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 hand For Mowbray and myself are like two men Mar. The appellant in all duty greets your highness, K. Rich. We will descend, and fold him in our arms. Cousin of Hereford, as thy cause is right, So be thy fortune in this royal fight! Farewell, my blood; which if to-day thou shed, Boling. O, let no noble eye profane a tear My loving lord, [to Lord Marshal] I take my leave of you ; Not sick, although I have to do with death; But lusty, young, and cheerly drawing breath. Lo, as at English feasts, so I regret The daintiest last, to make the end most sweet : O thou, the earthly author of my blood,- And proof unto mine armour with thy prayers; Even in the lusty 'haviour of his son. Gaunt. Heaven in thy good cause make thee prosperous ! Be swift like lightning in the execution; And let thy blows, doubly redoubled, Fall like amazing thunder on the casque Of thy adverse pernicious enemy: Rouse up thy youthful blood, be valiant and live. Boling. Mine innocency, and saint George to thrive. [To Gaunt. [He takes his seat. Nor. [Rising.] However heaven, or fortune, cast my lot, There lives, or dies, true to king Richard's throne, A loyal, just, and upright gentleman: Never did captive with a freer heart Cast off his chains of bondage, and embrace Most mighty liege, and my companion peers, Go I to fight; Truth hath a quiet breast. K. Rich. Farewell, my lord; securely I espy Virtue with valour couched in thine eye. Order the trial, marshal, and begin. [The King and the Lords return to their seats. Mar. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, Receive thy lance; and God defend thy 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, And dares him to set forward to the fight. 2 Her. Here standeth Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, Attending but the signal to begin. Mar. Sound, trumpets; and set forward, combatants. Stay, the king hath thrown his warder down. [A charge sounded. K. Rich. Let them lay by their helmets and their spears, And list, what with our council we have done. And for our eyes do hate the dire aspect A long flourish. [To the Combatants. Of civil wounds plough'd up with neighbours' swords; With rival-hating envy, set on you To wake our peace, which in our country's cradle And grating shock of wrathful iron arms, You, cousin Hereford, upon pain of death, Till twice five summers have enrich'd our fields, Shall not regreet our fair dominions, But tread the stranger paths of banishment. Boling. Your will be done: This must my comfort be, And those his golden beams, to you here lent, K. Rich. Norfolk, for thee remains a heavier doom, Nor. A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege, As to be cast forth in the common air, Have I deserved at your highness' hands. The language I have learn'd these forty years, And now my tongue's use is to me no more Or like a cunning instrument cas'd up, Or, being open, put into his hands That knows no touch to tune the harmony. What is thy sentence, then, but speechless death, Nor. Then thus I turn me from my country's light, K. Rich. Return again, and take an oath with thee. You never shall (so help you truth and heaven!) Nor ever look upon each other's face; Nor ever write, regreet, or reconcile This lowering tempest of your home-bred hate; Nor ever by advised purpose meet To plot, contrive, or complot any ill 'Gainst us, our state, our subjects, or our land. Boling. I swear. Nor. And I, to keep all this. Boling. Norfolk-so far as to mine enemy; [Retiring. By this time, had the king permitted us, Nor. No, Bolingbroke; if ever I were traitor [Exit K. Rich. Uncle, even in the glasses of thine eyes I see thy grieved heart; thy sad aspect Hath from the number of his banish'd years Pluck'd four away :-Six frozen winters spent, Return [to Boling.] with welcome home from banishment. Four lagging winters, and four wanton springs Gaunt. I thank my liege, that, in regard of me, For ere the six years that he hath to spend Can change their moons, and bring their times about. K. Rich. Why, uncle, thou hast many years to live. K. Rich. Thy son is banish'd upon good advice, Gaunt. Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour. You urg'd me as a judge; but I had rather You would have bid me argue like a father [O, had it been a stranger, not my child, To smooth his fault I should have been more mild. A partial slander sought I to avoid, And in the sentence my own life destroy'd.] But you gave leave to mine unwilling tongue, K. Rich. Cousin, farewell :—and, uncle, bid him so; [Flourish. Exeunt K. Richard and Train Aum. Cousin, farewell: what presence must not know, From where you do remain, let paper show. Mar. My lord, no leave take I; for I will ride As far as land will let me by your side. Gaunt. O, to what purpose dost thou hoard thy words, Which finds it an enforced pilgrimage. Gaunt. The sullen passage of thy weary steps Esteem a foil, wherein thou art to set The precious jewel of thy home-return. [Boling. Nay, rather, every tedious stride I make Will but remember me, what a deal of world I wander from the jewels that I love. Must I not serve a long apprenticehood Gaunt. All places that the eye of heaven visits Are to a wise man ports and happy havens : Teach thy necessity to reason thus ; There is no virtue like necessity. Think not, the king did banish thee; But thou the king: Woe doth the heavier sit, To lie that way thou go'st, not whence thou com'st. The grass whereon thou tread'st, the presence strew'd; Than a delightful measure or a dance : For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite |