• Home >
  • Primary Sources >
  • Books & Plays >
  • William Shakespeare >
  • William Shakespeare: Richard II, Act III, Scene IV

TrendingHere are the facts and trivia that people are buzzing about.

Did Birds Evolve from Dinosaurs?

The Twelve Dancing Princesses

Current Events This Week: January 2023

African Americans by the Numbers

Andersen’s Fairy Tales: Contents

The Celtic Twilight: A Teller of Tales

 

Scene IVLangley. The Duke of York’s gardenEnter the Queen and two LadiesQueenWhat sport shall we devise here in this garden, To drive away the heavy thought of care?LadyMadam, we’ll play at bowls.Queen’Twill make me think the world is full of rubs, And that my fortune rubs against the bias.LadyMadam, we’ll dance.QueenMy legs can keep no measure in delight, When my poor heart no measure keeps in grief: Therefore, no dancing, girl; some other sport.LadyMadam, we’ll tell tales.QueenOf sorrow or of joy?LadyOf either, madam.QueenOf neither, girl: For of joy, being altogether wanting, It doth remember me the more of sorrow; Or if of grief, being altogether had, It adds more sorrow to my want of joy: For what I have I need not to repeat; And what I want it boots not to complain.LadyMadam, I’ll sing.Queen’Tis well that thou hast cause But thou shouldst please me better, wouldst thou weep.LadyI could weep, madam, would it do you good.QueenAnd I could sing, would weeping do me good, And never borrow any tear of thee.Enter a Gardener, and two ServantsBut stay, here come the gardeners: Let’s step into the shadow of these trees. My wretchedness unto a row of pins, They’ll talk of state; for every one doth so Against a change; woe is forerun with woe.Queen and Ladies retireGardenerGo, bind thou up yon dangling apricocks, Which, like unruly children, make their sire Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight: Give some supportance to the bending twigs. Go thou, and like an executioner, Cut off the heads of too fast growing sprays, That look too lofty in our commonwealth: All must be even in our government. You thus employ’d, I will go root away The noisome weeds, which without profit suck The soil’s fertility from wholesome flowers.ServantWhy should we in the compass of a pale Keep law and form and due proportion, Showing, as in a model, our firm estate, When our sea-walled garden, the whole land, Is full of weeds, her fairest flowers choked up, Her fruit-trees all upturned, her hedges ruin’d, Her knots disorder’d and her wholesome herbs Swarming with caterpillars?GardenerHold thy peace: He that hath suffer’d this disorder’d spring Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf: The weeds which his broad-spreading leaves did shelter, That seem’d in eating him to hold him up, Are pluck’d up root and all by Bolingbroke, I mean the Earl of Wiltshire, Bushy, Green.ServantWhat, are they dead?GardenerThey are; and Bolingbroke Hath seized the wasteful king. O, what pity is it That he had not so trimm’d and dress’d his land As we this garden! We at time of year Do wound the bark, the skin of our fruit-trees, Lest, being over-proud in sap and blood, With too much riches it confound itself: Had he done so to great and growing men, They might have lived to bear and he to taste Their fruits of duty: superfluous branches We lop away, that bearing boughs may live: Had he done so, himself had borne the crown, Which waste of idle hours hath quite thrown down.ServantWhat, think you then the king shall be deposed?GardenerDepress’d he is already, and deposed ‘Tis doubt he will be: letters came last night To a dear friend of the good Duke of York’s, That tell black tidings.QueenO, I am press’d to death through want of speaking!Coming forwardThou, old Adam’s likeness, set to dress this garden, How dares thy harsh rude tongue sound this unpleasing news? What Eve, what serpent, hath suggested thee To make a second fall of cursed man? Why dost thou say King Richard is deposed? Darest thou, thou little better thing than earth, Divine his downfall? Say, where, when, and how, Camest thou by this ill tidings? speak, thou wretch.GardenerPardon me, madam: little joy have I To breathe this news; yet what I say is true. King Richard, he is in the mighty hold Of Bolingbroke: their fortunes both are weigh’d: In your lord’s scale is nothing but himself, And some few vanities that make him light; But in the balance of great Bolingbroke, Besides himself, are all the English peers, And with that odds he weighs King Richard down. Post you to London, and you will find it so; I speak no more than every one doth know.QueenNimble mischance, that art so light of foot, Doth not thy embassage belong to me, And am I last that knows it? O, thou think’st To serve me last, that I may longest keep Thy sorrow in my breast. Come, ladies, go, To meet at London London’s king in woe. What, was I born to this, that my sad look Should grace the triumph of great Bolingbroke? Gardener, for telling me these news of woe, Pray God the plants thou graft’st may never grow.Exeunt Queen and LadiesGardenerPoor queen! so that thy state might be no worse, I would my skill were subject to thy curse. Here did she fall a tear; here in this place I’ll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace: Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen, In the remembrance of a weeping queen.Exeunt

William Shakespeare: Richard II, Act III

.com/t/lit/shakespeare-plays/richardII-act3-4.html

Sources +

Our Common Sources

.com/t/lit/shakespeare-plays/richardII-act3-4.html

Sources +

Our Common Sources

Our Common Sources

William Shakespeare: Richard II, Act II, Scene II

  • William Shakespeare: Richard II, Act II, Scene II

TrendingHere are the facts and trivia that people are buzzing about.

Did Birds Evolve from Dinosaurs?

The Twelve Dancing Princesses

Current Events This Week: January 2023

African Americans by the Numbers

Andersen’s Fairy Tales: Contents

The Celtic Twilight: A Teller of Tales

TrendingHere are the facts and trivia that people are buzzing about.

Did Birds Evolve from Dinosaurs?

The Twelve Dancing Princesses

Current Events This Week: January 2023

African Americans by the Numbers

Andersen’s Fairy Tales: Contents

The Celtic Twilight: A Teller of Tales

  • Did Birds Evolve from Dinosaurs?
  • The Twelve Dancing Princesses
  • Current Events This Week: January 2023
  • African Americans by the Numbers
  • Andersen’s Fairy Tales: Contents
  • The Celtic Twilight: A Teller of Tales