2. Find we: let us find.
3-4. accents: words. new broils / To be commenced in strands afar remote: At the close of Richard II (5.4.49-50) the newly crowned Henry IV, remorseful for the death of Richard, had promised to "make a voyage to "the Holy Land / To wash this blood off from my guilty hand."
4. stronds: strands, shores.
5. thirsty entrance: parched mouth.
7. trenching: cutting.
8-9. armed hoofs / Of hostile paces: tread of armed horses in combat. opposed: hostile (of enemies).
12. intestine: internal.
13. close: encounter, hand-to-hand combat.
14. mutual: united for a common purpose.
18. his: its.
21. impressed: conscripted. engag'd: pledged.
22. power: force, army.
28. twelve month old: a year; used collectively. Actually, two years separated Richard II's death (1400) and the battle of Holmedon, news of which reaches the King at lines 52 ff.
29. bootless: useless.
30. Therefore we meet not now: it is not for this purpose that we meet now.
31. gentle cousin: noble kinsman.
33. dear expedience: urgent undertaking or expedition.
34. liege: sovereign. hot in question: being hotly debated, under urgent discussion.
35. limits of the charge set down: specific military responsibilities assigned; also, possibly estimates of expense.
36. athwart: across (the plans). Also, frustrating, interrupting.
37. post: messenger. heavy: sad, depressing.
38. worst: i.e., worst news. Mortimer: Shakespeare, following Holinshed, Shakespeare confuses Glendower's captive Sir Edmund Mortimer (1376-?1409), a later Edmund Mortimer (1391-1425), fifth and last Earl of March, who had been named heir presumptive by Richard II in 1398.
40. irregular: lawless; i.e. because he resorted to guerrilla warfare.
43-46. corpse': corpses. Upon whose dead corpse there was such misuse, / Such beastly shameless transformation, / By whose Welshwomen done as may not be / Without much shame retold or spoken of: Holinshed also says that the outrages are unmentionable.
44. transformation: mutilation. According to Holinshed "the shamefull villanie used by the Welsh-women towards the dead carcasses [of the English], was such, as honest eares would be ashamed to heare, and continent toongs to speake thereof."
48. Brake: broke.
49. This match'd with other: this piece of news matched with another; i.e. other tidings. Actually, the battle at Homildon (or Humbleton) Hill in Northumberland (September 1402) occurred three months after Mortimer's capture by Glendower.
50. uneven: embarrassing, disturbing.
52. Holy-rood day: September 14.
53. Young Harry Percy: Although here and elsewhere Shakespeare portrays Sir Henry Percy, eldest son of the first Earl of Northumberland, as a highspirited youth, he was in fact thirty-eight years old in 1402, twenty-three years the senior of Prince Hal, his rival and presumed contemporary in this play. brave Archibald: Archibald Douglas (1369?-1424), fourth Earl of Douglas and first Duke of Touraine, a Scot noted for his valor.
57. by: i.e., judging from.
58. shape of likelihood: apparent probability.
59. them: i.e., the news.
60. pride: height.
62. true industrious: truly devoted.
64. the variation of each: every kind of.
66. smooth: flattering, pleasant.
69. Balk'd: heaped up in balks or ridges.
71. Mordake: Murdac Stewart, son of Robert Stewart, first Earl of Albany and "governor" of Scotland.
82. plant: tree.
83. minion: darling.
87. some night-tripping fairy: It was popularly believed that defective children were "changelings" left by fairies in exchange for babies whom they had abducted.
89. Plantagenet: family name of the English royal family.
91. from: go from. coz: cousin; i.e., kinsman.
93. surpris'd: captured.
94. To his own use: i.e., for purpose of ransom.
95. none but Mordake. Although Hotspur could legitimately hold the other prisoners he had taken, the law of arms required that Murdac, being of royal blood (grandson of Robert II), be surrendered to the King.
97. Malevolent to you in all aspects: i.e., habitually hostile (a metaphor from astrology).
98. Which: i.e., Worcester's "teaching." prune: preen, trim (a term from falconry).
101. neglect: put aside.
107. uttered: said in public.