SCENE I. Ely House. The Life and Death of Richard the Second  Shakespeare homepage  |  Richard II  | Act 2, Scene 1 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE I. Ely House. 

 Enter JOHN OF GAUNT sick, with the DUKE OF YORK, & c  JOHN OF GAUNT  Will the king come, that I may breathe my last 

 In wholesome counsel to his unstaid youth? 

 DUKE OF YORK  Vex not yourself, nor strive not with your breath; 

 For all in vain comes counsel to his ear. 

 JOHN OF GAUNT  O, but they say the tongues of dying men 

 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 

 Than they whom youth and ease have taught to glose; 

 More are men's ends mark'd than their lives before: 

 The setting sun, and music at the close, 

 As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last, 

 Writ in remembrance more than things long past: 

 Though Richard my life's counsel would not hear, 

 My death's sad tale may yet undeaf his ear. 

 DUKE OF YORK  No; it is stopp'd with other flattering sounds, 

 As praises, of whose taste the wise are fond, 

 Lascivious metres, to whose venom sound 

 The open ear of youth doth always listen; 

 Report of fashions in proud Italy, 

 Whose manners still our tardy apish nation 

 Limps after in base imitation. 

 Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity-- 

 So it be new, there's no respect how vile-- 

 That is not quickly buzzed into his ears? 

 Then all too late comes counsel to be heard, 

 Where will doth mutiny with wit's regard. 

 Direct not him whose way himself will choose: 

 'Tis breath thou lack'st, and that breath wilt thou lose. 

 JOHN OF 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; 

 Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short; 

 He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes; 

 With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder: 

 Light vanity, insatiate cormorant, 

 Consuming means, soon preys upon itself. 

 This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle, 

 This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, 

 This other Eden, demi-paradise, 

 This fortress built by Nature for herself 

 Against infection and the hand of war, 

 This happy breed of men, this little world, 

 This precious stone set in the silver sea, 

 Which serves it in the office of a wall, 

 Or as a moat defensive to a house, 

 Against the envy of less happier lands, 

 This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, 

 This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings, 

 Fear'd by their breed and famous by their birth, 

 Renowned for their deeds as far from home, 

 For Christian service and true chivalry, 

 As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry, 

 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: 

 England, bound in with the triumphant sea 

 Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege 

 Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame, 

 With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds: 

 That England, that was wont to conquer others, 

 Hath made a shameful conquest of itself. 

 Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life, 

 How happy then were my ensuing death! 



 Enter KING RICHARD II and QUEEN, DUKE OF AUMERLE,  BUSHY, GREEN, BAGOT, LORD ROSS, and LORD WILLOUGHBY  DUKE OF YORK  The king is come: deal mildly with his youth; 

 For young hot colts being raged do rage the more. 

 QUEEN  How fares our noble uncle, Lancaster? 

 KING RICHARD II  What comfort, man? how is't with aged Gaunt? 

 JOHN OF GAUNT  O how that name befits my composition! 

 Old Gaunt indeed, and gaunt in being old: 

 Within me grief hath kept a tedious fast; 

 And who abstains from meat that is not gaunt? 

 For sleeping England long time have I watch'd; 

 Watching breeds leanness, leanness is all gaunt: 

 The pleasure that some fathers feed upon, 

 Is my strict fast; I mean, my children's looks; 

 And therein fasting, hast thou made me gaunt: 

 Gaunt am I for the grave, gaunt as a grave, 

 Whose hollow womb inherits nought but bones. 

 KING RICHARD II  Can sick men play so nicely with their names? 

 JOHN OF GAUNT  No, misery makes sport to mock itself: 

 Since thou dost seek to kill my name in me, 

 I mock my name, great king, to flatter thee. 

 KING RICHARD II  Should dying men flatter with those that live? 

 JOHN OF GAUNT  No, no, men living flatter those that die. 

 KING RICHARD II  Thou, now a-dying, say'st thou flatterest me. 

 JOHN OF GAUNT  O, no! thou diest, though I the sicker be. 

 KING RICHARD II  I am in health, I breathe, and see thee ill. 

 JOHN OF GAUNT  Now He that made me knows I see thee ill; 

 Ill in myself to see, and in thee seeing ill. 

 Thy death-bed is no lesser than thy land 

 Wherein thou liest in reputation sick; 

 And thou, too careless patient as thou art, 

 Commit'st thy anointed body to the cure 

 Of those physicians that first wounded thee: 

 A thousand flatterers sit within thy crown, 

 Whose compass is no bigger than thy head; 

 And yet, incaged in so small a verge, 

 The waste is no whit lesser than thy land. 

 O, had thy grandsire with a prophet's eye 

 Seen how his son's son should destroy his sons, 

 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. 

 Why, cousin, wert thou regent of the world, 

 It were a shame to let this land by lease; 

 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: 

 Thy state of law is bondslave to the law; And thou-- 

 KING RICHARD II  A lunatic lean-witted fool, 

 Presuming on an ague's privilege, 

 Darest with thy frozen admonition 

 Make pale our cheek, chasing the royal blood 

 With fury from his native residence. 

 Now, by my seat's right royal majesty, 

 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. 

 JOHN OF GAUNT  O, spare me not, my brother Edward's son, 

 For that I was his father Edward's son; 

 That blood already, like the pelican, 

 Hast thou tapp'd out and drunkenly caroused: 

 My brother Gloucester, plain well-meaning soul, 

 Whom fair befal in heaven 'mongst happy souls! 

 May be a precedent and witness good 

 That thou respect'st not spilling Edward's blood: 

 Join with the present sickness that I have; 

 And thy unkindness be like crooked age, 

 To crop at once a too long wither'd flower. 

 Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee! 

 These words hereafter thy tormentors be! 

 Convey me to my bed, then to my grave: 

 Love they to live that love and honour have. 



 Exit, borne off by his Attendants  KING RICHARD II  And let them die that age and sullens have; 

 For both hast thou, and both become the grave. 

 DUKE OF YORK  I do beseech your majesty, impute his words 

 To wayward sickliness and age in him: 

 He loves you, on my life, and holds you dear 

 As Harry Duke of Hereford, were he here. 

 KING RICHARD II  Right, you say true: as Hereford's love, so his; 

 As theirs, so mine; and all be as it is. 



 Enter NORTHUMBERLAND  NORTHUMBERLAND  My liege, old Gaunt commends him to your majesty. 

 KING RICHARD II  What says he? 

 NORTHUMBERLAND  Nay, nothing; all is said 

 His tongue is now a stringless instrument; 

 Words, life and all, old Lancaster hath spent. 

 DUKE OF YORK  Be York the next that must be bankrupt so! 

 Though death be poor, it ends a mortal woe. 

 KING RICHARD II  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: 

 We must supplant those rough rug-headed kerns, 

 Which live like venom where no venom else 

 But only they have privilege to live. 

 And for these great affairs do ask some charge, 

 Towards our assistance we do seize to us 

 The plate, corn, revenues and moveables, 

 Whereof our uncle Gaunt did stand possess'd. 

 DUKE OF YORK  How long shall I be patient? ah, how long 

 Shall tender duty make me suffer wrong? 

 Not Gloucester's death, nor Hereford's banishment 

 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. 

 I am the last of noble Edward's sons, 

 Of whom thy father, Prince of Wales, was first: 

 In war was never lion raged more fierce, 

 In peace was never gentle lamb more mild, 

 Than was that young and princely gentleman. 

 His face thou hast, for even so look'd he, 

 Accomplish'd with the number of thy hours; 

 But when he frown'd, it was against the French 

 And not against his friends; his noble hand 

 Did will what he did spend and spent not that 

 Which his triumphant father's hand had won; 

 His hands were guilty of no kindred blood, 

 But bloody with the enemies of his kin. 

 O Richard! York is too far gone with grief, 

 Or else he never would compare between. 

 KING RICHARD II  Why, uncle, what's the matter? 

 DUKE OF YORK  O my liege, 

 Pardon me, if you please; if n ot, I, pleased 

 Not to be pardon'd, am content withal. 

 Seek you to seize and gripe into your hands 

 The royalties and rights of banish'd Hereford? 

 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 

 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!-- 

 If you do wrongfully seize Hereford's rights, 

 Call in the letters patent that he hath 

 By his attorneys-general to sue 

 His livery, and deny his offer'd homage, 

 You pluck a thousand dangers on your head, 

 You lose a thousand well-disposed hearts 

 And prick my tender patience, to those thoughts 

 Which honour and allegiance cannot think. 

 KING RICHARD II  Think what you will, we seize into our hands 

 His plate, his goods, his money and his lands. 

 DUKE OF 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  KING RICHARD II  Go, Bushy, to the Earl of Wiltshire straight: 

 Bid him repair to us to Ely House 

 To see this business. To-morrow next 

 We will for Ireland; and 'tis time, I trow: 

 And we create, in absence of ourself, 

 Our uncle York lord governor of England; 

 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 



 Flourish. Exeunt KING RICHARD II, QUEEN, DUKE OF AUMERLE, BUSHY, GREEN, and BAGOT  NORTHUMBERLAND  Well, lords, the Duke of Lancaster is dead. 

 LORD ROSS  And living too; for now his son is duke. 

 LORD WILLOUGHBY  Barely in title, not in revenue. 

 NORTHUMBERLAND  Richly in both, if justice had her right. 

 LORD ROSS  My heart is great; but it must break with silence, 

 Ere't be disburden'd with a liberal tongue. 

 NORTHUMBERLAND  Nay, speak thy mind; and let him ne'er speak more 

 That speaks thy words again to do thee harm! 

 LORD WILLOUGHBY  Tends that thou wouldst speak to the Duke of Hereford? 

 If it be so, out with it boldly, man; 

 Quick is mine ear to hear of good towards him. 

 LORD ROSS  No good at all that I can do for him; 

 Unless you call it good to pity him, 

 Bereft and gelded of his patrimony. 

 NORTHUMBERLAND  Now, afore God, 'tis shame such wrongs are borne 

 In him, a royal prince, and many moe 

 Of noble blood in this declining land. 

 The king is not himself, but basely led 

 By flatterers; and what they will inform, 

 Merely in hate, 'gainst any of us all, 

 That will the king severely prosecute 

 'Gainst us, our lives, our children, and our heirs. 

 LORD ROSS  The commons hath he pill'd with grievous taxes, 

 And quite lost their hearts: the nobles hath he fined 

 For ancient quarrels, and quite lost their hearts. 

 LORD WILLOUGHBY  And daily new exactions are devised, 

 As blanks, benevolences, and I wot not what: 

 But what, o' God's name, doth become of this? 

 NORTHUMBERLAND  Wars have not wasted it, for warr'd he hath not, 

 But basely yielded upon compromise 

 That which his noble ancestors achieved with blows: 

 More hath he spent in peace than they in wars. 

 LORD ROSS  The Earl of Wiltshire hath the realm in farm. 

 LORD WILLOUGHBY  The king's grown bankrupt, like a broken man. 

 NORTHUMBERLAND  Reproach and dissolution hangeth over him. 

 LORD ROSS  He hath not money for these Irish wars, 

 His burthenous taxations notwithstanding, 

 But by the robbing of the banish'd duke. 

 NORTHUMBERLAND  His noble kinsman: most degenerate king! 

 But, lords, we hear this fearful tempest sing, 

 Yet see no shelter to avoid the storm; 

 We see the wind sit sore upon our sails, 

 And yet we strike not, but securely perish. 

 LORD ROSS  We see the very wreck that we must suffer; 

 And unavoided is the danger now, 

 For suffering so the causes of our wreck. 

 NORTHUMBERLAND  Not so; even through the hollow eyes of death 

 I spy life peering; but I dare not say 

 How near the tidings of our comfort is. 

 LORD WILLOUGHBY  Nay, let us share thy thoughts, as thou dost ours. 

 LORD ROSS  Be confident to speak, Northumberland: 

 We three are but thyself; and, speaking so, 

 Thy words are but as thoughts; therefore, be bold. 

 NORTHUMBERLAND  Then thus: I have from Port le Blanc, a bay 

 In Brittany, received intelligence 

 That Harry Duke of Hereford, Rainold Lord Cobham, 

 That late broke from the Duke of Exeter, 

 His brother, Archbishop late of Canterbury, 

 Sir Thomas Erpingham, Sir John Ramston, 

 Sir John Norbery, Sir Robert Waterton and Francis Quoint, 

 All these well furnish'd by the Duke of Bretagne 

 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. 

 If then we shall shake off our slavish yoke, 

 Imp out our drooping country's broken wing, 

 Redeem from broking pawn the blemish'd crown, 

 Wipe off the dust that hides our sceptre's gilt 

 And make high majesty look like itself, 

 Away with me in post to Ravenspurgh; 

 But if you faint, as fearing to do so, 

 Stay and be secret, and myself will go. 

 LORD ROSS  To horse, to horse! urge doubts to them that fear. 

 LORD WILLOUGHBY  Hold out my horse, and I will first be there. 



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