Thy very beadfmen learn to bend their bows
Of double-fatal yew against thy ftate;
Yea, distaff women manage rufty bills
Against thy feat: both young and old rebel,
And all goes worse than I have power to tell.

K. Rich. Too well, too well, thou tell'ft a tale fo ill.
Where is the earl of Wiltshire? where is Bagot?
What is become of Bufhy? where is Green 3?

That

Thy very beadfmen learn to bend their bows] Such is the reading of all the copies, yet I doubt whether beadfmen be right, for the bow feems to be mentioned here as the proper weapon of a beadfman. The king's beadfmen were his chaplains. Trevifa calls himself the beadfman of his patron. Beadfman 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 ftiff unwieldy arms, &c." so his "very beadfmen learn to bend their bows" against him. Their does not abfolutely denote that the bow was their ufual or proper weapon; but only taken up and appropriated by them on this occafion. PERCY. 2 Of double-fatal yew-] Called fo, because the leaves of the yew are poifon, and the wood is employed for inftruments of death. WARB. From fome of the ancient ftatutes it appears that every Englishman, while archery was practifed, was obliged to keep in his houfe either a bow of yew or fome other wood. It should seem therefore that yes were not only planted in church-yards to defend the churches from the wind, but on account of their ufe in making bows; while by the benefit of being fecured in enclosed places, their poisonous quality was kept from doing mifchief 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 Judaffes. But how was their peace made? Why, with the lofs of their heads. This being explained, Aumerle fays: Is Bufhy, Green, and the earl of Wilt-fbire dead? So that Bagot ought to be left out of the queftion: and, indeed, he had made the best of his way for Chefter, and from thence had efcaped into Ireland.

The poet could not be guilty of fo much forgetfulness and abfurdity. It seems probable to me that he wrote

Where is the Earl of Wiltshire? Where is be got? THEOBALD. This emendation Dr. Warburton adopts. Hanmer leaves a blank after Wiltshire. I believe the author, rather than tranfcriber, 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 ftrongly the pertur

That they have let the dangerous enemy
Measure our confines with fuch peaceful steps?
If we prevail, their heads fhall pay for it.

I warrant they have made peace with Bolingbroke.
Scroop. Peace have they made with him, indeed, my lord.
K. Rich. O villains, vipers, damn'd without redemption !
Dogs, eafily won to fawn on any man!

Snakes, in my heart-blood warm'd, that fting my heart!
Three Judaffes, each one thrice worse than Judas!
Would they make peace? terrible hell make war
Upon their spotted fouls for this offence!

Scroop. Sweet love, I fee, changing his property,
Turns to the fourest and most deadly hate:-

Again uncurfe their fouls; their peace is made

With heads, and not with hands: those whom you curse,
Have felt the worst of death's destroying wound,
And lie full low, grav'd in the hollow ground.

Aum. Is Bufhy, 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 fpeak:
Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;
Make duft our paper, and with rainy eyes
Write forrow on the bofom of the earth.
Let's choose executors, and talk of wills;
And yet not fo,-for what can we bequeath,
Save our depofed bodies to the ground?
Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke's,
And nothing can we call our own, but death;
And that imall model of the barren earth4,

bation of the king by making him inquire at firft for Bagot, whofe loy. alty, on further recollection, might thew him the impropriety of his queftion. MALONE.

4 And that mall model of the barren earth,] He ufes model for mould. That earth, which clofing upon the body, takes its form. This interpretation the next line feems to authorize. JOHNSON.

Shakspeare generally ufes model, not for an exemplar, but for a thing made after a pattern. So, in a former fcene of this play:

thou fee'ft 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 Minfhieu's DICT. in v. MALONE.

Which

Which ferves as paste and cover to our bones 5.
For heaven's fake, let us fit upon the ground,
And tell fad ftories of the death of kings:-
How fome have been depos'd, fome flain in war;
Some haunted by the ghosts they have depos'd;
Some poifon'd by their wives, fome fleeping kill'd;
All murder'd:-For within the hollow crown,
That rounds the mortal temples of a king,
Keeps death his court: and there the antick fits",
Scoffing his ftate, and grinning at his pomp ;
Allowing him a breath, a little scene

To monarchize, be fear'd, and kill with looks;
Infufing him with felf and vain conceit,-
As if this flesh, which walls about our life,
Were brafs impregnable; and, humour'd thus,
Comes at the laft, and with a little pin

Bores through his caftle wall, and-farewel king!
Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood
With folemn reverence; throw away refpect,
Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty.
For you have but mistook me all this while :
I live with bread like you, feel want, taste grief,
Need friends :-Subjected thus,

How can you fay to me-I am a king?

Car. My lord, wife men ne'er wail their present woes,

But prefently prevent the ways to wail.

To fear the foe, fince fear oppreffeth ftrength,

Gives, in your weaknefs, ftrength unto your foe,
And fo your follies fight against yourself.

Fear, and be flain; no worfe can come, to fight:
And fight and die, is death deftroying deaths:

5 Which ferves as pafte &c] A metaphor, not of the most sublime kind, taken from a pie. JOHNSON.

61

there the antick fits,] Here is an allufion to the antick or fool of old farces, whofe chief part is to deride and disturb the graver and more fplendid perfonages. JOHNSON.

1 Tradition,-] This word feems here used for traditional prafices & that is, eftablished or customary bomage. JOHNSON.

8 -death deftroying death:] That is, to die fighting, is to return the evil that we fufter, to deftroy the deftroyers. I once read-death defying death; but deftroying is as well. JOHNSON.

Where

Where fearing dying, pays death fervile breath.
Aum. My father hath a power, inquire of him;
And learn to make a body of a limb.

K. Rich. Thou chid'ft me well:-Proud Bolingbroke,
I come

To change blows with thee for our day of doom.
This ague-fit of fear is over-blown;

An eafy task it is, to win our own.

Say, Scroop, where lies our uncle with his power?
Speak fweetly, man, although thy looks be four.
Scroop. Men judge by the complexion of the sky
The state and inclination of the day :

So may you by my dull and heavy eye,

My tongue hath but a heavier tale to say.
I play the torturer, by small and small,

To lengthen out the worst that must be fpoken:-
Your uncle York hath join'd with Bolingbroke ;
And all your northern caftles yielded up,

And all your fouthern gentlemen in arms
Upon his party.

K. Rich. Thou haft faid enough.

Befhrew thee, coufin, which did lead me forth
Of that fweet way I was in to despair!

What fay you now? What comfort have we now?
By heaven, I'll hate him everlastingly,
That bids me be of comfort any more.
Go, to Flint caftle; there I'll pine away;
A king, woe's flave, fhall kingly woe obey.
That power I have, difcharge; and let them go
To ear the land that hath iome hope to grow,
For I have none :-Let no man speak again
To alter this, for counsel is but vain.
Aum. My liege, one word.

9 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 fubmit quietly to irrefiftible calamity, than these petty and conjectured comforts which unfkilful officioufnels 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.
Difcharge 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;
YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND, and Others.

Boling. So that by this intelligence we learn,
The Welshmen are difpers'd; and Salisbury
Is gone to meet the king, who lately landed,
With fome few private friends, upon this coaft.
North. The news is very fair and good, my lord;
Richard, not far from hence, hath hid his head.
York. It would befeem the lord Northumberland,
To fay-king Richard :-Alack the heavy day,
When fuch a facred king should hide his head!
North. Your grace mistakes; only to be brief,
Left I his title out.

York. The time hath been,

you

Would you have been fo brief with him, he would
Have been fo brief with you, to shorten you,
For taking fo the head, your whole head's length.
fhould.
Boling. Miftake not, uncle, further than
York. Take not, good coufin, further than you should,
Left you mif-take: The heavens are o'er your head.
Boling. I know it, uncle; and oppose not
Myself against their will.-But who comes here?

Enter PERCY.

Welcome, Harry; what, will not this caftle yield?
Percy. The castle royally is mann'd, my lord,

Against thy entrance.

2 For taking fo the bead,-] To take the bead is, to act without reftraint; to take undue liberties. We now fay, we give the horfe bis bead, when we relax the reins. JOHNSON.

Boling.