And all your southern gentlemen in arms

Upon his party.

K. Rich.

Thou hast said enough.

Beshrew thee, cousin, which didst lead me forth

Of that sweet way I was in to despair!

[To AUM:

What say you now? What comfort have we now?
By heaven, I'll hate him everlastingly,
That bids me be of comfort5 any more.
Go, to Flint-castle; there I'll pine away;
A king, woe's slave, shall kingly woe obey.
That power I have, discharge; and let them go
To ear the land that hath some hope to grow,
For I have none :-Let no man speak again
To alter this, for counsel is but vain.

Aum. My liege, one word.
K. Rich.
He does me double wrong,
That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue.
Discharge my followers, let them hence;-Away,
From Richard's night, to Bolingbroke's fair day.

SCENE III.

Wales. Before Flint-Castle."

[Exeunt.

Enter, with Drum and Colours, BOLINGBROKE and Forces; YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND, and Others.

Boling. So that by this intelligence we learn, The Welshmen are dispers'd; and Salisbury

5 I'll hate him everlastingly,

That bids me be of comfort-] This sentiment is drawn from nature. Nothing is more offensive to a mind convinced that its distress is without a remedy, and preparing to submit quietly to irresistible calamity, than these petty and conjectured comforts which unskilful officiousness thinks it virtue to administer.

Johnson.

6 To ear the land—] i. e. to plough it. So, in All's Well that Ends Well:

"He that ears my land, spares my team." Steevens.

7 Flint-Castle.] In our former edition I had called this scene the same with the preceding. That was at Barkloughly-castle, on the coast where Richard landed; but Bolingbroke never marched

Is gone to meet the king, who lately landed,
With some few private friends, upon this coast.
North. The news is very fair and good, my lord;
Richard, not far from hence, hath hid his head.

York. It would beseem the lord Northumberland, To say-king Richard:-Alack the heavy day, When such a sacred king should hide his head! North. Your grace mistakes me; only to be brief, Left I his title out.

York.

The time hath been,
Would you have been so brief with him, he would
Have been so brief with you, to shorten you,

For taking so the head, your whole head's length.

Boling. Mistake not, uncle, further than you should. York. Take not, good cousin, further than you should, Lest you mis-take: The heavens are o'er your head. Boling. I know it, uncle; and oppose not

Myself against their will.'-But who comes here?2

further in Wales than to Flint. The interview between him and Richard was at the castle of Flint, where this scene should be said to lie, or rather in the camp of Bolingbroke before that castle." Go to Flint-castle," See above. Steevens.

8 Your grace mistakes me ;] The word-me, which is wanting in the old copies, was supplied by Sir T. Hanmer. Steevens.

9 For taking so the head,] To take the head is, to act without restraint; to take undue liberties. We now say, we give the horse his head, when we relax the reins. Johnson.

and oppose not

Myself against their will.] So, in Romeo and Juliet:
"The heavens, &c.

"Move them no more by crossing their high will."

2 I know it, uncle; and oppose not

Steevens.

Myself against their will.- But who comes here?] These lines should be regulated thus:

I know it, uncle; and oppose not myself
Against their will. But who comes here?

Such is the regulation of the old copies. Malone.

I regard the word myself, as an interpolation, and conceive Shakspeare to have written

and oppose not

Against their will.

To oppose may be here a verb neuter. So, in King Lear &

Enter PERCY.

Well, Harry; what, will not this castle yield? 3
Percy. The castle royally is mann'd, my lord,
Against thy entrance.

Boling. Royally!

Why, it contains no king?

Percy.

Yes, my good lord,

It doth contain a king; king Richard lies

Within the limits of yon lime and stone:

And with him are the lord Aumerle, lord Salisbury,
Sir Stephen Scroop; besides a clergyman
Of holy reverence, who, I cannot learn.

North. Belike, it is the bishop of Carlisle.
Boling. Noble lord,

[TO NORTH.

Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle;4
Through brazen trumpet send the breath of parle
Into his ruin'd ears, and thus deliver.

Harry Bolingbroke

On both his knees, doth kiss king Richard's hand;
And sends allegiance, and true faith of heart,
To his most royal person: hither come
Even at his feet to lay my arms and power;
Provided that, my banishment repeal'd,
And lands restor❜d again, be freely granted:
If not, I'll use the advantage of my power,
And lay the summer's dust with showers of blood,
Rain'd from the wounds of slaughter'd Englishmen:
The which, how far off from the mind of Bolingbroke

❝ a servant, thrill'd with remorse,
"Oppos'd against the act." Steevens.

3 Well, Harry; what, will not this castle yield?] The old copy destroys the metre by reading-Welcome, Harry; -. The emen. dation is Sir T. Hanmer's. Steevens.

4 Noble lord,

Go to the rude ribs &c.] It is observable that our author in his addresses to persons, often begins with an hemistich. So, in Troilus and Cressida, Act II, sc. iii:

"Agam. Princes,

"What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks!" This observation may be of use in other places, where in the old copies, by the mistake of the transcriber, the metre is destroyed by this regulation not being observed. Malone.

It is, such crimson tempest should bedrench
The fresh green lap of fair king Richard's land,
My stooping duty tenderly shall show.

Go, signify as much; while here we march
Upon the grassy carpet of this plain.—

[NORTH. advances to the Castle, with a Trumpet. Let's march without the noise of threat'ning drum, That from the castle's totter'd battlements

Our fair appointments may be well perus'd.
Methinks, king Richard and myself should meet
With no less terror than the elements

Of fire and water, when their thund'ring shock
At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven.
Be he the fire, I'll be the yielding water:
The rage be his, while on the earth I rain
My waters; on the earth, and not on him.
March on, and mark king Richard how he looks.

A parle sounded, and answered by another Trumpet within. Flourish. Enter on the walls King RICHARD, the Bishop of Carlisle, AUMERLE, SCROOP, and SALISBURY.

5

York. See, see, king Richard doth himself appear, As doth the blushing discontented sun From out the fiery portal of the east; When he perceives the envious clouds are bent To dim his glory, and to stain the track Of his bright passage to the occident. Yet looks he like a king; behold, his eye, As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth Controlling majesty; Alack, alack, for woe, That any harm should stain so fair a show!

6

K. Rich. We are amaz'd; and thus long have we stood To watch the fearful bending of thy knee, [To NORTH.

5 the Bishop of Carlisle,] was Thomas Merkes. Walpole.

See, see, King Richard doth himself appear,] The following six lines are absurdly given to Bolingbroke, who is made to condemn his own conduct and disculp the King's. It is plain these six and the four following all belong to York. Warburton.

It should be observed that the four last of these lines are in all the copies given to York. Steevens.

Because we thought ourself thy lawful king:
And if we be, how dare thy joints forget
To pay their awful duty to our presence?
If we be not, show us the hand of God
That hath dismiss'd us from our stewardship;
For well we know, no hand of blood and bone
Can gripe the sacred handle of our sceptre,
Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp.

And though you think, that all, as you have done,
Have torn their souls, by turning them from us,
And we are barren, and bereft of friends;-
Yet know, my master, God omnipotent,
Is must'ring in his clouds, on our behalf,
Armies of pestilence; and they shall strike
Your children yet unborn, and unbegot,
That lift your vassal hands against my head,
And threat the glory of my precious crown.
Tell Bolingbroke, (for yond', methinks, he is,)
That every stride he makes upon my land,
Is dangerous treason; He is come to ope
The purple testament of bleeding war;7
But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,
Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' sons
Shall ill become the flower of England's face;

7 The purple testament of bleeding war;] I once thought that Shakspeare might have had the sacred book (which is frequently covered with purple leather) in his thoughts; but the following note renders such a supposition extremely doubtful. Malone.

I believe our author uses the word testament in its legal sense. Bolingbroke is come to open the testament of war, that he may peruse what is decreed there in his favour. Purple is an epithet referring to the future effusion of blood. Steevens.

Mr. Steevens is certainly right in his interpretation of this pas sage. See Julius Cæsar:

"Now, while your purpled hands do reek and smoke
Malone.

"Fulfil your pleasure.'

But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,

Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' sons

Shall ill become the flower of England's face;] By the flower of England's face is meant the choicest youths of England, who shall be slaughtered in this quarrel, or have bloody crowns. The flower of England's face, to design her choicest youth, is a fine and noble expression. Pericles, by a similar thought, said "that the