And plague injustice with the pains of hell.
Boling. My lord Northt berland, see them dispatch’d.

[Exeunt Nor. and others, with prisoners.
Uncle, you say, the queen is at your house ;
For heaven's fake, fairly let her be entreated :
Tell her, I send to her my kind commends ;
Take special 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, lords, away; To fight with Glendower and his complices; A while to work, and, after, holiday 9, [Exeunt.

S CE N E II'.

The coast of Wales. A castle in view. Flourish : drums and trumpets. Enter King RICHARD,

Bishop of Carlisle, AUMERLE, and Soldiers, K. Rich. Barkloughly castle call you this at hand ? 9 Thanks, gentle uncle.-Come, lords, away;

To fight with Glendower and his complices;

A while to work, and, after, boliday.] Though the intermediate line has taken potlession of all the old copies, I have great fufpicion of its being an interpolation; and have therefore ventured to throw it out. The firit and third lines rhime to each other; nor do I imagine this was casual, but intended by the poet. Were we to acknowledge the line genuine, it must argue the poet of forgetfulness and inattention to history. Bolingbroke is, as it were, but just arrived; he is now at Bristol, weak in his numbers; has had no meeting with a parliament; nor is so far atlured of the succession, as to think of going to suppress insurrec. tions before he is planted in the throne. Belides, we find the opposition of Glendower begins The First Part of K. Henry IV. and Mortimer's defeat by that hardy Welshman is the tidings of the first scene of that play. Again, though Glendower, in the very first year of K. Henry IV. began to be troublesome, put in for the supremacy of Wales, and imprisoned Mortimer; yet it was not till the succeeding year that the king employed any force against him. THEOBALD.

This emendation, which I think is just, has been followed by fir T. Hanmer, but is neglected by Dr. Warburton. JOHNSON.

Mr. Heath observes, that Bolingbroke marched to Chester, probably with a view to attack the Welsh army headed by Lord Salisbury. He thinks therefore the line is genuine, See p. 61. sc. iii. Stowe expressly says that * Owen Glendower ferved King Richard at Flint-Castle." MALONE. 1 Here may be properly inserted the last sceac of the second act. Johns.

Aum.

Aum. Yea, my lord: Howrooks your grace the air, After your late tosling on the leaking seas?

K. Rich. Needs must I like it well; I weep for joy, To stand upon my kingdom once again.Dear earth, I do falute thee with my hand, Though rebels wound thee with their horses' hoofs : 1 As a long-parted mother with her child Plays fondly with her tears, and smiles in meeting?; So, weeping, smiling, 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 sweets comfort his rav’nous sense : But let thy spiders, that suck up thy venom, And heavy-gaited toads, lie in their way; Doing annoyance to the treacherous feet, Which with usurping steps do trample thee. Yield stinging nettles to mine enemies : And when they from thy bosom pluck a flower, Guard it 3, I pray thee, with a lurking adder; Whose double tongue may with a mortal touch Throw death upon thy sovereign's enemies.Mock not my senseless conjuration, lords; This earth shall have a feeling, and these stones Prove armed soldiers, ere her native king Shall falter under foul rebellious arms.

Car. Fear not, my lord; that Power, that made you king,
Hath power to keep you king, in spight of all.
2 As a long parted mother with ber cbild
Plays fondly with her tears, and smiles in meeting ;]

« Ως είπαν, αλοχειο φιλης εν χερσιν εθηκε
« Παιδ' εον η δαρα μιν κηωδεί δεξαλο κολπώ

« ΔΑΚΡΥΘΕΝ ΓΕΛΑΣΑΣΑ.” Ηom. ΙΙ. Ζ. Perhaps smiles is here used as a substantive. As a mother plays fondly with her child from whom she has been a long time parted, crying, and at the same time smiling, at meeting him.

It has been proposed to read—Smiles in weeping; and I once thought the emendation very plausible. But I am now persuaded the text is right. If we read weeping, the long-parted mother and her child do not meet, and there is no particular cause afligned for either her smiles or

MALONE. 3 Guard is,] That is, border it. See Vol. Il. p.66, n.9. MALONE.

E 3

The

tears.

The means that heaven yields must be embrac'd,
And not neglected; elié, if heaven would,
And we will not, heaven's offer we refuse;
The proffer'd means of succour and redress.

Aum. He means, my lord, that we are too remiss ;
Whilft Bolingbroke, through our security,
Grows strong and great, in substance, and in friends.

K. Rich. Discomfortable cousin! know'st thou not,
That, when the searching eye of heaven is hid
Behind the globe, and lights the lower world“,
Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen,
In murders, and in outrage, bloody here;
But when, from under this terrestrial ball,
He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines,
And darts his light through every guilty hole,
Then murders, treasons, and detested sins,
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,-.
Who all this while hath revell’d in the night,
Whilst we were wand'ring with the antipodes,
Shall see us rising in our throne the east,
His treasons will

fit blushing in his face,
Not able to endure the fight of day,
But, felf-affrighted, tremble at his fin.
Not all the water in the rough rude sea
Can wash the balm from an annointed king:
The breath of worldly men cannot de poses

The 4 — and lights the lower world,] The old copies read hat lights. The emendation was made by Dr. Johnson. Sense might be obtained by a Night transpofition, without changing the words of the original

That when the searching eye of heaven, that lights

The lower world, is hid behind the globe ;By the lower world, as the patiage is amended by Dr. Johnson, we must understand, a world lower rhan skis of ours; I suppose, our Antipodes. But the lower world may fignify cur world. MALONE,

· Tbe breath of worldly men &c.] Here is the doctrine of indefeasible right exprefied in the strongest terms; but our poet did not learn it in the reign of K. James, to which it is now the practice of all writers,

whore

text:

Welcome, my lord; How far off lies your power?
To-day, to-day, unhappy day, too late.

The deputy elected by the Lord:
For every man that Bolingbroke hath press’d,
To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown,
God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay
A glorious angel : then, if angels fight,
Weak men mult fall; for heaven still guards the right,

Enter SALISBURY.
Sal. Nor near, nor further off, my gracious lord,
Than this weak arm : Discomfort guides my tongue,
And bids me speak of nothing but despair.
One day too late, I fear, my noble lord,
Hath clouded all thy happy days on earth:
0, call back yesterday, bid time return,
And thou shalt have twelve thousand fighting men !
O’erthrows thy joys, friends, fortune, and thy ftate;
For all the Welthmen, hearing thou wert dead,
Are gone to Bolingbroke, dispers’d, and Aed.

Aum. Comfort, my liege: Why looks your grace so pale?
K. Rich. But now the blood of twenty thousand men

Did triumph in my face, and they are fled;
And, till so much blood thither come again,

Have I not reason to look pale and dead?
All souls that will be safe, fly from my side ;
For time hath fet a blot upon my pride.

Aum. Comfort, my liege; remember who you are.

K. Rich. I had forgot myself: Am I not king?
Awake, thou coward majeity! thou sleep'ft.
Is not the king's name forty thousand names ??

are regulated by fashion or intereft, to impute the original of every tenet which they have been taught to think false or foolish.

JOHNSON. Awake, thou coward majefty!] Thus the quarto. The folio has thou suggard majesty. MALONE. ?Is not tbe king's name forry thousand names ? ; Thus in King

“ Besides, the king's name is a tower of strength." See a speech of Antigonus in Plutarch, of this kind. Vol. II. p. 1999 fio. Gr. S, W.

Arm,

whose opinions

6

Ricbard III.

E4

Arm, arm, my name! a puny subject strikes
At thy great glory:-Look not to the ground,
Ye favourites of a king; Are we not high?
High be our thoughts : I know, my uncle York
Hath power enough to serve our turn. But who
Comes here?

Enter Scroop.
Scroop. More health and happiness betide my liege,
Than can my care-tun'd tongue deliver him!

K. Rich. Mine ear is open, and my heart prepar'd8;
The worst is worldly loss, thou canst unfold.
Say, is my kingdom lost? why, 'twas my care ;
And what loss is it, to be rid of care ?
Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we?
Greater he nhall not be; if he serve God,
We'll serve him too, and be his fellow so:
Revolt our subjects ? that we cannot mend;
They break their faith to God, as well as us:
Cry, woe, destruction, ruin, loss, decay;
The worst is—death, and death will have his day.

Scroop. Glad am I, that your highness is so arm’d
To bear the tidings of calamity.
Like an unseasonable stormy day,
Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores,
As if the world were all diffolv'd to tears ;
So high above his limits swells the rage
Of Bolingbroke, covering your fearful land
With hard bright steel, and hearts harder than steel.
White beards have arm’d their thin and hairless scalps
Against thy majesty ; boys, with women's voices,
Strive to speak big, and clap their female joints
In stiff unwieldy arms against thy crown:

8 Mine ear is open, &c.] It seems to be the design of the poet to raise Richard to esteem in his fall, and consequently to interest the reader in his favour. He gives him only paffive fortitude, the virtue of a confessor rather than of a king. In his prosperity we saw him imperious and oppreflive; but in his distress he is wise, patient, and pious. JOHNS.

and clap obeir female joints] Mr. Pope more elegantly reads -and clap-; which has been adopted by the subsequent editors. But the emendation does not seem absolutely necessary. MALONE.

Thy

9