Page 1163 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

Y ORK

Ay, mother, but I would not have it so.

DUCHESS

Why, my good cousin? It is good to grow.

Y ORK

Grandam, one night as we did sit at supper, [10]
My uncle Rivers talk’d how I did grow
More than my brother. ‘Ay,’ quoth my uncle Gloucester,
‘Small herbs have grace; great weeds do grow apace.’
And since, methinks I would not grow so fast,
Because sweet flowers are slow and weeds make haste. [15]

DUCHESS

Good faith, good faith, the saying did not hold
In him that did object the same to thee!
He was the wretched’st thing when he was young,
So long a-growing, and so leisurely,
That if his rule were true, he should be gracious. [20]

ARCHBISHOP

And so no doubt he is, my gracious madam.

DUCHESS

I hope he is, but yet let mothers doubt.

Y ORK

Now by my troth, if I had been remember’d,
I could have given my uncle’s Grace a flout
To touch his growth nearer than he touch’d mine. [25]

DUCHESS

How, my young York? I prithee let me hear it.

Y ORK

Marry, they say my uncle grew so fast
That he could gnaw a crust at two hours old:
’Twas full two years ere I could get a tooth.
Grandam, this would have been a biting jest! [30]