On equal terms to give him chastisement ?
Either I must, or have mine honour foil'd
With the attainder of his Nand'rous lips.
There is my gage, the manual seal of death,
That marks thee out for hell. Thou liest, and
I will maintain what thou hast said, is false,
In thy heart-blood, though being all too base
To stain the temper of my knightly sword.
Boling. Bagot, forbear, thou shalt not take it

up. Aum. Excepting one, I would he were the best In all this presence that hath moy'd me so.

Fitzw. 4 If that thy valour stand on sympathies, There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine. By that fair sun that shews me where thou stand'st, I heard thee fay, and vauntingly thou spak'st it, That thou wert cause of noble Glofter's death, If thou deny'st it, twenty times thou liest; And I will turn thy falfhood to thy heart, Where it was forged, with my rapier's point 5.

We learn from Pliny's Nat. Hif. that the vulgar error assigned the bright and fair ftars to the rich and great. Sidera fingulis attributa nobis et clara divitibus, minora pauperibus, &c. Lib. I. cap. 8. Anonynaous.

4 If that thy valour stand on sympathies,] Here is a translated fense much harsher than that of stars explained in the foregoing note. Aumerle has challenged Bagot with some hefitation, as not being his equal, and therefore one whom, according to the rules of chivalry, he was not obliged to fight, as a nobler life was not to be faked in a duel against a baler. Fitzwalter then throws down his gage, a pledge of battle; and tells him that if he stands upon sympathies, that is, upon equality of blood, the combat is now offered him by a man of rank not inferior to his own. Sympathy is an affection incident at once to two subjects. This cominunity of affection implies a likencfs or equality of nature, and thence our poet transferred the term to equality of blood. JOHNSON.

my rapier's point.] Shakespeare deserts the manners of the age in which his drama is placed very often, without necessity or advantage. The edge of a fword had served his purpole as well as the point of a rapier, and he had then escaped the impropriety of giving the English nobles a weapon which was not seen in England till two centuries afterwards. Johnson.

Aun.

Aum. Thou dar'st not, coward, live to see the day. Fitzw. Now, by my soul, I would it were this hour. Aum. Fitzwalter, thou art damn'd to hell for this.

Percy. Aumerle, thou lieft; his honour is as true, In this appeal, as thou art all unjust : And, that thou art so, there I throw my gage To prove it on thee to the extremest point Of mortal breathing; seize it, if thou dar’st.

Aum. And if I do not, may my hands rot off,
And never brandish more revengeful steel
Over the glittering helmet of my foe!
Another Lord. 6 I take the earth to the like, forsworn

Aumerle,
And spur thee on with full as many lies
As may be hollow'd in thy treach'rous ear
* From fin to fin. There is my honour's

pawn, Engage it to the trial if thou darft.

Aum. Who fets me else? by heaven, I'll throw at all. I have a thousand spirits in one breast To answer twenty thousand such as you.

Surry. My lord Fitzwalter, I do remember well The very time Aumerle and you did talk.

Fitzw. My lord, 'tis true : you were in presence

then;

And you can witness with me, this is true.

Surry. As false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true.
Fitz. Surry, thou lieft.

Surry. Dishonourable boy!
That lie shall lye so heavy on my sword,
That it shall render vengeance and revenge,
Till thou the lie-giver, and that lie, do lye
In earth as quiet as thy father's scull.

6 I take the earth to the like, &c.] This speech I have restored from the first edition in humble imitation of former editors, though, I believe, against the mind of the author. For the earth I suppose we should read, thy oath. JOHNSON.

From fin to fin. -] So both the quarto's and folio. I suspect we should read, From fun to fun; i.e. from one day to another, STEEVIN 3.

In

In proof whereof, there is mine honour's pawn;
Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'ft.

Fitz. How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse?
If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live,
7 I dare meet Surry in a wilderness,
And spit upon him, whilst I say, he lies,
And lies, and lies. There is my bond of faith,
To tie thee to my strong correction.-
As I intend to thrive 8 in this new world,
Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal !
Besides, I heard the banish'd Norfolk say,

That thou, Aumerle, didst send two of thy men
To execute the noble duke at Calais.

Aum. Some honest Christian trust me with a gage,
That Norfolk lies : here do I throw down this,
If he may be repeald, to try his honour.

Boling. These differences shall all rest under gage,
Till Norfolk be repeald : repeald he shall be,
And, though mine enemy, restor'd again
To his lands and signiories ; when he's return'd,
Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial.

Car. That honourable day shall ne'er be seen.
Many a time hath banish'd Norfolk fought
For Jesu Christ; in glorious Christian field
Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross,
Against black Pagans, Turks, and Saracens :
And, toild with works of war, retir'd himself
To Italy; and there, at Venice, gave
His body to that pleasant country's earth,
And his pure foul unto his captain Chrift,
Under whose colours he had fought so long.

Boling. Why, bifhop, is Norfolk dead ?

? I dare meet Surry in a wilderness,] I dare meet him where no help can be had by me against him. So in Macbeth,

“ O be alive again, “ And dare me to the desert with thy sword.” JOHNS. 8 in this new world,] In this world where I have just begun to be an actor. Surry has, a few lines above, called him boy. JOHNSOX.

Carl.

Carl. Sure as I live, my lord.
Boling. Sweet peace conduct his sweet foul to the

bolom
Of good old Abraham!-Lords appellants,
Your differences shall all rest under gage,
Till we align you to your days of trial.

Enter York, attended.
York. Great duke of Lancaster, I come to thee
From plume-pluck'd Richard; who with willing soul
Adopts thee heir, and his high scepter yields
To the possession of thy royal hand.
Ascend his throne, descending now from him,
And long live Henry, of that name the fourth!

Boling. In God's name, I'll afcend the regal throne.

Carl. Marry, heaven forbid ! -
Worst in this royal presence may I speak,
9 Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth.
Would God, that any in this noble presence
Were enough noble to be upright judge
Of noble Richard; then true noblenefs would
Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.
What subject can give fentence on his king
And who fits here, that is not Richard's subject ?
Thieves are not judg’d, but they are by to hear,
Although apparent guilt be seen in them :
' And Thail the figure of God's majesty,

9 Yet beft beseeming me to speak the truth.] It might be read' more grammatically,

Tet best befetins it me to speak the truth. but I do not think it is printed otherwise than as Shakespeare wrote it. Johnson.

And fall the figure, &c.) Here is another proof that our author did not learn in king James's court his elevated notions of the right of kings. I know not any flatterer of the Stuarts, who has expressed this doctrine in much fronger terms. It muit be observed that the poet intends, from the beginning to the end, to exhibit this bishop as brave, pious, and venerable. JOHNSON.

Shakespeare has represented this character of the bilbop as he found it in Holinshed. The politics of the historian were the politics of the poet. STEEVENS.

ܕ

His captain, steward, deputy elect,
Anointed, crown'd, and planted many years,
Be judg’d by subject and inferior breath,
And he himself not present ? oh, forbid it, God!
That, in a Christian climate, souls refind
Should shew so heinous, black, obscene a deed!
I speak to fubjects, and a subject speaks,
Stirr’d up by heaven, thus boldly for his king.
My lord of Hereford here, whom you call king,
Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford's king:
And if you crown him, let me prophesy
The blood of English shall manure the ground,
And future ages groan for this foul act.
Peace shall go Neep with Turks and Infidels,
And, in the seat of peace, tumultuous wars
Shall kin with kin, and kind with kind, confound.
Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny
Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd
The field of Golgotha, and dead mens' sculls.
Oh, if you rear this house against this house,
It will the woefullest division prove
That ever fell upon this cursed earth.
Prevent, resist it, let it not be so,
Left childrens' children cry against you, woe!
North. Well have you argu’d, Sir; and, for your

pains,
Of capital treason we arrest you here. -
My lord of Westminster, be it your charge, ,
To keep him fafely till 2 his day of trial. -
May't please you, lords, to grant the commons' suit?

his day of trial.] After this line, whatever follows, almost to the end of the act, containing the whole process of dethroning and debasing king Richard, was added after the first edition of 1598, and before the second of 1615. Part of the addition is proper, and part might have been forborn without much lofs. The author, I suppose, intended to make a very moving scene. JOHNSON.