Thy very beadsmen learn to bend their bows *
Of double-fatal yewa against thy ftate;
Yea, distaff women manage rusty bills
Against thy seat: both young and old rebel,
And all goes worse than I have power to tell.

K. Rich. Too well, too well, thou tell’ít a tale so ill.
Where is the earl of Wiltshire? where is Bagot ?
What is become of Bushy? where is Green 3?

That

I

Thy very beadsmen learn to bend their bows] Such is the reading of all the copies, yet I doubt whether beadsmen be right, for the bow seems to be mentioned here as the proper weapon of a beadsman. The king's beadfmen were his chaplains. Trevifa calls himself the beadsman of his patron. Beadsman might likewise be any man maintained by charity to pray for his benefactor. JOHNSON.

The reading of the text is right enough : As “ boys strive to speak big, and clasp their effeminate joints in ftiff unwieldy arms, &c." so his “very beadsmen learn to bend their bows" again it him. Their does not absolutely denote that the bow was their usual or proper weapon ; but only taken up and appropriated by them on this occasion. Percy.

of double-fatal yew-} Called fo, because the leaves of the yew are poifon, and the wood is employed for instruments of death. WARB.

From some of the ancient statutes it appears that every Englishman, while archery was practised, was obliged to keep in his house either a bow of yew or some other wood. It should seem therefore that yews were not only planted in church-yards to defend the churches from the wind, but on account of their use in making bows; while by the benefit of being secured in enclosed places, their poisonous quality was kept from doing mischief to cattle. STEEVENS. 3 Where is tbe car! rf Wiltfhire? where is Bagot?

What is become of Bushy? where is Green? ] Here are four of them named; and, within a very few lines, the king, bearing they had made their peace with Bolingbroke, calls them bree Judasses. But how was their peace made? Why, with the loss of their heads. This being explained, Aumerle says: Is Bufny, Green, and the earl of Wilt- fbire dead? So that Bagot ought to be left out of the question : and, indeed, he had made the best of his way for Cheites, and from thence had escaped into Ireland.

The poet could not be guilty of so much forgetfulness and absurdity. It seems probable to me that he wrote

Where is the Earl of Wiltshire ? Where is he got? THEOBALD. This emendation Dr. Warburton adopts. Hanmer leaves a blank after Wiltshire. I believe the author, rather than transcriber, made a mistake. Where is be got does not found in my ear like an expression of Shakspeare. Johnson. Perhaps Shakspeare intended to mark more strongly the pertur

That they have let the dangerous enemy
Measure our confines with such peaceful steps ?
If we prevail, their heads shall pay for it.
I warrant they have made peace with Bolingbroke.
Scroop. Peace have they made with him, indeed, my lord,

K. Rich. O villains, vipers, damn'd without redemption !
Dogs, easily won to fawn on any man!
Snakes, in my heart-blood warm’d, that sting my heart !
Three Judaffes, each one thrice worse than Judas!
Would they make peace? terrible hell make war
Upon their spotted souls for this offence!

Scroop. Sweet love, I see, changing his property, Turns to the fourest and most deadly hate :-Again uncurse their souls; their peace is made With heads, and not with hands: those whom you curse, Have felt the worst of death's destroying wound, And lie full low, grav’d in the hollow ground.

Aum. Is Buthy, Green, and the earl of Wiltshire, dead? Scroop. Yea, all of them at Bristol lost their heads. Aum. Where is the duke my father with his power?

K. Rich. No matter where; of comfort no man speak: Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs; Make duft our paper, and with rainy eyes Write forrow on the botom of the earth. Let's choose executors, and talk of wills; And yet not so,--for what can we bequeath, Save our deposed bodies to the ground? Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke's, And nothing can we call our own, but death; And tai imall model of the barren earth4, bation of the k'o by making him inquire at first for Bagot, whose loy. alty, on further ecollection, might thew him the impropriety of his question. MALONE.

4 And th.18 mall model of tbe barren eartb,] He uses model for mould. That earth, which clufing upon the body, takes its form. This interpretation the next line feems to authorize. JOHNSON.

Shakspeare generally uses model, not for an exemplar, but for a thing made after a pattern. So, in a former scene of this play:

thou see'st thy wretched brother die, " Who was the model of thy father's life.” See Vol. III. p. 443, n. 6. Model, however, may be used for mould. See Minthieu's Dict. in y, MALONE.

Which serves as paste and cover to our bones s.
For heaven's fake, let us fit upon the ground,
And tell sad stories of the death of kings :-
How some have been depos’d, some Nain in war;
Some poison’d by their wives, some sleeping kill'd; ;
All murder'd :-For within the hollow crown,
That rounds the mortal temples of a king,
Keeps death his court: and there the antick fits 6,
Scotting his state, and grinning at his pomp ;
Allowing him a breath, a little scene
To monarchize, be fear’d, and kill with looks ;
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,-
As if this fiesh, which walls about our life,
Were brass impregnable; and, humour'd thus,
Comes at the last, and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall, and—farewel king!
Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood
With folemn reverence; throw away respect,
Tradition?, form, and ceremonious duty.
For you have but miftook me all this while:
I live with bread like you, feel want, talte grief,
Need friends :-Subje&ted thus,
How can you say to me-I am a king !

Car. My lord, wise men ne'er wail their present woes,
But presently prevent the ways to wail.
To fear the foe, since fear opprefseth strength,
Gives, in your weakness, strength unto your foe,
And so your follies fight against yourself.
Fear, and be slain; no worse can come, to fight :
And fight and die, is death destroying death 8 :

S. Wbicb serves as paste &c] A metaphor, not of the most sublime kind, taken from a pie. JOHNSON.

6 - ibere the antick firs,] Here is an allusion to the antick or fool of old farces, whose chief part is to deride and disturb the graver and more {plendid personages. JOHNSON.

7 Tradition,-) This word seems here used for traditional pralices i that is, eflablished or customary bomage. JOHNSON.

dearb' destroying death :] That is, to die fighting, is to return the evil that we fuiter, to deltroy the destroyers. I once read-dea:b defying dearb; but destroying is as well. JOHNSON.

Whçre

8

Where fearing dying, pays death servile breath.

Aum. My father hath a power, inquire of him ;
And learn to make a body of a limb.
K. Rich. Thou chid'It'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 easy task it is, to win our own.-
Say, Scroop, where lies our uncle with his power?
Speak sweetly, man, although thy looks be four.

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 say.
I play the torturer, by small and small,
To lengthen out the worst that must be spoken:-
Your uncle York hath join’d with Bolingbroke ;
And all your northern castles yielded up,
And all your southern gentlemen in arms
Upon his party.

K. Rich. Thou hast said enough.
Beshrew thee, cousin, which did lead me forth
Of that sweet way I was in to despair!
What say you now? What comfort have we now?
By heaven, I'll hate him everlastingly,
That bids me be of comfort 9 any more.
Go, to Flint castle; there I'll pine away;
A king, woe's llave, shall kingly woe obey.
That

power I have, discharge; and let them go
To ear the land' that hath iome hope to grow,
For I have none :-Let no man speak again
To alter this, for counsel is but vain,

Aum. My liege, one word.

9

I'll bate bim everlastingly, That bids me be of comfort-) This sentiment is drawn from nature. Nothing is more offensive to a mind convinced that its distress is without a remedy, and preparing to submit quietly to irresistible calamity, than thesc petty and conjectured comforts which unskilful officiousness thinks it virtue to administer. JOHNSON. " To ear the land] i.e. to plough it. STEEVEN S.

K. Rich.

K. Rich. He does me double wrong, That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue. Discharge my followers, let them hence ;- Away, From Richard's night, to Bolingbroke's fair day. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Wales. Before Flint Castle.
Enter with drum and colours, BOLINGBROKE, and forces;

YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND, and Others.
Beling. So that by this intelligence we learn,
The Welthmen are dispers'd; and Salisbury
Is gone to meet the king, who lately landed,
With some 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.

Yerk. It would beseem the lord Northumberland, To say-king Richard :- Alack the heavy day, When such a sacred king should hide his head!

North. Your grace mistakes; only to be brief,
Left I his citle out.

York, The time hath been,
Would you have been so brief with him, he would
Have been so brief with you, to shorten you,
For taking so the head?, your whole head's length.

Boling. Mistake not, uncle, further than you should.

York. Take not, good cousin, further than you should, Left you mis-take: The heavens are o'er your head.

Boling. I know it, uncle; and oppose not
Myself against their will.—But who comes here?

Enter PERCY.
Welcome, Harry; what, will not this castle yield?

Percy. The castie royally is mann’d, my lord,
Againit thy entrance.

2 For taking so the bead,-) To take the head is, to act without rcftraint; to take undue liber 1.23. We now say, we give the horse bis bad, when we relax the reins. JOHNSON.

Boling.