Shall be extinct with age, and endless night; K. Rich. Why, uncle, thou hast many years to live. Thy word is current with him for my death; K. Rich. Thy son is banished upon good advice, 2 To smooth his fault I should have been more mild;2 And in the sentence my own life destroyed. Six K. Rich. Cousin, farewell ;—and, uncle, bid him so, years we banish him, and he shall go. [Flourish. Exeunt K. RICH. 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. O, to what purpose dost thou hoard thy words, That thou return'st no greeting to thy friends? 1 Had a part or share in it. 2 This couplet is wanting in the folio. 3 i. e. the reproach of partiality. When the tongue's office should be prodigal Gaunt. Thy grief is but thy absence for a time. Boling. Joy absent, grief is present for that time. 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 pleasure. 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 1 Will but remember me, what a deal of world Gaunt. All places that the eye of heaven 2 visits, There is no virtue like necessity. Think not the king did banish thee; But thou the king. Woe doth the heavier sit, 1 The grass whereon thou tread'st, the presence 1 This speech and that which follows are not in the folio. 2 i. e. the sun. 3 We have other allusions to the practice of strewing rushes over the floor of the presence-chamber, in Shakspeare. The flowers, fair ladies; and thy steps, no more Or wallow naked in December snow, Had I thy youth, and cause, I would not stay. My mother, and my nurse, that bears me yet! [Exeunt. SCENE IV. The same. A Room in the King's Castle. Enter KING RICHARD, BAGOT, and GREEN; Aumerle following. K. Rich. We did observe.2-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? 1 Dr. Johnson thought that the first act should end here. 2 The king here addressed Green and Bagot, who, we may suppose, had been talking to him of Bolingbroke's "courtship to the common people," at the time of his departure. "Yes," says Richard, "we did observe it.” 1 Aum. 'Faith, none by me; except the north-east wind, Which then blew bitterly against our faces, Awaked the sleeping rheum; and so, by chance, K. Rich. What said our cousin, when you parted with him?... Aum. Farewell : And, for my heart disdained that my tongue That words seemed buried in my sorrow's grave. He should have had a volume of farewells; 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. 2 Ourself, and Bushy, Bagot here, and Green, 1 The first folio and the quarto of 1597 read “'Faith, none for me.” The emendation was made in the felio, 1623. 2 The earlier quarto copies The folio: Ourself and Bushy," and no more. "Ourself, and Bushy here, Bagot, and Greene. In the quarto, the stage-direction says, "Enter the King, with Bushie," &c.; but in the folio, "Enter the King, Aumerle," &c., because it was observed that Bushy comes in afterward. On this account we have adopted a transposition made in the quarto of 1634. 3 To illustrate this, it should be remembered that courteaming (the act of reverence now confined to women) was anciently practised by men. 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 :- 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, Heaven, in his physician's mind, To help him to his grave immediately! The lining of his coffers shall make coats Come, gentlemen, let's all go visit him ; 'Pray God, we may make haste, and come too late. [Exeunt. 1 Shakspeare often uses expedient for expeditious; but here its ordinary signification of fit, proper, will suit the context equally well. 2 i. e. cause. |