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.

SCENE IV 1. A Camp in Wales.

Enter SALISBURY2, and a Captain.

11.

Cap. My lord of Salisbury, we have staid ten days, And hardly kept our countrymen together,

And yet we hear no tidings from the king;
Therefore we will disperse ourselves: farewell.

Sal. Stay yet another day, thou trusty Welshman: The king reposeth all his confidence

In thee.

Cap. 'Tis thought, the king is dead: we will not stay. The bay-trees in our country are all wither'd3,

11

Things without remedy
Should be without regard.'

Macbeth.

1 Johnson thought this scene had been by some accident transposed, and that it should stand as the second scene in the third act, 2 John Montacute, earl of Salisbury.

3 This enumeration of prodigies is in the highest degree poetical and striking. The poet received the hint from Holinshed:

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. [Exit.
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.

[Exit.

ACT III.

SCENE I. Bolingbroke's Camp at Bristol.

Enter BOLINGBROKE, YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, WILLOUGHBY, Ross: Officers behind with BUSHY and GREEN, prisoners.

Boling. Bring forth these men.—

Bushy and Green, I will not vex your souls (Since presently your souls must part your bodies), With too much urging your pernicious lives,

'In this yeare, in a manner throughout all the realme of Englande, old baie trees withered,' &c. This, as it appears from T. Lupton's Syxt Booke of Notable Things, bl. 4to. was esteemed a bad omen. " 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.

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 clean1.
You have, in manner, with your sinful hours,
Made a divorce betwixt his queen and him ;
Broke the possession of a royal bed,

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'd3 my parks, and fell'd my forest woods;
From my own windows torn my household coat,
Raz'd out my impress, leaving me no sign,-
Save men's opinions, and my living blood,-

1 i. e. quite, completely. Thus in Shakspeare's seventy-fifth Sonnet:

And by and by clean starved for a look.'

Quite and cleane to take awaye an opinion from one. Excutere opinionem radicitus.'-Baret.

2 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.

3 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.

4 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.

To show the world I am a gentleman,

This, and much more, much more than twice all this, Condemns you to the death:-See them deliver'd over To execution and the hand of death.

Bushy. More welcome is the stroke of death to me, Than Bolingbroke to England.-Lords, farewell. Green. My comfort is,—that heaven will take our souls,

And plague injustice with the pains of hell.

Boling. My Lord Northumberland, see them despatch'd.

[Exeunt NORTHUMBERAND and Others, with

Prisoners.

Uncle, you say, the queen is at your house;
For heaven's sake, fairly let her be entreated:
Tell her, I send to her my kind commends 5;
Take special care my greetings be deliver❜d.
York. A gentleman of mine I have despatch'd
With letters of your love to her at large.

Boling. Thanks, gentle uncle.-Come,lords,away:
To fight with Glendower and his complices;
Awhile to work, and, after, holiday.

SCENE II.

[Exeunt 6.

The Coast of Wales. A Castle in view.

Flourish: Drums and Trumpets.
Enter KING
RICHARD, Bishop of Carlisle, AUMERLE, and
Soldiers.

K.Rich. Barkloughly Castle call you1 this at hand?
Aum.Yea,my lord: How brooks your grace the air,
After your late tossing on the breaking seas ?
K. Rich. Needs must I like it well; I weep for joy,

5 Commendations.

6 Johnson says here may be properly inserted the last scene

of the second act.'

The quarto of 1597 reads they.

To stand upon my kingdom once again.
Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand,
Though rebels wound thee with their horses' hoofs:
As a long parted mother with her child

Plays fondly with her tears, and smiles, in meeting;
So, weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my earth,
And do thee favour with my royal hands.

Feed not thy sovereign's foe, my gentle earth,
Nor with thy sweets comfort his ravenous sense:
But let thy spiders, that suck up thy venom,
And heavy-gaited toads, lie in their way;
Doing annoyance to the treacherous feet,
Which with usurping steps do trample thee.
Yield stinging nettles to mine enemies:
And when they from thy bosom pluck a flower,
Guard it, I pray thee, with a lurking adder;
Whose double tongue may with a mortal touch
Throw death upon thy sovereign's enemies.
Mock not my senseless conjuration, lords;
This earth shall have a feeling, and these stones
Prove armed soldiers, ere her native king
Shall falter under foul rebellious arms.

Bishop. Fear not, my lord; that Power, that made you king,

Hath power to keep you king, in spite of all.
The means that heaven yields must be embrac'd,
And not neglected; else, if heaven would,

And we will not, heaven's offer we refuse;
The proffer'd means of succour and redress.

Aum. He means, my lord, that we are too remiss;
Whilst Bolingbroke, through our security,
Grows strong and great, in substance, and in friends.
K.Rich. Discomfortable cousin! know'st thou not,
That when the searching eye of heaven is hid
Behind the globe, and lights the lower world,

2

2 The old copies read that lights,' &c. The alteration was made by Johnson.