SCENE IV. The court.

Enter the KING, with BAGOT and GREEN at one door; and the DUKE OF AUMERLE at another. 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 highway, and there I left him.

K. Rich. And say, what store of parting tears were shed?

Aum. Faith, none for me; except the north-
east wind,

Which then blew bitterly against our faces,
Awaked 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
To counterfeit oppression of such grief

That words seem'd buried in my sorrow's grave.
Marry, would the word 'farewell' have lengthen'd
hours

And added years to his short banishment,

He should have had a volume of farewells;
But since it would not, he had none of me.

K. Rich. He is our cousin, cousin; but 'tis
doubt,

When time shall call him home from banishment,

ΙΟ

20

1. We did observe; cf. v. 24. 13. that, i.e. his disdaining 6. for me, as far as I was concerned.

to abuse the word.

Whether our kinsman come to see his friends.
Ourself and Bushy, Bagot here and Green
Observed his courtship to the common people;
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 affects with him..
Off goes his bonnet to an oyster-wench;
A brace of draymen bid God speed him well
And had the tribute of his supple knee,

With Thanks, my countrymen, my loving friends;'
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.

Now for the rebels which stand out in Ireland,
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:

And, for our coffers, with too great a court
And liberal largess, are grown somewhat light,
We are inforced to farm our royal realm;
The revenue whereof shall furnish us
For our affairs in hand: if that come short,

24. his courtship to the common people. Holinshed speaks of the universal grief at Bolingbroke's departure, and of the multitudes who ran after him in every town and street where he came,' but does not suggest that Boling. broke courted them.' 30. affects, affections.

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39. Expedient manage must be made, prompt steps must be taken.

45. farm our royal realm. Holinshed mentions as 'a common brute' (rumour) that Richard had pledged the revenues of England to the Earl of Wiltshire, Bagot, Bushy, and Green.

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;
For we will make for Ireland presently.

Bushy, what news?

Enter BUSHY.

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, God, in the 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.
Come, gentlemen, let's all go visit him:

Pray God we may make haste, and come too late!
All. Amen.

[Exeunt.

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60

Enter JOHN OF Gaunt sick, with the DUKE OF

YORK, etc.

Gaunt. Will the king come, that I my last

58. Ely House; the Bishop of Ely's palace, in Holborn.

Sc. I. The scene as far as V. 138 is based upon the bare

may breathe

record in Holinshed of Gaunt's death. This actually occurred on Feb. 3, 1399.

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,
Writ in remembrance more than things long past :
Though Richard my life's counsel would not hear,
My death's sad tale may yet undeaf his ear.

York. No; it is stopp'd with other flattering sounds,

As praises, of whose taste the wise are fond,
Lascivious metres, to whose venom 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

10. glose, deal in hollow phrases.

12. the close, the harmonious closing chords.

18. of whose taste the wise are fond. Collier's emendation. VOL. VI

161

་

10

20

F1 has of his state: then there are sound'; Q1' of whose taste the wise are found.'

21. fashions in proud Italy. Shakespeare is transferring to the fourteenth century a social phenomenon of his own time.

M

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 regard.
Direct not him whose way himself will choose:
'Tis breath thou lack'st, and that breath wilt thou

lose.

Gaunt. Methinks I am a prophet new inspired 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 storms are
short;

He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes;
With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder:
Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,

Consuming 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, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against 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
Cr as a moat defensive to a house,

Against the envy of less happier lands,

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this

England,

This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,

25. no respect, no consideration; no one considers.

26. buzz'd, whispered.

28. with wit's regard, against that which understanding approves.

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