1

And you have found me; for, accordingly,
You tread upon my patience: but, be sure,
I will from henceforth rather be myself,

2

Mighty and to be feared, than my condition;
Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down,
And therefore lost that title of respect,

Which the proud soul ne'er pays but to the proud.
Wor. Our house, my sovereign liege, little deserves

The scourge of greatness to be used on it;

And that same greatness too which our own hands
Have holp to make so portly.

North. My lord

K. Hen. Worcester, get thee gone, for I do see
Danger and disobedience in thine eye:

O, sir, your presence3 is too bold and peremptory,
And majesty might never yet endure

The moody frontier of a servant brow.

You have good leave to leave us; when we need
Your use and counsel, we shall send for you.—

You were about to speak.

North.

[Exit WORCESTer. [TO NORTH.

Yea, my good lord,

Those prisoners in your highness' name demanded,
Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took,
Were, as he says, not with such strength denied 4
As is delivered to your majesty :

Either envy, therefore, or misprision 5
Is guilty of this fault, and not my son.
Hot. My liege, I did deny no prisoners.

1 Found me.] Seen me to be thus unapt.

2 Than my condition.] Than be what my temperament denotes. 3 Presence.] Demeanour.

4 With such strength denied.] So strongly or stubbornly refused.

But, I remember, when the fight was done,
When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,
Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
Came there a certain lord, neat, and trimly dressed,
Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin, new reaped,
Showed like a stubble land at harvest-home:

He was perfumed like a miliiner,

And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held
A pouncet-box,' which ever and anon

He

gave his nose, and took't away again;

Who2 therewith angry, when it next came there
Took it in snuff: 3—and still he smiled and talked;
And, as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
He called them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse
Betwixt the wind and his nobility.

With many holiday and lady terms 4

He questioned me: among the rest, demanded
My prisoners, in your majesty's behalf.

I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold-
To be so pestered with a popinjay-

Out of my grief and my impatience,

Answered neglectingly, I know not what—

He should, or he should not; 5—for he made me mad,

1 A pouncet-box.] A small box with perforated lid, containing an aromatic smelling powder.

2 Who.] That is, his nose.

3 Took it in snuff] The dramatist is here again indulging his punning humour. To take anything in snuff was to take offence at it, to be indignant at it.

Holiday and lady terms.] Holiday terms' means ceremonious speech.

5 He should, &c.] That is, that the king should or should not have the prisoners.

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 2 for an inward bruise;

And that it was great pity, so it was,
That villainous saltpetre should be digged
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow 3 had destroyed
So cowardly; and, but for these vile guns,
He would himself have been a soldier.
This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord,
I answered 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 considered, good my lord,

Whatever Harry Percy then had said,
To such a person, and in such a place,
At such a time, with all the rest retold,
May reasonably die, and never rise
To do him wrong, or any way impeach
What then he said, so he unsay it now.

K. Hen. 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 betrayed

'God save the mark.] Heaven defend or bless the distinction. 2 Parmaceti.] A corruption of spermaceti.

3 Tall fellow.] Brave fellow. The epithets tall and stout were often applied to men and ships with the sense of sturdy, brave, gallant.

The lives of those that he did lead to fight
Against the great magician, damned Glendower ;
Whose daughter, as we hear, the Earl of March
Hath lately married. Shall our coffers then
Be emptied to redeem a traitor home?

Shall we buy treason? and indent with feers,1
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
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 hardiment2 with great Glendower :

Three times they breathed, and three times did they drink,

Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood:

Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks,

Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds,
And hid his crisp1 head in the hollow bank
Blood-stained with these valiant combatants.
Never did base and rotten policy

Colour her working with such deadly wounds;
Nor never could the noble Mortimer

1 Indent with feers.] Make terms with companions or confederates,

as Glendower and Mortimer are.

2 In changing hardiment.] In exchange of hard blows.

Who.] That is, Severn, or the tutelary power of the stream.
Crisp.] Curled.

Receive so many, and all willingly :

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,

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,
shall hear in such a kind from me

Or

you
As will displease you. My Lord Northumberland,
We license your departure with your son:-
Send us your prisoners, or you'll hear of it.

[Exeunt KING HENRY, BLUNT, and Train.

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,

Albeit I make a hazard of my head.

North. What, drunk with choler! stay, and pause

awhile;

Here comes your uncle.

Hot.

Re-enter WORCESTER.

Speak of Mortimer!1

'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 i' the dust,

But I will lift the down-trod Mortimer

1 Speak of Mortimer.] This refers to the sixth line of the king's last speech.