Rumor

1. Open your ears ; for which of you will stop
2. The vent of hearing when loud Rumor speaks ?
3. I , from the orient to the drooping west
4. ( Making the wind my post - horse ), still unfold
5. The acts commenced on this ball of earth .
6. Upon my tongues continual slanders ride ,
7. The which in every language I pronounce ,
8. Stuffing the ears of men with false reports .
9. I speak of peace , while covert enmity
10. Under the smile of safety wounds the world ;
11. And who but Rumor , who but only I ,
12. Make fearful musters and prepar’d defense ,

    	Aug 1, 2020 Miko Mustering, also called pressing, was the practice of capturing random men in public places and forcing them to serve in the army. In 1599 over 9,000 men in England had been mustered.
    	Aug 1, 2020 Miko organized militia

13. Whiles the big year , swoll’n with some other grief ,
14. Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war ,
15. And no such matter ? Rumor is a pipe
16. Blown by surmises , jealousies , conjectures ,
17. And of so easy and so plain a stop
18. That the blunt monster with uncounted heads ,
19. The still - discordant wav’ring multitude ,
20. Can play upon it . But what need I thus
21. My well - known body to anatomize
22. Among my household ? Why is Rumor here ?
23. I run before King Harry’s victory ,
24. Who in a bloody field by Shrewsbury
25. Hath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops ,
26. Quenching the flame of bold rebellion
27. Even with the rebels’ blood . But what mean I
28. To speak so true at first ? My office is
29. To noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fell
30. Under the wrath of noble Hotspur’s sword ,
31. And that the King before the Douglas’ rage
32. Stoop’d his anointed head as low as death .
33. This have I rumor’d through the peasant towns
34. Between that royal field of Shrewsbury
35. And this worm - eaten hold of ragged stone ,
36. Where Hotspur’s father , old Northumberland ,
37. Lies crafty - sick . The posts come tiring on ,
38. And not a man of them brings other news
39. Than they have learnt of me . From Rumor’s tongues
40. They bring smooth comforts false , worse than true wrongs .