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Enter KING RICHARD II and QUEEN, DUKE OF AUMERLE, BUSHY, GREEN, BAGOT, LORD ROSS, and LORD WILLOUGHBY
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KING RICHARD II, the QUEEN, the DUKE OF AUMERLE, BUSHY, GREEN, BAGOT, LORD ROSS, and LORD WILLOUGHBY enter.
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DUKE OF YORK [to John of Gaunt]The king is come: deal mildly with his youth;
70For young hot colts being raged do rage the more.
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DUKE OF YORK (to John of Guant) The king is here. Go easy with him. He is young and easy to make angry, and if you give him a hard time, you’re likely to do nothing but make him angrier.
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QUEEN How fares our noble uncle, Lancaster?
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QUEEN How are you, John of Gaunt?
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KING RICHARD II What comfort, man? how is’t with aged Gaunt?
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KING RICHARD II Yes, John of Gaunt, tell us how you are.
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JOHN OF GAUNT O how that name befits my composition!
Old Gaunt indeed, and gaunt in being old:
75Within me grief hath kept a tedious fast;
And who abstains from meat that is not gaunt?
For sleeping England long time have I watch’d;
Watching breeds leanness, leanness is all gaunt:
The pleasure that some fathers feed upon,
80Is my strict fast; I mean, my children’s looks;
And therein fasting, hast thou made me gaunt:
Gaunt am I for the grave, gaunt as a grave,
Whose hollow womb inherits nought but bones.
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JOHN OF GAUNT My name is Gaunt, and I feel gaunt. I am gaunt because of my old age. And who can go without food and not be gaunt? I have stayed awake and watched England crumble for a long time, and from all the lack of sleep I’ve grown gaunt. Fathers receive nourishment from seeing their children, and since I can’t see my child it has made me gaunt. I’m ready for my grave, and when I’m laid in it I’ll be nothing but bones.
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KING RICHARD II Can sick men play so nicely with their names?
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KING RICHARD II Can men who are really sick play so subtly with their names?
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JOHN OF GAUNT
85No, misery makes sport to mock itself:
Since thou dost seek to kill my name in me,
I mock my name, great king, to flatter thee.
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JOHN OF GAUNT Misery likes to make fun of itself. And I thought you might enjoy listening to me make fun of my name since you are banishing my son, who, of course, shares my name.
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KING RICHARD II Should dying men flatter with those that live?
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KING RICHARD II Should dying men try to amuse the living?
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JOHN OF GAUNT No, no, men living flatter those that die.
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JOHN OF GAUNT No, no, the living should try to amuse the dying.
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KING RICHARD II
90Thou, now a-dying, say’st thou flatterest me.
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KING RICHARD II You, who are dying, tell me that you’re trying to please me.
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