第9章 Exeunt ACT II SCENE I. Ely House.(2)
May be a precedent and witness good That thou respect'st not spilling Edward's blood:
Join with the present sickness that I have;
And thy unkindness be like crooked age, To crop at once a too long wither'd flower.
Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee!
These words hereafter thy tormentors be!
Convey me to my bed, then to my grave:
Love they to live that love and honour have.
Exit, borne off by his Attendants KING RICHARD II And let them die that age and sullens have;
For both hast thou, and both become the grave. DUKE OF YORK I do beseech your majesty, impute his words To wayward sickliness and age in him:
He loves you, on my life, and holds you dear As Harry Duke of Hereford, were he here. KING RICHARD II Right, you say true: as Hereford's love, so his;
As theirs, so mine; and all be as it is.
Enter NORTHUMBERLAND NORTHUMBERLAND My liege, old Gaunt commends him to your majesty. KING RICHARD II What says he? NORTHUMBERLAND Nay, nothing; all is said His tongue is now a stringless instrument;
Words, life and all, old Lancaster hath spent. DUKE OF YORK Be York the next that must be bankrupt so!
Though death be poor, it ends a mortal woe. KING RICHARD II The ripest fruit first falls, and so doth he;
His time is spent, our pilgrimage must be.
So much for that. Now for our Irish wars:
We must supplant those rough rug-headed kerns, Which live like venom where no venom else But only they have privilege to live.
And for these great affairs do ask some charge, Towards our assistance we do seize to us The plate, corn, revenues and moveables, Whereof our uncle Gaunt did stand possess'd. DUKE OF YORK How long shall I be patient? ah, how long Shall tender duty make me suffer wrong?
Not Gloucester's death, nor Hereford's banishment Not Gaunt's rebukes, nor England's private wrongs, Nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke About his marriage, nor my own disgrace, Have ever made me sour my patient cheek, Or bend one wrinkle on my sovereign's face.
I am the last of noble Edward's sons, Of whom thy father, Prince of Wales, was first:
In war was never lion raged more fierce, In peace was never gentle lamb more mild, Than was that young and princely gentleman.
His face thou hast, for even so look'd he, Accomplish'd with the number of thy hours;
But when he frown'd, it was against the French And not against his friends; his noble hand Did will what he did spend and spent not that Which his triumphant father's hand had won;
His hands were guilty of no kindred blood, But bloody with the enemies of his kin.
O Richard! York is too far gone with grief, Or else he never would compare between. KING RICHARD II Why, uncle, what's the matter? DUKE OF YORK O my liege, Pardon me, if you please; if n ot, I, pleased Not to be pardon'd, am content withal.
Seek you to seize and gripe into your hands The royalties and rights of banish'd Hereford?
Is not Gaunt dead, and doth not Hereford live?
Was not Gaunt just, and is not Harry true?
Did not the one deserve to have an heir?
Is not his heir a well-deserving son?
Take Hereford's rights away, and take from Time His charters and his customary rights;
Let not to-morrow then ensue to-day;
Be not thyself; for how art thou a king But by fair sequence and succession?
Now, afore God--God forbid I say true!--If you do wrongfully seize Hereford's rights, Call in the letters patent that he hath By his attorneys-general to sue His livery, and deny his offer'd homage, You pluck a thousand dangers on your head, You lose a thousand well-disposed hearts And prick my tender patience, to those thoughts Which honour and allegiance cannot think. KING RICHARD II Think what you will, we seize into our hands His plate, his goods, his money and his lands. DUKE OF YORK I'll not be by the while: my liege, farewell:
What will ensue hereof, there's none can tell;
But by bad courses may be understood That their events can never fall out good.
Exit KING RICHARD II Go, Bushy, to the Earl of Wiltshire straight: