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King Richard II: Act II, Scene 3

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King Richard II
Act II, Scene 3

Wilds in Gloucestershire.

Earl of Berkeley

Earl of Berkeley

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

Edwin Austin Abbey, 1898

  1. Enter Bullingbrook, Duke of Herford, Northumberland, and
  2. forces.

Bullingbrook

1
  1. How far is it, my lord, to Berkeley now?

Northumberland

2 - 18
  1. Believe me, noble lord,
  2. I am a stranger here in Gloucestershire.
  3. These high wild hills and rough uneven ways
  4. Draws out our miles and makes them wearisome,
  5. And yet your fair discourse hath been as sugar,
  6. Making the hard way sweet and delectable.
  7. But I bethink me what a weary way
  8. From Ravenspurgh to Cotshall will be found
  9. In Ross and Willoughby, wanting your company,
  10. Which, I protest, hath very much beguil’d
  11. The tediousness and process of my travel.
  12. But theirs is sweet’ned with the hope to have
  13. The present benefit which I possess,
  14. And hope to joy is little less in joy
  15. Than hope enjoyed. By this the weary lords
  16. Shall make their way seem short, as mine hath done
  17. By sight of what I have, your noble company.

Bullingbrook

19 - 20
  1. Of much less value is my company
  2. Than your good words. But who comes here?
  1. Enter Harry Percy.

Northumberland

21 - 23
  1. It is my son, young Harry Percy,
  2. Sent from my brother Worcester, whencesoever.
  3. Harry, how fares your uncle?

Percy

24
  1. I had thought, my lord, to have learn’d his health of you.

Northumberland

25
  1. Why, is he not with the Queen?

Percy

26 - 28
  1. No, my good lord, he hath forsook the court,
  2. Broken his staff of office, and dispers’d
  3. The household of the King.

Northumberland

29 - 30
  1.                            What was his reason?
  2. He was not so resolv’d when last we spake together.

Percy

31 - 36
  1. Because your lordship was proclaimed traitor.
  2. But he, my lord, is gone to Ravenspurgh
  3. To offer service to the Duke of Herford,
  4. And sent me over by Berkeley, to discover
  5. What power the Duke of York had levied there,
  6. Then with directions to repair to Ravenspurgh.

Northumberland

37
  1. Have you forgot the Duke of Herford, boy?

Percy

38 - 40
  1. No, my good lord, for that is not forgot
  2. Which ne’er I did remember. To my knowledge,
  3. I never in my life did look on him.

Northumberland

41
  1. Then learn to know him now, this is the Duke.

Percy

42 - 45
  1. My gracious lord, I tender you my service,
  2. Such as it is, being tender, raw, and young,
  3. Which elder days shall ripen and confirm
  4. To more approved service and desert.

Bullingbrook

46 - 51
  1. I thank thee, gentle Percy, and be sure
  2. I count myself in nothing else so happy
  3. As in a soul rememb’ring my good friends,
  4. And as my fortune ripens with thy love,
  5. It shall be still thy true love’s recompense.
  6. My heart this covenant makes, my hand thus seals it.

Northumberland

52 - 53
  1. How far is it to Berkeley? And what stir
  2. Keeps good old York there with his men of war?

Percy

54 - 57
  1. There stands the castle, by yon tuft of trees,
  2. Mann’d with three hundred men, as I have heard,
  3. And in it are the Lords of York, Berkeley, and Seymour,
  4. None else of name and noble estimate.
  1. Enter Ross and Willoughby.

Northumberland

58 - 59
  1. Here come the Lords of Ross and Willoughby,
  2. Bloody with spurring, fiery-red with haste.
Costume designs for Northumberland's and Berkeley's troops

Costume designs for Northumberland's and Berkeley's troops

19th century

Bullingbrook

60 - 63
  1. Welcome, my lords. I wot your love pursues
  2. A banish’d traitor. All my treasury
  3. Is yet but unfelt thanks, which more enrich’d
  4. Shall be your love and labor’s recompense.

Lord Ross

64
  1. Your presence makes us rich, most noble lord.

Willoughby

65
  1. And far surmounts our labor to attain it.

Bullingbrook

66 - 68
  1. Evermore thank’s the exchequer of the poor,
  2. Which, till my infant fortune comes to years,
  3. Stands for my bounty. But who comes here?

Northumberland

69
  1. It is my Lord of Berkeley, as I guess.
  1. Enter Berkeley.

Berkeley

70
  1. My Lord of Herford, my message is to you.

Bullingbrook

71 - 74
  1. My lord, my answer is to Lancaster,
  2. And I am come to seek that name in England,
  3. And I must find that title in your tongue,
  4. Before I make reply to aught you say.

Berkeley

75 - 81
  1. Mistake me not, my lord, ’tis not my meaning
  2. To rase one title of your honor out.
  3. To you, my lord, I come, what lord you will,
  4. From the most gracious regent of this land,
  5. The Duke of York, to know what pricks you on
  6. To take advantage of the absent time,
  7. And fright our native peace with self-borne arms.
  1. Enter York attended.

Bullingbrook

82 - 83
  1. I shall not need transport my words by you,
  2. Here comes his Grace in person. My noble uncle!
  1. Kneels.

York

84 - 85
  1. Show me thy humble heart, and not thy knee,
  2. Whose duty is deceivable and false.

Bullingbrook

86
  1. My gracious uncle—

York

87 - 106
  1. Tut, tut!
  2. Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle.
  3. I am no traitor’s uncle, and that word “grace”
  4. In an ungracious mouth is but profane.
  5. Why have those banish’d and forbidden legs
  6. Dar’d once to touch a dust of England’s ground?
  7. But then more “why?”—why have they dar’d to march
  8. So many miles upon her peaceful bosom,
  9. Frighting her pale-fac’d villages with war
  10. And ostentation of despised arms?
  11. Com’st thou because the anointed King is hence?
  12. Why, foolish boy, the King is left behind,
  13. And in my loyal bosom lies his power.
  14. Were I but now lord of such hot youth
  15. As when brave Gaunt, thy father, and myself
  16. Rescued the Black Prince, that young Mars of men,
  17. From forth the ranks of many thousand French,
  18. O then how quickly should this arm of mine,
  19. Now prisoner to the palsy, chastise thee,
  20. And minister correction to thy fault!

Bullingbrook

107 - 108
  1. My gracious uncle, let me know my fault,
  2. On what condition stands it and wherein?

York

109 - 113
  1. Even in condition of the worst degree,
  2. In gross rebellion and detested treason.
  3. Thou art a banish’d man, and here art come,
  4. Before the expiration of thy time,
  5. In braving arms against thy sovereign.

Bullingbrook

114 - 137
  1. As I was banish’d, I was banish’d Herford,
  2. But as I come, I come for Lancaster.
  3. And, noble uncle, I beseech your Grace
  4. Look on my wrongs with an indifferent eye.
  5. You are my father, for methinks in you
  6. I see old Gaunt alive. O then, my father,
  7. Will you permit that I shall stand condemn’d
  8. A wandering vagabond, my rights and royalties
  9. Pluck’d from my arms perforce—and given away
  10. To upstart unthrifts? Wherefore was I born?
  11. If that my cousin king be King in England,
  12. It must be granted I am Duke of Lancaster.
  13. You have a son, Aumerle, my noble cousin,
  14. Had you first died, and he been thus trod down,
  15. He should have found his uncle Gaunt a father
  16. To rouse his wrongs and chase them to the bay.
  17. I am denied to sue my livery here,
  18. And yet my letters-patents give me leave.
  19. My father’s goods are all distrain’d and sold,
  20. And these, and all, are all amiss employed.
  21. What would you have me do? I am a subject,
  22. And I challenge law. Attorneys are denied me,
  23. And therefore personally I lay my claim
  24. To my inheritance of free descent.
King Richard II at His Majesty's Theatre

King Richard II at His Majesty's Theatre

Ralph Cleaver, 1903

Northumberland

138
  1. The noble Duke hath been too much abused.

Lord Ross

139
  1. It stands your Grace upon to do him right.

Willoughby

140
  1. Base men by his endowments are made great.

York

141 - 148
  1. My lords of England, let me tell you this:
  2. I have had feeling of my cousin’s wrongs,
  3. And labor’d all I could to do him right;
  4. But in this kind to come, in braving arms,
  5. Be his own carver and cut out his way,
  6. To find out right with wrong—it may not be;
  7. And you that do abet him in this kind
  8. Cherish rebellion and are rebels all.

Northumberland

149 - 152
  1. The noble Duke hath sworn his coming is
  2. But for his own; and for the right of that
  3. We all have strongly sworn to give him aid;
  4. And let him never see joy that breaks that oath!

York

153 - 162
  1. Well, well, I see the issue of these arms.
  2. I cannot mend it, I must needs confess,
  3. Because my power is weak and all ill left;
  4. But if I could, by Him that gave me life,
  5. I would attach you all, and make you stoop
  6. Unto the sovereign mercy of the King;
  7. But since I cannot, be it known unto you
  8. I do remain as neuter. So fare you well,
  9. Unless you please to enter in the castle,
  10. And there repose you for this night.

Bullingbrook

163 - 168
  1. An offer, uncle, that we will accept,
  2. But we must win your Grace to go with us
  3. To Bristow castle, which they say is held
  4. By Bushy, Bagot, and their complices,
  5. The caterpillars of the commonwealth,
  6. Which I have sworn to weed and pluck away.

York

169 - 172
  1. It may be I will go with you, but yet I’ll pause,
  2. For I am loath to break our country’s laws.
  3. Nor friends, nor foes, to me welcome you are:
  4. Things past redress are now with me past care.
  1. Exeunt.
Northumberland Men

Northumberland Men

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

Edwin Austin Abbey, 1898

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