York. A gentleman of mine I have despatch'd With letters of your love to her at large. Boling. Thanks, gentle uncle.-Come, lords, away: To fight with Glendower and his complices; Awhile to work, and, after, holiday. SCENE II. [Exeunt. The Coast of Wales. A Castle in view. Flourish: Drums and Trumpets. Enter KING RICHARD, Bishop of Carlisle, AUMERLE, and Soldiers. K. Rich. Barkloughly Castle call you this at hand? Aum. Yea, my lord: How brooks your grace the air, To stand upon my kingdom once again.-- Plays fondly with her tears, and smiles, in meeting; 6 Johnson says 'here may be properly inserted the last scene of the second act.' 1 The quarto of 1597 reads they. Vol. V. 3* Whose double tongue may with a mortal touch Bishop. Fear not, my lord; that Power, that made you king, Hath power to keep you king, in spite of all. Grows strong and great, in substance, and in friends. 2 The old copies read that lights,' &c. The alteration was made by Johnson. 3 It is not easy (says Steevens) to point out an image more striking and beautiful than this in any poet, ancient or modern. Can wash the balm from an anointed king: For every man that Bolingbroke hath press'd, A glorious angel: then, if angels fight, Weak men must fall; for heaven still guards the right. Enter SALISBURY. Welcome, my lord; How far off lies your power5? And thou shalt have twelve thousand fighting men! O'erthrows thy joys, friends, fortune, and thy state; For all the Welshmen, hearing thou wert dead, Are gone to Bolingbroke, dispers'd, and fled. Aum. Comfort, my liege: why looks your grace so pale? K. Rich. But now, the blood of twenty thousand men Did triumph in my face, and they are fled; And, till so much blood thither come again, Have I not reason to look pale and dead? All souls that will be safe, fly from my side; For time hath set a blot upon my pride. 4 Here is the doctrine of the divine right of kings, and of the passive obedience of subjects, expressed in the strongest terms. Johnson observes that it has been the fashion to impute the original of every tenet which we have been taught to think false or foolish to the reign of King James I. But this doctrine was never carried further in any country, than in this island, while the house of Tudor sat on the throne. • Force. Aum. Comfort, my liege: remember who you are. K. Rich. I had forgot myself: Am I not king? Awake, thou sluggard majesty! thou sleep'st. Is not the king's name forty thousand names?? Arm, arm, my name! a puny subject strikes At thy great glory.-Look not to the ground, Ye favourites of a king; Are we not high? High be our thoughts: I know, my uncle York Hath power enough to serve our turn. But who Comes here? Enter SCROOP. Scroop. More health and happiness betide my liege, Than can my care-tun'd tongue deliver him. K. Rich. Mine ear is open, and my heart prepar'do: The worst is worldly loss, thou canst unfold. Say, is my kingdom lost? why, 'twas my care? And what loss is it, to be rid of care? Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we? Greater he shall not be; if he serve God, We'll serve him too, and be his fellow so: Revolt our subjects? that we cannot mend; They break their faith to God, as well as us: Cry woe, destruction, ruin, loss, decay: The worst is-death, and death will have his day. Scroop. Glad am I, that your highness is so arm'd To bear the tidings of calamity Like an unseasonable stormy day, Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores, 6 The first quarto reads 'coward majesty.' 7 So in King Richard III. :— 'Besides the king's name is a tower of strength.' See a speech of Antigonus, in Plutarch, of this kind. Vol. ii. 4to. p. 199, Gr. 8 'It seems to be the design of the poet to raise Richard to esteem in his fall, and consequently to interest the reader in his favour. He gives him only passive fortitude, the virtue of a confessor, rather than of a king. In his prosperity we saw him imperious and oppressive; but in his distress he is wise, patient, and pious.-Johnson. As if the world were all dissolv'd to tears; White-beards have arm'd their thin and hairless scalps Against thy majesty; and boys, with women's voices, Against thy seat: both young and old rebel, Where is the earl of Wiltshire? where is Bagot10? Measure our confines with such peaceful steps? I warrant, they have made peace with Bolingbroke. Scroop. Peace have they made with him, indeed, my lord. K. Rich. O villains, vipers, damn'd without redemption! Dogs, easily won to fawn on any man! 9 Yew is called double-fatal, because of the poisonous quality of the leaves, and on account of the wood being used for instruments of death. From some ancient statutes it appears that every Englishman, while archery was practised, was obliged to keep in his house either a bow of yew or some other wood. It has been supposed that yews were anciently planted in churchyards not only to defend the church from the wind, but on account of their use in making bows; while their poisonous quality was kept from doing mischief to the cattle in that sacred enclosure. 10 The mention of Bagot here is a lapse of the poet or the king; but perhaps it may have been intended to mark more strongly the perturbation of the king's mind by making him inquire at first for Bagot, whose loyalty, on further recollection, might show him the impropriety of the question. |