Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite,
By bare imagination of a feaft?

Or wallow naked in December fnow,
By thinking on fantastick fummer's heat?
O, no! the apprehenfion of the good,
Gives but the greater feeling to the worse:
Fell forrow's tooth doth never rankle more,
Than when it bites, but lanceth not the fore.
GAUNT. Come, come, my fon, I'll bring thee on
thy way:

Had I thy youth, and caufe, I would not stay. BOLING. Then, England's ground, farewell; fweet foil, adieu;

My mother, and my nurse, that bears me yet!
Where-e'er I wander, boaft of this I can,
Though banish'd, yet a trueborn Englishman.'

[Exeunt.

care but with clothes; he that is wafhed in the raine, drieth himfelfe by the fire, not by his fancy; and thou which art banished,” &c. MALONE.

3 yet a trueborn Englishman.] Here the firft act ought to end, that between the first and second acts there may be time for John of Gaunt to accompany his fon, return, and fall fick. Then the firft fcene of the fecond act begins with a natural converfation, interrupted by a meflage from John of Gaunt, by which the king is called to vifit him, which vifit is paid in the following scene. As the play is now divided, more time paffes between the two laft fcenes of the first act, than between the first act and the second.

JOHNSON.

The fame. A Room in the King's Caftle.

Enter King RICHARD, BAGOT, and GREEN;
AUMERLE following.

K. RICH. We did obferve.-Cousin Aumerle, How far brought you high Hereford on his way? AUM. I brought high Hereford, if you call him fo, But to the next highway, and there I left him. K. RICH. And, fay, what ftore of parting tears were shed?

AUM. 'Faith, none by me: except the northeaft wind,

Which then blew bitterly against our faces,
Awak'd the fleeping rheum; and fo, by chance,
Did grace our hollow parting with a tear.

K. RICH. What faid our coufin, when you parted with him?

AUM. Farewell:

And for my heart disdained that my tongue Should fo profane the word, that taught me craft To counterfeit oppreffion of such grief,

none by me:] The old copies read-for me. With the other modern editors I have here adopted an emendation made by the editor of the fecond folio; but without neceffity. For me, may Thus we fay, "For me, I am content," &c. mean, on my part. where these words have the fame fignification as here.

MALONE.

If we read-for me, the expreffion will be equivocal, and feem as if it meant-no tears were shed on my account. So, in the preceding scene:

66

O, let no noble eye profane a tear "For me," &c. STEEVENS.

That words feem'd buried in my forrow's grave. Marry, would the word farewell have lengthen'd hours,

And added years to his fhort banishment,
He fhould have had a volume of farewells;
But, fince it would not, he had none of me.

K. RICH. He is our coufin, coufin; but 'tis doubt,
When time fhall call him home from banishment,
Whether our kinfman come to fee his friends.
Ourself, and Bushy, Bagot here, and Green,*
Obferv'd his courtship to the common people:-
How he did feem to dive into their hearts,
With humble and familiar courtesy;
What reverence he did throw away on flaves;
Wooing poor craftsmen, with the craft of fmiles,
And patient underbearing of his fortune,
As 'twere, to banish their affects with him.
Off goes his bonnet to an oysterwench;
A brace of draymen bid-God speed him well,
And had the tribute of his fupple knee,'
With-Thanks, my countrymen, my loving friends ;-
As were our England in reverfion his,
And he our fubjects' next degree in hope."

GREEN. Well, he is gone; and with him go these thoughts.

Now for the rebels, which stand out in Ireland;Expedient manage must be made, my liege;

Bagot here, and Green,] The old copies read-here Bagot. The tranfpofition was made in a quarto of no value, printed in 1634. MALONE.

5

the tribute of his fupple knee,] To illuftrate this phrase, it should be remembered that courtefying, (the act of reverence now confined to women) was anciently practifed by men.

STEEVENS.

• And he our subjects' next degree in hope.] Spes altera Romæ.

Virg. MALONE.

1 Expedient-] i. e. expeditious. So, in King John:

"His marches are expedient to this town." STEEVENS,

Ere further leifure yield them further means,
For their advantage, and your highness' lofs.

K. RICH. We will ourself in perfon to this war.
And, for our coffers-with too great a court,
And liberal largefs,-are grown fomewhat light,
We are enforc'd to farm our royal realm;
The revenue whereof fhall furnifh us

For our affairs in hand: If that come short,
Our fubftitutes at home fhall have blank charters;
Whereto, when they fhall know what men are rich,
They shall subscribe them for large fums of gold,
And fend them after to supply our wants;
For we will make for Ireland presently.

Enter BUSHY.

K. RICH. Bufhy, what news?

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

Suddenly taken; and hath fent 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 Irith wars.-
Come, gentlemen, let's all go vifit him:
Pray God, we may make hafte, and come too late!
[Exeunt.

"

for our coffers] i. e. because. So, in Othello:

Haply, for I am black;-." STEEVENS,

ACT II. SCENE I.

London. A Room in Ely-boufe.

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

GAUNT. Will the king come? that I may breathe my laft

In wholefome counfel to his unftay'd youth.

YORK. Vex not yourself, nor strive 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 seldom spent in

vain;

For they breathe truth, that breathe their words in

pain.

He, that no more muft fay, 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 sweets, is sweetest last;
Writ in remembrance, more than things long paft:

WALPOLE.

7

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

8

in Lingua, 1607:

at the clofe,] This I fuppofe to be a musical term.

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

So,

STEEVENS.