Or that I could forget what I have been!
Or not remember what I must be now!
Swell'st thou, proud heart? I'll give thee scope to
beat,

Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me.
Aum. Northumberland comes back from Boling-

broke.

K. Rich. What must the king do now? Must he submit?

The king shall do it. Must he be depos'd?
The king shall be contented: Must he lose
The name of king? o'God's name,
let it go:
I'll give my jewels, for a set of beads;
My gorgeous palace, for a hermitage;
My gay apparel 10, for an alms-man's gown;
My figur'd goblets, for a dish of wood:
My sceptre, for a palmer's walking-staff;
My subjects, for a pair of carved saints;
And my large kingdom for a little grave,
A little little grave, an obscure grave:-
Or I'll be buried in the king's highway,

Some way
of common trade11, where subjects' feet
May hourly trample on their sovereign's head:
For on my heart they tread, now whilst I live;
And, buried once, why not upon my head?-
Aumerle,thou weep'st; My tender-hearted cousin!-
We'll make foul weather with despised tears;
Our sighs, and they, shall lodge the summer corn,
And make a dearth in this revolting land.
Or shall we play the wantons with our woes,
And make some pretty match with shedding tears?

10 Richard's expense in regard to dress was very extraordinary. He had one coate which he caused to be made for him of gold and stone, valued at 3000 marks.'-Holinshed.

Some way of common trade' is some way of frequent resort, a common course; as, at present, a road of much traffic,' i. e. frequent resort.

As thus:-To drop them still upon one place,
Till they have fretted us a pair of graves
Within the earth; and, therein laid,―There lies
Two kinsmen, digg'd their graves with weeping eyes?
Would not this ill do well?-Well, well, I see
I talk but idly, and you mock at me.—
Most mighty prince, my Lord Northumberland,
What says King Bolingbroke? will his majesty
Give Richard leave to live till Richard die?
You make a leg 12, and Bolingbroke says-ay 13.
North. My lord, in the base 14 court he doth attend
To speak with you; may't please you to come down?
K. Rich. Down, down, I come; like glistering
Phaeton,

14

Wanting the manage of unruly jades.

[NORTH. retires to BOLING. In the base court? Base court 15, where kings grow

base,

To come at traitors' calls, and do them grace.

In the base court? Come down? Down, court! down,

king!

For night-owls shriek, where mounting larks should

sing.

[Exeunt, from above. Boling. What says his majesty?

North. Sorrow and grief of heart Makes him speak fondly 16, like a frantick man : Yet he is come.

12 A bow.

13 It should be remembered that the affirmative particle ay was formerly written and sounded I, which rhymed well with die. 14 Lower.

15 That is the lower court of the castle; basse cour, Fr. Thus in Cavendish's Life of Wolsey:- My lord being advertised that the duke was coming, even at hand, he caused all his gentlemen to wait upon him down through the hall into the base court.Edition 1825, p. 211.

16 Foolishly.

Enter KING RICHARD, and his Attendants, below.

Boling. Stand all apart,

And show fair duty to his majesty.

My gracious lord,

[Kneeling.

K.Rich. Fair cousin, you debase your princely knee, To make the base earth proud with kissing it: Me rather had, my heart might feel your love, Than my unpleas'd eye see your courtesy. Up, cousin, up; your heart is up, I know, Thus high at least [touching his own head], although your knee be low.

Boling. My gracious lord, I come but for mine own. K. Rich. Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all.

Boling. So far be mine, my most redoubted lord, As my true service shall deserve your love.

K. Rich. Well you deserve:-They well deserve to have,

That know the strong'st and surest way to get.
Uncle, give me your hand: nay, dry your eyes;
Tears show their love, but want their remedies.-
Cousin, I am too young to be your father,
Though you are old enough to be my heir.
What you will have, I'll give, and willing too;
For do we must, what force will have us do.--
Set on towards London:-Cousin, is it so?
Boling. Yea, my good lord.

K. Rich.

Then I must not say, no 17. [Flourish. Exeunt.

17 The duke, with a high sharpe voyce bade bring forth the king's horses; and then two little nagges, not worth forty franks, were brought forth: the king was set on one, and the earle of Salisburie on the other; and thus the duke brought the king from Flint to Chester, where he was delivered to the duke of Gloucester's sonne (that loved him but little, for he had put their father to death), who led him straight to the castle.'STOWE (p. 521, edit. 1605), from a manuscript account written by a person who was present.

SCENE IV.

Langley. The Duke of York's Garden.

Enter the Queen, and two Ladies.

Queen. What sport shall we devise here in this

garden,

To drive away the heavy thought of care?

1 Lady. Madam, we'll play at bowls.
Queen.
The world is full of rubs, and that
Runs 'gainst the bias1.

"Twill make me think,

my fortune

1 Lady. Madam, we will dance. Queen. My legs can keep no measure in delight, When my poor heart no measure keėps in grief; Therefore, no dancing, girl; some other sport. 1 Lady. Madam, we'll tell tales.

Queen.

1 Lady. Of either, madam.

Of sorrow, or of joy 2?

Queen.
Of neither, girl:
For if of joy, being altogether wanting,
It doth remember me the more of sorrow;
Or if of grief, being altogether had,

It adds more sorrow to my want of joy :
For what I have, I need not to repeat:
And what I want, it boots 3 not to complain *.
1 Lady. Madam, I'll sing.

Queen.

3

'Tis well, that thou hast cause; But thou should'st please me better, would'st thou

weep.

1 The bias was a weight inserted in one side of a bowl, which gave it a particular inclination in bowling.

2 All the old copies read of sorrow or of grief.' Pope made the necessary alteration.

3 Profits.

4 See note on Act i. Sc. 2, p. 11.

1 Lady. I could weep, madam, would it do you

good.

Queen. And I could weeps, would weeping do me good,

And never borrow any tear of thee.

But stay, here come the gardeners:
Let's step into the shadow of these trees.-

Enter a Gardener, and two Servants.

My wretchedness unto a row of pins,
They'll talk of state; for every one doth so
Against a change: Woe is forerun with woe".

[Queen and Ladies retire.
Gard. Go, bind thou up yon' dangling apricocks,
Which, like unruly children, make their sire
Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight:
Give some supportance to the bending twigs.-
Go thou, and, like an executioner,

Cut off the heads of too fast growing sprays,
That look too lofty in our commonwealth:
All must be even in our government.
You thus employ'd, I will go root away
The noisome weeds, that without profit suck
The soil's fertility from wholesome flowers.

1 Serv. Why should we, in the compass of a pale,
Keep law, and form, and due proportion,
Showing, as in a model, our firm estate?
When our sea-walled garden, the whole land,
Is full of weeds; her fairest flowers chok'd up,
Her fruit-trees all unprun'd, her hedges ruin'd,

5 The old copies read and I could sing. The emendation is Pope's.

6 The poet, according to the common doctrine of prognostication, supposes dejection to forerun calamity, and a kingdom to be filled with rumours of sorrow when any great disaster is impending.