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Henry IV, Part 2 - Induction
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Last updated: Fri, Jul 31, 2015
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Henry IV, Part 2 - InductionInduction
⟨INDUCTION⟩
Synopsis:
Following the battle of Shrewsbury (where King Henry and Prince Hal were victorious and Hotspur killed), Rumor spreads the false information that Hotspur was the victor and the King and Prince were killed.
Enter Rumor, painted full of tongues.⌜RUMOR⌝
0001 Open your ears, for which of you will stop
0002 The vent of hearing when loud Rumor speaks?
0003 I, from the orient to the drooping west,
0004 Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
0005 5 The acts commencèd on this ball of earth.
0006 Upon my tongues continual slanders ride,
0007 The which in every language I pronounce,
0008 Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.
0009 I speak of peace while covert enmity
0010 10 Under the smile of safety wounds the world.
0011 And who but Rumor, who but only I,
0012 Make fearful musters and prepared defense
0013 Whiles the big year, swoll’n with some other grief,
0014 Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
0015 15 And no such matter? Rumor is a pipe
0016 Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures,
0017 And of so easy and so plain a stop
0018 That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
0019 The still-discordant wav’ring multitude,
0020 20 Can play upon it. But what need I thus
0021 My well-known body to anatomize
0022 Among my household? Why is Rumor here?
0023 I run before King Harry’s victory,
p.
9
0024
Who in a bloody field by Shrewsbury0025 25 Hath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops,
0026 Quenching the flame of bold rebellion
0027 Even with the rebels’ blood. But what mean I
0028 To speak so true at first? My office is
0029 To noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fell
0030 30 Under the wrath of noble Hotspur’s sword,
0031 And that the King before the Douglas’ rage
0032 Stooped his anointed head as low as death.
0033 This have I rumored through the peasant towns
0034 Between that royal field of Shrewsbury
0035 35 And this worm-eaten ⌜hold⌝ of ragged stone,
0036 ⟨Where⟩ Hotspur’s father, old Northumberland,
0037 Lies crafty-sick. The posts come tiring on,
0038 And not a man of them brings other news
0039 Than they have learnt of me. From Rumor’s
0040 40 tongues
0041 They bring smooth comforts false, worse than
0042 true wrongs.
⌜Rumor⌝ exits.