BOLING. What fays his majefty?

NORTH.

Sorrow and grief of heart

Makes him speak fondly, like a frantick man:

Yet he is come.

Enter King RICHARD, and his Attendants, blow.

BOLING. Stand all apart,

And fhow fair duty to his majesty.

My gracious lord,—

[Kneeling.

K. RICH. Fair Coufin, you debafe your princely

knee,

To make the bafe earth proud with kiffing it:
Me rather had, my heart might feel your love,
Than my unpleas'd eye fee your courtesy.
Up, coufin, up; your heart is up, I know,
Thus high at least, [Touching his own head. Jalthough
your knee be low.

BOLING. My gracious lord, I come but for mine

J own.

K. RICH. Your own is yours, and I am yours,

and all.

BOLING. So far be mine, my most redoubted lord,

As my true fervice fhall deferve your love.

K. RICH. Well you deferve: They well deserve to have,

That know the ftrong'ft and fureft way to get.
Uncle, give me your hand: nay, dry your eyes;
Tears fhow their love, but want their remedies.-
Coufin, I am too young to be your father,
Though you are old enough to be my heir.
What you will have, I'll give, and willing too;
For do we muft, what force will have us do.
Set on towards London: Coufin, is it so?

!

QUEEN. What fport fhall we devife here in this

garden,

To drive away the heavy thought of care?

1 LADY. Madam, we'll play at bowls.

'Twill make me think,

QUEEN.
The world is full of rubs, and that my fortune
Runs 'gainst the bias.

1 LADY.

Madam, we will dance.

QUEEN. My legs can keep no measure in delight,
When my poor heart no measure keeps in grief:
Therefore, no dancing, girl; fome other sport.
1 LADY. Madam, we'll tell tales.
QUEEN.

Of forrow, or of joy? +

3 Then I must not fay, no.] "The duke with a high fharpe voyce bade bring forth the kings horses, and then two little nagges, not worth forty franks, were brought forth; the king was fet on the one, and the earle of Salisburie on the other: and thus the duke brought the king from Flint to Chester, where he was delivered to the duke of Glocefters fonne and to the earle of Arundels fonne, (that loved him but little, for he had put their fathers to death,) who led him ftraight to the calle." Stowe, (p. 521, edit. 1605,) from a manufcript account written by a perfon who was prefent. MALONE.

4 Of forrow, or of joy?] All the old copies concur in reading — Of forrow, or of grief.

Mr. Pope made the neceffary alteration, STeevens.

Of neither, girl:

1 LADY. Of either, madam,
QUEEN.
For if of joy, being altogether wanting,
It doth remember me the more of forrow;
Or if of grief, being altogether had,

It adds more forrow to my want of joy:
For what I have, I need not to repeat;
And what I want, it boots not to complain.
1 LADY. Madam, I'll fing.

QUEEN.

'Tis well, that thou haft caufe; But thou fhould'st please me better, would't thou

weep.

1 LADY. I could weep, madam, would it do you

good.

QUEEN. And I could weep, would weeping do me good,

And never borrow any tear of thee.

But ftay, here come the gardeners:

Let's ftep into the fhadow of these trees.

Enter a Gardener, and two Servants.

My wretchedness unto a row of pins,
They'll talk of ftate; for every one doth fo
Against a change: Woe is forerun with woe.
[Queen and Ladies retire.

6

And I could weep,] The old copies read—And I could fing.
STEEVENS.

Mr. Pope made the emendation. MALONE.

6 Against a change: Woe is forerun with woe.] The poet, according to the common do&rine of prognoftication, fuppofes dejedion to forerun calamity, and a kingdom to be filled with rumours of forrow when any great disaster is impending. The fenfe is, that publick evils are always prefignified by publick penfiveness, and plaintive conversation. JOHNSON.

GARD. Go, bind thou up yon' dangling apri

cocks,

Which, like unruly children, make their fire
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 sprays,
That look too lofty in our commonwealth:
All must be even in our government.
You thus employ'd, I will go root away
The noisome weeds, that without profit fuck
The foil's fertility from wholesome flowers.

1 SERV. Why should we, in the compass of a pale,

6

Keep law, and form, and due proportion,
Showing, as in a model, our firm eftate?
When our fea-walled garden, the whole land,
Is full of weeds; her faireft flowers chok'd up,
Her fruit-trees all unprun'd, her hedges ruin'd,
Her knots diforder'd,' and her wholefome herbs
Swarming with caterpillars?

GARD.

Hold they peace:—

Our firm eftate?] How could he fay ours when he immediately fubjoins, that it was infirm? we fhould read:

-- a firm ftate. WARBURTON.

The fervant fays our, meaning the ftate of the garden in which they are at work. The ftate of the metaphorical garden was indeed unfirm, and therefore his reasoning is very naturally induced. Why (fays he) should we be careful to preferve order in the narrow cincture of this our fate, when the great fate of the kingdom is in diforder? I have replaced the old reading which Dr. Warburton would have discontinued in favour of his own conje&ure. STEEVENS.

7 Her knots diforder'd.] Knots are figures planted in box, the lines of which frequently interfe&t each other. So, Milton:

"Flowers, worthy Paradife, which not nice art

"In beds and curious knots, but nature boon

Pour'd forth." STEEVENS.

1

He that hath fuffer'd this diforder'd spring,
Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf;
The weeds, that his broad-fpreading leaves did
fhelter,

That seem'd, in eating him, to hold him up,
Are pluck'd up, root and all, by Bolingbroke;
I mean, the earl of Wiltshire, Bufhy, Green.
1 SERV. What, are they dead?

8

GARD. They are; and Bolingbroke Hath feiz'd the wasteful king.—Oh! What pity is it, That he had not fo trimm'd and drefs'd his land, As we this garden! We at time of year Do wound the bark, the skin of our fruit-trees;` Left, being over-proud with fap and blood, With too much riches it confound itself: 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, himfelf had borne the crown, Which waste of idle hours hath quite thrown down. 1 SERV. What, think you then, the king shall be depos'd?

GARD. Deprefs'd he is already; and depos'd, 'Tis doubt, he will be: Letters came last night

2

8 -We at time of year-] The word We is not in the old copies. The context fhows that fome word was omitted at the prefs; and the fubfequent lines

"--fuperfluous branches

"We lop away,-

render it highly probable that this was the word. MALONE.

9

-All fuperfluous branches-] Thus the fecond folio.

The

firft omits the word-all, and thereby hurts the metre; for Superfluous is never accented on the third fyllable. STEEVENS.

2

'Tis doubt, he will be:] We have already had an inftance of this uncommon phrafeology in the prefent play :