As is my grief, or lesser than my name! Swell'st thou, proud heart? I'll give thee scope to beat, Aum. Northumberland comes back from Bolingbroke. K. Rich. What must the king do now? Must he submit? The king shall do it. Must he be depos'd? Some way of common trade, where subjects' feet place sooth means sweetness or softness, a signification yet retained in the verb to sooth. Johnson. My good apparel, &c.] Dr. Grey observes, "that King Richard's expense in regard to dress, was very extraordinary." Holinshed has the same remark; and adds, that he had "one cote which he caused to be made for him of gold and stone, valued at 30,000 marks." Steevens. Stowe, in his Survey, says, "to the value of three thousand markes." So, also, in Vita Ricardi Secundi, published by T. Hearne, p. 156. Malone. 5 Or I'll be buried in the king's highway, Some way of common trade,] So, in Lord Surrey's translation of the second Book of Virgil's Eneid: "A postern with a blind wicket there was, "A common trade, to pass through Priam's house." "Limen erat, cæcæque fores, et pervius usus, "Tectorum inter se Priami.”. The phrase is still used by common people. When they speak of a road much frequented, they say, "it is a road of much traffick." Shakspeare used the word in the same sense in King Henry VIII: "Stand in the gap and trade of more preferments. Steevens. May hourly trample on their sovereign's head:" Within the earth; and, therein laid,-There lies North. My lord, in the base courts he doth attend ton, Wanting the manage of unruly jades. [NORTH. retires to BOLING. 6 on their sovereign's head:] Shakspeare is very apt to deviate from the pathetick to the ridiculous. Had the speech of Richard ended at this line, it had exhibited the natural language of submissive misery, conforming its intention to the present fortune, and calmly ending its purposes in death. Johnson. 7 Bolingbroke says-ay.] Here is another instance of injury done to the poet's metre by changing his orthography. I, which was Shakspeare's word, rhymed very well with die; but ay has quite a different sound. See a note on The Merry Wives of WindAct V, Vol. III, p. 148, n. 3. Tyrwhitt. sor, In some counties ay is at this day pronounced with a sound very little differing from that of I. Malone. 8 base court-] Bas cour, Fr. So, in Hinde's Eliosto Libidinoso, 1606: " they were, for a public observation, brought into the base court of the palace." Again, in Greene's Farewell to Follie, 1617: "---- began, at the entrance into the base court, to use these words." Steevens. In the base court? Base court, where kings grow base, To come at traitors' calls, and do them grace. In the base court? Come down? Down, court! down king! For night-owls shriek, where mounting larks should sing. [Exeunt, from above. Boling. What says his majesty? North. Sorrow and grief of heart Makes him speak fondly, like a frantick man: Yet he is come. Enter King RICHARD, and his Attendants, below. Boling. Stand all apart, And show fair duty to his majesty. My gracious lord,— [Kneeling. K. Rich. Fair cousin, you debase your princely knee, To make the base earth proud with kissing it: Me rather had, my heart might feel your love, Than my unpleas'd eye see your courtesy. Up, cousin, up; your heart is up, I know, Thus high at least, [touching his own head] although your knee be low. Boling. My gracious lord, I come but for mine own. K. Rich. Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all. Boling. So far be mine, my most redoubted lord, As my true service shall deserve your love. K. Rich. Well you deserve:-They well deserve to have, That know the strong'st and surest way to get.- Then I must not say, no.9 ? Then I must not say, no.] "The duke with a high sharpe voyce bade bring forth the kings horses, and then two little nagges, not worth forty franks, were brought forth; the king was set on the SCENE IV. Langley. The Duke of York's Garden. Enter the Queen, and two Ladies. Queen. What sport shall we devise here in this garden, To drive away the heavy thought of care? 1 Lady. Madam, we 'll play at bowls. Queen. "Twill make me think, The world is full of rubs, and that my fortune Runs 'gainst the bias. 1 Lady. Madam, we will dance. Queen. Of sorrow, or of joy?1 Of neither, girl: 1 Lady. Of either, madam. Queen. For if of joy, being altogether wanting, It doth remember me the more of sorrow; Or if of grief, being altogether had, It adds more sorrow to my want of joy: For what I have, I need not to repeat; And what I want, it boots not to complain." 1 Lady: Madam, I'll sing. Queen. 'Tis well, that thou hast cause; But thou should'st please me better, would'st thou weep. 1 Lady. I could weep, madam, would it do you good. one, and the earle of Salisburie on the other: and thus the duke brought the king from Flint to Chester, where he was delivered to the duke of Glocesters sonne and to the earle of Arundels sonne, (that loved him but little, for he had put their fathers to death) who led him straight to the castle." Stowe, (p. 521, edit. 1605,) from a manuscript account written by a person who was present. Malone. 1 Of sorrow, or of joy?] All the old copies concur in reading: Of sorrow, or of grief? Mr. Pope made the necessary alteration. Steevens. 2 - complain.] See p. 18, n. 2. Steevens. Queen. And I could weep,3 would weeping do me good, And never borrow any tear of thee. But stay, here come the gardeners: Let's step into the shadow of these trees.- My wretchedness unto a row of pins, [Queen and Ladies retire. Cut off the heads of too-fast-growing sprays, 1 Serv. Why should we, in the compass of a pale, Keep law, and form, and due proportion, Showing, as in a model, our firm estate?5 3 And I could weep,] The old copies read—And I could sing. Mr. Pope made the emendation. Malone. Steevens. 4 Against a change: Woe is forerun with woe.] The poet, according to the common doctrine of prognostication, supposes dejection to forerun calamity, and a kingdom to be filled with rumours of sorrow when any great disaster is impending. The sense is, that publick evils are always presignified by publick pensiveness, and plaintive conversation. Johnson. 5 •our firm estate?] How could he say our, when he immediately subjoins, that it was infirm? we should read: a firm state. Warburton. The servant says our, meaning the state of the garden in which they are at work. The state of the metaphorical garden was indeed unfirm, and therefore his reasoning is very naturally induced. Why (says he) should we be careful to preserve order in the narrow cincture of this our state, when the great state of the kingdom is in disorder? I have replaced the old reading which Dr. Warburton would have discontinued in favour of his own conjecture. Steevens. |