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On equal terms to give him chastisement?
Either I muft, or have mine honour foil'd
With the attainder of his fland'rous lips.
There is my gage, the manual feal of death,
That marks thee out for hell. Thou lieft, and
I will maintain what thou hast said, is false,
In thy heart-blood, though being all too base
To ftain the temper of my knightly fword.
Boling. Bagot, forbear; thou shalt not take it up.
Aum. Excepting one, I would he were the best
In all this prefence that hath mov'd me so.

Fitzw. 4 If that thy valour stand on fympathies,
There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine.
By that fair fun that fhews me where thou ftand'st,
I heard thee fay, and vauntingly thou fpak'ft it,
That thou wert caufe of noble Glofter's death.
If thou deny'st it, twenty times thou lieft;
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. Hift. that the vulgar error affigned the bright and fair ftars to the rich and great. Sidera fingulis attributa nobis et clara divitibus, minora pauperibus, &c. Lib. 1. cap. 8. Anonymous.

4

If that thy valour ftand on fympathies,] Here is a translated fenfe much harfher than that of ftars explained in the foregoing note. Aumerle has challenged Bagot with fome hesitation, 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 flaked in a duel against a bafer. Fitzwalter then throws down his gage, a pledge of battle; and tells him that if he ftands upon fympathies, 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 community of affection implies a likenefs or equality of nature, and thence our poet transferred the term to equality of blood. JOHNSON.

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my rapier's point.] Shakespeare deferts the manners of the age in which his drama is placed very often, without neceffity or advantage. The edge of a fword had ferved his purpofe 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 feen in England till two centuries afterwards. JOHNSON.

Aum.

Aum. Thou dar'ft not, coward, live to fee the day. Fitzw. Now, by my foul, 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 unjuft : And, that thou art fo, there I throw my gage To prove it on thee to the extremeft point Of mortal breathing; feize it, if thou dar'st. Aum. And if I do not, may my hands rot off, And never brandifh more revengeful steel Over the glittering helmet of my foe!

Another Lord. I take the earth to the like, forfworn 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 dar'ft.

Aum. Who fets me elfe? by heaven, I'll throw at all.

I have a thousand spirits in one breast

To answer twenty thousand fuch 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 prefence then;

And you can witnefs with me, this is true.

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

Surry. Difhonourable boy!

That lie fhall lye fo heavy on my fword,
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 fcull.

I take the earth to the like, &c.] This fpeech 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 fuppofe we should read, thy oath. JOHNSON.

.

From fin to fin.

So both the quarto's and folio. I fufpect we should read, From fun to fun; i. e. from one day to another. STEEVENS.

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

Fitz. How fondly doft thou spur a forward horse? If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live,

7 I dare meet Surry in a wilderness,

And fpit upon him, whilst I fay, he lies,
And lies, and lies. There is my bond of faith,
To tie thee to my ftrong correction.

As I intend to thrive 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 repeal'd, to try his honour.

Boling. Thefe differences fhall all reft under gage,
Till Norfolk be repeal'd: repeal'd he shall be,
And, though mine enemy, reftor'd again

To his lands and figniories; when he's return'd,
Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial.

Car. That honourable day fhall ne'er be seen.-
Many a time hath banish'd Norfolk fought
For Jefu Chrift; in glorious Christian field
Streaming the enfign of the Chriftian cross,
Against black Pagans, Turks, and Saracens :
And, toil'd 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 whofe colours he had fought fo long.
Boling. Why, bifhop, is Norfolk dead?

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

8

"O be alive again,

"And dare me to the defert with thy fword." JoHNS. -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. JOHNSON.

Carl.

Carl. Sure as I live, my lord.

Boling. Sweet peace conduct his fweet foul to the
bofom

Of good old Abraham!-Lords appellants,
Your differences fhall all reft under gage,
Till we affign 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 foul
Adopts thee heir, and his high scepter yields
To the poffeffion of thy royal hand.

Afcend his throne, defcending 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!—

Worft in this royal prefence may I fpeak,
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 nobleness would
Learn him forbearance from fo foul a wrong.
What fubject can give fentence on his king?
And who fits here, that is not Richard's fubject?
Thieves are not judg'd, but they are by to hear,
Although apparent guilt be feen in them:
'And fhail the figure of God's majesty,

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

Yet beft befeems it me to speak the truth.

But I do not think it is printed otherwife 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 expreffed this doctrine in much ftronger terms. It must be obferved that the poet intends, from the beginning to the end, to exhibit this bishop as brave, pious, and venerable. JOHNSON. Shakespeare has reprefented this character of the bilhop as he found it in Holinfhed. The politics of the hiftorian were the politics of the poet. STEEVENS.

His captain, steward, deputy elect,

Anointed, crown'd, and planted many years,
Be judg'd by fubject and inferior breath,
And he himself not prefent? oh, forbid it, God!
That, in a Christian climate, fouls refin'd
Should fhew fo heinous, black, obscene a deed!
I fpeak to fubjects, and a fubject 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 prophefy
The blood of English fhall manure the ground,
And future ages groan for this foul act.
Peace fhall go fleep with Turks and Infidels,
And, in the feat 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' fculls.
Oh, if you rear this house against this house,
It will the woefullest divifion prove
That ever fell upon, this curfed earth.
Prevent, refift it, let it not be fo,

Left childrens' children cry against you, woe!
North. Well have you argu'd, Sir; and, for your

pains,

Of capital treafon we arreft you here.

My lord of Westminster, be it your charge,
To keep him fafely till his day of trial.-
May't please you, lords, to grant the commons' fuit?

2

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

Boling.

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