KING HENRY IV.-PART II. KING HENRY IV. PERSONS REPRESENTED. Appears, Act III. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 4. HENRY PRINCE OF WALES, afterwards King PRINCE JOHN of Lancaster, afterwards created (2 HARCOURT, of the King's party. LORD CHIEF JUSTICE of the King's Bench. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act II. sc. 1. Act V. sc. 2; sc. 5. A Gentleman attending on the Chief Justice. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND, enemy to the King SCROOP, Archbishop of York, LORD MOWERAY, and SIR JOHN COLEVILE, enemy to the King. TRAVERS and MORTON, domestics of Northumberland. Appear, Act I. sc. 1. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Page. Act V. sc. 3; sc. 5. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 4. Act V. sc. 1; POINS, an attendant on Prince Henry. PETO, an attendant on Prince Henry. SHALLOW, a country justice. Appears, Act III. sc. 2. Act V. sc. 3. MOULDY, SHADOW, WART, FEEBLE, BULLCALY, SCENE, ENGLAND. Warkworth. INDUCTION. Before Northumberland's Castle. Enter Rumour, painted full of tongues. Rum. Open your ears: For which of you will stop The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks? I. from the orient to the drooping west. Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold The acts commenced on this ball of earth: Upon my tongues continual slanders ride; The which in every language I pronounce, Stuffing the ears of men with false reports. speak of peace, while covert enmity, Under the smile of safety, wounds the world: And who but Rumour, who but only I, Make fearful musters, and prepar'd defence, Whilst the big year, swoln with some other griefs, Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war, And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures; And of so easy and so plain a stop I That the blunt monster with uncounted heads, The still-discorrlant wavering multitude, Can play upon it. But what need I thus Among my household? Why is Rumour here? Who, in a bloody field by Shrewsbury, Hath beaten down young Hotspur, and his troops, Even with the rebels' blood. But what mean I To noise abroad, that Harry Monmouth fell wrongs. SCENE I.-The same. ACT I. The Porter before the Gate; Enter LORD BARDOLPH. L. Bard. Who keeps the gate here, ho?-Where is the earl? Port. What shall I say you are? L. Bard. Tell thou the ear!, That the lord Bardolph doth attend him here. Port. His lordship is walk'd fortn into the orchard. Please it your honour, knock but at the gate, And he himself will answer. L. Bard. Enter NORTHUMBERLAND. Here comes the earl. North. What news, lord Bardolpn? every minute now Should be the father of some stratagem:a L. Bard. Noble earl, I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury. North. Good, an heaven will! L. Bard. Who, he? North. Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-leaf, So looks the strond, whereon the imperious flood Say, Morton, didst thou come from Shrewsbury? As good as heart can wish: Where hateful death put on his ugliest mask, L. Bard. The king is almost wounded to the death; And, in the fortune of my lord your son, Prince Harry slain outright; and both the Blunts Kill'd by the hand of Douglas: young prince John, And Westmoreland, and Stafford, fled the field; And Harry Monmouth's brawn, the hulk sir John, Is prisoner to your son: O, such a day, So fought, so follow'd, and so fairly won, Came not, till now, to dignify the times, Since Cæsar's fortunes! Enter TRAVERS. North. Now, Travers, what good tidings come with you? Trav. My lord, sir John Umfrevile turn'd me back With joyful tidings; and, being better hors'd, Out-rode me. After him came, spurring hard, A gentleman almost forspent with speed, That stopp'd by me to breathe his bloodied horse: He ask'd the way to Chester; and of him I did demand what news from Shrewsbury. He told me, that rebellion had ill luck, And that young Harry Percy's spur was cold: With that, he gave his able horse the head, And, bending forward, struck his armed heels Against the panting sides of his poor jade Up to the rowel-head; and starting so, He seem'd in running to devour the way, Staying no longer question. a Stratagem-some military movement, according to the Greek derivation of the word;-some enterprise;-some decisive act on one part or the other, resulting from the wild times of conteutoo. Forspent. For, as a prefix to a verb, is used to give it tensity. North. How doth my son, and brother? Thou tremblest; and the wniteness in thy cheek Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand. Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless, So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone, Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night, And would have told him, half his Troy was burn't: But Priam found the fire, ere he his tongue, And I my Percy's death, ere thou report'st it. This thou wouldst say,-Your son did thus, and thus • North. Why, he is dead. See what a ready tongue suspicion hath! He that but fears the thing he would not know, Hath, by instinet, knowledge from others' eyes, That what he fear'd is chanced. Yet speak, Morton; Tell thou thy earl his divination lies; And I will take it as a sweet disgrace, And make thee rich for doing me such wrong. Mor. You are too great to be by me gainsaid: Your spirit is too true, your fears too certain. North. Yet, for all this, say not that Percy's dead. I see a strange confession in thine eye: Thou shak'st thy head; and hold'st it fear, or sin, To speak a truth. If he be slain, say so: The tongue offends not that reports his death: And he doth sin that doth belie the dead; Not he, which says the dead is not alive. Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news Hath but a losing office; and his tongue Sounds ever after as a sullen bell, Remember'd knolling a departing friend.a Hilding-an expression of contempt for a cowardly, spiritless person. b Title-leaf. Poems of lament were distinguished by a black title-page. Fear-danger: matter or occasion of fear. Departing friend. Malone thought that departing was here used for departed. But the ancient custom was for the bell to ring for the departing soul-not for the soul tha: had fled. Hence it was called the passing belt. I.. Bard. I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead. From whence with life he never more sprung up. Out of his keeper's arms; even so my limbs, crutch; A scaly gauntlet now, with joints of steel, Must glove this hand: and hence, thou sickly quoif; [Tra. This strained passion doth you wrong, my lord.] L. Bard. Sweet earl, divorce not wisdom from your honour. Mor. The lives of all your loving complices * Burkle. This word, which here means to bend, is used preely in the same signification in the present day, when applied a horse, whose "weaken'd joints, like strengthless hinges," are said to buckle. Grief. In this line the first "grief" is put for bodily pain; 1cord for mental sorrow. •Nice-weak. That in the dole of blows your son might drop: Of wounds, and scars; and that his forward spirit L. Bard. We all, that are engaged to this loss, Knew that we ventur'd on such dangerous seas, That if we wrought out life 't was ten to one : And yet we ventur'd, for the gain propos'd Chok'd the respect of likely peril fear'd; And, since we are o'erset, venture again. Come, we will all put forth; body, and goods. Mor. T is more than time: And, my most noble lord, I hear for certain, and do speak the truth,— Suppos'd sincere and holy in his thoughts, Of fair king Richard, scrap'd from Pomfret stones: North. I knew of this before; but, to speak truth, SCENE II.-London. A Street. [Exeunt. Enter SIR JOHN FALSTAFF, with his Page bearing his sword and buckler. Fal. Sirrah, you giant, what says the doctor to my water? Page. He said, sir, the water itself was a good healthy water but, for the party that owed it, he might have more diseases than he knew for. Fal. Men of all sorts take a pride to gird b at me. The brain of this foolish-compounded clay, man, is not able to invent anything that tends to laughter, more than I invent, or is invented on me: I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men. I do here walk before thee, like a sow that hath o'erwhelmed all her litter but one. If the prince put thee into my service for any other reason than to set ine cft, why then I have no judgment. Thou whoreson mandrake, thou art fitter to be worn in my cap, than to wait at my heels. I was never manned with an agate till now; but I will set you neither in gold nor silver, but in vile apparel, and send you back again to your a More and less-greater and less-great and small. b Gird. To gird is to smite, and thence metaphorically to jeer, to scoff at. master, for a jewel; the juvenal, the prince, your master, whose chin is not yet fledged. I will sooner ave a beard grow in the palm of my hand, than he shall get one on his cheek; yet he will not stick to say, his face is a face-royal: Heaven may finish it when he will, it is not a hair amiss yet: he may keep it still as a face-royal, for a barber shall never earn sixpence out of it; and yet he will be crowing, as if he had writ man ever since his father was a bachelor. He may keep his own grace, but he is almost out of mine, I can assure him. What said master Dombledon about the satin for my short cloak and slops? Page. He said, sir, you should procure him better assurance than Bardolph: he would not take his bond and yours; he liked not the security. Fal. Let him be damned like the glutton! may his tongue be hotter!-A whoreson Achitophel! a rascally yea-forsooth knave! to bear a gentleman in hand, and then stand upon security! The whoreson smooth-pates do now wear nothing but high shoes, and bunches of keys at their girdles; and if a man is through with them in honest taking up," then they must stand upon security. I had as lief they would put ratsbane in my mouth, as offer to stop it with security. I looked he should have sent me two-and-twenty yards of satin, as I am true knight, and he sends me security. Well, he may sleep in security; for he hath the horn of abundance, and the lightness of his wife shines through it: and yet cannot he see, though he have his own lantern to light him. Where 's Bardolph ? Page. He's gone into Smithfield, to buy your worship a horse. Fal. I bought him in Paul's, and he 'll buy me a horse in Smithfield: if I could get me a wife in the stews, I were manned, horsed, and wived. Enter the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE and an Attendant. Page. Sir, here comes the nobleman that committed the prince for striking him about Bardolph. Fal. Wait close, I will not see him. Ch. Just. What 's he that goes there? Atten. Falstaff, an 't please your lordship. Ch. Just. He that was in question for the robbery? Atten. He, my lord: but he hath since done good service at Shrewsbury; and, as I hear, is now going with some charge to the lord John of Lancaster. Ch. Just. What, to York? Call him back again. Atten. Sir John Falstaff! Fal. Boy, tell him I am deaf. Page. You must speak louder, my master is deaf. Ch. Just. I am sure he is, to the hearing of anything good. Go, pluck him by the elbow; I must speak with him. me, hang me; if thou takest leave, thou wert Letter hanged: You hunt counter; hence! avaunt! Atten. Sir, my lord would speak with you. Ch. Just. Sir John Falstaff, a word with you. Fal. My good lord!-Give your lordship good time of day. I am glad to see your lordship abroad: I heard say your lordship was sick I hope your lordship goes abroad by advice. Your lordship, though not clean past your youth, hath yet some smack of age in you, some relish of the saltness of time; and I most humbly beseech your lordship to have a reverend care of your health. : Ch. Just. Sir John, I sent for you before your expedition to Shrewsbury. Fal. If it please your lordship, I hear his majesty is returned with some discomfort from Wales. Ch. Just. I talk not of his majesty :-You would not come when I sent for you. Fal. And I hear, moreover, his highness is fallen into this same whoreson apoplexy. Ch. Just. Well, heaven mend him! I pray, let me speak with you. Fal. This apoplexy is, as I take it, a kind of lethargy; a sleeping of the blood, a whoreson tingling. Ch. Just. What tell you me of it? be it as it is. Fal. It hath its original from much grief; from study, and perturbation of the brain; I have read the cause of his effects in Galen; it is a kind of deafness. Ch. Just. I think you are fallen into the disease; fo you hear not what I say to you. Fal. Very well, my lord, very well: rather, an 't please you, it is the disease of not listening, the malady of not marking, that I am troubled withal. Ch. Just. To punish you by the heels would amend the attention of your ears; and I care not if I be your physician. Fal. I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not so patient your lordship may minister the potion of imprisonment to me, in respect of poverty; but how I should be your patient to follow your prescriptions, the wise may make some dram of a scruple, or, indeed, a scruple itself. Ch. Just. I sent for you, when there were matters against you for your life, to come speak with me. in the laws of this land-service, I did not come. Fal. As I was then advised by my learned counsel Ch. Just. Well, the truth is, Sir John, you live in great infamy. Fal. He that buckles him in my belt cannot live in less. Ch. Just. Your means are very slender, and your waste great. Fal. I would it were otherwise; I would my means were greater and my waist slenderer. Ch. Just. You have misled the youthful prince. Fal. The young prince hath misled me: I am the fellow with the great belly, and he my dog. wound; your day's service at Shrewsbury hath a little Ch. Just. Well, I am loth to gall a new-healed gilded over your night's exploit on Gadshill: you may thank the unquiet time for your quiet o'erposting that action. Fal. My lord? Ch. Just. But since all is well, keep it so wake not a sleeping wolf. Fal. To wake a wolf is as bad as to smell a fox. Ch. Just. What! you are as a candle, the better part burnt out. Fal. A wassel candle, my lord; all tallow: if I did say of wax, my growth would approve the truth. a Hunt counter. Falstaff either tells the attendant "you hun counter"-you hunt the wrong way; or calls him a "hunt counter," which also might imply that the attendant was s bailiff's follower. Ch. Just. There is not a white hair on your face but | impatient to bear crosses. Fare you well: Commend should have his effect of gravity. me to my cousin Westmoreland. Fal. His effect of gravy, gravy, gravy. Ch. Just. You follow the young prince up and down, like his evil angel. Fal. Not so, my lord; your ill angel is light; but, I hope, he that looks upon me will take me without weighing and yet, in some respects, I grant, I cannot go, I cannot tell: Virtue is of so little regard in these costermonger's times, that true valour is turned bearherd: Pregnancy is made a tapster, and hath his quick wit wasted in giving reckonings: all the other gifts appertinent to man, as the malice of this age shapes them, are not worth a gooseberry. You, that are old, consider not the capacities of us that are young: you measure the heat of our livers with the bitterness of your galls and we that are in the vaward of our youth, I must confess, are wags too. : Ch. Just. Do you set down your name in the scroll of youth, that are written down old with all the characters of age? Have you not a moist eye? a dry hand? a yellow cheek? a white beard? a decreasing leg? an increasing belly? Is not your voice broken? your wind short? your chin double? your wit single? and every part about you blasted with antiquity? and will you yet call yourself young? Fie, fie, fie, sir John! Fal My lord, I was born [about three of the clock in the afternoon, with a white head, and something a d belly. For my voice, I have lost it with hollang, and singing of anthems. To approve my youth farther, I will not: the truth is, I am only old in judg Bent and understanding; and he that will caper with me for a thousand marks, let him lend me the money, and have at him. For the box of the ear that the prince gave you, he gave it like a rude prince, and you took t like a sensible lord. I have checked him for it; and the young lion repents: marry, not in ashes and sackcloth, but in new silk and old sack. Ch. Just. Well, heaven send the prince a better companion! Fal. Heaven send the companion a better prince! I cannot rid my hands of him. [Exeunt CHIEF JUSTICE and Attendant. Fal. If I do, fillip me with a three-man beetle. A man can no more separate age and covetousness, than he can part young limbs and lechery: but the gout galls the one, and the pox pinches the other; and so both the degrees prevent my curses.-Boy! Page. Sir? ? Fal. What money is in my purse Fal. I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse: borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease is incurable. Go bear this letter to my lord of Lancaster; this to the prince; this to the earl of Westmoreland; and this to old mistress Ursula, whom I have weekly sworn to marry since I perceived the first white hair on my chin: About it; you know where to find me. [Exit Page.] A pox of this gout! or, a gout of this pox! for the one, or the other, plays the rogue with my great toe. It is no matter, if I do halt; I have the wars for my colour, and my pension shall seem the more reasonable: A good wit will make use of anything; I will turn diseases to commodity. [Exit. SCENE III-York. A Room in the Archbishop's Palace. Enter the ARCHBISHOP of YORK, the LORD HAS- means; And, my most noble friends, I pray you all, Mowb. I well allow the occasion of our arms; Hast. Our present musters grow upon the file umberland. Fal. Yes; I thank your pretty sweet wit for it. But look you pray, all you that kiss my lady peace at home, tat our armies join not in a hot day! for, if I take but two shirts out with me, and I mean not to sweat extraordinarily,-if it be a hot day, if I brandish anything at my bottle, I would I might never spit white again. There is not a dangerous action can peep out his head, at I am thrust upon it: Well, I cannot last ever: But it was always yet the trick of our English nation, If they have a good thing to make it too common. If You will needs say I am an old man, you should give the rest. I would to God my name were not so terrible the enemy as it is. I were better to be eaten to death with rust, than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion] Ch. Just. Well, be honest, be honest; And Heaven t'ess your expedition! Fal. Will your lordship lend me a thousand pound, fornish me forth? Ch. Just. Not a penny, not a penny; you are too *An allusion to the coin called an angel. • Cateranger's times-times of petty traffic, when qualities are rated by money's worth. Witle. The Chief Justice has lost something of his aracteristic gravity, and has become infected by him who was ey witty himself, but the cause of wit in others; and he poses the single wit to the double chin; and also sug ss the real character of wn. All wit is to a certain extent L. Bard. The question then, Lord Hastings, standeth thus; Whether our present five-and-twenty thousand May hold up head without Northumberland. Hast. With him, we may. L. Bard. Ay, marry, there's the point; But if without him we be thought too feeble, My judgment is, we should not step too far Till we had his assistance by the hand: For, in a theme so bloody-fac'd as this, Conjecture, expectation, and surmise Of aids incertain, should not be admitted. Arch. T is very true, lord Bardolph; for, indeed, Eating the air on promise of supply, Hast. But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt, L. Bard. Yes;-if this present quality of war |