NORTH. The noble duke hath fworn, his coming

is

But for his own: and, for the right of that,
We all have strongly fworn to give him aid;
And let him ne'er fee joy, that breaks that oath.

YORK. Well, well, I see the iffue of these arms;
I cannot mend it, I must needs confefs,
Because my power is weak, and all ill left:
But, if I could, by Him that gave me life,
I would attach you all, and make you stoop
Unto the fovereign mercy of the king;
But, fince I cannot, be it known to you,
I do remain as neuter. So, fare you well;-
Unless you please to enter in the castle,
And there repofe you for this night.

BOLING. An offer, uncle, that we will accept.
But we must win your grace, to go with us
To Bristol castle; which, they say, is held
By Bushy, Bagot, and their complices,
The caterpillars of the commonwealth,
Which I have fworn to weed, and pluck away.

YORK. It may be, I will go with you :—but yet
I'll paufe ; *

2

For I am loath to break our country's laws.
Nor friends, nor foes, to me welcome you are:
Things paft redrefs, are now with me past care.3
[Exeunt.

2 It may be, I will go with you:-but yet I'll paufe ;] I fufpect, the words with you, which spoil the metre, to be another interpolation. STEEVENS.

3 Things paft redress, are now with me past care.] So, in Macbeth:

CAP. My lord of Salisbury, we have staid ten days,

And hardly kept our countrymen together,
And yet we hear no tidings from the king;
Therefore we will difperfe ourselves: farewell.

SAL. Stay yet another day, thou trusty Welsh

man;

The king repofeth all his confidence

In thee.

CAP. 'Tis thought, the king is dead; we will not stay.

The bay-trees in our country are all wither'd,"

4 Here is a scene fo unartfully and irregularly thrust into an improper place, that I cannot but fufpect it accidentally transposed; which, when the scenes were written on fingle pages, might easily happen in the wildnefs of Shakspeare's drama. This dialogue was, in the author's draught, probably the fecond fcene in the enfuing act, and there I would advife the reader to infert it, though I have not ventured on fo bold a change. My conjecture is not fo prefumptuous as may be thought. The play was not, in Shakspeare's time, broken into acts; the editions published before his death, exhibit only a fequence of scenes from the beginning to the end, without any hint of a pause of action. In a drama fo defultory and erratic, left in fuch a ftate, tranfpofitions might eafily be made. JOHNSON.

5-Salisbury,] was John Montacute, Earl of Salisbury.

WALPOLE.

6 The bay-trees, &c.] This enumeration of prodigies is in the highest degree poetical and ftriking. JOHNSON.

And meteors fright the fixed ftars of heaven;
The pale-fac'd moon looks bloody on the earth,
And lean-look'd prophets whisper fearful change;
Rich men look fad, and ruffians dance and leap,-
The one, in fear to lose what they enjoy,
The other, to enjoy by rage and war:
These figns forerun the death or fall of kings.-
Farewell; our countrymen are gone and fled,
As well affur'd, Richard their king is dead.

[Exit. SAL. Ah, Richard! with the eyes of heavy mind,

I fee thy glory, like a fhooting ftar,
Fall to the base earth from the firmament!
Thy fun fets weeping in the lowly weft,
Witneffing ftorins to come, woe, and unreft:
Thy friends are fled, to wait upon thy foes;
And crossly to thy good all fortune goes.

[Exit.

Some of these prodigies are found in Holinfhed: "In this yeare in a manner throughout all the realme of England, old baie trees withered," &c.

This was esteemed a bad omen; for, as I learn from Thomas Lupton's Syxt Booke of Notable Thinges, 4to. bl. 1: « Neyther falling fycknes, neyther devyll, wyll infeft or hurt one in that place whereas a Bay tree is. The Romaynes calles it the plant of the good angell," &c. STEEVENS.

Bolingbroke's Camp at Bristol.

Enter BOLINGBROKE, YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, WILLOUGHBY, Ross: Officers behind with BUSHY and GREEN, prisoners.

BOLING. Bring forth these men.

Bushy, and Green, I will not vex your fouls
(Since presently your fouls must part your bodies,)
With too much urging your pernicious lives,
For 'twere no charity: yet, to wash your blood
From off my hands, here, in the view of men,
I will unfold fome causes of your death.
You have misled a prince, a royal king,
A happy gentleman in blood and lineaments,
By you unhappied and disfigur'd clean."
You have, in manner, with your finful hours,
Made a divorce betwixt his queen and him;
Broke the poffeffion of a royal bed,

And ftain'd the beauty of a fair queen's cheeks With tears drawn from her eyes by your foul wrongs.

Myfelf-a prince, by fortune of my birth;
Near to the king in blood; and near in love,
Till you did make him mifinterpret me,

clean.] i. e. quite, completely. REED.

So, in our author's 75th Sonnet:

"And by and by, clean ftarved for a look." MALONE.

8 You have, in manner, with your finful hours,

Made a divorce betwixt his queen and him;

Broke the poffeffion of a royal bed,] There is, I believe, no authority for this. Ifabel, the queen of the prefent play, was but nine years old. Richard's firft queen, Anne, died in 1392, and the king was extremely fond of her. MALONE.

Have stoop'd my neck under your injuries,
And figh'd my English breath in foreign clouds,
Eating the bitter bread of banishment:
Whilft you have fed upon my fignories,
Difpark'd my parks,' and fell'd my forest woods;
From my own windows torn my household coat,*
Raz'd out my imprefs, leaving me no fign,3—
Save men's opinions, and my living blood,-
To fhow the world I am a gentleman..

This, and much more, much more than twice all this,

Condemns you to the death:-See them deliver'd

over

To execution and the hand of death.

BUSHY. More welcome is the ftroke of death to

me,

Than Bolingbroke to England.-Lords, farewell. GREEN. My comfort is, that heaven will take our fouls,

And plague injustice with the pains of hell. BOLING. My lord Northumberland, fee them defpatch'd.

[Exeunt NORTHUMBERLAND and Others, with prifoners.

• Difpark'd my parks,] To difpark is to throw down the hedges of an enclosure. Diffepio. I meet with the word in Barret's Alvearie or Quadruple Dictionary, 1580. It alfo occurs in The Establishment of Prince Henry, 1610: Foreftes and Parkes of the Prince's difparked and in Leafe," &c. STEEVENS.

2 From my own windows torn my household coat,] It was the practice when coloured glafs was in use, of which there are still fome remains in old feats and churches, to anneal the arms of the family in the windows of the house. JOHNSON.

3 Raz'd out my imprefs, &c.] The impress was a device or motto. Ferne, in his Blazon of Gentry, 1585, obferves," that the arms, &c. of traitors and rebels may be defaced and removed, wherefoever they are fixed, or fet." STEEVENS.