And mark my greeting well; for what I fpeak,
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 feem 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 wifh, (fo please my fovereign,) ere I move,
What my tongue fpeaks, my right-drawn 3 fword

may prove.

3

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 hufh'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
Thefe terms of treafon doubled down his throat.
Setting afide his high blood's royalty,
And let him be no kinfman to my liege,

I do defy him, and I fpit 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 4

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

Disclaiming 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 bath 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 canst worse devife.
NOR. I take it up; and, by that fword I fwear,
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

5

So much as of a thought of ill in him.

BOLING. Look, what I speak 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&. I. fc. ii;

64

fuch delight

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

See Vol. IV. p. 127. n. 6. MALONE.

That Mowbray hath receiv'd eight thousand no

bles,

In name of lendings for your highness' foldiers;
The which he hath detain'd for lewd employments,
Like a falfe traitor, and injurious villain.
Befides I fay, and will in battle prove,

Or here, or elsewhere, to the furtheft verge
That ever was furvey'd by English eye,-

That all the treasons, for these eighteen years

Complotted and contrived in this land,

Fetch from falfe Mowbray their first head and

Upon his bad life, to make all this good,--
That he did plot the duke of Glofter's death ;'
Suggeft his foon-believing adversaries; 3

And, confequently, like a traitor coward,

Sluic'd out his innocent foul through ftreams of blood:

Which blood, like facrificing Abel's, cries,
Even from the tonguelefs caverns of the earth,
To me, for juftice, and rough chaflifement;
And, by the glorious worth of my descent,
This arm fhall do it, or this life be spent.

K. RICH. How high a pitch his refolution foars!Thomas of Norfolk, what say'st thou to this?

6

--for lewd employments,] Lewd here fignifies wicked. It is fo used in many of our old ftatutes. MALONE.

Thus, in King Richard III:

"But you must trouble him with lewd complaints."

STEEVENS.

7 the duke of Glofter's death;] Thomas of Woodflock, the youngest fon of Edward III.; who was murdered at Calais, in 1397. MALONE.

8

Suggeft his foon-believing 'adverfaries;] i. e. prompt, fet them on by injurious hints. Thus, in The Tempest:

They'll take fuggeftion, as a cat laps milk." STEEVENS,

NOR. O, let my fovereign turn away his face, And bid his ears a little while be deaf,

Till I have told this flander of his blood,"

How God, and good men, hate fo foul a liar.
K. RICH. Mowbray, impartial are our eyes and

cars:

Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom's heir,
(As he is but my father's brother's fon,)
Now by my scepter's awe' I make a vow,
Such neighbour nearness to our facred blood
Should nothing privilege him, nor partialize
The unftooping firmnefs of my upright foul;
He is our fubject, Mowbray, fo art thou;
Free fpeech, and fearless, I to thee allow.

NOR. Then, Bolingbroke, as low as to thy heart,
Through the falfe paffage of thy throat, thou lieft!
Three parts of that receipt I had for Calais,
Difburs'd I duly to his highness' foldiers:
The other part referv'd I by confent;
For that my fovereign liege was in my debt,
Upon remainder of a dear account,

Since laft I went to France to fetch his queen:
Now fwallow down that lie.

death,

For Glofter's

I flew him not; but, to my own disgrace,
Neglected my fworn duty in that cafe.-
For you, my noble lord of Lancaster,
The honourable father to my foe,
Once did I lay an ambush for your life,
A trespass that doth vex my grieved foul:
But, ere I laft receiv'd the facrament,

I did confefs it; and exactly begg'd

7--this flander of his blood,] i. e. this reproach to his anceftry. STEEVENS.

8

3 —my Scepter's awe-] The reverence due to my scepter.

JOHNSON.

X

Your grace's pardon, and, I hope, I had it.
This is my fault: As for the reft appeal'd,
It iffues 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 bofom:
In hafte whereof, moft heartily I pray

Your highness to affign our trial day.

K. RICH. Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be rul'd by

me;

9

Let's purge this choler without letting blood:
This we prescribe, though no phyfician;
Deep malice makes too deep incifion:
Forget, forgive; conclude, and be agreed;
Our doctors fay, this is no time to bleed.-
Good uncle, let this end where it begun;
We'll calm the duke of Norfolk, you your fon,

? This we preferibe, though no phyfician'; &c.] I muft make one remark in general on the rhymes throughout this whole play; they are fo much inferior to the reft of the writing, that they appear to me of a different hand. What confirms this, is, that the context does every where exadly (and frequently much better) connect, without the inferted rhymes, except in a very few places; and juft there too, the rhyming verfes are of a much better tafle than all the others, which rather ftrengthens my conjecture.

POPE.

This obfervation of Mr. Pope's, (fays Mr. Edwards,) happens to be very unluckily placed here, because the context, without the inferted rhymes, will not connect at all. Read this paffage as it would ftaud corre&ed by this rule, and we fhall find, when the rhyming part of the dialogue is left out, King Richard begins with diffuading them from the duel, and, in the very next feetence, appoints the time aud place of their combat.”

Mr. Edwards's cenfure is rather hafty; for in the note, to which it refers, it is allowed that fome rhymes must be retained to make out the connection. STEE VENS,