The First Part Of King Henry The Fourth

1 Enter King Henry, Northumberland, Worcester, Hotspur, Sir Walter Blunt
2 and others.
3 KING.
4 My blood hath been too cold and temperate,
5 Unapt to stir at these indignities,
6 And you have found me, for accordingly
7 You tread upon my patience: but be sure
8 I will from henceforth rather be myself,
9 Mighty and to be fear’d, than my condition,
10 Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down,
11 And therefore lost that title of respect
12 Which the proud soul ne’er pays but to the proud.
13 WORCESTER.
14 Our house, my sovereign liege, little deserves
15 The scourge of greatness to be used on it,
16 And that same greatness too which our own hands
17 Have holp to make so portly.
18 NORTHUMBERLAND.
19 My lord,—
20 KING.
21 Worcester, get thee gone, for I do see
22 Danger and disobedience in thine eye:
23 O, sir, your presence is too bold and peremptory,
24 And majesty might never yet endure
25 The moody frontier of a servant brow.
26 You have good leave to leave us. When we need
27 Your use and counsel, we shall send for you.
28 [_Exit Worcester._]
29 [_To Northumberland._]
30 You were about to speak.
31 NORTHUMBERLAND.
32 Yea, my good lord.
33 Those prisoners in your Highness’ name demanded,
34 Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took,
35 Were, as he says, not with such strength denied
36 As is deliver’d to your Majesty.
37 Either envy, therefore, or misprision
38 Is guilty of this fault, and not my son.
39 HOTSPUR.
40 My liege, I did deny no prisoners.
41 But I remember, when the fight was done,
42 When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,
43 Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
44 Came there a certain lord, neat and trimly dress’d,
45 Fresh as a bridegroom, and his chin new reap’d
46 Show’d like a stubble-land at harvest-home.
47 He was perfumed like a milliner,
48 And ’twixt his finger and his thumb he held
49 A pouncet-box, which ever and anon
50 He gave his nose, and took’t away again,
51 Who therewith angry, when it next came there,
52 Took it in snuff; and still he smiled and talk’d.
53 And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
54 He call’d them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
55 To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse
56 Betwixt the wind and his nobility.
57 With many holiday and lady terms
58 He question’d me, amongst the rest demanded
59 My prisoners in your Majesty’s behalf.
60 I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold,
61 Out of my grief and my impatience
62 To be so pester’d with a popinjay,
63 Answer’d neglectingly, I know not what,
64 He should, or he should not; for he made me mad
65 To see him shine so brisk and smell so sweet,
66 And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman
67 Of guns and drums and wounds, God save the mark!
68 And telling me the sovereignest thing on Earth
69 Was parmacety for an inward bruise,
70 And that it was great pity, so it was,
71 This villainous saltpetre should be digg’d
72 Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
73 Which many a good tall fellow had destroy’d
74 So cowardly, and but for these vile guns,
75 He would himself have been a soldier.
76 This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord,
77 I answered indirectly, as I said,
78 And I beseech you, let not his report
79 Come current for an accusation
80 Betwixt my love and your high Majesty.
81 BLUNT.
82 The circumstance consider’d, good my lord,
83 Whatever Harry Percy then had said
84 To such a person, and in such a place,
85 At such a time, with all the rest retold,
86 May reasonably die, and never rise
87 To do him wrong, or any way impeach
88 What then he said, so he unsay it now.
89 KING.
90 Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners,
91 But with proviso and exception,
92 That we at our own charge shall ransom straight
93 His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer,
94 Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betray’d
95 The lives of those that he did lead to fight
96 Against that great magician, damn’d Glendower,
97 Whose daughter, as we hear, the Earl of March
98 Hath lately married. Shall our coffers then
99 Be emptied to redeem a traitor home?
100 Shall we buy treason and indent with fears
101 When they have lost and forfeited themselves?
102 No, on the barren mountains let him starve;
103 For I shall never hold that man my friend
104 Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost
105 To ransom home revolted Mortimer.
106 HOTSPUR.
107 Revolted Mortimer!
108 He never did fall off, my sovereign liege,
109 But by the chance of war. To prove that true
110 Needs no more but one tongue for all those wounds,
111 Those mouthed wounds, which valiantly he took,
112 When on the gentle Severn’s sedgy bank,
113 In single opposition hand to hand,
114 He did confound the best part of an hour
115 In changing hardiment with great Glendower.
116 Three times they breathed, and three times did they drink,
117 Upon agreement, of swift Severn’s flood,
118 Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks,
119 Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds,
120 And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank
121 Blood-stained with these valiant combatants.
122 Never did bare and rotten policy
123 Colour her working with such deadly wounds,
124 Nor never could the noble Mortimer
125 Receive so many, and all willingly.
126 Then let not him be slander’d with revolt.
127 KING.
128 Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou dost belie him,
129 He never did encounter with Glendower.
130 I tell thee, he durst as well have met the devil alone
131 As Owen Glendower for an enemy.
132 Art not ashamed? But, sirrah, henceforth
133 Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer.
134 Send me your prisoners with the speediest means,
135 Or you shall hear in such a kind from me
136 As will displease you.—My Lord Northumberland,
137 We license your departure with your son.—
138 Send us your prisoners, or you’ll hear of it.
139 [_Exit King Henry, Blunt and train._]
140 HOTSPUR.
141 An if the devil come and roar for them,
142 I will not send them. I will after straight
143 And tell him so, for I will ease my heart,
144 Albeit I make a hazard of my head.
145 NORTHUMBERLAND.
146 What, drunk with choler? Stay, and pause awhile.
147 Here comes your uncle.
148 Enter Worcester.
149 HOTSPUR.
150 Speak of Mortimer?
151 Zounds, I will speak of him, and let my soul
152 Want mercy if I do not join with him.
153 Yea, on his part I’ll empty all these veins,
154 And shed my dear blood drop by drop in the dust,
155 But I will lift the down-trod Mortimer
156 As high in the air as this unthankful King,
157 As this ingrate and canker’d Bolingbroke.
158 NORTHUMBERLAND.
159 [_To Worcester._]
160 Brother, the King hath made your nephew mad.
161 WORCESTER.
162 Who struck this heat up after I was gone?
163 HOTSPUR.
164 He will forsooth have all my prisoners,
165 And when I urged the ransom once again
166 Of my wife’s brother, then his cheek look’d pale,
167 And on my face he turn’d an eye of death,
168 Trembling even at the name of Mortimer.
169 WORCESTER.
170 I cannot blame him. Was not he proclaim’d
171 By Richard that dead is, the next of blood?
172 NORTHUMBERLAND.
173 He was; I heard the proclamation.
174 And then it was when the unhappy King—
175 Whose wrongs in us God pardon!—did set forth
176 Upon his Irish expedition;
177 From whence he, intercepted, did return
178 To be deposed, and shortly murdered.
179 WORCESTER.
180 And for whose death we in the world’s wide mouth
181 Live scandalized and foully spoken of.
182 HOTSPUR.
183 But soft, I pray you, did King Richard then
184 Proclaim my brother Edmund Mortimer
185 Heir to the crown?
186 NORTHUMBERLAND.
187 He did; myself did hear it.
188 HOTSPUR.
189 Nay, then I cannot blame his cousin King,
190 That wish’d him on the barren mountains starve.
191 But shall it be that you that set the crown
192 Upon the head of this forgetful man,
193 And for his sake wear the detested blot
194 Of murderous subornation—shall it be,
195 That you a world of curses undergo,
196 Being the agents, or base second means,
197 The cords, the ladder, or the hangman rather?
198 O, pardon me, that I descend so low,
199 To show the line and the predicament
200 Wherein you range under this subtle King.
201 Shall it for shame be spoken in these days,
202 Or fill up chronicles in time to come,
203 That men of your nobility and power
204 Did gage them both in an unjust behalf
205 (As both of you, God pardon it, have done)
206 To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose,
207 And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke?
208 And shall it in more shame be further spoken,
209 That you are fool’d, discarded, and shook off
210 By him for whom these shames ye underwent?
211 No, yet time serves wherein you may redeem
212 Your banish’d honours, and restore yourselves
213 Into the good thoughts of the world again:
214 Revenge the jeering and disdain’d contempt
215 Of this proud King, who studies day and night
216 To answer all the debt he owes to you
217 Even with the bloody payment of your deaths.
218 Therefore, I say—
219 WORCESTER.
220 Peace, cousin, say no more.
221 And now I will unclasp a secret book,
222 And to your quick-conceiving discontents
223 I’ll read you matter deep and dangerous,
224 As full of peril and adventurous spirit
225 As to o’er-walk a current roaring loud
226 On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.
227 HOTSPUR.
228 If we fall in, good night, or sink or swim!
229 Send danger from the east unto the west,
230 So honour cross it from the north to south,
231 And let them grapple. O, the blood more stirs
232 To rouse a lion than to start a hare!
233 NORTHUMBERLAND.
234 Imagination of some great exploit
235 Drives him beyond the bounds of patience.
236 HOTSPUR.
237 By Heaven, methinks it were an easy leap
238 To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon,
239 Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
240 Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
241 And pluck up drowned honour by the locks,
242 So he that doth redeem her thence might wear
243 Without corrival all her dignities.
244 But out upon this half-faced fellowship!
245 WORCESTER.
246 He apprehends a world of figures here,
247 But not the form of what he should attend.—
248 Good cousin, give me audience for a while.
249 HOTSPUR.
250 I cry you mercy.
251 WORCESTER.
252 Those same noble Scots
253 That are your prisoners—
254 HOTSPUR.
255 I’ll keep them all;
256 By God, he shall not have a Scot of them,
257 No, if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not.
258 I’ll keep them, by this hand!
259 WORCESTER.
260 You start away,
261 And lend no ear unto my purposes:
262 Those prisoners you shall keep—
263 HOTSPUR.
264 Nay, I will: that’s flat.
265 He said he would not ransom Mortimer,
266 Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer,
267 But I will find him when he lies asleep,
268 And in his ear I’ll holla “Mortimer!”
269 Nay, I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak
270 Nothing but “Mortimer”, and give it him,
271 To keep his anger still in motion.
272 WORCESTER.
273 Hear you, cousin, a word.
274 HOTSPUR.
275 All studies here I solemnly defy,
276 Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke:
277 And that same sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales,
278 But that I think his father loves him not,
279 And would be glad he met with some mischance—
280 I would have him poison’d with a pot of ale.
281 WORCESTER.
282 Farewell, kinsman. I will talk to you
283 When you are better temper’d to attend.
284 NORTHUMBERLAND.
285 Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool
286 Art thou to break into this woman’s mood,
287 Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own!
288 HOTSPUR.
289 Why, look you, I am whipp’d and scourged with rods,
290 Nettled, and stung with pismires, when I hear
291 Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke.
292 In Richard’s time—what do you call the place?
293 A plague upon’t! It is in Gloucestershire.
294 ’Twas where the madcap Duke his uncle kept,
295 His uncle York, where I first bow’d my knee
296 Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke,
297 ’Sblood, when you and he came back from Ravenspurgh.
298 NORTHUMBERLAND.
299 At Berkeley castle.
300 HOTSPUR.
301 You say true.
302 Why, what a candy deal of courtesy
303 This fawning greyhound then did proffer me!
304 “Look, when his infant fortune came to age,”
305 And, “Gentle Harry Percy,” and “kind cousin.”
306 O, the devil take such cozeners!—God forgive me!
307 Good uncle, tell your tale. I have done.
308 WORCESTER.
309 Nay, if you have not, to it again,
310 We will stay your leisure.
311 HOTSPUR.
312 I have done, i’faith.
313 WORCESTER.
314 Then once more to your Scottish prisoners;
315 Deliver them up without their ransom straight,
316 And make the Douglas’ son your only mean
317 For powers in Scotland, which, for divers reasons
318 Which I shall send you written, be assured
319 Will easily be granted.—[_To Northumberland._] You, my lord,
320 Your son in Scotland being thus employ’d,
321 Shall secretly into the bosom creep
322 Of that same noble prelate well beloved,
323 The Archbishop.
324 HOTSPUR.
325 Of York, is it not?
326 WORCESTER.
327 True, who bears hard
328 His brother’s death at Bristol, the Lord Scroop.
329 I speak not this in estimation,
330 As what I think might be, but what I know
331 Is ruminated, plotted, and set down,
332 And only stays but to behold the face
333 Of that occasion that shall bring it on.
334 HOTSPUR.
335 I smell it. Upon my life it will do well.
336 NORTHUMBERLAND.
337 Before the game is afoot thou still let’st slip.
338 HOTSPUR.
339 Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot;
340 And then the power of Scotland and of York
341 To join with Mortimer, ha?
342 WORCESTER.
343 And so they shall.
344 HOTSPUR.
345 In faith, it is exceedingly well aim’d.
346 WORCESTER.
347 And ’tis no little reason bids us speed,
348 To save our heads by raising of a head;
349 For, bear ourselves as even as we can,
350 The King will always think him in our debt,
351 And think we think ourselves unsatisfied,
352 Till he hath found a time to pay us home:
353 And see already how he doth begin
354 To make us strangers to his looks of love.
355 HOTSPUR.
356 He does, he does, we’ll be revenged on him.
357 WORCESTER.
358 Cousin, farewell. No further go in this
359 Than I by letters shall direct your course.
360 When time is ripe, which will be suddenly,
361 I’ll steal to Glendower and Lord Mortimer,
362 Where you and Douglas, and our powers at once,
363 As I will fashion it, shall happily meet,
364 To bear our fortunes in our own strong arms,
365 Which now we hold at much uncertainty.
366 NORTHUMBERLAND.
367 Farewell, good brother; we shall thrive, I trust.
368 HOTSPUR.
369 Uncle, adieu. O, let the hours be short,
370 Till fields and blows and groans applaud our sport!
371 [_Exeunt._]