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And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear

The accuser and the accused freely speak:

High-stomach'd are they both, and full of ire,

In rage deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.

Boling. Many years of happy days befall

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!

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

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,

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

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,

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

