Destruction straight shall dog them at the heels. 26
Good uncle, help to order several powers
To Oxford, or where'er these traitors are:
They shall not live within this world, I swear,
But I will have them, if I once know where.

Uncle, farewell, and cousin too, 27 adieu:

Your mother well hath pray'd, and prove you true.

Duch. Come, my old son: I pray God make thee new.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV. 1

Enter Sir PIERCE OF EXTON, and a Servant.

Exton. Didst thou not mark the king, what words he spake? „Have I no friend will rid me of this living fear?“

Exton. Have I no friend?" quoth he: he spake it twice, And urg'd it twice together, 2 did he not?

Serv. He did.

Exton. And, speaking it, he wistly 3 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.

K. Rich. I have been studying how I may compare

This prison, where I live, unto the world:

1

And for because 2 the world is populous,

[Exeunt.

And here is not a creature but myself,

26) Fast ebenso in K. Richard III. (A. 4, Sc. 1) Death and destruction dog thee at

the heels.

27) too ist von Theobald eingeschoben.

1) Die Fol. beginnt hier keine neue Scene.

2) twice together zweimal nach einander.

3) wistly

=

aufmerksam, mit Bewusstsein. So die spätern Qs. und die Fol. für whistly in Q. A. und B. wistfully, das sich in keiner alten Ausgabe findet.

Viele Hgg. vertauschen das veraltete Wort mit dem synonymen

4) to rid ist wohl nicht eigentlich

to destroy, wie Malone erklärt, sondern eher

wegschaffen, aus dem Wege bringen.

1) So Q. A. Die übrigen Qs. und Fol. how to compare.

2) for because pleonastisch für because oder für for im Sinne von because.

I cannot do it: yet I'll hammer it out.

My brain I'll prove the female to my soul;
My soul, the father: and these two beget

A generation of still-breeding thoughts,

And these same thoughts people this little world, 3
In humours like the people of this world,

For no thought is contented. The better sort,
As thoughts of things divine, are intermix'd
With scruples, and do set the word itself
Against the word: 4

As thus,

"Come, little ones;" and then again,
„It is as hard to come, as for a camel
To thread the postern of a needle's 5 eye."
Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot
Unlikely wonders: how these vain weak nails.
May tear a passage through the flinty ribs
Of this hard world, my ragged prison walls;
And, for they cannot, die in their own pride.
Thoughts tending to content flatter themselves,
That they are not the first of fortune's slaves,
Nor shall not be the last; like silly beggars,
Who, sitting in the stocks, refuge their shame, s
That many have, and others must sit there:
And in this thought they find a kind of ease,
Bearing their own misfortune on the back
Of such as have before endur'd the like.

7

3) this little world,

Tropus

8

diese kleine Welt, ist er selbst ein von Sh. häufig angewandter hier im Gegensatz zu this world diese grosse Welt, die irdische Welt. Knight citirt dazu eine Sh. bekannte Stelle aus Raleigh's History of the World: Because in the little frame of man's body there is a representation of the universal and (by allusion) a kind of participation of all the parts there, therefore was man called microcosmos, or the little world.

4) Dass unter word hier das Wort Gottes, das biblische Wort verstanden ist, ergiebt sich sowohl aus dem Folgenden, als auch aus der Variante der Fol.: set the faith itself || Against the faith. Im andern Sinne hatte die vorige Sc. That set'st the word itself

against the word.

5) Die Qs. haben a small needle's.

do plot.

be

6) for they cannot weil sie es nicht vermögen, sterben sie in ihrem Uebermuth, zieht sich nicht auf weak nails, sondern auf thoughts 7) they geht, genau genommen, nicht auf thoughts, sondern auf die, welche denken, dass sie nicht die ersten sind, die das Glück bezwungen hat, und auch nicht die letzten sein werden.

8) Einfältige Bettler, wenn sie wegen Vagabundirens in den Fussblock gesteckt werden, verstecken ihre Schmach hinter dem Gedanken, dass schon Viele ebendaselbst sassen und Andre nach ihnen da sitzen werden. Zu have ist aus sit das Particip sat

zu suppliren.

9

Thus play I, in one person, many people,
And none contented: Sometimes am I king;
Then treason makes me wish myself a beggar,
And so I am: then, crushing penury

Persuades 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 whate'er I am,
Nor I, nor any man, that but man is,

With nothing shall be pleas'd, till he be eas'd
With being nothing. Music do I hear?

Ha, ha! keep time.

How sour sweet music is, When time is broke, 10 and no proportion kept!

So is it in the music of men's lives.

And here have I the daintiness of ear,

To check 11 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 wasted time, and now doth time waste me;

For now hath time made me his numbering clock. 12
My thoughts are minutes, and with sighs they jar
Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch,
Whereto my finger, like a dial's point,

Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears.
Now, Sir, 13 the sound, 14 that tells what hour it is,
Are clamorous groans, that strike upon my heart,
Which is the bell: So sighs, and tears, and groans,

time

9) So Q. A. Die übrigen Qs. und die Fol. in one prison.
10) wenn das Zeitmass, der Takt, verletzt wird.
nachher = Zeit, Lebenszeit und Mitwelt.
11) to check

[Music.

Zeitmass, fasst Richard gleich

controlliren, zurechtsetzen, ist die Lesart der Qs.; die Fol. hat to hear. 12) In dem Folgenden malt Richard sich weiter aus, in welcher Art er die Uhr vorstelle, zu der ihn die Zeit gemacht habe. Seine Gedanken sind die Minuten, die in ihrem Verlaufe vermittelst der sie darstellenden Seufzer weiter tickend ihre Zeiteintheilung den Augen angeben. their watches doppelsinnig Wachen, Nachtwachen, und Stunden, hängt von to jar on weiter ticken, ab, und steht im Gegensatz zu outward watch, als welche die Augen, gleichsam das äusserlich sichtbare Zifferblatt der Uhr, angesehen werden. Auf dieses Zifferblatt deutet der Finger, wie der Weiser an der Uhr, fortwährend hin, indem er die Thränen aus den Augen wischt. to jar ticken, kommt als intransitives Verbum in Kyd's Spanish Tragedy vor: the minutes jarring, the clocks striking.

=

13) Diese Anrede gebrauchen die Dramatiker der Zeit bisweilen auch in Monologen, wo der Redende sich selbst oder eine unbestimmte, eingebildete Person so bezeichnet. 14) the sound ist der jedesmalige Glockenschlag der Uhr, der, weil er aus einer andauernden Reihe besteht und sich periodisch wiederholt, hier als Collectiv den Plural: are clamorous groans nach sich hat.

Show minutes, times, and hours; 15 but my time
Runs posting on in Bolingbroke's proud joy,
While I stand fooling here, his Jack o' the clock. 16
This music mads me: let it sound no more,

For though it hath holp madmen to their wits,
In me, it seems, it will make wise men mad.
Yet blessing on his heart that gives it me!
For 't is a sign of love, and love to Richard
Is a strange brooch in this all-hating world. 17
Enter Groom.

Groom. Hail, royal prince!
K. Rich.

Thanks, noble peer; 18

The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear.
What art thou? and how comest thou hither?
Where no man never comes, but that sad dog
That brings me food to make misfortune live?

Groom. I was a poor groom of thy stable, king,
When thou wert king; who, travelling towards York,
With much ado, at length have gotten leave
To look upon my sometimes royal master's face.
O how it yearn'd my heart, when I beheld
In London streets that coronation day,
When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary!
That horse that thou so often hast bestrid,
That horse that I so carefully have dress'd!

K. Rich. Rode he on Barbary? Tell me, gentle friend,
How went he under him?

Groom. So proudly, as if he disdain'd the ground.

K. Rich. So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back!

That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand;

15) Nach der vorhergehenden Darstellung bezieht sich sighs auf minutes, hours auf groans, während tears auf times geht, da die Thränen keinen bestimmten Zeitabschnitt anzeigen, sondern nur, wie sie fortwährend neu aus den Augen gewischt werden, den Fortgang der Zeit im Allgemeinen andeuten.

16) Jack o' the clock ist die automatische Figur, die an Uhren äusserlich angebracht, mit einer Armbewegung oder mit einem Schlage den Glockenschlag, die Stunde, anzeigt. 17) brooch Spange, Agraffe, wird dann allgemein Schmuck, gebraucht: Liebe zu dem abgesetzten König Richard ist ein auffallender, in dieser hasserfüllten Welt selten getragener Schmuck.

18) Anspielung auf die Münzen Royal und Noble. Die letztere entsprach am Werthe ten groats, die erstere galt ten shillings. Ein ähnliches Wortspiel findet sich in

K. Henry IV. First Part (A. 2, Sc. 4), wo auf das Wort der Wirthin: There is a nobleman of the court at door, would speak with you, die Antwort lautet: Give him as much as will make him a royal man. Hier ist der Sinn: wir beide gelten

nichts mehr.

This hand hath made him proud with clapping him.
Would he not stumble? Would he not fall down,
(Since pride must have a fall) and break the neck
Of that proud man that did usurp his back?
Forgiveness, horse! why do I rail on thee,
Since thou, created to be aw'd by man,

Wast born 19 to bear? I was not made a horse;
And yet I bear a burden like an ass,
Spur-gall'd, and tir'd, by jauncing Bolingbroke.

Enter Keeper, with a dish. 21

Keep. Fellow, give place: here is no longer stay.
K. Rich. If thou love me, 't is time thou wert away.

my

[To the Groom.

Groom. What my tongue dares not, that heart shall say.
Keep. My lord, will 't please you to fall to?

K. Rich. Taste of it first, as thou art wont to do.

[Exit.

Keep. My lord, I dare not: Sir Pierce of Exton, who lately came from

the king, commands the contrary.

K. Rich. The devil take Henry of Lancaster, and thee! Patience is stale, and I am weary of it.

Keep. Help, help, help!

[Strikes the Keeper. 22

Enter Sir PIERCE OF EXTON, and Servants, armed.

K. Rich. How now! what means death in this rude assault? Villain, thine own hand yields thy death's instrument.

Go thou, and fill another room in hell.

[Snatching a weapon, and killing one.

[He kills another: EXTON strikes him down. That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire, That staggers thus my person. Exton, thy fierce hand Hath with the king's blood stain'd the kin'g own land. Mount, mount, my soul! thy seat is up on high, Whilst my gross flesh sinks downward, here to die.

Exton. As full of valour as of royal blood: Both have I spilt: O, would the deed were good! For now the devil, that told me I did well,

Says that this deed is chronicled in hell.

This dead king to the living king I'll bear. —

[Dies.

Take hence the rest, 23 and give them burial here.

[Exeunt.

19) Wortspiel zwischen to bear = gebären, und tragen. Die erstere Bedeutung steckt

in dem Particip, die zweite in dem Infinitiv.

20) to jaunce stolziren, renommiren.

21) So die Fol. Die Qs. haben Enter one to Richard with meat.

22) Diese Bühnenweisung ist modern.

nur Exton strikes him down.

Auch von den folgenden haben die alten Ausgg.

23) d. h. die Leichen der beiden Diener, welche Richard erschlagen hatte.