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KING RICHARD THE SECOND.

SHAKESPEARE'S "King Richard II." was entered at Stationers' Hall, August 29, 1597, by Andrew Wise, who published the first edition that year under the title of "The tragedie of King Richard the Second. As it hath beene publikely acted by the Right Honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his Servants, London, Printed by Valentine Simmes, for Androw Wise, and are to be sold at his shop in Paules church yard at the signe of the Angel. 1597." 4to. This is much the most accurate copy of the play extant. Three other quarto editions were published before the first folio, one in 1598, another in 1608, "with new additions of the Parliament sceane, and the Deposing of King Richard," and the last in 1615; each of which bears the author's name, "William Shake-speare," on the title-page; that of 1615 being apparently the copy followed in the folio, 1623. There can now be scarcely a doubt that there was an older Richard II. than Shakespeare's, and one that kept its place as an acting drama, even at the Globe theatre, long after his had been played and printed. In a passage of Camden's Annals, it is related that Sir Gillie Merrick, who was concerned in the desperate insurrection of the Earl of Essex, was accused, among other charges, of having caused to be acted, by money in a public theatre, the obsolete tragedy (exoletum tragediam) of the abdication of Richard the Second. This transaction is related more circumstantially in the official declarations, where it is stated that, "The Afternoon before the Rebellion, Merrick with a great company of others, who were all afterwards in the action, had procured to be play'd before them the Play of deposing King Richard the Second; neither was it casual, but a play bespoke by Merrick; and when it was told him by one of the Players, that the Play was old, and they should have Loss in playing it, because few would come to it, there were forty Shillings extraordinary given for it, and so it was play'd." The deposition of Richard II. appears to have been a subject upon which Elizabeth was peculiarly sensitive. It was probably on this account, that the Parliament scene in Shakespeare's play, containing the actual deposition of the King, was not inserted in the quartos until after her death. In 1599, Sir John Haywarde was severely censured in the Star Chamber, and committed to prison, for his History of the First Part of the Life and Reign of King Henry IV., which contained the deposition of Richard II.

The revival of an old play on this prohibited topic must therefore have been highly offensive to the Queen: it certainly made a deep impression upon her; for, in a conversation with the accomplished William Lambarde, twelve months afterwards, on the occasion of his presenting her with his pandect of her Rolls in the Tower, when, looking through the records, she came to the reign of Richard II., she remarked:-"I am Richard II., know ye not that?" Lambarde replied, in allusion to the Essex attempt, "Such a wicked imagination was determined and attempted by a most unkind gent, the most adorned creature that ever your Majesty made: " to this her Majesty rejoined: "He that will forget God, will also forget his benefactors: this tragedy was played 40tie times in open streets and houses."

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That the drama in question was not Shakespeare's Richard II., is tolerably evident, from its being described as an obsolete play; but a discovery made by Mr. Collier places this fact beyond controversy. In a MS. diary kept by the notorious Dr. Simon Forman, and preserved in the Bodleian Library, Mr. Collier has found an entry under the date, Thursday, April 30, 1611, wherein Forman records his having been present at the Globe theatre, and witnessed the play of Richard II., some incidents in which he notes for his future guidance :-" Remember therein how Jack Straw, by his overmuch boldness, not being politic nor suspecting anything, was suddenly, at Smithfield Bars, stabbed by Walworth, the Mayor of London, and so he and his whole army was overthrown. Therefore, in such case, or the like, never admit any party without a bar between, for a man cannot be too wise, nor keep himself too safe. Also remember how the Duke of

Glocester, the Earl of Arundel, Oxford, and others, crossing the king in his humour about the Duke of Erland and Bushy, were glad to fly and raise a host of men; and being in his castle, how the Duke of Erland came by night to betray him, with three hundred men; but, having privy warning thereof, kept his gates fast, and would not suffer the enemy to enter, which went back again with a fly in his ear, and after, was slain by the Earl of Arundel in the battle. Remember also, when the Duke (i. e. of Gloucester,) and Arundel, came to London with their army, King Richard came forth to them and met them, and gave them fair words, and promised them pardon, and that all should be well if they would discharge their army, upon whose promises and fair speeches, they did it; and after, the king bid them all to a banquet, and so betrayed them, and cut off their heads, &c., because they had not his pardon under his hand and seal before, but his word.

"Remember therein, also, how the Duke of Lancaster privily contrived all villainy to set them all together by the ears, and to make the nobility to envy the King, and mislike him and his government: by which means he made his own son king, which was Henry Bolingbroke. Remember, also, how the Duke of Lancaster asked a wise man whether himself should ever be a king, and he told him No, but his son should be a king; and when he had told him, he hanged him up for his labour, because he should not bruit abroad, or speak thereof to others. This was a policy in the commonwealth's opinion, but I say it was a villain's part, and a Judas's kiss to hang the man for telling him the truth. Beware by this example of noblemen and their fair words, and say little to them, lest they do the like to thee for thy goodwill."

This play, then, it is clear, embraced the earlier portion of Richard's reign, and may have contained its close, and have been the one which the partizans of Essex contrived to get acted. Shakespeare's tragedy, on the contrary, comprises little more than the last two years of the reign of Richard II., and the facts appear to have been dramatized exclusively from Holinshed, some of the speeches being copied with scarcely any alteration from that old chronicler. Of the date of its composition we have no reliable evidence; Malone fixes it in 1593, Chalmers and Drake in 1596.

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SCENE,-Dispersedly in ENGLAND and WALES.

* Aumerle, or Aumale, is the French for what we term Albemarle, a town in Normandy.
Now spelt Roos.

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Enter KING RICHARD, attended; JOHN OF GAUNT, | Brought hither Henry Hereford," thy bold son; and other Nobles, with him.

K. RICH. Old John of Gaunt, time-honour'd
Lancaster,(1)

Hast thou, according to thy oath and band,

Here to make good the boisterous late appeal,
Which then our leisure would not let us hear,

a Hereford,-] This name is usually spelt Herford in the old copies, and must be pronounced as a dissyllable. GG

ACT 1.]

KING RICHARD THE SECOND.

Against the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray ?(2)
GAUNT. I have, my liege.

K. RICH. Tell me, moreover, hast thou sounded
him,

If he appeal the duke on ancient malice;
Or worthily, as a good subject should,
On some known ground of treachery in him?
GAUNT. As near as I could sift him on that
argument,

On some apparent danger seen in him,
Aim'd at your highness,-no inveterate malice.
K. RICH. Then call them to our presence; face
to face,

And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear
The accuser, and the accused, freely speak :—
[Exeunt some Attendants.
High-stomach'd are they both, and full of ire,
In deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.
rage,

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BOLING. Many years of happy days befal
My gracious sovereign, my most loving liege!
NOR. Each day still better other's happiness;
Until the heavens, envying earth's good hap,
Add an immortal title to your crown!

K. RICH. We thank you both: yet one but flat

ters us,

As well appeareth by the cause you come; b
Namely, to appeal each other of high treason.-
Cousin of Hereford, what dost thou object
Against the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?
BOLING. First, (heaven be the record to my
speech!)

In the devotion of a subject's love,
Tendering the precious safety of my prince,
And free from other misbegotten hate,
Come I appellant to this princely presence.
Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee,
And mark my greeting well; for what I speak
My body shall make good upon this earth,
Or my divine soul answer it in heaven.
Thou art a traitor, and a miscreant ;
Too good to be so, and too bad to live;
Since the more fair and crystal is the sky,
The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly.
Once more, the more to aggravate the note,
With a foul traitor's name stuff I thy throat;

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c Inhabitable-] That is, unhabitable, not habitable; a primi"Where all the tive use of the word, common in old books.

country was searched by the heat of the sun, and the place

And wish (so please my sovereign), ere I move, What my tongue speaks, my right-drawn sword may prove.

NOR. Let not my cold words here accuse my zeal:

'Tis not the trial of a woman's war,

The bitter clamour of two eager tongues,
Can arbitrate this cause betwixt us twain :
The blood is hot that must be cool'd for this.
Yet can I not of such tame patience boast,
As to be hush'd, and nought at all to say:
First, the fair reverence of your highness curbs me
From giving reins and spurs to my free speech;
Which else would post, until it had return'd
These terms of treason doubled down his throat.
Setting aside his high blood's royalty,

And let him be no kinsman to my liege,

I do defy him, and I spit at him,

Call him a slanderous coward, and a villain :
Which to maintain, I would allow him odds,
And meet him, were I tied to run a-foot
Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps,
Or any other ground inhabitable
Wherever Englishman durst set his foot.
Meantime, let this defend my loyalty,-
By all my hopes, most falsely doth he lie.
BOLING. Pale trembling coward, there I throw
my gage,

Disclaiming here the kindred of the king;
And lay aside my high blood's royalty,
Which fear, not reverence, makes thee to except:a
If guilty dread hath left thee so much strength,
then stoop;
mine honour's pawn,
As to take up
By that, and all the rites of knighthood else,
Will I make good against thee, arm to arm,
What I have spoke, or thou canst worse§ devise.

NOR. I take it up; and, by that sword I swear,
Which gently laid my knighthood on my shoulder,
I'll answer thee in any fair degree,

Or chivalrous design of knightly trial:
And, when I mount, alive may I not light,
If I be traitor, or unjustly fight!

K. RICH. What doth our cousin lay to Mowbray's
charge?

It must be great, that can inherit us
So much as of a thought of ill in him.
BOLING. Look, what I speak my life shall
prove it true;-

That Mowbray hath receiv'd eight thousand nobles,
In name of lendings, for your highness' soldiers;

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The which he hath detain'd for lewd employments,
Like a false traitor and injurious villain.
Besides I say, and will in battle prove,-
Or here, or elsewhere, to the furthest verge
That ever was survey'd by English eye,—
That all the treasons, for these eighteen years
Complotted and contrived in this land, [spring.
Fetch from false Mowbray their first head and
Further I say,-and further will maintain
Upon his bad life, to make all this good,-
That he did plot the duke of Gloster's death;
Suggest his soon-believing adversaries ;
And, consequently, like a traitor coward,

Sluic'd out his innocent soul through streams of

blood:

Which blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries,
Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth,
To me for justice and rough chastisement;
And, by the glorious worth of my descent,
This arm shall do it, or this life be spent.

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,
And bid his ears a little while be deaf,
Till I have told this slander of his blood,
How God, and good men, hate so foul a liar.
K. RICH. Mowbray, impartial are our eyes and

ears:

Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom's heir,
(As he is but my father's brother's son,)
Now by my sceptre's awe I make a vow,
Such neighbour nearness to our sacred blood
Should nothing privilege him, nor partialize
The unstooping firmness of my upright soul:
He is our subject, Mowbray, so art thou;
Free speech, and fearless, I to thee allow.

NOR. Then, Bolingbroke, as low as to thy heart,
Through the false passage of thy throat, thou liest!
Three parts of that receipt I had for Calais
Disburs'd I duly § to his highness' soldiers:
The other part reserv'd I by consent;
For that my sovereign liege was in my debt,

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1397.

e Suggest-] In ite, prompt. See Note (a), p. 17.

d Upon remainder of a dear account,-] Mr. Collier's annotator has thrown suspicion on the word dear in the present passage, by proposing to read, "clear account:"-a pocr and needless innovation. Dear, in this place, means, precious, mo mentous, pressing, all-important: and it assumes the same sense frequently in Shakespeare. Thus, in "King Lear," Act IV. Sc. 3:

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:(3)

Upon remainder of a deard account,
Since last I went to France to fetch his queen :
Now swallow down that lie.-For Gloster's death,—
I slew him not; but, to mine own disgrace,
Neglected my sworn duty in that case.
For you, my noble lord of Lancaster,
The honourable father to my foe,
Once did I lay an ambush for your life,
A trespass that doth vex my grieved soul :
But, ere I last receiv'd the sacrament,
I did confess it; and exactly begg'd
Your grace's pardon, and, I hope, I had it.
This is my fault: as for the rest appeal'd,
It issues from the rancour of a villain,
A recreant and most degenerate traitor :
Which in myself I boldly will defend;
And interchangeably hurl down my gage
Upon this overweening traitor's foot,
To prove myself a loyal gentleman,

Even in the best blood chamber'd in his bosom:
In haste whereof, most heartily I pray
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;
Deep malice makes too deep incision :
Forget, forgive; conclude, and be agreed;
Our doctors say, this is no month 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

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(*) First folio, I did.

In the same play, Act V. Sc. 2:

(+) First folio, time.

"The letter was not nice, but full of charge
Of dear import."
And ibid., Act V. Sc. 3:-

"A precious ring; a ring that I must use
In dear employment."

And exactly begg'd-] That is, duly begged.

f When, Harry? when? &c.] In the old copies this speech is given thus:

"When Harrie when? Obedience bids.

Obedience bids I should not bid agen."
When? was an exclamation of impatience, not unfrequent with
the old writers. Shakespeare has it again in the Taming of the
Shrew," Act IV. Sc. 1:-

"Why, when, I say?-nay, good sweet Kate, be merry."
There is no boot.] There is no help, it is rain to resist.

GG 2

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