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AUM. For ever may my knees grow to the earth, [Kneels. My tongue cleave to my roof within my mouth, Unless a pardon, ere I rife, or speak.

BOLING. Intended, or committed, was this fault? If but the firft, how heinous ere it be, To win thy after-love, I pardon thee.

AUM. Then give me leave that I may turn the key, That no man enter till my tale be done.

BOLING. Have thy desire.

[AUMERLE locks the door.

YORK. [Within.] My liege, beware; look to thy

felf;

Thou haft a traitor in thy prefence there.

BOLING. Villain, I'll make thee fafe. [Drawing. AUм. Stay thy revengeful hand; Thou haft no cause to fear.

YORK. [Within.] Open the door, secure, foolhardy king:

Shall I, for love, speak treason to thy face?
Open the door, or I will break it open.

[BOLINGBROKE opens the door.

Enter YORK.

BOLING. What is the matter, uncle? speak; Recover breath; tell us how near is danger, That we may arm us to encounter it.

YORK. Perufe this writing here, and thou fhalt know

The treason that my hafte forbids me show.
AUM. Remember, as thou read'ft, thy promife paft:

9 If but-] Old copies-If on. Corrected by Mr. Pope.

MALONE.

I do repent me; read not my name there,
My heart is not confederate with my hand.

YORK. 'Twas, villain, ere thy hand did fet it down.

I tore it from the traitor's bofom, king;
Fear, and not love, begets his penitence:
Forget to pity him, left thy pity prove
A ferpent that will fting thee to the heart.
BOLING. O heinous, ftrong, and bold confpi-
racy!

O loyal father of a treacherous fon!

Thou sheer, immaculate, and filver fountain,
From whence this ftream through muddy paffages,
Hath held his current, and defil'd himself!
Thy overflow of good converts to bad;'
And thy abundant goodness fhall excufe
This deadly blot in thy digreffing fon.3

9 Thou fheer, immaculate, &c.] Sheer is pellucid, tranfparent. Some of the modern editors arbitrarily read clear. So, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. III. c. ii:

"Who having viewed in a fountain here
"Her face," &c.

Again, B. III. c. xi:

"That she at laft came to a fountain here."

Again, in the Fourth Book of Golding's Tranflation of Ovid's Metamorphofis, 1587:

"The water was fo pure and beere," &c.

Tranfparent muflin is ftill called beer muflin. STEEVENS.

2 Thy overflow of good converts to bad;] Mr. Theobald would read: converts the bad. STEEVENS.

The old reading-converts to bad, is right, I believe, though Mr. Theobald did not understand it. "The overflow of good in thee is turned to had in thy fon; and that fame abundant goodness in thee fhall excufe his tranfgreffion." TYRWHITT.

3-digreffing fox,] Thus the old copies, and rightly. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

Digreing from the valour of a man."

To digress is to deviate from what is right or regular. Some of the modern editors read:-tranfgreffing. STEEVENS.

YORK. So fhall my virtue be his vice's bawd; And he shall spend mine honour with his fhame, As thriftless fons their fcraping fathers' gold. Mine honour lives when his difhonour dies, Or my fham'd life in his difhonour lies: Thou kill'ft me in his life; giving him breath, The traitor lives, the true man's put to death. DUCH. [Within.] What ho, my liege! for God's fake, let me in.

BOLING. What fhrill-voic'd fuppliant makes this eager cry?

DUCH. A woman, and thine aunt, great king; 'tis I.

Speak with me, pity me, open the door;
A beggar begs, that never begg'd before.

BOLING. Our fcene is alter'd,—from a serious thing,

And now chang'd to The Beggar and the King.
My dangerous coufin, let your mother in;
I know, she's come to pray for your foul fin.

YORK. If thou do pardon, whofoever pray,
More fins, for this forgiveness, profper may.
This fefter'd joint cut off, the rest rests found;
This, let alone, will all the reft confound.

4the Beggar and the King.] The King and the Beggar feems to have been an interlude well known in the time of our author, who has alluded to it more than once. I cannot now find that any copy of it is left. JOHNSON.

The King and Beggar was perhaps once an interlude; it was certainly a fong. The reader will find it in the first volume of Dr. Percy's collection. It is there entitled, King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid; and is printed from Rich. Johnfon's Crown Garland of Goulden Rofes, 1612, 12mo; where it is entitled fimply, A fong of a Beggar and a King. This interlude or ballad is mentioned in Cynthia's Revenge, 1613:

"Provoke thy fharp Melpomene to fing

"The ftory of a Beggar and the King." STEEVENS.

Enter Duchefs.

DUCH. O king, believe not this hard-hearted

man;

Love, loving not itself, none other can.

YORK. Thou frantick woman, what doft thou make here?s

Shall thy old dugs once more a traitor rear?
DUCH. Sweet York, be patient: Hear me, gentle

liege.

: BOLING. Rife up, good aunt.

DUCH.

[Kneels.

Not yet, I thee befeech: For ever will I kneel upon my knees, And never fee day that the happy fees, Till thou give joy; until thou bid me joy, By pardoning Rutland, my tranfgreffing boy. AUM. Unto my mother's prayers, I bend my knee.

[Kneels.

YORK. Against them both, my true joints bended

be.

[Kneels.

Ill may'st thou thrive, if thou grant any grace!'

DUCH. Pleads he in earnest? look upon his face; His eyes do drop no tears, his prayers are in jeft; His words come from his mouth, ours from our breaft:

5 Thou frantick woman, what doft thou make here?] So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor:

"What make you here?"

Again, in Othello:

"Ancient, what makes he here." MALONE.

·kneel upon my knees,] Thus the folio. The quartos read:
walk upon my
knees. STEEVENS.

"Ill mas'ft bou thrive, if thou grant any grace!] This line is not

in the folio. MALONE.

He prays but faintly, and would be denied;
We
pray with heart, and foul, and all befide:
His weary joints would gladly rife, I know;

Our knees fhall kneel till to the ground they grow: His prayers are full of falfe hyprocify;

Ours, of true zeal and deep integrity.

Our prayers do out-pray his; then let them have That mercy, which true prayers ought to have. BOLING. Good aunt, stand up.

DUCH.

Nay, do not fay-stand up; But, pardon, first; and afterwards, stand up. An if I were thy nurfe, thy tongue to teach, Pardon-fhould be the firft word of thy fpeech. I never long'd to hear a word till now; Say-pardon, king; let pity teach thee how: The word is fhort, but not fo fhort as fweet; No word like, pardon, for kings' mouths fo meet. YORK. Speak it in French, king; fay, pardonnez

8 moy.

DUCH. Doft thou teach pardon pardon to destroy?

Ah, my four husband, my hard-hearted lord,
That fet'ft the word itself against the word!-
Speak, pardon, as 'tis current in our land;
The chopping French we do not understand.

-pardonnez moy.] That is, excufe me, a phrafe ufed when any thing is civilly denied. The whole paffage is fuch as I could well with away. JOHNSON.

9 The chopping French-] Chopping, I fuppofe, here means jabbering, talking flippantly a language unintelligible to Englishmen; or perhaps it may mean,-the French, who clip and mutilate their words. I do not remember to have met the word, in this fenfe, in any other place. In the univerfities they talk of chopping logick; and our author in Romeo and Juliet has the fame phrafe: "How now! how now! chop logick?" MALONE. VOL. VIII.

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