Gau. Come, come (my son) Ile bring thee on thy way Had I thy youth, and cause, I would not stay
Bul. Then Englands ground farewell: sweet soil adieu, My Mother, and my Nurse, which beares me yet: Where ere I wander, boast of this I can, Though banish"d, yet a true-borne Englishman.
Scoena Quarta.
Enter King, Aumerle, Greene, and Bagot.
Rich. We did obserue. Cosine Aumerle, How far brought you high Herford on his way?
Aum. I brought high Herford (if you call him so) But to the next high way, and there I left him
Rich. And say, what store of parting tears were shed?
Aum. Faith none for me: except the Northeast wind Which then grew bitterly against our face, Awak"d the sleepie rhewme, and so by chance Did grace our hollow parting with a teare
Rich. What said our Cosin when you parted with him?
Au. Farewell: and for my hart disdained y my tongue Should so prophane the word, that taught me craft To counterfeit oppression of such greefe, That word seem"d buried in my sorrowes graue.
Marry, would the word Farwell, haue lengthen"d houres, And added yeeres to his short banishment, He should haue had a volume of Farwels, But since it would not, he had none of me
Rich. He is our Cosin (Cosin) but "tis doubt, When time shall call him home from banishment, Whether our kinsman come to see his friends, Our selfe, and Bushy: heere Bagot and Greene Obseru"d his Courtship to the common people: How he did seeme to diue into their hearts, With humble, and familiar courtesie, What reuerence he did throw away on slaues; Wooing poore Craftes-men, with the craft of soules, And patient vnder-bearing 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 G.o.d speed him well, And had the tribute of his supple knee, With thankes my Countrimen, my louing friends, As were our England in reuersion his, And he our subiects next degree in hope
Gr. Well, he is gone, & with him go these thoughts: Now for the Rebels, which stand out in Ireland, Expedient manage must be made my Liege Ere further leysure, yeeld them further meanes For their aduantage, and your Highnesse losse
Ric. We will our selfe in person to this warre, And for our Coffers, with too great a Court, And liberall Largesse, are growne somewhat light, We are inforc"d to farme our royall Realme, The Reuennew whereof shall furnish vs For our affayres in hand: if that come short Our Subst.i.tutes at home shall haue Blanke-charters: Whereto, when they shall know what men are rich, They shall subscribe them for large summes of Gold, And send them after to supply our wants: For we will make for Ireland presently.
Enter Bushy.
Bushy, what newes?
Bu. Old Iohn of Gaunt is verie sicke my Lord, Sodainly taken, and hath sent post haste To entreat your Maiesty to visit him
Ric. Where lyes he?
Bu. At Ely house
Ric. Now put it (heauen) in his Physitians minde, To helpe him to his graue immediately: The lining of his coffers shall make Coates To decke our souldiers for these Irish warres.
Come Gentlemen, let"s all go visit him: Pray heauen we may make hast, and come too late.
Enter.
Actus Secundus. Scena Prima.
Enter Gaunt, sicke with Yorke.
Gau. Will the King come, that I may breath my last In wholsome counsell to his vnstaid youth?
Yor. Vex not your selfe, nor striue not with your breth, For all in vaine comes counsell to his eare
Gau. Oh but (they say) the tongues of dying men Inforce attention like deepe harmony; Where words are sca.r.s.e, they are seldome spent in vaine, For they breath truth, that breath their words in paine.
He that no more must say, is listen"d more, Then they whom youth and ease haue taught to glose, More are mens ends markt, then their liues before, The setting Sun, and Musicke in the close As the last taste of sweetes, is sweetest last, Writ in remembrance, more then things long past; Though Richard my liues counsell would not heare, My deaths sad tale, may yet vndeafe his eare
Yor. No, it is stopt with other flatt"ring sounds As praises of his state: then there are found Lasciuious Meeters, to whose venom sound The open eare of youth doth alwayes listen.
Report of fashions in proud Italy, Whose manners still our tardie apish Nation Limpes after in base imitation.
Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity, So it be new, there"s no respect how vile, That is not quickly buz"d into his eares?
That all too late comes counsell to be heard, Where will doth mutiny with wits regard: Direct not him, whose way himselfe will choose, Tis breath thou lackst, and that breath wilt thou loose
Gaunt. Me thinkes I am a Prophet new inspir"d, And thus expiring, do foretell of him, His rash fierce blaze of Ryot cannot last, For violent fires soone burne out themselues, Small showres last long, but sodaine stormes are short, He tyres betimes, that spurs too fast betimes; With eager feeding, food doth choake the feeder: Light vanity, insatiate cormorant, Consuming meanes soone preyes vpon it selfe.
This royall Throne of Kings, this sceptred Isle, This earth of Maiesty, this seate of Mars, This other Eden, demy paradise, This Fortresse built by Nature for her selfe, Against infection, and the hand of warre: This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone, set in the siluer sea, Which serues it in the office of a wall, Or as a Moate defensiue to a house, Against the enuy of lesse happier Lands, This blessed plot, this earth, this Realme, this England, This Nurse, this teeming wombe of Royall Kings, Fear"d by their breed, and famous for their birth, Renowned for their deeds, as farre from home, For Christian seruice, and true Chiualrie, As is the sepulcher in stubborne Iury Of the Worlds ransome, blessed Maries Sonne.
This Land of such deere soules, this deere-deere Land, Deere for her reputation through the world, Is now Leas"d out (I dye p.r.o.nouncing it) Like to a Tenement or pelting Farme.
England bound in with the triumphant sea, Whose rocky sh.o.r.e beates backe the enuious siedge Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame, With Inky blottes, and rotten Parchment bonds.
That England, that was wont to conquer others, Hath made a shamefull conquest of it selfe.
Ah! would the scandall vanish with my life, How happy then were my ensuing death?
Enter King, Queene, Aumerle, Bushy, Greene, Bagot, Ros, and Willoughby.
Yor. The King is come, deale mildly with his youth, For young hot Colts, being rag"d, do rage the more
Qu. How fares our n.o.ble Vncle Lancaster?
Ri. What comfort man? How ist with aged Gaunt?
Ga. Oh how that name befits my composition: Old Gaunt indeed, and gaunt in being old: Within me greefe hath kept a tedious fast, And who abstaynes from meate, that is not gaunt?
For sleeping England long time haue I watcht, Watching breeds leannesse, leannesse is all gaunt.
The pleasure that some Fathers feede vpon, Is my strict fast, I meane my Childrens lookes, And therein fasting, hast thou made me gaunt: Gaunt am I for the graue, gaunt as a graue, Whose hollow wombe inherits naught but bones
Ric. Can sicke men play so nicely with their names?
Gau. No, misery makes sport to mocke it selfe: Since thou dost seeke to kill my name in mee, I mocke my name (great King) to flatter thee
Ric. Should dying men flatter those that liue?
Gau. No, no, men liuing flatter those that dye
Rich. Thou now a dying, sayst thou flatter"st me
Gau. Oh no, thou dyest, though I the sicker be
Rich. I am in health, I breath, I see thee ill
Gau. Now he that made me, knowes I see thee ill: Ill in my selfe to see, and in thee, seeing ill, Thy death-bed is no lesser then the Land, Wherein thou lyest in reputation sicke, And thou too care-lesse patient as thou art, Commit"st thy "anointed body to the cure Of those Physitians, that first wounded thee.
A thousand flatterers sit within thy Crowne, Whose compa.s.se is no bigger then thy head, And yet incaged in so small a Verge, The waste is no whit lesser then thy Land: Oh had thy Grandsire with a Prophets eye, Seene how his sonnes sonne, should destroy his sonnes, From forth thy reach he would haue laid thy shame, Deposing thee before thou wert possest, Which art possest now to depose thy selfe.
Why (Cosine) were thou Regent of the world, It were a shame to let his Land by lease: But for thy world enioying but this Land, Is it not more then shame, to shame it so?
Landlord of England art thou, and not King: Thy state of Law, is bondslaue to the law, And- Rich. And thou, a lunaticke leane-witted foole, Presuming on an Agues priuiledge, Dar"st with thy frozen admonition Make pale our cheeke, chasing the Royall blood With fury, from his natiue residence?
Now by my Seates right Royall Maiestie, Wer"t thou not Brother to great Edwards sonne, This tongue that runs so roundly in thy head, Should run thy head from thy vnreuerent shoulders
Gau. Oh spare me not, my brothers Edwards sonne, For that I was his Father Edwards sonne: That blood already (like the Pellican) Thou hast tapt out, and drunkenly carows"d.
My brother Gloucester, plaine well meaning soule (Whom faire befall in heauen "mongst happy soules) May be a president, and witnesse good, That thou respect"st not spilling Edwards blood: Ioyne with the present sicknesse that I haue, And thy vnkindnesse be like crooked age, To crop at once a too-long wither"d flowre.
Liue in thy shame, but dye not shame with thee, These words heereafter, thy tormentors bee.
Conuey me to my bed, then to my graue, Loue they to liue, that loue and honor haue.
Exit
Rich. And let them dye, that age and sullens haue, For both hast thou, and both become the graue
Yor. I do beseech your Maiestie impute his words To wayward sicklinesse, and age in him: He loues you on my life, and holds you deere As Harry Duke of Herford, were he heere
Rich. Right, you say true: as Herfords loue, so his; As theirs, so mine: and all be as it is.
Enter Northumberland.