1 Lady. Madam, I'll sing. Queen. 'Tis well, that thou hast cause; But thou should'st please me better, would'st thou weep. 1 Lady. I could weep, madam, would it do you good. Queen. And I could weep, would weeping do me good, And never borrow any tear of thee. But stay, here come the gardeners: Enter a Gardener, and two Servants. My wretchedness unto a row of pins, Against a change: Woe is forerun with woe. [Queen and Ladies retire. Gard. Go, bind thou up you' dangling apricocks, Which, like unruly children, make their sire Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight: Give some supportance to the bending twigs.Go thou, and, like an executioner, Cut off the heads of too-fast-growing sprays, That look too lofty in our commonwealth: All must be even in our government. You thus employ'd, I will go root away The noisome weeds, that without profit suck The soil's fertility from wholesome flowers. - 1 Serv. Why should we, in the compass of a pale*, Keep law, and form, and due proportion, Showing, as in a model, our firm estate? When our sea-walled garden, the whole land, Is full of weeds; her fairest flowers chok'd up, Her fruit-trees all unprun'd, her hedges ruin'd, Her knotst disorder'd, and her wholesome herbs Swarming with caterpillars? * Inclosure. + Figures planted in box. Gard. Hold thy peace :— He that hath suffer'd this disorder'd spring, The weeds, that his broad-spreading leaves did shelter, That seem'd in eating him to hold him up, Gard. Depress'd he is already; and depos'd, Queen. O, I am press'd to death, Through want of speaking!-Thou, old Adam's likeness, [Coming from her concealment. Set to dress the garden, how dares Thy harsh-rude tongue sound this unpleasing news? What Eve, what serpent hath suggested thee To make a second fall of cursed man? Why dost thou say, King Richard is depos'd? No doubt. Dar'st thou, thou little better thing than earth, Of Bolingbroke; their fortunes both are weigh'd: Queen. Nimble mischance, that art so light of foot, Doth not thy embassage belong to me, And am I last that knows it? O, thou think'st I would, the plants thou graft'st, may never grow. worse, I would, my skill were subject to thy curse.- [Exeunt. * Pity. H 2 ACT IV. SCENE I. London. Westminster Hall. The lords spiritual on the right side of the throne; the lords temporal on the left; the commons below. Enter Bolingbroke, Aumerle, Surrey, Northumberland, Percy, Fitzwater, another lord, Bishop of Carlisle, Abbot of Westminster, and attendants. Officers behind, with Bagot. Boling. Call forth Bagot : Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind; What thou dost know of noble Gloster's death; Who wrought it with the king, and who perform'd The bloody office of his timeless* end. Bagot. Then set before my face the lord Aumerle. Boling. Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that man. Bagot. My lord Aumerle, I khow your daring tongue Scorns to unsay what once it hath deliver'd. In that dead time when Gloster's death was plotted, Aum. Princes, and noble lords, What answer shall I make to this base man? Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars, On equal terms to give him cliastisement? Either I must, or have mine honour soil'd • Untimely. With the attainder of his sland'rous lips.- Boling. Bagot, forbear, thou shalt not take it up. Aum. Excepting one, I would he were the best In all this presence, that hath mov'd me so. Fitz. If that thy valour stand on sympathies, There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine: By that fair sun that shows me where thou stand'st, I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spak'st it, That thou wert cause of noble Gloster's death. If thou deny'st it, twenty times thou liest; And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart, Where it was forged, with my rapier's point. Aum. Thou dar'st not, coward, live to see that day. Fitz. Now, by my soul, I would it were this hour. Aum. Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this. Percy. Aumerle, thou liest; his honour is as true, In this appeal, as thou art all unjust: And, that thou art so, there I throw my gage, Lord. I take the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle; And spur thee on with full as many lies Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st. Aum. Who sets me else? by heaven, I'll throw at all: I have a thousand spirits in one breast, To answer twenty thousand such as you. Surrey. My lord Fitzwater, I do remember well The very time Aumerle and you did talk. Fitz. My lord, 'tis true: you were in presence then; And you can witness with me, this is true. |