Page 992 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

INDUCTION IT

Enter Rumour, painted full of tongues.

RUMOUR
Open your ears, for which of you will stop
The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks?
I, from the orient to the drooping west,
Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold

The acts commencèd on this ball of earth. [5]
Upon my tongues continual slanders ride,
The which in every language I pronounce,

Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.
I speak of peace while covert enmity
Under the smile of safety wounds the world. [10]
And who but Rumour, who but only I,
Make fearful musters and prepared defense

Whiles the big year, swoln with some other grief,
Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe [15]

Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures,
And of so easy and so plain a stop
That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still-discordant wavering multitude,
Can play upon it. But what need I thus [20]

My well-known body to anatomize
Among my household? Why is Rumour here?
I run before King Harry’s victory,

Who in a bloody field by Shrewsbury
Hath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops, [25]
Quenching the flame of bold rebellion
Even with the rebels’ blood. But what mean I
To speak so true at first? My office is