The Complete Historical Plays of William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare

       ACT 4

       SCENE I. Westminster Hall.

       [The Lords spiritual on the right side of the throne; the Lords temporal on the left; the Commons below. Enter BOLINGBROKE, AUMERLE, SURREY, NORTHUMBERLAND, HENRY PERCY, FITZWATER, another Lord, the BISHOP OF CARLISLE, the ABBOT OF WESTMINSTER, and attendants. OFFICERS behind, with BAGOT.]

       BOLINGBROKE.

       Call forth Bagot.

       Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind;

       What thou dost know of noble Gloucester’s death;

       Who wrought it with the King, and who perform’d

       The bloody office of his timeless end.

       BAGOT.

       Then set before my face the Lord Aumerle.

       BOLINGBROKE.

       Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that man.

       BAGOT.

       My Lord Aumerle, I know your daring tongue

       Scorns to unsay what once it hath deliver’d.

       In that dead time when Gloucester’s death was plotted

       I heard you say ‘Is not my arm of length,

       That reacheth from the restful English Court

       As far as Calais, to mine uncle’s head?’

       Amongst much other talk that very time

       I heard you say that you had rather refuse

       The offer of an hundred thousand crowns

       Than Bolingbroke’s return to England;

       Adding withal, how blest this land would be

       In this your cousin’s death.

       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 soil’d

       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, through 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 mov’d me so.

       FITZWATER.

       If that thy valour stand on sympathies,

       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 deny’st 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 darest not, coward, live to see that day.

       FITZWATER.

       Now, by my soul, I would it were this hour.

       AUMERLE.

       Fitzwater, thou art damn’d to hell for this.

       HENRY 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 halloa’d in thy treacherous ear

       From sun to sun: there is my honour’s pawn;

       Engage it to the trial if thou dar’st.

       AUMERLE.

       Who sets me else? By heaven, I’ll throw at all:

       I have a thousand spirits in one breast

       To answer twenty thousand such as you.

       SURREY.

       My Lord Fitzwater, I do remember well

       The very time Aumerle and you did talk.

       FITZWATER.

       ‘Tis very true: you were in presence then,

       And you can witness with me this is true.

       SURREY.

       As false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true.

       FITZWATER.

       Surrey, thou liest.

       SURREY.

       Dishonourable boy!

       That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword

       That it shall render vengeance and revenge

       Till thou the lie-giver and that lie do lie

       In earth as quiet as thy father’s skull.

       In proof whereof, there is my honour’s pawn;

       Engage it to the trial if thou dar’st.

       FITZWATER.

       How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse!

       If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live,

       I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness,

       And spit upon him, whilst I say he lies,

       And lies, and lies: there is my bond of faith

       To tie thee to my strong correction.

       As I intend to thrive in this new world,

       Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal:

       Besides, I heard the banish’d Norfolk say

       That thou, Aumerle, didst send two of thy men

       To execute the noble duke at Calais.

       AUMERLE.

       Some honest Christian trust me with a gage.

       That Norfolk lies, here do I throw down this,

       If he may be repeal’d to try his honour.

       BOLINGBROKE.