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Bloody with spurring, fiery-red with haste.
Boling. Welcome, my lords. I wot your
love pursues

A banish'd traitor: all my treasury
60
Is yet but unfelt thanks, which more enrich'd
Shall be your love and labor's recompense.

Ross. Your presence makes us rich, most
noble lord.

Willo. And far surmounts our labor to attain it.

Boling. Evermore thanks, the exchequer
of the poor;

Which, till my infant fortune comes to years,
Stands for my bounty. But who comes here?

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And I am come to seek that name in Eng-
land;
And I must find that title in your tongue,
Before I make reply to aught you say.

Berk. Mistake me not, my lord; 'tis not
my meaning

To raze one title of your honor out:
To you, my lord, I come, what lord you will,
From the most gracious regent of this land,
The Duke of York, to know what pricks you

on

To take advantage of the absent time
And fright our native peace with self-born

arms.

Enter YORK attended.

80

From forth the ranks of many thousand
French,

O, then how quickly should this arm of mine,
Now prisoner to the palsy, chastise thee
And minister correction to thy fault!
Boling. My gracious uncle, let me know
my fault:

On what condition stands it and wherein?
York. Even in condition of the worst de-
gree,

111

In gross rebellion and detested treason:
Thou art a banish'd man, and here art come
Before the expiration of thy time,
In braving arms against thy sovereign.
Boling. As I was banish'd, I was banish'd

Hereford;
But as I come, I come for Lancaster.
And, noble uncle, I beseech your grace
Look on my wrongs with an indifferent eye:
You are my father, for methinks in you
I see old Gaunt alive; O, then, my father,
Will you permit that I shall stand condemn'd
A wandering vagabond; my rights and roy-
Pluck'd from my arms perforce and given

alties

away

120

To upstart unthrifts? Wherefore was I born?
If that my cousin king be King of England,
It must be granted I am Duke of Lancaster.
You have a son, Aumerle, my noble cousin;
Had you first died, and he been thus trod
down,

He should have found his uncle Gaunt a fa-
ther,
[bay.
To rouse his wrongs and chase them to the
I am denied to sue my livery here,
And yet my letters-patents give me leave: 130
My father's goods are all distrain'd and sold,

Boling. I shall not need transport my words And these and all are all anuss employ'd.
by you;

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What would you have me do? I am a sub-
ject,

And I challenge law: attorneys are denied
me;
And therefore personally I lay my claim
To my inheritance of free descent.

York. Show me thy humble heart, and not thy knee,

Boling. My gracious uncle

York. Tut, tut!

North. The noble duke hath been too much abused.

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ground?

to march

But then more 'why?' why have they dared

So many miles upon her peaceful bosom,
Frighting her pale-faced villages with war

And ostentation of despised arms?

York. My lords of England, let me tell you this:

140

I have had feeling of my cousin's wrongs
And labored all I could to do him right;
But in this kind to come, in braving arms,
Be his own carver and cut out his way,
To find out right with wrong, it may not be;

Comest thou because the anointed king is And you that do abet him in this kind

hence?

Why, foolish boy, the king is left behind,

• And in my loyal bosom lies his power.
Were I but now the lord of such hot youth
As when brave Gaunt, thy father, and myself
Rescued the Black Prince, that young Mars of
101

men,

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York. Well, well, I see the issue of these

arms:

I cannot mend it, I must needs confess,
Brause my power is weak and all ill left:
Briff could, by Him that gave me life,
Isold attach you all and make you stoop
Utt the sovereign mercy of the king;
B:since I cannot, be it known to you
190 remain as neuter. So, fare you well;
Triass you please to enter in the castle
Jal there repose you for this night.

160

[cept:

Bening An offer, uncle, that we will acBut we must win your grace to go with us To Bristol castle, which they say is held B. Bashy, Bagot and their complices, The caterpillars of the commonwealth, Witch I have sworn to weed and pluck away. Frk. It may be I will go with you: but yet I'll pause;

For lam loath to break our country's laws. Nor friends nor foes, to me welcome you are: Things past redress are now with me past [Excunt. 171

care,

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Guard it, I pray thee, with a lurking adder 20 Whose double tongue may with a mortal tonch

Throw death upon thy sovereign's enemies.
Mock not my senseless conjuration, lords:
This earth shall have a feeling and these
stones

Prove armed soldiers, ere her native king
Shall falter under foul rebellion's arms.

Car. Fear not, my lord: that Power that made you king

Hath power to keep you king in spite of all. The means that heaven yields must be embraced,

And not neglected; else, if heaven would, 30 And we will not, heaven's offer we refuse, The proffer'd means of succor and redress. Aum. He means, my lord, that we are too remiss;

Whilst Bolingbroke, through our security, Grows strong and great in substance and in

power.

K. Rich. Discomfortable cousin! know'st thou not

40

That when the searching eye of heaven is hid,
Behind the globe, that lights the lower world,
Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen
In murders and in outrage, boldly here;
But when from under this terrestrial ball
He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines
And darts his light through every guilty hole,
Then murders, treasons, and detested sins,
The cloak of night being pluck'd from off their
backs,

Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves?

So when this thief, this traitor, Bolingbroke, Who all this while hath revell'd in the night Whilst we were wandering with the antipodes, Shall see us rising in our throne, the east, 50

His treasons will sit blushing in his face,
Not able to endure the sight of day,
But self-affrighted tremble at his sin.
Not all the water in the rough rude sea
Can wash the balm off from an anointed king;
The breath of worldly men cannot depose
The deputy elected by the Lord :

For every man that Bolingbroke hath press'd
To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown,
God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay 60
A glorious angel: then, if angels fight,
Weak men must fall, for heaven still guards
the right.

Enter SALISBURY, Welcome, my lord: how far off lies your power?

Sal. Nor near nor farther off, my gracious lord,

Than this weak arm: discomfort guides my tongue

And bids me speak of nothing but despair.
One day too late, I fear me, noble lord,
Hath clouded all thy happy days on earth:
O, call back yesterday, bid time return,
And thou shalt have twelve thousand fighting

men!

70

To-day, to-day, unhappy day, too late, O'erthrows thy joys, friends, fortune and thy

state:

For all the Welshmen, hearing thou wert dead, Are gone to Bolingbroke, dispersed and fled: Aum. Comfort, my liege; why looks your grace so pale?

K. Rich. But now the blood of twenty thousand men

Did triumph in my face, and they are fled;
And, till so much blood thither come again,
Have I not reason to look pale and dead?
All souls that will be safe fly from my side, 80
For time hath set a blot upon my pride.

Aum. Comfort, my liege; remember whe

you are.

K. Rich. I had forgot myself; am I no king? Awake, thou coward majesty! thou sleepest. Is not the king's name twenty thousand names?

Arm, arm, my name! a puny subject strikes At thy great glory. Look not to the grouni, Ye favorites of a king: are we not high? High be our thoughts: I know my uncle Yor Hath power enough to serve our turn, B

who comes here ?

Enter SCROOP.

Scroop. More health and happiness betid my liege

Than can my care-tuned tongue deliver him K. Rich. Mine ear is open and my hea prepared;

The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold.
Say, is my kingdom lost? why, 'twas my car
And what loss is it to be rid of care ?
Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we?
Greater he shall not be; if he serve God,
We'll serve Him too and be his fellow so:

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broke.

Scroop Peace have they made with him indeed, my lord.

K. Reach. O villains, vipers, damn'd without redemption!

Dogs, easily won to fawn on any man!

130 makes, in my heart-blood warin'd, that sting my heart!

Three Judases, each one thrice worse than Judas!

[war Would they make peace ? terrible hell make Upon their spotted souls for this offence!

Scroop. Sweet love, I see, changing his property,

Toms to the sourest and most deadly hate: Again uncurse their souls; their peace is made With heads, and not with hands; those whom

you curse

Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;
Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth,
Let's choose executors and talk of wills:
And yet not so, for what can we bequeath
Save our deposed bodies to the ground? 150
Our lands, our lives and all are Bolingbroke's,
And nothing can we call our own but death
And that small model of the barren earth
Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.
For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings;
Ilow some have been deposed; some slain in

war;

Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed; Some poison'd by their wives: some sleeping kill'd;

All murder'd for within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king 161
Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing him a breath, a little scene,

To monarchize, be fear'd and kill with looks,
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
As if this flesh which walls about our ife,
Were brass impregnable, and humor'd thus
Comes at the last and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall, and farewell
king!

170

Cover your heads and mock not flesh and blood

With solemn reverence: throw away respect,
Tradition, form and ceremonious duty.
For you have but mistook me all this while:
I live with bread like you, feel want,
Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus,
How can you say to me, I am a king?

Car. My lord, wise men ne'er sit and wail their woes,

179

But presently prevent the ways to wail.
To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength,
Gives in your weakness strength unto your
foe,

And so your follies fight against yourself.
Fear and be slain; no worse can come to fight:
And fight and die is death destroying death;
Where fearing dying pays death servile breath.
Aum. My father hath a power; inquire of
him,

And learn to make a body of a limb.

K. Rich. Thou chidest me well: proud Bolingbroke, I come

To change blows with thee for our day of doom.

This ague fit of fear is over-blown;
An easy task it is to win our own.

Have felt the worst of death's destroying

190

wound

And lie full low, graved in the hollow ground. Aum. Is Bushy, Green, and the Earl of Wiltshire dead?

Say, Scrоор, where lies our uncle with his power?

141

Speak sweetly, man, although thy looks be

Scroop. Ay, all of them at Bristol lost their heads.

sour.

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Your uncle York is join'd with Bolingbroke,
And all your northern castles yielded up, 201
And all your southern gentlemen in arms
Upon his party.
K. Rich.

Thou has said enough.
Beshrew thee, cousin, which didst lead me
forth
[To Aumerle.
Of that sweet way I was in to despair! [now?
What say you now? what comfort have we
By heaven, I'll hate him everlastingly
That bids me be of comfort any more.

Go to Flint castle: there I'll pine away;
A king, woe's slave, shall kingly woe obey.210
That power I have, discharge; and let them

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SCENE III. Wales. Before Flint castle. Enter, with drum and colors, BOLINGBROKE, YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND, Attendants, and forces.

Boling. So that by this intelligence we learn

The Welshmen are dispersed, and Salisbury
Is gone to meet the king, who lately landed
With some few private friends upon this coast.
North. The news is very fair and good, my
lord:

Richard not far from hence hath hid his head. York. It would beseem the Lord Northumberland

To say 'King Richard: alack the heavy day
When such a sacred king should hide his head.
North. Your grace mistakes; only to be
brief,
Left I his title out.
York.

The time hath been, 10
Would you have been so brief with him, he
would
Have been so brief with you, to shorten you,
For taking so the head, your whole head's
[you should.
Boling. Mistake not, uncle, further than
York. Take not, good cousin, further than

length.

you should.

heads.

Lest you mistake the heavens are o'er our Boling. I know it, uncle, and oppose not myself

Against their will. But who comes here? 19

Enter PERCY. Welcome, Harry: what, will not this castle yield? [lord, Percy. The castle royally is mann'd, my

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And sends allegiance and true faith of heart
To his most royal person, hither come
Even at his feet to lay my arms and power,
Provided that my banishment repeal'd
And lands restored again be freely granted:
If not, I'll use the advantage of my power
And lay the summer's dust with showers of
blood
[lishmen:
Rain'd from the wounds of slaughter'd Eng-
The which, how far off from the mind of Bo-

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eye,

York. Yet looks he like a king: behold, As bright as is the eagle's, lightens fortia Controlling majesty: alack,alack, for woе,

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