THE LIFE AND DEATH OF

KING RICHARD II.

ACT I. SCENE I.

London. A Room in the Palace.

Enter King RICHARD, attended; JOHN of GAUNT, and other Nobles, with him.

K. RICH. Old John of Gaunt, time-honour'd Lancaster,

Haft thou, according to thy oath and band,4 Brought hither Henry Hereford thy bold fon ; Here to make good the boisterous late appeal, Which then our leifure would not let us hear, Against the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray ? GAUNT. I have, my liege.

4thy oath and band,] When these publick challenges were accepted, each combatant found a pledge for his appearance at the time and place appointed. So, in Spenfer's Fairy Queen, B. IV. iii. ft. 3:

C.

"The day was fet, that all might understand, "And pledges pawn'd the fame to keep aright." The old copies read band inftead of bond. The former is right. So, in The Comedy of Errors:

"My mafter-is arrested on a band."

STEEVENS.

Band and Bond were formerly fynonymous. See note on The Comedy of Errors, A& IV. fc. ii. MALONE.

K. RICH. Tell me moreover, haft thou founded

him,

If he appeal the duke on ancient malice;
Or worthily as a good fubject should,

On fome known ground of treachery in him? GAUNT. As near as I could fift him on that argument,

On fome apparent danger feen in him,
Aim'd at your highness, no inveterate malice.
K. RICH. Then call them to our prefence; face

to face,

And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear
The accufer, and the accused, freely speak:-
[Exeunt fome Attendants.
High-stomach'd are they both, and full of ire,
In rage deaf as the fea, hafty as fire.

Re-enter Attendants, with BOLINGBROKE and NORFOLK.

BOLING. May many years of happy days befal My gracious fovereign, my most loving liege!

NOR. Each day still 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 flat

ters 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
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 speak,
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 so, and too bad to live;
Since, the more fair and crystal is the fky,
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 speaks, my right-drawn 5 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 caufe betwixt us twain:
The blood is hot, that must be cool'd for this,
Yet can I not of fuch tame patience boaft,
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 kinfinan 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 tied to run a-foot

3 -right-drawn ] Drawn in a right or just cause.

JOHNSON.

Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps,
Or any other ground 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 gage,

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 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 fword I swear, Which gently lay'd my knighthood on my shoulder, 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!

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.

6

inhabitable,] That is, not habitable, uninhabitable. JOHNSON.

Ben Jonfon uses the word in the fame sense in his Catiline : "And pour'd on fome inhabitable place."

Again, in Taylor the water-poet's Short Relation of a long Journey, &c.". there ftands a strong castle, but the town is all spoil'd, and almost inhabitable by the late lamentable troubles." STEEVENS.

So alfo, Braithwaite, in his Survey of Hiftories, 1614: "Others, in imitation of fome valiant knights, have frequented defarts and inhabited provinces." MALONE.

7

that can inherit us &c.] To inherit is no more than to

BOLING. Look, what I fpeak my life fhall prove

it true;

That Mowbray hath receiv'd eight thousand 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 furthest verge
That ever was furvey'd by English eye,-
That all the treasons, for thefe eighteen years
Complotted and contrived in this land,

Fetch from falfe Mowbray their firft 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 Glofter's death ;9
Suggeft his foon-believing adverfaries;'

And, confequently, like a traitor coward,

poffefs, though fuch a use of the word may be peculiar to Shakspeare. Again, in Romeo and Juliet, Act I. fc. ii:

fuch delight

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

See Vol. IV. p. 136, n. 7. MALONE.

8

-for lewd employments,] Lewd here fignifies wicked. It is so used in many of our old ftatutes. MALONE.

It fometimes fignifies-idle.

Thus, in King Richard III:

"But you must trouble him with lewd complaints."

STEEVENS.

the duke of Glofter's death;] Thomas of Woodstock. the youngest son of Edward III; who was murdered at Calais, in 1397. MALONE.

I

See Froiffart's Chronicle, Vol. II. cap. CC.xxvi. STEEVENS. Suggeft his foon-believing adverfaries;] i. e. prompt, fet them on by injurious hints. Thus, in The Tempest:

They'll take fuggeftion, as a cat laps milk."