AUMERLE.
Princes and noble lords,
What answer shall I make to this base man?
Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars
On equal terms to give him chastisement?
Either I must, or have mine honour soiled
With the attainder of his slanderous lips.
There is my gage, the manual seal of death
That marks thee out for hell. I say thou liest,
And will maintain what thou hast said is false
In thy heart-blood, though being all too base
To stain the temper of my knightly sword.
BOLINGBROKE.
Bagot, forbear. Thou shalt not take it up.
AUMERLE.
Excepting one, I would he were the best
In all this presence that hath moved me so.
FITZWATER.
If that thy valour stand on sympathy,
There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine.
By that fair sun which shows me where thou stand’st,
I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spak’st it,
That thou wert cause of noble Gloucester’s death.
If thou deniest it twenty times, thou liest!
And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart,
Where it was forged, with my rapier’s point.
AUMERLE.
Thou dar’st not, coward, live to see that day.
FITZWATER.
Now, by my soul, I would it were this hour.
AUMERLE.
Fitzwater, thou art damned to hell for this.
HARRY PERCY.
Aumerle, thou liest. His honour is as true
In this appeal as thou art an unjust;
And that thou art so, there I throw my gage,
To prove it on thee to the extremest point
Of mortal breathing. Seize it if thou dar’st.
AUMERLE.
And if I do not, may my hands rot off
And never brandish more revengeful steel
Over the glittering helmet of my foe!
ANOTHER LORD.
I task the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle,
And spur thee on with full as many lies
As may be holloaed in thy treacherous ear
From sun to sun. There is my honour’s pawn.
Engage it to the trial if thou dar’st.