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. Aum. 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, Of mortal breathing; seize it, if thou dar'st. Aum. And if I do not, may my hands rot off, 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 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 Pisa. One score 'twixt sun and sun, The old quartos read Twixt sin and sin.' 1 Aum. Who sets me else? by heaven, I'll throw at all: I have a thousand spirits in one breast, 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! 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, probably means 'I lay the burthen of my pledge upon the earth 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, Aum. Some honest Christian trust me with a gage, 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, 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 |