The First Part Of King Henry The Fourth

1 Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Mortimer and Glendower.
2 MORTIMER.
3 These promises are fair, the parties sure,
4 And our induction full of prosperous hope.
5 HOTSPUR.
6 Lord Mortimer and cousin Glendower,
7 Will you sit down? And uncle Worcester,
8 A plague upon it! I have forgot the map.
9 GLENDOWER.
10 No, here it is.
11 Sit, cousin Percy, sit, good cousin Hotspur;
12 For by that name as oft as Lancaster doth speak of you
13 His cheek looks pale, and with a rising sigh
14 He wisheth you in heaven.
15 HOTSPUR.
16 And you in hell,
17 As oft as he hears Owen Glendower spoke of.
18 GLENDOWER.
19 I cannot blame him. At my nativity
20 The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
21 Of burning cressets, and at my birth
22 The frame and huge foundation of the Earth
23 Shaked like a coward.
24 HOTSPUR.
25 Why, so it would have done
26 At the same season, if your mother’s cat
27 Had but kitten’d, though yourself had never been born.
28 GLENDOWER.
29 I say the Earth did shake when I was born.
30 HOTSPUR.
31 And I say the Earth was not of my mind,
32 If you suppose as fearing you it shook.
33 GLENDOWER.
34 The heavens were all on fire, the Earth did tremble.
35 HOTSPUR.
36 O, then th’ Earth shook to see the heavens on fire,
37 And not in fear of your nativity.
38 Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth
39 In strange eruptions; oft the teeming Earth
40 Is with a kind of colic pinch’d and vex’d
41 By the imprisoning of unruly wind
42 Within her womb, which for enlargement striving,
43 Shakes the old beldam Earth, and topples down
44 Steeples and moss-grown towers. At your birth
45 Our grandam Earth, having this distemp’rature,
46 In passion shook.
47 GLENDOWER.
48 Cousin, of many men
49 I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave
50 To tell you once again that at my birth
51 The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
52 The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds
53 Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields.
54 These signs have mark’d me extraordinary,
55 And all the courses of my life do show
56 I am not in the roll of common men.
57 Where is he living, clipp’d in with the sea
58 That chides the banks of England, Scotland, Wales,
59 Which calls me pupil or hath read to me?
60 And bring him out that is but woman’s son
61 Can trace me in the tedious ways of art,
62 And hold me pace in deep experiments.
63 HOTSPUR.
64 I think there is no man speaks better Welsh.
65 I’ll to dinner.
66 MORTIMER.
67 Peace, cousin Percy, you will make him mad.
68 GLENDOWER.
69 I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
70 HOTSPUR.
71 Why, so can I, or so can any man,
72 But will they come when you do call for them?
73 GLENDOWER.
74 Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command the devil.
75 HOTSPUR.
76 And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil
77 By telling truth; tell truth, and shame the devil.
78 If thou have power to raise him, bring him hither,
79 And I’ll be sworn I have power to shame him hence.
80 O, while you live, tell truth, and shame the devil!
81 MORTIMER.
82 Come, come, no more of this unprofitable chat.
83 GLENDOWER.
84 Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made head
85 Against my power; thrice from the banks of Wye
86 And sandy-bottom’d Severn have I sent him
87 Bootless home and weather-beaten back.
88 HOTSPUR.
89 Home without boots, and in foul weather too!
90 How ’scapes he agues, in the devil’s name!
91 GLENDOWER.
92 Come, here’s the map, shall we divide our right
93 According to our threefold order ta’en?
94 MORTIMER.
95 The archdeacon hath divided it
96 Into three limits very equally:
97 England, from Trent and Severn hitherto,
98 By south and east is to my part assign’d:
99 All westward, Wales beyond the Severn shore,
100 And all the fertile land within that bound,
101 To Owen Glendower: and, dear coz, to you
102 The remnant northward lying off from Trent.
103 And our indentures tripartite are drawn,
104 Which being sealed interchangeably,
105 A business that this night may execute,
106 Tomorrow, cousin Percy, you and I,
107 And my good Lord of Worcester will set forth
108 To meet your father and the Scottish power,
109 As is appointed us, at Shrewsbury.
110 My father Glendower is not ready yet,
111 Nor shall we need his help these fourteen days.
112 [_To Glendower._] Within that space you may have drawn together
113 Your tenants, friends, and neighbouring gentlemen.
114 GLENDOWER.
115 A shorter time shall send me to you, lords,
116 And in my conduct shall your ladies come,
117 From whom you now must steal, and take no leave,
118 For there will be a world of water shed
119 Upon the parting of your wives and you.
120 HOTSPUR.
121 Methinks my moiety, north from Burton here,
122 In quantity equals not one of yours.
123 See how this river comes me cranking in,
124 And cuts me from the best of all my land
125 A huge half-moon, a monstrous cantle out.
126 I’ll have the current in this place dammed up,
127 And here the smug and silver Trent shall run
128 In a new channel, fair and evenly.
129 It shall not wind with such a deep indent,
130 To rob me of so rich a bottom here.
131 GLENDOWER.
132 Not wind? It shall, it must. You see it doth.
133 MORTIMER.
134 Yea, but mark how he bears his course, and runs me up
135 With like advantage on the other side,
136 Gelding the opposed continent as much
137 As on the other side it takes from you.
138 WORCESTER.
139 Yea, but a little charge will trench him here,
140 And on this north side win this cape of land,
141 And then he runs straight and even.
142 HOTSPUR.
143 I’ll have it so, a little charge will do it.
144 GLENDOWER.
145 I’ll not have it altered.
146 HOTSPUR.
147 Will not you?
148 GLENDOWER.
149 No, nor you shall not.
150 HOTSPUR.
151 Who shall say me nay?
152 GLENDOWER.
153 Why, that will I.
154 HOTSPUR.
155 Let me not understand you, then; speak it in Welsh.
156 GLENDOWER.
157 I can speak English, lord, as well as you,
158 For I was train’d up in the English Court,
159 Where being but young I framed to the harp
160 Many an English ditty lovely well,
161 And gave the tongue a helpful ornament—
162 A virtue that was never seen in you.
163 HOTSPUR.
164 Marry, and I am glad of it with all my heart.
165 I had rather be a kitten, and cry “mew”
166 Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers;
167 I had rather hear a brazen canstick turn’d,
168 Or a dry wheel grate on the axletree,
169 And that would set my teeth nothing on edge,
170 Nothing so much as mincing poetry.
171 ’Tis like the forced gait of a shuffling nag.
172 GLENDOWER.
173 Come, you shall have Trent turn’d.
174 HOTSPUR.
175 I do not care. I’ll give thrice so much land
176 To any well-deserving friend;
177 But in the way of bargain, mark ye me,
178 I’ll cavil on the ninth part of a hair.
179 Are the indentures drawn? Shall we be gone?
180 GLENDOWER.
181 The moon shines fair, you may away by night.
182 I’ll haste the writer, and withal
183 Break with your wives of your departure hence.
184 I am afraid my daughter will run mad,
185 So much she doteth on her Mortimer.
186 [_Exit._]
187 MORTIMER.
188 Fie, cousin Percy, how you cross my father!
189 HOTSPUR.
190 I cannot choose. Sometimes he angers me
191 With telling me of the moldwarp and the ant,
192 Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies,
193 And of a dragon and a finless fish,
194 A clip-wing’d griffin and a moulten raven,
195 A couching lion and a ramping cat,
196 And such a deal of skimble-skamble stuff
197 As puts me from my faith. I tell you what—
198 He held me last night at least nine hours
199 In reckoning up the several devils’ names
200 That were his lackeys: I cried “Hum,” and “Well, go to,”
201 But mark’d him not a word. O, he is as tedious
202 As a tired horse, a railing wife,
203 Worse than a smoky house. I had rather live
204 With cheese and garlic in a windmill, far,
205 Than feed on cates and have him talk to me
206 In any summer house in Christendom.
207 MORTIMER.
208 In faith, he is a worthy gentleman,
209 Exceedingly well read, and profited
210 In strange concealments, valiant as a lion,
211 And wondrous affable, and as bountiful
212 As mines of India. Shall I tell you, cousin?
213 He holds your temper in a high respect
214 And curbs himself even of his natural scope
215 When you come cross his humour, faith, he does.
216 I warrant you that man is not alive
217 Might so have tempted him as you have done
218 Without the taste of danger and reproof:
219 But do not use it oft, let me entreat you.
220 WORCESTER.
221 In faith, my lord, you are too wilful-blame,
222 And since your coming hither have done enough
223 To put him quite besides his patience.
224 You must needs learn, lord, to amend this fault.
225 Though sometimes it show greatness, courage, blood—
226 And that’s the dearest grace it renders you—
227 Yet oftentimes it doth present harsh rage,
228 Defect of manners, want of government,
229 Pride, haughtiness, opinion, and disdain,
230 The least of which haunting a nobleman
231 Loseth men’s hearts and leaves behind a stain
232 Upon the beauty of all parts besides,
233 Beguiling them of commendation.
234 HOTSPUR.
235 Well, I am school’d. Good manners be your speed!
236 Here come our wives, and let us take our leave.
237 Enter Glendower with Lady Mortimer and Lady Percy.
238 MORTIMER.
239 This is the deadly spite that angers me,
240 My wife can speak no English, I no Welsh.
241 GLENDOWER.
242 My daughter weeps, she’ll not part with you,
243 She’ll be a soldier too, she’ll to the wars.
244 MORTIMER.
245 Good father, tell her that she and my aunt Percy
246 Shall follow in your conduct speedily.
247 [_Glendower speaks to Lady Mortimer in Welsh, and she answers him in
248 the same._]
249 GLENDOWER.
250 She is desperate here, a peevish self-willed harlotry,
251 One that no persuasion can do good upon.
252 [_Lady Mortimer speaks to Mortimer in Welsh._]
253 MORTIMER.
254 I understand thy looks, that pretty Welsh
255 Which thou pourest down from these swelling heavens
256 I am too perfect in, and but for shame
257 In such a parley should I answer thee.
258 [_Lady Mortimer speaks to him again in Welsh._]
259 I understand thy kisses, and thou mine,
260 And that’s a feeling disputation,
261 But I will never be a truant, love,
262 Till I have learnt thy language; for thy tongue
263 Makes Welsh as sweet as ditties highly penn’d,
264 Sung by a fair queen in a summer’s bower,
265 With ravishing division, to her lute.
266 GLENDOWER.
267 Nay, if you melt, then will she run mad.
268 [_Lady Mortimer speaks to Mortimer again in Welsh._]
269 MORTIMER.
270 O, I am ignorance itself in this!
271 GLENDOWER.
272 She bids you on the wanton rushes lay you down,
273 And rest your gentle head upon her lap,
274 And she will sing the song that pleaseth you,
275 And on your eyelids crown the god of sleep,
276 Charming your blood with pleasing heaviness,
277 Making such difference ’twixt wake and sleep
278 As is the difference betwixt day and night,
279 The hour before the heavenly-harness’d team
280 Begins his golden progress in the east.
281 MORTIMER.
282 With all my heart I’ll sit and hear her sing,
283 By that time will our book, I think, be drawn.
284 GLENDOWER.
285 Do so, and those musicians that shall play to you
286 Hang in the air a thousand leagues from hence,
287 And straight they shall be here: sit, and attend.
288 HOTSPUR.
289 Come, Kate, thou art perfect in lying down.
290 Come, quick, quick, that I may lay my head in thy lap.
291 LADY PERCY.
292 Go, ye giddy goose.
293 [_The music plays._]
294 HOTSPUR.
295 Now I perceive the devil understands Welsh,
296 And ’tis no marvel he’s so humorous.
297 By’r Lady, he’s a good musician.
298 LADY PERCY.
299 Then should you be nothing but musical,
300 For you are altogether governed by humours.
301 Lie still, ye thief, and hear the lady sing in Welsh.
302 HOTSPUR.
303 I had rather hear Lady, my brach, howl in Irish.
304 LADY PERCY.
305 Wouldst thou have thy head broken?
306 HOTSPUR.
307 No.
308 LADY PERCY.
309 Then be still.
310 HOTSPUR.
311 Neither; ’tis a woman’s fault.
312 LADY PERCY.
313 Now God help thee!
314 HOTSPUR.
315 To the Welsh lady’s bed.
316 LADY PERCY.
317 What’s that?
318 HOTSPUR.
319 Peace, she sings.
320 [_Here the lady sings a Welsh song._]
321 Come, Kate, I’ll have your song too.
322 LADY PERCY.
323 Not mine, in good sooth.
324 HOTSPUR.
325 Not yours, in good sooth! Heart! you swear like a comfit-maker’s wife!
326 “Not you, in good sooth,” and “As true as I live,” and “As God shall
327 mend me,” and “As sure as day”
328 And givest such sarcenet surety for thy oaths
329 As if thou never walk’dst further than Finsbury.
330 Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art,
331 A good mouth-filling oath, and leave “In sooth,”
332 And such protest of pepper-gingerbread,
333 To velvet-guards and Sunday citizens.
334 Come, sing.
335 LADY PERCY.
336 I will not sing.
337 HOTSPUR.
338 ’Tis the next way to turn tailor, or be redbreast-teacher. An the
339 indentures be drawn, I’ll away within these two hours; and so come in
340 when ye will.
341 [_Exit._]
342 GLENDOWER.
343 Come, come, Lord Mortimer, you are as slow
344 As hot Lord Percy is on fire to go.
345 By this our book is drawn. We’ll but seal,
346 And then to horse immediately.
347 MORTIMER.
348 With all my heart.
349 [_Exeunt._]