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