I

a march of twelve-score. The money shall be paid back again with advantage. Be with me betimes in the morning; and so, good morrow, Peto.

Peto. Good morrow, good my lord.

622. "his death will be,” etc.; that is, "a march of twelve-score will be his death." A score, as here used, was twenty yards. So that "twelve-score" was two hundred and forty yards.-H. N. H.

ACT THIRD

SCENE I

Bangor. The Archdeacon's house.

Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Mortimer, and Glendower.

Mort. These promises are fair, the parties sure,
And our induction full of prosperous hope.
Hot. Lord Mortimer, and cousin Glendower,
Will you sit down?

And uncle Worcester: a plague upon it!
I have forgot the map.

Glend.

No, here it is.

Sit, cousin Percy; sit, good cousin Hotspur,
For by that name as oft as Lancaster

Doth speak of you, his cheek looks pale, and
with

A rising sigh he wisheth you in heaven
Hot. And you in hell, as oft as he hears Owen
Glendower spoke of.

Glend. I cannot blame him: at my nativity

10

13. "at my nativity," etc.; the singular behavior of nature at the birth of Glendower is thus mentioned by Holinshed: "Strange wonders happened (as men reported) at the nativitie of this man; for the same night he was borne all his fathers horsses in the stable were found to stand in blood up to the bellies.” And in 1402 a blazing star appeared, which the Welch bards construed as foretokening success to Glendower.-H. N. H.

I

The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
Of burning cressets; and at my birth

The frame and huge foundation of the earth
Shaked like a coward.

20

Hot. Why, so it would have done at the same season, if your mother's cat had but kittened, though yourself had never been born. Glend. I say the earth did shake when I was born. Hot. And I say the earth was not of my mind, If you suppose as fearing you it shook.

Glend. The heavens were all on fire, the earth did tremble.

Hot. O, then the earth shook to see the heavens on

fire,

And not in fear of your nativity.

Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth
In strange eruptions; oft the teeming earth
Is with a kind of colic pinch'd and vex'd
By the imprisoning of unruly wind
Within her womb; which, for enlargement striv-
ing,

30

Shakes the old beldam earth and topples down
Steeples and moss-grown towers. At your birth
Our grandam earth, having this distemperature,
In passion shook.

Cousin, of many men

I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave
To tell you once again that at my birth

18-20. This and the preceding speeches of Hotspur, which are commonly printed as verse, are here given in their proper order. Mr. Verplanck justly observes,-"The contrast between Glendower's selfdeceiving enthusiasm and Hotspur's impatient bluntness is stronger by the meter of the one and the prose of the other."-H. N. H.

I

The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes, The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds

Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields.

40

These signs have mark'd me extraordinary;
And all the courses of my life do show
I am not in the roll of common men.
Where is he living, clipp'd in with the sea
That chides the banks of England, Scotland,
Wales,

Which calls me pupil, or hath read to me?
And bring him out that is but woman's son
Can trace me in the tedious ways of art,
And hold me pace in deep experiments.
Hot. I think there's no man speaks better
Welsh. I'll to dinner.

50

Mort. Peace, cousin Percy; you will make him

mad.

Glend. I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
Hot. Why, so can I, or so can any man;

But will they come when you do call for them? Glend. Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command The devil.

Hot. And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil By telling truth: tell truth, and shame the devil.

39, 40. "and the herds

to the frighted fields"; so in the description of an earthquake at Catania, quoted by Malone: "There was a blow as if all the artillery in the world had been discharged the cattle in the fields ran crying."-H. N. H.

at once;

If thou have power to raise him, bring him hither,

And I'll be sworn I have power to shame him

hence.

60

O, while you live, tell truth, and shame the devil! Mort. Come, come, no more of this unprofitable chat.

Glend. Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made head

Against my power; thrice from the banks of

Wye

And sandy-bottom'd Severn have I sent him
Bootless home and weather-beaten back.

Hot. Home without boots, and in foul weather too!
How 'scapes he agues, in the devil's name?
Glend. Come, here's the map: shall we divide our
right

According to our threefold order ta'en?

Mort. The archdeacon hath divided it

Into three limits very equally:

70

England, from Trent and Severn hitherto,
By south and east is to my part assign'd:
All westward, Wales beyond the Severn shore,
And all the fertile land within that bound,
To Owen Glendower: and, dear coz, to you
The remnant northward, lying off from Trent.
And our indentures tripartite are drawn;

80

71. "threefold order ta'en," threefold arrangement proposed.— C. H. H.

72–80. This matter is thus given by Holinshed: "They by their deputies, in the house of the archdeacon of Bangor, divided the realme amongst them, causing a tripartite indenture to bee made and sealed with their seales, by the covenants whereof all England from