K. RICH. I am in health, I breathe, and see thee

ill.

GAUNT. How, He that made me, knows I fee
thee ill;

Ill in myself to fee, and in thee feeing ill.
Thy death-bed is no leffer than thy land,
Wherein thou lieft in reputation fick;

And thou, too careless patient as thou art,
Commit'ft thy anointed body to the cure
Of thofe phyficians that firft wounded thee:
A thousand flatterers fit within thy crown,
Whose compass is no bigger than thy head;
And yet, incaged in fo fmall a verge,

The wafte is no whit leffer than thy land.
O, had thy grandfire, with a prophet's eye,
Seen how his fon's fon fhould deftroy his fons,
From forth thy reach he would have laid thy

fhame:

Depofing thee before thou wert poffefs'd,
Which art poffefs'd now to depofe thyself.
Why, coufin, wert thou regent of the world,
It were a fhame, to let this land by leafe:
But, for thy world, enjoying but land,
Is it not more than fhame, to fhame it fo?
Landlord of England art thou now, not king:
Thy ftate of law is bondslave to the law; 9

8 Ill in myself to fee, and in the feeing ill.] cannot help fuppofing that the idle words- to fee, which deftroy the measure, fhould be omitted. STEEVENS.

9 Thy ftate of law is bondflave to the law; ] State of law, i. e. legal fovereignty. But the Oxford editor alters is to ftate o'er law, i. e. abfolute fovereignty. A doctrine, which, if ever our poet learnt at all, he learnt not in the reign when this play was written, Queen Elizabeth's, but in the reign after it, King James's. By bondflave to the law, the poet means his being inflaved to his favourite fubjects. WARBURTON.

This fentiment, whatever it be, is obfcurely expreffed. I un

And thou

1

K. RICH. --a lunatick lean-witted fool.8

derftand it differently from the learned commentator, being perhaps not quite fo zeaolus for Shakspeare's political reputation. The reafoning of Gaunt, I think, is this: By Setting the royalties to farm thou hast reduced thyself to a state below fovereingly, thou art now no longer king but landlord of England, fubject to the fame refiraint and limitations as other landlords: by making thy condition a ftate of law, a condition upon which the common rules of law can operate, thou art become a bondflave to the law; thou haft made thyfelf amenable to laws from which thou wert originally exempt.

Whether this explanation be true or no, it is plain that Dr. Warburton's explanation of bondslave to the law, is not true.

JOHNSON.

Warburton's explanation of this paffage is too abfurd to require confutation; and his political observation is equally ill-founded. The dodrine of absolute sovereignty might as well have been learned in the reign of Elizabeth, as in that of her fucceffor. She was, in fact, as abfolute as he wished to be..

Johnson's explanation is in general juft; but I think that the words, of law, muft mean, by law, or according to law, as we fay, of course, and of right, inftead of. by right, or by course.-Gaunt's reafoning is this- Having let your kingdom by leafe, you are no longer the king of England, but the landlord only; and your flate is by law, fubject to the law." M. MASON.

6

Mr. Heath explains the words ftate of law fomewhat differently: Thy royal fate, which is established by the law, is now in virtue of thy having leafed it out, fubjected," &c. MALONE.

8. Gaunt. And thou-

K. Rich. —— a lunatick lean-witted fool, ] In the difpofition of these lines I have followed the folio, in giving the word thou to the king; but the regulation of the firft quarto, 1597, is perhaps preferable, being more in our poet's manner:

K. Rich. —— a lunatick, lean-witted fool,

And thou a mere cypher in thy own kingdom, Gaunt was going to fay. Richard interrupts him, and takes the word thou in a dif ferent fenfe, applying it to Gaunt, inftead of himself. Of this kind of retort there are various inftances in thefe plays.

The folio repeats the word And:

Gaunt. And.

K. Rich. And thou, &c, MALONE.

Prefuming on an ague's privilege,
Dar'ft with thy frozen admonition

Make pale our cheek; chafing the royal blood,
With fury, from his native refidence.
Now by my feat's right royal majefly,
Wert thou not brother to great Edward's fon,
This tongue that runs fo roundly in thy head,
Should run thy head from thy unreverend fhoulders.
GAUNT. O, fpare me not, my brother Edward's

fon,

For that I was his father Edward's fon;
That blood already, like the pelican,
Haft thou tapp'd out, and drunkenly carous'd:
My brother Glofter, plain well-meaning foul,
(Whom fair befal in heaven 'mongst happy fouls!)
May be a precedent and witness good,

That thou refpect'ft not spilling Edward's blood:
Join with the present sickness that I have;
And thy unkindnefs be like crooked age,
To crop at once a too-long wither'd flower. 9

lean-witted ] Dr. Farmer observes to me that the fame expreffion occurs in the 106th Pfalm;

and fent leannefs withal into their foul."

9 And thy unkindness be like crooked age,

To crop at once a too-long wither'd flower.]

STEEVENS.

Thus ftand thefe

How

lines in all the copies, but I think there is an error. Why should Gaunt, already old, call on any thing like age to end him? can age be faid to crop at once? How is the idea of crookedness connected with that of cropping? I fuppofe the poet dictated

thus:

And thy unkindness be time's crooked edge.

To crop, at once-

That is, let thy unkindness be time's fcythe to crop.

Edge was eafily confounded by the ear with age, and one miftake once admitted made way for another. JOHNSON.

A

Shakspeare, I believe, took this idea from the figure of Time, who was reprefented as carrying a fickle as well as a Scythe. fickle was anciently called a crook, and fometimes, as in the folVOL. XII.

E

1

Live in thy fhame, but die not fhame with thee!These words hereafter thy tormentors be!

9

Convey me to my bed, then to my grave:-
Love they to live, that love and honour have.
[Exit, borne out by his Attendants.
K. RICH. And let them die, that age and fullens

have;

2

For both haft thou, and both become the grave. YORK. 'Beseech your majefty, impute his words To wayward ficklinefs and age in him:

lowing inftances, erooked may mean armed with a crook. Kendall's Epigrams, 1577:

"The regall king and crooked clowne All one alike death driveth downc. Again, in the 100th Sonnet of Shakspeare:

"Give my love, fame, fafter than time waftes life,
"So thou prevent'ft his fcythe and crooked knife.”

Again, in the 119th:

So, in

"Love's not Time's fool, though rofy lips and cheeks "Within his bending fickle's compass come."

It may be mentioned, however, that crooked is an epithet beftowed on age in the tragedy of Locrine, 1595:

"

"Now yield to death o'erlaid by crooked age.' Locrine has been attributed to Shakspeare; and in this paffage quoted from it, no allufion to a Scythe can be supposed. Our poet's expreffions are fometimes confufed and abortive.

STEEVENS.

Again, in A Flourish upon Fancie, by N. B. [Nicholas Breton, ] 1577:

"Who, when that he awhile hath bin in fancies schoole,
"Doth learne in his old crooked age to play the doting foole."

MALONE.

Shakspeare had probably two different but kindred ideas in his mind; the bend of age, and the fickle of time, which he confounded together. M. MASON.

9 Love they] That is, let them love. JOHNSON.

'Beseech your majefty,] The old copies redundantly read.

I do befeech, &c.

Mr. Ritfon would regulate the paffage differently (and perhaps rightly) by omitting the words — in him :

He loves you, on my life, and holds you dear
As Harry duke of Hereford, were he here.

K. RICH. Right; you fay true: as Hereford's love,

fo his:

As theirs, fo mine; and all be as it is,

NORTH. My liege, old Gaunt commends him to your majesty.

K. RICH. What fays he now?4

NORTH.

Nay, nothing; all is faid:
His tongue is now a ftringless inftrument;

Words, life, and all, old Lancaster hath spent.
YORK. Be York the next that must be bankrupt

fo!

Though death be poor, it ends a mortal woe.
K. RICH. The ripeft fruit firft falls, and so doth

he;

His time is spent, our pilgrimage must be :5
So much for that.--Now for our Irish wars:
We muft fupplant thofe rough rug-headed kerns;
Which live like venom, where no venom else,
But only they, hath privilege to live.

1 do befeech your majefly, impute

His words to wayward fickliness and age. STEEVEns.
Northumberland. ] was Henry Percy,

berland. WALPOLE.

6

Earl of Northum

4 What fays he now?] I have supplied the adverb is wanting in the old copy) to complete the measure.

now, (which

STEEVENS.

5 our pilgrimage must be:] That is, our pilgrimage is yet

to come.

M. MASON.

where no venom elfe, ] This alludes to a tradition that