The First Part of Henry IV:
Act 3, Scene 1
Enter HOTSPUR, WORCESTER,
LORD MORTIMER, OWEN GLENDOWER.
MORTIMER
1
These promises are fair, the parties sure,
2
And our induction full of prosperous hope.
HOTSPUR
3
Lord Mortimer, and cousin Glendower,
4
Will you sit down?
5
And uncle Worcester: a plague upon it!
6
I have forgot the map.
GLENDOWER
6
No, here it is.
7
Sit, cousin Percy; sit, good cousin Hotspur,
8
For by that name as oft as Lancaster
9
Doth speak of you, his cheek looks pale and with
10
A rising sigh he wisheth you in heaven.
HOTSPUR
11
And you in hell, as oft as he hears
12
Owen Glendower spoke of.
GLENDOWER
13
I cannot blame him: at my nativity
14
The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
15
Of burning cressets; and at my birth
16
The frame and huge foundation of the earth
17
Shaked like a coward.
HOTSPUR
17
Why, so it would have done
18
At the same season, if your mother's cat had
19
But kitten'd, though yourself had never been born.
GLENDOWER
20
I say the earth did shake when I was born.
HOTSPUR
21
And I say the earth was not of my mind,
22
If you suppose as fearing you it shook.
GLENDOWER
23
The heavens were all on fire, the earth did tremble.
HOTSPUR
24
O, then the earth shook to see the heavens on fire,
25
And not in fear of your nativity.
26
Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth
27
In strange eruptions; oft the teeming earth
28
Is with a kind of colic pinch'd and vex'd
29
By the imprisoning of unruly wind
30
Within her womb; which, for enlargement striving,
31
Shakes the old beldam earth and topples down
32
Steeples and moss-grown towers. At your birth
33
Our grandam earth, having this distemperature,
34
In passion shook.
GLENDOWER
34
Cousin, of many men
35
I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave
36
To tell you once again that at my birth
37
The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
38
The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds
39
Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields.
40
These signs have mark'd me extraordinary;
41
And all the courses of my life do show
42
I am not in the roll of common men.
43
Where is he living, clipp'd in with the sea
44
That chides the banks of England, Scotland, Wales,
45
Which calls me pupil, or hath read to me?
46
And bring him out that is but woman's son
47
Can trace me in the tedious ways of art
48
And hold me pace in deep experiments.
HOTSPUR
49
I think there's no man speaks better Welsh.
50
I'll to dinner.
MORTIMER
51
Peace, cousin Percy; you will make him mad.
GLENDOWER
52
I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
HOTSPUR
53
Why, so can I, or so can any man;
54
But will they come when you do call for them?
GLENDOWER
55
Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command
56
The devil.
HOTSPUR
57
And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil
58
By telling truth: tell truth and shame the devil.
59
If thou have power to raise him, bring him hither,
60
And I'll be sworn I have power to shame him hence.
61
O, while you live, tell truth and shame the devil!
MORTIMER
62
Come, come, no more of this unprofitable chat.
GLENDOWER
63
Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made head
64
Against my power; thrice from the banks of Wye
65
And sandy-bottom'd Severn have I sent him
66
Bootless home and weather-beaten back.
HOTSPUR
67
Home without boots, and in foul weather too!
68
How 'scapes he agues, in the devil's name?
GLENDOWER
69
Come, here's the map: shall we divide our right
70
According to our threefold order ta'en?
MORTIMER
71
The Archdeacon hath divided it
72
Into three limits very equally:
73
England, from Trent and Severn hitherto,
74
By south and east is to my part assign'd:
75
All westward, Wales beyond the Severn shore,
76
And all the fertile land within that bound,
77
To Owen Glendower: and, dear coz, to you
78
The remnant northward, lying off from Trent.
79
And our indentures tripartite are drawn;
80
Which being sealed interchangeably,
81
A business that this night may execute,
82
tomorrow, cousin Percy, you and I
83
And my good Lord of Worcester will set forth
84
To meet your father and the Scottish power,
85
As is appointed us, at Shrewsbury.
86
My father Glendower is not ready yet,
87
Not shall we need his help these fourteen days.
88
Within that space you may have drawn together
89
Your tenants, friends and neighbouring gentlemen.
GLENDOWER
90
A shorter time shall send me to you, lords:
91
And in my conduct shall your ladies come;
92
From whom you now must steal and take no leave,
93
For there will be a world of water shed
94
Upon the parting of your wives and you.
HOTSPUR
95
Methinks my moiety, north from Burton here,
96
In quantity equals not one of yours:
97
See how this river comes me cranking in,
98
And cuts me from the best of all my land
99
A huge half-moon, a monstrous cantle out.
100
I'll have the current in this place damm'd up;
101
And here the smug and silver Trent shall run
102
In a new channel, fair and evenly;
103
It shall not wind with such a deep indent,
104
To rob me of so rich a bottom here.
GLENDOWER
105
Not wind? it shall, it must; you see it doth.
MORTIMER
106
Yea, but
107
Mark how he bears his course, and runs me up
108
With like advantage on the other side;
109
Gelding the opposed continent as much
110
As on the other side it takes from you.
EARL OF WORCESTER
111
Yea, but a little charge will trench him here
112
And on this north side win this cape of land;
113
And then he runs straight and even.
HOTSPUR
114
I'll have it so: a little charge will do it.
GLENDOWER
115
I'll not have it alter'd.
GLENDOWER
116
No, nor you shall not.
HOTSPUR
116
Who shall say me nay?
GLENDOWER
117
Why, that will I.
HOTSPUR
117
Let me not understand you, then;
118
Speak it in Welsh.
GLENDOWER
119
I can speak English, lord, as well as you;
120
For I was train'd up in the English court;
121
Where, being but young, I framed to the harp
122
Many an English ditty lovely well
123
And gave the tongue a helpful ornament,
124
A virtue that was never seen in you.
HOTSPUR
125
Marry,
126
And I am glad of it with all my heart:
127
I had rather be a kitten and cry mew
128
Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers;
129
I had rather hear a brazen canstick turn'd,
130
Or a dry wheel grate on the axle-tree;
131
And that would set my teeth nothing on edge,
132
Nothing so much as mincing poetry:
133
'Tis like the forced gait of a shuffling nag.
GLENDOWER
134
Come, you shall have Trent turn'd.
HOTSPUR
135
I do not care: I'll give thrice so much land
136
To any well-deserving friend;
137
But in the way of bargain, mark ye me,
138
I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair.
139
Are the indentures drawn? shall we be gone?
GLENDOWER
140
The moon shines fair; you may away by night:
141
I'll haste the writer and withal
142
Break with your wives of your departure hence:
143
I am afraid my daughter will run mad,
144
So much she doteth on her Mortimer.
MORTIMER
145
Fie, cousin Percy! how you cross my father!
HOTSPUR
146
I cannot choose: sometime he angers me
147
With telling me of the mouldwarp and the ant,
148
Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies,
149
And of a dragon and a finless fish,
150
A clip-wing'd griffin and a moulten raven,
151
A couching lion and a ramping cat,
152
And such a deal of skimble-skamble stuff
153
As puts me from my faith. I tell you what;
154
He held me last night at least nine hours
155
In reckoning up the several devils' names
156
That were his lackeys: I cried 'hum,' and 'well, go to,'
157
But mark'd him not a word. O, he is as tedious
158
As a tired horse, a railing wife;
159
Worse than a smoky house: I had rather live
160
With cheese and garlic in a windmill, far,
161
Than feed on cates and have him talk to me
162
In any summer-house in Christendom.
MORTIMER
163
In faith, he is a worthy gentleman,
164
Exceedingly well read, and profited
165
In strange concealments, valiant as a lion
166
And as wondrous affable and as bountiful
167
As mines of India. Shall I tell you, cousin?
168
He holds your temper in a high respect
169
And curbs himself even of his natural scope
170
When you come 'cross his humour; faith, he does:
171
I warrant you, that man is not alive
172
Might so have tempted him as you have done,
173
Without the taste of danger and reproof:
174
But do not use it oft, let me entreat you.
EARL OF WORCESTER
175
In faith, my lord, you are too wilful-blame;
176
And since your coming hither have done enough
177
To put him quite beside his patience.
178
You must needs learn, lord, to amend this fault:
179
Though sometimes it show greatness, courage, blood,
180
And that's the dearest grace it renders you,
181
Yet oftentimes it doth present harsh rage,
182
Defect of manners, want of government,
183
Pride, haughtiness, opinion and disdain:
184
The least of which haunting a nobleman
185
Loseth men's hearts and leaves behind a stain
186
Upon the beauty of all parts besides,
187
Beguiling them of commendation.
HOTSPUR
188
Well, I am school'd: good manners be your speed!
189
Here come our wives, and let us take our leave.
Enter GLENDOWER with the LADIES.
MORTIMER
190
This is the deadly spite that angers me;
191
My wife can speak no English, I no Welsh.
GLENDOWER
192
My daughter weeps: she will not part with you;
193
She'll be a soldier too, she'll to the wars.
MORTIMER
194
Good father, tell her that she and my aunt Percy
195
Shall follow in your conduct speedily.
Glendower speaks to her in Welsh, and she
answers him in the same.
GLENDOWER
196
She is desperate here; a peevish self-wind harlotry,
197
one that no persuasion can do good upon.
MORTIMER
198
I understand thy looks: that pretty Welsh
199
Which thou pour'st down from these swelling heavens
200
I am too perfect in; and, but for shame,
201
In such a parley should I answer thee.
202
I understand thy kisses and thou mine,
203
And that's a feeling disputation:
204
But I will never be a truant, love,
205
Till I have learned thy language; for thy tongue
206
Makes Welsh as sweet as ditties highly penn'd,
207
Sung by a fair queen in a summer's bower,
208
With ravishing division, to her lute.
GLENDOWER
209
Nay, if you melt, then will she run mad.
The lady speaks again in Welsh.
MORTIMER
210
O, I am ignorance itself in this!
GLENDOWER
211
She bids you on the wanton rushes lay you down
212
And rest your gentle head upon her lap,
213
And she will sing the song that pleaseth you
214
And on your eyelids crown the god of sleep.
215
Charming your blood with pleasing heaviness,
216
Making such difference 'twixt wake and sleep
217
As is the difference betwixt day and night
218
The hour before the heavenly-harness'd team
219
Begins his golden progress in the east.
MORTIMER
220
With all my heart I'll sit and hear her sing:
221
By that time will our book, I think, be drawn
GLENDOWER
222
Do so;
223
And those musicians that shall play to you
224
Hang in the air a thousand leagues from hence,
225
And straight they shall be here: sit, and attend.
HOTSPUR
226
Come, Kate, thou art perfect in lying down: come,
227
quick, quick, that I may lay my head in thy lap.
LADY PERCY
228
Go, ye giddy goose.
HOTSPUR
229
Now I perceive the devil understands Welsh;
230
And 'tis no marvel he is so humorous.
231
By'r lady, he is a good musician.
LADY PERCY
232
Then should you be nothing but musical for
233
you are altogether governed by humors. Lie
234
still, ye thief, and hear the lady sing in Welsh.
HOTSPUR
235
I had rather hear Lady, my
236
brach, howl in Irish.
LADY PERCY
237
Wouldst thou have thy head broken?
LADY PERCY
239
Then be still.
HOTSPUR
240
Neither;'tis a woman's fault.
LADY PERCY
241
Now God help thee!
HOTSPUR
242
To the Welsh lady's bed.
LADY PERCY
243
What's that?
Here the lady sings a Welsh song.
HOTSPUR
245
Come, Kate, I'll have your song too.
LADY PERCY
246
Not mine, in good sooth.
HOTSPUR
247
Not yours, in good sooth! Heart! you swear like a
248
comfit-maker's wife. 'Not you, in good sooth,' and
249
'as true as I live,' and 'as God shall mend me,' and
250
'as sure as day,'
251
And givest such sarcenet surety for thy oaths,
252
As if thou never walk'st further than Finsbury.
253
Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art,
254
A good mouth-filling oath, and leave 'in sooth,'
255
And such protest of pepper-gingerbread,
256
To velvet-guards and Sunday-citizens.
257
Come, sing.
LADY PERCY
258
I will not sing.
HOTSPUR
259
'Tis the next way to turn tailor, or be
260
red-breast teacher. An the indentures
261
be drawn, I'll away within these two
262
hours; and so, come in when ye will.
GLENDOWER
263
Come, come, Lord Mortimer; you are as slow
264
As hot Lord Percy is on fire to go.
265
By this our book is drawn; we'll but seal,
266
And then to horse immediately.
MORTIMER
266
With all my heart.