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? 2045 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: 2050 Here, cousin, on this side my hand; 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, 2060 But not my griefs; still am I king of those. Boling. Part of your cares you give me with your crown.

won:

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 2065 The cares I give, I have, though given away; They tend the crown, yet still with me they stay. Boling. Are you contented to resign the crown?

K. Rich. Ay, no;-no, ay; for I must nothing be;

Therefore no no, for I resign to thec. 2070 Now mark me how I will undo myself:I give this heavy weight from off my head, And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand, The pride of kingly sway from out my heart;

With mine own tears I wash away my balm, With mine own hands I give away my

My weav'd-up follies? Gentle Northumberland,

If thy offences were upon record,
Would it not shame thee, in so fair a troop,
To read a lecture of them? If thou wouldst,
There shouldst thou find one heinous article,
Containing the deposing of a king,
And cracking the strong warrant of an oath,
Mark'd with a blot, damm'd in the book of
heaven:-

Nay, all of you, that stand and look upon

2105

me, Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait myself, Though some of you, with Pilate, wash your hands, Showing an outward pity; yet you Pilates Have here deliver'd me to my sour cross, And water cannot wash away your sin. 2110 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 (1) of traitors here. Nay, if I turn mine eyes upon myself, 2115 I find myself a traitor with the rest: For I have given here my soul's consent, To undeck the pompous body of a king; Made glory base, and sovereignty a slave; Proud majesty a subject, state a peasant. North. My lord,K. Rich. No lord

Nor no man's lord;

(1) A company.

of thine, thou haught insulting man,

I have no name, no title,

No, not that name was given me at the

font,

But 'tis usurp'd.— Alack, the heavy day, 2125 That I have worn so many winters out, And know not now what name to call myself!

O, that I were a mockery king of snow,
Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke,
To melt myself away in water-drops!-2130
Good king, great king,-(and yet not
greatly good)

And if my word be sterling yet in England,
Let it command a mirror hither straight,
That it may show me what a face I have,
Since it is bankrupt of his majesty.
Boling. Go some of you, and fetch a
looking-glass.

2135

[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.

2145

So many blows upon this face of mine, And made no deeper wounds?-0, flattering glass!

Like to my followers in prosperity, Thou dost beguile me. Was this face the face

That every day under his household roof 2150
Did keep ten thousand men? Was this the
face
That like the sun did make beholders
wink?

Was this the face that fac'd so many follies,
And was at last outfac'd by Bolingbroke?
A brittle glory shineth in this face:
As brittle as the glory is the face;

2155

[Dashes the glass against the ground. For there it is, crack'd in an hundred shivers. Mark, silent king, the moral of this sport,How soon my sorrow hath destroy'd my face. Boling. The shadow of your sorrow hath destroy'd 2160 The shadow of your face. K. Rich. Say that again. shadow of my sorrow? Ha! let's The

see:

2190

Bishop. The woe's to come; the children yet unborn Shall feel this day as sharp to them as thorn. Aum. You holy clergymen, is there no plot

To rid the realm of this pernicious blot?
Abbot. Before I freely speak my mind
herein,
You shall not only take the sacrament 2195
To bury mine intents, but to effect
Whatever I shall happen to devise:-
I see your brows are full of discontent,
Your hearts of sorrow, and your eyes of
tears;

Come home with me to supper; I will lay 2200
A plot, shall show us all a merry day.

[Exeunt.

(1) Conveyer was sometimes used in an ill sense,as a fraudulent appropriator of property, a juggler.

North. My guilt be on my head, and

there an end.

2270

K. Rich. We make woe wanton with this fond delay;

forthwith.

K. Rich. Doubly divorc'd?—Bad men, ye violate

A twofold marriage: 'twixt my crown and me, And then betwixt me and my married wife.

Let me unkiss the oath 'twixt thee and me; And yet not so, for with a kiss 'twas made. (1) Part us, Northumberland: I towards the north,

Where shivering cold and sickness pines the clime;

My queen to France; from whence, set forth in pomp, She came adorned hither like sweet May, Sent back like Hallowmas, (2) or short'st of day. Queen. And must we be divided? must we part? K. Rich. Ay, hand from hand, my love, and heart from heart. Queen. Banish us both, and send the king with me. North. That were some love, but little policy. 2285 Queen. Then whither he goes, thither let

me go. K. Rich. 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. (3) Go, count thy way with sighs; I mine with groans.

2290

Queen. So longest way shall have the longest moans. K. Rich. 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,

Since, wedding it, there is such length in grief. 2295 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. [They kiss again. So, now I have mine own again, be gone, That I may strive to kill it with a groan.

(1) The kiss was an established form of the ancient ceremony of afflancing. (2) The first of November,opposed to 'sweet May. (3) Some deem this a proverbial expression, meaning not nearer to good." It appears to us here to mean 'never the nearer.'

Herrig, British Auth.

[Exeunt. Scene 11.-The Same. A Room in the Duke of York's Palace.

Enter York, and his Duchess. Duch. My lord, you told me you would tell the rest,

When weeping made you break the story off Of our two cousins coming into London. York. Where did I leave?

Duch. At that sad stop, my lord, Where rude misgovern'd hands, from windows' tops, Threw dust and rubbish on king Richard's head.

York. Then, as I said, the duke, great Bolingbroke,

2310

Mounted upon a hot and fiery steed, Which his aspiring rider seem'd to know, With slow, but stately pace kept on his

men :'