Did they not sometime cry, all hail! to me? Found truth in all but one; I, in twelve thousand, none. God save the king!-Will no man say, amen? Am I both priest and clerk? Well, then, amen. To do what service am I sent for hither? York. To do that office, of thine own good will, K. Rich. Give me the crown.-Here, cousin, seize the crown; Here on this side, my hand; and on that side, thine. That owes1 two buckets filling one another; You may my glories and my state depose, But not my griefs: still am I king of those. Boling. Part of your cares you give me with your crown. K. Rich. Your cares set up, do not pluck my cares down. My care is loss of care, by old care done; 2 1 Owns. 3 2 Richard seems to say here that "his cares are not made less by the increase of Bolingbroke's cares; "-"his grief is, that his regal cares are at an end, by the cessation of care to which he had been accustomed." 3 Attend. Boling. Are you contented to resign the crown? K. Rich. Ay, no ;—no, ay ;—for I must nothing be; Therefore no no, for I resign to thee. Now mark me how I will undo myself: I give this heavy weight from off my head, God pardon all oaths, that are broke to me! North. No more, but that you read These accusations, and these grievous crimes, Would it not shame thee in so fair a troop, 1 Oil of consecration. 2 The first quarto reads duty's rites. 3 Thus the folio. The quarto reads that swear. And cracking the strong warrant of an oath,- North. My lord, despatch; read o'er these articles. K. Rich. No lord of thine, thou haught, insulting man, Nor no man's lord; I have no name, no title, No, not that name was given me at the font,— Good king,-great king,-(and yet not greatly good,) Since it is bankrupt of his 3 majesty. Boling. Go, some of you, and fetch a looking-glass. [Exit an Attendant. haughty. 3 His for its. It was common in the Poet's time to use the personal for the neutral pronoun. North. Read o'er this paper, while the glass doth come. K. Rich. Fiend! thou torment'st me ere I come to hell. Boling. Urge it no more, my lord Northumberland. North. The commons will not then be satisfied. K. Rich. They shall be satisfied: I'll read enough, When I do see the very book indeed Where all my sins are writ, and that's-myself. Re-enter Attendant, with a glass. Give me that glass, and therein will I read.— And made no deeper wounds?-O, flattering glass, Thou dost beguile me! Was this face the face, Did keep ten thousand men ? Was this the face, That, like the sun, did make beholders wink ? 2 Was this the face, that faced so many follies, As brittle as the glory is the face; [Dashes the glass against the ground. For there it is, cracked in a hundred shivers.Mark, silent king, the moral of this sport,How soon my sorrow hath destroyed my face. Boling. The shadow of your sorrow hath destroyed The shadow of your face. K. Rich. Say that again. The shadow of my sorrow? 1 "To his household came every day to meate ten thousand men.”— Chronicle History. 2 The quarto omits this line and the four preceding words. There lies the substance: and I thank thee, king, Boling. Name it, fair cousin. K. Rich. Fair cousin! I am greater than a king: For, when I was a king, my flatterers Were then but subjects; being now a subject, Being so great, I have no need to beg. K. Rich. And shall I have? Boling. You shall. K. Rich. Then give me leave to go. K. Rich. Whither you will, so I were from your sights. Boling. Go, some of you, convey him to the tower. K. Rich. O, good! Convey?-Conveyers1 are you all, That rise thus nimbly by a true king's fall.2 [Exeunt K. RICH., some Lords, and a Guard. Boling. On Wednesday next we solemnly set down Our coronation: lords, prepare yourselves. [Exeunt all but the Abbot, Bishop of Carlisle, and AUMERLE. Abbot. A woful pageant have we here beheld. Car. The woe's to come; the children yet unborn Shall feel this day as sharp to them as thorn. Aum. You holy clergymen, is there no plot To rid the realm of this pernicious blot? Abbot. Before I freely speak my mind herein, You shall not only take the sacrament 1 "To convey" is the word for sleight of hand or juggling. Richard means that it is a term of contempt "jugglers are you all." 2 This is the last of the additional lines first printed in the quarto of 1608. In the first editions there is no personal appearance of king Richard. |