To see this business. To-morrow next
We will for Ireland; and 't is time, I trow:
And we create, in absence of ourself,
Our uncle York lord governor of England; 220
For he is just and always lov'd us well.
Come on, our queen; to-morrow must we part.
Be merry, for our time of stay is short.

[Flourish. Exeunt King, Queen, Aumerle, Bushy, Green, and Bagot. North. Well, lords, the Duke of Lancaster is dead. Ross. And living too; for now his son is duke.

225

Willo. Barely in title, not in revenues. North. Richly in both, if Justice had her right.

Ross. My heart is great; but it must break with silence,

Ere 't be disburden'd with a liberal tongue. North. Nay, speak thy mind; and let him ne'er speak more

230

That speaks thy words again to do thee harm!
Willo. Tends that thou wouldst speak to the
Duke of Hereford ?

If it be so, out with it boldly, man;
Quick is mine ear to hear of good towards him.
Ross. No good at all that I can do for
him;

235

Unless you call it good to pity him,
Bereft and gelded of his patrimony.
North. Now, afore God, 't is shame such
wrongs are borne

240

In him, a royal prince, and many moe
Of noble blood in this declining land.
The King is not himself, but basely led
By flatterers; and what they will inform,
Merely in hate, 'gainst any of us all,
That will the King severely prosecute
'Gainst us, our lives, our children, and our
heirs.

245

Ross. The commons hath he pill'd with grievous taxes,

And quite lost their hearts; the nobles hath he fined

For ancient quarrels, and quite lost their hearts.

Willo. And daily new exactions are devis'd, As blanks, benevolences, and I wot not what.

250

But what, o' God's name, doth become of this? North. Wars hath not wasted it, for warr'd he hath not,

But basely yielded upon compromise That which his noble ancestors achiev'd with blows.

More hath he spent in peace than they in

SCENE II. [Windsor Castle.]

Enter QUEEN, BUSHY, and BAGOT. Bushy. Madam, your Majesty is too much

sad.

You promis'd, when you parted with the King,
To lay aside life-harming heaviness
And entertain a cheerful disposition.

Queen. To please the King I did; to please myself

I cannot do it; yet I know no cause
Why I should welcome such a guest as Grief,
Save bidding farewell to so sweet a guest

Or if it be, 't is with false sorrow's eye,
Which for things true weeps things imaginary.
Queen. It may be so; but yet my inward soul
Persuades me it is otherwise. Howe'er it be,
I cannot but be sad; so heavy sad

30

As, though on thinking on no thought I think, Makes me with heavy nothing faint and shrink.

Bushy. "Tis nothing but conceit, my gracious lady.

Queen. T is nothing less: conceit is still deriv'd

From some forefather grief; mine is not so, For nothing hath begot my something grief, Or something hath the nothing that I grieve. 'Tis in reversion that I do possess ;

But what it is, that is not yet known; what, I cannot name; 't is nameless woe, I wot.

Enter GREEN.

35

40

Hath broken his staff, resign'd his stewardship,

And all the household servants fled with him 60 To Bolingbroke.

Queen. So, Green, thou art the midwife to my woe,

And Bolingbroke my sorrow's dismal heir.
Now hath my soul brought forth her prodigy,
And I, a gasping new-deliver'd mother,
Have woe to woe, sorrow to sorrow join'd.
Bushy. Despair not, madam.
Queen.
Who shall hinder me?

I will despair, and be at enmity
With cozening hope. He is a flatterer,
A parasite, a keeper back of death,
Who gently would dissolve the bands of life,
Which false hope lingers in extremity.

Enter YORK.

70

Green. Here comes the Duke of York. Queen. With signs of war about his aged neck.

75

O, full of careful business are his looks! Uncle, for God's sake, speak comfortable words.

York. Should I do so, I should belie my thoughts.

Comfort 's in heaven; and we are on the earth,

Where nothing lives but crosses, cares, and

grief.

80

Your husband, he is gone to save far off, Whilst others come to make him lose at home. Here am I left to underprop his land,

Who, weak with age, cannot support myself. Now comes the sick hour that his surfeit

made;

Now shall he try his friends that flatter'd him. Enter a SERVANT.

Serv. My lord, your son was gone before I

York. He was? Why, so! go all which way it will !

The nobles they are fled; the commons they are cold,

And will, I fear, revolt on Hereford's side. Sirrah, get thee to Plashy, to my sister Glouces

ter;

Bid her send me presently a thousand pound. Hold, take my ring.

90

Serv. My lord, I had forgot to tell your lordship,

To-day, as I came by, I called there,

But I shall grieve you to report the rest.
York. What is 't, knave?

Serv. An hour before I came, the Duchess died.

York. God for his mercy! what a tide of

SCENE III. [Wilds in Gloucestershire.] Enter BOLINGBROKE and NORTHUMBERLAND [with forces].

Boling. How far is it, my lord, to Berkeley now?

North. Believe me, noble lord,

I am a stranger here in Gloucestershire.
These high wild hills and rough uneven ways
Draws out our miles, and makes them wear
some;

And yet your fair discourse hath been as sugar,
Making the hard way sweet and delectable.
But I bethink me what a weary way
From Ravenspurgh to Cotswold will be found
In Ross and Willoughby, wanting your com-

To upstart unthrifts? Wherefore was I born?
If that my cousin king be King of England,
It must be granted I am Duke of Lancaster.
You have a son, Aumerle, my noble cousin; 125
Had you first died, and he been thus trod down,
He should have found his uncle Gaunt a father
To rouse his wrongs and chase them to the bay.
I am deni'd to sue my livery here,
And yet my letters patents give me leave.
My father's goods are all distrain'd and sold,
And these and all are all amiss employ'd.
What would you have me do? I am a subject,
And I challenge law. Attorneys are denied me;
And therefore personally I lay my claim
To my inheritance of free descent.

130

185

I'll pause,

165

For I am loath to break our country's laws. Nor friends nor foes, to me welcome you are. 170 Things past redress are now with me past care. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV. [A camp in Wales.]

Enter SALISBURY and a Welsh CAPTAIN. Cap. My Lord of Salisbury, we have stay'd ten days,

And hardly kept our countrymen together, And yet we hear no tidings from the King; Therefore we will disperse ourselves. Farewell!

Sal. Stay yet another day, thou trusty Welshman.

Myself, a prince by fortune of my birth,
Near to the King in blood, and near in love
Till you did make him misinterpret me,
Have stoop'd my neck under your injuries,
And sigh'd my English breath in foreign
clouds,

Eating the bitter bread of banishment;
Whilst you have fed upon my signories,
Dispark'd my parks and fell'd my forest woods,
From my own windows torn my household

coat,

Raz'd out my impress, leaving me no sign,
Save men's opinions and my living blood,
To show the world I am a gentleman.

This and much more, much more than twice all this,

Condemns you to the death. See them delivered

over

To execution and the hand of death.

Bushy. More welcome is the stroke of death

to me

Than Bolingbroke to England. Lords, farewell!

Green. My comfort is that heaven will take our souls

And plague injustice with the pains of hell. Boling. My Lord Northumberland, see them dispatch'd.

15

[Exeunt Northumberland and others, with the prisoners.] Uncle, you say the Queen is at your house; For God's sake, fairly let her be entreated; Tell her I send to her my kind commends. Take special care my greetings be deliver'd. York. A gentleman of mine I have dispatch'd With letters of your love to her at large.