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ACT I, SCENE I.

London. KING RICHARD II's palace.

Enter KING RICHARD II, JOHN OF GAUNT, with other Nobles and Attendants

KING RICHARD II
001: Old John of Gaunt, time-honour'd Lancaster,
002: Hast thou, according to thy oath and band,
003: Brought hither Henry Hereford thy bold son,
004: Here to make good the boisterous late appeal,
005: Which then our leisure would not let us hear,
006: Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?

JOHN OF GAUNT
007: I have, my liege.

KING RICHARD II
008: Tell me, moreover, hast thou sounded him,
009: If he appeal the duke on ancient malice;
010: Or worthily, as a good subject should,
011: On some known ground of treachery in him?

JOHN OF GAUNT
012: As near as I could sift him on that argument,
013: On some apparent danger seen in him
014: Aim'd at your highness, no inveterate malice.

KING RICHARD II
015: Then call them to our presence; face to face,
016: And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear
017: The accuser and the accused freely speak:
018: High-stomach'd are they both, and full of ire,
019: In rage deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.

Enter HENRY BOLINGBROKE and THOMAS MOWBRAY

HENRY BOLINGBROKE
020: Many years of happy days befal
021: My gracious sovereign, my most loving liege!

THOMAS MOWBRAY
022: Each day still better other's happiness;
023: Until the heavens, envying earth's good hap,
024: Add an immortal title to your crown!

KING RICHARD II
025: We thank you both: yet one but flatters us,
026: As well appeareth by the cause you come;
027: Namely to appeal each other of high treason.
028: Cousin of Hereford, what dost thou object
029: Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?

HENRY BOLINGBROKE
030: First, heaven be the record to my speech!
031: In the devotion of a subject's love,
032: Tendering the precious safety of my prince,
033: And free from other misbegotten hate,
034: Come I appellant to this princely presence.
035: Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee,
036: And mark my greeting well; for what I speak
037: My body shall make good upon this earth,
038: Or my divine soul answer it in heaven.
039: Thou art a traitor and a miscreant,
040: Too good to be so and too bad to live,
041: Since the more fair and crystal is the sky,
042: The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly.
043: Once more, the more to aggravate the note,
044: With a foul traitor's name stuff I thy throat;
045: And wish, so please my sovereign, ere I move,
046: What my tongue speaks my right drawn sword may prove.

THOMAS MOWBRAY
047: Let not my cold words here accuse my zeal:
048: 'Tis not the trial of a woman's war,
049: The bitter clamour of two eager tongues,
050: Can arbitrate this cause betwixt us twain;
051: The blood is hot that must be cool'd for this:
052: Yet can I not of such tame patience boast
053: As to be hush'd and nought at all to say:
054: First, the fair reverence of your highness curbs me
055: From giving reins and spurs to my free speech;
056: Which else would post until it had return'd
057: These terms of treason doubled down his throat.
058: Setting aside his high blood's royalty,
059: And let him be no kinsman to my liege,
060: I do defy him, and I spit at him;
061: Call him a slanderous coward and a villain:
062: Which to maintain I would allow him odds,
063: And meet him, were I tied to run afoot
064: Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps,
065: Or any other ground inhabitable,
066: Where ever Englishman durst set his foot.
067: Mean time let this defend my loyalty,
068: By all my hopes, most falsely doth he lie.

HENRY BOLINGBROKE
069: Pale trembling coward, there I throw my gage,
070: Disclaiming here the kindred of the king,
071: And lay aside my high blood's royalty,
072: Which fear, not reverence, makes thee to except.
073: If guilty dread have left thee so much strength
074: As to take up mine honour's pawn, then stoop:
075: By that and all the rites of knighthood else,
076: Will I make good against thee, arm to arm,
077: What I have spoke, or thou canst worse devise.

THOMAS MOWBRAY
078: I take it up; and by that sword I swear
079: Which gently laid my knighthood on my shoulder,
080: I'll answer thee in any fair degree,
081: Or chivalrous design of knightly trial:
082: And when I mount, alive may I not light,
083: If I be traitor or unjustly fight!

KING RICHARD II
084: What doth our cousin lay to Mowbray's charge?
085: It must be great that can inherit us
086: So much as of a thought of ill in him.

HENRY BOLINGBROKE
087: Look, what I speak, my life shall prove it true;
088: That Mowbray hath received eight thousand nobles
089: In name of lendings for your highness' soldiers,
090: The which he hath detain'd for lewd employments,
091: Like a false traitor and injurious villain.
092: Besides I say and will in battle prove,
093: Or here or elsewhere to the furthest verge
094: That ever was survey'd by English eye,
095: That all the treasons for these eighteen years
096: Complotted and contrived in this land
097: Fetch from false Mowbray their first head and spring.
098: Further I say and further will maintain
099: Upon his bad life to make all this good,
100: That he did plot the Duke of Gloucester's death,
101: Suggest his soon-believing adversaries,
102: And consequently, like a traitor coward,
103: Sluiced out his innocent soul through streams of blood:
104: Which blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries,
105: Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth,
106: To me for justice and rough chastisement;
107: And, by the glorious worth of my descent,
108: This arm shall do it, or this life be spent.

KING RICHARD II
109: How high a pitch his resolution soars!
110: Thomas of Norfolk, what say'st thou to this?

THOMAS MOWBRAY
111: O, let my sovereign turn away his face
112: And bid his ears a little while be deaf,
113: Till I have told this slander of his blood,
114: How God and good men hate so foul a liar.

KING RICHARD II
115: Mowbray, impartial are our eyes and ears:
116: Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom's heir,
117: As he is but my father's brother's son,
118: Now, by my sceptre's awe, I make a vow,
119: Such neighbour nearness to our sacred blood
120: Should nothing privilege him, nor partialize
121: The unstooping firmness of my upright soul:
122: He is our subject, Mowbray; so art thou:
123: Free speech and fearless I to thee allow.

THOMAS MOWBRAY
124: Then, Bolingbroke, as low as to thy heart,
125: Through the false passage of thy throat, thou liest.
126: Three parts of that receipt I had for Calais
127: Disbursed I duly to his highness' soldiers;
128: The other part reserved I by consent,
129: For that my sovereign liege was in my debt
130: Upon remainder of a dear account,
131: Since last I went to France to fetch his queen:
132: Now swallow down that lie. For Gloucester's death,
133: I slew him not; but to my own disgrace
134: Neglected my sworn duty in that case.
135: For you, my noble Lord of Lancaster,
136: The honourable father to my foe
137: Once did I lay an ambush for your life,
138: A trespass that doth vex my grieved soul
139: But ere I last received the sacrament
140: I did confess it, and exactly begg'd
141: Your grace's pardon, and I hope I had it.
142: This is my fault: as for the rest appeall'd,
143: It issues from the rancour of a villain,
144: A recreant and most degenerate traitor
145: Which in myself I boldly will defend;
146: And interchangeably hurl down my gage
147: Upon this overweening traitor's foot,
148: To prove myself a loyal gentleman
149: Even in the best blood chamber'd in his bosom.
150: In haste whereof, most heartily I pray
151: Your highness to assign our trial day.

KING RICHARD II
152: Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be ruled by me;
153: Let's purge this choler without letting blood:
154: This we prescribe, though no physician;
155: Deep malice makes too deep incision;
156: Forget, forgive; conclude and be agreed;
157: Our doctors say this is no month to bleed.
158: Good uncle, let this end where it begun;
159: We'll calm the Duke of Norfolk, you your son.

JOHN OF GAUNT
160: To be a make-peace shall become my age:
161: Throw down, my son, the Duke of Norfolk's gage.

KING RICHARD II
162: And, Norfolk, throw down his.

JOHN OF GAUNT
163: When, Harry, when?
164: Obedience bids I should not bid again.

KING RICHARD II
165: Norfolk, throw down, we bid; there is no boot.

THOMAS MOWBRAY
166: Myself I throw, dread sovereign, at thy foot.
167: My life thou shalt command, but not my shame:
168: The one my duty owes; but my fair name,
169: Despite of death that lives upon my grave,
170: To dark dishonour's use thou shalt not have.
171: I am disgraced, impeach'd and baffled here,
172: Pierced to the soul with slander's venom'd spear,
173: The which no balm can cure but his heart-blood
174: Which breathed this poison.

KING RICHARD II
175: Rage must be withstood:
176: Give me his gage: lions make leopards tame.

THOMAS MOWBRAY
177: Yea, but not change his spots: take but my shame.
178: And I resign my gage. My dear dear lord,
179: The purest treasure mortal times afford
180: Is spotless reputation: that away,
181: Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.
182: A jewel in a ten-times-barr'd-up chest
183: Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast.
184: Mine honour is my life; both grow in one:
185: Take honour from me, and my life is done:
186: Then, dear my liege, mine honour let me try;
187: In that I live and for that will I die.

KING RICHARD II
188: Cousin, throw up your gage; do you begin.

HENRY BOLINGBROKE
189: O, God defend my soul from such deep sin!
190: Shall I seem crest-fall'n in my father's sight?
191: Or with pale beggar-fear impeach my height
192: Before this out-dared dastard? Ere my tongue
193: Shall wound my honour with such feeble wrong,
194: Or sound so base a parle, my teeth shall tear
195: The slavish motive of recanting fear,
196: And spit it bleeding in his high disgrace,
197: Where shame doth harbour, even in Mowbray's face.

Exit JOHN OF GAUNT

KING RICHARD II
198: We were not born to sue, but to command;
199: Which since we cannot do to make you friends,
200: Be ready, as your lives shall answer it,
201: At Coventry, upon Saint Lambert's day:
202: There shall your swords and lances arbitrate
203: The swelling difference of your settled hate:
204: Since we can not atone you, we shall see
205: Justice design the victor's chivalry.
206: Lord marshal, command our officers at arms
207: Be ready to direct these home alarms.

Exeunt

ACT I, SCENE II.

The DUKE OF LANCASTER'S palace.

Enter JOHN OF GAUNT with DUCHESS

JOHN OF GAUNT
001: Alas, the part I had in Woodstock's blood
002: Doth more solicit me than your exclaims,
003: To stir against the butchers of his life!
004: But since correction lieth in those hands
005: Which made the fault that we cannot correct,
006: Put we our quarrel to the will of heaven;
007: Who, when they see the hours ripe on earth,
008: Will rain hot vengeance on offenders' heads.

DUCHESS
009: Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper spur?
010: Hath love in thy old blood no living fire?
011: Edward's seven sons, whereof thyself art one,
012: Were as seven vials of his sacred blood,
013: Or seven fair branches springing from one root:
014: Some of those seven are dried by nature's course,
015: Some of those branches by the Destinies cut;
016: But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Gloucester,
017: One vial full of Edward's sacred blood,
018: One flourishing branch of his most royal root,
019: Is crack'd, and all the precious liquor spilt,
020: Is hack'd down, and his summer leaves all faded,
021: By envy's hand and murder's bloody axe.
022: Ah, Gaunt, his blood was thine! that bed, that womb,
023: That metal, that self-mould, that fashion'd thee
024: Made him a man; and though thou livest and breathest,
025: Yet art thou slain in him: thou dost consent
026: In some large measure to thy father's death,
027: In that thou seest thy wretched brother die,
028: Who was the model of thy father's life.
029: Call it not patience, Gaunt; it is despair:
030: In suffering thus thy brother to be slaughter'd,
031: Thou showest the naked pathway to thy life,
032: Teaching stern murder how to butcher thee:
033: That which in mean men we intitle patience
034: Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.
035: What shall I say? to safeguard thine own life,
036: The best way is to venge my Gloucester's death.

JOHN OF GAUNT
037: God's is the quarrel; for God's substitute,
038: His deputy anointed in His sight,
039: Hath caused his death: the which if wrongfully,
040: Let heaven revenge; for I may never lift
041: An angry arm against His minister.

DUCHESS
042: Where then, alas, may I complain myself?

JOHN OF GAUNT
043: To God, the widow's champion and defence.

DUCHESS
044: Why, then, I will. Farewell, old Gaunt.
045: Thou goest to Coventry, there to behold
046: Our cousin Hereford and fell Mowbray fight:
047: O, sit my husband's wrongs on Hereford's spear,
048: That it may enter butcher Mowbray's breast!
049: Or, if misfortune miss the first career,
050: Be Mowbray's sins so heavy in his bosom,
051: They may break his foaming courser's back,
052: And throw the rider headlong in the lists,
053: A caitiff recreant to my cousin Hereford!
054: Farewell, old Gaunt: thy sometimes brother's wife
055: With her companion grief must end her life.

JOHN OF GAUNT
056: Sister, farewell; I must to Coventry:
057: As much good stay with thee as go with me!

DUCHESS
058: Yet one word more: grief boundeth where it falls,
059: Not with the empty hollowness, but weight:
060: I take my leave before I have begun,
061: For sorrow ends not when it seemeth done.
062: Commend me to thy brother, Edmund York.
063: Lo, this is all:--nay, yet depart not so;
064: Though this be all, do not so quickly go;
065: I shall remember more. Bid him--ah, what?--
066: With all good speed at Plashy visit me.
067: Alack, and what shall good old York there see
068: But empty lodgings and unfurnish'd walls,
069: Unpeopled offices, untrodden stones?
070: And what hear there for welcome but my groans?
071: Therefore commend me; let him not come there,
072: To seek out sorrow that dwells every where.
073: Desolate, desolate, will I hence and die:
074: The last leave of thee takes my weeping eye.

Exeunt

ACT I, SCENE III.

The lists at Coventry.

Enter the Lord Marshal and the DUKE OF AUMERLE

Lord Marshal
001: My Lord Aumerle, is Harry Hereford arm'd?

DUKE OF AUMERLE
002: Yea, at all points; and longs to enter in.

Lord Marshal
003: The Duke of Norfolk, sprightfully and bold,
004: Stays but the summons of the appellant's trumpet.

DUKE OF AUMERLE
005: Why, then, the champions are prepared, and stay
006: For nothing but his majesty's approach.

The trumpets sound, and KING RICHARD enters with his nobles, JOHN OF GAUNT, BUSHY, BAGOT, GREEN, and others. When they are set, enter THOMAS MOWBRAY in arms, defendant, with a Herald

KING RICHARD II
007: Marshal, demand of yonder champion
008: The cause of his arrival here in arms:
009: Ask him his name and orderly proceed
010: To swear him in the justice of his cause.

Lord Marshal
011: In God's name and the king's, say who thou art
012: And why thou comest thus knightly clad in arms,
013: Against what man thou comest, and what thy quarrel:
014: Speak truly, on thy knighthood and thy oath;
015: As so defend thee heaven and thy valour!

THOMAS MOWBRAY
016: My name is Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk;
017: Who hither come engaged by my oath--
018: Which God defend a knight should violate!--
019: Both to defend my loyalty and truth
020: To God, my king and my succeeding issue,
021: Against the Duke of Hereford that appeals me
022: And, by the grace of God and this mine arm,
023: To prove him, in defending of myself,
024: A traitor to my God, my king, and me:
025: And as I truly fight, defend me heaven!

The trumpets sound. Enter HENRY BOLINGBROKE, appellant, in armour, with a Herald

KING RICHARD II
026: Marshal, ask yonder knight in arms,
027: Both who he is and why he cometh hither
028: Thus plated in habiliments of war,
029: And formally, according to our law,
030: Depose him in the justice of his cause.

Lord Marshal
031: What is thy name? and wherefore comest thou hither,
032: Before King Richard in his royal lists?
033: Against whom comest thou? and what's thy quarrel?
034: Speak like a true knight, so defend thee heaven!

HENRY BOLINGBROKE
035: Harry of Hereford, Lancaster and Derby
036: Am I; who ready here do stand in arms,
037: To prove, by God's grace and my body's valour,
038: In lists, on Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk,
039: That he is a traitor, foul and dangerous,
040: To God of heaven, King Richard and to me;
041: And as I truly fight, defend me heaven!

Lord Marshal
042: On pain of death, no person be so bold
043: Or daring-hardy as to touch the lists,
044: Except the marshal and such officers
045: Appointed to direct these fair designs.

HENRY BOLINGBROKE
046: Lord marshal, let me kiss my sovereign's hand,
047: And bow my knee before his majesty:
048: For Mowbray and myself are like two men
049: That vow a long and weary pilgrimage;
050: Then let us take a ceremonious leave
051: And loving farewell of our several friends.

Lord Marshal
052: The appellant in all duty greets your highness,
053: And craves to kiss your hand and take his leave.

KING RICHARD II
054: We will descend and fold him in our arms.
055: Cousin of Hereford, as thy cause is right,
056: So be thy fortune in this royal fight!
057: Farewell, my blood; which if to-day thou shed,
058: Lament we may, but not revenge thee dead.

HENRY BOLINGBROKE
059: O let no noble eye profane a tear
060: For me, if I be gored with Mowbray's spear:
061: As confident as is the falcon's flight
062: Against a bird, do I with Mowbray fight.
063: My loving lord, I take my leave of you;
064: Of you, my noble cousin, Lord Aumerle;
065: Not sick, although I have to do with death,
066: But lusty, young, and cheerly drawing breath.
067: Lo, as at English feasts, so I regreet
068: The daintiest last, to make the end most sweet:
069: O thou, the earthly author of my blood,
070: Whose youthful spirit, in me regenerate,
071: Doth with a twofold vigour lift me up
072: To reach at victory above my head,
073: Add proof unto mine armour with thy prayers;
074: And with thy blessings steel my lance's point,
075: That it may enter Mowbray's waxen coat,
076: And furbish new the name of John a Gaunt,
077: Even in the lusty havior of his son.

JOHN OF GAUNT
078: God in thy good cause make thee prosperous!
079: Be swift like lightning in the execution;
080: And let thy blows, doubly redoubled,
081: Fall like amazing thunder on the casque
082: Of thy adverse pernicious enemy:
083: Rouse up thy youthful blood, be valiant and live.

HENRY BOLINGBROKE
084: Mine innocency and Saint George to thrive!

THOMAS MOWBRAY
085: However God or fortune cast my lot,
086: There lives or dies, true to King Richard's throne,
087: A loyal, just and upright gentleman:
088: Never did captive with a freer heart
089: Cast off his chains of bondage and embrace
090: His golden uncontroll'd enfranchisement,
091: More than my dancing soul doth celebrate
092: This feast of battle with mine adversary.
093: Most mighty liege, and my companion peers,
094: Take from my mouth the wish of happy years:
095: As gentle and as jocund as to jest
096: Go I to fight: truth hath a quiet breast.

KING RICHARD II
097: Farewell, my lord: securely I espy
098: Virtue with valour couched in thine eye.
099: Order the trial, marshal, and begin.

Lord Marshal
100: Harry of Hereford, Lancaster and Derby,
101: Receive thy lance; and God defend the right!

HENRY BOLINGBROKE
102: Strong as a tower in hope, I cry amen.

Lord Marshal
103: Go bear this lance to Thomas, Duke of Norfolk.

First Herald
104: Harry of Hereford, Lancaster and Derby,
105: Stands here for God, his sovereign and himself,
106: On pain to be found false and recreant,
107: To prove the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray,
108: A traitor to his God, his king and him;
109: And dares him to set forward to the fight.

Second Herald
110: Here standeth Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk,
111: On pain to be found false and recreant,
112: Both to defend himself and to approve
113: Henry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
114: To God, his sovereign and to him disloyal;
115: Courageously and with a free desire
116: Attending but the signal to begin.

Lord Marshal
117: Sound, trumpets; and set forward, combatants.
[A charge sounded]
118: Stay, the king hath thrown his warder down.

KING RICHARD II
119: Let them lay by their helmets and their spears,
120: And both return back to their chairs again:
121: Withdraw with us: and let the trumpets sound
122: While we return these dukes what we decree.
[A long flourish]
123: Draw near,
124: And list what with our council we have done.
125: For that our kingdom's earth should not be soil'd
126: With that dear blood which it hath fostered;
127: And for our eyes do hate the dire aspect
128: Of civil wounds plough'd up with neighbours' sword;
129: And for we think the eagle-winged pride
130: Of sky-aspiring and ambitious thoughts,
131: With rival-hating envy, set on you
132: To wake our peace, which in our country's cradle
133: Draws the sweet infant breath of gentle sleep;
134: Which so roused up with boisterous untuned drums,
135: With harsh resounding trumpets' dreadful bray,
136: And grating shock of wrathful iron arms,
137: Might from our quiet confines fright fair peace
138: And make us wade even in our kindred's blood,
139: Therefore, we banish you our territories:
140: You, cousin Hereford, upon pain of life,
141: Till twice five summers have enrich'd our fields
142: Shall not regreet our fair dominions,
143: But tread the stranger paths of banishment.

HENRY BOLINGBROKE
144: Your will be done: this must my comfort be,
145: Sun that warms you here shall shine on me;
146: And those his golden beams to you here lent
147: Shall point on me and gild my banishment.

KING RICHARD II
148: Norfolk, for thee remains a heavier doom,
149: Which I with some unwillingness pronounce:
150: The sly slow hours shall not determinate
151: The dateless limit of thy dear exile;
152: The hopeless word of 'never to return'
153: Breathe I against thee, upon pain of life.

THOMAS MOWBRAY
154: A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege,
155: And all unlook'd for from your highness' mouth:
156: A dearer merit, not so deep a maim
157: As to be cast forth in the common air,
158: Have I deserved at your highness' hands.
159: The language I have learn'd these forty years,
160: My native English, now I must forego:
161: And now my tongue's use is to me no more
162: Than an unstringed viol or a harp,
163: Or like a cunning instrument cased up,
164: Or, being open, put into his hands
165: That knows no touch to tune the harmony:
166: Within my mouth you have engaol'd my tongue,
167: Doubly portcullis'd with my teeth and lips;
168: And dull unfeeling barren ignorance
169: Is made my gaoler to attend on me.
170: I am too old to fawn upon a nurse,
171: Too far in years to be a pupil now:
172: What is thy sentence then but speechless death,
173: Which robs my tongue from breathing native breath?

KING RICHARD II
174: It boots thee not to be compassionate:
175: After our sentence plaining comes too late.

THOMAS MOWBRAY
176: Then thus I turn me from my country's light,
177: To dwell in solemn shades of endless night.

KING RICHARD II
178: Return again, and take an oath with thee.
179: Lay on our royal sword your banish'd hands;
180: Swear by the duty that you owe to God--
181: Our part therein we banish with yourselves--
182: To keep the oath that we administer:
183: You never shall, so help you truth and God!
184: Embrace each other's love in banishment;
185: Nor never look upon each other's face;
186: Nor never write, regreet, nor reconcile
187: This louring tempest of your home-bred hate;
188: Nor never by advised purpose meet
189: To plot, contrive, or complot any ill
190: 'Gainst us, our state, our subjects, or our land.

HENRY BOLINGBROKE
191: I swear.

THOMAS MOWBRAY
192: And I, to keep all this.

HENRY BOLINGBROKE
193: Norfolk, so far as to mine enemy:--
194: By this time, had the king permitted us,
195: One of our souls had wander'd in the air.
196: Banish'd this frail sepulchre of our flesh,
197: As now our flesh is banish'd from this land:
198: Confess thy treasons ere thou fly the realm;
199: Since thou hast far to go, bear not along
200: The clogging burthen of a guilty soul.

THOMAS MOWBRAY
201: No, Bolingbroke: if ever I were traitor,
202: My name be blotted from the book of life,
203: And I from heaven banish'd as from hence!
204: But what thou art, God, thou, and I do know;
205: And all too soon, I fear, the king shall rue.
206: Farewell, my liege. Now no way can I stray;
207: Save back to England, all the world's my way.

Exit

KING RICHARD II
208: Uncle, even in the glasses of thine eyes
209: I see thy grieved heart: thy sad aspect
210: Hath from the number of his banish'd years
211: Pluck'd four away.
[To HENRY BOLINGBROKE]
212: Six frozen winter spent,
213: Return with welcome home from banishment.

HENRY BOLINGBROKE
214: How long a time lies in one little word!
215: Four lagging winters and four wanton springs
216: End in a word: such is the breath of kings.

JOHN OF GAUNT
217: I thank my liege, that in regard of me
218: He shortens four years of my son's exile:
219: But little vantage shall I reap thereby;
220: For, ere the six years that he hath to spend
221: Can change their moons and bring their times about
222: My oil-dried lamp and time-bewasted light
223: Shall be extinct with age and endless night;
224: My inch of taper will be burnt and done,
225: And blindfold death not let me see my son.

KING RICHARD II
226: Why uncle, thou hast many years to live.

JOHN OF GAUNT
227: But not a minute, king, that thou canst give:
228: Shorten my days thou canst with sullen sorrow,
229: And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow;
230: Thou canst help time to furrow me with age,
231: But stop no wrinkle in his pilgrimage;
232: Thy word is current with him for my death,
233: But dead, thy kingdom cannot buy my breath.

KING RICHARD II
234: Thy son is banish'd upon good advice,
235: Whereto thy tongue a party-verdict gave:
236: Why at our justice seem'st thou then to lour?

JOHN OF GAUNT
237: Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour.
238: You urged me as a judge; but I had rather
239: You would have bid me argue like a father.
240: O, had it been a stranger, not my child,
241: To smooth his fault I should have been more mild:
242: A partial slander sought I to avoid,
243: And in the sentence my own life destroy'd.
244: Alas, I look'd when some of you should say,
245: I was too strict to make mine own away;
246: But you gave leave to my unwilling tongue
247: Against my will to do myself this wrong.

KING RICHARD II
248: Cousin, farewell; and, uncle, bid him so:
249: Six years we banish him, and he shall go.

Flourish. Exeunt KING RICHARD II and train

DUKE OF AUMERLE
250: Cousin, farewell: what presence must not know,
251: From where you do remain let paper show.

Lord Marshal
252: My lord, no leave take I; for I will ride,
253: As far as land will let me, by your side.

JOHN OF GAUNT
254: O, to what purpose dost thou hoard thy words,
255: That thou return'st no greeting to thy friends?

HENRY BOLINGBROKE
256: I have too few to take my leave of you,
257: When the tongue's office should be prodigal
258: To breathe the abundant dolour of the heart.

JOHN OF GAUNT
259: Thy grief is but thy absence for a time.

HENRY BOLINGBROKE
260: Joy absent, grief is present for that time.

JOHN OF GAUNT
261: What is six winters? they are quickly gone.

HENRY BOLINGBROKE
262: To men in joy; but grief makes one hour ten.

JOHN OF GAUNT
263: Call it a travel that thou takest for pleasure.

HENRY BOLINGBROKE
264: My heart will sigh when I miscall it so,
265: Which finds it an inforced pilgrimage.

JOHN OF GAUNT
266: The sullen passage of thy weary steps
267: Esteem as foil wherein thou art to set
268: The precious jewel of thy home return.

HENRY BOLINGBROKE
269: Nay, rather, every tedious stride I make
270: Will but remember me what a deal of world
271: I wander from the jewels that I love.
272: Must I not serve a long apprenticehood
273: To foreign passages, and in the end,
274: Having my freedom, boast of nothing else
275: But that I was a journeyman to grief?

JOHN OF GAUNT
276: All places that the eye of heaven visits
277: Are to a wise man ports and happy havens.
278: Teach thy necessity to reason thus;
279: There is no virtue like necessity.
280: Think not the king did banish thee,
281: But thou the king. Woe doth the heavier sit,
282: Where it perceives it is but faintly borne.
283: Go, say I sent thee forth to purchase honour
284: And not the king exiled thee; or suppose
285: Devouring pestilence hangs in our air
286: And thou art flying to a fresher clime:
287: Look, what thy soul holds dear, imagine it
288: To lie that way thou go'st, not whence thou comest:
289: Suppose the singing birds musicians,
290: The grass whereon thou tread'st the presence strew'd,
291: The flowers fair ladies, and thy steps no more
292: Than a delightful measure or a dance;
293: For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite
294: The man that mocks at it and sets it light.

HENRY BOLINGBROKE
295: O, who can hold a fire in his hand
296: By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?
297: Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite
298: By bare imagination of a feast?
299: Or wallow naked in December snow
300: By thinking on fantastic summer's heat?
301: O, no! the apprehension of the good
302: Gives but the greater feeling to the worse:
303: Fell sorrow's tooth doth never rankle more
304: Than when he bites, but lanceth not the sore.

JOHN OF GAUNT
305: Come, come, my son, I'll bring thee on thy way:
306: Had I thy youth and cause, I would not stay.

HENRY BOLINGBROKE
307: Then, England's ground, farewell; sweet soil, adieu;
308: My mother, and my nurse, that bears me yet!
309: Where'er I wander, boast of this I can,
310: Though banish'd, yet a trueborn Englishman.

Exeunt

ACT I, SCENE IV.

The court.

Enter KING RICHARD II, with BAGOT and GREEN at one door; and the DUKE OF AUMERLE at another

KING RICHARD II
001: We did observe. Cousin Aumerle,
002: How far brought you high Hereford on his way?

DUKE OF AUMERLE
003: I brought high Hereford, if you call him so,
004: But to the next highway, and there I left him.

KING RICHARD II
005: And say, what store of parting tears were shed?

DUKE OF AUMERLE
006: Faith, none for me; except the north-east wind,
007: Which then blew bitterly against our faces,
008: Awaked the sleeping rheum, and so by chance
009: Did grace our hollow parting with a tear.

KING RICHARD II
010: What said our cousin when you parted with him?

DUKE OF AUMERLE
011: 'Farewell:'
012: And, for my heart disdained that my tongue
013: Should so profane the word, that taught me craft
014: To counterfeit oppression of such grief
015: That words seem'd buried in my sorrow's grave.
016: Marry, would the word 'farewell' have lengthen'd hours
017: And added years to his short banishment,
018: He should have had a volume of farewells;
019: But since it would not, he had none of me.

KING RICHARD II
020: He is our cousin, cousin; but 'tis doubt,
021: When time shall call him home from banishment,
022: Whether our kinsman come to see his friends.
023: Ourself and Bushy, Bagot here and Green
024: Observed his courtship to the common people;
025: How he did seem to dive into their hearts
026: With humble and familiar courtesy,
027: What reverence he did throw away on slaves,
028: Wooing poor craftsmen with the craft of smiles
029: And patient underbearing of his fortune,
030: As 'twere to banish their affects with him.
031: Off goes his bonnet to an oyster-wench;
032: A brace of draymen bid God speed him well
033: And had the tribute of his supple knee,
034: With 'Thanks, my countrymen, my loving friends;'
035: As were our England in reversion his,
036: And he our subjects' next degree in hope.

GREEN
037: Well, he is gone; and with him go these thoughts.
038: Now for the rebels which stand out in Ireland,
039: Expedient manage must be made, my liege,
040: Ere further leisure yield them further means
041: For their advantage and your highness' loss.

KING RICHARD II
042: We will ourself in person to this war:
043: And, for our coffers, with too great a court
044: And liberal largess, are grown somewhat light,
045: We are inforced to farm our royal realm;
046: The revenue whereof shall furnish us
047: For our affairs in hand: if that come short,
048: Our substitutes at home shall have blank charters;
049: Whereto, when they shall know what men are rich,
050: They shall subscribe them for large sums of gold
051: And send them after to supply our wants;
052: For we will make for Ireland presently.
[Enter BUSHY]
053: Bushy, what news?

BUSHY
054: Old John of Gaunt is grievous sick, my lord,
055: Suddenly taken; and hath sent post haste
056: To entreat your majesty to visit him.

KING RICHARD II
057: Where lies he?

BUSHY
058: At Ely House.

KING RICHARD II
059: Now put it, God, in the physician's mind
060: To help him to his grave immediately!
061: The lining of his coffers shall make coats
062: To deck our soldiers for these Irish wars.
063: Come, gentlemen, let's all go visit him:
064: Pray God we may make haste, and come too late!

All
065: Amen.

Exeunt

ACT II, SCENE I.

Ely House.

Enter JOHN OF GAUNT sick, with the DUKE OF YORK, &c

JOHN OF GAUNT
001: Will the king come, that I may breathe my last
002: In wholesome counsel to his unstaid youth?

DUKE OF YORK
003: Vex not yourself, nor strive not with your breath;
004: For all in vain comes counsel to his ear.

JOHN OF GAUNT
005: O, but they say the tongues of dying men
006: Enforce attention like deep harmony:
007: Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain,
008: For they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain.
009: He that no more must say is listen'd more
010: Than they whom youth and ease have taught to glose;
011: More are men's ends mark'd than their lives before:
012: The setting sun, and music at the close,
013: As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,
014: Writ in remembrance more than things long past:
015: Though Richard my life's counsel would not hear,
016: My death's sad tale may yet undeaf his ear.

DUKE OF YORK
017: No; it is stopp'd with other flattering sounds,
018: As praises, of whose taste the wise are fond,
019: Lascivious metres, to whose venom sound
020: The open ear of youth doth always listen;
021: Report of fashions in proud Italy,
022: Whose manners still our tardy apish nation
023: Limps after in base imitation.
024: Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity--
025: So it be new, there's no respect how vile--
026: That is not quickly buzzed into his ears?
027: Then all too late comes counsel to be heard,
028: Where will doth mutiny with wit's regard.
029: Direct not him whose way himself will choose:
030: 'Tis breath thou lack'st, and that breath wilt thou lose.

JOHN OF GAUNT
031: Methinks I am a prophet new inspired
032: And thus expiring do foretell of him:
033: His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last,
034: For violent fires soon burn out themselves;
035: Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short;