And, for these great affairs do ask some charge,
Towards our affistance, we do seize to us
The plate, coin, revenues, and moveables,
Whereof our uncle Gaunt did stand possess'd.

YORK. How long shall I be patient? Ah, how long
Shall tender duty make me fuffer wrong?
Not Glofter's death, nor Hereford's banishment,
Not Gaunt's rebukes, nor England's private

wrongs,

Nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke
About his marriage, nor my own disgrace,
Have ever made me four my patient cheek,
Or bend one wrinkle on my fsovereign's face.
I am the last of noble Edward's fons,
Of whom thy father, prince of Wales, was first;
In war was never lion rag'd more fierce,
In peace was never gentle lamb more mild,
Than was that young and princely gentleman:
His face thou haft, for even so look'd he,
Accomplish'd with the number of thy hours; 7
But when he frown'd, it was against the French,
And not against his friends: his noble hand

St. Patrick freed the kingdom of Ireland from venomous reptiles of every kind. So, in Decker's Honest Whore, P. II. 1630:

" Bred in a country where no venom profpers,
"But in his blood."

Again, in Fuimus Troes, 1635:

"As Jrish earth doth poison poisonous beasts. " STEEVENS. 6 Nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke

About his marriage, When the duke of Hereford, after his banishment, went into France, he was honourably entertained at that court, and would have obtained in marriage the only daughter of the duke of Berry, uncle to the French king, had not Richard prevented the match. STEEVENS.

7 Accomplish'd with the number of thy hours; i. e. when he was of thy age. MALONE.

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Did win what he did spend, and spent not that
Which his triumphant father's hand won:
His hands were guilty of no kindred's blood,
But bloody with the enemies of his kin.
O, Richard! York is too far gone with grief,
Or else he never would compare between.

O, my liege,

K. RICH. Why, uncle, what's the matter?
YORK.
Pardon me, if you please; if not, I pleas'd
Not to be pardon'd, am content withal.
Seek you to seize, and gripe into your hands,
The royalties and rights of banish'd Hereford?
Is not Gaunt dead? and doth not Hereford live?
Was not Gaunt just? and is not Harry true?
Did not the one deferve to have an heir?

Is not his heir a well-deserving fon?
Take Hereford's rights away, and take from time
His charters, and his customary rights;
Let not to-morrow then ensue to-day;
Be not thyfelf, for how art thou a king,
But by fair sequence and fucceffion?
Now, afore God (God forbid, I say true!)
If you do wrongfully seize Hereford's rights,
Call in the letters patents that he hath
By his attornies-general to fue

His livery, and deny his offer'd homage,
You pluck a thousand dangers on your head,
You lose a thousand well-disposed hearts,
And prick my tender patience to those thoughts
Which honour and allegiance cannot think.

1

K. RICH. Think what you will; we seize into our

hands

His plate, his goods, his money, and his lands.

8

--deny his offer'd homage,] That is, refuse to admit that

homage, by which he is to hold his lands. JOHNSON.

YORK. I'll not be by, the while: My liege, fare well;

What will ensue hereof, there's none can tell;
But by bad courses may be understood,
That their events can never fall out good. (Exit.
K. RICH. Go, Bushy, to the earl of Wiltshire

ftraight;

Bid him repair to us to Ely-house,
To fee this business: To-morrow next

We will for Ireland; and 'tis time, I trow;
And we create, in absence of ourself,
Our uncle York lord governor of England.
For he is just, and always lov'd us well.-
Come on, our queen: to-morrow must we part;
Be merry, for our time of stay is short. (Flourish.

[Exeunt King, Queen, BUSHY, AUMERLE,
GREEN, and BAGOT.

NORTH. Well, lords, the duke of Lancaster is dead. Ross. And living too; for now his fon is duke. WILLO. Barely in title, not in revenue, NORTH. Richly in both, if justice had her right. Ross. My heart is great; but it must break with

filence,

Ere't be disburden'd with a liberal tongue.

NORTH. Nay, speak thy mind; and let him ne'er

speak more,

That speaks thy words again, to do thee harm! WILLO. Tends that thou'dst speak, to the duke of Hereford?

If it be fo, out with it boldly, man;
Quick is mine ear, to hear of good towards him.
Ross No good at all, that I can do for him;

Unless you call it good, to pity him,
Bereft and gelded of his patrimony.

NORTH. Now, afore heaven, 'tis shame, such

wrongs are borne,

In him a royal prince, and many more
Of noble blood in this declining land.
The king is not himself, but basely led
By flatterers; and what they will inform,
Merely in hate, 'gainst any of us all,
That will the king severely profecute
Gainft, us, our lives, our children, and our heirs.
Ross. The commons hath he pill'd with grievous

taxes,

And lost their hearts: the nobles hath he fin'd
For ancient quarrels, and quite loft their hearts.

WILLO. And daily new exactions are devis'd; As-blanks, benevolences, and I wot not what: But what, o'God's name, doth become of this? NORTH. Wars have not wasted it, for warr'd he hath not,

But basely yielded upon compromife
That which his ancestors achiev'd with blows:
More hath he spent in peace, than they in wars.
Ross. The earl of Wiltshire hath the realm in
farm.

WILLO. The king's grown bankrupt, like a broken

man,

NORTH. Reproach, and dissolution, hangeth over

him.

Ross. He hath not money for these Irish wars. His burdenous taxations notwithstanding, But by the robbing of the banish'd duke.

And loft their hearts:) The old copies erroneously and un metrically read

" And quite lost their hearts:

L

The compofitor's eye had caught the adverb-quite, from the fol lowing line. STEEVENS.

>

NORTH. His noble kinsman: - Most degenerate

king!

But, lords, we hear this fearful tempest sing,
Yet seek no shelter to avoid the storm:
We fee the wind fit fore upon our fails,
And yet we ftrike not, but securely perish.

8

Ross. We fee the very wreck that we must fuffer; And unavoided is the danger3 now, For fuffering so the causes of our wreck.

NORTH. Not fo; even through the hollow eyes

of death,

I spy life peering; but I dare not say
How near the tidings of our comfort is.

WILLO. Nay, let us share thy thoughts, as thou dost ours.

Ross. Be confident to speak, Northumberland: We three are but thyself; and, speaking so, Thy words are but as thoughts; therefore, be bold. NORTH. Then thus: - I have from Port le Blanc,

a bay

In Britany, receiv'd intelligence,
That Harry Hereford, Reignold lord Cobham,

we hear this fearful tempeft fing, So, in The Tempest: " -- another storm brewing; I hear it fing in the wind." STEEVENS.

• And yet we ftrike not,] To frike the fails, is, to contract them when there is too much wind. JOHNSON.

but securely perish. We perish by too great confidence in our security. The word is used in the same sense in The Merry Wives of Windfor: "Though Ford be a fecure fool," &c.

Again, in Troilus and Cressida, A& IV. [c. v:

" 'Tis done like Hector, but fecurely done." See Dr. Farmer's note on this passage. STEEVENS.

MALONE.

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3 And unavoided is the danger-] Unavoided is, I believe, here ased for unavoidable. MALONE,