Prince Henry
He is, indeed; and living to kill thee. I prithee, lend me thy sword.
Falstaff
Nay, before God, Hal, if Percy be alive, thou get’st not my sword; but take my pistol, if thou wilt.
Prince Henry
Give it to me: what, is it in the case?
Falstaff
Ay, Hal; ’tis hot, ’tis hot; there’s that will sack a city.
Prince Henry draws it out, and finds it to be a bottle of sack
Prince Henry
What, is it a time to jest and dally now?
He throws the bottle at him. Exit
Falstaff
Well, if Percy be alive, I’ll pierce him. If he do come in my way, so: if he do not, if I come in his willingly, let him make a carbonado of me. I like not such grinning honour as Sir Walter hath: give me life: which if I can save, so; if not, honour comes unlooked for, and there’s an end.
Exit Falstaff
SCENE IV. ANOTHER PART OF THE FIELD.
Alarum. Excursions. Enter Prince Henry, Lord John Of Lancaster, and Earl Of Westmoreland
King Henry IV
I prithee,
Harry, withdraw thyself; thou bleed’st too much.
Lord John of Lancaster, go you with him.
Lancaster
Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too.
Prince Henry
I beseech your majesty, make up,
Lest your retirement do amaze your friends.
King Henry IV
I will do so.
My Lord of Westmoreland, lead him to his tent.
Westmoreland
Come, my lord, I’ll lead you to your tent.
Prince Henry
Lead me, my lord? I do not need your help:
And God forbid a shallow scratch should drive
The Prince of Wales from such a field as this,
Where stain’d nobility lies trodden on,
and rebels’ arms triumph in massacres!
Lancaster
We breathe too long: come, cousin Westmoreland,
Our duty this way lies; for God’s sake come.
Exeunt Lancaster and Westmoreland
Prince Henry
By God, thou hast deceived me, Lancaster;
I did not think thee lord of such a spirit:
Before, I loved thee as a brother, John;
But now, I do respect thee as my soul.
King Henry IV
I saw him hold Lord Percy at the point
With lustier maintenance than I did look for
Of such an ungrown warrior.
Prince Henry
O, this boy
Lends mettle to us all!
Exit
Enter Douglas
Earl Of Douglas
Another king! they grow like Hydra’s heads:
I am the Douglas, fatal to all those
That wear those colours on them: what art thou,
That counterfeit’st the person of a king?
King Henry IV
The king himself; who, Douglas, grieves at heart
So many of his shadows thou hast met
And not the very king. I have two boys
Seek Percy and thyself about the field:
But, seeing thou fall’st on me so luckily,
I will assay thee: so, defend thyself.
Earl Of Douglas
I fear thou art another counterfeit;
And yet, in faith, thou bear’st thee like a king:
But mine I am sure thou art, whoe’er thou be,
And thus I win thee.
They fight. King Henry being in danger, Prince Henry enters
Prince Henry
Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like
Never to hold it up again! the spirits
Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt, are in my arms:
It is the Prince of Wales that threatens thee;
Who never promiseth but he means to pay.
They fight: Douglas flies
Cheerly, my lord how fares your grace?
Sir Nicholas Gawsey hath for succor sent,
And so hath Clifton: I’ll to Clifton straight.
King Henry IV
Stay, and breathe awhile:
Thou hast redeem’d thy lost opinion,
And show’d thou makest some tender of my life,
In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me.
Prince Henry
O God! they did me too much injury
That ever said I hearken’d for your death.
If it were so, I might have let alone
The insulting hand of Douglas over you,
Which would have been as speedy in your end
As all the poisonous potions in the world
And saved the treacherous labour of your son.
King Henry IV
Make up to Clifton: I’ll to Sir Nicholas Gawsey.
Exit
Enter Hotspur
Hotspur
If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth.
Prince Henry
Thou speak’st as if I would deny my name.
Hotspur
My name is Harry Percy.
Prince Henry
Why, then I see
A very valiant rebel of the name.
I am the Prince of Wales; and think not, Percy,
To share with me in glory any more:
Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere;
Nor can one England brook a double reign,
Of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales.
Hotspur
Nor shall it, Harry; for the hour is come
To end the one of us; and would to God
Thy name in arms were now as great as mine!
Prince Henry
I’ll make it greater ere I part from thee;
And all the budding honours on thy crest
I’ll crop, to make a garland for my head.
Hotspur
I can no longer brook thy vanities.
They fight
Enter Falstaff
Falstaff
Well said, Hal! to it Hal! Nay, you shall find no boy’s play here, I can tell you.
Re-enter Douglas; he fights with Falstaff, who falls down as if he were dead, and exit Douglas. Hotspur is wounded, and falls
Hotspur
O, Harry, thou hast robb’d me of my youth!
I better brook the loss of brittle life
Than those proud titles thou hast won of me;
They wound my thoughts worse than sword my flesh:
But thought’s the slave of life, and life time’s fool;
And time, that takes survey of all the world,
Must have a stop. O, I could prophesy,
But that the earthy and cold hand of death
Lies on my tongue: no, Percy, thou art dust
And food for —
Dies
Prince Henry
For worms, brave Percy: fare thee well, great heart!
Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk!
When that this body did contain a spirit,
A kingdom for it was too small a bound;
But now two paces of the vilest earth
Is room enough: this earth that bears thee dead
Bears not alive so stout a gentleman.
If thou wert sensible of courtesy,
I should not make so dear a show of zeal:
But let my favours hide thy mangled face;
And, even in thy behalf, I’ll thank myself
For doing these fair rites of tenderness.
Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven!
Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave,
But not remember’d in thy epitaph!
He spieth Falstaff on the ground
What, old acquaintance! could not all this flesh
Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell!
I could have better spared a better man:
O, I should have a heavy miss of thee,
If I were much in love with vanity!
Death hath not struck so fat a deer to-day,
Though many dearer, in this bloody fray.
Embowell’d will I see thee by and by:
Till then in blood by noble Percy lie.
Exit Prince Henry
Falstaff
[Rising up] Embowelled! if thou embowel me to-day, I’ll give you leave to powder me and eat me too to-morrow. ’sblood,’twas time to counterfeit, or that hot termagant Scot had paid me scot and lot too. Counterfeit? I lie, I am no counterfeit: to die, is to be a counterfeit; for he is but the counterfeit of a man who hath not the life of a man: but to counterfeit dying, when a man thereby liveth, is to be no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life indeed. The better part of valour is discretion; in the which better part I have saved my life.’Zounds, I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead: how, if he should counterfeit too and rise? by my faith, I am afraid he would prove the better counterfeit. Therefore I’ll make him sure; yea, and I’ll swear I killed him. Why may not he rise as well as I? Nothing confutes me but eyes, and nobody sees me. Therefore, sirrah,
Stabbing him
with a new wound in your thigh, come you along with me.
Takes up Hotspur on his back
Re-enter Prince Henry and Lord John Of Lancaster
Prince Henry
Come, brother John; full bravely hast thou flesh’d
Thy maiden sword.
Lancaster
But, soft! whom have we here?
Did you not tell me this fat man was dead?
Prince Henry
I did; I saw him dead,
Breathless and bleeding on the ground. Art thou alive?
Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight?
I prithee, speak; we will not trust our eyes
Without our ears: thou art not what thou seem’st.
Falstaff
No, that’s certain; I am not a double man: but if I be not Jack Falstaff, then am I a Jack. There is Percy:
Throwing the body down
if your father will do me any honour, so; if not, let him kill the next Percy himself. I look to be either earl or duke, I can assure you.
Prince Henry
Why, Percy I killed myself and saw thee dead.
Falstaff
Didst thou? Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying! I grant you I was down and out of breath; and so was he: but we rose both at an instant and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock. If I may be believed, so; if not, let them that should reward valour bear the sin upon their own heads. I’ll take it upon my death, I gave him this wound in the thigh: if the man were alive and would deny it, ’zounds, I would make him eat a piece of my sword.
Lancaster
This is the strangest tale that ever I heard.
Prince Henry
This is the strangest fellow, brother John.
Come, bring your luggage nobly on your back:
For my part, if a lie may do thee grace,
I’ll gild it with the happiest terms I have.
A retreat is sounded
The trumpet sounds retreat; the day is ours.
Come, brother, let us to the highest of the field,
To see what friends are living, who are dead.
Exeunt Prince Henry and Lancaster
Falstaff
I’ll follow, as they say, for reward. He that rewards me, God reward him! If I do grow great, I’ll grow less; for I’ll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly as a nobleman should do.
Exit
SCENE V. ANOTHER PART OF THE FIELD.
The trumpets sound. Enter King Henry IV, Prince Henry, Lord John Lancaster, Earl Of Westmoreland, with Worcester and Vernon prisoners
King Henry IV
Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke.
Ill-spirited Worcester! did not we send grace,
Pardon and terms of love to all of you?
And wouldst thou turn our offers contrary?
Misuse the tenor of thy kinsman’s trust?
Three knights upon our party slain to-day,
A noble earl and many a creature else
Had been alive this hour,
If like a Christian thou hadst truly borne
Betwixt our armies true intelligence.
Earl Of Worcester
What I have done my safety urged me to;
And I embrace this fortune patiently,
Since not to be avoided it falls on me.
King Henry IV
Bear Worcester to the death and Vernon too:
Other offenders we will pause upon.
Exeunt Worcester and Vernon, guarded
How goes the field?
Prince Henry
The noble Scot, Lord Douglas, when he saw
The fortune of the day quite turn’d from him,
The noble Percy slain, and all his men
Upon the foot of fear, fled with the rest;
And falling from a hill, he was so bruised
That the pursuers took him. At my tent
The Douglas is; and I beseech your grace
I may dispose of him.
King Henry IV
With all my heart.
Prince Henry
Then, brother John of Lancaster, to you
This honourable bounty shall belong:
Go to the Douglas, and deliver him
Up to his pleasure, ransomless and free:
His valour shown upon our crests to-day
Hath taught us how to cherish such high deeds
Even in the bosom of our adversaries.
Lancaster
I thank your grace for this high courtesy,
Which I shall give away immediately.
King Henry IV
Then this remains, that we divide our power.
You, son John, and my cousin Westmoreland
Towards York shall bend you with your dearest speed,
To meet Northumberland and the prelate Scroop,
Who, as we hear, are busily in arms:
Myself and you, son Harry, will towards Wales,
To fight with Glendower and the Earl of March.
Rebellion in this land shall lose his sway,
Meeting the cheque of such another day:
And since this business so fair is done,
Let us not leave till all our own be won.
Exeunt
The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHARACTERS OF THE PLAY
NONE
ACT I
SCENE I. THE SAME.
SCENE II. LONDON. A STREET.
SCENE III. YORK. THE ARCHBISHOP’S PALACE.
ACT II
SCENE I. LONDON. A STREET.
SCENE II. LONDON. ANOTHER STREET.
SCENE III. WARKWORTH. BEFORE THE CASTLE.
SCENE IV. LONDON. THE BOAR’S-HEAD TAVERN IN EASTCHEAP.
ACT III
SCENE I. WESTMINSTER. THE PALACE.
SCENE II. GLOUCESTERSHIRE. BEFORE SHALLOW’S HOUSE.
ACT IV
SCENE I. YORKSHIRE. GAULTREE FOREST.
SCENE II. ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST.
SCENE III. ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST.
SCENE IV. WESTMINSTER. THE JERUSALEM CHAMBER.
SCENE V. ANOTHER CHAMBER.
ACT V
SCENE I. GLOUCESTERSHIRE. SHALLOW’S HOUSE.
SCENE II. WESTMINSTER. THE PALACE.
SCENE III. GLOUCESTERSHIRE. SHALLOW’S ORCHARD.
SCENE IV. LONDON. A STREET.
SCENE V. A PUBLIC PLACE NEAR WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
EPILOGUE
CHARACTERS OF THE PLAY
Rumour, the Presenter. King Henry IV.
Henry, Prince of Wales, Prince John of Lancaster, Prince Humphrey of Gloucester, Thomas, Duke of Clarence, Sons of Henry IV.
Earl of Northumberland, Scroop, Archbishop
Of York, Lord Mowbray, Lord Hastings, Lord Bardolph, Sir John Colevile, Travers and Morton, retainers of Northumberland, Opposites against King Henry IV.
Earl of Warwick, Earl of Westmoreland, Earl of Surrey, Earl of Kent, Gower,Harcourt, Blunt, Of the King's party.
Lord Chief-Justice and Servant.
Sir John Falstaff, Edward Poins, Bardolph, Pistol, Peto, Irregular humourists.
Page, to Falstaff.
Robert Shallow and Silence, country Justices.
Davy, servant to Shallow.
Fang and Snare, Sheriff's officers
Ralph Mouldy, Simon Shadow, Thomas Wart, Francis Feeble, Peter Bullcalf, Country soldiers
Lady Northumberland.
Lady Percy, Percy's widow.
Mistress Quickly, Hostess of the Boar's Head, Eastcheap.
Doll Tearsheet.
Lords, Attendants, Porter, Drawers, Beadles, Grooms, Servants, Speaker of the Epilogue
Scene: England
NONE
Warkworth. Before the castle
Enter Rumour, painted full of tongues
Rumour
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
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.
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 prepared defence,
Whiles 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
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
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
Hath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops,
Quenching the flame of bold rebellion
Even with the rebel’s blood. But what mean I
To speak so true at first? my office is
To noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fell
Under the wrath of noble Hotspur’s sword,
Complete Plays, The Page 175