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 HIV-1.

               The First part of King Henry the Fourth

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

KING HENRY the fourth
HAL, Harry Prince of Wales   }
Lord John of LANCASTER       }  King Henry's sons
Earl of WESTMORLAND
Sir Walter BLUNT

Earl of WORCESTER
Percy, Earl of NORTHUMBERLAND, his brother
Harry Percy, known as HOTSPUR,  Northumberland's son
Kate, LADY PERCY, Hotspur's wife
Lord Edmund MORTIMER, Earl of March, Lady Percy's brother
LADY MORTIMER, his wife
Owen GLENDOWER, Lady Mortimer's father
Earl of DOUGLAS
Sir Richard VERNON
Scroop, ARCHBISHOP of York
SIR MICHAEL, a member of the Archbishop's household

SIR JOHN Falstaff
Edward POINS, (Ned)
BARDOLPH
PETO
Mistress Quickly, HOSTESS of a tavern in Eastcheap
FRANCIS, a drawer
VINTNER

GADSHILL
CARRIERS
CHAMBERLAIN
OSTLER

TRAVELLERS
SHERIFF
MESSENGERS
SERVANT
Lords, soldiers


ACT I   HENRY IV part 1


1.1
                Enter King Henry, Lord John of Lancaster, and the
                Earl of Westmorland, with other lords
KING HENRY
    So shaken as we are, so wan with care,
    Find we a time for frighted peace to pant
    And breathe short-winded accents of new broils
    To be commenced in strands afar remote.
    No more the thirsty entrance of this soil     5
    Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood.
    No more shall trenching war channel her fields,
    Nor bruise her flow'rets with the armed hoofs
    Of hostile paces. Those opposed eyes,
    Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,    10
    All of one nature, of one substance bred,
    Did lately meet in the intestine shock
    And furious close of civil butchery,
    Shall now in mutual well-beseeming ranks
    March all one way, and be no more opposed     15
    Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies.
    The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife,
    No more shall cut his master. Therefore, friends,
    As far as to the sepulchre of Christ-
    Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross     20
    We are impressed and engaged to fight-
    Forthwith a power of English shall we levy,
    Whose arms were moulded in their mothers' womb
    To chase these pagans in those holy fields
    Over whose acres walked those blessed feet     25
    Which fourteen hundred years ago were nailed,
    For our advantage, on the bitter cross.
    But this our purpose now is twelve month old,
    And bootless 'tis to tell you we will go.
    Therefor we meet not now. Then let me hear     30
    Of you, my gentle cousin Westmorland,
    What yesternight our Council did decree
    In forwarding this dear expedience.
WESTMORLAND
    My liege, this haste was hot in question,
    And many limits of the charge set down     35
    But yesternight, when all athwart there came
    A post from Wales, loaden with heavy news,
    Whose worst was that the noble Mortimer,
    Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight
    Against the irregular and wild Glendower,     40
    Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken,
    A thousand of his people butchered,
    Upon whose dead corpse' there was such misuse,
    Such beastly shameless transformation,
    By those Welshwomen done as may not be     45
    Without much shame retold or spoken of.
KING HENRY
    It seems then that the tidings of this broil
    Brake off our business for the Holy Land.
WESTMORLAND
    This matched with other did, my gracious lord,
    For more uneven and unwelcome news     50
    Came from the north, and thus it did import:
    On Holy-rood day the gallant Hotspur there-
    Young Harry Percy-and brave Archibald,
    That ever valiant and approved Scot,
    At Holmedon met,        55
    Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour,
    As by discharge of their artillery
    And shape of likelihood the news was told,
    For he that brought them in the very heat
    And pride of their contention did take horse,    60
    Uncertain of the issue any way.
KING HENRY
    Here is a dear, a true industrious friend,
    Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse,
    Stained with the variation of each soil
    Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours,     65
    And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news.
    The Earl of Douglas is discomfited.
    Ten thousand bold Scots, two-and-twenty knights,
    Balked in their own blood did Sir Walter see
    On Holmedon's plains. Of prisoners Hotspur took    70
    Mordake the Earl of Fife and eldest son
    To beaten Douglas, and the Earl of Athol,
    Of Moray, Angus, and Menteith,
    And is not this an honourable spoil,
    A gallant prize? Ha, cousin, is it not?     75
WESTMORLAND
    In faith, it is a conquest for a prince to boast of.
KING HENRY
    Yea, there thou mak'st me sad, and mak'st me sin
    In envy that my lord Northumberland
    Should be the father to so blest a son-
    A son who is the theme of honour's tongue,     80
    Amongst a grove the very straightest plant,
    Who is sweet Fortune's minion and her pride-
    Whilst I by looking on the praise of him
    See riot and dishonour stain the brow
    Of my young Harry. O, that it could be proved     85
    That some night-tripping fairy had exchanged
    In cradle clothes our children where they lay,
    And called mine Percy, his Plantagenet!
    Then would I have his Harry, and he mine.
    But let him from my thoughts. What think you, coz,   90
    Of this young Percy's pride? The prisoners
    Which he in this adventure hath surprised
    To his own use he keeps, and sends me word
    I shall have none but Mordake Earl of Fife.
WESTMORLAND
    This is his uncle's teaching. This is Worcester,     95
    Malevolent to you in all aspects,
    Which makes him prune himself, and bristle up
    The crest of youth against your dignity.
KING HENRY
    But I have sent for him to answer this,
    And for this cause awhile we must neglect    100
    Our holy purpose to Jerusalem.
    Cousin, on Wednesday next our Council we
    Will hold at Windsor. So inform the lords.
    But come yourself with speed to us again,
    For more is to be said and to be done     105
    Than out of anger can be uttered.
WESTMORLAND
    I will, my liege.
                Exeunt King Henry, Lancaster, and other
                lords at one door, Westmorland at another

1.2
                Enter Harry Prince of Wales and Sir John Falstaff
SIR JOHN
    Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?
HAL
    Thou art so fat-witted with drinking of old
    sack, and unbuttoning thee after supper, and sleeping
    upon benches after noon, that thou hast forgotten to
    demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know.     5
    What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the day?
    Unless hours were cups of sack, and minutes capons,
    and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the signs
    of leaping-houses, and the blessed sun himself a fair
    hot wench in flame-coloured taffeta, I see no reason    10
    why thou shouldst be so superfluous to demand the
    time of the day.
SIR JOHN
    Indeed you come near me now, Hal, for we that
    take purses go by the moon and the seven stars, and
    not `By Phoebus, he, that wand'ring knight so fair'    15
    And I prithee, sweet wag, when thou art a king, as
    God save thy grace-`majesty' I should say, for grace
    thou wilt have none-
HAL
    What, none?
SIR JOHN
    No, by my troth, not so much as will serve to     20
    be prologue to an egg and butter.
HAL
    Well, how then? Come, roundly, roundly.
SIR JOHN
    Marry then, sweet wag, when thou art king let
    not us that are squires of the night's body be called
    thieves of the day's beauty. Let us be `Diana's foresters'  25
    `gentlemen of the shade', `minions of the moon', and
    let men say we be men of good government, being
    governed, as the sea is, by our noble and chaste mistress
    the moon, under whose countenance we steal.
HAL
    Thou sayst well, and it holds well too, for     30
    the fortune of us that are the moon's men doth ebb
    and flow like the sea, being governed as the sea is by
    the moon. As for proof now: a purse of gold most
    resolutely snatched on Monday night, and most
    dissolutely spent on Tuesday morning, got with     35
    swearing `lay by!', and spent with crying `bring in!',
    now in as low an ebb as the foot of the ladder, and by
    and by in as high a flow as the ridge of the gallows.
SIR JOHN
    By the Lord, thou sayst true, lad, and is not my
    Hostess of the tavern a most sweet wench?     40
HAL
    As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the
    castle, and is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of
    durance?
SIR JOHN
    How now, how now, mad wag? What, in thy
    quips and thy quiddities? What a plague have I to do   45
    with a buff jerkin?
HAL
    Why, what a pox have I to do with
    my Hostess of the tavern?
SIR JOHN
    Well, thou hast called her to a reckoning many a time and oft.
HAL
    Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part?
SIR JOHN
    No, I'll give thee thy due, thou hast paid all there.
HAL
    Yea, and elsewhere so far as my coin would
    stretch, and where it would not, I have used my credit.   55
SIR JOHN
    Yea, and so used it that were it not here apparent
    that thou art heir apparent-but I prithee, sweet wag,
    shall there be gallows standing in England when thou
    art king, and resolution thus fubbed as it is with the
    rusty curb of old father Antic the law? Do not thou     60
    when thou art king hang a thief.
HAL
    No, thou shalt.
SIR JOHN
    Shall I? O, rare! By the Lord, I'll be a brave judge!
HAL
    Thou judgest false already. I mean thou     65
    shalt have the hanging of the thieves, and so become
    a rare hangman.
SIR JOHN
    Well, Hal, well, and in some sort it jumps with
    my humour as well as waiting in the court, I can tell
    you.                    70
HAL
    For obtaining of suits?
SIR JOHN
    Yea, for obtaining of suits, whereof the hangman
    hath no lean wardrobe. 'Sblood, I am as melancholy
    as a gib cat, or a lugged bear.
HAL
    Or an old lion, or a lover's lute.     75
SIR JOHN
    Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe.
HAL
    What sayst thou to a hare, or the
    melancholy of Moor-ditch?
SIR JOHN
    Thou hast the most unsavoury similes, and art
    indeed the most comparative, rascalliest sweet young    80
    Prince. But Hal, I prithee trouble me no more with
    vanity. I would to God thou and I knew where a
    commodity of good names were to be bought. An old
    lord of the Council rated me the other day in the street
    about you, sir, but I marked him not, and yet he talked    85
    very wisely, but I regarded him not, and yet he talked
    wisely, and in the street too.
HAL
    Thou didst well, for wisdom cries out in
    the streets, and no man regards it.
SIR JOHN
    O, thou hast damnable iteration, and art indeed    90
    able to corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm
    upon me, Hal, God forgive thee for it. Before I knew
    thee, Hal, I knew nothing, and now am I, if a man
    should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked.
    I must give over this life, and I will give it over. By the   95
    Lord, an I do not, I am a villain. I'll be damned for
    never a king's son in Christendom.
HAL
    Where shall we take a purse tomorrow, Jack?
SIR JOHN
    Zounds, where thou wilt, lad! I'll make one, an    100
    I do not, call me villain and baffle me.
HAL
    I see a good amendment of life in thee,
    from praying to purse-taking.
SIR JOHN
    Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal. 'Tis no sin for
    a man to labour in his vocation.     105
                Enter Poins
    Poins! Now shall we know if Gadshill have set a match.
    O, if men were to be saved by merit, what hole in hell
    were hot enough for him? This is the most omnipotent
    villain that ever cried `Stand!' to a true man.
HAL
    Good morrow, Ned.     110
POINS
    Good morrow, sweet Hal.  (To Sir John)  What says
    Monsieur Remorse? What says Sir John, sack-and-
    sugar Jack? How agrees the devil and thee about thy
    soul, that thou soldest him on Good Friday last, for a
    cup of Madeira and a cold capon's leg?     115
HAL
    Sir John stands to his word, the devil shall
    have his bargain, for he was never yet a breaker of
    proverbs: he will give the devil his due.
POINS   (to Sir John)
    Then art thou damned for keeping thy word with the devil.
HAL
    Else he had been damned for cozening the devil.
POINS
    But my lads, my lads, tomorrow morning by four
    o'clock early, at Gads Hill, there are pilgrims going to
    Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders riding to    125
    London with fat purses. I have visors for you all, you
    have horses for yourselves. Gadshill lies tonight in
    Rochester. I have bespoke supper tomorrow night in
    Eastcheap. We may do it as secure as sleep. If you will
    go, I will stuff your purses full of crowns, if you will
    not, tarry at home and be hanged.
SIR JOHN
    Hear ye, Edward, if I tarry at home and go not,
    I'll hang you for going.
POINS
    You will, chops?
SIR JOHN
    Hal, wilt thou make one?     135
HAL
    Who, I rob? I a thief? Not I, by my faith.
SIR JOHN
    There's neither honesty, manhood, nor good
    fellowship in thee, nor thou camest not of the blood
    royal, if thou darest not stand for ten shillings.
HAL
    Well then, once in my days I'll be a madcap.    140
SIR JOHN
    Why, that's well said.
HAL
    Well, come what will, I'll tarry at home.
SIR JOHN
    By the Lord, I'll be a traitor then, when thou
    art king.               145
HAL
    I care not.
POINS
    Sir John, I prithee leave the Prince and me alone.
    I will lay him down such reasons for this adventure
    that he shall go.
SIR JOHN
    Well, God give thee the spirit of persuasion and     150
    him the ears of profiting, that what thou speakest may
    move and what he hears may be believed, that the true
    prince may, for recreation' sake, prove a false thief, for
    the poor abuses of the time want countenance. Farewell.
    You shall find me in Eastcheap.     155
HAL
    Farewell, the latter spring, farewell, All-hallown summer.
                Exit Sir John
POINS
    Now, my good sweet honey lord, ride with us
    tomorrow. I have a jest to execute that I cannot manage
    alone. Falstaff, Harvey, Russell, and Gadshill shall rob   160
    those men that we have already waylaid-yourself and
    I will not be there - and when they have the booty, if
    you and I do not rob them, cut this head off from my
    shoulders.
HAL
    But how shall we part with them in setting forth?    165
POINS
    Why, we will set forth before or after them and
    appoint them a place of meeting, wherein it is at our
    pleasure to fail. And then will they adventure upon the
    exploit themselves, which they shall have no sooner     170
    achieved but we'll set upon them.
HAL
    Ay, but 'tis like that they will know us by
    our horses, by our habits, and by every other
    appointment, to be ourselves.
POINS
    Tut, our horses they shall not see - I'll tie them in   175
    the wood, our visors we will change after we leave
    them, and, sirrah, I have cases of buckram for the
    nonce, to immask our noted outward garments.
HAL
    But I doubt they will be too hard for us.
POINS
    Well, for two of them, I know them to be as true     180
    bred cowards as ever turned back, and for the third,
    if he fight longer than he sees reason, I'll forswear
    arms. The virtue of this jest will be the incomprehensible
    lies that this same fat rogue will tell us when we meet
    at supper: how thirty at least he fought with, what     185
    wards, what blows, what extremities he endured, and
    in the reproof of this lives the jest.
HAL
    Well, I'll go with thee. Provide us all things
    necessary, and meet me tomorrow night in Eastcheap,
    there I'll sup. Farewell.     190
POINS
    Farewell, my lord.
                Exit
HAL
    I know you all, and will a while uphold
    The unyoked humour of your idleness.
    Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
    Who doth permit the base contagious clouds    195
    To smother up his beauty from the world,
    That when he please again to be himself,
    Being wanted he may be more wondered at
    By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
    Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.     200
    If all the year were playing holidays,
    To sport would be as tedious as to work,
    But when they seldom come, they wished-for come,
    And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
    So when this loose behaviour I throw off     205
    And pay the debt I never promised,
    By how much better than my word I am,
    By so much shall I falsify men's hopes,
    And like bright metal on a sullen ground,
    My reformation, glitt'ring o'er my fault,     210
    Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes
    Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
    I'll so offend to make offence a skill,
    Redeeming time when men think least I will.
                Exit


1.3
                Enter the King, the Earls of Northumberland and
                Worcester, Hotspur, Sir Walter Blunt, with lords
KING HENRY
    My blood hath been too cold and temperate,
    Unapt to stir at these indignities,
    And you have found me, for accordingly
    You tread upon my patience, but be sure
    I will from henceforth rather be myself,     5
    Mighty and to be feared, than my condition,
    Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down,
    And therefore lost that title of respect
    Which the proud soul ne'er pays but to the proud.
WORCESTER
    Our house, my sovereign liege, little deserves    10
    The scourge of greatness to be used on it,
    And that same greatness too, which our own hands
    Have holp to make so portly.
NORTHUMBERLAND
    My lord-
KING HENRY
    Worcester, get thee gone, for I do see
    Danger and disobedience in thine eye.     15
    O sir, your presence is too bold and peremptory,
    And majesty might never yet endure
    The moody frontier of a servant brow.
    You have good leave to leave us. When we need
    Your use and counsel we shall send for you.     20
                Exit Worcester
    You were about to speak.
NORTHUMBERLAND
    Yea, my good lord.
    Those prisoners in your highness' name demanded,
    Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took,
    Were, as he says, not with such strength denied
    As was delivered to your majesty,     25
    Who either through envy or misprision
    Was guilty of this fault, and not my son.
HOTSPUR
    My liege, I did deny no prisoners,
    But I remember, when the fight was done,
    When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,     30
    Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
    Came there a certain lord, neat and trimly dressed,
    Fresh as a bridegroom, and his chin, new-reaped,
    Showed like a stubble-land at harvest-home.
    He was perfumed like a milliner,     35
    And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held
    A pouncet-box, which ever and anon
    He gave his nose and took't away again-
    Who therewith angry, when it next came there
    Took it in snuff-and still he smiled and talked,    40
    And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
    He called them untaught knaves, unmannerly
    To bring a slovenly unhandsome corpse
    Betwixt the wind and his nobility.
    With many holiday and lady terms     45
    He questioned me, amongst the rest demanded
    My prisoners in your majesty's behalf.
    I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold-
    To be so pestered with a popinjay!-
    Out of my grief and my impatience     50
    Answered neglectingly, I know not what-
    He should, or should not-for he made me mad
    To see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet,
    And talk so like a waiting gentlewoman
    Of guns, and drums, and wounds, God save the mark!   55
    And telling me the sovereign'st thing on earth
    Was parmacity for an inward bruise,
    And that it was great pity, so it was,
    This villainous saltpetre should be digged
    Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,     60
    Which many a good tall fellow had destroyed
    So cowardly, and but for these vile guns
    He would himself have been a soldier.
    This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord,
    Made me to answer indirectly, as I said,     65
    And I beseech you, let not his report
    Come current for an accusation
    Betwixt my love and your high majesty.
BLUNT
    The circumstance considered, good my lord,
    Whate'er Lord Harry Percy then had said     70
    To such a person, and in such a place,
    At such a time, with all the rest retold,
    May reasonably die, and never rise
    To do him wrong or any way impeach
    What then he said, so he unsay it now.     75
KING HENRY
    Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners,
    But with proviso and exception
    That we at our own charge shall ransom straight
    His brother-in-law the foolish Mortimer,
    Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betrayed     80
    The lives of those that he did lead to fight
    Against that great magician, damned Glendower-
    Whose daughter, as we hear, the Earl of March
    Hath lately married. Shall our coffers, then,
    Be emptied to redeem a traitor home?     85
    Shall we buy treason, and indent with fears
    When they have lost and forfeited themselves?
    No, on the barren mountains let him starve,
    For I shall never hold that man my friend
    Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost    90
    To ransom home revolted Mortimer-
HOTSPUR
    Revolted Mortimer?
    He never did fall off, my sovereign liege,
    But by the chance of war. To prove that true
    Needs no more but one tongue for all those wounds,   95
    Those mouthed wounds, which valiantly he took
    When on the gentle Severn's sedgy bank,
    In single opposition, hand to hand,
    He did confound the best part of an hour
    In changing hardiment with great Glendower.     100
    Three times they breathed, and three times did they drink,
    Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood,
    Who, then affrighted with their bloody looks,
    Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds,
    And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank,    105
    Bloodstained with these valiant combatants.
    Never did bare and rotten policy
    Colour her working with such deadly wounds,
    Nor never could the noble Mortimer
    Receive so many, and all willingly.     110
    Then let not him be slandered with revolt.
KING HENRY
    Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou dost belie him.
    He never did encounter with Glendower. I tell thee,
    He durst as well have met the devil alone
    As Owen Glendower for an enemy.     115
    Art thou not ashamed? But, sirrah, henceforth
    Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer.
    Send me your prisoners with the speediest means,
    Or you shall hear in such a kind from me
    As will displease you.-My lord Northumberland,    120
    We license your departure with your son.
    Send us your prisoners, or you'll hear of it.
                Exeunt all but Hotspur and Northumberland
HOTSPUR
    An if the devil come and roar for them
    I will not send them. I will after straight
    And tell him so, for I will ease my heart,    125
    Although it be with hazard of my head.
NORTHUMBERLAND
    What, drunk with choler? Stay and pause awhile.
                Enter the Earl of Worcester
    Here comes your uncle.
HOTSPUR
    Speak of Mortimer?
    Zounds, I will speak of him, and let my soul
    Want mercy if I do not join with him.     130
    In his behalf I'll empty all these veins,
    And shed my dear blood drop by drop in the dust,
    But I will lift the downfall Mortimer
    As high in the air as this unthankful King,
    As this ingrate and cankered Bolingbroke.     135
NORTHUMBERLAND
    Brother, the King hath made your nephew mad.
WORCESTER
    Who struck this heat up after I was gone?
HOTSPUR
    He will forsooth have all my prisoners,
    And when I urged the ransom once again
    Of my wife's brother, then his cheek looked pale,   140
    And on my face he turned an eye of death,
    Trembling even at the name of Mortimer.
WORCESTER
    I cannot blame him: was not he proclaimed
    By Richard, that dead is, the next of blood?
NORTHUMBERLAND
    He was, I heard the proclamation.     145
    And then it was when the unhappy King,
    Whose wrongs in us God pardon, did set forth
    Upon his Irish expedition,
    From whence he, intercepted, did return
    To be deposed, and shortly murdered.     150
WORCESTER
    And for whose death we in the world's wide mouth
    Live scandalized and foully spoken of.
HOTSPUR
    But soft, I pray you, did King Richard then
    Proclaim my brother Edmund Mortimer
    Heir to the crown?
NORTHUMBERLAND
    He did, myself did hear it.     155
HOTSPUR
    Nay, then I cannot blame his cousin King
    That wished him on the barren mountains starve.
    But shall it be that you that set the crown
    Upon the head of this forgetful man,
    And for his sake wear the detested blot     160
    Of murderous subornation, shall it be
    That you a world of curses undergo,
    Being the agents or base second means,
    The cords, the ladder, or the hangman, rather?
    O, pardon me that I descend so low     165
    To show the line and the predicament
    Wherein you range under this subtle King!
    Shall it for shame be spoken in these days,
    Or fill up chronicles in time to come,
    That men of your nobility and power     170
    Did gage them both in an unjust behalf,
    As both of you, God pardon it, have done:
    To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose,
    And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke?
    And shall it in more shame be further spoken     175
    That you are fooled, discarded, and shook off
    By him for whom these shames ye underwent?
    No, yet time serves wherein you may redeem
    Your banished honours, and restore yourselves
    Into the good thoughts of the world again,     180
    Revenge the jeering and disdained contempt
    Of this proud King, who studies day and night
    To answer all the debt he owes to you
    Even with the bloody payment of your deaths.
    Therefore, I say-
WORCESTER
    Peace, cousin, say no more.     185
    And now I will unclasp a secret book,
    And to your quick-conceiving discontents
    I'll read you matter deep and dangerous,
    As full of peril and adventurous spirit
    As to o'erwalk a current roaring loud    190
    On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.
HOTSPUR
    If he fall in, good night, or sink or swim.
    Send danger from the east unto the west,
    So honour cross it from the north to south,
    And let them grapple. O, the blood more stirs    195
    To rouse a lion than to start a hare!
NORTHUMBERLAND   (to Worcester)
    Imagination of some great exploit
    Drives him beyond the bounds of patience.
HOTSPUR
    By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap
    To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon,    200
    Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
    Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
    And pluck up drowned honour by the locks,
    So he that doth redeem her thence might wear,
    Without corrival, all her dignities.     205
    But out upon this half-faced fellowship!
WORCESTER   (to Northumberland)
    He apprehends a world of figures here,
    But not the form of what he should attend.
    (To Hotspur)   Good cousin, give me audience for a while,
    And list to me.         210
HOTSPUR
    I cry you mercy.
WORCESTER
    Those same noble Scots that are your prisoners-
HOTSPUR
    I'll keep them all.
    By God, he shall not have a Scot of them,
    No, if a scot would save his soul he shall not.
    I'll keep them, by this hand.
WORCESTER
    You start away,     215
    And lend no ear unto my purposes.
    Those prisoners you shall keep.
HOTSPUR
    Nay, I will, that's flat.
    He said he would not ransom Mortimer,
    Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer,
    But I will find him when he lies asleep,    220
    And in his ear I'll hollo `Mortimer!'
    Nay, I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak
    Nothing but `Mortimer', and give it him
    To keep his anger still in motion.
WORCESTER
    Hear you, cousin, a word.     225
HOTSPUR
    All studies here I solemnly defy,
    Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke.
    And that same sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales-
    But that I think his father loves him not
    And would be glad he met with some mischance-   230
    I would have him poisoned with a pot of ale.
WORCESTER
    Farewell, kinsman. I'll talk to you
    When you are better tempered to attend.
NORTHUMBERLAND   (to Hotspur)
    Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool
    Art thou to break into this woman's mood,     235
    Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own!
HOTSPUR
    Why, look you, I am whipped and scourged with rods,
    Nettled and stung with pismires, when I hear
    Of this vile politician Bolingbroke.
    In Richard's time-what d'ye call the place?    240
    A plague upon't, it is in Gloucestershire.
    'Twas where the madcap Duke his uncle kept-
    His uncle York-where I first bowed my knee
    Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke.
    'Sblood, when you and he came back from Ravenspurgh.
NORTHUMBERLAND
    At Berkeley castle.
HOTSPUR
    You say true.
    Why, what a candy deal of courtesy
    This fawning greyhound then did proffer me!
    `Look when his infant fortune came to age',
    And `gentle Harry Percy', and `kind cousin'     250
    O, the devil take such cozeners!-God forgive me.
    Good uncle, tell your tale, I have done.
WORCESTER
    Nay, if you have not, to't again.
    We'll stay your leisure.
HOTSPUR
    I have done, i'faith.
WORCESTER
    Then once more to your Scottish prisoners.     255
    Deliver them up without their ransom straight,
    And make the Douglas' son your only mean
    For powers in Scotland, which, for divers reasons
    Which I shall send you written, be assured
    Will easily be granted. (To Northumberland)  You, my lord,
    Your son in Scotland being thus employed,
    Shall secretly into the bosom creep
    Of that same noble prelate well-beloved, the Archbishop.
HOTSPUR
    Of York, is't not?
WORCESTER
    True, who bears hard
    His brother's death at Bristol, the Lord Scroop.    265
    I speak not this in estimation,
    As what I think might be, but what I know
    Is ruminated, plotted, and set down,
    And only stays but to behold the face
    Of that occasion that shall bring it on.    270
HOTSPUR
    I smell it, upon my life, it will do well!
NORTHUMBERLAND
    Before the game is afoot thou still lett'st slip.
HOTSPUR
    Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot-
    And then the power of Scotland and of York
    To join with Mortimer, ha?
WORCESTER
    And so they shall.     275
HOTSPUR
    In faith, it is exceedingly well aimed.
WORCESTER
    And 'tis no little reason bids us speed
    To save our heads by raising of a head,
    For, bear ourselves as even as we can,
    The King will always think him in our debt,    280
    And think we think ourselves unsatisfied
    Till he hath found a time to pay us home.
    And see already how he doth begin
    To make us strangers to his looks of love.
HOTSPUR
    He does, he does. We'll be revenged on him.    285
WORCESTER
    Cousin, farewell. No further go in this
    Than I by letters shall direct your course.
    When time is ripe, which will be suddenly,
    I'll steal to Glendower and Lord Mortimer,
    Where you and Douglas and our powers at once,    290
    As I will fashion it, shall happily meet,
    To bear our fortunes in our own strong arms,
    Which now we hold at much uncertainty.
NORTHUMBERLAND
    Farewell, good brother. We shall thrive, I trust.
HOTSPUR
    Uncle, adieu. O, let the hours be short     295
    Till fields and blows and groans applaud our sport!
                Exeunt Worcester at one door, Northumberland
                and Hotspur at another

ACT II  Henry IV part 1

2.1
                Enter a Carrier, with a lantern
FIRST CARRIER
    Heigh-ho! An't be not four by the day, I'll
    be hanged. Charles's Wain is over the new chimney,
    and yet our horse not packed. What, ostler!
OSTLER   (within)
    Anon, anon!
FIRST CARRIER
    I prithee, Tom, beat cut's saddle, put a few     5
    flocks in the point. Poor jade is wrung in the withers,
    out of all cess.
                Enter another Carrier
SECOND CARRIER
    Peas and beans are as dank here as a
    dog, and that is the next way to give poor jades the
    bots. This house is turned upside down since Robin    10
    Ostler died.
FIRST CARRIER
    Poor fellow never joyed since the price of
    oats rose, it was the death of him.
SECOND CARRIER
    I think this be the most villainous house
    in all London road for fleas. I am stung like a tench.  15
FIRST CARRIER
    Like a tench? By the mass, there is ne'er
    a king christen could be better bit than I have been
    since the first cock.
SECOND CARRIER
    Why, they will allow us ne'er a jordan,
    and then we leak in your chimney, and your chamber-   20
    lye breeds fleas like a loach.
FIRST CARRIER
    What, ostler! Come away, and be hanged, come away!
SECOND CARRIER
    I have a gammon of bacon and two races
    of ginger to be delivered as far as Charing Cross.    25
FIRST CARRIER
    God's body, the turkeys in my pannier are
    quite starved! What, ostler! A plague on thee, hast
    thou never an eye in thy head? Canst not hear? An
    'twere not as good deed as drink to break the pate on
    thee, I am a very villain. Come, and be hanged! Hast    30
    no faith in thee?
                Enter Gadshill
GADSHILL
    Good morrow, carriers. What's o'clock?
FIRST CARRIER
    I think it be two o'clock.
GADSHILL
    I prithee lend me thy lantern to see my gelding
    in the stable.          35
FIRST CARRIER
    Nay, by God, soft. I know a trick worth
    two of that, i'faith.
GADSHILL   (to Second Carrier)
    I pray thee, lend me thine.
SECOND CARRIER
    Ay, when? Canst tell? `Lend me thy
    lantern,' quoth a. Marry, I'll see thee hanged first.    40
GADSHILL
    Sirrah carrier, what time do you mean to come to London?
SECOND CARRIER
    Time enough to go to bed with a candle,
    I warrant thee.-Come, neighbour Mugs, we'll call up
    the gentlemen. They will along with company, for they   45
    have great charge.
                Exeunt Carriers
GADSHILL
    What ho, chamberlain!
                Enter Chamberlain
CHAMBERLAIN
    `At hand' quoth Pickpurse.
GADSHILL
    That's even as fair as `At hand: quoth the
    chamberlain', for thou variest no more from picking of   50
    purses than giving direction doth from labouring: thou
    layest the plot how.
CHAMBERLAIN
    Good morrow, Master Gadshill. It holds
    current that I told you yesternight. There's a franklin
    in the Weald of Kent hath brought three hundred     55
    marks with him in gold. I heard him tell it to one of
    his company last night at supper-a kind of auditor,
    one that hath abundance of charge too, God knows
    what. They are up already, and call for eggs and butter,
    they will away presently.     60
GADSHILL
    Sirrah, if they meet not with Saint Nicholas's
    clerks, I'll give thee this neck.
CHAMBERLAIN
    No, I'll none of it, I pray thee keep that
    for the hangman, for I know thou worshippest Saint
    Nicholas as truly as a man of falsehood may.     65
GADSHILL
    What talkest thou to me of the hangman? If I
    hang, I'll make a fat pair of gallows, for if I hang, old
    Sir John hangs with me, and thou knowest he's no
    starveling. Tut, there are other Trojans that thou
    dreamest not of, the which for sport' sake are content    70
    to do the profession some grace, that would, if matters
    should be looked into, for their own credit' sake make
    all whole. I am joined with no foot-landrakers, no long-
    staff sixpenny strikers, none of these mad mustachio
    purple-hued maltworms, but with nobility and tran-     75
    quillity, burgomasters and great `oyez'-ers, such as can
    hold in, such as will strike sooner than speak, and
    speak sooner than drink, and drink sooner than pray.
    And yet, zounds, I lie, for they pray continually to their
    saint the commonwealth, or rather, not pray to her,     80
    but prey on her, for they ride up and down on her and
    make her their boots.
CHAMBERLAIN
    What, the commonwealth their boots? Will
    she hold out water in foul way?
GADSHILL
    She will, she will, justice hath liquored her. We     85
    steal as in a castle, cocksure, we have the recipe of
    fern-seed, we walk invisible.
CHAMBERLAIN
    Nay, by my faith, I think you are more
    beholden to the night than to fern-seed for your walking
    invisible.              90
GADSHILL
    Give me thy hand, thou shalt have a share in
    our purchase, as I am a true man.
CHAMBERLAIN
    Nay, rather let me have it as you are a false thief.
GADSHILL
    Go to, `homo' is a common name to all men.     95
    Bid the ostler bring my gelding out of the stable.
    Farewell, you muddy knave.
                Exeunt severally


2.2
                Enter Prince Harry, Poins, Harvey, and Russell
POINS
    Come, shelter, shelter!
                Exeunt Harvey and Russell at another door
    I have removed Falstaff's horse, and he frets like a
    gummed velvet.
HAL
    Stand close!
                Exit Poins
                Enter Sir John Falstaff
SIR JOHN
    Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Poins!    5
HAL
    Peace, ye fat-kidneyed rascal! What a
    brawling dost thou keep!
SIR JOHN
    Where's Poins, Hal?
HAL
    He is walked up to the top of the hill. I'll
    go seek him.            10
                Exit
SIR JOHN
    I am accursed to rob in that thief's company.
    The rascal hath removed my horse and tied him I know
    not where. If I travel but four foot by the square further
    afoot, I shall break my wind. Well, I doubt not but to
    die a fair death, for all this-if I scape hanging for    15
    killing that rogue. I have forsworn his company hourly
    any time this two-and-twenty years, and yet I am
    bewitched with the rogue's company. If the rascal have
    not given me medicines to make me love him, I'll be
    hanged. It could not be else: I have drunk medicines.    20
    Poins! Hal! A plague upon you both! Russell! Harvey!
    I'll starve ere I'll rob a foot further. An 'twere not as
    good a deed as drink to turn true man and to leave
    these rogues, I am the veriest varlet that ever chewed
    with a tooth. Eight yards of uneven ground is threescore    25
    and ten miles afoot with me, and the stony-hearted
    villains know it well enough. A plague upon't when
    thieves cannot be true one to another!
                They whistle. Enter Prince Harry, Poins, Harvey,
                and Russell
    Whew! A plague upon you all! Give me my horse, you
    rogues, give me my horse, and be hanged!     30
HAL
    Peace, ye fat-guts. Lie down, lay thine ear
    close to the ground, and list if thou canst hear the
    tread of travellers.
SIR JOHN
    Have you any levers to lift me up again, being
    down? 'Sblood, I'll not bear my own flesh so far afoot    35
    again for all the coin in thy father's exchequer. What
    a plague mean ye to colt me thus?
HAL
    Thou liest: thou art not colted, thou art uncolted.
SIR JOHN
    I prithee, good Prince Hal, help me to my horse,    40
    good king's son.
HAL
    Out, ye rogue, shall I be your ostler?
SIR JOHN
    Hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent garters!
    If I be ta'en, I'll peach for this. An I have not ballads
    made on you all and sung to filthy tunes, let a cup of     45
    sack be my poison. When a jest is so forward, and
    afoot too! I hate it.
                Enter Gadshill visored
GADSHILL
    Stand!
SIR JOHN
    So I do, against my will.
POINS
    O, 'tis our setter, I know his voice. Gadshill, what    50
    news?
GADSHILL
    Case ye, case ye, on with your visors! There's
    money of the King's coming down the hill, 'tis going
    to the King's exchequer.
SIR JOHN
    You lie, ye rogue, 'tis going to the King's tavern.    55
GADSHILL
    There's enough to make us all.
SIR JOHN
    To be hanged.
                They put on visors
HAL
    Sirs, you four shall front them in the
    narrow lane. Ned Poins and I will walk lower. If they
    scape from your encounter, then they light on us.     60
HARVEY
    How many be there of them?
GADSHILL
    Some eight or ten.
SIR JOHN
    Zounds, will they not rob us?
HAL
    What, a coward, Sir John Paunch?
SIR JOHN
    Indeed I am not John of Gaunt your grandfather,    65
    but yet no coward, Hal.
HAL
    Well, we leave that to the proof.
POINS
    Sirrah Jack, thy horse stands behind the hedge.
    When thou needest him, there thou shalt find him.
    Farewell, and stand fast.     70
SIR JOHN
    Now cannot I strike him if I should be hanged.
HAL   (aside to Poins)
    Ned, where are our disguises?
POINS   (aside to Prince)
    Here, hard by. Stand close.
                Exeunt the Prince and Poins
SIR JOHN
    Now, my masters, happy man be his dole, say
    I, every man to his business.     75
                They stand aside.
                Enter the Travellers, amongst them the Carriers
FIRST TRAVELLER
    Come, neighbour, the boy shall lead
    our horses down the hill. We'll walk afoot a while, and
    ease their legs.
THIEVES    [coming forward]
    Stand!
SECOND TRAVELLER
    Jesus bless us!     80
SIR JOHN
    Strike, down with them, cut the villains' throats!
    Ah, whoreson caterpillars, bacon-fed knaves! They hate
    us youth. Down with them, fleece them!
FIRST TRAVELLER
    O, we are undone, both we and ours for ever!
SIR JOHN
    Hang ye, gorbellied knaves, are ye undone? No,     85
    ye fat chuffs, I would your store were here. On, bacons,
    on! What, ye knaves! Young men must live. You are
    grand-jurors, are ye? We'll jure ye, faith.
                Here they rob them and bind them. Exeunt the
                thieves with the travellers


2.3
                Enter Prince Harry and Poins, disguised
                in buckram suits
HAL
    The thieves have bound the true men, now
    could thou and I rob the thieves, and go merrily to
    London. It would be argument for a week, laughter for
    a month, and a good jest for ever.
POINS
    Stand close, I hear them coming.     5
                They stand aside.
                Enter Sir John Falstaff, Russell, Harvey, and
                Gadshill, with the travellers' money
SIR JOHN
    Come, my masters, let us share, and then to
    horse before day. An the Prince and Poins be not two
    arrant cowards, there's no equity stirring. There's no
    more valour in that Poins than in a wild duck.
                As they share, the Prince and Poins set on
                them
HAL
    Your money!           10
POINS
    Villains!
                Gadshill, Russell, and Harvey run away severally,
                and Falstaff, after a blow or two, roars and
                runs away too, leaving behind the booty
HAL
    Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse.
    The thieves are all scattered, and possessed with fear
    So strongly that they dare not meet each other.
    Each takes his fellow for an officer.     15
    Away, good Ned. Falstaff sweats to death,
    And lards the lean earth as he walks along.
    Were't not for laughing, I should pity him.
POINS
    How the fat rogue roared!
                Exeunt with the booty


2.4
                Enter Hotspur, reading a letter
HOTSPUR
    `But for mine own part, my lord, I could be well
    contented to be there, in respect of the love I bear your
    house.'-He could be contented, why is he not then?
    In respect of the love he bears our house! He shows in
    this he loves his own barn better than he loves our     5
    house. Let me see some more.-`The purpose you
    undertake is dangerous'-Why, that's certain: 'tis
    dangerous to take a cold, to sleep, to drink, but I tell
    you, my lord fool, out of this nettle danger we pluck
    this flower safety.-`The purpose you undertake is     10
    dangerous, the friends you have named uncertain, the
    time itself unsorted, and your whole plot too light for
    the counterpoise of so great an opposition.'-Say you
    so, say you so? I say unto you again, you are a shallow,
    cowardly hind, and you lie. What a lack-brain is this!    15
    By the Lord, our plot is a good plot as ever was laid,
    our friends true and constant, a good plot, good friends,
    and full of expectation, an excellent plot, very good
    friends. What a frosty-spirited rogue is this! Why, my
    lord of York commends the plot and the general course    20
    of the action. Zounds, an I were now by this rascal, I
    could brain him with his lady's fan! Is there not my
    father, my uncle, and myself? Lord Edmund Mortimer,
    my lord of York, and Owen Glendower? Is there not
    besides the Douglas? Have I not all their letters, to    25
    meet me in arms by the ninth of the next month? And
    are they not some of them set forward already? What
    a pagan rascal is this, an infidel! Ha, you shall see
    now, in very sincerity of fear and cold heart will he to
    the King, and lay open all our proceedings! O, I could    30
    divide myself and go to buffets for moving such a dish
    of skim-milk with so honourable an action! Hang him!
    Let him tell the King we are prepared, I will set forward
    tonight.
                Enter Lady Percy
    How now, Kate? I must leave you within these two hours.   35
LADY PERCY
    O my good lord, why are you thus alone?
    For what offence have I this fortnight been
    A banished woman from my Harry's bed?
    Tell me, sweet lord, what is't that takes from thee    40
    Thy stomach, pleasure, and thy golden sleep?
    Why dost thou bend thine eyes upon the earth,
    And start so often when thou sitt'st alone?
    Why hast thou lost the fresh blood in thy cheeks,
    And given my treasures and my rights of thee     45
    To thick-eyed musing and curst melancholy?
    In thy faint slumbers I by thee have watched,
    And heard thee murmur tales of iron wars,
    Speak terms of manage to thy bounding steed,
    Cry `Courage! To the field!' And thou hast talked    50
    Of sallies and retires, of trenches, tents,
    Of palisadoes, frontiers, parapets,
    Of basilisks, of cannon, culverin,
    Of prisoners ransomed, and of soldiers slain,
    And all the currents of a heady fight.     55
    Thy spirit within thee hath been so at war,
    And thus hath so bestirred thee in thy sleep,
    That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow
    Like bubbles in a late-disturbed stream,
    And in thy face strange motions have appeared,    60
    Such as we see when men restrain their breath
    On some great sudden hest. O, what portents are these?
    Some heavy business hath my lord in hand,
    And I must know it, else he loves me not.
HOTSPUR
    What ho!
                Enter Servant
    Is Gilliams with the packet gone?    65
SERVANT
    He is, my lord, an hour ago.
HOTSPUR
    Hath Butler brought those horses from the sheriff?
SERVANT
    One horse, my lord, he brought even now.
HOTSPUR
    What horse? A roan, a crop-ear, is it not?
SERVANT
    It is, my lord.
HOTSPUR
    That roan shall be my throne.     70
    Well, I will back him straight.- O, Esperance! -
    Bid Butler lead him forth into the park.
LADY PERCY
    But hear you, my lord.
HOTSPUR
    What sayst thou, my lady?
LADY PERCY
    What is it carries you away?
HOTSPUR
    Why, my horse, My love, my horse.
LADY PERCY
    Out, you mad-headed ape!     75
    A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen
    As you are tossed with.
    In faith, I'll know your business, Harry, that I will.
    I fear my brother Mortimer doth stir
    About his title, and hath sent for you    80
    To line his enterprise, but if you go-
HOTSPUR
    So far afoot? I shall be weary, love.
LADY PERCY
    Come, come, you paraquito, answer me
    Directly to this question that I ask.
    In faith, I'll break thy little finger, Harry,    85
    An if thou wilt not tell me all things true.
HOTSPUR
    Away, away, you trifler! Love? I love thee not,
    I care not for thee, Kate. This is no world
    To play with maumets and to tilt with lips.
    We must have bloody noses and cracked crowns,     90
    And pass them current, too. God's me, my horse!-
    What sayst thou, Kate? What wouldst thou have with me?
LADY PERCY
    Do you not love me? Do you not indeed?
    Well, do not, then, for since you love me not
    I will not love myself. Do you not love me?     95
    Nay, tell me if you speak in jest or no.
HOTSPUR
    Come, wilt thou see me ride?
    And when I am a-horseback, I will swear
    I love thee infinitely. But hark you, Kate.
    I must not have you henceforth question me    100
    Whither I go, nor reason whereabout.
    Whither I must, I must, and, to conclude,
    This evening must I leave you, gentle Kate.
    I know you wise, but yet no farther wise
    Than Harry Percy's wife, constant you are,    105
    But yet a woman, and for secrecy
    No lady closer, for I well believe
    Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know.
    And so far will I trust thee, gentle Kate.
LADY PERCY
    How, so far?      110
HOTSPUR
    Not an inch further. But hark you, Kate,
    Whither I go, thither shall you go too.
    Today will I set forth, tomorrow you.
    Will this content you, Kate?
LADY PERCY
    It must, of force.
                Exeunt


2.5
                Enter Prince Harry
HAL
    Ned, prithee come out of that fat room,
    and lend me thy hand to laugh a little.
                Enter Poins at another door
POINS
    Where hast been, Hal?
HAL
    With three or four loggerheads, amongst
    three or fourscore hogsheads. I have sounded the very    5
    bass-string of humility. Sirrah, I am sworn brother to
    a leash of drawers, and can call them all by their
    christen names, as `Tom', `Dick', and `Francis'. They
    take it already, upon their salvation, that though I be
    but Prince of Wales yet I am the king of courtesy, and    10
    tell me flatly I am no proud jack like Falstaff, but a
    Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a good boy-by the Lord,
    so they call me, and when I am King of England I shall
    command all the good lads in Eastcheap. They call
    drinking deep `dyeing scarlet', and when you breathe    15
    in your watering they cry `Hem!' and bid you `Play it
    off!' To conclude, I am so good a proficient in one
    quarter of an hour that I can drink with any tinker in
    his own language during my life. I tell thee, Ned, thou
    hast lost much honour that thou wert not with me in     20
    this action. But, sweet Ned-to sweeten which name
    of Ned I give thee this pennyworth of sugar, clapped
    even now into my hand by an underskinker, one that
    never spake other English in his life than `Eight shillings
    and sixpence', and `You are welcome', with this shrill     25
    addition, `Anon, anon, sir! Score a pint of bastard in
    the Half-moon!' or so. But, Ned, to drive away the time
    till Falstaff come, I prithee do thou stand in some
    by-room, while I question my puny drawer to what
    end he gave me the sugar, and do thou never leave     30
    calling `Francis!', that his tale to me may be nothing
    but `Anon!' Step aside, and I'll show thee a precedent.
                Exit Poins
POINS   (within)
    Francis!
HAL
    Thou art perfect.
POINS   (within)
    Francis!     35
                Enter Francis, a drawer
FRANCIS
    Anon, anon, sir! - Look down into the Pomegranate, Ralph!
HAL
    Come hither, Francis.
FRANCIS
    My lord.
HAL
    How long hast thou to serve, Francis?    40
FRANCIS
    Forsooth, five years, and as much as to -
POINS   (within)
    Francis!
FRANCIS
    Anon, anon, sir!
HAL
    Five year! By'r Lady, a long lease for the
    clinking of pewter. But Francis, darest thou be so     45
    valiant as to play the coward with thy indenture, and
    show it a fair pair of heels, and run from it?
FRANCIS
    O Lord, sir, I'll be sworn upon all the books in
    England, I could find in my heart -
POINS   (within)
    Francis!     50
FRANCIS
    Anon, sir!
HAL
    How old art thou, Francis?
FRANCIS
    Let me see, about Michaelmas next I shall be-
POINS   (within)
    Francis!
FRANCIS
    Anon, sir!  (to the Prince)  Pray, stay a little, my    55
    lord.
HAL
    Nay, but hark you, Francis. For the sugar
    thou gavest me, 'twas a pennyworth, was't not?
FRANCIS
    O Lord, I would it had been two!
HAL
    I will give thee for it a thousand pound.     60
    Ask me when thou wilt, and thou shalt have it-
POINS   (within)
    Francis!
FRANCIS
    Anon, anon!
HAL
    Anon, Francis? No, Francis, but tomorrow,
    Francis, or, Francis, o' Thursday, or, indeed, Francis,    65
    when thou wilt. But Francis.
FRANCIS
    My lord.
HAL
    Wilt thou rob this leathern-jerkin, crystal-
    button, knot-pated, agate-ring, puke-stocking, caddis-
    garter, smooth-tongue, Spanish-pouch?     70
FRANCIS
    O Lord, sir, who do you mean?
HAL
    Why, then, your brown bastard is your only drink!
    For look you, Francis, your white canvas doublet will
    sully. In Barbary, sir, it cannot come to so much.     75
FRANCIS
    What, sir?
POINS   (within)
    Francis!
HAL
    Away, you rogue! Dost thou not hear them call?
                As he departs Poins and the Prince both call him.
                The Drawer stands amazed, not knowing which
                way to go. Enter Vintner
VINTNER
    What, standest thou still, and hearest such a     80
    calling? Look to the guests within.
                Exit Francis
    My lord, old Sir John with half a dozen more are at
    the door. Shall I let them in?
HAL
    Let them alone a while, and then open the door.    85
                Exit Vintner
    Poins!
POINS    [within]
    Anon, anon, sir!
                Enter Poins
HAL
    Sirrah, Falstaff and the rest of the thieves
    are at the door. Shall we be merry?
POINS
    As merry as crickets, my lad. But hark ye, what    90
    cunning match have you made with this jest of the
    drawer? Come, what's the issue?
HAL
    I am now of all humours that have showed
    themselves humours since the old days of goodman
    Adam to the pupil age of this present twelve o'clock at   95
    midnight.
                Enter Francis
    What's o'clock, Francis?
FRANCIS
    Anon, anon, sir!
                Exit at another door
HAL
    That ever this fellow should have fewer
    words than a parrot, and yet the son of a woman! His    100
    industry is upstairs and downstairs, his eloquence the
    parcel of a reckoning. I am not yet of Percy's mind,
    the Hotspur of the North-he that kills me some six or
    seven dozen of Scots at a breakfast, washes his hands,
    and says to his wife, `Fie upon this quiet life! I want    105
    work.' `O my sweet Harry,' says she, `how many hast
    thou killed today?' `Give my roan horse a drench,' says
    he, and answers, `Some fourteen,' an hour after, `a
    trifle, a trifle.' I prithee call in Falstaff. I'll play Percy,
    and that damned brawn shall play Dame Mortimer his     110
    wife. `Rivo!' says the drunkard. Call in Ribs, call in
    Tallow.
                Enter Sir John Falstaff, with sword and buckler,
                Russell, Harvey, and Gadshill, followed by
                Francis, with wine
POINS
    Welcome, Jack. Where hast thou been?
SIR JOHN
    A plague of all cowards, I say, and a vengeance
    too, marry and amen! - Give me a cup of sack, boy.     115
    Ere I lead this life long, I'll sew netherstocks, and mend
    them and foot them too. A plague of all cowards! -
    Give me a cup of sack, rogue. Is there no virtue extant?
                He drinks
HAL
    Didst thou never see Titan kiss a dish of
    butter - pitiful hearted Titan - that melted at the sweet   120
    tale of the sun's? If thou didst, then behold that
    compound.
SIR JOHN   (to Francis)
    You rogue, here's lime in this sack
    too. There is nothing but roguery to be found in
    villainous man, yet a coward is worse than a cup of    125
    sack with lime in it.
                Exit Francis
    A villainous coward! Go thy ways, old Jack, die when
    thou wilt. If manhood, good manhood, be not forgot
    upon the face of the earth, then am I a shotten herring.
    There lives not three good men unhanged in England,     130
    and one of them is fat and grows old, God help the
    while. A bad world, I say. I would I were a weaver-I
    could sing psalms, or anything. A plague of all cowards,
    I say still.
HAL
    How now, woolsack, what mutter you?    135
SIR JOHN
    A king's son! If I do not beat thee out of thy
    kingdom with a dagger of lath, and drive all thy subjects
    afore thee like a flock of wild geese, I'll never wear hair
    on my face more. You, Prince of Wales!
HAL
    Why, you whoreson round man, what's the matter?   140
SIR JOHN
    Are not you a coward? Answer me to that. And Poins there?
POINS
    Zounds, ye fat paunch, an ye call me coward, by
    the Lord I'll stab thee.     145
SIR JOHN
    I call thee coward? I'll see thee damned ere I
    call thee coward, but I would give a thousand pound
    I could run as fast as thou canst. You are straight
    enough in the shoulders, you care not who sees your
    back. Call you that backing of your friends? A plague   150
    upon such backing! Give me them that will face me.
    Give me a cup of sack. I am a rogue if I drunk today.
HAL
    O villain, thy lips are scarce wiped since
    thou drunkest last.
SIR JOHN
    All is one for that.     155
                He drinketh
    A plague of all cowards, still say I.
HAL
    What's the matter?
SIR JOHN
    What's the matter? There be four of us here
    have ta'en a thousand pound this day morning.
HAL
    Where is it, Jack, where is it?    160
SIR JOHN
    Where is it? Taken from us it is. A hundred
    upon poor four of us.
HAL
    What, a hundred, man?
SIR JOHN
    I am a rogue if I were not at half-sword with a
    dozen of them, two hours together. I have scaped by    165
    miracle. I am eight times thrust through the doublet,
    four through the hose, my buckler cut through and
    through, my sword hacked like a handsaw. Ecce signum.
                He shows his sword
    I never dealt better since I was a man. All would not
    do. A plague of all cowards!  (Pointing to Gadshill,     170
    Harvey, and Russell)  Let them speak. If they speak more
    or less than truth, they are villains and the sons of
    darkness.
HAL
    Speak, sirs, how was it?
GADSHILL
    We four set upon some dozen    175
SIR JOHN   (to the Prince)
    Sixteen at least, my lord.
GADSHILL
    And bound them.
HARVEY
    No, no, they were not bound.
SIR JOHN
    You rogue, they were bound every man of them,
    or I am a Jew else, an Hebrew Jew.     180
GADSHILL
    As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh
    men set upon us.
SIR JOHN
    And unbound the rest, and then come in the other.
HAL
    What, fought you with them all?     185
SIR JOHN
    All? I know not what you call all, but if I fought
    not with fifty of them, I am a bunch of radish. If there
    were not two - or three-and-fifty upon poor old Jack,
    then am I no two-legged creature.
HAL
    Pray God you have not murdered some of them.    190
SIR JOHN
    Nay, that's past praying for. I have peppered
    two of them. Two I am sure I have paid-two rogues
    in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal, if I tell thee a
    lie, spit in my face, call me horse. Thou knowest my     195
    old ward-
                He stands as to fight
    here I lay, and thus I bore my point. Four rogues in
    buckram let drive at me.
HAL
    What, four? Thou saidst but two even now.     200
SIR JOHN
    Four, Hal, I told thee four.
POINS
    Ay, ay, he said four.
SIR JOHN
    These four came all afront, and mainly thrust
    at me. I made me no more ado, but took all their seven
    points in my target, thus.     205
                He wards himself with his buckler
HAL
    Seven? Why, there were but four even
    now.
SIR JOHN
    In buckram?
POINS
    Ay, four in buckram suits.
SIR JOHN
    Seven, by these hilts, or I am a villain else.    210
HAL   (aside to Poins)
    Prithee, let him alone. We shall have more anon.
SIR JOHN
    Dost thou hear me, Hal?
HAL
    Ay, and mark thee too, Jack.
SIR JOHN
    Do so, for it is worth the listening to. These nine    215
    in buckram that I told thee of-
HAL   (aside to Poins)
    So, two more already.
SIR JOHN
    Their points being broken -
POINS   [aside to the Prince]
    Down fell their hose.
SIR JOHN
    Began to give me ground. But I followed me     220
    close, came in foot and hand, and, with a thought,
    seven of the eleven I paid.
HAL   (aside to Poins)
    O monstrous! Eleven buckram men grown out of two!
SIR JOHN
    But, as the devil would have it, three misbegotten     225
    knaves in Kendal green came at my back and let drive
    at me, for it was so dark, Hal, that thou couldst not
    see thy hand.
HAL
    These lies are like their father that begets
    them - gross as a mountain, open, palpable. Why, thou    230
    clay - brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou
    whoreson obscene greasy tallow-catch -
SIR JOHN
    What, art thou mad? Art thou mad? Is not the
    truth the truth?
HAL
    Why, how couldst thou know these men     235
    in Kendal green when it was so dark thou couldst not
    see thy hand? Come, tell us your reason. What sayst
    thou to this?
POINS
    Come, your reason, Jack, your reason.
SIR JOHN
    What, upon compulsion? Zounds, an I were at     240
    the strappado, or all the racks in the world, I would
    not tell you on compulsion. Give you a reason on
    compulsion? If reasons were as plentiful as blackberries,
    I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I.
HAL
    I'll be no longer guilty of this sin. This     245
    sanguine coward, this bed-presser, this horse-back -
    breaker, this huge hill of flesh -
SIR JOHN
    'Sblood, you starveling, you elf-skin, you dried
    neat's tongue, you bull's pizzle, you stock-fish - O, for
    breath to utter what is like thee! - you tailor's yard,    250
    you sheath, you bow-case, you vile standing tuck -
HAL
    Well, breathe awhile, and then to't again,
    and when thou hast tired thyself in base comparisons,
    hear me speak but this.
POINS
    Mark, Jack.            255
HAL
    We two saw you four set on four, and
    bound them, and were masters of their wealth. - Mark
    now how a plain tale shall put you down. - Then did
    we two set on you four, and, with a word, outfaced
    you from your prize, and have it, yea, and can show     260
    it you here in the house. And Falstaff, you carried
    your guts away as nimbly, with as quick dexterity, and
    roared for mercy, and still run and roared, as ever I
    heard bull-calf. What a slave art thou, to hack thy
    sword as thou hast done, and then say it was in fight!    265
    What trick, what device, what starting-hole canst thou
    now find out to hide thee from this open and apparent
    shame?
POINS
    Come, let's hear, Jack, what trick hast thou now?
SIR JOHN
    By the Lord, I knew ye as well as he that made     270
    ye. Why, hear you, my masters. Was it for me to kill
    the heir-apparent? Should I turn upon the true prince?
    Why, thou knowest I am as valiant as Hercules, but
    beware instinct. The lion will not touch the true
    prince-instinct is a great matter. I was now a coward     275
    on instinct. I shall think the better of myself and thee
    during my life-I for a valiant lion, and thou for a true
    prince. But by the Lord, lads, I am glad you have the
    money. -  (calling)   Hostess, clap to the doors. - Watch
    tonight, pray tomorrow. Gallants, lads, boys, hearts of    280
    gold, all the titles of good fellowship come to you!
    What, shall we be merry, shall we have a play extempore?
HAL
    Content, and the argument shall be thy running away.     285
SIR JOHN
    Ah, no more of that, Hal, an thou lovest me.
                Enter Hostess
HOSTESS
    O Jesu, my lord the Prince!
HAL
    How now, my lady the Hostess, what sayst thou to me?
HOSTESS
    Marry, my lord, there is a nobleman of the court     290
    at door would speak with you. He says he comes from
    your father.
HAL
    Give him as much as will make him a
    royal man, and send him back again to my mother.
SIR JOHN
    What manner of man is he?     295
HOSTESS
    An old man.
SIR JOHN
    What doth gravity out of his bed at midnight?
    Shall I give him his answer?
HAL
    Prithee do, Jack.
SIR JOHN
    Faith, and I'll send him packing.     300
                Exit
HAL
    Now, sirs,  (to Gadshill)  by'r Lady, you
    fought fair-so did you, Harvey, so did you, Russell.
    You are lions too-you ran away upon instinct, you
    will not touch the true prince, no, fie!
RUSSELL
    Faith, I ran when I saw others run.     305
HAL
    Faith, tell me now in earnest, how came
    Falstaff's sword so hacked?
HARVEY
    Why, he hacked it with his dagger, and said he
    would swear truth out of England but he would make
    you believe it was done in fight, and persuaded us to    310
    do the like.
RUSSELL
    Yea, and to tickle our noses with speargrass, to
    make them bleed, and then to beslubber our garments
    with it, and swear it was the blood of true men. I did
    that I did not this seven year before-I blushed to hear    315
    his monstrous devices.
HAL
    O villain, thou stolest a cup of sack eighteen
    years ago, and wert taken with the manner, and ever
    since thou hast blushed extempore. Thou hadst fire and
    sword on thy side, and yet thou rannest away. What     320
    instinct hadst thou for it?
RUSSELL   (indicating his face)
    My lord, do you see these
    meteors? Do you behold these exhalations?
HAL
    I do.
RUSSELL
    What think you they portend?     325
HAL
    Hot livers, and cold purses.
RUSSELL
    Choler, my lord, if rightly taken.
                Exit
HAL
    No, if rightly taken, halter.
                Enter Sir John Falstaff
    Here comes lean Jack, here comes bare-bone. How
    now, my sweet creature of bombast? How long is't    330
    ago, Jack, since thou sawest thine own knee?
SIR JOHN
    My own knee? When I was about thy years,
    Hal, I was not an eagle's talon in the waist, I could
    have crept into any alderman's thumb-ring. A plague
    of sighing and grief-it blows a man up like a bladder.    335
    There's villainous news abroad. Here was Sir John
    Bracy from your father, you must to the court in the
    morning. That same mad fellow of the North, Percy,
    and he of Wales that gave Amamon the bastinado, and
    made Lucifer cuckold, and swore the devil his true     340
    liegeman upon the cross of a Welsh hook-what a
    plague call you him?
POINS
    Owen Glendower.
SIR JOHN
    Owen, Owen, the same, and his son-in-law
    Mortimer, and old Northumberland, and that sprightly     345
    Scot of Scots Douglas, that runs a-horseback up a hill
    perpendicular-
HAL
    He that rides at high speed and with his
    pistol kills a sparrow flying.
SIR JOHN
    You have hit it.     350
HAL
    So did he never the sparrow.
SIR JOHN
    Well, that rascal hath good mettle in him, he
    will not run.
HAL
    Why, what a rascal art thou, then, to
    praise him so for running!     355
SIR JOHN
    A-horseback, ye cuckoo, but afoot he will not
    budge a foot.
HAL
    Yes, Jack, upon instinct.
SIR JOHN
    I grant ye, upon instinct. Well, he is there too,
    and one Mordake, and a thousand blue-caps more.     360
    Worcester is stolen away tonight. Thy father's beard is
    turned white with the news. You may buy land now
    as cheap as stinking mackerel.
HAL
    Why then, it is like, if there come a hot
    June and this civil buffeting hold, we shall buy     365
    maidenheads as they buy hobnails: by the hundreds.
SIR JOHN
    By the mass, lad, thou sayst true, it is like we
    shall have good trading that way. But tell me, Hal, art
    not thou horrible afeard? Thou being heir-apparent,
    could the world pick thee out three such enemies again    370
    as that fiend Douglas, that spirit Percy, and that devil
    Glendower? Art thou not horribly afraid? Doth not thy
    blood thrill at it?
HAL
    Not a whit, i'faith. I lack some of thy instinct.     375
SIR JOHN
    Well, thou wilt be horribly chid tomorrow when
    thou comest to thy father. If thou love me, practise an
    answer.
HAL
    Do thou stand for my father, and examine
    me upon the particulars of my life.     380
SIR JOHN
    Shall I? Content. This chair shall be my state,
    this dagger my sceptre, and this cushion my crown.
                He sits
HAL
    Thy state is taken for a joint-stool, thy
    golden sceptre for a leaden dagger, and thy precious
    rich crown for a pitiful bald crown.     385
SIR JOHN
    Well, an the fire of grace be not quite out of
    thee, now shalt thou be moved. Give me a cup of sack
    to make my eyes look red, that it may be thought I
    have wept, for I must speak in passion, and I will do
    it in King Cambyses' vein.     390
HAL   (bowing)
    Well, here is my leg.
SIR JOHN
    And here is my speech.  (to Harvey, Poins, and
    Gadshill)   Stand aside, nobility.
HOSTESS
    O Jesu, this is excellent sport, i'faith.
SIR JOHN
    Weep not, sweet Queen, for trickling tears are vain.   395
HOSTESS
    O the Father, how he holds his countenance!
SIR JOHN
    For God's sake, lords, convey my tristful Queen,
    For tears do stop the floodgates of her eyes.
HOSTESS
    O Jesu, he doth it as like one of these harlotry
    players as ever I see!     400
SIR JOHN
    Peace, good pint-pot, peace, good tickle-brain. -
    Harry, I do not only marvel where thou spendest thy
    time, but also how thou art accompanied. For though
    the camomile, the more it is trodden on, the faster it
    grows, yet youth, the more it is wasted, the sooner it    405
    wears. That thou art my son I have partly thy mother's
    word, partly my own opinion, but chiefly a villainous
    trick of thine eye, and a foolish hanging of thy nether
    lip, that doth warrant me. If then thou be son to me,
    here lies the point. Why, being son to me, art thou so    410
    pointed at? Shall the blessed sun of heaven prove a
    micher, and eat blackberries?-A question not to be
    asked. Shall the son of England prove a thief, and take
    purses?-A question to be asked. There is a thing,
    Harry, which thou hast often heard of, and it is known    415
    to many in our land by the name of pitch. This pitch,
    as ancient writers do report, doth defile. So doth the
    company thou keepest. For Harry, now I do not speak
    to thee in drink, but in tears, not in pleasure, but in
    passion, not in words only, but in woes also. And yet    420
    there is a virtuous man whom I have often noted in
    thy company, but I know not his name.
HAL
    What manner of man, an it like your majesty?
SIR JOHN
    A goodly, portly man, i'faith, and a corpulent,     425
    of a cheerful look, a pleasing eye, and a most noble
    carriage, and, as I think, his age some fifty, or, by'r
    Lady, inclining to threescore. And now I remember me,
    his name is Falstaff. If that man should be lewdly
    given, he deceiveth me, for, Harry, I see virtue in his   430
    looks. If, then, the tree may be known by the fruit, as
    the fruit by the tree, then peremptorily I speak it-
    there is virtue in that Falstaff. Him keep with, the
    rest banish. And tell me now, thou naughty varlet, tell
    me, where hast thou been this month?     435
HAL
    Dost thou speak like a king? Do thou stand
    for me, and I'll play my father.
SIR JOHN   (standing)
    Depose me. If thou dost it half so
    gravely, so majestically both in word and matter, hang
    me up by the heels for a rabbit sucker, or a poulter's    440
    hare.
HAL   (sitting)
    Well, here I am set.
SIR JOHN
    And here I stand.  (to the others)   Judge, my masters.
HAL
    Now, Harry, whence come you?     445
SIR JOHN
    My noble lord, from Eastcheap.
HAL
    The complaints I hear of thee are grievous.
SIR JOHN
    'Sblood, my lord, they are false.  [To the others]
    Nay, I'll tickle ye for a young prince, i'faith.
HAL
    Swearest thou, ungracious boy? Hence     450
    forth ne'er look on me. Thou art violently carried away
    from grace. There is a devil haunts thee in the likeness
    of an old fat man, a tun of man is thy companion.
    Why dost thou converse with that trunk of humours,
    that bolting-hutch of beastliness, that swollen parcel of   455
    dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuffed cloak-
    bag of guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with the
    pudding in his belly, that reverend Vice, that grey
    Iniquity, that father Ruffian, that Vanity in Years?
    Wherein is he good, but to taste sack and drink it?     460
    Wherein neat and cleanly, but to carve a capon and
    eat it? Wherein cunning, but in craft? Wherein crafty,
    but in villainy? Wherein villainous, but in all things?
    Wherein worthy, but in nothing?
SIR JOHN
    I would your grace would take me with you.    465
    Whom means your grace?
HAL
    That villainous, abominable misleader of
    youth, Falstaff, that old white-bearded Satan.
SIR JOHN
    My lord, the man I know.
HAL
    I know thou dost.     470
SIR JOHN
    But to say I know more harm in him than in
    myself were to say more than I know. That he is old,
    the more the pity, his white hairs do witness it. But
    that he is, saving your reverence, a whoremaster, that
    I utterly deny. If sack and sugar be a fault, God help    475
    the wicked. If to be old and merry be a sin, then many
    an old host that I know is damned. If to be fat be to
    be hated, then Pharaoh's lean kine are to be loved. No,
    my good lord, banish Harvey, banish Russell, banish
    Poins, but for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff,    480
    true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore
    more valiant being, as he is, old Jack Falstaff,
    Banish not him thy Harry's company,
    Banish not him thy Harry's company.
    Banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.    485
HAL
    I do, I will.
                Knocking within. Exit Hostess.
                Enter Russell, running
RUSSELL
    O my lord, my lord, the sheriff with a most
    monstrous watch is at the door.
SIR JOHN
    Out, ye rogue! Play out the play! I have much
    to say in the behalf of that Falstaff.     490
                Enter the Hostess
HOSTESS
    O Jesu! My lord, my lord!
HAL
    Heigh, heigh, the devil rides upon a
    fiddlestick! What's the matter?
HOSTESS
    The sheriff and all the watch are at the door.
    They are come to search the house. Shall I let them    495
    in?
SIR JOHN
    Dost thou hear, Hal? Never call a true piece of
    gold a counterfeit - thou art essentially made, without
    seeming so.
HAL
    And thou a natural coward without instinct.    500
SIR JOHN
    I deny your major. If you will deny the sheriff,
    so. If not, let him enter. If I become not a cart as well
    as another man, a plague on my bringing up. I hope I
    shall as soon be strangled with a halter as another.    505
HAL
    Go, hide thee behind the arras. The rest
    walk up above. Now, my masters, for a true face and
    good conscience.
                Exeunt Poins, Russell, and Gadshill
SIR JOHN
    Both which I have had, but their date is out,
    and therefore I'll hide me.     510
                He withdraws behind the arras
HAL   (to Hostess)
    Call in the sheriff.
                Exit Hostess
                Enter Sheriff and a Carrier
    Now, master sheriff, what is your will with me?
SHERIFF
    First, pardon me, my lord. A hue and cry
    Hath followed certain men unto this house.
HAL
    What men?             515
SHERIFF
    One of them is well known, my gracious lord,
    A gross, fat man.
CARRIER
    As fat as butter.
HAL
    The man, I do assure you, is not here,
    For I myself at this time have employed him.
    And, sheriff, I will engage my word to thee     520
    That I will by tomorrow dinner-time
    Send him to answer thee, or any man,
    For anything he shall be charged withal.
    And so let me entreat you leave the house.
SHERIFF
    I will, my lord. There are two gentlemen     525
    Have in this robbery lost three hundred marks.
HAL
    It may be so. If he have robbed these men,
    He shall be answerable. And so, farewell.
SHERIFF
    Good night, my noble lord.
HAL
    I think it is good morrow, is it not?    530
SHERIFF
    Indeed, my lord, I think it be two o'clock.
                Exeunt Sheriff and Carrier
HAL
    This oily rascal is known as well as Paul's.
    Go call him forth.
HARVEY
    Falstaff!
                He draws back the arras, revealing Sir John asleep
    Fast asleep behind the arras, and snorting like a horse.
HAL
    Hark how hard he fetches breath. Search his pockets.     535
                Harvey searches his pocket and finds certain
                papers. He closes the arras and comes forward
    What hast thou found?
HARVEY
    Nothing but papers, my lord.
HAL
    Let's see what they be. Read them.
HARVEY   (reads)
    Item: a capon.2s. 2d.
    Item: sauce.4d.
    Item: sack, two gallons.5s. 8d.     540
    Item: anchovies and sack after supper.2s. 6d.
    Item: bread.ob.
HAL
    O monstrous! But one halfpennyworth of
    bread to this intolerable deal of sack! What there is
    else, keep close, we'll read it at more advantage. There   545
    let him sleep till day. I'll to the court in the morning.
    We must all to the wars, and thy place shall be
    honourable. I'll procure this fat rogue a charge of foot,
    and I know his death will be a march of twelve score.
    The money shall be paid back again, with advantage.    550
    Be with me betimes in the morning, and so good
    morrow, Harvey.
HARVEY
    Good morrow, good my lord.
                Exeunt severally

ACT III  Henry IV part 1

3.1
                Enter Hotspur, the Earl of Worcester, Lord
                Mortimer, and Owen Glendower, with a map
MORTIMER
    These promises are fair, the parties sure,
    And our induction full of prosperous hope.
HOTSPUR
    Lord Mortimer and cousin Glendower,
    Will you sit down? And uncle Worcester?
                Mortimer, Glendower, and Worcester sit
    A plague upon it, I have forgot the map!     5
GLENDOWER
    No, here it is. Sit, cousin Percy, sit,
    Good cousin Hotspur,
                Hotspur sits
    For by that name As oft as Lancaster doth speak of you,
    His cheek looks pale, and with a rising sigh
    He wisheth you in heaven.
HOTSPUR
    And you in hell,      10
    As oft as he hears Owen Glendower spoke of.
GLENDOWER
    I cannot blame him. At my nativity
    The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
    Of burning cressets, and at my birth
    The frame and huge foundation of the earth     15
    Shaked like a coward.
HOTSPUR
    Why, so it would have done
    At the same season if your mother's cat
    Had but kittened, though yourself had never been born.
GLENDOWER
    I say the earth did shake when I was born.
HOTSPUR
    And I say the earth was not of my mind     20
    If you suppose as fearing you it shook.
GLENDOWER
    The heavens were all on fire, the earth did tremble -
HOTSPUR
    O, then the earth shook to see the heavens on fire,
    And not in fear of your nativity.
    Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth     25
    In strange eruptions, oft the teeming earth
    Is with a kind of colic pinched and vexed
    By the imprisoning of unruly wind
    Within her womb, which for enlargement striving
    Shakes the old beldam earth, and topples down     30
    Steeples and moss-grown towers. At your birth
    Our grandam earth, having this distemp'rature,
    In passion shook.
GLENDOWER
    Cousin, of many men
    I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave
    To tell you once again that at my birth     35
    The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
    The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds
    Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields.
    These signs have marked me extraordinary,
    And all the courses of my life do show     40
    I am not in the roll of commen men.
    Where is he living, clipped in with the sea
    That chides the banks of England, Scotland, Wales,
    Which calls me pupil or hath read to me?
    And bring him out that is but woman's son     45
    Can trace me in the tedious ways of art,
    And hold me pace in deep experiments.
HOTSPUR   [standing]
    I think there's no man speaketh better Welsh.
    I'll to dinner.
MORTIMER
    Peace, cousin Percy, you will make him mad.     50
GLENDOWER
    I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
HOTSPUR
    Why, so can I, or so can any man,
    But will they come when you do call for them?
GLENDOWER
    Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command the devil.
HOTSPUR
    And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil,     55
    By telling truth: `Tell truth, and shame the devil'.
    If thou have power to raise him, bring him hither,
    And I'll be sworn I have power to shame him hence.
    O, while you live, tell truth and shame the devil.
MORTIMER
    Come, come, no more of this unprofitable chat.     60
GLENDOWER
    Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made head
    Against my power, thrice from the banks of Wye
    And sandy-bottomed Severn have I sent him
    Bootless home, and weather-beaten back.
HOTSPUR
    Home without boots, and in foul weather too!     65
    How scapes he agues, in the devil's name?
GLENDOWER
    Come, here's the map. Shall we divide our right,
    According to our threefold order ta'en?
MORTIMER
    The Archdeacon hath divided it
    Into three limits very equally.     70
    England from Trent and Severn hitherto
    By south and east is to my part assigned,
    All westward-Wales beyond the Severn shore
    And all the fertile land within that bound-
    To Owen Glendower,  (to Hotspur)  and, dear coz, to you   75
    The remnant northward lying off from Trent.
    And our indentures tripartite are drawn,
    Which, being sealed interchangeably -
    A business that this night may execute -
    Tomorrow, cousin Percy, you and I     80
    And my good lord of Worcester will set forth
    To meet your father and the Scottish power,
    As is appointed us, at Shrewsbury.
    My father, Glendower, is not ready yet,
    Nor shall we need his help these fourteen days.     85
    Within that space you may have drawn together
    Your tenants, friends, and neighbouring gentlemen.
GLENDOWER
    A shorter time shall send me to you, lords,
    And in my conduct shall your ladies come,
    From whom you now must steal and take no leave,    90
    For there will be a world of water shed
    Upon the parting of your wives and you.
HOTSPUR
    Methinks my moiety north from Burton here
    In quantity equals not one of yours.
    See how this river comes me cranking in,     95
    And cuts me from the best of all my land
    A huge half-moon, a monstrous cantle, out.
    I'll have the current in this place dammed up,
    And here the smug and silver Trent shall run
    In a new channel fair and evenly.     100
    It shall not wind with such a deep indent,
    To rob me of so rich a bottom here.
GLENDOWER
    Not wind? It shall, it must, you see it doth.
MORTIMER
    Yea, but mark how he bears his course, and runs me up
    With like advantage on the other side,    105
    Gelding the opposed continent as much
    As on the other side it takes from you.
WORCESTER
    Yea, but a little charge will trench him here,
    And on this north side win this cape of land,
    And then he runs straight and even.     110
HOTSPUR
    I'll have it so, a little charge will do it.
GLENDOWER
    I'll not have it altered.
HOTSPUR
    Will not you?
GLENDOWER
    No, nor you shall not.
HOTSPUR
    Who shall say me nay?     115
GLENDOWER
    Why, that will I.
HOTSPUR
    Let me not understand you, then: speak it in Welsh.
GLENDOWER
    I can speak English, lord, as well as you,
    For I was trained up in the English court,
    Where, being but young, I framed to the harp    120
    Many an English ditty lovely well,
    And gave the tongue a helpful ornament-
    A virtue that was never seen in you.
HOTSPUR
    Marry, and I am glad of it, with all my heart.
    I had rather be a kitten and cry `mew'     125
    Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers.
    I had rather hear a brazen canstick turned,
    Or a dry wheel grate on the axle-tree,
    And that would set my teeth nothing on edge,
    Nothing so much as mincing poetry.     130
    'Tis like the forced gait of a shuffling nag.
GLENDOWER
    Come, you shall have Trent turned.
HOTSPUR
    I do not care. I'll give thrice so much land
    To any well-deserving friend,
    But in the way of bargain-mark ye me-     135
    I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair.
    Are the indentures drawn? Shall we be gone?
GLENDOWER
    The moon shines fair. You may away by night.
    I'll haste the writer, and withal
    Break with your wives of your departure hence.    140
    I am afraid my daughter will run mad,
    So much she doteth on her Mortimer.
                Exit
MORTIMER
    Fie, cousin Percy, how you cross my father!
HOTSPUR
    I cannot choose. Sometime he angers me
    With telling me of the moldwarp and the ant,    145
    Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies,
    And of a dragon and a finless fish,
    A clip-winged griffin and a moulten raven,
    A couching lion and a ramping cat,
    And such a deal of skimble-skamble stuff    150
    As puts me from my faith. I tell you what,
    He held me last night at the least nine hours
    In reckoning up the several devils' names
    That were his lackeys. I cried, `Hum!' and, `Well, go to!',
    But marked him not a word. O, he is as tedious     155
    As a tired horse, a railing wife,
    Worse than a smoky house. I had rather live
    With cheese and garlic, in a windmill, far,
    Than feed on cates and have him talk to me
    In any summer house in Christendom.     160
MORTIMER
    In faith, he is a worthy gentleman,
    Exceedingly well read, and profited
    In strange concealments, valiant as a lion,
    And wondrous affable, and as bountiful
    As mines of India. Shall I tell you, cousin?    165
    He holds your temper in a high respect,
    And curbs himself even of his natural scope
    When you come 'cross his humour, faith, he does.
    I warrant you, that man is not alive
    Might so have tempted him as you have done    170
    Without the taste of danger and reproof.
    But do not use it oft, let me entreat you.
WORCESTER   (to Hotspur)
    In faith, my lord, you are too wilful-blame,
    And since your coming hither have done enough
    To put him quite besides his patience.     175
    You must needs learn, lord, to amend this fault.
    Though sometimes it show greatness, courage, blood-
    And that's the dearest grace it renders you-
    Yet oftentimes it doth present harsh rage,
    Defect of manners, want of government,     180
    Pride, haughtiness, opinion, and disdain,
    The least of which haunting a nobleman
    Loseth men's hearts, and leaves behind a stain
    Upon the beauty of all parts besides,
    Beguiling them of commendation.     185
HOTSPUR
    Well, I am schooled. Good manners be your speed!
                Enter Glendower with Ladies Percy and Mortimer
    Here come our wives, and let us take our leave.
                Mortimer's wife weeps, and speaks to him in
                Welsh
MORTIMER
    This is the deadly spite that angers me:
    My wife can speak no English, I no Welsh.
GLENDOWER
    My daughter weeps she'll not part with you.    190
    She'll be a soldier, too, she'll to the wars.
MORTIMER
    Good father, tell her that she and my aunt Percy
    Shall follow in your conduct speedily.
                Glendower speaks to her in Welsh, and she answers
GLENDOWER
    She is desperate here, a peevish self-willed harlotry,
    One that no persuasion can do good upon.     195
                The lady speaks in Welsh
MORTIMER
    I understand thy looks. That pretty Welsh
    Which thou down pourest from these swelling heavens
    I am too perfect in, and but for shame
    In such a parley should I answer thee.
                The lady kisses him, and speaks again in Welsh
MORTIMER
    I understand thy kisses, and thou mine,    200
    And that's a feeling disputation,
    But I will never be a truant, love,
    Till I have learnt thy language, for thy tongue
    Makes Welsh as sweet as ditties highly penned,
    Sung by a fair queen in a summer's bower     205
    With ravishing division, to her lute.
GLENDOWER
    Nay, if you melt, then will she run mad.
                The lady sits on the rushes and speaks in
                Welsh
MORTIMER
    O, I am ignorance itself in this!
GLENDOWER
    She bids you on the wanton rushes lay you down
    And rest your gentle head upon her lap,     210
    And she will sing the song that pleaseth you,
    And on your eyelids crown the god of sleep,
    Charming your blood with pleasing heaviness,
    Making such difference 'twixt wake and sleep
    As is the difference betwixt day and night    215
    The hour before the heavenly-harnessed team
    Begins his golden progress in the east.
MORTIMER
    With all my heart, I'll sit and hear her sing.
    By that time will our book, I think, be drawn.
                He sits, resting his head on the Welsh lady's lap
GLENDOWER
    Do so, and those musicians that shall play to you    220
    Hang in the air a thousand leagues from hence,
    And straight they shall be here. Sit and attend.
HOTSPUR
    Come, Kate, thou art perfect in lying down.
    Come, quick, quick, that I may lay my head in thy lap.
LADY PERCY   (sitting)
    Go, ye giddy goose!     225
                Hotspur sits, resting his head on Lady Percy's lap.
                The music plays
HOTSPUR
    Now I perceive the devil understands Welsh,
    And 'tis no marvel, he is so humorous.
    By'r Lady, he's a good musician.
LADY PERCY
    Then should you be nothing but musical,
    For you are altogether governed by humours.     230
    Lie still, ye thief, and hear the lady sing in Welsh.
HOTSPUR
    I had rather hear Lady my brach howl in Irish.
LADY PERCY
    Wouldst thou have thy head broken?
HOTSPUR
    No.
LADY PERCY
    Then be still.     235
HOTSPUR
    Neither - 'tis a woman's fault.
LADY PERCY
    Now God help thee!
HOTSPUR
    To the Welsh lady's bed.
LADY PERCY
    What's that?
HOTSPUR
    Peace, she sings.     240
                The lady sings a Welsh song
HOTSPUR
    Come, Kate, I'll have your song too.
LADY PERCY
    Not mine, in good sooth.
HOTSPUR
    Not yours, in good sooth! Heart, you swear like
    a comfit-maker's wife: `Not you, in good sooth!' and
    `As true as I live!' and     245
    `As God shall mend me!' and `As sure as day!',
    And giv'st such sarcenet surety for thy oaths
    As if thou never walk'st further than Finsbury.
    Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art,
    A good mouth-filling oath, and leave `in sooth'    250
    And such protest of pepper gingerbread
    To velvet-guards and Sunday citizens.
    Come, sing.
LADY PERCY
    I will not sing.
HOTSPUR
    'Tis the next way to turn tailor, or be redbreast    255
    teacher.  (rising)   An the indentures be drawn, I'll away
    within these two hours, and so come in when ye will.
                Exit
GLENDOWER
    Come, come, Lord Mortimer. You are as slow
    As hot Lord Percy is on fire to go.
    By this our book is drawn. We'll but seal,    260
    And then to horse immediately.
MORTIMER   (rising)
    With all my heart.
                The ladies rise, and all exeunt


3.2
                Enter King Henry, Prince Harry, and lords
KING HENRY
    Lords, give us leave - the Prince of Wales and I
    Must have some private conference - but be near at hand,
    For we shall presently have need of you.
                Exeunt Lords
    I know not whether God will have it so
    For some displeasing service I have done,     5
    That in his secret doom out of my blood
    He'll breed revengement and a scourge for me,
    But thou dost in thy passages of life
    Make me believe that thou art only marked
    For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven    10
    To punish my mistreadings. Tell me else,
    Could such inordinate and low desires,
    Such poor, such bare, such lewd, such mean attempts,
    Such barren pleasures, rude society,
    As thou art matched withal and grafted to,     15
    Accompany the greatness of thy blood,
    And hold their level with thy princely heart?
HAL
    So please your majesty, I would I could
    Quit all offences with as clear excuse
    As well as I am doubtless I can purge     20
    Myself of many I am charged withal,
    Yet such extenuation let me beg
    As, in reproof of many tales devised-
    Which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear
    By smiling pickthanks and base newsmongers     25
    I may, for some things true wherein my youth
    Hath faulty wandered and irregular,
    Find pardon on my true submission.
KING HENRY
    God pardon thee! Yet let me wonder, Harry,
    At thy affections, which do hold a wing     30
    Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors.
    Thy place in Council thou hast rudely lost-
    Which by thy younger brother is supplied-
    And art almost an alien to the hearts
    Of all the court and princes of my blood.    35
    The hope and expectation of thy time
    Is ruined, and the soul of every man
    Prophetically do forethink thy fall.
    Had I so lavish of my presence been,
    So common-hackneyed in the eyes of men,    40
    So stale and cheap to vulgar company,
    Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
    Had still kept loyal to possession,
    And left me in reputeless banishment,
    A fellow of no mark nor likelihood.     45
    By being seldom seen, I could not stir
    But, like a comet, I was wondered at,
    That men would tell their children `This is he.'
    Others would say `Where, which is Bolingbroke?'
    And then I stole all courtesy from heaven,     50
    And dressed myself in such humility
    That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts,
    Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths,
    Even in the presence of the crowned King.
    Thus did I keep my person fresh and new,     55
    My presence like a robe pontifical-
    Ne'er seen but wondered at-and so my state,
    Seldom but sumptuous, showed like a feast,
    And won by rareness such solemnity.
    The skipping King, he ambled up and down     60
    With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits,
    Soon kindled and soon burnt, carded his state,
    Mingled his royalty with cap'ring fools,
    Had his great name profaned with their scorns,
    And gave his countenance, against his name,     65
    To laugh at gibing boys, and stand the push
    Of every beardless vain comparative,
    Grew a companion to the common streets,
    Enfeoffed himself to popularity,
    That, being daily swallowed by men's eyes,    70
    They surfeited with honey, and began
    To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little
    More than a little is by much too much.
    So when he had occasion to be seen,
    He was but as the cuckoo is in June,     75
    Heard, not regarded, seen but with such eyes
    As, sick and blunted with community,
    Afford no extraordinary gaze
    Such as is bent on sun-like majesty
    When it shines seldom in admiring eyes,     80
    But rather drowsed and hung their eyelids down,
    Slept in his face, and rendered such aspect
    As cloudy men use to their adversaries,
    Being with his presence glutted, gorged, and full.
    And in that very line, Harry, standest thou,     85
    For thou hast lost thy princely privilege
    With vile participation. Not an eye
    But is a-weary of thy common sight,
    Save mine, which hath desired to see thee more,
    Which now doth that I would not have it do-     90
    Make blind itself with foolish tenderness.
                He weeps
HAL
    I shall hereafter, my thrice-gracious lord,
    Be more myself.
KING HENRY
    For all the world,
    As thou art to this hour was Richard then,
    When I from France set foot at Ravenspurgh,    95
    And even as I was then is Percy now.
    Now by my sceptre, and my soul to boot,
    He hath more worthy interest to the state
    Than thou, the shadow of succession,
    For, of no right, nor colour like to right,     100
    He doth fill fields with harness in the realm,
    Turns head against the lion's armed jaws,
    And, being no more in debt to years than thou,
    Leads ancient lords and reverend bishops on
    To bloody battles, and to bruising arms.     105
    What never-dying honour hath he got
    Against renowned Douglas! - whose high deeds,
    Whose hot incursions and great name in arms,
    Holds from all soldiers chief majority
    And military title capital     110
    Through all the kingdoms that acknowledge Christ.
    Thrice hath this Hotspur, Mars in swaddling-clothes,
    This infant warrior, in his enterprises
    Discomfited great Douglas, ta'en him once,
    Enlarged him, and made a friend of him     115
    To fill the mouth of deep defiance up,
    And shake the peace and safety of our throne.
    And what say you to this? Percy, Northumberland,
    The Archbishop's grace of York, Douglas, Mortimer,
    Capitulate against us, and are up.     120
    But wherefore do I tell these news to thee?
    Why, Harry, do I tell thee of my foes,
    Which art my near'st and dearest enemy?-
    Thou that art like enough, through vassal fear,
    Base inclination, and the start of spleen,     125
    To fight against me under Percy's pay,
    To dog his heels, and curtsy at his frowns,
    To show how much thou art degenerate.
HAL
    Do not think so, you shall not find it so.
    And God forgive them that so much have swayed    130
    Your majesty's good thoughts away from me.
    I will redeem all this on Percy's head,
    And in the closing of some glorious day
    Be bold to tell you that I am your son,
    When I will wear a garment all of blood,     135
    And stain my favours in a bloody mask,
    Which, washed away, shall scour my shame with it.
    And that shall be the day, whene'er it lights,
    That this same child of honour and renown,
    This gallant Hotspur, this all-praised knight,    140
    And your unthought-of Harry chance to meet.
    For every honour sitting on his helm,
    Would they were multitudes, and on my head
    My shames redoubled, for the time will come
    That I shall make this northern youth exchange    145
    His glorious deeds for my indignities.
    Percy is but my factor, good my lord,
    To engross up glorious deeds on my behalf,
    And I will call him to so strict account
    That he shall render every glory up,     150
    Yea, even the slightest worship of his time,
    Or I will tear the reckoning from his heart.
    This, in the name of God, I promise here,
    The which if he be pleased I shall perform,
    I do beseech your majesty may salve     155
    The long-grown wounds of my intemperature,
    If not, the end of life cancels all bonds,
    And I will die a hundred thousand deaths
    Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow.
KING HENRY
    A hundred thousand rebels die in this.     160
    Thou shalt have charge and sovereign trust herein.
                Enter Sir Walter Blunt
    How now, good Blunt? Thy looks are full of speed.
BLUNT
    So hath the business that I come to speak of.
    Lord Mortimer of Scotland hath sent word
    That Douglas and the English rebels met     165
    The eleventh of this month at Shrewsbury.
    A mighty and a fearful head they are,
    If promises be kept on every hand,
    As ever offered foul play in a state.
KING HENRY
    The Earl of Westmorland set forth today,    170
    With him my son Lord John of Lancaster,
    For this advertisement is five days old.
    On Wednesday next, Harry, you shall set forward.
    On Thursday we ourselves will march.
    Our meeting is Bridgnorth, and, Harry, you     175
    Shall march through Gloucestershire, by which account,
    Our business valued, some twelve days hence
    Our general forces at Bridgnorth shall meet.
    Our hands are full of business, let's away.
    Advantage feeds him fat while men delay.     180
                Exeunt


3.3
                Enter Sir John Falstaff with a truncheon at his
                waist, and Russell
SIR JOHN
    Russell, am I not fallen away vilely since this
    last action? Do I not bate? Do I not dwindle? Why,
    my skin hangs about me like an old lady's loose gown.
    I am withered like an old apple-john. Well, I'll repent,
    and that suddenly, while I am in some liking. I shall     5
    be out of heart shortly, and then I shall have no
    strength to repent. An I have not forgotten what the
    inside of a church is made of, I am a peppercorn, a
    brewer's horse-the inside of a church! Company,
    villainous company, hath been the spoil of me.     10
RUSSELL
    Sir John, you are so fretful you cannot live long.
SIR JOHN
    Why, there is it. Come, sing me a bawdy song,
    make me merry. I was as virtuously given as a
    gentleman need to be: virtuous enough, swore little,
    diced not-above seven times a week, went to a bawdy-    15
    house not-above once in a quarter-of an hour, paid
    money that I borrowed-three or four times, lived well,
    and in good compass. And now I live out of all order,
    out of all compass.
RUSSELL
    Why, you are so fat, Sir John, that you must     20
    needs be out of all compass, out of all reasonable
    compass, Sir John.
SIR JOHN
    Do thou amend thy face, and I'll amend my life.
    Thou art our admiral, thou bearest the lantern in the
    poop-but 'tis in the nose of thee. Thou art the Knight    25
    of the Burning Lamp.
RUSSELL
    Why, Sir John, my face does you no harm.
SIR JOHN
    No, I'll be sworn, I make as good use of it as
    many a man doth of a death's head, or a memento
    mori. I never see thy face but I think upon hell-fire and    30
    Dives that lived in purple-for there he is in his robes,
    burning, burning. If thou wert any way given to virtue,
    I would swear by thy face, my oath should be `By this
    fire that's God's angel!' But thou art altogether given
    over, and wert indeed, but for the light in thy face, the    35
    son of utter darkness. When thou rannest up Gads Hill
    in the night to catch my horse, if I did not think thou
    hadst been an ignis fatuus or a ball of wildfire, there's
    no purchase in money. O, thou art a perpetual triumph,
    an everlasting bonfire-light! Thou hast saved me a     40
    thousand marks in links and torches, walking with
    thee in the night betwixt tavern and tavern - but the
    sack that thou hast drunk me would have bought me
    lights as good cheap at the dearest chandler's in Europe.
    I have maintained that salamander of yours with fire     45
    any time this two-and-thirty years, God reward me for it.
RUSSELL
    'Sblood, I would my face were in your belly!
SIR JOHN
    God-a-mercy! So should I be sure to be heart - burnt.   50
                Enter Hostess
    How now, Dame Partlet the hen, have you enquired
    yet who picked my pocket?
HOSTESS
    Why, Sir John, what do you think, Sir John? Do
    you think I keep thieves in my house? I have searched,
    I have enquired, so has my husband, man by man,     55
    boy by boy, servant by servant. The tithe of a hair was
    never lost in my house before.
SIR JOHN
    Ye lie, Hostess: Russell was shaved and lost
    many a hair, and I'll be sworn my pocket was picked.
    Go to, you are a woman, go.     60
HOSTESS
    Who, I? No, I defy thee! God's light, I was never
    called so in mine own house before.
SIR JOHN
    Go to, I know you well enough.
HOSTESS
    No, Sir John, you do not know me, Sir John, I
    know you, Sir John. You owe me money, Sir John, and    65
    now you pick a quarrel to beguile me of it. I bought
    you a dozen of shirts to your back.
SIR JOHN
    Dowlas, filthy dowlas. I have given them away
    to bakers' wives, they have made bolters of them.
HOSTESS
    Now as I am a true woman, holland of eight     70
    shillings an ell. You owe money here besides, Sir John:
    for your diet, and by-drinkings, and money lent you,
    four-and-twenty pound.
SIR JOHN   (pointing at Russell)
    He had his part of it. Let him pay.    75
HOSTESS
    He? Alas, he is poor, he hath nothing.
SIR JOHN
    How, poor? Look upon his face. What call you
    rich? Let them coin his nose, let them coin his cheeks,
    I'll not pay a denier. What, will you make a younker
    of me? Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn, but I     80
    shall have my pocket picked? I have lost a seal-ring of
    my grandfather's worth forty mark.
HOSTESS
    O Jesu,  (to Russell)   I have heard the Prince tell
    him, I know not how oft, that that ring was copper.
SIR JOHN
    How? The Prince is a jack, a sneak-up.  [Raising     85
    his truncheon]    'Sblood, an he were here I would cudgel
    him like a dog if he would say so.
                Enter Prince Harry and Harvey, marching, and Sir
                John Falstaff meets them, playing upon his
                truncheon like a fife
    How now, lad, is the wind in that door, i'faith? Must
    we all march?
RUSSELL
    Yea, two and two, Newgate fashion.    90
HOSTESS
    My lord, I pray you hear me.
HAL
    What sayst thou, Mistress Quickly? How doth thy husband?
    I love him well, he is an honest man.
HOSTESS
    Good my lord, hear me!
SIR JOHN
    Prithee, let her alone, and list to me.    95
HAL
    What sayst thou, Jack?
SIR JOHN
    The other night I fell asleep here behind the
    arras, and had my pocket picked. This house is turned
    bawdy-house: they pick pockets.
HAL
    What didst thou lose, Jack?     100
SIR JOHN
    Wilt thou believe me, Hal, three or four bonds
    of forty pound apiece, and a seal-ring of my grandfather's.
HAL
    A trifle, some eightpenny matter.
HOSTESS
    So I told him, my lord, and I said I heard your     105
    grace say so, and, my lord, he speaks most vilely of
    you, like a foul-mouthed man as he is, and said he
    would cudgel you.
HAL
    What? He did not!
HOSTESS
    There's neither faith, truth, nor womanhood in me else.   110
SIR JOHN
    There's no more faith in thee than in a stewed
    prune, nor no more truth in thee than in a drawn fox,
    and, for womanhood, Maid Marian may be the deputy's
    wife of the ward to thee. Go, you thing, go!     115
HOSTESS
    Say, what thing, what thing?
SIR JOHN
    What thing? Why, a thing to thank God on.
HOSTESS
    I am no thing to thank God on. I would thou
    shouldst know it, I am an honest man's wife, and
    setting thy knighthood aside, thou art a knave to call   120
    me so.
SIR JOHN
    Setting thy womanhood aside, thou art a beast
    to say otherwise.
HOSTESS
    Say, what beast, thou knave, thou?
SIR JOHN
    What beast? Why, an otter.     125
HAL
    An otter, Sir John? Why an otter?
SIR JOHN
    Why? She's neither fish nor flesh, a man knows
    not where to have her.
HOSTESS
    Thou art an unjust man in saying so. Thou or
    any man knows where to have me, thou knave, thou.   130
HAL
    Thou sayst true, Hostess, and he slanders
    thee most grossly.
HOSTESS
    So he doth you, my lord, and said this other day
    you owed him a thousand pound.
HAL
    Sirrah, do I owe you a thousand pound?     135
SIR JOHN
    A thousand pound, Hal? A million! Thy love is
    worth a million, thou owest me thy love.
HOSTESS
    Nay, my lord, he called you `jack' and said he
    would cudgel you.       140
SIR JOHN
    Did I, Russell?
RUSSELL
    Indeed, Sir John, you said so.
SIR JOHN
    Yea, if he said my ring was copper.
HAL
    I say 'tis copper, darest thou be as good
    as thy word now?        145
SIR JOHN
    Why, Hal, thou knowest as thou art but man I
    dare, but as thou art prince, I fear thee as I fear the
    roaring of the lion's whelp.
HAL
    And why not as the lion?
SIR JOHN
    The King himself is to be feared as the lion. Dost     150
    thou think I'll fear thee as I fear thy father? Nay, an I
    do, I pray God my girdle break.
HAL
    O, if it should, how would thy guts fall
    about thy knees! But sirrah, there's no room for faith,
    truth, nor honesty in this bosom of thine, it is all filled   155
    up with guts and midriff. Charge an honest woman
    with picking thy pocket? Why, thou whoreson
    impudent embossed rascal, if there were anything in
    thy pocket but tavern reckonings, memorandums of
    bawdy-houses, and one poor pennyworth of sugar-     160
    candy to make thee long-winded - if thy pocket were
    enriched with any other injuries but these, I am a
    villain. And yet you will stand to it, you will not pocket
    up wrong. Art thou not ashamed?
SIR JOHN
    Dost thou hear, Hal? Thou knowest in the state     165
    of innocency Adam fell, and what should poor Jack
    Falstaff do in the days of villainy? Thou seest I have
    more flesh than another man, and therefore more
    frailty. You confess, then, you picked my pocket.
HAL
    It appears so by the story.     170
SIR JOHN
    Hostess, I forgive thee. Go make ready breakfast.
    Love thy husband, look to thy servants, cherish thy
    guests. Thou shalt find me tractable to any honest
    reason, thou seest I am pacified still. Nay, prithee, be
    gone.                   175
                Exit Hostess
    Now, Hal, to the news at court. For the robbery, lad,
    how is that answered?
HAL
    O, my sweet beef, I must still be good angel
    to thee. The money is paid back again.
SIR JOHN
    O, I do not like that paying back, 'tis a double    180
    labour.
HAL
    I am good friends with my father, and may
    do anything.
SIR JOHN
    Rob me the exchequer the first thing thou dost,
    and do it with unwashed hands too.     185
RUSSELL
    Do, my lord.
HAL
    I have procured thee, Jack, a charge of foot.
SIR JOHN
    I would it had been of horse! Where shall I find
    one that can steal well? O, for a fine thief of the age    190
    of two-and-twenty or thereabouts! I am heinously
    unprovided. Well, God be thanked for these rebels -
    they offend none but the virtuous. I laud them, I praise
    them.
HAL
    Russell.              195
RUSSELL
    My lord?
HAL   (giving letters)
    Go bear this letter to Lord John of Lancaster,
    To my brother John, this to my lord of Westmorland.
                Exit Russell
    Go, Harvey, to horse, to horse, for thou and I
    Have thirty miles to ride yet ere dinner time.    200
                Exit Harvey
    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,    205
    And either we or they must lower lie.
                Exit
SIR JOHN
    Rare words! Brave world!  (calling)  Hostess, my
    breakfast, come! - O, I could wish this tavern were my drum!
                Exit

ACT IV   HENRY IV part 1

4.1
                Enter Hotspur and the Earls of 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.    5
    By God, I cannot flatter, I do defy
    The tongues of soothers, but a braver place
    In my heart's love hath no man than yourself.
    Nay, task me to my word, approve me, lord.
DOUGLAS
    Thou art the king of honour.     10
    No man so potent breathes upon the ground
    But I will beard him.
HOTSPUR
    Do so, and 'tis well.
                Enter a Messenger with letters
    What letters hast thou there? I can but thank you.
MESSENGER
    These letters come from your father.
HOTSPUR
    Letters from him? Why comes he not himself?    15
MESSENGER
    He cannot come, my lord, he is grievous sick.
HOTSPUR
    Zounds, how has he the leisure to be sick
    In such a jostling time? Who leads his power?
    Under whose government come they along?
MESSENGER
    His letters bears his mind, not I, my lord.    20
                Hotspur reads the letter
WORCESTER
    I prithee tell me, doth he keep his bed?
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 physicians.
WORCESTER
    I would the state of time had first been whole    25
    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.     30
    He writes me here that inward sickness stays him,
    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.     35
    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     40
    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    45
    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 sole of hope,     50
    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.     55
    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.    60
    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,    65
    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,     70
    And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence
    The eye of reason may pry in upon us.
    This absence of your father's draws a curtain
    That shows the ignorant a kind of fear
    Before not dreamt of.
HOTSPUR
    You strain too far.     75
    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     80
    To push against a kingdom, with his help
    We shall o'erturn it topsy-turvy down.
    Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole.
DOUGLAS
    As heart can think, there is not such a word
    Spoke of in Scotland as this term of fear.    85
                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     90
    The King himself in person is set forth,
    Or hitherwards intended speedily,
    With strong and mighty preparation.
HOTSPUR
    He shall be welcome too. Where is his son,
    The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales,     95
    And his comrades that daffed the world aside
    And bid it pass?
VERNON
    All furnished, all in arms,
    All plumed like ostriches, that with the wind
    Baiting like eagles having lately bathed,     100
    Glittering in golden coats like images,
    As full of spirit as the month of May,
    And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer,
    Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.
    I saw young Harry with his beaver on,     105
    His cuishes 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,     110
    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     115
    All hot and bleeding will we offer them.
    The mailed Mars shall on his altar sit
    Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire
    To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh,
    And yet not ours! Come, let me taste my horse,    120
    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.     125
    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?    130
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.     135
DOUGLAS
    Talk not of dying, I am out of fear
    Of death or death's hand for this one half year.
                Exeunt


4.2
                Enter Sir John Falstaff and Russell
SIR JOHN
    Russell, get thee before to Coventry, fill me a
    bottle of sack. Our soldiers shall march through. We'll
    to Sutton Coldfield tonight.
RUSSELL
    Will you give me money, captain?
SIR JOHN
    Lay out, lay out.     5
RUSSELL
    This bottle makes an angel.
SIR JOHN    [giving Russell money]
    An if it do, take it for thy
    labour, an if it make twenty, take them all, I'll answer
    the coinage. Bid my lieutenant Harvey meet me at
    town's end.             10
RUSSELL
    I will, captain. Farewell.
                Exit
SIR JOHN
    If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a soused
    gurnet. I have misused the King's press damnably. I
    have got in exchange of one hundred and fifty soldiers
    three hundred and odd pounds. I press me none but     15
    good householders, yeomen's sons, enquire me out
    contracted bachelors, such as had been asked twice on
    the banns, such a commodity of warm slaves as had
    as lief hear the devil as a drum, such as fear the report
    of a caliver worse than a struck fowl or a hurt wild     20
    duck. I pressed me none but such toasts and butter,
    with hearts in their bellies no bigger than pins' heads,
    and they have bought out their services, and now my
    whole charge consists of ensigns, corporals, lieutenants,
    gentlemen of companies-slaves as ragged as Lazarus     25
    in the painted cloth, where the glutton's dogs licked
    his sores-and such as indeed were never soldiers, but
    discarded unjust servingmen, younger sons to younger
    brothers, revolted tapsters, and ostlers trade-fallen, the
    cankers of a calm world and a long peace, ten times     30
    more dishonourable-ragged than an old feazed ensign,
    and such have I to fill up the rooms of them as have
    bought out their services, that you would think that I
    had a hundred and fifty tattered prodigals lately come
    from swine-keeping, from eating draff and husks. A     35
    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     40
    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    45
    host at Saint Albans, or the red-nose innkeeper of
    Daventry. But that's all one, they'll find linen enough
    on every hedge.
                Enter Prince Harry and the Earl of Westmorland
HAL
    How now, blown Jack? How now, quilt?
SIR JOHN
    What, Hal! How now, mad wag? What a devil     50
    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     55
    already. The King, I can tell you, looks for us all. We
    must away all night.
SIR JOHN
    Tut, never fear me. I am as vigilant as a cat to steal cream.
HAL
    I think to steal cream indeed, for thy theft     60
    hath already made thee butter. But tell me, Jack, whose
    fellows are these that come after?
SIR JOHN
    Mine, Hal, mine.
HAL
    I did never see such pitiful rascals.
SIR JOHN
    Tut, tut, good enough to toss, food for powder,     65
    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.
SIR JOHN
    Faith, for their poverty, I know not where they     70
    had that, and for their bareness, I am sure they never
    learned that of me.
HAL
    No, I'll be sworn, unless you call three
    fingers in the ribs bare. But sirrah, make haste. Percy
    is already in the field.     75
                Exit
SIR JOHN
    What, is the King encamped?
WESTMORLAND
    He is, Sir John. I fear we shall stay too long.
                Exit
SIR JOHN
    Well, to the latter end of a fray
    And the beginning of a feast     80
    Fits a dull fighter and a keen guest.
                Exit


4.3
                Enter Hotspur, the Earls of Worcester and
                Douglas, and Sir Richard 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.   5
VERNON   (to Hotspur)
    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,     10
    I hold as little counsel with weak fear
    As you, my lord, or any Scot that this day lives.
    Let it be seen tomorrow in the battle
    Which of us fears.
DOUGLAS
    Yea, or tonight.     15
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     20
    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,    25
    That not a horse is half the half 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 our.     30
    For God's sake, cousin, stay till all come in.
                The trumpet sounds a parley within. 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.     35
    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 God defend but still I should stand so,    40
    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     45
    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    50
    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.    55
    My father and my uncle and myself
    Did give him that same royalty he wears,
    And when he was not six-and-twenty strong,
    Sick in the world's regard, wretched and low,
    A poor unminded outlaw sneaking home,     60
    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,    65
    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,    70
    Met him in boroughs, cities, villages,
    Attended him on bridges, stood in lanes,
    Laid gifts before him, proffered him their oaths,
    Gave him their heirs as pages, followed him,
    Even at the heels, in golden multitudes.     75
    He presently, as greatness knows itself,
    Steps me a little higher than his vow
    Made to my father while his blood was poor
    Upon the naked shore at Ravenspurgh,
    And now forsooth takes on him to reform     80
    Some certain edicts and some strait decrees
    That lie too heavy on the commonwealth,
    Cries out upon abuses, seems to weep
    Over his country's wrongs, and by this face,
    This seeming brow of justice, did he win     85
    The hearts of all that he did angle for,
    Proceeded further, cut me off the heads
    Of all the favourites that the absent King
    In deputation left behind him here
    When he was personal in the Irish war.     90
BLUNT
    Tut, I came not to hear this.
HOTSPUR
    Then to the point.
    In short time after, he deposed the King,
    Soon after that deprived him of his life,
    And in the neck of that tasked the whole state,
    To make that worse, suffered his kinsman March-   95
    Who is, if every owner were well placed,
    Indeed his king-to be engaged in Wales,
    There without ransom to lie forfeited,
    Disgraced me in my happy victories,
    Sought to entrap me by intelligence,     100
    Rated mine uncle from the Council-board,
    In rage dismissed my father from the court,
    Broke oath on oath, committed wrong on wrong,
    And in conclusion drove us to seek out
    This head of safety, and withal to pry     105
    Into his title, the which we find
    Too indirect for long continuance.
BLUNT
    Shall I return this answer to the King?
HOTSPUR
    Not so, Sir Walter. We'll withdraw awhile.
    Go to the King, and let there be impawned    110
    Some surety for a safe return again,
    And in the morning early shall mine uncle
    Bring him our purposes. And so, farewell.
BLUNT
    I would you would accept of grace and love.
HOTSPUR
    And maybe so we shall.
BLUNT
    Pray God you do.       115
                Exeunt Hotspur, Worcester, Douglas, and
                Vernon at one door, Blunt at another


4.4
                Enter the Archbishop of York, and Sir Michael
ARCHBISHOP   (giving letters)
    Hie, good Sir Michael, bear this sealed brief
    With winged haste to the Lord Marshal,
    This to my cousin Scroop, and all the rest
    To whom they are directed. If you knew
    How much they do import, you would make haste.    5
SIR MICHAEL
    My good lord, I guess their tenor.
ARCHBISHOP
    Like enough you do.
    Tomorrow, good Sir Michael, is a day
    Wherein the fortune of ten thousand men
    Must bide the touch, for, sir, at Shrewsbury,    10
    As I am truly given to understand,
    The King with mighty and quick-raised power
    Meets with Lord Harry. And I fear, Sir Michael,
    What with the sickness of Northumberland,
    Whose power was in the first proportion,     15
    And what with Owen Glendower's absence thence,
    Who with them was a rated sinew too,
    And comes not in, overruled by prophecies,
    I fear the power of Percy is too weak
    To wage an instant trial with the King.     20
SIR MICHAEL
    Why, my good lord, you need not fear, there is Douglas
    And Lord Mortimer.
ARCHBISHOP
    No, Mortimer is not there.
SIR MICHAEL
    But there is Mordake, Vernon, Lord Harry Percy,
    And there is my lord of Worcester, and a head
    Of gallant warriors, noble gentlemen.     25
ARCHBISHOP
    And so there is, but yet the King hath drawn
    The special head of all the land together-
    The Prince of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster,
    The noble Westmorland, and warlike Blunt,
    And many more corrivals, and dear men     30
    Of estimation and command in arms.
SIR MICHAEL
    Doubt not, my lord, they shall be well opposed.
ARCHBISHOP
    I hope no less, yet needful 'tis to fear,
    And to prevent the worst, Sir Michael, speed.
    For if Lord Percy thrive not, ere the King     35
    Dismiss his power he means to visit us,
    For he hath heard of our confederacy,
    And 'tis but wisdom to make strong against him,
    Therefore make haste. I must go write again
    To other friends, and so farewell, Sir Michael.    40
                Exeunt severally

ACT V   HENRY IV part 1

5.1
                Enter King Henry, Prince Harry, Lord John of
                Lancaster, the Earl of Westmorland, Sir Walter
                Blunt, and Sir John Falstaff
KING HENRY
    How bloodily the sun begins to peer
    Above yon bulky hill! The day looks pale
    At his distemp'rature.
HAL
    The southern wind
    Doth play the trumpet to his purposes,
    And by his hollow whistling in the leaves    5
    Foretells a tempest and a blust'ring day.
KING HENRY
    Then with the losers let it sympathize,
    For nothing can seem foul to those that win.
                The trumpet sounds a parley within. Enter the
                Earl of Worcester and Sir Richard Vernon
    How now, my lord of Worcester? 'Tis not well
    That you and I should meet upon such terms    10
    As now we meet. You have deceived our trust,
    And made us doff our easy robes of peace
    To crush our old limbs in ungentle steel.
    This is not well, my lord, this is not well.
    What say you to it? Will you again unknit     15
    This churlish knot of all-abhorred war,
    And move in that obedient orb again
    Where you did give a fair and natural light,
    And be no more an exhaled meteor,
    A prodigy of fear, and a portent     20
    Of broached mischief to the unborn times?
WORCESTER
    Hear me, my liege.
    For mine own part, I could be well content
    To entertain the lag-end of my life
    With quiet hours, for I protest,     25
    I have not sought the day of this dislike.
KING HENRY
    You have not sought it? How comes it, then?
SIR JOHN
    Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it.
HAL
    Peace, chewet, peace!
WORCESTER   (to the King)
    It pleased your majesty to turn your looks    30
    Of favour from myself and all our house,
    And yet I must remember you, my lord,
    We were the first and dearest of your friends.
    For you my staff of office did I break
    In Richard's time, and posted day and night     35
    To meet you on the way and kiss your hand
    When yet you were in place and in account
    Nothing so strong and fortunate as I.
    It was myself, my brother, and his son
    That brought you home, and boldly did outdare    40
    The dangers of the time. You swore to us,
    And you did swear that oath at Doncaster,
    That you did nothing purpose 'gainst the state,
    Nor claim no further than your new-fall'n right,
    The seat of Gaunt, dukedom of Lancaster.     45
    To this we swore our aid, but in short space
    It rained down fortune show'ring on your head,
    And such a flood of greatness fell on you,
    What with our help, what with the absent King,
    What with the injuries of a wanton time,     50
    The seeming sufferances that you had borne,
    And the contrarious winds that held the King
    So long in his unlucky Irish wars
    That all in England did repute him dead,
    And from this swarm of fair advantages     55
    You took occasion to be quickly wooed
    To gripe the general sway into your hand,
    Forgot your oath to us at Doncaster,
    And being fed by us, you used us so
    As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird,     60
    Useth the sparrow-did oppress our nest,
    Grew by our feeding to so great a bulk
    That even our love durst not come near your sight
    For fear of swallowing. But with nimble wing
    We were enforced for safety' sake to fly     65
    Out of your sight, and raise this present head,
    Whereby we stand opposed by such means
    As you yourself have forged against yourself,
    By unkind usage, dangerous countenance,
    And violation of all faith and troth     70
    Sworn to us in your younger enterprise.
KING HENRY
    These things indeed you have articulate,
    Proclaimed at market crosses, read in churches,
    To face the garment of rebellion
    With some fine colour that may please the eye    75
    Of fickle changelings and poor discontents,
    Which gape and rub the elbow at the news
    Of hurly-burly innovation,
    And never yet did insurrection want
    Such water-colours to impaint his cause,    80
    Nor moody beggars starving for a time
    Of pell-mell havoc and confusion.
HAL
    In both our armies there is many a soul
    Shall pay full dearly for this encounter
    If once they join in trial. Tell your nephew     85
    The Prince of Wales doth join with all the world
    In praise of Henry Percy. By my hopes,
    This present enterprise set off his head,
    I do not think a braver gentleman,
    More active-valiant or more valiant-young,    90
    More daring, or more bold, is now alive
    To grace this latter age with noble deeds.
    For my part, I may speak it to my shame,
    I have a truant been to chivalry,
    And so I hear he doth account me too.    95
    Yet this, before my father's majesty:
    I am content that he shall take the odds
    Of his great name and estimation,
    And will, to save the blood on either side,
    Try fortune with him in a single fight.     100
KING HENRY
    And, Prince of Wales, so dare we venture thee,
    Albeit considerations infinite
    Do make against it. No, good Worcester, no.
    We love our people well, even those we love
    That are misled upon your cousin's part,     105
    And will they take the offer of our grace,
    Both he and they and you, yea, every man
    Shall be my friend again, and I'll be his.
    So tell your cousin, and bring me word
    What he will do. But if he will not yield,    110
    Rebuke and dread correction wait on us,
    And they shall do their office. So be gone.
    We will not now be troubled with reply.
    We offer fair, take it advisedly.
                Exeunt Worcester and Vernon
HAL
    It will not be accepted, on my life.     115
    The Douglas and the Hotspur both together
    Are confident against the world in arms.
KING HENRY
    Hence, therefore, every leader to his charge,
    For on their answer will we set on them,
    And God befriend us as our cause is just!     120
                Exeunt all but Prince Harry and Falstaff
SIR JOHN
    Hal, if thou see me down in the battle, and
    bestride me, so. 'Tis a point of friendship.
HAL
    Nothing but a colossus can do thee that
    friendship. Say thy prayers, and farewell.
SIR JOHN
    I would 'twere bed-time, Hal, and all well.    125
HAL
    Why, thou owest God a death.
                Exit
SIR JOHN
    'Tis not due yet. I would be loath to pay him
    before his day. What need I be so forward with him
    that calls not on me? Well, 'tis no matter, honour
    pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off    130
    when I come on? How then? Can honour set-to a leg?
    No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound?
    No. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? No. What
    is honour? A word. What is in that word `honour'?
    What is that `honour'? Air. A trim reckoning! Who     135
    hath it? He that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it?
    No. Doth he hear it? No. 'Tis insensible then? Yea, to
    the dead. But will it not live with the living? No. Why?
    Detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I'll none of it.
    Honour is a mere scutcheon. And so ends my catechism.    140
                Exit


5.2
                Enter the Earl of Worcester and Sir Richard Vernon
WORCESTER
    O no, my nephew must not know, Sir Richard,
    The liberal and kind offer of the King.
VERNON
    'Twere best he did.
WORCESTER
    Then are we all undone.
    It is not possible, it cannot be,
    The King should keep his word in loving us.    5
    He will suspect us still, and find a time
    To punish this offence in other faults.
    Supposition all our lives shall be stuck full of eyes,
    For treason is but trusted like the fox,
    Who, ne'er so tame, so cherished, and locked up,    10
    Will have a wild trick of his ancestors.
    Look how we can, or sad or merrily,
    Interpretation will misquote our looks,
    And we shall feed like oxen at a stall,
    The better cherished still the nearer death.    15
    My nephew's trespass may be well forgot,
    It hath the excuse of youth and heat of blood,
    And an adopted name of privilege-
    A hare-brained Hotspur, governed by a spleen.
    All his offences live upon my head,     20
    And on his father's. We did train him on,
    And, his corruption being ta'en from us,
    We as the spring of all shall pay for all.
    Therefore, good cousin, let not Harry know
    In any case the offer of the King.     25
VERNON
    Deliver what you will, I'll say 'tis so.
                Enter Hotspur and the Earl of Douglas
    Here comes your cousin.
HOTSPUR
    My uncle is returned.
    Deliver up my lord of Westmorland.
    Uncle, what news?
WORCESTER
    The King will bid you battle presently.    30
DOUGLAS
    Defy him by the Lord of Westmorland.
HOTSPUR
    Lord Douglas, go you and tell him so.
DOUGLAS
    Marry, and shall, and very willingly.
                Exit
WORCESTER
    There is no seeming mercy in the King.
HOTSPUR
    Did you beg any? God forbid!    35
WORCESTER
    I told him gently of our grievances,
    Of his oath-breaking, which he mended thus:
    By now forswearing that he is forsworn.
    He calls us `rebels', `traitors', and will scourge
    With haughty arms this hateful name in us.     40
                Enter the Earl of Douglas
DOUGLAS
    Arm, gentlemen, to arms, for I have thrown
    A brave defiance in King Henry's teeth-
    And Westmorland that was engaged did bear it-
    Which cannot choose but bring him quickly on.
WORCESTER   (to Hotspur)
    The Prince of Wales stepped forth before the King    45
    And, nephew, challenged you to single fight.
HOTSPUR
    O, would the quarrel lay upon our heads,
    And that no man might draw short breath today
    But I and Harry Monmouth! Tell me, tell me,
    How showed his tasking? Seemed it in contempt?    50
VERNON
    No, by my soul, I never in my life
    Did hear a challenge urged more modestly,
    Unless a brother should a brother dare
    To gentle exercise and proof of arms.
    He gave you all the duties of a man,     55
    Trimmed up your praises with a princely tongue,
    Spoke your deservings like a chronicle,
    Making you ever better than his praise
    By still dispraising praise valued with you,
    And, which became him like a prince indeed,    60
    He made a blushing cital of himself,
    And chid his truant youth with such a grace
    As if he mastered there a double spirit
    Of teaching and of learning instantly.
    There did he pause, but let me tell the world,    65
    If he outlive the envy of this day,
    England did never owe so sweet a hope,
    So much misconstrued in his wantonness.
HOTSPUR
    Cousin, I think thou art enamoured
    On his follies. Never did I hear    70
    Of any prince so wild a liberty.
    But be he as he will, yet once ere night
    I will embrace him with a soldier's arm,
    That he shall shrink under my courtesy.
    Arm, arm, with speed! And fellows, soldiers, friends,   75
    Better consider what you have to do
    Than I, that have not well the gift of tongue,
    Can lift your blood up with persuasion.
                Enter a Messenger
MESSENGER
    My lord, here are letters for you.
HOTSPUR
    I cannot read them now.     80
                Exit Messenger
    O gentlemen, the time of life is short.
    To spend that shortness basely were too long
    If life did ride upon a dial's point,
    Still ending at the arrival of an hour.
    An if we live, we live to tread on kings,     85
    If die, brave death when princes die with us!
    Now for our consciences: the arms are fair
    When the intent of bearing them is just.
                Enter another Messenger
MESSENGER
    My lord, prepare, the King comes on apace.
                Exit
HOTSPUR
    I thank him that he cuts me from my tale,    90
    For I profess not talking, only this:
    Let each man do his best. And here draw I
    A sword whose temper I intend to stain
    With the best blood that I can meet withal
    In the adventure of this perilous day.     95
    Now Esperance! Percy! And set on!
    Sound all the lofty instruments of war,
    And by that music let us all embrace,
    For, heaven to earth, some of us never shall
    A second time do such a courtesy.     100
                The trumpets sound. Here they embrace. Exeunt


5.3
                King Henry enters with his power. Alarum, and
                exeunt to the battle. Then enter the Earl of
                Douglas, and Sir Walter Blunt, disguised as the
                King
BLUNT
    What is thy name, that in the battle thus
    Thou crossest me? What honour dost thou seek
    Upon my head?
DOUGLAS
    Know then my name is Douglas,
    And I do haunt thee in the battle thus
    Because some tell me that thou art a king.    5
BLUNT
    They tell thee true.
DOUGLAS
    The Lord of Stafford dear today hath bought
    Thy likeness, for instead of thee, King Harry,
    This sword hath ended him. So shall it thee,
    Unless thou yield thee as my prisoner.     10
BLUNT
    I was not born a yielder, thou proud Scot,
    And thou shalt find a king that will revenge
    Lord Stafford's death.
                They fight. Douglas kills Blunt.
                Then enter Hotspur
HOTSPUR
    O Douglas, hadst thou fought at Holmedon thus,
    I never had triumphed upon a Scot.     15
DOUGLAS
    All's done, all's won: here breathless lies the King.
HOTSPUR
    Where?
DOUGLAS
    Here.
HOTSPUR
    This, Douglas? No, I know this face full well.
    A gallant knight he was, his name was Blunt-    20
    Semblably furnished like the King himself.
DOUGLAS   (to Blunt's body)
    A fool go with thy soul, whither it goes!
    A borrowed title hast thou bought too dear.
    Why didst thou tell me that thou wert a king?
HOTSPUR
    The king hath many marching in his coats.   25
DOUGLAS
    Now by my sword, I will kill all his coats.
    I'll murder all his wardrobe, piece by piece,
    Until I meet the King.
HOTSPUR
    Up and away!
    Our soldiers stand full fairly for the day.
                Exeunt, leaving Blunt's body
                Alarum. Enter Sir John Falstaff
SIR JOHN
    Though I could scape shot-free at London, I fear     30
    the shot here. Here's no scoring but upon the pate.-
    Soft, who are you?-Sir Walter Blunt. There's honour
    for you. Here's no vanity. I am as hot as molten lead,
    and as heavy too. God keep lead out of me, I need no
    more weight than mine own bowels. I have led my     35
    ragamuffins where they are peppered, there's not three
    of my hundred and fifty left alive, and they are for the
    town's end, to beg during life.
                Enter Prince Harry
    But who comes here?
HAL
    What, stand'st thou idle here? Lend me thy sword.    40
    Many a noble man lies stark and stiff
    Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies,
    Whose deaths as yet are unrevenged. I prithee
    Lend me thy sword.
SIR JOHN
    O Hal, I prithee give me leave to breathe awhile.    45
    Turk Gregory never did such deeds in arms
    As I have done this day. I have paid Percy,
    I have made him sure.
HAL
    He is indeed, And living to kill thee.
    I prithee Lend me thy sword.
SIR JOHN
    Nay, before God, Hal,     50
    If Percy be alive thou gett'st not my sword,
    But take my pistol if thou wilt.
HAL
    Give it me. What, is it in the case?
SIR JOHN
    Ay, Hal,
    'Tis hot, 'tis hot. There's that will sack a city.
                The Prince draws it out, and finds it
                a bottle ofsack
HAL
    What, is it a time to jest and dally now?     55
                He throws the bottle at him. Exit
SIR JOHN
    Well, if Percy be alive, I'll pierce him. If he do
    come in my way, so, if he do not, if I come in his
    willingly, let him make a carbonado of me. I like not
    such grinning honour as Sir Walter hath. Give me life,
    which if I can save, so, if not, honour comes unlooked    60
    for, and there's an end.
                Exit with Blunt's body


5.4
                Alarum. Excursions. Enter King Henry, Prince
                Harry, wounded, Lord John of Lancaster, and the
                Earl of Westmorland
KING HENRY
    I prithee, Harry, withdraw thyself, thou bleed'st too much.
    Lord John of Lancaster, go you with him.
LANCASTER
    Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too.
HAL
    I beseech your majesty, make up,
    Lest your retirement do amaze your friends.    5
KING HENRY
    I will do so. My lord of Westmorland,
    Lead him to his tent.
WESTMORLAND   (to the Prince)
    Come, my lord, I'll lead you to your tent.
HAL
    Lead me, my lord? I do not need your help,
    And God forbid a shallow scratch should drive    10
    The Prince of Wales from such a field as this,
    Where stained nobility lies trodden on,
    And rebels' arms triumph in massacres.
LANCASTER
    We breathe too long. Come, cousin Westmorland,
    Our duty this way lies. For God's sake, come.    15
                Exeunt Lancaster and Westmorland
HAL
    By God, thou hast deceived me, Lancaster,
    I did not think thee lord of such a spirit.
    Before I loved thee as a brother, John,
    But now I do respect thee as my soul.
KING HENRY
    I saw him hold Lord Percy at the point     20
    With lustier maintenance than I did look for
    Of such an ungrown warrior.
HAL
    O, this boy lends mettle to us all!
                Exit. Enter the Earl of Douglas
DOUGLAS
    Another king! They grow like Hydra's heads.
    I am the Douglas, fatal to all those     25
    That wear those colours on them. What art thou
    That counterfeit'st the person of a king?
KING HENRY
    The King himself, who, Douglas, grieves at heart
    So many of his shadows thou hast met
    And not the very King. I have two boys     30
    Seek Percy and thyself about the field,
    But seeing thou fall'st on me so luckily,
    I will assay thee, and defend thyself.
DOUGLAS
    I fear thou art another counterfeit,
    And yet, in faith, thou bear'st thee like a king.    35
    But mine I am sure thou art, whoe'er thou be,
    And thus I win thee.
                They fight. The King being in danger,
                enter Prince Harry
HAL
    Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like
    Never to hold it up again. The spirits
    Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt, are in my arms.   40
    It is the Prince of Wales that threatens thee,
    Who never promiseth but he means to pay.
                They fight. Douglas flieth
    Cheerly, my lord! How fares your grace?
    Sir Nicholas Gawsey hath for succour sent,
    And so hath Clifton. I'll to Clifton straight.    45
KING HENRY
    Stay and breathe awhile.
    Thou hast redeemed thy lost opinion,
    And showed thou mak'st some tender of my life,
    In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me.
HAL
    O God, they did me too much injury     50
    That ever said I hearkened for your death.
    If it were so, I might have let alone
    The insulting hand of Douglas over you,
    Which would have been as speedy in your end
    As all the poisonous potions in the world,     55
    And saved the treacherous labour of your son.
KING HENRY
    Make up to Clifton, I'll to Sir Nicholas Gawsey.
                Exit
                Enter Hotspur
HOTSPUR
    If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth.
HAL
    Thou speak'st as if I would deny my name.
HOTSPUR
    My name is Harry Percy.
HAL
    Why then, I see         60
    A very valiant rebel of the name.
    I am the Prince of Wales, and think not, Percy,
    To share with me in glory any more.
    Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere,
    Nor can one England brook a double reign     65
    Of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales.
HOTSPUR
    Nor shall it, Harry, for the hour is come
    To end the one of us, and would to God
    Thy name in arms were now as great as mine.
HAL
    I'll make it greater ere I part from thee,    70
    And all the budding honours on thy crest
    I'll crop to make a garland for my head.
HOTSPUR
    I can no longer brook thy vanities.
                They fight.
                Enter Sir John Falstaff
SIR JOHN
    Well said, Hal! To it, Hal! Nay, you shall find
    no boy's play here, I can tell you.     75
                Enter Douglas. He fights with Sir John,
                who falls down as if he were dead. Exit
                Douglas. The Prince kills Hotspur
HOTSPUR
    O Harry, thou hast robbed me of my youth.
    I better brook the loss of brittle life
    Than those proud titles thou hast won of me.
    They wound my thoughts worse than thy sword my flesh.
    But thoughts, the slaves of life, and life, time's fool,   80
    And time, that takes survey of all the world,
    Must have a stop. O, I could prophesy,
    But that the earthy and cold hand of death
    Lies on my tongue. No, Percy, thou art dust,
    And food for-           85
                He dies
HAL
    For worms, brave Percy. Fare thee well, great heart.
    Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk!
    When that this body did contain a spirit,
    A kingdom for it was too small a bound,
    But now two paces of the vilest earth     90
    Is room enough. This earth that bears thee dead
    Bears not alive so stout a gentleman.
    If thou wert sensible of courtesy,
    I should not make so dear a show of zeal,
    But let my favours hide thy mangled face,    95
                He covers Hotspur's face
    And even in thy behalf I'll thank myself
    For doing these fair rites of tenderness.
    Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven.
    Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave,
    But not remembered in thy epitaph.     100
                He sees Sir John on the ground
    What, old acquaintance! Could not all this flesh
    Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell.
    I could have better spared a better man.
    O, I should have a heavy miss of thee,
    If I were much in love with vanity.     105
    Death hath not struck so fat a deer today,
    Though many dearer in this bloody fray.
    Embowelled will I see thee by and by.
    Till then, in blood by noble Percy lie.
                Exit
                Sir John arises
SIR JOHN
    Embowelled? If thou embowel me today, I'll give    110
    you leave to powder me, and eat me too, tomorrow.
    'Sblood, 'twas time to counterfeit, or that hot termagant
    Scot had paid me, scot and lot too. Counterfeit? I lie, I
    am no counterfeit. To die is to be a counterfeit, for he
    is but the counterfeit of a man who hath not the life    115
    of a man. But to counterfeit dying when a man thereby
    liveth is to be no counterfeit, but the true and perfect
    image of life indeed. The better part of valour is
    discretion, in the which better part I have saved my
    life. Zounds, I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy,     120
    though he be dead. How if he should counterfeit too,
    and rise? By my faith, I am afraid he would prove the
    better counterfeit. Therefore I'll make him sure, yea,
    and I'll swear I killed him. Why may not he rise as
    well as I? Nothing confutes me but eyes, and nobody     125
    sees me. Therefore, sirrah,  (stabbing Hotspur)  with a
    new wound in your thigh, come you along with me.
                He takes up Hotspur on his back.
                Enter Prince Harry and Lord John of Lancaster
HAL
    Come, brother John. Full bravely hast thou fleshed
    Thy maiden sword.
LANCASTER
    But soft, whom have we here?
    Did you not tell me this fat man was dead?    130
HAL
    I did, I saw him dead,
    Breathless and bleeding on the ground.
    (to Sir John)  Art thou alive?
    Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight?
    I prithee speak, we will not trust our eyes
    Without our ears. Thou art not what thou seem'st.    135
SIR JOHN
    No, that's certain: I am not a double man. But
    if I be not Jack Falstaff, then am I a jack. There is
    Percy. If your father will do me any honour, so, if not,
    let him kill the next Percy himself. I look to be either
    earl or duke, I can assure you.     140
HAL
    Why, Percy I killed myself, and saw thee dead.
SIR JOHN
    Didst thou? Lord, Lord, how this world is given
    to lying! I grant you I was down and out of breath,
    and so was he, but we rose both at an instant, and
    fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock. If I may be    145
    believed, so, if not, let them that should reward valour
    bear the sin upon their own heads. I'll take't on my
    death I gave him this wound in the thigh. If the man
    were alive and would deny it, zounds, I would make
    him eat a piece of my sword.     150
LANCASTER
    This is the strangest tale that e'er I heard.
HAL
    This is the strangest fellow, brother John.
    (to Sir John)  Come, bring your luggage nobly on your back.
    For my part, if a lie may do thee grace,
    I'll gild it with the happiest terms I have.    155
                A retreat is sounded
    The trumpet sounds retreat, the day is our.
    Come, brother, let us to the highest of the field
    To see what friends are living, who are dead.
                Exeunt the Prince and Lancaster
SIR JOHN
    I'll follow, as they say, for reward. He that
    rewards me, God reward him. If I do grow great, I'll    160
    grow less, for I'll purge, and leave sack, and live
    cleanly, as a nobleman should do.
                Exit, bearing Hotspur's body


5.5
                The trumpets sound. Enter King Henry, Prince
                Harry, Lord John of Lancaster, the Earl of
                Westmorland, with the Earl of Worcester and Sir
                Richard Vernon, prisoners, and soldiers
KING HENRY
    Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke.
    Ill-spirited Worcester, did not we send grace,
    Pardon, and terms of love to all of you?
    And wouldst thou turn our offers contrary,
    Misuse the tenor of thy kinsman's trust?     5
    Three knights upon our party slain today,
    A noble earl, and many a creature else,
    Had been alive this hour
    If like a Christian thou hadst truly borne
    Betwixt our armies true intelligence.     10
WORCESTER
    What I have done my safety urged me to,
    And I embrace this fortune patiently,
    Since not to be avoided it falls on me.
KING HENRY
    Bear Worcester to the death, and Vernon too.
    Other offenders we will pause upon.     15
                Exeunt Worcester and Vernon, guarded
    How goes the field?
HAL
    The noble Scot Lord Douglas, when he saw
    The fortune of the day quite turned from him,
    The noble Percy slain, and all his men
    Upon the foot of fear, fled with the rest,    20
    And falling from a hill he was so bruised
    That the pursuers took him. At my tent
    The Douglas is, and I beseech your grace
    I may dispose of him.
KING HENRY
    With all my heart.     25
HAL
    Then, brother John of Lancaster,
    To you this honourable bounty shall belong.
    Go to the Douglas, and deliver him
    Up to his pleasure ransomless and free.
    His valours shown upon our crests today     30
    Have taught us how to cherish such high deeds
    Even in the bosom of our adversaries.
LANCASTER
    I thank your grace for this high courtesy,
    Which I shall give away immediately.
KING HENRY
    Then this remains, that we divide our power.     35
    You, son John, and my cousin Westmorland,
    Towards York shall bend you with your dearest speed
    To meet Northumberland and the prelate Scroop,
    Who, as we hear, are busily in arms.
    Myself and you, son Harry, will towards Wales,    40
    To fight with Glendower and the Earl of March.
    Rebellion in this land shall lose his sway,
    Meeting the check of such another day,
    And since this business so fair is done,
    Let us not leave till all our own be won.     45
                Exeunt the King, the Prince, and their power
                at one door, Lancaster, Westmorland, and their
                power at another