1
Henry IV, Part One
William Shakespeare — EMOTHE0132_HenryIvPartOne
King
Henry IV, formerly Henry Bolingbroke
Prince
Henry the Prince of Wales, mostly called Hal and sometimes Harry
Lancaster
Prince John, Hal’s young brother
Westmorland
Earl of Westmorland, loyal to the King
Blunt
Sir Walter Blunt, a nobleman loyal to the king
Northumberland
Henry Percy, the first Earl of Northumberland, opposed to the king
Hotspur
Harry Percy, eldest son of Northumberland
Worcester
Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester, younger brother to Northumberland
Lady Percy
also called "Kate," Hotspur's wife and sister to Mortimer
Mortimer
Edmund Mortimer, Lady Percy's brother and husband to Glendower's daughter
Glendower
Owen Glendower, Welsh leader allied with the Percys
Lady Mortimer
Glendower's daughter married to Mortimer
Douglas
Archibald, Earl of Douglas, also called "the Douglas," allied with the Percys
Vernon
Sir Richard Vernon, allied with the Percys
Archbishop
Richard Scrope, Archbishop of York, allied with the Percys
Sir Michael
a follower of the Archbishop
Falstaff
Sir John Falstaff, companion to Prince Hal
Poins
also called "Ned" and "Yedward," companion to Prince Hal
Peto
companion to Prince Hal
Bardolph
companion to Prince Hal
Gadshill
a thief
Vintner
a tavern keeper
Hostess
Mistress Quickly, the tavern landlady
Francis
a "drawer" (barman) apprenticed to the Vintner
Chamberlain
a servant at the inn in Rochester
First Carrier
Second Carrier
Ostler
a stable-hand
Servant to Hotspur
Sheriff
Messengers
[1.1]
(Enter the king, Lord John of Lancaster, Earl of Westmorland, with others.)
KING
So shaken as we are, so wan with care,
1
Find we a time for frighted peace to pant
2
And breathe short-winded accents of new broils
3
To be commenced in strands afar remote.
4
No more the thirsty entrance of this soil
5
Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood,
6
No more shall trenching war channel her fields,
7
Nor bruise her flow'rets with the armèd hoofs
8
Of hostile paces. Those opposèd eyes,
9
Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,
10
All of one nature, of one substance bred,
11
Did lately meet in the intestine shock
12
And furious close of civil butchery,
13
Shall now in mutual well-beseeming ranks
14
March all one way, and be no more opposed
15
Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies.
16
The edge of war, like an ill-sheathèd knife,
17
No more shall cut his master. Therefore, friends,
18
As far as to the sepulcher of Christ —
19
Whose soldier now, under whose blessèd cross
20
We are impressèd and engaged to fight —
21
Forthwith a power of English shall we levy,
22
Whose arms were molded in their mother's womb
23
To chase these pagans in those holy fields
24
Over whose acres walked those blessèd feet
25
Which fourteen hundred years ago were nailed,
26
For our advantage, on the bitter cross.
27
But this our purpose now is twelve month old,
28
And bootless 'tis to tell you we will go.
29
Therefor we meet not now. Then let me hear
30
Of you, my gentle cousin Westmorland,
31
What yesternight our Council did decree
32
In forwarding this dear expedience.
33
WESTMORLAND
My liege, this haste was hot in question,
34
And many limits of the charge set down
35
But yesternight, when all athwart there came
36
A post from Wales, loaden with heavy news,
37
Whose worst was that the noble Mortimer,
38
Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight
39
Against the irregular and wild Glendower,
40
Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken,
41
A thousand of his people butcherèd,
42
Upon whose dead corpse there was such misuse,
43
Such beastly shameless transformation
44
By those Welshwomen done as may not be
45
Without much shame retold or spoken of.
46
KING
It seems then that the tidings of this broil
47
Brake off our business for the holy land.
48
WESTMORLAND
This matched with other did, my gracious lord,
49
For more uneven and unwelcome news
50
Came from the north, and thus it did import:
51
On Holy-rood day the gallant Hotspur there —
52
Young Harry Percy — and brave Archibald,
53
That ever valiant and approvèd Scot,
54
At Holmedon met, where they did spend
55
A sad and bloody hour,
56
As by discharge of their artillery,
57
And shape of likelihood the news was told;
58
For he that brought them in the very heat
59
And pride of their contention did take horse
60
Uncertain of the issue any way.
61
KING
Here is a dear, a true industrious friend,
62
Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse,
63
Stained with the variation of each soil
64
Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours,
65
And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news:
66
The Earl of Douglas is discomfited;
67
Ten thousand bold Scots, two-and-twenty knights,
68
Balked in their own blood did Sir Walter see
69
On Holmedon's plains. Of prisoners Hotspur took
70
Mordake, Earl of Fife and eldest son
71
To beaten Douglas, and the Earl of Athol,
72
Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith.
73
And is not this an honorable spoil?
74
A gallant prize? Ha, cousin, is it not?
75
WESTMORLAND
In faith it is — a conquest for a prince to boast of.
76
KING
Yea, there thou mak'st me sad, and mak'st me sin
77
In envy, that my lord Northumberland
78
Should be the father to so blest a son —
79
A son who is the theme of honor's tongue,
80
Amongst a grove the very straightest plant,
81
Who is sweet fortune's minion and her pride —
82
Whilst I by looking on the praise of him
83
See riot and dishonor stain the brow
84
Of my young Harry. Oh, that it could be proved
85
That some night-tripping fairy had exchanged
86
In cradle clothes our children where they lay,
87
And called mine Percy, his Plantagenet!
88
Then would I have his Harry, and he mine.
89
But let him from my thoughts. What think you, coz,
90
Of this young Percy's pride? The prisoners
91
Which he in this adventure hath surprised
92
To his own use he keeps, and sends me word
93
I shall have none but Mordake Earl of Fife.
94
WESTMORLAND
This is his uncle's teaching. This is Worcester,
95
Malevolent to you in all aspects,
96
Which makes him prune himself, and bristle up
97
The crest of youth against your dignity.
98
KING
But I have sent for him to answer this;
99
And for this cause awhile we must neglect
100
Our holy purpose to Jerusalem.
101
Cousin, on Wednesday next our council we
102
Will hold at Windsor. So inform the lords.
103
But come yourself with speed to us again,
104
For more is to be said and to be done,
105
Than out of anger can be utterèd.
106
WESTMORLAND
I will my liege.
107
(Exeunt.)
[1.2]
(Enter Prince of Wales, and Sir John Falstaff.)
FALSTAFF
Now Hal, what time of day is it lad?
PRINCE
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-colored 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 wand'ring knight so fair." And I prithee, sweet wag, when thou art a king, as god save thy grace — "majesty" I should say, for grace thou wilt have none —
PRINCE
What, none?
FALSTAFF
No, by my troth, not so much as will serve to be prologue to an egg and butter.
PRINCE
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
Thou sayst 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 sayst true, lad; and is not my hostess of the tavern a most sweet wench?
PRINCE
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
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
Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part?
FALSTAFF
No, I'll give thee thy due, thou hast paid all there.
PRINCE
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 fubbed as it is with the rusty curb of old Father Antic the law? Do not thou when thou art king hang a thief.
PRINCE
No, thou shalt.
FALSTAFF
Shall I? Oh, rare! By the lord, I'll be a brave judge.
PRINCE
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 humor as well as waiting in the court, I can tell you.
PRINCE
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
Or an old lion, or a lover's lute.
FALSTAFF
Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe.
PRINCE
What sayst thou to a hare, or the melancholy of Moorditch?
FALSTAFF
Thou hast the most unsavory 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
Thou didst well, for wisdom cries out in the streets and no man regards it.
FALSTAFF
Oh, 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, an I do not, I am a villain. I'll be damned for never a king's son in Christendom.
PRINCE
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
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 labor 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
Good morrow Ned.
POINS
Good morrow, sweet Hal. [To Falstaff] 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
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
[To Falstaff] Then art thou damned for keeping thy word with the devil.
PRINCE
Else he had been damned for cozening the devil.
POINS
But my lads, my lads, tomorrow morning by four o'clock early at Gad's Hill, 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 tonight in Rochester. I have bespoke supper tomorrow 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.
POINS
You will, chops?
FALSTAFF
Hal, wilt thou make one?
PRINCE
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
Well then, once in my days I'll be a madcap.
FALSTAFF
Why that's well said.
PRINCE
Well, come what will, I'll tarry at home.
FALSTAFF
By the lord, I'll be a traitor then, when thou art king.
PRINCE
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
Farewell, the latter spring; farewell, All-Hallown summer.
([Exit Falstaff.])
POINS
Now, my good sweet honey lord, ride with us tomorrow. I have a jest to execute that I cannot manage alone. Falstaff, Peto, Bardolph, 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
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
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
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 lives the jest.
PRINCE
Well, I'll go with thee. Provide us all things necessary, and meet me tomorrow night in Eastcheap; there I'll sup. Farewell.
POINS
Farewell, my lord.
(Exit Poins.)
PRINCE
I know you all, and will a while uphold
63
The unyoked humor of your idleness.
64
Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
65
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
66
To smother up his beauty from the world,
67
That when he please again to be himself,
68
Being wanted he may be more wondered at
69
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
70
Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.
71
If all the year were playing holidays,
72
To sport would be as tedious as to work;
73
But when they seldom come, they wished-for come,
74
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
75
So when this loose behaviour I throw off
76
And pay the debt I never promisèd,
77
By how much better than my word I am,
78
By so much shall I falsify men's hopes;
79
And like bright metal on a sullen ground,
80
My reformation, glitt'ring o'er my fault,
81
Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes
82
Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
83
I'll so offend to make offense a skill,
84
Redeeming time when men think least I will.
85
(Exit.)
[1.3]
(Enter the king, Northumberland, Worcester, Hotspur, Sir Walter Blunt, with others.)
KING
My blood hath been too cold and temperate,
1
Unapt to stir at these indignities,
2
And you have found me, for accordingly
3
You tread upon my patience. But be sure
4
I will from henceforth rather be myself,
5
Mighty and to be feared, than my condition,
6
Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down,
7
And therefore lost that title of respect
8
Which the proud soul ne'er pays but to the proud.
9
WORCESTER
Our house, my sovereign liege, little deserves
10
The scourge of greatness to be used on it,
11
And that same greatness too, which our own hands
12
Have holp to make so portly.
13
NORTHUMBERLAND
My lord —
14
KING
Worcester, get thee gone, for I do see
15
Danger and disobedience in thine eye.
16
O sir, your presence is too bold and peremptory,
17
And majesty might never yet endure
18
The moody frontier of a servant brow.
19
You have good leave to leave us. When we need
20
Your use and counsel we shall send for you.
21
(Exit Worcester.)
[To Northumberland] You were about to speak.
22
NORTHUMBERLAND
Yea my good lord.
Those prisoners in your highness' name demanded,
23
Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took,
24
Were, as he says, not with such strength denied
25
As is delivered to your majesty.
26
Either envy, therefore, or misprision
27
Is guilty of this fault, and not my son.
28
HOTSPUR
My liege, I did deny no prisoners.
29
But I remember when the fight was done,
30
When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,
31
Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
32
Came there a certain lord, neat and trimly dressed,
33
Fresh as a bridegroom, and his chin, new-reaped,
34
Showed like a stubble-land at harvest-home.
35
He was perfumèd like a milliner,
36
And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held
37
A pouncet-box, which ever and anon
38
He gave his nose and took't away again,
39
Who therewith angry, when it next came there
40
Took it in snuff, and still he smiled and talked;
41
And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
42
He called them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
43
To bring a slovenly unhandsome corpse
44
Betwixt the wind and his nobility.
45
With many holiday and lady terms
46
He questioned me, amongst the rest demanded
47
My prisoners in your majesty's behalf.
48
I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold,
49
To be so pestered with a popinjay,
50
Out of my grief and my impatience
51
Answered neglectingly, I know not what,
52
He should, or he should not, for he made me mad
53
To see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet,
54
And talk so like a waiting gentlewoman
55
Of guns, and drums, and wounds, god save the mark!
56
And telling me the sovereign'st thing on earth
57
Was parmacity, for an inward bruise,
58
And that it was great pity, so it was,
59
This villainous saltpetre should be digged
60
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
61
Which many a good tall fellow had destroyed
62
So cowardly, and but for these vile guns
63
He would himself have been a soldier.
64
This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord,
65
I answered indirectly, as I said,
66
And I beseech you, let not his report
67
Come current for an accusation
68
Betwixt my love and your high majesty.
69
BLUNT
The circumstance considered, good my lord,
70
Whate'er Lord Harry Percy then had said
71
To such a person, and in such a place,
72
At such a time, with all the rest retold,
73
May reasonably die, and never rise
74
To do him wrong, or any way impeach
75
What then he said, so he unsay it now.
76
KING
Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners,
77
But with proviso and exception
78
That we at our own charge shall ransom straight
79
His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer,
80
Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betrayed
81
The lives of those that he did lead to fight
82
Against that great magician, damned Glendower,
83
Whose daughter, as we hear, that Earl of March
84
Hath lately married. Shall our coffers then
85
Be emptied to redeem a traitor home?
86
Shall we buy treason, and indent with fears
87
When they have lost and forfeited themselves?
88
No, on the barren mountains let him starve,
89
For I shall never hold that man my friend
90
Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost
91
To ransom home revolted Mortimer.
92
HOTSPUR
Revolted Mortimer!
93
He never did fall off, my sovereign liege,
94
But by the chance of war. To prove that true
95
Needs no more but one tongue for all those wounds,
96
Those mouthèd wounds, which valiantly he took
97
When on the gentle Severn's sedgy bank
98
In single opposition, hand to hand,
99
He did confound the best part of an hour
100
In changing hardiment with great Glendower.
101
Three times they breathed, and three times did they drink,
102
Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood,
103
Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks,
104
Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds
105
And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank,
106
Bloodstainèd with these valiant combatants.
107
Never did bare and rotten policy
108
Color her working with such deadly wounds,
109
Nor never could the noble Mortimer
110
Receive so many, and all willingly.
111
Then let not him be slandered with revolt.
112
KING
Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou dost belie him.
113
He never did encounter with Glendower.
114
I tell thee, he durst as well have met the devil alone
115
As Owen Glendower for an enemy.
116
Art thou not ashamed? But, sirrah, henceforth
117
Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer.
118
Send me your prisoners with the speediest means,
119
Or you shall hear in such a kind from me
120
As will displease you. My Lord Northumberland
121
We license your departure with your son.
122
Send us your prisoners, or you will hear of it.
123
(Exit King [with all but Hotspur and Northumberland.])
HOTSPUR
An if the devil come and roar for them
124
I will not send them. I will after straight
125
And tell him so, for I will ease my heart,
126
Albeit I make a hazard of my head.
127
NORTHUMBERLAND
What, drunk with choler? Stay and pause awhile.
128
Here comes your uncle.
129
(Enter Worcester.)
HOTSPUR
Speak of Mortimer?
Zounds, I will speak of him, and let my soul
130
Want mercy if I do not join with him.
131
Yea, on his part I'll empty all these veins,
132
And shed my dear blood drop by drop in the dust,
133
But I will lift the downtrod Mortimer
134
As high in the air as this unthankful king,
135
As this ingrate and cankered Bolingbroke.
136
NORTHUMBERLAND
Brother, the king hath made your nephew mad.
137
WORCESTER
Who struck this heat up after I was gone?
138
HOTSPUR
He will forsooth have all my prisoners,
139
And when I urged the ransom once again
140
Of my wife's brother, then his cheek looked pale,
141
And on my face he turned an eye of death,
142
Trembling even at the name of Mortimer.
143
WORCESTER
I cannot blame him: was not he proclaimed
144
By Richard, that dead is, the next of blood?
145
NORTHUMBERLAND
He was; I heard the proclamation.
146
And then it was when the unhappy king —
147
Whose wrongs in us god pardon! — did set forth
148
Upon his Irish expedition,
149
From whence he, intercepted, did return
150
To be deposed, and shortly murderèd.
151
WORCESTER
And for whose death we in the world's wide mouth
152
Live scandalized and foully spoken of.
153
HOTSPUR
But soft, I pray you, did King Richard then
154
Proclaim my brother Edmund Mortimer
155
Heir to the crown?
156
NORTHUMBERLAND
He did, myself did hear it.
HOTSPUR
Nay then, I cannot blame his cousin king
157
That wished him on the barren mountains starve.
158
But shall it be that you that set the crown
159
Upon the head of this forgetful man,
160
And for his sake wear the detested blot
161
Of murderous subornation, shall it be
162
That you a world of curses undergo,
163
Being the agents or base second means,
164
The cords, the ladder, or the hangman rather?
165
Oh, pardon me that I descend so low
166
To show the line and the predicament
167
Wherein you range under this subtle king!
168
Shall it for shame be spoken in these days,
169
Or fill up chronicles in time to come,
170
That men of your nobility and power
171
Did gage them both in an unjust behalf —
172
As both of you, god pardon it, have done —
173
To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose,
174
And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke?
175
And shall it in more shame be further spoken
176
That you are fooled, discarded, and shook off
177
By him for whom these shames ye underwent?
178
No, yet time serves wherein you may redeem
179
Your banished honors, and restore yourselves
180
Into the good thoughts of the world again,
181
Revenge the jeering and disdained contempt
182
Of this proud king, who studies day and night
183
To answer all the debt he owes to you
184
Even with the bloody payment of your deaths.
185
Therefore, I say —
186
WORCESTER
Peace, cousin, say no more.
And now I will unclasp a secret book,
187
And to your quick-conceiving discontents
188
I'll read you matter deep and dangerous,
189
As full of peril and adventurous spirit
190
As to o'erwalk a current roaring loud
191
On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.
192
HOTSPUR
If he fall in, good night, or sink or swim.
193
Send danger from the east unto the west,
194
So honor cross it from the north to south,
195
And let them grapple. Oh, the blood more stirs
196
To rouse a lion than to start a hare!
197
NORTHUMBERLAND
Imagination of some great exploit
198
Drives him beyond the bounds of patience.
199
[HOTSPUR]
By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap
200
To pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon,
201
Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
202
Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
203
And pluck up drownèd honor by the locks,
204
So he that doth redeem her thence might wear,
205
Without co-rival, all her dignities.
206
But out upon this half-faced fellowship!
207
WORCESTER
He apprehends a world of figures here,
208
But not the form of what he should attend.
209
Good cousin, give me audience for a while.
210
HOTSPUR
I cry you mercy.
211
WORCESTER
Those same noble Scots
That are your prisoners —
212
HOTSPUR
I'll keep them all;
By god, he shall not have a Scot of them,
213
No, if a Scot would save his soul he shall not.
214
I'll keep them, by this hand.
215
WORCESTER
You start away,
And lend no ear unto my purposes.
216
Those prisoners you shall keep.
217
HOTSPUR
Nay, I will; that's flat.
He said he would not ransom Mortimer,
218
Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer;
219
But I will find him when he lies asleep,
220
And in his ear I'll holla "Mortimer!"
221
Nay, I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak
222
Nothing but "Mortimer," and give it him
223
To keep his anger still in motion.
224
WORCESTER
Hear you, cousin, a word.
225
HOTSPUR
All studies here I solemnly defy,
226
Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke.
227
And that same sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales.
228
But that I think his father loves him not
229
And would be glad he met with some mischance,
230
I would have him poisoned with a pot of ale.
231
WORCESTER
Farewell, kinsman. I'll talk to you
232
When you are better tempered to attend.
233
NORTHUMBERLAND
Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool
234
Art thou to break into this woman's mood
235
Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own!
236
HOTSPUR
Why, look you, I am whipped and scourged with rods,
237
Nettled and stung with pismires, when I hear
238
Of this vile politician Bolingbroke.
239
In Richard's time — what d'ye call the place?
240
A plague upon't, it is in Gloucestershire.
241
'Twas where the madcap duke his uncle kept,
242
His uncle York — where I first bowed my knee
243
Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke —
244
'Sblood, when you and he came back from Ravenspurgh.
245
NORTHUMBERLAND
At Berkeley castle.
246
HOTSPUR
You say true.
247
Why, what a candy deal of courtesy
248
This fawning greyhound then did proffer me!
249
"Look when his infant fortune came to age,"
250
And "gentle Harry Percy," and "kind cousin."
251
Oh, the devil take such cozeners! God forgive me,
252
Good uncle, tell your tale; I have done.
253
WORCESTER
Nay, if you have not, to it again.
254
We will stay your leisure.
255
HOTSPUR
I have done, i'faith.
WORCESTER
Then once more to your Scottish prisoners.
256
Deliver them up without their ransom straight;
257
And make the Douglas' son your only mean
258
For powers in Scotland, which for divers reasons
259
Which I shall send you written, be assured
260
Will easily be granted. [To Northumberland] You, my lord,
261
Your son in Scotland being thus employed,
262
Shall secretly into the bosom creep
263
Of that same noble prelate well-beloved,
264
The archbishop.
265
HOTSPUR
Of York, is't not?
266
WORCESTER
True, who bears hard
267
His brother's death at Bristol, the Lord Scrope.
268
I speak not this in estimation,
269
As what I think might be, but what I know
270
Is ruminated, plotted, and set down,
271
And only stays but to behold the face
272
Of that occasion that shall bring it on.
273
HOTSPUR
I smell it; upon my life, it will do well!
274
NORTHUMBERLAND
Before the game is afoot thou still let'st slip.
275
HOTSPUR
Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot —
276
And then the power of Scotland and of York
277
To join with Mortimer, ha?
278
WORCESTER
And so they shall.
HOTSPUR
In faith, it is exceedingly well aimed.
279
WORCESTER
And 'tis no little reason bids us speed
280
To save our heads by raising of a head;
281
For, bear ourselves as even as we can,
282
The king will always think him in our debt,
283
And think we think ourselves unsatisfied
284
Till he hath found a time to pay us home.
285
And see already how he doth begin
286
To make us strangers to his looks of love.
287
HOTSPUR
He does, he does. We'll be revenged on him.
288
WORCESTER
Cousin, farewell. No further go in this
289
Than I by letters shall direct your course.
290
When time is ripe, which will be suddenly,
291
I'll steal to Glendower and Lord Mortimer,
292
Where you and Douglas and our powers at once,
293
As I will fashion it, shall happily meet,
294
To bear our fortunes in our own strong arms,
295
Which now we hold at much uncertainty.
296
NORTHUMBERLAND
Farewell, good brother. We shall thrive, I trust.
297
HOTSPUR
Uncle, adieu. Oh, let the hours be short
298
Till fields and blows and groans applaud our sport!
299
(Exeunt.)
[2.1]
(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's 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 villainous 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 Christian 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-lye breeds fleas like a loach.
FIRST CARRIER
What, ostler! Come away and be hanged, come away!
SECOND CARRIER
I have a gammon of bacon and two races 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 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 prithee 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
[To Second Carrier] I pray thee, lend me thine.
SECOND CARRIER
Ay, when? Canst 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, neighbor Mugs, we'll call up the gentlemen. They will along with company, for they have great charge.
(Exeunt [Carriers].)
(Enter Chamberlain.)
GADSHILL
What ho, chamberlain!
CHAMBERLAIN
"At hand, quoth pickpurse."
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 laboring: thou layest the plot how.
CHAMBERLAIN
Good morrow, Master Gadshill. It holds current that I told you yesternight. There's a franklin in the Weald 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 ofauditor, 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's 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 Saint 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's sake are content to do the profession some grace, that would, if matters should be looked into, for their own credit's sake make all whole. I am joined with no foot-landrakers, no long-staff sixpenny strikers, none of these mad mustachio purple-hued maltworms, but with nobility and tranquility, 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 recipe of fernseed, we walk invisible.
CHAMBERLAIN
Nay, by my faith, I think you are more beholding to the night than to fernseed 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.])
[2.2]
(Enter Prince, Poins, and Peto.)
POINS
Come, shelter, shelter! I have removed Falstaff's horse, and he frets like a gummed velvet.
PRINCE
Stand close.
([Poins and Peto hide.])
(Enter Falstaff.)
FALSTAFF
Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Poins!
PRINCE
Peace, ye fat-kidneyed rascal! What a brawling dost thou keep!
FALSTAFF
Where's Poins, Hal?
PRINCE
He is walked up to the top of the hill. I'll go seek him.
([He joins Poins and Peto])
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 square 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 have 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 plagueupon 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!
([Prince, Poins and Peto come forward(?)])
Give me my horse, you rogues; give me my horse, and be hanged!
PRINCE
Peace, ye fat-guts. Lie down, lay thine ear close to the ground, and list if thou canst hear the tread of travelers.
FALSTAFF
Have you any levers to lift me up again, being down? 'Sblood, I'll not bear my 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
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
Out, ye rogue, shall I be your ostler?
FALSTAFF
Hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent garters! If I be ta'en, I'll peach for this. An I have not ballads made on you all and sung to filthy tunes, let a cup of sack be my poison. When a jest is so forward — and afoot too — I hate it.
(Enter Gadshill [and Bardolph(?)].)
GADSHILL
Stand!
FALSTAFF
So I do, against my will.
POINS
Oh, '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.
FALSTAFF
To be hanged.
PRINCE
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
What, a coward, Sir John Paunch?
FALSTAFF
Indeed I am not John of Gaunt your grandfather, but yet no coward, Hal.
PRINCE
Well, we leave that to the proof.
POINS
Sirrah Jack, thy horse stands behind the hedge. When thou need'st him, there thou shalt find him. Farewell, and stand fast.
FALSTAFF
Now cannot I strike him if I should be hanged.
PRINCE
Ned, where are our disguises?
POINS
Here, hard by, stand close.
([Exeunt Prince and Poins.])
FALSTAFF
Now, my masters, happy man be his dole, say I; every 810man to his business.
(Enter the travelers.)
[FIRST TRAVELER]
Come, neighbor, the boy shall lead our horses down the hill. We'll walk afoot a while, and ease their legs.
THIEVES
Stand!
TRAVELER
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!
TRAVELER
Oh, we are undone, both we and ours forever!
FALSTAFF
Hang, ye gorbellied knaves, are ye undone? No, ye fat chuffs, I would your store were here. On, bacons, on! What, ye knaves, young men must live. You are grand-jurors, are ye? We'll jure ye, faith.
(Here they rob them and bind them.)
(Exeunt.)
(Enter the prince and Poins.)
PRINCE
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 forever.
POINS
Stand close, I hear them coming.
([They hide.])
(Enter the thieves again.)
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 valor in that Poins than in a wild duck.
(As they are sharing the prince and Poins set upon them.)
PRINCE
Your money.
POINS
Villains!
(They all run away, and Falstaff after a blow or two runs away too, leaving the booty behind them.)
PRINCE
Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse. The thieves are all scattered and possessed 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 fat rogue roared!
(Exeunt.)
[2.3]
(Enter Hotspur [alone] 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! Bythe 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 the 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! Oh, I could divide myself and go to buffets for moving such a dish of skim-milk with so honorable an action! Hang him! Let him tell the king; we are prepared. I will set forward tonight.
(Enter his lady.)
How now, Kate? I must leave you within these two hours.
LADY PERCY
O my good lord, why are you thus alone?
3
For what offense have I this fortnight been
4
A banished woman from my Harry's bed?
5
Tell me, sweet lord, what is't that takes from thee
6
Thy stomach, pleasure, and thy golden sleep?
7
Why dost thou bend thine eyes upon the earth?
8
And start so often when thou sit'st alone?
9
Why hast thou lost the fresh blood in thy cheeks,
10
And given my treasures and my rights of thee
11
To thick-eyed musing and curst melancholy?
12
In thy faint slumbers I by thee have watched,
13
And heard thee murmur tales of iron wars,
14
Speak terms of manage to thy bounding steed,
15
Cry courage to the field. And thou hast talked
16
Of sallies and retires, of trenches, tents,
17
Of palisadoes, frontiers, parapets,
18
Of basilisks, of cannon, culverin,
19
Of prisoners' ransom, and of soldiers slain,
20
And all the currents of a heady fight.
21
Thy spirit within thee hath been so at war,
22
And thus hath so bestirred thee in thy sleep,
23
That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow
24
Like bubbles in a late-disturbèd stream;
25
And in thy face strange motions have appeared,
26
Such as we see when men restrain their breath
27
On some great sudden heft. Oh, what portents are these?
28
Some heavy business hath my lord in hand,
29
And I must know it, else he loves me not.
30
HOTSPUR
What ho!
31
([Enter Servant.])
Is Gilliams with the packet gone?
SERVANT
He is, my lord, an hour ago.
32
HOTSPUR
Hath Butler brought those horses from the sheriff?
33
SERVANT
One horse, my lord, he brought even now.
34
HOTSPUR
What horse? Roan? A crop-ear, is it not?
35
SERVANT
It is, my lord.
36
HOTSPUR
That roan shall be my throne.
Well, I will back him straight. O Esperance!
37
Bid Butler lead him forth into the park.
38
([Exit servant.])
LADY PERCY
But hear you, my lord.
39
HOTSPUR
What sayst thou, my lady?
40
LADY PERCY
What is it carries you away?
41
HOTSPUR
Why, my horse, my love, my horse.
42
LADY PERCY
Out, you mad-headed ape!
43
A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen
44
As you are tossed with. In faith,
45
I'll know your business, Harry, that I will.
46
I fear my brother Mortimer doth stir
47
About his title, and hath sent for you
48
To line his enterprise; but if you go —
49
HOTSPUR
So far afoot? I shall be weary, love.
50
LADY PERCY
Come, come, you paraquito, answer me
51
Directly unto this question that I ask.
52
In faith, I'll break thy little finger, Harry,
53
An if thou wilt not tell me all things true.
54
HOTSPUR
Away, away, you trifler! Love? I love thee not,
55
I care not for thee, Kate. This is no world
56
To play with mammets and to tilt with lips.
57
We must have bloody noses and cracked crowns,
58
And pass them current, too. God's me, my horse!
59
What sayst thou, Kate? What wouldst thou have with me?
60
LADY PERCY
Do you not love me? Do you not indeed?
61
Well, do not then, for since you love me not
62
I will not love myself. Do you not love me?
63
Nay, tell me if you speak in jest or no.
64
HOTSPUR
Come, wilt thou see me ride?
65
And when I am a-horseback, I will swear
66
I love thee infinitely. But hark you, Kate.
67
I must not have you henceforth question me
68
Whither I go, nor reason whereabout.
69
Whither I must, I must; and, to conclude,
70
This evening must I leave you, gentle Kate.
71
I know you wise, but yet no farther wise
72
Than Harry Percy's wife; constant you are,
73
But yet a woman; and for secrecy
74
No lady closer, for I well believe
75
Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know.
76
And so far will I trust thee, gentle Kate.
77
LADY PERCY
How, so far?
78
HOTSPUR
Not an inch further. But hark you Kate,
79
Whither I go, thither shall you go too.
80
Today will I set forth, tomorrow you.
81
Will this content you, Kate?
82
LADY PERCY
It must of force.
83
(Exeunt.)
[2.4]
(Enter Prince and Poins.)
PRINCE
Ned, prithee come out of that fat room, and lend me thy hand to laugh a little.
POINS
Where hast been, Hal?
PRINCE
With three or four loggerheads, amongst three or fourscore hogsheads. I have sounded the very bass-string of humility. Sirrah, I am sworn brother to a leash of drawers, and can call them all by their Christian names, as Tom, Dick, and Francis. They take it already upon their salvation that though I be but Prince of Wales, yet I am the 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 honor that thou wert not with me in this 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 underskinker, 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.
([Exit Poins.])
POINS
[Within] Francis!
PRINCE
Thou art perfect.
POINS
[Within] Francis!
(Enter Drawer.)
FRANCIS
Anon, anon, sir! [Calling] Look down into the Pomgarnet, Ralph!
PRINCE
Come hither, Francis.
FRANCIS
My lord.
PRINCE
How long hast thou to serve, Francis?
FRANCIS
Forsooth, five years, and as much as to —
POINS
[Within] Francis!
FRANCIS
Anon, anon, sir.
PRINCE
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 —
POINS
[Within] Francis!
FRANCIS
Anon sir.
PRINCE
How old art thou Francis?
FRANCIS
Let me see, about Michaelmas next I shall be —
POINS
[Within] Francis!
FRANCIS
Anon sir. Pray stay a little my lord.
PRINCE
Nay, but hark you, Francis. For the sugar thou gavest me, 'twas a pennyworth, was't not?
FRANCIS
O lord, I would it had been two!
PRINCE
I will give thee for it a thousand pound. Ask me when thou wilt, and thou shalt have it.
POINS
[Within] Francis!
FRANCIS
Anon, anon.
PRINCE
Anon, Francis? No, Francis, but tomorrow, Francis; or, Francis, a-Thursday; or, indeed, Francis, when thou wilt. But Francis —
FRANCIS
My lord?
PRINCE
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
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.
FRANCIS
What sir?
POINS
[Within] Francis!
PRINCE
Away, you rogue! Dost thou not hear them call?
(Here they both call him. The Drawer stands amazed, not knowing which way to go.)
(Enter Vintner.)
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
Let them alone a while, and then open the door.
([Exit Vintner.])
Poins!
POINS
Anon, anon sir!
(Enter Poins.)
PRINCE
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
I am now of all humors that have showed themselves humors since the old days of goodman Adam to the pupil age of this present twelve o'clock at midnight.
([Enter Francis.])
What's o'clock Francis?
FRANCIS
Anon, anon, sir.
([Exit Francis.])
PRINCE
That ever this fellow should have fewer words than a parrot, and yet the son of a woman! His industry is upstairs and downstairs, his eloquence the parcel of a reckoning. I am not yet of Percy's mind, the Hotspur of the North, he that kills me some six or seven dozen of Scots at a breakfast, washes his hands, and says to his wife, "Fie upon this quiet life! I want work." "O my sweet Harry," says she, "how many hast thou killed today?" "Give my roan horse a drench," says he, and answers, "Some fourteen," an hour after; "a trifle, a trifle." I prithee call in Falstaff. I'll play Percy, and that damned brawn shall play Dame Mortimer his wife. "Rivo!" says the drunkard. Call in Ribs, call in Tallow.
(Enter Falstaff [with Gadshill, Peto and Bardolph. Francis follows with wine.])
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 netherstocks, 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 drinketh.)
PRINCE
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 villainous man, yet a coward is worse than a cup of sack with lime in it. A villainous 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 lives 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 anything. A plague of all cowards, I say still.
PRINCE
How now, woolsack, 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
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 today.
PRINCE
O villain, thy lips are scarce wiped since thou drunkest last.
FALSTAFF
All is one for that.
(He drinketh.)
A plague of all cowards, still say I.
PRINCE
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
Where is it, Jack, where is it?
FALSTAFF
Where is it? Taken from us it is. A hundred upon poor four of us.
PRINCE
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 handsaw. Ecce signum. I never dealt better since I was a man. All would not do. A plague of all cowards! Let them speak. [Indicates Gadshill, Peto, and Bardolph.] If they speak more or less than truth, they are villains and the sons of darkness.
[PRINCE]
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 Hebrew 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
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
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
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 afront, and mainly thrust at me. I made me no more ado, but took all their seven points in my target, thus.
PRINCE
Seven? Why, there were but four even now.
FALSTAFF
In buckram?
POINS
Ay, four in buckram suits.
FALSTAFF
Seven, by these hilts, or I am a villain else.
PRINCE
Prithee, let him alone. We shall have more anon.
FALSTAFF
Dost thou hear me, Hal?
PRINCE
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
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
Oh, 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
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 greasy tallow-catch —
FALSTAFF
What, art thou mad? Art thou mad? Is not the truth the truth?
PRINCE
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 sayst 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 uponcompulsion, I.
PRINCE
I'll be no longer guilty of this sin. This sanguine coward, this bed-presser, this horse-back-breaker, this huge hill of flesh —
FALSTAFF
'Sblood, you starveling, you eel-skin, you dried neat's tongue, you bull's pizzle, you stock-fish. Oh, for breath to utter what is like thee! You tailor's yard, you sheath, you bow-case, you vile standing tuck!
PRINCE
Well, breathe awhile, and then to it again, and when thou hast tired thyself in base comparisons, hear me speak but this.
POINS
Mark, Jack.
PRINCE
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, outfaced 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 tonight, pray tomorrow. 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
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
How now, my lady the hostess, what sayst 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
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?
HOSTESS
An old man.
FALSTAFF
What doth gravity out of his bed at midnight? Shall I give him his answer?
PRINCE
Prithee do, Jack.
FALSTAFF
Faith, and I'll send him packing.
(Exit.)
PRINCE
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
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 speargrass, 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
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?
PRINCE
I do.
BARDOLPH
What think you they portend?
PRINCE
Hot livers, and cold purses.
BARDOLPH
Choler, my lord, if rightly taken.
(Enter Falstaff.)
PRINCE
No, if rightly taken, halter. 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 villainous 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?
POINS
Owen Glendower.
FALSTAFF
Owen, Owen, the same; and his son-in-law Mortimer, and old Northumberland, and that sprightly Scot of Scots, Douglas, that runs a-horseback up a hillperpendicular —
PRINCE
He that rides at high speed and with his pistol kills a sparrow flying.
FALSTAFF
You have hit it.
PRINCE
So did he never the sparrow.
FALSTAFF
Well, that rascal hath good mettle in him, he will not run.
PRINCE
Why, what a rascal art thou, then, to praise him so for running!
FALSTAFF
A-horseback, ye cuckoo, but afoot he will not budge a foot.
PRINCE
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 tonight. Thy father's beard is turned white with the news. You may buy land now as cheap as stinking mackerel.
PRINCE
Why then, it is like, if there come a hot June and this civil buffeting hold, we shall buy maidenheads as they buy hobnails: by the hundreds.
FALSTAFF
By the mass, lad, thou sayst 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
Not a whit, i'faith. I lack some of thy instinct.
FALSTAFF
Well, thou wilt be horribly chid tomorrow when thou comest to thy father. If thou love me, practice an answer.
PRINCE
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
Thy state is taken for a joint-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
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,
154
For tears do stop the floodgates of her eyes.
155
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, so 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 villainous 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 son 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
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 threescore. 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
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
Well, here I am set.
FALSTAFF
And here I stand. Judge, my masters.
PRINCE
Now, Harry, whence come you?
FALSTAFF
My noble lord, from Eastcheap.
PRINCE
The complaints I hear of thee are grievous.
FALSTAFF
Nay, I'll tickle ye for a young prince i'faith.
PRINCE
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 humors, 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 gray 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 villainy? Wherein villainous, but in all things? Wherein worthy, but in nothing?
FALSTAFF
I would your grace would take me with you. Whom means your grace?
PRINCE
That villainous, abominable misleader of youth, Falstaff; that old white-bearded Satan.
FALSTAFF
My lord, the man I know.
PRINCE
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
I do, I will.
([Knocking within. Exeunt Hostess, Francis and Bardolph.] 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.
(Enter the Hostess.)
HOSTESS
O Jesu! My lord, my lord!
PRINCE
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 made, without seeming so.
PRINCE
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
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.
([Falstaff hides.])
PRINCE
Call in the sheriff.
([Exeunt all but the prince and Peto.] Enter Sheriff and the Carrier.)
PRINCE
Now Master Sheriff, what is your will with me?
186
SHERIFF
First pardon me my lord. A hue and cry
187
Hath followed certain men unto this house.
188
PRINCE
What men?
189
SHERIFF
One of them is well known, my gracious lord,
190
A gross fat man.
191
CARRIER
As fat as butter.
192
PRINCE
The man, I do assure you, is not here,
193
For I myself at this time have employed him.
194
And, Sheriff, I will engage my word to thee
195
That I will by tomorrow dinner-time
196
Send him to answer thee, or any man,
197
For anything he shall be charged withal.
198
And so let me entreat you leave the house.
199
SHERIFF
I will, my lord. There are two gentlemen
200
Have in this robbery lost three hundred marks.
201
PRINCE
It may be so. If he have robbed these men,
202
He shall be answerable. And so, farewell.
203
SHERIFF
Good night, my noble lord.
204
PRINCE
I think it is good morrow, is it not?
205
SHERIFF
Indeed, my lord, I think it be two o'clock.
206
(Exit [with Carrier.])
PRINCE
This oily rascal is known as well as Paul's. Go call him forth.
PETO
Falstaff!
([He draws back the arras.])
Fast asleep behind the arras, and snorting like a horse.
PRINCE
Hark how hard he fetches breath. Search his pockets.
([Peto] searches his pocket, and finds certain papers.)
PRINCE
What hast thou found?
PETO
Nothing but papers, my lord.
PRINCE
Let's see what they be, read them.
[PETO]
[reading] 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]
Oh, monstrous! But one halfpennyworth 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 honorable. 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.
PETO
Good morrow, good my lord.
(Exeunt.)
[3.1]
(Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Lord Mortimer, Owen Glendower.)
MORTIMER
These promises are fair, the parties sure,
1
And our induction full of prosperous hope.
2
HOTSPUR
Lord Mortimer and cousin Glendower, will you sit down? And uncle Worcester — a plague upon it, I have forgot the map!
GLENDOWER
No here it is;
4
Sit, cousin Percy, sit, good cousin Hotspur;
5
For by that name as oft as Lancaster doth speak of you,
6
His cheek looks pale, and with a rising sigh
7
He wisheth you in heaven.
8
HOTSPUR
And you in hell,
As oft as he hears Owen Glendower spoke of.
9
GLENDOWER
I cannot blame him. At my nativity
10
The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
11
Of burning cressets, and at my birth
12
The frame and huge foundation of the earth
13
Shaked like a coward.
14
HOTSPUR
Why, so it would have done at the same season if your mother's cat had but kittened, though yourself had never been born.
GLENDOWER
I say the earth did shake when I was born.
16
HOTSPUR
And I say the earth was not of my mind,
17
If you suppose as fearing you it shook.
18
GLENDOWER
The heavens were all on fire, the earth did tremble.
19
HOTSPUR
Oh, then the earth shook to see the heavens on fire,
20
And not in fear of your nativity.
21
Diseasèd nature oftentimes breaks forth
22
In strange eruptions; oft the teeming earth
23
Is with a kind of colic pinched and vexed
24
By the imprisoning of unruly wind
25
Within her womb, which for enlargement striving
26
Shakes the old beldam earth, and topples down
27
Steeples and moss-grown towers. At your birth
28
Our grandam earth, having this distemperature,
29
In passion shook.
30
GLENDOWER
Cousin, of many men
I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave
31
To tell you once again that at my birth
32
The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
33
The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds
34
Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields.
35
These signs have marked me extraordinary,
36
And all the courses of my life do show
37
I am not in the roll of common men.
38
Where is he living, clipped in with the sea
39
That chides the banks of England, Scotland, Wales,
40
Which calls me pupil or hath read to me?
41
And bring him out that is but woman's son
42
Can trace me in the tedious ways of art,
43
And hold me pace in deep experiments.
44
HOTSPUR
I think there's no man speaks better Welsh.
45
I'll to dinner.
46
MORTIMER
Peace, cousin Percy, you will make him mad.
47
GLENDOWER
I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
48
HOTSPUR
Why so can I, or so can any man,
49
But will they come when you do call for them?
50
GLENDOWER
Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command the devil.
51
HOTSPUR
And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil,
52
By telling truth: "Tell truth, and shame the devil."
53
If thou have power to raise him, bring him hither,
54
And I'll be sworn I have power to shame him hence.
55
Oh, while you live, tell truth and shame the devil.
56
MORTIMER
Come, come, no more of this unprofitable chat.
57
GLENDOWER
Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made head
58
Against my power; thrice from the banks of Wye
59
And sandy-bottomed Severn have I sent him
60
Bootless home, and weather-beaten back.
61
HOTSPUR
Home without boots, and in foul weather too!
62
How scapes he agues, in the devil's name?
63
GLENDOWER
Come, here is the map. Shall we divide our right,
64
According to our threefold order ta'en?
65
MORTIMER
The Archdeacon hath divided it
66
Into three limits very equally:
67
England from Trent and Severn hitherto
68
By south and east is to my part assigned;
69
All westward, Wales beyond the Severn shore
70
And all the fertile land within that bound,
71
To Owen Glendower; and, dear coz, to you
72
The remnant northward lying off from Trent.
73
And our indentures tripartite are drawn,
74
Which, being sealèd interchangeably —
75
A business that this night may execute —
76
Tomorrow, cousin Percy, you and I
77
And my good lord of Worcester will set forth
78
To meet your father and the Scottish power,
79
As is appointed us, at Shrewsbury.
80
My father Glendower is not ready yet,
81
Nor shall we need his help these fourteen days.
82
[To Glendower] Within that space you may have drawn together
83
Your tenants, friends, and neighboring gentlemen.
84
GLENDOWER
A shorter time shall send me to you, lords;
85
And in my conduct shall your ladies come,
86
From whom you now must steal and take no leave;
87
For there will be a world of water shed
88
Upon the parting of your wives and you.
89
HOTSPUR
Methinks my moiety north from Burton here
90
In quantity equals not one of yours.
91
See how this river comes me cranking in,
92
And cuts me from the best of all my land
93
A huge half-moon, a monstrous cantle, out.
94
I'll have the current in this place dammed up,
95
And here the smug and silver Trent shall run
96
In a new channel fair and evenly.
97
It shall not wind with such a deep indent,
98
To rob me of so rich a bottom here.
99
GLENDOWER
Not wind? It shall, it must — you see it doth.
100
MORTIMER
Yea, but mark how he bears his course, and runs me up
101
With like advantage on the other side,
102
Gelding the opposèd continent as much
103
As on the other side it takes from you.
104
WORCESTER
Yea, but a little charge will trench him here,
105
And on this north side win this cape of land,
106
And then he runs straight and even.
107
HOTSPUR
I'll have it so; a little charge will do it.
108
GLENDOWER
I'll not have it altered.
109
HOTSPUR
Will not you?
110
GLENDOWER
No, nor you shall not.
111
HOTSPUR
Who shall say me nay?
112
GLENDOWER
Why, that will I.
113
HOTSPUR
Let me not understand you, then: speak it in Welsh.
114
GLENDOWER
I can speak English, lord, as well as you,
115
For I was trained up in the English court,
116
Where, being but young, I framèd to the harp
117
Many an English ditty lovely well,
118
And gave the tongue a helpful ornament —
119
A virtue that was never seen in you.
120
HOTSPUR
Marry, and I am glad of it with all my heart.
121
I had rather be a kitten and cry "mew"
122
Than one of these same meter ballad-mongers.
123
I had rather hear a brazen can'stick turned,
124
Or a dry wheel grate on the axle-tree,
125
And that would set my teeth nothing on edge,
126
Nothing so much as mincing poetry.
127
'Tis like the forced gait of a shuffling nag.
128
GLENDOWER
Come, you shall have Trent turned.
129
HOTSPUR
I do not care. I'll give thrice so much land
130
To any well-deserving friend;
131
But in the way of bargain, mark ye me,
132
I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair.
133
Are the indentures drawn? Shall we be gone?
134
GLENDOWER
The moon shines fair. You may away by night.
135
I'll haste the writer, and withal
136
Break with your wives of your departure hence.
137
I am afraid my daughter will run mad,
138
So much she doteth on her Mortimer.
139
(Exit.)
MORTIMER
Fie, cousin Percy, how you cross my father!
140
HOTSPUR
I cannot choose. Sometime he angers me
141
With telling me of the moldwarp and the ant,
142
Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies,
143
And of a dragon and a finless fish,
144
A clip-winged griffin and a molten raven,
145
A couching lion and a ramping cat,
146
And such a deal of skimble-skamble stuff
147
As puts me from my faith. I tell you what,
148
He held me last night at the least nine hours
149
In reckoning up the several devils' names
150
That were his lackeys. I cried "Hum," and "Well, go to,"
151
But marked him not a word. Oh, he is as tedious
152
As a tired horse, a railing wife,
153
Worse than a smoky house. I had rather live
154
With cheese and garlic, in a windmill, far,
155
Than feed on cates and have him talk to me
156
In any summer house in Christendom.
157
MORTIMER
In faith, he is a worthy gentleman,
158
Exceedingly well read, and profited
159
In strange concealments, valiant as a lion,
160
And wondrous affable, and as bountiful
161
As mines of India. Shall I tell you, cousin?
162
He holds your temper in a high respect,
163
And curbs himself even of his natural scope
164
When you come 'cross his humor, faith, he does.
165
I warrant you, that man is not alive
166
Might so have tempted him as you have done
167
Without the taste of danger and reproof.
168
But do not use it oft, let me entreat you.
169
WORCESTER
In faith, my lord, you are too wilful-blame,
170
And since your coming hither have done enough
171
To put him quite besides his patience.
172
You must needs learn, lord, to amend this fault.
173
Though sometimes it show greatness, courage, blood —
174
And that's the dearest grace it renders you —
175
Yet oftentimes it doth present harsh rage,
176
Defect of manners, want of government,
177
Pride, haughtiness, opinion, and disdain,
178
The least of which, haunting a nobleman,
179
Loseth men's hearts, and leaves behind a stain
180
Upon the beauty of all parts besides,
181
Beguiling them of commendation.
182
HOTSPUR
Well, I am schooled. Good manners be your speed!
183
Here come our wives, and let us take our leave.
184
(Enter Glendower with the Ladies.)
MORTIMER
This is the deadly spite that angers me:
185
My wife can speak no English, I no Welsh.
186
GLENDOWER
My daughter weeps; she'll not part with you.
187
She'll be a soldier too, she'll to the wars.
188
MORTIMER
Good father, tell her that she and my aunt Percy
189
Shall follow in your conduct speedily
190
(Glendower speaks to her in Welsh, and she answers him in the same.)
GLENDOWER
She is desperate here, a peevish self-willed harlotry,
191
One that no persuasion can do good upon.
192
(The lady speaks in Welsh.)
MORTIMER
I understand thy looks. That pretty Welsh
193
Which thou pourest down from these swelling heavens
194
I am too perfect in, and but for shame
195
In such a parley should I answer thee.
196
(The lady [speaks] again in Welsh.)
MORTIMER
I understand thy kisses, and thou mine,
197
And that's a feeling disputation;
198
But I will never be a truant, love,
199
Till I have learnt thy language, for thy tongue
200
Makes Welsh as sweet as ditties highly penned,
201
Sung by a fair queen in a summer's bower
202
With ravishing division, to her lute.
203
GLENDOWER
Nay, if you melt, then will she run mad.
204
(The lady speaks again in Welsh.)
MORTIMER
Oh, I am ignorance itself in this!
205
GLENDOWER
She bids you on the wanton rushes lay you down
206
And rest your gentle head upon her lap,
207
And she will sing the song that pleaseth you,
208
And on your eyelids crown the god of sleep,
209
Charming your blood with pleasing heaviness,
210
Making such difference 'twixt wake and sleep
211
As is the difference betwixt day and night
212
The hour before the heavenly-harnessed team
213
Begins his golden progress in the east.
214
MORTIMER
With all my heart, I'll sit and hear her sing.
215
By that time will our book, I think, be drawn.
216
GLENDOWER
Do so, and those musicians that shall play to you
217
Hang in the air a thousand leagues from hence,
218
And straight they shall be here. Sit and attend.
219
HOTSPUR
Come, Kate, thou art perfect in lying down.
220
Come, quick, quick, that I may lay my head in thy lap.
221
LADY PERCY
Go, ye giddy goose!
222
(The music plays.)
HOTSPUR
Now I perceive the devil understands Welsh;
223
And 'tis no marvel he is so humorous.
224
By'r Lady, he is a good musician.
225
LADY PERCY
Then should you be nothing but musical,
226
For you are altogether governed by humors.
227
Lie still, ye thief, and hear the lady sing in Welsh.
228
HOTSPUR
I had rather hear Lady my brach howl in Irish.
229
LADY PERCY
Wouldst thou have thy head broken?
230
HOTSPUR
No.
231
LADY PERCY
Then be still.
232
HOTSPUR
Neither, 'tis a woman's fault.
233
LADY PERCY
Now god help thee!
234
HOTSPUR
To the Welsh lady's bed.
235
LADY PERCY
What's that?
236
HOTSPUR
Peace, she sings.
237
(Here the lady sings a Welsh song.)
HOTSPUR
Come, Kate, I'll have your song too.
238
LADY PERCY
Not mine, in good sooth.
239
HOTSPUR
Not yours, in good sooth!
240
Heart, you swear like a comfit-maker's wife:
241
"Not you, in good sooth!" and "As true as I live!"
242
And "As god shall mend me!" and "As sure as day!":
243
And givest such sarcenet surety for thy oaths
244
As if thou never walk'st further than Finsbury.
245
Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art,
246
A good mouth-filling oath, and leave "in sooth"
247
And such protest of pepper gingerbread
248
To velvet-guards and Sunday citizens.
249
Come sing.
250
LADY PERCY
I will not sing.
251
HOTSPUR
'Tis the next way to turn tailor, or be redbreast teacher. An the indentures be drawn, I'll away within these two hours; and so come in when ye will.
(Exit.)
GLENDOWER
Come, come, Lord Mortimer, you are as slow
253
As hot Lord Percy is on fire to go.
254
By this our book is drawn. We'll but seal,
255
And then to horse immediately.
256
MORTIMER
With all my heart.
257
(Exeunt.)
[3.2]
(Enter the king, Prince of Wales, and others.)
KING
Lords, give us leave. The Prince of Wales and I
1
Must have some private conference; but be near at hand,
2
For we shall presently have need of you.
3
(Exeunt lords.)
I know not whether god will have it so
4
For some displeasing service I have done,
5
That in his secret doom out of my blood
6
He'll breed revengement and a scourge for me,
7
But thou dost in thy passages of life
8
Make me believe that thou art only marked
9
For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven
10
To punish my mistreadings. Tell me else,
11
Could such inordinate and low desires,
12
Such poor, such bare, such lewd, such mean attempts,
13
Such barren pleasures, rude society,
14
As thou art matched withal and grafted to,
15
Accompany the greatness of thy blood,
16
And hold their level with thy princely heart?
17
PRINCE
So please your majesty, I would I could
18
Quit all offenses with as clear excuse
19
As well as I am doubtless I can purge
20
Myself of many I am charged withal.
21
Yet such extenuation let me beg
22
As, in reproof of many tales devised —
23
Which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear —
24
By smiling pickthanks and base newsmongers,
25
I may, for some things true wherein my youth
26
Hath faulty wandered and irregular,
27
Find pardon on my true submission.
28
KING
God pardon thee! Yet let me wonder, Harry,
29
At thy affections, which do hold a wing
30
Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors.
31
Thy place in Council thou hast rudely lost,
32
Which by thy younger brother is supplied,
33
And art almost an alien to the hearts
34
Of all the court and princes of my blood.
35
The hope and expectation of thy time
36
Is ruined, and the soul of every man
37
Prophetically do forethink thy fall.
38
Had I so lavish of my presence been,
39
So common-hackneyed in the eyes of men,
40
So stale and cheap to vulgar company,
41
Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
42
Had still kept loyal to possession,
43
And left me in reputeless banishment,
44
A fellow of no mark nor likelihood.
45
By being seldom seen, I could not stir
46
But, like a comet, I was wondered at,
47
That men would tell their children "This is he!"
48
Others would say "Where, which is Bolingbroke?"
49
And then I stole all courtesy from heaven,
50
And dressed myself in such humility
51
That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts,
52
Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths,
53
Even in the presence of the crownèd king.
54
Thus did I keep my person fresh and new,
55
My presence, like a robe pontifical,
56
Ne'er seen but wondered at, and so my state,
57
Seldom but sumptuous, showed like a feast,
58
And won by rareness such solemnity.
59
The skipping king, he ambled up and down
60
With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits,
61
Soon kindled and soon burnt, carded his state,
62
Mingled his royalty with cap'ring fools,
63
Had his great name profanèd with their scorns,
64
And gave his countenance, against his name,
65
To laugh at gibing boys, and stand the push
66
Of every beardless vain comparative;
67
Grew a companion to the common streets,
68
Enfeoffed himself to popularity,
69
That, being daily swallowed by men's eyes,
70
They surfeited with honey, and began
71
To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little
72
More than a little is by much too much.
73
So when he had occasion to be seen,
74
He was but as the cuckoo is in June,
75
Heard, not regarded — seen, but with such eyes
76
As, sick and blunted with community,
77
Afford no extraordinary gaze
78
Such as is bent on sun-like majesty
79
When it shines seldom in admiring eyes,
80
But rather drowsed and hung their eyelids down,
81
Slept in his face, and rendered such aspect
82
As cloudy men use to their adversaries,
83
Being with his presence glutted, gorged, and full.
84
And in that very line, Harry, standest thou;
85
For thou hast lost thy princely privilege
86
With vile participation. Not an eye
87
But is a-weary of thy common sight
88
Save mine, which hath desired to see thee more,
89
Which now doth that I would not have it do:
90
Make blind itself with foolish tenderness.
91
([He weeps.])
PRINCE
I shall hereafter, my thrice-gracious lord,
92
Be more myself.
93
KING
For all the world,
As thou art to this hour was Richard then,
94
When I from France set foot at Ravenspurgh,
95
And even as I was then is Percy now.
96
Now by my sceptre, and my soul to boot,
97
He hath more worthy interest to the state
98
Than thou, the shadow of succession;
99
For, of no right, nor color like to right,
100
He doth fill fields with harness in the realm,
101
Turns head against the lion's armèd jaws,
102
And, being no more in debt to years than thou,
103
Leads ancient lords and reverend bishops on
104
To bloody battles, and to bruising arms.
105
What never-dying honor hath he got
106
Against renownèd Douglas, whose high deeds,
107
Whose hot incursions and great name in arms,
108
Holds from all soldiers chief majority
109
And military title capital
110
Through all the kingdoms that acknowledge Christ.
111
Thrice hath this Hotspur, Mars in swaddling-clothes,
112
This infant warrior, in his enterprises
113
Discomfited great Douglas; ta'en him once;
114
Enlargèd him, and made a friend of him
115
To fill the mouth of deep defiance up,
116
And shake the peace and safety of our throne.
117
And what say you to this? Percy, Northumberland,
118
The Archbishop's grace of York, Douglas, Mortimer,
119
Capitulate against us, and are up.
120
But wherefore do I tell these news to thee?
121
Why, Harry, do I tell thee of my foes,
122
Which art my near'st and dearest enemy?
123
Thou that art like enough, through vassal fear,
124
Base inclination, and the start of spleen,
125
To fight against me under Percy's pay,
126
To dog his heels and curtsy at his frowns,
127
To show how much thou art degenerate.
128
PRINCE
Do not think so; you shall not find it so.
129
And god forgive them that so much have swayed
130
Your majesty's good thoughts away from me.
131
will redeem all this on Percy's head,
132
And in the closing of some glorious day
133
Be bold to tell you that I am your son,
134
When I will wear a garment all of blood,
135
And stain my favors in a bloody mask,
136
Which, washed away, shall scour my shame with it.
137
And that shall be the day, whene'er it lights,
138
That this same child of honor and renown,
139
This gallant Hotspur, this all-praisèd knight,
140
And your unthought-of Harry chance to meet.
141
For every honor sitting on his helm,
142
Would they were multitudes, and on my head
143
My shames redoubled; for the time will come
144
That I shall make this northern youth exchange
145
His glorious deeds for my indignities.
146
Percy is but my factor, good my lord,
147
To engross up glorious deeds on my behalf;
148
And I will call him to so strict account
149
That he shall render every glory up,
150
Yea, even the slightest worship of his time,
151
Or I will tear the reckoning from his heart.
152
This, in the name of god, I promise here,
153
The which, if he be pleased I shall perform,
154
I do beseech your majesty may salve
155
The long-grown wounds of my intemperance;
156
If not, the end of life cancels all bonds,
157
And I will die a hundred thousand deaths
158
Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow.
159
KING
A hundred thousand rebels die in this.
160
Thou shalt have charge and sovereign trust herein.
161
(Enter Blunt.)
How now, good Blunt? Thy looks are full of speed.
162
BLUNT
So hath the business that I come to speak of.
163
Lord Mortimer of Scotland hath sent word
164
That Douglas and the English rebels met
165
The eleventh of this month at Shrewsbury.
166
A mighty and a fearful head they are,
167
If promises be kept on every hand,
168
As ever offered foul play in a state.
169
KING
The Earl of Westmorland set forth today,
170
With him my son Lord John of Lancaster,
171
For this advertisement is five days old.
172
On Wednesday next, Harry, you shall set forward,
173
On Thursday we ourselves will march.
174
Our meeting is Bridgnorth, and, Harry, you
175
Shall march through Gloucestershire, by which account,
176
Our business valuèd, some twelve days hence
177
Our general forces at Bridgnorth shall meet.
178
Our hands are full of business; let's away.
179
Advantage feeds him fat while men delay.
180
(Exeunt.)
[3.3]
(Enter Falstaff and Bardolph.)
FALSTAFF
Bardolph, am I not fallen away vilely since this last action? Do I not bate? Do I not dwindle? Why, my skin hangs about me like an old lady's loose gown. I am withered like an old apple-john. Well, I'll repent, and that suddenly, while I am in some liking. I shall be out of heart shortly, and then I shall have no strength to repent. An I have not forgotten what the inside of a church is made of, I am a peppercorn, a brewer's horse. The inside of a church! Company, villainous company, hath been the spoil of me.
BARDOLPH
Sir John, you are so fretful you cannot live long.
FALSTAFF
Why, there is it. Come, sing me a bawdy song, make me merry. I was as virtuously given as a gentleman need to be, virtuous enough: swore little, diced not above seven times — a week, went to a bawdy-house not above once in a quarter — of an hour, paid money that I borrowed — three or four times, lived well, and in good compass. And now I live out of all order, out of all compass.
BARDOLPH
Why, you are so fat, Sir John, that you must needs be out of all compass, out of all reasonable compass, Sir John.
FALSTAFF
Do thou amend thy face, and I'll amend my life. Thou art our admiral, thou bearest the lantern in the poop — but 'tis in the nose of thee. Thou art the Knight of the Burning Lamp.
BARDOLPH
Why, Sir John, my face does you no harm.
FALSTAFF
No, I'll be sworn; I make as good use of it as many a man doth of a death's head, or a memento mori . I never see thy face but I think upon hell-fire and Dives that lived in purple — for there he is in his robes, burning, burning. If thou wert any way given to virtue, I would swear by thy face; my oath should be "By this fire that's god's angel!" But thou art altogether given over, and wert indeed, but for the light in thy face, the son of utter darkness. When thou rannest up Gad's Hill in the night to catch my horse, if I did not think thou hadst been an ignis fatuus or a ball of wildfire, there's no purchase in money. Oh, thou art a perpetual triumph, an everlasting bonfire-light! Thou hast saved me a thousand marks in links and torches, walking with thee in the night betwixt tavern and tavern — but the sack that thou hast drunk me would have bought me lights as good cheap at the dearest chandler's in Europe. I have maintained that salamander of yours with fire any time this two-and-thirty years, god reward me for it.
BARDOLPH
'Sblood, I would my face were in your belly!
FALSTAFF
God-a-mercy! So should I be sure to be heartburnt.
(Enter Hostess.)
How now, Dame Partlet the hen, have you enquired yet who picked my pocket?
HOSTESS
Why, Sir John, what do you think, Sir John? Do you think I keep thieves in my house? I have searched, I have enquired; so has my husband, man by man, boy by boy, servant by servant. The tithe of a hair was never lost in my house before.
FALSTAFF
Ye lie, hostess: Bardolph was shaved and lost many a hair, and I'll be sworn my pocket was picked. Go to, you are a woman, go.
HOSTESS
Who, I? No, I defy thee! God's light, I was never called so in mine own house before.
FALSTAFF
Go to, I know you well enough.
HOSTESS
No, Sir John, you do not know me, Sir John; I know you, Sir John. You owe me money, Sir John, and now you pick a quarrel to beguile me of it. I bought you a dozen of shirts to your back.
FALSTAFF
Dowlas, filthy dowlas. I have given them away to bakers' wives; they have made bolters of them.
HOSTESS
Now as I am a true woman, holland of eight shillings an ell. You owe money here besides, Sir John: for your diet, and by-drinkings, and money lent you, four-and-twenty pound.
FALSTAFF
[Indicating Bardolph.] He had his part of it, let him pay.
HOSTESS
He? Alas he is poor, he hath nothing.
FALSTAFF
How, poor? Look upon his face. What call you rich? Let them coin his nose, let them coin his cheeks, I'll not pay a denier. What, will you make a younker of me? Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn, but I shall have my pocket picked? I have lost a seal-ring of my grandfather's worth forty mark.
HOSTESS
[To Bardolph] O Jesu, I have heard the prince tell him, I know not how oft, that that ring was copper.
FALSTAFF
How? The prince is a Jack, a sneak-up. 'Sblood, an he were here I would cudgel him like a dog if he would say so.
(Enter the prince [with Peto] marching.)
(Falstaff meets him playing upon his truncheon like a fife.)
FALSTAFF
How now, lad, is the wind in that door, i'faith? Must we all march?
BARDOLPH
Yea, two and two, Newgate fashion.
HOSTESS
My lord, I pray you hear me.
PRINCE
What sayst thou, Mistress Quickly? How doth thy husband? I love him well, he is an honest man.
HOSTESS
Good my lord, hear me!
FALSTAFF
Prithee, let her alone, and list to me.
PRINCE
What sayst thou, Jack?
FALSTAFF
The other night I fell asleep here behind the arras, and had my pocket picked. This house is turned bawdy-house: they pick pockets.
PRINCE
What didst thou lose, Jack?
FALSTAFF
Wilt thou believe me, Hal, three or four bonds of forty pound apiece, and a seal-ring of my grandfather's.
PRINCE
A trifle, some eightpenny matter.
HOSTESS
So I told him, my lord; and I said I heard your grace say so; and, my lord, he speaks most vilely of you, like a foul-mouthed man as he is, and said he would cudgel you.
PRINCE
What? He did not!
HOSTESS
There's neither faith, truth, nor womanhood in me else.
FALSTAFF
There's no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune, nor no more truth in thee than in a drawn fox; and, for womanhood, Maid Marian may be the deputy's wife of the ward to thee. Go, you thing, go!
HOSTESS
Say, what thing, what thing?
FALSTAFF
What thing? Why, a thing to thank god on.
HOSTESS
I am no thing to thank god on. I would thou shouldst know it, I am an honest man's wife; and setting thy knighthood aside, thou art a knave to call me so.
FALSTAFF
Setting thy womanhood aside, thou art a beast to say otherwise.
HOSTESS
Say, what beast, thou knave, thou?
FALSTAFF
What beast? Why an otter.
PRINCE
An otter, Sir John? Why an otter?
FALSTAFF
Why? She's neither fish nor flesh, a man knows not where to have her.
HOSTESS
Thou art an unjust man in saying so. Thou or any man knows where to have me, thou knave, thou.
PRINCE
Thou sayst true, hostess, and he slanders thee most grossly.
HOSTESS
So he doth you my lord, and said this other day you owed him a thousand pound.
PRINCE
Sirrah, do I owe you a thousand pound?
FALSTAFF
A thousand pound, Hal? A million! Thy love is worth a million; thou owest me thy love.
HOSTESS
Nay, my lord, he called you Jack, and said he would cudgel you.
FALSTAFF
Did I, Bardolph?
BARDOLPH
Indeed, Sir John, you said so.
FALSTAFF
Yea, if he said my ring was copper.
PRINCE
I say 'tis copper, darest thou be as good as thy word now?
FALSTAFF
Why, Hal, thou knowest as thou art but man I dare, but as thou art prince, I fear thee as I fear the roaring of the lion's whelp.
PRINCE
And why not as the lion?
FALSTAFF
The king himself is to be feared as the lion. Dost thou think I'll fear thee as I fear thy father? Nay, an I do, I pray god my girdle break.
PRINCE
Oh, if it should, how would thy guts fall about thy knees! But sirrah, there's no room for faith, truth, nor honesty in this bosom of thine; it is all filled up with guts and midriff. Charge an honest woman with picking thy pocket? Why, thou whoreson, impudent, embossed rascal, if there were anything in thy pocket but tavern reckonings, memorandums of bawdy-houses, and one poor pennyworth of sugar-candy to make thee long-winded — if thy pocket were enriched with any other injuries but these, I am a villain. And yet you will stand to it, you will not pocket up wrong. Art thou not ashamed?
FALSTAFF
Dost thou hear, Hal? Thou knowest in the state of innocency Adam fell, and what should poor Jack Falstaff do in the days of villainy? Thou seest I have more flesh than another man, and therefore more frailty. You confess, then, you picked my pocket?
PRINCE
It appears so by the story.
FALSTAFF
Hostess, I forgive thee. Go make ready breakfast. Love thy husband, look to thy servants, cherish thy guests. Thou shalt find me tractable to any honest reason; thou seest I am pacified still. Nay, prithee, be gone.
(Exit Hostess.)
Now, Hal, to the news at court. For the robbery, lad, how is that answered?
PRINCE
Oh, my sweet beef, I must still be good angel to thee. The money is paid back again.
FALSTAFF
Oh, I do not like that paying back; 'tis a double labor.
PRINCE
I am good friends with my father and may do anything.
FALSTAFF
Rob me the exchequer the first thing thou dost, and do it with unwashed hands too.
BARDOLPH
Do, my lord.
PRINCE
I have procured thee, Jack, a charge of foot.
FALSTAFF
I would it had been of horse! Where shall I find one that can steal well? Oh, for a fine thief of the age of two-and-twenty or thereabouts! I am heinously unprovided. Well, god be thanked for these rebels: they offend none but the virtuous. I laud them, I praise them.
PRINCE
Bardolph!
BARDOLPH
My lord?
PRINCE
[Giving letters] Go bear this letter to Lord John of Lancaster,
73
To my brother John; this to my lord of Westmorland.
74
([Exit Bardolph.])
Go, Peto, to horse, to horse, for thou and I
75
Have thirty miles to ride yet ere dinner time.
76
([Exit Peto.])
Jack, meet me tomorrow in the Temple Hall
77
At two o'clock in the afternoon.
78
There shalt thou know thy charge, and there receive
79
Money and order for their furniture.
80
The land is burning, Percy stands on high,
81
And either we or they must lower lie.
82
([Exit Prince.])
FALSTAFF
Rare words! Brave world! Hostess, my breakfast, come!
83
Oh, I could wish this tavern were my drum!
84
([Exit.])
[4.1]
([Enter Hotspur, Worcester, and Douglas.])
HOTSPUR
Well said, my noble Scot! If speaking truth
1
In this fine age were not thought flattery,
2
Such attribution should the Douglas have
3
As not a soldier of this season's stamp
4
Should go so general current through the world.
5
By god, I cannot flatter, I do defy
6
The tongues of soothers, but a braver place
7
In my heart's love hath no man than yourself.
8
Nay, task me to my word, approve me, lord.
9
DOUGLAS
Thou art the king of honor.
10
No man so potent breathes upon the ground
11
But I will beard him.
12
(Enter [Messenger] with letters.)
HOTSPUR
Do so, and 'tis well.
(Enter [Messenger] with letters.)
What letters hast thou there? [To Douglas] I can but thank you.
MESSENGER
These letters come from your father.
14
HOTSPUR
Letters from him? Why comes he not himself?
15
MESSENGER
He cannot come, my lord; he is grievous sick.
16
HOTSPUR
Zounds, how has he the leisure to be sick
17
In such a jostling time? Who leads his power?
18
Under whose government come they along?
19
MESSENGER
His letters bears his mind, not I, my lord.
20
([Hotspur reads the letter])
WORCESTER
I prithee tell me, doth he keep his bed?
21
MESSENGER
He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth;
22
And at the time of my departure thence
23
He was much feared by his physicians.
24
WORCESTER
I would the state of time had first been whole
25
Ere he by sickness had been visited.
26
His health was never better worth than now.
27
HOTSPUR
Sick now? Droop now? This sickness doth infect
28
The very life-blood of our enterprise.
29
'Tis catching hither, even to our camp.
30
He writes me here that inward sickness —
31
And that his friends by deputation
32
Could not so soon be drawn; nor did he think it meet
33
To lay so dangerous and dear a trust
34
On any soul removed but on his own.
35
Yet doth he give us bold advertisement
36
That with our small conjunction we should on,
37
To see how fortune is disposed to us;
38
For, as he writes, there is no quailing now,
39
Because the king is certainly possessed
40
Of all our purposes. What say you to it?
41
WORCESTER
Your father's sickness is a maim to us.
42
HOTSPUR
A perilous gash, a very limb lopped off.
43
And yet, in faith, it is not. His present want
44
Seems more than we shall find it. Were it good
45
To set the exact wealth of all our states
46
All at one cast? To set so rich a main
47
On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?
48
It were not good, for therein should we read
49
The very bottom and the soul of hope,
50
The very list, the very utmost bound,
51
Of all our fortunes.
52
DOUGLAS
Faith, and so we should, where now remains
53
A sweet reversion — we may boldly spend
54
Upon the hope of what is to come in.
55
A comfort of retirement lives in this.
56
HOTSPUR
A rendezvous, a home to fly unto,
57
If that the devil and mischance look big
58
Upon the maidenhead of our affairs.
59
WORCESTER
But yet I would your father had been here.
60
The quality and hair of our attempt
61
Brooks no division. It will be thought
62
By some that know not why he is away
63
That wisdom, loyalty, and mere dislike
64
Of our proceedings kept the earl from hence;
65
And think how such an apprehension
66
May turn the tide of fearful faction,
67
And breed a kind of question in our cause.
68
For, well you know, we of the off'ring side
69
Must keep aloof from strict arbitrament,
70
And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence
71
The eye of reason may pry in upon us.
72
This absence of your father's draws a curtain
73
That shows the ignorant a kind of fear
74
Before not dreamt of.
75
HOTSPUR
You strain too far.
I rather of his absence make this use:
76
It lends a luster, and more great opinion,
77
A larger dare to our great enterprise,
78
Than if the earl were here; for men must think
79
If we without his help can make a head
80
To push against a kingdom, with his help
81
We shall o'erturn it topsy-turvy down.
82
Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole.
83
DOUGLAS
As heart can think, there is not such a word
84
Spoke of in Scotland as this term of fear.
85
(Enter Sir Richard Vernon.)
HOTSPUR
My cousin Vernon! Welcome, by my soul!
86
VERNON
Pray god my news be worth a welcome, lord.
87
The Earl of Westmorland, seven thousand strong,
88
Is marching hitherwards; with him Prince John.
89
HOTSPUR
No harm. What more?
90
VERNON
And further I have learned
91
The king himself in person is set forth,
92
Or hitherwards intended speedily,
93
With strong and mighty preparation.
94
HOTSPUR
He shall be welcome too. Where is his son,
95
The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales,
96
And his comrades that daffed the world aside
97
And bid it pass?
98
VERNON
All furnished, all in arms,
All plumed like ostriches, that with the wind
99
Baited like eagles having lately bathed,
100
Glittering in golden coats like images,
101
As full of spirit as the month of May,
102
And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer;
103
Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.
104
I saw young Harry with his beaver on,
105
His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly armed,
106
Rise from the ground like feathered Mercury,
107
And vaulted with such ease into his seat
108
As if an angel dropped down from the clouds
109
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,
110
And witch the world with noble horsemanship.
111
HOTSPUR
No more, no more! Worse than the sun in March,
112
This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come!
113
They come like sacrifices in their trim,
114
And to the fire-eyed maid of smoky war
115
All hot and bleeding will we offer them.
116
The mailèd Mars shall on his altars sit
117
Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire
118
To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh,
119
And yet not ours! Come, let me taste my horse,
120
Who is to bear me like a thunderbolt
121
Against the bosom of the Prince of Wales.
122
Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse,
123
Meet and ne'er part till one drop down a corse.
124
Oh, that Glendower were come!
125
VERNON
There is more news,
I learned in Worcester, as I rode along,
126
He cannot draw his power this fourteen days.
127
WORCESTER
Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound.
128
HOTSPUR
What may the king's whole battle reach unto?
129
VERNON
To thirty thousand.
130
My father and Glendower being both away,
131
The powers of us may serve so great a day.
132
Come, let us take a muster speedily.
133
Doomsday is near: die all, die merrily.
134
DOUGLAS
Talk not of dying; I am out of fear
135
Of death or death's hand for this one half year.
136
(Exeunt.)
[4.2]
(Enter Falstaff, Bardolph.)
FALSTAFF
Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry; fill me a bottle of sack. Our soldiers shall march through. We'll to Sutton Coldfield 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 labor; an 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.)
FALSTAFF
If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a soused gurnet. I have misused the king's press damnably. I have got in exchange of one hundred and fifty soldiers three hundred and odd pounds. I press me none but good householders, yeomen's sons, enquire me out contracted bachelors, such as had been asked twice on the banns, such a commodity of warm slaves as had as lief hear the devil as a drum, such as fear the report of a caliver worse than a struck fowl or a hurt wild duck. I pressed me none but such toasts and butter, with hearts in their bellies no bigger than pins' heads, and they have bought out their services; and now my whole charge consists of ensigns, corporals, lieutenants, gentlemen of companies — slaves as ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth, where the glutton's dogs licked his sores — and such as indeed were never soldiers, but discarded unjust servingmen, younger sons to younger brothers, revolted tapsters, and ostlers trade-fallen, the cankers of a calm world and a long peace, ten times more dishonorable-ragged than an old faz'd ancient. And such have I to fill up the rooms of them as have bought out their services, that you would think that I had a hundred and fifty tattered prodigals lately come from swine-keeping, from eating draff and husks. A mad fellow met me on the way and told me I had unloaded all the gibbets and pressed the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I'll not march through Coventry with them, that's flat. Nay, and the villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had gyves on, for indeed I had the most of them out of prison. There's not a shirt and a half in all my company; and the half-shirt is two napkins tacked together and thrown over the shoulders like a herald's coat without sleeves; and the shirt, to say the truth, stolen from my host at Saint Albans, or the red-nose innkeeper of Daventry. But that's all one; they'll find linen enough on every hedge.
(Enter the prince, [and the] Lord of Westmorland.)
PRINCE
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 Westmorland, I cry you mercy! I thought your honor had already been at Shrewsbury.
WESTMORLAND
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
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
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.
WESTMORLAND
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
No, I'll be sworn, unless you call three fingers in the ribs bare. But sirrah, make haste. Percy is already in the field.
(Exit.)
FALSTAFF
What, is the king encamped?
19
WESTMORLAND
He is, Sir John. I fear we shall stay too long.
20
FALSTAFF
Well, to the latter end of a fray
21
And the beginning of a feast
22
Fits a dull fighter and a keen guest.
23
(Exeunt.)
[4.3]
(Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Douglas [and] Vernon.)
HOTSPUR
We'll fight with him tonight.
1
WORCESTER
It may not be.
DOUGLAS
You give him then advantage.
2
VERNON
Not a whit.
HOTSPUR
Why say you so? Looks he not for supply?
3
VERNON
So do we.
4
HOTSPUR
His is certain; ours is doubtful.
WORCESTER
Good cousin, be advised. Stir not tonight.
5
VERNON
Do not, my lord.
6
DOUGLAS
You do not counsel well.
You speak it out of fear and cold heart.
7
VERNON
Do me no slander, Douglas. By my life —
8
And I dare well maintain it with my life —
9
If well-respected honor bid me on,
10
I hold as little counsel with weak fear
11
As you, my lord, or any Scot that this day lives.
12
Let it be seen tomorrow in the battle
13
Which of us fears.
14
DOUGLAS
Yea, or tonight.
15
VERNON
Content.
HOTSPUR
Tonight, say I.
VERNON
Come, come, it may not be. I wonder much,
16
Being men of such great leading as you are,
17
That you foresee not what impediments
18
Drag back our expedition. Certain horse
19
Of my cousin Vernon's are not yet come up.
20
Your uncle Worcester's horses came but today,
21
And now their pride and mettle is asleep,
22
Their courage with hard labor tame and dull,
23
That not a horse is half the half of himself.
24
HOTSPUR
So are the horses of the enemy
25
In general journey-bated and brought low.
26
The better part of ours are full of rest.
27
WORCESTER
The number of the king exceedeth ours.
28
For god's sake, cousin, stay till all come in.
29
(The trumpet sounds a parley.)
(Enter Sir Walter Blunt.)
BLUNT
I come with gracious offers from the king,
30
If you vouchsafe me hearing and respect.
31
HOTSPUR
Welcome, Sir Walter Blunt: and would to god
32
You were of our determination.
33
Some of us love you well, and even those some
34
Envy your great deservings and good name,
35
Because you are not of our quality,
36
But stand against us like an enemy.
37
BLUNT
And god defend but still I should stand so,
38
So long as out of limit and true rule
39
You stand against anointed majesty.
40
But to my charge. The king hath sent to know
41
The nature of your griefs, and whereupon
42
You conjure from the breast of civil peace
43
Such bold hostility, teaching his duteous land
44
Audacious cruelty. If that the king
45
Have any way your good deserts forgot,
46
Which he confesseth to be manifold,
47
He bids you name your griefs, and with all speed
48
You shall have your desires with interest
49
And pardon absolute for yourself and these
50
Herein misled by your suggestion.
51
HOTSPUR
The king is kind, and well we know the king
52
Knows at what time to promise, when to pay.
53
My father and my uncle and myself
54
Did give him that same royalty he wears;
55
And when he was not six-and-twenty strong,
56
Sick in the world's regard, wretched and low,
57
A poor unminded outlaw sneaking home,
58
My father gave him welcome to the shore;
59
And when he heard him swear and vow to god
60
He came but to be Duke of Lancaster,
61
To sue his livery, and beg his peace
62
With tears of innocency and terms of zeal,
63
My father, in kind heart and pity moved,
64
Swore him assistance, and performed it too.
65
Now when the lords and barons of the realm
66
Perceived Northumberland did lean to him,
67
The more and less came in with cap and knee,
68
Met him in boroughs, cities, villages,
69
Attended him on bridges, stood in lanes,
70
Laid gifts before him, proffered him their oaths,
71
Gave him their heirs as pages, followed him
72
Even at the heels, in golden multitudes.
73
He presently, as greatness knows itself,
74
Steps me a little higher than his vow
75
Made to my father while his blood was poor
76
Upon the naked shore at Ravenspurgh,
77
And now forsooth takes on him to reform
78
Some certain edicts and some strait decrees
79
That lie too heavy on the commonwealth,
80
Cries out upon abuses, seems to weep
81
Over his country's wrongs; and by this face,
82
This seeming brow of justice, did he win
83
The hearts of all that he did angle for;
84
Proceeded further, cut me off the heads
85
Of all the favorites that the absent king
86
In deputation left behind him here
87
When he was personal in the Irish war.
88
BLUNT
Tut, I came not to hear this.
89
HOTSPUR
Then to the point.
In short time after, he deposed the king,
90
Soon after that deprived him of his life,
91
And in the neck of that tasked the whole state;
92
To make that worse, suffered his kinsman March
93
(Who is, if every owner were well placed,
94
Indeed his king) to be engaged in Wales,
95
There without ransom to lie forfeited;
96
Disgraced me in my happy victories,
97
Sought to entrap me by intelligence,
98
Rated mine uncle from the council-board,
99
In rage dismissed my father from the court,
100
Broke oath on oath, committed wrong on wrong,
101
And in conclusion drove us to seek out
102
This head of safety, and withal to pry
103
Into his title, the which we find
104
Too indirect for long continuance.
105
BLUNT
Shall I return this answer to the king?
106
HOTSPUR
Not so, Sir Walter. We'll withdraw awhile.
107
Go to the king, and let there be impawned
108
Some surety for a safe return again;
109
And in the morning early shall mine uncle
110
Bring him our purposes. And so, farewell.
111
BLUNT
I would you would accept of grace and love.
112
HOTSPUR
And may be so we shall.
113
BLUNT
Pray god you do.
([Exeunt.])
[4.4]
(Enter Archbishop of York [and] Sir Michael.)
ARCHBISHOP
Hie, good Sir Michael, bear this sealèd brief
1
With wingèd haste to the Lord Marshal,
2
This to my cousin Scrope, and all the rest
3
To whom they are directed. If you knew
4
How much they do import, you would make haste.
5
SIR MICHAEL
My good lord, I guess their tenor.
6
ARCHBISHOP
Like enough you do.
Tomorrow, good Sir Michael, is a day
7
Wherein the fortune of ten thousand men
8
Must bide the touch. For, sir, at Shrewsbury,
9
As I am truly given to understand,
10
The king with mighty and quick-raisèd power
11
Meets with Lord Harry. And I fear, Sir Michael,
12
What with the sickness of Northumberland,
13
Whose power was in the first proportion,
14
And what with Owen Glendower's absence thence,
15
Who with them was a rated sinew too,
16
And comes not in, overruled by prophecies,
17
I fear the power of Percy is too weak
18
To wage an instant trial with the king.
19
SIR MICHAEL
Why, my good lord, you need not fear,
20
There is Douglas and Lord Mortimer.
21
ARCHBISHOP
No, Mortimer is not there.
22
SIR MICHAEL
But there is Mordake, Vernon, Lord Harry Percy;
23
And there is my lord of Worcester, and a head
24
Of gallant warriors, noble gentlemen.
25
ARCHBISHOP
And so there is. But yet the king hath drawn
26
The special head of all the land together:
27
The Prince of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster,
28
The noble Westmorland, and warlike Blunt,
29
And many more corrivals, and dear men
30
Of estimation and command in arms.
31
SIR MICHAEL
Doubt not, my lord, they shall be well opposed.
32
ARCHBISHOP
I hope no less, yet needful 'tis to fear;
33
And to prevent the worst, Sir Michael, speed.
34
For if Lord Percy thrive not, ere the king
35
Dismiss his power he means to visit us,
36
For he hath heard of our confederacy,
37
And 'tis but wisdom to make strong against him.
38
Therefore make haste. I must go write again
39
To other friends; and so farewell, Sir Michael.
40
(Exeunt.)
[5.1]
(Enter King, Prince of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster, Sir Walter Blunt, [and] Falstaff.)
KING
How bloodily the sun begins to peer
1
Above yon bulky hill! The day looks pale
2
At his distemperature.
3
PRINCE
The southern wind
Doth play the trumpet to his purposes,
4
And by his hollow whistling in the leaves
5
Foretells a tempest and a blustering day.
6
KING
Then with the losers let it sympathize,
7
For nothing can seem foul to those that win.
8
(The trumpet sounds. Enter Worcester [and Vernon].)
KING
How now, my lord of Worcester? 'Tis not well
9
That you and I should meet upon such terms
10
As now we meet. You have deceived our trust,
11
And made us doff our easy robes of peace
12
To crush our old limbs in ungentle steel.
13
This is not well, my lord, this is not well.
14
What say you to it? Will you again unknit
15
This churlish knot of all-abhorrèd war,
16
And move in that obedient orb again
17
Where you did give a fair and natural light,
18
And be no more an exhaled meteor,
19
A prodigy of fear, and a portent
20
Of broachèd mischief to the unborn times?
21
WORCESTER
Hear me, my liege:
22
For mine own part, I could be well content
23
To entertain the lag-end of my life
24
With quiet hours; for I protest,
25
I have not sought the day of this dislike.
26
KING
You have not sought it? How comes it, then?
27
FALSTAFF
Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it.
28
PRINCE
Peace, chewet, peace!
29
WORCESTER
It pleased your majesty to turn your looks
30
Of favor from myself and all our house;
31
And yet I must remember you, my lord,
32
We were the first and dearest of your friends.
33
For you my staff of office did I break
34
In Richard's time, and posted day and night
35
To meet you on the way and kiss your hand
36
When yet you were in place and in account
37
Nothing so strong and fortunate as I.
38
It was myself, my brother, and his son
39
That brought you home, and boldly did outdare
40
The dangers of the time. You swore to us,
41
And you did swear that oath at Doncaster,
42
That you did nothing purpose 'gainst the state,
43
Nor claim no further than your new-fallen right,
44
The seat of Gaunt, dukedom of Lancaster:
45
To this we swore our aid. But in short space
46
It rained down fortune showering on your head,
47
And such a flood of greatness fell on you,
48
What with our help, what with the absent king,
49
What with the injuries of a wanton time,
50
The seeming sufferances that you had borne,
51
And the contrarious winds that held the king
52
So long in his unlucky Irish wars
53
That all in England did repute him dead;
54
And from this swarm of fair advantages
55
You took occasion to be quickly wooed
56
To gripe the general sway into your hand,
57
Forgot your oath to us at Doncaster,
58
And being fed by us, you used us so
59
As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird,
60
Useth the sparrow — did oppress our nest,
61
Grew by our feeding to so great a bulk
62
That even our love durst not come near your sight
63
For fear of swallowing. But with nimble wing
64
We were enforced for safety sake to fly
65
Out of your sight, and raise this present head,
66
Whereby we stand opposèd by such means
67
As you yourself have forged against yourself,
68
By unkind usage, dangerous countenance,
69
And violation of all faith and troth
70
Sworn to us in your younger enterprise.
71
KING
These things indeed you have articulate,
72
Proclaimed at market crosses, read in churches,
73
To face the garment of rebellion
74
With some fine color that may please the eye
75
Of fickle changelings and poor discontents,
76
Which gape and rub the elbow at the news
77
Of hurly-burly innovation;
78
And never yet did insurrection want
79
Such water-colors to impaint his cause,
80
Nor moody beggars starving for a time
81
Of pell-mell havoc and confusion.
82
PRINCE
In both your armies there is many a soul
83
Shall pay full dearly for this encounter
84
If once they join in trial. Tell your nephew
85
The Prince of Wales doth join with all the world
86
In praise of Henry Percy. By my hopes,
87
This present enterprise set off his head,
88
I do not think a braver gentleman,
89
More active-valiant or more valiant-young,
90
More daring, or more bold, is now alive
91
To grace this latter age with noble deeds.
92
For my part — I may speak it to my shame —
93
I have a truant been to chivalry,
94
And so I hear he doth account me too.
95
Yet this, before my father's majesty:
96
I am content that he shall take the odds
97
Of his great name and estimation,
98
And will, to save the blood on either side,
99
Try fortune with him in a single fight.
100
KING
And, Prince of Wales, so dare we venture thee,
101
Albeit considerations infinite
102
Do make against it. No, good Worcester, no.
103
We love our people well, even those we love
104
That are misled upon your cousin's part,
105
And will they take the offer of our grace,
106
Both he and they and you, yea, every man
107
Shall be my friend again, and I'll be his.
108
So tell your cousin, and bring me word
109
What he will do. But if he will not yield,
110
Rebuke and dread correction wait on us,
111
And they shall do their office. So be gone.
112
We will not now be troubled with reply.
113
We offer fair; take it advisedly.
114
(Exit Worcester [and Vernon].)
PRINCE
It will not be accepted, on my life.
115
The Douglas and the Hotspur both together
116
Are confident against the world in arms.
117
KING
Hence, therefore, every leader to his charge,
118
For on their answer will we set on them,
119
And god befriend us as our cause is just!
120
(Exeunt [all but] Prince [and] Falstaff.)
FALSTAFF
Hal, if thou see me down in the battle, and bestride me, so; 'tis a point of friendship.
PRINCE
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
Why, thou owest god a death.
([Exit Prince.])
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, honor pricks me on. Yea, but how if honor prick me off when I come on? How then? Can honor set to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honor hath no skill in surgery, then? No. What is honor? A word. What is in that word "honor"? What is that "honor"? Air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? He that died a'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. Honor is a mere scutcheon. And so ends my catechism.
(Exit.)
[5.2]
(Enter Worcester, [and] Sir Richard Vernon.)
WORCESTER
Oh no, my nephew must not know, Sir Richard,
1
The liberal and kind offer of the king.
2
VERNON
'Twere best he did.
3
WORCESTER
Then are we all undone.
It is not possible, it cannot be
4
The king should keep his word in loving us.
5
He will suspect us still, and find a time
6
To punish this offense in other faults.
7
Supposition all our lives shall be stuck full of eyes,
8
For treason is but trusted like the fox,
9
Who, never so tame, so cherished, and locked up,
10
Will have a wild trick of his ancestors.
11
Look how we can, or sad or merrily,
12
Interpretation will misquote our looks,
13
And we shall feed like oxen at a stall,
14
The better cherished still the nearer death.
15
My nephew's trespass may be well forgot;
16
It hath the excuse of youth and heat of blood,
17
And an adopted name of privilege:
18
A hare-brained Hotspur, governed by a spleen.
19
All his offenses live upon my head,
20
And on his father's. We did train him on,
21
And, his corruption being ta'en from us,
22
We as the spring of all shall pay for all.
23
Therefore, good cousin, let not Harry know
24
In any case the offer of the king.
25
(Enter [Hotspur and Douglas].)
VERNON
Deliver what you will; I'll say 'tis so.
26
Here comes your cousin.
27
HOTSPUR
My uncle is returned.
Deliver up my lord of Westmorland.
28
Uncle, what news?
29
WORCESTER
The king will bid you battle presently.
30
DOUGLAS
Defy him by the Lord of Westmorland.
31
HOTSPUR
Lord Douglas, go you and tell him so.
32
DOUGLAS
Marry, and shall, and very willingly.
33
(Exit Douglas.)
WORCESTER
There is no seeming mercy in the king.
34
HOTSPUR
Did you beg any? God forbid!
35
WORCESTER
I told him gently of our grievances,
36
Of his oath-breaking, which he mended thus,
37
By now forswearing that he is forsworn.
38
He calls us rebels, traitors, and will scourge
39
With haughty arms this hateful name in us.
40
(Enter Douglas.)
DOUGLAS
Arm, gentlemen, to arms! For I have thrown
41
A brave defiance in King Henry's teeth,
42
And Westmorland that was engaged did bear it,
43
Which cannot choose but bring him quickly on.
44
WORCESTER
The Prince of Wales stepped forth before the king
45
And, nephew, challenged you to single fight.
46
HOTSPUR
Oh, would the quarrel lay upon our heads,
47
And that no man might draw short breath today
48
But I and Harry Monmouth! Tell me, tell me,
49
How showed his tasking? Seemed it in contempt?
50
VERNON
No, by my soul, I never in my life
51
Did hear a challenge urged more modestly,
52
Unless a brother should a brother dare
53
To gentle exercise and proof of arms.
54
He gave you all the duties of a man,
55
Trimmed up your praises with a princely tongue,
56
Spoke your deservings like a chronicle,
57
Making you ever better than his praise
58
By still dispraising praise valued with you;
59
And, which became him like a prince indeed,
60
He made a blushing cital of himself,
61
And chid his truant youth with such a grace
62
As if he mastered there a double spirit
63
Of teaching and of learning instantly.
64
There did he pause; but let me tell the world,
65
If he outlive the envy of this day,
66
England did never owe so sweet a hope,
67
So much misconstrued in his wantonness.
68
HOTSPUR
Cousin, I think thou art enamourèd
69
On his follies. Never did I hear
70
Of any prince so wild a liberty.
71
But be he as he will, yet once ere night
72
I will embrace him with a soldier's arm,
73
That he shall shrink under my courtesy.
74
Arm, arm, with speed! And fellows, soldiers, friends,
75
Better consider what you have to do
76
Than I, that have not well the gift of tongue,
77
Can lift your blood up with persuasion.
78
(Enter a Messenger.)
MESSENGER
My lord, here are letters for you.
79
HOTSPUR
I cannot read them now,
80
O gentlemen, the time of life is short.
81
To spend that shortness basely were too long
82
If life did ride upon a dial's point,
83
Still ending at the arrival of an hour.
84
An if we live, we live to tread on kings;
85
If die, brave death when princes die with us!
86
Now for our consciences: the arms are fair
87
When the intent of bearing them is just.
88
(Enter another [Messenger].)
MESSENGER
My lord, prepare; the king comes on apace.
89
HOTSPUR
I thank him that he cuts me from my tale,
90
For I profess not talking, only this:
91
Let each man do his best. And here draw I
92
A sword whose temper I intend to stain
93
With the best blood that I can meet withal
94
In the adventure of this perilous day.
95
Now Esperance! Percy! And set on!
96
Sound all the lofty instruments of war,
97
And by that music let us all embrace,
98
For, heaven to earth, some of us never shall
99
A second time do such a courtesy.
100
(Here they embrace. The trumpets sound. [Exeunt.])
[5.3]
(The king enters with his power. Alarum to the battle. Then enter Douglas, and Sir Walter Blunt [disguised as the king].)
BLUNT
What is thy name, that in battle thus thou crossest me?
1
What honor dost thou seek upon my head?
2
DOUGLAS
Know then my name is Douglas,
3
And I do haunt thee in the battle thus
4
Because some tell me that thou art a king.
5
BLUNT
They tell thee true.
6
DOUGLAS
The Lord of Stafford dear today hath bought
7
Thy likeness, for instead of thee, King Harry,
8
This sword hath ended him. So shall it thee,
9
Unless thou yield thee as my prisoner.
10
BLUNT
I was not born a yielder, thou proud Scot,
11
And thou shalt find a king that will revenge
12
Lord Stafford's death.
13
(They fight, Douglas kills Blunt, then enter Hotspur.)
HOTSPUR
O Douglas, hadst thou fought at Holmedon thus,
14
I never had triumphed upon a Scot.
15
DOUGLAS
All's done, all's won: here breathless lies the king.
16
HOTSPUR
Where?
17
DOUGLAS
Here.
18
HOTSPUR
This Douglas? No, I know this face full well.
19
A gallant knight he was, his name was Blunt,
20
Semblably furnished like the king himself.
21
DOUGLAS
[To the corpse] Ah fool, go with thy soul, whither it goes!
22
A borrowed title hast thou bought too dear.
23
Why didst thou tell me that thou wert a king?
24
HOTSPUR
The king hath many marching in his coats.
25
DOUGLAS
Now by my sword, I will kill all his coats.
26
I'll murder all his wardrobe, piece by piece,
27
Until I meet the king.
28
HOTSPUR
Up and away!
29
Our soldiers stand full fairly for the day.
30
([Exeunt.] Alarum. Enter Falstaff alone.)
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 honor for you. Here's no vanity. I am as hot as molten 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 the prince.)
PRINCE
What, stands thou idle here? Lend me thy sword.
32
Many a noble man lies stark and stiff
33
Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies,
34
Whose deaths are yet unrevenged. I prithee
35
Lend me thy sword.
36
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
He is indeed, and living to kill thee.
38
I prithee lend me thy sword.
39
FALSTAFF
Nay, before god, Hal, if Percy be alive thou gets not my sword; but take my pistol if thou wilt.
PRINCE
Give it me. What, is it in the case?
41
FALSTAFF
Ay, Hal, 'tis hot, 'tis hot. There's that will sack a city.
(The prince draws it out, and finds it to be a bottle of sack.)
PRINCE
What, is it a time to jest and dally now?
43
(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 honor as Sir Walter hath. Give me life, which if I can save, so; if not, honor comes unlooked for, and there's an end.
([Exit with Blunt's body.])
[5.4]
(Alarum. Excursions. Enter the king, the prince, Lord John of Lancaster, Earl of Westmorland.)
KING
I prithee, Harry, withdraw thyself, thou bleed'st too much.
1
Lord John of Lancaster, go you with him.
2
LANCASTER
Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too.
3
PRINCE
I beseech your majesty, make up,
4
Lest your retirement do amaze your friends.
5
KING
I will do so. My lord of Westmorland,
6
Lead him to his tent.
7
WESTMORLAND
Come, my lord, I'll lead you to your tent.
8
PRINCE
Lead me, my lord? I do not need your help,
9
And god forbid a shallow scratch should drive
10
The Prince of Wales from such a field as this,
11
Where stained nobility lies trodden on,
12
And rebels' arms triumph in massacres.
13
LANCASTER
We breathe too long. Come, cousin Westmorland,
14
Our duty this way lies. For god's sake, come.
15
([Exit Lancaster and Westmorland.])
PRINCE
By god, thou hast deceived me, Lancaster;
16
I did not think thee lord of such a spirit.
17
Before I loved thee as a brother, John,
18
But now I do respect thee as my soul.
19
KING
I saw him hold Lord Percy at the point
20
With lustier maintenance than I did look for
21
Of such an ungrown warrior.
22
PRINCE
Oh, this boy lends mettle to us all!
23
(Exit [Prince].)
([Enter Douglas.])
DOUGLAS
Another king! They grow like Hydra's heads.
24
I am the Douglas, fatal to all those
25
That wear those colors on them. What art thou
26
That counterfeit'st the person of a king?
27
KING
The king himself, who, Douglas, grieves at heart
28
So many of his shadows thou hast met
29
And not the very king. I have two boys
30
Seek Percy and thyself about the field;
31
But seeing thou fall'st on me so luckily,
32
I will assay thee; and defend thyself.
33
DOUGLAS
I fear thou art another counterfeit;
34
And yet, in faith, thou bear'st thee like a king.
35
But mine I am sure thou art, whoe'er thou be,
36
And thus I win thee.
37
(They fight. The king being in danger, enter Prince of Wales.)
PRINCE
Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like
38
Never to hold it up again! The spirits
39
Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt, are in my arms.
40
It is the Prince of Wales that threatens thee,
41
Who never promiseth but he means to pay.
42
(They fight, Douglas flieth.)
Cheerly, my lord! How fares your grace?
43
Sir Nicholas Gawsey hath for succour sent,
44
And so hath Clifton. I'll to Clifton straight.
45
KING
Stay and breathe awhile.
46
Thou hast redeemed thy lost opinion,
47
And showed thou mak'st some tender of my life,
48
In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me.
49
PRINCE
O god, they did me too much injury
50
That ever said I hearkened for your death.
51
If it were so, I might have let alone
52
The insulting hand of Douglas over you,
53
Which would have been as speedy in your end
54
As all the poisonous potions in the world,
55
And saved the treacherous labor of your son.
56
KING
Make up to Clifton; I'll to Sir Nicholas Gawsey.
57
(Exit King.)
(Enter Hotspur.)
HOTSPUR
If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth.
58
PRINCE
Thou speak'st as if I would deny my name.
59
HOTSPUR
My name is Harry Percy.
60
PRINCE
Why then I see
A very valiant rebel of the name.
61
I am the Prince of Wales; and think not, Percy,
62
To share with me in glory any more.
63
Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere,
64
Nor can one England brook a double reign
65
Of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales.
66
HOTSPUR
Nor shall it, Harry, for the hour is come
67
To end the one of us, and would to god
68
Thy name in arms were now as great as mine.
69
PRINCE
I'll make it greater ere I part from thee,
70
And all the budding honors on thy crest
71
I'll crop to make a garland for my head.
72
HOTSPUR
I can no longer brook thy vanities.
73
(They fight. Enter Falstaff.)
FALSTAFF
Well said, Hal! To it, Hal! Nay, you shall find no boy's play here, I can tell you.
(Enter Douglas, he fighteth with Falstaff, [who] falls down as if he were dead.)
([Exit Douglas.])
(The prince killeth Percy.)
HOTSPUR
O Harry, thou hast robbed me of my youth.
75
I better brook the loss of brittle life
76
Than those proud titles thou hast won of me.
77
They wound my thoughts worse than thy sword my flesh.
78
But thoughts, the slaves of life, and life, time's fool,
79
And time, that takes survey of all the world,
80
Must have a stop. Oh, I could prophesy,
81
But that the earthy and cold hand of death
82
Lies on my tongue. No, Percy, thou art dust,
83
And food for —
84
([He dies.])
PRINCE
For worms, brave Percy. Fare thee well, great heart.
85
Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk!
86
When that this body did contain a spirit,
87
A kingdom for it was too small a bound,
88
But now two paces of the vilest earth
89
Is room enough. This earth that bears thee dead
90
Bears not alive so stout a gentleman.
91
If thou wert sensible of courtesy,
92
I should not make so dear a show of zeal;
93
But let my favors hide thy mangled face,
94
And even in thy behalf I'll thank myself
95
For doing these fair rites of tenderness.
96
Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven.
97
Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave,
98
But not remembered in thy epitaph.
99
(He spieth Falstaff on the ground.)
What, old acquaintance! Could not all this flesh
100
Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell.
101
I could have better spared a better man.
102
Oh, I should have a heavy miss of thee,
103
If I were much in love with vanity.
104
Death hath not struck so fat a deer today,
105
Though many dearer in this bloody fray.
106
Embowelled will I see thee by and by.
107
Till then, in blood by noble Percy lie.
108
(Exit.)
(Falstaff riseth up.)
FALSTAFF
Embowelled? If thou embowel me today, I'll give you leave to powder me, and eat me too, tomorrow. 'Sblood, 'twas time to counterfeit, or that hot termagant Scot had paid me, scot and lot too. Counterfeit? I lie, I am no counterfeit. To die is to be a counterfeit, for he is but the counterfeit of a man, who hath not the life of a man. But to counterfeit dying when a man thereby liveth is to be no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life indeed. The better part of valor is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life. Zounds, I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead. How if he should counterfeit too, and rise? By my faith, I am afraid he would prove the better counterfeit. Therefore I'll make him sure; yea, and I'll swear I killed him. Why may not he rise as well as I? Nothing confutes me but eyes, and nobody sees me. Therefore, sirrah, [stabbing him] with a new wound in your thigh, come you along with me.
(He takes up Hotspur on his back. Enter Prince [and] John of Lancaster.)
PRINCE
Come, brother John. Full bravely hast thou fleshed
110
Thy maiden sword.
111
LANCASTER
But soft; whom have we here?
112
Did you not tell me this fat man was dead?
113
PRINCE
I did, I saw him dead,
114
Breathless and bleeding on the ground. Art thou alive?
115
Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight?
116
I prithee speak; we will not trust our eyes
117
Without our ears. Thou art not what thou seem'st.
118
FALSTAFF
No, that's certain: I am not a double man. But if I be not Jack Falstaff, then am I a jack.
([He puts down the body.])
There is Percy. If your father will do me any honor, so; if not, let him kill the next Percy himself. I look to be either earl or duke, I can assure you.
PRINCE
Why, Percy I killed myself, and saw thee dead.
121
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 valor 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.
123
PRINCE
This is the strangest fellow, brother John.
124
[To Falstaff] Come, bring your luggage nobly on your back.
125
For my part, if a lie may do thee grace,
126
I'll gild it with the happiest terms I have.
127
(A retreat is sounded.)
PRINCE
The trumpet sounds retreat; the day is ours.
128
Come, brother, let us to the highest of the field
129
To see what friends are living, who are dead.
130
(Exeunt [Prince and Lancaster].)
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 [with Hotspur's body].)
[5.5]
(The Trumpets sound. Enter the king, the Prince of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster, Earl of Westmorland, with Worcester and Vernon prisoners.)
KING
Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke.
1
Ill-spirited Worcester, did not we send grace,
2
Pardon, and terms of love to all of you?
3
And wouldst thou turn our offers contrary,
4
Misuse the tenor of thy kinsman's trust?
5
Three knights upon our party slain today,
6
A noble earl, and many a creature else,
7
Had been alive this hour,
8
If like a Christian thou hadst truly borne
9
Betwixt our armies true intelligence.
10
WORCESTER
What I have done my safety urged me to,
11
And I embrace this fortune patiently,
12
Since not to be avoided it falls on me.
13
KING
Bear Worcester to the death, and Vernon too.
14
Other offenders we will pause upon.
15
([Worcester and Vernon exit, guarded])
How goes the field?
16
PRINCE
The noble Scot, Lord Douglas, when he saw
17
The fortune of the day quite turned from him,
18
The noble Percy slain, and all his men
19
Upon the foot of fear, fled with the rest;
20
And falling from a hill he was so bruised
21
That the pursuers took him. At my tent
22
The Douglas is, and I beseech your grace
23
I may dispose of him.
24
KING
With all my heart.
PRINCE
Then, brother John of Lancaster,
25
To you this honorable bounty shall belong.
26
Go to the Douglas, and deliver him
27
Up to his pleasure ransomless and free.
28
His valors shown upon our crests today
29
Have taught us how to cherish such high deeds
30
Even in the bosom of our adversaries.
31
LANCASTER
I thank your grace for this high courtesy,
32
Which I shall give away immediately.
33
KING
Then this remains, that we divide our power.
34
You, son John, and my cousin Westmorland,
35
Toward York shall bend you with your dearest speed
36
To meet Northumberland and the prelate Scrope,
37
Who, as we hear, are busily in arms.
38
Myself and you, son Harry, will toward Wales,
39
To fight with Glendower and the Earl of March.
40
Rebellion in this land shall lose his sway,
41
Meeting the check of such another day,
42
And since this business so fair is done,
43
Let us not leave till all our own be won.
44
(Exeunt.)