Aum. No, good my lord; let's fight with gentle words,

Till time lend friends, and friends these helpful swords.

K. Rich. O God! O God! that e'er this tongue

of mine,

That laid the sentence of dread banishment
On yon proud man, should take it off again
With words of sooth! O, that I were as great
As is my grief, or lesser than my name!
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 Bo

lingbroke.

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

The king shall do it.

Must he be deposed?

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 for an alms-man's gown;
My figured goblets for a dish of wood;
My sceptre for a palmer's walking staff;
My subjects for a pair of carvèd 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 trade, where subjects' fee
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 despisèd 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 chedding

tears?

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, and Bolingbroke says-ay.

North. My lord, in the base court he doth attend

To speak with you; may it please you to come down?

K. Rich. Dorun? down I come; like glistering

Phaeton,

Wanting the manage of unruly jades.

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

base,

To come at traitors' call, 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, like a frantic man:
Yet he is come.

Enter KING RICHARD and his Attendants, below. Boling. Stand all apart,

And show fair duty to his majesty.[Kneeling.] My gracious lord,—

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 unpleased eye see your courtesy.
Up, cousin, up; your heart is up, I know,
Thus high at least [touching his own head], al-
though your knee below.

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.

[Flourish. Exeunt.

The Duke of York's

SCENE IV-Langley.

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?

I Lady. Madam, we'll play at bowls.

Queen. 'Twill make me think the world is full of rubs,

And that my fortune runs against the bias. 1 Lady. Madam, we'll dance.

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

Queen. Of joy, or grief.

1 Lady.

Of either, madam.

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 not to complain.
1 Lady. Madam, I'll sing.

Queen.

"Tis well that thou hast cause; But thou shouldst please me better wouldst thou

weep.

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

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

And never borrow any tear of thee.

Enter a Gardener and two Servants.

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

cocks,

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 choked

up,

Her fruit-trees all unpruned, her hedges ruin'd, Her knots disorder'd, and her wholesome herbs Swarming with caterpillars?

Gard.

Hold thy peace :—

He that hath suffer'd this disorder'd spring
Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf:
The weeds that his broad-spreading leaves did

shelter,

That seem'd in eating him to hold him up,

VOL. VI.

5