Enter YORK, attended.

YORK. Great duke of Lancaster, I come to thee From plume-pluck'd Richard; who with willing foul Adopts thee heir, and his high scepter yields To the poffeffion of thy royal hand: Afcend his throne, defcending now from him, And long live Henry, of that name the fourth! BOLING. In God's name, I'll afcend the regal throne.

CAR. Marry, God forbid!

Worft in this royal prefence may I fpeak,
Yet best beseeming me to fpeak the truth,
Would God, that any in this noble presence
Were enough noble to be upright judge

Of noble Richard; then true noblefs' would
Learn him forbearance from fo foul a wrong.
What fubject can give fentence on his king?
And who fits here, that is not Richard's fubject?
Thieves are not judg'd, but they are by to hear,
Although apparent guilt be feen in them:

And fhall the figure of God's majesty,

3

Yet beft befeeming me to speak the truth.] It might be read more grammatically:

Yet beft befeems it me to speak the truth.

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

3

nobless ] i. e. nobleness; a word now obfolete, but ufed both by Spenfer and Ben Jonfon. SrEEVENS.

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

Shakspeare has reprefented the character of the bishop as he found it in Holiashed, where this famous fpeech, (which contains

His captain, fteward, deputy elect,
Anointed, crowned, planted many years,

Be judg'd by fubject and inferior 'breath,

And he himself not prefent? O, forbid it, God, That, in a Chriftian climate, fouls refin'd

Should fhow fo heinous, black, obscene a "deed! I speak to fubjects, and a fubject 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 Englifh fhall manure the ground,
And future ages groan for this foul act;
Peace fhall go fleep with Turks and infidels,
And, in this feat 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

in the most exprefs terms, the dodrine of paffive obedience,) is preferved. The politicks of the hiftorian were the politicks of the poet. STEEVENS.

"

The chief argument urged by the bishop in Holinfhed, is, that it was unjuft to proceed against the king "without calling him openly to his anfwer and defence. He fays, that "none of them were worthie or meete to give judgement to fo noble a prince;" but does not exprefsly affert 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 Holinfhed that Bishop Merkes made this famous fpeech, or any speech at all upon this occafion, or even that he was prefent at the time. His fentiments, however, whether right or wrong, would have been regarded neither as novel nor unconftitutional. And it is obfervable that ufurpers are as ready to avail themselves of the doârine of divine right, as lawful fovereigns; to dwell upon the facredness of their perfons and the fanctity of their character. Even that cutpurfe of the empire, Claudius, in Hamlet, affects to believe that fuch divinity doth hedge a king," &c. RITSON.

"

The field of Golgatha and dead men's fculls.
O, if you rear this house against this house,
It will the wofulleft divifion prove,

That ever fel! upon this curfed earth:
Prevent, refift it, let it not be so,

3

Left child, child's children, cry againft you-woe! NORTH. Well have you argu'd, fir; and, for your pains,

Of capital treason we arrest you here:-
My lord of Weftminster, be it your charge
To keep him fafely till his day of trial. 4-
May't pleafe you, lords, to grant the commons' fuit?
BOLING. Fetch hither Richard, that in common

view

He may furrender; fo we fhall proceed
Without fufpicion.

YORK.

I will be his conduct. 5 [Exit.

Some of our

3 Left child, child's children,] Thus the old copy. modern editors read. children's children. STEEVENS.

his day of trial. ] After this line, whatever follows, almoft to the end of the act, containing the whole process of dethroning and debafing King Richard, was added after the firft edition, of 1598, and before the fecond of 1615. Part of the addition is proper, and part might have been forborn without much lofs. The author, I suppose, intended to make a very moving scene.

The addition was firft made in the quarto 1608.

JOHNSON.

STEEVENS.

The first edition was in 1597, not in 1598. When it is faid that this scene was added, the reader muft underftand that it was added by the printer, or that a more perfe& copy fell into the hands of the later editor than was published by a former. There is no proof that the whole fcene was not written by Shakspeare at the fame time with the reft 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 afcertain the order of his plays, Vol. II. Malone.

5

66

his condu&. i. e. condu&or. So, in K. Henry VI. P. II: Although thou hast been conduct of my fhame." STEEVENS.

BOLING. Lords, you that are here under our arreft, Procure your fureties for your days of answer:Little are we beholden to your love, [TO CARLisle. And little look'd for at your helping hands.

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

K. RICH. Alack, why am I fent for to a king, Before I have fhook off the regal thoughts Wherewith I reign'd? I hardly yet have learn'd To infinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my knee: Give forrow leave a while to tutor me

6

To this fubmiffion. Yet I will remember
The favours of these men: Were they not mine?
Did they not fometime cry, all hail! to me?

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

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

none.

God fave the king!

Will no man fay, amen?

Am I both priest and clerk? well then, amen.
God fave the king! although I be not he;

And yet, amen, if heaven do think him me.
To do what fervice am I fent for hither?
YORK. To do that office, of thine own good will,
Which tired majefly did make thee offer,

The refignation of thy ftate and crown

To Henry Bolingbroke.

K. RICH. Give me the crown:

feize the crown;

Here, coufin,

Here, on this fide,' my hand; on that fide, thine.

6 The favours, &c.] The countenances; the features. JOHNSON. So, in Othello:

STEEVENS.
Here,

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

coulin, on this fide,

STEEVENS.

Now is this golden crown like a deep well,
That owes two buckets filling one another;
The emptier ever dancing' in the air,

The other down, unfeen and full of water:
That bucket down, and full of tears, am I,
Drinking my griefs, whilft you mount up on high.
BOLING. I thought, you had been willing to refign.
K. RICH. My crown, I am; but ftill my griefs
are mine:

You may my glories and my ftate depofe,
But not my griefs; ftill am I king of those.
BOLING. Part of your cares you give me with
your crown.

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

3

My care is lofs 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 ftill with me they ftay.
BOLING. Are you contented to refign the crown?
K. RICH. Ay, no;-no, ay; for I muft nothing
be;

Therefore no no, for I refign to thee.

Now mark me how I will undo myself :

I give this heavy weight from off my head,
And, this unwieldy fcepter from my hand,

The emptier ever dancing] This is a comparison not cafily accommodated to the fubje&, nor very naturally introduced. The beft part is this line, in which he makes the ufurper the empty bucket. JOHNSON.

8 My care is lofs of care, by old care done; ] Shakspeare often obfcures his meaning by playing with sounds. Richard feems to fay here, that his cares are not made less by the increase of Bolingbroke's cares; for this reafon, that his care is the loss of care, grief is, that is regal cares are at an end, by the ceffation of the care to which he had been accustomed. JOHNSON.

his