Richard II by William Shakespeare

Act 4 - Scene 1

Westminster Hall.

Bagot : Then set before my face the Lord Aumerle.

Bagot : My Lord Aumerle, I know your daring tongue [p]Scorns to unsay what
once it hath deliver'd. [p]In that dead time when Gloucester's death
was plotted, [p]I heard you say, 'Is not my arm of length, [p]That
reacheth from the restful English court [p]As far as Calais, to mine
uncle's head?' [p]Amongst much other talk, that very time, [p]I heard
you say that you had rather refuse [p]The offer of an hundred thousand
crowns [p]Than Bolingbroke's return to England; [p]Adding withal how
blest this land would be [p]In this your cousin's death.

Duke of Aumerle : Princes and noble lords, [p]What answer shall I make to this base
man? [p]Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars, [p]On equal terms to
give him chastisement? [p]Either I must, or have mine honour
soil'd [p]With the attainder of his slanderous lips. [p]There is my
gage, the manual seal of death, [p]That marks thee out for hell: I
say, thou liest, [p]And will maintain what thou hast said is
false [p]In thy heart-blood, though being all too base [p]To stain the
temper of my knightly sword.

Duke of Aumerle : Excepting one, I would he were the best [p]In all this presence that
hath moved me so.

Lord Fitzwater : If that thy valour stand on sympathy, [p]There is my gage, Aumerle, in
gage to thine: [p]By that fair sun which shows me where thou
stand'st, [p]I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spakest it [p]That
thou wert cause of noble Gloucester's death. [p]If thou deny'st it
twenty times, thou liest; [p]And I will turn thy falsehood to thy
heart, [p]Where it was forged, with my rapier's point.

Duke of Aumerle : Thou darest not, coward, live to see that day.

Lord Fitzwater : Now by my soul, I would it were this hour.

Duke of Aumerle : Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this.

Duke of Aumerle : An if I do not, may my hands rot off [p]And never brandish more
revengeful steel [p]Over the glittering helmet of my foe!

Lord : I task the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle; [p]And spur thee on
with full as many lies [p]As may be holloa'd in thy treacherous
ear [p]From sun to sun: there is my honour's pawn; [p]Engage it to the
trial, if thou darest.

Duke of Aumerle : Who sets me else? by heaven, I'll throw at all: [p]I have a thousand
spirits in one breast, [p]To answer twenty thousand such as you.

Duke of Surrey : My Lord Fitzwater, I do remember well [p]The very time Aumerle and you
did talk.

Lord Fitzwater : 'Tis very true: you were in presence then; [p]And you can witness with
me this is true.

Duke of Surrey : As false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true.

Lord Fitzwater : Surrey, thou liest.

Duke of Surrey : Dishonourable boy! [p]That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword, [p]That
it shall render vengeance and revenge [p]Till thou the lie-giver and
that lie do lie [p]In earth as quiet as thy father's skull: [p]In
proof whereof, there is my honour's pawn; [p]Engage it to the trial,
if thou darest.

Lord Fitzwater : How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse! [p]If I dare eat, or drink,
or breathe, or live, [p]I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness, [p]And
spit upon him, whilst I say he lies, [p]And lies, and lies: there is
my bond of faith, [p]To tie thee to my strong correction. [p]As I
intend to thrive in this new world, [p]Aumerle is guilty of my true
appeal: [p]Besides, I heard the banish'd Norfolk say [p]That thou,
Aumerle, didst send two of thy men [p]To execute the noble duke at
Calais.

Duke of Aumerle : Some honest Christian trust me with a gage [p]That Norfolk lies: here
do I throw down this, [p]If he may be repeal'd, to try his honour.

Bishop of Carlisle : That honourable day shall ne'er be seen. [p]Many a time hath banish'd
Norfolk fought [p]For Jesu Christ in glorious Christian
field, [p]Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross [p]Against black
pagans, Turks, and Saracens: [p]And toil'd with works of war, retired
himself [p]To Italy; and there at Venice gave [p]His body to that
pleasant country's earth, [p]And his pure soul unto his captain
Christ, [p]Under whose colours he had fought so long.

Bishop of Carlisle : As surely as I live, my lord.

Edmund of Langley : Great Duke of Lancaster, I come to thee [p]From plume-pluck'd Richard;
who with willing soul [p]Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre
yields [p]To the possession of thy royal hand: [p]Ascend his throne,
descending now from him; [p]And long live Henry, fourth of that name!

Bishop of Carlisle : Marry. God forbid! [p]Worst in this royal presence may I speak, [p]Yet
best beseeming me to speak the truth. [p]Would God that any in this
noble presence [p]Were enough noble to be upright judge [p]Of noble
Richard! then true noblesse would [p]Learn him forbearance from so
foul a wrong. [p]What subject can give sentence on his king? [p]And
who sits here that is not Richard's subject? [p]Thieves are not judged
but they are by to hear, [p]Although apparent guilt be seen in
them; [p]And shall the figure of God's majesty, [p]His captain,
steward, deputy-elect, [p]Anointed, crowned, planted many years, [p]Be
judged by subject and inferior breath, [p]And he himself not present?
O, forfend it, God, [p]That in a Christian climate souls
refined [p]Should show so heinous, black, obscene a deed! [p]I speak
to subjects, and a subject speaks, [p]Stirr'd up by God, thus boldly
for his king: [p]My Lord of Hereford here, whom you call king, [p]Is a
foul traitor to proud Hereford's king: [p]And if you crown him, let me
prophesy: [p]The blood of English shall manure the ground, [p]And
future ages groan for this foul act; [p]Peace shall go sleep with
Turks and infidels, [p]And in this seat of peace tumultuous
wars [p]Shall kin with kin and kind with kind confound; [p]Disorder,
horror, fear and mutiny [p]Shall here inhabit, and this land be
call'd [p]The field of Golgotha and dead men's skulls. [p]O, if you
raise this house against this house, [p]It will the woefullest
division prove [p]That ever fell upon this cursed earth. [p]Prevent
it, resist it, let it not be so, [p]Lest child, child's children, cry
against you woe!

Edmund of Langley : I will be his conduct.

King Richard II : Alack, why am I sent for to a king, [p]Before I have shook off the
regal thoughts [p]Wherewith I reign'd? I hardly yet have learn'd [p]To
insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my limbs: [p]Give sorrow leave
awhile to tutor me [p]To this submission. Yet I well remember [p]The
favours of these men: were they not mine? [p]Did they not sometime
cry, 'all hail!' to me? [p]So Judas did to Christ: but he, in
twelve, [p]Found truth in all but one: I, in twelve thousand,
none. [p]God save the king! Will no man say amen? [p]Am I both priest
and clerk? well then, amen. [p]God save the king! although I be not
he; [p]And yet, amen, if heaven do think him me. [p]To do what service
am I sent for hither?

Edmund of Langley : To do that office of thine own good will [p]Which tired majesty did
make thee offer, [p]The resignation of thy state and crown [p]To Henry
Bolingbroke.

King Richard II : Give me the crown. Here, cousin, seize the crown; [p]Here
cousin: [p]On this side my hand, and on that side yours. [p]Now is
this golden crown like a deep well [p]That owes two buckets, filling
one another, [p]The emptier ever dancing in the air, [p]The other
down, unseen and full of water: [p]That bucket down and full of tears
am I, [p]Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high.

King Richard II : My crown I am; but still my griefs are mine: [p]You may my glories and
my state depose, [p]But not my griefs; still am I king of those.

King Richard II : Your cares set up do not pluck my cares down. [p]My care is loss of
care, by old care done; [p]Your care is gain of care, by new care
won: [p]The cares I give I have, though given away; [p]They tend the
crown, yet still with me they stay.

King Richard II : Ay, no; no, ay; for I must nothing be; [p]Therefore no no, for I
resign to thee. [p]Now mark me, how I will undo myself; [p]I give this
heavy weight from off my head [p]And this unwieldy sceptre from my
hand, [p]The pride of kingly sway from out my heart; [p]With mine own
tears I wash away my balm, [p]With mine own hands I give away my
crown, [p]With mine own tongue deny my sacred state, [p]With mine own
breath release all duty's rites: [p]All pomp and majesty I do
forswear; [p]My manors, rents, revenues I forego; [p]My acts, decrees,
and statutes I deny: [p]God pardon all oaths that are broke to
me! [p]God keep all vows unbroke that swear to thee! [p]Make me, that
nothing have, with nothing grieved, [p]And thou with all pleased, that
hast all achieved! [p]Long mayst thou live in Richard's seat to
sit, [p]And soon lie Richard in an earthly pit! [p]God save King
Harry, unking'd Richard says, [p]And send him many years of sunshine
days! [p]What more remains?

King Richard II : Must I do so? and must I ravel out [p]My weaved-up folly? Gentle
Northumberland, [p]If thy offences were upon record, [p]Would it not
shame thee in so fair a troop [p]To read a lecture of them? If thou
wouldst, [p]There shouldst thou find one heinous
article, [p]Containing the deposing of a king [p]And cracking the
strong warrant of an oath, [p]Mark'd with a blot, damn'd in the book
of heaven: [p]Nay, all of you that stand and look upon, [p]Whilst that
my wretchedness doth bait myself, [p]Though some of you with Pilate
wash your hands [p]Showing an outward pity; yet you Pilates [p]Have
here deliver'd me to my sour cross, [p]And water cannot wash away your
sin.

King Richard II : Mine eyes are full of tears, I cannot see: [p]And yet salt water
blinds them not so much [p]But they can see a sort of traitors
here. [p]Nay, if I turn mine eyes upon myself, [p]I find myself a
traitor with the rest; [p]For I have given here my soul's
consent [p]To undeck the pompous body of a king; [p]Made glory base
and sovereignty a slave, [p]Proud majesty a subject, state a peasant.

King Richard II : No lord of thine, thou haught insulting man, [p]Nor no man's lord; I
have no name, no title, [p]No, not that name was given me at the
font, [p]But 'tis usurp'd: alack the heavy day, [p]That I have worn so
many winters out, [p]And know not now what name to call myself! [p]O
that I were a mockery king of snow, [p]Standing before the sun of
Bolingbroke, [p]To melt myself away in water-drops! [p]Good king,
great king, and yet not greatly good, [p]An if my word be sterling yet
in England, [p]Let it command a mirror hither straight, [p]That it may
show me what a face I have, [p]Since it is bankrupt of his majesty.

King Richard II : Fiend, thou torment'st me ere I come to hell!

King Richard II : They shall be satisfied: I'll read enough, [p]When I do see the very
book indeed [p]Where all my sins are writ, and that's
myself. [p][Re-enter Attendant, with a glass] [p]Give me the glass,
and therein will I read. [p]No deeper wrinkles yet? hath sorrow
struck [p]So many blows upon this face of mine, [p]And made no deeper
wounds? O flattering glass, [p]Like to my followers in
prosperity, [p]Thou dost beguile me! Was this face the face [p]That
every day under his household roof [p]Did keep ten thousand men? was
this the face [p]That, like the sun, did make beholders wink? [p]Was
this the face that faced so many follies, [p]And was at last out-faced
by Bolingbroke? [p]A brittle glory shineth in this face: [p]As brittle
as the glory is the face; [p][Dashes the glass against the
ground] [p]For there it is, crack'd in a hundred shivers. [p]Mark,
silent king, the moral of this sport, [p]How soon my sorrow hath
destroy'd my face.

King Richard II : Say that again. [p]The shadow of my sorrow! ha! let's see: [p]'Tis
very true, my grief lies all within; [p]And these external manners of
laments [p]Are merely shadows to the unseen grief [p]That swells with
silence in the tortured soul; [p]There lies the substance: and I thank
thee, king, [p]For thy great bounty, that not only givest [p]Me cause
to wail but teachest me the way [p]How to lament the cause. I'll beg
one boon, [p]And then be gone and trouble you no more. [p]Shall I
obtain it?

King Richard II : 'Fair cousin'? I am greater than a king: [p]For when I was a king, my
flatterers [p]Were then but subjects; being now a subject, [p]I have a
king here to my flatterer. [p]Being so great, I have no need to beg.

King Richard II : And shall I have?

King Richard II : Then give me leave to go.

King Richard II : Whither you will, so I were from your sights.

King Richard II : O, good! convey? conveyers are you all, [p]That rise thus nimbly by a
true king's fall.

Abbot : A woeful pageant have we here beheld.

Bishop of Carlisle : The woe's to come; the children yet unborn. [p]Shall feel this day as
sharp to them as thorn.

Duke of Aumerle : You holy clergymen, is there no plot [p]To rid the realm of this
pernicious blot?

Abbot : My lord, [p]Before I freely speak my mind herein, [p]You shall not
only take the sacrament [p]To bury mine intents, but also to
effect [p]Whatever I shall happen to devise. [p]I see your brows are
full of discontent, [p]Your hearts of sorrow and your eyes of
tears: [p]Come home with me to supper; and I'll lay [p]A plot shall
show us all a merry day.

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Next: Act 5 - Scene 1

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