Of fire and water, when their thund'ring fhock
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 founded, and answered by another trumpet within. Flourish. Enter on the walls king Richard, the bishop of Carlife, Aumerle, Scroop, and Salisbury.

York. 7 See, see, king Richard doth himself appear, As doth the blufhing difcontented fun From out the fiery portal of the caft; When he perceives, the envious clouds are bent To dim his glory, and to ftain the tract Of his bright paffage to the occident. Yet looks he like a king; behold, his eye, As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth Controlling majefty: Alack, alack, for woe, That any harm should ftain fo fair a show!

K. Rich. We are amaz'd; and thus long have wo ftood

To watch the fearful bending of thy knee, [To North,
Because we thought ourself thy lawful king:
And if we be, how dare thy joints forget
To pay their awful duty to our prefence?
If we be not, fhew us the hand of God
That hath difmifs'd us from our stewardship;
For well we know, no hand of blood and bone
Can gripe the facred handle of our scepter,
Unless he do prophane, fteal, or ufurp.

And though you think, that all, as you have done,

Sce, fee, king Richard doth himself appear,] The following fix lines are abfurdly given to Bolingbroke, who is made to condemn his own conduct and difculp the king's. It is plain these fix and the four following all belong to York. WARBURTON.

It should be observed that the four laft of thefe lines are in all the copies given to York.

STEEVENS.

Have torn their fouls, by turning them from us,
And we are barren, and bereft of friends;
Yet know, my mafter, God omnipotent,
Is muft'ring in his clouds, on our behalf,
Armies of peftilence; and they fhail ftrike
Your children yet unborn, and unbegot,
That lift your vaffal hands against my head,
And threat the glory of my precious crown.
Tell Bolingbroke (for yond', methinks, he is)
That every ftride he makes upon my land,
Is dangerous treafon : He is come to ope
The purple teftament of bleeding war;
But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,

8 But e'er the crown he looks for, live in peace,
Ten thoufand bloody crowns of mothers' fons
Shall ill become the flower of England's face ;]

Ten

Though I have not disturbed the text here, I cannot but think it liable to fufpicion. A crown living in peace, as Dr. Warburton justly obferved to me, is a very odd phrafe. He fuppofes: But e'er the crown, he looks for, light in peace,

i. e. defcend and fettle upon Bolingbroke's head in peace. Again, I have a fmall quarrel to the third line quoted. Would the poet fay, that bloody crowns fhould disfigure the flowers that fpring on the ground, and bedew the grafs with blood? Surely the two images are too tamiliar. I have fufpected:

Shall ill become the floor of England's face;

i. e. fhall make a difmal spectacle on the furface of the kingdom's earth. THEOBALD,

By the flower of England's face, is meant the choiceft youths of England, who fhall be flaughtered in this quarrel, or have bloody crowns. The flower of England's face, to defign her choicest youth, is a fine and noble expreffion. Pericles, by a fimilar thought, faid" that the destruction of the Athenian youth was a fatality like cutting off the spring from the year," Yet the Oxford editor, who did not apprehend the figure, alters the line thus: Shall mifbecome the flow'ry England's face. Which means- I know not what. WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton has inferted light in peace in the text of his own edition, but live in peace is more fuitable to Richard's intention, which is to tell him, that though he thould get the crown by rebellion, it will be long before it will live in peace, be fo fettled as to be firm. The flower of England's face, is very happily explained, and any alteration is therefore needlefs. JOHNSON.

The

Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' fons
Shall ill become the flower of England's face;
Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace
To fcarlet indignation, and bedew

Her pastures' grafs with faithful English blood. North. The King of heaven forbid, cur lord the king

Should fo with civil and uncivil arms

Be rufh'd upon! Thy thrice-noble coufin,
Harry Bolingbroke, doth humbly kifs thy hand,
And by the honourable tomb he fwears,
That ftands upon thy royal grandfire's bones;
And by the royalties of both your bloods,
Currents that fpring from one moft gracious head;
And by the bury'd hand of warlike Gaunt;
And by the worth and honour of himself,
Comprifing all that may be fworn or faid,-
His coming hither hath no farther fcope,
Than for his lineal royalties, and to beg
Enfranchifement immediate on his knees:
Which on thy royal party granted once,
His glittering arms he will commend to ruft,
His barbed fleeds to stables, and his heart
To faithful fervice of your majesty.
This swears he, as he is a prince, is juft;
And, as I am a gentleman, I credit him.

The flower of England's face, I believe, means England's flowery face, the flowery furface of England's foil. The fame kind of expreffion is ufed in Sidney's Arcadia, p. 2: "-opening the cherry of her lips," i. e. her cherry lips. Again, p. 240. edit. 1633: " the fweet and beautiful flower of her face." Again, Drayton, in Mortimer's Epifile to Queen Isabell: And in the field advance our plumy creft, "And march upon fair England's flow'ry breaft." STEEVENS.

And by the bury'd hand of warlike Gaunt ;] It fhould be read just the other way:

And by the warlike hand of bury'd Gaunt. WARBURTON. 1 fee no great difference. JOHNSON.

K. Rich

K. Rich. Northumberland, fay,-thus the king re

turns:

His noble coufin is right welcome hither;
And all the number of his fair demands
Shall be accomplish'd without contradiction:
With all the gracious utterance thou haft,
Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends.-
We do debase ourself, coufin, do we not, [To Aum,
To look fo poorly, and to speak so fair?

Shall we call back Northumberland, and fend
Defiance to the traitor, and fo die?

Aum. No, good my lord; let's fight with gentle words,

'Till time lend friends, and friends their helpful fwords.

K. Rich. Oh God! oh God! that e'er this tongue

of mine,

That laid the fentence of dread banishment

On yon proud man, fhould take it off again
'With words of footh! Oh, that I were as great
As is my grief, or leffer than my name!
Or that I could forget what I have been!

Or not remember what I must be now!

Swell'ft thou, proud heart? I'll give thee fcope to beat,

Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me. Aum, Northumberland comes back from Bolingbroke.

K. Rich. What must the king do now? Must he fubmit?

The king fhall do it. Muft he be depos'd?
The king fhall be contented: Muft he lose
The name of king? 'o God's name, let it go:
I'll give my jewels for a fet of beads;

With words of footh!- -] Sooth is feet as well as true. In this place footh means faveetness or foftnefs, a fignification yet retained in the verb to footh, JOHNSON.

My

My gorgeous palace, for a hermitage;
My gay apparel, for an alms-man's gown;
My figur'd goblets, for a difh of wood;
My fcepter, for a palmer's walking staff;
My fubjects, for a pair of carved faints;
And my large kingdom, for a little grave,
A little little grave, an obfcure grave:-
3 Or I'll be bury'd in the king's highway,
Some way of common trade, where fubjects' feet
May hourly trample on their fovereign's head :

2

4

My gay apparel, &c.] Dr. Gray obferves, "that king Richard's expence in regard to drefs, was very extraordinary. Holinfhed has the fame remark; and adds, that he had one cote which he caufed to be made for him of gold and stone, valued at 30,000 marks." STEEVENS.

3 Or I'll be buried in the king's high way,

Some way of common trade,

As fpecious as this reading appears, Dr. Warburton, Mr. Bishop, and I, all concurred in fufpecting it, and in the amendment which now poffetles the text:

Some way of common tread,

i.e. a high road. He fubjoins immediately:

For on my heart they tread now, while I live;

and we know how much it is Shakespeare's way to diverfify the image with the fame word. THEOBALD,

Dr. Warburton has put tread in his own text, but trade will serve very well in the fenfe either of commerce or custom.

JOHNSON.

Trade is right. So, in lord Surrey's Tranflation of the fecond book of Virgil's Encid:

"A poftern with a blind wicket there was,

"A common trade, to pass through Priam's houfe."
"Limen erat, cæcæque fores, et pervius vfus,

"Tectorum inter fe Priami"

The phrafe is still ufed by common people. When they speak of a road much frequented, they fay, "it is a road of much traffic." Shakespeare ufes the word in the fame fenfe in K. Hen. VIII:

"Stand in the gap and trade of more preferments."

STEEVENS.

4 on their fovereign's head;] Shakespeare is very apt to deviate from the pathetic to the ridiculous. Had the fpeech of Richard ended at this line, it had exhibited the natural language of fubmiffive mifery, conforming its intention to the present fortune, and calmly ending its purposes in death. JOHNSON.

For