NORTHUMBERLAND.Sorrow and grief of heart
Makes him speak fondly, like a frantic man;
Yet he is come.
[Enter KING RICHARD, and his attendants.]
BOLINGBROKE.
Stand all apart,
And show fair duty to his Majesty.[Kneeling.]
My gracious lord,—
KING RICHARD.
Fair cousin, you debase your princely knee
To make the base earth proud with kissing it:
Me rather had my heart might feel your love
Than my unpleas’d eye see your courtesy.
Up, cousin, up; your heart is up, I know,
Thus high at least, although your knee be low.
BOLINGBROKE.
My gracious lord, I come but for mine own.
KING RICHARD.
Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all.
BOLINGBROKE.
So far be mine, my most redoubted lord,
As my true service shall deserve your love.
KING RICHARD.
Well you deserve: they well deserve to have
That know the strong’st and surest way to get.
Uncle, give me your hand: nay, dry your eyes:
Tears show their love, but want their remedies.
Cousin, 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 must what force will have us do.
Set on towards London. Cousin, is it so?
BOLINGBROKE.
Yea, my good lord.
KING RICHARD.
Then I must not say no.
[Flourish. Exeunt.]
SCENE IV. Langley. The DUKE OF YORK’s garden.
[Enter the QUEEN and two Ladies.]
QUEEN.
What sport shall we devise here in this garden
To drive away the heavy thought of care?
LADY.
Madam, we’ll play at bowls.
QUEEN.
‘Twill make me think the world is full of rubs
And that my fortune runs against the bias.
LADY.
Madam, we’ll dance.
QUEEN.
My legs can keep no measure in delight,
When my poor heart no measure keeps in grief:
Therefore no dancing, girl; some other sport.
LADY.
Madam, we’ll tell tales.
QUEEN.
Of sorrow or of joy?
LADY.
Of either, madam.
QUEEN.
Of neither, girl:
For if of joy, being altogether wanting,
It doth remember me the more of sorrow;
Or if of grief, being altogether had,
It adds more sorrow to my want of joy;
For what I have I need not to repeat,
And what I want it boots not to complain.
LADY.
Madam, I’ll sing.
QUEEN.
‘Tis well’ that thou hast cause;
But thou shouldst please me better wouldst thou weep.
LADY.
I could weep, madam, would it do you good.
QUEEN.
And I could sing, would weeping do me good,
And never borrow any tear of thee.
But stay, here come the gardeners.
Let’s step into the shadow of these trees.
My wretchedness unto a row of pins,
They will talk of state, for every one doth so
Against a change: woe is forerun with woe.
[QUEEN and Ladies retire.]
[Enter a Gardener and two Servants.]
GARDENER.
Go, bind thou up yon dangling apricocks,
Which, like unruly children, make their sire
Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight:
Give some supportance to the bending twigs.
Go thou, and like an executioner
Cut off the heads of too fast 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 which without profit suck
The soil’s fertility from wholesome flowers.
SERVANT.
Why should we in the compass of a pale
Keep law and form and due proportion,
Showing, as in a model, our firm estate,
