King Henry IV, Part 1 | Page 8

for whom these shames ye
underwent?
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,--
WOR.
Peace, cousin, say no more:

And now I will unclasp a secret
book,
And to your quick-conceiving discontent
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.
HOT.
If we 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!
NORTH.
Imagination of some great exploit
Drives him beyond the
bounds of patience.
HOT.
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!
WOR.
He apprehends a world of figures here,
But not the form of
what he should attend.--
Good cousin, give me audience for a while.
HOT.
I cry you mercy.
WOR.
Those same noble Scots
That are your prisoners,--
HOT.
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.
WOR.
You start away,
And lend no ear unto my purposes.
Those
prisoners you shall keep;--
HOT.
Nay, I will; that's flat.
He said he would not ransom
Mortimer;
Forbade 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.
WOR.
Hear you, cousin; a word.
HOT.
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'd have him poison'd with a pot of ale.
WOR.
Farewell, kinsman: I will talk to you
When you are better
temper'd to attend.
NORTH.
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!
HOT.
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't!--it is in Gioucestershire;--
'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;--
When you and he came
back from Ravenspurg.
NORTH.
At Berkeley-castle.
HOT.
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; for I have done.
WOR.
Nay, if you have not, to't again;
We'll stay your leisure.
HOT.
I have done, i'faith.

WOR.
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.--
[To
Northumberland.] You, my lord,
Your son in Scotland being thus
employ'd,
Shall secretly into the bosom creep
Of that same noble
prelate, well beloved,
Th' Archbishop.
HOT.
Of York, is't not?
WOR.
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.
HOT.
I smell't: upon my life, it will do well.
NORTH.
Before the game's a-foot, thou still lett'st slip.
HOT.
Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot:--
And then the
power of Scotland and of York
To join with Mortimer, ha?
WOR.
And so they shall.
HOT.
In faith, it is exceedingly well aim'd.
WOR.
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.
HOT.
He does, he does: we'll be revenged on him.

WOR.
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