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Who was the model of thy father's life.
Call it not patience, Gaunt, it is despair:
In fuffering thus thy brother to be flaughter'd,
Thou show'ft the naked pathway to thy life,
Teaching ftern murder how to butcher thee:
That which in mean men we entitle-patience,
Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.
What shall I fay? to fafeguard thine own life,
The best way is to 'venge my Glofter's death.
GAUNT. Heaven's is the quarrel; for heaven's
substitute,

His deputy anointed in his fight,

Hath caus'd his death: the which if wrongfully,
Let heaven revenge; for I may never lift
An angry arm against his minister.

2

DUCH. Where then, alas! may I complain myself?2 GAUNT. To heaven, the widow's champion and defence.

DUCH. Why then, I will. Farewell, old Gaunt.3

may I complain myself?] To complain is commonly a verb neuter, but it is here ufed as a verb active. So, in a very scarce book entitled A courtlie Controverfie of Cupid's Cautels, &c. Tranflated from the French, &c. by H. W. [Henry Wotton] Gentleman, 4to. 1578: "I coulde finde no companion, eyther to comforte me, or helpe to complaine my great forrowe." Again, p. 58"-wyth greate griefe he complained the calamitie of his countrey."

Again, in The Queenes Majefties Entertainment in Suffolke and Norfolke, by Thomas Churchyard: "Cupid encountring the Queene, beganne to complayne hys ftate and his mothers," &c. Dryden alfo employs the word in the fame fenfe in his Fables: "Gaufride, who couldft fo well in rhyme complain "The death of Richard with an arrow flain."

Complain myfelf (as Mr. M. Mafon obferves,) is a literal tranflation of the French phrafe, me plaindre. STEEVENS.

3 Why then, I will. Farewell, old Gaunt.] The measure of this line being clearly defective, why may we not read ?— VOL. XI.

C

Thou go'ft to Coventry, there to behold
Our coufin Hereford and fell Mowbray fight:
O, fit my husband's wrongs on Hereford's fpear,
That it may enter butcher Mowbray's breast!
Or, if misfortune mifs the first career,

Be Mowbray's fins fo heavy in his bofom,
That they may break his foaming courfer's back,
And throw the rider headlong in the lifts,
A caitiff recreant 4 to my coufin Hereford!
Farewell, old Gaunt; thy fometimes brother's wife,
With her companion grief muft end her life.

GAUNT. Sifter, farewell: I must to Coventry: As much good stay with thee, as go with me! DUCH. Yet one word more ;-Grief boundeth where it falls,

Not with the empty hollowness, but weight:
I take
my leave before I have begun;

For forrow ends not when it feemeth done.

Why then I will.

Now fare thee well, old Gaunt.

Or thus:

Farewell old John of Gaunt.

Why then I will.

There can be nothing ludicrous in a title by which the King has already addreffed him. RITSON.

Sir T. Hanmer completes the measure, by repeating the word -farewell, at the end of the line. STEEVENS.

4 A caitiff recreant-] Caitiff originally fignified a prisoner; next a flave, from the condition of prifoners; then a scoundrel, from the qualities of a flave:

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« Ήμισυ τῆς ἀρετῆς αποαίνυται δόλιον ἦμαρ.

In this paffage it partakes of all these fignifications. JOHNSON. This juft fentiment is in Homer; but the learned commentator quoting, I fuppofe from memory, has compreffed a couplet into a fingle line:

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Ημισυ γαρ τ' αρετης αποαίνυται ευρύοπα Ζευς
Ανερος, ευτ' αν μιν κατα δουλιον ήμαρ έλησιν.”

Ody. Lib. XVII. v. 322. HOLT WHITE. I do not believe that eaitiff in our language ever fignified a prifoner. I take it to be derived, not from captiff, but from chetif, Fr. poor, miferable. TYRWHITT.

Commend me to my brother, Edmund York.
Lo, this is all :-Nay, yet depart not so;
Though this be all, do not fo quickly go;
I fhall remember more.

Bid him-O, what?

With all good speed at Plashy vifit me.

Alack, and what fhall good old York there fee,
But empty lodgings and unfurnish'd walls,5
Unpeopled offices, untrodden ftones ?

And what cheer there' for welcome, but my groans?
Therefore commend me; let him not come there,
To feek out forrow that dwells every where:"
Defolate, defolate, will I hence, and die;
The laft leave of thee takes my weeping eye.

[Exeunt.

5 unfurnish'd walls,] In our ancient caftles the naked ftone walls were only covered with tapestry, or arras, hung upon tenter hooks, from which it was eafily taken down on every removal of the family. See the preface to The Household Book of the Fifth Earl of Northumberland, begun in 1512. STEEVENS.

• And what cheer there &c.] I had followed the reading of the folio, [hear] but now rather incline to that of the first quarto.And what cheer, there, &c. In the quarto of 1608, chear was changed to hear, and the editor of the folio followed the latter copy. MALONE.

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To feek out forrow that dwells every where:] Perhaps the pointing may be reformed without injury to the fense:

let him not come there

To feek out forrow

that dwells every where.

WHALLEY,

SCENE III.

Gosford Green, near Coventry.

Lifts fet out, and a Throne. Heralds, &c. attending.

Enter the Lord Marshal, and Aumerle.9

MAR. My lord Aumerle, is Harry Hereford arm'd?

AUM. Yea, at all points; and longs to enter in. MAR. The duke of Norfolk, fprightfully and bold,

Stays but the fummons of the appellant's trumpet. AUM. Why then, the champions are prepar'd, and stay

For nothing but his majesty's approach.

8 -Lord Marshal,] Shakspeare has here committed a flight mistake. The office of Lord Marfhal was executed on this occafion by Thomas Holland, Duke of Surrey. Our author has inadvertently introduced that nobleman as a distinct person from the Marshal, in the present drama.

Mowbray Duke of Norfolk was Earl Marshal of England; but being himself one of the combatants, the Duke of Surrey officiated as Earl Marshal for the day. MALONE.

9 Aumerle.] Edward Duke of Aumerle, fo created by his coufin german, King Richard II. in 1397. He was the eldest fon of Edward of Langley Duke of York, fifth fon of King Edward the Third, and was killed in 1415, at the battle of Agincourt. He officiated at the lifts of Coventry, as High Constable of England. MALone.

Flourish of Trumpets. Enter King RICHARD, who takes his feat on his Throne; GAUNT, and feveral Noblemen, who take their places. A Trumpet is founded, and anfwered by another Trumpet within. Then enter NORFOLK in armour, preceded by a Herald.

K. RICH. Marshal, demand of yonder champion The cause of his arrival here in arms: Afk him his name; and orderly proceed

To fwear him in the justice of his cause.

MAR. In God's name, and the king's, fay who thou art,

And why thou com'ft, thus knightly clad in arms: Against what man thou com'ft, and what thy quar

rel:

Speak truly, on thy knighthood, and thy oath;
And fo1 defend thee heaven, and thy valour!

NOR. My name is Thomas Mowbray, duke of
Norfolk;

Who hither come engaged by my oath,

(Which, heaven defend, a knight should violate!) Both to defend my loyalty and truth,

To God, my king, and my fucceeding iffue,3

And fo] The old copies read-As fo-. STEEVENS. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

2 Norfolk.] Mr. Edwards, in his MS. notes, obferves, from Holinfhed, that the Duke of Hereford, appellant, entered the lifts firft; and this, indeed, muft have been the regular method of the combat; for the natural order of things requires, that the accufer or challenger should be at the place of appointment first. STEEVENS.

3

my fucceeding iffue,] His is the reading of the first folio; other editions read-my iffue. Mowbray's iffue, was by this accufation, in danger of an attainder, and therefore he

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