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THE LIFE AND DEATH OF

KING RICHARD II.

ACT I. SCENE I.

London. A Room in the Palace.

Enter King RICHARD, attended; JOHN of GAUNT, and other Nobles, with him.

K. RICH. Old John of Gaunt, time-honour'd

Lancaster,

Haft thou, according to thy oath and band,4 Brought hither Henry Hereford thy bold fon; Here to make good the boifterous late appeal, Which then our leifure would not let us hear, Against the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray? GAUNT. I have, my liege.

*thy oath and band,] When these publick challenges were accepted, each combatant found a pledge for his appearance at the time and place appointed. So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. IV. c. iii. ft. 3:

"The day was set, that all might understand,
"And pledges pawn'd the fame to keep aright."

The old copies read band instead of bond. The former is right.
So, in The Comedy of Errors:

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My master-is arrested on a band."

STEEVENS.

Band and Bond were formerly synonymous. See note on The Comedy of Errors, Act IV. sc. ii. MALONE.

K. RICH. Tell me moreover, haft thou founded

him,

If he appeal the duke on ancient malice;

Or worthily as a good fubject should,

On fome known ground of treachery in him ?

GAUNT. As near as I could fift him on that ar

gument,

On fome 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 accufer, and the accused, freely speak :-
[Exeunt fome Attendants.

High-stomach'd are they both, and full of ire,
In rage deaf as the fea, hasty as fire.

Re-enter Attendants, with BOLINGBROKE and NORFOLK.

BOLING. May many years of happy days befal My gracious fovereign, 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 come; Namely, to appeal each other of high treafon.Coufin of Hereford, what doft 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 mifbegotten hate,
Come I appellant to this princely prefence.-
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 foul 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 feem 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 fovereign,) ere I move,
What my tongue speaks, my right-drawn 5 fword

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 fuch tame patience boaft,
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 elfe would post, until it had return'd
These terms of treason doubled down his throat.
Setting afide his high blood's royalty,
And let him be no kinsinan to my liege,
I do defy him, and I spit at him ;
Call him a flanderous coward, and a villain :
Which to maintain, I would allow him odds;
And meet him, were I tied to run a-foot

5-right-drawn-] Drawn in a right or just cause.

JOHNSON.

Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps,
Or any other ground inhabitable
Where ever Englishman durst set his foot.
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 a king;
And lay afide 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 canft worse devise.

Nor. I take it up; and, by that fword 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 coufin lay to Mowbray's

charge?

It must be great, that can inherit us7

So much as of a thought of ill in him.

inhabitable,] That is, not habitable, uninhabitable.

JOHNSON.

Ben Jonfon uses the word in the same sense in his Catiline : " And pour'd on some inhabitable place."

Again, in Taylor the water-poet's Short Relation of a long Journey, &c. " - there stands a strong castle, but the town is all spoil'd, and almost inhabitable by the late lamentable troubles." STEEVENS.

So also, Braithwaite, in his Survey of Histories, 1614: "Others, in imitation of some valiant knights, have frequented desarts and inhabited provinces." MALONE.

that can inherit us &c.] To inherit is no more than to

BOLING. Look, what I speak my life shall prove

8

it true;That Mowbray hath receiv'd eight thousand nobles, In name of lendings for your highness' foldiers; The which he hath detain'd for lewd employments, Like a false traitor, and injurious villain. Befides I say, and will in battle prove,Or here, or elsewhere, to the furtheft verge That ever was survey'd by English eye,That all the treasons, for these eighteen years Complotted and contrived 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 Glofter's death;9 Suggeft his foon-believing adversaries;1 And, consequently, like a traitor coward,

possess, though such a use of the word may be peculiar to Shak

speare. Again, in Romeo and Juliet, Act I. fc. ji:

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"Among fresh female buds shall you this night

"Inherit at my house." STEEVENS.

See Vol. IV. p. 136, n. 7. MALONE.

8-for lewd employments,] Lewd here signifies wicked.

It is so used in many of our old statutes. MALONE.

It fometimes fignifies-idle.

Thus, in King Richard III:

"But you must trouble him with lewd complaints."

STEEVENS.

the duke of Glofter's death;] Thomas of Woodstock.

the youngest son of Edward III; who was murdered at Calais, in 1397. MALONE.

See Froissart's Chronicle, Vol. II. cap. CC.xxvi. STEEVENS.

I

Suggest his foon-believing adversaries;] i. e. prompt, set

them on by injurious hints. Thus, in The Tempest:

"They'll take fuggeftion, as a cat laps milk."

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