Page 752 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

Because the king is certainly possessed [40]
Of all our purposes. What say you to it?

WORCESTER
Your father’s sickness is a maim to us.

HOTSPUR
A perilous gash, a very limb lopped off.
And yet, in faith, it is not! His present want

Seems more than we shall find it. Were it good [45]
To set the exact wealth of all our states
All at one cast? to set so rich a main
On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?

It were not good; for therein should we read
The very bottom and the soul of hope, [50]
The very list, the very utmost bound
Of all our fortunes.

DOUGLAS
Faith, and so we should.

Where now remains a sweet reversion,
We may boldly spend upon the hope of what
Is to come in. [55]

A comfort of retirement lives in this.

HOTSPUR

A rendezvous, a home to fly unto,
If that the devil and mischance look big
Upon the maidenhead of our affairs.

WORCESTER
But yet I would your father had been here. [60]
The quality and hair of our attempt

Brooks no division. It will be thought
By some that know not why he is away,
That wisdom, loyalty, and mere dislike

Of our proceedings kept the earl from hence. [65]