Give sorrow leave awhile to tutor me

To this submission. Yet I will remember

The favours of these men: Were they not mine?
Did they not sometimes cry, all hail to me?

So Judas did to Christ: but he, in twelve,

Found truth in all but one; I, in twelve thousand, none.
God save the king!—Will no man say, amen?
Am I both priest and clerk? well then, amen.
God save the king! although I be not he;
And yet, amen, if heaven do think him me.-

To do what service am I sent for hither?

York. To do that office, of thine own good will,
Which tired majesty did make thee offer,-
The resignation of thy state and crown
To Henry Bolingbroke.

K. Rich. Give me the crown :-Here, cousin, seize the crown; Here, cousin, on this side my hand; on that side thine.

Now is this golden crown like a deep well,

That owes two buckets filling one another;

The emptier ever dancing in the air,

The other down, unseen, and full of water:
That bucket down, and full of tears, am I,

Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high.
Boling. I thought you had been willing to resign.

K. Rich. My crown I am, but still my griefs are mine:
You may my glories and my state depose,

But not my griefs; still am I king of those.

Boling. Part of your cares you give me with your crown. K. Rich. Your cares set up do not pluck my cares down. My care is loss 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 resign the crown?
K. Rich. Ay, no :-no, ay; for I must nothing be;
Therefore no, no, for I resign to thee.

Now mark me how I will undo myself:-
I give this heavy weight from off my head,
And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand,
The pride of kingly sway from out my heart;
With mine own tears I wash away my balm,
With mine own hands I give away my crown,
With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,
With mine own breath release all duteous oaths:
All pomp and majesty I do forswear;

My manors, rents, revenues, I forego;

My acts, decrees, and statutes, 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 hast all achiev'd!
Long mayst thou live in Richard's seat to sit,

And soon lie Richard in an earthy pit!
God save King Henry unking'd Richard says,
And send him many years of sunshine days!
What more remains ?

North.
No more, but that you read
These accusations, and these grievous crimes,
Committed by your person, and your follower
Against the state and profit of this land;
That, by confessing them, the souls of men
May deem that you are worthily depos'd.

K. Rich. Must I do so? and must I ravel out
My weav'd-up follies! Gentle Northumberland,
If thy offences were upon record,

Would it not shame thee, in so fair a troop,
To read a lecture of them? If thou wouldst,
There shouldst thou find one heinous article,
Containing the deposing of a king,

And cracking the strong warrant of an oath,
Mark'd with a blot, damn'd in the book of heaven :—
Nay, all of you, that stand and look upon me,
Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait myself,
Though some of you, with Pilate, wash your hands,
Showing an outward pity; yet you Pilates
Have here deliver'd me to my sour cross,

And water cannot wash away your sin.

North. My lord, despatch; read o'er these articles.
K. Rich. Mine eyes are full of tears, I cannot see:
And yet salt water blinds them not so much,
But they can see a sort of traitors here.
Nay, if I turn mine eyes upon myself,
I find myself a traitor with the rest :
For I have given here my soul's consent
To undeck the pompous body of a king;
Made glory base; a sovereignty a slave;
Proud majesty a subject; state a peasant.
North. My lord,-

[Offering a paper.

K. Rich. No lord of thine, thou haught, insulting man, No, nor no man's lord; I have no name, no title,

No, not that name was given me at the font,

But 't is usurp'd:-Alack the heavy day,

That I have worn so many winters out,

And know not now what name to call myself!

O, that I were a mockery king of snow,
Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke,
To melt myself away in water-drops!-

Good king,-great king,-(and yet not greatly good,)
An if my word be sterling yet in England,
Let it command a mirror hither straight,
That it may show me what a face I have,
Since it is bankrupt of his majesty.

Boling. Go some of you, and fetch a looking-glass.

[Exit an Attendan..

North. Read o'er this paper, while the glass doth come.
K. Rich. Fiend! thou torment'st me ere I come to hell.
Boling. Urge it no more, my lord Northumberland.
North. The commons will not then be satisfied.

K. Rich. They shall be satisfied: I'll read enough,
When I do see the very book indeed

Where all my sins are writ, and that's myself.

Re-enter Attendant with a glass.

Give me that glass, and therein will I read.
No deeper wrinkles yet? Hath sorrow struck
blows upon this face of mine,

So many

And made no deeper wounds ?-O flattering glass,
Like to my followers in prosperity,

Thou dost beguile me! Was this face the face
That every day under his household roof

Did keep ten thousand men ? Was this the face
That, like the sun, did make beholders wink?
Is this the face which fac'd so many follies,
That was at last outfac'd by Bolingbroke?
A brittle glory shineth in this face:

As brittle as the glory is the face;

[Dashes the glass against the ground

For there it is, crack'd in an hundred shivers.
Mark, silent king, the moral of this sport,—
How soon my sorrow hath destroy'd my face.
Boling. The shadow of your sorrow hath destroy'd
The shadow of your face.

K. Rich.

Say that again.

The shadow of my sorrow? Ha! let's see:—
'Tis very true my grief lies all within ;
And these external manners of laments
Are merely shadows to the unseen grief,
That swells with silence in the tortur'd soul;

There lies the substance: and I thank thee, king,
For thy great bounty, that not only giv'st
Me cause to wail, but teachest me the way
How to lament the cause. I'll beg one boon,
And then be gone, and trouble you no more.
Shall I obtain it?

Boling. Yet ask.

K. Rich. And shall I have?

Boling. You shall.

K. Rich. Then give me leave to go.

Boling. Whither?

K. Rich. Whither you will, so I were from your sights.

Boling. Go, some of you, convey him to the Tower.
K. Rich. O, good! Convey ?-Conveyers are you all,
That rise thus nimbly by a true king's fall.

[Ex. K. Richard, some Lords, and a Guard.

117.-HOW SIR JOHN FROISSART ARRIVED IN ENGLAND.

FROISSART.

[From Lord Berners's Translation.]

True it was, that I Sir John Froissart, (as at that time treasurer and canon of Chimay, in the earldom of Hainault, in the diocese of Liege), had great affection to go and see the realm of England, when I had been in Abbeville, and saw that truce was taken between the realms of England and France, and other countries to them conjoined, and their adherents, to endure four years by sea and by land. Many reasons moved me to make that voyage; one was, because in my youth I had been brought up in the court of the noble king Edward the Third, and of queen Philippa his wife, and among their children, and other barons of England, that as then were alive, in whom I found all nobleness, honour, largess, and courtesy ; therefore I desired to see the country, thinking thereby I should live much the longer, for I had not been there twenty-seven years before, and I thought, though I saw not those lords that I left alive there, yet at the least I should see their heirs, the which should do me much good to see, and also to justify the histories and matters that I had written of them and or I took my journey, I spoke with duke Aubert of Baviere, and with the earl of Hainault, Holland, Zeland, and lord of Freese, and with my lord William earl of Ostrevaunt, and with my right honourable lady Jane duchess of Brabant and of Luxembourg, and with the lord Engerant, lord Coucy, and with the gentle knight the lord of Gomegynes, who in his youth and mine had been together in England in the king's court; in likewise so had I seen there the lord of Coucy, and divers others nobles of France, holden great housholds in London, when they lay there in hostage for the redemption of king John, as then French king, as it hath been shewed here before in this history.

:

These said lords and the duchess of Brabant, counselled me to take this journey, and gave me letters of recommendation to the king of England and to his uncles, saving the lord Coucy; he would not write to the king because he was a Frenchman, therefore he durst not, but to his daughter, who as then was called duchess of Ireland; and I had engrossed in a fair book well enlumined, all the matters of amours and moralities, that in four and twenty years before I had made and compiled, which greatly quickened my desire to go into England to see king Richard, who was son to the noble prince of Wales and of Aquitaine, for I had not seen this king Richard sith he was christened in the Cathedral church of Bourdeaux, at which time I was there, and thought to have gone with the prince the journey into Galicia in Spain; and when we were in the city of Aste,* the prince sent me back into England, to the queen his mother.

For these causes and other I had great desire to go into England to see the king and his uncles. Also I had this said fair book well covered with velvet, garnished with clasps of silver and gilt, thereof to make a present to the king at my first coming to his presence; I had such desire to go this voyage, that the pain and travail grieved me nothing. Thus provided of horses and other necessaries, I passed the sea at Calais, and came to Dover, the 12th day of the month of July (1395); when I came there I found no man of my knowledge, it was so long sith I had

• Dax.

been in England, and the houses were all newly changed, and young children were become men, and the women knew me not, nor I them; so I abode half a day and all a night at Dover; it was on a Tuesday, and the next day by nine of the clock I came to Canterbury, to Saint Thomas' Shrine, and to the tomb of the noble prince of Wales, who is there interred right richly; there I heard mass, and made mine offering to the holy saint, and then dined at my lodging; and there I was informed how king Richard should be there the next day on pilgrimage, which was after his return out of Ireland, where he had been the space of nine months or there about: the king had a devotion to visit Saint Thomas' shrine, and also because the prince his father was there buried: then I thought to abide the king there, and so I did; and the next day the king came thither with a noble company of lords, ladies, and damoselles: and when I was among them they seemed to me all new folks, I knew no person; the time was sore changed in twenty-seven years, and with the king as then was none of his uncles; the duke of Lancaster was in Aquitaine, and the dukes of York and Gloucester were in other businesses, so that I was at the first all abashed, for if I had seen any ancient knight that had been with king Edward, or with the prince, I had been well recomforted and would have gone to him, but I could see none such. Then I demanded for a knight called Sir Richard Stury, whether he were alive or not? and it was shewed me yes, but he was at London. Then I thought to go to the Lord Thomas Percy, great seneschal of England, who was there with the king: so I acquainted me with him, and I found him right honourable and gracious, and he offered to present me and my letters to the king, whereof I was right joyful, for it behoved me to have some means to bring me to the presence of such a prince as the king of England was; he went to the king's chamber, at which time the king was gone to sleep, and so he shewed me, and bade me return to my lodging and come again, and so I did; and when I came to the bishop's palace, I found the Lord Thomas Percy ready to ride to Ospring, and he counseled me to make as then no knowledge of my being there, but to foilow the court and said he would cause me ever to be well lodged till the king should be at the fair castle of Leeds, in Kent. I ordered me after his counsel and rode before to Ospring; and by adventure I was lodged in an house where was lodged a gentle knight of England, called Sir William Lisle; he was tarried there behind the king, because he had pain in his head all the night before: he was one of the king's privy chamber; and when he saw that I was a stranger, and as he thought, of the marches of France, because of my language, we fell in acquaintance together: for gentlemen of England are courteous, tractable, and glad of acquaintance; then he demanded what I was, and what business I had to do in those parts; I shewed him a great part of my coming thither, and all that the Lord Thomas Percy had said to me, and ordered me to do. He then answered and said, how I could not have a better mean, and that on the Friday the king should be at the castle of Leeds; and he shewed me that when I came there, I should find there the Duke of York, the king's uncle, whereof I was right glad, because I had letters directed to him, and also that in his youth he had seen me, in the court of the noble king Edward his father, and with the queen his mother. Then on the Friday in the morning Sir William Lisle and I rode together, and on the way I demanded of him if he had been with the king in the voyage into Ireland. He answered me ycs. Then I demanded of him the manner of the hole that is in Ireland, called Saint Patrick's Purgatory, if it were true that was said of it or not. Then he said, that of a surety such a hole there was, and that he himself and another knight of England had been there while the king lay at Duvelin,* and said how they entered into the

* Dublin.