While he, young, wanton, and effeminate boy,
Takes on the point of honour, to support
So diffolute a crew.

[prince;
Percy. My lord, fome two days fince I faw the
And told him of thefe triumphs held at Oxford.
Boling. And what said the gallant ?

Percy. His answer was,--he would unto the stews;
And from the common'ft creature pluck a glove,
And wear it as a favour; and with that
He would unhorse the luftiest challenger. [both 1
Boling. As diffolute, as defperate: yet, through
I fee fome sparkles of a better hope,
Which elder days may happily bring forth.
But who comes here?

Enter Aumerle, amazed.

Aum. Where is the king?
Boling. What means

Our coufin, that he stares and looks fo wildly?
Aum. God fave your grace! I do beseech your
majefty,

To have fome conference with your grace alone. Boling. Withdraw yourselves, and leave us here alone.

5

Thy overflow of good converts to bad 2;
And thy abundant goodness shall excuse
This deadly blot in thy digreffing 3 fon.

York. So fhall my virtue be his vice's bawd;
And he shall spend mine honour with his shame,
As thriftlefs fons their scraping fathers' gold.
Mine honour lives when his difhonour dies,
Or my fham'd life in his difhonour lies:
Thou kill' ft me in his life; giving him breath,
The traitor lives, the true man's put to death.
[Dutchejs within.
Dutch. What ho, my liege! for heaven's fake,
let me in.
[eager cry?
Boling. What thrill-voic'd suppliant makes this
Dutch. A woman, and thine aunt, great king;
'tis I.

Speak with me, pity me, open the door;
A begger begs, that never begg'd before.
Boling. Ourfcene is alter'd, from a serious thing,
20 And now chang'd to the Beggar and the King*.
My dangerous coufin, let your mother in;

What is the matter with our cousin now?
Aum. For ever may my knees grow to the earth, 25
[Kneels.

My tongue cleave to my roof within my mouth,
Unless a pardon, ere I rife, or speak!

Beling. Intended, or committed, was this fault?
If but the first, how heinous ere it be,
To win thy after-love, I pardon thee.
Aum. Then give me leave that I may turn the
That no man enter 'till my tale be done.

[key,

30

Shall 1, for love, fpeak treafon to thy face?

Open the door, or I will break it open.

The King opens the door, enter York. Boling. What is the matter, uncle? fpeak; Recover breath; tell us how near is danger, That we may arm us to encounter it.

[know

York. Perufe this writing here, and thou shalt
The treafon that my hafte forbids me fhow. [paft:

1451

I know, he's come to pray for your foul fin.
York. If thou do pardon, whosoever pray,
More fins, for this forgiveness, profper may.
This fefter'd joint cut off, the rest rests found;
This, let alone, will all the reft confound.
Enter Dutchess.

Dutch. O king,believe not this hard-hearted man;
Love, loving not itfelf, none other can. [here?
York. Thou frantic woman, what doft thou do
Shall thy old dugs once more a traitor rear?

Dutch. Sweet York, be patient: Hear me, gentle liege.

Boling. Rife up, good aunt.

Dutch. Not yet, I thee befeech:

For ever will I kneel upon my knees,

[Kneels.

And never fee day that the happy fees,
Till thou give joy; until thou bid me joy,
By pardoning Rutland, my tranfgreffing boy.
Aum. Unto my mother's prayers, I bend my

knee.

[Kneels.

York. Against them both, my true joints bended be. [Kneels. Il may'ft thou thrive, if thou grant any grace! Dutch. Pleads he in earnest ? look upon his face; His eyes do drop no tears, his prayers are in jest; His words come from his mouth, ours from our breaft:

Aum. Remember, as thou read ft, thy promife He prays but faintly, and would be deny'd;

I do repent me; read not my name there,
My heart is not confederate with my hand.
York.'Twas,villain,ere thy hand did fet it down.--

I tore it from the traitor's bofom, king;
Fear, and not love, begets his penitence:
Forget to pity him, left thy pity prove

A ferpent that will fting thee to the heart.
Boling. O heinous, ftrong, and bold confpiracy!-

O loyal father of a treacherous fon!

Thou fheer', immaculate, and filver fountain,

50.

We pray with heart, and foul, and all befide:
His weary joints would gladly rife, I know;
Our knees fhall kneel 'till to the ground they grow:
lis prayers are full of falfe hypocrify;

Ours, of true zel and deep integrity.

55 Our prayers do out-pray his; then let them have That mercy, which true prayers ought to have. Boling. Good aunt, ftand up.

Dutch. Nay, do not say-stand up;

But, pardon, first; and afterwards, stand up.

From whence this stream through muddy paffages 60 And if I were thy nurse, thy tongue to teach,
Hath held his current, and defil'd himself!
Pardon-fhould be the firft word of thy fpeech.

'Sheer is pellucid, clear. 2 That is, "The overflow of good in thee is turned to bad in thy fon." 3 To digrefs is to deviate from what is right or regular. 4 Alluding to an interlude well known in our author's time.

I never long'd to hear a word 'till now:
Say-pardon, king; let pity teach thee how :
The word is fhort, but not so short as sweet;
No word like, pardon, for kings' mouths fo meet.
York. Speak it in French, king; fay, pardonnez
moy 1.

Dutch. Doft thou teach pardon pardon to deftroy?
Ah, my four husband, my hard-hearted lord,
That fet'ft the word itself against the word !—
Speak, pardon, as 'tis current in our land;
The chopping French we do not understand.
Thine eye begins to speak, set thy tongue there :
Or, in thy piteous heart plant thou thine ear;
That,hearing how our plaints and prayers do pierce,
Pity may move thee pardon to rehearse.

Beling. Good aunt, stand up.
Dutch. I do not fue to ftand,

Pardon is all the fuit I have in hand.

Boling. I pardon him, as heaven shall pardon me.
Dutch. O happy vantage of a kneeling knee!
Yet am I fick for fear: fpeak it again;
Twice faying pardon, doth not pardon twain,
But makes one pardon strong.

Boling. With all my heart

I pardon him.

5

And here is not a creature but myself,
I cannot do it ;-Yet I'll hammer it out.
My brain I'll prove the female to my foul;
My foul, the father: and these two beget
A generation of ftill-breeding thoughts,
And these fame thoughts people this little world;
In humours, like the people of this world,
For no thought is contented. The better fort,-
As thoughts of things divine,-are intermix'd
10 With fcruples, and do fet the word itself
Against the word 3:

25

As thus,-Come, little ones; and then again,—
It is as bard to come, as for a camel
To thread the poftern of a needle's eye.
15 Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot
Unlikely wonders; how these vain weak nails
May tear a paffage through the flinty ribs
Of this hard world, my ragged prifon walls;
And, for they cannot, die in their own pride.
20 Thoughts tending to content, flatter themselves,-
That they are not the first of fortune's flaves,
Nor fhall not be the laft: Like filly beggars,
Who, fitting in the stocks, refuge their shame,-
That many have, and others must fit there :
And in this thought they find a kind of ease,
Bearing their own misfortune on the back
Of fuch as have before endur'd the like.
Thus play I, in one person, many people,
And none contented: Sometimes am I king;
30 Then treafon makes me with myself a beggar,
And fo I am: Then crushing penury
Perfuades me, I was better when a king;
Then am I king'd again: and, by-and-by,
Think, that I am unking'd by Bolingbroke,
And straight am nothing :-But, what-e'er I am,
Nor I, nor any man, that but man is,
With nothing fhall be pleas'd, 'till he be eas'd
With being nothing.-Mufic do I hear? [Mufic
Ha, ha! keep time :-How four sweet music is,
40 When time is broke, and no proportion kept?
So is it in the mufic of men's lives.
And here have I the daintiness of ear,
To hear time broke in a disorder'd string;
But, for the concord of my state and time,
Had not an ear to hear my true time broke.
I wafted time, and now doth time waste me.
For now hath time made me his numb'ring clock:
My thoughts are minutes; and, with fighs, they jar
Their watches to mine eyes, the outward watch 5,
50 Whereto my finger, like a dial's point,

Dutch. A god on earth thou art. [the abbot 2,
Boling. But for our trusty brother-in-law,-and
With all the reft of that conforted crew,-
Destruction ftraight shall dog them at the heels.-
Good uncle, help to order feveral powers
To Oxford, or where-e'er these traitors are:
They shall not live within this world, I swear,
But I will have them, if I once know where.
Uncle, farewel;-and, coufin, too, adieu :
Your mother well hath pray'd, and prove you true. 35
Dutch. Come, my old fon; I pray heaven make
thee new.

[Exeunt.

Exten. Didft thou not mark the king, what words

he fpake?

Have I no friend will rid me of this living fear?

Was it not so?

Serv. Those were his very words.

[twice, 45

Exten. Have I no friend? quoth he: he spake it
And urg'd it twice together; did he not?
Serv. He did.

Exten, And, fpeaking it, he wiftly look'd on me;
As who should say,-I would, thou wert the man
That would divorce this terror from my heart;
Meaning, the king at Pomfret. Come, let's go;
I am the king's friend, and will rid his foe. [Excunt.
SCENE V.

The Prifon at Pomfret-Cafile.

Enter King Richard.

K. Rich. I have been studying how to compare
This prifon, where I live, unto the world;
And, for because the world is populous,

That is, excufe me.

Is pointing ftill, in cleaning them from tears.
Now, fir, the found, that tells what hour it is,
Are clamorous groans, that ftrike upon my heart,
Which is the bell: So fighs, and tears, and groans,
55 Shew minutes, times, and hours :-but my time
Runs potting on in Bolingbroke's proud joy,
While I ftand fooling here, his jack o' the clock".
This mufic mads me, let it found no more;
For, though it have holpe madmen to their wits,
60 in me, it feems, it will make wife men mad.

2 The abbot of Westminster was an ecclefiaftic; but the brother-in-law meant, was John duke of Exeter and earl of Huntingdon (own brother to king Richard II.) and who had married with the lady Elizabeth, fifter of Henry of Bolingbroke. 3 By the word I fuppofe is meant the Scriptures. 4 To jar probably here means, to make that noife which is called ticking. Watch feems to be used in a double fenfe, for a quantity of time, and for the instrument which measures time.

6 i. e. I ftrike for him.

Yet,

Groom. So proudly, as if he difdain'd the ground. 25
K. Rich. So proud, that Bolingbroke was on his

Keep. Fellow, give place; here is no longer stay.
[To the Groom. 40
K. Rich. If thou love me,'tis time thou wert away.
Groom. What my tongue dares not, that my heart
fhall fay.
[Exit.

Keep. My lord, will't please you to fall to?
K. Rich. Tafte of it first, as thou wert wont to do. 45
Keep. My lord, I dare not; Sir Pierce of Exton,
Who late came from the king, commands the
[thee!

[ment. 55 Villain, thine own hand yields thy death's inftru[Snatching a weapon, and hilling one. Go thou, and fill another room in hell. [Kills another. [Exton frikes bim down.

That hand fhall burn in never-quenching fire,

Exton. Great king, within this coffin I prefent 16ol Thy bury'd fear: herein all breathless lies

1 i. e. is as ftrange and uncommon as a brooch, which is now no longer worn. grave, gloomy villain, who brings, &c.

3 Jaunce and jaunt were synonimous words.

Ff4

Sheriff, Vintner, Chamberlain, Drawers, two Carriers, Travellers, and Attendants, &c.

I The transactions contained in this historical drama are comprised within the period of about ten months for the action commences with the news brought of Hotspur having defeated the Scots under Archibald earl Douglas at Holmedon, (or Halidown-hill), which battle was fought on Holyrood-day (the 14th of September) 1402; and it clofes with the defeat and death of Hotspur at Shrewsbury; which engagement happened on Saturday the 21st of July (the eve of St. Mary Magdalen) in the year 1403. Dr. Johnfon remarks, that "Shakspeare has apparently defigned a regular connection of these dramatic hiftories from Richard the Second to Henry the Fifth. King Henry, at the end of Richard the Second, declares his purpose to vifit the Holy Land, which he refumes in this fpeech. The complaint made by king Henry in the last act of Richard the Second, of the wildness of his fon, prepares the reader for the frolicks which are here to be recounted, and the characters which are now to be exhibited." 2 Mr. Steevens fays, it should be Prince John of Lancaffer, and adds, that the perfons of the drama were originally collected by Mr. Rowe, who has given the title of Duke of Lancafter to Prince John, a mistake which Shakspeare has been no where guilty of in the firft part of this play, though in the fecond he has fallen into the fame error. K. Henry IV. was himself the laft perfon that ever bore the title of Duke of Lancafter. But all his fons ('till they had peerages, as Clarence, Bedford, Gloucefter) were distinguished by the name of the royal houfe, as John of Lancafer, Humphry of Lancaster, &c. and in that proper ftyle, the prefent Jobs (who became afterwards fo illuftrious by the title of Duke of Bedford) is always mentioned in the play before us.

And