Richard II

by William Shakespeare

Genres: General Fiction; Classics

Synopsis

This moving and eloquent historical drama depicts the conflict between a willful and arrogant poet of a king, Richard II, and his politically pragmatic cousin, Bolingbroke. Rich with memorable scenes and speeches, this lyrical history moves from a splendid medieval tournament to the poignant surrender of a crown; from the queen’s heart-shattering farewell to her king to Richard’s murder—a deed “chronicled in hell” that lives forever as one of the great moments in theater.

Release date: May 8, 2013

Publisher: Bantam Classics

Print pages: 304

Sample

[1.1] A Enter King Richard, John of Gaunt, with other nobles and attendants.

king richard

Old John of Gaunt, time-honored Lancaster,

Hast thou according to thy oath and bond

Brought hither Henry Hereford, thy bold son,

Here to make good the boist’rous late appeal,

Which then our leisure would not let us hear,

Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?

gaunt I have, my liege.

king richard

Tell me, moreover, hast thou sounded him

If he appeal the Duke on ancient malice,

Or worthily, as a good subject should,

On some known ground of treachery in him?

gaunt

As near as I could sift him on that argument,

On some apparent danger seen in him

Aimed at Your Highness, no inveterate malice.

king richard

Then call them to our presence.[Exit an attendant.]

Face to face,

And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear

The accuser and the accusèd freely speak.

High-stomached are they both, and full of ire;

In rage, deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.

Enter Bolingbroke and Mowbray.

22Each . . . happiness May each day improve on the happiness of other past days

23hap fortune

26you come for which you come

28what . . . object what accusation do you bring

30record witness

32Tend’ring watching over, holding dear

34appellant as the accuser

38answer answer for

39miscreant irreligious villain

40good i.e., noble, high-born

41crystal clear. (The image alludes to the crystal spheres in which, according to the Ptolemaic conception of the universe, the heavenly bodies were fixed.)

43aggravate the note emphasize the stigma, i.e., the charge of treason

45so please if it please

46right-drawn justly drawn

47accuse my zeal cast doubt on my zeal or loyalty.

48woman’s war i.e., war of words

49eager sharp, biting

bolingbroke

Many years of happy days befall

My gracious sovereign, my most loving liege!

mowbray

Each day still better others’ happiness,

Until the heavens, envying earth’s good hap,

Add an immortal title to your crown!

king richard

We thank you both. Yet one but flatters us,

As well appeareth by the cause you come:

Namely, to appeal each other of high treason.

Cousin of Hereford, what dost thou object

Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?

bolingbroke

First—heaven be the record to my speech!—

In the devotion of a subject’s love,

Tend’ring the precious safety of my prince,

And free from other misbegotten hate,

Come I appellant to this princely presence.

Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee;

And mark my greeting well, for what I speak

My body shall make good upon this earth

Or my divine soul answer it in heaven.

Thou art a traitor and a miscreant,

Too good to be so and too bad to live,

Since the more fair and crystal is the sky,

The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly.

Once more, the more to aggravate the note,

With a foul traitor’s name stuff I thy throat,

And wish, so please my sovereign, ere I move,

What my tongue speaks my right-drawn sword may prove.

mowbray

Let not my cold words here accuse my zeal.

’Tis not the trial of a woman’s war,

The bitter clamor of two eager tongues,

50Can that can

56post ride at high speed (like a messenger riding relays of horses)

58Setting . . . royalty Disregarding Bolingbroke’s royal blood (as grandson of Edward III)

59let him be suppose him to be

63tied obliged

65inhabitable uninhabitable

69gage a pledge to combat (usually a glove or gauntlet, i.e., a mailed or armored glove)

70Disclaiming relinquishing. kindred kinship

72except exempt, set aside.

74pawn i.e., the gage

77or . . . devise or anything worse you can imagine to have been said about you.

Can arbitrate this cause betwixt us twain;

The blood is hot that must be cooled for this.

Yet can I not of such tame patience boast

As to be hushed and naught at all to say.

First, the fair reverence of Your Highness curbs me

From giving reins and spurs to my free speech,

Which else would post until it had returned

These terms of treason doubled down his throat.

Setting aside his high blood’s royalty,

And let him be no kinsman to my liege,

I do defy him, and I spit at him,

Call him a slanderous coward and a villain;

Which to maintain I would allow him odds

And meet him, were I tied to run afoot

Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps

Or any other ground inhabitable

Wherever Englishman durst set his foot.

Meantime, let this defend my loyalty:

By all my hopes, most falsely doth he lie.

bolingbroke [throwing down his gage]

Pale trembling coward, there I throw my gage,

Disclaiming here the kindred of the King,

And lay aside my high blood’s royalty,

Which fear, not reverence, makes thee to except.

If guilty dread have left thee so much strength

As to take up mine honor’s pawn, then stoop.

By that, and all the rites of knighthood else,

Will I make good against thee, arm to arm,

What I have spoke or thou canst worse devise.

mowbray [taking up the gage]

I take it up; and by that sword I swear

Which gently laid my knighthood on my shoulder,

I’ll answer thee in any fair degree

Or chivalrous design of knightly trial;

82light alight, dismount

85inherit us put me in possession of, make me have

87Look what Whatever

88nobles gold coins worth six shillings eight pence

89lendings advances on pay

90lewd vile, base

93Or either

95these eighteen years i.e., ever since the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381

96Complotted plotted in a conspiracy

97Fetch derive. head and spring (Synonymous words meaning “origin.”)

100Duke of Gloucester’s death (Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, a younger son of Edward III and brother of John of Gaunt, was murdered at Calais in September 1397, while in Mowbray’s custody.)

101Suggest . . . adversaries did prompt Gloucester’s easily persuaded enemies (to believe him guilty of treason)

102consequently afterward

103Sluiced out let flow (as by the opening of a sluice, or valve)

104Abel’s (For the story of Cain’s murder of his brother Abel, the first such murder on earth and the archetype of the killing of a kinsman, see Genesis 4:3–12.)

105tongueless resonant but without articulate speech; echoing

109pitch highest reach of a falcon’s flight

And when I mount, alive may I not light

If I be traitor or unjustly fight!

king richard

What doth our cousin lay to Mowbray’s charge?

It must be great that can inherit us

So much as of a thought of ill in him.

bolingbroke

Look what I speak, my life shall prove it true:

That Mowbray hath received eight thousand nobles

In name of lendings for Your Highness’ soldiers,

The which he hath detained for lewd employments,

Like a false traitor and injurious villain.

Besides I say, and will in battle prove

Or here or elsewhere to the furthest verge

That ever was surveyed by English eye,

That all the treasons for these eighteen years

Complotted and contrivèd in this land

Fetch from false Mowbray their first head and spring.

Further I say, and further will maintain

Upon his bad life to make all this good,

That he did plot the Duke of Gloucester’ s death,

Suggest his soon-believing adversaries,

And consequently, like a traitor coward,

Sluiced out his innocent soul through streams of blood—

Which blood, like sacrificing Abel’s, cries

Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth

To me for justice and rough chastisement.

And, by the glorious worth of my descent,

This arm shall do it or this life be spent.

king richard

How high a pitch his resolution soars!

Thomas of Norfolk, what say’st thou to this?

113this slander . . . blood this disgrace to the royal family

118my scepter’s awe the reverence due my scepter

120nothing not at all. partialize make partial, bias

126receipt money received

129For that because

130Upon . . . account for the balance of a heavy debt

131Since . . . queen (Mowbray went in 1395 to France to negotiate the King’s marriage to Isabella, daughter of the French King Charles VI, but Richard himself escorted her to England.)

132–4 For . . . case (Mowbray speaks guardedly but seems to imply that he postponed the execution of Gloucester that he was ordered by Richard to carry out.)

132For As for

140exactly (1) explicitly (2) fully

142appealed of which I am charged

mowbray

Oh, let my sovereign turn away his face

And bid his ears a little while be deaf,

Till I have told this slander of his blood

How God and good men hate so foul a liar!

king richard

Mowbray, impartial are our eyes and ears.

Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom’s heir,

As he is but my father’s brother’s son,

Now, by my scepter’s awe I make a vow,

Such neighbor nearness to our sacred blood

Should nothing privilege him nor partialize

The unstooping firmness of my upright soul.

He is our subject, Mowbray; so art thou.

Free speech and fearless I to thee allow.

mowbray

Then, Bolingbroke, as low as to thy heart

Through the false passage of thy throat thou liest!

Three parts of that receipt I had for Calais

Disbursed I duly to His Highness’ soldiers;

The other part reserved I by consent,

For that my sovereign liege was in my debt

Upon remainder of a dear account

Since last I went to France to fetch his queen.

Now swallow down that lie. For Gloucester’ s death,

I slew him not, but to my own disgrace

Neglected my sworn duty in that case.

[To Gaunt] For you, my noble lord of Lancaster,

The honorable father to my foe,

Once did I lay an ambush for your life,

A trespass that doth vex my grievèd soul;

But ere I last received the Sacrament

I did confess it, and exactly begged

Your Grace’s pardon, and I hope I had it.

This is my fault. As for the rest appealed,

144recreant cowardly; or, coward (used as a noun)

145Which which charge. in myself in my own person

146interchangeably in exchange, reciprocally

147overweening arrogant, proud

149Even in by shedding

150In haste whereof To hasten which proof of my innocence

153Let’ s . . . blood let’s treat this wrath (caused by an excess of bile or choler) by purging (vomiting or evacuation) rather than by medical bloodletting. (With a play on “bloodshed in combat.”)

156conclude come to a final agreement

157no month to bleed (Learned authorities often differed as to which months or seasons were best for medicinal bloodletting.)

164boot help for it.

165Myself I throw i.e., I throw myself, instead of my gage

168Despite . . . grave that will live in the epitaph on my grave in spite of devouring Death

It issues from the rancor of a villain,

A recreant and most degenerate traitor,

Which in myself I boldly will defend,

And interchangeably hurl down my gage

Upon this overweening traitor’s foot,

To prove myself a loyal gentleman

Even in the best blood chambered in his bosom.

[He throws down his gage. Bolingbroke picks it up.]

In haste whereof most heartily I pray

Your Highness to assign our trial day.

king richard

Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be ruled by me;

Let’s purge this choler without letting blood.

This we prescribe, though no physician;

Deep malice makes too deep incision.

Forget, forgive; conclude and be agreed;

Our doctors say this is no month to bleed.—

Good uncle, let this end where it begun;

We’ll calm the Duke of Norfolk, you your son.

gaunt

To be a make-peace shall become my age.

Throw down, my son, the Duke of Norfolk’s gage.

king richard

And Norfolk, throw down his.

gauntWhen, Harry, when?

Obedience bids I should not bid again.

king richard

Norfolk, throw down, we bid; there is no boot.

mowbray [kneeling]

Myself I throw, dread sovereign, at thy foot.

My life thou shalt command, but not my shame.

The one my duty owes; but my fair name,

Despite of death that lives upon my grave,

To dark dishonor’s use thou shalt not have.

170impeached accused. baffled publicly dishonored

173Which . . . poison of him who uttered this slander.

174Lions . . . tame (The royal arms showed a lion rampant; Mowbray’ s emblem was a leopard.)

175spots (1) leopard spots (2) stains of dishonor.

177mortal times our earthly lives

182in one inseparably

184try put to the test

186throw . . . gage i.e., surrender your gage up to me, thereby ending the quarrel. (Richard is probably seated on a raised throne, as in scene 3.)

189impeach my height discredit my high rank

190out-dared dared down, cowed. dastard coward.

191feeble wrong dishonorable submission

192sound . . . parle trumpet so shameful a negotiation, i.e., consent to ask a truce

192–5 my teeth . . . face my teeth will bite off my tongue as a craven instrument of cowardly capitulation and spit it out bleeding, to its (the tongue’s) great disgrace, into Mowbray’s face, where shame abides perpetually.

195.1 Exit Gaunt (A stage direction from the Folio, adopted by most editors so that Gaunt will not be required to exit at the end of scene 1 and then immediately reenter.)

I am disgraced, impeached, and baffled here,

Pierced to the soul with slander’s venomed spear,

The which no balm can cure but his heart-blood

Which breathed this poison.

king richardRage must be withstood.

Give me his gage. Lions make leopards tame.

mowbray

Yea, but not change his spots. Take but my shame,

And I resign my gage. My dear dear lord,

The purest treasure mortal times afford

Is spotless reputation; that away,

Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.

A jewel in a ten-times-barred-up chest

Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast.

Mine honor is my life; both grow in one;

Take honor from me, and my life is done.

Then, dear my liege, mine honor let me try;

In that I live, and for that will I die.

king richard [to Bolingbroke]

Cousin, throw up your gage; do you begin.

bolingbroke

Oh, God defend my soul from such deep sin!

Shall I seem crestfallen in my father’s sight?

Or with pale beggar-fear impeach my height

Before this out-dared dastard? Ere my tongue

Shall wound my honor with such feeble wrong,

Or sound so base a parle, my teeth shall tear

The slavish motive of recanting fear

And spit it bleeding in his high disgrace,

Where shame doth harbor, even in Mowbray’s face.

[Exit Gaunt.]

king richard

We were not born to sue but to command;

Which since we cannot do to make you friends,

Be ready, as your lives shall answer it,

199Saint Lambert’s day September 17.

202atone reconcile

203design . . . chivalry designate who is the true chivalric victor.

205home alarms domestic conflicts.

1.2Location: John of Gaunt’s house (? No place is specified, and the scene is not in Holinshed.)

1the part . . . blood my kinship with Thomas of Woodstock, the Duke of Gloucester (i.e., as his older brother)

2exclaims exclamations

3stir take action

4those hands i.e., Richard’s (whom Gaunt charges with responsibility for Gloucester’s death)

11Edward’s Edward III’s

21envy’ s malice’s

At Coventry upon Saint Lambert’s day.

There shall your swords and lances arbitrate

The swelling difference of your settled hate.

Since we cannot atone you, we shall see

Justice design the victor’s chivalry.

Lord Marshal, command our officers at arms

Be ready to direct these home alarms.

Exeunt.