This swears he, as he is a prince, is just; K. RICH. Northumberland, say,-thus the king returns; His noble cousin is right welcome hither; [To AUMERLE. 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 Swell'st thou, proud heart? I'll give thee scope to beat, Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me. AUM. Northumberland comes back from Bolingbroke. K. RICH. What must the king do now? Must he submit? The king shall do it. Must he be depos'd? 3 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. The king shall be contented: Must he lose 4 My gay apparel, &c.] Dr. Grey observes, "that King Richard's expence in regard to dress, was very extraordinary." Holinshed has the same remark; and adds, that he had "one cote which he caused to be made for him of gold and stone, valued at 30,000 marks." STEEVENS. Stowe, in his Survey, says, "to the value of three thousand markes." So, also, in Vita Ricardi Secundi, published by T. Hearne, p. 156. It is much to be wished that historians would never use Arabick numerals; they are the source of innumerable errors. MALONE. 5 Or I'll be buried in the king's highway, Some way of common TRADE,] So, in Lord Surrey's translation of the second book of Virgil's Æneid: "A postern with a blind wicket there was, "A common trade, to pass through Priam's house." The phrase is still used by common people. When they speak of a road much frequented, they say, "it is a road of much traffick." Shakspeare uses the word in the same sense in King Henry VIII. : "Stand in the gap and trade of more preferments." STEEVENS. 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. Aumerle, thou weep'st; My tender-hearted cou sin! We'll make foul weather with despised tears; Or shall we play the wantons with our woes, Within the earth; and, therein laid,-There lies Would not this ill do well?-Well, well, I see Most mighty prince, my lord Northumberland, tend 8 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. Bolingbroke says-ay.] Here is another instance of injury done to the poet's metre by changing his orthography. I, which was Shakspeare's word, rhymed very well with die; but ay has quite a different sound. See a note on The Merry Wives of Windsor, vol. viii. p. 186, n. 7. TYRWHITT. In some counties ay is at this day pronounced with a sound very little differing from that of I. MALONE. - base court-] Bas cour, Fr. So, in Hinde's Eliosto Libidinoso, 1606: "they were, for a public observation, brought into the base court of the palace." Again, in Greene's Farewell to Follie, 1617: " -began, at the entrance into the base court, to use these words." STEEVENS. 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 [Exeunt, from above. sing. BOLING. What says his majesty ? NORTH. Sorrow and grief of heart Makes him speak fondly, like a frantick man : Yet he is come. Enter King RICHARD, and his Attendants, below. BOLING. Stand all apart, And show fair duty to his majesty. My gracious lord, [Kneeling. K. RICH. Fair cousin, you debase your princely knee, To make the base earth proud with kissing it: BOLING. My gracious lord, I come but for miné own. K. RICH. Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all. BOLING. So far be mine, my most redoubted lord, As my true service shall deserve your love. K. RICH. Well you deserve :-They well deserve to have, That know the strong'st and surest way to get.- Though you are old enough to be my heir. K. RICH. Then I must not say, no 9. [Flourish. Exeunt. SCENE IV. Langley. The Duke of YORK's Garden. Enter the QUEEN, and two Ladies. QUEEN. What sport shall we devise here in this garden, To drive away the heavy thought of care? 1 LADY. Madam, we'll play at bowls. QUEEN. Twill make me think, the world is full And that my fortune runs against the bias. QUEEN. My legs can keep no measure in de- When my poor heart no measure keeps in grief: 9 Then I must not say, no.] "The duke with a high sharpe voyce bade bring forth the kings horses, and then two little nagges, not worth forty franks, were brought forth; the king was set on the one, and the earle of Salisburie on the other: and thus the duke brought the king from Flint to Chester, where he was delivered to the duke of Glocesters sonne and to the earle of Arundels sonne, (that loved him but little, for he had put their fathers to death,) who led him straight to the castle." Stowe, (p. 521, edit. 1605,) from a manuscript account written by a person who was present. MALONE. |