ACT IV SCENE I

King Henry IV, Part I

ACT IV SCENE I	The rebel camp near Shrewsbury.
[Enter HOTSPUR, WORCESTER, and DOUGLAS]
HOTSPUR	Well said, my noble Scot: if speaking truth
	In this fine age were not thought flattery,
	Such attribution should the Douglas have,
	As not a soldier of this season’s stamp
	Should go so general current through the world.	5
	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.
EARL OF DOUGLAS	Thou art the king of honour:	10
	No man so potent breathes upon the ground
	But I will beard him.
HOTSPUR	Do so, and ’tis well.
[Enter a Messenger with letters]
	What letters hast thou there?–I can but thank you.
Messenger	These letters come from your father.	15
HOTSPUR	Letters from him! why comes he not himself?
Messenger	He cannot come, my lord; he is grievous sick.
HOTSPUR	‘Zounds! how has he the leisure to be sick
	In such a rustling time? Who leads his power?
	Under whose government come they along?	20
Messenger	His letters bear his mind, not I, my lord.
EARL OF WORCESTER	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 fear’d by his physicians.	25
EARL OF WORCESTER	I would the state of time had first been whole
	Ere he by sickness had been visited:
	His health was never better worth than now.
HOTSPUR	Sick now! droop now! this sickness doth infect
	The very life-blood of our enterprise;	30
	‘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	35
	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.	40
	Because the king is certainly possess’d
	Of all our purposes. What say you to it?
EARL OF WORCESTER	Your father’s sickness is a maim to us.
HOTSPUR	A perilous gash, a very limb lopp’d off:
	And yet, in faith, it is not; his present want	45
	Seems more than we shall find it: were it good
	To set the exact wealth of all our states
	All at one cast? to set so rich a main
	On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?
	It were not good; for therein should we read	50
	The very bottom and the soul of hope,
	The very list, the very utmost bound
	Of all our fortunes.
EARL OF DOUGLAS	‘Faith, and so we should;
	Where now remains a sweet reversion:	55
	We may boldly spend upon the hope of what
	Is to come in:
	A comfort of retirement lives in this.
HOTSPUR	A rendezvous, a home to fly unto.
	If that the devil and mischance look big	60
	Upon the maidenhead of our affairs.
EARL OF WORCESTER	But yet I would your father had been here.
	The quality and hair of our attempt
	Brooks no division: it will be thought
	By some, that know not why he is away,	65
	That wisdom, loyalty and mere dislike
	Of our proceedings kept the earl from hence:
	And think how such an apprehension
	May turn the tide of fearful faction
	And breed a kind of question in our cause;	70
	For well you know we of the offering side
	Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement,
	And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence
	The eye of reason may pry in upon us:
	This absence of your father’s draws a curtain,	75
	That shows the ignorant a kind of fear
	Before not dreamt of.
HOTSPUR	You strain too far.
	I rather of his absence make this use:
	It lends a lustre and more great opinion,	80
	A larger dare to our great enterprise,
	Than if the earl were here; for men must think,
	If we without his help can make a head
	To push against a kingdom, with his help
	We shall o’erturn it topsy-turvy down.	85
	Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole.
EARL OF DOUGLAS	As heart can think: there is not such a word
	Spoke of in Scotland as this term of fear.
[Enter SIR RICHARD VERNON]
HOTSPUR	My cousin Vernon, welcome, by my soul.
VERNON	Pray God my news be worth a welcome, lord.	90
	The Earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong,
	Is marching hitherwards; with him Prince John.
HOTSPUR	No harm: what more?
VERNON	And further, I have learn’d,
	The king himself in person is set forth,	95
	Or hitherwards intended speedily,
	With strong and mighty preparation.
HOTSPUR	He shall be welcome too. Where is his son,
	The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales,
	And his comrades, that daff’d the world aside,	100
	And bid it pass?
VERNON	All furnish’d, all in arms;
	All plumed like estridges that with the wind
	Baited like eagles having lately bathed;
	Glittering in golden coats, like images;	105
	As full of spirit as the month of May,
	And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer;
	Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.
	I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,
	His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm’d	110
	Rise from the ground like feather’d Mercury,
	And vaulted with such ease into his seat,
	As if an angel dropp’d down from the clouds,
	To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus
	And witch the world with noble horsemanship.	115
HOTSPUR	No more, no more: worse than the sun in March,
	This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come:
	They come like sacrifices in their trim,
	And to the fire-eyed maid of smoky war
	All hot and bleeding will we offer them:	120
	The mailed Mars shall on his altar sit
	Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire
	To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh
	And yet not ours. Come, let me taste my horse,
	Who is to bear me like a thunderbolt	125
	Against the bosom of the Prince of Wales:
	Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse,
	Meet and ne’er part till one drop down a corse.
	O that Glendower were come!
VERNON	There is more news:	130
	I learn’d in Worcester, as I rode along,
	He cannot draw his power this fourteen days.
EARL OF DOUGLAS	That’s the worst tidings that I hear of yet.
WORCESTER	Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound.
HOTSPUR	What may the king’s whole battle reach unto?	135
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:	140
	Doomsday is near; die all, die merrily.
EARL OF DOUGLAS	Talk not of dying: I am out of fear
	Of death or death’s hand for this one-half year.
[Exeunt]

Continue to Henry IV, Part I, Act 4, Scene 2