For I have none. Let no man speak again

To alter this, for counsel is but vain.

AUMERLE

My liege, one word.

KING RICHARD

He does me double wrong

That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue.

Discharge my followers. Let them hence away

From Richard’s night to Bolingbroke’s fair day.

Exeunt

3.3 Enter Bolingbroke Duke of Lancaster and Hereford, the Duke of York, the Earl of Northumberland, ⌈and soldiers, with drum and colours⌉

BOLINGBROKE

So that by this intelligence we learn

The Welshmen are dispersed, and Salisbury

Is gone to meet the King, who lately landed

With some few private friends upon this coast.

NORTHUMBERLAND

The news is very fair and good, my lord.

Richard not far from hence hath hid his head.

YORK

It would beseem the Lord Northumberland

To say ‘King Richard’. Alack the heavy day

When such a sacred king should hide his head!

NORTHUMBERLAND

Your grace mistakes. Only to be brief

Left I his title out.

YORK

The time hath been,

Would you have been so brief with him, he would

Have been so brief with you to shorten you,

For taking so the head, your whole head’s length.

BOLINGBROKE

Mistake not, uncle, further than you should.

YORK

Take not, good cousin, further than you should,

Lest you mistake the heavens are over our heads.

BOLINGBROKE

I know it, uncle, and oppose not myself

Against their will.

Enter Harry Percy ⌈and a trumpeter⌉

But who comes here?

Welcome, Harry. What, will not this castle yield?

HARRY PERCY

The castle royally is manned, my lord,

Against thy entrance.

BOLINGBROKE Royally?

Why, it contains no king.

HARRY PERCY

Yes, my good lord,

It doth contain a king. King Richard lies

Within the limits of yon lime and stone,

And with him are the Lord Aumerle, Lord Salisbury,

Sir Stephen Scrope, besides a clergyman

Of holy reverence; who, I cannot learn.

NORTHUMBERLAND

O, belike it is the Bishop of Carlisle.

BOLINGBROKE (to Northumberland) Noble lord,

Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle;

Through brazen trumpet send the breath of parley

Into his ruined ears, and thus deliver.

Henry Bolingbroke

Upon his knees doth kiss King Richard’s hand,

And sends allegiance and true faith of heart

To his most royal person, hither come

Even at his feet to lay my arms and power,

Provided that my banishment repealed

And lands restored again be freely granted.

If not, I’ll use the advantage of my power,

And lay the summer’s dust with showers of blood

Rained from the wounds of slaughtered Englishmen;

The which how far off from the mind of Bolingbroke

It is such crimson tempest should bedrench

The fresh green lap of fair King Richard’s land,

My stooping duty tenderly shall show.

Go, signify as much, while here we march

Upon the grassy carpet of this plain.

Let’s march without the noise of threat‘ning drum,

That from this castle’s tottered battlements

Our fair appointments may be well perused.

Methinks King Richard and myself should meet

With no less terror than the elements

Of fire and water when their thund’ring shock

At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven.

Be he the fire, I’ll be the yielding water.

The rage be his, whilst on the earth I rain

My waters: on the earth, and not on him.—

March on, and mark King Richard, how he looks.

⌈They march about the stage; then Bolingbroke, York, Percy, and soldiers stand at a distance from the walls; Northumberland and trumpeter advance to the walls.⌉ The trumpets sound Fa parley without, and an answer within; then a flourish within.⌉ King Richard appeareth on the walls, with the Bishop of Carlisle, the Duke of Aumerle, ⌈Scrope, and the Earl of Salisbury⌉

See, see, King Richard doth himself appear,

As doth the blushing discontented sun

From out the fiery portal of the east

When he perceives the envious clouds are bent

To dim his glory and to stain the track

Of his bright passage to the occident.

YORK

Yet looks he like a king. Behold, his eye,

As bright as is the eagle’s, lightens forth

Controlling majesty. Alack, alack for woe

That any harm should stain so fair a show!

KING RICHARD (to Northumberland)

We are amazed; and thus long have we stood

To watch the fearful bending of thy knee,

Because we thought ourself thy lawful king.

An if we be, how dare thy joints forget

To pay their aweful duty to our presence?

If we be not, show us the hand of God

That hath dismissed us from our stewardship.

For well we know no hand of blood and bone

Can grip the sacred handle of our sceptre,

Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp.

And though you think that all—as you have done—

Have torn their souls by turning them from us,

And we are barren and bereft of friends,

Yet know my master, God omnipotent,

Is mustering in his clouds on our behalf

Armies of pestilence; and they shall strike