Act 2, Scene 3

Warkworth. A Room in the Castle.

[Enter Hotspur, reading a letter.]
Hotspur
775 —But, for mine own part, my lord, I could be well contented to
776 be there, in respect of the love I bear your House.—He could be
777 contented; why is he not, then? In respect of the love he bears
778 our House!—he shows in this, he loves his own barn better than he
779 loves our house. Let me see some more. The purpose you undertake
780 is dangerous;—Why, that's certain: 'tis dangerous to take a cold,
781 to sleep, to drink; but I tell you, my lord fool, out of this nettle,
782 danger, we pluck this flower, safety. The purpose you undertake is
783 dangerous; the friends you have named uncertain; the time itself
784 unsorted; and your whole plot too light for the counterpoise of so
785 great an opposition.—
786 Say you so, say you so? I say unto you again, you are a shallow,
787 cowardly hind, and you lie. What a lack-brain is this! By the Lord,
788 our plot is a good plot as ever was laid; our friends true and
789 constant: a good plot, good friends, and full of expectation; an
790 excellent plot, very good friends. What a frosty-spirited rogue is
791 this! Why, my Lord of York commends the plot and the general course
792 of the action. Zwounds! an I were now by this rascal, I could brain
793 him with his lady's fan. Is there not my father, my uncle, and
794 myself? Lord Edmund Mortimer, my Lord of York, and Owen Glendower?
795 is there not, besides, the Douglas? have I not all their letters to
796 meet me in arms by the ninth of the next month? and are they not
797 some of them set forward already? What a pagan rascal is this! an
798 infidel! Ha! you shall see now, in very sincerity of fear and cold
799 heart, will he to the King, and lay open all our proceedings. O, I
800 could divide myself, and go to buffets, for moving such a dish of
801 skimm'd milk with so honourable an action!
802 Hang him! let him tell the King: we are prepared. I will set
803 forward to-night.—
[Enter Lady Percy.]
Hotspur
804 How now, Kate! I must leave you within these two hours.
Lady Percy
805 O, my good lord, why are you thus alone?
806 For what offence have I this fortnight been
807 A banish'd woman from my Harry's bed?
808 Tell me, sweet lord, what is't that takes from thee
809 Thy stomach, pleasure, and thy golden sleep?
810 Why dost thou bend thine eyes upon the earth,
811 And start so often when thou sitt'st alone?
812 Why hast thou lost the fresh blood in thy cheeks;
813 And given my treasures and my rights of thee
814 To thick-eyed musing and curst melancholy?
815 In thy faint slumbers I by thee have watch'd,
816 And heard thee murmur tales of iron wars;
817 Speak terms of manage to thy bounding steed;
818 Cry Courage! to the field! And thou hast talk'd
819 Of sallies and retires, of trenches, tents,
820 Of palisadoes, frontiers, parapets,
821 Of basilisks, of cannon, culverin,
822 Of prisoners ransomed, and of soldiers slain,
823 And all the 'currents of a heady fight.
824 Thy spirit within thee hath been so at war,
825 And thus hath so bestirr'd thee in thy sleep,
826 That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow,
827 Like bubbles in a late-disturbed stream;
828 And in thy face strange motions have appear'd,
829 Such as we see when men restrain their breath
830 On some great sudden hest. O, what portents are these?
831 Some heavy business hath my lord in hand,
832 And I must know it, else he loves me not.
Hotspur
833 What, ho!
[Enter a Servant.]
Hotspur
834 Is Gilliams with the packet gone?
Servant
835 He is, my lord, an hour ago.
Hotspur
836 Hath Butler brought those horses from the sheriff?
Servant
837 One horse, my lord, he brought even now.
Hotspur
838 What horse? a roan, a crop-ear, is it not?
Servant
839 It is, my lord.
Hotspur
840 That roan shall be my throne.
841 Well, I will back him straight: O esperance!—
842 Bid Butler lead him forth into the park.
[Exit Servant.]
Lady Percy
843 But hear you, my lord.
Hotspur
844 What say'st thou, my lady?
Lady Percy
845 What is it carries you away?
Hotspur
846 Why, my horse, my love, my horse.
Lady Percy
847 Out, you mad-headed ape!
848 A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen
849 As you are toss'd with. In faith,
850 I'll know your business, Harry, that I will.
851 I fear my brother Mortimer doth stir
852 About his title, and hath sent for you
853 To line his enterprise: but if you go,—
Hotspur
854 So far a-foot, I shall be weary, love.
Lady Percy
855 Come, come, you paraquito, answer me
856 Directly to this question that I ask:
857 In faith, I'll break thy little finger, Harry,
858 An if thou wilt not tell me true.
Hotspur
859 Away,
860 Away, you trifler! Love? I love thee not,
861 I care not for thee, Kate: this is no world
862 To play with mammets and to tilt with lips:
863 We must have bloody noses and crack'd crowns,
864 And pass them current too.—Gods me, my horse!—
865 What say'st thou, Kate? what wouldst thou have with me?
Lady Percy
866 Do you not love me? do you not indeed?
867 Well, do not, then; for, since you love me not,
868 I will not love myself. Do you not love me?
869 Nay, tell me if you speak in jest or no.
Hotspur
870 Come, wilt thou see me ride?
871 And when I am o' horseback, I will swear
872 I love thee infinitely. But hark you, Kate;
873 I must not have you henceforth question me
874 Whither I go, nor reason whereabout:
875 Whither I must, I must; and, to conclude,
876 This evening must I leave you, gentle Kate.
877 I know you wise; but yet no further wise
878 Than Harry Percy's wife; constant you are;
879 But yet a woman: and, for secrecy,
880 No lady closer; for I well believe
881 Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know;
882 And so far will I trust thee, gentle Kate.
Lady Percy
883 How! so far?
Hotspur
884 Not an inch further. But hark you, Kate:
885 Whither I go, thither shall you go too;
886 To-day will I set forth, to-morrow you.
887 Will this content you, Kate?
Lady Percy
888 It must of force.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 783archaic vocab
“the time itself unsorted”
'Unsorted' means ill-suited or ill-chosen — the moment for rebellion is wrong, not matched to the conspirators' needs. Hotspur is quoting the letter's objection before he tears it apart.
TLN 784archaic vocab
“too light for the counterpoise of so great an opposition”
'Counterpoise' means counterweight — the matching weight on the other side of a balance scale. The letter argues the rebels' forces are too weak to balance (and therefore overcome) the King's. The metaphor comes from the weighing scale, a common emblem of justice and proportion.
TLN 786archaic vocab
“shallow, cowardly hind”
A 'hind' is a female deer, but by extension a term of contempt for a rustic or servile person — someone base-born and timid. Hotspur is calling the letter-writer not just a coward but a low, peasant creature unfit for noble enterprise.
TLN 792archaic vocab
“Zwounds! an I were now by this rascal”
'Zwounds' (also spelled 'Zounds') is a contraction of 'God's wounds' — an oath by the wounds of Christ on the cross. It was one of the strongest expletives in Elizabethan speech, marking extreme agitation, and is one of Hotspur's characteristic eruptions.
TLN 799archaic vocab
“I could divide myself, and go to buffets”
To 'go to buffets' means to come to blows — to exchange punches. Hotspur is so furious at himself for having confided in this craven confederate that he wishes he could split into two people and beat himself up for the mistake.
TLN 800archaic vocab
“dish of skimm'd milk”
Skimmed milk — milk from which the cream has been removed — was the cheapest, most watery, most nutritionally thin form of the drink, fed to servants and paupers rather than the household. Hotspur calls the letter-writer a 'dish of skimm'd milk' to mean he is thin-blooded, pallid, and worthless — the dregs of manhood, with all the courage skimmed away.
TLN 809archaic vocab
“Thy stomach, pleasure, and thy golden sleep”
Here 'stomach' does not mean the digestive organ but appetite or desire more broadly — and in the military context it also carries the meaning of courage and resolution. Lady Percy is asking what has taken away Hotspur's enjoyment of life and his fighting spirit.
TLN 817archaic vocab
“Speak terms of manage to thy bounding steed”
'Manage' (from Italian maneggio, via French manege) was the specialized art of training and controlling a warhorse — what we would now call equestrian dressage. 'Terms of manage' are the commands and vocabulary of horsemanship. Lady Percy heard Hotspur shouting riding commands in his sleep.
TLN 819archaic vocab
“Of sallies and retires, of trenches, tents, of palisadoes, frontiers, parapets, of basilisks, of cannon, culverin”
Lady Percy lists the military vocabulary she has heard Hotspur murmur in his sleep. A 'sally' is a sudden charge out of a besieged position; a 'retire' is an orderly retreat; 'palisadoes' are sharpened stakes forming a defensive fence around a camp; 'frontiers' are the front-line fortifications; a 'basilisk' is an enormous siege cannon (named after the mythological serpent); a 'culverin' is a long-barreled, smaller cannon used for accuracy. Together they sketch the complete vocabulary of siege warfare.
TLN 841historical topical
“O esperance!”
'Esperance' is the French word for 'hope' and was the motto of the Percy family, Earls of Northumberland. Crying it here, Hotspur is invoking his family's battle-cry as he mounts his horse — the word is both a personal rallying cry and the symbol of everything the Percys have staked on the rebellion. The motto appears on the Percy coat of arms.
historical The Battle of Shrewsbury (1403)
TLN 848archaic vocab
“A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen as you are toss'd with”
In Elizabethan humoral medicine the spleen was the organ believed to produce fits of sudden passion, anger, or caprice. Lady Percy is saying Hotspur is more volatile and irrationally impulsive than even a weasel — a notoriously quick, fidgety, unpredictable animal. 'A deal of spleen' means a great quantity of hot-tempered recklessness.
TLN 855archaic vocab
“you paraquito”
A 'paraquito' (also spelled 'parakeet' or 'parroquet') is a small parrot — and by extension any person who chatters repetitively without substance. Lady Percy uses it here as a term of fond mockery, teasing Hotspur for babbling about his horse instead of answering her direct question.
TLN 862wordplay
“play with mammets and to tilt with lips: we must have bloody noses and crack'd crowns, and pass them current too”
Hotspur piles up wordplay to dismiss love as unworthy of a warrior. 'Mammets' are dolls or puppets — to 'play with mammets' is to toy with trifles or, by extension, to dally with women. 'Tilt with lips' means to joust with kisses (tilting is a lance-charge in the lists). Then he pivots: 'bloody noses and crack'd crowns' are the real wounds of battle, while 'crowns' also means coins — to 'pass them current' is to make them good currency, but it also means to treat battle-wounds as valid payment. The speech dismisses tenderness while revealing how much he values martial honor over domestic life.