King Henry IV, Part 1 by William Shakespeare (books to read now .txt) 📖

speed! Here come our wives, and let us take our leave.

[Re-enter Glendower, with Lady Mortimer and Lady Percy.]

MORT. This is the deadly spite that angers me, My wife can speak no English, I no Welsh.

GLEND. My daughter weeps: she will not part with you; She’ll be a soldier too, she’ll to the wars.

MORT. Good father, tell her that she and my aunt Percy Shall follow in your conduct speedily.

[Glendower speaks to Lady Mortimer in Welsh, and she answers him in the same.]

GLEND. She’s desperate here; a peevish self-will’d harlotry, One that no persuasion can do good upon.

[Lady Mortimer speaks to Mortimer in Welsh.]

MORT. I understand thy looks: that pretty Welsh Which thou pour’st down from these swelling heavens I am too perfect in; and, but for shame, In such a parley should I answer thee.

[Lady Mortimer speaks to him again in Welsh.]

I understand thy kisses, and thou mine, And that’s a feeling disputation: But I will never be a truant, love, Till I have learn’d thy language; for thy tongue Makes Welsh as sweet as ditties highly penn’d, Sung by a fair queen in a Summer’s bower, With ravishing division, to her lute.

GLEND. Nay, if you melt, then will she run mad.

[Lady Mortimer speaks to Mortimer again in Welsh.]

MORT. O, I am ignorance itself in this!

GLEND. She bids you on the wanton rushes lay you down, And rest your gentle head upon her lap, And she will sing the song that pleaseth you, And on your eyelids crown the god of sleep, Charming your blood with pleasing heaviness; Making such difference betwixt wake and sleep, As is the difference betwixt day and night, The hour before the heavenly-harness’d team Begins his golden progress in the East.

MORT. With all my heart I’ll sit and hear her sing: By that time will our book, I think, be drawn.

GLEND. Do so: An those musicians that shall play to you Hang in the air a thousand leagues from hence, And straight they shall be here: sit, and attend.

HOT. Come, Kate, thou art perfect in lying down: come, quick, quick, that I may lay my head in thy lap.

LADY P. Go, ye giddy goose.

[The music plays.]

HOT. Now I perceive the Devil understands Welsh; And ‘tis no marvel he’s so humorous. By’r Lady, he’s a good musician.

LADY P. Then should you be nothing but musical; for you are altogether governed by humours. Lie still, ye thief, and hear the lady sing in Welsh.

HOT. I had rather hear Lady, my brach, howl in Irish.

LADY P. Wouldst thou have thy head broken?

HOT. No.

LADY P. Then be still.

HOT. Neither; ‘tis a woman’s fault.

LADY P. Now God help thee!

HOT. Peace! she sings.

[A Welsh song by Lady Mortimer.]

Come, Kate, I’ll have your song too.

LADY P. Not mine, in good sooth.

 

HOT. Not yours, in good sooth! ‘Heart! you swear like a comfit-maker’s wife. Not mine, in good sooth; and, As true as I live; and, As God shall mend me; and, As sure as day; And givest such sarcenet surety for thy oaths, As if thou ne’er walk’dst further than Finsbury. Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art, A good mouth-filling oath; and leave in sooth, And such protest of pepper-gingerbread, To velvet-guards and Sunday-citizens. Come, sing.

LADY P. I will not sing.

HOT. ‘Tis the next way to turn tailor, or be redbreast-teacher. An the indentures be drawn, I’ll away within these two hours; and so, come in when ye will.

[Exit.]

GLEND. Come, come, Lord Mortimer; you are as slow As hot Lord Percy is on fire to go. By this our book’s drawn; we’ll but seal, and then To horse immediately.

MORT. With all my heart.

[Exeunt.]

 

Scene II. London. A Room in the Palace.

[Enter King Henry, Prince Henry, and Lords.]

KING. Lords, give us leave; the Prince of Wales and I Must have some private conference: but be near at hand, For we shall presently have need of you.

[Exeunt Lords.]

 

I know not whether God will have it so, For some displeasing service I have done, That, in His secret doom, out of my blood He’ll breed revengement and a scourge for me; But thou dost, in thy passages of life, Make me believe that thou art only mark’d For the hot vengeance and the rod of Heaven To punish my mistreadings. Tell me else, Could such inordinate and low desires, Such poor, such base, such lewd, such mean attempts, Such barren pleasures, rude society, As thou art match’d withal and grafted to, Accompany the greatness of thy blood, And hold their level with thy princely heart?

PRINCE. So please your Majesty, I would I could Quit all offences with as clear excuse As well as I am doubtless I can purge Myself of many I am charged withal: Yet such extenuation let me beg, As, in reproof of many tales devised By smiling pick-thanks and base news-mongers,— Which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear,— I may, for some things true, wherein my youth Hath faulty wander’d and irregular, Find pardon on my true submission.

KING. God pardon thee! Yet let me wonder, Harry, At thy affections, which do hold a wing Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors. Thy place in Council thou hast rudely lost, Which by thy younger brother is supplied; And art almost an alien to the hearts Of all the Court and princes of my blood: The hope and expectation of thy time Is ruin’d; and the soul of every man Prophetically does forethink thy fall. Had I so lavish of my presence been, So common-hackney’d in the eyes of men, So stale and cheap to vulgar company, Opinion, that did help me to the crown, Had still kept loyal to possession, And left me in reputeless banishment,

A fellow of no mark nor likelihood. By being seldom seen, I could not stir But, like a comet, I was wonder’d at; That men would tell their children, This is he; Others would say, Where, which is Bolingbroke? And then I stole all courtesy from Heaven, And dress’d myself in such humility, That I did pluck allegiance from men’s hearts, Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths, Even in the presence of the crowned King. Thus did I keep my person fresh and new; My presence, like a robe pontifical, Ne’er seen but wonder’d at: and so my state, Seldom but sumptuous, showed like a feast, And won by rareness such solemnity. The skipping King, he ambled up and down With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits, Soon kindled and soon burnt; carded his state, Mingled his royalty, with capering fools; Had his great name profaned with their scorns; And gave his countenance, against his name, To laugh at gibing boys, and stand the push Of every beardless vain comparative; Grew a companion to the common streets, Enfeoff’d himself to popularity; That, being dally swallow’d by men’s eyes, They surfeited with honey, and began To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little More than a little is by much too much. So, when he had occasion to be seen, He was but as the cuckoo is in June, Heard, not regarded; seen, but with such eyes As, sick and blunted with community, Afford no extraordinary gaze, Such as is bent on sun-like majesty When it shines seldom in admiring eyes; But rather drowsed, and hung their eyelids down, Slept in his face, and render’d such aspect As cloudy men use to their adversaries, Being with his presence glutted, gorged, and full. And in that very line, Harry, stand’st thou; For thou hast lost thy princely privilege With vile participation: not an eye But is a-weary of thy common sight, Save mine, which hath desired to see thee more; Which now doth that I would not have it do, Make blind itself with foolish tenderness.

PRINCE. I shall hereafter, my thrice-gracious lord, Be more myself.

KING. For all the world, As thou art to this hour, was Richard then When I from France set foot at Ravenspurg; And even as I was then is Percy now. Now, by my sceptre, and my soul to boot, He hath more worthy interest to the state Than thou, the shadow of succession; For, of no right, nor colour like to right, He doth fill fields with harness in the realm, Turns head against the lion’s armed jaws; And, being no more in debt to years than thou, Leads ancient lords and reverend bishops on To bloody battles and to bruising arms. What never-dying honour hath he got Against renowned Douglas! whose high deeds, Whose hot incursions, and great name in arms, Holds from all soldiers chief majority And military title capital Through all the kingdoms that acknowledge Christ: Thrice hath this Hotspur, Mars in swathing-clothes, This infant warrior, in his enterprises Discomfited great Douglas; ta’en him once, Enlarged him, and made a friend of him, To fill the mouth of deep defiance up, And shake the peace and safety of our throne. And what say you to this? Percy, Northumberland, Th’ Archbishop’s Grace of York, Douglas, and Mortimer Capitulate against us, and are up. But wherefore do I tell these news to thee? Why, Harry, do I tell thee of my foes, Which art my near’st and dearest enemy? Thou that art like enough,—through vassal fear, Base inclination, and the start of spleen,— To fight against me under Percy’s pay, To dog his heels, and curtsy at his frowns, To show how much thou art degenerate.

PRINCE. Do not think so; you shall not find it so: And God forgive them that so much have sway’d Your Majesty’s good thoughts away from me! I will redeem all this on Percy’s head, And, in the closing of some glorious day, Be bold to tell you that I am your son; When I will wear a garment all of blood, And stain my favour in a bloody mask, Which, wash’d away, shall scour my shame with it: And that shall be the day, whene’er it lights, That this same child of honour and renown, This gallant Hotspur, this all-praised knight, And your unthought-of Harry, chance to meet. For every honour sitting on his helm, Would they were multitudes, and on my head My shames redoubled! for the time will come, That I shall make this northern youth exchange His glorious deeds for my indignities. Percy is but my factor, good my lord, T’ engross up glorious deeds on my behalf; And I will call hall to so strict account, That he shall render every glory up, Yea, even the slightest worship of his time, Or I will tear the reckoning from his heart. This, in the name of God, I promise here: The which if I perform, and do survive, I do beseech your Majesty, may salve The long-grown wounds of my intemperance: If not, the end of life cancels all bands; And I will die a hundred thousand deaths Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow.

KING. A hundred thousand rebels die in this. Thou shalt have charge and sovereign trust herein.—

[Enter Sir Walter Blunt.]

How now, good Blunt! thy looks are full of speed.

BLUNT. So is the business that I come to speak of. Lord Mortimer of Scotland hath sent word That Douglas and the English rebels met

Th’ eleventh of this month at Shrewsbury: A mighty and a fearful head they are, If promises be kept on every hand, As ever offer’d foul play in a State.

KING. The Earl of Westmoreland set forth to-day; With him my son, Lord John of Lancaster; For this advertisement is five days old. On Wednesday next you, Harry, shall set forward; On Thursday we ourselves will march: Our meeting is Bridgenorth: and, Harry, you