Page 679 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

Speak of Mortimer? [130]
Zounds, I will speak of him, and let my soul
Want mercy if I do not join with him!
Yea, on his part I’ll empty all these veins,

And shed my dear blood drop by drop in the dust,
But I will lift the downtrod Mortimer [135]
As high in the air as this unthankful king,
As this ingrate and cankered Bolingbroke.

NORTHUMBERLAND

Brother, the king hath made your nephew mad.

WORCESTER

Who struck this heat up after I was gone?

HOTSPUR
He will (forsooth) have all my prisoners; [140]
And when I urged the ransom once again
Of my wive’s brother, then his cheek looked pale,
And on my face he turned an eye of death,

Trembling even at the name of Mortimer.

WORCESTER
I cannot blame him − Was not he proclaimed [145]
By Richard that dead is, the next of blood?

NORTHUMBERLAND
He was; I heard the proclamation.

And then it was when the unhappy king
(Whose wrongs in us God pardon!) did set forth
Upon his Irish expedition; [150]
From whence he intercepted did return
To be deposed, and shortly murderèd.

WORCESTER
And for whose death we in the world’s wide mouth
Live scandalized and foully spoken of.