLN 0977 But if you faint, as fearing to do so,
FTLN 0978 Stay and be secret, and myself will go.
ROSS
FTLN 0979 310 To horse, to horse! Urge doubts to them that fear.
WILLOUGHBY
FTLN 0980 Hold out my horse, and I will first be there.
They exit.

79
Richard II
ACT 2. SC. 2
Scene 2
Enter the Queen, Bushy, and Bagot.
BUSHY
FTLN 0981 Madam, your Majesty is too much sad.
FTLN 0982 You promised, when you parted with the King,
FTLN 0983 To lay aside life-harming heaviness
FTLN 0984 And entertain a cheerful disposition.
QUEEN
FTLN 0985 5 To please the King I did; to please myself
FTLN 0986 I cannot do it. Yet I know no cause
FTLN 0987 Why I should welcome such a guest as grief,
FTLN 0988 Save bidding farewell to so sweet a guest
FTLN 0989 As my sweet Richard. Yet again methinks
FTLN 0990 10 Some unborn sorrow ripe in Fortune’s womb
FTLN 0991 Is coming towards me, and my inward soul
FTLN 0992 With nothing trembles. At some thing it grieves
FTLN 0993 More than with parting from my lord the King.
BUSHY
FTLN 0994 Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows
FTLN 0995 15 Which shows like grief itself but is not so;
FTLN 0996 For sorrow’s eyes, glazed with blinding tears,
FTLN 0997 Divides one thing entire to many objects,
FTLN 0998 Like perspectives, which rightly gazed upon
FTLN 0999 Show nothing but confusion, eyed awry
FTLN 1000 20 Distinguish form. So your sweet Majesty,
FTLN 1001 Looking awry upon your lord’s departure,
FTLN 1002 Find shapes of grief more than himself to wail,
FTLN 1003 Which, looked on as it is, is naught but shadows
FTLN 1004 Of what it is not. Then, thrice-gracious queen,
FTLN 1005 25 More than your lord’s departure weep not. More is
FTLN 1006 not seen,
FTLN 1007 Or if it be, ’tis with false sorrow’s eye,
FTLN 1008 Which for things true weeps things imaginary.
QUEEN
FTLN 1009 It may be so, but yet my inward soul
FTLN 1010 30 Persuades me it is otherwise. Howe’er it be,

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Richard II
ACT 2. SC. 2
FTLN 1011 I cannot but be sad—so heavy sad
FTLN 1012 As thought, on thinking on no thought I think,
FTLN 1013 Makes me with heavy nothing faint and shrink.
BUSHY
FTLN 1014 ’Tis nothing but conceit, my gracious lady.
QUEEN
FTLN 1015 35 ’Tis nothing less. Conceit is still derived
FTLN 1016 From some forefather grief. Mine is not so,
FTLN 1017 For nothing hath begot my something grief—
FTLN 1018 Or something hath the nothing that I grieve.
FTLN 1019 ’Tis in reversion that I do possess,
FTLN 1020 40 But what it is that is not yet known what,
FTLN 1021 I cannot name. ’Tis nameless woe, I wot.
Enter Green.
GREEN
FTLN 1022 God save your Majesty!—And well met, gentlemen.
FTLN 1023 I hope the King is not yet shipped for Ireland.
QUEEN
FTLN 1024 Why hopest thou so? ’Tis better hope he is,
FTLN 1025 45 For his designs crave haste, his haste good hope.
FTLN 1026 Then wherefore dost thou hope he is not shipped?
GREEN
FTLN 1027 That he, our hope, might have retired his power
FTLN 1028 And driven into despair an enemy’s hope,
FTLN 1029 Who strongly hath set footing in this land.
FTLN 1030 50 The banished Bolingbroke repeals himself
FTLN 1031 And with uplifted arms is safe arrived
FTLN 1032 At Ravenspurgh.
QUEEN FTLN 1033 Now God in heaven forbid!
GREEN
FTLN 1034 Ah, madam, ’tis too true. And that is worse,
FTLN 1035 55 The Lord Northumberland, his son young Harry
FTLN 1036 Percy,
FTLN 1037 The Lords of Ross, Beaumont, and Willoughby,
FTLN 1038 With all their powerful friends, are fled to him.

83
Richard II
ACT 2. SC. 2
BUSHY
FTLN 1039 Why have you not proclaimed Northumberland
FTLN 1040 60 And all the rest revolted faction traitors?
GREEN
FTLN 1041 We have; whereupon the Earl of Worcester
FTLN 1042 Hath broken his staff, resigned his stewardship,
FTLN 1043 And all the Household servants fled with him
FTLN 1044 To Bolingbroke.
QUEEN
FTLN 1045 65 So, Green, thou art the midwife to my woe,
FTLN 1046 And Bolingbroke my sorrow’s dismal heir.
FTLN 1047 Now hath my soul brought forth her prodigy,
FTLN 1048 And I, a gasping new-delivered mother,
FTLN 1049 Have woe to woe, sorrow to sorrow joined.
BUSHY
FTLN 1050 70 Despair not, madam.
QUEEN FTLN 1051 Who shall hinder me?
FTLN 1052 I will despair and be at enmity
FTLN 1053 With cozening hope. He is a flatterer,
FTLN 1054 A parasite, a keeper-back of death,
FTLN 1055 75 Who gently would dissolve the bands of life
FTLN 1056 Which false hope lingers in extremity.
Enter York.
GREEN FTLN 1057 Here comes the Duke of York.
QUEEN
FTLN 1058 With signs of war about his agèd neck.
FTLN 1059 O, full of careful business are his looks!—
FTLN 1060 80 Uncle, for God’s sake speak comfortable words.
YORK
FTLN 1061 Should I do so, I should belie my thoughts.
FTLN 1062 Comfort’s in heaven, and we are on the Earth,
FTLN 1063 Where nothing lives but crosses, cares, and grief.
FTLN 1064 Your husband, he is gone to save far off
FTLN 1065 85 Whilst others come to make him lose at home.
FTLN 1066 Here am I left to underprop his land,

85
Richard II
ACT 2. SC. 2
FTLN 1067 Who, weak with age, cannot support myself.
FTLN 1068 Now comes the sick hour that his surfeit made;
FTLN 1069 Now shall he try his friends that flattered him.
Enter a Servingman.
SERVINGMAN
FTLN 1070 90 My lord, your son was gone before I came.
YORK
FTLN 1071 He was? Why, so go all which way it will.
FTLN 1072 The nobles they are fled; the commons they are
FTLN 1073 cold
FTLN 1074 And will, I fear, revolt on Hereford’s side.
FTLN 1075 95 Sirrah, get thee to Plashy, to my sister Gloucester;
FTLN 1076 Bid her send me presently a thousand pound.
FTLN 1077 Hold, take my ring.
SERVINGMAN
FTLN 1078 My lord, I had forgot to tell your Lordship:
FTLN 1079 Today as I came by I callèd there—
FTLN 1080 100 But I shall grieve you to report the rest.
YORK FTLN 1081 What is ’t, knave?
SERVINGMAN
FTLN 1082 An hour before I came, the Duchess died.
YORK
FTLN 1083 God for His mercy, what a tide of woes
FTLN 1084 Comes rushing on this woeful land at once!
FTLN 1085 105 I know not what to do. I would to God,
FTLN 1086 So my untruth had not provoked him to it,
FTLN 1087 The King had cut off my head with my brother’s!
FTLN 1088 What, are there no posts dispatched for Ireland?
FTLN 1089 How shall we do for money for these wars?—
FTLN 1090 110 Come, sister—cousin I would say, pray pardon
FTLN 1091 me.—
FTLN 1092 Go, fellow, get thee home. Provide some carts
FTLN 1093 And bring away the armor that is there.
Servingman exits.
FTLN 1094 Gentlemen, will you go muster men?

87
Richard II
ACT 2. SC. 2
FTLN 1095 115 If I know how or which way to order these affairs
FTLN 1096 Thus disorderly thrust into my hands,
FTLN 1097 Never believe me. Both are my kinsmen.
FTLN 1098 T’ one is my sovereign, whom both my oath
FTLN 1099 And duty bids defend; t’ other again
FTLN 1100 120 Is my kinsman, whom the King hath wronged,
FTLN 1101 Whom conscience and my kindred bids to right.
FTLN 1102 Well, somewhat we must do. To Queen. Come,
FTLN 1103 cousin,
FTLN 1104 I’ll dispose of you.—Gentlemen, go muster up your
FTLN 1105 125 men
FTLN 1106 And meet me presently at Berkeley.
FTLN 1107 I should to Plashy too,
FTLN 1108 But time will not permit. All is uneven,
FTLN 1109 And everything is left at six and seven.
Duke of York and Queen exit.
Bushy, Green, and Bagot remain.
BUSHY
FTLN 1110 130 The wind sits fair for news to go for Ireland,
FTLN 1111 But none returns. For us to levy power
FTLN 1112 Proportionable to the enemy
FTLN 1113 Is all unpossible.
GREEN
FTLN 1114 Besides, our nearness to the King in love
FTLN 1115 135 Is near the hate of those love not the King.
BAGOT
FTLN 1116 And that is the wavering commons, for their love
FTLN 1117 Lies in their purses, and whoso empties them
FTLN 1118 By so much fills their hearts with deadly hate.
BUSHY
FTLN 1119 Wherein the King stands generally condemned.
BAGOT
FTLN 1120 140 If judgment lie in them, then so do we,
FTLN 1121 Because we ever have been near the King.
GREEN
FTLN 1122 Well, I will for refuge straight to Bristow Castle.
FTLN 1123 The Earl of Wiltshire is already there.

89
Richard II
ACT 2. SC. 3
BUSHY
FTLN 1124 Thither will I with you, for little office
FTLN 1125 145 Will the hateful commons perform for us,
FTLN 1126 Except like curs to tear us all to pieces.—
FTLN 1127 Will you go along with us?
BAGOT
FTLN 1128 No, I will to Ireland to his Majesty.
FTLN 1129 Farewell. If heart’s presages be not vain,
FTLN 1130 150 We three here part that ne’er shall meet again.
BUSHY
FTLN 1131 That’s as York thrives to beat back Bolingbroke.
GREEN
FTLN 1132 Alas, poor duke, the task he undertakes
FTLN 1133 Is numb’ring sands and drinking oceans dry.
FTLN 1134 Where one on his side fights, thousands will fly.
FTLN 1135 155 Farewell at once, for once, for all, and ever.
BUSHY
FTLN 1136 Well, we may meet again.
BAGOT FTLN 1137 I fear me, never.
They exit.
Scene 3
Enter Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, and
Northumberland.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 1138 How far is it, my lord, to Berkeley now?
NORTHUMBERLAND FTLN 1139 Believe me, noble lord,
FTLN 1140 I am a stranger here in Gloucestershire.
FTLN 1141 These high wild hills and rough uneven ways
FTLN 1142 5 Draws out our miles and makes them wearisome.
FTLN 1143 And yet your fair discourse hath been as sugar,
FTLN 1144 Making the hard way sweet and delectable.
FTLN 1145 But I bethink me what a weary way
FTLN 1146 From Ravenspurgh to Cotshall will be found

91
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ACT 2. SC. 3
FTLN 1147 10 In Ross and Willoughby, wanting your company,
FTLN 1148 Which, I protest, hath very much beguiled
FTLN 1149 The tediousness and process of my travel.
FTLN 1150 But theirs is sweetened with the hope to have
FTLN 1151 The present benefit which I possess,
FTLN 1152 15 And hope to joy is little less in joy
FTLN 1153 Than hope enjoyed. By this the weary lords
FTLN 1154 Shall make their way seem short as mine hath done
FTLN 1155 By sight of what I have, your noble company.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 1156 Of much less value is my company
FTLN 1157 20 Than your good words. But who comes here?
Enter Harry Percy.
NORTHUMBERLAND FTLN 1158 It is my son, young Harry Percy,
FTLN 1159 Sent from my brother Worcester whencesoever.—
FTLN 1160 Harry, how fares your uncle?
PERCY
FTLN 1161 I had thought, my lord, to have learned his health of
FTLN 1162 25 you.
NORTHUMBERLAND FTLN 1163 Why, is he not with the Queen?
PERCY
FTLN 1164 No, my good lord, he hath forsook the court,
FTLN 1165 Broken his staff of office, and dispersed
FTLN 1166 The Household of the King.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 1167 30 What was his reason? He was not so resolved
FTLN 1168 When last we spake together.
PERCY
FTLN 1169 Because your Lordship was proclaimèd traitor.
FTLN 1170 But he, my lord, is gone to Ravenspurgh
FTLN 1171 To offer service to the Duke of Hereford,
FTLN 1172 35 And sent me over by Berkeley to discover
FTLN 1173 What power the Duke of York had levied there,
FTLN 1174 Then with directions to repair to Ravenspurgh.

93
Richard II
ACT 2. SC. 3
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 1175 Have you forgot the Duke of Hereford, boy?
PERCY
FTLN 1176 No, my good lord, for that is not forgot
FTLN 1177 40 Which ne’er I did remember. To my knowledge
FTLN 1178 I never in my life did look on him.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 1179 Then learn to know him now. This is the Duke.
PERCY , to Bolingbroke
FTLN 1180 My gracious lord, I tender you my service,
FTLN 1181 Such as it is, being tender, raw, and young,
FTLN 1182 45 Which elder days shall ripen and confirm
FTLN 1183 To more approvèd service and desert.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 1184 I thank thee, gentle Percy, and be sure
FTLN 1185 I count myself in nothing else so happy
FTLN 1186 As in a soul rememb’ring my good friends;
FTLN 1187 50 And as my fortune ripens with thy love,
FTLN 1188 It shall be still thy true love’s recompense.
FTLN 1189 My heart this covenant makes, my hand thus seals it.
Gives Percy his hand.
NORTHUMBERLAND , to Percy
FTLN 1190 How far is it to Berkeley, and what stir
FTLN 1191 Keeps good old York there with his men of war?
PERCY
FTLN 1192 55 There stands the castle by yon tuft of trees,
FTLN 1193 Manned with three hundred men, as I have heard,
FTLN 1194 And in it are the Lords of York, Berkeley, and
FTLN 1195 Seymour,
FTLN 1196 None else of name and noble estimate.
Enter Ross and Willoughby.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 1197 60 Here come the Lords of Ross and Willoughby,
FTLN 1198 Bloody with spurring, fiery red with haste.

95
Richard II
ACT 2. SC. 3
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 1199 Welcome, my lords. I wot your love pursues
FTLN 1200 A banished traitor. All my treasury
FTLN 1201 Is yet but unfelt thanks, which, more enriched,
FTLN 1202 65 Shall be your love and labor’s recompense.
ROSS
FTLN 1203 Your presence makes us rich, most noble lord.
WILLOUGHBY
FTLN 1204 And far surmounts our labor to attain it.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 1205 Evermore thank’s the exchequer of the poor,
FTLN 1206 Which, till my infant fortune comes to years,
FTLN 1207 70 Stands for my bounty. But who comes here?
Enter Berkeley.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 1208 It is my Lord of Berkeley, as I guess.
BERKELEY , to Bolingbroke
FTLN 1209 My Lord of Hereford, my message is to you.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 1210 My lord, my answer is—to “Lancaster”;
FTLN 1211 And I am come to seek that name in England.
FTLN 1212 75 And I must find that title in your tongue
FTLN 1213 Before I make reply to aught you say.
BERKELEY
FTLN 1214 Mistake me not, my lord, ’tis not my meaning
FTLN 1215 To rase one title of your honor out.
FTLN 1216 To you, my lord, I come, what lord you will,
FTLN 1217 80 From the most gracious regent of this land,
FTLN 1218 The Duke of York, to know what pricks you on
FTLN 1219 To take advantage of the absent time,
FTLN 1220 And fright our native peace with self-borne arms.
Enter York.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 1221 I shall not need transport my words by you.

97
Richard II
ACT 2. SC. 3
FTLN 1222 85 Here comes his Grace in person. He kneels.
FTLN 1223 My noble uncle.
YORK
FTLN 1224 Show me thy humble heart and not thy knee,
FTLN 1225 Whose duty is deceivable and false.
BOLINGBROKE , standing FTLN 1226 My gracious uncle—
YORK FTLN 1227 90 Tut, tut!
FTLN 1228 Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle.
FTLN 1229 I am no traitor’s uncle, and that word “grace”
FTLN 1230 In an ungracious mouth is but profane.
FTLN 1231 Why have those banished and forbidden legs
FTLN 1232 95 Dared once to touch a dust of England’s ground?
FTLN 1233 But then, more why: why have they dared to march
FTLN 1234 So many miles upon her peaceful bosom,
FTLN 1235 Frighting her pale-faced villages with war
FTLN 1236 And ostentation of despisèd arms?
FTLN 1237 100 Com’st thou because the anointed king is hence?
FTLN 1238 Why, foolish boy, the King is left behind
FTLN 1239 And in my loyal bosom lies his power.
FTLN 1240 Were I but now lord of such hot youth
FTLN 1241 As when brave Gaunt thy father and myself
FTLN 1242 105 Rescued the Black Prince, that young Mars of men,
FTLN 1243 From forth the ranks of many thousand French,
FTLN 1244 O, then, how quickly should this arm of mine,
FTLN 1245 Now prisoner to the palsy, chastise thee
FTLN 1246 And minister correction to thy fault!
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 1247 110 My gracious uncle, let me know my fault.
FTLN 1248 On what condition stands it and wherein?
YORK
FTLN 1249 Even in condition of the worst degree,
FTLN 1250 In gross rebellion and detested treason.
FTLN 1251 Thou art a banished man and here art come,
FTLN 1252 115 Before the expiration of thy time,
FTLN 1253 In braving arms against thy sovereign.

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BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 1254 As I was banished, I was banished Hereford,
FTLN 1255 But as I come, I come for Lancaster.
FTLN 1256 And, noble uncle, I beseech your Grace
FTLN 1257 120 Look on my wrongs with an indifferent eye.
FTLN 1258 You are my father, for methinks in you
FTLN 1259 I see old Gaunt alive. O, then, my father,
FTLN 1260 Will you permit that I shall stand condemned
FTLN 1261 A wandering vagabond, my rights and royalties
FTLN 1262 125 Plucked from my arms perforce and given away
FTLN 1263 To upstart unthrifts? Wherefore was I born?
FTLN 1264 If that my cousin king be king in England,
FTLN 1265 It must be granted I am Duke of Lancaster.
FTLN 1266 You have a son, Aumerle, my noble cousin.
FTLN 1267 130 Had you first died and he been thus trod down,
FTLN 1268 He should have found his uncle Gaunt a father
FTLN 1269 To rouse his wrongs and chase them to the bay.
FTLN 1270 I am denied to sue my livery here,
FTLN 1271 And yet my letters patents give me leave.
FTLN 1272 135 My father’s goods are all distrained and sold,
FTLN 1273 And these, and all, are all amiss employed.
FTLN 1274 What would you have me do? I am a subject,
FTLN 1275 And I challenge law. Attorneys are denied me,
FTLN 1276 And therefore personally I lay my claim
FTLN 1277 140 To my inheritance of free descent.
NORTHUMBERLAND , to York
FTLN 1278 The noble duke hath been too much abused.
ROSS , to York
FTLN 1279 It stands your Grace upon to do him right.
WILLOUGHBY , to York
FTLN 1280 Base men by his endowments are made great.
YORK
FTLN 1281 My lords of England, let me tell you this:
FTLN 1282 145 I have had feeling of my cousin’s wrongs
FTLN 1283 And labored all I could to do him right.
FTLN 1284 But in this kind to come, in braving arms,

101
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FTLN 1285 Be his own carver and cut out his way
FTLN 1286 To find out right with wrong, it may not be.
FTLN 1287 150 And you that do abet him in this kind
FTLN 1288 Cherish rebellion and are rebels all.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 1289 The noble duke hath sworn his coming is
FTLN 1290 But for his own, and for the right of that
FTLN 1291 We all have strongly sworn to give him aid.
FTLN 1292 155 And let him never see joy that breaks that oath.
YORK
FTLN 1293 Well, well. I see the issue of these arms.
FTLN 1294 I cannot mend it, I must needs confess,
FTLN 1295 Because my power is weak and all ill-left.
FTLN 1296 But if I could, by Him that gave me life,
FTLN 1297 160 I would attach you all and make you stoop
FTLN 1298 Unto the sovereign mercy of the King.
FTLN 1299 But since I cannot, be it known unto you
FTLN 1300 I do remain as neuter. So fare you well—
FTLN 1301 Unless you please to enter in the castle
FTLN 1302 165 And there repose you for this night.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 1303 An offer, uncle, that we will accept.
FTLN 1304 But we must win your Grace to go with us
FTLN 1305 To Bristow Castle, which they say is held
FTLN 1306 By Bushy, Bagot, and their complices,
FTLN 1307 170 The caterpillars of the commonwealth,
FTLN 1308 Which I have sworn to weed and pluck away.
YORK
FTLN 1309 It may be I will go with you; but yet I’ll pause,
FTLN 1310 For I am loath to break our country’s laws.
FTLN 1311 Nor friends nor foes, to me welcome you are.
FTLN 1312 175 Things past redress are now with me past care.
They exit.

103
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ACT 2. SC. 4
Scene 4
Enter Earl of Salisbury and a Welsh Captain.
WELSH CAPTAIN
FTLN 1313 My Lord of Salisbury, we have stayed ten days
FTLN 1314 And hardly kept our countrymen together,
FTLN 1315 And yet we hear no tidings from the King.
FTLN 1316 Therefore we will disperse ourselves. Farewell.
SALISBURY
FTLN 1317 5 Stay yet another day, thou trusty Welshman.
FTLN 1318 The King reposeth all his confidence in thee.
WELSH CAPTAIN
FTLN 1319 ’Tis thought the King is dead. We will not stay.
FTLN 1320 The bay trees in our country are all withered,
FTLN 1321 And meteors fright the fixèd stars of heaven;
FTLN 1322 10 The pale-faced moon looks bloody on the Earth,
FTLN 1323 And lean-looked prophets whisper fearful change;
FTLN 1324 Rich men look sad, and ruffians dance and leap,
FTLN 1325 The one in fear to lose what they enjoy,
FTLN 1326 The other to enjoy by rage and war.
FTLN 1327 15 These signs forerun the death or fall of kings.
FTLN 1328 Farewell. Our countrymen are gone and fled,
FTLN 1329 As well assured Richard their king is dead.
He exits.
SALISBURY
FTLN 1330 Ah, Richard! With the eyes of heavy mind
FTLN 1331 I see thy glory like a shooting star
FTLN 1332 20 Fall to the base earth from the firmament.
FTLN 1333 Thy sun sets weeping in the lowly west,
FTLN 1334 Witnessing storms to come, woe, and unrest.
FTLN 1335 Thy friends are fled to wait upon thy foes,
FTLN 1336 And crossly to thy good all fortune goes.
He exits.

ACT 3
Scene 1
Enter Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, York,
Northumberland, with other Lords, and Bushy and
Green prisoners.
BOLINGBROKE FTLN 1337 Bring forth these men.—
FTLN 1338 Bushy and Green, I will not vex your souls,
FTLN 1339 Since presently your souls must part your bodies,
FTLN 1340 With too much urging your pernicious lives,
FTLN 1341 5 For ’twere no charity; yet to wash your blood
FTLN 1342 From off my hands, here in the view of men
FTLN 1343 I will unfold some causes of your deaths:
FTLN 1344 You have misled a prince, a royal king,
FTLN 1345 A happy gentleman in blood and lineaments
FTLN 1346 10 By you unhappied and disfigured clean.
FTLN 1347 You have in manner with your sinful hours
FTLN 1348 Made a divorce betwixt his queen and him,
FTLN 1349 Broke the possession of a royal bed,
FTLN 1350 And stained the beauty of a fair queen’s cheeks
FTLN 1351 15 With tears drawn from her eyes by your foul wrongs.
FTLN 1352 Myself, a prince by fortune of my birth,
FTLN 1353 Near to the King in blood, and near in love
FTLN 1354 Till you did make him misinterpret me,
FTLN 1355 Have stooped my neck under your injuries
FTLN 1356 20 And sighed my English breath in foreign clouds,
FTLN 1357 Eating the bitter bread of banishment,
107

109
Richard II
ACT 3. SC. 1
FTLN 1358 Whilst you have fed upon my seigniories,
FTLN 1359 Disparked my parks and felled my forest woods,
FTLN 1360 From my own windows torn my household coat,
FTLN 1361 25 Rased out my imprese, leaving me no sign,
FTLN 1362 Save men’s opinions and my living blood,
FTLN 1363 To show the world I am a gentleman.
FTLN 1364 This and much more, much more than twice all
FTLN 1365 this,
FTLN 1366 30 Condemns you to the death.—See them delivered
FTLN 1367 over
FTLN 1368 To execution and the hand of death.
BUSHY
FTLN 1369 More welcome is the stroke of death to me
FTLN 1370 Than Bolingbroke to England. Lords, farewell.
GREEN
FTLN 1371 35 My comfort is that heaven will take our souls
FTLN 1372 And plague injustice with the pains of hell.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 1373 My Lord Northumberland, see them dispatched. Northumberland exits with Bushy and Green.
FTLN 1374 To York. Uncle, you say the Queen is at your
FTLN 1375 house.
FTLN 1376 40 For God’s sake, fairly let her be entreated.
FTLN 1377 Tell her I send to her my kind commends.
FTLN 1378 Take special care my greetings be delivered.
YORK
FTLN 1379 A gentleman of mine I have dispatched
FTLN 1380 With letters of your love to her at large.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 1381 45 Thanks, gentle uncle.—Come, lords, away,
FTLN 1382 To fight with Glendower and his complices.
FTLN 1383 A while to work, and after holiday.
They exit.

111
Richard II
ACT 3. SC. 2
Scene 2
Drums. Flourish and colors. Enter the King, Aumerle,
Carlisle, and Soldiers.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 1384 Barkloughly Castle call they this at hand?
AUMERLE
FTLN 1385 Yea, my lord. How brooks your Grace the air
FTLN 1386 After your late tossing on the breaking seas?
KING RICHARD
FTLN 1387 Needs must I like it well. I weep for joy
FTLN 1388 5 To stand upon my kingdom once again. He kneels.
FTLN 1389 Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand,
FTLN 1390 Though rebels wound thee with their horses’ hoofs.
FTLN 1391 As a long-parted mother with her child
FTLN 1392 Plays fondly with her tears and smiles in meeting,
FTLN 1393 10 So, weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my earth,
FTLN 1394 And do thee favors with my royal hands.
FTLN 1395 Feed not thy sovereign’s foe, my gentle earth,
FTLN 1396 Nor with thy sweets comfort his ravenous sense,
FTLN 1397 But let thy spiders, that suck up thy venom,
FTLN 1398 15 And heavy-gaited toads lie in their way,
FTLN 1399 Doing annoyance to the treacherous feet
FTLN 1400 Which with usurping steps do trample thee.
FTLN 1401 Yield stinging nettles to mine enemies,
FTLN 1402 And when they from thy bosom pluck a flower,
FTLN 1403 20 Guard it, I pray thee, with a lurking adder,
FTLN 1404 Whose double tongue may with a mortal touch
FTLN 1405 Throw death upon thy sovereign’s enemies.
FTLN 1406 Mock not my senseless conjuration, lords.
FTLN 1407 This earth shall have a feeling, and these stones
FTLN 1408 25 Prove armèd soldiers, ere her native king
FTLN 1409 Shall falter under foul rebellion’s arms.
CARLISLE
FTLN 1410 Fear not, my lord. That power that made you king
FTLN 1411 Hath power to keep you king in spite of all.

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ACT 3. SC. 2
FTLN 1412 The means that heavens yield must be embraced
FTLN 1413 30 And not neglected. Else heaven would,
FTLN 1414 And we will not—heaven’s offer we refuse,
FTLN 1415 The proffered means of succor and redress.
AUMERLE
FTLN 1416 He means, my lord, that we are too remiss,
FTLN 1417 Whilst Bolingbroke, through our security,
FTLN 1418 35 Grows strong and great in substance and in power.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 1419 Discomfortable cousin, know’st thou not
FTLN 1420 That when the searching eye of heaven is hid
FTLN 1421 Behind the globe that lights the lower world,
FTLN 1422 Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen
FTLN 1423 40 In murders and in outrage boldly here?
FTLN 1424 But when from under this terrestrial ball
FTLN 1425 He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines
FTLN 1426 And darts his light through every guilty hole,
FTLN 1427 Then murders, treasons, and detested sins,
FTLN 1428 45 The cloak of night being plucked from off their
FTLN 1429 backs,
FTLN 1430 Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves.
FTLN 1431 So when this thief, this traitor Bolingbroke,
FTLN 1432 Who all this while hath reveled in the night
FTLN 1433 50 Whilst we were wand’ring with the Antipodes,
FTLN 1434 Shall see us rising in our throne, the east,
FTLN 1435 His treasons will sit blushing in his face,
FTLN 1436 Not able to endure the sight of day,
FTLN 1437 But self-affrighted, tremble at his sin.
FTLN 1438 55 Not all the water in the rough rude sea
FTLN 1439 Can wash the balm off from an anointed king.
FTLN 1440 The breath of worldly men cannot depose
FTLN 1441 The deputy elected by the Lord.
FTLN 1442 For every man that Bolingbroke hath pressed
FTLN 1443 60 To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown,
FTLN 1444 God for His Richard hath in heavenly pay

115
Richard II
ACT 3. SC. 2
FTLN 1445 A glorious angel. Then, if angels fight,
FTLN 1446 Weak men must fall, for heaven still guards the right.
Enter Salisbury.
FTLN 1447 Welcome, my lord. How far off lies your power?
SALISBURY
FTLN 1448 65 Nor near nor farther off, my gracious lord,
FTLN 1449 Than this weak arm. Discomfort guides my tongue
FTLN 1450 And bids me speak of nothing but despair.
FTLN 1451 One day too late, I fear me, noble lord,
FTLN 1452 Hath clouded all thy happy days on earth.
FTLN 1453 70 O, call back yesterday, bid time return,
FTLN 1454 And thou shalt have twelve thousand fighting men.
FTLN 1455 Today, today, unhappy day too late,
FTLN 1456 Overthrows thy joys, friends, fortune, and thy state;
FTLN 1457 For all the Welshmen, hearing thou wert dead,
FTLN 1458 75 Are gone to Bolingbroke, dispersed, and fled.
AUMERLE
FTLN 1459 Comfort, my liege. Why looks your Grace so pale?
KING RICHARD
FTLN 1460 But now the blood of twenty thousand men
FTLN 1461 Did triumph in my face, and they are fled;
FTLN 1462 And till so much blood thither come again
FTLN 1463 80 Have I not reason to look pale and dead?
FTLN 1464 All souls that will be safe, fly from my side,
FTLN 1465 For time hath set a blot upon my pride.
AUMERLE
FTLN 1466 Comfort, my liege. Remember who you are.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 1467 I had forgot myself. Am I not king?
FTLN 1468 85 Awake, thou coward majesty, thou sleepest!
FTLN 1469 Is not the King’s name twenty thousand names?
FTLN 1470 Arm, arm, my name! A puny subject strikes
FTLN 1471 At thy great glory. Look not to the ground,
FTLN 1472 You favorites of a king. Are we not high?
FTLN 1473 90 High be our thoughts. I know my Uncle York

117
Richard II
ACT 3. SC. 2
FTLN 1474 Hath power enough to serve our turn.—But who
FTLN 1475 comes here?
Enter Scroop.
SCROOP
FTLN 1476 More health and happiness betide my liege
FTLN 1477 Than can my care-tuned tongue deliver him.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 1478 95 Mine ear is open and my heart prepared.
FTLN 1479 The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold.
FTLN 1480 Say, is my kingdom lost? Why, ’twas my care,
FTLN 1481 And what loss is it to be rid of care?
FTLN 1482 Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we?
FTLN 1483 100 Greater he shall not be. If he serve God,
FTLN 1484 We’ll serve Him too and be his fellow so.
FTLN 1485 Revolt our subjects? That we cannot mend.
FTLN 1486 They break their faith to God as well as us.
FTLN 1487 Cry woe, destruction, ruin, and decay.
FTLN 1488 105 The worst is death, and death will have his day.
SCROOP
FTLN 1489 Glad am I that your Highness is so armed
FTLN 1490 To bear the tidings of calamity.
FTLN 1491 Like an unseasonable stormy day
FTLN 1492 Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores
FTLN 1493 110 As if the world were all dissolved to tears,
FTLN 1494 So high above his limits swells the rage
FTLN 1495 Of Bolingbroke, covering your fearful land
FTLN 1496 With hard bright steel and hearts harder than steel.
FTLN 1497 Whitebeards have armed their thin and hairless
FTLN 1498 115 scalps
FTLN 1499 Against thy Majesty; boys with women’s voices
FTLN 1500 Strive to speak big and clap their female joints
FTLN 1501 In stiff unwieldy arms against thy crown;
FTLN 1502 Thy very beadsmen learn to bend their bows
FTLN 1503 120 Of double-fatal yew against thy state.
FTLN 1504 Yea, distaff women manage rusty bills

119
Richard II
ACT 3. SC. 2
FTLN 1505 Against thy seat. Both young and old rebel,
FTLN 1506 And all goes worse than I have power to tell.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 1507 Too well, too well thou tell’st a tale so ill.
FTLN 1508 125 Where is the Earl of Wiltshire? Where is Bagot?
FTLN 1509 What is become of Bushy? Where is Green,
FTLN 1510 That they have let the dangerous enemy
FTLN 1511 Measure our confines with such peaceful steps?
FTLN 1512 If we prevail, their heads shall pay for it!
FTLN 1513 130 I warrant they have made peace with Bolingbroke.
SCROOP
FTLN 1514 Peace have they made with him indeed, my lord.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 1515 O villains, vipers, damned without redemption!
FTLN 1516 Dogs easily won to fawn on any man!
FTLN 1517 Snakes in my heart blood warmed, that sting my
FTLN 1518 135 heart!
FTLN 1519 Three Judases, each one thrice worse than Judas!
FTLN 1520 Would they make peace? Terrible hell
FTLN 1521 Make war upon their spotted souls for this!
SCROOP
FTLN 1522 Sweet love, I see, changing his property,
FTLN 1523 140 Turns to the sourest and most deadly hate.
FTLN 1524 Again uncurse their souls. Their peace is made
FTLN 1525 With heads and not with hands. Those whom you
FTLN 1526 curse
FTLN 1527 Have felt the worst of death’s destroying wound
FTLN 1528 145 And lie full low, graved in the hollow ground.
AUMERLE
FTLN 1529 Is Bushy, Green, and the Earl of Wiltshire dead?
SCROOP
FTLN 1530 Ay, all of them at Bristow lost their heads.
AUMERLE
FTLN 1531 Where is the Duke my father with his power?
KING RICHARD
FTLN 1532 No matter where. Of comfort no man speak.

121
Richard II
ACT 3. SC. 2
FTLN 1533 150 Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs,
FTLN 1534 Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes
FTLN 1535 Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth.
FTLN 1536 Let’s choose executors and talk of wills.
FTLN 1537 And yet not so, for what can we bequeath
FTLN 1538 155 Save our deposèd bodies to the ground?
FTLN 1539 Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke’s,
FTLN 1540 And nothing can we call our own but death
FTLN 1541 And that small model of the barren earth
FTLN 1542 Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.
FTLN 1543 160 For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground
FTLN 1544 And tell sad stories of the death of kings—
FTLN 1545 How some have been deposed, some slain in war,
FTLN 1546 Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed,
FTLN 1547 Some poisoned by their wives, some sleeping killed,
FTLN 1548 165 All murdered. For within the hollow crown
FTLN 1549 That rounds the mortal temples of a king
FTLN 1550 Keeps Death his court, and there the antic sits,
FTLN 1551 Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
FTLN 1552 Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
FTLN 1553 170 To monarchize, be feared, and kill with looks,
FTLN 1554 Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
FTLN 1555 As if this flesh which walls about our life
FTLN 1556 Were brass impregnable; and humored thus,
FTLN 1557 Comes at the last and with a little pin
FTLN 1558 175 Bores through his castle wall, and farewell, king!
FTLN 1559 Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood
FTLN 1560 With solemn reverence. Throw away respect,
FTLN 1561 Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty,
FTLN 1562 For you have but mistook me all this while.
FTLN 1563 180 I live with bread like you, feel want,
FTLN 1564 Taste grief, need friends. Subjected thus,
FTLN 1565 How can you say to me I am a king?
CARLISLE
FTLN 1566 My lord, wise men ne’er sit and wail their woes,
FTLN 1567 But presently prevent the ways to wail.

123
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ACT 3. SC. 2
FTLN 1568 185 To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength,
FTLN 1569 Gives in your weakness strength unto your foe,
FTLN 1570 And so your follies fight against yourself.
FTLN 1571 Fear, and be slain—no worse can come to fight;
FTLN 1572 And fight and die is death destroying death,
FTLN 1573 190 Where fearing dying pays death servile breath.
AUMERLE
FTLN 1574 My father hath a power. Inquire of him,
FTLN 1575 And learn to make a body of a limb.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 1576 Thou chid’st me well.—Proud Bolingbroke, I come
FTLN 1577 To change blows with thee for our day of doom.—
FTLN 1578 195 This ague fit of fear is overblown.
FTLN 1579 An easy task it is to win our own.—
FTLN 1580 Say, Scroop, where lies our uncle with his power?
FTLN 1581 Speak sweetly, man, although thy looks be sour.
SCROOP
FTLN 1582 Men judge by the complexion of the sky
FTLN 1583 200 The state and inclination of the day;
FTLN 1584 So may you by my dull and heavy eye.
FTLN 1585 My tongue hath but a heavier tale to say.
FTLN 1586 I play the torturer by small and small
FTLN 1587 To lengthen out the worst that must be spoken.
FTLN 1588 205 Your uncle York is joined with Bolingbroke,
FTLN 1589 And all your northern castles yielded up,
FTLN 1590 And all your southern gentlemen in arms
FTLN 1591 Upon his party.
KING RICHARD FTLN 1592 Thou hast said enough.
FTLN 1593 210 To Aumerle. Beshrew thee, cousin, which didst
FTLN 1594 lead me forth
FTLN 1595 Of that sweet way I was in to despair.
FTLN 1596 What say you now? What comfort have we now?
FTLN 1597 By heaven, I’ll hate him everlastingly
FTLN 1598 215 That bids me be of comfort anymore.
FTLN 1599 Go to Flint Castle. There I’ll pine away;
FTLN 1600 A king, woe’s slave, shall kingly woe obey.

125
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ACT 3. SC. 3
FTLN 1601 That power I have, discharge, and let them go
FTLN 1602 To ear the land that hath some hope to grow,
FTLN 1603 220 For I have none. Let no man speak again
FTLN 1604 To alter this, for counsel is but vain.
AUMERLE
FTLN 1605 My liege, one word.
KING RICHARD FTLN 1606 He does me double wrong
FTLN 1607 That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue.
FTLN 1608 225 Discharge my followers. Let them hence away,
FTLN 1609 From Richard’s night to Bolingbroke’s fair day.
They exit.
Scene 3
Enter with Drum and Colors Bolingbroke, York,
Northumberland, with Soldiers and Attendants.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 1610 So that by this intelligence we learn
FTLN 1611 The Welshmen are dispersed, and Salisbury
FTLN 1612 Is gone to meet the King, who lately landed
FTLN 1613 With some few private friends upon this coast.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 1614 5 The news is very fair and good, my lord:
FTLN 1615 Richard not far from hence hath hid his head.
YORK
FTLN 1616 It would beseem the Lord Northumberland
FTLN 1617 To say “King Richard.” Alack the heavy day
FTLN 1618 When such a sacred king should hide his head!
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 1619 10 Your Grace mistakes; only to be brief
FTLN 1620 Left I his title out.
YORK
FTLN 1621 The time hath been, would you have been so brief
FTLN 1622 with him,
FTLN 1623 He would have been so brief to shorten you,

127
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ACT 3. SC. 3
FTLN 1624 15 For taking so the head, your whole head’s length.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 1625 Mistake not, uncle, further than you should.
YORK
FTLN 1626 Take not, good cousin, further than you should,
FTLN 1627 Lest you mistake. The heavens are over our heads.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 1628 I know it, uncle, and oppose not myself
FTLN 1629 20 Against their will. But who comes here?
Enter Percy.
FTLN 1630 Welcome, Harry. What, will not this castle yield?
PERCY
FTLN 1631 The castle royally is manned, my lord,
FTLN 1632 Against thy entrance.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 1633 Royally? Why, it contains no king.
PERCY FTLN 1634 25 Yes, my good lord,
FTLN 1635 It doth contain a king. King Richard lies
FTLN 1636 Within the limits of yon lime and stone,
FTLN 1637 And with him are the Lord Aumerle, Lord Salisbury,
FTLN 1638 Sir Stephen Scroop, besides a clergyman
FTLN 1639 30 Of holy reverence—who, I cannot learn.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 1640 O, belike it is the Bishop of Carlisle.
BOLINGBROKE , to Northumberland FTLN 1641 Noble lord,
FTLN 1642 Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle,
FTLN 1643 Through brazen trumpet send the breath of parley
FTLN 1644 35 Into his ruined ears, and thus deliver:
FTLN 1645 Henry Bolingbroke
FTLN 1646 On both his knees doth kiss King Richard’s hand
FTLN 1647 And sends allegiance and true faith of heart
FTLN 1648 To his most royal person, hither come
FTLN 1649 40 Even at his feet to lay my arms and power,
FTLN 1650 Provided that my banishment repealed
FTLN 1651 And lands restored again be freely granted.

129
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ACT 3. SC. 3
FTLN 1652 If not, I’ll use the advantage of my power
FTLN 1653 And lay the summer’s dust with showers of blood
FTLN 1654 45 Rained from the wounds of slaughtered
FTLN 1655 Englishmen—
FTLN 1656 The which how far off from the mind of Bolingbroke
FTLN 1657 It is such crimson tempest should bedrench
FTLN 1658 The fresh green lap of fair King Richard’s land,
FTLN 1659 50 My stooping duty tenderly shall show.
FTLN 1660 Go signify as much while here we march
FTLN 1661 Upon the grassy carpet of this plain.
Northumberland and Trumpets
approach the battlements.
FTLN 1662 Let’s march without the noise of threat’ning drum,
FTLN 1663 That from this castle’s tottered battlements
FTLN 1664 55 Our fair appointments may be well perused.
FTLN 1665 Methinks King Richard and myself should meet
FTLN 1666 With no less terror than the elements
FTLN 1667 Of fire and water when their thund’ring shock
FTLN 1668 At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven.
FTLN 1669 60 Be he the fire, I’ll be the yielding water;
FTLN 1670 The rage be his, whilst on the earth I rain
FTLN 1671 My waters—on the earth and not on him.
FTLN 1672 March on, and mark King Richard how he looks.
Bolingbroke’s Soldiers march, the trumpets sound.
Richard appeareth on the walls with Aumerle.
FTLN 1673 See, see, King Richard doth himself appear
FTLN 1674 65 As doth the blushing discontented sun
FTLN 1675 From out the fiery portal of the east
FTLN 1676 When he perceives the envious clouds are bent
FTLN 1677 To dim his glory and to stain the track
FTLN 1678 Of his bright passage to the occident.
YORK
FTLN 1679 70 Yet looks he like a king. Behold, his eye,
FTLN 1680 As bright as is the eagle’s, lightens forth
FTLN 1681 Controlling majesty. Alack, alack for woe
FTLN 1682 That any harm should stain so fair a show!

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KING RICHARD , to Northumberland, below
FTLN 1683 We are amazed, and thus long have we stood
FTLN 1684 75 To watch the fearful bending of thy knee,
FTLN 1685 Because we thought ourself thy lawful king.
FTLN 1686 An if we be, how dare thy joints forget
FTLN 1687 To pay their awful duty to our presence?
FTLN 1688 If we be not, show us the hand of God
FTLN 1689 80 That hath dismissed us from our stewardship,
FTLN 1690 For well we know no hand of blood and bone
FTLN 1691 Can gripe the sacred handle of our scepter,
FTLN 1692 Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp.
FTLN 1693 And though you think that all, as you have done,
FTLN 1694 85 Have torn their souls by turning them from us,
FTLN 1695 And we are barren and bereft of friends,
FTLN 1696 Yet know, my master, God omnipotent,
FTLN 1697 Is mustering in his clouds on our behalf
FTLN 1698 Armies of pestilence, and they shall strike
FTLN 1699 90 Your children yet unborn and unbegot,
FTLN 1700 That lift your vassal hands against my head
FTLN 1701 And threat the glory of my precious crown.
FTLN 1702 Tell Bolingbroke—for yon methinks he stands—
FTLN 1703 That every stride he makes upon my land
FTLN 1704 95 Is dangerous treason. He is come to open
FTLN 1705 The purple testament of bleeding war;
FTLN 1706 But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,
FTLN 1707 Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers’ sons
FTLN 1708 Shall ill become the flower of England’s face,
FTLN 1709 100 Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace
FTLN 1710 To scarlet indignation, and bedew
FTLN 1711 Her pastures’ grass with faithful English blood.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 1712 The King of heaven forbid our lord the King
FTLN 1713 Should so with civil and uncivil arms
FTLN 1714 105 Be rushed upon! Thy thrice-noble cousin,
FTLN 1715 Harry Bolingbroke, doth humbly kiss thy hand,
FTLN 1716 And by the honorable tomb he swears

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FTLN 1717 That stands upon your royal grandsire’s bones,
FTLN 1718 And by the royalties of both your bloods,
FTLN 1719 110 Currents that spring from one most gracious head,
FTLN 1720 And by the buried hand of warlike Gaunt,
FTLN 1721 And by the worth and honor of himself,
FTLN 1722 Comprising all that may be sworn or said,
FTLN 1723 His coming hither hath no further scope
FTLN 1724 115 Than for his lineal royalties, and to beg
FTLN 1725 Enfranchisement immediate on his knees;
FTLN 1726 Which on thy royal party granted once,
FTLN 1727 His glittering arms he will commend to rust,
FTLN 1728 His barbèd steeds to stables, and his heart
FTLN 1729 120 To faithful service of your Majesty.
FTLN 1730 This swears he, as he is a prince and just,
FTLN 1731 And as I am a gentleman I credit him.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 1732 Northumberland, say thus the King returns:
FTLN 1733 His noble cousin is right welcome hither,
FTLN 1734 125 And all the number of his fair demands
FTLN 1735 Shall be accomplished without contradiction.
FTLN 1736 With all the gracious utterance thou hast,
FTLN 1737 Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends.
Northumberland returns to Bolingbroke.
FTLN 1738 To Aumerle. We do debase ourselves, cousin, do
FTLN 1739 130 we not,
FTLN 1740 To look so poorly and to speak so fair?
FTLN 1741 Shall we call back Northumberland and send
FTLN 1742 Defiance to the traitor and so die?
AUMERLE
FTLN 1743 No, good my lord, let’s fight with gentle words,
FTLN 1744 135 Till time lend friends, and friends their helpful
FTLN 1745 swords.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 1746 O God, O God, that e’er this tongue of mine
FTLN 1747 That laid the sentence of dread banishment
FTLN 1748 On yon proud man should take it off again

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FTLN 1749 140 With words of sooth! O, that I were as great
FTLN 1750 As is my grief, or lesser than my name!
FTLN 1751 Or that I could forget what I have been,
FTLN 1752 Or not remember what I must be now.
FTLN 1753 Swell’st thou, proud heart? I’ll give thee scope to
FTLN 1754 145 beat,
FTLN 1755 Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me.
AUMERLE
FTLN 1756 Northumberland comes back from Bolingbroke.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 1757 What must the King do now? Must he submit?
FTLN 1758 The King shall do it. Must he be deposed?
FTLN 1759 150 The King shall be contented. Must he lose
FTLN 1760 The name of king? I’ God’s name, let it go.
FTLN 1761 I’ll give my jewels for a set of beads,
FTLN 1762 My gorgeous palace for a hermitage,
FTLN 1763 My gay apparel for an almsman’s gown,
FTLN 1764 155 My figured goblets for a dish of wood,
FTLN 1765 My scepter for a palmer’s walking-staff,
FTLN 1766 My subjects for a pair of carvèd saints,
FTLN 1767 And my large kingdom for a little grave,
FTLN 1768 A little, little grave, an obscure grave;
FTLN 1769 160 Or I’ll be buried in the King’s highway,
FTLN 1770 Some way of common trade, where subjects’ feet
FTLN 1771 May hourly trample on their sovereign’s head;
FTLN 1772 For on my heart they tread now whilst I live
FTLN 1773 And, buried once, why not upon my head?
FTLN 1774 165 Aumerle, thou weep’st, my tender-hearted cousin.
FTLN 1775 We’ll make foul weather with despisèd tears;
FTLN 1776 Our sighs and they shall lodge the summer corn
FTLN 1777 And make a dearth in this revolting land.
FTLN 1778 Or shall we play the wantons with our woes
FTLN 1779 170 And make some pretty match with shedding tears?
FTLN 1780 As thus, to drop them still upon one place
FTLN 1781 Till they have fretted us a pair of graves
FTLN 1782 Within the earth; and therein laid—there lies

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FTLN 1783 Two kinsmen digged their graves with weeping eyes.
FTLN 1784 175 Would not this ill do well? Well, well, I see
FTLN 1785 I talk but idly, and you laugh at me.
Northumberland approaches the battlements.
FTLN 1786 Most mighty prince, my Lord Northumberland,
FTLN 1787 What says King Bolingbroke? Will his Majesty
FTLN 1788 Give Richard leave to live till Richard die?
FTLN 1789 180 You make a leg, and Bolingbroke says ay.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 1790 My lord, in the base court he doth attend
FTLN 1791 To speak with you, may it please you to come down.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 1792 Down, down I come, like glist’ring Phaëton,
FTLN 1793 Wanting the manage of unruly jades.
FTLN 1794 185 In the base court—base court, where kings grow
FTLN 1795 base,
FTLN 1796 To come at traitors’ calls and do them grace.
FTLN 1797 In the base court come down—down court, down
FTLN 1798 king,
FTLN 1799 190 For nightowls shriek where mounting larks should
FTLN 1800 sing.
Richard exits above
and Northumberland returns to Bolingbroke.
BOLINGBROKE FTLN 1801 What says his Majesty?
NORTHUMBERLAND FTLN 1802 Sorrow and grief of heart
FTLN 1803 Makes him speak fondly like a frantic man,
FTLN 1804 195 Yet he is come.
Richard enters below.
BOLINGBROKE FTLN 1805 Stand all apart,
FTLN 1806 And show fair duty to his Majesty. He kneels down.
FTLN 1807 My gracious lord.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 1808 Fair cousin, you debase your princely knee
FTLN 1809 200 To make the base earth proud with kissing it.
FTLN 1810 Me rather had my heart might feel your love

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FTLN 1811 Than my unpleased eye see your courtesy.
FTLN 1812 Up, cousin, up. Your heart is up, I know,
FTLN 1813 Thus high at least indicating his crown, although
FTLN 1814 205 your knee be low.
BOLINGBROKE , standing
FTLN 1815 My gracious lord, I come but for mine own.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 1816 Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 1817 So far be mine, my most redoubted lord,
FTLN 1818 As my true service shall deserve your love.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 1819 210 Well you deserve. They well deserve to have
FTLN 1820 That know the strong’st and surest way to get.—
FTLN 1821 Uncle, give me your hands. Nay, dry your eyes.
FTLN 1822 Tears show their love but want their remedies.—
FTLN 1823 Cousin, I am too young to be your father,
FTLN 1824 215 Though you are old enough to be my heir.
FTLN 1825 What you will have I’ll give, and willing too,
FTLN 1826 For do we must what force will have us do.
FTLN 1827 Set on towards London, cousin, is it so?
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 1828 Yea, my good lord.
KING RICHARD FTLN 1829 220 Then I must not say no.
They exit.
Scene 4
Enter the Queen with her Ladies-in-waiting.
QUEEN
FTLN 1830 What sport shall we devise here in this garden
FTLN 1831 To drive away the heavy thought of care?
LADY FTLN 1832 Madam, we’ll play at bowls.
QUEEN
FTLN 1833 ’Twill make me think the world is full of rubs
FTLN 1834 5 And that my fortune runs against the bias.

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LADY FTLN 1835 Madam, we’ll dance.
QUEEN
FTLN 1836 My legs can keep no measure in delight
FTLN 1837 When my poor heart no measure keeps in grief.
FTLN 1838 Therefore no dancing, girl. Some other sport.
LADY FTLN 1839 10 Madam, we’ll tell tales.
QUEEN
FTLN 1840 Of sorrow or of joy?
LADY FTLN 1841 Of either, madam.
QUEEN FTLN 1842 Of neither, girl,
FTLN 1843 For if of joy, being altogether wanting,
FTLN 1844 15 It doth remember me the more of sorrow;
FTLN 1845 Or if of grief, being altogether had,
FTLN 1846 It adds more sorrow to my want of joy.
FTLN 1847 For what I have I need not to repeat,
FTLN 1848 And what I want it boots not to complain.
LADY
FTLN 1849 20 Madam, I’ll sing.
QUEEN FTLN 1850 ’Tis well that thou hast cause,
FTLN 1851 But thou shouldst please me better wouldst thou
FTLN 1852 weep.
LADY
FTLN 1853 I could weep, madam, would it do you good.
QUEEN
FTLN 1854 25 And I could sing, would weeping do me good,
FTLN 1855 And never borrow any tear of thee.
Enter a Gardener and two Servingmen.
FTLN 1856 But stay, here come the gardeners.
FTLN 1857 Let’s step into the shadow of these trees.
FTLN 1858 My wretchedness unto a row of pins,
FTLN 1859 30 They will talk of state, for everyone doth so
FTLN 1860 Against a change. Woe is forerun with woe.
Queen and Ladies step aside.
GARDENER , to one Servingman
FTLN 1861 Go, bind thou up young dangling apricokes

143
Richard II
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FTLN 1862 Which, like unruly children, make their sire
FTLN 1863 Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight.
FTLN 1864 35 Give some supportance to the bending twigs.—
FTLN 1865 Go thou, and like an executioner
FTLN 1866 Cut off the heads of too-fast-growing sprays
FTLN 1867 That look too lofty in our commonwealth.
FTLN 1868 All must be even in our government.
FTLN 1869 40 You thus employed, I will go root away
FTLN 1870 The noisome weeds which without profit suck
FTLN 1871 The soil’s fertility from wholesome flowers.
MAN
FTLN 1872 Why should we, in the compass of a pale,
FTLN 1873 Keep law and form and due proportion,
FTLN 1874 45 Showing as in a model our firm estate,
FTLN 1875 When our sea-wallèd garden, the whole land,
FTLN 1876 Is full of weeds, her fairest flowers choked up,
FTLN 1877 Her fruit trees all unpruned, her hedges ruined,
FTLN 1878 Her knots disordered, and her wholesome herbs
FTLN 1879 50 Swarming with caterpillars?
GARDENER FTLN 1880 Hold thy peace.
FTLN 1881 He that hath suffered this disordered spring
FTLN 1882 Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf.
FTLN 1883 The weeds which his broad-spreading leaves did
FTLN 1884 55 shelter,
FTLN 1885 That seemed in eating him to hold him up,
FTLN 1886 Are plucked up, root and all, by Bolingbroke—
FTLN 1887 I mean the Earl of Wiltshire, Bushy, Green.
MAN
FTLN 1888 What, are they dead?
GARDENER FTLN 1889 60 They are. And Bolingbroke
FTLN 1890 Hath seized the wasteful king. O, what pity is it
FTLN 1891 That he had not so trimmed and dressed his land
FTLN 1892 As we this garden! We at time of year
FTLN 1893 Do wound the bark, the skin of our fruit trees,
FTLN 1894 65 Lest, being overproud in sap and blood,
FTLN 1895 With too much riches it confound itself.
FTLN 1896 Had he done so to great and growing men,

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ACT 3. SC. 4
FTLN 1897 They might have lived to bear and he to taste
FTLN 1898 Their fruits of duty. Superfluous branches
FTLN 1899 70 We lop away, that bearing boughs may live.
FTLN 1900 Had he done so, himself had borne the crown,
FTLN 1901 Which waste of idle hours hath quite thrown down.
MAN
FTLN 1902 What, think you the King shall be deposed?
GARDENER
FTLN 1903 Depressed he is already, and deposed
FTLN 1904 75 ’Tis doubt he will be. Letters came last night
FTLN 1905 To a dear friend of the good Duke of York’s
FTLN 1906 That tell black tidings.
QUEEN
FTLN 1907 O, I am pressed to death through want of speaking!
Stepping forward.
FTLN 1908 Thou old Adam’s likeness, set to dress this garden,
FTLN 1909 80 How dares thy harsh rude tongue sound this
FTLN 1910 unpleasing news?
FTLN 1911 What Eve, what serpent, hath suggested thee
FTLN 1912 To make a second fall of cursèd man?
FTLN 1913 Why dost thou say King Richard is deposed?
FTLN 1914 85 Dar’st thou, thou little better thing than earth,
FTLN 1915 Divine his downfall? Say where, when, and how
FTLN 1916 Cam’st thou by this ill tidings? Speak, thou wretch!
GARDENER
FTLN 1917 Pardon me, madam. Little joy have I
FTLN 1918 To breathe this news, yet what I say is true.
FTLN 1919 90 King Richard, he is in the mighty hold
FTLN 1920 Of Bolingbroke. Their fortunes both are weighed.
FTLN 1921 In your lord’s scale is nothing but himself
FTLN 1922 And some few vanities that make him light,
FTLN 1923 But in the balance of great Bolingbroke,
FTLN 1924 95 Besides himself, are all the English peers,
FTLN 1925 And with that odds he weighs King Richard down.
FTLN 1926 Post you to London and you will find it so.
FTLN 1927 I speak no more than everyone doth know.

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QUEEN
FTLN 1928 Nimble mischance, that art so light of foot,
FTLN 1929 100 Doth not thy embassage belong to me,
FTLN 1930 And am I last that knows it? O, thou thinkest
FTLN 1931 To serve me last that I may longest keep
FTLN 1932 Thy sorrow in my breast. Come, ladies, go
FTLN 1933 To meet at London London’s king in woe.
FTLN 1934 105 What, was I born to this, that my sad look
FTLN 1935 Should grace the triumph of great Bolingbroke?—
FTLN 1936 Gard’ner, for telling me these news of woe,
FTLN 1937 Pray God the plants thou graft’st may never grow.
She exits with Ladies.
GARDENER
FTLN 1938 Poor queen, so that thy state might be no worse,
FTLN 1939 110 I would my skill were subject to thy curse.
FTLN 1940 Here did she fall a tear. Here in this place
FTLN 1941 I’ll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace.
FTLN 1942 Rue even for ruth here shortly shall be seen
FTLN 1943 In the remembrance of a weeping queen.
They exit.

ACT 4
Scene 1
Enter Bolingbroke with the Lords Aumerle,
Northumberland, Harry Percy, Fitzwater, Surrey, the
Bishop of Carlisle, the Abbot of Westminster, and
another Lord, Herald, Officers to parliament.
BOLINGBROKE FTLN 1944 Call forth Bagot.
Enter Officers with Bagot.
FTLN 1945 Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind
FTLN 1946 What thou dost know of noble Gloucester’s death,
FTLN 1947 Who wrought it with the King, and who performed
FTLN 1948 5 The bloody office of his timeless end.
BAGOT
FTLN 1949 Then set before my face the Lord Aumerle.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 1950 Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that man.
Aumerle steps forward.
BAGOT
FTLN 1951 My Lord Aumerle, I know your daring tongue
FTLN 1952 Scorns to unsay what once it hath delivered.
FTLN 1953 10 In that dead time when Gloucester’s death was
FTLN 1954 plotted,
FTLN 1955 I heard you say “Is not my arm of length,
FTLN 1956 That reacheth from the restful English court
FTLN 1957 As far as Calais, to mine uncle’s head?”
FTLN 1958 15 Amongst much other talk that very time
151

153
Richard II
ACT 4. SC. 1
FTLN 1959 I heard you say that you had rather refuse
FTLN 1960 The offer of an hundred thousand crowns
FTLN 1961 Than Bolingbroke’s return to England,
FTLN 1962 Adding withal how blest this land would be
FTLN 1963 20 In this your cousin’s death.
AUMERLE FTLN 1964 Princes and noble lords,
FTLN 1965 What answer shall I make to this base man?
FTLN 1966 Shall I so much dishonor my fair stars
FTLN 1967 On equal terms to give him chastisement?
FTLN 1968 25 Either I must or have mine honor soiled
FTLN 1969 With the attainder of his slanderous lips.
He throws down a gage.
FTLN 1970 There is my gage, the manual seal of death
FTLN 1971 That marks thee out for hell. I say thou liest,
FTLN 1972 And will maintain what thou hast said is false
FTLN 1973 30 In thy heart-blood, though being all too base
FTLN 1974 To stain the temper of my knightly sword.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 1975 Bagot, forbear. Thou shalt not take it up.
AUMERLE
FTLN 1976 Excepting one, I would he were the best
FTLN 1977 In all this presence that hath moved me so.
FITZWATER , throwing down a gage
FTLN 1978 35 If that thy valor stand on sympathy,
FTLN 1979 There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine.
FTLN 1980 By that fair sun which shows me where thou
FTLN 1981 stand’st,
FTLN 1982 I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spak’st it,
FTLN 1983 40 That thou wert cause of noble Gloucester’s death.
FTLN 1984 If thou deniest it twenty times, thou liest,
FTLN 1985 And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart,
FTLN 1986 Where it was forgèd, with my rapier’s point.
AUMERLE , taking up the gage
FTLN 1987 Thou dar’st not, coward, live to see that day.
FITZWATER
FTLN 1988 45 Now, by my soul, I would it were this hour.

155
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ACT 4. SC. 1
AUMERLE
FTLN 1989 Fitzwater, thou art damned to hell for this.
PERCY
FTLN 1990 Aumerle, thou liest! His honor is as true
FTLN 1991 In this appeal as thou art all unjust;
FTLN 1992 And that thou art so, there I throw my gage,
He throws down a gage.
FTLN 1993 50 To prove it on thee to the extremest point
FTLN 1994 Of mortal breathing. Seize it if thou dar’st.
AUMERLE , taking up the gage
FTLN 1995 An if I do not, may my hands rot off
FTLN 1996 And never brandish more revengeful steel
FTLN 1997 Over the glittering helmet of my foe!
ANOTHER LORD , throwing down a gage
FTLN 1998 55 I task the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle,
FTLN 1999 And spur thee on with full as many lies
FTLN 2000 As may be holloed in thy treacherous ear
FTLN 2001 From sun to sun. There is my honor’s pawn.
FTLN 2002 Engage it to the trial if thou darest.
AUMERLE , taking up the gage
FTLN 2003 60 Who sets me else? By heaven, I’ll throw at all!
FTLN 2004 I have a thousand spirits in one breast
FTLN 2005 To answer twenty thousand such as you.
SURREY
FTLN 2006 My Lord Fitzwater, I do remember well
FTLN 2007 The very time Aumerle and you did talk.
FITZWATER
FTLN 2008 65 ’Tis very true. You were in presence then,
FTLN 2009 And you can witness with me this is true.
SURREY
FTLN 2010 As false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true.
FITZWATER
FTLN 2011 Surrey, thou liest.
SURREY FTLN 2012 Dishonorable boy,
FTLN 2013 70 That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword
FTLN 2014 That it shall render vengeance and revenge

157
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ACT 4. SC. 1
FTLN 2015 Till thou the lie-giver and that lie do lie
FTLN 2016 In earth as quiet as thy father’s skull.
He throws down a gage.
FTLN 2017 In proof whereof, there is my honor’s pawn.
FTLN 2018 75 Engage it to the trial if thou dar’st.
FITZWATER , taking up the gage
FTLN 2019 How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse!
FTLN 2020 If I dare eat or drink or breathe or live,
FTLN 2021 I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness
FTLN 2022 And spit upon him whilst I say he lies,
FTLN 2023 80 And lies, and lies. There is my bond of faith
FTLN 2024 To tie thee to my strong correction. He throws down a gage.
FTLN 2025 As I intend to thrive in this new world,
FTLN 2026 Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal.—
FTLN 2027 Besides, I heard the banished Norfolk say
FTLN 2028 85 That thou, Aumerle, didst send two of thy men
FTLN 2029 To execute the noble duke at Calais.
AUMERLE
FTLN 2030 Some honest Christian trust me with a gage.
A Lord hands him a gage.
Aumerle throws it down.
FTLN 2031 That Norfolk lies, here do I throw down this,
FTLN 2032 If he may be repealed to try his honor.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 2033 90 These differences shall all rest under gage
FTLN 2034 Till Norfolk be repealed. Repealed he shall be,
FTLN 2035 And though mine enemy, restored again
FTLN 2036 To all his lands and seigniories. When he is
FTLN 2037 returned,
FTLN 2038 95 Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial.
CARLISLE
FTLN 2039 That honorable day shall never be seen.
FTLN 2040 Many a time hath banished Norfolk fought
FTLN 2041 For Jesu Christ in glorious Christian field,
FTLN 2042 Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross

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ACT 4. SC. 1
FTLN 2043 100 Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens;
FTLN 2044 And, toiled with works of war, retired himself
FTLN 2045 To Italy, and there at Venice gave
FTLN 2046 His body to that pleasant country’s earth
FTLN 2047 And his pure soul unto his captain, Christ,
FTLN 2048 105 Under whose colors he had fought so long.
BOLINGBROKE FTLN 2049 Why, bishop, is Norfolk dead?
CARLISLE FTLN 2050 As surely as I live, my lord.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 2051 Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bosom
FTLN 2052 Of good old Abraham! Lords appellants,
FTLN 2053 110 Your differences shall all rest under gage
FTLN 2054 Till we assign you to your days of trial.
Enter York.
YORK
FTLN 2055 Great Duke of Lancaster, I come to thee
FTLN 2056 From plume-plucked Richard, who with willing
FTLN 2057 soul
FTLN 2058 115 Adopts thee heir, and his high scepter yields
FTLN 2059 To the possession of thy royal hand.
FTLN 2060 Ascend his throne, descending now from him,
FTLN 2061 And long live Henry, fourth of that name!
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 2062 In God’s name, I’ll ascend the regal throne.
CARLISLE FTLN 2063 120 Marry, God forbid!
FTLN 2064 Worst in this royal presence may I speak,
FTLN 2065 Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth.
FTLN 2066 Would God that any in this noble presence
FTLN 2067 Were enough noble to be upright judge
FTLN 2068 125 Of noble Richard! Then true noblesse would
FTLN 2069 Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.
FTLN 2070 What subject can give sentence on his king?
FTLN 2071 And who sits here that is not Richard’s subject?
FTLN 2072 Thieves are not judged but they are by to hear,
FTLN 2073 130 Although apparent guilt be seen in them;
FTLN 2074 And shall the figure of God’s majesty,

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ACT 4. SC. 1
FTLN 2075 His captain, steward, deputy elect,
FTLN 2076 Anointed, crowned, planted many years,
FTLN 2077 Be judged by subject and inferior breath,
FTLN 2078 135 And he himself not present? O, forfend it God
FTLN 2079 That in a Christian climate souls refined
FTLN 2080 Should show so heinous, black, obscene a deed!
FTLN 2081 I speak to subjects and a subject speaks,
FTLN 2082 Stirred up by God thus boldly for his king.
FTLN 2083 140 My Lord of Hereford here, whom you call king,
FTLN 2084 Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford’s king,
FTLN 2085 And if you crown him, let me prophesy
FTLN 2086 The blood of English shall manure the ground
FTLN 2087 And future ages groan for this foul act,
FTLN 2088 145 Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels,
FTLN 2089 And in this seat of peace tumultuous wars
FTLN 2090 Shall kin with kin and kind with kind confound.
FTLN 2091 Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny
FTLN 2092 Shall here inhabit, and this land be called
FTLN 2093 150 The field of Golgotha and dead men’s skulls.
FTLN 2094 O, if you raise this house against this house,
FTLN 2095 It will the woefullest division prove
FTLN 2096 That ever fell upon this cursèd earth!
FTLN 2097 Prevent it, resist it, let it not be so,
FTLN 2098 155 Lest child, child’s children, cry against you woe!
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 2099 Well have you argued, sir, and, for your pains,
FTLN 2100 Of capital treason we arrest you here.—
FTLN 2101 My Lord of Westminster, be it your charge
FTLN 2102 To keep him safely till his day of trial.
FTLN 2103 160 May it please you, lords, to grant the commons’
FTLN 2104 suit?
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 2105 Fetch hither Richard, that in common view
FTLN 2106 He may surrender. So we shall proceed
FTLN 2107 Without suspicion.
YORK FTLN 2108 165 I will be his conduct. He exits.

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ACT 4. SC. 1
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 2109 Lords, you that here are under our arrest,
FTLN 2110 Procure your sureties for your days of answer.
FTLN 2111 Little are we beholding to your love
FTLN 2112 And little looked for at your helping hands.
Enter Richard and York.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 2113 170 Alack, why am I sent for to a king
FTLN 2114 Before I have shook off the regal thoughts
FTLN 2115 Wherewith I reigned? I hardly yet have learned
FTLN 2116 To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my knee.
FTLN 2117 Give sorrow leave awhile to tutor me
FTLN 2118 175 To this submission. Yet I well remember
FTLN 2119 The favors of these men. Were they not mine?
FTLN 2120 Did they not sometime cry “All hail” to me?
FTLN 2121 So Judas did to Christ, but He in twelve
FTLN 2122 Found truth in all but one; I, in twelve thousand,
FTLN 2123 180 none.
FTLN 2124 God save the King! Will no man say “amen”?
FTLN 2125 Am I both priest and clerk? Well, then, amen.
FTLN 2126 God save the King, although I be not he,
FTLN 2127 And yet amen, if heaven do think him me.
FTLN 2128 185 To do what service am I sent for hither?
YORK
FTLN 2129 To do that office of thine own goodwill
FTLN 2130 Which tired majesty did make thee offer:
FTLN 2131 The resignation of thy state and crown
FTLN 2132 To Henry Bolingbroke.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 2133 190 Give me the crown.—Here, cousin, seize the crown.
FTLN 2134 Here, cousin.
FTLN 2135 On this side my hand, on that side thine.
FTLN 2136 Now is this golden crown like a deep well
FTLN 2137 That owes two buckets, filling one another,
FTLN 2138 195 The emptier ever dancing in the air,

165
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FTLN 2139 The other down, unseen, and full of water.
FTLN 2140 That bucket down and full of tears am I,
FTLN 2141 Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 2142 I thought you had been willing to resign.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 2143 200 My crown I am, but still my griefs are mine.
FTLN 2144 You may my glories and my state depose
FTLN 2145 But not my griefs; still am I king of those.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 2146 Part of your cares you give me with your crown.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 2147 Your cares set up do not pluck my cares down.
FTLN 2148 205 My care is loss of care, by old care done;
FTLN 2149 Your care is gain of care, by new care won.
FTLN 2150 The cares I give I have, though given away.
FTLN 2151 They ’tend the crown, yet still with me they stay.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 2152 Are you contented to resign the crown?
KING RICHARD
FTLN 2153 210 Ay, no; no, ay; for I must nothing be.
FTLN 2154 Therefore no “no,” for I resign to thee.
FTLN 2155 Now, mark me how I will undo myself.
FTLN 2156 I give this heavy weight from off my head
FTLN 2157 And this unwieldy scepter from my hand,
FTLN 2158 215 The pride of kingly sway from out my heart.
FTLN 2159 With mine own tears I wash away my balm,
FTLN 2160 With mine own hands I give away my crown,
FTLN 2161 With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,
FTLN 2162 With mine own breath release all duteous oaths.
FTLN 2163 220 All pomp and majesty I do forswear.
FTLN 2164 My manors, rents, revenues I forgo;
FTLN 2165 My acts, decrees, and statutes I deny.
FTLN 2166 God pardon all oaths that are broke to me.
FTLN 2167 God keep all vows unbroke are made to thee.
FTLN 2168 225 Make me, that nothing have, with nothing grieved,

167
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FTLN 2169 And thou with all pleased that hast all achieved.
FTLN 2170 Long mayst thou live in Richard’s seat to sit,
FTLN 2171 And soon lie Richard in an earthy pit.
FTLN 2172 God save King Henry, unkinged Richard says,
FTLN 2173 230 And send him many years of sunshine days.
FTLN 2174 What more remains?
NORTHUMBERLAND , offering Richard a paper
FTLN 2175 No more, but that you read
FTLN 2176 These accusations and these grievous crimes
FTLN 2177 Committed by your person and your followers
FTLN 2178 235 Against the state and profit of this land;
FTLN 2179 That, by confessing them, the souls of men
FTLN 2180 May deem that you are worthily deposed.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 2181 Must I do so? And must I ravel out
FTLN 2182 My weaved-up follies? Gentle Northumberland,
FTLN 2183 240 If thy offenses were upon record,
FTLN 2184 Would it not shame thee in so fair a troop
FTLN 2185 To read a lecture of them? If thou wouldst,
FTLN 2186 There shouldst thou find one heinous article
FTLN 2187 Containing the deposing of a king
FTLN 2188 245 And cracking the strong warrant of an oath,
FTLN 2189 Marked with a blot, damned in the book of
FTLN 2190 heaven.—
FTLN 2191 Nay, all of you that stand and look upon me
FTLN 2192 Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait myself,
FTLN 2193 250 Though some of you, with Pilate, wash your hands,
FTLN 2194 Showing an outward pity, yet you Pilates
FTLN 2195 Have here delivered me to my sour cross,
FTLN 2196 And water cannot wash away your sin.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 2197 My lord, dispatch. Read o’er these articles.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 2198 255 Mine eyes are full of tears; I cannot see.
FTLN 2199 And yet salt water blinds them not so much
FTLN 2200 But they can see a sort of traitors here.

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FTLN 2201 Nay, if I turn mine eyes upon myself,
FTLN 2202 I find myself a traitor with the rest,
FTLN 2203 260 For I have given here my soul’s consent
FTLN 2204 T’ undeck the pompous body of a king,
FTLN 2205 Made glory base and sovereignty a slave,
FTLN 2206 Proud majesty a subject, state a peasant.
NORTHUMBERLAND FTLN 2207 My lord—
KING RICHARD
FTLN 2208 265 No lord of thine, thou haught insulting man,
FTLN 2209 Nor no man’s lord. I have no name, no title,
FTLN 2210 No, not that name was given me at the font,
FTLN 2211 But ’tis usurped. Alack the heavy day,
FTLN 2212 That I have worn so many winters out
FTLN 2213 270 And know not now what name to call myself.
FTLN 2214 O, that I were a mockery king of snow
FTLN 2215 Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke,
FTLN 2216 To melt myself away in water drops.—
FTLN 2217 Good king, great king, and yet not greatly good,
FTLN 2218 275 An if my word be sterling yet in England,
FTLN 2219 Let it command a mirror hither straight,
FTLN 2220 That it may show me what a face I have
FTLN 2221 Since it is bankrupt of his majesty.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 2222 Go, some of you, and fetch a looking-glass.
An Attendant exits.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 2223 280 Read o’er this paper while the glass doth come.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 2224 Fiend, thou torments me ere I come to hell!
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 2225 Urge it no more, my Lord Northumberland.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 2226 The commons will not then be satisfied.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 2227 They shall be satisfied. I’ll read enough

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FTLN 2228 285 When I do see the very book indeed
FTLN 2229 Where all my sins are writ, and that’s myself.
Enter one with a glass.
FTLN 2230 Give me that glass, and therein will I read.
He takes the mirror.
FTLN 2231 No deeper wrinkles yet? Hath sorrow struck
FTLN 2232 So many blows upon this face of mine
FTLN 2233 290 And made no deeper wounds? O flatt’ring glass,
FTLN 2234 Like to my followers in prosperity,
FTLN 2235 Thou dost beguile me. Was this face the face
FTLN 2236 That every day under his household roof
FTLN 2237 Did keep ten thousand men? Was this the face
FTLN 2238 295 That like the sun did make beholders wink?
FTLN 2239 Is this the face which faced so many follies,
FTLN 2240 That was at last outfaced by Bolingbroke?
FTLN 2241 A brittle glory shineth in this face.
FTLN 2242 As brittle as the glory is the face,
He breaks the mirror.
FTLN 2243 300 For there it is, cracked in an hundred shivers.—
FTLN 2244 Mark, silent king, the moral of this sport:
FTLN 2245 How soon my sorrow hath destroyed my face.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 2246 The shadow of your sorrow hath destroyed
FTLN 2247 The shadow of your face.
KING RICHARD FTLN 2248 305 Say that again.
FTLN 2249 The shadow of my sorrow? Ha, let’s see.
FTLN 2250 ’Tis very true. My grief lies all within;
FTLN 2251 And these external manners of laments
FTLN 2252 Are merely shadows to the unseen grief
FTLN 2253 310 That swells with silence in the tortured soul.
FTLN 2254 There lies the substance. And I thank thee, king,
FTLN 2255 For thy great bounty, that not only giv’st
FTLN 2256 Me cause to wail but teachest me the way
FTLN 2257 How to lament the cause. I’ll beg one boon

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FTLN 2258 315 And then be gone and trouble you no more.
FTLN 2259 Shall I obtain it?
BOLINGBROKE FTLN 2260 Name it, fair cousin.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 2261 “Fair cousin”? I am greater than a king,
FTLN 2262 For when I was a king, my flatterers
FTLN 2263 320 Were then but subjects. Being now a subject,
FTLN 2264 I have a king here to my flatterer.
FTLN 2265 Being so great, I have no need to beg.
BOLINGBROKE FTLN 2266 Yet ask.
KING RICHARD FTLN 2267 And shall I have?
BOLINGBROKE FTLN 2268 325 You shall.
KING RICHARD FTLN 2269 Then give me leave to go.
BOLINGBROKE FTLN 2270 Whither?
KING RICHARD
FTLN 2271 Whither you will, so I were from your sights.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 2272 Go, some of you, convey him to the Tower.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 2273 330 O, good! “Convey”? Conveyers are you all,
FTLN 2274 That rise thus nimbly by a true king’s fall.
Richard exits with Guards.
BOLINGBROKE
FTLN 2275 On Wednesday next, we solemnly set down
FTLN 2276 Our coronation. Lords, prepare yourselves.
They exit. The Abbot of Westminster, the Bishop of
Carlisle, Aumerle remain.
ABBOT
FTLN 2277 A woeful pageant have we here beheld.
CARLISLE
FTLN 2278 335 The woe’s to come. The children yet unborn
FTLN 2279 Shall feel this day as sharp to them as thorn.
AUMERLE
FTLN 2280 You holy clergymen, is there no plot
FTLN 2281 To rid the realm of this pernicious blot?

175
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ACT 4. SC. 1
ABBOT FTLN 2282 My lord,
FTLN 2283 340 Before I freely speak my mind herein,
FTLN 2284 You shall not only take the sacrament
FTLN 2285 To bury mine intents, but also to effect
FTLN 2286 Whatever I shall happen to devise.
FTLN 2287 I see your brows are full of discontent,
FTLN 2288 345 Your hearts of sorrow, and your eyes of tears.
FTLN 2289 Come home with me to supper. I’ll lay
FTLN 2290 A plot shall show us all a merry day.
They exit.

ACT 5
Scene 1
Enter the Queen with her Attendants.
QUEEN
FTLN 2291 This way the King will come. This is the way
FTLN 2292 To Julius Caesar’s ill-erected tower,
FTLN 2293 To whose flint bosom my condemnèd lord
FTLN 2294 Is doomed a prisoner by proud Bolingbroke.
FTLN 2295 5 Here let us rest, if this rebellious earth
FTLN 2296 Have any resting for her true king’s queen.
Enter Richard and Guard.
FTLN 2297 But soft, but see—or rather do not see
FTLN 2298 My fair rose wither; yet look up, behold,
FTLN 2299 That you in pity may dissolve to dew
FTLN 2300 10 And wash him fresh again with true-love tears.—
FTLN 2301 Ah, thou, the model where old Troy did stand,
FTLN 2302 Thou map of honor, thou King Richard’s tomb,
FTLN 2303 And not King Richard! Thou most beauteous inn,
FTLN 2304 Why should hard-favored grief be lodged in thee
FTLN 2305 15 When triumph is become an alehouse guest?
KING RICHARD
FTLN 2306 Join not with grief, fair woman, do not so,
FTLN 2307 To make my end too sudden. Learn, good soul,
FTLN 2308 To think our former state a happy dream,
FTLN 2309 From which awaked, the truth of what we are
179

181
Richard II
ACT 5. SC. 1
FTLN 2310 20 Shows us but this: I am sworn brother, sweet,
FTLN 2311 To grim necessity, and he and I
FTLN 2312 Will keep a league till death. Hie thee to France
FTLN 2313 And cloister thee in some religious house.
FTLN 2314 Our holy lives must win a new world’s crown,
FTLN 2315 25 Which our profane hours here have thrown down.
QUEEN
FTLN 2316 What, is my Richard both in shape and mind
FTLN 2317 Transformed and weakened? Hath Bolingbroke
FTLN 2318 Deposed thine intellect? Hath he been in thy heart?
FTLN 2319 The lion dying thrusteth forth his paw
FTLN 2320 30 And wounds the earth, if nothing else, with rage
FTLN 2321 To be o’er-powered; and wilt thou, pupil-like,
FTLN 2322 Take the correction, mildly kiss the rod,
FTLN 2323 And fawn on rage with base humility,
FTLN 2324 Which art a lion and the king of beasts?
KING RICHARD
FTLN 2325 35 A king of beasts indeed. If aught but beasts,
FTLN 2326 I had been still a happy king of men.
FTLN 2327 Good sometime queen, prepare thee hence for
FTLN 2328 France.
FTLN 2329 Think I am dead and that even here thou takest,
FTLN 2330 40 As from my deathbed, thy last living leave.
FTLN 2331 In winter’s tedious nights sit by the fire
FTLN 2332 With good old folks, and let them tell thee tales
FTLN 2333 Of woeful ages long ago betid;
FTLN 2334 And, ere thou bid good night, to quite their griefs,
FTLN 2335 45 Tell thou the lamentable tale of me,
FTLN 2336 And send the hearers weeping to their beds.
FTLN 2337 Forwhy the senseless brands will sympathize
FTLN 2338 The heavy accent of thy moving tongue,
FTLN 2339 And in compassion weep the fire out,
FTLN 2340 50 And some will mourn in ashes, some coal-black,
FTLN 2341 For the deposing of a rightful king.
Enter Northumberland.

183
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ACT 5. SC. 1
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 2342 My lord, the mind of Bolingbroke is changed.
FTLN 2343 You must to Pomfret, not unto the Tower.—
FTLN 2344 And madam, there is order ta’en for you.
FTLN 2345 55 With all swift speed you must away to France.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 2346 Northumberland, thou ladder wherewithal
FTLN 2347 The mounting Bolingbroke ascends my throne,
FTLN 2348 The time shall not be many hours of age
FTLN 2349 More than it is ere foul sin, gathering head,
FTLN 2350 60 Shall break into corruption. Thou shalt think,
FTLN 2351 Though he divide the realm and give thee half,
FTLN 2352 It is too little, helping him to all.
FTLN 2353 He shall think that thou, which knowest the way
FTLN 2354 To plant unrightful kings, wilt know again,
FTLN 2355 65 Being ne’er so little urged another way,
FTLN 2356 To pluck him headlong from the usurped throne.
FTLN 2357 The love of wicked men converts to fear,
FTLN 2358 That fear to hate, and hate turns one or both
FTLN 2359 To worthy danger and deservèd death.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 2360 70 My guilt be on my head, and there an end.
FTLN 2361 Take leave and part, for you must part forthwith.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 2362 Doubly divorced! Bad men, you violate
FTLN 2363 A twofold marriage—twixt my crown and me,
FTLN 2364 And then betwixt me and my married wife.
FTLN 2365 75 To Queen. Let me unkiss the oath twixt thee and
FTLN 2366 me;
FTLN 2367 And yet not so, for with a kiss ’twas made.—
FTLN 2368 Part us, Northumberland, I towards the north,
FTLN 2369 Where shivering cold and sickness pines the clime;
FTLN 2370 80 My wife to France, from whence set forth in pomp
FTLN 2371 She came adornèd hither like sweet May,
FTLN 2372 Sent back like Hallowmas or short’st of day.

185
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ACT 5. SC. 1
QUEEN
FTLN 2373 And must we be divided? Must we part?
KING RICHARD
FTLN 2374 Ay, hand from hand, my love, and heart from heart.
QUEEN , to Northumberland
FTLN 2375 85 Banish us both, and send the King with me.
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 2376 That were some love, but little policy.
QUEEN
FTLN 2377 Then whither he goes, thither let me go.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 2378 So two together weeping make one woe.
FTLN 2379 Weep thou for me in France, I for thee here;
FTLN 2380 90 Better far off than, near, be ne’er the near.
FTLN 2381 Go, count thy way with sighs, I mine with groans.
QUEEN
FTLN 2382 So longest way shall have the longest moans.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 2383 Twice for one step I’ll groan, the way being short,
FTLN 2384 And piece the way out with a heavy heart.
FTLN 2385 95 Come, come, in wooing sorrow let’s be brief,
FTLN 2386 Since, wedding it, there is such length in grief.
FTLN 2387 One kiss shall stop our mouths, and dumbly part.
FTLN 2388 Thus give I mine, and thus take I thy heart.
They kiss.
QUEEN
FTLN 2389 Give me mine own again. ’Twere no good part
FTLN 2390 100 To take on me to keep and kill thy heart.
They kiss.
FTLN 2391 So, now I have mine own again, begone,
FTLN 2392 That I may strive to kill it with a groan.
KING RICHARD
FTLN 2393 We make woe wanton with this fond delay.
FTLN 2394 Once more, adieu! The rest let sorrow say.
They exit.

187
Richard II
ACT 5. SC. 2
Scene 2
Enter Duke of York and the Duchess.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2395 My lord, you told me you would tell the rest,
FTLN 2396 When weeping made you break the story off
FTLN 2397 Of our two cousins coming into London.
YORK
FTLN 2398 Where did I leave?
DUCHESS FTLN 2399 5 At that sad stop, my lord,
FTLN 2400 Where rude misgoverned hands from windows’ tops
FTLN 2401 Threw dust and rubbish on King Richard’s head.
YORK
FTLN 2402 Then, as I said, the Duke, great Bolingbroke,
FTLN 2403 Mounted upon a hot and fiery steed,
FTLN 2404 10 Which his aspiring rider seemed to know,
FTLN 2405 With slow but stately pace kept on his course,
FTLN 2406 Whilst all tongues cried “God save thee,
FTLN 2407 Bolingbroke!”
FTLN 2408 You would have thought the very windows spake,
FTLN 2409 15 So many greedy looks of young and old
FTLN 2410 Through casements darted their desiring eyes
FTLN 2411 Upon his visage, and that all the walls
FTLN 2412 With painted imagery had said at once
FTLN 2413 “Jesu preserve thee! Welcome, Bolingbroke!”
FTLN 2414 20 Whilst he, from the one side to the other turning,
FTLN 2415 Bareheaded, lower than his proud steed’s neck,
FTLN 2416 Bespake them thus: “I thank you, countrymen.”
FTLN 2417 And thus still doing, thus he passed along.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2418 Alack, poor Richard! Where rode he the whilst?
YORK
FTLN 2419 25 As in a theater the eyes of men,
FTLN 2420 After a well-graced actor leaves the stage,
FTLN 2421 Are idly bent on him that enters next,
FTLN 2422 Thinking his prattle to be tedious,

189
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ACT 5. SC. 2
FTLN 2423 Even so, or with much more contempt, men’s eyes
FTLN 2424 30 Did scowl on gentle Richard. No man cried “God
FTLN 2425 save him!”
FTLN 2426 No joyful tongue gave him his welcome home,
FTLN 2427 But dust was thrown upon his sacred head,
FTLN 2428 Which with such gentle sorrow he shook off,
FTLN 2429 35 His face still combating with tears and smiles,
FTLN 2430 The badges of his grief and patience,
FTLN 2431 That had not God for some strong purpose steeled
FTLN 2432 The hearts of men, they must perforce have melted,
FTLN 2433 And barbarism itself have pitied him.
FTLN 2434 40 But heaven hath a hand in these events,
FTLN 2435 To whose high will we bound our calm contents.
FTLN 2436 To Bolingbroke are we sworn subjects now,
FTLN 2437 Whose state and honor I for aye allow.
Enter Aumerle.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2438 Here comes my son Aumerle.
YORK FTLN 2439 45 Aumerle that was;
FTLN 2440 But that is lost for being Richard’s friend,
FTLN 2441 And, madam, you must call him Rutland now.
FTLN 2442 I am in parliament pledge for his truth
FTLN 2443 And lasting fealty to the new-made king.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2444 50 Welcome, my son. Who are the violets now
FTLN 2445 That strew the green lap of the new-come spring?
AUMERLE
FTLN 2446 Madam, I know not, nor I greatly care not.
FTLN 2447 God knows I had as lief be none as one.
YORK
FTLN 2448 Well, bear you well in this new spring of time,
FTLN 2449 55 Lest you be cropped before you come to prime.
FTLN 2450 What news from Oxford? Do these jousts and
FTLN 2451 triumphs hold?
AUMERLE FTLN 2452 For aught I know, my lord, they do.

191
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ACT 5. SC. 2
YORK FTLN 2453 You will be there, I know.
AUMERLE FTLN 2454 60 If God prevent not, I purpose so.
YORK
FTLN 2455 What seal is that that hangs without thy bosom?
FTLN 2456 Yea, lookst thou pale? Let me see the writing.
AUMERLE
FTLN 2457 My lord, ’tis nothing.
YORK FTLN 2458 No matter, then, who see it.
FTLN 2459 65 I will be satisfied. Let me see the writing.
AUMERLE
FTLN 2460 I do beseech your Grace to pardon me.
FTLN 2461 It is a matter of small consequence,
FTLN 2462 Which for some reasons I would not have seen.
YORK
FTLN 2463 Which for some reasons, sir, I mean to see.
FTLN 2464 70 I fear, I fear—
DUCHESS FTLN 2465 What should you fear?
FTLN 2466 ’Tis nothing but some bond that he is entered into
FTLN 2467 For gay apparel ’gainst the triumph day.
YORK
FTLN 2468 Bound to himself? What doth he with a bond
FTLN 2469 75 That he is bound to? Wife, thou art a fool.—
FTLN 2470 Boy, let me see the writing.
AUMERLE
FTLN 2471 I do beseech you, pardon me. I may not show it.
YORK
FTLN 2472 I will be satisfied. Let me see it, I say.
He plucks it out of his bosom and reads it.
YORK
FTLN 2473 Treason! Foul treason! Villain, traitor, slave!
DUCHESS FTLN 2474 80 What is the matter, my lord?
YORK , calling offstage
FTLN 2475 Ho, who is within there? Saddle my horse!—
FTLN 2476 God for his mercy, what treachery is here!
DUCHESS FTLN 2477 Why, what is it, my lord?

193
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ACT 5. SC. 2
YORK , calling offstage
FTLN 2478 Give me my boots, I say! Saddle my horse!—
FTLN 2479 85 Now by mine honor, by my life, by my troth,
FTLN 2480 I will appeach the villain.
DUCHESS FTLN 2481 What is the matter?
YORK FTLN 2482 Peace, foolish woman.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2483 I will not peace!—What is the matter, Aumerle?
AUMERLE
FTLN 2484 90 Good mother, be content. It is no more
FTLN 2485 Than my poor life must answer.
DUCHESS FTLN 2486 Thy life answer?
YORK , calling offstage
FTLN 2487 Bring me my boots!—I will unto the King.
His man enters with his boots.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2488 Strike him, Aumerle! Poor boy, thou art amazed.—
FTLN 2489 95 Hence, villain, never more come in my sight.
YORK FTLN 2490 Give me my boots, I say.
His man helps him on with his boots, then exits.
DUCHESS FTLN 2491 Why, York, what wilt thou do?
FTLN 2492 Wilt thou not hide the trespass of thine own?
FTLN 2493 Have we more sons? Or are we like to have?
FTLN 2494 100 Is not my teeming date drunk up with time?
FTLN 2495 And wilt thou pluck my fair son from mine age
FTLN 2496 And rob me of a happy mother’s name?
FTLN 2497 Is he not like thee? Is he not thine own?
YORK FTLN 2498 Thou fond mad woman,
FTLN 2499 105 Wilt thou conceal this dark conspiracy?
FTLN 2500 A dozen of them here have ta’en the sacrament
FTLN 2501 And interchangeably set down their hands
FTLN 2502 To kill the King at Oxford.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2503 He shall be none. We’ll keep him here.
FTLN 2504 110 Then what is that to him?

195
Richard II
ACT 5. SC. 3
YORK
FTLN 2505 Away, fond woman! Were he twenty times my son,
FTLN 2506 I would appeach him.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2507 Hadst thou groaned for him as I have done,
FTLN 2508 Thou wouldst be more pitiful.
FTLN 2509 115 But now I know thy mind: thou dost suspect
FTLN 2510 That I have been disloyal to thy bed
FTLN 2511 And that he is a bastard, not thy son.
FTLN 2512 Sweet York, sweet husband, be not of that mind!
FTLN 2513 He is as like thee as a man may be,
FTLN 2514 120 Not like to me or any of my kin,
FTLN 2515 And yet I love him.
YORK FTLN 2516 Make way, unruly woman!
He exits.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2517 After, Aumerle! Mount thee upon his horse,
FTLN 2518 Spur post, and get before him to the King,
FTLN 2519 125 And beg thy pardon ere he do accuse thee.
FTLN 2520 I’ll not be long behind. Though I be old,
FTLN 2521 I doubt not but to ride as fast as York.
FTLN 2522 And never will I rise up from the ground
FTLN 2523 Till Bolingbroke have pardoned thee. Away, begone!
They exit.
Scene 3
Enter the King with his Nobles.
KING HENRY
FTLN 2524 Can no man tell me of my unthrifty son?
FTLN 2525 ’Tis full three months since I did see him last.
FTLN 2526 If any plague hang over us, ’tis he.
FTLN 2527 I would to God, my lords, he might be found.
FTLN 2528 5 Inquire at London, ’mongst the taverns there,
FTLN 2529 For there, they say, he daily doth frequent

197
Richard II
ACT 5. SC. 3
FTLN 2530 With unrestrainèd loose companions,
FTLN 2531 Even such, they say, as stand in narrow lanes
FTLN 2532 And beat our watch and rob our passengers,
FTLN 2533 10 While he, young wanton and effeminate boy,
FTLN 2534 Takes on the point of honor to support
FTLN 2535 So dissolute a crew.
PERCY
FTLN 2536 My lord, some two days since I saw the Prince,
FTLN 2537 And told him of those triumphs held at Oxford.
KING HENRY FTLN 2538 15 And what said the gallant?
PERCY
FTLN 2539 His answer was, he would unto the stews,
FTLN 2540 And from the common’st creature pluck a glove
FTLN 2541 And wear it as a favor, and with that
FTLN 2542 He would unhorse the lustiest challenger.
KING HENRY
FTLN 2543 20 As dissolute as desperate. Yet through both
FTLN 2544 I see some sparks of better hope, which elder years
FTLN 2545 May happily bring forth. But who comes here?
Enter Aumerle amazed.
AUMERLE FTLN 2546 Where is the King?
KING HENRY
FTLN 2547 What means our cousin, that he stares and looks so
FTLN 2548 25 wildly?
AUMERLE
FTLN 2549 God save your Grace. I do beseech your Majesty
FTLN 2550 To have some conference with your Grace alone.
KING HENRY , to his Nobles
FTLN 2551 Withdraw yourselves, and leave us here alone.
The Nobles exit.
FTLN 2552 What is the matter with our cousin now?
AUMERLE , kneeling
FTLN 2553 30 Forever may my knees grow to the earth,
FTLN 2554 My tongue cleave to my roof within my mouth,
FTLN 2555 Unless a pardon ere I rise or speak.

199
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ACT 5. SC. 3
KING HENRY
FTLN 2556 Intended or committed was this fault?
FTLN 2557 If on the first, how heinous e’er it be,
FTLN 2558 35 To win thy after-love I pardon thee.
AUMERLE , standing
FTLN 2559 Then give me leave that I may turn the key
FTLN 2560 That no man enter till my tale be done.
KING HENRY FTLN 2561 Have thy desire. Aumerle locks the door.
The Duke of York knocks at the door and crieth.
YORK , within
FTLN 2562 My liege, beware! Look to thyself!
FTLN 2563 40 Thou hast a traitor in thy presence there.
KING HENRY , to Aumerle FTLN 2564 Villain, I’ll make thee safe.
He draws his sword.
AUMERLE
FTLN 2565 Stay thy revengeful hand. Thou hast no cause to fear.
YORK , within
FTLN 2566 Open the door, secure, foolhardy king!
FTLN 2567 Shall I for love speak treason to thy face?
FTLN 2568 45 Open the door, or I will break it open.
King Henry unlocks the door.
Enter York.
KING HENRY FTLN 2569 What is the matter, uncle? Speak.
FTLN 2570 Recover breath. Tell us how near is danger
FTLN 2571 That we may arm us to encounter it.
YORK , giving King Henry a paper
FTLN 2572 Peruse this writing here, and thou shalt know
FTLN 2573 50 The treason that my haste forbids me show.
AUMERLE , to King Henry
FTLN 2574 Remember, as thou read’st, thy promise passed.
FTLN 2575 I do repent me. Read not my name there.
FTLN 2576 My heart is not confederate with my hand.
YORK
FTLN 2577 It was, villain, ere thy hand did set it down.—
FTLN 2578 55 I tore it from the traitor’s bosom, king.

201
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ACT 5. SC. 3
FTLN 2579 Fear, and not love, begets his penitence.
FTLN 2580 Forget to pity him, lest thy pity prove
FTLN 2581 A serpent that will sting thee to the heart.
KING HENRY
FTLN 2582 O heinous, strong, and bold conspiracy!
FTLN 2583 60 O loyal father of a treacherous son,
FTLN 2584 Thou sheer, immaculate, and silver fountain
FTLN 2585 From whence this stream, through muddy passages,
FTLN 2586 Hath held his current and defiled himself,
FTLN 2587 Thy overflow of good converts to bad,
FTLN 2588 65 And thy abundant goodness shall excuse
FTLN 2589 This deadly blot in thy digressing son.
YORK
FTLN 2590 So shall my virtue be his vice’s bawd,
FTLN 2591 And he shall spend mine honor with his shame,
FTLN 2592 As thriftless sons their scraping fathers’ gold.
FTLN 2593 70 Mine honor lives when his dishonor dies,
FTLN 2594 Or my shamed life in his dishonor lies.
FTLN 2595 Thou kill’st me in his life: giving him breath,
FTLN 2596 The traitor lives, the true man’s put to death.
DUCHESS , within
FTLN 2597 What ho, my liege! For God’s sake, let me in!
KING HENRY
FTLN 2598 75 What shrill-voiced suppliant makes this eager cry?
DUCHESS , within
FTLN 2599 A woman and thy aunt, great king. ’Tis I.
FTLN 2600 Speak with me, pity me. Open the door!
FTLN 2601 A beggar begs that never begged before.
KING HENRY
FTLN 2602 Our scene is altered from a serious thing
FTLN 2603 80 And now changed to “The Beggar and the King.”—
FTLN 2604 My dangerous cousin, let your mother in.
FTLN 2605 I know she is come to pray for your foul sin.
Aumerle opens the door.
Duchess of York enters and kneels.

203
Richard II
ACT 5. SC. 3
YORK
FTLN 2606 If thou do pardon whosoever pray,
FTLN 2607 More sins for this forgiveness prosper may.
FTLN 2608 85 This festered joint cut off, the rest rest sound.
FTLN 2609 This let alone will all the rest confound.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2610 O king, believe not this hard-hearted man.
FTLN 2611 Love loving not itself, none other can.
YORK
FTLN 2612 Thou frantic woman, what dost thou make here?
FTLN 2613 90 Shall thy old dugs once more a traitor rear?
DUCHESS
FTLN 2614 Sweet York, be patient.—Hear me, gentle liege.
KING HENRY
FTLN 2615 Rise up, good aunt.
DUCHESS FTLN 2616 Not yet, I thee beseech.
FTLN 2617 Forever will I walk upon my knees
FTLN 2618 95 And never see day that the happy sees,
FTLN 2619 Till thou give joy, until thou bid me joy
FTLN 2620 By pardoning Rutland, my transgressing boy.
AUMERLE , kneeling
FTLN 2621 Unto my mother’s prayers I bend my knee.
YORK , kneeling
FTLN 2622 Against them both my true joints bended be.
FTLN 2623 100 Ill mayst thou thrive if thou grant any grace.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2624 Pleads he in earnest? Look upon his face.
FTLN 2625 His eyes do drop no tears, his prayers are in jest;
FTLN 2626 His words come from his mouth, ours from our
FTLN 2627 breast.
FTLN 2628 105 He prays but faintly and would be denied.
FTLN 2629 We pray with heart and soul and all beside.
FTLN 2630 His weary joints would gladly rise, I know.
FTLN 2631 Our knees still kneel till to the ground they grow.
FTLN 2632 His prayers are full of false hypocrisy,
FTLN 2633 110 Ours of true zeal and deep integrity.

205
Richard II
ACT 5. SC. 3
FTLN 2634 Our prayers do outpray his. Then let them have
FTLN 2635 That mercy which true prayer ought to have.
KING HENRY
FTLN 2636 Good aunt, stand up.
DUCHESS FTLN 2637 Nay, do not say “stand up.”
FTLN 2638 115 Say “pardon” first and afterwards “stand up.”
FTLN 2639 An if I were thy nurse, thy tongue to teach,
FTLN 2640 “Pardon” should be the first word of thy speech.
FTLN 2641 I never longed to hear a word till now.
FTLN 2642 Say “pardon,” king; let pity teach thee how.
FTLN 2643 120 The word is short, but not so short as sweet.
FTLN 2644 No word like “pardon” for kings’ mouths so meet.
YORK
FTLN 2645 Speak it in French, king. Say “pardonne moy.”
DUCHESS
FTLN 2646 Dost thou teach pardon pardon to destroy?
FTLN 2647 Ah, my sour husband, my hard-hearted lord,
FTLN 2648 125 That sets the word itself against the word!
FTLN 2649 To King Henry. Speak “pardon” as ’tis current in
FTLN 2650 our land;
FTLN 2651 The chopping French we do not understand.
FTLN 2652 Thine eye begins to speak; set thy tongue there,
FTLN 2653 130 Or in thy piteous heart plant thou thine ear,
FTLN 2654 That, hearing how our plaints and prayers do
FTLN 2655 pierce,
FTLN 2656 Pity may move thee “pardon” to rehearse.
KING HENRY
FTLN 2657 Good aunt, stand up.
DUCHESS FTLN 2658 135 I do not sue to stand.
FTLN 2659 Pardon is all the suit I have in hand.
KING HENRY
FTLN 2660 I pardon him, as God shall pardon me.
DUCHESS
FTLN 2661 O, happy vantage of a kneeling knee!
FTLN 2662 Yet am I sick for fear. Speak it again.
FTLN 2663 140 Twice saying “pardon” doth not pardon twain,
FTLN 2664 But makes one pardon strong.

207
Richard II
ACT 5. SC. 4
KING HENRY FTLN 2665 I pardon him with all my heart.
DUCHESS FTLN 2666 A god on Earth thou art.
They all stand.
KING HENRY
FTLN 2667 But for our trusty brother-in-law and the Abbot,
FTLN 2668 145 With all the rest of that consorted crew,
FTLN 2669 Destruction straight shall dog them at the heels.
FTLN 2670 Good uncle, help to order several powers
FTLN 2671 To Oxford or where’er these traitors are.
FTLN 2672 They shall not live within this world, I swear,
FTLN 2673 150 But I will have them, if I once know where.
FTLN 2674 Uncle, farewell,—and cousin, adieu.
FTLN 2675 Your mother well hath prayed; and prove you true.
DUCHESS , to Aumerle
FTLN 2676 Come, my old son. I pray God make thee new.
They exit.
Scene 4
Enter Sir Pierce Exton and Servants.
EXTON
FTLN 2677 Didst thou not mark the King, what words he spake,
FTLN 2678 “Have I no friend will rid me of this living fear?”
FTLN 2679 Was it not so?
SERVINGMAN FTLN 2680 These were his very words.
EXTON
FTLN 2681 5 “Have I no friend?” quoth he. He spake it twice
FTLN 2682 And urged it twice together, did he not?
SERVINGMAN FTLN 2683 He did.
EXTON
FTLN 2684 And speaking it, he wishtly looked on me,
FTLN 2685 As who should say “I would thou wert the man
FTLN 2686 10 That would divorce this terror from my heart”—
FTLN 2687 Meaning the king at Pomfret. Come, let’s go.
FTLN 2688 I am the King’s friend and will rid his foe.
They exit.

209
Richard II
ACT 5. SC. 5
Scene 5
Enter Richard alone.
RICHARD
FTLN 2689 I have been studying how I may compare
FTLN 2690 This prison where I live unto the world,
FTLN 2691 And for because the world is populous
FTLN 2692 And here is not a creature but myself,
FTLN 2693 5 I cannot do it. Yet I’ll hammer it out.
FTLN 2694 My brain I’ll prove the female to my soul,
FTLN 2695 My soul the father, and these two beget
FTLN 2696 A generation of still-breeding thoughts,
FTLN 2697 And these same thoughts people this little world,
FTLN 2698 10 In humors like the people of this world,
FTLN 2699 For no thought is contented. The better sort,
FTLN 2700 As thoughts of things divine, are intermixed
FTLN 2701 With scruples, and do set the word itself
FTLN 2702 Against the word, as thus: “Come, little ones,”
FTLN 2703 15 And then again,
FTLN 2704 “It is as hard to come as for a camel
FTLN 2705 To thread the postern of a small needle’s eye.”
FTLN 2706 Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot
FTLN 2707 Unlikely wonders: how these vain weak nails
FTLN 2708 20 May tear a passage through the flinty ribs
FTLN 2709 Of this hard world, my ragged prison walls,
FTLN 2710 And, for they cannot, die in their own pride.
FTLN 2711 Thoughts tending to content flatter themselves
FTLN 2712 That they are not the first of fortune’s slaves,
FTLN 2713 25 Nor shall not be the last—like silly beggars
FTLN 2714 Who, sitting in the stocks, refuge their shame
FTLN 2715 That many have and others must sit there,
FTLN 2716 And in this thought they find a kind of ease,
FTLN 2717 Bearing their own misfortunes on the back
FTLN 2718 30 Of such as have before endured the like.
FTLN 2719 Thus play I in one person many people,
FTLN 2720 And none contented. Sometimes am I king.

211
Richard II
ACT 5. SC. 5
FTLN 2721 Then treasons make me wish myself a beggar,
FTLN 2722 And so I am; then crushing penury
FTLN 2723 35 Persuades me I was better when a king.
FTLN 2724 Then am I kinged again, and by and by
FTLN 2725 Think that I am unkinged by Bolingbroke,
FTLN 2726 And straight am nothing. But whate’er I be,
FTLN 2727 Nor I nor any man that but man is
FTLN 2728 40 With nothing shall be pleased till he be eased
FTLN 2729 With being nothing. (The music plays.) Music do I
FTLN 2730 hear?
FTLN 2731 Ha, ha, keep time! How sour sweet music is
FTLN 2732 When time is broke and no proportion kept.
FTLN 2733 45 So is it in the music of men’s lives.
FTLN 2734 And here have I the daintiness of ear
FTLN 2735 To check time broke in a disordered string;
FTLN 2736 But for the concord of my state and time
FTLN 2737 Had not an ear to hear my true time broke.
FTLN 2738 50 I wasted time, and now doth time waste me;
FTLN 2739 For now hath time made me his numb’ring clock.
FTLN 2740 My thoughts are minutes, and with sighs they jar
FTLN 2741 Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch,
FTLN 2742 Whereto my finger, like a dial’s point,
FTLN 2743 55 Is pointing still in cleansing them from tears.
FTLN 2744 Now, sir, the sound that tells what hour it is
FTLN 2745 Are clamorous groans which strike upon my heart,
FTLN 2746 Which is the bell. So sighs and tears and groans
FTLN 2747 Show minutes, times, and hours. But my time
FTLN 2748 60 Runs posting on in Bolingbroke’s proud joy,
FTLN 2749 While I stand fooling here, his jack of the clock.
FTLN 2750 This music mads me. Let it sound no more,
FTLN 2751 For though it have holp madmen to their wits,
FTLN 2752 In me it seems it will make wise men mad.
FTLN 2753 65 Yet blessing on his heart that gives it me,
FTLN 2754 For ’tis a sign of love, and love to Richard
FTLN 2755 Is a strange brooch in this all-hating world.
Enter a Groom of the stable.

213
Richard II
ACT 5. SC. 5
GROOM FTLN 2756 Hail, royal prince!
RICHARD FTLN 2757 Thanks, noble peer.
FTLN 2758 70 The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear.
FTLN 2759 What art thou, and how comest thou hither,
FTLN 2760 Where no man never comes but that sad dog
FTLN 2761 That brings me food to make misfortune live?
GROOM
FTLN 2762 I was a poor groom of thy stable, king,
FTLN 2763 75 When thou wert king; who, traveling towards York,
FTLN 2764 With much ado at length have gotten leave
FTLN 2765 To look upon my sometime royal master’s face.
FTLN 2766 O, how it earned my heart when I beheld
FTLN 2767 In London streets, that coronation day,
FTLN 2768 80 When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary,
FTLN 2769 That horse that thou so often hast bestrid,
FTLN 2770 That horse that I so carefully have dressed.
RICHARD
FTLN 2771 Rode he on Barbary? Tell me, gentle friend,
FTLN 2772 How went he under him?
GROOM
FTLN 2773 85 So proudly as if he disdained the ground.
RICHARD
FTLN 2774 So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back!
FTLN 2775 That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand;
FTLN 2776 This hand hath made him proud with clapping him.
FTLN 2777 Would he not stumble? Would he not fall down
FTLN 2778 90 (Since pride must have a fall) and break the neck
FTLN 2779 Of that proud man that did usurp his back?
FTLN 2780 Forgiveness, horse! Why do I rail on thee,
FTLN 2781 Since thou, created to be awed by man,
FTLN 2782 Wast born to bear? I was not made a horse,
FTLN 2783 95 And yet I bear a burden like an ass,
FTLN 2784 Spurred, galled, and tired by jauncing Bolingbroke.
Enter one, the Keeper, to Richard with meat.

215
Richard II
ACT 5. SC. 5
KEEPER , to Groom
FTLN 2785 Fellow, give place. Here is no longer stay.
RICHARD , to Groom
FTLN 2786 If thou love me, ’tis time thou wert away.
GROOM
FTLN 2787 What my tongue dares not, that my heart shall say.
Groom exits.
KEEPER FTLN 2788 100 My lord, will ’t please you to fall to?
RICHARD
FTLN 2789 Taste of it first as thou art wont to do.
KEEPER
FTLN 2790 My lord, I dare not. Sir Pierce of Exton,
FTLN 2791 Who lately came from the King, commands the
FTLN 2792 contrary.
RICHARD , attacking the Keeper
FTLN 2793 105 The devil take Henry of Lancaster and thee!
FTLN 2794 Patience is stale, and I am weary of it.
KEEPER FTLN 2795 Help, help, help!
The Murderers Exton and his men rush in.
RICHARD
FTLN 2796 How now, what means death in this rude assault?
FTLN 2797 Villain, thy own hand yields thy death’s instrument.
Richard seizes a weapon from a Murderer
and kills him with it.
FTLN 2798 110 Go thou and fill another room in hell.
He kills another Murderer.
Here Exton strikes him down.
FTLN 2799 That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire
FTLN 2800 That staggers thus my person. Exton, thy fierce hand
FTLN 2801 Hath with the King’s blood stained the King’s own
FTLN 2802 land.
FTLN 2803 115 Mount, mount, my soul. Thy seat is up on high,
FTLN 2804 Whilst my gross flesh sinks downward, here to die.
He dies.

217
Richard II
ACT 5. SC. 6
EXTON
FTLN 2805 As full of valor as of royal blood.
FTLN 2806 Both have I spilled. O, would the deed were good!
FTLN 2807 For now the devil that told me I did well
FTLN 2808 120 Says that this deed is chronicled in hell.
FTLN 2809 This dead king to the living king I’ll bear.
FTLN 2810 Take hence the rest and give them burial here.
They exit with the bodies.
Scene 6
Enter King Henry, with the Duke of York.
KING HENRY
FTLN 2811 Kind uncle York, the latest news we hear
FTLN 2812 Is that the rebels have consumed with fire
FTLN 2813 Our town of Ciceter in Gloucestershire,
FTLN 2814 But whether they be ta’en or slain we hear not.
Enter Northumberland.
FTLN 2815 5 Welcome, my lord. What is the news?
NORTHUMBERLAND
FTLN 2816 First, to thy sacred state wish I all happiness.
FTLN 2817 The next news is: I have to London sent
FTLN 2818 The heads of Oxford, Salisbury, Blunt, and Kent.
FTLN 2819 The manner of their taking may appear
FTLN 2820 10 At large discoursèd in this paper here.
He gives King Henry a paper.
KING HENRY
FTLN 2821 We thank thee, gentle Percy, for thy pains,
FTLN 2822 And to thy worth will add right worthy gains.
Enter Lord Fitzwater.
FITZWATER
FTLN 2823 My lord, I have from Oxford sent to London
FTLN 2824 The heads of Brocas and Sir Bennet Seely,

219
Richard II
ACT 5. SC. 6
FTLN 2825 15 Two of the dangerous consorted traitors
FTLN 2826 That sought at Oxford thy dire overthrow.
KING HENRY
FTLN 2827 Thy pains, Fitzwater, shall not be forgot.
FTLN 2828 Right noble is thy merit, well I wot.
Enter Harry Percy with the Bishop of Carlisle.
PERCY
FTLN 2829 The grand conspirator, Abbot of Westminster,
FTLN 2830 20 With clog of conscience and sour melancholy
FTLN 2831 Hath yielded up his body to the grave.
FTLN 2832 But here is Carlisle living, to abide
FTLN 2833 Thy kingly doom and sentence of his pride.
KING HENRY FTLN 2834 Carlisle, this is your doom:
FTLN 2835 25 Choose out some secret place, some reverend room,
FTLN 2836 More than thou hast, and with it joy thy life.
FTLN 2837 So, as thou liv’st in peace, die free from strife;
FTLN 2838 For, though mine enemy thou hast ever been,
FTLN 2839 High sparks of honor in thee have I seen.
Enter Exton and Servingmen with the coffin.
EXTON
FTLN 2840 30 Great king, within this coffin I present
FTLN 2841 Thy buried fear. Herein all breathless lies
FTLN 2842 The mightiest of thy greatest enemies,
FTLN 2843 Richard of Bourdeaux, by me hither brought.
KING HENRY
FTLN 2844 Exton, I thank thee not, for thou hast wrought
FTLN 2845 35 A deed of slander with thy fatal hand
FTLN 2846 Upon my head and all this famous land.
EXTON
FTLN 2847 From your own mouth, my lord, did I this deed.
KING HENRY
FTLN 2848 They love not poison that do poison need,
FTLN 2849 Nor do I thee. Though I did wish him dead,
FTLN 2850 40 I hate the murderer, love him murderèd.

221
Richard II
ACT 5. SC. 6
FTLN 2851 The guilt of conscience take thou for thy labor,
FTLN 2852 But neither my good word nor princely favor.
FTLN 2853 With Cain go wander through shades of night,
FTLN 2854 And never show thy head by day nor light.
Exton exits.
FTLN 2855 45 Lords, I protest my soul is full of woe
FTLN 2856 That blood should sprinkle me to make me grow.
FTLN 2857 Come mourn with me for what I do lament,
FTLN 2858 And put on sullen black incontinent.
FTLN 2859 I’ll make a voyage to the Holy Land
FTLN 2860 50 To wash this blood off from my guilty hand.
Servingmen lift the coffin to carry it out.
FTLN 2861 March sadly after. Grace my mournings here
FTLN 2862 In weeping after this untimely bier.
They exit, following the coffin.