A dearer merit, not so deep a maim

As to be cast forth in the common air,
Have I deserved at your highness' hand.
The language I have learn'd these forty years,
My native English, now I must forego:
And now my tongue's use is to me no more,
Than an unstringed viol or a harp;
Or like a cunning instrument cas'd up,
Or, being open, put into his hands

That knows no touch to tune the harmony.
Within my mouth you have engaol'd my tongue,
Doubly portcullis'd, with my teeth, and lips;
And dull, unfeeling, barren ignorance
Is made my gaoler to attend on me.
I am too old to fawn upon a nurse,
Too far in years to be a pupil now;

What is thy sentence then, but speechless death, Which robs my tongue from breathing native breath?

K. RICH. It boots thee not to be compassionate;' After our sentence plaining comes too late.

A dearer merit, not so deep a maim·

Have I deserved-] To deserve a merit is a phrase of which I know not any example. I wish some copy would exhibit: A dearer meed, and not so deep a maim. To deserve a meed or reward, is regular and

easy. JOHNSON.

As Shakspeare uses merit in this place, in the sense of reward, he frequently uses the word meed, which properly signifies reward, to express merit. So, in Timon of Athens, Lucullus says: 66 no meed but he repays

"Seven fold above itself."

And in The Third Part of King Henry VI. Prince Edward says: "We are the sons of brave Plantagenet,

"Each one already blazing by our meeds.'

And again, in the same play, King Henry says:

9

"That's not my fear, my meed hath got me fame."

M. MASON.

compassionate;] for plaintive. WARBURTON.

NOR. Then thus I turn me from my country's

light,

To dwell in solemn shades of endless night.

[Retiring.

K. RICH. Return again, and take an oath with

thee.

Lay on our royal sword your banish'd hands
Swear by the duty that you owe to heaven,
(Our part therein we banish with yourselves,)1
To keep the oath that we administer :-
You never shall (so help you truth and heaven!)
Embrace each other's love in banishment;
Nor never look upon each other's face;
Nor never write, regreet, nor reconcile
This lowering tempest of your home-bred hate;
Nor never by advised2 purpose meet,
To plot, contrive, or complot any ill,

'Gainst us, our state, our subjects, or our land.
BOLING. I swear.

NOR. And I, to keep all this.

BOLING. Norfolk, so far as to mine enemy;

1 (Our part &c.] It is a question much debated amongst the writers of the law of nations, whether a banished man may be still tied in his allegiance to the state which sent him into exile. Tully and Lord Chancellor Clarendon declare for the affirmative; Hobbes and Puffendorf hold the negative. Our author, by this line, seems to be of the same opinion. WARBURTON. 2-advised-] i. e. concerted, deliberated. So, in The Merchant of Venice:

3

66

with more advised watch." STEEVENS.

Norfolk, so far &c.] I do not clearly see what is the sense of this abrupt line; but suppose the meaning to be this: Hereford immediately after his oath of perpetual enmity, addresses Norfolk, and, fearing some misconstruction, turns to the King and says so far as to mine enemy that is, I should say nothing to him but what enemies may say to each other. Reviewing this passage, I rather think it should be understood

By this time, had the king permitted us,
One of our souls had wander'd in the air,
Banish'd this frail sepulchre of our flesh,*
As now our flesh is banish'd from this land:
Confess thy treasons, ere thou fly the realm
Since thou hast far to go, bear not along
The clogging burden of a guilty soul.

NOR. No, Bolingbroke; if ever I were traitor, My name be blotted from the book of life, And I from heaven banish'd, as from hence! But what thou art, heaven, thou, and I do know; And all too soon, I fear, the king shall rue.Farewell, my liege:-Now no way can I stray; Save back to England, all the world's my way.5 [Exit.

thus. Norfolk, so far I have addressed myself to thee as to mine enemy, I now utter my last words with kindness and tenderness, Confess thy treasons. JOHnson.

so fare, as to mine enemy;] i. e. he only wishes him to fare like his enemy, and he disdains to say fare well as Aumerle does in the next scene. TOLLET.

*

The first folio reads fare; the second farre. Bolingbroke only uses the phrase by way of caution, lest Mowbray should think he was about to address him as a friend. Norfolk, says he, so far as a man may speak to his enemy, &c. RITSON.

Surely fare was a misprint for farre, the old spelling of the word now placed in the text.-Perhaps the author intended that Hereford in speaking this line should show some courtesy to Mowbray; and the meaning may be: So much civility as an enemy has a right to, I am willing to offer to thee. MALONE. Sir T. Hanmer's marginal direction is-In salutation.

66

STEEVENS. this frail sepúlchre of our flesh,] So, afterwards: thou King Richard's tomb,

"And not King Richard

And Milton, in Samson Agonistes:

"Myself my sepulchre, a moving grave." HENLEY.

· all the world's my way.] Perhaps Milton had this in his mind when he wrote these lines:

eyes

K. RICH. Uncle, even in the glasses of thine I see thy grieved heart: thy sad aspéct Hath from the number of his banish'd years Pluck'd four away;-Six frozen winters spent, Return [To BOLING.] with welcome home from banishment.

BOLING. How long a time lies in one little word!
Four lagging winters, and four wanton springs,
End in a word; Such is the breath of kings.
GAUNT. I thank my liege, that, in regard of me,
He shortens four years of my son's exile:
But little vantage shall I reap thereby;
For, ere the six years, that he hath to spend,
Can change their moons, and bring their times
about,

My oil-dried lamp, and time-bewasted light,
Shall be extinct with age, and endless night;
My inch of taper will be burnt and done,
And blindfold death not let me see my son.

K. RICH. Why, uncle, thou hast many years to live.

GAUNT. But not a minute, king, that thou canst give:

"The world was all before them, where to choose
"Their place of rest, and Providence their guide."

JOHNSON.

The Duke of Norfolk after his banishment went to Venice, where, says Holinshed, "for thought and melancholy he deceased." Malone.

I should point the passage thus:

Now no way can I stray,

Save back to England; all the world's my way.

There's no way for me to go wrong, except back to England.

M. MASON.

Shorten my days thou canst with sullen sorrow,
And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow:
Thou canst help time to furrow me with
age,
But stop no wrinkle in his pilgrimage;
Thy word is current with him for my death;
But, dead, thy kingdom cannot buy my breath.

K. RICH. Thy son is banish'd upon good advice,
Whereto thy tongue a party-verdict gave;
Why at our justice seem'st thou then to lower?
GAUNT. Things sweet to taste, prove in digestion

sour.

You urg'd me as a judge; but I had rather,
You would have bid me argue like a father:-
O, had it been a stranger, not my child,

9

To smooth his fault I should have been more mild: A partial slander' sought I to avoid,

And in the sentence my own life destroy'd.

And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow:] It is matter of very melancholy consideration, that all human advantages confer more power of doing evil than good. JOHNSON. upon good advice,] Upon great consideration.

7

8

So, in King Henry VI. Part II:

MALONE.

"But with advice and silent secrecy." STEEVENS.

a party-verdict gave;] i. e. you had yourself a part or share in the verdict that I pronounced. MALONE.

9 O, had it been a stranger,] This couplet is wanting in the folio. STEEVENS.

A partial slander-] That is, the reproach of partiality. This is a just picture of the struggle between principle and affection. JOHNSON.

This couplet, which is wanting in the folio edition, has been arbitrarily placed by some of the modern editors at the conclusion of Gaunt's speech. In the three oldest quartos it follows the fifth line of it. In the fourth quarto, which seems copied from the folio, the passage is omitted. STEEVENS.