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Richard II - Act 5, scene 1
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Richard II - Act 5, scene 1Act 5, scene 1
⌜Scene 1⌝
Synopsis:
Richard and his queen say their farewells, she to be sent to France, he to Pomfret Castle.
Enter the Queen with her Attendants.QUEEN
2291 This way the King will come. This is the way
2292 To Julius Caesar’s ill-erected tower,
2293 To whose flint bosom my condemnèd lord
2294 Is doomed a prisoner by proud Bolingbroke.
2295 5 Here let us rest, if this rebellious earth
2296 Have any resting for her true king’s queen.
Enter Richard ⌜and Guard.⌝
2297 But soft, but see—or rather do not see
2298 My fair rose wither; yet look up, behold,
2299 That you in pity may dissolve to dew
2300 10 And wash him fresh again with true-love tears.—
2301 Ah, thou, the model where old Troy did stand,
2302 Thou map of honor, thou King Richard’s tomb,
2303 And not King Richard! Thou most beauteous inn,
2304 Why should hard-favored grief be lodged in thee
2305 15 When triumph is become an alehouse guest?
KING RICHARD
2306 Join not with grief, fair woman, do not so,
2307 To make my end too sudden. Learn, good soul,
2308 To think our former state a happy dream,
2309 From which awaked, the truth of what we are
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2310
20 Shows us but this: I am sworn brother, sweet,2311 To grim necessity, and he and I
2312 Will keep a league till death. Hie thee to France
2313 And cloister thee in some religious house.
2314 Our holy lives must win a new world’s crown,
2315 25 Which our profane hours here have thrown down.
QUEEN
2316 What, is my Richard both in shape and mind
2317 Transformed and weakened? Hath Bolingbroke
2318 Deposed thine intellect? Hath he been in thy heart?
2319 The lion dying thrusteth forth his paw
2320 30 And wounds the earth, if nothing else, with rage
2321 To be o’er-powered; and wilt thou, pupil-like,
2322 Take the correction, mildly kiss the rod,
2323 And fawn on rage with base humility,
2324 Which art a lion and the king of beasts?
KING RICHARD
2325 35 A king of beasts indeed. If aught but beasts,
2326 I had been still a happy king of men.
2327 Good sometime queen, prepare thee hence for
2328 France.
2329 Think I am dead and that even here thou takest,
2330 40 As from my deathbed, thy last living leave.
2331 In winter’s tedious nights sit by the fire
2332 With good old folks, and let them tell thee tales
2333 Of woeful ages long ago betid;
2334 And, ere thou bid good night, to quite their griefs,
2335 45 Tell thou the lamentable tale of me,
2336 And send the hearers weeping to their beds.
2337 Forwhy the senseless brands will sympathize
2338 The heavy accent of thy moving tongue,
2339 And in compassion weep the fire out,
2340 50 And some will mourn in ashes, some coal-black,
2341 For the deposing of a rightful king.
Enter Northumberland.
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NORTHUMBERLAND 2342 My lord, the mind of Bolingbroke is changed.
2343 You must to Pomfret, not unto the Tower.—
2344 And madam, there is order ta’en for you.
2345 55 With all swift speed you must away to France.
KING RICHARD
2346 Northumberland, thou ladder wherewithal
2347 The mounting Bolingbroke ascends my throne,
2348 The time shall not be many hours of age
2349 More than it is ere foul sin, gathering head,
2350 60 Shall break into corruption. Thou shalt think,
2351 Though he divide the realm and give thee half,
2352 It is too little, helping him to all.
2353 He shall think that thou, which knowest the way
2354 To plant unrightful kings, wilt know again,
2355 65 Being ne’er so little urged another way,
2356 To pluck him headlong from the usurped throne.
2357 The love of wicked men converts to fear,
2358 That fear to hate, and hate turns one or both
2359 To worthy danger and deservèd death.
NORTHUMBERLAND
2360 70 My guilt be on my head, and there an end.
2361 Take leave and part, for you must part forthwith.
KING RICHARD
2362 Doubly divorced! Bad men, you violate
2363 A twofold marriage—twixt my crown and me,
2364 And then betwixt me and my married wife.
2365 75 ⌜To Queen.⌝ Let me unkiss the oath twixt thee and
2366 me;
2367 And yet not so, for with a kiss ’twas made.—
2368 Part us, Northumberland, I towards the north,
2369 Where shivering cold and sickness pines the clime;
2370 80 My wife to France, from whence set forth in pomp
2371 She came adornèd hither like sweet May,
2372 Sent back like Hallowmas or short’st of day.
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QUEEN 2373 And must we be divided? Must we part?
KING RICHARD
2374 Ay, hand from hand, my love, and heart from heart.
QUEEN, ⌜to Northumberland⌝
2375 85 Banish us both, and send the King with me.
⌜NORTHUMBERLAND⌝
2376 That were some love, but little policy.
QUEEN
2377 Then whither he goes, thither let me go.
KING RICHARD
2378 So two together weeping make one woe.
2379 Weep thou for me in France, I for thee here;
2380 90 Better far off than, near, be ne’er the near.
2381 Go, count thy way with sighs, I mine with groans.
QUEEN
2382 So longest way shall have the longest moans.
KING RICHARD
2383 Twice for one step I’ll groan, the way being short,
2384 And piece the way out with a heavy heart.
2385 95 Come, come, in wooing sorrow let’s be brief,
2386 Since, wedding it, there is such length in grief.
2387 One kiss shall stop our mouths, and dumbly part.
2388 Thus give I mine, and thus take I thy heart.
⌜They kiss.⌝
QUEEN
2389 Give me mine own again. ’Twere no good part
2390 100 To take on me to keep and kill thy heart.
⌜They kiss.⌝
2391 So, now I have mine own again, begone,
2392 That I may strive to kill it with a groan.
KING RICHARD
2393 We make woe wanton with this fond delay.
2394 Once more, adieu! The rest let sorrow say.
They exit.