Aum. Who sets me else? by heaven, I'll throw

at all:

I have a thousand spirits in one breast,
To answer twenty thousand such as you.

Surrey. My Lord Fitzwater, I do remember well The very time Aumerle and you did talk.

Fitz. 'Tis very true: you were in presence then; And you can witness with me, this is true. Surrey. As false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true. Fitz. Surrey, thou liest.

Surrey.

Dishonourable boy! That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword,

That it shall render

vengeance and revenge,
Till thou the lie-giver, and that lie, do lie
In earth as quiet as thy father's scull.
In proof whereof, there is my honour's pawn;
Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st.

Fitz. How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse! If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live,

I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness 8,
And spit upon him, whilst I say, he lies,
And lies, and lies: there is my bond of faith,
To tie thee to my strong correction.-
As I intend to thrive in this new world 9,
Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal:

probably means 'I lay the burthen of my pledge upon the earth to the like purpose,' accompanying the words by throwing his mailed glove to the ground. Some of the quartos read take.

7 A thousand hearts are great within my bosom."

King Richard III. 8 I dare meet him where no help can be had by me against him. So in Macbeth :

And dare me to the desert with thy sword.'

Thus also in The Lover's Progress, by Beaumont and Fletcher :'Maintain thy treason with thy sword? with what Contempt I hear it! in a wilderness

I durst encounter it.'

9 i. e. in this world, where I have just begun to be an actor. Surrey has just called him boy.

Besides, I heard the banish'd Norfolk say,
That thou, Aumerle, didst send two of thy men
To execute the noble duke at Calais.

Aum. Some honest Christian trust me with a gage,
That Norfolk lies: here do I throw down this 10,
If he may be repeal'd to try his honour.

Boling. These differences shall all rest under gage, Till Norfolk be repeal'd: repeal'd he shall be, And, though mine enemy, restor'd again

To all his land and signories; when he's return'd, Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial.

Car. That honourable day shall ne'er be seen.— Many a time hath banish'd Norfolk fought For Jesu Christ; in glorious Christian field Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross, Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens : And, toil'd with works of war, retir'd himself To Italy; and there, at Venice, gave His body to that pleasant country's earth11, And his pure soul unto his captain Christ, Under whose colours he had fought so long. Boling. Why, bishop, is Norfolk dead? Car. As sure as I live, my lord.

11

· Boling. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to

the bosom

Of good old Abraham!-Lords appellants,
Your differences shall all rest under gage,
Till we assign you to your days of trial.

Enter YORK, attended.

York. Great duke of Lancaster, I come to thee From plume-pluck'd Richard; who with willing soul Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields

10 Holinshed says that on this occasion he threw down a hood that he had borrowed.

11 This is not historically true. The duke of Norfolk's death did not take place till after Richard's murder.

To the possession of thy royal hand:

Ascend his throne, descending now from him,And long live Henry, of that name the fourth! Boling. In God's name, I'll ascend the regal throne 12

Car. Marry, God forbid !

Worst in this royal presence, may I speak,
Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth.
Would God, that any in this noble presence
Were enough noble to be upright judge
Of noble Richard; then true nobless 13 would
Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.
What subject can give sentence on his king?
And who sits here, that is not Richard's subject?
Thieves are not judg'd, but they are by to hear,
Although apparent guilt be seen in them:
And shall the figure of God's majesty 14,
His captain, steward, deputy elect,
Anointed, crowned, planted many years,
Be judg'd by subject and inferior breath,
And he himself not present? O, forbid 15 it, God,
That, in a Christian climate, souls refin'd

12 Hume gives the words that Henry actually spoke on this occasion, which he copied from Knyghton, and accompanies them by a very ingenious commentary.-Hist. of Eng. 4to ed. vol. ix. p. 50.

13 i. e. nobleness; a word now obsolete, but common in Shakspeare's time.

14 This speech, which contains in the most express terms the doctrine of passive obedience, is founded upon Holinshed's account. The sentiments would not in the reign of Elizabeth or James have been regarded as novel or unconstitutional. It is observable that usurpers are as ready to avail themselves of divine right as lawful sovereigns; to dwell upon the sacredness of their persons, and the sanctity of their character. Even that 'cutpurse of the empire,' Claudius, in Hamlet, affects to believe that

such divinity doth hedge a king.'

15 The quarto reads forfend.

VOL. V.

Should show so heinous, black, obscene a deed!
I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks,
Stirr'd up by heaven, thus boldly for his king.
My lord of Hereford here, whom you call king,
Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford's king:
And if you crown him, let me prophesy,—
The blood of English shall manure the ground,
And future ages groan for this foul act;
Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels,
And, in this seat of peace, tumultuous wars
Shall kin with kin, and kind with kind confound:
Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny

Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd
The field of Golgotha, and dead men's sculls.
O, if
you rear 16 this house against this house,

It will the wofullest division prove,

That ever fell upon this cursed earth:
Prevent, resist it, let it not be so,

Lest child's child's children17 cry against you-woe! North. Well have you argu'd, sir; and, for your pains,

Of capital treason we arrest you here:—
My lord of Westminster, be it your charge
To keep him safely till his day of trial.—

May't please you, lords, to grant the commons' suit18.
Boling. Fetch hither Richard, that in common view
He may surrender; so we shall proceed
Without suspicion.

16 The quarto reads raise.

17 i. e. grandchildren. Pope altered it to 'children's children,' and was followed by others. The old copies read, 'Lest child, childs children.'

18 What follows, almost to the end of the act, is not found in the first two quartos. The addition was made in the quarto of 1608. In the quarto, 1597, after the words 'his day of trial,' the scene thus closes :

Bol. Let it be so: and lo! on Wednesday next
We solemnly proclaim our coronation.

Lords, be ready all.'

York.

I will be his conduct 19. [Exit.

Boling. Lords, you that are here under our arrest, Procure your sureties for your days of answer :Little are we beholden to your love,

[To CAR. And little look'd for at your helping hands.

Re-enter YORK, with KING RICHARD, and Officers bearing the Crown, &c.

K. Rich. Alack, why am I sent for to a king, Before I have shook off the regal thoughts Wherewith I reign'd? I hardly yet have learn'd To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my knee 20:Give sorrow leave a while to tutor me To this submission. Yet I well remember The favours 21 of these men: Were they not mine? Did they not sometime cry, all hail! to me? So Judas did to Christ: but he, in twelve,

Found truth in all but one; I, in twelve thousand,

none.

God save the king!-Will no man say, amen?
Am I both priest and clerk? well then, amen.
God save the king! although I be not he:
And yet, amen, if heaven do think him me.-
To do what service am I sent for hither?

York. To do that office, of thine own good will,
Which tired majesty did make thee offer,
The resignation of thy state and crown
To Henry Bolingbroke.

K. Rich. Give me the crown;-Here, cousin,

seize the crown;

On this side, my hand; and on that side, yours.
Now is this golden crown like a deep well,
22 two buckets filling one another;

That owes

19 i. e. conductor. So in King Henry VI. Part II. :— 'Although thou hast been conduct of my shame.'

20 The quarto reads limbs.

21 Countenances, features.

22′ Owns.