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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 II: |
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. |
HENRY BOLINGBROKE: |
Look, what I speak, my life shall prove it true; |
That Mowbray hath received 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, |
Sluiced 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 II: |
How high a pitch his resolution soars! |
Thomas of Norfolk, what say'st thou to this? |
THOMAS 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 II: |
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. |
THOMAS 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 |
Disbursed I duly to his highness' soldiers; |
The other part reserved 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 not; but to my own disgrace |
Neglected my sworn duty in that case. |
For you, my noble Lord of Lancaster, |
The honourable father to my foe |
Once did I lay an ambush for your life, |
A trespass that doth vex my grieved soul |
But ere I last received the sacrament |
I did confess it, and exactly begg'd |
Your grace's pardon, and I hope I had it. |
This is my fault: as for the rest appeall'd, |
It issues from the rancour of a villain, |
A recreant and most degenerate traitor |
Which in myself I boldly will defend; |
And interchangeably hurl down my gage |
Upon this overweening traitor's foot, |
To prove myself a loyal gentleman |
Even in the best blood chamber'd in his bosom. |
In haste whereof, most heartily I pray |
Your highness to assign our trial day. |
KING RICHARD II: |
Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be ruled by me; |
Let's purge this choler without letting blood: |
This we prescribe, though no physician; |
Deep malice makes too deep incision; |
Forget, forgive; conclude and be agreed; |
Our doctors say this is no month to bleed. |
Good uncle, let this end where it begun; |
We'll calm the Duke of Norfolk, you your son. |
JOHN OF GAUNT: |
To be a make-peace shall become my age: |
Throw down, my son, the Duke of Norfolk's gage. |
KING RICHARD II: |
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