To Julius Cæsar's ill-erected tower,* Enter King RICHARD, and Guards. But soft, but see, or rather do not see, And wash him fresh again with true-love tears.— K. Rich. Join not with grief, fair woman, do not so, To make my end too sudden: learn, good soul, Will keep a league till death. Hie thee to France, Transform'd, and weaken'd? Hath Bolingbroke 4 To Julius Cæsar's ill-erected tower,] The Tower of London is traditionally said to have been the work of Julius Cæsar. Byill-erected, perhaps, is meant-erected for bad purposes. Join not with grief,] Do not thou unite with grief against me; do not, by thy additional sorrows, enable grief to strike me down at once. My own part of sorrow I can bear, but thy affliction will immediately destroy me. JOHNSON. Depos'd thine intellect? Hath he been in thy heart? And wounds the earth, if nothing else, with rage K. Rich. A king of beasts, indeed; if aught but beasts, I had been still a happy king of men. Good sometime queen, prepare thee hence for France: Think, I am dead; and that even here thou tak'st, As from my death-bed, my last living leave. In winter's tedious nights, sit by the fire With good old folks; and let them tell thee tales Of woeful ages, long ago betid: And, ere thou bid good night, to quit their grief," And send the hearers weeping to their beds. And some will mourn in ashes, some coal-black, Enter NORTHUMBERLAND, attended. North. My lord, the mind of Bolingbroke is chang'd; You must to Pomfret, not unto the Tower.- to quit their grief,] To retaliate their mournful stories. The mounting Bolingbroke ascends my throne,— And he shall think, that thou, which know'st the way To plant unrightful kings, wilt know again, way To pluck him headlong from the usurped throne. North. My guilt be on my head, and there an end. Take leave, and part; for you must part forthwith. She came adorned hither like sweet May, Queen. Banish us both, and send the king with me. North. That were some love, but little policy. 7 — Hallowmas,] All-hallows, or all-hallowtide; the first of November. Queen. Then whither he goes, thither let me go. woe. Weep thou for me in France, I for thee here; moans. K. Rich. Twice for one step I'll groan, the way being short, And piece the way out with a heavy heart. [They kiss. Queen. Give me mine own again; 'twere no good part, To take on me to keep, and kill thy heart. [Kiss again. So, now I have mine own again, begone, K. Rich. We make woe wanton with this fond delay: Once more, adieu; the rest let sorrow say. [Exeunt. Better far off, than-near, be ne'er the near'.] The meaning is, it is better to be at a great distance, than being near each other, to find that we yet are not likely to be peaceably and happily united. The same. SCENE II. A Room in the Duke of York's Palace. Enter YORK, and his Duchess. Duch. My lord, you told me, you would tell the rest, When weeping made you break the story off At that sad stop, my lord, Where rude misgovern'd hands, from windows tops, Threw dust and rubbish on king Richard's head. York. Then, as I said, the duke, great Bolingbroke, Mounted upon a hot and fiery steed, Which his aspiring rider seem'd to know,- You would have thought the very windows spake, 9 With painted imag'ry, had said at once,] Our author probably was thinking of the painted clothes that were hung in the streets, in the pageants that were exhibited in his own time; in which the figures sometimes had labels issuing from their mouths, containing sentences of gratulation. |