The First Part of Henry IV:
Act 4, Scene 1
[Enter HOTSPUR, WORCESTER,
and DOUGLAS.]
HOTSPUR
1
Well said, my noble Scot: if speaking truth
2
In this fine age were not thought flattery,
3
Such attribution should the Douglas have,
4
As not a soldier of this season's stamp
5
Should go so general current through the world.
6
By God, I cannot flatter; I do defy
7
The tongues of soothers; but a braver place
8
In my heart's love hath no man than yourself:
9
Nay, task me to my word; approve me, lord.
EARL OF DOUGLAS
10
Thou art the king of honour:
11
No man so potent breathes upon the ground
12
But I will beard him.
HOTSPUR
12
Do so, and 'tis well.
Enter one [a MESSENGER] with letters.
13
What letters hast thou there?I can but thank you.
Messenger
14
These letters come from your father.
HOTSPUR
15
Letters from him! why comes he not himself?
Messenger
16
He cannot come, my lord; he is grievous sick.
HOTSPUR
17
'Zounds! how has he the leisure to be sick
18
In such a justling time? Who leads his power?
19
Under whose government come they along?
Messenger
20
His letters bear his mind, not I, my lord.
EARL OF WORCESTER
21
I prithee, tell me, doth he keep his bed?
Messenger
22
He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth;
23
And at the time of my departure thence
24
He was much fear'd by his physicians.
EARL OF WORCESTER
25
I would the state of time had first been whole
26
Ere he by sickness had been visited:
27
His health was never better worth than now.
HOTSPUR
28
Sick now! droop now! this sickness doth infect
29
The very life-blood of our enterprise;
30
'Tis catching hither, even to our camp.
31
He writes me here, that inward sickness
32
And that his friends by deputation could not
33
So soon be drawn, nor did he think it meet
34
To lay so dangerous and dear a trust
35
On any soul remov'd but on his own.
36
Yet doth he give us bold advertisement,
37
That with our small conjunction we should on,
38
To see how fortune is disposed to us;
39
For, as he writes, there is no quailing now.
40
Because the king is certainly possess'd
41
Of all our purposes. What say you to it?
EARL OF WORCESTER
42
Your father's sickness is a maim to us.
HOTSPUR
43
A perilous gash, a very limb lopp'd off:
44
And yet, in faith, it is not; his present want
45
Seems more than we shall find it: were it good
46
To set the exact wealth of all our states
47
All at one cast? to set so rich a main
48
On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?
49
It were not good; for therein should we read
50
The very bottom and the soul of hope,
51
The very list, the very utmost bound
52
Of all our fortunes.
EARL OF DOUGLAS
52
'Faith, and so we should;
53
Where now remains a sweet reversion:
54
We may boldly spend upon the hope of what
55
Is to come in:
56
A comfort of retirement lives in this.
HOTSPUR
57
A rendezvous, a home to fly unto.
58
If that the devil and mischance look big
59
Upon the maidenhead of our affairs.
EARL OF WORCESTER
60
But yet I would your father had been here.
61
The quality and hair of our attempt
62
Brooks no division: it will be thought
63
By some, that know not why he is away,
64
That wisdom, loyalty and mere dislike
65
Of our proceedings kept the earl from hence:
66
And think how such an apprehension
67
May turn the tide of fearful faction
68
And breed a kind of question in our cause;
69
For well you know we of the offering side
70
Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement,
71
And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence
72
The eye of reason may pry in upon us:
73
This absence of your father's draws a curtain,
74
That shows the ignorant a kind of fear
75
Before not dreamt of.
HOTSPUR
75
You strain too far.
76
I rather of his absence make this use:
77
It lends a lustre and more great opinion,
78
A larger dare to our great enterprise,
79
Than if the earl were here; for men must think,
80
If we without his help can make a head
81
To push against a kingdom, with his help
82
We shall o'erturn it topsy-turvy down.
83
Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole.
EARL OF DOUGLAS
84
As heart can think: there is not such a word
85
Spoke of in Scotland as this term of fear.
HOTSPUR
86
My cousin Vernon, welcome, by my soul.
VERNON
87
Pray God my news be worth a welcome, lord.
88
The Earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong,
89
Is marching hitherwards; with him Prince John.
HOTSPUR
90
No harm: what more?
VERNON
90
And further, I have learn'd,
91
The king himself in person is set forth,
92
Or hitherwards intended speedily,
93
With strong and mighty preparation.
HOTSPUR
94
He shall be welcome too. Where is his son,
95
The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales,
96
And his comrades, that daff'd the world aside,
97
And bid it pass?
VERNON
97
All furnish'd, all in arms;
98
All plumed like estridges that with the wind
99
Baited like eagles having lately bathed;
100
Glittering in golden coats, like images;
101
As full of spirit as the month of May,
102
And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer;
103
Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.
104
I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,
105
His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm'd
106
Rise from the ground like feather'd Mercury,
107
And vaulted with such ease into his seat,
108
As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds,
109
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus
110
And witch the world with noble horsemanship.
HOTSPUR
111
No more, no more: worse than the sun in March,
112
This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come:
113
They come like sacrifices in their trim,
114
And to the fire-eyed maid of smoky war
115
All hot and bleeding will we offer them:
116
The mailed Mars shall on his altar sit
117
Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire
118
To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh
119
And yet not ours. Come, let me taste my horse,
120
Who is to bear me like a thunderbolt
121
Against the bosom of the Prince of Wales:
122
Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse,
123
Meet and ne'er part till one drop down a corse.
124
O that Glendower were come!
VERNON
124
There is more news:
125
I learn'd in Worcester, as I rode along,
126
He cannot draw his power this fourteen days.
EARL OF DOUGLAS
127
That's the worst tidings that I hear of yet.
WORCESTER
128
Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound.
HOTSPUR
129
What may the king's whole battle reach unto?
VERNON
130
To thirty thousand.
HOTSPUR
130
Forty let it be:
131
My father and Glendower being both away,
132
The powers of us may serve so great a day
133
Come, let us take a muster speedily:
134
Doomsday is near; die all, die merrily.
EARL OF DOUGLAS
135
Talk not of dying: I am out of fear
136
Of death or death's hand for this one-half year.