صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

Whereto thy tongue a party-verdict gave4;
Why at our juftice feem'st thou then to lour?

Gaunt. Things fweet to tafte, prove in digeftion four. You urg'd me as a judge; but I had rather,

You would have bid me argue like father :-
O, had it been a ftranger, not my child,

To fmooth his fault I should have been more mild:
A partial flander's fought I to avoid,
And in the fentence my own life destroy'd.
Alas, Ilook'd, when fome of you should say,
I was too ftrict, to make mine own away;
But you gave leave to my unwilling tongue,
Against my will, to do myfelf this wrong.

K. Rich. Coufin farewel :-and, uncle, bid him so;
Six years we banish him, and he shall go.

[Flourish, Exeunt K. RICHARD and Train. Aum. Coufin, farewel: what prefence must not know, From where you do remain, let paper show.

Mar. My lord, no leave take I; for I will ride,

As far as land will let me, by your fide.

Gaunt. O, to what purpose doft thou hoard thy words, That:thou return'ft no greeting to thy friends?

Boling. I have too few to take my leave of you, When the tongue's office fhould be prodigal To breathe the abundant dolour of the heart. Gaunt. Thy grief is but thy abfence for a time. Boling. Joy abfent, grief is prefent for that time. Gaunt. What is fix winters? they are quickly gone. Boling. To men in joy; but grief makes one hour ten. Gaunt. Call it a travel that thou tak'ft for pleasure. Boling. My heart will figh, when I mifcall it fo, Which finds it an enforced pilgrimage.

Gaunt. The fullen paffage of thy weary steps

Efteem a foil, wherein thou art to fet

The precious jewel of thy home-return.

Boling. Nay, rather, every tedious fride I make

➡a party-verdict gave ;] i. e. you had yourself a part or share in

the verdict that I pronounced. MALONE.

5 A partial Bander-] That is, the reproach of partiality. This is a just picture of the struggle between principle and affection. JOHNSON.

5

Will

Will but remember me, what a deal of world

I wander from the jewels that I love.
Muft I not ferve a long apprenticehood
To foreign paffages; and in the end,
Having my freedom, boaft of nothing else,
But that I was a journeyman to grief?

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

There is no virtue like neceffity.

Think not, the king did banish thee;
But thou the king: Woe doth the heavier fit,
Where it perceives it is but faintly borne.
Go, fay I fent thee forth to purchase honour,
And not-the king exil'd thee: or fuppofe,
Devouring peftilence hangs in our air,
And thou art flying to a fresher clime.
Look, what thy foul holds dear, imagine it

To lie that way thou go'ft, not whence thou com'ft :
Suppofe the finging birds, musicians;

The grafs whereon thou tread'ft, the prefence ftrew'd';
The flowers, fair ladies; and thy fteps, no more
Than a delightful measure 7 or a dance:

For gnarling forrow hath lefs power to bite
The man that mocks at it, and fets it light.
Boling. O, who can hold a fire in his hand,
By thinking on the frofty Caucáfus?

Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite,

-

6 — Arew'd;] i. e. with rufhes. See Hentzner's account of the presence-chamber, in the palace at Greenwich, in 1598. Itinerar. P. 135. MALONE.

7

a delightful measure-] See Vol. II. p. 405, n. 4. MALONE. 80, who can bold a fire in his band, &c.] Fire is here, as in many other places, used as a diffyllable. MALONE.

It has been remarked, that there is a paffage refembling this in Tully's Fifth Book of Tufculan Questions. Speaking of Epicurus, he fays: "Sed unâ fe dicit recordatione acquiefcere præteritarum voluptatum: ut fi quis æftuans, cum vim caloris non facile patiatur, recordari velit fe aliquando in Arpinati noftro gelidis fluminibus circumfufum fuiffe. Non enim video, quomodo fedare poffint mala præfentia præteritæ voluptates.” The Tufculan Questions of Cicero had been translated early enough for Shakspeare to have feen them. STEEVENS.

By bare imagination of a feaft?
Or wallow naked in December fnow,
By thinking on fantastick fummer's heat?
O, no! the apprehenfion of the good
Gives but the greater feeling to the worse :
Fell forrow's tooth doth never rankle more,
Than when it bites, but lanceth not the fore.

Gaunt. Come, come, my fon, I'll bring thee on thy way: Had I thy youth, and caufe, I would not stay.

Boling. Then, England's ground, farewel; fweet foil, adieu;

My mother, and my nurse, that bears me yet!
Where-e'er I wander, boaft of this I can,-

Though banish'd, yet a true-born Englishman. [Exeunt.

[blocks in formation]

The fame. A Room in the King's Castle.
Enter King RICHARD, BAGOT, and GREENE; AU-
MERLE following.

K. Rich. We did obferve.-Coufin Aumerle,
How far brought you high Hereford on his way?
Aum. I brought high Hereford, if you call him fo,
But to the next high-way, and there I left him.

K. Rich. And, fay, what store of parting tears were fhed? Aum. 'Faith, none by me': except the north-eaft wind, Which then blew bitterly against our faces,

Awak'd the fleeping rheum; and fo, by chance,
Did grace our hollow parting with a tear.

K.Rich. What faid our coufin, when you parted with him?

9 yet a true-born Englishman.] Here the first act ought to end, that between the first and fecond acts there may be time for John of Gaunt to accompany his fon, return, and fall fick. Then the first scene of the fecond act begins with a natural converfation, interrupted by a meffage from John of Gaunt, by which the king is called to vifit him, which vifit is paid in the following fcene. As the play is now divided, more time pafies between the two laft fcenes of the first act, than between the first act and the fecond. JoHNSON.

-none by me :] The old copies read-for me. editor of the fecond folio. MALONE.

Corrected by the

Aum.

Aum. Farewel:

And for my heart disdained that my tongue

Should fo prophane the word, that taught me craft
To counterfeit oppreffion of fuch grief,

That words feem'd buried in my forrow's grave.
Marry, would the word farewel have lengthen'd hours,
And added years to his short banishment,

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

K. Rich. He is our coufin, coufin; but 'tis doubt,
When time shall call him home from banishment,
Whether our kinfman come to fee his friends.
Ourself, and Bufhy, Bagot here, and Green",
Obferv'd his courtship to the common people :-
How he did feem to dive into their hearts,
With humble and familiar courtesy;

What reverence he did throw away on flaves;
Wooing poor craftsmen, with the craft of fmiles,
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 dray-men bid-God speed him well,
And had the tribute of his fupple knee,
With-Thanks, my countrymen, my loving friends;
As were our England in reverfion his,

And he our fubjects' next degree in hope 3.

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 leifure yield them further means, For their advantage, and your highness' lofs. K. Rich. We will ourself in perfon to this war. And, for our coffers-with too great a court, And liberal largefs,-are grown fomewhat light,

2-Bagot here, and Greene,] The old copies read-bere Bagot. The tranfpofition was made in a quarto of no value, printed in 1634. MALONE. 3 And be our subjects' next degree in hope.] Spes altera Romæ. Virg.

4 Expedient-] is expeditious. STEEVENS.
See Vol. III. p. 167, n. 6; p. 404, n. 8. MALONE.

MALONE.

We

We are enforc'd to farm our royal realm;

The revenue whereof shall furnish us

For our affairs in hand: If that come short,

Our fubftitutes at home fhall have blank charters;
Whereto, when they fhall know what men are rich,
They fhall fubfcribe them for large fums of gold,
And fend them after to fupply our wants;
For we will make for Ireland presently.

Enter BUSHY.

K. Rich. Bufhy, what news?

Bufhy. Old John of Gaunt is grievous fick, my lord; Suddenly taken; and hath fent post-hafte,

To entreat your majesty to vifit him.

K. Rich. Where lies he?

Bushy. At Ely-house.

K. Rich. Now put it, heaven, in his phyfician's mind, To help him to his grave immediately!

The lining of his coffers fhall make coats
To deck our foldiers for these Irish wars.
Come, gentlemen, let's all go vifit him :

Pray God, we may make hafte, and come too late!

ACT II. SCENE I.

London. A Room in Ely-house.

[Exeunt.

GAUNT on a couch; the duke of YORK and others ftanding by him.

Gaunt. Will the king come? that I may breathe my last In wholesome counfel to his unftay'd youth.

York. Vex not yourself, nor ftrive not with your breath; For all in vain comes counsel to his ear.

Gaunt. O, but, they fay, 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.

5 - the duke of York—] was Edmund, fon of Edward III. WALPOLE.

H:

« السابقةمتابعة »