Therefore my age is as a lusty winter, ORLA. Oh good old man, how well in thee ADAM. Master, go on, and I will follow thee appears SHAKSPEARE. CHAPTER XIII. SCROOP AND RICHARD. SCROOP. More health and happiness betide my Liege, Than can my care-tun'd tongue deliver him! K. RICH. Mine ear is open, and my heart prepar'd; The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold. Say, is my kingdom lost? Why, 'twas my care; Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we ? Greater he shall not be; if he serve God, We'll serve him too, and be his fellow so. The worst is death, and death will have his day. Like an unseasonable stormy day, Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores, So high above his limits swells the rage With hard bright steel, and hearts more hard than steel. K. RICH. Too well, too well, thou teil'st a tale so ill. 1 All murder'd.-For within the hollow crown To monarchize, be fear'd, and kill with looks:: Bores through his castle walls, and farewell King! SHAKSPEARE. CHAPTER XIV. HOTSPUR AND GLENDOWER. GLEN. SIT, cousin Percy; sit, good cousin Hotspur ; For, by that name, as oft as Lancaster Doth speak of you, his cheek looks pale! and with HOT. And you in Hell, as often as he hears Owen Glendower spoke of. GLEN. I blame him not at my nativity The front of Heav'n was full of fiery shapes, Of burning cressets; know that at my birth The frame and the foundation of the earth Shook like a coward. HOT. So it would have done At the same season, if your mother's cat Had kitten'd, though yourself had ne'er been born. Hor. I say, the earth then was not of my mind, If you suppose, as fearing you it shook. GLEN. The heav'ns were all on fire, the earth did tremble. HOT. O, then the earth shook to see the heav'ns on fire, And not in fear of your nativity. Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth In strange eruptions; and the teeming earth By the imprisoning of unruly wind Within her womb, which, for enlargement striving, GLEN. Cousin, of many men I do not bear these crossings: give me leave That chides the banks of England, Wales, or Scotland, And bring him out, that is but woman's son, Or hold me pace in deep experiments. Hor. I think there is no man speaks better Welch. GLEN. I can speak English, lord, as well as you; For I was train'd up in the English court, Where, being young, I fram'd to the harp Many an English ditty lovely well, And gave the tongue a helpful ornament; HOT. Marry, and I'm glad of it with all my heart; I had rather be a kitten, and cry mew! Than one of these same metre-balladmongers! Or a dry wheel grate upon the axle-tree, 'Tis like the fore'd gait of a shuffling nag GLEN. And I can call spirits from the vasty deep. But will they come when you do call for them ? GLEN. Why, I can teach thee to command the devil.” HOT. And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil, By telling 'truth; Tell truth and shame the devil. If thou hast power to raise him, bring him hither, And I'll be sworn I've power to drive him hence. Oh, while you live, Fell truth and shame the devil. SHAKSPEARE. CHAPTER XV. HOTSPUR READING A LETTER. "BUT for my own part, my Lord, I could be well con"tented to be there in respect of the love 1 bear your "house." He could be contented to be there; why is he not then?" In respect of the love he bears our house!" He shows in this, he loves his own barn better than he loves our house. Let me see some more. The purpose you undertake is dangerous." Why that is certain: it is dangerous to take a cold, to sleep, to drink: but I tell you, my Lord fool, out of this nettle danger we pluck this flower safety. "The purpose you undertake is dan gerous, the friends you have named uncertain, the time "itself unsorted, and your whole plot too light for the "counterpoise of so great an opposition." Say you so, say you so? I say unto you again, you are. a shallow cowardly hind, and you lie. What a lack-brain is this! By the Lord, our plot is a good plot as ever was laid; our friends true and constant: a good plot, good friends, and full of expectation; an excellent plot, very good friends. What a frosty-spirited rogue this is! Why, my Lord of York commends the plot, and the general course |