Trumpet sounds. Enter BOLINGBROKE, in K. Rich. Marshal, ask yonder knight in arms, Mar. What is thy name? and wherefore com'st thou hither, Before King Richard, in his royal lists? Against whom comest thou; and what's thy quarrel? Speak like a true knight, so defend thee heaven! Boling. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, Am I; who ready here do stand in arms, To prove, by heaven's grace, and my body's valour, Mar. On pain of death, no person be so bold, Boling. Lord marshal, let me kiss my sovereign's hand, And bow my knee before his majesty: For Mowbray, and myself, are like two men Then let us take a ceremonious leave, And loving farewell, of our several friends. Mar. The appellant in all duty greets your high ness, And craves to kiss your hand, and take his leave. K.Rich. We will descend, and fold him in our arms. Cousin of Hereford, as thy cause is right, Farewell, my blood; which if to-day thou shed, Against a bird, do I with Mowbray fight.——— Of you, my noble cousin, Lord Aumerle;— The daintiest last, to make the end most sweet: [To GAUNT. Gaunt. Heaven in thy good cause make thee Be swift like lightning in the execution; Rouse up thy youthful blood, be valiant and live. There lives or dies, true to King Richard's throne, A loyal, just, and upright gentleman: Never did captive with a freer heart Cast off his chains of bondage, and embrace Go I to fight; Truth hath a quiet breast. [The King and the Lords return to their seats. Mar. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, Receive thy lance; and God defend the right! Boling. [Rising.] Strong as a tower in hope, I cry amen. Mar. Go bear this lance [To an Officer] to Thomas duke of Norfolk. 1 Her. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, Stands here for God, his sovereign, and himself, On pain to be found false and recreant, To prove the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray, 2 Her. Here standeth Thomas Mowbray, duke On pain to be found false and recreant, 4 To jest, in old language, sometimes signified to play a part in a masque. Thus in Hieronymo : 'He promised us, in honour of our guest, To grace our banquet with some pompous jest.' And accordingly a masque is performed. Courageously, and with a free desire, Mar. Sound, trumpets; and set forward, com batants. [A Charge sounded. Stay, the king hath thrown his warder down. K. Rich. Let them lay by their helmets and their spears, And both return back to their chairs again: Withdraw with us:-and let the trumpets sound, While we return these dukes what we decree.— [A long flourish. [To the Combatants. Draw near, [And for we think the eagle-winged pride To wake our peace, which in our country's cradle 5 A warder was a kind of truncheon or staff carried by persons who presided at these single combats; the throwing down of which seems to have been a solemn act of prohibition to stay proceedings. A different movement of the warder had an opposite effect. In Drayton's Battle of Agincourt, Erpingham is represented throwing it up as a signal for a charge. 6 Capel's copy of the quarto edition of this play reads Of cruel wounds,' &c. Malone's copy of the same edition, and all the other editions read Of civil wounds,' &c. 7 The five lines in brackets are omitted in the folio. Therefore, we banish you our territories:- But tread the stranger paths of banishment. Boling. Your will be done: This must my comfort be, That sun, that warms you here, shall shine on me; And those his golden beams, to you here lent, Shall point on me, and gild my banishment. K. Rich. Norfolk, for thee remains a heavier doom, Which I with some unwillingness pronounce: The fly-slow hours shall not determinate The dateless limit of thy dear exile;The hopeless word9 of-never to return Breathe I against thee, upon pain of life. Nor. A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege, And all unlook'd for from your highness' mouth: A dearer merit 10; not so deep a maim 8 The old copies read 'sly-slow hours.' Pope reads 'fly-slow hours,' which has been admitted into the text, and conveys an image highly beautiful and just. It is however remarkable that Pope, in the fourth book of his Essay on Man, v. 226, has employed the epithet which, in the present instance, he has rejected: All sly-slow things with circumspective eyes.' 9 Word, for sentence; any short phrase was called a word. Thus Ascham, in a Letter to Queen Elizabeth, Savinge that one unpleasaunte word in that Patent, called "Duringe pleasure,” turned me after to great displeasure.'-Conway Papers. 10 As Shakspeare used merit, in this place, in the sense of reward, he frequently uses the word meed, which properly signifies reward, to express merit. Thus in Timon of Athens :— no meed but he repays Sevenfold above itself.' And in the Third Part of King Henry VI.: 'We are the sons of brave Plantagenet, Again, in the same play, King Henry says: 'That's not my fear, my meed hath got me fame.' |