Holy king Henry, and thy fair fon Edward,
Vaughan, and all that have mifcarried
By underhand corrupted foul injuftice;
If that your moody difcontented fouls

Do through the clouds behold this present hour,
Even for revenge mock my deftruction!-
This is All-Souls' day, fellows, is it not?

SHER. It is, my lord.

BUCK. Why, then All-Souls' day is my body's doomfday.

This is the day, which, in king Edward's time,
I wish'd might fall on me, when I was found
Falfe to his children, or his wife's allies:
This is the day, wherein I wish'd to fall
By the falfe faith of him whom most I trusted;
This, this All-Souls' day to my fearful foul,
Is the determin'd refpite of my wrongs.7
That high All-feer which I dallied with,
Hath turned my feigned prayer on my head,
And given in earnest what I begg'd in jeft.
Thus doth he force the fwords of wicked men
To turn their own points on their mafters' bofoms:
Thus Margaret's curfe falls heavy on my neck,-
When he, quoth fhe, fhall split thy heart with for-

row,

Remember Margaret was a prophetess.

Come, firs, convey me to the block of fhame; Wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of blame.8

[Exeunt BUCKINGHAM, &c.

7 Is the determin'd refpite of my wrongs.] Hanmer has rightly explained it, the time to which the punishment of his wrongs was refpited.

Wrongs in this line means wrongs done, or injurious practices. JOHNSON.

blame the due of blame.] This fcene fhould, in my

SCENE II.

Plain near Tamworth.

Enter, with Drum and Colours, RICHMOND, OXFORD, Sir JAMES BLUNT,' Sir WALTER HERBERT, and Others, with Forces, marching.

RICHM, Fellows in arms, and my most loving friends,

Bruis'd underneath the yoke of tyranny,
Thus far into the bowels of the land

Have we march'd on without impediment;
And here receive we from our father Stanley
Lines of fair comfort and encouragement.
The wretched, bloody, and ufurping boar,
That spoil'd your fummer fields, and fruitful vines,

opinion, be added to the foregoing Act, fo the fourth Act will have a more full and ftriking conclufion, and the fifth Act will comprise the business of the important day, which put an end to the competition of York and Lancafter. Some of the quarto editions are not divided into Acts, and it is probable, that this and many other plays were left by the author in one unbroken continuity, and afterwards diftributed by chance, or what seems to have been a guide very little better, by the judgment or caprice of the firft editors. JOHNSON.

Oxford,] John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, a zealous Lancaftrian, who after a long confinement in Hames Caftle in Picardy, efcaped from thence in 1484, and joined the Earl of Richmond at Paris. He commanded the Archers at the battle of Bosworth.

I

MALONE.

Sir James Blunt,] He had been captain of the Castle of Hames, and affifted the Earl of Oxford in his escape.

MALONE.

Swills your warm blood like wash, and makes his

trough

In your embowell'd bofoms,3 this foul fwine
Lies now 4 even in the center of this ifle,
Near to the town of Leicester, as we learn :
From Tamworth thither, is but one day's march.
In God's name, cheerly on, courageous friends,
To the harveft of perpetual peace

reap

By this one bloody trial of fharp war.

2 That fpoil'd your fummer fields, and fruitful vines,

Swills your warm blood &c.] This fudden change from the past time to the prefent, and vice verfa, is common to Shakspeare. So, in the argument prefixed to his Rape of Lucrece: "The fame night he treacherously ftealeth into her chamber, violently ravished her," &c. MALONE.

3embowell'd bofoms,] Exenterated; ripped up: alluding, perhaps, to the Promethean vulture; or, more probably, to the fentence pronounced in the English courts against traitors, by which they are condemned to be hanged, drawn, that is, emLowelled, and quartered. JOHNSON.

Drawn, in the fentence pronounced upon traitors only, fignifies to be drawn by the heels or on a hurdle from the prifon to the place of execution. So, Dr. Johnfon has properly expounded it in Meafure for Meafure, A&t II. So, Holinthed, in the year 1569, and Stowe's Chronicle, edit. 1614, p. 162, 171, 418, 763, 766. Sometimes our hiftorians ufe a colloquial inaccuracy of expreffion in writing, hanged, drawn, and quartered; but they often exprefs it-drawn, hanged, and quartered; and fometimes they add-bowelled, or his bowels taken out, which would be tautology, if the fame thing was implied in the word drawn. TOLLET.

Drawn in the fenfe of embowelled, is never ufed but in fpeaking of a fowl. It is true, embowelling is alfo part of the fentence in high treason, but in order of time it comes after drawing and hanging. BLACKSTONE.

4 Lies now - i. e. fojourns. See Vol. XII. p. 144, n. 5.For lies, the reading of the quarto, the editors of the folio, probably not understanding the term, fubftituted-Is. See p. 490, 1.1. MALONE.

OXF. Every man's confcience is a thoufand fwords,5

To fight against that bloody homicide.

HERB. I doubt not, but his friends will turn to

us.

BLUNT. He hath no friends, but who are friends for fear;

Which, in his deareft need, will fly from him.

RICHM. All for our vantage. Then, in God's name, march:

True hope is swift, and flies with fwallow's wings,5 Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Bofworth Field.

Enter King RICHARD, and Forces; the Duke of NORFOLK, Earl of SURREY, and Others.

K. RICH. Here pitch our tents, even here in Bofworth field.

My lord of Surrey, why look you fo fad ?

SUR. My heart is ten times lighter than my looks. K. RICH. My lord of Norfolk,

NOR.

Here, moft gracious liege.

5 confcience is a thoufand fwords,] Alluding to the old adage, "Confcientia mille tefles." BLACKSTONE.

Thus the quarto. The folio reads-a thousand men.

MALONE.

and flies with fwallow's wings,] Drayton calls joy: "the Swallow-winged joy." STEEVENS.

K. RICH. Norfolk, we must have knocks; Ha! muft we not?

NOR. We must both give and take, my loving lord.

K. RICH. Up with my tent: Here will I lie tonight;7

[Soldiers begin to fet up the King's Tent. But where, to-morrow?-Well, all's one for that.— Who hath defcried the number of the traitors?

NOR. Six or feven thousand is their utmost

power. K. RICH. Why, our battalia trebles that account :8 Befides, the king's name is a tower of strength, Which they upon the adverse faction want. Up with the tent.-Come, noble gentlemen, Let us furvey the vantage of the ground ;Call for fome men of found direction :9Let's want no discipline, make no delay; For, lords, to-morrow is a bufy day.

[Exeunt.

7 Up with my tent: Here will I lie to-night ;] Richard is reported not to have flept in his tent on the night before the battle, but in the town of Leicester. STEEVENS.

8 our battalia trebles that account :] Richmond's forces are faid to have been only five thoufand; and Richard's army confifted of about twelve thousand men. But Lord Stanley lay at a small distance with three thousand men, and Richard may be supposed to have reckoned on them as his friends, though the event proved otherwife. MALOone.

found direction:] True judgment; tried military skill.

JOHNSON.