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,-

0

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

O, sir, your presence 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,
As is deliver'd to your majesty:

Either envy, therefore, or misprision
Is guilty of this fault, and not my son.

Hot. My liege, I did deny no prisoners.
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, trimly dress'd,
Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin new reap'd,
Show'd like a stubble-land at harvest-home;
He was perfumed like a milliner;

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

injured king, than still continue in the inactivity and mildness of my natural disposition.-Condition, as is usual with our author, is used for disposition.WARBURTON.

• Worcester, get thee gone, &c.] In this and the two following lines, I have copied from Malone the original reading and arrangment which Mr. Steevens has miserably corrupted.

-frontier] This word was anciently used for forehead.

a A pouncet-box,] A small box for musk or other perfumes then in fashion :

He gave his nose, and took't away again ;-
Who, therewith angry, when it next came there,
Took it in snuff:-and still he smil'd and talk'd;
And, as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
He call'd them-untaught knaves, unmannerly
To bring a slovenly-unhandsome corse
Betwixt the wind and his nobility.
With many holiday and lady terms

He question'd me; among the rest, demanded
My prisoners, in your majesty's behalf.

I then, all smarting, with my wounds being cold,
To be so pester'd with a popinjay,—

Out of my grief and my impatience,—
Answer'd 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,

Of guns, and drums, and wounds, (God save the mark!)

And telling me the sovereign'st thing on earth
Was parmaceti, for an inward bruise;

And that it was great pity, so it was,
That villainous salt-petre should be digg'd
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall" fellow had destroy'd
So cowardly; and, but for these vile guns,
He would himself have been a soldier.
This bald adjointed chat of his, my lord,
I answer'd 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 consider'd, 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 re-told,

the lid of which, being cut with open work, gave it its name; from poinsoner, to prick, pierce, or engrave.-Warburton.

snuff:] Here equivocally used for anger, and a powder taken up the nose.-STEEVENS.

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 ransome straight
His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer;"
Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betray'd
The lives of those that he did lead to fight
Against the great magician, damn'd 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 fears,*
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 ransome 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 hardiment, with great Glendower :
Three times they breath'd, and three times did they drink,"
Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood;

▾ His brother-in-law the foolish Mortimer;] Shakspeare has fallen into some contradictions respecting this Mortimer; he is first called the brother and afterwards the nephew of Lady Percy. The cause of the mistake is that there were two Mortimers taken by Glendower, each of these bearing the name of Edmund; one being Edmund earl of March, the nephew of Lady Percy and the proper Mortimer of this play; the other, Sir Edmund Mortimer, uncle to the former, and brother to Lady Percy. Shakspeare confounds the two persons. -STEEVENS.

and indent with fears,] i. e. Make agreement with objects of fear,—to indent is to sign an indenture.

Y hardiment-] An obsolete word, signifying bravery, stoutness. Spenser is frequent in his use of it.-STEEVENS.

2

three times did they drink,] It is the property of wounds to excite the most impatient thirst.-HENLEY.

Who then affrighted with their bloody looks,
Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds,
And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank
Blood-stained with these valiant combatants.
Never did bare and rotten policy

Colour her working with such deadly wounds
Nor never could the noble Mortimer
Receive so many, and all willingly:

Then let him not be slander'd 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,
Or
you shall hear in such a kind from me

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,
Although it be with hazard of my head.

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

Want mercy, if I do not join with him :
Yea, on his part, I'll empty all these veins,

And shed my blood drop by drop i'the dust,

a

- affrighted-] This passage has been censured as sounding nonsense, which represents a stream of water as capable of fear. It is misunderstood; Severn here is not the flood, but the tutelary power of the flood, who was affrighted, and hid his head in the hollow bank. JOHNSON.

crisp-] i. e. Curled.

b

VOL. IV.

C

bare-] The folio reads base.

2 A

But I will lift the down-trod Mortimer

As high i'the air as this unthankful king,
As this ingrate and canker'd Bolingbroke.

North. Brother, the king hath made your nephew mad.
[TO WORCESTer.
Wor. Who struck this heat up, after I was gone?
Hot. He will, forsooth, have all my prisoners;
And when I urg'd the ransome once again,
Of my wife's brother, then his cheek look'd pale;
And on my face he turn'd an eye of death,
Trembling even at the name of Mortimer.

Wor. I cannot blame him: Was he not proclaim'd,
By Richard that dead is, the next of blood?
North. He was; I heard the proclamation:
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 depos'd, and, shortly, murdered.

Wor. And for whose death, we in the world's wide mouth

Live scandaliz'd, 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,
That wish'd him on the barren mountains starv'd.
But shall it be that you that set the crown
Upon the head of this forgetful man;
And for his sake, wear the detested blot
Of murd❜rous subornation,-shall it be,
That you a world of curses undergo;
Being the agents, or base second means,
The cords, the ladder, or the hangman rather?—
O, pardon me, that I descend so low,

e

I heard the proclamation:] The person who was declared by Richard heir apparent to the crown, previous to his last voyage to Ireland, was Edmund Mortimer, who was then seven years old, and nephew to Lady Percy. He was, after the death of Richard, the undoubted heir to the crown, being the descendant of Lionel duke of Clarence, the third son of Edward III., while Henry IV. was only descended from the fourth son of the same king.