Unto the sovereign mercy of the king; Boling. An offer, uncle, that we will accept. Which I have sworn to weed, and pluck away. For I am loath to break our country's laws. SCENE IV 1. A Camp in Wales. Enter SALISBURY2, and a Captain. 11. Cap. My lord of Salisbury, we have staid ten days, And hardly kept our countrymen together, And yet we hear no tidings from the king; Sal. Stay yet another day, thou trusty Welshman: The king reposeth all his confidence In thee. Cap. 'Tis thought, the king is dead: we will not stay. The bay-trees in our country are all wither'd3, 11 Things without remedy Macbeth. 1 Johnson thought this scene had been by some accident transposed, and that it should stand as the second scene in the third act, 2 John Montacute, earl of Salisbury. 3 This enumeration of prodigies is in the highest degree poetical and striking. The poet received the hint from Holinshed: And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven; The other, to enjoy by rage and war: I see thy glory, like a shooting star, Fall to the base earth from the firmament! [Exit. ACT III. SCENE I. Bolingbroke's Camp at Bristol. Enter BOLINGBROKE, YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, WILLOUGHBY, Ross: Officers behind with BUSHY and GREEN, prisoners. Boling. Bring forth these men.— Bushy and Green, I will not vex your souls (Since presently your souls must part your bodies), With too much urging your pernicious lives, 'In this yeare, in a manner throughout all the realme of Englande, old baie trees withered,' &c. This, as it appears from T. Lupton's Syxt Booke of Notable Things, bl. 4to. was esteemed a bad omen. " Neyther falling sickness, neyther devyll, wyll infest or hurt one in that place whereas a bay tree is. The Romaynes call it the plant of the good angel,' &c. See also Evelyn's Sylva, 4to. 1776, p. 396. For 'twere no charity: yet, to wash your blood And stain'd the beauty of a fair queen's cheeks 1 i. e. quite, completely. Thus in Shakspeare's seventy-fifth Sonnet: And by and by clean starved for a look.' Quite and cleane to take awaye an opinion from one. Excutere opinionem radicitus.'-Baret. 2 There seems to be no authority for this. Isabel, Richard's second queen, was but nine years old at this period; his first queen, Anne, died in 1392, and he was very fond of her. 3 To dispark signifies to divest a park of its name and character, by destroying the enclosures, and the vert (or whatever bears green leaves, whether wood or underwood), and the beasts of the chase therein; laying it open. 4 The impress was a device, or motto. Ferne, in his Blazon of Gentry, 1588,. observes that 'the arms, &c. of traitors and rebels may be defaced and removed wheresoever they are fixed or set.' For the punishment of a base knight see Spenser's Faerie Queen, b. v. c. iii. st. 37. To show the world I am a gentleman, This, and much more, much more than twice all this, Condemns you to the death:-See them deliver'd over To execution and the hand of death. Bushy. More welcome is the stroke of death to me, Than Bolingbroke to England.-Lords, farewell. Green. My comfort is,—that heaven will take our souls, And plague injustice with the pains of hell. Boling. My Lord Northumberland, see them despatch'd. [Exeunt NORTHUMBERAND and Others, with Prisoners. Uncle, you say, the queen is at your house; Boling. Thanks, gentle uncle.-Come,lords,away: SCENE II. [Exeunt 6. The Coast of Wales. A Castle in view. Flourish: Drums and Trumpets. K.Rich. Barkloughly Castle call you1 this at hand? 5 Commendations. 6 Johnson says here may be properly inserted the last scene of the second act.' The quarto of 1597 reads they. To stand upon my kingdom once again. Plays fondly with her tears, and smiles, in meeting; Feed not thy sovereign's foe, my gentle earth, Bishop. Fear not, my lord; that Power, that made you king, Hath power to keep you king, in spite of all. And we will not, heaven's offer we refuse; Aum. He means, my lord, that we are too remiss; 2 2 The old copies read that lights,' &c. The alteration was made by Johnson. |