Original Text |
Translated Text |
| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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Scene 2 Drums. Flourish and colors. Enter the King, Aumerle,
Carlisle, and Soldiers. KING RICHARD
Barkloughly Castle call they this at hand? AUMERLE
Yea, my lord. How brooks your Grace the air
After your late tossing on the breaking seas? KING RICHARD
Needs must I like it well. I weep for joy
To stand upon my kingdom once again. He kneels. 5
Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand,
Though rebels wound thee with their horses’ hoofs.
As a long-parted mother with her child
Plays fondly with her tears and smiles in meeting,
So, weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my earth, 10
And do thee favors with my royal hands.
Feed not thy sovereign’s foe, my gentle earth,
Nor with thy sweets comfort his ravenous sense,
But let thy spiders, that suck up thy venom,
And heavy-gaited toads lie in their way, 15
Doing annoyance to the treacherous feet
Which with usurping steps do trample thee.
Yield stinging nettles to mine enemies,
And when they from thy bosom pluck a flower,
Guard it, I pray thee, with a lurking adder, 20
Whose double tongue may with a mortal touch
Throw death upon thy sovereign’s enemies.
Mock not my senseless conjuration, lords.
This earth shall have a feeling, and these stones
Prove armèd soldiers, ere her native king 25
Shall falter under foul rebellion’s arms. | Meanwhile, Richard and his crew have arrived at Harlech Castle, on the coast of Wales.
Richard is grateful to be back on British soil. So grateful, in fact, that he bends down, picks up some dirt, and starts to sweet-talk the soil. Then Richard asks the earth not to help the rebels – in fact, he hopes the earth will poison them with toads, spiders, and adders or make them march through "stinging nettles." (Is Richard just being poetic, or is he starting to lose it?) |
CARLISLE
Fear not, my lord. That power that made you king
Hath power to keep you king in spite of all.
The means that heavens yield must be embraced
And not neglected. Else heaven would, 30
And we will not—heaven’s offer we refuse,
The proffered means of succor and redress. AUMERLE
He means, my lord, that we are too remiss,
Whilst Bolingbroke, through our security,
Grows strong and great in substance and in power. 35 | Carlisle reassures Richard that everything will be okay. Aumerle is less
optimistic. He says Bolingbroke is growing stronger by the minute. |
KING RICHARD
Discomfortable cousin, know’st thou not
That when the searching eye of heaven is hid
Behind the globe that lights the lower world,
Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen
In murders and in outrage boldly here? 40
But when from under this terrestrial ball
He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines
And darts his light through every guilty hole,
Then murders, treasons, and detested sins,
The cloak of night being plucked from off their 45
backs,
Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves.
So when this thief, this traitor Bolingbroke,
Who all this while hath reveled in the night
Whilst we were wand’ring with the Antipodes, 50
Shall see us rising in our throne, the east,
His treasons will sit blushing in his face,
Not able to endure the sight of day,
But self-affrighted, tremble at his sin.
Not all the water in the rough rude sea 55
Can wash the balm off from an anointed king.
The breath of worldly men cannot depose
The deputy elected by the Lord.
For every man that Bolingbroke hath pressed
To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown, 60
God for His Richard hath in heavenly pay
A glorious angel. Then, if angels fight,
Weak men must fall, for heaven still guards the right. | Richard tells Aumerle that he's wrong and should pipe down. Richard says
God gave him a right to rule England, so God will protect him. |
Enter Salisbury. Welcome, my lord. How far off lies your power? SALISBURY
Nor near nor farther off, my gracious lord, 65
Than this weak arm. Discomfort guides my tongue
And bids me speak of nothing but despair.
One day too late, I fear me, noble lord,
Hath clouded all thy happy days on earth.
O, call back yesterday, bid time return, 70
And thou shalt have twelve thousand fighting men.
Today, today, unhappy day too late,
Overthrows thy joys, friends, fortune, and thy state;
For all the Welshmen, hearing thou wert dead,
Are gone to Bolingbroke, dispersed, and fled. 75 | Salisbury comes in with some bad news: the group of Welsh soldiers that were supposed to meet Richard at Harlech Castle decided to leave and go home. Apparently they heard a rumor that Richard was dead. If Richard had arrived one day sooner, he would have had an army to back him up. |
AUMERLE
Comfort, my liege. Why looks your Grace so pale? KING RICHARD
But now the blood of twenty thousand men
Did triumph in my face, and they are fled;
And till so much blood thither come again
Have I not reason to look pale and dead? 80
All souls that will be safe, fly from my side,
For time hath set a blot upon my pride. AUMERLE
Comfort, my liege. Remember who you are. KING RICHARD
I had forgot myself. Am I not king?
Awake, thou coward majesty, thou sleepest! 85
Is not the King’s name twenty thousand names?
Arm, arm, my name! A puny subject strikes
At thy great glory. Look not to the ground,
You favorites of a king. Are we not high?
High be our thoughts. I know my Uncle York 90
Hath power enough to serve our turn.—But who
comes here? | Richard is shocked at the news, but not for long. He declares he is a
king, gosh darn it, and a king's name is the same as forty thousand
names! (Whatever that means.) |
| Scroop comes in to deliver more bad news. Richard says he's prepared to
hear the worst. Scroop tells him the entire kingdom (including old men,
young boys, and women) has turned against him. |
KING RICHARD
Too well, too well thou tell’st a tale so ill.
Where is the Earl of Wiltshire? Where is Bagot? 125
What is become of Bushy? Where is Green,
That they have let the dangerous enemy
Measure our confines with such peaceful steps?
If we prevail, their heads shall pay for it!
I warrant they have made peace with Bolingbroke. 130 SCROOP
Peace have they made with him indeed, my lord. KING RICHARD
O villains, vipers, damned without redemption!
Dogs easily won to fawn on any man!
Snakes in my heart blood warmed, that sting my
heart! 135
Three Judases, each one thrice worse than Judas!
Would they make peace? Terrible hell
Make war upon their spotted souls for this! SCROOP
Sweet love, I see, changing his property,
Turns to the sourest and most deadly hate. 140
Again uncurse their souls. Their peace is made
With heads and not with hands. Those whom you
curse
Have felt the worst of death’s destroying wound
And lie full low, graved in the hollow ground. 145 AUMERLE
Is Bushy, Green, and the Earl of Wiltshire dead? SCROOP
Ay, all of them at Bristow lost their heads. AUMERLE
Where is the Duke my father with his power? | Richard wants to know where his allies are so he can chop off their heads for letting this happen. Scrope tells him it's too late: they've already been beheaded by Henry Bolingbroke. |
KING RICHARD
No matter where. Of comfort no man speak.
Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs, 150
Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth.
Let’s choose executors and talk of wills.
And yet not so, for what can we bequeath
Save our deposèd bodies to the ground? 155
Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke’s,
And nothing can we call our own but death
And that small model of the barren earth
Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.
For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground 160
And tell sad stories of the death of kings—
How some have been deposed, some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed,
Some poisoned by their wives, some sleeping killed,
All murdered. For within the hollow crown 165
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court, and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
To monarchize, be feared, and kill with looks, 170
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
As if this flesh which walls about our life
Were brass impregnable; and humored thus,
Comes at the last and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall, and farewell, king! 175
Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood
With solemn reverence. Throw away respect,
Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty,
For you have but mistook me all this while.
I live with bread like you, feel want, 180
Taste grief, need friends. Subjected thus,
How can you say to me I am a king? | Richard decides to give up. He gives a big speech about death and then
sits down in the dirt and says it's time to "tell sad stories of the
death of kings." (Get your highlighters out, because this is important
too.) |
CARLISLE
My lord, wise men ne’er sit and wail their woes,
But presently prevent the ways to wail.
To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength, 185
Gives in your weakness strength unto your foe,
And so your follies fight against yourself.
Fear, and be slain—no worse can come to fight;
And fight and die is death destroying death,
Where fearing dying pays death servile breath. 190 AUMERLE
My father hath a power. Inquire of him,
And learn to make a body of a limb. | The Bishop of Carlisle tells Richard wise men don't whine. He needs to get his butt off the ground and fight! |
KING RICHARD
Thou chid’st me well.—Proud Bolingbroke, I come
To change blows with thee for our day of doom.—
This ague fit of fear is overblown. 195
An easy task it is to win our own.—
Say, Scroop, where lies our uncle with his power?
Speak sweetly, man, although thy looks be sour. SCROOP
Men judge by the complexion of the sky
The state and inclination of the day; 200
So may you by my dull and heavy eye.
My tongue hath but a heavier tale to say.
I play the torturer by small and small
To lengthen out the worst that must be spoken.
Your uncle York is joined with Bolingbroke, 205
And all your northern castles yielded up,
And all your southern gentlemen in arms
Upon his party. KING RICHARD Thou hast said enough.
To Aumerle. Beshrew thee, cousin, which didst 210
lead me forth
Of that sweet way I was in to despair.
What say you now? What comfort have we now?
By heaven, I’ll hate him everlastingly
That bids me be of comfort anymore. 215
Go to Flint Castle. There I’ll pine away;
A king, woe’s slave, shall kingly woe obey.
That power I have, discharge, and let them go
To ear the land that hath some hope to grow,
For I have none. Let no man speak again 220
To alter this, for counsel is but vain. | Richard seems like he's ready to take action, but then he hears that York has also joined Team Henry Bolingbroke. Hopeless, Richard decides to run away to Flint Castle, where he'll spend all his time moping around. He tells his advisors his mind is made up and forbids them to speak. |
AUMERLE
My liege, one word. KING RICHARD He does me double wrong
That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue.
Discharge my followers. Let them hence away, 225
From Richard’s night to Bolingbroke’s fair day.
They exit. | Aumerle asks if he can just say one little thing. Richard says no. |