And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear 16
The accuser and the accused freely speak:
[Exeunt some Attendants.]
High-stomach'd are they both, and full of ire,
In rage deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.
Enter Bolingbroke and Mowbray.
Boling. Many years of happy days befall 20
My gracious sovereign, my most loving liege!
Mow. Each day still better other's happiness;
Until the heavens, envying earth's good hap,
Add an immortal title to your crown! 24
K. Rich. We thank you both: yet one but flatters us,
As well appeareth by the cause you come;
Namely, to appeal each other of high treason.
Cousin of Hereford, what dost thou object 28
Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?
Boling. First,—heaven be the record to my speech!—
In devotion of a subject's love,
Tendering the precious safety of my prince, 32
And free from other misbegotten hate,
Come I appellant to this princely presence.
Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee,
And mark my greeting well; for what I speak 36
My body shall make good upon this earth,
Or my divine soul answer it in heaven.
Thou art a traitor and a miscreant;
Too good to be so and too bad to live, 40
Since the more fair and crystal is the sky,
The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly.
Once more, the more to aggravate the note,
18 High-stomach'd: hot-tempered
23 hap: fortune
32 Tendering: holding tenderly
34 appellant; cf. n.
43 aggravate the note: intensify the stigma
