Page:Henry IV Part 2 (1921) Yale.djvu/17

King Henry the Fourth, I. i

Upon mine honour, for a silken point

I'll give my barony: never talk of it.

North. Why should the gentleman that rode by Travers

Give then such instances of loss?

L. Bard.Who, he?

He was some hilding fellow that had stolen

The horse he rode on, and, upon my life,

Spoke at a venture. Look, here comes more news.

North. Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-leaf,

Foretells the nature of a tragic volume:

So looks the strond, whereon the imperious flood

Hath left a witness'd usurpation.

Say, Morton, didst thou come from Shrewsbury?

Mor. I ran from Shrewsbury, my noble lord;

Where hateful death put on his ugliest mask

To fright our party.

North.How doth my son, and brother?

Thou tremblest, and the whiteness in thy cheek

Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand.

Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,

So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone,

Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night,

And would have told him half his Troy was burn'd;

But Priam found the fire ere he his tongue,

And I my Percy's death ere thou report'st it.

This thou wouldst say, 'Your son did thus and thus;

Your brother thus; so fought the noble Douglas';

Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds:

But in the end, to stop mine ear indeed,

Thou hast a sigh to blow away this praise,

 53 point: lacing, garter

57 hilding: worthless

62 strond: shore

63 witness'd usurpation: traces of its usurpation

69 apter: more ready 