Page 771 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

Scene II IT

Enter Worcester and Sir Richard Vernon.

WORCESTER
O no, my nephew must not know, Sir Richard,
The liberal and kind offer of the king.

VERNON

’Twere best he did.

WORCESTER

Then are we all undone.
It is not possible, it cannot be,
The king should keep his word in loving us. [5]
He will suspect us still and find a time

To punish this offense in other faults.
Supposition all our lives shall be stuck full of eyes;
For treason is but trusted like the fox,
Who, ne’er so tame, so cherished and locked up, [10]

Will have a wild trick of his ancestors.
Look how we can, or sad or merrily,
Interpretation will misquote our looks,
And we shall feed like oxen at a stall,

The better cherished still the nearer death. [15]
My nephew’s trespass may be well forgot;
It hath the excuse of youth and heat of blood,
And an adopted name of privilege −

A hare-brained Hotspur, governed by a spleen.
All his offenses live upon my head [20]
And on his father’s. We did train him on;
And, his corruption being ta’en from us,

We, as the spring of all, shall pay for all.
Therefore, good cousin, let not Harry know,
In any case, the offer of the king. [25]

Enter Hotspur [and Douglas].