And fend them after to fupply our wants;
For we will make for Irelend presently.

Enter BUSHY.

Bufhy, what news?

1

BUSHY. Old John of Gaunt is grievous fick, my lord;

Suddenly taken; and hath sent post-haste,
To entreat your majefty to vifit him.

K. RICH. Where lies he?

BUSHY. At Ely-house.

K. RICH. Now put it, heaven, in his physician's mind,

To help him to his grave immediately!
The lining of his coffers fhall make coats
To deck our foldiers for thefe Irifh wars.-
Come, gentlemen, let's all go vifit him:

Pray God, we may make hafte, and come too late!

[Exeunt.

ACT II. SCENE I.

London. A Room in Ely-house.

GAUNT on a Couch; the Duke of YORK, and Others ftanding by him.

GAUNT. Will the king come?, that I may

my laft

In wholesome counsel to his unstaied youth.

breathe

the duke of York,] was Edmund, son of Edward III.

WALPOLE.

YORK. Vex not yourself, nor ftriye not with your

breath;

For all in vain comes counsel to his ear.

GAUNT. O, but they fay, the tongues of dying

men

Enforce attention, like deep harmony :

Where words are scarce, they are feldom spent in

vain ;

For they breathe truth, that breathe their words in

pain.

He, that no more must say, is liften'd more

Than they whom youth and ease have taught to

glofe;

More are men's ends mark'd, than their lives before:

The fetting fun, and mufick at the close, As the last taste of fweets, is sweetest last; Writ in remembrance, more than things long past: Though Richard my life's counfel would not hear, My death's fad tale may yet undeaf his ear.

YORK. No; it is ftopp'd with other flattering founds,

As, praises of his ftate: then, there are found
Lafcivious metres; to whofe venom found
The open ear of youth doth always liften:

9 at the close,] This I suppose to be a musical term. So, in Lingua, 1607:

"I dare engage my ears, the close will jar."

STEEVENS.

1 Lafcivious metres ;] The old copies have-meeters; but I believe we should read metres for verfes. Thus the folio fpells the word metre in The First Part of King Henry IV :

one of these same meeter ballad-mongers." Venom found agrees well with lafcivious ditties, but not fo commodioufly with one who meets another; in which fenfe the word appears to have been generally received. STEEVENS.

Report of fashions in proud Italy;2
Whofe manners ftill our tardy apith nation
Limps after, in base imitation.

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 regard.3

Direct not him, whose way himself will choose ;4
"Tis breath thou lack'ft, and that breath wilt thou
lofe.

GAUNT. Methinks, I am a prophet new inspir❜d;
And thus, expiring, do foretell of him :
His rafh5 fierce blaze of riot cannot laft;
For violent fires foon burn out themselves:
Small showers laft long, but fudden ftorms are fhort;
He tires betimes, that fpurs too fast betimes;
With eager feeding, food doth choke the feeder:
Light vanity, infatiate cormorant,

Confuming means, foon preys upon itself.
This royal throne of kings, this fcepter'd ifle,
This earth of majefty, this feat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradife;

2

Report of fashions in proud Italy ;] Our author, who gives to all nations the customs of England, and to all ages the manners of his own, has charged the times of Richard with a folly not perhaps known then, but very frequent in Shakspeare's time, and much lamented by the wifeft and best of our ancestors.

JOHNSON. 3 Where will doth mutiny with wit's regard.] Where the will rebels against the notices of the understanding. JOHNSON.

4 whofe way himself will choofe;] Do not attempt to guide him, who, whatever thou fhalt fay, will take his own courfe. JOHNSON.

5

rash] That is, hafty, violent. JOHNSON.

So, in King Henry IV. Part I:

"Like aconitum, or rash gunpowder." MALONE.

This fortrefs, built by nature for herself,
Against infection," and the hand of war:
This happy breed of men, this little world;
This precious ftone fet in the filver sea,
Which ferves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defenfive to a house,

Against the envy of lefs happier lands;7

This bleffed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,

This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings, Fear'd by their breed, and famous by their birth,

6 Against infection,] I once fufpected that for infection we might read invafion; but the copies all agree, and I fuppofe Shakspeare meant to say, that iflanders are fecured by their fituation both from war and pestilence. JOHNSON.

In Allot's England's Parnaffus, 1600, this paffage is quoted: Againft inteftion," &c. Perhaps the word might be infeftion, if fuch a word was in ufe. FARMER.

7 lefs happier lands;] So read all the editions, except Sir T. Hanmer's, which has lefs happy. I believe, Shakspeare, from the habit of faying more happier, according to the custom of his time, inadvertently writ less happier. JOHNSON.

Fear'd by their breed, and famous by their birth,] The first edition in quarto, 1598, reads:

Fear'd by their breed, and famous for their birth. The quarto, in 1615 :

Fear'd by their breed, and famous by their birth. The first folio, though printed from the fecond quarto, reads as the firft. The particles in this author feem often to have been printed by chance. Perhaps the paffage, which appears a little difordered, may be regulated thus:

royal kings,

Fear'd for their breed, and famous for their birth,
For Christian service, and true chivalry;

Renowned for their deeds as far from home

As is the fepulchre-. JOHNSON.

The first folio could not have been printed from the second quarto, on account of many variations as well as omiffions. The

Renowned for their deeds as far from home,
(For Chriftian fervice, and true chivalry,)
As is the fepulchre in ftubborn Jewry,
Of the world's ranfom, bleffed Mary's fon:
This land of fuch 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 :9
England, bound in with the triumphant fea,
Whose rocky fhore beats back the envious fiege
Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with fhame,
With inky blots,' and rotten parchment bonds; *

2

quarto 1608 has the fame reading with that immediately preceding it. STEEVENS.

Fear'd by their breed,] i. e. by means of their breed.

9 This land.

MALONE.

"In this 22d yeare

Is now leas'd out (I die pronouncing it,) Like to a tenement, or pelting farm :] of King Richard (fays Fabian,) the common fame ranne, that the kinge had letten to farm the realme unto Sir William Scrope, earle of Wiltshire, and then treasurer of England, to Syr John Bushey, Sir John Bagot, and Sir Henry Grene, knightes."

MALONE.

With inky blots,] I fufpect that our author wrote-inky bolts. How can blots bind in any thing? and do not bolts correspond better with bonds? Inky bolts are written reftrictions. So, in The Honeft Man's Fortune, by Beaumont and Fletcher, A& IV. fc. i:

manacling itself
"In gyves of parchment."

rotten parchment bonds;]

STEEVENS.

Alluding to the great fums raifed by loans and other exactions, in this reign, upon the Englifh fubjects. GREY.

Gaunt does not allude, as Grey fuppofes, to any loans or exactions extorted by Richard, but to the circumstances of his having actually farmed out his royal realm, as he himself ftyles it. In the laft fcene of the first Act he says:

"And, for our coffers are grown somewhat light,
"We are enforc'd to farm our royal realm.”