Where it perceives it is but faintly borne.
Go, say-I sent thee forth to purchase honour,
And not-the king exíl'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 com❜st:
Suppose the singing birds, musicians;

The grass whereon 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?9

fore us, probably remembered that part of Lyly's Euphues, 1580, in which Euphues exhorts Botanio to take his exile patiently. Among other arguments he observes, that "Nature hath given to man a country no more than she hath a house, or lands, or livings. Socrates would neither call himself an Athenian, neither a Grecian, but a citizen of the world. Plato would never account him banished, that had the sunne, ayre, water, and earth, that he had before; where he felt the winter's blast and the summer's blaze; where the same sunne and the same moone shined; whereby he noted that every place was a country to a wise man, and all parts a palace to a quiet mind.-When it was cast in Diogenes' teeth, that the Sinoponetes had banished him Pontus, yea, said he, I them of Diogenes." Malone.

7

• the presence strew'd;] Shakspeare has other allusions to the ancient practice of strewing rushes over the floor of the presence chamber. Henley.

So, in Cymbeline:

Tarquin thus

"Did softly press the rushes, ere he wakened
"The chastity he wounded:-" Steevens.

See Hentzner's account of the presence chamber, in the palace at Greenwich, 1598. Itinerar. p. 135. Malone.

8

than a delightful measure,] A measure was a formal court dance. So, in King Richard III:

"Our dreadful marches to delightful measures." Steevens. 9 0, who can hold a fire in his hand, &c.] Fire is here, as in many other places, used as a dissyllable. Malone.

It has been remarked, that there is a passage resembling this in Tully's Fifth Book of Tusculan Questions. Speaking of Epicurus, he says:-"Sed unâ se dicit recordatione acquiescere præteritarum voluptatum: ut si quis æstuans, cum vim caloris non

Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite,
By bare imagination of a feast?

Or wallow naked in December snow,
By thinking on fantastick summer's heat?
O, no! the apprehension of the good,
Gives but the greater feeling to the worse:
Fell sorrow's tooth doth never rankle more,
Than when it bites, but lanceth not the sore.

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, farewel; sweet soil, adieu;

My mother, and my nurse, that bears me yet!
Where-e'er I wander, boast of this I can,-

Though banish'd, yet a trueborn Englishman.1 [Exeunt.
SCENE IV.

The same. A Room in the King's Castle.

Enter King RICHARD, BAGOT, and GREEN; AUMERLE following.

K. Rich. We did observe.-Cousin Aumerle, How far brought you high Hereford on his way?

facile patiatur, recordari velit se aliquando in Arpinati nostro gelidis fluminibus circumfusum fuisse. Non enim video, quomodo sedare possint mala præsentia præteritæ voluptates." The Tusculan Questions of Cicero had been translated early enough. for Shakspeare to have seen them. Steevens.

Shakspeare, however, I believe, was thinking on the words of Lyly, in the page from which an extract has been already made: "I speake this to this end, that though thy exile seem grievous to thee, yet guiding thy selfe with the rules of phylosophy, it should be more tolerable: he that is cold, doth not cover himselfe with care but with clothes; he that is washed in the raine, drieth himselfe by the fire, not by his fancy; and thou which art banished," &c. Malone.

1

yet a trueborn Englishman.] Here the first Act ought to end, that between the first and second Acts there may be time for John of Gaunt to accompany his son, return, and fall sick. Then the first scene of the second Act begins with a natural conversation, interrupted by a message from John of Gaunt, by which the King is called to visit him, which visit is paid in the following scene. As the play is now divided, more time passes between the two last scenes of the first Act, than between the first Act and the second. Johnson.

Aum. I brought high Hereford, if you call him so, But to the next highway, and there I left him.

K. Rich. And, say, what store of parting tears were shed?

Aum. 'Faith, none by me:2 except the north-east wind, Which then blew bitterly against our faces,

Awak'd the sleeping rheum; and so, by chance,
Did grace our hollow parting with a tear.

K. Rich. What said our cousin, when you parted with him?

Aum. Farewel:

And, for my heart disdained that my tongue

Should so profane the word, that taught me craft
To counterfeit oppression of such grief,

That words seem'd buried in my sorrow's grave.
Marry, would the word farewel have lengthen❜d hours,
And added years to his short banishment,
He should have had a volume of farewels;
But, since it would not, he had none of me.

3

K. Rich. He is our cousin, cousin; but 'tis doubt,
When time shall call him home from banishment,
Whether our kinsman come to see his friends.
Ourself, and Bushy, Bagot here, and Green,3
Observ'd his courtship to the common people:-
How he did seem to dive into their hearts,
With humble and familiar courtesy;

What reverence he did throw away on slaves;
Wooing poor craftsmen, with the craft of smiles,
And patient underbearing of his fortune,

2 none by me:] The old copies read-for me. With the other modern editors I have here adopted an emendation made by the editor of the second folio; but without necessity. For me, may mean, on my part. Thus we say, "For me, I am content,' &c. where these words have the same signification as here.

Malone.

If we read-for me, the expression will be equivocal, and seem as if it meant-no tears were shed on my account. So, in the preceding scene:

3

"O, let no noble eye profane a tear

"For me," &c. Steevens.

·Bagot here, and Green,] The old copies read-here Bagot. The transposition was made in a quarto of no value, printed in 1634. Malone.

As 'twere, to banish their affects with him.
Off goes his bonnet to an oyster-wench;

A brace of draymen bid-God speed him well,
And had the tribute of his supple knee,

With-Thanks, my countrymen, my loving friends;—
As were our England in reversion his,

And he our subjects' next degree in hope.5

Green. Well, he is gone; and with him go these

thoughts.

--

Now for the rebels, which stand out in Ireland;-
Expedient manage must be made my liege;
Ere further leisure yield them further means,
For their advantage, and your highness' loss.
K. Rich. We will ourself in person to this war.
And, for our coffers-with too great a court,
And liberal largess,—are grown somewhat light,
We are enforc❜d to farm our royal realm;
The revenue whereof shall furnish us

For our affairs in hand: If that come short,
Our substitutes at home shall have blank charters;
Whereto, when they shall know what men are rich,
They shall subscribe them for large sums of gold,
And send them after to supply our wants;

For we will make for Ireland presently.

Bushy, what news?

Enter BUSHY.

Bushy. Old John of Gaunt is grievous sick, my lord; Suddenly taken; and hath sent post-haste,

To entreat your majesty to visit him.

4

the tribute of his supple knee,] To illustrate this phrase, it should be remembered that courtesying, (the act of reverence now confined to women) was anciently practised by men.

Steevens.

5 And he our subjects' next degree in hope.] Spes altera Roma.

Virg. Malone.

6 Expedient-] i. e. expeditious. So, in King John: "His marches are expedient to this town."

Steevens.

7 for our coffers-] i. e. because. So, at the beginning

of this scene:

66

And, for my heart disdained that my tongue," &c. Again, in Othello:

Haply, for I am black -;" Steevens.

K. Rich. Where lies he?

Bushy. At Ely-house.

K. Rich. Now put it, heaven, in his physician's mind, To help him to his grave immediately!

The lining of his coffers shall make coats

To deck our soldiers for these Irish wars.-
Come, gentlemen, let's all go visit him:

Pray God, we may make haste, and come too late!

[Exeunt.

ACT II.....SCENE I.

London. A Room in Ely-house.

8

GAUNT on a Couch; the Duke of YORK, and Others standing by him.

Gaunt. Will the king come? that I may breathe my last

In wholesome counsel to his unstay'd 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:

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 listen'd more

Than they whom youth and ease have taught to glose; More are men's ends mark'd, than their lives before: The setting sun, and musick 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,
My death's sad tale may yet undeaf his ear.

York. No; it is stopp'd with other flattering sounds, As, praises of his state: then, there are found

8 the duke of York,] was Edmund, son of Edward III.

9

Walpole.

at the close,] This I suppose to be a musical term. So, in Lingua, 1607:

"I dare engage my ears, the close will jar." Steevens