Superfluous branches
    We lop away, that bearing68 boughs may live.
    Had he done so, himself had borne the crown69,
    Which waste and idle hours hath quite thrown down.

SERVANT    What, think you the king shall be deposed?

GARDENER    Depressed72 he is already, and deposed
    ’Tis doubted73 he will be. Letters came last night
    To a dear friend of the Duke of York’s,
    That tell black tidings.

QUEEN    O, I am pressed to death76 through want of speaking!

Comes forward

    Thou, old Adam77’s likeness, set to dress this garden,
    How dares thy harsh rude tongue sound this unpleasing news?
    What Eve, what serpent, hath suggested79 thee
    To make a second fall of cursèd man?
    Why dost thou say King Richard is deposed?
    Dar’st thou, thou little better thing than earth,
    Divine83 his downfall? Say, where, when, and how,
    Cam’st thou by this ill tidings? Speak, thou wretch.

GARDENER    Pardon me, madam. Little joy have I
    To breathe these news; yet what I say is true.
    King Richard, he is in the mighty hold87
    Of Bullingbrook. Their fortunes both are weighed:
    In your lord’s scale is nothing but himself,
    And some few vanities90 that make him light.
    But in the balance of great Bullingbrook,
    Besides himself, are all the English peers,
    And with that odds93 he weighs King Richard down.
    Post94 you to London, and you’ll find it so,
    I speak no more than everyone doth know.

QUEEN    Nimble mischance, that art so light of foot,
    Doth not thy embassage97 belong to me,
    And am I last that knows it? O, thou think’st
    To serve me last, that I may longest keep
    Thy sorrow in my breast. Come, ladies, go
    To meet at London London’s king in woe.
    What, was I born to this, that my sad look
    Should grace the triumph103 of great Bullingbrook?
    Gard’ner, for telling me this news of woe,
    I would the plants thou graft’st may never grow.

Exeunt

[Queen and Ladies]

GARDENER    Poor queen, so106 that thy state might be no worse,
    I would my skill were subject to thy curse.
    Here did she drop a tear. Here in this place
    I’ll set a bank of rue109, sour herb of grace.
    Rue, e’en for ruth110, here shortly shall be seen,
    In the remembrance of a weeping queen.

Exeunt

Act 4 Scene 1

running scene 13

Location: Westminster Hall, London

Enter, as to the Parliament, Bullingbrook, Aumerle, Northumberland, Percy, Fitzwaters, Surrey, Carlisle, Abbot of Westminister, Herald, Officers and Bagot

BULLINGBROOK    Call forth Bagot.—

Bagot is brought forward

    Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind,
    What thou dost know of noble Gloucester’s death,
    Who wrought4 it with the king, and who performed
    The bloody office5 of his timeless end.

BAGOT    Then set before my face the lord Aumerle.

BULLINGBROOK    Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that man.

To Aumerle

BAGOT    My lord Aumerle, I know your daring tongue
    Scorns to unsay9 what it hath once delivered.
    In that dead10 time when Gloucester’s death was plotted,
    I heard you say, ‘Is not my arm of length11,
    That reacheth from the restful English court
    As far as Calais, to my 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 crowns16
    Than17 Bullingbrook’s return to England;
    Adding withal18 how blest this land would be
    In this your cousin’s death.

AUMERLE    Princes and noble lords,
    What answer shall I make to this base21 man?
    Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars22,
    On equal terms to give him chastisement?23
    Either I must, or have mine honour soiled
    With th’attainder25 of his sland’rous lips.—

Throws down his gage

    There is my gage, the manual seal of death26
    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 temper30 of my knightly sword.

BULLINGBROOK    Bagot, forbear31. Thou shalt not take it up.

AUMERLE    Excepting one32, I would he were the best
    In all this presence that hath moved33 me so.

FITZWATERS    If that thy valour stand34 on sympathy,

To Aumerle

    There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage35 to thine.

Throws down his gage

    By that fair sun that shows me where thou stand’st,
    I heard thee say, and vauntingly37 thou spak’st it,
    That thou wert cause of noble Gloucester’s death.
    If thou deniest39 it twenty times, thou liest,
    And I will turn40 thy falsehood to thy heart,
    Where it was forgèd, with my rapier’s point.

AUMERLE    Thou dar’st not, coward, live to see the day.

FITZWATERS    Now by my soul, I would it were this hour.

AUMERLE    Fitzwaters, thou art damned to hell for this.

PERCY    Aumerle, thou liest: his honour is as true
    In this appeal46 as thou art all unjust.
    And that thou art so, there I throw my gage,
    To prove it on thee to th’extremest point

    Of mortal breathing48. Seize it, if thou dar’st.

Throws down his gage

AUMERLE    An if50 I do not, may my hands rot off

Picks up the gage

    And never brandish more51 revengeful steel
    Over the glittering helmet of my foe!

SURREY    My lord Fitzwaters, I do remember well
    The very time Aumerle and you did talk.

FITZWATERS    My lord, ’tis very true. You were in presence55 then
    And you can witness with me this is true.

SURREY    As false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true.

FITZWATERS    Surrey, thou liest.

SURREY    Dishonourable boy!
    That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword
    That it shall render61 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 mine honour’s pawn.

Throws down his gage

    Engage it to the trial65, if thou dar’st.

FITZWATERS    How fondly66 dost thou spur a forward horse!
    If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live,
    I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness68,
    And spit upon him, whilst I say he lies,
    And lies, and lies. There is my bond of faith,

Throws down his gage

    To tie71 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 banished Norfolk say
    That thou, Aumerle, didst send two of thy men
    To execute the noble duke at Calais.

AUMERLE    Some honest Christian trust me with a gage.

Borrows a gage, then throws it down

    That78 Norfolk lies, here do I throw down this,

    If he may be repealed79, to try his honour.

BULLINGBROOK    These differences80 shall all rest under gage
    Till Norfolk be repealed. Repealed he shall be,
    And, though mine enemy, restored again
    To all his lands and signories83. When he’s returned,
    Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial84.

CARLISLE    That honourable day shall ne’er be seen.
    Many a time hath banished Norfolk fought
    For Jesu Christ in glorious Christian field87,
    Streaming the ensign88 of the Christian cross
    Against black pagans, Turks and Saracens,
    And toiled90 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 colours94 he had fought so long.

BULLINGBROOK    Why, bishop, is Norfolk dead?

CARLISLE    As sure as I live, my lord.

BULLINGBROOK    Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bosom
    Of good old Abraham97! Lords appellants98,
    Your differences shall all rest under gage
    Till we assign you to your days of trial.

Enter York

YORK    Great Duke of Lancaster, I come to thee
    From plume-plucked102 Richard, who with willing soul
    Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields
    To the possession of thy royal hand.
    Ascend his throne, descending105 now from him,
    And long live Henry, of that name the fourth!

BULLINGBROOK    In God’s name, I’ll ascend the regal throne.

CARLISLE    Marry108, heaven forbid!
    Worst109 in this royal presence may I speak,
    Yet best beseeming110 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 noblesse113 would
    Learn114 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 by117 to hear,
    Although apparent118 guilt be seen in them.
    And shall the figure119 of God’s majesty,
    His captain, steward, deputy-elect,
    Anointed, crownèd, planted many years,
    Be judged by subject122 and inferior breath,
    And he himself not present? O, forbid it, God,
    That in a Christian climate souls refined
    Should show so heinous125, black, obscene a deed.
    I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks,
    Stirred up by heaven, 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 manure131 the ground,
    And future ages groan for his foul act.
    Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels,
    And in this seat of peace tumultuous wars
    Shall kin with kin and kind135 with kind confound.
    Disorder, horror, fear and mutiny
    Shall here inhabit, and this land be called
    The field138 of Golgotha and dead men’s skulls.
    O, if you rear this house139 against this house,
    It will the woefullest division prove
    That ever fell upon this cursèd earth.
    Prevent it, resist it, and 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’ suit148?

BULLINGBROOK    Fetch hither Richard, that in common view
    He may surrender150, so we shall proceed
    Without suspicion.

YORK    I will be his conduct152.

Exit

BULLINGBROOK    Lords, you that here are under our arrest,
    Procure your sureties154 for your days of answer.
    Little are we beholding155 to your love,
    And little looked for156 at your helping hands.

Enter Richard and York [with Officers bearing the regalia]

KING RICHARD    Alack, why am I sent for to a king,
    Before I have shook off the regal thoughts
    Wherewith I reigned? I hardly yet have learned
    To insinuate160, flatter, bow, and bend my knee.
    Give sorrow leave awhile to tutor me
    To this submission. Yet I well remember
    The favours163 of these men: were they not mine?
    Did they not sometime164 cry, ‘All hail!’ to me?
    So Judas did to Christ, but he in twelve165
    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 clerk168? Well then, amen.
    God save the king, although I be not he.
    And yet, amen, if heaven do think him me.
    To do what service171 am I sent for hither?

YORK    To do that office of thine own good will
    Which tired majesty173 did make thee offer:
    The resignation of thy state and crown
    To Henry Bullingbrook.

KING RICHARD    Give me the crown.— Here, cousin, seize176 the crown:

Takes the crown and offers it to Bullingbrook

    Here cousin, on this side my hand, on that side thine.
    Now is this golden crown like a deep well
    That owes179 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.

BULLINGBROOK    I thought you had been willing to resign.

KING RICHARD    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.

BULLINGBROOK    Part of your cares you give me with your crown.

KING RICHARD    Your cares set up do not pluck my cares down189.
    My care is loss of care, by old care done190:
    Your care is gain of care, by new care won.
    The cares I give I have, though given away,
    They tend193 the crown, yet still with me they stay.

BULLINGBROOK    Are you contented to resign the crown?

KING RICHARD    Ay195, no; no, ay, for I must nothing be:
    Therefore no ‘no’, for I resign to thee.
    Now mark me197 how I will undo myself:
    I give this heavy weight from off my head,

Bullingbrook accepts crown

    And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand,

Bullingbrook accepts sceptre

    The pride of kingly sway200 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 duteous oaths204.
    All pomp and majesty I do forswear205:
    My manors, rents, revenues I forgo:
    My acts, decrees, and statutes I deny.
    God pardon all oaths that are broke to me,
    God keep all vows unbroke are made to thee.
    Make me, that nothing have, with nothing grieved210,
    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 earthy pit!
    ‘God save King Henry’, unkinged Richard says,
    ‘And send him many years of sunshine days!’ —
    What more remains?

NORTHUMBERLAND    No more, but that you read

Gives a paper

    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    Must I do so? And must I ravel out223
    My weaved-up follies? Gentle224 Northumberland,
    If thy offences were upon record,
    Would it not shame thee in so fair a troop226
    To read a lecture227 of them? If thou wouldst,
    There shouldst thou find one heinous article228,
    Containing the deposing of a king
    And cracking the strong warrant230 of an oath,
    Marked with a blot, damned in the book of heaven.
    Nay, all of you that stand and look upon me,
    Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait233 myself,
    Though some of you with Pilate234 wash your hands
    Showing an outward pity, yet you Pilates
    Have here delivered me to my sour236 cross,
    And water cannot wash away your sin.

NORTHUMBERLAND    My lord, dispatch238. Read o’er these articles.

KING RICHARD    Mine eyes are full of tears, I cannot see.
    And yet salt water blinds them not so much
    But they can see a sort241 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
    T’undeck245 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    No lord of thine, thou haught249 insulting man,
    No, nor no man’s lord.— I have no name, no title;
    No, not that name was given me at the font251,
    But  ’tis usurped. 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 mockery255 king of snow,
    Standing before the sun of Bullingbrook,
    To melt myself away in water-drops!
    Good king, great king — and yet not greatly good —
    An if259 my word be sterling yet in England,
    Let it command a mirror hither straight,
    That it may show me what261 a face I have,
    Since it is bankrupt of his262 majesty.

BULLINGBROOK    Go some263 of you and fetch a looking-glass.

[Exit an Attendant]

NORTHUMBERLAND    Read o’er this paper while the glass doth come.

KING RICHARD    Fiend, thou torments me ere I come to hell!

BULLINGBROOK    Urge it no more, my lord Northumberland.

NORTHUMBERLAND    The commons will not then be satisfied.

KING RICHARD    They shall be satisfied. I’ll read enough,
    When I do see the very book indeed
    Where all my sins are writ, and that’s myself.

Enter one, with a glass

    Give me that glass, and therein will I read.

Takes the mirror

    No deeper wrinkles yet? Hath sorrow struck
    So many blows upon this face of mine,
    And made no deeper wounds? O flatt’ring glass,
    Like to my followers in prosperity,
    Thou dost beguile276 me! Was this face the face
    That every day under his household roof
    Did keep278 ten thousand men? Was this the face
    That like the sun did make beholders wink279?
    Is this the face which faced280 so many follies,
    That was at last out-faced281 by Bullingbrook?
    A brittle glory shineth in this face,
    As brittle as the glory is the face.

Throws the mirror down against the ground

    For there it is, cracked in an hundred shivers284.

    Mark, silent king, the moral285 of this sport,
    How soon my sorrow hath destroyed my face.

BULLINGBROOK    The shadow287 of your sorrow hath destroyed
    The shadow of your face.

KING RICHARD    Say that again.
    The shadow of my sorrow? Ha? Let’s see,
    ’Tis very true, my grief lies all within,
    And these external manner292 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 giv’st
    Me cause to wail, but teachest me the way
    How to lament the cause. I’ll beg one boon298,
    And then be gone and trouble you no more.
    Shall I obtain it?

BULLINGBROOK    Name it, fair cousin.

KING RICHARD    ‘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 to305 my flatterer.
    Being so great, I have no need to beg.

BULLINGBROOK    Yet ask.

KING RICHARD    And shall I have?

BULLINGBROOK    You shall.

KING RICHARD    Then give me leave to go.

BULLINGBROOK    Whither?

KING RICHARD    Whither you will, so I were from your sights.

BULLINGBROOK    Go, some of you convey313 him to the Tower.

KING RICHARD    O, good! ‘Convey’? Conveyers are you all,
    That rise thus nimbly by a true king’s fall.

[Exeunt Richard, some Lords and a Guard]

BULLINGBROOK    On Wednesday next we solemnly set down316
    Our coronation. Lords, prepare yourselves.

Exeunt [all except Carlisle, the Abbot and Aumerle]

ABBOT    A woeful pageant have we here beheld.

CARLISLE    The woe’s to come. The children yet unborn
    Shall feel this day as sharp to them as thorn.

AUMERLE    You holy clergymen, is there no plot
    To rid the realm of this pernicious322 blot?

ABBOT    Before I freely speak my mind herein,
    You shall not only take the sacrament324
    To bury325 mine intents, but also to effect
    Whatever I shall happen to devise.
    I see your brows are full of discontent,
    Your heart of sorrow and your eyes of tears.
    Come home with me to supper. I’ll lay
    A plot shall show us all a merry day.

Exeunt

Act 5 Scene 1

running scene 14

Location: London, near the Tower

Enter Queen and Ladies

QUEEN    This way the king will come. This is the way
    To Julius Caesar’s2 ill-erected tower,
    To whose flint3 bosom my condemnèd lord
    Is doomed4 a prisoner by proud Bullingbrook.
    Here let us rest, if this rebellious earth
    Have any resting for her true king’s queen.

Enter Richard and Guard

    But soft, but see, or rather do not see,
    My fair rose wither. Yet look up, behold,
    That you in pity may dissolve to dew,
    And wash him fresh again with true-love tears.
    Ah, thou, the model11 where old Troy did stand,
    Thou map12 of honour, thou King Richard’s tomb,
    And not King Richard. Thou most beauteous inn13,
    Why should hard-favoured14 grief be lodged in thee,
    When triumph is become an ale-house15 guest?

KING RICHARD    Join not with grief, fair woman, do not so,
    To make my end too sudden. Learn, good soul,
    To think our former state18 a happy dream;
    From which awaked, the truth of what we are
    Shows us but this. I am sworn brother20, sweet,
    To grim Necessity, and he and I
    Will keep a league22 till death. Hie thee to France
    And cloister23 thee in some religious house.
    Our holy lives must win a new world’s24 crown,
    Which our profane hours here have stricken down.

QUEEN    What, is my Richard both in shape26 and mind
    Transformed and weakened? Hath Bullingbrook deposed
    Thine intellect? Hath he been in thy heart?
    The lion dying thrusteth forth his paw,
    And wounds the earth, if nothing else, with rage
    To be31 o’erpowered. And wilt thou, pupil-like,
    Take thy correction mildly, kiss the rod32,
    And fawn on rage with base humility,
    Which art a lion and a king of beasts?

KING RICHARD    A king of beasts35, indeed. If aught but beasts,
    I had been still36 a happy king of men.
    Good sometime37 queen, prepare thee hence for France:
    Think I am dead and that even here thou tak’st,
    As from my death-bed, thy last living leave.
    In winter’s tedious nights sit by the fire
    With good old folks and let them tell thee tales
    Of woeful ages long ago betid42.
    And ere thou bid good night, to quit43 their grief,
    Tell thou the lamentable fall of me
    And send the hearers weeping to their beds.
    For why46 the senseless brands will sympathize
    The heavy accent47 of thy moving tongue
    And in compassion weep48 the fire out,
    And some49 will mourn in ashes, some coal-black,
    For the deposing of a rightful king.

Enter Northumberland [and others]

NORTHUMBERLAND    My lord, the mind of Bullingbrook is changed.
    You must to Pomfret52, not unto the Tower.—
    And, madam, there is order ta’en53 for you:

To the Queen

    With all swift speed you must away to France.

KING RICHARD    Northumberland, thou ladder wherewithal55
    The mounting Bullingbrook ascends my throne,
    The time shall not be many hours of age57
    More than it is ere foul sin, gathering head58,
    Shall break into corruption59.