AUM. Thou dar'ft not, coward, live to see that day. FITZ. Now, by my foul, I would it were this hour.

AUM. Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this. PERCY. Aumerle, thou lieft; 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 extremeft point
Of mortal breathing; feize it, if thou dar'ft.
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 take the earth to the like, forfworn
Aumerle;+

armed with targets or bucklers, with very broad weapons, accounting it not to be a manly action to fight by thrusting and ftabbing, and chiefly under the wafte." Darcie's Annals of Queen Elizabeth, 4to. 1623, p. 223. fub anno, 1587.

Again, in Bulleine's Dialogue between Soarneffe and Chirurgi, fol. 1579, p. 20: "There is a new kynd of inftruments to let bloud withall, whych brynge the bloud-letter fometyme to the gallowes, because hee ftryketh to deepe. Thefe inftruments are called the ruffins tucke, and long foining rapier: weapons more malicious than manly." REED.

4 I take the earth to the like, &c.] This fpeech I have restored from the first edition in humble imitation of former editors, though, I believe, against the mind of the author. For the earth I fuppofe we should read, thy oath. JOHNSON.

To take the earth is, at prefent, a fox-hunter's phrafe. So, in The Blind Beggar of Alexandria, 1598:

I'll follow him until he take the earth."

But I know not how it can be applied here. It should feem, however, from the following paffage in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, B. III. c. xvi. that the expreffion is yet capable of another meaning:

"Lo here my gage, (he terr'd his glove) thou know'ft the victor's meed.'

To terre the glove was, I fuppofe, to dash it on the earth.

And fpur thee on with full as many lies

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

Let me add, however, in fupport of Dr. Johnson's conjecture, that the word oath, in Troilus and Creffida, quarto 1609, is corrupted in the fame manner. Inftead of the " untraded oath," it gives "untraded earth." We might read, only changing the place of one letter, and altering another:

I task thy heart to the like,

i. e. I put thy valour to the fame trial. So, in King Henry IV. A& V. fc. ii:

"How fhow'd his talking? feem'd it in contempt?" The quarto, 1597, reads-task; the fucceeding quartos, viz. 1598, 1608, and 1615, have take. STEEVENS.

Tafk is the reading of the first and best quarto in 1597. In that printed in the following year the word was changed to take; but all the alterations made in the feveral editions of our author's plays in quarto, after the firft, appear to have been made either arbitrarily or by negligence. (I do not mean to include copies containing new and additional matter.) I confefs I am unable to explain either reading; but I adhere to the elder, as more likely to be the true one. MALONE.

5 From fun to fun:] i. e. as I think, from fun-rife to fun-fet. So, in Cymbeline:

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

Pifa. One score 'twixt fun and fun,

"Madam, 's enough for you, and too much too." "The time appointed for the duello (fays Saviolo) hath alwaies bene. 'twixt the rifing and the fetting fun; and whoever in that time doth not prove his intent, can never after be admitted the combat upon that quarrel." On Honour and honourable quarrels, 4to. 1595. This paffage fully fupports the emendation here made, and my interpretation of the words. The quartos read-From fin to fin. The emendation, which in my apprehenfion requires no enforcement or fupport, was propofed by Mr. Steevens, who explains thefe words differently. He is of opinion that they mean, from one day to another. MALONE.

However ingenious the conjecture of Mr. Steevens may be, I think the old reading the true one. From fin to fin, is from one denial to another; for thofe denials were feverally maintained to be lies. HENLEY.

AUM. Who fets me elfe? by heaven, I'll throw at all:

I have a thousand fpirits in one breast,4
To answer twenty thousand such as you.

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

FITZ. My lord, 'tis true: you were in presence then;" And you can witness with me, this is true.

SURRY. As falfe, by heaven, as heaven itself is true. FITZ. Surry, thou lieft.

SURRY.

Dishonourable boy!
That lie fhall lie fo heavy on my fword,
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 fcull.

In proof whereof, there is my honour's pawn;
Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st.

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

I dare meet Surry in a wilderness,"

And fpit upon him, whilft I fay, he lies,
And lies, and lies: there is my bond of faith,
To tie thee to my ftrong correction.-
As I intend to thrive in this new world,?

4 I have a thousand spirits in one breaft,] So, in K. Richard III: "A thousand hearts are great within my bofom." STEEVENS. 5 My lord, 'tis true: you were in prefence then;] The quartos omit-My lord, and read-'Tis very true, &c. The folio preferves both readings, and confequently overloads the metre. STEEVENS. I dare meet Surry in a wilderness,] I dare meet him where no help can be had by me against him. So, in Macbeth:

7

or be alive again,

"And dare me to the defert with thy fword." JOHNSON. in this new world,] In this world where I have just begun to be an actor. Surry has, a few lines above, called him boy. JOHNSON.

Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal:

Besides, I heard the banish'd Norfolk fay,

That thou, Aumerle, didft fend two of thy men
To execute the noble duke at Calais.

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

BOLING. These differences fhall all reft under gage,

Till Norfolk be repeal'd: repeal'd he fhall be,
And, though mine enemy, reftor'd again
To all his land and fignories; when he's return'd,
Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial.

CAR. That honourable day fhall ne'er be feen.-
Many a time hath banish'd Norfolk fought
For Jefu Chrift; in glorious Christian field
Streaming the enfign 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 earth,
And his pure foul unto his captain Christ,
Under whofe colours he had fought fo long.
BOLING. Why, bifhop, is Norfolk dead?
CAR. As fure as I live, my lord.

BOLING. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bofom

Of good old Abraham!-Lords appellants,
Your differences fhall all reft under gage,
Till we affign you to your days of trial.

8 here do I throw down this,] Holinfhed fays, that on this occafion" he threw down a hood that he had borrowed."

STEEVENS.

He had before thrown down his own hood, when accused by Bagot. MALONE.

Enter YORK, attended.

YORK. Great duke of Lancaster, I come to thee From plume-pluck'd Richard; who with willing foul Adopts thee heir, and his high fcepter yields To the poffeffion of thy royal hand:

Afcend his throne, defcending now from him,And long live Henry, of that name the fourth! BOLING. In God's name, I'll afcend the regal throne.

CAR. Marry, God forbid!

2

Worft in this royal prefence may I speak,
Yet beft befeeming me to fpeak the truth."
Would God, that any in this noble prefence
Were enough noble to be upright judge
Of noble Richard; then true noblefs would
Learn him forbearance from fo foul a wrong.
What fubject can give fentence on his king?
And who fits here, that is not Richard's fubject?
Thieves are not judg'd, but they are by to hear,
Although apparent guilt be feen in them:
And fhall the figure of God's majesty,'

9 Yet beft befeeming me to speak the truth.] It might be read more grammatically:

Yet beft befeems it me to speak the truth.

But I do not think it is printed otherwife than as Shakspeare wrote it. JOHNSON.

2

-noblefs-] i. e. nobleness; a word now obfolete, but ufed both by Spenfer and Ben Jonfon. STEEVENS.

3 And fhall the figure, &c.] Here is another proof that our author did not learn in King James's court his elevated notions of the right of kings. I know not any flatterer of the Stuarts, who has expreffed this doctrine in much stronger terms. It must be obferved that the poet intends, from the beginning to the end, to exhibit this bishop as brave, pious, and venerable. JOHNSON.

Shakspeare has reprefented the character of the bishop as he found it in Holinfhed, where this famous fpeech, (which contains,