160917

ASTER. ENCX AND

VIONS.

friends to

Heralds, two Gardner's, Kieper,

Percy, fon to Nor-Bolingbroke.

thumberland,

Mefonger, Groom, and other
Attendants.

SCENE dispersedly, in feveral parts of England.

ACT I. SCENE É AR

The court.

Enter King Richard, John of Gaunt, with other Nobles

and Attendants.

K. Rich. OLD John of Gaunt, time-honour'd

Lancaster,

Haft thou, according to thy oath and bond,
Brought hither Henry Hereford thy bold fon,
Here to make good the boift'rous late appeal,
Which then our leifure would not let us hear,
Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?
VOL. IV.

A

Gaunt.

Gaunt. I have, my Liege.

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 argument, On fome apparent danger feen in him

Aim'd at your Highness; no invet❜rate malice.

K. Rich. Then call them to our prefence; face to face, And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear Th' accufer and th' accufed freely speak: High-ftomach'd are they both, and full of ire; In rage, deaf as the fea; hafty as fire.

SCENE II.

Enter Bolingbroke and Mowbray.

Boling. May many years of happy days befal
My gracious Sovereign, my moft loving Liege!
Mowb. Each day ftill 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 flatters us, As well appeareth by the caufe you come;

Namely, 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 fpeech!)
In the devotion of a subject's love,

Tendring the precious fafety of my prince,
And free from other misbegotten hate,
Come I appellant to this princely prefence.
Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee;
And mark my greeting well; for what I fpeak,
My body fhall make good upon this earth,
Or my divine foul anfwer it in heav'n.
Thou art a traitor and a mifcreant ‡.

Могов.

↑ i. e. Call, demand, challenge, from apello. Mr. Pope.

a mifcreant;

Too good to be fo, and too bad to live;
Since the more fair and crystal is the sky
The uglier feem the clouds that in it fly.

Once

Mowb. Let not my cold words here accufe Tis not the trial of a woman's war,

The bitter clamour of two eager tongues,
Can arbitrate this caufe 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 hufh'd, and nought at all to fay.
First, the fair rev'rence of your Highness curbs me,1
From giving reins and fpurs to my free fpeech;
Which elfe would poft, until it had return'd
Thefe terms of treafon doubled down his throat.
Setting afide his high blood's royalty,
And let him be no kinfman to my Liege,
I do defy him, and I spit at him;

Call him a fland'rous coward, and a villain;
Which to maintain, I would allow him odds,
And meet him, were I ty?d to run 'a-foot
Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps,
Or any other ground unhabitable,
Where never Englishman durft fet his foot.
Mean time, let this defend my loyalty
By all my hopes, moft falfely doth he lie.

Boling. Pale trembling coward, there I throw my gage,
Difclaiming here the kindred of a King,
And lay afide my high blood's royalty;;
(Which fear, not rev'rence, makes thee to accept :)
If guilty dread hath left thee fo much strength,
As to take up mine honour's pawn, then floop.
By that, and all the rights of knighthood elfe,
Will I make good against thee, arm to arm,
What I have fpoken, or thou canst devise.

Mowb. I take it up, and by that fword I swear,
Which gently laid my knighthood on my shoulder,
I'll answer thee in any fair degree,

Or chivalrous defign of knightly trial;
And when I mount, alive may I not light,

If I be traitor, or unjustly fight!

A. 2

Once more, the more to aggravate the note,
With a foul traitor's name ftuff I thy throat;
And wifh, fo please my Sov'reign, ere 1 move,

K. Rich.

What my tongue fpeaks, my right-drawn fword may prove.
Mob. Let not, &c.

K. Rich. What doth our coufin lay to Mowbray's It must be great, that can inhabit us So much as of a thought of ill in him.

[charge?

Boling. Look what I faid, my life fhall prove it
That Mowbray hath receiv'd eight thousand nobles,
In name of lendings for your Highnefs' foldiers,
The which he hath detain❜d for lewd employments,
Like a falfe traitor and injurious villain.
Befides, 1 fay, and will in battle prove,
Or here, or elsewhere, to the furtheft verge
That ever was furveyed by English eye,
That all the treafons for thefe eighteen years,
Complotted and contrived in this land,

true,

Fetch from falfe Mowbray their firft head and fpring.
Further, I fay, and further will maintain
Upon his bad life to make all this good,
That he did plot the Duke of Gloucefter's death;
Suggeft his foon-believing adverfaries;

And confequently, like a traitor-coward,

Sluic'd out his inn'cent foul through streams of blood?
Which blood, like facrificing Abel's, cries

Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth,
To me, for juftice, and rough chastisement.

And, by the glorious worth of my defcent,

This arm fhall do it, or this life be spent.

...K. Rith: Helv-high a pitch his refolution foars!
Thomas of Norfolk, what fay'ft thou to this?
Mob. O, let my Sovereign turn away his face,
And hid his ears a little while be deaf,

Fill I have told this flander of his blood,

How God and good men hate fo foul a liar.

K. Rich. Mowbray, impartial are our eyes and ears. Were he our brother, nay, our kingdom's heir, As he is but our father's brother's fon; Now by my fceptre's awe, I make a vow, Such neighbour-nearnefs to our facred blood Should nothing priv'lege him, nor partialize Th' unftooping firmnefs of my upright foul. He is our fubject, Mowbray, fo art thou; Free speech and fearless I to thee allow.

Mowb. Then, Bolingbroke, as low as to thy heart Through the falfe paffage of thy throat, thou lieft!

Three