Is gone to meet the king, who lately landed, York. It would beseem the lord Northumberland, To say-King Richard:-Alack the heavy day, When such a sacred king should hide his head! North. Your grace mistakes me1; only to be brief, Left I his title out. York. The time hath been, Would you have been so brief with him, he would Have been so brief with you, to shorten you For taking so the head, your whole head's length. Boling. Mistake not, uncle,further than you should. York. Take not, good cousin, further than you should, Lest you mis-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. Well, Harry; what, will not this castle yield? 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, North. Belike, it is the bishop of Carlisle. 1 The word me, which is wanting in the old copies, was supplied by Hanmer. 2 The old copy reads Welcome, Harry:' the emendation is Hanmer's. Boling. Noble lord3, [To NORTH. Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle; Through brazen trumpet send the breath of parle Harry Bolingbroke power; On both his knees doth kiss King Richard's hand; Go, signify as much; while here we march [NORTHUMBERLAND advances to the Let's march without the noise of threat'ning drum, Of fire and water, when their thund'ring shock 3 Shakspeare frequently, in his addresses to persons, begins with an hemistich; and sometimes blends short prosaic sentences with his metrical dialogues. 4 Totter'd, the reading of the two first quartos, is here probably used for tottering, according to a frequent usage of our poet. The other copies read tatter'd. My waters; on the earth, and not on him. A Parley sounded, and answered by another Trumpet within. Flourish. Enter on the walls KING RICHARD, the Bishop of Carlisle, AUMERLE, SCROOP, and SALISBURY. York. See, see, King Richard doth himself appear3, When he perceives the envious clouds are bent K. Rich. We are amaz'd; and thus long have we stood To watch the fearful bending of thy knee, [To NORTHUMBERLAND. And though you think, that all, as you have done, 5 The six first lines of this speech are erroneously given to Bolingbroke in the old copies. Armies of pestilence; and they shall strike Her pastures' grass with faithful English blood. Be rush'd upon! Thy thrice-noble cousin, 6 Shakspeare uses the word testament in its legal sense. Bolingbroke come to open the testament of war, that he may peruse what is decreed there in his favour. Purple is an epithet referring to the future effusion of blood. Thus in Julius Cæsar: 'Now while your purpled hands do reek and smoke.' 7 i. e. England's flowery face, the flowery surface of England's soil. The same mode of expression is used in Sidney's Arcadia, p. 2: Opening the cherry of her lips,' i. e. her cherry lips. Again, p. 240, ed. 1633:-' The sweet and beautiful flower of her face. And Drayton, in Mortimer's Epistle to Queen Isabel :And in the field advance our plumy crest, And march upon fair England's flow'ry breast.' There is a similar image in the first part of King Henry IV. Sc. 1: No more the thirsty entrance of the soil Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood.' And by the worth and honour of himself, This swears he, as he is a prince, is just; K. Rich. Northumberland, say,-thus the king His noble cousin is right welcome hither; [To AUMERLE. Aum. No, good my lord; let's fight with gentle words, Till time lend friends, and friends their helpful swords. K. Rich. O God! O God! that e'er this tongue of mine, That laid the sentence of dread banishment On yon proud man, should take it off again 8 Commend for commit. Vide Macbeth, vol. iv. p. 234, note 3. 9 Sooth is sweet, as well as true. In this place sooth means sweetness or softness. Thus to sooth still means to calm and sweeten the mind. |