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Translated Text |
| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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Scene 1 Enter the Queen with her Attendants. QUEEN
This way the King will come. This is the way
To Julius Caesar’s ill-erected tower,
To whose flint bosom my condemnèd lord
Is doomed a prisoner by proud Bolingbroke.
Here let us rest, if this rebellious earth 5
Have any resting for her true king’s queen. Enter Richard and Guard. But soft, but see—or rather do not see
My fair rose wither; yet look up, behold,
That you in pity may dissolve to dew
And wash him fresh again with true-love tears.— 10
Ah, thou, the model where old Troy did stand,
Thou map of honor, thou King Richard’s tomb,
And not King Richard! Thou most beauteous inn,
Why should hard-favored grief be lodged in thee
When triumph is become an alehouse guest? 15 | The queen is waiting in a public street for the king to pass by on his way to the Tower of London, where he's going to be imprisoned. When the king appears, the queen compares him to a withering rose and hopes that those watching might dissolve into dew and refresh him with tears of love. (Aw, that's so sweet. But it's probably not going to happen, because we're pretty sure the people lined up on the streets are throwing rotten tomatoes at Richard.) |
KING RICHARD
Join not with grief, fair woman, do not so,
To make my end too sudden. Learn, good soul,
To think our former state a happy dream,
From which awaked, the truth of what we are
Shows us but this: I am sworn brother, sweet, 20
To grim necessity, and he and I
Will keep a league till death. Hie thee to France
And cloister thee in some religious house.
Our holy lives must win a new world’s crown,
Which our profane hours here have thrown down. 25 | Richard asks the queen not to grieve with him so as not to make his life end sooner from despair. He tells her to remember the good times as a happy dream. Richard tells his queen to go live in a convent in France and dedicate herself to religion. |
QUEEN
What, is my Richard both in shape and mind
Transformed and weakened? Hath Bolingbroke
Deposed thine intellect? Hath he been in thy heart?
The lion dying thrusteth forth his paw
And wounds the earth, if nothing else, with rage 30
To be o’er-powered; and wilt thou, pupil-like,
Take the correction, mildly kiss the rod,
And fawn on rage with base humility,
Which art a lion and the king of beasts? KING RICHARD
A king of beasts indeed. If aught but beasts, 35
I had been still a happy king of men.
Good sometime queen, prepare thee hence for
France.
Think I am dead and that even here thou takest,
As from my deathbed, thy last living leave. 40
In winter’s tedious nights sit by the fire
With good old folks, and let them tell thee tales
Of woeful ages long ago betid;
And, ere thou bid good night, to quite their griefs,
Tell thou the lamentable tale of me, 45
And send the hearers weeping to their beds.
Forwhy the senseless brands will sympathize
The heavy accent of thy moving tongue,
And in compassion weep the fire out,
And some will mourn in ashes, some coal-black, 50
For the deposing of a rightful king. | Surprised, the queen asks whether Richard has lost his mind. She tells him to act like a lion, not a whiny little schoolboy. Richard laughs at her characterization of him as "king of beasts" and says he wishes he governed anything but beasts. He tells her to go to France, tell stories, and proceed as if he were dead. He asks her to imagine this as his deathbed, their final goodbye. |
Enter Northumberland. NORTHUMBERLAND
My lord, the mind of Bolingbroke is changed.
You must to Pomfret, not unto the Tower.—
And madam, there is order ta’en for you.
With all swift speed you must away to France. 55 KING RICHARD
Northumberland, thou ladder wherewithal
The mounting Bolingbroke ascends my throne,
The time shall not be many hours of age
More than it is ere foul sin, gathering head,
Shall break into corruption. Thou shalt think, 60
Though he divide the realm and give thee half,
It is too little, helping him to all.
He shall think that thou, which knowest the way
To plant unrightful kings, wilt know again,
Being ne’er so little urged another way, 65
To pluck him headlong from the usurped throne.
The love of wicked men converts to fear,
That fear to hate, and hate turns one or both
To worthy danger and deservèd death. | Northumberland shows up to tell Richard that Bolingbroke has changed his mind and wants him to go to Pomfret Castle instead of the Tower. He tells the queen she has been ordered to go France. Brain Snack: Pomfret Castle is sort of in the middle of nowhere, so basically Bolingbroke is sending Richard to the medieval equivalent of Siberia. Richard calls Northumberland the ladder Bolingbroke climbed to the throne and warns him that Bolingbroke will become suspicious of him once he's king. Once a man decides to depose a king, he might do it again. (Uh-oh. Looks like Shakespeare is trying to drop some hints about what's going to happen in the next play, Henry IV Part 1.) |
NORTHUMBERLAND
My guilt be on my head, and there an end. 70
Take leave and part, for you must part forthwith. KING RICHARD
Doubly divorced! Bad men, you violate
A twofold marriage—twixt my crown and me,
And then betwixt me and my married wife.
To Queen. Let me unkiss the oath twixt thee and 75
me;
And yet not so, for with a kiss ’twas made.—
Part us, Northumberland, I towards the north,
Where shivering cold and sickness pines the clime;
My wife to France, from whence set forth in pomp 80
She came adornèd hither like sweet May,
Sent back like Hallowmas or short’st of day. | Northumberland says he can deal with his guilt and tells the king and queen to hurry up and say their goodbyes already. Richard exclaims that he's "doubly divorced": once from his queen, and once from his kingdom. To the queen he "unkisses" the oath they made. |
QUEEN
And must we be divided? Must we part? KING RICHARD
Ay, hand from hand, my love, and heart from heart. QUEEN, to Northumberland
Banish us both, and send the King with me. 85 NORTHUMBERLAND
That were some love, but little policy. QUEEN
Then whither he goes, thither let me go. KING RICHARD
So two together weeping make one woe.
Weep thou for me in France, I for thee here;
Better far off than, near, be ne’er the near. 90
Go, count thy way with sighs, I mine with groans. QUEEN
So longest way shall have the longest moans. KING RICHARD
Twice for one step I’ll groan, the way being short,
And piece the way out with a heavy heart.
Come, come, in wooing sorrow let’s be brief, 95
Since, wedding it, there is such length in grief.
One kiss shall stop our mouths, and dumbly part.
Thus give I mine, and thus take I thy heart.
They kiss. QUEEN
Give me mine own again. ’Twere no good part
To take on me to keep and kill thy heart. 100 They kiss. So, now I have mine own again, begone,
That I may strive to kill it with a groan. KING RICHARD
We make woe wanton with this fond delay.
Once more, adieu! The rest let sorrow say.
They exit. | The queen asks Northumberland if Richard can join her in her banishment to France, instead of being locked up. Northumberland is all, "Um, that's not such a good idea." (If Richard and Isabella are together, they could have a child, who could one day make a claim to the throne.) The king and queen have a very sad parting scene, trading kisses and, metaphorically, hearts. |