ACT IV. SCENE I.

The Rebel Camp near Shrewsbury.

Enter HOTSPUR, WORCESTER, and DOUGLAS. Hot. Well said, my noble Scot: if speaking truth, In this fine age were not thought flattery,

Such attribution should the Douglas have,
As not a soldier of this season's stamp

Should go so general current through the world.
By God, I cannot flatter: I defy

The tongues of soothers; but a braver place
In my heart's love hath no man than yourself.
Nay, task me to my word; approve me, lord'.
Doug. Thou art the king of honour:

No man so potent breathes upon the ground,
But I will beard him.

Hot.

Do so, and 'tis well.

Enter a Messenger, with Letters.

you.

What letters hast thou there?—I can but thank
Mess. These letters come from your father.
Hot. Letters from him! why comes he not himself?
Mess. He cannot come, my lord: he's grievous sick.
Hot. 'Zounds! how has he the leisure to be sick,

In such a justling time? Who leads his power?
Under whose government come they along?

Mess. His letters bear his mind, not I, my lord'.

7 Nay, task me to MY word; approve me, lord.] So all the old copies : Malone reads, "Nay, task me to the word." Approve me" is, of course, prove me, or try me.

* "Zounds! how has he the leisure to be sick,] The first folio poorly reads, "How ? has he the leisure to be sick now," for the sake of avoiding ""Zounds!" so characteristic of Hotspur.

"His letters bear his mind, not I, my LORD.] "Not I my mind" is the reading of the two earliest quartos: the rest, and the folio, "not I his mind." The compositor, as Capel points out, repeated "mind" instead of "lord."

Wor. I pr'ythee, tell me, doth he keep his bed? Mess. He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth; And at the time of my departure thence,

He was much fear'd by his physicians.

Wor. I would the state of time had first been whole, Ere he by sickness had been visited:

His health was never better worth than now.

Hot. Sick now! droop now! this sickness doth infect

The very life-blood of our enterprize:

"Tis catching hither, even to our camp.

He writes me here,-that inward sickness-
And that his friends by deputation could not
So soon be drawn; nor did he think it meet,
To lay so dangerous and dear a trust

On any soul remov'd, but on his own.
Yet doth he give us bold advertisement,
That with our small conjunction we should on,
To see how fortune is dispos'd to us;

For, as he writes, there is no quailing now,
Because the king is certainly possess'd

Of all our purposes.

What say you to it?

Wor. Your father's sickness is a maim to us.
Hot. A perilous gash, a very limb lopp'd off:—
And yet, in faith, 'tis not; his present want

Seems more than we shall find it.-Were it good,
To set the exact wealth of all our states

All at one cast? to set so rich a main

On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?
It were not good; for therein should we read
The very bottom and the soul of hope,
The very list, the very utmost bound
Of all our fortunes.

Doug.

'Faith, and so we should,

Where now remains a sweet reversion:
We may boldly spend upon the hope

Of what is to come in:

A comfort of retirement lives in this.

Hot. A rendezvous, a home to fly unto, If that the devil and mischance look big Upon the maidenhead of our affairs.

Wor. But yet, I would your father had been here. The quality and hair of our attempt

Brooks no division': it will be thought

By some, that know not why he is away,
That wisdom, loyalty, and mere dislike
Of our proceedings, kept the earl from hence.
And think, how such an apprehension
May turn the tide of fearful faction,

And breed a kind of question in our cause:
For, well you know, we of the offering side2
Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement,
And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence
The eye of reason may pry in upon us.

This absence of your father's draws a curtain,
That shows the ignorant a kind of fear

Before not dreamt of.

Hot.

You strain too far.

I, rather, of his absence make this use:

It lends a lustre, and more great opinion,

A larger dare to our great enterprize3,

Than if the earl were here: for men must think,
If we, without his help, can make a head

1 The quality and HAIR of our attempt

Brooks no division:] The word "hair" in this passage has caused some dispute, and it seems very clear that the printers of the old editions did not understand the use of it. In the quarto, 1598, it stands haire: in the quarto, 1599, haire also: in the quarto, 1608, heaire, and in the later quartos and the folios heire. Johnson thought that "hair" was to be taken for complexion, character, and Steevens and Malone agreed with him. Boswell recommended the substitution of air; but no change seems necessary. Worcester, perhaps, means that there ought to be no splitting or division of their power, already small enough for the attempt: the hair of our attempt brooks no division."

66

2 -we of the OFFERING side] i. e. of the challenging side, the side "offering" battle. This is the reading of every old copy, and is sufficiently intelligible without reading offending, as was done by editors previous to the time of Johnson, who restored the true word.

3

to OUR great enterprize,] The folio reads your. VOL. IV.

X

To push against the kingdom, with his help,
We shall o'erturn it topsy-turvy down.-
Yet all goes well; yet all our joints are whole.

Doug. As heart can think: there is not such a word Spoke of in Scotland as this term of fear*.

Enter Sir RICHARD VERNON.

Hot. My cousin Vernon! welcome, by my soul. Ver. Pray God my news be worth a welcome, lord. The earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong, Is marching hitherwards; with him, prince John. Hot. No harm: what more? Ver. And farther, I have learn'd, The king himself in person is set forth, Or hitherwards intended speedily, With strong and mighty preparation.

Where is his son,

Hot. He shall be welcome too.
The nimble-footed mad-cap prince of Wales,
And his comrades, that daff'd the world aside,
And bid it pass?

Ver.

All furnish'd, all in arms,
All plum'd like estridges, that with the wind.
Bated, like eagles' having lately bath'd;
Glittering in golden coats, like images;
As full of spirit as the month of May,
And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer;
Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.

I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,

His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm'd,

4 as this TERM of fear.] So the quartos previous to that of 1613, which, like the folio, 1623, has "this dream of fear." In Vernon's first speech the folio omits "him," and in his second speech substitutes hath for "is" in the line, "The King himself in person is set forth."

5

that WITH the wind

Bated, like eagles-] This is the reading of all the ancient editions, but not the old punctuation. To bate was a term of falconry, and meant to beat the air, as eagles would do after bathing, in order to dry their plumage. The modern reading has usually been "that wing the wind;" but it rather confuses than clears the difficulty of the passage.

Rise from the ground like feather'd Mercury,
And vaulted with such ease into his seat,

As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds,
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,

And witch the world with noble horsemanship.

Hot. No more, no more: worse than the sun in March, This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come;

They come like sacrifices in their trim,
And to the fire-ey'd maid of smoky war,
All hot, and bleeding, will we offer them:
The mailed Mars shall on his altar sit,
Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire,
To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh,

And yet not ours.—Come, let me taste my horse",
Who is to bear me, like a thunderbolt,
Against the bosom of the prince of Wales:

Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse',

Meet, and ne'er part, till one drop down a corse.-
O, that Glendower were come!

Ver.

There is more news:

I learn'd in Worcester, as I rode along,

He cannot draws his power this fourteen days.
Doug. That's the worst tidings that I hear of yet.
Wor. Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound.
Hot. What may the king's whole battle reach unto?
Ver. To thirty thousand.

Hot.

Forty let it be:

My father and Glendower being both away,

6 -Come, let me TASTE my horse,] i. e. try my horse; which was the phraseology of the time, from the old Fr. taster, to try. In Chapman's translation of the Odyssey, book 21, the expression occurs:

To taste the bow."

" he now began

And in "Twelfth Night," Vol. iii. p. 375, Sir Toby tells Viola to "taste her legs." The two earliest quartos of "Henry IV." part i., have "taste my horse;" but take was introduced into the quarto, 1608, and from thence transferred to the quarto, 1613, and so to the folio, 1623.

7 HOT horse to horse,] So the two earliest quartos: the others, and the folio, substitute not for "hot."

* He CANNOT draw-] The quarto copies (excepting that of 1639) have “ He can draw." The folio, 1623, also, has "cannot."