The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Part 422

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.

Enter a GARDENER and two SERVANTS

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]

GARDENER. Go, bind thou up yon dangling apric.o.c.ks, Which, like unruly children, make their sire Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight; Give some supportance to the bending twigs.

Go thou, and Eke 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 compa.s.s of a pale, Keep law and form and due proportion, Showing, as in a model, our firm estate, When our sea-walled garden, the whole land, Is full of weeds; her fairest flowers chok'd up, Her fruit trees all unprun'd, her hedges ruin'd, Her knots disordered, and her wholesome herbs Swarming with caterpillars?

GARDENER. Hold thy peace.

He that hath suffer'd this disorder'd spring Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf; The weeds which his broad-spreading leaves did shelter, 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, Bushy, Green.

SERVANT. What, are they dead?

GARDENER. They are; and Bolingbroke Hath seiz'd the wasteful King. O, what pity is it That he had not so trimm'd and dress'd his land As we this garden! We at time of year Do wound the bark, the skin of our fruit trees, Lest, being over-proud in sap and blood, With too much riches it confound itself; Had he done so to great and growing men, They might have Ev'd to bear, and he to taste Their fruits of duty. Superfluous branches We lop away, that bearing boughs may live; Had he done so, himself had home the crown, Which waste of idle hours hath quite thrown down.

SERVANT. What, think you the King shall be deposed?

GARDENER. Depress'd he is already, and depos'd 'Tis doubt he will be. Letters came last night To a dear friend of the good Duke of York's That tell black tidings.

QUEEN. O, I am press'd to death through want of speaking!

[Coming forward]

Thou, old Adam's likeness, set to dress this garden, How dares thy harsh rude tongue sound this unpleasing news?

What Eve, what serpent, hath suggested the To make a second fall of cursed man?

Why dost thou say King Richard is depos'd?

Dar'st thou, thou little better thing than earth, Divine his downfall? Say, where, when, and how, Cam'st thou by this ill tidings? Speak, thou wretch.

GARDENER. Pardon me, madam; little joy have To breathe this news; yet what I say is true.

King Richard, he is in the mighty hold Of Bolingbroke. Their fortunes both are weigh'd.

In your lord's scale is nothing but himself, And some few vanities that make him light; But in the balance of great Bolingbroke, Besides himself, are all the English peers, And with that odds he weighs King Richard down.

Post you to London, and you will find it so; I speak no more than every one doth know.

QUEEN. Nimble mischance, that art so light of foot, Doth not thy emba.s.sage belong to me, And am I last that knows it? O, thou thinkest To serve me last, that I may longest keep Thy sorrow in my breast. Come, ladies, go To meet at London London's King in woe.

What, was I born to this, that my sad look Should grace the triumph of great Bolingbroke?

Gard'ner, for telling me these news of woe, Pray G.o.d the plants thou graft'st may never grow!

Exeunt QUEEN and LADIES GARDENER. Poor Queen, so that thy state might be no worse, I would my skill were subject to thy curse.

Here did she fall a tear; here in this place I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace.

Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen, In the remembrance of a weeping queen. Exeunt

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ACT IV. SCENE 1.

Westminster Hall

Enter, as to the Parliament, BOLINGBROKE, AUMERLE, NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, FITZWATER, SURREY, the BISHOP OF CARLISLE, the ABBOT OF WESTMINSTER, and others; HERALD, OFFICERS, and BAGOT

BOLINGBROKE. Call forth Bagot.

Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind- What thou dost know of n.o.ble Gloucester's death; Who wrought it with the King, and who perform'd The b.l.o.o.d.y office of his timeless end.

BAGOT. Then set before my face the Lord Aumerle.

BOLINGBROKE. Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that man.

BAGOT. My Lord Aumerle, I know your daring tongue Scorns to unsay what once it hath deliver'd.

In that dead time when Gloucester's death was plotted I heard you say 'Is not my arm of length, That reacheth from the restful English Court As far as Calais, to mine uncle's head?'

Amongst much other talk that very time I heard you say that you had rather refuse The offer of an hundred thousand crowns Than Bolingbroke's return to England; Adding withal, how blest this land would be In this your cousin's death.

AUMERLE. Princes, and n.o.ble lords, What answer shall I make to this base man?

Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars On equal terms to give him chastis.e.m.e.nt?

Either I must, or have mine honour soil'd With the attainder of his slanderous lips.

There is my gage, the manual seal of death That marks thee out for h.e.l.l. I say thou liest, And will maintain what thou hast said is false In thy heart-blood, through being all too base To stain the temper of my knightly sword.

BOLINGBROKE. Bagot, forbear; thou shalt not take it up.

AUMERLE. Excepting one, I would he were the best In all this presence that hath mov'd me so.

FITZWATER. If that thy valour stand on sympathy, There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine.

By that fair sun which shows me where thou stand'st, I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spak'st it, That thou wert cause of n.o.ble Gloucester's death.

If thou deniest it twenty times, thou liest; And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart, Where it was forged, with my rapier's point.

AUMERLE. Thou dar'st not, coward, live to see that day.

FITZWATER. Now, by my soul, I would it were this hour.

AUMERLE. Fitzwater, thou art d.a.m.n'd to h.e.l.l for this.

PERCY. Aumerle, thou liest; his honour is as true In this appeal as thou art an unjust; And that thou art so, there I throw my gage, To prove it on thee to the extremest point Of mortal breathing. Seize it, if thou dar'st.

AUMERLE. An if I do not, may my hands rot of And never brandish more revengeful steel Over the glittering helmet of my foe!

ANOTHER LORD. I task the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle; And spur thee on with fun as many lies As may be halloa'd in thy treacherous ear From sun to sun. There is my honour's p.a.w.n; Engage it to the trial, if thou darest.

AUMERLE. Who sets me else? By heaven, I'll throw at all!

I have a thousand spirits in one breast To answer twenty thousand such as you.

SURREY. My Lord Fitzwater, I do remember well The very time Aumerle and you did talk.

FITZWATER. 'Tis very true; you were in presence then, And you can witness with me this is true.

SURREY. As false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true.

FITZWATER. Surrey, thou liest.

SURREY. Dishonourable boy!

That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword That it shall render vengeance and revenge Till thou the lie-giver and that lie do he In earth as quiet as thy father's skull.

In proof whereof, there is my honour's p.a.w.n; Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st.

FITZWATER. How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse!

If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live, I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness, And spit upon him whilst I say he lies, And lies, and lies. There is my bond of faith, To tie thee to my strong correction.

As I intend to thrive in this new world, Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal.

Besides, I heard the banish'd Norfolk say That thou, Aumerle, didst send two of thy men To execute the n.o.ble Duke at Calais.

AUMERLE. Some honest Christian trust me with a gage That Norfolk lies. Here do I throw down this, If he may be repeal'd to try his honour.

BOLINGBROKE. These differences shall all rest under gage Till Norfolk be repeal'd-repeal'd he shall be And, though mine enemy, restor'd again To all his lands and signories. When he is return'd, Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial.