3.

Guard it, I pray thee, with a lurking adder
Whose double tongue may with a mortal touch
Throw death upon thy sovereign's enemies.
Mock not my senseless conjuration, lords:
This earth shall have a feeling and these stones
Prove armed soldiers, ere her native king
Shall falter under foul rebellion's arms.

Carlisle. 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.

Aumerle. He means, my lord, that we are too re
miss;

Whilst Bolingbroke, through our security,
Grows strong and great in substance and in power.

66 HEAVEN STILL GUARDS THE RIGHT."

4. King Richard. Discomfortable cousin! Know'st thou

5.

not

That when the searching eye of heaven is hid,
Behind the globe, that lights the lower world,
Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen
In murders and in outrage, boldly here;
But when from under this terrestrial ball
He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines
And darts his light through every guilty hole,
Then murders, treasons and detested sins,

The cloak of night being pluck'd from off their backs,
Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves?

So when this thief, this traitor, Bolingbroke, Who all this while hath revell'd in the night

6.

Whilst we were wandering with the antipodes,
Shall see us rising in our throne, the east,
His treasons will sit blushing in his face,
Not able to endure the sight of day,
But self-affrighted tremble at his sin.

Not all the water in the rough rude sea
Can wash the balm off from an anointed king;
The breath of worldly men cannot depose
The deputy elected by the Lord:

For every man that Bolingbroke hath press'd
To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown,
God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay

A glorious angel: then, if angels fight,

Weak men must fall, for HEAVEN STILL GUARDS THE RIGHT.

"ONE DAY TOO LATE."

Enter SALISBURY.

7. Welcome, my lord: how far off lies your power?
Salisbury. Nor near nor farther off, my gracious lord,
Than this weak arm: discomfort guides my tongue
And bids me speak of nothing but despair.
One day too late, I fear me, noble lord,
Hath clouded all thy happy days on earth:
O, call back yesterday, bid time return,

3.

And thou shalt have twelve thousand fighting men!
To-day, to-day, unhappy day, too late,

O'erthrows thy joys, friends, fortune and thy state:
For all the Welshmen, hearing thou wert dead,
Are gone to Bolingbroke, dispersed and fled;

Aumerle. Comfort, my liege: why looks your grace.
so pale?

King Rich. But now the blood of twenty thousand

men

9.

10.

Did triumph in my face, and they are fled;
And, till so much blood thither come again,
Have I not reason to look pale and dead?
All souls that will be safe fly from my side,
For time hath set a blot upon my pride.

Aumerle. Comfort, my liege; remember who you are. King Richard. I had forgot myself: am I not king? Awake, thou coward majesty! thou sleepest. Is not the king's name twenty thousand names? Arm, arm, my name! a puny subject strikes At thy great glory. Look not to the ground, Ye favourites of a king: are we not high? High be our thoughts: I know my uncle York Hath power enough to serve our turn.

[Additional tidings of revolt have been brought to Richard.]

"FAREWELL KING."

King Rich. Of comfort no man speak:
Let's talk of graves, of worms and epitaphs;
Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth,
Let's choose executors and talk of wills:
And yet not so, for what can we bequeath
Save our deposed bodies to the ground?
Our lands, our lives and all are Bolingbroke's,
And nothing can we call our own but death
And that small model of the barren earth
Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.
Let us sit upon the ground

And tell sad stories of the death of kings:

How some have been deposed; some slain in war; Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed; Some poison'd by their wives; some sleeping kill'd;

All murder'd: for within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing him a little breath, a little scene,
To monarchize, be fear'd and kill with looks,
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
As if this flesh which walls about our life
Were brass impregnable, and humoured thus
Comes at the last and with a little pin

Bores through his castle wall, and FAREWELL KING!
11. Cover your heads and mock not flesh and blood
With solemn reverence: throw away respect,
Tradition, form and ceremonious duty,
For you have but mistook me all this while :
I live with bread like you, feel want,
Taste grief, need friends: súbjected thus,

How can you say to me, I am a king?—Shakespeare.

Barkloughly Castle, so called in the chronicler whom Shakespeare followed. Perhaps Hertlowli is meant.

Aumerle, Duke of, son to the Duke of York who was Richard's uncle.

double tongue (of adder): the serpent's tongue is deeply forked at its extremity, but it is perfectly harmless. The idea of a "sting" is erroneous. The tongue is largely employed as a feeler. The serpent's poison is lodged at the base of a tooth, and flows into the wound along a groove in the tooth.

senseless conjuration, mock not my adjuration addressed to inanimate objects.

native king, not king born in the country for Richard was born in Bordeaux, but king in virtue of birth.

Carlisle, the Bishop of. His name was Thomas Merks.

Bolingbroke, surname of Henry, Duke of Hereford, afterwards Henry IV.

the balm, the oil used in anointing a king.

CHURCH-VASSALS IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

1. The tenants and vassals of the great abbeys had many advantages over those of the lay barons, who were harassed by a constant military duty, until they became desperate and lost all relish for the arts of peace. The vassals of the church, on the other hand, were only liable to be called to arms on special occasions, and at other times were permitted in comparative quiet to possess their farms and feus. They of course exhibited superior skill in everything that related to the cultivation of the soil, and were therefore both wealthier and better informed than the military retainers of the restless chiefs and nobles in their neighbourhood.

2. The residence of these church-vassals was usually in a small village or hamlet, where, for the sake of mutual aid and protection, some thirty or forty families dwelt together. This was called the Town, and the land belonging to the various families by whom the town was inhabited was called the Township. They usually possessed in common, though in various proportions, according to their several grants. The part of the Township, properly arable, and kept as such continually under the plough, was called in-field. Here the use of quantities of manure supplied in some degree the exhaustion of the soil, and the feuars raised tolerable oats and barley, usually sowed on alternate ridges, on which the labour of the whole community was bestowed without distinction, the produce being divided after harvest, agreeably to their respective interests.

3. There was, besides, cut-field land, from which it was thought possible to extract a crop now and then, after which it was abandoned to the "skiey influences" until