Salis. Stay yet another day, thou trusty Welshman : The King reposeth all his confidence in thee.

Capt. 'Tis thought the King is dead; we will not stay. The bay-trees in our country are all wither'd,1 And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven; The pale-faced Moon looks bloody on the Earth, And lean-look'd prophets whisper' fearful change; Rich men look sad, and ruffians dance and leap, The one in fear to lose what they enjoy, The other to enjoy by rage and war :2 These signs forerun the death or fall of kings. Farewell our countrymen are gone and fled, As well assured Richard their King is dead.

[Exit.

Salis. Ah, Richard, with the eyes of heavy mind,

I see thy glory, like a shooting-star,

Fall to the base 3 Earth from the firmament !
Thy Sun sets weeping in the lowly West,
Witnessing storms to come, woe and unrest:
Thy friends are fled, to wait upon thy foes;
And crossly to thy good all fortune goes.

[Exit.

1 So in Holinshed: "In this yeare (1399), in a maner, throughout all the realme of England, old baie trees withered, and afterwards, contrarie to all men's thinking, grew greene againe, — a strange sight, and supposed to import some unknowne event." This was thought ominous, the bay-tree being held sacred. So in Lupton's Booke of Notable Thinges: "Neyther falling sycknes, neyther devyll, wyll infest or hurt one in that place whereas a Bay-tree is. The Romaynes calles it the plant of the good angell."

2 The language is rather boldly elliptical; but the meaning is," The other in hope to enjoy by rage and war."

3 Here base is lower; as in the phrase "base court." See iii. 3, note 17.

ACT III.

SCENE I. Bolingbroke's Camp at Bristol.

Enter BOLINGBROKE, York, NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, WILLOUGHBY, ROSs: Officers behind, with BUSHY and GREEN, Prisoners.

Bushy and Green, I will not vex your souls

Since presently your souls must part1 your bodies

With too much urging your pernicious lives,

For 'twere no charity; yet, to wash your blood
From off my hands, here, in the view of men,
I will unfold some causes of your deaths.
You have misled a prince, a royal king,
A happy gentleman in blood and lineaments,
By you unhappied and disfigured clean : 2
You have in manner with your sinful hours
Made a divorce betwixt his Queen and him;
Broke the possession of a royal bed,

And stain'd the beauty of a fair queen's cheeks
With tears drawn from her eyes by your foul wrongs.

1 Part and depart were often used interchangeably; and Shakespeare has the phrases, "depart the chambers," and "depart the field."

2 Happy in the sense of the Latin felix; prosperous or fortunate. Of course, unhappied is made unfortunate. Clean is entirely, utterly. So in the 77th Psalm: "Is His mercy clean gone for ever?" And in Isaiah, xxiv. 19: "The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved." The Poet often has it so.

Myself a prince by fortune of my birth,

Near to the king in blood, and near in love
Till you did make him misinterpret me
Have stoop'd my neck under your injuries,
And sigh'd my English breath in foreign clouds,
Eating the bitter bread of banishment;
Whilst you have fed upon my signories,3
Dispark'd my parks, and fell'd my forest-woods,
From my own windows torn my household coat,
Razed out my imprese,5 leaving me no sign,
Save men's opinions and my living blood,
To show the world I am a gentleman.

This and much more, much more than twice all this,
Condemns you to the death. - See them deliver'd over
To execution and the hand of death.

Bushy. More welcome is the stroke of death to me
Than Bolingbroke to England. - Lords, farewell.

Green. My comfort is, that Heaven will take our souls, And plague injustice with the pains of Hell.

Boling. My Lord Northumberland, see them dispatch'd.— [Exeunt NORTHUMBERLAND and others, with Prisoners. Uncle, you say the Queen is at your house; For God's sake, fairly let her be entreated:" Tell her I send to her my kind commends; Take special care my greetings be deliver'd.

8 A signory is a manor, estate, or whatever constitutes a lordship.

4 To dispark is to divest a park of its name and character by breaking down the enclosure, and destroying the beasts of the chase therein.

5 The imprese was a device with a motto. When stained glass was in use, it was common for a man to have his coat of arms annealed in his windows; and Ferne, in his Blazon of Gentry, says, "The arms of traitors and rebels may be defaced and removed, wherever found."

• To entreat is used several times by the Poet for to treat,

York. A gentleman of mine I have dispatch'd With letters of your love to her at large.

Boling. Thanks, gentle uncle.-Come, my lords, away, To fight with Glendower and his complices:

Awhile to work, and, after, holiday.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. The Coast of Wales. A Castle in view. Flourish; Drums and Trumpets. Enter King RICHARD, the Bishop of CARLISLE, AUMERLE, and Soldiers.

K. Rich. Barkloughly-Castle call they this at hand? Aum. Yea, my good lord. How brooks your Grace the air,

After late tossing on the breaking seas?

K. Rich. Needs must I like it well: I weep for joy
To stand upon my kingdom once again. —
Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand,

Though rebels wound thee with their horses' hoofs :
As a long-parted mother with her child1

Plays fondly with her tears and smiles in meeting,
So, weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my earth,

1 "As a mother long parted from her child." The Poet has many similar transpositions. 'Richard, to whom all things are unreal," says Professor Dowden, "has a fine feeling for 'situations.' Without any making real to himself what God or what death is, he can put himself, if need be, in the appropriate attitude towards God and towards death. Instead of comprehending things as they are, and achieving heroic deeds, he satiates his heart with the grace, the tenderness, the beauty, or the pathos of situations. Life is to Richard a show, a succession of images; and to put himself into accord with the æsthetic requirements of his position is Richard's first necessity. He is equal to playing any part gracefully, which he is called upon by circumstances to enact. But, when he has exhausted the æsthetic satisfaction to be derived from the situations of his life, he is left with nothing further to do."

And do thee favour with my royal hands.
Feed not thy sovereign's foe, my gentle earth,
Nor with thy sweets comfort his ravenous sense;
But let thy spiders, that suck up thy venom,
And heavy-gaited toads, lie in their way,
Doing annoyance to the treacherous feet
Which with usurping steps do trample thee :
Yield stinging nettles to mine enemies;
And, when they from thy bosom pluck a flower,
Guard it, I pray thee, with a lurking adder,
Whose double tongue may with a mortal2 touch
Throw death upon thy sovereign's enemies.-
Mock not my senseless conjuration,3 lords:
This earth shall have a feeling, and these stones
Prove armed soldiers,, ere her native King

Shall falter under foul rebellion's arms!

Carl. Fear not, my lord: that Power that made you king Hath power to keep you king in spite of all.

The means that Heaven yields must be embraced,

And not neglected; else, if Heaven would,

And we will not, Heaven's offer we refuse,

The proffer'd means of succour and redress.

Aum. He means, my lord, that we are too remiss;

Whilst Bolingbroke, through our security,1

Grows strong and great in substance and in friends.
K. Rich. Discomfortable 5 cousin! know'st thou not

2 Here, as usual in Shakespeare, mortal is deadly, that which kills. It was commonly believed that the double, or forked, tongue of snakes had a poisonous sting.

3 The meaning may be, "Mock not my conjuration as senseless." Or it may be, that his words are senseless, as addressed to a thing devoid of sense. 4 Security for negligence or over-confidence. See page 79, note 34. 5 Discomfortable for discomforting. See page 92, note 7.