Save men's opinions, and my living blood,-- This, and much more, much more than twice all this, Condemns you to the death :-See them deliver'd over To execution and the hand of death. Bushy. More welcome is the stroke of death to me, Than Bolingbroke to England.-Lords, farewell. Green. My comfort is,--that heaven will take our souls, And plague injustice with the pains of hell. Boling. My lord Northumberland, see them despatch'd. [Exeunt NORTHUMBERLAND and others with Uncle, you say, the queen is at your house; Boling. Thanks, gentle uncle.-Come, lords, away; SCENE II. The Coast of Wales. A Castle in view. [Exeunt. Flourish: Drums and Trumpets. Enter King RICHARD, Bishop of Carlisle, AUMERLE, and Soldiers. K. Rich. Barkloughly castle call you this at hand? Aum. Yea, my lord: How brooks your grace the air, After late tossing on the breaking seas? weep for joy, K. Rich. Needs must I like it well; I Plays fondly with her tears, and smiles in meeting [8] Here may be properly inserted the last scene of the 2d act. JOHNSON. And heavy-gated toads, lie in their way; And when they from thy bosom pluck a flower, Bishop. Fear not, my lord; that Power that made you king, Hath power to keep you king, in spite of all. Aum. He means, my lord, that we are too remiss; Grows strong and great, in substance, and in friends. The cloak of night being pluck'd from off their backs, [9] It is not easy to point out an image more striking and beautiful than this, in any poet, whether ancient or modern. STEEVENS. 9 VOL. V. F 2 Can wash the balm from an anointed king: For every man that Bolingbroke hath press'd, A glorious angel: then, if angels fight, Weak men must fall; for heaven still guards the right. Welcome, my lord; how far off lies your power? And thou shalt have twelve thousand fighting men! O'erthrows thy joys, friends, fortune, and thy state ; Aum. Comfort, my liege: why looks your grace so pale ? K. Rich. But now, the blood of twenty thousand men Aum. Comfort, my liege; remember who you are. [1] Here is the doctrine of indefeasible right expressed in the strongest terms; but our poet did not learn it in the reign of king James, to which it is now the practice of all writers, whose opinions are regulated by fashion or interest, to im pute the original of every tenet which they have been taught to think false or foolish. JOHNSON. Enter SCROOP. Scroop. More health and happiness betide my liege, Than can my care-tun'd tongue deliver him. K. Rich. Mine ear is open, and my heart prepar'd ;* The worst is worldly loss, thou canst unfold. Say, is my kingdom lost? why, 'twas my care; And what loss is it, to be rid of care? Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we ? Greater he shall not be; if he serve God, We'll serve him too, and be his fellow so : Revolt our subjects? that we cannot mend; They break their faith to God, as well as us: Cry, woe, destruction, ruin, loss, decay; The worst is-death, and death will have his day. Scroop. Glad am I, that your highness is so arm'd To bear the tidings of calamity. Like an unseasonable stormy day, Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores, With hard bright steel, and hearts harder than steel. [2] It seems to be the design of the poet to raise Richard to esteem in his fall, and consequently to interest the reader in his favour. He gives him only passive fortitude, the virtue of a confessor rather than of a king. In his prosperity we saw him imperious and oppressive; but in his distress he is wise, patient, and pious. JOHNSON. [3] Mr. Pope more elegantly reads-and clasp. MALONE. Clip would be still nearer than clasp. RITSON. [4] The king's beadsmen' were his chaplains. Beadsmen might likewise be any man maintained by charity to pray for their benefactor. JOHNSON. [5] Called so because the leaves of the yew are poison, and the wood is employed for instruments of death. WARBURTON. From some of the ancient statutes it appears that every Englishman, while archery was practised, was obliged to keep in his house either a bow of yew or some other wood. It should seem therefore that yews were not only planted in churchyards to defend the churches from the wind, but on account of their use in making Dows; while by the benefit of being secured in enclosed places, their poisonou quality was kept from doing mischief to cattle. STEEVENS. K. Rich. Too well, too well, thou tell'st a tale so ill. Where is the earl of Wiltshire? where is Bagot? What is become of Bushy? where is Green? That they have let the dangerous enemy Measure our confines with such peaceful steps? If we prevail, their heads shall pay for it. I warrant, they have made peace with Bolingbroke. Snakes, in my heart-blood warm'd, that sting my heart! Scroop. Sweet love, I see, changing his property, Aum. Is Bushy, Green, and the earl of Wiltshire, dead? Scroop. Yea, all of them at Bristol lost their heads. Aum. Where is the duke my father with his power? K. Rich. No matter where; of comfort no man speak : Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs; Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth. Let's choose executors, and talk of wills: And yet not so, for what can we bequeath, Save our deposed bodies to the ground? Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke's, And nothing can we call our own, but death; And that small model of the barren earth,o Which serves as paste and cover to our bones. For heaven's sake, let us sit upon the ground, And tell sad stories of the death of kings :How some have been depos'd, some slain in war; Some haunted by the ghosts they have depos'd; Some poison'd by their wives, some sleeping kill'd ; All murder'd :-For within the hollow crown, That rounds the mortal temples of a king, [6] He used model for mould. That earth, which closing upon the body takes its form. This interpretation the next line seems to authorise. JOHNSON. |