What say’st thou to a hare, or the melancholy of Moor-ditch?
FALSTAFF.
Thou hast the most unsavoury similes, and art, indeed, the
most comparative, rascalliest, sweet young prince,—But, Hal, I
pr’ythee trouble me no more with vanity. I would to God thou and
I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought. An old
lord of the Council rated me the other day in the street about you,
sir,—but I mark’d him not; and yet he talk’d very wisely,—but I
regarded him not; and yet he talk’d wisely, and in the street too.
PRINCE.
Thou didst well; for wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man
regards it.
FALSTAFF.
O, thou hast damnable iteration, and art, indeed, able to corrupt
a saint.
Thou hast done much harm upon me, Hal; God forgive thee for it!
Before I knew thee, Hal, I knew nothing; and now am I, if a man
should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked. I must
give over this life, and I will give it over; by the Lord, an I do
not, I am a villain: I’ll be damn’d for never a king’s son in
Christendom.
PRINCE.
Where shall we take a purse to-morrow, Jack?
FALSTAFF.
Zounds, where thou wilt, lad; I’ll make one: an I do not, call
me villain, and baffle me.
PRINCE.
I see a good amendment of life in thee,—from praying to
purse-taking.
FALSTAFF.
Why, Hal, ’tis my vocation, Hal; ’tis no sin for a man to labour
in his vocation.
[Enter Poins.]
POINS.
Now shall we know if Gadshill have set a match. O, if
men were to be saved by merit, what hole in Hell were hot enough
for him? This is the most omnipotent villain that ever cried
Stand! to a true man.
PRINCE.
Good morrow, Ned.
POINS.
Good morrow, sweet Hal.—What says Monsieur Remorse? what
says Sir John Sack-and-sugar? Jack, how agrees the Devil and
thee about thy soul, that thou soldest him on Good-Friday last
for a cup of Madeira and a cold capon’s leg?
PRINCE.
Sir John stands to his word,—the Devil shall have his bargain;
for he was never yet a breaker of proverbs,—he will give the
Devil his due.
POINS.
Then art thou damn’d for keeping thy word with the Devil.
PRINCE.
Else he had been damn’d for cozening the Devil.
POINS.
But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning, by four o’clock,
early at Gads-hill! there are pilgrims gong to Canterbury
with rich offerings, and traders riding to London with fat
purses: I have visards for you all; you have horses for
yourselves: Gadshill lies to-night in Rochester: I have bespoke
supper to-morrow night in Eastcheap: we may do it as secure as
sleep. If you will go, I will stuff your purses full of crowns;
if you will not, tarry at home and be hang’d.
FALSTAFF.
Hear ye, Yedward; if I tarry at home and go not, I’ll hang you
for going.
POINS.
You will, chops?
FALSTAFF.
Hal, wilt thou make one?
PRINCE.
Who, I rob? I a thief? not I, by my faith.
FALSTAFF.
There’s neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in thee,
nor thou camest not of the blood royal, if thou darest not stand
for ten shillings.
PRINCE.
Well, then, once in my days I’ll be a madcap.
FALSTAFF.
Why, that’s well said.
PRINCE.
Well, come what will, I’ll tarry at home.
FALSTAFF.
By the Lord, I’ll be a traitor, then, when thou art king.
PRINCE.
I care not.
POINS.
Sir John, I pr’ythee, leave the Prince and me alone: I will
lay him down such reasons for this adventure, that he shall go.
FALSTAFF.
Well, God give thee the spirit of persuasion, and him the ears
of profiting, that what thou speakest may move, and what he
hears may be believed, that the true Prince may, for recreation-
sake, prove a false thief; for the poor abuses of the time want
countenance. Farewell; you shall find me in Eastcheap.
PRINCE.
Farewell, thou latter Spring! farewell, All-hallown Summer!
[Exit Falstaff.]
POINS.
Now, my good sweet honey-lord, ride with us to-morrow: I
have a jest to execute that I cannot manage alone. Falstaff,
Bardolph, Peto, and Gadshill, shall rob those men that we have
already waylaid: yourself and I will not be there; and when they
have the booty, if you and I do not rob them, cut this head off
from my shoulders.
PRINCE.
But how shall we part with them in setting forth?
POINS.
Why, we will set forth before or after them, and appoint them
a place of meeting, wherein it is at our pleasure to fail; and
then will they adventure upon the exploit themselves; which they
shall have no sooner achieved but we’ll set upon them.
PRINCE.
Ay, but ’tis like that they will know us by our horses, by our
habits, and by every other appointment, to be ourselves.
POINS.
Tut! our horses they shall not see,—I’ll tie them in the wood;
our visards we will change, after we leave them; and, sirrah, I
have cases of buckram for the nonce, to immask our noted
outward garments.
PRINCE.
But I doubt they will be too hard for us.
POINS.
Well, for two of them, I know them to be as true-bred
cowards as ever turn’d back; and for the third, if he fight
longer than he sees reason, I’ll forswear arms. The virtue of
this jest will be, the incomprehensible lies that this same fat
rogue will tell us when we meet at supper: how thirty, at least,
he fought with; what wards, what blows, what extremities he
endured; and in the reproof of this lies the jest.
PRINCE.
Well, I’ll go with thee: provide us all things necessary and
meet me to-night in Eastcheap; there I’ll sup. Farewell.
POINS.
Farewell, my lord.
[Exit.]
PRINCE.
I know you all, and will awhile uphold
The unyok’d humour of your idleness:
Yet herein will I imitate the Sun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother-up his beauty from the world,
That, when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wonder’d at,
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.
If all the year were playing holidays,
To sport would be as tedious as to work;
But, when they seldom come, they wish’d-for come,
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.

I’ll so offend, to make offence a skill;
Redeeming time, when men think least I will.
[Exit.]
[Enter King Henry, Northumberland, Worcester, Hotspur, Sir Walter
Blunt, and others.]
KING.
My blood hath been too cold and temperate,
Unapt to stir at these indignities,
And you have found me; for, accordingly,
You tread upon my patience: but be sure
I will from henceforth rather be myself,
Mighty and to be fear’d, than my condition,
Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down,
And therefore lost that title of respect
Which the proud soul ne’er pays but to the proud.
WORCESTER.
Our House, my sovereign liege, little deserves
The scourge of greatness to be used on it;
And that same greatness too which our own hands
Have holp to make so portly.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
My good lord,—
KING.
Worcester, get thee gone; for I do see
Danger and disobedience in thine eye:
O, sir, your presence is too bold and peremptory,
And majesty might never yet endure
The moody frontier of a servant brow.
You have good leave to leave us: when we need
Your use and counsel, we shall send for you.
[Exit Worcester.]
[To Northumberland.]
You were about to speak.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
Yea, my good lord.
Those prisoners in your Highness’ name demanded,
Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took,
Were, as he says, not with such strength denied
As is deliver’d to your Majesty:
Either envy, therefore, or misprision
Is guilty of this fault, and not my son.
HOTSPUR.
My liege, I did deny no prisoners.

With many holiday and lady terms
He question’d me; amongst the rest, demanded
My prisoners in your Majesty’s behalf.
I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold,
Out of my grief and my impatience
To be so pester’d with a popinjay,
Answer’d neglectingly, I know not what,—
He should, or he should not; for’t made me mad
To see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet,
And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman
Of guns and drums and wounds,—God save the mark!—
And telling me the sovereign’st thing on Earth
Was parmaceti for an inward bruise;
And that it was great pity, so it was,
This villainous salt-petre should be digg’d
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow had destroy’d
So cowardly; and, but for these vile guns,
He would himself have been a soldier.
This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord,
I answered indirectly, as I said;
And I beseech you, let not his report
Come current for an accusation
Betwixt my love and your high Majesty.
BLUNT.
The circumstance consider’d, good my lord,
Whatever Harry Percy then had said
To such a person, and in such a place,
At such a time, with all the rest re-told,
May reasonably die, and never rise
To do him wrong, or any way impeach
What then he said, so he unsay it now.
KING.
Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners,
But with proviso and exception,
That we at our own charge shall ransom straight
His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer;
Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betray’d
The lives of those that he did lead to fight
Against that great magician, damn’d Glendower,
Whose daughter, as we hear, the Earl of March
Hath lately married. Shall our coffers, then,
Be emptied to redeem a traitor home?
Shall we buy treason? and indent with fears
When they have lost and forfeited themselves?
No, on the barren mountains let him starve;
For I shall never hold that man my friend
Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost
To ransom home revolted Mortimer.
HOTSPUR.
Revolted Mortimer!
He never did fall off, my sovereign liege,
But by the chance of war: to prove that true
Needs no more but one tongue for all those wounds,
Those mouthed wounds, which valiantly he took,
When on the gentle Severn’s sedgy bank,
In single opposition, hand to hand,
He did confound the best part of an hour
In changing hardiment with great Glendower.

Never did base and rotten policy
Colour her working with such deadly wounds;
Nor never could the noble Mortimer
Receive so many, and all willingly:
Then let not him be slander’d with revolt.
KING.
Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou dost belie him;
He never did encounter with Glendower:
I tell thee,
He durst as well have met the Devil alone
As Owen Glendower for an enemy.
Art not ashamed? But, sirrah, henceforth
Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer:
Send me your prisoners with the speediest means,
Or you shall hear in such a kind from me
As will displease you.—My Lord Northumberland,
We license your departure with your son.—
Send us your prisoners, or you’ll hear of it.
[Exeunt King Henry, Blunt, and train.]
HOTSPUR.
An if the Devil come and roar for them,
I will not send them: I will after straight,
And tell him so; for I will else my heart,
Although it be with hazard of my head.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
What, drunk with choler? stay, and pause awhile:
Here comes your uncle.
[Re-enter Worcester.]
HOTSPUR.
Speak of Mortimer!
Zounds, I will speak of him; and let my soul
Want mercy, if I do not join with him:
Yea, on his part I’ll empty all these veins,
And shed my dear blood drop by drop i’ the dust,
But I will lift the down-trod Mortimer
As high i’ the air as this unthankful King,
As this ingrate and canker’d Bolingbroke.
NORTH.
[To Worcester.]
Brother, the King hath made your nephew mad.
WORCESTER.
Who struck this heat up after I was gone?
HOTSPUR.
He will, forsooth, have all my prisoners;
And when I urged the ransom once again
Of my wife’s brother, then his cheek look’d pale,
And on my face he turn’d an eye of death,
Trembling even at the name of Mortimer.
WORCESTER.
I cannot blame him: was not he proclaim’d
By Richard that dead is the next of blood?
NORTHUMBERLAND.
He was; I heard the proclamation:
And then it was when the unhappy King—
Whose wrongs in us God pardon!—did set forth
Upon his Irish expedition;
From whence he intercepted did return
To be deposed, and shortly murdered.
WORCESTER.
And for whose death we in the world’s wide mouth
Live scandalized and foully spoken of.
HOTSPUR.
But, soft! I pray you; did King Richard then
Proclaim my brother Edmund Mortimer
Heir to the crown?
NORTHUMBERLAND.
He did; myself did hear it.
HOTSPUR.
Nay, then I cannot blame his cousin King,
That wish’d him on the barren mountains starve.
But shall it be, that you, that set the crown
Upon the head of this forgetful man,
And for his sake wear the detested blot
Of murderous subornation,—shall it be,
That you a world of curses undergo,
Being the agents, or base second means,
The cords, the ladder, or the hangman rather?—
O, pardon me, that I descend so low,
To show the line and the predicament
Wherein you range under this subtle King;—
Shall it, for shame, be spoken in these days,
Or fill up chronicles in time to come,
That men of your nobility and power
Did gage them both in an unjust behalf,—
As both of you, God pardon it! have done,—
To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose,
And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke?
And shall it, in more shame, be further spoken,
That you are fool’d, discarded, and shook off
By him for whom these shames ye underwent?
No! yet time serves, wherein you may redeem
Your banish’d honours, and restore yourselves
Into the good thoughts of the world again;
Revenge the jeering and disdain’d contempt
Of this proud King, who studies day and night
To answer all the debt he owes to you
Even with the bloody payment of your deaths:
Therefore, I say,—
WORCESTER.
Peace, cousin, say no more:
And now I will unclasp a secret book,
And to your quick-conceiving discontent
I’ll read you matter deep and dangerous;
As full of peril and adventurous spirit
As to o’er-walk a current roaring loud
On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.
HOTSPUR.
If we fall in, good night, or sink or swim!
Send danger from the east unto the west,
So honour cross it from the north to south,
And let them grapple. O, the blood more stirs
To rouse a lion than to start a hare!
NORTHUMBERLAND.
Imagination of some great exploit
Drives him beyond the bounds of patience.
HOTSPUR.
By Heaven, methinks it were an easy leap,
To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced Moon;
Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
And pluck up drowned honour by the locks;
So he that doth redeem her thence might wear
Without corrival all her dignities:
But out upon this half-faced fellowship!
WORCESTER.
He apprehends a world of figures here,
But not the form of what he should attend.—
Good cousin, give me audience for a while.
HOTSPUR.
I cry you mercy.
WORCESTER.
Those same noble Scots
That are your prisoners,—
HOTSPUR.
I’ll keep them all;
By God, he shall not have a Scot of them;
No, if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not:
I’ll keep them, by this hand.
WORCESTER.
You start away,
And lend no ear unto my purposes.
Those prisoners you shall keep;—
HOTSPUR.
Nay, I will; that’s flat.
He said he would not ransom Mortimer;
Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer;
But I will find him when he lies asleep,
And in his ear I’ll holla Mortimer!
Nay,
I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak
Nothing but Mortimer, and give it him,
To keep his anger still in motion.
WORCESTER.
Hear you, cousin; a word.
HOTSPUR.
All studies here I solemnly defy,
Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke:
And that same sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales,
But that I think his father loves him not,
And would be glad he met with some mischance,
I’d have him poison’d with a pot of ale.
WORCESTER.
Farewell, kinsman: I will talk to you
When you are better temper’d to attend.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool
Art thou, to break into this woman’s mood,
Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own!
HOTSPUR.
Why, look you, I am whipp’d and scourged with rods,
Nettled, and stung with pismires, when I hear
Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke.
In Richard’s time,—what do you call the place?—
A plague upon’t!—it is in Gioucestershire;—
’Twas where the madcap Duke his uncle kept,
His uncle York;—where I first bow’d my knee
Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke;—
When you and he came back from Ravenspurg.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
At Berkeley-castle.
HOTSPUR.
You say true:—
Why, what a candy deal of courtesy
This fawning greyhound then did proffer me!
Look, when his infant fortune came to age,
And, Gentle Harry Percy, and kind cousin,—
O, the Devil take such cozeners!—God forgive me!—
Good uncle, tell your tale; for I have done.
WORCESTER.
Nay, if you have not, to’t again;
We’ll stay your leisure.
HOTSPUR.
I have done, i’faith.
WORCESTER.
Then once more to your Scottish prisoners.
Deliver them up without their ransom straight,
And make the Douglas’ son your only mean
For powers in Scotland; which, for divers reasons
Which I shall send you written, be assured,
Will easily be granted.—
[To Northumberland.] You, my lord,
Your son in Scotland being thus employ’d,
Shall secretly into the bosom creep
Of that same noble prelate, well beloved,
Th’ Archbishop.
HOTSPUR.
Of York, is’t not?
WORCESTER.
True; who bears hard
His brother’s death at Bristol, the Lord Scroop.
I speak not this in estimation,
As what I think might be, but what I know
Is ruminated, plotted, and set down,
And only stays but to behold the face
Of that occasion that shall bring it on.
HOTSPUR.
I smell’t: upon my life, it will do well.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
Before the game’s a-foot, thou still lett’st slip.
HOTSPUR.
Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot:—
And then the power of Scotland and of York
To join with Mortimer, ha?
WORCESTER.
And so they shall.
HOTSPUR.
In faith, it is exceedingly well aim’d.
WORCESTER.
And ’tis no little reason bids us speed,
To save our heads by raising of a head;
For, bear ourselves as even as we can,
The King will always think him in our debt,
And think we think ourselves unsatisfied,
Till he hath found a time to pay us home:
And see already how he doth begin
To make us strangers to his looks of love.
HOTSPUR.
He does, he does: we’ll be revenged on him.
WORCESTER.
Cousin, farewell: no further go in this
Than I by letters shall direct your course.
When time is ripe,— which will be suddenly,—
I’ll steal to Glendower and Lord Mortimer;
Where you and Douglas, and our powers at once,
As I will fashion it, shall happily meet,
To bear our fortunes in our own strong arms,
Which now we hold at much uncertainty.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
Farewell, good brother: we shall thrive, I trust.
HOTSPUR.
Uncle, adieu: O, let the hours be short,
Till fields and blows and groans applaud our sport!
[Exeunt.]
[Enter a Carrier with a lantern in his hand.]
FIRST CARRIER.
Heigh-ho! an’t be not four by the day, I’ll be hang’d:
Charles’ wain is over the new chimney, and yet our horse’ not
pack’d.—What, ostler!
OSTLER.
[within.] Anon, anon.
FIRST CARRIER.
I pr’ythee, Tom, beat Cut’s saddle, put a few flocks in the
point; the poor jade is wrung in the withers out of all cess.
[Enter another Carrier.]
SECOND CARRIER.
Peas and beans are as dank here as a dog, and that is the
next way to give poor jades the bots; this house is turned
upside down since Robin ostler died.
FIRST CARRIER.
Poor fellow! never joyed since the price of oats rose; it was
the death of him.
SECOND CARRIER.
I think this be the most villainous house in all London road
for fleas: I am stung like a tench.
FIRST CARRIER.
Like a tench! by the Mass, there is ne’er a king in Christendom
could be better bit than I have been since the first cock.—What,
ostler! come away and be hang’d; come away.
SECOND CARRIER.
I have a gammon of bacon and two razes of ginger, to be
delivered as far as Charing-cross.
FIRST CARRIER.
’Odsbody! the turkeys in my pannier are quite starved.—What,
ostler! A plague on thee! hast thou never an eye in thy head?
canst not hear? An ’twere not as good a deed as drink to break
the pate of thee, I am a very villain. Come, and be hang’d:
hast no faith in thee?
[Enter Gadshill.]
GADSHILL.
Good morrow, carriers. What’s o’clock?
FIRST CARRIER.
I think it be two o’clock.
GADSHILL.
I pr’ythee, lend me thy lantern, to see my gelding in the
stable.
FIRST CARRIER.
Nay, soft, I pray ye; I know a trick worth two of that, i’faith.
GADSHILL.
I pr’ythee, lend me thine.
SECOND CARRIER.
Ay, when? canst tell? Lend me thy lantern, quoth a? marry, I’ll
see thee hang’d first.
GADSHILL.
Sirrah carrier, what time do you mean to come to London?
SECOND CARRIER.
Time enough to go to bed with a candle, I warrant thee.—
Come, neighbour Muggs, we’ll call up the gentlemen: they will
along with company, for they have great charge.
[Exeunt Carriers.]
GADSHILL.
What, ho! chamberlain!
CHAMBERLAIN.
[Within.] At hand, quoth pick-purse.
GADSHILL.
That’s even as fair as—at hand, quoth the chamberlain; for
thou variest no more from picking of purses than giving
direction doth from labouring; thou lay’st the plot how.
[Enter Chamberlain.]
CHAMBERLAIN.
Good morrow, Master Gadshill. It holds current that I told
you yesternight: there’s a franklin in the wild of Kent hath
brought three hundred marks with him in gold: I heard him
tell it to one of his company last night at supper; a kind of
auditor; one that hath abundance of charge too, God knows what.
They are up already, and call for eggs and butter; they will away
presently.
GADSHILL.
Sirrah, if they meet not with Saint Nicholas’ clerks, I’ll give
thee this neck.
CHAMBERLAIN.
No, I’ll none of it: I pr’ythee, keep that for the hangman; for
I know thou worshippest Saint Nicholas as truly as a man of
falsehood may.
GADSHILL.
What talkest thou to me of the hangman? if I hang, I’ll make
a fat pair of gallows; for, if I hang, old Sir John hangs with
me, and thou know’st he is no starveling. Tut! there are other
Trojans that thou dreamest not of, the which, for sport-sake,
are content to do the profession some grace; that would, if
matters should be look’d into, for their own credit-sake, make
all whole. I am joined with no foot land-rakers, no long-staff
sixpenny strikers, none of these mad mustachio purple-hued
malt-worms; but with nobility and tranquillity, burgomasters and
great oneyers; such as can hold in, such as will strike sooner
than speak, and speak sooner than drink, and drink sooner than
pray: and yet, zwounds, I lie; for they pray continually to their
saint, the Commonwealth; or, rather, not pray to her, but prey on
her, for they ride up and down on her, and make her their boots.
CHAMBERLAIN.
What, the Commonwealth their boots? will she hold out water
in foul way?
GADSHILL.
She will, she will; justice hath liquor’d her. We steal as in a
castle, cock-sure; we have the receipt of fernseed,—we walk
invisible.
CHAMBERLAIN.
Nay, by my faith, I think you are more beholding to the night
than to fern-seed for your walking invisible.
GADSHILL.
Give me thy hand: thou shalt have a share in our purchase, as
I am a true man.
CHAMBERLAIN.
Nay, rather let me have it, as you are a false thief.
GADSHILL.
 Bid the ostler
bring my gelding out of the stable. Farewell, you muddy knave.
[Exeunt.]
[Enter Prince Henry and Poins; Bardolph and Peto at some distance.]
POINS.
Come, shelter, shelter: I have remov’d Falstaff’s horse,
and he frets like a gumm’d velvet.
PRINCE.
Stand close.
[They retire.]
[Enter Falstaff.]
FALSTAFF.
Poins! Poins, and be hang’d! Poins!
PRINCE.
[Coming forward.]
Peace, ye fat-kidney’d rascal! what a brawling dost thou keep!
FALSTAFF.
Where’s Poins, Hal?
PRINCE.
He is walk’d up to the top of the hill: I’ll go seek him.
[Retires.]
FALSTAFF.
I am accursed to rob in that thief’s company: the rascal hath
removed my horse, and tied him I know not where. If I travel but
four foot by the squire further a-foot, I shall break my wind.
Well, I doubt not but to die a fair death for all this, if I ’scape
hanging for killing that rogue. I have forsworn his company hourly
any time this two-and-twenty year, and yet I am bewitch’d with the
rogue’s company. If the rascal have not given me medicines to make
me love him, I’ll be hang’d; it could not be else: I have drunk
medicines.—
Poins!—Hal!—a plague upon you both!—Bardolph!—Peto!—I’ll
starve, ere I’ll rob a foot further. An ’twere not as good a deed as
drink, to turn true man, and to leave these rogues, I am the veriest
varlet that ever chewed with a tooth. Eight yards of uneven ground
is threescore and ten miles a-foot with me; and the stony-hearted
villains know it well enough: a plague upon’t, when thieves cannot
be true one to another!
[They whistle.] Whew!—A plague upon you all!
PRINCE.
[Coming forward.] Peace! lie down; lay thine ear close to the
ground, and list if thou canst hear the tread of travellers.
FALSTAFF.
Have you any levers to lift me up again, being down? ’Sblood, I’ll
not bear mine own flesh so far a-foot again for all the coin in thy
father’s exchequer. What a plague mean ye to colt me thus?
PRINCE.
Thou liest; thou art not colted, thou art uncolted.
FALSTAFF.
I pr’ythee, good Prince Hal, help me to my horse, good king’s
son.
PRINCE.
Out, ye rogue! shall I be your ostler?
FALSTAFF.
Go, hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent garters! If I be
ta’en, I’ll peach for this.
When a jest is so forward, and a-foot too, I hate it.
[Enter Gadshill.]
GADSHILL.
Stand!
FALSTAFF.
So I do, against my will.
POINS.
O, ’tis our setter: I know his voice.
[Comes forward with Bardolph and Peto.]
BARDOLPH.
What news?
GADSHILL.
Case ye, case ye; on with your visards: there’s money of
the King’s coming down the hill; ’tis going to the King’s
exchequer.
FALSTAFF.
You lie, ye rogue; ’tis going to the King’s tavern.
GADSHILL.
There’s enough to make us all.
FALSTAFF.
To be hang’d.
PRINCE.
Sirs, you four shall front them in the narrow lane; Ned
Poins and I will walk lower; if they ’scape from your
encounter, then they light on us.
PETO.
How many be there of them?
GADSHILL.
Some eight or ten.
FALSTAFF.
Zwounds, will they not rob us?
PRINCE.
What, a coward, Sir John Paunch?
FALSTAFF.
Indeed, I am not John of Gaunt, your grandfather; but yet
no coward, Hal.
PRINCE.
Well, we leave that to the proof.
POINS.
Sirrah Jack, thy horse stands behind the hedge: when thou
need’st him, there thou shalt find him. Farewell, and stand fast.
FALSTAFF.
Now cannot I strike him, if I should be hang’d.
PRINCE.
[aside to POINTZ.] Ned, where are our disguises?
POINS.
[aside to PRINCE HENRY.] Here, hard by: stand close.
[Exeunt Prince and Poins.]
FALSTAFF.
Now, my masters, happy man be his dole, say I: every man
to his business.
[Enter Travellers.]
FIRST TRAVELLER.
Come, neighbour:
The boy shall lead our horses down the hill;
We’ll walk a-foot awhile and ease our legs.
FALSTAFF, GADSHILL., &C.
Stand!
SECOND TRAVELLER.
Jesu bless us!
FALSTAFF.
Strike; down with them; cut the villains’ throats. Ah,
whoreson caterpillars! bacon-fed knaves! they hate us youth:
down with them; fleece them.
FIRST TRAVELLER.
O, we’re undone, both we and ours for ever!
FALSTAFF.
Hang ye, gorbellied knaves, are ye undone? No, ye fat chuffs;
I would your store were here! On, bacons on! What, ye knaves!
young men must live.
[Exeunt Fals., Gads., &c., driving the Travellers out.]
[Re-enter Prince Henry and Poins, in buckram suits.]
PRINCE.
The thieves have bound the true men. Now, could thou and I rob
the thieves, and go merrily to London, it would be argument for a
week, laughter for a month, and a good jest for ever.
POINS.
Stand close: I hear them coming.
[They retire.]
[Re-enter Falstaff, Gadshill, Bardolph, and Peto.]
FALSTAFF.
Come, my masters, let us share, and then to horse before day.
An the Prince and Poins be not two arrant cowards, there’s no
equity stirring: there’s no more valour in that Poins than in a
wild duck.
[As they are sharing, the Prince and Poins set upon them.]
PRINCE.
Your money!
POINS.
Villains!
[Falstaff, after a blow or two, and the others run away, leaving the booty behind them.]
PRINCE.
Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse:
The thieves are scatter’d, and possess’d with fear
So strongly that they dare not meet each other;
Each takes his fellow for an officer.
Away, good Ned. Fat Falstaff sweats to death,
And lards the lean earth as he walks along:
Were’t not for laughing, I should pity him.
POINS.
How the rogue roar’d!
[Exeunt.]
[Enter Hotspur, reading a letter.]
HOTSPUR.
—But, for mine own part, my lord, I could be well contented to
be there, in respect of the love I bear your House.—He could be
contented; why is he not, then? In respect of the love he bears
our House!—he shows in this, he loves his own barn better than he
loves our house. Let me see some more. The purpose you undertake
is dangerous;—Why, that’s certain: ’tis dangerous to take a cold,
to sleep, to drink; but I tell you, my lord fool, out of this nettle,
danger, we pluck this flower, safety. The purpose you undertake is
dangerous; the friends you have named uncertain; the time itself
unsorted; and your whole plot too light for the counterpoise of so
great an opposition.—
Say you so, say you so?  What a lack-brain is this! By the Lord,
our plot is a good plot as ever was laid; our friends true and
constant: a good plot, good friends, and full of expectation; an
excellent plot, very good friends. What a frosty-spirited rogue is
this! Why, my Lord of York commends the plot and the general course
of the action. Zwounds! an I were now by this rascal, I could brain
him with his lady’s fan. Is there not my father, my uncle, and
myself? Lord Edmund Mortimer, my Lord of York, and Owen Glendower?
is there not, besides, the Douglas? have I not all their letters to
meet me in arms by the ninth of the next month? and are they not
some of them set forward already? What a pagan rascal is this! an
infidel! Ha! you shall see now, in very sincerity of fear and cold
heart, will he to the King, and lay open all our proceedings. O, I
could divide myself, and go to buffets, for moving such a dish of
skimm’d milk with so honourable an action!
Hang him! let him tell the King: we are prepared. I will set
forward to-night.—
[Enter Lady Percy.]
How now, Kate! I must leave you within these two hours.
LADY PERCY.
O, my good lord, why are you thus alone?
For what offence have I this fortnight been
A banish’d woman from my Harry’s bed?
Tell me, sweet lord, what is’t that takes from thee
Thy stomach, pleasure, and thy golden sleep?
Why dost thou bend thine eyes upon the earth,
And start so often when thou sitt’st alone?
Why hast thou lost the fresh blood in thy cheeks;
And given my treasures and my rights of thee
To thick-eyed musing and curst melancholy?
In thy faint slumbers I by thee have watch’d,
And heard thee murmur tales of iron wars;
Speak terms of manage to thy bounding steed;
Cry Courage! to the field! And thou hast talk’d
Of sallies and retires, of trenches, tents,
Of palisadoes, frontiers, parapets,
Of basilisks, of cannon, culverin,
Of prisoners ransomed, and of soldiers slain,
And all the currents of a heady fight.
Thy spirit within thee hath been so at war,
And thus hath so bestirr’d thee in thy sleep,
That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow,
Like bubbles in a late-disturbed stream;
And in thy face strange motions have appear’d,
Such as we see when men restrain their breath
On some great sudden hest. O, what portents are these?
Some heavy business hath my lord in hand,
And I must know it, else he loves me not.
HOTSPUR.
What, ho!
[Enter a Servant.]
Is Gilliams with the packet gone?
SERVANT.
He is, my lord, an hour ago.
HOTSPUR.
Hath Butler brought those horses from the sheriff?
SERVANT.
One horse, my lord, he brought even now.
HOTSPUR.
What horse? a roan, a crop-ear, is it not?
SERVANT.
It is, my lord.
HOTSPUR.
That roan shall be my throne.
Well, I will back him straight: O esperance!—
Bid Butler lead him forth into the park.
[Exit Servant.]
LADY PERCY.
But hear you, my lord.
HOTSPUR.
What say’st thou, my lady?
LADY PERCY.
What is it carries you away?
HOTSPUR.
Why, my horse, my love, my horse.
LADY PERCY.
Out, you mad-headed ape!
A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen
As you are toss’d with. In faith,
I’ll know your business, Harry, that I will.
I fear my brother Mortimer doth stir
About his title, and hath sent for you
To line his enterprise: but if you go,—
HOTSPUR.
So far a-foot, I shall be weary, love.
LADY PERCY.

HOTSPUR.
Away,
Away, you trifler! Love?
What say’st thou, Kate? what wouldst thou have with me?
LADY PERCY.
Do you not love me? do you not indeed?
Well, do not, then; for, since you love me not,
I will not love myself. Do you not love me?
Nay, tell me if you speak in jest or no.
HOTSPUR.
Come, wilt thou see me ride?
And when I am o’ horseback, I will swear
I love thee infinitely. But hark you, Kate;
I must not have you henceforth question me
Whither I go, nor reason whereabout:
Whither I must, I must; and, to conclude,
This evening must I leave you, gentle Kate.
I know you wise; but yet no further wise
Than Harry Percy’s wife; constant you are;
But yet a woman: and, for secrecy,
No lady closer; for I well believe
Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know;
And so far will I trust thee, gentle Kate.
LADY PERCY.
How! so far?
HOTSPUR.
Not an inch further.
Will this content you, Kate?
LADY PERCY.
It must of force.
[Exeunt.]
[Enter Prince Henry.]
PRINCE.

[Enter Poins.]
POINS.
Where hast been, Hal?
PRINCE.
With three or four loggerheads amongst three or fourscore
hogsheads. I have sounded the very base-string of humility.
Sirrah, I am sworn brother to a leash of drawers; and can call
them all by their Christian names, as, Tom, Dick, and Francis.
They take it already upon their salvation, that though I be but
Prince of Wales, yet I am the king of courtesy; and tell me flatly
I am no proud Jack, like Falstaff, but a corinthian, a lad of mettle,
a good boy,—by the Lord, so they call me;—and, when I am King
of England, I shall command all the good lads in Eastcheap.  To conclude, I am
so good a proficient in one quarter of an hour, that I can drink with
any tinker in his own language during my life. I tell thee, Ned, thou
hast lost much honour, that thou wert not with me in this action. But,
sweet Ned,—to sweeten which name of Ned, I give thee this pennyworth
of sugar, clapp’d even now into my hand by an under-skinker; one that
never spake other English in his life than Eight shillings and sixpence,
and You are welcome; with this shrill addition, Anon, anon, sir!  But, Ned, to drive away
the time till Falstaff come, I pr’ythee, do thou stand in some by-room,
while I question my puny drawer to what end he gave me the sugar;
and do thou never leave calling Francis! that his tale to me may be
nothing but Anon. Step aside, and I’ll show thee a precedent.
[Exit Poins.]
POINS.
[Within.] Francis!
PRINCE.
Thou art perfect.
POINS.
[Within.] Francis!
[Enter Francis.]
FRANCIS.
Anon, anon, sir.—Look down into the Pomegranate, Ralph.
PRINCE.
Come hither, Francis.
FRANCIS.
My lord?
PRINCE.
How long hast thou to serve, Francis?
FRANCIS.
Forsooth, five years, and as much as to—
POINS.
[within.] Francis!
FRANCIS.
Anon, anon, sir.
PRINCE.
Five year! by’r Lady, a long lease for the clinking of
pewter. But, Francis, darest thou be so valiant as to play
the coward with thy indenture and show it a fair pair of heels
and run from it?
FRANCIS.
O Lord, sir, I’ll be sworn upon all the books in England,
I could find in my heart—
POINS.
[within.] Francis!
FRANCIS.
Anon, anon, sir.
PRINCE.
How old art thou, Francis?
FRANCIS.
Let me see,—about Michaelmas next I shall be—
POINS.
[within.] Francis!
FRANCIS.

PRINCE.
Nay, but hark you, Francis: for the sugar thou gavest
me, ’twas a pennyworth, was’t not?
FRANCIS.
O Lord, sir, I would it had been two!
PRINCE.
I will give thee for it a thousand pound: ask me when
thou wilt, and thou shalt have it.
POINS.
[within.] Francis!
FRANCIS.
Anon, anon.
PRINCE.
Anon, Francis? No, Francis; but to-morrow, Francis; or,
Francis, a Thursday; or, indeed, Francis, when thou wilt. But,
Francis,—
FRANCIS.
My lord?
PRINCE.
—wilt thou rob this leathern-jerkin, crystal-button,
nott-pated, agate-ring, puke-stocking, caddis-garter,
smooth-tongue, Spanish-pouch,—
FRANCIS.
O Lord, sir, who do you mean?
PRINCE.

FRANCIS.
What, sir?
POINS.
[within.] Francis!
PRINCE.
Away, you rogue! dost thou not hear them call?
[Here they both call him; Francis stands amazed, not knowing which way to go.]
[Enter Vintner.]
VINTNER.
What, stand’st thou still, and hear’st such a calling? Look
to the guests within. [Exit Francis.]—My lord, old Sir John,
with half-a-dozen more, are at the door: shall I let them in?
PRINCE.
Let them alone awhile, and then open the door.
[Exit Vintner.]
Poins!
[Re-enter Poins.]
POINS.
Anon, anon, sir.
PRINCE.
Sirrah, Falstaff and the rest of the thieves are at the
door: shall we be merry?
POINS.
As merry as crickets, my lad. But hark ye; what cunning
match have you made with this jest of the drawer? Come,
what’s the issue?
PRINCE.
I am now of all humours that have showed themselves humours
since the old days of goodman Adam to the pupil age of this
present twelve o’clock at midnight.—What’s o’clock, Francis?
FRANCIS.
[Within.] Anon, anon, sir.
PRINCE.
That ever this fellow should have fewer words than a parrot, and
yet the son of a woman! His industry is up-stairs and down-stairs;
his eloquence the parcel of a reckoning. I am not yet of Percy’s
mind, the Hotspur of the North; he that kills me some six or seven
dozen of Scots at a breakfast, washes his hands, and says to his wife,
Fie upon this quiet life! I want work. O my sweet Harry, says she,
how many hast thou kill’d to-day? Give my roan horse a drench,
says he; and answers, Some fourteen, an hour after,—a trifle, a
trifle.
I pr’ythee, call in Falstaff: I’ll play Percy, and that damn’d
brawn shall play Dame Mortimer his wife. Rivo! says the drunkard.
Call in ribs, call in tallow.
[Enter Falstaff, Gadshill, Bardolph, and Peto; followed by
Francis with wine.]
POINS.
Welcome, Jack: where hast thou been?
FALSTAFF.
A plague of all cowards, I say, and a vengeance too! marry, and
amen!—
Give me a cup of sack, boy.—Ere I lead this life long, I’ll sew
nether-stocks, and mend them and foot them too. A plague of all
cowards!—
Give me a cup of sack, rogue.—Is there no virtue extant?
[Drinks.]
PRINCE.
Didst thou never see Titan kiss a dish of butter? pitiful-hearted
butter, that melted at the sweet tale of the Sun! if thou didst,
then behold that compound.
FALSTAFF.
 There live not three good
men unhang’d in England; and one of them is fat, and grows old: God
help the while! a bad world, I say.
I would I were a weaver; I could sing psalms or any thing. A plague of
all cowards! I say still.
PRINCE.
How now, wool-sack? what mutter you?
FALSTAFF.
A king’s son!  You Prince of Wales!
PRINCE.
Why, you whoreson round man, what’s the matter?
FALSTAFF.
Are not you a coward? answer me to that:—and Poins there?
POINS.

FALSTAFF.
I call thee coward! I’ll see thee damn’d ere I call thee coward:
but I would give a thousand pound, I could run as fast as thou canst.
 A plague upon such
backing! give me them that will face me.—Give me a cup of sack:
I am a rogue, if I drunk to-day.
PRINCE.
O villain! thy lips are scarce wiped since thou drunk’st last.
FALSTAFF.
All is one for that. A plague of all cowards! still say I.
[Drinks.]
PRINCE.
What’s the matter?
FALSTAFF.
What’s the matter? there be four of us here have ta’en a thousand
pound this day morning.
PRINCE.
Where is it, Jack? where is it?
FALSTAFF.
Where is it! taken from us it is: a hundred upon poor four of us!
PRINCE.
What, a hundred, man?
FALSTAFF.
I am a rogue, if I were not at half-sword with a dozen of them two
hours together. I have ’scaped by miracle. I am eight times thrust
through the doublet, four through the hose; my buckler cut through
and through; my sword hack’d like a hand-saw,—ecce signum! I never
dealt better since I was a man: all would not do. A plague of all
cowards! Let them speak: if they speak more or less than truth,
they are villains and the sons of darkness.
PRINCE.
Speak, sirs; how was it?
GADSHILL.
We four set upon some dozen,—
FALSTAFF.
Sixteen at least, my lord.
GADSHILL.
—and bound them.
PETO.
No, no; they were not bound.
FALSTAFF.
You rogue, they were bound, every man of them; or I am a Jew
else, an Ebrew Jew.
GADSHILL.
As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh men sea upon us,—
FALSTAFF.
And unbound the rest, and then come in the other.
PRINCE.
What, fought you with them all?
FALSTAFF.
All? I know not what you call all; but if I fought not with fifty
of them, I am a bunch of radish: if there were not two or three
and fifty upon poor old Jack, then am I no two-legged creature.
PRINCE.
Pray God you have not murdered some of them.
FALSTAFF.
Nay, that’s past praying for: I have pepper’d two of them; two I
am sure I have paid, two rogues in buckram suits.
Thou knowest my old ward: here I lay, and thus I bore my point.
Four rogues in buckram let drive at me,—
PRINCE.
What, four? thou saidst but two even now.
FALSTAFF.
Four, Hal; I told thee four.
POINS.
Ay, ay, he said four.
FALSTAFF.
These four came all a-front, and mainly thrust at me. I made me no more
ado but took all their seven points in my target, thus.
PRINCE.
Seven? why, there were but four even now.
FALSTAFF.
In buckram?
POINS.
Ay, four, in buckram suits.
FALSTAFF.
Seven, by these hilts, or I am a villain else.
PRINCE.
[aside to Poins.] Pr’ythee let him alone; we shall have more
anon.
FALSTAFF.
Dost thou hear me, Hal?
PRINCE.
Ay, and mark thee too, Jack.
FALSTAFF.
Do so, for it is worth the listening to. These nine in buckram
that I told thee of,—
PRINCE.
So, two more already.
FALSTAFF.
—their points being broken,—
POINS.
Down fell their hose.
FALSTAFF.
—began to give me ground: but I followed me close, came in foot
and hand; and with a thought seven of the eleven I paid.
PRINCE.
O monstrous! eleven buckram men grown out of two!
FALSTAFF.
But, as the Devil would have it, three misbegotten knaves in Kendal
Green came at my back and let drive at me; for it was so dark, Hal,
that thou couldst not see thy hand.
PRINCE.
These lies are like the father that begets them, gross as a mountain,
open, palpable. Why, thou nott-pated fool, thou whoreson, obscene
greasy tallow-keech,—
FALSTAFF.
What, art thou mad? art thou mad? is not the truth the truth?
PRINCE.
Why, how couldst thou know these men in Kendal green, when it was
so dark thou couldst not see thy hand? come, tell us your reason:
what sayest thou to this?
POINS.
Come, your reason, Jack, your reason.
FALSTAFF.
What, upon compulsion? No; were I at the strappado, or all the racks
in the world, I would not tell you on compulsion. Give you a reason on
compulsion! if reasons were as plentiful as blackberries, I would
give no man a reason upon compulsion, I.
PRINCE.
I’ll be no longer guilty of this sin; this sanguine coward, this
bed-presser, this horse-back-breaker, this huge hill of flesh,—
FALSTAFF.

Well, breathe awhile, and then to it again: and, when thou hast
tired thyself in base comparisons, hear me speak but this:—
POINS.
Mark, Jack.
PRINCE.
—We two saw you four set on four; you bound them, and were masters of
their wealth.—Mark now, how a plain tale shall put you down.—
Then did we two set on you four; and, with a word, outfaced you from
your prize, and have it; yea, and can show it you here in the house:
and, Falstaff, you carried yourself away as nimbly, with as quick
dexterity, and roared for mercy, and still ran and roar’d, as ever I
heard bull-calf.
What trick, what device, what starting-hole canst thou now find
out to hide thee from this open and apparent shame?
POINS.
Come, let’s hear, Jack; what trick hast thou now?
FALSTAFF.
By the Lord, I knew ye as well as he that made ye. Why, hear ye,
my masters:
Was it for me to kill the heir-apparent? should I turn upon the
true Prince? why, thou knowest I am as valiant as Hercules: but
beware instinct; the lion will not touch the true Prince.
Instinct is a great matter; I was now a coward on instinct.
I shall think the better of myself and thee during my life; I for a
valiant lion, and thou for a true prince. But, by the Lord, lads,
I am glad you have the money.—
[To Hostess within.] Hostess, clap-to the doors: watch
to-night, pray to-morrow.—Gallants, lads, boys, hearts of gold,
all the titles of good fellowship come to you!
What, shall we be merry? shall we have a play extempore?
PRINCE.
Content; and the argument shall be thy running away.
FALSTAFF.
Ah, no more of that, Hal, an thou lovest me!
[Enter the Hostess.]
HOSTESS.
O Jesu, my lord the Prince,—
PRINCE.
How now, my lady the hostess! What say’st thou to me?
HOSTESS.
Marry, my lord, there is a nobleman of the Court at door would
speak with you: he says he comes from your father.
PRINCE.
Give him as much as will make him a royal man, and send him back
again to my mother.
FALSTAFF.
What manner of man is he?
HOSTESS.
An old man.
FALSTAFF.
What doth gravity out of his bed at midnight? Shall I give him
his answer?
PRINCE.
Pr’ythee, do, Jack.
FALSTAFF.
Faith, and I’ll send him packing.
[Exit.]
PRINCE.

BARDOLPH.
Faith, I ran when I saw others run.
PRINCE.
Tell me now in earnest, how came Falstaff’s sword so hack’d?
PETO.
Why, he hack’d it with his dagger; and said he would swear truth out of
England, but he would make you believe it was done in fight; and
persuaded us to do the like.
BARDOLPH.
Yea, and to tickle our noses with spear-grass to make them bleed;
and then to beslubber our garments with it, and swear it was the
blood of true men. I did that I did not this seven year before;
I blush’d to hear his monstrous devices.
PRINCE.
O villain, thou stolest a cup of sack eighteen years ago, and wert
taken with the manner, and ever since thou hast blush’d extempore.
Thou hadst fire and sword on thy side, and yet thou rann’st away:
what instinct hadst thou for it?
BARDOLPH.
My lord, do you see these meteors? do you behold these
exhalations?
PRINCE.
I do.
BARDOLPH.
What think you they portend?
PRINCE.
Hot livers and cold purses.
BARDOLPH.
Choler, my lord, if rightly taken.
PRINCE.
No, if rightly taken, halter.—Here comes lean Jack, here comes
bare-bone.—
[Enter Falstaff.]
How now, my sweet creature of bombast! How long is’t ago, Jack, since thou saw’st thine own knee?
FALSTAFF.
My own knee! when I was about thy years, Hal, I was not an eagle’s
talon in the waist; I could have crept into any alderman’s thumb-ring:
a plague of sighing and grief! it blows a man up like a bladder.
There’s villanous news abroad: here was Sir John Bracy from your
father; you must to the Court in the morning.
That same mad fellow of the North, Percy; and he of Wales, that gave
Amaimon the bastinado, and swore the Devil his true liegeman upon the
cross of a Welsh hook,—what a plague call you him?
POINS.
O, Glendower.
FALSTAFF.
Owen, Owen,—the same; and his son-in-law Mortimer; and old
Northumberland; and that sprightly Scot of Scots, Douglas, that
runs o’ horseback up a hill perpendicular,—
PRINCE.
He that rides at high speed and with his pistol kills a sparrow
flying.
FALSTAFF.
You have hit it.
PRINCE.
So did he never the sparrow.
FALSTAFF.
Well, that rascal hath good metal in him; he will not run.
PRINCE.
Why, what a rascal art thou, then, to praise him so for running!
FALSTAFF.
O’ horseback, ye cuckoo! but a-foot he will not budge a foot.
PRINCE.
Yes, Jack, upon instinct.
FALSTAFF.
I grant ye, upon instinct. Well, he is there too, and one Mordake,
and a thousand blue-caps more:
Worcester is stolen away to-night; thy father’s beard is turn’d
white with the news: you may buy land now as cheap as stinking
mackerel.
But, tell me, Hal, art not thou horrible afeard? thou being
heir-apparent, could the world pick thee out three such enemies again
as that fiend Douglas, that spirit Percy, and that devil Glendower?
art thou not horribly afraid? doth not thy blood thrill at it?
PRINCE.
Not a whit, i’faith; I lack some of thy instinct.
FALSTAFF.
Well, thou wilt be horribly chid to-morrow when thou comest to
thy father. If thou love life, practise an answer.
PRINCE.

FALSTAFF.
Shall I? content: this chair shall be my state, this dagger my
sceptre, and this cushion my crown.
PRINCE.
Thy state is taken for a joint-stool, thy golden sceptre for a
leaden dagger, and thy precious rich crown for a pitiful bald crown.
FALSTAFF.
Well, an the fire of grace be not quite out of thee, now shalt
thou be moved.—
Give me a cup of sack, to make my eyes look red, that it may be
thought I have wept; for I must speak in passion, and I will do it
in King Cambyses’ vein.
PRINCE.
Well, here is my leg.
FALSTAFF.
And here is my speech.—Stand aside, nobility.
HOSTESS.
O Jesu, this is excellent sport, i faith!
FALSTAFF.
Weep not, sweet Queen; for trickling tears are vain.
HOSTESS.
O, the Father, how he holds his countenance!
FALSTAFF.
For God’s sake, lords, convey my tristful Queen;
For tears do stop the floodgates of her eyes.
HOSTESS.
O Jesu, he doth it as like one of these harlotry players as ever
I see!
FALSTAFF.
Peace, good pint-pot; peace, good tickle-brain.—Harry, I do not
only marvel where thou spendest thy time, but also how thou art
accompanied: for though the camomile, the more it is trodden on,
the faster it grows, yet youth, the more it is wasted, the sooner
it wears.  If,
then, thou be son to me, here lies the point: Why, being son to me,
art thou so pointed at?
Shall the blessed Sun of heaven prove a micher, and eat blackberries?
a question not to be ask’d. Shall the son of England prove a thief,
and take purses? a question to be ask’d.
There is a thing, Harry, which thou hast often heard of, and it is
known to many in our land by the name of pitch: this pitch, as
ancient writers do report, doth defile; so doth the company thou
keepest: for, Harry, now I do not speak to thee in drink, but in
tears; not in pleasure, but in passion; not in words only,
but in woes also. And yet there is a virtuous man whom I have
often noted in thy company, but I know not his name.
PRINCE.
What manner of man, an it like your Majesty?
FALSTAFF.
A goodly portly man, i’faith, and a corpulent; of a cheerful look,
a pleasing eye, and a most noble carriage; and, as I think, his age
some fifty, or, by’r Lady, inclining to threescore; and now I
remember me, his name is Falstaff: if that man should be lewdly given,
he deceiveth me; for, Harry, I see virtue in his looks.
If, then, the tree may be known by the fruit, as the fruit by the tree,
then, peremptorily I speak it, there is virtue in that Falstaff: him
keep with, the rest banish.
PRINCE.
Dost thou speak like a king? Do thou stand for me, and I’ll play
my father.
FALSTAFF.
Depose me! if thou dost it half so gravely, so majestically, both
in word and matter, hang me up by the heels for a rabbit-sucker or a
poulter’s hare.
PRINCE.
Well, here I am set.
FALSTAFF.
And here I stand.—Judge, my masters.
PRINCE.
Now, Harry, whence come you?
FALSTAFF.
My noble lord, from Eastcheap.
PRINCE.
The complaints I hear of thee are grievous.
FALSTAFF.
’Sblood, my lord, they are false.—Nay, I’ll tickle ye for a
young prince, i’faith.
PRINCE.
Swearest thou, ungracious boy? henceforth ne’er look on me.  Why
dost thou converse with that trunk of humours, that bolting-hutch of
beastliness, that swollen parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of
sack, that roasted Manningtree ox with the pudding in his belly, that
reverend Vice, that grey Iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity
in years? Wherein is he good, but to taste sack and drink it? wherein
neat and cleanly, but to carve a capon and eat it? wherein cunning, but
in craft? wherein crafty, but in villany? wherein villainous, but in
all things? wherein worthy, but in nothing?
FALSTAFF.
I would your Grace would take me with you: whom means your Grace?
PRINCE.
That villainous abominable misleader of youth, Falstaff, that old
white-bearded Satan.
FALSTAFF.
My lord, the man I know.
PRINCE.
I know thou dost.
FALSTAFF.
But to say I know more harm in him than in myself, were to say more
than I know. That he is old,—(the more the pity,—his white hairs do
witness it.
No, my good lord: banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Poins; but,
for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff,
valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant, being, as he is, old
Jack Falstaff, banish not him thy Harry’s company, banish not him thy
Harry’s company: banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.
PRINCE.
I do, I will.
[A knocking heard.]
[Exeunt Hostess, Francis, and Bardolph.]
[Enter Bardolph, running.]
BARDOLPH.
O, my lord, my lord! the sheriff with a most monstrous watch is
at the door.
FALSTAFF.
Out, ye rogue!—Play out the play: I have much to say in the
behalf of that Falstaff.
[Re-enter the Hostess, hastily.]
HOSTESS.
O Jesu, my lord, my lord,—
PRINCE.
Heigh, heigh! the Devil rides upon a fiddlestick: what’s the matter?
HOSTESS.
The sheriff and all the watch are at the door: they are come to
search the house. Shall I let them in?
FALSTAFF.
Dost thou hear, Hal? never call a true piece of gold a counterfeit:
thou art essentially mad without seeming so.
PRINCE.
And thou a natural coward, without instinct.
FALSTAFF.
I deny your major: if you will deny the sheriff, so; if not, let him
enter: if I become not a cart as well as another man, a plague on my
bringing up! I hope I shall as soon be strangled with a halter as
another.
PRINCE.
Go, hide thee behind the arras:—the rest walk, up above. Now,
my masters, for a true face and good conscience.
FALSTAFF.
Both which I have had; but their date is out, and therefore I’ll
hide me.
PRINCE.
Call in the sheriff.—
[Exeunt all but the Prince and Poins.]
[Enter Sheriff and Carrier.]

SHERIFF.
First, pardon me, my lord. A hue-and-cry
Hath followed certain men unto this house.
PRINCE.
What men?
SHERIFF.
One of them is well known, my gracious lord,—
A gross fat man.
CARRIER.
As fat as butter.
PRINCE.
The man, I do assure you, is not here;
For I myself at this time have employ’d him.

SHERIFF.
I will, my lord. There are two gentlemen
Have in this robbery lost three hundred marks.
PRINCE.
It may be so: if he have robb’d these men,
He shall be answerable; and so, farewell.
SHERIFF.
Good night, my noble lord.
PRINCE.
I think it is good morrow, is it not?
SHERIFF.
Indeed, my lord, I think’t be two o’clock.
[Exit Sheriff and Carrier.]
PRINCE.
This oily rascal is known as well as Paul’s. Go, call him forth.
POINS.
Falstaff!—fast asleep behind the arras, and snorting like a
horse.
PRINCE.
Hark, how hard he fetches breath. Search his pockets.
[Poins searches.]
What hast thou found?
POINS.
Nothing but papers, my lord.
PRINCE.
Let’s see what they be: read them.

Item, Sack two gallons ,. . . 5s. 8d.
Item, Anchovies and sack after supper, 2s. 6d.

O monstrous! but one half-pennyworth of bread to this intolerable
deal of sack! What there is else, keep close; we’ll read it at more
advantage: there let him sleep till day.
I’ll to the Court in the morning. We must all to the wars, and thy
place shall be honourable.  The money
shall be paid back again with advantage. Be with me betimes in the
morning; and so, good morrow, Poins.
POINS.
Good morrow, good my lord.
[Exeunt.]
[Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Mortimer, and Glendower.]
MORTIMER.
These promises are fair, the parties sure,
And our induction full of prosperous hope.
HOTSPUR.
Lord Mortimer,—and cousin Glendower,—Will you sit down?—
And uncle Worcester,—A plague upon it! I have forgot the map.
GLENDOWER.
No, here it is.
Sit, cousin Percy; sit, good cousin Hotspur;
For by that name as oft as Lancaster
Doth speak of you, his cheek looks pale, and with
A rising sigh he wisheth you in Heaven.
HOTSPUR.
And you in Hell, as oft as he hears Owen Glendower spoke of.
GLENDOWER.

HOTSPUR.
Why, so it would have done at the same season, if your mother’s
cat had but kitten’d, though yourself had never been born.
GLENDOWER.
I say the Earth did shake when I was born.
HOTSPUR.
And I say the Earth was not of my mind, if you suppose as
fearing you it shook.
GLENDOWER.
The Heavens were all on fire, the Earth did tremble.
HOTSPUR.
O, then th’ Earth shook to see the Heavens on fire,
And not in fear of your nativity.
Diseased Nature oftentimes breaks forth
In strange eruptions; oft the teeming Earth
Is with a kind of colic pinch’d and vex’d
By the imprisoning of unruly wind
Within her womb; which, for enlargement striving,
Shakes the old beldam Earth, and topples down
Steeples and moss-grown towers. At your birth,
Our grandam Earth, having this distemperature,
In passion shook.
GLENDOWER.
Cousin, of many men
I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave
To tell you once again, that at my birth
The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes;
The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds
Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields.
These signs have mark’d me extraordinary;
And all the courses of my life do show
I am not in the roll of common men.
Where is he living,—clipp’d in with the sea
That chides the banks of England, Scotland, Wales,—
Which calls me pupil, or hath read to me?
And bring him out that is but woman’s son
Can trace me in the tedious ways of art,
And hold me pace in deep experiments.
HOTSPUR.
I think there is no man speaks better Welsh.—I’ll to dinner.
MORTIMER.
Peace, cousin Percy; you will make him mad.
GLENDOWER.
I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
HOTSPUR.
Why, so can I, or so can any man;
But will they come when you do call for them?
GLENDOWER.
Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command the Devil.
HOTSPUR.
And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the Devil
By telling truth: tell truth, and shame the Devil.
If thou have power to raise him, bring him hither,
And I’ll be sworn I’ve power to shame him hence.
O, while you live, tell truth, and shame the Devil!
MORTIMER.
Come, come, no more of this unprofitable chat.
GLENDOWER.
Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made head
Against my power; thrice from the banks of Wye
And sandy-bottom’d Severn have I sent
Him bootless home and weather-beaten back.
HOTSPUR.
Home without boots, and in foul weather too!
How ’scaped he agues, in the Devil’s name!
GLENDOWER.
Come, here’s the map: shall we divide our right
According to our threefold order ta’en?
MORTIMER.
Th’ archdeacon hath divided it
Into three limits very equally.
England, from Trent and Severn hitherto,
By south and east is to my part assign’d:
All westward, Wales beyond the Severn shore,
And all the fertile land within that bound,
To Owen Glendower:—and, dear coz, to you
The remnant northward, lying off from Trent.
And our indentures tripartite are drawn;
Which being sealed interchangeably,—
A business that this night may execute,—
To-morrow, cousin Percy, you, and I,
And my good Lord of Worcester, will set forth
To meet your father and the Scottish power,
As is appointed us, at Shrewsbury.
My father Glendower is not ready yet,
Nor shall we need his help these fourteen days:—
[To Glend.] Within that space you may have drawn together
Your tenants, friends, and neighbouring gentlemen.
GLENDOWER.
A shorter time shall send me to you, lords:
And in my conduct shall your ladies come;
From whom you now must steal, and take no leave,
For there will be a world of water shed
Upon the parting of your wives and you.
HOTSPUR.
Methinks my moiety, north from Burton here,
In quantity equals not one of yours.
See how this river comes me cranking in,
And cuts me from the best of all my land
A huge half-moon, a monstrous cantle out.
I’ll have the current in this place damn’d up;
And here the smug and sliver Trent shall run
In a new channel, fair and evenly:
It shall not wind with such a deep indent,
To rob me of so rich a bottom here.
GLENDOWER.
Not wind? it shall, it must; you see it doth.
MORTIMER.
Yea, but
Mark how he bears his course, and runs me up
With like advantage on the other side;
Gelding th’ opposed continent as much
As on the other side it takes from you.
WORCESTER.
Yea, but a little charge will trench him here,
And on this north side win this cape of land;
And then he runneth straight and evenly.
HOTSPUR.
I’ll have it so: a little charge will do it.
GLENDOWER.
I will not have it alter’d.
HOTSPUR.
Will not you?
GLENDOWER.
No, nor you shall not.
HOTSPUR.
Who shall say me nay?
GLENDOWER.
Why, that will I.
HOTSPUR.
Let me not understand you, then; speak it in Welsh.
GLENDOWER.
I can speak English, lord, as well as you;
For I was train’d up in the English Court;
Where, being but young, I framed to the harp
Many an English ditty lovely well,
And gave the tongue a helpful ornament,
A virtue that was never seen in you.
HOTSPUR.

GLENDOWER.
Come, you shall have Trent turn’d.
HOTSPUR.
I do not care: I’ll give thrice so much land
To any well-deserving friend;
But in the way of bargain, mark ye me,
I’ll cavil on the ninth part of a hair.
Are the indentures drawn? shall we be gone?
GLEND.
The Moon shines fair; you may away by night:
I’ll in and haste the writer, and withal
Break with your wives of your departure hence:
I am afraid my daughter will run mad,
So much she doteth on her Mortimer.
[Exit.]
MORTIMER.
Fie, cousin Percy! how you cross my father!
HOTSPUR.
I cannot choose: sometimes he angers me
With telling me of the moldwarp and the ant,
Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies,
And of a dragon and a finless fish,
A clip-wing’d griffin and a moulten raven,
A couching lion and a ramping cat,
And such a deal of skimble-skamble stuff
As puts me from my faith. I tell you what,
He held me last night at the least nine hours
In reckoning up the several devils’ names
That were his lacqueys: I cried hum, and well,
But mark’d him not a word. O, he’s as tedious
As a tired horse, a railing wife;
Worse than a smoky house: I had rather live
With cheese and garlic in a windmill, far,
Than feed on cates and have him talk to me
In any summer-house in Christendom.
MORTIMER.
In faith, he is a worthy gentleman;
Exceedingly well-read, and profited
In strange concealments; valiant as a lion,
And wondrous affable, and as bountiful
As mines of India.
He holds your temper in a high respect,
And curbs himself even of his natural scope
When you do cross his humour; faith, he does:
I warrant you, that man is not alive
Might so have tempted him as you have done,
Without the taste of danger and reproof:
But do not use it oft, let me entreat you.
WORCESTER.
In faith, my lord, you are too wilful-blunt;
And since your coming hither have done enough
To put him quite beside his patience.
You must needs learn, lord, to amend this fault:
Though sometimes it show greatness, courage, blood—
And that’s the dearest grace it renders you,—
Yet oftentimes it doth present harsh rage,
Defect of manners, want of government,
Pride, haughtiness, opinion, and disdain;
The least of which haunting a nobleman
Loseth men’s hearts, and leaves behind a stain
Upon the beauty of all parts besides,
Beguiling them of commendation.
HOTSPUR.
Well, I am school’d: good manners be your speed!
Here come our wives, and let us take our leave.
[Re-enter Glendower, with Lady Mortimer and Lady Percy.]
MORTIMER.
This is the deadly spite that angers me,
My wife can speak no English, I no Welsh.
GLENDOWER.
My daughter weeps: she will not part with you;
She’ll be a soldier too, she’ll to the wars.
MORTIMER.
Good father, tell her that she and my aunt Percy
Shall follow in your conduct speedily.
[Glendower speaks to Lady Mortimer in Welsh, and she answers him in the same.]
GLENDOWER.
She’s desperate here; a peevish self-will’d harlotry,
One that no persuasion can do good upon.
[Lady Mortimer speaks to Mortimer in Welsh.]
MORTIMER.
I understand thy looks: that pretty Welsh
Which thou pour’st down from these swelling heavens
I am too perfect in; and, but for shame,
In such a parley should I answer thee.
[Lady Mortimer speaks to him again in Welsh.]
I understand thy kisses, and thou mine,
And that’s a feeling disputation:
But I will never be a truant, love,
Till I have learn’d thy language; for thy tongue
Makes Welsh as sweet as ditties highly penn’d,
Sung by a fair queen in a Summer’s bower,
With ravishing division, to her lute.
GLENDOWER.
Nay, if you melt, then will she run mad.
[Lady Mortimer speaks to Mortimer again in Welsh.]
MORTIMER.
O, I am ignorance itself in this!
GLENDOWER.

MORTIMER.
With all my heart I’ll sit and hear her sing:
By that time will our book, I think, be drawn.
GLENDOWER.
Do so:
An those musicians that shall play to you
Hang in the air a thousand leagues from hence,
And straight they shall be here: sit, and attend.
HOTSPUR.

LADY PERCY.
Go, ye giddy goose.
[The music plays.]
HOTSPUR.
Now I perceive the Devil understands Welsh;
And ’tis no marvel he’s so humorous.
By’r Lady, he’s a good musician.
LADY PERCY.
 Lie still, ye thief, and hear
the lady sing in Welsh.
HOTSPUR.
I had rather hear Lady, my brach, howl in Irish.
LADY PERCY.

HOTSPUR.
No.
LADY PERCY.
Then be still.
HOTSPUR.
Neither; ’tis a woman’s fault.
LADY PERCY.
Now God help thee!
HOTSPUR.
Peace! she sings.
[A Welsh song by Lady Mortimer.]
Come, Kate, I’ll have your song too.
LADY PERCY.
Not mine, in good sooth.
HOTSPUR.
Not yours, in good sooth!  Not mine, in good sooth; and, As true
as I live; and, As God shall mend me; and, As sure as day;
And givest such sarcenet surety for thy oaths,
As if thou ne’er walk’dst further than Finsbury.
Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art,
A good mouth-filling oath; and leave in sooth,
And such protest of pepper-gingerbread,
To velvet-guards and Sunday-citizens. Come, sing.
LADY PERCY.
I will not sing.
HOTSPUR.
’Tis the next way to turn tailor, or be redbreast-teacher.
An the indentures be drawn, I’ll away within these two hours;
and so, come in when ye will.
[Exit.]
GLENDOWER.

By this our book’s drawn; we’ll but seal, and then
To horse immediately.
MORTIMER.
With all my heart.
[Exeunt.]
[Enter King Henry, Prince Henry, and Lords.]
KING.
Lords, give us leave; the Prince of Wales and I
Must have some private conference: but be near at hand,
For we shall presently have need of you.
[Exeunt Lords.]
I know not whether God will have it so,
For some displeasing service I have done,
That, in His secret doom, out of my blood
He’ll breed revengement and a scourge for me;
But thou dost, in thy passages of life,
Make me believe that thou art only mark’d
For the hot vengeance and the rod of Heaven
To punish my mistreadings. Tell me else,
Could such inordinate and low desires,
Such poor, such base, such lewd, such mean attempts,
Such barren pleasures, rude society,
As thou art match’d withal and grafted to,
Accompany the greatness of thy blood,
And hold their level with thy princely heart?
PRINCE.
So please your Majesty, I would I could
Quit all offences with as clear excuse
As well as I am doubtless I can purge
Myself of many I am charged withal:
Yet such extenuation let me beg,
As, in reproof of many tales devised
By smiling pick-thanks and base news-mongers,—
Which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear,—
I may, for some things true, wherein my youth
Hath faulty wander’d and irregular,
Find pardon on my true submission.
KING.
God pardon thee! Yet let me wonder, Harry,
At thy affections, which do hold a wing
Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors.
Thy place in Council thou hast rudely lost,
Which by thy younger brother is supplied;
And art almost an alien to the hearts
Of all the Court and princes of my blood:
The hope and expectation of thy time
Is ruin’d; and the soul of every man
Prophetically does forethink thy fall.
Had I so lavish of my presence been,
So common-hackney’d in the eyes of men,
So stale and cheap to vulgar company,
Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
Had still kept loyal to possession,
And left me in reputeless banishment,
A fellow of no mark nor likelihood.
By being seldom seen, I could not stir
But, like a comet, I was wonder’d at;
That men would tell their children, This is he;
Others would say, Where, which is Bolingbroke?
And then I stole all courtesy from Heaven,
And dress’d myself in such humility,
That I did pluck allegiance from men’s hearts,
Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths,
Even in the presence of the crowned King.
Thus did I keep my person fresh and new;
My presence, like a robe pontifical,
Ne’er seen but wonder’d at: and so my state,
Seldom but sumptuous, showed like a feast,
And won by rareness such solemnity.

So, when he had occasion to be seen,
He was but as the cuckoo is in June,
Heard, not regarded; seen, but with such eyes
As, sick and blunted with community,
Afford no extraordinary gaze,
Such as is bent on sun-like majesty
When it shines seldom in admiring eyes;
But rather drowsed, and hung their eyelids down,
Slept in his face, and render’d such aspect
As cloudy men use to their adversaries,
Being with his presence glutted, gorged, and full.
And in that very line, Harry, stand’st thou;
For thou hast lost thy princely privilege
With vile participation: not an eye
But is a-weary of thy common sight,
Save mine, which hath desired to see thee more;
Which now doth that I would not have it do,
Make blind itself with foolish tenderness.
PRINCE.
I shall hereafter, my thrice-gracious lord,
Be more myself.
KING.
For all the world,
As thou art to this hour, was Richard then
When I from France set foot at Ravenspurg;
And even as I was then is Percy now.
Now, by my sceptre, and my soul to boot,
He hath more worthy interest to the state
Than thou, the shadow of succession;
For, of no right, nor colour like to right,
He doth fill fields with harness in the realm,
Turns head against the lion’s armed jaws;
And, being no more in debt to years than thou,
Leads ancient lords and reverend bishops on
To bloody battles and to bruising arms.
What never-dying honour hath he got
Against renowned Douglas! whose high deeds,
Whose hot incursions, and great name in arms,
Holds from all soldiers chief majority
And military title capital
Through all the kingdoms that acknowledge Christ:
Thrice hath this Hotspur, Mars in swathing-clothes,
This infant warrior, in his enterprises
Discomfited great Douglas; ta’en him once,
Enlarged him, and made a friend of him,
To fill the mouth of deep defiance up,
And shake the peace and safety of our throne.
And what say you to this? Percy, Northumberland,
Th’ Archbishop’s Grace of York, Douglas, and Mortimer
Capitulate against us, and are up.
But wherefore do I tell these news to thee?
Why, Harry, do I tell thee of my foes,
Which art my near’st and dearest enemy?
Thou that art like enough,—through vassal fear,
Base inclination, and the start of spleen,—
To fight against me under Percy’s pay,
To dog his heels, and curtsy at his frowns,
To show how much thou art degenerate.
PRINCE.
Do not think so; you shall not find it so:
And God forgive them that so much have sway’d
Your Majesty’s good thoughts away from me!

For every honour sitting on his helm,
Would they were multitudes, and on my head
My shames redoubled! for the time will come,
That I shall make this northern youth exchange
His glorious deeds for my indignities.

This, in the name of God, I promise here:
The which if I perform, and do survive,
I do beseech your Majesty, may salve
The long-grown wounds of my intemperance:
If not, the end of life cancels all bands;
And I will die a hundred thousand deaths
Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow.
KING.

Thou shalt have charge and sovereign trust herein.—
[Enter Sir Walter Blunt.]

BLUNT.
So is the business that I come to speak of.
Lord Mortimer of Scotland hath sent word
That Douglas and the English rebels met
Th’ eleventh of this month at Shrewsbury:
A mighty and a fearful head they are,
If promises be kept on every hand,
As ever offer’d foul play in a State.
KING.
The Earl of Westmoreland set forth to-day;
With him my son, Lord John of Lancaster;
For this advertisement is five days old.
On Wednesday next you, Harry, shall set forward;
On Thursday we ourselves will march:
Our meeting is Bridgenorth: and, Harry, you
Shall march through Glostershire; by which account,
Our business valued, some twelve days hence
Our general forces at Bridgenorth shall meet.

[Exeunt.]
[Enter Falstaff and Bardolph.]
FALSTAFF.
Bardolph, am I not fallen away vilely since this last action? do I
not bate? do I not dwindle? Why, my skin hangs about me like an
old lady’s loose gown; I am withered like an old apple-John.
Well, I’ll repent, and that suddenly, while I am in some liking; I
shall be out of heart shortly, and then I shall have no strength to
repent.
An I have not forgotten what the inside of a church is made of, I
am a peppercorn, a brewer’s horse: the inside of a church!
Company, villainous company, hath been the spoil of me.
BARDOLPH.
Sir John, you are so fretful, you cannot live long.
FALSTAFF.
Why, there is it: come, sing me a song; make me merry. I was as
virtuously given as a gentleman need to be; virtuous enough; swore
little; diced not above seven times a week; paid money that I borrowed
—three or four times; lived well, and in good compass: and now I live
out of all order, out of all compass.
BARDOLPH.
Why, you are so fat, Sir John, that you must needs be out of all
compass, —out of all reasonable compass, Sir John.
FALSTAFF.
Do thou amend thy face, and I’ll amend my life: thou art our admiral,
thou bearest the lantern in the poop,—but ’tis in the nose of thee;
thou art the Knight of the Burning Lamp.
BARDOLPH.

FALSTAFF.
No, I’ll be sworn; I make as good use of it as many a man doth of a
death’s-head or a memento mori: I never see thy face but I think upon
hell-fire, and Dives that lived in purple; for there he is in his robes,
burning, burning. If thou wert any way given to virtue, I would swear
by thy face; my oath should be, By this fire, that’s God’s angel: but
thou art altogether given over; and wert indeed, but for the light in
thy face, the son of utter darkness. When thou rann’st up Gad’s-hill in
the night to catch my horse, if I did not think thou hadst been an ignis
fatuus or a ball of wildfire, there’s no purchase in money. O, thou art
a perpetual triumph, an everlasting bonfire-light! Thou hast saved me a
thousand marks in links and torches, walking with thee in the night
betwixt tavern and tavern: but the sack that thou hast drunk me would
have bought me lights as good cheap at the dearest chandler’s in Europe.

BARDOLPH.
’Sblood, I would my face were in your stomach!
FALSTAFF.
God-a-mercy! so should I be sure to be heart-burn’d.—
[Enter the Hostess.]
How now, Dame Partlet the hen! have you enquir’d yet who pick’d my pocket?
HOSTESS.
Why, Sir John, what do you think, Sir John? do you think I
keep thieves in my house? I have search’d, I have inquired,
so has my husband, man by man, boy by boy, servant by servant:
the tithe of a hair was never lost in my house before.
FALSTAFF.
Ye lie, hostess: Bardolph was shaved, and lost many a hair; and
I’ll be sworn my pocket was pick’d.
HOSTESS.
Who, I? no; I defy thee: God’s light, I was never call’d so in
mine own house before.
FALSTAFF.
Go to, I know you well enough.
HOSTESS.
No, Sir John; you do not know me, Sir John. I know you, Sir John:
you owe me money, Sir John; and now you pick a quarrel to beguile me
of it: I bought you a dozen of shirts to your back.
FALSTAFF.
Dowlas, filthy dowlas: I have given them away to bakers’ wives,
and they have made bolters of them.
HOSTESS.
Now, as I am a true woman, holland of eight shillings an ell.
You owe money here besides, Sir John, for your diet and by-drinkings,
and money lent you, four-and-twenty pound.
FALSTAFF.
He had his part of it; let him pay.
HOSTESS.
He? alas, he is poor; he hath nothing.
FALSTAFF.
 What, will you make a younker of me? shall I not take
mine ease in mine inn, but I shall have my pocket pick’d? I have
lost a seal-ring of my grandfather’s worth forty mark.
HOSTESS.
O Jesu, I have heard the Prince tell him, I know not how oft,
that that ring was copper!
FALSTAFF.
How! the Prince is a Jack, a sneak-cup: ’sblood, an he were
here, I would cudgel him like a dog, if he would say so.—
[Enter Prince Henry and Poins, marching. Falstaff meets them, playing on his truncheon like a fife.]
How now, lad? is the wind in that door, i’faith? must we all march?
BARDOLPH.
Yea, two-and-two, Newgate-fashion.
HOSTESS.
My lord, I pray you, hear me.
PRINCE.
What say’st thou, Mistress Quickly? How doth thy husband? I love
him well; he is an honest man.
HOSTESS.
Good my lord, hear me.
FALSTAFF.
Pr’ythee, let her alone, and list to me.
PRINCE.
What say’st thou, Jack?
FALSTAFF.
The other night I fell asleep here behind the arras, and had my
pocket pick’d: this house is turn’d bawdy-house; they pick pockets.
PRINCE.
What didst thou lose, Jack?
FALSTAFF.
Wilt thou believe me, Hal? three or four bonds of forty pound
a-piece and a seal-ring of my grandfather’s.
PRINCE.
A trifle, some eight-penny matter.
HOSTESS.

PRINCE.
What! he did not?
HOSTESS.
There’s neither faith, truth, nor womanhood in me else.
FALSTAFF.
There’s no more faith in thee than in a stew’d prune; nor no more
truth in thee than in a drawn fox; and, for woman-hood, Maid Marian
may be the deputy’s wife of the ward to thee. Go, you thing, go.
HOSTESS.
Say, what thing? what thing? I am an honest man’s wife: and,
setting thy knighthood aside, thou art a knave to call me so.
FALSTAFF.
Setting thy womanhood aside, thou art a beast to say otherwise.
HOSTESS.
Say, what beast, thou knave, thou?
FALSTAFF.
What beast! why, an otter.
PRINCE.
An otter, Sir John, why an otter?
FALSTAFF.
Why, she’s neither fish nor flesh; a man knows not where to have
her.
HOSTESS.
Thou art an unjust man in saying so; thou or any man knows where
to have me, thou knave, thou!
PRINCE.
Thou say’st true, hostess; and he slanders thee most grossly.
HOSTESS.

PRINCE.
Sirrah, do I owe you a thousand pound?
FALSTAFF.
A thousand pound, Hal! a million: thy love is worth a million; thou owest me thy love.
HOSTESS.
Nay, my lord, he call’d you Jack, and said he would cudgel you.
FALSTAFF.
Did I, Bardolph?
BARDOLPH.
Indeed, Sir John, you said so.
FALSTAFF.
Yea, if he said my ring was copper.
PRINCE.
I say ’tis copper: darest thou be as good as thy word now?
FALSTAFF.
Why, Hal, thou know’st, as thou art but man, I dare; but as thou
art prince, I fear thee as I fear the roaring of the lion’s whelp.
PRINCE.
And why not as the lion?
FALSTAFF.
The King himself is to be feared as the lion: dost thou think I’ll
fear thee as I fear thy father? nay, an I do, I pray God my girdle
break.
PRINCE.
Sirrah, there’s no room for faith, truth, nor honesty in this
bosom of thine; it is all fill’d up with midriff.
Charge an honest woman with picking thy pocket! why, thou whoreson,
impudent, emboss’d rascal, if there were anything in thy pocket but
tavern-reckonings, and one poor pennyworth of sugar-candy to make thee
long-winded,—if thy pocket were enrich’d with any other injuries but
these, I am a villain: and yet you will stand to it; you will not
pocket-up wrong. Art thou not ashamed!
FALSTAFF.
Dost thou hear, Hal? thou know’st, in the state of innocency Adam fell;
and what should poor Jack Falstaff do in the days of villainy?
Thou see’st I have more flesh than another man; and therefore more
frailty.
PRINCE.
It appears so by the story.
FALSTAFF.
Hostess, I forgive thee: go, make ready breakfast; love thy husband,
look to thy servants, cherish thy guests: thou shalt find me tractable
to any honest reason; thou see’st I am pacified.—Still? Nay, pr’ythee,
be gone.
[Exit Hostess.]
Now, Hal, to the news at Court: for the robbery, lad, how is that answered?
PRINCE.
O, my sweet beef, I must still be good angel to thee: the money
is paid back again.
FALSTAFF.
O, I do not like that paying back; ’tis a double labour.
PRINCE.
I am good friends with my father, and may do any thing.
FALSTAFF.
Rob me the exchequer the first thing thou doest, and do it with
unwash’d hands too.
BARDOLPH.
Do, my lord.
PRINCE.
I have procured thee, Jack, a charge of Foot.
FALSTAFF.
I would it had been of Horse. Where shall I find one that can steal
well? O, for a fine thief, of the age of two-and-twenty or thereabouts!
I am heinously unprovided. Well, God be thanked for these rebels; they
offend none but the virtuous: I laud them, I praise them.
PRINCE.
Bardolph,—
BARDOLPH.
My lord?
PRINCE.
Go bear this letter to Lord John of Lancaster,
To my brother John; this to my Lord of Westmoreland.—
[Exit Bardolph.]
Go, Poins, to horse, to horse; for thou and I
Have thirty miles to ride yet ere dinner-time.—
[Exit Poins.]
Meet me to-morrow, Jack, i’ the Temple-hall
At two o’clock in th’ afternoon:
There shalt thou know thy charge; and there receive
Money and order for their furniture.
The land is burning; Percy stands on high;
And either they or we must lower lie.
[Exit.]
FALSTAFF.
Rare words! brave world!—Hostess, my breakfast; come:—
O, I could wish this tavern were my drum!
[Exit.]
[Enter Hotspur, Worcester, and Douglas.]
HOTSPUR.
Well said, my noble Scot: if speaking truth
In this fine age were not thought flattery,
Such attribution should the Douglas have,
As not a soldier of this season’s stamp
Should go so general-current through the world.
By God, I cannot flatter; I defy
The tongues of soothers; but a braver place
In my heart’s love hath no man than yourself:
Nay, task me to my word; approve me, lord.
DOUGLAS.
Thou art the king of honour:
No man so potent breathes upon the ground
But I will beard him.
HOTSPUR.
Do so, and ’tis well.—
[Enter a Messenger with letters.]
What letters hast thou there?—I can but thank you.
MESSENGER.
These letters come from your father.
HOTSPUR.
Letters from him! why comes he not himself?
MESSENGER.
He cannot come, my lord; he’s grievous sick.
HOTSPUR.
 Who leads his power?
Under whose government come they along?
MESSENGER.
His letters bears his mind, not I, my lord.
WORCESTER.
I pr’ythee, tell me, doth he keep his bed?
MESSENGER.
He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth,
And at the time of my departure thence
He was much fear’d by his physicians.
WORCESTER.
I would the state of time had first been whole
Ere he by sickness had been visited:
His health was never better worth than now.
HOTSPUR.
Sick now! droop now! this sickness doth infect
The very life-blood of our enterprise;
’Tis catching hither, even to our camp.
He writes me here, that inward sickness,—
And that his friends by deputation could not
So soon be drawn; no did he think it meet
To lay so dangerous and dear a trust
On any soul removed, but on his own.
Yet doth he give us bold advertisement,
That with our small conjunction we should on,
To see how fortune is disposed to us;
For, as he writes, there is no quailing now,
Because the King is certainly possess’d
Of all our purposes. What say you to it?
WORCESTER.

HOTSPUR.
A perilous gash, a very limb lopp’d off:—
And yet, in faith, ’tis not; his present want
Seems more than we shall find it. Were it good
To set the exact wealth of all our states
All at one cast? to set so rich a main
On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?
It were not good; for therein should we read
The very bottom and the soul of hope,
The very list, the very utmost bound
Of all our fortunes.
DOUGLAS.
Faith, and so we should;
Where now remains a sweet reversion;
And we may boldly spend upon the hope
Of what is to come in:
A comfort of retirement lives in this.
HOTSPUR.
A rendezvous, a home to fly unto,
If that the Devil and mischance look big
Upon the maidenhead of our affairs.
WORCESTER.
But yet I would your father had been here.
The quality and hair of our attempt
Brooks no division: it will be thought
By some, that know not why he is away,
That wisdom, loyalty, and mere dislike
Of our proceedings, kept the earl from hence:
And think how such an apprehension
May turn the tide of fearful faction,
And breed a kind of question in our cause;
For well you know we of the offering side
Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement,
And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence
The eye of reason may pry in upon us.

HOTSPUR.
Nay, you strain too far.
I, rather, of his absence make this use:
It lends a lustre and more great opinion,
A larger dare to our great enterprise,
Than if the earl were here; for men must think,
If we, without his help, can make a head
To push against the kingdom, with his help
We shall o’erturn it topsy-turvy down.
Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole.
DOUGLAS.
As heart can think: there is not such a word
Spoke in Scotland as this term of fear.
[Enter Sir Richard Vernon.]
HOTSPUR.
My cousin Vernon! welcome, by my soul.
VERNON.
Pray God my news be worth a welcome, lord.
The Earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong,
Is marching hitherwards; with him Prince John.
HOTSPUR.
No harm: what more?
VERNON.
And further, I have learn’d
The King himself in person is set forth,
Or hitherwards intended speedily,
With strong and mighty preparation.
HOTSPUR.
He shall be welcome too. Where is his son,
The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales,
And his comrades, that daff the world aside,
And bid it pass?
VERNON.
All furnish’d, all in arms;
All plumed like estridges that with the wind
Bate it; like eagles having lately bathed;
Glittering in golden coats, like images;
As full of spirit as the month of May
And gorgeous as the Sun at midsummer;
Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.
I saw young Harry—with his beaver on,
His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm’d—
Rise from the ground like feather’d Mercury,
And vault it with such ease into his seat,
As if an angel dropp’d down from the clouds,
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,
And witch the world with noble horsemanship.
HOTSPUR.
No more, no more: worse than the Sun in March,
This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come;
They come like sacrifices in their trim,
And to the fire-eyed maid of smoky war,
All hot and bleeding, will we offer them:
The mailed Mars shall on his altar sit
Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire
To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh,
And yet not ours.—Come, let me taste my horse,
Who is to bear me, like a thunderbolt,
Against the bosom of the Prince of Wales:
Harry and Harry shall, hot horse to horse,
Meet, and ne’er part till one drop down a corse.—
O, that Glendower were come!
VERNON.
There is more news:
I learn’d in Worcester, as I rode along,
He cannot draw his power this fourteen days.
DOUGLAS.
That’s the worst tidings that I hear of yet.
WORCESTER.
Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound.
HOTSPUR.
What may the King’s whole battle reach unto?
VERNON.
To thirty thousand.
HOTSPUR.
Forty let it be:
My father and Glendower being both away,
The powers of us may serve so great a day.

DOUGLAS.
Talk not of dying: I am out of fear
Of death or death’s hand for this one half-year.
[Exeunt.]
[Enter Falstaff and Bardolph.]
FALSTAFF.
Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry; fill me a bottle of
sack: our soldiers shall march through; we’ll to Sutton-Co’fil’
to-night.
BARDOLPH.
Will you give me money, captain?
FALSTAFF.
Lay out, lay out.
BARDOLPH.
This bottle makes an angel.
FALSTAFF.
An if it do, take it for thy labour; an if it make twenty,
take them all; I’ll answer the coinage. Bid my lieutenant
Peto meet me at the town’s end.
BARDOLPH.
I will, captain: farewell.
[Exit.]
FALSTAFF.
If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a soused gurnet. I have
misused the King’s press damnably. I have got, in exchange of
a hundred and fifty soldiers, three hundred and odd pounds. I
press’d me none but good householders, yeomen’s sons; inquired
me out contracted bachelors, such as had been ask’d twice on the
banns; such a commodity of warm slaves as had as lief hear the
Devil as a drum; such as fear the report of a caliver worse than
a struck fowl or a hurt wild-duck. I press’d me none but such
toasts-and-butter, with hearts in their bodies no bigger than
pins’-heads, and they have bought out their services; and now
my whole charge consists of ancients, corporals, lieutenants,
gentlemen of companies, slaves as ragged as Lazarus in the
painted cloth, where the glutton’s dogs licked his sores; and
such as, indeed, were never soldiers, but discarded unjust
serving-men, younger sons to younger brothers, revolted tapsters,
and ostlers trade-fallen; the cankers of a calm world and a long
peace; ten times more dishonourable ragged than an old faced
ancient: and such have I, to fill up the rooms of them that have
bought out their services, that you would think that I had a
hundred and fifty tattered Prodigals lately come from
swine-keeping, from eating draff and husks.
No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I’ll not march through Coventry
with them, that’s flat: nay, and the villains march wide betwixt
the legs, as if they had gyves on; for, indeed, I had the most of
them out of prison. There’s but a shirt and a half in all my company;
and the half-shirt is two napkins tack’d together and thrown over the
shoulders like a herald’s coat without sleeves; and the shirt, to say
the truth, stolen from my host at Saint Alban’s, or the red-nose
innkeeper of Daventry.
But that’s all one; they’ll find linen enough on every hedge.
[Enter Prince Henry and Westmoreland.]
PRINCE.
How now, blown Jack! how now, quilt!
FALSTAFF.

WESTMORELAND.
Faith, Sir John, ’tis more than time that I were there, and you too;
but my powers are there already. The King, I can tell you, looks for
us all: we must away all, to-night.
FALSTAFF.
Tut, never fear me: I am as vigilant as a cat to steal cream.
PRINCE.
I think, to steal cream, indeed; for thy theft hath already made thee
butter. But tell me, Jack, whose fellows are these that come after?
FALSTAFF.
Mine, Hal, mine.
PRINCE.
I did never see such pitiful rascals.
FALSTAFF.
Tut, tut; good enough to toss; food for powder, food for powder;
they’ll fill a pit as well as better: tush, man, mortal men,
mortal men.
WESTMORELAND.
Ay, but, Sir John, methinks they are exceeding poor and bare,—too
beggarly.
FALSTAFF.
Faith, for their poverty, I know not where they had that; and,
for their bareness, I am sure they never learn’d that of me.
PRINCE.
No, I’ll be sworn; unless you call three fingers on the ribs
bare. But, sirrah, make haste: Percy is already in the field.
[Exit.]
FALSTAFF.
What, is the King encamp’d?
WESTMORELAND.
He is, Sir John: I fear we shall stay too long.
[Exit.]
FALSTAFF.
Well,
To the latter end of a fray and the beginning of a feast
Fits a dull fighter and a keen guest.
[Exit.]
[Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Douglas, and Vernon.]
HOTSPUR.
We’ll fight with him to-night.
WORCESTER.
It may not be.
DOUGLAS.
You give him, then, advantage.
VERNON.
Not a whit.
HOTSPUR.
Why say you so? looks he not for supply?
VERNON.
So do we.
HOTSPUR.
His is certain, ours is doubtful.
WORCESTER.
Good cousin, be advised; stir not to-night.
VERNON.
Do not, my lord.
DOUGLAS.
You do not counsel well:
You speak it out of fear and cold heart.
VERNON.
Do me no slander, Douglas: by my life,—
And I dare well maintain it with my life,—
If well-respected honour bid me on,
I hold as little counsel with weak fear
As you, my lord, or any Scot that this day lives:
Let it be seen to-morrow in the battle
Which of us fears.
DOUGLAS.
Yea, or to-night.
VERNON.
Content.
HOTSPUR.
To-night, say I.
VERNON.
Come, come, it may not be. I wonder much,
Being men of such great leading as you are,
That you foresee not what impediments
Drag back our expedition: certain Horse
Of my cousin Vernon’s are not yet come up:
Your uncle Worcester’s Horse came but to-day;
And now their pride and mettle is asleep,
Their courage with hard labour tame and dull,
That not a horse is half the half himself.
HOTSPUR.
So are the horses of the enemy
In general, journey-bated and brought low:
The better part of ours are full of rest.
WORCESTER.
The number of the King exceedeth ours.
For God’s sake, cousin, stay till all come in.
[The Trumpet sounds a parley.]
[Enter Sir Walter Blunt.]
BLUNT.
I come with gracious offers from the King,
If you vouchsafe me hearing and respect.
HOTSPUR.
Welcome, Sir Walter Blunt; and would to God
You were of our determination!
Some of us love you well; and even those some
Envy your great deservings and good name,
Because you are not of our quality,
But stand against us like an enemy.
BLUNT.
And God defend but still I should stand so,
So long as out of limit and true rule
You stand against anointed majesty!
But to my charge: the King hath sent to know
The nature of your griefs; and whereupon
You conjure from the breast of civil peace
Such bold hostility, teaching his duteous land
Audacious cruelty.
HOTSPUR.
The King is kind; and well we know the King
Knows at what time to promise, when to pay.
My father and my uncle and myself
Did give him that same royalty he wears;
And—when he was not six-and-twenty strong,
Sick in the world’s regard, wretched and low,
A poor unminded outlaw sneaking home—
My father gave him welcome to the shore:
And—when he heard him swear and vow to God,
He came but to be Duke of Lancaster,
To sue his livery and beg his peace,
With tears of innocence and terms of zeal—
My father, in kind heart and pity moved,
Swore him assistance, and performed it too.
Now, when the lords and barons of the realm
Perceived Northumberland did lean to him,
The more and less came in with cap and knee;
Met him in boroughs, cities, villages,
Attended him on bridges, stood in lanes,
Laid gifts before him, proffer’d him their oaths,
Give him their heirs as pages, follow’d him
Even at the heels in golden multitudes.
He presently—as greatness knows itself—
Steps me a little higher than his vow
Made to my father, while his blood was poor,
Upon the naked shore at Ravenspurg;
And now, forsooth, takes on him to reform
Some certain edicts and some strait decrees
That lie too heavy on the commonwealth;
Cries out upon abuses, seems to weep
Over his country’s wrongs; and, by this face,
This seeming brow of justice, did he win
The hearts of all that he did angle for:
Proceeded further; cut me off the heads
Of all the favourites, that the absent King
In deputation left behind him here
When he was personal in the Irish war.
BLUNT.
Tut, I came not to hear this.
HOTSPUR.
Then to the point:
In short time after, he deposed the King;
Soon after that, deprived him of his life;
And, in the neck of that, task’d the whole State:
To make that worse, suffer’d his kinsman March
(Who is, if every owner were well placed,
Indeed his king) to be engaged in Wales,
There without ransom to lie forfeited;
Disgraced me in my happy victories,
Sought to entrap me by intelligence;
Rated my uncle from the Council-board;
In rage dismiss’d my father from the Court;
Broke oath on oath, committed wrong on wrong;
And, in conclusion, drove us to seek out
This head of safety; and withal to pry
Into his title, the which now we find
Too indirect for long continuance.
BLUNT.
Shall I return this answer to the King?
HOTSPUR.
Not so, Sir Walter: we’ll withdraw awhile.
Go to the King; and let there be impawn’d
Some surety for a safe return again,
And in the morning early shall my uncle
Bring him our purposes: and so, farewell.
BLUNT.
I would you would accept of grace and love.
HOTSPUR.
And may be so we shall.
BLUNT.
Pray God you do.
[Exeunt.]
[Enter the Archbishop of York and Sir Michael.]
ARCHBISHOP.
Hie, good Sir Michael; bear this sealed brief
With winged haste to the Lord Marshal;
This to my cousin Scroop; and all the rest
To whom they are directed. If you knew
How much they do import, you would make haste.
SIR MICHAEL.
My good lord,
I guess their tenour.
ARCHBISHOP.
Like enough you do.
To-morrow, good Sir Michael, is a day
Wherein the fortune of ten thousand men
Must bide the touch; for, sir, at Shrewsbury,
As I am truly given to understand,
The King, with mighty and quick-raised power,
Meets with Lord Harry: and, I fear, Sir Michael,
What with the sickness of Northumberland,
Whose power was in the first proportion,
And what with Owen Glendower’s absence thence,
Who with them was a rated sinew too,
And comes not in, o’er-rul’d by prophecies,—
I fear the power of Percy is too weak
To wage an instant trial with the King.
SIR MICHAEL.
Why, my good lord, you need not fear;
There’s Douglas and Lord Mortimer.
ARCHBISHOP.
No, Mortimer’s not there.
SIR MICHAEL.
But there is Mordake, Vernon, Lord Harry Percy,
And there’s my Lord of Worcester; and a head
Of gallant warriors, noble gentlemen.
ARCHBISHOP.
And so there is: but yet the King hath drawn
The special head of all the land together;
The Prince of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster,
The noble Westmoreland, and warlike Blunt;
And many more corrivals and dear men
Of estimation and command in arms.
SIR MICHAEL.
Doubt not, my lord, they shall be well opposed.
ARCHBISHOP.
I hope no less, yet needful ’tis to fear;
And, to prevent the worst, Sir Michael, speed:
For if Lord Percy thrive not, ere the King
Dismiss his power, he means to visit us,
For he hath heard of our confederacy;
And ’tis but wisdom to make strong against him:
Therefore make haste. I must go write again
To other friends; and so, farewell, Sir Michael.
[Exeunt.]
[Enter King Henry, Prince Henry, Lancaster, Sir Walter Blunt, and Sir John Falstaff.]
KING.
How bloodily the Sun begins to peer
Above yon busky hill! the day looks pale
At his distemperature.
PRINCE.
The southern wind
Doth play the trumpet to his purposes;
And by his hollow whistling in the leaves
Foretells a tempest and a blustering day.
KING.
Then with the losers let it sympathize,
For nothing can seem foul to those that win.—
[The trumpet sounds. Enter Worcester and Vernon.]
How, now, my Lord of Worcester! ’tis not well
That you and I should meet upon such terms
As now we meet. You have deceived our trust;
And made us doff our easy robes of peace,
To crush our old limbs in ungentle steel:
This is not well, my lord, this is not well.
What say you to’t? will you again unknit
This churlish knot of all-abhorred war,
And move in that obedient orb again
Where you did give a fair and natural light;
And be no more an exhaled meteor,
A prodigy of fear, and a portent
Of broached mischief to the unborn times?
WORCESTER.
Hear me, my liege:
For mine own part, I could be well content
To entertain the lag-end of my life
With quiet hours; for I do protest,
I have not sought the day of this dislike.
KING.
You have not sought it! why, how comes it, then?
FALSTAFF.
Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it.
PRINCE.
Peace, chewet, peace!
WORCESTER.
It pleased your Majesty to turn your looks
Of favour from myself and all our House;
And yet I must remember you, my lord,
We were the first and dearest of your friends.
For you my staff of office did I break
In Richard’s time; and posted day and night
To meet you on the way, and kiss your hand,
When yet you were in place and in account
Nothing so strong and fortunate as I.
 You swore to us,—
And you did swear that oath at Doncaster,—
That you did nothing purpose ’gainst the state;
Nor claim no further than your new-fall’n right,
The seat of Gaunt, dukedom of Lancaster:
To this we swore our aid. But in short space
It rain’d down fortune showering on your head;
And such a flood of greatness fell on you,—
What with our help, what with the absent King,
What with the injuries of a wanton time,
The seeming sufferances that you had borne,
And the contrarious winds that held the King
So long in his unlucky Irish wars
That all in England did repute him dead,—
And, from this swarm of fair advantages,
You took occasion to be quickly woo’d
To gripe the general sway into your hand;
Forgot your oath to us at Doncaster;
And, being fed by us, you used us so
As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo-bird,
Useth the sparrow; did oppress our nest;
Grew by our feeding to so great a bulk,
That even our love thirst not come near your sight
For fear of swallowing; but with nimble wing
We were enforced, for safety-sake, to fly
Out of your sight, and raise this present head:
Whereby we stand opposed by such means
As you yourself have forged against yourself,
By unkind usage, dangerous countenance,
And violation of all faith and troth
Sworn to tis in your younger enterprise.
KING.
These things, indeed, you have articulate,
Proclaim’d at market-crosses, read in churches,
To face the garment of rebellion
With some fine colour that may please the eye
Of fickle changelings and poor discontents,
Which gape and rub the elbow at the news
Of hurlyburly innovation:
And never yet did insurrection want
Such water-colours to impaint his cause;
Nor moody beggars, starving for a time
Of pellmell havoc and confusion.
PRINCE.
In both our armies there is many a soul
Shall pay full dearly for this encounter,
If once they join in trial. Tell your nephew,
The Prince of Wales doth join with all the world
In praise of Henry Percy: by my hopes,
This present enterprise set off his head,
I do not think a braver gentleman,
More active-valiant or more valiant-young,
More daring or more bold, is now alive
To grace this latter age with noble deeds.
For my part,—I may speak it to my shame,—
I have a truant been to chivalry;
And so I hear he doth account me too:
Yet this before my father’s Majesty,—
I am content that he shall take the odds
Of his great name and estimation,
And will, to save the blood on either side,
Try fortune with him in a single fight.
KING.
And, Prince of Wales, so dare we venture thee,
Albeit considerations infinite
Do make against it.—No, good Worcester, no;
We love our people well; even those we love
That are misled upon your cousin’s part;
And, will they take the offer of our grace,
Both he, and they, and you, yea, every man
Shall be my friend again, and I’ll be his:
So tell your cousin, and then bring me word
What he will do: but, if he will not yield,
Rebuke and dread correction wait on us,
And they shall do their office. So, be gone;
We will not now be troubled with reply:
We offer fair; take it advisedly.
[Exit Worcester with Vernon.]
PRINCE.
It will not be accepted, on my life:
The Douglas and the Hotspur both together
Are confident against the world in arms.
KING.
Hence, therefore, every leader to his charge;
For, on their answer, will we set on them:
And God befriend us, as our cause is just!
[Exeunt the King, Blunt, and Prince John.]
FALSTAFF.
Hal, if thou see me down in the battle, and bestride me,
so; ’tis a point of friendship.
PRINCE.
Nothing but a colossus can do thee that friendship.
Say thy prayers, and farewell.
FALSTAFF.
I would it were bedtime, Hal, and all well.
PRINCE.
Why, thou owest God a death.
[Exit.]
FALSTAFF.
’Tis not due yet; I would be loth to pay Him before His day.
What need I be so forward with him that calls not on me?
Well, ’tis no matter; honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour
prick me off when I come on? how then? Can honor set-to a leg?
no: or an arm? no: or take away the grief of a wound? no. Honour
hath no skill in surgery then? no. What is honour? a word. What
is that word, honour? air. A trim reckoning!—Who hath it? he that
died o’ Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth be hear it? no. Is it
insensible, then? yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the
living? no. Why? detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I’ll none
of it: honour is a mere scutcheon:—and so ends my catechism.
[Exit.]
[Enter Worcester and Vernon.]
WORCESTER.
O no, my nephew must not know, Sir Richard,
The liberal-kind offer of the King.
VERNON.
’Twere best he did.
WORCESTER.
Then are we all undone.
It is not possible, it cannot be,
The King should keep his word in loving us;
He will suspect us still, and find a time
To punish this offence in other faults:
Suspicion all our lives shall be stuck full of eyes;
For treason is but trusted like the fox,
Who, ne’er so tame, so cherish’d, and lock’d up,
Will have a wild trick of his ancestors.
Look how we can, or sad or merrily,
Interpretation will misquote our looks;
And we shall feed like oxen at a stall,
The better cherish’d, still the nearer death.
My nephew’s trespass may be well forgot:
It hath th’ excuse of youth and heat of blood,
And an adopted name of privilege,—
A hare-brain’d Hotspur, govern’d by a spleen:
All his offences live upon my head
And on his father’s: we did train him on;
And, his corruption being ta’en from us,
We, as the spring of all, shall pay for all.
Therefore, good cousin, let not Harry know,
In any case, the offer of the King.
VERNON.
Deliver what you will, I’ll say ’tis so.
Here comes your cousin.
[Enter Hotspur and Douglas; Officers and Soldiers behind.]
HOTSPUR.
My uncle is return’d: deliver up
My Lord of Westmoreland.—Uncle, what news?
WORCESTER.
The King will bid you battle presently.
DOUGLAS.
Defy him by the Lord Of Westmoreland.
HOTSPUR.
Lord Douglas, go you and tell him so.
DOUGLAS.
Marry, I shall, and very willingly.
[Exit.]
WORCESTER.
There is no seeming mercy in the King.
HOTSPUR.
Did you beg any? God forbid!
WORCESTER.
I told him gently of our grievances,
Of his oath-breaking; which he mended thus,
By new-forswearing that he is forsworn:
He calls us rebels, traitors; and will scourge
With haughty arms this hateful name in us.
[Re-enter Douglas.]
DOUGLAS.
Arm, gentlemen; to arms! for I have thrown
A brave defiance in King Henry’s teeth,
And Westmoreland, that was engaged, did bear it;
Which cannot choose but bring him quickly on.
WORCESTER.
The Prince of Wales stepp’d forth before the King,
And, nephew, challenged you to single fight.
HOTSPUR.
O, would the quarrel lay upon our heads;
And that no man might draw short breath to-day
But I and Harry Monmouth! Tell me, tell me,
How show’d his tasking? seem’d it in contempt?
VERNON.
No, by my soul: I never in my life
Did hear a challenge urged more modestly,
Unless a brother should a brother dare
To gentle exercise and proof of arms.

There did he pause: but let me tell the world,
If he outlive the envy of this day,
England did never owe so sweet a hope,
So much misconstrued in his wantonness.
HOTSPUR.
Cousin, I think thou art enamoured
Upon his follies: never did I hear
Of any prince so wild o’ liberty.
But be he as he will, yet once ere night
I will embrace him with a soldier’s arm,
That he shall shrink under my courtesy.—
Arm, arm with speed: and, fellows, soldiers, friends,
Better consider what you have to do
Than I, that have not well the gift of tongue,
Can lift your blood up with persuasion.
[Enter a Messenger.]
MESSENGER.
My lord, here are letters for you.
HOTSPUR.
I cannot read them now.—
O gentlemen, the time of life is short!
To spend that shortness basely were too long,
If life did ride upon a dial’s point,
Still ending at th’ arrival of an hour.
An if we live, we live to tread on kings;
If die, brave death, when princes die with us!
Now, for our consciences, the arms are fair,
When the intent of bearing them is just.
[Enter another Messenger.]
MESSENGER.
My lord, prepare: the King comes on apace.
HOTSPUR.
I thank him, that he cuts me from my tale,
For I profess not talking; only this,
Let each man do his best: and here draw I
A sword, whose temper I intend to stain
With the best blood that I can meet withal
In the adventure of this perilous day.
Now, Esperance! Percy! and set on.
Sound all the lofty instruments of war,
And by that music let us all embrace;
For, Heaven to Earth, some of us never shall
A second time do such a courtesy.
[The trumpets sound. They embrace, and exeunt.]
[Excursions, and Parties fighting. Alarum to the battle.
Then enter Douglas and Sir Walter Blunt, meeting.]
BLUNT.
What is thy name, that in the battle thus
Thou crossest me? what honour dost thou seek
Upon my head?
DOUGLAS.
Know, then, my name is Douglas,
And I do haunt thee in the battle thus
Because some tell me that thou art a king.
BLUNT.
They tell thee true.
DOUGLAS.
The Lord of Stafford dear to-day hath bought
Thy likeness; for, instead of thee, King Harry,
This sword hath ended him: so shall it thee,
Unless thou yield thee as my prisoner.
BLUNT.
I was not born a yielder, thou proud Scot;
And thou shalt find a king that will revenge
Lord Stafford’s death.
[They fight, and Blunt is slain. Enter Hotspur.]
HOTSPUR.
O Douglas, hadst thou fought at Holmedon thus,
I never had triumphed o’er a Scot.
DOUGLAS.
All’s done, all’s won; here breathless lies the King.
HOTSPUR.
Where?
DOUGLAS.
Here.
HOTSPUR.
This, Douglas? no; I know this face full well:
A gallant knight he was, his name was Blunt;
Semblably furnish’d like the King himself.
DOUGLAS.

A borrow’d title hast thou bought too dear:
Why didst thou tell me that thou wert a king?
HOTSPUR.
The King hath many marching in his coats.
DOUGLAS.
Now, by my sword, I will kill all his coats;
I’ll murder all his wardrobe piece by piece,
Until I meet the King.
HOTSPUR.
Up, and away!
Our soldiers stand full fairly for the day.
[Exeunt.]
[Alarums. Enter Falstaff.]
FALSTAFF.
Though I could ’scape shot-free at London, I fear the shot
here; here’s no scoring but upon the pate.—Soft! who are you?
Sir Walter Blunt: there’s honour for you! here’s no vanity! I am
as hot as molten lead, and as heavy too: God keep lead out of me!
I need no more weight than mine own bowels. I have led my
ragamuffins where they are peppered: there’s not three of my
hundred and fifty left alive; and they are for the town’s end, to
beg during life. But who comes here?
[Enter Prince Henry.]
PRINCE.
What, stand’st thou idle here? lend me thy sword:
Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff
Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies,
Whose deaths are yet unrevenged: I pr’ythee,
Lend me thy sword.
FALSTAFF.
O Hal, I pr’ythee give me leave to breathe awhile. Turk
Gregory never did such deeds in arms as I have done this
day. I have paid Percy, I have made him sure.
PRINCE.
He is indeed; and living to kill thee.
I pr’ythee, lend me thy sword.
FALSTAFF.
Nay, before God, Hal, if Percy be alive, thou gett’st not
my sword; but take my pistol, if thou wilt.
PRINCE.
Give it me: what, is it in the case?
FALSTAFF.
Ay, Hal. ’Tis hot, ’tis hot: there’s that will sack a city.
[The Prince draws out a bottle of sack.]
What, is’t a time to jest and dally now?
[Throws it at him, and 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.]
[Alarums. Excursions. Enter King Henry, Prince Henry,
Lancaster, and Westmoreland.]
KING.
I pr’ythee,
Harry, withdraw thyself; thou bleedest too much.—
Lord John of Lancaster, go you unto him.
LANCASTER.
Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too.
PRINCE.
I do beseech your Majesty, make up,
Lest your retirement do amaze your friends.
KING.
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.
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.
By Heaven, 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.
I saw him hold Lord Percy at the point
With lustier maintenance than I did look for
Of such an ungrown warrior.
PRINCE.
O, this boy
Lends mettle to us all!
[Exit.]
[Alarums. Enter Douglas.]
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.
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.
DOUGLAS.
I fear thou art another counterfeit;
And yet, in faith, thou bear’st thee like a king:
But mine I’m sure thou art, whoe’er thou be,
And thus I win thee.
[They fight; the King being in danger, re-enter Prince Henry.]
PRINCE.

Cheerly, my lord: how fares your Grace?
Sir Nicholas Gawsey hath for succour sent,
And so hath Clifton: I’ll to Clifton straight.
KING.
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.
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
Th’ 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.
Make up to Clifton: I’ll to Sir Nicholas Gawsey.
[Exit.]
[Enter Hotspur.]
HOTSPUR.
If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth.
PRINCE.
Thou speak’st as if I would deny my name.
HOTSPUR.
My name is Harry Percy.
PRINCE.
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.
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. Hotspure 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 thy sword my flesh:
But thoughts 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.
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!—
[Sees 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!

Embowell’d will I see thee by-and-by:
Till then in blood by noble Percy lie.
[Exit.]
FALSTAFF.
[Rising.] Embowell’d! 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.—
Zwounds, 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 kill’d him. Why may not he rise as well as I?
Nothing confutes me but eyes, and nobody sees me. Therefore,
sirrah, with a new wound in your thigh, come you along with me.
[Takes Hotspur on his hack.]
[Re-enter Prince Henry and Lancaster.]
PRINCE.
Come, brother John; full bravely hast thou flesh’d
Thy maiden sword.
LANCASTER.
But, soft! whom have we here?

PRINCE.
I did; I saw him dead, breathless and bleeding
Upon the ground.—
Art thou alive? or is it fantasy
That plays upon our eyesight? I pr’ythee, 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.
Why, Percy I kill’d 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, zwounds, I would make him eat a piece of
my sword.
LANCASTER.
This is the strangest tale that ever I heard.
PRINCE.
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’s to th’ 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, bearing off the body.]
[The trumpets sound. Enter King Henry, Prince Henry,
Lancaster, Westmoreland, and others, with Worcester and
Vernon prisoners.]
KING.
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 tenour of thy kinsman’s trust?

WORCESTER.
What I have done my safety urged me to;
And I embrace this fortune patiently,
Since not to be avoided it fails on me.
KING.
Bear Worcester to the death, and Vernon too:
Other offenders we will pause upon.—
[Exeunt Worcester and Vernon, guarded.]
How goes the field?
PRINCE.
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.
With all my heart.
PRINCE.
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.
KING.
Then this remains, that we divide our power.—

Rebellion in this land shall lose his sway,
Meeting the check of such another day;
And since this business so fair is done,
Let us not leave till all our own be won.
[Exeunt.]
Dramatis Personae
RUMOUR, the Presenter
KING HENRY THE FOURTH
HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES, afterwards HENRY
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 COLVILLE
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
SERVANT, to Lord Chief Justice
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
FRANCIS, a drawer
LADY NORTHUMBERLAND
LADY PERCY, Percy's widow
HOSTESS QUICKLY, of the Boar's Head, Eastcheap
DOLL TEARSHEET
LORDS, Attendants, Porter, Drawers, Beadles, Grooms, Servants,
Speaker of the Epilogue
INDUCTION
INDUCTION.
Warkworth. Before NORTHUMBERLAND'S 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 emnity,
Under the smile of safety, wounds the world;
And who but Rumour, who but only I,
Make fearful musters and prepar'd 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 wav'ring 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 rebels' 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,
And that the King before the Douglas' rage
Stoop'd his anointed head as low as death.
This have I rumour'd through the peasant towns
Between that 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,
And not a man of them brings other news
Than they have learnt of me. From Rumour's tongues
They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true wrongs.
Exit
Enter LORD BARDOLPH
LORD BARDOLPH. Who keeps the gate here, ho?
The PORTER opens the gate
Where is the Earl?
PORTER. What shall I say you are?
LORD BARDOLPH. Tell thou the Earl
That the Lord Bardolph doth attend him here.
PORTER. His lordship is walk'd forth into the orchard.
Please it your honour knock but at the gate,
And he himself will answer.
Enter NORTHUMBERLAND
LORD BARDOLPH. Here comes the Earl. Exit PORTER
NORTHUMBERLAND. What news, Lord Bardolph? Every minute now
Should be the father of some stratagem.
The times are wild; contention, like a horse
Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose
And bears down all before him.
LORD BARDOLPH. Noble Earl,
I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury.
NORTHUMBERLAND. Good, an God will!
LORD BARDOLPH. 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
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,
So fought, so followed, and so fairly won,
Came not till now to dignify the times,
Since Cxsar's fortunes!
NORTHUMBERLAND. How is this deriv'd?
Saw you the field? Came you from Shrewsbury?
LORD BARDOLPH. I spake with one, my lord, that came from thence;
A gentleman well bred and of good name,
That freely rend'red me these news for true.
Enter TRAVERS
NORTHUMBERLAND. Here comes my servant Travers, whom I sent
On Tuesday last to listen after news.
LORD BARDOLPH. 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.
NORTHUMBERLAND. Now, Travers, what good tidings comes with you?
TRAVERS. 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
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.
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
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.
NORTHUMBERLAND. Ha! Again:
Said he young Harry Percy's spur was cold?
Of Hotspur, Coldspur? that rebellion
Had met ill luck?
LORD BARDOLPH. My lord, I'll tell you what:
If my young lord your son have not the day,
Upon mine honour, for a silken point
I'll give my barony. Never talk of it.
NORTHUMBERLAND. Why should that gentleman that rode by Travers
Give then such instances of loss?
LORD BARDOLPH. Who- he?
He was some hilding fellow that had stol'n
The horse he rode on and, upon my life,
Spoke at a venture. Look, here comes more news.
Enter Morton
NORTHUMBERLAND. Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-leaf,
Foretells the nature of a tragic volume.
So looks the strand whereon the imperious flood
Hath left a witness'd usurpation.
Say, Morton, didst thou come from Shrewsbury?
MORTON. I ran from Shrewsbury, my noble lord;
Where hateful death put on his ugliest mask
To fright our party.
NORTHUMBERLAND. How doth my son and brother?
Thou tremblest; and the whiteness in thy cheek
Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand.

This thou wouldst say: 'Your son did thus and thus;
Your brother thus; so fought the noble Douglas'-
Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds;
But in the end, to stop my ear indeed,
Thou hast a sigh to blow away this praise,
Ending with 'Brother, son, and all, are dead.'
MORTON. Douglas is living, and your brother, yet;
But for my lord your son-
NORTHUMBERLAND. Why, he is dead.
See what a ready tongue suspicion hath!
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 an earl his divination lies,
And I will take it as a sweet disgrace
And make thee rich for doing me such wrong.
MORTON.
NORTHUMBERLAND. 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:
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
Hath but a losing office, and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,
Rememb'red tolling a departing friend.
LORD BARDOLPH.
MORTON. 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,
Rend'ring faint quittance, wearied and out-breath'd,
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
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 steeled;
Which once in him abated, an 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,
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,
Fly from the field.  The sum of all
Is that the King hath won, and hath sent out
A speedy power to encounter you, my lord,
Under the conduct of young Lancaster
And Westmoreland. This is the news at full.
NORTHUMBERLAND. For this I shall have time enough to mourn.
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-weak'ned joints,
Like strengthless hinges, buckle under life,
Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire
Out of his keeper's arms, even so my limbs,
Weak'ned with grief, being now enrag'd with grief,
Are thrice themselves. Hence, therefore, thou nice crutch!
A scaly gauntlet now with joints of steel