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Henry IV, Pt. 2: Act I, Scene 1

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Henry IV, Pt. 2
Act I, Scene 1

Warkworth . Before Northumberland’s castle .

Byam Shaw, 1901

  1. Enter the Lord Bardolph at one door .

Lord Bardolph

1 - 2
  1. Who keeps the gate here ho ?
  2. Enter Porter .
  3.                             Where is the Earl ?

Porter

3
  1. What shall I say you are ?

Lord Bardolph

4 - 5
  1.                           Tell thou the Earl
  2. That the Lord Bardolph doth attend him here .

Porter

6 - 8
  1. His lordship is walk’d forth into the orchard .
  2. Please it your honor knock but at the gate ,
  3. And he himself will answer .
  1. Enter Henry Percy , the Earl Northumberland , in a night - cap
  2. and supporting himself with a staff .

Lord Bardolph

9
  1.                             Here comes the Earl .
  1. Exit Porter .

Earl of Northumberland

10 - 14
  1. What news , Lord Bardolph ? Every minute now
  2. Should be the father of some stratagem .
  3. The times are wild , contention , like a horse
  4. Full of high feeding , madly hath broke loose ,
  5. And bears down all before him .

Lord Bardolph

15 - 16
  1.                                Noble Earl ,
  2. I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury .

Earl of Northumberland

17
  1. Good , and God will !

Lord Bardolph

18 - 28
  1.                     As good as heart can wish :
  2. The King is almost wounded to the death ,
  3. And in the fortune of my lord your son ,
  4. Prince Harry slain outright , and both the Blunts
  5. Kill’d by the hand of Douglas , young Prince John
  6. And Westmorland and Stafford fled the field ,
  7. And Harry Monmouth’s brawn , the hulk Sir John ,
  8. Is prisoner to your son . O , such a day !
  9. So fought , so followed , and so fairly won ,
  10. Came not till now to dignify the times ,
  11. Since Caesar’s fortunes .

Earl of Northumberland

29 - 30
  1.                          How is this deriv’d ?
  2. Saw you the field ? Came you from Shrewsbury ?

Lord Bardolph

31 - 33
  1. I spake with one , my lord , that came from thence ,
  2. A gentleman well bred and of good name ,
  3. That freely rend’red me these news for true .

Earl of Northumberland

34 - 35
  1. Here comes my servant Travers , who I sent
  2. On Tuesday last to listen after news .
  1. Enter Travers .

Lord Bardolph

36 - 38
  1. My lord , I overrode him on the way ,
  2. And he is furnish’d with no certainties
  3. More than he haply may retail from me .

Earl of Northumberland

39
  1. Now , Travers , what good tidings comes with you ?

Travers

40 - 54
  1. My lord , Sir John Umfrevile turn’d me back
  2. With joyful tidings , and being better hors’d ,
  3. Outrode me . After him came spurring hard
  4. A gentleman , almost forespent with speed ,
  5. That stopp’d by me to breathe his bloodied horse .
  6. He ask’d the way to Chester , and of him
  7. I did demand what news from Shrewsbury .
  8. He told me that rebellion had bad luck ,
  9. And that young Harry Percy’s spur was cold .
  10. With that he gave his able horse the head ,
  11. And bending forward struck his armed heels
  12. Against the panting sides of his poor jade
  13. Up to the rowel - head , and starting so
  14. He seem’d in running to devour the way ,
  15. Staying no longer question .

Earl of Northumberland

55 - 58
  1.                             Ha ? Again .
  2. Said he young Harry Percy’s spur was cold ?
  3. Of Hotspur , Coldspur ? That rebellion
  4. Had met ill luck ?

Lord Bardolph

59 - 62
  1.                   My lord , I’ll tell you what :
  2. If my young lord your son have not the day ,
  3. Upon mine honor , for a silken point
  4. I’ll give my barony . Never talk of it .

Earl of Northumberland

63 - 64
  1. Why should that gentleman that rode by Travers
  2. Give then such instances of loss ?

Lord Bardolph

65 - 68
  1.                                   Who , he ?
  2. He was some hilding fellow that had stol’n
  3. The horse he rode on , and , upon my life ,
  4. Spoke at a venter . Look , here comes more news .
  1. Enter Morton .

Earl of Northumberland

69 - 73
  1. Yea , this man’s brow , like to a title - leaf ,
  2. Foretells the nature of a tragic volume .
  3. So looks the strond whereon the imperious flood
  4. Hath left a witness’d usurpation .
  5. Say , Morton , didst thou come from Shrewsbury ?

Morton

74 - 76
  1. I ran from Shrewsbury , my noble lord ,
  2. Where hateful death put on his ugliest mask
  3. To fright our party .

Earl of Northumberland

77 - 91
  1.                      How doth my son and brother ?
  2. Thou tremblest , and the whiteness in thy cheek
  3. Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy arrand .
  4. Even such a man , so faint , so spiritless ,
  5. So dull , so dead in look , so woe - begone ,
  6. Drew Priam’s curtain in the dead of night ,
  7. And would have told him half his Troy was burnt ;
  8. But Priam found the fire ere he his tongue ,
  9. And I my Percy’s death ere thou report’st it .
  10. This thou wouldst say , “ Your son did thus and thus ;
  11. Your brother thus ; so fought the noble Douglas ”—
  12. Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds ,
  13. But in the end , to stop my ear indeed ,
  14. Thou hast a sigh to blow away this praise ,
  15. Ending with “ Brother , son , and all are dead .”
Bardolph

Bardolph

Henry Stacy Marks, circa 1853

Morton

92 - 93
  1. Douglas is living , and your brother yet ,
  2. But for my lord your son —

Earl of Northumberland

94 - 101
  1.                           Why , he is dead .
  2. See what a ready tongue suspicion hath !
  3. He that but fears the thing he would not know
  4. Hath by instinct knowledge from others’ eyes
  5. That what he fear’d is chanced . Yet speak , Morton ,
  6. Tell thou an earl his divination lies ,
  7. And I will take it as a sweet disgrace
  8. And make thee rich for doing me such wrong .

Morton

102 - 103
  1. You are too great to be by me gainsaid ,
  2. Your spirit is too true , your fears too certain .

Earl of Northumberland

104 - 114
  1. Yet for all this , say not that Percy’s dead .
  2. I see a strange confession in thine eye .
  3. Thou shak’st thy head , and hold’st it fear or sin
  4. To speak a truth . If he be slain , say so ;
  5. The tongue offends not that reports his death ,
  6. And he doth sin that doth belie the dead ,
  7. Not he which says the dead is not alive .
  8. Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
  9. Hath but a losing office , and his tongue
  10. Sounds ever after as a sullen bell ,
  11. Rememb’red tolling a departing friend .

Lord Bardolph

115
  1. I cannot think , my lord , your son is dead .

Morton

116 - 146
  1. I am sorry I should force you to believe
  2. That which I would to God I had not seen ,
  3. But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state ,
  4. Rend’ring faint quittance , wearied and outbreath’d ,
  5. To Harry Monmouth , whose swift wrath beat down
  6. The never - daunted Percy to the earth ,
  7. From whence with life he never more sprung up .
  8. In few , his death , whose spirit lent a fire
  9. Even to the dullest peasant in his camp ,
  10. Being bruited once , took fire and heat away
  11. From the best - temper’d courage in his troops ,
  12. For from his metal was his party steeled ,
  13. Which once in him abated , all the rest
  14. Turn’d on themselves , like dull and heavy lead .
  15. And as the thing that’s heavy in itself
  16. Upon enforcement flies with greatest speed ,
  17. So did our men , heavy in Hotspur’s loss ,
  18. Lend to this weight such lightness with their fear
  19. That arrows fled not swifter toward their aim
  20. Than did our soldiers , aiming at their safety ,
  21. Fly from the field . Then was that noble Worcester
  22. So soon ta’en prisoner , and that furious Scot ,
  23. The bloody Douglas , whose well - laboring sword
  24. Had three times slain th’ appearance of the King ,
  25. Gan vail his stomach and did grace the shame
  26. Of those that turn’d their backs , and in his flight ,
  27. Stumbling in fear , was took . The sum of all
  28. Is that the King hath won , and hath sent out
  29. A speedy power to encounter you , my lord ,
  30. Under the conduct of young Lancaster
  31. And Westmorland . This is the news at full .

Earl of Northumberland

147 - 171
  1. For this I shall have time enough to mourn ;
  2. In poison there is physic , and these news ,
  3. Having been well , that would have made me sick ,
  4. Being sick , have ( in some measure ) made me well .
  5. And as the wretch whose fever - weak’ned joints ,
  6. Like strengthless hinges , buckle under life ,
  7. Impatient of his fit , breaks like a fire
  8. Out of his keeper’s arms , even so my limbs ,
  9. Weak’ned with grief , being now enrag’d with grief ,
  10. Are thrice themselves . Hence therefore , thou nice crutch !
  11. A scaly gauntlet now with joints of steel
  12. Must glove this hand ; and hence , thou sickly coif !
  13. That art a guard too wanton for the head
  14. Which princes , flesh’d with conquest , aim to hit .
  15. Now bind my brows with iron , and approach
  16. The ragged’st hour that time and spite dare bring
  17. To frown upon th’ enrag’d Northumberland !
  18. Let heaven kiss earth ! Now let not Nature’s hand
  19. Keep the wild flood confin’d ! Let order die !
  20. And let this world no longer be a stage
  21. To feed contention in a ling’ring act ;
  22. But let one spirit of the first - born Cain
  23. Reign in all bosoms , that each heart being set
  24. On bloody courses , the rude scene may end ,
  25. And darkness be the burier of the dead !
Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare

Noble Earl, I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury

From: Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare

Mary Cowden Clarke, Charles Cowden Clarke, 1870

Lord Bardolph

172
  1. This strained passion doth you wrong , my lord .

Morton

173 - 190
  1. Sweet Earl , divorce not wisdom from your honor ,
  2. The lives of all your loving complices
  3. Lean on your health , the which , if you give o’er
  4. To stormy passion , must perforce decay .
  5. You cast th’ event of war , my noble lord ,
  6. And summ’d the accompt of chance before you said ,
  7. “ Let us make head .” It was your presurmise
  8. That in the dole of blows your son might drop .
  9. You knew he walk’d o’er perils , on an edge ,
  10. More likely to fall in than to get o’er ;
  11. You were advis’d his flesh was capable
  12. Of wounds and scars ; and that his forward spirit
  13. Would lift him where most trade of danger rang’d ;
  14. Yet did you say , “ Go forth !” and none of this
  15. ( Though strongly apprehended ) could restrain
  16. The stiff - borne action . What hath then befall’n ?
  17. Or what doth this bold enterprise bring forth
  18. More than that being which was like to be ?

Lord Bardolph

191 - 197
  1. We all that are engaged to this loss
  2. Knew that we ventured on such dangerous seas
  3. That if we wrought out life ’twas ten to one ,
  4. And yet we ventur’d for the gain propos’d ,
  5. Chok’d the respect of likely peril fear’d ,
  6. And since we are o’erset , venture again .
  7. Come , we will all put forth , body and goods .

Morton

198 - 220
  1. ’Tis more than time , and , my most noble lord ,
  2. I hear for certain and dare speak the truth ,
  3. The gentle Archbishop of York is up
  4. With well - appointed pow’rs . He is a man
  5. Who with a double surety binds his followers .
  6. My lord your son had only but the corpse’ ,
  7. But shadows and the shows of men , to fight ;
  8. For that same word , rebellion , did divide
  9. The action of their bodies from their souls ,
  10. And they did fight with queasiness , constrain’d
  11. As men drink potions , that their weapons only
  12. Seem’d on our side ; but for their spirits and souls ,
  13. This word , rebellion , it had froze them up ,
  14. As fish are in a pond . But now the Bishop
  15. Turns insurrection to religion .
  16. Suppos’d sincere and holy in his thoughts ,
  17. He’s follow’d both with body and with mind ;
  18. And doth enlarge his rising with the blood
  19. Of fair King Richard , scrap’d from Pomfret stones ;
  20. Derives from heaven his quarrel and his cause ;
  21. Tells them he doth bestride a bleeding land ,
  22. Gasping for life under great Bullingbrook ,
  23. And more and less do flock to follow him .

Earl of Northumberland

221 - 226
  1. I knew of this before , but to speak truth ,
  2. This present grief had wip’d it from my mind .
  3. Go in with me , and counsel every man
  4. The aptest way for safety and revenge .
  5. Get posts and letters , and make friends with speed —
  6. Never so few , and never yet more need .
  1. Exeunt .
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