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Boling. As diffolute, as defperate: yet, through both I fee fome sparkles of a better hope',

Which elder days may happily bring forth.
But who comes here?

Enter Aumerle, amazed.

Aum. Where is the king?

Boling. What means

Our coufin, that he ftares and looks fo wildly? Aum. God fave your grace. I do beseech your ma◄ jefty,

To have fome conference with your grace alone. Boling. Withdraw yourfelves, and leave us here alone.

What is the matter with our coufin now?

Aum. For ever may my knees grow to the earth,

[Kneels. My tongue cleave to my roof within my mouth, Unless a pardon, ere I rife, or fpeak.

Boling. Intended, or committed, was this fault? If but the first, how heinous ere it be, To win thy after-love, I pardon thee.

Aum. Then give me leave that I may turn the key, That no man enter 'till my tale be done. Boling. Have thy defire.

[York within. York. My liege, beware; look to thyself; Thou haft a traitor in thy prefence there. Boling. Villain, I'll make thee safe. Aum. Stay thy revengeful hand; Thou haft no caufe to fear.

[Drawing.

York. Open the door, fecure, fool-hardy king:
Shall I, for love, fpeak treafon to thy face?
Open the door, or I will break it open.

* I fee fome fparkles of a better hope,] The folio reads: fparks of better hope.

The quarto 1615:

fparkles of better hope. STEEVENS

The

The King opens the door, enter York.

Boling. What is the matter, uncle? speak; Recover breath; tell us how near is danger, That we may arm us to encounter it.

York. Perufe this writing here, and thou fhalt know The treafon that my hafte forbids me show.

Aum. Remember, as thou read'ft, thy promise past; I do repent me; read not my name there, My heart is not confederate with my hand.

York. 'Twas, villain, ere thy hand did fet it down.I tore it from the traitor's bofom, king; Fear, and not love, begets his penitence; Forget to pity him, left thy pity prove A ferpent that will fting thee to the heart,

Boling. O heinous, strong, and bold conspiracy!— O loyal father of a treacherous fon!

Thou fheer, immaculate, and filver fountain, From whence this ftream through muddy paffages, Hath held his current, and defil'd himself!

3

Thy overflow of good converts to bad;

And thy abundant goodness fhall excufe

2 Thou Sheer, immaculate, &c.] Sheer is pellucid, transparent. The modern editors arbitrarily read clear. So, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, b. iii. c. 2:

"Who having viewed in a fountain fhere
"Her face, &c,"

Again, b. iii. c. 11;

"That fhe at last came to a fountain sheare." Tranfparent muflin is ftill called beer muflin. STEEVENS.

3 Thy overflow of good converts to bad;] This is the reading of all the printed copies in general; and I never till lately fufpected its being faulty. The reafoning is disjointed, and inconclufive: my emendation makes it clear and of a piece. 66 Thy overflow of good changes the complexion of thy fon's guilt; and thy goodnefs, being fo abundant, fhall excufe his trefpafs." THEOBALD. Theobald would read: converts the bad. STEEVENS.

The old reading-converts to bad, is right, I believe, though Mr. Theobald did not understand it. "The overflow of good in thee is turned to bad in thy fon; and that fame abundant goodness in thee fhall excufe bis tranfgreffion. TYRWHITT,

This deadly blot in thy digreffing fon *.

York. So fhall my virtue be his vice's bawd;
And he shall spend mine honour with his shame,
As thriftless fons their fcraping fathers' gold.
Mine honour lives when his difhonour dies,
Or my fham'd life in his difhonour lies:
Thou kill'ft me in his life; giving him breath,
The traitor lives, the true man's put to death.

[Dutchefs within. Dutch. What ho, my licge! for heaven's fake, let

me in.

Boling. What fhrill-voic'd fuppliant makes this eager cry?

Dutch. A woman, and thine aunt, great king; 'tis I. Speak with me, pity me, open the door; A beggar begs, that never begg'd before.

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Boling. Our fcene is alter'd; from a serious thing, And now chang'd to the Beggar and the King.My dangerous coufin, let your mother in; I know, fhe's come to pray for your foul fin. York. If thou do pardon, whofoever pray, More fins, for this forgiveness, profper may.

-digreffing fon.] Thus the old copies, and rightly. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

66

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Digreffing from the valour of a man." To digrefs is to deviate from what is right or regular. The modern editors read:tranfgreffing. STEEVENS.

5 the Beggar and the King.-] The King and Beggar feems to have been an interlude well known in the time of our author, who has alluded to it more than once. I cannot now find that any copy of it is left. JOHNSON.

The King and Beggar was perhaps once an interlude; it was certainly a fong. The reader will find it in the first volume of Dr. Percy's collection. It is there intitled, King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid; and is printed from Rich. Johnfon's Croton Garland of Goulden Roses, 1612, 12°; where it is intitled fimply, A fong of a Beggar and a King. This interlude or ballad is mentioned in Cinthia's Revenge, 1613:

"Provoke thy fharp Melpomene to fing
"The story of a Beggar and the King." STEEVENS.

With all the rest of that conforted crew,-
Deftruction straight shall dog them at the heels.-
Good uncle, help to order several powers
To Oxford, or where-e'er these traitors are:
They fhall not live within this world, I fwear,
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.

7S CE NE IV.

Enter Exton, and a Servant.

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

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 spake 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 should say,-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

SCENE V.

The prifon at Pomfret-caftle.

Enter King Richard.

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 itfelf
Against the word:

As thus,-Come, little ones; and then again,-
It is as hard to come, as for a camel
To thread the postern of a needle's eye.

Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot Unlikely wonders: how thefe 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 Againft the faith. STEEVENS,

VOL. V.

R

That

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