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Grows strong and great in substance and in power. |
KING RICHARD II: |
Discomfortable cousin! know'st thou not |
That when the searching eye of heaven is hid, |
Behind the globe, that lights the lower world, |
Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen |
In murders and in outrage, boldly here; |
But when from under this terrestrial ball |
He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines |
And darts his light through every guilty hole, |
Then murders, treasons and detested sins, |
The cloak of night being pluck'd from off their backs, |
Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves? |
So when this thief, this traitor, Bolingbroke, |
Who all this while hath revell'd in the night |
Whilst we were wandering with the antipodes, |
Shall see us rising in our throne, the east, |
His treasons will sit blushing in his face, |
Not able to endure the sight of day, |
But self-affrighted tremble at his sin. |
Not all the water in the rough rude sea |
Can wash the balm off from an anointed king; |
The breath of worldly men cannot depose |
The deputy elected by the Lord: |
For every man that Bolingbroke hath press'd |
To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown, |
God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay |
A glorious angel: then, if angels fight, |
Weak men must fall, for heaven still guards the right. |
Welcome, my lord how far off lies your power? |
EARL OF SALISBURY: |
Nor near nor farther off, my gracious lord, |
Than this weak arm: discomfort guides my tongue |
And bids me speak of nothing but despair. |
One day too late, I fear me, noble lord, |
Hath clouded all thy happy days on earth: |
O, call back yesterday, bid time return, |
And thou shalt have twelve thousand fighting men! |
To-day, to-day, unhappy day, too late, |
O'erthrows thy joys, friends, fortune and thy state: |
For all the Welshmen, hearing thou wert dead. |
Are gone to Bolingbroke, dispersed and fled. |
DUKE OF AUMERLE: |
Comfort, my liege; why looks your grace so pale? |
KING RICHARD II: |
But now the blood of twenty thousand men |
Did triumph in my face, and they are fled; |
And, till so much blood thither come again, |
Have I not reason to look pale and dead? |
All souls that will be safe fly from my side, |
For time hath set a blot upon my pride. |
DUKE OF AUMERLE: |
Comfort, my liege; remember who you are. |
KING RICHARD II: |
I had forgot myself; am I not king? |
Awake, thou coward majesty! thou sleepest. |
Is not the king's name twenty thousand names? |
Arm, arm, my name! a puny subject strikes |
At thy great glory. Look not to the ground, |
Ye favourites of a king: are we not high? |
High be our thoughts: I know my uncle York |
Hath power enough to serve our turn. But who comes here? |
SIR STEPHEN SCROOP: |
More health and happiness betide my liege |
Than can my care-tuned tongue deliver him! |
KING RICHARD II: |
Mine ear is open and my heart prepared; |
The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold. |
Say, is my kingdom lost? why, 'twas my care |
And what loss is it to be rid of care? |
Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we? |
Greater he shall not be; if he serve God, |
We'll serve Him too and be his fellow so: |
Revolt our subjects? that we cannot mend; |
They break their faith to God as well as us: |
Cry woe, destruction, ruin and decay: |
The worst is death, and death will have his day. |
SIR STEPHEN SCROOP: |
Glad am I that your highness is so arm'd |
To bear the tidings of calamity. |
Like an unseasonable stormy day, |
Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores, |
As if the world were all dissolved to tears, |
So high above his limits swells the rage |
Of Bolingbroke, covering your fearful land |
With hard bright steel and hearts harder than steel. |
White-beards have arm'd their thin and hairless scalps |
Against thy majesty; boys, with women's voices, |
Strive to speak big and clap their female joints |
In stiff unwieldy arms against thy crown: |
The very beadsmen learn to bend their bows |
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