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The Plays of William Shakspeare (5); King Henry Iv., Part Ii. King Henry V. King Henry Vi., Part I. King Henry Vi., Part Ii
The Plays of William Shakspeare King Henry Iv Part Ii King Henry V King Henry Vi Part I King Henry Vi Part Ii - 5 Author:William Shakespeare Volume: 5 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1811 Original Publisher: J. Nichols Subjects: Drama / Shakespeare Literary Criticism / Shakespeare Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition ... more »of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: INDUCTION. Warkworth. Before Northumberland's Castle. Enter Rumour,1 painted full of Tongues. Rum. Open your ears; For which of yo, u will stop The vent of hearing, when loud Rumour speaks ? I, from the orient to the drooping west, Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold The 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 enmity, Under the smile of safety, wounds the world: And who but Rumour, who but only I, Make fearful musters, and prepar'd defence; Whilst the big year, swol'n with some other grief, Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war, And no such matter! Rumour is a pipe Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures; And of so easy and so plain a stop, That the blunt monster with uncounted heads, The still discordant wavering multitude, Can play upon it. But what need I thus My well-known body to anatomize 1 Enter Rumour.] This speech of Rumour is not inelegant or unpoetical, but it is wholly useless, since we are told nothing which the first scene daes not clearly and naturally discover. The only end of such prologues is to inform the audience of some facts previous to the action, of which they can have no knowledge from the persons of the drama. Johnson. VOL. V. B 3 Among my houshold ? Why is Rumour here ? I run before king Harry's victory; Who, in a bloody field by Shrewsbury, Hath beaten down young Hotspur, and his troops, Que...« less