King Richard the Second.

Edmund of Langley, Duke of York;

John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster;

uncles to the

King.

Henry, furnamed Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, fon

to John of Gaunt; afterwards King Henry IV. Duke of Aumerle, fon to the Duke of York.

2

Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk.

Duke of Surrey.

Earl of Salisbury. Earl Berkley.3

Bushy,

Green,

}

Bagot,

creatures to King Richard.

Earl of Northumberland:

Henry Percy, his fon.

Lord Rofs.

Lord Willoughby. Lord Fitzwater.

Bishop of Carlisle. Abbot of Westminster.

Lord Marshal; and another lord.

Sir Pierce of Exton. Sir Stephen Scroop.
Captain of a band of Welchmen.

Queen to King Richard.
Duchefs of Glofter.
Duchess of York.

Lady attending on the Queen.

Lords, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, two Gardeners, Keeper, Meffenger, Groom, and other Attendants. SCENE, difperfedly in England and Wales.

* Duke of Aumerle,] Aumerle, or Aumale, is the French for what we now call Albemarle, which is a town in Normandy. The old historians generally use the French title. STEEVENS.

3 Earl Berkley.] It ought to be Lord Berkley. There was no Earl Berkley till fome ages after. STEEVENS.

4 Lord Rofs.] Now fpelt Roos, one of the Duke of Rutland's titles. STEEVENS.

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.

K. RICH. Old John of Gaunt, time-honour'd Lancaster,

Haft thou, according to thy oath and band,* Brought hither Henry Hereford thy bold fon; Here to make good the boisterous late appeal, Which then our leifure would not let us hear, Against the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray? GAUNT. I have, my liege.

K. RICH. Tell me moreover, haft thou founded him,

If he appeal the duke on ancient malice;

2

thy oath and band,] When thefe public challenges were accepted, each combatant found a pledge for his appearance at the time and place appointed. So, in Spenfer's Fairy Queen, B. IV. C. iii. ft. 3:

"The day was fet, that all might understand,

"And pledges pawn'd the fame to keep aright." The old copies read band instead of bond. The former is right. So, in The Comedy of Errors:

My master is arrefted on a band." STEEVENS.

Band and Bond were formerly fynonymous. See note on the

Or worthily, as a good fubject should,

On fome known ground of treachery in him? GAUNT. As near as I could fift him on that ar

gument,

On fome apparent danger seen in him,
Aim'd at your highness, no inveterate malice.

K. RICH. Then call them to our prefence; face to face,

And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear
The accufer, and the accufed, freely fpeak :-
[Exeunt fome Attendants.
High-ftomach'd are they both, and full of ire,
In rage deaf as the fea, hafty as fire.

Re-enter Attendants, with BOLINGBROKE and NORFOLK.

BOLING. Many years of happy days befal My gracious fovereign, my moft loving liege! NOR. Each day ftill better other's happiness; Until the heavens, envying earth's good hap, Add an immortal title to your crown!

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 treafon.-
Coufin of Hereford, what doft thou object
Against the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?
BOLING. First, (heaven be the record to my
speech!)

In the devotion of a fubject's love,

Tendering the precious fafety of my prince,
And free from other mifbegotten hate,

Come I appellant to this princely prefence.-
Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee,

And mark my greeting well; for what I speak,
My body shall make good upon this earth,
Or my divine foul anfwer it in heaven.
Thou art a traitor, and a mifcreant;
Too good to be fo, and too bad to live;
Since, the more fair and cryftal is the sky,
The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly.
Once more, the more to aggravate the note,
With a foul traitor's name ftuff I thy throat;
And wish, (fo please my fovereign,) ere I move,
What my tongue speaks, my right-drawn3 fword

may prove.

NOR. Let not my cold words here accufe my zeal:

'Tis not the trial of a woman's war,

The bitter clamour of two eager tongues,
Can arbitrate this caufe betwixt us twain;
The blood is hot, that must be cool'd for this.
Yet can I not of fuch tame patience boast,
As to be hush'd, and nought at all to fay:
First, the fair reverence of your highness curbs me
From giving reins and fpurs to my free speech;
Which elfe would poft, until it had return'd
These terms of treafon doubled down his throat.
Setting aside his high blood's royalty,
And let him be no kinfman to my liege,

I do defy him, and I spit at him;

Call him—a flanderous coward, and a villain:
Which to maintain, I would allow him odds;
And meet him, were I tied to run a-foot
Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps,
Or any other ground inhabitable*

3

right-drawn-] Drawn in a right or just cause.

JOHNSON.

-inhabitable,] That is, not habitable, uninhabitable.

JOHNSON.

Where ever Englishman durft fet his foot.
Mean time, let this defend my loyalty,-
By all my hopes, most falfely doth he lie.
BOLING. Pale trembling coward, there I throw
my gage,

Difclaiming here the kindred of the king;
And lay afide 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 ftoop;
By that, and all the rites of knighthood elfe,
Will I make good against thee, arm to arm,
What I have spoke, or thou canft 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 defign of knightly trial:

And, when I mount, alive may I not light,
If I be traitor, or unjustly fight!

K. RICH. What doth our coufin 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 fpeak my life fhall prove it true;

Ben Jonfon ufes the word in the fame fenfe in his Catiline: And pour'd on fome inhabitable place." STEEVENS. So alfo Braithwaite, in his Survey of Hiftories, 1614: "Others, in imitation of fome valiant knights, have frequented defarts and inhabited provinces." MALONE.

5 ——that can inherit us, &c.] To inherit is no more than to poffefs, though fuch a ufe of the word may be peculiar to Shakspeare. Again, in Romeo and Juliet, A&t I. fc. ii:

fuch delight

Among fresh female buds fhall you this night "Inherit at my houfe." STEEVENS.

See Vol. III. p. 127. n. 6. MALONE,