Villain, thine owo band yields thy death's instrument.

(Snatching a weapon, and killing one. Go thou, and fill another room in hell.

[He kills another, then Exton strikes him down. That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire, That staggers thus my person.—Exton, thy fierce band Hath with the king's blood stain'd the king's own land. Mount, mount, my soul! thy seat is up on high ;

Wbilst my gross flesh sinks downward, here to die.
Exton. As full of valour as of royal blood :

Both have I spilt; 0, would the deed were good !
For now the devil, that told me I did well,
Says that this deed is chronicled in hell.
This dead king to the living king I'll bear.
Take hence the rest, and give them burial here.

[Exeunt.

[Dies."

SCENE VI.-Windsor. A Room in the Castle.

Flourish.

Enter BOLINGBROKE and YORK, with Lords and Attendants.

BOLING. Kind uncle York, the latest news we bear

Is, that the rebels have consum'd with fire
Our town of Cicester in Glostershire;
But whether they be ta’en, or slain, we hear not.

Enter NORTHUMBERLAND.

Welcome, my lord: what is the news ?
NORTH. First, to thy sacred state wish I all happiness.

The next news is,- I have to London sent
The heads of Salisbury, Spencer, Blunt, and Kent:
The manner of their taking may appear

At large discoursed in this paper here.
BOLING. We thank thee, gentle Percy, for thy pains ;

And to thy worth will add right worthy gains.

[Presenting a paper.

Enter FITZWATER.

Fitz. My lord, I have from Oxford sent to London

The heads of Brocas, and sir Bennet Seely ;
Two of the dangerous consorted traitors

That sought at Oxford thy dire overthrow.
BOLING. Thy pains, Fitzwater, shall not be forgot;

Right noble is thy merit, well I wot.

Enter PERcy, with the BISHOP OF CARLISLE.
PERCY. The grand conspirator, abbot of Westminster,

With clog of conscience and sour melancholy,
Hath yielded up his body to the grave 5 ;
But here is Carlisle living, to abide

Thy kingly doom, and sentence of his pride.
BOLING. Carlisle, this is your doom :-

Choose out some secret place, some reverend room,
More than thou hast, and with it joy thy life;
So, as thou liv'st in peace, die free from strife :
For though mine enemy thou hast ever been,
High sparks of honour in thee have I seen.

Enter Exton, with Attendants bearing a cofin.

Exton. Great king, within this coffin I present

Thy buried fear; herein all breathless lies
The mightiest of thy greatest enemies,

Richard of Bordeaux, by me hither brought.
BOLING. Exton, I thank thee not; for thou hast wrought

A deed of slander, with thy fatal hand,

Upon my head, and all this famous land.
Exton. From your own mouth, my lord, did I this deed.
BOLING. They love not poison that do poison need,

Nor do I thee; though I did wish him dead,
I hate the murtherer, love him murthered.
The guilt of conscience take thou for thy labour,
But neither my good word, nor princely favour:
With Cain go wander through the shade of night,
And never show thy head by day nor light.
Lords, I protest, my soul is full of woe
That blood should sprinkle me to make me grow:
Come, mourn with me for that I do lament,
And put on sullen black, incontinent;
I'll make a voyage to the Holy Land,
To wash this blood off from my guilty hand ;-
March sadly after; grace my mourning here,
In weeping after this untimely bier.

[Exeunt.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

ACT I.

SCENE I.--"Hast thor, according to thy oath “ These three that hardy challenge took in hand,

For Canace with Cambel for to fight; and band ?"

The day was set, that all might understand, The appeal of Hereford against Mowbray was

And pledges pawn'd, the same to keep aright." to be decided by a “ trial by combat.” This practice was very ancient, and traces of it are found in the fifth century.

* SCENE 1.—“Eight thousand nobles."

The “oath and band” of John of Gaunt were the pledges that. The following is a representation of the gold he gave for his son's appearance. Thus, in the noble of Richard II.

Faery Queen' of Spenser :

3 SCENE I.—“Then, Bolingbroke." existed within a few years, was situated near Henry of Lancaster was not called Boling

the Thames, almost close to the Strand end of broke, or Bullingbrook, till he had ascended

| Waterloo Bridge. This was anciently the seat the throne. This name of Henry IV. was de

of Peter, Earl of Savoy, uncle to Eleanor, queen rived from his birth-place, Bolingbroke Castle,

of Henry III. Upon his death it devolved to in Lincolnshire. The last remains of this an

the queen, who gave it to her second son, Edcient edifice crumbled over their base, in May,

mund, afterwards Earl of Lancaster. From 1815. ("Gentleman's Magazine,' vol. lxxxv.)

that time the Savoy was taken as part and

parcel of the earldom and honour of Lancaster, • SCENE I.—“Our doctors say, this is no month and was used as the London palace of the earls to bleed."

and dukes of that house. John of Gaunt marMalone says, “This alludes to the almanacs of ried Blanch, the daughter of Henry, the firs the time, when particular seasons were pointed duke of Lancaster. Blanch was a co-beiress out as the most proper times for being bled." with her sister Matilda to the vast estates of In an English almanac for 1386—the earliest this duchy: and by the death of Matilda withknown (and which has been printed, 1812)—we | out issue, John became subsequently possessed have full directions for blood-letting. (See of all the property, in right of his wife, and was • Companion to the Almanac, 1839,' p. 55.)

himself created Duke of Lancaster. We have

given an ancient view of the Savoy, which was - Scene II.-"Duke of Lancaster's Palace.” endowed as “The Hospital of the Savoy,” by The Savoy Palace, of which some remains | Henry VII.

(The Suvoy.) • SCENE II.—" Duchess of Gloster.”

? SCENE II.—“Edward 8 seven sons." The following is a portrait of Eleanor Bo

The seven sons of the great Edward III. were,

1. Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince; 2. hun, widow of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of

William of Hatfield ; 3. Lionel, Duke of ClaGloster.

rence ; 4. John of Gaunt; 5. Edmund of Lang-
ley, Duke of York; 6. William of Windsor; 7.
Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloster.
• SCENE II.—“Be Mowbray's sins so heavy in

his bosom."
Did not this fine description suggest the
equally fine scene in ‘Ivanhoe,' where the guilty
Templar falls without a blow?

• SCENE II.—“ Unfurnish'd walls.” “The usual manner,” says Percy, in his preface to the Northumberland Household Book,' “ of hanging the rooms in the old castles, was only to cover the naked stone walls with tapestry, or arras, hung upon tenter-hooks, from which they were easily taken down upon every removal."

10 SCENE III.—“Lord marshal.” Mowbray was himself earl marshal of England; but the Duke of Surrey officiated as mar. shal on this occasion.

1 SCENE III.—"A umerle."

| your duty "we banish with yourselves.” Hobbes The eldest son of the Duke of York was cre- and Puffendorf held this opinion ; — Cicero ated Duke of Aumerle, or Albemarle,-town

thought differently. in Normandy. He officiated as high constable at the lists of Coventry.

13 SCENE III.—“The frosty Caucasus."

“In the language of the Calmuc Tartars, 1 SCENE III.—“Our part therein we banish."

C'hasu signifies snow," according to Mr. Wil. The king here alludes to a disputed question ford, in the sixth volume of 'Asiatic Researches.' amongst writers on public law :-Is a banished There are two papers in the 'Censura Literaria' man tied in his allegiance to the State which of Sir E. Brydges, which refute this notion of exiled him? Richard requires them to swear the origin of the name of Caucasus.-Vol. iv. by their duty to heaven; for “our part” in p. 412; vol. v. p. 87.

HISTORICAL. Shakspere’s ‘History of Richard II. presents, that of King John. In the King John,' for the in one particolar, a most remarkable contrast to purpose of securing a dramatic unity of action,