Of guns, and drums, and wounds—God save the mark!—
And telling me the sovereignest thing on earth
Was parmacety for an inward bruise,
And that it was great pity, so it was,
This villanous saltpeter should be digged
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Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow had destroyed
So cowardly, and but for these vile guns
He would himself have been a soldier.
This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord,
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I answered indirectly, as I said,
And I beseech you, let not his report
Come current for an accusation
Betwixt my love and your high Majesty.
I was so angry, looking at him all shiny and sweet-smelling, and speaking like a squeamish woman about guns and battle drums and wounds—God almighty! —and telling me the best thing for an injury is parmaceti
, and that it was a shame that the blameless earth had to be dug up to find saltpeter for the gunpowder, when so many good, brave men had been cowardly destroyed by guns, and that if it hadn't been for those disgusting guns, he would have been a soldier himself. All this trivial, incoherent talk I answered offhandedly, as I've already told you. So I beg you: please don't take his word as evidence that there's anything wrong between you and me, your Majesty.
BLUNT
The circumstance considered, good my lord,
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Whate'er Lord Harry Percy then had said
To such a person and in such a place,
At such a time, with all the rest retold,
May reasonably die and never rise
To do him wrong or any way impeach
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What then he said, so he unsay it now.
BLUNT
Given the circumstances, my lord, whatever Harry Percy may have said to a man like that, in a place and time like that, should be allowed to die and never be spoken of again. It should never be used against Harry in any way, since he has taken it all back now.
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,
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Who, on my soul, hath willfully betrayed
The lives of those that he did lead to fight
Against that great magician, damned Glendower,
Whose daughter, as we hear, the Earl of March
Hath lately married. Shall our coffers then
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Be emptied to redeem a traitor home?
Shall we buy treason and indent with fears
When they have lost and forfeited themselves?
No, on the barren mountains let him starve,
For I shall never hold that man my friend
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Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost
To ransom home revolted Mortimer.
KING
But he still won't turn over his prisoners unless he can add these stipulations and exceptions. He wants me, at my own cost, to pay ransom for his brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer, a man who, on my life, willfully betrayed his own men, whom he had led in fighting against that great magician, the damned Glendower. And now we hear that Mortimer has married Glendower's daughter! Should the treasury be emptied to ransom a traitor? Should I pay for treason, and bargain for a coward, when it was Mortimer who lost himself? No. Let him starve in the wilderness. No man who asks me to spend one penny on that traitor Mortimer can ever be a friend of mine.
