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This is my fault: as for the rest appeal'd,
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 over-weening 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. We were not born to sue, but to com

mand:

Which since we cannot do to make you friends,
Be ready, as your lives shall answer it,

5 At Coventry, upon St. Lambert's day;
There shall your swords and lances arbitrate
The swelling difference of your settled hate;
Since we cannot atone you, you shall see
Justice decide the victor's chivalry.--
10 Lord marshal, command our officers at arms
Be ready to direct these home-alarms. [Exeunt.
SCENE II.

15

[me;
K.Rich. Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be rul'd by
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. 20
K. Rich. And, Norfolk, thrown down his.
Gaunt. When, Harry? when?
Obedience bids, I should not bid again.

K. Rich. Norfolk, throw down; we bid; there
is no boot'.
[foot: 25
Mowb. Myself, I throw, dread sovereign, at thy
My life thou shalt command, but not my shame:
The one, my duty owes; but my fair name,
(Despight of death, that lives upon my grave)
To dark dishonour's use thou shalt not have.
I am disgrac'd, impeach'd, and baffled here;
Pierc'd to the soul with slander's venom'd spear;
The which no balm can cure, but his heart's blood
Which breath'd this poison.

K. Rich. Rage must be withstood:
Give me his gage:-lions make leopards tame.
Mowb. Yea, but not change their spots: take
but my shame,

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-barr'd-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
you begin.

Boling. Oh, heaven defend my soul from such foul sin!

The Duke of Lancaster's Palace.
Enter Gaunt, and Dutchess of Gloster.
Gaunt. Alas! the part I had in Gloster's blood
Doth more solicit me, than your exclaims,
To stir against the butchers of his life.
But, since correction lieth in those hands,
Which made the fault that we cannot correct,
Put we our quarrel to the will of heaven;
Who, when they see the hours ripe on earth,
Will rain hot vengeance on offenders' heads.
Dutch. Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper spur?
Hath love in thy old blood no living fire?
Edward's seven sons, whereof thyself art one,
Were as seven phials of his sacred blood,

Or seven fair branches, springing from one root:
Some of those seven are dry'd by nature's course,
Some of those branches by the destinies cut.
30 But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Gloster,—
One phial full of Edward's sacred blood,
One flourishing branch of his most royal root,—-
Is crack'd, and all the precious liquor spilt;
Is hack'd down, and his summer leaves all faded,
35 By envy's hand, and murder's bloody axe.

40

Ah, Gaunt! his blood was thine; that bed, that

womb,

That metal, that self-mould, that fashion'd thee,
Made him a man; and though thou liv'st, and
breath'st,

Yet art thou slain in him: thou dost consent
In some large measure to thy father's death,
In that thou seest thy wretched brother die,
Who was the model of thy father's life.
45 Call it not patience, Gaunt, it is despair:
In suffering thus thy brother to be slaughter'd,
Thou shew'st the naked path-way to thy life,
Teaching stern murder how to butcher thee:
That which in mean men we entitle-patience,
501s pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.

What shall I say? to safeguard thine own life,
The best way is to venge my Gloster's death.
Gaunt. Heaven's is the quarrel; for heaven's
substitute,

55 His deputy anointed in his sight,

Shall I seem crest-fallen in my father's sight?
Or with pale beggar face' impeach my height
Before this out-dar'd dastard? Ere my tongue
Shall wound mine honour with such feeble wrong,
Or sound so base a parle, my teeth shall tear
The slavish motive of recanting fear;
And spit it bleeding, in his high disgrace,
Where shanie doth harbour, even in Mowbray's 60
[Exit Gaunt.

face.

Hath caus'd his death: the which if wrongfully,
Let heaven revenge; for I may never lift

An

angry arm against his minister.

Dutch. Where then, alas! may I complain myself? Gaunt. To heaven, the widow's champion and defence.

1i.e. no advantage in delay or refusal. 2 Baffled, in this, as has been noted in a former place, means, treated with the greatest ignominy imaginable.

3i. e. with a face of supplication.

* i. e.

my relation of consanguinity to Gloster.

Dutch.

Dutch. Why then, I will. Farewel, old Gaunt!
Thou go'st to Coventry, there to behold
Our cousin Hereford and fell Mowbray fight:
O, sit my husband's wrongs on Hereford's spear,
That it may enter butcher Mowbray's breast!
Or if misfortune miss the first career,
Be Mowbray's sins so heavy in his bosom,
That they may break his foaming courser's back,
And throw the rider headlong in the lists,
A caitiff recreant to my cousin Hereford!
Farewel, old Gaunt; thy sometime brother's wife
With her companion grief must end her life.

Gaunt. Sister, farewel: I must to Coventry :
As much good stay with thee, as go with me!
Dutch. Yet one word more;-Grief boundeth
where it falls,

Not with the empty hollowness, but weight:
I take my leave before I have begun;
For sorrow ends not, when it seemeth done.
Commend me to my brother, Edmund York.
Lo, this is all:-Nay, yet depart not so;
Though this be all, do not so quickly go;
I'shall remember more. Bid him-Oh, what?—
With all good speed at Plashy visit me.
Alack, and what shall good old York there see,
But empty lodgings, and unfurnish'd walls,
Unpeopled offices, untrodden stones?
And what hear there for welcome, but my groans?
Therefore commend me; let him not come there,
To seek out sorrow, that dwells every where:
Desolate, desolate, will I hence, and die,
The last leave of thee takes my weeping eye.

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[Exeunt.

And by the grace of God, and this mine arm,
To prove him, in defending of myself.
A traitor to my God, my king, and me:
And, as I truly fight, defend me heaven!
5 Trumpets sound. Enter Bolingbroke, appellant,

in armour.

K. Rich. Marshal, ask yonder knight in arms,
Both who he is, and why he cometh hither
Thus plated in habiliments of war;

10 And formally according to our law
Depose him in the justice of his cause.

Mar. What is thy name? and wherefore com❜st
thou hither,

Before king Richard, in his royal lists? [To Boling.
15 Against whom comest thou? and what's thy quarrel?
Speak like a true knight, so defend thee heaven!
Boling. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and
Derby,

Am I; who ready here do stand in arms,
20 Toprove, by heaven's grace, and my body's valour,
In lists, on Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk,
That he's a traitor, foul and dangerous,

[25]

30

35

Enter the Lord Marshal and Aumerle.
Mar. My lord Aumerle, isHarry Hereford arm'd?
Aum. Yea, at all points; and longs to enter in.
Mar. The duke of Norfolk, sprightfully and bold,
Stays but the summons of the appellant's trumpet. 40
Aum. Why then, the champions are prepar'd,
and stay

For nothing but his majesty's approach. [Flourish.
The trumpets sound, and the King enters with
Gaunt, Bushy, Bagot, and others: when they are 45
set, enter the Duke of Norfolk in armour.
K.Rich. Marshal, demand of yonder champion
The cause of his arrival here in arms:
Ask him his name; and orderly proceed
To swear him in the justice of his cause.
Mar. In God's name, and the king's, say who
thou art,
[To Mowbray
And why thou com'st, thus knightly clad in arms;
Against what man thou com'st, and what thy quar-
Speak truly, on thy knighthood, and thy oath, [rel: 55
And so defend thee heaven, and thy valour!

Mowb. My name is Thomas Mowbray, duke of
Who hither come engaged by my oath, [Norfolk;
(Which heaven defend a knight should violate!)
Both to defend my loyalty and truth,
To God, my king, and his succeeding issue,
Against the duke of Hereford that appeals me;

To God of heaven, king Richard, and to me;
And, as I truly fight, defend me heaven !

Mar. On pain of death, no person be so bold,
Or daring-hardy, as to touch the lists;
Except the marshal, and such officers
Appointed to direct these fair designs.
Boling. Lord marshal, let me kiss my sove-
reign's hand,

And bow my knee before his majesty:

For Mowbray, and myself, are like two men
That vow a long and weary pilgrimage;
Then let us take a ceremonious leave,

And loving farewel, of our several friends.
Mar. The appellant in all duty greets your
[To K. Řich.
And craves to kiss your hand, and take his leave.
K.Rich. We will descend and fold him in our

highness,

arms.

Cousin of Hereford, as thy cause is right,
So be thy fortune in this royal fight!
Farewel, my blood; which if to-day thou shed,
Lament we may, but not revenge thee dear.

Boling. Oh, let no noble eye profane a tear
For me, if I be gor'd with Mowbray's spear:
As confident, as is the faulcon's flight

Against a bird, do I with Mowbray fight.—
My loving lord, I take my leave of you;-
50 Of you, my noble cousin, lord Aumerle ;-
Not sick, although I have to do with death;
But lusty, young, and chearly drawing breath.—
Lo, as at English feasts, so I'regreet
The daintiest last, to make the end most sweet:
Oh thou, the earthly author of my blood,—
[To Gaunt.
Whose youthful spirit, in me regenerate,
Doth with a two-fold vigour lift me up
To reach at victory above my head,-
60 Add proof unto mine armour with thy prayers;
And with thy blessings steel my lance's point,
That it may enter Mowbray's waxen 'coat,

Mr. Steevens observes on this passage, that "waren may mean either soft, and consequently penetrable, or flexible. The brigandines or coats of mail, then in use, were composed of small pieces of steel quilted over one another, and yet so flexible as to accommodate the dress they form to every motion of the body."

And

Act 1, Scene 3.]

KING RICHARD II.

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Be swift like lightning in the execution;
And let thy blows, doubly redoubled,
Fall like amazing thunder on the casque
Of thy adverse pernicious enemy:

Rouze up thy youthful blood, be valiant and live.
Boling. Mine innocency, and saint George to
thrive!

Mowb. However heaven, or fortune, cast my [throne, lot, There lives, or dies, true to king Richard's A loyal, just, and upright gentleman: Never did captive with a freer heart

Cast off his chains of bondage, and embrace
His golden uncontroul'd enfranchisement,
More than my dancing soul doth celebrate
This feast of battle with nine adversary.-
Most mighty liege,-and my companion peers,-
Take from my mouth the wish of happy years:
As gentle, and as jocund, as to jest',
Gol to fight; truth hath a quiet breast.

K. Rich. Farewel, my lord: securely I espy
Virtue with valour couched in thine eye.-
Order the trial, Marshal, and begin.

5

And for our eyes do hate the dire aspect [swords;
Of civil wounds plough'd up with neighbours,
['And for we think, the eagle-winged pride

Of sky-aspiring and ambitious thoughts,
With rival-hating envy, set you on

To wake our peace, which in our country's cradle
Draws the sweet infant breath of gentle sleep ;]
Which so rouz'd up with boisterous untun'd drums,
And harsh-resounding trumpets' dreadful bray,
10 And grating shock of wrathful iron arms,
Might from our quiet confines fright fair peace,
And make us wade even in our kindred's blood,-
Therefore, we banish you our territories.-
You, cousin Hereford, upon pain of death,
15Till twice five summers have enrich'd our fields,
Shall not regreet our fair dominious,
But tread the stranger paths of banishment.
Boling. Your will be done: This must my
[me;
comfort be,--
That sun, that warms you here, shall shine on
And those his golden beams, to you here lent,
Shall point on me, and gild my banishment.

20

Mar. Harry oflIereford, Lancaster, and Derby, Receive thy lance; and heaven defend the right! Boling. Strong as a tower in hope, I cry-Amen. 30 Mur. Go bear this lance to Thomas duke of

Norfolk.

[by,

K.Rich.Norfolk, for thee remains a heavierdoom, Which I with some unwillingness pronounce: 25 The fly-slow hours shall not determinate The dateless limit of thy dear exile;The hopeless word of never to return, Breathe I against thee, upon pain of life. Mowb. A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege, And all unlook'd for from your highness' mouth; A dearer merit, not so deep a maim As to be cast forth in the common air, Have I deserved at your highness' hand. The language I have learn'd these forty years, My native English, now I must forego: And now my tongue's use is to me no more Than an unstringed viol, or a harp; Or like a cunning instrument cas'd up, Or, being open, put into his hands That knows no touch to tune the harmony. Within my mouth you have engaol'd my tongue, Doubly portcullis'd with my teeth and lips; And dull, unfeeling, barren ignorance Is made my gaoler to attend on me. Attendingbutthesignaltobegin.[Achargesounded 45 I am too old to fawn upon a nurse,

1 Her. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Der-
Stands here for God, his sovereign, and himself,
On pain to be found false and recreant,
To prove the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray,
A traitor to his God, his king, and him,
And dares him to set forward to the fight.

35

2Her. Here standeth Thomas Mowbray, duke of
On pain to be found false and recreant, [Norfolk, 40
Both to defend himself, and to approve
Henry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
To God, his sovereign, and to him, disloyal;
Courageously, and with a free desire,

Mar. Sound, trumpets; and set forward, com

batants.

Stay, the king has thrown his warder2 down.

K. Rich. Let them lay by their helmets, and

their spears,

And both return back to their chairs again:-
Withdraw with us; and let the trumpets sound,
While we return these dukes what we decree.-

[A long flourish; after which, the king
speaks to the combatants.

Draw near,
And list, what with our council we have done.
For that our kingdom's earth should not be soil'd
With the dear blood which it hath fostered,

Too far in years to be a pupil now;

What is thy sentence then, but speechless death,
Whichrobsmytonguefrom breathing nativebreath?

K. Rich. It boots thee not to be compassionate; 50 After our sentence, plaining comes too late. Mob. Then thus I turn me from my country's light,

To dwell in solemn shades of endless night.

K. Rich. Returnagain, and take an oathwith thee.
55 Lay on our royal sword your banish'd hands;
Swear by the duty that you owe to heaven,
Our part therein we banish with yourselves)
To keep the oath that we administer:-
You never shall (so help you truth and heaven!)

'Mr. Farmer remarks, that to jest sometimes signifies in old language to play a part in a mask. 2 A + Instead of merit Dr. warder appears to have been a kind of truncheon carried by the person who presided at these single combats. Mr. Pope restored these five verses from the first edition of 1598. Johnson proposes to read, "a dearer meed," or reward-have I deserved, &c. plaintive.

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Embrace each other's love in banishment;
Nor ever look upon each other's face;
Nor ever write, regreet, nor reconcile
This lowering tempest of your home-bred hate;
Nor never by advised purpose meet,
To plot, contrive, or complot any ill,
'Gainst us, our state, our subjects, or our land.
Boling. I swear.

Mowb. And I, to keep all this.

JBut you gave leave to my unwilling tongue,
Against my will, to do myself this wrong:
A partial slander sought I to avoid,
And in the sentence my own life destroy'd. [so;
K. Rich. Cousin, farewel:--and, uncle, bid him
Six years we banish him, and he shall go.[Flourish.
[Exit.

Aum. Cousin, farewel: what presence must not
From where you do remain, let papershow.[know,
Mar. My lord, no leave take 1; for I will ride,
As far as land will let me, by your side. [words,
Guunt. Oh, to what purpose dost thou hoard thy
That thou return'st no greeting to thy friends?
Boling. I have too few to take my leave of you,
15 When the tongue's office should be prodigal
To breathe the abundant dolour of the heart.

Boling. Norfolk, -so far as to mine enemy!;-10
By this time, had the king permitted us,
One of our souls had wander'd in the air,
Banish'd this frail sepulchre of our flesh,
As now our flesh is banish'd from this land:
Confess thy treasons, ere thou fly this realm;
Since thou hast far to go, bear not along
The clogging burthen of a guilty soul.

Mowb. No, Bolingbroke; if ever I were traitor,
My name be blotted from the book of life,
And I from heaven banish'd, as from hence!
But what thou art, heaven, thou, and I do know;
And all too soon, I fear, the king shall rue.—
Farewel, my liege:-Now no way can I stray;
Save back to England, all the world's my way.

20

[Exit. 25

K. Rich. Uncle, even in the glasses of thine eyes
I see thy grieved heart: thy sad aspect
Hath from the number of his banish'd years
Pluck'd four away;-Six frozen winters spent,

[To Boling. 30

Return with welcome home from banishment.
Boling. How long a time lies in one little word!
Four lagging winters, and four wanton springs,
End in a word: Such is the breath of kings.

35

Gaunt. I thank my liege, that in regard of me,
He shortens four years of my son's exile:
But little vantage shall I reap thereby;
For, ere the six years that he hath to spend,
Canchange their moons, and bring their times about,
My oil-dry'd lamp, and time-bewasted light,
Shall be extinct with age, and endless night;
My inch of taper will be burnt and done,
And blindfold death not let me see my son.
K. Rich. Why, uncle, thou hast many years to live.
Gaunt. But not a minute,king,that thou can'st give. 45
Shorten my days thou can'st with sullen sorrow,
And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow:
Thou can'st help time to furrow me with age,
But stop no wrinkle in his pilgrimage;
Thy word is current with him for my death;
But, dead, thy kingdom cannot buy my breath.
K. Rich. Thy son is banish'd upon good advice,
Whereto thy tongue a party-verdict gave;
Why at our justice seem'st thou then tolour? [sour.

Gaunt. Things sweet to taste, prove in digestion
You urg'd me as a judge; but I had rather,
You would have bid me argue like a father:--
O, had it been a stranger, not my child,

To smooth his fault I would have been more mild;
Alas, I look'd, when some of you should say,
I was too strict, to make mine own away;

Dr. Johnson understands this passage thus: to mine enemy, I now utter my last words with the reproach of partiality.

Gaunt. Thy grief is but thy absence for a time.
Boling. Joy absent, griefis present for that time.
Gaunt. What is six winters? they are quicklygone.
Boling. To men in joy; but grief makes one
hour ten.
[sure.
Gaunt. Call it a travel that thou tak'st for plea-
Boling. My heart will sigh, when I miscall it so,
Which finds it an enforced pilgrimage.

Gaunt. The sullen passage of thy weary steps
Esteem a foil, wherein thou art to set
The precious jewel of thy home-return.

Boling.Nay, rather everytedious stride Imake
Will but remember me, what a deal of world
wander from the jewels that I love.
Must I not serve a long apprenticehood
To foreign passages; and in the end,
Having my freedom, boast of nothing else,
But that I was a journeyman to grief?

Gaunt. All places that the eye of heaven visits,
Are to a wise man ports and happy havens :
Teach thy necessity to reason thus;

There is no virtue like necessity.
Think not, the king did banish thee;
40 But thou the king! Woe doth the heavier sit,
Where it perceives it is but faintly borne.
Go say-I sent thee forth to purchase honour,
And not-the king exil'd thee: or suppose,
Devouring pestilence hangs in our air,
And thou art flying to a fresher clime.
Look, what thy soul holds dear, imagine it
Toliethat way thou go'st, not whence thou com'st:
Suppose the singing birds, musicians; [strow'd;
The grass whereon thou tread'st, the presence
50 The flowers, fair ladies; and thy steps, no more
Than a delightful measure or a dance:
For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite
The man that mocks at it, and sets it light.
Boling. Oh, who can hold a fire in his hand,
By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?
Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite,
By bare imagination of a feast?
Or wallow naked in December snow,
By thinking on fantastic summer's heat?
60Oh, no! the apprehension of the good

55

Gives but the greater feeling to the worse:

"Norfolk, so far I have addressed myself to thee as kindness and tenderness, confess thy treasons.” 2i. e.

11

Fell

Act 2. Scene 1.]

KING RICHARD II.

Fell sorrow's tooth doth never rankle more,
Than when it bites, but lanceth not the sore.
Gaunt. Come, come, my son, I'll bring thee on
thy way:

Had I thy youth and cause, I would not stay.
Boling. Then, England's ground, farewel; sweet
soil, adieu;

My mother and my nurse, that bears me yet!
Where-e'er I wander, boast of this I can,-
Though banish'd, yet a true-born Englishman.

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The Court.

[Exeunt.

5

How he did seem to dive into their hearts,
With humble and familiar courtesy;
What reverence he did throw away on slaves;
Wooing poor craftsmen with the craft of smiles,
And patient underbearing of his fortune,
As 'twere, to banish their effects with him.
Off goes his bonnet to an oyster-wench;

A brace of dray-men bid-God speed him well,
And had the tribute of his supple knee, [friends;"-
10 With- Thanks, my countrymen, my loving
As were our England in réversion his,

64

And he our subjects' next degree in hope.
Green. Well, he is gone; and with him go
these thoughts.

Enter King Richard, and Bugot, &c. at one door, 15 Now for the rebels, which stand out in Ireland;and the Lord Aumerle at the other.

K. Rich. We did observe.-Cousin Aumerle, How far brought you high Hereford on his way? Aum. I brought high Hereford, if you call

him so,

But to the next high-way, and there I left him.
K. Rich. And say, what store of parting tears
[wind,
were shed?
Aum. 'Faith, none by me: except the north-east
Which then blew bitterly against our faces,
Awak'd the sleepy rheum; and so, by chance,
Did grace our hollow parting with a tear.

K. Rich. What said our cousin, when you
parted with him?

Aum. Farewel:

Expedient manage must be made, my liege;
Ere further leisure yield them further means,
For their advantage, and your highness' loss.

K. Rich. We will ourself in person to this war.
20 And, for our coffers-with too great a court,
And liberal largess-are grown somewhat light,
We are enforc'd to farm our royal realm;
The revenue whereof shall furnish us
For our affairs in hand: If that come short,
25 Our substitutes at home shall have blank charters;
Whereto, when they shall know what men are
rich,

They shall subscribe them for large sums of gold, And send them after to supply our wants; 30 For we will make for Ireland presently.

And for my heart disdained that my tongue
Should so prophane the word, that taught me craft
To counterfeit oppression of such grief,
That word seem'd buried in my sorrow's grave.
Marry, would the word farewel have lengthen'd 35

hours,

And added years to his short banishment,
He should have had a volume of farewels;
But since it would not, he had none of me.

Enter Bushy.

K. Rich. Bushy, what news?

[lord:

Bushy. Old John of Gaunt is grievous sick, my
Suddenly taken; and hath sent post-haste,
To intreat your majesty to visit him.
K. Rich. Where lies he?

Bushy. At Ely-house.

[mind,

K. Rich. Now put it, heaven, in his physician's

K. Rich. He is our cousin, cousin; but 'tis 40 To help him to his grave immediately!

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