GAUNT. To be a makepeace fhall become my age;Throw down, my fon, the duke of Norfolk's gage. K. RICH! And, Norfolk, throw down his.

GAUNT. When, Harry? when? Obedience bids, I fhould not bid again.

K. RICH. Norfolk, throw down; we bid; there is no boot.3

NOR. Myfelf I throw, dread fovereign, at thy foot:

My life thou shalt command, but not my fhame:
The one my duty owes; but my fair name,
(Defpite of death, that lives upon my grave,)4

To dark difhonour's ufe thou shalt not have.
I am difgrac'd, impeach'd, and baffled here; 5
Pierc'd to the foul with flander's venom'd spear;

When, Harry? This obfolete exclamation of impatience, is likewife found in Heywood's Silver Age, 1613:

Fly into Affrick; from the mountains there,

"Chufe me two venomous ferpents: thou shalt know them: "By their fell poison and their fierce afpe&.

When, Iris?

"Iris. I am gone."

Again, in Look about you, 1600:

STEEVENS.

3 --no boat] That is, no advantage, no use, in delay or refufal. JOHNSON.

4

my fair name, &c.] That is, my name that lives on my grave, in defpight of death. This eafy paffage moft of the editors feem to have mistaken. JOHNSON.

5

and baffled here; ] Baffled in this place means treated with the greateft ignominy imaginable. So, Holinfhed, Vol. III. p. 827, and 1218, or annis 1513, and 1570, explains it: "Bafulling fays he, is a great difgrace among the Scots, and it is used when a man is opeulie perjured, and then they make of him an image painted, reverfed, with his heels upward, with his name, wondering, crieing, and blowing out of him with horns." Spenser's Faery Queen, B. V. c. iii. ft. 37; and B. VI. c. vii. ft. 27. has the word in the fame fignification. TOLLET,

The which no balm can cure, but his heart-blood
Which breath'd this poison.

K. RICH.

Rage must be withflood: Give me his gage:-Lions make leopards tame, NOR. Yea, but not change their spots: take but my fhame,

6

And I refign my gage. My dear dear lord,
The pureft treasure mortal times afford,
Is-fpotlefs reputation; that away,
Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay.
A jewel in a ten-times-barr'd-up cheft
Is a bold fpirit in a loyal breaft.

Mine honour is my life; both grow in one;
Take honour from me, and my life is done:
Then, dear my liege, mine honour let me try;
In that I live, and for that will I die.

K. RICH. Coufin, throw down your gage; do you
begin.

BOLING. O, God defend my foul from fuch foul

fin!

Shall I feem creftfallen in my father's fight?
Or with pale beggar-fear' impeach my height
Before this outdar'd daftard? Ere my tongue
Shall wound mine honour with fuch feeble wrong,

The fame expreffion occurs in Twelfth Night, fc. ult:

"Alas, poor fool! how have they baffled thee?" Again, in K. Henry IV. Part I. A& I. fc. ii:

--an I do not, call me villain, and baffle me." Again, in The London Prodigal, 1605; "chil be abaffelled up and down the town, for a meffel." i. e. for a beggar, or rather a leper. STEEVENS.

The old copies have-his

6 -but not change their Spots:] fpots. Corre&ed by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

7 with pale beggar-fear-] This is the reading of one of the oldeft quartos, and the folio. The quartos 1608 and 1615 read-beggar-face; i. e. (as Dr. Warburton obferves) with a face of fupplication. STEVENS.

1

1

Or found fo bafe a parle, my teeth fhall tear
The flavish motive of recanting fear;

And fpit it bleeding, in his high difgrace,
Where fhame doth harbour, even in Mowbray's face.
[Exit GAUNT.
K. RICH. We were not born to fue, but to com-

mand:

Which fince we cannot do to make you friends,
Be ready, as your lives fhall anfwer it,
At Coventry, upon faint Lambert's day;
There fhall your fwords and lances arbitrate
The fwelling difference of your fettled hate;
Since we cannot atone you, we shall see
Juftice defign the victor's chivalry.-
Marshal, command' our officers at arms
Be ready to direct these home-alarms.

6

The flavish motive-] Motive, for inftrument.

[Exeunt.

WARBURTON.

Rather that which fear puts in motion. JOHNSON.
-atone you,] i. c. reconcile you. So, in Cymbeline :
"I was glad I did atone my countryman and you."

STEEVENS.

6 Juftice defign-] Thus the old copies. Mr. Pope reads→ "Juftice decide," but without neceffity. Defigno, Lat. fignifies to mark out, to point out : Notat defignatque oculis ad cædéin. unumquemque noftrum." Cicero in Catilinam. STEEVENS.

To defign in our author's time fignified to mark out. See Minfheu's Dicr. in v. "To defigne or fhew by a token. Ital. Denotare. Lat. Defignare." At the end of the article the reader is referred to the words to marke, note, demonftrate or fhew."The word is ftill used with this fignification in Scotland,

MALONE.

7 Marshal, command, &c.] The old copies-Lord Marshall, but fas Mr. Ritfon obferves) the metre requires the omiffion I have nade. It is alfo juftified by his Majefty's repeated addrefs to the fame officer, in scene iii. STEEVENS.

The fame. A Room in the Duke of Lancaster's

Palace.

Enter GAUNT, and Duchefs of Glofter.

9

8

GAUNT. Alas! the part I had in Glofter's blood
Doth more folicit me, than your exclaims,
To ftir against the butchers of his life.
But fince correction lieth in thofe hands,
Which made the fault that we cannot correct,
Put we our quarrel to the will of heaven;
Who when he fees the hours ripe on earth,
Will rain hot vengeance on offenders' heads.

2

DUCH. Finds brotherhood in thee no fharper fpur?
Hath love in thy old blood no living fire?
Edward's feven fons, whereof thyself art one,
Were as seven phials of his facred blood,
Or feven fair branches, fpringing from one.root:
Some of those seven are dried by nature's courfe,
Some of those branches by the deftinies cut:
But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Glofter.-

8

-duchess of Glofter.] The Duchess of Glofter was Eleanor Bohun, widow of Duke Thomas, fon of Edward III.

9

WALPOLE.

-the part I had] That is, my relation of confanguinity to Glofter. HANMER.

I have P. 16:

heaven;

Who when he fees-] The old copies erroneously read

Who when they fee

reformed the text by example of a fubfequent paffage,

heaven's fubftitute,

His deputy, anointed in his fight," &c. STEEVENS.

One phial full of Edward's facred blood,
One flourishing branch of his most royal root,-
Is crack'd, and all the precious liquor fpilt;
Is hack'd down, and his fummer leaves all faded,*
By envy's hand, and murder's bloody axe.

Ah, Gaunt! his blood was thine; that bed, that

womb,.

That mettle, that felf-mould, that fashion'd thee, Made him a man; and though thou liv'ft, and

breath'ft,

Yet art thou flain in him: thou doft confent3
In fome large measure to thy father's death,
In that thou feeft thy wretched brother die,
Who was the model of thy father's life.
Call it not patience, Gaunt, it is despair:
In fuffering thus thy brother to be flaughter'd,
Thou fhow'ft the naked pathway to thy life,
Teaching ftern murder how to butcher thee:
That which in mean men we entitle-patience,
Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.

What fhall I fay? to fafeguard thine own life,
The best way is-to 'venge my Glofter's death,
GAUNT. Heaven's is the quarrel; for heaven's
fubflitute,

His deputy anointed in his fight,

2

1

One phial, &c.] Though all the old copies concur in the prefent regulation of the following lines, I would rather readOne phial full of Edward's facred blood

Is crack'd, and all the precious liquor spill'd;

- One flourishing branch of his moft royal root

Is hack'd down, and his fummer leaves all faded.

Some of the old copies in this inftance, as in many others, read vaded, a mode of spelling practised by several of our ancient writers. After all, I believe the transpofition to be needless.

STEEVENS.

3 -thou doft confent, &c.] i. e. affent. So, in St. Luke's Gospel, xxiii. 51: The fame had not confented to the counsel and dead of them." STEEVENS,