Henry IV, Part 1 (Folger Shakespeare Library)

  Thou shalt find me tractable to any honest reason: thou seest

  I am pacified still. Nay, prithee be gone.--

  Exit Hostess

  Now Hal, to the news at court: for the robbery, lad, how is

  that answered?

  PRINCE HENRY O, my sweet beef, I must still be good angel to

  thee. The money is paid back again.

  FALSTAFF O, I do not like that paying back, 'tis a double labour.

  PRINCE HENRY I am good friends with my father and may do

  anything.

  FALSTAFF Rob me the exchequer the first thing thou dost, and

  do it with unwashed hands too.

  BARDOLPH Do, my lord.

  PRINCE HENRY I have procured thee, Jack, a charge of foot.

  FALSTAFF I would it had been of horse. Where shall I find one

  that can steal well? O, for a fine thief, of two-and-twenty or

  thereabout! I am heinously unprovided. Well, God be

  thanked for these rebels, they offend none but the virtuous. I

  laud them, I praise them.

  PRINCE HENRY Bardolph.

  BARDOLPH My lord?

  PRINCE HENRY Go bear this letter to Lord John of

  Lancaster,

  Gives letters

  To my brother John. This to my lord of Westmorland.--

  [Exit Bardolph]

  Go, Peto, to horse, for thou and I

  Have thirty miles to ride yet ere dinner time.--

  [Exit Peto]

  Jack, meet me tomorrow in the Temple hall

  At two o'clock in the afternoon.

  There shalt thou know thy charge and there receive

  Money and order for their furniture.

  The land is burning, Percy stands on high,

  And either they or we must lower lie.

  [Exit Prince Henry]

  FALSTAFF Rare words! Brave world! Hostess, my breakfast,

  come!

  O, I could wish this tavern were my drum!

  Exit

  Act 4 Scene 1

  running scene 11

  Location: the rebel camp near Shrewsbury

  Enter Harry Hotspur, Worcester and Douglas

  HOTSPUR Well said, my noble Scot. If speaking truth

  In this fine age were not thought flattery,

  Such attribution should the Douglas have,

  As not a soldier of this season's stamp

  Should go so general current through the world.

  By heaven, I cannot flatter: I defy

  The tongues of soothers. But a braver place

  In my heart's love hath no man than yourself.

  Nay, task me to my word, approve me, lord.

  DOUGLAS Thou art the king of honour:

  No man so potent breathes upon the ground

  But I will beard him.

  Enter a Messenger

  With letters

  HOTSPUR Do so, and 'tis well.--

  What letters hast there? -- I can but thank you.

  MESSENGER These letters come from your father.

  HOTSPUR Letters from him? Why comes he not himself?

  MESSENGER He cannot come, my lord, he is grievous sick.

  HOTSPUR How? Has he the leisure to be sick now

  In such a jostling time? Who leads his power?

  Under whose government come they along?

  MESSENGER His letters bears his mind, not I his mind.

  WORCESTER I prithee tell me, doth he keep his bed?

  MESSENGER He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth,

  And at the time of my departure thence

  He was much feared by his physician.

  WORCESTER I would the state of time had first been whole

  Ere he by sickness had been visited:

  His health was never better worth than now.

  HOTSPUR Sick now? Droop now? This sickness doth infect

  The very life-blood of our enterprise,

  'Tis catching hither, even to our camp.

  He writes me here that inward sickness --

  And that his friends by deputation could not

  So soon be drawn, nor did he think it meet

  To lay so dangerous and dear a trust

  On any soul removed but on his own.

  Yet doth he give us bold advertisement,

  That with our small conjunction we should on,

  To see how fortune is disposed to us,

  For, as he writes, there is no quailing now,

  Because the king is certainly possessed

  Of all our purposes. What say you to it?

  WORCESTER Your father's sickness is a maim to us.

  HOTSPUR A perilous gash, a very limb lopped off:

  And yet, in faith, it is not. His present want

  Seems more than we shall find it. Were it good

  To set the exact wealth of all our states

  All at one cast? To set so rich a main

  On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?

  It were not good, for therein should we read

  The very bottom and the soul of hope,

  The very list, the very utmost bound

  Of all our fortunes.

  DOUGLAS 'Faith, and so we should,

  Where now remains a sweet reversion,

  We may boldly spend upon the hope of what

  Is to come in.

  A comfort of retirement lives in this.

  HOTSPUR A rendezvous, a home to fly unto,

  If that the devil and mischance look big

  Upon the maidenhead of our affairs.

  WORCESTER But yet I would your father had been here.

  The quality and hair of our attempt

  Brooks no division: it will be thought

  By some, that know not why he is away,

  That wisdom, loyalty and mere dislike

  Of our proceedings kept the earl from hence.

  And think how such an apprehension

  May turn the tide of fearful faction

  And breed a kind of question in our cause,

  For well you know, we of the off'ring side

  Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement,

  And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence

  The eye of reason may pry in upon us:

  This absence of your father draws a curtain,

  That shows the ignorant a kind of fear

  Before not dreamt of.

  HOTSPUR You strain too far.

  I rather of his absence make this use:

  It lends a lustre and more great opinion,

  A larger dare to our great enterprise,

  Than if the earl were here, for men must think,

  If we without his help can make a head

  To push against the kingdom, with his help

  We shall o'erturn it topsy-turvy down.

  Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole.

  DOUGLAS As heart can think. There is not such a word

  Spoke of in Scotland as this dream of fear.

  Enter Sir Richard Vernon

  HOTSPUR My cousin Vernon, welcome, by my soul.

  VERNON Pray God my news be worth a welcome, lord.

  The Earl of Westmorland, seven thousand strong,

  Is marching hitherwards, with him Prince John.

  HOTSPUR No harm: what more?

  VERNON And further, I have learned,

  The king himself in person hath set forth,

  Or hitherwards intended speedily,

  With strong and mighty preparation.

  HOTSPUR He shall be welcome too. Where is his son,

  The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales,

  And his comrades that daffed the world aside

  And bid it pass?

  VERNON All furnished, all in arms,

  All plumed like estridges that with the wind

  Bated like eagles having lately bathed,

  Glittering in golden coats like images,

  As full of spirit as the month of May,
r />   And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer,

  Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.

  I saw young Harry with his beaver on,

  His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly armed,

  Rise from the ground like feathered Mercury,

  And vaulted with such ease into his seat,

  As if an angel dropped down from the clouds,

  To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus

  And witch the world with noble horsemanship.

  HOTSPUR No more, no more. Worse than the sun in March,

  This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come.

  They come like sacrifices in their trim,

  And to the fire-eyed maid of smoky war

  All hot and bleeding will we offer them:

  The mailed Mars shall on his altar sit

  Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire

  To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh

  And yet not ours. Come, let me take my horse,

  Who is to bear me like a thunderbolt

  Against the bosom of the Prince of Wales.

  Harry to Harry, shall hot horse to horse

  Meet and ne'er part till one drop down a corpse!

  O, that Glendower were come!

  VERNON There is more news:

  I learned in Worcester, as I rode along,

  He cannot draw his power this fourteen days.

  DOUGLAS That's the worst tidings that I hear of yet.

  WORCESTER Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound.

  HOTSPUR What may the king's whole battle reach unto?

  VERNON To thirty thousand.

  HOTSPUR Forty let it be.

  My father and Glendower being both away,

  The powers of us may serve so great a day.

  Come, let us take a muster speedily:

  Doomsday is near; die all, die merrily.

  DOUGLAS Talk not of dying. I am out of fear

  Of death or death's hand for this one-half year.

  Exeunt

  Act 4 Scene 2

  running scene 12

  Location: the road (they are traveling, probably along the Roman road Watling Street from London to Shrewsbury via Coventry, a Midlands town near Stratford-upon-Avon)

  Enter Falstaff and Bardolph

  FALSTAFF Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry. Fill me a

  bottle of sack. Our soldiers shall march through, we'll to

  Sutton Coldfield tonight.

  BARDOLPH Will you give me money, captain?

  FALSTAFF Lay out, lay out.

  BARDOLPH This bottle makes an angel.

  FALSTAFF An if it do, take it for thy labour. And if it make

  twenty, take them all, I'll answer the coinage. Bid my

  lieutenant Peto meet me at the town's end.

  BARDOLPH I will, captain. Farewell.

  Exit

  FALSTAFF If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a soused

  gurnet. I have misused the king's press damnably. I have got,

  in exchange of a hundred and fifty soldiers, three hundred

  and odd pounds. I press me none but good householders,

  yeoman's sons, inquire me out contracted bachelors, such

  as had been asked twice on the banns, such a commodity

  of warm slaves as had as lieve hear the devil as a drum;

  such as fear the report of a caliver worse than a struck fowl

  or a hurt wild duck. I pressed me none but such toasts-and-butter,

  with hearts in their bellies no bigger than pins'

  heads, and they have bought out their services. And now my

  whole charge consists of ancients, corporals, lieutenants,

  gentlemen of companies, slaves as ragged as Lazarus in the

  painted cloth, where the glutton's dogs licked his sores; and

  such as indeed were never soldiers, but discarded unjust

  servingmen, younger sons to younger brothers, revolted

  tapsters and ostlers trade-fallen, the cankers of a calm world

  and long peace, ten times more dishonourable ragged than

  an old-faced ancient; and such have I, to fill up the rooms of

  them that have bought out their services, that you would

  think that I had a hundred and fifty tattered prodigals lately

  come from swine-keeping, from eating draff and husks. A

  mad fellow met me on the way and told me I had unloaded

  all the gibbets and pressed the dead bodies. No eye hath seen

  such scarecrows. I'll not march through Coventry with

  them, that's flat. Nay, and the villains march wide betwixt

  the legs, as if they had gyves on; for indeed, I had the most of

  them out of prison. There's not a shirt and a half in all my

  company, and the half shirt is two napkins tacked together

  and thrown over the shoulders like a herald's coat without

  sleeves, and the shirt, to say the truth, stolen from my host of

  Saint Albans, or the red-nose innkeeper of Daventry. But

  that's all one, they'll find linen enough on every hedge.

  Enter the Prince and the Lord of Westmorland

  PRINCE HENRY How now, blown Jack? How now, quilt?

  FALSTAFF What, Hal? How now, mad wag? What a devil dost

  thou in Warwickshire? -- My good lord of Westmorland, I

  cry you mercy: I thought your honour had already been at

  Shrewsbury.

  WESTMORLAND 'Faith, Sir John, 'tis more than time that I were

  there, and you too, but my powers are there already. The

  king, I can tell you, looks for us all: we must away all tonight.

  FALSTAFF Tut, never fear me. I am as vigilant as a cat to steal

  cream.

  PRINCE HENRY I think to steal cream indeed, for thy theft hath

  already made thee butter. But tell me, Jack, whose fellows are

  these that come after?

  FALSTAFF Mine, Hal, mine.

  PRINCE HENRY I did never see such pitiful rascals.

  FALSTAFF Tut, tut, good enough to toss: food for powder, food

  for powder. They'll fill a pit as well as better. Tush, man,

  mortal men, mortal men.

  WESTMORLAND Ay, but, Sir John, methinks they are exceeding

  poor and bare, too beggarly.

  FALSTAFF Faith, for their poverty, I know not where they had

  that; and for their bareness, I am sure they never learned

  that of me.

  PRINCE HENRY No, I'll be sworn, unless you call three fingers on

  the ribs bare. But, sirrah, make haste. Percy is already in the

  field.

  FALSTAFF What, is the king encamped?

  WESTMORLAND He is, Sir John. I fear we shall stay too long.

  FALSTAFF Well,

  To the latter end of a fray and the beginning of a feast

  Fits a dull fighter and a keen guest.

  Exeunt

  Act 4 Scene 3

  running scene 13

  Location: the rebel camp near Shrewsbury

  Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Douglas and Vernon

  HOTSPUR We'll fight with him tonight.

  WORCESTER It may not be.

  DOUGLAS You give him then advantage.

  VERNON Not a whit.

  HOTSPUR Why say you so? Looks he not for supply?

  VERNON So do we.

  HOTSPUR His is certain, ours is doubtful.

  WORCESTER Good cousin, be advised, stir not tonight.

  VERNON Do not, my lord.

  DOUGLAS You do not counsel well:

  You speak it out of fear and cold heart.

  VERNON Do me no slander, Douglas: by my life,

  And I dare well maintain it with my life,

  If well-respected honour bid me on,

  I hold as little counsel with weak fear

  As you, my lord, or any Scot that this day lives.

&
nbsp; Let it be seen tomorrow in the battle

  Which of us fears.

  DOUGLAS Yea, or tonight.

  VERNON Content.

  HOTSPUR Tonight, say I.

  VERNON Come, come it may not be. I wonder much,

  Being men of such great leading as you are,

  That you foresee not what impediments

  Drag back our expedition: certain horse

  Of my cousin Vernon's are not yet come up,

  Your uncle Worcester's horse came but today,

  And now their pride and mettle is asleep,

  Their courage with hard labour tame and dull,

  That not a horse is half the half of himself.

  HOTSPUR So are the horses of the enemy

  In general, journey-bated and brought low.

  The better part of ours are full of rest.

  WORCESTER The number of the king exceedeth ours:

  For God's sake, cousin, stay till all come in.

  The trumpet sounds a parley

  Enter Sir Walter Blunt

  BLUNT I come with gracious offers from the king,

  If you vouchsafe me hearing and respect.

  HOTSPUR Welcome, Sir Walter Blunt, and would to God

  You were of our determination.

  Some of us love you well, and even those some

  Envy your great deservings and good name,

  Because you are not of our quality,

  But stand against us like an enemy.

  BLUNT And heaven defend but still I should stand so,

  So long as out of limit and true rule

  You stand against anointed majesty.

  But to my charge: the king hath sent to know

  The nature of your griefs, and whereupon

  You conjure from the breast of civil peace

  Such bold hostility, teaching his duteous land

  Audacious cruelty. If that the king

  Have any way your good deserts forgot,

  Which he confesseth to be manifold,

  He bids you name your griefs, and with all speed

  You shall have your desires with interest,

  And pardon absolute for yourself and these

  Herein misled by your suggestion.

  HOTSPUR The king is kind, and well we know the king

  Knows at what time to promise, when to pay.

  My father, my uncle and myself

  Did give him that same royalty he wears,

  And when he was not six and twenty strong,

  Sick in the world's regard, wretched and low,

  A poor unminded outlaw sneaking home,

  My father gave him welcome to the shore.

  And when he heard him swear and vow to God

  He came but to be Duke of Lancaster,

  To sue his livery and beg his peace,

  With tears of innocency and terms of zeal,

  My father, in kind heart and pity moved,

  Swore him assistance and performed it too.

  Now when the lords and barons of the realm

  Perceived Northumberland did lean to him,

  The more and less came in with cap and knee,

  Met him in boroughs, cities, villages,

  Attended him on bridges, stood in lanes,

  Laid gifts before him, proffered him their oaths,