Boling. Fetch hither Richard, that in common view He may furrender. So we fhall proceed Without fufpicion.
York. I will be his conduct.
Boling. Lords, you that here are under our arreft, Procure your fureties for your days of anfwer:Little are we beholden to your love,
And little look'd for at your helping hands.
Enter king Richard and York.
K. Rich. Alack, why am I fent for to a king,
Before I have fhook off the regal thoughts
Wherewith I reign'd? I hardly yet have learn'd
To infinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my knee.-
Give forrow leave a-while to tutor me
To this fubmiffion. Yet I well remember
3 The favours of these men: were they not mine?
Did they not fometime cry, All hail! to me?
So Judas did to Chrift: but he, in twelve,
Found truth in all, but one; I, in twelve thousand,
God fave the king!-Will no man fay, Amen?
Am I both priest and clerk? well then, Amen.
God fave the king! although I be not he;
And yet, Amen, if heaven do think him me.-
To do what service am I fent for hither?
York. To do that office of thine own good will,
Which tired majefty did make thee offer,
The refignation of thy ftate and crown
To Henry Bolingbroke.
K. Rich. Give me the crown:-here, coufin, feize
Here, coufin, on this fide, my hand; on that fide, thine.
Now is this golden crown like a deep well,
That owes two buckets, filling one another;
3 The favours, &c.] The countenances; the features. JOHNS.
4 The emptier ever dancing in the air,
The other down, unfeen, and full of water :
That bucket down, and full of tears, am I,
Drinking my griefs, whilft you mount up on high.
Boling. I thought you had been willing to refign.
K. Rich. My crown, I am; but ftill my griefs are
You may my glories and my state depose,
But not my griefs; ftill am I king of those.
Boling. Part of your cares you give me with your
K. Rich. Your cares fet up, do not pluck my cares down.
5 My care, is lofs 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.
Boling. Are you contented to refign the crown?
K. Rich. Ay, no;-no, ay ;-for I must nothing be;
Therefore no, no; for I refign to thee.
Now, mark me how I will undo myself:
I give this heavy weight from off my head,
And this unwieldy fcepter from my hand,
The pride of kingly fway from out my heart;
With mine own tears I wafh away my balm;
With mine own hands I give away my crown;
With mine own tongue deny my facred state;
With mine own breath release all duteous oaths:
4 The emptier ever dancing-] This is a comparifon not eafily accommodated to the fubject, nor very naturally introduced. The beft part is this line, in which he makes the ufurper the empty bucket. JOHNSON.
5 My care, is lofs of care, by old care done ;] Shakespeare often obfcures his meaning by playing with founds. Richard seems to fay here, that his cares are not made less by the increase of Bolingbroke's cares; for this reafon, that his care is the loss of care, his grief is, that his regal cares are at an end, by the cellation of the care to which he had been accustomed. JOHNSON.
6 my balm] The oil of confecration. He has mentioned it before. JOHNSON.
All pomp and majesty I do forfwear
My manors, rents, revenues, I forego;
My acts, decrees, and ftatutes I deny:
God pardon all oaths, that are broke to me!
God keep all vows unbroke, are made to thee!
Make me, that nothing have, with nothing griev❜d!
And thou with all pleas'd, that haft all atchiev'd!
Long may'st thou live in Richard's feat to fit, ́
And foon lie Richard in an earthy pit!
God fave king Henry, unking'd Richard fays,
And fend him many years of fun-fhine days!—
What more remains?
North. No more, but that you read
Thefe accufations, and thefe grievous crimes,
Committed by your perfon, and your followers,
Against the ftate and profit of this land;
That, by confeffing them, the fouls of men
May deem that you are worthily depos'd.
K. Rich. Muft I do fo? and muft I ravel out
My weav'd-up follies? Gentle Northumberland,
If thy offences were upon record,
Would it not fhame thee, in fo fair a troop,
To read a lecture of them? 7 If thou would'st,
There fhould'st thou find one heinous article,
Containing the depofing of a king,
And cracking the ftrong warrant of an oath,
Mark'd with a blot, damn'd in the book of heaven.
Nay, all of you, that ftand and look upon me,
Whilft that my wretchedness doth bait myself-
Though fome of you, with Pilate, wash your hands,
Shewing an outward pity; yet you Pilates
Have here deliver'd me to my four cross,
And water cannot wash away your fin.
North. My lord, difpatch; read o'er thefe articles.' K. Rich. Mine eyes are full of tears, I cannot fee: And yet falt-water blinds them not fo much,
If thou wouldft,] That is, if thou would't read over a lift of thy own deeds. JOHNSON.
But, they can fee 8 a fort of traitors here.
Nay, if I turn mine eyes upon myself,
I find myself a traitor with the reft:
For I have given here my foul's confent,
To undeck the pompous body of a king;
Make glory bafe; a fovereign, a flave;
Proud majefty, a subject; state, a peasant.
North. My lord-
K. Rich. No lord of thine, thou haught-insulting
Nor no man's lord; I have no name, no title;
9 No, not that name was given me at the font,
But 'tis ufurp'd.-Alack, the heavy day,
That I have worn fo many winters out,
And know not now what name to call myself!
Oh, that I were a mockery-king of fnow,
Standing before the fun of Bolingbroke,
To melt myself away in water-drops!
Good king-great king-and yet not greatly good,
An if my word be fterling yet in England,
Let it command a mirror hither straight;
That it may fhew me what a face I have,
Since it is bankrupt of his majesty.
Boling. Go fome of you, and fetch a looking-glafs.
North. Read o'er this paper, while the glass doth
K. Rich. Fiend! thou torment'ft me, ere I come to
Boling. Urge it no more, my lord Northumberland.
North. The commons will not then be fatisfy'd.
-a fort- A pack, a company. WARBURTON. The laft who used the word fort in this fenfe was, perhaps, Waller.
A fort of lufty fhepherds frive. JOHNS.
9 No, not that name was given me at the font,] How that name which was given him at the font could be ufurped, I do not understand. Perhaps Shakespeare meant to fhew that imagination, dwelling long on its own misfortunes, reprefents them as greater than than they really are. ANONYMOUS.
K. Rich. They fhall be fatisfy'd; I'll read enough,
When I do fee the very book, indeed,
Where all my fins are writ, and that's myself.
Enter one, with a glass.
Give me that glafs, and therein will I read.
-No deeper wrinkles yet? hath sorrow struck
So many blows upon this face of mine,
And made no deeper wounds?
Oh, flattering glafs, Like to my followers in profperity,
Thou doft beguile me! Was this face, the face
That every day under his houfhold roof.
Did keep ten thousand men? Was this the face,
That, like the fun, did make beholders wink?
Is this the face, which fac'd fo many follies,
That was at last out-fac'd by Bolingbroke?
A brittle glory fhineth in this face:
[Dafbes the glass against the ground.
As brittle, as the glory, is the face;
For there it is, crack'd in an hundred fhivers.-
Mark, filent king, the moral of this fport;
How foon my forrow hath deftroy'd my face.
Boling. The fhadow of your forrow hath destroy'd
The fhadow of your face.
K. Rich. Say that again.
The fhadow of my forrow! Ha! let's fee;
'Tis very true, my grief lies all within;
And these external manners of laments
Are merely fhadows to the unfeen grief,
That fwells with filence in the tortur'd foul;
There lies the fubftance: and I thank thee, king,
For thy great bounty, that not only giv'it
Me caufe to wail, but teacheft me the way
How to lament the caufe. I'll beg one boon;
And then be gone, and trouble you no more,
Shall I obtain it?
Boling. Name it, fair coufin.
K. Rich. Fair confin! I am greater than a king: For when I was a king, my flatterers
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