Not Gaunt's rebukes, nor England's private wrongs,
Nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke
About his marriage', nor my own disgrace,
Have ever made me sour my patient cheek,
Or bend one wrinkle on my sovereign's face.
I am the last of noble Edward's sons,

3

Of whom thy father, prince of Wales, was first;
In war, was never lion rag'd more fierce,
In peace was never gentle lamb more mild,
Than was that young and princely gentleman:
His face thou hast, for even so look'd he,
Accomplish'd with the number of thy hours 3;
But, when he frown'd, it was against the French,
And not against his friends: his noble hand
Did win what he did spend, and spent not that
Which his triumphant father's hand had won :
His hands were guilty of no kindred's blood,
But bloody with the enemies of his kin.
O, Richard! York is too far gone with grief,
Or else he never would compare between.
K. RICH. Why, uncle, what's the matter?
YORK.
O, my liege,

Pardon me, if you please; if not, I pleas'd
Not to be pardon'd, am content withal.
Seek you to seize, and gripe into your hands,
The royalties and rights of banished Hereford ?
Is not Gaunt dead? and doth not Hereford live?
Was not Gaunt just? and is not Harry true?
Did not the one deserve to have an heir ?
Is not his heir a well-deserving son?

2 Nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke

About his marriage,] When the duke of Hereford, after his banishment, went into France, he was honourably entertained at that court, and would have obtained in marriage the only daughter of the duke of Berry, uncle to the French king, had not Richard prevented the match. STEEVENS.

3 Accomplish'd with the number of thy hours;] i. e. when he was of thy age. MALONE.

Take Hereford's rights away, and take from time
His charters and his customary rights;
Let not to-morrow then ensue to-day;
Be not thyself, for how art thou a king,
But by fair sequence and succession ?
Now, afore God (God forbid, I say true!)
If you do wrongfully seize Hereford's rights,
Call in the letters patents that he hath
By his attornies-general to sue

His livery, and deny his offer'd homage 3,
You pluck a thousand dangers on your head,
You lose a thousand well-disposed hearts,
And prick my tender patience to those thoughts
Which honour and allegiance cannot think.

K. RICH. Think what you will: we seize into our hands

His plate, his goods, his money, and his lands. YORK. I'll not be by, the while: My liege, farewell:

What will ensue hereof, there's none can tell;
But by bad courses may be understood,

That their events can never fall out good. [Exit. K. RICH. Go, Bushy, to the earl of Wiltshire straight;

Bid him repair to us to Ely-house,

To see this business: To-morrow next

His LIVERY,] On the death of every person who held by knight's service, the escheator of the court in which he died summoned a jury, who inquired what estate he died seized of, and of what age his next heir was. If he was under age, he became a ward of the king's; but if he was found to be of full age, he then had a right to sue out a writ of ouster le main, that is, his livery, that the king's hand might be taken off, and the land delivered to him. MALONE.

5 - deny his offer'd homage,] That is, refuse to admit the homage, by which he is to hold his lands.' JOHNSON.

We will for Ireland; and 'tis time, I trow ;
And we create, in absence of ourself,
Our uncle York lord governor of England,
For he is just, and always lov'd us well.-
Come on, our queen: to-morrow must we part;
Be merry, for our time of stay is short.

[Flourish. [Exeunt KING, QUEEN, BUSHY, AUMERLE, GREEN, and BAGOT.

NORTH. Well, lords, the duke of Lancaster is dead. Ross. And living too; for now his son is duke. WILLO. Barely in title, not in revenue.

NORTH. Richly in both, if justice had her right. Ross. My heart is great; but it must break with silence,

Ere't be disburden'd with a liberal tongue.

NORTH. Nay, speak thy mind; and let him ne'er speak more,

That speaks thy words again, to do thee harm! WILLO. Tends that thou would'st speak, to the duke of Hereford ?

If it be so, out with it boldly, man;

Quick is mine ear, to hear of good towards him.
Ross. No good at all, that I can do for him;
Unless you call it good, to pity him,
Bereft and gelded of his patrimony.

NORTH. Now, afore heaven, 'tis shame, such wrongs are borne,

In him a royal prince, and many more
Of noble blood in this declining land.
The king is not himself, but basely led
By flatterers; and what they will inform,
Merely in hate, 'gainst any of us all,
That will the king severely prosecute

'Gainst us, our lives, our children, and our heirs. Ross. The commons hath he pill'd with grievous taxes,

And quite lost their hearts: the nobles hath he

fin'd

For ancient quarrels, and quite lost their hearts.
WILLO. And daily new exactions are devis'd;
As blanks, benevolences, and I wot not what":
But what, o' God's name, doth become of this?
NORTH. Wars have not wasted it, for warr'd he
hath not,

But basely yielded upon compromise

That which his ancestors achiev'd with blows: More hath he spent in peace, than they in wars. Ross. The earl of Wiltshire hath the realm in

farm.

WILLO. The king's grown bankrupt, like a broken

man.

NORTH. Reproach, and dissolution, hangeth over him.

Ross. He hath not money for these Irish wars, His burdenous taxations notwithstanding,

But by the robbing of the banish'd duke.

NORTH. His noble kinsman: most degenerate king!

But, lords, we hear this fearful tempest sing",
Yet seek no shelter to avoid the storm:

5 And lost their hearts :] The old copies erroneously and unmetrically read:

"And quite lost their hearts."

The compositor's eye had caught the adverb-quite, from the following line. STEEVENS.

daily new exactions are devis'd;

As blanks, benevolences, and I wot not what :] Stow records, that Richard II." compelled all the Religious, Gentlemen, and Commons, to set their seales to blankes, to the end he might, if it pleased him, oppresse them severally, or all at once: some of the Commons paid 1000 markes, some 1000 pounds," &c.

Chronicle, p. 319, fol. 1639. HOLT WHITE. we HEAR this fearful TEMPEST SING,] So, in The Tem

another storm brewing; I hear it sing in the wind.”

STEEVENS.

We see the wind sit sore upon our sails,

And yet we strike not, but securely perish. Ross. We see the very wreck that we must suffer;

1

And unavoided is the danger1 now,

For suffering so the causes of our wreck.

NORTH. Not so; even through the hollow eyes of death,

I spy life peering; but I dare not say
How near the tidings of our comfort is.

WILLO. Nay, let us share thy thoughts, as thou dost ours.

Ross. Be confident to speak, Northumberland: We three are but thyself; and, speaking so, Thy words are but as thoughts; therefore, be bold. NORTH. Then thus:-I have from Port le Blanc, a bay

In Britanny, receiv'd intelligence,

That Harry Hereford, Reignold lord Cobham, [The son of Richard Earl of Arundel,

That late broke from the duke of Exeter 2,

8 And yet we STRIKE not,] To strike the sails, is, to contract them when there is too much wind.

So, in King Henry VI. Part III.:

9

JOHNSON.

“ Than bear so low a sail, to strike to thee." STEEVENS. but SECURELY perish.] We perish by too great confidence in our security. The word is used in the same sense in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "Though Page be a secure fool," &c.

Again, in Troilus and Cressida, Act IV. Sc. V.:

""Tis done like Hector, but securely done."

See Dr. Farmer's note on this passage. STEEVENS.

MALONE.

I And UNAVOIDED is the danger -] Unavoided is, I believe, here used for unavoidable. MALONE.

2 [The son of Richard Earl of Arundel,]

That late broke from the duke of Exeter,] I suspect that some of these lines are transposed, as well as that the poet has made a blunder in his enumeration of persons. No copy that I have seen, will authorize me to make an alteration, though according to Holinshed, whom Shakspeare followed in great measure, more than one is necessary.