William Shakespeare - King Henry the Fourth, Part 1

EARL OF WORCESTER

Peace, cousin, say no more:

And now I will unclasp a secret book,And to your quick-conceiving discontentsI'll read you matter deep and dangerous,As full of peril and adventurous spiritAs to o'er-walk a current roaring loudOn the unsteadfast footing of a spear.

HOTSPUR

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 stirsTo rouse a lion than to start a hare!

NORTHUMBERLAND

Imagination of some great exploit

Drives him beyond the bounds of patience.

HOTSPUR

By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap,

To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon,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 wearWithout corrival, all her dignities:But out upon this half-faced fellowship!

EARL OF WORCESTER

He apprehends a world of figures here,

But not the form of what he should attend.Good cousin, give me audience for a while.

HOTSPUR

I cry you mercy.

EARL OF WORCESTER

Those same noble Scots

That are your prisoners,--

HOTSPUR

I'll keep them all;

By God, 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.

EARL OF WORCESTER

You start away

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

HOTSPUR

Nay, I will; that's flat:

He said he would not ransom 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 speakNothing but 'Mortimer,' and give it himTo keep his anger still in motion.

EARL OF WORCESTER

Hear you, cousin; a word.

HOTSPUR

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 notAnd would be glad he met with some mischance,I would have him poison'd with a pot of ale.

EARL OF WORCESTER

Farewell, kinsman: I'll talk to you

When you are better temper'd to attend.

NORTHUMBERLAND

Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool

Art thou to break into this woman's mood,Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own!

HOTSPUR

Why, look you, I am whipp'd and scourged with rods,

Nettled and stung with pismires, when I hearOf this vile politician, Bolingbroke.In Richard's time,--what do you call the place?--A plague upon it, it is in Gloucestershire;'Twas where the madcap duke his uncle kept,His uncle York; where I first bow'd my kneeUnto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke,--'Sblood!--When you and he came back from Ravenspurgh.

NORTHUMBERLAND

At Berkley castle.

HOTSPUR

You say true:

Why, what a candy deal of courtesyThis fawning greyhound then did proffer me!Look,'when his infant fortune came to age,'And 'gentle Harry Percy,' and 'kind cousin;'O, the devil take such cozeners! God forgive me!Good uncle, tell your tale; I have done.

EARL OF WORCESTER

Nay, if you have not, to it again;

We will stay your leisure.

HOTSPUR

I have done, i' faith.

EARL OF WORCESTER

Then once more to your Scottish prisoners.

Deliver them up without their ransom straight,And make the Douglas' son your only meanFor powers in Scotland; which, for divers reasonsWhich I shall send you written, be assured,Will easily be granted. You, my lord,

To Northumberland

Your son in Scotland being thus employ'd,

Shall secretly into the bosom creepOf that same noble prelate, well beloved,The archbishop.

HOTSPUR

Of York, is it not?

EARL OF WORCESTER

True; who bears hard

His brother's death at Bristol, the Lord Scroop.I speak not this in estimation,As what I think might be, but what I knowIs ruminated, plotted and set down,And only stays but to behold the faceOf that occasion that shall bring it on.

HOTSPUR

I smell it: upon my life, it will do well.

NORTHUMBERLAND

Before the game is afoot, thou still let'st slip.

HOTSPUR

Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot;

And then the power of Scotland and of York,To join with Mortimer, ha?

EARL OF WORCESTER

And so they shall.

HOTSPUR

In faith, it is exceedingly well aim'd.

EARL OF WORCESTER

And 'tis no little reason bids us speed,

To save our heads by raising of a head;For, bear ourselves as even as we can,The king will always think him in our debt,And think we think ourselves unsatisfied,Till he hath found a time to pay us home:And see already how he doth beginTo make us strangers to his looks of love.

HOTSPUR

He does, he does: we'll be revenged on him.

EARL OF WORCESTER

Cousin, farewell: no further go in this

Than I by letters shall direct your course.When time is ripe, which will be suddenly,I'll steal to Glendower and Lord Mortimer;Where you and Douglas and our 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.

NORTHUMBERLAND

Farewell, good brother: we shall thrive, I trust.

HOTSPUR

Uncle, Adieu: O, let the hours be short

Till fields and blows and groans applaud our sport!

Exeunt

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