1

To fcarlet indignation, and bedew

2

Her pastures' grafs with faithful English blood.
NORTH. The King of heaven forbid, our lord the
king

Should fo with civil and uncivil arms

Be rush'd upon! Thy thrice - noble coufin,
Harry Bolingbroke, doth humbly kifs thy hand,
And by the honourable tomb he fwears,
That ftands upon thy royal grandfire's bones;
And by the royalties of both your bloods,
Currents that fpring from one moft gracious head;
And by the buried hand of warlike Gaunt;

3

The flower

be flaughtered in this quarrel, or have bloody crowns.
of England's face, to defign her choiceft youth, is a fine and noble
expreffion. Pericles, by a fimilar thought, faid that the de-
ftruction of the Athenian youth was a fatality like cutting off the
Spring from the year." WARBURTON.

Dr Warburton reads light in peace, but live in peace is more
fuitable to Richard's intention, which is to tell hin, that though
he fhould get the crown by rebellion, it will be long before it
will live in peace, be fo fettled as to be firm. The flower of Eng-
land's face, is very happily explained. JOHNSON.

་་

The flouer of England's face, I believe, means England's flourery
face, the flowery furlace of England's foil. The fame kind of ex-
preffion is used in Sidney's Arcadia, p. 2:
opening the
cherry of her lips i. e. her cherry lips. Again, p. 240, edit.
1633:
the fweet and beautiful flower of her face.
Again Drayton, in Mortimer's Epistle to Queen Isabell:
And in the field advance our plumy creft,
And march upon, fair England's flow'ry breafts.

11

STEEVENS.

2 Her paftures' grass. —] Old copies pastor. Corrected by

Mr. Theobald. MALONE.

3 And by the buried hand of warlike Gaunt;] Dr. Warburton

would read

And by the warlike hand of buried Gaunt ;

and this, no doubt, was Shakspeare's meaning, though he has
affededly misplaced the epithets. Thus, in King John, we have →
There is no malice in this burning coal,

inftead of

"There is no malice burning in this coal.

1

And by the worth and honour of himself,
Comprising all that may be fworn or faid, -
His coming hither hath no further fcope,
Than for his lineal royalties, and to beg
Enfranchisement immediate on his knees:
Which on thy royal party granted once,
His glittering arms he will commend to ruft,
His barbed fleeds to ftables, and his heart
To faithful fervice of your majesty.

This swears he, as he is a prince, is juft;
And, as I am a gentleman, I credit him.
K. RICH. Northumberland, fay, thus the king

returns; -

----

His noble coufin is right welcome hither;
And all the number of his fair demands
Shall be accomplish'd without contradiction:
With all the gracious utterance thou haft,
Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends.

"Thefe guiltless hands are free from bloodshedding." Again, ibid. in P. III:

inftead of

"Until my misshap'd trunk that bears this head,"

"Until my head that this misfhap'd trunk bears. ' Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"We cannot call her winds and waters, fighs and tears, inftead of

"We cannot call her fighs and tears, winds and waters. and in the fame play we have proof of harness, for harness of proof; as elsewhere miferable maft, for most miferable; defperately mortal, for mortally defperate; action of precept, for precept of action; &c.

4

RITSON.

commend -] i. e. commit. See Minfheu's Di&. in v.

STEEVENS.

We do debafe ourself, coufin, do we not,

[ To AUMERLE, To look fo poorly, and speak fo fair? Shall we call back Northumberland, and fend Defiance to the traitor, and fo die?

AUM. No, my good lord; let's fight with gentle words,

Till time lend friends, and friends their helpful fwords.

K. RICH. O God! o God! that e'er this tongue of mine,

That laid the fentence of dread banishment
On yon proud man, fhould take it off again.
With words of footh!5 O, that I were as great
As is my grief, or leffer than my name!
Or that I could forget what I have been!
Or not remember what I must be now!
Sweil'ft thou, proud heart? I'll give thee fcope to

beat,

Since foes have fcope to beat both thee and me. AUM. Northumberland comes back from Bolingbroke.

K. RICH. What must the king do now? Muft he
fubmit?

The king fhall do it. Muft he be depos'd?
The king fhall be contented: Muft he lofe
The name of king? o'God's name, let it go:
I'll give my jewels, for a set of beads;
My gorgeous palace, for a hermitage;
My gay apparel, 6 for an alms-man's gown;

With words of footh!] Sooth is fweet as well as true. In this place footh means fweetness or foftness, à fignification yet retained in the verb to footh. JOHNSON.

6 My gay apparel, &c.] Dr. Grey obferves, that King Richard's expence in regard to drefs, was very extraordinary.

My figur'd goblets, for a difh of wood;
My fcepter, for a palmer's walking-flaff;
My fubjects, for a pair of carved faints ;
And my large kingdom for a little grave,
A little little grave, an, obfcure grave:-
Or I'll be buried in the king's highway,
Some way of common trade,' where fubjects' feet
May hourly trample on their fovereign's head: "
For on my heart they tread, now whilst I live;
And, buried once, why not upon my head?
Aumerle, thou weep'ft; My tender-hearted cou-
fin!-

8

We'll make foul weather with defpifed tears;
Our fighs, and they, fhall lodge the fummer corn,
And make a dearth in this revolting land.

Holinfhed has the fame remark; and adds, that he had "one cate which he caused to be made for him of gold and ftone, valued at 30,000 marks." STEEVENS.

Stowe, in his Survey, fays, "to the value of three thousand markes." So alfo, in Vita Ricardi Secundi, published by T. Hearne, P. 156. MALONE.

7 Or I'll be buried in the king's highway,

Some way of common trade,] So, in Lord Surrey's Translation of the fecond book of Virgil's Æneid:

"A poftern with a blind wicket there was,

“A common trade, to pass through Priam's house,"

"Limen erat, cæcæque fores, & pervius ufus,

"Te&orum inter fe Priami.".

The phrafe is fill ufed, by common people. When they speak of a road much frequented, they fay, it is a road of much traffic." Shakspeare ufes the word in the fame ffe in King Henry VIII:

"Stand in the gap and trade of more preferments."

STEEVENS.

--on their fovereign's head:] Shakspeare is very apt to deviate from the pathetic to the ridiculous. Had the fpeech of Richard ended at this line, it had exhibited the natural language of fubmiffive mifery, conforming its intention to the prefent fortune, and calmly ending its purposes in death. JOHNSON.

(

Or fhall we play the wantons with our woes,
And make fome pretty match with fhedding tears?
As thus ;-To drop them ftill upon one place,
Till they have fretted us a pair of graves
Within the earth; and, therein laid,

There lies
Two kinfmen, digg'd their graves with weeping eyes?
Would not this ill do well? Well, well, I fee
I talk but idly, and you mock at me.
Moft mighty prince, my lord Northumberland,
What fays king Bolingbroke? will his majesty
Give Richard leave to live till Richard die?
You make a leg, and Bolingbroke fays-ay.

2

NORTH. My lord, in the base court he doth at

tend

To speak with you; may't please you to come down.
K. RICH. Down, down, I come; like gliftering

Phaeton,

Wanting the manage of unruly jades.

[NORTH. retires to BOLING. In the base court? Bafe court,where kings grow bafe, To come at traitors' calls, and do them grace. In the base court? Come down? Down, court! down king!

For night-owls fhriek, where mounting larks fhould

9

fing.

[Exeunt, from above.

Bolingbroke fays-ay.] Here is another inftance of injury done to the poet's metre by changing his orthography. I, which was Shakspea's word, rhymed very well with die; but ay has quite a different found. See a note on The Merry Wives of Windsor, A& V. Vol. V. p. 189, n. 8.

TYRWHITT.

In fome counties ay is at this day pronounced with a sound very little differing from that of I. MALONE. bafe court-] Baffe cour, Fr. they were, for a

111

So, in Hinde's Eliofto

public obfervation, Again, in Greene's began, at the entrance into the

Libidinfo. 1606:
brought into the bafe court of the palace."
Farewell to Follie, 1617:

hafe court, to ule these words." STEEVENS.