The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works
Page 185
Encircled you to hear with reverence
Your exposition on the holy text,
Than now to see you here an iron man,
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,
Would he abuse the countenance of the King,
Alack, what mischiefs might he set abroach
In shadow of such greatness! With you, Lord Bishop,
It is even so. Who hath not heard it spoken
How deep you were within the books of God—
To us, the speaker in his parliament,
To us, th‘imagined voice of God himself,é
The very opener and intelligencer
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 heav’n
As a false favourite doth his prince’s name
In deeds dishonourable? You have ta’en up,
Under the counterfeited zeal of God,
The subjects of his substitute, my father;
And, both against the peace of heaven and him,
Have here upswarmèd them.
ARCHBISHOP OF YORK Good my lord of Lancaster,
I am not here against your father’s peace;
But, as I told my lord of Westmorland,
The time misordered doth, in common sense,
Crowd us and crush us to this monstrous form, 260
To hold our safety up. I sent your grace
The parcels and particulars of our grief,
The which hath been with scorn shoved from the
court,
Whereon this Hydra son of war is born;
Whose dangerous eyes may well be charmed asleep
With grant of our most just and right desires,
And true obedience, of this madness cured,
Stoop tamely to the foot of majesty.
MOWBRAY
If not, we ready are to try our fortunes
To the last man.
HASTINGS And though we here fall down,
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,
Whiles England shall have generation.
PRINCE JOHN
You are too shallow, Hastings, much too shallow,
To sound the bottom of the after-times.
WESTMORLAND
Pleaseth your grace to answer them directly
How far forth you do like their articles?
PRINCE JOHN
I like them all, and do allow them well, 280
And swear here, by the honour of my blood,
My father’s purposes have been mistook,
And some about him have too lavishly
Wrested his meaning and authority.
(To the Archbishop)
My lord, these griefs shall be with speed redressed;
Upon my soul they shall. If this may please you,
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.
ARCHBISHOP OF YORK
I take your princely word for these redresses.
⌈PRINCE JOHN⌉
I give it you, and will maintain my word;
And thereupon I drink unto your grace.
He drinks
⌈HASTINGS⌉ ⌈to Coleville⌉
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 ⌈Coleville⌉
ARCHBISHOP OF YORK
To you, my noble lord of Westmorland!
He drinks
WESTMORLAND (drinking)
I pledge your grace. An if you knew what pains
I have bestowed to breed this present peace,
You would drink freely; but my love to ye
Shall show itself more openly hereafter.
ARCHBISHOP OF YORK
I do not doubt you.
WESTMORLAND I am glad of it.
(Drinking) Health to my lord and gentle cousin Mowbray!
MOWBRAY
You wish me health in very happy season,
For I am on the sudden something ill.
ARCHBISHOP OF YORK
Against ill chances men are ever merry;
But heaviness foreruns the good event.
WESTMORLAND
Therefore be merry, coz, since sudden sorrow
Serves to say thus: some good thing comes tomorrow.
ARCHBISHOP OF YORK
Believe me, I am passing light in spirit. 311
MOWBRAY
So much the worse, if your own rule be true.
Shout within
PRINCE JOHN
The word of peace is rendered. Hark how they shout.
MOWBRAY
This had been cheerful after victory.
ARCHBISHOP OF YORK
A peace is of the nature of a conquest,
For then both parties nobly are subdued,
And neither party loser.
PRINCE JOHN (to Westmorland) Go, my lord,
And let our army be discharged too.
Exit Westmorland
(To the Archbishop) And, good my lord, so please you,
let our trains
March by us, that we may peruse the men
We should have coped withal.
ARCHBISHOP OF YORK Go, good Lord Hastings,
And ere they be dismissed, let them march by.
Exit Hastings
PRINCE JOHN
I trust, lords, we shall lie tonight together.
Enter the Earl of Westmorland, ⌈with captains⌉
Now, cousin, wherefore stands our army still?
WESTMORLAND
The leaders, having charge from you to stand,
Will not go off until they hear you speak.
PRINCE JOHN
They know their duties.
Enter Lord Hastings
HASTINGS ⌈to the Archbishop⌉ Our army is dispersed.
Like youthful steers unyoked, they take their courses,
East, west, north, south; or, like a school broke up,
Each hurries toward his home and sporting place.
WESTMORLAND
Good tidings, my lord Hastings, for the which
I do arrest thee, traitor, of high treason;
And you, Lord Archbishop, and you, Lord Mowbray,
Of capital treason I attach you both.
⌈The captains guard Hastings, the Archbishop, and Mowbray⌉
MOWBRAY
Is this proceeding just and honourable?
WESTMORLAND Is your assembly so?
ARCHBISHOP OF YORK Will you thus break your faith?
PRINCE JOHN I pawned thee none.
I promised you redress of these same grievances
Whereof you did complain; which, by mine honour,
I will perform with a most Christian care.
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.—345
Strike up our drums, pursue the scattered stray.
God, and not we, hath safely fought today.
Some guard these traitors to the block of death,
Treason’s true bed and yielder up of breath. Exeunt
4.2 Alarum. Excursions. Enter Sir John Falstaff a
nd Coleville
SIR JOHN What’s your name, sir, of what condition are you, and of what place, I pray?
COLEVILLE I am a knight, sir, and my name is Coleville of the Dale.
SIR JOHN Well then, Coleville is your name, a knight is your degree, and your place the Dale. Coleville shall be still your name, a traitor your degree, and the dungeon your place—a place deep enough, so shall you be still Coleville of the Dale.
COLEVILLE Are not you Sir John Falstaff? 10
SIR JOHN As good a man as he, sir, whoe’er I am. Do ye yield, sir, or shall I sweat for you? If I do sweat, they are the drops of thy lovers, and they weep for thy death; therefore rouse up fear and trembling, and do observance to my mercy. 15
COLEVILLE (kneeling) I think you are Sir John Falstaff, and in that thought yield me.
SIR JOHN (aside) 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.
Enter Prince John, the Earl of Westmorland, Sir John Blunt, and other lords and soldiers
Here comes our general.
PRINCE JOHN
The heat is past; follow no further now.
A retreat is sounded
Call in the powers, good cousin Westmorland.
Exit Westmorland
Now, Falstaff, where have you been all this while?
When everything is ended, then you come.
These tardy tricks of yours will, on my life,
One time or other break some gallows’ back.
SIR JOHN I would be sorry, my lord, but it should be thus. I never knew yet but rebuke and check was the reward of valour. Do you think me a swallow, an arrow, or a bullet? Have I in my poor and old motion the expedition of thought? I have speeded hither with the very extremest inch of possibility; I have foundered nine-score and odd posts; and here, travel-tainted as I am, have in my pure and immaculate valour taken Sir John Coleville of the Dale, a most furious knight and valorous enemy. But what of that? He saw me, and yielded, that I may justly say, with the hook-nosed fellow of Rome, ‘I came, saw, and overcame.’
PRINCE JOHN It was more of his courtesy than your deserving.
SIR JOHN I know not. Here he is, and here I yield him; and I beseech your grace, let it be booked with the rest of this day’s deeds; or, by the Lord, I will have it in a particular ballad else, with mine own picture on the top on‘t, Coleville kissing my foot; to the which course if I be enforced, if you do not all show like gilt twopences to me, and I in the clear sky of fame o’ershine you as much as the full moon doth the cinders of the element, which show like pins’ heads to her, believe not the word of the noble. Therefore let me have right, and let desert mount.
PRINCE JOHN Thine’s too heavy to mount.
SIR JOHN Let it shine then.
PRINCE JOHN Thine’s too thick to shine.
SIR JOHN Let it do something, my good lord, that may do me good, and call it what you will.
PRINCE JOHN
Is thy name Coleville?
COLEVILLE It is, my lord. 60
PRINCE JOHN
A famous rebel art thou, Coleville.
SIR JOHN And a famous true subject took him.
COLEVILLE
I am, my lord, but as my betters are
That led me hither. Had they been ruled by me,
You should have won them dearer than you have.
SIR JOHN
I know not how—they sold themselves, but thou
Like a kind fellow gav’st thyself away,
And I thank thee for thee.
Enter the Earl of Westmorland
PRINCE JOHN Have you left pursuit?
WESTMORLAND
Retreat is made, and execution stayed.
PRINCE JOHN
Send Coleville with his confederates 70
To York, to present execution.
Blunt, lead him hence, and see you guard him sure.
Exit Blunt, with Coleville
And now dispatch we toward the court, my lords.
I hear the King my father is sore sick.
(To Westmorland) Our news shall go before us to his
majesty,
Which, cousin, you shall bear to comfort him;
And we with sober speed will follow you.
SIR JOHN
My lord, I beseech you give me leave to go
Through Gloucestershire, and when you come to court
Stand, my good lord, pray, in your good report.
PRINCE JOHN
Fare you well, Falstaff. I in my condition
Shall better speak of you than you deserve.
Exeunt all but Sir John
SIR JOHN 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 overcool 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 sherry-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, delivered o’er to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit. The second property of your excellent sherry 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 sherry warms it, and makes it course from the inwards to the parts’ extremes; it illuminateth 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 his retinue, doth any deed of courage. And this valour comes of sherry. So that skill in the weapon is nothing without sack, for that sets it a-work; and learning 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 sherry, 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. 121
Enter Bardolph
How now, Bardolph?
BARDOLPH
The army is discharged all and gone.
SIR JOHN 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
4.3 Enter King Henry ⌈in his bed⌉, attended by the Earl of Warwick, Thomas Duke of Clarence, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, ⌈and others⌉
KING HENRY
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.
Our navy is addressed, our power collected,
Our substitutes in absence well invested,
And everything lies level to our wish;
Only we want a little personal strength,
And pause us till these rebels now afoot
Come underneath the yoke of government. 10
WARWICK
Both which we doubt not but your majesty
Shall soon enjoy.
KING HENRY Humphrey, my son of Gloucester,
Where is the Prince your brother?
GLOUCESTER
I think he’s gone to hunt,
my lord, at Windsor.
KING HENRY
And how accompanied?
GLOUCESTER I do not know, my lord. 15
KING HENRY
Is not his brother Thomas of Clarence with him?
GLOUCESTER
No, my good lord, he is in presence here.
CLARENCE What would my lord and father?
KING HENRY
Nothing but well to thee, Thomas of Clarence.
How chance thou art not with the Prince thy brother?
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
Of mediation, after I am dead, 25
Between his greatness and thy other brethren.
Therefore omit him not, blunt not his love,
Nor lose the good advantage of his grace
By seeming cold or careless of his will;
For he is gracious, if he be observed; 30
He hath a tear for pity, and a hand
Open as day for melting charity.
Yet notwithstanding, being incensed, he is flint,
As humorous as winter, and as sudden
As flaws congealed in the spring of day.
His temper therefore must be well observed.
Chide him for faults, and do it reverently,
When you perceive his blood inclined to mirth;
But being moody, give him line and scope
Till that his passions, like a whale on ground,
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,
Mingled with venom of suggestion—
As force perforce the age will pour it in-
Shall never leak, though it do work as strong
As aconitum or rash gunpowder.
CLARENCE
I shall observe him with all care and love.
KING HENRY
Why art thou not at Windsor with him, Thomas? 50
CLARENCE
He is not there today; he dines in London.