The First Part of Henry IV:
Act 5, Scene 1
Enter the KING, PRINCE OF WALES,
LORD JOHN OF LANCASTER,
SIR WALTER BLUNT, FALSTAFF.
KING HENRY IV
1 How bloodily the sun begins to peer
2 Above yon bulky hill! the day looks pale
3 At his distemp'rature.
PRINCE HENRY
3 The southern wind
4 Doth play the trumpet to his purposes,
5 And by his hollow whistling in the leaves
6 Foretells a tempest and a blustering day.
KING HENRY IV
7 Then with the losers let it sympathize,
8 For nothing can seem foul to those that win.
Enter WORCESTER
[and SIR RICHARD VERNON].
9 How now, my Lord of Worcester! 'tis not well
10 That you and I should meet upon such terms
11 As now we meet. You have deceived our trust,
12 And made us doff our easy robes of peace,
13 To crush our old limbs in ungentle steel:
14 This is not well, my lord, this is not well.
15 What say you to it? will you again unknit
16 This curlish knot of all-abhorred war?
17 And move in that obedient orb again
18 Where you did give a fair and natural light,
19 And be no more an exhal'd meteor,
20 A prodigy of fear and a portent
21 Of broached mischief to the unborn times?
EARL OF WORCESTER
22 Hear me, my liege:
23 For mine own part, I could be well content
24 To entertain the lag-end of my life
25 With quiet hours; for I do protest,
26 I have not sought the day of this dislike.
KING HENRY IV
27 You have not sought it! how comes it, then?
FALSTAFF
28 Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it.
PRINCE HENRY
29 Peace, chewet, peace!
EARL OF WORCESTER
30 It pleased your majesty to turn your looks
31 Of favour from myself and all our house;
32 And yet I must remember you, my lord,
33 We were the first and dearest of your friends.
34 For you my staff of office did I break
35 In Richard's time; and posted day and night
36 to meet you on the way, and kiss your hand,
37 When yet you were in place and in account
38 Nothing so strong and fortunate as I.
39 It was myself, my brother and his son,
40 That brought you home and boldly did outdare
41 The dangers of the time. You swore to us,
42 And you did swear that oath at Doncaster,
43 That you did nothing purpose 'gainst the state;
44 Nor claim no further than your new-fall'n right,
45 The seat of Gaunt, dukedom of Lancaster:
46 To this we swore our aid. But in short space
47 It rain'd down fortune showering on your head;
48 And such a flood of greatness fell on you,
49 What with our help, what with the absent king,
50 What with the injuries of a wanton time,
51 The seeming sufferances that you had borne,
52 And the contrarious winds that held the king
53 So long in his unlucky Irish wars
54 That all in England did repute him dead:
55 And from this swarm of fair advantages
56 You took occasion to be quickly woo'd
57 To gripe the general sway into your hand;
58 Forget your oath to us at Doncaster;
59 And being fed by us you used us so
60 As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird,
61 Useth the sparrow; did oppress our nest;
62 Grew by our feeding to so great a bulk
63 That even our love durst not come near your sight
64 For fear of swallowing; but with nimble wing
65 We were enforced, for safety sake, to fly
66 Out of sight and raise this present head;
67 Whereby we stand opposed by such means
68 As you yourself have forged against yourself
69 By unkind usage, dangerous countenance,
70 And violation of all faith and troth
71 Sworn to us in your younger enterprise.
KING HENRY IV
72 These things indeed you have articulate,
73 Proclaim'd at market-crosses, read in churches,
74 To face the garment of rebellion
75 With some fine colour that may please the eye
76 Of fickle changelings and poor discontents,
77 Which gape and rub the elbow at the news
78 Of hurlyburly innovation:
79 And never yet did insurrection want
80 Such water-colours to impaint his cause;
81 Nor moody beggars, starving for a time
82 Of pellmell havoc and confusion.
PRINCE HENRY
83 In both your armies there is many a soul
84 Shall pay full dearly for this encounter,
85 If once they join in trial. Tell your nephew,
86 The Prince of Wales doth join with all the world
87 In praise of Henry Percy: by my hopes,
88 This present enterprise set off his head,
89 I do not think a braver gentleman,
90 More active-valiant or more valiant-young,
91 More daring or more bold, is now alive
92 To grace this latter age with noble deeds.
93 For my part, I may speak it to my shame,
94 I have a truant been to chivalry;
95 And so I hear he doth account me too;
96 Yet this before my father's majesty—
97 I am content that he shall take the odds
98 Of his great name and estimation,
99 And will, to save the blood on either side,
100 Try fortune with him in a single fight.
KING HENRY IV
101 And, Prince of Wales, so dare we venture thee,
102 Albeit considerations infinite
103 Do make against it. No, good Worcester, no,
104 We love our people well; even those we love
105 That are misled upon your cousin's part;
106 And, will they take the offer of our grace,
107 Both he and they and you, every man
108 Shall be my friend again and I'll be his:
109 So tell your cousin, and bring me word
110 What he will do: but if he will not yield,
111 Rebuke and dread correction wait on us
112 And they shall do their office. So, be gone;
113 We will not now be troubled with reply:
114 We offer fair; take it advisedly.
PRINCE HENRY
115 It will not be accepted, on my life:
116 The Douglas and the Hotspur both together
117 Are confident against the world in arms.
KING HENRY IV
118 Hence, therefore, every leader to his charge;
119 For, on their answer, will we set on them:
120 And God befriend us, as our cause is just!
*** Exeunt. Manent Prince, Falstaff.
FALSTAFF
121 Hal, if thou see me down in the battle and
122 bestride me, so; 'tis a point of friendship.
PRINCE HENRY
123 Nothing but a colossus can do thee that
124 friendship. Say thy prayers, and farewell.
FALSTAFF
125 I would 'twere bed-time, Hal, and all well.
PRINCE HENRY
126 Why, thou owest God a death.
FALSTAFF
127 'Tis not due yet; I would be loath to pay him before
128 his day. What need I be so forward with him that
129 calls not on me? Well, 'tis no matter; honour pricks
130 me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I
131 come on? how then? Can honour set to a leg? no: or
132 an arm? no: or take away the grief of a wound? no.
133 Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? no. What is
134 honour? a word. What is in that word honour? what
135 is that honour? air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it?
136 he that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth
137 he hear it? no. 'Tis insensible, then. Yea, to the dead.
138 But will it not live with the living? no. Why?
139 detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I'll none of it.
140 Honour is a mere scutcheon: and so ends my
141 catechism.