Boling. But for our trusty brother-in-law, and the abbot,
With all the rest of that consorted crew,

Destruction straight shall dog them at the heels.
Good uncle, help to order several powers
To Oxford, or where'er these traitors are:
They shall not live within this world, I swear,
But I will have them, if I once know where.
Uncle, farewell: and, cousin too, adieu :

Your mother well hath pray'd, and prove you true.
Duch. Come, my old son: I pray God make thee new.

SCENE IV.-The same.

Enter EXTON and Servant.

140

145

[Exeunt.

Exton. Didst thou not mark the king, what words he spake, Have I no friend will rid me of this living fear?" Was it not so?

Ser.

These were his very words.

Exton. "Have I no friend?" quoth he: he spake it twice,
And urged it twice together, did he not?
Ser. He did.

Exton. And speaking it, he wistly look'd on me;

As who should say, "I would thou wert the man
That would divorce this terror from my heart;

"

5

135-6. With pardon him] Pope; I pardon him with all my heart Qq, Ff 144. too] Found in Q5 only.

SCENE IV.

7. wistly] wishtly Qq 1, 2.

137. brother-in-law] John, Earl of Huntingdon, husband of Bolingbroke's sister Elizabeth.

140. several] separate. Compare Venus and Adonis, 1067: "His face seems twain, each several limb is doubled."

144. too] It is unreasonable to suppose that Bolingbroke took no leave of his aunt, hence we are driven to believe that the too of the 1634 Quarto merely sets the metre right without reinstating the original line. The Cambridge Edd., acknowledging the harshness of the line, which they declare to be,

Meaning the king at Pomfret. Come, let's go :
I am the king's friend, and will rid his foe.

SCENE V.-Pomfret Castle.

Enter KING RICHARD.

K. Rich. I have been studying how I may compare
This prison where I live unto the world:
And for because the world is populous,

And here is not a creature but myself,
I cannot do it; yet I'll hammer it out.
My brain I'll prove the female to my soul,
My soul the father; and these two beget
A generation of still-breeding thoughts,
And these same thoughts people this little world
In humours like the people of this world,
For no thought is contented. The better sort,
As thoughts of things divine, are intermix'd
With scruples, and do set the word itself
Against the word:

As thus, "Come, little ones," and then again,
"It is as hard to come as for a camel
To thread the postern of a small needle's eye.'
Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot
Unlikely wonders; how these vain weak nails
May tear a passage through the flinty ribs
Of this hard world, my ragged prison walls,
And, for they cannot, die in their own pride. -
Thoughts tending to content flatter themselves
That they are not the first of fortune's slaves, -
Nor shall not be the last; like silly beggars-
Who sitting in the stocks refuge their shame,
That many have and others must sit there;

5

ΙΟ

15

20

25

18-19. Ambitious thoughts give rise to fancied possibilities.

21. ragged] rugged, rough. Compare Two Gentlemen of Verona, 1. ii. 121 : "Unto a ragged fearful-hanging rock."

26. refuge their shame] Find refuge for their shame in the thought that, etc. This and the next line are more closely compressed than modern custom per

mits.

Contert

35

40

[Music.

45

For now hath time made me his numbering clock
My thoughts are minutes; and with sighs they jar
Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch,
Whereto my finger, like a dial's point,

50

Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears.
Now sir, the sound that tells what hour it is

55

Which is the bell: so sighs and tears and groans
Show minutes, times, and hours: but my time
Runs posting on in Bolingbroke's proud joy,
While I stand fooling here, his Jack o' the clock.

46. check] rebuke.

31. person] Q1; prison the rest.

49-60. This, the most elaborate conceit in which the king indulges, is also the most difficult to follow with exactitude. "I wasted my time, now am I wasted by time," suggests the further elaboration: "For now has time made of me a clock to mark its progress: my thoughts are minutes registering themselves upon my eyes-which form the dial-as my sighs mark the jarring

60

(ticking) of the pendulum. My finger
pointing to my eyes in cleansing them
of tears, is the hand of the clock, and
my groans striking upon the bell of my
heart tell out the hours. But this time
which I mark brings joy to Bolingbroke
only; I merely serve to mark the time
for him."

60. Jack o' the clock] The automatic
figure which, in many old clocks, used
to strike the quarters, etc., upon a bell.

This music mads me; let it sound no more;
For though it have holp madmen to their wits,
In me it seems it will make wise men mad.
Yet blessing on his heart that gives it me!
For 'tis a sign of love; and love to Richard
Is a strange brooch in this all-hating w
world.
Enter a Groom of the Stable.
Groom. Hail, royal prince!
K. Rich.

Thanks, noble peer;
The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear.
What art thou? and how comest thou hither,
Where no man never comes, but that sad dog
That brings me food to make misfortune live?
Groom. I was a poor groom of thy stable, king,

65

70

When thou wert king; who, travelling towards York,
With much ado at length have gotten leave
To look upon my sometimes royal master's face.
O, how it yearn'd my heart when I beheld

75

In London streets, that coronation-day,

When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary,
That horse that thou so often hast bestrid,

That horse that I so carefully have dress'd!

80

K. Rich. Rode he on Barbary? Tell me, gentle friend,
How went he under him?

Groom. So proudly as if he disdain'd the ground.
K. Rich. So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back!
That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand;
This hand hath made him proud with clapping him.

76. yearn'd] F 4 ; ernd Qq 1, 62. holp] The O.E. past part. holpen with the termination clipped.

66. brooch] Fr. broche, a spit, or pin. A buckle worn in the hat. Compare Ben Jonson, Poetaster, 1. 1: "Honour's a good brooch to wear in a man's hat at all times."

67, 68. This is best explained by a reference to Queen Elizabeth's jest "given by Tollet from Hearne's Discourse of some antiquities between Windsor and Oxford" (Clar. Edd.). "Mr. John Blower, in a sermon before her majesty, first said: 'My royal Queen,' and a little after: My noble Queen.' Upon which says the queen: What am I ten groats worse than I was?'" Gold nobles of Edward III.'s

2, 3, 4 ; yern'd Ff 1, 2, 3, Q 5.

85

reign were worth 6s. 8d. each. By the
time of Edward IV. they had increased
to 10s. each, and this king issued
"rose-nobles," "reals
66
or royals

of this value. In Elizabeth's time both
the "royal" and the old noble were
current, hence the point of the queen's
remark. Richard's remark to the groom
is of course ironical, and he plays
further with the idea suggested when
he says that the groom (the noble,
6s. 8d.) is ten groats (38. 4d.) too dear.
70. sad] solemn.

76. yearn'd] grieved; from O.E. ierman, to ill-treat, harass, through M.E. erme; confused with yearn from O.E. geornian, to desire.

Would he not stumble? would he not fall down,
Since pride must have a fall, and break the neck
Of that proud man that did usurp his back?
Forgiveness, horse! why do I rail on thee,
Since thou, created to be awed by man,

Wast born to bear? I was not made a horse;
And yet I bear a burthen like an ass,
Spurr'd, gall'd, and tired by jauncing Bolingbroke.
Enter Keeper, with a dish.

Keep. Fellow, give place; here is no longer stay.

90

95

K. Rich. If thou love me, 'tis time thou wert away.

Groom. What my tongue dares not, that my heart shall say.

[Exit.

Keep. My lord, will 't please you to fall to?

K. Rich. Taste of it first, as thou art wont to do.
Keep. My lord, I dare not: Sir Pierce of Exton,

100

Who lately came from the king, commands the contrary. K. Rich. The devil take Henry of Lancaster and thee!

Patience is stale, and I am weary of it. [Beats the Keeper. Keep. Help, help, help!

Enter Exton and Servants, armed.

K. Rich. How now! what means death in this rude assault ?
Villain, thy own hand yields thy death's instrument. 106

[Snatching an axe from a Servant and killing him.
Go thou, and fill another room in hell.

[He kills another. Then Exton strikes him down..

That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire

That staggers thus my person. Exton, thy fierce hand

Hath with the king's blood stain'd the king's own land. Richa
Mount, mount, my soul! thy seat is up on high;
Whilst my gross flesh sinks downward, here to die.

Exton. As full of valour as of royal blood :
Both have I spill'd; O would the deed were good!

IIE

th [Dies. in for

105. what
assault?] This is
none too clear, and the text may well
be suspected. Hudson upon a con-
jecture of Staunton's read "what?
mean'st death in this rude assault?"
Bubier conjectured "what means?
Death in this rude assault!" and Vau-
ghan "what mean'st thou in this rude
assault?"