The blood more stirs
    To rouse a lion than to start a hare!

NORTHUMBERLAND   Imagination of some great exploit

To Worcester

    Drives him beyond the bounds of patience.

HOTSPUR   By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap,
    To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon,
    Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
    Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
    And pluck up drownèd honour by the locks,
    So he that doth redeem her thence might wear
    Without corrival, all her dignities:
    But out upon this half-faced fellowship!

WORCESTER   He apprehends a world of figures here

To Northumberland

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

HOTSPUR   I cry you mercy.

WORCESTER   Those same noble Scots
    That are your prisoners —

HOTSPUR   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.

WORCESTER   You start away
    And lend no ear unto my purposes.
    Those prisoners you shall keep.

HOTSPUR   Nay, I will; that’s flat.
    He said he would not ransom Mortimer,
    Forbade 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.

WORCESTER   Hear you, cousin, a word.

HOTSPUR   All studies here I solemnly defy,
    Save how to gall and pinch this Bullingbrook.
    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 would have poisoned him with a pot of ale.

WORCESTER   Farewell, kinsman. I’ll talk to you
    When you are better tempered to attend.

NORTHUMBERLAND   Why, what a wasp-tongued and impatient fool

To Hotspur

    Art thou to break into this woman’s mood,
    Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own!

HOTSPUR   Why, look you, I am whipped and scourged with rods,
    Nettled and stung with pismires, when I hear
    Of this vile politician, Bullingbrook.
    In Richard’s time — what d’ye call the place? —
    A plague upon’t, it is in Gloucestershire,
    ’Twas where the madcap duke his uncle kept,
    His uncle York, where I first bowed my knee
    Unto this king of smiles, this Bullingbrook,
    When you and he came back from Ravenspurgh.

NORTHUMBERLAND   At Berkeley Castle.

HOTSPUR   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,

To Worcester

    Good uncle, tell your tale, for I have done.

WORCESTER   Nay, if you have not, to’t again,
    We’ll stay your leisure.

HOTSPUR   I have done, in sooth.

WORCESTER   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 assured
    Will easily be granted.— You, my lord,

To Northumberland

    Your son in Scotland being thus employed,
    Shall secretly into the bosom creep
    Of that same noble prelate well beloved,
    The archbishop.

HOTSPUR   Of York, is’t not?

WORCESTER   True, who bears hard
    His brother’s death at Bristol, the Lord Scroop.
    I speak not this in estimation
    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.

HOTSPUR   I smell it:
    Upon my life, it will do wondrous well.

NORTHUMBERLAND   Before the game’s afoot, thou still let’st slip.

HOTSPUR   Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot.
    And then the power of Scotland and of York,
    To join with Mortimer, ha?

WORCESTER   And so they shall.

HOTSPUR   In faith, it is exceedingly well aimed.

WORCESTER   And ’tis 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.

HOTSPUR   He does, he does. We’ll be revenged on him.

WORCESTER   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.

NORTHUMBERLAND   Farewell, good brother. We shall thrive, I trust.

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

Exeunt

Act 2 Scene 1

running scene 4

Location: an innyard on the road between London and Canterbury Carrier delivery-man

Enter a Carrier with a lantern in his hand

FIRST CARRIER   Heigh-ho! An’t be not four by the day, I’ll be
    hanged. Charles’ wain is over the new chimney, and yet our
    horse not packed. What, ostler !

OSTLER   Anon, anon.

Within

FIRST CARRIER   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.

Enter another Carrier

SECOND CARRIER   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 the ostler died.

FIRST CARRIER   Poor fellow, never joyed since the price of oats
    rose. It was the death of him.

SECOND CARRIER   I think this is the most villainous house in all
    London Road for fleas: I am stung like a tench.

FIRST CARRIER   Like a tench? There is ne’er a king in
    Christendom could be better bit than I have been since the
    first cock.

SECOND CARRIER   Why, you will allow us ne’er a jordan, and
    then we leak in your chimney, and your chamber-lye breeds
    fleas like a loach.

FIRST CARRIER   What, ostler! Come away and be hanged! Come
    away!

SECOND CARRIER   I have a gammon of bacon and two razes of
    ginger, to be delivered as far as Charing Cross.

FIRST CARRIER   The turkeys in my pannier are quite starved.
    What, ostler! A plague on thee! Hast thou never an eye in thy
    head? Canst not hear? An ’twere not as good a deed as drink
    to break the pate of thee, I am a very villain. Come, and be
    hanged! Hast no faith in thee?

Enter Gadshill

GADSHILL   Good morrow, carriers. What’s o’clock?

FIRST CARRIER   I think it be two o’clock.

GADSHILL   I prithee lend me thy lantern to see my gelding in
    the stable.

FIRST CARRIER   Nay, soft, I pray ye; I know a trick worth two of
    that.

GADSHILL   I prithee lend me thine.

To the Second Carrier

SECOND CARRIER   Ay, when? Can’st tell? Lend me thy lantern,
    quoth a? Marry, I’ll see thee hanged first.

GADSHILL   Sirrah carrier, what time do you mean to come to
    London?

SECOND CARRIER   Time enough to go to bed with a candle, I
    warrant thee.— Come, neighbour Mugs, we’ll call up the
    gentlemen. They will along with company, for they have
    great charge.

Exeunt [Carriers]

Enter Chamberlain

GADSHILL   What, ho, Chamberlain?

CHAMBERLAIN   At hand, quoth pick-purse.

GADSHILL   That’s even as fair as — at hand, quoth the
    chamberlain, for thou variest no more from picking of
    purses than giving direction doth from labouring. Thou
    lay’st the plot how.

CHAMBERLAIN   Good morrow, Master Gadshill. It holds current
    that I told you yesternight: there’s a franklin in the wild of
    Kent hath brought three hundred marks with him in gold. I
    heard him tell it to one of his company last night at supper, a
    kind of auditor, one that hath abundance of charge too, God
    knows what. They are up already, and call for eggs and
    butter. They will away presently.

GADSHILL   Sirrah, if they meet not with Saint Nicholas’ clerks,
    I’ll give thee this neck.

CHAMBERLAIN   No, I’ll none of it: I prithee keep that for the
    hangman, for I know thou worship’st Saint Nicholas as truly
    as a man of falsehood may.

GADSHILL   What talkest thou to me of the hangman? If I hang,
    I’ll make a fat pair of gallows, for if I hang, old Sir John hangs
    with me, and thou know’st he’s no starveling. Tut, there are
    other Trojans that thou dream’st not of, the which for sport
    sake are content to do the profession some grace; that would,
    if matters should be looked into, for their own credit sake,
    make all whole. I am joined with no foot-land rakers, no
    long-staff sixpenny strikers, none of these mad mustachio
    purple-hued malt-worms, but with nobility and tranquillity,
    burgomasters and great oneyers, such as can hold in, such
    as will strike sooner than speak, and speak sooner than
    drink, and drink sooner than pray. And yet, I lie, for they
    pray continually unto their saint, the commonwealth; or
    rather not to pray to her, but prey on her, for they ride up and
    down on her and make her their boots.

CHAMBERLAIN   What, the commonwealth their boots? Will she
    hold out water in foul way?

GADSHILL   She will, she will; justice hath liquored her. We steal
    as in a castle, cocksure. We have the receipt of fern-seed, we
    walk invisible.

CHAMBERLAIN   Nay, I think rather you are more beholding to the
    night than to fern-seed for your walking invisible.

GADSHILL   Give me thy hand. Thou shalt have a share in our
    purpose, as I am a true man.

CHAMBERLAIN   Nay, rather let me have it, as you are a false thief.

GADSHILL   Go to. 88 Homo is a common name to all men. Bid the
    ostler bring the gelding out of the stable. Farewell, ye muddy
    knave.

Exeunt

Act 2 Scene 2

running scene 5

Location: the highway near Gad’s Hill

Enter Prince, Poins and Peto [and Bardolph]

POINS   Come, shelter, shelter. I have removed Falstaff’s
    horse, and he frets like a gummed velvet.

PRINCE HENRY   Stand close.

Poins, Peto and Bardolph stand aside

Enter Falstaff

FALSTAFF   Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Poins!

PRINCE HENRY   Peace, ye fat-kidneyed rascal. What a brawling
    dost thou keep!

FALSTAFF   What, Poins? Hal?

PRINCE HENRY   He is walked up to the top of the hill.
    I’ll go seek him.

Stands aside with the others

FALSTAFF   I am accursed to rob in that thief’s company.