Page 2877 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

BOLINGBROKE Exit.

Norfolk, so far as to mine enemy:
By this time, had the King permitted us,
One of our souls had wander’d in the air, [195]
Banished this frail sepulchre of our flesh,
As now our flesh is banish’d from this land.
Confess thy treasons ere thou fly the realm.
Since thou hast far to go, bear not along
The clogging burden of a guilty soul. [200]

MOWBRAY

No, Bolingbroke, if ever I were traitor
My name be blotted from the book of life,
And I from heaven banish’d as from hence!
But what thou art, God, thou, and I do know,
And all too soon, I fear, the King shall rue. [205]
Farewell, my liege. Now no way can I stray;
Save back to England, all the world’s my way.

RICHARD

Uncle, even in the glasses of thine eyes
I see thy grievèd heart. Thy sad aspect
Hath from the number of his banish’d years [210]
Pluck’d four away. [To Bolingbroke] Six frozen winters spent,
Return with welcome home from banishment.

BOLINGBROKE

How long a time lies in one little word!
Four lagging winters and four wanton springs
End in a word - such is the breath of kings. [215]

GAUNT

I thank my liege that in regard of me
He shortens four years of my son’s exile.
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, [220]
My oil-dried lamp and time-bewasted light
Shall be extinct with age and endless night,