Richard II by William Shakespeare
Act 1 - Scene 3
The lists at Coventry.
King Richard II : Uncle, even in the glasses of thine eyes
[p]I see thy grieved heart:
thy sad aspect
[p]Hath from the number of his banish'd
years
[p]Pluck'd four away.
[p][To HENRY BOLINGBROKE]
[p]Six frozen
winter spent,
[p]Return with welcome home from banishment.
John of Gaunt : I thank my liege, that in regard of me
[p]He shortens four years of my
son's exile:
[p]But little vantage shall I reap thereby;
[p]For, ere
the six years that he hath to spend
[p]Can change their moons and
bring their times about
[p]My oil-dried lamp and time-bewasted
light
[p]Shall be extinct with age and endless night;
[p]My inch of
taper will be burnt and done,
[p]And blindfold death not let me see my
son.
King Richard II : Why uncle, thou hast many years to live.
John of Gaunt : But not a minute, king, that thou canst give:
[p]Shorten my days thou
canst with sullen sorrow,
[p]And pluck nights from me, but not lend a
morrow;
[p]Thou canst help time to furrow me with age,
[p]But stop no
wrinkle in his pilgrimage;
[p]Thy word is current with him for my
death,
[p]But dead, thy kingdom cannot buy my breath.
King Richard II : Thy son is banish'd upon good advice,
[p]Whereto thy tongue a
party-verdict gave:
[p]Why at our justice seem'st thou then to lour?
John of Gaunt : Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour.
[p]You urged me as a
judge; but I had rather
[p]You would have bid me argue like a
father.
[p]O, had it been a stranger, not my child,
[p]To smooth his
fault I should have been more mild:
[p]A partial slander sought I to
avoid,
[p]And in the sentence my own life destroy'd.
[p]Alas, I look'd
when some of you should say,
[p]I was too strict to make mine own
away;
[p]But you gave leave to my unwilling tongue
[p]Against my will
to do myself this wrong.
King Richard II : Cousin, farewell; and, uncle, bid him so:
[p]Six years we banish him,
and he shall go.
Duke of Aumerle : Cousin, farewell: what presence must not know,
[p]From where you do
remain let paper show.
Lord Marshal : My lord, no leave take I; for I will ride,
[p]As far as land will let
me, by your side.
John of Gaunt : O, to what purpose dost thou hoard thy words,
[p]That thou return'st
no greeting to thy friends?
John of Gaunt : Thy grief is but thy absence for a time.
John of Gaunt : What is six winters? they are quickly gone.
John of Gaunt : Call it a travel that thou takest for pleasure.
John of Gaunt : The sullen passage of thy weary steps
[p]Esteem as foil wherein thou
art to set
[p]The precious jewel of thy home return.
John of Gaunt : All places that the eye of heaven visits
[p]Are to a wise man ports
and happy havens.
[p]Teach thy necessity to reason thus;
[p]There is
no virtue like necessity.
[p]Think not the king did banish
thee,
[p]But thou the king. Woe doth the heavier sit,
[p]Where it
perceives it is but faintly borne.
[p]Go, say I sent thee forth to
purchase honour
[p]And not the king exiled thee; or
suppose
[p]Devouring pestilence hangs in our air
[p]And thou art
flying to a fresher clime:
[p]Look, what thy soul holds dear, imagine
it
[p]To lie that way thou go'st, not whence thou comest:
[p]Suppose
the singing birds musicians,
[p]The grass whereon thou tread'st the
presence strew'd,
[p]The flowers fair ladies, and thy steps no
more
[p]Than a delightful measure or a dance;
[p]For gnarling sorrow
hath less power to bite
[p]The man that mocks at it and sets it
light.
John of Gaunt : Come, come, my son, I'll bring thee on thy way:
[p]Had I thy youth and
cause, I would not stay.
Lord Marshal : My Lord Aumerle, is Harry Hereford arm'd?
Duke of Aumerle : Yea, at all points; and longs to enter in.
Lord Marshal : The Duke of Norfolk, sprightfully and bold,
[p]Stays but the summons
of the appellant's trumpet.
Duke of Aumerle : Why, then, the champions are prepared, and stay
[p]For nothing but his
majesty's approach.
[p][The trumpets sound, and KING RICHARD enters
with]
[p]his nobles, JOHN OF GAUNT, BUSHY, BAGOT, GREEN,
and
[p]others. When they are set, enter THOMAS MOWBRAY in
[p]arms,
defendant, with a Herald]
King Richard II : Marshal, demand of yonder champion
[p]The cause of his arrival here in
arms:
[p]Ask him his name and orderly proceed
[p]To swear him in the
justice of his cause.
Lord Marshal : In God's name and the king's, say who thou art
[p]And why thou comest
thus knightly clad in arms,
[p]Against what man thou comest, and what
thy quarrel:
[p]Speak truly, on thy knighthood and thy oath;
[p]As so
defend thee heaven and thy valour!
Thomas Mowbray : My name is Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk;
[p]Who hither come engaged
by my oath--
[p]Which God defend a knight should violate!--
[p]Both to
defend my loyalty and truth
[p]To God, my king and my succeeding
issue,
[p]Against the Duke of Hereford that appeals me
[p]And, by the
grace of God and this mine arm,
[p]To prove him, in defending of
myself,
[p]A traitor to my God, my king, and me:
[p]And as I truly
fight, defend me heaven!
[p][The trumpets sound. Enter HENRY
BOLINGBROKE,]
[p]appellant, in armour, with a Herald]
King Richard II : Marshal, ask yonder knight in arms,
[p]Both who he is and why he
cometh hither
[p]Thus plated in habiliments of war,
[p]And formally,
according to our law,
[p]Depose him in the justice of his cause.
Lord Marshal : What is thy name? and wherefore comest thou hither,
[p]Before King
Richard in his royal lists?
[p]Against whom comest thou? and what's
thy quarrel?
[p]Speak like a true knight, so defend thee heaven!
Lord Marshal : On pain of death, no person be so bold
[p]Or daring-hardy as to touch
the lists,
[p]Except the marshal and such officers
[p]Appointed to
direct these fair designs.
Lord Marshal : The appellant in all duty greets your highness,
[p]And craves to kiss
your hand and take his leave.
King Richard II : We will descend and fold him in our arms.
[p]Cousin of Hereford, as
thy cause is right,
[p]So be thy fortune in this royal
fight!
[p]Farewell, my blood; which if to-day thou shed,
[p]Lament we
may, but not revenge thee dead.
John of Gaunt : God in thy good cause make thee prosperous!
[p]Be swift like lightning
in the execution;
[p]And let thy blows, doubly redoubled,
[p]Fall like
amazing thunder on the casque
[p]Of thy adverse pernicious
enemy:
[p]Rouse up thy youthful blood, be valiant and live.
Thomas Mowbray : However God or fortune cast my lot,
[p]There lives or dies, true to
King Richard's throne,
[p]A loyal, just and upright
gentleman:
[p]Never did captive with a freer heart
[p]Cast off his
chains of bondage and embrace
[p]His golden uncontroll'd
enfranchisement,
[p]More than my dancing soul doth celebrate
[p]This
feast of battle with mine adversary.
[p]Most mighty liege, and my
companion peers,
[p]Take from my mouth the wish of happy years:
[p]As
gentle and as jocund as to jest
[p]Go I to fight: truth hath a quiet
breast.
King Richard II : Farewell, my lord: securely I espy
[p]Virtue with valour couched in
thine eye.
[p]Order the trial, marshal, and begin.
Lord Marshal : Harry of Hereford, Lancaster and Derby,
[p]Receive thy lance; and God
defend the right!
Lord Marshal : Go bear this lance to Thomas, Duke of Norfolk.
First Herald : Harry of Hereford, Lancaster and Derby,
[p]Stands here for God, his
sovereign and himself,
[p]On pain to be found false and
recreant,
[p]To prove the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray,
[p]A
traitor to his God, his king and him;
[p]And dares him to set forward
to the fight.
Second Herald : Here standeth Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk,
[p]On pain to be found
false and recreant,
[p]Both to defend himself and to approve
[p]Henry
of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
[p]To God, his sovereign and to him
disloyal;
[p]Courageously and with a free desire
[p]Attending but the
signal to begin.
Lord Marshal : Sound, trumpets; and set forward, combatants.
[p][A charge
sounded]
[p]Stay, the king hath thrown his warder down.
King Richard II : Let them lay by their helmets and their spears,
[p]And both return
back to their chairs again:
[p]Withdraw with us: and let the trumpets
sound
[p]While we return these dukes what we decree.
[p][A long
flourish]
[p]Draw near,
[p]And list what with our council we have
done.
[p]For that our kingdom's earth should not be soil'd
[p]With
that dear blood which it hath fostered;
[p]And for our eyes do hate
the dire aspect
[p]Of civil wounds plough'd up with neighbours'
sword;
[p]And for we think the eagle-winged pride
[p]Of sky-aspiring
and ambitious thoughts,
[p]With rival-hating envy, set on you
[p]To
wake our peace, which in our country's cradle
[p]Draws the sweet
infant breath of gentle sleep;
[p]Which so roused up with boisterous
untuned drums,
[p]With harsh resounding trumpets' dreadful
bray,
[p]And grating shock of wrathful iron arms,
[p]Might from our
quiet confines fright fair peace
[p]And make us wade even in our
kindred's blood,
[p]Therefore, we banish you our territories:
[p]You,
cousin Hereford, upon pain of life,
[p]Till twice five summers have
enrich'd our fields
[p]Shall not regreet our fair dominions,
[p]But
tread the stranger paths of banishment.
King Richard II : Norfolk, for thee remains a heavier doom,
[p]Which I with some
unwillingness pronounce:
[p]The sly slow hours shall not
determinate
[p]The dateless limit of thy dear exile;
[p]The hopeless
word of 'never to return'
[p]Breathe I against thee, upon pain of
life.
Thomas Mowbray : A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege,
[p]And all unlook'd for
from your highness' mouth:
[p]A dearer merit, not so deep a maim
[p]As
to be cast forth in the common air,
[p]Have I deserved at your
highness' hands.
[p]The language I have learn'd these forty
years,
[p]My native English, now I must forego:
[p]And now my tongue's
use is to me no more
[p]Than an unstringed viol or a harp,
[p]Or like
a cunning instrument cased up,
[p]Or, being open, put into his
hands
[p]That knows no touch to tune the harmony:
[p]Within my mouth
you have engaol'd my tongue,
[p]Doubly portcullis'd with my teeth and
lips;
[p]And dull unfeeling barren ignorance
[p]Is made my gaoler to
attend on me.
[p]I am too old to fawn upon a nurse,
[p]Too far in
years to be a pupil now:
[p]What is thy sentence then but speechless
death,
[p]Which robs my tongue from breathing native breath?
King Richard II : It boots thee not to be compassionate:
[p]After our sentence plaining
comes too late.
Thomas Mowbray : Then thus I turn me from my country's light,
[p]To dwell in solemn
shades of endless night.
King Richard II : Return again, and take an oath with thee.
[p]Lay on our royal sword
your banish'd hands;
[p]Swear by the duty that you owe to God--
[p]Our
part therein we banish with yourselves--
[p]To keep the oath that we
administer:
[p]You never shall, so help you truth and God!
[p]Embrace
each other's love in banishment;
[p]Nor never look upon each other's
face;
[p]Nor never write, regreet, nor reconcile
[p]This louring
tempest of your home-bred hate;
[p]Nor never by advised purpose
meet
[p]To plot, contrive, or complot any ill
[p]'Gainst us, our
state, our subjects, or our land.
Thomas Mowbray : And I, to keep all this.
Thomas Mowbray : No, Bolingbroke: if ever I were traitor,
[p]My name be blotted from
the book of life,
[p]And I from heaven banish'd as from hence!
[p]But
what thou art, God, thou, and I do know;
[p]And all too soon, I fear,
the king shall rue.
[p]Farewell, my liege. Now no way can I
stray;
[p]Save back to England, all the world's my way.
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Next: Act 1 - Scene 4
