The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth (Annotated)
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The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth (Annotated) Details
RUMOUR.Open your ears; for which of you will stopThe vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks?I, from the orient to the drooping west,Making the wind my post-horse, still unfoldThe acts commenced on this ball of earth: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 emnityUnder the smile of safety wounds the world:And who but Rumour, who but only I,Make fearful musters and prepared defence,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 pipeBlown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures,And of so easy and so plain a stopThat the blunt monster with uncounted heads,The still-discordant wavering multitude,Can play upon it. But what need I thusMy well-known body to anatomizeAmong my household? Why is Rumour here?I run before King Harry's victory;Who in a bloody field by ShrewsburyHath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops,Quenching the flame of bold rebellionEven with the rebels' blood. But what mean ITo speak so true at first? my office isTo noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fellUnder the wrath of noble Hotspur's sword,And that the king before the Douglas' rageStoop'd his anointed head as low as death.This have I rumour'd through the peasant townsBetween that royal field of ShrewsburyAnd this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone,Where Hotspur's father, old Northumberland,Lies crafty-sick: the posts come tiring on,And not a man of them brings other newsThan they have learn'd of me: from Rumour's tonguesThey bring smooth comforts false, worse than true wrongs.This edition includes:- A complete biography of William Shakespeare- Table of contents with directs links to chapters.
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