Aumerle, thou weep’st; My tender-hearted cou

sin! 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? 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 8 he doth at-

tend To speak with you; may't please you to come

down? K. Rich. Down, down, I come ; like glistering

Phaeton,
Wanting the manage of unruly jades.

[North, retires to Boling,

7 - Bolingbroke says—ay.) Here is another instance of injury done to the poet's metre by changing his orthography. I, which was Shakspeare's word, rhymed very well with die ; but ay has quite a different sound. See a note on The Merry Wives of Windsor, vol. viii. p. 186, n.7. TYRWHITT.

In some counties ay is at this day pronounced with a sound very little differing from that of I. Malone.

base court -] Bas cour, Fr. So, in Hinde's Eliosto Libidinoso, 1606 : they were, for a public observation, brought into the base court of the palace.” Again, in Greene's Farewell to Follie, 1617 : - hegan, at the entrance into the base court, to use these words." STEEVENS. VOL. XVI.

I

In the base court ? Base court, 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.

[E.reunt, from above. Boling. What says his majesty ? North.

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

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.] al

though 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 to;
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, noo.

[Flourish." Exeunt.

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. "Twill make me think, the world is full

of rubs, And that my fortune runs against the bias.

1 Lady. Madam, we will dance. Queen. My legs can keep no measure in de

light, When my poor heart no measure keeps in grief: Therefore, no dancing, girl ; some other sport.

1 Lady. Madam, we'll tell tales.

9 Then. I must not say, no.) “The duke with a high sharpe voyce bade bring forth the kings horses, and then two litile nagges, not worth forty franks, were brought forth ; the king was set on the 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 Glocesters sonne and to the earle of Arundels sonne, (that loved him but little, for he had put their fathers 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. Malone.

Queen. Of sorrow, or of joy??
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 should'st please me better, would'st thou

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

good.
Queen. And I could weep, 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.

2

1 Of sorrow, or of joy?] All the old copies concur in reading :

“Of sorrow, or of grief?” Mr. Pope made the necessary alteration. Steevens.

- complain.] See p. 20, n. 1. Steevens. 3 And I could weep,] The old copies read~" And I could sing," STEVENS.

Mr. Pope made the emendation. Malone.

4 Against a change: Woe is forerun with woe.] 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. The sense is, that publick evils are always presignified by publick pensiveness, and plaintive conversation. Johnson.

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 5

5?
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,
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 :

5 - OUR firm estate?] How could he say our, when he immediately subjoins, that it was infirm? We should read :

- a firm state." WARBURTON. The servant says our, meaning the state of the garden in which they are at work. The state of the metaphorical garden was indeed unfirm, and therefore his reasoning is very naturally induced. Why (says he,) should we be careful to preserve order in the narrow cincture of this our state when the great state of the kingdom is in disorder ? I have replaced the old reading which Dr. Warburton would have discontinued in favour of his own conjecture. STEEVENS.

• Her Knots disorder'd,] Knots are figures planted in box, the lines of which frequently intersect each other. 'So, Milton:

“ Flowers, worthy Paradise, which not nice art
“ In beds and curious knots, but nature boon
“ Pour'd forth.” Steevens.