man, I dare: but, as thou art prince, I fear thee, Fal. O, I do not like that paying back, 'tis a as I fear the roaring of the lion's whelp. double labor. P. Hen. And why not, as the lion ? P. Hen. I am good friends with my father, and Fal. The king himself is to be feared as the lion: may do any thing. Dost thou think, I'll fear thee as I fear thy father? Fal. Rob me the exchequer the first thing thou nay, an I do, I pray God, my girdle break! doest, and do it with unwashed hands too. P. Hen. O, if it should, how would thy guts fall Bard. Do, my lord. about thy knees! But, sirrah, there's no room for P. Hen. I have procured thee, Jack, a charge faith, truth, nor honesty, in this bosom of thine: it of foot. is filled up with guts, and midriff. Charge an Fal. I would, it had been of horse. Where shall honest woman with picking thy pocket! Why, thou I find one that can steal well? O for a fine thief, whoreson, impudent, embossed' rascal, if there of the age of two-and-twenty, or thereabouts! I am were any thing in thy pocket but tavern-reckonings, heinously unprovided. Well, God be thanked for memorandums of bawdy-houses, and one poor these rebels, they offend none but the virtuous; I penny-worth of sugar candy to make thee long laud them, I praise them. winded; if thy pocket were enriched with any other P. Hen. Bardolphinjuries but these, I am a villain. And yet you Bard. My lord. will stand to it; you will not pocket up wrong: P. Hen. Go bear this letter to lord John of LanArt thou not ashamed? caster, Fal. Dost thou hear, Hal? thou knowest, in the My brother John; this to my lord of Westmorestate of innocency, Adam fell; and what should land, poor Jack Falstaff do, in the days of villany? Go, Poins, to horse, to horse; for thou, and I, Thou seest, I have more flesh than another man; Have thirty miles to ride yet ere dinner time.and therefore more frailty. You confess then, Jack, you picked my pocket? Meet me to-morrow i'the Temple-hall P. Hen. It appears so by the story. At two o'clock i'the afternoon: Fal. Hostess, I forgive thee: Go, make ready There shalt thou know thy charge;and there receive breakfast ; love thy husband, look to thy servants, Money, and order for their furniture. cherish thy guests: thou shalt find me tractable to The land is burning ; Percy stands on high; any honest reason: thou seest, I am pacified. And either they, or we, must lower lie. Still?--Nay, pr’ythee, begone. [Exit Hostess.] [Exeunt Prince, Poins, and BARDOLPH. Now, Hal, to the news at court: for the robbery, Fal. Rare words! brave world ! -Hostess, my Jad.--How is that answered ? breakfast; come : P. Hen. O, my sweet beef, I must still be good 0, I could wish, this tavern were my drum. angel to thee:- The money is paid back again. [Exit. ACT IV. SCENE I.— The Rebel Camp near Shrewsbury. Mess. He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth; And at the time of my departure thence, Enter Hotspur, WORCESTER, and Douglas. He was much fear'd by his physicians. Hot. Well said, my noble Scot: If speaking Wor. I would, the state of time had first been truth, whole, In this fine age, were not thought flattery, Ere he by sickness had been visited; Such attribution should the Douglas have, His health was never better worth than now. As not a soldier of this season's stamp Hot. Sick now! droop now! this sickness doth Should go so general current through the world. infect By heaven, I cannot flatter; I defy The very life-blood of our enterprize; The tongues of soothers; but a braver place "Tis catching hither, even to our camp:-In my heart's love, hath no man than yourself: He writes me here,—that inward sickness Nay, task me to the word; approve me, lord. And that his friends by deputation could not Doug. Thou art the king of honor: So soon be drawn; nor did he think it meet, No man so potent breathes upon the ground, To lay so dangerous and dear a trust On any soul reinov'd, but on his own. Yet doth he give us bold advertisement - For, as he writes, there is no quailingo now; you. Mess. These letters come from your father, Because the king is certainly possess'd Hot. Letters from him! why comes he not him. Of all our purposes. What say you to it? self? Wor. Your father's sickness is a maim to us. Mess. He cannot come, my lord; he's gricvous Hot. A perilous gash, a very limb lopp'd off:sick. And yet, in faith, 'tis not: his present want Hot. Zounds! how has he the leisure to be sick, Seems more than we shall find it:- Were it good, In such a justling time! Who leads his power ? To set the exact wealth of all our states Under whose government come they along? All at one cast ? to set so rich a main Mess. His letters bear his mind, not I, my lord. On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour? Wor. I pr’ythee, tell me, doth he keep his bed? It were not good: for therein should we read 1 Ewoln, pusly. The very bottom and the soul of hope; ? This expression is applied by way of pre-eminence to the head of the Douglas family. 3 Languishing. The very list," the very utmost bound This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come; Of all our fortunes. They come like sacrifices in their trim, Doug. Faith, and so we should; And to the fire-eyed maid of smoky war, All hot, and bleeding, will we offer them: Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire, To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh, Hot. A rendezvous, a home to fly unto, And yet not ours :-Come, let me take my horse, If that the devil and mischance look big Who is to bear me like a thunderbolt, Upon the maidenhead of our affairs. Against the bosom of the prince of Wales : Wor. But yet, I would your father had been Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse, here, Meet, and ne'er part, till one drop down a corseThe quality and hair of our attempt 0, that Glendower were come! Brooks no division: It will be thought Ver. There is more news: By some, that know not why he is away, I learn'd in Worcester as I rode along, That wisdom, loyalty, and mere dislike He cannot draw his power this fourteen days. Of our proceedings, kept the earl from hence; Doug. That's the worst tidings that I hear of yet. And think, how such an apprehension Wor. Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound. May turn the tide of fearful faction, Hot. What may the king's whole battle reach And breed a kind of question in our cause: unto ? For well you know, we of the offering side Ver. To thirty thousand. Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement; Hot. Forty let it be ; The powers of us may serve so great a day. Doomsday is near; die all, die merrily. Doug. 'Talk not of dying; I am out of fear Of death, or death's hand, for this one half year. I, rather, of his absence make this use; [Exeunt. It lends a lustre, and more great opinion, SCENE II.--A public Road near Coventry. A larger dare to our great enterprize, Than if the earl were here: for men must think, Enter Falstaff and BARDOLPH. If we, without his help, can make a head Fal. Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry; fill To push against the kingdom; with his help, me a bottle of sack: our soldiers shall march We shall o'erturn it, topsy-turvy down. through ; we'll to Sutton-Colfield to-night. Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole. Bard. Will you give me money, captain? Doug. As heart can think: there is not such a Fal. Lay out, lay out. word Bard. This bottle makes an angel. Spoke of in Scotland, as this term of fear. Fal. An if it do, take it for thy labor; and if it Enter Sir RICHARD VERnox. make twenty, take them all, I'll answer the coinage. Hot. My cousin Vernon! welcome, by my soul. Bid my lieutenant Peto meet me at the town's end. Bard. I will, captain: farewell. [Erit. Ver. Pray God, my news be worth a welcome, Fal. If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am lord. The earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong, damnably. I have got in exchange of a hundred a souced gurnet. I have misused the king's press Is marching hitherwards; with him, prince John. and fifty soldiers, three hundred and odd pounds. Hot. No harm : what more? I press me none but good householders, yeomen's The king himself in person is set forth, sons, inquire me out contracted bachelors, such as had been asked twice on the bans; such a comOr hitherwards intended speedily, modity of warm slaves, as had as lief hear the devil With strong and mighty preparation. as a drum; such as fear the report of a caliver Hot. IIe shall be welcome, too. Where is his son, worse than a struck fowl, or a hurt wild-duck. I The nimble-footed madcap prince of Wales, And his comrades that daft'd the world aside, pressed me none but such toasts and butter, with hearts in their bellies no bigger than pins' heads, And bid it pass? l'er. All furnish'd, all in arms, and they have bought out their services; and now my whole charge consists of ancients, corporals, All plum'd like estridges' that wing the wind; lieutenants, gentlemen of companies, slaves as rag. Bated" like eagles having lately bath'd; ged as Lazarus in the painted cloth, where the Glittering in golden coats, like images; glutton's dogs licked his sores: and such as, inAs full of spirit as the month of May, deed, were never soldiers, but discarded, unjust And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer; Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls. serving-men, younger sons to younger brothers, re volted tapsters, and ostlers trade-fallen; the cankers I saw young Harry,-with his beaver on, of a calm world, and a long peace; ten times more His cuisses" on his thighs, gallantly arm’d, Rise from the ground like feather'd Mercury, dishonorably ragged than an old-faced ancient: and such have I to fill up the rooms of them that And vaulted with such ease into his seat, have bought out their services, that you would think, As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds, that I had a hundred and fifty tattered prodigals, To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus, lately come from swine-keeping, from eating draft And witch the world with noble horsemanship. Hot. No more, no more; worse than the sun in and told me I had unloaded all the gibbets, and and husks. A mad fellow met me on the way, March, pressed the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such * Limit, boundary. 5 The complexion, the character. & Threw contemptuously. scare-crows. I'll not march through Coventry with » Armor for the thighs. 2 Standard. 1 Ostriches. & Fresh. 1 Musket. them, that's flat:-Nay, and the villains march Ver. Come, come, it may not be. wide betwixt the legs, as if they had gyves: on; I wonder much, being men of such great leading,' for, indeed, I had the most of them out of prison. That you foresce not what impediments There's but a shirt and a half in all my company: Drag back our expedition : Certain horse and the half shirt is two napkins tacked together, of my cousin Vernon's are not yet come up: and thrown over the shoulders like a herald's coat Your uncle Worcester's horse came but to-day; without sleeves; and the shirt, to say the truth, And now their pride and mettle is asleep, stolen from my host at Saint Alban's, or the red Their courage with hard labor tame and dull, nose inn-keeper of Daintry. But that's all one; That not a horse is half the half himself. they'll find linen enough on every hedge. Hot. So are the horses of the enemy, Enter PRINCE HENRY and WESTMORELAND. In general journey-bated and brought low; The better part of ours is full of rest. P. Hen. How now, blown Jack? how now, Wor. The number of the king exceedeth ours: quilt ? For God's sake, cousin, stay till all come in. Fal. What, Hal? How now.pnad wag? what a [The Trumpet sounds a parley. devil dost thou in Warwickshire !-My good lord of Westmoreland, I cry you mercy; I thought your Enter Sir Walter Blunt. honor had already been at Shrewsbury. Blunt. I come with gracious offers from the king, West. 'Faith, sir John, 'tis more than time that If you vouchsafe me hearing, and respect, I were there, and you too; but my powers are there Hot. Welcome, sir Walter Blunt; And 'would already: The king, I can tell you, looks for us all: to God, we must away all night. You were of our determination! Ful. Tut, never fear me; I am as vigilant as a Some of us love you well: and even those some cat to steal cream. Envy your great deserving, and good name; P. Hen. I think to steal cream, indeed; for thy Because you are not of our quality, theft hath already made thee butter. But, tell me, But stand against us like an enemy. Jack; Whose fellows are these that come after ? Blunt. And God defend but still I should stand so, Fal. Mine, Hal, mine. So long as, out of limit, and true rule, P. Hen. I did never see such pitiful rascals. You stand against anointed majesty! Fal. Tat, tut; good enough to toss; food for But to my charge.--The king hath sent to know powder, food for powder; they'll fill a pit, as well The nature of your griefs;' and whereupon as better: tush, man, mortal men, mortal men. You conjure froin the breast of civil peace West. Ay, but sir John, methinks they are ex Such bold hostility, teaching this duteous land ceeding poor and bare; too beggarly. Audacious cruelty: If that the king Fal. "Faith, for their poverty, -I know not Have any way your good deserts forgot, where they had that: and for their bareness, I which he confesseth to be manifold, am sure they never learned that of me. He bids you name your griefs; and, with all speed, P. Hen. No, I'll be sworn; unless you call three You shall have your desires, with interest; fingers on the ribs bare. But, sirrah, make haste; And pardon absolute for yourself, and these, Perey is already in the field. Herein misled by your suggestion. Fål. What, is the king encamped ? Hot. The king is kind; and, well we know, the West. He is, sir John; I fear we shall stay too king long. Knows at what time to promise, when to pay. Fal. Well, My father, and my uncle, and myself, To the latter end of a fray, and the beginning of a Did give him that same royalty he wears: feast, And, when he was not six-and-twenty strong, Fits a dull fighter, and a keen guest. [Exeunt. Sick in the world's regard, wretched and low, SCENE III.— The Rebel Camp near Shrewsbury. A poor unminded outlaw sneaking home, My father gave him welcome to the shore: Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Douglas, and And,—when he heard him swear, and vow to Verxox. God, Hot. We'll fight with him to-night. He came but to be duke of Lancaster, Wor. It may not be. To sue his livery,' and beg his peace; Doug. You give him then advantage. With tears of innocency, and terms of zeal, Not a whit. My father, in kind heart and pity mov'd, Hot. Why say you so ? looks he not for supply? Swore him assistance, and perform'd it too. Ver. So do we. Now, when the lords and barons of the realm Hot. His is certain, ours is doubtful. Perceiv'd Northumberland did lean to him, Wor. Good cousin, be advis’d; stir not to-night. The more and less" came in with cap and knee; Ver. Do not, my lord. Met him in boroughs, cities, villages; Doug You do not counsel well; Attended him on bridges, stood in lanes, You speak it out of fear and cold heart. Laid gifts before him, proffered him their oaths, Ver. Do me no slander, Douglas: by my life, Gave him their heirs; as pages followed him, (And I dare well maintain it with my life,) Even at the heels, in golden multitudes. If well respected honor bid me on, He presently, ,--as greatness knows itself, I hold as little counsel with weak fear, Steps me a little higher than his vow As you, my lord, or any Scot that lives : Made to my father, while his blood was poor Let it be seen to-morrow in the battle, Upon the naked shore at Ravenspurg; And now, forsooth, takes on him to reform Some certain edicts, and some strait decrees, Content. That lie too heavy on the coinmonwealth: Hot. To-night, say I. Conduct, experience. • Fellowship · Fetters. • Daventry, pronounced Daintry. The delivery of his lands. The greater and the less. Ver. Ver. + Grievances do. Cries out upon abuses, seems to weep To whom they are directed: if you knew Over his country's wrongs; and, by this face, How much they do import, you would make haste. This seeming brow of justice, did he win Gent. My good lord, The hearts of all that he did angle for. I guess their tenor. Proceeded further; cut me off the heads Arch. Like enough you Of all the favorites, that the absent king To-morrow, good sir Michael, is a day, In deputation left behind him here, Wherein the fortune of ten thousand men When he was personal in the Irish war. Must 'bide the touch: For, sir, at Shrewsbury, Blunt. Tut, I came not to hear this. As I am truly given to understand, Hot. Then, to the point. The king, with mighty and quick-raised power, In short time after, he depos'd the king; Meets with lord Harry: and I fear, sir Michael,Soon after that, depriv'd him of his life; What with the sickness of Northumberland, And, in the neck of that, task'd the whole state: (Whose power was in the first proportion) To make that worse, suffer'd his kinsman, March, And what with Owen Glendower's absence thence, (Who is, if every owner were well placed, (Who with them was a rated sinew too, Indeed his king,) to be incaged in Wales, And comes not in, o'er-rul'd by prophecies,) There without ransom to lie forfeited: I fear the power of Percy is too weak Disgraced me in my happy victories; To wage an instant trial with the king. Sought to entrap me by intelligence; Gent. Why, good my lord, you need not fear; Rated my uncle from the council-board; there's Douglas, Gent. But there is Mordake, Vernon, lord Harry This head of safety; and, withal, to pry Percy, Into his title, the which we find And there's my lord of Worcester; and a head Too indirect for long continuance. Of gallant warriors, noble gentlemen. Blunt. Shall I return this answer to the king? Arch. And so there is: but yet the king hath Hot. Not so, sir Walter; we'll withdraw awhile. drawn Go to the king; and let there be impawn'd The special head of all the land together :Some surety for a safe return again, The prince of Wales, lord John of Lancaster, And in the morning early shall mine uncle The noble Westmoreland, and warlike Blunt; Bring him our purposes: and so farewell. And many more corrivals, and dear men Blunt. I would, you would accept of grace and Of estimation and command in arms. love. Gent. Doubt not, my lord, they shall be well opHot. And, may be, so we shall. pos'd. Blunt. 'Pray heaven you do! Arch. I hope no less, yet needful 'tis to fear; [Exeunt. And, to prevent the worst, sir Michael, speed: SCENE IV.-York. A Room in the Arch For, if lord Percy thrive not, ere the king Dismiss his power, he means to visit us,bishop's House. For he hath heard of our confederacy, Enter the Archbishop of York, and a Gentleman. And 'tis but wisdom to make strong against him; Arch. Hie, good sir Michael! bear this sealed Therefore, make haste: I must go write again brief, To other friends; and so farewell, sir Michael. With winged haste to the lord mareshal; [Exeunt severally. This to my cousin Scroop; and all the rest ACT V. SCENE I.— The King's Camp near Shrewsbury. | This churlish knot of all-abhorred war- Jous of LANCASTER, Sir Walter Blunt, and where you did give a fair and natural light; And be no more an exhaled meteor, K. Hen. How bloodily the sun begins to peer A prodigy of fear, and a portent Of broached mischief to the unborn times? Above yon bosky hill! the day looks pale Wor. Hear me, my liege : At his distemperature. For mine own part, I could be well content P. Hen. The southern wind To entertain the lag-end of my life With quiet hours; for, I do protest, I have not sought the day of this dislike. K. Hen. You have not sought for it! how comes it then? For nothing can seem foul to those that win. Fal. Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it. Trumpet. Enter Worcester and Vernon. P. Hen. Peace, chewet, peace. llow now, my lord of Worcester? 'tis not well, Wor. It pleas’d your majesty, to turn your looks That you and I should meet upon such terms Of favor from myself, and all our house; As now we meet: You have deceiv'd our trust; And yet I must remember you, my lord, And made us doff” our easy robes of peace, We were the first and dearest of your friends. To crush our old limbs in ungentle steel : For you, my staff of office did I break This is not well, my lord, this is not well. In Richard's time; and posted day and night What say you to't? will you again unknit • A strength on which they reckoned. 1 Letter. Woody. • A chattering bird, a pie. To meet you on the way, and kiss your hand, And, will they take the offer of our grace, Shall be my friend again, and I'll be his: So tell your cousin, and bring me word [Exeunt Worcester and Vernon. Are confident against the world in arms. charge; [Exeunt King, Blunt, and Prince Joux. That all in England did repute him dead, Fal. Hal, if thou see me down in the battle, and And, from this swarm of fair advantages, bestride me, so; 'tis a point of friendship. You took occasion to be quickly woo'd P. Hen. Nothing but a colossus can do thee that Fal. I would it were bed-time, Hal, and all well. P. Hen. Why, thou owest God a death. [Exit. As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird, Fal. 'Tis not due yet; I would be loath to pay Useth the sparrow; did oppress our nest; him before his day. What need I be so forward Grew by our feeding to so great a bulk, with him that calls not on me? Well, 'tis no mat. That even our love durst not come near your sight, ter; Honor pricks me on. Yea, but how if honor For fear of swallowing; but with nimble wing prick me off when I come on ? how then? Can We were enforced, for safety sake, to fly honor set to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Out of your sight, and raise this present head: Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honor Whereby we stand opposed by such means hath no skill in surgery then? No. What is honor? As you yourself have forged against yourself; A word. What is in that word, honor? What is By unkind usage, dangerous countenance, that honor? Air. A trim reckoning! Who And violation of all faith and troth hath it? He that died o' Wednesday. Doth he Sworn to us in your younger enterprize. feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. Is it insenK. Hen. These things, indeed, you have articu- sible then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live lated, with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not Proclaim'd at market-crosses, read in churches; suffer it :-therefore I'll none of it: Honor is a To face the garment of rebellion mere scutcheon, and so ends my catechism. [E.cit. With some fine color, that may please the eye Of fickle changelings, and poor discontents, SCENE II.— The Rebel Camp. Enter WORCESTER and Vernon. Wor. O, no, my nephew must not know, sir Richard, Nor moody beggars, starving for a time The liberal kind offer of the king. Of pellmell havock and confusion. Ver. 'Twere best he did. P. Hen. In both our armies, there is many a soul, Wor. Then are we all undone. It is not possible, it cannot be, To punish this offence in other faults: Suspicion shall be all stuck full of eyes: For treason is but trusted like the fox ; Will have a wild trick of his ancestors. Look how we can, or sad, or merrily, For iny part, I may speak it to my shame, Interpretation will misquote our looks; I have a truant been to chivalry; And we shall feed like oxen at a stall, And so, I hear, he doth account me too: The better cherish'd, still the nearer death. Yet this before my father's majesty, My nephew's trespass may be well forgot, I am content, that he shall take the odds It hath the excuse of youth, and heat of blood; Of his great name and estimation; And an adopted name of privilege,And will, to save the blood on either side, A hare-brain'd Hotspur, govern’d by a spleen: Try fortune with him in a single fight. All his offences live upon my head, K. Hen. And, prince of Wales, so dare we ven- And on his father's ;-we did train him on; ture thee, And, his corruption being ta’en from us, We, as the spring of all, shall pay for all. Ver. Deliver what you will, I'll say, 'tis 60. Here comes your cousin. |