King Henry IV, Part 1 | Page 7

be digg'd
Out of the
bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow had
destroy'd
So cowardly; and, but for these vile guns,
He would
himself have been a soldier.
This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord,

I answered indirectly, as I said;
And I beseech you, let not his
report
Come current for an accusation
Betwixt my love and your
high Majesty.
BLUNT.
The circumstance consider'd, good my lord,

Whatever
Harry Percy then had said
To such a person, and in such a place,
At
such a time, with all the rest re-told,
May reasonably die, and never
rise
To do him wrong, or any way impeach
What then he said, so he
unsay it now.
KING.
Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners,
But with proviso and

exception,
That we at our own charge shall ransom straight
His
brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer;
Who, on my soul, hath wilfully
betray'd
The lives of those that he did lead to fight
Against that
great magician, damn'd Glendower,
Whose daughter, as we hear, the
Earl of March
Hath lately married. Shall our coffers, then,
Be
emptied to redeem a traitor home?
Shall we buy treason? and indent
with fears
When they have lost and forfeited themselves?
No, on
the barren mountains let him starve;
For I shall never hold that man
my friend
Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost
To
ransom home revolted Mortimer.
HOT.
Revolted Mortimer!
He never did fall off, my sovereign liege,

But by the chance of war: to prove that true
Needs no more but one
tongue for all those wounds,
Those mouthed wounds, which valiantly
he took,
When on the gentle Severn's sedgy bank,
In single
opposition, hand to hand,
He did confound the best part of an hour

In changing hardiment with great Glendower.
Three times they
breathed, and three times did they drink,
Upon agreement, of swift
Severn's flood;
Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks,
Ran
fearfully among the trembling reeds,
And hid his crisp head in the
hollow bank
Blood-stained with these valiant combatants.
Never
did base and rotten policy
Colour her working with such deadly
wounds;
Nor never could the noble Mortimer
Receive so many, and
all willingly:
Then let not him be slander'd with revolt.
KING.
Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou dost belie him;
He never
did encounter with Glendower:
I tell thee,
He durst as well have
met the Devil alone

As Owen Glendower for an enemy.
Art not
ashamed? But, sirrah, henceforth
Let me not hear you speak of
Mortimer:
Send me your prisoners with the speediest means,
Or
you shall hear in such a kind from me
As will displease you.--My
Lord Northumberland,
We license your departure with your son.--

Send us your prisoners, or you'll hear of it.

[Exeunt King Henry, Blunt, and train.]
HOT.
An if the Devil come and roar for them,
I will not send them:
I will after straight,
And tell him so; for I will else my heart,

Although it be with hazard of my head.
NORTH.
What, drunk with choler? stay, and pause awhile:
Here
comes your uncle.
[Re-enter Worcester.]
HOT.
Speak of Mortimer!
Zounds, I will speak of him; and let my
soul
Want mercy, if I do not join with him:
Yea, on his part I'll
empty all these veins,
And shed my dear blood drop by drop i' the
dust,
But I will lift the down-trod Mortimer
As high i' the air as this
unthankful King,
As this ingrate and canker'd Bolingbroke.
NORTH.
[To Worcester.]
Brother, the King hath made your nephew mad.
WOR.
Who struck this heat up after I was gone?
HOT.
He will, forsooth, have all my prisoners;
And when I urged
the ransom once again
Of my wife's brother, then his cheek look'd
pale,
And on my face he turn'd an eye of death,
Trembling even at
the name of Mortimer.
WOR.
I cannot blame him: was not he proclaim'd
By Richard that
dead is the next of blood?
NORTH.
He was; I heard the proclamation:
And then it was when
the unhappy King--
Whose wrongs in us God pardon!--did set forth

Upon his Irish expedition;
From whence he intercepted did return


To be deposed, and shortly murdered.
WOR.
And for whose death we in the world's wide mouth
Live
scandalized and foully spoken of.
HOT.
But, soft! I pray you; did King Richard then
Proclaim my
brother Edmund Mortimer
Heir to the crown?
NORTH.
He did; myself did hear it.
HOT.
Nay, then I cannot blame his cousin King,
That wish'd him
on the barren mountains starve.
But shall it be, that you, that set the
crown
Upon the head of this forgetful man,
And for his sake wear
the detested blot
Of murderous subornation,--shall it be,
That you a
world of curses undergo,
Being the agents, or base second means,

The cords, the ladder, or the hangman rather?--
O, pardon me, that I
descend so low,
To show the line and the predicament
Wherein you
range under this subtle King;--
Shall it, for shame, be spoken in these
days,
Or fill up chronicles in time to come,
That men of your
nobility and power
Did gage them both in an unjust behalf,--
As
both of you, God pardon it! have done,--
To put down Richard, that
sweet lovely rose,
And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke?

And shall it, in more shame, be further spoken,
That you are fool'd,
discarded, and shook off
By him