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Enter PERCY, with the BISHOP OF CARLISLE.

Percy. The grand conspirator, abbot of Westminster,
With clog of conscience and sour melancholy,
Hath yielded up his body to the grave;
But here is Carlisle living, to abide

Thy kingly doom and sentence of his pride.
Boling. Carlisle, this is your doom :-

Choose out some secret place, some reverend room,
More than thou hast, and with it joy thy life;
So, as thou liv'st in peace, die free from strife:
For though mine enemy thou hast ever been,
High sparks of honor in thee have I seen.

Enter EXTON, with Attendants bearing a coffin.
Exton. Great king, within this coffin I present
Thy buried fear: herein all breathless lies

The mightiest of thy greatest enemies,

Richard of Bourdeaux, by me hither brought.

Boling. Exton, I thank thee not; for thou has wrought A deed of slander, with thy fatal hand,

Upon my head, and all this famous land.

Exton. From your own mouth, my lord, did I this deed.
Boling. They love not poison that do poison need,
Nor do I thee: though I did wish him dead,

I hate the murderer, love him murderèd.

The guilt of conscience take thou for thy labor,
But neither my good word, nor princely favor:
With Cain go wander through the shade of night,
And never show thy head by day nor night.-
Lords, I protest, my soul is full of woe,

That blood should sprinkle me to make me grow:
Come, mourn with me for that I do lament,
And put on sullen black incontinent:

I'll make a voyage to the Holy Land,

To wash this blood off from my guilty hand:-
March sadly after; grace my mournings here,
In weeping after this untimely bier.

[Exeunt.

THE HISTORY OF

KING HENRY IV.

PART I.

SHAKSPEARE seems to have designed that the whole series of action, from the beginning of Richard II. to the end of Henry V. should be considered as one work upon one plan, only broken into parts by the necessity of exhibition. In following out this design, the Poet has drawn largely from "The Chronicles" for his strictly historical characters and incidents; thus exhibiting the men and deeds of the times vividly and impressively, and presenting to the student of History the "truest conceptions of England's feudal ages." In this play Shakspeare has introduced a group of imaginary characters, who, although not strictly historical, are yet faithful types of certain phases of society in the period represented. These fictitious personages are made to surround the young and dissolute Prince Henry, and, with their rich comic humor, serve to make the two parts of Henry IV. the most attractive of the whole historical series. Foremost in this imaginary creation looms the unapproachable Falstaff, a character so rich in humor and so lifelike in its embodiment, that we feel it impossible not to conceive him to be as strictly historical in his delineation as Henry IV. himself. In our necessary revision of the humors of the fat knight, we have endeavored in all earnestness not to divest him of his inimitable characteristics.

The transactions contained in this Historical Drama are comprised within the period of about ten months, for the action commences with the battle of Halidown Hill, or Holmedon, which was fought on Holy-rood day (the 14th of September), 1402, and it closes with the defeat and death of Hotspur, at Shrewsbury, which engagement happened on Saturday, the 21st July, 1403.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

KING HENRY THE FOURTH.

HENRY, Prince of Wales,

PRINCE JOHN OF LANCASTER,

Sons to the King.

RALPH NEVILLE, Earl of Westmoreland.

Sir WALTER Blunt.

THOMAS PERCY, Earl of Worcester.

HENRY PERCY, Earl of Northumberland.
HENRY PERCY, surnamed HOTSPUR, his Son.
EDMUND MORTIMER, Earl of March.
SCROOP, Archbishop of York.

ARCHIBALD, Earl of Douglas.
OWEN GLENDOWER.

Sir RICHARD VERNON.

Sir JOHN FALSTAFF.

Sir MICHAEL, a Friend of the Archbishop of York.

POINS.

GADSHILL.
PETO.

BARDOLPH

LADY PERCY, Wife to Hotspur, and Sister to Mortimer.

LADY MORTIMER, Daughter to Glendower, and Wife to Mortimer.
Mistress QUICKLY, Hostess of the Boar's Head Tavern in Eastcheap.
Lords, Officers, Sheriff, Vintner, Chamberlain, Drawers, Carriers, Travellers,
and Attendants.

SCENE,-ENGLAND.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-London. A Room in the Palace.

Enter KING HENRY, WESTMORELAND, Sir Walter Blunt, and others.

K. Hen. So shaken as we are, so wan with care,
Find we a time for frighted peace to pant,

And breathe short-winded accents of new broils
To be commenc'd in strands afar remote.

No more the thirsty entrance of this soil

Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood;
No more shall trenching war channel her fields,
Nor bruise her flow'rets with the armèd hoofs
Of hostile paces: those opposèd eyes,

Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,
All of one nature, of one substance bred,
Did lately meet in the intestine shock
And furious close of civil butchery,
Shall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks,
March all one way, and be no more oppos'd
Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies:
The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife,
No more shall cut his master. Therefore, friends,
As far as to the sepulchre of Christ,

Forthwith a power of English shall we levy;
To chase these pagans, in those holy fields,

Over whose acres walk'd those blessed feet,
Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nail'd
For our advantage on the bitter cross.
Then, let me hear

Of you, my gentle cousin Westmoreland,
What yesternight our council did decree,
In forwarding this dear expedience.

West. My liege, this haste was hot in question,
And many limits of the charge set down
But yesternight: when, all ath wart, there came
A post from Wales loaden with heavy news;
Whose worst was, that the noble Mortimer,
Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight
Against the irregular and wild Glendower,
Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken,
A thousand of his people butchered.

K. Hen. It seems, then, that the tidings of this broil
Brake off our business for the Holy Land.

West. This, match'd with other, did, my gracious lord;

For more uneven and unwelcome news

Came from the north, and thus it did import:
On Holy-rood day, the gallant Hotspur there,
Young Harry Percy, and brave Archibald,
That ever-valiant and approved Scot,
At Holmedon met,

Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour;
As by discharge of their artillery,

And shape of likelihood, the news was told;
For he that brought them, in the very heat
And pride of their contention did take horse,
Uncertain of the issue any way.

K. Hen. Here is a dear, and true-industrious friend,
Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse,
Stain'd with the variation of each soil

Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours;

And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news.
The earl of Douglas is discomfited:

Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights,
Balk'd in their own blood, did Sir Walter see

On Holmedon's plains: of prisoners, Hotspur took
Mordake earl of Fife, and eldest son

To beaten Douglas, and the earls of Athol,

Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith:

And is not this an honorable spoil?

A gallant prize? ha, cousin, is it not?

West. In faith,

It is a conquest for a prince to boast of.

K. Hen. Yea, there thou mak'st me sad, and mak'st me sin

In envy that my lord Northumberland
Should be the father to so blest a son,-
A son who is the theme of honor's tongue;
Amongst a grove, the very straightest plant;
Who is sweet Fortune's minion, and her pride:
Whilst I, by looking on the praise of him,
See riot and dishonor stain the brow

Of my young Harry. O that it could be prov'd,
That some night-tripping fairy had exchang'd
In cradle-clothes our children where they lay,
And call'd mine Percy, his Plantagenet!
Then would I have his Harry, and he mine:
But let him from our thoughts.-What think you, coz,
Of this young Percy's pride? the prisoners,
Which he in this adventure hath surpris'd,

To his own use he keeps; and sends me word,
I shall have none but Mordake earl of Fife.

West. This is his uncle's teaching, this is Worcester,
Malevolent to you in all aspects;

Which makes him prune himself, and bristle up
The crest of youth against your dignity.

K. Hen. But I have sent for him to answer this;
And for this cause awhile we must neglect

Our holy purpose to Jerusalem.

Cousin, on Wednesday next our council we
Will hold at Windsor; so inform the lords:
But come yourself with speed to us again;
For more is to be said, and to be done,
Than out of anger can be uttered.

West. I will, my liege.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-London. Another Room in the Palace.

Enter PRINCE HENRY and FALSTAFF.

Fal. Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?

P. Hen. Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack, and unbuttoning thee after supper, and sleeping upon benches after noon, that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly, which thou wouldst truly know. What hast thou to do with the time of the day? unless hours were cups of sack, and minutes capons, I see no reason why thou should'st be so superfluous to demand the time of the day.

Fal. Indeed, you come near me now, Hall; for we that take purses, go by the moon and the seven stars, and not by Phœbus, -he, "that wandering knight so fair." And, I pr'ythee, sweet wag, when thou art king,-as, heaven save thy grace, (majesty, I should say, for grace thou wilt have none,)—

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