And shortly mean to touch our northern shore:
Perhaps they had ere this, but that they stay
The first departing of the king for Ireland.
If then we shall shake off our slavish yoke,
Imp out our drooping country's broken wing,
Redeem from broken pawn the blemish'd crown,
Wipe off the dust that hides our sceptre's gilt
And make high majesty look like itself,
Away with me in post to Ravenspurgh;
But if you faint, as fearing to do so,
Stay and be secret, and myself will go.

Ross. To horse, to horse! urge doubts to them
that fear.

Willo. Hold out my horse, and I will first be

there.

290

[Exeunt. 300

SCENE II. Windsor Castle.

Enter QUEEN, BUSHY, and BAGOT.

Bushy. Madam, your majesty is too much sad:
You promised, when you parted with the king,
To lay aside life-harming heaviness
And entertain a cheerful disposition.

Queen. To please the king I did; to please myself I cannot do it; yet I know no cause

Why I should welcome such a guest as grief,

289. they stay the first departing, etc. This motive is invented. According to Holinshed they landed four months after Richard's departure.

292. Imp out, graft new feathers upon, piece out (a term of falconry).

293. broken pawn, pawn in the hands of brokers, or base

agents.

296. Ravenspurgh, an old port and haven on the north of the Humber mouth, destroyed by the advance of the sea in the course of the sixteenth century.

Sc. 2. Windsor Castle. The place intended is conjectural; but Holinshed says that Richard left his queen at Windsor.

Save bidding farewell to so sweet a guest
As my sweet Richard: yet again, methinks,
Some unborn sorrow, ripe in fortune's womb,
Is coming towards me, and my inward soul
With nothing trembles: at some thing it grieves,
More than with parting from my lord the king.
Bushy. Each substance of a grief hath twenty
shadows,

Which shows like grief itself, but is not so;
For sorrow's eye, glazed with blinding tears,
Divides one thing entire to many objects;
Like pérspectives, which rightly gazed upon
Show nothing but confusion, eyed awry
Distinguish form so your sweet majesty,
Looking awry upon your lord's departure,
Find shapes of grief, more than himself, to wail;
Which, look'd on as it is, is nought but shadows
Of what it is not. Then, thrice-gracious queen,
More than your lord's departure weep not: more 's
not seen;

Or if it be, 'tis with false sorrow's eye,

Which for things true weeps things imaginary.
Queen. It may be so; but yet my inward soul
Persuades me it is otherwise: howe'er it be,
I cannot but be sad; so heavy sad

As, though on thinking on no thought I think,

18. perspectives, glasses producing optical illusion. The special kind of illusion here meant is illustrated by a contemporary account of the pictures of Henry IV. of France and his queen at Gerards Bromley, 'both upon the same indented board, which if beheld directly you only perceive a confused piece of work; but if obliquely, of one side you see the king's, and

IO

20

30

on the other the queen's picture' (Plot's Natural History of Staffordshire).

20. Distinguish, show distinctly.

31. though. So Ff; 'thought' Q1.

31. on thinking, 'a-thinking,' in thinking. 'So sad, as makes me, though in my brooding I have no distinct thought, yet faint with indefinable oppression.'

Makes me with heavy nothing faint and shrink.
Bushy. 'Tis nothing but conceit, my gracious
lady.

Queen. 'Tis nothing less: conceit is still derived
From some forefather grief; mine is not so,
For nothing hath begot my something grief;
Or something hath the nothing that I grieve:
'Tis in reversion that I do possess ;

But what it is, that is not yet known; what
I cannot name; 'tis nameless woe, I wot.

Enter GREEN.

Green. God save your majesty! and well met, gentlemen :

I hope the king is not yet shipp'd for Ireland.
Queen. Why hopest thou so? 'tis better hope
he is;

For his designs crave haste, his haste good hope :
Then wherefore dost thou hope he is not shipp'd?
Green. That he, our hope, might have retired

his power,

And driven into despair an enemy's hope,
Who strongly hath set footing in this land:
The banish'd Bolingbroke repeals himself,
And with uplifted arms is safe arrived
At Ravenspurgh.

Queen.

Now God in heaven forbid !

Green. Ah, madam, 'tis too true: and that is

40

50

grief, keeping back from me the deeper sorrow which will become mine ("by reversion ") when I know it.'

48. strongly, with a large force. 49. repeals, recalls.

The Lords of Ross, Beaumond, and Willoughby,
With all their powerful friends, are fled to him.
Bushy. Why have you not proclaim'd North-
umberland

And all the rest revolted faction traitors?

Green. We have: whereupon the Earl of
Worcester

Hath broke his staff, resign'd his stewardship,
And all the household servants fled with him
To Bolingbroke.

Queen. So, Green, thou art the midwife to my

woe,

And Bolingbroke my sorrow's dismal heir:
Now hath my soul brought forth her prodigy,
And I, a gasping new-deliver'd mother,
Have woe to woe, sorrow to sorrow join'd.
Bushy. Despair not, madam.
Queen.

Who shall hinder me?

I will despair, and be at enmity
With cozening hope: he is a flatterer,
A parasite, a keeper back of death,

Who gently would dissolve the bands of life,
Which false hope lingers in extremity.

Enter YORK.

Green. Here comes the Duke of York.

Queen. With signs of war about his aged neck: O, full of careful business are his looks! Uncle, for God's sake, speak comfortable words. York. Should I do so, I should belie my thoughts:

Comfort's in heaven; and we are on the earth,

58. the Earl of Worcester. Thomas Percy, brother of Northumberland.

59. his staff, his official staff, as Steward of the Household.

60

70

64. prodigy, monstrous birth. 72. lingers, prolongs.

75. careful, grievous.

76. comfortable, comfort-giv

ing.

Where nothing lives but crosses, cares and grief.
Your husband, he is gone to save far off,
Whilst others come to make him lose at home:
Here am I left to underprop his land,
Who, weak with age, cannot support myself:
Now comes the sick hour that his surfeit made;
Now shall he try his friends that flatter'd him.

Enter a Servant.

Serv. My lord, your son was gone before I

came.

York. He was? Why, so! go all which way it will!

The nobles they are fled, the commons they are

cold,

And will, I fear, revolt on Hereford's side.

80

Sirrah, get thee to Plashy, to my sister Gloucester; 90 Bid her send me presently a thousand pound:

Hold, take my ring.

Serv. My lord, I had forgot to tell your lordship,

To-day, as I came by, I called there;

But I shall grieve you to report the rest.

York. What is 't, knave?

Serv. An hour before I came, the duchess died.

York. God for his mercy! what a tide of woes Comes rushing on this woeful land at once! I know not what to do: I would to God, So my untruth had not provoked him to it, The king had cut off my head with my brother's. What, are there no posts dispatch'd for Ireland? How shall we do for money for these wars? Come, sister,-cousin, I would say,-pray, pardon

me.

VOL. VI

IOI. untruth, disloyalty.
177

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100