North. Yea, my good lord. Those prisoners in your highness' name demanded, Either envy, therefore, or misprision, Hot. My liege, I did deny no prisoners. And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held He gave his nose, and took't away again;— Who, therewith angry, when it next came there, He called them-untaught knaves, unmannerly, With many holiday and lady terms He questioned me; among the rest demanded I then, all smarting, with my wounds being cold, Out of my grief and my impatience, Answered 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, 1 The reader should bear in mind that the courtier's beard, according to the fashion in the Poet's time, would not be closely shaved, but shorn or trimmed. 2 Took it in snuff means no more than snuffed it up; but there is a quibble on the phrase, which was equivalent to taking huff at it; in familiar, modern speech, to be angry, to take offence. "To take in snuffe, Pigliar ombra, Pigliar in mala parte."-Torriano. Of guns, and drums, and wounds (God save the mark!) Betwixt my love and your high majesty. Blunt. The circumstance considered, good my lord, Whatever Harry Percy then had said, To such a person, and in such a place, K. Hen. Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners; That we, at our own charge, shall ransom straight 1 So in sir T. Overburie's Characters, 1616. [An Ordinarie Fencer,] "his wounds are seldom skin-deepe; for an inward-bruise lambstones and sweete breads are his only spermaceti." 2 To indent with fears is to enter into compact with cowards. "To make a covenant or to indent with one. Paciscor."-Baret. Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost 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; Color her working with such deadly wounds; Then let him not be slandered with revolt. K. Hen. 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, Art thou not ashamed? But, sirrah, henceforth Send me your prisoners with the speediest means, [Exeunt KING HENRY, Blunt, and Train. 1 Shakspeare uses confound for spending or losing time. Hardiment is an obsolete word, signifying hardiness, courage. 2 Crisp is curled. 3 Some of the quarto copies read base. Hot. And if the devil come and roar for them, I will not send them;-I will after straight, And tell him so; for I will ease my heart, North. What, drunk with choler? Stay, and pause awhile; Here comes your uncle. Hot. Re-enter WORCESTER. Speak of Mortimer? 'Zounds, I will speak of him; and let my soul Yea, on his part, I'll empty all these veins, As high i' the air as this unthankful king, mad. North. Brother, the king hath made your nephew [TO WORCESTER. 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 looked pale; And on my face he turned an eye of death, Trembling even at the name of Mortimer. Wor. I cannot blame him. Was he not proclaimed, By Richard that dead is, the next of blood?1 North. He was; I heard the proclamation. 1 Roger Mortimer, earl of March, was declared heir apparent to the crown in 1385; but he was killed in Ireland in 1398. The person who was proclaimed heir apparent by Richard II. previous to his last voyage to Ireland, was Edmund Mortimer, son of Roger, who was then but seven years old: he was not lady Percy's brother, but her nephew. He was the undoubted heir to the crown after the death of Richard. Thomas Walsingham asserts that he married a daughter of Owen Glendower, and the subsequent historians copied him. Sandford says that he married Anne Stafford, daughter of Edmund earl of Stafford. Glendower's daughter was married to his antagonist lord Grey of Ruthven. Holinshed led Shakspeare into the error. This Edmund, who is the Mortimer of the present play, was born in 1392, and consequently, at the time when this play is supposed to commence, was little more than ten years old. The prince of Wales was not fifteen. 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, 2 1 The canker-rose is the dog-rose, the flower of the Cynosbaton. 2 i. e. disdainful. |