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King Richard II: Act IV, Scene 1

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King Richard II
Act IV, Scene 1

Scene 1

Westminster Hall.

  1. Enter Bullingbrook with the Lords Aumerle, Northumberland,
  2. Percy, Fitzwater, Surrey, the Bishop of Carlisle, the Abbot
  3. of Westminster, and another Lord to parliament; Herald.

Bullingbrook

1 - 5
  1. Call forth Bagot.
  2. Enter Officers with Bagot.
  3. Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind,
  4. What thou dost know of noble Gloucester’s death,
  5. Who wrought it with the King, and who perform’d
  6. The bloody office of his timeless end.

Bagot

6
  1. Then set before my face the Lord Aumerle.

Bullingbrook

7
  1. Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that man.

Bagot

8 - 19
  1. My Lord Aumerle, I know your daring tongue
  2. Scorns to unsay what once it hath delivered.
  3. In that dead time when Gloucester’s death was plotted,
  4. I heard you say, “Is not my arm of length,
  5. That reacheth from the restful English court
  6. As far as Callice, to mine uncle’s head?”
  7. Amongst much other talk, that very time,
  8. I heard you say that you had rather refuse
  9. The offer of an hundred thousand crowns
  10. Than Bullingbrook’s return to England,
  11. Adding withal, how blest this land would be
  12. In this your cousin’s death.

Aumerle

20 - 30
  1.                              Princes and noble lords,
  2. What answer shall I make to this base man?
  3. Shall I so much dishonor my fair stars
  4. On equal terms to give him chastisement?
  5. Either I must, or have mine honor soil’d
  6. With the attainder of his slanderous lips.
  7. There is my gage, the manual seal of death,
  8. That marks thee out for hell. I say thou liest,
  9. And will maintain what thou hast said is false
  10. In thy heart-blood, though being all too base
  11. To stain the temper of my knightly sword.

Bullingbrook

31
  1. Bagot, forbear, thou shalt not take it up.

Aumerle

32 - 33
  1. Excepting one, I would he were the best
  2. In all this presence that hath mov’d me so.

Fitzwater

34 - 41
  1. If that thy valor stand on sympathy,
  2. There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine.
  3. By that fair sun which shows me where thou stand’st,
  4. I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spak’st it,
  5. That thou wert cause of noble Gloucester’s death.
  6. If thou deniest it twenty times, thou liest,
  7. And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart,
  8. Where it was forged, with my rapier’s point.

Aumerle

42
  1. Thou dar’st not, coward, live to see that day.

Fitzwater

43
  1. Now by my soul, I would it were this hour.

Aumerle

44
  1. Fitzwater, thou art damn’d to hell for this.

Percy

45 - 49
  1. Aumerle, thou liest, his honor is as true
  2. In this appeal as thou art all unjust,
  3. And that thou art so, there I throw my gage,
  4. To prove it on thee to the extremest point
  5. Of mortal breathing. Seize it, if thou dar’st.

Aumerle

50 - 52
  1. And if I do not, may my hands rot off,
  2. And never brandish more revengeful steel
  3. Over the glittering helmet of my foe!

Another Lord

53 - 57
  1. I task the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle,
  2. And spur thee on with full as many lies
  3. As may be hollowed in thy treacherous ear
  4. From sun to sun. There is my honor’s pawn,
  5. Engage it to the trial, if thou darest.

Aumerle

58 - 60
  1. Who sets me else? By heaven, I’ll throw at all!
  2. I have a thousand spirits in one breast,
  3. To answer twenty thousand such as you.

Surrey

61 - 62
  1. My Lord Fitzwater, I do remember well
  2. The very time Aumerle and you did talk.

Fitzwater

63 - 64
  1. ’Tis very true, you were in presence then,
  2. And you can witness with me this is true.

Surrey

65
  1. As false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true.

Fitzwater

66
  1. Surrey, thou liest.

Surrey

67 - 73
  1.                     Dishonorable boy!
  2. That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword,
  3. That it shall render vengeance and revenge
  4. Till thou the lie-giver and that lie do lie
  5. In earth as quiet as thy father’s skull;
  6. In proof whereof, there is my honor’s pawn,
  7. Engage it to the trial, if thou dar’st.
Parliament Scene

Parliament Scene

Prompt book from production of Richard II at Covent Garden

Thomas Cotes, 1632

Fitzwater

74 - 84
  1. How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse!
  2. If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live,
  3. I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness,
  4. And spit upon him whilst I say he lies,
  5. And lies, and lies. There is my bond of faith,
  6. To tie thee to my strong correction.
  7. As I intend to thrive in this new world,
  8. Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal;
  9. Besides, I heard the banished Norfolk say
  10. That thou, Aumerle, didst send two of thy men
  11. To execute the noble Duke at Callice.

Aumerle

85 - 87
  1. Some honest Christian trust me with a gage—
  2. That Norfolk lies, here do I throw down this,
  3. If he may be repeal’d to try his honor.

Bullingbrook

88 - 92
  1. These differences shall all rest under gage
  2. Till Norfolk be repeal’d. Repeal’d he shall be,
  3. And though mine enemy, restor’d again
  4. To all his lands and signories. When he is return’d,
  5. Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial.

Bishop of Carlisle

93 - 102
  1. That honorable day shall never be seen.
  2. Many a time hath banish’d Norfolk fought
  3. For Jesu Christ in glorious Christian field,
  4. Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross
  5. Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens,
  6. And toil’d with works of war, retir’d himself
  7. To Italy, and there at Venice gave
  8. His body to that pleasant country’s earth,
  9. And his pure soul unto his captain Christ,
  10. Under whose colors he had fought so long.

Bullingbrook

103
  1. Why, Bishop, is Norfolk dead?

Bishop of Carlisle

104
  1. As surely as I live, my lord.

Bullingbrook

105 - 108
  1. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bosom
  2. Of good old Abraham! Lords appellants,
  3. Your differences shall all rest under gage
  4. Till we assign you to your days of trial.
  1. Enter York attended.

York

109 - 114
  1. Great Duke of Lancaster, I come to thee
  2. From plume-pluck’d Richard, who with willing soul
  3. Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields
  4. To the possession of thy royal hand.
  5. Ascend his throne, descending now from him,
  6. And long live Henry, fourth of that name!

Bullingbrook

115
  1. In God’s name I’ll ascend the regal throne.

Bishop of Carlisle

116 - 151
  1. Marry, God forbid!
  2. Worst in this royal presence may I speak,
  3. Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth.
  4. Would God that any in this noble presence
  5. Were enough noble to be upright judge
  6. Of noble Richard! Then true noblesse would
  7. Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.
  8. What subject can give sentence on his king?
  9. And who sits here that is not Richard’s subject?
  10. Thieves are not judg’d but they are by to hear,
  11. Although apparent guilt be seen in them,
  12. And shall the figure of God’s majesty,
  13. His captain, steward, deputy, elect,
  14. Anointed, crowned, planted many years,
  15. Be judg’d by subject and inferior breath,
  16. And he himself not present? O, forfend it, God,
  17. That in a Christian climate souls refin’d
  18. Should show so heinous, black, obscene a deed!
  19. I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks,
  20. Stirr’d up by God, thus boldly for his king.
  21. My Lord of Herford here, whom you call king,
  22. Is a foul traitor to proud Herford’s king,
  23. And if you crown him, let me prophesy,
  24. The blood of English shall manure the ground,
  25. And future ages groan for this foul act.
  26. Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels,
  27. And in this seat of peace tumultuous wars
  28. Shall kin with kin and kind with kind confound.
  29. Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny
  30. Shall here inhabit, and this land be call’d
  31. The field of Golgotha and dead men’s skulls.
  32. O, if you raise this house against this house,
  33. It will the woefullest division prove
  34. That ever fell upon this cursed earth.
  35. Prevent it, resist it, let it not be so,
  36. Lest child, child’s children, cry against you “woe!”
Lord Fitzwater and another nobleman

Lord Fitzwater and another nobleman

19th century

Northumberland

152 - 156
  1. Well have you argued, sir, and, for your pains,
  2. Of capital treason we arrest you here.
  3. My Lord of Westminster, be it your charge
  4. To keep him safely till his day of trial.
  5. May it please you, lords, to grant the commons’ suit?

Bullingbrook

157 - 159
  1. Fetch hither Richard, that in common view
  2. He may surrender; so we shall proceed
  3. Without suspicion.

York

160
  1.                    I will be his conduct.
  1. Exit.

Bullingbrook

161 - 164
  1. Lords, you that here are under our arrest,
  2. Procure your sureties for your days of answer.
  3. Little are we beholding to your love,
  4. And little look’d for at your helping hands.
  1. Enter Richard and York with Officers bearing the crown and
  2. sceptre.

King Richard II

165 - 179
  1. Alack, why am I sent for to a king
  2. Before I have shook off the regal thoughts
  3. Wherewith I reign’d? I hardly yet have learn’d
  4. To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my knee.
  5. Give sorrow leave a while to tutor me
  6. To this submission. Yet I well remember
  7. The favors of these men. Were they not mine?
  8. Did they not sometimes cry “All hail!” to me?
  9. So Judas did to Christ; but He, in twelve,
  10. Found truth in all but one; I, in twelve thousand, none.
  11. God save the King! Will no man say amen?
  12. Am I both priest and clerk? Well then, amen.
  13. God save the King! Although I be not he,
  14. And yet amen, if heaven do think him me.
  15. To do what service am I sent for hither?

York

180 - 183
  1. To do that office of thine own good will
  2. Which tired majesty did make thee offer:
  3. The resignation of thy state and crown
  4. To Henry Bullingbrook.

King Richard II

184 - 192
  1. Give me the crown. Here, cousin, seize the crown;
  2. Here, cousin,
  3. On this side my hand, and on that side thine.
  4. Now is this golden crown like a deep well
  5. That owes two buckets, filling one another,
  6. The emptier ever dancing in the air,
  7. The other down, unseen, and full of water:
  8. That bucket down and full of tears am I,
  9. Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high.

Bullingbrook

193
  1. I thought you had been willing to resign.

King Richard II

194 - 196
  1. My crown I am, but still my griefs are mine.
  2. You may my glories and my state depose,
  3. But not my griefs; still am I king of those.

Bullingbrook

197
  1. Part of your cares you give me with your crown.

King Richard II

198 - 202
  1. Your cares set up do not pluck my cares down:
  2. My care is loss of care, by old care done,
  3. Your care is gain of care, by new care won;
  4. The cares I give I have, though given away,
  5. They tend the crown, yet still with me they stay.

Bullingbrook

203
  1. Are you contented to resign the crown?

King Richard II

204 - 225
  1. Ay, no, no ay; for I must nothing be;
  2. Therefore no no, for I resign to thee.
  3. Now mark me how I will undo myself:
  4. I give this heavy weight from off my head,
  5. And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand,
  6. The pride of kingly sway from out my heart;
  7. With mine own tears I wash away my balm,
  8. With mine own hands I give away my crown,
  9. With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,
  10. With mine own breath release all duteous oaths;
  11. All pomp and majesty I do forswear;
  12. My manors, rents, revenues I forgo;
  13. My acts, decrees, and statutes I deny;
  14. God pardon all oaths that are broke to me!
  15. God keep all vows unbroke are made to thee!
  16. Make me, that nothing have, with nothing griev’d,
  17. And thou with all pleas’d, that hast all achiev’d!
  18. Long mayst thou live in Richard’s seat to sit,
  19. And soon lie Richard in an earthy pit!
  20. God save King Henry, unking’d Richard says,
  21. And send him many years of sunshine days!
  22. What more remains?
A Herald

A Herald

From costume sketches for Henry Irving’s production of King Richard II

Edwin Austin Abbey, 1898

Northumberland

226 - 231
  1.                    No more, but that you read
  2. Presenting a paper.
  3. These accusations, and these grievous crimes
  4. Committed by your person and your followers
  5. Against the state and profit of this land;
  6. That by confessing them, the souls of men
  7. May deem that you are worthily depos’d.

King Richard II

232 - 246
  1. Must I do so? And must I ravel out
  2. My weav’d-up follies? Gentle Northumberland,
  3. If thy offenses were upon record,
  4. Would it not shame thee in so fair a troop
  5. To read a lecture of them? If thou wouldst,
  6. There shouldst thou find one heinous article,
  7. Containing the deposing of a king,
  8. And cracking the strong warrant of an oath,
  9. Mark’d with a blot, damn’d in the book of heaven.
  10. Nay, all of you that stand and look upon me
  11. Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait myself,
  12. Though some of you, with Pilate, wash your hands,
  13. Showing an outward pity, yet you Pilates
  14. Have here deliver’d me to my sour cross,
  15. And water cannot wash away your sin.

Northumberland

247
  1. My lord, dispatch, read o’er these articles.

King Richard II

248 - 256
  1. Mine eyes are full of tears, I cannot see;
  2. And yet salt water blinds them not so much
  3. But they can see a sort of traitors here.
  4. Nay, if I turn mine eyes upon myself,
  5. I find myself a traitor with the rest;
  6. For I have given here my soul’s consent
  7. T’ undeck the pompous body of a king;
  8. Made glory base, and sovereignty a slave;
  9. Proud majesty a subject, state a peasant.

Northumberland

257
  1. My lord—

King Richard II

258 - 271
  1. No lord of thine, thou haught insulting man,
  2. Nor no man’s lord. I have no name, no title,
  3. No, not that name was given me at the font,
  4. But ’tis usurp’d. Alack the heavy day,
  5. That I have worn so many winters out
  6. And know not now what name to call myself!
  7. O that I were a mockery king of snow,
  8. Standing before the sun of Bullingbrook,
  9. To melt myself away in water-drops!
  10. Good king, great king, and yet not greatly good,
  11. And if my word be sterling yet in England,
  12. Let it command a mirror hither straight,
  13. That it may show me what a face I have
  14. Since it is bankrupt of his majesty.

Bullingbrook

272
  1. Go some of you and fetch a looking-glass.
  1. Exit an Attendant.

Northumberland

273
  1. Read o’er this paper while the glass doth come.

King Richard II

274
  1. Fiend, thou torments me ere I come to hell!

Bullingbrook

275
  1. Urge it no more, my Lord Northumberland.

Northumberland

276
  1. The commons will not then be satisfied.

King Richard II

277 - 295
  1. They shall be satisfied. I’ll read enough,
  2. When I do see the very book indeed
  3. Where all my sins are writ, and that’s myself.
  4. Enter Attendant with a glass.
  5. Give me that glass, and therein will I read.
  6. No deeper wrinkles yet? Hath sorrow struck
  7. So many blows upon this face of mine,
  8. And made no deeper wounds? O flatt’ring glass,
  9. Like to my followers in prosperity,
  10. Thou dost beguile me! Was this face the face
  11. That every day under his household roof
  12. Did keep ten thousand men? Was this the face
  13. That like the sun, did make beholders wink?
  14. Is this the face which fac’d so many follies,
  15. That was at last out-fac’d by Bullingbrook?
  16. A brittle glory shineth in this face,
  17. As brittle as the glory is the face,
  18. Dashes the glass against the ground.
  19. For there it is, crack’d in an hundred shivers.
  20. Mark, silent king, the moral of this sport,
  21. How soon my sorrow hath destroy’d my face.
Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland

Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland

Thomas Pennant, circa 1775

Bullingbrook

296 - 297
  1. The shadow of your sorrow hath destroy’d
  2. The shadow of your face.

King Richard II

298 - 309
  1.                          Say that again.
  2. The shadow of my sorrow! Ha, let’s see.
  3. ’Tis very true, my grief lies all within,
  4. And these external manners of laments
  5. Are merely shadows to the unseen grief
  6. That swells with silence in the tortur’d soul.
  7. There lies the substance; and I thank thee, King,
  8. For thy great bounty, that not only giv’st
  9. Me cause to wail, but teachest me the way
  10. How to lament the cause. I’ll beg one boon,
  11. And then be gone and trouble you no more.
  12. Shall I obtain it?

Bullingbrook

310
  1.                    Name it, fair cousin.

King Richard II

311 - 315
  1. “Fair cousin”? I am greater than a king;
  2. For when I was a king my flatterers
  3. Were then but subjects; being now a subject,
  4. I have a king here to my flatterer.
  5. Being so great, I have no need to beg.

Bullingbrook

316
  1. Yet ask.

King Richard II

317
  1. And shall I have?

Bullingbrook

318
  1. You shall.

King Richard II

319
  1. Then give me leave to go.

Bullingbrook

320
  1. Whither?

King Richard II

321
  1. Whither you will, so I were from your sights.

Bullingbrook

322
  1. Go some of you, convey him to the Tower.

King Richard II

323 - 324
  1. O, good! Convey! Conveyers are you all,
  2. That rise thus nimbly by a true king’s fall.
  1. Exeunt Richard, some Lords, and a Guard.

Bullingbrook

325 - 326
  1. On Wednesday next we solemnly proclaim
  2. Our coronation. Lords, be ready all.
  1. Exeunt. Manent Abbot of Westminster, Carlisle, Aumerle.

Abbot

327
  1. A woeful pageant have we here beheld.

Bishop of Carlisle

328 - 329
  1. The woe’s to come; the children yet unborn
  2. Shall feel this day as sharp to them as thorn.

Aumerle

330 - 331
  1. You holy clergymen, is there no plot
  2. To rid the realm of this pernicious blot?

Abbot

332 - 340
  1. My lord,
  2. Before I freely speak my mind herein,
  3. You shall not only take the sacrament
  4. To bury mine intents, but also to effect
  5. What ever I shall happen to devise.
  6. I see your brows are full of discontent,
  7. Your hearts of sorrow, and your eyes of tears.
  8. Come home with me to supper, I’ll lay
  9. A plot shall show us all a merry day.
  1. Exeunt.
Northumberland

Northumberland

From costume sketches for Henry Irving’s production of King Richard II

Edwin Austin Abbey, 1898

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