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 sorrow, or of joy3?

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 sing, 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.

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.

Enter a Gardener and two Servants.

Gard. Go, bind thou up yond' 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,

3 Of sorrow, or of JOY ?] All the old copies read, "Of sorrow, or of grief?" Pope made the alteration, which the context fully supports.

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,
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,
Are pluck'd up, root and all, by Bolingbroke;
I mean, the earl of Wiltshire, Bushy, Green.
1 Serv. What! are they dead?
Gard.
They are; and Bolingbroke
Hath seiz'd the wasteful king.-O! what pity is it,
That he had not so trimm'd and dress'd his land,
As we this garden. We at time of year1
Do wound the bark, the skin of our fruit-trees,
Lest, being over-proud in sap and blood",
With too much riches it confound itself:
Had he done so to great and growing men,
They might have liv'd to bear, and he to taste
Their fruits of duty. Superfluous branches

4 WE at time of year] The word We is not in any of the old copies, but it seems necessary, and most likely had dropped out in the press. In the next line the folio has, "And wound the bark."

5 Lest, being over-proud IN sap and blood,] So the quarto, 1597: all later impressions read," with sap and blood."

6 Superfluous branches] So every old copy previous to the folio, 1632, which

We lop away, that bearing boughs may live: Had he done so, himself had borne the crown, Which waste of idle hours' hath quite thrown down. 1 Serv. What! think you, then, the king shall be depos'd?

Gard. Depress'd he is already; and depos'd, "Tis doubt, he will be: letters came last night To a dear friend of the good duke of York's,

That tell black tidings.

Queen. O! I am press'd to death, through want of

speaking.

[Coming forward. Thou, old Adam's likeness, set to dress this garden,

How dares thy harsh, rude tongue sound this unpleasing

news?

What Eve, what serpent hath suggested thee

To make a second fall of cursed man?

Why dost thou say king Richard is depos'd?
Dar'st thou, thou little better thing than earth,
Divine his downfall? Say, where, when, and how,
Cam'st thou by these ill tidings? speak, thou wretch.
Gard. Pardon me, madam: little joy have I,
To breathe these news, yet what I say is true.
King Richard, he is in the mighty hold

Of Bolingbroke: their fortunes both are weigh'd:
In your lord's scale is nothing but himself,
And some few vanities that make him light;
But in the balance of great Bolingbroke,
Besides himself, are all the English peers,

And with that odds he weighs king Richard down.
Post you to London, and you'll find it so ;

inserts all for the sake of the metre; but with a due pause after "duty," the addition is needless, if not injurious.

7 Which waste of idle hours-] The folio, 1623, has "waste and idle hours." None of the quartos countenance the substitution.

8 'Tis DOUBT, he will be:] The folio, 1623, reads, ""Tis doubted he will be," to the injury of the measure. In this part of the scene, the folio, 1623, was very careless of the metre: it omitted "then" in the 1st Servant's speech just above, and "good" in the line, "To a dear friend of the good duke of York's :" the latter is not, however, absolutely necessary.

I speak no more than every one doth know.

Queen. Nimble mischance, that art so light of foot, Doth not thy embassage belong to me,

And am I last that knows it? O! thou think'st
To serve me last, that I may longest keep
Thy sorrow in my breast.-Come, ladies, go
To meet at London London's king in woe.-
What! was I born to this, that my sad look
Should grace the triumph of great Bolingbroke?—
Gardener, for telling me these news of woe',
Pray God, the plants thou graft'st may never grow.
[Exeunt QUEEN and Ladies.
Gard. Poor queen! so that thy state might be no

worse,

I would my skill were subject to thy curse.
Here did she fall a tear1; here, in this place,
I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace2:
Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen,
In the remembrance of a weeping queen.

[Exeunt.

9 for telling me THESE news of woe,] So the quarto, 1597. It was subsequently printed "this news ;" yet in the second line of the speech of the gardener, just above, we meet with "these news" in the folio, 1623.

'Here did she FALL a tear;] This is the reading of the quarto, 1597, and, doubtless, the language of Shakespeare. The later quartos and folios substitute drop for "fall." In Othello, A. iv. sc. 1, we have a corresponding expression, "Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile."

So in "The Comedy of Errors,” Vol. ii. p. 131,

66 as easy may'st thou fall

A drop of water."

And in "Midsummer-Night's Dream," Vol. ii. p. 457, we meet with, "her mantle she did fall." It would be easy to point out other instances in which Shakespeare uses to fall as a verb active.

2 I'll set a bank of RUE, sour herb of grace:] "Rue" was often called "herb of grace" by our old writers; but Shakespeare's authority on the point is sufficient. We have it mentioned as "herb of grace" only in "All's Well that Ends Well," Vol. iii. p. 295; and in "Hamlet," Act iv. sc. 5, it is introduced by both names: "There's rue for you, and here's some for me: we may call it herb of grace o' Sundays." It was frequently termed herbgrace for brevity.

The Lords spiritual on the right side of the Throne; the Lords temporal on the left; the Commons below. Enter BOLINGBROKE, AUMERLE, SURREY, NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, FITZWATER, another Lord, the Bishop of Carlisle, the Abbot of Westminster, and Attendants. Officers behind, with BAGOT.

Boling. Call forth Bagot.—

Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind,

What thou dost know of noble Gloster's death;
Who wrought it with the king, and who perform'd
The bloody office of his timeless end.

Bagot. Then set before my face the lord Aumerle.
Boling. Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that

man.

Bagot. My lord Aumerle, I know your daring tongue Scorns to unsay what once it hath deliver❜d. In that dead time when Gloster's death was plotted, I heard you say," Is not my arm of length, That reacheth from the restful English court, As far as Calais, to mine uncle's head?" Amongst much other talk, that very time, I heard you say, that you had rather refuse The offer of an hundred thousand crowns, Than Bolingbroke's return to England; Adding withal, how blest this land would be In this your cousin's death.

Aum.

Princes, and noble lords,

3 WESTMINSTER Hall.] "The rebuilding of Westminster Hall, (says Malone,) which Richard had begun in 1397, being finished in 1399, the first meeting of parliament in the new edifice was for the purpose of deposing him." The old brief stage-direction is, "Enter Bolingbroke with the Lords to Parliament."