William Shakespeare - King Henry the Fourth, Part 1

William Shakespeare

King Henry the Fourth, Part 1

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London. The palace.

Enter KING HENRY, LORD JOHN OF LANCASTER, the EARL of WESTMORELAND, SIR WALTER BLUNT, and others

KING HENRY IV

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 broilsTo be commenced in strands afar remote.No more the thirsty entrance of this soilShall daub her lips with her own children's blood;Nor more shall trenching war channel her fields,Nor bruise her flowerets with the armed hoofsOf hostile paces: those opposed eyes,Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,All of one nature, of one substance bred,Did lately meet in the intestine shockAnd furious close of civil butcheryShall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks,March all one way and be no more opposedAgainst acquaintance, kindred and allies:The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife,No more shall cut his master. Therefore, friends,As far as to the sepulchre of Christ,Whose soldier now, under whose blessed crossWe are impressed and engaged to fight,Forthwith a power of English shall we levy;Whose arms were moulded in their mothers' wombTo chase these pagans in those holy fieldsOver whose acres walk'd those blessed feetWhich fourteen hundred years ago were nail'dFor our advantage on the bitter cross.But this our purpose now is twelve month old,And bootless 'tis to tell you we will go:Therefore we meet not now. Then let me hearOf you, my gentle cousin Westmoreland,What yesternight our council did decreeIn forwarding this dear expedience.

WESTMORELAND

My liege, this haste was hot in question,

And many limits of the charge set downBut yesternight: when all athwart there cameA post from Wales loaden with heavy news;Whose worst was, that the noble Mortimer,Leading the men of Herefordshire to fightAgainst the irregular and wild Glendower,Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken,A thousand of his people butchered;Upon whose dead corpse there was such misuse,Such beastly shameless transformation,By those Welshwomen done as may not beWithout much shame retold or spoken of.

KING HENRY IV

It seems then that the tidings of this broil

Brake off our business for the Holy Land.

WESTMORELAND

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

For more uneven and unwelcome newsCame 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 heatAnd pride of their contention did take horse,Uncertain of the issue any way.

KING HENRY IV

Here is a dear, a true industrious friend,

Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse.Stain'd with the variation of each soilBetwixt 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 seeOn Holmedon's plains. Of prisoners, Hotspur tookMordake the Earl of Fife, and eldest sonTo beaten Douglas; and the Earl of Athol,Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith:And is not this an honourable spoil?A gallant prize? ha, cousin, is it not?

WESTMORELAND

In faith,

It is a conquest for a prince to boast of.

KING HENRY IV

Yea, there thou makest me sad and makest me sin

In envy that my Lord NorthumberlandShould be the father to so blest a son,A son who is the theme of honour'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 dishonour stain the browOf my young Harry. O that it could be provedThat some night-tripping fairy had exchangedIn 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 my thoughts. What think you, coz,Of this young Percy's pride? the prisoners,Which he in this adventure hath surprised,To his own use he keeps; and sends me word,I shall have none but Mordake Earl of Fife.

WESTMORELAND

This is his uncle's teaching; this is Worcester,

Malevolent to you in all aspects;Which makes him prune himself, and bristle upThe crest of youth against your dignity.

KING HENRY IV

But I have sent for him to answer this;

And for this cause awhile we must neglectOur holy purpose to Jerusalem.Cousin, on Wednesday next our council weWill hold at Windsor; so inform the lords:But come yourself with speed to us again;For more is to be said and to be doneThan out of anger can be uttered.

WESTMORELAND

I will, my liege.

Exeunt

London. An apartment of the Prince's.

Enter the PRINCE OF WALES and FALSTAFF

FALSTAFF

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

PRINCE HENRY

Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack

and unbuttoning thee after supper and sleeping uponbenches after noon, that thou hast forgotten todemand that truly which thou wouldst truly know.What a devil hast thou to do with the time of theday? Unless hours were cups of sack and minutescapons and clocks the tongues of bawds and dials thesigns of leaping-houses and the blessed sun himselfa fair hot wench in flame-coloured taffeta, I see noreason why thou shouldst be so superfluous to demandthe time of the day.

FALSTAFF

Indeed, you come near me now, Hal; for we that take

purses go by the moon and the seven stars, and notby Phoebus, he,'that wandering knight so fair.' And,I prithee, sweet wag, when thou art king, as, Godsave thy grace,--majesty I should say, for gracethou wilt have none,--

PRINCE HENRY

What, none?

FALSTAFF

No, by my troth, not so much as will serve to

prologue to an egg and butter.

PRINCE HENRY

Well, how then? come, roundly, roundly.

FALSTAFF

Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not

us that are squires of the night's body be calledthieves of the day's beauty: let us be Diana'sforesters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of themoon; and let men say we be men of good government,being governed, as the sea is, by our noble andchaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance we steal.

PRINCE HENRY

Thou sayest well, and it holds well too; for the

fortune of us that are the moon's men doth ebb andflow like the sea, being governed, as the sea is,by the moon. As, for proof, now: a purse of goldmost resolutely snatched on Monday night and mostdissolutely spent on Tuesday morning; got withswearing 'Lay by' and spent with crying 'Bring in;'now in as low an ebb as the foot of the ladderand by and by in as high a flow as the ridge of the gallows.

FALSTAFF

By the Lord, thou sayest true, lad. And is not my

hostess of the tavern a most sweet wench?

PRINCE HENRY

As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle. And

is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance?

FALSTAFF

How now, how now, mad wag! what, in thy quips and

thy quiddities? what a plague have I to do with abuff jerkin?

PRINCE HENRY

Why, what a pox have I to do with my hostess of the tavern?

FALSTAFF

Well, thou hast called her to a reckoning many a

time and oft.

PRINCE HENRY

Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part?

FALSTAFF

No; I'll give thee thy due, thou hast paid all there.

PRINCE HENRY

Yea, and elsewhere, so far as my coin would stretch;

and where it would not, I have used my credit.