TPTT The First Part of Henry the Fourth: ACT IV
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
SCENE I. The rebel camp near Shrewsbury.
SCENE II. A public road near Coventry.
SCENE III. The rebel camp near Shrewsbury.
SCENE IV. York. The ARCHBISHOP'S palace.
ACT V
About the Play
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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
5     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.
EARL OF DOUGLAS
10    Thou art the king of honour:
      No man so potent breathes upon the ground
      But I will beard him.
HOTSPUR
      Do so, and 'tis well.

Enter a Messenger with letters

      What letters hast thou there?--I can but thank you.
Messenger
15    These letters come from your father.
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?
20    Under whose government come they along?
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
25    He was much fear'd by his physicians.
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
30    The very life-blood of our enterprise;
      'Tis catching hither, even to our camp.
      He writes me here, that inward sickness--
      And that his friends by deputation could not
      So soon be drawn, nor did he think it meet
35    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;
40    For, as he writes, there is no quailing now.
      Because the king is certainly possess'd
      Of all our purposes. What say you to it?
EARL OF WORCESTER
      Your father's sickness is a maim to us.
HOTSPUR
      A perilous gash, a very limb lopp'd off:
45    And yet, in faith, it is not; his present want
      Seems more than we shall find it: were it good
      To set the exact wealth of all our states
      All at one cast? to set so rich a main
      On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?
50    It were not good; for therein should we read
      The very bottom and the soul of hope,
      The very list, the very utmost bound
      Of all our fortunes.
EARL OF DOUGLAS
      'Faith, and so we should;
55    Where now remains a sweet reversion:
      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.
60    If that the devil and mischance look big
      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
65    By some, that know not why he is away,
      That wisdom, loyalty and mere dislike
      Of our proceedings kept the earl from hence:
      And think how such an apprehension
      May turn the tide of fearful faction
70    And breed a kind of question in our cause;
      For well you know we of the offering side
      Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement,
      And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence
      The eye of reason may pry in upon us:
75    This absence of your father's draws a curtain,
      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:
80    It lends a lustre and more great opinion,
      A larger dare to our great enterprise,
      Than if the earl were here; for men must think,
      If we without his help can make a head
      To push against a kingdom, with his help
85    We shall o'erturn it topsy-turvy down.
      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
90    Pray God my news be worth a welcome, lord.
      The Earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong,
      Is marching hitherwards; with him Prince John.
HOTSPUR
      No harm: what more?
VERNON
      And further, I have learn'd,
95    The king himself in person is set forth,
      Or hitherwards intended speedily,
      With strong and mighty preparation.
HOTSPUR
      He shall be welcome too. Where is his son,
      The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales,
100   And his comrades, that daff'd the world aside,
      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;
105   Glittering in golden coats, like images;
      As full of spirit as the month of May,
      And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer;
      Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.
      I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,
110   His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm'd
      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
115   And witch the world with noble horsemanship.
HOTSPUR
      No more, no more: worse than the sun in March,
      This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come:
      They come like sacrifices in their trim,
      And to the fire-eyed maid of smoky war
120   All hot and bleeding will we offer them:
      The mailed Mars shall on his altar sit
      Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire
      To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh
      And yet not ours. Come, let me taste my horse,
125   Who is to bear me like a thunderbolt
      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
130   There is more news:
      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
135   What may the king's whole battle reach unto?
VERNON
      To thirty thousand.
HOTSPUR
      Forty let it be:
      My father and Glendower being both away,
      The powers of us may serve so great a day
140   Come, let us take a muster speedily:
      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
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