ANOTHER LORD I task the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle,
And spur thee on with full as many lies
As may be halloed in thy treacherous ear
From sun to sun: here 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. (4.1.53-60)
‘Another Lord’: #proudestmoment. That’s a bit mean, but he doesn’t even make it into the Folio, let alone get a speech prefix. Why’s he there, then? He’s yet another person coming in against Aumerle, increasing the odds against him. That he doesn’t have a name, that he emerges from nowhere and as quickly returns there (these are his only lines: sorry, Another Lord) suggests that Aumerle has really misread the room here; even unknowns are being moved to speak. But it also amps up the nervous energy, the degree to which this scene is already flirting with farce. The unnamed lord’s emphasis is on the glove that he throws down, tasking the earth to the like, that is, adding to its burdens with yet another glove, and he spurs Aumerle on—to drawing his sword in his own defence, come on then, have a go—with full as many lies (that is, accusations that he, Aumerle, is a liar, not telling lies himself) as could be halloed, shouted, hollered, perhaps as if to a horse or a hunting dog, in a day and a night, from sun to sun (or perhaps merely from sunrise to sunset; that tended to be the time in which a duel would be set to take place). A lot of shouting ‘liar’, whatever. There is my honour’s pawn, the glove, he says; engage it to the trial if thou dar’st. Come and have a go, then, if you’re hard enough, says Another Lord. Anyone else? says Aumerle? Don’t be shy, don’t hang back. Who sets me else? uses a dicing metaphor, hence by heaven, I’ll throw at all! I have a thousand spirits in one breast which are brave enough to answer twenty thousand such as you (Another Lord indeed). Fighting words. And more gloves still to come, oh yes.
