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I shall find time, Cassius: I shall find time.
Come therefore, and to Thasos send his body.
His funerals shall not be in our camp,
Lest it discomfort us. Lucilius, come,
And come, young Cato: let us to the field.
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Labio and Flavio set our battles on.
’Tis three o’clock; and, Romans, yet ere night,
We shall try fortune in a second fight. Exeunt.
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5.4 Alarum. Enter BRUTUS, MESSALA, Young CATO, LUCILIUS and FLAVIUS.
BRUTUS Yet, countrymen: O yet, hold up your heads!
Exit fighting, followed by Messala and Flavius.
CATO What bastard doth not? Who will go with me?
I will proclaim my name about the field.
I am the son of Marcus Cato, ho!
A foe to tyrants and my country’s friend.
I am the son of Marcus Cato, ho!
5
Enter Soldiers and fight.
LUCILIUS And I am Brutus, Marcus Brutus, I!
Brutus, my country’s friend: know me for Brutus!
[Young Cato is killed.]
O young and noble Cato, art thou down?
Why, now thou diest as bravely as Titinius,
And mayst be honoured, being Cato’s son.
1 SOLDIER Yield, or thou diest.
10
LUCILIUS Only I yield to die.
There is so much that thou wilt kill me straight:
Kill Brutus and be honoured in his death.
1 SOLDIER We must not: a noble prisoner!
Enter ANTONY.
15
2 SOLDIER Room, ho! Tell Antony, Brutus is ta’en.
1 SOLDIER I’ll tell the news. Here comes the general.
Brutus is ta’en, Brutus is ta’en, my lord.
ANTONY Where is he?
LUCILIUS Safe, Antony; Brutus is safe enough.
I dare assure thee that no enemy
Shall ever take alive the noble Brutus.
20
The gods defend him from so great a shame!
When you do find him, or alive or dead,
He will be found like Brutus, like himself.
ANTONY This is not Brutus, friend, but, I assure you,
25
A prize no less in worth. Keep this man safe;
Give him all kindness. I had rather have
Such men my friends than enemies. Go on,
And see whe’er Brutus be alive or dead,
And bring us word unto Octavius’ tent
How everything is chanced. Exeunt.
30
5.5 Enter BRUTUS, DARDANIUS, CLITUS, STRATO and VOLUMNIUS.
BRUTUS
Come, poor remains of friends, rest on this rock.
CLITUS Statilius showed the torchlight, but, my lord,
He came not back. He is or ta’en or slain.
BRUTUS Sit thee down, Clitus. Slaying is the word.
It is a deed in fashion. Hark thee, Clitus. [Whispers.]
CLITUS What, I, my lord? No, not for all the world.
BRUTUS Peace, then. No words.
5
CLITUS I’ll rather kill myself.
BRUTUS Hark thee, Dardanius. [Whispers.]
DARDANIUS Shall I do such a deed?
CLITUS O Dardanius!
DARDANIUS O Clitus!
CLITUS What ill request did Brutus make to thee?
DARDANIUS To kill him, Clitus. Look, he meditates.
10
CLITUS Now is that noble vessel full of grief,
That it runs over even at his eyes.
BRUTUS Come hither, good Volumnius, list a word.
VOLUMNIUS What says my lord?
BRUTUS Why this, Volumnius:
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The ghost of Caesar hath appeared to me
Two several times by night: at Sardis once,
And this last night, here in Philippi fields:
I know my hour is come.
VOLUMNIUS Not so, my lord.
BRUTUS Nay, I am sure it is, Volumnius.
Thou seest the world, Volumnius, how it goes.
20
Our enemies have beat us to the pit. [Low alarums.]
It is more worthy to leap in ourselves
Than tarry till they push us. Good Volumnius,
Thou knowst that we two went to school together:
Even for that our love of old, I prithee
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Hold thou my sword-hilts while I run on it.
VOLUMNIUS That’s not an office for a friend, my lord.
[Alarum still]
CLITUS Fly, fly, my lord, there is no tarrying here.
BRUTUS
Farewell to you; and you; and you, Volumnius.
30
Strato, thou hast been all this while asleep:
Farewell to thee too, Strato. Countrymen:
My heart doth joy that yet in all my life
I found no man but he was true to me.
I shall have glory by this losing day
More than Octavius and Mark Antony
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By this vile conquest shall attain unto.
So fare you well at once, for Brutus’ tongue
Hath almost ended his life’s history:
Night hangs upon mine eyes: my bones would rest,
That have but laboured to attain this hour.
40
[Alarum. Cry within, ‘Fly, fly, fly.’]
CLITUS Fly, my lord, fly!
BRUTUS Hence; I will follow.
Exeunt Clitus, Dardanius and Volumnius.
I prithee, Strato, stay thou by thy lord.
Thou art a fellow of a good respect:
Thy life hath had some smatch of honour in it.
Hold then my sword, and turn away thy face,
45
While I do run upon it. Wilt thou, Strato?
STRATO
Give me your hand first. Fare you well, my lord.
BRUTUS Farewell, good Strato – [Runs on his sword.]
Caesar, now be still.
I killed not thee with half so good a will. [Dies.]
50
Alarm. Retreat. Enter ANTONY, OCTAVIUS, MESSALA, LUCILIUS and the army.
OCTAVIUS What man is that?
MESSALA
My master’s man. Strato, where is thy master?
STRATO Free from the bondage you are in, Messala,
The conquerors can but make a fire of him:
For Brutus only overcame himself,
And no man else hath honour by his death.
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LUCILIUS
So Brutus should be found. I thank thee, Brutus,
That thou hast proved Lucilius’ saying true.
OCTAVIUS
All that served Brutus, I will entertain them.
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Fellow, wilt thou bestow thy time with me?
STRATO Ay, if Messala will prefer me to you.
OCTAVIUS Do so, good Messala.
MESSALA How died my master, Strato?
STRATO I held the sword and he did run on it.
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MESSALA Octavius, then take him to follow thee,
That did the latest service to my master.
ANTONY This was the noblest Roman of them all:
All the conspirators save only he
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar.
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He only, in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle, and the elements
So mixed in him that nature might stand up
And say to all the world, ’This was a man!’
75
OCTAVIUS According to his virtue let us use him,
With all respect and rites of burial.
Within my tent his bones tonight shall lie,
Most like a soldier, ordered honourably.
So
call the field to rest, and let’s away,
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To part the glories of this happy day. Exeunt omnes.
King Henry IV, Part 1
King Henry IV, Part 1 was from the first both a theatrical and a literary success, as popular in the bookstalls as on stage. Entered in the Stationers’ Register on 25 February 1598, as ‘The historye of Henry the iiijth’ (it was not until the 1623 Folio that the play was published as The First Part of King Henry the Fourth), the play quickly became a best seller. Two editions appeared in 1598 (the first surviving only in a single sheet, now in the Folger Shakespeare Library), and seven more editions were published before 1640, making it not only Shakespeare’s most frequently reprinted play before the Interregnum but also one of the most popular of all printed plays in the period. In the theatre also it continuously thrived, though early references to specific performances are few.
Probably first performed in 1597, it held the stage throughout the seventeenth century. In a commendatory poem to Shakespeare’s Poems (1640), Leonard Digges noted that, while Ben Jonson’s plays no longer draw an audience large enough to cover the costs of production, ‘let but Falstaff come, / Hal, Poins, the rest, you scarce shall have a room, / All is so pestered’.
Much of the play’s popularity is no doubt due to the appeal of Falstaff. Indeed, in the seventeenth century there are more references to the fat knight than to any other dramatic character, though he first appeared on stage with the name ‘Sir John Oldcastle’. A well-known fifteenth-century Lollard who had been burned as a heretic, Oldcastle emerged a century later as a celebrated precursor of the Protestant martyrs. Shakespeare’s irreverent treatment of the historical figure seems to have offended William Brooke, Lord Cobham, who held his title in descent from Oldcastle’s wife. Brooke was Queen Elizabeth’s Lord Chamberlain from August 1596 to his death on 5 March 1597, and he seems to have insisted on the change of name. It has even been suggested that publication of the play was required to prove that Shakespeare and his acting company had complied with the Lord Chamberlain’s demand.
By whatever name, however, the irrepressible knight has long delighted readers and audiences, offering a vital alternative to the sober world of political consideration over which Henry IV rules. The two men stand as opposing father figures for Prince Henry, one fat and full of life, the other ‘portly’ only in his power, each in turn drawing the commitment of the Prince who must, as history dictates, finally reject revel for responsibility and accept his destiny to rule. There is a third vector in the play, however, that further complicates his choice: the chivalric energies of the rebel Hotspur that lead Henry IV to wish this son of Northumberland his child instead of Hal. But on the battlefield at Shrewsbury the Prince displays both heroism and magnanimity, proving himself a worthy successor and putting to rest fears either that the irresponsible tavern world has claimed him or that he is only the self-regarding son of a calculating father.
The play, of course, is a ‘history’ and appears as the third of ten such in the catalogue of the 1623 Folio, but though it concerns the reign of a historical English king and is largely based upon Holinshed’s Chronicles, it is hardly faithful to the historical record. Not only does it select, restructure and change that history (for example, Hotspur was in fact three years older than the King rather than the Prince’s contemporary), but it mixes in completely invented material, that very tavern world that threatens to keep the Prince from his fate. It is precisely this that has made the play so continuously popular: that it is more than its historical plot. It mingles kings and clowns, history and comedy, challenging the exclusive logic of the aristocratic, political action with its rich variety and demotic energy.
The Arden text is based on the two Quartos of 1598.
LIST OF ROLES
KING Henry the Fourth
sons to the King
Earl of WESTMORELAND
Sir Walter BLUNT
Thomas Percy, Earl of WORCESTER
Henry Percy, Earl of NORTHUMBERLAND
Henry Percy, surnamed HOTSPUR
his son
Edmund MORTIMER, Earl of March.
Archibald, Earl of DOUGLAS
Owen GLENDOWER
Sir Richard VERNON
Richard Scroop, ARCHBISHOP of York
Sir John FALSTAFF
POINS
PETO
BARDOLPH
GADSHILL
LADY PERCY
wife to Hotspur, and sister to Mortimer
LADY MORTIMER
daughter to Glendower, and wife to Mortimer
Mistress Quickly, HOSTESS
of the Boar’s Head in Eastcheap
Lords, Officers, Sheriff, Vintner, Chamberlain, Drawers, two Carriers, Ostler, Messengers, Travellers and Attendants.
1.1 Enter the KING, LORD JOHN OF LANCASTER, EARL OF WESTMORELAND, SIR WALTER BLUNT, with others.
KING So shaken as we are, so wan with care,
Find we a time for frighted peace to pant,
And breathe short-winded accents of new broils
To be commenc’d in stronds afar remote:
No more the thirsty entrance of this soil
5
Shall daub her lips with her own children’s blood,
No more shall trenching war channel her fields,
Nor bruise her flow’rets with the armed hoofs
Of hostile paces: those opposed eyes,
Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,
10
All of one nature, of one substance bred,
Did lately meet in the intestine shock
And furious close of civil butchery,
Shall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks,
March all one way, and be no more oppos’d
15
Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies.
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 152