TPTT The First Part of Henry the Fourth: ACT V
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
ACT V
SCENE I. KING HENRY IV's camp near Shrewsbury.
SCENE II. The rebel camp.
SCENE III. Plain between the camps.
SCENE IV. Another part of the field.
SCENE V. Another part of the field.
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SCENE I. KING HENRY IV's camp near Shrewsbury.
Enter KING HENRY, PRINCE HENRY, Lord John of LANCASTER, EARL OF WESTMORELAND, SIR WALTER BLUNT, and FALSTAFF
KING HENRY IV
      How bloodily the sun begins to peer
      Above yon busky hill! the day looks pale
      At his distemperature.
PRINCE HENRY
      The southern wind
5     Doth play the trumpet to his purposes,
      And by his hollow whistling in the leaves
      Foretells a tempest and a blustering day.
KING HENRY IV
      Then with the losers let it sympathize,
      For nothing can seem foul to those that win.

The trumpet sounds

Enter WORCESTER and VERNON

10    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:
15    This is not well, my lord, this is not well.
      What say you to it? will you again unknit
      This curlish knot of all-abhorred war?
      And move in that obedient orb again
      Where you did give a fair and natural light,
20    And be no more an exhaled meteor,
      A prodigy of fear and a portent
      Of broached mischief to the unborn times?
EARL OF WORCESTER
      Hear me, my liege:
      For mine own part, I could be well content
25    To entertain the lag-end of my life
      With quiet hours; for I do protest,
      I have not sought the day of this dislike.
KING HENRY IV
      You have not sought it! how comes it, then?
FALSTAFF
      Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it.
PRINCE HENRY
30    Peace, chewet, peace!
EARL OF WORCESTER
      It pleased your majesty to turn your looks
      Of favour from myself and all our house;
      And yet I must remember you, my lord,
      We were the first and dearest of your friends.
35    For you my staff of office did I break
      In Richard's time; and posted day and night
      to meet you on the way, and kiss your hand,
      When yet you were in place and in account
      Nothing so strong and fortunate as I.
40    It was myself, my brother and his son,
      That brought you home and boldly did outdare
      The dangers of the time. You swore to us,
      And you did swear that oath at Doncaster,
      That you did nothing purpose 'gainst the state;
45    Nor claim no further than your new-fall'n right,
      The seat of Gaunt, dukedom of Lancaster:
      To this we swore our aid. But in short space
      It rain'd down fortune showering on your head;
      And such a flood of greatness fell on you,
50    What with our help, what with the absent king,
      What with the injuries of a wanton time,
      The seeming sufferances that you had borne,
      And the contrarious winds that held the king
      So long in his unlucky Irish wars
55    That all in England did repute him dead:
      And from this swarm of fair advantages
      You took occasion to be quickly woo'd
      To gripe the general sway into your hand;
      Forget your oath to us at Doncaster;
60    And being fed by us you used us so
      As that ungentle hull, the cuckoo's bird,
      Useth the sparrow; did oppress our nest;
      Grew by our feeding to so great a bulk
      That even our love durst not come near your sight
65    For fear of swallowing; but with nimble wing
      We were enforced, for safety sake, to fly
      Out of sight and raise this present head;
      Whereby we stand opposed by such means
      As you yourself have forged against yourself
70    By unkind usage, dangerous countenance,
      And violation of all faith and troth
      Sworn to us in your younger enterprise.
KING HENRY IV
      These things indeed you have articulate,
      Proclaim'd at market-crosses, read in churches,
75    To face the garment of rebellion
      With some fine colour that may please the eye
      Of fickle changelings and poor discontents,
      Which gape and rub the elbow at the news
      Of hurlyburly innovation:
80    And never yet did insurrection want
      Such water-colours to impaint his cause;
      Nor moody beggars, starving for a time
      Of pellmell havoc and confusion.
PRINCE HENRY
      In both your armies there is many a soul
85    Shall pay full dearly for this encounter,
      If once they join in trial. Tell your nephew,
      The Prince of Wales doth join with all the world
      In praise of Henry Percy: by my hopes,
      This present enterprise set off his head,
90    I do not think a braver gentleman,
      More active-valiant or more valiant-young,
      More daring or more bold, is now alive
      To grace this latter age with noble deeds.
      For my part, I may speak it to my shame,
95    I have a truant been to chivalry;
      And so I hear he doth account me too;
      Yet this before my father's majesty--
      I am content that he shall take the odds
      Of his great name and estimation,
100   And will, to save the blood on either side,
      Try fortune with him in a single fight.
KING HENRY IV
      And, Prince of Wales, so dare we venture thee,
      Albeit considerations infinite
      Do make against it. No, good Worcester, no,
105   We love our people well; even those we love
      That are misled upon your cousin's part;
      And, will they take the offer of our grace,
      Both he and they and you, every man
      Shall be my friend again and I'll be his:
110   So tell your cousin, and bring me word
      What he will do: but if he will not yield,
      Rebuke and dread correction wait on us
      And they shall do their office. So, be gone;
      We will not now be troubled with reply:
115   We offer fair; take it advisedly.
Exeunt WORCESTER and VERNON
PRINCE HENRY
      It will not be accepted, on my life:
      The Douglas and the Hotspur both together
      Are confident against the world in arms.
KING HENRY IV
      Hence, therefore, every leader to his charge;
120   For, on their answer, will we set on them:
      And God befriend us, as our cause is just!
Exeunt all but PRINCE HENRY and FALSTAFF
FALSTAFF
      Hal, if thou see me down in the battle and bestride
      me, so; 'tis a point of friendship.
PRINCE HENRY
      Nothing but a colossus can do thee that friendship.
125   Say thy prayers, and farewell.
FALSTAFF
      I would 'twere bed-time, Hal, and all well.
PRINCE HENRY
      Why, thou owest God a death.
Exit PRINCE HENRY
FALSTAFF
      'Tis not due yet; I would be loath to pay him before
      his day. What need I be so forward with him that
130   calls not on me? Well, 'tis no matter; honour pricks
      me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I
      come on? how then? Can honour set to a leg? no: or
      an arm? no: or take away the grief of a wound? no.
      Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? no. What is
135   honour? a word. What is in that word honour? what
      is that honour? 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?
140   no. Why? detraction will not suffer it. Therefore
      I'll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon: and so
      ends my catechism.
Exit
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