Bard. Do, my lord.

P. Hen. I have procured thee, Jack, a charge of foot.

Fal. I would, it had been of horse. Where shall I find one that can steal well? O for a fine thief, of the age of two and twenty, or thereabouts! I am heinously unprovided. Well, God be thanked for these rebels, they offend none but the virtuous; I laud them, I praise them.

P. Hen. Bardolph

Bard. My lord.

P. Hen. Go bear this letter to lord John of Lan

caster,

My brother John; this to my lord of Westmoreland.

Go, Poins, to horse, to horse; for thou, and I,
Have thirty miles to ride yet ere dinner time.—
Jack,

Meet me to-morrow i'the Temple-hall:

At two o'clock i'the afternoon :

There shalt thou know thy charge; and there re ceive

Money, and order for their furniture.

The land is burning; Percy stands on high;

And either they, or we, must lower lie.

[Exeunt Prince, POINS, and Bardolph. -Hostess, my

Fal. Rare words! brave world!

breakfast; come:

O, I could wish, this tavern were my drum. [Exit.

2 do it with unwashed hands too.] i. e. do it immediately, or the first thing in the morning, even without staying to wash your hands. Mr. Mason thinks it means, do it without retracting or repenting of it.

ACT IV.

SCENE I. The Rebel Camp near Shrewsbury.

Enter HOTSPUR, WORCESTER, and DOUGLAS.
Hot. Well said, my noble Scot: If speaking truth,
In this fine age, were not thought flattery,
Such attribution should the Douglas have,
As not a soldier of this season's stamp
Should go so general current through the world.
By heaven, I cannot flatter; I defy3

The tongues of soothers; but a braver place
In my heart's love, hath no man than yourself:
Nay, task me to the word; approve me, lord.
Doug. Thou art the king of honour:
No man so potent breathes upon the ground,
But I will beard him.

Hot.

Do so, and 'tis well:

Enter a Messenger, with Letters.

What letters hast thou there?-I can but thank you. Mess. These letters come from your father,Hot. Letters from him! why comes he not him

self?

Mess. He cannot come, my lord; he's grievous

sick.

Hot. 'Zounds! how has he the leisure to be sick, In such a justling time? Who leads his power? Under whose government come they along? Mess. His letters bear his mind, not I, my lord.

I defy;] To defy means here to disdain.

↑ But I will beard him.] To beard is to oppose face to face in a hostile or daring manner.

Wor. I pr'ythee, tell me, doth he keep his bed? Mess. He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth; And at the time of my departure thence,

He was much fear'd by his physicians.

Wor. I would, the state of time had first been whole,

Ere he by sickness had been visited;

His health was never better worth than now.

Hot. Sick now! droop now! this sickness doth infect

The very life-blood of our enterprize;
'Tis catching hither, even to our camp.

-

He writes me here, that inward sickness-
And that his friends by deputation could not
So soon be drawn; nor did he think it meet,
To lay so dangerous and dear a trust
On any soul remov'd," but on his own.
Yet doth he give us bold advertisement,—

That with our small conjunction, we should on,
To see how fortune is dispos'd to us:
For, as he writes, there is no quailing now;
Because the king is certainly possess'd

Of all our purposes. What say you to it?

Wor. Your father's sickness is a maim to us.
Hot. A perilous gash, a very limb lopp d off:-
And yet, in faith, 'tis not; his present want
Seems more than we shall find it:-Were it good,
To set the exact wealth of all our states
All at one cast? to set so rich a main
On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?
It were not good: for therein should we read
The very bottom and the soul of hope;

5 On any soul remov'd,] On any less near to himself; on any whose interest is remote.

6

no quailing:] To quail is to languish, to sink into dejection.

The very list,' the very utmost bound

Of all our fortunes.

Doug.

'Faith, and so we should; Where now remains a sweet reversion:

8

We may boldly spend upon the hope of what
Is to come in:

A comfort of retirement? lives in this.

Hot. A rendezvous, a home to fly unto, If that the devil and mischance look big Upon the maidenhead of our affairs.

Wor. But yet, I would your father had been here. The quality and hair' of our attempt Brooks no division: It will be thought By some, that know not why he is away, That wisdom, loyalty, and mere dislike Of our proceedings, kept the earl from hence; And think, how such an apprehension May turn the tide of fearful faction, And breed a kind of question in our cause: For, well you know, we of the offering side Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement; And stop all sight-holes, every loop, from whence The eye of reason may pry in upon us:

7 The very list,] The list is the selvage; figuratively, the utmost line of circumference, the utmost extent.

8 Where now remains-] Where is, used here for whereas. It is often used with that signification by our author and his contemporaries.

9 A comfort of retirement-] A support to which we may have

recourse.

The quality and hair-] The hair seems to be the complexion, the character. The metaphor appears harsh to us, but, perhaps, was familiar in our author's time. We still say something is against the hair, as against the grain, i, e. against the natural tendency.

we of the offering side-] The offering side may mean simply the assailant, in opposition to the defendant: and it is likewise true of him that offers war, or makes an invasion, that his cause ought to be kept clear from all objections.

This absence of your father's draws a curtain,
That shows the ignorant a kind of fear

Before not dreamt of.

Hot.

You strain too far.

I, rather, of his absence make this use;-
It lends a lustre, and more great opinion,
A larger dare to our great enterprize,

Than if the earl were here: for men must think,
If we, without his help, can make a head
To push against the kingdom; with his help,
We shall o'erturn it topsy-turvy down.-
Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole.
Doug. As heart can think: there is not such a

word

Spoke of in Scotland, as this term of fear.

Enter Sir RICHARD VERnon.

Hot. My cousin Vernon! welcome, by my soul. Ver. Pray God, my news be worth a welcome, lord.

The earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong,
Is marching hitherwards; with him, prince John.
Hot. No harm: What more?
Ver.
And further, I have learn'd,—
The king himself in person is set forth,
Or hitherwards intended speedily,
With strong and mighty preparation.

Hot. He shall be welcome too.

Where is his son,

The nimble-footed mad-cap prince of Wales,
And his comrades, that daff'd the world aside,
And bid it pass?

Ver.
All furnish'd, all in arms,
All plum'd like estridges that wing the wind;

This absence of your father's draws a curtain,] To draw a curtain had anciently the same meaning as to undraw one has at present.