North.
Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-leaf,
Foretels the nature of a tragick volume.
So looks the strond, whereon th' imperious flood
Hath left a witness'd usurpation.
Say, Morton, did'st thou come from Shrewsbury?

Mort.
I ran from Shrewsbury, my noble Lord,
Where hateful Death put on his ugliest Mask
To fright our Party.

North.
How doth my son, and Brother?
Thou tremblest; and the whiteness in thy cheek
Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand.
Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,
So dull, so dead in look, ^{2 note}so woe-be-gone,
Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night,
And would have told him, half his Troy was burn'd,
But Priam found the fire, ere he his tongue,
And I my Percy's death, ere thou report'st it.
This thou would'st say: your Son did thus, and thus;
Your brother, thus; so fought the noble Douglas:
Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds;

But in the end, to stop mine ear indeed,
Thou hast a sigh to blow away this praise,
Ending with brother, son, and all are dead!

Mort.
Dowglas is living, and your brother, yet;
But for my lord your son—

North.
Why, he is dead.
See, what a ready tongue suspicion hath.
He, that but fears the thing he would not know,
Hath, by instinct, knowledge from other's eyes,
That what he fear'd is chanc'd. Yet, Morton, speak,
Tell thou thy Earl, his Divination lies;
And I will take it as a sweet Disgrace,
And make thee rich for doing me such wrong.

Mort.
You are too Great, to be by me gainsaid:
^{3 note}Your spirit is too true, your fears too certain.

North.
^{4 note}

Thou shak'st thy head, and ^{5 note}hold'st it fear, or sin,
To speak a truth. ^{6 note}If he be slain, say so.
The tongue offends not, that reports his death;
And he doth sin, that doth belie the dead,
Not he, which says the dead is not alive.
Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a losing office, and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,
Remember'd, tolling a departing friend.

Bard.
I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead.

Mort.
I'm sorry, I should force you to believe
That, which, I would to heav'n, I had not seen;
But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state,
Rend'ring faint quittance, wearied and out-breath'd,
To Henry Monmouth; whose swift wrath beat down
The never-daunted Percy to the earth,
From whence, with life, he never more sprung up.
In few, his death, whose spirit lent a fire
Even to the dullest peasant in his Camp,
Being bruited once, took fire and heat away
From the best-temper'd courage in his troops;
^{7 note}

Which once in him abated, all the rest
Turn'd on themselves, like dull and heavy lead.
And as the thing, that's heavy in its self,
Upon enforcement, flies with greatest speed;
So did our men, heavy in Hot-spur's loss,
Lend to this weight such lightness with their fear,
That arrows fled not swifter toward their aim,
Than did our soldiers, aiming at their safety,
Fly from the field. Then was that noble Wor'ster
Too soon ta'en prisoner: and that furious Scot,
The bloody Dowglas, whose well-labouring sword
Had three times slain th' appearance of the King,
'Gan^{8 note} vail his stomach, and did grace the shame
Of those that turn'd their backs; and in his flight,
Stumbling in fear, was took. The sum of all
Is, that the King hath won; and hath sent out
A speedy Pow'r to encounter you, my lord,
Under the conduct of young Lancaster
And Westmorland. This is the news at full.

North.
For this, I shall have time enough to mourn;
In poison there is physick, and this news,
That would, had I been well, have made me sick,
Being sick, hath in some measure made me well.
And as the wretch, whose fever-weaken'd joints,
Like strengthless hinges, buckle^{9 note} under life,
Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire
Out of his keeper's arms; ev'n so my limbs,
Weaken'd with grief, being now inrag'd with grief,
Are thrice themselves. Hence therefore, thou nice crutch;

A scaly gauntlet now with joints of steel
Must glove this hand. And hence, thou sickly quoif,
Thou art a guard too wanton for the head,
Which Princes, flesh'd with conquest, aim to hit.
Now bind my brows with iron, and approach
^{1 note}

Bard.
^{3 note}This strained passion doth you wrong, my lord!
Sweet Earl, divorce not wisdom from your honour.

Mort.
The lives of all your loving complices
Lean on your health; the which, if you give o'er
To stormy passion, must perforce decay.
^{4 note}

And summ'd th' account of chance, before you said,
Let us make head. It was your presurmise,
That, in the dole of blows, your son might drop;
You knew, he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge
More likely to fall in, than to get o'er;
You were advis'd, his flesh was capable
Of wounds and scars; and that his forward spirit
Would lift him where most trade of danger rang'd;
Yet did you say, Go forth. And none of this,
Though strongly apprehended, could restrain
The stiff-borne action. What hath then befall'n,
Or what hath this bold enterprize brought forth,
More than That being, which was like to be?

Bard.
We all, that are engaged to this loss,
Knew, that we ventur'd on such dang'rous seas,
That, if we wrought out life, 'twas ten to one;
And yet we ventur'd for the gain propos'd,
Choak'd the respect of likely peril fear'd;
And since we are o'er-set, venture again.
Come, we will all put forth, body and goods.

Mort.
'Tis more than time; and my most noble lord,
I hear for certain, and do speak the truth:
^{5 note}The gentle Arch-bishop of York is up
With well-appointed Powers. He is a man,
Who with a double surety binds his followers.
My lord, your son, had only but the corps,
But shadows, and the shews of men to fight;
For that same word, Rebellion, did divide
The action of their bodies from their souls,

And they did fight with queasiness, constrain'd,
As men drink potions, that their weapons only
Seem'd on our side, but for their spirits and souls,
This word, Rebellion, it had froze them up,
As fish are in a pond. But now, the Bishop
Turns Insurrection to Religion;
Suppos'd sincere and holy in his thoughts,
He's follow'd both with body and with mind,
And doth enlarge his Rising with the blood
Of fair King Richard, scrap'd from Pomfret stones;
Derives from heav'n his quarrel and his cause;
Tells them, he doth ^{6 note}bestride a bleeding land
Gasping for life, under great Bolingbroke,
And more, and less, do flock to follow him.

North.
I knew of this before, but to speak truth,
This present grief had wip'd it from my mind.
Go in with me, and counsel every man
The aptest way for safety and revenge.
Get posts, and letters, and make friends with speed;
Never so few, nor never yet more need. [Exeunt.

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