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Were brafs impregnable; and, humour'd thus,
Comes at the laft, and with a little pin

Bores through his caftle-wall, and farewell 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 on bread like you, feel want, tafte grief,
Need friends-fubjected thus,

How can you fay to me, I am a king?

Carl. My lord, wife men ne'er wail their prefent

woes,

But presently prevent the ways to wail.

To fear the foe, fince fear oppreffeth strength,
Gives, in your weakness, ftrength unto your foe,
And fo your follies fight againft yourself.

Fear, and be flain; no worfe can come to fight:
And fight and die, is 7 death deftroying death;
Where fearing dying, pays death fervile breath.
Aum. My father hath a power, enquire of him;
And learn to make a body of a limb.

K. Rich. Thou chid't 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 eafy tafk it is to win our own.

Say, Scroop, where lies our uncle with his power?
Speak fweetly, 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 fmall and finall,

7

6 Tradition,

-] This word feems here ufed for traditional practices that is, established or customary homage. JOHNSON. death deftroying death;] That is, to die fighting, is to return the evil that we fuffer, to destroy the destroyers. I once read death defying death, but defroying is as well. JOHNS.

To

To lengthen out the worst that must be spoken:-
Your uncle York is join'd with Bolingbroke;
And all your northern caftles yielded up,

And all your fouthern gentlemen in arms
Upon his party.

K. Rich. Thou haft faid enough.

Befhrew thee, coufin, which didft lead me forth

Of that sweet way I was in to defpair!

8

[To Aumerle.

What fay you now? what comfort have we now?
By heaven, I'll hate him everlastingly,
That bids me be of comfort any more.
Go, to Flint-caftle; there I'll pine away;
A king, woe's flave, fhall kingly woe obey.
That power I have, discharge; and let 'em go
To ear the land, that hath fome hope to grow,
For I have none.-Let no man fpeak again
To alter this, for counsel is but vain.
Aum. My liege, one word.

K. Rich. He does me double wrong,

That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue.
Difcharge my followers; let them hence; away,
From Richard's night to Bolingbroke's fair day.

SCENE III.

The fame. Before the caftle.

[Exeunt.

Enter with drum and colours, Bolingbroke, York, Northumberland, and attendants.

Boling. So that by this intelligence we learn, The Welshmen are difpers'd; and Salisbury

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I'll hate him everlastingly,

That bids me be of comfort-] This fentiment is drawn from nature. Nothing is more offenfive to a mind convinced that his diftrefs is without a remedy, and preparing to fubmit quietly to irrefiftible calamity, than thefe petty and conjectured comforts which unskilful officioufnefs thinks it virtue to administer.

JOHNSON.

Is gone to meet the king, who lately landed
With fome few private friends, upon this coaft.
North. The news is very fair and good, my lord;
Richard, not far from hence, hath hid his head.

York. It would befeem the lord Northumberland,
To fay, king Richard:-alack, the heavy day,
When fuch a facred king should hide his head!
North. Your grace mistakes me; only to be brief,
Left I his title out.

York. The time hath been,

Would you have been fo brief with him, he would Have been fo brief with you, to shorten you, 9 For taking fo the head, the whole head's length. Boling. Miftake not, uncle, farther than you fhould. York. Take not, good coufin, farther than you

fhould,

Left you mistake: the heavens are o'er your head.
Boling. I know it, uncle, and do not oppose
Myself against their will. But who comes here?

Enter Percy.

Welcome, Harry: what, will not this caftle yield?
Percy. The caftle royally is mann'd, my lord,
Against your entrance.

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 lord Aumerle, lord Salisbury,
Sir Stephen Scroop, befides 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 fend the breath of parle

9 For taking fo the head,-] To take the head is, to act without restraint; to take undue liberties. We now fay, we give the horse his head, when we relax the reins. JoHNSON.

Into his ruin'd ears, and thus deliver.

Harry of Bolingbroke, upon both his knees,
Doth kifs king Richard's hand;

And fends allegiance, and true faith of heart
To his moft royal perfon: hither come
Even at his feet to lay my arms and power;
Provided, that my banishment repeal'd,
And lands reftor'd again, be freely granted:
If not, I'll ufe the advantage of my power,
And lay the fummer's duft with showers of blood,
Rain'd from the wounds of flaughter'd Englishmen.
The which, how far off from the mind of Bolingbroke
It is, fuch crimson tempeft fhould bedrench
The fresh green lap of fair king Richard's land,
My ftooping duty tenderly fhall fhew.
Go, fignify as much, while here we march
Upon the graffy carpet of this plain.-
Let's march without the noife of threat'ning drum,
That from this caftle's totter'd battlements
Our fair appointments may be well perus'd.
Methinks, king Richard and myself should meet
With no lefs terror than the elements

Of fire and water, when their thund'ring fhock,
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 waters; on the earth, and not on him.
March on, and mark king Richard how he looks.

A parle founded, and anfwered by another trumpet within. Flourish. Enter on the walls king Richard, the bishop of Carlisle, Aumerle, Scroop, and Salisbury.

I

York. See! fee! king Richard doth himself appear, As doth the blushing difcontented fun

See! fee! king Richard deth himself appear,] The following fix lines are abfurdly given to Bolingbroke, who is made to condemn his own conduct and difculp the king's. It is plain thefe fix and the four following all belong to York. WARB.

From out the fiery portal of the east;
When he perceives the envious clouds are bent
To dim his glory, and to ftain the tract
Of his bright paffage to the occident.
Yet looks he like a king; behold, his eye,
As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth
Controlling majefty: alack, alack, for woe,
That any harm fhould ftain fo fair a fhow!

K. Rich. We are amaz'd; and thus long have we ftood

To watch the fearful bending of thy knee, [To North.
Because we thought ourfelf thy lawful king:
And, if we be, how dare thy joints forget
To pay their awful duty to our prefence?
If we be not, fhew us the hand of God
That hath difmifs'd us from our stewardship.
For well we know, no hand of blood and bone
Can gripe the facred handle of our fcepter,
Unless he do prophane, fteal, or ufurp.

And though you think, that all, as you have done,
Have torn their fouls, by turning them from us,
And we are barren, and bereft of friends;
Yet know-my mafter, God omnipotent,
Is muft'ring in his clouds, on our behalf,
Armies of peftilence; and they fhall ftrike
Your children yet unborn, and unbegot,
That lift your vaffal hands against my head,
And threat the glory of my precious crown.
Tell Bolingbroke (for yond, methinks, he is)
That every ftride he makes upon my land
Is dangerous treafon. He is come to ope
The purple teftament of bleeding war;
But ere the crown, he looks for, live in peace,

2 But e'er the crown, he looks for, live in peace, Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' fons

Ten

Shall ill become the flower of England's face; Though I have not difturbed the text here, I cannot but think it liable to fufpicion. A crown living in peace, as Mr. Warburton jully obferved to me, is a very odd phrafe. He fuppofes;

VOL. V.

M

But

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