Henry IV, Pt. 1
Act 4, Scene 1

The rebel camp near Shrewsbury.
- Enter Hotspur, Worcester, and Douglas.
Hotspur
2 - 10- Well said, my noble Scot! If speaking truth
- In this fine age were not thought flattery,
- Such attribution should the Douglas have
- As not a soldier of this season’s stamp
- Should go so general current through the world.
- By God, I cannot flatter, I do defy
- The tongues of soothers, but a braver place
- In my heart’s love hath no man than yourself.
- Nay, task me to my word, approve me, lord.
Earl of Douglas
11 - 13- Thou art the king of honor.
- No man so potent breathes upon the ground
- But I will beard him.
- Enter a Messenger with letters.
Hotspur
15 - 16- Do so, and ’tis well.—
- What letters hast thou there?—I can but thank you.
First Messenger
17- These letters come from your father.
Hotspur
18- Letters from him! Why comes he not himself?
First Messenger
19- He cannot come, my lord, he is grievous sick.
Hotspur
20 - 22- ’Zounds! How has he the leisure to be sick
- In such a justling time? Who leads his power?
- Under whose government come they along?
First Messenger
23- His letters bears his mind, not I, my lord.
Earl of Worcester
24- I prithee tell me, doth he keep his bed?
First Messenger
25 - 27- He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth,
- And at the time of my departure thence
- He was much fear’d by his physicians.
Earl of Worcester
28 - 30- I would the state of time had first been whole
- Ere he by sickness had been visited,
- His health was never better worth than now.
Hotspur
31 - 44- Sick now? Droop now? This sickness doth infect
- The very life-blood of our enterprise,
- ’Tis catching hither, even to our camp.
- He writes me here, that inward sickness—
- And that his friends by deputation could not
- So soon be drawn, nor did he think it meet
- To lay so dangerous and dear a trust
- On any soul remov’d, but on his own.
- Yet doth he give us bold advertisement
- That with our small conjunction we should on,
- To see how fortune is dispos’d to us,
- For, as he writes, there is no quailing now,
- Because the King is certainly possess’d
- Of all our purposes. What say you to it?
Earl of Worcester
45- Your father’s sickness is a maim to us.
Hotspur
46 - 55- A perilous gash, a very limb lopp’d off—
- And yet, in faith, it is not; his present want
- Seems more than we shall find it. Were it good
- To set the exact wealth of all our states
- All at one cast? To set so rich a main
- On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?
- It were not good, for therein should we read
- The very bottom and the soul of hope,
- The very list, the very utmost bound
- Of all our fortunes.
Earl of Douglas
56 - 60- Faith, and so we should,
- Where now remains a sweet reversion,
- We may boldly spend upon the hope of what
- Is to come in.
- A comfort of retirement lives in this.
Hotspur
61 - 63- A rendezvous, a home to fly unto,
- If that the devil and mischance look big
- Upon the maidenhead of our affairs.
Earl of Worcester
64 - 79- But yet I would your father had been here.
- The quality and hair of our attempt
- Brooks no division. It will be thought
- By some that know not why he is away
- That wisdom, loyalty, and mere dislike
- Of our proceedings kept the Earl from hence,
- And think how such an apprehension
- May turn the tide of fearful faction,
- And breed a kind of question in our cause.
- For well you know we of the off’ring side
- Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement,
- And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence
- The eye of reason may pry in upon us.
- This absence of your father’s draws a curtain
- That shows the ignorant a kind of fear
- Before not dreamt of.
Hotspur
80 - 88- You strain too far.
- I rather of his absence make this use:
- It lends a lustre and more great opinion,
- A larger dare to our great enterprise,
- Than if the Earl were here, for men must think,
- If we without his help can make a head
- To push against a kingdom, with his help
- We shall o’erturn it topsy-turvy down.
- Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole.
Earl of Douglas
89 - 90- As heart can think. There is not such a word
- Spoke of in Scotland as this term of fear.
- Enter Sir Richard Vernon.
Hotspur
92- My cousin Vernon, welcome, by my soul!
Vernon
93 - 95- Pray God my news be worth a welcome, lord.
- The Earl of Westmorland, seven thousand strong,
- Is marching hitherwards, with him Prince John.
Hotspur
96- No harm. What more?
Vernon
97 - 100- And further, I have learn’d,
- The King himself in person is set forth,
- Or hitherwards intended speedily,
- With strong and mighty preparation.
Hotspur
101 - 104- He shall be welcome too. Where is his son,
- The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales,
- And his comrades, that daff’d the world aside
- And bid it pass?
Vernon
105 - 118- All furnish’d, all in arms;
- All plum’d like estridges, that with the wind
- Bated like eagles having lately bath’d,
- Glittering in golden coats like images,
- As full of spirit as the month of May,
- And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer;
- Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.
- I saw young Harry with his beaver on,
- His cushes on his thighs, gallantly arm’d,
- Rise from the ground like feathered Mercury,
- And vaulted with such ease into his seat
- As if an angel dropp’d down from the clouds
- To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,
- And witch the world with noble horsemanship.
Hotspur
119 - 132- No more, no more! Worse than the sun in March,
- This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come!
- They come like sacrifices in their trim,
- And to the fire-ey’d maid of smoky war
- All hot and bleeding will we offer them.
- The mailed Mars shall on his altar sit
- Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire
- To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh,
- And yet not ours. Come let me taste my horse,
- Who is to bear me like a thunderbolt
- Against the bosom of the Prince of Wales.
- Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse,
- Meet and ne’er part till one drop down a corse.
- O that Glendower were come!
Vernon
133 - 135- There is more news:
- I learn’d in Worcester, as I rode along,
- He cannot draw his power this fourteen days.
Earl of Douglas
136- That’s the worst tidings that I hear of yet.
Earl of Worcester
137- Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound.
Hotspur
138- What may the King’s whole battle reach unto?
Vernon
139- To thirty thousand.
Hotspur
140 - 144- Forty let it be!
- My father and Glendower being both away,
- The powers of us may serve so great a day.
- Come let us take a muster speedily.
- Doomsday is near, die all, die merrily.
Earl of Douglas
145 - 146- Talk not of dying, I am out of fear
- Of death or death’s hand for this one half year.
- Exeunt.