Sluic'd out his innocent soul through streams of blood: Which blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries, K.RICH. How high a pitch his resolution soars!- ears: 2 Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom's heir, NOR. Then, Bolingbroke, as low as to thy heart, 2 this slander of his blood,] i. e. this reproach to his ancestry. STEEVENS." 3 · my scepter's awe-] The reverence due to my scepter. JOHNSON. Since last I went to France to fetch his death, queen: For Gloster's I slew him not; but to my own disgrace, Even in the best blood chamber'd in his bosom: 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; &c.] I must make one remark in general on the rhymes throughout this whole play; they are so much inferior to the rest of the writing, that they appear to me of a different hand. What confirms this, is, that the context does every where exactly (and frequently much better) connect, without the inserted rhymes, except in a very few places; and just there too, the rhyming verses are of a much better taste than all the others, which rather strengthens my conjecture. POPE. "This observation of Mr. Pope's, (says Mr. Edwards,) hap Forget, forgive; conclude, and be agreed; GAUNT. To be a make-peace shall become my age: Throw down, my son, the duke of Norfolk's gage. K. RICH. And, Norfolk, throw down his. GAUNT. When, Harry? 5 when? Obedience bids, I should not bid again. K. RICH. Norfolk, throw down; we bid; there is no boot.6 NOR. Myself Ithrow, dread sovereign, at thy foot: My life thou shalt command, but not my shame: The one my duty owes; but my fair name, pens to be very unluckily placed here, because the context, without the inserted rhymes, will not connect at all. Read this passage as it would stand corrected by this rule, and we shall find, when the rhyming part of the dialogue is left out, King Richard begins with dissuading them from the duel, and, in the very next sentence, appoints the time and place of their combat." Mr. Edwards's censure is rather hasty; for in the note, to which it refers, it is allowed that some rhymes must be retained to make out the connection. STEEVENS. 5 When, Harry?] This obsolete exclamation of impatience, is likewise found in Heywood's Silver Age, 1613: "Fly into Affrick; from the mountains there, "Chuse me two venomous serpents: thou shalt know them: "By their fell poison and their fierce aspect. "Iris. I am gone." Again, in Look about you, 1600: 66 I'll cut off thy legs, "If thou delay thy duty. When, proud John?" STEEVENS. 6 no boot.] That is, no advantage, no use, in delay, or refusal. JOHNSON. 8 (Despite of death, that lives upon my grave,)" K. RICH. Rage must be withstood: Give me his gage:-Lions make leopards tame. NOR. Yea, but not change their spots: 9 take but my shame, And I resign my gage. My dear dear lord, 7 •my fair name, &c.] That is, my name that lives on my grave, in despight of death. This easy passage most of the editors seem to have mistaken. JOHNSON. 8 - and baffled here;] Baffled in this place means treated with the greatest ignominy imaginable. So, Holinshed, Vol. III. p. 827, and 1218, or annis 1513, and 1570, explains it: "Bafulling, says he, is a great disgrace among the Scots, and it is used when a man is openlie perjured, and then they make of him an image painted, reversed, with his heels upward, with his name, wondering, crieing, and blowing out of him with horns." Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. V. c. iii. st. 37; and B. VI. c. vii. st. 27, has the word in the same signification: TOLLET. The same expression occurs in Twelfth-Night, sc. ult: "Alas, poor fool! how have they baffled thee?" Again, in King Henry IV. P. I. Act I. sc. ii: 66 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 messel;" i. e. for a beggar, or rather a leper. STEEVENS. 9 but not change their spots:] The old copies have-his spots. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE. Mine honour is my life; both grow in one; K. RICH. Cousin, throw down your gage; do you BOLING. O, God defend my soul from such foul sin! Shall I seem crest-fallen in my father's sight? 2 And spit it bleeding in his high disgrace, Where shame doth harbour, even in Mowbray's face. [Exit GAUNT. K. RICH. We were not born to sue, but to com mand: Which since we cannot do to make you friends, 3 with pale beggar-fear-] This is the reading of one of the oldest quartos, and the folio. The quartos 1608 and 1615, read-beggar-face; i. e. (as Dr. Warburton observes,) with a face of supplication. STEEVENS. 2 The slavish motive-] Motive, for instrument. 3 WARBURTON. Rather that which fear puts in motion. JOHNSON. atone you,] i. e. reconcile you. So, in Cymbeline: "I was glad I did atone my countryman and you." STEEVENS. * Justice design-] Thus the old copies. Mr. Pope reads |