Where Will doth mutiny with wit's regard (3).
Direct not him, whofe way himself will chufe *;
"Tis breath thou lack'ft, and that breath wilt thou lofe.
Gaunt. Methinks, I am a prophet new-inspir'd,
And, thus expiring, do foretel of him,

His trash, fierce blaze of riot cannot laft;
For violent fires foon burn out themselves.
Small fhow'rs laft long, but fudden ftorms are short;
He tires betimes, that fpurs too faft betimes;
With eager feeding, food doth choak the feeder.
Light Vanity, infatiate Cormorant,

Confuming means, foon preys upon itself.
This royal Throne of Kings, this fcepter'd Ifle,
This Earth of Majefty, this. Seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demy Paradife,

This fortrefs, built by Nature for her felf,
Against infection (4), and the hand of war;
This happy Breed of men, this little world,
This precious ftone fet in the filver sea,
Which ferves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defenfive to a house,

Against the envy of lefs happier Lands (5);
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal Kings,

(6) Fear'd for their breed, and famous by their birth, VOL. V.

C

Renowned

(3) Where will doth mutiny with wit's regard.] Where the will rebels against the notices of the understanding.

* whofe way himself will chufe;] Do not attempt to guide him who, whatever thou fhalt fay, will take his own courfe.

Rafb. That is, hafty, violent.

(4) Against infection,

] I once fufpected that for infection we might read invafion; but the copies all agree, and I fuppofe Shakespeare meant to fay, that islanders are fecured by their situation both from war and peftilence.

(5) Lefs happier lands;] So read all the editions, except Hanmer's, which has lefs happy. I believe Shakespeare, from the habit of faying more happier, according to the custom of his time, inadvertently writ lefs happier.

(6) Fear'd for their breed, and famous by their birth.]

The first edition in 4to, 1598, reads,

Fear'd by their breed, and famous for their birth.

The fecond 4to in 1615,

Fear'd by their breed, and famous by their birth.

The firft folio, though printed from the fecond quarto, reads as the firft. The particles in this authour feem often to have been

printed

Renowned for their deeds, as far from home
For chriftian service and true chivalry,

As is the Sepulchre in ftubborn Jury

Of the world's Ranfom, bleffed Mary's Son;
This land of fuch dear fouls, this dear, dear Land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leas'd out (I dye, pronouncing it)
Like to a Tenement, or pelting Farm.
England, bound in with the triumphant Sea,
Whose rocky fhore beats back the envious fiege
Of watry Neptune, is bound in with shame,
With inky blots, and rotten parchment-bonds.
That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a fhameful Conqueft of itself.
Ah! would the fcandal vanish with my life,
How happy then were my enfuing death!

SCENE II.

Enter King Richard, Queen, Aumerle, Bufhy, Green, Bagot, Rofs, and Willoughby.

York. The King is come, deal mildly with his youth: For young hot coits, being rag'd, do rage the more.. Queen. How fares our noble uncle, Lancafter?

K. Rich. What comfort, man? How is't with aged
Gaunt?

Gaunt. Oh, how that Name befits my compofition
Old Gaunt, indeed, and gaunt in being old;
Within me grief hath kept a tedious faft,
And who abftains from meat, that is not gaunt?
For fleeping England long time have I watch'd,
Watching breeds leannefs, leannefs is all gaunt;
The pleafure, that fome fathers feed upon,

Is

my ftrict faft; I mean, my children's looks;

printed by chance. Perhaps the paffage, which appears a little difordered, may be regulated thus:

royal kings,

Fear'd for their breed, and famous for their birth,

For Chriftian fervice, and true chivalry;

Renowned for their deeds as far from home

As is the Sepulchre.

And,

And, therein fafting, thou haft made me gaunt;
Gaunt am I for the Grave, gaunt as a Grave,
Whofe hollow womb inherits nought but bones.
K. Rich. Can fick men play fo nicely with their names?
Gaunt. No, mifery makes fport to mock itself:
Since thou doft feek to kill my name in me,
I mock my name, great King, to flatter thee.
K. Rich Should dying men flatter thofe that live?
Gaunt. No, no, men living flatter thofe that die.
K. Rich. Thou, now a dying, fay'ft, thou flatter'ft me.
Gaunt. Oh! no, thou dyeft, though I ficker be.
K. Rich. I am in health, I breathe, I fee thee ill.
Gaunt. Now he, that made me, knows, Ifee thee ill.
Ill in myself, but feeing thee too, ill.

Thy death-bed is no leffer than the Land,
Wherein thou lieft in Reputation fick ;
And thou, too careless Patient as thou art,
Giv'ft thy anointed body to the cure
Of those physicians, that firft wounded thee.
A thoufand flatt'rers fit within thy Crown,
Whofe compass is no bigger than thy head,
And yet incaged in fo finall a verge,
Thy wafte is no whit leffer than thy Land.
Oh, had thy Grandfire, with a prophet's eye,
Seen how his fon's fon fhould destroy his fons;
From forth thy reach he would have laid thy fhame,
Depofing thee before thou wert poffeft;
Who 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 this Land,
Is it not more than thame to fhame it fo?
Landlord of England art thou now, not King:
(7) Thy ftate of law is bondflave to the law;
And Thou-

K. Rich. And thou, a lunatick lean-witted fool,

C 2

Prefuming

(7) Thy ftate of law is bondflave to the law;] State of law, i. e. legal fou'reignty. But the Oxford Editor alters it to the ftate o'er law, i. e. abfolute fou'reignty. A doctrine, which, if our poet ever 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

bond

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 Seat'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 fhoulders.
Gaunt. Oh, 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 tapt out, and drunkenly carows'd.
My brother Glofler, plain well-meaning foul
(Whom fair befal in heav'n 'mong'ft happy fouls!)
May be a precedent and witnefs good,
That thou refpect'ft not spilling Edward's blood.
Join with the prefent Sickness that I have,
(8) And thy unkindnefs be like crooked age,
To crop at once a too-long wither'd flower.

bondflave to the law, the poet means his being inflaved to his favourite fubjects. WARBURTON.

This fentiment, whatever it be, is obfcurely expreffed. I underftand it differently from the learned commentator, being perhaps not quite fo zealous for Shakespeare's political reputation. The reafoning of Gaunt, I think, is this: By fetting thy royalties to farm, thou haft reduced thyself to a state below fovereignty, thou art now no longer king but landlord of England, fubject to the fame reftraint 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 ihyfelf amenable to laws from which thou wert originally exempt. Whether this interpretation be true or no, it is plain that Dr. Warburton's explanation of bondflave to the law, is not true. (8) And thy unkindness be like crooked age,

To crop at once a too-long wither'd flow'r.] Thus ftand these lines in all the copies, but I think there is an errour. Why should 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 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 easily confounded by the ear with age, and one miftake once admitted made way for another.

Live

Live in thy fhame, but die not fhame with thee!, Thefe words hereafter thy tormentors be! Convey me to my Bed, then to my Grave: (9) Love they to live, that love and honour have. [Exit, borne out.

K. Rich. And let them die, that Age and Sullens

have;

For both haft thou, and both become the Grave.
York. I do beseech your Majefty, impute.
His words to wayward ficklinefs, and age.
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.

SCENE III.

Enter Northumberland.

North. My Liege, old Gaunt commends him to your Majefty.

K. Rich. What fays old Gaunt?

North. Nay, nothing; all is faid.

His tongue is now a ftringlefs 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 fo doth he; His time is spent, our pilgrimage muft be.

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,
But only they, have privilege to live.
And, for thefe great affairs do afk fome charge,
To'rds our affiftance we do feize to us,

The plate, coin, revenues, and moveables,
Whereof our uncle Gaunt did ftand poffeft.

York. How long thall I be patient? Oh, how long Shall tender Duty make me fuffer wrong?

(9) Love they] That is, let them love.