Page:Richard II (1921) Yale.djvu/43

King Richard the Second, II. i

As theirs, so mine; and all be as it is.

North. My liege, old Gaunt commends him to your majesty.

K. Rich. What says he?

North. Nay, nothing; all is said:

His tongue is now a stringless instrument;

Words, life, and all, old Lancaster hath spent.

York. Be York the next that must be bankrupt so!

Though death be poor, it ends a mortal woe.

K. Rich. The ripest fruit first falls, and so doth he:

His time is spent; our pilgrimage must be.

So much for that. Now for our Irish wars.

We must supplant those rough rug-headed kerns,

Which live like venom where no venom else

But only they have privilege to live.

And for these great affairs do ask some charge,

Towards our assistance we do seize to us

The plate, coin, revenues, and moveables,

Whereof our uncle Gaunt did stand possess'd.

York. How long shall I be patient? Ah! how long

Shall tender duty make me suffer wrong?

Not Gloucester's death, nor Hereford's banishment,

Not Gaunt's rebukes, nor England's private wrongs,

Nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke

About his marriage, nor my own disgrace,

Have ever made me sour my patient cheek,

Or bend one wrinkle on my sovereign's face.

 155 must be: has to continue

157 rug-headed: shock-haired

kerns: half-wild Irish clansmen

158 venom: poisonous snakes; cf. n.

160 charge: expenditure

168 prevention: forestalling; cf. n.

170 sour cheek: look sullen

