KING HENRY IV.

PART II.

King Henry the Fourth:

Henry, Prince of Wales, afterwards
King Henry V ;
Thomas, Duke of Clarence;

Prince John of Lancaster, afterwards his sons. (2 Henry V.) Duke of Bedford;

Prince Humphrey of Gloster, afterwards
(2 Henry V.) Duke of Gloster; J

Earl of Warwick;

Earl of Westmoreland;

Gower; Harcourt;

of the King's party.

Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench.

A Gentleman attending on the Chief Justice.

Earl of Northumberland;

Scroop, Archbishop of York;

Lord Mowbray; Lord Hastings;

Lord Bardolph; Sir John Colevile;

enemies to the

King.

Travers and Morton, domesticks of Northumberland.

Falstaff, Bardolph, Pistol, and Page.

Poins and Peto, attendants on prince Henry.

Shallow and Silence, country Justices.

Davy, servant to Shallow.

Mouldy, Shadow, Wart, Feeble, and Bullcalf, re

cruits.

Fang and Snare, sheriff's officers.

Rumour. A porter.

A dancer, speaker of the Epilogue.

Lady Northumberland. Lady Percy.

Hostess Quickly. Doll Tear-sheet.

Lords and other Attendants; Officers, Soldiers, Messenger, Drawers, Beadles, Grooms, &c.

SCENE, England.

INDUCTION.

Warkworth. Before Northumberland's Castle.

Enter Rumour, painted full of Tongues.

you

will stop

Rum. Open your ears; For which of
The vent of hearing, when loud Rumour speaks?
I, from the orient to the drooping west,
Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
The acts commenced on this ball of earth:
Upon my tongues continual slanders ride;
The which in every language I pronounce,
Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.
I speak of peace, while covert enmity,
Under the smile of safety, wounds the world:
And who but Rumour, who but only I,

Make fearful musters, and prepar'd defence;
Whilst the big year, swol'n with some other grief,
Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures;
And of so easy and so plain a stop,

That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still-discordant wavering multitude,
Can play upon it. But what need I thus
My well-known body to anatomize
Among my houshold? Why is Rumour here?
I run before king Harry's victory;
Who, in a bloody field by Shrewsbury,

Hath beaten down young Hotspur, and his troops,
Quenching the flame of bold rebellion

Even with the rebels' blood. But what mean I
To speak so true at first? my office is

To noise abroad,—that Harry Monmouth fell
Under the wrath of noble Hotspur's sword;
And that the king before the Douglas' rage
Stoop'd his anointed head as low as death.
This have I rumour'd through the peasant towns
Between that royal field of Shrewsbury
And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone,1
Where Hotspur's father, old Northumberland,
Lies crafty-sick: the posts come tiring on,
And not a man of them brings other news

Than they have learn'd of me; From Rumour's

tongues

They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true

wrongs.

I Northumberland's castle.

[Exit.

SECOND PART

OF

KING HENRY IV.

ACT I.

SCENE I. The same.

The Porter before the Gate; Enter Lord
BARDOLPH.

Bard. Who keeps the gate here, ho?-Where is

the earl?

Tell thou the earl,

That the lord Bardolph doth attend him here.

Port. His lordship is walk'd forth into the or

chard;

Please it your honour, knock but at the gate,

And he himself will answer.

Bard.

Enter NORTHUMBERLAND.

Here comes the earl.

North. What news, lord Bardolph ? every minute

now

Should be the father of some stratagem: 2

The times are wild; contention, like a horse
Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose,
And bears down all before him.

VOL. V.

2 Important or dreadful event.
Q