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

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

7    It would beseem the Lord Northumberland
8    To say 'King Richard:' alack the heavy day
9    When such a sacred king should hide his head.

10   Your grace mistakes; only to be brief
11   Left I his title out.

12   The time hath been,
13   Would you have been so brief with him, he would
14   Have been so brief with you, to shorten you,
15   For taking so the head, your whole head's length.

16   Mistake not, uncle, further than you should.

17   Take not, good cousin, further than you should.
18   Lest you mistake the heavens are o'er our heads.

19   I know it, uncle, and oppose not myself
20   Against their will. But who comes here?
Enter HENRY PERCY
21   Welcome, Harry: what, will not this castle yield?

22   The castle royally is mann'd, my lord,
23   Against thy entrance.

24   Royally!
25   Why, it contains no king?

26   Yes, my good lord,
27   It doth contain a king; King Richard lies
28   Within the limits of yon lime and stone:
29   And with him are the Lord Aumerle, Lord Salisbury,
30   Sir Stephen Scroop, besides a clergyman
31   Of holy reverence; who, I cannot learn.

32   O, belike it is the Bishop of Carlisle.

33   Noble lords,
34   Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle;
35   Through brazen trumpet send the breath of parley
36   Into his ruin'd ears, and thus deliver:
37   Henry Bolingbroke
38   On both his knees doth kiss King Richard's hand
39   And sends allegiance and true faith of heart
40   To his most royal person, hither come
41   Even at his feet to lay my arms and power,
42   Provided that my banishment repeal'd
43   And lands restored again be freely granted:
44   If not, I'll use the advantage of my power
45   And lay the summer's dust with showers of blood
46   Rain'd from the wounds of slaughter'd Englishmen:
47   The which, how far off from the mind of Bolingbroke
48   It is, such crimson tempest should bedrench
49   The fresh green lap of fair King Richard's land,
50   My stooping duty tenderly shall show.
51   Go, signify as much, while here we march
52   Upon the grassy carpet of this plain.
53   Let's march without the noise of threatening drum,
54   That from this castle's tatter'd battlements
55   Our fair appointments may be well perused.
56   Methinks King Richard and myself should meet
57   With no less terror than the elements
58   Of fire and water, when their thundering shock
59   At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven.
60   Be he the fire, I'll be the yielding water:
61   The rage be his, whilst on the earth I rain
62   My waters; on the earth, and not on him.
63   March on, and mark King Richard how he looks.
64   See, see, King Richard doth himself appear,
65   As doth the blushing discontented sun
66   From out the fiery portal of the east,
67   When he perceives the envious clouds are bent
68   To dim his glory and to stain the track
69   Of his bright passage to the occident.

70   Yet looks he like a king: behold, his eye,
71   As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth
72   Controlling majesty: alack, alack, for woe,
73   That any harm should stain so fair a show!

74   We are amazed; and thus long have we stood
75   To watch the fearful bending of thy knee,
To NORTHUMBERLAND
76   Because we thought ourself thy lawful king:
77   And if we be, how dare thy joints forget
78   To pay their awful duty to our presence?
79   If we be not, show us the hand of God
80   That hath dismissed us from our stewardship;
81   For well we know, no hand of blood and bone
82   Can gripe the sacred handle of our sceptre,
83   Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp.
84   And though you think that all, as you have done,
85   Have torn their souls by turning them from us,
86   And we are barren and bereft of friends;
87   Yet know, my master, God omnipotent,
88   Is mustering in his clouds on our behalf
89   Armies of pestilence; and they shall strike
90   Your children yet unborn and unbegot,
91   That lift your vassal hands against my head
92   And threat the glory of my precious crown.
93   Tell Bolingbroke--for yond methinks he stands--
94   That every stride he makes upon my land
95   Is dangerous treason: he is come to open
96   The purple testament of bleeding war;
97   But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,
98   Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' sons
99   Shall ill become the flower of England's face,
100  Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace
101  To scarlet indignation and bedew
102  Her pastures' grass with faithful English blood.

103  The king of heaven forbid our lord the king
104  Should so with civil and uncivil arms
105  Be rush'd upon! Thy thrice noble cousin
106  Harry Bolingbroke doth humbly kiss thy hand;
107  And by the honourable tomb he swears,
108  That stands upon your royal grandsire's bones,
109  And by the royalties of both your bloods,
110  Currents that spring from one most gracious head,
111  And by the buried hand of warlike Gaunt,
112  And by the worth and honour of himself,
113  Comprising all that may be sworn or said,
114  His coming hither hath no further scope
115  Than for his lineal royalties and to beg
116  Enfranchisement immediate on his knees:
117  Which on thy royal party granted once,
118  His glittering arms he will commend to rust,
119  His barbed steeds to stables, and his heart
120  To faithful service of your majesty.
121  This swears he, as he is a prince, is just;
122  And, as I am a gentleman, I credit him.

123  Northumberland, say thus the king returns:
124  His noble cousin is right welcome hither;
125  And all the number of his fair demands
126  Shall be accomplish'd without contradiction:
127  With all the gracious utterance thou hast
128  Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends.
129  We do debase ourselves, cousin, do we not,
To DUKE OF AUMERLE
130  To look so poorly and to speak so fair?
131  Shall we call back Northumberland, and send
132  Defiance to the traitor, and so die?

133  No, good my lord; let's fight with gentle words
134  Till time lend friends and friends their helpful swords.

135  O God, O God! that e'er this tongue of mine,
136  That laid the sentence of dread banishment
137  On yon proud man, should take it off again
138  With words of sooth! O that I were as great
139  As is my grief, or lesser than my name!
140  Or that I could forget what I have been,
141  Or not remember what I must be now!
142  Swell'st thou, proud heart? I'll give thee scope to beat,
143  Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me.

144  Northumberland comes back from Bolingbroke.

145  What must the king do now? must he submit?
146  The king shall do it: must he be deposed?
147  The king shall be contented: must he lose
148  The name of king? o' God's name, let it go:
149  I'll give my jewels for a set of beads,
150  My gorgeous palace for a hermitage,
151  My gay apparel for an almsman's gown,
152  My figured goblets for a dish of wood,
153  My sceptre for a palmer's walking staff,
154  My subjects for a pair of carved saints
155  And my large kingdom for a little grave,
156  A little little grave, an obscure grave;
157  Or I'll be buried in the king's highway,
158  Some way of common trade, where subjects' feet
159  May hourly trample on their sovereign's head;
160  For on my heart they tread now whilst I live;
161  And buried once, why not upon my head?
162  Aumerle, thou weep'st, my tender-hearted cousin!
163  We'll make foul weather with despised tears;
164  Our sighs and they shall lodge the summer corn,
165  And make a dearth in this revolting land.
166  Or shall we play the wantons with our woes,
167  And make some pretty match with shedding tears?
168  As thus, to drop them still upon one place,
169  Till they have fretted us a pair of graves
170  Within the earth; and, therein laid,--there lies
171  Two kinsmen digg'd their graves with weeping eyes.
172  Would not this ill do well? Well, well, I see
173  I talk but idly, and you laugh at me.
174  Most mighty prince, my Lord Northumberland,
175  What says King Bolingbroke? will his majesty
176  Give Richard leave to live till Richard die?
177  You make a leg, and Bolingbroke says ay.

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

180  Down, down I come; like glistering Phaethon,
181  Wanting the manage of unruly jades.
182  In the base court? Base court, where kings grow base,
183  To come at traitors' calls and do them grace.
184  In the base court? Come down? Down, court!
185  down, king!
186  For night-owls shriek where mounting larks
187  should sing.

188  What says his majesty?

189  Sorrow and grief of heart
190  Makes him speak fondly, like a frantic man
191  Yet he is come.

192  Stand all apart,
193  And show fair duty to his majesty.
He kneels down
194  My gracious lord,--

195  Fair cousin, you debase your princely knee
196  To make the base earth proud with kissing it:
197  Me rather had my heart might feel your love
198  Than my unpleased eye see your courtesy.
199  Up, cousin, up; your heart is up, I know,
200  Thus high at least, although your knee be low.

201  My gracious lord, I come but for mine own.

202  Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all.

203  So far be mine, my most redoubted lord,
204  As my true service shall deserve your love.

205  Well you deserve: they well deserve to have,
206  That know the strong'st and surest way to get.
207  Uncle, give me your hands: nay, dry your eyes;
208  Tears show their love, but want their remedies.
209  Cousin, I am too young to be your father,
210  Though you are old enough to be my heir.
211  What you will have, I'll give, and willing too;
212  For do we must what force will have us do.
213  Set on towards London, cousin, is it so?

214  Yea, my good lord.

215  Then I must not say no.