K. Rich. Tell me moreover, hast thou sounded him,

If he appeal the duke on ancient malice;

Or worthily, as a good subject should,

On some known ground of treachery in him? Gaunt. As near as I could sift him on that argument,

On some apparent danger seen in him,

Aim'd at your highness; no inveterate malice.
K. Rich. Then call them to our presence, face
to face,

And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear
The accuser, and the accused, freely speak:-
[Exeunt some Attendants.
High stomach'd are they both, and full of ire,
In rage deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.

Re-enter Attendants, with BOLINGBROKE and
NORFOLK.

Boling. May many years of happy days befall My gracious sovereign, my most loving liege! Nor. Each day still better other's happiness; Until the heavens, envying earth's good hap, Add an immortal title to your crown!

K. Rich. We thank you both: yet one but flat

ters us,

As well appeareth by the cause you come5: Namely, to appeal each other of high treason.Cousin of Hereford, what dost thou object Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray? Boling. First, (heaven be the record of my speech!) In the devotion of a subject's love,

4 Drayton asserts that Henry Plantagenet, the eldest son of John of Gaunt, was not distinguished by the name of Bolingbroke till after he had assumed the crown. He is called earl of Hereford by the old historians, and was surnamed Bolingbroke from having been born at the town of that name in Lincolnshire, about 1366.

5 i. e. 'by the cause you come on." The suppression of the preposition has been shown to have been frequent with Shakspeare.

Tendering the precious safety of my prince,
And free from other misbegotten hate,

Come I appellant to this princely presence.-
Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee,
And mark my greeting well; for what I speak,
My body shall make good upon this earth,
Or my divine soul answer it in heaven.
Thou art a traitor, and a miscreant;
Too good to be so, and too bad to live:
Since the more fair and crystal is the sky,
The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly.
Once more, the more to aggravate the note,
With a foul traitor's name stuff I thy throat;
And wish (so please my sovereign), ere I move,
What my tongue speaks, my right-drawn swords

may prove.

Nor. Let not my cold words here accuse my zeal: "Tis not the trial of a woman's war,

The bitter clamour of two eager tongues,
Can arbitrate this cause betwixt us twain:
The blood is hot that must be cool'd for this:
Yet can I not of such tame patience boast,
As to be hush'd, and nought at all to say:
First, the fair reverence of your highness curbs me
From giving reins and spurs to my free speech;
Which else would post, until it had return'd
These terms of treason doubled down his throat.
Setting aside his high blood's royalty,

And let him be no kinsman to my liege,

I do defy him, and I spit at him;

Call him- -a slanderous coward, and a villain:
Which to maintain, I would allow him odds;
And meet him, were I tied to run a-foot
Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps,
Or any other ground inhabitable?

Where ever Englishman durst set his foot.

6 My right-drawn sword is my sword drawn in a right or just

cause.

ie. uninhabitable.

Mean time, let this defend my loyalty,-
By all my hopes, most falsely doth he lie.
Boling. Pale trembling coward, there I throw my

gage,

Disclaiming here the kindred of the king;
And lay aside my high blood's royalty,

"

Which fear, not reverence, makes thee to except:
If guilty dread hath left thee so much strength,
As to take up mine honour's pawn, then stoop;
By that, and all the rites of knighthood else,
Will I make good against thee, arm to arm,
What I have spoke, or thou canst worse devise.
Nor. I take it up; and, by that sword I swear,
Which gently lay'd my knighthood on my shoulder,
I'll answer thee in any fair degree,

Or chivalrous design of knightly trial;

And, when I mount, alive may I not light,
If I be traitor, or unjustly fight!

K. Rich. What doth our cousin lay to Mowbray's charge?

It must be great, that can inherits us

So much as of a thought of ill in him.

Boling. Look, what I speak my life shall prove it true;

That Mowbray hath receiv'd eight thousand nobles,
In name of lendings for your highness' soldiers;
The which he hath detain'd for lewd9 employments,
Like a false traitor, and injurious villain.
Besides I say, and will in battle prove,
Or here, or elsewhere, to the furthest verge.
That ever was survey'd by English eye,-
That all the treasons, for these eighteen years
Complotted and contrived in this land,

8 To inherit, in the language of Shakspeare, is to possess:Such delight

Among fresh female buds shall you this night

Inherit at my house.'-Romeo and Juliet, Act i, Sc. 2.

Lewd formerly signified knavish, ungracious, naughty, idle,

beside its now general acceptation. Vide note on Much Ado about Nothing, Aet v. Sc. 1. Vol. ii. p. 192.

Vol. V.

1*

Fetch from false Mowbray their first head and spring.
Further I say,-and further will maintain
Upon his bad life, to make all this good,-
That he did plot the duke of Gloster's death10;
Suggest11 his soon-believing adversaries;

And, consequently, like a traitor coward,
Sluic'd out his innocent soul through streams of
blood:

Which blood, like sacrificing Abel's, aries,
Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth,
To me for justice, and rough chastisement;
And by the glorious worth of my descent,
This arm shall do it, or this life be spent.
K. Rich. How high a pitch his resolution soars!-
Thomas of Norfolk, what say'st thou to this?
Nor. O, let my sovereign turn away his face,
And bid his ears a little while be deaf,
Till I have told this slander of his blood12,
How God, and good men, hate so foul a liar.
K. Rich. Mowbray, impartial are our eyes, and

ears:

Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom's heir
(As he is but my father's brother's son),
Now by my sceptre's awe I make a vow,
Such neighbour nearness to our sacred blood
Should nothing privilege him, nor partialize
The unstooping firmness of my upright soul;
He is our subject, Mowbray, so art thou;
Free speech, and fearless, I to thee allow.
Nor. Then, Bolingbroke, as low as to thy heart,
Through the false passage of thy throat thou liest!
Three parts of that receipt I had for Calais,
Disburs'd I duly to his highness' soldiers:
The other part reserv'd I by consent;
For that my sovereign liege was in my debt,

10 Thomas of Woodstock, the youngest son of Edward III. who was murdered at Calais in 1397. See Froissart, chap. ccxxvi. 11 i. e. prompt them, set them on by injurious hints.

12 Reproach to his ancestry.

Upon remainder of a dear account,

Since last I went to France to fetch his queen13: Now swallow down that lie.-- -For Gloster's

death,

I slew him not; but to my own disgrace,
Neglected my sworn duty in that case.
For you, my noble lord of Lancaster,
The honourable father to my foe,
Once did I lay in ambush for your life,
A trespass that doth vex my grieved soul:
But, ere I last receiv'd the sacrament,
I did confess it: and exactly begg'd

Your grace's pardon, and, I hope, I had it.
This is my fault: As for the rest appeal'd14,
It issues from the rancour of a villain,
A recreant and most degenerate traitor:
Which in myself I boldly will defend;
And interchangeably hurl down my gage
Upon this everweening 15 traitor's foot,
To prove myself a loyal gentleman

Even in the best blood chamber'd in his bosom:
In haste whereof, most heartily I pray
Your highness to assign our trial day.

K. Rich. Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be rul'd by me:
Let's purge this choler without letting blood:
This we prescribe, though no physician16;
Deep malice makes too deep incision:
Forget, forgive; conclude, and be agreed;
Our doctors say, this is no time to bleed.-

13 The duke of Norfolk was joined in commission with Edward earl of Rutland (the Aumerle of this play) to go to France in the year 1395, to demand in marriage Isabel, eldest daughter of Charles VI. then between seven and eight years of age. Richard was married to his young consort in November 1396, at Calais; his first wife, Anne, daughter of Charles IV. emperor of Germany, died at Shene on Whit Sunday, 1391. His marriage with Isabella was merely political, it was accompanied with an agreement for a truce between France and England for thirty years. 14 Charged.

15 Arrogant.

16 Pope thought that some of the rhyming verses in this play were not from the hand of Shakspeare.