Nor never write, regreet, nor reconcile This lowering tempest of your home-bred hate; To plot, contrive, or complot any ill, 'Gainst us, our state, our subjects, or our land. Boling. I swear. Nor. And I, to keep all this. Boling. Norfolk, so fare as to mine enemy ;* Nor. No, Bolingbroke; if ever I were traitor, But what thou art, heaven, thou, and I, do know; I see thy grieved heart; thy sad aspéct Pluck'd four away; Six frozen winters spent, [Exit. Return [to BOLING.] with welcome home from banish ment. Boling. How long a time lies in one little word! q advised] i. e. Concerted, deliberated. so fare as to mine enemy;] This is the old reading, the modern editors all read, so far as to mine enemy, which they cannot find a meaning for. The words, so fare as to mine enemy, addressed from Bolingbroke to Norfolk on his departure, bear a very easy interpretation :-May you meet with all the good in your banishment, that I can wish to my enemy. s Exit Norfolk.] The duke of Norfolk after his banishment returned to Venice, "where," says Holinshed, "for thought and melancholy, he deceased.”— MALONE. But little vantage shall I reap thereby; For, ere the six years, that he hath to spend Can change their moons, and bring their times about, K. Rich. Why, uncle, thou hast many years to live. Thy word is current with him for my death: Gaunt. Things sweet to taste, prove in digestion sour. You urg'd me as a judge; but I had rather, You would have bid me argue like a father : O, had it been a stranger, not my child, To smooth his fault I should have been more mild: And in the sentence my own life destroy'd. K. Rich. Cousin farewell:-and, uncle, bid him so; Six years we banish him, and he shall go. [Flourish. Exeunt K. RICHARD 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? A partial slander-] That is, the reproach of partiality. This is a just picture of the struggle between principle and affection.-JOHNSON. Boling. I have too few to take my leave of you, 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 enforc'd pilgrimage. Gaunt. The sullen passage of thy weary steps Boling. Nay, rather, every tedious stride I make Gaunt. All places that the eye of heaven visits, Think not the king doth banish thee; But thou the king: Woe doth the heavier sit, To lie that way thou go'st, not whence thou com❜st. The grass whereon thou tread'st, the presence strew'd;" Than a delightful measure,* or a dance : the presence strew'd;] An allusion to the ancient practice of strewing rushes over the floor of the presence chamber.-HENLEY. measure,] A formal court dance. For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite Or wallow naked in December snow, 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, My mother, and my nurse, that bears me yet! Where-e'er I wander, boast of this I can, [adieu; Though banish'd, yet a trueborn Englishman. [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.-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? y Aum. 'Faith, none for me; except the north-east wind, yèt 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 two last scenes of the first act, than between the first act and the second.JOHNSON. 'Faith, none for me:] i, e. None on my part. Which then blew bitterly against our faces, K. Rich. What said our cousin, when you parted with him? 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. He should have had a volume of farewells; But, since it would not, he had none of me. K. Rich. He is our cousin, cousin; but 'tis doubt, What reverence he did throw away on slaves; 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 ; Expedient manage must be made, my liege; -affects-] i. e. Affections. b the tribute of his supple knee,] To illustrate this phrase, it should be remembered that courtseying, (the act of reverence now confined to women,) was anciently practised by men.-STEEVENS. C Expedient-] i. e. Expeditious. |