Will but remember me, what a deal of world Gaunt. All places that the eye of heaven visits,' There is no virtue like necessity. Think not, the king did banish thee; To lie that way thou go'st, not whence thou com'st: The grass whereon thou tread'st, the presence strew'd ;' The flowers, fair ladies; and thy steps, no more Than a delightful measure,3 or a dance : For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite Or wallow naked in December's snow, [9] I am afraid our author in this place designed a very poor quibble, as journey signifies both travel and a day's work. However he is not to be censured for what he himself rejected. JOHNSON. [1] The fourteen verses that follow are found in the first edition. POPE. I am inclined to believe, that what Mr. Theobald and Mr. Pope have restored were expunged in the revision by the author: if these lines are omitted, the sense is more coherent. Nothing is more frequent among dramatic writers than to shorten their dialogues for the stage. JOHNSON. [2] Shakespeare has other allusions to the ancient practice of strewing rushes over the floor of the presence chamber. HENLEY. [3] A measure was a formal court dance. Gaunt. Come, come, my son, I'll bring thee on thy way : Had I thy youth, and cause, I would not stay. Boling. Then, England's ground, farewell; sweet soil, adieu ; My mother, and my nurse, that bears me yet! SCENE IV. [Exeunt. The same. A Room in the King's Castle. Enter King RICH- K. Rich. We did observe.-Cousin Aumerle, K. Rich. And, say, what store of parting tears were shed? Aum. Faith, none by me; except the north-east wind, Which then blew bitterly against our faces, Awak'd the sleeping 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. Farewell : And, for my heart disdained that my tongue Should so profane the word, that taught me craft That words seem'd buried in my sorrow's grave. He should have had a volume of farewells s; K. Rich. He is our cousin, cousin; but 'tis doubt, What reverence he did throw away on slaves; As 'twere to banish their affects with him. Green. Well, he is gone; and with him go Now for the rebels, which stand out in Ireland ;--- For our affairs in hand: If that come short, -Bushy, what news ? these Bushy. Old John of Gaunt is grievous sick, my lord; Suddenly taken; and hath sent post-haste To entreat your majesty to visit him. K. Rich. Where lies he? Bushy. At Ely-house. K. Rich. Now put it, heaven, in his physician's mind, To help him to his grave immediately! The lining of his coffers shall make coats To deck our soldiers for these Irish wars.---- Pray God, we may make haste, and come too late! [Exeunt. [4] To illustrate this phrase, it should be remembered that courtsying (the act of reverence now confined to women) was anciently practised by men. STEEVENS. SCENE I. London. ACT II. A Room in Ely-House. GAUNT on a Couch; the Duke of YORK and others standing by him. Gaunt. WILL the king come? that I may breathe my last In wholesome counsel to his unstaid youth. York. Vex not yourself, nor strive not with your breath; For all in vain comes counsel to his ear. Gaunt. O, but they say, the tongues of dying men Enforce attention, like deep harmony: Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain ; For they breathe truth, that breathe their words in pain. He, that no more must say, is listen'd more Than they whom youth and ease have taught to glose; More are men's ends mark'd, than their lives before; The setting sun, and music at the close, As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last; York. No; it is stopp'd with other flattering sounds, Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity, And thus, expiring, do foretell of him ; His rash, fierce blaze of riot cannot last ; [4] Our author, who gives to all nations the customs of England, and to all ages tire manners of his own, has charged the times of Richard with a folly not perhaps known then, but very frequent in Shakespeare's time, and much lamented by the wisest and best of our ancestors. JOHNSON. [5] Where the will rebels against the notices of the understanding, JOHNSON, Do not attempt to guide him, who, whatever thou shalt say, will take his own course. JOHNSON. For violent fires soon burn out themselves : Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short; Consuming means, soon preys upon itself. This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, This fortress, built by nature for herself, This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, Enter King RICHARD and QUEEN; AUMERLE, BUSHY, York. The king is come: deal mildly with his youth; For young hot colts, being rag'd, do rage the more. [7] 1 once suspected that for infection we might read invasion; but the copies all agree, and I suppose Shakespeare meant to say, that islanders are secured by their situation both from war and pestilence. JOHNSON. [8] Shakespeare, as Mr. Walpole suggests to me, has deviated from historical truth in the introduction of Richard's queen as a woman in the present piece; |