Whereto thy tongue a party-verdict gave; Why at our justice seem'st thou then to lour? 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;
A partial slander sought I to avoid,
And in the sentence my own life destroy'd.
Alas, I look'd when some of you should say,
I was too strict to make mine own away;
But you gave leave to my unwilling tongue,
Against my will to do myself this wrong.
K. Rich. Cousin, farewell; and, uncle, bid him so,
Six years we banish him, and he shall go.

[Exeunt K. RICHARD and his 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?

40

45

50

55

60

Boling. I have too few to take my leave of you,

had been advised by others to banish his cousin ; but rather that he did it after due consideration, not hastily.

40. A party-verdict.-A verdict, or judgment, on the same side, or

part.

41. To lour.-To frown; to look dissatisfied.

47. A partial slander. -This is an instance of a peculiarity of Shakespeare's style; he places an adjective before a noun, without implying that qualification which the adjective seems to carry with it. Thus here, we are not to understand a partial, or partly-formed slander; but a slander which should have the effect of accusing him of partiality towards his son. See § V.

note 43.

50. To make mine own away.-To put an end to mine own life, or happiness, by taking part in banishing my son.

55. Presence. The court, or surroundings of the king, was called "the presence."

When the tongue's office should be prodigal
To breathe the abundant dolour of the heart.
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 enforced pilgrimage.
Gaunt. The sullen passage of thy weary steps
Esteem as foil wherein thou art to set
The precious jewel of thy home return.
Boling. Nay, rather, every tedious stride I make
Will but remember me what a deal of world
I wander from the jewels that I love.
Must I not serve a long apprenticehood
To foreign passages, and in the end,
Having my freedom, boast of nothing else
But that I was a journeyman to grief?

Gaunt. All places that the eye of heaven visits

Are to a wise man ports and happy havens.
Teach thy necessity to reason thus;

There is no virtue like necessity.

62. Prodigal.-Generally the word means wasteful, extravagant; here it rather means bountiful, not stinting.

63. Abundant dolour.-Great grief.

66. What is six winters.-The word "is" must not be considered in false concord because "winters" is plural; rather look upon the phrase "six winters" as one period of time, and therefore singular. Thus, there is nothing wrong in the sentence "Ten guineas is enough."

72. Foil. The metal case, or setting, in which precious stones are placed, in using them as ornaments. Bolingbroke's exile was to

be the foil, his return the jewel.

-Put me in remembrance; remind me.

75. Remember me.—.

80. A journeyman.--A man who, having fully learned his trade, is paid by the day. The word is very appropriate here; for Bolingbroke has been saying that he would serve such a long apprenticeship during his exile, that, on his return, he would be a journeyman to grief.

KING RICHARD II.

Think not the king did banish thee,

But thou the king. Woe doth the heavier sit,
Where it perceives it is but faintly borne.
Go, say I sent thee forth to purchase honour
And not the king exil'd thee; or suppose
Devouring pestilence hangs in our air
And thou art flying to a fresher clime;
Look, what thy soul holds dear, imagine it

To lie that way thou go'st, not whence thou comest;
Suppose the singing birds musicians,

[95

The grass whercon thou tread'st the presence strew'd,

The flowers fair ladies, and thy steps no more

Than a delightful measure or a dance;
For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite
The man that mocks at it and sets it light.
Boling. O, who can hold a fire in his hand

By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?
Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite
By bare imagination of a feast?

100

Or wallow naked in December's snow

By thinking on fantastic summer's heat?

105

O, no! the apprehension of the good

Gives but the greater feeling to the worse;

95. The presence strew'd.-The room in which the king received his nobles and their ladies was the "presence-chamber;" in those days it was strewed with rushes.

98. Gnarling sorrow.-Snarling, growling, as a dog before it bites. 101. The frosty Caucasus.-A range of mountains between the Black and Caspian seas. Bolingbroke now gives a beautiful reply to the well-meant advice of his father. He had been urged to imagine his banishment to be liberty, and that would make it equal to liberty; he now shows how impossible that would be to him.

102. Cloy.-Satisfy, as food does a hungry man. 104. Wallow.-Roll; stretch out the body. 106. The apprehension of the good.-The thorough understanding, or grasping, in the mind, of the good I leave behind. The two lines may be paraphrased thus: "Troubles of any kind seem all the greater, from the recollection we have of happier times which can no more be ours."

Fell sorrow's tooth doth never rankle more

Than when he bites, but lanceth not the sore.

110

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!
Where'er I wander, boast of this I can,
Though banish'd, yet a true-born Englishman.

115

[Exeunt.

XI.

KING RICHARD II.

ACT ii. SCENE 1.-DEATH OF JOHN OF GAUNT.

[The aged John of Gaunt did not live to see again the son whom we saw banished in the last scene. We come now to Shakespeare's description of his death-bed. He is represented as discussing with his brother, Edmund Langley, Duke of York, the wretched state of the country, a condition brought about by the follies and misgovernment of their nephew, King Richard. the course of their conversation the king himself enters, and Gaunt addresses some earnest words of advice to the misguided monarch, who, as will be seen, receives them with anything but the reverence they deserve.]

SCENE: Ely House.

Gaunt. Will the king come, that I may breathe my last
In wholesome counsel to his unstaid youth?
York. Vex not yourself, nor strive not with your breath;
For all in vain comes counsel to his ear.

Gaunt. O, but they say the tongues of dying men

Enforce attention like deep harmony;

In

5

Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain,
For they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain.
He that no more must say is listened more

108. Fell.-Cruel, savage.

113. My mother and my nurse.-Affectionate names which Bolingbroke gives to his native land.

2. Unstaid. Not steady; changeable.

9. Is listened more.-In Shakespeare's time the verb listen could be used transitively, as "I listened him;" and, in the passive form "He

Than they whom youth and ease have taught to glose; 10
More are men's ends mark'd than their lives before;
The setting sun, and music at the close,

As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,
Writ in remembrance more than things long past;
Though Richard my life's counsel would not hear, 15
My death's sad tale may yet undeaf his ear.
York. No; it is stopp'd with other flattering sounds,
As praises, of whose taste the wise are fond,
Lascivious metres, to whose venom sound
The open ear of youth doth always listen;
Report of fashions in proud Italy,

Whose manners still our tardy apish nation
Limps after in base imitation.

20

25

25

Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity-
So it be new, there's no respect how vile--
That is not quickly buzz'd into his ears?
Then all too late comes counsel to be heard,
Where will doth mutiny with wit's regard.
Direct him not whose way himself will choose;
'Tis breath thou lack'st, and that breath wilt thou lose. 30

Gaunt. Methinks I am a prophet new inspired

was listened by me;" now we should use it intransitively, followed

by the preposition to; in this place understand "Is listened to

more.

10. To glose.-To be talkative.

14. Writ.-An old participle, which we now alter to written.

16. Undeaf his ear.-Cause him to listen; open his ear.

19. Lascivious metres.-Poems having a tendency to do harm to those who read them.

19. Venom.-Poisonous; by reading bad books the mind may be, as it were, poisoned.

22. Tardy.-Slow.

22. Apish.-Like an ape, which is an animal much given to imitate, or

copy, what it sees men do.

25. There's no respect.-Used in the same way as our "It is no matter;" "It is of no consequence.”

28. Where will doth mutiny with wit's regard.—This line may be paraphrased thus:-" Where the temper of the scholar fights against the wisdom of the teacher."