Chapter: Scoena Quarta.

Enter Salisbury, and a Captaine.

  Capt. My Lord of Salisbury, we haue stayd ten dayes,
And hardly kept our Countreymen together,
And yet we heare no tidings from the King;
Therefore we will disperse our selues: farewell

   Sal. Stay yet another day, thou trustie Welchman,
The King reposeth all his confidence in thee

   Capt. 'Tis thought the King is dead, we will not stay;
The Bay-trees in our Countrey all are wither'd,
And Meteors fright the fixed Starres of Heauen;
The pale-fac'd Moone lookes bloody on the Earth,
And leane-look'd Prophets whisper fearefull change;
Rich men looke sad, and Ruffians dance and leape,
The one in feare, to loose what they enioy,
The other to enioy by Rage, and Warre:
These signes fore-run the death of Kings.
Farewell, our Countreymen are gone and fled,
As well assur'd Richard their King is dead.
Enter.

  Sal. Ah Richard, with eyes of heauie mind,
I see thy Glory, like a shooting Starre,
Fall to the base Earth, from the Firmament:
Thy Sunne sets weeping in the lowly West,
Witnessing Stormes to come, Woe, and Vnrest:
Thy Friends are fled, to wait vpon thy Foes,
And crossely to thy good, all fortune goes.
Enter.

 This scene moves to Wales, where a conversation takes place between the Lord of Salisbury and a Welsh captain. The captain informs Salisbury that his army has anxiously waited for some news from the king for ten days and that now he will disband the army. Salisbury exhorts him to maintain his troops for one more day, saying, "The king reposeth all his confidence in thee." But the captain is adamant and plainly refuses, stating that he believes in the widespread rumor of the king's death. He says that the rumor is corroborated by the recent spate of unnatural occurrences which portend the death or fall of kings: the withering of the bay trees, the appearance of meteors, the bloody aspect of the moon, and so forth. He says that his countrymen are "all gone and fled," believing that their king has indeed died. Left alone onstage, Salisbury bemoans Richard's downfall: " I see thy glory like a shooting star / Fall to the base earth from the firmament." He reflects that all of Richard's friends have deserted him in his time of woe.

