Enter with drum and colours, BOLINGBROKE and Forces; YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND, and Others.

BOLING. So that by this intelligence we learn, The Welshmen are difpers'd; and Salisbury Is gone to meet the king, who lately landed, With fome few private friends, upon this coaft. NORTH. The news is very fair and good, my lord; Richard, not far from hence, hath hid his head.

YORK. It would befeem the lord Northumberland, To fay-king Richard:-Alack the heavy day, When fuch a facred king should hide his head! NORTH. Your grace mistakes me; only to be brief, Left I his title out.

YORK. The time hath been, Would you have been fo brief with him, he would Have been fo brief with you, to fhorten you, For taking fo the head,' your whole head's length. BOLING. Miftake not, uncle, further than you fhould.

5 Flint Caftle.] In our former edition I had called this scene the fame with the preceding. That was at Barkloughly caftle, on the coaft where Richard landed; but Bolingbroke never marched further in Wales than to Flint. The interview between him and Richard was at the caftle of Flint, where this scene should be faid to lie, or rather in the camp of Bolingbroke before that castle.— "Go to Flint caftle." See above. STEEVENS.

6 Your grace mistakes me ;] The word-me, which is wanting in the old copies, was fupplied by Sir T. Hanmer. STEEVENS.

For taking fo the head,] To take the head is, to act without reftraint; to take undue liberties. We now fay, we give the horfe his head, when we relax the reins. JOHNSON.

YORK. Take not, good coufin, further than you

fhould,

Left you mis-take: The heavens are o'er your head.

ROTING. I know it, uncle; and oppofe not

Within the limits of yon lime and stone:
And with him are lord Aumerle, lord Salisbury,
Sir Stephen Scroop; befides a clergyman
Of holy reverence, who, I cannot learn.
NORTH. Belike, it is the bishop of Carlisle.

6 I know it, uncle; and oppose not

Myfelf against their will.-But who comes here?] Thefe lines fhould be regulated thus:

I know it, uncle; and oppofe not myself

Against their will. But who comes here?

Such is the regulation of the old copies. MALONE.

I regard the word myself, as an interpolation, and conceive Shakspeare to have written

and oppofe not

Against their will.

To oppofe may be here a verb neuter. So, in K. Lear:

BOLING. Noble lord,

[TO NORTH.

Go to the rude ribs of that ancient caftle;"

Through brazen trumpet fend the breath of parle Into his ruin'd ears, and thus deliver.

Harry Bolingbroke

On both his knees, doth kifs king Richard's hand;
And fends allegiance, and true faith of heart,
To his most royal perfon: hither come
Even at his feet to lay my arms and power;
Provided that, my banishment repeal'd,
And lands reftor'd again, be freely granted:
If not, I'll use the advantage of my power,
And lay the fummer's duft with fhowers of blood,
Rain'd from the wounds of flaughter'd Englishmen:
The which, how far off from the mind of Boling-
broke

It is, fuch crimson tempest should bedrench
The fresh green lap of fair king Richard's land,
My ftooping duty tenderly fhall show.

Go, fignify as much; while here we march
Upon the graffy carpet of this plain.—

[NORTHUMBERLAND advances to the Castle, with
a Trumpet.

Let's march without the noise of threat'ning drum,
That from the caftle's totter'd battlements
Our fair appointments may be well perus'd.
Methinks, king Richard and myself should meet
With no lefs terror than the elements

Noble lord,

Go to the rude ribs, &c.] It is obfervable that our author in his addreffes to perfons, often begins with an hemiftich. So, in Troilus and Creffida, Act II. fc. iii:

"Agam. Princes,

"What grief hath fet the jaundice on your cheeks?" This obfervation may be of ufe in other places, where in the old copies, by the mistake of the tranfcriber, the metre is destroyed by this regulation not being obferved. MALONE.

Of fire and water, when their thund'ring fhock
At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven.
Be he the fire, I'll be the yielding water:
The rage be his, while on the earth 1 rain
My waters; on the earth, and not on him.
March on, and mark king Richard how he looks.

A parle founded, and anfwered by another trumpet within. Flourish. Enter on the walls King RICHARD, the Bishop of Carlisle," AUMERLE, SCROOP, and SALISBURY.

YORK. See, fee, king Richard doth himself ap-
pear,2

As doth the blufhing difcontented fun
From out the fiery portal of the east;
When he perceives the envious clouds are bent
To dim his glory, and to ftain the track
Of his bright paffage to the occident.
Yet looks he like a king; behold, his eye,
As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth
Controlling majefty; Alack, alack, for woe,
That any harm should stain fo fair a fhow!

K. RICH. We are amaz'd; and thus long have we stood

To watch the fearful bending of thy knee,
[To NORTHUMBERLAND.
Because we thought ourself thy lawful king:
And if we be, how dare thy joints forget

9

the Bishop of Carlisle,] was Thomas Merkes. WALPOLE. 2 See, fee, king Richard doth himself appear,] The following fix lines are abfurdly given to Bolingbroke, who is made to condemn his own conduct and difculp the king's. It is plain these fix and the four following all belong to York. WARBURTON.

It should be obferved that the four last of these lines are in all the copies given to York. STEEVENS,

To pay their awful duty to our presence?
If we be not, fhow us the hand of God
That hath difmifs'd us from our stewardship;
For well we know, no hand of blood and bone
Can gripe the facred handle of our scepter,
Unless he do profane, fteal, or ufurp.

And though you think, that all, as you have done,
Have torn their fouls, by turning them from us,
And we are barren, and bereft of friends ;-
Yet know, my master, God omnipotent,
Is muft'ring in his clouds, on our behalf,
Armies of peftilence; and they shall strike
Your children yet unborn, and unbegot,
That lift your vaffal hands against my head,
And threat the glory of my precious crown.
Tell Bolingbroke, (for yond', methinks, he is,)
That every ftride he makes upon my land,
Is dangerous treafon: He is come to ope
The purple teftament of bleeding war;
But ere the crown he looks for live in peace;
Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' fons
Shall ill become the flower of England's face; *
Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace

3 The purple teftament of bleeding war;] I once thought that Shakspeare might have had the facred book (which is frequently covered with purple leather) in his thoughts; but the following note renders fuch a fuppofition extremely doubtful. MALONE.

I believe our author ufes the word teftament in its legal fenfe. Bolingbroke is come to open the teftament of war, that he may perufe what is decreed there in his favour. Purple is an epithet referring to the future effufion of blood. STEEVENS.

Mr. Steevens is certainly right in his interpretation of this passage. See Julius Cæfar:

66

Now, while your purpled hands do reek and fmoke,
Fulfil your pleasure." MALONE.

→ But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,

Ten thoufand bloody crowns of mothers' fons

Shall ill become the flower of England's face;] By the flower of England's face is meant the choiceft youths of England, who shall