Her knots disorder'd, and her wholesome herbs Swarming with caterpillars?

Gard.

Hold thy peace :

He that hath suffer'd this disorder'd spring,
Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf:

The weeds, that his broad-spreading leaves did shelter,

That seem'd in eating him to hold him up,
Are pluck'd up, root and all, by Bolingbroke;
I mean, the earl of Wiltshire, Bushy, Green.
1 Serv. What, are they dead?

Gard.
They are; and Bolingbroke
Hath seiz'd the wasteful king.-Oh! What pity is it,
That he had not so trimm'd and dress'd his land,
As we this garden! We at time of year
Do wound the bark, the skin of our fruit trees;
Lest, being over-proud with sap and blood,
With too much riches it confound itself:
Had he done so to great and growing men,
They might have liv'd to bear, and he to taste
Their fruits of duty. All superfluous branches
We lop away, that bearing boughs may live:
Had he done so, himself had borne the crown,
Which waste of idle hours hath quite thrown down.
1 Serv. What think you then, the king shall be
depos'd?

Gard. Depress'd he is already; and depos'd, "Tis doubt9, he will be; Letters came last night

7 Knots are figures planted in box, the lines of which frequently intersected each other in the old fashion of gardening. So Milton:

Flowers worthy Paradise, which not nice art

In beds and curious knots, but nature boon

Pour'd forth.'

8 We is not in the old copy. It was added by Malone. 9 This uncommon phraseology has already occurred in the pre

sent play

To a dear friend of the good duke of York's,
That tell black tidings.

Queen.

O, I am press'd to death, Through want of speaking!-Thou, old Adam's likeness, [Coming from her concealment.

Set to dress this garden, how dares

Thy harsh-rude tongue sound this unpleasing news?
What Eve, what serpent hath suggested thee
To make a second fall of cursed man?

Why dost thou say, King Richard is depos'd?
Dar'st thou, thou little better thing than earth,
Divine his downfal? Say, where, when, and how,
Cam'st thou by these ill tidings? speak, thou wretch.
Gard. Pardon me, madam: little joy have I,
To breathe this news; yet, what I say is true.
King Richard, he is in the mighty hold

Of Bolingbroke: their fortunes both are weigh'd:
In your lord's scale is nothing but himself,
And some few vanities that make him light;
But in the balance of great Bolingbroke,
Besides himself, are all the English peers,
And with that odds he weighs King Richard down,
Post you to London, and you'll find it so;
I speak no more than every one doth know.

Queen. Nimble mischance, that art so light of foot, Doth not thy embassage belong to me,

And am I last that knows it? O, thou think'st
To serve me last, that I may longest keep
Thy sorrow in my breast.-Come, ladies, go,
To meet at London London's king in woe.-
What, was I born to this! that my sad look
Should grace the triumph of great Bolingbroke?—
Gardener, for telling me this news of woe,

I would, the plants thou graft'st, may never grow.
[Exeunt Queen and Ladies,

Gard. Poor queen! so that thy state might be no

worse,

I would, my skill were subject to thy curse.-
Here did she drop 10 a tear; here, in this place,
I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace:
Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen,
In the remembrance of a weeping queen. [Exeunt.

ACT IV.

SCENE I. London. Westminster Hall 1.

The Lords spiritual on the right side of the Throne; the Lords temporal on the left; the Commons below. Enter BOLINGBROKE, AUMERLE, SURREY, NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, FITZWATER, another Lord, Bishop of Carlisle, Abbot of Westminster, and Attendants. Officers behind, with Bagot.

Boling. Call forth Bagot :

Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind;

What thou dost know of noble Gloster's death; Who wrought it with the king, and who perform'd The bloody office of his timeless3 end.

10 The quarto of 1597 reads fall. The quarto of 1598 and the folio read drop.

1 The rebuilding of Westminster Hall, which Richard had begun in 1397, being finished in 1399, the first meeting of parliament in the new edifice was for the purpose of deposing him.

2 Thomas Holland, earl of Kent, brother to John Holland, earl of Exeter, was created duke of Surrey in 1597. He was half brother to the king, by his mother Joan, who married Edward the Black Prince after the death of her second husband Thomas Lord Holland.

3 i. e. untimely. Vide note on King Henry VI. Part 1. Act v. Sc. 4.

Bagot. Then set before my face the Lord Aumerle. Boling. Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that

man.

Bagot. My Lord Aumerle, I know, your daring tongue

Scorns to unsay what once it hath deliver'd.
In that dead time when Gloster's death was plotted,
I heard you say,—Is not my arm of length,
That reacheth from the restful English court
As far as Calais, to my uncle's head?
Amongst much other talk, that very time,
I heard you say, that you had rather refuse
The offer of a hundred thousand crowns,
Than Bolingbroke's return to England;
Adding withal, how blest this land would be,
In this your cousin's death.

Aum.

Princes, and noble lords, What answer shall I make to this base man? Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars*, On equal terms to give him chastisement? Either I must, or have mine honour soil'd With the attainder of his sland'rous lips.There is my gage, the manual seal of death, That marks thee out for hell; I say, thou liest, And will maintain, what thou hast said, is false, In thy heart-blood, though being all too base, To stain the temper of my knightly sword.

Boling. Bagot, forbear, thou shalt not take it up. Aum. Excepting one, I would he were the best In all this presence, that hath mov'd me so.

4 The birth is supposed to be influenced by stars; therefore the poet, with his allowed licence, takes stars for birth. We learn from Pliny's Nat. Hist. that the vulgar error assigned the bright est and fairest stars to the rich and great:- Sidera singulis attributa nobis, et clara divitibus, minora pauperibus,' &c.lib. i. c. viii.

Fitz. If that thy valour stand on sympathies 5, There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine: By that fair sun that shows me where thou stand'st, I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spak'st it, That thou wert cause of noble Gloster's death. If thou deny'st it, twenty times thou liest; And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart, Where it was forged, with my rapier's point.

Aum. Thou dar'st not, coward, live to see that day. Fitz. Now, by my soul, I would it were this hour. Aum. Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this. Percy. Aumerle, thou liest; his honour is as true, In this appeal, as thou art all unjust: And, that thou art so, there I throw my gage, To prove it on thee to the extremest point Of mortal breathing; seize it, if thou dar'st. Aum. And if I do not, may my hands rot off, And never brandish more revengeful steel Over the glittering helmet of my foe!

Lord. I task the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle; And spur thee on with full as many lies

As may be holla'd in thy treacherous ear
From sun to sun6: there is my honour's pawn;
Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st.

This is a translated sense much harsher than that of stars, explained in the preceding note. Fitzwater throws down his gage as a pledge of battle, and tells Aumerle that if he stands upon sympathies, that is upon equality of blood, the combat is now offered him by a man of rank not inferior to his own. Sympathy is an affection incident at once to two subjects. This community of affection implies a likeness or equality of nature; and hence the poet transferred the term to equality of blood.

6 i. e. from sunrise to sunset. So in Cymbeline:

Imo. How many score of miles may we well ride

'Twixt hour and hour?

Pisa. One score 'twixt sun and sun,

Madam, 's enough for you, and too much too.'

The old quartos read Twixt sin and sin.' The emendation is Steevens's. This speech is not in the folio. I task the earth'