William Shakespeare, The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth (1597-98)


William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

This is a part of a collection of works by William Shakespeare.

Source

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, ed. with a glossary by W.J. Craig M.A. (London: Oxford University Press, 1916).

See the complete volume in HTML and facs. PDF.

THE SECOND PART OF KING HENRY THE FOURTH

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.
INDUCTION.
ACT I.
ACT II.
ACT III.
- Scene I.— Westminster. A Room in the Palace.
- Scene II.— Court before Justice Shallow’s House in Gloucestershire.
ACT IV.
ACT V.
EPILOGUE.

THE SECOND PART OF KING HENRY THE FOURTH

INDUCTION.

Warkworth. Before Northumberland’s Castle.

Enter Rumour, painted full of tongues

Ram.

Open your ears; for which of you will stop

The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks?

I, from the orient to the drooping west,

Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold 4

The acts commenced on this ball of earth:

Upon my tongues continual slanders ride,

The which in every language I pronounce,

Stuffing the ears of men with false reports. 8

I speak of peace, while covert enmity

Under the smile of safety wounds the world:

And who but Rumour, who but only I,

Make fearful musters and prepar’d defence, 12

Whilst the big year, swoln with some other grief,

Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,

And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe

Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures, 16

And of so easy and so plain a stop

That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,

The still-discordant wavering multitude,

Can play upon it. But what need I thus 20

My well-known body to anatomize

Among my household? Why is Rumour here?

I run before King Harry’s victory;

Who in a bloody field by Shrewsbury 24

Hath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops,

Quenching the flame of bold rebellion

Even with the rebels’ blood. But what mean I

To speak so true at first? my office is 28

To noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fell

Under the wrath of noble Hotspur’s sword,

And that the king before the Douglas’ rage

Stoop’d his anointed head as low as death. 32

This have I rumour’d through the peasant towns

Between the royal field of Shrewsbury

And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone,

Where Hotspur’s father, old Northumberland,

Lies crafty-sick. The posts come tiring on, 37

And not a man of them brings other news

Than they have learn’d of me: from Rumour’s tongues

They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true wrongs.

[Exit.

Scene I.— Warkworth. Before Northumberland’s Castle.

Enter Lord Bardolph.

L. Bard.

Who keeps the gate here? ho!

[The Porter opens the gate.

Where is the earl?

Port.

What shall I say you are?

L. Bard.

Tell thou the earl

That the Lord Bardolph doth attend him here.

Port.

His Lordship is walk’d forth into the orchard: 4

Please it your honour knock but at the gate,

And he himself will answer.

Enter Northumberland.

L. Bard.

Here comes the earl.

[Exit Porter.

North.

What news, Lord Bardolph? every minute now

Should be the father of some stratagem. 8

The times are wild; contention, like a horse

Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose

And bears down all before him.

L. Bard.

Noble earl,

I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury. 12

North.

Good, an God will!

L. Bard.

As good as heart can wish.

The king is almost wounded to the death;

And, in the fortune of my lord your son,

Prince Harry slain outright; and both the Blunts 16

Kill’d by the hand of Douglas; young Prince John

And Westmoreland and Stafford fled the field.

And Harry Monmouth’s brawn, the hulk Sir John,

Is prisoner to your son: O! such a day, 20

So fought, so follow’d, and so fairly won,

Came not till now to dignify the times

Since Cæsar’s fortunes.

North.

How is this deriv’d?

Saw you the field? came you from Shrewsbury?

L. Bard.

I spake with one, my lord, that came from thence; 25

A gentleman well bred and of good name,

That freely render’d me these news for true.

North.

Here comes my servant Travers, whom I sent 28

On Tuesday last to listen after news.

L. Bard.

My lord, I over-rode him on the way;

And he is furnish’d with no certainties

More than he haply may retail from me. 32

Enter Travers.

North.

Now, Travers, what good tidings come with you?

Tra.

My lord, Sir John Umfrevile turn’d me back

With joyful tidings; and, being better hors’d,

Out-rode me. After him came spurring hard 36

A gentleman, almost forspent with speed,

That stopp’d by me to breathe his bloodied horse.

He ask’d the way to Chester; and of him

I did demand what news from Shrewsbury. 40

He told me that rebellion had bad luck,

And that young Harry Percy’s spur was cold.

With that he gave his able horse the head,

And, bending forward struck his armed heels 44

Against the panting sides of his poor jade

Up to the rowel-head, and, starting so,

He seem’d in running to devour the way,

Staying no longer question.

North.

Ha! Again: 48

Said he young Harry Percy’s spur was cold?

Of Hotspur, Coldspur? that rebellion

Had met ill luck?

L. Bard.

My lord, I’ll tell you what:

If my young lord your son have not the day, 52

Upon mine honour, for a silken point

I’ll give my barony: never talk of it.

North.

Why should the gentleman that rode by Travers

Give then such instances of loss?

L. Bard.

Who, he? 56

He was some hilding fellow that had stolen

The horse he rode on, and, upon my life,

Spoke at a venture. Look, here comes more news.

Enter Morton.

North.

Yea, this man’s brow, like to a title-leaf, 60

Foretells the nature of a tragic volume:

So looks the strond, whereon the imperious flood

Hath left a witness’d usurpation.

Say, Morton, didst thou come from Shrewsbury?

Mor.

I ran from Shrewsbury, my noble lord;

Where hateful death put on his ugliest mask

To fright our party.

North.

How doth my son and brother?

Thou tremblest, and the whiteness in thy cheek

Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand. 69

Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,

So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone,

Drew Priam’s curtain in the dead of night, 72

And would have told him half his Troy was burn’d;

But Priam found the fire ere he his tongue,

And I my Percy’s death ere thou report’st it.

This thou wouldst say, ‘Your son did thus and thus; 76

Your brother thus; so fought the noble Douglas;’

Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds:

But in the end, to stop mine ear indeed,

Thou hast a sigh to blow away this praise, 80

Ending with ‘Brother, son, and all are dead.’

Mor.

Douglas is living, and your brother, yet;

But, for my lord your son,—

North.

Why, he is dead.—

See, what a ready tongue suspicion hath! 84

He that but fears the thing he would not know

Hath by instinct knowledge from others’ eyes

That what he fear’d is chanced. Yet speak, Morton:

Tell thou thy earl his divination lies, 88

And I will take it as a sweet disgrace

And make thee rich for doing me such wrong.

Mor.

You are too great to be by me gainsaid;

Your spirit is too true, your fears too certain. 92

North.

Yet, for all this, say not that Percy’s dead.

I see a strange confession in thine eye:

Thou shak’st thy head, and hold’st it fear or sin

To speak a truth. If he be slain, say so; 96

The tongue offends not that reports his death:

And he doth sin that doth belie the dead,

Not he which says the dead is not alive.

Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news 100

Hath but a losing office, and his tongue

Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,

Remember’d knolling a departing friend.

L. Bard.

I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead. 104

Mor.

I am sorry I should force you to believe

That which I would to God I had not seen;

But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state,

Rendering faint quittance, wearied and outbreath’d, 108

To Harry Monmouth; whose swift wrath beat down

The never-daunted Percy to the earth,

From whence with life he never more sprung up.

In few, his death,—whose spirit lent a fire 112

Even to the dullest peasant in his camp,—

Being bruited once, took fire and heat away

From the best-temper’d courage in his troops;

For from his metal was his party steel’d; 116

Which once in him abated, all the rest

Turn’d on themselves, like dull and heavy lead:

And as the thing that’s heavy in itself,

Upon enforcement flies with greatest speed, 120

So did our men, heavy in Hotspur’s loss,

Lend to this weight such lightness with their fear

That arrows fled not swifter toward their aim

Than did our soldiers, aiming at their safety, 124

Fly from the field. Then was that noble Worcester

Too soon ta’en prisoner; and that furious Scot,

The bloody Douglas, whose well-labouring sword

Had three times slain the appearance of the king, 128

’Gan vail his stomach, and did grace the shame

Of those that turn’d their backs; and in his flight,

Stumbling in fear, was took. The sum of all

Is, that the king hath won, and hath sent out

A speedy power to encounter you, my lord, 133

Under the conduct of young Lancaster

And Westmoreland. This is the news at full.

North.

For this I shall have time enough to mourn. 136

In poison there is physic; and these news,

Having been well, that would have made me sick,

Being sick, have in some measure made me well:

And as the wretch, whose fever-weaken’d joints,

Like strengthless hinges, buckle under life, 141

Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire

Out of his keeper’s arms, even so my limbs,

Weaken’d with grief, being now enrag’d with grief, 144

Are thrice themselves. Hence, therefore, thou nice crutch!

A scaly gauntlet now, with joints of steel

Must glove this hand: and hence, thou sickly quoif!

Thou art a guard too wanton for the head 148

Which princes, flesh’d with conquest, aim to hit.

Now bind my brows with iron; and approach

The ragged’st hour that time and spite dare bring

To frown upon the enrag’d Northumberland! 152

Let heaven kiss earth! now let not nature’s hand

Keep the wild flood confin’d! let order die!

And let this world no longer be a stage

To feed contention in a lingering act; 156

But let one spirit of the first-born Cain

Reign in all bosoms, that, each heart being set

On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,

And darkness be the burier of the dead! 160

Tra.

This strained passion doth you wrong, my lord.

L. Bard.

Sweet earl, divorce not wisdom from your honour.

Mor.

The lives of all your loving complices

Lean on your health; the which, if you give o’er

To stormy passion must perforce decay. 165

You cast the event of war, my noble lord,

And summ’d the account of chance, before you said,

‘Let us make head.’ It was your presurmise 168

That in the dole of blows your son might drop:

You knew he walk’d o’er perils, on an edge,

More likely to fall in than to get o’er;

You were advis’d his flesh was capable 172

Of wounds and scars, and that his forward spirit

Would lift him where most trade of danger rang’d:

Yet did you say, ‘Go forth;’ and none of this,

Though strongly apprehended, could restrain 176

The stiff-borne action: what hath then befallen,

Or what hath this bold enterprise brought forth,

More than that being which was like to be?

L. Bard.

We all that are engaged to this loss

Knew that we ventur’d on such dangerous seas

That if we wrought out life ’twas ten to one;

And yet we ventur’d, for the gain propos’d

Chok’d the respect of likely peril fear’d; 184

And since we are o’erset, venture again.

Come, we will all put forth, body and goods.

Mor.

’Tis more than time: and, my most noble lord,

I hear for certain, and do speak the truth, 188

The gentle Archbishop of York is up,

With well-appointed powers: he is a man

Who with a double surety binds his followers.

My lord your son had only but the corpse’, 192

But shadows and the shows of men to fight;

For that same word, rebellion, did divide

The action of their bodies from their souls;

And they did fight with queasiness, constrain’d,

As men drink potions, that their weapons only

Seem’d on our side: but, for their spirits and souls,

This word, rebellion, it had froze them up,

As fish are in a pond. But now the bishop 200

Turns insurrection to religion:

Suppos’d sincere and holy in his thoughts,

He’s follow’d both with body and with mind,

And doth enlarge his rising with the blood 204

Of fair King Richard, scrap’d from Pomfret stones;

Derives from heaven his quarrel and his cause;

Tells them he doth bestride a bleeding land,

Gasping for life under great Bolingbroke; 208

And more and less do flock to follow him.

North.

I knew of this before; but, to speak truth,

This present grief had wip’d it from my mind.

Go in with me; and counsel every man 212

The aptest way for safety and revenge:

Get posts and letters, and make friends with speed:

Never so few, and never yet more need.

Scene III.— York. A Room in the Archbishop’s Palace.

Enter the Archbishop of York, Lord Hastings, Mowbray, and Bardolph.

Arch.

Thus have you heard our cause and known our means;

And, my most noble friends, I pray you all,

Speak plainly your opinions of our hopes:

And first, Lord Marshal, what say you to it? 4

Mowb.

I well allow the occasion of our arms;

But gladly would be better satisfied

How in our means we should advance ourselves

To look with forehead bold and big enough 8

Upon the power and puissance of the king.

Hast.

Our present musters grow upon the file

To five-and-twenty thousand men of choice;

And our supplies live largely in the hope 12

Of great Northumberland, whose bosom burns

With an incensed fire of injuries.

L. Bard.

The question, then, Lord Hastings, standeth thus:

Whether our present five-and-twenty thousand

May hold up head without Northumberland. 17

Hast.

Which if we find outweighs ability,

What do we then but draw anew the model

In fewer offices, or at last desist

To build at all? Much more, in this great work,—

Which is almost to pluck a kingdom down 49

And set another up,—should we survey

The plot of situation and the model,

Consent upon a sure foundation, 52

Question surveyors, know our own estate,

How able such a work to undergo,

To weigh against his opposite; or else,

We fortify in paper, and in figures, 56

Using the names of men instead of men:

Like one that draws the model of a house

Beyond his power to build it; who, half through,

Gives o’er and leaves his part-created cost 60

A naked-subject to the weeping clouds,

And waste for churlish winter’s tyranny.

Hast.

Grant that our hopes, yet likely of fair birth,

Should be still-born, and that we now possess’d

The utmost man of expectation; 65

I think we are a body strong enough,

Even as we are, to equal with the king.

L. Bard.

What! is the king but five-and-twenty thousand? 68

Hast.

To us no more; nay, not so much, Lord Bardolph.

For his divisions, as the times do brawl,

Are in three heads: one power against the French,

And one against Glendower; perforce, a third 72

Must take up us: so is the unfirm king

In three divided, and his coffers sound

With hollow poverty and emptiness.

Arch.

That he should draw his several strengths together 76

And come against us in full puissance,

Need not be dreaded.

Hast.

If he should do so,

He leaves his back unarm’d, the French and Welsh

Baying him at the heels: never fear that. 80

L. Bard.

Who is it like should lead his forces hither?

Hast.

The Duke of Lancaster and Westmoreland;

Against the Welsh, himself and Harry Monmouth:

But who is substituted ’gainst the French 84

I have no certain notice.

Arch.

Let us on

And publish the occasion of our arms.

The commonwealth is sick of their own choice;

Their over-greedy love hath surfeited. 88

A habitation giddy and unsure

Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart.

O thou fond many! with what loud applause

Didst thou beat heaven with blessing Bolingbroke 92

Before he was what thou wouldst have him be:

And being now trimm’d in thine own desires,

Thou, beastly feeder, art so full of him

That thou provok’st thyself to cast him up. 96

So, so, thou common dog, didst thou disgorge

Thy glutton bosom of the royal Richard,

And now thou wouldst eat thy dead vomit up,

And howl’st to find it. What trust is in these times? 100

They that, when Richard liv’d, would have him die,

Are now become enamour’d on his grave:

Thou, that threw’st dust upon his goodly head,

When through proud London he came sighing on 104

After the admired heels of Bolingbroke,

An I but fist him once; an a’ come but within my vice,—

Quick.

I am undone by his going; I warrant you, he’s an infinitive thing upon my score. Good Master Fang, hold him sure: good Master Snare, let him not ’scape. A’ comes continuantly to Pie-corner—saving your manhoods—to buy a saddle, and he’s indited to dinner to the Lubber’s Head in Lumbert-Street, to Master Smooth’s the silkman: I pray ye, since my exion is entered, and my case so openly known to the world, let him be brought in to his answer. A hundred mark is a long one for a poor lone woman to bear; and I have borne, and borne, and borne; and have been fubbed off, and fubbed off, and fubbed off, from this day to that day, that it is a shame to be thought on. There is no honesty in such dealing; unless a woman should be made an ass, and a beast, to bear every knave’s wrong. Yonder he comes; and that arrant malmseynose knave, Bardolph, with him. Do your offices, do your offices, Master Fang and Master Snare; do me, do me, do me your offices. 47

Away, you scullion! you rampallian! you fustilarian! I’ll tickle your catastrophe. 68

Enter the Lord Chief Justice, attended.

Ch. Just.

What is the matter? keep the peace here, ho!

Quick.

Good my lord, be good to me! I beseech you, stand to me! 72

Ch. Just.

How now, Sir John! what! are you brawling here?

No more words; let’s have her.

Comes the king back from Wales, my noble lord? 193

Ch. Just.

You shall have letters of me presently.

Come, go along with me, good Master Gower.

Fal

My lord! 196

Ch. Just.

What’s the matter?

Fal.

Master Gower, shall I entreat you with me to dinner?

Gow.

I must wait upon my good lord here;

Page.

Marry, my lord, Althea dreamed she was delivered of a firebrand; and therefore I call him her dream. 100

Prince.

A crown’s worth of good interpretation. There it is, boy.

Bard.

I have no tongue, sir.

Page.

And for mine, sir, I will govern it. 180

Prince.

Fare ye well; go. [Exeunt Bardolph and Page.] This Doll Tearsheet should be some road.

Poins.

I warrant you, as common as the way between Saint Alban’s and London. 185

Prince.

How might we see Falstaff bestow himself to-night in his true colours, and not ourselves be seen? 188

Poins.

Put on two leathern jerkins and aprons, and wait upon him at his table as drawers. 191

Prince.

From a god to a bull! a heavy descension! it was Jove’s case. From a prince to a prentice! a low transformation! that shall be mine; for in every thing the purpose must weigh with the folly. Follow me, Ned.

[Exeunt.

Scene III.— Warkworth. Before Northumberland’s Castle.

Enter Northumberland, Lady Northumberland, and Lady Percy.

North.

I pray thee, loving wife, and gentle daughter,

Give even way unto my rough affairs:

Put not you on the visage of the times,

And be like them to Percy troublesome. 4

Lady N.

I have given over, I will speak no more:

Do what you will; your wisdom be your guide.

North.

Alas! sweet wife, my honour is at pawn;

And, but my going, nothing can redeem it. 8

Lady P.

O! yet for God’s sake, go not to these wars.

The time was, father, that you broke your word

When you were more endear’d to it than now;

When your own Percy, when my heart’s dear Harry, 12

Threw many a northward look to see his father

Bring up his powers; but he did long in vain.

Who then persuaded you to stay at home?

There were two honours lost, yours and your son’s: 16

For yours, the God of heaven brighten it!

For his, it stuck upon him as the sun

In the grey vault of heaven; and by his light

Did all the chivalry of England move 20

To do brave acts: he was indeed the glass

Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves:

He had no legs, that practis’d not his gait;

And speaking thick, which nature made his blemish, 24

Became the accents of the valiant;

For those that could speak low and tardily,

Would turn their own perfection to abuse,

To seem like him: so that, in speech, in gait, 28

In diet, in affections of delight,

In military rules, humours of blood,

He was the mark and glass, copy and book,

That fashion’d others. And him, O wondrous him! 32

O miracle of men! him did you leave,—

Second to none, unseconded by you,—

To look upon the hideous god of war

In disadvantage; to abide a field 36

Where nothing but the sound of Hotspur’s name

Did seem defensible: so you left him.

Never, O! never, do his ghost the wrong

To hold your honour more precise and nice 40

With others than with him: let them alone.

The marshal and the archbishop are strong:

Had my sweet Harry had but half their numbers,

To-day might I, hanging on Hotspur’s neck, 44

Have talk’d of Monmouth’s grave.

North.

Beshrew your heart,

Fair daughter! you do draw my spirits from me

With new lamenting ancient oversights.

But I must go and meet with danger there, 48

Or it will seek me in another place,

And find me worse provided.

Lady N.

O! fly to Scotland,

Till that the nobles and the armed commons

Have of their puissance made a little taste. 52

Lady P.

If they get ground and vantage of the king,

Then join you with them, like a rib of steel,

To make strength stronger; but, for all our loves,

First let them try themselves. So did your son; 56

He was so suffer’d: so came I a widow;

And never shall have length of life enough

To rain upon remembrance with mine eyes,

That it may grow and sprout as high as heaven,

For recordation to my noble husband. 61

North.

Come, come, go in with me. ’Tis with my mind

As with the tide swell’d up unto its height,

That makes a still-stand, running neither way: 64

Fain would I go to meet the archbishop,

But many thousand reasons hold me back.

Why, that’s well said; a good heart’s worth gold. Lo! here comes Sir John.

Enter Falstaff, singing.

Quick.

Cheater, call you him? I will bar no honest man my house, nor no cheater; but I do not love swaggering, by my troth; I am the worse, when one says swagger. Feel, masters, how I shake; look you, I warrant you. 113

Dol.

So you do, hostess.

Quick.

Pist.

These be good humours, indeed! Shall pack-horses, 176

And hollow pamper’d jades of Asia,

Which cannot go but thirty miles a day,

Compare with Cæsars, and with Cannibals,

And Trojan Greeks? nay, rather damn them with 180

King Cerberus; and let the welkin roar.

Shall we fall foul for toys?

Quick.

By my troth, captain, these are very bitter words. 184

Bard.

Be gone, good ancient: this will grow to a brawl anon.

Pist.

Dio men like dogs! give crowns like pins! Have we not Hiren here? 188

Quick.

O’ my word, captain, there’s none such here. What the good-year! do you think I would deny her? for God’s sake! be quiet.

Pist.

Then feed, and be fat, my fair Calipolis.

Come, give’s some sack. 193

Si fortuna me tormente, sperato me contento.

Fear we broadsides? no, let the fiend give fire:

Give me my rapier, boy.

Dol.

I pray thee, Jack, I pray thee, do not draw. 216

Fal.

Get you down stairs.

[Drawing.

Quick.

Here’s a goodly tumult! I’ll forswear keeping house, afore I’ll be in these tirrits and frights. So; murder, I warrant now. Alas, alas! put up your naked weapons; put up your naked weapons.

[Exeunt Bardolph and Pistol.

Dol.

I pray thee, Jack, be quiet; the rascal’s gone. Ah! you whoreson little valiant villain, you! 225

Quick.

Are you not hurt i’ the groin? methought a’ made a shrewd thrust at your belly.

Do, an thou darest for thy heart: an thou dost, I’ll canvass thee between a pair of sheets.

Enter Music.

Page.

The music is come, sir. 244

Fal.

Let them play. Play, sirs. Sit on my knee, Doll. A rascal bragging slave! the rogue fled from me like quicksilver.

Dol.

Quick.

Who knocks so loud at door? Look to the door there, Francis.

Enter Peto.

Prince.

Peto, how now! what news? 388

Peto.

The king your father is at Westminster;

And there are twenty weak and wearied posts

Come from the north: and as I came along,

I met and overtook a dozen captains, 392

Bare-headed, sweating, knocking at the taverns,

And asking every one for Sir John Falstaff.

Prince.

By heaven, Poins, I feel me much to blame,

So idly to profane the precious time, 396

When tempest of commotion, like the south,

Borne with black vapour, doth begin to melt

And drop upon our bare unarmed heads.

Give me my sword and cloak. Falstaff, good night.

[Exeunt the Prince, Poins, Peto, and Bardolph.

Fal.

Now comes in the sweetest morsel of the night, and we must hence and leave it unpicked. [Knocking within.] More knocking at the door! 404

Re-enter Bardolph.

How now! what’s the matter?

Bard.

You must away to court, sir, presently;

A dozen captains stay at door for you. 407

Fal.

[To the Page]. Pay the musicians, sirrah. Farewell, hostess; farewell, Doll. You see, my good wenches, how men of merit are sought after: the undeserver may sleep when the man of action is called on. Farewell, good wenches. If I be not sent away post, I will see you again ere I go. 414

Dol.

I cannot speak; if my heart be not ready to burst,—well, sweet Jack, have a care of thyself. 417

Fal.

But, ere they come, bid them o’er-read these letters,

And well consider of them. Make good speed.

[Exit Page.

How many thousand of my poorest subjects 4

Are at this hour asleep! O sleep! O gentle sleep!

Nature’s soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,

That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down

And steep my senses in forgetfulness? 8

Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,

Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,

And hush’d with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,

Than in the perfum’d chambers of the great, 12

Under the canopies of costly state,

And lull’d with sound of sweetest melody?

O thou dull god! why liest thou with the vile

In loathsome beds, and leav’st the kingly couch

A watch-case or a common ’larum bell? 17

Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast

Seel up the ship-boy’s eyes, and rock his brains

In cradle of the rude imperious surge, 20

And in the visitation of the winds,

Who take the ruffian billows by the top,

Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them

With deaf’ning clamour in the slippery clouds,

That with the hurly death itself awakes? 25

Canst thou, O partial sleep! give thy repose

To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,

And in the calmest and most stillest night, 28

With all appliances and means to boot,

Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down!

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

Enter Warwick and Surrey.

War.

Many good morrows to your majesty!

K. Hen.

Is it good morrow, lords? 33

War.

’Tis one o’clock, and past.

K. Hen.

Why then, good morrow to you all, my lords.

Have you read o’er the letters that I sent you?

War.

We have, my liege. 37

K. Hen.

Then you perceive the body of our kingdom,

How foul it is; what rank diseases grow,

And with what danger, near the heart of it. 40

War.

It is but as a body, yet, distemper’d,

Which to his former strength may be restor’d

With good advice and little medicine:

My Lord Northumberland will soon be cool’d. 44

K. Hen.

O God! that one might read the book of fate,

And see the revolution of the times

Make mountains level, and the continent,—

Weary of solid firmness,—melt itself 48

Into the sea! and, other times, to see

The beachy girdle of the ocean

Too wide for Neptune’s hips; how chances mock,

And changes fill the cup of alteration 52

With divers liquors! O! if this were seen,

The happiest youth, viewing his progress through,

What perils past, what crosses to ensue,

Would shut the book, and sit him down and die.

’Tis not ten years gone 57

Since Richard and Northumberland, great friends,

Did feast together, and in two years after

Were they at wars: it is but eight years since 60

This Percy was the man nearest my soul,

Who like a brother toil’d in my affairs

And laid his love and life under my foot;

Yea, for my sake, even to the eyes of Richard 64

Gave him defiance. But which of you was by,—

[To Warwick.] You, cousin Nevil, as I may remember,—

When Richard, with his eye brimful of tears,

Then check’d and rated by Northumberland, 68

Did speak these words, now prov’d a prophecy?

‘Northumberland, thou ladder, by the which

My cousin Bolingbroke ascends my throne;’

Though then, God knows, I had no such intent,

But that necessity so bow’d the state 73

That I and greatness were compelled to kiss:

‘The time shall come,’ thus did he follow it,

‘The time will come, that foul sin, gathering head, 76

Shall break into corruption:’—so went on,

Foretelling this same time’s condition

And the division of our amity.

War.

There is a history in all men’s lives, 80

Figuring the nature of the times deceas’d;

The which observ’d, a man may prophesy,

With a near aim, of the main chance of things

As yet not come to life, which in their seeds 84

And weak leginnings lie intreasured.

Such things become the hatch and brood of time;

And by the necessary form of this

King Richard might create a perfect guess 88

That great Northumberland, then false to him,

Would of that seed grow to a greater falseness,

Which should not find a ground to root upon,

Unless on you.

K. Hen.

Are these things then necessities?

Then let us meet them like necessities; 93

And that same word even now cries out on us.

They say the bishop and Northumberland

Are fifty thousand strong.

War.

It cannot be, my lord!

Rumour doth double, like the voice and echo, 97

The numbers of the fear’d. Please it your Grace

To go to bed: upon my soul, my lord,

The powers that you already have sent forth 100

Shall bring this prize in very easily.

To comfort you the more, I have receiv’d

A certain instance that Glendower is dead.

Your majesty hath been this fortnight ill, 104

And these unseason’d hours perforce must add

Unto your sickness.

K. Hen.

I will take your counsel:

Bard.

Pardon me, sir; I have heard the word. ‘Phrase,’ call you it? By this good day, I know not the phrase; but I will maintain the word with my sword to be a soldier-like word, and a word of exceeding good command, by heaven. Accommodated; that is, when a man is, as they say, accommodated; or, when a man is, being, whereby, a’ may be thought to be accommodated, which is an excellent thing. 89

Fal.

Shal.

That we have, that we have, that we have; in faith, Sir John, we have. Our watchword was, ‘Hem, boys!’ Come, let’s to dinner; come, let’s to dinner. Jesus, the days that we have seen! Come, come. 237

[Exeunt Falstaff, Shallow, and Silence.

Bull.

Good Master Corporate Bardolph, stand my friend, and here’s four Harry ten shillings in French crowns for you. In very truth, sir, I had as lief be hanged, sir, as go: and yet, for mine own part, sir, I do not care; but rather, because I am unwilling, and, for mine own part, have a desire to stay with my friends: else, sir, I did not care, for mine own part, so much. 245

Bard.

Go to; stand aside.

Moul.

And, good Master corporal captain, for my old dame’s sake, stand my friend: she has nobody to do any thing about her, when I am gone; and she is old, and cannot help herself. You shall have forty, sir.

Bard.

Go to; stand aside. 252

Fee.

By my troth, I care not; a man can die but once; we owe God a death. I’ll ne’er bear a base mind: an’t be my destiny, so; an’t be not, so. No man’s too good to serve’s prince; and let it go which way it will, he that dies this year is quit for the next.

Bard.

Well said; thou’rt a good fellow.

Fee.

Here stand, my lords, and send discovers forth,

To know the numbers of our enemies. 4

Hast.

We have sent forth already.

Arch.

’Tis well done.

My friends and brethren in these great affairs,

I must acquaint you that I have receiv’d

New-dated letters from Northumberland; 8

Their cold intent, tenour and substance, thus:

Here doth he wish his person, with such powers

As might hold sortance with his quality;

The which he could not levy; whereupon 12

He is retir’d, to ripe his growing fortunes,

To Scotland; and concludes in hearty prayers

That your attempts may overlive the hazard

And fearful meeting of their opposite. 16

Mowb.

Thus do the hopes we have in him touch ground

And dash themselves to pieces.

Enter a Messenger.

Hast.

Now, what news?

Mess.

West of this forest, scarcely off a mile,

In goodly form comes on the enemy; 20

And, by the ground they hide, I judge their number

Upon or near the rate of thirty thousand.

Mowb.

The just proportion that we gave them out.

Let us sway on and face them in the field. 24

Enter Westmoreland.

Arch.

What well-appointed leader fronts us here?

Mowb.

I think it is my Lord of Westmoreland.

West.

Health and fair greeting from our general.

The Prince, Lord John and Duke of Lancaster.

Arch.

Say on, my Lord of Westmoreland, in peace, 29

What doth concern your coming.

West.

Then, my lord,

Unto your Grace do I in chief address

The substance of my speech. If that rebellion

Came like itself, in base and abject routs, 33

Led on by bloody youth, guarded with rags,

And countenanc’d by boys and beggary;

I say, if damn’d commotion so appear’d, 36

In his true, native, and most proper shape,

You, reverend father, and these noble lords

Had not been here, to dress the ugly form

Of base and bloody insurrection 40

With your fair honours. You, lord archbishop,

Whose see is by a civil peace maintain’d,

Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touch’d,

Whose learning and good letters peace hath tutor’d, 44

Whose white investments figure innocence,

The dove and very blessed spirit of peace,

Wherefore do you so ill translate yourself

Out of the speech of peace that bears such grace

Into the harsh and boisterous tongue of war; 49

Turning your books to greaves, your ink to blood,

Your pens to lances, and your tongue divine

To a loud trumpet and a point of war? 52

Arch.

Wherefore do I this? so the question stands.

Briefly to this end: we are all diseas’d;

And, with our surfeiting and wanton hours

Have brought ourselves into a burning fever, 56

And we must bleed for it: of which disease

Our late king, Richard, being infected, died.

But, my most noble Lord of Westmoreland,

I take not on me here as a physician, 60

Nor do I as an enemy to peace

Troop in the throngs of military men;

But rather show a while like fearful war,

To diet rank minds sick of happiness 64

And purge the obstructions which begin to stop

Our very veins of life. Hear me more plainly:

I have in equal balance justly weigh’d

What wrongs our arms may do, what wrongs we suffer, 68

And find our griefs heavier than our offences.

We see which way the stream of time doth run

And are enforc’d from our most quiet sphere

By the rough torrent of occasion; 72

And have the summary of all our griefs,

When time shall serve, to show in articles,

Which long ere this we offer’d to the king,

And might by no suit gain our audience. 76

When we are wrong’d and would unfold our griefs,

We are denied access unto his person

Even by those men that most have done us wrong.

The dangers of the days but newly gone,— 80

Whose memory is written on the earth

With yet appearing blood,—and the examples

Of every minute’s instance, present now,

Have put us in these ill-beseeming arms; 84

Not to break peace, or any branch of it,

But to establish here a peace indeed,

Concurring both in name and quality.

West.

When ever yet was your appeal denied?

Wherein have you been galled by the king? 89

What peer hath been suborn’d to grate on you,

That you should seal this lawless bloody book

Of forg’d rebellion with a seal divine, 92

And consecrate commotion’s bitter edge?

Arch.

My brother general, the commonwealth,

To brother born an household cruelty,

I make my quarrel in particular. 96

West.

There is no need of any such redress;

Or if there were, it not belongs to you.

Mowb.

Why not to him in part, and to us all

That feel the bruises of the days before, 100

And suffer the condition of these times

To lay a heavy and unequal hand

Upon our honours?

West.

O! my good Lord Mowbray,

Construe the times to their necessities, 104

And you shall say indeed, it is the time,

And not the king, that doth you injuries.

Yet, for your part, it not appears to me

Either from the king or in the present time 108

That you should have an inch of any ground

To build a grief on: were you not restor’d

To all the Duke of Norfolk’s signories,

Your noble and right well-remember’d father’s?

Mowb.

What thing, in honour, had my father lost, 113

That need to be reviv’d and breath’d in me?

The king that lov’d him as the state stood then,

Was force perforce compell’d to banish him:

And then that Harry Bolingbroke and he, 117

Being mounted and both roused in their seats,

Their neighing coursers daring of the spur,

Their armed staves in charge, their beavers down,

Their eyes of fire sparkling through sights of steel, 121

And the loud trumpet blowing them together,

Then, then, when there was nothing could have stay’d

My father from the breast of Bolingbroke, 124

O! when the king did throw his warder down,

His own life hung upon the staff he threw;

Then threw he down himself and all their lives

That by indictment and by dint of sword 128

Have since miscarried under Bolingbroke.

West.

You speak, Lord Mowbray, now you know not what.

The Earl of Hereford was reputed then

In England the most valiant gentleman: 132

Who knows on whom Fortune would then have smil’d?

But if your father had been victor there,

He ne’er had borne it out of Coventry;

For all the country in a general voice 136

Cried hate upon him; and all their prayers and love

Were set on Hereford, whom they doted on

And bless’d and grac’d indeed, more than the king.

But this is mere digression from my purpose. 140

Here come I from our princely general

To know your griefs; to tell you from his Grace

That he will give you audience; and wherein

It shall appear that your demands are just, 144

You shall enjoy them; every thing set off

That might so much as think you enemies.

Mowb.

But he hath forc’d us to compel this offer,

And it proceeds from policy, not love. 148

West.

Mowbray, you overween to take it so.

This offer comes from mercy, not from fear:

For, lo! within a ken our army lies

Upon mine honour, all too confident 152

To give admittance to a thought of fear.

Our battle is more full of names than yours,

Our men more perfect in the use of arms,

Our armour all as strong, our cause the best;

Then reason will our hearts should be as good:

Say you not then our offer is compell’d.

Mowb.

Well, by my will we shall admit no parley.

West.

That argues but the shame of your offence: 160

A rotten case abides no handling.

Hast.

Hath the Prince John a full commission,

In very ample virtue of his father,

To hear and absolutely to determine 164

Of what conditions we shall stand upon?

West.

That is intended in the general’s name.

I muse you make so slight a question.

Arch.

Then take, my Lord of Westmoreland, this schedule, 168

For this contains our general grievances:

Each several article herein redress’d;

All members of our cause, both here and hence,

That are insinew’d to this action, 172

Acquitted by a true substantial form

And present execution of our wills

To us and to our purposes consign’d;

We come within our awful banks again 176

And knit our powers to the arm of peace.

West.

This will I show the general. Please you, lords,

In sight of both our battles we may meet;

And either end in peace, which God so frame!

Or to the place of difference call the swords 181

Which must decide it.

Arch.

My lord, we will do so.

[Exit Westmoreland.

Mowb.

There is a thing within my bosom tells me

That no conditions of our peace can stand. 184

Hast.

Fear you not that: if we can make our peace

Upon such large terms, and so absolute

As our condition shall consist upon,

Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.

Mowb.

Yea, but our valuation shall be such

That every slight and false-derived cause,

Yea, every idle, nice, and wanton reason

Shall to the king taste of this action; 192

That, were our royal faiths martyrs in love,

We shall be winnow’d with so rough a wind

That even our corn shall seem as light as chaff

And good from bad find no partition. 196

Arch.

No, no, my lord. Note this; the king is weary

Of dainty and such picking grievances:

For he hath found to end one doubt by death

Revives two greater in the heirs of life; 200

And therefore will he wipe his tables clean,

And keep no tell-tale to his memory

That may repeat and history his loss

To new remembrance; for full well he knows

He cannot so precisely weed this land 205

As his misdoubts present occasion:

His foes are so enrooted with his friends

That, plucking to unfix an enemy, 208

He doth unfasten so and shake a friend.

So that this land, like an offensive wife,

That hath enrag’d him on to offer strokes,

As he is striking, holds his infant up 212

And hangs resolv’d correction in the arm

That was uprear’d to execution.

Hast.

Besides, the king hath wasted all his rods

On late offenders, that he now doth lack 216

The very instruments of chastisement;

So that his power, like to a fangless lion,

May offer, but not hold.

Arch.

’Tis very true:

And therefore be assur’d, my good lord marshal,

If we do now make our atonement well, 221

Our peace will, like a broken limb united,

Grow stronger for the breaking.

Mowb.

Be it so.

Here is return’d my Lord of Westmoreland. 224

Re-enter Westmoreland.

West.

The prince is here at hand: pleaseth your lordship,

To meet his Grace just distance ’tween our armies?

Mowb.

Your Grace of York, in God’s name then, set forward.

Arch.

Before, and greet his Grace: my lord, we come.

[Exeunt.

Scene II.— Another Part of the Forest.

Enter, from one side, Mowbray, the Archbishop, Hastings, and Others: from the other side, John of Lancaster, Westmoreland, Officers, and Attendants.

Lanc.

You are well encounter’d here, my cousin Mowbray:

Good day to you, gentle lord archbishop;

And so to you, Lord Hastings, and to all.

My Lord of York, it better show’d with you, 4

When that your flock, assembled by the bell,

Encircled you to hear with reverence

Your exposition on the holy text

Than now to see you here an iron man, 8

Cheering a rout of rebels with your drum,

Turning the word to sword and life to death.

That man that sits within a monarch’s heart

And ripens in the sunshine of his favour, 12

Would he abuse the countenance of the king,

Alack! what mischief might he set abroach

In shadow of such greatness. With you, lord bishop,

It is even so. Who hath not heard it spoken 16

How deep you were within the books of God?

To us, the speaker in his parliament;

To us the imagin’d voice of God himself;

The very opener and intelligencer 20

Between the grace, the sanctities of heaven,

And our dull workings. O! who shall believe

But you misuse the reverence of your place,

Employ the countenance and grace of heaven, 24

As a false favourite doth his prince’s name,

In deeds dishonourable? You have taken up,

Under the counterfeited zeal of God,

The subjects of his substitute, my father; 28

And both against the peace of heaven and him

Have here upswarm’d them.

Arch.

Good my Lord of Lancaster,

I am not here against your father’s peace;

But, as I told my Lord of Westmoreland, 32

The time misorder’d doth, in common sense,

Crowd us and crush us to this monstrous form,

To hold our safety up. I sent your Grace

The parcels and particulars of our grief,— 36

The which hath been with scorn shov’d from the court,—

Whereon this Hydra son of war is born;

Whose dangerous eyes may well be charm’d asleep

With grant of our most just and right desires, 40

And true obedience, of this madness cur’d,

Stoop tamely to the foot of majesty.

Mowb.

If not, we ready are to try our fortunes

To the last man.

Hast.

And though we here fall down, 44

We have supplies to second our attempt:

If they miscarry, theirs shall second them;

And so success of mischief shall be born,

And heir from heir shall hold this quarrel up 48

Whiles England shall have generation.

Lanc.

You are too shallow, Hastings, much too shallow,

To sound the bottom of the after-times.

West.

Pleaseth your Grace, to answer them directly 52

How far forth you do like their articles.

Lanc.

I like them all, and do allow them well;

And swear here, by the honour of my blood,

My father’s purposes have been mistook, 56

And some about him have too lavishly

Wrested his meaning and authority.

My lord, these griefs shall be with speed redress’d;

Upon my soul, they shall. If this may please you, 60

Discharge your powers unto their several counties,

As we will ours: and here between the armies

Let’s drink together friendly and embrace,

That all their eyes may bear those tokens home

Of our restored love and amity. 65

Arch.

I take your princely word for these redresses.

Lanc.

I give it you, and will maintain my word:

And thereupon I drink unto your Grace. 68

Hast.

[To an Officer.] Go, captain, and deliver to the army

This news of peace: let them have pay, and part:

I know it will well please them: hie thee, captain.

[Exit Officer.

Arch.

To you, my noble Lord of Westmoreland. 72

West.

I pledge your Grace: and, if you knew what pains

I have bestow’d to breed this present peace,

You would drink freely; but my love to you

Shall show itself more openly hereafter. 76

Arch.

I do not doubt you.

West.

I am glad of it.

Health to my lord and gentle cousin, Mowbray.

Mowb.

You wish me health in very happy season;

For I am, on the sudden, something ill. 80

Arch.

Against ill chances men are ever merry,

But heaviness foreruns the good event.

West.

Therefore be merry, coz; since sudden sorrow

Serves to say thus, Some good thing comes to morrow. 84

Arch.

Believe me, I am passing light in spirit.

Mowb.

So much the worse if your own rule be true.

[Shouts within.

Lanc.

The word of peace is render’d: hark, how they shout! 87

Mowb.

This had been cheerful, after victory.

Arch.

A peace is of the nature of a conquest;

For then both parties nobly are subdu’d,

And neither party loser.

Lanc.

Go, my lord,

And let our army be discharged too. 92

[Exit Westmoreland.

And, good my lord, so please you, let our trains

March by us, that we may peruse the men

We should have cop’d withal.

Arch.

Go, good Lord Hastings, 96

And, ere they be dismiss’d, let them march by.

[Exit Hastings.

Lanc.

I trust, lords, we shall lie to-night together.

Re-enter Westmoreland.

Now, cousin, wherefore stands our army still?

West.

The leaders, having charge from you to stand, 100

Will not go off until they hear you speak.

Lanc.

They know their duties.

Re-enter Hastings.

Hast.

My lord, our army is dispers’d already:

Like youthful steers unyok’d, they take their courses 104

East, west, north, south; or, like a school broke up,

Each hurries toward his home and sporting-place.

West.

Good tidings, my Lord Hastings; for the which

I do arrest thee, traitor, of high treason: 108

And you, lord archbishop, and you, Lord Mowbray,

Of capital treason I attach you both.

Mowb.

Is this proceeding just and honourable?

West.

Is your assembly so? 112

Arch.

Will you thus break your faith?

Lanc.

I pawn’d thee none.

I promis’d you redress of these same grievances

Whereof you did complain; which, by mine honour,

I will perform with a most Christian care. 116

But for you, rebels, look to taste the due

Meet for rebellion and such acts as yours.

Most shallowly did you these arms commence,

Fondly brought here and foolishly sent hence.

Strike up our drums! pursue the scatter’d stray:

God, and not we, hath safely fought to-day.

Some guard these traitors to the block of death;

Treason’s true bed, and yielder up of breath. 124

I have a whole school of tongues in this belly of mine, and not a tongue of them all speaks any other word but my name. An I had but a belly of any indifferency, I were simply the most active fellow in Europe: my womb, my womb, my womb undoes me. Here comes our general. 26

Enter John of Lancaster, Westmoreland, Blunt, and Others.

Lanc.

The heat is past, follow no further now.

Call in the powers, good cousin Westmoreland.

[Exit Westmoreland.

Now, Falstaff, where have you been all this while? 29

And a famous true subject took him.

Cole.

I am, my lord, but as my betters are

That led me hither: had they been rul’d by me 72

You should have won them dearer than you have.

Fal.

I know not how they sold themselves: but thou, like a kind fellow, gavest thyself away gratis, and I thank thee for thee. 76

Re-enter Westmoreland.

Lanc.

Have you left pursuit?

West.

Retreat is made and execution stay’d.

Lanc.

Send Colevile with his confederates

To York, to present execution. 80

Blunt, lead him hence, and see you guard him sure.

[Exit Blunt and Others with Colevile, guarded.

And now dispatch we toward the court, my lords:

I hear, the king my father is sore sick:

Our news shall go before us to his majesty, 84

Which, cousin [addressing Westmoreland], you shall bear, to comfort him;

And we with sober speed will follow you.

Fal.

My lord, I beseech you, give me leave to go,

Through Gloucestershire, and when you come to court 88

Stand my good lord, pray, in your good report.

Lanc.

Fare you well, Falstaff: I, in my condition,

Shall better speak of you than you deserve. 91

[Exeunt all but Falstaff.

Fal.

I would you had but the wit: ’twere better than your dukedom. Good faith, this same young sober-blooded boy doth not love me; nor a man cannot make him laugh; but that’s no marvel, he drinks no wine. There’s never none of these demure boys come to any proof; for thin drink doth so over-cool their blood, and making many fish-meals, that they fall into a kind of male green-sickness; and then, when they marry, they get wenches. They are generally fools and cowards, which some of us should be too but for inflammation. A good sherris-sack hath a two-fold operation in it. It ascends me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish and dull and crudy vapours which environ it; makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble fiery and delectable shapes; which, deliver’d o’er to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit. The second property of your excellent sherris is, the warming of the blood; which, before cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice: but the sherris warms it and makes it course from the inwards to the parts extreme. It illumineth the face, which, as a beacon, gives warning to all the rest of this little kingdom, man, to arm; and then the vital commoners and inland petty spirits muster me all to their captain, the heart, who, great and puffed up with this retinue, doth any deed of courage; and this valour comes of sherris. So that skill in the weapon is nothing without sack, for that sets it a-work; and leaining, a mere hoard of gold kept by a devil till sack commences it and sets it in act and use. Hereof comes it that Prince Harry is valiant; for the cold blood he did naturally inherit of his father, he hath, like lean, sterile, and bare land, manured, husbanded, and tilled, with excellent endeavour of drinking good and good store of fertile sherris, that he is become very hot and valiant. If I had a thousand sons, the first human principle I would teach them should be, to forswear thin potations and to addict themselves to sack. 136

Enter Bardolph.

How now, Bardolph?

Bard.

The army is discharged all and gone.

Fal.

Let them go. I’ll through Gloucestershire; and there will I visit Master Robert Shallow, esquire: I have him already tempering between my finger and my thumb, and shortly will I seal with him. Come away.

[Exeunt.

Scene IV.— Westminster. The Jerusalem Chamber.

Enter King Henry, Clarence, Gloucester, Warwick, and Others.

K. Hen.

Now, lords, if God doth give successful end

To this debate that bleedeth at our doors,

We will our youth lead on to higher fields

And draw no swords but what are sanctified. 4

Our navy is address’d, our power collected,

Our substitutes in absence well invested,

And everything lies level to our wish:

Only, we want a little personal strength; 8

And pause us, till these rebels, now afoot,

Come underneath the yoke of government.

War.

Both which we doubt not but your majesty

Shall soon enjoy.

K. Hen.

Humphrey, my son of Gloucester,

Where is the prince your brother? 13

Glo.

I think he’s gone to hunt, my lord, at Windsor.

K. Hen.

And how accompanied?

Glo.

I do not know, my lord.

K. Hen.

Is not his brother Thomas of Clarence with him? 16

Glo.

No, my good lord; he is in presence here.

Cla.

What would my lord and father?

K. Hen.

Nothing but well to thee, Thomas of Clarence.

How chance thou art not with the prince thy brother? 20

He loves thee, and thou dost neglect him, Thomas;

Thou hast a better place in his affection

Than all thy brothers: cherish it, my boy,

And noble offices thou mayst effect 24

Of mediation, after I am dead,

Between his greatness and thy other brethren:

Therefore omit him not; blunt not his love,

Nor lose the good advantage of his grace 28

By seeming cold or careless of his will;

For he is gracious, if he be observ’d:

He hath a tear for pity and a hand

Open as day for melting charity; 32

Yet, notwithstanding, being incens’d, he’s flint;

As humorous as winter, and as sudden

As flaws congealed in the spring of day.

His temper therefore must be well observ’d: 36

Chide him for faults, and do it reverently,

When you perceive his blood inclin’d to mirth;

But, being moody, give him line and scope,

Till that his passions, like a whale on ground, 40

Confound themselves with working. Learn this, Thomas,

And thou shalt prove a shelter to thy friends,

A hoop of gold to bind thy brothers in,

That the united vessel of their blood, 44

Mingled with venom of suggestion—

As, force perforce, the age will pour it in—

Shall never leak, though it do work as strong

Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds;

And he, the noble image of my youth,

Is overspread with them: therefore my grief 56

Stretches itself beyond the hour of death:

The blood weeps from my heart when I do shape

In forms imaginary the unguided days

And rotten times that you shall look upon 60

When I am sleeping with my ancestors.

For when his headstrong riot hath no curb,

When rage and hot blood are his counsellors,

When means and lavish manners meet together,

O! with what wings shall his affections fly 65

Towards fronting peril and oppos’d decay.

War.

My gracious lord, you look beyond him quite:

The prince but studies his companions 68

Like a strange tongue, wherein, to gain the language,

’Tis needful that the most immodest word

Be look’d upon, and learn’d; which once attain’d,

Your highness knows, comes to no further use 72

But to be known and hated. So, like gross terms,

The prince will in the perfectness of time

Cast off his followers; and their memory

Shall as a pattern or a measure live, 76

By which his Grace must mete the lives of others,

Turning past evils to advantages.

K. Hen.

’Tis seldom when the bee doth leave her comb

In the dead carrion.

Enter Westmoreland.

Who’s here? Westmoreland! 80

West.

Health to my sovereign, and new happiness

Added to that that I am to deliver!

Prince John your son doth kiss your Grace’s hand:

Mowbray, the Bishop Scroop, Hastings and all

Are brought to the correction of your law. 85

There is not now a rebel’s sword unsheath’d,

But Peace puts forth her olive everywhere.

The manner how this action hath been borne 88

Here at more leisure may your highness read,

With every course in his particular.

K. Hen.

O Westmoreland! thou art a summer bird,

Which ever in the haunch of winter sings 92

The lifting up of day.

Enter Harcourt.

Look! here’s more news.

Har.

From enemies heaven keep your majesty;

And, when they stand against you, may they fall

As those that I am come to tell you of! 96

The Earl Northumberland, and the Lord Bardolph,

With a great power of English and of Scots,

Are by the sheriff of Yorkshire overthrown.

The manner and true order of the fight 100

This packet, please it you, contains at large.

K. Hen.

And wherefore should these good news make me sick?

Will Fortune never come with both hands full

But write her fair words still in foulest letters?

She either gives a stomach and no food; 105

Such are the poor, in health; or else a feast

And takes away the stomach; such are the rich,

That have abundance and enjoy it not. 108

I should rejoice now at this happy news,

And now my sight fails, and my brain is giddy.

O me! come near me, now I am much ill.

Glo.

Comfort, your majesty!

Cla.

O my royal father! 112

West.

My sovereign lord, cheer up yourself: look up!

War.

Be patient, princes: you do know these fits

Are with his highness very ordinary:

Stand from him, give him air; he’ll straight be well. 116

Cla.

No, no; he cannot long hold out these pangs:

The incessant care and labour of his mind

Hath wrought the mure that should confine it in

So thin, that life looks through and will break out. 120

Glo.

The people fear me; for they do observe

Unfather’d heirs and loathly births of nature:

The seasons change their manners, as the year

Had found some months asleep and leap’d them over. 124

Cla.

The river hath thrice flow’d, no ebb between;

And the old folk, time’s doting chronicles,

Say it did so a little time before

That our great-grandsire, Edward, sick’d and died. 128

War.

Speak lower, princes, for the king recovers.

Glo.

This apoplexy will certain be his end.

K. Hen.

I pray you take me up, and bear me hence

Into some other chamber: softly, pray. 132

Scene V.— Another Chamber.

King Henry lying on a bed Clarence, Gloucester, Warwick, and Others in attendance.

K. Hen.

Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends;

Unless some dull and favourable hand

Will whisper music to my weary spirit.

War.

Call for the music in the other room. 4

K. Hen.

Set me the crown upon my pillow here.

Cla.

His eye is hollow, and he changes much.

War.

Less noise, less noise!

Enter the Prince.

If he be sick with joy, he will recover without physic.

War.

Not so much noise, my lords. Sweet prince, speak low;

The king your father is dispos’d to sleep. 16

Cla.

Let us withdraw into the other room.

War.

Will’t please your Grace to go along with us?

Prince.

No; I will sit and watch here by the king.

[Exeunt all but the Prince.

Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow, 20

Being so troublesome a bedfellow?

O polish’d perturbation! golden care!

That keep’st the ports of slumber open wide

To many a watchful night! Sleep with it now!

Yet not so sound, and half so deeply sweet 25

As he whose brow with homely biggin bound

Snores out the watch of night. O majesty!

When thou dost pinch thy bearer, thou dost sit

Like a rich armour worn in heat of day, 29

That scalds with safety. By his gates of breath

There lies a downy feather which stirs not:

Did he suspire, that light and weightless down

Perforce must move. My gracious lord! my father! 33

This sleep is sound indeed; this is a sleep

That from this golden rigol hath divorc’d

So many English kings. Thy due from me 36

Is tears and heavy sorrows of the blood,

Which nature, love, and filial tenderness

Shall, O dear father! pay thee plenteously:

My due from thee is this imperial crown, 40

Which, as immediate from thy place and blood,

Derives itself to me. Lo! here it sits,

[Putting it on his head.

Which heaven shall guard; and put the world’s whole strength

Into one giant arm, it shall not force 44

This lineal honour from me. This from thee

Will I to mine leave, as ’tis left to me.

[Exit.

K. Hen.

[Waking.] Warwick! Gloucester! Clarence!

Re-enter Warwick, Gloucester, Clarence, and the rest.

Cla.

Doth the king call?

War.

What would your majesty? How fares your Grace? 48

K. Hen.

Why did you leave me here alone, my lords?

Cla.

We left the prince my brother here, my liege,

Who undertook to sit and watch by you.

K. Hen.

The Prince of Wales! Where is he? let me see him: 52

He is not here.

War.

This door is open; he is gone this way.

Glo.

He came not through the chamber where we stay’d.

K. Hen.

Where is the crown? who took it from my pillow? 56

War.

When we withdrew, my liege, we left it here.

K. Hen.

The prince hath ta’en it hence: go, seek him out.

Is he so hasty that he doth suppose

My sleep my death? 60

Find him, my Lord of Warwick; chide him hither.

[Exit Warwick.

This part of his conjoins with my disease,

And helps to end me. See, sons, what things you are!

How quickly nature falls into revolt 64

When gold becomes her object!

For this the foolish over-careful fathers

Have broke their sleeps with thoughts,

Their brains with care, their bones with industry; 68

For this they have engrossed and pil’d up

The canker’d heaps of strange-achieved gold;

For this they have been thoughtful to invest

Their sons with arts and martial exercises: 72

When, like the bee, culling from every flower

The virtuous sweets,

Our thighs packed with wax, our mouths with honey,

We bring it to the hive, and like the bees, 76

Are murder’d for our pains. This bitter taste

Yield his engrossments to the ending father.

Re-enter Warwick.

Now, where is he that will not stay so long

Till his friend sickness hath determin’d me? 80

War.

My lord, I found the prince in the next room,

Washing with kindly tears his gentle cheeks,

With such a deep demeanour in great sorrow

That tyranny, which never quaff’d but blood, 84

Would, by beholding him, have wash’d his knife

With gentle eye-drops. He is coming hither.

K. Hen.

But wherefore did he take away the crown?

Re-enter the Prince.

Lo, where he comes. Come hither to me, Harry.

Depart the chamber, leave us here alone. 89

[Exeunt Warwick, and the rest.

Prince.

I never thought to hear you speak again.

K. Hen.

Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought:

I stay too long by thee, I weary thee. 92

Dost thou so hunger for my empty chair

That thou wilt needs invest thee with mine honours

Before thy hour be ripe? O foolish youth!

Thou seek’st the greatness that will overwhelm thee. 96

Stay but a little; for my cloud of dignity

Is held from falling with so weak a wind

That it will quickly drop: my day is dim.

Thou hast stol’n that which after some few hours 100

Were thine without offence; and at my death

Thou hast seal’d up my expectation:

Thy life did manifest thou lov’dst me not,

And thou wilt have me die assur’d of it. 104

Thou hid’st a thousand daggers in thy thoughts,

Which thou hast whetted on thy stony heart,

To stab at half an hour of my life.

What! canst thou not forbear me half an hour?

Then get thee gone and dig my grave thyself, 109

And bid the merry bells ring to thine ear

That thou art crowned, not that I am dead.

Let all the tears that should bedew my hearse

Be drops of balm to sanctify thy head: 113

Only compound me with forgotten dust;

Give that which gave thee life unto the worms.

Pluck down my officers, break my decrees;

For now a time is come to mock at form. 117

Harry the Fifth is crown’d! Up, vanity!

Down, royal state! all you sage counsellors, hence!

And to the English court assemble now, 120

From every region, apes of idleness!

Now, neighbour confines, purge you of your scum:

Have you a ruffian that will swear, drink, dance,

Revel the night, rob, murder, and commit 124

The oldest sins the newest kind of ways?

Be happy, he will trouble you no more:

England shall double gild his treble guilt.

England shall give him office, honour, might;

For the fifth Harry from curb’d licence plucks

The muzzle of restraint, and the wild dog

Shall flesh his tooth in every innocent.

O my poor kingdom! sick with civil blows. 132

When that my care could not withhold thy riots,

What wilt thou do when riot is thy care?

O! thou wilt be a wilderness again,

Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants. 136

Prince.

O! pardon me, my liege; but for my tears,

The moist impediments unto my speech,

I had forestall’d this dear and deep rebuke

Ere you with grief had spoke and I had heard

The course of it so far. There is your crown;

And he that wears the crown immortally

Long guard it yours! If I affect it more

Than as your honour and as your renown, 144

Let me no more from this obedience rise,—

Which my most true and inward duteous spirit

Teacheth,—this prostrate and exterior bending.

God witness with me, when I here came in, 148

And found no course of breath within your majesty,

How cold it struck my heart! if I do feign,

O! let me in my present wildness die

And never live to show the incredulous world

The noble change that I have purposed. 153

Coming to look on you, thinking you dead,

And dead almost, my liege, to think you were,

I spake unto the crown as having sense, 156

And thus upbraided it: ‘The care on thee depending

Hath fed upon the body of my father;

Therefore, thou best of gold art worst of gold:

Other, less fine in carat, is more precious, 160

Preserving life in medicine potable:

But thou most fine, most honour’d, most renown’d,

Hast eat thy bearer up.’ Thus, my most royal liege,

Accusing it, I put it on my head, 164

To try with it, as with an enemy

That had before my face murder’d my father,

The quarrel of a true inheritor.

But if it did infect my blood with joy, 168

Or swell my thoughts to any strain of pride;

If any rebel or vain spirit of mine

Did with the least affection of a welcome

Give entertainment to the might of it, 172

Let God for ever keep it from my head,

And make me as the poorest vassal is

That doth with awe and terror kneel to it!

K. Hen.

O my son! 176

God put it in thy mind to take it hence,

That thou mightst win the more thy father’s love,

Pleading so wisely in excuse of it.

Come hither, Harry: sit thou by my bed; 180

And hear, I think, the very latest counsel

That ever I shall breathe. God knows, my son,

By what by-paths and indirect crook’d ways

I met this crown; and I myself know well 184

How troublesome it sat upon my head:

To thee it shall descend with better quiet,

Better opinion, better confirmation;

For all the soil of the achievement goes 188

With me into the earth. It seem’d in me

But as an honour snatch’d with boisterous hand,

And I had many living to upbraid

My gain of it by their assistances; 192

Which daily grew to quarrel and to bloodshed,

Wounding supposed peace. All these bold fears

Thou seest with peril I have answered;

For all my reign hath been but as a scene 196

Acting that argument; and now my death

Changes the mode: for what in me was purchas’d,

Falls upon thee in a more fairer sort;

So thou the garment wear’st successively. 200

Yet, though thou stand’st more sure than I could do,

Thou art not firm enough, since griefs are green;

And all my friends, which thou must make thy friends,

Have but their stings and teeth newly ta’en out;

By whose fell working I was first advanc’d, 205

And by whose power I well might lodge a fear

To be again displac’d: which to avoid,

I cut them off; and had a purpose now 208

To lead out many to the Holy Land,

Lest rest and lying still might make them look

Too near unto my state. Therefore, my Harry,

Be it thy course to busy giddy minds 212

With foreign quarrels; that action, hence borne out,

May waste the memory of the former days.

More would I, but my lungs are wasted so

That strength of speech is utterly denied me. 216

How I came by the crown, O God, forgive!

And grant it may with thee in true peace live.

Prince.

My gracious liege,

You won it, wore it, kept it, gave it me; 220

Then plain and right must my possession be:

Which I with more than with a common pain

’Gainst all the world will rightfully maintain.

Enter John of Lancaster.

K. Hen.

Look, look, here comes my John of Lancaster. 224

Lanc.

Health, peace, and happiness to my royal father!

K. Hen.

Thou bring’st me happiness and peace, son John;

But health, alack, with youthful wings is flown

From this bare wither’d trunk: upon thy sight

My worldly business makes a period. 229

Where is my Lord of Warwick?

Prince.

My Lord of Warwick!

Re-enter Warwick and Others.

K. Hen.

Doth any name particular belong

Unto the lodging where I first did swound? 232

War.

’Tis call’d Jerusalem, my noble lord.

K. Hen.

Laud be to God! even there my life must end.

It hath been prophesied to me many years

I should not die but in Jerusalem, 236

Which vainly I suppos’d the Holy Land.

But bear me to that chamber; there I’ll lie:

In that Jerusalem shall Harry die.

[Exeunt.

ACT V.

Scene I.— Gloucestershire. A Hall in Shallow’s House.

Enter Shallow, Falstaff, Bardolph, and Page.

Shal.

By cock and pie, sir, you shall not away to-night. What! Davy, I say.

Fal.

You must excuse me, Master Robert Shallow. 4

Shal.

Fal.

I come, Master Shallow: I come, Master Shallow.

He’s walk’d the way of nature; 4

And to our purposes he lives no more.

Ch. Just.

I would his majesty had call’d me with him:

The service that I truly did his life

Hath left me open to all injuries. 8

War.

Indeed I think the young king loves you not.

Ch. Just.

I know he doth not, and do arm myself,

To welcome the condition of the time;

Which cannot look more hideously upon me 12

Than I have drawn it in my fantasy.

Enter Lancaster, Clarence, Gloucester, Westmoreland and Others.

War.

Here come the heavy issue of dead Harry:

O! that the living Harry had the temper

Of him, the worst of these three gentlemen. 16

How many nobles then should hold their places,

That must strike sail to spirits of vile sort!

Ch. Just.

O God! I fear all will be overturn’d.

Lanc.

Good morrow, cousin Warwick, good morrow. 20

Glo.

Good morrow, cousin.

Cla.

Good morrow, cousin.

Lanc.

We meet like men that had forgot to speak.

War.

We do remember; but our argument

Is all too heavy to admit much talk. 24

Lanc.

Well, peace be with him that hath made us heavy!

Ch. Just.

Peace be with us, lest we be heavier!

Glo.

O! good my lord, you have lost a friend indeed;

And I dare swear you borrow not that face 28

Of seeming sorrow; it is sure your own.

Lanc.

Though no man be assur’d what grace to find,

You stand in coldest expectation.

I am the sorrier; would ’twere otherwise. 32

Cla.

Well, you must now speak Sir John Falstaff fair,

Which swims against your stream of quality.

Ch. Just.

Sweet princes, what I did, I did in honour,

Led by the impartial conduct of my soul; 36

And never shall you see that I will beg

A ragged and forestall’d remission.

If truth and upright innocency fail me,

I’ll to the king my master that is dead, 40

And tell him who hath sent me after him.

War.

Here comes the prince.

Enter King Henry the Fifth, attended.

Ch. Just.

Good morrow, and God save your majesty!

K. Hen. V.

This new and gorgeous garment, majesty, 44

Sits not so easy on me as you think.

Brothers, you mix your sadness with some fear:

This is the English, not the Turkish court;

Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds, 48

But Harry Harry. Yet be sad, good brothers,

For, to speak truth, it very well becomes you:

Sorrow so royally in you appears

That I will deeply put the fashion on 52

And wear it in my heart. Why then, be sad;

But entertain no more of it, good brothers,

Than a joint burden laid upon us all.

For me, by heaven, I bid you be assur’d, 56

I’ll be your father and your brother too;

Let me but bear your love, I’ll bear your cares:

Yet weep that Harry’s dead, and so will I;

But Harry lives that shall convert those tears 60

By number into hours of happiness.

Lanc., &c.

We hope no other from your majesty.

K. Hen. V.

You all look strangely on me: [To the Chief Justice.] and you most;

You are, I think, assur’d I love you not. 64

Ch. Just.

I am assur’d, if I be measur’d rightly,

Your majesty hath no just cause to hate me.

K. Hen. V.

No!

How might a prince of my great hopes forget 68

So great indignities you laid upon me?

What! rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison

The immediate heir of England! Was this easy?

May this be wash’d in Lethe, and forgotten? 72

Ch. Just.

I then did use the person of your father;

The image of his power lay then in me:

And, in the administration of his law,

Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth, 76

Your highness pleased to forget my place,

The majesty and power of law and justice,

The image of the king whom I presented,

And struck me in my very seat of judgment; 80

Whereon, as an offender to your father,

I gave bold way to my authority,

And did commit you. If the deed were ill,

Be you contented, wearing now the garland, 84

To have a son set your decrees at nought,

To pluck down justice from your awful bench,

To trip the course of law, and blunt the sword

That guards the peace and safety of your person:

Nay, more, to spurn at your most royal image

And mock your workings in a second body. 90

Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours;

Be now the father and propose a son, 92

Hear your own dignity so much profan’d,

See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted,

Behold yourself so by a son disdain’d;

And then imagine me taking your part, 96

And in your power soft silencing your son:

After this cold considerance, sentence me;

And, as you are a king, speak in your state

What I have done that misbecame my place, 100

My person, or my liege’s sov’reignty.

K. Hen. V.

You are right, justice; and you weigh this well;

Therefore still bear the balance and the sword:

And I do wish your honours may increase 104

Till you do live to see a son of mine

Offend you and obey you, as I did.

So shall I live to speak my father’s words:

‘Happy am I, that have a man so bold 108

That dares do justice on my proper son;

And not less happy, having such a son,

That would deliver up his greatness so

Into the hands of justice.’ You did commit me:

For which, I do commit into your hand 113

The unstained sword that you have us’d to bear;

With this remembrance, that you use the same

With the like bold, just, and impartial spirit 116

As you have done ’gainst me. There is my hand:

You shall be as a father to my youth;

My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear,

And I will stoop and humble my intents 120

To your well-practis’d wise directions.

And, princes all, believe me, I beseech you;

My father is gone wild into his grave,

For in his tomb lie my affections; 124

And with his spirit sadly I survive,

To mock the expectation of the world,

To frustrate prophecies, and to raze out

Rotten opinion, who hath writ me down 128

After my seeming. The tide of blood in me

Hath proudly flow’d in vanity till now:

Now doth it turn and ebb back to the sea,

Where it shall mingle with the state of floods 132

And flow henceforth in formal majesty.

Now call we our high court of parliament;

And let us choose such limbs of noble counsel,

That the great body of our state may go 136

In equal rank with the best govern’d nation;

That war or peace, or both at once, may be

As things acquainted and familiar to us;

In which you, father, shall have foremost hand.

Our coronation done, we will accite, 141

As I before remember’d, all our state:

And, God consigning to my good intents,

No prince nor peer shall have just cause to say,

God shorten Harry’s happy life one day. 145

[Exeunt.

Scene III.— Gloucestershire. The Garden of Shallow’s House.

Enter Falstaff, Shallow, Silence, Bardolph, the Page, and Davy.

Shal.

Nay, you shall see mine orchard, where, in an arbour, we will eat a last year’s pippin of my own graffing, with a dish of caraways, and so forth; come, cousin Silence; and then to bed.

Fal.

’Fore God, you have here a goodly dwelling, and a rich. 6

Shal.

Sil.

Who, I? I have been merry twice and once ere now. 41

Re-enter Davy.

Davy.

There’s a dish of leather-coats for you.

Why, there spoke a king. Lack nothing: be merry. [Knocking within.] Look who’s at door there. Ho! who knocks?

[Exit Davy.

Fal.

[To Silence, who drinks a bumper.]

Why, now you have done me right. 74

Sil.

Do me right,

And dub me knight:

Samingo 77

Is’t not so?

Fal.

’Tis so.

Sil.

Is’t so? Why, then, say an old man can do somewhat. 81

Re-enter Davy.

Davy.

An’t please your worship, there’s one Pistol come from the court with news.

Fal.

Pist.

A foutra for the world and worldlings base! 100

I speak of Africa and golden joys.

Fal.

O base Assyrian knight, what is thy news?

Let King Cophetua know the truth thereof.

Sil.

And Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John. 104

Bard.

O joyful day!

I would not take a knighthood for my fortune.

Pist.

What! I do bring good news. 131

Fal.

Carry Master Silence to bed. Master Shallow, my Lord Shallow, be what thou wilt, I am Fortune’s steward. Get on thy boots: we’ll ride all night. O sweet Pistol! Away, Bardolph! [Exit Bardolph.] Come, Pistol, utter more to me; and, withal devise something to do thyself good. Boot, boot, Master Shallow: I know the young king is sick for me. Let us take any man’s horses; the laws of England are at my commandment. Happy are they which have been my friends, and woe unto my lord chief justice! 143

Pist.

Let vultures vile seize on his lungs also!

Come, you thin thing; come, you rascal!

First Bead.

Very well.

Shal.

’Tis so, indeed.

Pist.

My knight, I will inflame thy noble liver,

And make thee rage.

Thy Doll, and Helen of thy noble thoughts, 36

Is in base durance and contagious prison;

Hal’d thither

By most mechanical and dirty hand:

Rouse up revenge from ebon den with fell Alecto’s snake, 40

For Doll is in: Pistol speaks nought but truth.

Fal.

I will deliver her.

[Shouts within and trumpets sound.

Pist.

There roar’d the sea, and trumpetclangor sounds.

Enter King Henry the Fifth and his Train, the Lord Chief Justice among them.

Fal.

God save thy grace, King Hal! my royal Hal! 45

Pist.

The heavens thee guard and keep, most royal imp of fame!

Fal.

God save thee, my sweet boy! 48

K. Hen. V.

My lord chief justice, speak to that vain man.

Ch. Just.

Have you your wits? know you what ’tis you speak?

Fal.

My king! my Jove! I speak to thee, my heart!

K. Hen. V.

I know thee not, old man: fall to thy prayers; 52

How ill white hairs become a fool and jester!

I have long dream’d of such a kind of man,

So surfeit-swell’d, so old, and so profane;

But, being awak’d, I do despise my dream. 56

Make less thy body hence, and more thy grace;

Leave gormandising; know the grave doth gape

For thee thrice wider than for other men.

Reply not to me with a fool-born jest: 60

Presume not that I am the thing I was;

For God doth know, so shall the world perceive,

That I have turn’d away my former self;

So will I those that kept me company. 64

When thou dost hear I am as I have been,

Approach me, and thou shalt be as thou wast,

The tutor and the feeder of my riots:

Till then, I banish thee, on pain of death, 68

As I have done the rest of my misleaders,

Not to come near our person by ten mile.

For competence of life I will allow you,

That lack of means enforce you not to evil: 72

And, as we hear you do reform yourselves,

We will, according to your strength and qualities,

Give you advancement. Be it your charge, my lord,

To see perform’d the tenour of our word. 76

Set on.

Ch. Just.

Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the Fleet;

Take all his company along with him.

Fal.

My lord, my lord!

Ch. Just.

I cannot now speak: I will hear you soon. 100

Take them away.

Pist.

Si fortuna me tormenta, spero contenta.

[Exeunt Falstaff, Shallow, Pistol, Bardolph, Page, and Officers.

Lanc.

I like this fair proceeding of the king’s.

He hath intent his wonted followers 104

Shall all be very well provided for;

But all are banish’d till their conversations

Appear more wise and modest to the world.

Ch. Just.

And so they are. 108

Lanc.

The king hath call’d his parliament, my lord.

Ch. Just.

He hath.

Lanc.

I will lay odds, that, ere this year expire,

We bear our civil swords and native fire 112

As far as France. I heard a bird so sing,

Whose music, to my thinking, pleas’d the king.

Come, will you hence?

[Exeunt.

EPILOGUE.

Spoken by a Dancer.

First, my fear; then, my curtsy; last my speech. My fear is, your displeasure, my curtsy, my duty, and my speech, to beg your pardon. If you look for a good speech now, you undo me; for what I have to say is of mine own making; and what indeed I should say will, I doubt, prove mine own marring. But to the purpose, and so to the venture. Be it known to you,—as it is very well,—I was lately here in the end of a displeasing play, to pray your patience for it and to promise you a better. I did mean indeed to pay you with this; which, if like an ill venture it come unluckily home, I break, and you, my gentle creditors, lose. Here, I promised you I would be, and here I commit my body to your mercies: bate me some and I will pay you some; and, as most debtors do, promise you infinitely. 18

If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me, will you command me to use my legs? and yet that were but light payment, to dance out of your debt. But a good conscience will make any possible satisfaction, and so will I. All the gentlewomen here have forgiven me: if the gentlemen will not, then the gentlemen do not agree with the gentlewomen, which was never seen before in such an assembly. 27

One word more, I beseech you. If you be not too much cloyed with fat meat, our humble author will continue the story, with Sir John in it, and make you merry with fair Katharine of France: where, for anything I know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already a’ be killed with your hard opinions; for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man. My tongue is weary; when my legs are too, I will bid you good night: and so kneel down before you; but, indeed, to pray for the queen. 38

Rumour, the Presenter.
King Henry the Fourth.
Henry, Prince of Wales; afterwards King Henry the Fifth. }	His Sons.
George, Duke of Clarence, }
John of Lancaster, }
Humphrey of Gloucester, }
Earl of Warwick, }	Of the King’s party.
Earl of Westmoreland, }
Earl of Surrey, }
Gower, }
Harcourt, }
Blunt, }
Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench.
A Servant of the Chief Justice.
Earl of Northumberland, }	Opposites to the King.
Richard Scroop, Archbishop of York, }
Lord Mowbray, }
Lord Hastings, }
Lord Bardolph, }
Sir John Colevile, }
Travers and Morton,	Retainers of Northumberland.
Sir John Falstaff.
His Page.
Bardolph.
Pistol.
Poins.
Peto.
Shallow and Silence,	Country Justices.
Davy,	Servant to Shallow.
Mouldy, Shadow, Wart, Feeble, and Bullcalf,	Recruits.
Fang and Snare,	Sheriff’s Officers.
A Porter.
A Dancer, Speaker of the Epilogue.
Lady Northumberland.
Lady Percy.
Mistress Quickly,	Hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap.
Doll Tearsheet.
Lords and Attendants; Officers, Soldiers, Messenger, Drawers, Beadles, Grooms, &c.