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As praises, of whose taste the wise are fond,
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Lascivious metres, to whose venom sound
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The open ear of youth doth always listen;
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Report of fashions in proud Italy,
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Whose manners still our tardy apish nation
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Limps after in base imitation.
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Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity--
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So it be new, there's no respect how vile--
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That is not quickly buzzed into his ears?
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Then all too late comes counsel to be heard,
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Where will doth mutiny with wit's regard.
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Direct not him whose way himself will choose:
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'Tis breath thou lack'st, and that breath wilt thou lose.
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JOHN OF GAUNT:
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Methinks I am a prophet new inspired
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And thus expiring do foretell of him:
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His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last,
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For violent fires soon burn out themselves;
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Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short;
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He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes;
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With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder:
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Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,
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Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.
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This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
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This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
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This other Eden, demi-paradise,
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This fortress built by Nature for herself
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Against infection and the hand of war,
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This happy breed of men, this little world,
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This precious stone set in the silver sea,
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Which serves it in the office of a wall,
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Or as a moat defensive to a house,
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Against the envy of less happier lands,
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This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
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This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
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Fear'd by their breed and famous by their birth,
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Renowned for their deeds as far from home,
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For Christian service and true chivalry,
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As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry,
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Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son,
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This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
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Dear for her reputation through the world,
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Is now leased out, I die pronouncing it,
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Like to a tenement or pelting farm:
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England, bound in with the triumphant sea
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Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
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Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
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With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds:
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That England, that was wont to conquer others,
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Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.
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Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life,
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How happy then were my ensuing death!
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DUKE OF YORK:
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The king is come: deal mildly with his youth;
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For young hot colts being raged do rage the more.
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QUEEN:
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How fares our noble uncle, Lancaster?
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KING RICHARD II:
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What comfort, man? how is't with aged Gaunt?
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JOHN OF GAUNT:
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O how that name befits my composition!
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Old Gaunt indeed, and gaunt in being old:
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Within me grief hath kept a tedious fast;
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And who abstains from meat that is not gaunt?
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For sleeping England long time have I watch'd;
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Watching breeds leanness, leanness is all gaunt:
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The pleasure that some fathers feed upon,
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Is my strict fast; I mean, my children's looks;
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And therein fasting, hast thou made me gaunt:
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Gaunt am I for the grave, gaunt as a grave,
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Whose hollow womb inherits nought but bones.
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KING RICHARD II:
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Can sick men play so nicely with their names?
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JOHN OF GAUNT:
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No, misery makes sport to mock itself:
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Since thou dost seek to kill my name in me,
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I mock my name, great king, to flatter thee.
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KING RICHARD II:
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Should dying men flatter with those that live?
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JOHN OF GAUNT:
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No, no, men living flatter those that die.
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KING RICHARD II:
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Thou, now a-dying, say'st thou flatterest me.
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JOHN OF GAUNT:
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O, no! thou diest, though I the sicker be.
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KING RICHARD II:
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I am in health, I breathe, and see thee ill.
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