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KING HENRY IV. PART I

(WRITTEN ABOUT 1597-98.)

INTRODUCTION.

The two parts of King Henry IV. may be considered as one play in ten acts. It is probable that Shakespeare went on with little or no delay from the first part to its continuation in the second. Both were written before the entry of the first in the Stationers' register, Feb. 25, 1597-98; for the entry shows that the name of the fat knight, who originally appeared in both parts under the name of Odcastle, had been already altered to Falstaff. Meres makes mention of Henry IV.; and Ben Jituson, in Every Man Out of His Humour (1599), alludes to Justice Silence, one of the characters of the Second Part of Shakespeare's play. The materials upon which Shakespeare worked in Henry IV. And Heary V. were obtained from Holinshed, and from an old play, full of vulgar mirth, and acted before 1588, The Famous Victories of Henry V. Both parts of Henry IV. consist of a comedy and a history fused together. The hero of the one is the royal Bolingbroke, the hero of the other is Falstaff, while Prince Henry passes to and fro between the history and the comedy, serving as the bond which unites the two. Henry IV. is the same Bolingbroke who had been so greatly conceived in Richard II.; only he is no longer in the full force of his manhood. He is worn by care and oil, harassed by revolts and conspiracies, yet still resolved to hold firmly what he has forcibly attained. There is a pathetic power in the figure of this weary ambitious man, who can take no rest until the rest of death comes upon him. Hotspur, who, to bring him into contrast with the Prince, is Dade much younger than the Harry Percy of history, is as ardent in the pursuit of glory as the Prince seems to be indifferent to it. To his hot temper and quick sense of personal honor small matters are great; he does not see things in their true proportions; he lacks self-control, he has no easiness of nature. Yet he is gallant, chivalrous, not devoid of generosity nor of quick affections, though never in a high sense disinterested. Prince Hal, whom Shakespeare admires and loves more than azy other person in English history, afterwards to become Shakespeare's ideal king of England, cures little for mere reputation. He does not think much of himself and of his own honor; and while there is nothing to do, and his great father holds all power in his own right hand, he escapes from the cold proprieties of the court to the boisterous life and mirth of the tavern. He is, however, only waiting for a call to action, and Shakespeare declares that from the first he was conscious of his great destiny, and while seeming to scatter his force in frivolity, was holding his true self, welguarded in reserve Falstaff is everything in little, or rather everything in much; for is he not a

tan of flesh? English literature knows no numorous creation to set beside Falstaff; and to find his equal-yet his opposite-we must turn to the gaunt figure of the romantic knight of La Mancha, In whose person Ce antes smiled away pathetically the chivalry of the Middle Ages from out our odern world. Falstaff exercises upon the reader of these plays much the same fascination which Le exercised upon the Prince. We know him to be a gross-bodied, self-indulgent old sinner, devoid fmoral sense and of self-respect, and yet we cannot part with him. We cannot live in this world without humor, and Falstaff is humor maintaining its mastery against all antagonisms. We adwals, however, the necessity of his utter banishment from Henry, when Henry enters upon the grave esponsibilities of kingship. Still we have a tender thought for Sir John in his exile from London Laverns. And at the last, when he fumbles with the sheets and plays with flowers, when "a' went way, an it had been any christom child," we bid him adieu with a tear that does not forbid a smile. The historical period represented by 1 Henry IV. dates from the battle of Holmedon Hill, Sept. 14 42, to the battle of Shrewsbury, July 21, 1403. 2 Henry IV, continues the history to the king's death and the accession of Henry V., 1413.

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HENRY PERCY, surnamed HOTSPUR, his son
EDMUND MORTIMER, Earl of March.
RICHARD SCROOP, Archbishop of York.
ARCHIBALD, Earl of DOUGLAS.

OWEN GLENDOWER.

SIR RICHARD VERNON.

SIR JOHN FALSTAFF.

SIR MICHAEL, a friend to the Archbishop of | LADY MORTIMER, daughter to Glendower,

POINS.

York.

GADSHILL.

PETO.

BARDOLPH,

LADY PERCY, wife to Hotspur, and sister to Mortimer.

and wife to Mortimer.

MISTRESS QUICKLY, hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap.

Lords, Officers, Sheriff, Vintner, Chamberlain Drawers, two Carriers, Travellers, and Attendants.

SCENE: England.

ACT I.

SCENE I. London. The palace.

Enter KING HENRY, LORD JOHN OF LANCASTER, the EARL OF WESTMORELAND, SIR WALTER BLUNT, and others.

King. So shaken as we are, so wan with care,

Find we a time for frighted peace to pant, And breathe short-winded accents of new

broils

To be commenced in strands afar remote,
No more the thirsty entrance of this soil
Shall daub her lips with her own children's
blood;

taken,

Was by the rude hands of that Welshinan
A thousand of his people butchered;
Upon whose dead corpse there was such mis-
use,

Such beastly shameless transformation,
By those Welshwomen done as may not be
Without much shame retold or spoken of.

King. It seems then that the tidings of this broil

Brake off our business for the Holy Land. West. This match'd with other did, my gracions lord;

For more uneven and unwelcome news
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Came from the north and thus it did import:
On Holy-rood day, the gallant Hotspur there,
Young Harry Percy and brave Archibald,
That ever-valiant and approved Scot,
At Holmedon met.

Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour,
As by discharge of their artillery,
And shape of likelihood, the news was told;
For he that brought them, in the very heat
And pride of their contention did take horse.
Uncertain of the issue any way.

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King. Here is a dear, a true industrious

friend,

Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse, Stain'd with the variation of each soil

friends,

As far as to the sepulchre of Christ,
Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross
We are impressed and engaged to fight,
Forthwith a power of English shall we levy ;
Whose arms were moulded in their mothers'

Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours: And he hath brought us smooth and welcome

news.

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The Earl of Douglas is discomfited: Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights,

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Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter set On Holmedon's plains. Of prisoners, Hotspu

took

Mordake the Earl of Fife, and eldest son
To beaten Douglas; and the Earl of Athol,
Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith :
And is not this an honorable spoil?
A gallant prize? ha, cousin, is it not ?
West. In faith,

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It is a conquest for a prince to boast of.
King. Yea, there thou makest me sad an
makest me sin

In envy that my Lord Northumberland
Should be the father to so blest a son,
A son who is the theme of honor's tongue:
Amongst a grove, the very straightest plant;
Who is sweet Fortune's minion and her pride
Whilst I, by looking on the praise of him,
See riot and dishonor stain the brow

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Enter the PRINCE OF WALES and FALSTAFF.

Fal. Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad? Prince. Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack and unbuttoning thee after Papper and sleeping upon benches after noon, that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know. What a devil Fast thou to do with the time of the day? Caless hours were cups of sack and minutes rapons and clocks the tongues of bawds and Finds the signs of leaping-houses and the blessed sun himself a fair hot wench in flame-colored Taffeta, I see no reason why thou shouldst be so superfluous to demand the time of the day.

Fal. Indeed, you come near me now, Hal; for we that take purses go by the moon and the seven stars, and not by Phœbus, he, 'that ndering knight so fair. And, I prithee, sweet wag, when thou art king, as, God save hy grace, majesty I should say, for grace hon wilt have none,

Prince. What, none ?

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Fal. No, by my troth, not so much as will serve to be prologue to an egg and butter. Prince. Well, how then? come, roundly, sandly.

Fil. Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou rt king, let not us that are squires of the it's body be called thieves of the day's Canty: let us be Diana's foresters, gentlemen the shade, minions of the moon; and let men say we be men of good government, being overned, as the sea is, by our noble and chaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance e steal

Prince. Thou sayest well, and it holds well too; for the fortune of us that are the moon's men doth ebb and flow like the sea, being governed, as the sea is, by the moon. As, for proof, now: a purse of gold most resolutely snatched on Monday night and most dissolutely spent on Tuesday morning; got with swearing 'Lay by' and spent with crying 'Bring in; now in as low an ebb as the foot of the ladder and by and by in as high a flow as the ridge of the gallows.

Fal. By the Lord, thou sayest true, lad. And is not my hostess of the tavern a most sweet wench?

Prince. As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle. And is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance?

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Fat. How now, how now, mad wag! what, in thy quips and thy quiddities? what a plague have I to do with a buff jerkin?

Prince. Why, what a pox have I to do with my hostess of the tavern?

Fal. Well, thou hast called her to a reckoning many a time and oft.

Prince. Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part?

Fal. No; I'll give thee thy due, thou hast paid all there.

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Prince. Yea, and elsewhere, so far as my coin would stretch; and where it would not, I have used my credit.

Fal. Yea, and so used it that, were it not here apparent that thou art heir apparentBut, I prithee, sweet wag, shall there be gallows standing in England when thou art king? and resolution thus fobbed as it is with the rusty curb of old father antic the law? Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief.

Prince. No; thou shalt.

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Fal. Shall 1? Orare! By the Lord, I'll

be a brave judge.

Prince. Thou judgest false already: I mean, thou shalt have the hanging of the thieves and so become a rare hangman.

Fal. Well, Hal, well; and in some sort it jumps with my humor as well as waiting in the court, I can tell you.

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Prince. For obtaining of suits ? Fal. Yea, for obtaining of suits, whereof the hangman hath no lean wardrobe. 'Sblood, I am as melancholy as a gib cat or a lugged bear.

Prince. Or an old lion, or a lover's lute. Fal. Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire

bagpipe.

Prince. What sayest thou to a hare, or the melancholy of Moor-ditch?

Fal. Thou hast the most unsavory similes and art indeed the most comparative, rascalliest, sweet young prince. But, Hal, I prithee, trouble me no more with vanity. I would to God thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought. An old lord

of the council rated me the other day in the street about you, sir, but I marked him not; and yet he talked very wisely, but I regarded. nim not; and yet he talked wisely, and in the street too.

Prince. Thou didst well; for wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it. 190 Fal. O, thou hast damnable iteration and art indeed able to corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm upon me, Hal; God forgive thee for it! Before I knew thee, Hal, I knew nothing; and now an I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked. I must give over this life, and I will give it over: by the Lord, and I do not, I am a villain: I'II be damned for never a king's son in Christendom.

Prince. Where shall we take a purse tomorrow, Jack? 111

Fal. Zounds, where thou wilt, lad; I'll make one; an I do not, call me villain and baffle me.

Prince. I see a good amendment of life in thee; from praying to purse-taking.

Fal. Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal; 'tis no sin for a man to labor in his vocation.

Enter POINS.

Poins! Now shall we know if Gadshill have set a match. O, if men were to be saved by merit, what hole in hell were hot enough for him? This is the most omnipotent villain that ever cried 'Stand' to a true man.

Prince. Good morrow, Ned.

Poins. Good morrow, sweet Hal. What says Monsieur Remorse? what says Sir John Sack and Sugar? Jack! how agrees the devil and thee about thy soul, that thou soldest him on Good-Friday last for a cup of Madeira and a cold capon's leg?

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Prince. Sir John stands to his word, the devil shall have his bargain; for he was never yet a breaker of proverbs: he will give the devil his due.

Poins. Then art thou damned for keeping thy word with the devil.

Prince. Else he had been damned for cozening the devil.

Poins. But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning, by four o'clock, early at Gadshill! there are pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders riding to London with fat purses: I have vizards for you all; you have horses for yourselves: Gadshill lies tonight in Rochester: I have bespoke supper tomorrow night in Eastcheap: we may do it as secure as sleep. If you will go, I will stuff your purses full of crowns; if you will not, tarry at home and be hanged.

Fal. Hear ye, Yedward; if I tarry at home and go not, I'll hang you for going. Poins. You will, chops?

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Fal. Hal, wilt thou make one? Prince. Who, I rob? I a thief 2 not I, by my faith.

Fai. There's neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in thee, nor thou camest not of the blood royal, if thou dares not stand for ten shillings

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Fal. By the Lord, I'll be a traitor then, when thou art king. Prince. I care not.

Poins. Sir John, I prithee, leave the prince and me alone: I will lay him down such reasons for this adventure that he shall go. 164

Fal. Well, God give thee the spirit of persuasion and him the ears of profiting, that what thou speakest may move and what he hears may be believed, that the true prince may, for recreation sake, prove a false thief for the poor abuses of the time want countenance. Farewell: you shall find me in Eastcheap.

Prince. Farewell, thou latter spring! farewell, All-hallown summer! [Exit Falston

Poins. Now, my good sweet honey lord, ride with us to-morrow: I have a jest to UVecute that I cannot manage alone. Falstaff, Bardolph, Peto and Gadshill shall rob thon men that we have already waylaid: yoursel and I will not be there; and when they have the booty, if you and I do not rob them. this head off from my shoulders.

Prince. How shall we part with them in setting forth?

Poins. Why, we will set forth before o after them, and appoint them a place of meer ing, wherein it is at our pleasure to fail, au then will they adventure upon the exp themselves; wmen they shall have no soOODE achieved, but we'll set upon them.

Prince. Yea, but 'tis like that they wi know us by our horses, by our habits and b every other appointment, to be ourselves.

Poins. Tut! our horses they shall not ser I'll tie them in the wood; our vizards we w change after we leave them and, sirrat have cases of buckram for the nonce, to in mask our noted outward garments.

Prince. Yea, but I doubt they will be t hard for us.

Poims. Well, for two of them. I know the to be as true-bred cowards as ever tai back; and for the third, if he fight longer th he sees reason, I'll forswear arms. The virt of this jest will be, the incomprehensib'e t that this same fat rogue will tell us when meet at supper: how thirty, at least, he foug with; what wards, what blows, what extre ities he endured; and in the reproof of f lies the jest.

Prince. Well, I'll go with thee: provide all things necessary and meet me to-mon night in Eastcheap; there I'll sup. Farew Poins. Farewell, my lord. Prince. I know you all, and will aw uphold

The unyoked humor of your idleness:
Yet herein will I imitate the sun,

Who doth permit the base contagious clou

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eyes

Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
I'll so offend, to make offence a skill; 240
Redeeming time when men think least I will.
[Exit.

SCENE III. London. The palace.
Enter the KING, NORTHUMBERLAND, WOR-
CESTER, HOTSPUR, SIR WALTER BLUNT,
with others.

King. My blood hath been too cold and temperate,

Unapt to stir at these indignities,

And you have found me; for accordingly
Lou tread upon my patience: but be sure
I will from henceforth rather be myself,
Mighty and to be fear'd, than my condition;
Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young

down,

And therefore lost that title of respect Which the proud soul ne'er pays but to the proud.

Wor. Our house, my sovereign liege, little deserves

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The scourge of greatness to be used on it;
And that same greatness too which our own

hands

Have holp to make so portly.
North. My lord,-

King. Worcester, get thee gone; for I do

see

Danger and disobedience in thine eye :

O, sir, your presence is too bold and peremp

tory,

And majesty might never yet endure
The moody frontier of a servant brow.
You have good leave to leave us when we

need

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Your use and counsel, we shall send for you. [Exit Wor. You were about to speak. [To North. North Yea, my good lord. Those prisoners in your highness' name de

manded,

Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took, Were, as he says, not with such strength de

nied

As is deliver'd to your majesty:

Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin new reap'd

Show'd like a stubble-land at harvest-home;

He was perfumed like a milliner;
And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held
A pouncet-box, which ever and anon
He gave his nose and took't away again;
Who therewith angry, when it next came

there,

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To see him shine so brisk and smell so sweet
And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman
Of guns and drums and wounds, God save
the mark!-

And telling me the sovereign'st thing on earth
Was parmaceti for an inward bruise;
And that it was great pity, so it was,
This villanous salt-petre should be digg'd 60
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd
So cowardly; and but for these vile guns,
He would himself have been a soldier.

This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord,
I answer'd indirectly, as I said;
And I beseech you, let not his report
Come current for an accusation

Betwixt my love and your high majesty.

Blunt. The circumstance consider'd, good

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