With folemn Rev'rence; throw away refpect,
s Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty,
For you have but mistook me all this while;
I live on bread like you, feel want like you.
Tafte grief, need friends, like you; fubjected thus,
How can you fay to me, I am a King?

Carl. My lord, wife men ne'er wail their prefent woes, But prefently prevent the ways to wail: To fear the foe, fince fear oppreffeth ftrength, Gives, in your weakness, ftrength unto your foe; And fo your follies fight against yourself.

6

Fear, and be flain; no worfe can come from fight; And fight and die, is death destroying death: Where fearing dying, pays death fervile breath. Aum. My father hath a power, enquire of him, And learn to make a body of a limb.

K. Rich. Thou chid'ft me well; proud Bolingbroke,
I come

To change blows with thee, for our day of doom.
This ague-fit of fear is over-blown;

An eafy task it is to win our own.

Say, Scroop, where lies our uncle with his Power?
Speak fweetly, man, although thy looks be fower.
Scroop. Men judge by the complexion of the sky
The state and inclination of the day;

So may you, by my dull and heavy eye,
My tongue hath but a heavier tale to fay.
I play the torturer, by small and small
To lengthen out the worst, that must be spoken.
Your uncle York is join'd with Bolingbroke,
And all your northern caftles yielded up,
And all your fouthern gentlemen in arms
Upon his faction.

5 Tradition. This word feems here used in an improper fenfe, for traditional practices: That is, eftablished or customary homage.

Death deftroying death ]That

is, to dye fighting, is to return the evil that we fuffer, to destroy the destroyers. I once read death defying death, but defiroying is as well.

K. Rich.

K. Rich. Thou haft faid enough.

Befhrew thee, Coufin, which didft lead me forth

Of that fweet way I was in to Defpair.

7

[To Aumerle,

What fay you now? what comfort have we now?
By heav'n, I'll hate him everlastingly,
That bids me be of comfort any more.
Go to Flint-castle, there I'll pine away,
A King, woe's flave, fhall kingly woe obey:
That Pow'r I have, discharge; and let 'em go
To ear the land, that hath fome hope to grow,
For I have none. Let no man fpeak again
To alter this, for counfel is but vain.
Aum. My Liege, one word.

K. Rich. He does me double wrong,
That wounds me with the flatt'ries of his tongue.
Discharge my Foll'wers; let them hence, away,
From Richard's night to Bolingbroke's fair day.

SCENE V.

Bolingbroke's Camp near Flint.

[Exeunt

Enter with drum and colours, Bolingbroke, York,
Northumberland, and Attendants.

Boling. The Welbmen are difpers'd; and Salisbury,
S
Is gone to meet the King, who lately landed
With fome few private friends upon this Coast.
North. The news is very fair and good, my lord,
Richard, not far from hence, hath hid his head.
York. It would befeem the lord Northumberland,

O that by this intelligence we learn,

I'll hate him everlaflingly, That bids me be of comfort.] This fentiment is drawn from nature. Nothing is more of fenfive to a mind convinced that his diftrefs is without a remedy,

and preparing to fubmit quietly to irrefiftible calamity, than these petty and conjectured comforts which unskilful officiousness thinks it virtue to administer,

To fay, King Richard. Ah, the heavy day,
When fuch a facred King fhould hide his head!
North. Your Grace mistakes me; only to be brief,
Left I his Title out.

York. The time hath been,

Would you have been fo brief with him, he would Have been fo brief with You, to fhorten you,

For taking fo the Head, the whole Head's Length. Boling. Mistake not, uncle, farther than you should. York. Take not, good coufin, farther than you should. Left you mistake. The heav'ns are o'er your head. Boling. I know it, uncle, nor oppofe myself Against their will. But who comes here?

Enter Percy.

Welcome, Harry; what, will not this castle yield?
Percy. The caftle royally is mann'd, my lord,
Against your entrance.

Boling. Royally? why, it contains no King?
Percy. Yes, my good lord,

It doth contain a King. King Richard lies
Within the limits of yond lime and stone;
And with him lord Aumerle, lord Salisbury,
Sir Stephen Scroop, befides a clergy-man
Of holy reverence; who, I cannot learn.
North. Belike, it is the bishop of Carlisle.
Boling. Noble lord,

[Ta North.

Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle,
Through brazen trumpet fend the breath of Parle
Into his ruin'd ears, and thus deliver.
Henry of Bolingbroke upon his knees

Doth kifs King Richard's hand, and fends allegiance
And faith of heart unto his royal perfon.

Ev'n at his feet I lay my arms and pow'r.
Provided, that my banishment repeal'd,

For taking fo the head,-] out restraint; to take undue li

To take the head is, to act with- berties.

And

And lands reftor'd again, be freely granted:
If not, I'll ufe th' advantage of my pow'r,

And lay the fummer's duft with fhow'rs of blood,
Rain'd from the wounds of flaughter'd Englishmen.
The which, how far off from the mind of Bolingbrokė
It is, fuch crimson tempeft should bedrench
The fresh green lap of fair King Richard's Land,
My stooping duty tenderly shall shew.

Go fignify as much, while here we march
Upon the graffy carpet of this Plain.

Let's march without the noife of threat'ning drum,
That from this Castle's tatter'd battlements
Our fair appointments may be well perus'd.
Methinks, King Richard and myself should meet
With no lefs terror than the elements

Of fire and water, when their thund'ring Shock,
At meeting, tears the cloudy cheeks of heav'n;
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.

SCENE VI.

Parle without, and anfwer within; then a flourish. Enter, on the walls, King Richard, the Bishop of Carlisle, Aumerle, Scroop, and Salisbury.

8

York. See! fee! King Richard doth himself appear, As doth the blufhing difcontented Sun,

From out the fiery portal of the East,
When he perceives, the envious clouds are bent
To dim his Glory; and to ftain the tract
Of his bright Paffage to the Occident.

See! fee! King Richard doth bimfelf appear,] The following fix lines are abfurdly given to Bolingbroke, who is made

to condemn his own conduct and difculp the King's. It is plain thefe fix and the four following all belong to York. WARB.

Yet

Yet looks he like a King; behold his eye,
As bright as is the Eagle's, lightens forth
Controlling Majefty; alack, for woe,

That any harm fhould ftain fo fair a fhow!

K. Rich. We are amaz'd, and thus long have we ftood

To watch the fearful bending of thy knee, [To North.
Because we thought ourfelf thy lawful King;
And, if we be, how dare thy joints forget
To pay their awful duty to our presence?
If we be not, fhew us the hand of God,
That hath difmifs'd us from our Stewardship.
For well we know, no hand of blood and bone
Can gripe the facred handle of our Scepter,
Unless he do prophane, steal, or usurp.
And though you think, that all, as you have done,
Have torn their fouls, by turning them from us,
And we are barren, and bereft of friends,
Yet know, My Mafter, God omnipotent,
Is muft'ring in his clouds on our behalf
Armies of Pestilence; and they shall strike
Your children yet unborn, and unbegot,
That lift your vaffal 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 treafon. He is come to ope
The purple Teftament of bleeding War;
But ere the Crown, he looks for, live in peace,

9 But e'er the Crown, he looks for, live in Peace, Ten thousand bloody Crowns of Mothers' Sons Shall ill become the Flow'r of England's face ;] Tho' I have not difturb'd the Text here, I cannot but think it liable to Sufpicion. A Crown living in A Crown living in

Ten

Peace, as Mr. Warburton juftly obferv'd to me, is a very odd Phrafe. He fuppofes;

But e'er the Crown, he looks for, light in Peace,

. e. delcend and fettle upon Bolingbroke's Head in Peace. Again, I have a fmall Quarrel to the third Line quoted. Would

the