ACT IV. SCENE I. The rebel camp, near Shrewsbury. Enter Hotspur, Worcester, and Douglas. Hot. Well said, my noble Scot: If speaking truth, The tongues of soothers; but a braver place No man so potent breathes upon the ground, Hot. Do so, and 'tis well : Enter a Messenger, with letters. What letters hast thou there?—I can but thank you. self? Mess. He cannot come, my lord; sick. he's grievous Hot. Zounds! how has he the leisure to be sick, In such a justling time? Who leads his powers? Under whose government come they along? * This expression is applied by way of pre-eminence to the head of the Douglas family. + Disdain. Meet him face to face. » Forces. Mess. His letters bear his mind, not I, my lord. Wor. I pr'ythee, tell me, doth he keep his bed? Mess. He did, my lord, four days ere 1 set forth; And at the time of my departure thence, He was much fear'd by his physicians. Wor. I would, the state of time had first been whole, Ere he by sickness had been visited; IIis health was never better worth than now. Hot. Sick now! droop now! this sickness doth infect The very life-blood of our enterprise; 'Tis catching hither, even to our camp. For, as he writes, there is no quailing now; Doug. 'Faith, and so we should; Where now remains a sweet reversion: * Languishing. + Informed. Line. § Whereas. We may boldly spend upon the hope of what A comfort of retirement lives in this. Hot. A rendezvous, a home to fly unto, If that the devil and mischance look big Upon the maidenhead of our affairs. Wor. But yet, I would your father had been here, And breed a kind of question in our cause: This absence of your father's draws a curtain, Hot. You strain too far. I, rather, of his absence make this use;- A larger dare to our great enterprise, Than if the earl were here: for men must think, Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole. Doug. As heart can think: there is not such a word Spoke of in Scotland, as this term of fear. • The complexion, the character. Enter Sir Richard Vernon. Hot. My cousin Vernon! welcome, by my soul. Ver. Pray God, my news be worth a welcome, lord. The earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong, Is marching hitherwards; with him, prince John. Hot. No harm: What more? Ver. And further, I have learn'd, The king himself in person is set forth, Or hitherwards intended speedily, With strong and mighty preparation. Hot. He shall be welcome too. Where is his son, The nimble-footed mad-cap prince of Wales, And his comrades, that daff'd the world aside, Ver. And witch the world with noble horsemanship. This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come; They come like sacrifices in their trim, And to the fire-ey'd maid of smoky war, + Dressed with ostrich feathers. § Armour. • Threw off. All hot, and bleeding, will we offer them: Up to the ears in blood. I am ou fire, And yet not ours :-Come, let me take my horse, Meet, and ne'er part, till one drop down a corse.- Ver. There is more news: I learn'd in Worcester, as I rode along, He cannot draw his power this fourteen days. Doug. That's the worst tidings that I hear of yet. Wor. Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound. Hot. What may the king's whole battle reach unto? Ver. To thirty thousand. Hot. Forty let it be; My father and Glendower being both away, The powers of us may serve so great a day. Come, let us make a muster speedily: Doomsday is near; die all, die merrily. Doug. Talk not of dying; I am out of fear Of death, or death's hand, for this one half year. [Excunt. SCENE II. A publick road near Coventry. Enter Falstaff and Bardolph. Fal. Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry; fill me a bottle of sack: our soldiers shall march through; we'll to Sutton-Colfield to-night. Bard, Will you give me money, captain? |