Trumpet sounds. Enter BOLINGBROKE, in K. Rich. Marshal, ask yonder knight in arms, Mar. What is thy name? and wherefore com'st thou hither, Before King Richard, in his royal lists? • Against whom comest thou; and what's thy quarrel? Speak like a true knight, so defend thee heaven! Boling. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, Am I; who ready here do stand in arms, To prove, by heaven's grace, and my body's valour, In lists, on Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, That he's a traitor, foul and dangerous, To God of heaven, King Richard, and to me; And, as I truly fight, defend me heaven! Mar. On pain of death, no person be so bold, Or daring-hardy, as to touch the lists; Except the marshal, and such officers Appointed to direct these fair designs. Boling. Lord marshal, let me kiss my sovereign's And bow my knee before his majesty: Mar. The appellant in all duty greets your high ness, And craves to kiss your hand, and take his leave. Farewell, my blood; which if to-day thou shed, Lament we may, but not revenge thee dead. Boling. O, let no noble eye profane a tear For me, if I be gored with Mowbray's spear; As confident, as is the falcon's flight Against a bird, do I with Mowbray fight.My loving lord [To Lord Marshal], I take my leave of you; Of you, my noble cousin, Lord Aumerle;- • The daintiest last, to make the end most sweet: [To GAUNT. Whose youthful spirit, in me regenerate, Gaunt. Heaven in thy good cause make thee prosperous! Be swift like lightning in the execution; thrive! There lives or dies, true to King Richard's throne, A loyal, just, and upright gentleman : Never did captive with a freer heart K. Rich. Farewell, my lord: securely. I espy [The King and the Lords return to their seats. Mar. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, Receive thy lance; and God defend the right! Boling. [Rising.] Strong as a tower in hope, I cry-amen. Mar. Go bear this lance [To an Officer] to Thomas duke of Norfolk. 1 Her. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, Stands here for God, his sovereign, and himself, On pain to be found false and recreant, To prove the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray, A traitor to his God, his king, and him, And dares him to set forward to the fight. 2 Her. Here standeth Thomas Mowbray, duke On pain to be found false and recreant, 4 To jest, in old language, sometimes signified to play a part in a masque. Thus in Hieronymo : 'He promised us, in honour of our guest, And accordingly a masque is performed. Courageously, and with a free desire, Mar. Sound, trumpets; and set forward, com- Stay, the king hath thrown his warder down. K. Rich. Let them lay by their helmets and their spears, And both return back to their chairs again: Withdraw with us:-and let the trumpets sound, While we return these dukes what we decree. Draw near, [A long flourish. [To the Combatants. And list, what with our council we have done. swords; [And for we think the eagle-winged pride To wake our peace, which in our country's cradle 5 A warder was a kind of truncheon or staff carried by persons who presided at these single combats; the throwing down of which seems to have been a solemn act of prohibition to stay proceedings. A different movement of the warder had an opposite effect. In Drayton's Battle of Agincourt, Erpingham is represented throwing it up as a signal for a charge. 6 Capel's copy of the quarto edition of this play reads Of cruel wounds,' &c. Malone's copy of the same edition, and all the other editions read Of civil wounds,' &c. 7 The five lines in brackets are omitted in the folio. Shall not regreet our fair dominions, But tread the stranger paths of banishment. Boling. Your will be done: This must my comfort be, That sun, that warms you here, shall shine on me; And those his golden beams, to you here lent, Shall point on me, and gild my banishment. K. Rich. Norfolk, for thee remains a heavier doom, Which I with some unwillingness pronounce: The fly-slow 8 hours shall not determinate The dateless limit of thy dear exíle;The hopeless word of never to return Breathe I against thee, upon pain of life. Nor. A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege, And all unlook'd for from your highness' mouth : A dearer merit10; not so deep a maim 8 The old copies read 'sly-slow hours.' Pope reads 'fly-slow hours,' which has been admitted into the text, and conveys an image highly beautiful and just. It is however remarkable that Pope, in the fourth book of his Essay on Man, v. 226, has employed the epithet which, in the present instance, he has rejected: All sly-slow things with circumspective eyes.' 9 Word, for sentence; any short phrase was called a word. Thus Ascham, in a Letter to Queen Elizabeth, Savinge that one unpleasaunte word in that Patent, called "Duringe pleasure," turned me after to great displeasure.'-Conway Papers. 10 As Shakspeare used merit, in this place, in the sense of reward, he frequently uses the word meed, which properly signifies reward, to express merit. Thus in Timon of Athens: no meed but he repays Sevenfold above itself.' And in the Third Part of King Henry VI.: We are the sons of brave Plantagenet, Again, in the same play, King Henry says: 'That's not my fear, my meed hath got me fame.' |