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King Richard II: Act III, Scene 2

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King Richard II
Act III, Scene 2

The coast of Wales. A castle in view.

The Landing of Richard II at Milford Haven

The Landing of Richard II at Milford Haven

William Hamilton, circa 1795

  1. Drums: flourish and colors. Enter the King, Aumerle, the
  2. Bishop of Carlisle, and Soldiers.

King Richard II

1
  1. Barkloughly castle call they this at hand?

Aumerle

2 - 3
  1. Yea, my lord. How brooks your Grace the air
  2. After your late tossing on the breaking seas?

King Richard II

4 - 26
  1. Needs must I like it well; I weep for joy
  2. To stand upon my kingdom once again.
  3. Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand,
  4. Though rebels wound thee with their horses’ hoofs.
  5. As a long-parted mother with her child
  6. Plays fondly with her tears and smiles in meeting,
  7. So weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my earth,
  8. And do thee favors with my royal hands.
  9. Feed not thy sovereign’s foe, my gentle earth,
  10. Nor with thy sweets comfort his ravenous sense,
  11. But let thy spiders, that suck up thy venom,
  12. And heavy-gaited toads lie in their way,
  13. Doing annoyance to the treacherous feet,
  14. Which with usurping steps do trample thee.
  15. Yield stinging nettles to mine enemies;
  16. And when they from thy bosom pluck a flower,
  17. Guard it, I pray thee, with a lurking adder,
  18. Whose double tongue may with a mortal touch
  19. Throw death upon thy sovereign’s enemies.
  20. Mock not my senseless conjuration, lords,
  21. This earth shall have a feeling, and these stones
  22. Prove armed soldiers, ere her native king
  23. Shall falter under foul rebellion’s arms.

Bishop of Carlisle

27 - 32
  1. Fear not, my lord, that Power that made you king
  2. Hath power to keep you king in spite of all.
  3. The means that heavens yield must be embrac’d,
  4. And not neglected; else heaven would,
  5. And we will not. Heaven’s offer we refuse,
  6. The proffered means of succors and redress.

Aumerle

33 - 35
  1. He means, my lord, that we are too remiss,
  2. Whilst Bullingbrook, through our security,
  3. Grows strong and great in substance and in power.

King Richard II

36 - 63
  1. Discomfortable cousin, know’st thou not
  2. That when the searching eye of heaven is hid
  3. Behind the globe, that lights the lower world,
  4. Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen
  5. In murders and in outrage boldly here,
  6. But when from under this terrestrial ball
  7. He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines
  8. And darts his light through every guilty hole,
  9. Then murders, treasons, and detested sins,
  10. The cloak of night being pluck’d from off their backs,
  11. Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves?
  12. So when this thief, this traitor Bullingbrook,
  13. Who all this while hath revell’d in the night,
  14. Whilst we were wand’ring with the antipodes,
  15. Shall see us rising in our throne, the east,
  16. His treasons will sit blushing in his face,
  17. Not able to endure the sight of day,
  18. But self-affrighted tremble at his sin.
  19. Not all the water in the rough rude sea
  20. Can wash the balm off from an anointed king;
  21. The breath of worldly men cannot depose
  22. The deputy elected by the Lord;
  23. For every man that Bullingbrook hath press’d
  24. To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown,
  25. God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay
  26. A glorious angel; then if angels fight,
  27. Weak men must fall, for heaven still guards the right.
  28. Enter Salisbury.
  29. Welcome, my lord. How far off lies your power?

Salisbury

64 - 74
  1. Nor near nor farther off, my gracious lord,
  2. Than this weak arm. Discomfort guides my tongue
  3. And bids me speak of nothing but despair.
  4. One day too late, I fear me, noble lord,
  5. Hath clouded all thy happy days on earth.
  6. O, call back yesterday, bid time return,
  7. And thou shalt have twelve thousand fighting men!
  8. Today, today, unhappy day, too late,
  9. Overthrows thy joys, friends, fortune, and thy state,
  10. For all the Welshmen, hearing thou wert dead,
  11. Are gone to Bullingbrook, dispers’d and fled.

Aumerle

75
  1. Comfort, my liege, why looks your Grace so pale?

I weep for joy to stand upon my kingdom once again.

John Jellicoe, late 19th century

King Richard II

76 - 81
  1. But now the blood of twenty thousand men
  2. Did triumph in my face, and they are fled;
  3. And till so much blood thither come again,
  4. Have I not reason to look pale and dead?
  5. All souls that will be safe, fly from my side,
  6. For time hath set a blot upon my pride.

Aumerle

82
  1. Comfort, my liege, remember who you are.

King Richard II

83 - 90
  1. I had forgot myself, am I not king?
  2. Awake, thou coward majesty! Thou sleepest.
  3. Is not the king’s name twenty thousand names?
  4. Arm, arm, my name! A puny subject strikes
  5. At thy great glory. Look not to the ground,
  6. Ye favorites of a king, are we not high?
  7. High be our thoughts. I know my uncle York
  8. Hath power enough to serve our turn. But who comes here?
  1. Enter Scroop.

Scroop

91 - 92
  1. More health and happiness betide my liege
  2. Than can my care-tun’d tongue deliver him!

King Richard II

93 - 103
  1. Mine ear is open, and my heart prepar’d,
  2. The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold.
  3. Say, is my kingdom lost? Why, ’twas my care,
  4. And what loss is it to be rid of care?
  5. Strives Bullingbrook to be as great as we?
  6. Greater he shall not be; if he serve God,
  7. We’ll serve Him too, and be his fellow so.
  8. Revolt our subjects? That we cannot mend,
  9. They break their faith to God as well as us.
  10. Cry woe, destruction, ruin, and decay:
  11. The worst is death, and death will have his day.

Scroop

104 - 120
  1. Glad am I that your Highness is so arm’d
  2. To bear the tidings of calamity.
  3. Like an unseasonable stormy day,
  4. Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores,
  5. As if the world were all dissolv’d to tears,
  6. So high above his limits swells the rage
  7. Of Bullingbrook, covering your fearful land
  8. With hard bright steel, and hearts harder than steel.
  9. White-beards have arm’d their thin and hairless scalps
  10. Against thy majesty; boys, with women’s voices,
  11. Strive to speak big, and clap their female joints
  12. In stiff unwieldy arms against thy crown;
  13. Thy very beadsmen learn to bend their bows
  14. Of double-fatal yew against thy state;
  15. Yea, distaff-women manage rusty bills
  16. Against thy seat: both young and old rebel,
  17. And all goes worse than I have power to tell.

King Richard II

121 - 127
  1. Too well, too well thou tell’st a tale so ill.
  2. Where is the Earl of Wiltshire? Where is Bagot?
  3. What is become of Bushy? Where is Green?
  4. That they have let the dangerous enemy
  5. Measure our confines with such peaceful steps?
  6. If we prevail, their heads shall pay for it.
  7. I warrant they have made peace with Bullingbrook.

Scroop

128
  1. Peace have they made with him indeed, my lord.

King Richard II

129 - 134
  1. O villains, vipers, damn’d without redemption!
  2. Dogs, easily won to fawn on any man!
  3. Snakes, in my heart-blood warm’d, that sting my heart!
  4. Three Judases, each one thrice worse than Judas!
  5. Would they make peace? Terrible hell
  6. Make war upon their spotted souls for this!

Scroop

135 - 140
  1. Sweet love, I see, changing his property,
  2. Turns to the sourest and most deadly hate.
  3. Again uncurse their souls, their peace is made
  4. With heads, and not with hands. Those whom you curse
  5. Have felt the worst of death’s destroying wound,
  6. And lie full low, grav’d in the hollow ground.

Aumerle

141
  1. Is Bushy, Green, and the Earl of Wiltshire dead?

Scroop

142
  1. Ay, all of them at Bristow lost their heads.

Aumerle

143
  1. Where is the Duke my father with his power?

King Richard II

144 - 177
  1. No matter where—of comfort no man speak:
  2. Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs,
  3. Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes
  4. Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth.
  5. Let’s choose executors and talk of wills;
  6. And yet not so, for what can we bequeath
  7. Save our deposed bodies to the ground?
  8. Our lands, our lives, and all are Bullingbrook’s,
  9. And nothing can we call our own but death,
  10. And that small model of the barren earth
  11. Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.
  12. For God’s sake let us sit upon the ground
  13. And tell sad stories of the death of kings:
  14. How some have been depos’d, some slain in war,
  15. Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed,
  16. Some poisoned by their wives, some sleeping kill’d,
  17. All murdered—for within the hollow crown
  18. That rounds the mortal temples of a king
  19. Keeps Death his court, and there the antic sits,
  20. Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
  21. Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
  22. To monarchize, be fear’d, and kill with looks,
  23. Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
  24. As if this flesh which walls about our life
  25. Were brass impregnable; and humor’d thus,
  26. Comes at the last and with a little pin
  27. Bores thorough his castle wall, and farewell king!
  28. Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood
  29. With solemn reverence, throw away respect,
  30. Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty,
  31. For you have but mistook me all this while.
  32. I live with bread like you, feel want,
  33. Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus,
  34. How can you say to me I am a king?
Costume design for Bishop of Carlisle

Costume design for Bishop of Carlisle

From Charles Kean's scrapbook

19th century

Bishop of Carlisle

178 - 185
  1. My lord, wise men ne’er sit and wail their woes,
  2. But presently prevent the ways to wail;
  3. To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength,
  4. Gives in your weakness strength unto your foe,
  5. And so your follies fight against yourself.
  6. Fear, and be slain—no worse can come to fight,
  7. And fight and die is death destroying death,
  8. Where fearing dying pays death servile breath.

Aumerle

186 - 187
  1. My father hath a power, inquire of him,
  2. And learn to make a body of a limb.

King Richard II

188 - 193
  1. Thou chid’st me well. Proud Bullingbrook, I come
  2. To change blows with thee for our day of doom.
  3. This ague fit of fear is overblown,
  4. An easy task it is to win our own.
  5. Say, Scroop, where lies our uncle with his power?
  6. Speak sweetly, man, although thy looks be sour.

Scroop

194 - 203
  1. Men judge by the complexion of the sky
  2. The state and inclination of the day;
  3. So may you by my dull and heavy eye:
  4. My tongue hath but a heavier tale to say.
  5. I play the torturer by small and small
  6. To lengthen out the worst that must be spoken:
  7. Your uncle York is join’d with Bullingbrook,
  8. And all your northern castles yielded up,
  9. And all your southern gentlemen in arms
  10. Upon his party.

King Richard II

204 - 215
  1.                 Thou hast said enough.
  2. To Aumerle.
  3. Beshrew thee, cousin, which didst lead me forth
  4. Of that sweet way I was in to despair!
  5. What say you now? What comfort have we now?
  6. By heaven, I’ll hate him everlastingly
  7. That bids me be of comfort any more.
  8. Go to Flint castle, there I’ll pine away—
  9. A king, woe’s slave, shall kingly woe obey.
  10. That power I have, discharge, and let them go
  11. To ear the land that hath some hope to grow,
  12. For I have none. Let no man speak again
  13. To alter this, for counsel is but vain.

Aumerle

216
  1. My liege, one word.

King Richard II

217 - 220
  1.                     He does me double wrong
  2. That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue.
  3. Discharge my followers, let them hence away,
  4. From Richard’s night to Bullingbrook’s fair day.
  1. Exeunt.
Aumerle

Aumerle

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

Edwin Austin Abbey, 1898

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