ACT IV, SCENE I. Westminster Hall.
[Enter, as to the Parliament, HENRY BOLINGBROKE, DUKE OF AUMERLE,
NORTHUMBERLAND, HENRY PERCY, LORD FITZWATER, DUKE OF SURREY,
the BISHOP OF CARLISLE, the Abbot Of Westminster,
and another Lord, Herald, Officers, and BAGOT]
HENRY BOLINGBROKE:
- Call forth Bagot.
- Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind;
- What thou dost know of noble Gloucester's death,
- Who wrought it with the king, and who perform'd
- The bloody office of his timeless end.
BAGOT:
- Then set before my face the Lord Aumerle.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE:
- Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that man.
BAGOT:
- My Lord Aumerle, I know your daring tongue
- Scorns to unsay what once it hath deliver'd.
- In that dead time when Gloucester's death was plotted,
- I heard you say, 'Is not my arm of length,
- That reacheth from the restful English court
- As far as Calais, to mine uncle's head?'
- Amongst much other talk, that very time,
- I heard you say that you had rather refuse
- The offer of an hundred thousand crowns
- Than Bolingbroke's return to England;
- Adding withal how blest this land would be
- In this your cousin's death.
DUKE OF AUMERLE:
- Princes and noble lords,
- What answer shall I make to this base man?
- Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars,
- On equal terms to give him chastisement?
- Either I must, or have mine honour soil'd
- With the attainder of his slanderous lips.
- There is my gage, the manual seal of death,
- That marks thee out for hell: I say, thou liest,
- And will maintain what thou hast said is false
- In thy heart-blood, though being all too base
- To stain the temper of my knightly sword.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE:
- Bagot, forbear; thou shalt not take it up.
DUKE OF AUMERLE:
- Excepting one, I would he were the best
- In all this presence that hath moved me so.
LORD FITZWATER:
- If that thy valour stand on sympathy,
- There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine:
- By that fair sun which shows me where thou stand'st,
- I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spakest it
- That thou wert cause of noble Gloucester's death.
- If thou deny'st it twenty times, thou liest;
- And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart,
- Where it was forged, with my rapier's point.
DUKE OF AUMERLE:
- Thou darest not, coward, live to see that day.
LORD FITZWATER:
- Now by my soul, I would it were this hour.
DUKE OF AUMERLE:
- Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this.
HENRY PERCY:
- Aumerle, thou liest; his honour is as true
- In this appeal as thou art all unjust;
- And that thou art so, there I throw my gage,
- To prove it on thee to the extremest point
- Of mortal breathing: seize it, if thou darest.
DUKE OF AUMERLE:
- An if I do not, may my hands rot off
- And never brandish more revengeful steel
- Over the glittering helmet of my foe!
Lord:
- I task the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle;
- And spur thee on with full as many lies
- As may be holloa'd in thy treacherous ear
- From sun to sun: there is my honour's pawn;
- Engage it to the trial, if thou darest.
DUKE OF AUMERLE:
- Who sets me else? by heaven, I'll throw at all:
- I have a thousand spirits in one breast,
- To answer twenty thousand such as you.
DUKE OF SURREY:
- My Lord Fitzwater, I do remember well
- The very time Aumerle and you did talk.
LORD FITZWATER:
- 'Tis very true: you were in presence then;
- And you can witness with me this is true.
DUKE OF SURREY:
- As false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true.
LORD FITZWATER:
- Surrey, thou liest.
DUKE OF SURREY:
- Dishonourable boy!
- That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword,
- That it shall render vengeance and revenge
- Till thou the lie-giver and that lie do lie
- In earth as quiet as thy father's skull:
- In proof whereof, there is my honour's pawn;
- Engage it to the trial, if thou darest.
LORD FITZWATER:
- How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse!
- If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live,
- I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness,
- And spit upon him, whilst I say he lies,
- And lies, and lies: there is my bond of faith,
- To tie thee to my strong correction.
- As I intend to thrive in this new world,
- Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal:
- Besides, I heard the banish'd Norfolk say
- That thou, Aumerle, didst send two of thy men
- To execute the noble duke at Calais.
DUKE OF AUMERLE:
- Some honest Christian trust me with a gage
- That Norfolk lies: here do I throw down this,
- If he may be repeal'd, to try his honour.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE:
- These differences shall all rest under gage
- Till Norfolk be repeal'd: repeal'd he shall be,
- And, though mine enemy, restored again
- To all his lands and signories: when he's return'd,
- Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial.
BISHOP OF CARLISLE:
- That honourable day shall ne'er be seen.
- Many a time hath banish'd Norfolk fought
- For Jesu Christ in glorious Christian field,
- Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross
- Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens:
- And toil'd with works of war, retired himself
- To Italy; and there at Venice gave
- His body to that pleasant country's earth,
- And his pure soul unto his captain Christ,
- Under whose colours he had fought so long.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE:
- Why, bishop, is Norfolk dead?
BISHOP OF CARLISLE:
- As surely as I live, my lord.
DUKE OF YORK:
- Great Duke of Lancaster, I come to thee
- From plume-pluck'd Richard; who with willing soul
- Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields
- To the possession of thy royal hand:
- Ascend his throne, descending now from him;
- And long live Henry, fourth of that name!
HENRY BOLINGBROKE:
- In God's name, I'll ascend the regal throne.
BISHOP OF CARLISLE:
- Marry. God forbid!
- Worst in this royal presence may I speak,
- Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth.
- Would God that any in this noble presence
- Were enough noble to be upright judge
- Of noble Richard! then true noblesse would
- Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.
- What subject can give sentence on his king?
- And who sits here that is not Richard's subject?
- Thieves are not judged but they are by to hear,
- Although apparent guilt be seen in them;
- And shall the figure of God's majesty,
- His captain, steward, deputy-elect,
- Anointed, crowned, planted many years,
- Be judged by subject and inferior breath,
- And he himself not present? O, forfend it, God,
- That in a Christian climate souls refined
- Should show so heinous, black, obscene a deed!
- I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks,
- Stirr'd up by God, thus boldly for his king:
- My Lord of Hereford here, whom you call king,
- Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford's king:
- And if you crown him, let me prophesy:
- The blood of English shall manure the ground,
- And future ages groan for this foul act;
- Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels,
- And in this seat of peace tumultuous wars
- Shall kin with kin and kind with kind confound;
- Disorder, horror, fear and mutiny
- Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd
- The field of Golgotha and dead men's skulls.
- O, if you raise this house against this house,
- It will the woefullest division prove
- That ever fell upon this cursed earth.
- Prevent it, resist it, let it not be so,
- Lest child, child's children, cry against you woe!
NORTHUMBERLAND:
- Well have you argued, sir; and, for your pains,
- Of capital treason we arrest you here.
- My Lord of Westminster, be it your charge
- To keep him safely till his day of trial.
- May it please you, lords, to grant the commons' suit.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE:
- Fetch hither Richard, that in common view
- He may surrender; so we shall proceed
- Without suspicion.
DUKE OF YORK:
- I will be his conduct.
-
[Exit]
KING RICHARD II:
- Alack, why am I sent for to a king,
- Before I have shook off the regal thoughts
- Wherewith I reign'd? I hardly yet have learn'd
- To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my limbs:
- Give sorrow leave awhile to tutor me
- To this submission. Yet I well remember
- The favours of these men: were they not mine?
- Did they not sometime cry, 'all hail!' to me?
- So Judas did to Christ: but he, in twelve,
- Found truth in all but one: I, in twelve thousand, none.
- God save the king! Will no man say amen?
- Am I both priest and clerk? well then, amen.
- God save the king! although I be not he;
- And yet, amen, if heaven do think him me.
- To do what service am I sent for hither?
DUKE OF YORK:
- To do that office of thine own good will
- Which tired majesty did make thee offer,
- The resignation of thy state and crown
- To Henry Bolingbroke.
KING RICHARD II:
- Give me the crown. Here, cousin, seize the crown;
- Here cousin:
- On this side my hand, and on that side yours.
- Now is this golden crown like a deep well
- That owes two buckets, filling one another,
- The emptier ever dancing in the air,
- The other down, unseen and full of water:
- That bucket down and full of tears am I,
- Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE:
- I thought you had been willing to resign.
KING RICHARD II:
- My crown I am; but still my griefs are mine:
- You may my glories and my state depose,
- But not my griefs; still am I king of those.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE:
- Part of your cares you give me with your crown.
KING RICHARD II:
- Your cares set up do not pluck my cares down.
- My care is loss of care, by old care done;
- Your care is gain of care, by new care won:
- The cares I give I have, though given away;
- They tend the crown, yet still with me they stay.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE:
- Are you contented to resign the crown?
KING RICHARD II:
- Ay, no; no, ay; for I must nothing be;
- Therefore no no, for I resign to thee.
- Now mark me, how I will undo myself;
- I give this heavy weight from off my head
- And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand,
- The pride of kingly sway from out my heart;
- With mine own tears I wash away my balm,
- With mine own hands I give away my crown,
- With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,
- With mine own breath release all duty's rites:
- All pomp and majesty I do forswear;
- My manors, rents, revenues I forego;
- My acts, decrees, and statutes I deny:
- God pardon all oaths that are broke to me!
- God keep all vows unbroke that swear to thee!
- Make me, that nothing have, with nothing grieved,
- And thou with all pleased, that hast all achieved!
- Long mayst thou live in Richard's seat to sit,
- And soon lie Richard in an earthly pit!
- God save King Harry, unking'd Richard says,
- And send him many years of sunshine days!
- What more remains?
NORTHUMBERLAND:
- No more, but that you read
- These accusations and these grievous crimes
- Committed by your person and your followers
- Against the state and profit of this land;
- That, by confessing them, the souls of men
- May deem that you are worthily deposed.
KING RICHARD II:
- Must I do so? and must I ravel out
- My weaved-up folly? Gentle Northumberland,
- If thy offences were upon record,
- Would it not shame thee in so fair a troop
- To read a lecture of them? If thou wouldst,
- There shouldst thou find one heinous article,
- Containing the deposing of a king
- And cracking the strong warrant of an oath,
- Mark'd with a blot, damn'd in the book of heaven:
- Nay, all of you that stand and look upon,
- Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait myself,
- Though some of you with Pilate wash your hands
- Showing an outward pity; yet you Pilates
- Have here deliver'd me to my sour cross,
- And water cannot wash away your sin.
NORTHUMBERLAND:
- My lord, dispatch; read o'er these articles.
KING RICHARD II:
- Mine eyes are full of tears, I cannot see:
- And yet salt water blinds them not so much
- But they can see a sort of traitors here.
- Nay, if I turn mine eyes upon myself,
- I find myself a traitor with the rest;
- For I have given here my soul's consent
- To undeck the pompous body of a king;
- Made glory base and sovereignty a slave,
- Proud majesty a subject, state a peasant.
NORTHUMBERLAND:
- My lord,--
KING RICHARD II:
- No lord of thine, thou haught insulting man,
- Nor no man's lord; I have no name, no title,
- No, not that name was given me at the font,
- But 'tis usurp'd: alack the heavy day,
- That I have worn so many winters out,
- And know not now what name to call myself!
- O that I were a mockery king of snow,
- Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke,
- To melt myself away in water-drops!
- Good king, great king, and yet not greatly good,
- An if my word be sterling yet in England,
- Let it command a mirror hither straight,
- That it may show me what a face I have,
- Since it is bankrupt of his majesty.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE:
- Go some of you and fetch a looking-glass.
-
[Exit an attendant]
NORTHUMBERLAND:
- Read o'er this paper while the glass doth come.
KING RICHARD II:
- Fiend, thou torment'st me ere I come to hell!
HENRY BOLINGBROKE:
- Urge it no more, my Lord Northumberland.
NORTHUMBERLAND:
- The commons will not then be satisfied.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE:
- The shadow of your sorrow hath destroy'd
- The shadow or your face.
KING RICHARD II:
- Say that again.
- The shadow of my sorrow! ha! let's see:
- 'Tis very true, my grief lies all within;
- And these external manners of laments
- Are merely shadows to the unseen grief
- That swells with silence in the tortured soul;
- There lies the substance: and I thank thee, king,
- For thy great bounty, that not only givest
- Me cause to wail but teachest me the way
- How to lament the cause. I'll beg one boon,
- And then be gone and trouble you no more.
- Shall I obtain it?
HENRY BOLINGBROKE:
- Name it, fair cousin.
KING RICHARD II:
- 'Fair cousin'? I am greater than a king:
- For when I was a king, my flatterers
- Were then but subjects; being now a subject,
- I have a king here to my flatterer.
- Being so great, I have no need to beg.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE:
- Yet ask.
KING RICHARD II:
- And shall I have?
HENRY BOLINGBROKE:
- You shall.
KING RICHARD II:
- Then give me leave to go.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE:
- Whither?
KING RICHARD II:
- Whither you will, so I were from your sights.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE:
- Go, some of you convey him to the Tower.
Abbot:
- A woeful pageant have we here beheld.
BISHOP OF CARLISLE:
- The woe's to come; the children yet unborn.
- Shall feel this day as sharp to them as thorn.
DUKE OF AUMERLE:
- You holy clergymen, is there no plot
- To rid the realm of this pernicious blot?
Abbot:
- My lord,
- Before I freely speak my mind herein,
- You shall not only take the sacrament
- To bury mine intents, but also to effect
- Whatever I shall happen to devise.
- I see your brows are full of discontent,
- Your hearts of sorrow and your eyes of tears:
- Come home with me to supper; and I'll lay
- A plot shall show us all a merry day.
-
[Exeunt]