“First (heaven be the record to my speech!),
In the devotion of a subject’s love,” &c.
I remember in the Sophoclean drama no more striking example of the τὸ
πρέπον καὶ σεμνὸν than this speech; and the rhymes in the last six lines
well express the preconcertedness of Bolingbroke’s scheme so beautifully
contrasted with the vehemence and sincere irritation of Mowbray.
_Ib._ Bolingbroke’s speech:—
“Which blood, like sacrificing Abel’s, cries,
Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth,
To _me_, for justice and rough chastisement.”