Your banish'd honours, and restore yourselves
Into the good thoughts of the world again :
Revenge the jeering and disdain'd contempt
Of this proud king; who studies, day and night,
To answer all the debt he owes unto you,
Even with the bloody payment of
Therefore, I say,

Wor.

your deaths.

Peace, cousin, say no more;
And now I will unclasp a secret book,
And to your quick-conceiving discontents
I'll read you matter deep and dangerous,
As full of peril, and adventurous spirit,
As to o'er-walk a current, roaring loud,
On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.

Hot. If he fall in, good night -or sink or swim :Send danger from the east unto the west, So honour cross it from the north to south, And let them grapple ;-the blood more stirs To rouse a lion than to start a hare.

North. Imagination of some great exploit Drives him beyond the bounds of patience.

Hot. By heaven, methinks, it were an easy leap
To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon;
Or dive into the bottom of the deep,

Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
And pluck up drowned honour by the locks;
So he, that doth redeem her thence, might wear,
Without corrival, all her dignities:

But out upon this half-fac'd fellowship!

Wor. He apprehends a world of figures here,

But not the form of what he should attend.-
Good cousin, give me audience for a while,
And list to me.

Hot. I cry you mercy.
Wor.

That are your prisoners,

Hot.

Those same noble Scots,

I'll keep them all;

By heaven, he shall not have a Scot of them;
No, if a Scot would save his soul he shall not:
I'll keep them, by this hand.

Wor.

You start away,

And lend no ear unto my purposes.

Those prisoners you shall keep.

Hot.

Nay, I will; that's flat:

He said he would not ransom Mortimer;
Forbad my tongue to speak of Mortimer;
But I will find him when he lies asleep,
And in his ear I'll holla-Mortimer!

Nay, I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak
Nothing but Mortimer, and give it him,
To keep his anger still in motion.

Wor. Hear you, cousin; a word.

Hot. All studies here I solemnly defy,
Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke:

And that same sword-and-buckler prince of Wales,
But that I think his father loves him not,

And would be glad he met with some mischance,
I'd have him poison'd with a pot of ale.

Wor. Farewell, kinsman! I will talk to you,

When you are better temper'd to attend.

North. Why, what a wasp-tongueda and impatient fool

Art thou, to break into this woman's mood;

Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own!

Hot. Why, look you, I am whipp'd and scourg'd with rods,

Nettled, and stung with pismires, when I hear
Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke.

In Richard's time,-What d'ye call the place?—
A plague upon 't-it is in Gloucestershire;-
"T was where the madcap duke his uncle kept;
His uncle York ;-where I first bow'd my knee

a Wasp-tongued-having a tongue as peevish and mischievous

as a wasp.

Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke,

When you and he came back from Ravenspurg
North. At Berkley castle.

Hot. You say true:

Why, what a candy deal of courtesy

This fawning greyhound then did proffer me!
Look,-" when his infant fortune came to age,"
And,-"gentle Harry Percy,”—and, "kind cousin,"
O, the devil take such cozeners!-

-God forgive me!

Good uncle, tell your tale, for I have done.
Wor. Nay, if you have not, to 't again;
We'll stay your leisure.

Hot.

I have done, in sooth.
Wor. Then once more to your Scottish prisoners.
Deliver them up without their ransom straight,
And make the Douglas' son your only mean
For powers in Scotland; which, for divers reasons,
Which I shall send you written, be assur'd,
Will easily be granted.-You, my lord, [2
Your son in Scotland being thus employ'd,
Shall secretly into the bosom creep
Of that same noble prelate, well belov'd,
The archbishop.

Hot.
Wor.

Of York, is 't not?

[TO NORTH.

True; who bears hard

His brother's death at Bristol, the lord Scroop.
I speak not this in estimation a

As what I think might be, but what I know
Is ruminated, plotted, and set down;
And only stays but to behold the face
Of that occasion that shall bring it on.
Hot. I smell it.

Upon my life it will do wond'rous well.

North. Before the game's a-foot thou still lett'st slip.b

a Estimation-conjecture."

b Lett st slip. The greyhound is held in slips, and is loosened when "the game 's a-foot."

Hot. Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot :And then the power of Scotland and of York,

To join with Mortimer, ha?

Wor.
And so they shall.
Hot. In faith, it is exceedingly well aim'd.
Wor. And 't is no little reason bids us speed,
To save our heads by raising of a head:
For, bear ourselves as even as we can,
The king will always think him in our debt;
And think we think ourselves unsatisfied,
Till he hath found a time to pay us home.
And see already, how he doth begin

To make us strangers to his looks of love.

Hot. He does, he does; we 'll be reveng'd on him.
Wor. Cousin, farewell;-No further go in this,
Than I by letters shall direct your course,
When time is ripe, which will be suddenly.
I'll steal to Glendower, and lord Mortimer;
Where you and Douglas, and our powers at once,
(As I will fashion it,) shall happily meet,

To bear our fortunes in our own strong arms,
Which now we hold at much uncertainty.

North. Farewell, good brother: we shall thrive, I

trust.

Hot. Uncle, adieu :-O, let the hours be short, Till fields and blows and groans applaud our sport!

[Exeunt.

ACT II.

An Inn Yard.

SCENE I-Rochester.

Enter a Carrier, with a lantern in his hand.

1 Car. Heigh ho! An't be not four by the day, I'll be hang'd: Charles' wain is over the new chimney, and yet our horse not packed. What, ostler!

Ost. [Within.] Anon, anon.

1 Car. I prithee, Tom, beat Cut's saddle, put a few flocks in the point; the poor jade is wrung in the withers out of all cess.b

Enter another Carrier.

2 Car. Peas and beans are as dank here as a dog, and this is the next way to give poor jades the bots: this house is turned upside down since Robin ostler died.

1 Car. Poor fellow! never joyed since the price of oats rose; it was the death of him.

2 Car. I think this is the most villainous house in all London road for fleas : I am stung like a tench.

1 Car. Like a tench? by the mass, there is ne'er a king in Christendom could be better bit than I have been since the first cock.

2 Car. Why, you will allow us ne'er a jordan, and then we leak in your chimney; and your chamber-lie breeds fleas like a loach.

1 Car. What, ostler! come away, and be hanged, come away.

a Charles' wain-the churl's wain-the countryman's waggon. The popular name for the constellation of the Great Bear. Out of all cess.. Ex-cess-ively.