Enter Bolingbroke and Mowbray.
Boling. Many years of happy days befal
My gracious fovereign, 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
As well appeareth by the cause you come;
Namely, to appeal each other of high treafon.-
Coufin of Hereford, what doft thou object
Against the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray ?
Boling. Firft (heaven be the record to my fpeech!)
In the devotion of a fubject's love,
Tendering the precious fafety of my prince,
And free from other mifbegotten 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 shall make good upon this earth,
Or my divine foul anfwer it in heaven.
Thou art a traitor, and 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 more, the more to aggravate the note,
With a foul traitor's name ftuff I thy throat;
And wifh, (fo please my fovereign) ere I move,
What my tongue fpeaks, my right-drawn fword may
Mowb. Let not my cold words here accufe my zeal: 'Tis not the trial of a woman's war,
The bitter clamour of two eager tongues,
Can arbitrate this caufe betwixt us twain;
—right-drawn ] Drawn in a right or just cause.
The blood is hot, that must be cool'd for this.
Yet can I not of fuch tame patience boast,
As to be hufh'd, and nought at all to fay:
First, the fair reverence 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 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 fpit at him;
Call him-a flanderous 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 7 inhabitable
Where ever 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
Disclaiming here the kindred of a king;
And lay afide my high blood's royalty,
Which fear, not reverence, 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 rites of knighthood elfe,
Will I make good against thee, arm to arm,
What I have fpoke, or thou canft worfe devife.
Mowb. I take it up; and, by that fword I fwear,
Which gently lay'd my knighthood on my shoulder,
I'll answer thee in any fair degree,
-inhabitable,] That is, not habitable, uninhabitable.
JOHNSON.
Ben Jonfon ufes the word in the fame fenfe in his Catiline: "And pour'd on fome inhabitable place." STEEVENS. So, in Brathwaite's Survey of Hiftories, 1614 "Others, in imitation of fome valiant knights, have frequented defarts and inbabited provinces, echoing in every place their own vanities, endorfing their names on the barkes of trees." MALone.
Or chivalrous defign of knightly trial:
And, when I mount, alive may I not light,
If I be traitor, or unjustly fight!.
K. Rich. What doth our coufin 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 faid, my life shall
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 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 treasons, for these eighteen years
Complotted and contrived in this land,
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 Glofter's death
Suggeft his foon-believing adverfaries;
And, confequently, like a traitor coward,
Sluic'd out his innocent foul through ftreams of blood:
Which blood, like facrificing Abel's, cries,
Even from the tonguelefs caverns of the earth,
To me, for juftice, and rough chastisement;
And, by the glorious worth of my defcent,
This arm shall do it, or this life be spent.
And when I mount, alive may I not light,]
The quartos 1608, and 1615, read :
And when I mount alive, alive may I not light. STEEVENS. that can inherit us &c.] To inherit is no more than to poffefs, though fuch a ufe of the word may be peculiar to Shakefpeare. Again, in Romeo and Juliet, act I. fc. ii:
Among fresh female buds fhall you this night
Inherit at my houfe." STEEVens,
K. Rich. How high a pitch his refolution foars!Thomas of Norfolk, what say'ft thou to this? Mowb. O, let my fovereign 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 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 fon)
Now by my fcepter's awe I make a vow,
Such neighbour nearness to our facred blood
Should nothing privilege him, nor partialize
The unftooping firmnefs of my upright foul:
He is our fubject, Mowbray, fo art thou;
Free fpeech, and fearless, I to thee allow.
Mowb. Then, Bolingbroke, as low as to thy heart, Through the false paffage of thy throat, thou lieft! Three parts of that receipt I had for Calais, Difburs'd I to his highnefs' foldiers;
The other part referv'd I by confent;
For that my fovereign 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.
I flew him not; but, to mine own difgrace,
Neglected my fworn 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 foul :
But, ere I laft receiv'd the facrament,
I did confefs it; and exactly begg'd
Your grace's pardon, and, I hope, I had it.
This is my fault: As for the reft appeal'd,
-my Scepter's awe ] The reverence due to my fcepter.
It iffues 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 over-weening traitor's foot,
To prove myself a loyal gentleman
Even in the best blood chamber'd in his bofom :
In hafte whereof, moft heartily I pray
Your highness to affign our trial day.
K. Rich. Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be rul'd by
Let's purge this choler without letting blood:
This we prescribe, though no phyfician;
Deep malice makes too deep incifion:
Forget, forgive; conclude, and be agreed;
Our doctors fay, this is no time to bleed.-
Good uncle, let this end where it begún;
We'll calm the duke of Norfolk, you your fon.
Gaunt. To be a make-peace fhall become my age:-
Throw down, my fon, the duke of Norfolk's
K. Rich. And, Norfolk, throw down his.
2 This we prefcribe, though no phyfician; &c.] I must make one remark, in general, on the rhymes throughout this whole play; they are so much inferior to the rest of the writing, that they appear to me of a different hand. What confirms this, is, that the context does every where exactly (and frequently much better) connect without the inferted rhymes, except in a very few places; and just there too, the rhyming verfes are of a much better taste than all the others, which rather ftrengthens my conjecture. POPE.
"This obfervation of Mr. Pope's," fays Mr. Edwards, "happens to be very unluckily placed here, because the context, without the inferted rhimes, will not connect at all. Read this paffage as it would stand corrected by this rule, and we fhall find, when the rhiming part of the dialogue is left out, king Richard begins with diffuading them from the duel, and, in the very next fentence, appoints the time and place of their combat."
Mr. Edwards's cenfure is rather hafty; for in the note, to which it refers, it is allowed that fome rhimes must be retained to make out the connection. STEEVENS.
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