Richard II Text: Act 2, Scene 4

This page contains the original text of Richard II, Act 2, Scene 4. Shakespeare’s original Richard II text is long, so we’ve split the text into one Scene per page. All Acts and Scenes are listed on the original Richard II text page, or linked to from the bottom of this page.

RICHARD II. ACT 2, SCENE 4. A camp in Wales

Enter EARL OF SALISBURY and a Welsh Captain
Captain
My lord of Salisbury, we have stay’d ten days,
And hardly kept our countrymen together,
And yet we hear no tidings from the king;
Therefore we will disperse ourselves: farewell.

EARL OF SALISBURY
Stay yet another day, thou trusty Welshman:
The king reposeth all his confidence in thee.

Captain
‘Tis thought the king is dead; we will not stay.
The bay-trees in our country are all wither’d
And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven;
The pale-faced moon looks bloody on the earth
And lean-look’d prophets whisper fearful change;
Rich men look sad and ruffians dance and leap,
The one in fear to lose what they enjoy,
The other to enjoy by rage and war:
These signs forerun the death or fall of kings.
Farewell: our countrymen are gone and fled,
As well assured Richard their king is dead.
Exit

EARL OF SALISBURY
Ah, Richard, with the eyes of heavy mind
I see thy glory like a shooting star
Fall to the base earth from the firmament.
Thy sun sets weeping in the lowly west,
Witnessing storms to come, woe and unrest:
Thy friends are fled to wait upon thy foes,
And crossly to thy good all fortune goes.

Exit

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Richard II Act 1, Scene 1
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