Did win what he did spend, and spent not that
Which his triumphant father's hand had won:
His hands were guilty of no kindred's blood,
But bloody with the enemies of his kin.
O, Richard! York is too far gone with grief,
Or else he never would compare between.

K. RICH. Why, uncle, what's the matter?
YORK.
O, my liege,
Pardon me, if you please; if not, I pleas'd
Not to be pardon'd, am content withal.
Seek you to feize, and gripe into your hands,
The royalties and rights of banish'd Hereford?
Is not Gaunt dead? and doth not Hereford live?
Was not Gaunt juft? and is not Harry true?
Did not the one deferve to have an heir?
Is not his heir a well-deferving fon?

Take Hereford's rights away, and take from time
His charters, and his customary rights;
Let not to-morrow then enfue to-day;
Be not thyfelf, for how art thou a king,
But by fair fequence and fucceffion?
Now, afore God (God forbid, I say true!)
If you do wrongfully feize Hereford's rights,
Call in the letters patents that he hath
By his attornies-general to fue

8

His livery, and deny his offer'd homage,
You pluck a thousand dangers on your head,
You lofe a thoufand well-difpofed hearts,
And prick my tender patience to those thoughts
Which honour and allegiance cannot think.

K. RICH. Think what you will; we feize into our
hands

His plate, his goods, his money, and his lands.

8

deny his offer'd homage,] That is, refufe to admit the hamage, by which he is to hold his lands. JOHNSON.

YORK. I'll not be by, the while: My liege, farewell:

What will enfue hereof, there's none can tell;
But by bad courfes may be understood,

That their events can never fall out good. [Exit.

K. RICH. GO, Bufhy, to the earl of Wiltshire ftraight;

Bid him repair to us to Ely-house,

To fee this bufinefs: To-morrow next

We will for Ireland; and 'tis time, I trow;
And we create, in absence of ourself,
Our uncle York lord governor of England,
For he is juft, and always lov'd us well.—
Come on, our queen: to-morrow must we part;
Be merry, for our time of stay is fhort. [Flourish.
[Exeunt King, Queen, BUSHY, AUMERLE,
GREEN, and BAGOT.

NORTH. Well, lords, the duke of Lancaster is dead.
Ross. And living too; for now his fon is duke.
WILLO. Barely in title, not in revenue.

NORTH. Richly in both, if justice had her right.
Ross. My heart is great; but it must break with
filence,

Ere't be difburden'd with a liberal tongue.

NORTH. Nay, speak thy mind; and let him ne'er fpeak more,

That speaks thy words again, to do thee harm! WILLO. Tends that thou'dft speak, to the duke of Hereford?

If it be fo, out with it boldly, man;

Quick is mine ear, to hear of good towards him. Ross. No good at all, that I can do for him;

Unless you call it good, to pity him,

Bereft and gelded of his patrimony.

NORTH. Now, afore heaven, 'tis fhame, fuch
wrongs are borne,

In him a royal prince, and many more
Of noble blood in this declining land.
The king is not himself, but bafely led
By flatterers; and what they will inform,
Merely in hate, 'gainst any of us all,
That will the king feverely profecute

Gainft us, our lives, our children, and our heirs.
Ross. The commons hath he pill'd with grievous

taxes,

And loft their hearts: the nobles hath he fin'd
For ancient quarrels, and quite loft their hearts.

WILLO. And daily new exactions are devis'd; As-blanks, benevolences, and I wot not what : But what, o'God's name, doth become of this? NORTH. Wars have not wasted it, for warr'd he hath not,

But bafely yielded upon compromife

That which his ancestors achiev'd with blows: More hath he spent in peace, than they in wars. Ross. The earl of Wiltshire hath the realm in

farm.

WILLO. The king's grown bankrupt, like a broken

man.

NORTH. Reproach, and diffolution, hangeth over him.

Ross. He hath not money for these Irish wars, His burdenous taxations notwithstanding,

But by the robbing of the banish'd duke.

9 And loft their hearts:] The old copies erroneously and unmetrically read

And quite loft their hearts :

The compofitor's eye had caught the adverb-quite, from the following line. STEEVENS.

NORTH. His noble kinfman:-Moft degenerate

king!

But, lords, we hear this fearful tempeft fing,
Yet feek no shelter to avoid the ftorm:

We fee the wind fit fore upon our fails,
And yet we strike not, but fecurely perish."

8

Ross. We fee the very wreck that we must suffer; And unavoided is the danger' now,

For fuffering fo the caufes of our wreck.
NORTH. Not fo; even through the hollow eyes.
of death,

I spy life peering; but I dare not fay
How near the tidings of our comfort is.

WILLO. Nay, let us fhare thy thoughts, as thou doft ours.

Ross. Be confident to speak, Northumberland: We three are but thyfelf; and, fpeaking fo, Thy words are but as thoughts; therefore, be bold. NORTH. Then thus:-I have from Port le Blanc, a bay

In Britany, receiv'd intelligence,

That Harry Hereford, Reignold lord Cobham,

8

66

we hear this fearful tempeft fing,] So, in The Tempeft: another storm brewing; I hear it fing in the wind." STEEVENS.

9 And yet we ftrike not,] To frike the fails, is, to contract them when there is too much wind. JOHNSON. abut fecurely perish.] We perish by too great confidence in our fecurity. The word is ufed in the fame fenfe in The Merry Wives of Windfor: "Though Ford be a secure fool," &c.

Again, in Troilus and Creffida, A& IV. fc. v:
""Tis done like Hector, but fecurely done."

See Dr. Farmer's note on this paffage. STEEVENS.
And unavoided is the danger-]
afed for unavoidable. MALONE.

MALONE.

Unavoided is, I believe, here

[The fon of Richard Earl of Arundel,] That late broke from the duke of Exeter,

4 [The fon of Richard earl of Arundel,]

That late broke from the duke of Exeter,] I fufpect that fome of these lines are tranfpofed, as well as that the poet has made a blunder in his enumeration of perfons. No copy that I have feen, will authorize me to make an alteration, though according to Holinshed, whom Shakspeare followed in great measure, more than one is neceffary.

All the perfons enumerated in Holinfhed's account of those who embark'd with Bolingbroke, are here mentioned with great exactnefs, except "Thomas Arundell, fonne and heire to the late earle of Arundell, beheaded at the Tower-hill." See Holinfhed. And yet this nobleman, who appears to have been thus omitted by the poet, is the perfon to whom alone that circumftance relates of having broke from the duke of Exeter, and to whom alone, of all mentioned in the lift, the archbishop was related, he being uncle to the young lord, though Shakspeare by mistake calls him his brother. See Holinfhed, p. 496.

From thefe circumstances here taken notice of, which are appli cable only to this lord in particular, and from the improbability that Shakspeare would omit fo principal a perfonage in his hiftorian's lift, I think it can scarce be doubted but that a line is loft in which the name of this Thomas Arundel had originally a place.

Mr. Ritfon, with fome probability, fuppofes Shakspeare could not have neglected fo fair an opportunity of availing himself of a rough ready-made verfe which offers itself in Holinshed:

[The fon and heir to the late earl of Arundel,] STEEVENS. For the infertion of the line included within crotchets, I am answerable; it not being found in the old copies.

The paffages in Holinfhed relative to this matter run thus: Aboute the fame time the Earl of Arundell's fonne, named Thomas, which was kept in the Duke of Exeter's house, escaped out of the realme, by meanes of one William Scot," &c. Duke Henry, chiefly through the earneft perfuafion of Thomas Arundell, late Archbishoppe of Canterburie, (who, as before you have heard, had been removed from his fea, and banifhed the realme by King Richardes means,) got him downe to Britaine:-and when all his provifion was made ready, he tooke the fea, together with the faid Archbishop of Canterburie, and his nephew Thomas Arundell, fonne and heyre to the late Earle of Arundell, beheaded on Towerhill. There were also with him Reginalde Lord Cobham, Sir Thomas Erpingham," &c.