MAR. What is thy name? and wherefore com'st thou hither,

Before King Richard, in his royal lifts?

Against whom comeft thou? and what's thy quarrel?

Speak like a true knight, fo defend thee heaven!

BOLING. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,

Am I; who ready here do ftand in arms,

To prove, by heaven's grace, and my body's va

lour,

In lifts, on Thomas Mowbray duke of Norfolk,
That he's a traitor, foul and dangerous,

To God of heaven, king Richard, and to me;
And, as I truly fight, defend me heaven!

MAR. On pain of death, no perfon be fo bold,
Or daring-hardy, as to touch the lifts;
Except the marshal, and fuch officers
Appointed to direct these fair defigns.

BOLING. Lord marshal, let me kifs my fovereign's hand,

And bow my knee before his majesty :

For Mowbray, and myself, are like two men
That vow a long and weary pilgrimage;
Then let us take a ceremonious leave,
And loving farewell, of our feveral friends.

MAR. The appellant in all duty greets your highness,

And craves to kiss your hand, and take his leave. K. RICH. We will defcend, and fold him in our

arms.

Coufin of Hereford, as thy cause is right,
So be thy fortune in this royal fight!
Farewell, my blood; which if to-day thou fhed,
Lament we may, but not revenge thee dead.

BOLING. O, let no noble eye profane a tear
For me, if I be gor'd with Mowbray's spear:
As confident, as is the falcon's flight
Against a bird, do I with Mowbray fight.
My loving lord, [To LORD MARSHAL.] I take my
leave of you;—

Of you, my noble coufin, lord Aumerle;-
Not fick, although I have to do with death;
But lufty, young, and cheerly drawing breath.-
Lo, as at English feafts, fo I regreet

The daintieft laft, to make the end moft fweet:
O thou, the earthly author of my blood,—

[To GAUNT.
Whose youthful spirit, in me regenerate,
Doth with a twofold vigour lift me up
To reach at victory above my head,-
Add proof unto mine armour with thy prayers;
And with thy bleffings fteel my lance's point,
That it may enter Mowbray's waxen coat,"
And furbish new the name of John of Gaunt,
Even in the lufty 'haviour of his fon.

GAUNT. Heaven in thy good cause make thee profperous!

Be fwift like lightning in the execution;

7 waxen coat,] Waxen may mean foft, and confequently penetrable, or flexible. The brigandines or coats of mail, then in ufe, were compofed of small pieces of fteel quilted over one another, and yet fo flexible as to accommodate the drefs they form, to every motion of the body. Of these many are ftill to be feen in the Tower of London. STEEVENS.

The object of Bolingbroke's requeft is, that the temper of his lance's point might as much exceed the mail of his adversary, as the iron of that mail was harder than wax. HENLEY.

8 And furbish-] Thus the quartos, 1608 and 1615. The folio reads furnish. Either word will do, as to furnish in the time of Shakspeare fignified to drefs. So, twice in As you like it :"furnished like a huntsman."-"furnished like a beggar."

STEEVENS.

And let thy blows, doubly redoubled,
Fall like amazing thunder on the cafque
Of thy advérfe pernicious enemy:

Rouse up thy youthful blood, be valiant and live. BOLING. Mine innocency," and faint George to [He takes his feat. NOR. [Rifing.] However heaven, or fortune, caft my lot,

thrive!

There lives, or dies, true to king Richard's throne,
A loyal, juft, and upright gentleman:
Never did captive with a freer heart

Caft off his chains of bondage, and embrace
His golden uncontroll'd enfranchisement,
More than my dancing foul doth celebrate
This feast of battle with mine adverfary.—
Moft mighty liege,-and my companion peers,-
Take from my mouth the wifh of happy years:
As gentle and as jocund, as to jeft,'

Go I to fight; Truth hath a quiet breaft.

9 Mine innocency,] Old copies-innocence. Corrected by Mr. Steevens. MALONE.

2 This feast of battle-] "War is death's feaft," is a proverbial faying. See Ray's Collection. STEEVENS.

3 As gentle and as jocund, as to jeft,] Not fo neither. We fhould read to just; i. e. to tilt or tourney, which was a kind of fport too.

WARBURTON.

The fenfe would perhaps have been better if the author had written what his commentator fubftitutes; but the rhyme, to which fenfe is too often enflaved, obliged Shakspeare to write jeft, and obliges us to read it. JoHNSON.

The commentators forget that to jeft fometimes fignifies in old language to play a part in a mask. Thus, in Hieronymo : "He promifed us in honour of our guest,

"To grace our banquet with fome pompous jeft." and accordingly a mask is performed. FARMER.

Dr. Farmer has well explained the force of this word. So, in the third Part of K. Henry VI:

66

as if the tragedy

"Were play'd in jeft by counterfeited actors." ToLLET.

K. RICH. Farewell, my lord: fecurely I efpy
Virtue with valour couched in thine eye.
Order the trial, marfhal, and begin.

[The King and the Lords return to their feats. MAR. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, Receive thy lance; and God defend the right! BOLING. [Rifing.] Strong as a tower in hope, I

cry-amen.

MAR. Go bear this lance [To an Officer.] to Thomas duke of Norfolk.

1 HER. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, Stands here for God, his fovereign, and himself, On pain to be found falfe and recreant,

To prove the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray,
A traitor to his God, his king, and him,
And dares him to fet forward to the fight.

2 HER. Here ftandeth Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk,

On pain to be found falfe and recreant,
Both to defend himself, and to approve
Henry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
To God, his fovereign, and to him, disloyal;
Courageously, and with a free defire,
Attending but the fignal to begin.

MAR. Sound, trumpets; and set forward, com

batants.

[A charge founded. Stay, the king hath thrown his warder down.*

K. RICH. Let them lay by their helmets and their spears,

hath thrown his warder down.] A warder appears to have been a kind of truncheon carried by the person who prefided at these fingle combats. So, in Daniel's Civil Wars, &c. B. I: "When lo, the king, fuddenly chang'd his mind, "Cafts down his warder to arreft them there."

STEEVENS.

And both return back to their chairs again:Withdraw with us :-and let the trumpets found, While we return thefe dukes what we decree.

[A long flourish. To the Combatants.

Draw near,
And lift, what with our council we have done.
For that our kingdom's earth should not be foil'd
With that dear blood which it hath fostered; 5
And for our eyes do hate the dire aspéct

Of civil wounds plough'd up with neighbours' fwords;

["And for we think the eagle-winged pride
Of sky-aspiring and ambitious thoughts,
With rival-hating envy, fet you on

To wake our peace, which in our country's cradle
Draws the fweet infant breath of gentle fleep ;]
Which fo rous'd up with boisterous untun'd drums,
With harsh-refounding trumpets' dreadful bray,
And grating fhock of wrathful iron arms,
Might from our quiet confines fright fair peace,

5 With that dear blood which it hath foftered;] The quartos read

With that dear blood which it hath been fofter'd.

I believe the author wrote

With that dear blood with which it hath been fofter'd.

The quarto 1608 reads, as in the text. STEEVENS.

MALONE.

And for we think the eagle-winged pride, &c.] Thefe five verfes are omitted in the other editions, and restored from the first of 1598. POPE.

7 -fet you on-] The old copy reads-on you. by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

8 To wake our peace,
Which fo rous'd up.

Corrected

Might fright fair peace,] Thus the fentence ftands in the common reading abfurdly enough; which made the Oxford editor, inftead of fright fair peace, read, be affrighted; as if these latter words could ever, poffibly, have been blundered into the former