Aum. Thou dar'st not, coward, live to see that day. Fitz. Now, by my soul, I would it were this hour. Aum. Fitzwater, thou art damned to hell for this. Percy. Aumerle, thou liest. His honor is as true, In this appeal, as thou art all unjust;

And, that thou art so, there I throw my gage,

To

prove it on thee to the extremest point

Of mortal breathing; seize it, if thou dar'st.
Aum. And if I do not, may my hands rot off,
And never brandish more revengeful steel

Over the glittering helmet of my foe!

Lord. I task the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle

And spur thee on with full as many lies

As may be hollaed in thy treacherous ear

From sun to sun. There is my honor's pawn;

Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st.

Aum. Who sets me else? By Heaven, I'll throw at all:

I have a thousand spirits in one breast,

To answer twenty thousand such as you.1

Surrey. My lord Fitzwater, I do remember well The very time Aumerle and you did talk.

Fitz. 'Tis very true. You were in presence then ;

And you can witness with me, this is true.

Surrey. As false, by Heaven, as Heaven itself is true. Fitz. Surrey, thou liest.

Surrey.

Dishonorable boy!

That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword,
That it shall render vengeance and revenge,
Till thou the lie-giver, and that lie, do lie
In earth as quiet as thy father's skull.

In proof whereof, there is my honor's pawn;
Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st.

Fitz. How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse!

If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live,

I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness,2

And spit upon him, whilst I say, he lies,
And lies, and lies. There is my bond of faith,

1 The preceding eight lines are not in the folio of 1623.
2 I dare meet him where no help can be had by me against him.

To tie thee to my strong correction.-
As I intend to thrive in this new world,1
Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal.

Besides, I heard the banished Norfolk say,
That thou, Aumerle, didst send two of thy men
To execute the noble duke at Calais.

Aum. Some honest Christian trust me with a gage,
That Norfolk lies. Here do I throw down this,2
If he may be repealed to try his honor.

Boling. These differences shall all rest under gage, Till Norfolk be repealed; repealed he shall be, And, though mine enemy, restored again

To all his land and seigniories. When he's returned,
Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial.

Car. That honorable day shall ne'er be seen.—
Many a time hath banished Norfolk fought
For Jesu Christ; in glorious Christian field
Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross,
Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens :
And, toiled with works of war, retired himself
To Italy; and there, at Venice, gave
His body to that pleasant country's earth,3
And his pure soul unto his captain, Christ,
Under whose colors he had fought so long.
Boling. Why, bishop, is Norfolk dead?
Car. As sure as I live, my lord.

Boling. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the

bosom

Of good old Abraham!-Lords appellants,
Your differences shall all rest under gage,
Till we assign you to your days of trial.

Enter YORK, attended.

York. Great duke of Lancaster, I come to thee From plume-plucked Richard; who with willing soul

1 i. e. in this world, where I have just begun to be an actor Surrey has just called him boy.

2 Holinshed says that on this occasion he threw down a hood that he had borrowed.

3 This is not historically true. The duke of Norfolk's death did not take place till after Richard's.

Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields
To the possession of thy royal hand.

Ascend his throne, descending now from him,—
And long live Henry, of that name the fourth!

Boling. In God's name, I'll ascend the regal throne.1
Car. Marry, God forbid !—

Worst in this royal presence, may I speak,
Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth.
'Would God, that any in this noble presence
Were enough noble to be upright judge
Of noble Richard; then true nobless would
Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.
What subject can give sentence on his king?
And who sits here, that is not Richard's subject?
Thieves are not judged, but they are by to hear,
Although apparent guilt be seen in them;
And shall the figure of God's majesty,3
His captain, steward, deputy elect,
Anointed, crowned, planted many years,
Be judged by subject and inferior breath,
And he himself not present? O, forbid it, God,
That, in a Christian climate, souls refined
Should show so heinous, black, obscene a deed!
I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks,
Stirred up by Heaven, thus boldly for his king.
My lord of Hereford here, whom you call king,
Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford's king;
And if you crown him, let me prophesy,-
The blood of English shall manure the ground,
And future ages groan for this foul act;
Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels,
And, in this seat of peace, tumultuous wars
Shall kin with kin, and kind with kind confound;
Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny

4

Shall here inhabit, and this land be called

1 Hume gives the words that Henry actually spoke on this occasion, which he copied from Knyghton.

2 i. e. nobleness; a word now obsolete.

3 This speech, which contains in the most expressive terms the doctrine of passive obedience, is founded upon Holinshed's account.

1

The field of Golgotha, and dead mens' skulls.
O, if you rear this house against this house,
It will the wofullest division prove,

That ever fell upon this cursed earth.
Prevent, resist it, let it not be so,

Lest child's child's children cry against you-woe! North. Well have you argued, sir; and, for your pains,

Of capital treason we arrest you here.-
My lord of Westminster, be it your charge
To keep him safely till his day of trial.-

May't please you, lords, to grant the commons' suit.3
Boling. Fetch hither Richard, that in common view
He may surrender; so we shall proceed

Without suspicion.

York.

I will be his conduct. [Exit. Boling. Lords, you that are here under our arrest, Procure your sureties for your days of answer.Little are we beholden to your love,

[TO CAR. And little looked for at your helping hands.

Re-enter YORK, with KING RICHARD, and Officers, bearing the crown, &c.

K. Rich. Alack, why am I sent for to a king,
Before I have shook off the regal thoughts
Wherewith I reigned? I hardly yet have learned
To insinuate, flatter, bow and bend my knee:1
Give sorrow leave a while to tutor me

To this submission. Yet I well remember
The favors of these men.

1 The quarto reads raise.

Were they not mine?

2 Pope altered this to "children's children," and was followed by others. The old copies read, "Lest child, childs children."

3 What follows, almost to the end of the act, is not found in the first two quartos. The addition was made in the quarto of 1608. In the quarto, 1597, after the words "his day of trial," the scene thus closes :— "Bol. Let it be so: and lo! on Wednesday next

We solemnly proclaim our coronation.

Lords, be ready all."

4 The quarto reads limbs.

5 Countenances, features.

Did they not sometimę cry, all hail! to me?
So Judas did to Christ; but he, in twelve,

Found truth in all but one; I, in twelve thousand,

none.

God save the king!-Will no man say, amen?

Am I both priest and clerk? Well, then, amen.
God save the king! although I be not he;
And yet, amen, if Heaven do think him me.-
To do what service am I sent for hither?

York. To do that office, of thine own good will,
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 on this side, my hand; and on that side, thine.
Now is this golden crown like a deep well,

That owes two buckets filling one another;
The emptier ever dancing in the air,

The other down, unseen, and full of water.
That bucket down, and full of tears, am I,
Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high.
Boling. I thought you had been willing to resign.
K. Rich. My crown, I am; but still my griefs are

mine.

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.

2

My care is loss of care, by old care done;
Your care is gain of care, by new care won.
The cares I give, I have, though given away;
They tend the crown, yet still with me they stay.

1 Owns.

2 Richard seems to say here that "his cares are not made less by the increase of Bolingbroke's cares; "-"his grief is, that his regal cares are at an end, by the cessation of care to which he had been accustomed." 3 Attend.