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And furbish new the name of John of Gaunt,
Even in the lusty 'haviour of his son.

Gaunt. Heaven in thy good cause make thee

prosperous!

Be swift like lightning in the execution;
And let thy blows, doubly redoubled,
Fall like amazing thunder on the casque
Of thy adverse pernicious enemy:

Rouze up thy youthful blood, be valiant and live.
Boling. Mine innocency, and saint George to
thrive!

Mowb. However heaven, or fortune, cast my
lot,
[throne.
There lives, or dies, true to king Richard's
A loyal, just, and upright gentleman:
Never did captive with a freer, heart

Cast off his chains of bondage, and embrace
His golden uncontroul'd entranchisement,
More than my dancing soul doth celebrate
This feast of battle with mine adversary.-
Most mighty liege,-and my companion peers,—
Take from my mouth the wish of happy years:
As gentle, and as jocund, as to jest',
Gol to fight; truth hath a quiet breast.

K. Rich. Farewel, my lord: securely I espy
Virtue with valour couched in thine eye.-
Order the trial, Marshal, and begin.

5

10

And for our eyes do hate the dire aspect [swords;
Of civil wounds plough'd up with neighbours,
[And for we think, the eagle-winged pride

Of sky-aspiring and ambitious thoughts,
With rival-hating envy, set you on

To wake our peace, which in our country's cradle
Draws the sweet infant breath of gentle sleep ;]
Which so rouz'd up with boisterous untun'd drums,
And harsh-resounding trumpets' dreadful bray,
And grating shock of wrathful iron arms,
Might from our quiet confines fright fair peace,
And make us wade even in our kindred's blood,-
Therefore, we banish you our territories.-
You, cousin Hereford, upon pain of death,
15Till twice five summers have enrich'd our fields,
Shall not regreet our fair dominious,
But tread the stranger paths of banishment.
Boling. Your will be done: This must my
comfort be,
[me:
20 That sun, that warms you here, shall shine on
And those his golden beams, to you here lent,
Shall point on me, and gild my banishment.

K.Rich.Norfolk,forthee remains a heavierdoom,
Which I with some unwillingness pronounce:
25 The fly-slow hours shall not determinate
The dateless limit of thy dear exile;-
The hopeless word of-never to return,
Breathe I against thee, upon pain of life.
Mowb.Aheavy sentence,my most sovereign liege,
And all unlook'd for from your highness' mouth:
A dearer merit, not so deep a maim
As to be cast forth in the common air,
Have I deserved at your highness' hand.
The language I have learn'd these forty years,
My native English, now I must forego:

Mar. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, Receive toy lance; and heaven defend the right! Boling. Strong as a tower in hope, I cry-Amen. 30 Mar. Go bear this lance to Thomas duke of Norfolk.

[by,

1 Her. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Der-
Stands. here for God, his sovereign, and himself,
On pain to be found false and recreant,
To prove the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray,
A traitor to his God, his king, and him,
And dares him to set forward to the fight.

35

And now my tongue's use is to me no more
Than an unstringed viol, or a harp;

Or like a cunning instrument cas'd up,

o

Or, being open, put into his hands

40

2Her. Here standeth Thomas Mowbray, duke
On pain to be found false and recreant, [Norfolk,
Both to defend himself, and to approve
Henry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
To God, his sovereign, and to him, disloyal ;'
Courageously, and with a free desire,
Attendingbutthesignaltobegin. [Achargesounded. 45
Mar. Sound, trumpets; and set forward, com-

batants.

Stay, the king has thrown his warder2 down.

K. Rich. Let them lay by their helmets, and

their spears,

And both return back to their chairs again:-
Withdraw with us;-and let the trumpets sound,
While we return these dukes what we decree.-
[4 long flourish; after which, the king
speaks to the combatants.

Draw near,

And list, what with our council we have done.
For that our kingdom's earth should not be soil'd
With the dear blood which it hath fostered,

That knows no touch to tune the harmony.
Within my mouth you have engaol'd my tongue,
Doubly portcullis'd with my teeth and lips;
And dull, unfeeling, barren ignorance
Is made my gaoler to attend on me.
I am too old to fawn upon a nurse,
Too far in years to be a pupil now;
What is thy sentence then, but speechless death,
Whichrobsmytonguefrom breathing nativebreath?

K. Rich. It boots thee not to be compassionate; 50 After our sentence, plaining comes too late. Mowb. Then thus I turn me from my country's light,

To dwell in solemn shades of endless night.

K.Rich Returnagain, and take an oathwith thee. 55 Lay on our royalsword your banish'd hands; Swear by the duty that you owe to heaven, (Our part therein we banish with yourselves) To keep the oath that we administer:You never shall (so help you truth and heaven!)

'Mr. Farmer remarks, that to jest sometimes signifies in old language to play a part in a mask. 1A warder appears to have been a kind of truncheon carried by the person who presided at these single Mr. Pope restored these five verses from the first edition of 1598. Instead of merit Ďr. Johnson proposes to read, " a dearer meed," or reward—have I deserved, &c. Compassionate for plaintive.

combats.

Ee

Embrace

Embrace each other's love in banishment;
Nor ever look upon each other's face;
Nor ever write, regreet, nor reconcile
This lowering tempest of your home-bred hate;
Nor never by advised purpose meet,
To plot, contrive, or complot any ill,
'Gainst us, our state, our subjects, or our land.
Boling. I swear.

Mowb. And I, to keep all this.

But you gave leave to my unwilling tongue,
Against my will, to do myself this wrong:
A partial slander' sought I to avoid,
And in the sentence my own life destroy'd. [so;
'5 K. Rich. Cousin, farewel:-and, uncle, bid him
Six years we banish him, and he shall go. [Flourish.

Boling. Norfolk,-so far as to mine enemy1;-10
By this time, had the king permitted us,
One of our souls had wander'd in the air,
Banish'd this frail sepulchre of our flesh,
As now our flesh is banish'd from this land:
Confess thy treasons, ere thou fly this realm;
Since thou hast far to go, bear not along
The clogging burthen of a guilty soul.

Mowb. No, Bolingbroke; if ever I were traitor,
My name be blotted from the book of life,
And I from heaven banish'd, as from hence!
But what thou art, heaven, thou, and I do know;|
And all too soon, I fear, the king shall rue.--
Farewel, my liege:-Now no way can I stray;
Save back to England, all the world's my way.

[Exit.

Aum. Cousin, farewel: what presence must not
From where you do remain, let papershow.[know,
Mar. My lord, no leave take 1; for I will ride,
As far as land will let me, by your side. [words,
Gaunt. Oh, to what purpose dost thou hoard thy
That thou return'st no greeting to thy friends?
Boling. I have too few to take my leave of you,
15 When the tongue's office should be prodigal
To breathe the abundant dolour of the heart.
Gaunt. Thy grief is but thy absence for a time.
Boling. Joy absent, grief is present for that time.
Gaunt. What is six winters? they are quicklygone.
Boling. To men in joy; but grief makes one
hour ten.
[sure.
Gaunt. Call it a travel that thou tak'st for plea-
Boling. My heart will sigh, when I miscall it so,
Which finds it an enforced pilgrimage.

20

[Exit. 25

K. Rich. Uncle, even in the glasses of thine eyes
I see thy grieved heart: thy sad aspect
Hath from the number of his banish'd years
Pluck'd four away;-Six frozen winters spent,
[To Boling.

Return with welcome home from banishment.
Boling. How long a time lies in one little word!
Four lagging winters, and four wanton springs,
End in a word: Such is the breath of kings.

30I

35|

Gaunt. I thank my liege, that in regard of me,
He shortens four years of my
son's exile:
But little vantage shall I reap thereby;
For, ere the six years that he hath to spend,
Canchange their moons, and bringtheir times about,
My oil-dry'd lamp, and time-bewasted light,
Shall be extinct with age, and endless night;
My inch of taper will be burnt and done,
And blindfold death not let me see my son.
K. Rich. Why, uncle, thou hast many years to live.
Gaunt. But nota minute,king, that thou can'st give. 45
Shorten my days thou can'st with sullen sorrow,
And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow:
Thou can'st help time to furrow me with age,
But stop no wrinkle in his pilgrimage;
Thy word is current with him for my death;
But, dead, thy kingdom cannot buy my breath.
K. Rich. Thy son is banish'd upon good advice,
Whereto thy tongue a party-verdict gave;
Why at our justice seem'st thou then to lour? [sour.

Gaunt. Things sweet to taste, prove in digestion
You urg'd me as a judge; but I had rather,
You would have bid me argue like a father:-
O, had it been a stranger, not my child,
To smooth his fault I would have been more mild;
Alas, I look'd, when some of you should say,
I was too strict, to make mine own away;

Dr. Johnson understands this passage thus:

Guunt. The sullen passage of thy weary.steps
Esteem a foil, wherein thou art to set
The precious jewel of thy home-return.

Boling.Nay, rather everytedious stride Imake
Will but remember me, what a deal of world
wander from the jewels that I love.
Must I not serve a long apprenticehood
Toforeign passages; and in the end,
Having my freedom, boast of nothing else,
But that I was a journeyman to grief?

Gaunt. All places that the eye of heaven visits,
Are to a wise man ports and happy havens:
Teach thy necessity to reason thus;

There is no virtue like necessity.
Think not, the king did banish thee;
40 But thou the king: Woe doth the heavier sit,
Where it perceives it is but faintly borne.
Go say-I sent thee forth to purchase honour,
And not-the king exil'd thee: or suppose,
Devouring pestilence hangs in our air,
And thou art flying to a fresher clime.
Look, what thy soul holds dear, imagine it
To lie that way thou go'st, not whence thou com'st:
Suppose the singing birds, musicians; [strow'd;
The grass whereon thou tread'st, the presence
50 The flowers, fair ladies; and thy steps, no more.
Than a delightful measure or a dance:
For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite
The man that mocks at it, and sets it light.
Boling. Oh, who can hold a fire in his hand,
55 By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?
Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite,
By bare imagination of a feast?

Or wallow naked in December snow,
By thinking on fantastic summer's heat?
60 Oh, no! the apprehension of the good

Gives but the greater feeling to the worse:

"Norfolk, so far I have addressed myself to thee as

to mine enemy, I now utter my last words with kindness and tenderness, confess thy treasons." i. e.

the reproach of partiality.

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How he did seem to dive into their hearts, With humble and familiar courtesy;

What reverence he did throw away on slaves;
Wooing poor craftsmen with the craft of smiles,
And patient underbearing of his fortune,
As 'twere, to banish their effects with him.
Off goes his bounet to an oyster-wench;

A brace of dray-men bid-God speed him well,
And had the tribute of his supple knee, [friends;"-
WithThanks, my countrymen, my loving
As were our England in reversion his,

And he our subjects' next degree in hope. Green. Well, he is gone; and with him go these thoughts.

Enter King Richard, and Bagot, &c. at one door, 15 Now for the rebels, which stand out in Ireland;and the Lord Aumerle at the other.

K. Rich. We did observe.-Cousin Aumerle, How far brought you high Hereford on his way? Aum. I brought high Hereford, if you call him so,

But to the next high-way, and there I left him.
K. Rich. And say, what store of parting tears
were shed?
[wind,
Aum. 'Faith, none by me: except the north-east
Which then blew bitterly against our faces,
Awak'd the sleepy rheum; and so, by chance,
Did grace our hollow parting with a tear.

K. Rich. What said our cousin, when you parted with him?

Aum. Farewel:

Expedient manage must be made, my liege;
Ere further leisure yield them further means,
For their advantage, and your highness' loss.

K. Rich. We will ourself in person to this war.
20 And, for our coffers-with too great a court,
And liberal largess-are grown somewhat light,
We are enforc'd to farm our royal realm;
The revenue whereof shall furnish us
For our affairs in hand: If that come short,
25 Our substitutes at home shall have blank charters;
Whereto, when they shall know what men are

rich,

They shall subscribe them for large sums of gold, And send them after to supply our wants; 30 For we will make for Ireland presently.

And for my heart disdained that my tongue
Should so prophane the word, that taught me craft|
To counterfeit oppression of such grief,
That word seem'd buried in my sorrow's grave.
Marry, would the word farewel have lengthen'd 35
hours,

And added years to his short banishment,
He should have had a volume of farewels;
But since it would not, he had none of me.

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Bushy. At Ely-house.

[mind,

K. Rich. Now put it, heaven, in his physician's

K. Rich. He is our cousin, cousin; but 'tis 40 To help him to his grave immediately!

doubt,

When time shall call him home from banishment,

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The lining of his coffers shall make coats
To deck our soldiers for these Irish wars.-
Come, gentlemen, let's all go visit him:
Pray heaven, we may make haste, and come too
[Exeunt.

late!

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As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last;
Writ in remembrance, more than things long past:
Though Richard my life's counsel would not bear,
My death's sad tale may yet undeaf his ear.
York. No; it is stop'd with other flattering sounds, 5
As, praises of his state: then, there are found
Lascivious meeters'; to whose venom'd sound
The open ear of youth doth always listen:
Report of fashions in proud Italy;
Whose manners still our tardy apish nation
Limps after, in base imitation.

Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity,
(So it be new, there's no respect how vile)
That is not quickly buzz'd into his ears?
Then all too late comes counsel to be heard,
Where will doth mutiny with wit's regard2:
Direct not him, whose way himself will chuse3;
'Tis breath thou lack'st, and that breath wilt thou
lose.

[land,

10

How happy then, were my ensuing death!
Enter King Richard, Queen, Aumerle, Bushy,
Green, Bagot, Ross, and Willoughby.
York. The king is come: deal mildly with his
youth;

For young hot colts, being rag'd, do rage the more.
Queen. How fares our noble uncle, Lancaster?
K. Rich. What comfort, man? How is't with

aged Gaunt?
[tion!
Gaunt. Oh, how that name befits my composi
Old Gaunt, indeed; and gaunt in being old:
Within me griet hath kept a tedious fast;
And who abstains from meat, that is not gaunt?
For sleeping England long time have I watch'd;
15 Watching breeds leanness, leanness is all gaunt:
The pleasure that some fathers feed upon,
Is my strict fast, I mean my children's looks;
And therein fasting, thou hast made me gaunt:
Gaunt am I for the grave, gaunt as a grave,
Whose hollow womb inherits nought but bones.
K.Rich. Can sick men play so nicely with their
names?

Gaunt. No, misery makes sport to mock itself. Since thou dost seek to kill my name in me, 251 mock my name, great king, to flatter thee. K.Rich. Should dying men flatter with those that live?

30

Gaunt. No, no; men living flatter those that die. K. Rich. Thou, now a dying, say'st-thou flatter'st me. [be. Gaunt. Oh! no; thou dy'st, though I the sicker K. Rich. I am in health, I breathe, I see thee ill. [ill; Gaunt. Now, He that made me, knows I see thee 35 Ill in myself to see, and in thee seeing ill. Thy death-bed is no lesser than the land, Wherein thou liest in reputation sick; And thou, too careless patient as thou art, Giv'st thy anointed body to the cure

Gaunt. Methinks, I am a prophet new inspir'd; 20
And thus, expiring, do foretell of him :—
His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last;
For violent fires soon burn out themselves:
Small showers last long, but sudden stormsare short;
He tires betimes, that spurs too fast betimes;
With eager feeding, food doth choak the feeder:
Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,
Cousuming means, soon preys upon itself.
This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demy paradise;
This fortress, built by nature for herself,
A gainst infection', and the hand of war;
This happy breed of men, this little world;
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands;
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this Eng-
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
Fear'd for their breed, and famous by their birth,
Renowned for their deeds as far from home,
For Christian-service, and true chivalry,
As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry,
Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's son;
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leas'd out (I die pronouncing it)
Like to a tenement, or pelting farm :
England, bound in with the triumphaut sea,
Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
Of wat'ry Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
With inky blots, and rotten parchment bonds 7;
That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself:
Ah! would the scandal vanish with my life,

40

Of those physicians that first wounded thee:
A thousand flatterers sit within thy crown,
Whose compass is no bigger than thy head;
And yet, incaged in so small a verge,
The waste is no whit lesser than thy land.
45Oh, had thy grandsire, with a prophet's eye,
Seen how his son's son should destroy his sons,
From forth thy reach he would have laid thy shame;
Deposing thee before thou wert possess'd,
Who art possess'd now to depose thyself.
50Why, cousin, wert thou regent of the world,
It were a shame, to let this land by lease:
But, for thy world, enjoying but this land,
Is it not more than shame, to shame it so?
Landlord of England art thou now, not king:
55 Thy state of law is bond-slave to the law;
And-

1i. e. metres, or verses. 2 Meaning, where the will rebels against the understanding. 3 i. e. will follow his own course. 4 i. e. hasty, violent. 'i. e. against pestilence. j. e. mean, paltry. 'Alluding to the great sums raised upon the subject by loans and other exactions, in this reign. • Dr. Johnson interprets this passage thus: "By setting the royalties to farm thou hast reduced thyself to a state below sovereignty; thou art now no longer king but landlord of England, subject to the s me restraint and limitations as other landlords; by making thy condition a state of law, a condition u on which the common rules of law can operate, thou art become a bond-slave to the law; thou hast made thyself amenable to laws from which thou wert originally exempt."

K. Rich.

K. Rich. Thou, a lunatic, lean-witted fool,
Presuming on an ague's privilege,
Dar'st with thy frozen admonition
Make pale our cheek; chasing the royal blood,
With fury, from his native residence.
Now by my seat's right royal majesty,
Wert thou not brother to great Edward's son,
This tongue, that runs so roundly in thy head,
Should run thy head from thy irreverent shoulders.
Gaunt. Oh, spare me not, my brother Edward's

son,

For that I was his father Edward's son;
That blood already, like the pelican,
Hast thou tap'd out, and drunkenly carows'd:
My brother Gloster, plain well-meaning soul,
(Whom fair befal in heaven 'mongst happy souls!)
May be a precedent and witness good,
That thou respect'st not spilling Edward's blood:
Join with the present sickness that I have;
And thy unkindness be like crooked age,
To crop at once a too long wither'd flower.
Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee!
These words hereafter thy tormentors be!→
Convey me to my bed, then to my grave:-
Love they to live', that love and honour have.
[Erit, borne out.

K. Rich. And let them die, that age and sullens
have;

For both hast thou, and both become the grave.

I am the last of noble Edward's sons,
Of whom thy father, prince of Wales, was first;
In war was never lion rag'd more fierce,
In peace was never gentle lamb more mild,
5 Than was that young and princely gentleman:
His face thou hast, for even so look'd he,
Accomplish'd with the number of thy hours;
But, when he frown'd, it was against the French,
And not against his friends: his noble hand
Did win what he did spend, and spent not that
Which his triumphant father's hand had won:
His hands were guilty of no kindred's blood,
But bloody with the enemies of his kin.
Oh, Richard! York is too far gone with grief,
15 Or else he never would compare between.

10

K. Rich. Why, uncle, what's the matter?
York. O, my liege,

Pardon me, if you please; if not, I, pleas'd
Not to be pardon'd, am content withal.
20Seek you to seize, and gripe into your hands,
The royalties and rights of banish'd Hereford?
Is not Gaunt dead? and doth not Hereford live?
Was not Gaunt just? and is not Harry true?
Did not the one deserve to have an heir?
25 Is not his heir a well-deserving son?
Take Hereford's rights away, and take from time
His charters, and his customary rights;
Let not to morrow then ensue to-day :
Be not thyself, for how art thou a king,

York. 'Beseech your majesty, impute his words 30 But by fair sequence and succession?

To wayward sickliness and age in him:
He loves you, on my life, and holds you dear
As Harry duke of Hereford, were he here.
K.Rich. Right; you say true: as Hereford's love,
As theirs, so mine; and all be as it is. [so his; 35
Enter Northumberland.

North. My liege, old Gaunt commends him to
K. Rich. What says he? [your majesty.
North. Nay, nothing; all is said:
His tongue is now a stringless instrument;
Words, life, and all, old Lancaster hath spent. [so!
York. Be York the next that must be bankrupt
Though death be poor, it ends a mortal woe.

K.Rich. The ripest fruit first falls, and so doth he;
His time is spent, our pilgrimage must be:
So much for that.Now for our Irish wars:
We must supplant those rough rug-headed kerns';
Which live like venom, where no venom else',
But only they, have privilege to live.

40

Now, afore God (God forbid, I say true!)

If

you do wrongfully seize Hereford's rights,
Call in his letters patents that he hath
By his attornies-general to sue

His livery, and deny his offer'd homage,
You pluck a thousand dangers on your head,
You lose a thousand well-disposed hearts,
And prick my tender patience to those thoughts
Which honour and allegiance cannot think. [hands
K. Rich. Think what you will; we seize into our
His plate, his goods, his money, and his lands.
York. I'll not be by, the while: My liege,farewel:
What will ensue hereof, there's none can tell;
But by bad courses may be understood,

45 That their events can never fall out good. [Exit.
K. Rich. Go, Bushy, to the earl of Wiltshire
Bid him repair to us, to Ely-house, [straight;
To see this business: To-morrow next
We will for Ireland; and 'tis time, I trow;
And we create, in absence of ourself,
Our uncle York lord-governor of England,
For he is just, and always lov'd us well.
Come on, our queen: to-morrow must we part;
Be merry, for our time of stay is short. [Flourish.
[Exeunt King, Queen, &c.
North. Well, lords,the duke of Lancaster is dead.
Ross. And living too; for now his son is duke.
Willo. Barely in title, not in revenue.

55

And, for these great affairs do ask some charge,-50
Towards our assistance, we do seize to us
The plate, coin, revenues, and moveables,
Whereof our uncle Gaunt did stand possess'd. [long
York. How long shall I be patient? Oh, how
Shall tender duty make me suffer wrong?
Not Gloster's death, nor Hereford's banishment,
NotGaunt's rebukes,norEngland's private wrongs,
Nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke
About his marriage, nor my own disgrace,
Have ever made me sour my patient cheek,
Or bend one wrinkle on my sovereign's face.—

That is, let them love to live. 2

60

North. Richly in both, if justice had her right. Ross. My heart is great; but it must break with Ere't be disburden'd with a liberal tongue. [silence,

Kern signifies an Irish foot-soldier; an Irish boor. Alluding to a tradition, that St. Patrick freed the kingdom of Ireland from every species of venomous reptiles i. e. refuse.

NN

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