His golden uncontroul'd enfrahchisement,
More than my dancing foul doth celebrate
This feast of battle with mine adversary.
Moft mighty liege, and my companion peers,~~~
Take from my mouth the wish of happy years:
As gentle, and as jocund, as " to jest,
Go I to fight; Truth hath a quiet breast.

K. Rich. Farewell, my lord: fecurely I efpy
Virtue with valour couched in thine eye.
Order the trial, marshal, and begin.

Mar. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
Receive thy lance; and heaven defend the right!

Boling. Strong as a tower in hope, I'cry-amen.
Mar. Go bear this lance to Thomas duke of Norfolk.
1 Her. Harry of Hereford, Lancafter, and Derby,
Stands here for God, his fovereign, and himself,
On pain to be found false and recreant,

To prove the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray,
A traitor to his God, his king, and him,

And dares him to fet forward to the fight.

2 Her. Here standeth Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk,

On pain to be found falfe and recreant,

Both to defend himself, and to approve
Henry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
To God, his fovereign, and to him, disloyal;
Courageously, and with a free defire,

Attending but the fignal to begin.

[A charge founded.

Mar. Sound, trumpets; and fet forward, combatants. Stay, the king has thrown his warder down.

K. Rich. Let them lay by their helmets, and their spears, And both return back to their chairs again

ות

n

This feaft of battle]-War is death's feaft.

to jeft,]-to bear a part in a revel, or mask.

warder]-truncheon.

Withdraw with us ;-and let the trumpets found,
While we return these dukes what we decree.

Draw near,

[A long flourish; after which, the king Speaks to the combatants.

And lift, what with our council we have done.

For that our kingdom's earth fhould not be foil'd
With that dear blood which it hath foftered;
And for our eyes do hate the dire aspect

Of civil wounds plough'd up with neighbours' fwords; [And for we think, the eagle-winged pride

Of sky-afpiring and ambitious thoughts,

With rival-hating envy, fet you on

To wake our peace, which in our own country's cradle Draws the fweet infant breath of gentle fleep ;] Which fo rouz'd up with boisterous untun'd drums, And harsh-refounding trumpets' dreadful bray, And grating fhock of wrathful iron arms, Might from our quiet confines fright fair peace, And make us wade even in our kindred's blood,Therefore, we banish you our territories.You, cousin Hereford, upon pain of death, 'Till twice five fummers have enrich'd our fields, Shall not regreet our fair dominions,

But tread the stranger paths of banishment.

Boling. Your will be done: This must my comfort be,That fun, 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 fome unwillingness pronounce :

The fly-flow hours fhall not determinate

To wake our peace,]-by thefe tumultuous jars. 4 regreet-revifit.

The

The dateless limit of thy dear exile ;-
The hopeless word of-never to return,
Breathe I against thee, upon pain of life.

Mowb. A heavy fentence, my moft fovereign liege,
And all unlook'd for from your highness' mouth:
A dearer merit, not fo deep a maim

As to be caft forth in the common air,
Have I deferved at your highness' hand.
The language I have learn'd these forty years,
My native English, now I must forego :
And now my tongue's use is to me no more,
Than an unftringed viol, or a harp;
Or like a cunning inftrument cas'd up,
Or, being open, put into his hands

That knows no touch to tune the harmony.

Within my mouth you have 'engoal'd my tongue,
Doubly portcullis'd, with my teeth, and lips;
And dull, unfeeling, barren ignorance

Is made my gaoler to attend on me.
I am too old to fawn upon a nurse,

Too far in years to be a pupil now;

What is thy fentence then, but fpeechless death, Which robs my tongue from breathing native breath? K. Rich. It boots thee not to be compaffionate;

W

After our sentence, plaining comes too late.

Mowb. Then thus I turn me from my country's light, To dwell in folemn fhades of endless night.

K. Rich. Return again, and take an oath with thee. Lay on our royal fword your banish'd hands;

Swear by the duty that you owe to heaven,

dear-fad, dreadful, fatal.

A dearer mede, and not, &c.-A better reward. tengoal'd]-imprisoned.

W

"portcullis'd,]-barr'd.

compaionate,]-plaintive, to deplore thy fate.

(Our

(Our part therein we banish with yourselves) To keep the oath that we adminifter:

You never fhall, (fo help you truth and heaven!)
Embrace each other's love in banishment;

Nor ever look upon each other's face;
Nor ever write, regreet, nor reconcile

This lowering tempeft of your home-bred hate;
Nor never by advised purpofe meet,

To plot, contrive, or complot any ill,

'Gainst us, our state, our fubjects, or our land. Boling. I swear.

Mowb. And I, to keep all this.

Boling. Norfolk, fo far as to mine enemy ;-
By this time, had the king permitted us,
One of our fouls had wander'd in the air,
Banish'd this frail fepulchre of our flesh,
As now our flesh is banifh'd from this land:
Confefs thy treasons, ere thou fly this realm,
Since thou haft far to go, bear not along
The clogging burthen of a guilty foul.

Mowb. No, Bolingbroke; if ever I were traitor,
My name be blotted from the book of life,

And I from heaven banifh'd, as from hence!
But what thou art, heaven, thou, and I do know;

And all too foon, I fear, the king fhall rue.

Farewell, my liege :-Now no way can I stray;

2

Save back to England, all the world's my way. [Exit.
K. Rich. Uncle, even in the glaffes of thine eyes
I fee thy grieved heart: thy fad aspect

* (Our part therein]-Our claim to your allegiance.

Yegreet,]-mutually falute, addrefs each other in any friendly

manner.

2 fo far as to mine enemy ;]-fo far have I addreffed thee as mine enemy; take my last advice friendly, as I give it.

Save back to England, all the world's my way.]-Except returning to England; the whole world befide is open before me.

Hath

Hath from the number of his banish'd years
Pluck'd four away;-Six frozen winters spent,

[To Boling.

Return with welcome home from banishment.
Boling. How long a time lies in one little word!
Four lagging winters, and four wanton springs,
End in a word; Such is the breath of kings!
Gaunt. I thank my liege, that, in regard of me,
He shortens four years of my fon's exile:
But little vantage fhall I reap thereby;
For, ere the fix years, that he hath to spend,
Can change their moons, and bring their times about,
My oil-dry'd lamp, and time-bewafted light,
Shall be extinct with age, and endlefs night;

My inch of taper will be burnt and done,
And blindfold death not let me fee my

fon.

K. Rich. Why, uncle, thou haft many years to live. Gaunt. But not a minute, king, that thou can'ft give: Shorten my days thou canft with sullen forrow,

And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow:
Thou canst help time to furrow me with age,
But stop no wrinkle in his pilgrimage;
Thy word is current with him for my death;
But, dead, thy kingdom cannot buy my breath.
K. Rich. Thy fon is banish'd upon good advice,
Whereto thy tongue a party-verdict gave;
Why at our juftice feem'ft thou then to lour?
Gaunt. Things sweet to taste, prove in digestion four.
You urg'd me as a judge; but I had rather,
You would have bid me argue like a father :---
O, had it been a ftranger, not my child,

To smooth his fault I would have been more mild:

party-verdi-was a party in the verdict.

A par