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Mar. What is thy name ? and wherefore com'ft

thou hither, Before King Richard, in his roval lifts? Against whom comest thou ? and what's thy quarrel? Speak like a true kuight, fo defend the heaven! Boling. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and

Derby, Am I; who ready here do hand in arms, To prove, by heaven's grace, and iny body's va.

lour, In lifts, on Thomas Mowbray duke of Norfolk, That he's a traitor, fool and dangerous, To God of heaven, king Richard, and to me; And, as I truly fight, defend me heaven!

MAR. On pain of death, po person be so bold, Or daring-hardy, as to touch the lists; Except the marshal, and such officers Appointed to direct these fair designs. Boling. Lord marshal, let me kiss my sovereign's

hand, And bow my knee before his majesty : For Mowbray, and myself, are like two men That vow a long and weary pilgrimage; Then let us take a ceremonious leave, And loving farewell, of our several friends. MAR. The appellant in all duty greets your

highness, And craves to kiss your hand, and take his leave.

K. Rich. We will defcend, and fold him in our

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arms.

Cousin of Hereford, as thy cause is right,
So be thy fortune in this royal fight!
Farewell; my blood; which ifto-day thịu sned,
Lament we may, but not revenge thee dead.

Of

BOLING. O, let no noble eye profane a tear For me, if I be gor'd with Mowbray's spear : As confident, as is the falcon's flight Against a bird, do I with Mowbray fight,---My loving lord, [ To LORD MARSHAL.] I take my

leave of

you;you, my noble cousin, lord Aumerle; Not sick, although I have to do with death; But lufty, young, and cheerly drawing breath. Lo, as at English feasts, so I regreet The daintieft last, to make the end most sweet: O thou, the earthly author of my blood, — ,

[To GAUNT. Whose youthful spirit, in me regenerate, Doth with a twofold vigour lift me up To reach at victory above my head, Add proof unto mine armour with thy prayers ; And with thy bleflings steel my lance's point, That it may enter Mowbray's waxen coat, And furbish 8 new the name of John of Gaunt, Even in the lusty 'haviour of his son. GAUNT, Heaven in 'thy good cause make thec

prosperous ! Be swift like lightning in the execution

waxen coat, ] Waxen may mean Soft, and consequently penetrable, or flexible. The brigandines or coats of mail, then in use, were composed of small pieces of steel quilied over one another, and yet so flexible as to accommodate the dress they form, to every motion of the body. Of these many are still to be seen in the Tower of London. STEEVENS.

The objeđ of Bolingbroke's requeft is, that the temper of his lance's point might as much exceed the mail of his adversary, as the iron of that mail was barder than wax, HENLEY.

8 And furbiih-1 Thus the quartos, 1608 and 1615. folio reads --- furnish. Either word will do, as to furnijn in the time of Shakspeare figuified to dress. So, iwice in As like it : “ furnished like a buatsman. -- furnished like a beggar.

STEEVENS.

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8

7

Tbc

you

And let thy blows, doubly redoubled,
Fall like amazing thunder 'on the calque
Of thy adverse pernicious enemy :
Rouse up thy youthful blood, be valiant and live.
BOLING. Mine innocency, 9 and faint George to
thrive!

(He takes his seat. Nor. [Rifing. ] However heaven, or fortune, cast

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my lot,

There lives, or dies, true to king Richard's throne,
A loyal, just, and upright gentleman:
Never did captive with a freer heart
Cast off his chains of bondage, and embrace
His golden uncontrollid enfranchisement,
More than my dancing foul doth celebrate
This feast of battle with mine adversary.-
Most mighty liege, -and my companion peers, —
Take from my mouth the wish of happy years:
As gentle and as jocund, as to jest,
Go I to fight; Truth hath a quiet breast.

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too.

9 Mine innocency,] Old copies --- innocence. Corrected by Mr. Steevens. MALONE

• This feaft of battle -] “ War is death's feast," is a proverbial saying.

See Ray's Collection. STEEVENS. 3 As gentle and as jocund, as to jest,] Not so neither. We should reai to just ; i. e. 10 tilt or tourney, which was a kind of sport

WARBURTON, The sense would perhaps have been better if the author had writien what, his commeniator subflitutes; but the arhyme, to which sense is too often collaved, obliged Shakspeare to write jest, and obliges us to read it. JOHNSON.

The commentators forget that to jest sometimes signifies in oid language to play a part in a mask. Thus, in Hieronymo:

“ He promised us in honour of our guest,

" To grace our banquet with some pompous jest." and accordingly a mask is performed. FARMER.

Dr. Farmer has well explained the force of this word.' So, in the third part of K. Henry VI:

as if the tragedy " Were play'd in jeli by counterfeited, adors.” TOLLET.

K. Rich. Farewell, my lord : securely I espy Virtue with valour couched in thine eye. -Order the trial, marsbal, and begin.

[ The King and the Lords relurn to their seats. MAR. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, Receive thy lance ; and God defend the right! BOLING. [Rifng. ] Strong as a tower in hope, I

cry - amen. Mar. Go bear this lance [To'an Officer.] to Tho

mas duke of Norfolk.
i Her. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
Stands here for God, his sovereign, and himself,
On pain to be found false and recreant,
To prove the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray,
A traitor to his God, his king, and him,
And dares him to set forward to the fight.
2 Her. Here ftandeth Thomas Mowbray, duke

of Norfolk,
On pain to be found false and recrcant,
Both to defend himself, and to approve
Henry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
To God, his sovereign, and to him, disloyal;
Courageously, and with a free defire,
Attending but the signal to begin.
Mar. Sound, trumpets; and set forward, com-
batants.

[A charge founded.
Stay, the king hath thrown his warder, down. 4
K. Rich. Let them lay by their helmets and

their spears,

hath thrown his warder down. ) A warder appears to have been a kind of truncheon carried by the person who presided at these

So, in Daniel's Civil Wars, &c. B. I: ,
" When lo, the king, suddenly chang'd his mind,

combats,

66 Casts down his warder to arrest them there,

STEEVENS,

Draw near,

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And both return back to their chairs again; Withdraw with us:-and let the trumpets found, While we recurn these dukes what we decree.

[A long flourish.

[ To the Combatants. And lift, what with our council we have done. For that our kingdom's earth should not be soil'd With that dear blood which it hath fostered; And for our eyes do hate the dire aspect Of civil wounds plough'd up with neighbours'

fwords; [ And for we think the eagle-winged pride Of sky-aspiring and ambitious thoughts, With rival-hating envy, set To wake our peace, which in our country's cradle Draws the sweet infant breath of gentle sleep; ] Which so rous'd up with boisterous untun'd drums, With harsh-resounding trumpets' dreadful bray, And grating shock of wrathful iron arms, Might from our quiet confines fright fair peace,

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you on?

5 With that dear blood which it bath fostered ;]

The quartos read

With that dear blood which it hath been foster'd.
I believe the author wrote
With that dear blood with which it hath been foster’d.

MALONE. The quarto 1608 reads, as in the text. STEEVENS.

$ And for we think the eagle - winged pride, &c.] These five verses are omitted in the other editions, and restored from the first of 1598. Pope. - set you on -] The 'old copy reads.

on you. Corrc&cd by Mr. Pope.

MALONE. 8 To wake our peace, Whicla so rousid up

Might - fright fair peace,] Thus the sentence ftands in the common reading abfurdly enough; which made the Oxford editor, instead of frighi fair peace, read, be affrighted ; as if these latter words could ever, possibly, have been blundered into the former

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