V But * THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KING RICHARD II.] It is evident from a passage in Camden's Annals, that there was I have fince met with a passage in my Lord Bacon, which proves this play to have been in English. It is in the arraignments of Cuffe and Merick, Vol. IV. p. 412. of Mallet's edition : " The afternoon before the rebellion, Merick, with a great company of others, that afterwards were all in the adion, had procured to be played before them the play of depofing King Richard the Second; when it was told him by one of the players, that the play was old, and they should have loss in playing it, because few would come to it, there was forty shillings extraordinary given to play, and so thereupon played it was." It may be worth enquiry, whether some of the rhyming parts of the present play, which Mr. Pope thought of a different hand, might not be borrowed from the old one. Certainly however, the general tendency of it must have been very different; fince, as Dr. Johnfon observes, there are some expressions in this of ShakIpeare, which strongly inculcate the doctrine of indefeasible right. FARMER. Bacon elfewhere glances at the same tranfa&ion. "And for your comparison with Richard II. I see you follow the example " of them that brought him upon the stage, and into print in Queen " Elizabeth's time." Works. Vol. IV. p. 278. The partizans of Effex had, therefore, procured the publication as well as the acting of this play. HOLT WHITE. It is probable, I think, that the play which Sir Gilly Merick procured to be represented, bore the title of HENRY IV. and not of RICHARD II. " Camden calls it "exoletam tragadiam de tragæia abdicatione regis Ricardi fecundi; and (Lord Bacon in his account of The Effect of that which poffed at the arraignment of Merick and others) fays, "That the afternoon before the rebellion, Merick had procured to be played before them, the play of depofing King Richard the Second." But in a more particular account of the proceeding againft Merick, which is printed in the State Trials, Vol VII. p. 60, the matter is stated thus: " The story of HENRY IV. being fet for in a play, and in that play there being set forth the 1 killing of the king upon a flage; the Friday before, Sir Gilly Merick and fome others of the earl's train having an humour to fee a play, they must needs have the play of HENRY IV. The players told them that was stale; they should get nothing by playing that; but no play else would serve: and Sir Gilly Merick gives forty hillings to Philips the player to play this, besides whatsoever he could get. " Augustine Philippes was one of the patentees of the Globe playhouse with Shakespeare in 1603; but the play here described was certainly not Shakespeare's HENRY IV. as that commences above a year after the death of Richard. TYRWHITT. This play of Shakspeare was first entered at Stationer's Hall by Andrew Wife, Aug. 29, 1597. STEEVENS. It was written, I imagine, in the fame year, MALONE. King Richard the Second. Henry, furnamed Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, fon to John of Gaunt; afterwards King Henry IV. 2 Duke of Aumerle, fon to the Duke of York. Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. Duke of Surrey. Earl of Salisbury. Earl Berkley. 3 Bushy, Bagot, creatures to King Richard. Green, Earl of Northumberland; Henry Percy, his fon. Lord Rofs. 4 Lord Willoughby. Lord Fitzwater. Bishop of Carlifle. Abbot of Westminster. Lord Marshal; and another lord. Sir Pierce of Exton. Sir Stephen Scroop. Captain of a band of Welchmen. Queen to King Richard. Lady attending on the Queen. Lords, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, two Gardeners, Keeper, Messenger, Groom, and other Attendants. SCENE, dispersedly in England and Wales. a Duke of Aumerle, Aumerle, or Aumale, is the French for what we now call Albemarle, which is a town in Normandy. The old hiftorians generally use the French title. STEEVENS. 3 Earl Berkley.) It ought to be Lord Berkley. Earl Berkley till some ages after. STEEVENS. There was ne 4 Lord Rofs. Now spelt Roos, one of the Duke of Rutland's titles. STEEVENS. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF - KING RICHARD II. London. A Room in the Palace. Enter King RICHARD, attended; JOHN of GAUNT, and other nobles, with him. K. RICH. Old John of Gaunt, time-honour'd Lancaster, Haft thou, according to thy oath and band, K. RICH. Tell me moreover, haft thou founded If he appeal the duke on ancient malice; *thy oath and band,] When these public challenges were accepted, each combatant found a pledge for his appearance at the time and place appointed. So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. IV. C. iij. ft. 3: "The day was set, that all might understand, The old copies read band inftead of bond. The former is right. " My master is arrested on a band. STEEVENS. Band and Bond were formerly synonymous. See note on the Comedy of Errors, A&. IV. fc. ii. MALONE. し Or worthily, as a good subject should, gument, On fome apparent danger seen in him, Aim'd at your highness, no inveterate malice. K. RICH. Then call them to our prefence; face to face, And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear The accuser, and the accused, freely speak: [Exeunt fome Attendants, High - ftomach'd are they both, and full of ire, In rage deaf as the fea, hasty as fire. Re-enter Attendants, with BOLINGBROKE and BOLING. Many years of happy days befal K. RỊCH. We thank you both: yet one but flatters us, As well appeareth by the cause you come; speech!) In the devotion of a fubject's love, |