Of guns, and drums, and wounds,—God save the mark!—56
And telling me the sovereign'st thing on earth
Was parmaceti for an inward bruise;
And that it was great pity, so it was,
This villainous saltpetre should be digg'd 60
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd
So cowardly; and but for these vile guns,
He would himself have been a soldier. 64
This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord,
I answer'd indirectly, as I said;
And I beseech you, let not his report
Come current for an accusation 68
Betwixt my love and your high majesty.
Blunt. The circumstance consider'd, good my lord,
What e'er Lord Harry Percy then had said
To such a person and in such a place, 72
At such a time, with all the rest re-told,
May reasonably die and never rise
To do him wrong, or any way impeach
What then he said, so he unsay it now. 76
King. Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners,
But with proviso and exception,
That we at our own charge shall ransom straight
His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer; 80
Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betray'd
The lives of those that he did lead to fight
Against that great magician, damn'd Glendower,
Whose daughter, as we hear, the Earl of March
56 God save the mark; cf. n.
57 sovereign'at: of most supreme excellence
58 parmaceti: corrupted form of spermaceti, a substance found in whale-oil
62 tall: valiant
75 impeach: call in question
80 brother-in-law; cf. n. on ll. 145–6
84 Earl of March: Mortimer
