sour.

1

K. Rich. Thy son is banish'd upon good advice," Whereto thy tongue a party verdict gave; Why at our justice seem'st thou then to lower ?

Gaunt. Things sweet to taste, prove in digestion
You urg'd me as a judge; but I had rather,
You would have bid me argue like a father :-
O, had it been a stranger, not my child,
To smooth his fault I should have been more

mild :
A partial slander? sought I to avoid,
And in the sentence my own life destroy’d.
Alas, I look’d, when some of

you
should

say,
I was too strict, to make mine own away;
But you gave leave to my unwilling tongue,
Against my will, to do myself this wrong.

K. Rich. Cousin, farewell:--and, uncle, bid him Six years we banish him, and he shall go.

, [Flourish. Exeunt K. RICHARD and Train. Aum. Cousin, farewell: what presence 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 side. Gaunt. 0, to what purpose dost thou hoard thy

words, That thou return’st no greeting to thy friends? Boling. I have too few to take

my When the tongue's office should be prodigal To-breathe the abundant dolour of the heart.

Gaunt. Thy grief is but thy absence for a time. Boling. Joy absent, grief is present for that time,

SO;

leave of you,

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upon good advice,] Upon great consideration. A partial slander -] That is, the reproach of partiality. This is a just picture of the struggle between principle and affection.

a

Gaunt. What is six winters ? they are quickly

gone. Boling. To men in joy; but grief makes one

hour ten. Gaunt. Call it a travel that thou tak’st for plea

sure. Boling. My heart will sigh, when I miscall it so, Which finds it an enforced pilgrimage.

Gaunt. The sullen passage of thy weary steps
Esteem a foil, wherein thou art to set
The precious jewel of thy home-return.
Boling. Nay, rather, every tedious stride I make

.
Will but remember me, what a deal of world
I wander from the jewels that I love.
Must I not serve a long apprenticehood
To foreign passages; and in the end,
Having my freedom, boast of nothing else,
But that I was a journeyman to grief?

Gaunt. All places that the eye of heaven visits,
Are to a wise man ports and happy havens:
Teach thy necessity to reason thus;
There is no virtue like necessity.
Think not, the king did banish thee;
But thou the king: Woe doth the heavier sit,
Where it perceives it is but faintly borne.
Go, say—I sent thee forth to purchase honour,
And not--the king exíld thee: or suppose,
Devouring pestilence hangs in our air,
And thou art flying to a fresher clime.
Look, what thy soul holds dear, imagine it
To lie that way thou go'st, not whence thou com'st;
Suppose the singing birds, musicians;
The grass whereon thou tread'st, the presence

strew'd ;3 The flowers, fair ladies; and thy steps, no more

a

3

the presence strew'd;] An allusion to the ancient practice of strewing rushes over the floor of the presence chamber.

4

a

a

Than a delightful measure, or a dance:

4 For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite The man that mocks at it, and sets it light.

Boling. O, who can hold a fire in his hand, By thinking on the frosty Caucașus ? Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite, By bare imagination of a feast? Or wallow naked in December snow, By thinking on fantastick summer's heat? 0, no! the apprehension of the good, Gives but the greater feeling to the worse: Fell sorrow's tooth doth never rankle more, Than when it bites, but lanceth not the sore. 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!
Where-e'er I wander, boast of this I can
Though banish’d, yet a trueborn Englishman.

[Exeunt.

5

SCENE IV.

The same.

A Room in the King's Castle.

Enter King. RICHARD, BAGOT, and GREEN;

AUMERLE following.
K. Rich. We did observe.--Cousin Aumerle,
How far brought you high Hereford on his way?

5

measure,] A measure was a formal court dance.

yet a trueborn Englishman.] Here the first Act ought to end, that between the first and second Acts there may be time for John of Gaunt to accompany his son, return, and fall sick. Then the first scene of the second Act begins with a natural cona

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 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 To counterfeit oppression of such grief, That word 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, Whether our kinsman come to see his friends. Ourself, and Bushy, Bagot here, and Green, Observ'd 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,

versation, interrupted by a message from John of Gaunt, by which the King is called to visit him, which visit is paid in the following scene. As the play is now divided, more time passes between the two last scenes of the first Act, than between the first Act and the second. JOHNSON. VOL. IV.

z

6

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 enforc'd to farm our royal realm; The revenue whereof shall furnish us For our affairs in hand : If that come short, 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.

8

Enter Busky. Bushy, what news? Bushy. Old John of Gaunt is grievous sick, my

lord; Suddenly taken; and bath sent post-haste, To entreat your majesty to visit him.

6 -- the tribute of his supple knee,] To illustrate this phrase, it should be remembered that courtesying, (the act of reverence now confined to women,) was anciently practised by men. 7 Expedient -] i. e. expeditious.

for our coffers--] i. e. because,

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