HENRY THE FOURTH PART 1

Act 4 Scene 1

(Enter Hotspur and the Earls of Worcester and Douglas)
l1l	Hotspur	 Well said, my noble Scot! If speaking truth
l2l		In this fine age were not thought flattery,
l3l		Such attribution should the Douglas have
l4l		As not a soldier of this season’s stamp
l5l		Should go so general current through the world.
l6l		By God, I cannot flatter, I do defy
l7l		The tongues of soothers, but a braver place
l8l		In my heart’s love hath no man than yourself.
l9l		Nay, task me to my word, approve me, lord.
l10l	Douglas	Thou art the king of honour.
l11l		No man so potent breathes upon the ground
l12l		But I will beard him.
	Hotspur	Do so, and ’tis well.
		(Enter a Messenger with letters)
l13l		What letters hast thou there? I can but thank you.
l14l	Messenger	These letters come from your father.
l15l	Hotspur	Letters from him? Why comes he not himself?
l16l	Messenger	He cannot come, my lord, he is grievous sick.
l17l	Hotspur	Zounds, how has he the leisure to be sick
l18l		In such a jostling time? Who leads his power?
l19l		Under whose government come they along?
l20l	Messenger	His letters bears his mind, not I, my lord.
		( 20 Hotspur reads the letter)
l21l	Worcester	 I prithee tell me, doth he keep his bed?
l22l	Messenger	He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth#
l23l		And at the time of my departure thence
l24l		He was much feared by his physicians.
l25l	Worcester	I would the state of time had first been whole
l26l		Ere he by sickness had been visited.
l27l		His health was never better worth than now.
l28l	Hotspur	Sick now? Droop now? This sickness doth infect
l29l		The very life-blood of our enterprise.
l30l		’Tis catching hither, even to our camp.
l31l		He writes me here that inward sickness stays him,
l32l		And that his friends by deputation
l33l		Could not so soon be drawn# nor did he think it meet
l34l		To lay so dangerous and dear a trust
l35l		On any soul removed but on his own.
l36l		Yet doth he give us bold advertisement
l37l		That with our small conjunction we should on,
l38l		To see how fortune is disposed to us#
l39l		For, as he writes, there is no quailing now,
l40l		Because the King is certainly possessed
l41l		Of all our purposes. What say you to it?
l42l	Worcester	Your father’s sickness is a maim to us.
l43l	Hotspur	A perilous gash, a very limb lopped off.
l44l		And yet, in faith, it is not. His present want
l45l		Seems more than we shall find it. Were it good
l46l		To set the exact wealth of all our states
l47l		All at one cast, to set so rich a main
l48l		On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?
l49l		It were not good, for therein should we read
l50l		The very bottom and the sole of hope,
l51l		The very list, the very utmost bound,
l52l		Of all our fortunes.
l53l	Douglas	Faith, and so we should, where now remains
l54l		A sweet reversion—we may boldly spend
l55l		Upon the hope of what is to come in.
l56l		A comfort of retirement lives in this.
l57l	Hotspur	A rendezvous, a home to fly unto,
l58l		If that the devil and mischance look big
l59l		Upon the maidenhead of our affairs.
l60l	Worcester	But yet I would your father had been here.
l61l		The quality and hair of our attempt
l62l		Brooks no division. It will be thought
l63l		By some that know not why he is away
l64l		That wisdom, loyalty, and mere dislike
l65l		Of our proceedings kept the Earl from hence#
l66l		And think how such an apprehension
l67l		May turn the tide of fearful faction,
l68l		And breed a kind of question in our cause.
l69l		For, well you know, we of the off’ring side
l70l		Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement,
l71l		And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence
l72l		The eye of reason may pry in upon us.
l73l		This absence of your father’s draws a curtain
l74l		That shows the ignorant a kind of fear
l75l		Before not dreamt of.
	Hotspur	You strain too far.
l76l		I rather of his absence make this use:
l77l		It lends a lustre, and more great opinion,
l78l		A larger dare to our great enterprise,
l79l		Than if the Earl were here# for men must think
l80l		If we without his help can make a head
l81l		To push against a kingdom, with his help
l82l		We shall o’erturn it topsy-turvy down.
l83l		Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole.
l84l	Douglas	As heart can think, there is not such a word
l85l		Spoke of in Scotland as this term of fear.
		(Enter Sir Richard Vernon)
l86l	Hotspur	 My cousin Vernon! Welcome, by my soul!
l87l	Vernon	Pray God my news be worth a welcome, lord.
l88l		The Earl of Westmorland, seven thousand strong,
l89l		Is marching hitherwards# with him Prince John.
l90l	Hotspur	No harm. What more?
	Vernon	And further I have learned
l91l		The King himself in person is set forth,
l92l		Or hitherwards intended speedily,
l93l		With strong and mighty preparation.
l94l	Hotspur	He shall be welcome too. Where is his son,
l95l		The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales,
l96l		And his comrades that daffed the world aside
l97l		And bid it pass?
	Vernon	All furnished, all in arms,
l98l		All plumed like ostriches, that with the wind
l99l		[]
l100l		Baiting like eagles having lately bathed,
l101l		Glittering in golden coats like images,
l102l		As full of spirit as the month of May,
l103l		And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer#
l104l		Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.
l105l		I saw young Harry with his beaver on,
l106l		His cuishes on his thighs, gallantly armed,
l107l		Rise from the ground like feathered Mercury,
l108l		And vaulted with such ease into his seat
l109l		As if an angel dropped down from the clouds
l110l		To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,
l111l		And witch the world with noble horsemanship.
l112l	Hotspur	No more, no more! Worse than the sun in March,
l113l		This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come!
l114l		They come like sacrifices in their trim,
l115l		And to the fire-eyed maid of smoky war
l116l		All hot and bleeding will we offer them.
l117l		The mailèd Mars shall on his altar sit
l118l		Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire
l119l		To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh,
l120l		And yet not ours! Come, let me taste my horse,
l121l		Who is to bear me like a thunderbolt
l122l		Against the bosom of the Prince of Wales.
l123l		Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse,
l124l		Meet and ne’er part till one drop down a corpse.
l125l		O, that Glyndwr were come!
	Vernon	There is more news.
l126l		I learned in Worcester, as I rode along,
l127l		He cannot draw his power this fourteen days.
l128l	Douglas	That’s the worst tidings that I hear of yet.
l129l	Worcester	Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound.
l130l	Hotspur	What may the King’s whole battle reach unto?
l131l	Vernon	To thirty thousand.
	Hotspur	Forty let it be.
l132l		My father and Glyndwr being both away,
l133l		The powers of us may serve so great a day.
l134l		Come, let us take a muster speedily.
l135l		Doomsday is near: die all, die merrily.
l136l	Douglas	Talk not of dying# I am out of fear
l137l		Of death or death’s hand for this one half year.
		(Exeunt)