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.

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:

begin.

do you

Boling. O! God defend my soul from such deep
sin5.

Shall I seem crest-fall'n 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,

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 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 you', we shall see

50! God defend my soul from such DEEP sin.] So all the quarto editions : the folio, 1623, substitutes heaven for "God," and foul for "deep." The change seems to have been merely arbitrary.

Or with pale beggar-FEAR-] So the quarto, 1597, and the first folio: the other quartos have "beggar-face."

7 Since we cannot ATONE you, we shall see ] "Atone" is reconcile or at one you. See Vol. iii. p. 96, note 4. "We shall see" is the preferable reading of the 4to, 1597.

Justice design the victor's chivalry.—
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.

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;
Who when they see 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,

8 Justice DESIGN the victor's chivalry.] To "design" was used in Shakespeare's time in its etymological sense, from the Lat. designo, to mark out, or point out. Pope injudiciously altered the word to decide.

Alas! the part I had in GLOSTER's blood] In all the quarto editions, prior to the folio, 1623, it stands " Woodstock's blood." Mr. Amyot has furnished me with the following note :-" He was born at Woodstock, and was always called Thomas of Woodstock by the historians, till Richard II. first created him Earl of Buckingham, and afterwards (according to Dugdale and Sandford) Duke of Gloster in the 9th year of his reign."

1 Who when THEY SEE the hours ripe on earth,] So all the ancient copies, quarto and folio, which the moderns have needlessly altered to he sees. Gaunt uses "heaven" as a plural noun.

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 metal, 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 consent
In some large measure to thy father's death,
In that thou seest thy wretched brother die,
Who was the model of thy father's life.
Call it not patience, Gaunt, it is despair:
In suffering thus thy brother to be slaughter'd,
Thou show'st the naked pathway to thy life,
Teaching stern murder how to butcher thee.
That which in mean men we entitle patience,
Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.
What shall I say? to safeguard thine own life,
The best way is to venge my Gloster's death.

Gaunt. God's is the quarrel; for God's substitute3, 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 God, the widow's champion and defence.

2 Is hack'd down, and his summer leaves all FADED,] All the quarto editions have "faded," and the folio vaded. They were in fact the same word. Some modern editors have said that "all the old copies have raded, while the modern editors read faded." They could not have looked at one of the old quarto editions, or they would have seen the inaccuracy of the assertion.

3 GOD's is the quarrel; for God's substitute,] So the quarto editions. The folio, 1623, has heaven's in both instances. Three lines lower, all the copies, folio and quarto, read, "Let heaven revenge," &c. but farther on, "To God, the widow's champion," is the reading of the quartos, and "To heaven" that of the folio. These changes were, of course, made in consequence of the statute, 3 Jac. I. c. 21, but the original words of Shakespeare were nevertheless preserved in all the 4to. impressions.

Duch. Why then, I will.-Farewell, old Gaunt*.
Thou go'st to Coventry, there to behold

Our cousin Hereford and fell Mowbray fight.
O! sit my husband's wrongs on Hereford's spear,
That it may enter butcher Mowbray's breast;
Or if misfortune miss the first career,

Be Mowbray's sins so heavy in his bosom,
That they may break his foaming courser's back,
And throw the rider headlong in the lists,
A caitiff recreant to my cousin Hereford.
Farewell, old Gaunt: thy sometimes brother's wife
With her companion grief must end her life.
Gaunt. Sister, farewell: I must to Coventry.
As much good stay with thee, as go with me!
Duch. Yet one word more.-Grief boundeth where
it falls,

Not with the empty hollowness, but weight:
I take my leave before I have begun,
For sorrow ends not when it seemeth done.
Commend me to my brother, Edmund York.
Lo! this is all:-nay, yet depart not so;
Though this be all, do not so quickly go;

I shall remember more. Bid him-O! what?-
With all good speed at Plashy visit me.
Alack and what shall good old York there see,
But empty lodgings and unfurnish'd walls,
Unpeopled offices, untrodden stones?

And what hear there for welcome, but my groans?

Why then, I will.-Farewell, old Gaunt.] Sir T. Hanmer, Steevens, and Ritson, consider this line defective, inasmuch as it has only eight syllables. All the old copies, folio and quarto, are uniform in giving it as in our text, and probably Shakespeare meant so to leave it. The time is amply made up by the pause after "Why then, I will," before the Duchess continues "Farewell, old Gaunt." Shakespeare has many lines of eight syllables.

5 And what HEAR there for welcome, but my groans?] Malone made a singular error with respect to the word "hear in this line he asserted, that in the first edition of this play, in 1597, it stands cheer, and "hear" in all the subsequent impressions, adding, "this passage furnishes an evident proof of the value of first editions, and also shows at how very early a period the revisers of Shakespeare's pieces began to tamper with his text," &c. The fact is, that the

Therefore commend me; let him not come there,
To seek out sorrow that dwells every where.
Desolate, desolate, will I hence, and die:
The last leave of thee takes my weeping eye.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Gosford Green, near Coventry.

Lists set out, and a Throne. Heralds, &c., attending. Enter the Lord Marshal, and AUMERLE.

Mar. My lord Aumerle, is Harry Hereford arm'd? Aum. Yea, at all points, and longs to enter in. Mar. The duke of Norfolk, sprightfully and bold, Stays but the summons of the appellant's trumpet, Aum. Why then, the champions are prepar'd, and stay

For nothing but his majesty's approach.

Flourish. Enter King RICHARD, who takes his seat on his Throne; GAUNT, BUSHY, BAGOT, GREEN, and others, who take their places. A Trumpet is sounded, and answered by another Trumpet within. Then enter NORFOLK in armour, preceded by a Herald.

K. Rich. Marshal, demand of yonder champion
The cause of his arrival here in arms:
Ask him his name; and orderly proceed

To swear him in the justice of his cause.

Mar. In God's name, and the king's, say who thou art,

And why thou com'st thus knightly clad in arms:

word is "hear" in all the editions, quarto and folio, and that cheer has been substituted in the text against every authority. Those who have followed Malone's reading have adopted his blunder, by placing confidence in the accuracy of his collation, and by not taking the trouble, or by not having the opportunity of making a new collation. Malone does not appear to have possessed a copy of the first edition of "Richard II."