Comes at the last, and with a little pin Bores through his castle wall, and farewell, king! Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood With solemn reverence; throw away respect, Tradition 14, form, and ceremonious duty, For you have but mistook me all this while : I live with bread like you, feel want, taste grief, How can you say to me-I am a king? Car. My lord, wise men ne'er wail their present woes, But presently prevent the ways to wail, To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength, K. Rich. Thou chid'st me well:-Proud Bolingbroke, I come To change blows with thee for our day of doom. An easy task it is, to win our own. Say, Scroop, where lies our uncle with his power? So may you by my dull and heavy eye, 14 Tradition here seems to mean traditional practices, i. e. established or customary homage. 15 That is, to die fighting is to return the evil that we suffer, to destroy the destroyers. Your uncle York hath join'd with Bolingbroke; Upon his party. K. Rich. Thou hast said enough. Beshrew thee, cousin, which didst lead me forth [To AUMERLE. Of that sweet way I was in to despair! What say you now? What comfort have we now? Aum. My liege, one word. K. Rich. That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue. Discharge my followers, let them hence:-Away, From Richard's night, to Bolingbroke's fair day. [Exeunt. He does me double wrong, SCENE III. Wales. A Plain before Flint Castle. Enter, with Drum and Colours, BOLINGBROKE and Forces; YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND, and Others. Boling. So that by this intelligence we learn, The Welshmen are dispers'd; and Salisbury 16 This sentiment is drawn from nature. Nothing is more offensive to a mind convinced that its distress is without remedy, and preparing to submit quietly to irresistible calamity, than these petty and conjectured comforts, which unskilful officiousness thinks it virtue to administer. 17 To ear the land is to till it, to plough it, from the Saxon epian. So in All's Well that Ends Well: 'He that ears my land, spares my team.' Is gone to meet the king, who lately landed, lord; York. It would beseem the lord Northumberland, To say-King Richard:-Alack the heavy day, When such a sacred king should hide his head! North. Your grace mistakes me1; only to be brief, Left I his title out. York. The time hath been, Would you have been so brief with him, he would Have been so brief with you, to shorten you For taking so the head, your whole head's length. Boling. Mistake not, uncle,further than you should. York. Take not, good cousin, further than you should, Lest you mis-take: The heavens are o'er your head. Boling. I know it, uncle; and oppose not Myself against their will.-But who comes here? Enter PERCY. Well, Harry; what, will not this castle yield? Boling. Royally! Why, it contains no king? Percy. Yes, my good lord, It doth contain a king: King Richard lies Within the limits of yon lime and stone: And with him are the Lord Aumerle, Lord Salisbury, North. Belike, it is the bishop of Carlisle. 1 The word me, which is wanting in the old copies, was sup plied by Hanmer. 2 The old copy reads Welcome, Harry:' the emendation is Hanmer's. Boling. Noble lord3, [TO NORTH. Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle; Through brazen trumpet send the breath of parle Harry Bolingbroke On both his knees doth kiss King Richard's hand; Go, signify as much; while here we march [NORTHUMBERLAND advances to the Let's march without the noise of threat'ning drum, Of fire and water, when their thund'ring shock 3 Shakspeare frequently, in his addresses to persons, begins with an hemistich; and sometimes blends short prosaic sentences with his metrical dialogues. Totter'd, the reading of the two first quartos, is here probably used for tottering, according to a frequent usage of our poet. The other copies read tatter❜d. My waters; on the earth, and not on him. A Parley sounded, and answered by another Trumpet York. See, see, King Richard doth himself appear5, When he perceives the envious clouds are bent K. Rich. We are amaz'd; and thus long have we stood To watch the fearful bending of thy knee, [To NORTHUMBERLAND, And though you think, that all, as you have done, 5 The six first lines of this speech are erroneously given to Bolingbroke in the old copies, |