Enter ⌜with Drum and Colors⌝ Bolingbroke, York,
Northumberland, ⌜with Soldiers and Attendants.⌝BOLINGBROKE So that by this intelligence we learn The Welshmen are dispersed, and Salisbury Is gone to meet the King, who lately landed With some few private friends upon this coast.NORTHUMBERLAND 5 The news is very fair and good, my lord: Richard not far from hence hath hid his head.YORK It would beseem the Lord Northumberland To say “King Richard.” Alack the heavy day When such a sacred king should hide his head!NORTHUMBERLAND 10 Your Grace mistakes; only to be brief Left I his title out.YORK The time hath been, would you have been so brief with him, He would have been so brief to shorten you,
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15 For taking so the head, your whole head’s length.BOLINGBROKE Mistake not, uncle, further than you should.YORK Take not, good cousin, further than you should, Lest you mistake. The heavens are over our heads.BOLINGBROKE I know it, uncle, and oppose not myself20 Against their will. But who comes here?Enter Percy. Welcome, Harry. What, will not this castle yield?PERCY The castle royally is manned, my lord, Against thy entrance.BOLINGBROKE Royally? Why, it contains no king.PERCY 25Yes, my good lord, It doth contain a king. King Richard lies Within the limits of yon lime and stone, And with him are the Lord Aumerle, Lord Salisbury, Sir Stephen Scroop, besides a clergyman30 Of holy reverence—who, I cannot learn.NORTHUMBERLAND O, belike it is the Bishop of Carlisle.BOLINGBROKE, ⌜to Northumberland⌝ Noble ⌜lord,⌝ Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle, Through brazen trumpet send the breath of parley35 Into his ruined ears, and thus deliver: Henry Bolingbroke On both his knees doth kiss King Richard’s hand And sends allegiance and true faith of heart To his most royal person, hither come40 Even at his feet to lay my arms and power, Provided that my banishment repealed And lands restored again be freely granted.
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If not, I’ll use the advantage of my power And lay the summer’s dust with showers of blood45 Rained from the wounds of slaughtered Englishmen— The which how far off from the mind of Bolingbroke It is such crimson tempest should bedrench The fresh green lap of fair King Richard’s land,50 My stooping duty tenderly shall show. Go signify as much while here we march Upon the grassy carpet of this plain.⌜Northumberland and Trumpets
approach the battlements.⌝ Let’s march without the noise of threat’ning drum, That from this castle’s tottered battlements55 Our fair appointments may be well perused. Methinks King Richard and myself should meet With no less terror than the elements Of fire and water when their thund’ring shock At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven.60 Be he the fire, I’ll be the yielding water; The rage be his, whilst on the earth I rain My waters—on the earth and not on him. March on, and mark King Richard how he looks.⌜Bolingbroke’s Soldiers march,⌝ the trumpets sound.Richard appeareth on the walls ⌜with Aumerle.⌝ See, see, King Richard doth himself appear65 As doth the blushing discontented sun From out the fiery portal of the east When he perceives the envious clouds are bent To dim his glory and to stain the track Of his bright passage to the occident.YORK 70 Yet looks he like a king. Behold, his eye, As bright as is the eagle’s, lightens forth Controlling majesty. Alack, alack for woe That any harm should stain so fair a show!
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KING RICHARD, ⌜to Northumberland, below⌝ We are amazed, and thus long have we stood75 To watch the fearful bending of thy knee, Because we thought ourself thy lawful king. An if we be, how dare thy joints forget To pay their awful duty to our presence? If we be not, show us the hand of God80 That hath dismissed us from our stewardship, For well we know no hand of blood and bone Can gripe the sacred handle of our scepter, Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp. And though you think that all, as you have done,85 Have torn their souls by turning them from us, And we are barren and bereft of friends, Yet know, my master, God omnipotent, Is mustering in his clouds on our behalf Armies of pestilence, and they shall strike90 Your children yet unborn and unbegot, That lift your vassal hands against my head And threat the glory of my precious crown. Tell Bolingbroke—for yon methinks he stands— That every stride he makes upon my land95 Is dangerous treason. He is come to open The purple testament of bleeding war; But ere the crown he looks for live in peace, Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers’ sons Shall ill become the flower of England’s face,100 Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace To scarlet indignation, and bedew Her pastures’ grass with faithful English blood.NORTHUMBERLAND The King of heaven forbid our lord the King Should so with civil and uncivil arms105 Be rushed upon! Thy thrice-noble cousin, Harry Bolingbroke, doth humbly kiss thy hand, And by the honorable tomb he swears
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That stands upon your royal grandsire’s bones, And by the royalties of both your bloods,110 Currents that spring from one most gracious head, And by the buried hand of warlike Gaunt, And by the worth and honor of himself, Comprising all that may be sworn or said, His coming hither hath no further scope115 Than for his lineal royalties, and to beg Enfranchisement immediate on his knees; Which on thy royal party granted once, His glittering arms he will commend to rust, His barbèd steeds to stables, and his heart120 To faithful service of your Majesty. This swears he, as he is ⌜a prince and⌝ just, And as I am a gentleman I credit him.KING RICHARD Northumberland, say thus the King returns: His noble cousin is right welcome hither,125 And all the number of his fair demands Shall be accomplished without contradiction. With all the gracious utterance thou hast, Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends.⌜Northumberland returns to Bolingbroke.⌝ ⌜To Aumerle.⌝ We do debase ourselves, cousin, do130 we not, To look so poorly and to speak so fair? Shall we call back Northumberland and send Defiance to the traitor and so die?AUMERLE No, good my lord, let’s fight with gentle words,135 Till time lend friends, and friends their helpful swords.KING RICHARD O God, O God, that e’er this tongue of mine That laid the sentence of dread banishment On yon proud man should take it off again
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140 With words of sooth! O, that I were as great As is my grief, or lesser than my name! Or that I could forget what I have been, Or not remember what I must be now. Swell’st thou, proud heart? I’ll give thee scope to145 beat, Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me.AUMERLE Northumberland comes back from Bolingbroke.KING RICHARD What must the King do now? Must he submit? The King shall do it. Must he be deposed?150 The King shall be contented. Must he lose The name of king? I’ God’s name, let it go. I’ll give my jewels for a set of beads, My gorgeous palace for a hermitage, My gay apparel for an almsman’s gown,155 My figured goblets for a dish of wood, My scepter for a palmer’s walking-staff, My subjects for a pair of carvèd saints, And my large kingdom for a little grave, A little, little grave, an obscure grave;160 Or I’ll be buried in the King’s highway, Some way of common trade, where subjects’ feet May hourly trample on their sovereign’s head; For on my heart they tread now whilst I live And, buried once, why not upon my head?165 Aumerle, thou weep’st, my tender-hearted cousin. We’ll make foul weather with despisèd tears; Our sighs and they shall lodge the summer corn And make a dearth in this revolting land. Or shall we play the wantons with our woes170 And make some pretty match with shedding tears? As thus, to drop them still upon one place Till they have fretted us a pair of graves Within the earth; and therein laid—there lies
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Two kinsmen digged their graves with weeping eyes.175 Would not this ill do well? Well, well, I see I talk but idly, and you laugh at me.⌜Northumberland approaches the battlements.⌝ Most mighty prince, my Lord Northumberland, What says King Bolingbroke? Will his Majesty Give Richard leave to live till Richard die?180 You make a leg, and Bolingbroke says ay.NORTHUMBERLAND My lord, in the base court he doth attend To speak with you, may it please you to come down.KING RICHARD Down, down I come, like glist’ring Phaëton, Wanting the manage of unruly jades.185 In the base court—base court, where kings grow base, To come at traitors’ calls and do them grace. In the base court come down—down court, down king,190 For nightowls shriek where mounting larks should sing.⌜Richard exits above
and Northumberland returns to Bolingbroke.⌝BOLINGBROKE What says his Majesty?NORTHUMBERLAND Sorrow and grief of heart Makes him speak fondly like a frantic man,195 Yet he is come.⌜Richard enters below.⌝BOLINGBROKE Stand all apart, And show fair duty to his Majesty.He kneels down. My gracious lord.KING RICHARD Fair cousin, you debase your princely knee200 To make the base earth proud with kissing it. Me rather had my heart might feel your love
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Than my unpleased eye see your courtesy. Up, cousin, up. Your heart is up, I know, Thus high at least ⌜indicating his crown,⌝ although205 your knee be low.BOLINGBROKE, ⌜standing⌝ My gracious lord, I come but for mine own.KING RICHARD Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all.BOLINGBROKE So far be mine, my most redoubted lord, As my true service shall deserve your love.KING RICHARD 210 Well you deserve. They well deserve to have That know the strong’st and surest way to get.— Uncle, give me your hands. Nay, dry your eyes. Tears show their love but want their remedies.— Cousin, I am too young to be your father,215 Though you are old enough to be my heir. What you will have I’ll give, and willing too, For do we must what force will have us do. Set on towards London, cousin, is it so?BOLINGBROKE Yea, my good lord.KING RICHARD 220 Then I must not say no.⌜They exit.⌝
