1

Dar'st with thy frozen admonition
Make pale our check; chasing the royal blood,
With fury, from his native residence.
Now by my seat's right royal majesty,
Wert thou not brother to great Edward's son,
This tongue that runs so roundly in thy head,
Should run thy head from thy unreverent shoulders.
Gaunt. O, spare me not, my brother Edward's

son,

For that I was his father Edward's son;
That blood already, like the pelican,
Hast thou tapp'd out, and drunkenly carous'd:
My brother Gloster, plain well-meaning soul,
(Whom fair befall in heaven 'mongst happy souls!)
May be a precedent and witness good,
That thou respect'st not spilling Edward's blood:
Join with the present sickness that I have,
And thy unkindness be like crooked age,
To crop at once a too-long wither'd flower.
Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee!
These words hereafter thy tormentors be-
Convey me to my bed, then to my grave:
Love they to live, that love and honour have.
[Exit, borne out by his Attendants.
K. Rich. And let them die, that age and sullens
have;

For both hast thou, and both become the grave.
York. 'Beseech your majesty, impute his words
To wayward sickliness and age in him:

He loves you, on my life, and holds you dear
As Harry duke of Hereford, were he here.

K. Rich. Right; you say true: as Hereford's
love, so his :

As theirs,

so mine; and all be as it is.

Enter NORTHUMBERLAND.

Which his triumphant father's hand had won:
His hands were guilty of no kindred's blood,
But bloody with the enemies of his kin.
O, Richard! York is too far gone with grief,
Or else he never would compare between.
K. Rich. Why, uncle, what's the matter?
York.
O, my liege,
Pardon me, if you please; if not, I, pleas'd
Not to be pardon'd, am content withal.

Seek you to seize, and gripe into your hands,
The royalties and rights of banish'd Hereford?
Is not Gaunt dead? and doth not Hereford live?
Was not Gaunt just? and is not Harry true?
Did not the one deserve to have an heir?
Is not his heir a well-deserving son?
Take Hereford's rights away, and take from time
His charters, and his customary rights;
Let not to-morrow then ensue to-day;
Be not thyself, for how art thou a king,
But by fair sequence and succession?
Now, afore God (God forbid, I say true!)
If you do wrongfully seize Hereford's rights,
Call in the letters patents that he hath
By his attornies-general to sue
His livery,' and deny his offer'd homage,
You pluck a thousand dangers on your head,
You lose a thousand well-disposed hearts,
And prick my tender patience to those thoughts
Which honour and allegiance cannot think.

K. Rich. Think what you will; we seize into our
hands

His plate, his goods, his money, and his lands.

York. I'll not be by the while: My liege, farewell:
What will ensue hereof, there's none can tell;
But by bad courses may be understood,

North. My liege, old Gaunt commends him to That their events can never fall out good. [Exit.

your majesty.

K. Rich. What says he?

North. Nay, nothing; all is said:

His tongue is now a stringless instrument;
Words, life, and all, old Lancaster hath spent.
York. Be York the next that must be bankrupt so!
Though death be poor, it ends a mortal woe.
K. Rich. The ripest fruit first falls, and so doth he;
His time is spent, our pilgrimage must be:2
So much for that.-Now for our Irish wars:
We must supplant those rough rug-headed kernes ;3
Which live like venom, where no venom else,
But only they, hath privilege to live.4
And for these great affairs do ask some charge,
Towards our assistance, we do seize to us
The plate, coin, revenues, and moveables,
Whereof our uncle Gaunt did stand possess'd.

York. How long shall I be patient? Ah, how long
Shall tender duty make me suffer wrong?
Not Gloster's death, nor Hereford's banishment,
Not Gaunt's rebukes, nor England's private wrongs,
Nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke
About his marriage, nor my own disgrace,
Have ever made me sour my patient cheek,
Or bend one wrinkle on my sovereign's face.-
I am the last of noble Edward's sons,

Of whom thy father, prince of Wales, was first;
In war, was never lion rag'd more fierce,
In peace was never gentle lamb more mild,
Than was that young and princely gentleman:
His face thou hast, for even so look'd he,
Accomplish'd with the number of thy hours;
But, when he frown'd, it was against the French,
And not against his friends: his noble hand
Did win what he did spend, and spent not that

1 i. e. let them lore to live, &c.

2 That is, our pilgrimage is yet to come.'
3 Kernes were Irish peasantry, serving as light-armed
foot soldiers. Shakspeare makes York say, in the se-
cond part of King Henry VI. that Cade, when in Ireland,
used to disguise himself as a shag-haired crafty kerne.
The kerue is an ordinary foot soldier, according to
Stanihurst; kerne (kigheyren) signifieth a shower of
hell, because they are taken for no better than rake-hells,
or the devil's black-garde....Description of Ireland,
ch. 8, fol. 23.

4 Alluding to the idea that no venomous reptiles live
in Ireland.

K. Rich. Go, Bushy, to the earl of Wiltshire straight;

Bid him repair to us to Ely-house,

To see this business: To-morrow next
We will for Ireland; and 'tis time, I trow;
And we create, in absence of ourself,
Our uncle York lord governor of England,
For he is just, and always lov'd us well.—
Come on, our queen: to-morrow must we part;
Be merry, for our time of stay is short. [Flourish
[Exeunt, King, Queen, BUSHY, AUMERLE
GREEN, and BAGOT.
North. Well, lords, the duke of Lancaster is dead
Ross. And living too; for now his son is duke.
Willo. Barely in title, not in revenue.
North. Richly in both, if justice had her right.
Ross. My heart is great; but it must break with

silence,

Ere't be disburden'd with a liberal tongue.
North. Nay, speak thy mind; and let him ne'er

speak more,

That speaks thy words again, to do thee harm!
Willo. Tends that thou would'st speak, to the
duke of Hereford?

If it be so, out with it boldly, man;
Quick is mine ear to hear of good towards him
Ross. No good at all, that I can do for him;

Unless you call it good to pity him,

Bereft and gelded of his patrimony.

North. Now, afore heaven, 'tis shame, such
wrongs are borne,

In him a royal prince, and many more
Of noble blood in this declining land.
The king is not himself, but basely led

5 When the duke of Hereford went into France, after his banishment, he was honourably entertained at that court, and would have obtained in marriage the only daughter of the duke of Berry, uncle to the French king, had not Richard prevented the match.

6 i. e. when he was of thy age.

7 On the death of every person who held by knight's service, his heir, if under age, became a ward of the king's; but if of age, he had a right to sue out a writ of ouster le main, i. e. livery, that the king's hand might be taken off, and the land delivered to him. To dog his offer'd homage' was to refuse to admit the hoinage by which he was to hold his lands.

8 Free.

North. Not so; even through the hollow eyes of Like perspectives, 10 which, rightly gaz'd upon,

4 And yet we strike not our sails, but perish by too great confidence in our security: this is another Latin-regular representation. Sometimes it is made to appear ism. Securely is used in the sense of securus.

8 When the wing feathers of a hawk were dropped or forced out by any accident, it was usual to supply as 11 The old copies have on thinking,' which is an many as were deficient. This operation was called to evident error: we should read, As though in think. imp a hawk. It is often used metaphorically, as ining;' i. e. though musing, I have no idea of calamity. this instance. The word is said to come from the Saxon impan, to graft, or inoculate.

The Lord Northumberland, his young son Henry
Percy,

The lords of Ross, Beaumond, and Willoughby,
With all their powerful friends, are fled to him.
Bushy. Why have you not proclaim'd Northum-
berland,

And all the rest of the revolted faction, traitors ?2
Green. We have whereon the earl of Worcester
Hath broke his staff, resign'd his stewardship,
And all the household servants fled with him
To Bolingbroke.

Serv. An hour before I came, the duchess died.
Comes rushing on this woeful land at once!
York. God for his mercy! what a tide of woes

I know not what to do:-I would to God

(So my untruth4 had not provok'd him to it,)
The king had cut off my head with my brother's."-
What, are there no posts despatch'd for Ireland ?—
How shall we do for money for these wars ?—
Come, sister,6-cousin, I would say: pray, pardor

me.

Go, fellow [To the Servant.] get thee home, provide
some carts,

And bring away the armour that is there.-
[Exit Servant
Gentlemen, will you go muster men? if I know
How, or which way, to order these affairs,
Thus disorderly thrust into my hands,
Both are my kinsmen ;
Never believe me.
The one's my sovereign, whom both my oath
And duty bids defend; the other again,
Is my kinsman, whom the king hath wrong'd;
Whom conscience and my kindred bids to right.
Well, somewhat we must do.-Come, cousin, I'll
Dispose of you :-Gentlemen, go, muster up your
men,

And meet me presently at Berkley-castle.
I should to Plashy too;-

But time will not permit :-All is uneven,

Queen. So, Green, thou art the midwife to my And every thing is left at six and seven.

woe,

And Bolingbroke my sorrow's dismal heir :3
Now hath my soul brought forth her prodigy;
And I, a gasping new-deliver'd mother,
Have woe to woe, sorrow to sorrow join'd.
Bushy. Despair not, madam.
Queen.

[Exeunt YORK and Queen. Bushy. The wind sits fair for news to go to Ireland, But none returns. For us to levy power, Proportionable to the enemy,

Is all impossible.

Green. Besides, our nearness to the king in love,

Who shall hinder me? Is near the hate of those love not the king.

I will despair, and be at enmity
With cozening hope; he is a flatterer,
A parasite, a keeper-back of death,
Who gently would dissolve the bands of life,
Which false hope lingers in extremity.
Enter YORK.

Green. Here comes the duke of York.
Queen. With signs of war about his aged neck;
O, full of careful business are his looks!
Uncle,

For heaven's sake, speak comfortable words.

York. Should I do so, I should belie my thoughts:
Comfort's in heaven; and we are on the earth,
Where nothing lives but crosses, care, and grief.
Your husband he is gone to save far off,
Whilst others come to make him lose at home:
Here am I left to underprop his land;
Who, weak with age, cannot support myself:-
Now comes the sick hour that his surfeit made;
Now shall he try his friends that flatter'd him.
Enter a Servant.

Serv. My lord, your son was gone before I came.
York. He was?-Why, so!-go all which way
it will !-

The nobles they are fled, the commons they are
cold,

And will, I fear, revolt on Hereford's side.
Sirrah, get thee to Plashy, to my sister Gloster;
Bid her send me presently a thousand pound :-
Hold, take my ring.

Serv. My lord, I had forgot to tell your lordship:
To-day, as I came by, I called there;
But I shall grieve you to report the rest.
York. What is it, knave?

1 Retir'd, i, e. drawn it back; a French sense.

2 The first quarto, 1597, reads:

And all the rest of the revolted faction, traitors?'

The folio, and the quarto of 1598 and 1608

And the rest of the revolting faction, traitors ?

Bagot. And that's the wavering commons: for

their love

Lies in their purses; and whoso empties them,
By so much fills their hearts with deadly hate.
Bushy. Wherein the king stands generally con-

demn'd.

Bagot. If judgment lie in them, then so do we,
Because we ever have been near the king.
Green. Well, I'll for refuge straight to Bristol
Castle;

The earl of Wiltshire is already there.

Bushy. Thither will I with you: for little office
Will the hateful commons perform for us;
Except like curs to tear us all to pieces.―
Will you go along with us?

Bagot. No; I'll to Ireland to his majesty.
Farewell if heart's presages be not vain,
We three here part, that ne'er shall meet again.
Bushy. That's as York thrives to beat back Bo-

lingbroke.

Green. Alas, poor duke! the task he undertakes Is-numb'ring sands, and drinking oceans dry; Where one on his side fights, thousands will fly. Bushy. Farewell at once; for once, for all, and

SCENE III. The Wilds in Glostershire. Enter
BOLINGBROKE and NORTHUMBERLAND, with
Forces.

Boling. How far is it, my lord, to Berkley now?
North. Believe me, noble lord,

I am a stranger here in Glostershire.
These high wild hills, and rough uneven ways,

by calling him her sorrow's dismal heir,' and explains
more fully in the following line :-

Now hath my soul brought forth her prodigy.

4 Disloyalty, treachery.

3 The queen had said before, that some unborn sor- 5 Not one of York's brothers had his head cut off, row, ripe in fortune's womb, was coming toward her.' either by the king or any one else. Gloster, to whose She talks afterward of her unknown griefs being be-death he probably alludes, was smothered between two gotten; she calls Green the midwife of her woe; and beds at Calais.

then means to say in the same metaphorical style, that 6 This is one of Shakspeare's touches of nature. the arrival of Bolingbroke was the dismal offspring that York is talking to the queen, his cousin, but the recent her foreboding sorrow was big of; which she expresses I death of his sister is uppermost in his mind.

Draw out our miles, and make them wearisome:
And yet your fair discourse hath been as sugar,
Making the hard way sweet and delectable.
But, I bethink me, what a weary way
From Ravenspurg to Cotswold, will be found
In Ross and Willoughby, wanting your company:
Which, I protest, hath very much beguil'd
The tediousness and process of my travel:
But theirs is sweeten'd with the hope to have
The present benefit which I possess:
And hope to joy,' is little less in joy,
Than hope enjoy'd by this the weary lords
Shall make their way seem short; as mine hath done
By sight of what I have, your noble company.

Boling. Of much less value is my company,
Than your good words. But who comes here?
Enter HARRY PERCY.

North. It is my son, young Harry Percy,
Sent from my brother Worcester, whencesoever.-
Harry, how fares your uncle?

Percy, I had thought, my lord, to have learn'd his
health of you.

North. Why, is he not with the queen?

poor;

Which, till my infant fortune comes to years,
Stands for my bounty. But who comes here?
Enter BERKLEY.

North. It is my lord of Berkley, as I guess.
Berk. My lord of Hereford, my message is to you
Boling. My lord, my answer is-to Lancaster;2
And I am come to seek that name in England:
And I must find that title in your tongue,
Before I make reply to aught you say.

Berk. Mistake me not, my lord'; 'tis not my
meaning,

To raze one title of your honour out :3—
To you, my lord, I come (what lord you will,)
From the most gracious regent of this land,
The duke of York; to know, what pricks you on

Percy. No, my good lord; he hath forsook the To take advantage of the absent time,4

court,

Broken his staff of office, and dispers'd

The household of the king.

What was his reason?

North. He was not so resolv'd, when last we spake together.

Percy. Because your lordship was proclaimed
traitor.

But he, my lord, is gone to Ravenspurg,
To offer service to the duke of Hereford;
And sent me o'er by Berkley, to discover
What power the duke of York had levied there;
Then with direction to repair to Ravenspurg.
North. Have you forgot the duke of Hereford, boy?
Percy. No, my good lord; for that is not forgot,
Which ne'er I did remember: to my knowledge,
I never in my life did look on him.

North. Then learn to know him now; this is the

duke.

Percy. My gracious lord, I tender you my service,
Such as it is, being tender, raw, and young;
Which elder days shall ripen and confirm
To more approved service and desert.

And fright our native peace with self-born arms.
Enter YORK, attended.

Boling. I shall not need transport my words by
you;

Here comes his grace in person. My noble uncle!
[Kneels.
York. Show me thy humble heart, and not thy
knee,

Whose duty is deceivable and false.
Boling. My gracious uncle !--
York. Tut, tut!

Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle:5
I am no traitor's uncle; and that word-grace,
In an ungracious mouth, is but profane.
Why have those banish'd and forbidden legs
Dar'd once to touch a dust of England's ground?
But then more why ;-Why have they dar'd to

march

So many miles upon her peaceful bosom ;
Frighting her pale-fac'd villages with war,
And ostentation of despised arms?

Com'st thou because the anointed king is hence?

Boling. I thank thee, gentle Percy; and be sure, Why, foolish boy, the king is left behind,

I count myself in nothing else so happy,
As in a soul rememb'ring my good friends;
And, as my fortune ripens with thy love,
It shall be still thy true love's recompense:
My heart this covenant makes, my hand thus

seals it.

North. How far is it to Berkley? And what stir Keeps good old York there, with his men of war? Percy. There stands the castle, by yon tuft of trees,

Mann'd with three hundred men, as I have heard: And in it are the lords of York, Berkley, and Seymour;

None else of name, and noble estimate.

Enter Ross and WILLOUGHBY.

North. Here come the lords of Ross and Wil-
loughby,

Bloody with spurring, fiery-red with haste.
Boling. Welcome, my lords: I wot your love
pursues

1 To joy is here used as a verb; it is equivalent with to rejoics. To joy, to clap hands, to rejoyce. Baret. Shakspeare very frequently uses it in this sense.

And in my loyal bosom lies his power.
Were I but now the lord of such hot youth,
As when brave Gaunt, thy father, and myself,
Rescued the Black Prince, that young Mars of men,
From forth the ranks of many thousand French;
O, then, how quickly should this arm of mine,
Now prisoner to the palsy, chastise thee,
And minister correction to thy fault!

Boling. My gracious uncle, let me know my
fault;

On what condition stands it, and wherein?

York. Even in condition of the worst degree,-
In gross rebellion, and detested treason:
Thou art a banish'd man, and here art come,
Before the expiration of thy time,

In braving arms against thy sovereign.
Boling. As I was banish'd, I was banish'd Herc-
ford;

But as I come, I come for Lancaster,

5 In Romeo and Juliet we have the same kind of phraseology:

Thank ine no thankings, nor proud me no prouds.' 6 Perhaps Shakspeare here uses despised for hatea or hateful arms? Sir Thomas Hanmer changed it to 2 Your message, you say, is to my lord of Hereford. despiteful, but the old copies all agree in reading des My answer is, It is not to him, it is to the Duke of Lan-pised. Shakspeare uses the word again in a singular

caster,

3 How the names of them which for capital crimes against majestie were erased out of the publicke records, tables, and registers, or forbidden to be borne by their posteritie, when their memory was damned, I could show at large.'-Camden's Remaines, 1605, p. 136.

4 Time of the king's absence.

sense in Othello, Act i. Sc. 1, where Brabantic exclaims upon the loss of his daughter :

And, noble uncle, I beseech your grace,
Look on my wrongs with an indifferent' eye:
You are my father, for, methinks, in you
I see old Gaunt alive; O, then, my father!
Will you permit that I shall stand condemn'd
A wand'ring vagabond; my rights and royalties
Pluck'd from my arms perforce, and given away
To upstart unthrifts? Wherefore was I born?"
If that my cousin king be king of England,
It must be granted, I am duke of Lancaster.
You have a son, Aumerle, my noble kinsman;
Had you first died, and he been thus trod down,
He should have found his uncle Gaunt a father,
To rouse his wrongs, and chase them to the bay.
I am denied to sue my livery3 here,
And yet my letters patent give me leave:
My father's goods are all distrain'd, and sold;
And these, and all, are all amiss employ'd.
What would you have me do? I am a subject,
And challenge law: Attornies are denied me;
And therefore personally I lay my claim
To my inheritance of free descent.

North. The noble duke hath been too much
abus'd.

Ross. It stands your grace upon to do him right.
Willo. Base men by his endowments are made
great.

York. My lords of England, let me tell you this,―
I have had feeling of my cousin's wrongs,
And labour'd all I could to do him right:
But in this kind to come, in braving arms,
Be his own carver, and cut out his way,

To find out right with wrong,-it may not be ;
And you, that do abet him in this kind,
Cherish rebellion, and are rebels all.

stay.

The bay-trees in our country are all wither'd,"
And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven;
The pale-fac'd moon looks bloody on the earth,
And lean-look'd prophets whisper fearful change;
Rich men look sad, and ruffians dance and leap,-
The one in fear to lose what they enjoy,
The other, to enjoy by rage and war:
These signs forerun the death or fall of kings.-
Farewell; our countrymen are gone and fled,
As well assur'd, Richard their king is dead. [Ext.
Sal. Ah, Richard! with the eyes of heavy mind,
I see thy glory, like a shooting star,
Fall to the base earth from the firmament!
Thy sun sets weeping in the lowly west,
Witnessing storms to come, woe, and unrest:
Thy friends are fled, to wait upon thy foes:
And crossly to thy good all fortune goes.

ACT III.

[Exit.

SCENE 1. Bolingbroke's Camp at Bristol. Enter BOLINGBROKE, YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, WILLOUGHBY, Ross: Officers behind with BUSHY and GREEN, prisoners.

Boling. Bring forth these men.

North. The noble duke hath sworn, his coming is Bushy and Green, I will not vex your souls

But for his own: and, for the right of that,
We all have strongly sworn to give him aid;
And let him ne'er see joy, that breaks that oath.
York. Well, well, I see the issue of these arms;
I cannot mend it, I must needs confess,
Because my power is weak, and all ill left:
But, if I could,-by him that gave me life!-
I would attach you all, and make you stoop
Unto the sovereign mercy of the king;
But, since I cannot, be it known to you,
I do remain as neuter. So, fare you well;-
Unless you please to enter in the castle,
And there repose you for this night.

Boling. An offer, uncle, that we will accept.
But we must win your grace, to go with us
To Bristol Castle; which, they say, is held
By Bushy, Bagot, and their complices,
The caterpillars of the commonwealth,
Which I have sworn to weed, and pluck away.
York. It may be, I will go with you:-but yet

I'll pause;

For I am loath to break our country's laws.
Nor friends, nor foes, to me welcome you are:
Things past redress, are now with me past care."
[Exeunt.

(Since presently your souls must part your bodies,)
With too much urging your pernicious lives,
For 'twere no charity: yet, to wash your blood
From off my hands, here, in the view of men,
I will unfold some causes of your deaths.
You have misled a prince, a royal king,
A happy gentleman in blood and lineaments,
By you unhappied and disfigur'd clean.
You have, in manner, with your sinful hours,
Made a divorce betwixt his queen and him;
Broke the possession of a royal bed,10
And stain'd the beauty of a fair queen's cheeks
With tears drawn from her eyes by your foul wrongs.
Myself-a prince, by fortune of my birth,
Near to the king in blood; and near in love,
Till you did make him misinterpret me,-
Have stoop'd my neck under your injuries,
And sigh'd my English breath in foreign clouds,
Eating the bitter bread of banishment:
Whilst you have fed upon my signories,
Dispark'd my parks, and fell'd my forest woods;
From my own windows torn my household coat,
Raz'd out my impress, 12 leaving me no sign,-

8 This enumeration of prodigies is in the highest degree poetical and striking. The poet received the hint SCENE IV. A Camp in Wales. Enter SALIS-out all the realme of Englande, old baie trees withered, from Holinshed: In this yeare, in a manner through

BURY," and a Captain.

&c. This, as it appears from T. Lupton's Syxt Booke

Cap. My lord of Salisbury, we have staid ten of Notable Things, bl. 4to. was esteemed a bad omen, days,

1 Indifferent is impartial. The instances of this use of the word among the poet's contemporaries are very

numerous.

2 Wrongs is probably here used for wrongers. 3 See the former scene, p. 412, n. 7. 4 Steevens explains the phrase, It stands your grace upon,' to mean, it is your interest; it is matter of consequence to you. But hear Baret, The heyre is bound; the heyre ought, or it is the heyre's part to defend; it standeth him upon; or is in his charge. In cumbit defensio mortis hæredi. The phrase is therefore equivalent to it is incumbent upon your grace. Things without remedy

5

Should be without regard.'

Macbeth. 6 Johnson thought this scene nad been by some accident transposed, and that it should stand as the second scene in the third act.

7 John Montacute, earl of Salisbury.

Neyther falling sickness, neyther devyll, wyll infest or hurt one in that place whereas a bay tree is. The Romaynes call it the plant of the good angel, &c.' See also Evelyn's Sylva, 4to. 1776, p. 396.

9 i. e. quite, completely

10 There seems to be no authority for this. Isabel Richard's second queen, was but nine years old at this period; his first queen, Anne, died in 1392, and he was very fond of her.

11 To dispark signifies to divest a park of its name and character, by destroying the enclosures, and the vert (or whatever bears green leaves, whether wood or underwood,) and the beasts of the chase therein; laying it open.

12 The impress was a device, or motto. Ferne, in his Blazon of Gentry, 1588, observes that the arms, &c. of traitors and rebels may be defaced and removed wheresoever they are fixed or set. For the punishment of a base knight see Spenser's Faerie Queen b. v. c. iii. st. 37.