Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite, Or wallow naked in December fnow, Had I thy youth, and caufe, I would not stay. BOLING. Then, England's ground, farewel; fweet foil, adieu; My mother, and my nurfe, that bears me yet! [Exeunt. care but with clothes; he that is washed in the raine, drieth him- felfe by the fire, not by his fancy; and thou which art banished," &c. MALONE. 3 -yet a trueborn Englishman.] Here the first act ought to end, that between the firft and fecond 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 meffage 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 firft act, than between the first act and the second. JOHNSON SCENE IV. The fame. A Room in the King's Caftle. Enter King RICHARD, BAGOT, and GREEN; K. RICH. We did obferve.- Coufin Aumerle, 4 AUM. 'Faith, none by me: except the northeast 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 fuch 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 mean, on my part. Thus we say, For me, I am content," &c. where these words have the fame figuification as here. MALONE. If we read—for me, the expreffion will be equivocal, and seem as if it meant-no tears were thed on my account. So, in the preceding scene: 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, K. RICH. He is our coufin, cousin; but 'tis doubt, What reverence he did throw away on flaves; As 'twere, to banish their affects with him. A brace of draymen bid-God fpeed him well, 6 go thefe Now for the rebels, which stand out in Ireland; 4 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 fhould be remembered that courtefying, (the act of reverence now confined to women) was anciently practifed by men. STEEVENS. And he our fubjects' next degree in hope.] Spes altera Romæ, Virg. MALONE, ? Expedient—] i. e. expeditious. So, in King John: Ere further leisure yield them further means, K. RICH. We will ourfelf in perfon to this war. The revenue whereof fhall furnifh us For our affairs in hand: If that come fhort, Enter BUSHY. K. RICH. Bufhy, what news? BUSHY. Old John of Gaunt is grievous fick, my lord; Suddenly taken; and hath fent poft-hafte, To entreat your majefty to vifit him. K. RICH. Where lies he? BUSHY. At Ely-houfe. K. RICH. Now put it, heaven, in his phyfician's mind, To help him to his grave immediately! The lining of his coffers fhall make coats 6 and come too late! for our coffers] i. e. because. So, in Othello: STEEVENS. ACT II. SCENE I. London. A Room in Ely-house. 7 GAUNT. on a Couch; the Duke of YORK, and Others Aanding by him. GAUNT. Will the king come? that I may breathe my laft In wholesome counsel to his unflay'd youth. YORK. Vex not yourself, nor ftrive 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 fcarce, 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 be fore: 8 The fetting fun, and mufick at the close, As the laft tafte of fweets, is fweeteft laft; Writ in remembrance, more than things long paft: 7 the duke of York,] was Edmund, fon of Edward III. WALPOLE. at the clofe,] This I fuppofe to be a mufical term. 8 in Lingua, 1607: "I dare engage my ears, the clofe will jar." So, STEEVENS. |