This lowering tempest of your home-bred hate; To plot, contrive, or complot any ill, 'Gainst us, our state, our subjects, or our land. Boling. I swear. Nor. And I, to keep all this. Boling. Norfolk, so far as to mine enemy ;- Nor. No, Bolingbroke; if ever I were traitor, K. Rich. Uncle, even in the glasses of thine eyes I see thy grieved heart: thy sad aspéct Hath from the number of his banish'd years Pluck'd four away;-Six frozen winters spent, Return [To Boling.] with welcome home from banishment. Boling. How long a time lies in one little word! Four lagging winters, and four wanton springs, End in a word; Such is the breath of kings. Gaunt. I thank my liege, that, in regard of me, My oil-dried lamp, and time-bewasted light, * Concerted. My inch of taper will be burnt and done, K. Rich. Why, uncle, thou hast many years to live. Gaunt. But not a minute, king, that thou can'st give: Shorten my days thou can'st with sullen sorrow, Thy word is current with him for my death; K. Rich. Thy son is banish'd upon good advice*, sour. You urg'd me as a judge; but I had rather, To smooth his fault I should have been more mild: K. Rich. Cousin, farewell :—and, uncle, bid him so; Six years we banish him, and he shall go. [Flourish. Exeunt K. Rich. and train. Aum. Cousin, farewell: what presence must not know, From where you do remain, let paper show. Gaunt. O, to what purpose dost thou hoard thy words, * Consideration. + Had a part or share. Reproach of partiality. That thou return'st no greeting to thy friends? Gaunt. Thy grief is but thy absence for a time. Boling. To men in joy; but grief makes one hour ten. Gaunt. Call it a travel that thou tak'st for plea sure. Boling. My heart will sigh, when I miscall it so, Which finds it an enforced pilgrimage. Gaunt. The sullen passage of thy weary steps Boling. Nay, rather, every tedious stride I make Having my freedom, boast of nothing else, 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. Think not, the king did banish thee; But thou the king: Woe doth the heavier sit, To lie that way thou go'st, not whence thou com'st: * Grief. The grass whereon thou tread'st, the presence* strew'd; The flowers, fair ladies; and thy steps, no more For gnarling+ sorrow hath less power to bite Or wallow naked in December snow, 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! 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? Aum. I brought high Hereford, if you call him so, But to the next highway, and there I left him. * Presence chamber at court. + Growling. K. Rich. And, say, what store of parting tears were shed? Aum. Faith, none by me: except the north-east Which then blew bitterly against our faces, K. Rich. What said our cousin, when you parted Aum. Farewell: 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 farewell have lengthen'd hours, And added years to his short banishment, He should have had a volume of farewells; K. Rich. He is our cousin, cousin; but 'tis doubt, When time shall call him home from banishment, What reverence he did throw away on slaves; Green. Well, he is gone; and with him go these |