William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The Oxford Shakespeare. 1914.
Act I. Scene III.The First Part of King Henry the Fourth
K. Hen.My blood hath been too cold and temperate,
Unapt to stir at these indignities,
And you have found me; for accordingly
You tread upon my patience: but, be sure,
I will from henceforth rather be myself,
Mighty, and to be fear’d, than my condition,
Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down,
And therefore lost that title of respect
Which the proud soul ne’er pays but to the proud.
Wor.Our house, my sovereign liege, little deserves
The scourge of greatness to be us’d on it;
And that same greatness too which our own hands
Have holp to make so portly.
North.My lord,—
K. Hen.Worcester, get thee gone; for I do see
Danger and disobedience in thine eye.
O, sir, your presence is too bold and peremptory,
And majesty might never yet endure
The moody frontier of a servant brow.
You have good leave to leave us; when we need
Your use and counsel we shall send for you.[Exit W
[To N
North.Yea, my good lord.
Those prisoners in your highness’ name demanded,
Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took,
Were, as he says, not with such strength denied
As is deliver’d to your majesty:
Either envy, therefore, or misprision
Is guilty of this fault and not my son.
Hot.My liege, I did deny no prisoners:
But I remember, when the fight was done,
When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,
Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
Came there a certain lord, neat, and trimly dress’d,
Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin, new reap’d,
Show’d like a stubble-land at harvest-home:
He was perfumed like a milliner,
And ’twixt his finger and his thumb he held
A pouncet-box, which ever and anon
He gave his nose and took ’t away again;
Who therewith angry, when it next came there,
Took it in snuff: and still he smil’d and talk’d;
And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
He call’d them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
To bring a slovenly unhandsome corpse
Betwixt the wind and his nobility.
With many holiday and lady terms
He question’d me; among the rest, demanded
My prisoners in your majesty’s behalf.
I then all smarting with my wounds being cold,
To be so pester’d with a popinjay,
Out of my grief and my impatience
Answer’d neglectingly, I know not what,
He should, or he should not; for he made me mad
To see him shine so brisk and smell so sweet
And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman
Of guns, and drums, and wounds,—God save the mark!—
And telling me the sovereign’st thing on earth
Was parmaceti for an inward bruise;
And that it was great pity, so it was,
This villanous saltpetre should be digg’d
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow had destroy’d
So cowardly; and but for these vile guns,
He would himself have been a soldier.
This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord,
I answer’d indirectly, as I said;
And I beseech you, let not his report
Come current for an accusation
Betwixt my love and your high majesty.
Blunt.The circumstance consider’d, good my lord,
Whatever Harry Percy then had said
To such a person and in such a place,
At such a time, with all the rest re-told,
May reasonably die and never rise
To do him wrong, or any way impeach
What then he said, so he unsay it now.
K. Hen.Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners,
But with proviso and exception,
That we at our own charge shall ransom straight
His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer;
Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betray’d
The lives of those that he did lead to fight
Against the great magician, damn’d Glendower,
Whose daughter, as we hear, the Earl of March
Hath lately married. Shall our coffers then
Be emptied to redeem a traitor home?
Shall we buy treason, and indent with fears,
When they have lost and forfeited themselves?
No, on the barren mountains let him starve;
For I shall never hold that man my friend
Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost
To ransom home revolted Mortimer.
Hot.Revolted Mortimer!
He never did fall off, my sovereign liege,
But by the chance of war: to prove that true
Needs no more but one tongue for all those wounds,
Those mouthed wounds, which valiantly he took,
When on the gentle Severn’s sedgy bank,
In single opposition, hand to hand,
He did confound the best part of an hour
In changing hardiment with great Glendower.
Three times they breath’d and three times did they drink,
Upon agreement, of swift Severn’s flood,
Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks,
Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds,
And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank
Blood-stained with these valiant combatants.
Never did base and rotten policy
Colour her working with such deadly wounds;
Nor never could the noble Mortimer
Receive so many, and all willingly:
Then let him not be slander’d with revolt.
K. Hen.Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou dost belie him:
He never did encounter with Glendower:
I tell thee,
He durst as well have met the devil alone
As Owen Glendower for an enemy.
Art thou not asham’d? But, sirrah, henceforth
Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer:
Send me your prisoners with the speediest means,
Or you shall hear in such a kind from me
As will displease you. My Lord Northumberland,
We license your departure with your son.
Send us your prisoners, or you’ll hear of it.[Exeunt K
Hot.An if the devil come and roar for them,
I will not send them: I will after straight
And tell him so; for I will ease my heart,
Albeit I make a hazard of my head.
North.What! drunk with choler? stay, and pause awhile:
Here comes your uncle.
Hot.Speak of Mortimer! ’Zounds! I will speak of him; and let my soul Want mercy if I do not join with him: In his behalf I’ll empty all these veins, And shed my dear blood drop by drop i’ the dust, But I will lift the down-trod Mortimer As high i’ the air as this unthankful king, As this ingrate and canker’d Bolingbroke. North.Brother, the king hath made your nephew mad. Wor.Who struck this heat up after I was gone? Hot.He will, forsooth, have all my prisoners; And when I urg’d the ransom once again Of my wife’s brother, then his cheek look’d pale, And on my face he turn’d an eye of death, Trembling even at the name of Mortimer. Wor.I cannot blame him: was he not proclaim’d By Richard that dead is the next of blood? North.He was; I heard the proclamation: And then it was when the unhappy king,— Whose wrongs in us God pardon!—did set forth Upon his Irish expedition; From whence he, intercepted, did return To be depos’d, and shortly murdered. Wor.And for whose death we in the world’s wide mouth Live scandaliz’d and foully spoken of. Hot.But, soft! I pray you, did King Richard then Proclaim my brother Edmund Mortimer Heir to the crown? North.He did; myself did hear it. Hot.Nay, then I cannot blame his cousin king, That wish’d him on the barren mountains starve. But shall it be that you, that set the crown Upon the head of this forgetful man, And for his sake wear the detested blot Of murd’rous subornation, shall it be, That you a world of curses undergo, Being the agents, or base second means, The cords, the ladder, or the hangman rather? O! pardon me that I descend so low, To show the line and the predicament Wherein you range under this subtle king. Shall it for shame be spoken in these days, Or fill up chronicles in time to come, That men of your nobility and power, Did gage them both in an unjust behalf, As both of you—God pardon it!—have done, To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose, And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke? And shall it in more shame be further spoken, That you are fool’d, discarded, and shook off By him for whom these shames ye underwent? No; yet time serves wherein you may redeem Your banish’d honours, and restore yourselves Into the good thoughts of the world again; Revenge the jeering and disdain’d contempt Of this proud king, who studies day and night To answer all the debt he owes to you, Even with the bloody payment of your deaths. Therefore, I say,— Wor.Peace, cousin! say no more: And now I will unclasp a secret book, And to your quick-conceiving discontents I’ll read you matter deep and dangerous, As full of peril and adventurous spirit As to o’er-walk a current roaring loud, On the unsteadfast footing of a spear. Hot.If he fall in, good night! or sink or swim: Send danger from the east unto the west, So honour cross it from the north to south, And let them grapple: O! the blood more stirs To rouse a lion than to start a hare. North.Imagination of some great exploit Drives him beyond the bounds of patience. Hot.By heaven methinks it were an easy leap To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac’d moon, Or dive into the bottom of the deep, Where fathom-line could never touch the ground, And pluck up drowned honour by the locks; So he that doth redeem her thence might wear Without corrival all her dignities: But out upon this half-fac’d fellowship! Wor.He apprehends a world of figures here, But not the form of what he should attend. Good cousin, give me audience for a while. Hot.I cry you mercy. Wor.Those same noble Scots That are your prisoners,— Hot.I’ll keep them all; By God, he shall not have a Scot of them: No, if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not: I’ll keep them, by this hand. Wor.You start away, And lend no ear unto my purposes. Those prisoners you shall keep. Hot.Nay, I will; that’s flat: He said he would not ransom Mortimer; Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer; But I will find him when he lies asleep, And in his ear I’ll holla ‘Mortimer!’ Nay, I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak Nothing but ‘Mortimer,’ and give it him, To keep his anger still in motion. Wor.Hear you, cousin; a word. Hot.All studies here I solemnly defy, Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke: And that same sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales, But that I think his father loves him not, And would be glad he met with some mischance, I would have him poison’d with a pot of ale. Wor.Farewell, kinsman: I will talk to you When you are better temper’d to attend. North.Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool Art thou to break into this woman’s mood, Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own! Hot.Why, look you, I am whipp’d and scourg’d with rods, Nettled, and stung with pismires, when I hear Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke. In Richard’s time,—what do ye call the place?— A plague upon ’t—it is in Gloucestershire;— ’Twas where the madcap duke his uncle kept, His uncle York; where I first bow’d my knee Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke, ’Sblood! When you and he came back from Ravenspurgh. North.At Berkeley Castle. Hot.You say true. Why, what a candy deal of courtesy This fawning greyhound then did proffer me! Look, ‘when his infant fortune came to age,’ And ‘gentle Harry Percy,’ and ‘kind cousin.’ O! the devil take such cozeners. God forgive me! Good uncle, tell your tale, for I have done. Wor.Nay, if you have not, to ’t again; We’ll stay your leisure. Hot.I have done, i’ faith. Wor.Then once more to your Scottish prisoners. Deliver them up without their ransom straight, And make the Douglas’ son your only mean For powers in Scotland; which, for divers reasons Which I shall send you written, be assur’d, Will easily be granted.[To N Your son in Scotland being thus employ’d, Shall secretly into the bosom creep Of that same noble prelate well belov’d, The Archbishop. Hot.Of York, is it not? Wor.True; who bears hard His brother’s death at Bristol, the Lord Scroop. I speak not this in estimation, As what I think might be, but what I know Is ruminated, plotted and set down; And only stays but to behold the face Of that occasion that shall bring it on. Hot.I smell it. Upon my life it will do wondrous well. North.Before the game’s afoot thou still lett’st slip. Hot.Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot: And then the power of Scotland and of York, To join with Mortimer, ha? Wor.And so they shall. Hot.In faith, it is exceedingly well aim’d. Wor.And ’tis no little reason bids us speed, To save our heads by raising of a head; For, bear ourselves as even as we can, The king will always think him in our debt, And think we think ourselves unsatisfied, Till he hath found a time to pay us home. And see already how he doth begin To make us strangers to his looks of love. Hot.He does, he does: we’ll be reveng’d on him. Wor.Cousin, farewell: no further go in this, Than I by letters shall direct your course. When time is ripe,—which will be suddenly,— I’ll steal to Glendower and Lord Mortimer; Where you and Douglas and our powers at once,— As I will fashion it,—shall happily meet, To bear our fortunes in our own strong arms, Which now we hold at much uncertainty. North.Farewell, good brother: we shall thrive, I trust. Hot.Uncle, adieu: O! let the hours be short, Till fields and blows and groans applaud our sport![Exeunt.