ACT IV. SCENE I. London. Westminster Hall1. The Lords spiritual on the right side of the Throne; the Lords temporal on the left; the Commons below. Enter BOLINGBROKE, AUMERLE, SURREY2, NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, FITZWATER, another Lord, Bishop of Carlisle, Abbot of Westminster, and Attendants. Officers behind, with Bagot. Boling. Call forth Bagot: Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind; What thou dost know of noble Gloster's death; Who wrought it with the king, and who perform'd The bloody office of his timeless end. Bagot. Then set before my face the Lord Aumerle. Boling. Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that man. Bagot. My Lord Aumerle, I know, your daring tongue Scorns to unsay what once it hath deliver'd. 1 The rebuilding of Westminster Hall, which Richard had begun in 1397, being finished in 1399, the first meeting of parliament in the new edifice was for the purpose of deposing him. 2 Thomas Holland, earl of Kent, brother to John Holland, earl of Exeter, was created duke of Surrey in 1397. He was half brother to the king, by his mother Joan, who married Edward the Black Prince after the death of her second husband Thomas Lord Holland. 3 i. e. untimely. Vide note on King Henry VI. Part 1. Act v. Sc. 4. Adding withal, how blest this land would be, Aum. Fitz. Now, by my soul, I would it were this hour. Aum. Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this. 4 The birth is supposed to be influenced by stars; therefore the poet, with his allowed licence, takes stars for birth. We learn from Pliny's Nat. Hist. that the vulgar error assigned the brightest and fairest stars to the rich and great:-Sidera singulis attributa nobis, et clara divitibus, minora pauperibus,' &c. lib. i. c. viii. 5 This is a translated sense much harsher than that of stars, explained in the preceding note. Fitzwater throws down his gage as a pledge of battle, and tells Aumerle that if he stands upon sympathies, that is upon equality of blood, the combat is now offered him by a man of rank not inferior to his own. Sympathy is an affection incident at once to two subjects. This community of affection implies a likeness or equality of nature; and hence the poet transferred the term to equality of blood. Percy. Aumerle, thou liest; his honour is as true, In this appeal, as thou art all unjust: And, that thou art so, there I throw my gage, Lord. I task the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle; Aum. Who sets me else? by heaven, I'll throw at all: I have a thousand spirits in one breast, Fitz. "Tis very true: you were in presence then; true. Fitz. Surrey, thou liest. Dishonourable boy! 6 i. e. from sunrise to sunset. So in Cymbeline:- Pisa. One score 'twixt sun and sun, Madam, 's enough for you, and too much too." The old quartos read "Twixt sin and sin.' The emendation is Steevens's. This speech is not in the folio. 'I task the earth' probably means I lay the burthen of my pledge upon the earth to the like purpose,' accompanying the words by throwing his mailed glove to the ground. Some of the quartos read take. 'A thousand hearts are great within my bosom. King Richard III. In proof whereof, there is my honour's pawn; Fitz. How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse! Aum. Some honest Christian trust me with a gage, That Norfolk lies: here do I throw down this10, If he may be repeal'd to try his honour. Boling. These differences shall all rest under gage, Till Norfolk be repeal'd: repeal'd he shall be, And, though mine enemy, restor❜d again To all his land and signories; when he's return'd, Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial. Car. That honourable day shall ne'er be seen.Many a time hath banish'd Norfolk fought For Jesu Christ; in glorious Christian field Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross, Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens : And, toil'd with works of war, retir'd himself To Italy; and there, at Venice, gave His body to that pleasant country's earth11, 8 I dare meet him where no help can be had by me against him. So in Macbeth : or be alive again, And dare me to the desert with thy sword.' Thus also in The Lover's Progress, by Beaumont and Fletcher:'Maintain thy treason with thy sword? with what Contempt I hear it! in a wilderness I durst encounter it.' 9i. e. in this world, where I have just begun to be an actor. Surrey has just called him boy. 10 Holinshed says that on this occasion he threw down a hood that he had borrowed. 11 This is not historically true. The duke of Norfolk's death did not take place till after Richard's murder. And his pure soul unto his captain Christ, Boling. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bosom Of good old Abraham!-Lords appellants, Enter YORK, attended. York. Great duke of Lancaster, I come to thee From plume-pluck'd Richard; who with willing soul Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields To the possession of thy royal hand: Ascend his throne, descending now from him,And long live Henry, of that name the fourth! Boling. In God's name, I'll ascend the regal throne12. Car. Marry, God forbid! Worst in this royal presence, may I speak, And shall the figure of God's majesty 14, 12 Hume gives the words that Henry actually spoke on this occasion, which he copied from Knyghton, and accompanies them by a very ingenious commentary.-Hist. of Eng. 4to ed. vol. ix. p. 50. 13 i. e. nobleness; a word now obsolete, but common in Shakspeare's time. 14 This speech, which contains in the most express terms the doctrine of passive obedience, is founded upon Holinshed's account. The sentiments would not in the reign of Elizabeth or James have been regarded as novel or unconstitutional. It is observable that usurpers are as ready to avail themselves of Vol. V. 4* |