That they have let the dangerous enemy
Measure our confines with fuch peaceful fteps?
If we prevail, their heads fhall pay for it.

I warrant, they have made peace with Bolingbroke. SCROOP. Peace have they made with him, indeed, my lord.

K. RICH. O villains, vipers, damn'd without redemption!

Dogs, eafily won to fawn on any man!

Snakes, in my heart-blood warm'd, that fting my heart!

Three Judaffes, each one thrice worse than Judas! Would they make peace? terrible hell make war Upon their spotted fouls for this offence!

SCROOP. Sweet love, I fee, changing his property, Turns to the fourest and most deadly hate:Again uncurfe their fouls; their peace is made With heads, and not with hands: those whom you

curse,

Have felt the worst of death's deftroying wound, And lie full low, grav'd in the hollow ground.

This emendation Dr. Warburton adopts. Hanmer leaves a blank after Wiltshire. I believe the author, rather than transcriber, made a mistake. Where is he got, does not found in my ear like an expreffion of Shakspeare. JOHNSON,

I agree with Johnfon in thinking that this was a mistake of the author's, because we find a mistake of the fame nature in the fecond act, where Bolingbroke fays, that Bristol castle was held by Bushy and Bagot; yet it is certain that Bagot was not taken at Bristol, for we find him afterwards accufing Aumerle of treafon; and in the parting fcene between him, Green, and Bufhy, he declares his intention of flying to the King in Ireland. M. MASON.

Perhaps Shakspeare intended to mark more ftrongly the pertur bation of the king by making him inquire at firft for Bagot, whofe loyalty, on further recollection, might fhow him the impropriety of his queftion. MALONE.

grav'd-] The verb, to grave, is not peculiar to

AUM. Is Bufhy, Green, and the earl of Wiltfhire, dead?

SCROOP. Yea, all of them at Bristol loft their
heads,

AUM. Where is the duke my father with his power?
K. RICH. No matter where; of comfort no man

speak:

Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;
Make duft our paper, and with rainy eyes
Write forrow on the bofom of the earth.
XI. Let's choofe executors, and talk of wills;
And yet not fo,-for what can we bequeath,
Save our depofed bodies to the ground?

-97.

Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke's,
And nothing can we call our own, but death;
And that fmall model of the barren earth,'
Which ferves as paste and cover to our bones."
For heaven's fake, let us fit upon the ground,

Shakspeare. So, in Gower De Confeffione Amantis, lib. iii. fol. 58: "Unto the hound, unto the raven,

"She was none otherwise graven." STEEVENS.

5 And that fmall model of the barren earth,] He ufes model for mould. That earth, which clofing upon the body, takes its form. This interpretation the next line feems to authorize. JOHNSON.

Perhaps, all that model, in the prefent inftance, means, is the fepulchral hillock of earth which afcertains the length and breadth of the body beneath it. In this fenfe it may be termed its model. STEEVENS.

Shakspeare generally uses model, not for an exemplar, but for a thing made after a pattern. So, in a former fcene of this play : thou fee'ft thy wretched brother die,

"Who was the model of thy father's life." See Vol. VI. p. 321, n. 5. Model, however, may be used for mould. See Minfhieu's Dicт. in v. MALONE.

6 Which ferves as pafle &c.] A metaphor, not of the most fublime kind, taken from a pie. JOHNSON.

And tell fad ftories of the death of kings:-
How fome have been depos'd, fome flain in war;
Some haunted by the ghosts they have depos'd;"
Some poifon'd by their wives, fome fleeping kill'd;
All murder'd:-For within the hollow crown,
That rounds the mortal temples of a king,
Keeps death his court: and there the antick fits,"
Scoffing his ftate, and grinning at his pomp;
Allowing him a breath, a little scene

To monarchize, be fear'd, and kill with looks;
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,—
As if this flesh, which walls about our life,
Were brass impregnable; and, humour'd thus,
Comes at the last, and with a little pin

Bores through his castle wall, and-farewell king!
Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood
With folemn reverence; throw away respect,
Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty,
For you have but mistook me all this while :
I live with bread like you, feel want, tafte grief,
Need friends:-Subjected thus,

How can you fay to me-I am a king?

7 the ghofs they have depos'd;] Such is the reading of all the old copies. The modern editors, in the room of have depos'd, fubftituted difpoffefs'd. STEEVENS.

8

there the antick fits,] Here is an allufion to the antick or fool of old farces, whofe chief part is to deride and disturb the graver and more fplendid perfonages. JOHNSON.

If there be any fuch allufion intended, it is to the old Vice, who, indeed, appears to have been fuch a character as Dr. Johnson defcribes. The Fool was rather introduced to be laughed at.

So, in the First Part of K. Henry VI:

RITSON.

"Thou antick death, which laugh'ft us here to fcorn!" STEEVENS.

9 Tradition,] This word feems here ufed for traditional practices: that is, eftablished or cuftomary homage. JOHNSON.

2

CAR. My lord, wife men ne'er wail their present woes,

But presently prevent the ways to wail.

To fear the foe, fince fear oppreffeth ftrength,
Gives, in your weakness, strength unto your foe,
And fo your follies fight against yourself.
Fear, and be flain; no worse can come, to fight:
And fight and die, is death destroying death;3
Where fearing dying, pays death fervile breath.

AUM. My father hath a power, inquire of him; And learn to make a body of a limb.

K. RICH. Thou chid'ft me well:-Proud Bolingbroke, I come

To change blows with thee for our day of doom. This ague-fit of fear is over-blown;

An easy task it is, to win our own.

Say, Scroop, where lies our uncle with his power?
Speak fweetly, man, although thy looks be four.
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 fay.
I play the torturer, by fmall and small,

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

And all your fouthern gentlemen in arms
Upon his party.

K. RICH. Thou haft said enough.Befhrew thee, coufin, which didst lead me forth [To AUMERLE.

2 death deftroying death;] That is, to die fighting, is to return the evil that we fuffer, to destroy the deftroyers. I once read death defying death; but deftroying is as well. JOHNSON.

3

Of that fweet way I was in to despair!
What fay you now? What comfort have we now?
By heaven, I'll hate him everlastingly,
That bids me be of comfort any more.
Go, to Flint castle; there I'll pine away;
A king, woe's flave, fhall kingly woe obey.
That power I have, difcharge; 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.

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. [Exeunt.

3 I'll hate him everlastingly,

That bids me be of comfort-] This fentiment is drawn from nature. Nothing is more offenfive to a mind convinced that its diftrefs is without a remedy, and preparing to fubmit quietly to irrefiftible calamity, than thefe petty and conjectured comforts which unfkilful officioufnefs thinks it virtue to adminifter.

JOHNSON. 4 To ear the land-] i. c. to plough it. So, in All's well that ends well;

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