Enter a Gardiner, and two Servants. They'll talk of State; for every one doth fo, * Against a Change; woe is fore-run with mocks. [Queen and Ladies retire. Gard. Go, bind thou up yond dangling Apricocks, Which, like unruly children, make their Sire Stoop with oppreffion of their prodigal weight: Give fome fupportance to the bending twigs. Go thou, and, like an executioner, Cut off the heads of too-faft-growing fprays, That look too lofty in our Common-wealth: All must be even in our Government. You thus imploy'd, I will go root away! The noifom weeds, that without profit fuck The foil's fertility from wholfom flowers.

Serv. Why should we, in the compass of a pale, Keep law, and form, and due proportion, Shewing, as in a model, a firm ftate? When our Sea-walled garden, (the whole Land,) Is full of weeds, her faireft flowers choak'd up, Her fruit-trees all unprun'd, her hedges ruin'd, Her knots diforder'd, and her wholesome herbs Swarming with Caterpillars?

Gard. Hold thy peace.

He, that hath fuffer'd this diforder'd Spring,

4 Against a Change; woe is fore-run with woE.] But what was there, in the Gardiners' talking of State, for matter of fo much woe? Befides, this is intended for a Sentence, but proves a very fimple one. I fuppofe Shakespear wrote,

woe is fore-run with MOCKS, which has fome meaning in it; and fignifies, that, when great Men are on the decline, their inferiors take advantage of their condition, and treat them without ceremony. And this we find to be the cafe in the following fcene. But the Editors were seeking for a rhime. Tho' had they not been fo impatient they would have found it gingled to what followed, tho' it did not to what went before.

5-OUR firm flate ?] How could he fay ours when he immediately fubjoins, that it was infirm? We fhould read

A firm fate.

Hath

Hath now himfelf met with the Fall of leaf
The weeds, that his broad-spreading leaves did fhelter,
(That feem'd, in eating him, to hold him up)
Are pull'd up, root and all, by Bolingbroke;
I mean, the Earl of Wiltshire, Busby, Green.
Ser. What, are they dead?
Gard. They are,

And Bolingbroke hath feiz'd the wasteful King.
What pity is't, that he had not so trimm'd
And dreft his Land, as we this Garden drefs, :
And wound the bark, the skin, of our fruit-trees;
Left, being over proud with fap and blood,
With too much riches it confound it self;
Had he done fo to great and growing men,
They might have liv'd to bear, and he to tafte
Their fruits of duty. All fuperfluous branches
We lop away, that bearing boughs may live:
Had he done fo, himself had born the Crown,
Which waste and idle hours have quite thrown down.
Ser. What, think you then, the King fhall be
depos'd?

Gard. Depreft he is already, and depos'd,
'Tis doubted, he will be. Letters last night
Came to a dear friend of the Duke of York,
That tell black tidings.

[fpeaking:

Queen. Oh, I am preft to death, through want of Thou Adam's likeness, fet to drefs this garden, How dares thy tongue found this unpleafing news? What Eve, what Serpent hath fuggefted thee, To make a fecond Fall of curfed man? Why doft thou fay, King Richard is depos'd? Dar'ft thou, (thou little better Thing than earth,) Divine his downfal? fay, where, when, and how Cam'ft thou by thefe ill tidings? fpeak, thou wretch. Gard. Pardon me, Madam. Little joy have I To breathe thefe news; yet, what I fay, is true; King Richard, he is in the mighty hold

Of

Of Bolingbroke; their fortunes both are weigh'd:
In your Lord's Scale is nothing but himself,
And fome few Vanities that make him light:
But in the Balance of great Bolingbroke,
Befides himself, are all the English Peers,
And with that odds he weighs King Richard down.
Poft you to London, and you'll find it fo;
I fpeak no more, than every one doth know.

Queen. Nimble Mischance, that art fo light of foot, Doth not thy Embaffage belong to me?

And am I laft, that know it? oh, thou think'st
To serve me laft, that I may longest keep
Thy forrow in my breast. Come, ladies, go;
To meet, at London, London's King in woe.
What, was I born to this! that my fad Look
Should grace the triumph of great Bolingbroke!
Gard'ner, for telling me thefe news of woe,
I would, the plants, thou graft'ft, may never grow.
[Exeunt Queen and Ladies.
Gard. Poor Queen, fo that thy ftate might be no worse,
I would my skill were fubject to thy Curfe.
Here did the drop a tear; here, in this place,
I'll fet a bank of Rue, fow'r herb of grace;
Rue, ev'n for ruth, here fhortly shall be seen,
In the remembrance of a weeping Queen.

[Ex. Gard. and Serv.

ACT

ACT
ACT

IV.

IV. SCENE I.

In LONDON.

Enter, as to the Parliament, Bolingbroke, Aumerle, Northumberland, Percy, Fitzwater, Surrey, Bishop of Carlife, Abbot of Westminster, Herald, Officers, and Bagot.

BOLINGBROKE.

ALL Bagot forth: now freely speak thy mind, What thou doft know of noble Glo'fter's death; Who wrought it with the King, and who perform'd The bloody office of his timeless end.

Bagot. Then fet before my face the lord Aumerle. Boling. Coufin, ftand forth, and look upon that man. Bagot. My lord Aumerle, I know your daring tongue Scorns to unfay, what it hath once deliver❜d. In that dead time when Glofter's death was plotted, I heard you fay, Is not my arm of length, That reacheth from the reftful English Court As far as Calais to my uncle's head? Amongst much other talk that very time, I heard you fay, You rather had refuse, The offer of an hundred thousand crowns, Than Bolingbroke return to England; adding,

How bleft this Land would be in this yourCoufin's death.
Aum. Princes, and noble lords,

What answer fhall I make to this base man?
Shall I fo much difhonour my fair ftars,
On equal terms to give him chastisement?
Either I must, or have mine honour foil'd
With the attainder of his fland'rous lips.

1 —his timeless end.] timeless for untimely.

2 my fair STARS,] I rather think it should be STEM, he being of the royal blood.

VOL. IV.

F

There

There is my Gage, the manual feal of death,
That marks thee out for hell. Thou lieft,
And I'll maintain what thou haft faid, is false,
In thy heart-blood, though being all too base
To ftain the temper of my knightly fword.
Boling. Bagot, forbear; thou fhalt not take it up.
Aum. Excepting one, I would he were the best
In all this presence that hath mov'd me fo.

Fitzw. If that thy valour ftand on sympathies,
There is my Gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine:
By that fair Sun, that fhews me where thou stand'st,
I heard thee fay, and vauntingly thou fpak'ft it,
That thou wert cause of noble Glo'fter's death.
If thou deny'st it, twenty times thou lieft;
And I will turn thy falfhood to thy heart,
Where it was forged, with my rapier's point.
Aum. Thou dar'ft not, coward, live to fee the day.
Fitzw. Now, by my foul, I would it were this hour.
Aum. Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this.
Percy. Aumerle, thou lieft; his honour is as true,
In this appeal, as thou art all unjust;

And that thou art fo, there I throw my Gage
To prove it on thee, to th' extreameft point
Of mortal breathing. Seize it, if thou dar'ft.
Aum. And if I do not, may my hands rot off,
And never brandifh more revengeful steel
Over the glittering helmet of my foe!
Who fets me elfe? by heav'n, I'll throw at all,
I have a thousand spirits in my breast,
To answer twenty thousand fuch as you.
Surrey. My lord Fitzwater, I remember
The very time Aumerle and you did talk.
Fitzw. My lord, 'tis true: you were in presence then;
And you can witness with me, this is true.

well

3 Who fets me elfe?. -] These three verfes are taken from

the first Edition.

Mr. Pope.

Surrey.