Thy very beadsmen learn to bend their bows1 K. Rich. Too well, too well, thou tell'st a tale so ill. Where is the earl of Wiltshire? where is Bagot? 1 That Thy very beadsmen learn to bend their bows] Such is the reading of all the copies, yet I doubt whether beadsmen be right, for the bow seems to be mentioned here as the proper weapon of a beadsman. The king's beadsmen were his chaplains. Trevisa calls himself the beadsman of his patron. Beadsman might likewife be any man maintained by charity to pray for his benefactor. JOHNSON. The reading of the text is right enough: As "boys strive to speak big, and clafp their effeminate joints in stiff unwieldy arms, &c." fo his "very beadsmen learn to bend their bows" against him. Their does not abfolutely denote that the bow was their usual or proper weapon; but only taken up and appropriated by them on this occafion. PERCY. 2 Of double-fatal yew-] Called so, because the leaves of the yew are poifon, and the wood is employed for instruments of death. WARE. From fome of the ancient statutes it appears that every Englishman, while archery was practised, was obliged to keep in his house either a bow of yew or fome other wood. It should seem therefore that yeus were not only planted in church-yards to defend the churches from the wind, but on account of their use in making bows; while by the benefit of being fecured in enclosed places, their poisonous quality was kept from doing mischief to cattle. STEEVENS. 3 Where is the earl of Wiltshire? where is Bagot? What is become of Bushy? where is Green? Here are four of them named; and, within a very few lines, the king, hearing they had made their peace with Bolingbroke, calls them three Judasses. But how was their peace made? Why, with the loss of their heads. This being explained, Aumerle says: Is Bufpy, Green, and the earl of Wilt- Shire dead? So that Bagot ought to be left out of the question: and, indeed, he had made the best of his way for Chester, and from thence had escaped into Ireland. The poet could not be guilty of fo much forgetfulness and abfurdity. It feems probable to me that he wrote Where is the Earl of Wiltshire ? Where is he got? THEOBALD. This emendation Dr. Warburton adopts. Hanmer leaves a blank after Wiltshire. I believe the author, rather than transcriber, made a mistake. Where is be got does not found in my ear like an expreffion of Shakspeare. JOHNSON. Perhaps Shakspeare intended to mark more strongly the pertur That they have let the dangerous enemy Scroop. Peace have they made with him, indeed, my lord. K. Rich. O villains, vipers, damn'd without redemption ! Dogs, easily won to fawn on any man! Snakes, in my heart-blood warm'd, that sting my heart! Scroop. Sweet love, I fee, changing his property, Aum. Is Bushy, Green, and the earl of Wiltshire, dead? Scroop. Yea, all of them at Bristol loft their heads. Aum. Where is the duke my father with his power? K. Rich. No matter where; of comfort no man speak: Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs; Make duft our paper, and with rainy eyes Write forrow on the bosom of the earth. Let's choose executors, and talk of wills; And yet not fo, -for what can we bequeath, Save our deposed bodies to the ground? Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke's, And nothing can we call our own, but death; And that small model of the barren earth4, bation of the king by making him inquire at first for Bagot, whose loy. alty, on further recollection, might thew him the impropriety of his question. MALONE. 4 And that small model of the barren earth,] He uses model for mould. That earth, which clofing upon the body, takes its form. This interpretation the next line feems to authorize. JOHNSON. Shakspeare generally uses model, not for an exemplar, but for a thing made after a pattern. So, in a former scene of this play: - thou fee'st thy wretched brother die, "Who was the model of thy father's life." See Vol. III. p. 443, n. 6. Model, however, may be used for mould. See Minshieu's DICT. in v. MALONE. Which ferves as paste and cover to our bones 5. How can you fay to me I am a king? Car. My lord, wife men ne'er wail their present woes, But presently prevent the ways to wail. To fear the foe, fince fear oppresseth strength, Gives, in your weakness, strength unto your foe, And fo your follies fight against yourself. Fear, and be flain; no worse can come, to fight: And fight and die, is death destroying death 8: 5 Which serves as pafte &c] A metaphor, not of the most sublime kind, taken from a pie. JOHNSON. 6 - there the antick fits, Here is an allufion to the antick or fool of old farces, whose chief part is to deride and disturb the graver and more splendid perfonages. JOHNSON. 1 Tradition,-] This word seems here used for traditional praFices & that is, eftablished or customary bomage. JOHNSON. 8 -death destroying death:] That is, to die fighting, is to return the evil that we fuffer, to destroy the destroyers. I once read-death defying death; but destroying is as well. JOHNSON. Where Where fearing dying, pays death servile breath. K. Rich. Thou chid'st me well:-Proud Bolingbroke, I come To change blows with thee for our day of doom. Say, Scroop, where lies our uncle with his power? So may you by my dull and heavy eye, K. Rich. Thou hast said enough.- Aum. My liege, one word. - I'll bate bim everlastingly, That bids me be of comfort-] This fentiment is drawn from nature. Nothing is more offenfive to a mind convinced that its distress is without a remedy, and preparing to submit quietly to irresistible calamity, than these petty and conjectured comforts which unskilful officiousness thinks it virtue to adminifter. JOHNSON. • To ear the land] i. e. to plough it. STEEVENS. K. Rich. K. Rich. He does me double wrong, That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue. Discharge my followers, let them hence; -Away, From Richard's night, to Bolingbroke's fair day. [Exeunt. SCENE III. Wales. Before Flint Castle. Enter with drum and colours, BOLINGBROKE, and forces Boling. So that by this intelligence we learn, York. The time hath been, Enter PERCY. Welcome, Harry; what, will not this castle yield? Againit thy entrance. 2 For taking so the bead,-] To take the bead is, to act without restraint; to take undue libertes. We now fay, we give the horse bis bead, when we relax the reins. JOHNSON. 1 Boling. |