And thou

K. RICH.

-a lunatick lean-witted fool,3

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.

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

Warburton's explanation of this paffage is too abfurd to require confutation; and his political obfervation is equally ill-founded. The doctrine of abfolute fovereignty 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.

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

Mr. Heath explains the words ftate of law fomewhat differently: "Thy royal eftate, which is established by the law, is now in virtue of thy having leased it out, fubjected," &c. Malone. 3 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 first quarto, 1597, is perhaps preferable, being more in our poet's manner :

Gaunt. And thou

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 different fenfe, applying it to Gaunt, instead of himself. Of this kind of retort there are various inftances in these plays.

The folio repeats the word And:

Gaunt. And

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

lean-witted] Dr. Farmer obferves to me that the

fame expreffion occurs in the 106th Pfalm:

66

and fent leannefs withal into their foul."

STEEVENS.

Now by my feat's right royal majefty,

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 shoulders.

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 'mongft happy fouls!)
May be a precedent and witness good,

That thou refpect'ft not fpilling Edward's blood:
Join with the prefent fickness that I have;
And thy unkindness be like crooked age,
To crop at once a too-long wither'd flower.4

And thy unkindness be like crooked age,

To crop at once a too-long wither'd flower.] Thus ftand these lines in all the copies, but I think there is an error. Why fhould Gaunt, already old, call on any thing like age to end him? How can age be faid to crop at once? How is the idea of crookedness connected with that of cropping? I suppose the poet dictated thus:

And thy unkindness be time's crooked edge

Το 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.

Shakspeare, I believe, took this idea from the figure of Time, who was represented as carrying a fickle as well as a scythe. A fickle was anciently called a crook, and fometimes, as in the following inftances, crooked may mean armed with a crook. So, in Kendall's Epigrams, 1577:

"The regall king and crooked clowne
"All one alike death driveth downe."

Again, in the 100th Sonnet of Shakspeare:

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

Live in thy fhame, but die not shame with thee!-
These words hereafter thy tormentors be !—
Convey me to my bed, then to my grave:
Love they 5 to live, that love and honour have.

[Exit, borne out by his Attendants. K. RICH. And let them die, that age and fullens have;

For both haft thou, and both become the grave.

YORK. 'Befeech your majefty, impute his words To wayward fickliness and age 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.

Again, in the 119th:

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

It may be mentioned, however, that crooked is an epithet bestowed 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 fuppofed. Our poet's expreffions are sometimes confused and abortive. STEEVENS. Again, in A Flourish upon Fancie, by N. B. [Nicholas Breton,] 1577:

"Who, when that he a while 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.

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

69

'Befeech 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:

I do befeech your majesty, impute

His words to wayward ficklinefs and age. STEEVENS.

Enter NORTHUMBERLAND."

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

K. RICH. What says he now ?8

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 first falls, and fo doth he;

His time is spent, our pilgrimage must be :9
So much for that.- -Now for our Irish wars:
We must fupplant thofe rough rug-headed kerns;
Which live like venom, where no venom elfe,1
But only they, hath privilege to live.

And for thefe great affairs do ask some charge,

7- Northumberland.] was Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland. WALPOLE.

What fays he now?] I have supplied the adverb-now, (which is wanting in the old copy,) to complete the measure. STEEVENS. —our pilgrimage muft be:] That is, our pilgrimage is M. MASON.

yet to come.

I where no venom elfe,] This alludes to a tradition that St. Patrick freed the kingdom of Ireland from venomous reptiles of every kind. So, in Decker's Honest Whore, P. II. 1630:

that Irish Judas,

"Bred in a country where no venom profpers,

"But in his blood."

Again, in Fuimus Troes, 1633:

"As Irish earth doth poifon poisonous beafts."

See also, Thomas Lupton's Fourth Book of Notable Things, 4to. bl. 1.

STEEVENS.

Towards our affiftance,, we do feize to us
The plate, coin, revenues, and moveables,
Whereof our uncle Gaunt did ftand poffefs'd.

YORK. How long fhall I be patient? Ah, how long

Shall tender duty make me fuffer wrong?

Not Glofter's death, nor Hereford's banifhment,
Not Gaunt's rebukes, nor England's private wrongs,
Nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke
About his marriage,2 nor my own difgrace,
Have ever made me four my patient cheek,
Or bend one wrinkle on my fovereign's face.—
I am the last of noble Edward's fons,

Of whom thy father, prince of Wales, was firft;
In war, was never lion rag'd more fierce,
In peace was never gentle lamb more mild,
Than was that young and princely gentleman:
His face thou haft, for even so look'd he,
Accomplish'd with the number of thy hours ;3
But, when he frown'd, it was against the French,
And not against his friends: his noble hand
Did win what he did fpend, and spent not that
Which his triumphant father's hand had won :
His hands were guilty of no kindred's blood,
But bloody with the enemies of his kin.
O, Richard! York is too far gone with grief,
Or else he never would compare between.

Nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke

About his marriage,] When the duke of Hereford, after his banifhment, went into France, he was honourably entertained at that court, and would have obtained in marriage the only daughter of the duke of Berry, uncle to the French king, had not Richard prevented the match. STEEVENS.

3 Accomplish'd with the number of thy hours;] i, e. when he was of thy age. MALONE.