Page 680 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

HOTSPUR

But soft, I pray you. Did King Richard then [155]
Proclaim my brother Edmund Mortimer
Heir to the crown?

NORTHUMBERLAND
He did; myself did hear it.

HOTSPUR

Nay, then I cannot blame his cousin king,
That wished him on the barren mountains starve.
But shall it be that you, that set the crown [160]
Upon the head of this forgetful man,
And for his sake wear the detested blot

Of murderous subornation − shall it be
That you a world of curses undergo,
Being the agents or base second means, [165]

The cords, the ladder, or the hangman rather?
O, pardon me that I descend so low
To show the line and the predicament
Wherein you range under this subtle king!
Shall it for shame be spoken in these days, [170]

Or fill up chronicles in time to come,
That men of your nobility and power
Did gage them both in an unjust behalf

(As both of you, God pardon it! have done)
To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose, [175]
And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke?
And shall it in more shame be further spoken
That you are fooled, discarded, and shook off

By him for whom these shames ye underwent?
No! yet time serves wherein you may redeem [180]
Your banished honours and restore yourselves

Into the good thoughts of the world again;
Revenge the jeering and disdained contempt
Of this proud king, who studies day and night
To answer all the debt he owes to you [185]
Even with the bloody payment of your deaths.