The First Part Of King Henry The Fourth

1 Alarums. Excursions. Enter King Henry, Prince Henry, Lancaster and
2 Westmoreland.
3 KING.
4 I prithee, Harry, withdraw thyself, thou bleedest too much.
5 Lord John of Lancaster, go you with him.
6 LANCASTER.
7 Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too.
8 PRINCE.
9 I do beseech your Majesty, make up,
10 Lest your retirement do amaze your friends.
11 KING.
12 I will do so. My Lord of Westmoreland,
13 Lead him to his tent.
14 WESTMORELAND.
15 Come, my lord, I’ll lead you to your tent.
16 PRINCE.
17 Lead me, my lord? I do not need your help,
18 And God forbid a shallow scratch should drive
19 The Prince of Wales from such a field as this,
20 Where stain’d nobility lies trodden on,
21 And rebels’ arms triumph in massacres!
22 LANCASTER.
23 We breathe too long. Come, cousin Westmoreland,
24 Our duty this way lies. For God’s sake, come.
25 [_Exeunt Lancaster and Westmoreland._]
26 PRINCE.
27 By Heaven, thou hast deceived me, Lancaster,
28 I did not think thee lord of such a spirit.
29 Before, I loved thee as a brother, John,
30 But now I do respect thee as my soul.
31 KING.
32 I saw him hold Lord Percy at the point
33 With lustier maintenance than I did look for
34 Of such an ungrown warrior.
35 PRINCE.
36 O, this boy
37 Lends mettle to us all!
38 [_Exit._]
39 Enter Douglas.
40 DOUGLAS.
41 Another king! They grow like Hydra’s heads.
42 I am the Douglas, fatal to all those
43 That wear those colours on them. What art thou
44 That counterfeit’st the person of a king?
45 KING.
46 The King himself, who, Douglas, grieves at heart
47 So many of his shadows thou hast met,
48 And not the very King. I have two boys
49 Seek Percy and thyself about the field,
50 But, seeing thou fall’st on me so luckily,
51 I will assay thee, and defend thyself.
52 DOUGLAS.
53 I fear thou art another counterfeit,
54 And yet, in faith, thou bearest thee like a king.
55 But mine I am sure thou art, whoe’er thou be,
56 And thus I win thee.
57 They fight; the King being in danger, enter Prince Henry.
58 PRINCE.
59 Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like
60 Never to hold it up again! The spirits
61 Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt are in my arms.
62 It is the Prince of Wales that threatens thee,
63 Who never promiseth but he means to pay.
64 [_They fight. Douglas flies._]
65 Cheerly, my lord. How fares your Grace?
66 Sir Nicholas Gawsey hath for succour sent,
67 And so hath Clifton. I’ll to Clifton straight.
68 KING.
69 Stay and breathe awhile.
70 Thou hast redeem’d thy lost opinion,
71 And show’d thou mak’st some tender of my life,
72 In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me.
73 PRINCE.
74 O God, they did me too much injury
75 That ever said I hearken’d for your death.
76 If it were so, I might have let alone
77 The insulting hand of Douglas over you,
78 Which would have been as speedy in your end
79 As all the poisonous potions in the world,
80 And saved the treacherous labour of your son.
81 KING.
82 Make up to Clifton. I’ll to Sir Nicholas Gawsey.
83 [_Exit._]
84 Enter Hotspur.
85 HOTSPUR.
86 If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth.
87 PRINCE.
88 Thou speak’st as if I would deny my name.
89 HOTSPUR.
90 My name is Harry Percy.
91 PRINCE.
92 Why then I see
93 A very valiant rebel of the name.
94 I am the Prince of Wales; and think not, Percy,
95 To share with me in glory any more.
96 Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere,
97 Nor can one England brook a double reign,
98 Of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales.
99 HOTSPUR.
100 Nor shall it, Harry, for the hour is come
101 To end the one of us, and would to God
102 Thy name in arms were now as great as mine!
103 PRINCE.
104 I’ll make it greater ere I part from thee,
105 And all the budding honours on thy crest
106 I’ll crop to make a garland for my head.
107 HOTSPUR.
108 I can no longer brook thy vanities.
109 [_They fight._]
110 Enter Falstaff.
111 FALSTAFF.
112 Well said, Hal! To it, Hal! Nay, you shall find no boy’s play here, I
113 can tell you.
114 Enter Douglas. He fights with Falstaff, who falls down as if he were
115 dead, and exit Douglas. The Prince kills Hotspur.
116 HOTSPUR.
117 O Harry, thou hast robb’d me of my youth!
118 I better brook the loss of brittle life
119 Than those proud titles thou hast won of me;
120 They wound my thoughts worse than thy sword my flesh.
121 But thoughts, the slaves of life, and life, time’s fool,
122 And time, that takes survey of all the world,
123 Must have a stop. O, I could prophesy,
124 But that the earthy and cold hand of death
125 Lies on my tongue. No, Percy, thou art dust,
126 And food for—
127 [_Dies._]
128 PRINCE.
129 For worms, brave Percy. Fare thee well, great heart!
130 Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk!
131 When that this body did contain a spirit,
132 A kingdom for it was too small a bound;
133 But now two paces of the vilest earth
134 Is room enough. This earth that bears thee dead
135 Bears not alive so stout a gentleman.
136 If thou wert sensible of courtesy,
137 I should not make so dear a show of zeal.
138 But let my favours hide thy mangled face;
139 And even in thy behalf I’ll thank myself
140 For doing these fair rites of tenderness.
141 Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven!
142 Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave,
143 But not remember’d in thy epitaph!
144 [_Sees Falstaff on the ground._]
145 What, old acquaintance, could not all this flesh
146 Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell!
147 I could have better spared a better man.
148 O, I should have a heavy miss of thee
149 If I were much in love with vanity.
150 Death hath not struck so fat a deer today,
151 Though many dearer, in this bloody fray.
152 Embowell’d will I see thee by and by,
153 Till then in blood by noble Percy lie.
154 [_Exit._]
155 Falstaff rises up.
156 FALSTAFF.
157 Embowell’d! If thou embowel me today, I’ll give you leave to powder me
158 and eat me too tomorrow. ’Sblood, ’twas time to counterfeit, or that
159 hot termagant Scot had paid me scot and lot too. Counterfeit? I lie, I
160 am no counterfeit. To die, is to be a counterfeit, for he is but the
161 counterfeit of a man who hath not the life of a man: but to counterfeit
162 dying, when a man thereby liveth, is to be no counterfeit, but the true
163 and perfect image of life indeed. The better part of valour is
164 discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life. Zounds, I am
165 afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead. How if he should
166 counterfeit too, and rise? By my faith, I am afraid he would prove the
167 better counterfeit. Therefore I’ll make him sure, yea, and I’ll swear I
168 killed him. Why may not he rise as well as I? Nothing confutes me but
169 eyes, and nobody sees me. Therefore, sirrah, with a new wound in your
170 thigh, come you along with me.
171 [_Takes Hotspur on his back._]
172 Enter Prince Henry and Lancaster.
173 PRINCE.
174 Come, brother John, full bravely hast thou flesh’d
175 Thy maiden sword.
176 LANCASTER.
177 But soft, whom have we here?
178 Did you not tell me this fat man was dead?
179 PRINCE.
180 I did; I saw him dead,
181 Breathless and bleeding on the ground.—Art thou alive?
182 Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight?
183 I prithee, speak, we will not trust our eyes
184 Without our ears. Thou art not what thou seem’st.
185 FALSTAFF.
186 No, that’s certain, I am not a double man. But if I be not Jack
187 Falstaff, then am I a Jack. There is Percy! [_Throwing the body down._]
188 If your father will do me any honour, so; if not, let him kill the next
189 Percy himself. I look to be either earl or duke, I can assure you.
190 PRINCE.
191 Why, Percy I kill’d myself, and saw thee dead.
192 FALSTAFF.
193 Didst thou? Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying! I grant you I
194 was down and out of breath, and so was he, but we rose both at an
195 instant, and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock. If I may be
196 believed, so; if not, let them that should reward valour bear the sin
197 upon their own heads. I’ll take it upon my death, I gave him this wound
198 in the thigh. If the man were alive, and would deny it, zounds, I would
199 make him eat a piece of my sword.
200 LANCASTER.
201 This is the strangest tale that ever I heard.
202 PRINCE.
203 This is the strangest fellow, brother John.—
204 Come, bring your luggage nobly on your back.
205 For my part, if a lie may do thee grace,
206 I’ll gild it with the happiest terms I have.
207 [_A retreat is sounded._]
208 The trumpet sounds retreat; the day is ours.
209 Come, brother, let us to the highest of the field,
210 To see what friends are living, who are dead.
211 [_Exeunt Prince Henry and Lancaster._]
212 FALSTAFF.
213 I’ll follow, as they say, for reward. He that rewards me, God reward
214 him! If I do grow great, I’ll grow less, for I’ll purge, and leave
215 sack, and live cleanly as a nobleman should do.
216 [_Exit, bearing off the body._]