To a dear friend of the good duke of York's,
That tell black tidings.

QUEEN.

O, I am prefs'd to death, Through want of fpeaking!Thou, old Adam's likeness, [Coming from her concealment.

Set to drefs this garden, how dares

Thy harfh-rude tongue found this unpleafing news?3

"He is our coufin, coufin; but 'tis doubt,

"When time fhall call him home," &c.

Doubt is the reading of the quarto, 1597,

The folio reads

doubted. I have found reason to believe that fome alterations even in that valuable copy were made arbitrarily by the editor.

0, I am prefs'd to death,

MALONE.

Through want of Speaking!] The poet alludes to the ancient legal punishment called peine forte & dure, which was inflicted on thofe perfons, who, being arraigned, refufed to plead, remaining obftinately filent. They were preffed to death by a heavy weight laid upon their ftomach. MALONE.

2 to dress this garden,] This was the technical language of Shakspeare's time, So, in Holy Writ: "and put him into the garden of Eden, to drefs it, and to keep it." Gen. ii. 15.

Thy harfh-rude tongue, &c.] So, in Hamlet:

MALONE.

"What have I done, that thou dar'ft wag thy tongue
"In noise fo rude against me?"

I have quoted this paffage only to juftify the refloration of the word rude, which has been rejected in some modern editions.

A line in King John may add fupport to the refloration here made from the old copy:

"To whom he fung in rude harsh-sounding rhymes." Some words feem to have been omitted in the firft of thefe lines. We might read:

Set to drefs out this garden. Say, how dares, &c.

It is always fafer to add than to omit.

MALONE. Mr. Malone's

I would read Set here to drefs this garden-. quotation from Genefis ferves to fhow that "drefs out" was not the efta bihed phrase.

Neither can I concur with the fame gentleman's opinion that "it is always fafer to add than to omit;" fince, in Dr. Farmer's

What Eve, what ferpent hath fuggefted thee
To make a fecond fall of curfed man?

Why doft thou fay, king Richard is depos'd? Dar't thou, thou little better thing than earth, Divine his downfal? Say, where, when, and how, Cam'st thou by thefe ill tidings? fpeak, thou wretch.

GARD. Pardon me, madam: little joy have I, To breathe this news; yet, what I fay, is true. King Richard, he is in the mighty hold

Of Bolingbroke; their fortunes both are weigh'd:
In your lord's fcale is nothing but himself,
And fome few vanities that make him light;
But in the balance of great Bolingbroke,
Befides himself, are all the English peers,
And with that odds he weighs king Richard down.
Poft you to London, and you'll find it so ;
I speak no more than every one doth know.
QUEEN. Nimble mifchance, that art fo light of
foot,

Doth not thy embaffage belong to me,
And am I laft that knows it? O, thou think'st
To serve me laft, that I may longest keep
Thy forrow in my breaft.-Come, ladies, go,
To meet at London London's king in woe.-
What, was I born to this! that my fad look
Should grace the triumph of great Bolingbroke?
Gardener, for telling me this news of woe,

I would, the plants thou graft'ft, may never grow. [Exeunt Queen and Ladies.

judgement as well as my own, the irregularities of our author's measure are too frequently occafioned by grofs and manifest interpolations. STEEVENS.

I would, the plants, &c.] This execration of the queen is fomewhat ludicrous, and unfuitable to her condition; the garVOL. XII.

I

GARD. Poor queen! fo that thy ftate might be no worse,

I would my skill were fubject to thy curfe.-
Here did fhe drop a tear; here, in this place,
I'll fet a bank of rue, four herb of grace:
Rue, even for ruth, here fhortly shall be seen,
In the remembrance of a weeping queen.

[Exeunt.

dener's reflection. is better adapted to the ftate both of his mind and his fortune. Mr. Pope, who has been throughout this play very diligent to reject what he did not like, has yet, I know not why, fpared the laft lines of this ad. JOHNSON.

I would, the plants thou graft'ft, may never grow.] Rape of Lucrece :

"This baftard graft fhall never come to growth."

So, in The

MALONE.

6

The Lords fpiritual on the right fide of the throne; the Lords temporal on the left; the Commons below. Enter BOLINGBROKE, AUMERLE, SURREY, NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, FITZWATER,' another Lord, Bhop of Carlile, Abbot of Westminster, and Attendants. Officers behind, with BAGOT.

BOLING. Call forth Bagot;

Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind;

What thou doft know of noble Glofter's death; Who wrought it with the king, and who perform'd The bloody office of his timeless end.

5

BAGOT. Then fet before my face the lord Aumerle. BOLING. Coufin, stand forth, and look upon that

man.

BAGOT. My lord Aumerle, I know, your daring tongue

-Weftminfter Hall.] The rebuilding of Weftminfter Hall, which Richard had begun in 1397, being finished in 1399, the fft meeting of parliament in the new edifice was for the purpose of depofing him. MALONE.

1

6 --Surrey,] Thomas Holland earl of Kent. He was brother to John Holland duke of Exeter, and was created duke of Surrey in the 21ft year of King Richard the Second, 1397. The dukes of Surrey and Exeter were half brothers to the king, being fons of his mother Joan, (daughter of Edmond earle of Kent) who after the death of her fecond husband, Lord Thomas Holland, married Edward the Black Prince. MALONE.

7 -Fitzwater,] The chriftian name of this nobleman was Walter. Walpole.

——his timeless end.] Timeless for untimely. WARBUrton.

Scorps to unfay what once it hath deliver'd.
In that dead time when Glofter's death was plotted,
I heard you fay, -Is not my arm of length,
That reacheth from the restful English court
As far as Calais, to my uncle's head?
Amongst much other talk, that very time,
I heard you fay, that you had rather refufe
The offer of an hundred thoufaud crowns,
Than Bolingbroke's return to England;
Adding withal, how bleft this land would be,
In this your coufin's death.

9

AUM.
Princes, and noble lords,
What answer fhall I make to this base man?
Shall I fo much difhonour my fair ftars,
On equal terms to give him chaftifement?.
Either I muft, or have mine honour foil'd
With the attainder of his fland'rous lips.-
There is my gage, the manual feal of death,
That marks thee out for hell: I say, thou lieft,
And will maintain, what thou hast said, is false,
In thy heart-blood, though being all too base
To ftain the temper of my knightly fword.

BOLING. Bagot, forbear, thou shalt not take it up.
AUM. Excepting one, I would he were the best
In all this prefence, that hath mov'd me fo.

9

FITZ. If that thy valour ftand on fympathies;*

-my fair Atars,] I rather think it fhould be stem, being of the royal blood. WARBURTON. The birth is fup

I think the prefent reading unexceptionable. pofed to be influenced by the Atars, therefore our author, with his ufual licenfe takes ftars for birth. JOHNSON.

We learn from Pliny's Natural Hiflory, that the vulgar error affigned the bright and fair ftars to the rich and great: "Sidera fingulis attributa nobis, & clara divitibus, minora pauperibus," &c. Lib. I. cap. viii. ANONYMOUS.

2 If that thy walour and on sympathies,] Here is a translated