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Go, signify as much; while here we march
Upon the grassy carpet of this plain.-

[NORTHUMBERLAND advances to the Castle,
with a Trumpet.

Let's march without the noise of threat'ning drum,
That from the castle's totter'd battlements
Our fair appointments may be well peras'd.
Methinks, king Richard and myself should meet
With no less terror than the elements

Of fire and water, when their thund'ring shock
At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven.
Be he the fire, I'll be the yielding water:
The rage be his, while on the earth I rain
My waters; on the earth, and not on him.

March on, and mark king Richard how he looks.

Aparle sounded, and answered by another Trumpet within. Flourish. Enter, on the walls, King RICHARD, the Bishop of Carlisle, AUMERLE, SCROOP and SALISBURY.

York. See, see, king Richard doth himself appear, As doth the blushing discontented sun

From out the fiery portal of the east ;

When he perceives the envious clouds are bent
To dim his glory, and to stain the track
Of his bright passage to the occident.
Yet looks he like a king; behold, his eye,
As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth
Controlling majesty; Alack, alack, for woe,
That any harm should stain so fair a show!

K.Rich.We are amaz'd; and thus long have we stood
To watch the fearful bending of thy knee, [7% NORTH.
Because we thought ourself thy lawful king:
And if we be, how dare thy joints forget
Το pay their awful duty to our presence?
If we be not, show us the hand of God

That hath dismiss'd us from our stewardship;
For well we know, no hand of blood and bone
Can gripe the sacred handle of our scepter,
Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp.

And though you think, that all, as you have done,
Have torn their souls, by turning them from us,
And we are barren, and bereft of friends ;-
Yet know, my master, God omnipotent,
Is must'ring in his clouds, on our behalf,

Armies of pestilence; and they shall strike
Your children yet unborn, and unbegot,

That lift your vassal hands against my head,
And threat the glory of my precious crown.
Tell Bolingbroke, (for yond', methinks, he is,)
That every stride he makes upon my land,
Is dangerous treason: He is come to ope
The purple testament of bleeding war ;4
But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,
Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' sons
Shall ill become the flower of England's face ;5
Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace
To scarlet indignation, and bedew

Her pastures' grass with faithful English blood.
North. The king of heaven forbid, our lord the king
Should so with civil and uncivil arms

Be rush'd upon! Thy thrice-noble cousin,

Harry Bolingbroke, doth humbly kiss thy hand;
And by the honourable tomb he swears,

That stands upon thy royal grandsire's bones;
And by the royalties of both your bloods,

Currents that spring from one most gracious head;
And by the buried hand of warlike Gaunt;
And by the worth and honour of himself,
Comprising all that may be sworn or said,-
His coming hither hath no further scope,
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 rust,
His barbed steeds to stables, and his heart.
To faithful service of your majesty.

This swears he, as he is a prince, is just ;
And, as I am a gentleman, I credit him.

K. Rich. Northumberland, say,-thus the king re

turns ;

[4] I believe our author uses the word testament in its legal sense. Bolingbroke is come to open the testament of war, that he my peruse what is decreed there in his favour Purple is an epithet referring to the future effusion of blood. STEEV.

[5] By the flower of England's face, is meant the choicest youths of England, who shall be slaughter'd in this quarrel, or have bloody crowns The flower of England's face, to design her choicest youth, is a fine and noble expression. Pericles, by a similar thought, said that the destruction of the Athenian youth was a fatality like cutting off the spring from the year.

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WARB.

His noble cousin is right welcome hither;
And all the number of his fair demands
Shall be accomplish'd without contradiction:
With all the gracious utterance thou hast,
Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends.—
We do debase ourself, cousin, do we not,
To look so poorly, and to speak so fair?
Shall we call back Northumberland, and send
Defiance to the traitor, and so die?

[To AUM.

Aum. No, good my lord; let's fight with gentle words, Till time lend friends, and friends their helpful swords. K. Rich. O God! O God! that e'er this tongue of mine,

That laid the sentence of dread banishment

On yon proud man, should take it off again
With words of sooth !6 O, that I were as great
As is my grief, or lesser than my name !
Or that I could forget what I have been!
Or not remember what I must be now!

Swell'st thou, proud heart? I'll give thee scope to beat,
Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me.

Aum. Northumberland comes back from Bolingbroke. K.Rich. What must the king do now? Must he submit?

The king shall do it. Must he be depos'd?
The king shall be contented: Must he lose
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,7 for an alms-man's gown;
My figur'd goblets, for a dish of wood;
My scepter, for a palmer's walking-staff;
My subjects, for a pair of carved saints;
And my large kingdom, for a little grave,
A little little grave, an obscure grave :-
Or I'll be buried in the king's highway,
Some way of common trade, where subjects' feet

[6] Sooth is sweet, as well as true. In this place, sooth means sweetness, or softness, a signification yet retained in the verb, to sooth. JOHNS. [7] Dr. Gray observes, "that King Richard's expense in regard to dress, was very extraordinary." Holinshed has the same remark; and adds that he had one cote which he caused to be made for him of gold and stone, valued at 30,000 marks." STEEV

[8] The phrase is still used by common people. When they speak of a Toad much frequented, they say, "it is a road of much traffick STEEV.

May hourly trample on their sovereign's head:
For on my heart they tread, now whilst I live ;
And, buried once, why not upon my head ?.

Aumerle, thou weep'st; My tender-hearted cousin!-
We'll make foul weather with despised tears;
Our sighs, and they, shall lodge the summer corn,
And make a dearth in this revolting land.
Or shall we play the wantons with our woes,
And make some pretty match with shedding tears?
As thus ;—To drop them still upon one place,
Till they have fretted us a pair of graves

Within the earth; and, therein laid,-There lies
Two kinsmen, digg'd their graves with weeping eyes
Would not this ill do well?-Well, well, I see
I talk but idly, and you mock at me.-
Most mighty prince, my lord Northumberland,
What says king Bolingbroke? will his majesty
Give Richard leave to live till Richard die?
You make a leg, and Bolingbroke says-ay.'

North. My lord, in the base court2 he doth attend To speak with you; may't please you to come down? K.Rich. Down, down, I come; like glistering Phaeton, Wanting the manage of unruly jades.

[NORTH. retires to BOLING. In the base court? Base court, where kings grow base, To come at traitors' calls, and do them grace..

In the base court? Come down? Down, court! down

king!

For night-owls shriek, where mounting larks should sing.

[Exeunt from above,

Boling. What says his majesty ?

North. Sorrow and grief of heart

Makes him speak fondly, like a frantick man:

Yet he is come.

Enter King RICHARD, and his Attendants below.

Boling. Stand all apart,

And show fair duty to his majesty.

My gracious lord,

[Kneeling.

[9] Shakspeare is very apt to deviate from the pathetic to the ridiculous. Had the speech of Richard ended at this line it had exhibited the natural language of submissive misery, conforming its intention to the present for. tune, and calmly ending its purposes in death. JOHNS.

[1] Here is another instance of injury done to the poet's metre by chang ing his orthography. I, which was Shakspeare's word. rhymed very welf with die; but ay has quite a different sound. TYRWHITT.

[2] Bas cour, Fr. STEEV.

K. Rich. Fair cousin, you debase your princely knee, To make the base earth proud with kissing it : Me rather had, my heart might feel your love, Than my unpleas'd eye see your courtesy. Up, cousin, up; your heart is up I know,

Thus high at least, [Touching his own head.] although your knee be low.

Boling. My gracious lord, I come but for mine own. K. Rich. Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all. Boling. So far be mine, my most redoubted lord, As my true service shall deserve your love.

K. Rich. Well you deserve :-They well deserve to have,

That know the strong'st and surest way to get.-
Uncle, give me your hand: nay, dry your eyes;
Tears show their love, but want their remedies.--
Cousin, I am too young to be your father,
Though you are old enough to be my heir.
What you will have, I'll give, and willing too;
For do we must, what force will have us do.

Set on towards London :-Cousin, is it so ?

Boling. Yea, my good lord.

K.Rich. Then I must not say, no. [Flourish. Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

Langley, The Duke of YORK's Garden. Enter the Queen, and two Ladies.

Queen. What sport shall we devise here in this garden, To drive away the heavy thought of care ? 1 Lady. Madam, we'll play at bowls.

Queen. "Twill make me think,

The world is full of rubs, and that my fortune
Runs 'gainst the bias.

1 Lady. Madam, we will dance.

Queen. My legs can keep no measure in delight,
When my poor heart no measure keeps in grief:
Therefore, no dancing, girl; some other sport.
1 Lady. Madam, we'll tell tales.

Queen. Of sorrow, or of joy ?

1 Lady. Of either, madam.

Queen. Of neither, girl:

For if of joy, being altogether wanting,

It doth remember me the more of sorrow;

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