In after times, mere instruments, perhaps, That haunt your court, could none be found but Warwick To be the shameless herald of a lie? Edw. And wouldst thou turn the vile reproach on me? If I have broke my faith, and stain'd the name War. I've been abus'd, insulted, and betrayed; Edw. These gusts of passion Will but inflame them. If I have been right Edw. Nay, start not; I have cause But I've discover'd all War. And so have I Too well I know thy breach of friendship there, Edw. I scorn it, Sir-Elizabeth hath charms, War. By Heav'n, 'tis false! You knew it all, and meanly took occasion, To bribe her passions high, and basely steal A treasure, which your kingdom could not purchase. I have a right; nor will I tamely yield My claim to happiness, the privilege To choose the partner of my throne and bed; It is a branch of my prerogative. War. Prerogative! what's that? the boast of tyrants: A borrow'd jewel, glitt'ring in the crown With specious lustre, lent but to betray: You had it, Sir, and hold it—from the people. Edw. And therefore do I prize it: I would guard War. Go to your darling people, then; for soon, Their boasted zeal, and see if one of them Edw. Is it so, my lord? Then mark my words: I've been your slave too long, But henceforth know, proud peer, I am thy master, War. Look well then to your own, It sits but loosely on your head; for know Edw. Nor he who threaten'd Edward- EARL OF WARWICK. CHAPTER XVIII. HOTSPUR AND GLENDOWER. Glen. SIT, cousin Percy; sit, good cousin Hotspur ; For by that name, as oft as Lancaster Doth speak of you, his cheek looks pale! and with Hot. And you in Hell as often as he hears Owen Glendower spoke of. Glen. I blame him not: at my nativity The front of Heav'n was full of fiery shapes, Of burning cressets; know, that at my birth The frame and the foundation of the earth Shook like a coward. Hot. So it would have done At the same season, if your mother's cat Had kitten'd, though yourself had ne'er been born. If you suppose, as fearing you it shook. Glen. The Heav'ns were all on fire, the earth did tremble. Hot. O, then the earth shook to see the Heav'ns on fire! And not in fear of your nativity. Diseased Nature oftentimes breaks forth In strange eruptions; and the teeming earth Is with a kind of colic pinch'd and vex'd, By the impris'ning of unruly wind Within her womb, which, for enlargement striving, In passion shook. Glen. Cousin, of many men I do not bear these crossings: give me leave |