AUM. Who sets me else? by heaven, I'll throw

at all:

5

I have a thousand spirits in one breast 3,
To answer twenty thousand such as you.

SURREY, My lord Fitzwater, I do remember well The very time Aumerle and you did talk.

FITZ. "Tis very true: you were in presence then ";

And you can witness with me, this is true.

SURREY. AS false, by heaven, as heaven itself is

true.

FITZ. Surrey, thou liest.

SURREY.

Dishonourable boy!

That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword,

That it shall render vengeance and revenge,
Till thou the lie-giver, and that lie, do lie
In earth as quiet as thy father's scull.

In proof whereof, there is my honour's pawn;
Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st.

FITZ. How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse!

If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live,

I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness',

5 I have a thousand spirits in one breast,] So, in King

Richard III.:

"A thousand hearts are great within my bosom."

STEEVENS.

The

6 MY LORD, 'tis true: you were in presence then ;] quartos omit My lord, and read-" 'Tis very true," &c. The folio preserves both readings, and consequently overloads the metre. STEEVENS.

""Tis very true." So the quarto 1597. MALONE.

7 I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness,] I dare meet him where no help can be had by me against him. So, in Macbeth:

or be alive again,

"And dare me to the desert with thy sword." JOHNSON.

So also, in The Lover's Progress, by Beaumont and Fletcher: Maintain thy treason with thy sword? with what

66

Contempt I hear it! in a wilderness

"I durst encounter it." Boswell.

And spit upon him, whilst I say he lies,
And lies, and lies: there is my bond of faith,
To tie thee to my strong correction.-
As I intend to thrive in this new world,
Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal :
Besides, I heard the banish'd Norfolk say,
That thou, Aumerle, didst send two of thy men
To execute the noble duke at Calais.

AUM. Some honest Christian trust me with a

gage,

That Norfolk lies: here do I throw down this,
If he may be repeal'd, to try his honour.

BOLING. These differences shall all rest under
gage,

Till Norfolk be repeal'd: repeal'd he shall be,
And, though mine enemy, restor❜d again
To all his land and signories; when he's return'd,
Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial.

CAR. That honourable day shall ne'er be seen.-
Many a time hath banish'd Norfolk fought
For Jesu Christ; in glorious Christian field
Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross,
Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens :
And toil'd with works of war, retir'd himself
To Italy; and there, at Venice, gave
His body to that pleasant country's earth',
And his pure soul unto his captain Christ,

8 in this new world,] In this world where I have just begun to be an actor Surrey has, a few lines above, called him

boy. JOHNSON.

9 - here do I throw down this,] Holinshed says, that on this occasion "he threw down a hood that he had borrowed." STEEVENS.

He had before thrown down his own hood, when accused by Bagot. MALONE.

gave

His body to that pleasant country's earth,] This is not historically true. The duke of Norfolk's death did not take place till after Richard's murder. MALONE.

Under whose colours he had fought so long.
BOLING. Why, bishop, is Norfolk dead?
CAR. As sure as I live, my lord.

BOLING. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bosom

Of good old Abraham !-Lords appellants,
Your differences shall all rest under gage,
Till we assign you to your days of trial.

Enter YORK, attended.

YORK. Great duke of Lancaster, I come to thee From plume-pluck'd Richard; who with willing soul

Adopts thee heir, and his high scepter yields
To the possession of thy royal hand:

Ascend his throne, descending now from him,-
And long live Henry, of that name the fourth'
BOLING. In God's name, I'll ascend the regal
throne '.

CAR. Marry, God forbid!

Worst in this royal presence may I speak,
Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth 2.

In God's name, I'll ascend the regal throne.] The words actually spoken by Henry, on this occasion, were as follows:

Standing upright, that every one might see him, after he had crossed himself on the forehead and breast, and called on the name of Christ, he said:" In the name of Fadher, Son, and Holy Ghost, I, Henry of Lancaster, challenge the rewme of Ynglande, and the Croun, with all the membres and the appurtenances, and als I, that am descendit by right line of the blode, coming from the gude king Henry Therde, and throge that right that God of his grace hath sent me, with help of kyn, and of my frendes to recover it, the which rewme was in poynt to be ondone, by defaute of governaunce and ondoying of the gude lawes." Hume, vol. ix. p. 50, 4to. who gives a very ingenious comment on this politick speech, which is copied from Knyghton, p. 2757. MALONE.

2 Yet best BESEEMING me to speak the truth.] It might be read more grammatically:

"Yet best beseems it me to speak the truth."

2

Would God, that any in this noble presence
Were enough noble to be upright judge
Of noble Richard; then true nobless would
Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.
What subject can give sentence on his king?
And who sits here that is not Richard's subject?
Thieves are not judg'd, but they are by to hear,
Although apparent guilt be seen in them:
And shall the figure of God's majesty 3,
His captain, steward, deputy elect,

But I do not think it is printed otherwise than as Shakspeare wrote it. JOHNSON.

2

nobless] i. e. nobleness; a word now obsolete, but used both by Spenser and Ben Jonson. STEEVENS.

3 And shall the figure, &c.] Here is another proof that our author did not learn in K. James's court his elevated notions of the right of kings. I know not any flatterer of the Stuarts, who has expressed this doctrine in much stronger terms. It must be observed that the poet intends, from the beginning to the end, to exhibit this bishop as brave, pious, and venerable. JOHNSON.

Shakspeare has represented the character of the bishop as he found it in Holinshed, where this famous speech, (which contains, in the most express terms, the doctrine of passive obedience,) is preserved. The politicks of the historian were the politicks of the poet. STEEVENS.

The chief argument urged by the bishop in Holinshed, is, that it was unjust to proceed against the king "without calling him openly to his aunswer and defence." He says, that "none of them were worthie or meete to give judgement to so noble a prince;" but does not expressly assert that he could not be lawfully deposed. Our author, however, undoubtedly had Holinshed before him. MALONE.

It does not appear from any better authority than Holinshed that Bishop Merkes made this famous speech, or any speech at all upon this occasion, or even that he was present at the time. His sentiments, however, whether right or wrong, would have been regarded neither as novel nor unconstitutional. And it is observable that usurpers are as ready to avail themselves of the doctrine of divine right, as lawful sovereigns; to dwell upon the sacredness of their persons and the sanctity of their character. Even that "cutpurse of the empire," Claudius, in Hamlet, affects

to believe that

66

VOL. XVI.

such divinity doth hedge a king," &c. RITSON.

K

Anointed, crowned, planted many years,

Be judg'd by subject and inferior breath,

And he himself not present? O, forfend * it, God,
That, in a Christian climate, souls refin'd
Should show so heinous, black, obscene a deed!
I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks,
Stirr'd up by heaven thus boldly for his king.
My lord of Hereford here, whom you call king,
Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford's king:
And if you crown him, let me prophecy,-
The blood of English shall manure the ground,
And future ages groan for this foul act;
Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels,
And, in this seat of peace, tumultuous wars
Shall kin with kin, and kind with kind confound;
Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny,

Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd
The field of Golgotha, and dead men's sculls.
O, if you raise this house against this house,
It will the woefullest division prove,

That ever fell upon this cursed earth:
Prevent, resist it, let it not be so,

Lest child, child's children, cry against you-woe! NORTH. Well have you argu'd, sir; and, for your pains,

Of capital treason we arrest you here:

My lord of Westminster, be it your charge

To keep him safely till his day of trial 3.-

* So quartos ; folio, forbid. † So quartos; folio, rear. 4 Lest child, CHILD'S children,] Thus the old copy. Some of our modern editors read-" childrens' children." STEEvens. The innovation was Mr. Pope's. MALONE.

5 his day of trial.] After this line, whatever follows, almost to the end of the Act, containing the whole process of dethroning and debasing King Richard, was added after the first edition, of 1598, and before the second, of 1615. Part of the addition is proper, and part might have been forborn without much loss. The author, I suppose, intended to make a very moving scene.

JOHNSON.