Cap.

De Enter Salisbury, and a Captain.".

M

Y lord of Salisbury, we have ftaid ten days, And hardly kept our Countrymen together, And yet we hear no tidings from the King; Therefore we will difperfe ourselves. Farewel. Salif. Stay yet another day, thou trufty Welshman: The King repofeth all his truft in thee.

Cap. 'Tis thought, the King is dead: we will not stay.

The Bay-trees in our Country all are wither'd,
And meteors fright the fixed ftars of heav'n;
The pale-fac'd moon looks bloody on the earth;
And lean-look'd Prophets whifper fearful Change.
Rich men look fad, and ruffians dance and leap;
The one, in fear to lofe what they enjoy;
Th' other, in hope t'enjoy by rage and war.
Thefe figns forerun the death of Kings
Farewel; our countrymen are gone and fled,
As well affur'd, Richard their King is dead. [Exit.
Salif. Ah, Richard, ah! with eyes of heavy mind,
I fee thy Glory, like a fhooting Star,

2

Here is a fcene fo unartfully and irregularly thrust into an improper place, that I cannot but fufpect it accidentally transpofed; which, when the fcenes were written on fingle pages, might eafily happen, in the wildnefs of Shakepeare's drama. This dialogue was, in the authour's draught, probably the second fcene of the enfuing act, and there I would advise the reader to infert it, though I have not ventured on fo bold a change. My conjecture is not fo prefumptuous as may be VOL. IV.

Fall to the base earth from the firmament.
Thy Sun fets weeping in the lowly West,
Witneffing Storms to come, woe, and unrest.
Thy friends are fled to wait upon thy foes;
And crossly to thy Good all fortune goes.

[Exit.

ACT III. SCENE I.
Bolingbroke's Camp at Bristol.

Enter Bolingbroke, York, Northumberland, Rofs,
Percy, Willoughby, with Bushy and Green,
Prifoners.

BOLINGBROKE.

RING forth thefe men.

B B

Busby and Green, I will not vex your fouls
(Since prefently your fouls muft part your bodies)
With too much urging your pernicious lives;
For 'twere no charity: yet to wash your blood
From off my hands, here, in the view of men,
I will unfold fome causes of
your deaths.
You have mifled a Prince, a royal King,
A happy gentleman in blood and lineaments,
By you unhappy'd, and disfigur'd clean.
You have, in manner, with your finful hours
Made a divorce betwixt his Queen and him;
Broke the Poffeffion of a royal Bed,

And ftain'd the Beauty of a fair Queen's cheeks
With tears drawn from her eyes, with your foul wrongs.
Myfelf, a Prince, by fortune of my birth,
Near to the King in blood, and near in love,
Till you did make him mif-interpret me,
Have floopt my neck under your injuries;
And figh'd my English breath in foreign clouds,

Eat

Eating the bitter bread of Banifhment,
While you have fed upon my Signiories,
Dif-park'd my Parks, and fell'd my foreft-woods,
3 From mine own windows torn my houfhold coat,
Raz'd out my Imprefs, leaving me no fign,
Save mens' opinions, and my living blood,
To fhew the world I am a gentleman.

This, and much more, much more than twice all this, Condemns you to the death. See them deliver'd T'execution, and the hand of death.

Busby. More welcome is the ftroke of death to me, Than Bolingbroke to England.

Lords, farewel. Green. My comfort is, that heav'n will take our fouls,

And plague injuftice with the pains of hell.

Boling. My lord Northumberland, fee them dispatch'd. Uncle, you fay the Queen is at your house; For heav'n's fake, fairly let her be intreated; Tell her, I fend to her my kind Commends; Take fpecial care, my Greetings be deliver'd. York. A gentleman of mine I have dispatch'd With letters of your love to her at large. Boling. Thanks, gentle Uncle.-Come, my lords,

4

away,

3 From mine own windows torn my boufhold coat.] It was the practice, when coloured glafs was in ufe, of which there are ftill fome remains in old feats and churches, to anneal the arms of the family in the windows of the house.

4 Thanks, gentle Uncle; Come,
my Lords, away,
To fight with Glendower and
his Complices,

A while to Work, and after Holyday.] Tho' the intermediate Line has taken Poffef

[To

fion of all the old Copies, I have great Sufpicion of its being an Interpolation; and have therefore ventur'd to throw it out. The first and third Line rhime to each other; nor, do I imagine, this was cafual, but intended by the Poet. Were we to acknowledge the Line genuine, it must argue the Poet of Forgetfulnets and Inattention to Hiftory. Bolingbroke is, as it were, yet but juft arrived; he is now at Briftul; weak in his Numbers; has had no Meeting with a Parliament; E 2

nor

[To fight with Glendower and his Complices;]

A while to Work; and, a?ter, Holy-day. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

* Changes to the coaft of Wales.
Flourish: Drums and Trumpets.

Enter King Richard, Aumerle, Bishop of Carlisle, and Soldiers.

K. Rich.

B

Arkloughly-caftle call you this at hand? Aum. Yea, my good lord; how brooks your Grace the air,

After your toffing on the breaking Seas?

K. Rich. Needs muft I like it well. I weep for joy To ftand upon my Kingdom once again. Dear Earth, I do falute thee with my hand,

Though Rebels wound thee with their horfes' hoofs:
As a long-parted mother with her child

Plays fondly with her tears, and fmiles in meeting;
So weeping, fmiling, greet I thee my Earth,
And do thee favour with my royal hands.
Feed not thy Sovereign's foe, my gentle Earth,
Nor with thy fweets comfort his rav'nous fense;
But let thy fpiders that fuck up thy venom,
And heavy-gaited toads, lye in their way;
Doing annoyance to the treacherous feet,
Which with ufurping steps do trample thee.

nor is fo far affur'd of the Suc-
ceffion, as to think of going to
fupprefs Infurrections before he
is planted in the Throne. Be-
fides, we find, the Oppofition of
Glendower begins the First Part
of K. Henry IV; and Mortimer's
Defeat by that hardy Welshman
is the Tidings of the firft Scene
of that Play. Again, tho' Glen-
dover, in the very firft Year of
K. Henry IV. began to be trou-
blefome, put in for the Supre-

macy of Wales, and imprison'd Mortimer; yet it was not 'till the fucceeding Year, that the King employed any Force against him.

THEOBALD.

This emendation, which I think is jutt, has been followed by Sir T. Hanmer, but is neglected by Dr. Warburton.

Here may be properly inferted the laft fcene of the fecond act.

Yield stinging nettles to mine enemies;
And, when they from thy bofom pluck a flower,
Guard it, I pr'ythee, with a lurking adder;
Whofe double tongue may with a mortal touch
Throw death upon thy Sovereign's enemies.
Mock not my fenfelefs conjuration, lords;
This Earth fhall have a Feeling, and these stones
Prove armed foldiers, ere her native King
Shall faulter under foul rebellious arms.

Bifbop. Fear not, my Lord; that Pow'r, that made you King,

Hath pow'r to keep you King, in fpight of all.
The means, that heaven yields, must be embrac'd
And not neglected; elfe, if heaven would,
And we would not heav'n's offer, we refufe
The proffer'd means of fuccour and redrefs.

Aum. He means, my lord; that we are too remifs;
Whilft Bolingbroke, through our fecurity,
Grows ftrong and great, in fubftance and in power.
K. Rich. Difcomfortable Coufin, know'st thou not,
That when the fearching eye of heav'n is hid
*Behind the globe, that lights the lower world;
Then thieves and robbers range abroad unfeen,
In murders, and in outrage bloody, here.
But when from under this terreftrial ball
He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines,
And darts his light through ev'ry guilty hole,
Then murders, treafons, and detefted fins,

The cloak of night being pluck'd from off their backs,
Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves.
So when this thief, this traitor Bolingbroke,