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, My oil-dried lamp and time-bewasted light Shall be extinct with age and endless night; My inch of taper will be burnt and done, And blindfold death not let me see my son. 

 KING RICHARD. Why, uncle, thou hast many years to live. 

 GAUNT. But not a minute, king, that thou canst give. Shorten my days thou canst with sullen sorrow, And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow. Thou canst help time to furrow me with age, But stop no wrinkle in his pilgrimage; Thy word is current with him for my death, But dead, thy kingdom cannot buy my breath. 

 KING RICHARD. Thy son is banished upon good advice, Whereto thy tongue a party-verdict gave. Why at our justice seem’st thou then to lour? 

 GAUNT. Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour. You urged me as a judge, but I had rather You would have bid me argue like a father. O, had it been a stranger, not my child, To smooth his fault I should have been more mild. A partial slander sought I to avoid, And in the sentence my own life destroyed. Alas, I looked when some of you should say I was too strict to make mine own away; But you gave leave to my unwilling tongue Against my will to do myself this wrong. 

 KING RICHARD. Cousin, farewell, and, uncle, bid him so. Six years we banish him, and he shall go. 

 [Flourish. Exit King Richard and Train.]

King Richard

 AUMERLE. Cousin, farewell. What presence must not know, From where you do remain let paper show. 

 MARSHAL. My lord, no leave take I, for I will ride, As far as land will let me, by your side. 

 GAUNT. O, to what purpose dost thou hoard thy words, That thou return’st no greeting to thy friends? 

 BOLINGBROKE. I have too few to take my leave of you, When the tongue’s office should be prodigal To breathe the abundant dolour of the heart. 

 GAUNT. Thy grief is but thy absence for a time. 

 BOLINGBROKE. Joy absent, grief is present for that time. 

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