By all my hopes, most falsely doth he lie.

Boling. Pale trembling coward, there I throw my gage, Disclaiming here the kindred of a king ;

And lay aside 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 sword I swear,
Which gently lay'd 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,
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.
Further I say,-and further 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.

MALONE

[4] Lend here signifies wicked. It is so used in many of our old statutes. It sometimes signifies idle. STEEVENS.

K. Rich. How high a pitch his resolution soars !— Thomas of Norfolk, what says't 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
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 duly 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 my 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

[5] i. e. this reproach to his ancestry. STEEVENS.
[6] The reverence due to my sceptre. JOHNSON.

Your highness to assign 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 incision : Forget, forgive; conclude, and be agreed; Our doctors say, this is no time to bleed.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 ? when?

Obedience bids, I should not bid again.

K. Rich. Norfolk, throw down; we bid; there is no boot.9

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,)9
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 their spots take but my

shame,

And I resign my gage. My dear dear lord,

The purest treasure mortal times afford,
Is-spotless reputation; that away,
Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay.
A jewel in a ten-times-barr'd-up chest
Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast.

Mine honour is my life; both grow in one;
Take honour from me, and my life is done :
Then, dear my liege, mine honour let me try ;
In that I live, and for that will I die.

K. Rich. Cousin, throw down your gage; do you begin.

[7] This obsolete exclamation of impatience is likewise found in Heywood's Silver Age, 1613. STEEVENS.

[8] That is, no advantage, no use in delay or refusal. JOHNSON.

[9] That is, my name that lives on my grave in despite of death. JOHNSON

Boling. O, God defend my soul from such foul sin! Shall I seem crest-fallen in my father's sight? Or with pale beggar-fear impeach my height Before this outdar'd dastard? Ere my tongue Shall wound mine honour with such feeble wrong, Or sound so base a parle, my teeth shall tear The slavish motive of recanting fear; And spit it bleeding in his high disgrace, Where shame doth harbour, even in Mowbray's face. [Exit GAUNT. K. Rich. We were not born to sue, but to command: Which since we cannot do to make you friends, Be ready, as your lives shall answer it, At Coventry, upon Saint Lambert's day; There shall your swords and lances arbitrate The swelling difference of your settled hate; Since we cannot atone you, we shall see Justice design the victor's chivalry.' -Marshal, command our officers at arms Be ready to direct these home-alarms.

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

The same. A Room in the Duke of LANCASTER's Palace. Enter GAUNT, and Duchess of GLOSTER.

Gaunt. Alas! the part I had in Gloster's blood'
Doth more solicit me than your exclaims,

To stir against the butchers of his life.
But since correction lieth in those hands,
Which made the fault that we cannot correct,
Put we our quarrel to the will of heaven;
Who, when he sees the hours ripe on earth,
Will rain hot vengeance on offenders' heads.

Duch. Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper spur?
Hath love in thy old blood no living fire?
Edward's seven sons, whereof thyself art one,
Were as seven phials of his sacred blood,

Or seven fair branches springing from one root :
Some of those seven are dried by nature's course,
Some of those branches by the destinies cut :
But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Gloster,-

[1] To design in our author's time signified to mark out. MALONE. [2] The Duchess of Gloster was Eleanor Bohun, widow of Duke Thomas, son of Edward III. WALPOLE.

[3] That is, my relation of consanguinity to Gloster. HANMER

One phial full of Edward's sacred blood,

One flourishing branch of his most royal root,-
Is crack'd, and all the precious liquor spilt;
Is hack'd down, and his summer leaves all faded,
By envy's hand, and murder's bloody axe.

Ah, Gaunt! his blood was thine; that bed, that womb,
That mettle, that self-mould, that fashion'd thee,
Made him a man; and though thou liv'st, and breath'st,
Yet art thou slain in him: thou dost consent
In some large measure to thy father's death,
In that thou seest thy wretched brother die,
Who was the model of thy father's life.
Call it not patience, Gaunt, it is despair :
In suffering thus thy brother to be slaughter'd,
Thou show'st the naked pathway to thy life,
Teaching stern murder how to butcher thee:
That which in mean men we entitle-patience,
Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.

What shall I say? to safeguard thine own life,
The best way is to 'venge my Gloster's death.
Gaunt. Heaven's is the quarrel; for heaven's substi-

tute,

His deputy anointed in his sight,

Hath caus'd his death: the which if wrongfully,
Let heaven revenge; for I may never lift

An angry arm against his minister.

Duch. Where then, alas! may I complain myself? Gaunt. To heaven, the widow's champion and defence. Duch. Why then, I will. Farewell, old Gaunt. Thou go'st to Coventry, there to behold Our cousin Hereford and fell Mowbray fight: O, sit my husband's wrongs on Hereford's spear, That it may enter butcher Mowbray's breast! Or, if misfortune miss the first career, Be Mowbray's sins so heavy in his bosom, That they may break his foaming courser's back, And throw the rider headlong in the lists,

A caitiff recreant' to my cousin Hereford!

Farewell, old Gaunt; thy sometimes brother's wife,

[4] Caitiff originally signified a Prisoner; next a Slave, from the condition of prisoners; then a Scoundrel, from the qualities of a slave. In this passage it partakes of all these significations. JOHNSON.

I do not believe that Caitiff in our language ever signified a Prisoner. I take it to be derived, not from captiff, but from chetiff, Fr. poor, miserable. TYRWHITT,