King Richard The Second

1 Enter King Richard, John of Gaunt, with other Nobles and Attendants.
2 KING RICHARD.
3 Old John of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster,
4 Hast thou, according to thy oath and band,
5 Brought hither Henry Hereford, thy bold son,
6 Here to make good the boist’rous late appeal,
7 Which then our leisure would not let us hear,
8 Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?
9 GAUNT.
10 I have, my liege.
11 KING RICHARD.
12 Tell me, moreover, hast thou sounded him
13 If he appeal the Duke on ancient malice,
14 Or worthily, as a good subject should,
15 On some known ground of treachery in him?
16 GAUNT.
17 As near as I could sift him on that argument,
18 On some apparent danger seen in him
19 Aimed at your Highness, no inveterate malice.
20 KING RICHARD.
21 Then call them to our presence. Face to face
22 And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear
23 The accuser and the accused freely speak.
24 High-stomached are they both and full of ire,
25 In rage, deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.
26 Enter Bolingbroke and Mowbray.
27 BOLINGBROKE.
28 Many years of happy days befall
29 My gracious sovereign, my most loving liege!
30 MOWBRAY.
31 Each day still better other’s happiness
32 Until the heavens, envying earth’s good hap,
33 Add an immortal title to your crown!
34 KING RICHARD.
35 We thank you both. Yet one but flatters us,
36 As well appeareth by the cause you come,
37 Namely, to appeal each other of high treason.
38 Cousin of Hereford, what dost thou object
39 Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?
40 BOLINGBROKE.
41 First—heaven be the record to my speech!—
42 In the devotion of a subject’s love,
43 Tend’ring the precious safety of my prince,
44 And free from other misbegotten hate,
45 Come I appellant to this princely presence.
46 Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee,
47 And mark my greeting well; for what I speak
48 My body shall make good upon this earth,
49 Or my divine soul answer it in heaven.
50 Thou art a traitor and a miscreant,
51 Too good to be so and too bad to live,
52 Since the more fair and crystal is the sky,
53 The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly.
54 Once more, the more to aggravate the note,
55 With a foul traitor’s name stuff I thy throat,
56 And wish, so please my sovereign, ere I move,
57 What my tongue speaks, my right-drawn sword may prove.
58 MOWBRAY.
59 Let not my cold words here accuse my zeal.
60 ’Tis not the trial of a woman’s war,
61 The bitter clamour of two eager tongues,
62 Can arbitrate this cause betwixt us twain;
63 The blood is hot that must be cooled for this.
64 Yet can I not of such tame patience boast
65 As to be hushed and naught at all to say.
66 First, the fair reverence of your highness curbs me
67 From giving reins and spurs to my free speech,
68 Which else would post until it had returned
69 These terms of treason doubled down his throat.
70 Setting aside his high blood’s royalty,
71 And let him be no kinsman to my liege,
72 I do defy him, and I spit at him,
73 Call him a slanderous coward and a villain;
74 Which to maintain, I would allow him odds
75 And meet him, were I tied to run afoot
76 Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps,
77 Or any other ground inhabitable
78 Wherever Englishman durst set his foot.
79 Meantime let this defend my loyalty:
80 By all my hopes, most falsely doth he lie.
81 BOLINGBROKE.
82 Pale trembling coward, there I throw my gage,
83 Disclaiming here the kindred of the King,
84 And lay aside my high blood’s royalty,
85 Which fear, not reverence, makes thee to except.
86 If guilty dread have left thee so much strength
87 As to take up mine honour’s pawn, then stoop.
88 By that and all the rites of knighthood else,
89 Will I make good against thee, arm to arm,
90 What I have spoke or thou canst worst devise.
91 MOWBRAY.
92 I take it up; and by that sword I swear
93 Which gently laid my knighthood on my shoulder,
94 I’ll answer thee in any fair degree
95 Or chivalrous design of knightly trial.
96 And when I mount, alive may I not light
97 If I be traitor or unjustly fight!
98 KING RICHARD.
99 What doth our cousin lay to Mowbray’s charge?
100 It must be great that can inherit us
101 So much as of a thought of ill in him.
102 BOLINGBROKE.
103 Look what I speak, my life shall prove it true:
104 That Mowbray hath received eight thousand nobles
105 In name of lendings for your highness’ soldiers,
106 The which he hath detained for lewd employments,
107 Like a false traitor and injurious villain.
108 Besides I say, and will in battle prove,
109 Or here or elsewhere to the furthest verge
110 That ever was surveyed by English eye,
111 That all the treasons for these eighteen years
112 Complotted and contrived in this land
113 Fetch from false Mowbray their first head and spring.
114 Further I say, and further will maintain
115 Upon his bad life to make all this good,
116 That he did plot the Duke of Gloucester’s death,
117 Suggest his soon-believing adversaries,
118 And consequently, like a traitor coward,
119 Sluiced out his innocent soul through streams of blood,
120 Which blood, like sacrificing Abel’s, cries
121 Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth
122 To me for justice and rough chastisement.
123 And, by the glorious worth of my descent,
124 This arm shall do it, or this life be spent.
125 KING RICHARD.
126 How high a pitch his resolution soars!
127 Thomas of Norfolk, what sayst thou to this?
128 MOWBRAY.
129 O! let my sovereign turn away his face
130 And bid his ears a little while be deaf,
131 Till I have told this slander of his blood
132 How God and good men hate so foul a liar.
133 KING RICHARD.
134 Mowbray, impartial are our eyes and ears.
135 Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom’s heir,
136 As he is but my father’s brother’s son,
137 Now, by my sceptre’s awe I make a vow
138 Such neighbour nearness to our sacred blood
139 Should nothing privilege him nor partialize
140 The unstooping firmness of my upright soul.
141 He is our subject, Mowbray; so art thou.
142 Free speech and fearless I to thee allow.
143 MOWBRAY.
144 Then, Bolingbroke, as low as to thy heart,
145 Through the false passage of thy throat, thou liest.
146 Three parts of that receipt I had for Calais
147 Disbursed I duly to his highness’ soldiers;
148 The other part reserved I by consent,
149 For that my sovereign liege was in my debt
150 Upon remainder of a dear account
151 Since last I went to France to fetch his queen.
152 Now swallow down that lie. For Gloucester’s death,
153 I slew him not, but to my own disgrace
154 Neglected my sworn duty in that case.
155 For you, my noble Lord of Lancaster,
156 The honourable father to my foe,
157 Once did I lay an ambush for your life,
158 A trespass that doth vex my grieved soul;
159 But ere I last received the sacrament
160 I did confess it and exactly begged
161 Your Grace’s pardon, and I hope I had it.
162 This is my fault. As for the rest appealed,
163 It issues from the rancour of a villain,
164 A recreant and most degenerate traitor,
165 Which in myself I boldly will defend,
166 And interchangeably hurl down my gage
167 Upon this overweening traitor’s foot,
168 To prove myself a loyal gentleman
169 Even in the best blood chambered in his bosom.
170 In haste whereof most heartily I pray
171 Your highness to assign our trial day.
172 KING RICHARD.
173 Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be ruled by me.
174 Let’s purge this choler without letting blood.
175 This we prescribe, though no physician;
176 Deep malice makes too deep incision.
177 Forget, forgive, conclude and be agreed;
178 Our doctors say this is no month to bleed.
179 Good uncle, let this end where it begun;
180 We’ll calm the Duke of Norfolk, you your son.
181 GAUNT.
182 To be a make-peace shall become my age.
183 Throw down, my son, the Duke of Norfolk’s gage.
184 KING RICHARD.
185 And, Norfolk, throw down his.
186 GAUNT.
187 When, Harry, when?
188 Obedience bids I should not bid again.
189 KING RICHARD.
190 Norfolk, throw down, we bid; there is no boot.
191 MOWBRAY.
192 Myself I throw, dread sovereign, at thy foot.
193 My life thou shalt command, but not my shame.
194 The one my duty owes; but my fair name,
195 Despite of death that lives upon my grave,
196 To dark dishonour’s use thou shalt not have.
197 I am disgraced, impeached, and baffled here,
198 Pierced to the soul with slander’s venomed spear,
199 The which no balm can cure but his heart-blood
200 Which breathed this poison.
201 KING RICHARD.
202 Rage must be withstood.
203 Give me his gage. Lions make leopards tame.
204 MOWBRAY.
205 Yea, but not change his spots. Take but my shame,
206 And I resign my gage. My dear dear lord,
207 The purest treasure mortal times afford
208 Is spotless reputation; that away,
209 Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.
210 A jewel in a ten-times-barred-up chest
211 Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast.
212 Mine honour is my life; both grow in one.
213 Take honour from me, and my life is done.
214 Then, dear my liege, mine honour let me try;
215 In that I live, and for that will I die.
216 KING RICHARD.
217 Cousin, throw up your gage; do you begin.
218 BOLINGBROKE.
219 O, God defend my soul from such deep sin!
220 Shall I seem crest-fallen in my father’s sight?
221 Or with pale beggar-fear impeach my height
222 Before this outdared dastard? Ere my tongue
223 Shall wound my honour with such feeble wrong
224 Or sound so base a parle, my teeth shall tear
225 The slavish motive of recanting fear
226 And spit it bleeding in his high disgrace,
227 Where shame doth harbour, even in Mowbray’s face.
228 [_Exit Gaunt._]
229 KING RICHARD.
230 We were not born to sue, but to command;
231 Which since we cannot do to make you friends,
232 Be ready, as your lives shall answer it,
233 At Coventry upon Saint Lambert’s day.
234 There shall your swords and lances arbitrate
235 The swelling difference of your settled hate.
236 Since we cannot atone you, we shall see
237 Justice design the victor’s chivalry.
238 Lord Marshal, command our officers-at-arms
239 Be ready to direct these home alarms.
240 [_Exeunt._]