Go, to Flint castle; there I'll pine away;
A king, woe's slave, shall kingly woe obey.
That power I have, discharge; and let them go
To ear the land that hath some hope to grow,
For I have none:-Let no man speak again
To alter this, for counsel is but vain.

AUM. My liege, one word.

K. RICH. He does me double wrong, That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue. Discharge my followers, let them hence ;-Away, From Richard's night, to Bolingbroke's fair day. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Wales. Before Flint Castle.

Enter, with Drum and Colours, BOLINGBROKE and Forces; YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND, and Others.

BOLING. So that by this intelligence we learn, The Welshmen are dispers'd; and Salisbury Is gone to meet the king, who lately landed, With some few private friends, upon this coast.

• To ear the land-] i. e. to plough it. So, in All's well that ends well:

"He that ears my land, spares my team." STEEVens. 7 Flint Castle.] In our former edition I had called this scene the same with the preceding. That was at Barkloughly castle, on the coast where Richard landed; but Bolingbroke never marched further in Wales than to Flint. The interview between him and Richard was at the castle of Flint, where this scene should be said to lie, or rather in the camp of Bolingbroke be fore that castle." Go to Flint castle." See above.

STEEVENS.

NORTH. The news is very fair and good, my lord; Richard, not far from hence, hath hid his head.

YORK. It would beseem the lord Northumberland, To say-king Richard:-Alack the heavy day, When such a sacred king should hide his head! NORTH. Your grace mistakes me; only to be brief,

Left I his title out.

YORK.

8

The time hath been, Would you have been so brief with him, he would Have been so brief with you, to shorten you, For taking so the head," your whole head's length. BOLING. Mistake not, uncle, further than you

should.

YORK. Take not, good cousin, further than you should,

Lest you mis-take: The heavens are o'er your head. BOLING. I know it, uncle; and oppose not Myself against their will.'-But who comes here??

8 Your grace mistakes me;] The word-me, which is wanting in the old copies, was supplied by Sir T. Hanmer. STEEVENS. 9 For taking so the head,] To take the head is, to act without restraint; to take undue liberties. We now say, we give the horse his head, when we relax the reins. JOHNSON.

Enter PERCY.

Well, Harry; what, will not this castle yield?3 PERCY. The castle royally is mann'd, my lord,

Against thy entrance.

BOLING. Royally!

Why, it contains no king?

PERCY.

Yes, my good lord,

It doth contain a king; king Richard lies
Within the limits of yon lime and stone:
And with him are the lord Aumerle, lord Salisbury,
Sir Stephen Scroop; besides a clergyman
Of holy reverence, who, I cannot learn.

NORTH. Belike, it is the bishop of Carlisle.
BOLING. Noble lord,

[To NORTH.

Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle; 4 Through brazen trumpet send the breath of parle

I regard the word myself, as an interpolation, and conceive

Shakspeare to have writtenand oppose not

Against their will.

To oppose may be here a verb neuter. So, in King Lear: "a servant, thrill'd with remorse,

" Oppos'd against the act." STEEVENS.

3 Well, Harry; what, will not this castle yield?] The old copy destroys the metre by reading-Welcome, Harry;-. The emendation is Sir T. Hanmer's. STEEVENS.

* Noble lord,

Go to the rude ribs &c.] It is observable that our author in his addresses to persons, often begins with an hemistich. So, in Troilus and Cressida, Act II. sc. iii:

"Agam. Princes,

"What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks?" This observation may be of use in other places, where in the old copies, by the mistake of the transcriber, the metre is destroyed by this regulation not being observed. MALONE.

Into his ruin'd ears, and thus deliver.

Harry Bolingbroke

On both his knees doth kiss king Richard's hand;
And sends allegiance, and true faith of heart,
To his most royal person: hither come
Even at his feet to lay my arms and power;
Provided that, my banishment repeal'd,
And lands restor'd again, be freely granted:
If not, I'll use the advantage of my power,
And lay the summer's dust with showers of blood,
Rain'd from the wounds of slaughter'd English-

men:

The which, how far off from the mind of Bolingbroke

It is, such crimson tempest should bedrench
The fresh green lap of fair king Richard's land,
My stooping duty tenderly shall show.
Go, signify as much while here we march
Upon the grassy carpet of this plain.-

[NORTHUMBERLAND advances to the Castle,
with a Trumpet.

Let's march without the noise of threat'ning drum,
That from the castle's totter'd battlements
Our fair appointments may be well perus'd.
Methinks, king Richard and myself should meet
With no less terror than the elements
Of fire and water, when their thund'ring shock
At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven.
Be he the fire, I'll be the yielding water:
The rage be his, while on the earth I rain
My waters; on the earth, and not on him.
March on, and mark king Richard how he looks.

A parle sounded, and answered by another Trumpet within. Flourish. Enter on the walls King RICHARD, the Bishop of Carlisle, AUMERLE, SCROOP, and SALISBURY.

5

YORK. See, see, king Richard doth himself ap

pear,

6

As doth the blushing discontented sun
From out the fiery portal of the east;
When he perceives the envious clouds are bent
To dim his glory, and to stain the track
Of his bright passage to the occident.
Yet looks he like a king; behold, his eye,
As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth
Controlling majesty; Alack, alack, for woe,
That any harm should stain so fair a show!

K. RICH. We are amaz'd; and thus long have

we stood

To watch the fearful bending of thy knee,

[TO NORTHUMBERLAND. Because we thought ourself thy lawful king: And if we be, how dare thy joints forget To pay their awful duty to our presence? If we be not, show us the hand of God That hath dismiss'd us from our stewardship; For well we know, no hand of blood and bone Can gripe the sacred handle of our scepter,

the Bishop of Carlisle, was Thomas Merkes.

WALPOLE.

See, see, king Richard doth himself appear,] The following six lines are absurdly given to Bolingbroke, who is made to condemn his own conduct and disculp the King's. It is plain these six and the four following all belong to York. WARBURTON.

It should be observed that the four last of these lines are in all the copies given to York. STEEVENS.