Boling. Rise up, good aunt. Not yet, I thee beseech Duch. Forever will I kneel1 upon my knees, And never see day that the happy sees, Till thou give joy; until thou bid me joy, By pardoning Rutland, my transgressing boy. Aum. Unto my mother's prayers, I bend my knee. [Kneels. York. Against them both, my true joints bended be Ill mayst thou thrive, if thou grant any grace! [Kneels. Duch. Pleads he in earnest? look upon his face Our prayers do out-pray his; then let them have Duch. Duch. Dost thou teach pardon pardon to destroy? Ay, my sour husband, my hard-hearted lord, That sett'st the word itself against the word!— 1 Thus the folio. The quarto copies read walk. 2 This line is not in the folio. 3 i. e. excuse me-a phrase used when any thing is civilly declined. Speak, pardon, as 'tis current in our land; Boling. Good aunt, stand up. Duch. I do not sue to stand; Pardon is all the suit I have in hand. Boling. I pardon him, as God shall pardon me. Twice saying pardon, doth not pardon twain, Boling. I pardon him.2 Duch. With all my heart A god on earth thou art. Boling. But for our trusty brother-in-law,3—and the abbot,* With all the rest of that consorted crew,- new. 1 Thus "chopping churches" is changing one church for another, and chopping logic is discoursing or interchanging logic with another. To chop and change is still a common idiom. 2 The old copies read, "I pardon him with all my heart." The transposition was made by Pope. 3 The brother-in-law meant was John duke of Exeter and earl of Huntingdon (own brother to Edward II.), who had married the lady Elizabeth, Bolingbroke's sister. 4 i. e. the abbot of Westminster. 5 Too, which is not in the old copies, was added by Theobald for the sake of the metre. SCENE IV. Enter EXTON and a Servant. Exton. Didst thou not mark the king, what words he spake ? Have I no friend will rid me of this living fear? Was it not so? Serv. Those were his very words. Exton. Have I no friend? quoth he; he spake it twice, And urged it twice together; did he not? Serv. He did. Exton. And, speaking it, he wistfully looked on me; As who should say,-I would thou wert the man That would divorce this terror from my heart; Meaning, the king at Pomfret. Come, let's go; I am the king's friend, and will rid his foe. [Exeunt. SCENE V. Pomfret. The Dungeon of the Castle. Enter KING RICHARD. K. Rich. I have been studying how I may compare This prison, where I live, unto the world; And, for because the world is populous, And here is not a creature but myself, I cannot do it ;-yet I'll hammer it out. My brain I'll prove the female to my soul; My soul, the father; and these two beget A generation of still-breeding thoughts, And these same thoughts people this little world; 2 In humors, like the people of this world, 1 To rid and to despatch were formerly synonymous, as may be seen i the old dictionaries. 2 i. e. his own body. For no thought is contented. The better sort- As thus, Come, little ones; and then again,— Thus play I, in one person, many people, And here have I the daintiness of ear 1 By the word is meant the Holy Scriptures. The folio reads, the faith itself against the faith. 2 The folio, and other copies, read "in one prison." To check time broke in a disordered string; Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears. Enter Groom. Groom. Hail, royal prince! Thanks, noble peer; The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear. 1 The folio reads "To hear." 2 Tick. 3 It should be recollected that there are three ways in which a clock notices the progress of time, viz. by the vibration of the pendulum, the index on the dial, and the striking of the hour. To these the king, in his comparison, severally alludes; his sighs corresponding to the jarring or ticking of the pendulum, which, at the same time that it watches or numbers the seconds, marks also their progress in minutes on the dial-plate, or outward watch, to which the king compares his eyes; and their want of figures is supplied by a succession of tears (or minute drops, to use an expression of Milton); his finger, by as regularly wiping these away, performs the office of the dial's point; his clamorous groans are the sounds that tell the hour. 4 That is, I strike for him. One of these automatons is alluded to in King Richard III. Act iv. Sc. 2. |