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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:

2

Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom's heir,
(As he is but my father's brother's son,)
Now by my scepter's awe3 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,
Upon remainder of a dear account,

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
Now swallow down that lie..

death,

queen: For Gloster's

I slew him not; but to my 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:

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;
Our doctors say, this is no time 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

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.
"When, Iris?

"Iris. I am gone."

Again, in Look about you, 1600:

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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,)"
To dark dishonour's use thou shalt not have.
I am disgrac'd, impeach'd, and baffled here;
Pierc'd to the soul with slander's venom'd spear;
The which no balm can cure, but his heart-blood
Which breath'd this poison.

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,
The purest treasure mortal times afford,
Is-spotless reputation; that away,
Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay.
A jewel in a ten-times-barr'd-up chest
Is-a bold spirit in a loyal breast.

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:

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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;
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. Cousin, throw down your gage; do you
begin.

BOLING. O, God defend my soul from such foul sin!

Shall I seem crest-fallen in my father's sight?
Or with pale beggar-fear1 impeach my height
Before this outdar'd dastard? Ere my tongue
Shall wound mine honour with such feeble wrong,
Or sound so base a parle, my teeth shall tear
The slavish motive of recanting fear;

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,
Be ready, as your lives shall answer it,
At Coventry, upon Saint Lambert's day;
There shall your swords and lances arbitrate
The swelling difference of your settled hate;
Since we cannot atone you, we shall see
Justice design the victor's chivalry.—

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

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