K. Rich. Thou haft faid enough.

Befhrew thee, Coufin, which didft lead me forth

[To Aumerle, Of that fweet way I was in to Despair.

7

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-caftle, 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 S

O that by this intelligence we learn,

The Welshmen are difpers'd; and Salisbury, 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,

7 Pll hate him everlastingly, 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 unfkilful officioufnefs thinks it virtue to administer.

Το

To fay, King Richard. Ah, the heavy day,
When fuch a facred King should 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 shorten you,
*For taking fo the Head, the whole Head's Length
Boling. Miftake 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,

[To 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 reftraint; 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 use 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 Bolingbroke
It is, fuch crimson tempeft fhould bedrench
The fresh green lap of fair King Richard's Land,
My stooping duty tenderly fhall fhew.

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 Caftle'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.

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

York. See! fee! King Richard doth himself appear, As doth the blushing 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 himself 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 these 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 should stain fo fair a show!

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 prefence?
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, fteal, or ufurp.
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 Peftilence; and they fhall 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 ftride 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,

• 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

Ten

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

But e'er the Crown, he looks for, light in Peace, i. e. defcend and fettle upon Bolingbroke's Head in Peace.Again, I have a fmall Quarrel to the third line quoted. Would

the

Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' fons
Shall ill become the flow'r of England's face:
Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace
To fcarlet indignation; and bedew

Her Pafture's grafs with faithful English blood.
North. The King of heav'n forbid, our lord the King
Should fo with civil and uncivil arms

Be rush'd upon! no, thy thrice-noble coufin,
Harry of Bolingbroke, doth kifs thy hand,
And by the honourable tomb he fwears,
That ftands upon your royal grandfire's bones,
And by the Royalties of both your bloods,
Currents, that fpring from one moft gracious head
And by the bury'd hand of warlike Gaunt',
And by the worth and honour of himself,
Comprifing all that may be fworn, or said,
His Coming hither hath no farther scope;

the Poet fay, That bloody Crowns fhould disfigure the Flow'rs that fpring on the Ground, and bedew the Grafs with blood? Surely the two Images are too fimilar. I have fufpected,

Shall ill become the Floor of England's Face; i. e. Shall make a difmal Spectacle on the Surface of the Kingdom's Earth. THEOBALD. Shall ill become the flow'r of England's face;] By the flow'r of England's face, is meant the choiceft youths of England, who fhall be flaughter'd in this quarrel, or have bloody crowns. The flower of England's face, to defign her choiceft Youth, is a fine and noble expreffion. Pericles, by a fimilar thought, faid that the deftruction of the Athenian youth was a fatality like cutting off the Spring from the Year. Yet the Oxford Editor;

Dr. Warburton has inferted light in peace in the text of his own edition, but live in peace is more fuitable to Richard's intention, which is to tell him that though he fhould get the crown by rebellion, it will be long before it will live in peace, be fo fettled as to be firm, The flow'r of England's face, is very happily explained, and any alteration is therefore needlefs.

And by the bury'd hand of warlike Gaunt.] It should be read juft the other way, And by the warlike band of bury'd Gaunt. WARBURT. I fee no great difference.

Then