Buck. Hastings, and Edward's children, Rivers, Grey,
Holy king Henry, and thy fair son Edward,
Vaughan, and all that have miscarried
By underhand corrupted foul injustice;
If that your moody discontented souls
Do through the clouds behold this present hour,
Even for revenge mock my destruction !
This is All-Souls' day, fellows, is it not?

Sher. It is, my lord.
Buck. Why, then All-Souls' day is my body's dooms-

day.
This is the day, which, in king Edward's time,
I wish'd might fall on me, when I was found
False to his children or his wife's allies:
This is the day, wherein I wish'd to fall
By the false faith of him whom most I trusted;
This, this All-Souls' day to my fearful soul,
Is the determin’d respite of my wrongs.5
That high All-seer which I dallied with,
Hath turned my feigned prayer on my head,
And given in earnest what I begg'd in jest.
Thus doth he force the swords of wicked men
To turn their own points on their masters' bosoms :
Thus Margaret's curse falls heavy on my neck,
When he, quoth she, shall split thy heart with sorrow,
Remember Margaret was a prophetess.
Come, sirs, convey me to the block of shame;
Wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of blame.6

[Exeunt Buck. &c.

" I would have play'd
“ The part my father meant to act upon
6. The usurper Richard; who, being at Salisbury,
“Made suit to come in his presence; which, if granted,
“ As he made semblance of his duty, would

“ Have put his knife into him.” Steevens.
See also Hall's Chronicle, Richard III, fo. 16. Reed.

5 Is the determin'd respite of my wrongs.) Hanmer has rightly explained it, the time to which the punishment of his wrongs was respited. Wrongs in this line means wrongs done, or injurious practices.

Johnson. 6 - blame the due of blame.] This scene should, in my opinion, be added to the foregoing Act, so the fourth Act will have a more full and striking conclusion, and the fifth Act will comprise the

SCENE II.

Plain near Tamworth. Enter, with Drum and Colours, RICHMOND, OXFORD,?

Sir JAMES BLUNT,8 Sir WALTER HERBERT, and Others, with Forces, marching.

Richm. Fellows in arms, and my most loving friends, Bruis'd underneath the yoke of tyranny, Thus far into the bowels of the land Have we march'd on without impediment ; And here receive we from our father Stanley Lines of fair comfort and encouragement. The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar, That spoil'd your summer fields, and fruitful vines, Swills your warm blood 9 like wash, and makes his trough In your embowell'd bosoms, this foul swine

business of the important day, which put an end to the competi. tion of York and Lancaster. Some of the quarto editions are not divided into Acts, and it is probable, that this and many other plays were left by the author in one unbroken continuity, and af. terwards distributed by chance, or what seems to have been a guide very little better, by the judgment or caprice of the first editors. Fohnson.

7- Oxford, John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, a zealous Lancastrian, who after a long confinement in Hames Castle in Picardy, escaped from thence in 1484, and joined the earl of Richmond at Paris. He commanded the Archers at the battle of Bosworth.

Malone. 8- Sir Fames Blunt,] He had been captain of the Castle of Hames, and assisted the Earl of Oxford in his escape. Malone. 9 That spoild your summer fields, and fruitful vines,

Swills your warın blood &c.] This sudden change from the past time to the present, and vice versa, is common in Shakspeare. So, in the argument prefixed to his Rape of Lucrece: “ The same night he treacherously stealçth into her chamber, violently ravished her,” &c. Malone.

1- embowveld bosons, ) Exenterated; ripped up: alluding, perhaps, to the Promethean vulture; or, more probably, to the sentence pronounced in the English courts against traitors, by which they are condemned to be hanged, drawn, that is, embow. elled, and quartered. Johnson.

Drawn, in the sentence pronounced upon traitors only, signi. fies to be drawn by the heels or on a hurdle from the prison to the place of execution. So, Dr. Johnson has properly expounded it

Lies now? even in the centre of this isle,
Near to the town of Leicester, as we learn:
From Tamworth thither, is but one day's march.
In God's name, cheerly on, courageous friends,
To reap the harvest of perpetual peace
By this one bloody trial of sharp war.

Oxf. Every man's conscience is a thousand swords, 3 To fight against that bloody homicide.

Herb. I doubt not, but his friends will turn to us.

Blunt. He hath no friends, but who are friends for fear; Which, in his dearest need, will fly from him. Richm. All for our vantage. Then, in God's name,

march: True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings, Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.

[Exeunt. SCENE III.

Bosworth Field. Enter King RICHARD, and Forces; the Duke of Nor.'

FOLK, Earl of SUKRĖY, and Others. K. Rich. Here pitch our tents, even here in Bosworth

field. My lord of Surrey, why look you so sad?

in Measure for Measure, Act II. So, Holinshed, in the year 1569, and Stowe's Chronicle, edit. 1614, p. 162, 171, 418, 763, 766. Sometimes our historians use a colloquial inaccuracy of expression in writing, hanged, drawn, and quartered; but they often express it-drawn, hanged, and qnartered; and sometimes they add-bowelled, or his bowels taken out, which would be tautology, if the same thing was implied in the word drawn. Tollet.

Drawn in the sense of embouelleil, is never used but in speaking of a fowl. It is true, embowelling is also part of the sentence in high treason, but in order of time it comes after drawing and hanging. Blackstone.

2 Lies now—]i. e. sojourns. See Vol. IX, p. 105, n. 2.--For lies, the reading of the quarto, the editors of the folio, probably not understanding the term, substituted-- Is. See p. 167, n. 8.

Malone. 3— conscience is a thousand swords,) Alluding to the old adage, “ Conscientia mille testes.” Blackstone.

Thus the quarto. The folio reads--a thousand men. Malone. 4 and flies with swallow's wings,] Drayton calls joy :

"- the swallow-winged joy." Steevens.

Sur. My heart is ten times lighter than my looks.
K. Rich. My lord of Norfolk, -
Nor.

Here, most gracious liege. K. Rich. Norfolk, we must have knocks; Ha! must

we not? Nor. We must both give and take, my loving lord. K. Rich. Up with my tent: Here will I lie to-night;5

[ Soldiers begin to set up the King's Tent. But where, to-morrow?-Well, all's one for that Who hath descried the number of the traitors?

Nor. Six or seven thousand is their utmost power.

K. Rich. Why, our battalia 'trebies that account:6 . Besides, the king's name is a tower of strength, Which they upon the adverse faction want. Up with the tent. Come, noble gentlemen, Let us survey the vantage of the ground; Call for some men of sound direction:Let's want no discipline, make no delay; For, lords, to-morrow is a busy day.

[Exeunt. Enter on the other side of the Field, RICHMOND, Sir

WILLIAM BRANDON, Oxford, and other Lords.

Some of the Soldiers pitch RicHMOND's Tent. Richm. The weary sun hath made a golden set,

s Up with mytent: Here will I lie to-night;? Richard is reported not to have slept in his tent on the night before the battle, but in the town of Leicester. Steevens.

0 our battalia trebles that account:) Richmond's forces are said to have been only five thousand; and Richard's army consisted of about twelve thousand men. But Lord Stanley lay at a small distance with three thousand men, and Richa d may be supposed to have reckoned on them as his friends, though the event proved otherwise. Malone. si 7— sound direction:] True judgment; tried military skill.

Fohnson. 8 Oxford, and other Lords. ] The direction in the folio is“Enter Richmond and Sir Williain Brandon, Oxford and Dorset.” In the quarto only, “Enter Richmond, with the lordes." This is one of numerous proofs that many of the alterations in the folio edition of this play were made by the players, and not by Shakspeare; for Shakspeare had been informed by Holinshed that Dorset was not at the battle of Bosworth; Richmond before his leaving Paris having borrowed a sum of money from the French King, Charles the Eighth, and having left the Marquis of Dor. set and Sir John Bouchier as hostages for the payment. Malone.

And, by the bright track of his fiery car,
Gives token of a goodly day to-morrow.
Sir William Brandon, you shall bear my standard.
Give me some ink and paper in my tent;
I'll draw the form and model of our battle,
Limiteach leader to his several charge,
And part in just proportion our small power. .
My lord of Oxford,you, sir William Brandon,
And you, sir Walter Herbert, stay with me:
The earl of Pembroke keeps his regiment ;
Good captain Blunt, bear my good night to him,
And by the second hour in the morning
Desire the earl to see me in my tent:
Yet one thing more, good captain, do for me;
Where is lord Stanley quarter'd, do you know?

Blunt. Unless I have mista'en his colours much,
(Which, well I am assur'd, I have not done,)
His regiment lies half a mile at least
South from the mighty power of the king.

Richm. If without peril it be possible,
Sweet Blunt, make some good means to speak with

him,

Give me some ink and paper -] I have placed these lines as they stand in the first editions: the rest place them three speeches before, after the words Sir William Brandon, you shall bear my standard; interrupting what there follows; The Earl of Pembroke, &c. I think them more naturally introduced here, when he is retiring to his tent; and considering what he has to do that nigbt.

Pope. I have followed the folio, which, of this play, is by far the most correct copy. I do not find myself much influenced by Mr. Pope's remark. Steevens.

In the quarto, this and the three following lines are introduced immediately before the words “Come, gentlemen, let us consult," &c. Malone. i Limit-] i. e. appoint. So, in Macbeth:

“I'll make so hold to call,

“For 'tis my limited service.” Steevens. 2 keeps his regiment;] i.e. remains with it. Thus we say of a person confined by illness-he keeps his chamber, or bis bed.

Steevens. 3 make some good means -1 i. e. adopt some convenient measure. So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: " To make such means for her as thou hast done."

Steevena.