Lest you be cropp'd before you come to prime. What news from Oxford? Do these jousts and triumphs hold?
Aum. For aught I know, my lord, they do.
York. You will be there, I know.
Aum. If God prevent not, I purpose so.
York. What seal is that, that hangs without
thy bosom?
Yea, look'st thou pale? Let me see the writing.
Aum. My lord, 't is nothing.
York.
No matter, then, who see it.
I will be satisfied; let me see the writing.
Aum. I do beseech your Grace to pardon me.
It is a matter of small consequence,
Which for some reasons I would not have seen.
York. Which for some reasons, sir, I mean
to see. I fear, I fear, Duch.
What should you fear? 'Tis nothing but some band, that he is ent'red into
For gay apparel 'gainst the triumph day.
York. Bound to himself! What doth he
Make way, unruly woman! [Exit.
Duch. After, Aumerle! mount thee upon his horse;
Spur post, and get before him to the King,
And beg thy pardon ere he do accuse thee.
I'll not be long behind; though I be old,
I doubt not but to ride as fast as York.
And never will I rise up from the ground
Till Bolingbroke have pardon'd thee. Away,
be gone!
[Exeunt.
SCENE III. [Windsor Castle.]
Enter BOLINGBROKE, PERCY, and other Lords.
Boling. Can no man tell me of my unthrifty
son?
'Tis full three months since I did see him last. If any plague hang over us, 't is he.
I would to God, my lords, he might be found.
Inquire at London, 'mongst the taverns there,
For there, they say, he daily doth frequent,
With unrestrained loose companions,
Even such, they say, as stand in narrow lanes,
And beat our watch, and rob our passengers;
Which he, young wanton and effeminate boy,
Takes on the point of honour to support
So dissolute a crew.
Percy. My lord, some two days since I saw the Prince,
And told him of those triumphs held at Oxford. Boling. And what said the gallant?
Percy. His answer was, he would unto the stews,
And from the common'st creature pluck a glove,
And wear it as a favour; and with that
He would unhorse the lustiest challenger.
Boling. As dissolute as desperate; yet
through both
I see some sparks of better hope, which elder
I do repent me; read not my name there.
My heart is not confederate with my hand.
York. It was, villain, ere thy hand did set
it down.
Hath held his current and defil'd himself!
Thy overflow of good converts to bad,
And thy abundant goodness shall excuse
This deadly blot in thy digressing son.
York. So shall my virtue be his vice's bawd;
And he shall spend mine honour with his shame,
As thriftless sons their scraping fathers' gold.
Mine honour lives when his dishonour dies,
Or my sham'd life in his dishonour lies.
Thou kill'st me in his life; giving him breath,
The traitor lives, the true man's put to death.
Duch. (Within.) What ho, my liege! for God's sake, let me in.
Boling. What shrill-voiced suppliant makes this eager cry?
Duch. A woman, and thy aunt, great King; 't is I.
Speak with me, pity me, open the door!
A beggar begs that never begg'd before.
Boling. Our scene is alt'red from a serious thing,
And now chang'd to "The Beggar and the
King."
My dangerous cousin, let your mother in:
I know she's come to pray for your foul sin.
York. If thou do pardon, whosoever pray,
More sins for this forgiveness prosper may.
This fest'red joint cut off, the rest rest sound;
This let alone will all the rest confound.
As who should say, "I would thou wert the man That would divorce this terror from my heart; Meaning the King at Pomfret. Come, let's go. I am the King's friend, and will rid his foe. 11 [Exeunt.
SCENE [V. Pomfret Castle. A ward room.] Enter KING RICHARD.
K. Rich. I have been studying how I may
This prison where I live unto the world;
And for because the world is populous
And here is not a creature but myself,
I cannot do it; yet I'll hammer it out.
My brain I'll prove the female to my soul,
My soul the father; and these two beget
A generation of still-breeding thoughts,
And these same thoughts people this little
world,
In humours like the people of this world.
For no thought is contented. The better sort,
As thoughts of things divine, are intermix'd
With scruples and do set the word itself
Against the word:
As thus, "Come, little ones," and then again, "It is as hard to come as for a camel
To thread the postern of a small needle's eye."
Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot
Unlikely wonders: how these vain weak nails
May tear a passage through the flinty ribs
Of this hard world, my ragged prison walls,
And, for they cannot, die in their own pride.
Thoughts tending to content flatter themselves
That they are not the first of fortune's slaves,
Nor shall not be the last; like silly beggars 25
Who sitting in the stocks refuge their shame,
That many have and others must sit there;
And in this thought they find a kind of ease,
Bearing their own misfortunes on the back
Of such as have before endur'd the like.
Thus play I in one person many people,
And none contented. Sometimes am I king;
Then treasons make me wish myself a beggar;
And so I am. Then crushing penury
Persuades me I was better when a king;
Then am I king'd again; and by and by
Think that I am unking'd by Bolingbroke,
And straight am nothing. But whate'er I be,
Nor I nor any man that but man is
With nothing shall be pleas'd, till he be
eas'd
With being nothing. Music do I hear? [Music.
Ha, ha! keep time! How sour sweet music is,
When time is broke and no proportion kept!
So is it in the music of men's lives.
And here have I the daintiness of ear
To check time broke in a disorder'd string;
But for the concord of my state and time
Had not an ear to hear my true time broke..
I wasted time, and now doth Time waste me;
For now hath Time made me his numb'ring
clock.
For though it have holp madmen to their wits,
In me it seems it will make wise men mad.
Yet blessing on his heart that gives it me!
For 't is a sign of love; and love to Richard
Is a strange brooch in this all-hating world.
Enter a GROOM of the Stable.
Groom. Hail, royal prince!
K. Rich.
Thanks, noble peer!
The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear.
What art thou? and how com'st thou hither,
Where no man never comes but that sad
Of that proud man that did usurp his back?
Forgiveness, horse! why do I rail on thee,
Since thou, created to be aw'd by man,
Wast born to bear? I was not made a horse;
And yet I bear a burden like an ass,
Spurr'd, gall'd, and tir'd by jauncing Boling-
broke.
Enter KEEPER, with a dish.
Keep. Fellow, give place; here is no longer stay.
K. Rich. If thou love me, 't is time thou
Keep. My lord, I dare not. Sir Pierce of Exton, who lately came from the King, commands the contrary.
K. Rich. The devil take Henry of Lancaster and thee!
Patience is stale, and I am weary of it.
Keep. Help, help, help!
Hath with the King's blood stained the King's own land.
Mount, mount, my soul! thy seat is up on high; Whilst my gross flesh sinks downward, here to die. [Dies.] Exton. As full of valour as of royal blood! Both have I spill'd; O would the deed were good!
For now the devil, that told me I did well, Says that this deed is chronicled in hell. This dead king to the living king I'll bear: Take hence the rest, and give them burial here. [Exeunt.
SCENE [VI. Windsor Castle.] Flourish. Enter BOLINGBROKE, YORK, with other Lords, and Attendants. Boling. Kind uncle York, the latest news we hear
Is that the rebels hath consum'd with fire
Our town of Cicester in Gloucestershire;
But whether they be ta'en or slain we hear not.
Enter NORTHUMBERLAND.
Welcome, my lord, what is the news?
North. First, to thy sacred state wish I all happiness.
The next news is, I have to London sent
The heads of Oxford, Salisbury, Blunt, and
Kent.
The manner of their taking may appear
At large discoursed in this paper here.
Boling. We thank thee, gentle Percy, for thy pains;
And to thy worth will add right worthy gains.
Fitz. My lord, I have from Oxford sent to London
The heads of Brocas and Sir Bennet Seely,
More than thou hast, and with it joy thy life. So as thou liv'st in peace, die free from
For though mine enemy thou hast ever been, High sparks of honour in thee have I seen. Enter EXTON, with [Attendants bearing] a coffin.
Exton. Great King, within this coffin I pre
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