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, The old copies read band instead of bond. The former is right. 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 High-stomach'd are they both, and full of ire, 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, 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, 5-right-drawn-] Drawn in a right or just cause. JOHNSON. Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps, BOLING. Pale trembling coward, there I throw my gage, Disclaiming here the kindred of a king; Nor. I take it up; and, by that fword I swear, 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: "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." |