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And yet we hear no tidings from the king;
Therefore we will difperfe ourselves. Farewell.
Sal. Stay yet another day, thou trusty Welshman :
The king repofeth all his confidence in thee.

Cap. 'Tis thought the king is dead; we will not stay.

7 The bay-trees in our country all are wither'd,
And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven;
The pale-fac'd moon looks bloody on the earth,
And lean-look'd prophets whisper fearful change.
Rich men look fad, and ruffians dance and leap-
The one, in fear to lofe what they enjoy;
The other, to enjoy by rage and war.
Thefe figns forerun the death or fall of kings-
Farewell; our countrymen are gone and fled,
As well affur'd, Richard their king is dead.

Sal. Alas, Richard! with eyes of heavy mind
I fee thy glory, like a fhooting star,
Fall to the bafe earth from the firmament.
Thy fun fets weeping in the lowly weft,
Witneffing ftorms to come, woe, and unreft.
Thy friends are fled, to wait upon thy foes;
And crossly to thy good all fortune goes.

[Exit

[Exeunt.

conjecture is not fo prefumptuous as may be thought. The play was not, in Shakespeare's time, broken into acts; the two editions published before his death exhibit only a fequence of scenes from the beginning to the end, without any hint of a paufe of action. In a drama fo defultory and erratic, left in fuch a state, tranfpofitions might eafily be made. JOHNSON.

The bay-trees, &c.] This enumeration of prodigies is in the highest degree poetical and striking. JOHNSON.

Some of these prodigies are found in T. Haywarde's Life and Raigne of Henry IV. 1599. "This yeare the laurel trees wi"thered almoft throughout the realm," &c.

So again in Holinfhead. "In this yeare in a manner "throughout all the realme of England, old baie trees withered," &c. STEEVENS.

46

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ACT III.

SCENE I.

Bolingbroke's camp at Bristol.

Enter Bolingbroke, York, Northumberland, Rofs, Percy, Willoughby, with Bushy and Green, prisoners.

BOLINGBROKE.

forth men.

B Buy and Green, I will not vex your fouls

BB

(Since prefently your fouls muft part your bodies)
With too much urging your pernicious lives;

For 'twere no charity: yet, to wash your blood
From off my hands, here, in the view of men,
I will unfold fome caufes of your deaths.
You have mifled a prince, a royal king,
A happy gentleman in blood and lineaments,
By you unhappy'd, and disfigur'd clean.
You have, in manner, with your finful hours
Made a divorce betwixt his queen and him;
Broke the poffeffion of a royal bed,

And ftain'd the beauty of a fair queen's cheeks
With tears drawn from her eyes by your foul wrongs.
Myfelf, a prince by fortune of my birth;

Near to the king in blood; and near in love,
Till you did make him mifinterpret me,
Have stoop'd my neck under your injuries,
And figh'd my English breath in foreign clouds,
Eating the bitter bread of banishment:
Whilft you have fed upon my figniories,
Difpark'd my parks, and fell'd my foreft-woods,
8 From mine own windows torn my houfhold coat,

From mine own windows torn my houfhold coat,] It was the practice, when coloured glafs was in ufe, of which there are still fome remains in old feats and churches, to anneal the arms of the family in the windows of the houfe. JOHNSON.

Raz'd

9 Raz❜d out my imprefs, leaving me no fign, Save mens' opinions, and my living blood, To fhew the world I am a gentleman.

This, and much more, much more than twice all this, Condemns you to the death.-See them deliver'd over To execution, and the hand of death.

Busby. More welcome is the ftroke of death to me, Than Bolingbroke to England.-Lords, farewell. Green. My comfort is, that heaven will take our fouls,

And plague injuftice with the pains of hell.

Boling. My lord Northumberland, fee them difpatch'd.

-Uncle, you fay, the queen is at your houfe;
For heaven's fake, fairly let her be intreated:
Tell her, I send to her my kind commends;
Take fpecial care, my greetings be deliver❜d.
York. A gentleman of mine I have difpatch'd
With letters of your love to her at large.

Boling. Thanks, gentle uncle. -Come, lords,

away;

[To fight with Glendower and his complices ;] A while to work; and, after, holiday.

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[Exeunt. SCENE

Raz'd out my imprefs, &c.] The imprefs was a device or motto. Ferne, in his Blazon of Gentry, 1585, obferves "that the arms, &c. of traitors and rebels may be defaced and removed, wherefoever they are fixed, or fet." STEEVENS. Thanks, gentle uncle.-Come, my lords, away;

1

To fight with Glendower and his complices;

A while to work, and after holiday.] Though the intermediate line has taken poffeffion of all the old copies, I have great fufpicion of its being an interpolation; and have therefore ventured to throw it out.

The firit and third lines rhime to each

other; nor do I imagine this was cafual, but intended by the poet. Were we to acknowledge the line genuine, it iuft argue the poet of forgetfulness and inattention to history. Bolingbroke is, as it were, yet but juft arrived; he is now at Bristol; weak in his numbers; has had no meeting with a parliament; nor is fo far affured of the fucceflion, as to think of going to fupprefs infurrections before he is planted in the throne. Be

L 3

fides,

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The coaft of Wales. A caftle in view.
Flourish: drums and trumpets.

Enter king Richard, Aumerle, bishop of Carlisle, and foldiers.

K. Rich. Barkloughly-caftle call you this at hand? Aum. It is, my lord; how brooks your grace the air,

After your toffing on the breaking feas?

K. Rich. Needs muft I like it well. I I weep for joy
To ftand upon my kingdom once again.-
Dear earth, I do falute thee with my hand,
Though rebels wound thee with their horfes' hoofs:
As a long-parted mother with her child

Plays fondly with her tears, and smiles in meeting;
So weeping, fmiling, greet I thee, my earth,
And do thee favour with my royal hands.
Feed not thy fovereign's foe, my gentle earth,
Nor with thy fweets comfort his rav'nous sense;
But let thy fpiders, that fuck up thy venom,
And heavy-gaited toads, lie in their way;
Doing annoyance to the treacherous feet,
Which with ufurping fteps do trample thee.
Yield finging nettles to mine enemies :
And, when they from thy bofom pluck a flower,

fides, we find the oppofition of Glendower begins The First Part of K. Henry IV; and Mortimer's defeat by that hardy Welthman is the tidings of the firft fcene of that play. Again, though Glendower, in the very first year of K. Henry IV. began to be troublefome, put in for the fupremacy of Wales, and imprisoned Mortimer; yet it was not till the fucceeding year that the king employed any force against him. THEOBALD.

This emendation, which I think is juft, has been followed by Sir T. Hanmer, but is neglected by Dr. Warburton. JOHNSON. 2 Here may be properly inferted the laft fcene of the fecond act. JOHNSON.

Guard

Guard it, I pray thee, with a lurking adder;
Whofe double tongue may with a mortal touch
Throw death upon thy fovereign's enemies.-
Mock not my fenfelefs conjuration, lords;
This earth fhall have a feeling, and these stones
Prove armed foldiers, ere her native king
Shall faulter under foul rebellious arms.

Bishop. 3 Fear not, my lord; that power, that made you king,

Hath power to keep you king, in fpight of all.
The means, that heaven yields, must be embrac'd,
And not neglected; elfe, if heaven would,
And we would not heaven's offer, we refuse
The proffer'd means of fuccour and redress.

Aum. He means, my lord, that we are too remifs:
Whilft Bolingbroke, through our fecurity,
Grows ftrong and great, in fubftance and in friends.
K. Rich. Difcomfortable coufin! know'it thou not,
That when the fearching eye of heaven is hid
Behind the globe, and lights the lower world,
Then thieves and robbers range abroad unfeen,
In murders, and in outrage bloody, here?
But when, from under this terreftrial bail
He fires the proud tops of the eaftern pines,
And darts his light through every guilty hole,
Then murders, treafons, and detefted fins,

The cloak of night being pluck'd from off their backs,
Stand bare and naked, trembling at themfelves.
So when this thief, this traitor Bolingbroke,
Who all this while hath revell'd in the night,

3 Fear not, my lord, &c.] Of this fpeech the fur laft lines were restored from the first edition by Mr. Pope. They were, I fuppofe, omitted by the players only to fhorten the scenes, for they are worthy of the author and suitable to the perfonage. JOHNSON.

* Behind the globe, &c.] I fhould read,

-the fearching eye of beaven is hid

Behind the globe, and lights the lower world. JOHNS.

Such is the old reading. STEEVENS.

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