SCENE II. The Rebel Camp. Enter WORCES- Wor. O, no, my nephew must not know, Sir The liberal kind offer of the king. Ver. 'Twere best, he did. Then we are all undone. Who, ne'er so tame, so cherish'd, and lock'd up, A hare-brain'd Hotspur, govern'd by a spleen: And on his father's;--we did train him on; Ver. Deliver what you will, I'll say, 'tis so. Enter HOTSPUR and DOUGLAS; and Officers and Hot. My uncle is return'd :--Deliver up Wor. I told him gently of our grievances, Doug. Arm, gentlemen; to arms! for I have A brave defiance in King Henry's teeth, And, nephew, challeng'd you to single fight. Hot. O, 'would the quarrel lay upon our heads; 1 Westmoreland was impawned as a sur ty for the safe return of Worcester. See Act iv. Sc. 3. 2 Tasking as well as taring was used for reproof. We still say he took him to task. He made a blushing cita!" of himself; So much misconstrued in his wantonness. Better consider what you have to do, Than I, that have not well the gift of tongue, Mess. My lord, here are letters for you. O gentlemen, the time of life is short; Still ending at the arrival of an hour. Enter another Messenger. Mess. My lord, prepare: the king comes on apace. [The Trumpets sound. They embrace, and excunt. SCENE III. Plain near Shrewsbury. Excursions, and Parties fighting. Alarum to the Battle. Then enter DOUGLAS and BLUNT, meeting. Blunt. What is thy name, that in the battle thus Doug. Know then, my name is Douglas; Doug. The lord of Stafford dear to-day hath bought Blunt. I was not born a yielder, thou proud Scot;" [They fight, and BLUNT is slais. Enter HOTSPUR. Hot. O Douglas, hadst thou fought at Holmedon I never had triumph'd upon a Scot. wrong pointed this passage. The quarto copies most of them read so wild a libertie. Steevens suggests that perhaps the author wrote so wild a libertine, to which 3 i. e. mention of himself." To cite is to quete, allege, or mention any passage or incident. The mis-reading I very much incline. takes of Pope and others have induced me to give an explanation of this word, which I should otherwise have thought sufficiently intelligible. 4 That is, was master of. 5 Own. 6 So wild at liberty may mean so wild and licentious, or loose in his conduct. Johnson misunderstood and motto of the Percy family. Shakspeare uses esperant 7 Esperance, or Esperanza, has always been the as a word of four syllables, the e final having the same power as in French verse. 8 The folio reads: 'I was not born to yield thou haughty Scol Doug. Here. Hot. This, Douglas? no, I know this face full well: Doug. A fool go with thy soul, whither it goes! Hot. The king hath many marching in his coats. Hot. Our soldiers stand full fairly for the day. [Exeunt. Fal. Though I could 'scape shot-free at London, I fear the shot here; here's no scoring, but upon the pate. Soft! who art thou? Sir Walter Blunt ;there's honour for you: Here's no vanity!3--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 raggamuffins where they are peppered: there's but 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 PRINCE HENRY. And heaven forbid, a shallow scratch should drive P. John. We breathe too long:-Come, cousin Our duty this way lies; for God's sake, come. I did not think thee lord of such a spirit; Of such an ungrown warrior. P. Hen. Lends mettle to us all! O, this boy Alarums. Enter DOUGLAS. [Exit. Doug. Another king! they grow like Hydra's I am the Douglas, fatal to all those K. Hen. The king himself; who, Douglas, grieves P. Hen. What, stand'st thou idle here? lend me So many of his shadows thou hast met, thy sword: Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff Fal. O Hal, I pr'ythee give me leave to breathe a while.-Turk Gregory never did such deeds in arms, as I have done this day. I have paid Percy, I have made him sure. P. Hen. He is, indeed; and living to kill thee. I pr'ythee, lend me thy sword. Fal. Nay, before God, Hal, if Percy be alive, thou get'st not my sword; but take my pistol, if thou wilt. P. Hen. Give it me: What, is it in the case? Fal. Ay, Hal: 'tis hot, 'tis hot; there's that will sack a city. [The Prince draws out a bottle of sack. P. Hen. What, is't a time to jest and dally now? [Throws it at him, and exit. Fal. Well, if Percy be alive, I'll pierce him. If he do come in my wav, so: if he do not, if I come in his, willingly, let him make a carbonado of me. I like not such grinning honour as Sir Walter hath: Give me life; which if I can save, so; if not, honour comes unlooked for, and there's an end. [Exit. SCENE IV. Another Part of the Field. Alarums: K. Hen. I pr'ythee, Harry, withdraw thyself; thou bleed'st too much :- P. John. Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too. My lord of Westmoreland, lead him to his tent. 1 That is in secming or outward appearance. 2 Whither for whithersoever. Thus Baret, Whe ther, or to what place you will. Quovis.' Any-whether also signified to any place. In the last scene of the second act. Hotspur says to his wife : Whither I go, thither shalt thou go too.' And not the very king. I have two boys, Doug. I fear, thou art another counterfeit ; [They fight; the King being in danger, enter PRINCE HENRY. P. Hen. 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: K. Hen. Stay, and breathe a while:- P. Hen. O heaven! they did me too much injury, Enter HOTSPur.. 5 Well, if Percy he alive, I'll pierce him,' is addressed to the prince as he goes out; the rest of the speech is a soliloquy. Shakspeare was not aware that he ridiculed the serious etymology of the Scottish historian-Piercy a penetrando oculum Regis Scotorum ut fabulatur Boetius.'-Skinner. 6 A rasher or collop of meat cut crosswise for the 7 History says that the prince was wounded in the face by an arrow. ? Here's no vanity,' the negative is here used ironically, to designate the excess of a thing. 4 Turk Gregory' means Gregory the Seventh, call-gridiron. ed Hildebrand. This furious friar surmounted almost Invincible obstacles to deprive the emperor of his right of investiture of bishops, which his predecessors had long attempted in vain. Fox, in his Martyrology, has made Gregory so odious that the Protestants would be well pleased to hear him thus characterized, as uniting the attributes of their two great enemies, the Turk and the Pope, in one. There was an old tragedy on the 8 the earle of Richmond withstood his violence, and kept him at the sword's point, without advantage, longer than his companions either thought or judged. Holinshed, p. 759. 9 Opinion for estimation, reputation, the opinion of the world. The word was then used in that sense. Hot. My name is Harry Percy. Why, then I see A very valiant rebel of the name. Hot. Nor shall it, Harry, for the hour is come Enter FALSTAFF. [They fight. Fal. Well said, Hal! to it, Hal!-Nay, you Hot. O, Harry, thou hast robb'd me of my youth: But thought's the slave of life, and life time's fool; Ill-weav'd ambition, how much art thou shrunk! part of valour is-discretion; in the 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? 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 [stabbing him,] with a new wound in your thigh, c me you along with me. [Takes HOTSPUR on his back, Re-enter PRINCE HENRY and PRINCE JOHN. P. Hen. Come, brother John, full bravely hast thou flesh'd On the ground. Art thou alive? or is it phantasy That plays upon our eyesight? I pr'ythee, speak; Fal. 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 [throwing the body down:] if your father will do me any honour, so; if not, let him kill the next Percy himself. I look to be either earl or duke, I can assure you. P. Hen. Why, Percy I killed myself, and saw thee dead. Fal. 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 in an instant, and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock. If I may be believed, so; if not, let them, that should reward valour, bear the sin upon their own heads. I'll take it upon my death, I gave hin this wound in the thigh: if the man were alive, Is room enough :--' :--This earth, that bears thee dead, and would deny it, I would make him eat a piece Bears not alive so stout a gentleman. If thou wert sensible of courtesy, I should not make so dear a show of zeal:- [He sees FALSTAFF on the ground. If I were much in love with vanity. [Exit. Fal. [Rising slowly.] Embowelled! if thou embowel me to-day, I'll give you leave to powder' me, and eat me too, to-morrow. '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 1 Shakspeare had no authority for making Hotspur fail by the hand of the prince. Holinshed says, 'The king slew that day with his own hand six and thirty persons of his enemies. The other of his party, encouraged by his doings, fought valiantly, and slew the Lord Percy, called Henry Hotspur.' Speed says that Percy was killed by an unknown hand. 2 Hotspur, in his last moments endeavours to console himself. The glory of the prince wounds his thoughts, but thought, being dependent on life, must cease with it, and will soon be at an end. Life, on which thought depends, is itself of no great value, being the fool and sport of time; of time which, with all its dominion over of my sword. P. John. This is the strangest tale that e'er I heard. Come, bring your luggage nobly on your back: The trumpet sounds retreat, the day is ours. [Exeunt P. HEN, and P. JOHN. soners. K. Hen. Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke.Ill-spirited Worcester! did we not send grace, Pardon, and terms of love to all of you? And would'st thou turn our offers contrary? sublunary things, must itself at last be stopped.Johnson. 3 Carminibus confide bonis-jacet ecce Tibullus; Vix manet e toto parva quod urna capit.'-Ovid. 4 His scarf, with which he covers Percy's face. 5 Thus the folio. The quartos read ignominy. 6 To imbowell was the old term for embalming the body, as was usually done by those of persons of rank. Thus in Aulicus Coquinariæ, 1630:- The next day was solemnly appointed for imbowelling the corps, in the presence of some of the counsell, all the physicians, chirurgions, apothecaries, and the Palsgrave's physi cian.' 7 Salt. P. Hen. Then, brother John of Lancaster, to you This honourable bounty shall belong : Go to the Douglas, and deliver him Up to his pleasure, ransomless, and free: His valour, shown upon our crests to-day, Hath taught us how to cherish such high deeds, Even in the bosom of our adversaries. Lan. I thank your grace for this high courtesy, Which I shall give away immediately. K. Hen. Then this remains,-that we divide our power. You, son John, and my cousin Westmoreland, Towards York shall bend you, with your dearest speed, To meet Northumberland, and the prelate Scroop, Who, as we hear, are busily in arms: Myself, and you, son Harry, will towards Wales Meeting the check of such another day: Let us not leave till all our own be won. [Exeunt. 1 The quarto of 1598 reads shown. SECOND PART OF KING HENRY THE FOURTH. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. THE transactions comprised in this play take up about nine years. The action commences with the account of Hotspur's being defeated and killed [1403 ;] and closes with the death of King Henry IV. and the coronation of King Henry V. [1412-13.] Upton thinks these two plays improperly called The First and Second Parts of Henry the Fourth. "The first play ends (he says) with the peaceful settlement of Henry in the kingdom by the defeats of the rebels." This is hardly true, for the rebels are not yet finally suppressed. The second, he tells us, shows Henry the Fifth in the various lights of a good-natured rake, till, on his father's death, he assumes a more manly character. This is true; but this representation gives us no idea of a dramatic action. These two plays will appear to every reader, who shall peruse them without ambition of critical discoveries, to be so connected, that the second is merely a sequel to the first; to be two only to be one.'-JOHNSON. This play was entered at Stationers' Hall, August 23, 1600. There are two copies, in quarto, printed in that year; but it is doubtful whether they are different editions, or the one only a corrected impression of the other. Malone supposes it to have been composed in 1598, INDUCTION. Warkworth, Before Northumberland's Castle. Enter RUMOUR painted full of Tongues.' Rum. Open your ears; For which of you will stop The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks? 1 This was the common way of representing this personage, no unfrequent character in the masques of the poet's time. In a masque on St. Stephen's Night, 1614, by Thomas Campion, Rumour comes on in a skin coat full of winged tongues. Several other instances are cited in the Variorum Shakspeare. My well-known body to anatomize Even with the rebels' blood. But what mean I To noise abroad,-that Harry Monmouth fell They bring smooth comforts false, worse than tree [Erit. wrongs. 2 The force of this epithet will be best explained by the following passage in Macbeth : Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, And night's black agents to their preys do rouse.' 3 The stops are the holes in a flute or pipe. 4 Northumberland's castle. ACT I. Bard. I spake with one, my lord, that came from thence; SCENE I. The same. The Porter before the Gate. A gentleman well bred, and of good name, Enter LORD BARDOLPH. Should be the father of some stratagem; Bard. Noble earl, I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury. North. Good, an heaven will! Bard. As good as heart can wish :The king is almost wounded to the death; And, in the fortune of my lord your son, Prince Harry slain outright; and both the Blunts Kill'd by the hand of Douglas: young prince John, And Westmoreland, and Stafford, fled the field; And Harry Monmouth's brawn, the hulk Sir John, Is prisoner to your son: O, such a day, So fought, so follow'd, and so fairly won, Came not, till now, to dignify the times, Since Cæsar's fortunes! That freely render'd me these news for true. On Tuesday last to listen after news. Bard. My lord, I over-rode him on the way; Enter TRAVERS. North. Now, Travers, what good tidings come with you? Tra. My lord, Sir John Umfrevile turn'd me back With joyful tidings; and, being better hors'd, North. Ha! Again. Of Hotspur, coldspur? that rebellion Said he, young Harry Percy's spur was cold? 4 Had met ill luck! |