Among my houshold? Why is Rumour here? Hath beaten down young Hotspur, and his troops, Even with the rebels' blood. But what mean I To noise abroad,-that Harry Monmouth fell SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV. ACT I. SCENE I. The same. The Porter before the Gate; Enter Lord BARDOLph. Bard. Who keeps the gate here, ho?-Where is the earl? Port. What shall I say you are? Bard. Tell thou the earl, That the lord Bardolph doth attend him here. Port. His lordship is walk'd forth into the or chard; Please it your honour, knock but at the gate, And he himself will answer. Bard. Enter NORTHUMBERLAND. Here comes the earl. North. What news, lord Bardolph? every mi nute now Should be the father of some stratagem:2 The times are wild; contention, like a horse some stratagem:] Some stratagem means here some great, important, or dreadful event, Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose, Bard. Noble earl, I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury. Bard. North. How is this deriv'd? Saw you the field? came you from Shrewsbury? Bard. I spake with one, my lord, that came from thence; A gentleman well bred, and of good name, On Tuesday last to listen after news. Bard. My lord, I over-rode him on the way; And he is furnish'd with no certainties, More than he haply may retail from me. Enter TRAVers. North. Now, Travers, what good tidings come with you? Tra. My lord, sir John Umfrevile turn'd me back Out-rode me. With joyful tidings; and, being better hors'd, After him, came, spurring hard, A gentleman almost forspent with speed, North. Ha! Again. Said he, young Harry Percy's spur was cold? Of Hotspur, coldspur? that rebellion Had met ill luck! Bard. My lord, I'll tell you what ; If my young lord your son have not the day, I'll give my barony: never talk of it. North. Why should the gentleman, that rode by Travers, Give then such instances of loss? Bard. Who, he? He was some hilding fellow," that had stol'n The horse he rode on; and, upon my life, Spoke at a venture. Look, here comes more news. rate. 6 Enter MORTon. North. Yea, this man's brow, like to a titleleaf, forspent-] To forspend is to waste, to exhaust. like to a title-leaf,] It may not be amiss to observe, that, in the time of our poet, the title-page to an elegy, as well Foretells the nature of a tragick volume: Say, Morton, didst thou come from Shrewsbury? North. How doth my son, and brother? Thou tremblest; and the whiteness in thy cheek Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand. Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless, So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone, Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night, And would have told him, half his Troy was burn'd: But Priam found the fire, ere he is tongue, And I my Percy's death, ere thou report'st it. thus; Your brother, thus: so fought the noble Douglas ; But, for my lord your son, North. Why, he is dead. See, what a ready tongue suspicion hath! He, that but fears the thing he would not know, Hath, by instinct, knowledge from others' eyes, That what he fear'd is chanced. Yet speak, Morton; Tell thou thy earl, his divination lies; And I will take it as a sweet disgrace, as every intermediate leaf, was totally black. I have several in my possession, written by Chapman, the translator of Homer, and ornamented in this manner. STEEVENS. a witness'd usurpation.] i. e. an attestation of its ravage. |