Enter the King, Northumberland, Worcester, Hotspur,
⌜and⌝ Sir Walter Blunt, with others.KING , ⌜to Northumberland, Worcester, and Hotspur⌝ My blood hath been too cold and temperate, Unapt to stir at these indignities, And you have found me, for accordingly You tread upon my patience. But be sure5 I will from henceforth rather be myself, Mighty and to be feared, than my condition, Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down, And therefore lost that title of respect Which the proud soul ne’er pays but to the proud.WORCESTER 10 Our house, my sovereign liege, little deserves The scourge of greatness to be used on it, And that same greatness too which our own hands Have holp to make so portly.NORTHUMBERLAND My lord—KING 15 Worcester, get thee gone, for I do see Danger and disobedience in thine eye. O sir, your presence is too bold and peremptory, And majesty might never yet endure The moody frontier of a servant brow.20 You have good leave to leave us. When we need Your use and counsel, we shall send for you. Worcester exits. You were about to speak.NORTHUMBERLAND Yea, my good lord.
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Those prisoners in your Highness’ name demanded,25 Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took, Were, as he says, not with such strength denied As is delivered to your Majesty. Either envy, therefore, or misprision Is guilty of this fault, and not my son.HOTSPUR 30 My liege, I did deny no prisoners. But I remember, when the fight was done, When I was dry with rage and extreme toil, Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword, Came there a certain lord, neat and trimly dressed,35 Fresh as a bridegroom, and his chin new reaped Showed like a stubble land at harvest home. He was perfumèd like a milliner, And ’twixt his finger and his thumb he held A pouncet box, which ever and anon40 He gave his nose and took ’t away again, Who therewith angry, when it next came there, Took it in snuff; and still he smiled and talked. And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by, He called them untaught knaves, unmannerly,45 To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse Betwixt the wind and his nobility. With many holiday and lady terms He questioned me, amongst the rest demanded My prisoners in your Majesty’s behalf.50 I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold, To be so pestered with a popinjay, Out of my grief and my impatience Answered neglectingly I know not what— He should, or he should not; for he made me mad55 To see him shine so brisk and smell so sweet And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman Of guns, and drums, and wounds—God save the mark!—
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And telling me the sovereignest thing on Earth60 Was parmacety for an inward bruise, And that it was great pity, so it was, This villainous saltpeter should be digged Out of the bowels of the harmless Earth, Which many a good tall fellow had destroyed65 So cowardly, and but for these vile guns He would himself have been a soldier. This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord, I answered indirectly, as I said, And I beseech you, let not his report70 Come current for an accusation Betwixt my love and your high Majesty.BLUNT The circumstance considered, good my lord, Whate’er Lord Harry Percy then had said To such a person and in such a place,75 At such a time, with all the rest retold, May reasonably die and never rise To do him wrong or any way impeach What then he said, so he unsay it now.KING Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners,80 But with proviso and exception That we at our own charge shall ransom straight His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer, Who, on my soul, hath willfully betrayed The lives of those that he did lead to fight85 Against that great magician, damned Glendower, Whose daughter, as we hear, that Earl of March Hath lately married. Shall our coffers then Be emptied to redeem a traitor home? Shall we buy treason and indent with fears90 When they have lost and forfeited themselves? No, on the barren mountains let him starve, For I shall never hold that man my friend
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Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost To ransom home revolted Mortimer.HOTSPUR 95Revolted Mortimer! He never did fall off, my sovereign liege, But by the chance of war. To prove that true Needs no more but one tongue for all those wounds, Those mouthèd wounds, which valiantly he took100 When on the gentle Severn’s sedgy bank In single opposition hand to hand He did confound the best part of an hour In changing hardiment with great Glendower. Three times they breathed, and three times did they105 drink, Upon agreement, of swift Severn’s flood, Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks, Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank,110 Blood-stainèd with these valiant combatants. Never did bare and rotten policy Color her working with such deadly wounds, Nor never could the noble Mortimer Receive so many, and all willingly.115 Then let not him be slandered with revolt.KING Thou dost belie him, Percy; thou dost belie him. He never did encounter with Glendower. I tell thee, he durst as well have met the devil alone As Owen Glendower for an enemy.120 Art thou not ashamed? But, sirrah, henceforth Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer. Send me your prisoners with the speediest means, Or you shall hear in such a kind from me As will displease you.—My lord Northumberland,125 We license your departure with your son.— Send us your prisoners, or you will hear of it. King exits ⌜with Blunt and others.⌝
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HOTSPUR An if the devil come and roar for them, I will not send them. I will after straight And tell him so, for I will ease my heart,130 Albeit I make a hazard of my head.NORTHUMBERLAND What, drunk with choler? Stay and pause awhile. Here comes your uncle. Enter Worcester.HOTSPUR Speak of Mortimer? Zounds, I will speak of him, and let my soul135 Want mercy if I do not join with him. Yea, on his part I’ll empty all these veins And shed my dear blood drop by drop in the dust, But I will lift the downtrod Mortimer As high in the air as this unthankful king,140 As this ingrate and cankered Bolingbroke.NORTHUMBERLAND Brother, the King hath made your nephew mad.WORCESTER Who struck this heat up after I was gone?HOTSPUR He will forsooth have all my prisoners, And when I urged the ransom once again145 Of my wife’s brother, then his cheek looked pale, And on my face he turned an eye of death, Trembling even at the name of Mortimer.WORCESTER I cannot blame him. Was not he proclaimed By Richard, that dead is, the next of blood?NORTHUMBERLAND 150 He was; I heard the proclamation. And then it was when the unhappy king— Whose wrongs in us God pardon!—did set forth Upon his Irish expedition;
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From whence he, intercepted, did return155 To be deposed and shortly murderèd.WORCESTER And for whose death we in the world’s wide mouth Live scandalized and foully spoken of.HOTSPUR But soft, I pray you. Did King Richard then Proclaim my brother Edmund Mortimer160 Heir to the crown?NORTHUMBERLAND He did; myself did hear it.HOTSPUR Nay then, I cannot blame his cousin king That wished him on the barren mountains starve. But shall it be that you that set the crown165 Upon the head of this forgetful man And for his sake wear the detested blot Of murderous subornation—shall it be That you a world of curses undergo, Being the agents or base second means,170 The cords, the ladder, or the hangman rather? O, pardon me that I descend so low To show the line and the predicament Wherein you range under this subtle king. Shall it for shame be spoken in these days,175 Or fill up chronicles in time to come, That men of your nobility and power Did gage them both in an unjust behalf (As both of you, God pardon it, have done) To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose,180 And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke? And shall it in more shame be further spoken That you are fooled, discarded, and shook off By him for whom these shames you underwent? No, yet time serves wherein you may redeem185 Your banished honors and restore yourselves Into the good thoughts of the world again,
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Revenge the jeering and disdained contempt Of this proud king, who studies day and night To answer all the debt he owes to you190 Even with the bloody payment of your deaths. Therefore I say—WORCESTER Peace, cousin, say no more. And now I will unclasp a secret book, And to your quick-conceiving discontents195 I’ll read you matter deep and dangerous, As full of peril and adventurous spirit As to o’erwalk a current roaring loud On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.HOTSPUR If he fall in, good night, or sink or swim!200 Send danger from the east unto the west, So honor cross it from the north to south, And let them grapple. O, the blood more stirs To rouse a lion than to start a hare!NORTHUMBERLAND , ⌜to Worcester⌝ Imagination of some great exploit205 Drives him beyond the bounds of patience.⌜HOTSPUR⌝ By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap To pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon, Or dive into the bottom of the deep, Where fathom line could never touch the ground,210 And pluck up drownèd honor by the locks, So he that doth redeem her thence might wear Without corrival all her dignities. But out upon this half-faced fellowship!WORCESTER He apprehends a world of figures here,215 But not the form of what he should attend.— Good cousin, give me audience for a while.HOTSPUR I cry you mercy.
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WORCESTER Those same noble Scots That are your prisoners—HOTSPUR 220 I’ll keep them all. By God, he shall not have a Scot of them. No, if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not. I’ll keep them, by this hand!WORCESTER You start away225 And lend no ear unto my purposes: Those prisoners you shall keep—HOTSPUR Nay, I will. That’s flat! He said he would not ransom Mortimer, Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer.230 But I will find him when he lies asleep, And in his ear I’ll hollo “Mortimer.” Nay, I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak Nothing but “Mortimer,” and give it him To keep his anger still in motion.WORCESTER 235Hear you, cousin, a word.HOTSPUR All studies here I solemnly defy, Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke. And that same sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales— But that I think his father loves him not240 And would be glad he met with some mischance— I would have him poisoned with a pot of ale.WORCESTER Farewell, kinsman. I’ll talk to you When you are better tempered to attend.NORTHUMBERLAND , ⌜to Hotspur⌝ Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool245 Art thou to break into this woman’s mood, Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own!HOTSPUR Why, look you, I am ⌜whipped⌝ and scourged with rods, Nettled and stung with pismires, when I hear
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250 Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke. In Richard’s time—what do you call the place? A plague upon it! It is in Gloucestershire. ’Twas where the madcap duke his uncle kept, His uncle York, where I first bowed my knee255 Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke. ’Sblood, when you and he came back from Ravenspurgh.NORTHUMBERLAND At Berkeley Castle.HOTSPUR You say true.260 Why, what a candy deal of courtesy This fawning greyhound then did proffer me: “Look when his infant fortune came to age,” And “gentle Harry Percy,” and “kind cousin.” O, the devil take such cozeners!—God forgive me!265 Good uncle, tell your tale. I have done.WORCESTER Nay, if you have not, to it again. We will stay your leisure.HOTSPUR I have done, i’ faith.WORCESTER Then once more to your Scottish prisoners:270 Deliver them up without their ransom straight, And make the Douglas’ son your only mean For powers in Scotland, which, for divers reasons Which I shall send you written, be assured Will easily be granted.—You, my lord,275 Your son in Scotland being thus employed, Shall secretly into the bosom creep Of that same noble prelate well beloved, The Archbishop.HOTSPUR Of York, is it not?WORCESTER 280True, who bears hard His brother’s death at Bristol, the Lord Scroop. I speak not this in estimation,
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As what I think might be, but what I know Is ruminated, plotted, and set down,285 And only stays but to behold the face Of that occasion that shall bring it on.HOTSPUR I smell it. Upon my life it will do well.NORTHUMBERLAND Before the game is afoot thou still let’st slip.HOTSPUR Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot.290 And then the power of Scotland and of York To join with Mortimer, ha?WORCESTER And so they shall.HOTSPUR In faith, it is exceedingly well aimed.WORCESTER And ’tis no little reason bids us speed295 To save our heads by raising of a head, For bear ourselves as even as we can, The King will always think him in our debt, And think we think ourselves unsatisfied, Till he hath found a time to pay us home.300 And see already how he doth begin To make us strangers to his looks of love.HOTSPUR He does, he does. We’ll be revenged on him.WORCESTER Cousin, farewell. No further go in this Than I by letters shall direct your course.305 When time is ripe, which will be suddenly, I’ll steal to Glendower and Lord Mortimer, Where you and Douglas and our powers at once, As I will fashion it, shall happily meet To bear ⌜our⌝ fortunes in our own strong arms,310 Which now we hold at much uncertainty.
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NORTHUMBERLAND Farewell, good brother. We shall thrive, I trust.HOTSPUR Uncle, adieu. O, let the hours be short Till fields and blows and groans applaud our sport. They exit.
