Act 1, Scene 3

The Same. A Room in the Palace.

[Enter King Henry, Northumberland, Worcester, Hotspur, Sir Walter Blunt, and others.]
King Henry IV
288 My blood hath been too cold and temperate,
289 Unapt to stir at these indignities,
290 And you have found me; for, accordingly,
291 You tread upon my patience: but be sure
292 I will from henceforth rather be myself,
293 Mighty and to be fear'd, than my condition,
294 Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down,
295 And therefore lost that title of respect
296 Which the proud soul ne'er pays but to the proud.
Earl of Worcester
297 Our House, my sovereign liege, little deserves
298 The scourge of greatness to be used on it;
299 And that same greatness too which our own hands
300 Have holp to make so portly.
Earl of Northumberland
301 My good lord,—
King Henry IV
302 Worcester, get thee gone; for I do see
303 Danger and disobedience in thine eye:
304 O, sir, your presence is too bold and peremptory,
305 And majesty might never yet endure
306 The moody frontier of a servant brow.
307 You have good leave to leave us: when we need
308 Your use and counsel, we shall send for you.
[Exit Worcester.]
[To Northumberland.]
King Henry IV
309 You were about to speak.
Earl of Northumberland
310 Yea, my good lord.
311 Those prisoners in your Highness' name demanded,
312 Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took,
313 Were, as he says, not with such strength denied
314 As is deliver'd to your Majesty:
315 Either envy, therefore, or misprision
316 Is guilty of this fault, and not my son.
Hotspur
317 My liege, I did deny no prisoners.
318 But, I remember, when the fight was done,
319 When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,
320 Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
321 Came there a certain lord, neat, trimly dress'd,
322 Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin new reap'd
323 Show'd like a stubble-land at harvest-home:
324 He was perfumed like a milliner;
325 And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held
326 A pouncet-box, which ever and anon
327 He gave his nose, and took't away again;
328 Who therewith angry, when it next came there,
329 Took it in snuff: and still he smiled and talk'd;
330 And, as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
331 He call'd them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
332 To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse
333 Betwixt the wind and his nobility.
334 With many holiday and lady terms
335 He question'd me; amongst the rest, demanded
336 My prisoners in your Majesty's behalf.
337 I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold,
338 Out of my grief and my impatience
339 To be so pester'd with a popinjay,
340 Answer'd neglectingly, I know not what,—
341 He should, or he should not; for't made me mad
342 To see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet,
343 And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman
344 Of guns and drums and wounds,—God save the mark!—
345 And telling me the sovereign'st thing on Earth
346 Was parmaceti for an inward bruise;
347 And that it was great pity, so it was,
348 This villainous salt-petre should be digg'd
349 Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
350 Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd
351 So cowardly; and, but for these vile guns,
352 He would himself have been a soldier.
353 This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord,
354 I answered indirectly, as I said;
355 And I beseech you, let not his report
356 Come current for an accusation
357 Betwixt my love and your high Majesty.
Sir Walter Blunt
358 The circumstance consider'd, good my lord,
359 Whatever Harry Percy then had said
360 To such a person, and in such a place,
361 At such a time, with all the rest re-told,
362 May reasonably die, and never rise
363 To do him wrong, or any way impeach
364 What then he said, so he unsay it now.
King Henry IV
365 Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners,
366 But with proviso and exception,
367 That we at our own charge shall ransom straight
368 His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer;
369 Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betray'd
370 The lives of those that he did lead to fight
371 Against that great magician, damn'd Glendower,
372 Whose daughter, as we hear, the Earl of March
373 Hath lately married. Shall our coffers, then,
374 Be emptied to redeem a traitor home?
375 Shall we buy treason? and indent with fears
376 When they have lost and forfeited themselves?
377 No, on the barren mountains let him starve;
378 For I shall never hold that man my friend
379 Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost
380 To ransom home revolted Mortimer.
Hotspur
381 Revolted Mortimer!
382 He never did fall off, my sovereign liege,
383 But by the chance of war: to prove that true
384 Needs no more but one tongue for all those wounds,
385 Those mouthed wounds, which valiantly he took,
386 When on the gentle Severn's sedgy bank,
387 In single opposition, hand to hand,
388 He did confound the best part of an hour
389 In changing hardiment with great Glendower.
390 Three times they breathed, and three times did they drink,
391 Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood;
392 Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks,
393 Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds,
394 And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank
395 Blood-stained with these valiant combatants.
396 Never did base and rotten policy
397 Colour her working with such deadly wounds;
398 Nor never could the noble Mortimer
399 Receive so many, and all willingly:
400 Then let not him be slander'd with revolt.
King Henry IV
401 Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou dost belie him;
402 He never did encounter with Glendower:
403 I tell thee,
404 He durst as well have met the Devil alone
405 As Owen Glendower for an enemy.
406 Art not ashamed? But, sirrah, henceforth
407 Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer:
408 Send me your prisoners with the speediest means,
409 Or you shall hear in such a kind from me
410 As will displease you.—My Lord Northumberland,
411 We license your departure with your son.—
412 Send us your prisoners, or you'll hear of it.
[Exeunt King Henry, Blunt, and train.]
Hotspur
413 An if the Devil come and roar for them,
414 I will not send them: I will after straight,
415 And tell him so; for I will else my heart,
416 Although it be with hazard of my head.
Earl of Northumberland
417 What, drunk with choler? stay, and pause awhile:
418 Here comes your uncle.
[Re-enter Worcester.]
Hotspur
419 Speak of Mortimer!
420 Zounds, I will speak of him; and let my soul
421 Want mercy, if I do not join with him:
422 Yea, on his part I'll empty all these veins,
423 And shed my dear blood drop by drop i' the dust,
424 But I will lift the down-trod Mortimer
425 As high i' the air as this unthankful King,
426 As this ingrate and canker'd Bolingbroke.
[To Worcester.]
Earl of Northumberland
427 Brother, the King hath made your nephew mad.
Earl of Worcester
428 Who struck this heat up after I was gone?
Hotspur
429 He will, forsooth, have all my prisoners;
430 And when I urged the ransom once again
431 Of my wife's brother, then his cheek look'd pale,
432 And on my face he turn'd an eye of death,
433 Trembling even at the name of Mortimer.
Earl of Worcester
434 I cannot blame him: was not he proclaim'd
435 By Richard that dead is the next of blood?
Earl of Northumberland
436 He was; I heard the proclamation:
437 And then it was when the unhappy King—
438 Whose wrongs in us God pardon!—did set forth
439 Upon his Irish expedition;
440 From whence he intercepted did return
441 To be deposed, and shortly murdered.
Earl of Worcester
442 And for whose death we in the world's wide mouth
443 Live scandalized and foully spoken of.
Hotspur
444 But, soft! I pray you; did King Richard then
445 Proclaim my brother Edmund Mortimer
446 Heir to the crown?
Earl of Northumberland
447 He did; myself did hear it.
Hotspur
448 Nay, then I cannot blame his cousin King,
449 That wish'd him on the barren mountains starve.
450 But shall it be, that you, that set the crown
451 Upon the head of this forgetful man,
452 And for his sake wear the detested blot
453 Of murderous subornation,—shall it be,
454 That you a world of curses undergo,
455 Being the agents, or base second means,
456 The cords, the ladder, or the hangman rather?—
457 O, pardon me, that I descend so low,
458 To show the line and the predicament
459 Wherein you range under this subtle King;—
460 Shall it, for shame, be spoken in these days,
461 Or fill up chronicles in time to come,
462 That men of your nobility and power
463 Did gage them both in an unjust behalf,—
464 As both of you, God pardon it! have done,—
465 To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose,
466 And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke?
467 And shall it, in more shame, be further spoken,
468 That you are fool'd, discarded, and shook off
469 By him for whom these shames ye underwent?
470 No! yet time serves, wherein you may redeem
471 Your banish'd honours, and restore yourselves
472 Into the good thoughts of the world again;
473 Revenge the jeering and disdain'd contempt
474 Of this proud King, who studies day and night
475 To answer all the debt he owes to you
476 Even with the bloody payment of your deaths:
477 Therefore, I say,—
Earl of Worcester
478 Peace, cousin, say no more:
479 And now I will unclasp a secret book,
480 And to your quick-conceiving discontent
481 I'll read you matter deep and dangerous;
482 As full of peril and adventurous spirit
483 As to o'er-walk a current roaring loud
484 On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.
Hotspur
485 If we fall in, good night, or sink or swim!
486 Send danger from the east unto the west,
487 So honour cross it from the north to south,
488 And let them grapple. O, the blood more stirs
489 To rouse a lion than to start a hare!
Earl of Northumberland
490 Imagination of some great exploit
491 Drives him beyond the bounds of patience.
Hotspur
492 By Heaven, methinks it were an easy leap,
493 To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced Moon;
494 Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
495 Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
496 And pluck up drowned honour by the locks;
497 So he that doth redeem her thence might wear
498 Without corrival all her dignities:
499 But out upon this half-faced fellowship!
Earl of Worcester
500 He apprehends a world of figures here,
501 But not the form of what he should attend.—
502 Good cousin, give me audience for a while.
Hotspur
503 I cry you mercy.
Earl of Worcester
504 Those same noble Scots
505 That are your prisoners,—
Hotspur
506 I'll keep them all;
507 By God, he shall not have a Scot of them;
508 No, if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not:
509 I'll keep them, by this hand.
Earl of Worcester
510 You start away,
511 And lend no ear unto my purposes.
512 Those prisoners you shall keep;—
Hotspur
513 Nay, I will; that's flat.
514 He said he would not ransom Mortimer;
515 Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer;
516 But I will find him when he lies asleep,
517 And in his ear I'll holla Mortimer!
518 Nay,
519 I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak
520 Nothing but Mortimer, and give it him,
521 To keep his anger still in motion.
Earl of Worcester
522 Hear you, cousin; a word.
Hotspur
523 All studies here I solemnly defy,
524 Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke:
525 And that same sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales,
526 But that I think his father loves him not,
527 And would be glad he met with some mischance,
528 I'd have him poison'd with a pot of ale.
Earl of Worcester
529 Farewell, kinsman: I will talk to you
530 When you are better temper'd to attend.
Earl of Northumberland
531 Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool
532 Art thou, to break into this woman's mood,
533 Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own!
Hotspur
534 Why, look you, I am whipp'd and scourged with rods,
535 Nettled, and stung with pismires, when I hear
536 Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke.
537 In Richard's time,—what do you call the place?—
538 A plague upon't!—it is in Gioucestershire;—
539 'Twas where the madcap Duke his uncle kept,
540 His uncle York;—where I first bow'd my knee
541 Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke;—
542 When you and he came back from Ravenspurg.
Earl of Northumberland
543 At Berkeley-castle.
Hotspur
544 You say true:—
545 Why, what a candy deal of courtesy
546 This fawning greyhound then did proffer me!
547 Look, when his infant fortune came to age,
548 And, Gentle Harry Percy, and kind cousin,—
549 O, the Devil take such cozeners!—God forgive me!—
550 Good uncle, tell your tale; for I have done.
Earl of Worcester
551 Nay, if you have not, to't again;
552 We'll stay your leisure.
Hotspur
553 I have done, i'faith.
Earl of Worcester
554 Then once more to your Scottish prisoners.
555 Deliver them up without their ransom straight,
556 And make the Douglas' son your only mean
557 For powers in Scotland; which, for divers reasons
558 Which I shall send you written, be assured,
559 Will easily be granted.—
[To Northumberland.]
Earl of Worcester
560 You, my lord,
561 Your son in Scotland being thus employ'd,
562 Shall secretly into the bosom creep
563 Of that same noble prelate, well beloved,
564 Th' Archbishop.
Hotspur
565 Of York, is't not?
Earl of Worcester
566 True; who bears hard
567 His brother's death at Bristol, the Lord Scroop.
568 I speak not this in estimation,
569 As what I think might be, but what I know
570 Is ruminated, plotted, and set down,
571 And only stays but to behold the face
572 Of that occasion that shall bring it on.
Hotspur
573 I smell't: upon my life, it will do well.
Earl of Northumberland
574 Before the game's a-foot, thou still lett'st slip.
Hotspur
575 Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot:—
576 And then the power of Scotland and of York
577 To join with Mortimer, ha?
Earl of Worcester
578 And so they shall.
Hotspur
579 In faith, it is exceedingly well aim'd.
Earl of Worcester
580 And 'tis no little reason bids us speed,
581 To save our heads by raising of a head;
582 For, bear ourselves as even as we can,
583 The King will always think him in our debt,
584 And think we think ourselves unsatisfied,
585 Till he hath found a time to pay us home:
586 And see already how he doth begin
587 To make us strangers to his looks of love.
Hotspur
588 He does, he does: we'll be revenged on him.
Earl of Worcester
589 Cousin, farewell: no further go in this
590 Than I by letters shall direct your course.
591 When time is ripe,— which will be suddenly,—
592 I'll steal to Glendower and Lord Mortimer;
593 Where you and Douglas, and our powers at once,
594 As I will fashion it, shall happily meet,
595 To bear our fortunes in our own strong arms,
596 Which now we hold at much uncertainty.
Earl of Northumberland
597 Farewell, good brother: we shall thrive, I trust.
Hotspur
598 Uncle, adieu: O, let the hours be short,
599 Till fields and blows and groans applaud our sport!
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 288archaic vocab
“blood hath been too cold and temperate”
King Henry opens by confessing that his 'blood' — his governing temperament and royal will — has been too restrained. In humoral medicine 'cold' blood signalled weakness of will; a king was expected to rule by hot, choleric authority. He is announcing a change of manner to the Percys.
TLN 297historical topical
“Our House, my sovereign liege, little deserves”
Worcester's 'Our House' means the Percy family as a dynastic unit — the whole noble lineage, not just the individuals present. He quickly adds that this house helped make Henry's greatness 'portly' (substantial, imposing). The Percys are reminding the king that they put him on the throne.
historical Holinshed's Chronicles
TLN 306archaic vocab
“The moody frontier of a servant brow”
'Frontier' here means forehead — specifically the look or expression written on the forehead of a man who should be in a subordinate position. A king cannot endure the sight of a sullen, resentful face from one of his own servants. Henry is dismissing Worcester precisely because his expression amounts to an act of insubordination.
TLN 315archaic vocab
“Either envy, therefore, or misprision”
'Misprision' is a legal word meaning a mistake or a deliberate misrepresentation — a misreporting of the facts. Northumberland is saying the king was given either a maliciously envious account of Hotspur's refusal, or a simple error in the report. He is clearing his son without accusing anyone directly.
TLN 321historical topical
“neat, trimly dress'd, Fresh as a bridegroom”
Hotspur's contemptuous description of the king's messenger — freshly barbered ('his chin new reap'd'), elaborately dressed, and perfumed 'like a milliner' — mocks the court culture of fashionable young men who spent money on fine clothes and scents. A 'milliner' originally dealt in Milan-made goods (ribbons, gloves, fancy accessories) and became a word for an effeminate dandy. The portrait is the opposite of the battle-filthy soldier.
TLN 326archaic vocab
“pouncet-box, which ever and anon He gave his nose”
A 'pouncet-box' (or pounce-box) was a small perforated box containing perfume or aromatic herbs, held up to the nose to mask the smell of crowds or, as here, of a battlefield. The messenger repeatedly offers his nose a sniff of it to avoid the stench of the dead. Hotspur is disgusted: the man is insulating himself from the reality of war while demanding prisoners from the man who fought it.
TLN 329wordplay
“Took it in snuff”
A double meaning: literally, the nose 'took in the snuff' (inhaled the scented powder from the box); figuratively, 'to take in snuff' meant to take offence or become irritated. The nose is personified as being 'angry' when the box was taken away -- and when it came back, the nose took offence at it. Hotspur squeezes a contemptuous pun out of the fop's sniffing ritual.
TLN 332archaic vocab
“slovenly unhandsome corse Betwixt the wind and his nobility”
'Corse' is an archaic form of 'corpse.' The phrase 'betwixt the wind and his nobility' means 'between the wind and his noble person' — the messenger objected to dead bodies being carried upwind of him, so their smell would reach his nose. Hotspur frames this as absurd effrontery: the man guards his own delicate nostrils more carefully than any soldier guards a lord.
TLN 339archaic vocab
“pester'd with a popinjay”
A 'popinjay' was a parrot — and, by extension, a vain, brightly dressed, mindlessly chattering person. Hotspur means the messenger was a gaudy, empty chatterer who kept talking at him about guns and wounds in the affected tone of a fashionable civilian who has never seen either.
TLN 344cultural context
“God save the mark”
An exclamation used to ward off a bad omen or evil influence — roughly 'God forbid!' or 'Heaven protect us from this.' It was typically said after mentioning something distasteful or ominous: the fop spoke about 'guns and drums and wounds' (battle horrors) as if they were fashionable topics, and Hotspur inserts the phrase as a shudder of disgust. It is essentially an Elizabethan verbal amulet.
TLN 345cultural context
“sovereign'st thing on Earth Was parmaceti for an inward bruise”
'Parmaceti' is spermaceti — the waxy oil extracted from sperm whale heads, used in Elizabethan medicine as a remedy for internal bruising and inflammation. The fop chirpily declared it the greatest medicine on earth. Hotspur mocks the idea that a courtly pharmaceutical cure-all is the right topic for a blood-soaked battlefield.
TLN 348historical topical
“this villainous salt-petre should be digg'd Out of the bowels of the harmless earth”
Saltpetre (potassium nitrate) is the key ingredient in gunpowder -- it was mined or scraped from soil rich in organic decay. The fop lamented that such a nasty substance had ever been discovered, since guns destroy 'many a good tall fellow.' Hotspur finds this view contemptible: the fop opposes firearms not from courage but from squeamishness, and would be a soldier only if there were no weapons.
TLN 355archaic vocab
“let not his report Come current for an accusation”
'Come current' means 'pass as valid' or 'be accepted as good coin' — an image from currency: a coin is 'current' when it passes in trade without question. Hotspur asks the king not to let the courtier's second-hand report circulate as a valid accusation against his loyalty. The metaphor frames the king's court as a kind of exchange where words have purchasing power.
TLN 368historical topical
“the foolish Mortimer; Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betray'd”
Henry's refusal to ransom Edmund Mortimer is political, not personal: Mortimer had been proclaimed by Richard II as heir to the throne. If Henry ransomed and freed him, he would be releasing his own rival claimant. The king brands Mortimer a traitor and his marriage to Glendower's daughter a sign of treachery — but the audience also hears Hotspur's counter-case that Mortimer was simply captured in battle.
historical Edward III and his seven sons
TLN 371historical topical
“great magician, damn'd Glendower”
Owen Glendower (Owain Glyndwr in Welsh) was the Welsh rebel leader who led a serious uprising against Henry IV from 1400 onwards. 'Magician' reflects his historical reputation — and his own self-presentation — as someone with supernatural powers; he claimed the stars foretold his greatness and could 'call spirits from the vasty deep.' Henry IV's 'damn'd' is purely hostile name-calling.
TLN 386historical topical
“gentle Severn's sedgy bank, In single opposition, hand to hand”
Hotspur claims Mortimer fought Glendower in a prolonged single combat on the bank of the River Severn, pausing three times by mutual agreement to drink from the river. 'Sedgy' means lined with reeds and rushes. The Severn is the great river that divides England from Wales; a battle on its bank is symbolically a border-fight. Hotspur's account is meant to prove Mortimer's loyalty through his wounds.
TLN 396archaic vocab
“Never did base and rotten policy Colour her working”
'Policy' here does not mean a plan or law but rather political cunning, self-interested scheming — the kind of calculating statecraft Elizabethans distrusted as 'Machiavellian.' To 'colour' a working means to disguise it with a plausible appearance. Hotspur is arguing that no amount of political spin could make it look as if Mortimer's wounds were faked.
TLN 425archaic vocab
“this unthankful King, As this ingrate and canker'd Bolingbroke”
'Canker'd' means diseased or corrupted, like a canker (an ulcer or a destructive worm that eats into plant tissue). Hotspur uses the word to indicate moral rot: Bolingbroke is not just ungrateful but internally corrupted. Calling the king by his family name — Bolingbroke, not Henry IV — is a significant act of contempt; it strips him of royal title.
TLN 434historical topical
“was not he proclaim'd By Richard that dead is the next of blood”
Worcester's question explains why Henry fears Mortimer so much: King Richard II, before he was deposed and murdered, had publicly named Mortimer as his heir — 'the next of blood' (nearest in the royal bloodline). This gives Mortimer a legitimate dynastic claim to the throne that Henry IV, who seized power, can never have. Anyone who supports Mortimer is technically supporting the rightful line over the usurper.
historical Edward III and his seven sons
TLN 452archaic vocab
“the detested blot Of murderous subornation”
'Subornation' means secretly hiring or bribing someone else to commit a crime — the word is most commonly heard in 'suborning perjury' (paying a false witness). Here Hotspur accuses the Percys of wearing the stain of being paid accessories to Richard II's murder: they did not kill the king themselves but they made it possible, which is legally and morally as bad.
TLN 465rhetorical device
“To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose, And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke”
Hotspur uses the rose/thorn opposition as a political emblem: Richard II is the beautiful rose (the anointed king), while Bolingbroke is a thorn and a 'canker' -- a parasitic worm or disease that destroys rose bushes from within. The imagery maps moral onto horticultural terms: the legitimate king is beauty; the usurper is destructive blight.
historical Holinshed's Chronicles
TLN 479rhetorical device
“I will unclasp a secret book, And to your quick-conceiving discontent I'll read you matter deep and dangerous”
Worcester uses a sustained metaphor of reading to promise Hotspur a full revelation of the conspiracy: the 'secret book' he will 'unclasp' is the plot he has been developing. 'Quick-conceiving' means fast-grasping — Hotspur's restless mind will grasp the dangerous plan at once. The book metaphor subtly frames the conspiracy as a text already composed; Worcester is the author, Hotspur the audience.
TLN 493rhetorical device
“To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced Moon; Or dive into the bottom of the deep”
Hotspur's famous speech imagines 'honour' as a physical thing that could be retrieved from impossibly dangerous places — the face of the moon, the floor of the ocean. This is hyperbole raised to a statement of values: for Hotspur the pursuit of honour has no limits set by reason or safety. The moon is 'pale-faced' because honour there would outshine it; the sea is so deep the fathom-line cannot touch bottom. The speech is both sublime and, to Worcester, an obstacle to planning.
TLN 519cultural context
“I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak Nothing but Mortimer”
Starlings are mimicking birds that can be trained to imitate human speech — one of the few birds with that ability. Hotspur, forbidden even to say the name 'Mortimer,' fantasises about giving the king a trained starling that will repeat nothing but that name into his ear forever. The joke is black comedy: the pettiest possible revenge, and the one that reveals how maddening Hotspur finds the prohibition.
TLN 525historical topical
“that same sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales”
Hotspur dismisses Prince Hal as a 'sword-and-buckler' fighter — a buckler is a small round shield used in street brawls, as opposed to the full chivalric equipment of a nobleman. The insult codes Hal as a low-class tavern fighter rather than a knight; it also glances at the prince's Eastcheap companions, the thieves and brawlers of 1 Henry IV. The remark is dramatic irony: Hotspur will be killed by the very man he sneers at.
TLN 541historical topical
“this Bolingbroke;— When you and he came back from Ravenspurg”
Ravenspur (Ravenspurgh) was the Yorkshire port where Henry Bolingbroke landed from exile in July 1399 to reclaim his inheritance from Richard II — and where Northumberland met him and threw his support behind the invasion. Hotspur is reminding his father of that original alliance, and of the moment at Berkeley Castle where Hotspur himself knelt to what he now contemptuously calls 'this king of smiles.'
historical Holinshed's Chronicles
TLN 549archaic vocab
“O, the Devil take such cozeners”
A 'cozener' is a cheat or swindler — someone who 'cozens' (deceives) you. Hotspur catches himself imitating Bolingbroke's false flattery ('Gentle Harry Percy, and kind cousin') and explodes into self-disgust: these smooth manipulators are 'cozeners' who played him. The word 'cousin' and the word 'cozen' are unrelated etymologically, but Elizabethans heard them as a pun — the pretended 'kinship' of Bolingbroke's greeting was itself a con.
TLN 562historical topical
“bosom creep Of that same noble prelate, well beloved, Th' Archbishop”
The Archbishop of York is Richard Scroop, a powerful churchman who had taken part in Richard II's deposition but resented the outcome; his brother William Scroop, Earl of Wiltshire, was executed by Henry IV at Bristol in 1399. Worcester's plan is to recruit Scroop to the rebellion by working on this personal grievance. A 'prelate' is a high-ranking church official — a bishop or archbishop. The phrase 'bears hard his brother's death' means he resents or grieves it.
TLN 581wordplay
“save our heads by raising of a head”
Worcester's pun compresses the rebels' situation: to save their own heads (their lives) they must raise a 'head' — an armed force. The same word 'head' means both the part of the body that is chopped off in executions and a body of troops mustered for war. The pun makes the logical connection explicit: rebellion is not merely ambition but self-preservation.