So may you by my dull and heavy eye,
My tongue hath but a heavier tale to say. I play the torturer, by fmall and small,
To lengthen out the worst that must be spoken :- Your uncle York hath join'd with Bolingbroke; And all your northern caftlés yielded up, And all your fouthern gentlemen in arms Upon his party.
Beshrew thee, coufin, which didft lead me forth
Of that fweet way I was in to déspair!
What fay you now? What comfort have we now ? By heaven, I'll hate him everlastingly,
That bids me be of comfort any more,
Go, to Flint caftle; there I'll pine away; A king, woe's flave, shall kingly woe obey. That power I have, discharge; and let them go To ear the land that hath fome hope to grow, For I have none :-Let no man speak again To alter this, for counsel is but vain.
Aum. My liege, one word. K. Rich. That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue. Discharge my followers, let them hence ;-Away, From Richard's night, to Bolingbroke's fair day.
He does me double wrong,
Wales. Before Flint Cafle.
Enter, with drum and colours, BOLINGBROKE and Forces ; YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND, and Others.
Boling. So that by this intelligence we learn, The Welshmen are difpers'd; and Salisbury Is gone to meet the king, who lately landed, With fome few private friends, upon this coaft.
North. The news is very fair and good, my lord; Richard, not far from hence, hath hid his head. York. It would befeem the lord Northumberland, To fay-king Richard:-Alack the heavy day, When fuch a facred king should hide his head! North. Your grace mistakes me; only to be brief, Left I his title out.
The time hath been, Would you have been fo brief with him, he would Have been fo brief with you, to shorten you, For taking fo the head, your whole head's length.
Boling. Mistake not, uncle, further than you should. York. Take not, good cousin, further than you should, Left you mis-take: The heavens are o'er your head. Boling. I know it, uncle; and oppose not My felf against their will.-But who comes here?
Well, Harry; what, will not this caftle yield? Percy. The castle royally is mann'd, my lord,
Why, it contains no king?
It doth contain a king; king Richard lies
Within the limits of yon lime and stone : And with him are lord Aumerle, lord Salisbury, Sir Stephen Scroop; besides a clergyman Of holy reverence, who, I cannot learn. North. Belike, it is the bishop of Carlisle. Boling. Noble lord,
Go to the rude ribs of that ancient caftle Through brazen trumpet send the breath of parle Into his ruin'd ears, and thus deliver.
On both his knees, doth kifs king Richard's hand; And fends allegiance, and true faith of heart,
To his moft royal perfon: hither come Even at his feet to lay my arms and power; Provided that, my banishment repeal'd, And lands reftor'd again, be freely granted: If not, I'll use the advantage of my power,
And lay the fummer's duft with fhowers of blood, Rain'd from the wounds of flaughter'd Englishmen: The which, how far off from the mind of Bolingbroke It is, fuch crimson tempest should bedrench
The fresh green lap of fair king Richard's land,
My stooping duty tenderly fhall show.
Go, fignify as much; while here we march Upon the graffy carpet of this plain.—
[NORTHUMBERLAND advances to the Caffle, with a Trumpet.
Let's march without the noise of threat'ning drum, That from the caftle's totter'd battlements
Our fair appointments may be well perus'd,
Methinks, king Richard and myself should meet With no less terror than the elements
Of fire and water, when their thund'ring shock At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven. Be he the fire, I'll be the yielding water: The rage be his, while on the earth I rain My waters; on the earth, and not on him. March on, and mark king Richard how he looks.
A parle founded, and answered by another trumpet within. Flourish. Enter on the walls King RICHARD, the Bishop of Carlisle, AUMERLE, SCROOP, and SALISBURY.
York. See, fee, king Richard doth himself appear, As doth the blushing discontented fun
From out the fiery portal of the east ;
When he perceives the envious clouds are bent To dim his glory, and to stain the track Of his bright passage to the occident. Yet looks he like a king; behold, his eye, As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth Controlling majefty; Alack, alack, for woe, That any harm should stain fo fair a show!
K. Rich. We are amaz'd; and thus long have we stood To watch the fearful bending of thy knee,
[To NORTHUMBERLAND. Because we thought ourself thy lawful king: And if we be, how dare thy joints forget To pay their awful duty to our presence? If we be not, fhow us the hand of God That hath dismiss'd us from our stewardship; For well we know, no hand of blood and bone Can gripe the facred handle of our scepter, Unless he do profane, fteal, or ufurp.
And though you think, that all, as you have done, Have torn their fouls, by turning them from us, And we are barren, and bereft of friends ;- Yet know, my mafter, God omnipotent, Is must ring in his clouds, on our behalf, Armies of peftilence; and they shall strike Your children yet unborn, and unbegot, That lift your vassal hands against my head, And threat the glory of my precious crown. Tell Bolingbroke, (for yond', methinks, he is,) That every stride he makes upon my land, Is dangerous treafon: He is come to ope The purple teftament of bleeding war; But ere the crown he looks for live in peace, Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' fons Shall ill become the flower of England's face ; Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace To scarlet indignation, and bedew
Her paftures' grafs with faithful English blood. North. The King of heaven forbid, our lord the king Should fo with civil and uncivil arms
Be rush'd upon! Thy thrice-noble coufin,
Harry Bolingbroke, doth humbly kifs thy hand,
And by the honourable tomb he swears,
That ftands upon thy royal grandfire's bones; And by the royalties of both your bloods, Currents that fpring from one most gracious head; And by the buried band of warlike Gaunt ; And by the worth and honour of himself, Comprising all that may be fworn or faid,→ His coming hither hath no further scope, Than for his lineal royalties, and to beg Enfranchisement immediate on his knees: Which on thy royal party granted once,
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