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Thy harsh rude tongue found this unpleafing news?
What Eve, what ferpent hath fuggefted thee
To make a fecond fall of cursed man?

Why doft thou fay, king Richard is depos'd?
Dar'ft thou, thou little better thing than earth,
Divine his downfall? Say, where, when, and how,
Cam'ft thou by thefe ill tidings? fpeak, thou wretch.
Gard. Pardon me, madam: little joy have I,
To breathe this news, yet, what I fay, is true.
King Richard, he is in the mighty hold

Of Bolingbroke; their fortunes both are weigh'd:
In your lord's fcale is nothing but himself,
And fome few vanities that make him light;
But in the balance of great Bolingbroke,
Befides himself, are all the English peers,
And with that odds he weighs king Richard down.
Poft you to London, and you'll find it fo;
I speak no more than every one doth know.

Queen. Nimble mifchance, that art fo light of foot,
Doth not thy embaffage belong to me,

And am I laft that knows it? O, thou think'ft
To serve me last, that I may longest keep
Thy forrow in my breaft.-Come, ladies, go,
To meet at London London's king in woe.
What, was 1 born to this! that my fad look
Should grace the triumph of great Bolingbroke?
Gardener, for telling me this news of woe,

I would, the plants thou graft'ft, may never grow 5.
[Exeunt Queen and ladies.
Gard. Poor queen! fo that thy ftate might be no worse,
I would my skill were fubject to thy curfe.-

"What have I done, that thou dar'ft wag thy tongue

"In noife fo rude against me?"

Here

I have quoted this paffage only to justify the restoration of the word rude, which has been rejected in fome modern editions. Some words feem to have been omitted in the first of these lines. We might read: Set to dress out this garden. Say, how dares, &c.

It is always fafer to add than to omit. MALONE.

5 I would, the plants thou graft'ft, may never grow.] This execration of the queen is fomewhat ludicrous, and unfuitable to her condition; the gardener's reflection is better adapted to the ftate both of his mind and his fortune. JOHNSON.

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Here did the drop a tear; here, in this place,
I'll fet a bank of rue, four herb of grace:
Rue, even for ruth, here fhortly shall be seen,
In the remembrance of a weeping queen.

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[Exeunt.

The Lords Spiritual on the right fide of the throne; the Lords temporal on the left; the Commons below. Enter BoLINGBROKE, AUMERLE, SURREY, NORTHUMBER LAND, PERCY, FITZWATER', another Lord, Bishop of Carlisle, Abbot of Westminster, and Attendants. Officers behind, with BAGOT.

Boling. Call forth Bagot:

Now, Bagot, freely fpeak thy mind;

What thou dost know of noble Glofter's death;
Who wrought it with the king, and who perform'd
The bloody office of his timeless end2.

Bagot. Then fet before my face the lord Aumerle. Boling. Coufin, ftand forth, and look upon that man. Bagot. My lord Aumerle, I know, your daring tongue Scorns to unfay what once it hath deliver'd.

In that dead time when Glofter's death was plotted,
I heard you fay,-Is not my arm of length,
That reacheth from the restful English court
As far as Calais, to my uncle's head?
Amongst much other talk, that very time,
1 heard you fay, that you had rather refuse
The offer of an hundred thousand crowns,
Than Bolingbroke's return to England;
Adding withal, how bleft this land would be,

An anonymous writer fuggefts, that the queen perhaps meant to with him childless. The gardener's anfwer ("I would my skill &c.") fhews that this was not the author's meaning. MALONE.

* The rebuilding of Weftminiter-Hall, which Richard had begun in 1597, being finished in 1599, the first meeting of parliament in the new edifice was for the purpose of depofing him. MALONE.

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Fitzwater,] The chriftian name of this nobleman was Walter.
WALPOLE.

2- bis timeless end.] Timeless for untimely. WARBURTON.

In this your coufin's death.

Aum. Princes, and noble lords,
What answer fhall I make to this bafe man?
Shall I fo much dishonour my fair stars 3,
On equal terms to give him chastisement?
Either I must, or have mine honour foil'd
With the attainder of his fland'rous lips.-
There is my gage, the manual feal of death,
That marks thee out for hell: I fay, thou lieft,
And will maintain, what thou haft said, is false,
In thy heart-blood, though being all too bafe
To ftain the temper of my knightly fword.

Boling. Bagot, forbear, thou shalt not take it up.
Aum. Excepting one, I would he were the best
In all this prefence, that hath mov'd me fo.

Fitz. If that thy valour stand on sympathies,
There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine:
By that fair fun which fhews me where thou ftand'st,
I heard thee fay, and vauntingly thou fpak'ftit,
That thou wert caufe of noble Glofter's death.
If thou deny'ft it, twenty times thou lieft;
And I will turn thy falfhood to thy heart,
Where it was forged, with my rapier's point.

3

Aum.

my fair stars,] The birth is fuppofed to be influenced by the ftars; therefore our author, with his ufual licence, takes fars for birth. JOHNSON.

We learn from Pliny's Nat. Hift. that the vulgar error affigned the bright and fair stars to the rich and great. "Sidera fingulis attribute nobis, et clara divitibus, minora pauperibus, &c." Lib. I. cap. 8.

ANONYMOUS.

4 If that thy valour ftand on fympathies,] Here is a tranflated fenfe much harsher than that of stars explained in the foregoing note. Aumerle has challenged Bagot with some hesitation, as not being his equal, and therefore one whom, according to the rules of chivalry, he was not obliged to fight, as a nobler life was not to be ftaked in a duel against a bafer. Fitzwater then throws down his gage, a pledge of battle; and tells him that if he ftands upon fympathies, that is, upon equality of blood, the combat is now offered him by a man of rank not inferior to his own. Sympathy is an affection incident at once to two fubjects. This community of affection implies a likeness or equality of nature, and thence our poet transferred the term to equality of blood. JoHNS. 5 my rapier's point.] Shakspeare deferts the manners of the age

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Aum. Thou dar'ft not, coward, live to fee that day.
Fitz. Now, by my foul, I would it were this hour.
Aum. Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this.
Percy. Aumerle, thou lieft; his honour is as true,
In this appeal, as thou art all unjust:

And, that thou art fo, there I throw my gage,
To prove it on thee to the extremeft point
Of mortal breathing; feize it, if thou dar'ft.
Aum. And if I do not, may my hands rot off,
And never brandish more revengeful steel

Over the glittering helmet of my foe!

Lord. I talk the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle ; And fpur thee on with full as many lies

As may be holla'd in thy treacherous ear

From fun to fun': there is my honour's pawn;

Engage

in which his drama is placed, very often without neceffity or advantage. The edge of a fword had ferved his purpofe as well as the point of a rapier, and he had then escaped the impropriety of giving the English nobles a weapon which was not feen in England till two centuries afterwards. JoHNSON.

See Vol. I. p. 228, n. 8. MALONE.

6 I talk the earth to the like,-] This fpeech, which is not in the folio, was restored from the quarto by Dr. Johnfon. Task is the reading of the first and best quarto in 1597 In that printed in the following year the word was changed to take; but all the alterations made in the feveral editions of our author's plays in quarto, after the first, appear to have been made either arbitrarily or by negligence. (I do not mean to include copies containing new and additional matter.) I confess I am unable to explain either reading; but I adhere to the elder, as more likely to be the true one.

Dr. Johnson would read—I take thy cath, and Mr. Steevens obferves that there is a fimilar corruption in Troilus and Creffida, quarto, 1609, where we have untraded earth, for untraded oath. The following line is quoted from Warner's Albions England by the editor last mentioned, as tending to throw fome light on the text :

"Lo,here my gage, (he terr'd his glove) thou know'ft the victor's meed." To terre the glove, be fuppofes, was, to dash it on the earth. MALONE. We might read, only changing the place of one letter, and altering another, I task thy beart to the like, i. e. I put thy valour to the fame trial. So, in K. Henry IV. A&t. IV. fc. ii.

"How fhew'd his tafking feem'd it in contempt? STEEVENS. 7 From fun to fun :] i. e. as I think, from fun-rife to fun-fet. The quartos read-From jin to fin. The emendation, which in my apprehenfion requires no enforcement or fupport, was propofed by Mr.

Steevens,

Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'ft.

Aum. Who fets me elfe? by heaven, I'll throw at all: I have a thousand spirits in one breast,

To answer twenty thousand fuch as you.

Surrey. My lord Fitzwater, I do remember well The very time Aumerle and you did talk.

Fitz. 'Tis very true: you were in prefence then;

And you can witness with me, this is true.

Surrey. As falle, by heaven, as heaven itself is true.
Fitz. Surrey, thou lieft.

Surrey. Dishonourable boy!

That lie fhall lye fo heavy on my sword,
That it fhall render vengeance and revenge,
Till thou the lie-giver, and that lie, do lye
In earth as quiet as thy father's fcull.

In proof whereof, there is my honour's pawn;
Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st.

Fitz. How fondly doft thou fpur a forward horse?
If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live,
I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness 3,

And fpit upon him, whilst I fay, he lies,
And lies, and lies: there is my bond of faith,
To tie thee to my ftrong correction.-

As I intend to thrive in this new world,
Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal:
Befides, I heard the barish'd Norfolk fay,
That thou, Aumerle, didft fend two of thy men
To execute the noble duke at Calais.

Aum. Some honeft Chriftian truft me with a gage,
That Norfolk lies: here do I throw down this ',

If he may be repeal'd to try his honour.

Steevens, who explains these words differently. He is of opinion that they mean, from one day to another. MALONE.

8 I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness,] I dare meet him where no help can be had by me against him. So, in Macbeth:

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or be alive again,

"And dare me to the defert with thy fword." JOHNSON.

in this new world,] In this world where I have juft begun to be an actor. Surrey has, a few lines above, called him boy. JOHNSON. bere do I throw down this,] Holinfhed fays, that on this occafion," he threw down a bood that he had borrowed." STEEVENS. He had before thrown down his own hood, when accufed by Bagot,

MALONE.

Boling.

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