Boling. Royally! Why, it contains no king?
Percy. Yes, my good lord,

It doth contain a king; king Richard lies
Within the limits of yon lime and stone:

And with him are the lord Aumerle, lord Salisbury,
Sir Stephen Scroop: befides a clergyman
Of holy reverence, who, I cannot learn.
North. Belike it is the bishop of Carlisle.
Boling. Noble lord,

Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle;
Through brazen trumpet fend the breath of parle
Into his ruin'd ears, and thus deliver.

Harry Bolingbroke,

[to North.

On both his knees, doth kifs king Richard's hand;
And fends allegiance, and true faith of heart,
To his moft royal perfon: hither come
Even at his feet to lay my arms and power;
Provided that, my banishment repeal'd,
And lands reftor'd again, be freely granted:
If not, I'll ufe the advantage of my power,
And lay the fummer's duft with fhowers of blood,
Rain'd from the wounds of flaughter'd Englishmen:
The which, how far off from the mind of Bolingbroke
It is, fuch crimson tempeft fhould bedrench

The fresh green lap of fair king Richard's land,
My ftooping duty tenderly fhall fhew.
Go, fignify as much; while here we march

Upon the graffy carpet of this plain.—

[North. advances to the Caftle, with a Trumpet. Let's march without the noife of threat'ning drum, That from the caftle's totter'd battlements Our fair appointments may be well perus'd. Methinks, king Richard and myself should meet With no less terror than the elements Of fire and water, when their thund'ring fhock At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven. Be he the fire, I'll be the yielding water: The rage be his, while on the earth I rain

5

My

My waters; on the earth, and not on him.

March on, and mark king Richard how he looks.

A parle founded, and anfwered by another trumpet within. Flourish. Enter on the walls King RICHARD, the biShop of Carlile3, AUMERLE, SCROOP, and SA

LISBURY.

York. See, fee, king Richard dot's himself appear *, As doth the blushing difcontented fun

From out the fiery portal of the eaft;

When he perceives, the envious clouds are bent
To dim his glory, and to ftain the track
Of his bright paffage to the occident.
Yet looks he like a king; behold, his eye,
As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth
Controlling majefty: Alack, alack, for woe,
That any harm should stain so fair a show!

[to North.

K. Rich. We are amaz'd; and thus long have we stood
To watch the fearful bending of thy knee,
Because we thought ourself thy lawful king:
And if we be, how dare thy joints forget
To pay their awful duty to our prefence?
If we be not, fhew us the hand of God
That hath dismiss'd us from our stewardship;
For well we know, no hand of blood and bone
Can gripe the facred handle of our scepter,
Unless he do profane, fteal, or ufurp.

And though you think, that all, as you have done,
Have torn their fouls, by turning them from us,
And we are barren, and bereft of friends ;-
Yet know, my mafter, God omnipotent,
Is muft'ring in his clouds, on our behalf,
Armies of peftilence; and they shall strike
Your children yet unborn, and unbegot,
That lift your vaffal hands against my head,

3—

the bishop of Carlifle,] was Thomas Merkes. WALPOLE. 4 See, fee, king Richard doth bimfelf appear,] This and the following five lines are given in the old copies to Bolingbroke. The prefent regulation was made by Dr. Warburton. MALONE.

And

And threat the glory of my precious crown.
Tell Bolingbroke, (for yond', methinks, he is,)
That every ftride he makes upon my land,
Is dangerous treafon : He is come to ope
The purple teftament of bleeding war 5;
But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,
Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' fons
Shall ill become the flower of England's face;
Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace 7

To

5 The purple teftament of bleeding war:] I once thought that Shakfpeare might have had the facred book (which is frequently covered with purple leather) in his thoughts; but the following note renders fuch a fuppofition extremely doubtful. MALONE.

I believe our author ufes the word teftament in its legal fenfe. Bolingbroke is come to open the teftament of war, that he may peruse what is decreed there in his favour. Purple is an epithet referring to the future effufion of blood. STEEVENS.

6 But ere the crown be looks for live in peace,

Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' fons

Shall ill become the flower of England's face;] By the flower of England's face is meant the choiceft youths of England, who fhall be flaughtered in this quarrel, or have bloody crowns. The flower of England's face, to defign her choiceft youth, is a fine and noble expreffion. Pericles, by a fimilar thought, faid that the deftruction of the Athenian youth was a fatality like cutting off the fpring from the year." WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton reads-light in peace, but live in peace is more fuitable to Richard's intention, which is to tell him, that though he should get the crown by rebellion, it will be long before it will live in peace, be fo fettled as to be firm. The flower of England's face, is very happily explained. JOHNSON.

The flower of England's face, I believe, means England's flowery face, the flowery furface of England's foil. The fame kind of expreffion is ufed in Sidney's Arcadia, p. 2: "-opening the cherry of her lips," i. e. her cherry lips. Again, p. 240. edit. 1633: “— -the fweet and beautiful flower of ber face. STEEVENS.

7 Shall ill become the flower of England's face;

Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace &c.] Perhaps the words fate and peace have changed places. We might read- (but I propofe the change with no degree of confidence,)

But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,
Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' fons
Shall ill become the flower of England's peace;
Change the complexion of her maid-pale face
To fcarlet indignation.

To fcarlet indignation, and bedew

Her paftures' grafs with faithful English blood.
North. The King of heaven forbid, our lord the king
Should fo with civil and uncivil arms

Be rufh'd upon! Thy thrice-noble coufin,

Harry Bolingbroke, doth humbly kifs thy hand,
And by the honourable tomb he fwears,
That ftands upon thy royal grandfire's bones;
And by the royalties of both your bloods,
Currents that spring from one moft gracious head;
And by the bury'd hand of warlike Gaunt ;
And by the worth and honour of himself,
Comprifing all that may be fworn or said,-
His coming hither hath no further scope,
Than for his lineal royalties, and to beg
Enfranchisement immediate on his knees:
Which on thy royal party granted once,
His glittering arms he will commend * to rust,
His barbed feeds to ftables, and his heart
To faithful fervice of your Majesty.

This fwears he, as he is a prince, is juft;
And, as I am a gentleman, I credit him.
K.

Rich.Northumberland,fay,-thus the king returns;

His noble coufin is right welcome hither;

And all the number of his fair demands

Ere the crown be bopes to obtain be fettled peaceably on bis bead, ten thoufand crowns, befmeared with blood, fhall disfigure the flower of the peaceable nobility of England; and caufe her maid-pale countenance to glow with indignation, &c. The double oppofition between crown and is much in our author's manner. In King Richard III. we have "That would with treafon wound this fair land's peace."

and in King Henry IV. P. I.

"You conjure from the breaft of civil peace
"Such bold hoftility."

Peace has already been perfonified in a former scene:

"To wake our peace, which in our country's cradle
"Draws the fweet infant breath of gentle fleep."

peace

But thefe lines, it must be owned, add as much fupport to the old reading, as to the emendation propofed. MALONE.

8 Her paftures' grafs-] Old Copies-paftors. Corrected by Mr. Theobald. MALONE.

— commend—] i. e. commit. See Mintheu's Dict. in v. MALONE. VOL. V. F

Shall

Shall be accomplish'd without contradiction:
With all the gracious utterance thou haft,
Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends.-
We do debafe ourself, coufin, do we not,
To look fo poorly, and to fpeak fo fair?
Shall we call back Northumberland, and fend
Defiance to the traitor, and fo die?

[To Aum.

Aum. No, my good lord; let's fight with gentle words Till time lend friends, and friends their helpful fwords. K. Rich. O God! o God! that e'er this tongue of mine,

That laid the sentence of dread banishment

On yon proud man, fhould take it off again
With words of footh! O, that I were as great
As is my grief, or leffer than my name!
Or that I could forget what I have been!
Or not remember what I must be now!

Swell'ft thou, proud heart? I'll give thee scope to beat,
Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me.

Aum. Northumberland comes back from Bolingbroke. K. Rich. What must the king do now? Must he submit? The king fhall do it. Muft he be depos'd? The king fhall be contented: Muft he lose The name of king? o'God's name, let it go: I'll give my jewels for a set of beads; My gorgeous palace, for a hermitage; My gay apparel, for an alms-man's gown; My figur'd goblets, for a difh of wood; My fcepter, for a palmer's walking staff; My fubjects, for a pair of carved faints; And my large kingdom for a little grave:A little little grave, an obfcure grave:

1

9 With words of footb! -] Sooth is fweet as well as true. In this place footb means fweetness or foftness, a fignification yet retained in the verb to footb. JOHNSON.

1 My gay apparel, &c.] Dr. Grey obferves, "that king Richard's expence in regard to drefs, was very extraordinary." Holinfhed has the fame remark; and adds, that "he had one cote which he caufed to be made for him of gold and ftone, valued at 30,000 marks." STEEV Stowe, in his Survey, fays, "to the value of three thousand markes.” So alfo in VitaRicardi Secundi, published by T. Hearne, p. 156.MALONE,

5