Mow. Let not my cold words here accuse my zeal:[711]
'Tis not the trial of a woman's war,
The bitter clamour of two eager tongues,
Can arbitrate this cause betwixt us twain;50
The blood is hot that must be cool'd for this:
Yet can I not of such tame patience boast
As to be hush'd and nought at all to say:[712]
First, the fair reverence of your highness curbs me
From giving reins and spurs to my free speech;55
Which else would post until it had return'd[713]
These terms of treason doubled down his throat.[714]
Setting aside his high blood's royalty,
And let him be no kinsman to my liege,[715]
I do defy him, and I spit at him;[716]60
Call him a slanderous coward and a villain:
Which to maintain I would allow him odds,
And meet him, were I tied to run afoot[717]
Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps,
Or any other ground inhabitable,[718]65
Where ever Englishman durst set his foot.[719]
Mean time let this defend my loyalty,[720]
By all my hopes, most falsely doth he lie.
Boling. Pale trembling coward, there I throw my gage,
Disclaiming here the kindred of the king;[721]70
And lay aside my high blood's royalty,
Which fear, not reverence, makes thee to except.
If guilty dread have left thee so much strength[722]
As to take up mine honour's pawn, then stoop:
By that and all the rites of knighthood else,[723]75
Will I make good against thee, arm to arm,
What I have spoke, or thou canst worse devise.[724]
Mow. I take it up; and by that sword I swear,
Which gently laid my knighthood on my shoulder,
I'll answer thee in any fair degree,80
Or chivalrous design of knightly trial:[725]
And when I mount, alive may I not light,[726]
If I be traitor or unjustly fight!
K. Rich. What doth our cousin lay to Mowbray's charge?
It must be great that can inherit us[727]85
So much as of a thought of ill in him.
Boling. Look, what I speak, my life shall prove it true;[728]
That Mowbray hath received eight thousand nobles
In name of lendings for your highness' soldiers,
The which he hath detain'd for lewd employments,90
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[729]95
Complotted and contrived in this land
Fetch from false Mowbray their first head and spring.[730]
Further I say and further will maintain
Upon his bad life to make all this good,[731]
That he did plot the Duke of Gloucester's death,[732]100
Suggest his soon-believing adversaries,
And consequently, like a traitor coward,[733]
Sluiced out his innocent soul through streams of blood:
Which blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries,
Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth,105
To me for justice and rough chastisement;
And, by the glorious worth of my descent,[734]
This arm shall do it, or this life be spent.
K. Rich. How high a pitch his resolution soars!
Thomas of Norfolk, what say'st thou to this?[735]110
Mow. 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,[736]
How God and good men hate so foul a liar.
K. Rich. Mowbray, impartial are our eyes and ears:115
Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom's heir,[737]
As he is but my father's brother's son,[738]
Now, by my sceptre's awe, I make a vow,[739]
Such neighbour nearness to our sacred blood
Should nothing privilege him, nor partialize120
The unstooping firmness of my upright soul:[738]
He is our subject, Mowbray; so art thou:
Free speech and fearless I to thee allow.
Mow. Then, Bolingbroke, as low as to thy heart,
Through the false passage of thy throat, thou liest.125
Three parts of that receipt I had for Calais[740]
Disbursed I duly to his highness' soldiers;[741]
The other part reserved I by consent,
For that my sovereign liege was in my debt
Upon remainder of a dear account,[742]130
Since last I went to France to fetch his queen:
Now swallow down that lie. For Gloucester's death,[732]
I slew him not; but to my own disgrace[743]
Neglected my sworn duty in that case.
For you, my noble Lord of Lancaster,135
The honourable father to my foe,
Once did I lay an ambush for your life,[744]
A trespass that doth vex my grieved soul;
But ere I last received the sacrament[745]
I did confess it, and exactly begg'd140
Your grace's pardon, and I hope I had it.
This is my fault: as for the rest appeal'd,
It issues from the rancour of a villain,
A recreant and most degenerate traitor:
Which in myself I boldly will defend:145
And interchangeably hurl down my gage[746]
Upon this overweening traitor's foot,[747]
To prove myself a loyal gentleman
Even in the best blood chamber'd in his bosom.[748]
In haste whereof, most heartily I pray150
Your highness to assign our trial day.
K. Rich. Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be ruled by me;[749]
Let's purge this choler without letting blood:
This we prescribe, though no physician;[750][751]
Deep malice makes too deep incision:[750]155
Forget, forgive; conclude and be agreed;[750]
Our doctors say this is no month to bleed.[750][752]
Good uncle, let this end where it begun;
We'll calm the Duke of Norfolk, you your son.