Bagot. Then set before my face the Lord Aumerle. Boling. Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that

man.

Bagot. My Lord Aumerle, I know, your daring tongue

Scorns to unsay what once it hath deliver'd.
In that dead time when Gloster's death was plotted,
I heard you say,—Is not my arm of length,
That reacheth from the restful English court
As far as Calais, to my uncle's head?
Amongst much other talk, that very time,
I heard you say, that you had rather refuse
The offer of a hundred thousand crowns,
Than Bolingbroke's return to England;
Adding withal, how blest this land would be,
In this your cousin's death.

Aum.
Princes, and noble lords,
What answer shall I make to this base man?
Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars*,
On equal terms to give him chastisement?
Either I must, or have mine honour soil'd
With the attainder of his sland'rous lips.-
There is my gage, the manual seal of death,
That marks thee out for hell; I say, thou liest,
And will maintain, what thou hast said, is false,
In thy heart-blood, though being all too base,
To stain the temper of my knightly sword.

Boling. Bagot, forbear, thou shalt not take it up. Aum. Excepting one, I would he were the best In all this presence, that hath mov'd me so.

4 The birth is supposed to be influenced by stars; therefore the poet, with his allowed licence, takes stars for birth. We learn from Pliny's Nat. Hist. that the vulgar error assigned the bright est and fairest stars to the rich and great:- Sidera singulis attributa nobis, et clara divitibus, minora pauperibus,' &c.lib. i. c. viii.

Fitz. If that thy valour stand on sympathies 5, There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine: By that fair sun that shows me where thou stand'st, I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spak'st it, That thou wert cause of noble Gloster's death. If thou deny'st it, twenty times thou liest; And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart, Where it was forged, with my rapier's point.

Aum. Thou dar'st not, coward, live to see that day. Fitz. Now, by my soul, I would it were this hour. Aum. Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this. Percy. Aumerle, thou liest; his honour is as true, In this appeal, as thou art all unjust:

And, that thou art so, there I throw my gage,
To
prove it on thee to the extremest point

Of mortal breathing; seize it, if thou dar'st.

Aum. And if I do not, may my hands rot off,
And never brandish more revengeful steel
Over the glittering helmet of my foe!

Lord. I task the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle; And spur thee on with full as many lies

As may be holla'd in thy treacherous ear
From sun to sun6: there is my honour's pawn;
Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st.

This is a translated sense much harsher than that of stars, explained in the preceding note. Fitzwater throws down his gage as a pledge of battle, and tells Aumerle that if he stands upon sympathies, that is upon equality of blood, the combat is now offered him by a man of rank not inferior to his own. Sympathy is an affection incident at once to two subjects. This community of affection implies a likeness or equality of nature; and hence the poet transferred the term to equality of blood. 6 i. e. from sunrise to sunset. So in Cymbeline:

'Imo. How many score of miles may we well ride
"Twixt hour and hour?

Pisa. One score 'twixt sun and sun,
Madam, 's enough for you, and too much too.'
The emendation is
I task the earth'

The old quartos read Twixt sin and sin.'
Steevens's. This speech is not in the folio.

1

Aum. Who sets me else? by heaven, I'll throw

at all:

I have a thousand spirits in one breast,
To answer twenty thousand such as you.

Surrey. My Lord Fitzwater, I do remember well The very time Aumerle and you did talk.

Fitz. 'Tis very true: you were in presence then; And you can witness with me, this is true.

Surrey. Asfalse, by heaven, as heaven itself is true. Fitz. Surrey, thou liest.

Surrey.

Dishonourable boy!
That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword,
That it shall render vengeance and revenge,
Till thou the lie-giver, and that lie, do lie
In earth as quiet as thy father's scull.
In proof whereof, there is my honour's pawn;
Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st.

Fitz. How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse! If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live,

8

I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness 3,

And spit upon him, whilst I say, he lies,
And lies, and lies: there is my bond of faith,
To tie thee to my strong correction.-
As I intend to thrive in this new world,
Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal :

probably means 'I lay the burthen of my pledge upon the earth
to the like purpose,' accompanying the words by throwing his
mailed glove to the ground. Some of the quartos read take.
7 A thousand hearts are great within my bosom."

King Richard III. 8 I dare meet him where no help can be had by me against him. So in Macbeth :

or be alive again,

And dare me to the desert with thy sword.'

Thus also in The Lover's Progress, by Beaumont and Fletcher :'Maintain thy treason with thy sword? with what Contempt I hear it! in a wilderness

I durst encounter it.'

9 i. e. in this world, where I have just begun to be an actor. Surrey has just called him boy.

Besides, I heard the banish'd Norfolk say,
That thou, Aumerle, didst send two of thy men
To execute the noble duke at Calais.

Aum. Some honest Christian trust me with a gage,
That Norfolk lies: here do I throw down this 10,
If he may be repeal'd to try his honour.

Boling. These differences shall all rest under gage, Till Norfolk be repeal'd: repeal'd he shall be, And, though mine enemy, restor❜d again

To all his land and signories; when he's return'd, Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial.

Car. That honourable day shall ne'er be seen.— Many a time hath banish'd Norfolk fought For Jesu Christ; in glorious Christian field Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross, Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens : And, toil'd with works of war, retir'd himself To Italy; and there, at Venice, gave His body to that pleasant country's earth11, And his pure soul unto his captain Christ, Under whose colours he had fought so long. Boling. Why, bishop, is Norfolk dead? Car. As sure as I live, my lord.

Boling. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to

the bosom

Of good old Abraham!-Lords appellants,

Yo

our differences shall all rest under gage, Till we assign you to your days of trial.

Enter YORK, attended.

York. Great duke of Lancaster, I come to thee From plume-pluck'd Richard; who with willing soul Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields

10 Holinshed says that on this occasion he threw down a hood that he had borrowed.

"This is not historically true. The duke of Norfolk's death did not take place till after Richard's murder.

To the possession of thy royal hand:

Ascend his throne, descending now from him,— And long live Henry, of that name the fourth! Boling. In God's name, I'll ascend the regal throne 12.

Car. Marry, God forbid!

Worst in this royal presence, may I speak,
Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth.
Would God, that any in this noble presence
Were enough noble to be upright judge
Of noble Richard; then true nobless 13 would
Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.
What subject can give sentence on his king?
And who sits here, that is not Richard's subject?
Thieves are not judg'd, but they are by to hear,
Although apparent guilt be seen in them:
And shall the figure of God's majesty 14,
His captain, steward, deputy elect,
Anointed, crowned, planted many years,
Be judg❜d by subject and inferior breath,
And he himself not present? O, forbid 15 it, God,
That, in a Christian climate, souls refin'd

12 Hume gives the words that Henry actually spoke on this occasion, which he copied from Knyghton, and accompanies them by a very ingenious commentary.-Hist. of Eng. 4to ed. vol. ix. p. 50.

13 i.e. nobleness; a word now obsolete, but common in Shakspeare's time.

14 This speech, which contains in the most express terms the doctrine of passive obedience, is founded upon Holinshed's account. The sentiments would not in the reign of Elizabeth or James have been regarded as novel or unconstitutional. It is observable that usurpers are as ready to avail themselves of divine right as lawful sovereigns; to dwell upon the sacredness of their persons, and the sanctity of their character. Even that cutpurse of the empire,' Claudius, in Hamlet, affects to believe that

such divinity doth hedge a king."

15 The quarto reads forfend. VOL. V.

I