And free from other misbegotten hate,

Come I appellant to this princely presence.—
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 soul 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 seem 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 sovereign) ere I move,

What my tongue speaks, my right-drawn sword 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 such tame patience boast,
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 else would post, until it had return'd
These terms of treason doubled down his throat.
Setting aside his high blood's royalty,
And let him be no kinsman to my liege,

I do defy him, and I spit at him;

Call him a slanderous coward, and a villain :
Which to maintain I would allow him odds,
And meet him, were I tied to run a-foot
Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps,
Or any other ground inhabitable

4

doubled-] So every quarto: the folio, 1623, doubly.

Or any other ground INHABITABLE] i. e. uninhabitable: so used by Ben Jonson, Donne, and other writers of the time. The following passage occurs in VOL. IV.

I

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'.
Nor. 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 receiv'd eight thousand nobles,

T. Heywood's "General History of Women," fo. 1624 :-" Where all the country was scorched by the heat of the sun, and the place almost inhabitable for the multitude of serpents."

6

kindred of THE king ;] The editions after the quarto, 1597, read “kindred of a king ;" but Bolingbroke, of course, refers to the king before whom he stood, and whose "kinsman " Norfolk had just said that he was.

7 What I have spoke, or thou canst worse devise.] So the quarto, 1597. Quarto, 1598, "What I have spoke, or thou canst devise." Quartos, 1608 and 1615, "What I have spoke, or what thou canst devise." Folio, 1623, "What I have spoken, or thou canst devise."

8 And, when I mount, alive may I not light,] The quartos of 1608 and 1615 repeat the word "alive."

9 Look, what I SPEAK-] This is the reading of the earliest quarto, that of 1597: the other quartos and the first folio have said for "speak." "Speak," in the present tense, seems the more proper, as it refers to the particular accusations Bolingbroke is about to bring against Mowbray.

In name of lendings for your highness' soldiers,
The which he hath detain'd for lewd employments'
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. Farther, I say, and farther will maintain

Upon his bad life to make all this good,

That he did plot the duke of Gloster's death;

Suggest his soon-believing adversaries',

And, consequently, like a traitor coward,

Sluic'd 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?

Nor. 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,
Now by my sceptre's awe I make a vow,
Such neighbour nearness to our sacred blood
Should nothing privilege him, nor partialize

10

for LEWD employments,] i. e. for wicked purposes: this is one of the old senses of "lewd." See Vol. ii. p. 267, note 2.

11 FETCH from false Mowbray-] All editions, after the first of 1597, read fetch'd. Lower down, "my kingdom's heir" is printed only in the folio our.

1 SUGGEST his soon-believing adversaries ;] In Shakespeare, to "suggest usually means to tempt. See Vol. ii. p. 288; iii. p. 264. 296.

The unstooping firmness of my upright soul.
He is our subject, Mowbray, so art thou:
Free speech and fearless, I to thee allow.

Nor. 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,
Disburs'd I duly2 to his highness' soldiers:
The other part reserv'd 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 Gloster's death,
I slew him not; but to mine 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 receiv'd the sacrament,
I did confess it, and exactly begg'd

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 gentleman, be rul'd by me3.

2 Disburs'd I DULY — "Duly" is only in 4to, 1597. The necessity of the word for the completeness of the verse is obvious.

3 Wrath-kindled GENTLEMAN, be rul'd by me ;] So all the quartos; the king addressing himself to Norfolk, who had just concluded his angry speech. The folio reads gentlemen; but Bolingbroke, merely as the accuser, was not so properly" wrath-kindled," and, moreover, had had time to cool.

Let's purge this choler without letting blood:
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 bleed3.-
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? when1? Obedience bids, I should not bid again.

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

boot.

Nor. 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, To dark dishonour's use thou shalt not have. I am disgrac'd, impeach'd, and baffled here; Pierc'd to the soul with slander's venom'd spear; The which no balm can cure, but his heart-blood Which breath'd this poison.

K. Rich.

Rage must be withstood. Give me his gage :-lions make leopards tame.

Nor. Yea, but not change his spots: take but my shame,

3 Our doctors say this is no MONTH to bleed.] This line, and three others preceding it, are quoted in a MS. of the time in my hands. It may be worth noting, that the line,

"Deep malice makes too deep incision,"

is there omitted, supporting Pope's notion, that the rhyming lines are not always necessary to the intelligibility of the context. The folio, 1623, contrary to all the earlier printed authorities, and my MS., has time instead of "month."

When, Harry? when ?] This expression of impatience is followed, in all the old copies, quarto and folio, by the words "obedience bids," as the conclusion of the line, though the same words begin the next line. They are surplusage, as is obvious both from the sense and the rhyme. "When, Harry? when?" is the conclusion of the line commenced by the king with " And, Norfolk, throw down his."