And make some pretty match with shedding tears? Till they have fretted us a pair of graves Within the earth; and, therein laid,—there lies Most mighty prince, my Lord Northumberland, North. My lord, in the base court he doth attend To speak with you; may it please you to come down. K. Rich. Down, down I come; like glistering Phae thon, Wanting the manage of unruly jades. In the base court? Base court, where kings grow base, To come at traitors' calls and do them grace. In the base court? king! Come down? Down, court! down, For night-owls shriek where mounting larks should sing. W. Shakespeare. LXXVI. K. Rich. KING RICHARD II. ACT IV. SCENE I.-London. Westminster Hall. Enter KING Richard, York, and Officers bearing the crown. York. To do that office of thine own Which tired majesty did make thee offer, The resignation of thy state and crown To Henry Bolingbroke. K. Rich. Give me the crown. Here, cousin, seize the crown; Here cousin ; On this side my hand, and on that side yours. The other down, unseen and full of water : Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high. 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; Your care is gain of care, by new care won : Now mark me, how I will undo myself: I give this heavy weight from off my head Make me, that nothing have, with nothing grieved, God save King Harry, unkinged Richard says, North. No more, but that you read These accusations and these grievous crimes Committed by your person and your followers Against the state and profit of this land; That, by confessing them, the souls of men May deem that you are worthily deposed. K. Rich. Must I do so? and must I ravel out Would it not shame thee in so fair a troop And cracking the strong warrant of an oath, Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait myself, Showing an outward pity, yet you Pilates And water cannot wash away your sin. North. My lord, dispatch; read o'er these articles. K. Rich. Mine eyes are full of tears, I cannot see : And yet salt water blinds them not so much But they can see a sort* of traitors here. I find myself a traitor with the rest ; A sort. A company. To undeck the pompous body of a king ; 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, Boling. Go some of you and fetch a looking-glass. [Exit an attendant. 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 the 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? As brittle as the glory is the face; [Dashes the glass against the ground. For there it is, cracked in a hundred shivers. Boling. The shadow of your sorrow hath destroyed K. Rich. Say that again. Are merely shadows to the unseen grief That swells with silence in the tortured soul; Boling. Name it, fair cousin. Fair cousin'? I am greater than a king: For when I was a king, my flatterers Were then but subjects; being now a subject, I have a king here to my flatterer. Being so great, I have no need to beg. Boling. Yet ask. Boling. You shall. K. Rich. Then give me leave to go. Boling. Whither? K. Rich. Whither you will, so I were from your sights. Boling. Go, some of you convey him to the Tower. |