K. Rich. How high a pitch his resolution soars !— Thomas of Norfolk, what say'st thou to this? Nor. O, let my sovereign turn away his face, K. Rich. Mowbray, impartial are our eyes and ears: Nor. Then, Bolingbroke, as low as to thy heart, Since last I went to France to fetch his queen death 16 15 -For Gloster's : 14 The old copies have " a deere account," an evident press error for cleere. The word duly, three lines above, is only in the first quarto, but evidently necessary to complete the verse. 15 The Duke of Norfolk was joined in commission with Edward Earl of Rutland (the Aumerle of this play) to go to France in the year 1395, to demand in marriage Isabel, eldest daughter of Charles VI. then between seven and eight years of age. Richard was married to his young consort in November 1396, at Calais; his first wife, Anne, daughter of Charles IV. emperor of Germany, died at Shene on Whit Sunday, 1394. His marriage with Isabella was merely political, it was accompanied with an agreement for a truce between France and England for thirty years. 16 Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, youngest son of Edward III. being committed on a charge of treason to the custody I slew him not; but to mine own disgrace, Even in the best blood chamber'd in his bosom : Your highness to assign our trial day. K. Rich. Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be rul'd by me: Let's purge this choler without letting blood: This we prescribe, though no physician 18; Deep malice makes too deep incision: Forget, forgive; conclude, and be agreed; Our doctors say, this is no time to bleed.Good uncle, let this end where it begun ; We'll calm the duke of Norfolk, you your son. Gaunt. To be a make-peace shall become my age: Throw down, my son, the duke of Norfolk's gage. K. Rich. And, Norfolk, throw down his. of the Duke of Norfolk, was smothered at Calais, of which Norfolk was govern to the king's orders. 17 Appeal'd, i. e. charged. a The quartos have gentleman. 18 Pope thought that some of the rhy were not from the hand of Shakespeare. Gaunt. When, Harry? when 19? Obedience bids, I should not bid again. K. Rich. Norfolk, throw down; we bid; there is no boot 20. Nor. Myself I throw, dread sovereign, at thy foot: My life thou shalt command, but not my shame : The one my duty owes ; but my fair name Despite of death, that lives upon my grave21, To dark dishonour's use thou shalt not have. I am disgrac'd, impeach'd, and baffled 22 here; Pierc'd to the soul with slander's venom'd spear; The which no balm can cure, but his heart-blood Which breath'd this poison. K. Rich. Rage must be withstood : Give me his gage :-Lions make leopards 23 tame. Nor. Yea, but not change his 24 spots: take but my shame, And I resign my gage. My dear, dear lord, Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay. 19 This abrupt elliptical exclamation of impatience is again used in the Taming of a Shrew:-" Why when, I say! Nay, good sweet Kate, be merry." It appears to be equivalent to “when will such a thing be done?" 20 There is no boot, or it booteth not, is as much as to say, there is no help, resistance would be vain, or profitless. 21 i. e. my name that lives on my grave in despite of death. 22 Baffled in this place signifies abused, reviled, reproached in base terms; which was the ancient signification of the word, as well as to deceive or circumvent. Vide Cotgrave in v. Baffouer. See also a note on King Henry IV. Part 1. Act i. Sc. 2. 23 There is an allusion here to the crest of Norfolk, which was a golden leopard. 24 Thus the old copies. Pope altered it to their spots; but of the change from the plural to the singular and the converse, we have frequent examples in the phraseology of the poet's time. Mr. Knight observes that Mowbray uses the words of Scripture, Jerem. xiii. 23. Is-a bold spirit in a loyal breast. Mine honour is my life; both grow in one; K. Rich. Cousin, throw down your gage; do you begin. Boling. O, God defend my soul from such foul 25 sin. Shall I seem crest-fallen in my father's sight? Or with pale beggar-fear impeach my height Before this outdar'd dastard! Ere my tongue Shall wound mine honour with such feeble wrong, Or sound so base a parle, my teeth shall tear The slavish motive of recanting fear; And spit it bleeding in his high disgrace, Where shame doth harbour, even in Mowbray's face. [Exit GAUNT. K. Rich. We were not born to sue, but to command: Which since we cannot do to make you friends, Be ready, as your lives shall answer it, At Coventry, upon Saint Lambert's day; There shall your swords and lances arbitrate The swelling difference of your settled hate; Since we cannot atone 26 you, we shall see Justice design 27 the victor's chivalry. 25 The quartos have "such deep sin." The first folio has O Heaven, instead of O God. Two lines lower beggar-fear, which is the reading of the first quarto and first folio, is beggar-face in the other quartos. 26 Atone you, i. e. make you friends, "to make agent or atonement, to reconcile them to each other. Ad conce cere. Lat. Mettre d'accord. Fr." Baret. 27 To design is to mark out, to show by a token. I of the Latin designo. I may here take occasion to Shakespeare is remarkable for his choice of expres rived from the Latin, and used in their original som priety of this expression here will be obvious, when that designator was "a marshal, a master of the play Lord Marshal, command our officers at arms [Exeunt. SCENE II. The same. A Room in the Duke of Lancaster's Palace. Enter GAUNT, and Duchess of GLOSTER1. Gaunt. Alas! the part I had in Gloster's blood Doth more solicit me, than your exclaims, To stir against the butchers of his life. But since correction lieth in those hands, Which made the fault that we cannot correct, Put we our quarrel to the will of heaven; Who when they see3 the hours ripe on earth, Will rain hot vengeance on offenders' heads. Duch. Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper spur? Hath love in thy old blood no living fire? Edward's seven sons, whereof thyself art one, Were as seven phials of his sacred blood, Or seven fair branches springing from one root: Some of those seven are dried by nature's course, Some of those branches by the destinies cut: But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Gloster; One phial full of Edward's sacred blood,— One flourishing branch of his most royal root,— Is crack'd, and all the precious liquor spilt; Is hack'd down, and his summer leaves all faded, appointed every one his place, and adjudged the victory." In the preceding line all the old copies, except the first quarto, have you shall see." 66 The Duchess of Glo'ster was Eleanor Bohun, widow of Duke Thomas, son of Edward III. i.e. my relationship of consanguinity to Gloster. The quartos have "Woodstock's blood." He was born at Woodstock; Richard created him Duke of Gloucester in the 9th year of his reign. Who when they see, &c. Thus the old copies. It is not necessary to consider Heaven as a collective noun. A plural nominative was probably in the poet's mind, suggested by "these hands." |