ACT I
ACT I, SCENE I. London. The palace.
[Enter KING HENRY, LORD JOHN OF LANCASTER, the EARL of WESTMORELAND,
SIR WALTER BLUNT, and others]
KING HENRY IV:
- So shaken as we are, so wan with care,
- Find we a time for frighted peace to pant,
- And breathe short-winded accents of new broils
- To be commenced in strands afar remote.
- No more the thirsty entrance of this soil
- Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood;
- Nor more shall trenching war channel her fields,
- Nor bruise her flowerets with the armed hoofs
- Of hostile paces: those opposed eyes,
- Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,
- All of one nature, of one substance bred,
- Did lately meet in the intestine shock
- And furious close of civil butchery
- Shall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks,
- March all one way and be no more opposed
- Against acquaintance, kindred and allies:
- The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife,
- No more shall cut his master. Therefore, friends,
- As far as to the sepulchre of Christ,
- Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross
- We are impressed and engaged to fight,
- Forthwith a power of English shall we levy;
- Whose arms were moulded in their mothers' womb
- To chase these pagans in those holy fields
- Over whose acres walk'd those blessed feet
- Which fourteen hundred years ago were nail'd
- For our advantage on the bitter cross.
- But this our purpose now is twelve month old,
- And bootless 'tis to tell you we will go:
- Therefore we meet not now. Then let me hear
- Of you, my gentle cousin Westmoreland,
- What yesternight our council did decree
- In forwarding this dear expedience.
WESTMORELAND:
- My liege, this haste was hot in question,
- And many limits of the charge set down
- But yesternight: when all athwart there came
- A post from Wales loaden with heavy news;
- Whose worst was, that the noble Mortimer,
- Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight
- Against the irregular and wild Glendower,
- Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken,
- A thousand of his people butchered;
- Upon whose dead corpse there was such misuse,
- Such beastly shameless transformation,
- By those Welshwomen done as may not be
- Without much shame retold or spoken of.
KING HENRY IV:
- It seems then that the tidings of this broil
- Brake off our business for the Holy Land.
WESTMORELAND:
- This match'd with other did, my gracious lord;
- For more uneven and unwelcome news
- Came from the north and thus it did import:
- On Holy-rood day, the gallant Hotspur there,
- Young Harry Percy and brave Archibald,
- That ever-valiant and approved Scot,
- At Holmedon met,
- Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour,
- As by discharge of their artillery,
- And shape of likelihood, the news was told;
- For he that brought them, in the very heat
- And pride of their contention did take horse,
- Uncertain of the issue any way.
KING HENRY IV:
- Here is a dear, a true industrious friend,
- Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse.
- Stain'd with the variation of each soil
- Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours;
- And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news.
- The Earl of Douglas is discomfited:
- Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights,
- Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see
- On Holmedon's plains. Of prisoners, Hotspur took
- Mordake the Earl of Fife, and eldest son
- To beaten Douglas; and the Earl of Athol,
- Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith:
- And is not this an honourable spoil?
- A gallant prize? ha, cousin, is it not?
WESTMORELAND:
- In faith,
- It is a conquest for a prince to boast of.
KING HENRY IV:
- Yea, there thou makest me sad and makest me sin
- In envy that my Lord Northumberland
- Should be the father to so blest a son,
- A son who is the theme of honour's tongue;
- Amongst a grove, the very straightest plant;
- Who is sweet Fortune's minion and her pride:
- Whilst I, by looking on the praise of him,
- See riot and dishonour stain the brow
- Of my young Harry. O that it could be proved
- That some night-tripping fairy had exchanged
- In cradle-clothes our children where they lay,
- And call'd mine Percy, his Plantagenet!
- Then would I have his Harry, and he mine.
- But let him from my thoughts. What think you, coz,
- Of this young Percy's pride? the prisoners,
- Which he in this adventure hath surprised,
- To his own use he keeps; and sends me word,
- I shall have none but Mordake Earl of Fife.
WESTMORELAND:
- This is his uncle's teaching; this is Worcester,
- Malevolent to you in all aspects;
- Which makes him prune himself, and bristle up
- The crest of youth against your dignity.
KING HENRY IV:
- But I have sent for him to answer this;
- And for this cause awhile we must neglect
- Our holy purpose to Jerusalem.
- Cousin, on Wednesday next our council we
- Will hold at Windsor; so inform the lords:
- But come yourself with speed to us again;
- For more is to be said and to be done
- Than out of anger can be uttered.
WESTMORELAND:
- I will, my liege.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT I, SCENE II. London. An apartment of the Prince's.
[Enter the PRINCE OF WALES and FALSTAFF]
FALSTAFF:
- Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?
PRINCE HENRY:
- Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack
- and unbuttoning thee after supper and sleeping upon
- benches after noon, that thou hast forgotten to
- demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know.
- What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the
- day? Unless hours were cups of sack and minutes
- capons and clocks the tongues of bawds and dials the
- signs of leaping-houses and the blessed sun himself
- a fair hot wench in flame-coloured taffeta, I see no
- reason why thou shouldst be so superfluous to demand
- the time of the day.
FALSTAFF:
- Indeed, you come near me now, Hal; for we that take
- purses go by the moon and the seven stars, and not
- by Phoebus, he,'that wandering knight so fair.' And,
- I prithee, sweet wag, when thou art king, as, God
- save thy grace,--majesty I should say, for grace
- thou wilt have none,--
PRINCE HENRY:
- What, none?
FALSTAFF:
- No, by my troth, not so much as will serve to
- prologue to an egg and butter.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Well, how then? come, roundly, roundly.
FALSTAFF:
- Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not
- us that are squires of the night's body be called
- thieves of the day's beauty: let us be Diana's
- foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the
- moon; and let men say we be men of good government,
- being governed, as the sea is, by our noble and
- chaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance we steal.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Thou sayest well, and it holds well too; for the
- fortune of us that are the moon's men doth ebb and
- flow like the sea, being governed, as the sea is,
- by the moon. As, for proof, now: a purse of gold
- most resolutely snatched on Monday night and most
- dissolutely spent on Tuesday morning; got with
- swearing 'Lay by' and spent with crying 'Bring in;'
- now in as low an ebb as the foot of the ladder
- and by and by in as high a flow as the ridge of the gallows.
FALSTAFF:
- By the Lord, thou sayest true, lad. And is not my
- hostess of the tavern a most sweet wench?
PRINCE HENRY:
- As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle. And
- is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance?
FALSTAFF:
- How now, how now, mad wag! what, in thy quips and
- thy quiddities? what a plague have I to do with a
- buff jerkin?
PRINCE HENRY:
- Why, what a pox have I to do with my hostess of the tavern?
FALSTAFF:
- Well, thou hast called her to a reckoning many a
- time and oft.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part?
FALSTAFF:
- No; I'll give thee thy due, thou hast paid all there.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Yea, and elsewhere, so far as my coin would stretch;
- and where it would not, I have used my credit.
FALSTAFF:
- Yea, and so used it that were it not here apparent
- that thou art heir apparent--But, I prithee, sweet
- wag, shall there be gallows standing in England when
- thou art king? and resolution thus fobbed as it is
- with the rusty curb of old father antic the law? Do
- not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief.
PRINCE HENRY:
- No; thou shalt.
FALSTAFF:
- Shall I? O rare! By the Lord, I'll be a brave judge.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Thou judgest false already: I mean, thou shalt have
- the hanging of the thieves and so become a rare hangman.
FALSTAFF:
- Well, Hal, well; and in some sort it jumps with my
- humour as well as waiting in the court, I can tell
- you.
PRINCE HENRY:
- For obtaining of suits?
FALSTAFF:
- Yea, for obtaining of suits, whereof the hangman
- hath no lean wardrobe. 'Sblood, I am as melancholy
- as a gib cat or a lugged bear.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Or an old lion, or a lover's lute.
FALSTAFF:
- Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe.
PRINCE HENRY:
- What sayest thou to a hare, or the melancholy of
- Moor-ditch?
FALSTAFF:
- Thou hast the most unsavoury similes and art indeed
- the most comparative, rascalliest, sweet young
- prince. But, Hal, I prithee, trouble me no more
- with vanity. I would to God thou and I knew where a
- commodity of good names were to be bought. An old
- lord of the council rated me the other day in the
- street about you, sir, but I marked him not; and yet
- he talked very wisely, but I regarded him not; and
- yet he talked wisely, and in the street too.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Thou didst well; for wisdom cries out in the
- streets, and no man regards it.
FALSTAFF:
- O, thou hast damnable iteration and art indeed able
- to corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm upon
- me, Hal; God forgive thee for it! Before I knew
- thee, Hal, I knew nothing; and now am I, if a man
- should speak truly, little better than one of the
- wicked. I must give over this life, and I will give
- it over: by the Lord, and I do not, I am a villain:
- I'll be damned for never a king's son in
- Christendom.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Where shall we take a purse tomorrow, Jack?
FALSTAFF:
- 'Zounds, where thou wilt, lad; I'll make one; an I
- do not, call me villain and baffle me.
PRINCE HENRY:
- I see a good amendment of life in thee; from praying
- to purse-taking.
FALSTAFF:
- Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal; 'tis no sin for a
- man to labour in his vocation.
-
[Enter POINS]
- Poins! Now shall we know if Gadshill have set a
- match. O, if men were to be saved by merit, what
- hole in hell were hot enough for him? This is the
- most omnipotent villain that ever cried 'Stand' to
- a true man.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Good morrow, Ned.
POINS:
- Good morrow, sweet Hal. What says Monsieur Remorse?
- what says Sir John Sack and Sugar? Jack! how
- agrees the devil and thee about thy soul, that thou
- soldest him on Good-Friday last for a cup of Madeira
- and a cold capon's leg?
PRINCE HENRY:
- Sir John stands to his word, the devil shall have
- his bargain; for he was never yet a breaker of
- proverbs: he will give the devil his due.
POINS:
- Then art thou damned for keeping thy word with the devil.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Else he had been damned for cozening the devil.
POINS:
- But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning, by four
- o'clock, early at Gadshill! there are pilgrims going
- to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders
- riding to London with fat purses: I have vizards
- for you all; you have horses for yourselves:
- Gadshill lies to-night in Rochester: I have bespoke
- supper to-morrow night in Eastcheap: we may do it
- as secure as sleep. If you will go, I will stuff
- your purses full of crowns; if you will not, tarry
- at home and be hanged.
FALSTAFF:
- Hear ye, Yedward; if I tarry at home and go not,
- I'll hang you for going.
FALSTAFF:
- Hal, wilt thou make one?
PRINCE HENRY:
- Who, I rob? I a thief? not I, by my faith.
FALSTAFF:
- There's neither honesty, manhood, nor good
- fellowship in thee, nor thou camest not of the blood
- royal, if thou darest not stand for ten shillings.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Well then, once in my days I'll be a madcap.
FALSTAFF:
- Why, that's well said.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Well, come what will, I'll tarry at home.
FALSTAFF:
- By the Lord, I'll be a traitor then, when thou art king.
PRINCE HENRY:
- I care not.
POINS:
- Sir John, I prithee, leave the prince and me alone:
- I will lay him down such reasons for this adventure
- that he shall go.
FALSTAFF:
- Well, God give thee the spirit of persuasion and him
- the ears of profiting, that what thou speakest may
- move and what he hears may be believed, that the
- true prince may, for recreation sake, prove a false
- thief; for the poor abuses of the time want
- countenance. Farewell: you shall find me in Eastcheap.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Farewell, thou latter spring! farewell, All-hallown summer!
-
[Exit Falstaff]
POINS:
- Now, my good sweet honey lord, ride with us
- to-morrow: I have a jest to execute that I cannot
- manage alone. Falstaff, Bardolph, Peto and Gadshill
- shall rob those men that we have already waylaid:
- yourself and I will not be there; and when they
- have the booty, if you and I do not rob them, cut
- this head off from my shoulders.
PRINCE HENRY:
- How shall we part with them in setting forth?
POINS:
- Why, we will set forth before or after them, and
- appoint them a place of meeting, wherein it is at
- our pleasure to fail, and then will they adventure
- upon the exploit themselves; which they shall have
- no sooner achieved, but we'll set upon them.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Yea, but 'tis like that they will know us by our
- horses, by our habits and by every other
- appointment, to be ourselves.
POINS:
- Tut! our horses they shall not see: I'll tie them
- in the wood; our vizards we will change after we
- leave them: and, sirrah, I have cases of buckram
- for the nonce, to immask our noted outward garments.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Yea, but I doubt they will be too hard for us.
POINS:
- Well, for two of them, I know them to be as
- true-bred cowards as ever turned back; and for the
- third, if he fight longer than he sees reason, I'll
- forswear arms. The virtue of this jest will be, the
- incomprehensible lies that this same fat rogue will
- tell us when we meet at supper: how thirty, at
- least, he fought with; what wards, what blows, what
- extremities he endured; and in the reproof of this
- lies the jest.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Well, I'll go with thee: provide us all things
- necessary and meet me to-morrow night in Eastcheap;
- there I'll sup. Farewell.
POINS:
- Farewell, my lord.
-
[Exit Poins]
PRINCE HENRY:
- I know you all, and will awhile uphold
- The unyoked humour of your idleness:
- Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
- Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
- To smother up his beauty from the world,
- That, when he please again to be himself,
- Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at,
- By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
- Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.
- If all the year were playing holidays,
- To sport would be as tedious as to work;
- But when they seldom come, they wish'd for come,
- And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
- So, when this loose behavior I throw off
- And pay the debt I never promised,
- By how much better than my word I am,
- By so much shall I falsify men's hopes;
- And like bright metal on a sullen ground,
- My reformation, glittering o'er my fault,
- Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes
- Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
- I'll so offend, to make offence a skill;
- Redeeming time when men think least I will.
-
[Exit]
ACT I, SCENE III. London. The palace.
[Enter the KING, NORTHUMBERLAND, WORCESTER, HOTSPUR,
SIR WALTER BLUNT, with others]
KING HENRY IV:
- My blood hath been too cold and temperate,
- Unapt to stir at these indignities,
- And you have found me; for accordingly
- You tread upon my patience: but be sure
- I will from henceforth rather be myself,
- Mighty and to be fear'd, than my condition;
- Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down,
- And therefore lost that title of respect
- Which the proud soul ne'er pays but to the proud.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- Our house, my sovereign liege, little deserves
- The scourge of greatness to be used on it;
- And that same greatness too which our own hands
- Have holp to make so portly.
NORTHUMBERLAND:
- My lord.--
KING HENRY IV:
- Worcester, get thee gone; for I do see
- Danger and disobedience in thine eye:
- O, sir, your presence is too bold and peremptory,
- And majesty might never yet endure
- The moody frontier of a servant brow.
- You have good leave to leave us: when we need
- Your use and counsel, we shall send for you.
-
[Exit Worcester]
- You were about to speak.
-
[To North]
NORTHUMBERLAND:
- Yea, my good lord.
- Those prisoners in your highness' name demanded,
- Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took,
- Were, as he says, not with such strength denied
- As is deliver'd to your majesty:
- Either envy, therefore, or misprison
- Is guilty of this fault and not my son.
HOTSPUR:
- My liege, I did deny no prisoners.
- But I remember, when the fight was done,
- When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,
- Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
- Came there a certain lord, neat, and trimly dress'd,
- Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin new reap'd
- Show'd like a stubble-land at harvest-home;
- He was perfumed like a milliner;
- And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held
- A pouncet-box, which ever and anon
- He gave his nose and took't away again;
- Who therewith angry, when it next came there,
- Took it in snuff; and still he smiled and talk'd,
- And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
- He call'd them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
- To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse
- Betwixt the wind and his nobility.
- With many holiday and lady terms
- He question'd me; amongst the rest, demanded
- My prisoners in your majesty's behalf.
- I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold,
- To be so pester'd with a popinjay,
- Out of my grief and my impatience,
- Answer'd neglectingly I know not what,
- He should or he should not; for he made me mad
- To see him shine so brisk and smell so sweet
- And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman
- Of guns and drums and wounds,--God save the mark!--
- And telling me the sovereign'st thing on earth
- Was parmaceti for an inward bruise;
- And that it was great pity, so it was,
- This villanous salt-petre should be digg'd
- Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
- Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd
- So cowardly; and but for these vile guns,
- He would himself have been a soldier.
- This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord,
- I answer'd indirectly, as I said;
- And I beseech you, let not his report
- Come current for an accusation
- Betwixt my love and your high majesty.
SIR WALTER BLUNT:
- The circumstance consider'd, good my lord,
- Whate'er Lord Harry Percy then had said
- To such a person and in such a place,
- At such a time, with all the rest retold,
- May reasonably die and never rise
- To do him wrong or any way impeach
- What then he said, so he unsay it now.
KING HENRY IV:
- Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners,
- But with proviso and exception,
- That we at our own charge shall ransom straight
- His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer;
- Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betray'd
- The lives of those that he did lead to fight
- Against that great magician, damn'd Glendower,
- Whose daughter, as we hear, the Earl of March
- Hath lately married. Shall our coffers, then,
- Be emptied to redeem a traitor home?
- Shall we but treason? and indent with fears,
- When they have lost and forfeited themselves?
- No, on the barren mountains let him starve;
- For I shall never hold that man my friend
- Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost
- To ransom home revolted Mortimer.
HOTSPUR:
- Revolted Mortimer!
- He never did fall off, my sovereign liege,
- But by the chance of war; to prove that true
- Needs no more but one tongue for all those wounds,
- Those mouthed wounds, which valiantly he took
- When on the gentle Severn's sedgy bank,
- In single opposition, hand to hand,
- He did confound the best part of an hour
- In changing hardiment with great Glendower:
- Three times they breathed and three times did
- they drink,
- Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood;
- Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks,
- Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds,
- And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank,
- Bloodstained with these valiant combatants.
- Never did base and rotten policy
- Colour her working with such deadly wounds;
- Nor could the noble Mortimer
- Receive so many, and all willingly:
- Then let not him be slander'd with revolt.
HOTSPUR:
- An if the devil come and roar for them,
- I will not send them: I will after straight
- And tell him so; for I will ease my heart,
- Albeit I make a hazard of my head.
NORTHUMBERLAND:
- What, drunk with choler? stay and pause awhile:
- Here comes your uncle.
-
[Re-enter WORCESTER]
HOTSPUR:
- Speak of Mortimer!
- 'Zounds, I will speak of him; and let my soul
- Want mercy, if I do not join with him:
- Yea, on his part I'll empty all these veins,
- And shed my dear blood drop by drop in the dust,
- But I will lift the down-trod Mortimer
- As high in the air as this unthankful king,
- As this ingrate and canker'd Bolingbroke.
NORTHUMBERLAND:
- Brother, the king hath made your nephew mad.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- Who struck this heat up after I was gone?
HOTSPUR:
- He will, forsooth, have all my prisoners;
- And when I urged the ransom once again
- Of my wife's brother, then his cheek look'd pale,
- And on my face he turn'd an eye of death,
- Trembling even at the name of Mortimer.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- I cannot blame him: was not he proclaim'd
- By Richard that dead is the next of blood?
NORTHUMBERLAND:
- He was; I heard the proclamation:
- And then it was when the unhappy king,
- --Whose wrongs in us God pardon!--did set forth
- Upon his Irish expedition;
- From whence he intercepted did return
- To be deposed and shortly murdered.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- And for whose death we in the world's wide mouth
- Live scandalized and foully spoken of.
HOTSPUR:
- But soft, I pray you; did King Richard then
- Proclaim my brother Edmund Mortimer
- Heir to the crown?
NORTHUMBERLAND:
- He did; myself did hear it.
HOTSPUR:
- Nay, then I cannot blame his cousin king,
- That wished him on the barren mountains starve.
- But shall it be that you, that set the crown
- Upon the head of this forgetful man
- And for his sake wear the detested blot
- Of murderous subornation, shall it be,
- That you a world of curses undergo,
- Being the agents, or base second means,
- The cords, the ladder, or the hangman rather?
- O, pardon me that I descend so low,
- To show the line and the predicament
- Wherein you range under this subtle king;
- Shall it for shame be spoken in these days,
- Or fill up chronicles in time to come,
- That men of your nobility and power
- Did gage them both in an unjust behalf,
- As both of you--God pardon it!--have done,
- To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose,
- An plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke?
- And shall it in more shame be further spoken,
- That you are fool'd, discarded and shook off
- By him for whom these shames ye underwent?
- No; yet time serves wherein you may redeem
- Your banish'd honours and restore yourselves
- Into the good thoughts of the world again,
- Revenge the jeering and disdain'd contempt
- Of this proud king, who studies day and night
- To answer all the debt he owes to you
- Even with the bloody payment of your deaths:
- Therefore, I say--
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- Peace, cousin, say no more:
- And now I will unclasp a secret book,
- And to your quick-conceiving discontents
- I'll read you matter deep and dangerous,
- As full of peril and adventurous spirit
- As to o'er-walk a current roaring loud
- On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.
HOTSPUR:
- If he fall in, good night! or sink or swim:
- Send danger from the east unto the west,
- So honour cross it from the north to south,
- And let them grapple: O, the blood more stirs
- To rouse a lion than to start a hare!
NORTHUMBERLAND:
- Imagination of some great exploit
- Drives him beyond the bounds of patience.
HOTSPUR:
- By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap,
- To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon,
- Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
- Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
- And pluck up drowned honour by the locks;
- So he that doth redeem her thence might wear
- Without corrival, all her dignities:
- But out upon this half-faced fellowship!
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- He apprehends a world of figures here,
- But not the form of what he should attend.
- Good cousin, give me audience for a while.
HOTSPUR:
- I cry you mercy.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- Those same noble Scots
- That are your prisoners,--
HOTSPUR:
- I'll keep them all;
- By God, he shall not have a Scot of them;
- No, if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not:
- I'll keep them, by this hand.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- You start away
- And lend no ear unto my purposes.
- Those prisoners you shall keep.
HOTSPUR:
- Nay, I will; that's flat:
- He said he would not ransom Mortimer;
- Forbad my tongue to speak of Mortimer;
- But I will find him when he lies asleep,
- And in his ear I'll holla 'Mortimer!'
- Nay,
- I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak
- Nothing but 'Mortimer,' and give it him
- To keep his anger still in motion.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- Hear you, cousin; a word.
HOTSPUR:
- All studies here I solemnly defy,
- Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke:
- And that same sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales,
- But that I think his father loves him not
- And would be glad he met with some mischance,
- I would have him poison'd with a pot of ale.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- Farewell, kinsman: I'll talk to you
- When you are better temper'd to attend.
NORTHUMBERLAND:
- Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool
- Art thou to break into this woman's mood,
- Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own!
HOTSPUR:
- Why, look you, I am whipp'd and scourged with rods,
- Nettled and stung with pismires, when I hear
- Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke.
- In Richard's time,--what do you call the place?--
- A plague upon it, it is in Gloucestershire;
- 'Twas where the madcap duke his uncle kept,
- His uncle York; where I first bow'd my knee
- Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke,--
- 'Sblood!--
- When you and he came back from Ravenspurgh.
NORTHUMBERLAND:
- At Berkley castle.
HOTSPUR:
- You say true:
- Why, what a candy deal of courtesy
- This fawning greyhound then did proffer me!
- Look,'when his infant fortune came to age,'
- And 'gentle Harry Percy,' and 'kind cousin;'
- O, the devil take such cozeners! God forgive me!
- Good uncle, tell your tale; I have done.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- Nay, if you have not, to it again;
- We will stay your leisure.
HOTSPUR:
- I have done, i' faith.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- Then once more to your Scottish prisoners.
- Deliver them up without their ransom straight,
- And make the Douglas' son your only mean
- For powers in Scotland; which, for divers reasons
- Which I shall send you written, be assured,
- Will easily be granted. You, my lord,
-
[To Northumberland]
- Your son in Scotland being thus employ'd,
- Shall secretly into the bosom creep
- Of that same noble prelate, well beloved,
- The archbishop.
HOTSPUR:
- Of York, is it not?
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- True; who bears hard
- His brother's death at Bristol, the Lord Scroop.
- I speak not this in estimation,
- As what I think might be, but what I know
- Is ruminated, plotted and set down,
- And only stays but to behold the face
- Of that occasion that shall bring it on.
HOTSPUR:
- I smell it: upon my life, it will do well.
NORTHUMBERLAND:
- Before the game is afoot, thou still let'st slip.
HOTSPUR:
- Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot;
- And then the power of Scotland and of York,
- To join with Mortimer, ha?
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- And so they shall.
HOTSPUR:
- In faith, it is exceedingly well aim'd.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- And 'tis no little reason bids us speed,
- To save our heads by raising of a head;
- For, bear ourselves as even as we can,
- The king will always think him in our debt,
- And think we think ourselves unsatisfied,
- Till he hath found a time to pay us home:
- And see already how he doth begin
- To make us strangers to his looks of love.
HOTSPUR:
- He does, he does: we'll be revenged on him.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- Cousin, farewell: no further go in this
- Than I by letters shall direct your course.
- When time is ripe, which will be suddenly,
- I'll steal to Glendower and Lord Mortimer;
- Where you and Douglas and our powers at once,
- As I will fashion it, shall happily meet,
- To bear our fortunes in our own strong arms,
- Which now we hold at much uncertainty.
NORTHUMBERLAND:
- Farewell, good brother: we shall thrive, I trust.
HOTSPUR:
- Uncle, Adieu: O, let the hours be short
- Till fields and blows and groans applaud our sport!
-
[Exeunt]
ACT II
ACT II, SCENE I. Rochester. An inn yard.
[Enter a Carrier with a lantern in his hand]
First Carrier:
- Heigh-ho! an it be not four by the day, I'll be
- hanged: Charles' wain is over the new chimney, and
- yet our horse not packed. What, ostler!
Ostler:
-
[Within]
- Anon, anon.
First Carrier:
- I prithee, Tom, beat Cut's saddle, put a few flocks
- in the point; poor jade, is wrung in the withers out
- of all cess.
-
[Enter another Carrier]
Second Carrier:
- Peas and beans are as dank here as a dog, and that
- is the next way to give poor jades the bots: this
- house is turned upside down since Robin Ostler died.
First Carrier:
- Poor fellow, never joyed since the price of oats
- rose; it was the death of him.
Second Carrier:
- I think this be the most villanous house in all
- London road for fleas: I am stung like a tench.
First Carrier:
- Like a tench! by the mass, there is ne'er a king
- christen could be better bit than I have been since
- the first cock.
Second Carrier:
- Why, they will allow us ne'er a jordan, and then we
- leak in your chimney; and your chamber-lie breeds
- fleas like a loach.
First Carrier:
- What, ostler! come away and be hanged!
Second Carrier:
- I have a gammon of bacon and two razors of ginger,
- to be delivered as far as Charing-cross.
First Carrier:
- God's body! the turkeys in my pannier are quite
- starved. What, ostler! A plague on thee! hast thou
- never an eye in thy head? canst not hear? An
- 'twere not as good deed as drink, to break the pate
- on thee, I am a very villain. Come, and be hanged!
- hast thou no faith in thee?
-
[Enter GADSHILL]
GADSHILL:
- Good morrow, carriers. What's o'clock?
First Carrier:
- I think it be two o'clock.
GADSHILL:
- I pray thee lend me thy lantern, to see my gelding
- in the stable.
First Carrier:
- Nay, by God, soft; I know a trick worth two of that, i' faith.
GADSHILL:
- I pray thee, lend me thine.
Second Carrier:
- Ay, when? can'st tell? Lend me thy lantern, quoth
- he? marry, I'll see thee hanged first.
GADSHILL:
- Sirrah carrier, what time do you mean to come to London?
Second Carrier:
- Time enough to go to bed with a candle, I warrant
- thee. Come, neighbour Mugs, we'll call up the
- gentleman: they will along with company, for they
- have great charge.
-
[Exeunt carriers]
GADSHILL:
- What, ho! chamberlain!
Chamberlain:
-
[Within]
- At hand, quoth pick-purse.
GADSHILL:
- That's even as fair as--at hand, quoth the
- chamberlain; for thou variest no more from picking
- of purses than giving direction doth from labouring;
- thou layest the plot how.
-
[Enter Chamberlain]
Chamberlain:
- Good morrow, Master Gadshill. It holds current that
- I told you yesternight: there's a franklin in the
- wild of Kent hath brought three hundred marks with
- him in gold: I heard him tell it to one of his
- company last night at supper; a kind of auditor; one
- that hath abundance of charge too, God knows what.
- They are up already, and call for eggs and butter;
- they will away presently.
GADSHILL:
- Sirrah, if they meet not with Saint Nicholas'
- clerks, I'll give thee this neck.
Chamberlain:
- No, I'll none of it: I pray thee keep that for the
- hangman; for I know thou worshippest St. Nicholas
- as truly as a man of falsehood may.
GADSHILL:
- What talkest thou to me of the hangman? if I hang,
- I'll make a fat pair of gallows; for if I hang, old
- Sir John hangs with me, and thou knowest he is no
- starveling. Tut! there are other Trojans that thou
- dreamest not of, the which for sport sake are
- content to do the profession some grace; that would,
- if matters should be looked into, for their own
- credit sake, make all whole. I am joined with no
- foot-land rakers, no long-staff sixpenny strikers,
- none of these mad mustachio purple-hued malt-worms;
- but with nobility and tranquillity, burgomasters and
- great oneyers, such as can hold in, such as will
- strike sooner than speak, and speak sooner than
- drink, and drink sooner than pray: and yet, zounds,
- I lie; for they pray continually to their saint, the
- commonwealth; or rather, not pray to her, but prey
- on her, for they ride up and down on her and make
- her their boots.
Chamberlain:
- What, the commonwealth their boots? will she hold
- out water in foul way?
GADSHILL:
- She will, she will; justice hath liquored her. We
- steal as in a castle, cocksure; we have the receipt
- of fern-seed, we walk invisible.
Chamberlain:
- Nay, by my faith, I think you are more beholding to
- the night than to fern-seed for your walking invisible.
GADSHILL:
- Give me thy hand: thou shalt have a share in our
- purchase, as I am a true man.
Chamberlain:
- Nay, rather let me have it, as you are a false thief.
GADSHILL:
- Go to; 'homo' is a common name to all men. Bid the
- ostler bring my gelding out of the stable. Farewell,
- you muddy knave.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT II, SCENE II. The highway, near Gadshill.
[Enter PRINCE HENRY and POINS]
POINS:
- Come, shelter, shelter: I have removed Falstaff's
- horse, and he frets like a gummed velvet.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Stand close.
-
[Enter FALSTAFF]
FALSTAFF:
- Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Poins!
PRINCE HENRY:
- Peace, ye fat-kidneyed rascal! what a brawling dost
- thou keep!
FALSTAFF:
- Where's Poins, Hal?
PRINCE HENRY:
- He is walked up to the top of the hill: I'll go seek him.
FALSTAFF:
- I am accursed to rob in that thief's company: the
- rascal hath removed my horse, and tied him I know
- not where. If I travel but four foot by the squier
- further afoot, I shall break my wind. Well, I doubt
- not but to die a fair death for all this, if I
- 'scape hanging for killing that rogue. I have
- forsworn his company hourly any time this two and
- twenty years, and yet I am bewitched with the
- rogue's company. If the rascal hath not given me
- medicines to make me love him, I'll be hanged; it
- could not be else: I have drunk medicines. Poins!
- Hal! a plague upon you both! Bardolph! Peto!
- I'll starve ere I'll rob a foot further. An 'twere
- not as good a deed as drink, to turn true man and to
- leave these rogues, I am the veriest varlet that
- ever chewed with a tooth. Eight yards of uneven
- ground is threescore and ten miles afoot with me;
- and the stony-hearted villains know it well enough:
- a plague upon it when thieves cannot be true one to another!
-
[They whistle]
- Whew! A plague upon you all! Give me my horse, you
- rogues; give me my horse, and be hanged!
PRINCE HENRY:
- Peace, ye fat-guts! lie down; lay thine ear close
- to the ground and list if thou canst hear the tread
- of travellers.
FALSTAFF:
- Have you any levers to lift me up again, being down?
- 'Sblood, I'll not bear mine own flesh so far afoot
- again for all the coin in thy father's exchequer.
- What a plague mean ye to colt me thus?
PRINCE HENRY:
- Thou liest; thou art not colted, thou art uncolted.
FALSTAFF:
- I prithee, good Prince Hal, help me to my horse,
- good king's son.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Out, ye rogue! shall I be your ostler?
FALSTAFF:
- So I do, against my will.
POINS:
- O, 'tis our setter: I know his voice. Bardolph,
- what news?
BARDOLPH:
- Case ye, case ye; on with your vizards: there 's
- money of the king's coming down the hill; 'tis going
- to the king's exchequer.
FALSTAFF:
- You lie, ye rogue; 'tis going to the king's tavern.
GADSHILL:
- There's enough to make us all.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Sirs, you four shall front them in the narrow lane;
- Ned Poins and I will walk lower: if they 'scape
- from your encounter, then they light on us.
PETO:
- How many be there of them?
GADSHILL:
- Some eight or ten.
FALSTAFF:
- 'Zounds, will they not rob us?
PRINCE HENRY:
- What, a coward, Sir John Paunch?
FALSTAFF:
- Indeed, I am not John of Gaunt, your grandfather;
- but yet no coward, Hal.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Well, we leave that to the proof.
POINS:
- Sirrah Jack, thy horse stands behind the hedge:
- when thou needest him, there thou shalt find him.
- Farewell, and stand fast.
FALSTAFF:
- Now cannot I strike him, if I should be hanged.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Ned, where are our disguises?
FALSTAFF:
- Now, my masters, happy man be his dole, say I:
- every man to his business.
-
[Enter the Travellers]
First Traveller:
- Come, neighbour: the boy shall lead our horses down
- the hill; we'll walk afoot awhile, and ease our legs.
Travellers:
- Jesus bless us!
FALSTAFF:
- Strike; down with them; cut the villains' throats:
- ah! whoreson caterpillars! bacon-fed knaves! they
- hate us youth: down with them: fleece them.
Travellers:
- O, we are undone, both we and ours for ever!
PRINCE HENRY:
- The thieves have bound the true men. Now could thou
- and I rob the thieves and go merrily to London, it
- would be argument for a week, laughter for a month
- and a good jest for ever.
FALSTAFF:
- Come, my masters, let us share, and then to horse
- before day. An the Prince and Poins be not two
- arrant cowards, there's no equity stirring: there's
- no more valour in that Poins than in a wild-duck.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Your money!
POINS:
- Villains!
-
[As they are sharing, the Prince and Poins set upon them; they all run away.
Falstaff, after a blow or two, runs away too, leaving the booty behind them]
PRINCE HENRY:
- Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse:
- The thieves are all scatter'd and possess'd with fear
- So strongly that they dare not meet each other;
- Each takes his fellow for an officer.
- Away, good Ned. Falstaff sweats to death,
- And lards the lean earth as he walks along:
- Were 't not for laughing, I should pity him.
POINS:
- How the rogue roar'd!
-
[Exeunt]
ACT II, SCENE III. Warkworth castle
[Enter HOTSPUR, solus, reading a letter]
HOTSPUR:
- 'But for mine own part, my lord, I could be well
- contented to be there, in respect of the love I bear
- your house.' He could be contented: why is he not,
- then? In respect of the love he bears our house:
- he shows in this, he loves his own barn better than
- he loves our house. Let me see some more. 'The
- purpose you undertake is dangerous;'--why, that's
- certain: 'tis dangerous to take a cold, to sleep, to
- drink; but I tell you, my lord fool, out of this
- nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety. 'The
- purpose you undertake is dangerous; the friends you
- have named uncertain; the time itself unsorted; and
- your whole plot too light for the counterpoise of so
- great an opposition.' Say you so, say you so? I say
- unto you again, you are a shallow cowardly hind, and
- you lie. What a lack-brain is this! By the Lord,
- our plot is a good plot as ever was laid; our
- friends true and constant: a good plot, good
- friends, and full of expectation; an excellent plot,
- very good friends. What a frosty-spirited rogue is
- this! Why, my lord of York commends the plot and the
- general course of action. 'Zounds, an I were now by
- this rascal, I could brain him with his lady's fan.
- Is there not my father, my uncle and myself? lord
- Edmund Mortimer, My lord of York and Owen Glendower?
- is there not besides the Douglas? have I not all
- their letters to meet me in arms by the ninth of the
- next month? and are they not some of them set
- forward already? What a pagan rascal is this! an
- infidel! Ha! you shall see now in very sincerity
- of fear and cold heart, will he to the king and lay
- open all our proceedings. O, I could divide myself
- and go to buffets, for moving such a dish of
- skim milk with so honourable an action! Hang him!
- let him tell the king: we are prepared. I will set
- forward to-night.
-
[Enter LADY PERCY]
- How now, Kate! I must leave you within these two hours.
LADY PERCY:
- O, my good lord, why are you thus alone?
- For what offence have I this fortnight been
- A banish'd woman from my Harry's bed?
- Tell me, sweet lord, what is't that takes from thee
- Thy stomach, pleasure and thy golden sleep?
- Why dost thou bend thine eyes upon the earth,
- And start so often when thou sit'st alone?
- Why hast thou lost the fresh blood in thy cheeks;
- And given my treasures and my rights of thee
- To thick-eyed musing and cursed melancholy?
- In thy faint slumbers I by thee have watch'd,
- And heard thee murmur tales of iron wars;
- Speak terms of manage to thy bounding steed;
- Cry 'Courage! to the field!' And thou hast talk'd
- Of sallies and retires, of trenches, tents,
- Of palisadoes, frontiers, parapets,
- Of basilisks, of cannon, culverin,
- Of prisoners' ransom and of soldiers slain,
- And all the currents of a heady fight.
- Thy spirit within thee hath been so at war
- And thus hath so bestirr'd thee in thy sleep,
- That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow
- Like bubbles in a late-disturbed stream;
- And in thy face strange motions have appear'd,
- Such as we see when men restrain their breath
- On some great sudden hest. O, what portents are these?
- Some heavy business hath my lord in hand,
- And I must know it, else he loves me not.
HOTSPUR:
- What, ho!
-
[Enter Servant]
- Is Gilliams with the packet gone?
Servant:
- He is, my lord, an hour ago.
HOTSPUR:
- Hath Butler brought those horses from the sheriff?
Servant:
- One horse, my lord, he brought even now.
HOTSPUR:
- What horse? a roan, a crop-ear, is it not?
HOTSPUR:
- That roan shall by my throne.
- Well, I will back him straight: O esperance!
- Bid Butler lead him forth into the park.
-
[Exit Servant]
LADY PERCY:
- But hear you, my lord.
HOTSPUR:
- What say'st thou, my lady?
LADY PERCY:
- What is it carries you away?
HOTSPUR:
- Why, my horse, my love, my horse.
LADY PERCY:
- Out, you mad-headed ape!
- A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen
- As you are toss'd with. In faith,
- I'll know your business, Harry, that I will.
- I fear my brother Mortimer doth stir
- About his title, and hath sent for you
- To line his enterprise: but if you go,--
HOTSPUR:
- So far afoot, I shall be weary, love.
LADY PERCY:
- Come, come, you paraquito, answer me
- Directly unto this question that I ask:
- In faith, I'll break thy little finger, Harry,
- An if thou wilt not tell me all things true.
HOTSPUR:
- Away,
- Away, you trifler! Love! I love thee not,
- I care not for thee, Kate: this is no world
- To play with mammets and to tilt with lips:
- We must have bloody noses and crack'd crowns,
- And pass them current too. God's me, my horse!
- What say'st thou, Kate? what would'st thou
- have with me?
LADY PERCY:
- Do you not love me? do you not, indeed?
- Well, do not then; for since you love me not,
- I will not love myself. Do you not love me?
- Nay, tell me if you speak in jest or no.
HOTSPUR:
- Come, wilt thou see me ride?
- And when I am on horseback, I will swear
- I love thee infinitely. But hark you, Kate;
- I must not have you henceforth question me
- Whither I go, nor reason whereabout:
- Whither I must, I must; and, to conclude,
- This evening must I leave you, gentle Kate.
- I know you wise, but yet no farther wise
- Than Harry Percy's wife: constant you are,
- But yet a woman: and for secrecy,
- No lady closer; for I well believe
- Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know;
- And so far will I trust thee, gentle Kate.
HOTSPUR:
- Not an inch further. But hark you, Kate:
- Whither I go, thither shall you go too;
- To-day will I set forth, to-morrow you.
- Will this content you, Kate?
LADY PERCY:
- It must of force.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT II, SCENE IV. The Boar's-Head Tavern, Eastcheap.
[Enter PRINCE HENRY and POINS]
PRINCE HENRY:
- Ned, prithee, come out of that fat room, and lend me
- thy hand to laugh a little.
POINS:
- Where hast been, Hal?
PRINCE HENRY:
- With three or four loggerheads amongst three or four
- score hogsheads. I have sounded the very
- base-string of humility. Sirrah, I am sworn brother
- to a leash of drawers; and can call them all by
- their christen names, as Tom, Dick, and Francis.
- They take it already upon their salvation, that
- though I be but the prince of Wales, yet I am king
- of courtesy; and tell me flatly I am no proud Jack,
- like Falstaff, but a Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a
- good boy, by the Lord, so they call me, and when I
- am king of England, I shall command all the good
- lads in Eastcheap. They call drinking deep, dyeing
- scarlet; and when you breathe in your watering, they
- cry 'hem!' and bid you play it off. To conclude, I
- am so good a proficient in one quarter of an hour,
- that I can drink with any tinker in his own language
- during my life. I tell thee, Ned, thou hast lost
- much honour, that thou wert not with me in this sweet
- action. But, sweet Ned,--to sweeten which name of
- Ned, I give thee this pennyworth of sugar, clapped
- even now into my hand by an under-skinker, one that
- never spake other English in his life than 'Eight
- shillings and sixpence' and 'You are welcome,' with
- this shrill addition, 'Anon, anon, sir! Score a pint
- of bastard in the Half-Moon,' or so. But, Ned, to
- drive away the time till Falstaff come, I prithee,
- do thou stand in some by-room, while I question my
- puny drawer to what end he gave me the sugar; and do
- thou never leave calling 'Francis,' that his tale
- to me may be nothing but 'Anon.' Step aside, and
- I'll show thee a precedent.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Thou art perfect.
POINS:
- Francis!
-
[Exit POINS]
-
[Enter FRANCIS]
FRANCIS:
- Anon, anon, sir. Look down into the Pomgarnet, Ralph.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Come hither, Francis.
PRINCE HENRY:
- How long hast thou to serve, Francis?
FRANCIS:
- Forsooth, five years, and as much as to--
FRANCIS:
- Anon, anon, sir.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Five year! by'r lady, a long lease for the clinking
- of pewter. But, Francis, darest thou be so valiant
- as to play the coward with thy indenture and show it
- a fair pair of heels and run from it?
FRANCIS:
- O Lord, sir, I'll be sworn upon all the books in
- England, I could find in my heart.
PRINCE HENRY:
- How old art thou, Francis?
FRANCIS:
- Let me see--about Michaelmas next I shall be--
FRANCIS:
- Anon, sir. Pray stay a little, my lord.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Nay, but hark you, Francis: for the sugar thou
- gavest me,'twas a pennyworth, wast't not?
FRANCIS:
- O Lord, I would it had been two!
PRINCE HENRY:
- I will give thee for it a thousand pound: ask me
- when thou wilt, and thou shalt have it.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Anon, Francis? No, Francis; but to-morrow, Francis;
- or, Francis, o' Thursday; or indeed, Francis, when
- thou wilt. But, Francis!
PRINCE HENRY:
- Wilt thou rob this leathern jerkin, crystal-button,
- not-pated, agate-ring, puke-stocking, caddis-garter,
- smooth-tongue, Spanish-pouch,--
FRANCIS:
- O Lord, sir, who do you mean?
PRINCE HENRY:
- Why, then, your brown bastard is your only drink;
- for look you, Francis, your white canvas doublet
- will sully: in Barbary, sir, it cannot come to so much.
Vintner:
- What, standest thou still, and hearest such a
- calling? Look to the guests within.
-
[Exit Francis]
- My lord, old Sir John, with half-a-dozen more, are
- at the door: shall I let them in?
PRINCE HENRY:
- Let them alone awhile, and then open the door.
-
[Exit Vintner]
- Poins!
-
[Re-enter POINS]
PRINCE HENRY:
- Sirrah, Falstaff and the rest of the thieves are at
- the door: shall we be merry?
POINS:
- As merry as crickets, my lad. But hark ye; what
- cunning match have you made with this jest of the
- drawer? come, what's the issue?
PRINCE HENRY:
- I am now of all humours that have showed themselves
- humours since the old days of goodman Adam to the
- pupil age of this present twelve o'clock at midnight.
-
[Re-enter FRANCIS]
- What's o'clock, Francis?
FRANCIS:
- Anon, anon, sir.
-
[Exit]
POINS:
- Welcome, Jack: where hast thou been?
FALSTAFF:
- A plague of all cowards, I say, and a vengeance too!
- marry, and amen! Give me a cup of sack, boy. Ere I
- lead this life long, I'll sew nether stocks and mend
- them and foot them too. A plague of all cowards!
- Give me a cup of sack, rogue. Is there no virtue extant?
-
[He drinks]
PRINCE HENRY:
- Didst thou never see Titan kiss a dish of butter?
- pitiful-hearted Titan, that melted at the sweet tale
- of the sun's! if thou didst, then behold that compound.
FALSTAFF:
- You rogue, here's lime in this sack too: there is
- nothing but roguery to be found in villanous man:
- yet a coward is worse than a cup of sack with lime
- in it. A villanous coward! Go thy ways, old Jack;
- die when thou wilt, if manhood, good manhood, be
- not forgot upon the face of the earth, then am I a
- shotten herring. There live not three good men
- unhanged in England; and one of them is fat and
- grows old: God help the while! a bad world, I say.
- I would I were a weaver; I could sing psalms or any
- thing. A plague of all cowards, I say still.
PRINCE HENRY:
- How now, wool-sack! what mutter you?
FALSTAFF:
- A king's son! If I do not beat thee out of thy
- kingdom with a dagger of lath, and drive all thy
- subjects afore thee like a flock of wild-geese,
- I'll never wear hair on my face more. You Prince of Wales!
PRINCE HENRY:
- Why, you whoreson round man, what's the matter?
FALSTAFF:
- Are not you a coward? answer me to that: and Poins there?
POINS:
- 'Zounds, ye fat paunch, an ye call me coward, by the
- Lord, I'll stab thee.
FALSTAFF:
- I call thee coward! I'll see thee damned ere I call
- thee coward: but I would give a thousand pound I
- could run as fast as thou canst. You are straight
- enough in the shoulders, you care not who sees your
- back: call you that backing of your friends? A
- plague upon such backing! give me them that will
- face me. Give me a cup of sack: I am a rogue, if I
- drunk to-day.
PRINCE HENRY:
- O villain! thy lips are scarce wiped since thou
- drunkest last.
FALSTAFF:
- All's one for that.
-
[He drinks]
- A plague of all cowards, still say I.
PRINCE HENRY:
- What's the matter?
FALSTAFF:
- What's the matter! there be four of us here have
- ta'en a thousand pound this day morning.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Where is it, Jack? where is it?
FALSTAFF:
- Where is it! taken from us it is: a hundred upon
- poor four of us.
PRINCE HENRY:
- What, a hundred, man?
FALSTAFF:
- I am a rogue, if I were not at half-sword with a
- dozen of them two hours together. I have 'scaped by
- miracle. I am eight times thrust through the
- doublet, four through the hose; my buckler cut
- through and through; my sword hacked like a
- hand-saw--ecce signum! I never dealt better since
- I was a man: all would not do. A plague of all
- cowards! Let them speak: if they speak more or
- less than truth, they are villains and the sons of darkness.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Speak, sirs; how was it?
GADSHILL:
- We four set upon some dozen--
FALSTAFF:
- Sixteen at least, my lord.
GADSHILL:
- And bound them.
PETO:
- No, no, they were not bound.
FALSTAFF:
- You rogue, they were bound, every man of them; or I
- am a Jew else, an Ebrew Jew.
GADSHILL:
- As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh men set upon us--
FALSTAFF:
- And unbound the rest, and then come in the other.
PRINCE HENRY:
- What, fought you with them all?
FALSTAFF:
- All! I know not what you call all; but if I fought
- not with fifty of them, I am a bunch of radish: if
- there were not two or three and fifty upon poor old
- Jack, then am I no two-legged creature.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Pray God you have not murdered some of them.
FALSTAFF:
- Nay, that's past praying for: I have peppered two
- of them; two I am sure I have paid, two rogues
- in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal, if I tell
- thee a lie, spit in my face, call me horse. Thou
- knowest my old ward; here I lay and thus I bore my
- point. Four rogues in buckram let drive at me--
PRINCE HENRY:
- What, four? thou saidst but two even now.
FALSTAFF:
- Four, Hal; I told thee four.
POINS:
- Ay, ay, he said four.
FALSTAFF:
- These four came all a-front, and mainly thrust at
- me. I made me no more ado but took all their seven
- points in my target, thus.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Seven? why, there were but four even now.
POINS:
- Ay, four, in buckram suits.
FALSTAFF:
- Seven, by these hilts, or I am a villain else.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Prithee, let him alone; we shall have more anon.
FALSTAFF:
- Dost thou hear me, Hal?
PRINCE HENRY:
- Ay, and mark thee too, Jack.
FALSTAFF:
- Do so, for it is worth the listening to. These nine
- in buckram that I told thee of--
PRINCE HENRY:
- So, two more already.
FALSTAFF:
- Their points being broken,--
POINS:
- Down fell their hose.
FALSTAFF:
- Began to give me ground: but I followed me close,
- came in foot and hand; and with a thought seven of
- the eleven I paid.
PRINCE HENRY:
- O monstrous! eleven buckram men grown out of two!
FALSTAFF:
- But, as the devil would have it, three misbegotten
- knaves in Kendal green came at my back and let drive
- at me; for it was so dark, Hal, that thou couldst
- not see thy hand.
PRINCE HENRY:
- These lies are like their father that begets them;
- gross as a mountain, open, palpable. Why, thou
- clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou
- whoreson, obscene, grease tallow-catch,--
FALSTAFF:
- What, art thou mad? art thou mad? is not the truth
- the truth?
PRINCE HENRY:
- Why, how couldst thou know these men in Kendal
- green, when it was so dark thou couldst not see thy
- hand? come, tell us your reason: what sayest thou to this?
POINS:
- Come, your reason, Jack, your reason.
FALSTAFF:
- What, upon compulsion? 'Zounds, an I were at the
- strappado, or all the racks in the world, I would
- not tell you on compulsion. Give you a reason on
- compulsion! If reasons were as plentiful as
- blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon
- compulsion, I.
PRINCE HENRY:
- I'll be no longer guilty of this sin; this sanguine
- coward, this bed-presser, this horseback-breaker,
- this huge hill of flesh,--
FALSTAFF:
- 'Sblood, you starveling, you elf-skin, you dried
- neat's tongue, you bull's pizzle, you stock-fish! O
- for breath to utter what is like thee! you
- tailor's-yard, you sheath, you bowcase; you vile
- standing-tuck,--
PRINCE HENRY:
- Well, breathe awhile, and then to it again: and
- when thou hast tired thyself in base comparisons,
- hear me speak but this.
PRINCE HENRY:
- We two saw you four set on four and bound them, and
- were masters of their wealth. Mark now, how a plain
- tale shall put you down. Then did we two set on you
- four; and, with a word, out-faced you from your
- prize, and have it; yea, and can show it you here in
- the house: and, Falstaff, you carried your guts
- away as nimbly, with as quick dexterity, and roared
- for mercy and still run and roared, as ever I heard
- bull-calf. What a slave art thou, to hack thy sword
- as thou hast done, and then say it was in fight!
- What trick, what device, what starting-hole, canst
- thou now find out to hide thee from this open and
- apparent shame?
POINS:
- Come, let's hear, Jack; what trick hast thou now?
FALSTAFF:
- By the Lord, I knew ye as well as he that made ye.
- Why, hear you, my masters: was it for me to kill the
- heir-apparent? should I turn upon the true prince?
- why, thou knowest I am as valiant as Hercules: but
- beware instinct; the lion will not touch the true
- prince. Instinct is a great matter; I was now a
- coward on instinct. I shall think the better of
- myself and thee during my life; I for a valiant
- lion, and thou for a true prince. But, by the Lord,
- lads, I am glad you have the money. Hostess, clap
- to the doors: watch to-night, pray to-morrow.
- Gallants, lads, boys, hearts of gold, all the titles
- of good fellowship come to you! What, shall we be
- merry? shall we have a play extempore?
PRINCE HENRY:
- Content; and the argument shall be thy running away.
FALSTAFF:
- Ah, no more of that, Hal, an thou lovest me!
-
[Enter Hostess]
Hostess:
- O Jesu, my lord the prince!
PRINCE HENRY:
- How now, my lady the hostess! what sayest thou to
- me?
Hostess:
- Marry, my lord, there is a nobleman of the court at
- door would speak with you: he says he comes from
- your father.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Give him as much as will make him a royal man, and
- send him back again to my mother.
FALSTAFF:
- What manner of man is he?
FALSTAFF:
- What doth gravity out of his bed at midnight? Shall
- I give him his answer?
PRINCE HENRY:
- Prithee, do, Jack.
FALSTAFF:
- 'Faith, and I'll send him packing.
-
[Exit FALSTAFF]
PRINCE HENRY:
- Now, sirs: by'r lady, you fought fair; so did you,
- Peto; so did you, Bardolph: you are lions too, you
- ran away upon instinct, you will not touch the true
- prince; no, fie!
BARDOLPH:
- 'Faith, I ran when I saw others run.
PRINCE HENRY:
- 'Faith, tell me now in earnest, how came Falstaff's
- sword so hacked?
PETO:
- Why, he hacked it with his dagger, and said he would
- swear truth out of England but he would make you
- believe it was done in fight, and persuaded us to do the like.
BARDOLPH:
- Yea, and to tickle our noses with spear-grass to
- make them bleed, and then to beslubber our garments
- with it and swear it was the blood of true men. I
- did that I did not this seven year before, I blushed
- to hear his monstrous devices.
PRINCE HENRY:
- O villain, thou stolest a cup of sack eighteen years
- ago, and wert taken with the manner, and ever since
- thou hast blushed extempore. Thou hadst fire and
- sword on thy side, and yet thou rannest away: what
- instinct hadst thou for it?
BARDOLPH:
- My lord, do you see these meteors? do you behold
- these exhalations?
BARDOLPH:
- What think you they portend?
PRINCE HENRY:
- Hot livers and cold purses.
BARDOLPH:
- Choler, my lord, if rightly taken.
PRINCE HENRY:
- No, if rightly taken, halter.
-
[Re-enter FALSTAFF]
- Here comes lean Jack, here comes bare-bone.
- How now, my sweet creature of bombast!
- How long is't ago, Jack, since thou sawest thine own knee?
FALSTAFF:
- My own knee! when I was about thy years, Hal, I was
- not an eagle's talon in the waist; I could have
- crept into any alderman's thumb-ring: a plague of
- sighing and grief! it blows a man up like a
- bladder. There's villanous news abroad: here was
- Sir John Bracy from your father; you must to the
- court in the morning. That same mad fellow of the
- north, Percy, and he of Wales, that gave Amamon the
- bastinado and made Lucifer cuckold and swore the
- devil his true liegeman upon the cross of a Welsh
- hook--what a plague call you him?
FALSTAFF:
- Owen, Owen, the same; and his son-in-law Mortimer,
- and old Northumberland, and that sprightly Scot of
- Scots, Douglas, that runs o' horseback up a hill
- perpendicular,--
PRINCE HENRY:
- He that rides at high speed and with his pistol
- kills a sparrow flying.
FALSTAFF:
- You have hit it.
PRINCE HENRY:
- So did he never the sparrow.
FALSTAFF:
- Well, that rascal hath good mettle in him; he will not run.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Why, what a rascal art thou then, to praise him so
- for running!
FALSTAFF:
- O' horseback, ye cuckoo; but afoot he will not budge a foot.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Yes, Jack, upon instinct.
FALSTAFF:
- I grant ye, upon instinct. Well, he is there too,
- and one Mordake, and a thousand blue-caps more:
- Worcester is stolen away to-night; thy father's
- beard is turned white with the news: you may buy
- land now as cheap as stinking mackerel.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Why, then, it is like, if there come a hot June and
- this civil buffeting hold, we shall buy maidenheads
- as they buy hob-nails, by the hundreds.
FALSTAFF:
- By the mass, lad, thou sayest true; it is like we
- shall have good trading that way. But tell me, Hal,
- art not thou horrible afeard? thou being
- heir-apparent, could the world pick thee out three
- such enemies again as that fiend Douglas, that
- spirit Percy, and that devil Glendower? Art thou
- not horribly afraid? doth not thy blood thrill at
- it?
PRINCE HENRY:
- Not a whit, i' faith; I lack some of thy instinct.
FALSTAFF:
- Well, thou wert be horribly chid tomorrow when thou
- comest to thy father: if thou love me, practise an answer.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Do thou stand for my father, and examine me upon the
- particulars of my life.
FALSTAFF:
- Shall I? content: this chair shall be my state,
- this dagger my sceptre, and this cushion my crown.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Thy state is taken for a joined-stool, thy golden
- sceptre for a leaden dagger, and thy precious rich
- crown for a pitiful bald crown!
FALSTAFF:
- Well, an the fire of grace be not quite out of thee,
- now shalt thou be moved. Give me a cup of sack to
- make my eyes look red, that it may be thought I have
- wept; for I must speak in passion, and I will do it
- in King Cambyses' vein.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Well, here is my leg.
FALSTAFF:
- And here is my speech. Stand aside, nobility.
Hostess:
- O Jesu, this is excellent sport, i' faith!
FALSTAFF:
- Weep not, sweet queen; for trickling tears are vain.
Hostess:
- O, the father, how he holds his countenance!
FALSTAFF:
- For God's sake, lords, convey my tristful queen;
- For tears do stop the flood-gates of her eyes.
Hostess:
- O Jesu, he doth it as like one of these harlotry
- players as ever I see!
FALSTAFF:
- Peace, good pint-pot; peace, good tickle-brain.
- Harry, I do not only marvel where thou spendest thy
- time, but also how thou art accompanied: for though
- the camomile, the more it is trodden on the faster
- it grows, yet youth, the more it is wasted the
- sooner it wears. That thou art my son, I have
- partly thy mother's word, partly my own opinion,
- but chiefly a villanous trick of thine eye and a
- foolish-hanging of thy nether lip, that doth warrant
- me. If then thou be son to me, here lies the point;
- why, being son to me, art thou so pointed at? Shall
- the blessed sun of heaven prove a micher and eat
- blackberries? a question not to be asked. Shall
- the sun of England prove a thief and take purses? a
- question to be asked. There is a thing, Harry,
- which thou hast often heard of and it is known to
- many in our land by the name of pitch: this pitch,
- as ancient writers do report, doth defile; so doth
- the company thou keepest: for, Harry, now I do not
- speak to thee in drink but in tears, not in
- pleasure but in passion, not in words only, but in
- woes also: and yet there is a virtuous man whom I
- have often noted in thy company, but I know not his name.
PRINCE HENRY:
- What manner of man, an it like your majesty?
FALSTAFF:
- A goodly portly man, i' faith, and a corpulent; of a
- cheerful look, a pleasing eye and a most noble
- carriage; and, as I think, his age some fifty, or,
- by'r lady, inclining to three score; and now I
- remember me, his name is Falstaff: if that man
- should be lewdly given, he deceiveth me; for, Harry,
- I see virtue in his looks. If then the tree may be
- known by the fruit, as the fruit by the tree, then,
- peremptorily I speak it, there is virtue in that
- Falstaff: him keep with, the rest banish. And tell
- me now, thou naughty varlet, tell me, where hast
- thou been this month?
PRINCE HENRY:
- Dost thou speak like a king? Do thou stand for me,
- and I'll play my father.
FALSTAFF:
- Depose me? if thou dost it half so gravely, so
- majestically, both in word and matter, hang me up by
- the heels for a rabbit-sucker or a poulter's hare.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Well, here I am set.
FALSTAFF:
- And here I stand: judge, my masters.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Now, Harry, whence come you?
FALSTAFF:
- My noble lord, from Eastcheap.
PRINCE HENRY:
- The complaints I hear of thee are grievous.
FALSTAFF:
- 'Sblood, my lord, they are false: nay, I'll tickle
- ye for a young prince, i' faith.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Swearest thou, ungracious boy? henceforth ne'er look
- on me. Thou art violently carried away from grace:
- there is a devil haunts thee in the likeness of an
- old fat man; a tun of man is thy companion. Why
- dost thou converse with that trunk of humours, that
- bolting-hutch of beastliness, that swollen parcel
- of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuffed
- cloak-bag of guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with
- the pudding in his belly, that reverend vice, that
- grey iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in
- years? Wherein is he good, but to taste sack and
- drink it? wherein neat and cleanly, but to carve a
- capon and eat it? wherein cunning, but in craft?
- wherein crafty, but in villany? wherein villanous,
- but in all things? wherein worthy, but in nothing?
FALSTAFF:
- I would your grace would take me with you: whom
- means your grace?
PRINCE HENRY:
- That villanous abominable misleader of youth,
- Falstaff, that old white-bearded Satan.
FALSTAFF:
- My lord, the man I know.
PRINCE HENRY:
- I know thou dost.
FALSTAFF:
- But to say I know more harm in him than in myself,
- were to say more than I know. That he is old, the
- more the pity, his white hairs do witness it; but
- that he is, saving your reverence, a whoremaster,
- that I utterly deny. If sack and sugar be a fault,
- God help the wicked! if to be old and merry be a
- sin, then many an old host that I know is damned: if
- to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh's lean kine
- are to be loved. No, my good lord; banish Peto,
- banish Bardolph, banish Poins: but for sweet Jack
- Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff,
- valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant,
- being, as he is, old Jack Falstaff, banish not him
- thy Harry's company, banish not him thy Harry's
- company: banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.
PRINCE HENRY:
- I do, I will.
-
[A knocking heard]
-
[Exeunt Hostess, FRANCIS, and BARDOLPH]
-
[Re-enter BARDOLPH, running]
BARDOLPH:
- O, my lord, my lord! the sheriff with a most
- monstrous watch is at the door.
FALSTAFF:
- Out, ye rogue! Play out the play: I have much to
- say in the behalf of that Falstaff.
-
[Re-enter the Hostess]
Hostess:
- O Jesu, my lord, my lord!
PRINCE HENRY:
- Heigh, heigh! the devil rides upon a fiddlestick:
- what's the matter?
Hostess:
- The sheriff and all the watch are at the door: they
- are come to search the house. Shall I let them in?
FALSTAFF:
- Dost thou hear, Hal? never call a true piece of
- gold a counterfeit: thou art essentially mad,
- without seeming so.
PRINCE HENRY:
- And thou a natural coward, without instinct.
FALSTAFF:
- I deny your major: if you will deny the sheriff,
- so; if not, let him enter: if I become not a cart
- as well as another man, a plague on my bringing up!
- I hope I shall as soon be strangled with a halter as another.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Go, hide thee behind the arras: the rest walk up
- above. Now, my masters, for a true face and good
- conscience.
FALSTAFF:
- Both which I have had: but their date is out, and
- therefore I'll hide me.
Sheriff:
- First, pardon me, my lord. A hue and cry
- Hath follow'd certain men unto this house.
Sheriff:
- One of them is well known, my gracious lord,
- A gross fat man.
Carrier:
- As fat as butter.
PRINCE HENRY:
- The man, I do assure you, is not here;
- For I myself at this time have employ'd him.
- And, sheriff, I will engage my word to thee
- That I will, by to-morrow dinner-time,
- Send him to answer thee, or any man,
- For any thing he shall be charged withal:
- And so let me entreat you leave the house.
Sheriff:
- I will, my lord. There are two gentlemen
- Have in this robbery lost three hundred marks.
PRINCE HENRY:
- It may be so: if he have robb'd these men,
- He shall be answerable; and so farewell.
Sheriff:
- Good night, my noble lord.
PRINCE HENRY:
- I think it is good morrow, is it not?
PRINCE HENRY:
- This oily rascal is known as well as Paul's. Go,
- call him forth.
PETO:
- Falstaff!--Fast asleep behind the arras, and
- snorting like a horse.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Hark, how hard he fetches breath. Search his pockets.
- He searcheth his pockets, and findeth certain papers
- What hast thou found?
PETO:
- Nothing but papers, my lord.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Let's see what they be: read them.
PETO:
-
[Reads]
- Item, A capon,. . 2s. 2d.
- Item, Sauce,. . . 4d.
- Item, Sack, two gallons, 5s. 8d.
- Item, Anchovies and sack after supper, 2s. 6d.
- Item, Bread, ob.
PRINCE HENRY:
- O monstrous! but one half-penny-worth of bread to
- this intolerable deal of sack! What there is else,
- keep close; we'll read it at more advantage: there
- let him sleep till day. I'll to the court in the
- morning. We must all to the wars, and thy place
- shall be honourable. I'll procure this fat rogue a
- charge of foot; and I know his death will be a
- march of twelve-score. The money shall be paid
- back again with advantage. Be with me betimes in
- the morning; and so, good morrow, Peto.
-
[Exeunt]
PETO:
- Good morrow, good my lord.
ACT IV
ACT IV, SCENE I. The rebel camp near Shrewsbury.
[Enter HOTSPUR, WORCESTER, and DOUGLAS]
HOTSPUR:
- Well said, my noble Scot: if speaking truth
- In this fine age were not thought flattery,
- Such attribution should the Douglas have,
- As not a soldier of this season's stamp
- Should go so general current through the world.
- By God, I cannot flatter; I do defy
- The tongues of soothers; but a braver place
- In my heart's love hath no man than yourself:
- Nay, task me to my word; approve me, lord.
EARL OF DOUGLAS:
- Thou art the king of honour:
- No man so potent breathes upon the ground
- But I will beard him.
Messenger:
- These letters come from your father.
HOTSPUR:
- Letters from him! why comes he not himself?
Messenger:
- He cannot come, my lord; he is grievous sick.
HOTSPUR:
- 'Zounds! how has he the leisure to be sick
- In such a rustling time? Who leads his power?
- Under whose government come they along?
Messenger:
- His letters bear his mind, not I, my lord.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- I prithee, tell me, doth he keep his bed?
Messenger:
- He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth;
- And at the time of my departure thence
- He was much fear'd by his physicians.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- I would the state of time had first been whole
- Ere he by sickness had been visited:
- His health was never better worth than now.
HOTSPUR:
- Sick now! droop now! this sickness doth infect
- The very life-blood of our enterprise;
- 'Tis catching hither, even to our camp.
- He writes me here, that inward sickness--
- And that his friends by deputation could not
- So soon be drawn, nor did he think it meet
- To lay so dangerous and dear a trust
- On any soul removed but on his own.
- Yet doth he give us bold advertisement,
- That with our small conjunction we should on,
- To see how fortune is disposed to us;
- For, as he writes, there is no quailing now.
- Because the king is certainly possess'd
- Of all our purposes. What say you to it?
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- Your father's sickness is a maim to us.
HOTSPUR:
- A perilous gash, a very limb lopp'd off:
- And yet, in faith, it is not; his present want
- Seems more than we shall find it: were it good
- To set the exact wealth of all our states
- All at one cast? to set so rich a main
- On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?
- It were not good; for therein should we read
- The very bottom and the soul of hope,
- The very list, the very utmost bound
- Of all our fortunes.
EARL OF DOUGLAS:
- 'Faith, and so we should;
- Where now remains a sweet reversion:
- We may boldly spend upon the hope of what
- Is to come in:
- A comfort of retirement lives in this.
HOTSPUR:
- A rendezvous, a home to fly unto.
- If that the devil and mischance look big
- Upon the maidenhead of our affairs.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- But yet I would your father had been here.
- The quality and hair of our attempt
- Brooks no division: it will be thought
- By some, that know not why he is away,
- That wisdom, loyalty and mere dislike
- Of our proceedings kept the earl from hence:
- And think how such an apprehension
- May turn the tide of fearful faction
- And breed a kind of question in our cause;
- For well you know we of the offering side
- Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement,
- And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence
- The eye of reason may pry in upon us:
- This absence of your father's draws a curtain,
- That shows the ignorant a kind of fear
- Before not dreamt of.
HOTSPUR:
- You strain too far.
- I rather of his absence make this use:
- It lends a lustre and more great opinion,
- A larger dare to our great enterprise,
- Than if the earl were here; for men must think,
- If we without his help can make a head
- To push against a kingdom, with his help
- We shall o'erturn it topsy-turvy down.
- Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole.
HOTSPUR:
- My cousin Vernon, welcome, by my soul.
VERNON:
- Pray God my news be worth a welcome, lord.
- The Earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong,
- Is marching hitherwards; with him Prince John.
HOTSPUR:
- No harm: what more?
VERNON:
- And further, I have learn'd,
- The king himself in person is set forth,
- Or hitherwards intended speedily,
- With strong and mighty preparation.
HOTSPUR:
- He shall be welcome too. Where is his son,
- The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales,
- And his comrades, that daff'd the world aside,
- And bid it pass?
VERNON:
- All furnish'd, all in arms;
- All plumed like estridges that with the wind
- Baited like eagles having lately bathed;
- Glittering in golden coats, like images;
- As full of spirit as the month of May,
- And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer;
- Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.
- I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,
- His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm'd
- Rise from the ground like feather'd Mercury,
- And vaulted with such ease into his seat,
- As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds,
- To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus
- And witch the world with noble horsemanship.
HOTSPUR:
- No more, no more: worse than the sun in March,
- This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come:
- They come like sacrifices in their trim,
- And to the fire-eyed maid of smoky war
- All hot and bleeding will we offer them:
- The mailed Mars shall on his altar sit
- Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire
- To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh
- And yet not ours. Come, let me taste my horse,
- Who is to bear me like a thunderbolt
- Against the bosom of the Prince of Wales:
- Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse,
- Meet and ne'er part till one drop down a corse.
- O that Glendower were come!
VERNON:
- There is more news:
- I learn'd in Worcester, as I rode along,
- He cannot draw his power this fourteen days.
EARL OF DOUGLAS:
- That's the worst tidings that I hear of yet.
WORCESTER:
- Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound.
HOTSPUR:
- What may the king's whole battle reach unto?
VERNON:
- To thirty thousand.
HOTSPUR:
- Forty let it be:
- My father and Glendower being both away,
- The powers of us may serve so great a day
- Come, let us take a muster speedily:
- Doomsday is near; die all, die merrily.
EARL OF DOUGLAS:
- Talk not of dying: I am out of fear
- Of death or death's hand for this one-half year.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT IV, SCENE II. A public road near Coventry.
[Enter FALSTAFF and BARDOLPH]
FALSTAFF:
- Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry; fill me a
- bottle of sack: our soldiers shall march through;
- we'll to Sutton Co'fil' tonight.
BARDOLPH:
- Will you give me money, captain?
FALSTAFF:
- Lay out, lay out.
BARDOLPH:
- This bottle makes an angel.
FALSTAFF:
- An if it do, take it for thy labour; and if it make
- twenty, take them all; I'll answer the coinage. Bid
- my lieutenant Peto meet me at town's end.
BARDOLPH:
- I will, captain: farewell.
-
[Exit]
PRINCE HENRY:
- How now, blown Jack! how now, quilt!
FALSTAFF:
- What, Hal! how now, mad wag! what a devil dost thou
- in Warwickshire? My good Lord of Westmoreland, I
- cry you mercy: I thought your honour had already been
- at Shrewsbury.
WESTMORELAND:
- Faith, Sir John,'tis more than time that I were
- there, and you too; but my powers are there already.
- The king, I can tell you, looks for us all: we must
- away all night.
FALSTAFF:
- Tut, never fear me: I am as vigilant as a cat to
- steal cream.
PRINCE HENRY:
- I think, to steal cream indeed, for thy theft hath
- already made thee butter. But tell me, Jack, whose
- fellows are these that come after?
FALSTAFF:
- Mine, Hal, mine.
PRINCE HENRY:
- I did never see such pitiful rascals.
FALSTAFF:
- Tut, tut; good enough to toss; food for powder, food
- for powder; they'll fill a pit as well as better:
- tush, man, mortal men, mortal men.
WESTMORELAND:
- Ay, but, Sir John, methinks they are exceeding poor
- and bare, too beggarly.
FALSTAFF:
- 'Faith, for their poverty, I know not where they had
- that; and for their bareness, I am sure they never
- learned that of me.
PRINCE HENRY:
- No I'll be sworn; unless you call three fingers on
- the ribs bare. But, sirrah, make haste: Percy is
- already in the field.
FALSTAFF:
- What, is the king encamped?
WESTMORELAND:
- He is, Sir John: I fear we shall stay too long.
FALSTAFF:
- Well,
- To the latter end of a fray and the beginning of a feast
- Fits a dull fighter and a keen guest.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT IV, SCENE III. The rebel camp near Shrewsbury.
[Enter HOTSPUR, WORCESTER, DOUGLAS, and VERNON]
HOTSPUR:
- We'll fight with him to-night.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- It may not be.
EARL OF DOUGLAS:
- You give him then the advantage.
HOTSPUR:
- Why say you so? looks he not for supply?
HOTSPUR:
- His is certain, ours is doubtful.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- Good cousin, be advised; stir not tonight.
EARL OF DOUGLAS:
- You do not counsel well:
- You speak it out of fear and cold heart.
VERNON:
- Do me no slander, Douglas: by my life,
- And I dare well maintain it with my life,
- If well-respected honour bid me on,
- I hold as little counsel with weak fear
- As you, my lord, or any Scot that this day lives:
- Let it be seen to-morrow in the battle
- Which of us fears.
EARL OF DOUGLAS:
- Yea, or to-night.
HOTSPUR:
- To-night, say I.
VERNON:
- Come, come it nay not be. I wonder much,
- Being men of such great leading as you are,
- That you foresee not what impediments
- Drag back our expedition: certain horse
- Of my cousin Vernon's are not yet come up:
- Your uncle Worcester's horse came but today;
- And now their pride and mettle is asleep,
- Their courage with hard labour tame and dull,
- That not a horse is half the half of himself.
HOTSPUR:
- So are the horses of the enemy
- In general, journey-bated and brought low:
- The better part of ours are full of rest.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- The number of the king exceedeth ours:
- For God's sake. cousin, stay till all come in.
- The trumpet sounds a parley
-
[Enter SIR WALTER BLUNT]
SIR WALTER BLUNT:
- I come with gracious offers from the king,
- if you vouchsafe me hearing and respect.
HOTSPUR:
- Welcome, Sir Walter Blunt; and would to God
- You were of our determination!
- Some of us love you well; and even those some
- Envy your great deservings and good name,
- Because you are not of our quality,
- But stand against us like an enemy.
SIR WALTER BLUNT:
- And God defend but still I should stand so,
- So long as out of limit and true rule
- You stand against anointed majesty.
- But to my charge. The king hath sent to know
- The nature of your griefs, and whereupon
- You conjure from the breast of civil peace
- Such bold hostility, teaching his duteous land
- Audacious cruelty. If that the king
- Have any way your good deserts forgot,
- Which he confesseth to be manifold,
- He bids you name your griefs; and with all speed
- You shall have your desires with interest
- And pardon absolute for yourself and these
- Herein misled by your suggestion.
HOTSPUR:
- The king is kind; and well we know the king
- Knows at what time to promise, when to pay.
- My father and my uncle and myself
- Did give him that same royalty he wears;
- And when he was not six and twenty strong,
- Sick in the world's regard, wretched and low,
- A poor unminded outlaw sneaking home,
- My father gave him welcome to the shore;
- And when he heard him swear and vow to God
- He came but to be Duke of Lancaster,
- To sue his livery and beg his peace,
- With tears of innocency and terms of zeal,
- My father, in kind heart and pity moved,
- Swore him assistance and perform'd it too.
- Now when the lords and barons of the realm
- Perceived Northumberland did lean to him,
- The more and less came in with cap and knee;
- Met him in boroughs, cities, villages,
- Attended him on bridges, stood in lanes,
- Laid gifts before him, proffer'd him their oaths,
- Gave him their heirs, as pages follow'd him
- Even at the heels in golden multitudes.
- He presently, as greatness knows itself,
- Steps me a little higher than his vow
- Made to my father, while his blood was poor,
- Upon the naked shore at Ravenspurgh;
- And now, forsooth, takes on him to reform
- Some certain edicts and some strait decrees
- That lie too heavy on the commonwealth,
- Cries out upon abuses, seems to weep
- Over his country's wrongs; and by this face,
- This seeming brow of justice, did he win
- The hearts of all that he did angle for;
- Proceeded further; cut me off the heads
- Of all the favourites that the absent king
- In deputation left behind him here,
- When he was personal in the Irish war.
SIR WALTER BLUNT:
- Tut, I came not to hear this.
HOTSPUR:
- Then to the point.
- In short time after, he deposed the king;
- Soon after that, deprived him of his life;
- And in the neck of that, task'd the whole state:
- To make that worse, suffer'd his kinsman March,
- Who is, if every owner were well placed,
- Indeed his king, to be engaged in Wales,
- There without ransom to lie forfeited;
- Disgraced me in my happy victories,
- Sought to entrap me by intelligence;
- Rated mine uncle from the council-board;
- In rage dismiss'd my father from the court;
- Broke oath on oath, committed wrong on wrong,
- And in conclusion drove us to seek out
- This head of safety; and withal to pry
- Into his title, the which we find
- Too indirect for long continuance.
SIR WALTER BLUNT:
- Shall I return this answer to the king?
HOTSPUR:
- Not so, Sir Walter: we'll withdraw awhile.
- Go to the king; and let there be impawn'd
- Some surety for a safe return again,
- And in the morning early shall my uncle
- Bring him our purposes: and so farewell.
SIR WALTER BLUNT:
- I would you would accept of grace and love.
HOTSPUR:
- And may be so we shall.
SIR WALTER BLUNT:
- Pray God you do.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT IV, SCENE IV. York. The ARCHBISHOP'S palace.
[Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF YORK and SIR MICHAEL]
ARCHBISHOP OF YORK:
- Hie, good Sir Michael; bear this sealed brief
- With winged haste to the lord marshal;
- This to my cousin Scroop, and all the rest
- To whom they are directed. If you knew
- How much they do to import, you would make haste.
SIR MICHAEL:
- My good lord,
- I guess their tenor.
ARCHBISHOP OF YORK:
- Like enough you do.
- To-morrow, good Sir Michael, is a day
- Wherein the fortune of ten thousand men
- Must bide the touch; for, sir, at Shrewsbury,
- As I am truly given to understand,
- The king with mighty and quick-raised power
- Meets with Lord Harry: and, I fear, Sir Michael,
- What with the sickness of Northumberland,
- Whose power was in the first proportion,
- And what with Owen Glendower's absence thence,
- Who with them was a rated sinew too
- And comes not in, o'er-ruled by prophecies,
- I fear the power of Percy is too weak
- To wage an instant trial with the king.
SIR MICHAEL:
- Why, my good lord, you need not fear;
- There is Douglas and Lord Mortimer.
ARCHBISHOP OF YORK:
- No, Mortimer is not there.
SIR MICHAEL:
- But there is Mordake, Vernon, Lord Harry Percy,
- And there is my Lord of Worcester and a head
- Of gallant warriors, noble gentlemen.
ARCHBISHOP OF YORK:
- And so there is: but yet the king hath drawn
- The special head of all the land together:
- The Prince of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster,
- The noble Westmoreland and warlike Blunt;
- And moe corrivals and dear men
- Of estimation and command in arms.
SIR MICHAEL:
- Doubt not, my lord, they shall be well opposed.
ARCHBISHOP OF YORK:
- I hope no less, yet needful 'tis to fear;
- And, to prevent the worst, Sir Michael, speed:
- For if Lord Percy thrive not, ere the king
- Dismiss his power, he means to visit us,
- For he hath heard of our confederacy,
- And 'tis but wisdom to make strong against him:
- Therefore make haste. I must go write again
- To other friends; and so farewell, Sir Michael.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT V
ACT V, SCENE I. KING HENRY IV's camp near Shrewsbury.
[Enter KING HENRY, PRINCE HENRY, Lord John of LANCASTER,
EARL OF WESTMORELAND, SIR WALTER BLUNT, and FALSTAFF]
KING HENRY IV:
- How bloodily the sun begins to peer
- Above yon busky hill! the day looks pale
- At his distemperature.
PRINCE HENRY:
- The southern wind
- Doth play the trumpet to his purposes,
- And by his hollow whistling in the leaves
- Foretells a tempest and a blustering day.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- Hear me, my liege:
- For mine own part, I could be well content
- To entertain the lag-end of my life
- With quiet hours; for I do protest,
- I have not sought the day of this dislike.
KING HENRY IV:
- You have not sought it! how comes it, then?
FALSTAFF:
- Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Peace, chewet, peace!
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- It pleased your majesty to turn your looks
- Of favour from myself and all our house;
- And yet I must remember you, my lord,
- We were the first and dearest of your friends.
- For you my staff of office did I break
- In Richard's time; and posted day and night
- to meet you on the way, and kiss your hand,
- When yet you were in place and in account
- Nothing so strong and fortunate as I.
- It was myself, my brother and his son,
- That brought you home and boldly did outdare
- The dangers of the time. You swore to us,
- And you did swear that oath at Doncaster,
- That you did nothing purpose 'gainst the state;
- Nor claim no further than your new-fall'n right,
- The seat of Gaunt, dukedom of Lancaster:
- To this we swore our aid. But in short space
- It rain'd down fortune showering on your head;
- And such a flood of greatness fell on you,
- What with our help, what with the absent king,
- What with the injuries of a wanton time,
- The seeming sufferances that you had borne,
- And the contrarious winds that held the king
- So long in his unlucky Irish wars
- That all in England did repute him dead:
- And from this swarm of fair advantages
- You took occasion to be quickly woo'd
- To gripe the general sway into your hand;
- Forget your oath to us at Doncaster;
- And being fed by us you used us so
- As that ungentle hull, the cuckoo's bird,
- Useth the sparrow; did oppress our nest;
- Grew by our feeding to so great a bulk
- That even our love durst not come near your sight
- For fear of swallowing; but with nimble wing
- We were enforced, for safety sake, to fly
- Out of sight and raise this present head;
- Whereby we stand opposed by such means
- As you yourself have forged against yourself
- By unkind usage, dangerous countenance,
- And violation of all faith and troth
- Sworn to us in your younger enterprise.
KING HENRY IV:
- These things indeed you have articulate,
- Proclaim'd at market-crosses, read in churches,
- To face the garment of rebellion
- With some fine colour that may please the eye
- Of fickle changelings and poor discontents,
- Which gape and rub the elbow at the news
- Of hurlyburly innovation:
- And never yet did insurrection want
- Such water-colours to impaint his cause;
- Nor moody beggars, starving for a time
- Of pellmell havoc and confusion.
PRINCE HENRY:
- In both your armies there is many a soul
- Shall pay full dearly for this encounter,
- If once they join in trial. Tell your nephew,
- The Prince of Wales doth join with all the world
- In praise of Henry Percy: by my hopes,
- This present enterprise set off his head,
- I do not think a braver gentleman,
- More active-valiant or more valiant-young,
- More daring or more bold, is now alive
- To grace this latter age with noble deeds.
- For my part, I may speak it to my shame,
- I have a truant been to chivalry;
- And so I hear he doth account me too;
- Yet this before my father's majesty--
- I am content that he shall take the odds
- Of his great name and estimation,
- And will, to save the blood on either side,
- Try fortune with him in a single fight.
PRINCE HENRY:
- It will not be accepted, on my life:
- The Douglas and the Hotspur both together
- Are confident against the world in arms.
FALSTAFF:
- Hal, if thou see me down in the battle and bestride
- me, so; 'tis a point of friendship.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Nothing but a colossus can do thee that friendship.
- Say thy prayers, and farewell.
FALSTAFF:
- I would 'twere bed-time, Hal, and all well.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Why, thou owest God a death.
-
[Exit PRINCE HENRY]
FALSTAFF:
- 'Tis not due yet; I would be loath to pay him before
- his day. What need I be so forward with him that
- calls not on me? Well, 'tis no matter; honour pricks
- me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I
- come on? how then? Can honour set to a leg? no: or
- an arm? no: or take away the grief of a wound? no.
- Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? no. What is
- honour? a word. What is in that word honour? what
- is that honour? air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it?
- he that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no.
- Doth he hear it? no. 'Tis insensible, then. Yea,
- to the dead. But will it not live with the living?
- no. Why? detraction will not suffer it. Therefore
- I'll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon: and so
- ends my catechism.
-
[Exit]
ACT V, SCENE II. The rebel camp.
[Enter WORCESTER and VERNON]
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- O, no, my nephew must not know, Sir Richard,
- The liberal and kind offer of the king.
VERNON:
- 'Twere best he did.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- Then are we all undone.
- It is not possible, it cannot be,
- The king should keep his word in loving us;
- He will suspect us still and find a time
- To punish this offence in other faults:
- Suspicion all our lives shall be stuck full of eyes;
- For treason is but trusted like the fox,
- Who, ne'er so tame, so cherish'd and lock'd up,
- Will have a wild trick of his ancestors.
- Look how we can, or sad or merrily,
- Interpretation will misquote our looks,
- And we shall feed like oxen at a stall,
- The better cherish'd, still the nearer death.
- My nephew's trespass may be well forgot;
- it hath the excuse of youth and heat of blood,
- And an adopted name of privilege,
- A hair-brain'd Hotspur, govern'd by a spleen:
- All his offences live upon my head
- And on his father's; we did train him on,
- And, his corruption being ta'en from us,
- We, as the spring of all, shall pay for all.
- Therefore, good cousin, let not Harry know,
- In any case, the offer of the king.
HOTSPUR:
- My uncle is return'd:
- Deliver up my Lord of Westmoreland.
- Uncle, what news?
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- The king will bid you battle presently.
EARL OF DOUGLAS:
- Defy him by the Lord of Westmoreland.
HOTSPUR:
- Lord Douglas, go you and tell him so.
EARL OF DOUGLAS:
- Marry, and shall, and very willingly.
-
[Exit]
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- There is no seeming mercy in the king.
HOTSPUR:
- Did you beg any? God forbid!
EARL OF DOUGLAS:
- Arm, gentlemen; to arms! for I have thrown
- A brave defiance in King Henry's teeth,
- And Westmoreland, that was engaged, did bear it;
- Which cannot choose but bring him quickly on.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- The Prince of Wales stepp'd forth before the king,
- And, nephew, challenged you to single fight.
HOTSPUR:
- O, would the quarrel lay upon our heads,
- And that no man might draw short breath today
- But I and Harry Monmouth! Tell me, tell me,
- How show'd his tasking? seem'd it in contempt?
VERNON:
- No, by my soul; I never in my life
- Did hear a challenge urged more modestly,
- Unless a brother should a brother dare
- To gentle exercise and proof of arms.
- He gave you all the duties of a man;
- Trimm'd up your praises with a princely tongue,
- Spoke to your deservings like a chronicle,
- Making you ever better than his praise
- By still dispraising praise valued in you;
- And, which became him like a prince indeed,
- He made a blushing cital of himself;
- And chid his truant youth with such a grace
- As if he master'd there a double spirit.
- Of teaching and of learning instantly.
- There did he pause: but let me tell the world,
- If he outlive the envy of this day,
- England did never owe so sweet a hope,
- So much misconstrued in his wantonness.
HOTSPUR:
- Cousin, I think thou art enamoured
- On his follies: never did I hear
- Of any prince so wild a libertine.
- But be he as he will, yet once ere night
- I will embrace him with a soldier's arm,
- That he shall shrink under my courtesy.
- Arm, arm with speed: and, fellows, soldiers, friends,
- Better consider what you have to do
- Than I, that have not well the gift of tongue,
- Can lift your blood up with persuasion.
-
[Enter a Messenger]
Messenger:
- My lord, here are letters for you.
Messenger:
- My lord, prepare; the king comes on apace.
ACT V, SCENE III. Plain between the camps.
[KING HENRY enters with his power. Alarum to the battle.
Then enter DOUGLAS and SIR WALTER BLUNT]
SIR WALTER BLUNT:
- What is thy name, that in the battle thus
- Thou crossest me? what honour dost thou seek
- Upon my head?
EARL OF DOUGLAS:
- Know then, my name is Douglas;
- And I do haunt thee in the battle thus
- Because some tell me that thou art a king.
SIR WALTER BLUNT:
- They tell thee true.
EARL OF DOUGLAS:
- The Lord of Stafford dear to-day hath bought
- Thy likeness, for instead of thee, King Harry,
- This sword hath ended him: so shall it thee,
- Unless thou yield thee as my prisoner.
HOTSPUR:
- O Douglas, hadst thou fought at Holmedon thus,
- never had triumph'd upon a Scot.
EARL OF DOUGLAS:
- All's done, all's won; here breathless lies the king.
HOTSPUR:
- This, Douglas? no: I know this face full well:
- A gallant knight he was, his name was Blunt;
- Semblably furnish'd like the king himself.
EARL OF DOUGLAS:
- A fool go with thy soul, whither it goes!
- A borrow'd title hast thou bought too dear:
- Why didst thou tell me that thou wert a king?
HOTSPUR:
- The king hath many marching in his coats.
EARL OF DOUGLAS:
- Now, by my sword, I will kill all his coats;
- I'll murder all his wardrobe, piece by piece,
- Until I meet the king.
HOTSPUR:
- Up, and away!
- Our soldiers stand full fairly for the day.
-
[Exeunt]
- Alarum. Enter FALSTAFF, solus
FALSTAFF:
- Though I could 'scape shot-free at London, I fear
- the shot here; here's no scoring but upon the pate.
- Soft! who are you? Sir Walter Blunt: there's honour
- for you! here's no vanity! I am as hot as moulten
- lead, and as heavy too: God keep lead out of me! I
- need no more weight than mine own bowels. I have
- led my ragamuffins where they are peppered: there's
- not three of my hundred and fifty left alive; and
- they are for the town's end, to beg during life.
- But who comes here?
-
[Enter PRINCE HENRY]
PRINCE HENRY:
- What, stand'st thou idle here? lend me thy sword:
- Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff
- Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies,
- Whose deaths are yet unrevenged: I prithee,
- lend me thy sword.
FALSTAFF:
- O Hal, I prithee, give me leave to breathe awhile.
- Turk Gregory never did such deeds in arms as I have
- done this day. I have paid Percy, I have made him sure.
PRINCE HENRY:
- He is, indeed; and living to kill thee. I prithee,
- lend me thy sword.
FALSTAFF:
- Nay, before God, Hal, if Percy be alive, thou get'st
- not my sword; but take my pistol, if thou wilt.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Give it to me: what, is it in the case?
FALSTAFF:
- Ay, Hal; 'tis hot, 'tis hot; there's that will sack a city.
- PRINCE HENRY draws it out, and finds it to be a bottle of sack
PRINCE HENRY:
- What, is it a time to jest and dally now?
- He throws the bottle at him. Exit
FALSTAFF:
- Well, if Percy be alive, I'll pierce him. If he do
- come in my way, so: if he do not, if I come in his
- willingly, let him make a carbonado of me. I like
- not such grinning honour as Sir Walter hath: give me
- life: which if I can save, so; if not, honour comes
- unlooked for, and there's an end.
-
[Exit FALSTAFF]
ACT V, SCENE IV. Another part of the field.
[Alarum. Excursions. Enter PRINCE HENRY,
LORD JOHN OF LANCASTER, and EARL OF WESTMORELAND]
KING HENRY IV:
- I prithee,
- Harry, withdraw thyself; thou bleed'st too much.
- Lord John of Lancaster, go you with him.
LANCASTER:
- Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too.
PRINCE HENRY:
- I beseech your majesty, make up,
- Lest your retirement do amaze your friends.
KING HENRY IV:
- I will do so.
- My Lord of Westmoreland, lead him to his tent.
WESTMORELAND:
- Come, my lord, I'll lead you to your tent.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Lead me, my lord? I do not need your help:
- And God forbid a shallow scratch should drive
- The Prince of Wales from such a field as this,
- Where stain'd nobility lies trodden on,
- and rebels' arms triumph in massacres!
PRINCE HENRY:
- By God, thou hast deceived me, Lancaster;
- I did not think thee lord of such a spirit:
- Before, I loved thee as a brother, John;
- But now, I do respect thee as my soul.
KING HENRY IV:
- I saw him hold Lord Percy at the point
- With lustier maintenance than I did look for
- Of such an ungrown warrior.
PRINCE HENRY:
- O, this boy
- Lends mettle to us all!
-
[Exit]
-
[Enter DOUGLAS]
EARL OF DOUGLAS:
- Another king! they grow like Hydra's heads:
- I am the Douglas, fatal to all those
- That wear those colours on them: what art thou,
- That counterfeit'st the person of a king?
KING HENRY IV:
- The king himself; who, Douglas, grieves at heart
- So many of his shadows thou hast met
- And not the very king. I have two boys
- Seek Percy and thyself about the field:
- But, seeing thou fall'st on me so luckily,
- I will assay thee: so, defend thyself.
KING HENRY IV:
- Stay, and breathe awhile:
- Thou hast redeem'd thy lost opinion,
- And show'd thou makest some tender of my life,
- In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me.
PRINCE HENRY:
- O God! they did me too much injury
- That ever said I hearken'd for your death.
- If it were so, I might have let alone
- The insulting hand of Douglas over you,
- Which would have been as speedy in your end
- As all the poisonous potions in the world
- And saved the treacherous labour of your son.
KING HENRY IV:
- Make up to Clifton: I'll to Sir Nicholas Gawsey.
-
[Exit
Enter HOTSPUR]
HOTSPUR:
- If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Thou speak'st as if I would deny my name.
HOTSPUR:
- My name is Harry Percy.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Why, then I see
- A very valiant rebel of the name.
- I am the Prince of Wales; and think not, Percy,
- To share with me in glory any more:
- Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere;
- Nor can one England brook a double reign,
- Of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales.
HOTSPUR:
- Nor shall it, Harry; for the hour is come
- To end the one of us; and would to God
- Thy name in arms were now as great as mine!
PRINCE HENRY:
- I'll make it greater ere I part from thee;
- And all the budding honours on thy crest
- I'll crop, to make a garland for my head.
HOTSPUR:
- I can no longer brook thy vanities.
-
[They fight]
-
[Enter FALSTAFF]
FALSTAFF:
- Well said, Hal! to it Hal! Nay, you shall find no
- boy's play here, I can tell you.
-
[Re-enter DOUGLAS; he fights with FALSTAFF,
who falls down as if he were dead, and exit DOUGLAS.
HOTSPUR is wounded, and falls]
HOTSPUR:
- O, Harry, thou hast robb'd me of my youth!
- I better brook the loss of brittle life
- Than those proud titles thou hast won of me;
- They wound my thoughts worse than sword my flesh:
- But thought's the slave of life, and life time's fool;
- And time, that takes survey of all the world,
- Must have a stop. O, I could prophesy,
- But that the earthy and cold hand of death
- Lies on my tongue: no, Percy, thou art dust
- And food for--
-
[Dies]
PRINCE HENRY:
- Come, brother John; full bravely hast thou flesh'd
- Thy maiden sword.
LANCASTER:
- But, soft! whom have we here?
- Did you not tell me this fat man was dead?
PRINCE HENRY:
- I did; I saw him dead,
- Breathless and bleeding on the ground. Art
- thou alive?
- Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight?
- I prithee, speak; we will not trust our eyes
- Without our ears: thou art not what thou seem'st.
FALSTAFF:
- No, that's certain; I am not a double man: but if I
- be not Jack Falstaff, then am I a Jack. There is Percy:
-
[Throwing the body down]
- if your father will do me any honour, so; if not, let
- him kill the next Percy himself. I look to be either
- earl or duke, I can assure you.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Why, Percy I killed myself and saw thee dead.
FALSTAFF:
- Didst thou? Lord, Lord, how this world is given to
- lying! I grant you I was down and out of breath;
- and so was he: but we rose both at an instant and
- fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock. If I may be
- believed, so; if not, let them that should reward
- valour bear the sin upon their own heads. I'll take
- it upon my death, I gave him this wound in the
- thigh: if the man were alive and would deny it,
- 'zounds, I would make him eat a piece of my sword.
LANCASTER:
- This is the strangest tale that ever I heard.
FALSTAFF:
- I'll follow, as they say, for reward. He that
- rewards me, God reward him! If I do grow great,
- I'll grow less; for I'll purge, and leave sack, and
- live cleanly as a nobleman should do.
-
[Exit]
ACT V, SCENE V. Another part of the field.
[The trumpets sound. Enter KING HENRY IV, PRINCE HENRY, LORD JOHN LANCASTER,
EARL OF WESTMORELAND, with WORCESTER and VERNON prisoners]
KING HENRY IV:
- Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke.
- Ill-spirited Worcester! did not we send grace,
- Pardon and terms of love to all of you?
- And wouldst thou turn our offers contrary?
- Misuse the tenor of thy kinsman's trust?
- Three knights upon our party slain to-day,
- A noble earl and many a creature else
- Had been alive this hour,
- If like a Christian thou hadst truly borne
- Betwixt our armies true intelligence.
EARL OF WORCESTER:
- What I have done my safety urged me to;
- And I embrace this fortune patiently,
- Since not to be avoided it falls on me.
PRINCE HENRY:
- The noble Scot, Lord Douglas, when he saw
- The fortune of the day quite turn'd from him,
- The noble Percy slain, and all his men
- Upon the foot of fear, fled with the rest;
- And falling from a hill, he was so bruised
- That the pursuers took him. At my tent
- The Douglas is; and I beseech your grace
- I may dispose of him.
KING HENRY IV:
- With all my heart.
PRINCE HENRY:
- Then, brother John of Lancaster, to you
- This honourable bounty shall belong:
- Go to the Douglas, and deliver him
- Up to his pleasure, ransomless and free:
- His valour shown upon our crests to-day
- Hath taught us how to cherish such high deeds
- Even in the bosom of our adversaries.
LANCASTER:
- I thank your grace for this high courtesy,
- Which I shall give away immediately.
KING HENRY IV:
- Then this remains, that we divide our power.
- You, son John, and my cousin Westmoreland
- Towards York shall bend you with your dearest speed,
- To meet Northumberland and the prelate Scroop,
- Who, as we hear, are busily in arms:
- Myself and you, son Harry, will towards Wales,
- To fight with Glendower and the Earl of March.
- Rebellion in this land shall lose his sway,
- Meeting the cheque of such another day:
- And since this business so fair is done,
- Let us not leave till all our own be won.
-
[Exeunt]