SCENE 2.London.The DUKE OF LANCASTER'S palace
Enter JOHN OF GAUNT with the DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER
GAUNT.Alas,the part I had in Woodstock's blood Doth more solicit me than your exclaims To stir against the butchers of his life!But since correction lieth in those hands Which made the fault that we cannot correct,Put we our quarrel to the will of heaven;Who,when they see the hours ripe on earth,Will rain hot vengeance on offenders'heads.DUCHESS.Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper spur?Hath love in thy old blood no living fire?Edward's seven sons,whereof thyself art one,Were as seven vials of his sacred blood,Or seven fair branches springing from one root.Some of those seven are dried by nature's course,Some of those branches by the Destinies cut;But Thomas,my dear lord,my life,my Gloucester,One vial full of Edward's sacred blood,One flourishing branch of his most royal root,Is crack'd,and all the precious liquor spilt;Is hack'd down,and his summer leaves all faded,By envy's hand and murder's bloody axe.Ah,Gaunt,his blood was thine!
That bed,that womb,That mettle,that self mould,that fashion'd thee,Made him a man;and though thou livest and breathest,Yet art thou slain in him.Thou dost consent In some large measure to thy father's death In that thou seest thy wretched brother die,Who was the model of thy father's life.Call it not patience,Gaunt-it is despair;In suff'ring thus thy brother to be slaught'red,Thou showest the naked pathway to thy life,Teaching stern murder how to butcher thee.That which in mean men we entitle patience Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.What shall I say?To safeguard thine own life The best way is to venge my Gloucester's death.GAUNT.God's is the quarrel;for God's substitute,His deputy anointed in His sight,Hath caus'd his death;the which if wrongfully,Let heaven revenge;for I may never lift An angry arm against His minister.DUCHESS.Where then,alas,may I complain myself?GAUNT.To God,the widow's champion and defence.DUCHESS.Why then,I will.Farewell,old Gaunt.Thou goest to Coventry,there to behold Our cousin Hereford and fell Mowbray fight.O,sit my husband's wrongs on Hereford's spear,That it may enter butcher Mowbray's breast!Or,if misfortune miss the first career,Be Mowbray's sins so heavy in his bosom That they may break his foaming courser's back And throw the rider headlong in the lists,A caitiff recreant to my cousin Hereford!Farewell,old Gaunt;thy sometimes brother's wife,With her companion,Grief,must end her life.GAUNT.Sister,farewell;I must to Coventry.As much good stay with thee as go with me!DUCHESS.Yet one word more-grief boundeth where it falls,Not with the empty hollowness,but weight.I take my leave before I have begun,For sorrow ends not when it seemeth done.Commend me to thy brother,Edmund York.Lo,this is all-nay,yet depart not so;Though this be all,do not so quickly go;I shall remember more.Bid him-ah,what?-With all good speed at Plashy visit me.Alack,and what shall good old York there see But empty lodgings and unfurnish'd walls,Unpeopled offices,untrodden stones?And what hear there for welcome but my groans?Therefore commend me;let him not come there To seek out sorrow that dwells every where.Desolate,desolate,will I hence and die;The last leave of thee takes my weeping eye.Exeunt
SCENE 3.The lists at Coventry
Enter the LORD MARSHAL and the DUKE OF AUMERLE MARSHAL.My Lord Aumerle,is Harry Hereford arm'd?
AUMERLE.Yea,at all points;and longs to enter in.MARSHAL.The Duke of Norfolk,spightfully and bold,Stays but the summons of the appelant's trumpet.AUMERLE.Why then,the champions are prepar'd,and stay For nothing but his Majesty's approach.
The trumpets sound,and the KING enters with his nobles,GAUNT,BUSHY,BAGOT,GREEN,and others.When they are set,enter MOWBRAY,Duke of Nor folk,in arms,defendant,and a HERALD
KING RICHARD.Marshal,demand of yonder champion The cause of his arrival here in arms;Ask him his name;and orderly proceed To swear him in the justice of his cause.MARSHAL.In God's name and the King's,say who thou art,And why thou comest thus knightly clad in arms;Against what man thou com'st,and what thy quarrel.Speak truly on thy knighthood and thy oath;As so defend thee heaven and thy valour!MOWBRAY.My name is Thomas Mowbray,Duke of Norfolk;Who hither come engaged by my oath-Which God defend a knight should violate!-Both to defend my loyalty and truth To God,my King,and my succeeding issue,Against the Duke of Hereford that appeals me;And,by the grace of God and this mine arm,To prove him,in defending of myself,A traitor to my God,my King,and me.And as I truly fight,defend me heaven!
The trumpets sound.Enter BOLINGBROKE,Duke of Hereford,appellant,in armour,and a HERALD
KING RICHARD.Marshal,ask yonder knight in arms,Both who he is and why he cometh hither Thus plated in habiliments of war;And formally,according to our law,Depose him in the justice of his cause.MARSHAL.What is thy name?and wherefore com'st thou hither Before King Richard in his royal lists?Against whom comest thou?and what's thy quarrel?Speak like a true knight,so defend thee heaven!BOLINGBROKE.Harry of Hereford,Lancaster,and Derby,Am I;who ready here do stand in arms To prove,by God's grace and my body's valour,In lists on Thomas Mowbray,Duke of Norfolk,That he is a traitor,foul and dangerous,To God of heaven,King Richard,and to me.And as I truly fight,defend me heaven!