Thine eye begins to fpeak, fet thy tongue there:
Or, in thy piteous heart plant thou thine ear;
That, hearing how our plaints and prayers do
pierce,

Pity may move thee pardon to rehearse.

BOLING. Good aunt, ftand up,

DUCH.

I do not fue to ftand,

Pardon is all the fuit I have in hand.

BOLING. I pardon him, as God fhall pardon me. DUCH. O happy vantage of a kneeling knee! Yet am I fick for fear: fpeak it again;

Twice faying pardon, doth not pardon twain,
But makes one pardon ftrong.

BOLING.

I pardon him.'

DUCH.

With all my heart

A god on earth thou art.'

BOLING. But for our trusty brother-in-law,-and

'the abbot,'

With all the rest of that conforted crew,Destruction straight shall dog them at the heels."Good uncle, help to order feveral powers

2 With all heart

my

I pardon him.] The old copies read-I pardon him with all my heart. The tranfpofition was made by Mr. Pope. MALONE. 3 A god on earth thou art.] So, in Cymbeline:

"He fits 'mongst men, like a defcended god." STEEVENS. 4 But for our trusty brother-in-law,] The brother-in-law meant, was John duke of Exeter and Earl of Huntingdon (own brother to King Richard II.) and who had married with the lady Elizabeth, fifter of Henry Bolingbroke. THEOBALD.

s—the abbot,] i. e. the Abbot of Westminster.

THEOBALD.

6 Deftruction ftraight shall dog them at the heels.] Again, in King Richard III:

"Death and deftruction dog thee at the heels."

STEEVENS.

To Oxford, or where'er these traitors are:
They shall not live within this world, I fwear,
But I will have them, if I once know where.
Uncle, farewell,—and coufin too,' adieu:
Your mother well hath pray'd, and prove you true.
DUCH. Come, my old fon;-I pray God make
[Exeunt.

thee new.

SCENE IV.

Enter EXTON, and a Servant.

EXTON. Didst thou not mark the king, what words he spake?

Have I no friend will rid me of this living fear?
Was it not fo?

SERV.

Those were his very words.

EXTON. Have I no friend? quoth he: he spake it

twice,

And urg'd it twice together; did he not?

SERV. He did.

ExTON. And, fpeaking it, he wiftly look'd on me; As who fhould fay,-I would, thou wert the man That would divorce this terror from my heart; Meaning, the king at Pomfret. Come, let's go; I am the king's friend, and will rid his foe.

7

[Exeunt.

coufin too, adieu:] Too, which is not in the old copy, was added by Mr. Theobald, for the fake of the metre. MALONE.

Pomfret. The Dungeon of the Caftle.

Enter King RICHARD.

K. RICH. I have been studying how I may compare This prison, where I live, unto the world: And, for because the world is populous, And here is not a creature but myself, I cannot do it ;-Yet I'll hammer it out. My brain I'll prove the female to my foul; My foul, the father: and these two beget A generation of ftill-breeding thoughts, And these fame thoughts people this little world;" In humours, like the people of this world, For no thought is contented. The better fort,--As thoughts of things divine,-are intermix'd With fcruples, and do fet the word itself Against the word: "

6

As thus, Come, little ones; and then again,—
It is as hard to come, as for a camel

To thread the postern of a needle's eye.

Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot

- people this little world;] i. e. his own frame;-“ the ftate of man;" which in our author's Julius Cæfar is faid to be "like to a little kingdom." So alfo, in his Lover's Complaint: Storming my world with forrow's wind and rain." Again, in King Lear:

6

"Strives in this little world of man to out-fcorn

"The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain." MALONE. the word itself

Against the word:] By the word, I fuppofe, is meant the holy word. The folio reads:

the faith itself

Against the faith. STEEVENS.

The reading of the text is that of the first quarto, 1597.

MALONE.