A pouncet-box, which ever and anon
He gave his nose and took 't away again;
Who therewith angry, when it next came there,
Took it in snuff; and still he smiled and talk'd,
And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
He call'd them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse
Betwixt the wind and his nobility.

With many holiday and lady terms

He question'd me; amongst the rest, demanded
My prisoners in your majesty's behalf.

I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold,
To be so pester'd with a popinjay,'

Out of my grief and my impatience,

Answer'd neglectingly I know not what,

He should, or he should not; for he made me mad

To see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet,

And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman

Of guns and drums and wounds,-God save the mark!And telling me the sovereign'st thing on earth

Was parmaceti for an inward bruise;

And that it was great pity, so it was,

This villanous salt-petre should 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, ers

I answer'd 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, 70

Whate'er Lord 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

62 a good tall fellow] a strapping fellow.

65 unjointed] disjointed, incoherent.

75-76 impeach What... said] make what he then said matter for accusation.

78 But with proviso and exception] Save with the exceptional provision

80

A

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

ACT I

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

90

100

Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks,
Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds,
And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank
Bloodstained 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 thou 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 will hear of it.

110

120

130

140

And tell him so; for I will ease my heart,

Albeit I make a hazard of my head.

NORTH. What, drunk with choler? stay and pause

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 in the dust,
But I will lift the down-trod Mortimer

As high in the air as this unthankful king,

As this ingrate and canker'd Bolingbroke.

NORTH. 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?

128 Albeit I make a hazard] Thus the Quartos. The Folios read Although

it be with hazard.

133 on his part] on his behalf, on his side.

137 canker'd] corroded, malignant.

142 my wife's brother] See I, i, 38, supra, and note.

143 an eye of death] a ghastly look of death.

145-146 was not he proclaim'd... blood?] Shakespeare here confuses Hotspur's friend and brother-in-law, Sir Edmund Mortimer, with