A sword, whose temper I intend to stain
With the best blood that I can draw withal
In the adventure of this perilous day.
Now,—Esperance!—Percy!—and set on.—
Sound all the lofty instruments of war,
And by that musick let us all embrace:
For, heaven to earth, some of us never shall
A second time do such a courtesy."
What are we to understand by the words "For heaven to earth," in the last line but one? Can they be tortured, by any ingenuity, to signify, as Warburton paraphrases them, "One might wager heaven to earth"? To say nothing, of such extraordinary and unwonted ellipsis, would it not be a strange wager, and stranger thought, to enter Hotspur's mind at such a moment? I feel assured that Shakspeare wrote, and that we should read:
"Sound all the lofty instruments of war,