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Though Richard my life's counsel would not hear,
My death's sad tale may yet undeaf his ear.

York. No; it is stopp'd with other flattering
sounds,

As, praises of his state: then, there are found
Lascivious metres; to whose venom sound
The open ear of youth doth always listen:
Report of fashions in proud Italy;1
Whose manners still our tardy apish nation
Limps after, in base imitation,

Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity,
(So it be new, there's no respect how vile,)
That is not quickly buzz'd into his ears?
Then all too late comes counsel to be heard,
Where will doth mutiny with wit's regard.2
Direct not him, whose way himself will choose;
'Tis breath thou lack'st, and that breath wilt thou
lose.

Gaunt. Methinks, I am a prophet new inspir'd;
And thus, expiring, do foretell of him:

His rash' fierce blaze of riot cannot last;
For violent fires soon burn out themselves:
Small showers last long, but sudden storms are
short;

He tires betimes, that spurs too fast betimes;
With eager feeding, food doth choke the feeder:
Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,
Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.
This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise;
This fortress, built by nature for herself,
Against infection, and the hand of war;
This happy breed of men, this little world;
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands;
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
Fear'd by their breed, and famous by their birth,
Renowned for their deeds as far from home,
(For Christian service, and true chivalry,)
As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry,
Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's son:
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leas'd out, (I die pronouncing it,)
Like to a tenement, or pelting farm:
England, bound in with the triumphant sea,
Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
With inky blots, and rotten parchment bonds;
That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself:
O, would the scandal vanish with my life,
How happy then were my ensuing death!

Queen. How fares our noble uncle, Lancaster? K. Rich. What comfort, man? How is't with aged Gaunt?

Gaunt. O, how that name befits my composition!
Old Gaunt, indeed; and gaunt' in being 'old:
Within me grief hath kept a tedious fast;

And who abstains from meat, that is not gaunt?
For sleeping England long time have I watch'd;
Watching breeds leanness, leanness is all gaunt:
The pleasure, that some fathers feed upon,
Is my strict fast, I mean-my children's looks;
And, therein fasting, hast thou made me gaunt:
Gaunt am I for the grave, gaunt as a grave,
Whose hollow womb inhabits nought but bones.
K. Rich. Can sick men play so nicely with their
names?

Gaunt. No, misery makes sport to mock itself:
Since thou dost seek to kill my name in me,
I mock my name, great king, to flatter thee.
K. Rich. Should dying men flatter with those that

live?

Gaunt. No, no; men living flatter those that die.
K. Rich. Thou, now a dying, say'st-thou flat-
ter'st me.

Gaunt. O, no; thou diest, though I the sicker be.
K. Rich. I am in health, I breathe, and see the

ill.

Gaunt. Now, He that made me, knows I see
thee ill;

Ill in myself to see, and in thee seeing ill.
Thy deathbed is no lesser than thy land,
Wherein thou liest in reputation sick :
And thou, too careless patient as thou art,
Committ'st thy anointed body to the cure
Of those physicians that first wounded thee:
A thousand flatterers sit within thy crown,
Whose compass is no bigger than thy head;
And yet, incaged in so small a verge,
The waste is no whit lesser than thy land;
O, had thy grandsire, with a prophe 's eye,
Seen how his son's son should destroy his sons,
From forth thy reach he would have laid thy shame;
Deposing thee before thou wert possess'd,
Which art possess'd12 now to depose thyself.
Why, cousin, wert thou regent of the world,
It were a shame to let this land by lease:
But, for thy world, enjoying but this land,
Is it not more than shame, to shame it so!
Landlord of England art thou now, not king:
Thy state of law is bondslave to the law;13
And thou-

K. Rich.
a lunatic lean-witted fool,
Presuming on an ague's privilege,

ceive no other infection from abroad than the plague; but it is evident that the poet may allude to the infection of vicious manners and customs. It is true that infesta AUMERIE, tion was in use for a troubling, molesting, or disturb WIL-ing:' but as all the old copies read infection, there seems to be no sufficient reason for disturbing the text. 5 i. e. by reason of their breed. The quarto of 1599 reads thus:

Enter KING RICHARD, and Queen;
BUSHY, GREEN, BAGOT, Ross, and
LOUGHBY."

York. The king is come: deal mildly with his
youth;

For young hot colts, being rag'd,1o do rage the more.

lighted ear.

'Fear'd by their breed, and famous for their birth.' 6 'In this 22d yeare of King Richard, the common fame ranne that the king had letten to furme the realme unto Sir William Scrope, earle of Wiltshire, and then But Steevens's soul, like that of his great treasurer of England, to Syr John Bushey, Sir John coadjutor, does not seem to have been attuned to har-Bagot, and Sir Henry Greene, Knightes.-Fabian. mony. The context might, however, have shown him how superfluous his supposition was; and I have to apologize for diverting the attention of the reader from this beautiful passage for a moment.

1 The poct has charged the times of King Richard II. with a folly not perhaps known then, but very frequent In his own time, and much lamented by the wisest of our

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Pelting is paltry, pitiful, petty.

7 Shakspeare has deviated from historical truth in the introduction of Richard's queen as a woman; for Anre, his first wife, was dead before the period at which the commencement of the play is laid; and Isabella, his second wife, was a child at the time of his death.

9 i. e. William Lord Ross, of Hamlake, afterwards lord treasurer to Henry IV.

9 William Lord Willoughby, of Eresby.
10 Ritson proposes to read :-

being rein'd, do rage the more,'
12 Mad.

11 Meagre, thin.
13 Thy legal state, that rank in the state and these
large desmesnes, which the constitution allotted thee,
are now bondslave to the law; being subject to the
same legal restrictions as every ordinary pelting farm
that has been let on lease.'

Dar'st with thy frozen admonition
Make pale our cheek; chasing the royal blood,
With fury, from his native residence.
Now by my seat's right royal majesty,
Wert thou not brother to great Edward's son,
This tongue that runs so roundly in thy head,
Should run thy head from thy unreverent shoulders.
Gaunt. O, spare me not, my brother Edward's

son,

For that I was his father Edward's son;
That blood already, like the pelican,
Hast thou tapp'd out, and drunkenly carous'd:
My brother Gloster, plain well-meaning soul,
(Whom fair befall in heaven 'mongst happy souls!)
May be a precedent and witness good,
That thou respect'st not spilling Edward's blood:
Join with the present sickness that I have,
And thy unkindness be like crooked age,
To crop at once a too-long wither'd flower.
Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee!
These words hereafter thy tormentors be―
Convey me to my bed, then to my grave:
Love they to live, that love and honour have.
[Exit, borne out by his Attendants.
K. Rich. And let them die, that age and sullens
have ;

For both hast thou, and both become the grave.
York. 'Beseech your majesty, impute his words
To wayward sickliness and age in him:

He loves you, on my life, and holds you dear
As Harry duke of Hereford, were he here.

K. Rich. Right; you say true: as Hereford's
love, so his :

As theirs, so mine; and ali be as it is.

.

Enter NORTHUMBERLAND.

Which his triumphant father's hand had 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.
K. Rich. Why, uncle, what's the matter?
York.
O, my liege,
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 deserve to have an heir?
Is not his heir a well-deserving son?
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 thyself, for how art thou a king,
But by fair sequence and succession?
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 sue
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.

K. Rich. Think what you will; we seize into our
hands

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

York. I'll not be by the while: My liege, farewell: What will ensue hereof, there's none can tell; But by bad courses may be understood,

North. My liege, old Gaunt commends him to That their events can never fall out good. [Erit.

your majesty.

K. Rich. What says he?

North. Nay, nothing; all is said:

His tongue is now a stringless instrument;
Words, life, and all, old Lancaster hath spent.
York. Be York the next that must be bankrupt so!
Though death be poor, it ends a mortal woe.
K. Rich. The ripest fruit first falls, and so doth he;
His time is spent, our pilgrimage must be :2
So much for that.- -Now for our Irish wars:
We must supplant those rough rug-headed kernes ;3
Which live like venom, where no venom else,
But only they, hath privilege to live.4
And for these great affairs do ask some charge,
Towards our assistance, 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 suffer wrong
Not Gloster'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 sour my patient cheek,
Or bend one wrinkle on my sovereign's face.-

I am the last of noble Edward's sons,

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 hast, for even so look'd he,
Accomplish'd with the number of thy hours;
But, when he frown'd, it was against the French,
And not against his friends: his noble hand
Did win what he did spend, and spent not that

1 i. c. let them lore to live, &c.

2 That is, our pilgrimage is yet to come." 8 Kernes were Irish peasantry, serving as light-armed foot soldiers. Shakspeare makes York say, in the second part of King Henry VI. that Cade, when in Ireland, used to disguise himself as a shaz-haired crafty kerne. The kerne is an ordinary foot soldier, according to Stanihurst; kerne (kigheyren) signifieth a shower of hell, because they are taken for no better than rake-hells, or the devil's black-garde.'..-Description of Ireland, ch. 8, fol. 28.

4 Alluding to the idea that no venomous reptiles live in Ireland.

K. Rich. Go, Bushy, to the earl of Wiltshire

straight;

Bid him repair to us to Ely-house,

To see 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 son 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

silence,

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 would'st speak, to the duke of Hereford?

If it be so, 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

5 When the duke of Hereford went into France, after his banishment, 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.

6 i. e. when he was of thy age.

7 On the death of every person who held by knights service, his heir, if under age, became a ward of the king's; but if of age, he had a right to sue out a writ of ouster le main, i. e. livery, that the king's hand might be taken off, and the land delivered to him. To deny by which he was to hold his lands. his offer'd homage' was to refuse to admit the homage

8 Free

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By flatterers; and what they will inform, Merely in hate 'gainst any of us all, That will the king severely prosecute 'Gainst us, our lives, our children, and our heirs. Ross. The commons hath he pill'd' with grievous taxes,

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

Willo. Ani 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 compromise

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.

North. His noble kinsman; most degenerate king!

But, lords, we hear this fearful tempest sing,'
Yet seek no shelter to avoid the storm:
We see the wind sit sore upon our sails,
And yet we strike not, but securely perish.

Ross. We see the very wreck that we must suffer; And unavoided is the danger now,

For suffering so the causes of our wreck.

Imp out our drooping country's broken wing,
Redeem from broking pawn the blemish'd crown,
Wipe off the dust that hides our sceptre's gilt,"
And make high majesty look like itself,
Away, with me, in post to Ravenspurg:
But if you faint, as fearing to do so,
Stay, and be secret, and myself will go.

Ross. To horse, to horse! urge doubts to them that fear.

Willo. Hold out my horse, and I will first be there. [Exeunt SCENE II. The same. A Room in the Palace. Enter QUEEN, BUSHY, and BAGOT.

Bushy. Madam, your majesty is too much sad: You promis'd, when you parted with the king, To lay aside life-harming heaviness, And entertain a cheerful disposition.

Queen. To please the king, I did; to please myself,

I cannot do it; yet I know no cause
Why I should welcome such a guest as grief,
Save bidding farewell to so sweet a guest
As my sweet Richard: Yet, again, methinks,
Some unborn sorrow, ripe in fortune's womb,
coming towards me; and my inward soul
With nothing trembles: at something it grieves,
More than with parting from my lord the king.
Bushy. Each substance of a grief hath twenty

Is

shadows,

Which show like grief itself, but are not so: For sorrow's eye, glazed with blinding tears, Divides one thing entire to many objects;

North. Not so; even through the hollow eyes of Like perspectives,1° which, rightly gaz'd upon,

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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 Brittany, receiv'd intelligence,

That Harry Hereford, Reinold Lord Cobham,
[The son of Richard earl of Arundel,]
That late broke from the duke of Exeter,
His brother, archbishop late of Canterbury,
Sir Thomas Erpingham, Sir John Ramston,
Sir John Norbery, Sir Robert Waterton, and Fran-

cis Quoint,

All these well furnish'd by the duke of Bretagne,
With eight tall ships, three thousand men of war,
Are making hither with all due expedience,"

And shortly mean to touch our northern shore:
Perhaps, they had ere this; but that they stay
The first departing of the king for Ireland.

If then we shall shake off our slavish yoke,

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Show nothing but confusion; ey'd awry,
Distinguish form: so your sweet majesty
Looking awry upon your lord's departure,
Finds shapes of grief, more than himself, to wail;
Which, look'd on as it is, is nought but shadows
Of what it is not. Then, thrice-gracious queen,
More than your lord's departure weep not; more's

not seen:

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meant optical glasses, to assist the sight in any way. Mr. Henley says that the perspectives here mentioned were round crystal glasses, the convex surface of which was cut into faces like those of the rose-diamond: the concave left uniformly smooth; which if placed as here represented, would exhibit the different appearances described by the poet.' But it may have reference to that kind of optical delusion called anamorphosis; which is a perspective projection of a picture, so that at one point of view it shall appear a confused mass, or different to what it really is, in another, an exact and

4And yet we strike not our sails, but perish by too great confidence in our security: this is another Latin-regular representation. Sometimes it is made to appear Ism. Securely is used in the sense of securus.

5 The line ia brackets, which was necessary to com plete the sense, has been supplied upon the authority of Holinshed. Something of a similar import must have been omitted by accident in the old copies. 6 Stout. 7 Expedition.

8 When the wing feathers of a hawk were dropped or forced out by any accident it was usual to supply as many as were deficient. This operation was called to imp a hawk. It is often used metaphorically, as in this instance. The word is said to come from the Saxon impan, to graft, or inoculate.

9 Gilding.

10 It has been shown in a former note that perspective

confused to the naked eye, and regular when viewed in a glass or mirror of a certain form. A picture of a chancellor of France, presented to the common behol der a multitude of little faces; but if one did look at it through a perspective, there appeared only the single pourtraiture of the chancellor.-Humane Industry, 1651.

11 The old copies have on thinking,' which is an evilent error: we should read, As though in think. ing;' i. e. though musing, I have no idea of calamity.' The involuntary and unaccountable depression of the mind which every one has sometimes felt, is here very forcibly described.

12 Fanciful conception.

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The Lord Northumberland, his young son Henry Percy,

The lords of Ross, Beaumond, and Willoughby,
With all their powerful friends, are fled to him.
Bushy. Why have you not proclaim'd Northumn-
berland,

And all the rest of the revolted faction, traitors ?2
Green. We have: whereon the earl of Worcester
Hath broke his staff, resign'd his stewardship,
And all the household servants fled with him
To Bolingbroke.

Serv. An hour before I came, the duchess died. Comes rushing on this woeful land at once! York. God for his mercy! what a tide of woes

I know not what to do:-I would to God

(So my untruth4 had not provok'd him to it,)
The king had cut off my head with my brother's.'-
What, are there no posts despatch'd for Ireland ?-
How shall we do for money for these wars ?-
Come, sister,-cousin, I would say: pray, parda

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The one's my sovereign, whom both my oath
And duty bids defend; the other again,
Is my kinsman, whom the king hath wrong'd;
Whom conscience and my kindred bids to right.
Well, somewhat we must do.-Come, cousin, I'll
Dispose of you :-Gentlemen, go, muster up your
men,

And meet me presently at Berkley-castle.
I should to Plashy too;-

But time will not permit :-All is uneven,

Queen. So, Green, thou art the midwife to my And every thing is left at six and seven.

woe,

And Bolingbroke my sorrow's dismal heir :3
Now hath my soul brought forth her prodigy;
And I, a gasping new-deliver'd mother,
Have woe to woe, sorrow to sorrow join'd.
Bushy. Despair not, madam.
Queen.

[Exeunt YORK and Queen. Bushy. The wind sits fair for news to go to Ireland, But none returns. For us to levy power, Proportionable to the enemy,

Is all impossible.

Green. Besides, our nearness to the king in love,

Who shall hinder me? Is near the hate of those love not the king.

I will despair, and be at enmity
With cozening hope; he is a flatterer,
A parasite, a keeper-back of death,
Who gently would dissolve the bands of life,
Which false hope lingers in extremity.
Enter YORK.

Green. Here comes the duke of York.
Queen. With signs of war about his aged neck;
O, full of careful business are his looks!-
Uncle,

For heaven's sake, speak comfortable words.
York. Should I do so, I should belie my thoughts:
Comfort's in heaven; and we are on the earth,
Where nothing lives but crosses, care, and grief.
Your husband he is gone to save far off,
Whilst others come to make him lose at home:
Here am I left to underprop his land;
Who, weak with age, cannot support myself:-
Now comes the sick hour that his surfeit made;
Now shall he try his friends that flatter'd him.
Enter a Servant.

Serv. My lord, your son was gone before I came. York. He was?-Why, so!-go all which way it will !

The nobles they are fled, the commons they are cold,

And will, fear, revolt on Hereford's side.Sirrah, get thee to Plashy, to my sister Gloster; Bid her send me presently a thousand pound Hold, take my ring.

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Serv. My lord, I had forgot to tell your lordship: To-day, as I came by, I called there; But I shall grieve you to report the rest. York. What is it, knave?

1 Retir'd, i. e. drawn it back; a French sense.

2 The first quarto, 1597, reads:

And all the rest of the revolted faction, traitors? The folio, and the quarto of 1598 and 1608

And the rest of the recolting faction, traitors? 3 The queen had said before, that some unborn sorrow, ripe in fortune's womb, was coming toward her.' She talks afterward of her unknown griefs being begotten; she calls Green the midwife of her woe; and then means to say in the same metaphorical style, that the arrival of Bolingbroke was the dismal offspring that her foreboding sorrow was big of; which she expresses

Bagot. And that's the wavering commons: fot

their love

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Bagot. If judgment lie in them, then so do we, Because we ever have been near the king.

Green. Well, I'll for refuge straight to Bristol Castle;

The earl of Wiltshire is already there.

Bushy. Thither will I with you: for little office Will the hateful commons perform for us; Except like curs to tear us all to pieces.Will you go along with us?

Bagot. No; I'll to Ireland to his majesty. Farewell: if heart's presages be not vain, We three here part, that ne'er shall meet again. Bushy. That's as York thrives to beat back Bolingbroke.

Green. Alas, peor duke! the task he undertakes Is-numb'ring sands, and drinking oceans dry; Where one on his side fights, thousands will fly. Bushy. Farewell at once; for once, for all, and

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SCENE III. The Wilds in Glostershire. "Enter -BOLINGBROKE and NORTHUMBERLAND, with Forces.

Boling. How far is it, my lord, to Berkley now?
North. Believe me, noble lord,

I am a stranger here in Glostershire.
These high wild hills, and rough uneven ways,

by calling him her sorrow's dismal heir,' and explains more fully in the following line :

Now hath my soul brought forth her prodigy.' 4 Disloyalty, treachery.

5 Not one of York's brothers had his head cut off, either by the king or any one else. Gloster, to whose death he probably alludes, was smothered between two beds at Calais.

6 This is one of Shakspeare's touches of nature. York is talking to the queen, his cousin, but the recent death of his sister is uppermost in his mind.

Draw out our miles, and make them wearisome :
And yet your fair discourse hath been as sugar,
Making the hard way sweet and delectable.
But, I bethink me, what a weary way
From Ravenspurg to Cotswold, will be found
In Ross and Willoughby, wanting your company:
Which, I protest, hath very much beguil'd
The tediousness and process of my travel:
But theirs is sweeten'd with the hope to have
The present benefit which I possess:
And hope to joy, is little less in joy,
Than hope enjoy'd by this the lords
weary
Shall make their way seem short; as mine hath done
By sight of what I have, your noble company.
Boling. Of much less value is my company,
Than your good words. But who comes here?
Enter HARRY PERCY.

North. It is my son, young Harry Percy,
Sent from my brother Worcester, whencesoever.-
Harry, how fares your uncle?

Percy. I had thought, my lord, to have learn'd his
health of you.

North. Why, is he not with the queen?

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poor;

Which, till my infant fortune comes to years,
Stands for my bounty. But who comes here?
Enter BERKLEY.

North. It is my lord of Berkley, as I
guess.
Berk. My lord of Hereford, my message is to you
Boling. My lord, my answer is-to Lancaster ;*
And I am come to seek that name in England:
And I must find that title in your tongue,
Before I make reply to aught you say.

Berk. Mistake me not, my lord; 'tis not my
meaning,

To raze one title of your honour out: 3-
To you, my lord, I come (what lord you will,)
From the most gracious regent of this land,
The duke of York; to know, what pricks you on

Percy. No, my good lord; he hath forsook the To take advantage of the absent time,+

court,

Broken his staff of office, and dispers'd

The household of the king.
North.

What was his reason? He was not so resolv'd, when last we spake together.

Percy. Because your lordship was proclaimed

traitor.

But he, my lord, is gone to Ravenspurg,
To offer service to the duke of Hereford;
And sent me o'er by Berkley, to discover
What power the duke of York had levied there;
Then with direction to repair to Ravenspurg.
North. Have you forgot the duke of Hereford, boy?
Percy. No, my good lord; for that is not forgot,
Which ne'er I did remember: to my knowledge,
I never in my life did look on him.

North. Then learn to know him now; this is the

duke.

Percy. My gracious lord, I tender you my service,
Such as it is, being tender, raw, and young;
Which elder days shall ripen and confirm
To more approved service and desert.

Bling. I thank thee, gentle Percy; and be sure,
I count myself in nothing else so happy,
As in a soul rememb'ring my good friends;
And, as my fortune ripens with thy love,
It shall be still thy true love's recompense:
My heart this covenant makes, my hand thus

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And fright our native peace with self-born arms.
Enter YORK, attended.

Boling. I shall not need transport my words by
you;

Here comes his grace in person.-My noble uncle!
[Kneels.
York. Show me thy humble heart, and not thy
knee,

Whose duty is deceivable and false.
Boling. My gracious uncle !--
York. Tut, tut!

Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle :

am no traitor's uncle; and that word-grace,
In an ungracious mouth, is but profane.
Why have those banish'd and forbidden legs
Dar'd once to touch a dust of England's ground?
But then more why;-Why have they dar'd to

march

So many miles upon her peaceful bosom ;
Frighting her pale-fac'd villages with war,
And ostentation of despised arms?
Com'st thou because the anointed king is hence?
Why, foolish boy, the king is left behind,
And in my loyal bosom lies his power.
Were I but now the lord of such hot youth,
As when brave Gaunt, thy father, and myself,
Rescued the Black Prince, that young Mars of men,
From forth the ranks of many thousand French;
O, then, how quickly should this arm of mine,
Now prisoner to the palsy, chastise thee,
And minister correction to thy fault!

Boling. My gracious uncle, let me know my
fault;

On what condition stands it, and wherein?

York. Even in condition of the worst degree,-
In gross rebellion, and detested treason:
Thou art a banish'd man, and here art come,
Before the expiration of thy time,

In braving arms against thy sovereign.
Boling. As I was banish'd, I was banish'd Hero-
ford;

But as I come, I come for Lancaster,

5 In Romeo and Juliet we have the same kind of phraseology:

Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds.' 6 Perhaps Shakspeare here uses despised for hated or hateful arms? Sir Thomas Hanmer changed it to despiteful, but the old copies all agree in reading despised. Shakspeare uses the word again in a singular sense in Othello, Act i. Sc. 1, where Brabantio exclaims upon the loss of his daughter:

what's to come of my despised time Is nought but bitterness.'

It has been suggested that despised is used to denote the general contempt in which the British held the French forces. The duke of Bretagne furnished Bolingbroke with three thousand French soldiers.'

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