K. Rich. Northumberland, fay,-thus the king re

turns:

His noble coufin is right welcome hither;
And all the number of his fair demands
Shall be accomplish'd without contradiction:
With all the gracious utterance thou haft,
Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends.-
We do debase ourself, coufin, do we not, [To Aum.
To look fo poorly, and to speak so fair?

Shall we call back Northumberland, and fend
Defiance to the traitor, and fo die?

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

'Till time lend friends, and friends their helpful fwords.

K. Rich, Oh God! oh God! that e'er this tongue of mine,

That laid the fentence of dread banishment

On yon proud man, fhould take it off again
'With words of footh! Oh, that I were as great.
As is my grief, or leffer than my name!
Or that I could forget what I have been!

Or not remember what I must be now!

Swell'ft thou, proud heart? I'll give thee fcope to beat,

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

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

The king shall do it. Muft he be depos'd?
The king fhall be contented: Must he lose
The name of king? 'o God's name, let ito:
I'll give my jewels for a fet of beads;

With words of footh!• •] Sooth is feet as well as true. In this place footh means faveetness or foftnefs, a fignification yet retained in the verb to footh. JOHNSON.

My

My gorgeous palace, for a hermitage;
My gay apparel, for an alms-man's gown;
My figur'd goblets, for a difh of wood;
My fcepter, for a palmer's walking staff;
My fubjects, for a pair of carved faints;
And my large kingdom, for a little grave,
A little little grave, an obfcure grave :-
Or I'll be bury'd in the king's highway,
Some way of common trade, where fubjects' feet
May hourly trample on their fovereign's head:

My gay apparel, &c.] Dr. Gray obferves, "that king Richard's expence in regard to drefs, was very extraordinary." Holinfhed has the fame remark; and adds, that he had one cote which he caused to be made for him of gold and ftone, valued at 30,000 marks." STEEVENS.

3 Or I'll be buried in the king's high way,

Some way of common trade,

-1

As fpecious as this reading appears, Dr. Warburton, Mr. Bishop, and I, all concurred in suspecting it, and in the amendment which now poffeffes the text:

Some way of common tread,

i.e. a high road. He fubjoins immediately:

For on my heart they tread now, while I live;

and we know how much it is Shakefpeare's way to diversify the image with the fame word. THEOBALD.

Dr. Warburton has put tread in his own text, but trade will ferve very well in the fenfe either of commerce or custom.

JOHNSON,

Trade is right. So, in lord Surrey's Tranflation of the second book of Virgil's Eneid:

"A poftern with a blind wicket there was,

"A common trade, to pass through Priam's house."
"Limen erat, cæcæque fores, et pervius ufus,

"Tectorum inter fe Priami”

The phrafe is still used by common people. When they fpeak of a road much frequented, they fay, "it is a road of much traffic." Shakespeare ufes the word in the fame fenfe in K. Hen. VIII:

"Stand in the gap and trade of more preferments.'

STEEVENS.

4 on their fovereign's head;] Shakespeare is very apt to deviate from the pathetic to the ridiculous. Had the speech of Richard ended at this line, it had exhibited the natural language of fubmiffive mifery, conforming its intention to the present fortune, and calmly ending its purpofes in death. JOHNSON.

For

For on my heart they tread, now whilst I live';
And, bury'd once, why not upon my head?
Aumerle, thou weep'ft; My tender-hearted coufin!-
We'll make foul weather with defpifed tears;
Our fighs, and they, fhall lodge the fummer corn,
And make a dearth in this revolting land.
Or fhall we play the wantons with our woes,
And make fome pretty match with fhedding tears?
As thus ;-To drop them ftill upon one place,
'Till they have fretted us a pair of graves
Within the earth; and, therein laid,―There lies
Two kinfmen, 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.

[North. advances.
Moft mighty prince, my lord Northumberland,
What fays king Bolingbroke? will his majefty
Give Richard leave to live 'till Richard die?
You make a leg, and Bolingbroke fays—ay ‘.

North. My lord, in the base court? he doth attend To speak with you; may't pleafe you to come down. K. Rich. Down, down, I come; like glift'ring Phae

ton,

Wanting the manage of unruly jades.

[North. retires to Bol. In the base court? Bafe court, where kings grow base, To come at traitors' calls, and do them grace.

STEEVENS.

6 Bolingbroke fays-ay.] Here is another inftance of injury done to the poet's metre by changing his orthography. 1, which was Shakespeare's word, rimed very well with to die; but ay has quite a different found. See a note on the Merry Wives of Windfor, act V. TYRWHITT.

7 -bafe court -] Bas cour: Fr. So, in Hinde's Eliofto Libidinofo, 1606 : -they were, for a public obfervation, brought into the bafe court of the palace." Again, in Greene's Farewell to Follie, 1617: 66 began, at the entrance into the

bafe court, to use these words." STEEVENS,

In

In the base court? Come down? Down, court! down

king!

For night-owls fhriek, where mounting larks fhould

fing.

Boling. What fays his majesty?

[Exeunt, from above

North. Sorrow and grief of heart

Makes him speak fondly, like a frantic man :

Yet he is come.

[Enter Richard, &c. below.

Boling. Stand all apart,
And fhew fair duty to his majefty.-
My gracious lord,—

[Kneels
K. Rich. Fair coufin, you debafe your princely knee,
To make the base earth proud with kiffing it:
Me rather had, my heart might feel your love,
Than my unpleas'd eye fee your courtesy.
Up, coufin, up; your heart is up, I know,
Thus high at leaft, although your knee be low.

4

[Touching his own head. 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 moft redoubted lord, As my true service fhall deferve your love.

K. Rich. Well you deserve:-They well deferve to

have,

That know the strongest and fureft way to get.-
Uncle, give me your hand: nay, dry your eyes;
Tears fhew their love, but want their remedies.-
Coufin, 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 muft, what force will have us do.-
Set on towards London :-Coufin, is it fo?
Boling. Yea, my good lord.

K. Rich. Then I muft not fay, no. [Flourish. Exeunt.

SCENE

SCENE IV.

Langley.

The duke of York's garden.

Enter the Queen, and two ladies.

Queen. What sport shall we devife here in this

den,

To drive away the heavy thought of care?

Lady. Madam, we'll play at bowls.

gar

Queen. "Twill make me think, the world is full of rubs,

And that my fortune runs against the bias.

Lady. Madam, we'll dance.

Queen. My legs can keep no measure in delight, When my poor heart no measure keeps in grief: Therefore, no dancing, girl; fome other fport. Lady. Madam, we will tell tales.

Queen. Of forrow, or of joy?
Lady. Of either, madam.

Queen. Of neither, girl:

For if of joy, being altogether wanting,
It doth remember me the more of forrow;
Or if of grief, being altogether had,
It adds more forrow to my want of joy :
For what I have, I need not to repeat;
And what I want, it boots not to complain,
Lady. Madam, I'll fing.

Queen. 'Tis well, that thou haft caufe;

But thou fhould't please me better, would't thou

8

weep.

Lady. I could weep, madam, would it do you good.

Of forrow, or of joy?] All the old copies concur in reading: Of forrow, or of grief. Mr. Pope made the neceffary alteration. STEEVENS.

Queen.