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! SCENE IV. [Exeunt. The Same. A Room in the King's Castle. Enter King RICHARD, BAGOT, and GREEN; K. RICH. We did observe 2.-Cousin Aumerle, AUM. 'Faith, none for me3: except the northeast wind, 1 - 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 conversation, 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 last two scenes of the first Act, than between the first Act and the second. JOHNSON. 2 We did OBSERVE.-] The King here addresses 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." MALONE. 3 'Faith, none FOR ME :] i. e. none on my part. Thus, we say, "For me, I am content; Where those words have the same signification as here. 6 Which then blew bitterly against our faces, 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 words seem'd buried in my sorrow's grave. Marry, would the word farewell have lengthen'd hours, And added years to his short banishment, 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 3, Thus the authentick copies, the quarto 1597, and the folio 1623. The reviser of the second folio, 1632, who altered whatever he did not understand, substituted-by me, instead of the words in the text, and has been followed by all the subsequent editors. MALONE. If we read for me, the expression will be equivocal, and seem as if it meant-no tears were shed on my account. So, in the preceding scene: "O, let no noble eye profane a tear "For me," &c. STEEVENS. According to the doctrine here laid down, if the words of an author clearly and precisely admit of the meaning which he intends to convey, but at the same time may also bear a different sense, we are always to suppose that the passage is corrupt. I conceive, however, that if a writer has expressed his meaning, in proper and significant words, he may rest satisfied, though the words may be distorted to another sense from that which he intended. MALONE. 3 Ourself, and Bushy, Bagot here, and Green,] The first quarto, 1597, has only-"Ourself and Bushy," in which way the line Observ'd his courtship to the common people:- What reverence he did throw away on slaves; GREEN. Well, he is gone; and with him go these thoughts. Now for the rebels, which stand out in Ireland ;- K. RICH. We will ourself in person to this war. appears in the subsequent quartos of 1597, 1608, and 1615. The folio reads: "Ourself, and Bushy here, Bagot, and Greene." Which was perhaps what the author wrote, intending to point differently, by placing a comma after here; for it appears from the scenical direction of the quarto 1597, that Bushy was now on the stage: "Enter the King, with Bushie," &c. But in the folio the direction is "Enter the King, Aumerle, Greene, and Bagot," because it was observed that Bushy comes in afterwards with news (as the old quarto terms it.) On this account we cannot read Bushy here, and are obliged to adopt a transposition made in the quarto 1634: "Ourself and Bushy, Bagot here, and Green." MALONE. -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. STEEVENS. And he our subjects' next degree in hope.] Spes altera Romæ. Virg. MALONE. Expedient-] i. e. expeditious. So, in King John: STEEVENS. And, for our coffers-with too great a court, For our affairs in hand: If that come short, Enter BUSHY. Bushy, what news? BUSHY. Old John of Gaunt is grievous sick, Suddenly taken; and hath sent post-haste, 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 [Exeunt. - FOR Our coffers-] i. e. because. So, at the beginning of this scene: And, for my heart disdained that my tongue," &c. Again, in Othello: 66 Haply, for I am black-:" STEEVENS. ACT II. SCENE I. London. A Room in Ely-house. GAUNT on a Couch; the Duke of YORK, and GAUNT. Will the king come? that I may breathe my last In wholesome counsel to his unstaied youth. YORK. Vex not yourself, nor strive not with your breath; For all in vain comes counsel to his ear. 8- the Duke of York,] Edmond Duke of York was the fifth son of Edward the Third, and was born in 1441, at Langley, near St. Alban's, in Hertford, from whence he had his surname. This prince, as Bishop Lowth has observed, (Life of William of Wykeham, 8vo. 1777, p. 205,) "was of an indolent disposition, a lover of pleasure, and averse to business; easily prevailed upon to lie still, and consult his own quiet, and never acting with spirit upon any occasion." That such was his disposition and character is ascertained by the following graphical description, given by Harding (a contemporary) in his Chronicle : "That Edmonde hight of Langley, of good chere * * * * * * "The kynge than made the Duke of Yorke be name "With more comforte and a gretter gladnes neire, Hardyng's Chronicle, MS. Harleian. No. 661, fol. 147. MALONE. |