Act 2 — Scene I. Ely House.

Gaunt. Will the king come, that I may breathe my last In wholesome counsel to his unstaid youth? York. Vex not yourself, nor strive not with your breath; For all in vain comes counsel to his ear. Gaunt. O, but they say the tongues of dying men5 Enforce attention like deep harmony: Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain, For they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain. He that no more must say is listen'd more[978] Than they whom youth and ease have taught to glose;[978][979]10 More are men's ends mark'd than their lives before:[978] The setting sun, and music at the close,[978][980] As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,[978][981] Writ in remembrance more than things long past:[978] Though Richard my life's counsel would not hear,[978][982]15 My death's sad tale may yet undeaf his ear.[978] York. No; it is stopp'd with other flattering sounds,[983] As praises, of whose taste the wise are fond,[984] Lascivious metres, to whose venom sound[985] The open ear of youth doth always listen;[986]20 Report of fashions in proud Italy,[987] Whose manners still our tardy apish nation[988] Limps after in base imitation.[989] Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity— So it be new, there's no respect how vile—25 That is not quickly buzz'd into his ears?[990] Then all too late comes counsel to be heard,[991] Where will doth mutiny with wit's regard. Direct not him whose way himself will choose:[992] 'Tis breath thou lack'st, and that breath wilt thou lose.[992][993]30 Gaunt. Methinks I am a prophet new inspired And thus expiring do foretell of him: His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last, For violent fires soon burn out themselves;[994] Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short;35 He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes; With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder: Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,[995] Consuming means, soon preys upon itself. This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,[996]40 This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,[996] This other Eden, demi-paradise;[996][997] This fortress built by Nature for herself[996] Against infection and the hand of war;[996][998] This happy breed of men, this little world,[996][999]45 This precious stone set in the silver sea,[996] Which serves it in the office of a wall,[996] Or as a moat defensive to a house,[996][1000] Against the envy of less happier lands;[996][1001] This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,[996][1002]50 This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,[996] Fear'd by their breed and famous by their birth,[996][1003] Renowned for their deeds as far from home,[996][1004][1005] For Christian service and true chivalry,[996][1004][1006] As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry[996]55 Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son; This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land, Dear for her reputation through the world, Is now leased out, I die pronouncing it, Like to a tenement or pelting farm:[1007]60 England, bound in with the triumphant sea, Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege[1008] Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,[1009] With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds:[1010] That England, that was wont to conquer others,65 Hath made a shameful conquest of itself. Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life,[1011] How happy then were my ensuing death!

York. The king is come: deal mildly with his youth;[1013] For young hot colts being raged do rage the more.[1014]70 Queen. How fares our noble uncle, Lancaster? K. Rich. What comfort, man? how is't with aged Gaunt? Gaunt. O, how that name befits my composition![1015] Old Gaunt indeed, and gaunt in being old:[1015] Within me grief hath kept a tedious fast;[1015]75 And who abstains from meat that is not gaunt?[1015] For sleeping England long time have I watch'd;[1015] Watching breeds leanness, leanness is all gaunt:[1015] The pleasure that some fathers feed upon,[1015] Is my strict fast; I mean, my children's looks;[1015]80 And therein fasting, hast thou made me gaunt:[1015][1016] Gaunt am I for the grave, gaunt as a grave,[1015] Whose hollow womb inherits nought but bones.[1015] K. Rich. Can sick men play so nicely with their names?[1015] Gaunt. No, misery makes sport to mock itself:[1015]85 Since thou dost seek to kill my name in me,[1015] I mock my name, great king, to flatter thee.[1015][1017] K. Rich. Should dying men flatter with those that live?[1015][1018] Gaunt. No, no, men living flatter those that die.[1015] K. Rich. Thou, now a-dying, say'st thou flatterest me.[1015][1019]90 Gaunt. O, no! thou diest, though I the sicker be.[1015] K. Rich. I am in health, I breathe, and see thee ill.[1015][1020] Gaunt. Now, He that made me knows I see thee ill;[1015] Ill in myself to see, and in thee seeing ill.[1021] Thy death-bed is no lesser than thy land[1022]95 Wherein thou liest in reputation sick; And thou, too careless patient as thou art, Commit'st thy anointed body to the cure[1023] Of those physicians that first wounded thee: A thousand flatterers sit within thy crown,100 Whose compass is no bigger than thy head;[1024] And yet, incaged in so small a verge,[1025] The waste is no whit lesser than thy land.[1026] O, had thy grandsire with a prophet's eye Seen how his son's son should destroy his sons,105 From forth thy reach he would have laid thy shame, Deposing thee before thou wert possess'd, Which art possess'd now to depose thyself.[1027] Why, cousin, wert thou regent of the world,[1028] It were a shame to let this land by lease;[1029]110 But for thy world enjoying but this land, Is it not more than shame to shame it so? Landlord of England art thou now, not king:[1030] Thy state of law is bondslave to the law;[1031] And thou— K. Rich. A lunatic lean-witted fool,[1032]115 Presuming on an ague's privilege, Barest with thy frozen admonition Make pale our cheek, chasing the royal blood[1033] With fury from his native residence.[1034] Now, by my seat's right royal majesty,120 Wert thou not brother to great Edward's son, This tongue that runs so roundly in thy head Should run thy head from thy unreverent shoulders.[1035] Gaunt. O, spare me not, my brother Edward's son,[1036] For that I was his father Edward's son;125 That blood already, like the pelican, Hast thou tapp'd out and drunkenly caroused:[1037] My brother Gloucester, plain well-meaning soul, Whom fair befal in heaven 'mongst happy souls! May be a precedent and witness good130 That thou respect'st not spilling Edward's blood:[1038] Join with the present sickness that I have; And thy unkindness be like crooked age,[1039][1040] To crop at once a too long wither'd flower.[1039] Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee![1041]135 These words hereafter thy tormentors be! Convey me to my bed, then to my grave: Love they to live that love and honour have.

K. Rich. And let them die that age and sullens have; For both hast thou, and both become the grave.[1043]140 York. I do beseech your majesty, impute his words[1044][1045] To wayward sickliness and age in him:[1044] He loves you, on my life, and holds you dear As Harry Duke of Hereford, were he here. K. Rich. Right, you say true: as Hereford's love, so his;145 As theirs, so mine; and all be as it is.[1046]

North. My liege, old Gaunt commends him to your majesty. K. Rich. What says he? North. Nay, nothing; all is said:[1048] His tongue is now a stringless instrument; Words life and all, old Lancaster hath spent.150 York. Be York the next that must be bankrupt so! Though death be poor, it ends a mortal woe. K. Rich. 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:155 We must supplant those rough rug-headed kerns,[1049] Which live like venom where no venom else But only they have privilege to live.[1050] And for these great affairs do ask some charge, Towards our assistance we do seize to us160 The plate, coin, revenues and moveables,[1051] Whereof our uncle Gaunt did stand possess'd. York. How long shall I be patient? ah, how long[1052] Shall tender duty make me suffer wrong? Not Gloucester's death, nor Hereford's banishment,[1053]165 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.170 I am the last of noble Edward's sons,[1054] Of whom thy father, Prince of Wales, was first: In war was never lion raged more fierce,[1055] In peace was never gentle lamb more mild, Than was that young and princely gentleman.175 His face thou hast, for even so look'd he, Accomplish'd with the number of thy hours;[1056] But when he frown'd, it was against the French And not against his friends; his noble hand Did win what he did spend and spent not that180 Which his triumphant father's hand had won; His hands were guilty of no kindred blood,[1057] But bloody with the enemies of his kin. O Richard! York is too far gone with grief, Or else he never would compare between.[1058]185 K. Rich. Why, uncle, what's the matter?[1059] York. O my liege,[1059] Pardon me, if you please; if not, I, pleased[1059][1060] Not to be pardon'd, am content withal.[1059][1060] Seek you to seize and gripe into your hands The royalties and rights of banish'd Hereford?190 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[1061]195 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!—[1062]200 If you do wrongfully seize Hereford's rights,[1063] Call in the letters patents that he hath[1064] By his attorneys-general to sue His livery and deny his offer'd homage, You pluck a thousand dangers on your head,205 You lose a thousand well-disposed hearts[1065] And prick my tender patience to those thoughts Which honour and allegiance cannot think. K. Rich. Think what you will, we seize into our hands[1066] His plate, his goods, his money and his lands.[1067]210 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. K. Rich. Go, Bushy, to the Earl of Wiltshire straight:215 Bid him repair to us to Ely House To see this business. To-morrow next[1068] We will for Ireland; and 'tis time, I trow: And we create, in absence of ourself, Our uncle York lord governor of England;220 For he is just and always loved us well. Come on, our queen: to-morrow must we part; Be merry, for our time of stay is short.

North. Well, lords, the Duke of Lancaster is dead.[1070] Ross. And living too; for now his son is duke.225 Willo. Barely in title, not in revenue.[1071] North. Richly in both, if justice had her right. Ross. My heart is great; but it must break with silence, Ere't be disburden'd with a liberal tongue. North. Nay, speak thy mind; and let him ne'er speak more230 That speaks thy words again to do thee harm! Willo. Tends that thou wouldst speak to the Duke of Hereford?[1072] If it be so, out with it boldly, man; Quick is mine ear to hear of good towards him. Ross. No good at all that I can do for him;235 Unless you call it good to pity him, Bereft and gelded of his patrimony. North. Now, afore God, 'tis shame such wrongs are borne[1073] In him a royal prince and many moe[1074] Of noble blood in this declining land.240 The king is not himself, but basely led By flatterers; and what they will inform. Merely in hate, 'gainst any of us all,[1075] That will the king severely prosecute 'Gainst us, our lives, our children, and our heirs.[1075][1076]245 Ross. The commons hath he pill'd with grievous taxes,[1077] And quite lost their hearts: the nobles hath he fined[1078] For ancient quarrels, and quite lost their hearts.[1079] Willo. And daily new exactions are devised, As blanks, benevolences, and I wot not what:[1080]250 But what, o' God's name, doth become of this?[1081] North. Wars have not wasted it, for warr'd he hath not,[1082][1083] But basely yielded upon compromise[1082] That which his noble ancestors achieved with blows:[1082][1084] More hath he spent in peace than they in wars.[1082]255 Ross. The Earl of Wiltshire hath the realm in farm. Willo. The king's grown bankrupt, like a broken man.[1085] North. Reproach and dissolution hangeth over him.[1086] Ross. He hath not money for these Irish wars, His burthenous taxations notwithstanding,260 But by the robbing of the banish'd duke. North. His noble kinsman: most degenerate king! But, lords, we hear this fearful tempest sing, Yet seek no shelter to avoid the storm; We see the wind sit sore upon our sails,[1087]265 And yet we strike not, but securely perish. Ross. We see the very wreck that we must suffer; And unavoided is the danger now,[1088] For suffering so the causes of our wreck. North. Not so; even through the hollow eyes of death270 I spy life peering; but I dare not say[1089] How near the tidings of our comfort is. Willo. Nay, let us share thy thoughts, as thou dost ours. Ross. Be confident to speak, Northumberland: We three are but thyself; and, speaking so,275 Thy words are but as thoughts; therefore, be bold.[1090] North. Then thus: I have from Port le Blanc, a bay[1091][1092] In Brittany, received intelligence[1092][1093] That Harry Duke of Hereford, Rainold Lord Cobham,[1094] ................................280 That late broke from the Duke of Exeter, His brother, Archbishop late of Canterbury,[1095] Sir Thomas Erpingham, Sir John Ramston,[1096] Sir John Norbery, Sir Robert Waterton and Francis Quoint,[1097] All these well furnish'd by the Duke of Bretagne285 With eight tall ships, three thousand men of war. Are making hither with all due expedience And shortly mean to touch our northern shore: Perhaps they had ere this, but that they stay The first departing of the king for Ireland.290 If then we shall shake off our slavish yoke,[1098] Imp out our drooping country's broken wing, Redeem from broking pawn the blemish'd crown,[1099] Wipe off the dust that hides our sceptre's gilt[1100] And make high majesty look like itself,295 Away with me in post to Ravenspurgh;[1101] But if you faint, as fearing to do so, Stay and be secret, and myself will go. Ross. To horse, to horse! urge doubts to them that fear. Willo. Hold out my horse, and I will first be there.300