SCENE II°. The Coast of Wales. A Castle in view. Flourish: Drums and Trumpets. Enter King RICHARD, Bishop of CARLISLE, AUMERLE, and Soldiers. K. RICH. Barkloughly castle call they this at hand? AUM. Yea, my lord: How brooks your grace the air, After your late tossing on the breaking seas? K. RICH. Needs must I like it well; I weep for joy, To stand upon my kingdom once again. Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand, Though rebels wound thee with their horses' hoofs: As a long parted mother with her child not till the succeeding year that the King employed any force against him. THEOBALD. This emendation, which I think is just, has been followed by Sir T. Hanmer, but is neglected by Dr. Warburton. JOHNSON. It is evident from the preceding scene, that there was a force in Wales, which Bolingbroke might think it necessary to suppress; and why might not Shakspeare call it Glendower's? When we next see Bolingbroke, he is in Wales, and mentions his having received intelligence that the Welchmen are dispersed. RITSON. Mr. Heath observes, that Bolingbroke marched to Chester, probably with a view to attack the Welsh army headed by Lord Salisbury. He thinks, therefore, the line is genuine. See Sc. III. p. 104. Stowe expressly says, that "Owen Glendower served King Richard at Flint-Castle." MALONE. 6 Here may be properly inserted the last scene of the second Act. JOHNSON. 7 Call THEY,] So, the quarto 1597. The folio, following the quarto 1608, reads-call you. MALONE. 8 After late tossing, &c.] The old copies redundantly read: 66 After your late tossing," &c. STEEVENS. Plays fondly with her tears, and smiles in meet So, weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my earth, 8 - smiles in MEETING;] It has been proposed to read—in weeping; and this change the repetition in the next line seems plainly to point out. STEEVENS. "As a long parted mother with her child 66 Plays fondly with her tears, and smiles in meeting;" Παιδ ̓ ειν' ἡ δ ̓ αρα μιν κηωδεί δεξαιο κολπῶ ΔΑΚΡΥΟΕΝ ΓΕΛΑΣΑΣΑ. Hom. Il. Z. Perhaps smiles is here used as a substantive. As a mother plays fondly with her child from whom she has been a long time parted, crying, and at the same time smiling, at meeting him. It has been proposed to read-smiles in weeping; and I once thought the emendation very plausible. But I am now persuaded the text is right. If we read weeping, the long parted mother and her child do not meet, and there is no particular cause assigned for either her smiles or her tears. MALONE. From the actual smiles and tears of the long parted mother, &c. we may, I think, sufficiently infer that she had met with her child. STEEVENS. 9 GUARD IT, I pray thee,] Guard it, signifies here, as in many other places, border it. MALONE. I think, that to guard, in this place, rather means, to watch or protect. M. MASON. iThis earth shall have a feeling,] Perhaps Milton had not forgot this passage, when he wrote, in his Comus Prove armed soldiers, ere her native king BISHOP. Fear not, my lord3; that Power, that made you king, Hath power to keep you king, in spite of all. AUм. He means, my lord, that we are too remiss; Whilst Bolingbroke, through our security, not, That when the searching eye of heaven is hid 2 dumb things shall be mov'd to sympathize, And the brute earth shall lend her nerves, and shake." STEEVENS. - rebellion's arms.] Thus the quarto 1597; all the subsequent copies have-rebellious arms. MALONE. 3 Fear not, my lord, &c.] Of this speech, the four last lines were restored from the first edition by Mr. Pope. They were, I suppose, omitted by the players only to shorten the scene, for they are worthy of the author and suitable to the personage. 4 else, IF heaven would, JOHNSON. Thus the And we WILL not, heaven's offer we refuse ;] quarto 1597, except that the word if is wanting. The quarto 1608, and the late editions, read-" And we would not." The word if was supplied by Mr. Pope. Both the metre and the sense show that it was accidentally omitted in the first copy. MALONE. 5 AND lights the lower world,] The old copies_read-that lights. The emendation was made by Dr. Johnson. Sense might be obtained by a slight transposition, without changing the words. of the original text: 66 That when the searching eye of heaven, that lights "The lower world, is hid behind the globe ;—” By "the lower world," as the passage is amended by Dr. Johnson, we must understand, a world lower than this of ours; I suppose, our antipodes. Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen, Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves? *So folio: quartos, off from. But the lower world may signify our world. MALOne. That this is the sense of the passage, is obvious from the King's application of the simile: "So, when this thief, this traitor Bolingbroke,- There is no necessity for any alteration, either by transposition or otherwise. That does not relate to the nearest antecedent, globe, but to the eye of heaven. Nothing is more common in Shakspeare, and the writers of his day, than this manner of disposing of the relative. TALBOT. 5 He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines,] It is not easy to point out an image more striking and beautiful than this, in any poet, whether ancient or modern. STEEVENS. The breath of worldly men, &c.] Here is the doctrine of indefeasible right expressed in the strongest terms; but our poet did not learn it in the reign of King James, to which it is now the practice of all writers, whose opinions are regulated by fa For every man that Bolingbroke hath press'd, Weak men must fall; for heaven still guards the right. Enter SALISBURY. Welcome, my lord; How far off lies your power? And thou shalt have twelve thousand fighting men! O'erthrows thy joys, friends, fortune, and thy state; shion or interest, to impute the original of every tenet which they have been taught to think false or foolish. JOHNSON. Far be it from me to palliate the conduct of the wretched James; but the truth is, that the inherent rights of the people had been ill understood, or rather were not acknowledged by his predecessors. The doctrine of the divine right of kings, and of the passive obedience of subjects, have never been carried further in any country than in this island, while the house of Tudor sate on the throne. Of this fact, the Homilies, composed during the reign of young Edward, and appointed in the Thirty-nine Articles to be read in churches, furnish striking and abundant proof. Take, as an instance, the following extract from the Homily against Disobedience and wilful Rebellion: "As the naine of the king is very often attributed and given unto God in holy scriptures, so doth God himself in the same scriptures sometime vouchsafe to communicate his name with earthly princes, terming them Gods." 1st part. And in the 4th part, we are directed to call to remembrance the heavy wrath ́and dreadful indignation of Almighty God against subjects as do only but inwardly grudge, mutter, and murmur against their governors, though their inward treason, so privily hatched in their breasts, come not to an open declaration of their doings." HOLT WHITE. 66 |