'In King Richard the Second the poet exhibits to us a noble kingly nature, at first obscured by levity and the errors of unbridled youth, and afterwards purified by misfortune, and rendered more highly splendid and illustrious. When he has lost the love and reverence of his subjects, and is on the point of losing also his throne, he then feels with painful inspiration the elevated vocation of the kingly dignity, and its prerogatives over personal merit and changeable institutions. When the earthly crown has fallen from off his head, he first appears as a king whose innate nobility no humiliation can annihilate. This is felt by a poor groom: he is shocked that his master's favourite horse should have carried the proud Bolingbroke at his coronation; he visits the captive king in his prison, and shames the desertion of the great. The political history of the deposition is represented with extraordinary knowledge of the world;-the ebb of fortune on the one hand, and the swelling tide on the other, which carries every thing along with it, while Bolingbroke acts as a king, and his adherents behave towards him as if he really were so, he still continues to give out that he comes with an armed band, merely for the sake of demanding his birthright and the removal of abuses. The usurpation has been long completed before the word is pronounced, and the thing publicly avowed. John of Gaunt is a model of chivalrous truth: he stands there like a pillar of the olden time which he had outlived*.' This drama abounds in passages of eminent poetical beauty; among which every reader will recollect the pathetic description of Richard's entrance into London with Bolingbroke, of which Dryden said that he knew nothing comparable to it in any other language,' John of Gaunt's praise of England, 'Dear for her reputation through the world,' and Mowbray's complaint at being banished for life. * Schlegel's Lectures on Dramatic Literature, vol. ii, p. 224. PERSONS REPRESENTED. KING RICHARD THE SECOND. } Uncles to the King. EDMUND of Langley, Duke of York, to John of Gaunt; afterwards King Henry IV. Duke of Aumerle, Son to the Duke of York. MOWBRAY, Duke of Norfolk. Duke of Surrey. Lord Ross. Lord Willoughby. Lord Fitzwater. Bishop of Carlisle. Abbot of Westminster. Lord Marshal; and another Lord. SIR PIERCE of Exton. SIR STEPHEN SCROOP. Captain of a Band of Welshmen. Queen to King Richard. Lady attending on the Queen. Lords, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, two Gardeners, Keeper, Messenger, Groom, and other Attendants. SCENE, dispersedly in England and Wales. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KING RICHARD II. ACT I. SCENE I. London. A Room in the Palace. Enter KING RICHARD, attended: JOHN of GAUNT, and other Nobles, with him. King Richard. OLD1 John of Gaunt, time-honour'd Lancaster, 1 Old John of Gaunt, time-honour'd Lancaster.' Our ancestors, in their estimate of old age, appear to have reckoned somewhat differently from us, and to have considered men as old whom we should now esteem as middle aged. With them, every man that had passed fifty seems to have been accounted an old man. John of Gaunt, at the period when the commencement of this play is laid (1398), was only fifty-eight years old: he died in 1399, aged fifty-nine. This may have arisen from its being customary in former times to enter life at an earlier period than we do now. Those who married at fifteen, had at fifty been masters of a house and family for thirty-five years. 2 When these public challenges were accepted, each combatant found a pledge for his appearance at the time and place appointed. Band and bond were formerly synonymous. 3 In the old play, and in Harding's Chronicle, Bolingbroke's title is written Herford and Harford. This was the pronunciation of our poet's time, and he therefore uses this word as a dissyllable. Which then our leisure would not let us hear, Gaunt. I have, my liege. K. Rich. Tell me moreover, hast thou sounded him, If he appeal the duke on ancient malice; Or worthily as a good subject should, On some known ground of treachery in him? Gaunt. As near as I could sift him on that argu ment, On some apparent danger seen in him, K. Rich. Then call them to our presence, face to And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear [Exeunt some Attendants. High stomach'd are they both, and full of ire, Re-enter Attendants, with BOLINGBROKE 4 and Boling. May many years of happy days befall K. Rich. We thank you both: yet one but flat ters us, As well appeareth by the cause you come 5: 4 Drayton asserts that Henry Plantagenet, the eldest son of John of Gaunt, was not distinguished by the name of Bolingbroke till after he had assumed the crown. He is called earl of Hereford by the old historians, and was surnamed Bolingbroke from having been born at the town of that name in Lincolnshire, about 1366. 5 i. e. ' by the cause you come on.' The suppression of the preposition has been shown to have been frequent with Shak speare. 2 Namely, to appeal each other of high treason.- may prove. Nor. Let not my cold words here accuse my zeal: 'Tis not the trial of a woman's war, The bitter clamour of two eager tongues, 6 My right-drawn sword is my sword drawn in a right or just cause. |