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. a K. Rich. OLD John of Gaunt, time honour'd Lancaster, Hast thou, according to thy oath and band, Brought hither Henry Hereford thy bold son; Here to make good the boisterous late appeal, Which then our leisure would not let us hear, Against the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray? Gaunt. I have, my liege. K. Rich. Tell me, moreover, hast thou sounded him, If he appeal the duke on ancient malice; Or worthily as a good subject should, On some known ground of treachery in him? Gaunt. As near as I could sift him on that argument, On some apparent danger seen in him, Aim'd at your highness, no inveterate malice. K. Rich. Then call them to our presence; face to face, And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear The accuser, and the accused, freely speak: [Exeunt some Attendants. High-stomach'd are they both, and full of ire, In rage deaf as the sea, hasty as fire. a Old John of Gaunt,] It must not be supposed from this expression that the person addressed had reached that period of life which we are accustomed to regard as aged. He was in fact only 58; but our ancestors were accustomed to consider every man as old who was past fifty. Lord Huntingdon speaks of the French admiral Coligny as a very old man, yet when he died he was not fifty-four. thy oath and band,] i. e. Bond. Re-enter Attendants, with BOLINGBROKE and NORFOLK. Boling. Many years of happy days befal K. Rich. We thank you both: yet one but flatters us, As well appeareth by the cause you come ; Namely, to appeal each other of high treason.- Boling. First, (heaven be the record to my speech!) In the devotion of a subject's love, Tendering the precious safety of my prince, Come I appellant to this princely presence.- What my tongue speaks, my right-drawn sword may prove. Nor. Let not my cold words here accuse my 'Tis not the trial of a woman's war, zeal : The bitter clamour of two eager tongues, c right-drawn.] Drawn in a right or just cause.-JOHNSON. From giving reins and spurs to my free speech; Call him a slanderous coward, and a villain : 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 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 worst 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, Of 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 It must be great, that can inherit use So much as of a thought of ill in him. [charge? Boling. Look, what I speak my life shall prove it true; That Mowbray hath receiv'd eight thousand nobles, d inhabitable-] That is, uninhabitable. Habitable was, for ages, the common expression for our present inhabitable in every part of the kingdom, and inhabitable was used for our present uninhabitable. e that can inherit us, &c.] To inherit is no more than to possess, though such a use of the word may be peculiar to Shakspeare. STEEVENS. The which he hath detain'd for lewdf employments, Fetch from false Mowbray their first head and spring. Upon his bad life, to make all this good,- Sluic'd out his innocent soul through streams of blood: K. Rich. How high a pitch his resolution soars !— K. Rich. Mowbray, impartial are our eyes, and ears: Nor. Then, Bolingbroke, as low as to thy heart, f lewd-] i. e. Wicked. g-- the duke of Gloster's death;] Thomas of Woodstock, the youngest son of Edward the third, was murdered at Calais in 1397. i h Suggest-] i. e. Prompt. STEEVENS. k this slander of his blood,] i. e. This reproach to the king's ancestry.— my scepter's awe- -] The reverence due to my scepter.-JOHNSON. Through the false passage of thy throat, thou liest! Since last I went to France to fetch his queen : Even in the best blood chamber'd in his bosom : 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: Our doctors say, this is no month to bleed." 1 though no physician ;] I must make one remark on the rhymes in general throughout this play: they are so much inferior to the rest of the writing, that they appear to me of a different hand. What confirms this, is, that the context does every where exactly (and frequently much better) connect, without the inserted rhymes, except in a very few places; and just there too, the rhyming verses are of a much better taste than all the others, which rather strengthens my conjecture.-POPE. m no month to bleed.-] This is the reading of the quarto. The allusion is to the old Almanacks, which, with other instructions, took also care of the health, and prescribed the seasons for letting blood and taking physic. |