Earl of Northum-friends

berland,

to Bo

Percy, fon to Nor-ling

thumberland, broke.

Sir Pierce ofExton,

Queen to King Richard.
Duchefs of Gloucefter.
Duchefs of York.

Ladies attending on the
Queen

Heralds, two Gardeners, Keeper, Meffenger, Groom, and other Attendants.

SCENE, difperfedly, in feveral parts of England.

A C T I. SCENE İ.

The Court.

Enter King Richard, John of Gaunt, with other Nobles

K. Rich.

O

and attendants.

LD 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?

A 2

Gaunt.

Gaunt, I have, my Liege. vu, te a 15.1" 4.s'

K. Rich. Tell me moreover, haft thou founded him, If he appeal the Duke on ancient malice, LED Or worthily, as a good subject should,

On fome known ground of treachery in him.

Gaunt. As near as I could fift him on that argument, On fome apparent danger seen in him

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

K. Rieb. Then call them to my 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.

S CEN E HI.

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 cause you come;
Namely, t'appeal each other of high treafon.
Coufin of Hereford, what doft thou object
Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?
Boling. First, (Heav'n be the record to my speech!): -
In the devotion of a fubject's love,

Tend'ring 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 speak,
My body shall make good upon this earth,
Or my divine foul anfwer it in heav'n.
Thou art a traitor and a mifcreant. †

* i. e. call, demand. challenge, from appello. Mr. Pope,

a miscreant;

Too good to be fo, and too bad to live;
Since the more fair and cryftal is the fky

The uglier feem the cloulds that in it fly.

Mowb

Олсе

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

The bitter clainour 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 fuch tame patience boast, '
As to be hush'd, and nought at all to fay.
First, the fair rev'rence of your Highness curbs me,
From giving reins and fpurs to my free fpeech;
Which elfe would poft, until it had return'd
These terms of treason 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 fpit 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,
Meantime, let this defend my loyalty;
By all my hopes, moft falfely doth he lye.

[gage,

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

Mowb. I take it up, and by that fword I swear, Which gently laid my knighthood on my fhoulder, 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!

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

What my tos que fpeaks, my right-drawn fword may prove.

Mob. Let not, &c.

K. Rich.

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

Boling. Look what I faid, my life fhall prove it true,
That Mowbray hath received eight thoufand 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, I fay, and will in battle prove,
Or here, or elsewhere, to the furtheft verge
That ever was furvey'd by English eye,
That all the treafons for thefe eighteen years,
Complotted and contrived in this land,

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

And confequently, like a traitor-coward,
Sluce'd out his inn'cent foul through streams of blood
Which blood, like facrificing Abel's, cries
Even from the tonguelefs caverns of the earth,
To me, for juftice, and rough chaftifement.
And, by the glorious worth of my defcent,
This arm shall do it, or this life be spent.

K. Rich. How high a pitch his refolution foars!
Thomas of Norfolk, what fay't thou to this?
Mowb. O, let my Sovereign turn away his face,
And bid his ears a little while be deaf,

Till I have told this flander of his blood,
How God and good men hate fo foul a lyar.

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-nearness to our facred blood
Should nothing priv'lege him, nor partialize
Th' unftooping firmnefs of my upright foul.
He is cur fubject, Mowbray, fo art thou;
Free fpeech and fearless I to thee allow.

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

Three