Boling. Royally! Why, it contains no king?

Percy. Yes, my good lord,
It doth contain a king; king Richard lies
Within the limits of yon lime and stone:
And with him are the lord Aumerle, lord Salisbury,
Sir Stephen Scroop: besides a clergyman
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 send the breath of parle
Into his ruin'd ears, and thus deliver.
Harry Bolingbroke,
On both his knees, doth kiss king Richard's hand;
And sends allegiance, and true faith of heart,
To his most royal person : hither come
Even at his feet to lay my arms and power;
Provided that, my banishment repeal'd,
And lands restor'd again, be freely granted :
If not, I'll use the advantage of my power,
And lay the summer's duft with showers of blood,
Rain’d from the wounds of slaughter'd Englishmen:
The which, how far off from the mind of Bolingbroke
It is, such crimson tempeft should bedrench
The fresh green lap of fair king Richard's land,
My stooping duty tenderly shall thew.
Go, signify as much; while here we march
Upon the grassy carpet of this plain.-

[North. advances to the Castle, with a Trumpet.
Let's march without the noise of threat’ning drum,
That from the castle's totter'd battlements
Our fair appointments may be well perus'd.
Methinks, king Richard and myself should meet
With no less terror than the elements
Of fire and water, when their thund'ring shock
At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven.
Be he the fire, I'll be the yielding water:
The rage be his, while on the earth I rain

My

My waters; on the earth, and not on him.
March on, and mark king Richard how he looks.
A parle founded, and answered by another trumpet within.

Flourish. Enter on the walls King RICHARD, the bio
loop of Carlisle?, AUMERLE, SCROOP, and SA-

LISBURY.

York. See, see, king Richard dot's himself appear 4,
As doth the blushing discontented sun
From out the fiery portal of the east;
When he perceives, the envious clouds are bent
To dim his glory, and to stain the track
Of his bright passage to the occident.
Yet looks he like a king ; behold, his eye,
As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth
Controlling majesty: Alack, alack, for woe,
That
any

harm should stain so fair a show!
K. Rich. We are amaz’d; and thus long have we stood
To watch the fearful bending of thy knee,

[to North.
Because we thought ourself thy lawful king:
And if we be, how dare thy joints forget
To pay their awful duty to our presence ?
If we be not, thew us the hand of God
That hath dismiss’d us from our stewardship;
For well we know, no hand of blood and bone
Can gripe the facred handle of our fceptes,
Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp.
And though you think, that all, as you have done,
Have torn their souls, by turning them from us,
And we are barren, and bereft of friends
Yet know,--my master, God omnipotent,
Is must'ring in his clouds, on our behalf,
Armies of pestilence; and they shall strike
Your children yet unborn, and unbegot,
That lift your vassal hands against my head,

3

the bishop of Carlisle,] was Thomas Merkes. WALPOLE. 4 See, see, king Ricbard doth bimself appear,] This and the following five lines are given in the old copies to Bolingbroke. The present regulation was made by Ds. Warburton. MALONE.

And

7

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 treason : He is come to ope
The purple testament of bleeding wars;
But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,
Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' sons
Shall ill become the flower of England's face;
Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace

To 5 The purple testament of bleeding war:] I once thought that Shak. speare might have had the sacred book (which is frequently covered with purple leather) in his thoughts ; but the following note renders such a supposition extremely doubtful. MALONE.

I believe our author uses the word teftament in its legal sense. Bolingbroke is come to open the testament of war, that he may peruse what is decreed there in his favour. Purple is an epithet referring to the future effufion of blood. STEEVENS. 6 But ere the crown be looks for live in peace,

Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' Sons

Sball ill become tbe flower of England's face;] By the flower of England's face is meant the choicest youths of England, who shall be Naughtered in this quarrel, or have bloody crowns. Tbe flower of Engo land's face, to design her choicest youth, is a fine and noble expression. Pericles, by a similar thought, said “that the destruction of the Athenian youth was a fatality like cutting off the spring from the year.”

WARBURTON. Dr. Warburton reads-light in peace, but live in peace is more suitable to Richard's intention, which is to tell him, that though he should get the crown by rebellion, it will be long before it will live in peace, be so settled as to be firm. The flower of England's face, is very happily explained. JOHNSON.

The flower of England's face, I believe, means England's flowery face, the flowery surface of England's foil. The same kind of expression is used in Sidney's Arcadia, p. 2:“-opening the cherry of her lips," i. e. her cherry lips. Again, p. 240. edit. 1633 : “ -the sweet and beautiful flower of ber face. STEEVENS. 7 Sball ill become i be flower of England's face ;

Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace &c.] Perhaps the words faie and peace have changed places. We might read~ (but I propose the change with no degree of confidence,)

But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,
Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' fons
Shall ill become the flower of England's peace;
Change the complexion of her maid-pale face
To scarlet indignation--,

Er

To scarlet indignation, and bedew
Her pastures' grass : with faithful English blood.

North. The King of heaven forbid, our lord the king
Should so with civil and uncivil arms
Be ruth'd upon! Thy thrice-noble cousin,
Harry Bolingbroke, doth humbly kiss thy hand,
And by the honourable tomb he swears,
That ttands upon thy royal grandfire's bones;
And by the royalties of both your bloods,
Currents that spring from one molt gracious head; .
And by the bury'd hand of warlike Gaunt ;
And by the worth and honour of himself,
Comprising all that may be sworn or said,
His coming hither hath no further scope,
Than for his lineal royalties, and to beg
Enfranchisement immediate on his knees :
Which on thy royal party granted once,
His glittering arms he will commend * to ruft,
His barbed steeds to stables, and his heart
To faithful service of your Majesty.
This swears he, as he is a prince, is just;
And, as I am a gentleman, I credit him.

K. Rich.Northumberland, fay,-thus the king returns; His noble cousin is right welcome hither; And all the number of his fair demands

Ere tbe crown be bopes to obtain be ferrled peaceably on bis bead, ten tbove sard crowns, besmeared with blood, small disfigure the flower of the peaceable nobility of England; and cause ber maid-pale countenance to glow wirb indignation, &c. The double opposition between crown and peace is much in our author's manner. In King Richard III. we have

“ That would with treason wound this fair land's peace." and in King Henry IV. P. I.

“ You conjure from the breast of civil peace

« Such bold hostility-." Peace has already been personified in a former scene :

« To wake our peace, which in our country's cradle

“ Draws the sweet infant breath of gentle Neep." But these lines, it must be owned, add as much support to the old read. ing, as to the emendation proposed. Malone.

8 Her pastures' grassa) Old Copies--pastors. Corrected by Mr. Theobald. MALONE.

- commend-] i.e. commit. See Minheu's Dict.in v. MALONE. VOL. V.

F

Shall

Shall be accomplish'd without contradiction :
With all the gracious utterance thou hast,
Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends.-
We do debase ourself, cousin, do we not,

[To Aum,
To look so poorly, and to speak fo fair ?
Shall we call back Northumberland, and send
Defiance to the traitor, and so die?

Aum. No, my good lord ; let's fight with gentle words Till time lend friends, and friends their helpful swords. K. Rich. O God! o God! that e'er this tongue of

mine, That laid the sentence of dread banishment On yon proud man, should take it off again With words of footh !! O, that I were as great As is my grief, or lesser than my name! Or that I could forget what I have been ! Or not remember what I must be now! Swell’At thou, proud heart? I'll give thee scope to beat, Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me.

Aum. Northumberland comes back from Bolingbroke.

K. Rich. What must the king do now? Must he submit? The king shall do it. Must he be depos'd? The king shall be contented: Must he lose The name of king? o'God's name, let it go : I'll give my jewels for a set of beads; My gorgeous palace, for a hermitage; My gay apparel, 'for an alms-man's gown; My figur'd goblets, for a dish of wood; My scepter, for a palmer's walking staff; My subjects, for a pair of carved laints ; And my large kingdom for a little grave: A little little grave, an obscure grave:

9 With words of footb!-] Scorb is sweet as well as true. In this place foorb means Srveetness or softness, a signification yet retained in the verb to footb. JOHNSON.

My gay apparel, &c.] Dr. Grey observes, “ that king Richard's expence in regard to dress, was very extraordinary.” Holinñed has the same remark; and adds, that " he had one cote which he cauled to be made for him of gold and stone, valued at 39,000 marks." STEEV.

Stowe, in his Survey, says, “ to the value of brce thousand markes." So also in Vita Ricardi Secundi, published by T. Heerne, p. 156.MALONI.

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