THE

LIFE and DE A TH

OF

RICHARD

THE

SECOND.

KING Richard the Second.

Duke of York,

John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, }Uncles to the King.
Bolingbroke, Son to John of Gaunt, afterwards King
Henry the Fourth.

Aumerle, Son to the Duke of York.
Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk.
Earl of Salisbury.

Earl of Berkley.

Bushy, 7

Bagot,

Servants to King Richard.

Green,

Earl of Northumberland,

Percy, Son to Northumberland, Friends to Bolingbroke.

Rofs,

Willoughby,

Bishop of Carlisle,

Sir Stephen Scroop,} Friends to King Richard.

Fitzwater,
Surry,

Abbot of Weftminster,
Sir Pierce of Exton,

Queen to King Richard.

Dutchess of Gloucester.
Dutchess of York.

Lords in the Parliament.

Ladies attending on the Queen.

Heralds, two Gardiners, Keeper, Meffenger, Groom, and

other Attendants.

SCENE, difperfedly, in feveral Parts of

England.

The

(1) The LIFE and DEATH of KING RICHARD II.

ACT I.

SCENE, the COUR T.

Enter King Richard, John of Gaunt, with other Nobles and Attendants..

O

King RICHAR d..

LD John of Gaunt, time-honour'd Lancaster, Haft thou, according to thy oath and bond, Brought hither Henry Hereford thy bold fon, Here to make good the boift'rous late appeal,

(1) The life and death of King Richard II.] But this hiftory com prizes little more than the two laft years of this unfortunate Prince.. The action of the drama begins with Bolingbroke's appealing the Duke of Norfolk, on an accufation of high treason, which fell out in the year 1398; and it clofes with the murder of King Richard at PomfretCaftle, towards the end of the year 1400, or the beginning of the enfuing year. Mr. Gildon acknowledges, that Shakespeare has drawn K. Richard's character according to the beft accounts of hiftory; that is, infolent, proud, and thoughtless in profperity; dejected, and defponding on the appearance of danger.- -But whatever blemishes he had either in temper or conduct, the diftreffes of his latter days, the double divorce from his throne and Queen, are painted in fuch frong colours, that those blemishes are loft in the fhade of his miffortunes; and our compassion for him wipes out the memory of fuch fpots, quas bumana parum cavit natura.

A 3

Which

Which then our leifure would not let us hear,
Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray ?
Gaunt. I have, my Liege.

K. Rich. Tell me moreover, haft thou founded him, If he appeal the Duke on ancient malice,

Or worthily, as a good fubject should,

On fome known ground of treachery in him?

Gaunt. As near as I could fift him on that argument, On fome apparent danger feen in him

Aim'd at your Highness; no invet'rate malice.

K. Rich. Then call them to our prefence; face to face, And frowning brow to brow, ourfelves will hear Th' accufer, and th' accufed freely speak: High ftomach'd are they both; and full of ire; In rage, deaf as the fea; hafty as fire.

Enter Bolingbroke and Mowbray.

Boling. May many years of happy days befal My gracious Sovereign, my moft loving Liege! Mowb. Each day ftill better other's happiness; Until the heavens, envying earth's good hap, Add an immortal title to your crown!

K. Rich. We thank you both, yet one but flatters us, As well appeareth by the caufe you come;

Namely, t'appeal each other of high treason.

Coufin of Hereford, what doft thou object

Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray ?

Boling. Firft, (Heaven be the record to my speech!) In the devotion of a fubject's love,

Tend'ring the precious fafety of my Prince,
And free from other mif-begotten hate,
Come I appellant to this princely prefence.
Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee,
And mark my greeting well; for what I speak,
My body fhall make good upon this earth,
Or
my divine foul anfwer it in heav'n.
Thou art a traitor and a miscreant;
Too good to be fo, and too bad to live;
Since, the more fair and crystal is the sky,
The uglier feem the clouds, that in it fly.

Once

Once more, the more to aggravate the note,
With a foul traitor's name ftuff I thy throat:
And with, fo please my Sov'reign, ere I move,
What my tongue fpeaks, my right-drawn fword may prove.
Mowb. Let not my cold words here accufe my zeal;
'Tis not the trial of a woman's war,

The bitter clamour of two eager tongues,
Can arbitrate this caufe betwixt us twain;
The blood is hot, that must be cool'd for this.
Yet can I not of fuch tame patience boaft,
As to be hush'd, and nought at all to fay.
First, the fair rev'rence of your Highnefs curbs me,
From giving reins and fpurs to my free fpeech;
Which elfe would poft, until it had return'd
Thefe terms of treason doubled down his throat.
Setting afide his high blood's royalty,
And let him be no kinfman to my Liege,
I do defy him, and I fpit at him;

Call him a flanderous coward, and a villain;
Which to maintain, I would allow him odds,
And meet him, were I ty'd to run a-foot
Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps,
Or any other ground unhabitable (2),

Where

(2) Or any other ground inhabitable.] I don't know that this word, (like the French term, inbabitable,) will admit the two different acceptations of a place to be dwelt in, and not to be dwelt in : (or that it may be taken in the latter fenfe, as inhabitabilis (among the Latines) fignifies uninhabitable; tho' inhabitare fignifies only to inhabit :) and therefore I have ventur'd to read,

Or any other ground unhabitable;

So in the old Quarto, or first rough draught of our author's Taming of the Shrew;

Unbabitable as the burning Zone.

I confefs, there is a paffage in Ben Johnson's tragedy of Catiline, which, fhould feem to favour the equivocal conftruction and ufe of this word;

And who, in fuch a cause, and 'gainst such fiends,
Would not now with himself all arm and weapon,

To cut fuch poifons from the earth, and let
Their blood out, to be drawn away in clouds,

And pour'd on fame inhabitable place,

Where the hot fun and flime breeds nought but monfters ?..