2

To rouse his wrongs, and chase them to the bay.
I am denied to fue my livery here,
And yet my letters-patent give me leave:
My father's goods are all distrain'd, and fold;
And these, and all, are all amiss employ'd.
What would you have me do? I am a subject,
And challenge law: Attornies are denied me;
And therefore personally I lay my claim
To my inheritance of free descent.

NORTH. The noble duke hath been too much

abus'd.

Ross. It stands your grace upon, to do him right.

3

WILLO. Base men by his endowments are made great.

YORK. My lords of England, let me tell you
this,-

I have had feeling of my coufin's wrongs,
And labour'd all I could to do him right:
But in this kind to come, in braving arms,
Be his own carver, and cut out his way,
To find out right with wrong, it may not be;
And you, that do abet him in this kind,
Cherish rebellion, and are rebels all.

1

• To rouse his wrongs, and chase them to the bay.] By his wrongs are meant the persons who wrong him. M. MASON.

to fue my livery here,] A law phrase belonging to the feudal tenures. See notes on K. Henry IV. P. I. A& IV. fc. iii. ✔ STEEVENS.

3 It stands your grace upon, to do him right.] i. e. it is your interest, it is matter of confequence to you. So, in K. Richard III:

_ it stands me much upon,

"To stop all hopes whose growth may danger me."

Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:

- It only stands

"Our lives upon, to use our strongest hands." STEEVENS,

9

A 1

NORTH. The noble duke hath sworn, his coming

is

But for his own: and, for the right of that,
We all have strongly sworn to give him aid;
And let him ne'er see joy, that breaks that oath.
YORK. Well, well, I see the issue of these arms;
I cannot mend it, I must needs confess,
Because my power is weak, and all ill left:
But, if I could, by Him that gave me life,
I would attach you all, and make you ftoop
Unto the sovereign mercy of the king;
But, since I cannot, be it known to you,
I do remain as neuter. So, fare you well;-
Unless you please to enter in the caftle,
And there repose you for this night.

BOLING. An offer, uncle, that we will accept.
But we must win your grace, to go with us
To Bristol castle; which, they say, is held
By Bushy, Bagot, and their complices,
The caterpillars of the commonwealth,
Which I have sworn to weed, and pluck away,

YORK. It may be, I will go with you;-but yet

I'll pause ; *

2

For I am loath to break our country's laws.
Nor friends, nor foes, to me welcome you are:
Things past redress, are now with me past care.

[Exeunt.

* It may be, I will go with you: - but yet I'll pause; I suspet, the words with you, which spoil the metre, to be another interpolation. STEEVENS.

3

Things paft redress are now with me past care.] So, in

Macbeth:

"Things without remedy,

"Should be without regard." STEEVENS.

SCENE IV.4

A Camp in Wales.

Enter SALISBURY, and a Captain.

t

Car. My lord of Salisbury, we have staid ten

days,

And hardly kept our countrymen together,

And yet we hear no tidings from the king;
Therefore we will disperse ourselves: farewell.

SAL. Stay yet another day, thou trusty Welfh

man;

The king reposeth all his confidence
In thee.

CAP. 'Tis thought, the king is dead; we will not stay.

The bay-trees in our country are all wither'd,

6

Here is a scene so unartfully and irregularly thruft into an improper place, that I cannot but suspect it accidentally transposed; which, when the scenes were written on single pages, might easily happen in the wildness of Shakspeare's drama. This dialogue was, in the author's draught, probably the second scene in the ensuing act, and there I would advise the reader to infert it, though I have not ventured on so bold a change. My conjecture is not so presumptuous as may be thought. The play was not, in Shakspeare's time, broken into acts; the editions published before his death, exhibit only a sequence of scenes from the beginning to the end, without any hint of a pause of action. In a drama so desultory and erratic, left in such a state, transpositions might easily be made. JOHNSON.

Salisbury, was John Montacute, Earl of Salisbury.

WALPOLE!

6 The bay-trees, &c.] This enumeration of prodigies is in the highest degree poetical and striking. JOHNSON.

And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven;
The pale-fac'd moon looks bloody on the earth,
And lean-look'd prophets whisper fearful change;
Rich men look fad, and ruffians dance and leap, -
The one, in fear to lose what they enjoy,
The other, to enjoy by rage and war:
These signs forerun the death or fall of kings.-
Farewell; our countrymen are gone and fled,
As well assur'd, Richard their king is dead.

[Exit.

SAL. Ah, Richard! with the eyes of heavy mind,
I fee thy glory, like a shooting star,
Fall to the base earth from the firmament!

Thy fun fets weeping in the lowly weft,
Witneffing storms to come, woe, and unrest:
Thy friends are fled, to wait upon thy foes;
And crossly to thy good all fortune goes.

[Exit.

Some of these prodigies are found in Holinshed: " In this yeare in a manner throughout all the realme of England, old baie trees withered," &c.

This was esteemed a bad omen; for, as I learn from Thomas Jupton's Syxt Booke of Notable Thinges, 4to. bl. 1: " Neyther falling sycknes, neyther devyll, wyll infeft or hurt one in that place where a Bay tree is. The Romaynes calles it the plant of the good angell," &c. STEEVENS.

ACT III. SCENE I.

1

Bolingbroke's Camp at Bristol.

Enter BOLINGBROKE, YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND,
PERCY, WILLOUGHBY, ROSS: Officers behind with

BUSHY and GREEN, prisoners.

1

BOLING. Bring forth these men.-
Bushy, and Green, I will not vex your fouls
(Since presently your fouls must part your bodies,)
With too much urging your pernicious lives,
For 'twere no charity : yet, to wash your blood
From off my hands, here, in the view of men,
I will unfold fome causes of your death.
You have misled a prince, a royal king,
A happy gentleman in blood and lineaments,
By you unhappied and disfigur'd clean."
You have, in manner, with your finful hours,
Made a divorce betwixt his queen and him;
Broke the poffeffion of a royal bed,
And stain'd the beauty of a fair queen's cheeks
With tears drawn from her eyes by your foul

wrongs.

Myself-a prince, by fortune of my birth;

Near to the king in blood; and near in love,
Till you did make him misinterpret me,--

7

--clean.] i. e. quite, completely. REED.

So, in our author's 75th Sonnet:

" And by and by, clean starved for a look." MALONE,

• You have, in manner, with your finful hours,
Made a divorce betwixt his queen and him;

Broke the poffeffion of a royal bed, There is, I believe, no authority for this. Isabel, the queen of the present play, was but nine years old. Richard's first queen, Anne, died in 1392, and the king was extremely fond of her. MALONE.

VOL. XII.

G