Another Part of the Field. | |
| |
Alarums. Excursions. Enter KING HENRY, the PRINCE, JOHN OF LANCASTER, and WEST-MORELAND. | |
| K. Hen. I prithee, | |
| Harry, withdraw thyself; thou bleed’st too much. | 4 |
| Lord John of Lancaster, go you with him. | |
| Lanc. Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too. | |
| Prince. I beseech your majesty, make up, | |
| Lest your retirement do amaze your friends. | 8 |
| K. Hen. I will do so. | |
| My Lord of Westmoreland, lead him to his tent. | |
| West. Come, my lord, I’ll lead you to your tent. | |
| Prince. Lead me, my lord? I do not need your help: | 12 |
| And God forbid a shallow scratch should drive | |
| The Prince of Wales from such a field as this, | |
| Where stain’d nobility lies trodden on, | |
| And rebels’ arms triumph in massacres! | 16 |
| Lanc. We breathe too long: come, cousin Westmoreland, | |
| Our duty this way lies: for God’s sake, come. [Exeunt JOHN OF LANCASTER and WESTMORELAND. | |
| Prince. By God, thou hast deceiv’d me, Lancaster; | |
| I did not think thee lord of such a spirit: | 20 |
| Before, I lov’d thee as a brother, John; | |
| But now, I do respect thee as my soul. | |
| K. Hen. I saw him hold Lord Percy at the point | |
| With lustier maintenance than I did look for | 24 |
| Of such an ungrown warrior. | |
| Prince. O! this boy | |
| Lends mettle to us all. [Exit. | |
| |
Alarums. Enter DOUGLAS. | 28 |
| Doug. Another king! they grow like Hydra’s heads: | |
| I am the Douglas, fatal to all those | |
| That wear those colours on them: what art thou, | |
| That counterfeit’st the person of a king? | 32 |
| K. Hen. The king himself; who, Douglas, grieves at heart | |
| So many of his shadows thou hast met | |
| And not the very king. I have two boys | |
| Seek Percy and thyself about the field: | 36 |
| But, seeing thou fall’st on me so luckily, | |
| I will assay thee; so defend thyself. | |
| Doug. I fear thou art another counterfeit; | |
| And yet, in faith, thou bear’st thee like a king: | 40 |
| But mine I am sure thou art, whoe’er thou be, | |
| And thus I win thee. [They fight. KING HENRY being in danger, re-enter the PRINCE. | |
| Prince. Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like | |
| Never to hold it up again! the spirits | 44 |
| Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt, are in my arms: | |
| It is the Prince of Wales that threatens thee, | |
| Who never promiseth but he means to pay. [They fight: DOUGLAS flies. | |
| Cheerly, my lord: how fares your Grace? | 48 |
| Sir Nicholas Gawsey hath for succour sent, | |
| And so hath Clifton: I’ll to Clifton straight. | |
| K. Hen. Stay, and breathe awhile. | |
| Thou hast redeem’d thy lost opinion, | 52 |
| And show’d thou mak’st some tender of my life, | |
| In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me. | |
| Prince. O God! they did me too much injury | |
| That ever said I hearken’d for your death. | 56 |
| If it were so, I might have let alone | |
| The insulting hand of Douglas over you; | |
| Which would have been as speedy in your end | |
| As all the poisonous potions in the world, | 60 |
| And sav’d the treacherous labour of your son. | |
| K. Hen. Make up to Clifton: I’ll to Sir Nicholas Gawsey. [Exit. | |
| |
Enter HOTSPUR. | |
| Hot. If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth. | 64 |
| Prince. Thou speak’st as if I would deny my name. | |
| Hot. My name is Harry Percy. | |
| Prince. Why, then, I see | |
| A very valiant rebel of that name. | 68 |
| I am the Prince of Wales; and think not, Percy, | |
| To share with me in glory any more: | |
| Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere; | |
| Nor can one England brook a double reign, | 72 |
| Of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales. | |
| Hot. Nor shall it, Harry; for the hour is come | |
| To end the one of us; and would to God | |
| Thy name in arms were now as great as mine! | 76 |
| Prince. I’ll make it greater ere I part from thee; | |
| And all the budding honours on thy crest | |
| I’ll crop, to make a garland for my head. | |
| Hot. I can no longer brook thy vanities. [They fight. | 80 |
| |
Enter FALSTAFF. | |
| Fal. Well said, Hal! to it, Hal! Nay, you shall find no boy’s play here, I can tell you. | |
| |
Re-enter DOUGLAS; he fights with FALSTAFF, who falls down as if he were dead, and exit DOUGLAS. HOTSPUR is wounded, and falls. | |
| Hot. O, Harry! thou hast robb’d me of my youth. | 84 |
| I better brook the loss of brittle life | |
| Than those proud titles thou hast won of me; | |
| They wound my thoughts worse than thy sword my flesh: | |
| But thought’s the slave of life, and life time’s fool; | 88 |
| And time, that takes survey of all the world, | |
| Must have a stop. O! I could prophesy, | |
| But that the earthy and cold hand of death | |
| Lies on my tongue. No, Percy, thou art dust, | 92 |
| And food for— [Dies. | |
| Prince. For worms, brave Percy. Fare thee well, great heart! | |
| Ill-weav’d ambition, how much art thou shrunk! | |
| When that this body did contain a spirit, | 96 |
| A kingdom for it was too small a bound; | |
| But now, two paces of the vilest earth | |
| Is room enough: this earth, that bears thee dead, | |
| Bears not alive so stout a gentleman. | 100 |
| If thou wert sensible of courtesy, | |
| I should not make so dear a show of zeal: | |
| But let my favours hide thy mangled face, | |
| And, even in thy behalf, I’ll thank myself | 104 |
| For doing these fair rites of tenderness. | |
| Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven! | |
| Thy ignomy sleep with thee in the grave, | |
| But not remember’d in thy epitaph! [He spies FALSTAFF on the ground. | 108 |
| What! old acquaintance! could not all this flesh | |
| Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell! | |
| I could have better spar’d a better man. | |
| O! I should have a heavy miss of thee | 112 |
| If I were much in love with vanity. | |
| Death hath not struck so fat a deer to-day, | |
| Though many dearer, in this bloody fray. | |
| Embowell’d will I see thee by and by: | 116 |
| Till then in blood by noble Percy lie. [Exit. | |
| Fal. [Rising.] Embowelled! if thou embowel me to-day, I’ll give you leave to powder me and eat me too, to-morrow. ’Sblood! ’twas time to counterfeit, or that hot termagant Scot had paid me scot and lot too. Counterfeit? I lie, I am no counterfeit: to die, is to be a counterfeit; for he is but the counterfeit of a man, who hath not the life of a man; but to counterfeit dying, when a man thereby liveth, is to be no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life indeed. The better part of valour is discretion; in the which better part, I have saved my life. ’Zounds! I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy though he be dead: how, if he should counterfeit too and rise? By my faith I am afraid he would prove the better counterfeit. Therefore I’ll make him sure; yea, and I’ll swear I killed him. Why may not he rise as well as I? Nothing confutes me but eyes, and nobody sees me: therefore, sirrah [stabbing him], with a new wound in your thigh come you along with me. [He takes HOTSPUR on his back. | |
| |
Re-enter the PRINCE and JOHN OF LANCASTER. | |
| Prince. Come, brother John; full bravely hast thou flesh’d | 120 |
| Thy maiden sword. | |
| Lanc. But, soft! whom have we here? | |
| Did you not tell me this fat man was dead? | |
| Prince. I did; I saw him dead, | 124 |
| Breathless and bleeding on the ground. | |
| Art thou alive? or is it fantasy | |
| That plays upon our eyesight? I prithee, speak; | |
| We will not trust our eyes without our ears: | 128 |
| Thou art not what thou seem’st. | |
| Fal. No, that’s certain; I am not a double man: but if I be not Jack Falstaff, then am I a Jack. There is Percy [throwing the body down]: if your father will do me any honour, so; if not, let him kill the next Percy himself. I look to be either earl or duke, I can assure you. | |
| Prince. Why, Percy I killed myself, and saw thee dead. | |
| Fal. Didst thou? Lord, Lord! how this world is given to lying. I grant you I was down and out of breath, and so was he; but we rose both at an instant, and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock. If I may be believed, so; if not, let them that should reward valour bear the sin upon their own heads. I’ll take it upon my death, I gave him this wound in the thigh: if the man were alive and would deny it, ’zounds, I would make him eat a piece of my sword. | 132 |
| Lanc. This is the strangest tale that e’er I heard. | |
| Prince. This is the strangest fellow, brother John. | |
| Come, bring your luggage nobly on your back: | |
| For my part, if a lie may do thee grace, | 136 |
| I’ll gild it with the happiest terms I have. [A retreat is sounded. | |
| The trumpet sounds retreat; the day is ours. | |
| Come, brother, let us to the highest of the field, | |
| To see what friends are living, who are dead. [Exeunt the PRINCE and JOHN OF LANCASTER. | 140 |
| Fal. I’ll follow, as they say, for reward. He that rewards me, God reward him! If I do grow great, I’ll grow less; for I’ll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly, as a nobleman should do. [Exit. | |
