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He, that no more muft fay, is liften'd more

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Than they whom youth and ease have taught to glofe; More are men's ends mark'd, than their lives before: The setting fun, and music at the close, (As the last taste of fweets is fweeteft) last, Writ in remembrance, more than things long paft: Though Richard my life's counfel would not hear, My death's fad tale may yet undeaf his ear.

York. No; it is ftop'd with other flattering founds, As, praises of his state: then, there are found Lafcivious'meeters; to whofe venom'd found The open ear of youth doth always liften: "Reports of fashions in proud Italy; Whofe manners ftill our tardy apifh nation Limps after, in bafe aukward imitation. Where doth the world thruft 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 regard. Direct, not him, whofe way himself will chufe; 'Tis breath thou lack'ft, and that breath wilt thou lose. Gaunt. Methinks, I am a prophet new infpir'd;

And thus, expiring, do foretell of him :

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His rafh fierce blaze of riot cannot laft;

For violent fires foon burn out themfelves :

Small showers laft long, but fudden storms are short;
He tires betimes, that fpurs too faft betimes;
With eager feeding, food doth choak the feeder :

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k glofe;]-flatter, deceive.

meeters;]-perfons about him; metres-verfes, ditties. m Reports-Reporters.

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"And have my learning from fome true reports."

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act II. S. 2. Ant.

mutiny with wit's regard.]-rebel against reafon.
rafb]-hafty.

Light vanity, infatiate cormorant,

Confuming means, foon preys upon itself.
This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd ifle,
This earth of majesty, this feat of Mars,
This other Eden, demy paradife;

This fortrefs, built by nature for herself,
Against infection, and the hand of war;
This happy breed of men, this little world;
This precious stone set in the filver sea,
Which ferves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands;

This bleffed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
'Fear'd for their breed, and famous for their birth,
Renowned for their deeds as far from home,
(For Christian service, and true chivalry)
As is the fepulchre in ftubborn Jewry,
Of the world's ranfom, bleffed Mary's fon;
This land of such dear fouls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,..
Is now leas'd out (I die pronouncing it)
Like to a tenement, or ' pelting farm :
England, bound in with the triumphant sea,
Whose rocky shore beats back the envious fiege
Of watry Neptune, is now bound in with fhame,
"With inky blots, and rotten parchment bonds;
That England, that was wont to conquer others,

P means,]-that feed it, of its fubfiftence.

infection,]-peftilence, from its infular fituation; the contagion of continental vices.

S

pelting]-paltry.

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Fear'd for their breed, and famous for their birth,]-For their hereditary valour. Jurge of angry Neptune. "With inky blots, and rotten parchment bonds,]-alluding to the vast fums raifed by loans, &c. in this reign.

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Hath made a fhameful conqueft of itself:

Ah! would the fcandal vanish with my life,
How happy then were my enfuing death!

Enter King Richard, Queen, Aumerle, Busby, Green, Bagot,
Rofs, and Willoughby.

York. The king is come: deal mildly with his youth; For young hot colts, being "rag'd, do rage the more. Queen. How fares our noble uncle, Lancaster?

K. Rich. What comfort, man? How is't with aged Gaunt?

Gaunt. Oh, how that name befits my compofition! * Old Gaunt, indeed; and gaunt in being old; Within me grief hath kept a tedious fast;

And who abstains from meat, that is not gaunt ?
For fleeping England long time have I watch'd;
Watching breeds leannefs, leannefs is all gaunt:
The pleasure, that fome fathers feed upon,
Is my ftrict faft, I mean-my children's looks;
And, therein fafting, thou haft made me gaunt :
Gaunt am I for the grave, gaunt as a grave,
Whose hollow womb inherits nought but bones.

K. Rich. Can fick men play so nicely with their names?
Gaunt. No, mifery makes sport to mock itself;
Since thou doft seek to kill my name in me,

I mock my name, great king, to flatter thee.

K. Rich. Should dying men then flatter those that live?
Gaunt. No, no; men living flatter those that die.
K. Rich. Thou, now a dying, fay'ft-thou flatter'st me.
Gaunt. Oh! no; thou dy'ft, though I the ficker be.
K. Rich. I am in health, I breathe, I see thee ill.

rag'd,]-rated at.

* Old Gaunt, indeed; and gaunt in being old :]-emaciated, meagre, hollow.Ghent.

Gaunt.

Gaunt. Now, he that made me, knows I fee thee ill;

Ill in myself to fee, and in thee feeing ill.
Thy death-bed is no leffer than the land,
Wherein thou lieft in reputation fick ;
And thou, too careless patient as thou art,
Commit'ft thy anointed body to the cure
Of those physicians that first wounded thee:
A thousand flatterers fit within thy crown,
Whose compass is no bigger than thy head;
And yet, incaged in fo small a verge,
The waste is no whit leffer than thy land,
Oh, had thy grandfire, with a prophet's eye,
Seen how his fon's fon fhould deftroy his fons,
From forth thy reach he would have laid thy fhame;
Depofing thee before thou wert poffefs'd,

Who art poffefs'd now to depofe thyself,
Why, coufin, wert thou regent of the world,
It were a fhame, to let this land by lease :
But, for thy world, enjoying but this land,
Is it not more than fhame, to shame it fo?
Landlord of England art thou now, not king:
* Thy state of law is bond-flave to the law;
And-

2

K. Rich. Thou a lunatic lean-witted fool, Prefuming on an ague's privilege,

Dar'ft with thy frozen admonition

Make pale our cheek; chafing the royal blood,
With fury, from his native residence.

Now by my feat's right royal majefty,

Wert thou not brother to great Edward's fon,

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y A thousand flatterers,]-whose tongues will footh thee to thy ruin. Thy fate of law is bond-flave to the law;]-By farming out thy royalties, thy fovereignty is become amenable to laws, from which it was formerly exempt.

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This tongue, that runs fo roundly in thy head,
Should run thy head from thy unreverend fhoulders.
Gaunt. Oh, fpare me not, my brother Edward's fon,
For that I was his father Edward's fon

That blood already, like the pelican,

Haft thou tapt out, and drunkenly carows'd:
My brother Glofter, plain well-meaning foul,
(Whom fair befal in heaven 'mongst happy fouls!)
May be a precedent and witness good,

a

That thou respect❜ft not spilling Edward's blood:
Join with the present sickness that I have;
And thy unkindness be like crooked age,
To crop at once a too-long wither'd flower.
b Live in thy fhame, but die not fhame with thee!
These words hereafter thy tormentors be!—
Convey me to my bed, then to my grave :—
Love they to live, that love and honour have.

[Exit, borne out. K. Rich. And let them die, that age and fullens have; For both haft thou, and both become the grave.

York. 'Beseech your majefty, impute his words

To wayward fickliness and age in him:

He loves you, on my life, and holds you dear
As Harry duke of Hereford, were he here.

K. Rich. Right; you fay true: as Hereford's love, fo

his;

As theirs, fo mine; and all be as it is.

Enter Northumberland,

North. My liege, old Gaunt commends him to your majesty.

K. Rich. What fays he?

a be like crooked age,]-armed with a crook, or fickle-be time's crooked edge-do the office of time's feythe; unite with the ravages of age in accelerating my deftruction.

Love they]-Let them love.

b Die.

North.

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