And thou

K. Rich.

a lunatick lean-witted fool,

Presuming on an ague's privilege,

Dar'st with thy frozen admonition

Make pale our cheek; chasing the royal blood,
With fury, from his native residence.
Now by my seat's right royal majesty,
Wert thou not brother to great Edward's son,
This tongue that runs so roundly in thy head,

Should run thy head from thy unreverend shoulders.
Gaunt. O, spare me not, my brother Edward's son,
For that I was his father Edward's son;

That blood already, like the pelican,

Hast thou tapp'd out, and drunkenly carous'd:
My brother Gloster, plain well-meaning soul,
(Whom fair befal in heaven 'mongst happy souls!)
May be a precedent and witness good,

That thou respect'st not spilling Edward's blood:

been learned in the reign of Elizabeth, as in that of her successor. She was, in fact, as absolute as he wished to be.

Johnson's explanation is in general just; but I think that the words, of law, must mean, by law, or according to law, as we say of course, and of right, instead of by right, or by course.-Gaunt's reasoning is this-"Having let your kingdom by lease, you are no longer the king of England, but the landlord only; and your state is by law, subject to the law." M. Mason.

Mr. Heath explains the words state of law somewhat differently: "Thy royal estate, which is established by the law, is now in virtue of thy having leased it out, subjected," &c. Malone. 2 Gaunt. And thou

K. Rich. — a lunatick lean-witted fool,] In the disposition. of these lines I have followed the folio, in giving the word thou to the king; but the regulation of the first quarto, 1597, is perhaps preferable, being more in our poet's manner:

Gaunt. And thou

K. Rich. — a lunatick, lean-witted fool, And thou a mere cypher in thy own kingdom, Gaunt was going to say. Richard interrupts him, and takes the word thou in a different sense, applying it to Gaunt, instead of himself. Of this kind of retort there are various instances in these plays.

The folio repeats the word And:

Gaunt. And

K. Rich. And thou, &c. Malone,

lean-witted-] Dr. Farmer observes to me that the same

expression occurs in the 106th Psalm:

66

and sent leanness withal into their soul."

Steevens.

Join with the present sickness that I have;
And thy unkindness be like crooked age,
To crop at once a too-long wither'd flower.3
Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee!—
These words hereafter thy tormenters be!—
Convey me to my bed, then to my grave:-
Love they to live, that love and honour have.

[Exit, borne out by his Attendants. K. Rich. And let them die, that age and sullens have;

3 And thy unkindness be like crooked age,

To crop at once a too-long wither'd flower.] Thus stand these lines in all the copies, but I think there is an error. Why should Gaunt, already old, call on any thing like age to end him? How can age be said to crop at once? How is the idea of crookedness connected with that of cropping? I suppose the poet dictated thus: And thy unkindness be time's crooked edge

To crop at once

That is, let thy unkindness be time's scythe to crop.

Edge was easily confounded by the ear with age, and one mistake once admitted made way for another. Johnson.

Shakspeare, I believe, took this idea from the figure of Time, who was represented as carrying a sickle as well as a scythe. A sickle was anciently called a crook, and sometimes, as in the following instances, crooked may mean armed with a crook. So, in Kendall's Epigrams, 1577:

"The regall king and crooked clowne "All one alike death driveth downe." Again, in the 100th Sonnet of Shakspeare:

"Give my love, fame, faster than time wastes life, "So thou prevent'st his scythe and crooked knife." Again, in the 119th:

"Love 's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks "Within his bending sickle's compass come."

It may be mentioned, however, that crooked is an epithet bestowed on age in the tragedy of Locrine, 1595:

"Now yield to death o'erlaid by crooked age."

Locrine has been attributed to Shakspeare; and in this passage quoted from it, no allusion to a scythe can be supposed. Our poet's expressions are sometimes confused and abortive. Steevens. Again, in A Flourish upon Fancie, by N. B. [Nicholas Breton,] 1577:

"Who, when that he a while hath bin in fancies schoole, "Doth learne in his old crooked age to play the doting foole." Malone.

Shakspeare had probably two different but kindred ideas in his mind; the bend of age, and the sickle of time, which he confounded together. M. Mason.

4 Love they] That is, Let them love. Johnson.

For both hast thou, and both become the grave.
York. 'Beseech your majesty," impute his words
To wayward sickliness and age in him:

He loves you, on my life, and holds you dear
As Harry duke of Hereford, were he here.

K. Rich. Right; you say true: as Hereford's love, so his:

As theirs, so mine; and all be as it is.

Enter NORTHUMBERLAND. 6

North. My liege, old Gaunt commends him to your majesty.

K. Rich. What says he now?7

North. Nay, nothing; all is said: His tongue is now a stringless instrument; Words, life, and all, old Lancaster hath spent.

York. Be York the next that must be bankrupt so! Though death be poor, it ends a mortal woe.

K. Rich. The ripest fruit first falls, and so doth he; His time is spent, our pilgrimage must be:8 So much for that.- Now for our Irish wars: We must supplant those rough rug-headed kerns; Which live like venom, where no venom else,9

59 'Beseech your majesty,] The old copies redundantly read— "I do beseech." &c.

Mr. Ritson would regulate the passage differently (and per haps rightly) by omitting the words-in him:

6

I do beseech your majesty, impute

His words to wayward sickliness and age.

Steevens.

Northumberland] was Henry Percy, Earl of Northum berland. Walpole.

7 What says he now?] I have supplied the adverb-now, (which is wanting in the old copy) to complete the measure.

8

to come.

Steevens.

our pilgrimage must be:] That is, our pilgrimage is yet M. Mason.

9 where no venom else,] This alludes to a tradition that St. Patrick freed the kingdom of Ireland from venomous reptiles of every kind. So, in Decker's Honest Whore, P. II, 1630:

66

that Irish Judas,

"Bred in a country where no venom prospers,
"But in his blood."

Again, in Fuimus Troes, 1635:

"As Irish earth doth poison poisonous beasts."

See also, Thomas Lupton's Fourth Book of Notable Things, 4to. bl. 1. Steevens.

But only they, hath privilege to live.

And, for these great affairs do ask some charge,
Towards our assistance, we do seize to us

The plate, coin, revenues, and moveables,
Whereof our uncle Gaunt did stand possess'd.

York. How long shall I be patient? Ah, how long
Shall tender duty make me suffer wrong?

Not Gloster's death, nor Hereford's banishment,
Not Gaunt's rebukes, nor England's private wrongs,
Nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke
About his marriage,1 nor my own disgrace,
Have ever made me sour my patient cheek,
Or bend one wrinkle on my sovereign's face.-
I am the last of noble Edward's sons,

Of whom thy father, prince of Wales, was first;
In war, was never lion rag'd more fierce,
In peace was never gentle lamb more mild,
Than was that young and princely gentleman:
His face thou hast, for even so look'd he,
Accomplish'd with the number of thy hours;2
But, when he frown'd, it was against the French,
And not against his friends: his noble hand
Did win what he did spend, and spent not that
Which his triumphant father's hand had won:
His hands were guilty of no kindred's blood,
But bloody with the enemies of his kin.
O, Richard! York is too far gone with grief,
Or else he never would compare between.
K. Rich. Why, uncle, what's the matter?
York.

O, my liege,

Pardon me, if you please; if not, I pleas'd
Not to be pardon'd, am content withal.
Seek you to seize, and gripe into your hands,
The royalties and rights of banish'd Hereford?
Is not Gaunt dead? and doth not Hereford live?

1 Nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke

About his marriage,] When the duke of Hereford, after his banishment, went into France, he was honourably entertained at that court, and would have obtained in marriage the only daughter of the duke of Berry, uncle to the French king, had not Richard prevented the match. Steevens.

2 Accomplish'd with the number of thy hours;] i. e. when he was of thy age. Malone.

Was not Gaunt just? and is not Harry true?
Did not the one deserve to have an heir?
Is not his heir a well-deserving son?

Take Hereford's rights away, and take from time
His charters, and his customary rights;
Let not to-morrow then ensue to-day;
Be not thyself, for how art thou a king,
But by fair sequence and succession?
Now, afore God (God forbid, I say true!)
If you do wrongfully seize Hereford's rights,
Call in the letters patents that he hath
By his attornies-general to sue

His livery, and deny his offer'd homage, 4
You pluck a thousand dangers on your head,
You lose a thousand well-disposed hearts,
And prick my tender patience to those thoughts
Which honour and allegiance cannot think.

K. Rich. Think what you will; we seize into our hands
His plate, his goods, his money, and his lands.
York. I'll not be by, the while: My liege, farewel:
What will ensue hereof, there's none can tell;
But by bad courses may be understood,

That their events can never fall out good.

[Exit.

K. Rich. Go, Bushy, to the earl of Wiltshire, straight; Bid him repair to us to Ely-house,

To see this business: To-morrow next
We will for Ireland; and 'tis time, I trow;

And we create, in absence of ourself,

Our uncle York lord governor of England,
For he is just, and always lov'd us well.—
Come on, our queen: to-morrow must we part;
Be merry, for our time of stay is short.

4

[Flourish. [Exeunt King, Queen, BUSHY, AUM. GREEN. and BAGOT.

North. Well, lords, the duke of Lancaster is dead. Ross. And living too; for now his son is duke. Willo. Barely in title, not in revenue.

North. Richly in both, if justice had her right. Ross. My heart is great; but it must break with silence,

deny his offer'd homage,] That is, refuse to admit the homage, by which he is to hold his lands. Johnson.