Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

Because some tell me that thou art a king.

Blunt. They tell thee true.

[bought
Doug, The lord of Stafford dear to-day hath
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 shall find a king that will revenge
Lord Stafford's death.

Fight, Blunt is slain. Enter Hotspur.
Hot. O Douglas, hadst thou fought at Holmedon
I never had triumph'd upon a Scot.

[thus,

Doug. All's done, all's won; here breathless lies
Hot. Where?
Doug. Here.

5

10

[the king.
[well: 15

Hot. This, Douglas? no, I know his face full
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.

[Exe.

20

P. Henry. What, is it time to jest and dally now?
[Throws it at him, and exit.
Fal. If Percy be alive, I'll pierce him. If he do
come in my way, so: if he do not,-if I come in
his, willingly, let him make a carbonado' of me.
I like not such grinning honours as Sir Walter bath:
Give me life: which if I can save, so; if not, ho-
nour comes unlook'd for, and there's an end. [Exit.
SCENE IV.

Another part of the Field.
Alarums. Excursions. Enter the King, the
Prince, Lord John of Lancaster, and the Earl
of Westmoreland.

K. Henry. Harry, withdraw thyself; thou
bleed'st too much :-

Lord John of Lancaster, go you with him.

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

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

25
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 !

Hot. Up, and away: Our soldiers stand full fairly for the day. Other alarums. Enter Falstaff. Fal. Though I could 'scape shot-free' at London, I fear the shot here; here's no scoring, but 30 pon the pate.-Soft! who art thou? Sir Walter Blunt; there's honour for you: Here's no vanity! I am as hot as molten lead, and as heavy too: Heaven keep lead out of me! I need no more weight than my own bowels.-I have led 35 my raggamuffins where they are pepper'd: there's not 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.

P. Henry. What, stand'st thou idle here? lend me thy sword:

Lan. We breathe too long:-Come, cousin
Westmoreland,

Our duty this way lies; for heaven's sake, come.
[Exeunt P. John and West.
P. Henry. By heaven, thou hast deceiv'd me,
Lancaster,

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. Henry.I saw him hold lord Percy at the point,
40 With lustier maintenance than I did look for
Of such an ungrown warrior.

Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff
Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies,
Whose deaths are unreveng'd: lend me thy sword. 45

Fal. O Hal, I pr'ythee give me leave to breathe awhile.-Turk Gregory never did such deeds in arms, as I have done this day. I have paid Percy, I have made him sure".

P. Henry. He is, indeed; and living to kill thee. 50 I pr'ythee, lend me thy sword.

Ful. Nay, Hal, if Percy be alive, thou get'st not my sword; but take my pistol, if thou wilt.

P. Henry. Give it me: What, is it in the case? Fal. Ay, Hal; 'tis hot, 'tis hot: there's that will 55 sack a city. [The Prince draws out a bottle of sack.

P. Henry. O, this boy
Lends mettle to us all!

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. Henry. The king himself: who, Douglas,
grieves at heart,

So
many of his shadows thou hast met,
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.

i. e, in resemblance, alike. A play upon shot, as it means the part of a reckoning, and a missive weapon discharged from artillery. In our author's time, the negative, in common speech, was used to design, ironically, the excess of a thing. Meaning Gregory the Seventh, called 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 History, hath made this Gregory so odious, that I don't doubt but the good Protestants of that time were well pleased to hear him thus characterized, as uniting the attributes of their two great enemies, the Turk and Pope, in one. Sure has two significations-certainly disposed of, and safe. Falstaff uses it in the former sense; the prince replies to it in the latter. A quibble on the word sack. A carbonado is a piece of meat cut cross-wise for the gridiron. History says, the prince was wounded in the eye by an arrow, Doug

8

6

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. Henry. Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like

5

Never to hold it up again! The spirits
OfvaliantShirley, Stafford, Blunt, are in my arms: 10
It is the prince of Wales that threatens thee;
Who never promiseth but he means to pay.—
[They fight; Douglas pieth.
Cheerly, my lord; how fares your grace?-
Sir Nicholas Gawsey hath for succour sent,
And so hath Cliften; I'll to Clifton straight.

K. Henry. Stay, and breathe a-while-
Thou hast redeem'd thy lost opinion:
And shew'd, thou makest some tender of my life,
In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me.

P. Henry, O heaven; they did me too much
injury,

That ever said, I hearken'd for your death.
If it were so, I might have let alone

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. Henry. Make up to Clifton, I'll to Nicho-
las Gawsey.

Enter Hotspur.

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 stop1. 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. Henry. 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;
But now two paces of the vilest earth
15s room enough:-This earth, that bears thee dead,
Bears not alive so stout a gentleman.

If thou wert sensible of courtesy,

I should not make so great a show of zeal:-
But let my favours 2 hide thy mangled face;
20 And, even in thy behalf, I'll thank myself
For doing these fair rights 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!

25

[Exit. 30

Hot. If I mistake not, thou art HarryMonmouth.
P. Henry. Thou speak'st as if I would deny my

name.

Hot. My name is Harry Percy.
P.Henry. Why, then I see

A very valiant rebel of that 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 heaven,
Thy name in arins were now as great as mine!
P. Henry. I'll make it greater, ere I part from
thee;

35

45

[He sees Falstaff on the ground. What! old acquaintance! could not all this flesh Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewel!

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
Imbowell'd will I see thee by and by;
Till then, in blood by noble Percy lie.
Falstaff, rising slowly.

[Exit.

Fal. Imbowell'd! if thou imbowel me to-day, I'll give you leave to powder me', and eat me too, to-morrow. 'Sblood, 'twas time to countereit, or that hot termagant Scot had paid me scot 40 and lot too. Counterfeit! I lie, I am no counterteit: 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 part of valour is-discretion; in the which better part, I have sav'd my life. 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 kill'd him. Why may he not rise, as well as I? Nothing confutes ine but eyes, and nobody sees me.Therefore, sirrah, with a new wound in your thigh, come you along with me.

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. [Fight. 50
Enter Falstaff

Ful 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. Percy is wounded, 55
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;

[Takes Hotspur on his back. Re-enter Prince Henry, and John of Lancaster. P.Henry. Come, brother John, full bravely hast thou flesh'd

'Dr. Johnson comments on this passage thus: " 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 sublunary things, must itself at last be stopped." See note', p. 461. To powder is to salt.

3

Thy

Thy maiden sword.

Lan. But, soft! who have we here?

Did you not tell me, this fat man was dead? P.Henry. I did; I saw him dead, breathless and bleeding

Upon the ground.

Art thou alive? or is it fantasy

That plays upon our eye-sight? I pr'ythee,speak;
We will not trust our eyes, without our ears:
Thou art not what thou seem'st.

of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster, Earl of Westmoreland,withWorcester,andVernon,prisoners. K.Henry. Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke.Ill-spirited Worcester! did we not send grace, 5 Pardon, and terms of love to all of you? And would'st thou turn our offers contrary? Misuse the tenor of thy kinsman's trust? Three knights upon our party slain to-day, A noble earl, and many a creature else, 10 Had been alive this hour,

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 15 either earl or duke, I can assure you.

P.Henry. Why, Percy I kill'd myself, and saw thee dead.

Fal. Didst thou?-Lord, lord, how this world
is given to lying!-I grant you, I was down, and 20
out of breath; and so was he: but we rose both
at an instant, and fought a long hour by Shrews-
bury clock. If I may be believ'd, so: if not, let
them, that should reward valour, bear the sin
upon their own heads. I'll take it upon my death, 25
I
gave
him this wound in the thigh; if the man
were alive, and would deny it, I would make him
eat a piece of my sword.

Lan. This is the strangest tale that e'er I heard.
P.Henry. This is the strangest fellow, brother 30
John

If, like a christian, thou hadst truly borne
Betwixt our armies true intelligence.
Wor. What I have done, my safety urg'd me to;
And I embrace this fortune patiently,
Since not to be avoided it falls on me. [non too;
K.Henry, Bear Worcester to the death, and Ver-
Other offenders we will pause upon.~

[Exeunt Worcester and Vernon, guarded.
How goes the field?
[he saw
P. Henry. The noble Scot, lord Douglas, when
The fortune of the day quite turn'd from him,
The noble Percy slain, and all his men
Upon the foot of fear,-fied with the rest;
And, falling from a hill, he was so bruis'd,
That the pursuers took him. At my tent
The Douglas is; and I beseech your grace,
I may dispose of him.

[ocr errors]

K. Henry. With all my heart.
P. Henry. Then, brother John of Lancaster, to
This honourable bounty shall belong :
Go to the Douglas, and deliver him
Up to his pleasure, ransomless, and free:
His valour, shewn upon our crests to-day,
Hath taught us how to cherish such high deeds,
[A retreat is sounded. 35 Even in the bosom of our adversaries.

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.
Come, brother, let's to the highest of the field,
To see what friends are living, who are dead.

[Exeunt.

Fal. I'll follow, as they say, for reward. He 40| that rewards me, heaven 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.

K. Henry. 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,
To fight with Glendower, and the earl of March.
45 Rebellion in this land shall lose his sway,
Meeting the check of such another day:
And since this business so fair is done,

The trumpets sound. Enter King Henry, Prince Let us not leave 'till all our own be won. [Exeunt.

SECOND

KING

OF

HENRY IV.

INDUCTION.

Enter Rumour, painted full of tongues. Rum.OPEN your ears; For which of you will

stop

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, swoln with some other grief,
Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
Aud no such matter? Kumour 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

5

My well-known body to anatomize
Among my houshold? Why is Rumbur 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 10Under 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 15 And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone, 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

20

They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true

wrongs.

[Exit.

[blocks in formation]

'The transactions comprized in this History take up about nine years. The action commences with the account of Hotspur's being defeated and killed; and closes with the death of king Henry IV. and the coronation of king Henry V.

Enter

[blocks in formation]

Should be the father of some stratagem:
The times are wild; contention, like a horse
Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose,
And bears down all before him.

Bard. Noble earl,

5

[ocr errors]

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 15
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.

North. How is this deriv'd?

Saw you the field? came you from Shrewsbury?
Burd. I spake with one, my lord, that came 25
from thence;

A gentleman well bred, and of good name,
That freely rendered me these news for true.
North. Here comes my servant Travers, whom

I sent

On Tuesday last to listen after news.

Burd. My lord, I over-rode him on the way;
And he is furnish'd with no certainties,
More than he haply may retail from me.

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,
Out-rode ine.
After him, came, spurring hard,
A gentleman almost forspent' with speed,
That stopp'd by me to breathe his bloody'dhorse:
He ask'd the way to Chester; and of him
I did demand, what news from Shrewsbury.
He told me, that rebellion had bad luck,
And that young Harry Percy's spur was cold:
With that, he gave his able horse the head,
And, bending forward, struck his armed heels
Against the panting sides of his poor jade2
Up to the rowel-head; and, starting so,
He seem'd in running to devour the way,
Staying no longer question.

North. Ha! Again,

Said he, young Harry Percy's spur was cold?
Of Hotspur, coldspur? that rebellion
Had met ill luck?

Bard. My lord, I'll tell you what ;

If my young lord your son have not the day,
Upon mine honour, for a silken point3

[ocr errors]

1

I'll give my barony: never talk of it.
North. Why should the gentleman, that rode
by Travers,

Give then such instances of loss?

Bard. Who, he?

He was some hilding fellow, that had stol'n
The horse he rode on; and, upon my life,
Spoke at adventure. Look, here comes more news
Enter Morton.

North. Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-leaf",
Foretells the nature of a tragick volume:
So looks the strond, whereon the imperious flood
Hath left a witness'd usurpation.———
Say, Morton, did'st thou come from Shrewsbury?
Mort. I ran from Shrewsbury, my noble lord;
Where hateful death put on his ugliest mask,
To fright our party.

North. How doth my son and brother?
Thou tremblest; and the whiteness in thy cheek
20 Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand.
Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,
So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone,
Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night,
And would have told him, half his Troy was burn'd:
But Prian found the fire, ere he his tongue,
And I my Percy's death, ere thou report'st it.
This would'st thou say,-Your son did thus, and thus;
Your brother, thus; so fought the noble Douglas;
Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds :
30 But in the end, to stop mine ear indeed,
Thou hast a sigh to blow away this praise,
Ending with-brother, son, and all are dead.
Mort. Douglas is living, and your brother, yet:
But for my lord your son,-

35

North. Why, he is dead.

See, what a ready tongue suspicion hath !
He, that but fears the thing he would not know,
Hath, by instinct, knowledge from other's eyes,
That, what he fear'd is chanc'd. Yet speak, Morton,
40 Tell thou thy earl, his divination lies;

1451

And I will take it as a sweet disgrace,

And make thee rich for doing me such wrong.
Mort. You are too great to be by me gainsaid:
Your spirit is too true, your fears too certain.
North. Yet, forall this, say not that Percy's dead.
I see a strange confession in thine eye:
Thou shak'st thy head; and hold'st it fear', or sin,
To speak the truth. If he be slain, say so:
The tongue offends not, that reports his death:
50 And he doth sin, that doth belie the dead;
Not he, which says the dead is not alive,
Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a losing office; and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,

55 Remember'd knolling a departing friend.

Bard. I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead. Mort. I am sorry, I should force you to believe That, which I would to heaven I had not seen: But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state,

3

Toforspend is to waste, to exhaust. 2 Jade seems anciently to have signified that we now call a hackney; a beast employed in drudgery, opposed to a horse kept for show, or to be rid by its master. Poor jade here means the horse wearied with his journey. A point is a string tagged, or lace. For hilderling, i. e. base, degenerate. Mr. Steevens observes, that in the time of our poet, the title-page to an elegy, as well as every intermediate leaf, was totally blank. i, e. so far gone in woe. Fear for danger,

Rend'ring

« ПредишнаНапред »