K. Rich. Thou, now a dying, fay'it, thou flatter'st me. Gaunt. Oh! no, thou dy't, though I the ficker be. K. Rich. I am in health, I breathe, I fee thee ill. Gaunt. Now, he that made me knows, I fee thee ill. Ill in myself, and in thee, feeing ill. Thy death-bed is no leffer than thy land, K. Rich. Thy ftate of law is bond-flave to the law ;] State of law, i. e. legal foreignty. But the Oxford editor alters it to state o'er law, i.e. abfolute fou'reignty. A doctrine, which, if our poet ever learnt at all, he learnt not in the reign when this play was written, queen Elizabeth's, but in the reign after it, king James's. By bond-flave to the law, the poet means his being inflaved to his favorite fubjects. WARBURTON. This fentiment, whatever it be, is obfcurely expreffed. I understand it differently from the learned commentator, being perhaps not quite fo zealous for Shakespeare's political reputation. The reafoning of Gaunt, I think, is this: By Setting thy royalties to farm thou haft reduced thyself to a fate below fovereignty, K. Rich. Thou, a lunatic lean-witted fool Prefuming on an ague's privilege, Dar'ft with a frozen admonition Make pale our cheek; chafing the royal blood That blood already, like the pelican, Haft thou tap'd out, and drunkenly carows'd. That thou refpect'ft not spilling Edward's blood. Live vereignty, thou art now no longer king but landlord of England, Jubject to the fame reftraint and limitations as other landlords; by making thy condition a state of law, a condition upon which the common rules of law can operate, thou art become a bond-flave to the law; thou haft made thyself amenable to laws from which thou wert originally exempt. Whether this interpretation be true or no, it is plain that Dr. Warburton's explanation of bond-flave to the law, is not true. JOHNSON. And thy unkindness be like crooked age, To crop at once a too-long wither'd flower.] Thus ftand these lines in all the copies, but I think there is an error. Why should Gaunt, already old, call on any thing like age to end him? How can age be faid to crop at once? How is the idea of crookedness connected with that of cropping? I fuppofe the poet dictated thus: And thy unkindnefs be time's crooked edge To crop at once That is, let thy unkindness be time's fcythe to crop. Edge was eafily confounded by the ear with age, and one miftake once admitted made way for another. JoHNSON. Shakespeare Live in thy fhame, but die not shame with thee! K. Rich. Right, you fay true: as Hereford's love, fo his; As theirs, fo mine; and all be, as it is. Enter Northumberland. North. My liege, old Gaunt commends him to your majesty. K. Rich. What fays he? North. Nay, nothing; all is faid. His tongue is now a ftringlefs inftrument, K. Rich. The ripeft fruit firft falls, and fo doth he; And, for these great affairs do afk some charge, Shakespeare, I believe, took this idea from the figure of Time, who is armed with a scythe, which (from its form) was anciently called a crook. Crooked may mean armed with a crook. STEEV. 2 Love they] That is, let them love. JOHNSON. 3 where no venom elfe,] This alludes to the tradition that St. Patrick freed the kingdom of Ireland from venomous reptiles of every kind. STEEVENS. VOL. V. The plate, coin, revenues, and moveables, Not Glofter's death, not Hereford's banifhment, Of whom thy father, prince of Wales, was firft; K. Rich. Why, uncle, what's the matter? Pardon me, if you please; if not, I, pleas'd 4 Nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke, About his marriage, &c.] When the duke of Hereford, after his banishment, went into France, he was honourably entertained at that court, and would have obtained in marriage the only daughter of the duke of Berry, uncle to the French king, had not Richard prevented the match, STEVENS. Did not the one deferve to have an heir? Is not his heir a well-deferving fon? Take Hereford's right away, and take from time His livery, and deny his offer'd homage, K. Rich. Think what you will; we feize into our hands His plate, his goods, his money, and his lands. But by bad courfes may be understood, That their events can never fall out good. [Exit. K. Rich. Go, Bufhy, to the earl of Wiltshire straight, Bid him repair to us to Ely-house, To fee this bufinefs. To-morrow next [Flourish. [Exeunt king, queen, &c. North. Well, lords, the duke of Lancaster is dead. Rofs. And living too; for now his fon is duke. deny his offer'd homage,] That is, refuse to admit the bemage, by which he is to hold his lands. JOHNSON. |