Act VScene II
Plain near Tamworth
Enter Richmond, Oxford, Blunt, Herbert, and others, with drum and colours.
Richmond
Fellows in arms, and my most loving friends,Bruised underneath the yoke of tyranny,Thus far into the bowels of the landHave we marched on without impediment;And here receive we from our father StanleyLines of fair comfort and encouragement.The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar,That spoiled your summer fields and fruitful vines,Swills your warm blood like wash, and makes his troughIn your embowelled bosoms—this foul swineIs now even in the centre of this isle,Near to the town of Leicester, as we learn.From Tamworth thither is but one day’s march.In God’s name, cheerly on, courageous friends,To reap the harvest of perpetual peaceBy this one bloody trial of sharp war.
Oxford
Every man’s conscience is a thousand men,To fight against that guilty homicide.
Herbert
I doubt not but his friends will turn to us.
Blunt
He hath no friends but what are friends for fear,Which in his dearest need will fly from him.
Richmond
All for our vantage. Then in God’s name, march.True hope is swift, and flies with swallow’s wings;Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.
Exeunt.