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In him a royal prince, and many more
Of noble blood in this declining land.
The king is not himself, but basely led
By flatterers; and what they will inform,
Merely in hate 'gainst any of us all,
That will the king severely prosecute

'Gainst us, our lives, our children, and our heirs. Ross. The commons hath he pill'd 25 with grievous taxes,

And quite lost their hearts: the nobles hath he fin'd For ancient quarrels, and quite lost their hearts,

Willo. And daily new exactions are devis'd; As blanks 26, benevolences, and I wot not what: But what, o'God's name, doth become of this? North. Wars have not wasted it, for warr'd he hath not,

But basely yielded upon compromise

That which his ancestors achiev'd with blows:
More hath he spent in peace, than they in wars.

Ross. The earl of Wiltshire hath the realm in farm.
Willo. The king's grown bankrupt, like a broken

man.

North. Reproach, and dissolution, hangeth over him.

Ross. He hath not money for these Irish wars, His burdenous taxations notwithstanding, But by the robbing of the banish'd duke.

North. His noble kinsman; most degenerate king! But, lords, we hear this fearful tempest sing 27,

25 Pillaged.

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26 Stow records that Richard II. ' compelled all the religious, gentlemen, and commons, to set their seales to blankes, to the end he might, if it pleased him, oppress them severally, or all at once some of the commons paid him 1000 marks, some 1000 pounds,' &c.

27 So in the Tempest:

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another storm brewing; I hear it sing in the wind.'

Yet seek no shelter to avoid the storm:

We see the wind sit sore upon our sails,
And yet we strike not, but securely perish 28.
Ross. We see the very wreck that we must suffer;
And unavoided is the danger now,

For suffering so the causes of our wreck.

North. Not so; even through the hollow eyes of death,

I spy life peering; but I dare not say
How near the tidings of our comfort is.

Willo. Nay, let us share thy thoughts, as thou dost ours.

Ross. Be confident to speak, Northumberland : We three are but thyself; and, speaking so, Thy words are but as thoughts; therefore, be bold. North. Then thus:-I have from Port le Blanc, a bay

In Brittany, receiv'd intelligence,

That Harry Hereford, Reignold Lord Cobham, [The son of Richard earl of Arundel] 29,

26 And yet we strike not our sails, but perish by too great confidence in our security:' this is another Latinism. Securely is used in the sense of securus.

29 The line in brackets, which was necessary to complete the sense, has been supplied upon the authority of Holinshed. Something of a similar import must have been omitted by accident in the old copies. The passages in Holinshed relative to this matter run thus:- Aboute the same time the earle of Arundel's sonne, named Thomas, which was kept in the duke of Exeter's house, escaped out of the realme, by meanes of one William Scot,' &c. 'Duke Henry, chiefly through the earnest persuasion of Thomas Arundell, late archbishop of Canterburie (who, as you have before heard, had been removed from his see, and banished the realme by King Richard's means), got him down to Britaine: and when all his provision was made ready, he tooke the sea, together with the said archbishoppe of Canterburie, and his nephew Thomas Arundelle, son and heyre to the late earle of Arundelle, beheaded on Tower-hill. There were also with him Regenalde Lord Cobham, Sir Thomas Erpingham,' &c.-Holinshed, p. 1105, ed. 1577.

That late broke from the duke of Exeter,
His brother, archbishop late of Canterbury,
Sir Thomas Erpingham, Sir John Ramston,

Sir John Norbery, Sir Robert Waterton, and Francis Quoint,

All these well furnish'd by the duke of Bretagne,
With eight tall 30 ships, three thousand men of war,
Are making hither with all due expedience 31,
And shortly mean to touch our northern shore:
Perhaps, they had ere this; but that they stay
The first departing of the king for Ireland.
If then we shall shake off our slavish yoke,
Imp 32 out our drooping country's broken wing,
Redeem from broking pawn the blemish'd crown,
Wipe off the dust that hides our sceptre's gilt 33,
And make high majesty look like itself,
Away, with me, in post to Ravenspurg :
But if you faint, as fearing to do so,
Stay, and be secret, and myself will go.

Ross. To horse, to horse! urge doubts to them that fear.

Willo. Hold out my horse, and I will first be there. [Exeunt.

SCENE II. The same. A Room in the Palace, Enter Queen, BUSHY, and Bagot.

Bushy. Madam, your majesty is too much sad: You promis'd, when you parted with the king,

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32 When the wing feathers of a hawk were dropped or forced out by any accident, it was usual to supply as many as were deficient. This operation was called to imp a hawk.' It is often used metaphorically, as in this instance. The word is said to come from the Saxon impan, to graft, or inoculate. Milton has it in one of his sonnets:

to imp their serpent wings.'

And Dryden :

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His navy's molten wings he imp'd once more.' 33 Gilding.

To lay aside life-harming heaviness,

And entertain a cheerful disposition.

Queen. To please the king, I did; to please myself,

I cannot do it; yet I know no cause
Why I should welcome such a guest as grief,
Save bidding farewell to so sweet a guest
As my sweet Richard: Yet, again, methinks,
Some unborn sorrow, ripe in fortune's womb,
Is coming towards me; and my inward soul
With nothing trembles: at some thing it grieves,
More than with parting from my lord the king.
Bushy. Each substance of a grief hath twenty
shadows,

Which show like grief itself, but are not so:
For sorrow's eye, glazed with blinding tears,
Divides one thing entire to many objects;
Like pérspectives1, which, rightly gaz'd upon,
Show nothing but confusion; ey'd awry,
Distinguish form so your sweet majesty,

1 It has been shown in a former note that perspective meant optical glasses, to assist the sight in any way. Mr. Henley says that the perspectives here mentioned were round crystal glasses, the convex surface of which was cut into faces like those of the rose-diamond; the concave left uniformly smooth; which if placed as here represented, would exhibit the different appearances described by the poet.' But it may have reference to that kind of optical delusion called anamorphosis; which is a perspective projection of a picture, so that at one point of view it shall appear a confused mass, or different to what it really is, in another, an exact and regular representation. Sometimes it is made to appear confused to the naked eye, and regular when viewed in a glass or mirror of a certain form. A picture of a chancellor of France, presented to the common beholder a multitude of little faces; but if one did look at it through a perspective, there appeared only the single pourtraiture of the chancellor.'-Humane Industry, 1651. This is again alluded to in Twelfth Night, Act v. Sc. 1:

'A natural perspective, that is, and is not.' Thus also in Henry V :-' My lord, you see them perspectively, the cities turned into a maid.' See vol. i. p. 388, note 13.

Looking awry upon your lord's departure,

Finds shapes of grief, more than himself, to wail;
Which, look'd on as it is, is nought but shadows
Of what it is not. Then, thrice-gracious queen,
More than your lord's departure weep not; more's

not seen:

Or if it be, 'tis with false sorrow's eye,

Which, for things true, weeps things imaginary.
Queen. It may be so; but yet my inward soul
Persuades me, it is otherwise: Howe'er it be,
I cannot but be sad; so heavy sad,

As, though, in thinking, on no thought I think 2,Makes me with heavy nothing faint and shrink.

Bushy. 'Tis nothing but conceit3, my gracious lady.
Queen. 'Tis nothing less: conceit is still deriv'd
From some fore-father grief; mine is not so;
For nothing hath begot my something grief;
Or something hath the nothing that I grieve:
"Tis in reversion that I do possess ;

But what it is, that is not yet known; what
I cannot name; 'tis nameless woe, I wot.

Enter GREEN.

Green. God save your majesty!—and well met, gentlemen:

I hope, the king is not yet shipp'd for Ireland.

Queen. Why hop'st thou so? 'tis better hope, he is ; For his designs crave haste, his haste good hope; Then wherefore dost thou hope, he is not shipp'd? Green. That he, our hope, might have retir'd his power*,

6

2 The old copies have on thinking,' which is an evident error: we should read,' As though in thinking;' i. e. ' though musing, I have no idea of calamity.' The involuntary and unaccountable depression of the mind, which every one has sometimes felt, is here very forcibly described.

3 Fanciful conception.

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

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