The speakers in the ensuing scene are John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster; and the widowed duchess of Glo'ster. [Gaunt.] Alas! the part I had in Gloster's blood [Duchess.] Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper spur? Is crack'd, and all the precious liquor spill'd. Ah, Gaunt, his blood was thine; that bed, that womb, Made him a man: then, 'venge my Gloster's death. [Gaunt.] Heaven's is the quarrel: for heaven's substitute, His deputy, anointed in His sight, Hath caus'd his death; the which, if wrongfully, An angry arm against His minister. [Duchess.] Where, then, alas! where, where may I com [plain? [Gaunt.] To Heaven, the widow's champion and defence. [Duchess.] Why then I will. Farewell, old Gaunt! I shall remember more: Bid him-Oh what? And what hear there for welcome but my groans? We may now imagine we look upon the lists at Coventry just at the moment when, after all the verbal ceremonies of appeal and defence have been performed, the marshal directs the trumpets to sound, and the combatants to set forward; at this instant the king throws his warder down, and desires the combatants to return to their places. After a pause, he thus speaks : [Richard.] For that our kingdom's earth should not be With that dear blood which it hath fostered; [soil'd And, for our eyes do hate the direful aspect Till twice five summers have enrich'd our fields. When his first astonishment and grief permit him, Norfolk answers: [Norfolk.] A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege, The language I have learn'd these forty years, Within my mouth you have engaol'd my tongue, And made it useless as an unstring'd harp. I am too old to fawn upon a nurse; Too far in years to be a pupil now; What is thy sentence, then, but speechless death? [Richard.] Our sentence pass'd, it boots thee not to grieve. He is about to retire when his antagonist, the duke of Hereford, more commonly called Bolingbroke, addresses him: [Bolingbroke.] Norfolk, by this time, had the king permitted, Our flesh is banish'd from this land. Thus far And I from heaven be banish'd as from hence! When he is gone, the king addresses John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster. [Richard.] Uncle, even in the glasses of thine eye, I see thy grieved heart: thy mournful aspect [Gaunt.] I thank my liege : But little vantage shall I reap thereby : For ere the six years that he hath to spend Can change their moons, and bring their times about, Shall be extinct with age. [Richard.] Why, uncle, thou hast many years to live. [Gaunt.] But not a minute, king, that thou canst give. The king being gone, those who are left behind take their leave of Bolingbroke: the rest of the dialogue is then between his father and him. [Gaunt.] O, to what purpose dost thou hoard thy words Will but remind me, what a deal of world [Gaunt.] All places that the eye of Heaven visits Are, to the wise man, ports and happy havens. To lie that way thou go'st, not whence thou com'st. [Bolingbroke.] O, who can hold a fire in his hand, [Gaunt.] Come, come, my son, I'll bring thee on thy way: Had I thy youth, I should not wish to stay. THE MORTAL SICKNESS OF JOHN OF GAUNT; RICHARD'S PRODIGALITY AND RECKLESSNESS; HIS EXPEDITION TO IRELAND; AND THE RISING IN FAVOUR OF BOLINGBROKE; INDICATED BY SCENES SUPPOSED TO OCCUR AT ELY HOUSE; AND AT THE ROYAL PALACE. HISTORICAL MEMORANDA. When the king banished Hereford, he granted him letters-patent, by which he was empowered, in case any inheritance should accrue to him before his permitted time of return, to enter immediately in possession, and to postpone the doing of homage till the end of his banishment. His father, John of Gaunt, died in the next year; and Hereford, now duke of Lancaster, desired to be put in possession of the estate and jurisdictions of his father: but Richard revoked the letters he had given, and retained possession of the estate. This act offended all the nobles, as they saw their own estates endangered by it; and on the landing of Bolingbroke, who came to enforce his claims, the most powerful of the barons flocked to his standard. Richard was at this time absent in Ireland, and had left his uncle Edmund of Langley, duke of York, guardian of the kingdom. The duke did what he could to withstand the disaffected lords; but his affinity to the chief among them made his situation one of great difficulty to his feelings, and he yielded, finally, to the course of events. Shakspeare represents the queen as a woman of mature age; but Richard's first queen, the sister of the king of Bohemia, had been dead some years; and Isabella, the daughter of Charles the Sixth of France, to whom he was affianced, was, at this time, only nine years of age. John of Gaunt is discovered on a couch his brother, the duke of York, is standing by him: in the course of the D |