<SPEECH 1><ACT 1><SCENE 1><1%>
<MOWBRAY>	<1%>
	Each day still better other's happiness;
	Until the heavens, envying earth's good hap,
	Add an immortal title to your crown!
</MOWBRAY>

<SPEECH 2><ACT 1><SCENE 1><1%>
<MOWBRAY>	<2%>
	Let not my cold words here accuse my zeal:
	'Tis not the trial of a woman's war,
	The bitter clamour of two eager tongues,
	Can arbitrate this cause betwixt us twain;
	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.
	First, the fair reverence of your highness curbs me
	From giving reins and spurs to my free speech;
	Which else would post until it had return'd
	These terms of treason doubled down his throat.
	Setting aside his high blood's royalty,
	And let him be no kinsman to my liege,
	I do defy him, and I spit at him;
	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
	Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps,
	Or any other ground inhabitable,
	Wherever Englishman durst set his foot.
	Meantime let this defend my loyalty:
	By all my hopes, most falsely doth he lie.
</MOWBRAY>

<SPEECH 3><ACT 1><SCENE 1><2%>
<MOWBRAY>	<3%>
	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,
	Or chivalrous design of knightly trial:
	And when I mount, alive may I not light,
	If I be traitor or unjustly fight!
</MOWBRAY>

<SPEECH 4><ACT 1><SCENE 1><4%>
<MOWBRAY>	<4%>
	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
	How God and good men hate so foul a liar.
</MOWBRAY>

<SPEECH 5><ACT 1><SCENE 1><4%>
<MOWBRAY>	<5%>
	Then, Bolingbroke, as low as to thy heart,
	Through the false passage of thy throat, thou liest.
	Three parts of that receipt I had for Calais
	Disburs'd I duly to his highness' soldiers;
	The other part reserv'd I by consent,
	For that my sovereign liege was in my debt
	Upon remainder of a dear account,
	Since last I went to France to fetch his queen.
	Now swallow down that lie. For Gloucester's death,
	I slew him not; but to mine own disgrace
	Neglected my sworn duty in that case.
	For you, my noble Lord of Lancaster,
	The honourable father to my foe,
	Once did I lay an ambush for your life,
	A trespass that doth vex my grieved soul;
	But ere I last receiv'd the sacrament
	I did confess it, and exactly begg'd
	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,
	And interchangeably hurl down my gage
	Upon this overweening traitor's foot,
	To prove myself a loyal gentleman
	Even in the best blood chamber'd in his bosom.
	In haste whereof, most heartily I pray
	Your highness to assign our trial day.
</MOWBRAY>

<SPEECH 6><ACT 1><SCENE 1><5%>
<MOWBRAY>	<6%>
	Myself I throw, dread sovereign, at thy foot.
	My life thou shalt command, but not my shame:
	The one my duty owes; but my fair name,—
	Despite of death that lives upon my grave,—
	To dark dishonour's use thou shalt not have.
	I am disgrac'd, impeach'd, and baffled here,
	Pierc'd to the soul with slander's venom'd spear,
	The which no balm can cure but his heart-blood
	Which breath'd this poison.
</MOWBRAY>

<SPEECH 7><ACT 1><SCENE 1><6%>
<MOWBRAY>	<6%>
	Yea, but not change his spots: take but my shame,
	And I resign my gage. My dear dear lord,
	The purest treasure mortal times afford
	Is spotless reputation; that away,
	Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.
	A jewel in a ten-times-barr'd-up chest
	Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast.
	Mine honour is my life; both grow in one;
	Take honour from me, and my life is done:
	Then, dear my liege, mine honour let me try;
	In that I live and for that will I die.
</MOWBRAY>

<SPEECH 8><ACT 1><SCENE 3><10%>
<MOWBRAY>	<11%>
	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 his 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!
<STAGE DIR>
<He takes his seat.>
</STAGE DIR>

</MOWBRAY>

<SPEECH 9><ACT 1><SCENE 3><12%>
<MOWBRAY>	<13%>
<STAGE DIR>
<Rising.>
</STAGE DIR> However God or fortune cast my lot,
	There lives or dies, true to King Richard's throne,
	A loyal, just, and upright gentleman.
	Never did captive with a freer heart
	Cast off his chains of bondage and embrace
	His golden uncontroll'd enfranchisement,
	More than my dancing soul doth celebrate
	This feast of battle with mine adversary.
	Most mighty liege, and my companion peers,
	Take from my mouth the wish of happy years.
	As gentle and as jocund as to jest,
	Go I to fight: truth has a quiet breast.
</MOWBRAY>

<SPEECH 10><ACT 1><SCENE 3><15%>
<MOWBRAY>	<16%>
	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 cas'd 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?
</MOWBRAY>

<SPEECH 11><ACT 1><SCENE 3><16%>
<MOWBRAY>	<16%>
	Then, thus I turn me from my country's light,
	To dwell in solemn shades of endless night.
</MOWBRAY>

<SPEECH 12><ACT 1><SCENE 3><16%>
<MOWBRAY>	<17%>
	And I, to keep all this.
</MOWBRAY>

<SPEECH 13><ACT 1><SCENE 3><16%>
<MOWBRAY>	<17%>
	No, Bolingbroke: if ever I were traitor,
	My name be blotted from the book of life,
	And I from heaven banish'd as from hence!
	But what thou art, God, thou, and I do know;
	And all too soon, I fear, the king shall rue.
	Farewell, my liege. Now no way can I stray;
	Save back to England, all the world's my way.
</MOWBRAY>

