The other down,
unseen, and full of water.
That
bucket down and fun of tears am I,
Drinking my griefs,
whilst you mount up on high.
BOLINGBROKE. 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.
BOLINGBROKE. Part of your cares you give me with your crown.
KING RICHARD. 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.
BOLINGBROKE. Are you
contented to
resign the crown?
KING RICHARD. 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
breathrelease all duteous oaths;
All pomp and
majesty I do forswear;
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 griev'd,
And thou with all pleas'd, that hast an achiev'd.
Long mayst thou live in Richard's seat to sit,
And soon lie Richard in an
earthly pit.
God save King Henry, 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 depos'd.
KING RICHARD. Must I do so? And must I ravel out
My weav'd-up follies? 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 me
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. 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
T'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. No lord of thine, thou haught insulting man,
Nor no man's lord; I have no name, no tide-
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.
BOLINGBROKE. Go some of you and fetch a looking-glass.
Exit an
attendantNORTHUMBERLAND. Read o'er this paper while the glass doth come.
KING RICHARD. Fiend, thou torments me ere I come to hell.
BOLINGBROKE. 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.
Re-enter
attendant with glass
Give me that glass, and
therein will I read.
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
beguile me! Was this face the face
That every day under his household roof
Did keep ten thousand men? Was this the face
That like the sun did make beholders wink?
Is this the face which fac'd so many follies
That was at last out-fac'd by Bolingbroke?
A brittle glory shineth in this face;
As brittle as the glory is the face;
[Dashes the glass against the ground]
For there it is, crack'd in a hundred shivers.
Mark, silent king, the moral of this sport-
How soon my sorrow hath destroy'd my face.
BOLINGBROKE. The shadow of your sorrow hath destroy'd
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 manner of
laments
Are merely shadows to the
unseen grief
That swells with silence in the tortur'd 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 boon,
And then be gone and trouble you no more.
Shall I
obtain it?
BOLINGBROKE. 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 to my flatterer.
Being so great, I have no need to beg.
BOLINGBROKE. Yet ask.
KING RICHARD. And shall I have?
BOLINGBROKE. You shall.
KING RICHARD. Then give me leave to go.
BOLINGBROKE. W
hither?
KING RICHARD. W
hither you will, so I were from your sights.
BOLINGBROKE. Go, some of you
convey him to the Tower.
KING RICHARD. O, good! Convey! Conveyers are you all,
That rise thus nimbly by a true king's fall.
Exeunt KING RICHARD, some Lords and a Guard
BOLINGBROKE. On Wednesday next we
solemnly set down
Our
coronation. Lords, prepare yourselves.
Exeunt all but the ABBOT OF WESTMINSTER, the
BISHOP OF CARLISLE, 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
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; I will lay
A plot shall show us all a merry day. Exeunt
ACT V. SCENE 1.
London. A street leading to the Tower
Enter the QUEEN, with her
attendants
QUEEN. This way the King will come; this is the way
To Julius Caesar's ill-erected tower,
To whose flint bosom my condemned lord
Is doom'd a prisoner by proud Bolingbroke.
Here let us rest, if this
rebellious earth
Have any resting for her true King's queen.
Enter KING 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 model where old Troy did stand;
Thou map of honour, thou King Richard's tomb,
And not King Richard; thou most
beauteous inn,
Why should hard-favour'd grief be lodg'd in thee,
When
triumph is become an alehouse 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 state a happy dream;
From which awak'd, the truth of what we are
Shows us but this: I am sworn brother, sweet,
To grim Necessity; and he and
Will keep a
league till death. Hie thee to France,
And
cloister thee in some religious house.
Our holy lives must win a new world's crown,
Which our
profane hours here have thrown down.
QUEEN. What, is my Richard both in shape and mind
Transform'd and weak'ned? Hath Bolingbroke depos'd
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 be o'erpow'r'd; and wilt thou, pupil-like,
Take the
correctionmildly, kiss the rod,
And fawn on rage with base humility,
Which art a lion and the king of beasts?
KING RICHARD. A king of beasts, indeed! If aught but beasts,
I had been still a happy king of men.
Good sometimes queen, prepare thee hence for France.
Think I am dead, and that even here thou takest,
As from my death-bed, thy last living leave.