As to be caft forth in the common air,
Have I deserved 8 at your highness' hand.
The language I have learn'd these forty years,
My native English, now I must forego:
And now my tongue's use is to me no more,
Than an unftringed viol or a harp;
Or like a cunning inftrument cas'd up,
Or, being open, put into his hands

That knows no touch to tune the harmony.
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 fentence then, but speechless death, Which robs my tongue from breathing native breath?

K. RICH. It boots thee not to be compaffionate; After our sentence plaining comes too late.

A dearer merit, not fo deep a maim

Have I deferved-] To deferve a merit is a phrase of which I know not any example. I wifh fome copy would exhibit : A dearer meed, and not fo deep a maim.

To deferve a meed or reward, is regular and eafy. JOHNSON.

As Shakspeare ufes merit in this place, in the fenfe of reward, he frequently uses the word meed, which properly fignifies reward, to exprefs merit. So, in Timon of Athens, Lucullus fays: no meed but he repays

"Seven fold above itself.'

And in The Third Part of K. Henry VI. Prince Edward says : "We are the fons of brave Plantagenet,

"Each one already blazing by our meeds."

And again, in the fame play, King Henry fays:

"That's not my fear, my meed hath got me fame."

M. MASON.

compaffionate;] for plaintive. WARBURTON.

NOR. Then thus I turn me from my country's

light,

To dwell in folemn fhades of endless night.

[Retiring.

K. RICH. Return again, and take an oath with

thee.

Lay on our royal fword your banish'd hands;
Swear by the duty that you owe to heaven,
(Our part therein we banish with yourselves,)'
To keep the oath that we adminifter :-

You never fhall (fo 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 tempeft of your home-bred hate;
Nor never by advised purpose meet,

2

To plot, contrive, or complot any ill,

'Gainft us, our state, our subjects, or our land. BOLING. I fwear.

I

NOR. And I, to keep all this.

BOLING. Norfolk, fo far as to mine enemy;3—

(Our part &c.] It is a queftion much debated amongst the writers of the law of nations, whether a banished man may be ftill tied in his allegiance to the state which fent him into exile. Tully and Lord Chancellor Clarendon declare for the affirmative; Hobbes and Puffendorf hold the negative. Our author, by this line, feems to be of the fame opinion. WARBUrton.

2

advifed-] i. e. concerted, deliberated. Merchant of Venice:

66

So, in The

with more advised watch." STEEVENS.

3 Norfolk, fo far &c.] I do not clearly fee what is the fenfe of this abrupt line; but fuppofe the meaning to be this: Hereford immediately after his oath of perpetual enmity, addresses Norfolk, and, fearing fome mifconftruction, turns to the King and fays-fo far as to mine enemy- -that is, I should fay nothing to him but what enemies may fay to each other.

Reviewing this paffage, I rather think it should be underfood

By this time, had the king permitted us,
One of our fouls had wander'd in the air,
Banish'd this frail fepúlchre of our flesh,+
As now our flesh is banifh'd from this land:
Confefs thy treafons, ere thou fly the realm;
Since thou haft far to go, bear not along
The clogging burden of a guilty foul.

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 foon, I fear, the king fhall rue.-
Farewell, my liege :-Now no way can I stray;
Save back to England, all the world's my way.5
[Exit.

thus. Norfolk, fo far I have addreffed myself to thee as to mine enemy, I now utter my laft words with kindness and tenderness, Confefs thy treafons. JOHNSON.

-fo fare, as to mine enemy ;] i. e. he only wishes him to fare like his enemy, and he difdains to fay fare well as Aumerle does in the next fcene. TOLLET.

The firft folio reads fare; the fecond farre. Bolingbroke only ufes the phrafe by way of caution, left 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 fpeaking this line fhould fhow fome 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 falutation.

STEEVENS,

this frail fepulchre of our flesh,] So, afterwards: thou King Richard's tomb,

"And not King Richard―.”

And Milton, in Samfon Agonistes:

3

"Myfelf my fepulchre, a moving grave." HENLEY.

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

K. RICH. Uncle, even in the glaffes of thine eyes Í fee thy grieved heart: thy fad afpéct 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 fhortens four years of my fon's exíle: But little vantage fhall I reap thereby;

For, ere the fix years, that he hath to spend,
Can change their moons, and bring their times
about,

My oil-dried lamp, and time-bewafted light,
Shall be extinct with age, and endless night;
My inch of taper will be burnt and done,
And blindfold death not let me fee my fon.

K. RICH. Why, uncle, thou haft many years to

live.

- GAUNT. But not a minute, king, that thou canft

give:

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

JOHNSON.

The Duke of Norfolk after his banishment went to Venice, where, fays Holinfhed," for thought and melancholy he de ceased." MALONE.

I should point the paffage thus:

Now no way can I ftray,

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.

Shorten my days thou canft with fullen forrow,
And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow:
Thou canft help time to furrow me with age,
But ftop no wrinkle in his pilgrimage;
Thy word is current with him for my death;
But, dead, thy kingdom cannot buy my breath.

.6

K. RICH. Thy son is banish'd upon good advice,?
Whereto thy tongue a party-verdict gave;8
Why at our justice feem'ft thou then to lower?
GAUNT. Things fweet to tafte, prove in digestion
four.

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 ftranger, not my child,

To smooth his fault I fhould have been more mild:
A partial flander' fought I to avoid,

And in the fentence my own life destroy'd.

• And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow:] It is matter of very melancholy confideration, that all human advan tages confer more power of doing evil than good. JOHNSON. upon good advice,] Upon great confideration.

7

So, in King Henry VI. Part II:

MALONE.

"But with advice and filent fecrecy." STEEVENS.

a party-verdict gave ;] i. e. you had yourself a part or fhare in the verdict that I pronounced. MALONE.

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

A partial flander] That is, the reproach of partiality. This is a juft picture of the ftruggle between principle and affection. JOHNSON.

This couplet, which is wanting in the folio edition, has been arbitrarily placed by fome of the modern editors at the conclufion of Gaunt's fpeech. In the three oldeft quartos it follows the fifth line of it. In the fourth quarto, which feems copied from the folio, the paffage is omitted. STEEVENS.