Stockdale's edition of Shakespeare, with explanatory notes

And furbish new the name of John of Gaunt,
Even in the lufty 'haviour of his fon.

Gaunt. Heaven in thy good caufe make thee
profperous!

Be fwift like lightning in the execution;
And let thy blows, doubly redoubled,
Fall like amazing thunder on the cafque
Of thy adverse pernicious enemy:
Rouze up thy youthful blood, be valiant and live.
Boling. Mine innocency, and faint George to

thrive !

Mowb. However heaven, or fortune, lot,

And for our eyes do hate the dire afpect
Of civil wounds plough'd up with neighbour's fwords;
[3 And for we think, the eagle-winged pride
Of fky-afpiring and ambitious thoughts,
With rival-hating envy, fet you on

To wake our peace, which in our country's cradle
Draws the fweet infant breath of gentle fleep ;]
Which fo rouz'd up with boisterous untun'd drums,
And harth-refounding trumpets' dreadful bray,
And grating fhock of wrathful iron arms,
Might from our quiet confines fright fair peace,
caft my And make us' wade even in our kindred's blood,—
[throne, Therefore, we banish you our territories.--
Richard's You, coufin Hereford, upon pain of death,

There lives, or dies, true to king
A loyal, juft, and upright gentleman :
Never did captive with a freer heart
Caft off his chains of bondage, and embrace
His golden uncontroul'd enfranchisement,
More than my dancing foul doth celebrate
This feaft of battle with mine adverfary.-
Moft mighty liege,and my companion peers,-
Take from my mouth the wish of happy years:
As gentle, and as jocund, as to jeft,
Gol to fight; truth hath a quiet breast.

K. Rich. Farewel, my lord: fecurely I efpy
Virtue with valour couched in thine eye-
Order the trial, Marshal, and begin.

Mar. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, Receive thy lance; and heaven defend the right!

'Till twice five fummers have enrich'd our fields, Shall not regreet our fair dominions,

But tread the ftranger paths of banithment.

Boling. Your will be done: This must my
comfort be,-----

That fun, that warms you here, fhall fhine on me;
And thofe his golden beams, to you here lent,
Shall point on me, and gild my b. nishment.

K. Rich. Norfolk, for thee remains a heavier doom,
Which I with fome unwillingness pronounce :
The fly-flow hours shall not determinate
The datelefs limit of thy dear exile ;-
The hopeless word of-never to return,
Breathe I against thee, upon pain of life.

Mowb. A heavy fentence, my moft fovereign liege,
And all unlock'd for from your highnefs' mouth:

Boling. Strong as a tower in hope, I cry--Amen.
Mar. Go bear this lance to Thomas duke of A dearer merit 4 not fo deep a maim
Norfolk.
[by, As to be caft forth in the common air,

The language I have learn'd thefe forty years,

1 Her. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Der-Have I deferved at your highnets' hand.
Stands here for God, his fovereign, and himfelf,
On pain to be found falfe and recrcant,

To prove the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray,
A traitor to his Ged, his king, and him,
And dares him to fet forward to the fight.

My native English, now I must forego :
And now my tongue's ufe is to me no more
Than an unftringed viol, or a harp;
Or like a cunning inftrument cas'd up,
Or, being open, put into his hands
That knows no touch to tune the harmony.
Within my mouth you have er guol'd my tongue,
Doubly portcullis'd with my teeth and lips;
And dull, unfeeling, barren ignorance
Is made my gaoler to attend on me.
I am too old to fawn upon a nurse,

2 Her. Here itandeth Thomas Mowbray, duke of
On pain to be found falfe and recreant, [Norfolk,
Both to defend himself, an to approve
Henry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
To God, his fovereign, and to him, difloyal;
Courageously, and with a free defire,
Attending but the fignal to begin. [Acharge funded.
Mar. Sound, trumpets; and fet forward, com-Too far in years to be a pupil now;

What is thy fentence then, but fpecchlef death,
Which robs my tongue from breathing native breath?

K. Rich. It boots thee not to be compaffic nates;
| After our sentence, plaining comes too late.
Morb. Then thus I turn me from ny country's
light,

To dwell in folemn fhades of endless night.

K. Rich. Return again, and toke an oath with thee.
Lay on our royal iword your banih'd hands;
Swear by the duty that you owe to heaven,
(Our part therein we banish with your elves)
To keep the oath that we adminifter :-
You never fhall (fo help you truth and heaven!)

+ Instead of

1 Mr. Farmer remarks, that to jeft fometimes gnifies in old language to play a part in a mask. 2 A warder appears to have been a kind of truncheon carried by the perfon who prefided at these fingle combats. 3 Mr. Pope retlored thefe five verfes from the first edition of 1598. meit Dr. Johnson propofes to read, "a dearer meed," or reward-have I deferved, &c. paffionate for plaintive.

5 Com

Embrace

Embrace each other's love in banishment ;
Nor ever look upon each other's face;
Nor ever write, regreet, nor reconcile
This lowering tempeft of your home-bred hate;
Nor never by advised purpose meet,

To plot, contrive, or complot any ill,
'Gainft us, our state, our subjects, or our land.
Boling. I íwear.

Mowb. And I, to keep all this.

Baling, Norfolk,-fo far as to mine enemy
By this time, had the king permitted us,
One of our fouls had wander'd in the air,
Banish'd this frail fepulchre of our fleth,
As now our flesh is banish'd from this land:
Confefs thy treafons, ere thou fly this realm;
Since thou haft far to go, bear not along
The clogging burthen of a guilty foul.

Mowb. No, Bolingbroke; if ever I were traitor, My name be blotted from the book of life, And I from heaven banifh'd, as from hence ! But what thou art, heaven, thou, and I do know; And all too foon, I fear, the king shall rue.— Farewel, my liege :-Now no way can 1 stray; Save back to England, all the world's my way. [Exit. K. Rich. Uncle, even in the glaffes of thine eyes I fee thy grieved heart: thy fad afpect Hath from the number of his banith'd years Fluck'd four away;-Six frozen winters spent, [To Boling.

Return with welcome home from banithment. Boling. How long a time lies in one little word! Four lagging winters, and four wanton fprings, End in a word: Such is the breath of kings.

Gaunt. I thank my liege, that in regard of me, He thortens four years of my fon's exile: But little vantage (hall I reap thereby; For, ere the fix years, that he hath to spend, Can change their moons, and bring their times about, My oil-dry'd lamp, and time-bewaited light, Shall be extinct with age, and endless night; My inch of taper will be burnt and done, And blindfold death not let me fee my fon.

K. Rich. Why, uncle, thou haft many years to live.
Gaunt.But not a minute, king, tha thou can'fi give:
Shorten my days thou can't with fullen forrow,
And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow:
Thou can't help time to furrow me with age,
But ftop no wrinkle in his pilgrimage;
Thy word is current with him for my death;
But, dead, thy kingdom cannot buy my breath.
K. Rick. Thy son is banish'd upon good advice,
Whereto thy tongue a party-verdict gave;
Why at our juftice feem'ft thou then to lour? [four.
Gaunt. Things fweet to tafie, prove in digeftion
You urg'd me as a judge; but I had rather,
You would have bid me argue like a father :-
O, had it been a ftranger, not my child,

To fmooth his fault I would have been more mild;
Alas, I look'd, when fome of you should fay,
I was too ftrict, to make mine own away;

[Exit.

Aum, Coufin, farewel: what prefence must not From where you do remain, let paper fhow. [know, Mar. My lord, no leave take I; for I will ride, As far as land will let me, by your fide. [words, Gaunt. Oh, to what purpose dost thou hoard thy That thou return'ft no greeting to thy friends?

Boling. I have too few to take my leave of you, When the tongue's office fhould be prodigal To breathe the abundant dolour of the heart. Gaunt. Thy grief is but thy abfence for a time. Boling. Joy abfent, grief is prefent for that time. Gaunt. What is fix winters? they are quickly gone. Boling. To men in joy, but grief makes one

hour ten.

[fure. Gaunt. Call it a travel that thou tak'ft for pleaBoling. My heart will figh, when I mifcall it fo Which finds it an enforced pilgrimage.

Gaunt.The fullen paffage of thy weary steps
Esteem a foil, wherein thou art to fet
The precious jewel of thy home-return.

Boling. Nay, rather every tedious stride I make
Will but remember me, what a deal of world
I wander from the jewels that I love.
Muft I not ferve a long apprenticehood
To foreign paffages; and in the end,
Having my freedom, boast of nothing else,
But that I was a journeyman to grief?

Gaunt. All places that the eye of heaven vifits,
Are to a wife man ports and happy havens :
Teach thy neceflity to reason thus ;
There is no virtue like neceffity.
Think not, the king did banith thee;
But thou the king: Woe doth the heavier fit,
Where it perceives it is but faintly borne.
Go tay-1 fent thee forth to purchase honour,
And not-the king exil'd thee: or fuppofe,
Devouring peftilence hangs in our air,
And thou art flying to a fresher clime.
Look, what thy foul holds dear, imagine it
To lie that way thou go'ft, not whence thou com'st :
Suppofe the finging birds, muficians; [ftrow'd;
The grafs whereon thou tread'ft, the prefence
The flowers, fair ladies; and thy fteps, no more
Than a delightful measure or a dance :
For gnarling forrow hath lefs power to bite
The man that mocks at it, and fets it light.

Boling. Oh, who can hold a fire in his hand,
By thinking on the frofty Caucafus ?
Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite,
By bare imagination of a feaft ?
Or wallow naked in December fnow,
By thinking on fantastic fummer's heat ?
Oh, no! the apprehenfion of the good
Gives but the greater feeling to the worse:

1 Dr. Johnson understands this paffage thus: "No folk, fo far I have addreffed myf If to thee as to mine enemy, I now utter my last words with kindnefs and tenderness, confefs thy treafons." 21. c. die re, teach of partiality.

Fell

How he did feem to dive into their hearts, With humble and familiar courtesy;

Fell forrow's tooth doth never rankle more,
Than when it bites, but lanceth not the fore.
Gaunt. Come, come, my fon, I'll bring thee on What reverence he did throw away on flaves;

thy way:

Had I thy youth and cause, I would not stay.

Boling. Then, England's ground, farewel; fweet
foil, adieu;

My mother, and my nurfe, that bears me yet!
Where-e'er I wander, boaft of this I can,-
Though banifh'd, yet a true-born Englishman.

[Excunt.

Wooing poor craftsmen with the craft of smiles,
And patient underbearing of his fortune,
As 'twere, to banish their affects with him.
Off goes his bonnet to an oyster-wench;
A brace of dray-men bid-God speed him well,
And had the tribute of his fupple knee,[friends;"
With--"Thanks, my countrymen, my loving
As were our England in reverfion his,
And he our fubjects' next degree in hope.

Green. Well, he is gone; and with him go thefe thoughts.

Enter King Richard, and Bagot, &c. at one door, Now for the rebels, which stand out in Ireland ;—

and the Lord Aumerle at the other.

K. Rich. We did obferve.-Coufin Aumerle, How far brought you high Hereford on his way? Aum. I brought high Hereford, if you call him fo,

But to the next high-way, and there I left him. K. Rich. And fay, what ftore of parting tears were fhed?

[wind, Aum. 'Faith, none by me : except the north-eaft Which then blew bitterly againft our faces, Awak'd the fleepy rheum; and fo, by chance, Did grace our hollow parting with a tear.

K. Rich. What faid our coufin, when you parted with him?

Aum. Farewel :

And added years to his fhort banishment, He should have had a volume of farewels; But fince it would not, he had none of me.

Expedient manage must be made, my liege;
Ere further leifure yield them further means,
For their advantage, and your highness' lofs.

K. Rich. We will ourself in person to this war.
And, for our coffers-with too great a court,
And liberal largess,—are grown fomewhat light,
We are enforc'd to farm our royal realm ;
The revenue whereof shall furnish us
For our affairs in hand: If that come short,
Our fubftitutes at home fhall have blank charters;
Whereto, when they fhall know what men are

rich,

They shall subscribe them for large fums of gold,
And send them after to supply our wants;
For we will make for Ireland presently.
Enter Bushy.

K. Rich. Bufhy, what news?

[lord;

Bufky. Old John of Gaunt is grievous fick, my
Suddenly taken; and hath fent post-hafte,
To intreat your majefty to vifit him.

K. Rich. Where lies he?

Buhy. At Ely-house.

[mind,

K. Rich. Now put it, heaven, in his phyfician's

K. Rich. He is our coufin, coufin; but 'tis To help him to his grave immediately!

doubt,

When time shall call him home from banishment, Whether our kinfman come to fee his friends. Ourself, and Bufhy, Bagot here, and Green, Obferv'd his courtship to the common people :

The lining of his coffers fhall make coats
To deck our foldiers for thefe Irifh wars.-
Come, gentlemen, let's all go vitit him:
Pray heaven, we may make halte, and come too
[Excunt.

late!

As the last taste of fweets, is sweetest last ;
Writ in remembrance, more than things long paft:
Though Richard my life's counfei would not hear,
My death's fad tale may yet undeaf his ear. found.

York. No; it is ftop'd with other flattering
As, praifes of his ftate: then, there are found
Lafcivious meeters; to whofe venom'd found
The open ear of youth doth always liften:
Report of fashions in proud Italy;
Whofe manners ftill our tardy apith nation
Limps after, in bafe imitation.

Where doth the world thruit forth a vanity, (So it be new, there's no refpect how vile) That is not quickly buzz'd into his ears? -Then all too late comes counsel to be heard, Where will doth mutiny with wit's regard 2. Direct not him, whofe way himfelf will chufe 3; 'Tis breath thou lack'it, and that breath wilt thou lote.

Gaunt. Methinks, I am a prophet new infpir'd;
And thus, expiring, do foretell of him :--
His rafh fierce blaze of riot cannot laft;
For violent fires foon burn out themselves:
Small showers laft long, but fudden storms are thort;
He tires betimes, that fpurs too faft betimes;
With eager feeding, food doth cloak the feeder:
Light vanity, infatiate cormorant,
Confuming means, foon preys upon itself.
This royal throne of kings, this icepter'd ille,
This earth of majefty, this feat of Mars,
This other Eden, demy paradife;
This fortrefs, built by nature for herself,
Against infection 5, and the hand of war;
This happy breed of men, this little world;
This precious ftone fet in the filver fea,
Which ferves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defenfive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands ;

This bleffed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurfe, this teeming womb of royal kings,
Fear'd for their breed, and famous by their birth,
Renowned for their deeds as far from home,
For Chriftian-fervice, and true chivalry,
As is the fepulchre in ftubborn Jewry,
Of the world's ranfom, bieffed Mary's fon;
This land of fuch dear fouls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leas'd out (I die pronouncin, it)
Like to a tenement, or pelting 6 fm:
England, bound in with the trium.plant fea,"
Whofe rocky thore beats back the envious fiege
Of watʼry Neptune, is now bound in with thane,
With inky blots, and rotten parchment bonds 7 ;
That England, that was went to conquer others,
Hath made a fhametal conqueft of itfelf:
Ah! would the caudal vanith with my life,

How happy then, were my enfuing death!
Lnter King Richard, Quren, Aumerle, Bufhy, Green,
Bagot, Ruf, and II illoughby.

York. The king is come: deal mildly with his

youth;

For young hot colts, being rag'd, do rage the more. Quen. How fares our noble uncle, Lancatter? K. Rich. What comfort, man? How is't with

aged Gaunt ?

Giunt. Ob, how that name befits my composition!
Old Gaunt, indeed; and gaunt in being old :
Within me grief hath kept a tedious faft;
And who bitains from meat, that is not gaunt?
For fleeping England long time have I watch'd;
Watching breeds leannefs, leannefs is all gaunt:
The pleature that fome fathers feed upon,
Is my ftrict faft, I mean-my children's looks ;
And, therein fatting, thou haft made me gaunt :
Gaunt am I for the grave, gaunt as a grave,
| Whefe hollow womb inherits nought but bones.
K. Rich. Can fick men play fo nicely with their
names?

Gount. No, mifery makes fport to mock itself :
Since thou doft feek to kill my name in me,
I mock my name, great king, to flatter thee.
K. Rich. Should dying men flatter with those

Gaunt. Oh! no; thou dy'ft, though I the ficker K. Rich. I am in health, I breathe, I fee thee ill. [ill: Gaunt. Now, He that made me, knows I fee thee Ill in myself to fee, and in thee feeing ill. Thy deh-bed is no leffer than the land, Wherein thou lieft in reputation fick; And thou, too careless patient as thou art, Giv'ft thy anointed body to the cure Of thofe phyficians that firft wounded thee: A thoufand flatterers fit within thy crown, Whofe compafs is no bigger than thy head; And yet, incaged in fo fmall a verge, The watte is no whit leffer than thy land. Oh, hed thy grandfire, with a prophet's eye, Seen how his fon's fon fhould deftroy his fons, From forth thy reach he would have laid thy fhame; Depoting thee before thou wert poffefs'd, Who at poflefs'd now to depofe thyself. Why, couin, wert thou regent of the world, It were a fhame, to let this land by leafe: But, for thy world, enjoying but this land, Is it not more than fhame, to fhame it fo? Landlord of England art thou now, not king: Thy itate of law is bond-flave to the law; And

3 i. e.

1 i. e. metres, or cafes, 2 Meaning, where he will rebels against the understanding. will follow his own coarte. 41. e. husty, violent. 1. c. againit peftilence. i. e. mean, paltry. 7 All ding to the great tims raifed upon the fubied by loans and other exactions, in this reign. * Dr. Johtoon interprets this palage taus: "By feting the royalties to farm thou haft reduced thyfelf to % hat below fovereignty; thou art now no ir er åing hut landlord of England, fubject to the fame Je, ni and itiations as other landlords; by making thy condition a flate of law, a condition upgot the common tales of law can operate, tiga are become a bond-flave to the law; thou haft made ayfell amenable to laws from which thou wert o, mally exempt."

K. Rick

am the last of noble Edward's fons,

K. Rich-Thou, a lunatic lean-witted fool,
Prefuming on an ague's privilege,
Dar it with thy frozen admonition
Make pale our cheek; chafing the royal blood,
With fury, from his native refidence.
Now by my feat's right royal majetty,
Wert thou not brother to great Edward's fon,
Th's tongue, that runs fo roundly in thy head,
Should run thy head from thy unreverend shoulders.
Gaunt. Oh, spare me not, my brother E-Did win what he did spend, and spent not that

Of whom thy father, prince of Wales, was first;
In war was never lion rag'd more fierce,
In peace was never gentle lamb more mild,
Thin was that young and princely gentleman:
His face thou haft, for even fo look'd he,
Accomplish'd with the number of thy hours;
But, when he frown'd, it was against the French,
And not against his friends: his noble hand

ward's fon,

For that I was his father Edward's fon;

That blood already, like the pelican,
Hit thou tap'd out, and drunkenly carows'd:
My brother Glofter, plain well-meaning foul,
(Whom fair befal in heaven 'mongit happy fouls!)
May be a precedent and witness good,

That thou refpe&t'ft not spilling Edward's blood :
Join with the prefent fickness that I have;
And thy unkindness be like crooked age,
To crop at once a too long wither'd flower.
Live in thy fhame, but die not fhame with thee!
Thefe words hereafter thy tormentors be !---
Convey me to my bed, then to my grave :-
Love they to live, that love and honour have.
[Fait, Lone out.
K. Rich. And let them die, that age and fulens
have;

For both halt thou, and both become the grave.
Fork. 'Beseech your majefty, impuse his words
To wayward ficklinefs and age in him:
He loves you, on my life, and holds you dear
As Harry duke of Hereford, were he here.

K. Rich. Right; you fay true: as Hereford's love,
As theirs, fo mine; and all be as it is. [to his

;

Enter Northumberland.
North. My liege, old Gaunt commends him to
K. Rich. What fnys he? [your majefty.
North. Nay, nothing; all is faid:
His tongue is now a ftringlefs inftrument;
Words, life, and all, old Lancafter hathipent. [fo '|
Fork. Be York the next that muft be bankrupt
Though death be poor, it ends a-mortal woe.

K. Ricb.The ripoft fruit firft talls, and to doth he;
His time is fpen', our pilgrimage mut be:
So much for that.Now for our 1th wars:
We muft fupplant those rough rug-headed kerns2;
Which live like venom, where no venom elie 2,
But only they, hath privilege to live.

And, for thefe great affairs do afk fome charge,-
Towards our aliitance, we do feize to us
The plate, coin, revenues, and moveables,
Whereof our uncle Gaunt did stand poffets'd. [leng]
York. How long fhall I be patient? Oh, how
Shali tender duty make me fufier wrong?
Not Glofter's death, nor Hereford's banifhment,
Not Gaunt's rebukes, nor England's private wrongs,
Nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke
About his marriage, nor my own difgrace,
Have ever made me four my patient cheek,
Or bend one wrinkle on my fovereign's face.--

Which his triumphant father's hand had won:
His hands were guilty or no kindred's blood,
But bloody with the enemies of his kin.
Oh, Richard! York is too far gone with grief,
Or else he never would compare between.

K. Rich. Why, uncle, what's the matter?
York. O, my liege,

Pardon me, if you pleafe; if not, I pleas'd
Not to be pardon'd, am content withal.
Seek you to feize, and gripe into your hands,
The royalties and rights of banish'd Hereford?
Is not Gaunt dead and doth not Hereford live?
Was not Gaunt juft ? and is not Harry true?
Did not the one deferve to have an heir?
Is not his heir a well-deferving fon?
Take Hereford's rights away, and take from time
His charters, and his cuftomary rights;
Let not to-morrow then enfue to-day;
Be not thy felf, for how art thou a king,
But by fair fequence and fucceffion?
Now, afere God (God forbid, I fay true!)
If you do wrongfully feize Hereford's rights,
Call in his letters patents that he hath
By his attornies-general to fue

His livery, and deny 4 his offer'd homage,
You pluck a thousand dangers on your head,
You lofe a thou and well-difpofed hearts,
And prick my tender patience to thofe thoughts
Which honour and allegiance cannot think. [hands

K. Rich. Think what you will; we feize into our
His plate, his goods, his mony, and his lands.

York. I'll not be by, the while: My liege, farewel:
What will enue hereof, there's none can tell;
But by bad courfes may be understood,
That their events can never fall out good.
K. Rich. Go, Buthy, to the earl of Wiltshire
Bid him repair to us to Ely-houte, [Straight;

[Exit.

To fee this bufincts: To-morrow next
We will for Ireland; and 'tis time, I trow;
| And we create, in abfence of ourfelf,
Our uncle York lord-governor of England,
For he is just, and always lov'd us well.-
Come on, our queen: to-morrow muft we part;
Be inerry, for our time of ftay is fhort. [Flourish.
[Exeunt King, Queen, &c.

No th. Well, lords, the duke of Lancafter is dead.
Re. And living too; for now his fon is duke.
Fats. Barely in title, not in revenue.
North. Richly in both, if juftice had her right.
Rof. My heart is great; but it muft break with
Ere't be diburden'd with a liberal tongue. [filence,

3 Al

That is, let them love to live. 2 Korn fignifies an Irish foot-foldier; an Irish boor. luding to a tradition, that St. Patrick ficed the kingdom of Ireland from every fpecies of venomous repules. 4 i. c. refufe.

P = {

North.

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