Page 545 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

Now, York, or never, steel thy fearful thoughts
And change misdoubt to resolution:
Be that thou hop’st to be, or what thou art
Resign to death - it is not worth th’enjoying.
Let pale-faced fear keep with the mean-born man [335]
And find no harbour in a royal heart.
Faster than spring-time showers comes thought on thought,
And not a thought but thinks on dignity.
My brain, more busy than the labouring spider,
Weaves tedious snares to trap mine enemies. [340]
Well, nobles, well: ’tis politicly done
To send me packing with an host of men;
I fear me you but warm the starvèd snake
Who, cherished in your breasts, will sting your hearts. [345]
’Twas men I lacked, and you will give them me:
I take it kindly, yet be well assured
You put sharp weapons in a madman’s hands.
Whiles I in Ireland nurse a mighty band,
I will stir up in England some black storm
Shall blow ten thousand souls to heaven, or hell; [350]
And this fell tempest shall not cease to rage
Until the golden circuit on my head,
Like to the glorious sun’s transparent beams,
Do calm the fury of this mad-bred flaw.
And, for a minister of my intent, [355]
I have seduced a headstrong Kentishman,
John Cade of Ashford,
To make commotion, as full well he can,
Under the title of John Mortimer.
In Ireland have I seen this stubborn Cade [360]
Oppose himself against a troop of kerns
And fought so long till that his thighs with darts
Were almost like a sharp-quilled porpentine;
And in the end, being rescued, I have seen
Him caper upright, like a wild Morisco, [365]
Shaking the bloody darts as he his bells.
Full often, like a shag-haired crafty kern,
Hath he conversèd with the enemy
And, undiscovered, come to me again
And given me notice of their villainies. [370]
This devil here shall be my substitute;