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. GLENDOWER No, here it is.
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. 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. HOTSPUR Why, so it would have done at the same season, if your mother's cat had but kittened, though yourself had never been born. 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.
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 That chides the banks of England, Scotland, Wales, 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. MORTIMER Peace, cousin Percy; you will make him mad. GLENDOWER I can call spirits from the vasty deep. 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.
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. HOTSPUR Home without boots, and in foul weather too!
How 'scapes he agues, in the devil's name? 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 IAnd 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, Not shall we need his help these fourteen days.
Within that space you may have drawn together Your tenants, friends and neighbouring gentlemen. 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, For there will be a world of water shed Upon the parting of your wives and you. 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. GLENDOWER Not wind? it shall, it must; you see it doth. MORTIMER Yea, but Mark how he bears his course, and runs me up With like advantage on the other side;Gelding the opposed continent as much As on the other side it takes from you. EARL OF WORCESTER Yea, but a little charge will trench him here And on this north side win this cape of land;And then he runs straight and even. HOTSPUR I'll have it so: a little charge will do it. GLENDOWER I'll not have it alter'd. HOTSPUR Will not you? GLENDOWER No, nor you shall not. HOTSPUR Who shall say me nay? GLENDOWER Why, that will I. HOTSPUR Let me not understand you, then; speak it in Welsh. GLENDOWER I can speak English, lord, as well as you;For I was train'd up in the English court;Where, being but young, I framed to the harp Many an English ditty lovely well And gave the tongue a helpful ornament, A virtue that was never seen in you. HOTSPUR Marry, And I am glad of it with all my heart:
I had rather be a kitten and cry mew Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers;I had rather hear a brazen canstick turn'd, Or a dry wheel grate on the axle-tree;And that would set my teeth nothing on edge, Nothing so much as mincing poetry:
'Tis like the forced gait of a shuffling nag. GLENDOWER Come, you shall have Trent turn'd. HOTSPUR I do not care: I'll give thrice so much land To any well-deserving friend;But in the way of bargain, mark ye me, I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair.