This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord,
I answer'd indirectly, as I said;

And, I beseech you, let not his report
Come current for an accusation,

Betwixt my love and your high majesty.

Blunt. The circumstance consider'd, good my lord, Whatever Harry Percy then had said, To such a person, and in such a place, At such a time, with all the rest re-told, May reasonably die, and never rise To do him wrong, or any way impeach What then he said, so he unsay it now.7

K. Hen. Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners;
But with proviso, and exception,-

That we, at our own charge, shall ransome straight
His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer;
Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betray'd
The lives of those that he did lead to fight
Against the great magician, damn'd Glendower;
Whose daughter, as we hear, the earl of March
Hath lately married. Shall our coffers then
Be emptied, to redeem a traitor home?
Shall we buy treason? and indent with fears,
When they have lost and forfeited themselves?
No, on the barren mountains let him starve ;
For I shall never hold that man my friend,
Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost
To ransome home revolted Mortimer.

Hot. Revolted 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 mouthed wounds, which valiantly he took,
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 :

(7) Let what he then said never rise to impeach him, so he unsay it now.

JOHNS.

(8) "To prove the loyalty of Mortimer," says Hotspur, "one speaking witness is sufficient; for his wounds proclaim his loyalty, those mouthed wounds," &c. JOHNS.

(9) Hardiment-an obsolete word, signifying hardiness, bravery, stoutness. Spenser is frequent in his use of it. STEEV.

Three times they breath'd, and three times did they

drink,

Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood;

Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks, 2
Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds,
And hid his crisp head3 in the hollow bank
Blood-stained with these valiant combatants.
Never did bare and rotten policy 4

Colour her working with such deadly wounds?
Nor never could the noble Mortimer

Receive so many, and all willingly :

Then let him not be slander'd with revolt.

K. Hen. 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.

Art 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,
We license your departure with your son :-
Send us your prisoners, or you'll hear of it.

[Exeunt King HENRY, BLUNT, and Train
Hot. And 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,
Although it be with hazard of my head.

North. What, drunk with choler? stay, and pause awhile:

Here comes your uncle.

(1) It is the property of wounds to excite the most impatient thirst. The poet therefore hath with exquisite propriety introduced this circumstance, which may serve to place in its proper light the dying kindness of Sir Philip Sidney; who, though suffering the extremity of thirst from the agony of his own wounds, yet, notwithstanding, gave up his own draught of water to a wounded soldier. HENLEY.

(2) This passage has been censured as sounding nonsense, which represents a stream of water as capable of fear. It is misunderstood. Severn is here not the flood, but the tutelary power of the food, who was affrighted and hid his head in the hollow bank. JOHNS.

(3) Crisp is curled. STEEV.

(4) "Never did policy lying open to detection so colour its workings "" JOHNS

Re-enter WORCESTER.

Hot. Speak of Mortimer?

"Zounds, I will speak of him; and let my soul
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 i'the dust,
But I will lift the down-trod Mortimer

As high i'the air as this unthankful king,

As this ingrate and canker'd Bolingbroke.

North. Brother, the king hath made your nephew

mad.

[TO WOR. Wor. Who struck this heat up, after I was gone? Hot. He will, forsooth, have all my prisoners;

And when I urg'd the ransome once again
Of my wife's brother, then his cheek look'd pale;
And on my face he turn'd an eye of death, 5
Trembling even at the name of Mortimer.

Wor. I cannot blame him: Was he not proclaim'd,
By Richard that dead is, the next of blood ?6
North. 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;

From whence he, intercepted, did return

To be deposed, and shortly, murdered.

Wor. And for whose death, we in the world's wide mouth

Live scandaliz'd, and foully spoken of.

Hot. But, soft, I pray you; Did king Richard then Proclaim my brother Edmund Mortimer

Heir to the crown?

North. He did; myself did hear it.

Hot. Nay, then I cannot blame his cousin king,

That wish'd him on the barren mountains starv'd.
But shall it be, that you,-that set the crown

Upon the head of this forgetful man;

And, for his sake, wear the detested blot

(5) That is, an eye menacing death. Hotspur seems to describe the king as trembling with rage rather than fear, JOHNS.

See

(6) Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, who was born in 1371, was declared heir apparent to the crown in the 9th year of King Richard II. (1385.) Grafton, p. 347- But he was killed in Ireland in 1398 The person who was proclaimed by Richard heir apparent to the crown, pevious to his last voyage to Ireland, was Edmund Mortimer, (the son of Roger,) who was then but seven years old; but he was not Percy's wife's brother, but her nephew. MALONE.

Of murd'rous subornation,-shall it be,
That you a world of curses undergo;
Being the agents, or base second means,
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,
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,
And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke ??
And shall it, in more shame, be further spoken,
That you are fool'd, discarded, and shook off
By him, for whom these shames ye underwent ?
No; yet time serves, wherein you may redeem
Your banish'd honours, and restore yourselves
Into the good thoughts of the world again :
Revenge the jeering, and disdain'd contempt,
Of this proud king; who studies, day and night,
To answer all the debt he owes to you,

Even with the bloody payment of your deaths.
Therefore, I say,-

Wor. Peace, cousin, say no more :
And now I will unclasp a secret book,
And to your quick conceiving discontents
I'll read you matter deep and dangerous;
As full of peril, and adventʼrous spirit,
As to o'er-walk a current, roaring loud,
On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.9

Hot. If he fall in, good night :-or sink or swim:
Send danger from the east unto the west,

So honour 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.

North. Imagination of some great exploit

Drives him beyond the bounds of patience.

Hot. By heaven, methinks, it were an easy leap, To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon;

(7) The canker-rose is the dog-rose, the flower of the Cynosbaton. STEE (8) For disdainful. JOHNS.

9) That is, of a spear laid across.

WARB..

Or dive into the bottom of the deep,

Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
And pluck up drowned honour by the locks;

So he, that doth redeem her thence, might wear,
Without corrival, all her dignities:

But out upon this half-fac'd fellowship!

1

Wor. He apprehends a world of figures here, 1
But not the form of what he should attend.-
Good cousin, give me audience for a while.
Hot. I cry you mercy.

Wor. Those same noble Scots,

That are your prisoners,

Hot. I'll keep them all ;

By heaven, 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.

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 ransome Mortimer;
Forbad 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 poison'd with a pot of ale.

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

When you are better temper'd to attend.

North. Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool

(1) Figure is here used equivocally. As it is applied to Hotspur's speech it is a rhetorical mode; as opposed to form it means appearance or shape.

(2) A royster or turbulent feilow, that fought in taverns, or raised disorders in the streets, was called a Swashbuckler. In this sense sword-andbuckler is here used. JOHNS.