Act 4, Scene 3

The Rebel Camp near Shrewsbury.

[Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Douglas, and Vernon.]
Hotspur
2159 We'll fight with him to-night.
Earl of Worcester
2160 It may not be.
Earl of Douglas
2161 You give him, then, advantage.
Sir Richard Vernon
2162 Not a whit.
Hotspur
2163 Why say you so? looks he not for supply?
Sir Richard Vernon
2164 So do we.
Hotspur
2165 His is certain, ours is doubtful.
Earl of Worcester
2166 Good cousin, be advised; stir not to-night.
Sir Richard Vernon
2167 Do not, my lord.
Earl of Douglas
2168 You do not counsel well:
2169 You speak it out of fear and cold heart.
Sir Richard Vernon
2170 Do me no slander, Douglas: by my life,—
2171 And I dare well maintain it with my life,—
2172 If well-respected honour bid me on,
2173 I hold as little counsel with weak fear
2174 As you, my lord, or any Scot that this day lives:
2175 Let it be seen to-morrow in the battle
2176 Which of us fears.
Earl of Douglas
2177 Yea, or to-night.
Sir Richard Vernon
2178 Content.
Hotspur
2179 To-night, say I.
Sir Richard Vernon
2180 Come, come, it may not be. I wonder much,
2181 Being men of such great leading as you are,
2182 That you foresee not what impediments
2183 Drag back our expedition: certain Horse
2184 Of my cousin Vernon's are not yet come up:
2185 Your uncle Worcester's Horse came but to-day;
2186 And now their pride and mettle is asleep,
2187 Their courage with hard labour tame and dull,
2188 That not a horse is half the half himself.
Hotspur
2189 So are the horses of the enemy
2190 In general, journey-bated and brought low:
2191 The better part of ours are full of rest.
Earl of Worcester
2192 The number of the King exceedeth ours.
2193 For God's sake, cousin, stay till all come in.
[The Trumpet sounds a parley.]
[Enter Sir Walter Blunt.]
Sir Walter Blunt
2194 I come with gracious offers from the King,
2195 If you vouchsafe me hearing and respect.
Hotspur
2196 Welcome, Sir Walter Blunt; and would to God
2197 You were of our determination!
2198 Some of us love you well; and even those some
2199 Envy your great deservings and good name,
2200 Because you are not of our quality,
2201 But stand against us like an enemy.
Sir Walter Blunt
2202 And God defend but still I should stand so,
2203 So long as out of limit and true rule
2204 You stand against anointed majesty!
2205 But to my charge: the King hath sent to know
2206 The nature of your griefs; and whereupon
2207 You conjure from the breast of civil peace
2208 Such bold hostility, teaching his duteous land
2209 Audacious cruelty. If that the King
2210 Have any way your good deserts forgot,
2211 Which he confesseth to be manifold,
2212 He bids you name your griefs; and with all speed
2213 You shall have your desires with interest,
2214 And pardon absolute for yourself and these
2215 Herein misled by your suggestion.
Hotspur
2216 The King is kind; and well we know the King
2217 Knows at what time to promise, when to pay.
2218 My father and my uncle and myself
2219 Did give him that same royalty he wears;
2220 And—when he was not six-and-twenty strong,
2221 Sick in the world's regard, wretched and low,
2222 A poor unminded outlaw sneaking home—
2223 My father gave him welcome to the shore:
2224 And—when he heard him swear and vow to God,
2225 He came but to be Duke of Lancaster,
2226 To sue his livery and beg his peace,
2227 With tears of innocence and terms of zeal—
2228 My father, in kind heart and pity moved,
2229 Swore him assistance, and performed it too.
2230 Now, when the lords and barons of the realm
2231 Perceived Northumberland did lean to him,
2232 The more and less came in with cap and knee;
2233 Met him in boroughs, cities, villages,
2234 Attended him on bridges, stood in lanes,
2235 Laid gifts before him, proffer'd him their oaths,
2236 Give him their heirs as pages, follow'd him
2237 Even at the heels in golden multitudes.
2238 He presently—as greatness knows itself—
2239 Steps me a little higher than his vow
2240 Made to my father, while his blood was poor,
2241 Upon the naked shore at Ravenspurg;
2242 And now, forsooth, takes on him to reform
2243 Some certain edicts and some strait decrees
2244 That lie too heavy on the commonwealth;
2245 Cries out upon abuses, seems to weep
2246 Over his country's wrongs; and, by this face,
2247 This seeming brow of justice, did he win
2248 The hearts of all that he did angle for:
2249 Proceeded further; cut me off the heads
2250 Of all the favourites, that the absent King
2251 In deputation left behind him here
2252 When he was personal in the Irish war.
Sir Walter Blunt
2253 Tut, I came not to hear this.
Hotspur
2254 Then to the point:
2255 In short time after, he deposed the King;
2256 Soon after that, deprived him of his life;
2257 And, in the neck of that, task'd the whole State:
2258 To make that worse, suffer'd his kinsman March
2259 (Who is, if every owner were well placed,
2260 Indeed his king) to be engaged in Wales,
2261 There without ransom to lie forfeited;
2262 Disgraced me in my happy victories,
2263 Sought to entrap me by intelligence;
2264 Rated my uncle from the Council-board;
2265 In rage dismiss'd my father from the Court;
2266 Broke oath on oath, committed wrong on wrong;
2267 And, in conclusion, drove us to seek out
2268 This head of safety; and withal to pry
2269 Into his title, the which now we find
2270 Too indirect for long continuance.
Sir Walter Blunt
2271 Shall I return this answer to the King?
Hotspur
2272 Not so, Sir Walter: we'll withdraw awhile.
2273 Go to the King; and let there be impawn'd
2274 Some surety for a safe return again,
2275 And in the morning early shall my uncle
2276 Bring him our purposes: and so, farewell.
Sir Walter Blunt
2277 I would you would accept of grace and love.
Hotspur
2278 And may be so we shall.
Sir Walter Blunt
2279 Pray God you do.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 2163archaic vocab
“looks he not for supply”
In military language, 'supply' means reinforcements — fresh troops and equipment coming up to join an army already in the field. Hotspur is asking whether the King is not waiting for his own additional forces before fighting.
TLN 2172archaic vocab
“well-respected honour bid me on”
'Well-respected' here means 'properly weighed' or 'carefully considered' — not 'admired by others.' Vernon is saying: if honour, properly reckoned up, tells me to advance, I will do so; cowardice has nothing to do with his advice to wait.
TLN 2186archaic vocab
“their pride and mettle is asleep”
'Mettle' means spirit, courage, and vital energy — a quality horses and soldiers share. 'Pride' in horses means the high-stepping liveliness of a fresh, well-fed animal. Vernon is saying that Worcester's cavalry arrived that same day and their horses' spirited energy has already collapsed into exhaustion.
TLN 2190archaic vocab
“journey-bated and brought low”
'Journey-bated' means worn down and dulled by long travel — literally, 'abated by the journey.' A bated horse is one whose spirit and strength have been reduced. Hotspur counters Vernon's point by saying the King's cavalry is equally exhausted.
TLN 2194historical topical
“I come with gracious offers from the King”
The stage direction specifies 'The Trumpet sounds a parley' before Blunt enters. In Elizabethan warfare a parley was a formal, trumpet-signalled pause in hostilities during which opposing sides could negotiate without fighting. Both sides were bound by military law to hear the envoy safely and let him return.
historical The Battle of Shrewsbury (1403)
TLN 2195archaic vocab
“vouchsafe me hearing and respect”
'Vouchsafe' means to grant or condescend to give something — Blunt is asking the rebels to deign to listen. The word implies a social gap: the one vouchsafing holds a position from which they can graciously permit something they could withhold.
TLN 2196archaic vocab
“would to God / You were of our determination”
'Of our determination' means 'on our side, sharing our resolve and purpose.' The word 'determination' here does not mean 'finding out the answer' but 'fixed decision or intention' — Hotspur wishes Blunt had resolved to join the rebel cause.
TLN 2203historical topical
“out of limit and true rule / You stand against anointed majesty”
'Anointed majesty' refers to the religious ceremony of royal coronation, in which the monarch was anointed with holy oil as a sign that God had chosen and consecrated them. Blunt is telling the rebels that, whatever their grievances, they are in rebellion against a king made sacred by God's own ordination.
historical The divine right of kings
TLN 2220historical topical
“not six-and-twenty strong, / Sick in the world's regard, wretched and low, / A poor unminded outlaw sneaking home”
Hotspur is recounting that when the future Henry IV returned to England from exile in 1399, he came back with only a tiny band — 'not six-and-twenty strong' — a banished, forgotten man with no legal standing (an 'outlaw,' meaning someone stripped of the law's protection). Northumberland, Hotspur's father, welcomed him at the shore and pledged support.
historical Holinshed's Chronicles
TLN 2225archaic vocab
“He came but to be Duke of Lancaster, / To sue his livery”
To 'sue his livery' means to bring a legal petition to regain the family lands. When a nobleman died, his heir had to petition the Crown through a formal legal process called 'suing out one's livery of seisin' before taking possession of the inherited estate. Henry's father John of Gaunt had just died; Richard II had seized the Lancaster estates instead of letting Henry inherit them — and Henry's oath, Hotspur claims, was only that he came back to recover his lawful inheritance, not to take the throne.
historical Edward III and his seven sons
TLN 2232archaic vocab
“came in with cap and knee”
To come 'with cap and knee' means to approach with cap removed (uncovered head as a sign of deference) and knee bent in a bow — the standard gestures of submission and reverence to a social superior. Hotspur is saying that once the great lords rallied to Bolingbroke, everyone else rushed to do homage.
TLN 2240historical topical
“while his blood was poor, / Upon the naked shore at Ravenspurg”
Ravenspurg (also spelled Ravenspur or Ravensburgh) was a Yorkshire port on the Humber estuary where Henry Bolingbroke landed from exile in July 1399. It was there that Northumberland met him and swore loyalty. The port was already half-swallowed by the sea in Shakespeare's time; by the seventeenth century it had disappeared entirely under the water.
historical Holinshed's Chronicles
TLN 2257archaic vocab
“in the neck of that, task'd the whole State”
'In the neck of that' means immediately after, hard on the heels of the previous action — as one thing follows another so closely it is almost treading on its neck. 'Task'd' means burdened or levied with taxes and demands — Hotspur's complaint is that Henry IV proceeded at once from deposing and killing Richard II to imposing heavy financial demands on the kingdom.
TLN 2259historical topical
“Who is, if every owner were well placed, / Indeed his king”
Hotspur argues that Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, is the rightful king of England — 'if every owner were well placed' means 'if every person sat on the throne they actually have the right to.' Mortimer descended from Edward III's senior surviving line and had been named Richard II's heir before Bolingbroke seized power.
historical Edward III and his seven sons
TLN 2264archaic vocab
“Rated my uncle from the Council-board; / In rage dismiss'd my father from the Court”
'Rated' means rebuked or berated — specifically, dressed down in harsh public language. The 'Council-board' was the King's council table, the body of chief advisers who governed with the monarch. Hotspur charges that Henry IV publicly humiliated Worcester (Hotspur's uncle) at the council and drove Northumberland (his father) from the royal court in anger.
TLN 2267archaic vocab
“drove us to seek out / This head of safety; and withal to pry / Into his title, the which now we find / Too indirect for long continuance”
'Head of safety' means a rallying force raised for self-protection — a body of armed men gathered as a defensive 'head' or body of strength. 'Indirect' does not mean roundabout; it means illegitimate, not proceeding by the straight, legal line of succession. Hotspur concludes that, forced to protect themselves, the rebels looked hard at Henry's title to the throne and found it had no lawful basis.
TLN 2273archaic vocab
“let there be impawn'd / Some surety for a safe return again”
'Impawn'd' means pledged as security, as one pawns an object for a loan. Hotspur asks that the King provide a formal guarantee — a hostage or bond — to ensure that Worcester can travel to the royal camp and return safely without being arrested. He will hear the King's terms only if his uncle's safety is guaranteed in advance.