Page:Henry IV Part 1 (1917) Yale.djvu/29

King Henry the Fourth, I. iii

Of guns, and drums, and wounds,—God save the mark!—

And telling me the sovereign'st thing on earth

Was parmaceti for an inward bruise;

And that it was great pity, so it was,

This villainous saltpetre should be digg'd

Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,

Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd

So cowardly; and but for these vile guns,

He would himself have been a soldier.

This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord,

I answer'd indirectly, as I said;

And I beseech you, let not his report

Come current for an accusation

Betwixt my love and your high majesty.

Blunt. The circumstance consider'd, good my lord,

What e'er Lord Harry Percy then had said

To such a person and in such a place,

At such a time, with all the rest re-told,

May reasonably die and never rise

To do him wrong, or any way impeach

What then he said, so he unsay it now.

King. Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners,

But with proviso and exception,

That we at our own charge shall ransom straight

His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer;

Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betray'd

The lives of those that he did lead to fight

Against that great magician, damn'd Glendower,

Whose daughter, as we hear, the Earl of March

 56 God save the mark; cf. n.

57 sovereign'atsovereign'st [sic]: of most supreme excellence

58 parmaceti: corrupted form of spermaceti, a substance found in whale-oil

62 tall: valiant

75 impeach: call in question

80 brother-in-law; cf. n. on ll. 145–6

84 Earl of March: Mortimer 