L. Bard . Ay, marry, there’s the point:

But if without him we be thought too feeble.
My judgment is, we should not step too far so
Till we had his assistance by the hand;
For in a theme so bloody-fac’d as this,
Conjecture, expectation, and surmise
Of aids incertain should not be admitted. 24
10 file: muster roll
12 supplies: reinforcements
21
King Henry the Fourth , /„ Hi
Arch , ’Tis very true, Lord Bardolph; for, indeed It was young Hotspur’s case at Shrewsbury,
L.Bard . It was5 my lord; who lin’d himself with hope,
Eating the air on promise of supply, 28
Flattering himself with project of a power Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts; And so, with great imagination
Proper to madmen, led his powers to death, 32
And winking leap’d into destruction.
Hast . But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt To lay down likelihoods and forms of hope.
L Bard . Yes, if this present quality of war, — 36 Indeed the instant action, — a cause on foot, lives so in hope, as in an early spring We see the appearing buds; which, to prove fruit, Hope gives not so much warrant as despair 40
That frosts will bite them. When we mean to build. We first survey the plot, then draw the model;
And when we see the figure of the house,
Then must we rate the cost of the erection; 44
Which if we find outweighs ability,
What do we then but draw anew the model In fewer offices, or at last desist
To build at all ? Much more, in this great work,— 48 Which is almost to pluck a kingdom down And set another up, — should we survey The plot of situation and the model,
Consent upon a sure foundation, 38
Question surveyors, know our own estate.
How able such a work to undergo,
To weigh against his opposite; or else,
27 lin’d: strengthened
29, 30 project . . . smaller: anticipation of an army actually much smaller 33 winking: with eyes closed 36-41 Cf. n.
43 figuT a: plan 47 offices: domestic Quarters 53-53 Cf.n,
22
The Second Part of
We fortify in paper, and in figures, 56
Using the names of men instead of men:
Like one that draws the model of a house Beyond his power to build it; who, half through, Gives o’er and leaves his part-created cost 60
A naked subject to the weeping clouds.
And waste for churlish winter’s tyranny.
Hast. Grant that our hopes, yet likely of fair birth,
Should be still-born, and that we now possess’d 64 The utmost man of expectation;
I think we are a body strong enough,
Even as we are, to equal with the king.