The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, Continuing to his Death, and Coronation of Henry the Fifth.

Open your ears; for which of you will stop

25The vent of hearing, when loud Rumor speaks?

36I from the orient to the drooping west

47(Making the wind my post-horse) still unfold

58The acts commencèd on this ball of earth.

69Upon my tongues continual slanders ride,

710The which in every language I pronounce,

811Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.

912I speak of peace while covert enmity

1013Under the smile of safety wounds the world;

1114And who but Rumor, who but only I,

1215Make fearful musters, and prepared defense,

1316Whiles the big year, swoll'n with some other grief,

1417Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,

1518And no such matter? Rumor is a pipe,

1619Blown by surmises, jealousy's conjectures,

1720And of so easy, and so plain a stop,

1821That the blunt monster, with uncounted heads,

1922The still discordant wav'ring multitude,

2023Can play upon it. But what need I thus

2124My well-known body to anatomize

2225Among my household? Why is Rumor here?

2326I run before King Harry's victory,

2427Who in a bloody field by Shrewsbury,

2528Hath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops,

2629Quenching the flame of bold rebellion,

2730Even with the rebels' blood. But what mean I

2831To speak so true at first? My office is

2932To noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fell

3033Under the wrath of noble Hotspur's sword,

3134And that the king before the Douglas' rage

3235Stooped his annointed head as low as death.

3336This have I rumored through the peasant towns

3437Between that royal field of Shrewsbury

3538And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone,

3639Where Hotspur's father, old Northumberland,

3740Lies crafty sick, the posts come tiring on,

3841And not a man of them brings other news

3942Than they have learned of me. From Rumor's tongues

4043They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true wrongs.