The Life and Death of Richard the Second — Act 2, Scene 4: A camp in Wales.

In a Welsh camp, the Earl of Salisbury tries to keep a Welsh captain and his men loyal while they wait for news from King Richard. The captain says they have remained for ten days with little support and no word from the king, and he decides to leave. Salisbury begs him to stay one more day, but the captain believes Richard is dead and points to strange omens in nature as signs of a king’s fall. After the captain exits, Salisbury mourns Richard’s decline, imagining his glory falling and noting that even his friends are abandoning him to serve his enemies.

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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.

Stay yet another day, thou trusty Welshman:

The king reposeth all his confidence in thee.

'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.

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.