'Tis doubt,' he will be.
To a dear friend of the
That tell black tidings.
Queen.

Letters came last night good duke of York's,

O, I am pressed to death,

Through want of speaking!—Thou, old Adam's like

ness,

[Coming from her concealment.

Set to dress this garden, how dares

Thy harsh, rude tongue sound this unpleasing news? What Eve, what serpent hath suggested thee

To make a second fall of cursed man?

Why dost thou say, king Richard is deposed?
Dar'st thou, thou little better thing than earth,
Divine his downfall? Say, where, when, and how,
Cam'st thou by these ill tidings? Speak, thou wretch.
Gard. Pardon me, madam: little joy have I,
To breathe this news; yet what I say is true.
King Richard he is in the mighty hold

Of Bolingbroke; their fortunes both are weighed.
In your lord's scale is nothing but himself,
And some few vanities that make him light;
But in the balance of great Bolingbroke,
Besides himself, are all the English peers,
And with that odds he weighs king Richard down.
Post you to London, and you'll find it so ;
I speak no more than every one doth know.

Queen. Nimble mischance, that art so light of foot, Doth not thy embassage belong to me,

And am I last that knows it? O, thou think'st
To serve me last, that I may longest keep
Thy sorrow in my breast.-Come, ladies, go,
To meet, at London, London's king in woe.-
What, was I born to this! that my sad look
Should grace the triumph of great Bolingbroke?—
Gardener, for telling me this news of woe,

I would the plants thou graft'st may never grow.

[Exeunt Queen and Ladies.

1 This uncommon phraseology has already occurred in the present

play.

Gard. Poor queen! so that thy state might be no

worse,

-

I would skill were subject to thy curse.-
my
Here did she drop' a tear; here, in this place,
I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace;
Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen,
In the remembrance of a weeping queen.

[Exeunt.

ACT IV.

SCENE I. London. Wesminster Hall.

The Lords spiritual on the right side of the throne; the Lords temporal on the left; the Commons below.

3

Enter BOLINGBROKE, AUMERLE, SURREY, NORTHUMberland, Percy, FITZWATER, another Lord, Bishop of Carlisle, Abbot of Westminster, and Attendants. Officers behind, with Bagot.

Boling. Call forth Bagot :

Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind;

What thou dost know of noble Gloster's death;
Who wrought it with the king, and who performed
The bloody office of his timeless end.

4

Bagot. Then set before my face the lord Aumerle. Boling. Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that man. Bagot. My lord Aumerle, I know, your daring tongue

1 The quarto of 1597 reads fall. The quarto of 1598 and the folio read drop.

The rebuilding of Westminster hall, which Richard had begun in 1397, being finished in 1399, the first meeting of parliament in the new edifice was for the purpose of deposing him.

3 Thomas Holland, earl of Kent, brother to John Holland, earl of Exeter, was created duke of Surrey in 1597. He was half-brother to the king, by his mother Joan, who married Edward the Black Prince after the death of her second husband, Thomas lord Holland.

4 i. e. untimely.

Scorns to unsay what once it hath delivered.

In that dead time when Gloster's death was plotted,
I heard you say,-Is not my arm of length,
That reacheth from the restful English court
As far as Calais, to my uncle's head?
Amongst much other talk, that very time,
I heard you say, that you had rather refuse
The offer of a hundred thousand crowns,
Than Bolingbroke's return to England;
Adding withal, how blessed this land would be,
In this your cousin's death.

Aum.

Princes, and noble lords, What answer shall I make to this base man? Shall I so much dishonor my fair stars,' On equal terms to give him chastisement? Either I must, or have mine honor soiled With the attainder of his slanderous lips.There is my gage, the manual seal of death, That marks thee out for hell. I I say thou liest, And 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 moved me so.

Fitz. If that thy valor stand on sympathies,2 There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine. By that fair sun that shows me where thou stand'st, I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spak'st it, That thou wert cause of noble Gloster's death. If thou deny'st it, twenty times thou liest ; And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart, Where it was forged, with my rapier's point.

1 The birth is supposed to be influenced by stars, therefore the Poet takes stars for birth.

2 Fitzwater throws down his gage as a pledge of battle, and tells Aumerle 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 community of affection implies a likeness or equality of nature; and hence the Poet transferred the term to equality of blood.

Aum. Thou dar'st not, coward, live to see that day. Fitz. Now, by my soul, I would it were this hour. Aum. Fitzwater, thou art damned to hell for this. Percy. Aumerle, thou liest. His honor 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!

Lord. I task the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle; And spur thee on with full as many lies

As may be hollaed in thy treacherous ear

From sun to sun. There is my honor's pawn;

Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st.

Aum. Who sets me else? By Heaven, I'll throw at all:

I have a thousand spirits in one breast,

To answer twenty thousand such as you.1

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

Fitz. 'Tis very true. You were in presence then;

And you can witness with me, this is true.

Surrey. As false, by Heaven, as Heaven itself is true. Fitz. Surrey, thou liest.

Surrey.

Dishonorable boy!

That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword,
That it shall render vengeance and revenge,
ill thou the lie-giver, and that lie, do lie
In earth as quiet as thy father's skull.

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

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

I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness,

2

And spit upon him, whilst I say, he lies,

And lies, and lies. There is my bond of faith,

1 The preceding eight lines are not in the folio of 1623.
2 I dare meet him where no help can be had by me against him.

To tie thee to my strong correction.—
As I intend to thrive in this new world,1
Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal.

Besides, I heard the banished 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,2 If he may be repealed to try his honor.

Boling. These differences shall all rest under gage, Till Norfolk be repealed; repealed he shall be, And, though mine enemy, restored again

To all his land and seigniories. When he's returned,
Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial.

Car. That honorable day shall ne'er be seen.-
Many a time hath banished Norfolk fought
For Jesu Christ; in glorious Christian field
Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross,
Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens :
And, toiled with works of war, retired himself
To Italy; and there, at Venice, gave
His body to that pleasant country's earth,3
And his pure soul unto his captain, Christ,
Under whose colors he had fought so long.
Boling. Why, bishop, is Norfolk dead?
Car. As sure as I live, my lord.

Boling. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the

bosom

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

Enter YORK, attended.

York. Great duke of Lancaster, I come to thee From plume-plucked Richard; who with willing soul

1 i. e. in this world, where I have just begun to be an actor. Surrey has just called him boy.

2 Holinshed says that on this occasion he threw down a hood that he had borrowed.

3 This is not historically true. The duke of Norfolk's death did not take place till after Richard's.