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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

us,

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 speech!)
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 fhall 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 wish, (fo please my fovereign) ere I move,
What my tongue fpeaks, my right-drawn fword may

prove.

Mowb. Let not my cold words here accufe my
'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 juft caufe.

zeal;

JOHNSON.

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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 reverence of your highnefs curbs me,
From giving reins and fpurs to my free fpecoh;
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 himi-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 inhabitable

7

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
gage,

Difclaiming 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 spoke, or thou canst worse devife.
Mowb. I take it up; and, by that sword I swear,
Which gently lay'd my knighthood on my shoulder,
I'll answer thee in any fair degree,

7-inhabitable,] That is, not babitable, uninhabitable. JOHNSON, Ben Jonfon ufes the word in the fame fenfe in his Catiline :

"And pour'd on some 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.

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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 fhall

true;

prove

it

That Mowbray hath receiv'd eight thoufand nobles,
In name of lendings for your highness' 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,

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Fetch from falfe Mowbray their firft head and fpring,
Further I fav,-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 chaftifement;
And, by the glorious worth of my defcent,
This arm thall do it, or this life be fpent.

And when I mount, alive may I not light,】
The quartos 1608, and 1615, read:

9

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:

6.6

fuch delight

"Among fresh female buds fhall you this night
"Eberit at my houfe." STEEVENS.

KA

K. Rich.

K. Rich. How high a pitch his refolution foars! Thomas of Norfolk, what fay'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 falfe 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 laft I went to France to fetch his queen:

Now fwallow down that lie.. -For Glofter's

death,

I flew him not; but, to mine own disgrace,
Neglected my fworn duty in that cafe.-
For you, my noble lord of Lancaster,
The honourable father to my foe,-
Once did I lay an ambush for your life,
A trefpafs 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,

2

-my Scepter's ave -] The reverence due to my fcepter.

JOHNSON.

It

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

me;

Let's purge this choler without letting blood:
This we prescribe, though no physician;
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 begun;
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.

gage.

2 This we preferibe, though no phyfician; &c.] I must make one remark, in general, on the rhymes throughout this whole play; they are fo much inferior to the reft 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 bet ter) connect without the inferted rhymes, except in a very few places; and juft there too, the rhyming verfes are of a much better tafte than all the others, which rather strengthens 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.

Gaunt

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