Page 2928 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

What, think you the King shall be deposed?

GARDENER

Depress’d he is already, and depos’d
’Tis doubt he will be. Letters came last night
To a dear friend of the good Duke of York’s [70]
That tell black tidings.

QUEEN

O, I am press’d to death through want of speaking!
Thou, old Adam’s likeness, set to dress this garden,
How dares thy harsh rude tongue sound this unpleasing news?
What Eve, what serpent hath suggested thee [75]
To make a second Fall of cursèd man?
Why dost thou say King Richard is depos’d?
Dar’st thou, thou little better thing than earth,
Divine his downfall? Say, where, when, and how
Camest thou by this ill tidings? Speak, thou wretch! [80]

GARDENER

Pardon me, madam. Little joy have I
To breathe this news. Yet what I say is true.
King Richard he is in the mighty hold
Of Bolingbroke. Their fortunes both are weigh’d;
In your lord’s scale is nothing but himself [85]
And some few vanities that make him light;
But in the balance of great Bolingbroke
Besides himself are all the English peers,
And with that odds he weighs King Richard down.
Post you to London and you will find it so. [90]
I speak no more than everyone doth know.

QUEEN

Nimble mischance, that art so light of foot,
Doth not thy embassage belong to me,
And am I last that knows it? O, thou thinkest
To serve me last that I may longest keep [95]
Thy sorrow in my breast. Come, ladies, go
To meet at London London’s king in woe.
What was I born to this, that my sad look