Within my mouth

you have engaol'd my tongue, Doubly portcullis'd, with my teeth, and lips; And dull, unfeeling, barren ignorance

Is made my gaoler to attend on me.
I am too old to fawn upon a nurse,
Too far in years to be a pupil now;

What is thy sentence then, but speechless death,
Which robs my tongue from breathing native breath?
K. Rich. It boots thee not to be compassionate; 9
After our sentence plaining comes too late.

Nor. Then thus I turn me from my country's light,
To dwell in solemn shades of endless night. [Retiring.
K. Rich. Return again, and take an oath with thee.
Lay on our royal sword your banish'd hands;
Swear by the duty that you owe to heaven,
(Our part therein we banish with yourselves,)1
To keep the oath that we administer:-

You never shall (so help you truth and heaven!)
Embrace each other's love in banishment;

Nor never look upon each other's face;
Nor never write, regreet, nor reconcile
This lowering tempest of your home-bred hate;
Nor never by advised2 purpose meet,

To plot, contrive, or complot any ill,

'Gainst us, our state, our subjects, or our land. Boling. I swear.

9

Nor. And I, to keep all this.

Boling. Norfolk, so far as to mine enemy;

compassionate;] for plaintive. Warburton.

3

1 (Our part &c.] It is a question much debated amongst the writers of the law of nations, whether a banished my may be still tied in his allegiance to the state which sent him into exile.. Tully and Lord Chancellor Clarendon declare for the affirmative. Hobbes and Puffendorf hold the negative. Our author, by this line, seems to be of the same opinion. Warburton.

2 advised] i. e. concerted, deliberated. So, in The Merchant of Venice:

66 with more advised watch." Steevens..

3 Norfolk, so far &c.] I do not clearly see what is the sense of this abrupt line; but suppose the meaning to be this: Hereford immediately after his oath of perpetual enmity, addresses Norfolk, and, fearing some misconstruction, turns to the King

By this time, had the king permitted us,
One of our souls had wander'd in the air,
Banish'd this frail sepúlchre of our flesh,*
As now our flesh is banish'd from this land:
Confess thy treasons, ere thou fly the realm;
Since thou hast far to go, bear not along
The clogging burden of a guilty soul.

Nor. No, Bolingbroke; if ever I were traitor,
My name be blotted from the book of life,
And I from heaven banish'd, as from hence!
But what thou art, heaven, thou, and I do know;
And all too soon, I fear, the king shall rue.—
Farewel, my liege:-Now no way can I stray;
Save back to England, all the world's my way." [Exit.

and says so far as to mine enemy- -that is, I should say nothing to him but what enemies may say to each other.

Reviewing this passage, I rather think it should be understood thus. Norfolk, so far I have addressed myself to thee as to mine enemy, I now utter my last words with kindness and tenderness, Confess thy treasons. Johnson.

so fare, as to mine enemy;] i. e. he only wishes him to fare like his enemy, and he disdains to say fare well as Aumerle does in the next scene. Tollet.

The first folio reads 'fare; the second farre. Bolingbroke only uses the phrase by way of caution, lest Mowbray should think he was about to address him as a friend. Norfolk, says he, so far as a man may speak to his enemy, &c. Ritson.

Surely fare was a misprint for farre, the old spelling of the word now placed in the text.-Perhaps the author intended that Hereford in speaking this line should show some courtesy to Mowbray ; -and the meaning may be: So much civility as an enemy has a right to, I am willing to offer to thee. Malone.

Sir T. Hanmer's marginal direction is-In salutation. Steevens. 4 this frail sepulchre of our flesh,] So, afterwards: thou King Richard's tomb,

66

"And not King Richard

And Milton, in Samson Agonistes:

5

"Myself my sepulchre, a moving grave.” Henley.

all the world's my way.] Perhaps Milton had this in his mind when he wrote these lines:

"The world was all before them, where to choose
"Their place of rest, and Providence their guide."

Johnson.

The Duke of Norfolk after his banishment went to Venice, where, says Holinshed, "for thought and melancholy he deceased." Malone.

K. Rich. Uncle, even in the glasses of thine eyes I see thy grieved heart: thy sad aspéct Hath from the number of his banish'd years

Pluck'd four away ;-Six frozen winters spent,

Return [to Boling.] with welcome home from banishment.
Boling. How long a time lies in one little word!
Four lagging winters, and four wanton springs,
End in a word; Such is the breath of kings.
Gaunt. I thank my liege, that, in regard of me,
He shortens four years of my son's exile:
But little vantage shall I reap thereby;

For, ere the six years, that he hath to spend,

Can change their moons, and bring their times about,
My oil-dried lamp, and time-bewasted light,
Shall be extinct with age, and endless night;
My inch of taper will be burnt and done,
And blindfold death not let me see my son.

K. Rich. Why, uncle, thou hast many years to live.
Gaunt. But not a minute, king, that thou canst give:
Shorten my days thou canst with sullen sorrow,
And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow:
Thou canst help time to furrow me with age,
But stop no wrinkle in his pilgrimage;

Thy word is current with him for my death;
But, dead, thy kingdom cannot buy my breath.
K. Rich. Thy son is banish'd upon good advice,"
Whereto thy tongue a party-verdict gave; 8
Why at our justice seem'st thou then to lower?
Gaunt. Things sweet to taste, prove in digestion sour.

I should point the passage thus:

Now no way can I stray,

Save back to England:-all the world's my way.

There's no way for me to go wrong, except back to England.

M. Mason.

6 And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow:] It is matter of very melancholy consideration, that all human advantages confer more power of doing evil than good. Johnson.

7

upon good advice,] Upon great consideration. Malone. So, in King Henry VI, Part II:

"But with advice and silent secresy." Steevens.

8 — a party-verdict gave;] i. e. you had yourself a part or share in the verdict that I pronounced. Malone.

You urg'd me as a judge; but I had rather,
You would have bid me argue like a father:-
O, had it been a stranger, not my child,

To smooth his fault I should have been more mild:
A partial slander1 sought I to avoid,

And in the sentence my own life destroy'd.
Alas, I look'd, when some of you should say,
I was too strict, to make mine own away;
But you gave leave to my unwilling tongue,
Against my will, to do myself this wrong.

K. Rich. Cousin, farewel:-and, uncle, bid him so; Six years we banish him, and he shall go.

[Flourish. Exeunt K. RICH. and Train. Aum. Cousin, farewel: what presence must not know, From where you do remain, let paper show.

Mar. My lord, no leave take I; for I will ride, As far as land will let me, by your side.

Gaunt. O, to what purpose dost thou hoard thy words, That thou return'st no greeting to thy friends? Boling. I have too few to take my leave of you, When the tongue's office should be prodigal To breathe the abundant dolour of the heart. Gaunt. Thy grief is but thy absence for a time. Boling. Joy absent, grief is present for that time. Gaunt. What is six winters? they are quickly gone. Boling. To men in joy; but grief makes one hour ten. Gaunt. Call it a travel that thou tak'st for pleasure. Boling. My heart will sigh, when I miscal it so, Which finds it an enforced pilgrimage.

Gaunt. The sullen passage of thy weary steps

Esteem a foil, wherein thou art to set

The precious jewel of thy home-return.

Boling. Nay, rather, every tedious stride I make2

9 O, had it been a stranger,] This couplet is wanting in the folio.

Steevens.

1 A partial slander -] That is, the reproach of partiality. This is a just picture of the struggle between principle and affection. Johnson.

This couplet which is wanting in the folio edition, has been arbitrarily placed by some of the modern editors at the conclusion of Gaunt's speech. In the three oldest quartos it follows the fifth line of it. In the fourth quarto, which seems copied from the folio, the passage is omitted.. Steevens.

Will but remember me, what a deal of world
I wander from the jewels that I love.
Must I not serve a long apprenticehood
To foreign passages; and in the end,
Having my freedom, boast of nothing else,
But that I was a journeyman to grief?3

Gaunt. All places that the eye of heaven visits,
Are to a wise man ports and happy havens:
Teach thy necessity to reason thus;
There is no virtue like necessity.

Think not, the king did banish thee;5

But thou the king: Woe doth the heavier sit,

4

2 Boling. Nay, rather, every tedious stride I make —] This, and the six verses which follow, I have ventured to supply from the old quarto. The allusion, it is true, to an apprenticeship, and becoming a journeyman, is not in the sublime taste; nor, as Horace has expressed it: "spirat tragicum satis:" however, as there is no doubt of the passage being genuine, the lines are not so despicable as to deserve being quite lost. Theobald.

3 - journeyman to grief?] I am afraid our author in this place designed a very poor quibble, as journey signifies both travel and a day's work. However, he is not to be censured for what he himself rejected. Johnson.

The quarto, in which these lines are found, is said in its titlepage to have been corrected by the author; and the play is indeed more accurately printed than most of the other single copies. There is now, however, no certain method of knowing by whom the rejection was made. Steevens.

4 All places that the eye of heaven visits, &c.] So, Nonnus: adepos qua: i. e. the sun. Steevens.

The fourteen verses that follow are found in the first edition.

Pope.

I am inclined to believe that what Mr. Theobald and Mr. Pope have restored were expunged in the revision by the author: If these lines are omitted, the sense is more coherent. Nothing is more frequent among dramatic writers, than to shorten their dialogues for the stage. Johnson.

5

did banish thee;] Read:

Therefore, think not, the king did banish thee. Ritson.

ɓ Think not, the king did banish thee;

But thou the king:] The same thought occurs in Coriolanus:

"I banish you."

M. Mason

All places that the eve of heaven visits,

Are to a wise man ports and happy havens :

Think not the king did banish thee;

But thou the king:] Shakspeare, when he wrote the passage be