Page 2884 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1
P. 2884
ACT II IT
Scene I IT
Enter John of Gaunt, sick, with the Duke of York, and others.
GAUNT
Will the King come, that I may breathe my last
In wholesome counsel to his unstaid youth?
Y ORK
Vex not yourself, nor strive not with your breath;
For all in vain comes counsel to his ear.
GAUNT
O, but they say the tongues of dying men [5]
Enforce attention like deep harmony.
Where words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain,
For they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain.
He that no more must say is listened more
Than they whom youth and ease have taught to glose. [10]
More are men’s ends marked than their lives before.
The setting sun, and music at the close,
As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,
Writ in remembrance more than things long past.
Though Richard my life’s counsel would not hear, [15]
My death’s sad tale may yet undeaf his ear.
Y ORK
No, it is stopp’d with other, flattering sounds,
As praises, of whose taste the wise are fond;
Lascivious metres, to whose venom sound
The open ear of youth doth always listen; [20]
Report of fashions in proud Italy,
Whose manners still our tardy-apish nation
Limps after in base imitation.
