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King Richard II: Act III, Scene 3

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King Richard II
Act III, Scene 3

Wales. Before Flint Castle.

Byam Shaw, 1901

  1. Enter, with Drum and Colors, Bullingbrook, York,
  2. Northumberland, Attendants, and forces.

Bullingbrook

1 - 4
  1. So that by this intelligence we learn
  2. The Welshmen are dispers’d, and Salisbury
  3. Is gone to meet the King, who lately landed
  4. With some few private friends upon this coast.

Northumberland

5 - 6
  1. The news is very fair and good, my lord:
  2. Richard not far from hence hath hid his head.

York

7 - 9
  1. It would beseem the Lord Northumberland
  2. To say King Richard. Alack the heavy day
  3. When such a sacred king should hide his head!

Northumberland

10 - 11
  1. Your Grace mistakes; only to be brief
  2. Left I his title out.

York

12 - 15
  1.                       The time hath been,
  2. Would you have been so brief with him, he would
  3. Have been so brief with you to shorten you,
  4. For taking so the head, your whole head’s length.

Bullingbrook

16
  1. Mistake not, uncle, further than you should.

York

17 - 18
  1. Take not, good cousin, further than you should,
  2. Lest you mistake the heavens are over our heads.

Bullingbrook

19 - 21
  1. I know it, uncle, and oppose not myself
  2. Against their will. But who comes here?
  3. Enter Harry Percy.
  4. Welcome, Harry. What, will not this castle yield?

Percy

22 - 23
  1. The castle royally is mann’d, my lord,
  2. Against thy entrance.

Bullingbrook

24 - 25
  1. Royally?
  2. Why, it contains no king.

Percy

26 - 31
  1.                           Yes, my good lord,
  2. It doth contain a king. King Richard lies
  3. Within the limits of yon lime and stone,
  4. And with him are the Lord Aumerle, Lord Salisbury,
  5. Sir Stephen Scroop, besides a clergyman
  6. Of holy reverence, who, I cannot learn.

Northumberland

32
  1. O, belike it is the Bishop of Carlisle.

Bullingbrook

33 - 69
  1. To Northumberland.
  2. Noble lord,
  3. Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle;
  4. Through brazen trumpet send the breath of parley
  5. Into his ruin’d ears, and thus deliver:
  6. Henry Bullingbrook
  7. On both his knees doth kiss King Richard’s hand,
  8. And sends allegiance and true faith of heart
  9. To his most royal person; hither come
  10. Even at his feet to lay my arms and power,
  11. Provided that my banishment repeal’d
  12. And lands restor’d again be freely granted.
  13. If not, I’ll use the advantage of my power,
  14. And lay the summer’s dust with show’rs of blood
  15. Rain’d from the wounds of slaughtered Englishmen,
  16. The which, how far off from the mind of Bullingbrook
  17. It is, such crimson tempest should bedrench
  18. The fresh green lap of fair King Richard’s land,
  19. My stooping duty tenderly shall show.
  20. Go signify as much, while here we march
  21. Upon the grassy carpet of this plain.
  22. Northumberland advances to the castle, with a Trumpet.
  23. Let’s march without the noise of threat’ning drum,
  24. That from this castle’s tattered battlements
  25. Our fair appointments may be well perus’d.
  26. Methinks King Richard and myself should meet
  27. With no less terror than the elements
  28. Of fire and water, when their thund’ring shock
  29. At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven.
  30. Be he the fire, I’ll be the yielding water;
  31. The rage be his, whilst on the earth I rain
  32. My waters—on the earth, and not on him.
  33. March on, and mark King Richard how he looks.
  34. The trumpets sound parle without and answer within; then a
  35. flourish.
  36. Richard appeareth on the walls with Carlisle, Aumerle,
  37. Scroop, Salisbury.
  38. See, see, King Richard doth himself appear,
  39. As doth the blushing discontented sun
  40. From out the fiery portal of the east,
  41. When he perceives the envious clouds are bent
  42. To dim his glory and to stain the track
  43. Of his bright passage to the occident.
Duke of York

Duke of York

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

Edwin Austin Abbey, 1898

York

70 - 73
  1. Yet looks he like a king! Behold, his eye,
  2. As bright as is the eagle’s, lightens forth
  3. Controlling majesty. Alack, alack for woe,
  4. That any harm should stain so fair a show!

King Richard II

74 - 102
  1. To Northumberland.
  2. We are amaz’d, and thus long have we stood
  3. To watch the fearful bending of thy knee,
  4. Because we thought ourself thy lawful king;
  5. And if we be, how dare thy joints forget
  6. To pay their aweful duty to our presence?
  7. If we be not, show us the hand of God
  8. That hath dismiss’d us from our stewardship,
  9. For well we know no hand of blood and bone
  10. Can gripe the sacred handle of our sceptre,
  11. Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp.
  12. And though you think that all, as you have done,
  13. Have torn their souls by turning them from us,
  14. And we are barren and bereft of friends,
  15. Yet know, my master, God omnipotent,
  16. Is mustering in his clouds on our behalf
  17. Armies of pestilence, and they shall strike
  18. Your children yet unborn and unbegot,
  19. That lift your vassal hands against my head,
  20. And threat the glory of my precious crown.
  21. Tell Bullingbrook—for yon methinks he stands—
  22. That every stride he makes upon my land
  23. Is dangerous treason. He is come to open
  24. The purple testament of bleeding war;
  25. But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,
  26. Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers’ sons
  27. Shall ill become the flower of England’s face,
  28. Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace
  29. To scarlet indignation, and bedew
  30. Her pasters’ grass with faithful English blood.

Northumberland

103 - 122
  1. The King of heaven forbid our lord the King
  2. Should so with civil and uncivil arms
  3. Be rush’d upon! Thy thrice-noble cousin,
  4. Harry Bullingbrook, doth humbly kiss thy hand,
  5. And by the honorable tomb he swears
  6. That stands upon your royal grandsire’s bones,
  7. And by the royalties of both your bloods,
  8. Currents that spring from one most gracious head,
  9. And by the buried hand of warlike Gaunt,
  10. And by the worth and honor of himself,
  11. Comprising all that may be sworn or said,
  12. His coming hither hath no further scope
  13. Than for his lineal royalties, and to beg
  14. Enfranchisement immediate on his knees,
  15. Which on thy royal party granted once,
  16. His glittering arms he will commend to rust,
  17. His barbed steeds to stables, and his heart
  18. To faithful service of your Majesty.
  19. This swears he, as he is a prince, is just,
  20. And as I am a gentleman I credit him.
The remains of Flint Castle

The remains of Flint Castle

John Woods, How & Parsons, G. F. Sargent, 1841

King Richard II

123 - 132
  1. Northumberland, say thus the King returns:
  2. His noble cousin is right welcome hither,
  3. And all the number of his fair demands
  4. Shall be accomplish’d without contradiction.
  5. With all the gracious utterance thou hast
  6. Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends.
  7. Northumberland withdraws to Bullingbrook.
  8. To Aumerle.
  9. We do debase ourselves, cousin, do we not,
  10. To look so poorly and to speak so fair?
  11. Shall we call back Northumberland, and send
  12. Defiance to the traitor, and so die?

Aumerle

133 - 134
  1. No, good my lord, let’s fight with gentle swords.
  2. Till time lend friends, and friends their helpful swords.

King Richard II

135 - 143
  1. O God, O God, that e’er this tongue of mine
  2. That laid the sentence of dread banishment
  3. On yon proud man should take it off again
  4. With words of sooth! O that I were as great
  5. As is my grief, or lesser than my name!
  6. Or that I could forget what I have been!
  7. Or not remember what I must be now!
  8. Swell’st thou, proud heart? I’ll give thee scope to beat,
  9. Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me.

Aumerle

144
  1. Northumberland comes back from Bullingbrook.

King Richard II

145 - 177
  1. What must the King do now? Must he submit?
  2. The King shall do it. Must he be depos’d?
  3. The King shall be contented. Must he lose
  4. The name of king? A’ God’s name let it go.
  5. I’ll give my jewels for a set of beads,
  6. My gorgeous palace for a hermitage,
  7. My gay apparel for an almsman’s gown,
  8. My figur’d goblets for a dish of wood,
  9. My sceptre for a palmer’s walking-staff,
  10. My subjects for a pair of carved saints,
  11. And my large kingdom for a little grave,
  12. A little little grave, an obscure grave—
  13. Or I’ll be buried in the king’s high way,
  14. Some way of common trade, where subjects’ feet
  15. May hourly trample on their sovereign’s head;
  16. For on my heart they tread now whilst I live,
  17. And buried once, why not upon my head?
  18. Aumerle, thou weep’st, my tender-hearted cousin!
  19. We’ll make foul weather with despised tears;
  20. Our sighs and they shall lodge the summer corn,
  21. And make a dearth in this revolting land.
  22. Or shall we play the wantons with our woes
  23. And make some pretty match with shedding tears?
  24. As thus to drop them still upon one place,
  25. Till they have fretted us a pair of graves
  26. Within the earth, and, therein laid—there lies
  27. Two kinsmen digg’d their graves with weeping eyes.
  28. Would not this ill do well? Well, well, I see
  29. I talk but idlely, and you laugh at me.
  30. Most mighty prince, my Lord Northumberland,
  31. What says King Bullingbrook? Will his Majesty
  32. Give Richard leave to live till Richard die?
  33. You make a leg, and Bullingbrook says ay.
King Richard

King Richard

19th century

Northumberland

178 - 179
  1. My lord, in the base court he doth attend
  2. To speak with you, may it please you to come down.

King Richard II

180 - 185
  1. Down, down I come, like glist’ring Phaëton,
  2. Wanting the manage of unruly jades.
  3. In the base court? Base court, where kings grow base,
  4. To come at traitors’ calls and do them grace.
  5. In the base court, come down? Down court! Down king!
  6. For night-owls shriek where mounting larks should sing.
  1. Exeunt above.

Bullingbrook

186
  1. What says his Majesty?

Northumberland

187 - 189
  1.                        Sorrow and grief of heart
  2. Makes him speak fondly like a frantic man,
  3. Yet he is come.
  1. Enter King Richard and his Attendants below.

Bullingbrook

190 - 192
  1. Stand all apart,
  2. And show fair duty to his Majesty.
  3. He kneels down.
  4. My gracious lord—

King Richard II

193 - 199
  1. Fair cousin, you debase your princely knee
  2. To make the base earth proud with kissing it.
  3. Me rather had my heart might feel your love
  4. Than my unpleased eye see your courtesy.
  5. Up, cousin, up, your heart is up, I know,
  6. Thus high at least
  7. Touching his crown.
  8.                    although your knee be low.

Bullingbrook

200
  1. My gracious lord, I come but for mine own.

King Richard II

201
  1. Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all.

Bullingbrook

202 - 203
  1. So far be mine, my most redoubted lord,
  2. As my true service shall deserve your love.

King Richard II

204 - 212
  1. Well you deserve; they well deserve to have
  2. That know the strong’st and surest way to get.
  3. Uncle, give me your hands; nay, dry your eyes—
  4. Tears show their love, but want their remedies.
  5. Cousin, I am too young to be your father,
  6. Though you are old enough to be my heir.
  7. What you will have, I’ll give, and willing too,
  8. For do we must what force will have us do.
  9. Set on towards London, cousin, is it so?

Bullingbrook

213
  1. Yea, my good lord.

King Richard II

214
  1.                    Then I must not say no.
  1. Flourish. Exeunt.
Duke of Surrey, Richard II, from a painting in watercolours in the British Museum

Duke of Surrey, Richard II, from a painting in watercolours in the British Museum

Sylvester Harding, Edward Harding, 1792

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