Lords, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, two Gardeners, Keeper, M

Messenger,

Rowe's omiseditors, who, ors in preced

SCENE I.-London. King Richard's palace.

Enter KING RICHARD, JOHN OF GAUNT, with other Nobles
and Attendants.

K. Rich. Old John of Gaunt, time-honour'd Lancaster,
Hast thou, according to thy oath and band,
Brought hither Henry Hereford thy bold son,
Here to make good the boisterous late appeal,
Which then our leisure would not let us hear,
Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray ?

5

The Tragedy] So called in the first four Quartos; The Life and Death in
Folios and Q 5.

ACT I. SCENE 1.

The divisions followed are those of Ff and Q 5 except when otherwise noted.
Qq 1, 2, 3, 4, made no divisions.

SCENE I.

1. Old John of Gaunt] See Introduction.

2. band] bond. These two forms were interchangeable. Compare Two Gentlemen of Verona, 11. vii. 75: "His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles"; and 1 Henry IV. III. ii. 157: "The end of life cancels all bands." Traces of the M.E. phonetic interchangeability of words of this kind remain in Shakespeare; see "stronds afar remote" in 1 Henry IV. 1. iv. In v. ii. 65, infra, we have "band," and two lines further on "bond."

3. Hereford] Scan always Her'ford. Spelt Hereford only in F 4, Q5, Herford in all other copies. See Introduction.

4. appeal] An accusation which the accuser was prepared to maintain in the

3

lists. This "appeal" had taken place
on January 30, 1398, at Shrewsbury,
when Richard's packed Parliament was
sitting there. Hereford had accused
Norfolk of talking treason when they
were riding together near London and

66

appealed [him] in field of batell, for a traitor, false and disloiall to the King, and enimie unto the realme (Holinshed). The matter was referred to a Commission at Oswestry, February 23, and upon Norfolk's solemn denial, both lords were placed under arrest, but while Hereford was allowed to give "pledges "-his father, John of Gaunt, being one-Norfolk was not allowed this clemency and was kept prisoner at Windsor until the date of this scene, April 28.

5. Which... hear] Which want of leisure prevented our hearing.

6. Duke of Norfolk] See Introduction.

Come I appellant to this princely presence.
Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee,
And mark my greeting well; for what I speak

35

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 may prove.

40

45

Mow. 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;

36. greeting] in its older and simpler
sense of "address." Compare Troilus
and Cressida, III. iii. 52: "Greet him
not, or else disdainfully, which shall
shake him more."

38. divine] in the sense of immortal. Compare (with Shakespearian transference of adjective) All's Well that Ends Well, III. vi. 33: "With the divine forfeit of his soul upon oath."

39. miscreant] O.F. mescreant, misbeliever; Lat. minus credentem; a term of utter contempt, having a less definite meaning than its derivation suggests; perhaps equivalent to wretch plus knave. Compare recreant, line 144, infra (Lat. re-credentem apostate), which implies cowardice in addition to baseness.

50

55

stigma of disgrace still more pro-
nounced. Compare Merry Wives of
Windsor, 11. ii. 296: "Ford's a Knave,
and I will aggravate his style," and
Love's Labour's Lost, Iv. iii. 125:—
"Ill, to example ill,

Would from my forehead wipe a perjured note." The Latin nota meant the official censure of the Senate.

44. stuff... throat] This phrase and its variants formed one of the commonest weapons in a war of tongues. Compare Hamlet, II. ii. 601: "Who gives me the lie the throat," and Henry V. 11. i. 51: "The 'solus' in thy teeth, and in thy throat."

47. Let ... zeal] Let not the coldness of my words accuse me of want of zeal.

49. eager] sharp, piercing. Compare Hamlet, 1. iv. 2: "It is a nipping and an eager air."

40. Too ... live] This and the following rhymed lines are characteristic of "early" Shakespearian luxuriance. Pope would have none of them and marked them as spurious: line 40 55-6. reins spurs... post] means that Mowbray was by birth too Note the keeping up of the metaphor, good material from which to make a characteristic of Shakespeare's earlier traitor and, at the same time, too bad a methods of tricking out his thoughts traitor to be allowed to live. somewhat artificially. See also lines 43. aggravate the note] to make the 11-21 in the next scene.