Which to maintain I would allow him odds,
And meet him, were I tied to run afoot
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 the king,
And lay aside my high blood's royalty,
Which fear, not reverence, makes thee to except.
If guilty dread have 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 canst worse devise.
Mow. I take it up; and by that sword I swear,
Which gently laid 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 cousin lay to Mowbray's charge?

It must be great that can inherit us

So much as of a thought of ill in him.

Boling. Look, what I speak, my life shall prove it true;

That Mowbray hath received eight thousand nobles

In name of lendings for your highness' soldiers,

65. inhabitable, 'un- habitable,' uninhabitable.

74. pawn, pledge.

80. in any fair degree, in any way becoming me.

70

80

81. design, enterprise, ac

tion.

85. inherit, possess. 89. In name of lendings, as money entrusted to him.

2

The which he hath detain'd for lewd employments, 90
Like a false traitor and injurious villain.
Besides I say and will in battle prove,

Or here or elsewhere to the furthest 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

3

Upon his bad life to make all this good,

That he did plot the Duke of Gloucester's death,
Suggest his soon-believing adversaries,
And consequently, like a traitor coward,

Sluiced out his innocent soul through streams of
blood:

Which blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries,
Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth,
To me for justice and rough chastisement;
And, by the glorious worth of my descent,
This arm shall do it, or this life be spent.

K. Rich. How high a pitch his resolution soars !
Thomas of Norfolk, what say'st thou to this?
Mow. O, let my sovereign turn away his face
And bid his ears a little while be deaf,
Till I have told this slander of his blood,
How God and good men hate so foul a liar.

K. Rich. Mowbray, impartial are our eyes and

ears:

Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom's heir,
As he is but my father's brother's son,

100. the Duke of Gloucester,
Thomas of Woodstock, youngest
son of Edward III., and uncle
of Richard and of Bolingbroke.
Mowbray was, in reality, him-
self concerned, with Gloucester

and with Bolingbroke, in a plot to seize the king (June 1397); he betrayed it to Richard, and was charged to put Gloucester to death.

101. Suggest, seduce.

Now, by my sceptre's awe, I make a vow,
Such neighbour nearness to our sacred blood
Should nothing privilege him, nor partialize
The unstooping firmness of my upright soul:
He is our subject, Mowbray; so art thou:
Free speech and fearless I to thee allow.

Mow. Then, Bolingbroke, as low as to thy
heart,

Through the false passage of thy throat, thou liest.
Three parts of that receipt I had for Calais
Disbursed I duly to his highness' soldiers;
The other part reserved I by consent,
For that my sovereign liege was in my debt
Upon remainder of a dear account,

Since last I went to France to fetch his queen :
Now swallow down that lie. For Gloucester's

death,

I slew him not; but to my own disgrace
Neglected my sworn duty in that case.
For you, my noble Lord of Lancaster,
The honourable father to my foe,
Once did I lay an ambush for your life,
A trespass that doth vex my grieved soul;
But ere I last received the sacrament
I did confess it, and exactly begg'd

119. neighbour nearness, close kinship.

126. receipt, money committed

to me.

130. dear, large, heavy. 131. his queen, Richard's second queen, Isabel,

132, 133. For Gloucester's death, etc. In Holinshed Mowbray ignores this charge. A previous page of his Chronicle (iii. 489) relates that Mowbray had unwillingly, and only under

120

130

140

threats, carried out Richard's own order for his death. He had thus neglected his sworn duty' to his sovereign. According to Mowbray's own account to Bagot, as told by him after Richard's death (Hol. iii. 511), he had saved Gloucester's life 'for three weeks and more,' in defiance of Richard's order and at peril of his life: the murder being finally carried out by persons expressly despatched by Richard to see it done.'

Your grace's pardon, and I hope I had it.
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 overweening 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. Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be ruled by

me;

Let's purge this choler without letting bload :
This we prescribe, though no physician;
Deep malice makes too deep incision;
Forget, forgive; conclude and be agreed;
Our doctors say this is no month 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.
K. Rich. And, Norfolk, throw down his.

Gaunt.

When, Harry, when? Obedience bids I should not bid again.

K. Rich. Norfolk, throw down, we bid; there is no boot.

Mow. Myself I throw, dread sovereign, at thy foot.

My life thou shalt command, but not my shame:
The one my duty owes; but my fair name,
Despite of death that lives upon my grave,

157. no month to bleed. Certain seasons of the year were prescribed in the old medical al

150

160

manacs as proper for 'bleeding.' 168. i.e. that lives, despite of death,' etc.

To dark dishonour's use thou shalt not have.
I am disgraced, impeach'd and baffled here,
Pierced to the soul with slander's venom'd spear,
The which no balm can cure but his heart-blood
Which breathed this poison.

K. Rich.

Rage must be withstood:

Give me his gage: lions make leopards tame.

Mow. Yea, but not change his 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.

170

130

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 up your gage; do you begin.

Boling. O, God defend my soul from such deep
sin!

Shall I seem crest-fall'n in my father's sight?
Or with pale beggar-fear impeach my height
Before this out-dared dastard? Ere my tongue
Shall wound my 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 shame doth harbour, even in Mowbray's

face.

170. baffled, ignominiously punished, like a recreant knight. 189. impeach my height, detract from my high dignity.

190. out-dared, cowed down.

[Exit Gaunt.

190

191. feeble wrong, one that implies weakness in the man who submits to it.

193. motive, instrument (viz. his tongue).