GAUNT. Tobea makepeace fhall become my age:Throw down, my fon, the duke of Norfolk's gage. K. RICH. And, Norfolk, throw down his.

GAUNT. When, Harry?" when? Obedience bids, I fhould not bid again.

K. RICH. Norfolk, throw down; we bid; there is no boot.3

NOR. Myfelf I throw, dread fovereign, at thy foot:

My life thou fhalt command, but not my fhame:
The one my duty owes; but my fair name,
(Defpite of death, that lives upon my grave,)+
To dark difhonour's ufe thou shalt not have.
I am difgrac'd, impeach'd, and baffled here;
Pierc'd to the foul with flander's venom'd fpear;

When, Harry?] This obfolete exclamation of impatience, is likewife found in Heywood's Silver Age, 1613:

66

Fly into Affrick; from the mountains there,

"Chufe me two venomous ferpents: thou fhalt know them: "By their fell poifon and their fierce afpect.

"When, Iris?

Iris. I am gone."

Again, in Look about you, 1600:

I'll cut off thy legs,

"If thou delay thy duty. When, proud John?”

STEEVENS.

3 no boot.] That is, no advantage, no use, in delay or refufal. JOHNSON.

4

- my fair name, &c.] That is, my name that lives on my grave, in defpight of death. This eafy paffage moft of the editors feem to have mistaken. JOHNSON.

-and baffled here;] Baffled in this place means treated with the greateft ignominy imaginable. So, Holinfhed, Vol. III. p. 827, and 1218, or annis 1513, and 1570, explains it: " Bafulling fays he, is a great difgrace among the Scots, and it is ufed when a man is openlie perjured, and then they make of him an image painted, reverfed, with his heels upward, with his name, wondering, crieing, and blowing out of him with horns." Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. V. c. iii. ft. 37; and B. VI. c. vii. ft. 27. has the word in the fame fignification. TOLLET.

The which no balm can cure, but his heart-blood Which breath'd this poifon.

K. RICH.

Rage must be withstood: Give me his gage:-Lions make leopards tame. NOR. Yea, but not change their spots: take but my fhame,

And I refign my gage. My dear dear lord,
The pureft treasure mortal times afford,
Is-fpotlefs reputation; that away,

Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay.
A jewel in a ten-times-barr'd-up chest
Is-a bold fpirit in a loyal breast.

Mine honour is my life; both grow in one;
Take honour from me, and my life is done:
Then, dear my liege, mine honour let me try;
In that I live, and for that will I die.

K. RICH. Coufin, throw down your gage; do you
begin.

BOLING. O, God defend my foul from fuch foul
fin!

Shall I feem creftfallen in my father's fight?
Or with pale beggar-fear' impeach my height
Before this outdar'd daftard? Ere my tongue
Shall wound mine honour with fuch feeble wrong,

The fame expreffion occurs in Twelfth Night, fc. ult:

"Alas, poor fool! how have they baffled thee?"

Again, in K. Henry IV. Part I. A&t I. fc. ii:

-an I do not, call me villain, and baffle me."

Again, in The London Prodigal, 1605: "

chil be abaffelled up and down the town, for a meffel." i. e. for a beggar, or rather a leper. STEEVENS.

6 but not change their Spots:] The old copies have-his fpots. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

7

with pale beggar-fear-] This is the reading of one of the oldeft quartos, and the folio. The quartos 1608 and 1615 read-beggar-face; i. e. (as Dr. Warburton obferves) with a face of fupplication. STEEVENS.

Or found fo base a parle, my teeth shall tear
The flavish motive of recanting fear;
And spit it bleeding, in his high difgrace,
Where shame doth harbour, even in Mowbray's face.
[Exit GAUNT.

K. RICH. We were not born to fue, but to com

mand: Which fince we cannot do to make you friends, Be ready, as your lives shall answer it, At Coventry, upon faint Lambert's day; There fhall your fwords and lances arbitrate The fwelling difference of your fettled hate; Since we cannot atone you,' we shall see Justice defign' the victor's chivalry.— Marshal, command' our officers at arms Be ready to direct these home-alarms.

▲ The flavish motive-] Motive, for inftrument.

Rather that which fear puts in motion.

[Exeunt.

WARBURTON.

JOHNSON.

So, in Cymbeline:

atone you,] i. e. reconcile you.
"I was glad I did atone my countryman and you.'

STEEVENS.

6 Juftice defign] Thus the old copies. Mr. Pope readsJuftice decide," but without neceffity. Defigno, Lat. fignifies to mark out, to point out: "Notat defignatque oculis ad cædem unumquemque noftrûm." Cicero in Catilinam. STEEVENS.

To defign in our author's time fignified to mark out. See Minfheu's DICT. in v. "To defigne or her by a token. Ital. Denotare. Lat. Defignare." At the end of the article the reader is referred to the words "to marke, note, demonftrate or fhew."The word is ftill used with this fignification in Scotland.

MALONE.

"Marfbal, command, &c.] The old copies-Lord Marshall; but (as Mr. Ritfon obferves) the metre requires the omiffion I have made. It is alfo juftified by his Majesty's repeated address to the fame officer, in fcene iii. STEEVENS.

The fame. A Room in the Duke of Lancaster's Palace.

Enter GAUNT, and Duchefs of Glofter.

GAUNT. Alas! the part I had in Glofter's blood Doth more folicit me, than your exclaims, To ftir against the butchers of his life. But fince correction lieth in those hands, Which made the fault that we cannot correct, Put we our quarrel to the will of heaven; Who when he fees the hours ripe on earth, Will rain hot vengeance on offenders' heads. DUCH. Finds brotherhood in thee no fharper fpur? Hath love in thy old blood no living fire? Edward's feven fons, whereof thyself art one, Were as feven phials of his facred blood, Or feven fair branches, fpringing from one root: Some of those seven are dried by nature's course, Some of those branches by the deftinies cut: But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Glofter,

8 duchefs of Glofter.] The Duchefs of Glofter was Eleanor Bohun, widow of Duke Thomas, fon of Edward III.

9

WALPOLE.

the part I had-] That is, my relation of confanguinity to Glofter. HANMER.

2

- heaven;

Who when he fees-] The old copies erroneously read-
Who when they fee

I have reformed the text by example of a fubfequent paffage,

"His deputy, anointed in his fight," &c. STEEVENS.

el

One phial full of Edward's facred blood,
One flourishing branch of his most royal root,—
Is crack'd, and all the precious liquor fpilt;
Is hack'd down, and his fummer leaves all faded,'
By envy's hand, and murder's bloody axe.

Ah, Gaunt! his blood was thine; that bed, that
womb,

That mettle, that felf-mould, that fafhion'd thee,
Made him a man; and though thou liv'st, and
breath'st,

Yet art thou flain in him: thou doft confent'
In fome large meafure to thy father's death,
In that thou feeft thy wretched brother die,
Who was the model of thy father's life.
Call it not patience, Gaunt, it is despair:
In fuffering thus thy brother to be flaughter'd,
Thou show'ft the naked pathway to thy life,
Teaching ftern murder how to butcher thee:
That which in mean men we entitle-patience,
Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.
What shall I fay? to fafeguard thine own life,
The best way is to 'venge my Glofter's death.
GAUNT. Heaven's is the quarrel; for heaven's
fubstitute,

His deputy anointed in his fight,

2 One phial, &c.] Though all the old copies concur in the
prefent regulation of the following lines, I would rather read-
One phial full of Edward's facred blood

Is crack'd, and all the precious liquor spill'd;
One flourishing branch of his moft royal root

Is back'd down, and his fummer leaves all faded.

Some of the old copies in this inftance, as in many others, read waded, a mode of spelling practifed by feveral of our ancient writers. After all, I believe the tranfpofition to be needlefs.

STEEVENS. 3thou doft confent, &c.] i. e. affent. So, in St. Luke's Gospel, xxiii. 51: "The fame had not confented to the counfel and dead of them." STBEVENS,

I