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.