Authors: William Shakespeare
EXTON
From your own mouth, my lord, did I this deed.
BULLINGBROOK
They love not poison that do poison need,
Nor do I thee. Though I did wish him dead,
I hate the murd’rer,
love him murderèd
40
.
The guilt of conscience take thou for thy labour,
But neither my good word nor princely favour.
With
Cain
43
go wander through the shade of night,
And never show thy head by day nor light.
Lords, I protest, my soul is full of woe
That blood should sprinkle me to make me grow.
Come, mourn with me for that I do lament,
And put on
sullen
48
black incontinent.
I’ll make a voyage to the
Holy Land
49
,
To wash this blood off from my guilty hand.
March
sadly
51
after: grace my mourning here,
In weeping
after
52
this untimely bier.
Exeunt
Q = First Quarto text of 1597
F = First Folio text of 1623
F2 = a correction introduced in the Second Folio text of 1632
Ed = a correction introduced by a later editor
List of parts
= Ed
1.1.127
duly
= Q.
Not in
F
163
Obedience bids
= Ed. F
erroneously prints the words twice
203
we shall
= Q. F = you shall
1.2.20
faded
spelled
vaded
in
F
43
to
= F. Q = and
62
my
= F. Q = thy
1.3.28
plated
= Q. F = placed
29
formally
= Q. F = formerly
76
furbish
= Q. F = furnish
86
King
= Q. F = Kings
256
as foil
= Q. F = a soyle
266
never
= Q. F = euer
1.4.7
blew
= Q. F = grew
22
Bagot here
= Q. F = heere
Bagot
27
smiles
= Q. F = soules
2.1.18
found
= Q. F = sound
118
chasing
= Q. F = chafing
191
grip
spelled
gripe
in
F
234
thou wouldst
= Q. F = thou’dst
286
Brittany
= Ed. F =
Britaine
2.2.3
life-harming
= Q. F = selfe-harming
27
weeps
= Q. F = weepe
54
son young
= Q. F = yong sonne
74
hope lingers
= Q. F = hopes linger
95
as … callèd
= Q. F = I came by, and call’d
2.3.87
nor uncle me no uncle
= Ed. F = nor Unckle me
92
then more
= Q. F = more then
3.2.26
rebellion’s
= Q. F = Rebellious
102
makes
= Q. F = make
107
Whitebeards
= Q. F = White Beares
177
And … yourself
= Q.
Not in
F
3.3.39
most royal
= Q. F = Royall
(
F
’s lineation is also aberrant in these lines)
3.4.11
joy
= Ed. F = Griefe
26
come
= Q. F = comes
61
we at
= Ed. F = at
62
Do
= Q. F = And
70
and
= F. Q = of
4.1.27
I say thou
= Q. F = Thou
34
sympathy
= Q. F = sympathize
113
noblesse
= Q. F = noblenesse
132
his
= F. Q = this
139
rear
= F. Q = raise
5.1.39
thy
= Q. F = my
5.3.36
be
= Q. F = me
49
reason
= F. Q = treason
62
held
= Q. F = had
93
kneel
= F. Q = walke
5.5 [Scene 5]
= Ed. F =
Scoena Quarta (i.e. numbered 5.4, since previous scene break is not noted)
31
prison
= F. Q = person
95
Spurred, galled
= Q. F = Spur-gall’d
5.6
[Scene 6]
= Ed. F =
Scoena Quinta
Following 1.3.127:
And for we think the eagle-wingèd pride
Of sky-aspiring and ambitious thoughts,
With rival-hating envy, set on you
To wake our peace, which in our country’s cradle
Draws the sweet infant breath of gentle sleep;
Following 1.3.232:
O, had it been a stranger, not my child,
To smooth his fault I should have been more mild:
A partial slander sought I to avoid,
And in the sentence my own life destroyed.
Following 1.3.257:
BULLINGBROOK
Nay, rather, every tedious stride I make
Will but remember me what a deal of world
I wander from the jewels that I love.
Must I not serve a long apprenticehood
To foreign passages, and in the end,
Having my freedom, boast of nothing else
But that I was a journeyman to grief?
GAUNT
All places that the eye of heaven visits
Are to a wise man ports and happy havens.
Teach thy necessity to reason thus;
There is no virtue like necessity.
Think not the king did banish thee,
But thou the king. Woe doth the heavier sit,
Where it perceives it is but faintly borne.
Go, say I sent thee forth to purchase honour
And not the king exiled thee; or suppose
Devouring pestilence hangs in our air
And thou art flying to a fresher clime:
Look what thy soul holds dear, imagine it
To lie that way thou go’st, not whence thou comest:
Suppose the singing birds musicians,
The grass whereon thou tread’st the presence strewed,
The flowers fair ladies, and thy steps no more
Than a delightful measure or a dance;
For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite
The man that mocks at it and sets it light.
Following 3.2.28:
The means that heaven yields must be embraced,
And not neglected; else, if heaven would,
And we will not, heaven’s offer we refuse,
The proffered means of succour and redress.
Following 4.1.52:
LORD
I task the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle;
And spur thee on with full as many lies
As may be holloaed in thy treacherous ear
From sun to sun: there is my honour’s pawn;
Engage it to the trial, if thou darest.
AUMERLE
Who sets me else? By heaven, I’ll throw at all:
I have a thousand spirits in one breast,
To answer twenty thousand such as you.
The following oaths were altered in the Folio text as a result of the Parliamentary Act to Restrain the Abuses of Players (spelling has been modernized in this list):
| | 1597 QUARTO | FOLIO |
| 1.1.188 | O God defend my soul | O, heaven defend my soul |
| 1.2.37 | God’s is the quarrel for God’s substitute | Heaven’s is the quarrel, for heaven’s substitute |
| 1.2.43 | To God the widow’s champion | To heaven, the widow’s champion |
| 1.3.18 | (Which God defend …) | Which heaven defend |
| 1.3.37 | To prove by God’s grace, | To prove, by heaven’s grace |
| 1.3.78 | God, in thy good cause | Heaven in thy good cause |
| 1.3.85 | How ever God or Fortune | However, heaven or fortune |
| 1.3.101 | … and God defend the right | And heaven defend thy right! |
| 1.3.174 | that y’owe to God, | that you owe to heaven |
| 1.3.177 | so help you truth and God | so help you truth and heaven |
| 1.3.198 | But what thou art, God, thou, and I, do know | But what thou art heaven, thou, and I, do know |
| 1.4.58 | Now put it (God) in the physician’s mind | Now put it, heaven, in his physician’s mind |
| 1.4.63 | Pray God we may make haste | Pray heaven we may make haste |
| 2.1.240 | Now afore God | Now, afore heaven, |
| 2.2.41 | God save your majesty, | Heaven save your majesty! |
| 2.2.78 | Uncle, for God’s sake | Uncle, for heaven’s sake, |
| 2.2.99 | God for his mercy | Heav’n for his mercy! |
| 2.2.101 | I would to God, | I would to heaven— |
| 3.1.37 | For God’s sake fairly | For heaven’s sake, fairly |
| 3.2.55 | God for his Ric[hard]: | Heaven for his Richard |
| 3.2.150 | For God’s sake let us | For heaven’s sake let us |
| 3.4.108 | Pray God the plants | I would the plants |
| 4.1.8 | Marry God forbid | Marry, heaven forbid! |
| 4.1.127 | Stirred up by God | Stirred up by heaven |
| 5.2.80 | God for his mercy! | Heaven for his mercy, |
| 5.3.4 | I would to God | I would to heaven, |
| 5.3.73 | … for God’s sake let me in | For heaven’s sake, let me in |
| 5.3.132 | I pardon him as God shall pardon me | I pardon him as heaven shall pardon me |
| 5.3.148 | I pray God make thee new | I pray heaven make thee new |
The scene begins in medias res, emphasizing that the events of the play are part of a much wider span of English history, also shown by many references to the past, present, and future.
Lines 1–151:
Gaunt has brought his son, Henry Bullingbrook, Duke of Hereford, to court to make his accusations against Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. Richard has the two men called “Face to face / And frowning brow to brow,” introducing recurrent themes of opposition/conflict and “mirroring.” Bullingbrook and Mowbray greet the king formally, emphasizing the importance of status and ceremony, but Richard responds that one of them merely “flatters” him, drawing attention to the secrecy and plotting under the surface. Bullingbrook calls Mowbray a “traitor and a miscreant,” an accusation he claims his “divine soul” will answer “in heaven,” establishing the religious aspect of Bullingbrook’s characterization and the play’s Christian framework. The furious Mowbray calls him a “slanderous coward,” at which Bullingbrook throws down his gage as a challenge to personal combat, and Mowbray accepts by picking it up.
Bullingbrook outlines three charges. First, Mowbray spent money intended for paying Richard’s soldiers on “lewd employment.” Second, he has instigated “all the treasons” against Richard for the last “eighteen years.” Third, he is implicated in the Duke of Gloucester’s murder. Bullingbrook repeatedly refers to “blood,” a key motif in the play signifying both violence and lineage. His comparison between Gloucester’s blood and “sacrificing Abel’s,” however, perhaps implicates a family member, a hint at Richard’s involvement. Mowbray denies everything, although his arguments are ambiguous. He, too, throws down his gage.
Lines 152–206:
Richard tries to command peace, declaring “Lions make leopards tame,” revealing his awareness of the power and
importance of the king. He fails to reconcile them, however, reluctantly recognizing that their dispute can only be resolved through personal combat.
Gaunt is visited by his sister-in-law, Gloucester’s widow. He assures her that he grieves for Gloucester, but is unable to do anything, believing “correction lieth in those hands / Which made the fault,” a reference to Richard’s part in the murder. He says that they will have to place their faith in “the will of heaven.” The duchess argues that this is not enough and urges him to take action, reminding him of the ties of kinship through the metaphor of a tree, part of the play’s natural imagery. Gaunt argues though that “Heaven’s is the quarrel” and that Richard is heaven’s “deputy anointed on earth,” establishing the concept of the “divine right of kings” that is central to the play. Despite believing that Richard “Hath caused his death,” Gaunt will not avenge Gloucester since it would become an act of treason, introducing a recurring tension between personal feelings and traditional codes and duties.