Before I have shook off the regal thoughts
Wherewith I reign'd? I hardly yet have learn'd
To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my limbs7:
Give sorrow leave a while to tutor me

To this submission. Yet I well remember
The favours of these men3: were they not mine?
Did they not sometime 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 Harry Bolingbroke.

K. Rich. Give me the crown.-Here, cousin', seize

the crown;

Here, cousin, on this side my hand, and on that side,

yours.

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 grief, 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

7

mine.

and bend my LIMBS:] The reading of the folio alone is knee.

8 The FAVOURS of these men :] i. e. the countenances. See Vol. iii. p. 361, note 6.

Give me the crown.-Here, cousin,] These words are only in the folio, 1623, and in the subsequent impressions of the same volume.

&c.

10 That OWES two buckets-] i. e. owns. See Vol. ii. p. 45, &c. ; iii. p. 254,

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 duties, rites':
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 that swear to thee?!
Make me, that nothing have, with nothing griev'd,
And thou with all pleas'd, that hast all achiev'd!
Long may'st 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?

1 release all DUTIES, RITES:] The folio, 1623, has it "release all duteous oaths:" this can hardly be correct, because Richard afterwards mentions “oaths" as broken to him: they would not have been broken if he had released them. THAT SWEAR to thee !] The folio, less forcibly, but, perhaps, more correctly, "are made to thee."

2

North.

No more, but that you read
[Offering a paper.

These accusations, and these grievous crimes,
Committed by your person, and your followers,
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 folly? 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 would'st,
There should'st 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 me3,
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, dispatch: 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, and sovereignty a slave',

3 Nay, ALL of you, that stand and look upon me,] The quartos give this line imperfectly as follows, me having, probably, dropped out :

"Nay, of you that stand and look upon."

But they can see a SORT of traitors here.] i. e. a company of traitors. The use of the word in this sense is extremely common in Shakespeare and his contemporaries. See Vol. ii. p. 427, note 8.

5 Made glory base, AND sovereignty a slave,] So the quartos of 1608 and 1615. The folio misprints it "a sovereignty," &c.

Proud majesty a subject; state a peasant.
North. My lord,—

K. Rich. No lord of thine, thou haught, insulting

man,

Nor no man's lord: I have no name, no title,

No, not that name was given me at the font,
But 'tis 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 name 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 Attendant.
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 the glass, and therein will I read3.—

6 thou HAUGHT, insulting man,] The adjective" haught" was nearly in as common use as haughty. We meet with it in Spenser and Marlowe, and down to the time of Milton.

7 An if my NAME be sterling yet in England,] This is the reading of the two quartos: the folio altered "name" to word, but without necessity, or even propriety, as the King has just been talking about his name, and now wishes to see if it yet have power to command a mirror to be brought.

8 — and therein will I read.-] These necessary words are first found in the folio, 1623.

No deeper wrinkles yet? Hath sorrow struck
So many blows upon this face of mine,

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'?
Was this the face, that fac'd so many follies,
And was at last out-fac'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 a 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 lament

Are merely shadows to the unseen grief,

That swells with silence in the tortur'd soul;
There lies the substance2: 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 begone and trouble you no more.
Shall I obtain it3?

Boling.

Name it, fair cousin.

Thou dost beguile me.] Not in either of the quartos. In the same line the quartos read, "Was this the face?"

That like the sun did make beholders wink?] This passage was also added in the folio.

2 There lies the substance:] These words are from the folio, as well as "For thy great bounty," in the next line.

3 Shall I obtain it ?] Not in the quartos.