This fefter'd joint cut off, the reft refts found;
This, let alone, will all the rest confound.

Enter Dutchess.

Dutch. Oking, believe not this hard-hearted man; Love, loving not itself, none other can.

York. Thou frantic woman, what doft thou do here?

Shall thy old dugs once more a traitor rear?

Dutch. Sweet York, be patient: Hear me, gentle

liege.

Boling. Rife up, good aunt.

Dutch. Not yet, I thee befeech: For ever will I kneel upon my knees, And never fee day that the happy fees,

"Till thou give joy; until thou bid me joy, By pardoning Rutland, my tranfgreffing boy.

[Kneels.

Aum. Unto my mother's prayers, I bend my knee.

[Kneels.

York. Against them both, my true joints bended be.

[Kneels.

Ill may'st thou thrive, if thou grant any grace!

Dutch. Pleads he in earneft? look upon his face; His eyes do drop no tears, his prayers are in jeft; His words come from his mouth, ours from our breaft: He prays but faintly, and would be deny'd;

We pray with heart, and foul, and all befide:

His weary joints would gladly rife, I know;

Our knees fhall kneel 'till to the ground they grow: His prayers are full of falfe hypocrify;

Ours, of true zeal and deep integrity.

Our prayers

do out-pray his; then let them have That mercy, which true prayers ought to have. Boling. Good aunt, stand up.

-kneel upon my knees,] Thus the folio. The quartos read: ·walk upon my knees. STEEVENS.

Dutch.

Dutch. Nay, do not fay-stand up; But, pardon, firft; and afterwards, itand up. An if I were thy nurse, thy tongue to teach, Pardon-fhould be the first word of thy fpeech. I never long'd to hear a word 'till now; Say-pardon, king; let pity teach thee how : The word is fhort, but not fo fhort as fweet; No word like, pardon, for kings' mouths fo meet. York. Speak it in French, king; fay, pardonnez

moy.

Dutch. Doft thou teach pardon pardon to destroy? Ah, my four husband, my hard-hearted lord, That fet'ft the word itself against the word!Speak, pardon, as 'tis current in our land; The chopping French we do not understand. Thine eye begins to fpeak, fet thy tongue there : Or, in thy piteous heart plant thou thine ear; That, hearing how our plaints and prayers do pierce, Pity may move thee pardon to rehearse.

Boling. Good aunt, ftand up.

Dutch. I do not fue to ftand,

Pardon is all the fuit I have in hand.

Boling. I pardon him, as heaven fhall pardon me.. Dutch. O happy vantage of a kneeling knee!

Yet am I fick for fear: fpeak it again;

Twice faying pardon, doth not pardon twain,
But makes one pardon ftrong.

Boling. With all my heart

I pardon him.

Dutch. A god on earth thou art.

8

Boling. But for our trusty brother-in-law-and the

abbot,

With

7 Pardonnez moy.] That is, excufe me, a phrafe ufed when any thing is civilly denied. The whole paffage is fuch as I could well with away. JOHNSON.

But for our trufty brother-in-law-the abbot,] The abbot of Westminster was an ecclefiaftic; but the brother-in-law meant,

was

With all the reft of that conforted crew,-
Destruction straight shall dog them at the heels.
Good uncle, help to order feveral powers
To Oxford, or where-e'er these traitors are:
They fhall not live within this world, I swear,
But I will have them, if I once know where.
Uncle, farewel;-and coufin too, adieu :
Your mother well hath pray'd, and prove you true.
Dutch. Come, my old fon; I pray heaven make thee
[Exeunt.

new.

Enter Exton, and a Servant.

Exton. Didft thou not mark the king, what words he fpake?

Have I no friend, will rid me of this living fear?
Was it not fo?

Serv. Those were his very words.

Exton. Have I no friend? quoth he: he fpake it twice,

And urg'd it twice together; did he not?

Serv. He did.

Exton. And, fpeaking it, he wiftly look'd on me; As who fhould fay,-I would, thou wert the man That would divorce this terror from my heart; Meaning, the king at Pomfret. Come, let's go; I am the king's friend, and will rid his foe. [Exeunt.

was John duke of Exeter and earl of Huntingdon (own brother to king Richard II.) and who had married with the lady Elizabeth fifter of Henry of Bolingbroke, THEOBALD.

-and the abbot,

The quarto 1615 reads as it is here printed : which fufficiently difcriminates the perfonages defigned.

STEEVENS.

SCENE

K. Rich. I have been ftudying how to compare
This prifon, where I live, unto the world:
And, for because the world is populous,
And here is not a creature but myself,
I cannot do it ;-Yet I'll hammer it out.
My brain I'll prove the female to my foul;
My foul, the father: and these two beget
A generation of ftill-breeding thoughts,
And these fame thoughts people this little world;
In humours, like the people of this world,
For no thought is contented. The better fort,-
As thoughts of things divine,-are intermix'd
With fcruples, and do fet the word itself?
Against the word:

As thus,-Come, little ones; and then again,-
It is as hard to come, as for a camel

To thread the poftern of a needle's eye.

Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot
Unlikely wonders: how these vain weak nails
May tear a paffage through the flinty ribs
Of this hard world, my ragged prifon walls;
And, for they cannot, die in their own pride.
Thoughts tending to content, flatter themselves,-
That they are not the first of fortune's flaves,
Nor fhall not be the laft; Like filly beggars,
Who, fitting in the ftocks, refuge their fhame,-

the word itfelf

Against the word:]

Thus the quartos, except that they read thy word. By the word I fuppofe is meant the holy word. The folio reads:

the faith itself
Against the faith. STEEVENS.

VOL. V.

R

That

That many have, and others must fit there:
And in this thought they find a kind of ease,
Bearing their own misfortune on the back
Of fuch as have before endur'd the like.
Thus play I, in one perfon, many people,
And none contented: Sometimes am I king;
Then treafon makes me with myself a beggar,
And fo I am: Then crushing penury
Perfuades me, I was better when a king;
Then am I king'd again: and, by-and-by,
Think, that I am unking'd by Bolingbroke,
And ftraight am nothing:-But, what-e'er I am,
Nor I, nor any man, that but man is,
With nothing fhall be pleas'd, 'till he be eas'd
With being nothing.-Mufic do I hear? [Mufis.
Ha, ha! keep time :-How four fweet mufic is,
When time is broke, and no proportion kept ?
So is it in the mufic of mens' lives.
And here have I the daintiness of ear,

To hear time broke in a disorder'd string;
But, for the concord of my state and time,
Had not an ear to hear my true time broke.
I wafted time, and now doth time wafte me.
For now hath time made me his numb'ring clock:
My thoughts are minutes; and, with fighs, they jar

1

Their

-in one perfon,-} All the old copies read, in one prifon

J.

Their watches &c.]

I think this expreffion must be corrupt, but I know not well how to make it better. The first quarto reads:

My thoughts are minutes; and with fighs they jar, There watches on unto mine eyes the outward watch. The quarto 1608:

My thoughts are minutes, and with fighs they jar, Their watches on unto mine eyes the outward watch. The first folio agrees with the third quarto, which reads:

My