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Henry IV, Pt. 1: Act 4, Scene 1

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Henry IV, Pt. 1
Act 4, Scene 1

Scene 1

The rebel camp near Shrewsbury.

  1. Enter Hotspur, Worcester, and Douglas.

Hotspur

2 - 10
  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

11 - 13
  1. Thou art the king of honor.
  2. No man so potent breathes upon the ground
  3. But I will beard him.
  1. Enter a Messenger with letters.

Hotspur

15 - 16
  1.                       Do so, and ’tis well.—
  2. What letters hast thou there?—I can but thank you.

First Messenger

17
  1. These letters come from your father.

Hotspur

18
  1. Letters from him! Why comes he not himself?

First Messenger

19
  1. He cannot come, my lord, he is grievous sick.

Hotspur

20 - 22
  1. ’Zounds! How has he the leisure to be sick
  2. In such a justling time? Who leads his power?
  3. Under whose government come they along?

First Messenger

23
  1. His letters bears his mind, not I, my lord.

Earl of Worcester

24
  1. I prithee tell me, doth he keep his bed?

First Messenger

25 - 27
  1. He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth,
  2. And at the time of my departure thence
  3. He was much fear’d by his physicians.

Earl of Worcester

28 - 30
  1. I would the state of time had first been whole
  2. Ere he by sickness had been visited,
  3. His health was never better worth than now.

Hotspur

31 - 44
  1. Sick now? Droop now? This sickness doth infect
  2. The very life-blood of our enterprise,
  3. ’Tis catching hither, even to our camp.
  4. He writes me here, that inward sickness—
  5. And that his friends by deputation could not
  6. So soon be drawn, nor did he think it meet
  7. To lay so dangerous and dear a trust
  8. On any soul remov’d, but on his own.
  9. Yet doth he give us bold advertisement
  10. That with our small conjunction we should on,
  11. To see how fortune is dispos’d to us,
  12. For, as he writes, there is no quailing now,
  13. Because the King is certainly possess’d
  14. Of all our purposes. What say you to it?

Earl of Worcester

45
  1. Your father’s sickness is a maim to us.

Hotspur

46 - 55
  1. A perilous gash, a very limb lopp’d off—
  2. And yet, in faith, it is not; his present want
  3. Seems more than we shall find it. Were it good
  4. To set the exact wealth of all our states
  5. All at one cast? To set so rich a main
  6. On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?
  7. It were not good, for therein should we read
  8. The very bottom and the soul of hope,
  9. The very list, the very utmost bound
  10. Of all our fortunes.

Earl of Douglas

56 - 60
  1.                      Faith, and so we should,
  2. Where now remains a sweet reversion,
  3. We may boldly spend upon the hope of what
  4. Is to come in.
  5. A comfort of retirement lives in this.

Hotspur

61 - 63
  1. A rendezvous, a home to fly unto,
  2. If that the devil and mischance look big
  3. Upon the maidenhead of our affairs.

Earl of Worcester

64 - 79
  1. But yet I would your father had been here.
  2. The quality and hair of our attempt
  3. Brooks no division. It will be thought
  4. By some that know not why he is away
  5. That wisdom, loyalty, and mere dislike
  6. Of our proceedings kept the Earl from hence,
  7. And think how such an apprehension
  8. May turn the tide of fearful faction,
  9. And breed a kind of question in our cause.
  10. For well you know we of the off’ring side
  11. Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement,
  12. And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence
  13. The eye of reason may pry in upon us.
  14. This absence of your father’s draws a curtain
  15. That shows the ignorant a kind of fear
  16. Before not dreamt of.
illustration to Henry IV

As if an angel dropped down from the clouds, to turn and wind a fiery Pegasus and witch the world with noble horsemanship

illustration to Henry IV

William Blake

Hotspur

80 - 88
  1.                       You strain too far.
  2. I rather of his absence make this use:
  3. It lends a lustre and more great opinion,
  4. A larger dare to our great enterprise,
  5. Than if the Earl were here, for men must think,
  6. If we without his help can make a head
  7. To push against a kingdom, with his help
  8. We shall o’erturn it topsy-turvy down.
  9. Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole.

Earl of Douglas

89 - 90
  1. As heart can think. There is not such a word
  2. Spoke of in Scotland as this term of fear.
  1. Enter Sir Richard Vernon.

Hotspur

92
  1. My cousin Vernon, welcome, by my soul!

Vernon

93 - 95
  1. Pray God my news be worth a welcome, lord.
  2. The Earl of Westmorland, seven thousand strong,
  3. Is marching hitherwards, with him Prince John.

Hotspur

96
  1. No harm. What more?

Vernon

97 - 100
  1.                     And further, I have learn’d,
  2. The King himself in person is set forth,
  3. Or hitherwards intended speedily,
  4. With strong and mighty preparation.

Hotspur

101 - 104
  1. He shall be welcome too. Where is his son,
  2. The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales,
  3. And his comrades, that daff’d the world aside
  4. And bid it pass?

Vernon

105 - 118
  1.                  All furnish’d, all in arms;
  2. All plum’d like estridges, that with the wind
  3. Bated like eagles having lately bath’d,
  4. Glittering in golden coats like images,
  5. As full of spirit as the month of May,
  6. And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer;
  7. Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.
  8. I saw young Harry with his beaver on,
  9. His cushes on his thighs, gallantly arm’d,
  10. Rise from the ground like feathered Mercury,
  11. And vaulted with such ease into his seat
  12. As if an angel dropp’d down from the clouds
  13. To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,
  14. And witch the world with noble horsemanship.

Hotspur

119 - 132
  1. No more, no more! Worse than the sun in March,
  2. This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come!
  3. They come like sacrifices in their trim,
  4. And to the fire-ey’d maid of smoky war
  5. All hot and bleeding will we offer them.
  6. The mailed Mars shall on his altar sit
  7. Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire
  8. To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh,
  9. And yet not ours. Come let me taste my horse,
  10. Who is to bear me like a thunderbolt
  11. Against the bosom of the Prince of Wales.
  12. Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse,
  13. Meet and ne’er part till one drop down a corse.
  14. O that Glendower were come!

Vernon

133 - 135
  1.                             There is more news:
  2. I learn’d in Worcester, as I rode along,
  3. He cannot draw his power this fourteen days.

Earl of Douglas

136
  1. That’s the worst tidings that I hear of yet.

Earl of Worcester

137
  1. Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound.

Hotspur

138
  1. What may the King’s whole battle reach unto?

Vernon

139
  1. To thirty thousand.

Hotspur

140 - 144
  1.                     Forty let it be!
  2. My father and Glendower being both away,
  3. The powers of us may serve so great a day.
  4. Come let us take a muster speedily.
  5. Doomsday is near, die all, die merrily.

Earl of Douglas

145 - 146
  1. Talk not of dying, I am out of fear
  2. Of death or death’s hand for this one half year.
  1. Exeunt.
Banner designs for Glendower, Worcester, and Douglas

Banner designs for Glendower, Worcester, and Douglas

Charles Hamilton Smith, Emma Hamilton Smith, 19th century

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