SCENE II. The Rebel Camp. Enter WORCES-
TER and VERNON.

Wor. O, no, my nephew must not know, Sir
Richard,

The liberal kind offer of the king.

Ver. 'Twere best, he did.
Wor.

Then we are all undone.
It is not possible, it cannot be,
The king should keep his word in loving us;
He will suspect us still, and find a time
To punish this offence in other faults:
Suspicion all our lives shall be stuck full of eyes:
For treason is but trusted like the fox;

Who, ne'er so tame, so cherish'd, and lock'd up,
Will have a wild trick of his ancestors.
Look how we can, or sad, or merrily,
Interpretation will misquote our looks;
And we shall feed like oxen at a stall,
The better cherish'd, still the nearer death.
My nephew's trespass may be well forgot.
It hath the excuse of youth, and heat of blood;
And an adopted name of privilege,--

A hare-brain'd Hotspur, govern'd by a spleen:
All his offences live upon my head,

And on his father's;--we did train him on;
And, his corruption being ta'en from us,
We, as the spring of all, shall pay for all.
Therefore, good cousin, let not Harry know,
In any case, the offer of the king.

Ver. Deliver what you will, I'll say, 'tis so.
Here comes your cousin.

Enter HOTSPUR and DOUGLAS; and Officers and
Soldiers, behind.

Hot. My uncle is return'd :--Deliver up
My lord of Westmoreland.'-Uncle, what news?
Wor. The king will bid you battle presently.
Doug. Defy him by the lord of Westmoreland.
Hot. Lord Douglas, go you and tell him so.
Doug. Marry, and shall, and very willingly. [Exit.
Wor. There is no seeming mercy in the king.
Hot. Did you beg any? God forbid !

Wor. I told him gently of our grievances,
Of his oath-breaking; which he mended thus,--
By now forswearing that he is forsworn:
He calls us rebels, traitors; and will scourge
With haughty arms this hateful name in us.
Re-enter DoUGLAS.

Doug. Arm, gentlemen; to arms! for I have
thrown

A brave defiance in King Henry's teeth,
And Westmoreland, that was engag'd, did bear it ;
Which cannot choose but bring him quickly on.
Wor. The prince of Wales stepp'd forth before
the king,

And, nephew, challeng'd you to single fight.

Hot. O, 'would the quarrel lay upon our heads;
And that no man might draw short breath to-day,
But I, and Harry Monmouth! Tell me, tell me,
How show'd his tasking?2 seem'd it in contempt?
Ver. No, by my soul; I never in my life
Did hear a challenge urg'd more modestly,
Unless a brother should a brother dare
To gentle exercise and proof of arms.
He gave you all the duties of a man;
Trimm'd up your praises with a princely tongue;
Spoke your deservings like a chronicle;
Making you ever better than his praise,
By still dispraising praise, valued with you:
And, which became him like a prince indeed,

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;
And chid his truant youth with such a grace,
As if he master'd there a double spirit,
Of teaching, and of learning, instantly.
There did he pause: But let me tell the world,—
If he outlive the envy of this day,
England did never owe so sweet a hope,

So much misconstrued in his wantonness.
Hot. Cousin, I think thou art enamoured
Upon his follies; never did I hear
Of any prince, so wild at liberty:*
But, be he as he will, yet once ere night
I will embrace him with a soldier's arm,
That he shall shrink under my courtesy.-
Arm, arm, with speed:—And, fellows, soldiers,
friends,

Better consider what you have to do,

Than I, that have not well the gift of tongue,
Can lift your blood up with persuasion.
Enter a Messenger.

Mess. My lord, here are letters for you.
Hot. I cannot read them now.-

O gentlemen, the time of life is short;
To spend that shortness basely, were too long,
If life did ride upon a dial's point,

Still ending at the arrival of an hour.
An if we live, we live to tread on kings;
If die, brave death, when princes die with us
Now for our consciences,-the arms are fair,
When the intent of bearing them is just.

Enter another Messenger.

Mess. My lord, prepare: the king comes on apace.
Hot. I thank him, that he cuts me from my tale,
For I profess not talking; Only this-
Let each man do his best. and here draw I
A sword, whose temper I intend to stain
With the best blood that I can meet withal
Now,-Esperance!-Percy!--and set on.-
In the adventure of this perilous day.
Sound all the lofty instruments of war,
And by that music let us all embrace:
For, heaven to earth, some of us never shall
A second time do such a courtesy.

[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
Thou crossest me? what honour dost thou seek
Upon my head?

Doug. Know then, my name is Douglas;
Because sonie tell me that thou art a king.
And I do haunt thee in the battle thus,
Blunt. They tell thee true.

Doug. The lord of Stafford dear to-day hath bought
Thy likeness: for, instead of thee, King Harry,
This sword hath ended him: so shall it thee,
Unless thou yield thee as my prisoner.

Blunt. I was not born a yielder, thou proud Scot;"
And thou shalt find a king that will revenge
Lord Stafford's death.

[They fight, and BLUNT is slais. Enter HOTSPUR.

Hot. O Douglas, hadst thou fought at Holmedon
thus,

I never had triumph'd upon a Scot.
Doug. All's done. all's won; here breathless lies
the king.
Hot, Where?

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:
A gallant knight he was, his name was Blunt;
Semblably furnish'd like the king himself.

Doug. A fool go with thy soul, whither it goes!
A borrow'd title hast thou bought too dear.
Why didst thou tell me that thou wert a king?

Hot. The king hath many marching in his coats.
Doug. Now, by my sword, I will kill all his coats.
I'll murder all his wardrobe, piece by piece,
Until I meet the king.
Up, and away;

Hot.

Our soldiers stand full fairly for the day. [Exeunt.
Other Alarums. Enter FALSTAFF.

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
The prince of Wales from such a field as this;
Where stain'd nobility lies trodden on,
And rebels' arms triumph in massacres!

P. John. We breathe too long:-Come, cousin
Westmoreland,

Our duty this way lies; for God's sake, come.
[Exeunt P. JOHN and WESTMORELAND.
P. Hen. By heaven, thou hast deceiv'd me, Lan-
caster,

I did not think thee lord of such a spirit;
Before, I lov'd thee as a brother, John;
But now, I do respect thee as my soul.
K. Hen. I saw him hold Lord Percy at the point,
With lustier maintenance than I did look for

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
heads;

I am the Douglas, fatal to all those
That wear those colours on them.-What art thou,
That counterfeit'st the person of a king?

K. Hen. The king himself; who, Douglas, grieves
at heart,

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
Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies,
Whose deaths are unreveng'd: Pr'ythee, lend me
thy sword.

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:
Ercursions. Enter the KING, PRINCE HENRY,
PRINCE JOHN, and WESTMORELAND.

K. Hen. I pr'ythee,

Harry, withdraw thyself; thou bleed'st too much :-
Lord John of Lancaster, go you with him.

P. John. Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too.
P. Hen. I beseech your majesty, make up,
Lest your retirement do amaze your friends.
K. Hen. I will do so:

My lord of Westmoreland, lead him to his tent.
West. Come, my lord, I'll lead you to your tent.
P. Hen. Lead me, my lord? I do not need your help:

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,
Seek Percy, and thyself, about the field:
But, seeing thou fall'st on me so luckily,
I will assay thee; so defend thyself.

Doug. I fear, thou art another counterfeit ;
And yet, in faith, thou bear'st thee like a king:
But mine, I am sure, thou art, whoe'er thou be,
And thus I win thee.

[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:
It is the prince of Wales, that threatens thee;
Who never promiseth, but he means to pay.-
[They fight; DOUGLAS flies.
Cheerly, my lord: How fares your grace?--
Sir Nicholas Gawsey hath for succour sent,
And so hath Clifton; I'll to Clifton straight.

K. Hen. Stay, and breathe a while:-
Thou hast redeem'd thy lost opinion;"
And show'd thou mak'st some tender of my life,
In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me."

P. Hen. O heaven! they did me too much injury,
If it were so, I might have let alone
That ever said, I hearken'd for your death.
The insulting hand of Douglas over you;
Which would have been as speedy in your end,
As all the poisonous potions in the world,
And sav'd the treacherous labour of your son.
K. Hen. Make up to Clifton, I'll to Sir Nicholas
Gawsey.
[Exit KING HENRY.

Enter HOTSPur..
Hot. If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth.
P. Hen. Thou speak'st as if I would deny my

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.
P. Hen.

Why, then I see

A very valiant rebel of the name.
I am the prince of Wales; and think not, Percy,
To share with me in glory any more:
Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere;
Nor can one England brook a double reign,
Of Harry Percy, and the prince of Wales.

Hot. Nor shall it, Harry, for the hour is come
To end the one of us; And 'would to God,
Thy name in arms were now as great as mine!
P. Hen. I'll make it greater, ere I part from thee;
And all the budding honours on thy crest
I'll crop, to make a garland for my head.
Hot. I can no longer brook thy vanities.

Enter FALSTAFF.

[They fight.

Fal. Well said, Hal! to it, Hal!-Nay, you
shall find no boy's play here, I can tell you.
Enter DOUGLAS; he fights with FALSTAFF, who
falls down as if he were dead, and exit DOUGLAS.
HOTSPUR is wounded, and falls.'

Hot. O, Harry, thou hast robb'd me of my youth:
I better brook the loss of brittle life,
Than those proud titles thou hast won of me;
They wound my thoughts, worse than thy sword
my flesh :-

But thought's the slave of life, and life time's fool;
And time, that takes survey of all the world,
Must have a stop. O, I could prophesy,
But that the earthy and cold hand of death
Lies on my tongue :--No, Percy, thou art dust,
And food for-
[Dies.
P. Hen. For worms, brave Percy: Fare thee
well, great heart!--

Ill-weav'd ambition, how much art thou shrunk!
When that this body did contain a spirit,
A kingdom for it was too small a bound ;3
But now, two paces of the vilest earth

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;
We will not trust our eyes, without our ears :-
Thou art not what thou seem'st.

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:-
But let my favours hide thy mangled face;
And, even in thy behalf, I'll thank myself
For doing these fair rites of tenderness.
Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven!
Thy ignomy sleep with thee in the grave,
But not remember'd in thy epitaph!-

[He sees FALSTAFF on the ground.
What! old acquaintance! could not all this flesh
Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell!
I could have better spar'd a better man.
O, I should have a heavy miss of thee,

If I were much in love with vanity.
Death hath not struck so fat a deer to-day,
Though many dearer, in this bloody fray :-
Embowell'de will I see thee by and by;
Til then, in blood by noble Percy lie.

[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:
For my part, if a lie may do thee grace,
I'll gild it with the happiest terms I have.

The trumpet sounds retreat, the day is ours.
[A Retreat is sounded.
Come, brother, let's to the highest of the field,
To see what friends are living, who are dead.

[Exeunt P. HEN, and P. JOHN.
Fal. I'll follow, as they say, for reward. He
that rewards me, God reward him! If I do grow
great, I'll grow less; for I'll purge, and leave sack,
and live cleanly, as a nobleman should do.
[Exit bearing of the Body.
SCENE V. Another Part of the Field.
The
Trumpets sound. Enter KING HENRY, PRINCE
HENRY, PRINCE JOHN, WESTMORELAND, and
others, with WORCESTER, and VERNON, pri

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.

SECOND PART OF

KING HENRY THE FOURTH.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

INDUCTION.

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,