Whofe manners still our tardy, apifh, Nation
Limps after, in bafe aukward imitation.
Where doth the world thruft forth a vanity,
(So it be new, there's no refpect how vile,)
That is not quickly buzz'd into his ears?
Then all too late comes counfel to be heard,
Where Will doth mutiny with wit's regard. 3
Direct not him, whofe way himself will chufe; *
'Tis breath thou lack'ft, and that breath wilt thou lofe.
Gaunt. Methinks, I am a prophet new-infpir'd,

And, thus expiring, do foretel of him,

His rafh, fierce blaze of riot cannot last;
For violent fires foon burn out themselves.
Small fhow'rs laft long, but fudden ftorms are fhort;
He tires betimes, that fpurs too fast betimes;
With eager feeding, food doth choak the feeder.
Light vanity, infatiate Cormorant,

Confuming means, foon preys upon

itself.

This royal Throne of Kings, this fcepter'd Ifle,
This Earth of Majesty, this Seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demy Paradife,

4

This fortrefs, built by Nature for her felf,
Against infection, and the hand of war;
This happy Breed of men, this little world,
This precious ftone fet in the filver sea,

2 Report of fashions in proud Italy,] Our authour, who gives to all nations the customs of England, and to all ages the manners of his own; has charged the times of Richard with a folly not perhaps known then, but very frequent in Shakespeare's time, and much lamented by the wifest and best of our anceflors.

3 Where Will doth mutiny with wit's regard.] Where the will rebels against the notices of the understanding.

-whofe way himle'f will

chufe ;] Do not attempt to guide him who, whatever thou thalt fay, will take his own course. Rah. That is, hafty, vio

lent.

Again infection,- 1 I once fufpected that for infection we might read invafion; but the copies all agree, and I fuppofe Shakespeare meant to fay, that islanders are fecured by their fituation both from war and pestilence.

Which ferves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defenfive to a house,

Against the envy of lefs happier Lands;

This nurfe, this teeming womb of royal Kings,
"Fear'd for their breed, and famous by their birth,
Renowned for their deeds, as far from home
For chriftian service and true chivalry,
As is the Sepulchre in ftubborn Jury

Of the world's Ranfom, bleffed Mary's Son;
This land of fuch dear fouls, this dear dear Land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leas'd out, (I dye, pronouncing it)
Like to a Tenement, or pelting Farm.
England, bound in with the triumphant Sea,
Whofe rocky fhore b. ats back the envious fiege
Of watry Neptune, is bound in with shame,
With inky blots, and rotten parchment-bonds.
That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a fhameful Conqueft of itself.
Ah! would the fcandal vanish with my life,
How happy then were my enfuing death!

s Lefs happier lands.] So read all the editions, except Hanmer's, which has 1 bappy. I believe Shakespeare, from the habit of faying more happier according to the cuftom of his time, inadvertently writ lefs happier.

6 Fear'd for their breed, and famous by their birth.] The first edition in 4to, 1598, reads,

Fear'd by their breed, and fa-
mous for their birth.

The fecond 4to in 16.5,
Fear'd by their breed, and fa-
mus by their birth.

The first folio, though printed from the fecond quarto, reads as the first. authour feem often to have been The particles in this printed by chance. Perhaps the paffage, which appears a little difordered, may be regulated thus:

-royal kings,
Fear'd for their breed, and fa-
mous for their birth,
-For Chriftian service, and true
chivalry;

Renowned for their deeds as far
from home
A is the Sepulcbre.

SCENE

SCENE II.

Enter King Richard, Queen, Aumerle, Bufhy, Green, Bagot, Rols, and Willoughby.

York. The King is come, deal mildly with his youth:

For young hot colts, being rag'd, do rage the more. Queen. How fares our noble uncle, Lancaster?

K. Rich. What comfort, man? How is't with aged Gaunt?

Gaunt. Oh, how that Name befits my compofition!
Old Gaunt, indeed, and gaunt in being old;
Within me grief hath kept a tedious fast,

And who abftains from meat, that is not gaunt?
For fleeping England long time have I watch'd,
Watching breeds leannefs, leannefs is all gaunt;
The pleasure, that fome fathers feed upon,
Is my strict faft; I mean, my children's looks;
And, therein fafting, thou haft made me gaunt;
Gaunt am I for the Grave, gaunt as a Grave,
Whofe hollow womb inherits nought but bones.
K. Rich. Can fick men play fo nicely with their

names?

Gaunt. No, mifery makes sport to mock itself:
Since thou doft feek to kill my name in me,
I mock my name, great King, to flatter thee.

K. Rich. Should dying men flatter those that live?
Gaunt. No, no, men living flatter those that die.
K. Rich. Thou, now a dying, fay'ft, thou flatter'st

me.

Gaunt. Oh! no, thou dyeft, though I ficker be.
K. Rich. I am in health, I breathe, I see thee ill.
Gaunt. Now he, that made me, knows, I fee
thee ill.

Ill in my felf, but feeing thee too, ill.
Thy death-bed is no leffer than the Land,

Wherein

Wherein thou lieft in Reputation fick ;
And thou, too careless Patient as thou art,
Giv'ft thy anointed body to the cure

Of thofe phyficians, that first wounded thee.
A thousand flatt'rers fit within thy Crown,
Whose compafs is no bigger than thy head,
And yet incaged in fo fmall a verge, i
Thy wafte is no whit leffer than thy Land,
Oh, had thy Grandfire, with a prophet's eye,
Seen how his fon's fon fhould destroy his fons;
From forth thy reach he would have laid thy fhame,
Depofing thee before thou wert poffeft;
Who art poffefs'd now, to depofe thyself.
Why, Coufin, wert thou Regent of the world,
It were a fhame to let this Land by leafe

But for thy world enjoying but this Land, incl
Is it not more than fhame to fhame it fo?x
Landlord of England art thou now, not King
? Thy state of law is bondflave to the law;
And Thou

K. Rich. And thou, a lunatick lean-witted fool,
Prefuming on an ague's privilege,

7 Thy state of law is bondflave to the law;] State of law, i. e. legal fov'rainty. But the Oxford Editor alters it to fate der law, i. e. abfolute fov'rainty. A doctrine, which, if our poet ever learnt at all, he learnt not in the reign when this play was written, Queen Elizabeth's, but in the reign after it, King James's. By bondlave to the law, the poet means his being inflaved to his favorite fubjects. WARBURTON.

This fentiment, whatever it be, is obfcurely expreffed. I understand it differently from the learned commentator, being perhaps not quite fo zealous for ShakeSpeare's political reputation. The

reafoning of Gaunt, I think, is this: By fetting thy royalties to farm thou haft reduced thyself to a flate below fovereignty, thou art now no longer king but landlord of England, fubject to the fame restraint and limitations as other landlords; by making thy condition a state of law, a condition upon which the common rules of law can operate, thou art become a bondflave to the law; thou haft made thyself amenable to laws from which thou wert originally exempt.

Whether this interpretation be true or no, it is plain that Dr. Warburton's explanation of bendflave to the lavi, is not true.

Dar'ft

Dar'ft with thy frozen admonition

Make pale our cheek; chafing the royal blood
With fury from his native refidence.
Now by my Seat's right-royal Majefty,
Wert thou not Brother to Great Edward's fon,
This tongue that runs fo roundly in thy head,
Should run thy head from thy unreverend fhoulders.
Gaunt. Oh, fpare me not, my brother Edward's fon,
For that I was his father Edward's fon.

That blood already, like the Pelican,

Haft thou tapt out, and drunkenly carows'd.
My brother Glofter, plain well-meaning foul,
(Whom fair befal in heav'n 'mong'st happy fouls!)
May be a precedent and witriefs good,
That thou refpects not fpilling Edward's blood.
Join with the prefent Sickness that I have,
And thy unkindness be like crooked age,
To crop at once a too-long-wither'd flower.
Live in thy fhame, but die not fhame with thee!
These words hereafter thy tormentors be !
Convey me to my Bed, then to my Grave:
Love they to live, that love and honour have.

[Exit, borne out. K. Rich. And let them die, that Age and Sullens

have;

For both haft thou, and both become the Grave.
York. I do befeech your Majefty, impute

8 And thy unkindness be like crooked age, To crop at once a too-long wither'd flow'r.] Thus ftand thefe lines in all the copies, but I think there is an errour. Why fhould Gaunt, already old, call on any thing like age to end him? How can age be faid to crop at once? How is the idea of crookedness connected with that of Croping? I fuppofe the poet

dictated thus:

And thy unkindness be time's crooked edge To crop at once That is, let thy unkindness be time's fcythe to crop.

Edge was eafily confounded by the ear with age, and one miftake once admitted made way for another.

9. Love they. That is, let them love.

His