Re-enter GLENDOWER with the ladies.

Mort. This is the deadly spite that angers me; My wife can speak no English, I no Welsh.

Glend. My daughter weeps: she will not part with you;

She'll be a soldier too, she'll to the wars.

Mort. Good father, tell her that she and my aunt Percy

Shall follow in your conduct speedily.

[Glendower speaks to her in Welsh, and she

answers him in the same.

Glend. She is desperate here; a peevish self

will'd harlotry,

That no persuasion can do good upon.

[The lady speaks in Welsh. Mort. I understand thy looks: that pretty Welsh Which thou pour'st down from these swelling

heavens

I am too perfect in; and, but for shame,

In such a parley should I answer thee.

[The lady speaks again in Welsh.

I understand thy kisses and thou mine,
And that's a feeling disputation:

But I will never be a truant, love,

Till I have learn'd thy language; for thy tongue
Makes Welsh as sweet as ditties highly penn'd,
Sung by a fair queen in a summer's bower,
With ravishing division, to her lute.

197. aunt; she was Mortimer's sister (cf. note to 1 i. I. 38).

198. conduct, escort. 199. harlotry, 'baggage,' here used as a mild term of abuse.

198-200. This is printed as prose in Qq, which read 'one that'; but should probably be

200

210

in verse like Glendower's other speeches. The present arrangement is Steevens'.

206. a feeling disputation, a conversation carried on ' with feeling.'

211. division, brilliant variations on a simple melody.

Glend. Nay, if you melt, then will she run [The lady speaks again in Welsh.

mad.

Mort. O, I am ignorance itself in this!

Glend. She bids you on the wanton rushes lay you down

And rest your gentle head upon her lap,

And she will sing the song that pleaseth you,
And on your eyelids crown the god of sleep,
Charming your blood with pleasing heaviness;
Making such difference 'twixt wake and sleep
As is the difference betwixt day and night
The hour before the heavenly-harness'd team
Begins his golden progress in the east.

Mort. With all my heart I'll sit and hear her sing: By that time will our book, I think, be drawn. Glend. Do so;

And those musicians that shall play to you

Hang in the air a thousand leagues from hence,
And straight they shall be here: sit, and attend.

220

Hot. Come, Kate, thou art perfect in lying down: come, quick, quick, that I may lay my 230 head in thy lap.

Lady P. Go, ye giddy goose. [The music plays.
Hot. Now I perceive the devil understands
Welsh ;

And 'tis no marvel he is so humorous.

By 'r lady, he is a good musician.

Lady P. Then should you be nothing but musical, for you are altogether governed by humours. Lie still, ye thief, and hear the lady sing in Welsh.

Hot. I had rather hear Lady, my brach, howl 240 in Irish.

214. wanton, luxuriant.

217. crown the god of sleep,

in state sleep as sovereign, give it full sway.

240. brach, female hound.

Lady P. Wouldst thou have thy head broken?

Hot. No.

Lady P. Then be still.

Hot. Neither; 'tis a woman's fault.

Lady P. Now God help thee!

Hot. To the Welsh lady's bed.
Lady P. What's that?

Hot. Peace! she sings.

[Here the lady sings a Welsh song.

Hot. Come, Kate, I'll have your song too.
Lady P. Not mine, in good sooth.

Hot. Not yours, in good sooth! Heart! you swear like a comfit-maker's wife. 'Not you, in good sooth,' and 'as true as I live,' and 'as God shall mend me,' and 'as sure as day,'

And givest such sarcenet surety for thy oaths,
As if thou never walk'st further than Finsbury.
Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art,

A good mouth-filling oath, and leave 'in sooth,'
And such protést of pepper-gingerbread,
To velvet-guards and Sunday-citizens.
Come, sing.

Lady P. I will not sing.

Hot. 'Tis the next way to turn tailor, or be red-breast teacher. An the indentures be drawn,

250

260

facings and trimmings were an important part.

264. 'Tis the next way, etc.; (one who sings) is on the direct road to be a tailor, or to teach song to redbreasts. [By this name Shakespeare may have meant the bullfinch. The robin he calls ruddock. L.] Tailors were proverbial, like weavers, for singing at their work, but not, like weavers, for singing psalms.

I'll away within these two hours; and so, come

[Exit.

Glend. Come, come, Lord Mortimer; you are as slow

As hot Lord Percy is on fire to go.

By this our book is drawn; we'll but seal,
And then to horse immediately.

Mort.

With all my heart. [Exeunt..

SCENE II. London. The palace.

Enter the KING, Prince of WALES, and others.

King. Lords, give us leave; the Prince of Wales

and I

Must have some private conference: but be near

at hand,

For we shall presently have need of you.

[Exeunt Lords.
I know not whether God will have it so,
For some displeasing service I have done,
That, in his secret doom, out of my blood
He'll breed revengement and a scourge for me;
But thou dost in thy passages of life

Make me believe that thou art only mark'd
For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven
To punish my mistreadings. Tell me else,
Could such inordinate and low desires,

Such poor, such bare, such lewd, such mean

attempts,

Such barren pleasures, rude society,

As thou art match'd withal and grafted to,

270. book, document.

IO. For, as.

270

ΤΟ

15. As thou art match'd withal, as thou takest part in as an equal.

Accompany the greatness of thy blood

And hold their level with thy princely heart?
Prince. So please your majesty, I would I
could

Quit all offences with as clear excuse
As well as I am doubtless I can purge
Myself of many I am charged withal:
Yet such extenuation let me beg,

As, in reproof of many tales devised,
Which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear,
By smiling pick-thanks and base newsmongers,
I may, for some things true, wherein my youth
Hath faulty wander'd and irregular,

Find pardon on my true submission.

King. God pardon thee! yet let me wonder,
Harry,

At thy affections, which do hold a wing
Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors.
Thy place in council thou hast rudely lost,
Which by thy younger brother is supplied,
And art almost an alien to the hearts
Of all the court and princes of my blood:
The hope and expectation of thy time
Is ruin'd, and the soul of every man
Prophetically do forethink thy fall.
Had I so lavish of my presence been,
So common-hackney'd in the eyes of
So stale and cheap to vulgar company,
Opinion, that did help me to the crown,

men,

30

40

30. affections, inclinations. 31. from, aloof from. 32. rudely, by riotous conduct. 38. do; so Qq Ff. 'The soul of every man' is equivalent to the souls of all men.'

42. Opinion, reputation.

20