Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

For what I have, I need not to repeat,
And what I want, it boots not to complain:
Lad. Madam, I'll fing.

Queen. 'Tis well, that thou hast cause,

But thou should'st please me better, would'st thou weep.
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 ftay, here comes the Gardiners.
Let's ftep into the fhadow of thefe trees;-
My Wretchednefs unto a row of pins,

Enter a Gardiner, and two Servants.

They'll talk of State; for every one doth fo, * Against a Change; woe is fore-run with woe. [Queen and Ladies retire. Gard. Go, bind thou up yond dangling Apricots, Which, like unruly children, make their Sire Stoop with oppreffion of their prodigal weight.

Against a Change; woe is fore-run with wOE.] But what was there, in the Gardiners' talking of State, for matter of fo much woe? Befides, this is intended for a Sentence, but proves a very fimple one. I fuppofe Shakespeare wrote,

woe is fore-run with MOCKS, which has fome meaning in it; and fignifies, that, when great Men are on the decline, their inferiors take advantage of their condition, and treat them without ceremony. And this we find to be the cafe in the following fcene. But the Editors were feeking for a rhime. Tho' had they not been fo impatient they would have found it gingled to what

[blocks in formation]

There is no need of any emendation. The poet, according to the common doctrine of prognoftication, fuppofes dejection to forerun calamity, and a kingdom to be filled with rumours of forrow when any great difafter is impending. The fenfe is that, publick evils are always prefig nified by publick penfiveness, and plaintive converfation. The conceit of rhyming mocks with apricocks, which I hope Shakespeare knew better how to fpell, shows that the commentator was refolved not to let his conjecture fall for want of any support that fall he could give it.

F 3

[ocr errors]

Give

Give fome fupportance 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 Common-wealth;
All must be even in our Government.
You thus imploy'd, I will go root away
The noifom weeds, that without profit fuck
The foil's fertility from wholfom flowers.

Serv. Why fhould we, in the compass of a pale,
Keep law, and form, and due proportion,
Shewing, as in a model, a firm ftate?
When our Sea-walled garden, the whole Land,
Is full of weeds, her faireft flowers choak'd up,
Her fruit-trees all unprun'd, her hedges ruin'd,
Her knots diforder'd, and her wholfom herbs
Swarming with Caterpillars?

Gard. Hold thy peace.

He, that hath fuffer'd this disorder'd Spring,
Hath now himself met with the Fall of leaf;
The weeds, that his broad spreading leaves did shelter,
That feem'd, in eating him, to hold him up;
Are pull'd up, root and all, by Bolingbroke;
I mean, the Earl of Wiltshire, Busby, Green,
Serv. What, are they dead?

Gard. They are,

And Bolingbroke hath feiz'd the wasteful King.
What pity is't, that he had not so trimm'd
And dreft his Land, as we this Garden drefs,
And wound the bark, the fkin, of our fruit-trees;
Left, being over proud with fap and blood,
With too much riches it confound itself;
Had he done fo to great and growing men,
They might have liv'd to bear, and he to taste,
Their fruits of duty. All fuperfluous branches

5 OUR firm fate?] How could he fay ours when he immediately fubjoins, that it was in

firm? We fhould read,
A firm flate.

WARBURTON.

We

We lop away, that bearing boughs may live;
Had he done fo, himfelf had borne the Crown,
Which waste and idle hours have quite thrown down.
Serv. What, think you then, the King fhall be
depos'd?

Gard. Depreft he is already; and depos'd,
'Tis doubted, he will be. Letters last night
Came to a dear friend of the Duke of York,
That tell black tidings.

Queen. Oh, I am preft to death, through want of
fpeaking.

Thou Adam's likeness, fet to dress this garden,
How dares thy tongue found this unpleating news?
What Eve, what Serpent hath fuggefted thee,
To make a fecond Fall of curfed mán?
Why doft thou fay, King Richard is depos'd?
Dar'ft thou, thou little better Thing than earth,
Divine his downfal? fay, where, when, and how
Cam'st thou by thefe ill tidings? Speak, thou wretch.
Gard. Pardon me, Madam. Little joy have I
To breathe these news; yet, what I fay, is true.
King Richard, he is in the mighty hold

Of Bolingbroke; their fortunes both are weigh'd;
In your Lord's Scale is nothing but himself,
And fome 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.
Poft you to London, and you'll find it fo;
I speak no more, than every one doth know.

Queen. Nimble Mifchance, that art fo light of foot, Doth not thy Embaffage belong to me?

And am I laft, that know it? oh, thou think'st
To ferve me laft, that I may longest keep
Thy forrow in my breaft. Come, ladies, go;
To meet, at London, London's King in woe.
What, was I born to this? that my fad Look
Should grace the triumph of great Bolingbroke?
F 4
Gard❜ner,

Gard'ner, for telling me thefe news of woe,

I would, the plants, thou graft'ft, may never grow. [Exeunt Queen and Ladies, Gard. Poor Queen, fo that thy ftate might be no

worse,

I would my skill were fubject to thy Curfe.
Here did the drop a tear; here, in this place,
I'll fet a bank of Rue, four herb of grace;
Rue, ev'n for ruth, here fhortly shall be seen,
In the remembrance of a weeping Queen.

[Exeunt Gard. and Serv.

IV. SCENE I.

ACT IV.

In LONDON.

Enter, as to the Parliament, Bolingbroke, Aumerle, Northumberland, Percy, Fitzwater, Surry, Bishop of Carlisle, Abbot of Westminster, Herald, Officers, and Bagot.

CAL

BOLINGBROKE.

ALL Bagot forth: now freely fpeak thy mind; What thou dost know of noble Glofter's death; Who wrought it with the King, and who perform'd The bloody office of his timeless end'.

Bagot. Then fet before my face the lord Aumerle. Boling. Coufin, ftand forth, and look upon that man. Bagot. My Lord Aumerle, I know your daring tongue Scorns to unfay, what it hath once deliver❜d. In that dead time when Glofter's death was plotted,

7 I would, the plants, &c.] This execration of the queen is fomewhat ludicrous, and unfuitable to her condition; the gardener's reflexion is better adapted to the state both of his mind and his fortune, Mr. Pope, who has

[blocks in formation]

I heard you fay," Is not my arm of length, "That reacheth from the reftful English Court "As far as Calais to my uncle's head?" Amongst much other talk that very time, I heard you fay, "You rather had refuse "The offer of an hundred thoufand crowns, "Than Bolingbroke return to England; adding, "How bleft this Land would be in this your Coufin's "death."

Aum. Princes, and noble Lords,

What anfwer fhall I make to this bafe man?
Shall I fo much dishonour my fair stars,
On equal terms to give him chastisement?
Either I muft, or have mine honour foil'd
With the attainder of his fland'rous lips.
There is my Gage, the manual feal of death,
That marks thee out for hell. Thou lieft,
And I'll maintain what thou haft faid, is false,
In thy heart-blood, though being all too base
To ftain the temper of my knightly fword.

Boling. Bagot, forbear; thou shalt not take it up.
Aum. Excepting one, I would he were the best
In all this prefence that hath mov'd me fo.
Fitzw. If that thy valour stand on fympathies,

[blocks in formation]

therefore one whom, according to the rules of chivalry, he was not obliged to fight, as a nobler life was not to be staked in duel against a bafer. Fitzwater then throws down his gage a pledge of battle, and tells him that if he stands upon Sympathies, that is, upon equality of blood, the combat is now offered him by a man of rank not inferiour to his own. Sympathy is an affection incident at once to two fubjects. This community of affection implies a likeness or equality of nature, and thence our poet tranfferred the term to equality of blood. There

« EdellinenJatka »