The Illustrated Works of Shakespeare/Illustrated Works of Shakespeare, The (1990)(Animated Pixels)[!][CDTV-PC].iso/shakes/text/06/03_03

Text File | 1991-04-10 | 11KB | 265 lines

Wales. Before Flint Castle.
 Enter, with DRUM and COLOURS, BOLINGBROKE, DUKE OF YORK,
 NORTHUMBERLAND, and SOLDIERS.

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        The news is very fair and good, my lord:
        Richard not far from hence hath hid his head.

Duke of 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        Your grace mistakes; only to be brief,
        Left I his title out.

Duke of York                                The time hath been,
        Would you have been so brief with him, he would
        Have been so brief with you to shorten you,
        For taking so the head, your whole head's length.

Bolingbroke        Mistake not, uncle, further than you should.

Duke of York        Take not, good cousin, further than you should,
        Lest you mistake the heavens are o'er our heads.

Bolingbroke        I know it, uncle, and oppose not myself
        Against their will. But who comes here?

                            Enter HARRY PERCY.

        Welcome, Harry. What, will not this castle yield?

Harry Percy        The castle royally is manned, my lord,
        Against thy entrance.

Bolingbroke        Royally!
        Why, it contains no king?

Harry Percy                                Yes, 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 clergyman
        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 parley
        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 come
        Even at his feet to lay my arms and power,
        Provided that my banishment repealed
        And lands restored again be freely granted.
        If not, I'll use the advantage of my power
        And lay the summer's dust with showers of blood
        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,
        My stooping duty tenderly shall show.
        Go, signify as much, while here we march
        Upon the grassy carpet of this plain.
        Let's march without the noise of threatening drum,
        That from this castle's tottered battlements
        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 the thundering shock
        At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven.
        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.

            Parle without, and answer within; then a flourish.
  RICHARD appeareth on the walls, with the Bishop of CARLISLE, AUMERLE,
                          SCROOP, and SALISBURY.

        See, see, King Richard doth himself appear,
        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.

Duke of York        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!

King Richard        [To NORTHUMBERLAND.]
        We are amazed; and thus long have we stood
        To watch the fearful bending of thy knee,
        Because we thought ourself thy lawful king;
        And if we be, how dare thy joints forget
        To pay their awful duty to our presence?
        If we be not, show us the hand of God
        That hath dismissed us from our stewardship;
        For well we know no hand of blood and bone
        Can gripe the sacred handle of our sceptre,
        Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp.
        And though you think that all, as you have done,
        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 strike
        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 land
        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,
        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 arms
        Be rushed upon! Thy thrice noble cousin,
        Harry Bolingbroke, doth humbly kiss thy hand,
        And by the honourable tomb he swears,
        That stands upon your royal grandsire's bones,
        And by the royalties of both your bloods,
        Currents that spring from one most gracious head,
        And by the buried hand of warlike Gaunt,
        And by the worth and honour of himself,
        Comprising all that may be sworn or said,
        His coming hither hath no further scope
        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 barbd steeds to stables, and his heart
        To faithful service of your majesty.
        This swears he, as he is a prince, is 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,
        And all the number of his fair demands
        Shall be accomplished without contradiction.
        With all the gracious utterance that thou hast
        Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends.
                         [NORTHUMBERLAND retires to BOLINGBROKE.

        [To AUMERLE.] We do debase ourselves, cousin, do 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,
        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
        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 to 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?
        The king shall be contented. Must he lose
        The name of king? A 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,
        My figured goblets for a dish of wood,
        My sceptre for a palmer's walking staff,
        My subjects for a pair of carvd saints,
        And my large kingdom for a little grave,
        A little little grave, an obscure grave;
        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?
        Aumerle, thou weep'st - my tender-hearted cousin!-
        We'll make foul weather with despisd 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 woes,
        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
        Two kinsmen digged their graves with weeping eyes!'
        Would not this ill do well? Well, well, I see
        I talk but idly and you laugh at me.
        Most mighty prince, my Lord Northumberland,
        What says King Bolingbroke? Will his majesty
        Give Richard leave to live till Richard die?
        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 Phaeton,
        Wanting the manage of unruly jades.
        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!
        For night-owls shriek where mounting larks should sing.
                                                    [Exeunt from above.
Bolingbroke        What says his majesty?

Northumberland                                Sorrow and grief of heart
        Makes him speak fondly like a frantic man;
        Yet he is come.

              Enter KING RICHARD and his ATTENDANTS, 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 knee
        To make the base earth proud with kissing it.
        Me rather had my heart might feel your love
        Than my unpleased eye see your courtesy.
        Up, cousin, up; your heart is up, I know,
        Thus high at least, although your knee be low.

Bolingbroke        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        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,
        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                            Then I must not say no.
                                                    [Flourish. Exeunt.