Perfons Represented.

King Richard the Second.

Edmund of Langley, duke of York; uncles to the king.
John of Gaunt, duke of Lancafter; S

Henry, furnamed Bolingbroke, duke of Hereford, fon te
John of Gaunt; afterwards King Henry IV.

Duke of Aumerle', fon to the duke of York.

Mowbray, duke of Norfolk.

Duke of Surrey.

Earl of Salisbury.

Earl Berkley 2.

Earl of Northumberland:

Henry Percy, his fon.

Lord Rofs 3. Lord Willoughby. Lord Fitzwater.
Bishop of Carlisle. Abbot of Westminster.

Lord Marfhal; and another lord.

Sir Pierce of Exton. Sir Stephen Scroop.
Captain of a band of Welchmen.

Queen to king Richard.
Dutchess of Glofter.

Dutchess of York.

Lady, attending on the Queen.

Lords, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, two gardeners, keeper, meffenger, groom, and other attendants.

SCENE, difperfedly, in England and Wales.

* Duke of Aumerle,] Aumerle, or Aumale, is the French for what we now call Albemarle, which is a town in Normandy. The old hiftorians generally use the French title. STEEVENS.

2 Earl Berkley.] It ought to be Lord Berkley. There was no Earl Berkley till fome ages after. STEEVENS.

3 Lord Rofs.] Now fpelt Roos, one of the duke of Rutland's titles. STEEVENS.

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF

KING RICHARD

II'.

ACT I. SCENE I.

London. A Room in the Palace.

Enter king RICHARD, attended; John of GAUNT, and other nobles, with him.

K. Rich. Old John of Gaunt, time-honour'd Lancaster, Haft thou, according to thy oath and band2,

Brought

The life and death of King Richard II.] But this hiftory comprifes little more than the two laft years of this prince. The action of the drama begins with Bolingbroke's appealing the duke of Norfolk, on an accufation of high treafon, which fell out in the year 1398; and it clofes with the murder of king Richard at Pomfret-caftle towards the end of the year 1400, or the beginning of the enfuing year. THEOBALD. It is evident from a paffage in Camden's Annals, that there was an old play on the fubject of Richard the Second; but I know not in what language. Sir Gillie Merick, who was concerned in the hare-brained business of the earl of Effex, and was hanged for it, with the ingenious Cuffe, in 1601, is accufed, amongst other things, "quod exoletam tragœdiam de tragicâ abdicatione regis Ricardi Secundi in publico theatro coram conjuratis datâ pecuniâ agi curaffet."

I have fince met with a paffage in my lord Bacon, which proves this play to have been in English. It is in the arraignments of Cuffe and Merick, vol. iv. p. 412, of Mallet's edition: "The afternoon before the rebellion, Merick, with a great company of others, that afterwards were all in the action, had procured to be played before them the play of depofing king Richard the Second;-when it was told him by one of the players, that the play was old, and they should have lofs in playing it, becaufe few would come to it, there was forty fhillings extraor dinary given to play it, and fo thereupon played it was."

It may be worth enquiry, whether fome of the rhyming parts of the prefent play, which Mr. Pope thought of a different hand, might not be borrowed from the old one. Certainly however, the general tendency of it must have been very different; fince, as Dr. Johnfon obferves,

B 2

there

Brought hither Henry Hereford thy bold fon;
Here to make good the boisterous late appeal,
Which then our leifure would not let us hear,
Against the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray ?
Gaunt. I have, my liege.

K. Rich. Tell me moreover, haft thou founded him, If he appeal the duke on ancient malice;

Or worthily, as a good fubject should,

On fome known ground of treachery in him?

Gaunt. As near as I could fift him on that argument,On fome apparent danger feen in him,

Aim'd at your highnefs, no inveterate malice.

there are fome expreffions in this of Shakspeare, which strongly inculeate the doctrine of indefeafible right. FARMER.

It is probable, I think, that the play which Sir Gilly Merick procured to be reprefented, bore the title of HENRY IV. and not of RICHARD II.

Camden calls it "exoletam tragediam de tragicâ abdicatione regis Richardi fecundi; and lord Bacon (in his account of The Effect of that which palled at the arraignment of Merick and others) fays, "That, the afternoon before the rebellion, Merick had procured to be played before them, the play of depofing King Richard the Second." But in a more particular account of the proceeding against Merick, which is printed in the State Trials, vol. vii. p. 60, the matter is ftated thus: that the ftory of HENRY IV. being fet forth in a play, and in that play there being fet forth the killing of the king upon a ftage; the Friday before, Sir Gilly Merick and fome others of the earl's train having an humour to fee a play, they muft needs have the play of HENRY IV. The players told them, that was ftale; they fhould get nothing by playing that; but no play elfe would ferve: and Sir Gilly Merick gives forty fhillings to Philips the player to play this, befides whatsoever he could get."

Auguftine Philippes was one of the patentees of the Globe playhoufe with Shakspeare in 1603; but the play here defcribed was certainly not Shakspeare's HENRY IV. as that commences above a year after the death of Richard. TYRWHITT.

This play of Shakspeare was firft entered at Stationers' Hall by Andrew Wife, Aug. 29, 1597. STEEVENS.

It was written, I imagine, in the fame year.

2

MALONE.

thy oath and band,] When thefe publick challenges were accepted, each combatant found a pledge for his appearance at the time and place appointed. STEEVENS.

Band and Bond were formerly fynonymous. See vol. ii. p. 178. n. 7.

MALONE.

K. Rich.

K. Rich. Then call them to our prefence; face to face, And frowning brow to brow, ourfelves will hear The accufer, and the accufed, freely speak:

[Exeunt fome Attendants. High-ftomach'd are they both, and full of ire, In rage deaf as the fea, hafty as fire.

Re-enter Attendants, with BOLINGBROKE and NORFOLK.
Boling. Many years of happy days befal

My gracious fovereign, my moft loving liege!
Nor. Each day ftill better other's happiness;
Until the heavens, envying earth's good hap,
Add an immortal title to your crown!

K. Rich. We thank you both: yet one but flatters us, As well appeareth by the cause you come ;

Namely, to appeal each other of high treafon.-
Coufin of Hereford, what doft thou object

Against the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?

Boling. Firft, (heaven be the record to my speech!) In the devotion of a fubject's love,

Tendering the precious fafety of my prince,
And free from other mifbegotten hate,

Come I appellant to this princely prefence.-
Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee,
And mark my greeting well; for what I speak,
My body shall make good upon this earth,
Or my divine foul anfwer it in heaven.
Thou art a traitor, and a miscreant;
Too good to be fo, and too bad to live;
Since, the more fair and cryftal is the sky,
The uglier feem the clouds that in it fly.
Once more, the more to aggravate the note,
With a foul traitor's name ftuff I thy throat;
And with, (fo please my fovereign,) ere I move,

What my tongue fpeaks, my right-drawn 3 fword may

prove.

Ner. Let not my cold words here accuse

'Tis not the trial of a woman's war,

The bitter clamour of two eager tongues,

my zeal :

3 -right-drawn] Drawn in a right or juft caufe. JOHNSON.

B 3

Can

Can arbitrate this caufe betwixt us twain;
The blood is hot, that must be cool'd for this.
Yet can I not of fuch tame patience boast,
As to be hush'd, and nought at all to say:
First, the fair reverence of your highnefs curbs me
From giving reins and fpurs to my free speech;
Which elfe would poft, until it had return'd
These terms of treason doubled down his throat.
Setting afide his high blood's royalty,
And let him be no kinfman to my liege,
I do defy him, and I spit at him;

Call him-a flanderous coward, and a villain:
Which to maintain, I would allow him odds;
And meet him, were I ty'd to run a-foot
Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps,
Or any other ground inhabitable+
Where ever Englishman durft fet his foot.
Mean time, let this defend my loyalty,-
By all my hopes moft falfely doth he lie.

Boling. Pale trembling coward, there I throw my gage, Disclaiming here the kindred of a king;

And lay afide my high. blood's royalty,
Which fear, not reverence, makes thee to except:
If guilty dread hath left thee fo much strength,
As to take up mine honour's pawn, then stoop;
By that, and all the rites of knighthood elfe,
Will I make good against thee, arm to arm,
What I have spoke, or thou canst worfe devife.

Nor. I take it up; and, by that fword I fwear,
Which gently lay'd my knighthood on my shoulder,
I'll answer thee in any fair degree,

Or chivalrous defign of knightly trial:

And, when I mount, alive may I not light,
If I be traitor, or unjustly fight!

4

inhabitable] That is, not babitable, uninhabitable. JOHNSON. Ben Jonfon ufes the word in the fame fenfe in his Catiline:

"And pour'd on fome inhabitable place." STEEVENS. So alfo Braithwaite, in his Survey of Hiftories, 1614: "Others, in imitation of fome valiant knights, have frequented defarts and inhabited provinces." MALONE.

5

K. Rich