King Richard II
Act II, Scene 4
A camp in Wales.
Laurus nobilis
Otto Wilhelm Thomé, 1885
- Enter Earl of Salisbury and a Welsh Captain.
Welsh Captain
1 - 4- My Lord of Salisbury, we have stay’d ten days,
- And hardly kept our countrymen together,
- And yet we hear no tidings from the King,
- Therefore we will disperse ourselves. Farewell!
Salisbury
5 - 6- Stay yet another day, thou trusty Welshman.
- The King reposeth all his confidence in thee.
Welsh Captain
7 - 17- ’Tis thought the King is dead; we will not stay.
- The bay-trees in our country are all wither’d,
- And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven,
- The pale-fac’d moon looks bloody on the earth,
- And lean-look’d prophets whisper fearful change,
- Rich men look sad, and ruffians dance and leap,
- The one in fear to lose what they enjoy,
- The other to enjoy by rage and war.
- These signs forerun the death or fall of kings.
- Farewell! Our countrymen are gone and fled,
- As well assured Richard their king is dead.
- Exit.
Salisbury
18 - 24- Ah, Richard! With the eyes of heavy mind
- I see thy glory like a shooting star
- Fall to the base earth from the firmament.
- Thy sun sets weeping in the lowly west,
- Witnessing storms to come, woe, and unrest.
- Thy friends are fled to wait upon thy foes,
- And crossly to thy good all fortune goes.
- Exit.