I'll keep them, by this hand.

Wor. You start away,

And lend no ear unto my purposes.-
Those prisoners you shall keep.

Hot. Nay, I will; that's flat:

He said, he would not ransom Mortimer;
Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer;
But I will find him when he lies asleep,
And in his ear I'll holla-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.

Wor. Hear you, cousin; a word.
Hot. 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 not,

And would be glad he met with some mischance,

I'd have him poisoned with a pot of ale.

Wor. Farewell, kinsman! I will talk to you,

When you are better tempered to attend.

North. Why, what a wasp-tongued and impatient fool Art thou, to break into this woman's mood;

Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own!

Hot. Why, look you, I am whipped and scourged with rods,

Nettled, and stung with pismires, when I hear

Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke.

In Richard's time,-What do you call the place ?—
A plague upon 't! it is in Gloucestershire;

'Twas where the madcap duke his uncle kept;
His uncle York ;-where I first bowed my knee
Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke,
When you and he came back from Ravenspurg.
North. At Berkeley Castle.

Hot. You say true:

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,❞—

M

O the devil take such cozeners!-God forgive me!-
Good uncle, tell your tale, for I have done.

Wor. Nay, if you have not, to 't again;
We'll stay your leisure.

Hot. I have done, in sooth.

Wor. Then once more to your Scottish prisoners.
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.—

When time is ripe, which will be suddenly,

I'll steal to Glendower, and Lord Mortimer;

Where you and Douglas, and your powers at once (As I will fashion it), shall happily meet,

To bear our fortunes in our own strong arms,

Which now we hold at much uncertainty.

North. Farewell, good brother: we shall thrive, I trust. Hot. Uncle, adieu :-O let the hours be short,

"Till fields, and blows, and groans applaud our sport! SHAKESPERE.

HENRY IV.—PART I.

Second Selection.

Enter HOTSPUR, Worcester, and Douglas.

Hot. Well said, my noble Scot; if speaking truth,
In this fine age, were not thought flattery,

Such attribution should the Douglas have,
As not a soldier of this season's stamp

Should go so general current through the world.
By heaven, I cannot flatter; I defy

The tongues of soothers; but a braver place,
In my heart's love hath no man than yourself:
Nay, task me to my word; approve me, lord.
Doug. Thou art the king of honour :
No man so potent breathes upon the ground,
But I will beard him.

Hot. Do so, and 'tis well :

Enter a MESSENGER, with Letters.

What letters hast thou there?—I can but thank you.
Mess. These letters come from your father.

Hot. Letters from him! Why comes he not himself?
Mess. He cannot come, my lord; he's grievous sick.
Hot. Zounds! how has he the leisure to be sick
In such a justling time? Who leads his power?
Under whose government come they along?

Mess. His letters bear his mind, not I, my lord. Wor. I prithee tell me, doth he keep his bed? Mess. He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth; And at the time of my departure thence,

He was much feared by his physicians.

Wor. I would the state of time had first been whole, Ere he by sickness had been visited;

His health was never better worth than now.

Hot. Sick now! droop now!

The

His sickness doth infect

very life-blood of our enterprise;
"Tis catching hither, even to our camp.
He writes me here,-that inward sickness-
And that his friends by deputation could not
So soon be drawn; nor did he think it meet
To lay so dangerous and dear a trust
On any soul removed, but on his own.
Yet doth he give us bold advertisement,-
That with our small conjunction we should on,
To see how fortune is disposed to us;
For, as he writes, there is no quailing now;
Because the king is certainly possessed
Of all our purposes. What say you to it?

Wor. Your father's sickness is a maim to us.
Hot. A perilous gash, a very limb lopped off:-
And yet, in faith, it is not; his present want
Seems more than we shall find it :-were it good
To set the exact wealth of all our states

All at one cast? To set so rich a main
On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?

Wor. But yet I would your father had been here,
The quality and air of our attempt

[Aside.

Brooks no division: It will be thought
By some, that know not why he is away,
That wisdom, loyalty, and mere dislike
Of our proceedings, kept the earl from hence;
This absence of your father draws a curtain,
That shews the ignorant a kind of fear
Before not dreamt of.

Hot. You strain too far.

I, rather, of his absence make this use:-
It lends a lustre, and more great opinion,
A larger dare to your great enterprise,
Than if the earl were here: for men must think,
If we, without his help, can make a-head

To push against the kingdom, with his help

We shall o'erturn it topsy-turvy down.

Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole.

Doug. As heart can think there is not such a word Spoke of in Scotland as this term of fear.

Enter SIR RICHARD VERNON.

Hot. My cousin Vernon! Welcome, by my soul. Ver. Pray God, my news be worth a welcome, lord. The Earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong, Is marching hitherwards; with him, prince John. Hot. No harm: What more?

Ver. And further, I have learned, The king himself in person is set forth,

Or hitherwards intended speedily,

With strong and mighty preparation.

Hot. He shall be welcome too. Where is his son,

The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales,

And his comrades, that daffed the world aside,
And bid it pass?

Ver. All furnished, all in arms:

I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,
His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly armed,
Rise from the ground like feathered Mercury,
And vaulted with such ease into his seat
As if an angel dropped down from the clouds
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,

And witch the world with noble horsemanship.

Hot. No more, no more; worse than the sun in March,
This praise doth nourish agues.
Let them come;

They come like sacrifices in their trim,
And to the fire-eyed maid of smoky war,
All hot, and bleeding, will we offer them:
The mailed Mars shall on his altar sit,
Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire,
To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh,

And yet not ours :-Come, let me take my horse,
Who is to bear me, like a thunderbolt

Against the bosom of the Prince of Wales:
Harry to Harry, shall hot horse to horse

Meet, and ne'er part, till one drop down a corse!
But I profess not talking; only this,—

Let each man do his best: and here I draw a sword,
Whose worthy temper I intend to stain

With the best blood that I can meet withal,
In the adventure of this perilous day.
Now,-Esperance!-Percy!-and set on.

SHAKESPERE.

ION.

(By kind permission of Edward Moxon, Esq.)
ADRASTUS, THE KING, A SOLDIER enters.

Soldier. My liege, forgive me

Adras. Well! Speak out at once

Thy business, and retire.

Soldier. I have no part

In the presumptuous message that I bear.

Adras. Tell it, or go.

On idle terrors.

There is no time to waste

Soldier. Thus it is, my lord:

As we were burnishing our arms, a man
Entered the court, and when we saw him first
Was tending towards the palace; in amaze,
We hailed the rash intruder; still he walked
Unheeding onward, till the western gate
Barred further course; then turning, he besought
Our startled band to herald him to thee,