KING Richard the Second.
Duke of York,

Inches.to Bolingbroke, Son to John of Gaunt, afterwards King

Henry the Fourth.
Aumerle, Son to the Duke of York.
Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk.
Earl of Salisbury
Earl of Berkley

, Bagot,

Servants to-King Richard. Green, Earl of Northumberland, Percy, son to Northumberland, Friends to Bolingbroke. Ross, Willoughby, ,

.
Fitzwater,
Surry,

Lords in the Parliament.
Abbot of Westminster,
Sir Pierce of Exton,

}

Queen to King Richard.
Puichess of Gloucester.
Dutchefs of York.
Ladies attending on the Queen.

Heralds, two Gardiners, Keéper, Mesenger, Groom, and

other Attendants.

SCENE, dispersedly, in several Parts of

England.

The

(1) The LIFE and DEATH of KING RICHARD II.

A CT I. SCENE, the COURT. Enter King Richard, John of Gaunt, with other No

bles and Attendants..

King RICHARD..
LD Fon of Gaunt, time-honour'd Lancaster,
Haft thou, according to thy oath and bond,

Brought hither Henry Hereford thy bold son,
Here to make good the boit'rous late appeal,

(1) Tbe life and death of King Richard 11. ] But this history como prizes little more than the two last years of this unfortunate Prince. The action of the drama begins with Bolingbroke's appealing the Duke of Norfolk, on an accusation of high treason, which fell out in the year 1398; and it closes with the murder of King Richard at PomfraCastle, towards the end of the year 1400, or the beginning of the ensuing year. Mr. Gildon acknowledges, that Shakespeare has drawn K. Ricbard's character according to the best accounts of history; that is,. infolent, proud, and thoughtless in prosperity ; dejected, and defponding on the appearance of danger. But whatever blemishes be had either in temper or conduct, the diftresses of his latter days, the double divorce from his throne and Queen, are painted in such ftrong colours, that those blemishes are lost in the shade of his mila fortunes; and our.compassion for him wipes out the memory of such fgots, quas bumana parum cavit natura.

Which

A 3

Which then our leisure would not let us hear,
Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray ?
Gaunt, I have, my Liege.

K. Rich. Tell me moreover, hast thou sounded him,
If he appeal the Duke on ancient malice,
Or worthily, as a good fubject should,
On some known ground of treachery in him ?

Gaunt. As near as I could fift him on that argument, On some apparent danger seen in him. Aim'd at your Highness; no invetrate malice.

K. Rich. Then call them to our presence; face to face, And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear 'Th' accuser, and th' accused freely speak: High ftomach'd are they both; and full of ire; In rage, deaf as the sea; hafty as fire.

Enter Bolingbroke and Mowbray. Boling. May many years of happy days befal My gracious Sovereign, my most loving Liege !

Mowb. Each day itill better other's happiness; Until the heavens, envying earth's good hap, Add an immortal title to your crown!

K. Rich. We thank you both, yet one but Aatters us, As well appeareth by the cause you come; Namely, t'appeal each other of high treason. Cousin of Hereford, what doft thou object Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?

Boling. First, (Heaven be the record to my speech!)
In the devotion of a subject's love,
Tend'ring the precious fafety of my Prince,
And free from other mis-begotten hate,
Come l appellant to this princely presence.
Now, Thomas Mozubray, do I turn to thee,
And mark my greeting well; for what I speak,
My body shall make good upon this earth,
Or my divine foul answer it in heav'n.

Thou art a traitor and a miscreant ;
Too good to be so, and too bad to live ;
Since, the more fair and crystal is the sky,
The uglier seem the clouds, that in it fly.

Once

Once more, the more to aggravate the note,
With a foul traitor's name ftuff I thy throai:
And with, so please my Sou'reign, ere I move,
What my tongue speaks,my righe.drawn sword may prove.

Mowb. Let not my cold words here accuse my zeal ;
'Tis not the trial of a woman's war,
The bitter clamour of two eager tongues,
Can arbitrate this cause betwixt us twain;
The blood is hột, that must be cool'd for this.
Yet can I not of such tame patience boilt,
As to be huih'd, and nought at all to lay.
First, the fair rev'rence of your Highness curbs me,
From giving reins and spurs to my free speech;
Which else would poft, until it had return’d
These terms of creason doubled down his throat.
Setting aside his high blood's royalty,
And let him be no kinsman to my Liege,
I do defy him, and I spit ac him;
Call him a sanderous coward, and a villain ;
Which to maintain, I would allow bim odds,
And meet him, were I ty'd to run a-foot
Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps,
Or any other ground unhabitable (2),

Where (2) Or ang orber ground inhabitable. ] I don't know that this word, (like the French term, inbabitable,) will admit the two different acceptations of a place to be dwelt in, and not to be dwelt in: (or that it may be taken in the latter sense, as itibabitabilis (among the Lafines) fignifies uninbabitab'è ; tho' inbabitare signifies only to inbabit :) and there. fore I have ventur'd to read,

Or

any olber ground unhabitable; So in the old Quarto, or first rough draught of our author's Taming of the Sbrew;.

Unbabitable as the burning Zone. I'confess, there is a passage in Ben Jobnson's tragedy of Cariline, which, should feem to favour the equivocal contruction and use of this word;

And who, in such a cause, and 'gainst such fiends,
Would not now with himself all arm anic weapon,
To cut such poisons from the earth, and let
Their blood out, to be drawn away in clouds,
And pour’d on some inbabitable place,
Where the hot fua and Nime breeds nought but monsters?...

But

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