No; yet time serves wherein you may redeem Your banish'd honours and restore yourselves Into the good thoughts of the world again, Revenge the jeering and disdain'd contempt Of this proud king, who studies day and night To answer all the debt he owes to you Even with the bloody payment of your deaths:
Therefore, I say-- EARL OF WORCESTER Peace, cousin, say no more:
And now I will unclasp a secret book, And to your quick-conceiving discontents I'll read you matter deep and dangerous, As full of peril and adventurous spirit As to o'er-walk a current roaring loud On the unsteadfast footing of a spear. HOTSPUR If he fall in, good night! or sink or swim:
Send danger from the east unto the west, So honour cross it from the north to south, And let them grapple: O, the blood more stirs To rouse a lion than to start a hare! NORTHUMBERLAND Imagination of some great exploit Drives him beyond the bounds of patience. HOTSPUR By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap, To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon, Or dive into the bottom of the deep, Where fathom-line could never touch the ground, And pluck up drowned honour by the locks;So he that doth redeem her thence might wear Without corrival, all her dignities:
But out upon this half-faced fellowship! EARL OF WORCESTER He apprehends a world of figures here, But not the form of what he should attend.
Good cousin, give me audience for a while. HOTSPUR I cry you mercy. EARL OF WORCESTER Those same noble Scots That are your prisoners,-- HOTSPUR I'll keep them all;By God, he shall not have a Scot of them;No, if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not:
I'll keep them, by this hand. EARL OF WORCESTER You start away And lend no ear unto my purposes.
Those prisoners you shall keep. HOTSPUR Nay, I will; that's flat:
He said he would not ransom Mortimer;
Forbad my tongue to speak of Mortimer;
But I will find him when he lies asleep, And in his ear I'll holla 'Mortimer!'
Nay, I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak Nothing but 'Mortimer,' and give it him To keep his anger still in motion. EARL OF WORCESTER Hear you, cousin; a word. HOTSPUR All studies here I solemnly defy, Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke:
And that same sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales, But that I think his father loves him not And would be glad he met with some mischance, I would have him poison'd with a pot of ale. EARL OF WORCESTER Farewell, kinsman: I'll talk to you When you are better temper'd to attend. NORTHUMBERLAND Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool Art thou to break into this woman's mood, Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own! HOTSPUR Why, look you, I am whipp'd and scourged with rods, Nettled and stung with pismires, when I hear Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke.
In Richard's time,--what do you call the place?--A plague upon it, it is in Gloucestershire;'Twas where the madcap duke his uncle kept, His uncle York; where I first bow'd my knee Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke,--'Sblood!--When you and he came back from Ravenspurgh. NORTHUMBERLAND At Berkley castle. HOTSPUR You say true:
Why, what a candy deal of courtesy This fawning greyhound then did proffer me!
Look,'when his infant fortune came to age,'
And 'gentle Harry Percy,' and 'kind cousin;'
O, the devil take such cozeners! God forgive me!
Good uncle, tell your tale; I have done. EARL OF WORCESTER Nay, if you have not, to it again;We will stay your leisure. HOTSPUR I have done, i' faith. EARL OF WORCESTER Then once more to your Scottish prisoners.
Deliver them up without their ransom straight, And make the Douglas' son your only mean For powers in Scotland; which, for divers reasons Which I shall send you written, be assured, Will easily be granted. You, my lord, To Northumberland Your son in Scotland being thus employ'd, Shall secretly into the bosom creep Of that same noble prelate, well beloved, The archbishop. HOTSPUR Of York, is it not? EARL OF WORCESTER True; who bears hard His brother's death at Bristol, the Lord Scroop.
I speak not this in estimation, As what I think might be, but what I know Is ruminated, plotted and set down, And only stays but to behold the face Of that occasion that shall bring it on. HOTSPUR I smell it: upon my life, it will do well. NORTHUMBERLAND Before the game is afoot, thou still let'st slip. HOTSPUR Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot;And then the power of Scotland and of York, To join with Mortimer, ha? EARL OF WORCESTER And so they shall. HOTSPUR In faith, it is exceedingly well aim'd. EARL OF WORCESTER And 'tis no little reason bids us speed, To save our heads by raising of a head;For, bear ourselves as even as we can, The king will always think him in our debt, And think we think ourselves unsatisfied, Till he hath found a time to pay us home:
And see already how he doth begin To make us strangers to his looks of love. HOTSPUR He does, he does: we'll be revenged on him. EARL OF WORCESTER Cousin, farewell: no further go in this Than I by letters shall direct your course.
When time is ripe, which will be suddenly, I'll steal to Glendower and Lord Mortimer;Where you and Douglas and our powers at once, As I will fashion it, shall happily meet, To bear our fortunes in our own strong arms, Which now we hold at much uncertainty. NORTHUMBERLAND Farewell, good brother: we shall thrive, I trust. HOTSPUR Uncle, Adieu: O, let the hours be short Till fields and blows and groans applaud our sport!