|
1
Enter RUMOUR, painted full of tongues
3
Open your ears; for which of you will stop
4
The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks?
5
I, from the orient to the drooping west,
6
Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
7
The acts commenced on this ball of earth.
8
Upon my tongues continual slanders ride,
9
The which in every language I pronounce,
10
Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.
11
I speak of peace while covert emnity,
12
Under the smile of safety, wounds the world;
13
And who but Rumour, who but only I,
14
Make fearful musters and prepar'd defence,
15
Whiles the big year, swoln with some other grief,
16
Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
17
And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe
18
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures,
19
And of so easy and so plain a stop
20
That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
21
The still-discordant wav'ring multitude,
22
Can play upon it. But what need I thus
23
My well-known body to anatomize
24
Among my household? Why is Rumour here?
25
I run before King Harry's victory,
26
Who, in a bloody field by Shrewsbury,
27
Hath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops,
28
Quenching the flame of bold rebellion
29
Even with the rebels' blood. But what mean I
30
To speak so true at first? My office is
31
To noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fell
32
Under the wrath of noble Hotspur's sword,
33
And that the King before the Douglas' rage
34
Stoop'd his anointed head as low as death.
35
This have I rumour'd through the peasant towns
36
Between that royal field of Shrewsbury
37
And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone,
38
Where Hotspur's father, old Northumberland,
39
Lies crafty-sick. The posts come tiring on,
40
And not a man of them brings other news
41
Than they have learnt of me. From Rumour's tongues
42
They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true wrongs.
1
Warkworth. Before NORTHUMBERLAND’S Castle
4
Who keeps the gate here, ho?[The PORTER opens the gate]
7
What shall I say you are?
10
That the Lord Bardolph doth attend him here.
12
His lordship is walk'd forth into the orchard.
13
Please it your honour knock but at the gate,
14
And he himself will answer.
17
Here comes the Earl.[Exit PORTER]
18
Earl of Northumberland.
19
What news, Lord Bardolph? Every minute now
20
Should be the father of some stratagem.
21
The times are wild; contention, like a horse
22
Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose
23
And bears down all before him.
26
I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury.
27
Earl of Northumberland.
30
As good as heart can wish.
31
The King is almost wounded to the death;
32
And, in the fortune of my lord your son,
33
Prince Harry slain outright; and both the Blunts
34
Kill'd by the hand of Douglas; young Prince John,
35
And Westmoreland, and Stafford, fled the field;
36
And Harry Monmouth's brawn, the hulk Sir John,
37
Is prisoner to your son. O, such a day,
38
So fought, so followed, and so fairly won,
39
Came not till now to dignify the times,
40
Since Cxsar's fortunes!
41
Earl of Northumberland.
43
Saw you the field? Came you from Shrewsbury?
45
I spake with one, my lord, that came from
46
A gentleman well bred and of good name,
47
That freely rend'red me these news for true.
49
Earl of Northumberland.
50
Here comes my servant Travers, whom I sent
51
On Tuesday last to listen after news.
53
My lord, I over-rode him on the way;
54
And he is furnish'd with no certainties
55
More than he haply may retail from me.
56
Earl of Northumberland.
57
Now, Travers, what good tidings comes with you?
59
My lord, Sir John Umfrevile turn'd me back
60
With joyful tidings; and, being better hors'd,
61
Out-rode me. After him came spurring hard
62
A gentleman, almost forspent with speed,
63
That stopp'd by me to breathe his bloodied horse.
64
He ask'd the way to Chester; and of him
65
I did demand what news from Shrewsbury.
66
He told me that rebellion had bad luck,
67
And that young Harry Percy's spur was cold.
68
With that he gave his able horse the head
69
And, bending forward, struck his armed heels
70
Against the panting sides of his poor jade
71
Up to the rowel-head; and starting so,
72
He seem'd in running to devour the way,
73
Staying no longer question.
74
Earl of Northumberland.
76
Said he young Harry Percy's spur was cold?
77
Of Hotspur, Coldspur? that rebellion
80
My lord, I'll tell you what:
81
If my young lord your son have not the day,
82
Upon mine honour, for a silken point
83
I'll give my barony. Never talk of it.
84
Earl of Northumberland.
85
Why should that gentleman that rode by Travers
86
Give then such instances of loss?
89
He was some hilding fellow that had stol'n
90
The horse he rode on and, upon my life,
91
Spoke at a venture. Look, here comes more news.
93
Earl of Northumberland.
94
Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-leaf,
95
Foretells the nature of a tragic volume.
96
So looks the strand whereon the imperious flood
97
Hath left a witness'd usurpation.
98
Say, Morton, didst thou come from Shrewsbury?
100
I ran from Shrewsbury, my noble lord;
101
Where hateful death put on his ugliest mask
103
Earl of Northumberland.
104
How doth my son and brother?
105
Thou tremblest; and the whiteness in thy cheek
106
Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand.
107
Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,
108
So dull, so dread in look, so woe-begone,
109
Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night
110
And would have told him half his Troy was burnt;
111
But Priam found the fire ere he his tongue,
112
And I my Percy's death ere thou report'st it.
113
This thou wouldst say: 'Your son did thus and thus;
114
Your brother thus; so fought the noble Douglas'—
115
Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds;
116
But in the end, to stop my ear indeed,
117
Thou hast a sigh to blow away this praise,
118
Ending with 'Brother, son, and all, are dead.'
120
Douglas is living, and your brother, yet;
121
But for my lord your son—
122
Earl of Northumberland.
124
See what a ready tongue suspicion hath!
125
He that but fears the thing he would not know
126
Hath by instinct knowledge from others' eyes
127
That what he fear'd is chanced. Yet speak, Morton;
128
Tell thou an earl his divination lies,
129
And I will take it as a sweet disgrace
130
And make thee rich for doing me such wrong.
132
You are too great to be by me gainsaid;
133
Your spirit is too true, your fears too certain.
134
Earl of Northumberland.
135
Yet, for all this, say not that Percy's dead.
136
I see a strange confession in thine eye;
137
Thou shak'st thy head, and hold'st it fear or sin
138
To speak a truth. If he be slain, say so:
139
The tongue offends not that reports his death;
140
And he doth sin that doth belie the dead,
141
Not he which says the dead is not alive.
142
Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
143
Hath but a losing office, and his tongue
144
Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,
145
Rememb'red tolling a departing friend.
147
I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead.
149
I am sorry I should force you to believe
150
That which I would to God I had not seen;
151
But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state,
152
Rend'ring faint quittance, wearied and out-breath'd,
153
To Harry Monmouth, whose swift wrath beat down
154
The never-daunted Percy to the earth,
155
From whence with life he never more sprung up.
156
In few, his death—whose spirit lent a fire
157
Even to the dullest peasant in his camp—
158
Being bruited once, took fire and heat away
159
From the best-temper'd courage in his troops;
160
For from his metal was his party steeled;
161
Which once in him abated, all the rest
162
Turn'd on themselves, like dull and heavy lead.
163
And as the thing that's heavy in itself
164
Upon enforcement flies with greatest speed,
165
So did our men, heavy in Hotspur's loss,
166
Lend to this weight such lightness with their fear
167
That arrows fled not swifter toward their aim
168
Than did our soldiers, aiming at their safety,
169
Fly from the field. Then was that noble Worcester
170
Too soon ta'en prisoner; and that furious Scot,
171
The bloody Douglas, whose well-labouring sword
172
Had three times slain th' appearance of the King,
173
Gan vail his stomach and did grace the shame
174
Of those that turn'd their backs, and in his flight,
175
Stumbling in fear, was took. The sum of all
176
Is that the King hath won, and hath sent out
177
A speedy power to encounter you, my lord,
178
Under the conduct of young Lancaster
179
And Westmoreland. This is the news at full.
180
Earl of Northumberland.
181
For this I shall have time enough to mourn.
182
In poison there is physic; and these news,
183
Having been well, that would have made me sick,
184
Being sick, have in some measure made me well;
185
And as the wretch whose fever-weak'ned joints,
186
Like strengthless hinges, buckle under life,
187
Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire
188
Out of his keeper's arms, even so my limbs,
189
Weak'ned with grief, being now enrag'd with grief,
190
Are thrice themselves. Hence, therefore, thou nice crutch!
191
A scaly gauntlet now with joints of steel
192
Must glove this hand; and hence, thou sickly coif!
193
Thou art a guard too wanton for the head
194
Which princes, flesh'd with conquest, aim to hit.
195
Now bind my brows with iron; and approach
196
The ragged'st hour that time and spite dare bring
197
To frown upon th' enrag'd Northumberland!
198
Let heaven kiss earth! Now let not Nature's hand
199
Keep the wild flood confin'd! Let order die!
200
And let this world no longer be a stage
201
To feed contention in a ling'ring act;
202
But let one spirit of the first-born Cain
203
Reign in all bosoms, that, each heart being set
204
On bloody courses, the rude scene may end
205
And darkness be the burier of the dead!
207
This strained passion doth you wrong, my lord.
209
Sweet Earl, divorce not wisdom from your honour.
210
The lives of all your loving complices
211
Lean on your health; the which, if you give o'er
212
To stormy passion, must perforce decay.
213
You cast th' event of war, my noble lord,
214
And summ'd the account of chance before you said
215
'Let us make head.' It was your pre-surmise
216
That in the dole of blows your son might drop.
217
You knew he walk'd o'er perils on an edge,
218
More likely to fall in than to get o'er;
219
You were advis'd his flesh was capable
220
Of wounds and scars, and that his forward spirit
221
Would lift him where most trade of danger rang'd;
222
Yet did you say 'Go forth'; and none of this,
223
Though strongly apprehended, could restrain
224
The stiff-borne action. What hath then befall'n,
225
Or what hath this bold enterprise brought forth
226
More than that being which was like to be?
228
We all that are engaged to this loss
229
Knew that we ventured on such dangerous seas
230
That if we wrought out life 'twas ten to one;
231
And yet we ventur'd, for the gain propos'd
232
Chok'd the respect of likely peril fear'd;
233
And since we are o'erset, venture again.
234
Come, we will put forth, body and goods.
236
'Tis more than time. And, my most noble lord,
237
I hear for certain, and dare speak the truth:
238
The gentle Archbishop of York is up
239
With well-appointed pow'rs. He is a man
240
Who with a double surety binds his followers.
241
My lord your son had only but the corpse,
242
But shadows and the shows of men, to fight;
243
For that same word 'rebellion' did divide
244
The action of their bodies from their souls;
245
And they did fight with queasiness, constrain'd,
246
As men drink potions; that their weapons only
247
Seem'd on our side, but for their spirits and souls
248
This word 'rebellion'—it had froze them up,
249
As fish are in a pond. But now the Bishop
250
Turns insurrection to religion.
251
Suppos'd sincere and holy in his thoughts,
252
He's follow'd both with body and with mind;
253
And doth enlarge his rising with the blood
254
Of fair King Richard, scrap'd from Pomfret stones;
255
Derives from heaven his quarrel and his cause;
256
Tells them he doth bestride a bleeding land,
257
Gasping for life under great Bolingbroke;
258
And more and less do flock to follow him.
259
Earl of Northumberland.
260
I knew of this before; but, to speak truth,
261
This present grief had wip'd it from my mind.
262
Go in with me; and counsel every man
263
The aptest way for safety and revenge.
264
Get posts and letters, and make friends with speed—
265
Never so few, and never yet more need.[Exeunt]
2
Enter SIR JOHN FALSTAFF, with his PAGE bearing his sword and buckler
4
Sirrah, you giant, what says the doctor to my water?
6
He said, sir, the water itself was a good healthy water;
7
for the party that owed it, he might have moe diseases than
10
Men of all sorts take a pride to gird at me. The
11
this foolish-compounded clay, man, is not able to invent
12
that intends to laughter, more than I invent or is invented
13
me. I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is
14
other men. I do here walk before thee like a sow that hath
15
overwhelm'd all her litter but one. If the Prince put thee
16
my service for any other reason than to set me off, why then
17
have no judgment. Thou whoreson mandrake, thou art fitter to
18
worn in my cap than to wait at my heels. I was never mann'd
19
an agate till now; but I will inset you neither in gold nor
20
silver, but in vile apparel, and send you back again to your
21
master, for a jewel—the juvenal, the Prince your master,
22
chin is not yet fledge. I will sooner have a beard grow in
23
palm of my hand than he shall get one off his cheek; and yet
24
will not stick to say his face is a face-royal. God may
25
when he will, 'tis not a hair amiss yet. He may keep it still
26
a face-royal, for a barber shall never earn sixpence out of
27
and yet he'll be crowing as if he had writ man ever since his
28
father was a bachelor. He may keep his own grace, but he's
29
out of mine, I can assure him. What said Master Dommelton
30
the satin for my short cloak and my slops?
32
He said, sir, you should procure him better assurance
34
He would not take his band and yours; he liked not
37
Let him be damn'd, like the Glutton; pray God his
38
be hotter! A whoreson Achitophel! A rascal-yea-forsooth
39
bear a gentleman in hand, and then stand upon security! The
40
whoreson smooth-pates do now wear nothing but high shoes, and
41
bunches of keys at their girdles; and if a man is through
42
them in honest taking-up, then they must stand upon security.
43
had as lief they would put ratsbane in my mouth as offer to
44
it with security. I look'd 'a should have sent me two and
45
yards of satin, as I am a true knight, and he sends me
46
Well, he may sleep in security; for he hath the horn of
47
abundance, and the lightness of his wife shines through it;
48
yet cannot he see, though he have his own lanthorn to light
51
He's gone into Smithfield to buy your worship horse.
53
I bought him in Paul's, and he'll buy me a horse in
54
Smithfield. An I could get me but a wife in the stews, I were
55
mann'd, hors'd, and wiv'd.
56
Enter the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE and SERVANT
58
Sir, here comes the nobleman that committed the
59
Prince for striking him about Bardolph.
61
Wait close; I will not see him.
63
What's he that goes there?
65
Falstaff, an't please your lordship.
67
He that was in question for the robb'ry?
69
He, my lord; but he hath since done good service at
70
Shrewsbury, and, as I hear, is now going with some charge to
71
Lord John of Lancaster.
73
What, to York? Call him back again.
77
Boy, tell him I am deaf.
79
You must speak louder; my master is deaf.
81
I am sure he is, to the hearing of anything
82
Go, pluck him by the elbow; I must speak with him.
86
What! a young knave, and begging! Is there not wars?
87
there not employment? Doth not the King lack subjects? Do not
88
rebels need soldiers? Though it be a shame to be on any side
89
one, it is worse shame to beg than to be on the worst side,
90
it worse than the name of rebellion can tell how to make it.
94
Why, sir, did I say you were an honest man? Setting
95
knighthood and my soldiership aside, I had lied in my throat
98
I pray you, sir, then set your knighthood and your
99
soldiership aside; and give me leave to tell you you in your
100
throat, if you say I am any other than an honest man.
102
I give thee leave to tell me so! I lay aside that
103
grows to me! If thou get'st any leave of me, hang me; if thou
104
tak'st leave, thou wert better be hang'd. You hunt counter.
107
Sir, my lord would speak with you.
109
Sir John Falstaff, a word with you.
111
My good lord! God give your lordship good time of
112
am glad to see your lordship abroad. I heard say your
113
was sick; I hope your lordship goes abroad by advice. Your
114
lordship, though not clean past your youth, hath yet some
115
of age in you, some relish of the saltness of time; and I
116
humbly beseech your lordship to have a reverend care of your
119
Sir John, I sent for you before your expedition
122
An't please your lordship, I hear his Majesty is
123
with some discomfort from Wales.
125
I talk not of his Majesty. You would not come
128
And I hear, moreover, his Highness is fall'n into
129
same whoreson apoplexy.
131
Well God mend him! I pray you let me speak with
133
This apoplexy, as I take it, is a kind of lethargy,
134
please your lordship, a kind of sleeping in the blood, a
137
What tell you me of it? Be it as it is.
139
It hath it original from much grief, from study, and
140
perturbation of the brain. I have read the cause of his
141
in Galen; it is a kind of deafness.
143
I think you are fall'n into the disease, for you
144
hear not what I say to you.
146
Very well, my lord, very well. Rather an't please
147
is the disease of not listening, the malady of not marking,
148
I am troubled withal.
150
To punish you by the heels would amend the
151
of your ears; and I care not if I do become your physician.
153
I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not so patient.
154
lordship may minister the potion of imprisonment to me in
155
of poverty; but how I should be your patient to follow your
156
prescriptions, the wise may make some dram of a scruple, or
157
indeed a scruple itself.
159
I sent for you, when there were matters against
160
for your life, to come speak with me.
162
As I was then advis'd by my learned counsel in the
163
of this land-service, I did not come.
165
Well, the truth is, Sir John, you live in great
168
He that buckles himself in my belt cannot live in
170
Your means are very slender, and your waste is
173
I would it were otherwise; I would my means were
174
and my waist slenderer.
176
You have misled the youthful Prince.
178
The young Prince hath misled me. I am the fellow with
179
great belly, and he my dog.
181
Well, I am loath to gall a new-heal'd wound.
182
day's service at Shrewsbury hath a little gilded over your
183
night's exploit on Gadshill. You may thank th' unquiet time
184
your quiet o'erposting that action.
188
But since all is well, keep it so: wake not a
191
To wake a wolf is as bad as smell a fox.
193
What! you are as a candle, the better part burnt
196
A wassail candle, my lord—all tallow; if I did say
197
wax, my growth would approve the truth.
199
There is not a white hair in your face but
200
have his effect of gravity.
202
His effect of gravy, gravy,
204
You follow the young Prince up and down, like
207
Not so, my lord. Your ill angel is light; but hope
208
that looks upon me will take me without weighing. And yet in
209
respects, I grant, I cannot go—I cannot tell. Virtue is of
210
little regard in these costermongers' times that true valour
211
turn'd berod; pregnancy is made a tapster, and his quick wit
212
wasted in giving reckonings; all the other gifts appertinent
213
man, as the malice of this age shapes them, are not worth a
214
gooseberry. You that are old consider not the capacities of
215
that are young; you do measure the heat of our livers with
216
bitterness of your galls; and we that are in the vaward of
217
youth, must confess, are wags too.
219
Do you set down your name in the scroll of
220
that are written down old with all the characters of age?
221
you not a moist eye, a dry hand, a yellow cheek, a white
222
decreasing leg, an increasing belly? Is not your voice
223
your wind short, your chin double, your wit single, and every
224
part about you blasted with antiquity? And will you yet call
225
yourself young? Fie, fie, fie, Sir John!
227
My lord, I was born about three of the clock in the
228
afternoon, with a white head and something a round belly. For
229
voice—I have lost it with hallooing and singing of anthems.
230
approve my youth further, I will not. The truth is, I am only
231
in judgment and understanding; and he that will caper with me
232
a thousand marks, let him lend me the money, and have at him.
233
the box of the ear that the Prince gave you—he gave it like
234
rude prince, and you took it like a sensible lord. I have
235
him for it; and the young lion repents—marry, not in ashes
236
sackcloth, but in new silk and old sack.
238
Well, God send the Prince a better companion!
240
God send the companion a better prince! I cannot rid
243
Well, the King hath sever'd you. I hear you are
244
going with Lord John of Lancaster against the Archbishop and
245
Earl of Northumberland.
247
Yea; I thank your pretty sweet wit for it. But look
248
pray, all you that kiss my Lady Peace at home, that our
249
join not in a hot day; for, by the Lord, I take but two
250
out with me, and I mean not to sweat extraordinarily. If it
251
hot day, and I brandish anything but a bottle, I would I
252
never spit white again. There is not a dangerous action can
253
out his head but I am thrust upon it. Well, I cannot last
254
but it was alway yet the trick of our English nation, if they
255
have a good thing, to make it too common. If ye will needs
256
am an old man, you should give me rest. I would to God my
257
were not so terrible to the enemy as it is. I were better to
258
eaten to death with a rust than to be scoured to nothing with
261
Well, be honest, be honest; and God bless your
264
Will your lordship lend me a thousand pound to
267
Not a penny, not a penny; you are too impatient
268
bear crosses. Fare you well. Commend me to my cousin
270
Exeunt CHIEF JUSTICE and SERVANT
272
If I do, fillip me with a three-man beetle. A man can
273
more separate age and covetousness than 'a can part young
274
and lechery; but the gout galls the one, and the pox pinches
275
other; and so both the degrees prevent my curses. Boy!
279
What money is in my purse?
281
Seven groats and two pence.
283
I can get no remedy against this consumption of the
284
purse; borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the
285
is incurable. Go bear this letter to my Lord of Lancaster;
286
to the Prince; this to the Earl of Westmoreland; and this to
287
Mistress Ursula, whom I have weekly sworn to marry since I
288
perceiv'd the first white hair of my chin. About it; you know
289
where to find me.[Exit PAGE]A pox of this gout! or, a
290
this pox! for the one or the other plays the rogue with my
291
toe. 'Tis no matter if I do halt; I have the wars for my
292
and my pension shall seem the more reasonable. A good wit
293
make use of anything. I will turn diseases to commodity.
1
York. The ARCHBISHOP’S palace
2
Enter the ARCHBISHOP, THOMAS MOWBRAY the EARL MARSHAL, LORD HASTINGS, and LORD BARDOLPH
4
Thus have you heard our cause and known our means;
5
And, my most noble friends, I pray you all
6
Speak plainly your opinions of our hopes-
7
And first, Lord Marshal, what say you to it?
9
I well allow the occasion of our amis;
10
But gladly would be better satisfied
11
How, in our means, we should advance ourselves
12
To look with forehead bold and big enough
13
Upon the power and puissance of the King.
15
Our present musters grow upon the file
16
To five and twenty thousand men of choice;
17
And our supplies live largely in the hope
18
Of great Northumberland, whose bosom burns
19
With an incensed fire of injuries.
21
The question then, Lord Hastings, standeth thus:
22
Whether our present five and twenty thousand
23
May hold up head without Northumberland?
27
Yea, marry, there's the point;
28
But if without him we be thought too feeble,
29
My judgment is we should not step too far
30
Till we had his assistance by the hand;
31
For, in a theme so bloody-fac'd as this,
32
Conjecture, expectation, and surmise
33
Of aids incertain, should not be admitted.
35
'Tis very true, Lord Bardolph; for indeed
36
It was young Hotspur's case at Shrewsbury.
38
It was, my lord; who lin'd himself with hope,
39
Eating the air and promise of supply,
40
Flatt'ring himself in project of a power
41
Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts;
42
And so, with great imagination
43
Proper to madmen, led his powers to death,
44
And, winking, leapt into destruction.
46
But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt
47
To lay down likelihoods and forms of hope.
49
Yes, if this present quality of war-
50
Indeed the instant action, a cause on foot-
51
Lives so in hope, as in an early spring
52
We see th' appearing buds; which to prove fruit
53
Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair
54
That frosts will bite them. When we mean to build,
55
We first survey the plot, then draw the model;
56
And when we see the figure of the house,
57
Then we must rate the cost of the erection;
58
Which if we find outweighs ability,
59
What do we then but draw anew the model
60
In fewer offices, or at least desist
61
To build at all? Much more, in this great work—
62
Which is almost to pluck a kingdom down
63
And set another up—should we survey
64
The plot of situation and the model,
65
Consent upon a sure foundation,
66
Question surveyors, know our own estate
67
How able such a work to undergo-
68
To weigh against his opposite; or else
69
We fortify in paper and in figures,
70
Using the names of men instead of men;
71
Like one that draws the model of a house
72
Beyond his power to build it; who, half through,
73
Gives o'er and leaves his part-created cost
74
A naked subject to the weeping clouds
75
And waste for churlish winter's tyranny.
77
Grant that our hopes—yet likely of fair birth—
78
Should be still-born, and that we now possess'd
79
The utmost man of expectation,
80
I think we are so a body strong enough,
81
Even as we are, to equal with the King.
83
What, is the King but five and twenty thousand?
85
To us no more; nay, not so much, Lord Bardolph;
86
For his divisions, as the times do brawl,
87
Are in three heads: one power against the French,
88
And one against Glendower; perforce a third
89
Must take up us. So is the unfirm King
90
In three divided; and his coffers sound
91
With hollow poverty and emptiness.
93
That he should draw his several strengths together
94
And come against us in full puissance
98
He leaves his back unarm'd, the French and Welsh
99
Baying at his heels. Never fear that.
101
Who is it like should lead his forces hither?
103
The Duke of Lancaster and Westmoreland;
104
Against the Welsh, himself and Harry Monmouth;
105
But who is substituted against the French
106
I have no certain notice.
109
And publish the occasion of our arms.
110
The commonwealth is sick of their own choice;
111
Their over-greedy love hath surfeited.
112
An habitation giddy and unsure
113
Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart.
114
O thou fond many, with what loud applause
115
Didst thou beat heaven with blessing Bolingbroke
116
Before he was what thou wouldst have him be!
117
And being now trimm'd in thine own desires,
118
Thou, beastly feeder, art so full of him
119
That thou provok'st thyself to cast him up.
120
So, so, thou common dog, didst thou disgorge
121
Thy glutton bosom of the royal Richard;
122
And now thou wouldst eat thy dead vomit up,
123
And howl'st to find it. What trust is in these times?
124
They that, when Richard liv'd, would have him die
125
Are now become enamour'd on his grave.
126
Thou that threw'st dust upon his goodly head,
127
When through proud London he came sighing on
128
After th' admired heels of Bolingbroke,
129
Criest now 'O earth, yield us that king again,
130
And take thou this!' O thoughts of men accurs'd!
131
Past and to come seems best; things present, worst.
133
Shall we go draw our numbers, and set on?
135
We are time's subjects, and time bids be gone.
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