On pain to be found falfe and recreant,
Both to defend himself, and to approve
Henry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
To God, his fovereign, and to him, disloyal;
Courageously, and with a free defire,

Attending but the fignal to begin. [A charge founded. Mar. Sound, trumpets; and fet forward, combatants.

Stay, the king has thrown his warder down".

K. Rich. Let them lay by their helmets, and their fpears,

And both return back to their chairs again :
Withdraw with us ;-and let the trumpets found,
While we return thefe dukes what we decree.-

Draw near,

[A long flourish; after which, the king Speaks to the combatants.

And lift, what with our council we have done.
For that our kingdom's earth fhould not be foil'd
With that dear blood which it hath foftered;
And for our eyes do hate the dire aspect

Of civil wounds plough'd up with neighbour's fwords;
[And for we think, the eagle-winged pride
Of fky-afpiring and ambitious thoughts,
With rival-hating envy, fet you on

To wake our peace', which in our country's cradle

Draws

-hath thrown his warder down.] A warder appears to have been a kind of truncheon carried by the perfon who prefided at these fingle combats. So, in Daniel's Civil Wars &c. b. i:

"When lo, the king fuddenly chang'd his mind

"Cafts down his warder to arrest them there." STEEVENS. And for we think, the eagle-winged pride &c.] These five verfes are omitted in the other editions, and restored from the first of 1598. POPE.

1 To wake our peace,

Which thus rouz'd up

Might fright fair peace,]

Thus the fentence ftands in the common reading, abfurdly

enough;

Draws the sweet infant breath of gentle fleep;]
Which fo rouz'd up with boisterous untun'd drums,
And harth-refounding trumpets' dreadful bray,
And grating fhock of wrathful iron arms,
Might from our quiet confines fright fair peace,
And make us wade even in our kindred's blood,

enough; which made the Oxford editor, inftead of fright fair peace, read, be affrighted; as if thefe latter words could ever, poffibly, have been blundered into the former by transcribers. But his business is to alter as his fancy leads him, not to reform errors, as the text and rules of criticifm direct. In a word then, the true original of the blunder was this; the editors before Mr. Pope had taken their editions from the folios, in which the text ftood thus:

the dire afpect

Of civil wounds plough'd up with neighbour swords
Which thus rouz'd up-

-fright fair peace.

This is fenfe. But Mr. Pope, who carefully examined the first printed plays in quarto (very much to the advantage of his edition) coming to this place, found five lines, in the first edition of this play printed in 1598, omitted in the first general collection of the poet's works; and, not enough attending to their agreement with the common text, put them into their place. Whereas, in truth, the five lines were omitted by Shakespeare himself, as not agreeing to the reft of the context; which, on revife, he thought fit to alter. On this account I have put them into hooks, not as fpurious, but as rejected on the author's revife; and, indeed, with great judgment; for,

To wake our peace, which in our country's cradle

Draws the feet infant breath of gentle fleep,

as pretty as it is in the image, is abfurd in the fenfe: for peace awake iş ftill peace, as well as when afleep. The difference is, that peace afleep gives one the notion of a happy people funk in floth and luxury, which is not the idea the fpeaker would raife, and from which state the fooner it was awaked the better.

WARBURTON.

To this note, written with fuch an appearance of taste and judgment, I am afraid every reader will not fubfcribe. It is true, that peace awake is ftill peace, as well as when asleep; but peace awakened by the tumults of thefe jarring nobles, and peace indulging in profound tranquillity, convey images fufficiently oppofed to each other for the poet's purpose. To wake peace is to introduce difcord. Peace afleep, is peace exerting its natural influence, from which it would be frighted by the clamours of war. STEEVENS.

Therefore, we banish you our territories.
You, coufin Hereford, upon pain of death,
'Till twice five fummers have enrich'd our fields,
Shall not regreet our fair dominions,

But tread the ftranger paths of banishment.

Boling. Your will be done: This muft my comfort be,

That fun, that warms you here, fhall fhine on me;
And thofe his golden beams, to you here lent,
Shall point on me, and gild my banishment.

K. Rich. Norfolk, for thee remains a heavier doom,
Which I with fome unwillingness pronounce;
The fly-flow hours fhall not determinate
The dateless limit of thy dear exile ;-
The hopeless word of--never to.return,
Breathe I against thee, upon pain of life.

Mowb. A heavy fentence, my moft fovereign liege,
And all unlook'd for from your highnefs' mouth:
A dearer merit, not fo deep a maim 9
As to be caft forth in the common air,
Have I deferved at your highnefs' hand.
The language I have learn'd thefe forty years,
My native English, now I muft forego:
And now my tongue's ufe is to me no more,
Than an unftringed viol, or a harp;
Or like a cunning inftrument cas'd up,
Or, being open, put into his hands

That knows no touch to tune the harmony.
Within my mouth you have engoal'd my tongue,
Doubly portcullis'd, with my teeth, and lips;

8 The fly-flow hours] The old copies read: The fly flow bours. Mr. Pope made the change; whether it was neceffary or not, let the poetical reader determine. STEEVENS.

9 A dearer merit, not fo deep a maim

Have I deferved· 1

To deferve a merit is a phrafe of which I know not any example, I wish fome copy would exhibit :

A dearer mede, and not fo deep a maim.

To deferve a mede or reward, is regular and eafy. JOHNSON,

And

And dull, unfeeling, barren ignorance
Is made my gaoler to attend on me.
I am too old to fawn upon a nurse,
Too far in years to be a pupil now;

What is thy fentence then, but fpeechlefs death,
Which robs my tongue from breathing native breath?
K. Rich. It boots thee not to be compaffionate';
After our fentence, plaining comes too late.

Mowb. Then thus I turn me from my country's
light,

To dwell in folemn fhades of endless night.

K. Rich. Return again, and take an oath with thee. Lay on our royal fword your banish'd hands;

Swear by the duty that you owe to heaven,

2

(Our part therein we banish with yourselves) To keep the oath that we adminifter:

You never fhall, (fo help you truth and heaven!)
Embrace each other's love in banishment;
Nor ever look upon each other's face;
Nor ever write, regreet, nor reconcile
This lowering tempeft of your home-bred hate;
Nor never by advised purpose meet,

To plot, contrive, or complot any ill,
'Gainft us, our ftate, our fubjects, or our land.
Boling. I fwear.

Mowb. And I, to keep all this.

Boling. Norfolk,-fo far as to mine enemy;—

-compaffionate; for plaintive. WARBURTON.

By

2 (Our part &c.] It is a queftion much debated amongst the writers of the law of nations, whether a banish'd man may be still tied in allegiance to the ftate which fent him into exile. Tully and lord chancellor Clarendon declare for the affirmative: Hobbes and Puffendorf hold the negative. Our author, by this line, feems to be of the fame opinion. WARBURTON.

3 Norfolk-fo far, &c.] I do not clearly fee what is the fenfe of this abrupt line; but fuppofe the meaning to be this. Hereford immediately after his oath of perpetual enmity addreffes Norfolk, and, fearing fome mifconftruction, turns to the king and

L 4

fays

By this time, had the king permitted us,
One of our fouls had wander'd in the air,
Banifh'd this frail fepulcher of our flesh,
As now our flesh is banifh'd from this land:
Confefs thy treasons, ere thou fly this realm;
Since thou haft far to go, bear not along
The clogging burthen of a guilty foul.

Mowb. No, Bolingbroke; if ever I were traitor,
My name be blotted from the book of life,
And I from heaven banish'd, as from hence!
But what thou art, heaven, thou, and I do know;
And all too foon, I fear, the king fhall rue.-
Farewel, my liege :-Now no way can I ftray;
Save back to England, all the world's my way 4.
[Exit
K. Rich. Uncle, even in the glaffes of thine eyes
I fee thy grieved heart: thy fad afpect
Hath from the number of his banish'd years
Pluck'd four away;-Six frozen winters spent,

[To Boling

Return with welcome home from banishment. Boling. How long a time lies in one little word! Four lagging winters, and four wanton fprings, End in a word; Such is the breath of kings.

Gaunt. I thank my liege, that, in regard of me,

fays-fo far as to mine enemy-that is, I fhould fay nothing to him but what enemies may fay to each other.

Reviewing this paffage, I rather think it should be understood thus. Norfolk, fo far I have addreffed myself to thee as to mine enemy, I now utter my last words with kindness and tenderness, Confefs thy treafons. JOHNSON.

All the old copies read: fo fare. STEEVENS.

-fo fare, as to mine enemy ;-] i. e. he only wishes him to fare like his enemy, and he difdains to say fare well as Aumerle does in the next scene. TOLLET.

4

all the world's my way.] Perhaps Milton had this in his mind when he wrote thefe lines:

"The world was all before them, where to chuse
"Their place of reft, and Providence their guide."

JOHNSON.

He