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 small and small,

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

And all your southern gentlemen in arms

Upon his party.

K. RICH.

Thou hast said enough.Beshrew thee, cousin, which didst lead me forth

[To AUMERLE.

Of that sweet way I was in to despair!

What say you now? What comfort have we now? By heaven, I'll hate him everlastingly,

5

That bids me be of comfort any more.

Go, to Flint castle; there I'll pine away;
A king, woe's slave, shall kingly woe obey".
That power I have, discharge; and let them go
To ear the land that hath some hope to grow,
For I have none:-Let no man speak again
To alter this, for counsel is but vain.
AUм. My liege, one word.

♪ I'll hate him everlastingly,

That bids me be of comfort-] This sentiment is drawn from nature. Nothing is more offensive to a mind convinced that its distress is without a remedy, and preparing to submit quietly to irresistible calamity, than these petty and conjectured comforts which unskilful officiousness thinks it virtue to administer.

6

JOHNSON.

A king, woe's slave, shall kingly woe obey.] So, in King John, vol. xv. p. 263:

"For grief is proud, and makes its owner stoop." BoSWELL. "TO EAR the land -] i. e. to plough it. So, in All's Well that Ends Well:

"He that ears my land, spares my team." STEEVENS.

K. RICH. He does me double wrong, That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue. Discharge my followers, let them hence ;-Away, From Richard's night to Bolingbroke's fair day.

SCENE III.

[Exeunt.

Wales. A Plain before Flint Castle".

Enter, with Drum and Colours, BOLINGBROKE and
Forces; YORK, Northumberland, and Others.
BOLING. So that by this intelligence we learn,
The Welshmen are dispers'd; and Salisbury
Is gone to meet the king, who lately landed,
With some few private friends, upon this coast.
NORTH. The news is very fair and good, my lord;
Richard, not far from thence, hath hid his head.
YORK. It would beseem the lord Northumber-
land,

To say-king Richard :-Alack the heavy day,
When such a sacred 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 so brief with him, he would Have been so brief with you, to shorten you,

7

FLINT Castle.] In our former edition I had called this scene the same with the preceding. That was at Barkloughly castle, on the coast where Richard landed; but Bolingbroke never marched further in Wales than to Flint. The interview between him and Richard was at the castle of Flint, where this scene should be said to lie, or rather in the camp of Bolingbroke before that castle.-" Go to Flint castle." See above.

STEEVENS.

8 Your grace mistakes ME;] The word-me, which is wanting in the old copies, was supplied by Sir T. Hanmer. STEEVENS.

Far taking so the head, your whole head's length. BOLING. Mistake not, uncle, further than you should.

YORK. Take not, good cousin, further than you should,

Lest you mistake: The heavens are o'er your head. BOLING. I know it, uncle; and oppose not my

self

Against their will '-But who comes here??

Enter PERCY.

Welcome, Harry; what, will not this castle yield?

9 For taking so the head,] To take the head is, to act without restraint; to take undue liberties. We now say, we give the horse his head, when we relax the reins. JOHNSON.

The heavens

and oppose not

Myself against their will.] So, in Romeo and Juliet:
"The heavens, &c.-

"Move them no more by crossing their high will."

STEEVENS,

Such is the re

2 I know it, uncle; and oppose not myself Against their will. But who comes here?] gulation of the old copies. The second line is left unmetrical, according to a frequent practice of our author, when a person enters suddenly, and apparently for the purpose of imitating the abruptness of dialogue in real life. Mr. Steevens, in direct opposition to the old copies, regulates the lines thus:

66

“I know it, uncle; and oppose not

"Myself against their will.-But who comes here?"

When the deviation was pointed out, he had recourse to his usual suggestion of an interpolation, and, in the following note, defended his arrangement, in the face of the old copies, by proposing another regulation of the text, which yet he has not followed. MALOne.

I regard the word-myself, as an interpolation, and conceive Shakspeare to have written

To oppose may

66

66

and oppose not

Against their will."

be here a verb neuter. So, in King Lear : a servant, thrill'd with remorse,

Oppos'd against the act." STEEvens.

3 WELL, Harry; what, will not this castle yield?] The old

PERCY. The castle royally is mann'd, my lord,

Against thy 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 are the lord Aumerle, lord Salisbury,
Sir Stephen Scroop; besides a clergyman

Of holy reverence, who, I cannot learn.

NORTH. Oh! belike it is the bishop of Carlisle. BOLING. Noble lord,

[TO NORTH. Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle 3;

Through brazen trumpet send the breath of parle Into his ruin'd ears, and thus deliver.

Harry Bolingbroke

On both his knees doth kiss king Richard's hand;
And sends allegiance, and true faith of heart,
To his most royal person: hither come
Even at his feet to lay my arms and power;
Provided that, my banishment repeal'd,
And lands restor'd again, be freely granted:
If not, I'll use the advantage of my power,
And lay the summer's dust with showers of blood,
Rain'd from the wounds of slaughter'd Englishmen:

copy destroys the metre by reading-Welcome, Harry—. The emendation is Sir T. Hanmer's. STEEVENS.

3 Noble lord,

Go to the rude ribs, &c.] It is observable that our author in his addresses to persons, often begins with an hemistich. So, in Troilus and Cressida, Act II. Sc. III.:

"Agam. Princes,

"What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks?"

This observation may be of use in other places, where in the old copies, by the mistake of the transcriber, the metre is destroyed by this regulation not being observed. It also confirms what I have often had occasion to mention,-that our poet in many instances blended short prosaick sentences with his metrical dialogues. MALONE.

The which, how far off from the mind of Boling

broke

It is, such crimson tempest should bedrench
The fresh green lap of fair king Richard's land,
My stooping duty tenderly shall show.

Go, signify as much while here we march
Upon the grassy carpet of this plain.--

[NORTHUMBERLAND advances to the Castle
with a Trumpet.

Let's march without the noise of threat'ning drum,
That from the castle's totter'd battlements 4
Our fair appointments may be well perus'd.
Methinks, king Richard and myself should meet
With no less terror than the elements

Of fire and water, when their thund'ring shock
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 sounded, and answered by another Trumpet
within. Flourish. Enter on the walls King
RICHARD, the Bishop of Carlisle, AUMERLE,
SCROOP, and SALISBURY.

YORK. See, see, king Richard doth himself appear,

TOTTER'D battlements] Totter'd, the reading of the two first quartos, is here probably used for tottering, according to a usage of our poet, which has been frequently pointed out. The other copies read tatter'd. Boswell.

5-the Bishop of Carlisle,] Was Thomas Merkes.

6

WALPOLE.

See, see, king Richard doth himself appear,] The following six lines are absurdly given to Bolinbroke, who is made to condemn his own conduct and disculp the King's. It is plain these six and the four following all belong to York. WARburton.

It should be observed that the four last of these lines are in all the copies given to York. STEEVENS.