Page:Henry IV Part 2 (1921) Yale.djvu/18

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Ending with 'Brother, son, and all are dead.'

Mor. Douglas is living, and your brother, yet;

But, for my lord your son,—

North.Why, he is dead.—

See, what a ready tongue suspicion hath!

He that but fears the thing he would not know

Hath by instinct knowledge from others' eyes

That what he fear'd is chanced. Yet speak, Morton:

Tell thou thy earl his divination lies,

And I will take it as a sweet disgrace

And make thee rich for doing me such wrong.

Mor. You are too great to be by me gainsaid;

Your spirit is too true, your fears too certain.

North. Yet, for all this, say not that Percy's dead.

I see a strange confession in thine eye:

Thou shak'st thy head, and hold'st it fear or sin

To speak a truth. If he be slain, say so;

The tongue offends not that reports his death:

And he doth sin that doth belie the dead,

Not he which says the dead is not alive.

Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news

Hath but a losing office, and his tongue

Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,

Remember'd knolling a departing friend.

L. Bard. I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead.

Mor. I am sorry I should force you to believe

That which I would to God I had not seen;

But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state,

Rendering faint quittance, wearied and out-breath'd,

To Harry Monmouth; whose swift wrath beat down

The never-daunted Percy to the earth,

 87 is chanced: has happened

108 quittance: return of blows 