Arch.
Thus have you heard our cause, and known our means;
And, my most noble friends, I pray you all,
Speak plainly your opinions of our hopes:—
And first, lord marshal, what say you to it?

Mowb.
I well allow the occasion of our arms;
But gladly would be better satisfied,
How, in our means, we should advance ourselves
To look with forehead bold and big enough
Upon the power and puissance of the king.

Hast.
Our present musters grow upon the file
To five and twenty thousand men of choice;
And our supplies live largely in the hope
Of great Northumberland, whose bosom burns
With an incensed fire of injuries.

Bard.
The question then, lord Hastings, standeth thus;—
Whether our present five and twenty thousand

May hold up head without Northumberland.

Hast.
With him, we may.

Bard.
Ay, marry, there's the point;
But if without him we be thought too feeble,
My judgment is, we should not step too far^{2 note}
Till we had his assistance by the hand:
For, in a theme so bloody-fac'd as this,
Conjecture, expectation, and surmise
Of aids uncertain, should not be admitted.

Arch.
'Tis very true, lord Bardolph; for, indeed,
It was young Hotspur's case at Shrewsbury.

Bard.
It was, my lord; who lin'd himself with hope,
Eating the air on promise of supply,
Flattering himself with project of a power
Much smaller^{3 note} than the smallest of his thoughts:
And so, with great imagination,
Proper to madmen, led his powers to death,
And, winking, leap'd into destruction.

Hast.
But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt,
To lay down likelihoods, and forms of hope.

Bard.
Yes, in this present quality of war;—
Indeed the instant action^{4 note}

Lives so in hope, as in an early spring
We see the appearing buds; which, to prove fruit,
Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair,

That frosts will bite them. When we mean to build,
We first survey the plot, then draw the model;
And, when we see the figure of the house,
Then must we rate the cost of the erection:
Which if we find outweighs ability,
What do we then, but draw anew the model
In fewer offices; or, at least^{5 note}, desist
To build at all? Much more, in this great work,
(Which is, almost, to pluck a kingdom down,
And set another up,) should we survey
The plot of situation, and the model;
Consent upon a sure foundation^{6 note};
Question surveyors; know our own estate,
How able such a work to undergo,
To weigh against his opposite; or else,
We fortify in paper, and in figures,
Using the names of men, instead of men:
Like one that draws the model of a house
Beyond his power to build it; who, half through,
Gives o'er, and leaves his part-created cost
A naked subject to the weeping clouds,
And waste for churlish winter's tyranny.

Hast.
Grant, that our hopes (yet likely of fair birth,)
Should be still born, and that we now possess'd
The utmost man of expectation;
I think, we are a body strong enough,
Even as we are, to equal with the king.

Bard.
What! is the king but five and twenty thousand?

Hast.
To us, no more; nay, not so much, lord Bardolph.

For his divisions, as the times do brawl,
Are in three heads: one power against the French^{8 note},
And one against Glendower; perforce, a third
Must take up us: So is the unfirm king
In three divided; and his coffers sound
With hollow poverty and emptiness.

Arch.
That he should draw his several strengths together,
And come against us in full puissance,
Need not be dreaded.

Hast.
If he should do so^{9 note}

Bard.
Who, is it like, should lead his forces hither?

Hast.
The duke of Lancaster, and Westmoreland^{1 note}

Against the Welsh, himself, and Harry Monmouth:
But who is substituted 'gainst the French,
I have no certain notice.

Arch.
Let us on^{2 note}

And take thou this! O thoughts of men accurst!
Past, and to come, seem best; things present, worst.

Mowb.
Shall we go draw our numbers, and set on?

Hast.
We are time's subjects, and time bids be gone. [Exeunt.

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