Plays and Poems

Why, then I see

A very valiant rebel of that name.
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,
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! 70
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.

Enter FALSTAFF.

They fight.

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.

He spies FALSTAFF on the ground. 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 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: 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 kim, with a new wound in your thigh come you along with me. He takes HOTSPUR on his back. 122

Re-enter the PRINCE and JOHN OF LANCASTER.

Prince. Come, brother John; full bravely hast thou flesh'd

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,
Breathless and bleeding on the ground.

Hot. O Harry! thou hast robb'd me of my Art thou alive? or is it fantasy
youth.

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;

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,
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,
A kingdom for it was too small a bound;
But now two paces of the vilest earth

That plays upon our eyesight? I prithee, speak; We will not trust our eyes without our ears: Thou art not what thou seem'st.

140

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 down the body. 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,

Is room enough: this earth, that bears thee dead, I gave him this wound in the thigh: if the man

---

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.

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.

SCENE V.-Another Part of the Field.

The trumpets sound. Enter King HENRY, the PRINCE, JOHN OF LANCASTER, WESTMORELAND, and Others, with WORCESTER and VERNON, prisoners.

K. Hen. Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke.
Ill-spirited Worcester! did we not send grace,
Pardon, and terms of love to all of you?
And would'st thou turn our offers contrary ?
Misuse the tenour of thy kinsman's trust?
Three knights upon our party slain to-day,
A noble earl and many a creature else
Had been alive this hour,

If like a Christian thou hadst truly borne
Betwixt our armies true intelligence.

Wor. What I have done my safety urg'd me to;

And I embrace this fortune patiently,
Since not to be avoided it falls on me.

K. Hon. Bear Worcester to the death and Vernon too:

Other offenders we will pause upon.

Exeunt WORCESTER and VERNON, guarded. How goes the field?

Prince. The noble Scot, Lord Douglas, when he saw

The fortune of the day quite turn'd from him,
The noble Percy slain, and all his men
Upon the foot of fear, fled with the rest;
And falling from a hill he was so bruis'd
That the pursuers took him. At my tent
The Douglas is, and I beseech your grace
I may dispose of him.

Lords and Attendants; Officers, Soldiers, Messenger, Porter, Drawers, Beadles, Grooms, etc. A Dancer Speaker of the Epilogue.

INDUCTION.

SCENE.-England.

Warkworth. Before NORTHUMBERLAND'S

Castle.

Enter RUMOUR, painted full of tongues.

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. I 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, Whiles the big year, swola with some other grief, 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 That the blunt monster with uncounted heads, The still-discordant wavering multitude, Can play upon it. But what need I thus

Hath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops,
Quenching the flame of bold rebellion
Even with the rebels' blood. But what mean I
To speak so true at first? my office is
To noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fell
Under the wrath of noble Hotspur's sword,
And that the king before the Douglas' rage
Stoop'd his anointed head as low as death.
This have I rumour'd through the peasant towns
Between that royal field of Shrewsbury
And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone,
Where Hotspur's father, old Northumberland,
Lies crafty-sick. The posts come tiring on,
And not a man of them brings other news
Than they have learn'd of me: from Rumour's tongues
They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true
wrongs.
Exit, 40

My well-known body to anatomize
Among my household? Why is Rumour here?

I run before King Harry's victory;

Port. What shall I say you are? L. Bard.

Who in a bloody field by Shrewsbury

Tell thou the earl

That the Lord Bardolph doth attend him here,

On Tuesday last to listen after news.

North. Why should that gentleman that rode by Travers

Give then such instances of loss?
L. Bard.

Who, he?
He was some hilding fellow that had stolen
The horse he rode on, and, upon my life,
Spoke at a venture. Look! here comes more

news,

Enter MORTON.

North. Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-leaf, Foretells the nature of a tragic volume: So looks the strand whereon the imperious flood Hath left a witness'd usurpation.

Say, Morton, didst thou come from Shrewsbury?

Mor. I ran from Shrewsbury, my noble lord, Where hateful death put on his ugliest mask To fright our party.

North.

How doth my son and brother? Thou tremblest, and the whiteness 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'd;

But Priam found the fire ere he his tongue, And I my Percy's death ere thou report'st it. This thou would'st say, 'Your son did thus and

thus;

Your brother thus; so fought the noble Douglas';
Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds:
But in the end, to stop mine ear indeed,
Thou hast a sigh to blow away this praise,
Ending with 'Brother, son, and all are dead.'
Mor. Douglas is living, and your brother, yet;
But for my lord your son,-

North.

Why, he is dead.

See what a ready tongue suspicion hath!

L. Burd. My lord, I over-rode him on the way; He that but fears the thing he would not know And he is furnish'd with no certainties

More than he haply may retail from me.

Enter TRAVERS.

North. Now, Traver, what good tidings come with you?

Tra. 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.

North.

Ha! Again:

Said he young Harry Percy's spur was cold ? Of Hotspur, Coldspur? that rebellion

Had met ill luck?

L. Bard.

My lord, I'll tell you what:

If my young lord your son have not the day,

Upon mine honour, for a silken point

I'll give my barony: never talk of it.

L. Bard. I cannot think, my lord, your son is

dead.

Mor. I am sorry I should force you to believe That which I would to heaven I had not seen; But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state, Rendering faint quittance, wearied and out

breath'd,

To Harry Monmouth; whose swift wrath beat
down
The never-daunted Percy to the earth,

110

From whence with life he never more sprung up. Would lift him where most trade of danger

In few, his death, whose spirit lent a fire
Even to the dullest peasant in his camp,
Being bruited once, took fire and heat away
From the best-temper'd courage in his troops;
For from his metal was his party steel'd;
Which once in him abated, all the rest
Turn'd on themselves, like dull and heavy lead :
And as the thing that's heavy in itself,
Upon enforcement flies with greatest speed, 120
So did our men, heavy in Hotspur's loss,
Lend to this weight such lightness with their fear
That arrows fled not swifter toward their aim

Than did our soldiers, aiming at their safety,
Fly from the field. Then was that noble Worcester
Too soon ta'en prisoner; and that furious Scot,
The bloody Douglas, whose well-labouring sword
Had three times slain the appearance of the king,
'Gan vail his stomach, and did grace the shame
Of those that turn'd their backs; and in his flight,
Stumbling in fear, was took. The sum of all 131
Is that the king hath won, and hath sent out
A speedy power to encounter you, my lord,
Under the conduct of young Lancaster

And Westmoreland. This is the news at full.

rang'd:

Yet did you say 'Go forth'; and none of this,
Though strongly apprehended, could restrain
The stiff-borne action: what hath then befallen,
Or what hath this bold enterprise brought forth,
More than that being which was like to be? 179

L. Bard. We all that are engaged to this loss
Knew that we ventur'd on such dangerous seas
That if we wrought our life 'twas 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. 'Tis more than time: and, my most
noble lord,

I hear for certain, and do speak the truth,
The gentle Archbishop of York is up
With well-appointed powers: he is a man 190
Who with a double surety binds his followers.
My lord your son had only but the corpse,
But shadows and the shows of men, to fight;
For that same word, rebellion, did divide
The action of their bodies from their souls;
And they did fight with queasiness, constrain'd,

North. For this I shall have time enough to As men drink potions, that their weapons only

Thou art a guard too wanton for the head

Which princes, flesh'd with conquest, aim to hit.
Now bind my brows with iron; and approach 150
The ragged'st hour that time and spite dare bring
To frown upon the enrag'd Northumberland!
Let heaven kiss earth! now let not Nature's hand
Keep the wild flood confin'd! let order die!
And let this world no longer be a stage
To feed contention in a lingering act;
But let one spirit of the first-born Cain
Reign in all bosoms, that, each heart being set
On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,
And darkness be the burier of the dead!

160

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
Lean on your health; the which if you give o'er
To stormy passion must perforce decay.
You cast the event of war, my noble lord,

And summ'd the account of chance, before you

said

Let us make head.' It was your presurmise That in the dole of blows your son might drop: You knew he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge, 170 More likely to fall in than to get o'er;

You were advis'd his flesh was capable

Seem'd on our side: but, for their spirits and
souls,

This word, rebellion, it had froze them up,
As fish are in a pond. But now the bishop
Turns insurrection to religion:
Suppos'd sincere and holy in his thoughts,
He's follow'd both with body and with mind,
And doth enlarge his rising with the blood
Of fair King Richard, scrap'd from Pomfret

This present grief had wip'd it from my mind.
Go in with me; and counsel every man
The aptest way for safety and revenge:
Get posts and letters, and make friends with
speed:

Never so few, nor never yet more need. Exeunt.

SCENE II. London. A Street.

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 at me: the brain of this foolish-compounded clay, man, is not able to invent any thing 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 overwhelmed all her litter but one. If the prince put thee into my service for any other reason than to set me off, why then I have no judgment. Thou whoreson mandrake, thou art fitter to be worn in my cap

Of wounds and scars, and that his forward spirit than to wait at my heels. I was never manned

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