Give fome fupportance to the bending twigs.
Go thou, and, like an executioner,
Cut off the heads of too-faft-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 compafs 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?
He, that hath fuffer'd this diforder'd Spring,
Hath now himself met with the Fall of leaf;
The weeds, that his broad fpreading 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?
And Bolingbroke hath feiz'd the wafteful King.
What pity is't, that he had not fo trimm'd
And dreft his Land, as we this Garden dress,
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
-OUR firm fiate?] How firm? We should read, could he fay ours when he imme- - A firm state, diately fubjoins, that it was in
We lop away, that bearing boughs may live;
Had he done fo, himself 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 laft 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 drefs this garden,
How dares thy tongue found this unpleafing news?
What Eve, what Serpent hath fuggefted thee,
To make a fecond Fall of curfed man?
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 these 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't
To serve me last, 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?
Gard'ner,
Gardner, 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
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 fhall be feen,
In the remembrance of a weeping Queen.
[Exeunt Gard, and Serv.
Enter, as to the Parliament, Bolingbroke, Aumerle, Northumberland, Percy, Fitzwater, Surry, Bishop of Carlisle, Abbot of Westminster, Herald, Officers, and Bagot.
ALL Bagot forth: now freely fpeak thy mind;
What thou dost know of noble Glo'ster'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,
I heard you fay, "Is not my arm of length, That reacheth from the restful 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 answer fhall I make to this bafe man?
Shall I fo much difhonour 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 falfe,
In thy heart-blood, though being all too bafe
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,
my fair STARS,] I rather think it should be STEM, he being of the royal blood.
WARBURTON. I think the prefent reading unexceptionable. The birth is fuppofed to be influenced by the ftars, therefore our authour with his ufual licence takes ftars for
If that thy valour ftand on fympathies,] Here is a tranflated fenfe much harfher than that of stars explained in the foregoing note. Aumerle has challenged Bagot with fome hefitation, as not being his equal, and
therefore one whom, according
to the rules of chivalry, he was
not obliged to fight, as a nobler
life was not to be itaked in duel
against a bafer. Fitzwater then
throws down his gage a pledge
of battle, and tells him that if
he ftands upon fympathies, that
is, upon equality of blood, the
combat is now offered him by a
man of rank not inferiour to his
own.
own. Sympathy is an affection in-
cident at once to two fubjects.
This community of affection im-
plies a likeness or equality of na
ture, and thence our poet tranf
ferred the term to equality of blood.
There
There is my Gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine.
By that fair Sun, that fhews me where thou stand'st,
I heard thee fay, and vauntingly thou fpak'ft it,
That thou wert caufe of noble Glofter's death.
If thou deny'st it, twenty times thou lieft;
And I will turn thy falfhood to thy heart,
Where it was forged, with my rapier's point'.
Aum. Thou dar'ft not, coward, live to fee the day.
Fitzw. Now, by my foul, I would it were this hour,
Aum. Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this.
Percy. Aumerle, thou lieft; his honour is as true,
In this appeal, as thou art all unjust;
And that thou art fo, there I throw my Gage
To prove it on thee, to th' extreameft point
Of mortal breathing. Seize it, if thou dar'ft.
Aum. And if I do not, may my hands rot off,
And never brandifh more revengeful steel
Over the glittering helmet of my foe.
*Another Lord. I take the earth to the like, forfworn Aumerle,
And fpur thee on with full as many lies
As may be hollow'd in thy treach'rous ear
From fin to fin. Here is my honour's pawn,
Engage it to the tryal, if thou dar'ft.
Aum. Who fets me elfe? by heav'n, I'll throw at all.
I have a thousand spirits in my breast,
To answer twenty thousand fuch as you.
Surry. My Lord Fitzwater, I remember well
The very time Aumerle and you did talk.
Fitzw. My Lord, 'tis true; you were in prefence then;
my rapier's point.] Shakespeare deferts the manners of the age in which his drama is placed very often, without neceffity or advantage. The edge of a sword had ferved his purpofe as well as the point of a rapier, and he had then efcaped the impropriety of giving the English nobles a weapon which
was not feen in England till two centuries afterwards.
*This fpeech I have restored from the firit edition in humble imitation of former editors, though, I believe, against the mind of the authour. For the earth I suppose we should read, thy oath.
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