The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 4 of 9]

Boling. What is the matter, uncle? speak;[1825][1826][1827]
Recover breath; tell us how near is danger,[1826]
That we may arm us to encounter it.

York. Peruse this writing here, and thou shalt know
The treason that my haste forbids me show.[1828]50

Aum. Remember, as thou read'st, thy promise pass'd:
I do repent me; read not my name there;
My heart is not confederate with my hand.

York. It was, villain, ere thy hand did set it down.[1829]
I tore it from the traitor's bosom, king;[1830]55
Fear, and not love, begets his penitence:[1831]
Forget to pity him, lest thy pity prove
A serpent that will sting thee to the heart.[1832]

Boling. O heinous, strong and bold conspiracy!
O loyal father of a treacherous son!60
Thou sheer, immaculate and silver fountain,[1833]
From whence this stream through muddy passages
Hath held his current and denied himself![1834]
Thy overflow of good converts to bad,[1835]
And thy abundant goodness shall excuse [1836]65
This deadly blot in thy digressing son.[1837]

York. So shall my virtue be his vice's bawd;
And he shall spend mine honour with his shame,
As thriftless sons their scraping fathers' gold.
Mine honour lives when his dishonour dies,70
Or my shamed life in his dishonour lies:
Thou kill'st me in his life; giving him breath,
The traitor lives, the true man's put to death.

Duch. [Within] What ho, my liege! for God's sake, let me in.[1838]

Boling. What shrill-voiced suppliant makes this eager cry.[1839]75

Duch. A woman, and thy aunt, great king; 'tis I.[1840]
Speak with me, pity me, open the door:
A beggar begs that never begg'd before.

Boling. Our scene is alter'd from a serious thing,[1841][1842]
And now changed to 'The Beggar and the King.'[1841][1842]80
My dangerous cousin, let your mother in:
I know she is come to pray for your foul sin.[1843]

York. If thou do pardon, whosoever pray,
More sins for this forgiveness prosper may.[1844]
This fester'd joint cut off, the rest rest sound;[1845]85
This let alone will all the rest confound.

Duch. O king, believe not this hard-hearted man![1846]
Love loving not itself none other can.

York. Thou frantic woman, what dost thou make here?[1847]
Shall thy old dugs once more a traitor rear?90

Duch. Sweet York, be patient. Hear me, gentle liege. [Kneels.

Boling. Rise up, good aunt.

Duch. Not yet, I thee beseech:
For ever will I walk upon my knees,[1848]
And never see day that the happy sees,
Till thou give joy; until thou bid me joy,[1849]95
By pardoning Rutland, my transgressing boy.

Aum. Unto my mother's prayers I bend my knee.

York. Against them both my true joints bended be.
Ill mayst thou thrive, if thou grant any grace![1850]

Duch. Pleads he in earnest? look upon his face;100
His eyes do drop no tears, his prayers are in jest;[1851]
His words come from his mouth, ours from our breast:[1852]
He prays but faintly and would be denied;
We pray with heart and soul and all beside:
His weary joints would gladly rise, I know;105
Our knees shall kneel till to the ground they grow:[1853]
His prayers are full of false hypocrisy;
Ours of true zeal and deep integrity.
Our prayers do out-pray his; then let them have [1854]
That mercy which true prayer ought to have.[1855]110

Boling. Good aunt, stand up.[1856]

Duch. Nay, do not say, 'stand up;'
Say 'pardon' first, and afterwards 'stand up.'[1857]
An if I were thy nurse, thy tongue to teach,[1858]
'Pardon' should be the first word of thy speech.
I never long'd to hear a word till now;115
Say 'pardon,' king; let pity teach thee how:[1859]
The word is short, but not so short as sweet;[1860]
No word like 'pardon' for kings' mouths so meet.[1860][1861]

York. Speak it in French, king; say, 'pardonne moi.'[1860][1862]

Duch. Dost thou teach pardon pardon to destroy?[1860][1863]120
Ah, my sour husband, my hard-hearted lord,[1860]
That set'st the word itself against the word![1860][1864]
Speak 'pardon' as 'tis current in our land;[1860]
The chopping French we do not understand.[1860]
Thine eye begins to speak, set thy tongue there:[1860]125
Or in thy piteous heart plant thou thine ear;[1860]
That hearing how our plaints and prayers do pierce,[1860]
Pity may move thee 'pardon' to rehearse.[1860][1865]

Boling. Good aunt, stand up.

Duch. I do not sue to stand;
Pardon is all the suit I have in hand.130

Boling. I pardon him, as God shall pardon me.[1866]

Duch. O happy vantage of a kneeling knee!
Yet am I sick for fear: speak it again;
Twice saying 'pardon' doth not pardon twain,
But makes one pardon strong.

Boling. With all my heart [1867]135
I pardon him.[1867]

Duch. A god on earth thou art.

Boling. But for our trusty brother-in-law, and the abbot,[1868]
With all the rest of that consorted crew,
Destruction straight shall dog them at the heels.
Good uncle, help to order several powers140
To Oxford, or where'er these traitors are:[1869]
They shall not live within this world, I swear,[1870]
But I will have them, if I once know where.[1870][1871]
Uncle, farewell: and, cousin too, adieu:[1870][1872]
Your mother well hath pray'd, and prove you true.[1870]145

Duch. Come, my old son: I pray God make thee new.[1866][1870]

Scene IV. The same.

Exton. Didst thou not mark the king, what words he spake,[1875]
'Have I no friend will rid me of this living fear?'
Was it not so?

Ser. These were his very words.[1876][1877]

Exton. 'Have I no friend?' quoth he: he spake it twice.[1878]
And urged it twice together, did he not?5

Ser. He did.[1876]

Exton. And speaking it, he wistly look'd on me;[1879]
As who should say, 'I would thou wert the man [1880]
That would divorce this terror from my heart;'
Meaning the king at Pomfret. Come, let's go:10
I am the king's friend, and will rid his foe. [Exeunt.[1881]

Scene V. Pomfret castle.

K. Rich. I have been studying how I may compare [1883]
This prison where I live unto the world:
And for because the world is populous
And here is not a creature but myself,
I cannot do it; yet I'll hammer it out.[1884]5
My brain I'll prove the female to my soul,[1885]
My soul the father; and these two beget
A generation of still-breeding thoughts,
And these same thoughts people this little world,
In humours like the people of this world,10
For no thought is contented. The better sort,[1886]
As thoughts of things divine, are intermix'd
With scruples and do set the word itself [1887]
Against the word:[1887][1888][1889]
As thus, 'Come, little ones,' and then again,[1888]15
'It is as hard to come as for a camel
To thread the postern of a small needle's eye.'[1890]
Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot
Unlikely wonders; how these vain weak nails
May tear a passage through the flinty ribs [1891]20
Of this hard world, my ragged prison walls,
And, for they cannot, die in their own pride.
Thoughts tending to content flatter themselves
That they are not the first of fortune's slaves,
Nor shall not be the last; like silly beggars [1892]25
Who sitting in the stocks refuge their shame,[1893]
That many have and others must sit there;[1894]
And in this thought they find a kind of ease,
Bearing their own misfortunes on the back [1895]
Of such as have before endured the like.30
Thus play I in one person many people,[1896]
And none contented: sometimes am I king;[1897]
Then treasons make me wish myself a beggar,[1898]
And so I am: then crushing penury
Persuades me I was better when a king;35
Then am I king'd again: and by and by [1899]
Think that I am unking'd by Bolingbroke,
And straight am nothing: but whate'er I be,[1900]
Nor I nor any man that but man is
With nothing shall be pleased, till he be eased [1901]40
With being nothing. Music do I hear? [Music.[1902]
Ha, ha! keep time: how sour sweet music is,
When time is broke and no proportion kept!
So is it in the music of men's lives.
And here have I the daintiness of ear [1903]45
To check time broke in a disorder'd string;[1904]
But for the concord of my state and time
Had not an ear to hear my true time broke.
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me;
For now hath time made me his numbering clock:[1905]50
My thoughts are minutes; and with sighs they jar [1906]
Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch,[1907]
Whereto my finger, like a dial's point,
Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears.
Now sir, the sound that tells what hour it is [1908]55
Are clamorous groans, which strike upon my heart,[1909]
Which is the bell: so sighs and tears and groans [1910]
Show minutes, times, and hours: but my time [1911]
Runs, posting on in Bolingbroke's proud joy,
While I stand fooling here, his Jack o' the clock.[1912]60
This music mads me; let it sound no more;[1913]
For though it have holp madmen to their wits,
In me it seems it will make wise men mad.[1914]
Yet blessing on his heart that gives it me!
For 'tis a sign of love; and love to Richard65
Is a strange brooch in this all-hating world.

Groom. Hail, royal prince![1916]

K. Rich. Thanks, noble peer;[1917]
The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear.[1917][1918]
What art thou? and how comest thou hither,[1919]
Where no man never comes, but that sad dog [1920]70
That brings me food to make misfortune live?

Groom. I was a poor groom of thy stable, king,
When thou wert king; who, travelling towards York,
With much ado at length have gotten leave
To look upon my sometimes royal master's face.[1921]75
O, how it yearn'd my heart when I beheld [1922]
In London streets, that coronation-day,
When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary,
That horse that thou so often hast bestrid,[1923]
That horse that I so carefully have dress'd!80

K. Rich. Rode he on Barbary? Tell me, gentle friend,
How went he under him?

Groom. So proudly as if he disdain'd the ground.[1924]

K. Rich. So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back!
That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand;85
This hand hath made him proud with clapping him.
Would he not stumble? would he not fall down,
Since pride must have a fall, and break the neck
Of that proud man that did usurp his back?
Forgiveness, horse! why do I rail on thee,90
Since thou, created to be awed by man,
Wast born to bear? I was not made a horse;
And yet I bear a burthen like an ass,
Spurr'd, gall'd and tired by jauncing Bolingbroke.

Keep. Fellow, give place; here is no longer stay.[1926]95

K. Rich. If thou love me, 'tis time thou wert away.

Groom. What my tongue dares not, that my heart shall say.

Keep. My lord, will't please you to fall to?[1928]

K. Rich. Taste of it first, as thou art wont to do.[1929]

Keep. My lord, I dare not: sir Pierce of Exton, who [1930][1931]100
lately came from the king, commands the contrary.[1930][1932]

K. Rich. The devil take Henry of Lancaster and thee![1933]
Patience is stale, and I am weary of it. [Beats the Keeper.[1934]

Keep. Help, help, help!

K. Rich. How now! what means death in this rude assault?[1936]105
Villain, thy own hand yields thy death's instrument.

Go thou, and fill another room in hell.

That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire
That staggers thus my person. Exton, thy fierce hand [1939]
Hath with the king's blood stain'd the king's own land.110
Mount, mount, my soul! thy seat is up on high;
Whilst my gross flesh sinks downward, here to die. [Dies.[1940]

Exton. As full of valour as of royal blood:
Both have I spill'd; O would the deed were good![1941]
For now the devil, that told me I did well,115
Says that this deed is chronicled in hell.
This dead king to the living king I'll bear:
Take hence the rest, and give them burial here. [Exeunt.[1942]

Scene VI. Windsor castle.

Flourish. Enter Bolingbroke, York, with other Lords, and Attendants.[1943]

Scene IV. The same.

Scene V. Pomfret castle.

Scene VI. Windsor castle.