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May't please you, lords, to grant the commons' suit.
BOLING. Fetch hither Richard, that in common

view

He may surrender; so we shall proceed

Without suspicion.

YORK.

I will be his conduct. [Exit.

BOLING. Lords, you that here are under our ar

rest,

Procure your sureties for your days of answer :Little are we beholden to your love, [To CARLisle. And little look * for at your helping hands.

Re-enter YORK, with King RICHARD, and Officers bearing the Crown, &c.

K. RICH. Alack, why am I sent for to a king, Before I have shook off the regal thoughts Wherewith I reign'd? I hardly yet have learn'd To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my limbs Give sorrow leave a while to tutor me

To this submission. Yet I well remember

* So quarto; folio, look'd.

† So quarto; folio, knee.

The addition was first made in the quarto 1608. STEEVENS. The first edition was in 1597, not in 1598. When it is said that this scene was added, the reader must understand that it was added by the printer, or that a more perfect copy fell into the hands of the later editor than was published by a former. There is no proof that the whole scene was not written by Shakspeare at the same time with the rest of the play, though for political reasons it might not have been exhibited or printed during the life of Queen Elizabeth. See An Attempt to ascertain the Order of his Plays, vol. ii.

In the quarto 1597, after the words "his day of trial," the scene thus closes :

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Part II.:

"Bol. Let it be so: and, lo! on Wednesday next, "We solemnly proclaim our coronation.

"Lords, be ready all.

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[Exeunt." MALONE.

his CONDUCT.] i. e. conductor. So, in King Henry VI.

Although thou hast been conduct of my shame."

STEEVENS.

The favours of these men': Were they not mine? Did they not sometime cry, all hail! to me?

So Judas did to Christ: but he, in twelve,

Found truth in all, but one; I, in twelve thousand,

none.

God save the king!-Will no man say, amen?
Am I both priest and clerk? well then, amen.
God save the king! although I be not he;
And yet, amen, if heaven do think him me.—
To do what service am I sent for hither?

YORK. To do that office of thine own good will,
Which tired majesty did make thee offer,
The resignation of thy state and crown
To Henry Bolingbroke.

K. RICH. Give me the crown:-Here, cousin, seize the crown;

On this side, my hand; and on that side, thine. Now is this golden crown like a deep well,

That owes two buckets filling one another;

7 The FAVOURS, &c.] The countenances, the features.

So, in Othello:

66

nor should I know him,

JOHNSON.

"Were he in favour as in humour alter'd." STEEVENS. Here, on this side,] The old copy redundantly has-" Here, cousin, on this side." STEEVENS.

The quarto 1608, where this scene first appeared, reads:

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Seize the crown.

"Here, cousin, on this side my hand, and on that side yours."

The folio:

"Give me the crown. Here, cousin, seize the crown.

"Here, cousin, on this side my hand, on this side yours." It is evident that in the original copy, the words "Here, cousin, seize the crown," were misplaced, and erroneously printed"Seize the crown. Here, cousin ;" but these words being properly arranged, all the rest of the first copy is right, and I have followed it. The folio omitted the word and in the second line : Mr. Steevens prints

66

Here, on this side, my hand; on that side, thine."

MALONE.

The emptier ever dancing in the air,

The other down, unseen, and full of water:
That bucket down, and full of tears, am I,

Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high.
BOLING. I thought you had been willing to resign.
K. RICH. My crown, I am; but still my griefs
are mine:

You may my glories and my state depose,
But not my griefs; still am I king of those.

BOLING. Part of your cares you give me with your

crown.

K. RICH. Your cares set up, do not pluck my
cares down.

My care is loss of care, by old care done';
Your care is gain of care, by new care won :
The cares I give, I have, though given away;
They tend the crown, yet still with me they stay.
BOLING. Are you contented to resign the crown?
K. RICH. Ay, no ;-no, ay ;-for I must nothing
be;

Therefore no, no, for I resign to thee.
Now mark me, how I will undo myself:-
I give this heavy weight from off my head,
And this unwieldy scepter from my hand,
The pride of kingly sway from out my heart;
With mine own tears I wash away my balm 2,
With mine own hands I give away my crown,
With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,

9 The EMPTIER ever dancing-] This is a comparison not easily accommodated to the subject, nor very naturally introduced. The best part is this line, in which he makes the usurper the empty bucket. JOHNSON.

1

My care is-loss of care, by old care done ;] Shakspeare often obscures his meaning by playing with sounds. Richard seems to say here, that "his cares are not made less by the increase of Bolingbroke's cares;" for this reason, that "his care is the loss of care," his grief is, that his regal cares are at an end, by the cessation of the care to which he had been accustomed. JOHNSON.

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With mine own breath release all duty's rites *
All pomp and majesty I do forswear;
My manors, rents, revenues, I forego;
My acts, decrees, and statutes, I deny :
God pardon all oaths, that are broke to me!
God keep all vows unbroke, that swear to thee!
Make me, that nothing have, with nothing griev'd;
And thou with all pleas'd, that hast all achiev'd!
Long may'st thou live in Richard's seat to sit,
And soon lie Richard in an earthy pit!
God save king Henry, unking'd Richard says,
And send him many years of sunshine days!—
What more remains?

NORTH.

No more, but that you read [Offering a paper. These accusations, and these grievous crimes, Committed by your person, and your followers, Against the state and profit of this land; That, by confessing them, the souls of men May deem that you are worthily depos'd.

K. RICH. Must I do so? and must I ravel out My weav'd up follies? Gentle Northumberland, If thy offences were upon record,

Would it not shame thee in so fair a troop,
To read a lecture of them? If thou would'st3,
There should'st thou find one heinous article,—
Containing the deposing of a king,

And cracking the strong warrant of an oath,—
Mark'd with a blot, damn'd in the book of heaven :-
Nay, all of you, that stand and look upon *,
Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait myself,-

* So quarto; folio, duteous caths. So quarto; folio, are made.

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3 If thou would'st,] That is, if thou wouldst read over a list of thy own deeds.

JOHNSON.

So the quarto restored from look upon " is

4 Nay, ALL of you, that stand and look upon,] 1608, except that it omits the word all, which I have the folio. The folio reads-look upon me. frequently used by our author, for" to be a looker on."

To"

MALONE.

Though some of you, with Pilate, wash your hands,
Showing an outward pity; yet you Pilates
Have here deliver'd me to my sour cross,
And water cannot wash away your sin.

NORTH. My lord, dispatch; read o'er these ar

ticles.

5

K. RICH. Mine eyes are full of tears, I cannot see : And yet salt water blinds them not so much, But they can see a sort of traitors here. Nay, if I turn mine eyes upon myself, I find myself a traitor with the rest: For I have given here my soul's consent, To undeck the pompous body of a king; Make glory base; and sovereignty, a slave; Proud majesty, a subject; state, a peasant. NORTH. My lord,

K. RICH. No lord of thine, thou haught, insult

ing man,

Nor no man's lord; I have no name, no title,-
No, not that name was given me at the font',
But 'tis usurp'd:-Alack the heavy day,
That I have worn so many winters out,

And know not now what name to call myself!
O, that I were a mockery king of snow,
Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke,
To melt myself away in water drops !-

----

Good king,-great king,-(and yet not greatly good,)

-a sort] A pack, a company.

So, in King Richard III.:

6

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WARBURTON.

"A sort of vagabonds, rascals, and runaways."

STEEVENS.

haught,] i. e. haughty. So, in King Richard III. :
"And the queen's sons and brothers, haught and proud."
STEEVENS.

7 No, not that name was given me at the font,] How that name which was given him at the font could be usurped, I do not understand. Perhaps Shakspeare meant to shew that imagination, dwelling long on its own misfortunes, represents them as greater than they really are. ANONYMOUS.

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