Which else would post until it had return'd

These terms of treason doubled down his throat,
Setting aside his high blood's royalty,

And let him be no kinsman to my liege,

I do defy him, and I spit at him;

Call him a slanderous coward and a villain : Which to maintain I would allow him odds, And meet him, were I tied to run afoot Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps, Or any other ground inhabitable, Where ever Englishman durst set his foot. Mean time let this defend my loyalty, By all my hopes, most falsely doth he lie. Boling. Pale trembling coward, there I throw my gage, Disclaiming here the kindred of the king; And lay aside my high blood's royalty,

Which fear, not reverence, makes thee to except. If guilty dread have 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. Mow. I take it up; and by that sword I swear, Which gently laid my knighthood on my shoulder. I'll answer thee in any fair degree, Or chivalrous design of knightly trial:

66. Englishman] Q 1, Ff; English man Qq 2, 3, 4, 5. 5; a King Qq 2, 3, 4, Ff. 73. have] Qq; hath Ff.

3, 4, F1; rights F 2, Q 5, Ff 3, 4.

63. tied] under obligation to, bound. Compare Winter's Tale, v. i. 213: "Where you were tied in duty"; and the modern "tied house."

65. inhabitable] This word, like many others in Shakespeare, follows the Latin usage closely. Lat. in-habitabilis uninhabitable. Theobald's correction to unhabitable is needless. 67. this] this statement, viz., that Bolingbroke lies; or, possibly, this sword, since Bolingbroke wound up his previous speech by a reference to his sword, so Norfolk now lays his hand on his sword.

70. the Kin 75. rites]

by another signified the accep the challenge; Mowbray acc challenge in this way, see line 77. This is the reading of Quarto. "Worse" seems dropped out from Q 2, and were then made in the later re set the line right, e.g., Q 5, spoken, or thou canst devise meaning is not perfectly clea seems best to understand Bol as declaring himself willing to combat the truth of the cha brings against Mowbray, and fight him on account of a worse crimes that the latter is of devising.

80-1. I'll answer you in manner in accordance with usage.

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 received 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,

85

90

95

That he did plot the Duke of Gloucester's death, 100
Suggest his soon-believing adversaries,

And consequently, like a traitor coward,

Sluiced 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.
K. Rich. How high a pitch his resolution soars!

105

Thomas of Norfolk, what say'st thou to this?
Mow. 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.
Mow. 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
Disbursed I duly to his highness' soldiers;
The other part reserved 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 Gloucester's dea
I slew him not; but to my own disgrace
Neglected my sworn duty in that case.

marriage with Isabel, the eig old daughter of Charles VI., in

134. Neglected case] Ac to Holinshed, Mowbray, after be the plot against Richard in wh Gloucester and Bolingbroke ha part, was commanded by Richa make the duke (of Gloucester) s awaie. The earle prolonged t the executing of the kings com ment, though the king would doone with all expedition, whe king conceived no small disp and sware that it should cost tl his life if he quickly obeied commandement. The earle th seemed, in maner inforced, cal the duke at midnight, as if he have taken ship to passe ouer in land, and there in the lodging ca princes In, he caused his serv cast featherbeds upon him, smoother him to death; or ot to strangle him with towels (a

eight-yearin 1395. According er betraying n which he, e had taken Richard "to cer) secretlie ged time for commandeOuld have it wherby the displeasure, Ost the earle eied not his le thus, as it called out if he should er into Engng called the servants to im, and s or otherwise els (asmoose

To prove myself a loyal gentleman

Your highness to assign our trial day.

Even in the best blood chamber'd in his bosom.
In haste whereof, most heartily I pray

K. Rich. Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be ruled by me;
Let's purge this choler without letting blood:
This we prescribe, though no physician;
Deep malice makes too deep ineision:
Forget, forgive; conclude and be agreed;
Our doctors say this is no month to bleed.
Good uncle, let this end where it begun ;
We'll calm the Duke of Norfolk, you your son.

137. did I] Qq 1, 2, 3, 4; I did Ff, Q 5.
Ff, Q 5.

write)." Even in making the admission
contained in this line Mowbray is sail-
ing near the wind. He cannot be more
explicit without appearing to condemn
Richard; at the same time he is hinting
to the king that he is merely being
accused of obeying orders. Shake-
speare must also have had in his mind
Holinshed's account of one of Bagot's
disclosures. In a conversation with
Bagot, Norfolk denied having killed
Gloucester but " that he had saved his
life contrarie to the will of the king,
and certeine other lords, by the space
of three weeks and more.' ""
Finally,
said Norfolk, "the king appointed one
of his owne servants, and certeine other
that were servants to other lords to go
with him to see the said duke of Glo-
cester put to death."

137. This was probably in connection
with the plot mentioned in the preced-

157. month] Qq 1, 2, 3, 4; time

ing note. Lancaster and York were to
be seized along with Richard.

140. exactly] in precise terms.
144. recreant] Compare miscreant,
line 39, supra.

150. In haste whereof] whereof = of
which, as in the phrase "France
whereof England hath been an over-
match," quoted in Abbott's Shake-
spearian Grammar from Bacon's
Essays. "Which" would then refer
to the proving mentioned in line 148.

152-7. Richard immediately falls in love with his own medical metaphor, and instead of commanding the quarrellers to come to terms, or finding serious reasons to persuade them to reconciliation, he endeavours to influence them by trifling and far-fetched figures of speech. Later this trick of Richard's becomes painfully characteristic of him.

Obedience bids I should not bid again.

K. Rich. Norfolk, throw down, we bid; there is no boot
Mow. 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,
To dark dishonour's use thou shalt not have.
I am disgraced, impeach'd and baffled here;
Pierced to the soul with slander's venom'd spear,
The which no balm can cure but his heart-blood
Which breathed this poison.

Rage must be withst

Give me his gage: lions make leopards tame.
Mow. Yea, but not change his spots: take but my sham
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

161. down] up QI (Mr. Craig).

pare also Hall's Chronicle (quoted in New Eng. Dict.): content that the Scottes should hym, which is a great reproach the Scottes, and is used when openly perjured, and then they him an Image paynted reverted heles upwarde, with hys nar derynge cryenge and blowin hym with hornes." Spenser Turpine is baffuld" in th Queene, VI. vii. 27:

"And after all, for greater i He by the heeles him hun tree,

And baffuld so, that a passed by

The picture of his pu might see." 174. lions tame] statement that the crest of No a golden leopard has been al versally accepted, although it be without foundation. The crest was a golden lion.

on guardant whi iraidia leopar