And, consequently, like a traitor coward, Sluic'd out his innocent soul through streams of blood: K. Rich. How high a pitch his resolution soars!— Nor. O, let my sovereign turn away his face, And bid his ears a little while be deaf, K. Rich. Mowbray, impartial are our eyes and ears: Nor. Then, Bolingbroke,3 as low as to thy heart, Since last I went to France to fetch his queen : Now swallow down that lie.-For Gloster's death, I slew him not; but to my own disgrace, a Our kingdom's heir. So the folio. The earlier copies, my kingdom's heir. I did confess it; and exactly begg'd Even in the best blood chamber'd in his bosom : Your highness to assign our trial day. K. Rich. Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be rul'd by me; Let's purge this choler without letting blood: Gaunt. To be a make-peace shall become my age:- K. Rich. And, Norfolk, throw down his. Gaunt. When, Harry? when?b Obedience bids, I should not bid again. K. Rich. Norfolk, throw down, we bid; there is no boot. Nor. Myself I throw, dread sovereign, at thy foot: My life thou shalt command, but not my shame: The one my duty owes; but my fair name, a Month in the quartos; in the folio, time. b When, Harry? when? When, so used, is an expression of impatience, as in 'The Taming of the Shrew,'-"Why when, I say?" Monck Mason, in this passage, suggests a new punctuation, which is very ingenious, though we can scarcely venture to adopt it in the text, contrary to all the old copies. It is this,— "When, Harry? When Obedience bids, I should not bid again." c No boot. Boot is here used in its original sense of compensation. There is no boot, no remedy for what is past,-nothing to be added, or substituter'. I am disgrac'd, impeach'd, and baffled here; K. Rich. Rage must be withstood: Give me his gage :-Lions make leopards tame.a Nor. Yea, but not change his spots: take but my sham And I resign my gage. My dear dear lord, The purest treasure mortal times afford Is spotless reputation; that away, с Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay. Mine honour is my life; both grow in one; K. Rich. Cousin, throw down your gage; do you begin. Boling. O, heaven defend my soul from such foul sin! Shall I seem crest-fallen in my father's sight? Or with pale beggar fear impeach my height And spit it bleeding, in his high disgrace, Where shame doth harbour, even in Mowbray's face. [Exit GAUNT. K. Rich. We were not born to sue, but to command: Which since we cannot do to make you friends, Be ready, as your lives shall answer it, At Coventry, upon Saint Lambert's day; a Lions make leopards tame. The crest of Norfolk was a golden leopard. b His spots. So the old copies. According to the custom in Shakspere's time of changing from the singular to the plural number, or from the plural to the singular, the alteration to their in modern copies was scarcely called for. But in this case Mowbray quotes the very text of Scripture—Jer. xiii. 23. c Gilded loam. In 'England's Parnassus' (1600) these three lines are extracted, but the third line reads thus : "Men are but gilded trunks, or painted clay." There shall your swords and lances arbitrate C Lord marshal, command our officers at arms [Exeunt. SCENE II.-London. A Room in the Duke of Lancaster's Palace. Enter GAUNT and DUCHESS OF GLOSTER." Gaunt. Alas! the part I had in Gloster's blood To stir against the butchers of his life. e Duch. Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper spur? Or seven fair branches springing from one root: Is hack'd down, and his summer leaves all vaded, we. a Atone you make you in concord-cause you to be at one. b You shall see. с All the old copies read you; modern editors have substituted Design-designate-point out-exhibit-show by a token. d The part I had, &c. My consanguinity to Gloster. He sees. All the old copies, they see. Heaven is often put as the impersonation of the Deity. * Vaded. So all the old copies; modern editors read faded. But to vade seems to have a stronger sense than to fade, although fade was often written vade. Still we may trace the distinction. In 'The Mirrour for Magistrates' we have, "The By envy's hand, and murther's bloody axe. Ah, Gaunt! his blood was thine; that bed, that womb, Made him a man; and though thou liv'st and breath'st, What shall I say? to safeguard thine own life, Gaunt. Heaven's is the quarrel; for heaven's substitute, His deputy anointed in his sight, Hath caus'd his death: the which if wrongfully, Let heaven revenge; for I may never lift An angry arm against his minister. Duch. Where then, alas! may I complain myself? Gaunt. To heaven, the widow's champion and defence. Duch. Why then, I will. Farewell, old Gaunt. Thou go'st to Coventry, there to behold Our cousin Hereford and fell Mowbray fight: Be Mowbray's sins so heavy in his bosom, 8 That they may break his foaming courser's back, "The barren fields, which whilom flower'd as they would never vade." This is clearly in the sense of fade. In Spenser we have, "However gay their blossom or their blade Do flourish now, they into dust shall vade." Here we have, as clearly, the sense to pass away, to vanish. But, after all, the old writers probably used the words without distinction; for doubtless they are the same words. a Complain myself. The verb is here the same as the French verb se plaindre. |