Henry IV, Part 1 - Entire Play
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Henry IV, Part 1 - Entire PlaySynopsis:
Henry IV, Part 1, culminates in the battle of Shrewsbury between the king’s army and rebels seeking his crown. The dispute begins when Hotspur, the son of Northumberland, breaks with the king over the fate of his brother-in-law, Mortimer, a Welsh prisoner. Hotspur, Northumberland, and Hotspur’s uncle Worcester plan to take the throne, later allying with Mortimer and a Welsh leader, Glendower.
As that conflict develops, Prince Hal—Henry IV’s son and heir—carouses in a tavern and plots to trick the roguish Sir John Falstaff and his henchmen, who are planning a highway robbery. Hal and a companion will rob them of their loot—then wait for Falstaff’s lying boasts. The trick succeeds, but Prince Hal is summoned to war.
In the war, Hal saves his father’s life and then kills Hotspur, actions that help to redeem his bad reputation. Falstaff, meanwhile, cheats his soldiers, whom he leads to slaughter, and takes credit for Hotspur’s death.
of Westmoreland, with others.
KING
0001 So shaken as we are, so wan with care,
0002 Find we a time for frighted peace to pant
0003 And breathe short-winded accents of new broils
0004 To be commenced in strands afar remote.
0005 5 No more the thirsty entrance of this soil
0006 Shall daub her lips with her own children’s blood.
0007 No more shall trenching war channel her fields,
0008 Nor bruise her flow’rets with the armèd hoofs
0009 Of hostile paces. Those opposèd eyes,
0010 10 Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,
0011 All of one nature, of one substance bred,
0012 Did lately meet in the intestine shock
0013 And furious close of civil butchery,
0014 Shall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks,
0015 15 March all one way and be no more opposed
0016 Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies.
0017 The edge of war, like an ill-sheathèd knife,
0018 No more shall cut his master. Therefore, friends,
0019 As far as to the sepulcher of Christ—
0020 20 Whose soldier now, under whose blessèd cross
0021 We are impressèd and engaged to fight—
0023 Whose arms were molded in their mothers’ womb
0024 To chase these pagans in those holy fields
0025 25 Over whose acres walked those blessèd feet
0026 Which fourteen hundred years ago were nailed
0027 For our advantage on the bitter cross.
0028 But this our purpose now is twelve month old,
0029 And bootless ’tis to tell you we will go.
0030 30 Therefor we meet not now. Then let me hear
0031 Of you, my gentle cousin Westmoreland,
0032 What yesternight our council did decree
0033 In forwarding this dear expedience.
WESTMORELAND
0034 My liege, this haste was hot in question,
0035 35 And many limits of the charge set down
0036 But yesternight, when all athwart there came
0037 A post from Wales loaden with heavy news,
0038 Whose worst was that the noble Mortimer,
0039 Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight
0040 40 Against the irregular and wild Glendower,
0041 Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken,
0042 A thousand of his people butcherèd,
0043 Upon whose dead corpse there was such misuse,
0044 Such beastly shameless transformation
0045 45 By those Welshwomen done, as may not be
0046 Without much shame retold or spoken of.
KING
0047 It seems then that the tidings of this broil
0048 Brake off our business for the Holy Land.
WESTMORELAND
0049 This matched with other did, my gracious lord.
0050 50 For more uneven and unwelcome news
0051 Came from the north, and thus it did import:
0052 On Holy-rood Day the gallant Hotspur there,
0053 Young Harry Percy, and brave Archibald,
0054 That ever valiant and approvèd Scot,
0056 A sad and bloody hour—
0057 As by discharge of their artillery
0058 And shape of likelihood the news was told,
0059 For he that brought them, in the very heat
0060 60 And pride of their contention did take horse,
0061 Uncertain of the issue any way.
KING
0062 Here is ⌜a⌝ dear, a true-industrious friend,
0063 Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse,
0064 Stained with the variation of each soil
0065 65 Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours,
0066 And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news.
0067 The Earl of Douglas is discomfited;
0068 Ten thousand bold Scots, two-and-twenty knights,
0069 Balked in their own blood, did Sir Walter see
0070 70 On Holmedon’s plains. Of prisoners Hotspur took
0071 Mordake, Earl of Fife and eldest son
0072 To beaten Douglas, and the Earl of Atholl,
0073 Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith.
0074 And is not this an honorable spoil?
0075 75 A gallant prize? Ha, cousin, is it not?
WESTMORELAND
0076 In faith, it is a conquest for a prince to boast of.
KING
0077 Yea, there thou mak’st me sad, and mak’st me sin
0078 In envy that my Lord Northumberland
0079 Should be the father to so blest a son,
0080 80 A son who is the theme of Honor’s tongue,
0081 Amongst a grove the very straightest plant,
0082 Who is sweet Fortune’s minion and her pride;
0083 Whilst I, by looking on the praise of him,
0084 See riot and dishonor stain the brow
0085 85 Of my young Harry. O, that it could be proved
0086 That some night-tripping fairy had exchanged
0087 In cradle-clothes our children where they lay,
0089 Then would I have his Harry, and he mine.
0090 90 But let him from my thoughts. What think you, coz,
0091 Of this young Percy’s pride? The prisoners
0092 Which he in this adventure hath surprised
0093 To his own use he keeps, and sends me word
0094 I shall have none but Mordake, Earl of Fife.
WESTMORELAND
0095 95 This is his uncle’s teaching. This is Worcester,
0096 Malevolent to you in all aspects,
0097 Which makes him prune himself, and bristle up
0098 The crest of youth against your dignity.
KING
0099 But I have sent for him to answer this.
0100 100 And for this cause awhile we must neglect
0101 Our holy purpose to Jerusalem.
0102 Cousin, on Wednesday next our council we
0103 Will hold at Windsor. So inform the lords.
0104 But come yourself with speed to us again,
0105 105 For more is to be said and to be done
0106 Than out of anger can be utterèd.
WESTMORELAND 0107 I will, my liege.
They exit.
FALSTAFF 0108 Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?
PRINCE 0109 Thou art so fat-witted with drinking of old
0110 sack, and unbuttoning thee after supper, and
0111 sleeping upon benches after noon, that thou hast
0112 5 forgotten to demand that truly which thou wouldst
0113 truly know. What a devil hast thou to do with
0114 the time of the day? Unless hours were cups of
0115 sack, and minutes capons, and clocks the tongues
0117 10 and the blessed sun himself a fair hot wench in
0118 flame-colored taffeta, I see no reason why thou
0119 shouldst be so superfluous to demand the time
0120 of the day.
FALSTAFF 0121 Indeed, you come near me now, Hal, for we
0122 15 that take purses go by the moon and the seven
0123 stars, and not by Phoebus, he, that wand’ring
0124 knight so fair. And I prithee, sweet wag, when thou
0125 art king, as God save thy Grace—Majesty, I should
0126 say, for grace thou wilt have none—
PRINCE 0127 20What, none?
FALSTAFF 0128 No, by my troth, not so much as will serve to
0129 be prologue to an egg and butter.
PRINCE 0130 Well, how then? Come, roundly, roundly.
FALSTAFF 0131 Marry then, sweet wag, when thou art king,
0132 25 let not us that are squires of the night’s body be
0133 called thieves of the day’s beauty. Let us be Diana’s
0134 foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the
0135 moon, and let men say we be men of good government,
0136 being governed, as the sea is, by our noble
0137 30 and chaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance
0138 we steal.
PRINCE 0139 Thou sayest well, and it holds well too, for the
0140 fortune of us that are the moon’s men doth ebb and
0141 flow like the sea, being governed, as the sea is, by
0142 35 the moon. As for proof now: a purse of gold most
0143 resolutely snatched on Monday night and most
0144 dissolutely spent on Tuesday morning, got with
0145 swearing “Lay by” and spent with crying “Bring
0146 in”; now in as low an ebb as the foot of the ladder,
0147 40 and by and by in as high a flow as the ridge of the
0148 gallows.
FALSTAFF 0149 By the Lord, thou sayst true, lad. And is not
0150 my hostess of the tavern a most sweet wench?
0152 45 And is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of
0153 durance?
FALSTAFF 0154 How now, how now, mad wag? What, in thy
0155 quips and thy quiddities? What a plague have I to
0156 do with a buff jerkin?
PRINCE 0157 50Why, what a pox have I to do with my hostess
0158 of the tavern?
FALSTAFF 0159 Well, thou hast called her to a reckoning
0160 many a time and oft.
PRINCE 0161 Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part?
FALSTAFF 0162 55No, I’ll give thee thy due. Thou hast paid all
0163 there.
PRINCE 0164 Yea, and elsewhere, so far as my coin would
0165 stretch, and where it would not, I have used my
0166 credit.
FALSTAFF 0167 60Yea, and so used it that were it not here
0168 apparent that thou art heir apparent—But I prithee,
0169 sweet wag, shall there be gallows standing in
0170 England when thou art king? And resolution thus
0171 fubbed as it is with the rusty curb of old father Antic
0172 65 the law? Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a
0173 thief.
PRINCE 0174 No, thou shalt.
FALSTAFF 0175 Shall I? O rare! By the Lord, I’ll be a brave
0176 judge.
PRINCE 0177 70Thou judgest false already. I mean thou shalt
0178 have the hanging of the thieves, and so become a
0179 rare hangman.
FALSTAFF 0180 Well, Hal, well, and in some sort it jumps
0181 with my humor as well as waiting in the court, I
0182 75 can tell you.
PRINCE 0183 For obtaining of suits?
FALSTAFF 0184 Yea, for obtaining of suits, whereof the hangman
0185 hath no lean wardrobe. ’Sblood, I am as
0186 melancholy as a gib cat or a lugged bear.
FALSTAFF 0188 Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe.
PRINCE 0189 What sayest thou to a hare, or the melancholy
0190 of Moorditch?
FALSTAFF 0191 Thou hast the most unsavory ⌜similes,⌝ and
0192 85 art indeed the most comparative, rascaliest, sweet
0193 young prince. But, Hal, I prithee trouble me no
0194 more with vanity. I would to God thou and I knew
0195 where a commodity of good names were to be
0196 bought. An old lord of the council rated me the
0197 90 other day in the street about you, sir, but I marked
0198 him not, and yet he talked very wisely, but I
0199 regarded him not, and yet he talked wisely, and in
0200 the street, too.
PRINCE 0201 Thou didst well, for wisdom cries out in the
0202 95 streets and no man regards it.
FALSTAFF 0203 O, thou hast damnable iteration, and art
0204 indeed able to corrupt a saint. Thou hast done
0205 much harm upon me, Hal, God forgive thee for it.
0206 Before I knew thee, Hal, I knew nothing, and now
0207 100 am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than
0208 one of the wicked. I must give over this life, and I
0209 will give it over. By the Lord, an I do not, I am a
0210 villain. I’ll be damned for never a king’s son in
0211 Christendom.
PRINCE 0212 105Where shall we take a purse tomorrow, Jack?
FALSTAFF 0213 Zounds, where thou wilt, lad. I’ll make one.
0214 An I do not, call me villain and baffle me.
PRINCE 0215 I see a good amendment of life in thee, from
0216 praying to purse-taking.
FALSTAFF 0217 110Why, Hal, ’tis my vocation, Hal. ’Tis no sin
0218 for a man to labor in his vocation.
Enter Poins.
0219 Poins!—Now shall we know if Gadshill have set a
0220 match. O, if men were to be saved by merit, what
0222 115 most omnipotent villain that ever cried “Stand!” to
0223 a true man.
PRINCE 0224 Good morrow, Ned.
POINS 0225 Good morrow, sweet Hal.—What says Monsieur
0226 Remorse? What says Sir John Sack-and-Sugar?
0227 120 Jack, how agrees the devil and thee about
0228 thy soul that thou soldest him on Good Friday last
0229 for a cup of Madeira and a cold capon’s leg?
PRINCE 0230 Sir John stands to his word. The devil shall
0231 have his bargain, for he was never yet a breaker of
0232 125 proverbs. He will give the devil his due.
POINS, ⌜to Falstaff⌝ 0233 Then art thou damned for keeping
0234 thy word with the devil.
PRINCE 0235 Else he had been damned for cozening the
0236 devil.
POINS 0237 130But, my lads, my lads, tomorrow morning, by
0238 four o’clock early at Gad’s Hill, there are pilgrims
0239 going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders
0240 riding to London with fat purses. I have vizards for
0241 you all. You have horses for yourselves. Gadshill lies
0242 135 tonight in Rochester. I have bespoke supper tomorrow
0243 night in Eastcheap. We may do it as secure as
0244 sleep. If you will go, I will stuff your purses full of
0245 crowns. If you will not, tarry at home and be
0246 hanged.
FALSTAFF 0247 140Hear you, Yedward, if I tarry at home and
0248 go not, I’ll hang you for going.
POINS 0249 You will, chops?
FALSTAFF 0250 Hal, wilt thou make one?
PRINCE 0251 Who, I rob? I a thief? Not I, by my faith.
FALSTAFF 0252 145There’s neither honesty, manhood, nor
0253 good fellowship in thee, nor thou cam’st not of
0254 the blood royal, if thou darest not stand for ten
0255 shillings.
PRINCE 0256 Well then, once in my days I’ll be a madcap.
FALSTAFF 0257 150Why, that’s well said.
FALSTAFF 0259 By the Lord, I’ll be a traitor then when thou
0260 art king.
PRINCE 0261 I care not.
POINS 0262 155Sir John, I prithee leave the Prince and me
0263 alone. I will lay him down such reasons for this
0264 adventure that he shall go.
FALSTAFF 0265 Well, God give thee the spirit of persuasion,
0266 and him the ears of profiting, that what thou
0267 160 speakest may move, and what he hears may be
0268 believed, that the true prince may, for recreation
0269 sake, prove a false thief, for the poor abuses of the
0270 time want countenance. Farewell. You shall find me
0271 in Eastcheap.
PRINCE 0272 165Farewell, ⌜thou⌝ latter spring. Farewell, Allhallown
0273 summer.⌜Falstaff exits.⌝
POINS 0274 Now, my good sweet honey lord, ride with us
0275 tomorrow. I have a jest to execute that I cannot
0276 manage alone. Falstaff, ⌜Peto, Bardolph,⌝ and Gadshill
0277 170 shall rob those men that we have already
0278 waylaid. Yourself and I will not be there. And when
0279 they have the booty, if you and I do not rob them,
0280 cut this head off from my shoulders.
PRINCE 0281 How shall we part with them in setting forth?
POINS 0282 175Why, we will set forth before or after them, and
0283 appoint them a place of meeting, wherein it is at our
0284 pleasure to fail; and then will they adventure upon
0285 the exploit themselves, which they shall have no
0286 sooner achieved but we’ll set upon them.
PRINCE 0287 180Yea, but ’tis like that they will know us by our
0288 horses, by our habits, and by every other appointment
0289 to be ourselves.
POINS 0290 Tut, our horses they shall not see; I’ll tie them
0291 in the wood. Our vizards we will change after we
0292 185 leave them. And, sirrah, I have cases of buckram
0293 for the nonce, to immask our noted outward
0294 garments.
POINS 0296 Well, for two of them, I know them to be as
0297 190 true-bred cowards as ever turned back; and for the
0298 third, if he fight longer than he sees reason, I’ll
0299 forswear arms. The virtue of this jest will be the
0300 incomprehensible lies that this same fat rogue will
0301 tell us when we meet at supper: how thirty at least
0302 195 he fought with, what wards, what blows, what
0303 extremities he endured; and in the reproof of this
0304 lives the jest.
PRINCE 0305 Well, I’ll go with thee. Provide us all things
0306 necessary and meet me tomorrow night in Eastcheap.
0307 200 There I’ll sup. Farewell.
POINS 0308 Farewell, my lord.Poins exits.
PRINCE
0309 I know you all, and will awhile uphold
0310 The unyoked humor of your idleness.
0311 Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
0312 205 Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
0313 To smother up his beauty from the world,
0314 That, when he please again to be himself,
0315 Being wanted, he may be more wondered at
0316 By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
0317 210 Of vapors that did seem to strangle him.
0318 If all the year were playing holidays,
0319 To sport would be as tedious as to work,
0320 But when they seldom come, they wished-for come,
0321 And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
0322 215 So when this loose behavior I throw off
0323 And pay the debt I never promisèd,
0324 By how much better than my word I am,
0325 By so much shall I falsify men’s hopes;
0326 And, like bright metal on a sullen ground,
0327 220 My reformation, glitt’ring o’er my fault,
0328 Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes
0329 Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
0331 Redeeming time when men think least I will.
He exits.
⌜and⌝ Sir Walter Blunt, with others.
KING, ⌜to Northumberland, Worcester, and Hotspur⌝
0332 My blood hath been too cold and temperate,
0333 Unapt to stir at these indignities,
0334 And you have found me, for accordingly
0335 You tread upon my patience. But be sure
0336 5 I will from henceforth rather be myself,
0337 Mighty and to be feared, than my condition,
0338 Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down,
0339 And therefore lost that title of respect
0340 Which the proud soul ne’er pays but to the proud.
WORCESTER
0341 10 Our house, my sovereign liege, little deserves
0342 The scourge of greatness to be used on it,
0343 And that same greatness too which our own hands
0344 Have holp to make so portly.
NORTHUMBERLAND 0345 My lord—
KING
0346 15 Worcester, get thee gone, for I do see
0347 Danger and disobedience in thine eye.
0348 O sir, your presence is too bold and peremptory,
0349 And majesty might never yet endure
0350 The moody frontier of a servant brow.
0351 20 You have good leave to leave us. When we need
0352 Your use and counsel, we shall send for you.
Worcester exits.
0353 You were about to speak.
NORTHUMBERLAND 0354 Yea, my good lord.
0356 25 Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took,
0357 Were, as he says, not with such strength denied
0358 As is delivered to your Majesty.
0359 Either envy, therefore, or misprision
0360 Is guilty of this fault, and not my son.
HOTSPUR
0361 30 My liege, I did deny no prisoners.
0362 But I remember, when the fight was done,
0363 When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,
0364 Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
0365 Came there a certain lord, neat and trimly dressed,
0366 35 Fresh as a bridegroom, and his chin new reaped
0367 Showed like a stubble land at harvest home.
0368 He was perfumèd like a milliner,
0369 And ’twixt his finger and his thumb he held
0370 A pouncet box, which ever and anon
0371 40 He gave his nose and took ’t away again,
0372 Who therewith angry, when it next came there,
0373 Took it in snuff; and still he smiled and talked.
0374 And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
0375 He called them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
0376 45 To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse
0377 Betwixt the wind and his nobility.
0378 With many holiday and lady terms
0379 He questioned me, amongst the rest demanded
0380 My prisoners in your Majesty’s behalf.
0381 50 I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold,
0382 To be so pestered with a popinjay,
0383 Out of my grief and my impatience
0384 Answered neglectingly I know not what—
0385 He should, or he should not; for he made me mad
0386 55 To see him shine so brisk and smell so sweet
0387 And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman
0388 Of guns, and drums, and wounds—God save the
0389 mark!—
0391 60 Was parmacety for an inward bruise,
0392 And that it was great pity, so it was,
0393 This villainous saltpeter should be digged
0394 Out of the bowels of the harmless Earth,
0395 Which many a good tall fellow had destroyed
0396 65 So cowardly, and but for these vile guns
0397 He would himself have been a soldier.
0398 This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord,
0399 I answered indirectly, as I said,
0400 And I beseech you, let not his report
0401 70 Come current for an accusation
0402 Betwixt my love and your high Majesty.
BLUNT
0403 The circumstance considered, good my lord,
0404 Whate’er Lord Harry Percy then had said
0405 To such a person and in such a place,
0406 75 At such a time, with all the rest retold,
0407 May reasonably die and never rise
0408 To do him wrong or any way impeach
0409 What then he said, so he unsay it now.
KING
0410 Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners,
0411 80 But with proviso and exception
0412 That we at our own charge shall ransom straight
0413 His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer,
0414 Who, on my soul, hath willfully betrayed
0415 The lives of those that he did lead to fight
0416 85 Against that great magician, damned Glendower,
0417 Whose daughter, as we hear, that Earl of March
0418 Hath lately married. Shall our coffers then
0419 Be emptied to redeem a traitor home?
0420 Shall we buy treason and indent with fears
0421 90 When they have lost and forfeited themselves?
0422 No, on the barren mountains let him starve,
0423 For I shall never hold that man my friend
0425 To ransom home revolted Mortimer.
HOTSPUR 0426 95Revolted Mortimer!
0427 He never did fall off, my sovereign liege,
0428 But by the chance of war. To prove that true
0429 Needs no more but one tongue for all those wounds,
0430 Those mouthèd wounds, which valiantly he took
0431 100 When on the gentle Severn’s sedgy bank
0432 In single opposition hand to hand
0433 He did confound the best part of an hour
0434 In changing hardiment with great Glendower.
0435 Three times they breathed, and three times did they
0436 105 drink,
0437 Upon agreement, of swift Severn’s flood,
0438 Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks,
0439 Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds
0440 And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank,
0441 110 Blood-stainèd with these valiant combatants.
0442 Never did bare and rotten policy
0443 Color her working with such deadly wounds,
0444 Nor never could the noble Mortimer
0445 Receive so many, and all willingly.
0446 115 Then let not him be slandered with revolt.
KING
0447 Thou dost belie him, Percy; thou dost belie him.
0448 He never did encounter with Glendower.
0449 I tell thee, he durst as well have met the devil alone
0450 As Owen Glendower for an enemy.
0451 120 Art thou not ashamed? But, sirrah, henceforth
0452 Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer.
0453 Send me your prisoners with the speediest means,
0454 Or you shall hear in such a kind from me
0455 As will displease you.—My lord Northumberland,
0456 125 We license your departure with your son.—
0457 Send us your prisoners, or you will hear of it.
King exits ⌜with Blunt and others.⌝
0458 An if the devil come and roar for them,
0459 I will not send them. I will after straight
0460 And tell him so, for I will ease my heart,
0461 130 Albeit I make a hazard of my head.
NORTHUMBERLAND
0462 What, drunk with choler? Stay and pause awhile.
0463 Here comes your uncle.
Enter Worcester.
HOTSPUR 0464 Speak of Mortimer?
0465 Zounds, I will speak of him, and let my soul
0466 135 Want mercy if I do not join with him.
0467 Yea, on his part I’ll empty all these veins
0468 And shed my dear blood drop by drop in the dust,
0469 But I will lift the downtrod Mortimer
0470 As high in the air as this unthankful king,
0471 140 As this ingrate and cankered Bolingbroke.
NORTHUMBERLAND
0472 Brother, the King hath made your nephew mad.
WORCESTER
0473 Who struck this heat up after I was gone?
HOTSPUR
0474 He will forsooth have all my prisoners,
0475 And when I urged the ransom once again
0476 145 Of my wife’s brother, then his cheek looked pale,
0477 And on my face he turned an eye of death,
0478 Trembling even at the name of Mortimer.
WORCESTER
0479 I cannot blame him. Was not he proclaimed
0480 By Richard, that dead is, the next of blood?
NORTHUMBERLAND
0481 150 He was; I heard the proclamation.
0482 And then it was when the unhappy king—
0483 Whose wrongs in us God pardon!—did set forth
0484 Upon his Irish expedition;
0486 155 To be deposed and shortly murderèd.
WORCESTER
0487 And for whose death we in the world’s wide mouth
0488 Live scandalized and foully spoken of.
HOTSPUR
0489 But soft, I pray you. Did King Richard then
0490 Proclaim my brother Edmund Mortimer
0491 160 Heir to the crown?
NORTHUMBERLAND 0492 He did; myself did hear it.
HOTSPUR
0493 Nay then, I cannot blame his cousin king
0494 That wished him on the barren mountains starve.
0495 But shall it be that you that set the crown
0496 165 Upon the head of this forgetful man
0497 And for his sake wear the detested blot
0498 Of murderous subornation—shall it be
0499 That you a world of curses undergo,
0500 Being the agents or base second means,
0501 170 The cords, the ladder, or the hangman rather?
0502 O, pardon me that I descend so low
0503 To show the line and the predicament
0504 Wherein you range under this subtle king.
0505 Shall it for shame be spoken in these days,
0506 175 Or fill up chronicles in time to come,
0507 That men of your nobility and power
0508 Did gage them both in an unjust behalf
0509 (As both of you, God pardon it, have done)
0510 To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose,
0511 180 And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke?
0512 And shall it in more shame be further spoken
0513 That you are fooled, discarded, and shook off
0514 By him for whom these shames you underwent?
0515 No, yet time serves wherein you may redeem
0516 185 Your banished honors and restore yourselves
0517 Into the good thoughts of the world again,
0519 Of this proud king, who studies day and night
0520 To answer all the debt he owes to you
0521 190 Even with the bloody payment of your deaths.
0522 Therefore I say—
WORCESTER 0523 Peace, cousin, say no more.
0524 And now I will unclasp a secret book,
0525 And to your quick-conceiving discontents
0526 195 I’ll read you matter deep and dangerous,
0527 As full of peril and adventurous spirit
0528 As to o’erwalk a current roaring loud
0529 On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.
HOTSPUR
0530 If he fall in, good night, or sink or swim!
0531 200 Send danger from the east unto the west,
0532 So honor cross it from the north to south,
0533 And let them grapple. O, the blood more stirs
0534 To rouse a lion than to start a hare!
NORTHUMBERLAND, ⌜to Worcester⌝
0535 Imagination of some great exploit
0536 205 Drives him beyond the bounds of patience.
⌜HOTSPUR⌝
0537 By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap
0538 To pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon,
0539 Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
0540 Where fathom line could never touch the ground,
0541 210 And pluck up drownèd honor by the locks,
0542 So he that doth redeem her thence might wear
0543 Without corrival all her dignities.
0544 But out upon this half-faced fellowship!
WORCESTER
0545 He apprehends a world of figures here,
0546 215 But not the form of what he should attend.—
0547 Good cousin, give me audience for a while.
HOTSPUR
0548 I cry you mercy.
0550 That are your prisoners—
HOTSPUR 0551 220 I’ll keep them all.
0552 By God, he shall not have a Scot of them.
0553 No, if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not.
0554 I’ll keep them, by this hand!
WORCESTER 0555 You start away
0556 225 And lend no ear unto my purposes:
0557 Those prisoners you shall keep—
HOTSPUR 0558 Nay, I will. That’s flat!
0559 He said he would not ransom Mortimer,
0560 Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer.
0561 230 But I will find him when he lies asleep,
0562 And in his ear I’ll hollo “Mortimer.”
0563 Nay, I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak
0564 Nothing but “Mortimer,” and give it him
0565 To keep his anger still in motion.
WORCESTER 0566 235Hear you, cousin, a word.
HOTSPUR
0567 All studies here I solemnly defy,
0568 Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke.
0569 And that same sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales—
0570 But that I think his father loves him not
0571 240 And would be glad he met with some mischance—
0572 I would have him poisoned with a pot of ale.
WORCESTER
0573 Farewell, kinsman. I’ll talk to you
0574 When you are better tempered to attend.
NORTHUMBERLAND, ⌜to Hotspur⌝
0575 Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool
0576 245 Art thou to break into this woman’s mood,
0577 Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own!
HOTSPUR
0578 Why, look you, I am ⌜whipped⌝ and scourged with
0579 rods,
0580 Nettled and stung with pismires, when I hear
0582 In Richard’s time—what do you call the place?
0583 A plague upon it! It is in Gloucestershire.
0584 ’Twas where the madcap duke his uncle kept,
0585 His uncle York, where I first bowed my knee
0586 255 Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke.
0587 ’Sblood, when you and he came back from
0588 Ravenspurgh.
NORTHUMBERLAND 0589 At Berkeley Castle.
HOTSPUR 0590 You say true.
0591 260 Why, what a candy deal of courtesy
0592 This fawning greyhound then did proffer me:
0593 “Look when his infant fortune came to age,”
0594 And “gentle Harry Percy,” and “kind cousin.”
0595 O, the devil take such cozeners!—God forgive me!
0596 265 Good uncle, tell your tale. I have done.
WORCESTER
0597 Nay, if you have not, to it again.
0598 We will stay your leisure.
HOTSPUR 0599 I have done, i’ faith.
WORCESTER
0600 Then once more to your Scottish prisoners:
0601 270 Deliver them up without their ransom straight,
0602 And make the Douglas’ son your only mean
0603 For powers in Scotland, which, for divers reasons
0604 Which I shall send you written, be assured
0605 Will easily be granted.—You, my lord,
0606 275 Your son in Scotland being thus employed,
0607 Shall secretly into the bosom creep
0608 Of that same noble prelate well beloved,
0609 The Archbishop.
HOTSPUR 0610 Of York, is it not?
WORCESTER 0611 280True, who bears hard
0612 His brother’s death at Bristol, the Lord Scroop.
0613 I speak not this in estimation,
0615 Is ruminated, plotted, and set down,
0616 285 And only stays but to behold the face
0617 Of that occasion that shall bring it on.
HOTSPUR
0618 I smell it. Upon my life it will do well.
NORTHUMBERLAND
0619 Before the game is afoot thou still let’st slip.
HOTSPUR
0620 Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot.
0621 290 And then the power of Scotland and of York
0622 To join with Mortimer, ha?
WORCESTER 0623 And so they shall.
HOTSPUR
0624 In faith, it is exceedingly well aimed.
WORCESTER
0625 And ’tis no little reason bids us speed
0626 295 To save our heads by raising of a head,
0627 For bear ourselves as even as we can,
0628 The King will always think him in our debt,
0629 And think we think ourselves unsatisfied,
0630 Till he hath found a time to pay us home.
0631 300 And see already how he doth begin
0632 To make us strangers to his looks of love.
HOTSPUR
0633 He does, he does. We’ll be revenged on him.
WORCESTER
0634 Cousin, farewell. No further go in this
0635 Than I by letters shall direct your course.
0636 305 When time is ripe, which will be suddenly,
0637 I’ll steal to Glendower and Lord Mortimer,
0638 Where you and Douglas and our powers at once,
0639 As I will fashion it, shall happily meet
0640 To bear ⌜our⌝ fortunes in our own strong arms,
0641 310 Which now we hold at much uncertainty.
0642 Farewell, good brother. We shall thrive, I trust.
HOTSPUR
0643 Uncle, adieu. O, let the hours be short
0644 Till fields and blows and groans applaud our sport.
They exit.
FIRST CARRIER 0645 Heigh-ho! An it be not four by the day,
0646 I’ll be hanged. Charles’s Wain is over the new
0647 chimney, and yet our horse not packed.—What,
0648 ostler!
OSTLER, ⌜within⌝ 0649 5Anon, anon.
FIRST CARRIER 0650 I prithee, Tom, beat Cut’s saddle. Put a
0651 few flocks in the point. Poor jade is wrung in the
0652 withers out of all cess.
Enter another Carrier, ⌜with a lantern.⌝
SECOND CARRIER 0653 Peas and beans are as dank here as a
0654 10 dog, and that is the next way to give poor jades the
0655 bots. This house is turned upside down since Robin
0656 ostler died.
FIRST CARRIER 0657 Poor fellow never joyed since the price
0658 of oats rose. It was the death of him.
SECOND CARRIER 0659 15I think this be the most villainous
0660 house in all London road for fleas. I am stung like a
0661 tench.
FIRST CARRIER 0662 Like a tench? By the Mass, there is
0663 ne’er a king christen could be better bit than I have
0664 20 been since the first cock.
SECOND CARRIER 0665 Why, they will allow us ne’er a jordan,
0667 chamber-lye breeds fleas like a loach.
FIRST CARRIER 0668 What, ostler, come away and be
0669 25 hanged. Come away.
SECOND CARRIER 0670 I have a gammon of bacon and two
0671 races of ginger to be delivered as far as Charing
0672 Cross.
FIRST CARRIER 0673 God’s body, the turkeys in my pannier
0674 30 are quite starved.—What, ostler! A plague on thee!
0675 Hast thou never an eye in thy head? Canst not hear?
0676 An ’twere not as good deed as drink to break the
0677 pate on thee, I am a very villain. Come, and be
0678 hanged. Hast no faith in thee?
Enter Gadshill.
GADSHILL 0679 35Good morrow, carriers. What’s o’clock?
⌜FIRST⌝ CARRIER 0680 I think it be two o’clock.
GADSHILL 0681 I prithee, lend me thy lantern to see my
0682 gelding in the stable.
FIRST CARRIER 0683 Nay, by God, soft. I know a trick worth
0684 40 two of that, i’ faith.
GADSHILL, ⌜to Second Carrier⌝ 0685 I pray thee, lend me
0686 thine.
SECOND CARRIER 0687 Ay, when, canst tell? “Lend me thy
0688 lantern,” quoth he. Marry, I’ll see thee hanged
0689 45 first.
GADSHILL 0690 Sirrah carrier, what time do you mean to
0691 come to London?
SECOND CARRIER 0692 Time enough to go to bed with a
0693 candle, I warrant thee. Come, neighbor Mugs,
0694 50 we’ll call up the gentlemen. They will along with
0695 company, for they have great charge.
⌜Carriers⌝ exit.
GADSHILL 0696 What ho, chamberlain!
Enter Chamberlain.
GADSHILL 0698 That’s even as fair as “at hand, quoth the
0699 55 Chamberlain,” for thou variest no more from
0700 picking of purses than giving direction doth from
0701 laboring: thou layest the plot how.
CHAMBERLAIN 0702 Good morrow, Master Gadshill. It holds
0703 current that I told you yesternight: there’s a franklin
0704 60 in the Wild of Kent hath brought three hundred
0705 marks with him in gold. I heard him tell it to one of
0706 his company last night at supper—a kind of auditor,
0707 one that hath abundance of charge too, God knows
0708 what. They are up already and call for eggs and
0709 65 butter. They will away presently.
GADSHILL 0710 Sirrah, if they meet not with Saint Nicholas’
0711 clerks, I’ll give thee this neck.
CHAMBERLAIN 0712 No, I’ll none of it. I pray thee, keep that
0713 for the hangman, for I know thou worshipest Saint
0714 70 Nicholas as truly as a man of falsehood may.
GADSHILL 0715 What talkest thou to me of the hangman? If
0716 I hang, I’ll make a fat pair of gallows, for if I hang,
0717 old Sir John hangs with me, and thou knowest he is
0718 no starveling. Tut, there are other Troyans that
0719 75 thou dream’st not of, the which for sport sake are
0720 content to do the profession some grace, that
0721 would, if matters should be looked into, for their
0722 own credit sake make all whole. I am joined with no
0723 foot-land-rakers, no long-staff sixpenny strikers,
0724 80 none of these mad mustachio purple-hued malt-worms,
0725 but with nobility and tranquillity, burgomasters
0726 and great oneyers, such as can hold in, such
0727 as will strike sooner than speak, and speak sooner
0728 than drink, and drink sooner than pray, and yet,
0729 85 zounds, I lie, for they pray continually to their saint
0730 the commonwealth, or rather not pray to her but
0731 prey on her, for they ride up and down on her and
0732 make her their boots.
0734 90 Will she hold out water in foul way?
GADSHILL 0735 She will, she will. Justice hath liquored her.
0736 We steal as in a castle, cocksure. We have the
0737 receipt of fern seed; we walk invisible.
CHAMBERLAIN 0738 Nay, by my faith, I think you are more
0739 95 beholding to the night than to fern seed for your
0740 walking invisible.
GADSHILL 0741 Give me thy hand. Thou shalt have a share in
0742 our purchase, as I am a true man.
CHAMBERLAIN 0743 Nay, rather let me have it as you are a
0744 100 false thief.
GADSHILL 0745 Go to. Homo is a common name to all men.
0746 Bid the ostler bring my gelding out of the stable.
0747 Farewell, you muddy knave.
⌜They exit.⌝
POINS 0748 Come, shelter, shelter! I have removed Falstaff’s
0749 horse, and he frets like a gummed velvet.
PRINCE 0750 Stand close.⌜Poins, Bardolph, and Peto exit.⌝
Enter Falstaff.
FALSTAFF 0751 Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Poins!
PRINCE 0752 5Peace, you fat-kidneyed rascal. What a brawling
0753 dost thou keep!
FALSTAFF 0754 Where’s Poins, Hal?
PRINCE 0755 He is walked up to the top of the hill. I’ll go
0756 seek him.⌜Prince exits.⌝
FALSTAFF 0757 10I am accursed to rob in that thief’s company.
0758 The rascal hath removed my horse and tied him I
0759 know not where. If I travel but four foot by the
0760 square further afoot, I shall break my wind. Well, I
0762 15 ’scape hanging for killing that rogue. I have forsworn
0763 his company hourly any time this two-and-twenty
0764 years, and yet I am bewitched with the
0765 rogue’s company. If the rascal have not given me
0766 medicines to make me love him, I’ll be hanged. It
0767 20 could not be else: I have drunk medicines.—Poins!
0768 Hal! A plague upon you both.—Bardolph! Peto!—
0769 I’ll starve ere I’ll rob a foot further. An ’twere not as
0770 good a deed as drink to turn true man and to leave
0771 these rogues, I am the veriest varlet that ever
0772 25 chewed with a tooth. Eight yards of uneven ground
0773 is threescore and ten miles afoot with me, and the
0774 stony-hearted villains know it well enough. A plague
0775 upon it when thieves cannot be true one to another!
0776 (They whistle, ⌜within.⌝) Whew! A plague upon you
0777 30 all!
⌜Enter the Prince, Poins, Peto, and Bardolph.⌝
0778 Give me my horse, you rogues. Give me my horse
0779 and be hanged!
PRINCE 0780 Peace, you fat guts! Lie down, lay thine ear
0781 close to the ground, and list if thou canst hear the
0782 35 tread of travelers.
FALSTAFF 0783 Have you any levers to lift me up again being
0784 down? ’Sblood, I’ll not bear my own flesh so
0785 far afoot again for all the coin in thy father’s Exchequer.
0786 What a plague mean you to colt me
0787 40 thus?
PRINCE 0788 Thou liest. Thou art not colted; thou art
0789 uncolted.
FALSTAFF 0790 I prithee, good Prince Hal, help me to my
0791 horse, good king’s son.
PRINCE 0792 45Out, you rogue! Shall I be your ostler?
FALSTAFF 0793 Hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent
0794 garters! If I be ta’en, I’ll peach for this. An I have
0796 tunes, let a cup of sack be my poison—when a jest
0797 50 is so forward, and afoot too! I hate it.
Enter Gadshill.
GADSHILL 0798 Stand.
FALSTAFF 0799 So I do, against my will.
POINS 0800 O, ’tis our setter. I know his voice.
⌜BARDOLPH⌝ 0801 What news?
⌜GADSHILL⌝ 0802 55Case you, case you. On with your vizards.
0803 There’s money of the King’s coming down the hill.
0804 ’Tis going to the King’s Exchequer.
FALSTAFF 0805 You lie, you rogue. ’Tis going to the King’s
0806 Tavern.
GADSHILL 0807 60There’s enough to make us all.
FALSTAFF 0808 To be hanged.
PRINCE 0809 Sirs, you four shall front them in the narrow
0810 lane. Ned Poins and I will walk lower. If they ’scape
0811 from your encounter, then they light on us.
PETO 0812 65How many be there of them?
GADSHILL 0813 Some eight or ten.
FALSTAFF 0814 Zounds, will they not rob us?
PRINCE 0815 What, a coward, Sir John Paunch?
FALSTAFF 0816 Indeed, I am not John of Gaunt, your grandfather,
0817 70 but yet no coward, Hal.
PRINCE 0818 Well, we leave that to the proof.
POINS 0819 Sirrah Jack, thy horse stands behind the hedge.
0820 When thou need’st him, there thou shalt find him.
0821 Farewell and stand fast.
FALSTAFF 0822 75Now cannot I strike him, if I should be
0823 hanged.
PRINCE, ⌜aside to Poins⌝ 0824 Ned, where are our disguises?
POINS, ⌜aside to Prince⌝ 0825 Here, hard by. Stand close.
⌜The Prince and Poins exit.⌝
FALSTAFF 0826 Now, my masters, happy man be his dole,
0827 80 say I. Every man to his business.
⌜They step aside.⌝
⌜FIRST⌝ TRAVELER 0828 Come, neighbor, the boy shall lead
0829 our horses down the hill. We’ll walk afoot awhile
0830 and ease our legs.
THIEVES, ⌜advancing⌝ 0831 Stand!
TRAVELERS 0832 85Jesus bless us!
FALSTAFF 0833 Strike! Down with them! Cut the villains’
0834 throats! Ah, whoreson caterpillars, bacon-fed
0835 knaves, they hate us youth. Down with them!
0836 Fleece them!
TRAVELERS 0837 90O, we are undone, both we and ours
0838 forever!
FALSTAFF 0839 Hang, you gorbellied knaves! Are you undone?
0840 No, you fat chuffs. I would your store were
0841 here. On, bacons, on! What, you knaves, young men
0842 95 must live. You are grandjurors, are you? We’ll jure
0843 you, faith.
Here they rob them and bind them. They ⌜all⌝ exit.
Enter the Prince and Poins, ⌜disguised.⌝
PRINCE 0844 The thieves have bound the true men. Now
0845 could thou and I rob the thieves and go merrily to
0846 London, it would be argument for a week, laughter
0847 100 for a month, and a good jest forever.
POINS 0848 Stand close, I hear them coming.
⌜They step aside.⌝
Enter the Thieves again.
FALSTAFF 0849 Come, my masters, let us share, and then to
0850 horse before day. An the Prince and Poins be not
0851 two arrant cowards, there’s no equity stirring.
0852 105 There’s no more valor in that Poins than in a wild
0853 duck.
As they are sharing, the Prince
and Poins set upon them.
POINS 0855 Villains!
They all run away, and Falstaff, after a blow or two,
runs away too, leaving the booty behind them.
PRINCE
0856 Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse.
0857 110 The thieves are all scattered, and possessed with
0858 fear
0859 So strongly that they dare not meet each other.
0860 Each takes his fellow for an officer.
0861 Away, good Ned. Falstaff sweats to death,
0862 115 And lards the lean earth as he walks along.
0863 Were ’t not for laughing, I should pity him.
POINS 0864 How the fat rogue roared!
They exit.
⌜HOTSPUR⌝ 0865 But, for mine own part, my lord, I could be
0866 well contented to be there, in respect of the love I
0867 bear your house. He could be contented; why is he
0868 not, then? In respect of the love he bears our
0869 5 house—he shows in this he loves his own barn
0870 better than he loves our house. Let me see some
0871 more. The purpose you undertake is dangerous.
0872 Why, that’s certain. ’Tis dangerous to take a cold,
0873 to sleep, to drink; but I tell you, my Lord Fool, out
0874 10 of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
0875 The purpose you undertake is dangerous, the friends
0876 you have named uncertain, the time itself unsorted,
0877 and your whole plot too light for the counterpoise
0878 of so great an opposition. Say you so, say you so?
0879 15 I say unto you again, you are a shallow, cowardly
0880 hind, and you lie. What a lack-brain is this! By
0882 our friends true and constant—a good plot,
0883 good friends, and full of expectation; an excellent
0884 20 plot, very good friends. What a frosty-spirited
0885 rogue is this! Why, my Lord of York commends
0886 the plot and the general course of the action.
0887 Zounds, an I were now by this rascal, I could brain
0888 him with his lady’s fan. Is there not my father, my
0889 25 uncle, and myself, Lord Edmund Mortimer, my
0890 Lord of York, and Owen Glendower? Is there not
0891 besides the Douglas? Have I not all their letters to
0892 meet me in arms by the ninth of the next month,
0893 and are they not some of them set forward already?
0894 30 What a pagan rascal is this—an infidel! Ha, you
0895 shall see now, in very sincerity of fear and cold
0896 heart, will he to the King and lay open all our
0897 proceedings. O, I could divide myself and go to
0898 buffets for moving such a dish of skim milk with so
0899 35 honorable an action! Hang him, let him tell the
0900 King. We are prepared. I will set forward tonight.
Enter his Lady.
0901 How now, Kate? I must leave you within these two
0902 hours.
LADY PERCY
0903 O my good lord, why are you thus alone?
0904 40 For what offense have I this fortnight been
0905 A banished woman from my Harry’s bed?
0906 Tell me, sweet lord, what is ’t that takes from thee
0907 Thy stomach, pleasure, and thy golden sleep?
0908 Why dost thou bend thine eyes upon the earth
0909 45 And start so often when thou sit’st alone?
0910 Why hast thou lost the fresh blood in thy cheeks
0911 And given my treasures and my rights of thee
0912 To thick-eyed musing and curst melancholy?
0913 In thy faint slumbers I by thee have watched,
0915 Speak terms of manage to thy bounding steed,
0916 Cry “Courage! To the field!” And thou hast talked
0917 Of sallies and retires, of trenches, tents,
0918 Of palisadoes, frontiers, parapets,
0919 55 Of basilisks, of cannon, culverin,
0920 Of prisoners’ ransom, and of soldiers slain,
0921 And all the currents of a heady fight.
0922 Thy spirit within thee hath been so at war,
0923 And thus hath so bestirred thee in thy sleep,
0924 60 That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow
0925 Like bubbles in a late-disturbèd stream,
0926 And in thy face strange motions have appeared,
0927 Such as we see when men restrain their breath
0928 On some great sudden hest. O, what portents are
0929 65 these?
0930 Some heavy business hath my lord in hand,
0931 And I must know it, else he loves me not.
HOTSPUR
0932 What, ho!
⌜Enter a Servant.⌝
0933 Is Gilliams with the packet gone?
SERVANT 0934 70He is, my lord, an hour ago.
HOTSPUR
0935 Hath Butler brought those horses from the sheriff?
SERVANT
0936 One horse, my lord, he brought even now.
HOTSPUR
0937 What horse? ⌜A⌝ roan, a crop-ear, is it not?
SERVANT
0938 It is, my lord.
HOTSPUR 0939 75 That roan shall be my throne.
0940 Well, I will back him straight. O, Esperance!
0941 Bid Butler lead him forth into the park.
⌜Servant exits.⌝
HOTSPUR 0943 What say’st thou, my lady?
LADY PERCY 0944 80What is it carries you away?
HOTSPUR 0945 Why, my horse, my love, my horse.
LADY PERCY 0946 Out, you mad-headed ape!
0947 A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen
0948 As you are tossed with. In faith,
0949 85 I’ll know your business, Harry, that I will.
0950 I fear my brother Mortimer doth stir
0951 About his title, and hath sent for you
0952 To line his enterprise; but if you go—
HOTSPUR
0953 So far afoot, I shall be weary, love.
LADY PERCY
0954 90 Come, come, you paraquito, answer me
0955 Directly unto this question that I ask.
0956 In faith, I’ll break thy little finger, Harry,
0957 An if thou wilt not tell me all things true.
HOTSPUR 0958 Away!
0959 95 Away, you trifler. Love, I love thee not.
0960 I care not for thee, Kate. This is no world
0961 To play with mammets and to tilt with lips.
0962 We must have bloody noses and cracked crowns,
0963 And pass them current too.—Gods me, my horse!—
0964 100 What say’st thou, Kate? What wouldst thou have
0965 with me?
LADY PERCY
0966 Do you not love me? Do you not indeed?
0967 Well, do not then, for since you love me not,
0968 I will not love myself. Do you not love me?
0969 105 Nay, tell me if you speak in jest or no.
HOTSPUR 0970 Come, wilt thou see me ride?
0971 And when I am a-horseback I will swear
0972 I love thee infinitely. But hark you, Kate,
0973 I must not have you henceforth question me
0974 110 Whither I go, nor reason whereabout.
0976 This evening must I leave you, gentle Kate.
0977 I know you wise, but yet no farther wise
0978 Than Harry Percy’s wife; constant you are,
0979 115 But yet a woman; and for secrecy
0980 No lady closer, for I well believe
0981 Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know,
0982 And so far will I trust thee, gentle Kate.
LADY PERCY 0983 How? So far?
HOTSPUR
0984 120 Not an inch further. But hark you, Kate,
0985 Whither I go, thither shall you go too.
0986 Today will I set forth, tomorrow you.
0987 Will this content you, Kate?
LADY PERCY 0988 It must, of force.
They exit.
PRINCE 0989 Ned, prithee, come out of that fat room and
0990 lend me thy hand to laugh a little.
POINS 0991 Where hast been, Hal?
PRINCE 0992 With three or four loggerheads amongst three
0993 5 or fourscore hogsheads. I have sounded the very
0994 bass string of humility. Sirrah, I am sworn brother
0995 to a leash of drawers, and can call them all by their
0996 Christian names, as Tom, Dick, and Francis. They
0997 take it already upon their salvation that though I be
0998 10 but Prince of Wales, yet I am the king of courtesy,
0999 and tell me flatly I am no proud jack, like Falstaff,
1000 but a Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a good boy—by
1001 the Lord, so they call me—and when I am king of
1002 England, I shall command all the good lads in
1003 15 Eastcheap. They call drinking deep “dyeing scarlet,”
1005 cry “Hem!” and bid you “Play it off!” To conclude, I
1006 am so good a proficient in one quarter of an hour
1007 that I can drink with any tinker in his own language
1008 20 during my life. I tell thee, Ned, thou hast lost much
1009 honor that thou wert not with me in this action; but,
1010 sweet Ned—to sweeten which name of Ned, I give
1011 thee this pennyworth of sugar, clapped even now
1012 into my hand by an underskinker, one that never
1013 25 spake other English in his life than “Eight shillings
1014 and sixpence,” and “You are welcome,” with this
1015 shrill addition, “Anon, anon, sir.—Score a pint of
1016 bastard in the Half-moon,” or so. But, Ned, to
1017 drive away the time till Falstaff come, I prithee, do
1018 30 thou stand in some by-room while I question my
1019 puny drawer to what end he gave me the sugar, and
1020 do thou never leave calling “Francis,” that his tale
1021 to me may be nothing but “Anon.” Step aside, and
1022 I’ll show thee a ⌜precedent.⌝⌜Poins exits.⌝
POINS, ⌜within⌝ 1023 35Francis!
PRINCE 1024 Thou art perfect.
⌜POINS, within⌝ 1025 Francis!
Enter ⌜Francis, the⌝ Drawer.
FRANCIS 1026 Anon, anon, sir.—Look down into the Pomgarnet,
1027 Ralph.
PRINCE 1028 40Come hither, Francis.
FRANCIS 1029 My lord?
PRINCE 1030 How long hast thou to serve, Francis?
FRANCIS 1031 Forsooth, five years, and as much as to—
POINS, ⌜within⌝ 1032 Francis!
FRANCIS 1033 45Anon, anon, sir.
PRINCE 1034 Five year! By ’r Lady, a long lease for the
1035 clinking of pewter! But, Francis, darest thou be
1036 so valiant as to play the coward with thy indenture,
1037 and show it a fair pair of heels, and run
1038 50 from it?
1040 in England, I could find in my heart—
POINS, ⌜within⌝ 1041 Francis!
FRANCIS 1042 Anon, sir.
PRINCE 1043 55How old art thou, Francis?
FRANCIS 1044 Let me see. About Michaelmas next, I shall
1045 be—
POINS, ⌜within⌝ 1046 Francis!
FRANCIS 1047 Anon, sir.—Pray, stay a little, my lord.
PRINCE 1048 60Nay, but hark you, Francis, for the sugar thou
1049 gavest me—’twas a pennyworth, was ’t not?
FRANCIS 1050 O Lord, I would it had been two!
PRINCE 1051 I will give thee for it a thousand pound. Ask
1052 me when thou wilt, and thou shalt have it.
POINS, ⌜within⌝ 1053 65Francis!
FRANCIS 1054 Anon, anon.
PRINCE 1055 Anon, Francis? No, Francis. But tomorrow,
1056 Francis; or, Francis, o’ Thursday; or indeed, Francis,
1057 when thou wilt. But, Francis—
FRANCIS 1058 70My lord?
PRINCE 1059 Wilt thou rob this leathern-jerkin, crystal-button,
1060 not-pated, agate-ring, puke-stocking, caddis-garter,
1061 smooth-tongue, Spanish-pouch—
FRANCIS 1062 O Lord, sir, who do you mean?
PRINCE 1063 75Why then, your brown bastard is your only
1064 drink, for look you, Francis, your white canvas
1065 doublet will sully. In Barbary, sir, it cannot come to
1066 so much.
FRANCIS 1067 What, sir?
POINS, ⌜within⌝ 1068 80Francis!
PRINCE 1069 Away, you rogue! Dost thou not hear them
1070 call?
Here they both call him. The Drawer stands amazed,
not knowing which way to go.
Enter Vintner.
1072 calling? Look to the guests within. ⌜Francis exits.⌝
1073 85 My lord, old Sir John with half a dozen more are at
1074 the door. Shall I let them in?
PRINCE 1075 Let them alone awhile, and then open the
1076 door. ⌜Vintner exits.⌝ Poins!
Enter Poins.
POINS 1077 Anon, anon, sir.
PRINCE 1078 90Sirrah, Falstaff and the rest of the thieves are
1079 at the door. Shall we be merry?
POINS 1080 As merry as crickets, my lad. But hark you,
1081 what cunning match have you made with this jest
1082 of the drawer. Come, what’s the issue?
PRINCE 1083 95I am now of all humors that have showed
1084 themselves humors since the old days of Goodman
1085 Adam to the pupil age of this present twelve
1086 o’clock at midnight.
⌜Enter Francis, in haste.⌝
1087 What’s o’clock, Francis?
FRANCIS 1088 100Anon, anon, sir.⌜Francis exits.⌝
PRINCE 1089 That ever this fellow should have fewer words
1090 than a parrot, and yet the son of a woman! His
1091 industry is upstairs and downstairs, his eloquence
1092 the parcel of a reckoning. I am not yet of Percy’s
1093 105 mind, the Hotspur of the north, he that kills me
1094 some six or seven dozen of Scots at a breakfast,
1095 washes his hands, and says to his wife “Fie upon
1096 this quiet life! I want work.” “O my sweet Harry,”
1097 says she, “how many hast thou killed today?”
1098 110 “Give my roan horse a drench,” says he, and answers
1099 “Some fourteen,” an hour after. “A trifle, a
1100 trifle.” I prithee, call in Falstaff. I’ll play Percy,
1101 and that damned brawn shall play Dame Mortimer
1102 his wife. “Rivo!” says the drunkard. Call in
1103 115 Ribs, call in Tallow.
and Francis, with wine.⌝
POINS 1104 Welcome, Jack. Where hast thou been?
FALSTAFF 1105 A plague of all cowards, I say, and a vengeance
1106 too! Marry and amen!—Give me a cup of
1107 sack, boy.—Ere I lead this life long, I’ll sew netherstocks
1108 120 and mend them, and foot them too. A plague
1109 of all cowards!—Give me a cup of sack, rogue!—Is
1110 there no virtue extant?He drinketh.
PRINCE 1111 Didst thou never see Titan kiss a dish of
1112 butter—pitiful-hearted Titan!—that melted at the
1113 125 sweet tale of the sun’s? If thou didst, then behold
1114 that compound.
FALSTAFF, ⌜to Francis⌝ 1115 You rogue, here’s lime in this
1116 sack too.—There is nothing but roguery to be
1117 found in villainous man, yet a coward is worse than
1118 130 a cup of sack with lime in it. A villainous coward! Go
1119 thy ways, old Jack. Die when thou wilt. If manhood,
1120 good manhood, be not forgot upon the face of the
1121 Earth, then am I a shotten herring. There lives not
1122 three good men unhanged in England, and one of
1123 135 them is fat and grows old, God help the while. A bad
1124 world, I say. I would I were a weaver. I could sing
1125 psalms, or anything. A plague of all cowards, I say
1126 still.
PRINCE 1127 How now, woolsack, what mutter you?
FALSTAFF 1128 140A king’s son! If I do not beat thee out of thy
1129 kingdom with a dagger of lath, and drive all thy
1130 subjects afore thee like a flock of wild geese, I’ll
1131 never wear hair on my face more. You, Prince of
1132 Wales!
PRINCE 1133 145Why, you whoreson round man, what’s the
1134 matter?
FALSTAFF 1135 Are not you a coward? Answer me to that—
1136 and Poins there?
1138 150 by the Lord, I’ll stab thee.
FALSTAFF 1139 I call thee coward? I’ll see thee damned ere
1140 I call thee coward, but I would give a thousand
1141 pound I could run as fast as thou canst. You are
1142 straight enough in the shoulders you care not who
1143 155 sees your back. Call you that backing of your
1144 friends? A plague upon such backing! Give me them
1145 that will face me.—Give me a cup of sack.—I am a
1146 rogue if I drunk today.
PRINCE 1147 O villain, thy lips are scarce wiped since thou
1148 160 drunk’st last.
FALSTAFF 1149 All is one for that. (He drinketh.) A plague of
1150 all cowards, still say I.
PRINCE 1151 What’s the matter?
FALSTAFF 1152 What’s the matter? There be four of us here
1153 165 have ta’en a thousand pound this day morning.
PRINCE 1154 Where is it, Jack, where is it?
FALSTAFF 1155 Where is it? Taken from us it is. A hundred
1156 upon poor four of us.
PRINCE 1157 What, a hundred, man?
FALSTAFF 1158 170I am a rogue if I were not at half-sword
1159 with a dozen of them two hours together. I have
1160 ’scaped by miracle. I am eight times thrust through
1161 the doublet, four through the hose, my buckler
1162 cut through and through, my sword hacked like
1163 175 a handsaw. Ecce signum! I never dealt better since
1164 I was a man. All would not do. A plague of
1165 all cowards! Let them speak. ⌜Pointing to Gadshill,
Bardolph, and Peto.⌝ 1166 If they speak more or
1167 less than truth, they are villains, and the sons of
1168 180 darkness.
⌜PRINCE⌝ 1169 Speak, sirs, how was it?
⌜BARDOLPH⌝ 1170 We four set upon some dozen.
FALSTAFF 1171 Sixteen at least, my lord.
⌜BARDOLPH⌝ 1172 And bound them.
FALSTAFF 1174 You rogue, they were bound, every man of
1175 them, or I am a Jew else, an Ebrew Jew.
⌜BARDOLPH⌝ 1176 As we were sharing, some six or seven
1177 fresh men set upon us.
FALSTAFF 1178 190And unbound the rest, and then come in the
1179 other.
PRINCE 1180 What, fought you with them all?
FALSTAFF 1181 All? I know not what you call all, but if I
1182 fought not with fifty of them I am a bunch of
1183 195 radish. If there were not two- or three-and-fifty
1184 upon poor old Jack, then am I no two-legged
1185 creature.
PRINCE 1186 Pray God you have not murdered some of
1187 them.
FALSTAFF 1188 200Nay, that’s past praying for. I have peppered
1189 two of them. Two I am sure I have paid, two rogues
1190 in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal, if I tell thee a
1191 lie, spit in my face, call me horse. Thou knowest my
1192 old ward. Here I lay, and thus I bore my point. Four
1193 205 rogues in buckram let drive at me.
PRINCE 1194 What, four? Thou said’st but two even now.
FALSTAFF 1195 Four, Hal, I told thee four.
POINS 1196 Ay, ay, he said four.
FALSTAFF 1197 These four came all afront, and mainly
1198 210 thrust at me. I made me no more ado, but took all
1199 their seven points in my target, thus.
PRINCE 1200 Seven? Why there were but four even now.
FALSTAFF 1201 In buckram?
POINS 1202 Ay, four in buckram suits.
FALSTAFF 1203 215Seven by these hilts, or I am a villain else.
PRINCE, ⌜to Poins⌝ 1204 Prithee, let him alone. We shall have
1205 more anon.
FALSTAFF 1206 Dost thou hear me, Hal?
PRINCE 1207 Ay, and mark thee too, Jack.
1209 nine in buckram that I told thee of—
PRINCE 1210 So, two more already.
FALSTAFF 1211 Their points being broken—
POINS 1212 Down fell their hose.
FALSTAFF 1213 225Began to give me ground, but I followed me
1214 close, came in foot and hand, and, with a thought,
1215 seven of the eleven I paid.
PRINCE 1216 O monstrous! Eleven buckram men grown out
1217 of two!
FALSTAFF 1218 230But as the devil would have it, three misbegotten
1219 knaves in Kendal green came at my back,
1220 and let drive at me, for it was so dark, Hal, that thou
1221 couldst not see thy hand.
PRINCE 1222 These lies are like their father that begets
1223 235 them, gross as a mountain, open, palpable. Why,
1224 thou claybrained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou
1225 whoreson, obscene, greasy tallow-catch—
FALSTAFF 1226 What, art thou mad? Art thou mad? Is not
1227 the truth the truth?
PRINCE 1228 240Why, how couldst thou know these men in
1229 Kendal green when it was so dark thou couldst not
1230 see thy hand? Come, tell us your reason. What sayest
1231 thou to this?
POINS 1232 Come, your reason, Jack, your reason.
FALSTAFF 1233 245What, upon compulsion? Zounds, an I were
1234 at the strappado or all the racks in the world, I
1235 would not tell you on compulsion. Give you a
1236 reason on compulsion? If reasons were as plentiful
1237 as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon
1238 250 compulsion, I.
PRINCE 1239 I’ll be no longer guilty of this sin. This sanguine
1240 coward, this bed-presser, this horse-backbreaker,
1241 this huge hill of flesh—
FALSTAFF 1242 ’Sblood, you starveling, you elfskin, you
1243 255 dried neat’s tongue, you bull’s pizzle, you stockfish!
1245 yard, you sheath, you bowcase, you vile standing
1246 tuck—
PRINCE 1247 Well, breathe awhile, and then to it again, and
1248 260 when thou hast tired thyself in base comparisons,
1249 hear me speak but this.
POINS 1250 Mark, Jack.
PRINCE 1251 We two saw you four set on four, and bound
1252 them and were masters of their wealth. Mark now
1253 265 how a plain tale shall put you down. Then did we
1254 two set on you four and, with a word, outfaced you
1255 from your prize, and have it, yea, and can show it
1256 you here in the house. And, Falstaff, you carried
1257 your guts away as nimbly, with as quick dexterity,
1258 270 and roared for mercy, and still run and roared, as
1259 ever I heard bull-calf. What a slave art thou to hack
1260 thy sword as thou hast done, and then say it was in
1261 fight! What trick, what device, what starting-hole
1262 canst thou now find out to hide thee from this open
1263 275 and apparent shame?
POINS 1264 Come, let’s hear, Jack. What trick hast thou
1265 now?
FALSTAFF 1266 By the Lord, I knew you as well as he that
1267 made you. Why, hear you, my masters, was it for
1268 280 me to kill the heir apparent? Should I turn upon the
1269 true prince? Why, thou knowest I am as valiant as
1270 Hercules, but beware instinct. The lion will not
1271 touch the true prince. Instinct is a great matter.
1272 I was now a coward on instinct. I shall think
1273 285 the better of myself, and thee, during my life—
1274 I for a valiant lion, and thou for a true prince.
1275 But, by the Lord, lads, I am glad you have the
1276 money.—Hostess, clap to the doors.—Watch tonight,
1277 pray tomorrow. Gallants, lads, boys, hearts
1278 290 of gold, all the titles of good fellowship come to
1279 you. What, shall we be merry? Shall we have a play
1280 extempore?
1282 away.
FALSTAFF 1283 295Ah, no more of that, Hal, an thou lovest me.
Enter Hostess.
HOSTESS 1284 O Jesu, my lord the Prince—
PRINCE 1285 How now, my lady the hostess, what sayst thou
1286 to me?
HOSTESS 1287 Marry, my lord, there is a nobleman of the
1288 300 court at door would speak with you. He says he
1289 comes from your father.
PRINCE 1290 Give him as much as will make him a royal
1291 man and send him back again to my mother.
FALSTAFF 1292 What manner of man is he?
HOSTESS 1293 305An old man.
FALSTAFF 1294 What doth Gravity out of his bed at midnight?
1295 Shall I give him his answer?
PRINCE 1296 Prithee do, Jack.
FALSTAFF 1297 Faith, and I’ll send him packing.He exits.
PRINCE 1298 310Now, sirs. ⌜To Gadshill.⌝ By ’r Lady, you fought
1299 fair.—So did you, Peto.—So did you, Bardolph.—
1300 You are lions too. You ran away upon instinct. You
1301 will not touch the true prince. No, fie!
BARDOLPH 1302 Faith, I ran when I saw others run.
PRINCE 1303 315Faith, tell me now in earnest, how came Falstaff’s
1304 sword so hacked?
PETO 1305 Why, he hacked it with his dagger and said he
1306 would swear truth out of England but he would
1307 make you believe it was done in fight, and persuaded
1308 320 us to do the like.
BARDOLPH 1309 Yea, and to tickle our noses with speargrass
1310 to make them bleed, and then to beslubber our
1311 garments with it, and swear it was the blood of true
1312 men. I did that I did not this seven year before: I
1313 325 blushed to hear his monstrous devices.
PRINCE 1314 O villain, thou stolest a cup of sack eighteen
1316 since thou hast blushed extempore. Thou hadst fire
1317 and sword on thy side, and yet thou ran’st away.
1318 330 What instinct hadst thou for it?
BARDOLPH 1319 My lord, do you see these meteors? Do you
1320 behold these exhalations?
PRINCE 1321 I do.
BARDOLPH 1322 What think you they portend?
PRINCE 1323 335Hot livers and cold purses.
BARDOLPH 1324 Choler, my lord, if rightly taken.
PRINCE 1325 No. If rightly taken, halter.
Enter Falstaff.
1326 Here comes lean Jack. Here comes bare-bone.—
1327 How now, my sweet creature of bombast? How long
1328 340 is ’t ago, Jack, since thou sawest thine own knee?
FALSTAFF 1329 My own knee? When I was about thy years,
1330 Hal, I was not an eagle’s talon in the waist. I could
1331 have crept into any alderman’s thumb-ring. A
1332 plague of sighing and grief! It blows a man up like a
1333 345 bladder. There’s villainous news abroad. Here was
1334 Sir John Bracy from your father. You must to the
1335 court in the morning. That same mad fellow of the
1336 north, Percy, and he of Wales that gave Amamon the
1337 bastinado, and made Lucifer cuckold, and swore
1338 350 the devil his true liegeman upon the cross of a
1339 Welsh hook—what a plague call you him?
POINS 1340 ⌜Owen⌝ Glendower.
FALSTAFF 1341 Owen, Owen, the same, and his son-in-law
1342 Mortimer, and old Northumberland, and that
1343 355 sprightly Scot of Scots, Douglas, that runs a-horseback
1344 up a hill perpendicular—
PRINCE 1345 He that rides at high speed, and with his pistol
1346 kills a sparrow flying.
FALSTAFF 1347 You have hit it.
PRINCE 1348 360So did he never the sparrow.
1350 will not run.
PRINCE 1351 Why, what a rascal art thou then to praise him
1352 so for running?
FALSTAFF 1353 365A-horseback, you cuckoo, but afoot he will
1354 not budge a foot.
PRINCE 1355 Yes, Jack, upon instinct.
FALSTAFF 1356 I grant you, upon instinct. Well, he is there
1357 too, and one Mordake, and a thousand blue-caps
1358 370 more. Worcester is stolen away tonight. Thy father’s
1359 beard is turned white with the news. You may buy
1360 land now as cheap as stinking mackerel.
PRINCE 1361 Why then, it is like if there come a hot June,
1362 and this civil buffeting hold, we shall buy maidenheads
1363 375 as they buy hobnails, by the hundreds.
FALSTAFF 1364 By the Mass, thou sayest true. It is like we
1365 shall have good trading that way. But tell me, Hal,
1366 art not thou horrible afeard? Thou being heir
1367 apparent, could the world pick thee out three such
1368 380 enemies again as that fiend Douglas, that spirit
1369 Percy, and that devil Glendower? Art thou not
1370 horribly afraid? Doth not thy blood thrill at it?
PRINCE 1371 Not a whit, i’ faith. I lack some of thy instinct.
FALSTAFF 1372 Well, thou wilt be horribly chid tomorrow
1373 385 when thou comest to thy father. If thou love me,
1374 practice an answer.
PRINCE 1375 Do thou stand for my father and examine me
1376 upon the particulars of my life.
FALSTAFF 1377 Shall I? Content. ⌜He sits down.⌝ This chair
1378 390 shall be my state, this dagger my scepter, and this
1379 cushion my crown.
PRINCE 1380 Thy state is taken for a joined stool, thy golden
1381 scepter for a leaden dagger, and thy precious rich
1382 crown for a pitiful bald crown.
FALSTAFF 1383 395Well, an the fire of grace be not quite out of
1384 thee, now shalt thou be moved.—Give me a cup of
1386 thought I have wept, for I must speak in passion,
1387 and I will do it in King Cambyses’ vein.
PRINCE, ⌜bowing⌝ 1388 400Well, here is my leg.
FALSTAFF 1389 And here is my speech. ⌜As King.⌝ Stand
1390 aside, nobility.
HOSTESS 1391 O Jesu, this is excellent sport, i’ faith!
FALSTAFF, ⌜as King⌝
1392 Weep not, sweet queen, for trickling tears are vain.
HOSTESS 1393 405O the Father, how he holds his countenance!
FALSTAFF, ⌜as King⌝
1394 For God’s sake, lords, convey my ⌜tristful⌝ queen,
1395 For tears do stop the floodgates of her eyes.
HOSTESS 1396 O Jesu, he doth it as like one of these harlotry
1397 players as ever I see.
FALSTAFF 1398 410Peace, good pint-pot. Peace, good tickle-brain.—
1399 ⌜As King.⌝ Harry, I do not only marvel
1400 where thou spendest thy time, but also how thou
1401 art accompanied. For though the camomile, the
1402 more it is trodden on, the faster it grows, so youth,
1403 415 the more it is wasted, the sooner it wears. That
1404 thou art my son I have partly thy mother’s word,
1405 partly my own opinion, but chiefly a villainous
1406 trick of thine eye and a foolish hanging of thy
1407 nether lip that doth warrant me. If then thou be
1408 420 son to me, here lies the point: why, being son to
1409 me, art thou so pointed at? Shall the blessed sun of
1410 heaven prove a micher and eat blackberries? A
1411 question not to be asked. Shall the son of England
1412 prove a thief and take purses? A question to be
1413 425 asked. There is a thing, Harry, which thou hast
1414 often heard of, and it is known to many in our land
1415 by the name of pitch. This pitch, as ancient writers
1416 do report, doth defile; so doth the company thou
1417 keepest. For, Harry, now I do not speak to thee in
1418 430 drink, but in tears; not in pleasure, but in passion;
1420 a virtuous man whom I have often noted in thy
1421 company, but I know not his name.
PRINCE 1422 What manner of man, an it like your Majesty?
FALSTAFF, ⌜as King⌝ 1423 435A goodly portly man, i’ faith, and a
1424 corpulent; of a cheerful look, a pleasing eye, and a
1425 most noble carriage, and, as I think, his age some
1426 fifty, or, by ’r Lady, inclining to threescore; and now
1427 I remember me, his name is Falstaff. If that man
1428 440 should be lewdly given, he deceiveth me, for, Harry,
1429 I see virtue in his looks. If then the tree may be
1430 known by the fruit, as the fruit by the tree, then
1431 peremptorily I speak it: there is virtue in that
1432 Falstaff; him keep with, the rest banish. And tell me
1433 445 now, thou naughty varlet, tell me where hast thou
1434 been this month?
PRINCE 1435 Dost thou speak like a king? Do thou stand for
1436 me, and I’ll play my father.
FALSTAFF, ⌜rising⌝ 1437 Depose me? If thou dost it half so
1438 450 gravely, so majestically, both in word and matter,
1439 hang me up by the heels for a rabbit-sucker or a
1440 poulter’s hare.
PRINCE, ⌜sitting down⌝ 1441 Well, here I am set.
FALSTAFF 1442 And here I stand.—Judge, my masters.
PRINCE, ⌜as King⌝ 1443 455Now, Harry, whence come you?
FALSTAFF, ⌜as Prince⌝ 1444 My noble lord, from Eastcheap.
PRINCE, ⌜as King⌝ 1445 The complaints I hear of thee are
1446 grievous.
FALSTAFF, ⌜as Prince⌝ 1447 ’Sblood, my lord, they are false.
1448 460 —Nay, I’ll tickle you for a young prince, i’ faith.
PRINCE, ⌜as King⌝ 1449 Swearest thou? Ungracious boy,
1450 henceforth ne’er look on me. Thou art violently
1451 carried away from grace. There is a devil haunts
1452 thee in the likeness of an old fat man. A tun of man
1453 465 is thy companion. Why dost thou converse with that
1454 trunk of humors, that bolting-hutch of beastliness,
1456 of sack, that stuffed cloakbag of guts, that roasted
1457 Manningtree ox with the pudding in his belly, that
1458 470 reverend Vice, that gray iniquity, that father ruffian,
1459 that vanity in years? Wherein is he good, but to taste
1460 sack and drink it? Wherein neat and cleanly but to
1461 carve a capon and eat it? Wherein cunning but in
1462 craft? Wherein crafty but in villainy? Wherein villainous
1463 475 but in all things? Wherein worthy but in
1464 nothing?
FALSTAFF, ⌜as Prince⌝ 1465 I would your Grace would take
1466 me with you. Whom means your Grace?
PRINCE, ⌜as King⌝ 1467 That villainous abominable misleader
1468 480 of youth, Falstaff, that old white-bearded Satan.
FALSTAFF, ⌜as Prince⌝ 1469 My lord, the man I know.
PRINCE, ⌜as King⌝ 1470 I know thou dost.
FALSTAFF, ⌜as Prince⌝ 1471 But to say I know more harm in
1472 him than in myself were to say more than I know.
1473 485 That he is old, the more the pity; his white hairs do
1474 witness it. But that he is, saving your reverence, a
1475 whoremaster, that I utterly deny. If sack and sugar
1476 be a fault, God help the wicked. If to be old and
1477 merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know is
1478 490 damned. If to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh’s
1479 ⌜lean⌝ kine are to be loved. No, my good lord,
1480 banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Poins, but for
1481 sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack
1482 Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more
1483 495 valiant being as he is old Jack Falstaff, banish not
1484 him thy Harry’s company, banish not him thy
1485 Harry’s company. Banish plump Jack, and banish
1486 all the world.
PRINCE 1487 I do, I will.
⌜A loud knocking, and Bardolph, Hostess, and
Francis exit.⌝
BARDOLPH 1488 500O my lord, my lord, the Sheriff with a most
1489 monstrous watch is at the door.
FALSTAFF 1490 Out, you rogue.—Play out the play. I have
1491 much to say in the behalf of that Falstaff.
Enter the Hostess.
HOSTESS 1492 O Jesu, my lord, my lord—
PRINCE 1493 505Heigh, heigh, the devil rides upon a fiddlestick.
1494 What’s the matter?
HOSTESS 1495 The Sheriff and all the watch are at the door.
1496 They are come to search the house. Shall I let them
1497 in?
FALSTAFF 1498 510Dost thou hear, Hal? Never call a true piece
1499 of gold a counterfeit. Thou art essentially made
1500 without seeming so.
PRINCE 1501 And thou a natural coward without instinct.
FALSTAFF 1502 I deny your major. If you will deny the
1503 515 Sheriff, so; if not, let him enter. If I become not a
1504 cart as well as another man, a plague on my
1505 bringing up. I hope I shall as soon be strangled with
1506 a halter as another.
PRINCE, ⌜standing⌝ 1507 Go hide thee behind the arras. The
1508 520 rest walk up above.—Now, my masters, for a true
1509 face and good conscience.
FALSTAFF 1510 Both which I have had, but their date is out;
1511 and therefore I’ll hide me.⌜He hides.⌝
PRINCE 1512 Call in the Sheriff.
⌜All but the Prince and Peto exit.⌝
Enter Sheriff and the Carrier.
PRINCE
1513 525 Now, Master Sheriff, what is your will with me?
SHERIFF
1514 First pardon me, my lord. A hue and cry
1515 Hath followed certain men unto this house.
SHERIFF
1517 One of them is well known, my gracious lord.
1518 530 A gross fat man.
CARRIER 1519 As fat as butter.
PRINCE
1520 The man I do assure you is not here,
1521 For I myself at this time have employed him.
1522 And, sheriff, I will engage my word to thee
1523 535 That I will by tomorrow dinner time
1524 Send him to answer thee or any man
1525 For anything he shall be charged withal.
1526 And so let me entreat you leave the house.
SHERIFF
1527 I will, my lord. There are two gentlemen
1528 540 Have in this robbery lost three hundred marks.
PRINCE
1529 It may be so. If he have robbed these men,
1530 He shall be answerable; and so farewell.
SHERIFF 1531 Good night, my noble lord.
PRINCE
1532 I think it is good morrow, is it not?
SHERIFF
1533 545 Indeed, my lord, I think it be two o’clock.
He exits ⌜with the Carrier.⌝
PRINCE 1534 This oily rascal is known as well as Paul’s. Go
1535 call him forth.
PETO 1536 Falstaff!—Fast asleep behind the arras, and
1537 snorting like a horse.
PRINCE 1538 550Hark, how hard he fetches breath. Search his
1539 pockets. (He searcheth his pocket, and findeth certain
papers.) 1540 What hast thou found?
PETO 1541 Nothing but papers, my lord.
PRINCE 1542 Let’s see what they be. Read them.
⌜PETO reads⌝
1543 555 Item, a capon,…2s. 2d.
1545 Item, sack, two gallons,…5s. 8d.
1546 Item, anchovies and sack after supper,…2s. 6d.
1547 Item, bread,…ob.
⌜PRINCE⌝ 1548 560O monstrous! But one halfpennyworth of
1549 bread to this intolerable deal of sack? What there is
1550 else, keep close. We’ll read it at more advantage.
1551 There let him sleep till day. I’ll to the court in the
1552 morning. We must all to the wars, and thy place
1553 565 shall be honorable. I’ll procure this fat rogue a
1554 charge of foot, and I know his death will be a march
1555 of twelve score. The money shall be paid back again
1556 with advantage. Be with me betimes in the morning,
1557 and so good morrow, Peto.
PETO 1558 570Good morrow, good my lord.
They exit.
Glendower.
MORTIMER
1559 These promises are fair, the parties sure,
1560 And our induction full of prosperous hope.
HOTSPUR
1561 Lord Mortimer and cousin Glendower,
1562 Will you sit down? And uncle Worcester—
1563 5 A plague upon it, I have forgot the map.
GLENDOWER
1564 No, here it is. Sit, cousin Percy,
1565 Sit, good cousin Hotspur, for by that name
1566 As oft as Lancaster doth speak of you
1567 His cheek looks pale, and with a rising sigh
1568 10 He wisheth you in heaven.
HOTSPUR 1569 And you in hell,
1570 As oft as he hears Owen Glendower spoke of.
GLENDOWER
1571 I cannot blame him. At my nativity
1572 The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
1573 15 Of burning cressets, and at my birth
1574 The frame and huge foundation of the Earth
1575 Shaked like a coward.
HOTSPUR 1576 Why, so it would have done
1578 20 Had but kittened, though yourself had never been
1579 born.
GLENDOWER
1580 I say the Earth did shake when I was born.
HOTSPUR
1581 And I say the Earth was not of my mind,
1582 If you suppose as fearing you it shook.
GLENDOWER
1583 25 The heavens were all on fire; the Earth did tremble.
HOTSPUR
1584 O, then the Earth shook to see the heavens on fire,
1585 And not in fear of your nativity.
1586 Diseasèd nature oftentimes breaks forth
1587 In strange eruptions; oft the teeming Earth
1588 30 Is with a kind of colic pinched and vexed
1589 By the imprisoning of unruly wind
1590 Within her womb, which, for enlargement striving,
1591 Shakes the old beldam Earth and topples down
1592 Steeples and moss-grown towers. At your birth
1593 35 Our grandam Earth, having this distemp’rature,
1594 In passion shook.
GLENDOWER 1595 Cousin, of many men
1596 I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave
1597 To tell you once again that at my birth
1598 40 The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
1599 The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds
1600 Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields.
1601 These signs have marked me extraordinary,
1602 And all the courses of my life do show
1603 45 I am not in the roll of common men.
1604 Where is he living, clipped in with the sea
1605 That chides the banks of England, Scotland, Wales,
1606 Which calls me pupil or hath read to me?
1607 And bring him out that is but woman’s son
1608 50 Can trace me in the tedious ways of art
1609 And hold me pace in deep experiments.
1610 I think there’s no man speaks better Welsh.
1611 I’ll to dinner.
MORTIMER
1612 Peace, cousin Percy. You will make him mad.
GLENDOWER
1613 55 I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
HOTSPUR
1614 Why, so can I, or so can any man,
1615 But will they come when you do call for them?
GLENDOWER
1616 Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command the
1617 devil.
HOTSPUR
1618 60 And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil
1619 By telling truth. Tell truth and shame the devil.
1620 If thou have power to raise him, bring him hither,
1621 And I’ll be sworn I have power to shame him
1622 hence.
1623 65 O, while you live, tell truth and shame the devil!
MORTIMER
1624 Come, come, no more of this unprofitable chat.
GLENDOWER
1625 Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made head
1626 Against my power; thrice from the banks of Wye
1627 And sandy-bottomed Severn have I sent him
1628 70 Bootless home and weather-beaten back.
HOTSPUR
1629 Home without boots, and in foul weather too!
1630 How ’scapes he agues, in the devil’s name?
GLENDOWER
1631 Come, here is the map. Shall we divide our right
1632 According to our threefold order ta’en?
MORTIMER
1633 75 The Archdeacon hath divided it
1634 Into three limits very equally:
1636 By south and east is to my part assigned;
1637 All westward, Wales beyond the Severn shore,
1638 80 And all the fertile land within that bound
1639 To Owen Glendower; and, dear coz, to you
1640 The remnant northward lying off from Trent.
1641 And our indentures tripartite are drawn,
1642 Which being sealèd interchangeably—
1643 85 A business that this night may execute—
1644 Tomorrow, cousin Percy, you and I
1645 And my good Lord of Worcester will set forth
1646 To meet your father and the Scottish power,
1647 As is appointed us, at Shrewsbury.
1648 90 My father Glendower is not ready yet,
1649 Nor shall we need his help these fourteen days.
1650 ⌜To Glendower.⌝ Within that space you may have
1651 drawn together
1652 Your tenants, friends, and neighboring gentlemen.
GLENDOWER
1653 95 A shorter time shall send me to you, lords,
1654 And in my conduct shall your ladies come,
1655 From whom you now must steal and take no leave,
1656 For there will be a world of water shed
1657 Upon the parting of your wives and you.
HOTSPUR, ⌜looking at the map⌝
1658 100 Methinks my moiety, north from Burton here,
1659 In quantity equals not one of yours.
1660 See how this river comes me cranking in
1661 And cuts me from the best of all my land
1662 A huge half-moon, a monstrous ⌜cantle⌝ out.
1663 105 I’ll have the current in this place dammed up,
1664 And here the smug and silver Trent shall run
1665 In a new channel, fair and evenly.
1666 It shall not wind with such a deep indent
1667 To rob me of so rich a bottom here.
1668 110 Not wind? It shall, it must. You see it doth.
MORTIMER, ⌜to Hotspur⌝
1669 Yea, but mark how he bears his course, and runs
1670 me up
1671 With like advantage on the other side,
1672 Gelding the opposèd continent as much
1673 115 As on the other side it takes from you.
WORCESTER
1674 Yea, but a little charge will trench him here
1675 And on this north side win this cape of land,
1676 And then he runs straight and even.
HOTSPUR
1677 I’ll have it so. A little charge will do it.
GLENDOWER 1678 120I’ll not have it altered.
HOTSPUR 1679 Will not you?
GLENDOWER 1680 No, nor you shall not.
HOTSPUR 1681 Who shall say me nay?
GLENDOWER 1682 Why, that will I.
HOTSPUR
1683 125 Let me not understand you, then; speak it in Welsh.
GLENDOWER
1684 I can speak English, lord, as well as you,
1685 For I was trained up in the English court,
1686 Where being but young I framèd to the harp
1687 Many an English ditty lovely well
1688 130 And gave the tongue a helpful ornament—
1689 A virtue that was never seen in you.
HOTSPUR
1690 Marry, and I am glad of it with all my heart.
1691 I had rather be a kitten and cry “mew”
1692 Than one of these same ⌜meter⌝ balladmongers.
1693 135 I had rather hear a brazen can’stick turned,
1694 Or a dry wheel grate on the axletree,
1695 And that would set my teeth nothing an edge,
1696 Nothing so much as mincing poetry.
1697 ’Tis like the forced gait of a shuffling nag.
HOTSPUR
1699 I do not care. I’ll give thrice so much land
1700 To any well-deserving friend;
1701 But in the way of bargain, mark you me,
1702 I’ll cavil on the ninth part of a hair.
1703 145 Are the indentures drawn? Shall we be gone?
GLENDOWER
1704 The moon shines fair. You may away by night.
1705 I’ll haste the writer, and withal
1706 Break with your wives of your departure hence.
1707 I am afraid my daughter will run mad,
1708 150 So much she doteth on her Mortimer.He exits.
MORTIMER
1709 Fie, cousin Percy, how you cross my father!
HOTSPUR
1710 I cannot choose. Sometime he angers me
1711 With telling me of the moldwarp and the ant,
1712 Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies,
1713 155 And of a dragon and a finless fish,
1714 A clip-winged griffin and a moulten raven,
1715 A couching lion and a ramping cat,
1716 And such a deal of skimble-skamble stuff
1717 As puts me from my faith. I tell you what—
1718 160 He held me last night at least nine hours
1719 In reckoning up the several devils’ names
1720 That were his lackeys. I cried “Hum,” and “Well, go
1721 to,”
1722 But marked him not a word. O, he is as tedious
1723 165 As a tired horse, a railing wife,
1724 Worse than a smoky house. I had rather live
1725 With cheese and garlic in a windmill, far,
1726 Than feed on cates and have him talk to me
1727 In any summer house in Christendom.
MORTIMER
1728 170 In faith, he is a worthy gentleman,
1730 In strange concealments, valiant as a lion,
1731 And wondrous affable, and as bountiful
1732 As mines of India. Shall I tell you, cousin?
1733 175 He holds your temper in a high respect
1734 And curbs himself even of his natural scope
1735 When you come cross his humor. Faith, he does.
1736 I warrant you that man is not alive
1737 Might so have tempted him as you have done
1738 180 Without the taste of danger and reproof.
1739 But do not use it oft, let me entreat you.
WORCESTER, ⌜to Hotspur⌝
1740 In faith, my lord, you are too willful-blame,
1741 And, since your coming hither, have done enough
1742 To put him quite besides his patience.
1743 185 You must needs learn, lord, to amend this fault.
1744 Though sometimes it show greatness, courage,
1745 blood—
1746 And that’s the dearest grace it renders you—
1747 Yet oftentimes it doth present harsh rage,
1748 190 Defect of manners, want of government,
1749 Pride, haughtiness, opinion, and disdain,
1750 The least of which, haunting a nobleman,
1751 Loseth men’s hearts and leaves behind a stain
1752 Upon the beauty of all parts besides,
1753 195 Beguiling them of commendation.
HOTSPUR
1754 Well, I am schooled. Good manners be your speed!
1755 Here come our wives, and let us take our leave.
Enter Glendower with the Ladies.
MORTIMER
1756 This is the deadly spite that angers me:
1757 My wife can speak no English, I no Welsh.
GLENDOWER
1758 200 My daughter weeps; she’ll not part with you.
1759 She’ll be a soldier too, she’ll to the wars.
1760 Good father, tell her that she and my aunt Percy
1761 Shall follow in your conduct speedily.
Glendower speaks to her in Welsh,
and she answers him in the same.
GLENDOWER
1762 She is desperate here, a peevish self-willed harlotry,
1763 205 One that no persuasion can do good upon.
The Lady speaks in Welsh.
MORTIMER
1764 I understand thy looks. That pretty Welsh
1765 Which thou pourest down from these swelling
1766 heavens
1767 I am too perfect in, and but for shame
1768 210 In such a parley should I answer thee.
The Lady ⌜speaks⌝ again in Welsh. ⌜They kiss.⌝
1769 I understand thy kisses, and thou mine,
1770 And that’s a feeling disputation;
1771 But I will never be a truant, love,
1772 Till I have learned thy language; for thy tongue
1773 215 Makes Welsh as sweet as ditties highly penned,
1774 Sung by a fair queen in a summer’s bower,
1775 With ravishing division, to her lute.
GLENDOWER
1776 Nay, if you melt, then will she run mad.
The Lady speaks again in Welsh.
MORTIMER
1777 O, I am ignorance itself in this!
GLENDOWER
1778 220 She bids you on the wanton rushes lay you down
1779 And rest your gentle head upon her lap,
1780 And she will sing the song that pleaseth you,
1781 And on your eyelids crown the god of sleep,
1782 Charming your blood with pleasing heaviness,
1783 225 Making such difference ’twixt wake and sleep
1784 As is the difference betwixt day and night
1786 Begins his golden progress in the east.
MORTIMER
1787 With all my heart I’ll sit and hear her sing.
1788 230 By that time will our book, I think, be drawn.
GLENDOWER
1789 Do so, and those musicians that shall play to you
1790 Hang in the air a thousand leagues from hence,
1791 And straight they shall be here. Sit and attend.
HOTSPUR
1792 Come, Kate, thou art perfect in lying down.
1793 235 Come, quick, quick, that I may lay my head in thy
1794 lap.
LADY PERCY 1795 Go, you giddy goose.
The music plays.
HOTSPUR
1796 Now I perceive the devil understands Welsh,
1797 And ’tis no marvel he is so humorous.
1798 240 By ’r Lady, he is a good musician.
LADY PERCY 1799 Then should you be nothing but musical,
1800 for you are altogether governed by humors. Lie
1801 still, you thief, and hear the lady sing in Welsh.
HOTSPUR 1802 I had rather hear Lady, my brach, howl in
1803 245 Irish.
LADY PERCY 1804 Wouldst thou have thy head broken?
HOTSPUR 1805 No.
LADY PERCY 1806 Then be still.
HOTSPUR 1807 Neither; ’tis a woman’s fault.
LADY PERCY 1808 250Now God help thee!
HOTSPUR 1809 To the Welsh lady’s bed.
LADY PERCY 1810 What’s that?
HOTSPUR 1811 Peace, she sings.
Here the Lady sings a Welsh song.
HOTSPUR 1812 Come, Kate, I’ll have your song too.
LADY PERCY 1813 255Not mine, in good sooth.
HOTSPUR 1814 Not yours, in good sooth! Heart, you swear
1816 sooth,” and “as true as I live,” and “as God shall
1817 mend me,” and “as sure as day”—
1818 260 And givest such sarcenet surety for thy oaths
1819 As if thou never walk’st further than Finsbury.
1820 Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art,
1821 A good mouth-filling oath, and leave “in sooth,”
1822 And such protest of pepper-gingerbread
1823 265 To velvet-guards and Sunday citizens.
1824 Come, sing.
LADY PERCY 1825 I will not sing.
HOTSPUR 1826 ’Tis the next way to turn tailor, or be redbreast
1827 teacher. An the indentures be drawn, I’ll
1828 270 away within these two hours, and so come in when
1829 you will.He exits.
GLENDOWER
1830 Come, come, Lord Mortimer, you are as slow
1831 As hot Lord Percy is on fire to go.
1832 By this our book is drawn. We’ll but seal,
1833 275 And then to horse immediately.
MORTIMER 1834 With all my heart.
They exit.
KING
1835 Lords, give us leave; the Prince of Wales and I
1836 Must have some private conference, but be near at
1837 hand,
1838 For we shall presently have need of you.
Lords exit.
1839 5 I know not whether God will have it so
1840 For some displeasing service I have done,
1841 That, in His secret doom, out of my blood
1843 But thou dost in thy passages of life
1844 10 Make me believe that thou art only marked
1845 For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven
1846 To punish my mistreadings. Tell me else,
1847 Could such inordinate and low desires,
1848 Such poor, such bare, such lewd, such mean
1849 15 attempts,
1850 Such barren pleasures, rude society
1851 As thou art matched withal, and grafted to,
1852 Accompany the greatness of thy blood,
1853 And hold their level with thy princely heart?
PRINCE
1854 20 So please your Majesty, I would I could
1855 Quit all offenses with as clear excuse
1856 As well as I am doubtless I can purge
1857 Myself of many I am charged withal.
1858 Yet such extenuation let me beg
1859 25 As, in reproof of many tales devised,
1860 Which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear,
1861 By smiling pickthanks and base newsmongers,
1862 I may for some things true, wherein my youth
1863 Hath faulty wandered and irregular,
1864 30 Find pardon on my true submission.
KING
1865 God pardon thee. Yet let me wonder, Harry,
1866 At thy affections, which do hold a wing
1867 Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors.
1868 Thy place in council thou hast rudely lost,
1869 35 Which by thy younger brother is supplied,
1870 And art almost an alien to the hearts
1871 Of all the court and princes of my blood.
1872 The hope and expectation of thy time
1873 Is ruined, and the soul of every man
1874 40 Prophetically do forethink thy fall.
1875 Had I so lavish of my presence been,
1877 So stale and cheap to vulgar company,
1878 Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
1879 45 Had still kept loyal to possession
1880 And left me in reputeless banishment,
1881 A fellow of no mark nor likelihood.
1882 By being seldom seen, I could not stir
1883 But like a comet I was wondered at,
1884 50 That men would tell their children “This is he.”
1885 Others would say “Where? Which is Bolingbroke?”
1886 And then I stole all courtesy from heaven,
1887 And dressed myself in such humility
1888 That I did pluck allegiance from men’s hearts,
1889 55 Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths,
1890 Even in the presence of the crownèd king.
1891 Thus did I keep my person fresh and new,
1892 My presence, like a robe pontifical,
1893 Ne’er seen but wondered at, and so my state,
1894 60 Seldom but sumptuous, showed like a feast
1895 And won by rareness such solemnity.
1896 The skipping king, he ambled up and down
1897 With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits,
1898 Soon kindled and soon burnt; carded his state,
1899 65 Mingled his royalty with cap’ring fools,
1900 Had his great name profanèd with their scorns,
1901 And gave his countenance, against his name,
1902 To laugh at gibing boys and stand the push
1903 Of every beardless vain comparative;
1904 70 Grew a companion to the common streets,
1905 Enfeoffed himself to popularity,
1906 That, being daily swallowed by men’s eyes,
1907 They surfeited with honey and began
1908 To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little
1909 75 More than a little is by much too much.
1910 So, when he had occasion to be seen,
1912 Heard, not regarded; seen, but with such eyes
1913 As, sick and blunted with community,
1914 80 Afford no extraordinary gaze
1915 Such as is bent on sunlike majesty
1916 When it shines seldom in admiring eyes,
1917 But rather drowsed and hung their eyelids down,
1918 Slept in his face, and rendered such aspect
1919 85 As cloudy men use to their adversaries,
1920 Being with his presence glutted, gorged, and full.
1921 And in that very line, Harry, standest thou,
1922 For thou hast lost thy princely privilege
1923 With vile participation. Not an eye
1924 90 But is aweary of thy common sight,
1925 Save mine, which hath desired to see thee more,
1926 Which now doth that I would not have it do,
1927 Make blind itself with foolish tenderness.
PRINCE
1928 I shall hereafter, my thrice gracious lord,
1929 95 Be more myself.
KING 1930 For all the world
1931 As thou art to this hour was Richard then
1932 When I from France set foot at Ravenspurgh,
1933 And even as I was then is Percy now.
1934 100 Now, by my scepter, and my soul to boot,
1935 He hath more worthy interest to the state
1936 Than thou, the shadow of succession.
1937 For of no right, nor color like to right,
1938 He doth fill fields with harness in the realm,
1939 105 Turns head against the lion’s armèd jaws,
1940 And, being no more in debt to years than thou,
1941 Leads ancient lords and reverend bishops on
1942 To bloody battles and to bruising arms.
1943 What never-dying honor hath he got
1944 110 Against renownèd Douglas, whose high deeds,
1945 Whose hot incursions and great name in arms,
1947 And military title capital
1948 Through all the kingdoms that acknowledge Christ.
1949 115 Thrice hath this Hotspur, Mars in swaddling
1950 clothes,
1951 This infant warrior, in his enterprises
1952 Discomfited great Douglas, ta’en him once,
1953 Enlargèd him, and made a friend of him,
1954 120 To fill the mouth of deep defiance up
1955 And shake the peace and safety of our throne.
1956 And what say you to this? Percy, Northumberland,
1957 The Archbishop’s Grace of York, Douglas,
1958 Mortimer,
1959 125 Capitulate against us and are up.
1960 But wherefore do I tell these news to thee?
1961 Why, Harry, do I tell thee of my foes,
1962 Which art my nearest and dearest enemy?
1963 Thou that art like enough, through vassal fear,
1964 130 Base inclination, and the start of spleen,
1965 To fight against me under Percy’s pay,
1966 To dog his heels, and curtsy at his frowns,
1967 To show how much thou art degenerate.
PRINCE
1968 Do not think so. You shall not find it so.
1969 135 And God forgive them that so much have swayed
1970 Your Majesty’s good thoughts away from me.
1971 I will redeem all this on Percy’s head,
1972 And, in the closing of some glorious day,
1973 Be bold to tell you that I am your son,
1974 140 When I will wear a garment all of blood
1975 And stain my favors in a bloody mask,
1976 Which, washed away, shall scour my shame with it.
1977 And that shall be the day, whene’er it lights,
1978 That this same child of honor and renown,
1979 145 This gallant Hotspur, this all-praisèd knight,
1980 And your unthought-of Harry chance to meet.
1982 Would they were multitudes, and on my head
1983 My shames redoubled! For the time will come
1984 150 That I shall make this northern youth exchange
1985 His glorious deeds for my indignities.
1986 Percy is but my factor, good my lord,
1987 To engross up glorious deeds on my behalf.
1988 And I will call him to so strict account
1989 155 That he shall render every glory up,
1990 Yea, even the slightest worship of his time,
1991 Or I will tear the reckoning from his heart.
1992 This in the name of God I promise here,
1993 The which if He be pleased I shall perform,
1994 160 I do beseech your Majesty may salve
1995 The long-grown wounds of my intemperance.
1996 If not, the end of life cancels all bands,
1997 And I will die a hundred thousand deaths
1998 Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow.
KING
1999 165 A hundred thousand rebels die in this.
2000 Thou shalt have charge and sovereign trust herein.
Enter Blunt.
2001 How now, good Blunt? Thy looks are full of speed.
BLUNT
2002 So hath the business that I come to speak of.
2003 Lord Mortimer of Scotland hath sent word
2004 170 That Douglas and the English rebels met
2005 The eleventh of this month at Shrewsbury.
2006 A mighty and a fearful head they are,
2007 If promises be kept on every hand,
2008 As ever offered foul play in a state.
KING
2009 175 The Earl of Westmoreland set forth today,
2010 With him my son, Lord John of Lancaster,
2011 For this advertisement is five days old.—
2013 On Thursday we ourselves will march. Our meeting
2014 180 Is Bridgenorth. And, Harry, you shall march
2015 Through Gloucestershire; by which account,
2016 Our business valuèd, some twelve days hence
2017 Our general forces at Bridgenorth shall meet.
2018 Our hands are full of business. Let’s away.
2019 185 Advantage feeds him fat while men delay.
They exit.
FALSTAFF 2020 Bardolph, am I not fallen away vilely since
2021 this last action? Do I not bate? Do I not dwindle?
2022 Why, my skin hangs about me like an old lady’s
2023 loose gown. I am withered like an old applejohn.
2024 5 Well, I’ll repent, and that suddenly, while I am in
2025 some liking. I shall be out of heart shortly, and then
2026 I shall have no strength to repent. An I have not
2027 forgotten what the inside of a church is made of, I
2028 am a peppercorn, a brewer’s horse. The inside of a
2029 10 church! Company, villainous company, hath been
2030 the spoil of me.
BARDOLPH 2031 Sir John, you are so fretful you cannot live
2032 long.
FALSTAFF 2033 Why, there is it. Come, sing me a bawdy
2034 15 song, make me merry. I was as virtuously given as a
2035 gentleman need to be, virtuous enough: swore
2036 little; diced not above seven times—a week; went to
2037 a bawdy house not above once in a quarter—of an
2038 hour; paid money that I borrowed—three or four
2039 20 times; lived well and in good compass; and now I
2040 live out of all order, out of all compass.
BARDOLPH 2041 Why, you are so fat, Sir John, that you must
2043 compass, Sir John.
FALSTAFF 2044 25Do thou amend thy face, and I’ll amend my
2045 life. Thou art our admiral, thou bearest the lantern
2046 in the poop, but ’tis in the nose of thee. Thou art the
2047 Knight of the Burning Lamp.
BARDOLPH 2048 Why, Sir John, my face does you no harm.
FALSTAFF 2049 30No, I’ll be sworn, I make as good use of it as
2050 many a man doth of a death’s-head or a memento
2051 mori. I never see thy face but I think upon hellfire
2052 and Dives that lived in purple, for there he is in his
2053 robes, burning, burning. If thou wert any way given
2054 35 to virtue, I would swear by thy face. My oath should
2055 be “By this fire, ⌜that’s⌝ God’s angel.” But thou art
2056 altogether given over, and wert indeed, but for the
2057 light in thy face, the son of utter darkness. When
2058 thou ran’st up Gad’s Hill in the night to catch my
2059 40 horse, if I did not think thou hadst been an ignis
2060 fatuus, or a ball of wildfire, there’s no purchase in
2061 money. O, thou art a perpetual triumph, an everlasting
2062 bonfire-light. Thou hast saved me a thousand
2063 marks in links and torches, walking with thee in the
2064 45 night betwixt tavern and tavern, but the sack that
2065 thou hast drunk me would have bought me lights as
2066 good cheap at the dearest chandler’s in Europe. I
2067 have maintained that salamander of yours with fire
2068 any time this two-and-thirty years, God reward me
2069 50 for it.
BARDOLPH 2070 ’Sblood, I would my face were in your
2071 belly!
FALSTAFF 2072 Godamercy, so should I be sure to be
2073 heartburned!
Enter Hostess.
2074 55 How now, Dame Partlet the hen, have you enquired
2075 yet who picked my pocket?
2077 do you think I keep thieves in my house? I have
2078 searched, I have enquired, so has my husband,
2079 60 man by man, boy by boy, servant by servant.
2080 The ⌜tithe⌝ of a hair was never lost in my house
2081 before.
FALSTAFF 2082 You lie, hostess. Bardolph was shaved and
2083 lost many a hair, and I’ll be sworn my pocket was
2084 65 picked. Go to, you are a woman, go.
HOSTESS 2085 Who, I? No, I defy thee! God’s light, I was
2086 never called so in mine own house before.
FALSTAFF 2087 Go to, I know you well enough.
HOSTESS 2088 No, Sir John, you do not know me, Sir John. I
2089 70 know you, Sir John. You owe me money, Sir John,
2090 and now you pick a quarrel to beguile me of it. I
2091 bought you a dozen of shirts to your back.
FALSTAFF 2092 Dowlas, filthy dowlas. I have given them
2093 away to bakers’ wives; they have made bolters of
2094 75 them.
HOSTESS 2095 Now, as I am a true woman, holland of eight
2096 shillings an ell. You owe money here besides, Sir
2097 John, for your diet and by-drinkings and money
2098 lent you, four-and-twenty pound.
FALSTAFF, ⌜pointing to Bardolph⌝ 2099 80He had his part of it.
2100 Let him pay.
HOSTESS 2101 He? Alas, he is poor. He hath nothing.
FALSTAFF 2102 How, poor? Look upon his face. What call
2103 you rich? Let them coin his nose. Let them coin his
2104 85 cheeks. I’ll not pay a denier. What, will you make a
2105 younker of me? Shall I not take mine ease in mine
2106 inn but I shall have my pocket picked? I have lost a
2107 seal ring of my grandfather’s worth forty mark.
HOSTESS, ⌜to Bardolph⌝ 2108 O Jesu, I have heard the Prince
2109 90 tell him, I know not how oft, that that ring was
2110 copper.
FALSTAFF 2111 How? The Prince is a jack, a sneak-up.
2113 dog if he would say so.
Enter the Prince marching, ⌜with Peto,⌝ and Falstaff
meets him playing upon his truncheon like a fife.
2114 95 How now, lad, is the wind in that door, i’ faith? Must
2115 we all march?
BARDOLPH 2116 Yea, two and two, Newgate fashion.
HOSTESS, ⌜to Prince⌝ 2117 My lord, I pray you, hear me.
PRINCE 2118 What say’st thou, Mistress Quickly? How doth
2119 100 thy husband? I love him well; he is an honest man.
HOSTESS 2120 Good my lord, hear me.
FALSTAFF 2121 Prithee, let her alone, and list to me.
PRINCE 2122 What say’st thou, Jack?
FALSTAFF 2123 The other night I fell asleep here, behind the
2124 105 arras, and had my pocket picked. This house is
2125 turned bawdy house; they pick pockets.
PRINCE 2126 What didst thou lose, Jack?
FALSTAFF 2127 Wilt thou believe me, Hal, three or four
2128 bonds of forty pound apiece, and a seal ring of my
2129 110 grandfather’s.
PRINCE 2130 A trifle, some eightpenny matter.
HOSTESS 2131 So I told him, my lord, and I said I heard
2132 your Grace say so. And, my lord, he speaks most
2133 vilely of you, like a foul-mouthed man, as he is, and
2134 115 said he would cudgel you.
PRINCE 2135 What, he did not!
HOSTESS 2136 There’s neither faith, truth, nor womanhood
2137 in me else.
FALSTAFF 2138 There’s no more faith in thee than in a
2139 120 stewed prune, nor no more truth in thee than in a
2140 drawn fox, and for womanhood, Maid Marian may
2141 be the deputy’s wife of the ward to thee. Go, you
2142 thing, go.
HOSTESS 2143 Say, what thing, what thing?
FALSTAFF 2144 125What thing? Why, a thing to thank God on.
2146 shouldst know it! I am an honest man’s wife, and,
2147 setting thy knighthood aside, thou art a knave to
2148 call me so.
FALSTAFF 2149 130Setting thy womanhood aside, thou art a
2150 beast to say otherwise.
HOSTESS 2151 Say, what beast, thou knave, thou?
FALSTAFF 2152 What beast? Why, an otter.
PRINCE 2153 An otter, Sir John. Why an otter?
FALSTAFF 2154 135Why, she’s neither fish nor flesh; a man
2155 knows not where to have her.
HOSTESS 2156 Thou art an unjust man in saying so. Thou or
2157 any man knows where to have me, thou knave,
2158 thou.
PRINCE 2159 140Thou sayst true, hostess, and he slanders thee
2160 most grossly.
HOSTESS 2161 So he doth you, my lord, and said this other
2162 day you owed him a thousand pound.
PRINCE 2163 Sirrah, do I owe you a thousand pound?
FALSTAFF 2164 145A thousand pound, Hal? A million. Thy love is
2165 worth a million; thou owest me thy love.
HOSTESS 2166 Nay, my lord, he called you “jack,” and said
2167 he would cudgel you.
FALSTAFF 2168 Did I, Bardolph?
BARDOLPH 2169 150Indeed, Sir John, you said so.
FALSTAFF 2170 Yea, if he said my ring was copper.
PRINCE 2171 I say ’tis copper. Darest thou be as good as thy
2172 word now?
FALSTAFF 2173 Why, Hal, thou knowest, as thou art but
2174 155 man, I dare, but as thou art prince, I fear thee as I
2175 fear the roaring of the lion’s whelp.
PRINCE 2176 And why not as the lion?
FALSTAFF 2177 The King himself is to be feared as the lion.
2178 Dost thou think I’ll fear thee as I fear thy father?
2179 160 Nay, an I do, I pray God my girdle break.
PRINCE 2180 O, if it should, how would thy guts fall about
2182 truth, nor honesty in this bosom of thine. It is all
2183 filled up with guts and midriff. Charge an honest
2184 165 woman with picking thy pocket? Why, thou whoreson,
2185 impudent, embossed rascal, if there were
2186 anything in thy pocket but tavern reckonings,
2187 memorandums of bawdy houses, and one poor
2188 pennyworth of sugar candy to make thee long-winded,
2189 170 if thy pocket were enriched with any other
2190 injuries but these, I am a villain. And yet you will
2191 stand to it! You will not pocket up wrong! Art thou
2192 not ashamed?
FALSTAFF 2193 Dost thou hear, Hal? Thou knowest in the
2194 175 state of innocency Adam fell, and what should poor
2195 Jack Falstaff do in the days of villainy? Thou seest I
2196 have more flesh than another man and therefore
2197 more frailty. You confess, then, you picked my
2198 pocket.
PRINCE 2199 180It appears so by the story.
FALSTAFF 2200 Hostess, I forgive thee. Go make ready
2201 breakfast, love thy husband, look to thy servants,
2202 cherish thy ⌜guests.⌝ Thou shalt find me tractable
2203 to any honest reason. Thou seest I am pacified still.
2204 185 Nay, prithee, begone. (Hostess exits.) Now, Hal, to
2205 the news at court. For the robbery, lad, how is that
2206 answered?
PRINCE 2207 O, my sweet beef, I must still be good angel to
2208 thee. The money is paid back again.
FALSTAFF 2209 190O, I do not like that paying back. ’Tis a double
2210 labor.
PRINCE 2211 I am good friends with my father and may do
2212 anything.
FALSTAFF 2213 Rob me the Exchequer the first thing thou
2214 195 dost, and do it with unwashed hands too.
BARDOLPH 2215 Do, my lord.
PRINCE 2216 I have procured thee, Jack, a charge of foot.
2218 find one that can steal well? O, for a fine thief of
2219 200 the age of two-and-twenty or thereabouts! I am heinously
2220 unprovided. Well, God be thanked for these
2221 rebels. They offend none but the virtuous. I laud
2222 them; I praise them.
PRINCE 2223 Bardolph.
BARDOLPH 2224 205My lord.
PRINCE, ⌜handing Bardolph papers⌝
2225 Go, bear this letter to Lord John of Lancaster,
2226 To my brother John; this to my Lord of
2227 Westmoreland.⌜Bardolph exits.⌝
2228 Go, Peto, to horse, to horse, for thou and I
2229 210 Have thirty miles to ride yet ere dinner time.
⌜Peto exits.⌝
2230 Jack, meet me tomorrow in the Temple hall
2231 At two o’clock in the afternoon;
2232 There shalt thou know thy charge, and there receive
2233 Money and order for their furniture.
2234 215 The land is burning. Percy stands on high,
2235 And either we or they must lower lie.⌜He exits.⌝
FALSTAFF
2236 Rare words, brave world!—Hostess, my breakfast,
2237 come.—
2238 O, I could wish this tavern were my drum.
⌜He exits.⌝
HOTSPUR
2239 Well said, my noble Scot. If speaking truth
2240 In this fine age were not thought flattery,
2241 Such attribution should the Douglas have
2242 As not a soldier of this season’s stamp
2243 5 Should go so general current through the world.
2244 By God, I cannot flatter. I do defy
2245 The tongues of soothers. But a braver place
2246 In my heart’s love hath no man than yourself.
2247 Nay, task me to my word; approve me, lord.
DOUGLAS 2248 10Thou art the king of honor.
2249 No man so potent breathes upon the ground
2250 But I will beard him.
HOTSPUR 2251 Do so, and ’tis well.
Enter ⌜a Messenger⌝ with letters.
2252 What letters hast thou there? ⌜To Douglas.⌝ I can but
2253 15 thank you.
MESSENGER 2254 These letters come from your father.
HOTSPUR
2255 Letters from him! Why comes he not himself?
MESSENGER
2256 He cannot come, my lord. He is grievous sick.
2257 Zounds, how has he the leisure to be sick
2258 20 In such a justling time? Who leads his power?
2259 Under whose government come they along?
MESSENGER, ⌜handing letter to Hotspur, who begins
reading it⌝
2260 His letters bears his mind, not I, my ⌜lord.⌝
WORCESTER
2261 I prithee, tell me, doth he keep his bed?
MESSENGER
2262 He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth,
2263 25 And, at the time of my departure thence,
2264 He was much feared by his physicians.
WORCESTER
2265 I would the state of time had first been whole
2266 Ere he by sickness had been visited.
2267 His health was never better worth than now.
HOTSPUR
2268 30 Sick now? Droop now? This sickness doth infect
2269 The very lifeblood of our enterprise.
2270 ’Tis catching hither, even to our camp.
2271 He writes me here that inward sickness—
2272 And that his friends by deputation
2273 35 Could not so soon be drawn, nor did he think it
2274 meet
2275 To lay so dangerous and dear a trust
2276 On any soul removed but on his own;
2277 Yet doth he give us bold advertisement
2278 40 That with our small conjunction we should on
2279 To see how fortune is disposed to us,
2280 For, as he writes, there is no quailing now,
2281 Because the King is certainly possessed
2282 Of all our purposes. What say you to it?
WORCESTER
2283 45 Your father’s sickness is a maim to us.
2284 A perilous gash, a very limb lopped off!
2285 And yet, in faith, it is not. His present want
2286 Seems more than we shall find it. Were it good
2287 To set the exact wealth of all our states
2288 50 All at one cast? To set so rich a main
2289 On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?
2290 It were not good, for therein should we read
2291 The very bottom and the soul of hope,
2292 The very list, the very utmost bound
2293 55 Of all our fortunes.
DOUGLAS
2294 Faith, and so we should, where now remains
2295 A sweet reversion. We may boldly spend
2296 Upon the hope of what ⌜is⌝ to come in.
2297 A comfort of retirement lives in this.
HOTSPUR
2298 60 A rendezvous, a home to fly unto,
2299 If that the devil and mischance look big
2300 Upon the maidenhead of our affairs.
WORCESTER
2301 But yet I would your father had been here.
2302 The quality and hair of our attempt
2303 65 Brooks no division. It will be thought
2304 By some that know not why he is away
2305 That wisdom, loyalty, and mere dislike
2306 Of our proceedings kept the Earl from hence.
2307 And think how such an apprehension
2308 70 May turn the tide of fearful faction
2309 And breed a kind of question in our cause.
2310 For well you know, we of the off’ring side
2311 Must keep aloof from strict arbitrament,
2312 And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence
2313 75 The eye of reason may pry in upon us.
2314 This absence of your father’s draws a curtain
2316 Before not dreamt of.
HOTSPUR 2317 You strain too far.
2318 80 I rather of his absence make this use:
2319 It lends a luster and more great opinion,
2320 A larger dare, to our great enterprise
2321 Than if the Earl were here, for men must think
2322 If we without his help can make a head
2323 85 To push against a kingdom, with his help
2324 We shall o’erturn it topsy-turvy down.
2325 Yet all goes well; yet all our joints are whole.
DOUGLAS
2326 As heart can think. There is not such a word
2327 Spoke of in Scotland as this term of fear.
Enter Sir Richard Vernon.
HOTSPUR
2328 90 My cousin Vernon, welcome, by my soul.
VERNON
2329 Pray God my news be worth a welcome, lord.
2330 The Earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong,
2331 Is marching hitherwards, with him Prince John.
HOTSPUR
2332 No harm, what more?
VERNON 2333 95 And further I have learned
2334 The King himself in person is set forth,
2335 Or hitherwards intended speedily,
2336 With strong and mighty preparation.
HOTSPUR
2337 He shall be welcome too. Where is his son,
2338 100 The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales,
2339 And his comrades, that daffed the world aside
2340 And bid it pass?
VERNON 2341 All furnished, all in arms,
2342 All plumed like estridges that with the wind
2343 105 Bated like eagles having lately bathed,
2345 As full of spirit as the month of May,
2346 And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer,
2347 Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.
2348 110 I saw young Harry with his beaver on,
2349 His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly armed,
2350 Rise from the ground like feathered Mercury
2351 And vaulted with such ease into his seat
2352 As if an angel ⌜dropped⌝ down from the clouds,
2353 115 To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus
2354 And witch the world with noble horsemanship.
HOTSPUR
2355 No more, no more! Worse than the sun in March
2356 This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come.
2357 They come like sacrifices in their trim,
2358 120 And to the fire-eyed maid of smoky war
2359 All hot and bleeding will we offer them.
2360 The mailèd Mars shall on his ⌜altar⌝ sit
2361 Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire
2362 To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh
2363 125 And yet not ours. Come, let me taste my horse,
2364 Who is to bear me like a thunderbolt
2365 Against the bosom of the Prince of Wales.
2366 Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse,
2367 Meet and ne’er part till one drop down a corse.
2368 130 O, that Glendower were come!
VERNON 2369 There is more news.
2370 I learned in Worcester, as I rode along,
2371 He ⌜cannot⌝ draw his power this fourteen days.
DOUGLAS
2372 That’s the worst tidings that I hear of ⌜yet.⌝
WORCESTER
2373 135 Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound.
HOTSPUR
2374 What may the King’s whole battle reach unto?
2375 To thirty thousand.
HOTSPUR 2376 Forty let it be.
2377 My father and Glendower being both away,
2378 140 The powers of us may serve so great a day.
2379 Come, let us take a muster speedily.
2380 Doomsday is near. Die all, die merrily.
DOUGLAS
2381 Talk not of dying. I am out of fear
2382 Of death or death’s hand for this one half year.
They exit.
FALSTAFF 2383 Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry. Fill
2384 me a bottle of sack. Our soldiers shall march
2385 through. We’ll to Sutton ⌜Coldfield⌝ tonight.
BARDOLPH 2386 Will you give me money, captain?
FALSTAFF 2387 5Lay out, lay out.
BARDOLPH 2388 This bottle makes an angel.
FALSTAFF 2389 An if it do, take it for thy labor. An if it make
2390 twenty, take them all. I’ll answer the coinage. Bid
2391 my lieutenant Peto meet me at town’s end.
BARDOLPH 2392 10I will, captain. Farewell.He exits.
FALSTAFF 2393 If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a
2394 soused gurnet. I have misused the King’s press
2395 damnably. I have got, in exchange of a hundred
2396 and fifty soldiers, three hundred and odd pounds. I
2397 15 press me none but good householders, ⌜yeomen’s⌝
2398 sons, inquire me out contracted bachelors, such as
2399 had been asked twice on the banns—such a commodity
2400 of warm slaves as had as ⌜lief⌝ hear the devil
2401 as a drum, such as fear the report of a caliver worse
2403 none but such toasts-and-butter, with hearts in their
2404 bellies no bigger than pins’ heads, and they have
2405 bought out their services, and now my whole
2406 charge consists of ancients, corporals, lieutenants,
2407 25 gentlemen of companies—slaves as ragged as Lazarus
2408 in the painted cloth, where the glutton’s dogs
2409 licked his sores; and such as indeed were never
2410 soldiers, but discarded, unjust servingmen, younger
2411 sons to younger brothers, revolted tapsters, and
2412 30 ostlers tradefallen, the cankers of a calm world and
2413 a long peace, ten times more dishonorable-ragged
2414 than an old feazed ancient; and such have I to fill up
2415 the rooms of them as have bought out their services,
2416 that you would think that I had a hundred and fifty
2417 35 tattered prodigals lately come from swine-keeping,
2418 from eating draff and husks. A mad fellow met me
2419 on the way and told me I had unloaded all the
2420 gibbets and pressed the dead bodies. No eye hath
2421 seen such scarecrows. I’ll not march through Coventry
2422 40 with them, that’s flat. Nay, and the villains
2423 march wide betwixt the legs as if they had gyves on,
2424 for indeed I had the most of them out of prison.
2425 There’s not a shirt and a half in all my company,
2426 and the half shirt is two napkins tacked together
2427 45 and thrown over the shoulders like a herald’s coat
2428 without sleeves; and the shirt, to say the truth,
2429 stolen from my host at Saint Albans or the red-nose
2430 innkeeper of Daventry. But that’s all one; they’ll find
2431 linen enough on every hedge.
Enter the Prince ⌜and the⌝ Lord of Westmoreland.
PRINCE 2432 50How now, blown Jack? How now, quilt?
FALSTAFF 2433 What, Hal, how now, mad wag? What a devil
2434 dost thou in Warwickshire?—My good Lord of
2436 Honor had already been at Shrewsbury.
WESTMORELAND 2437 55Faith, Sir John, ’tis more than time
2438 that I were there and you too, but my powers are
2439 there already. The King, I can tell you, looks for us
2440 all. We must away all night.
FALSTAFF 2441 Tut, never fear me. I am as vigilant as a cat to
2442 60 steal cream.
PRINCE 2443 I think to steal cream indeed, for thy theft hath
2444 already made thee butter. But tell me, Jack, whose
2445 fellows are these that come after?
FALSTAFF 2446 Mine, Hal, mine.
PRINCE 2447 65I did never see such pitiful rascals.
FALSTAFF 2448 Tut, tut, good enough to toss; food for powder,
2449 food for powder. They’ll fill a pit as well as
2450 better. Tush, man, mortal men, mortal men.
WESTMORELAND 2451 Ay, but, Sir John, methinks they are
2452 70 exceeding poor and bare, too beggarly.
FALSTAFF 2453 Faith, for their poverty, I know not where
2454 they had that, and for their bareness, I am sure they
2455 never learned that of me.
PRINCE 2456 No, I’ll be sworn, unless you call three fingers
2457 75 in the ribs bare. But, sirrah, make haste. Percy is
2458 already in the field.He exits.
FALSTAFF 2459 What, is the King encamped?
WESTMORELAND 2460 He is, Sir John. I fear we shall stay too
2461 long.⌜He exits.⌝
FALSTAFF 2462 80Well,
2463 To the latter end of a fray and the beginning of a
2464 feast
2465 Fits a dull fighter and a keen guest.
⌜He⌝ exits.
HOTSPUR
2466 We’ll fight with him tonight.
WORCESTER 2467 It may not be.
DOUGLAS
2468 You give him then advantage.
VERNON 2469 Not a whit.
HOTSPUR
2470 5 Why say you so? Looks he not for supply?
VERNON 2471 So do we.
HOTSPUR 2472 His is certain; ours is doubtful.
WORCESTER
2473 Good cousin, be advised. Stir not tonight.
VERNON, ⌜to Hotspur⌝
2474 Do not, my lord.
DOUGLAS 2475 10 You do not counsel well.
2476 You speak it out of fear and cold heart.
VERNON
2477 Do me no slander, Douglas. By my life
2478 (And I dare well maintain it with my life),
2479 If well-respected honor bid me on,
2480 15 I hold as little counsel with weak fear
2481 As you, my lord, or any Scot that this day lives.
2482 Let it be seen tomorrow in the battle
2483 Which of us fears.
DOUGLAS 2484 Yea, or tonight.
VERNON 2485 20Content.
HOTSPUR 2486 Tonight, say I.
VERNON
2487 Come, come, it may not be. I wonder much,
2488 Being men of such great leading as you are,
2489 That you foresee not what impediments
2490 25 Drag back our expedition. Certain horse
2491 Of my cousin Vernon’s are not yet come up.
2493 And now their pride and mettle is asleep,
2494 Their courage with hard labor tame and dull,
2495 30 That not a horse is half the half of himself.
HOTSPUR
2496 So are the horses of the enemy
2497 In general journey-bated and brought low.
2498 The better part of ours are full of rest.
WORCESTER
2499 The number of the King exceedeth ⌜ours.⌝
2500 35 For God’s sake, cousin, stay till all come in.
The trumpet sounds a parley.
Enter Sir Walter Blunt.
BLUNT
2501 I come with gracious offers from the King,
2502 If you vouchsafe me hearing and respect.
HOTSPUR
2503 Welcome, Sir Walter Blunt, and would to God
2504 You were of our determination.
2505 40 Some of us love you well, and even those some
2506 Envy your great deservings and good name
2507 Because you are not of our quality
2508 But stand against us like an enemy.
BLUNT
2509 And God defend but still I should stand so,
2510 45 So long as out of limit and true rule
2511 You stand against anointed majesty.
2512 But to my charge. The King hath sent to know
2513 The nature of your griefs, and whereupon
2514 You conjure from the breast of civil peace
2515 50 Such bold hostility, teaching his duteous land
2516 Audacious cruelty. If that the King
2517 Have any way your good deserts forgot,
2518 Which he confesseth to be manifold,
2519 He bids you name your griefs, and with all speed
2521 And pardon absolute for yourself and these
2522 Herein misled by your suggestion.
HOTSPUR
2523 The King is kind, and well we know the King
2524 Knows at what time to promise, when to pay.
2525 60 My father and my uncle and myself
2526 Did give him that same royalty he wears,
2527 And when he was not six-and-twenty strong,
2528 Sick in the world’s regard, wretched and low,
2529 A poor unminded outlaw sneaking home,
2530 65 My father gave him welcome to the shore;
2531 And when he heard him swear and vow to God
2532 He came but to be Duke of Lancaster,
2533 To sue his livery, and beg his peace
2534 With tears of innocency and terms of zeal,
2535 70 My father, in kind heart and pity moved,
2536 Swore him assistance and performed it too.
2537 Now when the lords and barons of the realm
2538 Perceived Northumberland did lean to him,
2539 The more and less came in with cap and knee,
2540 75 Met him in boroughs, cities, villages,
2541 Attended him on bridges, stood in lanes,
2542 Laid gifts before him, proffered him their oaths,
2543 Gave him their heirs as pages, followed him
2544 Even at the heels in golden multitudes.
2545 80 He presently, as greatness knows itself,
2546 Steps me a little higher than his vow
2547 Made to my father while his blood was poor
2548 Upon the naked shore at Ravenspurgh,
2549 And now forsooth takes on him to reform
2550 85 Some certain edicts and some strait decrees
2551 That lie too heavy on the commonwealth,
2552 Cries out upon abuses, seems to weep
2553 Over his ⌜country’s⌝ wrongs, and by this face,
2554 This seeming brow of justice, did he win
2555 90 The hearts of all that he did angle for,
2557 Of all the favorites that the absent king
2558 In deputation left behind him here
2559 When he was personal in the Irish war.
BLUNT
2560 95 Tut, I came not to hear this.
HOTSPUR 2561 Then to the point.
2562 In short time after, he deposed the King,
2563 Soon after that deprived him of his life
2564 And, in the neck of that, tasked the whole state.
2565 100 To make that worse, suffered his kinsman March
2566 (Who is, if every owner were well placed,
2567 Indeed his king) to be engaged in Wales,
2568 There without ransom to lie forfeited,
2569 Disgraced me in my happy victories,
2570 105 Sought to entrap me by intelligence,
2571 Rated mine uncle from the council board,
2572 In rage dismissed my father from the court,
2573 Broke oath on oath, committed wrong on wrong,
2574 And in conclusion drove us to seek out
2575 110 This head of safety, and withal to pry
2576 Into his title, the which we find
2577 Too indirect for long continuance.
BLUNT
2578 Shall I return this answer to the King?
HOTSPUR
2579 Not so, Sir Walter. We’ll withdraw awhile.
2580 115 Go to the King, and let there be impawned
2581 Some surety for a safe return again,
2582 And in the morning early shall mine uncle
2583 Bring him our purposes. And so farewell.
BLUNT
2584 I would you would accept of grace and love.
HOTSPUR
2585 120 And maybe so we shall.
BLUNT 2586 Pray God you do.
⌜They exit.⌝
ARCHBISHOP, ⌜handing papers⌝
2587 Hie, good Sir Michael, bear this sealèd brief
2588 With wingèd haste to the Lord Marshal,
2589 This to my cousin Scroop, and all the rest
2590 To whom they are directed. If you knew
2591 5 How much they do import, you would make haste.
SIR MICHAEL
2592 My good lord, I guess their tenor.
ARCHBISHOP 2593 Like enough you do.
2594 Tomorrow, good Sir Michael, is a day
2595 Wherein the fortune of ten thousand men
2596 10 Must bide the touch. For, sir, at Shrewsbury,
2597 As I am truly given to understand,
2598 The King with mighty and quick-raisèd power
2599 Meets with Lord Harry. And I fear, Sir Michael,
2600 What with the sickness of Northumberland,
2601 15 Whose power was in the first proportion,
2602 And what with Owen Glendower’s absence thence,
2603 Who with them was a rated sinew too
2604 And comes not in, o’erruled by prophecies,
2605 I fear the power of Percy is too weak
2606 20 To wage an instant trial with the King.
SIR MICHAEL
2607 Why, my good lord, you need not fear.
2608 There is Douglas and Lord Mortimer.
ARCHBISHOP 2609 No, Mortimer is not there.
SIR MICHAEL
2610 But there is Mordake, Vernon, Lord Harry Percy,
2611 25 And there is my Lord of Worcester, and a head
2612 Of gallant warriors, noble gentlemen.
ARCHBISHOP
2613 And so there is. But yet the King hath drawn
2614 The special head of all the land together:
2616 30 The noble Westmoreland, and warlike Blunt,
2617 And many more corrivals and dear men
2618 Of estimation and command in arms.
SIR MICHAEL
2619 Doubt not, my lord, they shall be well opposed.
ARCHBISHOP
2620 I hope no less, yet needful ’tis to fear;
2621 35 And to prevent the worst, Sir Michael, speed.
2622 For if Lord Percy thrive not, ere the King
2623 Dismiss his power he means to visit us,
2624 For he hath heard of our confederacy,
2625 And ’tis but wisdom to make strong against him.
2626 40 Therefore make haste. I must go write again
2627 To other friends. And so farewell, Sir Michael.
They exit.
Sir Walter Blunt, ⌜and⌝ Falstaff.
KING
2628 How bloodily the sun begins to peer
2629 Above yon bulky hill. The day looks pale
2630 At his distemp’rature.
PRINCE 2631 The southern wind
2632 5 Doth play the trumpet to his purposes,
2633 And by his hollow whistling in the leaves
2634 Foretells a tempest and a blust’ring day.
KING
2635 Then with the losers let it sympathize,
2636 For nothing can seem foul to those that win.
The trumpet sounds.
Enter Worcester ⌜and Vernon.⌝
2637 10 How now, my Lord of Worcester? ’Tis not well
2638 That you and I should meet upon such terms
2639 As now we meet. You have deceived our trust
2640 And made us doff our easy robes of peace
2641 To crush our old limbs in ungentle steel.
2642 15 This is not well, my lord; this is not well.
2643 What say you to it? Will you again unknit
2644 This churlish knot of all-abhorrèd war
2646 Where you did give a fair and natural light,
2647 20 And be no more an exhaled meteor,
2648 A prodigy of fear, and a portent
2649 Of broachèd mischief to the unborn times?
WORCESTER 2650 Hear me, my liege:
2651 For mine own part I could be well content
2652 25 To entertain the lag end of my life
2653 With quiet hours. For I protest
2654 I have not sought the day of this dislike.
KING
2655 You have not sought it. How comes it then?
FALSTAFF 2656 Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it.
PRINCE 2657 30Peace, chewet, peace.
WORCESTER
2658 It pleased your Majesty to turn your looks
2659 Of favor from myself and all our house;
2660 And yet I must remember you, my lord,
2661 We were the first and dearest of your friends.
2662 35 For you my staff of office did I break
2663 In Richard’s time, and posted day and night
2664 To meet you on the way and kiss your hand
2665 When yet you were in place and in account
2666 Nothing so strong and fortunate as I.
2667 40 It was myself, my brother, and his son
2668 That brought you home and boldly did outdare
2669 The dangers of the time. You swore to us,
2670 And you did swear that oath at Doncaster,
2671 That you did nothing purpose ’gainst the state,
2672 45 Nor claim no further than your new-fall’n right,
2673 The seat of Gaunt, dukedom of Lancaster.
2674 To this we swore our aid. But in short space
2675 It rained down fortune show’ring on your head,
2676 And such a flood of greatness fell on you—
2677 50 What with our help, what with the absent king,
2678 What with the injuries of a wanton time,
2680 And the contrarious winds that held the King
2681 So long in his unlucky Irish wars
2682 55 That all in England did repute him dead—
2683 And from this swarm of fair advantages
2684 You took occasion to be quickly wooed
2685 To gripe the general sway into your hand,
2686 Forgot your oath to us at Doncaster;
2687 60 And being fed by us, you used us so
2688 As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo’s bird,
2689 Useth the sparrow—did oppress our nest,
2690 Grew by our feeding to so great a bulk
2691 That even our love durst not come near your sight
2692 65 For fear of swallowing; but with nimble wing
2693 We were enforced for safety sake to fly
2694 Out of your sight and raise this present head,
2695 Whereby we stand opposèd by such means
2696 As you yourself have forged against yourself
2697 70 By unkind usage, dangerous countenance,
2698 And violation of all faith and troth
2699 Sworn to us in your younger enterprise.
KING
2700 These things indeed you have articulate,
2701 Proclaimed at market crosses, read in churches,
2702 75 To face the garment of rebellion
2703 With some fine color that may please the eye
2704 Of fickle changelings and poor discontents,
2705 Which gape and rub the elbow at the news
2706 Of hurlyburly innovation.
2707 80 And never yet did insurrection want
2708 Such water colors to impaint his cause,
2709 Nor moody beggars starving for a time
2710 Of pellmell havoc and confusion.
PRINCE
2711 In both your armies there is many a soul
2712 85 Shall pay full dearly for this encounter
2714 The Prince of Wales doth join with all the world
2715 In praise of Henry Percy. By my hopes,
2716 This present enterprise set off his head,
2717 90 I do not think a braver gentleman,
2718 More active-valiant, or more valiant-young,
2719 More daring or more bold, is now alive
2720 To grace this latter age with noble deeds.
2721 For my part, I may speak it to my shame,
2722 95 I have a truant been to chivalry,
2723 And so I hear he doth account me too.
2724 Yet this before my father’s majesty:
2725 I am content that he shall take the odds
2726 Of his great name and estimation,
2727 100 And will, to save the blood on either side,
2728 Try fortune with him in a single fight.
KING
2729 And, Prince of Wales, so dare we venture thee,
2730 Albeit considerations infinite
2731 Do make against it.—No, good Worcester, no.
2732 105 We love our people well, even those we love
2733 That are misled upon your cousin’s part.
2734 And, will they take the offer of our grace,
2735 Both he and they and you, yea, every man
2736 Shall be my friend again, and I’ll be his.
2737 110 So tell your cousin, and bring me word
2738 What he will do. But if he will not yield,
2739 Rebuke and dread correction wait on us,
2740 And they shall do their office. So begone.
2741 We will not now be troubled with reply.
2742 115 We offer fair. Take it advisedly.
Worcester exits ⌜with Vernon.⌝
PRINCE
2743 It will not be accepted, on my life.
2744 The Douglas and the Hotspur both together
2745 Are confident against the world in arms.
2746 Hence, therefore, every leader to his charge,
2747 120 For on their answer will we set on them,
2748 And God befriend us as our cause is just.
They exit. Prince and Falstaff remain.
FALSTAFF 2749 Hal, if thou see me down in the battle and
2750 bestride me, so; ’tis a point of friendship.
PRINCE 2751 Nothing but a colossus can do thee that friendship.
2752 125 Say thy prayers, and farewell.
FALSTAFF 2753 I would ’twere bedtime, Hal, and all well.
PRINCE 2754 Why, thou owest God a death.⌜He exits.⌝
FALSTAFF 2755 ’Tis not due yet. I would be loath to pay Him
2756 before His day. What need I be so forward with
2757 130 Him that calls not on me? Well, ’tis no matter.
2758 Honor pricks me on. Yea, but how if honor prick me
2759 off when I come on? How then? Can honor set to a
2760 leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a
2761 wound? No. Honor hath no skill in surgery, then?
2762 135 No. What is honor? A word. What is in that word
2763 “honor”? What is that “honor”? Air. A trim reckoning.
2764 Who hath it? He that died o’ Wednesday. Doth
2765 he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. ’Tis insensible,
2766 then? Yea, to the dead. But will ⌜it⌝ not live with the
2767 140 living? No. Why? Detraction will not suffer it. Therefore,
2768 I’ll none of it. Honor is a mere scutcheon. And
2769 so ends my catechism.
He exits.
WORCESTER
2770 O no, my nephew must not know, Sir Richard,
2771 The liberal and kind offer of the King.
2772 ’Twere best he did.
WORCESTER 2773 Then are we all ⌜undone.⌝
2774 5 It is not possible, it cannot be
2775 The King should keep his word in loving us.
2776 He will suspect us still and find a time
2777 To punish this offense in other faults.
2778 ⌜Suspicion⌝ all our lives shall be stuck full of
2779 10 eyes,
2780 For treason is but trusted like the fox,
2781 Who, never so tame, so cherished and locked up,
2782 Will have a wild trick of his ancestors.
2783 Look how we can, or sad or merrily,
2784 15 Interpretation will misquote our looks,
2785 And we shall feed like oxen at a stall,
2786 The better cherished still the nearer death.
2787 My nephew’s trespass may be well forgot;
2788 It hath the excuse of youth and heat of blood,
2789 20 And an adopted name of privilege—
2790 A harebrained Hotspur governed by a spleen.
2791 All his offenses live upon my head
2792 And on his father’s. We did train him on,
2793 And his corruption being ta’en from us,
2794 25 We as the spring of all shall pay for all.
2795 Therefore, good cousin, let not Harry know
2796 In any case the offer of the King.
VERNON
2797 Deliver what you will; I’ll say ’tis so.
Enter ⌜Hotspur, Douglas, and their army.⌝
2798 Here comes your cousin.
HOTSPUR, ⌜to Douglas⌝ 2799 30My uncle is returned.
2800 Deliver up my Lord of Westmoreland.—
2801 Uncle, what news?
WORCESTER
2802 The King will bid you battle presently.
2803 Defy him by the Lord of Westmoreland.
HOTSPUR
2804 35 Lord Douglas, go you and tell him so.
DOUGLAS
2805 Marry, and shall, and very willingly.Douglas exits.
WORCESTER
2806 There is no seeming mercy in the King.
HOTSPUR
2807 Did you beg any? God forbid!
WORCESTER
2808 I told him gently of our grievances,
2809 40 Of his oath-breaking, which he mended thus
2810 By now forswearing that he is forsworn.
2811 He calls us “rebels,” “traitors,” and will scourge
2812 With haughty arms this hateful name in us.
Enter Douglas.
DOUGLAS
2813 Arm, gentlemen, to arms. For I have thrown
2814 45 A brave defiance in King Henry’s teeth,
2815 And Westmoreland, that was engaged, did bear it,
2816 Which cannot choose but bring him quickly on.
WORCESTER
2817 The Prince of Wales stepped forth before the King,
2818 And, nephew, challenged you to single fight.
HOTSPUR
2819 50 O, would the quarrel lay upon our heads,
2820 And that no man might draw short breath today
2821 But I and Harry Monmouth! Tell me, tell me,
2822 How showed his tasking? Seemed it in contempt?
VERNON
2823 No, by my soul. I never in my life
2824 55 Did hear a challenge urged more modestly,
2825 Unless a brother should a brother dare
2826 To gentle exercise and proof of arms.
2828 Trimmed up your praises with a princely tongue,
2829 60 Spoke your deservings like a chronicle,
2830 Making you ever better than his praise
2831 By still dispraising praise valued with you,
2832 And, which became him like a prince indeed,
2833 He made a blushing cital of himself,
2834 65 And chid his truant youth with such a grace
2835 As if he mastered there a double spirit
2836 Of teaching and of learning instantly.
2837 There did he pause, but let me tell the world:
2838 If he outlive the envy of this day,
2839 70 England did never owe so sweet a hope
2840 So much misconstrued in his wantonness.
HOTSPUR
2841 Cousin, I think thou art enamorèd
2842 On his follies. Never did I hear
2843 Of any prince so wild a liberty.
2844 75 But be he as he will, yet once ere night
2845 I will embrace him with a soldier’s arm
2846 That he shall shrink under my courtesy.—
2847 Arm, arm with speed, and, fellows, soldiers,
2848 friends,
2849 80 Better consider what you have to do
2850 Than I that have not well the gift of tongue
2851 Can lift your blood up with persuasion.
Enter a Messenger.
MESSENGER 2852 My lord, here are letters for you.
HOTSPUR 2853 I cannot read them now.—
2854 85 O gentlemen, the time of life is short;
2855 To spend that shortness basely were too long
2856 If life did ride upon a dial’s point,
2857 Still ending at the arrival of an hour.
2858 An if we live, we live to tread on kings;
2859 90 If die, brave death, when princes die with us.
2861 When the intent of bearing them is just.
Enter another ⌜Messenger.⌝
⌜SECOND⌝ MESSENGER
2862 My lord, prepare. The King comes on apace.
HOTSPUR
2863 I thank him that he cuts me from my tale,
2864 95 For I profess not talking. Only this:
2865 Let each man do his best. And here draw I a sword,
2866 Whose temper I intend to stain
2867 With the best blood that I can meet withal
2868 In the adventure of this perilous day.
2869 100 Now, Esperance! Percy! And set on.
2870 Sound all the lofty instruments of war,
2871 And by that music let us all embrace,
2872 For, heaven to Earth, some of us never shall
2873 A second time do such a courtesy.
Here they embrace. The trumpets sound.
⌜They exit.⌝
exits.⌝ Alarum to the battle. Then enter Douglas, and Sir
Walter Blunt, ⌜disguised as the King.⌝
BLUNT, ⌜as King⌝
2874 What is thy name that in ⌜the⌝ battle thus
2875 Thou crossest me? What honor dost thou seek
2876 Upon my head?
DOUGLAS 2877 Know then my name is Douglas,
2878 5 And I do haunt thee in the battle thus
2879 Because some tell me that thou art a king.
BLUNT, ⌜as King⌝ 2880 They tell thee true.
2881 The Lord of Stafford dear today hath bought
2882 Thy likeness, for instead of thee, King Harry,
2883 10 This sword hath ended him. So shall it thee,
2884 Unless thou yield thee as my prisoner.
BLUNT, ⌜as King⌝
2885 I was not born a yielder, thou proud Scot,
2886 And thou shalt find a king that will revenge
2887 Lord Stafford’s death.
They fight. Douglas kills Blunt.
Then enter Hotspur.
HOTSPUR
2888 15 O Douglas, hadst thou fought at Holmedon thus,
2889 I never had triumphed upon a Scot.
DOUGLAS
2890 All’s done, all’s won; here breathless lies the King.
HOTSPUR 2891 Where?
DOUGLAS 2892 Here.
HOTSPUR
2893 20 This, Douglas? No, I know this face full well.
2894 A gallant knight he was; his name was Blunt,
2895 Semblably furnished like the King himself.
DOUGLAS, ⌜addressing Blunt’s corpse⌝
2896 ⌜A⌝ fool go with thy soul whither it goes!
2897 A borrowed title hast thou bought too dear.
2898 25 Why didst thou tell me that thou wert a king?
HOTSPUR
2899 The King hath many marching in his coats.
DOUGLAS
2900 Now, by my sword, I will kill all his coats.
2901 I’ll murder all his wardrobe, piece by piece,
2902 Until I meet the King.
HOTSPUR 2903 30 Up and away!
2904 Our soldiers stand full fairly for the day.
⌜They exit.⌝
FALSTAFF 2905 Though I could ’scape shot-free at London,
2906 I fear the shot here. Here’s no scoring but upon
2907 the pate.—Soft, who are you? Sir Walter Blunt.
2908 35 There’s honor for you. Here’s no vanity. I am as hot
2909 as molten lead, and as heavy too. God keep lead out
2910 of me; I need no more weight than mine own
2911 bowels. I have led my ragamuffins where they are
2912 peppered. There’s not three of my hundred and fifty
2913 40 left alive, and they are for the town’s end, to beg
2914 during life. But who comes here?
Enter the Prince.
PRINCE
2915 What, stand’st thou idle here? Lend me thy sword.
2916 Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff
2917 Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies,
2918 45 Whose deaths are yet unrevenged. I prithee
2919 Lend me thy sword.
FALSTAFF 2920 O Hal, I prithee give me leave to breathe
2921 awhile. Turk Gregory never did such deeds in arms
2922 as I have done this day. I have paid Percy; I have
2923 50 made him sure.
PRINCE
2924 He is indeed, and living to kill thee.
2925 I prithee, lend me thy sword.
FALSTAFF 2926 Nay, before God, Hal, if Percy be alive, thou
2927 gett’st not my sword; but take my pistol, if thou
2928 55 wilt.
PRINCE
2929 Give it me. What, is it in the case?
FALSTAFF 2930 Ay, Hal, ’tis hot, ’tis hot. There’s that will
2931 sack a city.
The Prince draws it out, and finds it
to be a bottle of sack.
2932 What, is it a time to jest and dally now?
He throws the bottle at him ⌜and⌝ exits.
FALSTAFF 2933 60Well, if Percy be alive, I’ll pierce him. If he do
2934 come in my way, so; if he do not, if I come in his
2935 willingly, let him make a carbonado of me. I like not
2936 such grinning honor as Sir Walter hath. Give me
2937 life, which, if I can save, so: if not, honor comes
2938 65 unlooked for, and there’s an end.
⌜He exits. Blunt’s body is carried off.⌝
of Lancaster, ⌜and the⌝ Earl of Westmoreland.
KING
2939 I prithee, Harry, withdraw thyself. Thou bleedest
2940 too much.
2941 Lord John of Lancaster, go you with him.
LANCASTER
2942 Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too.
PRINCE
2943 5 I beseech your Majesty, make up,
2944 Lest your retirement do amaze your friends.
KING
2945 I will do so.—My Lord of Westmoreland,
2946 Lead him to his tent.
WESTMORELAND
2947 Come, my lord, I’ll lead you to your tent.
PRINCE
2948 10 Lead me, my lord? I do not need your help,
2949 And God forbid a shallow scratch should drive
2950 The Prince of Wales from such a field as this,
2951 Where stained nobility lies trodden on,
2952 And rebels’ arms triumph in massacres.
2953 15 We breathe too long. Come, cousin Westmoreland,
2954 Our duty this way lies. For God’s sake, come.
⌜Lancaster and Westmoreland exit.⌝
PRINCE
2955 By God, thou hast deceived me, Lancaster.
2956 I did not think thee lord of such a spirit.
2957 Before, I loved thee as a brother, John,
2958 20 But now I do respect thee as my soul.
KING
2959 I saw him hold Lord Percy at the point
2960 With lustier maintenance than I did look for
2961 Of such an ungrown warrior.
PRINCE
2962 O, this boy lends mettle to us all.He exits.
⌜Enter Douglas.⌝
DOUGLAS
2963 25 Another king! They grow like Hydra’s heads.—
2964 I am the Douglas, fatal to all those
2965 That wear those colors on them. What art thou
2966 That counterfeit’st the person of a king?
KING
2967 The King himself, who, Douglas, grieves at heart,
2968 30 So many of his shadows thou hast met
2969 And not the very king. I have two boys
2970 Seek Percy and thyself about the field,
2971 But, seeing thou fall’st on me so luckily,
2972 I will assay thee. And defend thyself.
DOUGLAS
2973 35 I fear thou art another counterfeit,
2974 And yet, in faith, thou bearest thee like a king.
2975 But mine I am sure thou art, whoe’er thou be,
2976 And thus I win thee.
They fight. The King being in danger,
enter Prince of Wales.
2977 Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like
2978 40 Never to hold it up again. The spirits
2979 Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt are in my arms.
2980 It is the Prince of Wales that threatens thee,
2981 Who never promiseth but he means to pay.
They fight. Douglas flieth.
2982 ⌜To King.⌝ Cheerly, my lord. How fares your Grace?
2983 45 Sir Nicholas Gawsey hath for succor sent,
2984 And so hath Clifton. I’ll to Clifton straight.
KING 2985 Stay and breathe awhile.
2986 Thou hast redeemed thy lost opinion
2987 And showed thou mak’st some tender of my life
2988 50 In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me.
PRINCE
2989 O God, they did me too much injury
2990 That ever said I hearkened for your death.
2991 If it were so, I might have let alone
2992 The insulting hand of Douglas over you,
2993 55 Which would have been as speedy in your end
2994 As all the poisonous potions in the world,
2995 And saved the treacherous labor of your son.
KING
2996 Make up to Clifton. I’ll to Sir Nicholas Gawsey.
King exits.
Enter Hotspur.
HOTSPUR
2997 If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth.
PRINCE
2998 60 Thou speak’st as if I would deny my name.
HOTSPUR
2999 My name is Harry Percy.
PRINCE 3000 Why then I see
3001 A very valiant rebel of the name.
3002 I am the Prince of Wales; and think not, Percy,
3004 Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere,
3005 Nor can one England brook a double reign
3006 Of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales.
HOTSPUR
3007 ⌜Nor⌝ shall it, Harry, for the hour is come
3008 70 To end the one of us, and would to God
3009 Thy name in arms were now as great as mine.
PRINCE
3010 I’ll make it greater ere I part from thee,
3011 And all the budding honors on thy crest
3012 I’ll crop to make a garland for my head.
HOTSPUR
3013 75 I can no longer brook thy vanities.They fight.
Enter Falstaff.
FALSTAFF 3014 Well said, Hal! To it, Hal! Nay, you shall find
3015 no boys’ play here, I can tell you.
Enter Douglas. He fighteth with Falstaff, ⌜who⌝ falls
down as if he were dead. ⌜Douglas exits.⌝ The Prince
killeth Percy.
HOTSPUR
3016 O Harry, thou hast robbed me of my youth.
3017 I better brook the loss of brittle life
3018 80 Than those proud titles thou hast won of me.
3019 They wound my thoughts worse than thy sword my
3020 flesh.
3021 But thoughts, the slaves of life, and life, time’s fool,
3022 And time, that takes survey of all the world,
3023 85 Must have a stop. O, I could prophesy,
3024 But that the earthy and cold hand of death
3025 Lies on my tongue. No, Percy, thou art dust,
3026 And food for—⌜He dies.⌝
PRINCE
3027 For worms, brave Percy. Fare thee well, great heart.
3029 When that this body did contain a spirit,
3030 A kingdom for it was too small a bound,
3031 But now two paces of the vilest earth
3032 Is room enough. This earth that bears thee dead
3033 95 Bears not alive so stout a gentleman.
3034 If thou wert sensible of courtesy,
3035 I should not make so dear a show of zeal.
3036 But let my favors hide thy mangled face;
⌜He covers Hotspur’s face.⌝
3037 And even in thy behalf I’ll thank myself
3038 100 For doing these fair rites of tenderness.
3039 Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven.
3040 Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave,
3041 But not remembered in thy epitaph.
He spieth Falstaff on the ground.
3042 What, old acquaintance, could not all this flesh
3043 105 Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell.
3044 I could have better spared a better man.
3045 O, I should have a heavy miss of thee
3046 If I were much in love with vanity.
3047 Death hath not struck so fat a deer today,
3048 110 Though many dearer in this bloody fray.
3049 Emboweled will I see thee by and by;
3050 Till then in blood by noble Percy lie.He exits.
Falstaff riseth up.
FALSTAFF 3051 Emboweled? If thou embowel me today, I’ll
3052 give you leave to powder me and eat me too
3053 115 tomorrow. ’Sblood, ’twas time to counterfeit, or
3054 that hot termagant Scot had paid me scot and lot
3055 too. Counterfeit? I lie. I am no counterfeit. To die is
3056 to be a counterfeit, for he is but the counterfeit of a
3057 man who hath not the life of a man; but to counterfeit
3058 120 dying when a man thereby liveth is to be no
3059 counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life
3060 indeed. The better part of valor is discretion, in the
3062 afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead.
3063 125 How if he should counterfeit too, and rise? By my
3064 faith, I am afraid he would prove the better counterfeit.
3065 Therefore I’ll make him sure, yea, and I’ll swear
3066 I killed him. Why may not he rise as well as I?
3067 Nothing confutes me but eyes, and nobody sees me.
3068 130 Therefore, sirrah, ⌜stabbing him⌝ with a new wound
3069 in your thigh, come you along with me.
He takes up Hotspur on his back.
Enter Prince ⌜and⌝ John of Lancaster.
PRINCE
3070 Come, brother John. Full bravely hast thou fleshed
3071 Thy maiden sword.
LANCASTER 3072 But soft, whom have we here?
3073 135 Did you not tell me this fat man was dead?
PRINCE 3074 I did; I saw him dead,
3075 Breathless and bleeding on the ground.—Art thou
3076 alive?
3077 Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight?
3078 140 I prithee, speak. We will not trust our eyes
3079 Without our ears. Thou art not what thou seem’st.
FALSTAFF 3080 No, that’s certain. I am not a double man.
3081 But if I be not Jack Falstaff, then am I a jack. There
3082 is Percy. If your father will do me any honor, so; if
3083 145 not, let him kill the next Percy himself. I look to be
3084 either earl or duke, I can assure you.
PRINCE
3085 Why, Percy I killed myself, and saw thee dead.
FALSTAFF 3086 Didst thou? Lord, Lord, how this world is
3087 given to lying. I grant you, I was down and out of
3088 150 breath, and so was he, but we rose both at an instant
3089 and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock. If I
3090 may be believed, so; if not, let them that should
3091 reward valor bear the sin upon their own heads. I’ll
3093 155 the thigh. If the man were alive and would deny
3094 it, zounds, I would make him eat a piece of my
3095 sword.
LANCASTER
3096 This is the strangest tale that ever I heard.
PRINCE
3097 This is the strangest fellow, brother John.—
3098 160 Come bring your luggage nobly on your back.
3099 For my part, if a lie may do thee grace,
3100 I’ll gild it with the happiest terms I have.
A retreat is sounded.
3101 The trumpet sounds retreat; the day is ⌜ours.⌝
3102 Come, brother, let us to the highest of the field
3103 165 To see what friends are living, who are dead.
They exit.
FALSTAFF 3104 I’ll follow, as they say, for reward. He that
3105 rewards me, God reward him. If I do grow great,
3106 I’ll grow less, for I’ll purge and leave sack and live
3107 cleanly as a nobleman should do.
He exits ⌜carrying Hotspur’s body.⌝
Lord John of Lancaster, Earl of Westmoreland, with
Worcester and Vernon prisoners, ⌜and Soldiers.⌝
KING
3108 Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke.—
3109 Ill-spirited Worcester, did not we send grace,
3110 Pardon, and terms of love to all of you?
3111 And wouldst thou turn our offers contrary,
3112 5 Misuse the tenor of thy kinsman’s trust?
3113 Three knights upon our party slain today,
3114 A noble earl, and many a creature else
3116 If, like a Christian, thou hadst truly borne
3117 10 Betwixt our armies true intelligence.
WORCESTER
3118 What I have done my safety urged me to.
3119 And I embrace this fortune patiently,
3120 Since not to be avoided it falls on me.
KING
3121 Bear Worcester to the death, and Vernon too.
3122 15 Other offenders we will pause upon.
⌜Worcester and Vernon exit, under guard.⌝
3123 How goes the field?
PRINCE
3124 The noble Scot, Lord Douglas, when he saw
3125 The fortune of the day quite turned from him,
3126 The noble Percy slain, and all his men
3127 20 Upon the foot of fear, fled with the rest,
3128 And, falling from a hill, he was so bruised
3129 That the pursuers took him. At my tent
3130 The Douglas is, and I beseech your Grace
3131 I may dispose of him.
KING 3132 25 With all my heart.
PRINCE
3133 Then, brother John of Lancaster, to you
3134 This honorable bounty shall belong.
3135 Go to the Douglas and deliver him
3136 Up to his pleasure, ransomless and free.
3137 30 His valors shown upon our crests today
3138 Have taught us how to cherish such high deeds,
3139 Even in the bosom of our adversaries.
LANCASTER
3140 I thank your Grace for this high courtesy,
3141 Which I shall give away immediately.
KING
3142 35 Then this remains, that we divide our power.
3143 You, son John, and my cousin Westmoreland,
3145 speed
3146 To meet Northumberland and the prelate Scroop,
3147 40 Who, as we hear, are busily in arms.
3148 Myself and you, son Harry, will towards Wales
3149 To fight with Glendower and the Earl of March.
3150 Rebellion in this land shall lose his sway,
3151 Meeting the check of such another day.
3152 45 And since this business so fair is done,
3153 Let us not leave till all our own be won.
They exit.