Enter YORK, attended.

YORK. Great duke of Lancaster, I come to thee From plume-pluck'd Richard; who with willing foul Adopts thee heir, and his high fcepter yields To the poffeffion of thy royal hand :

Afcend his throne, defcending now from him,And long live Henry, of that name the fourth! BOLING. In God's name, I'll afcend the regal throne.

CAR. Marry, God forbid!

2

Worft in this royal prefence may I speak,
Yet beft befeeming me to speak the truth."
Would God, that any in this noble prefence
Were enough noble to be upright judge
Of noble Richard; then true noblefs would
Learn him forbearance from fo foul a wrong.
What fubject can give fentence on his king?
And who fits here, that is not Richard's fubject?
Thieves are not judg'd, but they are by to hear,
Although apparent guilt be feen in them:
And fhall the figure of God's majesty,'

9 Yet beft befeeming me to speak the truth.] It might be read more grammatically:

Yet beft befeems it me to speak the truth.

But I do not think it is printed otherwise than as Shakspeare wrote it. JOHNSON.

2

noblefs-] i. e. nobleness; a word now obfolete, bat ufed both by Spenfer and Ben Jonfon. STEEVENS.

3 And fhall the figure, &c.] Here is another proof that our author did not learn in King James's court his elevated notions of the right of kings. I know not any flatterer of the Stuarts, who has expreffed this doctrine in much ftronger terms. It muft he obferved that the poet intends, from the beginning to the end, to exhibit this bishop as brave, pious, and venerable. JOHNSON.

Shakspeare has reprefented the character of the bishop as he found it in Holinfhed, where this famous fpeech, (which contains,

His captain, fteward, deputy elect,
Anointed, crowned, planted many years,
Be judg'd by fubject and inferior breath,
And he himself not prefent? O, forbid it, God,
That, in a Chriftian climate, fouls refin'd
Should fhow fo heinous, black, obscene a deed!
I fpeak to subjects, and a subject speaks,
Stirr'd up by heaven thus boldly for his king.
My lord of Hereford here, whom you call king,
Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford's king:
And if you crown him, let me prophecy,—
The blood of English fhall manure the ground,
And future ages groan for this foul act;
Peace fhall go fleep with Turks and infidels,
And, in this feat of peace, tumultuous wars
Shall kin with kin, and kind with kind confound;
Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny,

Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd

in the moft exprefs terms, the doctrine of paffive obedience,) is preferved. The politicks of the hiftorian were the politicks of the poet. STEEVENS.

The chief argument urged by the bishop in Holinfhed, is, that it was unjuft to proceed againft the king" without calling him openly to his aunfwer and defence." He fays, that "none of them were worthie or meete to give judgement to fo noble a prince;" but does not exprefsly affert that he could not be lawfully depofed. Our author, however, undoubtedly had Holinfhed before him. MALONE.

It does not appear from any better authority than Holinfhed that Bishop Merkes made this famous fpeech, or any speech at all upon this occafion, or even that he was prefent at the time. His fentiments, however, whether right or wrong, would have been regarded neither as novel nor unconftitutional. And it is ob fervable that ufurpers are as ready to avail themselves of the doctrine of divine right, as lawful fovereigns; to dwell upon the facredness of their perfons and the fanctity of their character. Even that cutpurfe of the empire," Claudius, in Hamlet, affects to believe that

fuch divinity doth hedge a king," &c, RITSON,

Vol. XI.

14-129.

The field of Golgotha and dead men's fculls.
O, if you rear this house against this house,
It will the wofullest division prove,
That ever fell upon this curfed earth:
Prevent, refift it, let it not be fo,

Left child, child's children,' cry against you-woe!
NORTH. Well have you argu'd, fir; and, for your
pains,

Of capital treason we arrest you here:-
My lord of Westminster, be it your charge
To keep him fafely till his day of trial.+-

May't please you, lords, to grant the commons' fuit?
BOLING. Fetch hither Richard, that in common
view

He may furrender; fo we shall proceed
Without fufpicion.

YORK.

I will be his conduct.' [Exit.

3 Left child, child's children,] Thus the old copy. Some of our modern editors read-childrens' children." STEEVENS.

4his day of trial.] After this line, whatever follows, almost to the end of the act, containing the whole procefs of dethroning and debafing King Richard, was added after the first edition, of 1598, and before the fecond of 1615. Part of the addition is proper, and part might have been forborn without much lofs. The author, I fuppofe, intended to make a very moving scene. JOHNSON.

The addition was firft made in the quarto 1608.

STEEVENS.

The first edition was in 1597, not in 1598. When it is faid that this fcene was added, the reader must understand that it was added by the printer, or that a more perfect copy fell into the hands of the later editor than was published by a former. There is no proof that the whole fcene was not written by Shakspeare at the fame time with the reft of the play, though for political reasons it might not have been exhibited or printed during the life of Queen Elizabeth. See An Attempt to afcertain the order of his plays, Vol. I. MALONE.

-his conduct.] i. e. conductor. So, in K. Henry VI. P. II : Athough thou hast been conduct of my fhame." STEEVENS.

BOLING. Lords, you that are here under our arrest, Procure your fureties for your days of anfwer:Little are we beholden to your love, [To CARLISLE. And little look'd for at your helping hands.

Re-enter YORK, with King RICHARD, and Officers bearing the crown, &c.

K. RICH. Alack, why am I fent for to a king, Before I have shook off the regal thoughts Wherewith I reign'd? I hardly yet have learn'd To infinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my knee :Give forrow leave a while to tutor me

To this fubmiffion. Yet I well remember
The favours of these men:" Were they not mine?
Did they not fometime cry, all hail! to me?
So Judas did to Chrift: but he, in twelve,
Found truth in all, but one; I, in twelve thousand,

none.

God fave the king!-Will no man say, amen?
Am I both priest and clerk? well then, amen.
God fave the king! although I be not he;
And yet, amen, if heaven do think him me.-
To do what fervice am I fent for hither?

YORK. To do that office, of thine own good will,
Which tired majefty did make thee offer,
The refignation of thy ftate and crown
To Henry Bolingbroke.

K. RICH. Give me the crown:-Here, coufin, feize the crown;

Here, on this fide,' my hand; on that fide, thine.

The favours, &c.] The countenances; the features. JOHNSON. So, in Othello:

nor fhould I know him,

"Were he in favour as in humour alter'd." STEEVENS. Here, on this fide,] The old copy redundantly has-Here, coufin, on this fide,

STEEVENS.

Now is this golden crown like a deep well,
That owes two buckets filling one another;
The emptier ever dancing in the air,

The other down, unfeen, and full of water:
That bucket down, and full of tears, am I,
Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high.
BOLING. I thought, you had been willing to refign,
K. RICH. My crown, I am; but still my griefs
are mine:

You may my glories and my ftate depofe,
But not my griefs; ftill am I king of those.
BOLING. Part of your cares you give me with
your crown.

K. RICH. Your cares fet up, do not pluck my cares down.

My care is-lofs of care, by old care done; 3
Your care is gain of care, by new care won:
The cares I give, I have, though given away;
They tend the crown, yet ftill with me they stay.
BOLING. Are you contented to refign the crown?
K. RICH. Ay, no;-no, ay ;-for I must nothing
be;

Therefore no no, for I refign to thee.
Now mark me how I will undo myfelf:-
I give this heavy weight from off my head,
And this unwieldy fcepter from my hand,

7 The emptier ever dancing-] This is a comparison not eafily accommodated to the fubject, nor very naturally introduced. The best part is this line, in which he makes the ufurper the empty bucket. JOHNSON.

8 My care is-lofs of care, by old care done;] Shakspeare often obfcures his meaning by playing with founds. Richard feems to fay here; that his cares are not made less by the increase of Bolingbroke's cares; for this reason, that his care is the lofs of care,—his grief is, that his regal cares are at an end, by the ceffation of the care to which he had been accustomed. JOHNSON.