Even by thofe men, that moft have done us wrong.
The dangers of the days but newly gone,
(Whofe memory is written on the earth
With yet-appearing blood) and the examples
* Of every minute's inftance, (present now)
Have put us in thefe ill-befeeming arms:
Not to break peace, or any branch of it;
But to establish here a peace indeed,
Concurring both in name and quality.

h

Weft. When ever yet was your appeal deny'd?
Wherein have you been galled by the king?
What peer has been fuborn'd to grate on you?
That you should feal this lawless bloody book
Of forg'd rebellion with a feal divine,

i

And confecrate commotion's bitter edge?

York. My brother, general, the common-wealth; To brother born an household cruelty,

I make my quarrel in particular.

Weft. There is no need of any fuch redress;

Or, if there were, it not belongs to you.

Mowb. Why not to him, in part; and to us all,

That feel the bruifes of the days before;

And fuffer the conditions of these times
To lay a heavy and unequal hand
Upon our honours?

Weft. O my good lord Mowbray,
Conftrue the times to their neceffities,

Of every minute's inftance,]-Of executions occurring every minute. h to grate on]-to injure, annoy, opprefs.

i confecrate]-alluding to the popish custom of confecrating the wea pons, &c. to be ufed in croifades, or other fervice of the church. k civil.

1 My brother, general, the common-wealth; &c.]-The Lord Mowbray alledges public mifmanagement as the fource of his difcontent; my particular cause of quarrel arifes from a domeftic injury, my brother's murder-Lord Scroop's. HENRY IV. Part I. Vol. III. p. 485. Wor.

Conftrue the times to their neceffities,]-When you cenfure the times, do but confider the prefent exigencies.

Tt 2

And

And you fhall fay indeed,—it is the time,
And not the king, that doth you injuries.
Yet, for your part, it not appears to me,
Either from the king, or in the present time,
That you should have an inch of any ground
To build a grief on: Were you not restor'd
To all the duke of Norfolk's figniories,
Your noble and right-well-remember'd father's?
Mowb. What thing, in honour, had my father lost,
That need to be reviv'd, and breath'd in me?
The king, that lov'd him, as the state stood then,
Was, force perforce, compell'd to banish him:
And then, when Harry Bolingbroke, and he,—
Being mounted, and both roufed in their feats,
Their neighing courfers daring of the spur,

* Their armed ftaves in charge, their beavers down,
Their eyes of fire fparkling through fights of steel,
And the loud trumpet blowing them together;
Then, then, when there was nothing could have staid
My father from the breaft of Bolingbroke,

O, when the king did throw his warder down,
His own life hung upon the ftaff he threw :

Then threw he down himself; and all their lives,
That, by indictment, and by dint of sword,

Have fince mifcarried under Bolingbroke.

Weft. You fpeak, lord Mowbray, now you know not what:

The duke of Hereford was reputed then

In England the most valiant gentleman;

Who knows, on whom fortune would then have fmil'd? But, if your father had been victor there,

Their armed ftaves in charge,]-Their lances fix'd in their proper reft, or posture for the encounter.

• fights of feel,]-the pierced part of their helmts, through which they directed their aim.

He

He ne'er had borne it out of Coventry :

For all the country, in a general voice,

Cry'd hate upon him; and all their prayers, and love,
Were set on Hereford, whom they doted on,

And blefs'd, and grac'd indeed, more than the king.
But this is mere digreffion from my purpose.-
Here come I from our princely general,

To know your griefs; to tell you from his grace,
That he will give you audience: and wherein
It shall appear, that your demands are just,
You shall enjoy them; every thing fet off,
That might fo much as think you enemies.
Mowb. But he hath forc'd us to compel this offer;
And it proceeds from policy, not love.

Weft. Mowbray, you over-ween, to take it so;
This offer comes from mercy, not from fear;
For, lo! within a ken, our army lies;
Upon mine honour, all too confident
To give admittance to a thought of fear.
Our battle is more full of names than yours,
Our men more perfect in the use of arms,
Our armour all as ftrong, our cause the best;
Then reason wills, our hearts should be as good
Say you not then, our offer is compell'd.

Mowb. Well, by my will, we fhall admit no parley,
Weft. That argues but the fhame of your offence:

A rotten cafe abides no handling.

Haft. Hath the prince John a full commiffion, In very ample virtue of his father,

To hear, and abfolutely to determine

Of what conditions we shall stand upon?

Weft. That is intended in the general's name;

I mufe, you make fo flight a question.

P over-ween,]-are too arrogant.

intended-I muje, you make]-included-I am furprised you should

York. Then take, my lord of Westmoreland, this schedule;

For this contains our general grievances :

Each feveral article herein redress'd;

u

All members of our caufe, both here and hence,
That are infinew'd to this action,
Acquitted by a true fubftantial form
And prefent execution of our wills
To us, and to our purposes, confin'd;
We come within our awful banks again,
And knit our powers to the arm of peace.
Weft. This will I fhew the general. Please
In fight of both our battles we may meet:
And either end in peace, which heaven fo frame!
Or to the place of difference call the swords
Which must decide it.

York. My lord, we will do fo.

Please you, lords,

[Exit Weft,

Mowb. There is a thing within my bofom, tells me,

That no conditions of our peace can stand.

Haft. Fear you not that: if we can make our peace Upon fuch large terms, and so abfolute,

As our conditions fhall infift upon,

Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains,
Mowb. Ay, but our valuation fhall be fuch,

That every flight and falfe-derived cause,
Yea, every idle, nice, and wanton reafon,
Shall, to the king, taste of this action :
That, were our loyal faiths martyrs in love,

infinew'd]-embarked in.

true fubftantial form ;]-a form of due validity.

To us, and to our purposes, confin'd;]-As far as they relate to our felves, and to the tenour of thefe proposals.confign'd, confirm’d.

u

our awful banks]-the proper limits of allegiance.

"Thruft from the fociety of awful men.”

Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, Vol. I. p. 140. 3 Out, battles-armies,

We

We shall be winnow'd with fo rough a wind,

That even our corn fhall feem as light as chaff,
And good from bad find no partition.

York. No, no, my lord; Note this,-the king is weary * Of dainty and fuch picking grievances :

For he hath found,-to end one doubt by death,

Revives two greater in the heirs of life.

And therefore will he wipe his tables clean;
And keep no tell-tale to his memory,
That may repeat and hiftory his lofs

To new remembrance: For full well he knows,
He cannot fo precifely weed this land,
As his mifdoubts prefent occafion :
His foes are fo enrooted with his friends,
That, plucking to unfix an enemy,
He doth unfaften so, and shake a friend.
So that this land, like an offensive wife,
That hath enrag'd him on to offer strokes
As he is ftriking, holds his infant up,
And hangs refolv'd correction in the arm
That was uprear'd to execution.

Haft. Befides, the king hath wafted all his rods

On late offenders, that he now doth lack

The very instruments of chastisement :

So that his power, like to a fanglefs lion,

May offer, but not hold.

York. 'Tis very true:

And therefore be affur'd, my good lord marshal,

If we do now make our atonement well,

Our peace will, like a broken limb united,

Grow ftronger for the breaking.

*Of dainty and fuch picking]-Of fuch trifling and infignificant

Of picking out fuch dainty.

y bis tables]-ivory book of state..