The which no balm can cure, but his heart-blood Which breath'd this poison.

K. RICH.

Rage must be withstood: Give me his gage:-Lions make leopards tame. NOR. Yea, but not change their spots: take but my fhame,

And I refign my gage. My dear dear lord,
The pureft treasure mortal times afford,
Is-fpotlefs reputation; that away,
Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay.
A jewel in a ten-times-barr'd-up cheft
Is-a bold spirit in a loyal breast.

Mine honour is my life; both grow in one;
Take honour from me, and my life is done :
Then, dear my liege, mine honour let me try;
In that I live, and for that will I die.

K. RICH. Coufin, throw down your gage; do

begin.

you

BOLING. O, God defend my foul from fuch foul

fin!

Shall I seem crestfallen in my father's fight?
Or with pale beggar-fear impeach my height
Before this outdar'd daftard? Ere my tongue
Shall wound mine honour with fuch feeble wrong,

The fame expreffion occurs in Twelfth Night, fc. ult: "Alas, poor fool! how have they baffled thee?"

Again, in K. Henry IV, Part I. A&t I. fc. ii:

―an I do not, call me villain, and baffle me." Again, in The London Prodigal, 1605: "chil be abaffelled up and down the town, for a messel.” i. e. for a beggar, or rather a leper. STEEVENS.

6 but not change their Spots:] The old copies have-his fpots. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

7

·with pale beggar-fear-] This is the reading of one of the oldest quartos, and the folio. The quartos 1608 and 1615 read-beggar-face; i. e. (as Dr. Warburton obferves) with a face of fupplication. STEEVENS.

Or found fo base a parle, my teeth fhall tear The flavish motive of recanting fear; . And spit it bleeding, in his high difgrace, Where fhame doth harbour, even in Mowbray's face. [Exit GAUNT.

K. RICH. We were not born to fue, but to com

mand:

Which fince we cannot do to make you friends,
Be ready, as your lives fhall answer it,
At Coventry, upon faint Lambert's day;
There fhall your fwords and lances arbitrate
The fwelling difference of your settled hate;
Since we cannot atone you,' we shall fee
Juftice defign" the victor's chivalry.-
Marthal, command' our officers at arms
Be ready to direct these home-alarms.

4 The flavish motive-] Motive, for inftrument.

Rather that which fear puts in motion.

5

[Exeunt.

WARBURTON.

JOHNSON.

So, in Cymbeline:

atone you,] i. e. reconcile you.
"I was glad I did atone my countryman and you."

STEEVENS.

6 Justice defign-] Thus the old copies. Mr. Pope reads"Juftice decide," but without neceffity. Defigno, Lat. fignifies to mark out, to point out: "Notat defignatque oculis ad cædem unumquemque noftrûm." Cicero in Catilinam. STEEVENS.

To defign in our author's time fignified to mark out. See Minfheu's DICT. in v. "To defigne or few by a token. Ital. Denotare. Lat. Defignare." At the end of the article the reader is referred to the words "to marke, note, demonftrate or fhew.”— The word is ftill ufed with this fignification in Scotland.

MALONE.

7 Marshal, command, &c.] The old copies-Lord Marshall; but (as Mr. Ritfon obferves) the metre requires the omiffion I have made. It is alfo juftified by his Majesty's repeated address to the fame officer, in fcene iii. STEEVENS.

SCENE II.

The fame. A Room in the Duke of Lancaster's Palace.

Enter GAUNT, and Duchefs of Gloster.

GAUNT. Alas! the part I had in Glofter's blood Doth more folicit me, than your exclaims, To ftir against the butchers of his life. But fince correction lieth in those hands, Which made the fault that we cannot correct, Put we our quarrel to the will of heaven; Who when he fees the hours ripe on earth, Will rain hot vengeance on offenders' heads. DUCH. Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper spur? Hath love in thy old blood no living fire? Edward's feven fons, whereof thyself art one, Were as seven phials of his facred blood, Or feven fair branches, springing from one root: Some of those seven are dried by nature's course, Some of those branches by the deftinies cut:

But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Glofter,—

8

duchefs of Glofter.] The Duchefs of Glofter was Eleanor Bohun, widow of Duke Thomas, fon of Edward III.

9

to Glofter.

2

WALPOLE.

the part I had-] That is, my relation of confanguinity HANMER.

heaven;

Who when he fees-] The old copies erroneously read-
Who when they fee

I have reformed the text by example of a fubfequent paffage,

"His deputy, anointed in his fight," &c. STEEVENS.

One phial full of Edward's facred blood,
One flourishing branch of his most royal root,―
Is crack'd, and all the precious liquor fpilt;
Is hack'd down, and his fummer leaves all faded,'
By envy's hand, and murder's bloody axe.

Ah, Gaunt! his blood was thine; that bed, that womb,

That mettle, that felf-mould, that fashion'd thee, Made him a man; and though thou liv'ft, and breath'ft,

Yet art thou flain in him: thou doft confent
In fome large measure to thy father's death,
In that thou feeft thy wretched brother die,
Who was the model of thy father's life.
Call it not patience, Gaunt, it is despair:
In fuffering thus thy brother to be slaughter'd,
Thou show'ft the naked pathway to thy life,
Teaching ftern murder how to butcher thee:
That which in mean men we entitle-patience,
Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.
What shall I fay? to safeguard thine own life,
The best way is to 'venge my Glofter's death.
GAUNT. Heaven's is the quarrel; for heaven's
fubftitute,

His deputy anointed in his fight,

2 One phial, &c.] Though all the old copies concur in the prefent regulation of the following lines, I would rather readOne phial full of Edward's facred blood

Is crack'd, and all the precious liquor spill'd;
One flourishing branch of his most royal root

Is back'd down, and his fummer leaves all faded.

Some of the old copies in this inftance, as in many others, read vaded, a mode of fpelling practifed by feveral of our ancient writers. After all, I believe the tranfpofition to be needlefs.

STEEVENS.

3 -thou doft confent, &c.] i. e. affent. So, in St. Luke's Gofpel, xxiii. 51: "The fame had not confented to the counsel and dead of them." STEEVENS.

Hath caus'd his death: the which if wrongfully,
Let heaven revenge; for I may never lift
An angry arm against his minifter.

DUCH. Where then, alas! may I complain myfelf? +

GAUNT. To heaven, the widow's champion and defence.

DUCH. Why then, I will. Farewell, old Gaunt.' Thou go'ft to Coventry, there to behold

Our coufin Hereford and fell Mowbray fight:
O, fit my husband's wrongs on Hereford's fpear,
That it may enter butcher Mowbray's breast!
Or, if misfortune mifs the first career,

Be Mowbray's fins fo heavy in his bosom,
That they may break his foaming courfer's back,
And throw the rider headlong in the lifts,

A caitiff recreant" to my coufin Hereford!

may I complain myself?] To complain is commonly a verb neuter, but it is here ufed as a verb active. Dryden employs the word in the fame fenfe in his Fables:

"Gaufride, who couldft fo well in rhyme complain

"The death of Richard with an arrow flain."

Complain myself (as Mr. M. Mafon obferves) is a literal tranflation of the French phrase, me plaindre. STEEVENS.

5 Why then, I will. Farewell, old Gaunt.] The measure of this line being clearly defective, why may we not read?-

Or thus:

Why then I will. Now fare thee well, old Gaunt."

"Why then I will. Farewell old John of Gaunt." There can be nothing ludicrous in a title by which the King has already addreffed him. RITSON.

Sir T. Hanmer completes the measure, by repeating the wordfarewell, at the end of the line. STEEVENS.

6 A caitiff recreant-] Caitiff originally fignified a prifoner; next a flave, from the condition of prifoners; then a coundrel, from the qualities of a slave.

Ήμισυ τῆς ἀρετῆς αποαίνυται δέλιον ήμαρ.

In this paffage it partakes of all these fignifications. JOHNSON.