On some apparent danger seen in him,
Aimed 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 accuséd freely speak:-
[Exeunt some Attendants.
High-stomached are they both, and full of ire;
In rage deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.
Re-enter Attendants, with BOLINGBROKE and
NORFOLK.
Boling. Many years of happy days befal 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
As well appeareth by the cause you come;
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 to my
speech!)
In the devotion of a subject's love,
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 sword
Nor. Let not my cold words here accuse my zeal:
"T is 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 cooled for this.
Yet can I not of such tame patience boast,
As to be hushed, 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 returned
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 dare set his foot.
Meantime, let this defend my loyalty,—
By all my hopes, most falsely doth he lie.
Boling. Pale trembling coward, there I throw
Disclaiming here the kindred of a 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 laid 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 inherit 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 received eight thousand nobles,
In name of lendings for your highness' soldiers:
The which he hath detained for lewd 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 surveyed by English eye),
That all the treasons for these eighteen years
Complotted and contrivéd in this land,
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 death;
Suggest his soon-believing adversaries;
And consequently, like a traitor coward,
Sluiced out his innocent soul through streams of
Which blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries,
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
Thomas of Norfolk, what sayst 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 blood How God and good men hate so foul a liar. K. Rich. Mowbray, impartial are our eyes and
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 partialise
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,
Disbursed I duly to his highness' soldiers:
The other part reserved I by consent;
For that my sovereign liege was in my debt,
Upon remainder of a dear account
Since last I went to France to fetch his queen.
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 grievéd soul:
But ere I last received the sacrament
I did confess it, and exactly begged
Your grace's pardon; and I hope I had it.
This is my fault. As for the rest appealed,
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 overweening traitor's foot,
prove myself a loyal gentleman
Even in the best blood chambered in his bosom. In haste whereof, most heartily I pray
Your highness to assign our trial day.
K. Rich. Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be ruled by me:
Let's purge this choler without letting blood:
This we prescribe, though no physician:
Deep malice makes too deep incision.
Forget, forgive; conclude, and be agreed:
Our doctors say this is no time to bleed.—
Good uncle, let this end where it begun:
We'll calm the Duke of Norfolk; you your son.
Gaunt. To be a make-peace shall become my
age:-
Throw down, my son, the Duke of Norfolk's gage.
K. Rich. And, Norfolk, throw down his.
Gaunt.
When, Harry; when?
Obedience bids I should not bid again.
K. Rich. Norfolk, throw down; we bid: there is no boot.
Nor. Myself I throw, dread sovereign, at thy foot: My life thou shalt command, but not my shame : The one my duty owes; but my fair name (Despite of death, that lives upon my grave) To dark dishonour's use thou shalt not have. I am disgraced, impeached, and baffled here; Pierced to the soul with slander's venomed spear: The which no balm can cure but his heart-blood Which breathed this poison.
K. Rich. Rage must be withstood: Give me his gage:-lions make leopards tame. Nor. Yea, but not change their spots: take
And I resign my gage. My dear dear lord,
The purest treasure mortal times afford,
Is spotless reputation: that away,
Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.
A jewel in a ten-times-barred-up chest
Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast.
Mine honour is my life; both grow in one:
Take honour from me, and my life is done.
Then, dear my liege, mine honour let me try:
In that I live, and for that will I die.
K. Rich. Cousin, throw down your gage: do
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