Or, being open, put into his hands That knows no touch to tune the harmony. Is made my gaoler to attend on me. What is thy sentence then, but speechless death, Nor. Then thus I turn me from my country's light, To dwell in solemn shades of endless night. [Retiring. K. Rich. Return again, and take an oath with thee. Lay on our royal sword your banish'd hands; You never shall (so help you truth and heaven!) Nor never look upon each other's face; 'Gainst us, our state, our subjects, or our land. Nor. And I, to keep all this. Boling. Norfolk, so far as to mine enemy;- * Barred. + To move compassion. Confess thy treasons, ere thou fly the realm; Nor. No, Bolingbroke; if ever I were traitor, [Exit. 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 ba nishment. 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. Guunt. I thank my liege, that, in regard of me, He shortens four years of my son's exile: But little vantage shall I reap thereby; For, ere the six years, that he hath to spend, Can change their moons, and bring their times about, K. Rich. Why, uncle, thou hast many years to Gaunt. But not a minute, king, that thou can'st give: Shorten my days thou can'st with sullen sorrow, K. Rich. Thy son is banish'd upon good advice*, Whereto thy tongue a party+ verdict gave; Why at our justice seem'st thou then to lower? Gaunt. Things sweet to taste, prove in digestion sour. You urg'd me as a judge; but I had rather, To smooth his fault I should have been more mild: And in the sentence my own life destroy'd. 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. Mar. My lord, no leave take I ; for I will ride, As far as land will let me, by your side. Gaunt. O, to what purpose dost thou hoard thy words, That thou return'st no greeting to thy friends? Gaunt. Thy grief is but thy absence for a time. ten. Consideration. Reproach of partiality. + Had a part or share. 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 Esteem a foil, wherein thou art to set The precious jewel of thy home-return. Boling. Nay, rather, every tedious stride I make Will but remember me, what a deal of world I wander from the jewels that I love. Must I not serve a long apprenticehood To foreign passages; and in the end, Having my freedom, boast of nothing else, But that I was a journeyman to grief? 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, 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 By bare imagination of a feast? Presence chamber at court. + Growling. Or wallow naked in December snow, Gives but the greater feeling to the worse: 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! [Exeunt. SCENE IV. The same. A room in the king's castle. Enter King Richard, Bagot, and Green; following. Aumerle 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. K. Rich. And, say, what store of parting tears were shed? Aum. 'Faith, none by me: 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. Farewell: |