You pluck a thousand dangers on your head,
You lose a thousand well-disposed hearts,

And prick my tender patience to those thoughts,
Which honour and allegiance cannot think.

K. Rich. Think what you will: we seize into our hands

His plate, his goods, his money, and his lands.

York. I'll not be by the while. My liege, farewell: What will ensue hereof, there's none can tell;

But by bad courses may be understood,

That their events can never fall out good.

[Exit.

K. Rich. Go, Bushy, to the earl of Wiltshire straight: Bid him repair to us to Ely-house,

To see this business. To-morrow next

We will for Ireland; and 'tis time, I trow:

And we create, in absence of ourself,

Our uncle York lord governor of England,
For he is just, and always lov'd us well.—
Come on, our queen: to-morrow must we part;
Be merry, for our time of stay is short.

[Flourish.

[Exeunt KING, QUEEN, BUSHY, AUMERLE,

GREEN, and BAGOT.

North. Well, lords, the duke of Lancaster is dead.
Ross. And living too, for now his son is duke.
Willo. Barely in title, not in revenues.

North. Richly in both, if justice had her right.
Ross. My heart is great; but it must break with

silence,

Ere't be disburden'd with a liberal tongue'.

7 Ere't be disburden'd with a liberal tongue.] This line, and five others from this part of the play, are found in the MS. of the time, in my possession. I quote them precisely as they stand there, under the head of " Silence." 66 My heart is greate, but it must break with silence

Ere't be disburden'd with a liberall tongue, &c.

Nay, speake thy mynde, and let him nere speake more,
That speakes thy words againe to doe thee harme.

We three are but thy selfe, and speakinge soe

Thy

North. Nay, speak thy mind; and let him ne'er

speak more,

That speaks thy words again to do thee harm!

Willo. Tends that thou'dst speak, to the duke of Hereford?

If it be so, out with it boldly, man;

Quick is mine ear to hear of good towards him.
Ross. No good at all that I can do for him,
Unless you call it good to pity him,

Bereft and gelded of his patrimony.

North. Now, afore God, 'tis shame such wrongs are borne

In him, a royal prince, and many more
Of noble blood in this declining land.
The king is not himself, but basely led
By flatterers; and what they will inform,
Merely in hate, 'gainst any of us all,

That will the king severely prosecute,

'Gainst us, our lives, our children, and our heirs.

Ross. The commons hath he pill'd with grievous

taxes,

And quite lost their hearts: the nobles hath he fin'd For ancient quarrels, and quite lost their hearts.

Willo. And daily new exactions are devis'd; As blanks, benevolences, and I wot not what : But what, o' God's name, doth become of this? North. Wars have not wasted it, for warr'd he hath not,

Thy words are but as thoughts: therefore be bould.

Free speech and fearelesse we to thee allowe."

Whether these lines were copied from any printed edition of the play cannot be decided; but they agree precisely with none extant. The "&c." after the second line might indicate that something was there omitted; but a good deal is certainly wanting after "to doe thee harme:" forty-three lines are there found in the printed copies, which may possibly have been left out in representation, on account of their strong political tendency. The writer of the MS. may have put down the words as he heard them at the theatre. The last line,

"Free speech and fearlesse we to thee allowe,"

is not to be traced in this scene in any edition, but the same words occur in an earlier part of the play. See p. 116.

But basely yielded upon compromise

That which his noble ancestors achiev'd with blows:
More hath he spent in peace, than they in wars.

Ross. The earl of Wiltshire hath the realm in farm. Willo. The king's grown bankrupt, like a broken

man.

North. Reproach, and dissolution, hangeth over him. Ross. He hath not money for these Irish wars, His burdenous taxations notwithstanding,

But by the robbing of the banish'd duke.

North. His noble kinsman: most degenerate king! But, lords, we hear this fearful tempest sing,

Yet seek no shelter to avoid the storm:
We see the wind sit sore upon our sails,
And yet we strike not, but securely perish.

Ross. We see the very wreck that we must suffer; And unavoided is the danger now,

For suffering so the causes of our wreck.

North. Not so: even through the hollow eyes of death,

I spy life peering; but I dare not say

How near the tidings of our comfort is.

Willo. Nay, let us share thy thoughts, as thou dost

ours.

Ross. Be confident to speak, Northumberland: We three are but thyself; and, speaking so,

Thy words are but as thoughts: therefore, be bold. North. Then thus.-I have from Port le Blanc, a bay

In Britanny, receiv'd intelligence,

That Harry duke of Hereford, Reginald lord Cobham,

8 That which his NOBLE ancestors achiev'd with blows:] Every quarto printed in the lifetime of the author has "noble," which makes the line of twelve syllables, and of such we have numerous examples. The folio, 1623, omits the epithet. Yet on p. 153, under exactly similar circumstances, the folio preserves the same word.

That Harry DUKE OF Hereford, Reginald lord Cobham,] Malone, not content with omitting the words "duke of" in this line, (if verse any part of VOL. IV.

L

That late broke from the duke of Exeter,
His brother, archbishop late of Canterbury,
Sir Thomas Erpingham, sir John Ramston,

Sir John Norbery, sir Robert Waterton, and Francis
Quoint',

All these well furnish'd by the duke of Bretagne,
With eight tall ships, three thousand men of war,
Are making hither with all due expedience,
And shortly mean to touch our northern shore:
Perhaps, they had ere this, but that they stay
The first departing of the king for Ireland.
If, then, we shall shake off our slavish yoke,
Imp out our drooping country's broken wing,
Redeem from broking pawn the blemish'd crown,
Wipe off the dust that hides our scepter's gilt,
And make high majesty look like itself,
Away with me in post to Ravenspurg;
But if you faint, as fearing to do so,
Stay and be secret, and myself will go.

Ross. To horse, to horse! urge doubts to them that fear.

Willo. Hold out my horse, and I will first be there.

[Exeunt.

this enumeration of names can be considered,) added after it one of his own manufacture, in order to add the Earl of Arundel to the list, because he found him mentioned in Holinshed. Surely, we may leave the poet to select what nobles he pleased as the companions of Bolingbroke: perhaps he had some reason for omitting "the son of Richard Earl of Arundel,” as Malone gives it in his addition to Shakespeare. To insert lines of his own is a province of a commentator of which we have not before heard. It is to be admitted, however, as Malone remarks, that the line,

"That late broke from the duke of Exeter," will not apply to any of the personages actually enumerated; but this is an error to be pointed out by an annotator, not to be corrected in Malone's mode. and Francis QUOINT,] In the quartos he is called Coines.

1

2 IMP out-] When (says Steevens) the wing-feathers of a hawk were dropped, or forced out by any accident, it was usual to supply as many as were deficient. This operation was called to imp a hawk. Tubervile has a whole chapter on "The Way and Manner howe to ympe a Hawke's Feather, how-soever it be broken or broosed."

SCENE II.

The Same. An Apartment in the Palace.

Enter QUEEN, BUSHY, and BAGOT.

Bushy. Madam, your majesty is too much sad:
You promis'd, when you parted with the king,
To lay aside life-harming heaviness3,
And entertain a cheerful disposition.

Queen. To please the king, I did; to please myself,
I cannot do it; yet I know no cause
Why I should welcome such a guest as grief,
Save bidding farewell to so sweet a guest
As my sweet Richard. Yet, again, methinks,
Some unborn sorrow, ripe in fortune's womb,
Is coming towards me; and my inward soul
With nothing trembles: at some thing it grieves,
More than with parting from my lord, the king.
Bushy. Each substance of a grief hath twenty sha-
dows,

Which show like grief itself, but are not so:
For sorrow's eye, glazed with blinding tears,
Divides one thing entire to many objects;
Like perspectives, which, rightly gaz'd upon,
Show nothing but confusion: ey'd awry,
Distinguish form: so your sweet majesty,
Looking awry upon your lord's departure,
Finds shapes of grief more than himself to wail;
Which, look'd on as it is, is nought but shadows
Of what it is not. Then, thrice-gracious queen,
More than your lord's departure weep not: more's not

seen;

3 To lay aside LIFE-harming heaviness,] This is the reading of the two earliest editions in 1597 and 1598: those of 1608 and 1615 have the compound absurdly corrupted to half-harming; which the folio corrected to self-harming; certainly an improvement, but not the word employed by Shakespeare.