The Crown

Purple.

"Now mark me, how I will undo myself; 

I give this heavy weight from off my head 

And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand, 

The pride of kingly sway from out my heart; 

With mine own tears I wash away my balm, 

With mine own hands I give away my crown, 

With mine own tongue deny my sacred state, 

With mine own breath release all duty's rites: 

All pomp and majesty I do forswear; 

My manors, rents, revenues I forego; 

My acts, decrees, and statutes I deny: 

God pardon all oaths that are broke to me! 

God keep all vows unbroke that swear to thee! 

Make me, that nothing have, with nothing grieved, 

And thou with all pleased, that hast all achieved! 

Long mayst thou live in Richard's seat to sit, 

And soon lie Richard in an earthly pit! 

God save King Harry, unking'd Richard says, 

And send him many years of sunshine days! 

What more remains?"

Geronimo’s Heirs Sue Secret Yale Society Over His Skull

HOUSTON — The descendants of Geronimo have sued Skull and Bones, a secret society at Yale University with ties to the Bush family, charging that its members robbed his grave in 1918 and have kept his skull in a glass case ever since.

The claim is part of a lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington on Tuesday, the 100th anniversary of Geronimo’s death. The Apache warrior’s heirs are seeking to recover all his remains, wherever they may be, and have them transferred to a new grave at the headwaters of the Gila River in New Mexico, where Geronimo was born and wished to be interred.

“I believe strongly from my heart that his spirit was never released,” Geronimo’s great-grandson Harlyn Geronimo, 61, told reporters Tuesday at the National Press Club.

Geronimo died a prisoner of war at Fort Sill, Okla., in 1909. A longstanding tradition among members of Skull and Bones holds that Prescott S. Bush — father of President George Bush and grandfather of President George W. Bush — broke into the grave with some classmates during World War I and made off with the skull, two bones, a bridle and some stirrups, all of which were put on display at the group’s clubhouse in New Haven, known as the Tomb.

A National Archives image of Geronimo taken in 1887. Agence France-Press/Getty Images 

The story gained some validity in 2005, when a historian discovered a letter written in 1918 from one Skull and Bones member to another saying the skull had been taken from a grave at Fort Sill along with several pieces of tack for a horse.

Ramsey Clark, a former United States attorney general who is representing Geronimo’s family, acknowledged he had no hard proof that the story was true. Yet he said he hoped the court would clear up the matter.

Continue reading the main story

Tom Conroy, a spokesman for Yale, declined to comment on the lawsuit but was quick to note that the Tomb was not on university property.

Members of the Skull and Bones, who guard their organization’s secrecy, could not be reached for comment. Though the society is not officially affiliated with the university, many of Yale’s most powerful alumni are members, among them both Bush presidents and Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts.

Legend has it that Prescott S. Bush stole Geronimo’s skull.Associated Press 

“Of all the items rumored to be in the Skull and Bones’s possession, Geronimo’s skull is one of the more plausible ones,” said Alexandra Robbins, the author of “Secrets of the Tomb” (Little Brown 2002), a book about the society. “There is a skull encased in a glass display when you walk in the door of the Tomb, and they call it Geronimo.”

Some local historians and anthropologists in Oklahoma have cast doubt on the tale, noting that no independent evidence has been found to suggest that Geronimo’s grave was disturbed in 1918. Ten years later, the army covered the grave with concrete and replaced a simple wooden headstone with a stone monument, making it nearly impregnable.

Geronimo, whose given name was Goyathlay, put up fierce resistance to white settlers, fighting the Mexican and United States armies for nearly three decades. He finally surrendered, with only 35 men left, to Gen. Nelson A. Miles on the New Mexico-Arizona border in 1886 and spent the rest of his life in prison, dying of pneumonia.

Not all Apaches want to move his remains to New Mexico. The branch of the tribe that settled at Fort Sill after Geronimo died is fighting to keep the grave where it is.

“There is nothing to be gained by digging up the dead,” said Jeff Houser, the chairman of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe. “It will not repair the damage to the tribe caused by its removal and imprisonment.”

Party up.

[Enter, as to the Parliament, HENRY BOLINGBROKE,] [p]DUKE OF AUMERLE, NORTHUMBERLAND, HENRY PERCY, LORD [p]FITZWATER, DUKE OF SURREY, the BISHOP OF CARLISLE, [p]the Abbot Of Westminster, and another Lord, Herald, [p]Officers, and BAGOT]

• Henry IV. Call forth Bagot. 
  Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind; 
  What thou dost know of noble Gloucester's death, 
  Who wrought it with the king, and who perform'd 
  1985
  
  
  The bloody office of his timeless end.

• Bagot. Then set before my face the Lord Aumerle.

• Henry IV. Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that man.

• Bagot. My Lord Aumerle, I know your daring tongue 
  Scorns to unsay what once it hath deliver'd. 
  1990
  
  
  In that dead time when Gloucester's death was plotted, 
  I heard you say, 'Is not my arm of length, 
  That reacheth from the restful English court 
  As far as Calais, to mine uncle's head?' 
  Amongst much other talk, that very time, 
  1995
  
  
  I heard you say that you had rather refuse 
  The offer of an hundred thousand crowns 
  Than Bolingbroke's return to England; 
  Adding withal how blest this land would be 
  In this your cousin's death.
  2000

• Duke of Aumerle. Princes and noble lords, 
  What answer shall I make to this base man? 
  Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars, 
  On equal terms to give him chastisement? 
  Either I must, or have mine honour soil'd 
  2005
  
  
  With the attainder of his slanderous lips. 
  There is my gage, the manual seal of death, 
  That marks thee out for hell: I say, thou liest, 
  And will maintain what thou hast said is false 
  In thy heart-blood, though being all too base 
  2010
  
  
  To stain the temper of my knightly sword.

• Henry IV. Bagot, forbear; thou shalt not take it up.

• Duke of Aumerle. Excepting one, I would he were the best 
  In all this presence that hath moved me so.

• Lord Fitzwater. If that thy valour stand on sympathy, 
  2015
  
  
  There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine: 
  By that fair sun which shows me where thou stand'st, 
  I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spakest it 
  That thou wert cause of noble Gloucester's death. 
  If thou deny'st it twenty times, thou liest; 
  2020
  
  
  And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart, 
  Where it was forged, with my rapier's point.

• Duke of Aumerle. Thou darest not, coward, live to see that day.

• Lord Fitzwater. Now by my soul, I would it were this hour.

• Duke of Aumerle. Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this.
  2025

• Hotspur (Henry Percy). Aumerle, thou liest; his honour is as true 
  In this appeal as thou art all unjust; 
  And that thou art so, there I throw my gage, 
  To prove it on thee to the extremest point 
  Of mortal breathing: seize it, if thou darest.
  2030

• Duke of Aumerle. An if I do not, may my hands rot off 
  And never brandish more revengeful steel 
  Over the glittering helmet of my foe!

• Lord. I task the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle; 
  And spur thee on with full as many lies 
  2035
  
  
  As may be holloa'd in thy treacherous ear 
  From sun to sun: there is my honour's pawn; 
  Engage it to the trial, if thou darest.

• Duke of Aumerle. Who sets me else? by heaven, I'll throw at all: 
  I have a thousand spirits in one breast, 
  2040
  
  
  To answer twenty thousand such as you.

• Duke of Surrey. My Lord Fitzwater, I do remember well 
  The very time Aumerle and you did talk.

• Lord Fitzwater. 'Tis very true: you were in presence then; 
  And you can witness with me this is true.
  2045

• Duke of Surrey. As false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true.

• Lord Fitzwater. Surrey, thou liest.

• Duke of Surrey. Dishonourable boy! 
  That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword, 
  That it shall render vengeance and revenge 
  2050
  
  
  Till thou the lie-giver and that lie do lie 
  In earth as quiet as thy father's skull: 
  In proof whereof, there is my honour's pawn; 
  Engage it to the trial, if thou darest.

• Lord Fitzwater. How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse! 
  2055
  
  
  If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live, 
  I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness, 
  And spit upon him, whilst I say he lies, 
  And lies, and lies: there is my bond of faith, 
  To tie thee to my strong correction. 
  2060
  
  
  As I intend to thrive in this new world, 
  Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal: 
  Besides, I heard the banish'd Norfolk say 
  That thou, Aumerle, didst send two of thy men 
  To execute the noble duke at Calais.
  2065

• Duke of Aumerle. Some honest Christian trust me with a gage 
  That Norfolk lies: here do I throw down this, 
  If he may be repeal'd, to try his honour.

• Henry IV. These differences shall all rest under gage 
  Till Norfolk be repeal'd: repeal'd he shall be, 
  2070
  
  
  And, though mine enemy, restored again 
  To all his lands and signories: when he's return'd, 
  Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial.

• Bishop of Carlisle. That honourable day shall ne'er be seen. 
  Many a time hath banish'd Norfolk fought 
  2075
  
  
  For Jesu Christ in glorious Christian field, 
  Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross 
  Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens: 
  And toil'd with works of war, retired himself 
  To Italy; and there at Venice gave 
  2080
  
  
  His body to that pleasant country's earth, 
  And his pure soul unto his captain Christ, 
  Under whose colours he had fought so long.

• Henry IV. Why, bishop, is Norfolk dead?

• Bishop of Carlisle. As surely as I live, my lord.
  2085

• Henry IV. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bosom 
  Of good old Abraham! Lords appellants, 
  Your differences shall all rest under gage 
  Till we assign you to your days of trial.

[Enter DUKE OF YORK, attended]

• Edmund of Langley. Great Duke of Lancaster, I come to thee 
  From plume-pluck'd Richard; who with willing soul 
  Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields 
  To the possession of thy royal hand: 
  Ascend his throne, descending now from him; 
  2095
  
  
  And long live Henry, fourth of that name!

• Henry IV. In God's name, I'll ascend the regal throne.

• Bishop of Carlisle. Marry. God forbid! 
  Worst in this royal presence may I speak, 
  Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth. 
  2100
  
  
  Would God that any in this noble presence 
  Were enough noble to be upright judge 
  Of noble Richard! then true noblesse would 
  Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong. 
  What subject can give sentence on his king? 
  2105
  
  
  And who sits here that is not Richard's subject? 
  Thieves are not judged but they are by to hear, 
  Although apparent guilt be seen in them; 
  And shall the figure of God's majesty, 
  His captain, steward, deputy-elect, 
  2110
  
  
  Anointed, crowned, planted many years, 
  Be judged by subject and inferior breath, 
  And he himself not present? O, forfend it, God, 
  That in a Christian climate souls refined 
  Should show so heinous, black, obscene a deed! 
  2115
  
  
  I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks, 
  Stirr'd up by God, thus boldly for his king: 
  My Lord of Hereford here, whom you call king, 
  Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford's king: 
  And if you crown him, let me prophesy: 
  2120
  
  
  The blood of English shall manure the ground, 
  And future ages groan for this foul act; 
  Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels, 
  And in this seat of peace tumultuous wars 
  Shall kin with kin and kind with kind confound; 
  2125
  
  
  Disorder, horror, fear and mutiny 
  Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd 
  The field of Golgotha and dead men's skulls. 
  O, if you raise this house against this house, 
  It will the woefullest division prove 
  2130
  
  
  That ever fell upon this cursed earth. 
  Prevent it, resist it, let it not be so, 
  Lest child, child's children, cry against you woe!

• Earl of Northumberland. Well have you argued, sir; and, for your pains, 
  Of capital treason we arrest you here. 
  2135
  
  
  My Lord of Westminster, be it your charge 
  To keep him safely till his day of trial. 
  May it please you, lords, to grant the commons' suit.

• Henry IV. Fetch hither Richard, that in common view 
  He may surrender; so we shall proceed 
  2140
  
  
  Without suspicion.

• Edmund of Langley. I will be his conduct.

[Exit]

• Henry IV. Lords, you that here are under our arrest, 
  Procure your sureties for your days of answer. 
  2145
  
  
  Little are we beholding to your love, 
  And little look'd for at your helping hands. 
  [Re-enter DUKE OF YORK, with KING RICHARD II, and] 
  Officers bearing the regalia]

• King Richard II. Alack, why am I sent for to a king, 
  2150
  
  
  Before I have shook off the regal thoughts 
  Wherewith I reign'd? I hardly yet have learn'd 
  To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my limbs: 
  Give sorrow leave awhile to tutor me 
  To this submission. Yet I well remember 
  2155
  
  
  The favours of these men: were they not mine? 
  Did they not sometime cry, 'all hail!' to me? 
  So Judas did to Christ: but he, in twelve, 
  Found truth in all but one: I, in twelve thousand, none. 
  God save the king! Will no man say amen? 
  2160
  
  
  Am I both priest and clerk? well then, amen. 
  God save the king! although I be not he; 
  And yet, amen, if heaven do think him me. 
  To do what service am I sent for hither?

• Edmund of Langley. To do that office of thine own good will 
  2165
  
  
  Which tired majesty did make thee offer, 
  The resignation of thy state and crown 
  To Henry Bolingbroke.

• King Richard II. Give me the crown. Here, cousin, seize the crown; 
  Here cousin: 
  2170
  
  
  On this side my hand, and on that side yours. 
  Now is this golden crown like a deep well 
  That owes two buckets, filling one another, 
  The emptier ever dancing in the air, 
  The other down, unseen and full of water: 
  2175
  
  
  That bucket down and full of tears am I, 
  Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high.

• Henry IV. I thought you had been willing to resign.

• King Richard II. My crown I am; but still my griefs are mine: 
  You may my glories and my state depose, 
  2180
  
  
  But not my griefs; still am I king of those.

• Henry IV. Part of your cares you give me with your crown.

• King Richard II. Your cares set up do not pluck my cares down. 
  My care is loss of care, by old care done; 
  Your care is gain of care, by new care won: 
  2185
  
  
  The cares I give I have, though given away; 
  They tend the crown, yet still with me they stay.

• Henry IV. Are you contented to resign the crown?

• King Richard II. Ay, no; no, ay; for I must nothing be; 
  Therefore no no, for I resign to thee. 
  2190
  
  
  Now mark me, how I will undo myself; 
  I give this heavy weight from off my head 
  And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand, 
  The pride of kingly sway from out my heart; 
  With mine own tears I wash away my balm, 
  2195
  
  
  With mine own hands I give away my crown, 
  With mine own tongue deny my sacred state, 
  With mine own breath release all duty's rites: 
  All pomp and majesty I do forswear; 
  My manors, rents, revenues I forego; 
  2200
  
  
  My acts, decrees, and statutes I deny: 
  God pardon all oaths that are broke to me! 
  God keep all vows unbroke that swear to thee! 
  Make me, that nothing have, with nothing grieved, 
  And thou with all pleased, that hast all achieved! 
  2205
  
  
  Long mayst thou live in Richard's seat to sit, 
  And soon lie Richard in an earthly pit! 
  God save King Harry, unking'd Richard says, 
  And send him many years of sunshine days! 
  What more remains?
  2210

• Earl of Northumberland. No more, but that you read 
  These accusations and these grievous crimes 
  Committed by your person and your followers 
  Against the state and profit of this land; 
  That, by confessing them, the souls of men 
  2215
  
  
  May deem that you are worthily deposed.

• King Richard II. Must I do so? and must I ravel out 
  My weaved-up folly? Gentle Northumberland, 
  If thy offences were upon record, 
  Would it not shame thee in so fair a troop 
  2220
  
  
  To read a lecture of them? If thou wouldst, 
  There shouldst thou find one heinous article, 
  Containing the deposing of a king 
  And cracking the strong warrant of an oath, 
  Mark'd with a blot, damn'd in the book of heaven: 
  2225
  
  
  Nay, all of you that stand and look upon, 
  Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait myself, 
  Though some of you with Pilate wash your hands 
  Showing an outward pity; yet you Pilates 
  Have here deliver'd me to my sour cross, 
  2230
  
  
  And water cannot wash away your sin.

• Earl of Northumberland. My lord, dispatch; read o'er these articles.

• King Richard II. Mine eyes are full of tears, I cannot see: 
  And yet salt water blinds them not so much 
  But they can see a sort of traitors here. 
  2235
  
  
  Nay, if I turn mine eyes upon myself, 
  I find myself a traitor with the rest; 
  For I have given here my soul's consent 
  To undeck the pompous body of a king; 
  Made glory base and sovereignty a slave, 
  2240
  
  
  Proud majesty a subject, state a peasant.

• Earl of Northumberland. My lord,—

• King Richard II. No lord of thine, thou haught insulting man, 
  Nor no man's lord; I have no name, no title, 
  No, not that name was given me at the font, 
  2245
  
  
  But 'tis usurp'd: alack the heavy day, 
  That I have worn so many winters out, 
  And know not now what name to call myself! 
  O that I were a mockery king of snow, 
  Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke, 
  2250
  
  
  To melt myself away in water-drops! 
  Good king, great king, and yet not greatly good, 
  An if my word be sterling yet in England, 
  Let it command a mirror hither straight, 
  That it may show me what a face I have, 
  2255
  
  
  Since it is bankrupt of his majesty.

• Henry IV. Go some of you and fetch a looking-glass.

[Exit an attendant]

• Earl of Northumberland. Read o'er this paper while the glass doth come.

• King Richard II. Fiend, thou torment'st me ere I come to hell!
  2260

• Henry IV. Urge it no more, my Lord Northumberland.

• Earl of Northumberland. The commons will not then be satisfied.

• King Richard II. They shall be satisfied: I'll read enough, 
  When I do see the very book indeed 
  Where all my sins are writ, and that's myself. 
  2265
  
  
  [Re-enter Attendant, with a glass] 
  Give me the glass, and therein will I read. 
  No deeper wrinkles yet? hath sorrow struck 
  So many blows upon this face of mine, 
  And made no deeper wounds? O flattering glass, 
  2270
  
  
  Like to my followers in prosperity, 
  Thou dost beguile me! Was this face the face 
  That every day under his household roof 
  Did keep ten thousand men? was this the face 
  That, like the sun, did make beholders wink? 
  2275
  
  
  Was this the face that faced so many follies, 
  And was at last out-faced by Bolingbroke? 
  A brittle glory shineth in this face: 
  As brittle as the glory is the face; 
  [Dashes the glass against the ground] 
  2280
  
  
  For there it is, crack'd in a hundred shivers. 
  Mark, silent king, the moral of this sport, 
  How soon my sorrow hath destroy'd my face.

• Henry IV. The shadow of your sorrow hath destroy'd 
  The shadow or your face.
  2285

• King Richard II. Say that again. 
  The shadow of my sorrow! ha! let's see: 
  'Tis very true, my grief lies all within; 
  And these external manners of laments 
  Are merely shadows to the unseen grief 
  2290
  
  
  That swells with silence in the tortured soul; 
  There lies the substance: and I thank thee, king, 
  For thy great bounty, that not only givest 
  Me cause to wail but teachest me the way 
  How to lament the cause. I'll beg one boon, 
  2295
  
  
  And then be gone and trouble you no more. 
  Shall I obtain it?

• Henry IV. Name it, fair cousin.

• King Richard II. 'Fair cousin'? I am greater than a king: 
  For when I was a king, my flatterers 
  2300
  
  
  Were then but subjects; being now a subject, 
  I have a king here to my flatterer. 
  Being so great, I have no need to beg.

• Henry IV. Yet ask.

• King Richard II. And shall I have?
  2305

• Henry IV. You shall.

• King Richard II. Then give me leave to go.

• Henry IV. Whither?

• King Richard II. Whither you will, so I were from your sights.

• Henry IV. Go, some of you convey him to the Tower.
  2310

• King Richard II. O, good! convey? conveyers are you all, 
  That rise thus nimbly by a true king's fall.

[Exeunt KING RICHARD II, some Lords, and a Guard]

• Henry IV. On Wednesday next we solemnly set down 
  Our coronation: lords, prepare yourselves. 
  2315
  
  
  [Exeunt all except the BISHOP OF CARLISLE, the Abbot] 
  of Westminster, and DUKE OF AUMERLE]

• Abbot. A woeful pageant have we here beheld.

• Bishop of Carlisle. The woe's to come; the children yet unborn. 
  Shall feel this day as sharp to them as thorn.
  2320

• Duke of Aumerle. You holy clergymen, is there no plot 
  To rid the realm of this pernicious blot?

• Abbot. My lord, 
  Before I freely speak my mind herein, 
  You shall not only take the sacrament 
  2325
  
  
  To bury mine intents, but also to effect 
  Whatever I shall happen to devise. 
  I see your brows are full of discontent, 
  Your hearts of sorrow and your eyes of tears: 
  Come home with me to supper; and I'll lay 
  2330
  
  
  A plot shall show us all a merry day.

[Exeunt]