Forget, forgive; conclude, and be agreed;
Our doctors say this is no month to bleed'.
Good uncle, let this end where it begun;
We'll calm the duke of Norfolk, you your son.
GAUNT. To be a make-peace shall become my
age:

Throw down, my son, the duke of Norfolk's

gage.

K. RICH. And, Norfolk, throw down his.

GAUNT. When, Harry? when? 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,

begins with dissuading them from the duel; and in the very next sentence, appoints the time and place of their combat."

Mr. Edwards's censure is rather hasty; for in the note, to which it refers, it is allowed that some rhymes must be retained to make out the connection. STEEVENS

2 Our doctors say this is no MONTH to bleed.] Richard alludes to the almanacks of the time, where particular seasons were pointed out as the most proper time for being bled.

But

Thus the first quarto, 1597. The folio has-"no time.· the above mentioned allusion shows that the original is the true reading. MALone.

3 When, Harry ?] This obsolete exclamation of impatience is likewise found in Heywood's Silver Age, 1613:

"Fly into Affrick; from the mountains there,

"Chuse me two venomous serpents: thou shalt know them:

By their fell poison and their fierce aspect.

When, Iris?

"Iris. I am gone."

Again, in Look About You, 1600:

4

fusal.

66

I'll cut off thy legs,

"If thou delay thy duty. When, proud John ?"

STEEVENS.

no boot.] That is, no advantage, no use, in delay, or reJOHNSON.

(Despite of death, that lives upon my grave,)
To dark dishonour's use thou shalt not have.
I am disgrac'd, impeach'd, and baffled here;
Pierc'd to the soul with slander's venom'd spear;
The which no balm can cure, but his heart-blood
Which breath'd this poison.

K. RICH.

Rage must be withstood: Give me his gage:-Lions make leopards tame". NOR. Yea, but not change his spots": take but my shame,

And I resign my gage. My dear dear lord,
The purest treasure mortal times afford,
Is-spotless reputation; that away,
Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay.
A jewel in a ten-times-barr'd-up chest
Is-a bold spirit in a loyal breast.

5

- my

fair name, &c.] That is, my name that lives on my grave, in despight of death.' This easy passage most of the editors seem to have mistaken. JOHNSON.

66

6 - and BAFFLED here ;] Baffled in this place means 'treated with the greatest ignominy imaginable.' So, Holinshed, vol. iii. p. 827, and 1218, or annis 1513, and 1570, explains it: "Bafulling," says he, " is a great disgrace among the Scots, and it is used when a man is openlie perjured, and then they make of him an image painted, reversed, with his heels upward, with his name wondering, crieing, and blowing out of him with horns." Spenser's Fairy Queen, b. v. c. iii. st. 37, and b. vi. c. vii. st. 27, has the word in the same signification. TOLLET.

The same expression occurs in Twelfth-Night, Sc. ult. :

"Alas, poor fool! how have they baffled thee?" Again, in King Henry IV. Part I. Act I. Sc. II.:

66

-

an I do not, call me villain, and baffle me." Again, in The London Prodigal, 1605: “ - chil be abaffelled up and down the town, for a messel;" i. e. for a beggar, or rather a leper. STEEVens.

7

Lions make leopards tame.] There is a peculiar allusion here which has not been noticed. The Norfolk crest was a golden leopard. MALOne.

8

but not change HIS Spots:] The old copies have-his spots. Mr. Pope altered it to their spots; but the change from the singular to the plural number was not uncommon in our poet's time. See the Essay on Shakspeare's phraseology. MALONE.

Mine honour is my life; both grow in one;
Take honour from me, and my life is done :
Then, dear my liege, mine honour let me try ;
In that I live, and for that will I die.

K. RICH. Cousin, throw down your gage; do you begin.

BOLING. O, God 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
Before this outdar'd dastard? Ere my tongue
Shall wound mine honour with such feeble wrong,
Or sound so base a parle, my teeth shall tear
The slavish motive of recanting fear;

1

And spit it bleeding in his high disgrace,

Where shame doth harbour, even in Mowbray's [Exit GAUNT.

face.

K. RICH. We were not born to sue, but to com

mand:

Which since we cannot do to make you friends,
Be ready, as your lives shall answer it,
At Coventry, upon Saint Lambert's day;
There shall your swords and lances arbitrate
The swelling difference of your settled hate;
Since we cannot atone you2, we shall see
Justice design the victor's chivalry.—

3

9 with pale beggar-FEAR-]

This is the reading of one

of the oldest quartos, [quarto 1597] and the folio. The quartos 1608 and 1615, read-beggar-face; i. e. (as Dr. Warburton observes,) with a face of supplication. STEEVENS. The slavish MOTIVE-] Motive, for instrument.

2

WARBURTON.

Rather that which fear puts in motion. JOHNSON.
ATONE you.] i. e. reconcile you. So, in Cymbeline:
"I was glad I did atone my countryman and you."
STEEVENS.

3 Justice DESIGN-] Thus the old copies. Mr. Pope reads"Justice decide," but without necessity. Designo, Lat, signifies VOL. XVI.

C

4

Lord Marshal, command our officers at arms
Be ready to direct these home-alarms.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The Same. A Room in the Duke of LANCASTER'S Palace.

Enter GAUNT, and Duchess of GLOSTER".

6

GAUNT. Alas! the part I had in Gloster's blood Doth more solicit me, than your exclaims, To stir against the butchers of his life. But since correction lieth in those hands, Which made the fault that we cannot correct, Put we our quarrel to the will of heaven;

to mark out, to point out: "Notat designatque oculis ad cædem unumquemque nostrûm." Cicero in Catilinam. STEEVENS.

To design, in our author's time, signified to mark out. See Minsheu's Dict. in v.: "To designe or shew by a token. Ital. Denotare, Lat. Designare." At the end of the article the reader is referred to the words "to marke, note, demonstrate, or shew." -the word is still used with this signification in Scotland.

MALONE.

4 Marshal, command, &c.] The old copies-Lord Marshal; but (as Mr. Ritson observes,) the metre requires the omission I have made. It is also justified by his Majesty's repeated address to the same officer, in Scene III. STEEVENS.

"Lord Marshal." Mr. Steevens, with his usual disregard of the ancient copies, omits the word Lord, forsooth to assist the metre; and he says, the omission is "justified by his Majesty's repeated address to the same officer in Sc. III." We are therefore to suppose that whatever form of address the poet has used in one scene, must be likewise employed by him in every other!

The truth is, the metre is such as the poet has used in innumerable other places. MALONE.

5

Duchess of Gloster.]

The Duchess of Gloster was

Eleanor Bohun, widow of Duke Thomas, son of Edward III.

WALPOLE.

6 -the part I had-] That is, my relation of consanguinity to Gloster. HANMER.

Who when he sees the hours ripe on earth,
Will rain hot vengeance on offenders' heads.
DUCH. Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper
spur?

Hath love in thy old blood no living fire?
Edward's seven sons, whereof thyself art one,
Were as seven phials of his sacred blood,

Or seven fair branches springing from one root:
Some of those seven are dried by nature's course,
Some of those branches by the destinies cut:
But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Gloster,-
One phial full of Edward's sacred blood,
One flourishing branch of his most royal root,-
Is crack'd, and all the precious liquor spilt;

Is hack'd down, and his summer leaves all faded,
By envy's hand, and murder's bloody axe.
Ah, Gaunt his blood was thine; that bed, that

womb,

That mettle, that self-mould, that fashion'd thee, Made him a man; and though thou liv'st, and breath'st,

Yet art thou slain in him: thou dost consent9

Who when HE SEES-] The old copies erroneously read:

"Who when they see

-."

I have reformed the text by example of a subsequent passage,

p. 20:

"His deputy, anointed in his sight," &c. STEEVENS. 8 One phial, &c.] Though all the old copies concur in the present regulation of the following lines, I would rather read :"One phial full of Edward's sacred blood

" Is crack'd, and all the precious liquor spill'd;
"One flourishing branch of his most royal root
"Is hack'd down, and his summer leaves all faded.

Some of the old copies in this instance, as in many others, read vaded, a mode of spelling practised by several of our ancient writers. After all, I believe the transposition to be needless.

STEEVENS.

thou dost CONSENT, &c.] i. e. assent. So, in St. Luke's