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Thus far into the bowels of the land
Have we march'd on without impediment;
And here receive we from our father Stanley
Lines of fair comfort and encouragement.
The wretched; bloody, and ufurping boar,
That spoil'd your summer fields, and fruitful vines;
Swills your warm blood like wash, and makes his

trough

In your embowell'd bosoms, this foul fwine
Lies now even in the centre of this ifle,
Near to the town of Leicester, as we learn:
From Tamworth thither, is but one day's march.
In God's name, chearly on, courageous friends,
To reap the harvest of perpetual peace
By this one bloody trial of sharp war.

Oxf. Every man's confcience is a thousand swords,
To fight against that bloody homicide.
Herb. I doubt not, but his friends will turn to us.
Blunt. He hath no friends, but who are friends for

fear;

*-embowell'd bojoms, ] Exenterated; ripped up: alluding, perhaps, to the Promethean vulture; or, more probably, to the sentence pronounced in the English courts against traitors, by which they are condemned to be hanged, drawn, that is, embowelled, and quartered. JOHNSON.

Drawn, in the fentence pronounced upon traitors only, fignifies to be drawn by the heels or on a hurdle from the prison to the place of execution. So, Dr. Johnfon has properly expound ed it in Meafure for Measure, act II. So, Holinshed in the year 1569, and Stowe's Chronicle, edit. 1614, p. 162, 171, 418,763, 766. Sometimes our historians use a colloquial inaccuracy of expression in writing, hanged, drawn, and quarter'd; but they often express it-drawn, hanged, and quartered; and sometimes they add-bowelled, or his bowels taken out, which would be tautology, if the same thitig was implied in the word drawn. TOLLET.

Drawn in the sense of embowelled, is never used but in speaking of a fowl. It is true, embowelling is also part of the fentence in high treason, but in order of time it comes after drawing and hanging. BLACKSTONE.

9-conscience is a thousand swords, Alluding to the old

adage, "Confcientia mille teftes." BLACKSTONE.

L2

Which,

Which, in his dearest need, will fly from him.
Richm. All for our vantage. Then, in God's name,

march:
True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings,
Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.

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[Exeunt.

Enter King Richard in arms, with the Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Surrey, and others.

K. Rich. Here pitch our tent, even here in Bofworth field.

My lord of Surrey, why look you so sad?

Surr. My heart is ten times lighter than my looks.
K. Rich. My lord of Norfolk, -
Nor. Here, most gracious liege.

K. Rich. Norfolk, we must have knocks; Ha!

must we not?

Nor. We must both give and take, my loving lord.

K. Rich. Up with my tent: Here will I lie to-night; But where, to-morrow? - Well, all's one for that.Who hath defcry'd the number of the traitors?

Nor. Six or seven thousand is their utmost power. K. Rich. Why, our battalia trebles that account: Besides, the king's name is a tower of strength, Which they upon the adverse faction want. Up with the tent.--Come, noble gentlemen, Let us survey the vantage of the ground;Call for fome men of found direction:

*Sound direction:-) True judgment; tried military skill. JOHNSON.

Let's

Let's want no difcipline, make no delay;
For, lords, to-morrow is a busy day.

[Exeunt.

Enter on the other side of the field, Richmond, Sir William Brandon, Oxford, Dorfet, &c.

Richm. The weary fun hath made a golden fet, And, by the bright track of his fiery car, Gives token of a goodly day to-morrow.Sir William Brandon, you shall bear my standard.*Give me fome ink and paper in my tent; I'll draw the form and model of our battle, Limit each leader to his several charge, And part in just proportion our small power. My lord of Oxford, you, fir William Brandon, And you, fir Walter Herbert, stay with me:The earl of Pembroke keeps his regiment;Good captain Blunt, bear my good night to him, And by the second hour in the morning Defire the earl to see me in my tent:Yet one thing more, good captain, do for me; Where is lord Stanley quarter'd, do you know?

Blunt. Unless I have mista'en his colours much, (Which, well I am assur'd, I have not done) His regiment lies half a mile at least South from the mighty power of the king. Richm. If without peril it be possible, Sweet Blunt, make some good means to speak with

him,

* Give me fome ink and paper-] I have placed these lines here as they stand in the first editions: the rest place them three speeches before, after the words Sir William Brandon, you shall bear my standard; interrupting what there follows; The earl of Pembroke, &c. I think them more naturally introduced here, when he is retiring to his tent; and confidering what he has to do that night. POPE.

I have followed the folio, which, of this play, is by far the most correct copy. I do not find myself much influenced by Mr. Pope's remark. STEEVENS.

1

And give him from me this most needful note,

Blunt. Upon my life, my lord, I'll undertake it; And fo, God give you quiet rest to-night! Richm. Good night, good captain Blunt. Come,

gentlemen,

Let us confult upon to-morrow's business;
In to my tent, the air is raw and cold.

[They withdraw into the tent.

Enter, to his tent, King Richard, Ratcliff, Norfolk, and Catesby.

K. Rich. What is't o'clock?

Catef. It's fupper time, my lord;

It's nine o'clock.

K. Rich. I will not fup to-night.

Give me fome ink and paper.-
What, is my beaver easier than it was?
And all my armour laid into my tent?

Cates. It is, my liege; and all things are in readi

nefs.

K. Rich. Good Norfolk, hie thee to thy charge; Ufe careful watch, chuse trusty centinels.

Nor. I go, my lord.

K. Rich. Stir with the lark to-morrow, gentle

Norfolk.

Nor. I warrant you, my lord.

K. Rich. Ratcliff,

Rat. My lord?

[Exit.

K. Rich. Send out a pursuivant at arms
To Stanley's regiment; bid him bring his power
Before fun-rifing, left his fon George fall

Into the blind cave of eternal night.

Fill me a bowl of wine :- Give me a watch :

[To Catesby.

Saddle

3-Give me a watch:-] A watch has many fignifications, but I should believe that it means in this place not a centinel,

Saddle white Surrey for the field to-morrow 4.-
Look that my staves be found, and not too heavy.
Ratcliff,-

Rat

which would be regularly placed at the king's tent; nor an instru ment to measure time, which was not used in that age; but a watch-light, a candle to burn by him; the light that afterwards burnt blue; yet a few lines after, he says:

Bid my guard watch,

which leaves it doubtful whether wateb is not here a sentinel. JONNSON.

A watch, i. e. guard, would certainly be placed about a royal tent, without any request of the king concerning it.

}

I believe, therefore, that particular kind of candle is here meant, which was anciently called a watch, because, being marked out into sections, each of which was a certain portion of time in burning, it supplied the place of the more modern instrument by which we meafsure the hours. I have seen these candles represented with great nicety in some of the pictures of Albert Durer.

Barret, in his Alvearie, 1580, mentions watching lamps or candles. So, in Love in a Maze, 1632:

"slept always with a watching candle."

Again, in The Noble Soldier, 1634:

" Beauty was turn'd into a watching-candle that went out

stinking."

Again, in the Return from Parnassus, 1606:

" Sit now immur'd within their private cells,
"And drink a long lank watching candle's smoke."

Again, in Albumazar, 1610:

"Sit up all night like a watching candle." STEEVENS. Lord Bacon mentions a species of light called an all night, which is a wick set in the middle of a large cake of wax.

JOHNSON.

* Saddle white Surrey for the field to-morrow.] So, in Holin. shed, p. 754:

" he was mounted on a great white courser, &c."

STEEVENS.

* Look that my sstaves be found,-) Staves are the wood of the lances. JOHNSON.

As it was usual to carry more lances than one into the field, the lightness of them was an object of confequence. Hall informs us, that at the justs in honour of the marriage of Mary, the younger fister of king Henry VIII. with the king of France, that a gentleman called Anthony Bownarme came into the feld all armed, and on his body brought in fight x speres, that

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