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
120 Should nothing privilege him, nor partialize
The unstooping firmness of my upright soul.
He is our subjeet, Mowbray, so art thou;
Free speech, and fearless, I to thee allow.

Nor. 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,

130 Upon remainder of a dear account,

Since last I went to France to fetch his queen :
Now swallow down that lie.-For Gloster's death,—
I slew him not but to my own disgrace,
Neglected my sworn duty in that case.-
For you, my noble lord of Lancaster,
The honourable father to my foe,
Once did I lay in ambush for your life,
A trespass that doth vex my grievèd soul :
But, ere I last received the sacrament,
140 I did confess it; and exactly begg'd
Your grace's pardon, and, I hope, I had it.
This is my fault: As for the rest appeal'd,
It issues from the rancour of a villain,
A recreant and most degenerate traitor;
Which in myself I boldly will defend ;
And interchangeably hurl down my gage
Upon this overweening traitor's foot,

To prove myself a loyal gentleman

Even in the best blood chamber'd in his bosom :

150 In haste whereof, most heartily I pray

Your highness to assign our trial day.

K. Rich. Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be ruled by mé :

Let's purge this choler without letting blood:

This we prescribe, though no physician;

Deep malice makes too deep incision :
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.

160 Gaunt. To be a make-peace shall become my age.-

Throw down, my son, the Duke of Norfolk's gage.

K. Rich. And, Norfolk, throw down his.
Gaunt. When, Harry? when?

Obedience bids, I should not bid again.

K. Rich. Norfolk, throw down, we bid; there is no boot. Nor. 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. 170 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.

K. Rich. Rage must be withstood :

Give me his gage :-Lions make leopards tame.

Nor. Yea, but not change his spots : take but my shame,
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.
180 A jewel in a ten-times-barr'd-up chest
Is-a bold spirit in a loyal breast.

Mine honour is my life; both grow in one;
Take honour from me, and my life is done :
Then, dear my liege, mine honour let me try;
In that I live, and for that will I die.

K. Rich. Cousin, throw up your gage; do you begin.
Boling. O, God defend my soul from such deep sin!
Shall I seem crest-fallen in my father's sight?
Or with pale beggar-fear impeach my height

190 Before this outdared dastard? Ere my tongue
Shall wound mine honour with such feeble wrong,
Or sound so base a parle, my teeth shall tear
The slavish motive of recanting fear;

And spit it bleeding in his high disgrace,

Where shame doth harbour, even in Mowbray's face.

[Exit Gaunt.

K. Rich. We were not born to sue, but to command:
Which since we cannot do to make you friends,

Be ready, as your lives shall answer it,

At Coventry upon Saint Lambert's day;

200 There shall your swords and lances arbitrate
The swelling difference of your settled hate :
Since we cannot atone you, we shall see
Justice design the victor's chivalry.—
Lord marshal, command our officers at arms
Be ready to direct these home-alarms.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-The same. A Room in the Duke of Lancaster's Palace.

Enter GAUNT, and Duchess of GLOSTER.

Gaunt. Alas! the part I had in Woodstock's blood
Doth more solicit me, than your exclaims,

To stir against the butchers of his life.
But since correction lieth in those hands
Which made the fault that we cannot correct,
Put we our quarrel to the will of Heaven;
Who, when they see the hours ripe on earth,
Will rain hot vengeance on offenders' heads.

Duch. Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper spur?

10 Hath love in thy old blood no living fire?
Edward's seven sons, whereof thyself art one,
Were as seven phials of his sacred blood,

Or seven fair branches springing from one root;
Some of those seven are dried by nature's course,
Some of those branches by the destines cut :
But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Gloster,—
One phial full of Edward's sacred blood,

One flourishing branch of his most royal root,—
Is crack'd, and all the precious liquor spilt;

20 Is hack'd down, and his summer leaves all faded,
By envy's hand, and murder's bloody axe.

Ah, Gaunt! his blood was thine; that bed, that womb,
That metal, that self-mould, that fashion'd thee,

Made him a man; and though thou liv'st, and breath'st,
Yet art thou slain in him: thou dost consent,
In some large measure, to thy father's death,
In that thou see'st thy wretched brother die,
Who was the model of thy father's life.
Call it not patience, Gaunt, it is despair :
30 In suffering thus thy brother to be slaughter'd.
Thou shew'st the naked pathway to thy life,
Teaching stern murder how to butcher thee:
That, which in mean men we entitle-patience,
Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.
What shall I say? to safeguard thine own life,
The best way is to 'venge my Gloster's death.

Gaunt. God's is the quarrel; for God's substitute,
His deputy anointed in His sight,

Hath caused his death the which, if wrongfully,
40 Let Heaven revenge; for I may never list'
An angry arm against His minister.

Duch. Where then, alas! may I complain myself?
Gaunt. To God, the widow's champion and defence.

Duch. Why then, I will. Farewell, old Gaunt.
Thou go'st to Coventry, there to behold
Our cousin Hereford and fell Mowbray fight:
O, sit my husband's wrongs on Hereford's spear
That it may enter butcher Mowbray's breast!
Or, if misfortune miss the first career,

50 Be Mowbray's sins so heavy in his bosom,
That they may break his foaming courser's back,
And throw the rider headlong in the lists,

A caitiff recreant to my cousin Hereford !
Farewell, old Gaunt ! thy sometimes brother's wife,
With her companion grief must end her life.

Gaunt. Sister, farewell: I must to Coventry :
As much good stay with thee, as go with me!

Duch. Yet one word more; Grief boundeth where it falls, Not with the empty hollowness, but weight:

60 I take my leave before I have begun ;

For sorrow ends not when it seemeth done.
Commend me to my brother, Edmund York.
Lo, this is all :-Nay, yet depart not so:
Though this be all, do not so quickly go;
I shall remember more. Bid him-O, what?--
With all good speed at Plashy visit me.
Alack, and what shall good old York there see
But empty lodgings and unfurnish'd walls,
Unpeopled offices, untrodden stones?

70 And what hear there for welcome but my groans?
Therefore commend me; let him not come there,
To seek out sorrow, that dwells everywhere;
Desolate, desolate, will I hence, and die ;
The last leave of thee takes my weeping eye.

[Exeunt.

NOTES.

(The numbers refer to the lines.)

A general account of this play will be given in a future number.

ACT I.
Scene I.

1. Old John of Gaunt; John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and fourth son of Edward III., was born in 1340, at Ghent, from whence he derived his name. As this play opens in the year 1398, he was then only 58 years old, though Shakespeare describes him as a very old man. He died in 1399.

2. band; equivalent to "bond," that with which any one is bound. So in Antony and Cleopatra, Act III. Sc. 2,

"As my farthest band Shall pass on thy aproof."

3. Henry Hereford; Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, eldest son of John of Gaunt, and afterwards Henry IV. He was called Bolingbroke from the name of the castle in Lincolnshire where he was born.

4. boisterous late appeal; the loud accusation which he lately made. 12. sift him on that argument; examine or scrutinize him on that subject.

13. apparent; appearing, manifest. So we speak of the "heir apparent." Compare Julius Caesar, Act II. Sc. 1, "these apparent prodigies." 18. high stomach'd; "stomach" is "pride." So in Henry VIII., Act IV. Scene 2, Wolsey is described as being "of an unbounded stomach.

"

20. befal; infinitive mood, gov. by "may" understood.

22. Each day, etc.; may each day's happiness exceed that of every other which has gone before it.

23. hap; fortune, luck-that which happens. Compare Ruth ii. 3, "Her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz.'

26. the cause you come; the cause (for which) you come; or, the cause you come (on).

28. object; to offer in opposition, oppose. (Lat. jacio, I throw.)

30. record; register, witness.

32. Tendering; esteeming, heeding, regarding.

38. divine; godlike, immortal, immaterial, partaking of the essence of the deity.

39. miscreant; (Lat. credo, I believe), properly, an unbeliever; then, an infidel, a vile, wicked wretch.

43. aggravate the note; (Lat. gravis, heavy) to render heavier, make more distinct and emphatic the note or mark (Lat. nota) of infamy Iwith which I brand thee.

45. so please my sovereign; adv. sent. (condition) to "and wish." (If it may) so please my sovereign.

46. right-drawn; drawn in a rightful cause.

47. accuse; charge with insincerity or indifference, blame my (want of)

zeal.

49. eager; sharp, keen (Lat. acer; Fr. aigre).

"It is a nipping and an eager air.

Comp. Hamlet, I. 4,

56. post; to travel post, or with great speed. Comp. Milton, Sonnet 19,

"And post o'er land and ocean without rest."

59. let him be; the more regular construction would be, "and letting him be,"-i.e., supposing him to be.

63. tied; bound, obliged.

65. inhabitable; not habitable, uninhabitable.

67. this; this defiance (contained in the next line).

69. gage; a pledge or pawn, a challenge to combat represented by a glove, cap, or some other article, thrown'down by the challenger, and picked up by the person who accepts the trial by arms.

72. except; to take out, not to include (Lat. capio, I take).

77. or thou canst worse devise; if I do not make it good against thee, then thou canst devise worse things (than thou hast already devised). Eo. fair degree; fair mode of trial.