ACT IV.
Scene I. The Rebel Camp near Shrewsbury.
Enter Hotspur, Worcester, and Douglas.[2867]
In this fine age were not thought flattery,[2869]
Such attribution should the Douglas have,
As not a soldier of this season's stamp
Should go so general current through the world.5
By God, I cannot flatter; I do defy[2870]
The tongues of soothers; but a braver place[2871]
In my heart's love hath no man than yourself:
Nay, task me to my word; approve me, lord.
Enter a Messenger with letters.[2875][2876]
In such a justling time? Who leads his power?
Under whose government come they along?
And at the time of my departure thence
He was much fear'd by his physicians.[2883]
Ere he by sickness had been visited:
His health was never better worth than now.
The very life-blood of our enterprise;
'Tis catching hither, even to our camp.30
He writes me here, that inward sickness—[2885]
And that his friends by deputation could not[2886]
So soon be drawn, nor did he think it meet[2886]
To lay so dangerous and dear a trust
On any soul removed but on his own.35
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'd40
Of all our purposes. What say you to it?
And yet, in faith, it is not; his present want[2887]
Seems more than we shall find it: were it good[2888]45
To set the exact wealth of all our states[2888][2889]
All at one cast? to set so rich a main[2889][2890]
On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?[2891]
It were not good; for therein should we read[2892][2893]
The very bottom and the soul of hope,[2893][2894]50
The very list, the very utmost bound
Of all our fortunes.[2895]
Where now remains a sweet reversion:[2895]
We may boldly spend upon the hope of what[2895][2897][2898]
Is to come in:[2895][2898]55
A comfort of retirement lives in this.[2899]
If that the devil and mischance look big
Upon the maidenhead of our affairs.
The quality and hair of our attempt[2900]
Brooks no division: it will be thought[2901]
By some, that know not why he is away,
That wisdom, loyalty and mere dislike
Of our proceedings kept the earl from hence:65
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[2902]
Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement,70
And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence
The eye of reason may pry in upon us:
This absence of your father's draws a curtain,[2903]
That shows the ignorant a kind of fear
Before not dreamt of.
I rather of his absence make this use:
It lends a lustre and more great opinion,
A larger dare to our great enterprise,[2905]
Than if the earl were here; for men must think,
If we without his help can make a head80
To push against a kingdom, with his help[2906]
We shall o'erturn it topsy-turvy down.[2907]
Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole.
Enter Sir Richard Vernon.
The Earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong,
Is marching hitherwards; with him Prince John.[2911]
The king himself in person is set forth,[2912]
Or hitherwards intended speedily,[2913]
With strong and mighty preparation.
The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales,[2915]95
And his comrades, that daff'd the world aside,[2916]
And bid it pass?
All plumed like estridges that with the wind[2918][2919]
Baited like eagles having lately bathed;[2919][2920]
Glittering in golden coats, like images;100
As full of spirit as the month of May,
And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer;
Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.[2921]
I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,[2922]
His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm'd,[2923]105
Rise from the ground like feather'd Mercury,
And vaulted with such ease into his seat,[2924]
As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds,[2925]
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus
And witch the world with noble horsemanship.110
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:115
The mailed Mars shall on his altar sit[2927]
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,[2928]
Who is to bear me like a thunderbolt120
Against the bosom of the Prince of Wales:
Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse,[2929]
Meet and ne'er part till one drop down a corse.
O that Glendower were come!
I learn'd in Worcester, as I rode along,125
He cannot draw his power this fourteen days.[2930]
My father and Glendower being both away,
The powers of us may serve so great a day.[2932]
Come, let us take a muster speedily:[2933]
Doomsday is near; die all, die merrily.
Of death or death's hand for this one half-year. [Exeunt.[2934]
Scene II. A public road near Coventry.[2935]
Enter Falstaff and Bardolph.
bottle of sack: our soldiers shall march through; we'll to
Sutton Co'fil' to-night.[2936]
make twenty, take them all; I'll answer the coinage. Bid
my lieutenant Peto meet me at town's end.[2938]
gurnet. I have misused the king's press damnably. I have
got, in exchange of a hundred and fifty soldiers, three hundred[2940]
and odd pounds. I press me none but good householders,[2941]
yeoman's sons; inquire me out contracted bachelors,[2941]15
such as had been asked twice on the banns; such a[2942]
commodity of warm slaves, as had as lieve hear the devil
as a drum; such as fear the report of a caliver worse than a[2943]
struck fowl or a hurt wild-duck. I pressed me none but[2944]
such toasts-and-butter, with hearts in their bellies no bigger20
than pins'-heads, and they have bought out their services;[2945]
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[2946]
his sores; and such as indeed were never soldiers, but25
discarded unjust serving-men, younger sons to younger
brothers, revolted tapsters and ostlers trade-fallen, the cankers[2947]
of a calm world and a long peace, ten times more[2948]
dishonourable ragged than an old faced ancient: and such have I, to[2949]
fill up the rooms of them that have bought out their[2950]30
services, that you would think that I had a hundred and fifty[2951]
tattered prodigals lately come from swine-keeping, from[2952]
eating draff and husks. A mad fellow met me on the way
and told me I had unloaded all the gibbets and pressed
the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I'll35
not march through Coventry with them, that's flat: nay,[2953]
and the villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had[2954]
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[2955]
half shirt is two napkins tacked together and thrown over40
the shoulders like an herald's coat without sleeves; and the
shirt, to say the truth, stolen from my host at Saint Alban's,[2956]
or the red-nose innkeeper of Daventry. But that's all one;[2957]
they'll find linen enough on every hedge.
Enter the Prince and Westmoreland.[2958]
dost thou in Warwickshire? My good Lord of Westmoreland,
I cry you mercy: I thought your honour had already
been at Shrewsbury.
there, and you too; but my powers are there already. The
king, I can tell you, looks for us all: we must away all night.[2959]
steal cream.
hath already made thee butter. But tell me, Jack, whose
fellows are these that come after?
food for powder; they'll fill a pit as well as better: tush,[2961]
man, mortal men, mortal men.
poor and bare, too beggarly.
had that; and for their bareness, I am sure they never
learned that of me.
on the ribs bare. But, sirrah, make haste: Percy is already[2962]
in the field.70
Scene III. The Rebel Camp near Shrewsbury.[2966]
Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Douglas, and Vernon.
You speak it out of fear and cold heart.[2968]
And I dare well maintain it with my life,
If well-respected honour bid me on,[2970]10
I hold as little counsel with weak fear
As you, my lord, or any Scot that this day lives:[2971]
Let it be seen to-morrow in the battle[2972][2973]
Which of us fears.[2972]
Being men of such great leading as you are,[2975][2976]
That you foresee not what impediments
Drag back our expedition: certain horse[2977]
Of my cousin Vernon's are not yet come up:20
Your uncle Worcester's horse came but to-day;[2978]
And now their pride and mettle is asleep,
Their courage with hard labour tame and dull,
That not a horse is half the half of himself.[2979]
In general, journey-bated and brought low:
The better part of ours are full of rest.
For God's sake, cousin, stay till all come in.
[The trumpet sounds a parley.
Enter Sir Walter Blunt.
If you vouchsafe me hearing and respect.
You were of our determination!
Some of us love you well; and even those some
Envy your great deservings and good name,35
Because you are not of our quality,
But stand against us like an enemy.
So long as out of limit and true rule
You stand against anointed majesty.40
But to my charge. The king hath sent to know[2983]
The nature of your griefs, and whereupon
You conjure from the breast of civil peace[2984]
Such bold hostility, teaching his duteous land[2985]
Audacious cruelty. If that the king45
Have any way your good deserts forgot,[2986]
Which he confesseth to be manifold,
He bids you name your griefs; and with all speed[2987]
You shall have your desires with interest[2988]
And pardon absolute for yourself and these50
Herein misled by your suggestion.
Knows at what time to promise, when to pay.
My father and my uncle and myself[2990]
Did give him that same royalty he wears;55
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 God60
He came but to be Duke of Lancaster,[2991]
To sue his livery and beg his peace,[2992]
With tears of innocency and terms of zeal,[2993]
My father, in kind heart and pity moved,[2994]
Swore him assistance and perform'd it too.[2995]65
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;[2996]
Met him in boroughs, cities, villages,
Attended him on bridges, stood in lanes,[2997]70
Laid gifts before him, proffer'd him their oaths,
Gave him their heirs, as pages follow'd him[2998]
Even at the heels in golden multitudes.
He presently, as greatness knows itself,
Steps me a little higher than his vow75
Made to my father, while his blood was poor,
Upon the naked shore at Ravenspurgh;
And now, forsooth, takes on him to reform
Some certain edicts and some strait decrees
That lie too heavy on the commonwealth,[2999]80
Cries out upon abuses, seems to weep
Over his country's wrongs; and by this face,[3000]
This seeming brow of justice, did he win
The hearts of all that he did angle for;
Proceeded further; cut me off the heads85
Of all the favourites that the absent king
In deputation left behind him here,
When he was personal in the Irish war.
In short time after, he deposed the king;90
Soon after that, deprived him of his life;
And in the neck of that, task'd the whole state;[3002]
To make that worse, suffer'd his kinsman March,
Who is, if every owner were well placed,[3003]
Indeed his king, to be engaged in Wales,[3004]95
There without ransom to lie forfeited;
Disgraced me in my happy victories,
Sought to entrap me by intelligence;
Rated mine uncle from the council-board;[3005]
In rage dismiss'd my father from the court;100
Broke oath on oath, committed wrong on wrong,[3006]
And in conclusion drove us to seek out
This head of safety; and withal to pry
Into his title, the which we find[3007]
Too indirect for long continuance.105
Go to the king; and let there be impawn'd
Some surety for a safe return again,[3009]
And in the morning early shall my uncle110
Bring him our purposes: and so farewell.[3010]
Scene IV. York. The Archbishop's palace.
Enter the Archbishop of York and Sir Michael.[3012]