Original Text |
Translated Text |
| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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Scene 3 Enter with Drum and Colors Bolingbroke, York,
Northumberland, with Soldiers and Attendants. BOLINGBROKE
So that by this intelligence we learn
The Welshmen are dispersed, and Salisbury
Is gone to meet the King, who lately landed
With some few private friends upon this coast. NORTHUMBERLAND
The news is very fair and good, my lord: 5
Richard not far from hence hath hid his head. YORK
It would beseem the Lord Northumberland
To say “King Richard.” Alack the heavy day
When such a sacred king should hide his head! NORTHUMBERLAND
Your Grace mistakes; only to be brief 10
Left I his title out. | Bolingbroke, Northumberland, and York are outside Flint Castle talking about the news that King Richard has returned to England. Northumberland refers to King Richard as "Richard," omitting his title (oops!). York tells him it would be more respectful to refer to him as King Richard. Northumberland says "my bad" and explains that he was just trying to save time. |
YORK
The time hath been, would you have been so brief
with him,
He would have been so brief to shorten you,
For taking so the head, your whole head’s length. 15 BOLINGBROKE
Mistake not, uncle, further than you should. YORK
Take not, good cousin, further than you should,
Lest you mistake. The heavens are over our heads. | York says there was a time when that kind of time-saving would have cost him his life. (And yes, the word "time" really shows up a lot in this conversation. What's up with that? Is Shakespeare telling us that Richard's time is about to run out?) Bolingbroke tells York not to worry; it was an innocent mistake and doesn't mean anything. York warns Bolingbroke not to push his luck. |
BOLINGBROKE
I know it, uncle, and oppose not myself
Against their will. But who comes here? 20 Enter Percy. Welcome, Harry. What, will not this castle yield? PERCY
The castle royally is manned, my lord,
Against thy entrance. BOLINGBROKE
Royally? Why, it contains no king. PERCY Yes, my good lord, 25
It doth contain a king. King Richard lies
Within the limits of yon lime and stone,
And with him are the Lord Aumerle, Lord Salisbury,
Sir Stephen Scroop, besides a clergyman
Of holy reverence—who, I cannot learn. 30 | Henry Percy comes in to announce that the castle won't yield. It turns
out King Richard is inside, with Aumerle, Salisbury, Scrope and a
religious man. |
NORTHUMBERLAND
O, belike it is the Bishop of Carlisle. BOLINGBROKE, to Northumberland Noble lord,
Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle,
Through brazen trumpet send the breath of parley
Into his ruined ears, and thus deliver: 35
Henry Bolingbroke
On both his knees doth kiss King Richard’s hand
And sends allegiance and true faith of heart
To his most royal person, hither come
Even at his feet to lay my arms and power, 40
Provided that my banishment repealed
And lands restored again be freely granted.
If not, I’ll use the advantage of my power
And lay the summer’s dust with showers of blood
Rained from the wounds of slaughtered 45
Englishmen—
The which how far off from the mind of Bolingbroke
It is such crimson tempest should bedrench
The fresh green lap of fair King Richard’s land,
My stooping duty tenderly shall show. 50
Go signify as much while here we march
Upon the grassy carpet of this plain. Northumberland and Trumpets
approach the battlements. Let’s march without the noise of threat’ning drum,
That from this castle’s tottered battlements
Our fair appointments may be well perused. 55
Methinks King Richard and myself should meet
With no less terror than the elements
Of fire and water when their thund’ring shock
At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven.
Be he the fire, I’ll be the yielding water; 60
The rage be his, whilst on the earth I rain
My waters—on the earth and not on him.
March on, and mark King Richard how he looks. Bolingbroke’s Soldiers march, the trumpets sound.
Richard appeareth on the walls with Aumerle. See, see, King Richard doth himself appear
As doth the blushing discontented sun 65
From out the fiery portal of the east
When he perceives the envious clouds are bent
To dim his glory and to stain the track
Of his bright passage to the occident. | Bolingbroke tells Northumberland to go to the castle and give the king a message. It sounds like this: "Hey Richard, I'm back in England and hope we can get together for coffee. I'd like to talk to you about revoking my banishment and giving me back all the land you stole from me when my dad died. I'll even get on my knees and kiss your ring, so long as you come out of the castle peacefully. If not, I've got this giant army here with me and I'm not afraid to use it. Your Friend, Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster.) Northumberland doesn't mind doing Henry's dirty work. He goes off to deliver the message. King Richard comes out and stands on the castle's walls with Carlisle, Scrope, and Salisbury. Bolingbroke looks up and says Richard looks the same way the "sun" does when it's about to get smothered up by a bunch of clouds. (Translation: Richard's not going to be king much longer. Go to "Symbols" for more about all this Richard being like the sun business.) |
YORK
Yet looks he like a king. Behold, his eye, 70
As bright as is the eagle’s, lightens forth
Controlling majesty. Alack, alack for woe
That any harm should stain so fair a show! KING RICHARD, to Northumberland, below
We are amazed, and thus long have we stood
To watch the fearful bending of thy knee, 75
Because we thought ourself thy lawful king.
An if we be, how dare thy joints forget
To pay their awful duty to our presence?
If we be not, show us the hand of God
That hath dismissed us from our stewardship, 80
For well we know no hand of blood and bone
Can gripe the sacred handle of our scepter,
Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp.
And though you think that all, as you have done,
Have torn their souls by turning them from us, 85
And we are barren and bereft of friends,
Yet know, my master, God omnipotent,
Is mustering in his clouds on our behalf
Armies of pestilence, and they shall strike
Your children yet unborn and unbegot, 90
That lift your vassal hands against my head
And threat the glory of my precious crown.
Tell Bolingbroke—for yon methinks he stands—
That every stride he makes upon my land
Is dangerous treason. He is come to open 95
The purple testament of bleeding war;
But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,
Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers’ sons
Shall ill become the flower of England’s face,
Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace 100
To scarlet indignation, and bedew
Her pastures’ grass with faithful English blood. | Richard yells at Northumberland for not kneeling in his presence. Unless he can show that the hand of God has dismissed him from the throne, he's still king, and no other man can hold the scepter without being a thief or a usurper (someone who takes the throne illegally). Gaining steam, Richard tells Northumberland that God is gathering "armies of pestilence" on his behalf that will punish his children's children for this insult to the crown. He says to tell Bolingbroke that every step he takes is an act of treason, and that his coming is an act of war. |
NORTHUMBERLAND
The King of heaven forbid our lord the King
Should so with civil and uncivil arms
Be rushed upon! Thy thrice-noble cousin, 105
Harry Bolingbroke, doth humbly kiss thy hand,
And by the honorable tomb he swears
That stands upon your royal grandsire’s bones,
And by the royalties of both your bloods,
Currents that spring from one most gracious head, 110
And by the buried hand of warlike Gaunt,
And by the worth and honor of himself,
Comprising all that may be sworn or said,
His coming hither hath no further scope
Than for his lineal royalties, and to beg 115
Enfranchisement immediate on his knees;
Which on thy royal party granted once,
His glittering arms he will commend to rust,
His barbèd steeds to stables, and his heart
To faithful service of your Majesty. 120
This swears he, as he is a prince and just,
And as I am a gentleman I credit him. | Northumberland kneels and says that Bolingbroke swears on his dad's and
grandfather's graves that he's only come to get his land back and to end
his exile – he's definitely not trying to steal Richard's crown. |
KING RICHARD
Northumberland, say thus the King returns:
His noble cousin is right welcome hither,
And all the number of his fair demands 125
Shall be accomplished without contradiction.
With all the gracious utterance thou hast,
Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends. Northumberland returns to Bolingbroke. To Aumerle. We do debase ourselves, cousin, do
we not, 130
To look so poorly and to speak so fair?
Shall we call back Northumberland and send
Defiance to the traitor and so die? AUMERLE
No, good my lord, let’s fight with gentle words,
Till time lend friends, and friends their helpful 135
swords. | King Richard agrees immediately to these terms but makes it clear that he's not happy about it. Northumberland goes back to Henry with the king's message. |
KING RICHARD
O God, O God, that e’er this tongue of mine
That laid the sentence of dread banishment
On yon proud man should take it off again
With words of sooth! O, that I were as great 140
As is my grief, or lesser than my name!
Or that I could forget what I have been,
Or not remember what I must be now.
Swell’st thou, proud heart? I’ll give thee scope to
beat, 145
Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me. AUMERLE
Northumberland comes back from Bolingbroke. KING RICHARD
What must the King do now? Must he submit?
The King shall do it. Must he be deposed?
The King shall be contented. Must he lose 150
The name of king? I’ God’s name, let it go.
I’ll give my jewels for a set of beads,
My gorgeous palace for a hermitage,
My gay apparel for an almsman’s gown,
My figured goblets for a dish of wood, 155
My scepter for a palmer’s walking-staff,
My subjects for a pair of carvèd saints,
And my large kingdom for a little grave,
A little, little grave, an obscure grave;
Or I’ll be buried in the King’s highway, 160
Some way of common trade, where subjects’ feet
May hourly trample on their sovereign’s head;
For on my heart they tread now whilst I live
And, buried once, why not upon my head?
Aumerle, thou weep’st, my tender-hearted cousin. 165
We’ll make foul weather with despisèd tears;
Our sighs and they shall lodge the summer corn
And make a dearth in this revolting land.
Or shall we play the wantons with our woes
And make some pretty match with shedding tears? 170
As thus, to drop them still upon one place
Till they have fretted us a pair of graves
Within the earth; and therein laid—there lies
Two kinsmen digged their graves with weeping eyes.
Would not this ill do well? Well, well, I see 175
I talk but idly, and you laugh at me. Northumberland approaches the battlements. Most mighty prince, my Lord Northumberland,
What says King Bolingbroke? Will his Majesty
Give Richard leave to live till Richard die?
You make a leg, and Bolingbroke says ay. 180 | Meanwhile, Richard says, "O God, O God" and that he wishes he never banished Bolingbroke to begin with. Then Richard starts talking about himself in the third person and says he should just give up his "large kingdom for a little grave." Richard imagines being buried on the "King's highway," where suicides were buried, and which common people walk on every day. Northumberland comes back to Richard and Richard sarcastically asks, "What says King Bolingbroke?" |
NORTHUMBERLAND
My lord, in the base court he doth attend
To speak with you, may it please you to come down. KING RICHARD
Down, down I come, like glist’ring Phaëton,
Wanting the manage of unruly jades.
In the base court—base court, where kings grow 185
base,
To come at traitors’ calls and do them grace.
In the base court come down—down court, down
king,
For nightowls shriek where mounting larks should 190
sing. Richard exits above
and Northumberland returns to Bolingbroke. | Apparently Bolingbroke wants to chat with Richard face to face. Richard goes down to meet him and reflects on how he's going down in the world as well: a king obeying a traitor's orders. |
BOLINGBROKE What says his Majesty? NORTHUMBERLAND Sorrow and grief of heart
Makes him speak fondly like a frantic man,
Yet he is come. 195 Richard enters below. BOLINGBROKE Stand all apart,
And show fair duty to his Majesty. He kneels down.
My gracious lord. KING RICHARD
Fair cousin, you debase your princely knee
To make the base earth proud with kissing it. 200
Me rather had my heart might feel your love
Than my unpleased eye see your courtesy.
Up, cousin, up. Your heart is up, I know,
Thus high at least indicating his crown, although
your knee be low. 205 | They meet. Bolingbroke gets on his knees, and Richard says he should get
up and stop pretending he's not here to take the throne. |
BOLINGBROKE, standing
My gracious lord, I come but for mine own. KING RICHARD
Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all. BOLINGBROKE
So far be mine, my most redoubted lord,
As my true service shall deserve your love. KING RICHARD
Well you deserve. They well deserve to have 210
That know the strong’st and surest way to get.—
Uncle, give me your hands. Nay, dry your eyes.
Tears show their love but want their remedies.—
Cousin, I am too young to be your father,
Though you are old enough to be my heir. 215
What you will have I’ll give, and willing too,
For do we must what force will have us do.
Set on towards London, cousin, is it so? BOLINGBROKE
Yea, my good lord. KING RICHARD Then I must not say no. 220 They exit. | Bolingbroke repeats that he's only come for what is his. Richard says Bolingbroke can have anything he wants. After all, Bolingbroke's got a giant army and enough power to take whatever he wants. Bolingbroke pretends that he won't take anything Richard doesn't willingly give him. Richard reaches out to his uncle, York, who is weeping, and asks him to dry his eyes, since tears will do no good. He tells Bolingbroke that although he is not his father, Bolingbroke is nevertheless his heir, and he'll willingly give him whatever he wants. (In other words, Richard has given up his power without a fight and recognizes Henry as the next King of England.) They head to London. |