Of hostile paces: those opposed eyes,
Which-like the meteors of a troubled heaven,
All of one nature, of one substance bred-
Did lately meet in the intestine shock
And furious close1 of civil butchery,
Shall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks,
March all one way; and be no more opposed
Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies:
The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife,
No more shall cut his master.

Therefore, friends,

As far as to the sepulchre of Christ,

(Whose soldier now,3 under whose blessed cross
We are impressed and engaged to fight,)

Forthwith a power of English shall we levy;
Whose arms were moulded in their mothers' womb
To chase these pagans, in those holy fields,
Over whose acres walked those blessed feet,
Which, fourteen hundred years ago,5 were nailed
For our advantage, on the bitter cross.

But this our purpose now is twelve-months old,
And bootless 't is to tell you-we will go :
Therefore 6 we meet not now.

Then let me hear

Of you, my gentle cousin Westmoreland,7

1 Close.] Grapple.

2 As far as.] With destination as far as. Compare Gosson's Schoole of Abuse (1579), p. 50, 'Scipio before he levied his force to the walls of Carthage,' &c.

3 Now.] We are now.

Impressed.] Enlisted. There is here a reference to Christians receiving, at baptism, the sign of the cross, in token that they will manfully fight under Christ's banner.

5 Fourteen hundred.] Henry IV. ascended the throne at the close of the fourteenth century.

to go.

Therefore.] For that purpose, viz. to tell you that we mean

My gentle cousin Westmoreland.] Ralph Nevill, created Earl

What yesternight our council did decree,
In forwarding this dear expedience.1

many

3

4

West. My liege, this haste was hot in question,2
And limits of the charge set down
But yesternight: when, all athwart, there came
A post from Wales, loaden with heavy news;
Whose worst was, that the noble Mortimer,5
Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight
Against the irregular and wild Glendower,
Was by the rude hands of that Welchman taken,
And a thousand of his people butchered:
Upon whose dead corps7 there was such misuse,

6

of Westmoreland by Richard II. in 1397, had joined Bolingbroke's standard, and became his most powerful supporter against the Percies. Cousin was a term of affectionate respect. Gentle means of gentle birth and breeding.

1 Dear expedience.] Important expedition.

2 Hot in question.] A subject of eager discussion.

3 Limits.] Distinct specifications. So in Macbeth, ii. 2, ‘It is my limited service,' meaning, it is my specified, appointed, or prescribed duty; and in Coriolanus, ii. 3, 'You have stood your limitation,' means, you have undergone the observance required of you.

Athwart.] Perversely.

5 Mortimer.] The Sir Edmund Mortimer of this play was brother of Harry Hotspur's wife, but not really Earl of March as Shakspeare, following Holinshed, has supposed. He was second son of Edmund Mortimer third Earl of March, and uncle to Edmund Mortimer fifth Earl of March, who was at this time only ten years old, and was the rightful heir to the crown at the death of Richard II., and was in the custody of the king at Windsor.

Glendower] Owen Glendower, the great Welsh chieftain, had been an esquire of the body' to Richard II., and was strongly attached to that monarch. The Sir Edmund Mortimer of this play married Owen's daughter.

i. 1.

Corps.] Corpses. The same plural occurs in 2 K. Henry IV.

Such beastly, shameless transformation,
By those Welch women done, as may not be
Without much shame retold or spoken of.

K. Hen. It seems then, that the tidings of this broil
Brake off our business for the Holy Land.

West. This matched with other did, my gracious lord; For more uneven1 and unwelcome news

Came from the north, and thus it did import.
On Holy-rood day,2 the gallant Hotspur there,
Young Harry Percy,3 and brave Archibald,4
That ever-valiant and approved Scot,
At Holmedon met;

Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour-
As by discharge of their artillery,

And shape of likelihood, the news was told;
For he that brought them,5 in the very heat
And pride of their contention did take horse,
Uncertain of the issue any way.

K. Hen. Here is a dear and true-industrious friend,

Uneven.] Untoward. This news was more untoward in relation to the king's purpose, as the battle was on Holy Cross day.

2 Holy-rood day.] Holy-rood or Holy-cross day is September 14. The battle of Holmedon or Homeldon (now Hambleton) near Wooler, Northumberland, was in 1402.

3 Young Harry Percy.] So called because of his father the Earl of Northumberland being also Henry Percy. But Shakspeare, in this play, erroneously supposes that 'young Harry Percy' and 'Prince Hal' were of the same age. Hotspur was at this time as old as the king himself, upwards of thirty-five.

Archibald.] This Earl of Douglas was taken prisoner at the battle of Holmedon, and again at that of Shrewsbury.

5 Them.]

6

The news: here referred to by a plural pronoun, though we have news was' in the preceding line. In the third line of this speech we find news referred to by the singular pronoun it. In modern usage the singular is generally preferred.

Sir Walter Blunt,1 new lighted from his horse,
Stained with the variation of each soil

Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours;
And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news.
The Earl of Douglas is discomfited;

Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights,
Balked in their own blood, did Sir Walter see
On Holmedon's plains: of prisoners, Hotspur took
Mordake, the Earl of Fife, and eldest son
To beaten Douglas: 3 and the Earl of Athol,
Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith.

And is not this an honourable spoil?
A gallant prize? ha, cousin, is it not?
West. In faith, it is;

A conquest for a prince to boast of.

In

K. Hen. Yea, there thou mak'st me sad, and mak'st me sin

Should be the father to so blest a son :

A son who is the theme of honour's tongue;
Amongst a grove the very straightest plant;

1 Sir Walter Blunt.] He was standard bearer to Henry IV., and fell in the battle of Shrewsbury, mistaken for his royal master, the king having caused several of his attendants to wear armour resembling his own.

2 Balked.] Steevens conjectured that baked is the right word here. A balk is a ridge between furrows; and though it might be correct enough to speak of the slain as ridged or heaped up, the expression in their own blood' is then inapposite. In K. John, iii. 3, we have—

Or if that surly spirit, melancholy,

Had baked thy blood, and made it heavy-thick.'

Mordake, &c.] Lord Mordake, or Murdoch, was eldest son, not of Douglas, but of Robert, Duke of Albany, regent of Scotland. The poet was misled by the omission of a comma in Holinshed.

Who is sweet fortune's minion and her pride:
Whilst I, by looking on the praise of him,
See riot and dishonour stain the brow

Of my young Harry. Oh that it could be proved
That some night-tripping fairy had exchanged
In cradle-clothes our children where they lay,
And called mine Percy, his Plantagenet !
Then would I have his Harry, and he mine.
But let him from my thoughts. What think you, coz,
Of this young Percy's pride? the prisoners,
Which he in this adventure hath surprised,

To his own use1 he keeps; and sends me word,
I shall have none but Mordake Earl of Fife.

West. This is his uncle's teaching, this is Worcester,2

Malevolent to you in all aspècts,3

Which makes him prune himself, and bristle up

The crest of youth against your dignity.

K. Hen. But I have sent for him to answer this;
And, for this cause, awhile we must neglect
Our holy purpose to Jerusalem.

Cousin, on Wednesday next our council we

Will hold at Windsor: so inform the lords:

1 To his own use.] To have ransom for them or to discharge them at his own discretion. Percy had a right to act thus, by the acknowledged law of arms. He was bound to give up to the king Mordake Earl of Fife, who was a prince of the royal blood, his father the Duke of Albany being brother to King Robert III.

2 Worcester.] Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester, brother of the Earl of Northumberland. This was the steward of Richard II.'s household who broke his staff of office' when his brother was proclaimed traitor for joining Bolingbroke. He became, however, one of the bitterest enemies of Bolingbroke, and being taken prisoner at the battle of Shrewsbury, was beheaded.

In all aspects.] There is here an allusion to the astrological doctrine about malignant and friendly aspects of the planets.