"fhall approach the lifts nearer than four foot " in diftance, nor fhall utter any word, fpeech, "voice, or countenance, whereof either the challenger, or defender, may take advantage, upon pain of lofs of life, living, or goods, "to be taken at the king's good pleasure." Segar of Honour military and civil, lib. 3. Selden's Duello, chap. 11.

cap. 17.

Where the fight was for life or death"None of the people might cry, fcryce out, "make any noise, or give any figne whatso"ever. And hereunto at Halle in Swevia,” (a place appointed for campe fight)" was fo great "regard taken, that the executioner ftood be

fyde the judges, ready with an ax to cut off "the right hand, and left foot of the party "offending."

See Verftegan's Reftitution of Decay'd Intelligence, p. 64.

Id. ib. p. 15.

As gentle, and as jocund as to juft,

Go I to fight.] "To jeft," in Folio 1632, and Sir Tho. Hanmer. See Mr. Warburton's reafon for the alteration.

Id. ib. p. 17..

K. Richard. Therefore we banish you our territories.]

This fentence is agreeable to our English biftorians. When the parties were ready to engage, and decide the controversy, the king (a) (a) Vit. Ricardi Secundi a monacha de Evesham, p. 146. Edit. a The. Hearne 1729.

banished

banished Hereford for ten years, and Norfolk

for ever.

Mr. Echard fays: (b) "It is obfervable, "that this fentence was pronounced against the "Duke of Norfolk, the fame day twelve months, "that the Duke of Gloucefter had been mur"dered by his order at (c) Calais.”

Mowbray. Within my mouth you have engaol'd my. tongue,

Doubly portculliz'd with my teeth and lips.] Mr. William Cartwright, in his tragi-comedy intitled, The Siedge, A&t 2. fc. 5. p. 123, feems to have borrow'd this thought from Shakespeare. Prufas Lips decent, and moft fit

Phil. To fweep a manger.

Calli.

Which the does open like a pair of

"gates,

Phil. “And then claps down her lips like a "portcullis."

Act 2. fc. 1. p. 25. The Duke of York, fpeaking of King Richard.

York.

There are, befide

Lafcivious meeters, to whofe venom'd found
The open ear of youth doth always liften,

(b) Hiftory of England, Vol. 1. P. 407.

(c) In ifto parliamento 1399, notum erat et compertum de morte Ducis Glouceftria, quam dolofe, et maliciofe fuerat apud Calefiam, per Thomam Mowbray, Ducem Northfolcia, capitaneum ibidem, rege jubente fuffo

catus.

Vit. Ricardi Secundi, a monacho de Evesham, p. 161.

Report of fashions in proud Italy,

Whofe manners ftill our tardy, apish nation,
Limps after, in bafe, aukward imitation.
Where doth the world thruft forth a vanity,
(So it be new, there's no respect how vile)
That is not quickly buzz'd into his ears.]

King Richard's extravagances, with regard to drefs, were very extraordinary, as appears from the authorities cited in the (d) margin, To which Shakespeare alludes, Act 3. fc. 6. P. 59.

K. Rich. "I'll give my jewels for a fet of "beads;

My gorgeous palace for a hermitage; My gay apparel for an alms-man's gown; My figur'd goblers for a dish of wood; My scepter for a palmer's walking staff; My fubjects for a pair of carved faints; "And my large kingdom for a little grave, " &c."

(a) Vid. Chronic. Regum Anglia a Tho. Otterbourne, Edit. a Tho. Hearne, p. 199. De extorfione regis, vocata le plefaunce.

Fertur tamen quod inter alias hujus mundi divitias fecit fibi fieri, unam tunicam de perillis, et aliis lapidibus preciofis, et auto ex propria ordinatione factam, ad 3000 marcarum in valorem appreciatam. Vit. Ricardi Secundi a monacho quodam de Evesham. Edit. a Tho. Hearne, p. 156.

Confirm'd by Stow, Annals, p. 319.

"This year (1399) the king caufed a garment for " himself to be made of gold, filver, and precious stones, to the value of 3000 marks,"

Id, ib,

Id. ib. p. 26. John of Gaunt, speaking of England, fays:

This land of fuck dear fouls, this dear, dear land, Is now leas'd out, (1 die pronouncing it) Like to a tenement, or pelting farm.]

By pelting farm, Shakespeare may mean a farm fubject to the rot of fheep; fo call'd, because the skins, or pelts, were the greatest part of the owner's profit. As he uses the word in King Lear, Act 2. fc. 7.

From low farms Poor pelting villages, sheep cots and mills, Enforce their charity.

Or by pelting, he may mean paltry; in which fenfe he often uses the word.

"Contagious foes, which falling in the land, "Have every pelting river made fo proud, "That they have overborn their continents." Midfummer Night's Dream, A&t 2. fc. 2. He uses it in another sense for chafing. Ifab. "Jove would never be quiet, "For every pelting, petty officer, "Would ufe his heaven for thunder."

Meafure for Measure, Act 2. fc. 7. p. 385. Hector. "I pray you, let us fee you in the "field;

"We have had pelting wars, fince you refused "The Grecian camp.'

Troilus and Creffida, A& 4. fc. 9. p. 462.
Id. ib. England bound in with the triumphant

fea,

Whofe rocky shore beats back the envious fiege
Of watry Neptune.

I fhould

I should rather imagine, Shakespeare wrote envious furge, as he often ufes the expreffion. "The fea's a thief, whofe liquid furge refolves "The moon into falt tears."

Timon of Athens, A&t 1. fc. 7. p. 224.

And again:

Timon. "Come not to me again, but say to " Athens,

Timon has made his everlasting manfion

Upon the beeched verge of the falt flood; "Which once a day, with his emboffed froth, "The turbulent furge fhall cover.”

A&t 5. fc. 3. p. 236.

And exprefly in the fame fense with the paffage under confideration,, Titus Andronicus, Act 3. fc. 3. p. 282.

Titus. "For now I ftand as one upon a rock, "Environ'd with a wilderness of fea, "Who marks the waxing tide grow wave by

wave,

"Expecting ever when fome envious furge "Will, in his briny bowels, fwallow him."

Indeed, in his Life and Death of King John, Act 2. fc. 1. he has the following expreffion, in his defcription of England, which may in some measure justify the old reading.

"Together with that pale, that white-faced "fhore,

"Whose foot fpurns back the ocean's roaring

tides,

"And coops from other lands her islanders; "Even till that England hedg'd in with the main,

* That