Throw down, my son, the Duke of Norfolk's gage.
K. Rich. And, Norfolk, throw down his.
Gaunt.

When, Harry? when?

Obedience bids, I should not bid again.

K.Rich. Norfolk, throw down, we bid; there is no boot. Nor. Myself I throw, dread sovereign, at thy foot; My life thou shalt command, but not my shame ; The first my duty owes; but my fair name, Which after death shall live upon my grave, To black dishonour's use thou shalt not have. I am disgraced, impeached, and baffled here; Pierced to the soul with slander's venomed spear; And this no balm can cure, but his heart's-blood Who breathed this poison.

K. Rich.

Rage must be withstood.

Give me his gage :-lions make leopards tame.

Nor. Yea, but not change their spots: take but my shame, And I resign my gage. My dear, dear lord,

The purest treasure mortal times afford

Is-spotless reputation; that away,

Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay.
A jewel in a ten-times barred-up chest
Is-a bold spirit in a loyal breast.

Mine honour is my life; both grow in one ;
Take honour from me, and my life is done:
Then, my dear liege, mine honour let me try;
In that I live, and for that will I die.

K. Rich. Cousin, throw down your gage; do you begin.
Bol. O God, defend my soul from such foul sin :
Shall I seem crest-fallen in my father's sight?
Or with pale coward fear impeach my height
Before this outdared dastard? Ere my tongue
Shall wound mine honour with such shameful wrong,

Or breathe so base a word, my teeth shall tear
The slavish instrument of trembling fear,

And spit it bleeding, in his high disgrace,

Where shame doth harbour, even in Mowbray's face.

K. Rich. We were not born to sue, but to command; Which since we cannot do to make you friends,

Be ready, as your lives shall answer it,
At Coventry, upon Saint Lambert's day.
Marshal, command our officer at arms
Be ready to direct these home-alarms.

(SCENE-Near Coventry. KING RICHARD seated on a throne,

with ATTENDANTS, &c.

preceded by a HERALD.)

Enter NORFOLK in armour,

K. Rich. Marshal, demand of yonder champion The cause of his arrival here in arms.

Mar. In God's name and the king's, say who thou art, And why thou com'st thus knightly clad in arms; Against what man thou com'st, and what thy quarrel; Speak truly, on thy knighthood, and thy oath; And so defend thee Heaven, and thy valour!

Nor. My name is Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk,
Who hither come engaged by solemn oath,
(Which Heaven forbid a knight should violate!)
Both to defend my loyalty and truth

Against the Duke of Hereford, that appeals me:
And, by the grace of God, with this mine arm
To prove him, in defending of my self,
A traitor to my God, my king, and me :
And, as I truly fight, defend me, Heaven !

(Enter BOLINGBROKE in armour, preceded by a HERALD.)

K. Rich. Marshal, ask yonder knight in arms, Both who he is and why he cometh hither,

Thus clad in plated armour as for war.

Mar. What is thy name? and wherefore com'st thou
Before King Richard in his royal lists ?
[hither
Against whom comest thou? and what's thy quarrel ?
Speak like a true knight, so defend thee Heaven!

Bol. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
Am I, who ready here do stand in arms,
To prove on Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk,
That he's a traitor foul and dangerous,
To God of heaven, King Richard, and to me:
And, as I truly fight, defend me Heaven!

Mar. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
Receive thy lance; and God defend the right!
Bol. Strong as a tower in hope, I cry, "Amen."
Mar. Go, bear this lance to Thomas, Duke of Norfolk.
1st Herald. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
Stands here for God, his sovereign, and himself,

On pain to be judged false and recreant,

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

And dares him to set forward to the fight.

[Norfolk,

2d Herald. Here standeth Thomas Mowbray, Duke of On pain to be judged false and recreant, Both to defend himself, and to approve Henry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, To God, his sovereign, and to him, disloyal; Courageously, and with a free desire,

Awaiting but the signal to begin.

Mar. Sound, trumpets! and set forward, combatants!

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.—

Now list, what with our council we have done.

That our loved kingdom's earth should not be soiled
With that dear blood which it hath fostered,
Therefore, we banish you our territories ;-
You, Cousin Hereford, upon pain of death,
Till twice five summers have enriched our fields,
Shall not re-greet our fair dominions,

But tread the stranger paths of banishment.

Bol. Your will be done. This must my comfort be,—
The sun, that warms you here, shall shine on me ;
And those his golden beams, to you here lent,
Shall look on me, and gild my banishment.

K. Rich. Norfolk, for thee remains a heavier doom,
Which I with some unwillingness pronounce
The hopeless word of Never to return,
Breathe I against thee, upon pain of death.

Nor. A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege,
And all unlooked for from your highness' mouth.
The language I have learned these forty years,
My native English, now I must forego!
Henceforth my tongue's use is to me no more
Than an unstringed viol or a harp.

[thine eyes

K. Rich. (to Gaunt). Uncle, even in the glasses of

I see thy grieved heart; thy sad aspéct
Hath from the number of his banished years
Plucked four away :-Six frozen winters spent,
Return, with welcome, home from banishment.
Gaunt. I thank my liege, that in regard for me
He shortens four years
of my
son's exile:
But little vantage shall I reap thereby ;

For ere the six years that he hath to spend

Can change their moons, and bring their times about,
My oil-dried lamp, and time-bedimmèd light,

Shall be extinct with age and endless night.
My inch of taper will be burnt and done,
And blindfold death not let me see my son.

DEPOSITION OF KING RICHARD II.
A.D. 1399.

(SCENE-In Westminster Hall. BOLINGBROKE attended by all the Lords. Enter KING RICHARD.)

K. Rich. Alack, why am I sent for to a king, Before I have shook off the regal thoughts Wherewith I reigned? I hardly yet have learned To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my knee ;— Give sorrow leave a while to tutor me

To this submission. Yet I well remember

The aspects of these men.

Were they not mine?

Did not they sometime cry, "All hail !" to me?

So Judas did to Christ;, but he, in twelve,

Found truth in all but one: I, in twelve thousand, none !
God save the king!-Will no man say, "Amen?"
Am I both priest and clerk? Well, then, Amen !—
To do what service am I sent for hither?

York. To do that office, of thine own good will,
Which tired majesty did make thee offer,—

The resignation of thy state and crown

To Henry Bolingbroke.

[crown;

K. Rich. Give me the crown.-Here, cousin, seize the Here, on this side, my hand; on that side, thine.