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- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
-
- DRAMATIS PERSONAE
-
-
- RUMOUR the Presenter.
-
- KING HENRY the Fourth. (KING HENRY IV:)
-
-
- PRINCE HENRY |
- OF WALES (PRINCE HENRY:) |
- afterwards KING HENRY V. |
- |
- THOMAS, DUKE OF | sons of King Henry.
- CLARENCE (CLARENCE:) |
- |
- PRINCE HUMPHREY |
- OF GLOUCESTER (GLOUCESTER:) |
-
-
- EARL OF WARWICK (WARWICK:)
-
- EARL OF
- WESTMORELAND (WESTMORELAND:)
-
- EARL OF SURREY:
-
- GOWER:
-
- HARCOURT:
-
- BLUNT:
-
- Lord Chief-Justice of the King's Bench:
- (Lord Chief-Justice:)
-
- A Servant of the Chief-Justice.
-
- EARL OF
- NORTHUMBERLAND (NORTHUMBERLAND:)
-
- SCROOP,
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK (ARCHBISHOP OF YORK:)
-
- LORD MOWBRAY (MOWBRAY:)
-
- LORD HASTINGS (HASTINGS:)
-
- LORD BARDOLPH:
-
- SIR JOHN COLEVILE (COLEVILE:)
-
-
- TRAVERS |
- | retainers of Northumberland.
- MORTON |
-
-
- SIR JOHN FALSTAFF (FALSTAFF:)
-
- His Page. (Page:)
-
- BARDOLPH:
-
- PISTOL:
-
- POINS:
-
- PETO:
-
-
- SHALLOW |
- | country justices.
- SILENCE |
-
-
- DAVY servant to Shallow.
-
-
- MOULDY |
- |
- SHADOW |
- |
- WART | recruits.
- |
- FEEBLE |
- |
- BULLCALF |
-
-
- FANG |
- | sheriff's officers.
- SNARE |
-
-
- LADY
- NORTHUMBERLAND:
-
- LADY PERCY:
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET:
-
- Lords and Attendants; Porter, Drawers,
- Beadles, Grooms, &c.
- (First Messenger:)
- (Porter:)
- (First Drawer:)
- (Second Drawer:)
- (First Beadle:)
- (First Groom:)
- (Second Groom:)
-
- A Dancer, speaker of the epilogue.
-
-
- SCENE England.
-
-
-
-
- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
- INDUCTION
-
-
- [Warkworth. Before the castle]
-
- [Enter RUMOUR, painted full of tongues]
-
- RUMOUR Open your ears; for which of you will stop
- The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks?
- I, from the orient to the drooping west,
- Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
- The acts commenced on this ball of earth:
- Upon my tongues continual slanders ride,
- The which in every language I pronounce,
- Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.
- I speak of peace, while covert enmity
- Under the smile of safety wounds the world:
- And who but Rumour, who but only I,
- Make fearful musters and prepared defence,
- Whiles the big year, swoln with some other grief,
- Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
- And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe
- Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures
- And of so easy and so plain a stop
- That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
- The still-discordant wavering multitude,
- Can play upon it. But what need I thus
- My well-known body to anatomize
- Among my household? Why is Rumour here?
- I run before King Harry's victory;
- Who in a bloody field by Shrewsbury
- Hath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops,
- Quenching the flame of bold rebellion
- Even with the rebel's blood. But what mean I
- To speak so true at first? my office is
- To noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fell
- Under the wrath of noble Hotspur's sword,
- And that the king before the Douglas' rage
- Stoop'd his anointed head as low as death.
- This have I rumour'd through the peasant towns
- Between that royal field of Shrewsbury
- And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone,
- Where Hotspur's father, old Northumberland,
- Lies crafty-sick: the posts come tiring on,
- And not a man of them brings other news
- Than they have learn'd of me: from Rumour's tongues
- They bring smooth comforts false, worse than
- true wrongs.
-
- [Exit]
-
-
-
-
- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
-
- ACT I
-
-
-
- SCENE I The same.
-
-
- [Enter LORD BARDOLPH]
-
- LORD BARDOLPH Who keeps the gate here, ho?
-
- [The Porter opens the gate]
-
- Where is the earl?
-
- Porter What shall I say you are?
-
- LORD BARDOLPH Tell thou the earl
- That the Lord Bardolph doth attend him here.
-
- Porter His lordship is walk'd forth into the orchard;
- Please it your honour, knock but at the gate,
- And he himself wilt answer.
-
- [Enter NORTHUMBERLAND]
-
- LORD BARDOLPH Here comes the earl.
-
- [Exit Porter]
-
- NORTHUMBERLAND What news, Lord Bardolph? every minute now
- Should be the father of some stratagem:
- The times are wild: contention, like a horse
- Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose
- And bears down all before him.
-
- LORD BARDOLPH Noble earl,
- I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury.
-
- NORTHUMBERLAND Good, an God will!
-
- LORD BARDOLPH As good as heart can wish:
- The king is almost wounded to the death;
- And, in the fortune of my lord your son,
- Prince Harry slain outright; and both the Blunts
- Kill'd by the hand of Douglas; young Prince John
- And Westmoreland and Stafford fled the field;
- And Harry Monmouth's brawn, the hulk Sir John,
- Is prisoner to your son: O, such a day,
- So fought, so follow'd and so fairly won,
- Came not till now to dignify the times,
- Since Caesar's fortunes!
-
- NORTHUMBERLAND How is this derived?
- Saw you the field? came you from Shrewsbury?
-
- LORD BARDOLPH I spake with one, my lord, that came from thence,
- A gentleman well bred and of good name,
- That freely render'd me these news for true.
-
- NORTHUMBERLAND Here comes my servant Travers, whom I sent
- On Tuesday last to listen after news.
-
- [Enter TRAVERS]
-
- LORD BARDOLPH My lord, I over-rode him on the way;
- And he is furnish'd with no certainties
- More than he haply may retail from me.
-
- NORTHUMBERLAND Now, Travers, what good tidings comes with you?
-
- TRAVERS My lord, Sir John Umfrevile turn'd me back
- With joyful tidings; and, being better horsed,
- Out-rode me. After him came spurring hard
- A gentleman, almost forspent with speed,
- That stopp'd by me to breathe his bloodied horse.
- He ask'd the way to Chester; and of him
- I did demand what news from Shrewsbury:
- He told me that rebellion had bad luck
- And that young Harry Percy's spur was cold.
- With that, he gave his able horse the head,
- And bending forward struck his armed heels
- Against the panting sides of his poor jade
- Up to the rowel-head, and starting so
- He seem'd in running to devour the way,
- Staying no longer question.
-
- NORTHUMBERLAND Ha! Again:
- Said he young Harry Percy's spur was cold?
- Of Hotspur Coldspur? that rebellion
- Had met ill luck?
-
- LORD BARDOLPH My lord, I'll tell you what;
- If my young lord your son have not the day,
- Upon mine honour, for a silken point
- I'll give my barony: never talk of it.
-
- NORTHUMBERLAND Why should that gentleman that rode by Travers
- Give then such instances of loss?
-
- LORD BARDOLPH Who, he?
- He was some hilding fellow that had stolen
- The horse he rode on, and, upon my life,
- Spoke at a venture. Look, here comes more news.
-
- [Enter MORTON]
-
- NORTHUMBERLAND Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-leaf,
- Foretells the nature of a tragic volume:
- So looks the strand whereon the imperious flood
- Hath left a witness'd usurpation.
- Say, Morton, didst thou come from Shrewsbury?
-
- MORTON I ran from Shrewsbury, my noble lord;
- Where hateful death put on his ugliest mask
- To fright our party.
-
- NORTHUMBERLAND How doth my son and brother?
- Thou tremblest; and the whiteness in thy cheek
- Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand.
- Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,
- So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone,
- Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night,
- And would have told him half his Troy was burnt;
- But Priam found the fire ere he his tongue,
- And I my Percy's death ere thou report'st it.
- This thou wouldst say, 'Your son did thus and thus;
- Your brother thus: so fought the noble Douglas:'
- Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds:
- But in the end, to stop my ear indeed,
- Thou hast a sigh to blow away this praise,
- Ending with 'Brother, son, and all are dead.'
-
- MORTON Douglas is living, and your brother, yet;
- But, for my lord your son--
-
- NORTHUMBERLAND Why, he is dead.
- See what a ready tongue suspicion hath!
- He that but fears the thing he would not know
- Hath by instinct knowledge from others' eyes
- That what he fear'd is chanced. Yet speak, Morton;
- Tell thou an earl his divination lies,
- And I will take it as a sweet disgrace
- And make thee rich for doing me such wrong.
-
- MORTON You are too great to be by me gainsaid:
- Your spirit is too true, your fears too certain.
-
- NORTHUMBERLAND Yet, for all this, say not that Percy's dead.
- I see a strange confession in thine eye:
- Thou shakest thy head and hold'st it fear or sin
- To speak a truth. If he be slain, say so;
- The tongue offends not that reports his death:
- And he doth sin that doth belie the dead,
- Not he which says the dead is not alive.
- Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
- Hath but a losing office, and his tongue
- Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,
- Remember'd tolling a departing friend.
-
- LORD BARDOLPH I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead.
-
- MORTON I am sorry I should force you to believe
- That which I would to God I had not seen;
- But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state,
- Rendering faint quittance, wearied and out-breathed,
- To Harry Monmouth; whose swift wrath beat down
- The never-daunted Percy to the earth,
- From whence with life he never more sprung up.
- In few, his death, whose spirit lent a fire
- Even to the dullest peasant in his camp,
- Being bruited once, took fire and heat away
- From the best temper'd courage in his troops;
- For from his metal was his party steel'd;
- Which once in him abated, all the rest
- Turn'd on themselves, like dull and heavy lead:
- And as the thing that's heavy in itself,
- Upon enforcement flies with greatest speed,
- So did our men, heavy in Hotspur's loss,
- Lend to this weight such lightness with their fear
- That arrows fled not swifter toward their aim
- Than did our soldiers, aiming at their safety,
- Fly from the field. Then was the noble Worcester
- Too soon ta'en prisoner; and that furious Scot,
- The bloody Douglas, whose well-labouring sword
- Had three times slain the appearance of the king,
- 'Gan vail his stomach and did grace the shame
- Of those that turn'd their backs, and in his flight,
- Stumbling in fear, was took. The sum of all
- Is that the king hath won, and hath sent out
- A speedy power to encounter you, my lord,
- Under the conduct of young Lancaster
- And Westmoreland. This is the news at full.
-
- NORTHUMBERLAND For this I shall have time enough to mourn.
- In poison there is physic; and these news,
- Having been well, that would have made me sick,
- Being sick, have in some measure made me well:
- And as the wretch, whose fever-weaken'd joints,
- Like strengthless hinges, buckle under life,
- Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire
- Out of his keeper's arms, even so my limbs,
- Weaken'd with grief, being now enraged with grief,
- Are thrice themselves. Hence, therefore, thou nice crutch!
- A scaly gauntlet now with joints of steel
- Must glove this hand: and hence, thou sickly quoif!
- Thou art a guard too wanton for the head
- Which princes, flesh'd with conquest, aim to hit.
- Now bind my brows with iron; and approach
- The ragged'st hour that time and spite dare bring
- To frown upon the enraged Northumberland!
- Let heaven kiss earth! now let not Nature's hand
- Keep the wild flood confined! let order die!
- And let this world no longer be a stage
- To feed contention in a lingering act;
- But let one spirit of the first-born Cain
- Reign in all bosoms, that, each heart being set
- On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,
- And darkness be the burier of the dead!
-
- TRAVERS This strained passion doth you wrong, my lord.
-
- LORD BARDOLPH Sweet earl, divorce not wisdom from your honour.
-
- MORTON The lives of all your loving complices
- Lean on your health; the which, if you give o'er
- To stormy passion, must perforce decay.
- You cast the event of war, my noble lord,
- And summ'd the account of chance, before you said
- 'Let us make head.' It was your presurmise,
- That, in the dole of blows, your son might drop:
- You knew he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge,
- More likely to fall in than to get o'er;
- You were advised his flesh was capable
- Of wounds and scars and that his forward spirit
- Would lift him where most trade of danger ranged:
- Yet did you say 'Go forth;' and none of this,
- Though strongly apprehended, could restrain
- The stiff-borne action: what hath then befallen,
- Or what hath this bold enterprise brought forth,
- More than that being which was like to be?
-
- LORD BARDOLPH We all that are engaged to this loss
- Knew that we ventured on such dangerous seas
- That if we wrought our life 'twas ten to one;
- And yet we ventured, for the gain proposed
- Choked the respect of likely peril fear'd;
- And since we are o'erset, venture again.
- Come, we will all put forth, body and goods.
-
- MORTON 'Tis more than time: and, my most noble lord,
- I hear for certain, and do speak the truth,
- The gentle Archbishop of York is up
- With well-appointed powers: he is a man
- Who with a double surety binds his followers.
- My lord your son had only but the corpse,
- But shadows and the shows of men, to fight;
- For that same word, rebellion, did divide
- The action of their bodies from their souls;
- And they did fight with queasiness, constrain'd,
- As men drink potions, that their weapons only
- Seem'd on our side; but, for their spirits and souls,
- This word, rebellion, it had froze them up,
- As fish are in a pond. But now the bishop
- Turns insurrection to religion:
- Supposed sincere and holy in his thoughts,
- He's followed both with body and with mind;
- And doth enlarge his rising with the blood
- Of fair King Richard, scraped from Pomfret stones;
- Derives from heaven his quarrel and his cause;
- Tells them he doth bestride a bleeding land,
- Gasping for life under great Bolingbroke;
- And more and less do flock to follow him.
-
- NORTHUMBERLAND I knew of this before; but, to speak truth,
- This present grief had wiped it from my mind.
- Go in with me; and counsel every man
- The aptest way for safety and revenge:
- Get posts and letters, and make friends with speed:
- Never so few, and never yet more need.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
-
- ACT I
-
-
-
- SCENE II London. A street.
-
-
- [Enter FALSTAFF, with his Page bearing his sword
- and buckler]
-
- FALSTAFF Sirrah, you giant, what says the doctor to my water?
-
- Page He said, sir, the water itself was a good healthy
- water; but, for the party that owed it, he might
- have more diseases than he knew for.
-
- FALSTAFF Men of all sorts take a pride to gird at me: the
- brain of this foolish-compounded clay, man, is not
- able to invent anything that tends to laughter, more
- than I invent or is invented on me: I am not only
- witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other
- men. I do here walk before thee like a sow that
- hath overwhelmed all her litter but one. If the
- prince put thee into my service for any other reason
- than to set me off, why then I have no judgment.
- Thou whoreson mandrake, thou art fitter to be worn
- in my cap than to wait at my heels. I was never
- manned with an agate till now: but I will inset you
- neither in gold nor silver, but in vile apparel, and
- send you back again to your master, for a jewel,--
- the juvenal, the prince your master, whose chin is
- not yet fledged. I will sooner have a beard grow in
- the palm of my hand than he shall get one on his
- cheek; and yet he will not stick to say his face is
- a face-royal: God may finish it when he will, 'tis
- not a hair amiss yet: he may keep it still at a
- face-royal, for a barber shall never earn sixpence
- out of it; and yet he'll be crowing as if he had
- writ man ever since his father was a bachelor. He
- may keep his own grace, but he's almost out of mine,
- I can assure him. What said Master Dombledon about
- the satin for my short cloak and my slops?
-
- Page He said, sir, you should procure him better
- assurance than Bardolph: he would not take his
- band and yours; he liked not the security.
-
- FALSTAFF Let him be damned, like the glutton! pray God his
- tongue be hotter! A whoreson Achitophel! a rascally
- yea-forsooth knave! to bear a gentleman in hand,
- and then stand upon security! The whoreson
- smooth-pates do now wear nothing but high shoes, and
- bunches of keys at their girdles; and if a man is
- through with them in honest taking up, then they
- must stand upon security. I had as lief they would
- put ratsbane in my mouth as offer to stop it with
- security. I looked a' should have sent me two and
- twenty yards of satin, as I am a true knight, and he
- sends me security. Well, he may sleep in security;
- for he hath the horn of abundance, and the lightness
- of his wife shines through it: and yet cannot he
- see, though he have his own lanthorn to light him.
- Where's Bardolph?
-
- Page He's gone into Smithfield to buy your worship a horse.
-
- FALSTAFF I bought him in Paul's, and he'll buy me a horse in
- Smithfield: an I could get me but a wife in the
- stews, I were manned, horsed, and wived.
-
- [Enter the Lord Chief-Justice and Servant]
-
- Page Sir, here comes the nobleman that committed the
- Prince for striking him about Bardolph.
-
- FALSTAFF Wait, close; I will not see him.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice What's he that goes there?
-
- Servant Falstaff, an't please your lordship.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice He that was in question for the robbery?
-
- Servant He, my lord: but he hath since done good service at
- Shrewsbury; and, as I hear, is now going with some
- charge to the Lord John of Lancaster.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice What, to York? Call him back again.
-
- Servant Sir John Falstaff!
-
- FALSTAFF Boy, tell him I am deaf.
-
- Page You must speak louder; my master is deaf.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice I am sure he is, to the hearing of any thing good.
- Go, pluck him by the elbow; I must speak with him.
-
- Servant Sir John!
-
- FALSTAFF What! a young knave, and begging! Is there not
- wars? is there not employment? doth not the king
- lack subjects? do not the rebels need soldiers?
- Though it be a shame to be on any side but one, it
- is worse shame to beg than to be on the worst side,
- were it worse than the name of rebellion can tell
- how to make it.
-
- Servant You mistake me, sir.
-
- FALSTAFF Why, sir, did I say you were an honest man? setting
- my knighthood and my soldiership aside, I had lied
- in my throat, if I had said so.
-
- Servant I pray you, sir, then set your knighthood and our
- soldiership aside; and give me leave to tell you,
- you lie in your throat, if you say I am any other
- than an honest man.
-
- FALSTAFF I give thee leave to tell me so! I lay aside that
- which grows to me! if thou gettest any leave of me,
- hang me; if thou takest leave, thou wert better be
- hanged. You hunt counter: hence! avaunt!
-
- Servant Sir, my lord would speak with you.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Sir John Falstaff, a word with you.
-
- FALSTAFF My good lord! God give your lordship good time of
- day. I am glad to see your lordship abroad: I heard
- say your lordship was sick: I hope your lordship
- goes abroad by advice. Your lordship, though not
- clean past your youth, hath yet some smack of age in
- you, some relish of the saltness of time; and I must
- humbly beseech your lordship to have a reverent care
- of your health.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Sir John, I sent for you before your expedition to
- Shrewsbury.
-
- FALSTAFF An't please your lordship, I hear his majesty is
- returned with some discomfort from Wales.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice I talk not of his majesty: you would not come when
- I sent for you.
-
- FALSTAFF And I hear, moreover, his highness is fallen into
- this same whoreson apoplexy.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Well, God mend him! I pray you, let me speak with
- you.
-
- FALSTAFF This apoplexy is, as I take it, a kind of lethargy,
- an't please your lordship; a kind of sleeping in the
- blood, a whoreson tingling.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice What tell you me of it? be it as it is.
-
- FALSTAFF It hath its original from much grief, from study and
- perturbation of the brain: I have read the cause of
- his effects in Galen: it is a kind of deafness.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice I think you are fallen into the disease; for you
- hear not what I say to you.
-
- FALSTAFF Very well, my lord, very well: rather, an't please
- you, it is the disease of not listening, the malady
- of not marking, that I am troubled withal.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice To punish you by the heels would amend the
- attention of your ears; and I care not if I do
- become your physician.
-
- FALSTAFF I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not so patient:
- your lordship may minister the potion of
- imprisonment to me in respect of poverty; but how
- should I be your patient to follow your
- prescriptions, the wise may make some dram of a
- scruple, or indeed a scruple itself.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice I sent for you, when there were matters against you
- for your life, to come speak with me.
-
- FALSTAFF As I was then advised by my learned counsel in the
- laws of this land-service, I did not come.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Well, the truth is, Sir John, you live in great infamy.
-
- FALSTAFF He that buckles him in my belt cannot live in less.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Your means are very slender, and your waste is great.
-
- FALSTAFF I would it were otherwise; I would my means were
- greater, and my waist slenderer.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice You have misled the youthful prince.
-
- FALSTAFF The young prince hath misled me: I am the fellow
- with the great belly, and he my dog.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Well, I am loath to gall a new-healed wound: your
- day's service at Shrewsbury hath a little gilded
- over your night's exploit on Gad's-hill: you may
- thank the unquiet time for your quiet o'er-posting
- that action.
-
- FALSTAFF My lord?
-
- Lord Chief-Justice But since all is well, keep it so: wake not a
- sleeping wolf.
-
- FALSTAFF To wake a wolf is as bad as to smell a fox.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice What! you are as a candle, the better part burnt
- out.
-
- FALSTAFF A wassail candle, my lord, all tallow: if I did say
- of wax, my growth would approve the truth.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice There is not a white hair on your face but should
- have his effect of gravity.
-
- FALSTAFF His effect of gravy, gravy, gravy.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice You follow the young prince up and down, like his
- ill angel.
-
- FALSTAFF Not so, my lord; your ill angel is light; but I hope
- he that looks upon me will take me without weighing:
- and yet, in some respects, I grant, I cannot go: I
- cannot tell. Virtue is of so little regard in these
- costermonger times that true valour is turned
- bear-herd: pregnancy is made a tapster, and hath
- his quick wit wasted in giving reckonings: all the
- other gifts appertinent to man, as the malice of
- this age shapes them, are not worth a gooseberry.
- You that are old consider not the capacities of us
- that are young; you do measure the heat of our
- livers with the bitterness of your galls: and we
- that are in the vaward of our youth, I must confess,
- are wags too.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Do you set down your name in the scroll of youth,
- that are written down old with all the characters of
- age? Have you not a moist eye? a dry hand? a
- yellow cheek? a white beard? a decreasing leg? an
- increasing belly? is not your voice broken? your
- wind short? your chin double? your wit single? and
- every part about you blasted with antiquity? and
- will you yet call yourself young? Fie, fie, fie, Sir John!
-
- FALSTAFF My lord, I was born about three of the clock in the
- afternoon, with a white head and something a round
- belly. For my voice, I have lost it with halloing
- and singing of anthems. To approve my youth
- further, I will not: the truth is, I am only old in
- judgment and understanding; and he that will caper
- with me for a thousand marks, let him lend me the
- money, and have at him! For the box of the ear that
- the prince gave you, he gave it like a rude prince,
- and you took it like a sensible lord. I have
- chequed him for it, and the young lion repents;
- marry, not in ashes and sackcloth, but in new silk
- and old sack.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Well, God send the prince a better companion!
-
- FALSTAFF God send the companion a better prince! I cannot
- rid my hands of him.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Well, the king hath severed you and Prince Harry: I
- hear you are going with Lord John of Lancaster
- against the Archbishop and the Earl of
- Northumberland.
-
- FALSTAFF Yea; I thank your pretty sweet wit for it. But look
- you pray, all you that kiss my lady Peace at home,
- that our armies join not in a hot day; for, by the
- Lord, I take but two shirts out with me, and I mean
- not to sweat extraordinarily: if it be a hot day,
- and I brandish any thing but a bottle, I would I
- might never spit white again. There is not a
- dangerous action can peep out his head but I am
- thrust upon it: well, I cannot last ever: but it
- was alway yet the trick of our English nation, if
- they have a good thing, to make it too common. If
- ye will needs say I am an old man, you should give
- me rest. I would to God my name were not so
- terrible to the enemy as it is: I were better to be
- eaten to death with a rust than to be scoured to
- nothing with perpetual motion.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Well, be honest, be honest; and God bless your
- expedition!
-
- FALSTAFF Will your lordship lend me a thousand pound to
- furnish me forth?
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Not a penny, not a penny; you are too impatient to
- bear crosses. Fare you well: commend me to my
- cousin Westmoreland.
-
- [Exeunt Chief-Justice and Servant]
-
- FALSTAFF If I do, fillip me with a three-man beetle. A man
- can no more separate age and covetousness than a'
- can part young limbs and lechery: but the gout
- galls the one, and the pox pinches the other; and
- so both the degrees prevent my curses. Boy!
-
- Page Sir?
-
- FALSTAFF What money is in my purse?
-
- Page Seven groats and two pence.
-
- FALSTAFF I can get no remedy against this consumption of the
- purse: borrowing only lingers and lingers it out,
- but the disease is incurable. Go bear this letter
- to my Lord of Lancaster; this to the prince; this
- to the Earl of Westmoreland; and this to old
- Mistress Ursula, whom I have weekly sworn to marry
- since I perceived the first white hair on my chin.
- About it: you know where to find me.
-
- [Exit Page]
-
- A pox of this gout! or, a gout of this pox! for
- the one or the other plays the rogue with my great
- toe. 'Tis no matter if I do halt; I have the wars
- for my colour, and my pension shall seem the more
- reasonable. A good wit will make use of any thing:
- I will turn diseases to commodity.
-
- [Exit]
-
-
-
-
- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
-
- ACT I
-
-
-
- SCENE III York. The Archbishop's palace.
-
-
- [Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, the Lords HASTINGS,
- MOWBRAY, and BARDOLPH]
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK Thus have you heard our cause and known our means;
- And, my most noble friends, I pray you all,
- Speak plainly your opinions of our hopes:
- And first, lord marshal, what say you to it?
-
- MOWBRAY I well allow the occasion of our arms;
- But gladly would be better satisfied
- How in our means we should advance ourselves
- To look with forehead bold and big enough
- Upon the power and puissance of the king.
-
- HASTINGS Our present musters grow upon the file
- To five and twenty thousand men of choice;
- And our supplies live largely in the hope
- Of great Northumberland, whose bosom burns
- With an incensed fire of injuries.
-
- LORD BARDOLPH The question then, Lord Hastings, standeth thus;
- Whether our present five and twenty thousand
- May hold up head without Northumberland?
-
- HASTINGS With him, we may.
-
- LORD BARDOLPH Yea, marry, there's the point:
- But if without him we be thought too feeble,
- My judgment is, we should not step too far
- Till we had his assistance by the hand;
- For in a theme so bloody-faced as this
- Conjecture, expectation, and surmise
- Of aids incertain should not be admitted.
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK 'Tis very true, Lord Bardolph; for indeed
- It was young Hotspur's case at Shrewsbury.
-
- LORD BARDOLPH It was, my lord; who lined himself with hope,
- Eating the air on promise of supply,
- Flattering himself in project of a power
- Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts:
- And so, with great imagination
- Proper to madmen, led his powers to death
- And winking leap'd into destruction.
-
- HASTINGS But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt
- To lay down likelihoods and forms of hope.
-
- LORD BARDOLPH Yes, if this present quality of war,
- Indeed the instant action: a cause on foot
- Lives so in hope as in an early spring
- We see the appearing buds; which to prove fruit,
- Hope gives not so much warrant as despair
- That frosts will bite them. When we mean to build,
- We first survey the plot, then draw the model;
- And when we see the figure of the house,
- Then must we rate the cost of the erection;
- Which if we find outweighs ability,
- What do we then but draw anew the model
- In fewer offices, or at last desist
- To build at all? Much more, in this great work,
- Which is almost to pluck a kingdom down
- And set another up, should we survey
- The plot of situation and the model,
- Consent upon a sure foundation,
- Question surveyors, know our own estate,
- How able such a work to undergo,
- To weigh against his opposite; or else
- We fortify in paper and in figures,
- Using the names of men instead of men:
- Like one that draws the model of a house
- Beyond his power to build it; who, half through,
- Gives o'er and leaves his part-created cost
- A naked subject to the weeping clouds
- And waste for churlish winter's tyranny.
-
- HASTINGS Grant that our hopes, yet likely of fair birth,
- Should be still-born, and that we now possess'd
- The utmost man of expectation,
- I think we are a body strong enough,
- Even as we are, to equal with the king.
-
- LORD BARDOLPH What, is the king but five and twenty thousand?
-
- HASTINGS To us no more; nay, not so much, Lord Bardolph.
- For his divisions, as the times do brawl,
- Are in three heads: one power against the French,
- And one against Glendower; perforce a third
- Must take up us: so is the unfirm king
- In three divided; and his coffers sound
- With hollow poverty and emptiness.
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK That he should draw his several strengths together
- And come against us in full puissance,
- Need not be dreaded.
-
- HASTINGS If he should do so,
- He leaves his back unarm'd, the French and Welsh
- Baying him at the heels: never fear that.
-
- LORD BARDOLPH Who is it like should lead his forces hither?
-
- HASTINGS The Duke of Lancaster and Westmoreland;
- Against the Welsh, himself and Harry Monmouth:
- But who is substituted 'gainst the French,
- I have no certain notice.
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK Let us on,
- And publish the occasion of our arms.
- The commonwealth is sick of their own choice;
- Their over-greedy love hath surfeited:
- An habitation giddy and unsure
- Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart.
- O thou fond many, with what loud applause
- Didst thou beat heaven with blessing Bolingbroke,
- Before he was what thou wouldst have him be!
- And being now trimm'd in thine own desires,
- Thou, beastly feeder, art so full of him,
- That thou provokest thyself to cast him up.
- So, so, thou common dog, didst thou disgorge
- Thy glutton bosom of the royal Richard;
- And now thou wouldst eat thy dead vomit up,
- And howl'st to find it. What trust is in
- these times?
- They that, when Richard lived, would have him die,
- Are now become enamour'd on his grave:
- Thou, that threw'st dust upon his goodly head
- When through proud London he came sighing on
- After the admired heels of Bolingbroke,
- Criest now 'O earth, yield us that king again,
- And take thou this!' O thoughts of men accursed!
- Past and to come seems best; things present worst.
-
- MOWBRAY Shall we go draw our numbers and set on?
-
- HASTINGS We are time's subjects, and time bids be gone.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
-
- ACT II
-
-
-
- SCENE I London. A street.
-
-
- [Enter MISTRESS QUICKLY, FANG and his Boy with her,
- and SNARE following.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Master Fang, have you entered the action?
-
- FANG It is entered.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Where's your yeoman? Is't a lusty yeoman? will a'
- stand to 't?
-
- FANG Sirrah, where's Snare?
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY O Lord, ay! good Master Snare.
-
- SNARE Here, here.
-
- FANG Snare, we must arrest Sir John Falstaff.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Yea, good Master Snare; I have entered him and all.
-
- SNARE It may chance cost some of us our lives, for he will stab.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Alas the day! take heed of him; he stabbed me in
- mine own house, and that most beastly: in good
- faith, he cares not what mischief he does. If his
- weapon be out: he will foin like any devil; he will
- spare neither man, woman, nor child.
-
- FANG If I can close with him, I care not for his thrust.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY No, nor I neither: I'll be at your elbow.
-
- FANG An I but fist him once; an a' come but within my vice,--
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY I am undone by his going; I warrant you, he's an
- infinitive thing upon my score. Good Master Fang,
- hold him sure: good Master Snare, let him not
- 'scape. A' comes continuantly to Pie-corner--saving
- your manhoods--to buy a saddle; and he is indited to
- dinner to the Lubber's-head in Lumbert street, to
- Master Smooth's the silkman: I pray ye, since my
- exion is entered and my case so openly known to the
- world, let him be brought in to his answer. A
- hundred mark is a long one for a poor lone woman to
- bear: and I have borne, and borne, and borne, and
- have been fubbed off, and fubbed off, and fubbed
- off, from this day to that day, that it is a shame
- to be thought on. There is no honesty in such
- dealing; unless a woman should be made an ass and a
- beast, to bear every knave's wrong. Yonder he
- comes; and that errant malmsey-nose knave, Bardolph,
- with him. Do your offices, do your offices: Master
- Fang and Master Snare, do me, do me, do me your offices.
-
- [Enter FALSTAFF, Page, and BARDOLPH]
-
- FALSTAFF How now! whose mare's dead? what's the matter?
-
- FANG Sir John, I arrest you at the suit of Mistress Quickly.
-
- FALSTAFF Away, varlets! Draw, Bardolph: cut me off the
- villain's head: throw the quean in the channel.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Throw me in the channel! I'll throw thee in the
- channel. Wilt thou? wilt thou? thou bastardly
- rogue! Murder, murder! Ah, thou honeysuckle
- villain! wilt thou kill God's officers and the
- king's? Ah, thou honey-seed rogue! thou art a
- honey-seed, a man-queller, and a woman-queller.
-
- FALSTAFF Keep them off, Bardolph.
-
- FANG A rescue! a rescue!
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Good people, bring a rescue or two. Thou wo't, wo't
- thou? Thou wo't, wo't ta? do, do, thou rogue! do,
- thou hemp-seed!
-
- FALSTAFF Away, you scullion! you rampallion! You
- fustilarian! I'll tickle your catastrophe.
-
- [Enter the Lord Chief-Justice, and his men]
-
- Lord Chief-Justice What is the matter? keep the peace here, ho!
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Good my lord, be good to me. I beseech you, stand to me.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice How now, Sir John! what are you brawling here?
- Doth this become your place, your time and business?
- You should have been well on your way to York.
- Stand from him, fellow: wherefore hang'st upon him?
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY O most worshipful lord, an't please your grace, I am
- a poor widow of Eastcheap, and he is arrested at my suit.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice For what sum?
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY It is more than for some, my lord; it is for all,
- all I have. He hath eaten me out of house and home;
- he hath put all my substance into that fat belly of
- his: but I will have some of it out again, or I
- will ride thee o' nights like the mare.
-
- FALSTAFF I think I am as like to ride the mare, if I have
- any vantage of ground to get up.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice How comes this, Sir John? Fie! what man of good
- temper would endure this tempest of exclamation?
- Are you not ashamed to enforce a poor widow to so
- rough a course to come by her own?
-
- FALSTAFF What is the gross sum that I owe thee?
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Marry, if thou wert an honest man, thyself and the
- money too. Thou didst swear to me upon a
- parcel-gilt goblet, sitting in my Dolphin-chamber,
- at the round table, by a sea-coal fire, upon
- Wednesday in Wheeson week, when the prince broke
- thy head for liking his father to a singing-man of
- Windsor, thou didst swear to me then, as I was
- washing thy wound, to marry me and make me my lady
- thy wife. Canst thou deny it? Did not goodwife
- Keech, the butcher's wife, come in then and call me
- gossip Quickly? coming in to borrow a mess of
- vinegar; telling us she had a good dish of prawns;
- whereby thou didst desire to eat some; whereby I
- told thee they were ill for a green wound? And
- didst thou not, when she was gone down stairs,
- desire me to be no more so familiarity with such
- poor people; saying that ere long they should call
- me madam? And didst thou not kiss me and bid me
- fetch thee thirty shillings? I put thee now to thy
- book-oath: deny it, if thou canst.
-
- FALSTAFF My lord, this is a poor mad soul; and she says up
- and down the town that the eldest son is like you:
- she hath been in good case, and the truth is,
- poverty hath distracted her. But for these foolish
- officers, I beseech you I may have redress against them.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Sir John, Sir John, I am well acquainted with your
- manner of wrenching the true cause the false way. It
- is not a confident brow, nor the throng of words
- that come with such more than impudent sauciness
- from you, can thrust me from a level consideration:
- you have, as it appears to me, practised upon the
- easy-yielding spirit of this woman, and made her
- serve your uses both in purse and in person.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Yea, in truth, my lord.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Pray thee, peace. Pay her the debt you owe her, and
- unpay the villany you have done her: the one you
- may do with sterling money, and the other with
- current repentance.
-
- FALSTAFF My lord, I will not undergo this sneap without
- reply. You call honourable boldness impudent
- sauciness: if a man will make courtesy and say
- nothing, he is virtuous: no, my lord, my humble
- duty remembered, I will not be your suitor. I say
- to you, I do desire deliverance from these officers,
- being upon hasty employment in the king's affairs.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice You speak as having power to do wrong: but answer
- in the effect of your reputation, and satisfy this
- poor woman.
-
- FALSTAFF Come hither, hostess.
-
- [Enter GOWER]
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Now, Master Gower, what news?
-
- GOWER The king, my lord, and Harry Prince of Wales
- Are near at hand: the rest the paper tells.
-
- FALSTAFF As I am a gentleman.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Faith, you said so before.
-
- FALSTAFF As I am a gentleman. Come, no more words of it.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY By this heavenly ground I tread on, I must be fain
- to pawn both my plate and the tapestry of my
- dining-chambers.
-
- FALSTAFF Glasses, glasses is the only drinking: and for thy
- walls, a pretty slight drollery, or the story of
- the Prodigal, or the German hunting in water-work,
- is worth a thousand of these bed-hangings and these
- fly-bitten tapestries. Let it be ten pound, if thou
- canst. Come, an 'twere not for thy humours, there's
- not a better wench in England. Go, wash thy face,
- and draw the action. Come, thou must not be in
- this humour with me; dost not know me? come, come, I
- know thou wast set on to this.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Pray thee, Sir John, let it be but twenty nobles: i'
- faith, I am loath to pawn my plate, so God save me,
- la!
-
- FALSTAFF Let it alone; I'll make other shift: you'll be a
- fool still.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Well, you shall have it, though I pawn my gown. I
- hope you'll come to supper. You'll pay me all together?
-
- FALSTAFF Will I live?
-
- [To BARDOLPH]
-
- Go, with her, with her; hook on, hook on.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Will you have Doll Tearsheet meet you at supper?
-
- FALSTAFF No more words; let's have her.
-
- [Exeunt MISTRESS QUICKLY, BARDOLPH, Officers and Boy]
-
- Lord Chief-Justice I have heard better news.
-
- FALSTAFF What's the news, my lord?
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Where lay the king last night?
-
- GOWER At Basingstoke, my lord.
-
- FALSTAFF I hope, my lord, all's well: what is the news, my lord?
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Come all his forces back?
-
- GOWER No; fifteen hundred foot, five hundred horse,
- Are marched up to my lord of Lancaster,
- Against Northumberland and the Archbishop.
-
- FALSTAFF Comes the king back from Wales, my noble lord?
-
- Lord Chief-Justice You shall have letters of me presently:
- Come, go along with me, good Master Gower.
-
- FALSTAFF My lord!
-
- Lord Chief-Justice What's the matter?
-
- FALSTAFF Master Gower, shall I entreat you with me to dinner?
-
- GOWER I must wait upon my good lord here; I thank you,
- good Sir John.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Sir John, you loiter here too long, being you are to
- take soldiers up in counties as you go.
-
- FALSTAFF Will you sup with me, Master Gower?
-
- Lord Chief-Justice What foolish master taught you these manners, Sir John?
-
- FALSTAFF Master Gower, if they become me not, he was a fool
- that taught them me. This is the right fencing
- grace, my lord; tap for tap, and so part fair.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Now the Lord lighten thee! thou art a great fool.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
-
- ACT II
-
-
-
- SCENE II London. Another street.
-
-
- [Enter PRINCE HENRY and POINS]
-
- PRINCE HENRY Before God, I am exceeding weary.
-
- POINS Is't come to that? I had thought weariness durst not
- have attached one of so high blood.
-
- PRINCE HENRY Faith, it does me; though it discolours the
- complexion of my greatness to acknowledge it. Doth
- it not show vilely in me to desire small beer?
-
- POINS Why, a prince should not be so loosely studied as
- to remember so weak a composition.
-
- PRINCE HENRY Belike then my appetite was not princely got; for,
- by my troth, I do now remember the poor creature,
- small beer. But, indeed, these humble
- considerations make me out of love with my
- greatness. What a disgrace is it to me to remember
- thy name! or to know thy face to-morrow! or to
- take note how many pair of silk stockings thou
- hast, viz. these, and those that were thy
- peach-coloured ones! or to bear the inventory of thy
- shirts, as, one for superfluity, and another for
- use! But that the tennis-court-keeper knows better
- than I; for it is a low ebb of linen with thee when
- thou keepest not racket there; as thou hast not done
- a great while, because the rest of thy low
- countries have made a shift to eat up thy holland:
- and God knows, whether those that bawl out the ruins
- of thy linen shall inherit his kingdom: but the
- midwives say the children are not in the fault;
- whereupon the world increases, and kindreds are
- mightily strengthened.
-
- POINS How ill it follows, after you have laboured so hard,
- you should talk so idly! Tell me, how many good
- young princes would do so, their fathers being so
- sick as yours at this time is?
-
- PRINCE HENRY Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins?
-
- POINS Yes, faith; and let it be an excellent good thing.
-
- PRINCE HENRY It shall serve among wits of no higher breeding than thine.
-
- POINS Go to; I stand the push of your one thing that you
- will tell.
-
- PRINCE HENRY Marry, I tell thee, it is not meet that I should be
- sad, now my father is sick: albeit I could tell
- thee, as to one it pleases me, for fault of a
- better, to call my friend, I could be sad, and sad
- indeed too.
-
- POINS Very hardly upon such a subject.
-
- PRINCE HENRY By this hand thou thinkest me as far in the devil's
- book as thou and Falstaff for obduracy and
- persistency: let the end try the man. But I tell
- thee, my heart bleeds inwardly that my father is so
- sick: and keeping such vile company as thou art
- hath in reason taken from me all ostentation of sorrow.
-
- POINS The reason?
-
- PRINCE HENRY What wouldst thou think of me, if I should weep?
-
- POINS I would think thee a most princely hypocrite.
-
- PRINCE HENRY It would be every man's thought; and thou art a
- blessed fellow to think as every man thinks: never
- a man's thought in the world keeps the road-way
- better than thine: every man would think me an
- hypocrite indeed. And what accites your most
- worshipful thought to think so?
-
- POINS Why, because you have been so lewd and so much
- engraffed to Falstaff.
-
- PRINCE HENRY And to thee.
-
- POINS By this light, I am well spoke on; I can hear it
- with my own ears: the worst that they can say of
- me is that I am a second brother and that I am a
- proper fellow of my hands; and those two things, I
- confess, I cannot help. By the mass, here comes Bardolph.
-
- [Enter BARDOLPH and Page]
-
- PRINCE HENRY And the boy that I gave Falstaff: a' had him from
- me Christian; and look, if the fat villain have not
- transformed him ape.
-
- BARDOLPH God save your grace!
-
- PRINCE HENRY And yours, most noble Bardolph!
-
- BARDOLPH Come, you virtuous ass, you bashful fool, must you
- be blushing? wherefore blush you now? What a
- maidenly man-at-arms are you become! Is't such a
- matter to get a pottle-pot's maidenhead?
-
- Page A' calls me e'en now, my lord, through a red
- lattice, and I could discern no part of his face
- from the window: at last I spied his eyes, and
- methought he had made two holes in the ale-wife's
- new petticoat and so peeped through.
-
- PRINCE HENRY Has not the boy profited?
-
- BARDOLPH Away, you whoreson upright rabbit, away!
-
- Page Away, you rascally Althaea's dream, away!
-
- PRINCE HENRY Instruct us, boy; what dream, boy?
-
- Page Marry, my lord, Althaea dreamed she was delivered
- of a fire-brand; and therefore I call him her dream.
-
- PRINCE HENRY A crown's worth of good interpretation: there 'tis,
- boy.
-
- POINS O, that this good blossom could be kept from
- cankers! Well, there is sixpence to preserve thee.
-
- BARDOLPH An you do not make him hanged among you, the
- gallows shall have wrong.
-
- PRINCE HENRY And how doth thy master, Bardolph?
-
- BARDOLPH Well, my lord. He heard of your grace's coming to
- town: there's a letter for you.
-
- POINS Delivered with good respect. And how doth the
- martlemas, your master?
-
- BARDOLPH In bodily health, sir.
-
- POINS Marry, the immortal part needs a physician; but
- that moves not him: though that be sick, it dies
- not.
-
- PRINCE HENRY I do allow this wen to be as familiar with me as my
- dog; and he holds his place; for look you how be writes.
-
- POINS [Reads] 'John Falstaff, knight,'--every man must
- know that, as oft as he has occasion to name
- himself: even like those that are kin to the king;
- for they never prick their finger but they say,
- 'There's some of the king's blood spilt.' 'How
- comes that?' says he, that takes upon him not to
- conceive. The answer is as ready as a borrower's
- cap, 'I am the king's poor cousin, sir.'
-
- PRINCE HENRY Nay, they will be kin to us, or they will fetch it
- from Japhet. But to the letter.
-
- POINS [Reads] 'Sir John Falstaff, knight, to the son of
- the king, nearest his father, Harry Prince of
- Wales, greeting.' Why, this is a certificate.
-
- PRINCE HENRY Peace!
-
- POINS [Reads] 'I will imitate the honourable Romans in
- brevity:' he sure means brevity in breath,
- short-winded. 'I commend me to thee, I commend
- thee, and I leave thee. Be not too familiar with
- Poins; for he misuses thy favours so much, that he
- swears thou art to marry his sister Nell. Repent
- at idle times as thou mayest; and so, farewell.
- Thine, by yea and no, which is as much as to
- say, as thou usest him, JACK FALSTAFF with my
- familiars, JOHN with my brothers and sisters,
- and SIR JOHN with all Europe.'
- My lord, I'll steep this letter in sack and make him eat it.
-
- PRINCE HENRY That's to make him eat twenty of his words. But do
- you use me thus, Ned? must I marry your sister?
-
- POINS God send the wench no worse fortune! But I never said so.
-
- PRINCE HENRY Well, thus we play the fools with the time, and the
- spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us.
- Is your master here in London?
-
- BARDOLPH Yea, my lord.
-
- PRINCE HENRY Where sups he? doth the old boar feed in the old frank?
-
- BARDOLPH At the old place, my lord, in Eastcheap.
-
- PRINCE HENRY What company?
-
- Page Ephesians, my lord, of the old church.
-
- PRINCE HENRY Sup any women with him?
-
- Page None, my lord, but old Mistress Quickly and
- Mistress Doll Tearsheet.
-
- PRINCE HENRY What pagan may that be?
-
- Page A proper gentlewoman, sir, and a kinswoman of my master's.
-
- PRINCE HENRY Even such kin as the parish heifers are to the town
- bull. Shall we steal upon them, Ned, at supper?
-
- POINS I am your shadow, my lord; I'll follow you.
-
- PRINCE HENRY Sirrah, you boy, and Bardolph, no word to your
- master that I am yet come to town: there's for
- your silence.
-
- BARDOLPH I have no tongue, sir.
-
- Page And for mine, sir, I will govern it.
-
- PRINCE HENRY Fare you well; go.
-
- [Exeunt BARDOLPH and Page]
-
- This Doll Tearsheet should be some road.
-
- POINS I warrant you, as common as the way between Saint
- Alban's and London.
-
- PRINCE HENRY How might we see Falstaff bestow himself to-night
- in his true colours, and not ourselves be seen?
-
- POINS Put on two leathern jerkins and aprons, and wait
- upon him at his table as drawers.
-
- PRINCE HENRY From a God to a bull? a heavy decension! it was
- Jove's case. From a prince to a prentice? a low
- transformation! that shall be mine; for in every
- thing the purpose must weigh with the folly.
- Follow me, Ned.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
-
- ACT II
-
-
-
- SCENE III Warkworth. Before the castle.
-
-
- [Enter NORTHUMBERLAND, LADY NORTHUMBERLAND, and LADY PERCY]
-
- NORTHUMBERLAND I pray thee, loving wife, and gentle daughter,
- Give even way unto my rough affairs:
- Put not you on the visage of the times
- And be like them to Percy troublesome.
-
- LADY
- NORTHUMBERLAND I have given over, I will speak no more:
- Do what you will; your wisdom be your guide.
-
- NORTHUMBERLAND Alas, sweet wife, my honour is at pawn;
- And, but my going, nothing can redeem it.
-
- LADY PERCY O yet, for God's sake, go not to these wars!
- The time was, father, that you broke your word,
- When you were more endeared to it than now;
- When your own Percy, when my heart's dear Harry,
- Threw many a northward look to see his father
- Bring up his powers; but he did long in vain.
- Who then persuaded you to stay at home?
- There were two honours lost, yours and your son's.
- For yours, the God of heaven brighten it!
- For his, it stuck upon him as the sun
- In the grey vault of heaven, and by his light
- Did all the chivalry of England move
- To do brave acts: he was indeed the glass
- Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves:
- He had no legs that practised not his gait;
- And speaking thick, which nature made his blemish,
- Became the accents of the valiant;
- For those that could speak low and tardily
- Would turn their own perfection to abuse,
- To seem like him: so that in speech, in gait,
- In diet, in affections of delight,
- In military rules, humours of blood,
- He was the mark and glass, copy and book,
- That fashion'd others. And him, O wondrous him!
- O miracle of men! him did you leave,
- Second to none, unseconded by you,
- To look upon the hideous god of war
- In disadvantage; to abide a field
- Where nothing but the sound of Hotspur's name
- Did seem defensible: so you left him.
- Never, O never, do his ghost the wrong
- To hold your honour more precise and nice
- With others than with him! let them alone:
- The marshal and the archbishop are strong:
- Had my sweet Harry had but half their numbers,
- To-day might I, hanging on Hotspur's neck,
- Have talk'd of Monmouth's grave.
-
- NORTHUMBERLAND Beshrew your heart,
- Fair daughter, you do draw my spirits from me
- With new lamenting ancient oversights.
- But I must go and meet with danger there,
- Or it will seek me in another place
- And find me worse provided.
-
- LADY
- NORTHUMBERLAND O, fly to Scotland,
- Till that the nobles and the armed commons
- Have of their puissance made a little taste.
-
- LADY PERCY If they get ground and vantage of the king,
- Then join you with them, like a rib of steel,
- To make strength stronger; but, for all our loves,
- First let them try themselves. So did your son;
- He was so suffer'd: so came I a widow;
- And never shall have length of life enough
- To rain upon remembrance with mine eyes,
- That it may grow and sprout as high as heaven,
- For recordation to my noble husband.
-
- NORTHUMBERLAND Come, come, go in with me. 'Tis with my mind
- As with the tide swell'd up unto his height,
- That makes a still-stand, running neither way:
- Fain would I go to meet the archbishop,
- But many thousand reasons hold me back.
- I will resolve for Scotland: there am I,
- Till time and vantage crave my company.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
-
- ACT II
-
-
-
- SCENE IV London. The Boar's-head Tavern in Eastcheap.
-
-
- [Enter two Drawers]
-
- First Drawer What the devil hast thou brought there? apple-johns?
- thou knowest Sir John cannot endure an apple-john.
-
- Second Drawer Mass, thou sayest true. The prince once set a dish
- of apple-johns before him, and told him there were
- five more Sir Johns, and, putting off his hat, said
- 'I will now take my leave of these six dry, round,
- old, withered knights.' It angered him to the
- heart: but he hath forgot that.
-
- First Drawer Why, then, cover, and set them down: and see if
- thou canst find out Sneak's noise; Mistress
- Tearsheet would fain hear some music. Dispatch: the
- room where they supped is too hot; they'll come in straight.
-
- Second Drawer Sirrah, here will be the prince and Master Poins
- anon; and they will put on two of our jerkins and
- aprons; and Sir John must not know of it: Bardolph
- hath brought word.
-
- First Drawer By the mass, here will be old Utis: it will be an
- excellent stratagem.
-
- Second Drawer I'll see if I can find out Sneak.
-
- [Exit]
-
- [Enter MISTRESS QUICKLY and DOLL TEARSHEET]
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY I' faith, sweetheart, methinks now you are in an
- excellent good temperality: your pulsidge beats as
- extraordinarily as heart would desire; and your
- colour, I warrant you, is as red as any rose, in good
- truth, la! But, i' faith, you have drunk too much
- canaries; and that's a marvellous searching wine,
- and it perfumes the blood ere one can say 'What's
- this?' How do you now?
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET Better than I was: hem!
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Why, that's well said; a good heart's worth gold.
- Lo, here comes Sir John.
-
- [Enter FALSTAFF]
-
- FALSTAFF [Singing] 'When Arthur first in court,'
- --Empty the jordan.
-
- [Exit First Drawer]
-
- [Singing]
-
- --'And was a worthy king.' How now, Mistress Doll!
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Sick of a calm; yea, good faith.
-
- FALSTAFF So is all her sect; an they be once in a calm, they are sick.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET You muddy rascal, is that all the comfort you give me?
-
- FALSTAFF You make fat rascals, Mistress Doll.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET I make them! gluttony and diseases make them; I
- make them not.
-
- FALSTAFF If the cook help to make the gluttony, you help to
- make the diseases, Doll: we catch of you, Doll, we
- catch of you; grant that, my poor virtue grant that.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET Yea, joy, our chains and our jewels.
-
- FALSTAFF 'Your broaches, pearls, and ouches:' for to serve
- bravely is to come halting off, you know: to come
- off the breach with his pike bent bravely, and to
- surgery bravely; to venture upon the charged
- chambers bravely,--
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET Hang yourself, you muddy conger, hang yourself!
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY By my troth, this is the old fashion; you two never
- meet but you fall to some discord: you are both,
- i' good truth, as rheumatic as two dry toasts; you
- cannot one bear with another's confirmities. What
- the good-year! one must bear, and that must be
- you: you are the weaker vessel, as they say, the
- emptier vessel.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET Can a weak empty vessel bear such a huge full
- hogshead? there's a whole merchant's venture of
- Bourdeaux stuff in him; you have not seen a hulk
- better stuffed in the hold. Come, I'll be friends
- with thee, Jack: thou art going to the wars; and
- whether I shall ever see thee again or no, there is
- nobody cares.
-
- [Re-enter First Drawer]
-
- First Drawer Sir, Ancient Pistol's below, and would speak with
- you.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET Hang him, swaggering rascal! let him not come
- hither: it is the foul-mouthed'st rogue in England.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY If he swagger, let him not come here: no, by my
- faith; I must live among my neighbours: I'll no
- swaggerers: I am in good name and fame with the
- very best: shut the door; there comes no swaggerers
- here: I have not lived all this while, to have
- swaggering now: shut the door, I pray you.
-
- FALSTAFF Dost thou hear, hostess?
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Pray ye, pacify yourself, Sir John: there comes no
- swaggerers here.
-
- FALSTAFF Dost thou hear? it is mine ancient.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Tilly-fally, Sir John, ne'er tell me: your ancient
- swaggerer comes not in my doors. I was before Master
- Tisick, the debuty, t'other day; and, as he said to
- me, 'twas no longer ago than Wednesday last, 'I'
- good faith, neighbour Quickly,' says he; Master
- Dumbe, our minister, was by then; 'neighbour
- Quickly,' says he, 'receive those that are civil;
- for,' said he, 'you are in an ill name:' now a'
- said so, I can tell whereupon; 'for,' says he, 'you
- are an honest woman, and well thought on; therefore
- take heed what guests you receive: receive,' says
- he, 'no swaggering companions.' There comes none
- here: you would bless you to hear what he said:
- no, I'll no swaggerers.
-
- FALSTAFF He's no swaggerer, hostess; a tame cheater, i'
- faith; you may stroke him as gently as a puppy
- greyhound: he'll not swagger with a Barbary hen, if
- her feathers turn back in any show of resistance.
- Call him up, drawer.
-
- [Exit First Drawer]
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Cheater, call you him? I will bar no honest man my
- house, nor no cheater: but I do not love
- swaggering, by my troth; I am the worse, when one
- says swagger: feel, masters, how I shake; look you,
- I warrant you.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET So you do, hostess.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Do I? yea, in very truth, do I, an 'twere an aspen
- leaf: I cannot abide swaggerers.
-
- [Enter PISTOL, BARDOLPH, and Page]
-
- PISTOL God save you, Sir John!
-
- FALSTAFF Welcome, Ancient Pistol. Here, Pistol, I charge
- you with a cup of sack: do you discharge upon mine hostess.
-
- PISTOL I will discharge upon her, Sir John, with two bullets.
-
- FALSTAFF She is Pistol-proof, sir; you shall hardly offend
- her.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Come, I'll drink no proofs nor no bullets: I'll
- drink no more than will do me good, for no man's
- pleasure, I.
-
- PISTOL Then to you, Mistress Dorothy; I will charge you.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET Charge me! I scorn you, scurvy companion. What!
- you poor, base, rascally, cheating, lack-linen
- mate! Away, you mouldy rogue, away! I am meat for
- your master.
-
- PISTOL I know you, Mistress Dorothy.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET Away, you cut-purse rascal! you filthy bung, away!
- by this wine, I'll thrust my knife in your mouldy
- chaps, an you play the saucy cuttle with me. Away,
- you bottle-ale rascal! you basket-hilt stale
- juggler, you! Since when, I pray you, sir? God's
- light, with two points on your shoulder? much!
-
- PISTOL God let me not live, but I will murder your ruff for this.
-
- FALSTAFF No more, Pistol; I would not have you go off here:
- discharge yourself of our company, Pistol.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY No, Good Captain Pistol; not here, sweet captain.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET Captain! thou abominable damned cheater, art thou
- not ashamed to be called captain? An captains were
- of my mind, they would truncheon you out, for
- taking their names upon you before you have earned
- them. You a captain! you slave, for what? for
- tearing a poor whore's ruff in a bawdy-house? He a
- captain! hang him, rogue! he lives upon mouldy
- stewed prunes and dried cakes. A captain! God's
- light, these villains will make the word as odious
- as the word 'occupy;' which was an excellent good
- word before it was ill sorted: therefore captains
- had need look to 't.
-
- BARDOLPH Pray thee, go down, good ancient.
-
- FALSTAFF Hark thee hither, Mistress Doll.
-
- PISTOL Not I I tell thee what, Corporal Bardolph, I could
- tear her: I'll be revenged of her.
-
- Page Pray thee, go down.
-
- PISTOL I'll see her damned first; to Pluto's damned lake,
- by this hand, to the infernal deep, with Erebus and
- tortures vile also. Hold hook and line, say I.
- Down, down, dogs! down, faitors! Have we not
- Hiren here?
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Good Captain Peesel, be quiet; 'tis very late, i'
- faith: I beseek you now, aggravate your choler.
-
- PISTOL These be good humours, indeed! Shall pack-horses
- And hollow pamper'd jades of Asia,
- Which cannot go but thirty mile a-day,
- Compare with Caesars, and with Cannibals,
- And Trojan Greeks? nay, rather damn them with
- King Cerberus; and let the welkin roar.
- Shall we fall foul for toys?
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY By my troth, captain, these are very bitter words.
-
- BARDOLPH Be gone, good ancient: this will grow to abrawl anon.
-
- PISTOL Die men like dogs! give crowns like pins! Have we
- not Heren here?
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY O' my word, captain, there's none such here. What
- the good-year! do you think I would deny her? For
- God's sake, be quiet.
-
- PISTOL Then feed, and be fat, my fair Calipolis.
- Come, give's some sack.
- 'Si fortune me tormente, sperato me contento.'
- Fear we broadsides? no, let the fiend give fire:
- Give me some sack: and, sweetheart, lie thou there.
-
- [Laying down his sword]
-
- Come we to full points here; and are etceteras nothing?
-
- FALSTAFF Pistol, I would be quiet.
-
- PISTOL Sweet knight, I kiss thy neaf: what! we have seen
- the seven stars.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET For God's sake, thrust him down stairs: I cannot
- endure such a fustian rascal.
-
- PISTOL Thrust him down stairs! know we not Galloway nags?
-
- FALSTAFF Quoit him down, Bardolph, like a shove-groat
- shilling: nay, an a' do nothing but speak nothing,
- a' shall be nothing here.
-
- BARDOLPH Come, get you down stairs.
-
- PISTOL What! shall we have incision? shall we imbrue?
-
- [Snatching up his sword]
-
- Then death rock me asleep, abridge my doleful days!
- Why, then, let grievous, ghastly, gaping wounds
- Untwine the Sisters Three! Come, Atropos, I say!
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Here's goodly stuff toward!
-
- FALSTAFF Give me my rapier, boy.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET I pray thee, Jack, I pray thee, do not draw.
-
- FALSTAFF Get you down stairs.
-
- [Drawing, and driving PISTOL out]
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Here's a goodly tumult! I'll forswear keeping
- house, afore I'll be in these tirrits and frights.
- So; murder, I warrant now. Alas, alas! put up
- your naked weapons, put up your naked weapons.
-
- [Exeunt PISTOL and BARDOLPH]
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET I pray thee, Jack, be quiet; the rascal's gone.
- Ah, you whoreson little valiant villain, you!
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY He you not hurt i' the groin? methought a' made a
- shrewd thrust at your belly.
-
- [Re-enter BARDOLPH]
-
- FALSTAFF Have you turned him out o' doors?
-
- BARDOLPH Yea, sir. The rascal's drunk: you have hurt him,
- sir, i' the shoulder.
-
- FALSTAFF A rascal! to brave me!
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET Ah, you sweet little rogue, you! alas, poor ape,
- how thou sweatest! come, let me wipe thy face;
- come on, you whoreson chops: ah, rogue! i'faith, I
- love thee: thou art as valorous as Hector of Troy,
- worth five of Agamemnon, and ten times better than
- the Nine Worthies: ah, villain!
-
- FALSTAFF A rascally slave! I will toss the rogue in a blanket.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET Do, an thou darest for thy heart: an thou dost,
- I'll canvass thee between a pair of sheets.
-
- [Enter Music]
-
- Page The music is come, sir.
-
- FALSTAFF Let them play. Play, sirs. Sit on my knee, Doll.
- A rascal bragging slave! the rogue fled from me
- like quicksilver.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET I' faith, and thou followedst him like a church.
- Thou whoreson little tidy Bartholomew boar-pig,
- when wilt thou leave fighting o' days and foining
- o' nights, and begin to patch up thine old body for heaven?
-
- [Enter, behind, PRINCE HENRY and POINS, disguised]
-
- FALSTAFF Peace, good Doll! do not speak like a death's-head;
- do not bid me remember mine end.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET Sirrah, what humour's the prince of?
-
- FALSTAFF A good shallow young fellow: a' would have made a
- good pantler, a' would ha' chipp'd bread well.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET They say Poins has a good wit.
-
- FALSTAFF He a good wit? hang him, baboon! his wit's as thick
- as Tewksbury mustard; there's no more conceit in him
- than is in a mallet.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET Why does the prince love him so, then?
-
- FALSTAFF Because their legs are both of a bigness, and a'
- plays at quoits well, and eats conger and fennel,
- and drinks off candles' ends for flap-dragons, and
- rides the wild-mare with the boys, and jumps upon
- joined-stools, and swears with a good grace, and
- wears his boots very smooth, like unto the sign of
- the leg, and breeds no bate with telling of discreet
- stories; and such other gambol faculties a' has,
- that show a weak mind and an able body, for the
- which the prince admits him: for the prince himself
- is such another; the weight of a hair will turn the
- scales between their avoirdupois.
-
- PRINCE HENRY Would not this nave of a wheel have his ears cut off?
-
- POINS Let's beat him before his whore.
-
- PRINCE HENRY Look, whether the withered elder hath not his poll
- clawed like a parrot.
-
- POINS Is it not strange that desire should so many years
- outlive performance?
-
- FALSTAFF Kiss me, Doll.
-
- PRINCE HENRY Saturn and Venus this year in conjunction! what
- says the almanac to that?
-
- POINS And look, whether the fiery Trigon, his man, be not
- lisping to his master's old tables, his note-book,
- his counsel-keeper.
-
- FALSTAFF Thou dost give me flattering busses.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET By my troth, I kiss thee with a most constant heart.
-
- FALSTAFF I am old, I am old.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET I love thee better than I love e'er a scurvy young
- boy of them all.
-
- FALSTAFF What stuff wilt have a kirtle of? I shall receive
- money o' Thursday: shalt have a cap to-morrow. A
- merry song, come: it grows late; we'll to bed.
- Thou'lt forget me when I am gone.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET By my troth, thou'lt set me a-weeping, an thou
- sayest so: prove that ever I dress myself handsome
- till thy return: well, harken at the end.
-
- FALSTAFF Some sack, Francis.
-
-
- PRINCE HENRY |
- | Anon, anon, sir.
- POINS |
-
-
- [Coming forward]
-
- FALSTAFF Ha! a bastard son of the king's? And art not thou
- Poins his brother?
-
- PRINCE HENRY Why, thou globe of sinful continents! what a life
- dost thou lead!
-
- FALSTAFF A better than thou: I am a gentleman; thou art a drawer.
-
- PRINCE HENRY Very true, sir; and I come to draw you out by the ears.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY O, the Lord preserve thy good grace! by my troth,
- welcome to London. Now, the Lord bless that sweet
- face of thine! O, Jesu, are you come from Wales?
-
- FALSTAFF Thou whoreson mad compound of majesty, by this light
- flesh and corrupt blood, thou art welcome.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET How, you fat fool! I scorn you.
-
- POINS My lord, he will drive you out of your revenge and
- turn all to a merriment, if you take not the heat.
-
- PRINCE HENRY You whoreson candle-mine, you, how vilely did you
- speak of me even now before this honest, virtuous,
- civil gentlewoman!
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY God's blessing of your good heart! and so she is,
- by my troth.
-
- FALSTAFF Didst thou hear me?
-
- PRINCE HENRY Yea, and you knew me, as you did when you ran away
- by Gad's-hill: you knew I was at your back, and
- spoke it on purpose to try my patience.
-
- FALSTAFF No, no, no; not so; I did not think thou wast within hearing.
-
- PRINCE HENRY I shall drive you then to confess the wilful abuse;
- and then I know how to handle you.
-
- FALSTAFF No abuse, Hal, o' mine honour, no abuse.
-
- PRINCE HENRY Not to dispraise me, and call me pantier and
- bread-chipper and I know not what?
-
- FALSTAFF No abuse, Hal.
-
- POINS No abuse?
-
- FALSTAFF No abuse, Ned, i' the world; honest Ned, none. I
- dispraised him before the wicked, that the wicked
- might not fall in love with him; in which doing, I
- have done the part of a careful friend and a true
- subject, and thy father is to give me thanks for it.
- No abuse, Hal: none, Ned, none: no, faith, boys, none.
-
- PRINCE HENRY See now, whether pure fear and entire cowardice doth
- not make thee wrong this virtuous gentlewoman to
- close with us? is she of the wicked? is thine
- hostess here of the wicked? or is thy boy of the
- wicked? or honest Bardolph, whose zeal burns in his
- nose, of the wicked?
-
- POINS Answer, thou dead elm, answer.
-
- FALSTAFF The fiend hath pricked down Bardolph irrecoverable;
- and his face is Lucifer's privy-kitchen, where he
- doth nothing but roast malt-worms. For the boy,
- there is a good angel about him; but the devil
- outbids him too.
-
- PRINCE HENRY For the women?
-
- FALSTAFF For one of them, she is in hell already, and burns
- poor souls. For the other, I owe her money, and
- whether she be damned for that, I know not.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY No, I warrant you.
-
- FALSTAFF No, I think thou art not; I think thou art quit for
- that. Marry, there is another indictment upon thee,
- for suffering flesh to be eaten in thy house,
- contrary to the law; for the which I think thou wilt howl.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY All victuallers do so; what's a joint of mutton or
- two in a whole Lent?
-
- PRINCE HENRY You, gentlewoman,-
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET What says your grace?
-
- FALSTAFF His grace says that which his flesh rebels against.
-
- [Knocking within]
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Who knocks so loud at door? Look to the door there, Francis.
-
- [Enter PETO]
-
- PRINCE HENRY Peto, how now! what news?
-
- PETO The king your father is at Westminster:
- And there are twenty weak and wearied posts
- Come from the north: and, as I came along,
- I met and overtook a dozen captains,
- Bare-headed, sweating, knocking at the taverns,
- And asking every one for Sir John Falstaff.
-
- PRINCE HENRY By heaven, Poins, I feel me much to blame,
- So idly to profane the precious time,
- When tempest of commotion, like the south
- Borne with black vapour, doth begin to melt
- And drop upon our bare unarmed heads.
- Give me my sword and cloak. Falstaff, good night.
-
- [Exeunt PRINCE HENRY, POINS, PETO and BARDOLPH]
-
- FALSTAFF Now comes in the sweetest morsel of the night, and
- we must hence and leave it unpicked.
-
- [Knocking within]
-
- More knocking at the door!
-
- [Re-enter BARDOLPH]
-
- How now! what's the matter?
-
- BARDOLPH You must away to court, sir, presently;
- A dozen captains stay at door for you.
-
- FALSTAFF [To the Page] Pay the musicians, sirrah. Farewell,
- hostess; farewell, Doll. You see, my good wenches,
- how men of merit are sought after: the undeserver
- may sleep, when the man of action is called on.
- Farewell good wenches: if I be not sent away post,
- I will see you again ere I go.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET I cannot speak; if my heart be not read to burst,--
- well, sweet Jack, have a care of thyself.
-
- FALSTAFF Farewell, farewell.
-
- [Exeunt FALSTAFF and BARDOLPH]
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Well, fare thee well: I have known thee these
- twenty-nine years, come peascod-time; but an
- honester and truer-hearted man,--well, fare thee well.
-
- BARDOLPH [Within] Mistress Tearsheet!
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY What's the matter?
-
- BARDOLPH [Within] Good Mistress Tearsheet, come to my master.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY O, run, Doll, run; run, good Doll: come.
-
- [She comes blubbered]
-
- Yea, will you come, Doll?
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
-
- ACT III
-
-
-
- SCENE I Westminster. The palace.
-
-
- [Enter KING HENRY IV in his nightgown, with a Page]
-
- KING HENRY IV Go call the Earls of Surrey and of Warwick;
- But, ere they come, bid them o'er-read these letters,
- And well consider of them; make good speed.
-
- [Exit Page]
-
- How many thousand of my poorest subjects
- Are at this hour asleep! O sleep, O gentle sleep,
- Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
- That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down
- And steep my senses in forgetfulness?
- Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
- Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee
- And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,
- Than in the perfumed chambers of the great,
- Under the canopies of costly state,
- And lull'd with sound of sweetest melody?
- O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile
- In loathsome beds, and leavest the kingly couch
- A watch-case or a common 'larum-bell?
- Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
- Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains
- In cradle of the rude imperious surge
- And in the visitation of the winds,
- Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
- Curling their monstrous heads and hanging them
- With deafening clamour in the slippery clouds,
- That, with the hurly, death itself awakes?
- Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose
- To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,
- And in the calmest and most stillest night,
- With all appliances and means to boot,
- Deny it to a king? Then happy low, lie down!
- Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
-
- [Enter WARWICK and SURREY]
-
- WARWICK Many good morrows to your majesty!
-
- KING HENRY IV Is it good morrow, lords?
-
- WARWICK 'Tis one o'clock, and past.
-
- KING HENRY IV Why, then, good morrow to you all, my lords.
- Have you read o'er the letters that I sent you?
-
- WARWICK We have, my liege.
-
- KING HENRY IV Then you perceive the body of our kingdom
- How foul it is; what rank diseases grow
- And with what danger, near the heart of it.
-
- WARWICK It is but as a body yet distemper'd;
- Which to his former strength may be restored
- With good advice and little medicine:
- My Lord Northumberland will soon be cool'd.
-
- KING HENRY IV O God! that one might read the book of fate,
- And see the revolution of the times
- Make mountains level, and the continent,
- Weary of solid firmness, melt itself
- Into the sea! and, other times, to see
- The beachy girdle of the ocean
- Too wide for Neptune's hips; how chances mock,
- And changes fill the cup of alteration
- With divers liquors! O, if this were seen,
- The happiest youth, viewing his progress through,
- What perils past, what crosses to ensue,
- Would shut the book, and sit him down and die.
- 'Tis not 'ten years gone
- Since Richard and Northumberland, great friends,
- Did feast together, and in two years after
- Were they at wars: it is but eight years since
- This Percy was the man nearest my soul,
- Who like a brother toil'd in my affairs
- And laid his love and life under my foot,
- Yea, for my sake, even to the eyes of Richard
- Gave him defiance. But which of you was by--
- You, cousin Nevil, as I may remember--
-
- [To WARWICK]
-
- When Richard, with his eye brimful of tears,
- Then cheque'd and rated by Northumberland,
- Did speak these words, now proved a prophecy?
- 'Northumberland, thou ladder by the which
- My cousin Bolingbroke ascends my throne;'
- Though then, God knows, I had no such intent,
- But that necessity so bow'd the state
- That I and greatness were compell'd to kiss:
- 'The time shall come,' thus did he follow it,
- 'The time will come, that foul sin, gathering head,
- Shall break into corruption:' so went on,
- Foretelling this same time's condition
- And the division of our amity.
-
- WARWICK There is a history in all men's lives,
- Figuring the nature of the times deceased;
- The which observed, a man may prophesy,
- With a near aim, of the main chance of things
- As yet not come to life, which in their seeds
- And weak beginnings lie intreasured.
- Such things become the hatch and brood of time;
- And by the necessary form of this
- King Richard might create a perfect guess
- That great Northumberland, then false to him,
- Would of that seed grow to a greater falseness;
- Which should not find a ground to root upon,
- Unless on you.
-
- KING HENRY IV Are these things then necessities?
- Then let us meet them like necessities:
- And that same word even now cries out on us:
- They say the bishop and Northumberland
- Are fifty thousand strong.
-
- WARWICK It cannot be, my lord;
- Rumour doth double, like the voice and echo,
- The numbers of the fear'd. Please it your grace
- To go to bed. Upon my soul, my lord,
- The powers that you already have sent forth
- Shall bring this prize in very easily.
- To comfort you the more, I have received
- A certain instance that Glendower is dead.
- Your majesty hath been this fortnight ill,
- And these unseason'd hours perforce must add
- Unto your sickness.
-
- KING HENRY IV I will take your counsel:
- And were these inward wars once out of hand,
- We would, dear lords, unto the Holy Land.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
-
- ACT III
-
-
-
- SCENE II Gloucestershire. Before SHALLOW'S house.
-
-
- [Enter SHALLOW and SILENCE, meeting; MOULDY,
- SHADOW, WART, FEEBLE, BULLCALF, a Servant or two
- with them]
-
- SHALLOW Come on, come on, come on, sir; give me your hand,
- sir, give me your hand, sir: an early stirrer, by
- the rood! And how doth my good cousin Silence?
-
- SILENCE Good morrow, good cousin Shallow.
-
- SHALLOW And how doth my cousin, your bedfellow? and your
- fairest daughter and mine, my god-daughter Ellen?
-
- SILENCE Alas, a black ousel, cousin Shallow!
-
- SHALLOW By yea and nay, sir, I dare say my cousin William is
- become a good scholar: he is at Oxford still, is he not?
-
- SILENCE Indeed, sir, to my cost.
-
- SHALLOW A' must, then, to the inns o' court shortly. I was
- once of Clement's Inn, where I think they will
- talk of mad Shallow yet.
-
- SILENCE You were called 'lusty Shallow' then, cousin.
-
- SHALLOW By the mass, I was called any thing; and I would
- have done any thing indeed too, and roundly too.
- There was I, and little John Doit of Staffordshire,
- and black George Barnes, and Francis Pickbone, and
- Will Squele, a Cotswold man; you had not four such
- swinge-bucklers in all the inns o' court again: and
- I may say to you, we knew where the bona-robas were
- and had the best of them all at commandment. Then
- was Jack Falstaff, now Sir John, a boy, and page to
- Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk.
-
- SILENCE This Sir John, cousin, that comes hither anon about soldiers?
-
- SHALLOW The same Sir John, the very same. I see him break
- Skogan's head at the court-gate, when a' was a
- crack not thus high: and the very same day did I
- fight with one Sampson Stockfish, a fruiterer,
- behind Gray's Inn. Jesu, Jesu, the mad days that I
- have spent! and to see how many of my old
- acquaintance are dead!
-
- SILENCE We shall all follow, cousin.
-
- SHADOW Certain, 'tis certain; very sure, very sure: death,
- as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all; all shall
- die. How a good yoke of bullocks at Stamford fair?
-
- SILENCE By my troth, I was not there.
-
- SHALLOW Death is certain. Is old Double of your town living
- yet?
-
- SILENCE Dead, sir.
-
- SHALLOW Jesu, Jesu, dead! a' drew a good bow; and dead! a'
- shot a fine shoot: John a Gaunt loved him well, and
- betted much money on his head. Dead! a' would have
- clapped i' the clout at twelve score; and carried
- you a forehand shaft a fourteen and fourteen and a
- half, that it would have done a man's heart good to
- see. How a score of ewes now?
-
- SILENCE Thereafter as they be: a score of good ewes may be
- worth ten pounds.
-
- SHALLOW And is old Double dead?
-
- SILENCE Here come two of Sir John Falstaff's men, as I think.
-
- [Enter BARDOLPH and one with him]
-
- BARDOLPH Good morrow, honest gentlemen: I beseech you, which
- is Justice Shallow?
-
- SHALLOW I am Robert Shallow, sir; a poor esquire of this
- county, and one of the king's justices of the peace:
- What is your good pleasure with me?
-
- BARDOLPH My captain, sir, commends him to you; my captain,
- Sir John Falstaff, a tall gentleman, by heaven, and
- a most gallant leader.
-
- SHALLOW He greets me well, sir. I knew him a good backsword
- man. How doth the good knight? may I ask how my
- lady his wife doth?
-
- BARDOLPH Sir, pardon; a soldier is better accommodated than
- with a wife.
-
- SHALLOW It is well said, in faith, sir; and it is well said
- indeed too. Better accommodated! it is good; yea,
- indeed, is it: good phrases are surely, and ever
- were, very commendable. Accommodated! it comes of
- 'accommodo' very good; a good phrase.
-
- BARDOLPH Pardon me, sir; I have heard the word. Phrase call
- you it? by this good day, I know not the phrase;
- but I will maintain the word with my sword to be a
- soldier-like word, and a word of exceeding good
- command, by heaven. Accommodated; that is, when a
- man is, as they say, accommodated; or when a man is,
- being, whereby a' may be thought to be accommodated;
- which is an excellent thing.
-
- SHALLOW It is very just.
-
- [Enter FALSTAFF]
-
- Look, here comes good Sir John. Give me your good
- hand, give me your worship's good hand: by my
- troth, you like well and bear your years very well:
- welcome, good Sir John.
-
- FALSTAFF I am glad to see you well, good Master Robert
- Shallow: Master Surecard, as I think?
-
- SHALLOW No, Sir John; it is my cousin Silence, in commission with me.
-
- FALSTAFF Good Master Silence, it well befits you should be of
- the peace.
-
- SILENCE Your good-worship is welcome.
-
- FALSTAFF Fie! this is hot weather, gentlemen. Have you
- provided me here half a dozen sufficient men?
-
- SHALLOW Marry, have we, sir. Will you sit?
-
- FALSTAFF Let me see them, I beseech you.
-
- SHALLOW Where's the roll? where's the roll? where's the
- roll? Let me see, let me see, let me see. So, so:
- yea, marry, sir: Ralph Mouldy! Let them appear as
- I call; let them do so, let them do so. Let me
- see; where is Mouldy?
-
- MOULDY Here, an't please you.
-
- SHALLOW What think you, Sir John? a good-limbed fellow;
- young, strong, and of good friends.
-
- FALSTAFF Is thy name Mouldy?
-
- MOULDY Yea, an't please you.
-
- FALSTAFF 'Tis the more time thou wert used.
-
- SHALLOW Ha, ha, ha! most excellent, i' faith! Things that
- are mouldy lack use: very singular good! in faith,
- well said, Sir John, very well said.
-
- FALSTAFF Prick him.
-
- MOULDY I was pricked well enough before, an you could have
- let me alone: my old dame will be undone now for
- one to do her husbandry and her drudgery: you need
- not to have pricked me; there are other men fitter
- to go out than I.
-
- FALSTAFF Go to: peace, Mouldy; you shall go. Mouldy, it is
- time you were spent.
-
- MOULDY Spent!
-
- SHALLOW Peace, fellow, peace; stand aside: know you where
- you are? For the other, Sir John: let me see:
- Simon Shadow!
-
- FALSTAFF Yea, marry, let me have him to sit under: he's like
- to be a cold soldier.
-
- SHALLOW Where's Shadow?
-
- SHADOW Here, sir.
-
- FALSTAFF Shadow, whose son art thou?
-
- SHADOW My mother's son, sir.
-
- FALSTAFF Thy mother's son! like enough, and thy father's
- shadow: so the son of the female is the shadow of
- the male: it is often so, indeed; but much of the
- father's substance!
-
- SHALLOW Do you like him, Sir John?
-
- FALSTAFF Shadow will serve for summer; prick him, for we have
- a number of shadows to fill up the muster-book.
-
- SHALLOW Thomas Wart!
-
- FALSTAFF Where's he?
-
- WART Here, sir.
-
- FALSTAFF Is thy name Wart?
-
- WART Yea, sir.
-
- FALSTAFF Thou art a very ragged wart.
-
- SHALLOW Shall I prick him down, Sir John?
-
- FALSTAFF It were superfluous; for his apparel is built upon
- his back and the whole frame stands upon pins:
- prick him no more.
-
- SHALLOW Ha, ha, ha! you can do it, sir; you can do it: I
- commend you well. Francis Feeble!
-
- FEEBLE Here, sir.
-
- FALSTAFF What trade art thou, Feeble?
-
- FEEBLE A woman's tailor, sir.
-
- SHALLOW Shall I prick him, sir?
-
- FALSTAFF You may: but if he had been a man's tailor, he'ld
- ha' pricked you. Wilt thou make as many holes in
- an enemy's battle as thou hast done in a woman's petticoat?
-
- FEEBLE I will do my good will, sir; you can have no more.
-
- FALSTAFF Well said, good woman's tailor! well said,
- courageous Feeble! thou wilt be as valiant as the
- wrathful dove or most magnanimous mouse. Prick the
- woman's tailor: well, Master Shallow; deep, Master Shallow.
-
- FEEBLE I would Wart might have gone, sir.
-
- FALSTAFF I would thou wert a man's tailor, that thou mightst
- mend him and make him fit to go. I cannot put him
- to a private soldier that is the leader of so many
- thousands: let that suffice, most forcible Feeble.
-
- FEEBLE It shall suffice, sir.
-
- FALSTAFF I am bound to thee, reverend Feeble. Who is next?
-
- SHALLOW Peter Bullcalf o' the green!
-
- FALSTAFF Yea, marry, let's see Bullcalf.
-
- BULLCALF Here, sir.
-
- FALSTAFF 'Fore God, a likely fellow! Come, prick me Bullcalf
- till he roar again.
-
- BULLCALF O Lord! good my lord captain,--
-
- FALSTAFF What, dost thou roar before thou art pricked?
-
- BULLCALF O Lord, sir! I am a diseased man.
-
- FALSTAFF What disease hast thou?
-
- BULLCALF A whoreson cold, sir, a cough, sir, which I caught
- with ringing in the king's affairs upon his
- coronation-day, sir.
-
- FALSTAFF Come, thou shalt go to the wars in a gown; we wilt
- have away thy cold; and I will take such order that
- my friends shall ring for thee. Is here all?
-
- SHALLOW Here is two more called than your number, you must
- have but four here, sir: and so, I pray you, go in
- with me to dinner.
-
- FALSTAFF Come, I will go drink with you, but I cannot tarry
- dinner. I am glad to see you, by my troth, Master Shallow.
-
- SHALLOW O, Sir John, do you remember since we lay all night
- in the windmill in Saint George's field?
-
- FALSTAFF No more of that, good Master Shallow, no more of that.
-
- SHALLOW Ha! 'twas a merry night. And is Jane Nightwork alive?
-
- FALSTAFF She lives, Master Shallow.
-
- SHALLOW She never could away with me.
-
- FALSTAFF Never, never; she would always say she could not
- abide Master Shallow.
-
- SHALLOW By the mass, I could anger her to the heart. She
- was then a bona-roba. Doth she hold her own well?
-
- FALSTAFF Old, old, Master Shallow.
-
- SHALLOW Nay, she must be old; she cannot choose but be old;
- certain she's old; and had Robin Nightwork by old
- Nightwork before I came to Clement's Inn.
-
- SILENCE That's fifty-five year ago.
-
- SHALLOW Ha, cousin Silence, that thou hadst seen that that
- this knight and I have seen! Ha, Sir John, said I well?
-
- FALSTAFF We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow.
-
- SHALLOW That we have, that we have, that we have; in faith,
- Sir John, we have: our watch-word was 'Hem boys!'
- Come, let's to dinner; come, let's to dinner:
- Jesus, the days that we have seen! Come, come.
-
- [Exeunt FALSTAFF and Justices]
-
- BULLCALF Good Master Corporate Bardolph, stand my friend;
- and here's four Harry ten shillings in French crowns
- for you. In very truth, sir, I had as lief be
- hanged, sir, as go: and yet, for mine own part, sir,
- I do not care; but rather, because I am unwilling,
- and, for mine own part, have a desire to stay with
- my friends; else, sir, I did not care, for mine own
- part, so much.
-
- BARDOLPH Go to; stand aside.
-
- MOULDY And, good master corporal captain, for my old
- dame's sake, stand my friend: she has nobody to do
- any thing about her when I am gone; and she is old,
- and cannot help herself: You shall have forty, sir.
-
- BARDOLPH Go to; stand aside.
-
- FEEBLE By my troth, I care not; a man can die but once: we
- owe God a death: I'll ne'er bear a base mind:
- an't be my destiny, so; an't be not, so: no man is
- too good to serve's prince; and let it go which way
- it will, he that dies this year is quit for the next.
-
- BARDOLPH Well said; thou'rt a good fellow.
-
- FEEBLE Faith, I'll bear no base mind.
-
- [Re-enter FALSTAFF and the Justices]
-
- FALSTAFF Come, sir, which men shall I have?
-
- SHALLOW Four of which you please.
-
- BARDOLPH Sir, a word with you: I have three pound to free
- Mouldy and Bullcalf.
-
- FALSTAFF Go to; well.
-
- SHALLOW Come, Sir John, which four will you have?
-
- FALSTAFF Do you choose for me.
-
- SHALLOW Marry, then, Mouldy, Bullcalf, Feeble and Shadow.
-
- FALSTAFF Mouldy and Bullcalf: for you, Mouldy, stay at home
- till you are past service: and for your part,
- Bullcalf, grow till you come unto it: I will none of you.
-
- SHALLOW Sir John, Sir John, do not yourself wrong: they are
- your likeliest men, and I would have you served with the best.
-
- FALSTAFF Will you tell me, Master Shallow, how to choose a
- man? Care I for the limb, the thewes, the stature,
- bulk, and big assemblance of a man! Give me the
- spirit, Master Shallow. Here's Wart; you see what a
- ragged appearance it is; a' shall charge you and
- discharge you with the motion of a pewterer's
- hammer, come off and on swifter than he that gibbets
- on the brewer's bucket. And this same half-faced
- fellow, Shadow; give me this man: he presents no
- mark to the enemy; the foeman may with as great aim
- level at the edge of a penknife. And for a retreat;
- how swiftly will this Feeble the woman's tailor run
- off! O, give me the spare men, and spare me the
- great ones. Put me a caliver into Wart's hand, Bardolph.
-
- BARDOLPH Hold, Wart, traverse; thus, thus, thus.
-
- FALSTAFF Come, manage me your caliver. So: very well: go
- to: very good, exceeding good. O, give me always a
- little, lean, old, chapt, bald shot. Well said, i'
- faith, Wart; thou'rt a good scab: hold, there's a
- tester for thee.
-
- SHALLOW He is not his craft's master; he doth not do it
- right. I remember at Mile-end Green, when I lay at
- Clement's Inn--I was then Sir Dagonet in Arthur's
- show,--there was a little quiver fellow, and a'
- would manage you his piece thus; and a' would about
- and about, and come you in and come you in: 'rah,
- tah, tah,' would a' say; 'bounce' would a' say; and
- away again would a' go, and again would a' come: I
- shall ne'er see such a fellow.
-
- FALSTAFF These fellows will do well, Master Shallow. God
- keep you, Master Silence: I will not use many words
- with you. Fare you well, gentlemen both: I thank
- you: I must a dozen mile to-night. Bardolph, give
- the soldiers coats.
-
- SHALLOW Sir John, the Lord bless you! God prosper your
- affairs! God send us peace! At your return visit
- our house; let our old acquaintance be renewed;
- peradventure I will with ye to the court.
-
- FALSTAFF 'Fore God, I would you would, Master Shallow.
-
- SHALLOW Go to; I have spoke at a word. God keep you.
-
- FALSTAFF Fare you well, gentle gentlemen.
-
- [Exeunt Justices]
-
- On, Bardolph; lead the men away.
-
- [Exeunt BARDOLPH, Recruits, &c]
-
- As I return, I will fetch off these justices: I do
- see the bottom of Justice Shallow. Lord, Lord, how
- subject we old men are to this vice of lying! This
- same starved justice hath done nothing but prate to
- me of the wildness of his youth, and the feats he
- hath done about Turnbull Street: and every third
- word a lie, duer paid to the hearer than the Turk's
- tribute. I do remember him at Clement's Inn like a
- man made after supper of a cheese-paring: when a'
- was naked, he was, for all the world, like a forked
- radish, with a head fantastically carved upon it
- with a knife: a' was so forlorn, that his
- dimensions to any thick sight were invincible: a'
- was the very genius of famine; yet lecherous as a
- monkey, and the whores called him mandrake: a' came
- ever in the rearward of the fashion, and sung those
- tunes to the overscutched huswives that he heard the
- carmen whistle, and swear they were his fancies or
- his good-nights. And now is this Vice's dagger
- become a squire, and talks as familiarly of John a
- Gaunt as if he had been sworn brother to him; and
- I'll be sworn a' ne'er saw him but once in the
- Tilt-yard; and then he burst his head for crowding
- among the marshal's men. I saw it, and told John a
- Gaunt he beat his own name; for you might have
- thrust him and all his apparel into an eel-skin; the
- case of a treble hautboy was a mansion for him, a
- court: and now has he land and beefs. Well, I'll
- be acquainted with him, if I return; and it shall
- go hard but I will make him a philosopher's two
- stones to me: if the young dace be a bait for the
- old pike, I see no reason in the law of nature but I
- may snap at him. Let time shape, and there an end.
-
- [Exit]
-
-
-
-
- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
-
- ACT IV
-
-
-
- SCENE I Yorkshire. Gaultree Forest.
-
-
- [Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, MOWBRAY, LORD
- HASTINGS, and others]
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK What is this forest call'd?
-
- HASTINGS 'Tis Gaultree Forest, an't shall please your grace.
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK Here stand, my lords; and send discoverers forth
- To know the numbers of our enemies.
-
- HASTINGS We have sent forth already.
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK 'Tis well done.
- My friends and brethren in these great affairs,
- I must acquaint you that I have received
- New-dated letters from Northumberland;
- Their cold intent, tenor and substance, thus:
- Here doth he wish his person, with such powers
- As might hold sortance with his quality,
- The which he could not levy; whereupon
- He is retired, to ripe his growing fortunes,
- To Scotland: and concludes in hearty prayers
- That your attempts may overlive the hazard
- And fearful melting of their opposite.
-
- MOWBRAY Thus do the hopes we have in him touch ground
- And dash themselves to pieces.
-
- [Enter a Messenger]
-
- HASTINGS Now, what news?
-
- Messenger West of this forest, scarcely off a mile,
- In goodly form comes on the enemy;
- And, by the ground they hide, I judge their number
- Upon or near the rate of thirty thousand.
-
- MOWBRAY The just proportion that we gave them out
- Let us sway on and face them in the field.
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK What well-appointed leader fronts us here?
-
- [Enter WESTMORELAND]
-
- MOWBRAY I think it is my Lord of Westmoreland.
-
- WESTMORELAND Health and fair greeting from our general,
- The prince, Lord John and Duke of Lancaster.
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK Say on, my Lord of Westmoreland, in peace:
- What doth concern your coming?
-
- WESTMORELAND Then, my lord,
- Unto your grace do I in chief address
- The substance of my speech. If that rebellion
- Came like itself, in base and abject routs,
- Led on by bloody youth, guarded with rags,
- And countenanced by boys and beggary,
- I say, if damn'd commotion so appear'd,
- In his true, native and most proper shape,
- You, reverend father, and these noble lords
- Had not been here, to dress the ugly form
- Of base and bloody insurrection
- With your fair honours. You, lord archbishop,
- Whose see is by a civil peace maintained,
- Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touch'd,
- Whose learning and good letters peace hath tutor'd,
- Whose white investments figure innocence,
- The dove and very blessed spirit of peace,
- Wherefore do you so ill translate ourself
- Out of the speech of peace that bears such grace,
- Into the harsh and boisterous tongue of war;
- Turning your books to graves, your ink to blood,
- Your pens to lances and your tongue divine
- To a trumpet and a point of war?
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK Wherefore do I this? so the question stands.
- Briefly to this end: we are all diseased,
- And with our surfeiting and wanton hours
- Have brought ourselves into a burning fever,
- And we must bleed for it; of which disease
- Our late king, Richard, being infected, died.
- But, my most noble Lord of Westmoreland,
- I take not on me here as a physician,
- Nor do I as an enemy to peace
- Troop in the throngs of military men;
- But rather show awhile like fearful war,
- To diet rank minds sick of happiness
- And purge the obstructions which begin to stop
- Our very veins of life. Hear me more plainly.
- I have in equal balance justly weigh'd
- What wrongs our arms may do, what wrongs we suffer,
- And find our griefs heavier than our offences.
- We see which way the stream of time doth run,
- And are enforced from our most quiet there
- By the rough torrent of occasion;
- And have the summary of all our griefs,
- When time shall serve, to show in articles;
- Which long ere this we offer'd to the king,
- And might by no suit gain our audience:
- When we are wrong'd and would unfold our griefs,
- We are denied access unto his person
- Even by those men that most have done us wrong.
- The dangers of the days but newly gone,
- Whose memory is written on the earth
- With yet appearing blood, and the examples
- Of every minute's instance, present now,
- Hath put us in these ill-beseeming arms,
- Not to break peace or any branch of it,
- But to establish here a peace indeed,
- Concurring both in name and quality.
-
- WESTMORELAND When ever yet was your appeal denied?
- Wherein have you been galled by the king?
- What peer hath been suborn'd to grate on you,
- That you should seal this lawless bloody book
- Of forged rebellion with a seal divine
- And consecrate commotion's bitter edge?
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK My brother general, the commonwealth,
- To brother born an household cruelty,
- I make my quarrel in particular.
-
- WESTMORELAND There is no need of any such redress;
- Or if there were, it not belongs to you.
-
- MOWBRAY Why not to him in part, and to us all
- That feel the bruises of the days before,
- And suffer the condition of these times
- To lay a heavy and unequal hand
- Upon our honours?
-
- WESTMORELAND O, my good Lord Mowbray,
- Construe the times to their necessities,
- And you shall say indeed, it is the time,
- And not the king, that doth you injuries.
- Yet for your part, it not appears to me
- Either from the king or in the present time
- That you should have an inch of any ground
- To build a grief on: were you not restored
- To all the Duke of Norfolk's signories,
- Your noble and right well remember'd father's?
-
- MOWBRAY What thing, in honour, had my father lost,
- That need to be revived and breathed in me?
- The king that loved him, as the state stood then,
- Was force perforce compell'd to banish him:
- And then that Harry Bolingbroke and he,
- Being mounted and both roused in their seats,
- Their neighing coursers daring of the spur,
- Their armed staves in charge, their beavers down,
- Their eyes of fire sparking through sights of steel
- And the loud trumpet blowing them together,
- Then, then, when there was nothing could have stay'd
- My father from the breast of Bolingbroke,
- O when the king did throw his warder down,
- His own life hung upon the staff he threw;
- Then threw he down himself and all their lives
- That by indictment and by dint of sword
- Have since miscarried under Bolingbroke.
-
- WESTMORELAND You speak, Lord Mowbray, now you know not what.
- The Earl of Hereford was reputed then
- In England the most valiant gentlemen:
- Who knows on whom fortune would then have smiled?
- But if your father had been victor there,
- He ne'er had borne it out of Coventry:
- For all the country in a general voice
- Cried hate upon him; and all their prayers and love
- Were set on Hereford, whom they doted on
- And bless'd and graced indeed, more than the king.
- But this is mere digression from my purpose.
- Here come I from our princely general
- To know your griefs; to tell you from his grace
- That he will give you audience; and wherein
- It shall appear that your demands are just,
- You shall enjoy them, every thing set off
- That might so much as think you enemies.
-
- MOWBRAY But he hath forced us to compel this offer;
- And it proceeds from policy, not love.
-
- WESTMORELAND Mowbray, you overween to take it so;
- This offer comes from mercy, not from fear:
- For, lo! within a ken our army lies,
- Upon mine honour, all too confident
- To give admittance to a thought of fear.
- Our battle is more full of names than yours,
- Our men more perfect in the use of arms,
- Our armour all as strong, our cause the best;
- Then reason will our heart should be as good
- Say you not then our offer is compell'd.
-
- MOWBRAY Well, by my will we shall admit no parley.
-
- WESTMORELAND That argues but the shame of your offence:
- A rotten case abides no handling.
-
- HASTINGS Hath the Prince John a full commission,
- In very ample virtue of his father,
- To hear and absolutely to determine
- Of what conditions we shall stand upon?
-
- WESTMORELAND That is intended in the general's name:
- I muse you make so slight a question.
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK Then take, my Lord of Westmoreland, this schedule,
- For this contains our general grievances:
- Each several article herein redress'd,
- All members of our cause, both here and hence,
- That are insinew'd to this action,
- Acquitted by a true substantial form
- And present execution of our wills
- To us and to our purposes confined,
- We come within our awful banks again
- And knit our powers to the arm of peace.
-
- WESTMORELAND This will I show the general. Please you, lords,
- In sight of both our battles we may meet;
- And either end in peace, which God so frame!
- Or to the place of difference call the swords
- Which must decide it.
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK My lord, we will do so.
-
- [Exit WESTMORELAND]
-
- MOWBRAY There is a thing within my bosom tells me
- That no conditions of our peace can stand.
-
- HASTINGS Fear you not that: if we can make our peace
- Upon such large terms and so absolute
- As our conditions shall consist upon,
- Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.
-
- MOWBRAY Yea, but our valuation shall be such
- That every slight and false-derived cause,
- Yea, every idle, nice and wanton reason
- Shall to the king taste of this action;
- That, were our royal faiths martyrs in love,
- We shall be winnow'd with so rough a wind
- That even our corn shall seem as light as chaff
- And good from bad find no partition.
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK No, no, my lord. Note this; the king is weary
- Of dainty and such picking grievances:
- For he hath found to end one doubt by death
- Revives two greater in the heirs of life,
- And therefore will he wipe his tables clean
- And keep no tell-tale to his memory
- That may repeat and history his loss
- To new remembrance; for full well he knows
- He cannot so precisely weed this land
- As his misdoubts present occasion:
- His foes are so enrooted with his friends
- That, plucking to unfix an enemy,
- He doth unfasten so and shake a friend:
- So that this land, like an offensive wife
- That hath enraged him on to offer strokes,
- As he is striking, holds his infant up
- And hangs resolved correction in the arm
- That was uprear'd to execution.
-
- HASTINGS Besides, the king hath wasted all his rods
- On late offenders, that he now doth lack
- The very instruments of chastisement:
- So that his power, like to a fangless lion,
- May offer, but not hold.
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK 'Tis very true:
- And therefore be assured, my good lord marshal,
- If we do now make our atonement well,
- Our peace will, like a broken limb united,
- Grow stronger for the breaking.
-
- MOWBRAY Be it so.
- Here is return'd my Lord of Westmoreland.
-
- [Re-enter WESTMORELAND]
-
- WESTMORELAND The prince is here at hand: pleaseth your lordship
- To meet his grace just distance 'tween our armies.
-
- MOWBRAY Your grace of York, in God's name then, set forward.
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK Before, and greet his grace: my lord, we come.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
-
- ACT IV
-
-
-
- SCENE II Another part of the forest.
-
-
- [Enter, from one side, MOWBRAY, attended; afterwards
- the ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, HASTINGS, and others: from
- the other side, Prince John of LANCASTER, and
- WESTMORELAND; Officers, and others with them]
-
- LANCASTER You are well encounter'd here, my cousin Mowbray:
- Good day to you, gentle lord archbishop;
- And so to you, Lord Hastings, and to all.
- My Lord of York, it better show'd with you
- When that your flock, assembled by the bell,
- Encircled you to hear with reverence
- Your exposition on the holy text
- Than now to see you here an iron man,
- Cheering a rout of rebels with your drum,
- Turning the word to sword and life to death.
- That man that sits within a monarch's heart,
- And ripens in the sunshine of his favour,
- Would he abuse the countenance of the king,
- Alack, what mischiefs might he set abrooch
- In shadow of such greatness! With you, lord bishop,
- It is even so. Who hath not heard it spoken
- How deep you were within the books of God?
- To us the speaker in his parliament;
- To us the imagined voice of God himself;
- The very opener and intelligencer
- Between the grace, the sanctities of heaven
- And our dull workings. O, who shall believe
- But you misuse the reverence of your place,
- Employ the countenance and grace of heaven,
- As a false favourite doth his prince's name,
- In deeds dishonourable? You have ta'en up,
- Under the counterfeited zeal of God,
- The subjects of his substitute, my father,
- And both against the peace of heaven and him
- Have here up-swarm'd them.
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK Good my Lord of Lancaster,
- I am not here against your father's peace;
- But, as I told my lord of Westmoreland,
- The time misorder'd doth, in common sense,
- Crowd us and crush us to this monstrous form,
- To hold our safety up. I sent your grace
- The parcels and particulars of our grief,
- The which hath been with scorn shoved from the court,
- Whereon this Hydra son of war is born;
- Whose dangerous eyes may well be charm'd asleep
- With grant of our most just and right desires,
- And true obedience, of this madness cured,
- Stoop tamely to the foot of majesty.
-
- MOWBRAY If not, we ready are to try our fortunes
- To the last man.
-
- HASTINGS And though we here fall down,
- We have supplies to second our attempt:
- If they miscarry, theirs shall second them;
- And so success of mischief shall be born
- And heir from heir shall hold this quarrel up
- Whiles England shall have generation.
-
- LANCASTER You are too shallow, Hastings, much too shallow,
- To sound the bottom of the after-times.
-
- WESTMORELAND Pleaseth your grace to answer them directly
- How far forth you do like their articles.
-
- LANCASTER I like them all, and do allow them well,
- And swear here, by the honour of my blood,
- My father's purposes have been mistook,
- And some about him have too lavishly
- Wrested his meaning and authority.
- My lord, these griefs shall be with speed redress'd;
- Upon my soul, they shall. If this may please you,
- Discharge your powers unto their several counties,
- As we will ours: and here between the armies
- Let's drink together friendly and embrace,
- That all their eyes may bear those tokens home
- Of our restored love and amity.
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK I take your princely word for these redresses.
-
- LANCASTER I give it you, and will maintain my word:
- And thereupon I drink unto your grace.
-
- HASTINGS Go, captain, and deliver to the army
- This news of peace: let them have pay, and part:
- I know it will well please them. Hie thee, captain.
-
- [Exit Officer]
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK To you, my noble Lord of Westmoreland.
-
- WESTMORELAND I pledge your grace; and, if you knew what pains
- I have bestow'd to breed this present peace,
- You would drink freely: but my love to ye
- Shall show itself more openly hereafter.
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK I do not doubt you.
-
- WESTMORELAND I am glad of it.
- Health to my lord and gentle cousin, Mowbray.
-
- MOWBRAY You wish me health in very happy season;
- For I am, on the sudden, something ill.
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK Against ill chances men are ever merry;
- But heaviness foreruns the good event.
-
- WESTMORELAND Therefore be merry, coz; since sudden sorrow
- Serves to say thus, 'some good thing comes
- to-morrow.'
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK Believe me, I am passing light in spirit.
-
- MOWBRAY So much the worse, if your own rule be true.
-
- [Shouts within]
-
- LANCASTER The word of peace is render'd: hark, how they shout!
-
- MOWBRAY This had been cheerful after victory.
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK A peace is of the nature of a conquest;
- For then both parties nobly are subdued,
- And neither party loser.
-
- LANCASTER Go, my lord,
- And let our army be discharged too.
-
- [Exit WESTMORELAND]
-
- And, good my lord, so please you, let our trains
- March, by us, that we may peruse the men
- We should have coped withal.
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK Go, good Lord Hastings,
- And, ere they be dismissed, let them march by.
-
- [Exit HASTINGS]
-
- LANCASTER I trust, lords, we shall lie to-night together.
-
- [Re-enter WESTMORELAND]
-
- Now, cousin, wherefore stands our army still?
-
- WESTMORELAND The leaders, having charge from you to stand,
- Will not go off until they hear you speak.
-
- LANCASTER They know their duties.
-
- [Re-enter HASTINGS]
-
- HASTINGS My lord, our army is dispersed already;
- Like youthful steers unyoked, they take their courses
- East, west, north, south; or, like a school broke up,
- Each hurries toward his home and sporting-place.
-
- WESTMORELAND Good tidings, my Lord Hastings; for the which
- I do arrest thee, traitor, of high treason:
- And you, lord archbishop, and you, Lord Mowbray,
- Of capitol treason I attach you both.
-
- MOWBRAY Is this proceeding just and honourable?
-
- WESTMORELAND Is your assembly so?
-
- ARCHBISHOP OF YORK Will you thus break your faith?
-
- LANCASTER I pawn'd thee none:
- I promised you redress of these same grievances
- Whereof you did complain; which, by mine honour,
- I will perform with a most Christian care.
- But for you, rebels, look to taste the due
- Meet for rebellion and such acts as yours.
- Most shallowly did you these arms commence,
- Fondly brought here and foolishly sent hence.
- Strike up our drums, pursue the scatter'd stray:
- God, and not we, hath safely fought to-day.
- Some guard these traitors to the block of death,
- Treason's true bed and yielder up of breath.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
-
- ACT IV
-
-
-
- SCENE III Another part of the forest.
-
-
- [Alarum. Excursions. Enter FALSTAFF and COLEVILE, meeting]
-
- FALSTAFF What's your name, sir? of what condition are you,
- and of what place, I pray?
-
- COLEVILE I am a knight, sir, and my name is Colevile of the dale.
-
- FALSTAFF Well, then, Colevile is your name, a knight is your
- degree, and your place the dale: Colevile shall be
- still your name, a traitor your degree, and the
- dungeon your place, a place deep enough; so shall
- you be still Colevile of the dale.
-
- COLEVILE Are not you Sir John Falstaff?
-
- FALSTAFF As good a man as he, sir, whoe'er I am. Do ye
- yield, sir? or shall I sweat for you? if I do
- sweat, they are the drops of thy lovers, and they
- weep for thy death: therefore rouse up fear and
- trembling, and do observance to my mercy.
-
- COLEVILE I think you are Sir John Falstaff, and in that
- thought yield me.
-
- FALSTAFF I have a whole school of tongues in this belly of
- mine, and not a tongue of them all speaks any other
- word but my name. An I had but a belly of any
- indifference, I were simply the most active fellow
- in Europe: my womb, my womb, my womb, undoes me.
- Here comes our general.
-
- [Enter PRINCE JOHN OF LANCASTER, WESTMORELAND,
- BLUNT, and others]
-
- LANCASTER The heat is past; follow no further now:
- Call in the powers, good cousin Westmoreland.
-
- [Exit WESTMORELAND]
-
- Now, Falstaff, where have you been all this while?
- When every thing is ended, then you come:
- These tardy tricks of yours will, on my life,
- One time or other break some gallows' back.
-
- FALSTAFF I would be sorry, my lord, but it should be thus: I
- never knew yet but rebuke and cheque was the reward
- of valour. Do you think me a swallow, an arrow, or a
- bullet? have I, in my poor and old motion, the
- expedition of thought? I have speeded hither with
- the very extremest inch of possibility; I have
- foundered nine score and odd posts: and here,
- travel-tainted as I am, have in my pure and
- immaculate valour, taken Sir John Colevile of the
- dale, a most furious knight and valorous enemy.
- But what of that? he saw me, and yielded; that I
- may justly say, with the hook-nosed fellow of Rome,
- 'I came, saw, and overcame.'
-
- LANCASTER It was more of his courtesy than your deserving.
-
- FALSTAFF I know not: here he is, and here I yield him: and
- I beseech your grace, let it be booked with the
- rest of this day's deeds; or, by the Lord, I will
- have it in a particular ballad else, with mine own
- picture on the top on't, Colevile kissing my foot:
- to the which course if I be enforced, if you do not
- all show like gilt twopences to me, and I in the
- clear sky of fame o'ershine you as much as the full
- moon doth the cinders of the element, which show
- like pins' heads to her, believe not the word of
- the noble: therefore let me have right, and let
- desert mount.
-
- LANCASTER Thine's too heavy to mount.
-
- FALSTAFF Let it shine, then.
-
- LANCASTER Thine's too thick to shine.
-
- FALSTAFF Let it do something, my good lord, that may do me
- good, and call it what you will.
-
- LANCASTER Is thy name Colevile?
-
- COLEVILE It is, my lord.
-
- LANCASTER A famous rebel art thou, Colevile.
-
- FALSTAFF And a famous true subject took him.
-
- COLEVILE I am, my lord, but as my betters are
- That led me hither: had they been ruled by me,
- You should have won them dearer than you have.
-
- FALSTAFF I know not how they sold themselves: but thou, like
- a kind fellow, gavest thyself away gratis; and I
- thank thee for thee.
-
- [Re-enter WESTMORELAND]
-
- LANCASTER Now, have you left pursuit?
-
- WESTMORELAND Retreat is made and execution stay'd.
-
- LANCASTER Send Colevile with his confederates
- To York, to present execution:
- Blunt, lead him hence; and see you guard him sure.
-
- [Exeunt BLUNT and others with COLEVILE]
-
- And now dispatch we toward the court, my lords:
- I hear the king my father is sore sick:
- Our news shall go before us to his majesty,
- Which, cousin, you shall bear to comfort him,
- And we with sober speed will follow you.
-
- FALSTAFF My lord, I beseech you, give me leave to go
- Through Gloucestershire: and, when you come to court,
- Stand my good lord, pray, in your good report.
-
- LANCASTER Fare you well, Falstaff: I, in my condition,
- Shall better speak of you than you deserve.
-
- [Exeunt all but Falstaff]
-
- FALSTAFF I would you had but the wit: 'twere better than
- your dukedom. Good faith, this same young sober-
- blooded boy doth not love me; nor a man cannot make
- him laugh; but that's no marvel, he drinks no wine.
- There's never none of these demure boys come to any
- proof; for thin drink doth so over-cool their blood,
- and making many fish-meals, that they fall into a
- kind of male green-sickness; and then when they
- marry, they get wenches: they are generally fools
- and cowards; which some of us should be too, but for
- inflammation. A good sherris sack hath a two-fold
- operation in it. It ascends me into the brain;
- dries me there all the foolish and dull and curdy
- vapours which environ it; makes it apprehensive,
- quick, forgetive, full of nimble fiery and
- delectable shapes, which, delivered o'er to the
- voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes
- excellent wit. The second property of your
- excellent sherris is, the warming of the blood;
- which, before cold and settled, left the liver
- white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity
- and cowardice; but the sherris warms it and makes
- it course from the inwards to the parts extreme:
- it illumineth the face, which as a beacon gives
- warning to all the rest of this little kingdom,
- man, to arm; and then the vital commoners and
- inland petty spirits muster me all to their captain,
- the heart, who, great and puffed up with this
- retinue, doth any deed of courage; and this valour
- comes of sherris. So that skill in the weapon is
- nothing without sack, for that sets it a-work; and
- learning a mere hoard of gold kept by a devil, till
- sack commences it and sets it in act and use.
- Hereof comes it that Prince Harry is valiant; for
- the cold blood he did naturally inherit of his
- father, he hath, like lean, sterile and bare land,
- manured, husbanded and tilled with excellent
- endeavour of drinking good and good store of fertile
- sherris, that he is become very hot and valiant. If
- I had a thousand sons, the first humane principle I
- would teach them should be, to forswear thin
- potations and to addict themselves to sack.
-
- [Enter BARDOLPH]
-
- How now Bardolph?
-
- BARDOLPH The army is discharged all and gone.
-
- FALSTAFF Let them go. I'll through Gloucestershire; and
- there will I visit Master Robert Shallow, esquire:
- I have him already tempering between my finger and
- my thumb, and shortly will I seal with him. Come away.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
-
- ACT IV
-
-
-
- SCENE IV Westminster. The Jerusalem Chamber.
-
-
- [Enter KING HENRY IV, the Princes Thomas of CLARENCE
- and Humphrey of GLOUCESTER, WARWICK, and others]
-
- KING HENRY IV Now, lords, if God doth give successful end
- To this debate that bleedeth at our doors,
- We will our youth lead on to higher fields
- And draw no swords but what are sanctified.
- Our navy is address'd, our power collected,
- Our substitutes in absence well invested,
- And every thing lies level to our wish:
- Only, we want a little personal strength;
- And pause us, till these rebels, now afoot,
- Come underneath the yoke of government.
-
- WARWICK Both which we doubt not but your majesty
- Shall soon enjoy.
-
- KING HENRY IV Humphrey, my son of Gloucester,
- Where is the prince your brother?
-
- GLOUCESTER I think he's gone to hunt, my lord, at Windsor.
-
- KING HENRY IV And how accompanied?
-
- GLOUCESTER I do not know, my lord.
-
- KING HENRY IV Is not his brother, Thomas of Clarence, with him?
-
- GLOUCESTER No, my good lord; he is in presence here.
-
- CLARENCE What would my lord and father?
-
- KING HENRY IV Nothing but well to thee, Thomas of Clarence.
- How chance thou art not with the prince thy brother?
- He loves thee, and thou dost neglect him, Thomas;
- Thou hast a better place in his affection
- Than all thy brothers: cherish it, my boy,
- And noble offices thou mayst effect
- Of mediation, after I am dead,
- Between his greatness and thy other brethren:
- Therefore omit him not; blunt not his love,
- Nor lose the good advantage of his grace
- By seeming cold or careless of his will;
- For he is gracious, if he be observed:
- He hath a tear for pity and a hand
- Open as day for melting charity:
- Yet notwithstanding, being incensed, he's flint,
- As humorous as winter and as sudden
- As flaws congealed in the spring of day.
- His temper, therefore, must be well observed:
- Chide him for faults, and do it reverently,
- When thou perceive his blood inclined to mirth;
- But, being moody, give him line and scope,
- Till that his passions, like a whale on ground,
- Confound themselves with working. Learn this, Thomas,
- And thou shalt prove a shelter to thy friends,
- A hoop of gold to bind thy brothers in,
- That the united vessel of their blood,
- Mingled with venom of suggestion--
- As, force perforce, the age will pour it in--
- Shall never leak, though it do work as strong
- As aconitum or rash gunpowder.
-
- CLARENCE I shall observe him with all care and love.
-
- KING HENRY IV Why art thou not at Windsor with him, Thomas?
-
- CLARENCE He is not there to-day; he dines in London.
-
- KING HENRY IV And how accompanied? canst thou tell that?
-
- CLARENCE With Poins, and other his continual followers.
-
- KING HENRY IV Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds;
- And he, the noble image of my youth,
- Is overspread with them: therefore my grief
- Stretches itself beyond the hour of death:
- The blood weeps from my heart when I do shape
- In forms imaginary the unguided days
- And rotten times that you shall look upon
- When I am sleeping with my ancestors.
- For when his headstrong riot hath no curb,
- When rage and hot blood are his counsellors,
- When means and lavish manners meet together,
- O, with what wings shall his affections fly
- Towards fronting peril and opposed decay!
-
- WARWICK My gracious lord, you look beyond him quite:
- The prince but studies his companions
- Like a strange tongue, wherein, to gain the language,
- 'Tis needful that the most immodest word
- Be look'd upon and learn'd; which once attain'd,
- Your highness knows, comes to no further use
- But to be known and hated. So, like gross terms,
- The prince will in the perfectness of time
- Cast off his followers; and their memory
- Shall as a pattern or a measure live,
- By which his grace must mete the lives of others,
- Turning past evils to advantages.
-
- KING HENRY IV 'Tis seldom when the bee doth leave her comb
- In the dead carrion.
-
- [Enter WESTMORELAND]
-
- Who's here? Westmoreland?
-
- WESTMORELAND Health to my sovereign, and new happiness
- Added to that that I am to deliver!
- Prince John your son doth kiss your grace's hand:
- Mowbray, the Bishop Scroop, Hastings and all
- Are brought to the correction of your law;
- There is not now a rebel's sword unsheath'd
- But peace puts forth her olive every where.
- The manner how this action hath been borne
- Here at more leisure may your highness read,
- With every course in his particular.
-
- KING HENRY IV O Westmoreland, thou art a summer bird,
- Which ever in the haunch of winter sings
- The lifting up of day.
-
- [Enter HARCOURT]
-
- Look, here's more news.
-
- HARCOURT From enemies heaven keep your majesty;
- And, when they stand against you, may they fall
- As those that I am come to tell you of!
- The Earl Northumberland and the Lord Bardolph,
- With a great power of English and of Scots
- Are by the sheriff of Yorkshire overthrown:
- The manner and true order of the fight
- This packet, please it you, contains at large.
-
- KING HENRY IV And wherefore should these good news make me sick?
- Will fortune never come with both hands full,
- But write her fair words still in foulest letters?
- She either gives a stomach and no food;
- Such are the poor, in health; or else a feast
- And takes away the stomach; such are the rich,
- That have abundance and enjoy it not.
- I should rejoice now at this happy news;
- And now my sight fails, and my brain is giddy:
- O me! come near me; now I am much ill.
-
- GLOUCESTER Comfort, your majesty!
-
- CLARENCE O my royal father!
-
- WESTMORELAND My sovereign lord, cheer up yourself, look up.
-
- WARWICK Be patient, princes; you do know, these fits
- Are with his highness very ordinary.
- Stand from him. Give him air; he'll straight be well.
-
- CLARENCE No, no, he cannot long hold out these pangs:
- The incessant care and labour of his mind
- Hath wrought the mure that should confine it in
- So thin that life looks through and will break out.
-
- GLOUCESTER The people fear me; for they do observe
- Unfather'd heirs and loathly births of nature:
- The seasons change their manners, as the year
- Had found some months asleep and leap'd them over.
-
- CLARENCE The river hath thrice flow'd, no ebb between;
- And the old folk, time's doting chronicles,
- Say it did so a little time before
- That our great-grandsire, Edward, sick'd and died.
-
- WARWICK Speak lower, princes, for the king recovers.
-
- GLOUCESTER This apoplexy will certain be his end.
-
- KING HENRY IV I pray you, take me up, and bear me hence
- Into some other chamber: softly, pray.
-
-
-
-
- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
-
- ACT IV
-
-
-
- SCENE V Another chamber.
-
-
- [KING HENRY IV lying on a bed: CLARENCE,
- GLOUCESTER, WARWICK, and others in attendance]
-
- KING HENRY IV Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends;
- Unless some dull and favourable hand
- Will whisper music to my weary spirit.
-
- WARWICK Call for the music in the other room.
-
- KING HENRY IV Set me the crown upon my pillow here.
-
- CLARENCE His eye is hollow, and he changes much.
-
- WARWICK Less noise, less noise!
-
- [Enter PRINCE HENRY]
-
- PRINCE HENRY Who saw the Duke of Clarence?
-
- CLARENCE I am here, brother, full of heaviness.
-
- PRINCE HENRY How now! rain within doors, and none abroad!
- How doth the king?
-
- GLOUCESTER Exceeding ill.
-
- PRINCE HENRY Heard he the good news yet?
- Tell it him.
-
- GLOUCESTER He alter'd much upon the hearing it.
-
- PRINCE HENRY If he be sick with joy, he'll recover without physic.
-
- WARWICK Not so much noise, my lords: sweet prince,
- speak low;
- The king your father is disposed to sleep.
-
- CLARENCE Let us withdraw into the other room.
-
- WARWICK Will't please your grace to go along with us?
-
- PRINCE HENRY No; I will sit and watch here by the king.
-
- [Exeunt all but PRINCE HENRY]
-
- Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow,
- Being so troublesome a bedfellow?
- O polish'd perturbation! golden care!
- That keep'st the ports of slumber open wide
- To many a watchful night! sleep with it now!
- Yet not so sound and half so deeply sweet
- As he whose brow with homely biggen bound
- Snores out the watch of night. O majesty!
- When thou dost pinch thy bearer, thou dost sit
- Like a rich armour worn in heat of day,
- That scalds with safety. By his gates of breath
- There lies a downy feather which stirs not:
- Did he suspire, that light and weightless down
- Perforce must move. My gracious lord! my father!
- This sleep is sound indeed, this is a sleep
- That from this golden rigol hath divorced
- So many English kings. Thy due from me
- Is tears and heavy sorrows of the blood,
- Which nature, love, and filial tenderness,
- Shall, O dear father, pay thee plenteously:
- My due from thee is this imperial crown,
- Which, as immediate as thy place and blood,
- Derives itself to me. Lo, here it sits,
- Which God shall guard: and put the world's whole strength
- Into one giant arm, it shall not force
- This lineal honour from me: this from thee
- Will I to mine leave, as 'tis left to me.
-
- [Exit]
-
- KING HENRY IV Warwick! Gloucester! Clarence!
-
- [Re-enter WARWICK, GLOUCESTER, CLARENCE, and the rest]
-
- CLARENCE Doth the king call?
-
- WARWICK What would your majesty? How fares your grace?
-
- KING HENRY IV Why did you leave me here alone, my lords?
-
- CLARENCE We left the prince my brother here, my liege,
- Who undertook to sit and watch by you.
-
- KING HENRY IV The Prince of Wales! Where is he? let me see him:
- He is not here.
-
- WARWICK This door is open; he is gone this way.
-
- GLOUCESTER He came not through the chamber where we stay'd.
-
- KING HENRY IV Where is the crown? who took it from my pillow?
-
- WARWICK When we withdrew, my liege, we left it here.
-
- KING HENRY IV The prince hath ta'en it hence: go, seek him out.
- Is he so hasty that he doth suppose
- My sleep my death?
- Find him, my Lord of Warwick; chide him hither.
-
- [Exit WARWICK]
-
- This part of his conjoins with my disease,
- And helps to end me. See, sons, what things you are!
- How quickly nature falls into revolt
- When gold becomes her object!
- For this the foolish over-careful fathers
- Have broke their sleep with thoughts, their brains with care,
- Their bones with industry;
- For this they have engrossed and piled up
- The canker'd heaps of strange-achieved gold;
- For this they have been thoughtful to invest
- Their sons with arts and martial exercises:
- When, like the bee, culling from every flower
- The virtuous sweets,
- Our thighs pack'd with wax, our mouths with honey,
- We bring it to the hive, and, like the bees,
- Are murdered for our pains. This bitter taste
- Yield his engrossments to the ending father.
-
- [Re-enter WARWICK]
-
- Now, where is he that will not stay so long
- Till his friend sickness hath determined me?
-
- WARWICK My lord, I found the prince in the next room,
- Washing with kindly tears his gentle cheeks,
- With such a deep demeanor in great sorrow
- That tyranny, which never quaff'd but blood,
- Would, by beholding him, have wash'd his knife
- With gentle eye-drops. He is coming hither.
-
- KING HENRY IV But wherefore did he take away the crown?
-
- [Re-enter PRINCE HENRY]
-
- Lo, where he comes. Come hither to me, Harry.
- Depart the chamber, leave us here alone.
-
- [Exeunt WARWICK and the rest]
-
- PRINCE HENRY I never thought to hear you speak again.
-
- KING HENRY IV Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought:
- I stay too long by thee, I weary thee.
- Dost thou so hunger for mine empty chair
- That thou wilt needs invest thee with my honours
- Before thy hour be ripe? O foolish youth!
- Thou seek'st the greatness that will o'erwhelm thee.
- Stay but a little; for my cloud of dignity
- Is held from falling with so weak a wind
- That it will quickly drop: my day is dim.
- Thou hast stolen that which after some few hours
- Were thine without offence; and at my death
- Thou hast seal'd up my expectation:
- Thy life did manifest thou lovedst me not,
- And thou wilt have me die assured of it.
- Thou hidest a thousand daggers in thy thoughts,
- Which thou hast whetted on thy stony heart,
- To stab at half an hour of my life.
- What! canst thou not forbear me half an hour?
- Then get thee gone and dig my grave thyself,
- And bid the merry bells ring to thine ear
- That thou art crowned, not that I am dead.
- Let all the tears that should bedew my hearse
- Be drops of balm to sanctify thy head:
- Only compound me with forgotten dust
- Give that which gave thee life unto the worms.
- Pluck down my officers, break my decrees;
- For now a time is come to mock at form:
- Harry the Fifth is crown'd: up, vanity!
- Down, royal state! all you sage counsellors, hence!
- And to the English court assemble now,
- From every region, apes of idleness!
- Now, neighbour confines, purge you of your scum:
- Have you a ruffian that will swear, drink, dance,
- Revel the night, rob, murder, and commit
- The oldest sins the newest kind of ways?
- Be happy, he will trouble you no more;
- England shall double gild his treble guilt,
- England shall give him office, honour, might;
- For the fifth Harry from curb'd licence plucks
- The muzzle of restraint, and the wild dog
- Shall flesh his tooth on every innocent.
- O my poor kingdom, sick with civil blows!
- When that my care could not withhold thy riots,
- What wilt thou do when riot is thy care?
- O, thou wilt be a wilderness again,
- Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants!
-
- PRINCE HENRY O, pardon me, my liege! but for my tears,
- The moist impediments unto my speech,
- I had forestall'd this dear and deep rebuke
- Ere you with grief had spoke and I had heard
- The course of it so far. There is your crown;
- And He that wears the crown immortally
- Long guard it yours! If I affect it more
- Than as your honour and as your renown,
- Let me no more from this obedience rise,
- Which my most inward true and duteous spirit
- Teacheth, this prostrate and exterior bending.
- God witness with me, when I here came in,
- And found no course of breath within your majesty,
- How cold it struck my heart! If I do feign,
- O, let me in my present wildness die
- And never live to show the incredulous world
- The noble change that I have purposed!
- Coming to look on you, thinking you dead,
- And dead almost, my liege, to think you were,
- I spake unto this crown as having sense,
- And thus upbraided it: 'The care on thee depending
- Hath fed upon the body of my father;
- Therefore, thou best of gold art worst of gold:
- Other, less fine in carat, is more precious,
- Preserving life in medicine potable;
- But thou, most fine, most honour'd: most renown'd,
- Hast eat thy bearer up.' Thus, my most royal liege,
- Accusing it, I put it on my head,
- To try with it, as with an enemy
- That had before my face murder'd my father,
- The quarrel of a true inheritor.
- But if it did infect my blood with joy,
- Or swell my thoughts to any strain of pride;
- If any rebel or vain spirit of mine
- Did with the least affection of a welcome
- Give entertainment to the might of it,
- Let God for ever keep it from my head
- And make me as the poorest vassal is
- That doth with awe and terror kneel to it!
-
- KING HENRY IV O my son,
- God put it in thy mind to take it hence,
- That thou mightst win the more thy father's love,
- Pleading so wisely in excuse of it!
- Come hither, Harry, sit thou by my bed;
- And hear, I think, the very latest counsel
- That ever I shall breathe. God knows, my son,
- By what by-paths and indirect crook'd ways
- I met this crown; and I myself know well
- How troublesome it sat upon my head.
- To thee it shall descend with bitter quiet,
- Better opinion, better confirmation;
- For all the soil of the achievement goes
- With me into the earth. It seem'd in me
- But as an honour snatch'd with boisterous hand,
- And I had many living to upbraid
- My gain of it by their assistances;
- Which daily grew to quarrel and to bloodshed,
- Wounding supposed peace: all these bold fears
- Thou see'st with peril I have answered;
- For all my reign hath been but as a scene
- Acting that argument: and now my death
- Changes the mode; for what in me was purchased,
- Falls upon thee in a more fairer sort;
- So thou the garland wear'st successively.
- Yet, though thou stand'st more sure than I could do,
- Thou art not firm enough, since griefs are green;
- And all my friends, which thou must make thy friends,
- Have but their stings and teeth newly ta'en out;
- By whose fell working I was first advanced
- And by whose power I well might lodge a fear
- To be again displaced: which to avoid,
- I cut them off; and had a purpose now
- To lead out many to the Holy Land,
- Lest rest and lying still might make them look
- Too near unto my state. Therefore, my Harry,
- Be it thy course to busy giddy minds
- With foreign quarrels; that action, hence borne out,
- May waste the memory of the former days.
- More would I, but my lungs are wasted so
- That strength of speech is utterly denied me.
- How I came by the crown, O God forgive;
- And grant it may with thee in true peace live!
-
- PRINCE HENRY My gracious liege,
- You won it, wore it, kept it, gave it me;
- Then plain and right must my possession be:
- Which I with more than with a common pain
- 'Gainst all the world will rightfully maintain.
-
- [Enter Lord John of LANCASTER]
-
- KING HENRY IV Look, look, here comes my John of Lancaster.
-
- LANCASTER Health, peace, and happiness to my royal father!
-
- KING HENRY IV Thou bring'st me happiness and peace, son John;
- But health, alack, with youthful wings is flown
- From this bare wither'd trunk: upon thy sight
- My worldly business makes a period.
- Where is my Lord of Warwick?
-
- PRINCE HENRY My Lord of Warwick!
-
- [Enter WARWICK, and others]
-
- KING HENRY IV Doth any name particular belong
- Unto the lodging where I first did swoon?
-
- WARWICK 'Tis call'd Jerusalem, my noble lord.
-
- KING HENRY IV Laud be to God! even there my life must end.
- It hath been prophesied to me many years,
- I should not die but in Jerusalem;
- Which vainly I supposed the Holy Land:
- But bear me to that chamber; there I'll lie;
- In that Jerusalem shall Harry die.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
-
- ACT V
-
-
-
- SCENE I Gloucestershire. SHALLOW'S house.
-
-
- [Enter SHALLOW, FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH, and Page]
-
- SHALLOW By cock and pie, sir, you shall not away to-night.
- What, Davy, I say!
-
- FALSTAFF You must excuse me, Master Robert Shallow.
-
- SHALLOW I will not excuse you; you shall not be excused;
- excuses shall not be admitted; there is no excuse
- shall serve; you shall not be excused. Why, Davy!
-
- [Enter DAVY]
-
- DAVY Here, sir.
-
- SHALLOW Davy, Davy, Davy, Davy, let me see, Davy; let me
- see, Davy; let me see: yea, marry, William cook,
- bid him come hither. Sir John, you shall not be excused.
-
- DAVY Marry, sir, thus; those precepts cannot be served:
- and, again, sir, shall we sow the headland with wheat?
-
- SHALLOW With red wheat, Davy. But for William cook: are
- there no young pigeons?
-
- DAVY Yes, sir. Here is now the smith's note for shoeing
- and plough-irons.
-
- SHALLOW Let it be cast and paid. Sir John, you shall not be excused.
-
- DAVY Now, sir, a new link to the bucket must need be
- had: and, sir, do you mean to stop any of William's
- wages, about the sack he lost the other day at
- Hinckley fair?
-
- SHALLOW A' shall answer it. Some pigeons, Davy, a couple
- of short-legged hens, a joint of mutton, and any
- pretty little tiny kickshaws, tell William cook.
-
- DAVY Doth the man of war stay all night, sir?
-
- SHALLOW Yea, Davy. I will use him well: a friend i' the
- court is better than a penny in purse. Use his men
- well, Davy; for they are arrant knaves, and will backbite.
-
- DAVY No worse than they are backbitten, sir; for they
- have marvellous foul linen.
-
- SHALLOW Well conceited, Davy: about thy business, Davy.
-
- DAVY I beseech you, sir, to countenance William Visor of
- Woncot against Clement Perkes of the hill.
-
- SHALLOW There is many complaints, Davy, against that Visor:
- that Visor is an arrant knave, on my knowledge.
-
- DAVY I grant your worship that he is a knave, sir; but
- yet, God forbid, sir, but a knave should have some
- countenance at his friend's request. An honest
- man, sir, is able to speak for himself, when a knave
- is not. I have served your worship truly, sir,
- this eight years; and if I cannot once or twice in
- a quarter bear out a knave against an honest man, I
- have but a very little credit with your worship. The
- knave is mine honest friend, sir; therefore, I
- beseech your worship, let him be countenanced.
-
- SHALLOW Go to; I say he shall have no wrong. Look about, Davy.
-
- [Exit DAVY]
-
- Where are you, Sir John? Come, come, come, off
- with your boots. Give me your hand, Master Bardolph.
-
- BARDOLPH I am glad to see your worship.
-
- SHALLOW I thank thee with all my heart, kind
- Master Bardolph: and welcome, my tall fellow.
-
- [To the Page]
-
- Come, Sir John.
-
- FALSTAFF I'll follow you, good Master Robert Shallow.
-
- [Exit SHALLOW]
-
- Bardolph, look to our horses.
-
- [Exeunt BARDOLPH and Page]
-
- If I were sawed into quantities, I should make four
- dozen of such bearded hermits' staves as Master
- Shallow. It is a wonderful thing to see the
- semblable coherence of his men's spirits and his:
- they, by observing of him, do bear themselves like
- foolish justices; he, by conversing with them, is
- turned into a justice-like serving-man: their
- spirits are so married in conjunction with the
- participation of society that they flock together in
- consent, like so many wild-geese. If I had a suit
- to Master Shallow, I would humour his men with the
- imputation of being near their master: if to his
- men, I would curry with Master Shallow that no man
- could better command his servants. It is certain
- that either wise bearing or ignorant carriage is
- caught, as men take diseases, one of another:
- therefore let men take heed of their company. I
- will devise matter enough out of this Shallow to
- keep Prince Harry in continual laughter the wearing
- out of six fashions, which is four terms, or two
- actions, and a' shall laugh without intervallums. O,
- it is much that a lie with a slight oath and a jest
- with a sad brow will do with a fellow that never
- had the ache in his shoulders! O, you shall see him
- laugh till his face be like a wet cloak ill laid up!
-
- SHALLOW [Within] Sir John!
-
- FALSTAFF I come, Master Shallow; I come, Master Shallow.
-
- [Exit]
-
-
-
-
- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
-
- ACT V
-
-
-
- SCENE II Westminster. The palace.
-
-
- [Enter WARWICK and the Lord Chief-Justice, meeting]
-
- WARWICK How now, my lord chief-justice! whither away?
-
- Lord Chief-Justice How doth the king?
-
- WARWICK Exceeding well; his cares are now all ended.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice I hope, not dead.
-
- WARWICK He's walk'd the way of nature;
- And to our purposes he lives no more.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice I would his majesty had call'd me with him:
- The service that I truly did his life
- Hath left me open to all injuries.
-
- WARWICK Indeed I think the young king loves you not.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice I know he doth not, and do arm myself
- To welcome the condition of the time,
- Which cannot look more hideously upon me
- Than I have drawn it in my fantasy.
-
- [Enter LANCASTER, CLARENCE, GLOUCESTER,
- WESTMORELAND, and others]
-
- WARWICK Here come the heavy issue of dead Harry:
- O that the living Harry had the temper
- Of him, the worst of these three gentlemen!
- How many nobles then should hold their places
- That must strike sail to spirits of vile sort!
-
- Lord Chief-Justice O God, I fear all will be overturn'd!
-
- LANCASTER Good morrow, cousin Warwick, good morrow.
-
-
- GLOUCESTER |
- | Good morrow, cousin.
- CLARENCE |
-
-
- LANCASTER We meet like men that had forgot to speak.
-
- WARWICK We do remember; but our argument
- Is all too heavy to admit much talk.
-
- LANCASTER Well, peace be with him that hath made us heavy.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Peace be with us, lest we be heavier!
-
- GLOUCESTER O, good my lord, you have lost a friend indeed;
- And I dare swear you borrow not that face
- Of seeming sorrow, it is sure your own.
-
- LANCASTER Though no man be assured what grace to find,
- You stand in coldest expectation:
- I am the sorrier; would 'twere otherwise.
-
- CLARENCE Well, you must now speak Sir John Falstaff fair;
- Which swims against your stream of quality.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Sweet princes, what I did, I did in honour,
- Led by the impartial conduct of my soul:
- And never shall you see that I will beg
- A ragged and forestall'd remission.
- If truth and upright innocency fail me,
- I'll to the king my master that is dead,
- And tell him who hath sent me after him.
-
- WARWICK Here comes the prince.
-
- [Enter KING HENRY V, attended]
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Good morrow; and God save your majesty!
-
- KING HENRY V This new and gorgeous garment, majesty,
- Sits not so easy on me as you think.
- Brothers, you mix your sadness with some fear:
- This is the English, not the Turkish court;
- Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds,
- But Harry Harry. Yet be sad, good brothers,
- For, by my faith, it very well becomes you:
- Sorrow so royally in you appears
- That I will deeply put the fashion on
- And wear it in my heart: why then, be sad;
- But entertain no more of it, good brothers,
- Than a joint burden laid upon us all.
- For me, by heaven, I bid you be assured,
- I'll be your father and your brother too;
- Let me but bear your love, I 'll bear your cares:
- Yet weep that Harry's dead; and so will I;
- But Harry lives, that shall convert those tears
- By number into hours of happiness.
-
- Princes We hope no other from your majesty.
-
- KING HENRY V You all look strangely on me: and you most;
- You are, I think, assured I love you not.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice I am assured, if I be measured rightly,
- Your majesty hath no just cause to hate me.
-
- KING HENRY V No!
- How might a prince of my great hopes forget
- So great indignities you laid upon me?
- What! rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison
- The immediate heir of England! Was this easy?
- May this be wash'd in Lethe, and forgotten?
-
- Lord Chief-Justice I then did use the person of your father;
- The image of his power lay then in me:
- And, in the administration of his law,
- Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth,
- Your highness pleased to forget my place,
- The majesty and power of law and justice,
- The image of the king whom I presented,
- And struck me in my very seat of judgment;
- Whereon, as an offender to your father,
- I gave bold way to my authority
- And did commit you. If the deed were ill,
- Be you contented, wearing now the garland,
- To have a son set your decrees at nought,
- To pluck down justice from your awful bench,
- To trip the course of law and blunt the sword
- That guards the peace and safety of your person;
- Nay, more, to spurn at your most royal image
- And mock your workings in a second body.
- Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours;
- Be now the father and propose a son,
- Hear your own dignity so much profaned,
- See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted,
- Behold yourself so by a son disdain'd;
- And then imagine me taking your part
- And in your power soft silencing your son:
- After this cold considerance, sentence me;
- And, as you are a king, speak in your state
- What I have done that misbecame my place,
- My person, or my liege's sovereignty.
-
- KING HENRY V You are right, justice, and you weigh this well;
- Therefore still bear the balance and the sword:
- And I do wish your honours may increase,
- Till you do live to see a son of mine
- Offend you and obey you, as I did.
- So shall I live to speak my father's words:
- 'Happy am I, that have a man so bold,
- That dares do justice on my proper son;
- And not less happy, having such a son,
- That would deliver up his greatness so
- Into the hands of justice.' You did commit me:
- For which, I do commit into your hand
- The unstained sword that you have used to bear;
- With this remembrance, that you use the same
- With the like bold, just and impartial spirit
- As you have done 'gainst me. There is my hand.
- You shall be as a father to my youth:
- My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear,
- And I will stoop and humble my intents
- To your well-practised wise directions.
- And, princes all, believe me, I beseech you;
- My father is gone wild into his grave,
- For in his tomb lie my affections;
- And with his spirit sadly I survive,
- To mock the expectation of the world,
- To frustrate prophecies and to raze out
- Rotten opinion, who hath writ me down
- After my seeming. The tide of blood in me
- Hath proudly flow'd in vanity till now:
- Now doth it turn and ebb back to the sea,
- Where it shall mingle with the state of floods
- And flow henceforth in formal majesty.
- Now call we our high court of parliament:
- And let us choose such limbs of noble counsel,
- That the great body of our state may go
- In equal rank with the best govern'd nation;
- That war, or peace, or both at once, may be
- As things acquainted and familiar to us;
- In which you, father, shall have foremost hand.
- Our coronation done, we will accite,
- As I before remember'd, all our state:
- And, God consigning to my good intents,
- No prince nor peer shall have just cause to say,
- God shorten Harry's happy life one day!
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
-
- ACT V
-
-
-
- SCENE III Gloucestershire. SHALLOW'S orchard.
-
-
- [Enter FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, SILENCE, DAVY, BARDOLPH,
- and the Page]
-
- SHALLOW Nay, you shall see my orchard, where, in an arbour,
- we will eat a last year's pippin of my own graffing,
- with a dish of caraways, and so forth: come,
- cousin Silence: and then to bed.
-
- FALSTAFF 'Fore God, you have here a goodly dwelling and a rich.
-
- SHALLOW Barren, barren, barren; beggars all, beggars all,
- Sir John: marry, good air. Spread, Davy; spread,
- Davy; well said, Davy.
-
- FALSTAFF This Davy serves you for good uses; he is your
- serving-man and your husband.
-
- SHALLOW A good varlet, a good varlet, a very good varlet,
- Sir John: by the mass, I have drunk too much sack
- at supper: a good varlet. Now sit down, now sit
- down: come, cousin.
-
- SILENCE Ah, sirrah! quoth-a, we shall
- Do nothing but eat, and make good cheer,
-
- [Singing]
-
- And praise God for the merry year;
- When flesh is cheap and females dear,
- And lusty lads roam here and there
- So merrily,
- And ever among so merrily.
-
- FALSTAFF There's a merry heart! Good Master Silence, I'll
- give you a health for that anon.
-
- SHALLOW Give Master Bardolph some wine, Davy.
-
- DAVY Sweet sir, sit; I'll be with you anon. most sweet
- sir, sit. Master page, good master page, sit.
- Proface! What you want in meat, we'll have in drink:
- but you must bear; the heart's all.
-
- [Exit]
-
- SHALLOW Be merry, Master Bardolph; and, my little soldier
- there, be merry.
-
- SILENCE Be merry, be merry, my wife has all;
-
- [Singing]
-
- For women are shrews, both short and tall:
- 'Tis merry in hall when beards wag all,
- And welcome merry Shrove-tide.
- Be merry, be merry.
-
- FALSTAFF I did not think Master Silence had been a man of
- this mettle.
-
- SILENCE Who, I? I have been merry twice and once ere now.
-
- [Re-enter DAVY]
-
- DAVY There's a dish of leather-coats for you.
-
- [To BARDOLPH]
-
- SHALLOW Davy!
-
- DAVY Your worship! I'll be with you straight.
-
- [To BARDOLPH]
-
- A cup of wine, sir?
-
- SILENCE A cup of wine that's brisk and fine,
-
- [Singing]
-
- And drink unto the leman mine;
- And a merry heart lives long-a.
-
- FALSTAFF Well said, Master Silence.
-
- SILENCE An we shall be merry, now comes in the sweet o' the night.
-
- FALSTAFF Health and long life to you, Master Silence.
-
- SILENCE Fill the cup, and let it come;
-
- [Singing]
-
- I'll pledge you a mile to the bottom.
-
- SHALLOW Honest Bardolph, welcome: if thou wantest any
- thing, and wilt not call, beshrew thy heart.
- Welcome, my little tiny thief.
-
- [To the Page]
-
- And welcome indeed too. I'll drink to Master
- Bardolph, and to all the cavaleros about London.
-
- DAVY I hove to see London once ere I die.
-
- BARDOLPH An I might see you there, Davy,--
-
- SHALLOW By the mass, you'll crack a quart together, ha!
- Will you not, Master Bardolph?
-
- BARDOLPH Yea, sir, in a pottle-pot.
-
- SHALLOW By God's liggens, I thank thee: the knave will
- stick by thee, I can assure thee that. A' will not
- out; he is true bred.
-
- BARDOLPH And I'll stick by him, sir.
-
- SHALLOW Why, there spoke a king. Lack nothing: be merry.
-
- [Knocking within]
-
- Look who's at door there, ho! who knocks?
-
- [Exit DAVY]
-
- FALSTAFF Why, now you have done me right.
-
- [To SILENCE, seeing him take off a bumper]
-
- SILENCE [Singing]
-
- Do me right,
- And dub me knight: Samingo.
- Is't not so?
-
- FALSTAFF 'Tis so.
-
- SILENCE Is't so? Why then, say an old man can do somewhat.
-
- [Re-enter DAVY]
-
- DAVY An't please your worship, there's one Pistol come
- from the court with news.
-
- FALSTAFF From the court! let him come in.
-
- [Enter PISTOL]
-
- How now, Pistol!
-
- PISTOL Sir John, God save you!
-
- FALSTAFF What wind blew you hither, Pistol?
-
- PISTOL Not the ill wind which blows no man to good. Sweet
- knight, thou art now one of the greatest men in this realm.
-
- SILENCE By'r lady, I think a' be, but goodman Puff of Barson.
-
- PISTOL Puff!
- Puff in thy teeth, most recreant coward base!
- Sir John, I am thy Pistol and thy friend,
- And helter-skelter have I rode to thee,
- And tidings do I bring and lucky joys
- And golden times and happy news of price.
-
- FALSTAFF I pray thee now, deliver them like a man of this world.
-
- PISTOL A foutre for the world and worldlings base!
- I speak of Africa and golden joys.
-
- FALSTAFF O base Assyrian knight, what is thy news?
- Let King Cophetua know the truth thereof.
-
- SILENCE And Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John.
-
- [Singing]
-
- PISTOL Shall dunghill curs confront the Helicons?
- And shall good news be baffled?
- Then, Pistol, lay thy head in Furies' lap.
-
- SILENCE Honest gentleman, I know not your breeding.
-
- PISTOL Why then, lament therefore.
-
- SHALLOW Give me pardon, sir: if, sir, you come with news
- from the court, I take it there's but two ways,
- either to utter them, or to conceal them. I am,
- sir, under the king, in some authority.
-
- PISTOL Under which king, Besonian? speak, or die.
-
- SHALLOW Under King Harry.
-
- PISTOL Harry the Fourth? or Fifth?
-
- SHALLOW Harry the Fourth.
-
- PISTOL A foutre for thine office!
- Sir John, thy tender lambkin now is king;
- Harry the Fifth's the man. I speak the truth:
- When Pistol lies, do this; and fig me, like
- The bragging Spaniard.
-
- FALSTAFF What, is the old king dead?
-
- PISTOL As nail in door: the things I speak are just.
-
- FALSTAFF Away, Bardolph! saddle my horse. Master Robert
- Shallow, choose what office thou wilt in the land,
- 'tis thine. Pistol, I will double-charge thee with dignities.
-
- BARDOLPH O joyful day!
- I would not take a knighthood for my fortune.
-
- PISTOL What! I do bring good news.
-
- FALSTAFF Carry Master Silence to bed. Master Shallow, my
- Lord Shallow,--be what thou wilt; I am fortune's
- steward--get on thy boots: we'll ride all night.
- O sweet Pistol! Away, Bardolph!
-
- [Exit BARDOLPH]
-
- Come, Pistol, utter more to me; and withal devise
- something to do thyself good. Boot, boot, Master
- Shallow: I know the young king is sick for me. Let
- us take any man's horses; the laws of England are at
- my commandment. Blessed are they that have been my
- friends; and woe to my lord chief-justice!
-
- PISTOL Let vultures vile seize on his lungs also!
- 'Where is the life that late I led?' say they:
- Why, here it is; welcome these pleasant days!
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
-
- ACT V
-
-
-
- SCENE IV London. A street.
-
-
- [Enter Beadles, dragging in HOSTESS QUICKLY
- and DOLL TEARSHEET]
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY No, thou arrant knave; I would to God that I might
- die, that I might have thee hanged: thou hast
- drawn my shoulder out of joint.
-
- First Beadle The constables have delivered her over to me; and
- she shall have whipping-cheer enough, I warrant
- her: there hath been a man or two lately killed about her.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET Nut-hook, nut-hook, you lie. Come on; I 'll tell
- thee what, thou damned tripe-visaged rascal, an
- the child I now go with do miscarry, thou wert
- better thou hadst struck thy mother, thou
- paper-faced villain.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY O the Lord, that Sir John were come! he would make
- this a bloody day to somebody. But I pray God the
- fruit of her womb miscarry!
-
- First Beadle If it do, you shall have a dozen of cushions again;
- you have but eleven now. Come, I charge you both go
- with me; for the man is dead that you and Pistol
- beat amongst you.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET I'll tell you what, you thin man in a censer, I
- will have you as soundly swinged for this,--you
- blue-bottle rogue, you filthy famished correctioner,
- if you be not swinged, I'll forswear half-kirtles.
-
- First Beadle Come, come, you she knight-errant, come.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY O God, that right should thus overcome might!
- Well, of sufferance comes ease.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET Come, you rogue, come; bring me to a justice.
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Ay, come, you starved blood-hound.
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET Goodman death, goodman bones!
-
- MISTRESS QUICKLY Thou atomy, thou!
-
- DOLL TEARSHEET Come, you thin thing; come you rascal.
-
- First Beadle Very well.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
-
- ACT V
-
-
-
- SCENE V A public place near Westminster Abbey.
-
-
- [Enter two Grooms, strewing rushes]
-
- First Groom More rushes, more rushes.
-
- Second Groom The trumpets have sounded twice.
-
- First Groom 'Twill be two o'clock ere they come from the
- coronation: dispatch, dispatch.
-
- [Exeunt]
-
- [Enter FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, PISTOL,
- BARDOLPH, and Page]
-
- FALSTAFF Stand here by me, Master Robert Shallow; I will
- make the king do you grace: I will leer upon him as
- a' comes by; and do but mark the countenance that he
- will give me.
-
- PISTOL God bless thy lungs, good knight.
-
- FALSTAFF Come here, Pistol; stand behind me. O, if I had had
- time to have made new liveries, I would have
- bestowed the thousand pound I borrowed of you. But
- 'tis no matter; this poor show doth better: this
- doth infer the zeal I had to see him.
-
- SHALLOW It doth so.
-
- FALSTAFF It shows my earnestness of affection,--
-
- SHALLOW It doth so.
-
- FALSTAFF My devotion,--
-
- SHALLOW It doth, it doth, it doth.
-
- FALSTAFF As it were, to ride day and night; and not to
- deliberate, not to remember, not to have patience
- to shift me,--
-
- SHALLOW It is best, certain.
-
- FALSTAFF But to stand stained with travel, and sweating with
- desire to see him; thinking of nothing else,
- putting all affairs else in oblivion, as if there
- were nothing else to be done but to see him.
-
- PISTOL 'Tis 'semper idem,' for 'obsque hoc nihil est:'
- 'tis all in every part.
-
- SHALLOW 'Tis so, indeed.
-
- PISTOL My knight, I will inflame thy noble liver,
- And make thee rage.
- Thy Doll, and Helen of thy noble thoughts,
- Is in base durance and contagious prison;
- Haled thither
- By most mechanical and dirty hand:
- Rouse up revenge from ebon den with fell
- Alecto's snake,
- For Doll is in. Pistol speaks nought but truth.
-
- FALSTAFF I will deliver her.
-
- [Shouts within, and the trumpets sound]
-
- PISTOL There roar'd the sea, and trumpet-clangor sounds.
-
- [Enter KING HENRY V and his train, the Lord Chief-
- Justice among them]
-
- FALSTAFF God save thy grace, King Hal! my royal Hal!
-
- PISTOL The heavens thee guard and keep, most royal imp of fame!
-
- FALSTAFF God save thee, my sweet boy!
-
- KING HENRY IV My lord chief-justice, speak to that vain man.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Have you your wits? know you what 'tis to speak?
-
- FALSTAFF My king! my Jove! I speak to thee, my heart!
-
- KING HENRY IV I know thee not, old man: fall to thy prayers;
- How ill white hairs become a fool and jester!
- I have long dream'd of such a kind of man,
- So surfeit-swell'd, so old and so profane;
- But, being awaked, I do despise my dream.
- Make less thy body hence, and more thy grace;
- Leave gormandizing; know the grave doth gape
- For thee thrice wider than for other men.
- Reply not to me with a fool-born jest:
- Presume not that I am the thing I was;
- For God doth know, so shall the world perceive,
- That I have turn'd away my former self;
- So will I those that kept me company.
- When thou dost hear I am as I have been,
- Approach me, and thou shalt be as thou wast,
- The tutor and the feeder of my riots:
- Till then, I banish thee, on pain of death,
- As I have done the rest of my misleaders,
- Not to come near our person by ten mile.
- For competence of life I will allow you,
- That lack of means enforce you not to evil:
- And, as we hear you do reform yourselves,
- We will, according to your strengths and qualities,
- Give you advancement. Be it your charge, my lord,
- To see perform'd the tenor of our word. Set on.
-
- [Exeunt KING HENRY V, &c]
-
- FALSTAFF Master Shallow, I owe you a thousand pound.
-
- SHALLOW Yea, marry, Sir John; which I beseech you to let me
- have home with me.
-
- FALSTAFF That can hardly be, Master Shallow. Do not you
- grieve at this; I shall be sent for in private to
- him: look you, he must seem thus to the world:
- fear not your advancements; I will be the man yet
- that shall make you great.
-
- SHALLOW I cannot well perceive how, unless you should give
- me your doublet and stuff me out with straw. I
- beseech you, good Sir John, let me have five hundred
- of my thousand.
-
- FALSTAFF Sir, I will be as good as my word: this that you
- heard was but a colour.
-
- SHALLOW A colour that I fear you will die in, Sir John.
-
- FALSTAFF Fear no colours: go with me to dinner: come,
- Lieutenant Pistol; come, Bardolph: I shall be sent
- for soon at night.
-
- [Re-enter Prince John of LANCASTER, the Lord
- Chief-Justice; Officers with them]
-
- Lord Chief-Justice Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the Fleet:
- Take all his company along with him.
-
- FALSTAFF My lord, my lord,--
-
- Lord Chief-Justice I cannot now speak: I will hear you soon.
- Take them away.
-
- PISTOL Si fortune me tormenta, spero contenta.
-
- [Exeunt all but PRINCE JOHN and the Lord
- Chief-Justice]
-
- LANCASTER I like this fair proceeding of the king's:
- He hath intent his wonted followers
- Shall all be very well provided for;
- But all are banish'd till their conversations
- Appear more wise and modest to the world.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice And so they are.
-
- LANCASTER The king hath call'd his parliament, my lord.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice He hath.
-
- LANCASTER I will lay odds that, ere this year expire,
- We bear our civil swords and native fire
- As far as France: I beard a bird so sing,
- Whose music, to my thinking, pleased the king.
- Come, will you hence?
-
- [Exeunt]
-
-
-
-
- 2 KING HENRY IV
-
- EPILOGUE
-
-
- [Spoken by a Dancer]
-
- First my fear; then my courtesy; last my speech.
- My fear is, your displeasure; my courtesy, my duty;
- and my speech, to beg your pardons. If you look
- for a good speech now, you undo me: for what I have
- to say is of mine own making; and what indeed I
- should say will, I doubt, prove mine own marring.
- But to the purpose, and so to the venture. Be it
- known to you, as it is very well, I was lately here
- in the end of a displeasing play, to pray your
- patience for it and to promise you a better. I
- meant indeed to pay you with this; which, if like an
- ill venture it come unluckily home, I break, and
- you, my gentle creditors, lose. Here I promised you
- I would be and here I commit my body to your
- mercies: bate me some and I will pay you some and,
- as most debtors do, promise you infinitely.
-
- If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me, will
- you command me to use my legs? and yet that were but
- light payment, to dance out of your debt. But a
- good conscience will make any possible satisfaction,
- and so would I. All the gentlewomen here have
- forgiven me: if the gentlemen will not, then the
- gentlemen do not agree with the gentlewomen, which
- was never seen before in such an assembly.
-
- One word more, I beseech you. If you be not too
- much cloyed with fat meat, our humble author will
- continue the story, with Sir John in it, and make
- you merry with fair Katharine of France: where, for
- any thing I know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat,
- unless already a' be killed with your hard
- opinions; for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is
- not the man. My tongue is weary; when my legs are
- too, I will bid you good night: and so kneel down
- before you; but, indeed, to pray for the queen.
-