when they have the booty, if you and I do not rob them, cut this head from

my shoulders. P. Hen. But how shall we part with them in setting forth ?

Poins. Why, we will set forth before or after them, and appoint them a place of meeting, wherein it is at our pleasure to fail; and then will they adventure upon the exploit themselves; which they shall have no sooner achieved, but we'll. set upon them.

P. Hen. Ay, but, 'tis like, that they will know us, by our horses, by our habits, and by every other appointment, to be ourselves.

Poins. Tut! our horses they shall not see, I'll tie them in the wood; our visors we will change, after we leave them; and, sirrah, I have cases of buckram for the nonce', to immask our noted outward garments.

P. Hen. But, I doubt, they will be too hard for

us.

Poins. Well, for two of them, I know them to be as true-bred cowards as ever turned back; and for the third, if he fight longer than he sees reason, I'll forswear arms. The virtue of this jest will be, the incomprehensible lies that this same fat rogue

will tell us, when we meet at supper: how thirty, at least, he fought with; what wards, what blows, what extremities he endured; and, in the reproof of this, lies the jest.

P. Hen. Well, I'll go with thee; provide us all things necessary, and

meet me to-morrow night in Eastcheap, there I'll sup. Farewell. Poins. Farewell, my lord.

Erit Poins. P. Hen. I know you all, and will a while uphold The unyok'd humour of your idleness : Yet herein will I imitate the sun ; Who doth permit the base contagious clouds

a

To smother up his beauty from the world,
That, when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at,
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
Of vapours, that did seem to strangle him.
If all the year were playing holidays,
To sport would be as tedious as to work ;
But, when they seldom come, they wish’d-for come,
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
So, when this loose behaviour I throw off,
And
pay

the debt I never promised, By how much better than

my

word I am,
By so much shall I falsify men's hopes ;
And, like bright metal on a sullen ground,
My reformation, glittering o'er my fault,
Shall show more goodly, and attract more eyes,
Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
I'll so offend, to make offence a skill;
Redeeming time, when men think least I will.

[Exit.

SCENE III.

Another Room in the Palace.

Enter King HenRY, NORTHUMBERLAND, WOR

CESTER, HOTSPUR, Sir WALTER Blunt, and
others.
K. Hen. My blood hath been too cold and tem-

perate,
Unapt to stir at these indignities,
And you have found me ; for, accordingly,
You tread upon my patience : but, be sure,
I will from henceforth rather be myself,
Mighty, and to be fear'd, than my condition;
Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down,

8

8 Disposition.

serves

And therefore lost that title of respect,
Which the proud soul ne'er pays, but to the proud.

Wor. Our house, my sovereign liege, little deThe

scourge of greatness to be used on it; And that same greatness too which our own hands Have holp to make so portly.

North. My lord,
K. Hen. Worcester, get thee gone, for I see

danger
And disobedience in thine eye: 0, sir,
Your presence is too bold and peremptory,
And majesty might never yet endure
The moody frontier of a servant brow,
You have good leave to leave us; when we need
Your use and counsel, we shall send for

you.

[Exit WORCESTER. You, were about to speak.

[To North. North.

Yea, my good lord. Those prisoners in your highness' name demanded, Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took, Were, as he says, not with such strength denied As is deliver'd to your majesty: Either envy, therefore, or misprision Is guilty of this fault, and not my son.

Hot. My liege, I did deny no prisoners. But, I remember, when the fight was done, When I was dry with rage, and extreme toil, Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword, Came there a certain lord, neat, trimly dress’d, Fresh as a bridegroom ; and his chin, new reap'd, Show'd like a stubble-land at harvest home; He was perfumed like a milliner ; And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held A pouncet-box', which ever and anon He gave

his nose, and took't away again ;-Who, therewith angry, when it next came there,

9 A small box for musk or other perfumes.

a

Took it in snuff:,- and still he smil'd, and talk'd ;
And, as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
He call'd them- untaught knaves, unmannerly,
To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse
Betwixt the wind and his nobility.
With many holiday and lady terms
He question’d me; among the rest demanded
My prisoners, in your majesty's behalf.
I then, all smarting, with my wounds being cold,
To be so pester'd with a popinjay,
Out of my grief and my impatience,
Answer'd neglectingly, I know not what;
He should, or he should not;—for he made me mad,
To see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet,
And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman,
Of guns, and drums, and wounds, (God save the

mark!)
And telling me, the sovereign’st thing on earth
Was parmaceti, for an inward bruise ;
And that it was great pity, so it was,
That villainous salt-petre should be digg'd
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall' fellow had destroy'd
So cowardly; and, but for these vile guns,
He would himself have been a soldier.
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

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, vile 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 :
Three times they breath’d, and three times did they

drink,
Upon agreement, of swift Severn's food ;
Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks,
Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds,
And hid his crisp 3 head in the hollow bank
Blood-stained with these valiant combatants.
Never did bare and rotten policy
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.