King Richard II | Page 4

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 soul answer it in heaven. Thou art a traitor and a
miscreant; Too good to be so and too bad to live, Since the more fair
and crystal 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 stuff I
thy throat; And wish, so please my sovereign, ere I move, What my
tongue speaks, my right drawn sword may prove.
MOWBRAY. Let not my cold words here accuse my zeal: 'Tis not the
trial of a woman's war, The bitter clamour of two eager tongues, Can
arbitrate this cause betwixt us twain; The blood is hot that must be
cool'd for this. Yet can I not of such tame patience boast As to be
hush'd and nought at all to say. First, the fair reverence of your
highness curbs me From giving reins and spurs to my free speech;

Which else would post until it had return'd These terms of treason
doubled down his throat. Setting aside his high blood's royalty, And let
him be no kinsman to my liege, I do defy him, and I spit at him, Call
him a slanderous coward and a villain: Which to maintain, I would
allow him odds And meet him, were I tied to run afoot Even to the
frozen ridges of the Alps, Or any other ground inhabitable, Wherever
Englishman durst set his foot. Meantime let this defend my loyalty: By
all my hopes, most falsely doth he lie.
BOLINGBROKE. 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 have 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.
MOWBRAY. I take it up; and by that sword I swear Which gently laid
my knighthood on my shoulder, I'll answer thee in any fair degree, Or
chivalrous design of knightly trial: And when I mount, alive may I not
light If I be traitor or unjustly fight!
KING RICHARD. What doth our cousin lay to Mowbray's charge? It
must be great that can inherit us So much as of a thought of ill in him.
BOLINGBROKE. Look, what I speak, my life shall prove it true; That
Mowbray hath receiv'd eight thousand nobles In name of lendings for
your highness' soldiers, The which he hath detain'd for lewd
employments, Like a false traitor and injurious villain. Besides, I say
and will in battle prove, Or here, or elsewhere to the furthest verge That
ever was survey'd by English eye, That all the treasons for these
eighteen years Complotted and contrived in this land, Fetch from false
Mowbray their first head and spring. Further I say, and further will
maintain Upon his bad life to make all this good, That he did plot the
Duke of Gloucester's death, Suggest his soon-believing adversaries,
And consequently, like a traitor coward, Sluic'd out his innocent soul
through streams of blood: Which blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries,
Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth, To me for justice and
rough chastisement; And, by the glorious worth of my descent, This
arm shall do it, or this life be spent.
KING RICHARD. How high a pitch his resolution soars! Thomas of

Norfolk, what say'st thou to this?
MOWBRAY. O! let my sovereign turn away his face And bid his ears
a little while be deaf, Till I have told this slander of his blood How God
and good men hate so foul a liar.
KING RICHARD. 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 Should nothing privilege him nor
partialize The unstooping firmness of my upright soul. He is our
subject, Mowbray; so art thou: Free speech and fearless I to thee allow.
MOWBRAY. 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 Disburs'd I duly to his highness' soldiers; The other part
reserv'd I by consent, For that my sovereign liege was in my debt Upon
remainder of a dear account, Since last I went to France to fetch his
queen. Now swallow down that lie. For Gloucester's death, I slew him