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Contents
From the Director of the Folger Shakespeare
Library
Front
Textual Introduction
Matter Synopsis
Characters in the Play
Scene 1
ACT 1 Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 1
Scene 2
ACT 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 1
ACT 3 Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 1
Scene 2
ACT 4
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5
From the Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library
It is hard to imagine a world without Shakespeare. Since their composition four hundred years ago, Shakespeare’s plays and poems have traveled the globe, inviting those who see and read his works to make them their own.
Readers of the New Folger Editions are part of this ongoing process of “taking up Shakespeare,” finding our own thoughts and feelings in language that strikes us as old or unusual and, for that very reason, new. We still struggle to keep up with a writer who could think a mile a minute, whose words paint pictures that shift like clouds. These expertly edited texts are presented to the public as a resource for study, artistic adaptation, and enjoyment. By making the classic texts of the New Folger Editions available in electronic form as The Folger Shakespeare (formerly Folger Digital Texts), we place a trusted resource in the hands of anyone who wants them.
The New Folger Editions of Shakespeare’s plays, which are the basis for the texts realized here in digital form, are special because of their origin. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is the single greatest documentary source of Shakespeare’s works. An unparalleled collection of early modern books, manuscripts, and artwork connected to Shakespeare, the Folger’s holdings have been consulted extensively in the preparation of these texts. The Editions also reflect the expertise gained through the regular performance of Shakespeare’s works in the Folger’s Elizabethan Theatre.
I want to express my deep thanks to editors Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine for creating these indispensable editions of Shakespeare’s works, which incorporate the best of textual scholarship with a richness of commentary that is both inspired and engaging. Readers who want to know more about Shakespeare and his plays can follow the paths these distinguished scholars have tread by visiting the Folger either in-person or online, where a range of physical and digital resources exists to supplement the material in these texts. I commend to you these words, and hope that they inspire.
Michael Witmore Director, Folger Shakespeare Library
Textual Introduction By Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine
Until now, with the release of The Folger Shakespeare (formerly
Folger Digital Texts), readers in search of a free online text of
Shakespeare’s plays had to be content primarily with using the Moby™ Text, which reproduces a late-nineteenth century version of the plays. What is the difference? Many ordinary readers assume that there is a single text for the plays: what Shakespeare wrote. But Shakespeare’s plays were not published the way modern novels or plays are published today: as a single, authoritative text. In some cases, the plays have come down to us in multiple published versions, represented by various Quartos (Qq) and by the great collection put together by his colleagues in 1623, called the First
Folio (F). There are, for example, three very different versions of Hamlet, two of King Lear, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, and others. Editors choose which version to use as their base text, and then amend that text with words, lines or speech prefixes from the other versions that, in their judgment, make for a better or more accurate text.
Other editorial decisions involve choices about whether an unfamiliar word could be understood in light of other writings of the period or whether it should be changed; decisions about words that made it into Shakespeare’s text by accident through four hundred years of printings and misprinting; and even decisions based on cultural preference and taste. When the Moby™ Text was created, for example, it was deemed “improper” and “indecent” for Miranda to chastise Caliban for having attempted to rape her. (See The Tempest, 1.2: “Abhorred slave,/Which any print of goodness wilt not take,/Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee…”). All Shakespeare editors at the time took the speech away from her and gave it to her father, Prospero.
The editors of the Moby™ Shakespeare produced their text long before scholars fully understood the proper grounds on which to make the thousands of decisions that Shakespeare editors face. The Folger Library Shakespeare Editions, on which the Folger Shakespeare texts depend, make this editorial process as nearly transparent as is possible, in contrast to older texts, like the Moby™, which hide editorial interventions. The reader of the Folger Shakespeare knows where the text has been altered because editorial interventions are signaled by square brackets (for example, from Othello: “
If she in chains of magic were not bound, ”), half-square brackets (for example, from Henry V: “With
blood and sword and fire to win your right,”), or angle brackets (for example, from
Hamlet
:
“O farewell, honest
soldier.
Who hath relieved/you?”). At
any point in the text, you can hover your cursor over a bracket for
more information.
Because the Folger Shakespeare texts are edited in accord with
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here provides them to readers, scholars, teachers, actors, directors,
and students, free of charge, confident of their quality as texts of the
plays and pleased to be able to make this contribution to the study
and enjoyment of Shakespeare.
Henry IV, Part 1
, culminates in the battle of Shrewsbury between the
king’s army and rebels seeking his crown. The dispute begins when
Hotspur, the son of Northumberland, breaks with the king over the
fate of his brother-in-law, Mortimer, a Welsh prisoner. Hotspur,
Northumberland, and Hotspur’s uncle Worcester plan to take the
throne, later allying with Mortimer and a Welsh leader, Glendower.
As that conflict develops, Prince Hal—Henry IV’s son and heir—
carouses in a tavern and plots to trick the roguish Sir John Falstaff
and his henchmen, who are planning a highway robbery. Hal and a
companion will rob them of their loot—then wait for Falstaff’s lying
boasts. The trick succeeds, but Prince Hal is summoned to war.
In the war, Hal saves his father’s life and then kills Hotspur, actions
that help to redeem his bad reputation. Falstaff, meanwhile, cheats
his soldiers, whom he leads to slaughter, and takes credit for
Hotspur’s death.
Synopsis
KING HENRY IV
, formerly Henry Bolingbroke
PRINCE HAL
, Prince of Wales and heir to the throne (also
called Harry and Harry Monmouth)
LORD JOHN OF LANCASTER
, younger son of King Henry
EARL OF WESTMORELAND
SIR WALTER BLUNT
HOTSPUR
(Sir Henry, or Harry, Percy)
LADY PERCY
(also called Kate)
EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND
, Henry Percy, Hotspur’s father
EARL OF WORCESTER
, Thomas Percy, Hotspur’s uncle
EDMUND MORTIMER
, earl of March
LADY MORTIMER
(also called “the Welsh lady”)
OWEN GLENDOWER
, a Welsh lord, father of Lady Mortimer
DOUGLAS
(Archibald, earl of Douglas)
ARCHBISHOP
(Richard Scroop, archbishop of York)
SIR MICHAEL
, a priest or knight associated with the archbishop
SIR RICHARD VERNON
, an English knight
SIR JOHN FALSTAFF
POINS
(also called Edward, Yedward, and Ned)
BARDOLPH
PETO
GADSHILL
, setter for the robbers
HOSTESS
of the tavern (also called Mistress Quickly)
VINTNER
, or keeper of the tavern
FRANCIS
, an apprentice tapster
Carriers, Ostlers, Chamberlain, Travelers, Sheriff, Servants, Lords,
Attendants, Messengers, Soldiers
Characters in the Play
KING
Enter the King, Lord John of Lancaster,
and
the
Earl
of Westmoreland, with others.
So shaken as we are, so wan with care,
Find we a time for frighted peace to pant
And breathe short-winded accents of new broils
To be commenced in strands afar remote.
No more the thirsty entrance of this soil
Shall daub her lips with her own children’s blood.
No more shall trenching war channel her fields,
Nor bruise her flow’rets with the armèd hoofs
Of hostile paces. Those opposèd eyes,
Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,
All of one nature, of one substance bred,
Did lately meet in the intestine shock
And furious close of civil butchery,
Shall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks,
March all one way and be no more opposed
Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies.
The edge of war, like an ill-sheathèd knife,
No more shall cut his master. Therefore, friends,
As far as to the sepulcher of Christ—
Whose soldier now, under whose blessèd cross
We are impressèd and engaged to fight—
7
ACT
1
Scene
1
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|
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Forthwith a power of English shall we levy,
Whose arms were molded in their mothers’ womb To chase these pagans in those holy fields Over whose acres walked those blessèd feet Which fourteen hundred years ago were nailed For our advantage on the bitter cross. But this our purpose now is twelve month old, And bootless ’tis to tell you we will go. Therefor we meet not now. Then let me hear Of you, my gentle cousin Westmoreland, What yesternight our council did decree In forwarding this dear expedience. WESTMORELAND My liege, this haste was hot in question, And many limits of the charge set down But yesternight, when all athwart there came A post from Wales loaden with heavy news, Whose worst was that the noble Mortimer, Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight Against the irregular and wild Glendower, Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken, A thousand of his people butcherèd, Upon whose dead corpse there was such misuse, Such beastly shameless transformation By those Welshwomen done, as may not be Without much shame retold or spoken of. KING It seems then that the tidings of this broil Brake off our business for the Holy Land. WESTMORELAND This matched with other did, my gracious lord. For more uneven and unwelcome news Came from the north, and thus it did import: On Holy-rood Day the gallant Hotspur there, Young Harry Percy, and brave Archibald, That ever valiant and approvèd Scot, |
25
30 35 40 45 50 |
9 ACT 1. SC. 1
|
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At Holmedon met, where they did spend
A sad and bloody hour— As by discharge of their artillery And shape of likelihood the news was told, For he that brought them, in the very heat And pride of their contention did take horse, Uncertain of the issue any way. KING Here is a dear, a true-industrious friend,
Stained with the variation of each soil Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours, And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news. The Earl of Douglas is discomfited; Ten thousand bold Scots, two-and-twenty knights, Balked in their own blood, did Sir Walter see On Holmedon’s plains. Of prisoners Hotspur took Mordake, Earl of Fife and eldest son To beaten Douglas, and the Earl of Atholl, Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith. And is not this an honorable spoil? A gallant prize? Ha, cousin, is it not? WESTMORELAND In faith, it is a conquest for a prince to boast of. KING Yea, there thou mak’st me sad, and mak’st me sin In envy that my Lord Northumberland Should be the father to so blest a son, A son who is the theme of Honor’s tongue, Amongst a grove the very straightest plant, Who is sweet Fortune’s minion and her pride; Whilst I, by looking on the praise of him, See riot and dishonor stain the brow Of my young Harry. O, that it could be proved That some night-tripping fairy had exchanged In cradle-clothes our children where they lay, |
55
60 65 70 75 80 85 |
11 ACT 1. SC. 1
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to Falstaff
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Falstaff exits.
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27
I’ll so offend to make offense a skill, Redeeming time when men think least I will. He exits.
Enter the King, Northumberland, Worcester, Hotspur, and Sir Walter Blunt, with others.
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 feared, 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 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. Worcester exits. You were about to speak. NORTHUMBERLAND Yea, my good lord. |
5
10 15 20 |
to Northumberland, Worcester, and Hotspur
|
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29
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 delivered 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. But I remember, when the fight was done, When I was dry with rage and extreme toil, Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword, Came there a certain lord, neat and trimly dressed, Fresh as a bridegroom, and his chin new reaped Showed like a stubble land at harvest home. He was perfumèd like a milliner, And ’twixt his finger and his thumb he held A pouncet box, which ever and anon He gave his nose and took ’t away again, Who therewith angry, when it next came there, Took it in snuff; and still he smiled and talked. And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by, He called them untaught knaves, unmannerly, To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse Betwixt the wind and his nobility. With many holiday and lady terms He questioned me, amongst the rest demanded My prisoners in your Majesty’s behalf. I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold, To be so pestered with a popinjay, Out of my grief and my impatience Answered neglectingly I know not what— He should, or he should not; for he 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!— |
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31
And telling me the sovereignest thing on Earth Was parmacety for an inward bruise, And that it was great pity, so it was, This villainous saltpeter should be digged Out of the bowels of the harmless Earth, Which many a good tall fellow had destroyed 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 considered, good my lord, Whate’er Lord Harry Percy then had said To such a person and in such a place, At such a time, with all the rest retold, 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 willfully betrayed The lives of those that he did lead to fight Against that great magician, damned Glendower, Whose daughter, as we hear, that 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 |
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65 70 75 80 85 90 |
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33
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 mouthèd 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. Three times they breathed, and three times did they drink, Upon agreement, of swift Severn’s flood, Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks, Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank, Blood-stainèd with these valiant combatants. Never did bare and rotten policy Color her working with such deadly wounds, Nor never could the noble Mortimer Receive so many, and all willingly. Then let not him be slandered 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 thou 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 will hear of it. |
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King exits  with Blunt and others. |
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35
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 ease my heart, Albeit I make a hazard of my head. NORTHUMBERLAND What, drunk with choler? Stay and pause awhile. Here comes your uncle. 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 in the dust, But I will lift the downtrod Mortimer As high in the air as this unthankful king, As this ingrate and cankered Bolingbroke. NORTHUMBERLAND 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 looked pale, And on my face he turned an eye of death, Trembling even at the name of Mortimer. WORCESTER I cannot blame him. Was not he proclaimed 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; |
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37
From whence he, intercepted, did return To be deposed and shortly murderèd. 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 wished 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 fooled, discarded, and shook off By him for whom these shames you underwent? No, yet time serves wherein you may redeem Your banished honors and restore yourselves Into the good thoughts of the world again, |
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39
FTLN 0518 Revenge the jeering and disdained contempt
FTLN 0519 Of this proud king, who studies day and night
FTLN 0520 To answer all the debt he owes to you
FTLN 0521 Even with the bloody payment of your deaths. 190
FTLN 0522 Therefore I say—
FTLN 0523 WORCESTER Peace, cousin, say no more.
FTLN 0524 And now I will unclasp a secret book,
FTLN 0525 And to your quick-conceiving discontents
FTLN 0526 I’ll read you matter deep and dangerous, 195
FTLN 0527 As full of peril and adventurous spirit FTLN 0528 As to o’erwalk a current roaring loud FTLN 0529 On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.
HOTSPUR
FTLN 0530 If he fall in, good night, or sink or swim!
FTLN 0531 Send danger from the east unto the west, 200
FTLN 0532 So honor cross it from the north to south, FTLN 0533 And let them grapple. O, the blood more stirs FTLN 0534 To rouse a lion than to start a hare! NORTHUMBERLAND,
to Worcester
FTLN 0535 Imagination of some great exploit
FTLN 0536 Drives him beyond the bounds of patience. 205
HOTSPUR
FTLN 0537 By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap
FTLN 0538 To pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon,
FTLN 0539 Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
FTLN 0540 Where fathom line could never touch the ground,
FTLN 0541 And pluck up drownèd honor by the locks, 210
FTLN 0542 So he that doth redeem her thence might wear FTLN 0543 Without corrival all her dignities.
FTLN 0544 But out upon this half-faced fellowship!
WORCESTER
FTLN 0545 He apprehends a world of figures here,
FTLN 0546 But not the form of what he should attend.— 215
FTLN 0547 Good cousin, give me audience for a while.
HOTSPUR
FTLN 0548 I cry you mercy.
|
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41
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 hollo “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 would have him poisoned with a pot of ale. WORCESTER Farewell, kinsman. I’ll talk to you When you are better tempered 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 Nettled and stung with pismires, when I hear |
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to Hotspur
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43
Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke. In Richard’s time—what do you call the place? A plague upon it! It is in Gloucestershire. ’Twas where the madcap duke his uncle kept, His uncle York, where I first bowed my knee Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke. ’Sblood, when you and he came back from Ravenspurgh. 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. I have done. WORCESTER Nay, if you have not, to it again. We will 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.—You, my lord, Your son in Scotland being thus employed, Shall secretly into the bosom creep Of that same noble prelate well beloved, The Archbishop. HOTSPUR Of York, is it not? WORCESTER True, who bears hard His brother’s death at Bristol, the Lord Scroop. I speak not this in estimation, |
250
255 260 265 270 275 280 |
|
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FTLN 0615 FTLN 0616 FTLN 0617 FTLN 0618 FTLN 0619 FTLN 0620 FTLN 0621 FTLN 0622 FTLN 0623 FTLN 0624 FTLN 0625 FTLN 0626 FTLN 0627 FTLN 0628 FTLN 0629 FTLN 0630 FTLN 0631 FTLN 0632 FTLN 0633 FTLN 0634 FTLN 0635 FTLN 0636 FTLN 0637 FTLN 0638 FTLN 0639 FTLN 0640 FTLN 0641 |
45
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 it. Upon my life it will do well. NORTHUMBERLAND Before the game is afoot thou still let’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 aimed. 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.
|
285
290 295 300 305 310 |
47
NORTHUMBERLAND
HOTSPUR
They exit.
Farewell, good brother. We shall thrive, I trust.
Uncle, adieu. O, let the hours be short
Till fields and blows and groans applaud our sport.
FTLN 0642
FTLN 0643
FTLN 0644
FIRST CARRIER
OSTLER
FIRST CARRIER
SECOND CARRIER
FIRST CARRIER
SECOND CARRIER
FIRST CARRIER
SECOND CARRIER
Enter a Carrier with a lantern in his hand.
Heigh-ho! An it be not four by the day,
I’ll be hanged. Charles’s Wain is over the new
chimney, and yet our horse not packed.—What,
ostler!
,
within
Anon, anon.
I prithee, Tom, beat Cut’s saddle. Put a
few flocks in the point. Poor jade is wrung in the
withers out of all cess.
Enter another Carrier,
with
a lantern.
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.
Poor fellow never joyed since the price
of oats rose. It was the death of him.
I think this be the most villainous
house in all London road for fleas. I am stung like a
tench.
Like a tench? By the Mass, there is
ne’er a king christen could be better bit than I have
been since the first cock.
Why, they will allow us ne’er a jordan,
51
ACT
2
Scene
1
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5
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10
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15
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20
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ACT 2. SC. 1
and then we leak in your chimney, and your chamber-lye breeds fleas like a loach.
53
FIRST CARRIER
FIRST CARRIER
GADSHILL
GADSHILL
FIRST CARRIER
GADSHILL
GADSHILL
GADSHILL
first.
FTLN 0666
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What, ostler, come away and be
hanged. Come away. 25
SECOND CARRIER I have a gammon of bacon and two races of ginger to be delivered as far as Charing Cross.
God’s body, the turkeys in my pannier are quite starved.—What, ostler! A plague on thee! 30 Hast thou never an eye in thy head? Canst not hear? An ’twere not as good deed as drink to break the pate on thee, I am a very villain. Come, and be hanged. Hast no faith in thee?
Enter Gadshill.
Good morrow, carriers. What’s o’clock? 35
FIRST CARRIER I think it be two o’clock.
I prithee, lend me thy lantern to see my gelding in the stable.
Nay, by God, soft. I know a trick worth
two of that, i’ faith. 40
, to Second Carrier
I pray thee, lend me thine.
SECOND CARRIER Ay, when, canst tell? “Lend me thy lantern,” quoth he. Marry, I’ll see thee hanged
45 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, neighbor Mugs, we’ll call up the gentlemen. They will along with 50 company, for they have great charge.
Carriers
exit. What ho, chamberlain!
Enter Chamberlain.
|
FTLN 0697
FTLN 0698 FTLN 0699 FTLN 0700 FTLN 0701 FTLN 0702 FTLN 0703 FTLN 0704 FTLN 0705 FTLN 0706 FTLN 0707 FTLN 0708 FTLN 0709 FTLN 0710 FTLN 0711 FTLN 0712 FTLN 0713 FTLN 0714 FTLN 0715 FTLN 0716 FTLN 0717 FTLN 0718 FTLN 0719 FTLN 0720 FTLN 0721 FTLN 0722 FTLN 0723 FTLN 0724 FTLN 0725 FTLN 0726 FTLN 0727 FTLN 0728 FTLN 0729 FTLN 0730 FTLN 0731 FTLN 0732 |
55 ACT 2. SC. 1
CHAMBERLAIN At hand, quoth pickpurse. 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 laboring: thou layest the plot how. 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 pray thee, keep that for the hangman, for I know thou worshipest 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 knowest he is no starveling. Tut, there are other Troyans that thou dream’st not of, the which for sport sake are content to do the profession some grace, that would, if matters should be looked 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, zounds, 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. |
55
60 65 70 75 80 85 |
| 57 | ||
|
FTLN 0733
FTLN 0734 FTLN 0735 FTLN 0736 FTLN 0737 FTLN 0738 FTLN 0739 FTLN 0740 FTLN 0741 FTLN 0742 FTLN 0743 FTLN 0744 FTLN 0745 FTLN 0746 FTLN 0747 |
CHAMBERLAIN What, the commonwealth their boots?
Will she hold out water in foul way? GADSHILL She will, she will. Justice hath liquored her. We steal as in a castle, cocksure. We have the receipt of fern seed; 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 Go to. Homo is a common name to all men. Bid the ostler bring my gelding out of the stable. Farewell, you muddy knave. |
90
95 100 |
 They exit. |
|
FTLN 0748
FTLN 0749 FTLN 0750 FTLN 0751 FTLN 0752 FTLN 0753 FTLN 0754 FTLN 0755 FTLN 0756 FTLN 0757 FTLN 0758 FTLN 0759 FTLN 0760 |
POINS Come, shelter, shelter! I have removed Falstaff’s horse, and he frets like a gummed velvet.
PRINCE Stand close. Enter Falstaff. FALSTAFF Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Poins! PRINCE Peace, you fat-kidneyed rascal. What a brawling dost thou keep! FALSTAFF Where’s Poins, Hal? PRINCE He is walked up to the top of the hill. I’ll go seek him. 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 square further afoot, I shall break my wind. Well, I |
5
10 |
Poins, Bardolph, and Peto exit.
Prince exits.
Scene 2
Enter Prince, Poins, Bardolph, and Peto.
|
FTLN 0761
FTLN 0762 FTLN 0763 FTLN 0764 FTLN 0765 FTLN 0766 FTLN 0767 FTLN 0768 FTLN 0769 FTLN 0770 FTLN 0771 FTLN 0772 FTLN 0773 FTLN 0774 FTLN 0775 FTLN 0776 FTLN 0777 FTLN 0778 FTLN 0779 FTLN 0780 FTLN 0781 FTLN 0782 FTLN 0783 FTLN 0784 FTLN 0785 FTLN 0786 FTLN 0787 FTLN 0788 FTLN 0789 FTLN 0790 FTLN 0791 FTLN 0792 FTLN 0793 FTLN 0794 |
59
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 years, and yet I am bewitched with the rogue’s company. If the rascal have not given me medicines to make me love him, I’ll be hanged. 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 afoot with me, and the stony-hearted villains know it well enough. A plague upon it when thieves cannot be true one to another! (They whistle,
Give me my horse, you rogues. Give me my horse and be hanged! PRINCE Peace, you fat guts! Lie down, lay thine ear close to the ground, and list if thou canst hear the tread of travelers. FALSTAFF Have you any levers to lift me up again being down? ’Sblood, I’ll not bear my own flesh so far afoot again for all the coin in thy father’s Exchequer. What a plague mean you to colt me thus? PRINCE Thou liest. Thou art not colted; thou art uncolted. FALSTAFF I prithee, good Prince Hal, help me to my horse, good king’s son. PRINCE Out, you rogue! Shall I be your ostler? FALSTAFF Hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent garters! If I be ta’en, I’ll peach for this. An I have |
15
20 25 30 35 40 45 |
within. 
Enter the Prince, Poins, Peto, and Bardolph.
61
FTLN 0795 not ballads made on you all and sung to filthy
FTLN 0796 tunes, let a cup of sack be my poison—when a jest
FTLN 0797 is so forward, and afoot too! I hate it. 50
Enter Gadshill.
FTLN 0798 GADSHILL Stand.
FTLN 0799 FALSTAFF So I do, against my will.
FTLN 0800 POINS O, ’tis our setter. I know his voice.
FTLN 0801BARDOLPH What news?
FTLN 0802GADSHILL Case you, case you. On with your vizards. 55 FTLN 0803 There’s money of the King’s coming down the hill.
FTLN 0804 ’Tis going to the King’s Exchequer.
FTLN 0805 FALSTAFF You lie, you rogue. ’Tis going to the King’s
FTLN 0806 Tavern.
FTLN 0807 GADSHILL There’s enough to make us all. 60
FTLN 0808 FALSTAFF To be hanged.
FTLN 0809 PRINCE Sirs, you four shall front them in the narrow FTLN 0810 lane. Ned Poins and I will walk lower. If they ’scape FTLN 0811 from your encounter, then they light on us.
FTLN 0812 PETO How many be there of them? 65
FTLN 0813 GADSHILL Some eight or ten.
FTLN 0814 FALSTAFF Zounds, will they not rob us?
FTLN 0815 PRINCE What, a coward, Sir John Paunch?
FTLN 0816 FALSTAFF Indeed, I am not John of Gaunt, your grandfather,
FTLN 0817 but yet no coward, Hal. 70
FTLN 0818 PRINCE Well, we leave that to the proof.
FTLN 0819 POINS Sirrah Jack, thy horse stands behind the hedge.
FTLN 0820 When thou need’st him, there thou shalt find him.
FTLN 0821 Farewell and stand fast.
FTLN 0822 FALSTAFF Now cannot I strike him, if I should be 75
FTLN 0823 hanged.
FTLN 0824 PRINCE, aside to Poins Ned, where are our disguises?
FTLN 0825 POINS, aside to Prince Here, hard by. Stand close.
The Prince and Poins exit.
FTLN 0826 FALSTAFF Now, my masters, happy man be his dole,
FTLN 0827say I. Every man to his business. 80
They step aside.
Enter the Travelers.
FTLN 0828 FIRST TRAVELER Come, neighbor, the boy shall lead FTLN 0829 our horses down the hill. We’ll walk afoot awhile FTLN 0830 and ease our legs.
63
THIEVES
TRAVELERS
FALSTAFF
TRAVELERS
FALSTAFF
PRINCE
POINS
FALSTAFF
FTLN 0831 , advancing
Stand!
FTLN 0832 Jesus bless us! 85
FTLN 0833 Strike! Down with them! Cut the villains’
FTLN 0834 throats! Ah, whoreson caterpillars, bacon-fed FTLN 0835 knaves, they hate us youth. Down with them!
FTLN 0836 Fleece them!
FTLN 0837 O, we are undone, both we and ours 90
FTLN 0838 forever!
FTLN 0839 Hang, you gorbellied knaves! Are you undone?
FTLN 0840 No, you fat chuffs. I would your store were
FTLN 0841 here. On, bacons, on! What, you knaves, young men FTLN 0842 must live. You are grandjurors, are you? We’ll jure 95
FTLN 0843 you, faith.
Here they rob them and bind them. They all exit.
Enter the Prince and Poins,
disguised.
FTLN 0844 The thieves have bound the true men. Now
FTLN 0845 could thou and I rob the thieves and go merrily to
FTLN 0846 London, it would be argument for a week, laughter
FTLN 0847 for a month, and a good jest forever. 100
FTLN 0848 Stand close, I hear them coming.
They step aside.
Enter the Thieves again.
FTLN 0849 Come, my masters, let us share, and then to FTLN 0850 horse before day. An the Prince and Poins be not FTLN 0851 two arrant cowards, there’s no equity stirring.
FTLN 0852 There’s no more valor in that Poins than in a wild 105
FTLN 0853 duck.
As they are sharing, the Prince and Poins set upon them.
65
FTLN 0854 PRINCE Your money!
FTLN 0855 POINS Villains!
They all run away, and Falstaff, after a blow or two, runs away too, leaving the booty behind them.
PRINCE
FTLN 0856 Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse.
FTLN 0857 The thieves are all scattered, and possessed with 110
FTLN 0858 fear
FTLN 0859 So strongly that they dare not meet each other.
FTLN 0860 Each takes his fellow for an officer.
FTLN 0861 Away, good Ned. Falstaff sweats to death,
FTLN 0862 And lards the lean earth as he walks along. 115
FTLN 0863 Were ’t not for laughing, I should pity him.
FTLN 0864 POINS How the fat rogue roared!
They exit.
Scene 3
Enter Hotspur alone, reading a letter.
FTLN 0865 HOTSPUR
But, for mine own part, my lord, I could be
FTLN 0866 well contented to be there, in respect of the love I
FTLN 0867 bear your house. He could be contented; why is he
FTLN 0868 not, then? In respect of the love he bears our
FTLN 0869 house—he shows in this he loves his own barn 5
FTLN 0870 better than he loves our house. Let me see some FTLN 0871 more. The purpose you undertake is dangerous.
FTLN 0872 Why, that’s certain. ’Tis dangerous to take a cold,
FTLN 0873 to sleep, to drink; but I tell you, my Lord Fool, out
FTLN 0874 of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety. 10
FTLN 0875 The purpose you undertake is dangerous, the friends
FTLN 0876 you have named uncertain, the time itself unsorted, FTLN 0877 and your whole plot too light for the counterpoise FTLN 0878 of so great an opposition. Say you so, say you so?
FTLN 0879 I say unto you again, you are a shallow, cowardly 15
FTLN 0880 hind, and you lie. What a lack-brain is this! By
|
FTLN 0881
FTLN 0882 FTLN 0883 FTLN 0884 FTLN 0885 FTLN 0886 FTLN 0887 FTLN 0888 FTLN 0889 FTLN 0890 FTLN 0891 FTLN 0892 FTLN 0893 FTLN 0894 FTLN 0895 FTLN 0896 FTLN 0897 FTLN 0898 FTLN 0899 FTLN 0900 FTLN 0901 FTLN 0902 FTLN 0903 FTLN 0904 FTLN 0905 FTLN 0906 FTLN 0907 FTLN 0908 FTLN 0909 FTLN 0910 FTLN 0911 FTLN 0912 FTLN 0913 |
67
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. Zounds, 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 skim milk with so honorable an action! Hang him, let him tell the King. We are prepared. I will set forward tonight. Enter his Lady. How now, Kate? I must leave you within these two hours. LADY PERCY O my good lord, why are you thus alone? For what offense have I this fortnight been A banished 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 sit’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 watched, |
20
25 30 35 40 45 |
|
FTLN 0914
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69
And heard thee murmur tales of iron wars, Speak terms of manage to thy bounding steed, Cry “Courage! To the field!” And thou hast talked Of sallies and retires, of trenches, tents, Of palisadoes, frontiers, parapets, Of basilisks, of cannon, culverin, Of prisoners’ ransom, 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 bestirred thee in thy sleep, That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow Like bubbles in a late-disturbèd stream, And in thy face strange motions have appeared, 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!
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?
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. |
50
55 60 65 70 75 |
Enter a Servant.
Servant exits.
|
FTLN 0942
FTLN 0943 FTLN 0944 FTLN 0945 FTLN 0946 FTLN 0947 FTLN 0948 FTLN 0949 FTLN 0950 FTLN 0951 FTLN 0952 FTLN 0953 FTLN 0954 FTLN 0955 FTLN 0956 FTLN 0957 FTLN 0958 FTLN 0959 FTLN 0960 FTLN 0961 FTLN 0962 FTLN 0963 FTLN 0964 FTLN 0965 FTLN 0966 FTLN 0967 FTLN 0968 FTLN 0969 FTLN 0970 FTLN 0971 FTLN 0972 FTLN 0973 FTLN 0974 |
71
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 tossed 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 afoot, I shall be weary, love. LADY PERCY Come, come, you paraquito, answer me Directly unto this question that I ask. In faith, I’ll break thy little finger, Harry, An if thou wilt not tell me all things true. HOTSPUR Away! Away, you trifler. Love, I love thee not. I care not for thee, Kate. This is no world To play with mammets and to tilt with lips. We must have bloody noses and cracked crowns, And pass them current too.—Gods me, my horse!— 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 a-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. |
80
85 90 95 100 105 110 |
|
FTLN 0975
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73
Whither I must, I must; and to conclude This evening must I leave you, gentle Kate. I know you wise, but yet no farther 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. But hark you, Kate, Whither I go, thither shall you go too. Today will I set forth, tomorrow you. Will this content you, Kate? LADY PERCY It must, of force. They exit.
Enter Prince and Poins. PRINCE Ned, prithee, come out of that fat room and lend me thy hand to laugh a little. POINS Where hast been, Hal? PRINCE With three or four loggerheads amongst three or fourscore hogsheads. I have sounded the very bass 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. They call drinking deep “dyeing scarlet,” |
115
120 5 10 15 |
75
FTLN 1004 and when you breathe in your watering, they
FTLN 1005 cry “Hem!” and bid you “Play it off!” To conclude, I
FTLN 1006 am so good a proficient in one quarter of an hour
FTLN 1007 that I can drink with any tinker in his own language
FTLN 1008 during my life. I tell thee, Ned, thou hast lost much 20
FTLN 1009 honor that thou wert not with me in this action; but,
FTLN 1010 sweet Ned—to sweeten which name of Ned, I give
FTLN 1011 thee this pennyworth of sugar, clapped even now
FTLN 1012 into my hand by an underskinker, one that never
FTLN 1013 spake other English in his life than “Eight shillings 25
FTLN 1014 and sixpence,” and “You are welcome,” with this
FTLN 1015 shrill addition, “Anon, anon, sir.—Score a pint of
FTLN 1016 bastard in the Half-moon,” or so. But, Ned, to
FTLN 1017 drive away the time till Falstaff come, I prithee, do
FTLN 1018 thou stand in some by-room while I question my 30
FTLN 1019 puny drawer to what end he gave me the sugar, and
FTLN 1020 do thou never leave calling “Francis,” that his tale
FTLN 1021 to me may be nothing but “Anon.” Step aside, and
FTLN 1022 I’ll show thee a precedent.
Poins exits.
FTLN 1023 POINS,
within Francis! 35
FTLN 1024 PRINCE Thou art perfect. FTLN 1025 POINS, within
Francis!
Enter
Francis, the
Drawer.
FTLN 1026 FRANCIS Anon, anon, sir.—Look down into the Pomgarnet,
FTLN 1027 Ralph.
FTLN 1028 PRINCE Come hither, Francis. 40
FTLN 1029 FRANCIS My lord?
FTLN 1030 PRINCE How long hast thou to serve, Francis? FTLN 1031 FRANCIS Forsooth, five years, and as much as to—
FTLN 1032 POINS,
within
Francis!
FTLN 1033 FRANCIS Anon, anon, sir. 45
FTLN 1034 PRINCE Five year! By ’r Lady, a long lease for the
FTLN 1035 clinking of pewter! But, Francis, darest thou be
FTLN 1036 so valiant as to play the coward with thy indenture,
FTLN 1037 and show it a fair pair of heels, and run
FTLN 1038 from it? 50
|
FTLN 1039
FTLN 1040 FTLN 1041 FTLN 1042 FTLN 1043 FTLN 1044 FTLN 1045 FTLN 1046 FTLN 1047 FTLN 1048 FTLN 1049 FTLN 1050 FTLN 1051 FTLN 1052 FTLN 1053 FTLN 1054 FTLN 1055 FTLN 1056 FTLN 1057 FTLN 1058 FTLN 1059 FTLN 1060 FTLN 1061 FTLN 1062 FTLN 1063 FTLN 1064 FTLN 1065 FTLN 1066 FTLN 1067 FTLN 1068 FTLN 1069 FTLN 1070 |
77
FRANCIS O Lord, sir, I’ll be sworn upon all the books in England, I could find in my heart— POINS, FRANCIS Anon, sir. PRINCE How old art thou, Francis? FRANCIS Let me see. About Michaelmas next, I shall be— POINS, FRANCIS Anon, sir.—Pray, stay a little, my lord. PRINCE Nay, but hark you, Francis, for the sugar thou gavest me—’twas a pennyworth, was ’t not? FRANCIS O Lord, 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, FRANCIS Anon, anon. PRINCE Anon, Francis? No, Francis. But tomorrow, Francis; or, Francis, o’ Thursday; or indeed, Francis, when thou wilt. But, Francis— FRANCIS My lord? PRINCE Wilt thou rob this leathern-jerkin, crystal-button, not-pated, agate-ring, puke-stocking, caddis-garter, smooth-tongue, Spanish-pouch— FRANCIS O Lord, sir, who do you mean? PRINCE Why then, your brown bastard is your only drink, for look you, Francis, your white canvas doublet will sully. In Barbary, sir, it cannot come to so much. FRANCIS What, sir? POINS, PRINCE Away, you rogue! Dost thou not hear them call? Here they both call him. The Drawer stands amazed, not knowing which way to go. Enter Vintner. |
55
60 65 70 75 80 |
within
within
within
within
|
FTLN 1071
FTLN 1072 FTLN 1073 FTLN 1074 FTLN 1075 FTLN 1076 FTLN 1077 FTLN 1078 FTLN 1079 FTLN 1080 FTLN 1081 FTLN 1082 FTLN 1083 FTLN 1084 FTLN 1085 FTLN 1086 FTLN 1087 FTLN 1088 FTLN 1089 FTLN 1090 FTLN 1091 FTLN 1092 FTLN 1093 FTLN 1094 FTLN 1095 FTLN 1096 FTLN 1097 FTLN 1098 FTLN 1099 FTLN 1100 FTLN 1101 FTLN 1102 FTLN 1103 |
79
VINTNER What, stand’st thou still and hear’st such a calling? Look to the guests within. PRINCE Let them alone awhile, and then open the door. 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 you, what cunning match have you made with this jest of the drawer. Come, what’s the issue? PRINCE I am now of all humors that have showed themselves humors since the old days of Goodman Adam to the pupil age of this present twelve o’clock at midnight.
What’s o’clock, Francis? |
85
90 95 100 105 110 115 |
FRANCIS Anon, anon, sir. Francis exits.
PRINCE That ever this fellow should have fewer words than a parrot, and yet the son of a woman! His industry is upstairs and downstairs, 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 killed today?” “Give my roan horse a drench,” says he, and answers “Some fourteen,” an hour after. “A trifle, a trifle.” I prithee, call in Falstaff. I’ll play Percy, and that damned brawn shall play Dame Mortimer his wife. “Rivo!” says the drunkard. Call in Ribs, call in Tallow. |
Francis exits. 
Vintner exits.
Enter Francis, in haste.
|
FTLN 1104
FTLN 1105 FTLN 1106 FTLN 1107 FTLN 1108 FTLN 1109 FTLN 1110 FTLN 1111 FTLN 1112 FTLN 1113 FTLN 1114 FTLN 1115 FTLN 1116 FTLN 1117 FTLN 1118 FTLN 1119 FTLN 1120 FTLN 1121 FTLN 1122 FTLN 1123 FTLN 1124 FTLN 1125 FTLN 1126 FTLN 1127 FTLN 1128 FTLN 1129 FTLN 1130 FTLN 1131 FTLN 1132 FTLN 1133 FTLN 1134 FTLN 1135 FTLN 1136 |
81
Enter Falstaff, 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 netherstocks and mend them, and foot them too. A plague of all cowards!—Give me a cup of sack, rogue!—Is there no virtue extant? He drinketh. PRINCE Didst thou never see Titan kiss a dish of butter—pitiful-hearted Titan!—that melted at the sweet tale of the sun’s? If thou didst, then behold that compound. FALSTAFF, PRINCE How now, woolsack, what mutter you? FALSTAFF A king’s son! If I do not beat thee out of thy kingdom with a dagger of lath, and drive all thy subjects afore thee like a flock of wild geese, I’ll never wear hair on my face more. 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? |
120
125 130 135 140 145 |
Gadshill, Peto, Bardolph; and Francis, with wine.
to Francis
83
FTLN 1137 POINS Zounds, you fat paunch, an you call me coward,
FTLN 1138 by the Lord, I’ll stab thee. 150
FTLN 1139 FALSTAFF I call thee coward? I’ll see thee damned ere
FTLN 1140 I call thee coward, but I would give a thousand
FTLN 1141 pound I could run as fast as thou canst. You are
FTLN 1142 straight enough in the shoulders you care not who
FTLN 1143 sees your back. Call you that backing of your 155
FTLN 1144 friends? A plague upon such backing! Give me them FTLN 1145 that will face me.—Give me a cup of sack.—I am a FTLN 1146 rogue if I drunk today.
FTLN 1147 PRINCE O villain, thy lips are scarce wiped since thou
FTLN 1148 drunk’st last. 160
FTLN 1149 FALSTAFF All is one for that. (He drinketh.) A plague of FTLN 1150 all cowards, still say I.
FTLN 1151 PRINCE What’s the matter?
FTLN 1152 FALSTAFF What’s the matter? There be four of us here
FTLN 1153 have ta’en a thousand pound this day morning. 165
FTLN 1154 PRINCE Where is it, Jack, where is it?
FTLN 1155 FALSTAFF Where is it? Taken from us it is. A hundred FTLN 1156 upon poor four of us.
FTLN 1157 PRINCE What, a hundred, man?
FTLN 1158 FALSTAFF I am a rogue if I were not at half-sword 170
FTLN 1159 with a dozen of them two hours together. I have
FTLN 1160 ’scaped by miracle. I am eight times thrust through
FTLN 1161 the doublet, four through the hose, my buckler
FTLN 1162 cut through and through, my sword hacked like
FTLN 1163 a handsaw. Ecce signum! I never dealt better since 175
FTLN 1164 I was a man. All would not do. A plague of
FTLN 1165 all cowards! Let them speak.
Pointing to Gadshill,
FTLN 1166 Bardolph, and Peto.
If they speak more or
FTLN 1167 less than truth, they are villains, and the sons of
FTLN 1168 darkness. 180
FTLN 1169PRINCE Speak, sirs, how was it?
FTLN 1170BARDOLPH We four set upon some dozen.
FTLN 1171 FALSTAFF Sixteen at least, my lord.
FTLN 1172 BARDOLPH
And bound them.
85
FTLN 1173 PETO No, no, they were not bound. 185
FTLN 1174 FALSTAFF You rogue, they were bound, every man of FTLN 1175 them, or I am a Jew else, an Ebrew Jew. FTLN 1176 BARDOLPH
As we were sharing, some six or seven
FTLN 1177 fresh men set upon us.
FTLN 1178 FALSTAFF And unbound the rest, and then come in the 190
FTLN 1179 other.
FTLN 1180 PRINCE What, fought you with them all?
FTLN 1181 FALSTAFF All? I know not what you call all, but if I
FTLN 1182 fought not with fifty of them I am a bunch of
FTLN 1183 radish. If there were not two- or three-and-fifty 195 FTLN 1184 upon poor old Jack, then am I no two-legged
FTLN 1185 creature.
FTLN 1186 PRINCE Pray God you have not murdered some of
FTLN 1187 them.
FTLN 1188 FALSTAFF Nay, that’s past praying for. I have peppered 200
FTLN 1189 two of them. Two I am sure I have paid, two rogues
FTLN 1190 in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal, if I tell thee a
FTLN 1191 lie, spit in my face, call me horse. Thou knowest my
FTLN 1192 old ward. Here I lay, and thus I bore my point. Four
FTLN 1193 rogues in buckram let drive at me. 205
FTLN 1194 PRINCE What, four? Thou said’st but two even now.
FTLN 1195 FALSTAFF Four, Hal, I told thee four.
FTLN 1196 POINS Ay, ay, he said four.
FTLN 1197 FALSTAFF These four came all afront, and mainly
FTLN 1198 thrust at me. I made me no more ado, but took all 210 FTLN 1199 their seven points in my target, thus.
FTLN 1200 PRINCE Seven? Why there were but four even now.
FTLN 1201 FALSTAFF In buckram?
FTLN 1202 POINS Ay, four in buckram suits.
FTLN 1203 FALSTAFF Seven by these hilts, or I am a villain else. 215
FTLN 1204 PRINCE,
to Poins
Prithee, let him alone. We shall have
FTLN 1205 more anon.
FTLN 1206 FALSTAFF Dost thou hear me, Hal?
FTLN 1207 PRINCE Ay, and mark thee too, Jack.
|
FTLN 1208
FTLN 1209 FTLN 1210 FTLN 1211 FTLN 1212 FTLN 1213 FTLN 1214 FTLN 1215 FTLN 1216 FTLN 1217 FTLN 1218 FTLN 1219 FTLN 1220 FTLN 1221 FTLN 1222 FTLN 1223 FTLN 1224 FTLN 1225 FTLN 1226 FTLN 1227 FTLN 1228 FTLN 1229 FTLN 1230 FTLN 1231 FTLN 1232 FTLN 1233 FTLN 1234 FTLN 1235 FTLN 1236 FTLN 1237 FTLN 1238 FTLN 1239 FTLN 1240 FTLN 1241 FTLN 1242 FTLN 1243 |
87
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 their father that begets them, gross as a mountain, open, palpable. Why, thou claybrained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson, obscene, greasy tallow-catch— 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? Zounds, an I were 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-backbreaker, this huge hill of flesh— FALSTAFF ’Sblood, you starveling, you elfskin, you dried neat’s tongue, you bull’s pizzle, you stockfish! |
220
225 230 235 240 245 250 255 |
|
FTLN 1244
FTLN 1245 FTLN 1246 FTLN 1247 FTLN 1248 FTLN 1249 FTLN 1250 FTLN 1251 FTLN 1252 FTLN 1253 FTLN 1254 FTLN 1255 FTLN 1256 FTLN 1257 FTLN 1258 FTLN 1259 FTLN 1260 FTLN 1261 FTLN 1262 FTLN 1263 FTLN 1264 FTLN 1265 FTLN 1266 FTLN 1267 FTLN 1268 FTLN 1269 FTLN 1270 FTLN 1271 FTLN 1272 FTLN 1273 FTLN 1274 FTLN 1275 FTLN 1276 FTLN 1277 FTLN 1278 FTLN 1279 FTLN 1280 |
89
O, for breath to utter what is like thee! You tailor’s yard, you sheath, you bowcase, you vile standing tuck— PRINCE 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, and 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 your guts away as nimbly, with as quick dexterity, and roared for mercy, and still run and roared, as ever I heard bull-calf. What a slave art thou to hack thy sword as thou hast done, and then say it was in fight! 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 you as well as he that made you. Why, hear you, 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.—Hostess, clap to the doors.—Watch tonight, pray tomorrow. 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? |
260
265 270 275 280 285 290 |
|
FTLN 1281
FTLN 1282 FTLN 1283 FTLN 1284 FTLN 1285 FTLN 1286 FTLN 1287 FTLN 1288 FTLN 1289 FTLN 1290 FTLN 1291 FTLN 1292 FTLN 1293 FTLN 1294 FTLN 1295 FTLN 1296 FTLN 1297 FTLN 1298 FTLN 1299 FTLN 1300 FTLN 1301 FTLN 1302 FTLN 1303 FTLN 1304 FTLN 1305 FTLN 1306 FTLN 1307 FTLN 1308 FTLN 1309 FTLN 1310 FTLN 1311 FTLN 1312 FTLN 1313 FTLN 1314 |
91
PRINCE Content, and the argument shall be thy running away. FALSTAFF Ah, no more of that, Hal, an thou lovest me. Enter Hostess. HOSTESS O Jesu, my lord the Prince— PRINCE How now, my lady the hostess, what sayst 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 Prithee do, Jack. FALSTAFF Faith, and I’ll send him packing. He exits. PRINCE Now, sirs. BARDOLPH Faith, I ran when I saw others run. PRINCE Faith, tell me now in earnest, how came Falstaff’s sword so hacked? PETO Why, he hacked 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 speargrass 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 blushed to hear his monstrous devices. PRINCE O villain, thou stolest a cup of sack eighteen |
295
300 305 310 315 320 325 |
To Gadshill.
|
FTLN 1315
FTLN 1316 FTLN 1317 FTLN 1318 FTLN 1319 FTLN 1320 FTLN 1321 FTLN 1322 FTLN 1323 FTLN 1324 FTLN 1325 FTLN 1326 FTLN 1327 FTLN 1328 FTLN 1329 FTLN 1330 FTLN 1331 FTLN 1332 FTLN 1333 FTLN 1334 FTLN 1335 FTLN 1336 FTLN 1337 FTLN 1338 FTLN 1339 FTLN 1340 FTLN 1341 FTLN 1342 FTLN 1343 FTLN 1344 FTLN 1345 FTLN 1346 FTLN 1347 FTLN 1348 |
93
years ago, and wert taken with the manner, and ever since thou hast blushed extempore. Thou hadst fire and sword on thy side, and yet thou ran’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. Enter Falstaff. Here comes lean Jack. Here comes bare-bone.— How now, my sweet creature of bombast? How long is ’t ago, Jack, since thou sawest 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 villainous 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 Amamon the bastinado, and made Lucifer cuckold, and swore the devil his true liegeman upon the cross of a Welsh hook—what a plague call you him? POINS FALSTAFF Owen, Owen, the same, and his son-in-law Mortimer, and old Northumberland, and that sprightly Scot of Scots, Douglas, that runs a-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. |
330
335 340 345 350 355 360 |
|
FTLN 1349
FTLN 1350 FTLN 1351 FTLN 1352 FTLN 1353 FTLN 1354 FTLN 1355 FTLN 1356 FTLN 1357 FTLN 1358 FTLN 1359 FTLN 1360 FTLN 1361 FTLN 1362 FTLN 1363 FTLN 1364 FTLN 1365 FTLN 1366 FTLN 1367 FTLN 1368 FTLN 1369 FTLN 1370 FTLN 1371 FTLN 1372 FTLN 1373 FTLN 1374 FTLN 1375 FTLN 1376 FTLN 1377 FTLN 1378 FTLN 1379 FTLN 1380 FTLN 1381 FTLN 1382 FTLN 1383 FTLN 1384 |
95
FALSTAFF Well, that rascal hath good mettle in him. He will not run. PRINCE Why, what a rascal art thou then to praise him so for running? FALSTAFF A-horseback, you cuckoo, but afoot he will not budge a foot. PRINCE Yes, Jack, upon instinct. FALSTAFF I grant you, upon instinct. Well, he is there too, and one Mordake, and a thousand blue-caps more. Worcester is stolen away tonight. Thy father’s beard is turned white with the news. You may buy land now as cheap as stinking mackerel. PRINCE Why then, it is like if there come a hot June, and this civil buffeting hold, we shall buy maidenheads as they buy hobnails, by the hundreds. FALSTAFF By the Mass, thou sayest true. It is like we shall have good trading that way. 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 tomorrow when thou comest to thy father. If thou love me, practice an answer. PRINCE Do thou stand for my father and examine me upon the particulars of my life. FALSTAFF Shall I? Content. PRINCE Thy state is taken for a joined stool, thy golden scepter 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 |
365
370 375 380 385 390 395 |
He sits down.
|
FTLN 1385
FTLN 1386 FTLN 1387 FTLN 1388 FTLN 1389 FTLN 1390 FTLN 1391 FTLN 1392 FTLN 1393 FTLN 1394 FTLN 1395 FTLN 1396 FTLN 1397 FTLN 1398 FTLN 1399 FTLN 1400 FTLN 1401 FTLN 1402 FTLN 1403 FTLN 1404 FTLN 1405 FTLN 1406 FTLN 1407 FTLN 1408 FTLN 1409 FTLN 1410 FTLN 1411 FTLN 1412 FTLN 1413 FTLN 1414 FTLN 1415 FTLN 1416 FTLN 1417 FTLN 1418 |
97
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, FALSTAFF And here is my speech. 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 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.— |
400
405 410 415 420 425 430 |
bowing
Well, here is my leg.
As King.
as King
as King
As King.
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, so youth, the more it is wasted, the sooner it wears. That thou art my son I have partly thy mother’s word, partly my own opinion, but chiefly a villainous trick of thine eye and a foolish hanging of thy nether lip that doth warrant me. 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 asked. Shall the son of England prove a thief and take purses? A question to be asked. 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;|
FTLN 1419
FTLN 1420 FTLN 1421 FTLN 1422 FTLN 1423 FTLN 1424 FTLN 1425 FTLN 1426 FTLN 1427 FTLN 1428 FTLN 1429 FTLN 1430 FTLN 1431 FTLN 1432 FTLN 1433 FTLN 1434 FTLN 1435 FTLN 1436 FTLN 1437 FTLN 1438 FTLN 1439 FTLN 1440 FTLN 1441 FTLN 1442 |
99
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, Falstaff; him keep with, the rest banish. And tell me now, thou naughty varlet, tell me where hast thou been this month? PRINCE Dost thou speak like a king? Do thou stand for me, and I’ll play my father. FALSTAFF, PRINCE, FALSTAFF And here I stand.—Judge, my masters. |
435
440 445 450 |
as King
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
rising
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.
sitting down
Well, here I am set.|
FTLN 1446
FTLN 1447 FTLN 1448 FTLN 1449 FTLN 1450 FTLN 1451 FTLN 1452 FTLN 1453 FTLN 1454 |
grievous.
FALSTAFF, —Nay, I’ll tickle you for a young prince, i’ faith. PRINCE, |
460
465 |
as Prince
as King
FTLN 1443 PRINCE, as King Now, Harry, whence come you? 455
FTLN 1444 FALSTAFF, as Prince My noble lord, from Eastcheap.
FTLN 1445 PRINCE, as King The complaints I hear of thee are
|
FTLN 1472
FTLN 1473 FTLN 1474 FTLN 1475 FTLN 1476 FTLN 1477 FTLN 1478 FTLN 1479 FTLN 1480 FTLN 1481 FTLN 1482 FTLN 1483 FTLN 1484 FTLN 1485 FTLN 1486 FTLN 1487 |
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. But that he is, saving your reverence, a whoremaster, that I utterly deny. If sack and sugar be a fault, God help the wicked. If to be old and merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know is damned. If to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh’s lean kine are to be loved. 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.
|
485
490 495 |
A loud knocking, and Bardolph, Hostess, and Francis exit.
| 101 | ||
|
FTLN 1455
FTLN 1456 FTLN 1457 FTLN 1458 FTLN 1459 FTLN 1460 FTLN 1461 FTLN 1462 FTLN 1463 FTLN 1464 FTLN 1465 FTLN 1466 FTLN 1467 FTLN 1468 |
that swollen parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuffed cloakbag of guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with the pudding in his belly, that reverend Vice, that gray 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 villainy? Wherein villainous but in all things? Wherein worthy but in nothing?
FALSTAFF, PRINCE, |
470
475 480 |
as Prince
as King
FTLN 1469 FALSTAFF, as Prince My lord, the man I know.
FTLN 1470 PRINCE, as King I know thou dost.
FTLN 1471 FALSTAFF, as Prince But to say I know more harm in
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103
Enter Bardolph running. BARDOLPH O my lord, my lord, the Sheriff with a most monstrous watch is at the door. FALSTAFF Out, you rogue.—Play out the play. I have much to say in the behalf of that Falstaff. Enter the Hostess. 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 made 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, FALSTAFF Both which I have had, but their date is out; |
500
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and therefore I’ll hide me. He hides.
PRINCE Call in the Sheriff.
Enter Sheriff and the Carrier. PRINCE Now, Master Sheriff, what is your will with me? SHERIFF First pardon me, my lord. A hue and cry Hath followed certain men unto this house. |
standing
All but the Prince and Peto exit.
105
FTLN 1516 PRINCE What men? SHERIFF
FTLN 1517 One of them is well known, my gracious lord.
FTLN 1518 A gross fat man. 530
FTLN 1519 CARRIER As fat as butter. PRINCE
FTLN 1520 The man I do assure you is not here,
FTLN 1521 For I myself at this time have employed him.
FTLN 1522 And, sheriff, I will engage my word to thee
FTLN 1523 That I will by tomorrow dinner time 535
FTLN 1524 Send him to answer thee or any man
FTLN 1525 For anything he shall be charged withal.
FTLN 1526 And so let me entreat you leave the house.
SHERIFF
FTLN 1527 I will, my lord. There are two gentlemen
FTLN 1528 Have in this robbery lost three hundred marks. 540
PRINCE
FTLN 1529 It may be so. If he have robbed these men, FTLN 1530 He shall be answerable; and so farewell.
FTLN 1531 SHERIFF Good night, my noble lord. PRINCE
FTLN 1532 I think it is good morrow, is it not?
SHERIFF
FTLN 1533 Indeed, my lord, I think it be two o’clock. 545
He exits
with the Carrier.
FTLN 1534 PRINCE This oily rascal is known as well as Paul’s. Go
FTLN 1535 call him forth.
FTLN 1536 PETO Falstaff!—Fast asleep behind the arras, and FTLN 1537 snorting like a horse.
FTLN 1538 PRINCE Hark, how hard he fetches breath. Search his 550 FTLN 1539 pockets. (He searcheth his pocket, and findeth certain FTLN 1540 papers.) What hast thou found?
FTLN 1541 PETO Nothing but papers, my lord.
FTLN 1542 PRINCE Let’s see what they be. Read them.
PETO reads
FTLN 1543 Item, a capon,…2s. 2d. 555 107
FTLN 1544 Item, sauce,…4d.
FTLN 1545 Item, sack, two gallons,…5s. 8d.
FTLN 1546 Item, anchovies and sack after supper,…2s. 6d.
FTLN 1547 Item, bread,…ob.
FTLN 1548 PRINCE
O monstrous! But one halfpennyworth of 560
FTLN 1549 bread to this intolerable deal of sack? What there is FTLN 1550 else, keep close. We’ll read it at more advantage.
FTLN 1551 There let him sleep till day. I’ll to the court in the
FTLN 1552 morning. We must all to the wars, and thy place
FTLN 1553 shall be honorable. I’ll procure this fat rogue a 565
FTLN 1554 charge of foot, and I know his death will be a march
FTLN 1555 of twelve score. The money shall be paid back again FTLN 1556 with advantage. Be with me betimes in the morning, FTLN 1557 and so good morrow, Peto.
FTLN 1558 PETO Good morrow, good my lord. 570
They exit.
MORTIMER
HOTSPUR
GLENDOWER
HOTSPUR
GLENDOWER
HOTSPUR
Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Lord Mortimer,
and
Owen
Glendower.
These promises are fair, the parties sure,
And our induction full of prosperous hope.
Lord Mortimer and cousin Glendower,
Will you sit down? And uncle Worcester—
A plague upon it, I have forgot the map.
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.
And you in hell,
As oft as he hears Owen Glendower spoke of.
I cannot blame him. At my nativity
The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
Of burning cressets, and at my birth
The frame and huge foundation of the Earth
Shaked like a coward.
Why, so it would have done
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ACT
3
Scene
1
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To Glendower.
Within that space you may have drawn together
looking at the map
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to Hotspur
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to Hotspur
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speaks
again in Welsh. 
They kiss.
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141
On Wednesday next, Harry, you shall set forward. On Thursday we ourselves will march. Our meeting Is Bridgenorth. And, Harry, you shall march Through Gloucestershire; by which account, Our business valuèd, some twelve days hence Our general forces at Bridgenorth shall meet. Our hands are full of business. Let’s away. Advantage feeds him fat while men delay. They exit.
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 applejohn. 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 bawdy 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; went to a bawdy house not above once in a quarter—of an hour; 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 |
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143
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 Why, Sir John, my face does you no harm. 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 hellfire 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 ran’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. I have maintained that salamander of yours with fire any time this two-and-thirty years, God reward me for it.
FALSTAFF Godamercy, so should I be sure to be heartburned! Enter Hostess. How now, Dame Partlet the hen, have you enquired yet who picked my pocket? |
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HOSTESS Why, Sir John, what do you think, Sir John, do you think I keep thieves in my house? I have searched, I have enquired, 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.
HOSTESS Who, I? No, I defy thee! God’s light, I was never called 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; 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, HOSTESS He? Alas, he is poor. He hath nothing. FALSTAFF How, poor? Look upon his face. What call you rich? Let them coin his nose. Let them coin his cheeks. I’ll not pay a denier. What, will you make a younker of me? Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn but I shall have my pocket picked? I have lost a seal ring of my grandfather’s worth forty mark. HOSTESS, FALSTAFF How? The Prince is a jack, a sneak-up. |
60
65 70 75 80 85 90 |
pointing to Bardolph
to Bardolph
O Jesu, I have heard the Prince tell him, I know not how oft, that that ring was copper.|
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147
’Sblood, an he were here, I would cudgel him like a dog if he would say so. Enter the Prince marching, How now, lad, is the wind in that door, i’ faith? Must we all march? BARDOLPH Yea, two and two, Newgate fashion. HOSTESS, 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 Prithee, 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 picked. This house is turned bawdy house; they pick pockets. PRINCE What didst thou lose, Jack? FALSTAFF Wilt thou believe me, Hal, three or four bonds of forty pound apiece, and a seal ring of my grandfather’s. PRINCE A trifle, some eightpenny matter. HOSTESS So I told him, my lord, and I said I heard your Grace say so. And, my lord, he speaks most vilely of you, like a foul-mouthed man, as he is, and said he would cudgel you. 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 stewed prune, nor no more truth in thee than in a drawn fox, and for womanhood, Maid Marian may be the deputy’s wife of the ward to thee. Go, you thing, go. HOSTESS Say, what thing, what thing? FALSTAFF What thing? Why, a thing to thank God on. |
95
100 105 110 115 120 125 |
with Peto,
and Falstaff meets him playing upon his truncheon like a fife.
to Prince
My lord, I pray you, hear me.|
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149
HOSTESS I am no thing to thank God on, I would thou shouldst know it! 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 sayst true, hostess, and he slanders thee most grossly. HOSTESS So he doth you, my lord, and said this other day you owed him a thousand pound. 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 called 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 knowest, 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 O, if it should, how would thy guts fall about |
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135 140 145 150 155 160 |
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151
thy knees! But, sirrah, there’s no room for faith, truth, nor honesty in this bosom of thine. It is all filled up with guts and midriff. Charge an honest woman with picking thy pocket? Why, thou whoreson, impudent, embossed rascal, if there were anything in thy pocket but tavern reckonings, memorandums of bawdy houses, and one poor pennyworth of sugar candy to make thee long-winded, if thy pocket were enriched 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 knowest in the state of innocency Adam fell, and what should poor Jack Falstaff do in the days of villainy? Thou seest I have more flesh than another man and therefore more frailty. You confess, then, you picked my pocket. 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 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 labor. PRINCE I am good friends with my father and may do anything. FALSTAFF Rob me the Exchequer the first thing thou dost, and do it with unwashed hands too. BARDOLPH Do, my lord. PRINCE I have procured thee, Jack, a charge of foot. |
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170 175 180 185 190 195 |
153
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 200
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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. 205
PRINCE,
handing Bardolph papers
Go, bear this letter to Lord John of Lancaster,
To my brother John; this to my Lord of
Westmoreland.
Bardolph exits.
Go, Peto, to horse, to horse, for thou and I
Have thirty miles to ride yet ere dinner time. 210
Peto exits.
Jack, meet me tomorrow in the Temple hall
At two o’clock in the afternoon;
There shalt thou know thy charge, and there receive Money and order for their furniture.
The land is burning. Percy stands on high, 215
And either we or they must lower lie.
He exits.
FALSTAFF
Rare words, brave world!—Hostess, my breakfast, come.—
O, I could wish this tavern were my drum.
He exits.
HOTSPUR
DOUGLAS
HOTSPUR
MESSENGER
HOTSPUR
MESSENGER
Enter
Hotspur, Worcester, and Douglas.
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 do 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.
Thou art the king of honor.
No man so potent breathes upon the ground
But I will beard him.
Do so, and ’tis well.
Enter
a
Messenger
with letters.
What letters hast thou there?
To
Douglas.
I can but
thank you.
These letters come from your father.
Letters from him! Why comes he not himself?
He cannot come, my lord. He is grievous sick.
157
ACT
4
Scene
1
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His letters bears his mind, not I, my lord.
I prithee, 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 feared 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 lifeblood 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, nor 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 possessed Of all our purposes. What say you to it? WORCESTER Your father’s sickness is a maim to us. |
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159
HOTSPUR |
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Zounds, how has he the leisure to be sick In such a justling time? Who leads his power?
Under whose government come they along? |
20 |
MESSENGER, handing letter to Hotspur, who begins reading it
|
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FALSTAFF Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry. Fill me a bottle of sack. Our soldiers shall march through. We’ll to Sutton Coldfield  tonight. 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 labor. An if it make twenty, take them all. I’ll answer the coinage. Bid my lieutenant Peto meet me at town’s end. BARDOLPH I will, captain. Farewell. He exits. 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 me none but good householders,
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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. Come, let us take a muster speedily. Doomsday is near. Die all, die merrily. DOUGLAS Talk not of dying. I am out of fear Of death or death’s hand for this one half year. |
They exit. | 140 |
Scene 2 Enter Falstaff and Bardolph.
|
and the
Lord of Westmoreland.
|
He exits.
|
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173
Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Douglas, and Vernon.
We’ll fight with him tonight. 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 tonight. 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 honor 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 tomorrow in the battle Which of us fears. DOUGLAS Yea, or tonight. VERNON Content. HOTSPUR Tonight, 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. |
5
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to Hotspur
|
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Your uncle Worcester’s horse came but today,
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.
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. If that the King Have any way your good deserts forgot, Which he confesseth to be manifold, He bids you name your griefs, and with all speed |
30
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|
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FTLN 2521 FTLN 2522 FTLN 2523 FTLN 2524 FTLN 2525 FTLN 2526 FTLN 2527 FTLN 2528 FTLN 2529 FTLN 2530 FTLN 2531 FTLN 2532 FTLN 2533 FTLN 2534 FTLN 2535 FTLN 2536 FTLN 2537 FTLN 2538 FTLN 2539 FTLN 2540 FTLN 2541 FTLN 2542 FTLN 2543 FTLN 2544 FTLN 2545 FTLN 2546 FTLN 2547 FTLN 2548 FTLN 2549 FTLN 2550 FTLN 2551 FTLN 2552 FTLN 2553 FTLN 2554 FTLN 2555 |
177
You shall have your desires with interest And pardon absolute for yourself and these Herein misled by your suggestion. 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 innocency 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, proffered him their oaths, Gave him their heirs as pages, followed 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 Ravenspurgh, 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 This seeming brow of justice, did he win The hearts of all that he did angle for, |
55
60 65 70 75 80 85 90 |
|
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FTLN 2557 FTLN 2558 FTLN 2559 FTLN 2560 FTLN 2561 FTLN 2562 FTLN 2563 FTLN 2564 FTLN 2565 FTLN 2566 FTLN 2567 FTLN 2568 FTLN 2569 FTLN 2570 FTLN 2571 FTLN 2572 FTLN 2573 FTLN 2574 FTLN 2575 FTLN 2576 FTLN 2577 FTLN 2578 FTLN 2579 FTLN 2580 FTLN 2581 FTLN 2582 FTLN 2583 FTLN 2584 FTLN 2585 FTLN 2586 |
179
Proceeded further—cut me off the heads Of all the favorites 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, tasked the whole state. To make that worse, suffered 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 mine uncle from the council board, In rage dismissed 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 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 impawned Some surety for a safe return again, And in the morning early shall mine uncle Bring him our purposes. And so farewell. BLUNT I would you would accept of grace and love. HOTSPUR And maybe so we shall. BLUNT Pray God you do. |
95
100 105 110 115 120 |
They exit.
|
FTLN 2587
FTLN 2588 FTLN 2589 FTLN 2590 FTLN 2591 FTLN 2592 FTLN 2593 FTLN 2594 FTLN 2595 FTLN 2596 FTLN 2597 FTLN 2598 FTLN 2599 FTLN 2600 FTLN 2601 FTLN 2602 FTLN 2603 FTLN 2604 FTLN 2605 FTLN 2606 FTLN 2607 FTLN 2608 FTLN 2609 FTLN 2610 FTLN 2611 FTLN 2612 FTLN 2613 FTLN 2614 |
Hie, good Sir Michael, bear this sealèd brief
With wingèd 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 tenor. ARCHBISHOP Like enough you do. Tomorrow, 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-raisèd 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’erruled 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 is Douglas and Lord Mortimer. ARCHBISHOP No, Mortimer is not there. SIR MICHAEL But there is Mordake, Vernon, Lord Harry Percy, And there is 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: |
5
10 15 20 25 |
181 ACT 4. SC. 4
Scene 4
Enter Archbishop of York and Sir Michael.
ARCHBISHOP,
handing papers
183
ACT 4. SC. 4
SIR MICHAEL
ARCHBISHOP
They exit.
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.
Doubt not, my lord, they shall be well opposed.
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.
FTLN 2615
FTLN 2616
30
FTLN 2617
FTLN 2618
FTLN 2619
FTLN 2620
FTLN 2621
35
FTLN 2622
FTLN 2623
FTLN 2624
FTLN 2625
FTLN 2626
40
FTLN 2627
KING
PRINCE
KING
The trumpet sounds.
Enter the King, Prince of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster,
Sir Walter Blunt,
and
Falstaff.
How bloodily the sun begins to peer
Above yon bulky hill. The day looks pale
At his distemp’rature.
The southern wind
Doth play the trumpet to his purposes,
And by his hollow whistling in the leaves
Foretells a tempest and a blust’ring day.
Then with the losers let it sympathize,
For nothing can seem foul to those that win.
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 it? Will you again unknit
This churlish knot of all-abhorrèd war
187
ACT
5
Scene
1
FTLN 2628
FTLN 2629
FTLN 2630
FTLN 2631
FTLN 2632
5
FTLN 2633
FTLN 2634
FTLN 2635
FTLN 2636
FTLN 2637
10
FTLN 2638
FTLN 2639
FTLN 2640
FTLN 2641
FTLN 2642
15
FTLN 2643
FTLN 2644
|
|
|
with Vernon.
|
FTLN 2746
FTLN 2747 FTLN 2748 FTLN 2749 FTLN 2750 FTLN 2751 FTLN 2752 FTLN 2753 FTLN 2754 FTLN 2755 FTLN 2756 FTLN 2757 FTLN 2758 FTLN 2759 FTLN 2760 FTLN 2761 FTLN 2762 FTLN 2763 FTLN 2764 FTLN 2765 FTLN 2766 FTLN 2767 FTLN 2768 FTLN 2769 |
195
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. They exit. Prince and Falstaff remain. 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 ’twere bedtime, Hal, and all well. PRINCE Why, thou owest God a death. FALSTAFF ’Tis not due yet. I would be loath to pay Him before His day. What need I be so forward with Him that calls not on me? Well, ’tis no matter. Honor pricks me on. Yea, but how if honor 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. Honor hath no skill in surgery, then? No. What is honor? A word. What is in that word “honor”? What is that “honor”? Air. A trim reckoning. Who hath it? He that died o’ Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. ’Tis 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. Honor is a mere scutcheon. And so ends my catechism.
|
120
125 130 135 140 |
He exits.
He exits.| WORCESTER | |
|
FTLN 2770
FTLN 2771 |
O no, my nephew must not know, Sir Richard, The liberal and kind offer of the King. |
Scene 2
Enter Worcester and Sir Richard Vernon.
VERNON
FTLN 2772 ’Twere best he did.
FTLN 2773 WORCESTER Then are we all
undone.
FTLN 2774 It is not possible, it cannot be 5
FTLN 2775 The King should keep his word in loving us. FTLN 2776 He will suspect us still and find a time FTLN 2777 To punish this offense in other faults.
197
FTLN 2778 Suspicion
all our lives shall be stuck full of
FTLN 2779 eyes, 10
FTLN 2780 For treason is but trusted like the fox,
FTLN 2781 Who, never so tame, so cherished and locked up, FTLN 2782 Will have a wild trick of his ancestors.
FTLN 2783 Look how we can, or sad or merrily,
FTLN 2784 Interpretation will misquote our looks, 15
FTLN 2785 And we shall feed like oxen at a stall, FTLN 2786 The better cherished still the nearer death.
FTLN 2787 My nephew’s trespass may be well forgot;
FTLN 2788 It hath the excuse of youth and heat of blood,
FTLN 2789 And an adopted name of privilege— 20
FTLN 2790 A harebrained Hotspur governed by a spleen.
FTLN 2791 All his offenses live upon my head
FTLN 2792 And on his father’s. We did train him on,
FTLN 2793 And his corruption being ta’en from us,
FTLN 2794 We as the spring of all shall pay for all. 25
FTLN 2795 Therefore, good cousin, let not Harry know FTLN 2796 In any case the offer of the King.
VERNON
FTLN 2797 Deliver what you will; I’ll say ’tis so.
Enter
Hotspur, Douglas, and their army.
FTLN 2798 Here comes your cousin.
FTLN 2799 HOTSPUR,
to Douglas
My uncle is returned. 30
FTLN 2800 Deliver up my Lord of Westmoreland.— FTLN 2801 Uncle, what news?
WORCESTER
FTLN 2802 The King will bid you battle presently.
|
FTLN 2803
FTLN 2804 FTLN 2805 FTLN 2806 FTLN 2807 FTLN 2808 FTLN 2809 FTLN 2810 FTLN 2811 FTLN 2812 FTLN 2813 FTLN 2814 FTLN 2815 FTLN 2816 FTLN 2817 FTLN 2818 FTLN 2819 FTLN 2820 FTLN 2821 FTLN 2822 FTLN 2823 FTLN 2824 FTLN 2825 FTLN 2826 |
Defy him by the Lord of Westmoreland.
HOTSPUR Lord Douglas, go you and tell him so. DOUGLAS Marry, and shall, and very willingly. Douglas exits. 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 now forswearing that he is forsworn. He calls us “rebels,” “traitors,” and will scourge With haughty arms this hateful name in us. 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 stepped 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 today But I and Harry Monmouth! Tell me, tell me, How showed his tasking? Seemed 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. |
35
40 45 50 55 |
199
DOUGLAS,
to Hotspur
|
FTLN 2827
FTLN 2828 FTLN 2829 FTLN 2830 FTLN 2831 FTLN 2832 FTLN 2833 FTLN 2834 FTLN 2835 FTLN 2836 FTLN 2837 FTLN 2838 FTLN 2839 FTLN 2840 FTLN 2841 FTLN 2842 FTLN 2843 FTLN 2844 FTLN 2845 FTLN 2846 FTLN 2847 FTLN 2848 FTLN 2849 FTLN 2850 FTLN 2851 FTLN 2852 FTLN 2853 FTLN 2854 FTLN 2855 FTLN 2856 FTLN 2857 FTLN 2858 FTLN 2859 |
201
He gave you all the duties of a man, Trimmed up your praises with a princely tongue, Spoke your deservings like a chronicle, Making you ever better than his praise By still dispraising praise valued with you, And, which became him like a prince indeed, He made a blushing cital of himself, And chid his truant youth with such a grace As if he mastered there a double spirit Of teaching and of learning instantly. 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 enamorèd On his follies. Never did I hear Of any prince so wild a 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 the arrival of an hour. An if we live, we live to tread on kings; If die, brave death, when princes die with us. |
60
65 70 75 80 85 90 |
203
FTLN 2860 Now, for our consciences, the arms are fair FTLN 2861 When the intent of bearing them is just.
Enter another
Messenger.
SECOND
MESSENGER
FTLN 2862 My lord, prepare. The King comes on apace.
HOTSPUR
FTLN 2863 I thank him that he cuts me from my tale,
FTLN 2864 For I profess not talking. Only this: 95
FTLN 2865 Let each man do his best. And here draw I a sword,
FTLN 2866 Whose temper I intend to stain FTLN 2867 With the best blood that I can meet withal FTLN 2868 In the adventure of this perilous day.
FTLN 2869 Now, Esperance! Percy! And set on. 100
FTLN 2870 Sound all the lofty instruments of war,
FTLN 2871 And by that music let us all embrace, FTLN 2872 For, heaven to Earth, some of us never shall FTLN 2873 A second time do such a courtesy.
Here they embrace. The trumpets sound.
They exit.
Scene 3
The King enters with his power, crosses the stage and exits.
Alarum to the battle. Then enter Douglas, and Sir Walter Blunt,
disguised as the King.
BLUNT,
as King
FTLN 2874 What is thy name that in the battle thus FTLN 2875 Thou crossest me? What honor dost thou seek
FTLN 2876 Upon my head?
FTLN 2877 DOUGLAS Know then my name is Douglas, FTLN 2878 And I do haunt thee in the battle thus 5
FTLN 2879 Because some tell me that thou art a king.
FTLN 2880 BLUNT,
as King
They tell thee true.
205
DOUGLAS
FTLN 2881 The Lord of Stafford dear today hath bought
FTLN 2882 Thy likeness, for instead of thee, King Harry,
FTLN 2883 This sword hath ended him. So shall it thee, 10
FTLN 2884 Unless thou yield thee as my prisoner. BLUNT,
as King
FTLN 2885 I was not born a yielder, thou proud Scot, FTLN 2886 And thou shalt find a king that will revenge
FTLN 2887 Lord Stafford’s death.
They fight. Douglas kills Blunt.
Then enter Hotspur.
HOTSPUR
FTLN 2888 O Douglas, hadst thou fought at Holmedon thus, 15
FTLN 2889 I never had triumphed upon a Scot.
DOUGLAS
FTLN 2890 All’s done, all’s won; here breathless lies the King.
FTLN 2891 HOTSPUR Where?
FTLN 2892 DOUGLAS Here. HOTSPUR
FTLN 2893 This, Douglas? No, I know this face full well. 20
FTLN 2894 A gallant knight he was; his name was Blunt, FTLN 2895 Semblably furnished like the King himself.
DOUGLAS, addressing Blunt’s corpse
FTLN 2896 A fool go with thy soul whither it goes!
FTLN 2897 A borrowed title hast thou bought too dear.
FTLN 2898 Why didst thou tell me that thou wert a king? 25
HOTSPUR
FTLN 2899 The King hath many marching in his coats.
DOUGLAS
FTLN 2900 Now, by my sword, I will kill all his coats. FTLN 2901 I’ll murder all his wardrobe, piece by piece, FTLN 2902 Until I meet the King.
FTLN 2903 HOTSPUR Up and away! 30
FTLN 2904 Our soldiers stand full fairly for the day.
They exit.
|
FTLN 2905
FTLN 2906 FTLN 2907 FTLN 2908 FTLN 2909 FTLN 2910 FTLN 2911 FTLN 2912 FTLN 2913 FTLN 2914 FTLN 2915 FTLN 2916 FTLN 2917 FTLN 2918 FTLN 2919 FTLN 2920 FTLN 2921 FTLN 2922 FTLN 2923 FTLN 2924 FTLN 2925 FTLN 2926 FTLN 2927 FTLN 2928 FTLN 2929 FTLN 2930 FTLN 2931 |
207
Alarm. Enter Falstaff alone. 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 honor 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 the Prince. 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 prithee Lend me thy sword. FALSTAFF O Hal, I prithee 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 prithee, 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 it out, and finds it to be a bottle of sack. |
35
40 45 50 55 |
|
FTLN 2932
FTLN 2933 FTLN 2934 FTLN 2935 FTLN 2936 FTLN 2937 FTLN 2938 FTLN 2939 FTLN 2940 FTLN 2941 FTLN 2942 FTLN 2943 FTLN 2944 FTLN 2945 FTLN 2946 FTLN 2947 FTLN 2948 FTLN 2949 FTLN 2950 FTLN 2951 FTLN 2952 |
209
PRINCE What, is it a time to jest and dally now? He throws the bottle at him and exits. 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 honor as Sir Walter hath. Give me life, which, if I can save, so: if not, honor comes unlooked for, and there’s an end.
Scene 4
I prithee, Harry, withdraw thyself. Thou bleedest too much. Lord John of Lancaster, go you with him. LANCASTER Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too. PRINCE I 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 stained nobility lies trodden on, And rebels’ arms triumph in massacres. |
60
65 5 10 |
He exits. Blunt’s body is carried off.
Alarm, excursions. Enter the King, the Prince, Lord John of Lancaster, and the Earl of Westmoreland.
|
FTLN 2953
FTLN 2954 FTLN 2955 FTLN 2956 FTLN 2957 FTLN 2958 FTLN 2959 FTLN 2960 FTLN 2961 FTLN 2962 FTLN 2963 FTLN 2964 FTLN 2965 FTLN 2966 FTLN 2967 FTLN 2968 FTLN 2969 FTLN 2970 FTLN 2971 FTLN 2972 FTLN 2973 FTLN 2974 FTLN 2975 FTLN 2976 |
211
LANCASTER We breathe too long. Come, cousin Westmoreland, Our duty this way lies. For God’s sake, come.
PRINCE By God, thou hast deceived me, Lancaster. I did not think thee lord of such a spirit. Before, I loved thee as a brother, John, But now I do respect thee as my soul. KING 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. He exits.
DOUGLAS Another king! They grow like Hydra’s heads.— I am the Douglas, fatal to all those That wear those colors 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. And defend thyself. DOUGLAS I fear thou art another counterfeit, And yet, in faith, thou bearest thee like a king. But mine I am sure thou art, whoe’er thou be, And thus I win thee. They fight. The King being in danger, enter Prince of Wales. |
15
20 25 30 35 |
Lancaster and Westmoreland exit.
Enter Douglas.
|
FTLN 2977
FTLN 2978 FTLN 2979 FTLN 2980 FTLN 2981 FTLN 2982 FTLN 2983 FTLN 2984 FTLN 2985 FTLN 2986 FTLN 2987 FTLN 2988 FTLN 2989 FTLN 2990 FTLN 2991 FTLN 2992 FTLN 2993 FTLN 2994 FTLN 2995 FTLN 2996 FTLN 2997 FTLN 2998 FTLN 2999 FTLN 3000 FTLN 3001 FTLN 3002 |
213
PRINCE Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like Never to hold it up again. The spirits Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt are in my arms. It is the Prince of Wales that threatens thee, Who never promiseth but he means to pay. They fight. Douglas flieth.
And so hath Clifton. I’ll to Clifton straight. KING Stay and breathe awhile. Thou hast redeemed thy lost opinion And showed thou mak’st 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 hearkened for your death. If it were so, I might have let alone The insulting hand of Douglas over you, Which would have been as speedy in your end As all the poisonous potions in the world, And saved the treacherous labor of your son. KING Make up to Clifton. I’ll to Sir Nicholas Gawsey. King exits. 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, |
40
45 50 55 60 |
To King.
Cheerly, my lord. How fares your Grace? Sir Nicholas Gawsey hath for succor sent,FTLN 3003 To share with me in glory any more. 65
FTLN 3004 Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere, FTLN 3005 Nor can one England brook a double reign FTLN 3006 Of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales.
215
HOTSPUR
PRINCE
FALSTAFF
HOTSPUR
PRINCE
flesh.
FTLN 3007 Nor shall it, Harry, for the hour is come
FTLN 3008 To end the one of us, and would to God 70
FTLN 3009 Thy name in arms were now as great as mine.
FTLN 3010 I’ll make it greater ere I part from thee, FTLN 3011 And all the budding honors on thy crest
FTLN 3012 I’ll crop to make a garland for my head.
HOTSPUR
FTLN 3013 I can no longer brook thy vanities. They fight. 75
Enter Falstaff.
FTLN 3014 Well said, Hal! To it, Hal! Nay, you shall find FTLN 3015 no boys’ play here, I can tell you.
Enter Douglas. He fighteth with Falstaff, who falls down as if he were dead.
Douglas exits. The Prince killeth Percy.
FTLN 3016 O Harry, thou hast robbed me of my youth.
FTLN 3017 I better brook the loss of brittle life
FTLN 3018 Than those proud titles thou hast won of me. 80
FTLN 3019 They wound my thoughts worse than thy sword my
FTLN 3020
FTLN 3021 But thoughts, the slaves of life, and life, time’s fool,
FTLN 3022 And time, that takes survey of all the world,
FTLN 3023 Must have a stop. O, I could prophesy, 85
FTLN 3024 But that the earthy and cold hand of death
FTLN 3025 Lies on my tongue. No, Percy, thou art dust,
FTLN 3026 And food for—
He dies.
FTLN 3027 For worms, brave Percy. Fare thee well, great heart.
|
FTLN 3028
FTLN 3029 FTLN 3030 FTLN 3031 FTLN 3032 FTLN 3033 FTLN 3034 FTLN 3035 FTLN 3036 FTLN 3037 FTLN 3038 FTLN 3039 FTLN 3040 FTLN 3041 FTLN 3042 FTLN 3043 FTLN 3044 FTLN 3045 FTLN 3046 FTLN 3047 FTLN 3048 FTLN 3049 FTLN 3050 FTLN 3051 FTLN 3052 FTLN 3053 FTLN 3054 FTLN 3055 FTLN 3056 FTLN 3057 FTLN 3058 FTLN 3059 FTLN 3060 |
217
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 favors hide thy mangled face;
Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven. Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave, But not remembered in thy epitaph. He spieth Falstaff on the ground. What, old acquaintance, could not all this flesh Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell. I could have better spared a better man. O, I should have a heavy miss of thee If I were much in love with vanity. Death hath not struck so fat a deer today, Though many dearer in this bloody fray. Emboweled will I see thee by and by; Till then in blood by noble Percy lie. He exits. Falstaff riseth up. FALSTAFF Emboweled? If thou embowel me today, I’ll give you leave to powder me and eat me too tomorrow. ’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 valor is discretion, in the |
90
95 100 105 110 115 120 |
He covers Hotspur’s face. 
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which better part I have saved my life. Zounds, I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead. How if he should counterfeit too, and rise? By my faith, I am afraid he would prove the better counterfeit. Therefore I’ll make him sure, yea, and I’ll swear I killed him. Why may not he rise as well as I? Nothing confutes me but eyes, and nobody sees me. Therefore, sirrah, He takes up Hotspur on his back. Enter Prince and John of Lancaster.
Come, brother John. Full bravely hast thou fleshed Thy maiden sword. LANCASTER But soft, whom have we here? Did you not tell me this fat man was dead? PRINCE I did; I saw him dead, Breathless and bleeding on the ground.—Art thou alive? Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight? I prithee, speak. We will not trust our eyes Without our ears. Thou art not what thou seem’st. FALSTAFF No, that’s certain. I am not a double man. But if I be not Jack Falstaff, then am I a jack. There is Percy. If your father will do me any honor, 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 killed myself, and saw thee dead. FALSTAFF Didst thou? Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying. I grant you, I was down and out of breath, and so was he, but we rose both at an instant and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock. If I may be believed, so; if not, let them that should reward valor bear the sin upon their own heads. I’ll |
125
130 135 140 145 150 |
stabbing him
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They exit.
carrying Hotspur’s body.
and Soldiers.
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Worcester and Vernon exit, under guard. 
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225 Henry IV, Part I ACT 5. SC. 5
Towards York shall bend you with your dearest speed To meet Northumberland and the prelate Scroop, Who, as we hear, are busily in arms. 40 Myself and you, son Harry, will towards Wales To fight with Glendower and the Earl of March. Rebellion in this land shall lose his sway, Meeting the check of such another day. And since this business so fair is done, 45 Let us not leave till all our own be won. They exit. |
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