The Complete Works of William Shakespeare · William Shakespeare
SCENE III. The Rebel Camp near Shrewsbury.
Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Douglas and Vernon. HOTSPUR. We’ll fight with him tonight. WORCESTER. It may not be. DOUGLAS. You give him then advantage. VERNON. Not a whit. HOTSPUR. Why say you so? Looks he not for supply? VERNON. So do we. HOTSPUR. His is certain, ours is doubtful. WORCESTER. Good cousin, be advised, stir not tonight. VERNON. Do not, my lord. DOUGLAS. You do not counsel well. You speak it out of fear and cold heart. VERNON. Do me no slander, Douglas; by my life, And I dare well maintain it with my life, If well-respected honour bid me on, I hold as little counsel with weak fear As you, my lord, or any Scot that this day lives. Let it be seen tomorrow in the battle Which of us fears. DOUGLAS. Yea, or tonight. VERNON. Content. HOTSPUR. Tonight, say I. VERNON. Come, come, it may not be. I wonder much, Being men of such great leading as you are, That you foresee not what impediments Drag back our expedition. Certain horse Of my cousin Vernon’s are not yet come up. Your uncle Worcester’s horse came but today, And now their pride and mettle is asleep, Their courage with hard labour tame and dull, That not a horse is half the half himself. HOTSPUR. So are the horses of the enemy In general, journey-bated and brought low. The better part of ours are full of rest.
WORCESTER. The number of the King exceedeth ours. For God’s sake, cousin, stay till all come in. [_The trumpet sounds a parley._] Enter Sir Walter Blunt. BLUNT. I come with gracious offers from the King, If you vouchsafe me hearing and respect. HOTSPUR. Welcome, Sir Walter Blunt, and would to God You were of our determination! Some of us love you well, and even those some Envy your great deservings and good name, Because you are not of our quality, But stand against us like an enemy. BLUNT. And God defend but still I should stand so, So long as out of limit and true rule You stand against anointed majesty. But to my charge. The King hath sent to know The nature of your griefs, and whereupon You conjure from the breast of civil peace Such bold hostility, teaching his duteous land Audacious cruelty. If that the King Have any way your good deserts forgot, Which he confesseth to be manifold, He bids you name your griefs, and with all speed You shall have your desires with interest And pardon absolute for yourself and these Herein misled by your suggestion.
HOTSPUR. The King is kind, and well we know the King Knows at what time to promise, when to pay. My father and my uncle and myself Did give him that same royalty he wears, And when he was not six-and-twenty strong, Sick in the world’s regard, wretched and low, A poor unminded outlaw sneaking home, My father gave him welcome to the shore: And when he heard him swear and vow to God He came but to be Duke of Lancaster, To sue his livery, and beg his peace With tears of innocence and terms of zeal, My father, in kind heart and pity moved, Swore him assistance, and performed it too. Now, when the lords and barons of the realm Perceived Northumberland did lean to him, The more and less came in with cap and knee, Met him in boroughs, cities, villages, Attended him on bridges, stood in lanes, Laid gifts before him, proffer’d him their oaths, Give him their heirs as pages, follow’d him Even at the heels in golden multitudes. He presently, as greatness knows itself, Steps me a little higher than his vow Made to my father while his blood was poor Upon the naked shore at Ravenspurgh; And now forsooth takes on him to reform Some certain edicts and some strait decrees That lie too heavy on the commonwealth; Cries out upon abuses, seems to weep Over his country’s wrongs; and by this face, This seeming brow of justice, did he win The hearts of all that he did angle for; Proceeded further—cut me off the heads Of all the favourites that the absent King In deputation left behind him here When he was personal in the Irish war.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.