Page:Henry IV Part 2 (1921) Yale.djvu/86

74

Mowb. Why not to him in part, and to us all

That feel the bruises of the days before,

And suffer the condition of these times

To lay a heavy and unequal hand

Upon our honours?

West.O! my good Lord Mowbray,

Construe the times to their necessities,

And you shall say indeed, it is the time,

And not the king, that doth you injuries.

Yet, for your part, it not appears to me

Either from the king or in the present time

That you should have an inch of any ground

To build a grief on: were you not restor'd

To all the Duke of Norfolk's signories,

Your noble and right well-remember'd father's?

Mowb. What thing, in honour, had my father lost,

That need to be reviv'd and breath'd in me?

The king that lov'd him as the state stood then,

Was force perforce compell'd to banish him:

And then that Harry Bolingbroke and he,

Being mounted and both roused in their seats,

Their neighing coursers daring of the spur,

Their armed staves in charge, their beavers down,

Their eyes of fire sparkling through sights of steel,

And the loud trumpet blowing them together,

Then, then when there was nothing could have stay'd

My father from the breast of Bolingbroke,

O! when the king did throw his warder down,

His own life hung upon the staff he threw;

Then threw he down himself and all their lives

That by indictment and by dint of sword

 104 to: according to

114 breath'd: given breath of life

117 ff. Cf. n.

120 armed staves: lances

in charge: in rest for the charge

beavers: movable fronts of the helmets

121 sights: eyeholes of the helmet

125 warder: staff of command 