Enter the BASTARD.

Bast. O, I am scalded with my violent motion,
And spleen of speed to see your majesty.

K. John. O cousin, thou art come to set mine eye :
The tackle of my heart is crack'd and burn'd;
And all the shrouds, wherewith my life should sail,
Are turned to one thread, one little hair:
My heart hath one poor string to stay it by,
Which holds but till thy news be uttered;
And then all this thou see'st, is but a clod,
And modules of confounded royalty.

Bast. The Dauphin is preparing hitherward;
Where, heaven he knows, how we shall answer him:
For, in a night, the best part of my power,
As I upon advantage did remove,
Were in the washes, all unwarily,

Devour'd by the unexpected flood.*

[The King dies.

Sal. You breathe these dead news in as dead an ear.My liege! my lord!-But now a king,-now thus. P. Hen. Even so must I run on, and even so stop. What surety of the world, what hope, what stay, When this was now a king, and now is clay!

Bast. Art thou gone so? I do but stay behind, To do the office for thee of revenge;

And then my soul shall wait on thee to heaven,

As it on earth hath been thy servant still.

Now, now, you stars, that move in your right spheres, Where be your powers? Show now your mended faiths ; And instantly return with me again,

To push destruction and perpetual shame,

Out of the weak door of our fainting land:

Straight let us seek, or straight we shall be sought;

The Dauphin rages at our very heels.

Sal. It seems, you know not then so much as we: The cardinal Pandulph is within at rest,

module-] i. e. Model.

Were in the washes all unwarily, &c.] This untoward accident really happened to King John himself. As he passed from Lynn to Lincolnshire, he lost by an inundation all his treasure, carriages, baggage, and regalia.-MALONE.

Who half an hour since came from the Dauphin;
And brings from him such offers of our peace
As we with honour and respect may take,
With purpose presently to leave this war.

Bast. He will the rather do it, when he sees
Ourselves well sinewed to our defence.

Sal. Nay, it is in a manner done already;
For many carriages he hath despatch'd
To the seaside, and put his cause and quarrel
To the disposing of the cardinal:

With whom yourself, myself, and other lords,
If you think meet, this afternoon will post
To cónsummate this business happily.

Bast. Let it be so :-And you my noble prince,
With other princes that may best be spar'd,
Shall wait upon your father's funeral.

P. Hen. At Worcester must his body be interr'd ;"
For so he will'd it.

Bast.

Thither shall it then.

And happily may your sweet self put on
The lineal state and glory of the land!
To whom with all submission, on my knee,
I do bequeath my faithful services

And true subjection everlastingly.

Sal. And the like tender of our love we make,

To rest without a spot for evermore.

P. Hen. I have a kind soul, that would give you thanks,

And knows not how to do it, but with tears.

Bast. O, let us pay the time but needful woe,
Since it hath been beforehand with our griefs.*-
This England never did, (nor never shall),
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror,
But when it first did help to wound itself.

u At Worcester must his body be interr'd:] A stone coffin, containing the body of King John was discovered in the cathedral church of Worcester, July 17, 1797. -STEEVENS.

x Since it hath been beforehand with our griefs.-] As we have previously found sufficient cause for lamentation, let us not waste the present time in superfluous sorrow. STEEVENS.

Now these her princes are come home again,
Come the three corners of the world in arms,
And we shall shock them: Nought shall make us rue,
If England to itself do rest but true.
[Exeunt

The tragedy of King John, though not written with the utmost power of Shakspeare, is varied with a very pleasing interchange of incidents and characters. The lady's grief is very affecting; and the character of the Bastard contains that mixture of greatness and levity which this author delighted to exhibit. JOHNSON.

To these remarks of Dr. Johnson, it may be added, that the grief of Constance for the loss of Arthur, is probably indebted for much of its characteristic truth to the calamity which Shakspeare had himself sustained by the death of his only son, who had attained the age of twelve, and died the year this play was produced.

KING RICHARD II.

THIS play, which Mr. Malone supposes to have been written in 1593, was published in quarto no less than five several times during our author's life. The first edition was in 1597, without the scene of deposing of Richard, which was first inserted in the edition of 1608.

It has been supposed by Dr. Farmer, that there was a play on the subject anterior to that of Shakspeare, because he found in Lord Bacon, in the arraignments of Cuffe and Merick, vol. iv. p. 320, of Mallet's edition, that, "The afternoon before the rebellion, Merick, with a great number of others, that afterwards were all in the action, had procured to be played before them the play of deposing 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.'

دو

This passage does not, however, necessarily refer to a drama older than Shakspeare's. In the year 1601, the actors would be very naturally inclined to consider a play as out of date, which had been produced in 1593, and performed till the curiosity of the town had become exhausted.

The action of this play comprises little more than two years. It begins with Bolingbroke's appealing the duke of Norfolk, on the accusation of high-treason, which occurred in 1398, and closes with the death of King Richard, which took place in the end of the year 1400.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

King RICHARD the Second.

EDMUND of Langley, duke of York; uncles to the king. JOHN of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster; S

HENRY, surnamed Bolingbroke, duke of Hereford, son to John of Gaunt; afterwards King Henry IV.

a

Duke of AUMERLE, son to the duke of York.

MOWBRAY, duke of Norfolk.

Duke of SURREY.

Earl of SALISBURY. Earl BERKLEY.
BUSHY,

BAGOT, creatures to King Richard.

GREEN,.

Earl of NORTHUMBERLAND: HENRY PERCY, his son.

Lord Ross.

Lord WILLOUGHBY. Lord FITZWATER.

Lord WILLOUGHBY.

Bishop of CARLISLE. 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.

Duchess of GLOster.

Duchess of YORK.

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 historians generally use the French title.-STEEVENS.

b

Earl Berkley.] It ought to be Lord Berkley. There was no Earl Berkley till some ages after.-STEEVENS.

Lord Ross.] Now spelt Roos, one of the duke of Rutland's titles.STEEVENS.