And cleave the general ear with horrid548 speech,
Make mad the guilty and appal the free549,
Confound the ignorant and amaze550 indeed
The very faculty of eyes and ears. Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak552
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of553 my cause,
And can say nothing: no, not for a king
Upon whose property555 and most dear life
A damned defeat556 was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain? Breaks my pate557 across?
Plucks off558 my beard and blows it in my face?
Tweaks me by th'nose? Gives me the lie i'th'throat559,
As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this560?
Ha!
Why, I should take it, for it cannot be
But I am pigeon-livered563 and lack gall
To make oppression bitter, or ere this
I should have fatted all the region kites565
With this slave's offal566: bloody, bawdy villain!
Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless567 villain!
O, vengeance!
Why, what an ass am I! Ay, sure, this is most brave569,
That I, the son of the dear murdered,
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
Must like a whore unpack my heart with words
And fall a-cursing, like a very drab, a scullion573!
Fie upon't, foh! About574, my brain! I have heard
That guilty creatures sitting at a play
Have by the very cunning576 of the scene
Been struck so to the soul that presently577