Queen. To please the king, I did; to please myself, I cannot do it; yet I know no cause Why I should welcome such a guest as grief, Save bidding farewell to so sweet a guest As my sweet Richard. Yet, again, methinks, Some unborn sorrow, ripe in fortune's womb, Is coming towards me; and my inward soul With nothing trembles: at something it grieves, More than with parting from my lord the king. Bushy. Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows, Which show like grief itself, but are not so; seen; Or if it be, 'tis with false sorrow's eye, Which, for things true, weeps things imaginary. As-though, in thinking, on no thought I think 2— Bushy. 'Tis nothing but conceit, my gracious lady. 1 This may have reference to that kind of optical delusion called anamorphosis; which is a perspective projection of a picture, so that at one point of view, it shall appear a confused mass, or different to what it really is; in another, an exact and regular representation. Sometimes it is made to appear confused to the naked eye, and regular when viewed in a glass or mirror of a certain form. 2 The old copies have "on thinking," which is an evident error: we should read, “ As though in thinking;” i. e. “though musing, I have no idea of calamity." The involuntary and unaccountable depression of the mind which every one has sometimes felt, is here very forcibly described. From some forefather grief; mine is not so; But what it is, that is not yet known; what Enter GREEN. Green. God save your majesty!-and well met, gentlemen. I hope the king is not yet shipped for Ireland. Queen. Why hop'st thou so? 'tis better hope he is; And driven into despair an enemy's hope, Queen. Now, God in heaven forbid! Green. O, madam, 'tis too true; and that is worse,The lord Northumberland, his young son Henry Percy, The lords of Ross, Beaumond, and Willoughby, With all their powerful friends, are fled to him. Bushy. Why have you not proclaimed Northumberland, And all the rest of the revolted faction, traitors? 2 1 Retired, i. e. drawn it back; a French sense. 2 The first quarto, 1597, reads: "And all the rest of the revolted faction, traitors?” The folio, and the quarto of 1598 and 1608: Queen. So, Green, thou art the midwife to my woe, And Bolingbroke my sorrow's dismal heir. Now hath my soul brought forth her prodigy; And I, a gasping, new-delivered mother, Have woe to woe, sorrow to sorrow joined. Bushy. Despair not, madam. Queen. I will despair, and be at enmity Who shall hinder me? With cozening hope; he is a flatterer, Who gently would dissolve the bands of life, Enter YORK. Green. Here comes the duke of York. Uncle, For Heaven's sake, speak comfortable words. York. Should I do so, I should belie my thoughts. Comfort's in heaven; and we are on the earth, Where nothing lives but crosses, care, and grief. Your husband he is gone to save far off, Whilst others come to make him lose at home: Here am I left to underprop his land; Who, weak with age, cannot support myself. Now comes the sick hour that his surfeit made; Now shall he try his friends that flattered him. Enter a Servant. ! Serv. My lord, your son was gone before I came. York. He was?-Why, so !-go all which way it will! The nobles they are fled, the commons they are cold, Sirrah, get thee to Plashy, to my sister Gloster; VOL. III. 50 Serv. My lord, I had forgot to tell your lordship: To-day, as I came by, I called there; But I shall grieve you to report the rest. York. What is it, knave? Serv. An hour before I came, the duchess died. York. Heaven for his mercy! what a tide of woes Comes rushing on this woful land at once! I know not what to do.-I would to Heaven (So my untruth' had not provoked him to it) Come, sister,3-cousin, I would say; pray, pardon me. Go, fellow, [To the Servant.] get thee home, provide some carts, And bring away the armor that is there. Exit Servant. Gentlemen, will you go muster men? If I know Is my kinsman, whom the king hath wronged; I should to Plashy too; But time will not permit.-All is uneven, [Exeunt YORK and Queen. Bushy. The wind sits fair for news to go to Ireland, But none returns. For us to levy power, 1 Disloyalty, treachery. 2 Not one of York's brothers had his head cut off, either by the king or any one else. Gloster, to whose death he probably alludes, was smothered between two beds at Calais. 3 York is talking to the queen, his cousin, but the recent death of his sister is uppermost in his mind. Proportionable to the enemy, Is all impossible. Green. Besides, our nearness to the king in love, Is near the hate of those love not the king. Bagot. And that's the wavering commons; for their love Lies in their purses; and whoso empties them, Bagot. If judgment lie in them, then so do we, Green. Well, I'll for refuge straight to Bristol castle; The earl of Wiltshire is already there. Bushy. Thither will I with you; for little office Will the hateful commons perform for us; Except like curs to tear us all to pieces.- Bagot. No; I'll to Ireland to his majesty. broke. Green. Alas, poor duke! the task he undertakes Is-numbering sands, and drinking oceans dry; Where one on his side fights, thousands will fly. Bushy. Farewell at once; for once, for all, and ever. Green. Well, we may meet again. Bagot. I fear me, never. [Exeunt. SCENE III. The Wilds in Glostershire. Enter BOLINGBROKE and NORTHUMBERLAND, with Forces. Boling. How far is it, my lord, to Berkley now? North. Believe me, noble lord, I am a stranger here in Glostershire. |