ACT III

SCENE I. [Bangor. The Archdeacon's house]

Enter HOTSPUR, WORCESTER, MORTIMER, and
GLENDOWER

MORTIMER. These promises are fair, the parties sure, And our induction full of prosperous hope.

HOTSPUR. Lord Mortimer, and cousin Glendower,

Will you sit down?

And uncle Worcester: a plague upon it!

I have forgot the map.

Sit, cousin Percy; sit, good cousin Hotspur,

For by that name as oft as Lancaster

Doth speak of you, his cheek looks pale and with
A rising sigh he wisheth you in heaven.

5

ΙΟ

HOTSPUR. And you in hell, as oft as he hears Owen Glendower spoke of.

GLENDOWER. I cannot blame him: at my nativity The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,

Of burning cressets; and at my birth

The frame and huge foundation of the earth
Shaked like a coward.

15

2. induction: commencement, beginning. The introductory scene of a play was called the 'induction.' Cf. Richard III, IV, iv, 5. 15. cressets: fire-baskets used as beacons, and sometimes as torches to light processions.

HOTSPUR. Why, so it would have done at the same season, if your mother's cat had but kitten'd, though yourself had never been born.

20

GLENDOWER. I say the earth did shake when I was born. HOTSPUR. And I say the earth was not of my mind, If you suppose as fearing you it shook.

GLENDOWER. The heavens were all on fire, the earth did tremble.

HOTSPUR. O, then the earth shook to see the heavens

on fire,

And not in fear of your nativity.

25

Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth

In strange eruptions; oft the teeming earth
Is with a kind of colic pinch'd and vex'd

By the imprisoning of unruly wind

Within her womb; which, for enlargement striving,
Shakes the old beldam earth and topples down
Steeples and moss-grown towers. At your birth
Our grandam earth, having this distemperature,
In passion shook.

GLENDOWER.

Cousin, of many men

I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave

To tell you once again that at my birth

The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds
Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields.
These signs have mark'd me extraordinary;
And all the courses of my life do show
I am not in the roll of common men.
Where is he living, clipp'd in with the sea
34. distemperature: disorder. So in V, i, 3.

30

35

40

That chides the banks of England, Scotland, Wales, 45 Which calls me pupil, or hath read to me?

And bring him out that is but woman's son

Can trace me in the tedious ways of art
And hold me pace in deep experiments.

HOTSPUR. I think there's no man speaks better Welsh. I'll to dinner.

51

MORTIMER. Peace, cousin Percy; you will make him

mad.

GLENDOWER. I can call spirits from the vasty deep.

55

HOTSPUR. Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them? GLENDOWER. Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command

The devil.

HOTSPUR. And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the

devil

By telling truth: tell truth and shame the devil.

60

If thou have power to raise him, bring him hither,
And I'll be sworn I have power to shame him hence.
O, while you live, tell truth and shame the devil!
MORTIMER. Come, come, no more of this unprofitable
chat.

GLENDOWER. Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke

made head

Against my power; thrice from the banks of Wye
And sandy-bottom'd Severn have I sent him.

Bootless home and weather-beaten back.

65

HOTSPUR. Home without boots, and in foul weather too!

How scapes he agues, in the devil's name?

64-65. made head Against: attacked in force.

GLENDOWER. Come, here's the map: shall we divide

our right

According to our threefold order ta'en?

MORTIMER. The archdeacon hath divided it

Into three limits very equally :

England, from Trent and Severn hitherto,
By south and east is to my part assign'd:
All westward, Wales beyond the Severn shore,
And all the fertile land within that bound,
To Owen Glendower: and, dear coz, to you
The remnant northward, lying off from Trent.
And our indentures tripartite are drawn;
Which being sealed interchangeably,

A business that this night may execute,
To-morrow, cousin Percy, you and I

And my good Lord of Worcester will set forth
To meet your father and the Scottish power,
As is appointed us, at Shrewsbury.

My father Glendower is not ready yet,

Nor shall we need his help these fourteen days.
Within that space you may have drawn together
Your tenants, friends and neighbouring gentlemen.

70

75

80

85

90

GLENDOWER. A shorter time shall send me to you,

lords:

And in my conduct shall your ladies come;

From whom you now must steal and take no leave,

74. hitherto up to this point. His finger is on the map. 80. indentures tripartite are drawn: the agreement having three parties to it is drawn up in three corresponding copies. Holinshed speaks of the 'tripartite indenture.'

81. sealed interchangeably. Each copy was to be sealed and signed by all three.

For there will be a world of water shed

Upon the parting of your wives and you.

95

HOTSPUR. Methinks my moiety, north from Burton

here,

In quantity equals not one of yours:
See how this river comes me cranking in,
And cuts me from the best of all my land
A huge half-moon, a monstrous cantle out.
I'll have the current in this place damm'd up;
And here the smug and silver Trent shall run
In a new channel, fair and evenly;

It shall not wind with such a deep indent,

To rob me of so rich a bottom here.

100

105

GLENDOWER. Not wind? it shall, it must; you see

it doth.

MORTIMER. Yea, but

Mark how he bears his course, and runs me up

IIO

With like advantage on the other side;
Gelding the opposed continent as much
As on the other side it takes from you.
WORCESTER. Yea, but a little charge will trench him
here

100. cantle Ff | scantle Q1.

96. moiety. Properly a 'half-share,' but often used loosely, as here, to mean a 'share' or 'portion.'

98. comes me cranking in: bends in on my share of the land. 100. cantle: corner, segment. Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, III, x, 6: "The greater cantle of the world is lost."

105. bottom: intervale, alluvial land along a stream.

110. Gelding: lopping, cutting off from.-continent. Used in a general sense for that which holds in or contains anything; hence the bank of a river. Cf. A Midsummer Night's Dream, II, i, 92.