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First Herald: |
Harry of Hereford, Lancaster and Derby, |
Stands here for God, his sovereign 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 set forward to the fight. |
Second Herald: |
Here standeth Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, |
On pain to be found 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 |
Attending but the signal to begin. |
Lord Marshal: |
Sound, trumpets; and set forward, combatants. |
Stay, the king hath thrown his warder down. |
KING RICHARD II: |
Let them lay by their helmets and their spears, |
And both return back to their chairs again: |
Withdraw with us: and let the trumpets sound |
While we return these dukes what we decree. |
Draw near, |
And list what with our council we have done. |
For that our kingdom's earth should not be soil'd |
With that dear blood which it hath fostered; |
And for our eyes do hate the dire aspect |
Of civil wounds plough'd up with neighbours' sword; |
And for we think the eagle-winged pride |
Of sky-aspiring and ambitious thoughts, |
With rival-hating envy, set on you |
To wake our peace, which in our country's cradle |
Draws the sweet infant breath of gentle sleep; |
Which so roused up with boisterous untuned drums, |
With harsh resounding trumpets' dreadful bray, |
And grating shock 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 life, |
Till twice five summers have enrich'd our fields |
Shall not regreet our fair dominions, |
But tread the stranger paths of banishment. |
HENRY BOLINGBROKE: |
Your will be done: this must my comfort be, |
Sun 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. |
KING RICHARD II: |
Norfolk, for thee remains a heavier doom, |
Which I with some unwillingness pronounce: |
The sly slow hours shall not determinate |
The dateless limit of thy dear exile; |
The hopeless word of 'never to return' |
Breathe I against thee, upon pain of life. |
THOMAS MOWBRAY: |
A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege, |
And all unlook'd for from your highness' mouth: |
A dearer merit, not so deep a maim |
As to be cast forth in the common air, |
Have I deserved at your highness' hands. |
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 unstringed viol or a harp, |
Or like a cunning instrument cased up, |
Or, being open, put into his hands |
That knows no touch to tune the harmony: |
Within my mouth you have engaol'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 sentence then but speechless death, |
Which robs my tongue from breathing native breath? |
KING RICHARD II: |
It boots thee not to be compassionate: |
After our sentence plaining comes too late. |
THOMAS MOWBRAY: |
Then thus I turn me from my country's light, |
To dwell in solemn shades of endless night. |
KING RICHARD II: |
Return again, and take an oath with thee. |
Lay on our royal sword your banish'd hands; |
Swear by the duty that you owe to God-- |
Our part therein we banish with yourselves-- |
To keep the oath that we administer: |
You never shall, so help you truth and God! |
Embrace each other's love in banishment; |
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