Enter th’ Archbishop ⌜of York,⌝ Thomas Mowbray (Earl
Marshal), the Lord Hastings, and ⟨Lord⟩ Bardolph.ARCHBISHOP Thus have you heard our cause and known our means, And, my most noble friends, I pray you all Speak plainly your opinions of our hopes.5 And first, Lord Marshal, what say you to it?MOWBRAY I well allow the occasion of our arms, But gladly would be better satisfied How in our means we should advance ourselves To look with forehead bold and big enough10 Upon the power and puissance of the King.HASTINGS Our present musters grow upon the file
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To five-and-twenty thousand men of choice, And our supplies live largely in the hope Of great Northumberland, whose bosom burns15 With an incensèd fire of injuries.LORD BARDOLPH The question, then, Lord Hastings, standeth thus: Whether our present five-and-twenty thousand May hold up head without Northumberland.HASTINGS With him we may.LORD BARDOLPH 20 Yea, marry, there’s the point. But if without him we be thought too feeble, My judgment is we should not step too far ⟨Till we had his assistance by the hand. For in a theme so bloody-faced as this,25 Conjecture, expectation, and surmise Of aids incertain should not be admitted.⟩ARCHBISHOP ’Tis very true, Lord Bardolph, for indeed It was young Hotspur’s cause at Shrewsbury.LORD BARDOLPH It was, my lord; who lined himself with hope,30 Eating the air and promise of supply, Flatt’ring himself in project of a power Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts, And so, with great imagination Proper to madmen, led his powers to death35 And, winking, leapt into destruction.HASTINGS But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt To lay down likelihoods and forms of hope.LORD BARDOLPH ⟨Yes, if this present quality of war — Indeed the instant action, a cause on foot—40 Lives so in hope, as in an early spring We see th’ appearing buds, which to prove fruit
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Hope gives not so much warrant as despair That frosts will bite them. When we mean to build, We first survey the plot, then draw the model,45 And when we see the figure of the house, Then must we rate the cost of the erection, Which if we find outweighs ability, What do we then but draw anew the model In fewer offices, or at least desist50 To build at all? Much more in this great work, Which is almost to pluck a kingdom down And set another up, should we survey The plot of situation and the model, Consent upon a sure foundation,55 Question surveyors, know our own estate, How able such a work to undergo, To weigh against his opposite. Or else⟩ We fortify in paper and in figures, Using the names of men instead of men,60 Like one that draws the model of an house Beyond his power to build it, who, half through, Gives o’er and leaves his part-created cost A naked subject to the weeping clouds And waste for churlish winter’s tyranny.HASTINGS 65 Grant that our hopes, yet likely of fair birth, Should be stillborn and that we now possessed The utmost man of expectation, I think we are ⟨a⟩ body strong enough, Even as we are, to equal with the King.LORD BARDOLPH 70 What, is the King but five-and-twenty thousand?HASTINGS To us no more, nay, not so much, Lord Bardolph, For his divisions, as the times do brawl, ⟨Are⟩ in three heads: one power against the French, And one against Glendower; perforce a third
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75 Must take up us. So is the unfirm king In three divided, and his coffers sound With hollow poverty and emptiness.ARCHBISHOP That he should draw his several strengths together And come against us in full puissance80 Need not to be dreaded.HASTINGS If he should do so, ⟨He leaves his back unarmed, the French and Welsh⟩ Baying him at the heels. Never fear that.LORD BARDOLPH Who is it like should lead his forces hither?HASTINGS 85 The Duke of Lancaster and Westmoreland; Against the Welsh, himself and Harry Monmouth; But who is substituted against the French I have no certain notice.⟨ARCHBISHOP Let us on,90 And publish the occasion of our arms. The commonwealth is sick of their own choice. Their over-greedy love hath surfeited. An habitation giddy and unsure Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart.95 O thou fond many, with what loud applause Didst thou beat heaven with blessing Bolingbroke Before he was what thou wouldst have him be. And being now trimmed in thine own desires, Thou, beastly feeder, art so full of him100 That thou provok’st thyself to cast him up. So, so, thou common dog, didst thou disgorge Thy glutton bosom of the royal Richard, And now thou wouldst eat thy dead vomit up And howl’st to find it. What trust is in these105 times? They that, when Richard lived, would have him die Are now become enamored on his grave.
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Thou, that threw’st dust upon his goodly head When through proud London he came sighing on110 After th’ admirèd heels of Bolingbroke, Criest now “O earth, yield us that king again, And take thou this!” O thoughts of men accursed! Past and to come seems best; things present, worst.⟩⟨MOWBRAY⟩ 115 Shall we go draw our numbers and set on?HASTINGS We are time’s subjects, and time bids begone.They exit.