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1 Lady. I could weep, madam, would it do you good.
Queen. And I could weep, would weeping do me
good,
And never borrow any tear of thee.
But stay, here come the gardeners:
Let's step into the shadow of these trees.-
Enter a Gardener, and two Servants.
My wretchedness unto a row of pins,
They'll talk of state; for every one doth so
Against a change: Woe is forerun with woe."
[Queen and Ladies retire.
Gard. Go, bind thou up yon' dangling apricocks,
Which, like unruly children, make their sire
Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight:
Give some supportance to the bending twigs.-
Go thou, and, like an executioner,
Cut off the heads of too fast growing sprays,
That look too lofty in our commonwealth:
All must be even in our government.-
You thus employ'd, I will go root away
The noisome weeds, that without profit suck
The soil's fertility from wholesome flowers.
1 Serv. Why should we, in the compass of a pale,
Keep law, and form, and due proportion,
Showing, as in a model, our firm estate?
When our sea-walled garden, the whole land,
Is full of weeds; her fairest flowers chok'd up,
Her fruit-trees all unprun'd, her hedges ruin'd,
Her knots disorder'd, and her wholesome herbs
Swarming with caterpillars?
Hold thy peace :He that hath suffer'd this disorder'd spring, Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf: The weeds, that his broad-spreading leaves did shelter,
That seem'd in eating him to hold him Are pluck'd up, root and all, by Bolingbroke; I mean, the earl of Wiltshire, Bushy, Green. 1 Serv. What, are they dead? Gard. They are; and Bolingbroke Hath seiz'd the wasteful king.-Oh! what pity is it, That he had not so trimm'd and dress'd his land, As we this garden! We at time of year Do wound the bark, the skin of our fruit trees; Lest, being over-proud with sap and blood, With too much riches it confound itself: Had he done so to great and growing men, They might have liv'd to bear, and he to taste Their fruits of duty. All superfluous branches We lop away, that bearing boughs may live: Had he done so, himself had borne the crown, Which waste of idle hours hath quite thrown down. 1 All the old copies read of sorrow or of grief.' Pope made the necessary alteration. 2 Profits. 4 The old copies read and I could sing.' The emendation is Pope's.
3 See note on Act i. Sc. 2.
1 Serv. What, think you then, the king shall be depos'd?
Gard. Depress'd he is already; and depos'd, "Tis doubt, he will be: Letters came last night To a dear friend of the good duke of York's, That tell black tidings.
Queen.
O, I am press'd to death,
Through want of speaking!--Thou, old Adam's
likeness, [Coming from her concealment.
Set to dress this garden, how dares
Thy harsh rude tongue sound this unpleasing news?
What Eve, what serpent hath suggested thee
To make a second fall of cursed man?
Dar'st thou, thou little better thing than earth,
Why dost thou say, King Richard is depos'd?
Divine his downfal? Say, where, when, and how,
Cam'st thou by these ill tidings? speak, thou wretch.
Gard. Pardon me, madam: little joy have I,
King Richard, he is in the mighty hold
To breathe this news; yet, what I say is true.
5 The poet, according to the common doctrine of prognostication, supposes dejection to forerun calamity, and a kingdom to be filled with rumours of sorrow when any great disaster is impending.
6 Knots are figures planted in box, the lines of which frequently intersected each other in the old fashion of gardening.
7 We is not in the old copy. It was added by Malone.
Of Bolingbroke: their fortunes both are weigh'd:
In your lord's scale is nothing but himself,
And some few vanities that make him light;
But in the balance of great Bolingbroke,
Besides himself, are all the English peers,
And with that odds he weighs King Richard down.
Post you to London, and you'll find it so ;
speak no more than every one doth know.
Queen. Nimble mischance, that art so light of foot,
And am I last that knows it? O, thou think'st
Doth not thy embassage belong to me,
To serve me last, that I may longest keep
Thy sorrow in my breast.-Come, ladies, go,
To meet at London London's king in woe.-
What, was I born to this! that my sad look
Should grace the triumph of great Bolingbroke?—
Gardener, for telling me this news of woe,
I would, the plants thou graft'st, may never grow.
[Exeunt Queen and Ladies.
Gard. Poor queen! so that thy state might be no
I would, my skill were subject to thy curse.
Here did she drop a tear; here, in this place,
I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace:
Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen,
In the remembrance of a weeping queen. [Exeunt
SCENE I. London. Westminster Hall.10
Lords spiritual on the right side of the Throne; the
Lords temporal on the left; the Commons below.
Enter BOLINGBROKE, AUMERLE, SURREY,"
NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, FITZWATER, ano-
ther Lord, Bishop of Carlisle, Abbot of West-
minster, and Attendants. Officers behind, with
BAGOT.
Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind;
Boling. Call forth Bagot:-
What thou dost know of noble Gloster's death;
Who wrought it with the king, and who perform'd
The bloody office of his timeless12 end.
Bagot. Then set before my face the Lord Aumerle.
Boling. Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that
Bagot. My Lord Aumerle, I know, your daring
tongue
in the present play :-
8 This uncommon phraseology has already occurred
He is our cousin, cousin; but 'tis doubt
When time shall call him home,' &c.
9 The quarto of 1597 reads fall. The quarto of 1598 and the folio read drop.
10 The rebuilding of Westminster Hall, which Richard had begun in 1397, being finished in 1399, the first meeting of parliament in the new edifice was for the purpose of deposing him.
11 Thomas Holland, earl of Kent, brother to John Holland, earl of Exeter, was created duke of Surrey in 1597. He was half brother to the king, by his mother Joan, who married Edward the Black Prince after the death of her second husband Thomas Lord Holland. 12 i. e. untimely.
Scorns to unsay what once it hath deliver'd.
In that dead time when Gloster's death was plotted,
I heard you say,-Is not my arm of length,
That reacheth from the restful English court
As far as Culais, to my uncle's head?
Amongst much other talk, that very time,
I heard you say, that you had rather refuse
The offer of a hundred thousand crowns,
Than Bolingbroke's return to England;
Adding withal, how blest this land would be,
In this your cousin's death.
Aum.
Princes, and noble lords,
What answer shall I make to this base man?
Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars,'
On equal terms to give him chastisement?
Either I must, or have mine honour soil'd
With the attainder of his sland'rous lips.-
There is my gage, the manual seal of death,.
That marks thee out for hell; I say, thou liest,
And will maintain, what thou hast said, is false,
In thy heart-blood, though being all too base,
To stain the temper of my knightly sword.
Boling. Bagot, forbear, thou shalt not take it up.
Aum. Excepting one, I would he were the best
In all this presence, that hath mov'd me so.
Fitz. If that thy valour stand on sympathies,2
There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine:
By that fair sun that shows me where thou stand'st,
I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spak'st it,
That thou wert cause of noble Gloster's death.
If thou deny'st it, twenty times thou liest;
And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart,
Where it was forged, with my rapier's point.
Aum. Thou dar'st not, coward, live to see that
day.
Fitz. Now, by my soul, I would it were this hour.
Aum. Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this.
Percy. Aumerle, thou liest; his honour is as true,
In this appeal, as thou art all unjust:
And, that thou art so, there I throw my gage,
To prove it on thee to the extremest point
Of mortal breathing; seize it, if thou dar'st.
Aum. And if I do not, may my hands rot off,
And never brandish more revengeful steel
Over the glittering helmet of my foe!
Lord. I task the earth to the like, forsworn
Aumerle ;
And spur thee on with full as many lies
As may be holla'd in thy treacherous ear
From sun to sun: there is my honour's pawn;
Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st.
Aum. Who sets me else? by heaven, I'll throw
at all:
I have a thousand spirits in one breast,4
To answer twenty thousand such as you.
Surrey. My Lord Fitzwater, I do remember well
The very time Aumerle and you did talk.
Fitz. 'Tis very true: you were in presence then;
And
you can witness with me, this is true.
Surrey. As false, by heaven, as heaven itself
Fitz. Surrey, thou liest.
Surrey.
Dishonourable boy! That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword,
1 The birth is supposed to be influenced by stars; therefore the poet, with his allowed licence, takes stars for birth. We learn from Pliny's Nat. Hist. that the vulgar error assigned the brightest and fairest stars to the rich and great:- Sidera singulis attributa nobis, et clara divitibus, minora pauperibus,' &c. lib. i. c. viii.
That it shall render vengeance and revenge
Till thou the lie-giver, and that lie, do he
In earth as quiet as thy father's scull.
In proof whereof, there is my honour's pawn;
Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st.
Fitz. How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse!
If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live,
I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness,
And spit upon him, whilst I say, he lies,
And lies, and lies: there is my bond of faith,
To tie thee to my strong correction.
As I intend to thrive in this new world,
Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal:
Besides, I heard the banish'd Norfolk say,
That thou, Aumerle, didst send two of thy men
To execute the noble duke at Calais.
Aum. Some honest Christian trust me with a
That Norfolk lies: here do I throw down this,"
If he may be repeal'd to try his honour.
Boling. These differences shall all rest under gage,
Till Norfolk be repeal'd: repeal'd he shall be,
And, though mine enemy, restor❜d again
To all his land and signories; when he's return'd,
Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial.
Car. That honourable day shall ne'er be seen.-
Many a time hath banish'd Norfolk fought
For Jesu Christ; in glorious Christian field
Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross,
Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens :
And, toil'd with works of war, retir'd himself
To Italy; and there, at Venice, gave
And his pure colours he had fought so long.
His body to that pleasant country's earth,"
soul unto his captain Christ,
Boling. Why, bishop, is Norfolk dead?"
Car. As sure as I live, my lord.
Boling. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to
the bosom
Of good old Abraham!-Lords appellants,
Your differences shall all rest under gage,
Till we assign you to your days of trial.
Enter YORK, attended.
York. Great duke of Lancaster, I come to thee
From plume-pluck'd Richard; who with willing soul
Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields
To the possession of thy royal hand:
Ascend his throne, descending now from him,-
And long live Henry, of that name the fourth!
Boling. In God's name, I'll ascend the regal
throne."
Car. Marry, God forbid !-
Worst in this royal presence, may I speak,
Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth.
'Would God, that any in this noble presence
Were enough noble to be upright judge
Of noble Richard; then true nobless would
Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.
What subject can give sentence on his king?
And who sits here, that is not Richard's subject?
Thieves are not judg'd, but they are by to hear,
Although apparent guilt be seen in them:
And shall the figure of God's majesty,11
6 i. e. in this world, where I have just begun to be an actor. Surrey has just called him boy.
7 Holinshed says that on this occasion he threw down a hood that he had borrowed.
8 This is not historically true. The duke of Norfolk's 2 This is a translated sense much harsher than that of death did not take place till after Richard's murder. 9 Hume gives the words that Henry actually spoke stars, explained in the preceding note. Fitzwater throws on this occasion, which he copied from Kuyghton, and down his gage as a pledge of battle, and tells Aumerle accompanies them by a very ingenious commentary.that if he stands upon sympathies, that is upon equality Hist. of Eng. 4to ed. vol. ix. p. 50. of blood, the combat is now offered him by a man of rank 10 i. e. nobleness; a word now obsolete, but common not inferior to his own. Sympathy is an affection incident at once to two subjects. This community of affection implies a likeness or equality of nature; and hence the poet transferred the term to equality of blood. 3 i. e. from sunrise to sunset.
4 A thousand hearts are great within my bosom." King Richard III. 5 I dare meet him where no help can be had by me against him
sive terms the doctrine of passive obedience, is founded 11 This speech, which contains in the most expres upon Holinshed's account. The sentiments would not in the reign of Elizabeth or James have been regarded as novel or unconstitutional. It is observable that right as lawful sovereigns; to dwell upon the sacredusurpers are as ready to avail themselves of divine ness of their persons, and the sanctity of their charac
His captain, steward, deputy elect,
Anointed, crowned, planted many years,
Be judg'd by subject and inferior breath,
And he himself not present? O, forbid it, God,
That, in a Christian climate, souls refin'd'
Should show so heinous, black, obscene a deed!
I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks,
Stirr'd up by heaven, thus boldly for his king.
My lord of Hereford here, whom you call king,
Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford's king:
And if you crown him, let me prophecy,-
The blood of English shall manure the ground,
And future ages groan for this foul act;
Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels,
And, in this seat of peace, tumultuous wars
Shall kin with kin, and kind with kind confound:
Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny
Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd
The field of Golgotha, and dead men's sculls.
O, if you rear this house against this house,
It will the wofullest division prove,
That ever fell upon this cursed earth:
Prevent, resist it, let it not be so,
Lest child's child's children' cry against you-woe! North. Well have you argu'd, sir; and, for your pains,
Of capital treason we arrest you here :-
My lord of Westminster, be it your charge
To keep him safely till his day of trial.--
May't please you, lords, to grant the commons'
suit.4
Boling. Fetch hither Richard, that in common
He may surrender; so we shall proceed
Without suspicion.
York.
I will be his conduct.' [Exit.
Boling. Lords, you that are here under our ar-
rest,
Procure your sureties for your days of answer :-
Little are we beholden to your love, [To CAR.
And little look'd for at your helping hands.
Re-enter YORK, with KING RICHARD, and Officers
bearing the Crown, &c.
K. Rich. Alack, why am I sent for to a king, Before I have shook off the regal thoughts Wherewith I reign'd? I hardly yet have learn'd To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my knee :-Give sorrow leave a while to tutor me
To this submission. Yet I well remember
The favours' of these men: Were they not mine?
Did they not sometime cry, all hail! to me?
So Judas did to Christ: but he, in twelve,
Found truth in all but one; I, in twelve thousand,
God save the king!--Will no man say, amen?
Am I both priest and clerk? well then, amen.
God save the king! although I be not he:
And yet, amen, if heaven do think him me.-
To do what service am I sent for hither?
York. To do that office, of thine own good will,
Which tired majesty did make thee offer,-
The resignation of thy state and crown
To Henry Bolingbroke.
K. Rich. Give me the crown;-Here, cousin, seize the crown;
On this side, my hand; and on that side, yours.
Now is this golden crown like a deep well,
ter. Even that' cut-purse of the empire,' Claudius, in Hamlet, affects to believe that
such divinity doth hedge a king.'
1 The quarto reads forfend. 2 The quarto reads raise.
3 i. e. grandchildren. Pope altered it to 'children's children, and was followed by others. The old copies read, Lest child, childs children.'
4 What follows, almost to the end of the act, is not found in the first two quartos. The addition was made in the quarto of 1608. In the quarto, 1597, after the words his day of trial,' the scene thus closes :-
Bol. Let it be so: and lo! on Wednesday next We solemnly proclaim our coronation. Lords, be ready all.'
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K. Rich. Your cares set up, do not pluck my
cares down.
My care is--loss of care, by old care done;"
Your care is gain of care, by new care won:
The cares I give, I have, though given away;
They tend the crown, yet still with me they stay.
Boling. Are you contented to resign the crown?
K. Rich. Ay, no ;--no, ay ;--for I must noth-
ing be;
Therefore no no, for I resign to thee.
Now mark me how I will undo myself:-
I give this heavy weight from off my head,
And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand,
The pride of kingly sway from out my heart;
With mine own tears I wash away my balm,11
With mine own hands I give away my crown,
With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,
With mine own breath release all duteous oaths:12
All pomp and majesty I do forswear;
My manors, rents, revenues, I forego;
My acts, decrees, and statutes, I deny :
God pardon all oaths, that are broke to me!
God keep all vows unbroke, are made11 to thee!
Make me, that nothing have, with nothing griev'd;
And thou with all pleas'd, that hast all achiev'd!
Long mayst thou live in Richard's seat to sit,
And soon lie Richard in an earthly pit!
God save King Henry, unking'd Richard says,
And send him many years of sunshine days!--
What more remains?
North.
No more, but that you read
[Offering a Paper.
These accusations, and these grievous crimes,
Committed by your person, and your followers,
Against the state and profit of this land.
That, by confessing them, the souls of men
May deem that you are worthily depos'd.
K. Rich. Must I do so? and must I ravel out My weav'd up follies? Gentle Northumberland, If thy offences were upon record,
Would it not shame thee in so fair a troop,
To read a lecture of them? If thou would'st, 14
There should'st thou find one heinous article,--
Containing the deposing of a king,
And cracking the strong warrant of an oath,--
Mark'd with a blot, damn'd in the book of heaven :-
Nay, all of you, that stand and look upon me,
Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait myself,--
Though some of you, with Pilate, wash your hands,
Showing an outward pity; yet you Pilates
Have here deliver'd me to my sour cross,
And water cannot wash away your sin.
North. My lord, despatch; read o'er these arti
But they can see a sort of traitors here.
Nay, if I turn mine eyes upon myself,
I find myself a traitor with the rest:
For I have given here my soul's consent,
To undeck the pompous body of a king;
Make glory base; and sovereignty, a slave;
Proud majesty, a subject; state, a peasant.
North. My lord,-
K. Rich. No lord of thine, thou haught,2 insulting man,
Nor no man's lord; I have no name, no title,-
No, not that name was given me at the font,-
But 'tis usurp'd:-Alack the heavy day,
That I have worn so many winters out,
And know not now what name to call myself!
O, that I were a mockery king of snow,
Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke,
To melt myself away in water-drops!-
Good king, great king,-(and yet not greatly
good,)
An if my word be sterling yet in England,
Let it command a mirror hither straight;
That it may show me what a face I have,
Since it is bankrupt of his3 majesty.
Boling. Go some of you, and fetch a looking-
glass.
[Exit an Attendant.
North. Read o'er this paper, while the glass doth
K. Rich. Fiend! thou torment'st me ere I come to hell.
Boling. Urge it no more, my Lord Northumberland.
North. The commons will not then be satisfied. K. Rich. They shall be satisfied: I'll read enough, When I do see the very book indeed Where all my sins are writ, and that's-myself. Re-enter Attendant, with a Glass. Give me that glass, and therein will I read.— No deeper wrinkles yet? Hath sorrow struck So many blows upon this face of mine,
And made no deeper wounds ?-O, flattering glass,
Like to my followers in prosperity,
Thou dost beguile me! Was this face the face,
That every day under his household roof
Did keep ten thousand men ? Was this the face,
That, like the sun, did make beholders wink: 5
Was this the face, that fac'd so many follies,
And was at last out-fac'd by Bolingbroke?
A brittle glory shineth in this face:
As brittle as the glory is the face;
[Dashes the Glass against the ground. For there it is, crack'd in a hundred shivers.Mark, silent king, the moral of this sport,How soon my sorrow hath destroy'd my face. Boling. The shadow of your sorrow hath stroy'd
The shadow of your face.
K. Rich. Say that again. The shadow of my sorrow? Ha! let's sce:'Tis very true, my grief lies all within ; And these external manners of lament Are merely shadows to the unseen grief, That swells with silence in the tortur'd soul; There lies the substance: and I thank thee, king, For thy great bounty, that not only giv'st Me cause to wail, but teachest me the way How to lament the cause. I'll beg one boon,
1 A sort is a set or company.
2 i. e. haughty.
8 His for its. It was common in the poet's time to use the personal for the neutral pronoun.
4 To his household came every day to meate ten thousand men.'-Chronicle History.
5 The quarto omits this line and the four preceding
6 But I have that within which passeth show.' These but the trappings and the suits of woe.'Hamlet.
7 To convey was formerly often used in an ill sense. Pistol says of stealing, convey the wise it call; and to convey' is the word for slight of hand or juggling. Richard means that it is a term of contempt, jugglers are you all.'
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K. Rich. Fair cousin! I am greater than a king: For, when I was a king, my flatterers
Were then but subjects: being now a subject,
I have a king here to my flatterer.
Being so great, I have no need to beg.
Boling. Yet ask.
K. Rich. And shall I have?
Boling. You shall.
K. Rich. Then give me leave to go.
Boling. Whither?
K. Rich. Whither you will, so I were from your sights.
Boling. Go, some of you, convey him to the Tower.
K. Rich. O, good! Convey?-Conveyers' are you all,
That rise thus nimbly by a true king's fall."
[Exeunt K. RICH. some Lords, and a Guard. Boling. On Wednesday next we solemnly set down
Our coronation: lords, prepare yourselves.
[Exeunt all but the Abbot, Bishop of Carlisle, and AUMERLE.
Abbot. A woful pageant have we here beheld. Car. The woe's to come: the children yet unborn
Shall feel this day as sharp to them as thorn.
Aum. You holy clergymen, is there no plot To rid the realm of this pernicious blot?
Abbot. Before I freely speak my mind herein, You shall not only take the sacrament To bury mine intents, but also to effect Whatever I shall happen to devise :I see your brows are full of discontent, Your hearts of sorrow, and your eyes of tears ; Come home with me to supper; I will lay A plot, shall show us all a merry day.
To make my end too sudden: learn, good soul
To think our former state a happy dream;
From which awak'd, the truth of what we are
Shows us but this; I am sworn brother, 12 sweet,
S This is the last of the additional lines first printed in the quarto of 1603. In the first editions there is no personal appearance of King Richard.
9 By ill-erected is probably meant erected for evil pur poses.
10 Model anciently signified, according to the dictiona ries, the platform or form of any thing. And map is used for picture resemblance. In the Rape of Lucrece Shakspeare calls sleep the map of death.'
11 Inn does not probably here mean a house of public entertainment, but a dwelling or lodging generally. In which sense the word was anciently used.
12 Sworn brother alludes to the fratres jurati, who, in the age of adventure, bound themselves by mutual oaths to share fortunes together.
To grim necessity; and he and I
Will keep a league till death. Hie thee to France,
And cloister there in some religious house:
Our holy lives must win a new world's crown,
Which our profane hours here have stricken down.
Queen. What, is my Richard both in shape and
mind
Transform'd and weakened? Hath Bolingbroke
Depos'd thine intellect? hath he been in thy heart?
The lion, dying, thrusteth forth his paw,
And wounds the earth, if nothing else, with rage
To be o'erpower'd; and wilt thou, pupil-like,
Take thy correction mildly? kiss the rod,
And fawn on rage with base humility,
Which art a lion, and a king of beasts?
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 woful ages, long ago betid:1
And, ere thou bid good night, to quit their grief,
Tell them the lamentable fall3 of me,
And send the hearers weeping to their beds.
For why, the senseless brands will sympathize
The heavy accent of thy moving tongue,
And, in compassion, weep the fire out:
And some will mourn in ashes, some coal-black,
For the deposing of a rightful king.
Enter NORTHUMBERLAND, attended.
North. My lord, the mind of Bolingbroke is
chang'd;
You must to Pomfret, not unto the Tower.
And, madam, there is order ta'en for you:4
With all swift speed you must away to France.
K. Rich. Northumberland, thou ladder where-
withal
The mounting Bolingbroke ascends my throne,-
The time shall not be many hours of age
More than it is, ere foul sin, gathering head,
Shall break into corruption: thou shalt think,
Though he divide the realm, and give thee half,
It is too little, helping him to all;
And he shall think, that thou, which know'st the
To plant unrightful kings, wilt know again,
Being ne'er so little urg'd, another way
To pluck him headlong from the usurped throne.
The love of wicked friends converts to fear;
That fear, to hate; and hate turns one, or both,
To worthy danger, and deserved death.
North. My guilt be on my head, and there an end.
Take leave, and part; for you must part forthwith.
K. Rich. Doubly divore'd?-Bad men, ye violate
A twofold marriage; 'twixt my crown and me;
And then, betwixt me and my married wife.-
Let me unkiss the oath 'twixt thee and me;
And yet not so, for with a kiss 'twas inade.
Part us, Northumberland: I towards the north,
Where shivering cold and sickness pines the clime;
My wife to France; from whence, set forth in
pomp,
2 To requite their mournful stories.
3 The quarto of 1597 reads tale.
4 Thus in Othello:
'Honest lago hath ta'en order for it.'
She came adorned hither like sweet May,
Sent back like Hallowmas, or short'st of day.
Queen. And must we be divided? must we part?
K. Rich. Ay, hand from hand, my love, and
heart from heart.
Queen. Banish us both, and send the king with
North. That were some love, but little policy. Queen. Then whither he goes, thither iet me go? K. Rich. So two, together weeping, make one
Weep thou for me in France, I for thee here;
Better far off, than-near, be ne'er the near'."
Go, count thy way with sighs; I, mine with groans.
Queen. So longest way shall have the longest
K. Rich. Twice for one step I'll groan, the way being short,
And piece the way out with a heavy heart.
Come, come, in wooing sorrow let's be brief,
Since, wedding it, there is such length in grief.
One kiss shall stop our mouths, and dumbly part:
Thus give I mine, and thus I take thy heart.
[They kiss. Queen. Give me mine own again; 'twere no good part,
To take on me to keep, and kill thy heart."
So now I have mine own again, begone,
That I may strive to kill it with a groan.
K. Rich. We make woe wanton with this fond
delay:
Once more, adieu;
the rest let sorrow say. [Exeunt.
SCENE II. The same. A Room in the Duke of
York's Palace. Enter YORK, and his Duchess.10
Duch. My lord, you told me, you would tell the
rest,
When weeping made you break the story off
Of our two cousins coming into London.
York. Where did I leave?
Duch.
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 Boling-
broke,
Mounted upon a hot and fiery steed,
Which his aspiring rider seem'd to know,-
With slow, but stately pace, kept on his course,
While all tongues cried-God save thee, Boling-
broke!
You would have thought the very windows spake,
So many greedy looks of young and old
Through casements darted their desiring eyes
Upon his visage; and that all the walls,
With painted imag'ry, had said at once,-
Jesu preserve thee! welcome, Bolingbroke!
Whilst he, from one side to the other turning,
Bare-headed, lower than his proud steed's neck,
Bespake them thus,-I thank you, countrymen :
And thus still doing, thus he pass'd along.
Duch. Alas, poor Richard! where rides he the
while?
York. As in a theatre, the eyes of
men,11
After a well-grac'd actor leaves the stage,
Are idly bent on him that enters next,
Thinking his prattle to be tedious:
Even so, or with much more contempt, men's eyes Did scowl on Richard; no man cried, God save him;
10 The first wife of Edward duke of York was Isabella, daughter of Peter the Cruel, king of Castile and Leon. He married her in 1372, and had by her the duke of Aumerle, and all his other children. In introducing her the poet has departed widely from history; for she
5 A kiss appears to have been an established circum- died in 1394, four or five years before the events related
stance in our ancient marriage ceremonies.
6 All Hallows, i. e. All Saints, Nov. 1.
7 The quartos give this speech to the king.
8 Never the nigher, i. e.it is better to be at a great distance than being near each other, to find that we are yet net likely to be peaceably and happily united.' So in King Henry V Act ii. Sc. 2:the king hath kill'd his heart."
in the present play. After her death York married Joan, daughter of John Holland, earl of Kent, who survived him about thirty-four years, and had three other husbands.
11 The painting of this description is so lively, and the words so moving, that I have scarce read any thing comparable to it in any other language.'-Dryden; Pref. to Troilus and Cressida
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