Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity (So it be new, there's no respect how vile), That is not quickly buzz'd into his ears? Then all too late comes counsel to be heard, Where will doth mutiny with wit's regard5. Direct not him, whose way himself will choose; 'Tis breath thou lack'st, and that breath wilt thou lose. Gaunt. Methinks, I am a prophet new inspir'd; And thus, expiring, do foretell of him: His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last; For violent fires soon burn out themselves: Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short; He tires betimes, that spurs too fast betimes; Consuming means, soon preys upon itself. This fortress, built by nature for herself, 5 Where the will rebels against the notices of the understanding. 6 i. e. hasty, violent. 7 Johnson raised a doubt whether we should not read invasion here. Farmer and Malone, upon the authority of a misprint in Allot's England's Parnassus, where this passage is quoted, Against intestion,' &c. propose to read infestion, a word of their own coinage. Malone's long note proves nothing: he thinks that we could receive no other infection from abroad than the plague; but it is evident that the poet may allude to the infection of vicious manners and customs. It is true that infestation was in use for a troubling, molesting, or disturbing: but as all the old copies read infection, there seems to be no sufficient reason for disturbing the text. This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, (For Christian service, and true chivalry), York. The king is come: deal mildly with his youth; For young hot colts, being rag'd13, do rage the more. 8 i. e. by reason of their breed. The quarto of 1598 reads thus: 'Fear'd by their breed, and famous for their birth.' In Greene's Farewell to Follie, 1598, we have a passage resembling this:-My lordes of Buda, feared for your valour, and famous for your victories, let not the private will of one be the ruin of a mighty kingdom. 9 'In this 22d yeare of King Richard, the common fame ranne that the king had letten to farme the realme unto Sir William Scrope, earle of Wiltshire, and then treasurer of England, to Syr John Bushey, Sir John Bagot, and Sir Henry Greene, Knightes-Fabian. Pelting is paltry, pitiful, petty. 10 Shakspeare has deviated from historical truth in the introduction of Richard's queen as a woman; for Anne, his first wife, was dead before the period at which the commencement of the play is laid; and Isabella, his second wife, was a child at the time of his death. 11 i. e. William Lord Ross, of Hamlake, afterwards lord treasurer to Henry IV. 12 William Lord Willoughby, of Eresby. 13 Ritson proposes to read: Vol. V. "--being rein'd, do rage the more.' Queen. How fares our noble uncle, Lancaster? K. Rich. What comfort, man? How is't with aged Gaunt? Gaunt. O, how that name befits my composition! Old Gaunt, indeed; and gaunt14 in being old: Within me grief hath kept a tedious fast; And who abstains from meat, that is not gaunt? For sleeping England long time have I watch'd; Watching breeds leanness, leanness is all gaunt: The pleasure, that some fathers feed upon, Is my strict fast, I mean-my children's looks; And, therein fasting, hast thou made me gaunt: Gaunt am I for the grave, gaunt as a grave, Whose hollow womb inherits nought but bones. K. Rich. Can sick men play so nicely with their names? Gaunt. No, misery makes sport to mock itself: Since thou dost seek to kill my name in me, I mock my name, great king, to flatter thee. K. Rich. Should dying men flatter with those that live? Gaunt. No, no; men living flatter those that die. K. Rich. Thou, now a dying, say'st-thou flatter'st me. Gaunt. Oh! no; thou diest, though I the sicker be. K. Rich. I am in health, I breathe, and see thee ill. Gaunt. Now, He that made me, knows I see thee ill; Ill in myself to see, and in thee seeing ill. 14 Meagre, thin. The waste is no whit lesser than thy land; K. Rich. a lunatic lean-witted fool, Presuming on an ague's privilege, Dar'st with thy frozen admonition Make pale our cheek; chasing the royal blood, Wert thou not brother to great Edward's son, son, For that I was his father Edward's son; Hast thou tapp'd out, and drunkenly carous'd: That thou respect'st not spilling Edward's blood: 15 Mad. 16 Thy legal state, that rank in the state and these large desmesnes, which the constitution allotted thee, are now bondslave to the law; being subject to the same legal restrictions as every ordinary pelting farm that has been let on lease.' Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee!These words hereafter thy tormentors beConvey me to my bed, then to my grave: Love they1 to live, that love and honour have. [Exit, borne out by his Attendants. K. Rich. And let them die, that age and sullens have; For both hast thou, and both become the grave. He loves you, on my life, and holds you dear K. Rich. Right; you say true: as Hereford's love, so his: As theirs, so mine; and all be as it is. Enter NORTHUMBERLAND. North. My liege, old Gaunt commends him to your majesty. K. Rich. What says he? North. Nay, nothing; all is said: His tongue is now a stringless instrument; 17 i. e. let them love to live, &c. 18 That is, 'our pilgrimage is yet to come.’ 19 Kernes were Irish peasantry, serving as light armed foot soldiers. Shakspeare makes York say, in the second part of King Henry V. that Cade, when in Ireland, used to disguise himself as a shag-haired crafty kerne. "The kerne is an ordinary foot soldier, according to Stanhihurst; kerne (kigheyren) signifieth a shower of hell, because they are taken for no better than rake hells, or the devil's black-garde.'-Description of Ireland, ch 8, fol. 28. |