Armies of pestilence; and they shall strike
Your children yet unborn, and unbegot,
That lift your vassal hands against my head,
And threat the glory of my precious crown.
Tell Bolingbroke (for yond', methinks, he is),
That every stride he makes upon my land,
Is dangerous treason; He is come to ope
The purple testament of bleeding war;

But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,
Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' sons
Shall ill become the flower of England's face;
Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace
To scarlet indignation, and bedew

Her pastures' grass with faithful English blood.
North. The king of heaven forbid, our lord the king
Should so with civil and uncivil arms

Be rush'd upon! Thy thrice-noble cousin,
Harry Bolingbroke, doth humbly kiss thy hand;
And by the honourable tomb he swears,
That stands upon thy royal grandsire's bones;
And by the royalties of both your bloods,
Currents that spring from one most gracious head;
And by the buried hand of warlike Gaunt;

6 Shakspeare uses the word testament in its legal sense. Bolingbroke is come to open the testament of war, that he may peruse what is decreed there in his favour. Purple is an epithet referring to the future effusion of blood. Thus in Julius Cæsar:

'Now while your purpled hands do reek and smoke.'

7 i. e. England's flowery face, the flowery surface of England's soil. The same mode of expression is used in Sidney's Arcadia, p. 2: Opening the cherry of her lips,' i. e. her cherry lips. Again, p. 240, ed. 1633:- The sweet and beautiful flower of her face. And Drayton, in Mortimer's Epistle to Queen Isabel :And in the field advance our plumy crest,

And march upon fair England's flow'ry breast.' There is a similar image in the first part of King Henry IV. Sc. 1:

No more the thirsty entrance of the soil

Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood.'

And by the worth and honour of himself,
Comprising all that may be sworn or said,-
His coming hither hath no further scope,
Than for his lineal royalties, and to beg
Enfranchisement immediate on his knees:
Which on thy royal party granted once,
His glittering arms he will commend3 to rust,
His barbed steeds to stables, and his heart
To faithful service of your majesty.

This swears he, as he is a prince, is just;
And, as I am a gentleman, I credit him.

K. Rich. Northumberland, say,-thus the king returns;

His noble cousin is right welcome hither;
And all the number of his fair demands
Shall be accomplish'd without contradiction:
With all the gracious utterance thou hast,
Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends.-
We do debase ourself, cousin, do we not,

[To AUMERLE.

To look so poorly, and to speak to fair?
Shall we call back Northumberland, and send
Defiance to the traitor, and so die?

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

Till time lend friends, and friends their helpful swords. K. Rich. O God! O God! that e'er this tongue

of mine,

That laid the sentence of dread banishment

On yon proud man, should take it off again
With words of sooth 9! O, that I were as great
As is my grief, or lesser than my name!

8 Commend for commit. Vide Macbeth, vol. iv. p. 234, note 3. 9 Sooth is sweet, as well as true. In this place sooth means sweetness or softness. Thus to sooth still means to calm and sweeten the mind.

Or that I could forget what I have been!
Or not remember what I must be now!

Swell'st thou, proud heart? I'll give thee scope to beat,

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

broke.

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

The king shall do it. Must he be depos'd?
The king shall be contented: Must he lose
The name of king? o'God's name, let it go:
I'll give my jewels, for a set of beads;
My gorgeous palace, for a hermitage;
My gay apparel 10, for an alms-man's gown;
My figur'd goblets, for a dish of wood:
My sceptre, for a palmer's walking-staff;
My subjects, for a pair of carved saints;
And my large kingdom for a little grave,
A little little grave, an obscure grave:-
:-
Or I'll be buried in the king's highway,
Some way of common trade11, where subjects' feet
May hourly trample on their sovereign's head:
For on my heart they tread, now whilst I live;
And, buried once, why not upon my head?-
Aumerle,thou weep'st; My tender-hearted cousin!-
We'll make foul weather with despised tears;
Our sighs, and they, shall lodge the summer corn,
And make a dearth in this revolting land.
Or shall we play the wantons with our woes,
And make some pretty match with shedding tears?

10 Richard's expense in regard to dress was very extraordinary. He had one coate which he caused to be made for him of gold and stone, valued at 3000 marks.'-Holinshed.

Some way of common trade' is some way of frequent resort, a common course; as, at present, a road of much traffic,' i. e. frequent resort.

As thus:-To drop them still upon one place,
Till they have fretted us a pair of graves

Within the earth; and, therein laid,-There lies
Two kinsmen, digg'd their graves with weeping eyes?
Would not this ill do well?-Well, well, I see
I talk but idly, and you mock at me.—
Most mighty prince, my Lord Northumberland,
What says King Bolingbroke? will his majesty
Give Richard leave to live till Richard die?
You make a leg 12, and Bolingbroke says—ay 13.
North. My lord, in the base 14 court he doth attend
To speak with you; may't please you to come down?
K. Rich. Down, down, I come; like glistering
Phaeton,

Wanting the manage of unruly jades.

[NORTH. retires to BOLING. In the base court? Base court 15, where kings grow

base,

To come at traitors' calls, and do them grace.
In the base court? Come down? Down, court! down,

king!

For night-owls shriek, where mounting larks should

sing.

[Exeunt, from above.

Boling. What says his majesty?

North. Sorrow and grief of heart Makes him speak fondly 16, like a frantick man: Yet he is come.

12 A bow.

13 It should be remembered that the affirmative particle ay was formerly written and sounded I, which rhymed well with die. 14 Lower.

15 That is the lower court of the castle; basse cour, Fr. Thus in Cavendish's Life of Wolsey:- My lord being advertised that the duke was coming, even at hand, he caused all his gentlemen to wait upon him down through the hall into the base court.’— Edition 1825, p. 211.

16 Foolishly.

Enter KING RICHARD, and his Attendants, below.

Boling. Stand all apart,

And show fair duty to his majesty.

My gracious lord,

[Kneeling.

K.Rich.Fair cousin, you debase your princely knee, To make the base earth proud with kissing it: Me rather had, my heart might feel your love, Than my unpleas'd eye see your courtesy. Up, cousin, up; your heart is up, I know, Thus high at least [touching his own head], although your knee be low.

Boling. My gracious lord, I come but for mine own. K. Rich. Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all.

Boling. So far be mine, my most redoubted lord, As my true service shall deserve your love.

K. Rich. Well you deserve:-They well deserve to have,

That know the strong'st and surest way to get.—
Uncle, give me your hand: nay, dry your eyes;
Tears show their love, but want their remedies.-
Cousin, I am too young to be your father,
Though you are old enough to be my heir.
What you will have, I'll give, and willing too;
For do we must, what force will have us do.-
Set on towards London:-Cousin, is it SO ?
Boling. Yea, my good lord.

K. Rich.

Then I must not say, no 17. [Flourish. Exeunt.

17 The duke, with a high sharpe voyce bade bring forth the king's horses; and then two little nagges, not worth forty franks, were brought forth: the king was set on one, and the earle of Salisburie on the other; and thus the duke brought the king from Flint to Chester, where he was delivered to the duke of Gloucester's sonne (that loved him but little, for he had put their father to death), who led him straight to the castle.' STOWE (p. 521, edit. 1605), from a manuscript account written by a person who was present.