York. Show me thy humble heart, and not thy knee, Whose duty is deceivable and false. Boling. My gracious uncle ! York. Tut, tut! Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle5: I am no traitor's uncle; and that word-grace, Why have those banish'd and forbidden legs march So many miles upon her peaceful bosom; Com'st thou because the anointed king is hence? young 5 In Romeo and Juliet we have the same kind of phraseology :Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds.' Perhaps Shakspeare here uses despised for hated or hateful Sir Thomas Hanmer changed it to despiteful, but the old copies all agree in reading despised. Shakspeare uses the word again in a singular sense in Othello, Act i. Sc. 1, where Brabantio exclaims upon the loss of his daughter : arms? what's to come of my despised time Is nought but bitterness.' It has been suggested that despised is used to denote the general contempt in which the British held the French forces. The duke of Bretagne furnished Bolingbroke with three thousand French soldiers.' Boling. My gracious uncle, let me know my fault; On what condition stands it, and wherein? York. Even in condition of the worst degree,In gross rebellion, and detested treason: Thou art a banish'd man, and here art come, Before the expiration of thy time, In braving arms against thy sovereign. Boling. As I was banish'd, I was banish'd' Hereford; But as I come, I come for Lancaster, Look on my wrongs And yet my letters patent give me leave: 7 Indifferent is impartial. The instances of this use of the word among the poet's contemporaries are very numerous. So, in King Henry VIII. Act ii. Sc. 4, Queen Katharine says:— 'Born out of your dominions, having here No judge indifferent.' See Baret's Alvearie, in letter I, 108, where he translates 'Aequus judex, a just and indifferent judge; nothing partial.' 8 Wrongs is probably here used for wrongers. 9 See the former scene, p. 32, note 5. What would you have me do? I am a subject, Το my inheritance of free descent. North. The noble duke hath been too much abus'd. Ross. It stands your grace upon 10 to do him right. Willo. Base men by his endowments are made great. York. My lords of England, let me tell you this,-I have had feeling of my cousin's wrongs, And labour'd all I could to do him right: But in this kind to come, in braving arms, Be his own carver, and cut out his way, To find out right with wrong,-it may not be; And you, that do abet him in this kind, Cherish rebellion, and are rebels all. North. The noble duke hath sworn, his coming is But for his own: and, for the right of that, We all have strongly sworn to give him aid; And let him ne'er see joy, that breaks that oath. York. Well, well, I see the issue of these arms; I cannot mend it, I must needs confess, Because my power is weak, and all ill left: But, if I could, by him that gave me life, I would attach you all, and make you stoop 10 Steevens explains the phrase, ' It stands your grace upon,' to mean, it is your interest; it is matter of consequence to you.' But hear Baret, The heyre is bound; the heyre ought, or it is the heyre's part to defend; it standeth him upon; or is in his charge. Incumbit defensio mortis hæredi.' The phrase is therefore equivalent to it is incumbent upon your grace. Shakspeare uses it again in King Richard III: : To stop all hopes whose growth may danger me.' Sir N. Throckmorton, writing to Queen Elizabeth, says, 'Howsoever things do fall out, it standeth your majestie so uppon, for your own suretie and reputation to be well ware,' &c.-Conway Papers. Vide Hamlet, Act v. Sc. 2. Unto the sovereign mercy of the king; Boling. An offer, uncle, that we will accept. Which I have sworn to weed, and pluck away. For I am loath to break our country's laws. 11. [Exeunt. SCENE IV1. A Camp in Wales. Enter SALISBURY2, and a Captain. Cap. My lord of Salisbury, we have staid ten days, And hardly kept our countrymen together, And yet we hear no tidings from the king; Sal. Stay yet another day, thou trusty Welshman: The king reposeth all his confidence In thee. Cap. 'Tis thought, the king is dead: we will not stay. The bay-trees in our country are all wither'd3, Should be without regard.' Macbeth. 1 Johnson thought this scene had been by some accident transposed, and that it should stand as the second scene in the third act. 2 John Montacute, earl of Salisbury. 3 This enumeration of prodigies is in the highest degree poetical and striking. The poet received the hint from Holinshed: And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven; The other, to enjoy by rage and war: These signs forerun the death or fall of kings.— Fall to the base earth from the firmament! [Exit. ACT III. SCENE I. Bolingbroke's Camp at Bristol. Enter BOLINGBROKE, YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, WILLOUGHBY, Ross: Officers behind with BUSHY and GREEN, prisoners. Boling. Bring forth these men.— Bushy and Green, I will not vex your souls (Since presently your souls must part your bodies), With too much urging your pernicious lives, 'In this yeare, in a manner throughout all the realme of Englande, old baie trees withered,' &c. This, as it appears from T. Lupton's Syxt Booke of Notable Things, bl. 4to. was esteemed a bad omen. Neyther falling sickness, neyther devyll, wyll infest or hurt one in that place whereas a bay tree is. The Romaynes call it the plant of the good angel,' &c. See also Evelyn's Sylva, 4to. 1776, p. 396. |