The First Part Of King Henry The Fourth

1 Enter Hotspur, Worcester and Douglas.
2 HOTSPUR.
3 Well said, my noble Scot. If speaking truth
4 In this fine age were not thought flattery,
5 Such attribution should the Douglas have
6 As not a soldier of this season’s stamp
7 Should go so general current through the world.
8 By God, I cannot flatter, I do defy
9 The tongues of soothers, but a braver place
10 In my heart’s love hath no man than yourself.
11 Nay, task me to my word; approve me, lord.
12 DOUGLAS.
13 Thou art the king of honour.
14 No man so potent breathes upon the ground
15 But I will beard him.
16 HOTSPUR.
17 Do so, and ’tis well.
18 Enter a Messenger with letters.
19 What letters hast thou there? I can but thank you.
20 MESSENGER.
21 These letters come from your father.
22 HOTSPUR.
23 Letters from him! Why comes he not himself?
24 MESSENGER.
25 He cannot come, my lord, he is grievous sick.
26 HOTSPUR.
27 Zounds, how has he the leisure to be sick
28 In such a justling time? Who leads his power?
29 Under whose government come they along?
30 MESSENGER.
31 His letters bear his mind, not I, my lord.
32 WORCESTER.
33 I prithee, tell me, doth he keep his bed?
34 MESSENGER.
35 He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth,
36 And at the time of my departure thence
37 He was much fear’d by his physicians.
38 WORCESTER.
39 I would the state of time had first been whole
40 Ere he by sickness had been visited.
41 His health was never better worth than now.
42 HOTSPUR.
43 Sick now? Droop now? This sickness doth infect
44 The very life-blood of our enterprise;
45 ’Tis catching hither, even to our camp.
46 He writes me here, that inward sickness—
47 And that his friends by deputation could not
48 So soon be drawn, nor did he think it meet
49 To lay so dangerous and dear a trust
50 On any soul removed but on his own.
51 Yet doth he give us bold advertisement
52 That with our small conjunction we should on,
53 To see how fortune is disposed to us;
54 For, as he writes, there is no quailing now,
55 Because the King is certainly possess’d
56 Of all our purposes. What say you to it?
57 WORCESTER.
58 Your father’s sickness is a maim to us.
59 HOTSPUR.
60 A perilous gash, a very limb lopp’d off—
61 And yet, in faith, it is not! His present want
62 Seems more than we shall find it. Were it good
63 To set the exact wealth of all our states
64 All at one cast? To set so rich a main
65 On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?
66 It were not good, for therein should we read
67 The very bottom and the soul of hope,
68 The very list, the very utmost bound
69 Of all our fortunes.
70 DOUGLAS.
71 Faith, and so we should, where now remains
72 A sweet reversion. We may boldly spend
73 Upon the hope of what is to come in.
74 A comfort of retirement lives in this.
75 HOTSPUR.
76 A rendezvous, a home to fly unto,
77 If that the devil and mischance look big
78 Upon the maidenhead of our affairs.
79 WORCESTER.
80 But yet I would your father had been here.
81 The quality and hair of our attempt
82 Brooks no division. It will be thought
83 By some that know not why he is away,
84 That wisdom, loyalty, and mere dislike
85 Of our proceedings, kept the Earl from hence.
86 And think how such an apprehension
87 May turn the tide of fearful faction,
88 And breed a kind of question in our cause.
89 For well you know we of the off’ring side
90 Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement,
91 And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence
92 The eye of reason may pry in upon us.
93 This absence of your father’s draws a curtain
94 That shows the ignorant a kind of fear
95 Before not dreamt of.
96 HOTSPUR.
97 You strain too far.
98 I rather of his absence make this use:
99 It lends a lustre and more great opinion,
100 A larger dare to our great enterprise,
101 Than if the Earl were here; for men must think
102 If we without his help can make a head
103 To push against the kingdom, with his help
104 We shall o’erturn it topsy-turvy down.
105 Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole.
106 DOUGLAS.
107 As heart can think. There is not such a word
108 Spoke in Scotland as this term of fear.
109 Enter Sir Richard Vernon.
110 HOTSPUR.
111 My cousin Vernon! Welcome, by my soul.
112 VERNON.
113 Pray God my news be worth a welcome, lord.
114 The Earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong,
115 Is marching hitherwards, with him Prince John.
116 HOTSPUR.
117 No harm, what more?
118 VERNON.
119 And further, I have learn’d
120 The King himself in person is set forth,
121 Or hitherwards intended speedily,
122 With strong and mighty preparation.
123 HOTSPUR.
124 He shall be welcome too. Where is his son,
125 The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales,
126 And his comrades, that daffed the world aside
127 And bid it pass?
128 VERNON.
129 All furnish’d, all in arms;
130 All plumed like estridges that with the wind
131 Bated like eagles having lately bathed,
132 Glittering in golden coats, like images,
133 As full of spirit as the month of May,
134 And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer;
135 Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.
136 I saw young Harry with his beaver on,
137 His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm’d,
138 Rise from the ground like feather’d Mercury,
139 And vaulted with such ease into his seat
140 As if an angel dropp’d down from the clouds,
141 To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,
142 And witch the world with noble horsemanship.
143 HOTSPUR.
144 No more, no more! Worse than the sun in March,
145 This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come!
146 They come like sacrifices in their trim,
147 And to the fire-eyed maid of smoky war
148 All hot and bleeding will we offer them.
149 The mailed Mars shall on his altar sit
150 Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire
151 To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh,
152 And yet not ours. Come, let me taste my horse,
153 Who is to bear me like a thunderbolt
154 Against the bosom of the Prince of Wales.
155 Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse,
156 Meet and ne’er part till one drop down a corse.
157 O, that Glendower were come!
158 VERNON.
159 There is more news.
160 I learn’d in Worcester, as I rode along,
161 He cannot draw his power this fourteen days.
162 DOUGLAS.
163 That’s the worst tidings that I hear of yet.
164 WORCESTER.
165 Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound.
166 HOTSPUR.
167 What may the King’s whole battle reach unto?
168 VERNON.
169 To thirty thousand.
170 HOTSPUR.
171 Forty let it be.
172 My father and Glendower being both away,
173 The powers of us may serve so great a day.
174 Come, let us take a muster speedily.
175 Doomsday is near; die all, die merrily.
176 DOUGLAS.
177 Talk not of dying. I am out of fear
178 Of death or death’s hand for this one half year.
179 [_Exeunt._]