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Ross. He hath not money for these Irish wars, His burdenous taxations notwithstanding,

But by the robbing of the banish'd duke.

North. His noble kinsman: most degenerate king! But, lords, we hear this fearful tempest sing, Yet seek no shelter to avoid the storm:

We see the wind sit sore upon our sails,

And yet we strike not, but securely perish.

Ross. We see the very wreck that we must suffer; And unavoided is the danger now,

For suffering so the causes of our wreck.

North. Not so; even through the hollow eyes of death, I spy life peering; but I dare not say

How near the tidings of our comfort is.

Willo. Nay, let us share thy thoughts, as thou dost

ours.

Ross. Be confident to speak, Northumberland : We three are but thyself; and, speaking so, Thy words are but as thoughts; therefore, be bold. North. Then thus :-I have, from Port le Blanc, a bay In Britanny, receiv'd intelligence,

That Harry Hereford, Reignold lord Cobham, [The son of Richard Earl of Arundel,]

That late broke from the duke of Exeter,

His brother, archbishop late of Canterbury, 6

Sir Thomas Erpingham, sir John Ramston,

Sir John Norbery, sir Robert Waterton, and Francis
Quoint,

All these well furnish'd by the duke of Bretagne,
With eight tall ships, three thousand men of war,
Are making hither with all due expedience,
And shortly mean to touch our northern shore :
Perhaps, they had ere this; but that they stay
The first departing of the king for Ireland.
If then we shall shake off our slavish yoke,
Imp out our drooping country's broken wing,

[5] To strike the sails' is, to contract them when there is too much wind. JOHNS. [6] Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, brother to the Earl of Arundel who was beheaded in this reign, had been banished by the parliament, and was afterwards deprived by the Pope of his see, at the request of the King; whence he is here called, late of Canterbury. STEEV.

[7] As this expression frequently occurs in our author, it may not be amiss to explain the original meaning of it. When the wing feathers of a hawk were dropped, or forced out by accident, it was usual to supply as many as were deficient. This operation was called to imp a hawk. STEEV.

Redeem from broking pawn the blemish'd crown,
Wipe off the dust that hides our sceptre's gilt,
And make high majesty look like itself,
Away, with me, in post to Ravenspurg :
But if you faint, as fearing to do so,

Stay, and be secret, and myself will go.

Ross.To horse, to horse! urge doubts to them thatfear. Willo. Hold out my horse, and I will first be there.

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Bushy. Madam, your majesty is too much sad:
You promis'd, when you parted with the king,
To lay aside life-harming heaviness,

And entertain a cheerful disposition.

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:
For sorrow's eye glazed, with blinding tears,
Divides one thing entire to many objects;
Like pérspectives, which, rightly gaz'd upon,
Show nothing but confusion; ey'd awry,
Distinguish form so your sweet majesty,
Looking awry upon your lord's departure,

[8] This is a fine similitude, and the thing meant is this; among mathematical recreations, there is one in optics, in which a figure is drawn, wherein all the rules of perspective are inverted: so that, if held in the same posi. tion with those pictures which are drawn according to the rules of perspective, it can present nothing but confusion: and to be seen in form, and under a regular appearance, it must be looked upon from a contrary station; or, as Shakspeare says, ey'd awry. WARR.

The perspectives here mentioned, were round crystal glasses, the convex surface of which was cut into faces like those of the rose diamond; the concave left uniformly smooth. These crystals-which were sometimes mounted on tortoise-shell box-lids, and sometimes fixed into ivory casesif placed as here represented, would exhibit the different appearances described by the poet, HENLEY.

Finds shapes of grief, more than himself, to wail;
Which, look'd on as it is, is nought but shadows
Of what it is not. Then, thrice-gracious queen,
More than your lord's departure weep not; more's not

seen:

Or if it be, 'tis with false sorrow's eye,

Which, for things true, weeps things imaginary.
Queen. It may be so; but yet my inward soul
Persuades me, it is otherwise: Howe'er it be,
I cannot but be sad; so heavy sad,

As, though, in thinking, on no thought I think,9
Makes me with heavy nothing faint and shrink.
Bush. 'Tis nothing but conceit, my gracious lady.
Queen. 'Tis nothing less: conceit is still deriv'd
From some fore-father grief; mine is not so ;
For nothing hath begot my something grief;
Or something hath the nothing that I grieve:
'Tis in reversion that I do possess ;

But what it is, that is not yet known; what
I cannot name; 'tis nameless woe, I wot.

Enter GREEN.

Green. God save your majesty

tlemen :

and well met, gen

I hope, the king is not yet shipp'd for Ireland.

Queen. Why hop'st thou so? 'tis better hope, he is;
For his designs crave haste, his haste good hope ;
Then wherefore dost thou hope, he is not shipp'd?
Green. That he, our hope, might have retir'd his
power, 2

And driven into despair an enemy's hope,
Who strongly hath set footing in this land:
The banish'd Bolingbroke repeals himself,
And with uplifted arms is safe arriv'd
At Ravenspurg.

[9] The involuntary and unaccountable depression of the mind, which every one has sometimes felt, is here very forcibly described. JOHNS. [1] To possess a man, is, in Shakspeare, to inform him fully, to make him comprehend. To be possessed, is, to be fully informed. I therefore imagine the queen says thus:

'Tis in reversion-that I do possess:

The event is yet in futurity-that I know in full conviction-but what it is, that is not yet known. In any other interpretation she must say that she possesses what is not yet come,which, though it may be allowed to be poetical and figurative language, is yet, I think, less natural than my explanation, JOHNS.

[2] Might have drawn it back. A French sense. JOHNS

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 proclaim'd Northumberland,

And all the rest of the revolting faction

Traitors?

Green. We have: whereon the earl of Worcester Hath broke his staff, resign'd his stewardship, And all the household servants fled with him To Bolingbroke.

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-deliver❜d mother,
Have woe to woe, sorrow to sorrow join'd.
Bushy. Despair not, madam.
Queen. Who shall hinder me?

I will despair, and be at enmity
With cozening hope; he is a flatterer,
A parasite, a keeper-back of death,

Who gently would dissolve the bands of life,
Which false hope lingers in extremity.

Enter YORK.

Green. Here comes the duke of York.
Queen. With signs of war about his aged neck;
O, full of careful business are his looks!
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 under-prop 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 flatter'd 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 cold,
And will, I fear, revolt on Hereford's side.-
Sirrah,

Get thee to Plashy, 3 to my sister Gloster ;
Bid her send me presently a thousand pound :—
Hold, take my ring.

Serv. My lord, I had forgot to tell your lordship:
To-day, as I came by, I called there ;-

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But I shall grieve you to report the rest.
York. What is it, knave?

Serv. An hour before I came, the duchess died.
York. God for his mercy! what a tide of woes
Comes rushing on this woeful land at once!
I know not what to do :-I would to God,
(So my untruth 4 had not provok'd him to it,)
The king had cut off my head with my brother's.-5
What, are there posts despatch'd for Ireland?-
How shall we do for money for these wars?—

Come,sister,-cousin, I would say: pray pardon me.-
Go, fellow, [To the Servant.] get thee home, provide

some carts,

And bring away the armour that is there.

[Exit Servant.
Gentlemen, will you go muster men? if I know
How, or which way, to order these affairs,
Thus thrust disorderly into my hands,
Never believe me. Both are my kinsmen ;-
The one's my sovereign, whom both my oath
And duty bids defend; the other again,

Is my kinsman, whom the king hath wrong'd;
Whom conscience and my kindred bids to right.
Well, somewhat we must do.-Come, cousin, I'll
Dispose of you :-Go, muster up your men,
And meet me presently at Berkley-castle.
I should to Plashy too ;-

[3] The lordship of Plashy was a town of the duchess of Gloster's in Essex.

[4] That is, disloyalty, treachery. JOHNS.

THEOBALD.

[5] None of York's brothers had his head cut off, either by the king or any one else. The Duke of Gloster, to whose death he probably allu les, was secretly murdered at Calais, being smothered between two beds. RITSON. [6] This is one of Shakspeare's touches of nature. York is talking to the queen his cousin, but the recent death of his sister is uppermost in his mind.

STEEV.

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