Ser. He did.

Exton. And, fpeaking it, he wiftly look'd on me; As who fhall fay-I would, thou wert the man That would divorce this terror from my heart; Meaning, the king at Pomfret. Come, let's go : I am the king's friend, and will rid his foe.

SCENE V.

Changes to the prifon at Pomfret-castle.
Enter king Richard.

[Exeunt.

K. Rich. I have been studying how to compare
This prifon, where I live, unto the world :
And, for because the world is populous,
And here is not a creature but myself,
I cannot do it; yet I'll hammer it out.
My brain I'll prove the female to my foul;
My foul, the father: and these two beget
A generation of ftill-breeding thoughts;
And these fame thoughts people this little word;
In humour, like the people of this world;
For no thought is contented. The better fort,
As thoughts, of things divine, are intermix'd
With fcruples, and do fet the world itself
Against the world:

As thus, Come little ones; and then again,
Is is as hard to come, as for a camel
To thread the poftern of a needle's eye.

Thoughts, tending to ambition, they do plot
Unlikely wonders: how thefe vain weak nails
May tear a paffage through the flinty ribs
Of this hard world, my ragged prifon-walls;
And, for they cannot, die in their own pride.
Thoughts, tending to content, flatter themselves
That they are not the first of fortune's flaves,
Nor shall not be the laft; like filly beggars,
Who, fitting in the stocks, refuse their shame
That many have, and others must fit there:
And, in this thought, they find a kind of ease,

O 3.

Bearing

Bearing their own misfortune on the back
Of fuch as have before endur'd the like.
Thus play I, in one perfon, many people,
And none contented. Sometimes am I king;
Then treafon makes me with myfelf a beggar,
And fo I am. Then crufhing penury
Perfuades me I was better when a king;
Then am I king'd again: and, by-and-by,
Think, that I am unking'd by Bolingbroke,
And straight am nothing. But, what-e'er I am,
Nor I, nor any man, that but man is
With nothing fhall be pleas'd, till he be eas'd
With being nothing.-Mufic do I hear?
Ha, ha! keep time: how four fweet mufic is,
When time is broke, and no proportion kept?
So is it in the mufic of mens' lives.
And here have I the daintinefs of ear,
To check time broke in a diforder'd string;
But for the concord of my ftate and time,
Had not an ear to hear my true time broke.
I wafted time, and now doth time wafte me.
For now hath time made me his numb'ring clock;
My thoughts are minutes; and 5 with fighs they jar,
Their watches to mine eyes, the outward watch;

5

with fighs they jar,

Mufic.

Their watches, &c.] I think this expreffion must be corrupt, but I know not well how to make it better. The first quarto reads,

"My thoughts are minutes; and with fighs they jar, "I here watches on unto mine eyes the outward watch." The fecond quarto:

"My thoughts are minutes, and with fighs they jar,
"There watches to mine eyes the outward watch."

The first folio agrees with the fecond quarto.

Perhaps out of thefe two readings the right may be made. Watch feems to be used in a double sense, for a quantity of time, and for the instrument that measures time. I read, but with no great confidence, thus:

66

My thoughts are minutes, and with fighs they jar "Their watches on; mine eyes the outward watch, "Wher to," &c. JOHNSON.

Whereto

Whereto my finger, like a dial's point,
Is pointing ftill, in cleanfing them from tears.
Now, Sir, the founds that tell what hour it is,
Are clamorous groans, that strike upon my heart,
Which is the bell: fo fighs, and tears, and groans,
Shew minutes, times, and hours. But my time
Runs pofting on in Bolingbroke's proud joy,
While I ftand fooling here, his Jack o' the clock.
This mufic mads me, let it found no more;
For, though it have holpe mad men to their wits,
In me, it feems, it will make wife men mad.
Yet, bleffing on his heart that gives it me!
For 'tis a fign of love; and love to Richard
Is a strange brooch 7 in this all-hating world.
Enter Groom.

6

Groom. Hail, royal prince!

K. Rich. Thanks, noble peer:
The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear.
What art thou? and how comeft thou hither?
& Where no man ever comes, but that fad dog,
That brings me food, to make misfortune live?

his Jack 'the clock.] That is, I ftrike for him. One of these automatons is alluded to in King Richard the Third: "Because that like a Jack thou keepft the ftroke, "Between thy begging and my meditation." The fame expreffion occurs in an old comedy, intitled, If this be not a good Play the Devil is in it:

7

66

fo would I,

"And we their Jacks o'the clock-houfe." STEEVENS.

in this ALL-HATING world.] I believe the meaning is, this world in which I am univerfally hated. JOHNSON. * Where no man ever comes, but that jad dog,] I have ventured at a change here, against the authority of the copies, by the direction of Dr. Warburton. Indeed, fad dog favours too much of the comedian, the oratory of the late facetious Mr. Penkethman. And drudge is the word of contempt, which our author chufes to use on other like occafions. THEOBALD.

Dr. Warburton fays peremptorily, read drudge; but I ftill perfift in the old reading. JOHNSON.

It should be remembered that the word fad was in the time of our author ufed for grave. The expreffion will then be the fame as if he had faid, that grave, that gloomy villain. STEEVENS.

Groom.

Groom. I was a poor groom of thy stable, king, When thou wert king; who, travelling towards York, With much ado, at length have gotten leave To look upon my fometime royal mafter's face. O, how it yearn'd my heart, when I beheld, In London streets, that coronation-day, When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary! That horfe, that thou fo often haft beftrid; That horfe, that I fo carefully have drefs'd!

K. Rich. Rode he on Barbary? tell me, gentle friend, How went he under him?

Groom. So proudly, as if he difdain'd the ground. K. Rich. So proud, that Bolingbroke was on his

back!

That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand,
This hand hath made him proud with clapping him,
Would he not ftumble? would he not fall down,
(Since pride muft have a fall) and break the neck
Of that proud man, that did ufurp his back?
Forgiveness, horie! why do I rail on thee,
Since thou, created to be aw'd by man,
Wast born to bear? I was not made a horse;
And yet I bear a burden like an ass,

Spur-gall'd, and tir'd, 9 by jauncing Bolingbroke.

Enter Keeper, with a difh.

Keep. Fellow, give place; here is no longer stay. [To the Groom. K. Rich. If thou love me, 'tis time thou wert away. Groom. What my tongue dares not, that my heart fhall fay.

Keep. My lord, wilt please you to fall to?

[Exit.

K. Rich. Tafte of it first, as thou wert wont to do.

9 by jauncing Bolingbroke.] Jaunce and jaunt were fynopimcus words. B. Johnfon ufes geances in his Tale of a Tub: " I would I had a few more geances of it:

And you fay the word, fend me to Jericho,"

STEEVENS

Keep,

Keep. My lord, I dare not; Sir Pierce of Exton, Who late came from the king, commands the con

trary..

K. Rich. The devil take Henry of Lancaster, and

thee !

Patience is ftale, and I am weary of it.

Keep. Help, help, help!

[Beats the Keeper.

Enter Exton and fervants.

K. Rich. How now ? what means death in this rude

affault?

Wretch, thine own hand yields thy death's inftrument. [Snatching a weapon, and killing one. Go thou, and fill another room in hell. [Kills another. [Exton ftrikes him down. That hand fhall burn in never-quenching fire,

That ftaggers thus my perfon. Thy fierce hand
Hath with the king's blood ftain'd the king's own

land.

Mount, mount, my foul! thy feat is up on high;
Whilst my gross flesh finks downward, here to die,

[Dies.

Exton. As full of valour as of royal blood :
Both have I fpilt: oh, would the deed were good!
For now the devil, that told me, I did well,
Says, that this deed is chronicled in hell.

This dead king to the living king I'll bear

Take hence the reft, and give them burial here.

SCENE VI.

The court at Windfor.

[Exeunt.

Flourish: Enter Bolingbroke, York, with other lords and attendants,

Boling. Kind, uncle York, the latest news we hear, Is, that the rebels have confum'd with fire

Our town of Cicefter in Gloucefterfhire;

But whether they be ta'en, or flain, we hear not.

Enter