Have been so brief with you, to shorten you, For taking so the head, your whole head's length. Enter PERCY. Well, Harry; what, will not this castle yield? Boling. Royally! Why it contains no king? Percy. Yes, my good lord, It doth contain a king; king Richard lies Within the limits of yon lime and stone: And with him are the lord Aumerle, lord Salisbury, North. Belike it is the bishop of Carlisle. [TO NORTH. Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle; Harry Bolingbroke On both his knees, doth kissing Richard's hand; e For taking so the head,] To take the head is, to act without restraint; to take undue liberties. Go, signify as much; while here we march [NORTHUMBERLAND advances to the Castle, Let's march without the noise of threat'ning drum, Of fire and water, when their thund'ring shock Flourish. A Parle sounded, and answered by another Trumpet within. Enter on the Walls King RICHARD, the Bishop of Carlisle," AUMERLE, SCROOP, and SALIS BURY. York. See, see, king Richard doth himself appear, As doth the blushing discontented sun, From out the fiery portal of the east ; When he perceives the envious clouds are bent K. Rich. We are amaz'd; and thus long have we stood To watch the fearful bending of thy knee, [To NORTHUMBERLAND. Because we thought ourself thy lawful king : And if we be, how dare thy joints forget To pay their awful duty to our presence? If we be not, show us the hand of God That hath dismiss'd us from our stewardship; For well we know, no hand of blood and bone • Bishop of Carlisle,]-was Thomas Merkes.-WALPOLE. d Can gripe the sacred handle of our sceptre, Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp. And though you think, that all, as you have done, Her pastures' grass with faithful English blood. Be rush'd upon! Thy thrice-noble cousin, That stands upon thy royal grandsire's bones; Currents that spring from one most gracious head; e testament-] This word is used in its legal sense; Bolingbroke is come to open the testament of war that he may peruse what is written there in his favour.-STEEVENS. f the flower of England's face ;] i. e. The choicest youths of England, who shall be slaughtered in this quarrel, or have bloody crowns. The flower of England's face, to design her choicest youth, is a fine and noble expression.— WARBURTON. Which on thy royal party granted once, This swears he, as he is a prince, is just;, [turns ; K. Rich. Northumberland, say,-thus the king reHis noble cousin is right welcome hither; And all the number of his fair demands Shall be accomplish'd without contradiction: With all the gracious utterance thou hast, Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends. We do debase ourself, cousin, do we not, [to AUMERLE. To look so poorly, and to speak so fair? Shall we call back Northumberland, and send Defiance to the traitor, and so die? Aum. No, good my lord; let's fight with gentle words, Till time lend friends, and friends their helpful swords. K. Rich. O God! O God! that e'er this tongue of mine, That laid the sentence of dread banishment On yon proud man, should take it off again As is my grief, or lesser than my name! Or that I could forget what I have been ! Or not remember what I must be now! Swell'st thou, proud heart? I'll give thee scope to beat, Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me. [mit? Aum. Northumberland comes back from Bolingbroke. K. Rich. What must the king do now? Must he subThe king shall do it. Must he be depos'd? The king shall be contented: Must he lose The name of king? o'God's name, let it go : I'll give my jewels, for a set of beads; My gorgeous palace, for a hermitage; My gay apparel, for an alms-man's g commend-] i. e. Commit. gown; h With words of sooth!] Sooth is sweet as well as true. In this place sooth means sweetness or softness, a signification yet retained in the verb to sooth.JOHNSON. i My gay apparel,] Holinshed says that one of King Richard's coats," which he caused to be made for him of cloth of gold and stone valued at 30,000 marks."-STEEVENS. My figur❜d goblets, for a dish of wood; Within the earth; and, therein laid,-There lies North. My lord, in the base court' he doth attend To speak with you; may't please you to come down? K. Rich. Down, down, I come; like glistering Phaeton, Wanting the manage of unruly jades. [NORTH. retires to BOLING. In the base court? Base court, where kings grow base, To come at traitors' calls, and do them grace. In the base court? Come down? Down, court! down king! For night-owls shriek, where mounting larks should sing. [Exeunt, from above. k on their sovereign's head;] Shakspeare is very apt to deviate from the pathetick to the ridiculous. Had the speech of Richard ended at this line, it had exhibited the natural language of submissive misery, conforming its intention to the present fortune, and calmly ending its purposes in death.— JOHNSON. 1 base court-] Bas cour, Fr. |