KING RICHARD the Second.

EDMUND OF LANGLEY, Duke of York;
JOHN OF GAUNT, Duke of Lancaster;

Uncles to the King.

HENRY, surnamed Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, Son to John of Gaunt; afterwards KING HENRY IV.

DUKE OF AUMERLE', Son to the Duke of York. MOWBRAY, Duke of Norfolk.

DUKE OF SURREY.

EARL OF SALISBURY.

BUSHY,

EARL BERKLEY 2.

BAGOT, Creatures to King Richard.

GREEN,

EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND: HENRY PERCY, his Son.

LORD ROSS. LORD WILLOUGHBY. LORD FITZ

WATER.

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.

* 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. 2 EARL Berkley.] It ought to be Lord Berkley. was no Earl Berkley till some ages after. STEEVENS.

There

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

Enter King RICHARD, attended; JOHN OF GAUNT, and other Nobles, with him.

K. RICH. Old John of Gaunt, time-honour'd
Lancaster *,

4 OLD John of Gaunt, TIME-HONOUR'D Lancaster,] It may not be improper here to make an observation to which I shall have frequent occasion to refer. Our ancestors, in their estimate of old age, appear to have reckoned somewhat differently from us, and to have considered men as old whom we should now esteem middle aged. With them, every man that had passed fifty seems to have been accounted an old man. John of Gaunt, who is here introduced in that character with the additional of “time-honour'd Lancaster," was at this time only 58 years old. He was born at Ghent in 1340, and our present play commences in 1398; he died in 1399, aged 59.

King Henry is represented by Daniel, in his poem of Rosamond, as extremely old when he had a child by that lady. Henry was born at Mentz in 1133, and died on the 7th July, 1189, at the age of 56. Robert, Earl of Leicester, is called an old man by Spencer in a letter to Gabriel Harvey in 1582; at which time Leicester was not fifty years old: and the French Admiral Coligny is represented by his biographer, Lord Huntington, as a very old man, though at the time of his death he was but fifty-three.

These various instances fully ascertain what has been stated, and account for the appellation here given to John of Gaunt. I believe this is made in some measure to arise from its being customary to enter into life, in former times, at an earlier period than we do now. Those who were married at fifteen, had at fifty been masters of a house and family for thirty-five years. MALONE.

6

Hast thou, according to thy oath and band', Brought hither Henry Hereford thy bold son"; Here to make good the boisterous late appeal, Which then our leisure would not let us hear, Against the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray? GAUNT. I have, my liege.

K. RICH. Tell me moreover, hast thou sounded him,

If he appeal the duke on ancient malice;

Or worthily as a good subject should,

On some known ground of treachery in him? GAUNT. As near as I could sift him on that argument,

On some apparent danger seen in him,

Aim'd at your highness, no inveterate malice.

K. RICH. Then call them to our presence; face

to face,

And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear The accuser, and the accused, freely speak :[Exeunt some Attendants.

5thy oath and BAND,] When these publick 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. iii. st. 3:

"The day was set, that all might understand,

"And pledges pawn'd the same to keep aright." The old copies read band instead of bond. The former is right. So, in The Comedy of Errors:

66

My master is arrested on a band." STEEVENS. Band and bond were formerly synonymous. See note on The Comedy of Errors, Act IV. Sc. II. MALONE.

"Brought hither Henry Hereford thy bold son ;] It is clear, from the original quarto copy of this play, 1597, where we constantly find Bolingbroke's title written Herford, that the author used the word as a dissyllable.

Hardynge, in his Chronicle, always writes either Herford or Harford; and so also Rastal, in his Pastime of the People. This, therefore, we may be sure, was the pronunciation of Shakspeare's time, as well as of a preceding period. MALONE.

High-stomach'd are they both, and full of ire,
In rage deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.

Re-enter Attendants, with BOLINGBROKE and
NORFOLK.

BOLING. Many years of happy days befal
My gracious sovereign, my most loving liege!
NOR. Each day still better other's happiness;
Until the heavens, envying earth's good hap,
Add an immortal title to your crown!

K. RICH. We thank you both: yet one but flat

ters us,

As well appeareth by the cause you come 3;
Namely, to appeal each other of high treason.-
Cousin of Hereford, what dost thou object
Against the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray ?
BOLING. First, (heaven be the record to my
speech!)

In the devotion of a subject's love,

Tendering the precious safety of my prince,
And free from other misbegotten hate,
Come I appellant to this princely presence.-
Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee,
And mark my greeting well; for what I speak,
My body shall make good upon this earth,
Or
my divine soul answer it in heaven.
Thou art a traitor, and a miscreant;

7-BOLINGBROKE-] Drayton asserts that Henry Plantagenet, the eldest son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, was not distinguished by the name of Bolingbroke till after he had assumed the crown. Our ancient historians, in speaking of his contest with the Duke of Norfolk, denominate him Earl of Hereford. He was surnamed of Bolingbroke town, in Lincolnshire, from his having been born there about the year 1366. MALONE.

The sup

8 by the cause you come ;] i. e. you come on. pression of the preposition has been, on more than one occasion, shewn to have been frequent with Shakspeare. BOSWELL.

.

Too good to be so, and too bad to live;

Since, the more fair and crystal is the sky,
The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly.
Once more, the more to aggravate the note,
With a foul traitor's name stuff I thy throat;
And wish, (so please my sovereign,) ere I move,
What my tongue speaks, my right-drawn sword

may prove.

NOR. Let not my cold words here accuse my zeal:

'Tis not the trial of a woman's war,

The bitter clamour of two eager tongues,
Can arbitrate this cause betwixt us twain:
The blood is hot that must be cool'd for this,
Yet can I not of such tame patience boast,
As to be hush'd, and nought at all to say:
First, the fair reverence of your highness curbs me
From giving reins and spurs to my free speech;
Which else would post, until it had return'd
These terms of treason doubled down his throat.
Setting aside his high blood's royalty,

And let him be no kinsman to my liege,

I do defy him, and I spit at him;

Call him-a slanderous coward, and a villain :
Which to maintain, I would allow him odds;

And meet him, were I tied to run a-foot
Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps,
Or any other ground inhabitable '

9-right-drawn-] Drawn in a right or just cause.

JOHNSON.

I inhabitable] That is, not habitable, uninhabitable.

JOHNSON.

Ben Jonson uses the word in the same sense in his Catiline: "And pour'd on some inhabitable place."

Again, in Taylor the water-poet's Short Relation of a Long Journey, &c. "there stands a strong castle, but the town is all spoil'd, and almost inhabitable by the late lamentable troubles."

STEEVENS.