Are to a wise man ports and happy havens : But thou the king: Woe doth the heavier sit, To lie that way thou go'st, not whence thou com'st. Suppose the singing birds, musicians; The grass whereon thou tread'st, the presence strew'd; The flowers, fair ladies; and thy steps, no more Or wallow naked in December snow, Had I thy youth and cause, I would not stay. Boling. Then, England's ground, farewell; sweet soil, adieu; My mother, and my nurse, that bears me yet! Aum. 'Faith none for me, except the north east wind, Which then blew bitterly against our face, Awak'd the sleepy rheum; and so, by chance, Did grace our hollow parting with a tear. K. Rich. What said our cousin when you parted with him? Aum. Farewell: And, for my heart disdained that my tongue Should so profane the word, that taught me craft To counterfeit oppression of such grief, And added years to his short banishment, K. Rich. He is our cousin, cousin; but 't is doubt, When time shall call him home from banishment, What reverence he did throw away on slaves; As 't were to banish their affects with him. As were our England in reversion his, Green. Well, he is gone; and with him go these thoughts. Now for the rebels, which stand out in Ireland; K. Rich. We will ourself in person to this war. a None for me-none, on my part. b Expedient-prompt-suitable-disengaged from entanglements. (See note on King John, Act II. Scene I.) 3 SCENE I." Then, Bolingbroke." Henry of Lancaster was not called Bolingbroke, or Bullingbrook, till he had ascended the throne. This name of Henry IV. was derived from his birth-place, Bolingbroke Castle, in Lincolnshire. The last remains of this ancient edifice crumbled over their base, in May, 1815. (Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxxxv.) 4 * SCENE I.-" Our doctors say, this is no month to bleed." Malone says "this alludes to the almanacs of the time, when particular seasons were pointed out as the most proper times for being bled." In an English almanac for 1386-the earliest known (and which has been printed, 1812)-we have full directions for blood-letting. (See Companion to the Almanac, 1839, p. 55.) 5 SCENE II. -" Duke of Lancaster's Palace." The Savoy Palace, of which some remains existed within a few years, was situated near the Thames. The chapel, nearly four centuries old, was destroyed to the bare walls by fire, on July 7, 1864; but the Queen was graciously pleased to undertake its restoration. This was anciently the seat of Peter, Earl of Savoy, uncle to Eleanor, queen of Henry III. Upon his death it devolved to the queen, who gave it to her second son, Edmund, afterwards Earl of Lancaster. From that time the Savoy was taken as part and parcel of the earldom and honour of Lancaster, and was used as the London palace of the earls and dukes of that house. John of Gaunt married Blanch, the daughter of Henry, the first duke of Lancaster. Blanch was a co-heiress with her sister Matilda to the vast estates of this duchy : and by the death of Matilda, without issue, he became subsequently possessed of all the property, in right of his wife, and was himself created Duke of Lancaster. In the preceding page we have given an ancient view of the Savoy, which was endowed as "The Hospital of the Savoy," by Henry VII. 6 SCENE II.-" Duchess of Gloster." The following is a portrait of Eleanor Bohun, widow of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloster. [See Introductory Notice.] 7 SCENE II." Edward's seven sons." The seven sons of the great Edward III. were, 1. Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince; 2. William of Hatfield; 3. Lionel, Duke of Clarence; 4. John of Gaunt; 5. Edmund of Langley, Duke of York; 6. William of Windsor; 7. Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloster. 11 SCENE III. "Lord marshal." Mowbray was himself earl marshal of England; but the Duke of Surrey officiated as marshal on this occasion. 12 SCENE III." Aumerle." The eldest son of the Duke of York was created Duke of Aumerle, or Albemarle,-a town in Normandy. He officiated as high constable at the lists of Coventry. 13 SCENE III." Our part therein we banish." The king here alludes to a disputed question amongst writers on public law:-Is a banished man tied in his allegiance to the State which exiled him? Richard requires them to swear by their duty to heaven; for "our part" in your duty "we banish with yourselves." Hobbes and Puffendorf hold this opinion; - Cicero thought differently. 14 SCENE III.-"The frosty Caucasus." "In the language of the Calmuc Tartars, Chasu signifies snow," according to Mr. Wilford, in the sixth volume of Asiatic Researches. There are two papers in the Censura Literaria of Sir E. Brydges, which refute this notion of the origin of the name of Caucasus.-Vol. iv. p. 412; vol. V. p. 87. HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. SHAKSPERE'S "History" of Richard II. presents, in one particular, a most remarkable contrast to that of King John. In the King John, for the purpose of securing a dramatic unity of action, the chronological succession of events, as they occurred in the real history of the times, is constantly disregarded. In the Richard II. that chronological succession is as strictly adhered to. The judgment of the poet is remarkably exhibited in these opposite modes of working. He had to mould a drama out of the disjointed materials of the real history of John, in which events, remote in the order of time, and apparently separated as to cause and consequence, should all conduce to the development of one great action-the persecution of Arthur by his uncle, and the retribution to which the fate of Arthur led. In the life of Richard II., there were two great dramatic events, far separated in the order of time, and having no connexion in their origin or consequences. The rebellion of Wat Tyler, in 1381, might, in itself, have formed the subject of a drama not unworthy of the hand of Shakspere. It might have stood as the "First Part" of the Life of Richard II. Indeed, it is probable, as we have shown in the Introductory Notice, that a play in which this event formed a remarkable feature did exist. But the greater event of Richard's life was the banishment and the revolt of Bolingbroke, which led to his own deposition and his death. This is the one event which Shakspere has made the subject of the great drama before us. With a few very minute deviations from historydeviations which are as nothing compared with the errors of the contemporary historian, Froissartthe scenes which this play presents, and the characters which it developes, are historically true to the letter. But what a wonderful vitality does the truth acquire in our poet's hands. The hard and formal abstractions of the old chroniclers-the figures that move about in robes and armour, without presenting to us any distinct notions of their common human qualities,-here shew themselves to us as men like ourselves,-partaking of like passions, and like weaknesses; and, whilst they exhibit to us the natural triumph of intellectual vigour and decision over frailty and irresolution, they claim our pity for the unfortunate, and our respect for the "faithful amongst the faithless." But in the Chronicles, Shakspere found the rude outline ready to his hand, which he was to fill up with his surpassing colouring. There was nothing in the course of the real events to alter for the purposes of dramatic propriety. The history was full of the most stirring and picturesque circumstances; and the incidents came so thick and fast upon one another, that it was unnecessary for the poet to leap over any long intervals of time. Bolingbroke first appealed Norfolk of treason, in January, 1398. Richard was deposed in September, 1399. The first scene of this Act exhibits the course of the quarrel between Bolingbroke and Mowbray, as it proceeded, after Harry Hereford's "boisterous late appeal." We must observe, that the Bolingbroke of Shakspere is called Duke of Hereford 'or Earl of Derby, his former title) by all the old his |