BOLINGBROKE          Lords, I protest my soul is full of woe That blood should sprinkle me to make me grow. Come mourn with me for what I do lament And put on sullen black incontinent. I’ll make a voyage to the Holy Land To wash this blood off from my guilty hand. March sadly after. Grace […]

EXTON                        From your own mouth, my lord, did I this deed. BOLINGBROKE          They love not poison that do poison need, Nor do I thee. Though I did wish him dead I hate the murderer, love him murderèd. The guilt of conscience take thou for thy labour But neither my good word nor princely favour. With […]

Enter Exton [and others] with a coffin EXTON                        Great King, within this coffin I present Thy buried fear. Herein all breathless lies The mightiest of thy greatest enemies, Richard of Bordeaux, by me hither brought. BOLINGBROKE          Exton, I thank thee not, for thou hast wrought A deed of slander with thy fatal hand Upon my head […]

Enter Percy and [the Bishop of] Carlisle [as prisoner] PERCY                        The grand conspirator, Abbot of Westminster, With clog of conscience and sour melancholy Hath yielded up his body to the grave; But here is Carlisle, living to abide Thy kingly doom and sentence of his pride. BOLINGBROKE          Carlisle, this is your doom: Choose out some secret place, […]

Enter Lord Fitzwater FITZWATER               My lord, I have from Oxford sent to London The heads of Brocas and Sir Bennet Seely, Two of the dangerous consorted traitors That sought at Oxford thy dire overthrow. BOLINGBROKE          Thy pains, Fitzwater, shall not be forgot, Right noble is thy merit, well I wot.             (5.6.13-18)   One has to […]

Flourish. Enter Bolingbroke with York, other lords and attendants BOLINGBROKE          Kind uncle York, the latest news we hear Is that the rebels have consumed with fire Our town of Ci’cester in Gloucestershire, But whether they be ta’en or slain we hear not. Enter Northumberland Welcome my lord, what is the news? NORTHUMBERLAND First, to thy […]

EXTON            As full of valour as of royal blood. Both have I spilled. O would the deed were good— For now the devil that told me I did well Says that this deed is chronicled in hell. This dead King to the living King I’ll bear— Take hence the rest and give them burial here. […]

The murderers, Exton and servants, rush in RICHARD        How now, what means death in this rude assault? Villain, thy own hand yields thy death’s instrument. [He seizes a servant’s weapon and kills him with it] Go thou and fill another room in hell! [He kills another.] Here Exton strikes him down That hand shall burn […]

Enter Keeper to Richard with meat KEEPER          [to Groom] Fellow, give place, here is no longer stay. RICHARD        If thou love me ’tis time thou wert away. GROOM           What my tongue dares not, that my heart shall say. Exit Groom KEEPER          My lord, will’t please you to fall to? RICHARD        Taste of it first, as […]

RICHARD        That jade hath ate bread from my royal hand; This hand hath made him proud with clapping him. Would he not stumble, would he not fall down, Since pride must have a fall, and break the neck Of that proud man that did usurp his back? Forgiveness, horse! Why do I rail on thee […]