SIR WALTER BLUNT. THOMAS PERCY, Earl of Worcester. HENRY PERCY, Earl of Northumberland. Henry Percy, surnamed Hotspur, his son. OWEN GLENDOWER. SIR RICHARD VERNON. SIR JOHN FALSTAFF. SIR MICHAEL, a friend to the Archbishop of York. POINS. GADSHILL. PETO. BARDOLPH. LADY PERCY, wife to Hotspur, and sister to Mortimer. LADY MORTIMER, daughter to Glendower, and wife to Mortimer. MISTRESS QUICKLY, hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap. Lords, Officers, Sheriff, Vintner, Chamberlain, Drawers, two Carriers, Travellers, and Attendants. SCENE - England and Wales. 12 Enter KING HENRY, LORD JOHN OF LANCASTER, the EARL OF WESTMORELAND, SIR WALTER BLUNT, and others. King. So shaken as we are, so wan with care, Find we a time for frighted peace to pant, And breathe short-winded accents of new broils To be commenced in stronds afar remote. No more the thirsty entrance of this soil Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood; No more shall trenching war channel her fields, Nor bruise her flowerets with the armed hoofs Of hostile paces; those opposed eyes, Which like the meteors of a troubled heaven, All of one nature, of one substance bred, Did lately meet in the intestine shock 5 10 And furious close of civil butchery, Therefore, friends, As far as to the sepulchre of Christ, 15 20 Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross For our advantage on the bitter cross. But this our purpose now is twelve month old, 25 Therefore we meet not now. Then let me hear 30 What yesternight our council did decree West. My liege, this haste was hot in question, And many limits of the charge set down. 35 But yesternight, when all athwart there came 40 Upon whose dead corpse there was such misuse, By those Welsh women done as may not be 4.5 King. It seems then that the tidings of this broil Brake off our business for the Holy Land. West. This match'd with other did, my gracious lord; For more uneven and unwelcome news Came from the north, and thus it did import: Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour, King. Here is a dear, a true-industrious friend, Sir Walter Blunt, new-lighted from his horse, Stain'd with the variation of each soil Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours; 50 55 315 60 65 And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news. The Earl of Douglas is discomfited; Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights, Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see On Holmedon's plains. Of prisoners, Hotspur took |