As 'twere, to banish their affects with him.
Off goes his bonnet to an oyster-wench;

A brace of draymen bid-God speed him well,
And had the tribute of his supple knee,

With-Thanks, my countrymen, my loving friends;—
As were our England in reversion his,

And he our subjects' next degree in hope.5

Green. Well, he is gone; and with him go these thoughts.

Now for the rebels, which stand out in Ireland;-
Expedient manage must be made my liege;
Ere further leisure yield them further means,
For their advantage, and your highness' loss.

K. Rich. We will ourself in person to this war.
And, for our coffers-with too great a court,
And liberal largess,-are grown somewhat light,
We are enforc'd to farm our royal realm;
The revenue whereof shall furnish us

For our affairs in hand: If that come short,
Our substitutes at home shall have blank charters;
Whereto, when they shall know what men are rich,
They shall subscribe them for large sums of gold,
And send them after to supply our wants;
For we will make for Ireland presently.

Bushy, what news?

Enter BUSHY.

Bushy. Old John of Gaunt is grievous sick, my lord; Suddenly taken; and hath sent post-haste,

To entreat your majesty to visit him.

the tribute of his supple knee,] To illustrate this phrase, it should be remembered that courtesying, (the act of reverence now confined to women) was anciently practised by men.

Steevens.

5 And he our subjects' next degree in hope.] Spes altera Roma. Virg. Malone.

6 Expedient-] i.e. expeditious. So, in King John: "His marches are expedient to this town."

Steevens.

for our coffers-] i. e. because. So, at the beginning of this scene:

"And, for my heart disdained that my tongue," &c. Again, in Othello:

66

Haply, for I am black -;" Steevens.

K. Rich. Where lies he?

Bushy. At Ely-house.

K. Rich. Now put it, heaven, in his physician's mind, To help him to his grave immediately!

The lining of his coffers shall make coats

To deck our soldiers for these Irish wars.--

Come, gentlemen, let's all go visit him:

Pray God, we may make haste, and come too late!

[Exeunt.

ACT II.....SCENE I.

London. A Room in Ely-house.

8

GAUNT on a Couch; the Duke of YORK, and Others standing by him.

Gaunt. Will the king come? that I may breathe my

last

In wholesome counsel to his unstay'd youth.

York. 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 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 listen'd more

Than they whom youth and ease have taught to glose; More are men's ends mark'd, than their lives before: The setting sun, and musick 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, My death's sad tale may yet undeaf his ear.

York. No; it is stopp'd with other flattering sounds, As, praises of his state: then, there are found

8 the duke of York,] was Edmund, son of Edward III.

9

Walpole.

at the close,] This I suppose to be a musical term. So, in Lingua, 1607:

"I dare engage my ears, the close will jar." Steevens.

Lascivious metres;1 to whose venom sound
The open ear of youth doth always listen:
Report of fashions in proud Italy;2

Whose manners still our tardy apish nation
Limps after, in base imitation.

Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity,
(So it be new, there's no respect how vile,)
That is not quickly buzz'd into his ears?
Then all too late comes counsel to be heard,
Where will doth mutiny with wit's regard.3
Direct not him, whose way himself will choose;
'Tis breath thou lack'st, and that breath wilt thou lose.
Gaunt. Methinks, I am a prophet new inspir'd;
And thus, expiring, do foretel of him:-
His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last;

For violent fires soon burn out themselves:

Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short;
He tires betimes, that spurs too fast betimes;
With eager feeding, food doth choke the feeder:
Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,

Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.
This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,

↑ Lascivious metres;] The old copies have-meeters; but I believe we should read metres for verses. Thus the folio spells the

word metre in The First Part of King Henry IV:

66

one of these same meeter ballad-mongers." Venom sound agrees well with lascivious ditties, but not so commodiously with one who meets another; in which sense the word appears to have been generally received. Steevens.

2 Report of fashions in proud Italy;] Our author, who gives to all nations the customs of England, and to all ages the manners of his own, has charged the times of Richard with a folly not perhaps known then, but very frequent in Shakspeare's time, and much lamented by the wisest and best of our ancestors.

Johnson. 3 Where will doth mutiny with wit's regard.] Where the will rebels against the notices of the understanding. Johnson.

4

whose way himself will choose;] Do not attempt to guide him, who, whatever thou shalt say, will take his own course.

5

rash —] That is, hasty, violent. Johnson. So, in King Henry IV, Part I:

"Like aconitum, or rash gunpowder." Malone.

Johnson.

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise;

This fortress, built by nature for herself,
Against infection, and the hand of war:
This happy breed of men, this little world;
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,

Against the envy of less happier lands;7

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
Fear'd by their breed, and famous by their birth,3
Renowned for their deeds as far from home,
(For Christian service, and true chivalry,)
As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry,
Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's son:

Against infection,] I once suspected that for infection we might read invasion; but the copies all agree, and I suppose Shakspeare meant to say, that islanders are secured by their situation both from war and pestilence, Johnson.

cr

In Allot's England's Parnassus, 1600, this passage is quoted: Against intestion," &c. Perhaps the word might be infestion, if such a word was in use. Farmer.

7 less happier lands;] So read all the editions, except Sir T. Hanmer's, which has less happy. I believe, Shakspeare, from the habit of saying more happier, according to the custom of his time, inadvertently writ less happier. Johnson.

8 Fear'd by their breed, and famous by their birth,] The first edition in quarto, 1598, reads:

Fear'd by their breed, and famous for their birth. The quarto, in 1615:

Fear'd by their breed, and famous by their birth.

The first folio, though printed from the second quarto, reads as the first. The particles in this author seem often to have been printed by chance. Perhaps the passage, which appears a little disordered, may be regulated thus:

royal kings,

Fear'd for their breed, and famous for their birth,
For Christian service, and true chivalry;
Renowned for their deeds as far from home

As is the sepulchre

-.

Johnson.

The first folio could not have been printed from the second quarto, on account of many variations as well as omissions. The quarto, 1608, has the same reading with that immediately preceding it. Steevens.

Fear'd by their breed,] i. e. by means of their breed. Malone.

This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leas'd out (I die pronouncing it)
Like to a tenement, or pelting farm:9
England, bound in with the triumphant sea,
Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
With inky blots, and rotten parchment bonds;2
That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself:
O, would the scandal vanish with my life,
How happy then were my ensuing death!

Enter King RICHARD and Queen;3 AUMERLE, BUSHY, GREEN, BAGOT, Ross, and WILLOUGHBY.

York. The king is come: deal mildly with his youth; For young hot colts, being rag'd, do rage the more."

9 This land

Is now leas'd out (I die pronouncing it)

Like to a tenement or pelting farm:] “In this 22d yeare of King Richard (says Fabian) the common fame ranne, that the kinge had letten to farm the realme unto Sir William Scrope, earle of Wiltshire, and then treasurer of England, to Syr John Bushey, Sir John Bagot, and Sir Henry Grene, knightes."

Malone.

1 With inky blots,] I suspect that our author wrote-inky bolts. How can blots bind in any thing? and do not bolts correspond better with bonds? Inky bolts are written restrictions. So, in The Honest Man's Fortune, by Beaumont and Fletcher, Act IV, sc. i: manacling itself

2

Steevens.

“In gyves of parchment." — rotten parchment bonds;] Alluding to the great sums raised by loans and other exactions, in this reign, upon the English subjects. Grey.

Gaunt does not allude, as Grey supposes, to any loans or ex-actions extorted by Richard, but to the circumstances of his having actually farmed out his royal realm, as he himself styles it. In the last scene of the first Act he says:

"And, for our coffers are grown somewhat light, "We are enforc'd to farm our royal realm." And it afterwards appears that the person who farmed the realm was the Earl of Wiltshire, one of his own favourites.

3

M. Mason..

Queen;] Shakspeare, as Mr. Walpole suggests to me, has deviated from historical truth in the introduction of Richard's queen as a woman in the present piece; for Anne, his firstt