 20810                     Enter a MESSENGER
 20811 
 20812   MESSENGER. So like you, sir, ambassadors from Rome;
 20813     The one is Caius Lucius.
 20814   CYMBELINE. A worthy fellow,
 20815     Albeit he comes on angry purpose now;
 20816     But that's no fault of his. We must receive him
 20817     According to the honour of his sender;
 20818     And towards himself, his goodness forespent on us,
 20819     We must extend our notice. Our dear son,
 20820     When you have given good morning to your mistress,
 20821     Attend the Queen and us; we shall have need
 20822     T' employ you towards this Roman. Come, our queen.
 20823                                            Exeunt all but CLOTEN
 20824   CLOTEN. If she be up, I'll speak with her; if not,
 20825     Let her lie still and dream. By your leave, ho!     [Knocks]
 20826     I know her women are about her; what
 20827     If I do line one of their hands? 'Tis gold
 20828     Which buys admittance; oft it doth-yea, and makes
 20829     Diana's rangers false themselves, yield up
 20830     Their deer to th' stand o' th' stealer; and 'tis gold
 20831     Which makes the true man kill'd and saves the thief;
 20832     Nay, sometime hangs both thief and true man. What
 20833     Can it not do and undo? I will make
 20834     One of her women lawyer to me, for
 20835     I yet not understand the case myself.
 20836     By your leave.                                      [Knocks]
 20837 
 20838                             Enter a LADY
 20839 
 20840   LADY. Who's there that knocks?
 20841   CLOTEN. A gentleman.
 20842   LADY. No more?
 20843   CLOTEN. Yes, and a gentlewoman's son.
 20844   LADY. That's more
 20845     Than some whose tailors are as dear as yours
 20846     Can justly boast of. What's your lordship's pleasure?
 20847   CLOTEN. Your lady's person; is she ready?
 20848   LADY. Ay,
 20849     To keep her chamber.
 20850   CLOTEN. There is gold for you; sell me your good report.
 20851   LADY. How? My good name? or to report of you
 20852     What I shall think is good? The Princess!
 20853 
 20854                         Enter IMOGEN
 20855 
 20856   CLOTEN. Good morrow, fairest sister. Your sweet hand.
 20857                                                        Exit LADY
 20858   IMOGEN. Good morrow, sir. You lay out too much pains
 20859     For purchasing but trouble. The thanks I give
 20860     Is telling you that I am poor of thanks,
 20861     And scarce can spare them.
 20862   CLOTEN. Still I swear I love you.
 20863   IMOGEN. If you but said so, 'twere as deep with me.
 20864     If you swear still, your recompense is still
 20865     That I regard it not.
 20866   CLOTEN. This is no answer.
 20867   IMOGEN. But that you shall not say I yield, being silent,
 20868     I would not speak. I pray you spare me. Faith,
 20869     I shall unfold equal discourtesy
 20870     To your best kindness; one of your great knowing
 20871     Should learn, being taught, forbearance.
 20872   CLOTEN. To leave you in your madness 'twere my sin;
 20873     I will not.
 20874   IMOGEN. Fools are not mad folks.
 20875   CLOTEN. Do you call me fool?
 20876   IMOGEN. As I am mad, I do;
 20877     If you'll be patient, I'll no more be mad;
 20878     That cures us both. I am much sorry, sir,
 20879     You put me to forget a lady's manners
 20880     By being so verbal; and learn now, for all,
 20881     That I, which know my heart, do here pronounce,
 20882     By th' very truth of it, I care not for you,
 20883     And am so near the lack of charity
 20884     To accuse myself I hate you; which I had rather
 20885     You felt than make't my boast.
 20886   CLOTEN. You sin against
 20887     Obedience, which you owe your father. For
 20888     The contract you pretend with that base wretch,
 20889     One bred of alms and foster'd with cold dishes,
 20890     With scraps o' th' court- it is no contract, none.
 20891     And though it be allowed in meaner parties-
 20892     Yet who than he more mean?- to knit their souls-
 20893     On whom there is no more dependency
 20894     But brats and beggary- in self-figur'd knot,
 20895     Yet you are curb'd from that enlargement by
 20896     The consequence o' th' crown, and must not foil
 20897     The precious note of it with a base slave,
 20898     A hilding for a livery, a squire's cloth,
 20899     A pantler- not so eminent!
 20900   IMOGEN. Profane fellow!
 20901     Wert thou the son of Jupiter, and no more
 20902     But what thou art besides, thou wert too base
 20903     To be his groom. Thou wert dignified enough,
 20904     Even to the point of envy, if 'twere made
 20905     Comparative for your virtues to be styl'd
 20906     The under-hangman of his kingdom, and hated
 20907     For being preferr'd so well.
 20908   CLOTEN. The south fog rot him!
 20909   IMOGEN. He never can meet more mischance than come
 20910     To be but nam'd of thee. His mean'st garment
 20911     That ever hath but clipp'd his body is dearer
 20912     In my respect than all the hairs above thee,
 20913     Were they all made such men. How now, Pisanio!
 20914 
 20915                     Enter PISANIO
 20916 
 20917   CLOTEN. 'His garments'! Now the devil-
 20918   IMOGEN. To Dorothy my woman hie thee presently.
 20919   CLOTEN. 'His garment'!
 20920   IMOGEN. I am sprited with a fool;
 20921     Frighted, and ang'red worse. Go bid my woman
 20922     Search for a jewel that too casually
 20923     Hath left mine arm. It was thy master's; shrew me,
 20924     If I would lose it for a revenue
 20925     Of any king's in Europe! I do think
 20926     I saw't this morning; confident I am
 20927     Last night 'twas on mine arm; I kiss'd it.
 20928     I hope it be not gone to tell my lord
 20929     That I kiss aught but he.
 20930   PISANIO. 'Twill not be lost.
 20931   IMOGEN. I hope so. Go and search.                 Exit PISANIO
 20932   CLOTEN. You have abus'd me.
 20933     'His meanest garment'!
 20934   IMOGEN. Ay, I said so, sir.
 20935     If you will make 't an action, call witness to 't.
 20936   CLOTEN. I will inform your father.
 20937   IMOGEN. Your mother too.
 20938     She's my good lady and will conceive, I hope,
 20939     But the worst of me. So I leave you, sir,
 20940     To th' worst of discontent.                             Exit
 20941   CLOTEN. I'll be reveng'd.
 20942     'His mean'st garment'! Well.                            Exit
 20943 
 20944 
 20945 
 20946 
 20947 SCENE IV.
 20948 Rome. PHILARIO'S house
 20949 
 20950 Enter POSTHUMUS and PHILARIO
 20951 
 20952   POSTHUMUS. Fear it not, sir; I would I were so sure
 20953     To win the King as I am bold her honour
 20954     Will remain hers.
 20955   PHILARIO. What means do you make to him?
 20956   POSTHUMUS. Not any; but abide the change of time,
 20957     Quake in the present winter's state, and wish
 20958     That warmer days would come. In these fear'd hopes
 20959     I barely gratify your love; they failing,
 20960     I must die much your debtor.
 20961   PHILARIO. Your very goodness and your company
 20962     O'erpays all I can do. By this your king
 20963     Hath heard of great Augustus. Caius Lucius
 20964     Will do's commission throughly; and I think
 20965     He'll grant the tribute, send th' arrearages,
 20966     Or look upon our Romans, whose remembrance
 20967     Is yet fresh in their grief.
 20968   POSTHUMUS. I do believe
 20969     Statist though I am none, nor like to be,
 20970     That this will prove a war; and you shall hear
 20971     The legions now in Gallia sooner landed
 20972     In our not-fearing Britain than have tidings
 20973     Of any penny tribute paid. Our countrymen
 20974     Are men more order'd than when Julius Caesar
 20975     Smil'd at their lack of skill, but found their courage
 20976     Worthy his frowning at. Their discipline,
 20977     Now mingled with their courages, will make known
 20978     To their approvers they are people such
 20979     That mend upon the world.
 20980 
 20981                       Enter IACHIMO
 20982 
 20983   PHILARIO. See! Iachimo!
 20984   POSTHUMUS. The swiftest harts have posted you by land,
 20985     And winds of all the comers kiss'd your sails,
 20986     To make your vessel nimble.
 20987   PHILARIO. Welcome, sir.
 20988   POSTHUMUS. I hope the briefness of your answer made
 20989     The speediness of your return.
 20990   IACHIMO. Your lady
 20991     Is one of the fairest that I have look'd upon.
 20992   POSTHUMUS. And therewithal the best; or let her beauty
 20993     Look through a casement to allure false hearts,
 20994     And be false with them.
 20995   IACHIMO. Here are letters for you.
 20996   POSTHUMUS. Their tenour good, I trust.
 20997   IACHIMO. 'Tis very like.
 20998   PHILARIO. Was Caius Lucius in the Britain court
 20999     When you were there?
 21000   IACHIMO. He was expected then,
 21001     But not approach'd.
 21002   POSTHUMUS. All is well yet.
 21003     Sparkles this stone as it was wont, or is't not
 21004     Too dull for your good wearing?
 21005   IACHIMO. If I have lost it,
 21006     I should have lost the worth of it in gold.
 21007     I'll make a journey twice as far t' enjoy
 21008     A second night of such sweet shortness which
 21009     Was mine in Britain; for the ring is won.
 21010   POSTHUMUS. The stone's too hard to come by.
 21011   IACHIMO. Not a whit,
 21012     Your lady being so easy.
 21013   POSTHUMUS. Make not, sir,
 21014     Your loss your sport. I hope you know that we
 21015     Must not continue friends.
 21016   IACHIMO. Good sir, we must,
 21017     If you keep covenant. Had I not brought
 21018     The knowledge of your mistress home, I grant
 21019     We were to question farther; but I now
 21020     Profess myself the winner of her honour,
 21021     Together with your ring; and not the wronger
 21022     Of her or you, having proceeded but
 21023     By both your wills.
 21024   POSTHUMUS. If you can make't apparent
 21025     That you have tasted her in bed, my hand
 21026     And ring is yours. If not, the foul opinion
 21027     You had of her pure honour gains or loses
 21028     Your sword or mine, or masterless leaves both
 21029     To who shall find them.
 21030   IACHIMO. Sir, my circumstances,
 21031     Being so near the truth as I will make them,
 21032     Must first induce you to believe- whose strength
 21033     I will confirm with oath; which I doubt not
 21034     You'll give me leave to spare when you shall find
 21035     You need it not.
 21036   POSTHUMUS. Proceed.
 21037   IACHIMO. First, her bedchamber,
 21038     Where I confess I slept not, but profess
 21039     Had that was well worth watching-it was hang'd
 21040     With tapestry of silk and silver; the story,
 21041     Proud Cleopatra when she met her Roman
 21042     And Cydnus swell'd above the banks, or for
 21043     The press of boats or pride. A piece of work
 21044     So bravely done, so rich, that it did strive
 21045     In workmanship and value; which I wonder'd
 21046     Could be so rarely and exactly wrought,
 21047     Since the true life on't was-
 21048   POSTHUMUS. This is true;
 21049     And this you might have heard of here, by me
 21050     Or by some other.
 21051   IACHIMO. More particulars
 21052     Must justify my knowledge.
 21053   POSTHUMUS. So they must,
 21054     Or do your honour injury.
 21055   IACHIMO. The chimney
 21056     Is south the chamber, and the chimneypiece
 21057     Chaste Dian bathing. Never saw I figures
 21058     So likely to report themselves. The cutter
 21059     Was as another nature, dumb; outwent her,
 21060     Motion and breath left out.
 21061   POSTHUMUS. This is a thing
 21062     Which you might from relation likewise reap,
 21063     Being, as it is, much spoke of.
 21064   IACHIMO. The roof o' th' chamber
 21065     With golden cherubins is fretted; her andirons-
 21066     I had forgot them- were two winking Cupids
 21067     Of silver, each on one foot standing, nicely
 21068     Depending on their brands.
 21069   POSTHUMUS. This is her honour!
 21070     Let it be granted you have seen all this, and praise
 21071     Be given to your remembrance; the description
 21072     Of what is in her chamber nothing saves
 21073     The wager you have laid.
 21074   IACHIMO. Then, if you can,                [Shows the bracelet]
 21075     Be pale. I beg but leave to air this jewel. See!
 21076     And now 'tis up again. It must be married
 21077     To that your diamond; I'll keep them.
 21078   POSTHUMUS. Jove!
 21079     Once more let me behold it. Is it that
 21080     Which I left with her?
 21081   IACHIMO. Sir- I thank her- that.
 21082     She stripp'd it from her arm; I see her yet;
 21083     Her pretty action did outsell her gift,
 21084     And yet enrich'd it too. She gave it me, and said
 21085     She priz'd it once.
 21086   POSTHUMUS. May be she pluck'd it of
 21087     To send it me.
 21088   IACHIMO. She writes so to you, doth she?
 21089   POSTHUMUS. O, no, no, no! 'tis true. Here, take this too;
 21090                                                 [Gives the ring]
 21091     It is a basilisk unto mine eye,
 21092     Kills me to look on't. Let there be no honour
 21093     Where there is beauty; truth where semblance; love
 21094     Where there's another man. The vows of women
 21095     Of no more bondage be to where they are made
 21096     Than they are to their virtues, which is nothing.
 21097     O, above measure false!
 21098   PHILARIO. Have patience, sir,
 21099     And take your ring again; 'tis not yet won.
 21100     It may be probable she lost it, or
 21101     Who knows if one her women, being corrupted
 21102     Hath stol'n it from her?
 21103   POSTHUMUS. Very true;
 21104     And so I hope he came by't. Back my ring.
 21105     Render to me some corporal sign about her,
 21106     More evident than this; for this was stol'n.
 21107   IACHIMO. By Jupiter, I had it from her arm!
 21108   POSTHUMUS. Hark you, he swears; by Jupiter he swears.
 21109     'Tis true- nay, keep the ring, 'tis true. I am sure
 21110     She would not lose it. Her attendants are
 21111     All sworn and honourable- they induc'd to steal it!
 21112     And by a stranger! No, he hath enjoy'd her.
 21113     The cognizance of her incontinency
 21114     Is this: she hath bought the name of whore thus dearly.
 21115     There, take thy hire; and all the fiends of hell
 21116     Divide themselves between you!
 21117   PHILARIO. Sir, be patient;
 21118     This is not strong enough to be believ'd
 21119     Of one persuaded well of.
 21120   POSTHUMUS. Never talk on't;
 21121     She hath been colted by him.
 21122   IACHIMO. If you seek
 21123     For further satisfying, under her breast-
 21124     Worthy the pressing- lies a mole, right proud
 21125     Of that most delicate lodging. By my life,
 21126     I kiss'd it; and it gave me present hunger
 21127     To feed again, though full. You do remember
 21128     This stain upon her?
 21129   POSTHUMUS. Ay, and it doth confirm
 21130     Another stain, as big as hell can hold,
 21131     Were there no more but it.
 21132   IACHIMO. Will you hear more?
 21133   POSTHUMUS. Spare your arithmetic; never count the turns.
 21134     Once, and a million!
 21135   IACHIMO. I'll be sworn-
 21136   POSTHUMUS. No swearing.
 21137     If you will swear you have not done't, you lie;
 21138     And I will kill thee if thou dost deny
 21139     Thou'st made me cuckold.
 21140   IACHIMO. I'll deny nothing.
 21141   POSTHUMUS. O that I had her here to tear her limb-meal!
 21142     I will go there and do't, i' th' court, before
 21143     Her father. I'll do something-                          Exit
 21144   PHILARIO. Quite besides
 21145     The government of patience! You have won.
 21146     Let's follow him and pervert the present wrath
 21147     He hath against himself.
 21148   IACHIMO. With all my heart.                             Exeunt
 21149 
 21150 
 21151 
 21152 
 21153 SCENE V.
 21154 Rome. Another room in PHILARIO'S house
 21155 
 21156 Enter POSTHUMUS
 21157 
 21158   POSTHUMUS. Is there no way for men to be, but women
 21159     Must be half-workers? We are all bastards,
 21160     And that most venerable man which I
 21161     Did call my father was I know not where
 21162     When I was stamp'd. Some coiner with his tools
 21163     Made me a counterfeit; yet my mother seem'd
 21164     The Dian of that time. So doth my wife
 21165     The nonpareil of this. O, vengeance, vengeance!
 21166     Me of my lawful pleasure she restrain'd,
 21167     And pray'd me oft forbearance; did it with
 21168     A pudency so rosy, the sweet view on't
 21169     Might well have warm'd old Saturn; that I thought her
 21170     As chaste as unsunn'd snow. O, all the devils!
 21171     This yellow Iachimo in an hour- was't not?
 21172     Or less!- at first? Perchance he spoke not, but,
 21173     Like a full-acorn'd boar, a German one,
 21174     Cried 'O!' and mounted; found no opposition
 21175     But what he look'd for should oppose and she
 21176     Should from encounter guard. Could I find out
 21177     The woman's part in me! For there's no motion
 21178     That tends to vice in man but I affirm
 21179     It is the woman's part. Be it lying, note it,
 21180     The woman's; flattering, hers; deceiving, hers;
 21181     Lust and rank thoughts, hers, hers; revenges, hers;
 21182     Ambitions, covetings, change of prides, disdain,
 21183     Nice longing, slanders, mutability,
 21184     All faults that man may name, nay, that hell knows,
 21185     Why, hers, in part or all; but rather all;
 21186     For even to vice
 21187     They are not constant, but are changing still
 21188     One vice but of a minute old for one
 21189     Not half so old as that. I'll write against them,
 21190     Detest them, curse them. Yet 'tis greater skill
 21191     In a true hate to pray they have their will:
 21192     The very devils cannot plague them better.              Exit
 21193 
 21194 
 21195 
 21196 
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 21205 
 21206 
 21207 
 21208 ACT III. SCENE I.
 21209 Britain. A hall in CYMBELINE'S palace
 21210 
 21211 Enter in state, CYMBELINE, QUEEN, CLOTEN, and LORDS at one door,
 21212 and at another CAIUS LUCIUS and attendants
 21213 
 21214   CYMBELINE. Now say, what would Augustus Caesar with us?
 21215   LUCIUS. When Julius Caesar- whose remembrance yet
 21216     Lives in men's eyes, and will to ears and tongues
 21217     Be theme and hearing ever- was in this Britain,
 21218     And conquer'd it, Cassibelan, thine uncle,
 21219     Famous in Caesar's praises no whit less
 21220     Than in his feats deserving it, for him
 21221     And his succession granted Rome a tribute,
 21222     Yearly three thousand pounds, which by thee lately
 21223     Is left untender'd.
 21224   QUEEN. And, to kill the marvel,
 21225     Shall be so ever.
 21226   CLOTEN. There be many Caesars
 21227     Ere such another Julius. Britain is
 21228     A world by itself, and we will nothing pay
 21229     For wearing our own noses.
 21230   QUEEN. That opportunity,
 21231     Which then they had to take from 's, to resume
 21232     We have again. Remember, sir, my liege,
 21233     The kings your ancestors, together with
 21234     The natural bravery of your isle, which stands
 21235     As Neptune's park, ribb'd and pal'd in
 21236     With rocks unscalable and roaring waters,
 21237     With sands that will not bear your enemies' boats
 21238     But suck them up to th' top-mast. A kind of conquest
 21239     Caesar made here; but made not here his brag
 21240     Of 'came, and saw, and overcame.' With shame-
 21241     The first that ever touch'd him- he was carried
 21242     From off our coast, twice beaten; and his shipping-
 21243     Poor ignorant baubles!- on our terrible seas,
 21244     Like egg-shells mov'd upon their surges, crack'd
 21245     As easily 'gainst our rocks; for joy whereof
 21246     The fam'd Cassibelan, who was once at point-
 21247     O, giglot fortune!- to master Caesar's sword,
 21248     Made Lud's Town with rejoicing fires bright
 21249     And Britons strut with courage.
 21250   CLOTEN. Come, there's no more tribute to be paid. Our kingdom is
 21251     stronger than it was at that time; and, as I said, there is no
 21252     moe such Caesars. Other of them may have crook'd noses; but to
 21253     owe such straight arms, none.
 21254   CYMBELINE. Son, let your mother end.
 21255   CLOTEN. We have yet many among us can gripe as hard as Cassibelan.
 21256     I do not say I am one; but I have a hand. Why tribute? Why should
 21257     we pay tribute? If Caesar can hide the sun from us with a blanket,
 21258     or put the moon in his pocket, we will pay him tribute for light;
 21259     else, sir, no more tribute, pray you now.
 21260   CYMBELINE. You must know,
 21261     Till the injurious Romans did extort
 21262     This tribute from us, we were free. Caesar's ambition-
 21263     Which swell'd so much that it did almost stretch
 21264     The sides o' th' world- against all colour here
 21265     Did put the yoke upon's; which to shake of
 21266     Becomes a warlike people, whom we reckon
 21267     Ourselves to be.
 21268   CLOTEN. We do.
 21269   CYMBELINE. Say then to Caesar,
 21270     Our ancestor was that Mulmutius which
 21271     Ordain'd our laws- whose use the sword of Caesar
 21272     Hath too much mangled; whose repair and franchise
 21273     Shall, by the power we hold, be our good deed,
 21274     Though Rome be therefore angry. Mulmutius made our laws,
 21275     Who was the first of Britain which did put
 21276     His brows within a golden crown, and call'd
 21277     Himself a king.
 21278   LUCIUS. I am sorry, Cymbeline,
 21279     That I am to pronounce Augustus Caesar-
 21280     Caesar, that hath moe kings his servants than
 21281     Thyself domestic officers- thine enemy.
 21282     Receive it from me, then: war and confusion
 21283     In Caesar's name pronounce I 'gainst thee; look
 21284     For fury not to be resisted. Thus defied,
 21285     I thank thee for myself.
 21286   CYMBELINE. Thou art welcome, Caius.
 21287     Thy Caesar knighted me; my youth I spent
 21288     Much under him; of him I gather'd honour,
 21289     Which he to seek of me again, perforce,
 21290     Behoves me keep at utterance. I am perfect
 21291     That the Pannonians and Dalmatians for
 21292     Their liberties are now in arms, a precedent
 21293     Which not to read would show the Britons cold;
 21294     So Caesar shall not find them.
 21295   LUCIUS. Let proof speak.
 21296   CLOTEN. His majesty bids you welcome. Make pastime with us a day or
 21297     two, or longer. If you seek us afterwards in other terms, you
 21298     shall find us in our salt-water girdle. If you beat us out of it,
 21299     it is yours; if you fall in the adventure, our crows shall fare
 21300     the better for you; and there's an end.
 21301   LUCIUS. So, sir.
 21302   CYMBELINE. I know your master's pleasure, and he mine;
 21303     All the remain is, welcome.                           Exeunt
 21304 
 21305 
 21306 
 21307 
 21308 SCENE II.
 21309 Britain. Another room in CYMBELINE'S palace
 21310 
 21311 Enter PISANIO reading of a letter
 21312 
 21313   PISANIO. How? of adultery? Wherefore write you not
 21314     What monsters her accuse? Leonatus!
 21315     O master, what a strange infection
 21316     Is fall'n into thy ear! What false Italian-
 21317     As poisonous-tongu'd as handed- hath prevail'd
 21318     On thy too ready hearing? Disloyal? No.
 21319     She's punish'd for her truth, and undergoes,
 21320     More goddess-like than wife-like, such assaults
 21321     As would take in some virtue. O my master!
 21322     Thy mind to her is now as low as were
 21323     Thy fortunes. How? that I should murder her?
 21324     Upon the love, and truth, and vows, which I
 21325     Have made to thy command? I, her? Her blood?
 21326     If it be so to do good service, never
 21327     Let me be counted serviceable. How look I
 21328     That I should seem to lack humanity
 21329     So much as this fact comes to? [Reads] 'Do't. The letter
 21330     That I have sent her, by her own command
 21331     Shall give thee opportunity.' O damn'd paper,
 21332     Black as the ink that's on thee! Senseless bauble,
 21333     Art thou a fedary for this act, and look'st
 21334     So virgin-like without? Lo, here she comes.
 21335 
 21336                       Enter IMOGEN
 21337 
 21338     I am ignorant in what I am commanded.
 21339   IMOGEN. How now, Pisanio!
 21340   PISANIO. Madam, here is a letter from my lord.
 21341   IMOGEN. Who? thy lord? That is my lord- Leonatus?
 21342     O, learn'd indeed were that astronomer
 21343     That knew the stars as I his characters-
 21344     He'd lay the future open. You good gods,
 21345     Let what is here contain'd relish of love,
 21346     Of my lord's health, of his content; yet not
 21347     That we two are asunder- let that grieve him!
 21348     Some griefs are med'cinable; that is one of them,
 21349     For it doth physic love- of his content,
 21350     All but in that. Good wax, thy leave. Blest be
 21351     You bees that make these locks of counsel! Lovers
 21352     And men in dangerous bonds pray not alike;
 21353     Though forfeiters you cast in prison, yet
 21354     You clasp young Cupid's tables. Good news, gods!
 21355                                                          [Reads]
 21356     'Justice and your father's wrath, should he take me in his
 21357     dominion, could not be so cruel to me as you, O the dearest of
 21358     creatures, would even renew me with your eyes. Take notice that I
 21359     am in Cambria, at Milford Haven. What your own love will out of
 21360     this advise you, follow. So he wishes you all happiness that
 21361     remains loyal to his vow, and your increasing in love
 21362                                             LEONATUS POSTHUMUS.'
 21363 
 21364     O for a horse with wings! Hear'st thou, Pisanio?
 21365     He is at Milford Haven. Read, and tell me
 21366     How far 'tis thither. If one of mean affairs
 21367     May plod it in a week, why may not I
 21368     Glide thither in a day? Then, true Pisanio-
 21369     Who long'st like me to see thy lord, who long'st-
 21370     O, let me 'bate!- but not like me, yet long'st,
 21371     But in a fainter kind- O, not like me,
 21372     For mine's beyond beyond!-say, and speak thick-
 21373     Love's counsellor should fill the bores of hearing
 21374     To th' smothering of the sense- how far it is
 21375     To this same blessed Milford. And by th' way
 21376     Tell me how Wales was made so happy as
 21377     T' inherit such a haven. But first of all,
 21378     How we may steal from hence; and for the gap
 21379     That we shall make in time from our hence-going
 21380     And our return, to excuse. But first, how get hence.
 21381     Why should excuse be born or ere begot?
 21382     We'll talk of that hereafter. Prithee speak,
 21383     How many score of miles may we well ride
 21384     'Twixt hour and hour?
 21385   PISANIO. One score 'twixt sun and sun,
 21386     Madam, 's enough for you, and too much too.
 21387   IMOGEN. Why, one that rode to's execution, man,
 21388     Could never go so slow. I have heard of riding wagers
 21389     Where horses have been nimbler than the sands
 21390     That run i' th' clock's behalf. But this is fool'ry.
 21391     Go bid my woman feign a sickness; say
 21392     She'll home to her father; and provide me presently
 21393     A riding suit, no costlier than would fit
 21394     A franklin's huswife.
 21395   PISANIO. Madam, you're best consider.
 21396   IMOGEN. I see before me, man. Nor here, nor here,
 21397     Nor what ensues, but have a fog in them
 21398     That I cannot look through. Away, I prithee;
 21399     Do as I bid thee. There's no more to say;
 21400     Accessible is none but Milford way.                   Exeunt
 21401 
 21402 
 21403 
 21404 
 21405 SCENE III.
 21406 Wales. A mountainous country with a cave
 21407 
 21408 Enter from the cave BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS
 21409 
 21410   BELARIUS. A goodly day not to keep house with such
 21411     Whose roof's as low as ours! Stoop, boys; this gate
 21412     Instructs you how t' adore the heavens, and bows you
 21413     To a morning's holy office. The gates of monarchs
 21414     Are arch'd so high that giants may jet through
 21415     And keep their impious turbans on without
 21416     Good morrow to the sun. Hail, thou fair heaven!
 21417     We house i' th' rock, yet use thee not so hardly
 21418     As prouder livers do.
 21419   GUIDERIUS. Hail, heaven!
 21420   ARVIRAGUS. Hail, heaven!
 21421   BELARIUS. Now for our mountain sport. Up to yond hill,
 21422     Your legs are young; I'll tread these flats. Consider,
 21423     When you above perceive me like a crow,
 21424     That it is place which lessens and sets off;
 21425     And you may then revolve what tales I have told you
 21426     Of courts, of princes, of the tricks in war.
 21427     This service is not service so being done,
 21428     But being so allow'd. To apprehend thus
 21429     Draws us a profit from all things we see,
 21430     And often to our comfort shall we find
 21431     The sharded beetle in a safer hold
 21432     Than is the full-wing'd eagle. O, this life
 21433     Is nobler than attending for a check,
 21434     Richer than doing nothing for a bribe,
 21435     Prouder than rustling in unpaid-for silk:
 21436     Such gain the cap of him that makes him fine,
 21437     Yet keeps his book uncross'd. No life to ours!
 21438   GUIDERIUS. Out of your proof you speak. We, poor unfledg'd,
 21439     Have never wing'd from view o' th' nest, nor know not
 21440     What air's from home. Haply this life is best,
 21441     If quiet life be best; sweeter to you
 21442     That have a sharper known; well corresponding
 21443     With your stiff age. But unto us it is
 21444     A cell of ignorance, travelling abed,
 21445     A prison for a debtor that not dares
 21446     To stride a limit.
 21447   ARVIRAGUS. What should we speak of
 21448     When we are old as you? When we shall hear
 21449     The rain and wind beat dark December, how,
 21450     In this our pinching cave, shall we discourse.
 21451     The freezing hours away? We have seen nothing;
 21452     We are beastly: subtle as the fox for prey,
 21453     Like warlike as the wolf for what we eat.
 21454     Our valour is to chase what flies; our cage
 21455     We make a choir, as doth the prison'd bird,
 21456     And sing our bondage freely.
 21457   BELARIUS. How you speak!
 21458     Did you but know the city's usuries,
 21459     And felt them knowingly- the art o' th' court,
 21460     As hard to leave as keep, whose top to climb
 21461     Is certain falling, or so slipp'ry that
 21462     The fear's as bad as falling; the toil o' th' war,
 21463     A pain that only seems to seek out danger
 21464     I' th'name of fame and honour, which dies i' th'search,
 21465     And hath as oft a sland'rous epitaph
 21466     As record of fair act; nay, many times,
 21467     Doth ill deserve by doing well; what's worse-
 21468     Must curtsy at the censure. O, boys, this story
 21469     The world may read in me; my body's mark'd
 21470     With Roman swords, and my report was once
 21471     first with the best of note. Cymbeline lov'd me;
 21472     And when a soldier was the theme, my name
 21473     Was not far off. Then was I as a tree
 21474     Whose boughs did bend with fruit; but in one night
 21475     A storm, or robbery, call it what you will,
 21476     Shook down my mellow hangings, nay, my leaves,
 21477     And left me bare to weather.
 21478   GUIDERIUS. Uncertain favour!
 21479   BELARIUS. My fault being nothing- as I have told you oft-
 21480     But that two villains, whose false oaths prevail'd
 21481     Before my perfect honour, swore to Cymbeline
 21482     I was confederate with the Romans. So
 21483     Follow'd my banishment, and this twenty years
 21484     This rock and these demesnes have been my world,
 21485     Where I have liv'd at honest freedom, paid
 21486     More pious debts to heaven than in all
 21487     The fore-end of my time. But up to th' mountains!
 21488     This is not hunters' language. He that strikes
 21489     The venison first shall be the lord o' th' feast;
 21490     To him the other two shall minister;
 21491     And we will fear no poison, which attends
 21492     In place of greater state. I'll meet you in the valleys.
 21493                                   Exeunt GUIDERIUS and ARVIRAGUS
 21494     How hard it is to hide the sparks of nature!
 21495     These boys know little they are sons to th' King,
 21496     Nor Cymbeline dreams that they are alive.
 21497     They think they are mine; and though train'd up thus meanly
 21498     I' th' cave wherein they bow, their thoughts do hit
 21499     The roofs of palaces, and nature prompts them
 21500     In simple and low things to prince it much
 21501     Beyond the trick of others. This Polydore,
 21502     The heir of Cymbeline and Britain, who
 21503     The King his father call'd Guiderius- Jove!
 21504     When on my three-foot stool I sit and tell
 21505     The warlike feats I have done, his spirits fly out
 21506     Into my story; say 'Thus mine enemy fell,
 21507     And thus I set my foot on's neck'; even then
 21508     The princely blood flows in his cheek, he sweats,
 21509     Strains his young nerves, and puts himself in posture
 21510     That acts my words. The younger brother, Cadwal,
 21511     Once Arviragus, in as like a figure
 21512     Strikes life into my speech, and shows much more
 21513     His own conceiving. Hark, the game is rous'd!
 21514     O Cymbeline, heaven and my conscience knows
 21515     Thou didst unjustly banish me! Whereon,
 21516     At three and two years old, I stole these babes,
 21517     Thinking to bar thee of succession as
 21518     Thou refts me of my lands. Euriphile,
 21519     Thou wast their nurse; they took thee for their mother,
 21520     And every day do honour to her grave.
 21521     Myself, Belarius, that am Morgan call'd,
 21522     They take for natural father. The game is up.           Exit
 21523 
 21524 
 21525 
 21526 
 21527 SCENE IV.
 21528 Wales, near Milford Haven
 21529 
 21530 Enter PISANIO and IMOGEN
 21531 
 21532   IMOGEN. Thou told'st me, when we came from horse, the place
 21533     Was near at hand. Ne'er long'd my mother so
 21534     To see me first as I have now. Pisanio! Man!
 21535     Where is Posthumus? What is in thy mind
 21536     That makes thee stare thus? Wherefore breaks that sigh
 21537     From th' inward of thee? One but painted thus
 21538     Would be interpreted a thing perplex'd
 21539     Beyond self-explication. Put thyself
 21540     Into a haviour of less fear, ere wildness
 21541     Vanquish my staider senses. What's the matter?
 21542     Why tender'st thou that paper to me with
 21543     A look untender! If't be summer news,
 21544     Smile to't before; if winterly, thou need'st
 21545     But keep that count'nance still. My husband's hand?
 21546     That drug-damn'd Italy hath out-craftied him,
 21547     And he's at some hard point. Speak, man; thy tongue
 21548     May take off some extremity, which to read
 21549     Would be even mortal to me.
 21550   PISANIO. Please you read,
 21551     And you shall find me, wretched man, a thing
 21552     The most disdain'd of fortune.
 21553   IMOGEN. [Reads] 'Thy mistress, Pisanio, hath play'd the strumpet in
 21554     my bed, the testimonies whereof lie bleeding in me. I speak not
 21555     out of weak surmises, but from proof as strong as my grief and as
 21556     certain as I expect my revenge. That part thou, Pisanio, must act
 21557     for me, if thy faith be not tainted with the breach of hers. Let
 21558     thine own hands take away her life; I shall give thee opportunity
 21559     at Milford Haven; she hath my letter for the purpose; where, if
 21560     thou fear to strike, and to make me certain it is done, thou art
 21561     the pander to her dishonour, and equally to me disloyal.'
 21562   PISANIO. What shall I need to draw my sword? The paper
 21563     Hath cut her throat already. No, 'tis slander,
 21564     Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue
 21565     Outvenoms all the worms of Nile, whose breath
 21566     Rides on the posting winds and doth belie
 21567     All corners of the world. Kings, queens, and states,
 21568     Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave,
 21569     This viperous slander enters. What cheer, madam?
 21570   IMOGEN. False to his bed? What is it to be false?
 21571     To lie in watch there, and to think on him?
 21572     To weep twixt clock and clock? If sleep charge nature,
 21573     To break it with a fearful dream of him,
 21574     And cry myself awake? That's false to's bed,
 21575     Is it?
 21576   PISANIO. Alas, good lady!
 21577   IMOGEN. I false! Thy conscience witness! Iachimo,
 21578     Thou didst accuse him of incontinency;
 21579     Thou then look'dst like a villain; now, methinks,
 21580     Thy favour's good enough. Some jay of Italy,
 21581     Whose mother was her painting, hath betray'd him.
 21582     Poor I am stale, a garment out of fashion,
 21583     And for I am richer than to hang by th' walls
 21584     I must be ripp'd. To pieces with me! O,
 21585     Men's vows are women's traitors! All good seeming,
 21586     By thy revolt, O husband, shall be thought
 21587     Put on for villainy; not born where't grows,
 21588     But worn a bait for ladies.
 21589   PISANIO. Good madam, hear me.
 21590   IMOGEN. True honest men being heard, like false Aeneas,
 21591     Were, in his time, thought false; and Sinon's weeping
 21592     Did scandal many a holy tear, took pity
 21593     From most true wretchedness. So thou, Posthumus,
 21594     Wilt lay the leaven on all proper men:
 21595     Goodly and gallant shall be false and perjur'd
 21596     From thy great fail. Come, fellow, be thou honest;
 21597     Do thou thy master's bidding; when thou seest him,
 21598     A little witness my obedience. Look!
 21599     I draw the sword myself; take it, and hit
 21600     The innocent mansion of my love, my heart.
 21601     Fear not; 'tis empty of all things but grief;
 21602     Thy master is not there, who was indeed
 21603     The riches of it. Do his bidding; strike.
 21604     Thou mayst be valiant in a better cause,
 21605     But now thou seem'st a coward.
 21606   PISANIO. Hence, vile instrument!
 21607     Thou shalt not damn my hand.
 21608   IMOGEN. Why, I must die;
 21609     And if I do not by thy hand, thou art
 21610     No servant of thy master's. Against self-slaughter
 21611     There is a prohibition so divine
 21612     That cravens my weak hand. Come, here's my heart-
 21613     Something's afore't. Soft, soft! we'll no defence!-
 21614     Obedient as the scabbard. What is here?
 21615     The scriptures of the loyal Leonatus
 21616     All turn'd to heresy? Away, away,
 21617     Corrupters of my faith! you shall no more
 21618     Be stomachers to my heart. Thus may poor fools
 21619     Believe false teachers; though those that are betray'd
 21620     Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor
 21621     Stands in worse case of woe. And thou, Posthumus,
 21622     That didst set up my disobedience 'gainst the King
 21623     My father, and make me put into contempt the suits
 21624     Of princely fellows, shalt hereafter find
 21625     It is no act of common passage but
 21626     A strain of rareness; and I grieve myself
 21627     To think, when thou shalt be disedg'd by her
 21628     That now thou tirest on, how thy memory
 21629     Will then be pang'd by me. Prithee dispatch.
 21630     The lamp entreats the butcher. Where's thy knife?
 21631     Thou art too slow to do thy master's bidding,
 21632     When I desire it too.
 21633   PISANIO. O gracious lady,
 21634     Since I receiv'd command to do this busines
 21635     I have not slept one wink.
 21636   IMOGEN. Do't, and to bed then.
 21637   PISANIO. I'll wake mine eyeballs first.
 21638   IMOGEN. Wherefore then
 21639     Didst undertake it? Why hast thou abus'd
 21640     So many miles with a pretence? This place?
 21641     Mine action and thine own? our horses' labour?
 21642     The time inviting thee? the perturb'd court,
 21643     For my being absent?- whereunto I never
 21644     Purpose return. Why hast thou gone so far
 21645     To be unbent when thou hast ta'en thy stand,
 21646     Th' elected deer before thee?
 21647   PISANIO. But to win time
 21648     To lose so bad employment, in the which
 21649     I have consider'd of a course. Good lady,
 21650     Hear me with patience.
 21651   IMOGEN. Talk thy tongue weary- speak.
 21652     I have heard I am a strumpet, and mine ear,
 21653     Therein false struck, can take no greater wound,
 21654     Nor tent to bottom that. But speak.
 21655   PISANIO. Then, madam,
 21656     I thought you would not back again.
 21657   IMOGEN. Most like-
 21658     Bringing me here to kill me.
 21659   PISANIO. Not so, neither;
 21660     But if I were as wise as honest, then
 21661     My purpose would prove well. It cannot be
 21662     But that my master is abus'd. Some villain,
 21663     Ay, and singular in his art, hath done you both
 21664     This cursed injury.
 21665   IMOGEN. Some Roman courtezan!
 21666   PISANIO. No, on my life!
 21667     I'll give but notice you are dead, and send him
 21668     Some bloody sign of it, for 'tis commanded
 21669     I should do so. You shall be miss'd at court,
 21670     And that will well confirm it.
 21671   IMOGEN. Why, good fellow,
 21672     What shall I do the while? where bide? how live?
 21673     Or in my life what comfort, when I am
 21674     Dead to my husband?
 21675   PISANIO. If you'll back to th' court-
 21676   IMOGEN. No court, no father, nor no more ado
 21677     With that harsh, noble, simple nothing-
 21678     That Cloten, whose love-suit hath been to me
 21679     As fearful as a siege.
 21680   PISANIO. If not at court,
 21681     Then not in Britain must you bide.
 21682   IMOGEN. Where then?
 21683     Hath Britain all the sun that shines? Day, night,
 21684     Are they not but in Britain? I' th' world's volume
 21685     Our Britain seems as of it, but not in't;
 21686     In a great pool a swan's nest. Prithee think
 21687     There's livers out of Britain.
 21688   PISANIO. I am most glad
 21689     You think of other place. Th' ambassador,
 21690   LUCIUS the Roman, comes to Milford Haven
 21691     To-morrow. Now, if you could wear a mind
 21692     Dark as your fortune is, and but disguise
 21693     That which t' appear itself must not yet be
 21694     But by self-danger, you should tread a course
 21695     Pretty and full of view; yea, happily, near
 21696     The residence of Posthumus; so nigh, at least,
 21697     That though his actions were not visible, yet
 21698     Report should render him hourly to your ear
 21699     As truly as he moves.
 21700   IMOGEN. O! for such means,
 21701     Though peril to my modesty, not death on't,
 21702     I would adventure.
 21703   PISANIO. Well then, here's the point:
 21704     You must forget to be a woman; change
 21705     Command into obedience; fear and niceness-
 21706     The handmaids of all women, or, more truly,
 21707     Woman it pretty self- into a waggish courage;
 21708     Ready in gibes, quick-answer'd, saucy, and
 21709     As quarrelous as the weasel. Nay, you must
 21710     Forget that rarest treasure of your cheek,
 21711     Exposing it- but, O, the harder heart!
 21712     Alack, no remedy!- to the greedy touch
 21713     Of common-kissing Titan, and forget
 21714     Your laboursome and dainty trims wherein
 21715     You made great Juno angry.
 21716   IMOGEN. Nay, be brief;
 21717     I see into thy end, and am almost
 21718     A man already.
 21719   PISANIO. First, make yourself but like one.
 21720     Fore-thinking this, I have already fit-
 21721     'Tis in my cloak-bag- doublet, hat, hose, all
 21722     That answer to them. Would you, in their serving,
 21723     And with what imitation you can borrow
 21724     From youth of such a season, fore noble Lucius
 21725     Present yourself, desire his service, tell him
 21726     Wherein you're happy- which will make him know
 21727     If that his head have ear in music; doubtless
 21728     With joy he will embrace you; for he's honourable,
 21729     And, doubling that, most holy. Your means abroad-
 21730     You have me, rich; and I will never fail
 21731     Beginning nor supplyment.
 21732   IMOGEN. Thou art all the comfort
 21733     The gods will diet me with. Prithee away!
 21734     There's more to be consider'd; but we'll even
 21735     All that good time will give us. This attempt
 21736     I am soldier to, and will abide it with
 21737     A prince's courage. Away, I prithee.
 21738   PISANIO. Well, madam, we must take a short farewell,
 21739     Lest, being miss'd, I be suspected of
 21740     Your carriage from the court. My noble mistress,
 21741     Here is a box; I had it from the Queen.
 21742     What's in't is precious. If you are sick at sea
 21743     Or stomach-qualm'd at land, a dram of this
 21744     Will drive away distemper. To some shade,
 21745     And fit you to your manhood. May the gods
 21746     Direct you to the best!
 21747   IMOGEN. Amen. I thank thee.                   Exeunt severally
 21748 
 21749 
 21750 
 21751 
 21752 SCENE V.
 21753 Britain. CYMBELINE'S palace
 21754 
 21755 Enter CYMBELINE, QUEEN, CLOTEN, LUCIUS, and LORDS
 21756 
 21757   CYMBELINE. Thus far; and so farewell.
 21758   LUCIUS. Thanks, royal sir.
 21759     My emperor hath wrote; I must from hence,
 21760     And am right sorry that I must report ye
 21761     My master's enemy.
 21762   CYMBELINE. Our subjects, sir,
 21763     Will not endure his yoke; and for ourself
 21764     To show less sovereignty than they, must needs
 21765     Appear unkinglike.
 21766   LUCIUS. So, sir. I desire of you
 21767     A conduct overland to Milford Haven.
 21768     Madam, all joy befall your Grace, and you!
 21769   CYMBELINE. My lords, you are appointed for that office;
 21770     The due of honour in no point omit.
 21771     So farewell, noble Lucius.
 21772   LUCIUS. Your hand, my lord.
 21773   CLOTEN. Receive it friendly; but from this time forth
 21774     I wear it as your enemy.
 21775   LUCIUS. Sir, the event
 21776     Is yet to name the winner. Fare you well.
 21777   CYMBELINE. Leave not the worthy Lucius, good my lords,
 21778     Till he have cross'd the Severn. Happiness!
 21779                                          Exeunt LUCIUS and LORDS
 21780   QUEEN. He goes hence frowning; but it honours us
 21781     That we have given him cause.
 21782   CLOTEN. 'Tis all the better;
 21783     Your valiant Britons have their wishes in it.
 21784   CYMBELINE. Lucius hath wrote already to the Emperor
 21785     How it goes here. It fits us therefore ripely
 21786     Our chariots and our horsemen be in readiness.
 21787     The pow'rs that he already hath in Gallia
 21788     Will soon be drawn to head, from whence he moves
 21789     His war for Britain.
 21790   QUEEN. 'Tis not sleepy business,
 21791     But must be look'd to speedily and strongly.
 21792   CYMBELINE. Our expectation that it would be thus
 21793     Hath made us forward. But, my gentle queen,
 21794     Where is our daughter? She hath not appear'd
 21795     Before the Roman, nor to us hath tender'd
 21796     The duty of the day. She looks us like
 21797     A thing more made of malice than of duty;
 21798     We have noted it. Call her before us, for
 21799     We have been too slight in sufferance.      Exit a MESSENGER
 21800   QUEEN. Royal sir,
 21801     Since the exile of Posthumus, most retir'd
 21802     Hath her life been; the cure whereof, my lord,
 21803     'Tis time must do. Beseech your Majesty,
 21804     Forbear sharp speeches to her; she's a lady
 21805     So tender of rebukes that words are strokes,
 21806     And strokes death to her.
 21807 
 21808                  Re-enter MESSENGER
 21809 
 21810   CYMBELINE. Where is she, sir? How
 21811     Can her contempt be answer'd?
 21812   MESSENGER. Please you, sir,
 21813     Her chambers are all lock'd, and there's no answer
 21814     That will be given to th' loud of noise we make.
 21815   QUEEN. My lord, when last I went to visit her,
 21816     She pray'd me to excuse her keeping close;
 21817     Whereto constrain'd by her infirmity
 21818     She should that duty leave unpaid to you
 21819     Which daily she was bound to proffer. This
 21820     She wish'd me to make known; but our great court
 21821     Made me to blame in memory.
 21822   CYMBELINE. Her doors lock'd?
 21823     Not seen of late? Grant, heavens, that which I fear
 21824     Prove false!                                            Exit
 21825   QUEEN. Son, I say, follow the King.
 21826   CLOTEN. That man of hers, Pisanio, her old servant,
 21827     I have not seen these two days.
 21828   QUEEN. Go, look after.                             Exit CLOTEN
 21829     Pisanio, thou that stand'st so for Posthumus!
 21830     He hath a drug of mine. I pray his absence
 21831     Proceed by swallowing that; for he believes
 21832     It is a thing most precious. But for her,
 21833     Where is she gone? Haply despair hath seiz'd her;
 21834     Or, wing'd with fervour of her love, she's flown
 21835     To her desir'd Posthumus. Gone she is
 21836     To death or to dishonour, and my end
 21837     Can make good use of either. She being down,
 21838     I have the placing of the British crown.
 21839 
 21840                    Re-enter CLOTEN
 21841 
 21842     How now, my son?
 21843   CLOTEN. 'Tis certain she is fled.
 21844     Go in and cheer the King. He rages; none
 21845     Dare come about him.
 21846   QUEEN. All the better. May
 21847     This night forestall him of the coming day!             Exit
 21848   CLOTEN. I love and hate her; for she's fair and royal,
 21849     And that she hath all courtly parts more exquisite
 21850     Than lady, ladies, woman. From every one
 21851     The best she hath, and she, of all compounded,
 21852     Outsells them all. I love her therefore; but
 21853     Disdaining me and throwing favours on
 21854     The low Posthumus slanders so her judgment
 21855     That what's else rare is chok'd; and in that point
 21856     I will conclude to hate her, nay, indeed,
 21857     To be reveng'd upon her. For when fools
 21858     Shall-
 21859 
 21860                     Enter PISANIO
 21861 
 21862     Who is here? What, are you packing, sirrah?
 21863     Come hither. Ah, you precious pander! Villain,
 21864     Where is thy lady? In a word, or else
 21865     Thou art straightway with the fiends.
 21866   PISANIO. O good my lord!
 21867   CLOTEN. Where is thy lady? or, by Jupiter-
 21868     I will not ask again. Close villain,
 21869     I'll have this secret from thy heart, or rip
 21870     Thy heart to find it. Is she with Posthumus?
 21871     From whose so many weights of baseness cannot
 21872     A dram of worth be drawn.
 21873   PISANIO. Alas, my lord,
 21874     How can she be with him? When was she miss'd?
 21875     He is in Rome.
 21876   CLOTEN. Where is she, sir? Come nearer.
 21877     No farther halting! Satisfy me home
 21878     What is become of her.
 21879   PISANIO. O my all-worthy lord!
 21880   CLOTEN. All-worthy villain!
 21881     Discover where thy mistress is at once,
 21882     At the next word. No more of 'worthy lord'!
 21883     Speak, or thy silence on the instant is
 21884     Thy condemnation and thy death.
 21885   PISANIO. Then, sir,
 21886     This paper is the history of my knowledge
 21887     Touching her flight.                   [Presenting a letter]
 21888   CLOTEN. Let's see't. I will pursue her
 21889     Even to Augustus' throne.
 21890   PISANIO. [Aside] Or this or perish.
 21891     She's far enough; and what he learns by this
 21892     May prove his travel, not her danger.
 21893   CLOTEN. Humh!
 21894   PISANIO. [Aside] I'll write to my lord she's dead. O Imogen,
 21895     Safe mayst thou wander, safe return again!
 21896   CLOTEN. Sirrah, is this letter true?
 21897   PISANIO. Sir, as I think.
 21898   CLOTEN. It is Posthumus' hand; I know't. Sirrah, if thou wouldst
 21899     not be a villain, but do me true service, undergo those
 21900     employments wherein I should have cause to use thee with a
 21901     serious industry- that is, what villainy soe'er I bid thee do, to
 21902     perform it directly and truly- I would think thee an honest man;
 21903     thou shouldst neither want my means for thy relief nor my voice
 21904     for thy preferment.
 21905   PISANIO. Well, my good lord.
 21906   CLOTEN. Wilt thou serve me? For since patiently and constantly thou
 21907     hast stuck to the bare fortune of that beggar Posthumus, thou
 21908     canst not, in the course of gratitude, but be a diligent follower
 21909     of mine. Wilt thou serve me?
 21910   PISANIO. Sir, I will.
 21911   CLOTEN. Give me thy hand; here's my purse. Hast any of thy late
 21912     master's garments in thy possession?
 21913   PISANIO. I have, my lord, at my lodging, the same suit he wore when
 21914     he took leave of my lady and mistress.
 21915   CLOTEN. The first service thou dost me, fetch that suit hither. Let
 21916     it be thy first service; go.
 21917   PISANIO. I shall, my lord.                                Exit
 21918   CLOTEN. Meet thee at Milford Haven! I forgot to ask him one thing;
 21919     I'll remember't anon. Even there, thou villain Posthumus, will I
 21920     kill thee. I would these garments were come. She said upon a
 21921     time- the bitterness of it I now belch from my heart- that she
 21922     held the very garment of Posthumus in more respect than my noble
 21923     and natural person, together with the adornment of my qualities.
 21924     With that suit upon my back will I ravish her; first kill him,
 21925     and in her eyes. There shall she see my valour, which will then
 21926     be a torment to her contempt. He on the ground, my speech of
 21927     insultment ended on his dead body, and when my lust hath dined-
 21928     which, as I say, to vex her I will execute in the clothes that
 21929     she so prais'd- to the court I'll knock her back, foot her home
 21930     again. She hath despis'd me rejoicingly, and I'll be merry in my
 21931     revenge.
 21932 
 21933                 Re-enter PISANIO, with the clothes
 21934 
 21935     Be those the garments?
 21936   PISANIO. Ay, my noble lord.
 21937   CLOTEN. How long is't since she went to Milford Haven?
 21938   PISANIO. She can scarce be there yet.
 21939   CLOTEN. Bring this apparel to my chamber; that is the second thing
 21940     that I have commanded thee. The third is that thou wilt be a
 21941     voluntary mute to my design. Be but duteous and true, preferment
 21942     shall tender itself to thee. My revenge is now at Milford, would
 21943     I had wings to follow it! Come, and be true.            Exit
 21944   PISANIO. Thou bid'st me to my loss; for true to thee
 21945     Were to prove false, which I will never be,
 21946     To him that is most true. To Milford go,
 21947     And find not her whom thou pursuest. Flow, flow,
 21948     You heavenly blessings, on her! This fool's speed
 21949     Be cross'd with slowness! Labour be his meed!           Exit
 21950 
 21951 
 21952 
 21953 
 21954 SCENE VI.
 21955 Wales. Before the cave of BELARIUS
 21956 
 21957 Enter IMOGEN alone, in boy's clothes
 21958 
 21959   IMOGEN. I see a man's life is a tedious one.
 21960     I have tir'd myself, and for two nights together
 21961     Have made the ground my bed. I should be sick
 21962     But that my resolution helps me. Milford,
 21963     When from the mountain-top Pisanio show'd thee,
 21964     Thou wast within a ken. O Jove! I think
 21965     Foundations fly the wretched; such, I mean,
 21966     Where they should be reliev'd. Two beggars told me
 21967     I could not miss my way. Will poor folks lie,
 21968     That have afflictions on them, knowing 'tis
 21969     A punishment or trial? Yes; no wonder,
 21970     When rich ones scarce tell true. To lapse in fulness
 21971     Is sorer than to lie for need; and falsehood
 21972     Is worse in kings than beggars. My dear lord!
 21973     Thou art one o' th' false ones. Now I think on thee
 21974     My hunger's gone; but even before, I was
 21975     At point to sink for food. But what is this?
 21976     Here is a path to't; 'tis some savage hold.
 21977     I were best not call; I dare not call. Yet famine,
 21978     Ere clean it o'erthrow nature, makes it valiant.
 21979     Plenty and peace breeds cowards; hardness ever
 21980     Of hardiness is mother. Ho! who's here?
 21981     If anything that's civil, speak; if savage,
 21982     Take or lend. Ho! No answer? Then I'll enter.
 21983     Best draw my sword; and if mine enemy
 21984     But fear the sword, like me, he'll scarcely look on't.
 21985     Such a foe, good heavens!                 Exit into the cave
 21986 
 21987             Enter BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS
 21988 
 21989   BELARIUS. You, Polydore, have prov'd best woodman and
 21990     Are master of the feast. Cadwal and I
 21991     Will play the cook and servant; 'tis our match.
 21992     The sweat of industry would dry and die
 21993     But for the end it works to. Come, our stomachs
 21994     Will make what's homely savoury; weariness
 21995     Can snore upon the flint, when resty sloth
 21996     Finds the down pillow hard. Now, peace be here,
 21997     Poor house, that keep'st thyself!
 21998   GUIDERIUS. I am thoroughly weary.
 21999   ARVIRAGUS. I am weak with toil, yet strong in appetite.
 22000   GUIDERIUS. There is cold meat i' th' cave; we'll browse on that
 22001     Whilst what we have kill'd be cook'd.
 22002   BELARIUS. [Looking into the cave] Stay, come not in.
 22003     But that it eats our victuals, I should think
 22004     Here were a fairy.
 22005   GUIDERIUS. What's the matter, sir?
 22006   BELARIUS.. By Jupiter, an angel! or, if not,
 22007     An earthly paragon! Behold divineness
 22008     No elder than a boy!
 22009 
 22010                        Re-enter IMOGEN
 22011 
 22012   IMOGEN. Good masters, harm me not.
 22013     Before I enter'd here I call'd, and thought
 22014     To have begg'd or bought what I have took. Good troth,
 22015     I have stol'n nought; nor would not though I had found
 22016     Gold strew'd i' th' floor. Here's money for my meat.
 22017     I would have left it on the board, so soon
 22018     As I had made my meal, and parted
 22019     With pray'rs for the provider.
 22020   GUIDERIUS. Money, youth?
 22021   ARVIRAGUS. All gold and silver rather turn to dirt,
 22022     As 'tis no better reckon'd but of those
 22023     Who worship dirty gods.
 22024   IMOGEN. I see you're angry.
 22025     Know, if you kill me for my fault, I should
 22026     Have died had I not made it.
 22027   BELARIUS. Whither bound?
 22028   IMOGEN. To Milford Haven.
 22029   BELARIUS. What's your name?
 22030   IMOGEN. Fidele, sir. I have a kinsman who
 22031     Is bound for Italy; he embark'd at Milford;
 22032     To whom being going, almost spent with hunger,
 22033     I am fall'n in this offence.
 22034   BELARIUS. Prithee, fair youth,
 22035     Think us no churls, nor measure our good minds
 22036     By this rude place we live in. Well encounter'd!
 22037     'Tis almost night; you shall have better cheer
 22038     Ere you depart, and thanks to stay and eat it.
 22039     Boys, bid him welcome.
 22040   GUIDERIUS. Were you a woman, youth,
 22041     I should woo hard but be your groom. In honesty
 22042     I bid for you as I'd buy.
 22043   ARVIRAGUS. I'll make't my comfort
 22044     He is a man. I'll love him as my brother;
 22045     And such a welcome as I'd give to him
 22046     After long absence, such is yours. Most welcome!
 22047     Be sprightly, for you fall 'mongst friends.
 22048   IMOGEN. 'Mongst friends,
 22049     If brothers. [Aside] Would it had been so that they
 22050     Had been my father's sons! Then had my prize
 22051     Been less, and so more equal ballasting
 22052     To thee, Posthumus.
 22053   BELARIUS. He wrings at some distress.
 22054   GUIDERIUS. Would I could free't!
 22055   ARVIRAGUS. Or I, whate'er it be,
 22056     What pain it cost, what danger! Gods!
 22057   BELARIUS. [Whispering] Hark, boys.
 22058   IMOGEN. [Aside] Great men,
 22059     That had a court no bigger than this cave,
 22060     That did attend themselves, and had the virtue
 22061     Which their own conscience seal'd them, laying by
 22062     That nothing-gift of differing multitudes,
 22063     Could not out-peer these twain. Pardon me, gods!
 22064     I'd change my sex to be companion with them,
 22065     Since Leonatus' false.
 22066   BELARIUS. It shall be so.
 22067     Boys, we'll go dress our hunt. Fair youth, come in.
 22068     Discourse is heavy, fasting; when we have supp'd,
 22069     We'll mannerly demand thee of thy story,
 22070     So far as thou wilt speak it.
 22071   GUIDERIUS. Pray draw near.
 22072   ARVIRAGUS. The night to th' owl and morn to th' lark less welcome.
 22073   IMOGEN. Thanks, sir.
 22074   ARVIRAGUS. I pray draw near.                            Exeunt
 22075 
 22076 
 22077 
 22078 
 22079 SCENE VII.
 22080 Rome. A public place
 22081 
 22082 Enter two ROMAN SENATORS and TRIBUNES
 22083 
 22084   FIRST SENATOR. This is the tenour of the Emperor's writ:
 22085     That since the common men are now in action
 22086     'Gainst the Pannonians and Dalmatians,
 22087     And that the legions now in Gallia are
 22088     Full weak to undertake our wars against
 22089     The fall'n-off Britons, that we do incite
 22090     The gentry to this business. He creates
 22091     Lucius proconsul; and to you, the tribunes,
 22092     For this immediate levy, he commands
 22093     His absolute commission. Long live Caesar!
 22094   TRIBUNE. Is Lucius general of the forces?
 22095   SECOND SENATOR. Ay.
 22096   TRIBUNE. Remaining now in Gallia?
 22097   FIRST SENATOR. With those legions
 22098     Which I have spoke of, whereunto your levy
 22099     Must be supplyant. The words of your commission
 22100     Will tie you to the numbers and the time
 22101     Of their dispatch.
 22102   TRIBUNE. We will discharge our duty.                    Exeunt
 22103 
 22104 
 22105 
 22106 
 22107 ACT IV. SCENE I.
 22108 Wales. Near the cave of BELARIUS
 22109 
 22110 Enter CLOTEN alone
 22111 
 22112   CLOTEN. I am near to th' place where they should meet, if Pisanio
 22113     have mapp'd it truly. How fit his garments serve me! Why should
 22114     his mistress, who was made by him that made the tailor, not be
 22115     fit too? The rather- saving reverence of the word- for 'tis said
 22116     a woman's fitness comes by fits. Therein I must play the workman.
 22117     I dare speak it to myself, for it is not vain-glory for a man and
 22118     his glass to confer in his own chamber- I mean, the lines of my
 22119     body are as well drawn as his; no less young, more strong, not
 22120     beneath him in fortunes, beyond him in the advantage of the time,
 22121     above him in birth, alike conversant in general services, and
 22122     more remarkable in single oppositions. Yet this imperceiverant
 22123     thing loves him in my despite. What mortality is! Posthumus, thy
 22124     head, which now is growing upon thy shoulders, shall within this
 22125     hour be off; thy mistress enforced; thy garments cut to pieces
 22126     before her face; and all this done, spurn her home to her father,
 22127     who may, haply, be a little angry for my so rough usage; but my
 22128     mother, having power of his testiness, shall turn all into my
 22129     commendations. My horse is tied up safe. Out, sword, and to a
 22130     sore purpose! Fortune, put them into my hand. This is the very
 22131     description of their meeting-place; and the fellow dares not
 22132     deceive me.                                             Exit
 22133 
 22134 
 22135 
 22136 
 22137 SCENE II.
 22138 Wales. Before the cave of BELARIUS
 22139 
 22140 Enter, from the cave, BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, ARVIRAGUS, and IMOGEN
 22141 
 22142   BELARIUS. [To IMOGEN] You are not well. Remain here in the cave;
 22143     We'll come to you after hunting.
 22144   ARVIRAGUS. [To IMOGEN] Brother, stay here.
 22145     Are we not brothers?
 22146   IMOGEN. So man and man should be;
 22147     But clay and clay differs in dignity,
 22148     Whose dust is both alike. I am very sick.
 22149   GUIDERIUS. Go you to hunting; I'll abide with him.
 22150   IMOGEN. So sick I am not, yet I am not well;
 22151     But not so citizen a wanton as
 22152     To seem to die ere sick. So please you, leave me;
 22153     Stick to your journal course. The breach of custom
 22154     Is breach of all. I am ill, but your being by me
 22155     Cannot amend me; society is no comfort
 22156     To one not sociable. I am not very sick,
 22157     Since I can reason of it. Pray you trust me here.
 22158     I'll rob none but myself; and let me die,
 22159     Stealing so poorly.
 22160   GUIDERIUS. I love thee; I have spoke it.
 22161     How much the quantity, the weight as much
 22162     As I do love my father.
 22163   BELARIUS. What? how? how?
 22164   ARVIRAGUS. If it be sin to say so, sir, I yoke me
 22165     In my good brother's fault. I know not why
 22166     I love this youth, and I have heard you say
 22167     Love's reason's without reason. The bier at door,
 22168     And a demand who is't shall die, I'd say
 22169     'My father, not this youth.'
 22170   BELARIUS. [Aside] O noble strain!
 22171     O worthiness of nature! breed of greatness!
 22172     Cowards father cowards and base things sire base.
 22173     Nature hath meal and bran, contempt and grace.
 22174     I'm not their father; yet who this should be
 22175     Doth miracle itself, lov'd before me.-
 22176     'Tis the ninth hour o' th' morn.
 22177   ARVIRAGUS. Brother, farewell.
 22178   IMOGEN. I wish ye sport.
 22179   ARVIRAGUS. Your health. [To BELARIUS] So please you, sir.
 22180   IMOGEN. [Aside] These are kind creatures. Gods, what lies I have
 22181       heard!
 22182     Our courtiers say all's savage but at court.
 22183     Experience, O, thou disprov'st report!
 22184     Th' imperious seas breed monsters; for the dish,
 22185     Poor tributary rivers as sweet fish.
 22186     I am sick still; heart-sick. Pisanio,
 22187     I'll now taste of thy drug.                  [Swallows some]
 22188   GUIDERIUS. I could not stir him.
 22189     He said he was gentle, but unfortunate;
 22190     Dishonestly afflicted, but yet honest.
 22191   ARVIRAGUS. Thus did he answer me; yet said hereafter
 22192     I might know more.
 22193   BELARIUS. To th' field, to th' field!
 22194     We'll leave you for this time. Go in and rest.
 22195   ARVIRAGUS. We'll not be long away.
 22196   BELARIUS. Pray be not sick,
 22197     For you must be our huswife.
 22198   IMOGEN. Well, or ill,
 22199     I am bound to you.
 22200   BELARIUS. And shalt be ever.         Exit IMOGEN into the cave
 22201     This youth, howe'er distress'd, appears he hath had
 22202     Good ancestors.
 22203   ARVIRAGUS. How angel-like he sings!
 22204   GUIDERIUS. But his neat cookery! He cut our roots in characters,
 22205     And sauc'd our broths as Juno had been sick,
 22206     And he her dieter.
 22207   ARVIRAGUS. Nobly he yokes
 22208     A smiling with a sigh, as if the sigh
 22209     Was that it was for not being such a smile;
 22210     The smile mocking the sigh that it would fly
 22211     From so divine a temple to commix
 22212     With winds that sailors rail at.
 22213   GUIDERIUS. I do note
 22214     That grief and patience, rooted in him both,
 22215     Mingle their spurs together.
 22216   ARVIRAGUS. Grow patience!
 22217     And let the stinking elder, grief, untwine
 22218     His perishing root with the increasing vine!
 22219   BELARIUS. It is great morning. Come, away! Who's there?
 22220 
 22221                       Enter CLOTEN
 22222 
 22223   CLOTEN. I cannot find those runagates; that villain
 22224     Hath mock'd me. I am faint.
 22225   BELARIUS. Those runagates?
 22226     Means he not us? I partly know him; 'tis
 22227     Cloten, the son o' th' Queen. I fear some ambush.
 22228     I saw him not these many years, and yet
 22229     I know 'tis he. We are held as outlaws. Hence!
 22230   GUIDERIUS. He is but one; you and my brother search
 22231     What companies are near. Pray you away;
 22232     Let me alone with him.         Exeunt BELARIUS and ARVIRAGUS
 22233   CLOTEN. Soft! What are you
 22234     That fly me thus? Some villain mountaineers?
 22235     I have heard of such. What slave art thou?
 22236   GUIDERIUS. A thing
 22237     More slavish did I ne'er than answering
 22238     'A slave' without a knock.
 22239   CLOTEN. Thou art a robber,
 22240     A law-breaker, a villain. Yield thee, thief.
 22241   GUIDERIUS. To who? To thee? What art thou? Have not I
 22242     An arm as big as thine, a heart as big?
 22243     Thy words, I grant, are bigger, for I wear not
 22244     My dagger in my mouth. Say what thou art;
 22245     Why I should yield to thee.
 22246   CLOTEN. Thou villain base,
 22247     Know'st me not by my clothes?
 22248   GUIDERIUS. No, nor thy tailor, rascal,
 22249     Who is thy grandfather; he made those clothes,
 22250     Which, as it seems, make thee.
 22251   CLOTEN. Thou precious varlet,
 22252     My tailor made them not.
 22253   GUIDERIUS. Hence, then, and thank
 22254     The man that gave them thee. Thou art some fool;
 22255     I am loath to beat thee.
 22256   CLOTEN. Thou injurious thief,
 22257     Hear but my name, and tremble.
 22258   GUIDERIUS. What's thy name?
 22259   CLOTEN. Cloten, thou villain.
 22260   GUIDERIUS. Cloten, thou double villain, be thy name,
 22261     I cannot tremble at it. Were it toad, or adder, spider,
 22262     'Twould move me sooner.
 22263   CLOTEN. To thy further fear,
 22264     Nay, to thy mere confusion, thou shalt know
 22265     I am son to th' Queen.
 22266   GUIDERIUS. I'm sorry for't; not seeming
 22267     So worthy as thy birth.
 22268   CLOTEN. Art not afeard?
 22269   GUIDERIUS. Those that I reverence, those I fear- the wise:
 22270     At fools I laugh, not fear them.
 22271   CLOTEN. Die the death.
 22272     When I have slain thee with my proper hand,
 22273     I'll follow those that even now fled hence,
 22274     And on the gates of Lud's Town set your heads.
 22275     Yield, rustic mountaineer.                  Exeunt, fighting
 22276 
 22277                 Re-enter BELARIUS and ARVIRAGUS
 22278 
 22279   BELARIUS. No company's abroad.
 22280   ARVIRAGUS. None in the world; you did mistake him, sure.
 22281   BELARIUS. I cannot tell; long is it since I saw him,
 22282     But time hath nothing blurr'd those lines of favour
 22283     Which then he wore; the snatches in his voice,
 22284     And burst of speaking, were as his. I am absolute
 22285     'Twas very Cloten.
 22286   ARVIRAGUS. In this place we left them.
 22287     I wish my brother make good time with him,
 22288     You say he is so fell.
 22289   BELARIUS. Being scarce made up,
 22290     I mean to man, he had not apprehension
 22291     Or roaring terrors; for defect of judgment
 22292     Is oft the cease of fear.
 22293 
 22294               Re-enter GUIDERIUS with CLOTEN'S head
 22295 
 22296     But, see, thy brother.
 22297   GUIDERIUS. This Cloten was a fool, an empty purse;
 22298     There was no money in't. Not Hercules
 22299     Could have knock'd out his brains, for he had none;
 22300     Yet I not doing this, the fool had borne
 22301     My head as I do his.
 22302   BELARIUS. What hast thou done?
 22303   GUIDERIUS. I am perfect what: cut off one Cloten's head,
 22304     Son to the Queen, after his own report;
 22305     Who call'd me traitor, mountaineer, and swore
 22306     With his own single hand he'd take us in,
 22307     Displace our heads where- thank the gods!- they grow,
 22308     And set them on Lud's Town.
 22309   BELARIUS. We are all undone.
 22310   GUIDERIUS. Why, worthy father, what have we to lose
 22311     But that he swore to take, our lives? The law
 22312     Protects not us; then why should we be tender
 22313     To let an arrogant piece of flesh threat us,
 22314     Play judge and executioner all himself,
 22315     For we do fear the law? What company
 22316     Discover you abroad?
 22317   BELARIUS. No single soul
 22318     Can we set eye on, but in an safe reason
 22319     He must have some attendants. Though his humour
 22320     Was nothing but mutation- ay, and that
 22321     From one bad thing to worse- not frenzy, not
 22322     Absolute madness could so far have rav'd,
 22323     To bring him here alone. Although perhaps
 22324     It may be heard at court that such as we
 22325     Cave here, hunt here, are outlaws, and in time
 22326     May make some stronger head- the which he hearing,
 22327     As it is like him, might break out and swear
 22328     He'd fetch us in; yet is't not probable
 22329     To come alone, either he so undertaking
 22330     Or they so suffering. Then on good ground we fear,
 22331     If we do fear this body hath a tail
 22332     More perilous than the head.
 22333   ARVIRAGUS. Let ordinance
 22334     Come as the gods foresay it. Howsoe'er,
 22335     My brother hath done well.
 22336   BELARIUS. I had no mind
 22337     To hunt this day; the boy Fidele's sickness
 22338     Did make my way long forth.
 22339   GUIDERIUS. With his own sword,
 22340     Which he did wave against my throat, I have ta'en
 22341     His head from him. I'll throw't into the creek
 22342     Behind our rock, and let it to the sea
 22343     And tell the fishes he's the Queen's son, Cloten.
 22344     That's all I reck.                                      Exit
 22345   BELARIUS. I fear'twill be reveng'd.
 22346     Would, Polydore, thou hadst not done't! though valour
 22347     Becomes thee well enough.
 22348   ARVIRAGUS. Would I had done't,
 22349     So the revenge alone pursu'd me! Polydore,
 22350     I love thee brotherly, but envy much
 22351     Thou hast robb'd me of this deed. I would revenges,
 22352     That possible strength might meet, would seek us through,
 22353     And put us to our answer.
 22354   BELARIUS. Well, 'tis done.
 22355     We'll hunt no more to-day, nor seek for danger
 22356     Where there's no profit. I prithee to our rock.
 22357     You and Fidele play the cooks; I'll stay
 22358     Till hasty Polydore return, and bring him
 22359     To dinner presently.
 22360   ARVIRAGUS. Poor sick Fidele!
 22361     I'll willingly to him; to gain his colour
 22362     I'd let a parish of such Cloten's blood,
 22363     And praise myself for charity.                          Exit
 22364   BELARIUS. O thou goddess,
 22365     Thou divine Nature, thou thyself thou blazon'st
 22366     In these two princely boys! They are as gentle
 22367     As zephyrs blowing below the violet,
 22368     Not wagging his sweet head; and yet as rough,
 22369     Their royal blood enchaf'd, as the rud'st wind
 22370     That by the top doth take the mountain pine
 22371     And make him stoop to th' vale. 'Tis wonder
 22372     That an invisible instinct should frame them
 22373     To royalty unlearn'd, honour untaught,
 22374     Civility not seen from other, valour
 22375     That wildly grows in them, but yields a crop
 22376     As if it had been sow'd. Yet still it's strange
 22377     What Cloten's being here to us portends,
 22378     Or what his death will bring us.
 22379 
 22380                     Re-enter GUIDERIUS
 22381 
 22382   GUIDERIUS. Where's my brother?
 22383     I have sent Cloten's clotpoll down the stream,
 22384     In embassy to his mother; his body's hostage
 22385     For his return.                               [Solemn music]
 22386   BELARIUS. My ingenious instrument!
 22387     Hark, Polydore, it sounds. But what occasion
 22388     Hath Cadwal now to give it motion? Hark!
 22389   GUIDERIUS. Is he at home?
 22390   BELARIUS. He went hence even now.
 22391   GUIDERIUS. What does he mean? Since death of my dear'st mother
 22392     It did not speak before. All solemn things
 22393     Should answer solemn accidents. The matter?
 22394     Triumphs for nothing and lamenting toys
 22395     Is jollity for apes and grief for boys.
 22396     Is Cadwal mad?
 22397 
 22398        Re-enter ARVIRAGUS, with IMOGEN as dead, bearing
 22399                          her in his arms
 22400 
 22401   BELARIUS. Look, here he comes,
 22402     And brings the dire occasion in his arms
 22403     Of what we blame him for!
 22404   ARVIRAGUS. The bird is dead
 22405     That we have made so much on. I had rather
 22406     Have skipp'd from sixteen years of age to sixty,
 22407     To have turn'd my leaping time into a crutch,
 22408     Than have seen this.
 22409   GUIDERIUS. O sweetest, fairest lily!
 22410     My brother wears thee not the one half so well
 22411     As when thou grew'st thyself.
 22412   BELARIUS. O melancholy!
 22413     Who ever yet could sound thy bottom? find
 22414     The ooze to show what coast thy sluggish crare
 22415     Might'st easiliest harbour in? Thou blessed thing!
 22416     Jove knows what man thou mightst have made; but I,
 22417     Thou diedst, a most rare boy, of melancholy.
 22418     How found you him?
 22419   ARVIRAGUS. Stark, as you see;
 22420     Thus smiling, as some fly had tickled slumber,
 22421     Not as death's dart, being laugh'd at; his right cheek
 22422     Reposing on a cushion.
 22423   GUIDERIUS. Where?
 22424   ARVIRAGUS. O' th' floor;
 22425     His arms thus leagu'd. I thought he slept, and put
 22426     My clouted brogues from off my feet, whose rudeness
 22427     Answer'd my steps too loud.
 22428   GUIDERIUS. Why, he but sleeps.
 22429     If he be gone he'll make his grave a bed;
 22430     With female fairies will his tomb be haunted,
 22431     And worms will not come to thee.
 22432   ARVIRAGUS. With fairest flowers,
 22433     Whilst summer lasts and I live here, Fidele,
 22434     I'll sweeten thy sad grave. Thou shalt not lack
 22435     The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose; nor
 22436     The azur'd hare-bell, like thy veins; no, nor
 22437     The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander,
 22438     Out-sweet'ned not thy breath. The ruddock would,
 22439     With charitable bill- O bill, sore shaming
 22440     Those rich-left heirs that let their fathers lie
 22441     Without a monument!- bring thee all this;
 22442     Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flow'rs are none,
 22443     To winter-ground thy corse-
 22444   GUIDERIUS. Prithee have done,
 22445     And do not play in wench-like words with that
 22446     Which is so serious. Let us bury him,
 22447     And not protract with admiration what
 22448     Is now due debt. To th' grave.
 22449   ARVIRAGUS. Say, where shall's lay him?
 22450   GUIDERIUS. By good Euriphile, our mother.
 22451   ARVIRAGUS. Be't so;
 22452     And let us, Polydore, though now our voices
 22453     Have got the mannish crack, sing him to th' ground,
 22454     As once to our mother; use like note and words,
 22455     Save that Euriphile must be Fidele.
 22456   GUIDERIUS. Cadwal,
 22457     I cannot sing. I'll weep, and word it with thee;
 22458     For notes of sorrow out of tune are worse
 22459     Than priests and fanes that lie.
 22460   ARVIRAGUS. We'll speak it, then.
 22461   BELARIUS. Great griefs, I see, med'cine the less, for Cloten
 22462     Is quite forgot. He was a queen's son, boys;
 22463     And though he came our enemy, remember
 22464     He was paid for that. Though mean and mighty rotting
 22465     Together have one dust, yet reverence-
 22466     That angel of the world- doth make distinction
 22467     Of place 'tween high and low. Our foe was princely;
 22468     And though you took his life, as being our foe,
 22469     Yet bury him as a prince.
 22470   GUIDERIUS. Pray you fetch him hither.
 22471     Thersites' body is as good as Ajax',
 22472     When neither are alive.
 22473   ARVIRAGUS. If you'll go fetch him,
 22474     We'll say our song the whilst. Brother, begin.
 22475                                                    Exit BELARIUS
 22476   GUIDERIUS. Nay, Cadwal, we must lay his head to th' East;
 22477     My father hath a reason for't.
 22478   ARVIRAGUS. 'Tis true.
 22479   GUIDERIUS. Come on, then, and remove him.
 22480   ARVIRAGUS. So. Begin.
 22481 
 22482                       SONG
 22483 
 22484   GUIDERIUS. Fear no more the heat o' th' sun
 22485                Nor the furious winter's rages;
 22486              Thou thy worldly task hast done,
 22487                Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages.
 22488              Golden lads and girls all must,
 22489              As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
 22490 
 22491   ARVIRAGUS. Fear no more the frown o' th' great;
 22492                Thou art past the tyrant's stroke.
 22493              Care no more to clothe and eat;
 22494                To thee the reed is as the oak.
 22495              The sceptre, learning, physic, must
 22496              All follow this and come to dust.
 22497 
 22498   GUIDERIUS. Fear no more the lightning flash,
 22499   ARVIRAGUS.   Nor th' all-dreaded thunder-stone;
 22500   GUIDERIUS. Fear not slander, censure rash;
 22501   ARVIRAGUS.   Thou hast finish'd joy and moan.
 22502   BOTH.      All lovers young, all lovers must
 22503              Consign to thee and come to dust.
 22504 
 22505   GUIDERIUS. No exorciser harm thee!
 22506   ARVIRAGUS. Nor no witchcraft charm thee!
 22507   GUIDERIUS. Ghost unlaid forbear thee!
 22508   ARVIRAGUS. Nothing ill come near thee!
 22509   BOTH.      Quiet consummation have,
 22510              And renowned be thy grave!
 22511 
 22512          Re-enter BELARIUS with the body of CLOTEN
 22513 
 22514   GUIDERIUS. We have done our obsequies. Come, lay him down.
 22515   BELARIUS. Here's a few flowers; but 'bout midnight, more.
 22516     The herbs that have on them cold dew o' th' night
 22517     Are strewings fit'st for graves. Upon their faces.
 22518     You were as flow'rs, now wither'd. Even so
 22519     These herblets shall which we upon you strew.
 22520     Come on, away. Apart upon our knees.
 22521     The ground that gave them first has them again.
 22522     Their pleasures here are past, so is their pain.
 22523                                            Exeunt all but IMOGEN
 22524   IMOGEN. [Awaking] Yes, sir, to Milford Haven. Which is the way?
 22525     I thank you. By yond bush? Pray, how far thither?
 22526     'Ods pittikins! can it be six mile yet?
 22527     I have gone all night. Faith, I'll lie down and sleep.
 22528     But, soft! no bedfellow. O gods and goddesses!
 22529                                                [Seeing the body]
 22530     These flow'rs are like the pleasures of the world;
 22531     This bloody man, the care on't. I hope I dream;
 22532     For so I thought I was a cave-keeper,
 22533     And cook to honest creatures. But 'tis not so;
 22534     'Twas but a bolt of nothing, shot at nothing,
 22535     Which the brain makes of fumes. Our very eyes
 22536     Are sometimes, like our judgments, blind. Good faith,
 22537     I tremble still with fear; but if there be
 22538     Yet left in heaven as small a drop of pity
 22539     As a wren's eye, fear'd gods, a part of it!
 22540     The dream's here still. Even when I wake it is
 22541     Without me, as within me; not imagin'd, felt.
 22542     A headless man? The garments of Posthumus?
 22543     I know the shape of's leg; this is his hand,
 22544     His foot Mercurial, his Martial thigh,
 22545     The brawns of Hercules; but his Jovial face-
 22546     Murder in heaven! How! 'Tis gone. Pisanio,
 22547     All curses madded Hecuba gave the Greeks,
 22548     And mine to boot, be darted on thee! Thou,
 22549     Conspir'd with that irregulous devil, Cloten,
 22550     Hath here cut off my lord. To write and read
 22551     Be henceforth treacherous! Damn'd Pisanio
 22552     Hath with his forged letters- damn'd Pisanio-
 22553     From this most bravest vessel of the world
 22554     Struck the main-top. O Posthumus! alas,
 22555     Where is thy head? Where's that? Ay me! where's that?
 22556     Pisanio might have kill'd thee at the heart,
 22557     And left this head on. How should this be? Pisanio?
 22558     'Tis he and Cloten; malice and lucre in them
 22559     Have laid this woe here. O, 'tis pregnant, pregnant!
 22560     The drug he gave me, which he said was precious
 22561     And cordial to me, have I not found it
 22562     Murd'rous to th' senses? That confirms it home.
 22563     This is Pisanio's deed, and Cloten. O!
 22564     Give colour to my pale cheek with thy blood,
 22565     That we the horrider may seem to those
 22566     Which chance to find us. O, my lord, my lord!
 22567                                     [Falls fainting on the body]
 22568 
 22569            Enter LUCIUS, CAPTAINS, and a SOOTHSAYER
 22570 
 22571   CAPTAIN. To them the legions garrison'd in Gallia,
 22572     After your will, have cross'd the sea, attending
 22573     You here at Milford Haven; with your ships,
 22574     They are in readiness.
 22575   LUCIUS. But what from Rome?
 22576   CAPTAIN. The Senate hath stirr'd up the confiners
 22577     And gentlemen of Italy, most willing spirits,
 22578     That promise noble service; and they come
 22579     Under the conduct of bold Iachimo,
 22580     Sienna's brother.
 22581   LUCIUS. When expect you them?
 22582   CAPTAIN. With the next benefit o' th' wind.
 22583   LUCIUS. This forwardness
 22584     Makes our hopes fair. Command our present numbers
 22585     Be muster'd; bid the captains look to't. Now, sir,
 22586     What have you dream'd of late of this war's purpose?
 22587   SOOTHSAYER. Last night the very gods show'd me a vision-
 22588     I fast and pray'd for their intelligence- thus:
 22589     I saw Jove's bird, the Roman eagle, wing'd
 22590     From the spongy south to this part of the west,
 22591     There vanish'd in the sunbeams; which portends,
 22592     Unless my sins abuse my divination,
 22593     Success to th' Roman host.
 22594   LUCIUS. Dream often so,
 22595     And never false. Soft, ho! what trunk is here
 22596     Without his top? The ruin speaks that sometime
 22597     It was a worthy building. How? a page?
 22598     Or dead or sleeping on him? But dead, rather;
 22599     For nature doth abhor to make his bed
 22600     With the defunct, or sleep upon the dead.
 22601     Let's see the boy's face.
 22602   CAPTAIN. He's alive, my lord.
 22603   LUCIUS. He'll then instruct us of this body. Young one,
 22604     Inform us of thy fortunes; for it seems
 22605     They crave to be demanded. Who is this
 22606     Thou mak'st thy bloody pillow? Or who was he
 22607     That, otherwise than noble nature did,
 22608     Hath alter'd that good picture? What's thy interest
 22609     In this sad wreck? How came't? Who is't? What art thou?
 22610   IMOGEN. I am nothing; or if not,
 22611     Nothing to be were better. This was my master,
 22612     A very valiant Briton and a good,
 22613     That here by mountaineers lies slain. Alas!
 22614     There is no more such masters. I may wander
 22615     From east to occident; cry out for service;
 22616     Try many, all good; serve truly; never
 22617     Find such another master.
 22618   LUCIUS. 'Lack, good youth!
 22619     Thou mov'st no less with thy complaining than
 22620     Thy master in bleeding. Say his name, good friend.
 22621   IMOGEN. Richard du Champ. [Aside] If I do lie, and do
 22622     No harm by it, though the gods hear, I hope
 22623     They'll pardon it.- Say you, sir?
 22624   LUCIUS. Thy name?
 22625   IMOGEN. Fidele, sir.
 22626   LUCIUS. Thou dost approve thyself the very same;
 22627     Thy name well fits thy faith, thy faith thy name.
 22628     Wilt take thy chance with me? I will not say
 22629     Thou shalt be so well master'd; but, be sure,
 22630     No less belov'd. The Roman Emperor's letters,
 22631     Sent by a consul to me, should not sooner
 22632     Than thine own worth prefer thee. Go with me.
 22633   IMOGEN. I'll follow, sir. But first, an't please the gods,
 22634     I'll hide my master from the flies, as deep
 22635     As these poor pickaxes can dig; and when
 22636     With wild wood-leaves and weeds I ha' strew'd his grave,
 22637     And on it said a century of prayers,
 22638     Such as I can, twice o'er, I'll weep and sigh;
 22639     And leaving so his service, follow you,
 22640     So please you entertain me.
 22641   LUCIUS. Ay, good youth;
 22642     And rather father thee than master thee.
 22643     My friends,
 22644     The boy hath taught us manly duties; let us
 22645     Find out the prettiest daisied plot we can,
 22646     And make him with our pikes and partisans
 22647     A grave. Come, arm him. Boy, he is preferr'd
 22648     By thee to us; and he shall be interr'd
 22649     As soldiers can. Be cheerful; wipe thine eyes.
 22650     Some falls are means the happier to arise.            Exeunt
 22651 
 22652 
 22653 
 22654 
 22655 SCENE III.
 22656 Britain. CYMBELINE'S palace
 22657 
 22658 Enter CYMBELINE, LORDS, PISANIO, and attendants
 22659 
 22660   CYMBELINE. Again! and bring me word how 'tis with her.
 22661                                                Exit an attendant
 22662     A fever with the absence of her son;
 22663     A madness, of which her life's in danger. Heavens,
 22664     How deeply you at once do touch me! Imogen,
 22665     The great part of my comfort, gone; my queen
 22666     Upon a desperate bed, and in a time
 22667     When fearful wars point at me; her son gone,
 22668     So needful for this present. It strikes me past
 22669     The hope of comfort. But for thee, fellow,
 22670     Who needs must know of her departure and
 22671     Dost seem so ignorant, we'll enforce it from thee
 22672     By a sharp torture.
 22673   PISANIO. Sir, my life is yours;
 22674     I humbly set it at your will; but for my mistress,
 22675     I nothing know where she remains, why gone,
 22676     Nor when she purposes return. Beseech your Highness,
 22677     Hold me your loyal servant.
 22678   LORD. Good my liege,
 22679     The day that she was missing he was here.
 22680     I dare be bound he's true and shall perform
 22681     All parts of his subjection loyally. For Cloten,
 22682     There wants no diligence in seeking him,
 22683     And will no doubt be found.
 22684   CYMBELINE. The time is troublesome.
 22685     [To PISANIO] We'll slip you for a season; but our jealousy
 22686     Does yet depend.
 22687   LORD. So please your Majesty,
 22688     The Roman legions, all from Gallia drawn,
 22689     Are landed on your coast, with a supply
 22690     Of Roman gentlemen by the Senate sent.
 22691   CYMBELINE. Now for the counsel of my son and queen!
 22692     I am amaz'd with matter.
 22693   LORD. Good my liege,
 22694     Your preparation can affront no less
 22695     Than what you hear of. Come more, for more you're ready.
 22696     The want is but to put those pow'rs in motion
 22697     That long to move.
 22698   CYMBELINE. I thank you. Let's withdraw,
 22699     And meet the time as it seeks us. We fear not
 22700     What can from Italy annoy us; but
 22701     We grieve at chances here. Away!      Exeunt all but PISANIO
 22702   PISANIO. I heard no letter from my master since
 22703     I wrote him Imogen was slain. 'Tis strange.
 22704     Nor hear I from my mistress, who did promise
 22705     To yield me often tidings. Neither know
 22706     What is betid to Cloten, but remain
 22707     Perplex'd in all. The heavens still must work.
 22708     Wherein I am false I am honest; not true, to be true.
 22709     These present wars shall find I love my country,
 22710     Even to the note o' th' King, or I'll fall in them.
 22711     All other doubts, by time let them be clear'd:
 22712     Fortune brings in some boats that are not steer'd.      Exit
 22713 
 22714 
 22715 
 22716 
 22717 SCENE IV.
 22718 Wales. Before the cave of BELARIUS
 22719 
 22720 Enter BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS
 22721 
 22722   GUIDERIUS. The noise is round about us.
 22723   BELARIUS. Let us from it.
 22724   ARVIRAGUS. What pleasure, sir, find we in life, to lock it
 22725     From action and adventure?
 22726   GUIDERIUS. Nay, what hope
 22727     Have we in hiding us? This way the Romans
 22728     Must or for Britons slay us, or receive us
 22729     For barbarous and unnatural revolts
 22730     During their use, and slay us after.
 22731   BELARIUS. Sons,
 22732     We'll higher to the mountains; there secure us.
 22733     To the King's party there's no going. Newness
 22734     Of Cloten's death- we being not known, not muster'd
 22735     Among the bands-may drive us to a render
 22736     Where we have liv'd, and so extort from's that
 22737     Which we have done, whose answer would be death,
 22738     Drawn on with torture.
 22739   GUIDERIUS. This is, sir, a doubt
 22740     In such a time nothing becoming you
 22741     Nor satisfying us.
 22742   ARVIRAGUS. It is not likely
 22743     That when they hear the Roman horses neigh,
 22744     Behold their quarter'd fires, have both their eyes
 22745     And ears so cloy'd importantly as now,
 22746     That they will waste their time upon our note,
 22747     To know from whence we are.
 22748   BELARIUS. O, I am known
 22749     Of many in the army. Many years,
 22750     Though Cloten then but young, you see, not wore him
 22751     From my remembrance. And, besides, the King
 22752     Hath not deserv'd my service nor your loves,
 22753     Who find in my exile the want of breeding,
 22754     The certainty of this hard life; aye hopeless
 22755     To have the courtesy your cradle promis'd,
 22756     But to be still hot summer's tanlings and
 22757     The shrinking slaves of winter.
 22758   GUIDERIUS. Than be so,
 22759     Better to cease to be. Pray, sir, to th' army.
 22760     I and my brother are not known; yourself
 22761     So out of thought, and thereto so o'ergrown,
 22762     Cannot be questioned.
 22763   ARVIRAGUS. By this sun that shines,
 22764     I'll thither. What thing is't that I never
 22765     Did see man die! scarce ever look'd on blood
 22766     But that of coward hares, hot goats, and venison!
 22767     Never bestrid a horse, save one that had
 22768     A rider like myself, who ne'er wore rowel
 22769     Nor iron on his heel! I am asham'd
 22770     To look upon the holy sun, to have
 22771     The benefit of his blest beams, remaining
 22772     So long a poor unknown.
 22773   GUIDERIUS. By heavens, I'll go!
 22774     If you will bless me, sir, and give me leave,
 22775     I'll take the better care; but if you will not,
 22776     The hazard therefore due fall on me by
 22777     The hands of Romans!
 22778   ARVIRAGUS. So say I. Amen.
 22779   BELARIUS. No reason I, since of your lives you set
 22780     So slight a valuation, should reserve
 22781     My crack'd one to more care. Have with you, boys!
 22782     If in your country wars you chance to die,
 22783     That is my bed too, lads, and there I'll lie.
 22784     Lead, lead. [Aside] The time seems long; their blood thinks scorn
 22785     Till it fly out and show them princes born.           Exeunt
 22786 
 22787 
 22788 
 22789 
 22790 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
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 22798 
 22799 
 22800 
 22801 ACT V. SCENE I.
 22802 Britain. The Roman camp
 22803 
 22804 Enter POSTHUMUS alone, with a bloody handkerchief
 22805 
 22806   POSTHUMUS. Yea, bloody cloth, I'll keep thee; for I wish'd
 22807     Thou shouldst be colour'd thus. You married ones,
 22808     If each of you should take this course, how many
 22809     Must murder wives much better than themselves
 22810     For wrying but a little! O Pisanio!
 22811     Every good servant does not all commands;
 22812     No bond but to do just ones. Gods! if you
 22813     Should have ta'en vengeance on my faults, I never
 22814     Had liv'd to put on this; so had you saved
 22815     The noble Imogen to repent, and struck
 22816     Me, wretch more worth your vengeance. But alack,
 22817     You snatch some hence for little faults; that's love,
 22818     To have them fall no more. You some permit
 22819     To second ills with ills, each elder worse,
 22820     And make them dread it, to the doer's thrift.
 22821     But Imogen is your own. Do your best wills,
 22822     And make me blest to obey. I am brought hither
 22823     Among th' Italian gentry, and to fight
 22824     Against my lady's kingdom. 'Tis enough
 22825     That, Britain, I have kill'd thy mistress; peace!
 22826     I'll give no wound to thee. Therefore, good heavens,
 22827     Hear patiently my purpose. I'll disrobe me
 22828     Of these Italian weeds, and suit myself
 22829     As does a Britain peasant. So I'll fight
 22830     Against the part I come with; so I'll die
 22831     For thee, O Imogen, even for whom my life
 22832     Is every breath a death. And thus unknown,
 22833     Pitied nor hated, to the face of peril
 22834     Myself I'll dedicate. Let me make men know
 22835     More valour in me than my habits show.
 22836     Gods, put the strength o' th' Leonati in me!
 22837     To shame the guise o' th' world, I will begin
 22838     The fashion- less without and more within.              Exit
 22839 
 22840 
 22841 
 22842 
 22843 SCENE II.
 22844 Britain. A field of battle between the British and Roman camps
 22845 
 22846 Enter LUCIUS, IACHIMO, and the Roman army at one door, and the British army
 22847 at another, LEONATUS POSTHUMUS following like a poor soldier.
 22848 They march over and go out.  Alarums.  Then enter again, in skirmish,
 22849 IACHIMO and POSTHUMUS.  He vanquisheth and disarmeth IACHIMO,
 22850 and then leaves him
 22851 
 22852   IACHIMO. The heaviness and guilt within my bosom
 22853     Takes off my manhood. I have belied a lady,
 22854     The Princess of this country, and the air on't
 22855     Revengingly enfeebles me; or could this carl,
 22856     A very drudge of nature's, have subdu'd me
 22857     In my profession? Knighthoods and honours borne
 22858     As I wear mine are titles but of scorn.
 22859     If that thy gentry, Britain, go before
 22860     This lout as he exceeds our lords, the odds
 22861     Is that we scarce are men, and you are gods.            Exit
 22862 
 22863     The battle continues; the BRITONS fly; CYMBELINE is taken.
 22864     Then enter to his rescue BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS
 22865 
 22866   BELARIUS. Stand, stand! We have th' advantage of the ground;
 22867     The lane is guarded; nothing routs us but
 22868     The villainy of our fears.
 22869   GUIDERIUS and ARVIRAGUS. Stand, stand, and fight!
 22870 
 22871     Re-enter POSTHUMUS, and seconds the Britons; they rescue
 22872     CYMBELINE, and exeunt. Then re-enter LUCIUS and IACHIMO,
 22873                          with IMOGEN
 22874 
 22875   LUCIUS. Away, boy, from the troops, and save thyself;
 22876     For friends kill friends, and the disorder's such
 22877     As war were hoodwink'd.
 22878   IACHIMO. 'Tis their fresh supplies.
 22879   LUCIUS. It is a day turn'd strangely. Or betimes
 22880     Let's reinforce or fly.                               Exeunt
 22881 
 22882 
 22883 
 22884 
 22885 SCENE III.
 22886 Another part of the field
 22887 
 22888 Enter POSTHUMUS and a Britain LORD
 22889 
 22890   LORD. Cam'st thou from where they made the stand?
 22891   POSTHUMUS. I did:
 22892     Though you, it seems, come from the fliers.
 22893   LORD. I did.
 22894   POSTHUMUS. No blame be to you, sir, for all was lost,
 22895     But that the heavens fought. The King himself
 22896     Of his wings destitute, the army broken,
 22897     And but the backs of Britons seen, an flying,
 22898     Through a strait lane- the enemy, full-hearted,
 22899     Lolling the tongue with slaught'ring, having work
 22900     More plentiful than tools to do't, struck down
 22901     Some mortally, some slightly touch'd, some falling
 22902     Merely through fear, that the strait pass was damm'd
 22903     With dead men hurt behind, and cowards living
 22904     To die with length'ned shame.
 22905   LORD. Where was this lane?
 22906   POSTHUMUS. Close by the battle, ditch'd, and wall'd with turf,
 22907     Which gave advantage to an ancient soldier-
 22908     An honest one, I warrant, who deserv'd
 22909     So long a breeding as his white beard came to,
 22910     In doing this for's country. Athwart the lane
 22911     He, with two striplings- lads more like to run
 22912     The country base than to commit such slaughter;
 22913     With faces fit for masks, or rather fairer
 22914     Than those for preservation cas'd or shame-
 22915     Made good the passage, cried to those that fled
 22916     'Our Britain's harts die flying, not our men.
 22917     To darkness fleet souls that fly backwards! Stand;
 22918     Or we are Romans and will give you that,
 22919     Like beasts, which you shun beastly, and may save
 22920     But to look back in frown. Stand, stand!' These three,
 22921     Three thousand confident, in act as many-
 22922     For three performers are the file when all
 22923     The rest do nothing- with this word 'Stand, stand!'
 22924     Accommodated by the place, more charming
 22925     With their own nobleness, which could have turn'd
 22926     A distaff to a lance, gilded pale looks,
 22927     Part shame, part spirit renew'd; that some turn'd coward
 22928     But by example- O, a sin in war
 22929     Damn'd in the first beginners!- gan to look
 22930     The way that they did and to grin like lions
 22931     Upon the pikes o' th' hunters. Then began
 22932     A stop i' th' chaser, a retire; anon
 22933     A rout, confusion thick. Forthwith they fly,
 22934     Chickens, the way which they stoop'd eagles; slaves,
 22935     The strides they victors made; and now our cowards,
 22936     Like fragments in hard voyages, became
 22937     The life o' th' need. Having found the back-door open
 22938     Of the unguarded hearts, heavens, how they wound!
 22939     Some slain before, some dying, some their friends
 22940     O'erborne i' th' former wave. Ten chas'd by one
 22941     Are now each one the slaughterman of twenty.
 22942     Those that would die or ere resist are grown
 22943     The mortal bugs o' th' field.
 22944   LORD. This was strange chance:
 22945     A narrow lane, an old man, and two boys.
 22946   POSTHUMUS. Nay, do not wonder at it; you are made
 22947     Rather to wonder at the things you hear
 22948     Than to work any. Will you rhyme upon't,
 22949     And vent it for a mock'ry? Here is one:
 22950     'Two boys, an old man (twice a boy), a lane,
 22951     Preserv'd the Britons, was the Romans' bane.'
 22952   LORD. Nay, be not angry, sir.
 22953   POSTHUMUS. 'Lack, to what end?
 22954     Who dares not stand his foe I'll be his friend;
 22955     For if he'll do as he is made to do,
 22956     I know he'll quickly fly my friendship too.
 22957     You have put me into rhyme.
 22958   LORD. Farewell; you're angry.                             Exit
 22959   POSTHUMUS. Still going? This is a lord! O noble misery,
 22960     To be i' th' field and ask 'What news?' of me!
 22961     To-day how many would have given their honours
 22962     To have sav'd their carcasses! took heel to do't,
 22963     And yet died too! I, in mine own woe charm'd,
 22964     Could not find death where I did hear him groan,
 22965     Nor feel him where he struck. Being an ugly monster,
 22966     'Tis strange he hides him in fresh cups, soft beds,
 22967     Sweet words; or hath moe ministers than we
 22968     That draw his knives i' th' war. Well, I will find him;
 22969     For being now a favourer to the Briton,
 22970     No more a Briton, I have resum'd again
 22971     The part I came in. Fight I will no more,
 22972     But yield me to the veriest hind that shall
 22973     Once touch my shoulder. Great the slaughter is
 22974     Here made by th' Roman; great the answer be
 22975     Britons must take. For me, my ransom's death;
 22976     On either side I come to spend my breath,
 22977     Which neither here I'll keep nor bear again,
 22978     But end it by some means for Imogen.
 22979 
 22980             Enter two BRITISH CAPTAINS and soldiers
 22981 
 22982   FIRST CAPTAIN. Great Jupiter be prais'd! Lucius is taken.
 22983     'Tis thought the old man and his sons were angels.
 22984   SECOND CAPTAIN. There was a fourth man, in a silly habit,
 22985     That gave th' affront with them.
 22986   FIRST CAPTAIN. So 'tis reported;
 22987     But none of 'em can be found. Stand! who's there?
 22988   POSTHUMUS. A Roman,
 22989     Who had not now been drooping here if seconds
 22990     Had answer'd him.
 22991   SECOND CAPTAIN. Lay hands on him; a dog!
 22992     A leg of Rome shall not return to tell
 22993     What crows have peck'd them here. He brags his service,
 22994     As if he were of note. Bring him to th' King.
 22995 
 22996    Enter CYMBELINE, BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, ARVIRAGUS, PISANIO, and Roman
 22997    captives. The CAPTAINS present POSTHUMUS to CYMBELINE, who delivers
 22998             him over to a gaoler. Exeunt omnes
 22999 
 23000 
 23001 
 23002 
 23003 SCENE IV.
 23004 Britain. A prison
 23005 
 23006 Enter POSTHUMUS and two GAOLERS
 23007 
 23008   FIRST GAOLER. You shall not now be stol'n, you have locks upon you;
 23009     So graze as you find pasture.
 23010   SECOND GAOLER. Ay, or a stomach.                Exeunt GAOLERS
 23011   POSTHUMUS. Most welcome, bondage! for thou art a way,
 23012     I think, to liberty. Yet am I better
 23013     Than one that's sick o' th' gout, since he had rather
 23014     Groan so in perpetuity than be cur'd
 23015     By th' sure physician death, who is the key
 23016     T' unbar these locks. My conscience, thou art fetter'd
 23017     More than my shanks and wrists; you good gods, give me
 23018     The penitent instrument to pick that bolt,
 23019     Then, free for ever! Is't enough I am sorry?
 23020     So children temporal fathers do appease;
 23021     Gods are more full of mercy. Must I repent,
 23022     I cannot do it better than in gyves,
 23023     Desir'd more than constrain'd. To satisfy,
 23024     If of my freedom 'tis the main part, take
 23025     No stricter render of me than my all.
 23026     I know you are more clement than vile men,
 23027     Who of their broken debtors take a third,
 23028     A sixth, a tenth, letting them thrive again
 23029     On their abatement; that's not my desire.
 23030     For Imogen's dear life take mine; and though
 23031     'Tis not so dear, yet 'tis a life; you coin'd it.
 23032     'Tween man and man they weigh not every stamp;
 23033     Though light, take pieces for the figure's sake;
 23034     You rather mine, being yours. And so, great pow'rs,
 23035     If you will take this audit, take this life,
 23036     And cancel these cold bonds. O Imogen!
 23037     I'll speak to thee in silence.                      [Sleeps]
 23038 
 23039         Solemn music. Enter, as in an apparition, SICILIUS
 23040         LEONATUS, father to POSTHUMUS, an old man attired
 23041          like a warrior; leading in his hand an ancient
 23042           matron, his WIFE, and mother to POSTHUMUS, with
 23043         music before them. Then, after other music, follows
 23044            the two young LEONATI, brothers to POSTHUMUS,
 23045               with wounds, as they died in the wars.
 23046           They circle POSTHUMUS round as he lies sleeping
 23047 
 23048   SICILIUS. No more, thou thunder-master, show
 23049               Thy spite on mortal flies.
 23050             With Mars fall out, with Juno chide,
 23051               That thy adulteries
 23052                 Rates and revenges.
 23053             Hath my poor boy done aught but well,
 23054               Whose face I never saw?
 23055             I died whilst in the womb he stay'd
 23056               Attending nature's law;
 23057             Whose father then, as men report
 23058               Thou orphans' father art,
 23059             Thou shouldst have been, and shielded him
 23060               From this earth-vexing smart.
 23061 
 23062   MOTHER.   Lucina lent not me her aid,
 23063               But took me in my throes,
 23064             That from me was Posthumus ripp'd,
 23065               Came crying 'mongst his foes,
 23066                 A thing of pity.
 23067 
 23068   SICILIUS. Great Nature like his ancestry
 23069               Moulded the stuff so fair
 23070             That he deserv'd the praise o' th' world
 23071               As great Sicilius' heir.
 23072 
 23073   FIRST BROTHER. When once he was mature for man,
 23074               In Britain where was he
 23075             That could stand up his parallel,
 23076               Or fruitful object be
 23077             In eye of Imogen, that best
 23078               Could deem his dignity?
 23079 
 23080   MOTHER.   With marriage wherefore was he mock'd,
 23081               To be exil'd and thrown
 23082             From Leonati seat and cast
 23083             From her his dearest one,
 23084               Sweet Imogen?
 23085 
 23086   SICILIUS. Why did you suffer Iachimo,
 23087               Slight thing of Italy,
 23088             To taint his nobler heart and brain
 23089               With needless jealousy,
 23090             And to become the geck and scorn
 23091               O' th' other's villainy?
 23092 
 23093   SECOND BROTHER. For this from stiller seats we came,
 23094               Our parents and us twain,
 23095             That, striking in our country's cause,
 23096               Fell bravely and were slain,
 23097             Our fealty and Tenantius' right
 23098               With honour to maintain.
 23099 
 23100   FIRST BROTHER. Like hardiment Posthumus hath
 23101               To Cymbeline perform'd.
 23102             Then, Jupiter, thou king of gods,
 23103               Why hast thou thus adjourn'd
 23104             The graces for his merits due,
 23105               Being all to dolours turn'd?
 23106 
 23107   SICILIUS. Thy crystal window ope; look out;
 23108               No longer exercise
 23109             Upon a valiant race thy harsh
 23110               And potent injuries.
 23111 
 23112   MOTHER.   Since, Jupiter, our son is good,
 23113               Take off his miseries.
 23114 
 23115   SICILIUS. Peep through thy marble mansion. Help!
 23116               Or we poor ghosts will cry
 23117             To th' shining synod of the rest
 23118               Against thy deity.
 23119 
 23120   BROTHERS. Help, Jupiter! or we appeal,
 23121               And from thy justice fly.
 23122 
 23123        JUPITER descends-in thunder and lightning, sitting
 23124        upon an eagle. He throws a thunderbolt. The GHOSTS
 23125                      fall on their knees
 23126 
 23127   JUPITER. No more, you petty spirits of region low,
 23128     Offend our hearing; hush! How dare you ghosts
 23129     Accuse the Thunderer whose bolt, you know,
 23130     Sky-planted, batters all rebelling coasts?
 23131     Poor shadows of Elysium, hence and rest
 23132     Upon your never-withering banks of flow'rs.
 23133     Be not with mortal accidents opprest:
 23134     No care of yours it is; you know 'tis ours.
 23135     Whom best I love I cross; to make my gift,
 23136     The more delay'd, delighted. Be content;
 23137     Your low-laid son our godhead will uplift;
 23138     His comforts thrive, his trials well are spent.
 23139     Our Jovial star reign'd at his birth, and in
 23140     Our temple was he married. Rise and fade!
 23141     He shall be lord of Lady Imogen,
 23142     And happier much by his affliction made.
 23143     This tablet lay upon his breast, wherein
 23144     Our pleasure his full fortune doth confine;
 23145     And so, away; no farther with your din
 23146     Express impatience, lest you stir up mine.
 23147     Mount, eagle, to my palace crystalline.            [Ascends]
 23148   SICILIUS. He came in thunder; his celestial breath
 23149     Was sulpherous to smell; the holy eagle
 23150     Stoop'd as to foot us. His ascension is
 23151     More sweet than our blest fields. His royal bird
 23152     Prunes the immortal wing, and cloys his beak,
 23153     As when his god is pleas'd.
 23154   ALL. Thanks, Jupiter!
 23155   SICILIUS. The marble pavement closes, he is enter'd
 23156     His radiant roof. Away! and, to be blest,
 23157     Let us with care perform his great behest.   [GHOSTS vanish]
 23158 
 23159   POSTHUMUS. [Waking] Sleep, thou has been a grandsire and begot
 23160     A father to me; and thou hast created
 23161     A mother and two brothers. But, O scorn,
 23162     Gone! They went hence so soon as they were born.
 23163     And so I am awake. Poor wretches, that depend
 23164     On greatness' favour, dream as I have done;
 23165     Wake and find nothing. But, alas, I swerve;
 23166     Many dream not to find, neither deserve,
 23167     And yet are steep'd in favours; so am I,
 23168     That have this golden chance, and know not why.
 23169     What fairies haunt this ground? A book? O rare one!
 23170     Be not, as is our fangled world, a garment
 23171     Nobler than that it covers. Let thy effects
 23172     So follow to be most unlike our courtiers,
 23173     As good as promise.
 23174 
 23175     [Reads] 'When as a lion's whelp shall, to himself unknown,
 23176     without seeking find, and be embrac'd by a piece of tender air;
 23177     and when from a stately cedar shall be lopp'd branches which,
 23178     being dead many years, shall after revive, be jointed to the old
 23179     stock, and freshly grow; then shall Posthumus end his miseries,
 23180     Britain be fortunate and flourish in peace and plenty.'
 23181 
 23182     'Tis still a dream, or else such stuff as madmen
 23183     Tongue, and brain not; either both or nothing,
 23184     Or senseless speaking, or a speaking such
 23185     As sense cannot untie. Be what it is,
 23186     The action of my life is like it, which
 23187     I'll keep, if but for sympathy.
 23188 
 23189                   Re-enter GAOLER
 23190 
 23191   GAOLER. Come, sir, are you ready for death?
 23192   POSTHUMUS. Over-roasted rather; ready long ago.
 23193   GAOLER. Hanging is the word, sir; if you be ready for that, you are
 23194     well cook'd.
 23195   POSTHUMUS. So, if I prove a good repast to the spectators, the dish
 23196     pays the shot.
 23197   GAOLER. A heavy reckoning for you, sir. But the comfort is, you
 23198     shall be called to no more payments, fear no more tavern bills,
 23199     which are often the sadness of parting, as the procuring of mirth.
 23200     You come in faint for want of meat, depart reeling with too much
 23201     drink; sorry that you have paid too much, and sorry that you are
 23202     paid too much; purse and brain both empty; the brain the heavier
 23203     for being too light, the purse too light, being drawn of
 23204     heaviness. O, of this contradiction you shall now be quit. O, the
 23205     charity of a penny cord! It sums up thousands in a trice. You
 23206     have no true debitor and creditor but it; of what's past, is, and
 23207     to come, the discharge. Your neck, sir, is pen, book, and
 23208     counters; so the acquittance follows.
 23209   POSTHUMUS. I am merrier to die than thou art to live.
 23210   GAOLER. Indeed, sir, he that sleeps feels not the toothache. But a
 23211     man that were to sleep your sleep, and a hangman to help him to
 23212     bed, I think he would change places with his officer; for look
 23213     you, sir, you know not which way you shall go.
 23214   POSTHUMUS. Yes indeed do I, fellow.
 23215   GAOLER. Your death has eyes in's head, then; I have not seen him so
 23216     pictur'd. You must either be directed by some that take upon them
 23217     to know, or to take upon yourself that which I am sure you do not
 23218     know, or jump the after-inquiry on your own peril. And how you
 23219     shall speed in your journey's end, I think you'll never return to
 23220     tell one.
 23221   POSTHUMUS. I tell thee, fellow, there are none want eyes to direct
 23222     them the way I am going, but such as wink and will not use them.
 23223   GAOLER. What an infinite mock is this, that a man should have the
 23224     best use of eyes to see the way of blindness! I am sure hanging's
 23225     the way of winking.
 23226 
 23227                         Enter a MESSENGER
 23228 
 23229   MESSENGER. Knock off his manacles; bring your prisoner to the King.
 23230   POSTHUMUS. Thou bring'st good news: I am call'd to be made free.
 23231   GAOLER. I'll be hang'd then.
 23232   POSTHUMUS. Thou shalt be then freer than a gaoler; no bolts for the
 23233     dead.                         Exeunt POSTHUMUS and MESSENGER
 23234   GAOLER. Unless a man would marry a gallows and beget young gibbets,
 23235     I never saw one so prone. Yet, on my conscience, there are verier
 23236     knaves desire to live, for all he be a Roman; and there be some
 23237     of them too that die against their wills; so should I, if I were
 23238     one. I would we were all of one mind, and one mind good. O, there
 23239     were desolation of gaolers and gallowses! I speak against my
 23240     present profit, but my wish hath a preferment in't.     Exit
 23241 
 23242 
 23243 
 23244 
 23245 SCENE V.
 23246 Britain. CYMBELINE'S tent
 23247 
 23248 Enter CYMBELINE, BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, ARVIRAGUS, PISANIO, LORDS,
 23249 OFFICERS, and attendants
 23250 
 23251   CYMBELINE. Stand by my side, you whom the gods have made
 23252     Preservers of my throne. Woe is my heart
 23253     That the poor soldier that so richly fought,
 23254     Whose rags sham'd gilded arms, whose naked breast
 23255     Stepp'd before targes of proof, cannot be found.
 23256     He shall be happy that can find him, if
 23257     Our grace can make him so.
 23258   BELARIUS. I never saw
 23259     Such noble fury in so poor a thing;
 23260     Such precious deeds in one that promis'd nought
 23261     But beggary and poor looks.
 23262   CYMBELINE. No tidings of him?
 23263   PISANIO. He hath been search'd among the dead and living,
 23264     But no trace of him.
 23265   CYMBELINE. To my grief, I am
 23266     The heir of his reward; [To BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS]
 23267       which I will add
 23268     To you, the liver, heart, and brain, of Britain,
 23269     By whom I grant she lives. 'Tis now the time
 23270     To ask of whence you are. Report it.
 23271   BELARIUS. Sir,
 23272     In Cambria are we born, and gentlemen;
 23273     Further to boast were neither true nor modest,
 23274     Unless I add we are honest.
 23275   CYMBELINE. Bow your knees.
 23276     Arise my knights o' th' battle; I create you
 23277     Companions to our person, and will fit you
 23278     With dignities becoming your estates.
 23279 
 23280              Enter CORNELIUS and LADIES
 23281 
 23282     There's business in these faces. Why so sadly
 23283     Greet you our victory? You look like Romans,
 23284     And not o' th' court of Britain.
 23285   CORNELIUS. Hail, great King!
 23286     To sour your happiness I must report
 23287     The Queen is dead.
 23288   CYMBELINE. Who worse than a physician
 23289     Would this report become? But I consider
 23290     By med'cine'life may be prolong'd, yet death
 23291     Will seize the doctor too. How ended she?
 23292   CORNELIUS. With horror, madly dying, like her life;
 23293     Which, being cruel to the world, concluded
 23294     Most cruel to herself. What she confess'd
 23295     I will report, so please you; these her women
 23296     Can trip me if I err, who with wet cheeks
 23297     Were present when she finish'd.
 23298   CYMBELINE. Prithee say.
 23299   CORNELIUS. First, she confess'd she never lov'd you; only
 23300     Affected greatness got by you, not you;
 23301     Married your royalty, was wife to your place;
 23302     Abhorr'd your person.
 23303   CYMBELINE. She alone knew this;
 23304     And but she spoke it dying, I would not
 23305     Believe her lips in opening it. Proceed.
 23306   CORNELIUS. Your daughter, whom she bore in hand to love
 23307     With such integrity, she did confess
 23308     Was as a scorpion to her sight; whose life,
 23309     But that her flight prevented it, she had
 23310     Ta'en off by poison.
 23311   CYMBELINE. O most delicate fiend!
 23312     Who is't can read a woman? Is there more?
 23313   CORNELIUS. More, sir, and worse. She did confess she had
 23314     For you a mortal mineral, which, being took,
 23315     Should by the minute feed on life, and ling'ring,
 23316     By inches waste you. In which time she purpos'd,
 23317     By watching, weeping, tendance, kissing, to
 23318     O'ercome you with her show; and in time,
 23319     When she had fitted you with her craft, to work
 23320     Her son into th' adoption of the crown;
 23321     But failing of her end by his strange absence,
 23322     Grew shameless-desperate, open'd, in despite
 23323     Of heaven and men, her purposes, repented
 23324     The evils she hatch'd were not effected; so,
 23325     Despairing, died.
 23326   CYMBELINE. Heard you all this, her women?
 23327   LADY. We did, so please your Highness.
 23328   CYMBELINE. Mine eyes
 23329     Were not in fault, for she was beautiful;
 23330     Mine ears, that heard her flattery; nor my heart
 23331     That thought her like her seeming. It had been vicious
 23332     To have mistrusted her; yet, O my daughter!
 23333     That it was folly in me thou mayst say,
 23334     And prove it in thy feeling. Heaven mend all!
 23335 
 23336          Enter LUCIUS, IACHIMO, the SOOTHSAYER, and other
 23337       Roman prisoners, guarded; POSTHUMUS behind, and IMOGEN
 23338 
 23339     Thou com'st not, Caius, now for tribute; that
 23340     The Britons have raz'd out, though with the loss
 23341     Of many a bold one, whose kinsmen have made suit
 23342     That their good souls may be appeas'd with slaughter
 23343     Of you their captives, which ourself have granted;
 23344     So think of your estate.
 23345   LUCIUS. Consider, sir, the chance of war. The day
 23346     Was yours by accident; had it gone with us,
 23347     We should not, when the blood was cool, have threaten'd
 23348     Our prisoners with the sword. But since the gods
 23349     Will have it thus, that nothing but our lives
 23350     May be call'd ransom, let it come. Sufficeth
 23351     A Roman with a Roman's heart can suffer.
 23352     Augustus lives to think on't; and so much
 23353     For my peculiar care. This one thing only
 23354     I will entreat: my boy, a Briton born,
 23355     Let him be ransom'd. Never master had
 23356     A page so kind, so duteous, diligent,
 23357     So tender over his occasions, true,
 23358     So feat, so nurse-like; let his virtue join
 23359     With my request, which I'll make bold your Highness
 23360     Cannot deny; he hath done no Briton harm
 23361     Though he have serv'd a Roman. Save him, sir,
 23362     And spare no blood beside.
 23363   CYMBELINE. I have surely seen him;
 23364     His favour is familiar to me. Boy,
 23365     Thou hast look'd thyself into my grace,
 23366     And art mine own. I know not why, wherefore
 23367     To say 'Live, boy.' Ne'er thank thy master. Live;
 23368     And ask of Cymbeline what boon thou wilt,
 23369     Fitting my bounty and thy state, I'll give it;
 23370     Yea, though thou do demand a prisoner,
 23371     The noblest ta'en.
 23372   IMOGEN. I humbly thank your Highness.
 23373   LUCIUS. I do not bid thee beg my life, good lad,
 23374     And yet I know thou wilt.
 23375   IMOGEN. No, no! Alack,
 23376     There's other work in hand. I see a thing
 23377     Bitter to me as death; your life, good master,
 23378     Must shuffle for itself.
 23379   LUCIUS. The boy disdains me,
 23380     He leaves me, scorns me. Briefly die their joys
 23381     That place them on the truth of girls and boys.
 23382     Why stands he so perplex'd?
 23383   CYMBELINE. What wouldst thou, boy?
 23384     I love thee more and more; think more and more
 23385     What's best to ask. Know'st him thou look'st on? Speak,
 23386     Wilt have him live? Is he thy kin? thy friend?
 23387   IMOGEN. He is a Roman, no more kin to me
 23388     Than I to your Highness; who, being born your vassal,
 23389     Am something nearer.
 23390   CYMBELINE. Wherefore ey'st him so?
 23391   IMOGEN. I'll tell you, sir, in private, if you please
 23392     To give me hearing.
 23393   CYMBELINE. Ay, with all my heart,
 23394     And lend my best attention. What's thy name?
 23395   IMOGEN. Fidele, sir.
 23396   CYMBELINE. Thou'rt my good youth, my page;
 23397     I'll be thy master. Walk with me; speak freely.
 23398                            [CYMBELINE and IMOGEN converse apart]
 23399   BELARIUS. Is not this boy reviv'd from death?
 23400   ARVIRAGUS. One sand another
 23401     Not more resembles- that sweet rosy lad
 23402     Who died and was Fidele. What think you?
 23403   GUIDERIUS. The same dead thing alive.
 23404   BELARIUS. Peace, peace! see further. He eyes us not; forbear.
 23405     Creatures may be alike; were't he, I am sure
 23406     He would have spoke to us.
 23407   GUIDERIUS. But we saw him dead.
 23408   BELARIUS. Be silent; let's see further.
 23409   PISANIO. [Aside] It is my mistress.
 23410     Since she is living, let the time run on
 23411     To good or bad.               [CYMBELINE and IMOGEN advance]
 23412   CYMBELINE. Come, stand thou by our side;
 23413     Make thy demand aloud. [To IACHIMO] Sir, step you forth;
 23414     Give answer to this boy, and do it freely,
 23415     Or, by our greatness and the grace of it,
 23416     Which is our honour, bitter torture shall
 23417     Winnow the truth from falsehood. On, speak to him.
 23418   IMOGEN. My boon is that this gentleman may render
 23419     Of whom he had this ring.
 23420   POSTHUMUS. [Aside] What's that to him?
 23421   CYMBELINE. That diamond upon your finger, say
 23422     How came it yours?
 23423   IACHIMO. Thou'lt torture me to leave unspoken that
 23424     Which to be spoke would torture thee.
 23425   CYMBELINE. How? me?
 23426   IACHIMO. I am glad to be constrain'd to utter that
 23427     Which torments me to conceal. By villainy
 23428     I got this ring; 'twas Leonatus' jewel,
 23429     Whom thou didst banish; and- which more may grieve thee,
 23430     As it doth me- a nobler sir ne'er liv'd
 23431     'Twixt sky and ground. Wilt thou hear more, my lord?
 23432   CYMBELINE. All that belongs to this.
 23433   IACHIMO. That paragon, thy daughter,
 23434     For whom my heart drops blood and my false spirits
 23435     Quail to remember- Give me leave, I faint.
 23436   CYMBELINE. My daughter? What of her? Renew thy strength;
 23437     I had rather thou shouldst live while nature will
 23438     Than die ere I hear more. Strive, man, and speak.
 23439   IACHIMO. Upon a time- unhappy was the clock
 23440     That struck the hour!- was in Rome- accurs'd
 23441     The mansion where!- 'twas at a feast- O, would
 23442     Our viands had been poison'd, or at least
 23443     Those which I heav'd to head!- the good Posthumus-
 23444     What should I say? he was too good to be
 23445     Where ill men were, and was the best of all
 23446     Amongst the rar'st of good ones- sitting sadly
 23447     Hearing us praise our loves of Italy
 23448     For beauty that made barren the swell'd boast
 23449     Of him that best could speak; for feature, laming
 23450     The shrine of Venus or straight-pight Minerva,
 23451     Postures beyond brief nature; for condition,
 23452     A shop of all the qualities that man
 23453     Loves woman for; besides that hook of wiving,
 23454     Fairness which strikes the eye-
 23455   CYMBELINE. I stand on fire.
 23456     Come to the matter.
 23457   IACHIMO. All too soon I shall,
 23458     Unless thou wouldst grieve quickly. This Posthumus,
 23459     Most like a noble lord in love and one
 23460     That had a royal lover, took his hint;
 23461     And not dispraising whom we prais'd- therein
 23462     He was as calm as virtue- he began
 23463     His mistress' picture; which by his tongue being made,
 23464     And then a mind put in't, either our brags
 23465     Were crack'd of kitchen trulls, or his description
 23466     Prov'd us unspeaking sots.
 23467   CYMBELINE. Nay, nay, to th' purpose.
 23468   IACHIMO. Your daughter's chastity- there it begins.
 23469     He spake of her as Dian had hot dreams
 23470     And she alone were cold; whereat I, wretch,
 23471     Made scruple of his praise, and wager'd with him
 23472     Pieces of gold 'gainst this which then he wore
 23473     Upon his honour'd finger, to attain
 23474     In suit the place of's bed, and win this ring
 23475     By hers and mine adultery. He, true knight,
 23476     No lesser of her honour confident
 23477     Than I did truly find her, stakes this ring;
 23478     And would so, had it been a carbuncle
 23479     Of Phoebus' wheel; and might so safely, had it
 23480     Been all the worth of's car. Away to Britain
 23481     Post I in this design. Well may you, sir,
 23482     Remember me at court, where I was taught
 23483     Of your chaste daughter the wide difference
 23484     'Twixt amorous and villainous. Being thus quench'd
 23485     Of hope, not longing, mine Italian brain
 23486     Gan in your duller Britain operate
 23487     Most vilely; for my vantage, excellent;
 23488     And, to be brief, my practice so prevail'd
 23489     That I return'd with simular proof enough
 23490     To make the noble Leonatus mad,
 23491     By wounding his belief in her renown
 23492     With tokens thus and thus; averring notes
 23493     Of chamber-hanging, pictures, this her bracelet-
 23494     O cunning, how I got it!- nay, some marks
 23495     Of secret on her person, that he could not
 23496     But think her bond of chastity quite crack'd,
 23497     I having ta'en the forfeit. Whereupon-
 23498     Methinks I see him now-
 23499   POSTHUMUS. [Coming forward] Ay, so thou dost,
 23500     Italian fiend! Ay me, most credulous fool,
 23501     Egregious murderer, thief, anything
 23502     That's due to all the villains past, in being,
 23503     To come! O, give me cord, or knife, or poison,
 23504     Some upright justicer! Thou, King, send out
 23505     For torturers ingenious. It is I
 23506     That all th' abhorred things o' th' earth amend
 23507     By being worse than they. I am Posthumus,
 23508     That kill'd thy daughter; villain-like, I lie-
 23509     That caus'd a lesser villain than myself,
 23510     A sacrilegious thief, to do't. The temple
 23511     Of virtue was she; yea, and she herself.
 23512     Spit, and throw stones, cast mire upon me, set
 23513     The dogs o' th' street to bay me. Every villain
 23514     Be call'd Posthumus Leonatus, and
 23515     Be villainy less than 'twas! O Imogen!
 23516     My queen, my life, my wife! O Imogen,
 23517     Imogen, Imogen!
 23518   IMOGEN. Peace, my lord. Hear, hear!
 23519   POSTHUMUS. Shall's have a play of this? Thou scornful page,
 23520     There lies thy part.                [Strikes her. She falls]
 23521   PISANIO. O gentlemen, help!
 23522     Mine and your mistress! O, my lord Posthumus!
 23523     You ne'er kill'd Imogen till now. Help, help!
 23524     Mine honour'd lady!
 23525   CYMBELINE. Does the world go round?
 23526   POSTHUMUS. How comes these staggers on me?
 23527   PISANIO. Wake, my mistress!
 23528   CYMBELINE. If this be so, the gods do mean to strike me
 23529     To death with mortal joy.
 23530   PISANIO. How fares my mistress?
 23531   IMOGEN. O, get thee from my sight;
 23532     Thou gav'st me poison. Dangerous fellow, hence!
 23533     Breathe not where princes are.
 23534   CYMBELINE. The tune of Imogen!
 23535   PISANIO. Lady,
 23536     The gods throw stones of sulphur on me, if
 23537     That box I gave you was not thought by me
 23538     A precious thing! I had it from the Queen.
 23539   CYMBELINE. New matter still?
 23540   IMOGEN. It poison'd me.
 23541   CORNELIUS. O gods!
 23542     I left out one thing which the Queen confess'd,
 23543     Which must approve thee honest. 'If Pisanio
 23544     Have' said she 'given his mistress that confection
 23545     Which I gave him for cordial, she is serv'd
 23546     As I would serve a rat.'
 23547   CYMBELINE. What's this, Cornelius?
 23548   CORNELIUS. The Queen, sir, very oft importun'd me
 23549     To temper poisons for her; still pretending
 23550     The satisfaction of her knowledge only
 23551     In killing creatures vile, as cats and dogs,
 23552     Of no esteem. I, dreading that her purpose
 23553     Was of more danger, did compound for her
 23554     A certain stuff, which, being ta'en would cease
 23555     The present pow'r of life, but in short time
 23556     All offices of nature should again
 23557     Do their due functions. Have you ta'en of it?
 23558   IMOGEN. Most like I did, for I was dead.
 23559   BELARIUS. My boys,
 23560     There was our error.
 23561   GUIDERIUS. This is sure Fidele.
 23562   IMOGEN. Why did you throw your wedded lady from you?
 23563     Think that you are upon a rock, and now
 23564     Throw me again.                              [Embracing him]
 23565   POSTHUMUS. Hang there like fruit, my soul,
 23566     Till the tree die!
 23567   CYMBELINE. How now, my flesh? my child?
 23568     What, mak'st thou me a dullard in this act?
 23569     Wilt thou not speak to me?
 23570   IMOGEN. [Kneeling] Your blessing, sir.
 23571   BELARIUS. [To GUIDERIUS and ARVIRAGUS] Though you did love this
 23572       youth, I blame ye not;
 23573     You had a motive for't.
 23574   CYMBELINE. My tears that fall
 23575     Prove holy water on thee! Imogen,
 23576     Thy mother's dead.
 23577   IMOGEN. I am sorry for't, my lord.
 23578   CYMBELINE. O, she was naught, and long of her it was
 23579     That we meet here so strangely; but her son
 23580     Is gone, we know not how nor where.
 23581   PISANIO. My lord,
 23582     Now fear is from me, I'll speak troth. Lord Cloten,
 23583     Upon my lady's missing, came to me
 23584     With his sword drawn, foam'd at the mouth, and swore,
 23585     If I discover'd not which way she was gone,
 23586     It was my instant death. By accident
 23587     I had a feigned letter of my master's
 23588     Then in my pocket, which directed him
 23589     To seek her on the mountains near to Milford;
 23590     Where, in a frenzy, in my master's garments,
 23591     Which he enforc'd from me, away he posts
 23592     With unchaste purpose, and with oath to violate
 23593     My lady's honour. What became of him
 23594     I further know not.
 23595   GUIDERIUS. Let me end the story:
 23596     I slew him there.
 23597   CYMBELINE. Marry, the gods forfend!
 23598     I would not thy good deeds should from my lips
 23599     Pluck a hard sentence. Prithee, valiant youth,
 23600     Deny't again.
 23601   GUIDERIUS. I have spoke it, and I did it.
 23602   CYMBELINE. He was a prince.
 23603   GUIDERIUS. A most incivil one. The wrongs he did me
 23604     Were nothing prince-like; for he did provoke me
 23605     With language that would make me spurn the sea,
 23606     If it could so roar to me. I cut off's head,
 23607     And am right glad he is not standing here
 23608     To tell this tale of mine.
 23609   CYMBELINE. I am sorry for thee.
 23610     By thine own tongue thou art condemn'd, and must
 23611     Endure our law. Thou'rt dead.
 23612   IMOGEN. That headless man
 23613     I thought had been my lord.
 23614   CYMBELINE. Bind the offender,
 23615     And take him from our presence.
 23616   BELARIUS. Stay, sir King.
 23617     This man is better than the man he slew,
 23618     As well descended as thyself, and hath
 23619     More of thee merited than a band of Clotens
 23620     Had ever scar for. [To the guard] Let his arms alone;
 23621     They were not born for bondage.
 23622   CYMBELINE. Why, old soldier,
 23623     Wilt thou undo the worth thou art unpaid for
 23624     By tasting of our wrath? How of descent
 23625     As good as we?
 23626   ARVIRAGUS. In that he spake too far.
 23627   CYMBELINE. And thou shalt die for't.
 23628   BELARIUS. We will die all three;
 23629     But I will prove that two on's are as good
 23630     As I have given out him. My sons, I must
 23631     For mine own part unfold a dangerous speech,
 23632     Though haply well for you.
 23633   ARVIRAGUS. Your danger's ours.
 23634   GUIDERIUS. And our good his.
 23635   BELARIUS. Have at it then by leave!
 23636     Thou hadst, great King, a subject who
 23637     Was call'd Belarius.
 23638   CYMBELINE. What of him? He is
 23639     A banish'd traitor.
 23640   BELARIUS. He it is that hath
 23641     Assum'd this age; indeed a banish'd man;
 23642     I know not how a traitor.
 23643   CYMBELINE. Take him hence,
 23644     The whole world shall not save him.
 23645   BELARIUS. Not too hot.
 23646     First pay me for the nursing of thy sons,
 23647     And let it be confiscate all, so soon
 23648     As I have receiv'd it.
 23649   CYMBELINE. Nursing of my sons?
 23650   BELARIUS. I am too blunt and saucy: here's my knee.
 23651     Ere I arise I will prefer my sons;
 23652     Then spare not the old father. Mighty sir,
 23653     These two young gentlemen that call me father,
 23654     And think they are my sons, are none of mine;
 23655     They are the issue of your loins, my liege,
 23656     And blood of your begetting.
 23657   CYMBELINE. How? my issue?
 23658   BELARIUS. So sure as you your father's. I, old Morgan,
 23659     Am that Belarius whom you sometime banish'd.
 23660     Your pleasure was my mere offence, my punishment
 23661     Itself, and all my treason; that I suffer'd
 23662     Was all the harm I did. These gentle princes-
 23663     For such and so they are- these twenty years
 23664     Have I train'd up; those arts they have as
 23665     Could put into them. My breeding was, sir, as
 23666     Your Highness knows. Their nurse, Euriphile,
 23667     Whom for the theft I wedded, stole these children
 23668     Upon my banishment; I mov'd her to't,
 23669     Having receiv'd the punishment before
 23670     For that which I did then. Beaten for loyalty
 23671     Excited me to treason. Their dear loss,
 23672     The more of you 'twas felt, the more it shap'd
 23673     Unto my end of stealing them. But, gracious sir,
 23674     Here are your sons again, and I must lose
 23675     Two of the sweet'st companions in the world.
 23676     The benediction of these covering heavens
 23677     Fall on their heads like dew! for they are worthy
 23678     To inlay heaven with stars.
 23679   CYMBELINE. Thou weep'st and speak'st.
 23680     The service that you three have done is more
 23681     Unlike than this thou tell'st. I lost my children.
 23682     If these be they, I know not how to wish
 23683     A pair of worthier sons.
 23684   BELARIUS. Be pleas'd awhile.
 23685     This gentleman, whom I call Polydore,
 23686     Most worthy prince, as yours, is true Guiderius;
 23687     This gentleman, my Cadwal, Arviragus,
 23688     Your younger princely son; he, sir, was lapp'd
 23689     In a most curious mantle, wrought by th' hand
 23690     Of his queen mother, which for more probation
 23691     I can with ease produce.
 23692   CYMBELINE. Guiderius had
 23693     Upon his neck a mole, a sanguine star;
 23694     It was a mark of wonder.
 23695   BELARIUS. This is he,
 23696     Who hath upon him still that natural stamp.
 23697     It was wise nature's end in the donation,
 23698     To be his evidence now.
 23699   CYMBELINE. O, what am I?
 23700     A mother to the birth of three? Ne'er mother
 23701     Rejoic'd deliverance more. Blest pray you be,
 23702     That, after this strange starting from your orbs,
 23703     You may reign in them now! O Imogen,
 23704     Thou hast lost by this a kingdom.
 23705   IMOGEN. No, my lord;
 23706     I have got two worlds by't. O my gentle brothers,
 23707     Have we thus met? O, never say hereafter
 23708     But I am truest speaker! You call'd me brother,
 23709     When I was but your sister: I you brothers,
 23710     When we were so indeed.
 23711   CYMBELINE. Did you e'er meet?
 23712   ARVIRAGUS. Ay, my good lord.
 23713   GUIDERIUS. And at first meeting lov'd,
 23714     Continu'd so until we thought he died.
 23715   CORNELIUS. By the Queen's dram she swallow'd.
 23716   CYMBELINE. O rare instinct!
 23717     When shall I hear all through? This fierce abridgment
 23718     Hath to it circumstantial branches, which
 23719     Distinction should be rich in. Where? how liv'd you?
 23720     And when came you to serve our Roman captive?
 23721     How parted with your brothers? how first met them?
 23722     Why fled you from the court? and whither? These,
 23723     And your three motives to the battle, with
 23724     I know not how much more, should be demanded,
 23725     And all the other by-dependences,
 23726     From chance to chance; but nor the time nor place
 23727     Will serve our long interrogatories. See,
 23728     Posthumus anchors upon Imogen;
 23729     And she, like harmless lightning, throws her eye
 23730     On him, her brothers, me, her master, hitting
 23731     Each object with a joy; the counterchange
 23732     Is severally in all. Let's quit this ground,
 23733     And smoke the temple with our sacrifices.
 23734     [To BELARIUS] Thou art my brother; so we'll hold thee ever.
 23735   IMOGEN. You are my father too, and did relieve me
 23736     To see this gracious season.
 23737   CYMBELINE. All o'erjoy'd
 23738     Save these in bonds. Let them be joyful too,
 23739     For they shall taste our comfort.
 23740   IMOGEN. My good master,
 23741     I will yet do you service.
 23742   LUCIUS. Happy be you!
 23743   CYMBELINE. The forlorn soldier, that so nobly fought,
 23744     He would have well becom'd this place and grac'd
 23745     The thankings of a king.
 23746   POSTHUMUS. I am, sir,
 23747     The soldier that did company these three
 23748     In poor beseeming; 'twas a fitment for
 23749     The purpose I then follow'd. That I was he,
 23750     Speak, Iachimo. I had you down, and might
 23751     Have made you finish.
 23752   IACHIMO. [Kneeling] I am down again;
 23753     But now my heavy conscience sinks my knee,
 23754     As then your force did. Take that life, beseech you,
 23755     Which I so often owe; but your ring first,
 23756     And here the bracelet of the truest princess
 23757     That ever swore her faith.
 23758   POSTHUMUS. Kneel not to me.
 23759     The pow'r that I have on you is to spare you;
 23760     The malice towards you to forgive you. Live,
 23761     And deal with others better.
 23762   CYMBELINE. Nobly doom'd!
 23763     We'll learn our freeness of a son-in-law;
 23764     Pardon's the word to all.
 23765   ARVIRAGUS. You holp us, sir,
 23766     As you did mean indeed to be our brother;
 23767     Joy'd are we that you are.
 23768   POSTHUMUS. Your servant, Princes. Good my lord of Rome,
 23769     Call forth your soothsayer. As I slept, methought
 23770     Great Jupiter, upon his eagle back'd,
 23771     Appear'd to me, with other spritely shows
 23772     Of mine own kindred. When I wak'd, I found
 23773     This label on my bosom; whose containing
 23774     Is so from sense in hardness that I can
 23775     Make no collection of it. Let him show
 23776     His skill in the construction.
 23777   LUCIUS. Philarmonus!
 23778   SOOTHSAYER. Here, my good lord.
 23779   LUCIUS. Read, and declare the meaning.
 23780   SOOTHSAYER. [Reads] 'When as a lion's whelp shall, to himself
 23781     unknown, without seeking find, and be embrac'd by
 23782     a piece of tender air; and when from a stately cedar shall
 23783     be lopp'd branches which, being dead many years, shall
 23784     after revive, be jointed to the old stock, and freshly grow;
 23785     then shall Posthumus end his miseries, Britain be fortunate
 23786     and flourish in peace and plenty.'
 23787     Thou, Leonatus, art the lion's whelp;
 23788     The fit and apt construction of thy name,
 23789     Being Leo-natus, doth import so much.
 23790     [To CYMBELINE] The piece of tender air, thy virtuous daughter,
 23791     Which we call 'mollis aer,' and 'mollis aer'
 23792     We term it 'mulier'; which 'mulier' I divine
 23793     Is this most constant wife, who even now
 23794     Answering the letter of the oracle,
 23795     Unknown to you, unsought, were clipp'd about
 23796     With this most tender air.
 23797   CYMBELINE. This hath some seeming.
 23798   SOOTHSAYER. The lofty cedar, royal Cymbeline,
 23799     Personates thee; and thy lopp'd branches point
 23800     Thy two sons forth, who, by Belarius stol'n,
 23801     For many years thought dead, are now reviv'd,
 23802     To the majestic cedar join'd, whose issue
 23803     Promises Britain peace and plenty.
 23804   CYMBELINE. Well,
 23805     My peace we will begin. And, Caius Lucius,
 23806     Although the victor, we submit to Caesar
 23807     And to the Roman empire, promising
 23808     To pay our wonted tribute, from the which
 23809     We were dissuaded by our wicked queen,
 23810     Whom heavens in justice, both on her and hers,
 23811     Have laid most heavy hand.
 23812   SOOTHSAYER. The fingers of the pow'rs above do tune
 23813     The harmony of this peace. The vision
 23814     Which I made known to Lucius ere the stroke
 23815     Of yet this scarce-cold battle, at this instant
 23816     Is full accomplish'd; for the Roman eagle,
 23817     From south to west on wing soaring aloft,
 23818     Lessen'd herself and in the beams o' th' sun
 23819     So vanish'd; which foreshow'd our princely eagle,
 23820     Th'imperial Caesar, Caesar, should again unite
 23821     His favour with the radiant Cymbeline,
 23822     Which shines here in the west.
 23823   CYMBELINE. Laud we the gods;
 23824     And let our crooked smokes climb to their nostrils
 23825     From our bless'd altars. Publish we this peace
 23826     To all our subjects. Set we forward; let
 23827     A Roman and a British ensign wave
 23828     Friendly together. So through Lud's Town march;
 23829     And in the temple of great Jupiter
 23830     Our peace we'll ratify; seal it with feasts.
 23831     Set on there! Never was a war did cease,
 23832     Ere bloody hands were wash'd, with such a peace.      Exeunt
 23833 
 23834 THE END
 23835 
 23836 
 23837 
 23838 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 23839 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 23840 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 23841 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 23842 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 23843 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 23844 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 23845 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 23846 
 23847 
 23848 
 23849 
 23850 
 23851 1604
 23852 
 23853 
 23854 THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK
 23855 
 23856 
 23857 by William Shakespeare
 23858 
 23859 
 23860 
 23861 Dramatis Personae
 23862 
 23863   Claudius, King of Denmark.
 23864   Marcellus, Officer.
 23865   Hamlet, son to the former, and nephew to the present king.
 23866   Polonius, Lord Chamberlain.
 23867   Horatio, friend to Hamlet.
 23868   Laertes, son to Polonius.
 23869   Voltemand, courtier.
 23870   Cornelius, courtier.
 23871   Rosencrantz, courtier.
 23872   Guildenstern, courtier.
 23873   Osric, courtier.
 23874   A Gentleman, courtier.
 23875   A Priest.
 23876   Marcellus, officer.
 23877   Bernardo, officer.
 23878   Francisco, a soldier
 23879   Reynaldo, servant to Polonius.
 23880   Players.
 23881   Two Clowns, gravediggers.
 23882   Fortinbras, Prince of Norway.
 23883   A Norwegian Captain.
 23884   English Ambassadors.
 23885 
 23886   Getrude, Queen of Denmark, mother to Hamlet.
 23887   Ophelia, daughter to Polonius.
 23888 
 23889   Ghost of Hamlet's Father.
 23890 
 23891   Lords, ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Sailors, Messengers, Attendants.
 23892 
 23893 
 23894 
 23895 
 23896 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 23897 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 23898 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 23899 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 23900 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 23901 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 23902 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 23903 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 23904 
 23905 
 23906 
 23907 SCENE.- Elsinore.
 23908 
 23909 
 23910 ACT I. Scene I.
 23911 Elsinore. A platform before the Castle.
 23912 
 23913 Enter two Sentinels-[first,] Francisco, [who paces up and down
 23914 at his post; then] Bernardo, [who approaches him].
 23915 
 23916   Ber. Who's there.?
 23917   Fran. Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself.
 23918   Ber. Long live the King!
 23919   Fran. Bernardo?
 23920   Ber. He.
 23921   Fran. You come most carefully upon your hour.
 23922   Ber. 'Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco.
 23923   Fran. For this relief much thanks. 'Tis bitter cold,
 23924     And I am sick at heart.
 23925   Ber. Have you had quiet guard?
 23926   Fran. Not a mouse stirring.
 23927   Ber. Well, good night.
 23928     If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,
 23929     The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.
 23930 
 23931                     Enter Horatio and Marcellus.
 23932 
 23933   Fran. I think I hear them. Stand, ho! Who is there?
 23934   Hor. Friends to this ground.
 23935   Mar. And liegemen to the Dane.
 23936   Fran. Give you good night.
 23937   Mar. O, farewell, honest soldier.
 23938     Who hath reliev'd you?
 23939   Fran. Bernardo hath my place.
 23940     Give you good night.                                   Exit.
 23941   Mar. Holla, Bernardo!
 23942   Ber. Say-
 23943     What, is Horatio there ?
 23944   Hor. A piece of him.
 23945   Ber. Welcome, Horatio. Welcome, good Marcellus.
 23946   Mar. What, has this thing appear'd again to-night?
 23947   Ber. I have seen nothing.
 23948   Mar. Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy,
 23949     And will not let belief take hold of him
 23950     Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us.
 23951     Therefore I have entreated him along,
 23952     With us to watch the minutes of this night,
 23953     That, if again this apparition come,
 23954     He may approve our eyes and speak to it.
 23955   Hor. Tush, tush, 'twill not appear.
 23956   Ber. Sit down awhile,
 23957     And let us once again assail your ears,
 23958     That are so fortified against our story,
 23959     What we two nights have seen.
 23960   Hor. Well, sit we down,
 23961     And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.
 23962   Ber. Last night of all,
 23963     When yond same star that's westward from the pole
 23964     Had made his course t' illume that part of heaven
 23965     Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,
 23966     The bell then beating one-
 23967 
 23968                         Enter Ghost.
 23969 
 23970   Mar. Peace! break thee off! Look where it comes again!
 23971   Ber. In the same figure, like the King that's dead.
 23972   Mar. Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.
 23973   Ber. Looks it not like the King? Mark it, Horatio.
 23974   Hor. Most like. It harrows me with fear and wonder.
 23975   Ber. It would be spoke to.
 23976   Mar. Question it, Horatio.
 23977   Hor. What art thou that usurp'st this time of night
 23978     Together with that fair and warlike form
 23979     In which the majesty of buried Denmark
 23980     Did sometimes march? By heaven I charge thee speak!
 23981   Mar. It is offended.
 23982   Ber. See, it stalks away!
 23983   Hor. Stay! Speak, speak! I charge thee speak!
 23984                                                      Exit Ghost.
 23985   Mar. 'Tis gone and will not answer.
 23986   Ber. How now, Horatio? You tremble and look pale.
 23987     Is not this something more than fantasy?
 23988     What think you on't?
 23989   Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe
 23990     Without the sensible and true avouch
 23991     Of mine own eyes.
 23992   Mar. Is it not like the King?
 23993   Hor. As thou art to thyself.
 23994     Such was the very armour he had on
 23995     When he th' ambitious Norway combated.
 23996     So frown'd he once when, in an angry parle,
 23997     He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.
 23998     'Tis strange.
 23999   Mar. Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour,
 24000     With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.
 24001   Hor. In what particular thought to work I know not;
 24002     But, in the gross and scope of my opinion,
 24003     This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
 24004   Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me he that knows,
 24005     Why this same strict and most observant watch
 24006     So nightly toils the subject of the land,
 24007     And why such daily cast of brazen cannon
 24008     And foreign mart for implements of war;
 24009     Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task
 24010     Does not divide the Sunday from the week.
 24011     What might be toward, that this sweaty haste
 24012     Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day?
 24013     Who is't that can inform me?
 24014   Hor. That can I.
 24015     At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king,
 24016     Whose image even but now appear'd to us,
 24017     Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
 24018     Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,
 24019     Dar'd to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet
 24020     (For so this side of our known world esteem'd him)
 24021     Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd compact,
 24022     Well ratified by law and heraldry,
 24023     Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands
 24024     Which he stood seiz'd of, to the conqueror;
 24025     Against the which a moiety competent
 24026     Was gaged by our king; which had return'd
 24027     To the inheritance of Fortinbras,
 24028     Had he been vanquisher, as, by the same comart
 24029     And carriage of the article design'd,
 24030     His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,
 24031     Of unimproved mettle hot and full,
 24032     Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,
 24033     Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes,
 24034     For food and diet, to some enterprise
 24035     That hath a stomach in't; which is no other,
 24036     As it doth well appear unto our state,
 24037     But to recover of us, by strong hand
 24038     And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands
 24039     So by his father lost; and this, I take it,
 24040     Is the main motive of our preparations,
 24041     The source of this our watch, and the chief head
 24042     Of this post-haste and romage in the land.
 24043   Ber. I think it be no other but e'en so.
 24044     Well may it sort that this portentous figure
 24045     Comes armed through our watch, so like the King
 24046     That was and is the question of these wars.
 24047   Hor. A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye.
 24048     In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
 24049     A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
 24050     The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
 24051     Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets;
 24052     As stars with trains of fire, and dews of blood,
 24053     Disasters in the sun; and the moist star
 24054     Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands
 24055     Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse.
 24056     And even the like precurse of fierce events,
 24057     As harbingers preceding still the fates
 24058     And prologue to the omen coming on,
 24059     Have heaven and earth together demonstrated
 24060     Unto our climature and countrymen.
 24061 
 24062                       Enter Ghost again.
 24063 
 24064     But soft! behold! Lo, where it comes again!
 24065     I'll cross it, though it blast me.- Stay illusion!
 24066                                                Spreads his arms.
 24067     If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
 24068     Speak to me.
 24069     If there be any good thing to be done,
 24070     That may to thee do ease, and, race to me,
 24071     Speak to me.
 24072     If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
 24073     Which happily foreknowing may avoid,
 24074     O, speak!
 24075     Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
 24076     Extorted treasure in the womb of earth
 24077     (For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death),
 24078                                                  The cock crows.
 24079     Speak of it! Stay, and speak!- Stop it, Marcellus!
 24080   Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partisan?
 24081   Hor. Do, if it will not stand.
 24082   Ber. 'Tis here!
 24083   Hor. 'Tis here!
 24084   Mar. 'Tis gone!
 24085                                                      Exit Ghost.
 24086     We do it wrong, being so majestical,
 24087     To offer it the show of violence;
 24088     For it is as the air, invulnerable,
 24089     And our vain blows malicious mockery.
 24090   Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew.
 24091   Hor. And then it started, like a guilty thing
 24092     Upon a fearful summons. I have heard
 24093     The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
 24094     Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
 24095     Awake the god of day; and at his warning,
 24096     Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
 24097     Th' extravagant and erring spirit hies
 24098     To his confine; and of the truth herein
 24099     This present object made probation.
 24100   Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock.
 24101     Some say that ever, 'gainst that season comes
 24102     Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
 24103     The bird of dawning singeth all night long;
 24104     And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,
 24105     The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,
 24106     No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
 24107     So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.
 24108   Hor. So have I heard and do in part believe it.
 24109     But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
 24110     Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill.
 24111     Break we our watch up; and by my advice
 24112     Let us impart what we have seen to-night
 24113     Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life,
 24114     This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.
 24115     Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it,
 24116     As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?
 24117     Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know
 24118     Where we shall find him most conveniently.           Exeunt.
 24119 
 24120 
 24121 
 24122 
 24123 Scene II.
 24124 Elsinore. A room of state in the Castle.
 24125 
 24126 Flourish. [Enter Claudius, King of Denmark, Gertrude the Queen, Hamlet,
 24127 Polonius, Laertes and his sister Ophelia, [Voltemand, Cornelius,]
 24128 Lords Attendant.
 24129 
 24130   King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death
 24131     The memory be green, and that it us befitted
 24132     To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom
 24133     To be contracted in one brow of woe,
 24134     Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature
 24135     That we with wisest sorrow think on him
 24136     Together with remembrance of ourselves.
 24137     Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
 24138     Th' imperial jointress to this warlike state,
 24139     Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,
 24140     With an auspicious, and a dropping eye,
 24141     With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage,
 24142     In equal scale weighing delight and dole,
 24143     Taken to wife; nor have we herein barr'd
 24144     Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
 24145     With this affair along. For all, our thanks.
 24146     Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,
 24147     Holding a weak supposal of our worth,
 24148     Or thinking by our late dear brother's death
 24149     Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
 24150     Colleagued with this dream of his advantage,
 24151     He hath not fail'd to pester us with message
 24152     Importing the surrender of those lands
 24153     Lost by his father, with all bands of law,
 24154     To our most valiant brother. So much for him.
 24155     Now for ourself and for this time of meeting.
 24156     Thus much the business is: we have here writ
 24157     To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,
 24158     Who, impotent and bedrid, scarcely hears
 24159     Of this his nephew's purpose, to suppress
 24160     His further gait herein, in that the levies,
 24161     The lists, and full proportions are all made
 24162     Out of his subject; and we here dispatch
 24163     You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltemand,
 24164     For bearers of this greeting to old Norway,
 24165     Giving to you no further personal power
 24166     To business with the King, more than the scope
 24167     Of these dilated articles allow.            [Gives a paper.]
 24168     Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.
 24169   Cor., Volt. In that, and all things, will we show our duty.
 24170   King. We doubt it nothing. Heartily farewell.
 24171                                  Exeunt Voltemand and Cornelius.
 24172     And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?
 24173     You told us of some suit. What is't, Laertes?
 24174     You cannot speak of reason to the Dane
 24175     And lose your voice. What wouldst thou beg, Laertes,
 24176     That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?
 24177     The head is not more native to the heart,
 24178     The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
 24179     Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.
 24180     What wouldst thou have, Laertes?
 24181   Laer. My dread lord,
 24182     Your leave and favour to return to France;
 24183     From whence though willingly I came to Denmark
 24184     To show my duty in your coronation,
 24185     Yet now I must confess, that duty done,
 24186     My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France
 24187     And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.
 24188   King. Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius?
 24189   Pol. He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave
 24190     By laboursome petition, and at last
 24191     Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent.
 24192     I do beseech you give him leave to go.
 24193   King. Take thy fair hour, Laertes. Time be thine,
 24194     And thy best graces spend it at thy will!
 24195     But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son-
 24196   Ham. [aside] A little more than kin, and less than kind!
 24197   King. How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
 24198   Ham. Not so, my lord. I am too much i' th' sun.
 24199   Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off,
 24200     And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
 24201     Do not for ever with thy vailed lids
 24202     Seek for thy noble father in the dust.
 24203     Thou know'st 'tis common. All that lives must die,
 24204     Passing through nature to eternity.
 24205   Ham. Ay, madam, it is common.
 24206   Queen. If it be,
 24207     Why seems it so particular with thee?
 24208   Ham. Seems, madam, Nay, it is. I know not 'seems.'
 24209     'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
 24210     Nor customary suits of solemn black,
 24211     Nor windy suspiration of forc'd breath,
 24212     No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
 24213     Nor the dejected havior of the visage,
 24214     Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
 24215     'That can denote me truly. These indeed seem,
 24216     For they are actions that a man might play;
 24217     But I have that within which passeth show-
 24218     These but the trappings and the suits of woe.
 24219   King. 'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,
 24220     To give these mourning duties to your father;
 24221     But you must know, your father lost a father;
 24222     That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound
 24223     In filial obligation for some term
 24224     To do obsequious sorrow. But to persever
 24225     In obstinate condolement is a course
 24226     Of impious stubbornness. 'Tis unmanly grief;
 24227     It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
 24228     A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,
 24229     An understanding simple and unschool'd;
 24230     For what we know must be, and is as common
 24231     As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
 24232     Why should we in our peevish opposition
 24233     Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,
 24234     A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
 24235     To reason most absurd, whose common theme
 24236     Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
 24237     From the first corse till he that died to-day,
 24238     'This must be so.' We pray you throw to earth
 24239     This unprevailing woe, and think of us
 24240     As of a father; for let the world take note
 24241     You are the most immediate to our throne,
 24242     And with no less nobility of love
 24243     Than that which dearest father bears his son
 24244     Do I impart toward you. For your intent
 24245     In going back to school in Wittenberg,
 24246     It is most retrograde to our desire;
 24247     And we beseech you, bend you to remain
 24248     Here in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
 24249     Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.
 24250   Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet.
 24251     I pray thee stay with us, go not to Wittenberg.
 24252   Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam.
 24253   King. Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply.
 24254     Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come.
 24255     This gentle and unforc'd accord of Hamlet
 24256     Sits smiling to my heart; in grace whereof,
 24257     No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day
 24258     But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,
 24259     And the King's rouse the heaven shall bruit again,
 24260     Respeaking earthly thunder. Come away.
 24261                                 Flourish. Exeunt all but Hamlet.
 24262   Ham. O that this too too solid flesh would melt,
 24263     Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!
 24264     Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
 24265     His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
 24266     How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
 24267     Seem to me all the uses of this world!
 24268     Fie on't! ah, fie! 'Tis an unweeded garden
 24269     That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
 24270     Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
 24271     But two months dead! Nay, not so much, not two.
 24272     So excellent a king, that was to this
 24273     Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
 24274     That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
 24275     Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
 24276     Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him
 24277     As if increase of appetite had grown
 24278     By what it fed on; and yet, within a month-
 24279     Let me not think on't! Frailty, thy name is woman!-
 24280     A little month, or ere those shoes were old
 24281     With which she followed my poor father's body
 24282     Like Niobe, all tears- why she, even she
 24283     (O God! a beast that wants discourse of reason
 24284     Would have mourn'd longer) married with my uncle;
 24285     My father's brother, but no more like my father
 24286     Than I to Hercules. Within a month,
 24287     Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
 24288     Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
 24289     She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
 24290     With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
 24291     It is not, nor it cannot come to good.
 24292     But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue!
 24293 
 24294           Enter Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo.
 24295 
 24296   Hor. Hail to your lordship!
 24297   Ham. I am glad to see you well.
 24298     Horatio!- or I do forget myself.
 24299   Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.
 24300   Ham. Sir, my good friend- I'll change that name with you.
 24301     And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio?
 24302     Marcellus?
 24303   Mar. My good lord!
 24304   Ham. I am very glad to see you.- [To Bernardo] Good even, sir.-
 24305     But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?
 24306   Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord.
 24307   Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so,
 24308     Nor shall you do my ear that violence
 24309     To make it truster of your own report
 24310     Against yourself. I know you are no truant.
 24311     But what is your affair in Elsinore?
 24312     We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.
 24313   Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's funeral.
 24314   Ham. I prithee do not mock me, fellow student.
 24315     I think it was to see my mother's wedding.
 24316   Hor. Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon.
 24317   Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio! The funeral bak'd meats
 24318     Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
 24319     Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven
 24320     Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!
 24321     My father- methinks I see my father.
 24322   Hor. O, where, my lord?
 24323   Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio.
 24324   Hor. I saw him once. He was a goodly king.
 24325   Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all.
 24326     I shall not look upon his like again.
 24327   Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
 24328   Ham. Saw? who?
 24329   Hor. My lord, the King your father.
 24330   Ham. The King my father?
 24331   Hor. Season your admiration for a while
 24332     With an attent ear, till I may deliver
 24333     Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
 24334     This marvel to you.
 24335   Ham. For God's love let me hear!
 24336   Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen
 24337     (Marcellus and Bernardo) on their watch
 24338     In the dead vast and middle of the night
 24339     Been thus encount'red. A figure like your father,
 24340     Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe,
 24341     Appears before them and with solemn march
 24342     Goes slow and stately by them. Thrice he walk'd
 24343     By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes,
 24344     Within his truncheon's length; whilst they distill'd
 24345     Almost to jelly with the act of fear,
 24346     Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me
 24347     In dreadful secrecy impart they did,
 24348     And I with them the third night kept the watch;
 24349     Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,
 24350     Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
 24351     The apparition comes. I knew your father.
 24352     These hands are not more like.
 24353   Ham. But where was this?
 24354   Mar. My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.
 24355   Ham. Did you not speak to it?
 24356   Hor. My lord, I did;
 24357     But answer made it none. Yet once methought
 24358     It lifted up it head and did address
 24359     Itself to motion, like as it would speak;
 24360     But even then the morning cock crew loud,
 24361     And at the sound it shrunk in haste away
 24362     And vanish'd from our sight.
 24363   Ham. 'Tis very strange.
 24364   Hor. As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true;
 24365     And we did think it writ down in our duty
 24366     To let you know of it.
 24367   Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs. But this troubles me.
 24368     Hold you the watch to-night?
 24369   Both [Mar. and Ber.] We do, my lord.
 24370   Ham. Arm'd, say you?
 24371   Both. Arm'd, my lord.
 24372   Ham. From top to toe?
 24373   Both. My lord, from head to foot.
 24374   Ham. Then saw you not his face?
 24375   Hor. O, yes, my lord! He wore his beaver up.
 24376   Ham. What, look'd he frowningly.
 24377   Hor. A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.
 24378   Ham. Pale or red?
 24379   Hor. Nay, very pale.
 24380   Ham. And fix'd his eyes upon you?
 24381   Hor. Most constantly.
 24382   Ham. I would I had been there.
 24383   Hor. It would have much amaz'd you.
 24384   Ham. Very like, very like. Stay'd it long?
 24385   Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.
 24386   Both. Longer, longer.
 24387   Hor. Not when I saw't.
 24388   Ham. His beard was grizzled- no?
 24389   Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life,
 24390     A sable silver'd.
 24391   Ham. I will watch to-night.
 24392     Perchance 'twill walk again.
 24393   Hor. I warr'nt it will.
 24394   Ham. If it assume my noble father's person,
 24395     I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape
 24396     And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
 24397     If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight,
 24398     Let it be tenable in your silence still;
 24399     And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
 24400     Give it an understanding but no tongue.
 24401     I will requite your loves. So, fare you well.
 24402     Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
 24403     I'll visit you.
 24404   All. Our duty to your honour.
 24405   Ham. Your loves, as mine to you. Farewell.
 24406                                         Exeunt [all but Hamlet].
 24407     My father's spirit- in arms? All is not well.
 24408     I doubt some foul play. Would the night were come!
 24409     Till then sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise,
 24410     Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.
 24411 Exit.
 24412 
 24413 
 24414 
 24415 
 24416 Scene III.
 24417 Elsinore. A room in the house of Polonius.
 24418 
 24419 Enter Laertes and Ophelia.
 24420 
 24421   Laer. My necessaries are embark'd. Farewell.
 24422     And, sister, as the winds give benefit
 24423     And convoy is assistant, do not sleep,
 24424     But let me hear from you.
 24425   Oph. Do you doubt that?
 24426   Laer. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour,
 24427     Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood;
 24428     A violet in the youth of primy nature,
 24429     Forward, not permanent- sweet, not lasting;
 24430     The perfume and suppliance of a minute;
 24431     No more.
 24432   Oph. No more but so?
 24433   Laer. Think it no more.
 24434     For nature crescent does not grow alone
 24435     In thews and bulk; but as this temple waxes,
 24436     The inward service of the mind and soul
 24437     Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now,
 24438     And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch
 24439     The virtue of his will; but you must fear,
 24440     His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own;
 24441     For he himself is subject to his birth.
 24442     He may not, as unvalued persons do,
 24443     Carve for himself, for on his choice depends
 24444     The safety and health of this whole state,
 24445     And therefore must his choice be circumscrib'd
 24446     Unto the voice and yielding of that body
 24447     Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you,
 24448     It fits your wisdom so far to believe it
 24449     As he in his particular act and place
 24450     May give his saying deed; which is no further
 24451     Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
 24452     Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain
 24453     If with too credent ear you list his songs,
 24454     Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open
 24455     To his unmast'red importunity.
 24456     Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,
 24457     And keep you in the rear of your affection,
 24458     Out of the shot and danger of desire.
 24459     The chariest maid is prodigal enough
 24460     If she unmask her beauty to the moon.
 24461     Virtue itself scopes not calumnious strokes.
 24462     The canker galls the infants of the spring
 24463     Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd,
 24464     And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
 24465     Contagious blastments are most imminent.
 24466     Be wary then; best safety lies in fear.
 24467     Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.
 24468   Oph. I shall th' effect of this good lesson keep
 24469     As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother,
 24470     Do not as some ungracious pastors do,
 24471     Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
 24472     Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
 24473     Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads
 24474     And recks not his own rede.
 24475   Laer. O, fear me not!
 24476 
 24477                        Enter Polonius.
 24478 
 24479     I stay too long. But here my father comes.
 24480     A double blessing is a double grace;
 24481     Occasion smiles upon a second leave.
 24482   Pol. Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame!
 24483     The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
 24484     And you are stay'd for. There- my blessing with thee!
 24485     And these few precepts in thy memory
 24486     Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
 24487     Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
 24488     Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar:
 24489     Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
 24490     Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel;
 24491     But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
 24492     Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware
 24493     Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
 24494     Bear't that th' opposed may beware of thee.
 24495     Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice;
 24496     Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
 24497     Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
 24498     But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
 24499     For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
 24500     And they in France of the best rank and station
 24501     Are most select and generous, chief in that.
 24502     Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
 24503     For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
 24504     And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
 24505     This above all- to thine own self be true,
 24506     And it must follow, as the night the day,
 24507     Thou canst not then be false to any man.
 24508     Farewell. My blessing season this in thee!
 24509   Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
 24510   Pol. The time invites you. Go, your servants tend.
 24511   Laer. Farewell, Ophelia, and remember well
 24512     What I have said to you.
 24513   Oph. 'Tis in my memory lock'd,
 24514     And you yourself shall keep the key of it.
 24515   Laer. Farewell.                                          Exit.
 24516   Pol. What is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you?
 24517   Oph. So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet.
 24518   Pol. Marry, well bethought!
 24519     'Tis told me he hath very oft of late
 24520     Given private time to you, and you yourself
 24521     Have of your audience been most free and bounteous.
 24522     If it be so- as so 'tis put on me,
 24523     And that in way of caution- I must tell you
 24524     You do not understand yourself so clearly
 24525     As it behooves my daughter and your honour.
 24526     What is between you? Give me up the truth.
 24527   Oph. He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders
 24528     Of his affection to me.
 24529   Pol. Affection? Pooh! You speak like a green girl,
 24530     Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.
 24531     Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?
 24532   Oph. I do not know, my lord, what I should think,
 24533   Pol. Marry, I will teach you! Think yourself a baby
 24534     That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay,
 24535     Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly,
 24536     Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
 24537     Running it thus) you'll tender me a fool.
 24538   Oph. My lord, he hath importun'd me with love
 24539     In honourable fashion.
 24540   Pol. Ay, fashion you may call it. Go to, go to!
 24541   Oph. And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,
 24542     With almost all the holy vows of heaven.
 24543   Pol. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks! I do know,
 24544     When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
 24545     Lends the tongue vows. These blazes, daughter,
 24546     Giving more light than heat, extinct in both
 24547     Even in their promise, as it is a-making,
 24548     You must not take for fire. From this time
 24549     Be something scanter of your maiden presence.
 24550     Set your entreatments at a higher rate
 24551     Than a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet,
 24552     Believe so much in him, that he is young,
 24553     And with a larger tether may he walk
 24554     Than may be given you. In few, Ophelia,
 24555     Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers,
 24556     Not of that dye which their investments show,
 24557     But mere implorators of unholy suits,
 24558     Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds,
 24559     The better to beguile. This is for all:
 24560     I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth
 24561     Have you so slander any moment leisure
 24562     As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.
 24563     Look to't, I charge you. Come your ways.
 24564   Oph. I shall obey, my lord.
 24565                                                          Exeunt.
 24566 
 24567 
 24568 
 24569 
 24570 Scene IV.
 24571 Elsinore. The platform before the Castle.
 24572 
 24573 Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus.
 24574 
 24575   Ham. The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.
 24576   Hor. It is a nipping and an eager air.
 24577   Ham. What hour now?
 24578   Hor. I think it lacks of twelve.
 24579   Mar. No, it is struck.
 24580   Hor. Indeed? I heard it not. It then draws near the season
 24581     Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.
 24582                    A flourish of trumpets, and two pieces go off.
 24583     What does this mean, my lord?
 24584   Ham. The King doth wake to-night and takes his rouse,
 24585     Keeps wassail, and the swagg'ring upspring reels,
 24586     And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
 24587     The kettledrum and trumpet thus bray out
 24588     The triumph of his pledge.
 24589   Hor. Is it a custom?
 24590   Ham. Ay, marry, is't;
 24591     But to my mind, though I am native here
 24592     And to the manner born, it is a custom
 24593     More honour'd in the breach than the observance.
 24594     This heavy-headed revel east and west
 24595     Makes us traduc'd and tax'd of other nations;
 24596     They clip us drunkards and with swinish phrase
 24597     Soil our addition; and indeed it takes
 24598     From our achievements, though perform'd at height,
 24599     The pith and marrow of our attribute.
 24600     So oft it chances in particular men
 24601     That, for some vicious mole of nature in them,
 24602     As in their birth,- wherein they are not guilty,
 24603     Since nature cannot choose his origin,-
 24604     By the o'ergrowth of some complexion,
 24605     Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason,
 24606     Or by some habit that too much o'erleavens
 24607     The form of plausive manners, that these men
 24608     Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,
 24609     Being nature's livery, or fortune's star,
 24610     Their virtues else- be they as pure as grace,
 24611     As infinite as man may undergo-
 24612     Shall in the general censure take corruption
 24613     From that particular fault. The dram of e'il
 24614     Doth all the noble substance often dout To his own scandal.
 24615 
 24616                          Enter Ghost.
 24617 
 24618   Hor. Look, my lord, it comes!
 24619   Ham. Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
 24620     Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd,
 24621     Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
 24622     Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
 24623     Thou com'st in such a questionable shape
 24624     That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee Hamlet,
 24625     King, father, royal Dane. O, answer me?
 24626     Let me not burst in ignorance, but tell
 24627     Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearsed in death,
 24628     Have burst their cerements; why the sepulchre
 24629     Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd,
 24630     Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws
 24631     To cast thee up again. What may this mean
 24632     That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel,
 24633     Revisits thus the glimpses of the moon,
 24634     Making night hideous, and we fools of nature
 24635     So horridly to shake our disposition
 24636     With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
 24637     Say, why is this? wherefore? What should we do?
 24638                                            Ghost beckons Hamlet.
 24639   Hor. It beckons you to go away with it,
 24640     As if it some impartment did desire
 24641     To you alone.
 24642   Mar. Look with what courteous action
 24643     It waves you to a more removed ground.
 24644     But do not go with it!
 24645   Hor. No, by no means!
 24646   Ham. It will not speak. Then will I follow it.
 24647   Hor. Do not, my lord!
 24648   Ham. Why, what should be the fear?
 24649     I do not set my life at a pin's fee;
 24650     And for my soul, what can it do to that,
 24651     Being a thing immortal as itself?
 24652     It waves me forth again. I'll follow it.
 24653   Hor. What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,
 24654     Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff
 24655     That beetles o'er his base into the sea,
 24656     And there assume some other, horrible form
 24657     Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason
 24658     And draw you into madness? Think of it.
 24659     The very place puts toys of desperation,
 24660     Without more motive, into every brain
 24661     That looks so many fadoms to the sea
 24662     And hears it roar beneath.
 24663   Ham. It waves me still.
 24664     Go on. I'll follow thee.
 24665   Mar. You shall not go, my lord.
 24666   Ham. Hold off your hands!
 24667   Hor. Be rul'd. You shall not go.
 24668   Ham. My fate cries out
 24669     And makes each petty artire in this body
 24670     As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.
 24671                                                 [Ghost beckons.]
 24672     Still am I call'd. Unhand me, gentlemen.
 24673     By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me!-
 24674     I say, away!- Go on. I'll follow thee.
 24675                                         Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet.
 24676   Hor. He waxes desperate with imagination.
 24677   Mar. Let's follow. 'Tis not fit thus to obey him.
 24678   Hor. Have after. To what issue wail this come?
 24679   Mar. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
 24680   Hor. Heaven will direct it.
 24681   Mar. Nay, let's follow him.
 24682                                                          Exeunt.
 24683 
 24684 
 24685 
 24686 
 24687 Scene V.
 24688 Elsinore. The Castle. Another part of the fortifications.
 24689 
 24690 Enter Ghost and Hamlet.
 24691 
 24692   Ham. Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak! I'll go no further.
 24693   Ghost. Mark me.
 24694   Ham. I will.
 24695   Ghost. My hour is almost come,
 24696     When I to sulph'rous and tormenting flames
 24697     Must render up myself.
 24698   Ham. Alas, poor ghost!
 24699   Ghost. Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing
 24700     To what I shall unfold.
 24701   Ham. Speak. I am bound to hear.
 24702   Ghost. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.
 24703   Ham. What?
 24704   Ghost. I am thy father's spirit,
 24705     Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night,
 24706     And for the day confin'd to fast in fires,
 24707     Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
 24708     Are burnt and purg'd away. But that I am forbid
 24709     To tell the secrets of my prison house,
 24710     I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
 24711     Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
 24712     Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
 24713     Thy knotted and combined locks to part,
 24714     And each particular hair to stand an end
 24715     Like quills upon the fretful porpentine.
 24716     But this eternal blazon must not be
 24717     To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!
 24718     If thou didst ever thy dear father love-
 24719   Ham. O God!
 24720   Ghost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murther.
 24721   Ham. Murther?
 24722   Ghost. Murther most foul, as in the best it is;
 24723     But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.
 24724   Ham. Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift
 24725     As meditation or the thoughts of love,
 24726     May sweep to my revenge.
 24727   Ghost. I find thee apt;
 24728     And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
 24729     That rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,
 24730     Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear.
 24731     'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,
 24732     A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark
 24733     Is by a forged process of my death
 24734     Rankly abus'd. But know, thou noble youth,
 24735     The serpent that did sting thy father's life
 24736     Now wears his crown.
 24737   Ham. O my prophetic soul!
 24738     My uncle?
 24739   Ghost. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
 24740     With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts-
 24741     O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power
 24742     So to seduce!- won to his shameful lust
 24743     The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen.
 24744     O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there,
 24745     From me, whose love was of that dignity
 24746     That it went hand in hand even with the vow
 24747     I made to her in marriage, and to decline
 24748     Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor
 24749     To those of mine!
 24750     But virtue, as it never will be mov'd,
 24751     Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,
 24752     So lust, though to a radiant angel link'd,
 24753     Will sate itself in a celestial bed
 24754     And prey on garbage.
 24755     But soft! methinks I scent the morning air.
 24756     Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard,
 24757     My custom always of the afternoon,
 24758     Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,
 24759     With juice of cursed hebona in a vial,
 24760     And in the porches of my ears did pour
 24761     The leperous distilment; whose effect
 24762     Holds such an enmity with blood of man
 24763     That swift as quicksilverr it courses through
 24764     The natural gates and alleys of the body,
 24765     And with a sudden vigour it doth posset
 24766     And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
 24767     The thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine;
 24768     And a most instant tetter bark'd about,
 24769     Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust
 24770     All my smooth body.
 24771     Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand
 24772     Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd;
 24773     Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
 24774     Unhous'led, disappointed, unanel'd,
 24775     No reckoning made, but sent to my account
 24776     With all my imperfections on my head.
 24777   Ham. O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible!
 24778   Ghost. If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not.
 24779     Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
 24780     A couch for luxury and damned incest.
 24781     But, howsoever thou pursuest this act,
 24782     Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
 24783     Against thy mother aught. Leave her to heaven,
 24784     And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge
 24785     To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once.
 24786     The glowworm shows the matin to be near
 24787     And gins to pale his uneffectual fire.
 24788     Adieu, adieu, adieu! Remember me.                      Exit.
 24789   Ham. O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?
 24790     And shall I couple hell? Hold, hold, my heart!
 24791     And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
 24792     But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee?
 24793     Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
 24794     In this distracted globe. Remember thee?
 24795     Yea, from the table of my memory
 24796     I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,
 24797     All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past
 24798     That youth and observation copied there,
 24799     And thy commandment all alone shall live
 24800     Within the book and volume of my brain,
 24801     Unmix'd with baser matter. Yes, by heaven!
 24802     O most pernicious woman!
 24803     O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
 24804     My tables! Meet it is I set it down
 24805     That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;
 24806     At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark.        [Writes.]
 24807     So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word:
 24808     It is 'Adieu, adieu! Remember me.'
 24809     I have sworn't.
 24810   Hor. (within) My lord, my lord!
 24811 
 24812                    Enter Horatio and Marcellus.
 24813 
 24814   Mar. Lord Hamlet!
 24815   Hor. Heaven secure him!
 24816   Ham. So be it!
 24817   Mar. Illo, ho, ho, my lord!
 24818   Ham. Hillo, ho, ho, boy! Come, bird, come.
 24819   Mar. How is't, my noble lord?
 24820   Hor. What news, my lord?
 24821   Mar. O, wonderful!
 24822   Hor. Good my lord, tell it.
 24823   Ham. No, you will reveal it.
 24824   Hor. Not I, my lord, by heaven!
 24825   Mar. Nor I, my lord.
 24826   Ham. How say you then? Would heart of man once think it?
 24827     But you'll be secret?
 24828   Both. Ay, by heaven, my lord.
 24829   Ham. There's neer a villain dwelling in all Denmark
 24830     But he's an arrant knave.
 24831   Hor. There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave
 24832     To tell us this.
 24833   Ham. Why, right! You are in the right!
 24834     And so, without more circumstance at all,
 24835     I hold it fit that we shake hands and part;
 24836     You, as your business and desires shall point you,
 24837     For every man hath business and desire,
 24838     Such as it is; and for my own poor part,
 24839     Look you, I'll go pray.
 24840   Hor. These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.
 24841   Ham. I am sorry they offend you, heartily;
 24842     Yes, faith, heartily.
 24843   Hor. There's no offence, my lord.
 24844   Ham. Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio,
 24845     And much offence too. Touching this vision here,
 24846     It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you.
 24847     For your desire to know what is between us,
 24848     O'ermaster't as you may. And now, good friends,
 24849     As you are friends, scholars, and soldiers,
 24850     Give me one poor request.
 24851   Hor. What is't, my lord? We will.
 24852   Ham. Never make known what you have seen to-night.
 24853   Both. My lord, we will not.
 24854   Ham. Nay, but swear't.
 24855   Hor. In faith,
 24856     My lord, not I.
 24857   Mar. Nor I, my lord- in faith.
 24858   Ham. Upon my sword.
 24859   Mar. We have sworn, my lord, already.
 24860   Ham. Indeed, upon my sword, indeed.
 24861 
 24862                  Ghost cries under the stage.
 24863 
 24864   Ghost. Swear.
 24865   Ham. Aha boy, say'st thou so? Art thou there, truepenny?
 24866     Come on! You hear this fellow in the cellarage.
 24867     Consent to swear.
 24868   Hor. Propose the oath, my lord.
 24869   Ham. Never to speak of this that you have seen.
 24870     Swear by my sword.
 24871   Ghost. [beneath] Swear.
 24872   Ham. Hic et ubique? Then we'll shift our ground.
 24873     Come hither, gentlemen,
 24874     And lay your hands again upon my sword.
 24875     Never to speak of this that you have heard:
 24876     Swear by my sword.
 24877   Ghost. [beneath] Swear by his sword.
 24878   Ham. Well said, old mole! Canst work i' th' earth so fast?
 24879     A worthy pioner! Once more remove, good friends."
 24880   Hor. O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!
 24881   Ham. And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
 24882     There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
 24883     Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
 24884     But come!
 24885     Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,
 24886     How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself
 24887     (As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
 24888     To put an antic disposition on),
 24889     That you, at such times seeing me, never shall,
 24890     With arms encumb'red thus, or this head-shake,
 24891     Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,
 24892     As 'Well, well, we know,' or 'We could, an if we would,'
 24893     Or 'If we list to speak,' or 'There be, an if they might,'
 24894     Or such ambiguous giving out, to note
 24895     That you know aught of me- this is not to do,
 24896     So grace and mercy at your most need help you,
 24897     Swear.
 24898   Ghost. [beneath] Swear.
 24899                                                    [They swear.]
 24900   Ham. Rest, rest, perturbed spirit! So, gentlemen,
 24901     With all my love I do commend me to you;
 24902     And what so poor a man as Hamlet is
 24903     May do t' express his love and friending to you,
 24904     God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together;
 24905     And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.
 24906     The time is out of joint. O cursed spite
 24907     That ever I was born to set it right!
 24908     Nay, come, let's go together.
 24909                                                          Exeunt.
 24910 
 24911 
 24912 
 24913 
 24914 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
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 24922 
 24923 
 24924 
 24925 Act II. Scene I.
 24926 Elsinore. A room in the house of Polonius.
 24927 
 24928 Enter Polonius and Reynaldo.
 24929 
 24930   Pol. Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.
 24931   Rey. I will, my lord.
 24932   Pol. You shall do marvell's wisely, good Reynaldo,
 24933     Before You visit him, to make inquire
 24934     Of his behaviour.
 24935   Rey. My lord, I did intend it.
 24936   Pol. Marry, well said, very well said. Look you, sir,
 24937     Enquire me first what Danskers are in Paris;
 24938     And how, and who, what means, and where they keep,
 24939     What company, at what expense; and finding
 24940     By this encompassment and drift of question
 24941     That they do know my son, come you more nearer
 24942     Than your particular demands will touch it.
 24943     Take you, as 'twere, some distant knowledge of him;
 24944     As thus, 'I know his father and his friends,
 24945     And in part him.' Do you mark this, Reynaldo?
 24946   Rey. Ay, very well, my lord.
 24947   Pol. 'And in part him, but,' you may say, 'not well.
 24948     But if't be he I mean, he's very wild
 24949     Addicted so and so'; and there put on him
 24950     What forgeries you please; marry, none so rank
 24951     As may dishonour him- take heed of that;
 24952     But, sir, such wanton, wild, and usual slips
 24953     As are companions noted and most known
 24954     To youth and liberty.
 24955   Rey. As gaming, my lord.
 24956   Pol. Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling,
 24957     Drabbing. You may go so far.
 24958   Rey. My lord, that would dishonour him.
 24959   Pol. Faith, no, as you may season it in the charge.
 24960     You must not put another scandal on him,
 24961     That he is open to incontinency.
 24962     That's not my meaning. But breathe his faults so quaintly
 24963     That they may seem the taints of liberty,
 24964     The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,
 24965     A savageness in unreclaimed blood,
 24966     Of general assault.
 24967   Rey. But, my good lord-
 24968   Pol. Wherefore should you do this?
 24969   Rey. Ay, my lord,
 24970     I would know that.
 24971   Pol. Marry, sir, here's my drift,
 24972     And I believe it is a fetch of warrant.
 24973     You laying these slight sullies on my son
 24974     As 'twere a thing a little soil'd i' th' working,
 24975     Mark you,
 24976     Your party in converse, him you would sound,
 24977     Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes
 24978     The youth you breathe of guilty, be assur'd
 24979     He closes with you in this consequence:
 24980     'Good sir,' or so, or 'friend,' or 'gentleman'-
 24981     According to the phrase or the addition
 24982     Of man and country-
 24983   Rey. Very good, my lord.
 24984   Pol. And then, sir, does 'a this- 'a does- What was I about to say?
 24985     By the mass, I was about to say something! Where did I leave?
 24986   Rey. At 'closes in the consequence,' at 'friend or so,' and
 24987     gentleman.'
 24988   Pol. At 'closes in the consequence'- Ay, marry!
 24989     He closes thus: 'I know the gentleman.
 24990     I saw him yesterday, or t'other day,
 24991     Or then, or then, with such or such; and, as you say,
 24992     There was 'a gaming; there o'ertook in's rouse;
 24993     There falling out at tennis'; or perchance,
 24994     'I saw him enter such a house of sale,'
 24995     Videlicet, a brothel, or so forth.
 24996     See you now-
 24997     Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth;
 24998     And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
 24999     With windlasses and with assays of bias,
 25000     By indirections find directions out.
 25001     So, by my former lecture and advice,
 25002     Shall you my son. You have me, have you not
 25003   Rey. My lord, I have.
 25004   Pol. God b' wi' ye, fare ye well!
 25005   Rey. Good my lord!                                    [Going.]
 25006   Pol. Observe his inclination in yourself.
 25007   Rey. I shall, my lord.
 25008   Pol. And let him ply his music.
 25009   Rey. Well, my lord.
 25010   Pol. Farewell!
 25011                                                   Exit Reynaldo.
 25012 
 25013                        Enter Ophelia.
 25014 
 25015     How now, Ophelia? What's the matter?
 25016   Oph. O my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted!
 25017   Pol. With what, i' th' name of God I
 25018   Oph. My lord, as I was sewing in my closet,
 25019     Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbrac'd,
 25020     No hat upon his head, his stockings foul'd,
 25021     Ungart'red, and down-gyved to his ankle;
 25022     Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,
 25023     And with a look so piteous in purport
 25024     As if he had been loosed out of hell
 25025     To speak of horrors- he comes before me.
 25026   Pol. Mad for thy love?
 25027   Oph. My lord, I do not know,
 25028     But truly I do fear it.
 25029   Pol. What said he?
 25030   Oph. He took me by the wrist and held me hard;
 25031     Then goes he to the length of all his arm,
 25032     And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow,
 25033     He falls to such perusal of my face
 25034     As he would draw it. Long stay'd he so.
 25035     At last, a little shaking of mine arm,
 25036     And thrice his head thus waving up and down,
 25037     He rais'd a sigh so piteous and profound
 25038     As it did seem to shatter all his bulk
 25039     And end his being. That done, he lets me go,
 25040     And with his head over his shoulder turn'd
 25041     He seem'd to find his way without his eyes,
 25042     For out o' doors he went without their help
 25043     And to the last bended their light on me.
 25044   Pol. Come, go with me. I will go seek the King.
 25045     This is the very ecstasy of love,
 25046     Whose violent property fordoes itself
 25047     And leads the will to desperate undertakings
 25048     As oft as any passion under heaven
 25049     That does afflict our natures. I am sorry.
 25050     What, have you given him any hard words of late?
 25051   Oph. No, my good lord; but, as you did command,
 25052     I did repel his letters and denied
 25053     His access to me.
 25054   Pol. That hath made him mad.
 25055     I am sorry that with better heed and judgment
 25056     I had not quoted him. I fear'd he did but trifle
 25057     And meant to wrack thee; but beshrew my jealousy!
 25058     By heaven, it is as proper to our age
 25059     To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions
 25060     As it is common for the younger sort
 25061     To lack discretion. Come, go we to the King.
 25062     This must be known; which, being kept close, might move
 25063     More grief to hide than hate to utter love.
 25064     Come.
 25065                                                          Exeunt.
 25066 
 25067 Scene II.
 25068 Elsinore. A room in the Castle.
 25069 
 25070 Flourish. [Enter King and Queen, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, cum aliis.
 25071 
 25072   King. Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
 25073     Moreover that we much did long to see you,
 25074     The need we have to use you did provoke
 25075     Our hasty sending. Something have you heard
 25076     Of Hamlet's transformation. So I call it,
 25077     Sith nor th' exterior nor the inward man
 25078     Resembles that it was. What it should be,
 25079     More than his father's death, that thus hath put him
 25080     So much from th' understanding of himself,
 25081     I cannot dream of. I entreat you both
 25082     That, being of so young clays brought up with him,
 25083     And since so neighbour'd to his youth and haviour,
 25084     That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court
 25085     Some little time; so by your companies
 25086     To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather
 25087     So much as from occasion you may glean,
 25088     Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus
 25089     That, open'd, lies within our remedy.
 25090   Queen. Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you,
 25091     And sure I am two men there are not living
 25092     To whom he more adheres. If it will please you
 25093     To show us so much gentry and good will
 25094     As to expend your time with us awhile
 25095     For the supply and profit of our hope,
 25096     Your visitation shall receive such thanks
 25097     As fits a king's remembrance.
 25098   Ros. Both your Majesties
 25099     Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,
 25100     Put your dread pleasures more into command
 25101     Than to entreaty.
 25102   Guil. But we both obey,
 25103     And here give up ourselves, in the full bent,
 25104     To lay our service freely at your feet,
 25105     To be commanded.
 25106   King. Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.
 25107   Queen. Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz.
 25108     And I beseech you instantly to visit
 25109     My too much changed son.- Go, some of you,
 25110     And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.
 25111   Guil. Heavens make our presence and our practices
 25112     Pleasant and helpful to him!
 25113   Queen. Ay, amen!
 25114                  Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, [with some
 25115                                                     Attendants].
 25116 
 25117                          Enter Polonius.
 25118 
 25119   Pol. Th' ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,
 25120     Are joyfully return'd.
 25121   King. Thou still hast been the father of good news.
 25122   Pol. Have I, my lord? Assure you, my good liege,
 25123     I hold my duty as I hold my soul,
 25124     Both to my God and to my gracious king;
 25125     And I do think- or else this brain of mine
 25126     Hunts not the trail of policy so sure
 25127     As it hath us'd to do- that I have found
 25128     The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy.
 25129   King. O, speak of that! That do I long to hear.
 25130   Pol. Give first admittance to th' ambassadors.
 25131     My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.
 25132   King. Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in.
 25133                                                 [Exit Polonius.]
 25134     He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found
 25135     The head and source of all your son's distemper.
 25136   Queen. I doubt it is no other but the main,
 25137     His father's death and our o'erhasty marriage.
 25138   King. Well, we shall sift him.
 25139 
 25140               Enter Polonius, Voltemand, and Cornelius.
 25141 
 25142     Welcome, my good friends.
 25143     Say, Voltemand, what from our brother Norway?
 25144   Volt. Most fair return of greetings and desires.
 25145     Upon our first, he sent out to suppress
 25146     His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd
 25147     To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack,
 25148     But better look'd into, he truly found
 25149     It was against your Highness; whereat griev'd,
 25150     That so his sickness, age, and impotence
 25151     Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests
 25152     On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys,
 25153     Receives rebuke from Norway, and, in fine,
 25154     Makes vow before his uncle never more
 25155     To give th' assay of arms against your Majesty.
 25156     Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,
 25157     Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee
 25158     And his commission to employ those soldiers,
 25159     So levied as before, against the Polack;
 25160     With an entreaty, herein further shown,
 25161                                                 [Gives a paper.]
 25162     That it might please you to give quiet pass
 25163     Through your dominions for this enterprise,
 25164     On such regards of safety and allowance
 25165     As therein are set down.
 25166   King. It likes us well;
 25167     And at our more consider'd time we'll read,
 25168     Answer, and think upon this business.
 25169     Meantime we thank you for your well-took labour.
 25170     Go to your rest; at night we'll feast together.
 25171     Most welcome home!                       Exeunt Ambassadors.
 25172   Pol. This business is well ended.
 25173     My liege, and madam, to expostulate
 25174     What majesty should be, what duty is,
 25175     Why day is day, night is night, and time is time.
 25176     Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time.
 25177     Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
 25178     And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
 25179     I will be brief. Your noble son is mad.
 25180     Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,
 25181     What is't but to be nothing else but mad?
 25182     But let that go.
 25183   Queen. More matter, with less art.
 25184   Pol. Madam, I swear I use no art at all.
 25185     That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true 'tis pity;
 25186     And pity 'tis 'tis true. A foolish figure!
 25187     But farewell it, for I will use no art.
 25188     Mad let us grant him then. And now remains
 25189     That we find out the cause of this effect-
 25190     Or rather say, the cause of this defect,
 25191     For this effect defective comes by cause.
 25192     Thus it remains, and the remainder thus.
 25193     Perpend.
 25194     I have a daughter (have while she is mine),
 25195     Who in her duty and obedience, mark,
 25196     Hath given me this. Now gather, and surmise.
 25197                                              [Reads] the letter.
 25198     'To the celestial, and my soul's idol, the most beautified
 25199       Ophelia,'-
 25200 
 25201     That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; 'beautified' is a vile
 25202       phrase.
 25203     But you shall hear. Thus:
 25204                                                         [Reads.]
 25205     'In her excellent white bosom, these, &c.'
 25206   Queen. Came this from Hamlet to her?
 25207   Pol. Good madam, stay awhile. I will be faithful.     [Reads.]
 25208 
 25209           'Doubt thou the stars are fire;
 25210             Doubt that the sun doth move;
 25211           Doubt truth to be a liar;
 25212             But never doubt I love.
 25213       'O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers; I have not art to
 25214     reckon my groans; but that I love thee best, O most best, believe
 25215     it. Adieu.
 25216       'Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him,
 25217                                                           HAMLET.'
 25218 
 25219     This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me;
 25220     And more above, hath his solicitings,
 25221     As they fell out by time, by means, and place,
 25222     All given to mine ear.
 25223   King. But how hath she
 25224     Receiv'd his love?
 25225   Pol. What do you think of me?
 25226   King. As of a man faithful and honourable.
 25227   Pol. I would fain prove so. But what might you think,
 25228     When I had seen this hot love on the wing
 25229     (As I perceiv'd it, I must tell you that,
 25230     Before my daughter told me), what might you,
 25231     Or my dear Majesty your queen here, think,
 25232     If I had play'd the desk or table book,
 25233     Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb,
 25234     Or look'd upon this love with idle sight?
 25235     What might you think? No, I went round to work
 25236     And my young mistress thus I did bespeak:
 25237     'Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star.
 25238     This must not be.' And then I prescripts gave her,
 25239     That she should lock herself from his resort,
 25240     Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.
 25241     Which done, she took the fruits of my advice,
 25242     And he, repulsed, a short tale to make,
 25243     Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,
 25244     Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness,
 25245     Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension,
 25246     Into the madness wherein now he raves,
 25247     And all we mourn for.
 25248   King. Do you think 'tis this?
 25249   Queen. it may be, very like.
 25250   Pol. Hath there been such a time- I would fain know that-
 25251     That I have Positively said ''Tis so,'
 25252     When it prov'd otherwise.?
 25253   King. Not that I know.
 25254   Pol. [points to his head and shoulder] Take this from this, if this
 25255       be otherwise.
 25256     If circumstances lead me, I will find
 25257     Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed
 25258     Within the centre.
 25259   King. How may we try it further?
 25260   Pol. You know sometimes he walks four hours together
 25261     Here in the lobby.
 25262   Queen. So he does indeed.
 25263   Pol. At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him.
 25264     Be you and I behind an arras then.
 25265     Mark the encounter. If he love her not,
 25266     And he not from his reason fall'n thereon
 25267     Let me be no assistant for a state,
 25268     But keep a farm and carters.
 25269   King. We will try it.
 25270 
 25271                  Enter Hamlet, reading on a book.
 25272 
 25273   Queen. But look where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.
 25274   Pol. Away, I do beseech you, both away
 25275     I'll board him presently. O, give me leave.
 25276                        Exeunt King and Queen, [with Attendants].
 25277     How does my good Lord Hamlet?
 25278   Ham. Well, God-a-mercy.
 25279   Pol. Do you know me, my lord?
 25280   Ham. Excellent well. You are a fishmonger.
 25281   Pol. Not I, my lord.
 25282   Ham. Then I would you were so honest a man.
 25283   Pol. Honest, my lord?
 25284   Ham. Ay, sir. To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man
 25285     pick'd out of ten thousand.
 25286   Pol. That's very true, my lord.
 25287   Ham. For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god
 25288     kissing carrion- Have you a daughter?
 25289   Pol. I have, my lord.
 25290   Ham. Let her not walk i' th' sun. Conception is a blessing, but not
 25291     as your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to't.
 25292   Pol. [aside] How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter. Yet
 25293     he knew me not at first. He said I was a fishmonger. He is far
 25294     gone, far gone! And truly in my youth I suff'red much extremity
 25295     for love- very near this. I'll speak to him again.- What do you
 25296     read, my lord?
 25297   Ham. Words, words, words.
 25298   Pol. What is the matter, my lord?
 25299   Ham. Between who?
 25300   Pol. I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.
 25301   Ham. Slanders, sir; for the satirical rogue says here that old men
 25302     have grey beards; that their faces are wrinkled; their eyes
 25303     purging thick amber and plum-tree gum; and that they have a
 25304     plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams. All which,
 25305     sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it
 25306     not honesty to have it thus set down; for you yourself, sir,
 25307     should be old as I am if, like a crab, you could go backward.
 25308   Pol. [aside] Though this be madness, yet there is a method in't.-
 25309    Will You walk out of the air, my lord?
 25310   Ham. Into my grave?
 25311   Pol. Indeed, that is out o' th' air. [Aside] How pregnant sometimes
 25312     his replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on, which
 25313     reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I
 25314     will leave him and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between
 25315     him and my daughter.- My honourable lord, I will most humbly take
 25316     my leave of you.
 25317   Ham. You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more
 25318     willingly part withal- except my life, except my life, except my
 25319     life,
 25320 
 25321                     Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
 25322 
 25323   Pol. Fare you well, my lord.
 25324   Ham. These tedious old fools!
 25325   Pol. You go to seek the Lord Hamlet. There he is.
 25326   Ros. [to Polonius] God save you, sir!
 25327                                                 Exit [Polonius].
 25328   Guil. My honour'd lord!
 25329   Ros. My most dear lord!
 25330   Ham. My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah,
 25331     Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both?
 25332   Ros. As the indifferent children of the earth.
 25333   Guil. Happy in that we are not over-happy.
 25334     On Fortune's cap we are not the very button.
 25335   Ham. Nor the soles of her shoe?
 25336   Ros. Neither, my lord.
 25337   Ham. Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her
 25338     favours?
 25339   Guil. Faith, her privates we.
 25340   Ham. In the secret parts of Fortune? O! most true! she is a
 25341     strumpet. What news ?
 25342   Ros. None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest.
 25343   Ham. Then is doomsday near! But your news is not true. Let me
 25344     question more in particular. What have you, my good friends,
 25345     deserved at the hands of Fortune that she sends you to prison
 25346     hither?
 25347   Guil. Prison, my lord?
 25348   Ham. Denmark's a prison.
 25349   Ros. Then is the world one.
 25350   Ham. A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards, and
 25351     dungeons, Denmark being one o' th' worst.
 25352   Ros. We think not so, my lord.
 25353   Ham. Why, then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good
 25354     or bad but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.
 25355   Ros. Why, then your ambition makes it one. 'Tis too narrow for your
 25356     mind.
 25357   Ham. O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a
 25358     king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.
 25359   Guil. Which dreams indeed are ambition; for the very substance of
 25360     the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
 25361   Ham. A dream itself is but a shadow.
 25362   Ros. Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that
 25363     it is but a shadow's shadow.
 25364   Ham. Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretch'd
 25365     heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we to th' court? for, by my
 25366     fay, I cannot reason.
 25367   Both. We'll wait upon you.
 25368   Ham. No such matter! I will not sort you with the rest of my
 25369     servants; for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most
 25370     dreadfully attended. But in the beaten way of friendship, what
 25371     make you at Elsinore?
 25372   Ros. To visit you, my lord; no other occasion.
 25373   Ham. Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I thank you;
 25374     and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear a halfpenny. Were
 25375     you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free
 25376     visitation? Come, deal justly with me. Come, come! Nay, speak.
 25377   Guil. What should we say, my lord?
 25378   Ham. Why, anything- but to th' purpose. You were sent for; and
 25379     there is a kind of confession in your looks, which your modesties
 25380     have not craft enough to colour. I know the good King and Queen
 25381     have sent for you.
 25382   Ros. To what end, my lord?
 25383   Ham. That you must teach me. But let me conjure you by the rights
 25384     of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the
 25385     obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a
 25386     better proposer could charge you withal, be even and direct with
 25387     me, whether you were sent for or no.
 25388   Ros. [aside to Guildenstern] What say you?
 25389   Ham. [aside] Nay then, I have an eye of you.- If you love me, hold
 25390     not off.
 25391   Guil. My lord, we were sent for.
 25392   Ham. I will tell you why. So shall my anticipation prevent your
 25393     discovery, and your secrecy to the King and Queen moult no
 25394     feather. I have of late- but wherefore I know not- lost all my
 25395     mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so
 25396     heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth,
 25397     seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the
 25398     air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical
 25399     roof fretted with golden fire- why, it appeareth no other thing
 25400     to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a
 25401     piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in
 25402     faculties! in form and moving how express and admirable! in
 25403     action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the
 25404     beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! And yet to me what
 25405     is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me- no, nor woman
 25406     neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.
 25407   Ros. My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.
 25408   Ham. Why did you laugh then, when I said 'Man delights not me'?
 25409   Ros. To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten
 25410     entertainment the players shall receive from you. We coted them
 25411     on the way, and hither are they coming to offer you service.
 25412   Ham. He that plays the king shall be welcome- his Majesty shall
 25413     have tribute of me; the adventurous knight shall use his foil and
 25414     target; the lover shall not sigh gratis; the humorous man shall
 25415     end his part in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose
 25416     lungs are tickle o' th' sere; and the lady shall say her mind
 25417     freely, or the blank verse shall halt fort. What players are
 25418     they?
 25419   Ros. Even those you were wont to take such delight in, the
 25420     tragedians of the city.
 25421   Ham. How chances it they travel? Their residence, both in
 25422     reputation and profit, was better both ways.
 25423   Ros. I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late
 25424     innovation.
 25425   Ham. Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the
 25426     city? Are they so follow'd?
 25427   Ros. No indeed are they not.
 25428   Ham. How comes it? Do they grow rusty?
 25429   Ros. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace; but there is,
 25430     sir, an eyrie of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top
 25431     of question and are most tyrannically clapp'd fort. These are now
 25432     the fashion, and so berattle the common stages (so they call
 25433     them) that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goosequills and
 25434     dare scarce come thither.
 25435   Ham. What, are they children? Who maintains 'em? How are they
 25436     escoted? Will they pursue the quality no longer than they can
 25437     sing? Will they not say afterwards, if they should grow
 25438     themselves to common players (as it is most like, if their means
 25439     are no better), their writers do them wrong to make them exclaim
 25440     against their own succession.
 25441   Ros. Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and the nation
 25442     holds it no sin to tarre them to controversy. There was, for a
 25443     while, no money bid for argument unless the poet and the player
 25444     went to cuffs in the question.
 25445   Ham. Is't possible?
 25446   Guil. O, there has been much throwing about of brains.
 25447   Ham. Do the boys carry it away?
 25448   Ros. Ay, that they do, my lord- Hercules and his load too.
 25449   Ham. It is not very strange; for my uncle is King of Denmark, and
 25450     those that would make mows at him while my father lived give
 25451     twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred ducats apiece for his picture in
 25452     little. 'Sblood, there is something in this more than natural, if
 25453     philosophy could find it out.
 25454 
 25455                      Flourish for the Players.
 25456 
 25457   Guil. There are the players.
 25458   Ham. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands, come! Th'
 25459     appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony. Let me comply
 25460     with you in this garb, lest my extent to the players (which I
 25461     tell you must show fairly outwards) should more appear like
 25462     entertainment than yours. You are welcome. But my uncle-father
 25463     and aunt-mother are deceiv'd.
 25464   Guil. In what, my dear lord?
 25465   Ham. I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly I
 25466     know a hawk from a handsaw.
 25467 
 25468                             Enter Polonius.
 25469 
 25470   Pol. Well be with you, gentlemen!
 25471   Ham. Hark you, Guildenstern- and you too- at each ear a hearer!
 25472     That great baby you see there is not yet out of his swaddling
 25473     clouts.
 25474   Ros. Happily he's the second time come to them; for they say an old
 25475     man is twice a child.
 25476   Ham. I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players. Mark it.-
 25477    You say right, sir; a Monday morning; twas so indeed.
 25478   Pol. My lord, I have news to tell you.
 25479   Ham. My lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius was an actor in
 25480     Rome-
 25481   Pol. The actors are come hither, my lord.
 25482   Ham. Buzz, buzz!
 25483   Pol. Upon my honour-
 25484   Ham. Then came each actor on his ass-
 25485   Pol. The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy,
 25486     history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral,
 25487     tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral; scene
 25488     individable, or poem unlimited. Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor
 25489     Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the liberty, these are
 25490     the only men.
 25491   Ham. O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!
 25492   Pol. What treasure had he, my lord?
 25493   Ham. Why,
 25494 
 25495          'One fair daughter, and no more,
 25496            The which he loved passing well.'
 25497 
 25498   Pol. [aside] Still on my daughter.
 25499   Ham. Am I not i' th' right, old Jephthah?
 25500   Pol. If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter that I
 25501     love passing well.
 25502   Ham. Nay, that follows not.
 25503   Pol. What follows then, my lord?
 25504   Ham. Why,
 25505 
 25506            'As by lot, God wot,'
 25507 
 25508  and then, you know,
 25509 
 25510            'It came to pass, as most like it was.'
 25511 
 25512     The first row of the pious chanson will show you more; for look
 25513     where my abridgment comes.
 25514 
 25515                      Enter four or five Players.
 25516 
 25517     You are welcome, masters; welcome, all.- I am glad to see thee
 25518     well.- Welcome, good friends.- O, my old friend? Why, thy face is
 25519     valanc'd since I saw thee last. Com'st' thou to' beard me in
 25520     Denmark?- What, my young lady and mistress? By'r Lady, your
 25521     ladyship is nearer to heaven than when I saw you last by the
 25522     altitude of a chopine. Pray God your voice, like a piece of
 25523     uncurrent gold, be not crack'd within the ring.- Masters, you are
 25524     all welcome. We'll e'en to't like French falconers, fly at
 25525     anything we see. We'll have a speech straight. Come, give us a
 25526     taste of your quality. Come, a passionate speech.
 25527   1. Play. What speech, my good lord?
 25528   Ham. I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was never acted;
 25529     or if it was, not above once; for the play, I remember, pleas'd
 25530     not the million, 'twas caviary to the general; but it was (as I
 25531     receiv'd it, and others, whose judgments in such matters cried in
 25532     the top of mine) an excellent play, well digested in the scenes,
 25533     set down with as much modesty as cunning. I remember one said
 25534     there were no sallets in the lines to make the matter savoury,
 25535     nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of
 25536     affectation; but call'd it an honest method, as wholesome as
 25537     sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine. One speech in't
 25538     I chiefly lov'd. 'Twas AEneas' tale to Dido, and thereabout of it
 25539     especially where he speaks of Priam's slaughter. If it live in
 25540     your memory, begin at this line- let me see, let me see:
 25541 
 25542          'The rugged Pyrrhus, like th' Hyrcanian beast-'
 25543 
 25544     'Tis not so; it begins with Pyrrhus:
 25545 
 25546          'The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,
 25547          Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
 25548          When he lay couched in the ominous horse,
 25549          Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd
 25550          With heraldry more dismal. Head to foot
 25551          Now is be total gules, horridly trick'd
 25552          With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
 25553          Bak'd and impasted with the parching streets,
 25554          That lend a tyrannous and a damned light
 25555          To their lord's murther. Roasted in wrath and fire,
 25556          And thus o'ersized with coagulate gore,
 25557          With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
 25558          Old grandsire Priam seeks.'
 25559 
 25560     So, proceed you.
 25561   Pol. Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and good
 25562      discretion.
 25563 
 25564   1. Play. 'Anon he finds him,
 25565       Striking too short at Greeks. His antique sword,
 25566       Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
 25567       Repugnant to command. Unequal match'd,
 25568       Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide;
 25569       But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
 25570       Th' unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium,
 25571       Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top
 25572       Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash
 25573       Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear. For lo! his sword,
 25574       Which was declining on the milky head
 25575       Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' th' air to stick.
 25576       So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood,
 25577       And, like a neutral to his will and matter,
 25578       Did nothing.
 25579       But, as we often see, against some storm,
 25580       A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still,
 25581       The bold winds speechless, and the orb below
 25582       As hush as death- anon the dreadful thunder
 25583       Doth rend the region; so, after Pyrrhus' pause,
 25584       Aroused vengeance sets him new awork;
 25585       And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall
 25586       On Mars's armour, forg'd for proof eterne,
 25587       With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword
 25588       Now falls on Priam.
 25589       Out, out, thou strumpet Fortune! All you gods,
 25590       In general synod take away her power;
 25591       Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,
 25592       And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven,
 25593       As low as to the fiends!
 25594 
 25595   Pol. This is too long.
 25596   Ham. It shall to the barber's, with your beard.- Prithee say on.
 25597     He's for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps. Say on; come to
 25598     Hecuba.
 25599 
 25600   1. Play. 'But who, O who, had seen the mobled queen-'
 25601 
 25602   Ham. 'The mobled queen'?
 25603   Pol. That's good! 'Mobled queen' is good.
 25604 
 25605   1. Play. 'Run barefoot up and down, threat'ning the flames
 25606       With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head
 25607       Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe,
 25608       About her lank and all o'erteemed loins,
 25609       A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up-
 25610       Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd
 25611       'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pronounc'd.
 25612       But if the gods themselves did see her then,
 25613       When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
 25614       In Mincing with his sword her husband's limbs,
 25615       The instant burst of clamour that she made
 25616       (Unless things mortal move them not at all)
 25617       Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven
 25618       And passion in the gods.'
 25619 
 25620   Pol. Look, whe'r he has not turn'd his colour, and has tears in's
 25621     eyes. Prithee no more!
 25622   Ham. 'Tis well. I'll have thee speak out the rest of this soon.-
 25623     Good my lord, will you see the players well bestow'd? Do you
 25624     hear? Let them be well us'd; for they are the abstract and brief
 25625     chronicles of the time. After your death you were better have a
 25626     bad epitaph than their ill report while you live.
 25627   Pol. My lord, I will use them according to their desert.
 25628   Ham. God's bodykins, man, much better! Use every man after his
 25629     desert, and who should scape whipping? Use them after your own
 25630     honour and dignity. The less they deserve, the more merit is in
 25631     your bounty. Take them in.
 25632   Pol. Come, sirs.
 25633   Ham. Follow him, friends. We'll hear a play to-morrow.
 25634                  Exeunt Polonius and Players [except the First].
 25635     Dost thou hear me, old friend? Can you play 'The Murther of
 25636     Gonzago'?
 25637   1. Play. Ay, my lord.
 25638   Ham. We'll ha't to-morrow night. You could, for a need, study a
 25639     speech of some dozen or sixteen lines which I would set down and
 25640     insert in't, could you not?
 25641   1. Play. Ay, my lord.
 25642   Ham. Very well. Follow that lord- and look you mock him not.
 25643                                             [Exit First Player.]
 25644     My good friends, I'll leave you till night. You are welcome to
 25645     Elsinore.
 25646   Ros. Good my lord!
 25647   Ham. Ay, so, God b' wi' ye!
 25648                             [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
 25649     Now I am alone.
 25650     O what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
 25651     Is it not monstrous that this player here,
 25652     But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
 25653     Could force his soul so to his own conceit
 25654     That, from her working, all his visage wann'd,
 25655     Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
 25656     A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
 25657     With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing!
 25658     For Hecuba!
 25659     What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
 25660     That he should weep for her? What would he do,
 25661     Had he the motive and the cue for passion
 25662     That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
 25663     And cleave the general ear with horrid speech;
 25664     Make mad the guilty and appal the free,
 25665     Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
 25666     The very faculties of eyes and ears.
 25667     Yet I,
 25668     A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak
 25669     Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
 25670     And can say nothing! No, not for a king,
 25671     Upon whose property and most dear life
 25672     A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward?
 25673     Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?
 25674     Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face?
 25675     Tweaks me by th' nose? gives me the lie i' th' throat
 25676     As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this, ha?
 25677     'Swounds, I should take it! for it cannot be
 25678     But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall
 25679     To make oppression bitter, or ere this
 25680     I should have fatted all the region kites
 25681     With this slave's offal. Bloody bawdy villain!
 25682     Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
 25683     O, vengeance!
 25684     Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
 25685     That I, the son of a dear father murther'd,
 25686     Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
 25687     Must (like a whore) unpack my heart with words
 25688     And fall a-cursing like a very drab,
 25689     A scullion!
 25690     Fie upon't! foh! About, my brain! Hum, I have heard
 25691     That guilty creatures, sitting at a play,
 25692     Have by the very cunning of the scene
 25693     Been struck so to the soul that presently
 25694     They have proclaim'd their malefactions;
 25695     For murther, though it have no tongue, will speak
 25696     With most miraculous organ, I'll have these Players
 25697     Play something like the murther of my father
 25698     Before mine uncle. I'll observe his looks;
 25699     I'll tent him to the quick. If he but blench,
 25700     I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
 25701     May be a devil; and the devil hath power
 25702     T' assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
 25703     Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
 25704     As he is very potent with such spirits,
 25705     Abuses me to damn me. I'll have grounds
 25706     More relative than this. The play's the thing
 25707     Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King.         Exit.
 25708 
 25709 
 25710 
 25711 
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 25714 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 25715 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
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 25720 
 25721 
 25722 
 25723 ACT III. Scene I.
 25724 Elsinore. A room in the Castle.
 25725 
 25726 Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Lords.
 25727 
 25728   King. And can you by no drift of circumstance
 25729     Get from him why he puts on this confusion,
 25730     Grating so harshly all his days of quiet
 25731     With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?
 25732   Ros. He does confess he feels himself distracted,
 25733     But from what cause he will by no means speak.
 25734   Guil. Nor do we find him forward to be sounded,
 25735     But with a crafty madness keeps aloof
 25736     When we would bring him on to some confession
 25737     Of his true state.
 25738   Queen. Did he receive you well?
 25739   Ros. Most like a gentleman.
 25740   Guil. But with much forcing of his disposition.
 25741   Ros. Niggard of question, but of our demands
 25742     Most free in his reply.
 25743   Queen. Did you assay him
 25744     To any pastime?
 25745   Ros. Madam, it so fell out that certain players
 25746     We o'erraught on the way. Of these we told him,
 25747     And there did seem in him a kind of joy
 25748     To hear of it. They are here about the court,
 25749     And, as I think, they have already order
 25750     This night to play before him.
 25751   Pol. 'Tis most true;
 25752     And he beseech'd me to entreat your Majesties
 25753     To hear and see the matter.
 25754   King. With all my heart, and it doth much content me
 25755     To hear him so inclin'd.
 25756     Good gentlemen, give him a further edge
 25757     And drive his purpose on to these delights.
 25758   Ros. We shall, my lord.
 25759                             Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
 25760   King. Sweet Gertrude, leave us too;
 25761     For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither,
 25762     That he, as 'twere by accident, may here
 25763     Affront Ophelia.
 25764     Her father and myself (lawful espials)
 25765     Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen,
 25766     We may of their encounter frankly judge
 25767     And gather by him, as he is behav'd,
 25768     If't be th' affliction of his love, or no,
 25769     That thus he suffers for.
 25770   Queen. I shall obey you;
 25771     And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish
 25772     That your good beauties be the happy cause
 25773     Of Hamlet's wildness. So shall I hope your virtues
 25774     Will bring him to his wonted way again,
 25775     To both your honours.
 25776   Oph. Madam, I wish it may.
 25777                                                    [Exit Queen.]
 25778   Pol. Ophelia, walk you here.- Gracious, so please you,
 25779     We will bestow ourselves.- [To Ophelia] Read on this book,
 25780     That show of such an exercise may colour
 25781     Your loneliness.- We are oft to blame in this,
 25782     'Tis too much prov'd, that with devotion's visage
 25783     And pious action we do sugar o'er
 25784     The Devil himself.
 25785   King. [aside] O, 'tis too true!
 25786     How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!
 25787     The harlot's cheek, beautied with plast'ring art,
 25788     Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it
 25789     Than is my deed to my most painted word.
 25790     O heavy burthen!
 25791   Pol. I hear him coming. Let's withdraw, my lord.
 25792                                       Exeunt King and Polonius].
 25793 
 25794                            Enter Hamlet.
 25795 
 25796   Ham. To be, or not to be- that is the question:
 25797     Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
 25798     The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
 25799     Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
 25800     And by opposing end them. To die- to sleep-
 25801     No more; and by a sleep to say we end
 25802     The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
 25803     That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation
 25804     Devoutly to be wish'd. To die- to sleep.
 25805     To sleep- perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub!
 25806     For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
 25807     When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
 25808     Must give us pause. There's the respect
 25809     That makes calamity of so long life.
 25810     For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
 25811     Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
 25812     The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,
 25813     The insolence of office, and the spurns
 25814     That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
 25815     When he himself might his quietus make
 25816     With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels bear,
 25817     To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
 25818     But that the dread of something after death-
 25819     The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
 25820     No traveller returns- puzzles the will,
 25821     And makes us rather bear those ills we have
 25822     Than fly to others that we know not of?
 25823     Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
 25824     And thus the native hue of resolution
 25825     Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
 25826     And enterprises of great pith and moment
 25827     With this regard their currents turn awry
 25828     And lose the name of action.- Soft you now!
 25829     The fair Ophelia!- Nymph, in thy orisons
 25830     Be all my sins rememb'red.
 25831   Oph. Good my lord,
 25832     How does your honour for this many a day?
 25833   Ham. I humbly thank you; well, well, well.
 25834   Oph. My lord, I have remembrances of yours
 25835     That I have longed long to re-deliver.
 25836     I pray you, now receive them.
 25837   Ham. No, not I!
 25838     I never gave you aught.
 25839   Oph. My honour'd lord, you know right well you did,
 25840     And with them words of so sweet breath compos'd
 25841     As made the things more rich. Their perfume lost,
 25842     Take these again; for to the noble mind
 25843     Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
 25844     There, my lord.
 25845   Ham. Ha, ha! Are you honest?
 25846   Oph. My lord?
 25847   Ham. Are you fair?
 25848   Oph. What means your lordship?
 25849   Ham. That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no
 25850     discourse to your beauty.
 25851   Oph. Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?
 25852   Ham. Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform
 25853     honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can
 25854     translate beauty into his likeness. This was sometime a paradox,
 25855     but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once.
 25856   Oph. Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
 25857   Ham. You should not have believ'd me; for virtue cannot so
 25858     inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you
 25859     not.
 25860   Oph. I was the more deceived.
 25861   Ham. Get thee to a nunnery! Why wouldst thou be a breeder of
 25862     sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse
 25863     me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me.
 25864     I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more offences at my
 25865     beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give
 25866     them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I
 25867     do, crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves all;
 25868     believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your
 25869     father?
 25870   Oph. At home, my lord.
 25871   Ham. Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool
 25872     nowhere but in's own house. Farewell.
 25873   Oph. O, help him, you sweet heavens!
 25874   Ham. If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry:
 25875     be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape
 25876     calumny. Get thee to a nunnery. Go, farewell. Or if thou wilt
 25877     needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what
 25878     monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go; and quickly too.
 25879     Farewell.
 25880   Oph. O heavenly powers, restore him!
 25881   Ham. I have heard of your paintings too, well enough. God hath
 25882     given you one face, and you make yourselves another. You jig, you
 25883     amble, and you lisp; you nickname God's creatures and make your
 25884     wantonness your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't! it hath made
 25885     me mad. I say, we will have no moe marriages. Those that are
 25886     married already- all but one- shall live; the rest shall keep as
 25887     they are. To a nunnery, go.                            Exit.
 25888   Oph. O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!
 25889     The courtier's, scholar's, soldier's, eye, tongue, sword,
 25890     Th' expectancy and rose of the fair state,
 25891     The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
 25892     Th' observ'd of all observers- quite, quite down!
 25893     And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
 25894     That suck'd the honey of his music vows,
 25895     Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
 25896     Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;
 25897     That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth
 25898     Blasted with ecstasy. O, woe is me
 25899     T' have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
 25900 
 25901                    Enter King and Polonius.
 25902 
 25903   King. Love? his affections do not that way tend;
 25904     Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little,
 25905     Was not like madness. There's something in his soul
 25906     O'er which his melancholy sits on brood;
 25907     And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose
 25908     Will be some danger; which for to prevent,
 25909     I have in quick determination
 25910     Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England
 25911     For the demand of our neglected tribute.
 25912     Haply the seas, and countries different,
 25913     With variable objects, shall expel
 25914     This something-settled matter in his heart,
 25915     Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus
 25916     From fashion of himself. What think you on't?
 25917   Pol. It shall do well. But yet do I believe
 25918     The origin and commencement of his grief
 25919     Sprung from neglected love.- How now, Ophelia?
 25920     You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said.
 25921     We heard it all.- My lord, do as you please;
 25922     But if you hold it fit, after the play
 25923     Let his queen mother all alone entreat him
 25924     To show his grief. Let her be round with him;
 25925     And I'll be plac'd so please you, in the ear
 25926     Of all their conference. If she find him not,
 25927     To England send him; or confine him where
 25928     Your wisdom best shall think.
 25929   King. It shall be so.
 25930     Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go.         Exeunt.
 25931 
 25932 
 25933 
 25934 
 25935 Scene II.
 25936 Elsinore. hall in the Castle.
 25937 
 25938 Enter Hamlet and three of the Players.
 25939 
 25940   Ham. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounc'd it to you,
 25941     trippingly on the tongue. But if you mouth it, as many of our
 25942     players do, I had as live the town crier spoke my lines. Nor do
 25943     not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all
 25944     gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may say)
 25945     whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a
 25946     temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the
 25947     soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to
 25948     tatters, to very rags, to split the cars of the groundlings, who
 25949     (for the most part) are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb
 25950     shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipp'd for o'erdoing
 25951     Termagant. It out-herods Herod. Pray you avoid it.
 25952   Player. I warrant your honour.
 25953   Ham. Be not too tame neither; but let your own discretion be your
 25954     tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with
 25955     this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of
 25956     nature: for anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing,
 25957     whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as
 25958     'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show Virtue her own feature,
 25959     scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his
 25960     form and pressure. Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though
 25961     it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious
 25962     grieve; the censure of the which one must in your allowance
 25963     o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be players that I
 25964     have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly (not to
 25965     speak it profanely), that, neither having the accent of
 25966     Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so
 25967     strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of Nature's
 25968     journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated
 25969     humanity so abominably.
 25970   Player. I hope we have reform'd that indifferently with us, sir.
 25971   Ham. O, reform it altogether! And let those that play your clowns
 25972     speak no more than is set down for them. For there be of them
 25973     that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren
 25974     spectators to laugh too, though in the mean time some necessary
 25975     question of the play be then to be considered. That's villanous
 25976     and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go
 25977     make you ready.
 25978                                                  Exeunt Players.
 25979 
 25980             Enter Polonius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.
 25981 
 25982     How now, my lord? Will the King hear this piece of work?
 25983   Pol. And the Queen too, and that presently.
 25984   Ham. Bid the players make haste, [Exit Polonius.] Will you two
 25985     help to hasten them?
 25986   Both. We will, my lord.                       Exeunt they two.
 25987   Ham. What, ho, Horatio!
 25988 
 25989                       Enter Horatio.
 25990 
 25991   Hor. Here, sweet lord, at your service.
 25992   Ham. Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man
 25993     As e'er my conversation cop'd withal.
 25994   Hor. O, my dear lord!
 25995   Ham. Nay, do not think I flatter;
 25996     For what advancement may I hope from thee,
 25997     That no revenue hast but thy good spirits
 25998     To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter'd?
 25999     No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,
 26000     And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
 26001     Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?
 26002     Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
 26003     And could of men distinguish, her election
 26004     Hath scald thee for herself. For thou hast been
 26005     As one, in suff'ring all, that suffers nothing;
 26006     A man that Fortune's buffets and rewards
 26007     Hast ta'en with equal thanks; and blest are those
 26008     Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled
 26009     That they are not a pipe for Fortune's finger
 26010     To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
 26011     That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
 26012     In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,
 26013     As I do thee. Something too much of this I
 26014     There is a play to-night before the King.
 26015     One scene of it comes near the circumstance,
 26016     Which I have told thee, of my father's death.
 26017     I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,
 26018     Even with the very comment of thy soul
 26019     Observe my uncle. If his occulted guilt
 26020     Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
 26021     It is a damned ghost that we have seen,
 26022     And my imaginations are as foul
 26023     As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note;
 26024     For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,
 26025     And after we will both our judgments join
 26026     In censure of his seeming.
 26027   Hor. Well, my lord.
 26028     If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,
 26029     And scape detecting, I will pay the theft.
 26030 
 26031     Sound a flourish. [Enter Trumpets and Kettledrums. Danish
 26032     march. [Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz,
 26033       Guildenstern, and other Lords attendant, with the Guard
 26034                        carrying torches.
 26035 
 26036   Ham. They are coming to the play. I must be idle.
 26037     Get you a place.
 26038   King. How fares our cousin Hamlet?
 26039   Ham. Excellent, i' faith; of the chameleon's dish. I eat the air,
 26040     promise-cramm'd. You cannot feed capons so.
 26041   King. I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet. These words are not
 26042     mine.
 26043   Ham. No, nor mine now. [To Polonius] My lord, you play'd once
 26044     i' th' university, you say?
 26045   Pol. That did I, my lord, and was accounted a good actor.
 26046   Ham. What did you enact?
 26047   Pol. I did enact Julius Caesar; I was kill'd i' th' Capitol; Brutus
 26048     kill'd me.
 26049   Ham. It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there. Be
 26050     the players ready.
 26051   Ros. Ay, my lord. They stay upon your patience.
 26052   Queen. Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.
 26053   Ham. No, good mother. Here's metal more attractive.
 26054   Pol. [to the King] O, ho! do you mark that?
 26055   Ham. Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
 26056                                   [Sits down at Ophelia's feet.]
 26057   Oph. No, my lord.
 26058   Ham. I mean, my head upon your lap?
 26059   Oph. Ay, my lord.
 26060   Ham. Do you think I meant country matters?
 26061   Oph. I think nothing, my lord.
 26062   Ham. That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
 26063   Oph. What is, my lord?
 26064   Ham. Nothing.
 26065   Oph. You are merry, my lord.
 26066   Ham. Who, I?
 26067   Oph. Ay, my lord.
 26068   Ham. O God, your only jig-maker! What should a man do but be merry?
 26069     For look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died
 26070     within 's two hours.
 26071   Oph. Nay 'tis twice two months, my lord.
 26072   Ham. So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for I'll have a
 26073     suit of sables. O heavens! die two months ago, and not forgotten
 26074     yet? Then there's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life
 26075     half a year. But, by'r Lady, he must build churches then; or else
 26076     shall he suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse, whose
 26077     epitaph is 'For O, for O, the hobby-horse is forgot!'
 26078 
 26079                Hautboys play. The dumb show enters.
 26080 
 26081     Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly; the Queen embracing
 26082     him and he her. She kneels, and makes show of protestation
 26083     unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her
 26084     neck. He lays him down upon a bank of flowers. She, seeing
 26085     him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his
 26086     crown, kisses it, pours poison in the sleeper's ears, and
 26087     leaves him. The Queen returns, finds the King dead, and makes
 26088     passionate action. The Poisoner with some three or four Mutes,
 26089     comes in again, seem to condole with her. The dead body is
 26090     carried away. The Poisoner wooes the Queen with gifts; she
 26091     seems harsh and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts
 26092     his love.
 26093                                                          Exeunt.
 26094 
 26095   Oph. What means this, my lord?
 26096   Ham. Marry, this is miching malhecho; it means mischief.
 26097   Oph. Belike this show imports the argument of the play.
 26098 
 26099                       Enter Prologue.
 26100 
 26101   Ham. We shall know by this fellow. The players cannot keep counsel;
 26102     they'll tell all.
 26103   Oph. Will he tell us what this show meant?
 26104   Ham. Ay, or any show that you'll show him. Be not you asham'd to
 26105     show, he'll not shame to tell you what it means.
 26106   Oph. You are naught, you are naught! I'll mark the play.
 26107 
 26108     Pro. For us, and for our tragedy,
 26109       Here stooping to your clemency,
 26110       We beg your hearing patiently.                     [Exit.]
 26111 
 26112   Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?
 26113   Oph. 'Tis brief, my lord.
 26114   Ham. As woman's love.
 26115 
 26116               Enter [two Players as] King and Queen.
 26117 
 26118     King. Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round
 26119       Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbed ground,
 26120       And thirty dozed moons with borrowed sheen
 26121       About the world have times twelve thirties been,
 26122       Since love our hearts, and Hymen did our hands,
 26123       Unite comutual in most sacred bands.
 26124     Queen. So many journeys may the sun and moon
 26125       Make us again count o'er ere love be done!
 26126       But woe is me! you are so sick of late,
 26127       So far from cheer and from your former state.
 26128       That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,
 26129       Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must;
 26130       For women's fear and love holds quantity,
 26131       In neither aught, or in extremity.
 26132       Now what my love is, proof hath made you know;
 26133       And as my love is siz'd, my fear is so.
 26134       Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;
 26135       Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.
 26136     King. Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too;
 26137       My operant powers their functions leave to do.
 26138       And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,
 26139       Honour'd, belov'd, and haply one as kind
 26140       For husband shalt thou-
 26141     Queen. O, confound the rest!
 26142       Such love must needs be treason in my breast.
 26143       When second husband let me be accurst!
 26144       None wed the second but who killed the first.
 26145 
 26146   Ham. [aside] Wormwood, wormwood!
 26147 
 26148     Queen. The instances that second marriage move
 26149       Are base respects of thrift, but none of love.
 26150       A second time I kill my husband dead
 26151       When second husband kisses me in bed.
 26152     King. I do believe you think what now you speak;
 26153       But what we do determine oft we break.
 26154       Purpose is but the slave to memory,
 26155       Of violent birth, but poor validity;
 26156       Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree,
 26157       But fill unshaken when they mellow be.
 26158       Most necessary 'tis that we forget
 26159       To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt.
 26160       What to ourselves in passion we propose,
 26161       The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
 26162       The violence of either grief or joy
 26163       Their own enactures with themselves destroy.
 26164       Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
 26165       Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.
 26166       This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange
 26167       That even our loves should with our fortunes change;
 26168       For 'tis a question left us yet to prove,
 26169       Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.
 26170       The great man down, you mark his favourite flies,
 26171       The poor advanc'd makes friends of enemies;
 26172       And hitherto doth love on fortune tend,
 26173       For who not needs shall never lack a friend,
 26174       And who in want a hollow friend doth try,
 26175       Directly seasons him his enemy.
 26176       But, orderly to end where I begun,
 26177       Our wills and fates do so contrary run
 26178       That our devices still are overthrown;
 26179       Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.
 26180       So think thou wilt no second husband wed;
 26181       But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.
 26182     Queen. Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light,
 26183       Sport and repose lock from me day and night,
 26184       To desperation turn my trust and hope,
 26185       An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope,
 26186       Each opposite that blanks the face of joy
 26187       Meet what I would have well, and it destroy,
 26188       Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife,
 26189       If, once a widow, ever I be wife!
 26190 
 26191   Ham. If she should break it now!
 26192 
 26193     King. 'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile.
 26194       My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile
 26195       The tedious day with sleep.
 26196     Queen. Sleep rock thy brain,
 26197                                                     [He] sleeps.
 26198       And never come mischance between us twain!
 26199 Exit.
 26200 
 26201   Ham. Madam, how like you this play?
 26202   Queen. The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
 26203   Ham. O, but she'll keep her word.
 26204   King. Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in't?
 26205   Ham. No, no! They do but jest, poison in jest; no offence i' th'
 26206     world.
 26207   King. What do you call the play?
 26208   Ham. 'The Mousetrap.' Marry, how? Tropically. This play is the
 26209     image of a murther done in Vienna. Gonzago is the duke's name;
 26210     his wife, Baptista. You shall see anon. 'Tis a knavish piece of
 26211     work; but what o' that? Your Majesty, and we that have free
 26212     souls, it touches us not. Let the gall'd jade winch; our withers
 26213     are unwrung.
 26214 
 26215                          Enter Lucianus.
 26216 
 26217     This is one Lucianus, nephew to the King.
 26218   Oph. You are as good as a chorus, my lord.
 26219   Ham. I could interpret between you and your love, if I could see
 26220     the puppets dallying.
 26221   Oph. You are keen, my lord, you are keen.
 26222   Ham. It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge.
 26223   Oph. Still better, and worse.
 26224   Ham. So you must take your husbands.- Begin, murtherer. Pox, leave
 26225     thy damnable faces, and begin! Come, the croaking raven doth
 26226     bellow for revenge.
 26227 
 26228     Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing;
 26229       Confederate season, else no creature seeing;
 26230       Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,
 26231       With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected,
 26232       Thy natural magic and dire property
 26233       On wholesome life usurp immediately.
 26234                                    Pours the poison in his ears.
 26235 
 26236   Ham. He poisons him i' th' garden for's estate. His name's Gonzago.
 26237     The story is extant, and written in very choice Italian. You
 26238     shall see anon how the murtherer gets the love of Gonzago's wife.
 26239   Oph. The King rises.
 26240   Ham. What, frighted with false fire?
 26241   Queen. How fares my lord?
 26242   Pol. Give o'er the play.
 26243   King. Give me some light! Away!
 26244   All. Lights, lights, lights!
 26245                               Exeunt all but Hamlet and Horatio.
 26246   Ham.   Why, let the strucken deer go weep,
 26247           The hart ungalled play;
 26248          For some must watch, while some must sleep:
 26249           Thus runs the world away.
 26250     Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers- if the rest of my
 26251     fortunes turn Turk with me-with two Provincial roses on my raz'd
 26252     shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players, sir?
 26253   Hor. Half a share.
 26254   Ham.   A whole one I!
 26255          For thou dost know, O Damon dear,
 26256            This realm dismantled was
 26257          Of Jove himself; and now reigns here
 26258            A very, very- pajock.
 26259   Hor. You might have rhym'd.
 26260   Ham. O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for a thousand
 26261     pound! Didst perceive?
 26262   Hor. Very well, my lord.
 26263   Ham. Upon the talk of the poisoning?
 26264   Hor. I did very well note him.
 26265   Ham.   Aha! Come, some music! Come, the recorders!
 26266          For if the King like not the comedy,
 26267          Why then, belike he likes it not, perdy.
 26268     Come, some music!
 26269 
 26270                 Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
 26271 
 26272   Guil. Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.
 26273   Ham. Sir, a whole history.
 26274   Guil. The King, sir-
 26275   Ham. Ay, sir, what of him?
 26276   Guil. Is in his retirement, marvellous distemper'd.
 26277   Ham. With drink, sir?
 26278   Guil. No, my lord; rather with choler.
 26279   Ham. Your wisdom should show itself more richer to signify this to
 26280     the doctor; for me to put him to his purgation would perhaps
 26281     plunge him into far more choler.
 26282   Guil. Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame, and start
 26283     not so wildly from my affair.
 26284   Ham. I am tame, sir; pronounce.
 26285   Guil. The Queen, your mother, in most great affliction of spirit
 26286     hath sent me to you.
 26287   Ham. You are welcome.
 26288   Guil. Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed.
 26289     If it shall please you to make me a wholesome answer, I will do
 26290     your mother's commandment; if not, your pardon and my return
 26291     shall be the end of my business.
 26292   Ham. Sir, I cannot.
 26293   Guil. What, my lord?
 26294   Ham. Make you a wholesome answer; my wit's diseas'd. But, sir, such
 26295     answer is I can make, you shall command; or rather, as you say,
 26296     my mother. Therefore no more, but to the matter! My mother, you
 26297     say-
 26298   Ros. Then thus she says: your behaviour hath struck her into
 26299     amazement and admiration.
 26300   Ham. O wonderful son, that can so stonish a mother! But is there no
 26301     sequel at the heels of this mother's admiration? Impart.
 26302   Ros. She desires to speak with you in her closet ere you go to bed.
 26303   Ham. We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any
 26304     further trade with us?
 26305   Ros. My lord, you once did love me.
 26306   Ham. And do still, by these pickers and stealers!
 26307   Ros. Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? You do surely
 26308     bar the door upon your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to
 26309     your friend.
 26310   Ham. Sir, I lack advancement.
 26311   Ros. How can that be, when you have the voice of the King himself
 26312     for your succession in Denmark?
 26313   Ham. Ay, sir, but 'while the grass grows'- the proverb is something
 26314     musty.
 26315 
 26316                      Enter the Players with recorders.
 26317 
 26318     O, the recorders! Let me see one. To withdraw with you- why do
 26319     you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you would drive me
 26320     into a toil?
 26321   Guil. O my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly.
 26322   Ham. I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe?
 26323   Guil. My lord, I cannot.
 26324   Ham. I pray you.
 26325   Guil. Believe me, I cannot.
 26326   Ham. I do beseech you.
 26327   Guil. I know, no touch of it, my lord.
 26328   Ham. It is as easy as lying. Govern these ventages with your
 26329     fingers and thumbs, give it breath with your mouth, and it will
 26330     discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops.
 26331   Guil. But these cannot I command to any utt'rance of harmony. I
 26332     have not the skill.
 26333   Ham. Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You
 26334     would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would
 26335     pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from my
 26336     lowest note to the top of my compass; and there is much music,
 26337     excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it
 26338     speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am easier to be play'd on than a
 26339     pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me,
 26340     you cannot play upon me.
 26341 
 26342                         Enter Polonius.
 26343 
 26344     God bless you, sir!
 26345   Pol. My lord, the Queen would speak with you, and presently.
 26346   Ham. Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?
 26347   Pol. By th' mass, and 'tis like a camel indeed.
 26348   Ham. Methinks it is like a weasel.
 26349   Pol. It is back'd like a weasel.
 26350   Ham. Or like a whale.
 26351   Pol. Very like a whale.
 26352   Ham. Then will I come to my mother by-and-by.- They fool me to the
 26353     top of my bent.- I will come by-and-by.
 26354   Pol. I will say so.                                      Exit.
 26355   Ham. 'By-and-by' is easily said.- Leave me, friends.
 26356                                         [Exeunt all but Hamlet.]
 26357     'Tis now the very witching time of night,
 26358     When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out
 26359     Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood
 26360     And do such bitter business as the day
 26361     Would quake to look on. Soft! now to my mother!
 26362     O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever
 26363     The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom.
 26364     Let me be cruel, not unnatural;
 26365     I will speak daggers to her, but use none.
 26366     My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites-
 26367     How in my words somever she be shent,
 26368     To give them seals never, my soul, consent!             Exit.
 26369 
 26370 
 26371 
 26372 
 26373 Scene III.
 26374 A room in the Castle.
 26375 
 26376 Enter King, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.
 26377 
 26378   King. I like him not, nor stands it safe with us
 26379     To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you;
 26380     I your commission will forthwith dispatch,
 26381     And he to England shall along with you.
 26382     The terms of our estate may not endure
 26383     Hazard so near us as doth hourly grow
 26384     Out of his lunacies.
 26385   Guil. We will ourselves provide.
 26386     Most holy and religious fear it is
 26387     To keep those many many bodies safe
 26388     That live and feed upon your Majesty.
 26389   Ros. The single and peculiar life is bound
 26390     With all the strength and armour of the mind
 26391     To keep itself from noyance; but much more
 26392     That spirit upon whose weal depends and rests
 26393     The lives of many. The cesse of majesty
 26394     Dies not alone, but like a gulf doth draw
 26395     What's near it with it. It is a massy wheel,
 26396     Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount,
 26397     To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
 26398     Are mortis'd and adjoin'd; which when it falls,
 26399     Each small annexment, petty consequence,
 26400     Attends the boist'rous ruin. Never alone
 26401     Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.
 26402   King. Arm you, I pray you, to th', speedy voyage;
 26403     For we will fetters put upon this fear,
 26404     Which now goes too free-footed.
 26405   Both. We will haste us.
 26406                                                Exeunt Gentlemen.
 26407 
 26408                    Enter Polonius.
 26409 
 26410   Pol. My lord, he's going to his mother's closet.
 26411     Behind the arras I'll convey myself
 26412     To hear the process. I'll warrant she'll tax him home;
 26413     And, as you said, and wisely was it said,
 26414     'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother,
 26415     Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear
 26416     The speech, of vantage. Fare you well, my liege.
 26417     I'll call upon you ere you go to bed
 26418     And tell you what I know.
 26419   King. Thanks, dear my lord.
 26420                                                 Exit [Polonius].
 26421     O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;
 26422     It hath the primal eldest curse upon't,
 26423     A brother's murther! Pray can I not,
 26424     Though inclination be as sharp as will.
 26425     My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
 26426     And, like a man to double business bound,
 26427     I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
 26428     And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
 26429     Were thicker than itself with brother's blood,
 26430     Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
 26431     To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy
 26432     But to confront the visage of offence?
 26433     And what's in prayer but this twofold force,
 26434     To be forestalled ere we come to fall,
 26435     Or pardon'd being down? Then I'll look up;
 26436     My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer
 26437     Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murther'?
 26438     That cannot be; since I am still possess'd
 26439     Of those effects for which I did the murther-
 26440     My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
 26441     May one be pardon'd and retain th' offence?
 26442     In the corrupted currents of this world
 26443     Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,
 26444     And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself
 26445     Buys out the law; but 'tis not so above.
 26446     There is no shuffling; there the action lies
 26447     In his true nature, and we ourselves compell'd,
 26448     Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
 26449     To give in evidence. What then? What rests?
 26450     Try what repentance can. What can it not?
 26451     Yet what can it when one cannot repent?
 26452     O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
 26453     O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
 26454     Art more engag'd! Help, angels! Make assay.
 26455     Bow, stubborn knees; and heart with strings of steel,
 26456     Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe!
 26457     All may be well.                                  He kneels.
 26458 
 26459                          Enter Hamlet.
 26460 
 26461   Ham. Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;
 26462     And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven,
 26463     And so am I reveng'd. That would be scann'd.
 26464     A villain kills my father; and for that,
 26465     I, his sole son, do this same villain send
 26466     To heaven.
 26467     Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge!
 26468     He took my father grossly, full of bread,
 26469     With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
 26470     And how his audit stands, who knows save heaven?
 26471     But in our circumstance and course of thought,
 26472     'Tis heavy with him; and am I then reveng'd,
 26473     To take him in the purging of his soul,
 26474     When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?
 26475     No.
 26476     Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent.
 26477     When he is drunk asleep; or in his rage;
 26478     Or in th' incestuous pleasure of his bed;
 26479     At gaming, swearing, or about some act
 26480     That has no relish of salvation in't-
 26481     Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,
 26482     And that his soul may be as damn'd and black
 26483     As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays.
 26484     This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.              Exit.
 26485   King. [rises] My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.
 26486     Words without thoughts never to heaven go.             Exit.
 26487 
 26488 
 26489 
 26490 
 26491 Scene IV.
 26492 The Queen's closet.
 26493 
 26494 Enter Queen and Polonius.
 26495 
 26496   Pol. He will come straight. Look you lay home to him.
 26497     Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with,
 26498     And that your Grace hath screen'd and stood between
 26499     Much heat and him. I'll silence me even here.
 26500     Pray you be round with him.
 26501   Ham. (within) Mother, mother, mother!
 26502   Queen. I'll warrant you; fear me not. Withdraw; I hear him coming.
 26503                               [Polonius hides behind the arras.]
 26504 
 26505                           Enter Hamlet.
 26506 
 26507   Ham. Now, mother, what's the matter?
 26508   Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
 26509   Ham. Mother, you have my father much offended.
 26510   Queen. Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
 26511   Ham. Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
 26512   Queen. Why, how now, Hamlet?
 26513   Ham. What's the matter now?
 26514   Queen. Have you forgot me?
 26515   Ham. No, by the rood, not so!
 26516     You are the Queen, your husband's brother's wife,
 26517     And (would it were not so!) you are my mother.
 26518   Queen. Nay, then I'll set those to you that can speak.
 26519   Ham. Come, come, and sit you down. You shall not budge I
 26520     You go not till I set you up a glass
 26521     Where you may see the inmost part of you.
 26522   Queen. What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murther me?
 26523     Help, help, ho!
 26524   Pol. [behind] What, ho! help, help, help!
 26525   Ham. [draws] How now? a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!
 26526             [Makes a pass through the arras and] kills Polonius.
 26527   Pol. [behind] O, I am slain!
 26528   Queen. O me, what hast thou done?
 26529   Ham. Nay, I know not. Is it the King?
 26530   Queen. O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!
 26531   Ham. A bloody deed- almost as bad, good mother,
 26532     As kill a king, and marry with his brother.
 26533   Queen. As kill a king?
 26534   Ham. Ay, lady, it was my word.
 26535                          [Lifts up the arras and sees Polonius.]
 26536     Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
 26537     I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune.
 26538     Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.
 26539     Leave wringing of your hinds. Peace! sit you down
 26540     And let me wring your heart; for so I shall
 26541     If it be made of penetrable stuff;
 26542     If damned custom have not braz'd it so
 26543     That it is proof and bulwark against sense.
 26544   Queen. What have I done that thou dar'st wag thy tongue
 26545     In noise so rude against me?
 26546   Ham. Such an act
 26547     That blurs the grace and blush of modesty;
 26548     Calls virtue hypocrite; takes off the rose
 26549     From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
 26550     And sets a blister there; makes marriage vows
 26551     As false as dicers' oaths. O, such a deed
 26552     As from the body of contraction plucks
 26553     The very soul, and sweet religion makes
 26554     A rhapsody of words! Heaven's face doth glow;
 26555     Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
 26556     With tristful visage, as against the doom,
 26557     Is thought-sick at the act.
 26558   Queen. Ay me, what act,
 26559     That roars so loud and thunders in the index?
 26560   Ham. Look here upon th's picture, and on this,
 26561     The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
 26562     See what a grace was seated on this brow;
 26563     Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
 26564     An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
 26565     A station like the herald Mercury
 26566     New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill:
 26567     A combination and a form indeed
 26568     Where every god did seem to set his seal
 26569     To give the world assurance of a man.
 26570     This was your husband. Look you now what follows.
 26571     Here is your husband, like a mildew'd ear
 26572     Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
 26573     Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
 26574     And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes
 26575     You cannot call it love; for at your age
 26576     The heyday in the blood is tame, it's humble,
 26577     And waits upon the judgment; and what judgment
 26578     Would step from this to this? Sense sure you have,
 26579     Else could you not have motion; but sure that sense
 26580     Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err,
 26581     Nor sense to ecstacy was ne'er so thrall'd
 26582     But it reserv'd some quantity of choice
 26583     To serve in such a difference. What devil was't
 26584     That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind?
 26585     Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
 26586     Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
 26587     Or but a sickly part of one true sense
 26588     Could not so mope.
 26589     O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
 26590     If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,
 26591     To flaming youth let virtue be as wax
 26592     And melt in her own fire. Proclaim no shame
 26593     When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,
 26594     Since frost itself as actively doth burn,
 26595     And reason panders will.
 26596   Queen. O Hamlet, speak no more!
 26597     Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul,
 26598     And there I see such black and grained spots
 26599     As will not leave their tinct.
 26600   Ham. Nay, but to live
 26601     In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
 26602     Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
 26603     Over the nasty sty!
 26604   Queen. O, speak to me no more!
 26605     These words like daggers enter in mine ears.
 26606     No more, sweet Hamlet!
 26607   Ham. A murtherer and a villain!
 26608     A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe
 26609     Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings;
 26610     A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,
 26611     That from a shelf the precious diadem stole
 26612     And put it in his pocket!
 26613   Queen. No more!
 26614 
 26615                 Enter the Ghost in his nightgown.
 26616 
 26617   Ham. A king of shreds and patches!-
 26618     Save me and hover o'er me with your wings,
 26619     You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?
 26620   Queen. Alas, he's mad!
 26621   Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
 26622     That, laps'd in time and passion, lets go by
 26623     Th' important acting of your dread command?
 26624     O, say!
 26625   Ghost. Do not forget. This visitation
 26626     Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
 26627     But look, amazement on thy mother sits.
 26628     O, step between her and her fighting soul
 26629     Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works.
 26630     Speak to her, Hamlet.
 26631   Ham. How is it with you, lady?
 26632   Queen. Alas, how is't with you,
 26633     That you do bend your eye on vacancy,
 26634     And with th' encorporal air do hold discourse?
 26635     Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;
 26636     And, as the sleeping soldiers in th' alarm,
 26637     Your bedded hairs, like life in excrements,
 26638     Start up and stand an end. O gentle son,
 26639     Upon the beat and flame of thy distemper
 26640     Sprinkle cool patience! Whereon do you look?
 26641   Ham. On him, on him! Look you how pale he glares!
 26642     His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,
 26643     Would make them capable.- Do not look upon me,
 26644     Lest with this piteous action you convert
 26645     My stern effects. Then what I have to do
 26646     Will want true colour- tears perchance for blood.
 26647   Queen. To whom do you speak this?
 26648   Ham. Do you see nothing there?
 26649   Queen. Nothing at all; yet all that is I see.
 26650   Ham. Nor did you nothing hear?
 26651   Queen. No, nothing but ourselves.
 26652   Ham. Why, look you there! Look how it steals away!
 26653     My father, in his habit as he liv'd!
 26654     Look where he goes even now out at the portal!
 26655                                                      Exit Ghost.
 26656   Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain.
 26657     This bodiless creation ecstasy
 26658     Is very cunning in.
 26659   Ham. Ecstasy?
 26660     My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time
 26661     And makes as healthful music. It is not madness
 26662     That I have utt'red. Bring me to the test,
 26663     And I the matter will reword; which madness
 26664     Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
 26665     Lay not that flattering unction to your soul
 26666     That not your trespass but my madness speaks.
 26667     It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
 26668     Whiles rank corruption, mining all within,
 26669     Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
 26670     Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;
 26671     And do not spread the compost on the weeds
 26672     To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue;
 26673     For in the fatness of these pursy times
 26674     Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg-
 26675     Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.
 26676   Queen. O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.
 26677   Ham. O, throw away the worser part of it,
 26678     And live the purer with the other half,
 26679     Good night- but go not to my uncle's bed.
 26680     Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
 26681     That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat
 26682     Of habits evil, is angel yet in this,
 26683     That to the use of actions fair and good
 26684     He likewise gives a frock or livery,
 26685     That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night,
 26686     And that shall lend a kind of easiness
 26687     To the next abstinence; the next more easy;
 26688     For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
 26689     And either [master] the devil, or throw him out
 26690     With wondrous potency. Once more, good night;
 26691     And when you are desirous to be blest,
 26692     I'll blessing beg of you.- For this same lord,
 26693     I do repent; but heaven hath pleas'd it so,
 26694     To punish me with this, and this with me,
 26695     That I must be their scourge and minister.
 26696     I will bestow him, and will answer well
 26697     The death I gave him. So again, good night.
 26698     I must be cruel, only to be kind;
 26699     Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.
 26700     One word more, good lady.
 26701   Queen. What shall I do?
 26702   Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
 26703     Let the bloat King tempt you again to bed;
 26704     Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse;
 26705     And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,
 26706     Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,
 26707     Make you to ravel all this matter out,
 26708     That I essentially am not in madness,
 26709     But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know;
 26710     For who that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
 26711     Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib
 26712     Such dear concernings hide? Who would do so?
 26713     No, in despite of sense and secrecy,
 26714     Unpeg the basket on the house's top,
 26715     Let the birds fly, and like the famous ape,
 26716     To try conclusions, in the basket creep
 26717     And break your own neck down.
 26718   Queen. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of breath,
 26719     And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
 26720     What thou hast said to me.
 26721   Ham. I must to England; you know that?
 26722   Queen. Alack,
 26723     I had forgot! 'Tis so concluded on.
 26724   Ham. There's letters seal'd; and my two schoolfellows,
 26725     Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd,
 26726     They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way
 26727     And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;
 26728     For 'tis the sport to have the enginer
 26729     Hoist with his own petar; and 't shall go hard
 26730     But I will delve one yard below their mines
 26731     And blow them at the moon. O, 'tis most sweet
 26732     When in one line two crafts directly meet.
 26733     This man shall set me packing.
 26734     I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room.-
 26735     Mother, good night.- Indeed, this counsellor
 26736     Is now most still, most secret, and most grave,
 26737     Who was in life a foolish peating knave.
 26738     Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.
 26739     Good night, mother.
 26740                   [Exit the Queen. Then] Exit Hamlet, tugging in
 26741                                                        Polonius.
 26742 
 26743 
 26744 
 26745 
 26746 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 26747 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 26748 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 26749 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 26750 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 26751 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 26752 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 26753 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 26754 
 26755 
 26756 
 26757 ACT IV. Scene I.
 26758 Elsinore. A room in the Castle.
 26759 
 26760 Enter King and Queen, with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
 26761 
 26762   King. There's matter in these sighs. These profound heaves
 26763     You must translate; 'tis fit we understand them.
 26764     Where is your son?
 26765   Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while.
 26766                           [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.]
 26767     Ah, mine own lord, what have I seen to-night!
 26768   King. What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?
 26769   Queen. Mad as the sea and wind when both contend
 26770     Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit
 26771     Behind the arras hearing something stir,
 26772     Whips out his rapier, cries 'A rat, a rat!'
 26773     And in this brainish apprehension kills
 26774     The unseen good old man.
 26775   King. O heavy deed!
 26776     It had been so with us, had we been there.
 26777     His liberty is full of threats to all-
 26778     To you yourself, to us, to every one.
 26779     Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answer'd?
 26780     It will be laid to us, whose providence
 26781     Should have kept short, restrain'd, and out of haunt
 26782     This mad young man. But so much was our love
 26783     We would not understand what was most fit,
 26784     But, like the owner of a foul disease,
 26785     To keep it from divulging, let it feed
 26786     Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone?
 26787   Queen. To draw apart the body he hath kill'd;
 26788     O'er whom his very madness, like some ore
 26789     Among a mineral of metals base,
 26790     Shows itself pure. He weeps for what is done.
 26791   King. O Gertrude, come away!
 26792     The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch
 26793     But we will ship him hence; and this vile deed
 26794     We must with all our majesty and skill
 26795     Both countenance and excuse. Ho, Guildenstern!
 26796 
 26797              Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
 26798 
 26799     Friends both, go join you with some further aid.
 26800     Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,
 26801     And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him.
 26802     Go seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body
 26803     Into the chapel. I pray you haste in this.
 26804                           Exeunt [Rosencrantz and Guildenstern].
 26805     Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends
 26806     And let them know both what we mean to do
 26807     And what's untimely done. [So haply slander-]
 26808     Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter,
 26809     As level as the cannon to his blank,
 26810     Transports his poisoned shot- may miss our name
 26811     And hit the woundless air.- O, come away!
 26812     My soul is full of discord and dismay.
 26813                                                          Exeunt.
 26814 
 26815 
 26816 
 26817 
 26818 Scene II.
 26819 Elsinore. A passage in the Castle.
 26820 
 26821 Enter Hamlet.
 26822 
 26823   Ham. Safely stow'd.
 26824   Gentlemen. (within) Hamlet! Lord Hamlet!
 26825   Ham. But soft! What noise? Who calls on Hamlet? O, here they come.
 26826 
 26827                Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
 26828 
 26829   Ros. What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?
 26830   Ham. Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin.
 26831   Ros. Tell us where 'tis, that we may take it thence
 26832     And bear it to the chapel.
 26833   Ham. Do not believe it.
 26834   Ros. Believe what?
 26835   Ham. That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. Besides, to be
 26836     demanded of a sponge, what replication should be made by the son
 26837     of a king?
 26838   Ros. Take you me for a sponge, my lord?
 26839   Ham. Ay, sir; that soaks up the King's countenance, his rewards,
 26840     his authorities. But such officers do the King best service in
 26841     the end. He keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw;
 26842     first mouth'd, to be last Swallowed. When he needs what you have
 26843     glean'd, it is but squeezing you and, sponge, you shall be dry
 26844     again.
 26845   Ros. I understand you not, my lord.
 26846   Ham. I am glad of it. A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.
 26847   Ros. My lord, you must tell us where the body is and go with us to
 26848     the King.
 26849   Ham. The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body.
 26850     The King is a thing-
 26851   Guil. A thing, my lord?
 26852   Ham. Of nothing. Bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after.
 26853                                                          Exeunt.
 26854 
 26855 
 26856 
 26857 
 26858 Scene III.
 26859 Elsinore. A room in the Castle.
 26860 
 26861 Enter King.
 26862 
 26863   King. I have sent to seek him and to find the body.
 26864     How dangerous is it that this man goes loose!
 26865     Yet must not we put the strong law on him.
 26866     He's lov'd of the distracted multitude,
 26867     Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes;
 26868     And where 'tis so, th' offender's scourge is weigh'd,
 26869     But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even,
 26870     This sudden sending him away must seem
 26871     Deliberate pause. Diseases desperate grown
 26872     By desperate appliance are reliev'd,
 26873     Or not at all.
 26874 
 26875                     Enter Rosencrantz.
 26876 
 26877     How now O What hath befall'n?
 26878   Ros. Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord,
 26879     We cannot get from him.
 26880   King. But where is he?
 26881   Ros. Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.
 26882   King. Bring him before us.
 26883   Ros. Ho, Guildenstern! Bring in my lord.
 26884 
 26885         Enter Hamlet and Guildenstern [with Attendants].
 26886 
 26887   King. Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?
 26888   Ham. At supper.
 26889   King. At supper? Where?
 26890   Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten. A certain
 26891     convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your
 26892     only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat us, and
 26893     we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar
 26894     is but variable service- two dishes, but to one table. That's the
 26895     end.
 26896   King. Alas, alas!
 26897   Ham. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat
 26898     of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
 26899   King. What dost thou mean by this?
 26900   Ham. Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through
 26901     the guts of a beggar.
 26902   King. Where is Polonius?
 26903   Ham. In heaven. Send thither to see. If your messenger find him not
 26904     there, seek him i' th' other place yourself. But indeed, if you
 26905     find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up
 26906     the stair, into the lobby.
 26907   King. Go seek him there. [To Attendants.]
 26908   Ham. He will stay till you come.
 26909                                             [Exeunt Attendants.]
 26910   King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety,-
 26911     Which we do tender as we dearly grieve
 26912     For that which thou hast done,- must send thee hence
 26913     With fiery quickness. Therefore prepare thyself.
 26914     The bark is ready and the wind at help,
 26915     Th' associates tend, and everything is bent
 26916     For England.
 26917   Ham. For England?
 26918   King. Ay, Hamlet.
 26919   Ham. Good.
 26920   King. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes.
 26921   Ham. I see a cherub that sees them. But come, for England!
 26922     Farewell, dear mother.
 26923   King. Thy loving father, Hamlet.
 26924   Ham. My mother! Father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is
 26925     one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England!
 26926 Exit.
 26927   King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard.
 26928     Delay it not; I'll have him hence to-night.
 26929     Away! for everything is seal'd and done
 26930     That else leans on th' affair. Pray you make haste.
 26931                             Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern]
 26932     And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught,-
 26933     As my great power thereof may give thee sense,
 26934     Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red
 26935     After the Danish sword, and thy free awe
 26936     Pays homage to us,- thou mayst not coldly set
 26937     Our sovereign process, which imports at full,
 26938     By letters congruing to that effect,
 26939     The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England;
 26940     For like the hectic in my blood he rages,
 26941     And thou must cure me. Till I know 'tis done,
 26942     Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun.             Exit.
 26943 
 26944 
 26945 
 26946 
 26947 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 26948 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 26949 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 26950 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 26951 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 26952 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 26953 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 26954 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 26955 
 26956 
 26957 
 26958 Scene IV.
 26959 Near Elsinore.
 26960 
 26961 Enter Fortinbras with his Army over the stage.
 26962 
 26963   For. Go, Captain, from me greet the Danish king.
 26964     Tell him that by his license Fortinbras
 26965     Craves the conveyance of a promis'd march
 26966     Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.
 26967     if that his Majesty would aught with us,
 26968     We shall express our duty in his eye;
 26969     And let him know so.
 26970   Capt. I will do't, my lord.
 26971   For. Go softly on.
 26972                                    Exeunt [all but the Captain].
 26973 
 26974        Enter Hamlet, Rosencrantz, [Guildenstern,] and others.
 26975 
 26976   Ham. Good sir, whose powers are these?
 26977   Capt. They are of Norway, sir.
 26978   Ham. How purpos'd, sir, I pray you?
 26979   Capt. Against some part of Poland.
 26980   Ham. Who commands them, sir?
 26981   Capt. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.
 26982   Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, sir,
 26983     Or for some frontier?
 26984   Capt. Truly to speak, and with no addition,
 26985     We go to gain a little patch of ground
 26986     That hath in it no profit but the name.
 26987     To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
 26988     Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole
 26989     A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.
 26990   Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend it.
 26991   Capt. Yes, it is already garrison'd.
 26992   Ham. Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats
 26993     Will not debate the question of this straw.
 26994     This is th' imposthume of much wealth and peace,
 26995     That inward breaks, and shows no cause without
 26996     Why the man dies.- I humbly thank you, sir.
 26997   Capt. God b' wi' you, sir.                             [Exit.]
 26998   Ros. Will't please you go, my lord?
 26999   Ham. I'll be with you straight. Go a little before.
 27000                                         [Exeunt all but Hamlet.]
 27001     How all occasions do inform against me
 27002     And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
 27003     If his chief good and market of his time
 27004     Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.
 27005     Sure he that made us with such large discourse,
 27006     Looking before and after, gave us not
 27007     That capability and godlike reason
 27008     To fust in us unus'd. Now, whether it be
 27009     Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
 27010     Of thinking too precisely on th' event,-
 27011     A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom
 27012     And ever three parts coward,- I do not know
 27013     Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do,'
 27014     Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means
 27015     To do't. Examples gross as earth exhort me.
 27016     Witness this army of such mass and charge,
 27017     Led by a delicate and tender prince,
 27018     Whose spirit, with divine ambition puff'd,
 27019     Makes mouths at the invisible event,
 27020     Exposing what is mortal and unsure
 27021     To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,
 27022     Even for an eggshell. Rightly to be great
 27023     Is not to stir without great argument,
 27024     But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
 27025     When honour's at the stake. How stand I then,
 27026     That have a father klll'd, a mother stain'd,
 27027     Excitements of my reason and my blood,
 27028     And let all sleep, while to my shame I see
 27029     The imminent death of twenty thousand men
 27030     That for a fantasy and trick of fame
 27031     Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
 27032     Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
 27033     Which is not tomb enough and continent
 27034     To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,
 27035     My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!            Exit.
 27036 
 27037 
 27038 
 27039 
 27040 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 27041 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 27042 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 27043 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 27044 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 27045 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 27046 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 27047 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 27048 
 27049 
 27050 
 27051 Scene V.
 27052 Elsinore. A room in the Castle.
 27053 
 27054 Enter Horatio, Queen, and a Gentleman.
 27055 
 27056   Queen. I will not speak with her.
 27057   Gent. She is importunate, indeed distract.
 27058     Her mood will needs be pitied.
 27059   Queen. What would she have?
 27060   Gent. She speaks much of her father; says she hears
 27061     There's tricks i' th' world, and hems, and beats her heart;
 27062     Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt,
 27063     That carry but half sense. Her speech is nothing,
 27064     Yet the unshaped use of it doth move
 27065     The hearers to collection; they aim at it,
 27066     And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;
 27067     Which, as her winks and nods and gestures yield them,
 27068     Indeed would make one think there might be thought,
 27069     Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.
 27070   Hor. 'Twere good she were spoken with; for she may strew
 27071     Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.
 27072   Queen. Let her come in.
 27073                                                [Exit Gentleman.]
 27074     [Aside] To my sick soul (as sin's true nature is)
 27075     Each toy seems Prologue to some great amiss.
 27076     So full of artless jealousy is guilt
 27077     It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.
 27078 
 27079                  Enter Ophelia distracted.
 27080 
 27081   Oph. Where is the beauteous Majesty of Denmark?
 27082   Queen. How now, Ophelia?
 27083   Oph. (sings)
 27084          How should I your true-love know
 27085            From another one?
 27086          By his cockle bat and' staff
 27087            And his sandal shoon.
 27088 
 27089   Queen. Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song?
 27090   Oph. Say you? Nay, pray You mark.
 27091 
 27092     (Sings) He is dead and gone, lady,
 27093               He is dead and gone;
 27094             At his head a grass-green turf,
 27095               At his heels a stone.
 27096 
 27097     O, ho!
 27098   Queen. Nay, but Ophelia-
 27099   Oph. Pray you mark.
 27100 
 27101     (Sings) White his shroud as the mountain snow-
 27102 
 27103                     Enter King.
 27104 
 27105   Queen. Alas, look here, my lord!
 27106   Oph. (Sings)
 27107            Larded all with sweet flowers;
 27108          Which bewept to the grave did not go
 27109            With true-love showers.
 27110 
 27111   King. How do you, pretty lady?
 27112   Oph. Well, God dild you! They say the owl was a baker's daughter.
 27113     Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at
 27114     your table!
 27115   King. Conceit upon her father.
 27116   Oph. Pray let's have no words of this; but when they ask, you what
 27117     it means, say you this:
 27118 
 27119     (Sings) To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
 27120               All in the morning bedtime,
 27121             And I a maid at your window,
 27122               To be your Valentine.
 27123 
 27124             Then up he rose and donn'd his clo'es
 27125               And dupp'd the chamber door,
 27126             Let in the maid, that out a maid
 27127               Never departed more.
 27128 
 27129   King. Pretty Ophelia!
 27130   Oph. Indeed, la, without an oath, I'll make an end on't!
 27131 
 27132     [Sings] By Gis and by Saint Charity,
 27133               Alack, and fie for shame!
 27134             Young men will do't if they come to't
 27135               By Cock, they are to blame.
 27136 
 27137             Quoth she, 'Before you tumbled me,
 27138               You promis'd me to wed.'
 27139 
 27140     He answers:
 27141 
 27142             'So would I 'a' done, by yonder sun,
 27143               An thou hadst not come to my bed.'
 27144 
 27145   King. How long hath she been thus?
 27146   Oph. I hope all will be well. We must be patient; but I cannot
 27147     choose but weep to think they would lay him i' th' cold ground.
 27148     My brother shall know of it; and so I thank you for your good
 27149     counsel. Come, my coach! Good night, ladies. Good night, sweet
 27150     ladies. Good night, good night.                         Exit
 27151   King. Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you.
 27152                                                  [Exit Horatio.]
 27153     O, this is the poison of deep grief; it springs
 27154     All from her father's death. O Gertrude, Gertrude,
 27155     When sorrows come, they come not single spies.
 27156     But in battalions! First, her father slain;
 27157     Next, Your son gone, and he most violent author
 27158     Of his own just remove; the people muddied,
 27159     Thick and and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers
 27160     For good Polonius' death, and we have done but greenly
 27161     In hugger-mugger to inter him; Poor Ophelia
 27162     Divided from herself and her fair-judgment,
 27163     Without the which we are Pictures or mere beasts;
 27164     Last, and as such containing as all these,
 27165     Her brother is in secret come from France;
 27166     And wants not buzzers to infect his ear
 27167     Feeds on his wonder, keep, himself in clouds,
 27168     With pestilent speeches of his father's death,
 27169     Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd,
 27170     Will nothing stick Our person to arraign
 27171     In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this,
 27172     Like to a murd'ring piece, in many places
 27173     Give, me superfluous death.                  A noise within.
 27174   Queen. Alack, what noise is this?
 27175   King. Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door.
 27176 
 27177                      Enter a Messenger.
 27178 
 27179     What is the matter?
 27180   Mess. Save Yourself, my lord:
 27181     The ocean, overpeering of his list,
 27182     Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste
 27183     Than Young Laertes, in a riotous head,
 27184     O'erbears Your offices. The rabble call him lord;
 27185     And, as the world were now but to begin,
 27186     Antiquity forgot, custom not known,
 27187     The ratifiers and props of every word,
 27188     They cry 'Choose we! Laertes shall be king!'
 27189     Caps, hands, and tongues applaud it to the clouds,
 27190     'Laertes shall be king! Laertes king!'
 27191                                                  A noise within.
 27192   Queen. How cheerfully on the false trail they cry!
 27193     O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs!
 27194   King. The doors are broke.
 27195 
 27196                     Enter Laertes with others.
 27197 
 27198   Laer. Where is this king?- Sirs, staid you all without.
 27199   All. No, let's come in!
 27200   Laer. I pray you give me leave.
 27201   All. We will, we will!
 27202   Laer. I thank you. Keep the door.      [Exeunt his Followers.]
 27203     O thou vile king,
 27204     Give me my father!
 27205   Queen. Calmly, good Laertes.
 27206   Laer. That drop of blood that's calm proclaims me bastard;
 27207     Cries cuckold to my father; brands the harlot
 27208     Even here between the chaste unsmirched brows
 27209     Of my true mother.
 27210   King. What is the cause, Laertes,
 27211     That thy rebellion looks so giantlike?
 27212     Let him go, Gertrude. Do not fear our person.
 27213     There's such divinity doth hedge a king
 27214     That treason can but peep to what it would,
 27215     Acts little of his will. Tell me, Laertes,
 27216     Why thou art thus incens'd. Let him go, Gertrude.
 27217     Speak, man.
 27218   Laer. Where is my father?
 27219   King. Dead.
 27220   Queen. But not by him!
 27221   King. Let him demand his fill.
 27222   Laer. How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with:
 27223     To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil
 27224     Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit!
 27225     I dare damnation. To this point I stand,
 27226     That both the world, I give to negligence,
 27227     Let come what comes; only I'll be reveng'd
 27228     Most throughly for my father.
 27229   King. Who shall stay you?
 27230   Laer. My will, not all the world!
 27231     And for my means, I'll husband them so well
 27232     They shall go far with little.
 27233   King. Good Laertes,
 27234     If you desire to know the certainty
 27235     Of your dear father's death, is't writ in Your revenge
 27236     That swoopstake you will draw both friend and foe,
 27237     Winner and loser?
 27238   Laer. None but his enemies.
 27239   King. Will you know them then?
 27240   Laer. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms
 27241     And, like the kind life-rend'ring pelican,
 27242     Repast them with my blood.
 27243   King. Why, now You speak
 27244     Like a good child and a true gentleman.
 27245     That I am guiltless of your father's death,
 27246     And am most sensibly in grief for it,
 27247     It shall as level to your judgment pierce
 27248     As day does to your eye.
 27249                               A noise within: 'Let her come in.'
 27250   Laer. How now? What noise is that?
 27251 
 27252                       Enter Ophelia.
 27253 
 27254     O heat, dry up my brains! Tears seven times salt
 27255     Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!
 27256     By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by weight
 27257     Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May!
 27258     Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!
 27259     O heavens! is't possible a young maid's wits
 27260     Should be as mortal as an old man's life?
 27261     Nature is fine in love, and where 'tis fine,
 27262     It sends some precious instance of itself
 27263     After the thing it loves.
 27264 
 27265   Oph. (sings)
 27266          They bore him barefac'd on the bier
 27267            (Hey non nony, nony, hey nony)
 27268          And in his grave rain'd many a tear.
 27269 
 27270     Fare you well, my dove!
 27271   Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge,
 27272     It could not move thus.
 27273   Oph. You must sing 'A-down a-down, and you call him a-down-a.' O,
 27274     how the wheel becomes it! It is the false steward, that stole his
 27275     master's daughter.
 27276   Laer. This nothing's more than matter.
 27277   Oph. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. Pray you, love,
 27278     remember. And there is pansies, that's for thoughts.
 27279   Laer. A document in madness! Thoughts and remembrance fitted.
 27280   Oph. There's fennel for you, and columbines. There's rue for you,
 27281     and here's some for me. We may call it herb of grace o' Sundays.
 27282     O, you must wear your rue with a difference! There's a daisy. I
 27283     would give you some violets, but they wither'd all when my father
 27284     died. They say he made a good end.
 27285 
 27286     [Sings] For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.
 27287 
 27288   Laer. Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself,
 27289     She turns to favour and to prettiness.
 27290   Oph. (sings)
 27291          And will he not come again?
 27292          And will he not come again?
 27293            No, no, he is dead;
 27294            Go to thy deathbed;
 27295          He never will come again.
 27296 
 27297          His beard was as white as snow,
 27298          All flaxen was his poll.
 27299            He is gone, he is gone,
 27300            And we cast away moan.
 27301          God 'a'mercy on his soul!
 27302 
 27303     And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God b' wi', you.
 27304 Exit.
 27305   Laer. Do you see this, O God?
 27306   King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief,
 27307     Or you deny me right. Go but apart,
 27308     Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will,
 27309     And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me.
 27310     If by direct or by collateral hand
 27311     They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give,
 27312     Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours,
 27313     To you in satisfaction; but if not,
 27314     Be you content to lend your patience to us,
 27315     And we shall jointly labour with your soul
 27316     To give it due content.
 27317   Laer. Let this be so.
 27318     His means of death, his obscure funeral-
 27319     No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o'er his bones,
 27320     No noble rite nor formal ostentation,-
 27321     Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth,
 27322     That I must call't in question.
 27323   King. So you shall;
 27324     And where th' offence is let the great axe fall.
 27325     I pray you go with me.
 27326                                                           Exeunt
 27327 
 27328 
 27329 
 27330 
 27331 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 27332 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 27333 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 27334 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 27335 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 27336 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 27337 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 27338 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 27339 
 27340 
 27341 
 27342 Scene VI.
 27343 Elsinore. Another room in the Castle.
 27344 
 27345 Enter Horatio with an Attendant.
 27346 
 27347   Hor. What are they that would speak with me?
 27348   Servant. Seafaring men, sir. They say they have letters for you.
 27349   Hor. Let them come in.
 27350                                                [Exit Attendant.]
 27351     I do not know from what part of the world
 27352     I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet.
 27353 
 27354                           Enter Sailors.
 27355 
 27356   Sailor. God bless you, sir.
 27357   Hor. Let him bless thee too.
 27358   Sailor. 'A shall, sir, an't please him. There's a letter for you,
 27359     sir,- it comes from th' ambassador that was bound for England- if
 27360     your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.
 27361   Hor. (reads the letter) 'Horatio, when thou shalt have overlook'd
 27362     this, give these fellows some means to the King. They have
 27363     letters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of
 27364     very warlike appointment gave us chase. Finding ourselves too
 27365     slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour, and in the grapple I
 27366     boarded them. On the instant they got clear of our ship; so I
 27367     alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves
 27368     of mercy; but they knew what they did: I am to do a good turn for
 27369     them. Let the King have the letters I have sent, and repair thou
 27370     to me with as much speed as thou wouldst fly death. I have words
 27371     to speak in thine ear will make thee dumb; yet are they much too
 27372     light for the bore of the matter. These good fellows will bring
 27373     thee where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their course
 27374     for England. Of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell.
 27375                             'He that thou knowest thine, HAMLET.'
 27376 
 27377     Come, I will give you way for these your letters,
 27378     And do't the speedier that you may direct me
 27379     To him from whom you brought them.                   Exeunt.
 27380 
 27381 
 27382 
 27383 
 27384 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 27385 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 27386 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 27387 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 27388 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 27389 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 27390 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 27391 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 27392 
 27393 
 27394 
 27395 Scene VII.
 27396 Elsinore. Another room in the Castle.
 27397 
 27398 Enter King and Laertes.
 27399 
 27400   King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal,
 27401     And You must put me in your heart for friend,
 27402     Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear,
 27403     That he which hath your noble father slain
 27404     Pursued my life.
 27405   Laer. It well appears. But tell me
 27406     Why you proceeded not against these feats
 27407     So crimeful and so capital in nature,
 27408     As by your safety, wisdom, all things else,
 27409     You mainly were stirr'd up.
 27410   King. O, for two special reasons,
 27411     Which may to you, perhaps, seein much unsinew'd,
 27412     But yet to me they are strong. The Queen his mother
 27413     Lives almost by his looks; and for myself,-
 27414     My virtue or my plague, be it either which,-
 27415     She's so conjunctive to my life and soul
 27416     That, as the star moves not but in his sphere,
 27417     I could not but by her. The other motive
 27418     Why to a public count I might not go
 27419     Is the great love the general gender bear him,
 27420     Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,
 27421     Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone,
 27422     Convert his gives to graces; so that my arrows,
 27423     Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind,
 27424     Would have reverted to my bow again,
 27425     And not where I had aim'd them.
 27426   Laer. And so have I a noble father lost;
 27427     A sister driven into desp'rate terms,
 27428     Whose worth, if praises may go back again,
 27429     Stood challenger on mount of all the age
 27430     For her perfections. But my revenge will come.
 27431   King. Break not your sleeps for that. You must not think
 27432     That we are made of stuff so flat and dull
 27433     That we can let our beard be shook with danger,
 27434     And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more.
 27435     I lov'd your father, and we love ourself,
 27436     And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine-
 27437 
 27438                  Enter a Messenger with letters.
 27439 
 27440     How now? What news?
 27441   Mess. Letters, my lord, from Hamlet:
 27442     This to your Majesty; this to the Queen.
 27443   King. From Hamlet? Who brought them?
 27444   Mess. Sailors, my lord, they say; I saw them not.
 27445     They were given me by Claudio; he receiv'd them
 27446     Of him that brought them.
 27447   King. Laertes, you shall hear them.
 27448     Leave us.
 27449                                                  Exit Messenger.
 27450     [Reads]'High and Mighty,-You shall know I am set naked on your
 27451     kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes;
 27452     when I shall (first asking your pardon thereunto) recount the
 27453     occasion of my sudden and more strange return.
 27454                                                      'HAMLET.'
 27455     What should this mean? Are all the rest come back?
 27456     Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?
 27457   Laer. Know you the hand?
 27458   King. 'Tis Hamlet's character. 'Naked!'
 27459     And in a postscript here, he says 'alone.'
 27460     Can you advise me?
 27461   Laer. I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come!
 27462     It warms the very sickness in my heart
 27463     That I shall live and tell him to his teeth,
 27464     'Thus didest thou.'
 27465   King. If it be so, Laertes
 27466     (As how should it be so? how otherwise?),
 27467     Will you be rul'd by me?
 27468   Laer. Ay my lord,
 27469     So you will not o'errule me to a peace.
 27470   King. To thine own peace. If he be now return'd
 27471     As checking at his voyage, and that he means
 27472     No more to undertake it, I will work him
 27473     To exploit now ripe in my device,
 27474     Under the which he shall not choose but fall;
 27475     And for his death no wind
 27476     But even his mother shall uncharge the practice
 27477     And call it accident.
 27478   Laer. My lord, I will be rul'd;
 27479     The rather, if you could devise it so
 27480     That I might be the organ.
 27481   King. It falls right.
 27482     You have been talk'd of since your travel much,
 27483     And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality
 27484     Wherein they say you shine, Your sun of parts
 27485     Did not together pluck such envy from him
 27486     As did that one; and that, in my regard,
 27487     Of the unworthiest siege.
 27488   Laer. What part is that, my lord?
 27489   King. A very riband in the cap of youth-
 27490     Yet needfull too; for youth no less becomes
 27491     The light and careless livery that it wears
 27492     Thin settled age his sables and his weeds,
 27493     Importing health and graveness. Two months since
 27494     Here was a gentleman of Normandy.
 27495     I have seen myself, and serv'd against, the French,
 27496     And they can well on horseback; but this gallant
 27497     Had witchcraft in't. He grew unto his seat,
 27498     And to such wondrous doing brought his horse
 27499     As had he been incorps'd and demi-natur'd
 27500     With the brave beast. So far he topp'd my thought
 27501     That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks,
 27502     Come short of what he did.
 27503   Laer. A Norman was't?
 27504   King. A Norman.
 27505   Laer. Upon my life, Lamound.
 27506   King. The very same.
 27507   Laer. I know him well. He is the broach indeed
 27508     And gem of all the nation.
 27509   King. He made confession of you;
 27510     And gave you such a masterly report
 27511     For art and exercise in your defence,
 27512     And for your rapier most especially,
 27513     That he cried out 'twould be a sight indeed
 27514     If one could match you. The scrimers of their nation
 27515     He swore had neither motion, guard, nor eye,
 27516     If you oppos'd them. Sir, this report of his
 27517     Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy
 27518     That he could nothing do but wish and beg
 27519     Your sudden coming o'er to play with you.
 27520     Now, out of this-
 27521   Laer. What out of this, my lord?
 27522   King. Laertes, was your father dear to you?
 27523     Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,
 27524     A face without a heart,'
 27525   Laer. Why ask you this?
 27526   King. Not that I think you did not love your father;
 27527     But that I know love is begun by time,
 27528     And that I see, in passages of proof,
 27529     Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.
 27530     There lives within the very flame of love
 27531     A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it;
 27532     And nothing is at a like goodness still;
 27533     For goodness, growing to a plurisy,
 27534     Dies in his own too-much. That we would do,
 27535     We should do when we would; for this 'would' changes,
 27536     And hath abatements and delays as many
 27537     As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents;
 27538     And then this 'should' is like a spendthrift sigh,
 27539     That hurts by easing. But to the quick o' th' ulcer!
 27540     Hamlet comes back. What would you undertake
 27541     To show yourself your father's son in deed
 27542     More than in words?
 27543   Laer. To cut his throat i' th' church!
 27544   King. No place indeed should murther sanctuarize;
 27545     Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes,
 27546     Will you do this? Keep close within your chamber.
 27547     Will return'd shall know you are come home.
 27548     We'll put on those shall praise your excellence
 27549     And set a double varnish on the fame
 27550     The Frenchman gave you; bring you in fine together
 27551     And wager on your heads. He, being remiss,
 27552     Most generous, and free from all contriving,
 27553     Will not peruse the foils; so that with ease,
 27554     Or with a little shuffling, you may choose
 27555     A sword unbated, and, in a pass of practice,
 27556     Requite him for your father.
 27557   Laer. I will do't!
 27558     And for that purpose I'll anoint my sword.
 27559     I bought an unction of a mountebank,
 27560     So mortal that, but dip a knife in it,
 27561     Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare,
 27562     Collected from all simples that have virtue
 27563     Under the moon, can save the thing from death
 27564     This is but scratch'd withal. I'll touch my point
 27565     With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly,
 27566     It may be death.
 27567   King. Let's further think of this,
 27568     Weigh what convenience both of time and means
 27569     May fit us to our shape. If this should fall,
 27570     And that our drift look through our bad performance.
 27571     'Twere better not assay'd. Therefore this project
 27572     Should have a back or second, that might hold
 27573     If this did blast in proof. Soft! let me see.
 27574     We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings-
 27575     I ha't!
 27576     When in your motion you are hot and dry-
 27577     As make your bouts more violent to that end-
 27578     And that he calls for drink, I'll have prepar'd him
 27579     A chalice for the nonce; whereon but sipping,
 27580     If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck,
 27581     Our purpose may hold there.- But stay, what noise,
 27582 
 27583                            Enter Queen.
 27584 
 27585     How now, sweet queen?
 27586   Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel,
 27587     So fast they follow. Your sister's drown'd, Laertes.
 27588   Laer. Drown'd! O, where?
 27589   Queen. There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
 27590     That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream.
 27591     There with fantastic garlands did she come
 27592     Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,
 27593     That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
 27594     But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them.
 27595     There on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds
 27596     Clamb'ring to hang, an envious sliver broke,
 27597     When down her weedy trophies and herself
 27598     Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide
 27599     And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up;
 27600     Which time she chaunted snatches of old tunes,
 27601     As one incapable of her own distress,
 27602     Or like a creature native and indued
 27603     Unto that element; but long it could not be
 27604     Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
 27605     Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
 27606     To muddy death.
 27607   Laer. Alas, then she is drown'd?
 27608   Queen. Drown'd, drown'd.
 27609   Laer. Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,
 27610     And therefore I forbid my tears; but yet
 27611     It is our trick; nature her custom holds,
 27612     Let shame say what it will. When these are gone,
 27613     The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord.
 27614     I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze
 27615     But that this folly douts it.                          Exit.
 27616   King. Let's follow, Gertrude.
 27617     How much I had to do to calm his rage I
 27618     Now fear I this will give it start again;
 27619     Therefore let's follow.
 27620                                                          Exeunt.
 27621 
 27622 
 27623 
 27624 
 27625 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 27626 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 27627 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 27628 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 27629 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 27630 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 27631 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 27632 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 27633 
 27634 
 27635 
 27636 ACT V. Scene I.
 27637 Elsinore. A churchyard.
 27638 
 27639 Enter two Clowns, [with spades and pickaxes].
 27640 
 27641   Clown. Is she to be buried in Christian burial when she wilfully
 27642     seeks her own salvation?
 27643   Other. I tell thee she is; therefore make her grave straight.
 27644     The crowner hath sate on her, and finds it Christian burial.
 27645   Clown. How can that be, unless she drown'd herself in her own
 27646     defence?
 27647   Other. Why, 'tis found so.
 27648   Clown. It must be se offendendo; it cannot be else. For here lies
 27649     the point: if I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act; and an
 27650     act hath three branches-it is to act, to do, and to perform;
 27651     argal, she drown'd herself wittingly.
 27652   Other. Nay, but hear you, Goodman Delver!
 27653   Clown. Give me leave. Here lies the water; good. Here stands the
 27654     man; good. If the man go to this water and drown himself, it is,
 27655     will he nill he, he goes- mark you that. But if the water come to
 27656     him and drown him, he drowns not himself. Argal, he that is not
 27657     guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.
 27658   Other. But is this law?
 27659   Clown. Ay, marry, is't- crowner's quest law.
 27660   Other. Will you ha' the truth an't? If this had not been a
 27661     gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o' Christian burial.
 27662   Clown. Why, there thou say'st! And the more pity that great folk
 27663     should have count'nance in this world to drown or hang themselves
 27664     more than their even-Christen. Come, my spade! There is no
 27665     ancient gentlemen but gard'ners, ditchers, and grave-makers. They
 27666     hold up Adam's profession.
 27667   Other. Was he a gentleman?
 27668   Clown. 'A was the first that ever bore arms.
 27669   Other. Why, he had none.
 27670   Clown. What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the Scripture?
 27671     The Scripture says Adam digg'd. Could he dig without arms? I'll
 27672     put another question to thee. If thou answerest me not to the
 27673     purpose, confess thyself-
 27674   Other. Go to!
 27675   Clown. What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the
 27676     shipwright, or the carpenter?
 27677   Other. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand
 27678     tenants.
 27679   Clown. I like thy wit well, in good faith. The gallows does well.
 27680     But how does it well? It does well to those that do ill. Now,
 27681     thou dost ill to say the gallows is built stronger than the
 27682     church. Argal, the gallows may do well to thee. To't again, come!
 27683   Other. Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a
 27684     carpenter?
 27685   Clown. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.
 27686   Other. Marry, now I can tell!
 27687   Clown. To't.
 27688   Other. Mass, I cannot tell.
 27689 
 27690                  Enter Hamlet and Horatio afar off.
 27691 
 27692   Clown. Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for your dull ass will
 27693     not mend his pace with beating; and when you are ask'd this
 27694     question next, say 'a grave-maker.' The houses he makes lasts
 27695     till doomsday. Go, get thee to Yaughan; fetch me a stoup of
 27696     liquor.
 27697                                             [Exit Second Clown.]
 27698 
 27699                        [Clown digs and] sings.
 27700 
 27701        In youth when I did love, did love,
 27702          Methought it was very sweet;
 27703        To contract- O- the time for- a- my behove,
 27704          O, methought there- a- was nothing- a- meet.
 27705 
 27706   Ham. Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that he sings at
 27707     grave-making?
 27708   Hor. Custom hath made it in him a Property of easiness.
 27709   Ham. 'Tis e'en so. The hand of little employment hath the daintier
 27710     sense.
 27711   Clown. (sings)
 27712          But age with his stealing steps
 27713            Hath clawed me in his clutch,
 27714          And hath shipped me intil the land,
 27715            As if I had never been such.
 27716                                             [Throws up a skull.]
 27717 
 27718   Ham. That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once. How the
 27719     knave jowls it to the ground,as if 'twere Cain's jawbone, that
 27720     did the first murther! This might be the pate of a Politician,
 27721     which this ass now o'erreaches; one that would circumvent God,
 27722     might it not?
 27723   Hor. It might, my lord.
 27724   Ham. Or of a courtier, which could say 'Good morrow, sweet lord!
 27725     How dost thou, good lord?' This might be my Lord Such-a-one, that
 27726     prais'd my Lord Such-a-one's horse when he meant to beg it- might
 27727     it not?
 27728   Hor. Ay, my lord.
 27729   Ham. Why, e'en so! and now my Lady Worm's, chapless, and knock'd
 27730     about the mazzard with a sexton's spade. Here's fine revolution,
 27731     and we had the trick to see't. Did these bones cost no more the
 27732     breeding but to play at loggets with 'em? Mine ache to think
 27733     on't.
 27734   Clown. (Sings)
 27735          A pickaxe and a spade, a spade,
 27736            For and a shrouding sheet;
 27737          O, a Pit of clay for to be made
 27738            For such a guest is meet.
 27739                                       Throws up [another skull].
 27740 
 27741   Ham. There's another. Why may not that be the skull of a lawyer?
 27742     Where be his quiddits now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures,
 27743     and his tricks? Why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock
 27744     him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him
 27745     of his action of battery? Hum! This fellow might be in's time a
 27746     great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his
 27747     fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries. Is this the fine of
 27748     his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine
 27749     pate full of fine dirt? Will his vouchers vouch him no more of
 27750     his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth
 27751     of a pair of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands will
 27752     scarcely lie in this box; and must th' inheritor himself have no
 27753     more, ha?
 27754   Hor. Not a jot more, my lord.
 27755   Ham. Is not parchment made of sheepskins?
 27756   Hor. Ay, my lord, And of calveskins too.
 27757   Ham. They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance in that. I
 27758     will speak to this fellow. Whose grave's this, sirrah?
 27759   Clown. Mine, sir.
 27760 
 27761     [Sings] O, a pit of clay for to be made
 27762               For such a guest is meet.
 27763 
 27764   Ham. I think it be thine indeed, for thou liest in't.
 27765   Clown. You lie out on't, sir, and therefore 'tis not yours.
 27766     For my part, I do not lie in't, yet it is mine.
 27767   Ham. Thou dost lie in't, to be in't and say it is thine. 'Tis for
 27768     the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest.
 27769   Clown. 'Tis a quick lie, sir; 'twill away again from me to you.
 27770   Ham. What man dost thou dig it for?
 27771   Clown. For no man, sir.
 27772   Ham. What woman then?
 27773   Clown. For none neither.
 27774   Ham. Who is to be buried in't?
 27775   Clown. One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she's dead.
 27776   Ham. How absolute the knave is! We must speak by the card, or
 27777     equivocation will undo us. By the Lord, Horatio, this three years
 27778     I have taken note of it, the age is grown so picked that the toe
 27779     of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier he galls
 27780     his kibe.- How long hast thou been a grave-maker?
 27781   Clown. Of all the days i' th' year, I came to't that day that our
 27782     last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras.
 27783   Ham. How long is that since?
 27784   Clown. Cannot you tell that? Every fool can tell that. It was the
 27785     very day that young Hamlet was born- he that is mad, and sent
 27786     into England.
 27787   Ham. Ay, marry, why was be sent into England?
 27788   Clown. Why, because 'a was mad. 'A shall recover his wits there;
 27789     or, if 'a do not, 'tis no great matter there.
 27790   Ham. Why?
 27791   Clown. 'Twill not he seen in him there. There the men are as mad as
 27792     he.
 27793   Ham. How came he mad?
 27794   Clown. Very strangely, they say.
 27795   Ham. How strangely?
 27796   Clown. Faith, e'en with losing his wits.
 27797   Ham. Upon what ground?
 27798   Clown. Why, here in Denmark. I have been sexton here, man and boy
 27799     thirty years.
 27800   Ham. How long will a man lie i' th' earth ere he rot?
 27801   Clown. Faith, if 'a be not rotten before 'a die (as we have many
 27802     pocky corses now-a-days that will scarce hold the laying in, I
 27803     will last you some eight year or nine year. A tanner will last
 27804     you nine year.
 27805   Ham. Why he more than another?
 27806   Clown. Why, sir, his hide is so tann'd with his trade that 'a will
 27807     keep out water a great while; and your water is a sore decayer of
 27808     your whoreson dead body. Here's a skull now. This skull hath lien
 27809     you i' th' earth three-and-twenty years.
 27810   Ham. Whose was it?
 27811   Clown. A whoreson, mad fellow's it was. Whose do you think it was?
 27812   Ham. Nay, I know not.
 27813   Clown. A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! 'A pour'd a flagon of
 27814     Rhenish on my head once. This same skull, sir, was Yorick's
 27815     skull, the King's jester.
 27816   Ham. This?
 27817   Clown. E'en that.
 27818   Ham. Let me see. [Takes the skull.] Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him,
 27819     Horatio. A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He
 27820     hath borne me on his back a thousand tunes. And now how abhorred
 27821     in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those
 27822     lips that I have kiss'd I know not how oft. Where be your gibes
 27823     now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment that
 27824     were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your
 27825     own grinning? Quite chap- fall'n? Now get you to my lady's
 27826     chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this
 27827     favour she must come. Make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio,
 27828     tell me one thing.
 27829   Hor. What's that, my lord?
 27830   Ham. Dost thou think Alexander look'd o' this fashion i' th' earth?
 27831   Hor. E'en so.
 27832   Ham. And smelt so? Pah!
 27833                                           [Puts down the skull.]
 27834   Hor. E'en so, my lord.
 27835   Ham. To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not
 27836     imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander till he find it
 27837     stopping a bunghole?
 27838   Hor. 'Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so.
 27839   Ham. No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with modesty
 27840     enough, and likelihood to lead it; as thus: Alexander died,
 27841     Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is
 27842     earth; of earth we make loam; and why of that loam (whereto he
 27843     was converted) might they not stop a beer barrel?
 27844     Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,
 27845     Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.
 27846     O, that that earth which kept the world in awe
 27847     Should patch a wall t' expel the winter's flaw!
 27848     But soft! but soft! aside! Here comes the King-
 27849 
 27850     Enter [priests with] a coffin [in funeral procession], King,
 27851              Queen, Laertes, with Lords attendant.]
 27852 
 27853     The Queen, the courtiers. Who is this they follow?
 27854     And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken
 27855     The corse they follow did with desp'rate hand
 27856     Fordo it own life. 'Twas of some estate.
 27857     Couch we awhile, and mark.
 27858                                          [Retires with Horatio.]
 27859   Laer. What ceremony else?
 27860   Ham. That is Laertes,
 27861     A very noble youth. Mark.
 27862   Laer. What ceremony else?
 27863   Priest. Her obsequies have been as far enlarg'd
 27864     As we have warranty. Her death was doubtful;
 27865     And, but that great command o'ersways the order,
 27866     She should in ground unsanctified have lodg'd
 27867     Till the last trumpet. For charitable prayers,
 27868     Shards, flints, and pebbles should be thrown on her.
 27869     Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants,
 27870     Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home
 27871     Of bell and burial.
 27872   Laer. Must there no more be done?
 27873   Priest. No more be done.
 27874     We should profane the service of the dead
 27875     To sing a requiem and such rest to her
 27876     As to peace-parted souls.
 27877   Laer. Lay her i' th' earth;
 27878     And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
 27879     May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest,
 27880     A minist'ring angel shall my sister be
 27881     When thou liest howling.
 27882   Ham. What, the fair Ophelia?
 27883   Queen. Sweets to the sweet! Farewell.
 27884                                              [Scatters flowers.]
 27885     I hop'd thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife;
 27886     I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid,
 27887     And not have strew'd thy grave.
 27888   Laer. O, treble woe
 27889     Fall ten times treble on that cursed head
 27890     Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense
 27891     Depriv'd thee of! Hold off the earth awhile,
 27892     Till I have caught her once more in mine arms.
 27893                                              Leaps in the grave.
 27894     Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead
 27895     Till of this flat a mountain you have made
 27896     T' o'ertop old Pelion or the skyish head
 27897     Of blue Olympus.
 27898   Ham. [comes forward] What is he whose grief
 27899     Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow
 27900     Conjures the wand'ring stars, and makes them stand
 27901     Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I,
 27902     Hamlet the Dane.                    [Leaps in after Laertes.
 27903   Laer. The devil take thy soul!
 27904                                             [Grapples with him].
 27905   Ham. Thou pray'st not well.
 27906     I prithee take thy fingers from my throat;
 27907     For, though I am not splenitive and rash,
 27908     Yet have I in me something dangerous,
 27909     Which let thy wisdom fear. Hold off thy hand!
 27910   King. Pluck thein asunder.
 27911   Queen. Hamlet, Hamlet!
 27912   All. Gentlemen!
 27913   Hor. Good my lord, be quiet.
 27914              [The Attendants part them, and they come out of the
 27915                                                          grave.]
 27916   Ham. Why, I will fight with him upon this theme
 27917     Until my eyelids will no longer wag.
 27918   Queen. O my son, what theme?
 27919   Ham. I lov'd Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers
 27920     Could not (with all their quantity of love)
 27921     Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?
 27922   King. O, he is mad, Laertes.
 27923   Queen. For love of God, forbear him!
 27924   Ham. 'Swounds, show me what thou't do.
 27925     Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't fast? woo't tear thyself?
 27926     Woo't drink up esill? eat a crocodile?
 27927     I'll do't. Dost thou come here to whine?
 27928     To outface me with leaping in her grave?
 27929     Be buried quick with her, and so will I.
 27930     And if thou prate of mountains, let them throw
 27931     Millions of acres on us, till our ground,
 27932     Singeing his pate against the burning zone,
 27933     Make Ossa like a wart! Nay, an thou'lt mouth,
 27934     I'll rant as well as thou.
 27935   Queen. This is mere madness;
 27936     And thus a while the fit will work on him.
 27937     Anon, as patient as the female dove
 27938     When that her golden couplets are disclos'd,
 27939     His silence will sit drooping.
 27940   Ham. Hear you, sir!
 27941     What is the reason that you use me thus?
 27942     I lov'd you ever. But it is no matter.
 27943     Let Hercules himself do what he may,
 27944     The cat will mew, and dog will have his day.
 27945 Exit.
 27946   King. I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon him.
 27947                                                    Exit Horatio.
 27948     [To Laertes] Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech.
 27949     We'll put the matter to the present push.-
 27950     Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.-
 27951     This grave shall have a living monument.
 27952     An hour of quiet shortly shall we see;
 27953     Till then in patience our proceeding be.
 27954                                                          Exeunt.
 27955 
 27956 
 27957 
 27958 
 27959 Scene II.
 27960 Elsinore. A hall in the Castle.
 27961 
 27962 Enter Hamlet and Horatio.
 27963 
 27964   Ham. So much for this, sir; now shall you see the other.
 27965     You do remember all the circumstance?
 27966   Hor. Remember it, my lord!
 27967   Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting
 27968     That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay
 27969     Worse than the mutinies in the bilboes. Rashly-
 27970     And prais'd be rashness for it; let us know,
 27971     Our indiscretion sometime serves us well
 27972     When our deep plots do pall; and that should learn us
 27973     There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
 27974     Rough-hew them how we will-
 27975   Hor. That is most certain.
 27976   Ham. Up from my cabin,
 27977     My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark
 27978     Grop'd I to find out them; had my desire,
 27979     Finger'd their packet, and in fine withdrew
 27980     To mine own room again; making so bold
 27981     (My fears forgetting manners) to unseal
 27982     Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio
 27983     (O royal knavery!), an exact command,
 27984     Larded with many several sorts of reasons,
 27985     Importing Denmark's health, and England's too,
 27986     With, hoo! such bugs and goblins in my life-
 27987     That, on the supervise, no leisure bated,
 27988     No, not to stay the finding of the axe,
 27989     My head should be struck off.
 27990   Hor. Is't possible?
 27991   Ham. Here's the commission; read it at more leisure.
 27992     But wilt thou bear me how I did proceed?
 27993   Hor. I beseech you.
 27994   Ham. Being thus benetted round with villanies,
 27995     Or I could make a prologue to my brains,
 27996     They had begun the play. I sat me down;
 27997     Devis'd a new commission; wrote it fair.
 27998     I once did hold it, as our statists do,
 27999     A baseness to write fair, and labour'd much
 28000     How to forget that learning; but, sir, now
 28001     It did me yeoman's service. Wilt thou know
 28002     Th' effect of what I wrote?
 28003   Hor. Ay, good my lord.
 28004   Ham. An earnest conjuration from the King,
 28005     As England was his faithful tributary,
 28006     As love between them like the palm might flourish,
 28007     As peace should still her wheaten garland wear
 28008     And stand a comma 'tween their amities,
 28009     And many such-like as's of great charge,
 28010     That, on the view and knowing of these contents,
 28011     Without debatement further, more or less,
 28012     He should the bearers put to sudden death,
 28013     Not shriving time allow'd.
 28014   Hor. How was this seal'd?
 28015   Ham. Why, even in that was heaven ordinant.
 28016     I had my father's signet in my purse,
 28017     which was the model of that Danish seal;
 28018     Folded the writ up in the form of th' other,
 28019     Subscrib'd it, gave't th' impression, plac'd it safely,
 28020     The changeling never known. Now, the next day
 28021     Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent
 28022     Thou know'st already.
 28023   Hor. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't.
 28024   Ham. Why, man, they did make love to this employment!
 28025     They are not near my conscience; their defeat
 28026     Does by their own insinuation grow.
 28027     'Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes
 28028     Between the pass and fell incensed points
 28029     Of mighty opposites.
 28030   Hor. Why, what a king is this!
 28031   Ham. Does it not, thinks't thee, stand me now upon-
 28032     He that hath kill'd my king, and whor'd my mother;
 28033     Popp'd in between th' election and my hopes;
 28034     Thrown out his angle for my Proper life,
 28035     And with such coz'nage- is't not perfect conscience
 28036     To quit him with this arm? And is't not to be damn'd
 28037     To let this canker of our nature come
 28038     In further evil?
 28039   Hor. It must be shortly known to him from England
 28040     What is the issue of the business there.
 28041   Ham. It will be short; the interim is mine,
 28042     And a man's life is no more than to say 'one.'
 28043     But I am very sorry, good Horatio,
 28044     That to Laertes I forgot myself,
 28045     For by the image of my cause I see
 28046     The portraiture of his. I'll court his favours.
 28047     But sure the bravery of his grief did put me
 28048     Into a tow'ring passion.
 28049   Hor. Peace! Who comes here?
 28050 
 28051                  Enter young Osric, a courtier.
 28052 
 28053   Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.
 28054   Ham. I humbly thank you, sir. [Aside to Horatio] Dost know this
 28055     waterfly?
 28056   Hor. [aside to Hamlet] No, my good lord.
 28057   Ham. [aside to Horatio] Thy state is the more gracious; for 'tis a
 28058     vice to know him. He hath much land, and fertile. Let a beast be
 28059     lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the king's mess. 'Tis
 28060     a chough; but, as I say, spacious in the possession of dirt.
 28061   Osr. Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should impart
 28062     a thing to you from his Majesty.
 28063   Ham. I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit. Put your
 28064     bonnet to his right use. 'Tis for the head.
 28065   Osr. I thank your lordship, it is very hot.
 28066   Ham. No, believe me, 'tis very cold; the wind is northerly.
 28067   Osr. It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed.
 28068   Ham. But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot for my complexion.
 28069   Osr. Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry, as 'twere- I cannot
 28070     tell how. But, my lord, his Majesty bade me signify to you that
 28071     he has laid a great wager on your head. Sir, this is the matter-
 28072   Ham. I beseech you remember.
 28073                            [Hamlet moves him to put on his hat.]
 28074   Osr. Nay, good my lord; for mine ease, in good faith. Sir, here is
 28075     newly come to court Laertes; believe me, an absolute gentleman,
 28076     full of most excellent differences, of very soft society and
 28077     great showing. Indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card
 28078     or calendar of gentry; for you shall find in him the continent of
 28079     what part a gentleman would see.
 28080   Ham. Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you; though, I
 28081     know, to divide him inventorially would dozy th' arithmetic of
 28082     memory, and yet but yaw neither in respect of his quick sail.
 28083     But, in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of great
 28084     article, and his infusion of such dearth and rareness as, to make
 28085     true diction of him, his semblable is his mirror, and who else
 28086     would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more.
 28087   Osr. Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him.
 28088   Ham. The concernancy, sir? Why do we wrap the gentleman in our more
 28089     rawer breath
 28090   Osr. Sir?
 28091   Hor [aside to Hamlet] Is't not possible to understand in another
 28092     tongue? You will do't, sir, really.
 28093   Ham. What imports the nomination of this gentleman
 28094   Osr. Of Laertes?
 28095   Hor. [aside] His purse is empty already. All's golden words are
 28096     spent.
 28097   Ham. Of him, sir.
 28098   Osr. I know you are not ignorant-
 28099   Ham. I would you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did, it would not
 28100     much approve me. Well, sir?
 28101   Osr. You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is-
 28102   Ham. I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in
 28103     excellence; but to know a man well were to know himself.
 28104   Osr. I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation laid on him
 28105     by them, in his meed he's unfellowed.
 28106   Ham. What's his weapon?
 28107   Osr. Rapier and dagger.
 28108   Ham. That's two of his weapons- but well.
 28109   Osr. The King, sir, hath wager'd with him six Barbary horses;
 28110     against the which he has impon'd, as I take it, six French
 28111     rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, hangers, and
 28112     so. Three of the carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy,
 28113     very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of
 28114     very liberal conceit.
 28115   Ham. What call you the carriages?
 28116   Hor. [aside to Hamlet] I knew you must be edified by the margent
 28117     ere you had done.
 28118   Osr. The carriages, sir, are the hangers.
 28119   Ham. The phrase would be more germane to the matter if we could
 28120     carry cannon by our sides. I would it might be hangers till then.
 28121     But on! Six Barbary horses against six French swords, their
 28122     assigns, and three liberal-conceited carriages: that's the French
 28123     bet against the Danish. Why is this all impon'd, as you call it?
 28124   Osr. The King, sir, hath laid that, in a dozen passes between
 28125     yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three hits; he hath
 28126     laid on twelve for nine, and it would come to immediate trial
 28127     if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer.
 28128   Ham. How if I answer no?
 28129   Osr. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial.
 28130   Ham. Sir, I will walk here in the hall. If it please his Majesty,
 28131     it is the breathing time of day with me. Let the foils be
 28132     brought, the gentleman willing, and the King hold his purpose,
 28133     I will win for him if I can; if not, I will gain nothing but my
 28134     shame and the odd hits.
 28135   Osr. Shall I redeliver you e'en so?
 28136   Ham. To this effect, sir, after what flourish your nature will.
 28137   Osr. I commend my duty to your lordship.
 28138   Ham. Yours, yours. [Exit Osric.] He does well to commend it
 28139     himself; there are no tongues else for's turn.
 28140   Hor. This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.
 28141   Ham. He did comply with his dug before he suck'd it. Thus has he,
 28142     and many more of the same bevy that I know the drossy age dotes
 28143     on, only got the tune of the time and outward habit of encounter-
 28144     a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and
 28145     through the most fann'd and winnowed opinions; and do but blow
 28146     them to their trial-the bubbles are out,
 28147 
 28148                             Enter a Lord.
 28149 
 28150   Lord. My lord, his Majesty commended him to you by young Osric, who
 28151     brings back to him, that you attend him in the hall. He sends to
 28152     know if your pleasure hold to play with Laertes, or that you will
 28153     take longer time.
 28154   Ham. I am constant to my purposes; they follow the King's pleasure.
 28155     If his fitness speaks, mine is ready; now or whensoever, provided
 28156     I be so able as now.
 28157   Lord. The King and Queen and all are coming down.
 28158   Ham. In happy time.
 28159   Lord. The Queen desires you to use some gentle entertainment to
 28160     Laertes before you fall to play.
 28161   Ham. She well instructs me.
 28162                                                     [Exit Lord.]
 28163   Hor. You will lose this wager, my lord.
 28164   Ham. I do not think so. Since he went into France I have been in
 28165     continual practice. I shall win at the odds. But thou wouldst not
 28166     think how ill all's here about my heart. But it is no matter.
 28167   Hor. Nay, good my lord -
 28168   Ham. It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of gaingiving as
 28169     would perhaps trouble a woman.
 28170   Hor. If your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will forestall their
 28171     repair hither and say you are not fit.
 28172   Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury; there's a special providence in
 28173     the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come', if it be
 28174     not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come:
 28175     the readiness is all. Since no man knows aught of what he leaves,
 28176     what is't to leave betimes? Let be.
 28177 
 28178     Enter King, Queen, Laertes, Osric, and Lords, with other
 28179               Attendants with foils and gauntlets.
 28180                A table and flagons of wine on it.
 28181 
 28182   King. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.
 28183                     [The King puts Laertes' hand into Hamlet's.]
 28184   Ham. Give me your pardon, sir. I have done you wrong;
 28185     But pardon't, as you are a gentleman.
 28186     This presence knows,
 28187     And you must needs have heard, how I am punish'd
 28188     With sore distraction. What I have done
 28189     That might your nature, honour, and exception
 28190     Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
 28191     Was't Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never Hamlet.
 28192     If Hamlet from himself be taken away,
 28193     And when he's not himself does wrong Laertes,
 28194     Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it.
 28195     Who does it, then? His madness. If't be so,
 28196     Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd;
 28197     His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.
 28198     Sir, in this audience,
 28199     Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd evil
 28200     Free me so far in your most generous thoughts
 28201     That I have shot my arrow o'er the house
 28202     And hurt my brother.
 28203   Laer. I am satisfied in nature,
 28204     Whose motive in this case should stir me most
 28205     To my revenge. But in my terms of honour
 28206     I stand aloof, and will no reconcilement
 28207     Till by some elder masters of known honour
 28208     I have a voice and precedent of peace
 28209     To keep my name ungor'd. But till that time
 28210     I do receive your offer'd love like love,
 28211     And will not wrong it.
 28212   Ham. I embrace it freely,
 28213     And will this brother's wager frankly play.
 28214     Give us the foils. Come on.
 28215   Laer. Come, one for me.
 28216   Ham. I'll be your foil, Laertes. In mine ignorance
 28217     Your skill shall, like a star i' th' darkest night,
 28218     Stick fiery off indeed.
 28219   Laer. You mock me, sir.
 28220   Ham. No, by this bad.
 28221   King. Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet,
 28222     You know the wager?
 28223   Ham. Very well, my lord.
 28224     Your Grace has laid the odds o' th' weaker side.
 28225   King. I do not fear it, I have seen you both;
 28226     But since he is better'd, we have therefore odds.
 28227   Laer. This is too heavy; let me see another.
 28228   Ham. This likes me well. These foils have all a length?
 28229                                                 Prepare to play.
 28230   Osr. Ay, my good lord.
 28231   King. Set me the stoups of wine upon that table.
 28232     If Hamlet give the first or second hit,
 28233     Or quit in answer of the third exchange,
 28234     Let all the battlements their ordnance fire;
 28235     The King shall drink to Hamlet's better breath,
 28236     And in the cup an union shall he throw
 28237     Richer than that which four successive kings
 28238     In Denmark's crown have worn. Give me the cups;
 28239     And let the kettle to the trumpet speak,
 28240     The trumpet to the cannoneer without,
 28241     The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth,
 28242     'Now the King drinks to Hamlet.' Come, begin.
 28243     And you the judges, bear a wary eye.
 28244   Ham. Come on, sir.
 28245   Laer. Come, my lord.                                They play.
 28246   Ham. One.
 28247   Laer. No.
 28248   Ham. Judgment!
 28249   Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit.
 28250   Laer. Well, again!
 28251   King. Stay, give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine;
 28252     Here's to thy health.
 28253                [Drum; trumpets sound; a piece goes off [within].
 28254     Give him the cup.
 28255   Ham. I'll play this bout first; set it by awhile.
 28256     Come. (They play.) Another hit. What say you?
 28257   Laer. A touch, a touch; I do confess't.
 28258   King. Our son shall win.
 28259   Queen. He's fat, and scant of breath.
 28260     Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows.
 28261     The Queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.
 28262   Ham. Good madam!
 28263   King. Gertrude, do not drink.
 28264   Queen. I will, my lord; I pray you pardon me.          Drinks.
 28265   King. [aside] It is the poison'd cup; it is too late.
 28266   Ham. I dare not drink yet, madam; by-and-by.
 28267   Queen. Come, let me wipe thy face.
 28268   Laer. My lord, I'll hit him now.
 28269   King. I do not think't.
 28270   Laer. [aside] And yet it is almost against my conscience.
 28271   Ham. Come for the third, Laertes! You but dally.
 28272     pray You Pass with your best violence;
 28273     I am afeard You make a wanton of me.
 28274   Laer. Say you so? Come on.                               Play.
 28275   Osr. Nothing neither way.
 28276   Laer. Have at you now!
 28277                 [Laertes wounds Hamlet; then] in scuffling, they
 28278                     change rapiers, [and Hamlet wounds Laertes].
 28279   King. Part them! They are incens'd.
 28280   Ham. Nay come! again!                         The Queen falls.
 28281   Osr. Look to the Queen there, ho!
 28282   Hor. They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord?
 28283   Osr. How is't, Laertes?
 28284   Laer. Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric.
 28285     I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery.
 28286   Ham. How does the Queen?
 28287   King. She sounds to see them bleed.
 28288   Queen. No, no! the drink, the drink! O my dear Hamlet!
 28289     The drink, the drink! I am poison'd.                 [Dies.]
 28290   Ham. O villany! Ho! let the door be lock'd.
 28291     Treachery! Seek it out.
 28292                                                 [Laertes falls.]
 28293   Laer. It is here, Hamlet. Hamlet, thou art slain;
 28294     No medicine in the world can do thee good.
 28295     In thee there is not half an hour of life.
 28296     The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
 28297     Unbated and envenom'd. The foul practice
 28298     Hath turn'd itself on me. Lo, here I lie,
 28299     Never to rise again. Thy mother's poison'd.
 28300     I can no more. The King, the King's to blame.
 28301   Ham. The point envenom'd too?
 28302     Then, venom, to thy work.                    Hurts the King.
 28303   All. Treason! treason!
 28304   King. O, yet defend me, friends! I am but hurt.
 28305   Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murd'rous, damned Dane,
 28306     Drink off this potion! Is thy union here?
 28307     Follow my mother.                                 King dies.
 28308   Laer. He is justly serv'd.
 28309     It is a poison temper'd by himself.
 28310     Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet.
 28311     Mine and my father's death come not upon thee,
 28312     Nor thine on me!                                       Dies.
 28313   Ham. Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee.
 28314     I am dead, Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu!
 28315     You that look pale and tremble at this chance,
 28316     That are but mutes or audience to this act,
 28317     Had I but time (as this fell sergeant, Death,
 28318     Is strict in his arrest) O, I could tell you-
 28319     But let it be. Horatio, I am dead;
 28320     Thou liv'st; report me and my cause aright
 28321     To the unsatisfied.
 28322   Hor. Never believe it.
 28323     I am more an antique Roman than a Dane.
 28324     Here's yet some liquor left.
 28325   Ham. As th'art a man,
 28326     Give me the cup. Let go! By heaven, I'll ha't.
 28327     O good Horatio, what a wounded name
 28328     (Things standing thus unknown) shall live behind me!
 28329     If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
 28330     Absent thee from felicity awhile,
 28331     And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
 28332     To tell my story.         [March afar off, and shot within.]
 28333     What warlike noise is this?
 28334   Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland,
 28335     To the ambassadors of England gives
 28336     This warlike volley.
 28337   Ham. O, I die, Horatio!
 28338     The potent poison quite o'ercrows my spirit.
 28339     I cannot live to hear the news from England,
 28340     But I do prophesy th' election lights
 28341     On Fortinbras. He has my dying voice.
 28342     So tell him, with th' occurrents, more and less,
 28343     Which have solicited- the rest is silence.             Dies.
 28344   Hor. Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince,
 28345     And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
 28346                                                  [March within.]
 28347     Why does the drum come hither?
 28348 
 28349     Enter Fortinbras and English Ambassadors, with Drum,
 28350                   Colours, and Attendants.
 28351 
 28352   Fort. Where is this sight?
 28353   Hor. What is it you will see?
 28354     If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.
 28355   Fort. This quarry cries on havoc. O proud Death,
 28356     What feast is toward in thine eternal cell
 28357     That thou so many princes at a shot
 28358     So bloodily hast struck.
 28359   Ambassador. The sight is dismal;
 28360     And our affairs from England come too late.
 28361     The ears are senseless that should give us bearing
 28362     To tell him his commandment is fulfill'd
 28363     That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
 28364     Where should We have our thanks?
 28365   Hor. Not from his mouth,
 28366     Had it th' ability of life to thank you.
 28367     He never gave commandment for their death.
 28368     But since, so jump upon this bloody question,
 28369     You from the Polack wars, and you from England,
 28370     Are here arriv'd, give order that these bodies
 28371     High on a stage be placed to the view;
 28372     And let me speak to the yet unknowing world
 28373     How these things came about. So shall You hear
 28374     Of carnal, bloody and unnatural acts;
 28375     Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters;
 28376     Of deaths put on by cunning and forc'd cause;
 28377     And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
 28378     Fall'n on th' inventors' heads. All this can I
 28379     Truly deliver.
 28380   Fort. Let us haste to hear it,
 28381     And call the noblest to the audience.
 28382     For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune.
 28383     I have some rights of memory in this kingdom
 28384     Which now, to claim my vantage doth invite me.
 28385   Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak,
 28386     And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more.
 28387     But let this same be presently perform'd,
 28388     Even while men's minds are wild, lest more mischance
 28389     On plots and errors happen.
 28390   Fort. Let four captains
 28391     Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage;
 28392     For he was likely, had he been put on,
 28393     To have prov'd most royally; and for his passage
 28394     The soldiers' music and the rites of war
 28395     Speak loudly for him.
 28396     Take up the bodies. Such a sight as this
 28397     Becomes the field but here shows much amiss.
 28398     Go, bid the soldiers shoot.
 28399             Exeunt marching; after the which a peal of ordnance
 28400                                                    are shot off.
 28401 
 28402 
 28403 THE END
 28404 
 28405 
 28406 
 28407 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 28408 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 28409 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 28410 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 28411 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 28412 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 28413 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 28414 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 28415 
 28416 
 28417 
 28418 
 28419 
 28420 1598
 28421 
 28422 THE FIRST PART OF KING HENRY THE FOURTH
 28423 
 28424 
 28425 by William Shakespeare
 28426 
 28427 
 28428 
 28429 Dramatis Personae
 28430 
 28431   King Henry the Fourth.
 28432   Henry, Prince of Wales, son to the King.
 28433   Prince John of Lancaster, son to the King.
 28434   Earl of Westmoreland.
 28435   Sir Walter Blunt.
 28436   Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester.
 28437   Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland.
 28438   Henry Percy, surnamed Hotspur, his son.
 28439   Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March.
 28440   Richard Scroop, Archbishop of York.
 28441   Archibald, Earl of Douglas.
 28442   Owen Glendower.
 28443   Sir Richard Vernon.
 28444   Sir John Falstaff.
 28445   Sir Michael, a friend to the Archbishop of York.
 28446   Poins.
 28447   Gadshill
 28448   Peto.
 28449   Bardolph.
 28450 
 28451   Lady Percy, wife to Hotspur, and sister to Mortimer.
 28452   Lady Mortimer, daughter to Glendower, and wife to Mortimer.
 28453   Mistress Quickly, hostess of the Boar's Head in Eastcheap.
 28454 
 28455   Lords, Officers, Sheriff, Vintner, Chamberlain, Drawers, two
 28456     Carriers, Travellers, and Attendants.
 28457 
 28458 
 28459 
 28460 
 28461 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 28462 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 28463 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 28464 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 28465 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 28466 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 28467 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 28468 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 28469 
 28470 
 28471 
 28472 SCENE.--England and Wales.
 28473 
 28474 
 28475 ACT I. Scene I.
 28476 London. The Palace.
 28477 
 28478 Enter the King, Lord John of Lancaster, Earl of Westmoreland,
 28479 [Sir Walter Blunt,] with others.
 28480 
 28481   King. So shaken as we are, so wan with care,
 28482     Find we a time for frighted peace to pant
 28483     And breathe short-winded accents of new broils
 28484     To be commenc'd in stronds afar remote.
 28485     No more the thirsty entrance of this soil
 28486     Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood.
 28487     No more shall trenching war channel her fields,
 28488     Nor Bruise her flow'rets with the armed hoofs
 28489     Of hostile paces. Those opposed eyes
 28490     Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,
 28491     All of one nature, of one substance bred,
 28492     Did lately meet in the intestine shock
 28493     And furious close of civil butchery,
 28494     Shall now in mutual well-beseeming ranks
 28495     March all one way and be no more oppos'd
 28496     Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies.
 28497     The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife,
 28498     No more shall cut his master. Therefore, friends,
 28499     As far as to the sepulchre of Christ-
 28500     Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross
 28501     We are impressed and engag'd to fight-
 28502     Forthwith a power of English shall we levy,
 28503     Whose arms were moulded in their mother's womb
 28504     To chase these pagans in those holy fields
 28505     Over whose acres walk'd those blessed feet
 28506     Which fourteen hundred years ago were nail'd
 28507     For our advantage on the bitter cross.
 28508     But this our purpose now is twelvemonth old,
 28509     And bootless 'tis to tell you we will go.
 28510     Therefore we meet not now. Then let me hear
 28511     Of you, my gentle cousin Westmoreland,
 28512     What yesternight our Council did decree
 28513     In forwarding this dear expedience.
 28514   West. My liege, this haste was hot in question
 28515     And many limits of the charge set down
 28516     But yesternight; when all athwart there came
 28517     A post from Wales, loaden with heavy news;
 28518     Whose worst was that the noble Mortimer,
 28519     Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight
 28520     Against the irregular and wild Glendower,
 28521     Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken,
 28522     A thousand of his people butchered;
 28523     Upon whose dead corpse there was such misuse,
 28524     Such beastly shameless transformation,
 28525     By those Welshwomen done as may not be
 28526     Without much shame retold or spoken of.
 28527   King. It seems then that the tidings of this broil
 28528     Brake off our business for the Holy Land.
 28529   West. This, match'd with other, did, my gracious lord;
 28530     For more uneven and unwelcome news
 28531     Came from the North, and thus it did import:
 28532     On Holy-rood Day the gallant Hotspur there,
 28533     Young Harry Percy, and brave Archibald,
 28534     That ever-valiant and approved Scot,
 28535     At Holmedon met,
 28536     Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour;
 28537     As by discharge of their artillery
 28538     And shape of likelihood the news was told;
 28539     For he that brought them, in the very heat
 28540     And pride of their contention did take horse,
 28541     Uncertain of the issue any way.
 28542   King. Here is a dear, a true-industrious friend,
 28543     Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse,
 28544     Stain'd with the variation of each soil
 28545     Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours,
 28546     And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news.
 28547     The Earl of Douglas is discomfited;
 28548     Ten thousand bold Scots, two-and-twenty knights,
 28549     Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see
 28550     On Holmedon's plains. Of prisoners, Hotspur took
 28551     Mordake Earl of Fife and eldest son
 28552     To beaten Douglas, and the Earl of Athol,
 28553     Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith.
 28554     And is not this an honourable spoil?
 28555     A gallant prize? Ha, cousin, is it not?
 28556   West. In faith,
 28557     It is a conquest for a prince to boast of.
 28558   King. Yea, there thou mak'st me sad, and mak'st me sin
 28559     In envy that my Lord Northumberland
 28560     Should be the father to so blest a son-
 28561     A son who is the theme of honour's tongue,
 28562     Amongst a grove the very straightest plant;
 28563     Who is sweet Fortune's minion and her pride;
 28564     Whilst I, by looking on the praise of him,
 28565     See riot and dishonour stain the brow
 28566     Of my young Harry. O that it could be prov'd
 28567     That some night-tripping fairy had exchang'd
 28568     In cradle clothes our children where they lay,
 28569     And call'd mine Percy, his Plantagenet!
 28570     Then would I have his Harry, and he mine.
 28571     But let him from my thoughts. What think you, coz,
 28572     Of this young Percy's pride? The prisoners
 28573     Which he in this adventure hath surpris'd
 28574     To his own use he keeps, and sends me word
 28575     I shall have none but Mordake Earl of Fife.
 28576   West. This is his uncle's teaching, this Worcester,
 28577     Malevolent to you In all aspects,
 28578     Which makes him prune himself and bristle up
 28579     The crest of youth against your dignity.
 28580   King. But I have sent for him to answer this;
 28581     And for this cause awhile we must neglect
 28582     Our holy purpose to Jerusalem.
 28583     Cousin, on Wednesday next our council we
 28584     Will hold at Windsor. So inform the lords;
 28585     But come yourself with speed to us again;
 28586     For more is to be said and to be done
 28587     Than out of anger can be uttered.
 28588   West. I will my liege.                                 Exeunt.
 28589 
 28590 
 28591 
 28592 
 28593 Scene II.
 28594 London. An apartment of the Prince's.
 28595 
 28596 Enter Prince of Wales and Sir John Falstaff.
 28597 
 28598   Fal. Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?
 28599   Prince. Thou art so fat-witted with drinking of old sack, and
 28600     unbuttoning thee after supper, and sleeping upon benches after
 28601     noon, that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which thou
 28602     wouldest truly know. What a devil hast thou to do with the time
 28603     of the day, Unless hours were cups of sack, and minutes capons,
 28604     and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the signs of leaping
 28605     houses, and the blessed sun himself a fair hot wench in
 28606     flame-coloured taffeta, I see no reason why thou shouldst be so
 28607     superfluous to demand the time of the day.
 28608   Fal. Indeed you come near me now, Hal; for we that take purses go
 28609     by the moon And the seven stars, and not by Phoebus, he, that
 28610     wand'ring knight so fair. And I prithee, sweet wag, when thou art
 28611     king, as, God save thy Grace-Majesty I should say, for grace thou
 28612     wilt have none-
 28613   Prince. What, none?
 28614   Fal. No, by my troth; not so much as will serve to be prologue to
 28615     an egg and butter.
 28616   Prince. Well, how then? Come, roundly, roundly.
 28617   Fal. Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not us that
 28618     are squires of the night's body be called thieves of the day's
 28619     beauty. Let us be Diana's Foresters, Gentlemen of the Shade,
 28620     Minions of the Moon; and let men say we be men of good
 28621     government, being governed as the sea is, by our noble and chaste
 28622     mistress the moon, under whose countenance we steal.
 28623   Prince. Thou sayest well, and it holds well too; for the fortune of
 28624     us that are the moon's men doth ebb and flow like the sea, being
 28625     governed, as the sea is, by the moon. As, for proof now: a purse
 28626     of gold most resolutely snatch'd on Monday night and most
 28627     dissolutely spent on Tuesday morning; got with swearing 'Lay by,'
 28628     and spent with crying 'Bring in'; now ill as low an ebb as the
 28629     foot of the ladder, and by-and-by in as high a flow as the ridge
 28630     of the gallows.
 28631   Fal. By the Lord, thou say'st true, lad- and is not my hostess of
 28632     the tavern a most sweet wench?
 28633   Prince. As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle- and is not
 28634     a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance?
 28635   Fal. How now, how now, mad wag? What, in thy quips and thy
 28636     quiddities? What a plague have I to do with a buff jerkin?
 28637   Prince. Why, what a pox have I to do with my hostess of the tavern?
 28638   Fal. Well, thou hast call'd her to a reckoning many a time and oft.
 28639   Prince. Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part?
 28640   Fal. No; I'll give thee thy due, thou hast paid all there.
 28641   Prince. Yea, and elsewhere, so far as my coin would stretch; and
 28642     where it would not, I have used my credit.
 28643   Fal. Yea, and so us'd it that, were it not here apparent that thou
 28644     art heir apparent- But I prithee, sweet wag, shall there be
 28645     gallows standing in England when thou art king? and resolution
 28646     thus fubb'd as it is with the rusty curb of old father antic the
 28647     law? Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief.
 28648   Prince. No; thou shalt.
 28649   Fal. Shall I? O rare! By the Lord, I'll be a brave judge.
 28650   Prince. Thou judgest false already. I mean, thou shalt have the
 28651     hanging of the thieves and so become a rare hangman.
 28652   Fal. Well, Hal, well; and in some sort it jumps with my humour as
 28653     well as waiting in the court, I can tell you.
 28654   Prince. For obtaining of suits?
 28655   Fal. Yea, for obtaining of suits, whereof the hangman hath no lean
 28656     wardrobe. 'Sblood, I am as melancholy as a gib-cat or a lugg'd
 28657     bear.
 28658   Prince. Or an old lion, or a lover's lute.
 28659   Fal. Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe.
 28660   Prince. What sayest thou to a hare, or the melancholy of Moor
 28661     Ditch?
 28662   Fal. Thou hast the most unsavoury similes, and art indeed the most
 28663     comparative, rascalliest, sweet young prince. But, Hal, I prithee
 28664     trouble me no more with vanity. I would to God thou and I knew
 28665     where a commodity of good names were to be bought. An old lord of
 28666     the Council rated me the other day in the street about you, sir,
 28667     but I mark'd him not; and yet he talked very wisely, but I
 28668     regarded him not; and yet he talk'd wisely, and in the street
 28669     too.
 28670   Prince. Thou didst well; for wisdom cries out in the streets, and
 28671     no man regards it.
 28672   Fal. O, thou hast damnable iteration, and art indeed able to
 28673     corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm upon me, Hal- God
 28674     forgive thee for it! Before I knew thee, Hal, I knew nothing; and
 28675     now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of
 28676     the wicked. I must give over this life, and I will give it over!
 28677     By the Lord, an I do not, I am a villain! I'll be damn'd for
 28678     never a king's son in Christendom.
 28679   Prince. Where shall we take a purse tomorrow, Jack?
 28680   Fal. Zounds, where thou wilt, lad! I'll make one. An I do not, call
 28681     me villain and baffle me.
 28682   Prince. I see a good amendment of life in thee- from praying to
 28683     purse-taking.
 28684   Fal. Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal. 'Tis no sin for a man to
 28685     labour in his vocation.
 28686 
 28687                              Enter Poins.
 28688 
 28689     Poins! Now shall we know if Gadshill have set a match. O, if men
 28690     were to be saved by merit, what hole in hell were hot enough for
 28691     him? This is the most omnipotent villain that ever cried 'Stand!'
 28692     to a true man.
 28693   Prince. Good morrow, Ned.
 28694   Poins. Good morrow, sweet Hal. What says Monsieur Remorse? What
 28695     says Sir John Sack and Sugar? Jack, how agrees the devil and thee
 28696     about thy soul, that thou soldest him on Good Friday last for a
 28697     cup of Madeira and a cold capon's leg?
 28698   Prince. Sir John stands to his word, the devil shall have his
 28699     bargain; for he was never yet a breaker of proverbs. He will give
 28700     the devil his due.
 28701   Poins. Then art thou damn'd for keeping thy word with the devil.
 28702   Prince. Else he had been damn'd for cozening the devil.
 28703   Poins. But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning, by four o'clock
 28704     early, at Gadshill! There are pilgrims gong to Canterbury with
 28705     rich offerings, and traders riding to London with fat purses. I
 28706     have vizards for you all; you have horses for yourselves.
 28707     Gadshill lies to-night in Rochester. I have bespoke supper
 28708     to-morrow night in Eastcheap. We may do it as secure as sleep. If
 28709     you will go, I will stuff your purses full of crowns; if you will
 28710     not, tarry at home and be hang'd!
 28711   Fal. Hear ye, Yedward: if I tarry at home and go not, I'll hang you
 28712     for going.
 28713   Poins. You will, chops?
 28714   Fal. Hal, wilt thou make one?
 28715   Prince. Who, I rob? I a thief? Not I, by my faith.
 28716   Fal. There's neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in thee,
 28717     nor thou cam'st not of the blood royal if thou darest not stand
 28718     for ten shillings.
 28719   Prince. Well then, once in my days I'll be a madcap.
 28720   Fal. Why, that's well said.
 28721   Prince. Well, come what will, I'll tarry at home.
 28722   Fal. By the Lord, I'll be a traitor then, when thou art king.
 28723   Prince. I care not.
 28724   Poins. Sir John, I prithee, leave the Prince and me alone. I will
 28725     lay him down such reasons for this adventure that he shall go.
 28726   Fal. Well, God give thee the spirit of persuasion and him the ears
 28727     of profiting, that what thou speakest may move and what he hears
 28728     may be believed, that the true prince may (for recreation sake)
 28729     prove a false thief; for the poor abuses of the time want
 28730     countenance. Farewell; you shall find me in Eastcheap.
 28731   Prince. Farewell, thou latter spring! farewell, All-hallown summer!
 28732                                                   Exit Falstaff.
 28733   Poins. Now, my good sweet honey lord, ride with us to-morrow. I
 28734     have a jest to execute that I cannot manage alone. Falstaff,
 28735     Bardolph, Peto, and Gadshill shall rob those men that we have
 28736     already waylaid; yourself and I will not be there; and when they
 28737     have the booty, if you and I do not rob them, cut this head off
 28738     from my shoulders.
 28739   Prince. How shall we part with them in setting forth?
 28740   Poins. Why, we will set forth before or after them and appoint them
 28741     a place of meeting, wherein it is at our pleasure to fail; and
 28742     then will they adventure upon the exploit themselves; which they
 28743     shall have no sooner achieved, but we'll set upon them.
 28744   Prince. Yea, but 'tis like that they will know us by our horses, by
 28745     our habits, and by every other appointment, to be ourselves.
 28746   Poins. Tut! our horses they shall not see- I'll tie them in the
 28747     wood; our wizards we will change after we leave them; and,
 28748     sirrah, I have cases of buckram for the nonce, to immask our
 28749     noted outward garments.
 28750   Prince. Yea, but I doubt they will be too hard for us.
 28751   Poins. Well, for two of them, I know them to be as true-bred
 28752     cowards as ever turn'd back; and for the third, if he fight
 28753     longer than he sees reason, I'll forswear arms. The virtue of
 28754     this jest will lie the incomprehensible lies that this same fat
 28755     rogue will tell us when we meet at supper: how thirty, at least,
 28756     he fought with; what wards, what blows, what extremities he
 28757     endured; and in the reproof of this lies the jest.
 28758   Prince. Well, I'll go with thee. Provide us all things necessary
 28759     and meet me to-night in Eastcheap. There I'll sup. Farewell.
 28760   Poins. Farewell, my lord.                                Exit.
 28761   Prince. I know you all, and will awhile uphold
 28762     The unyok'd humour of your idleness.
 28763     Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
 28764     Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
 28765     To smother up his beauty from the world,
 28766     That, when he please again to lie himself,
 28767     Being wanted, he may be more wond'red at
 28768     By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
 28769     Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.
 28770     If all the year were playing holidays,
 28771     To sport would be as tedious as to work;
 28772     But when they seldom come, they wish'd-for come,
 28773     And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
 28774     So, when this loose behaviour I throw off
 28775     And pay the debt I never promised,
 28776     By how much better than my word I am,
 28777     By so much shall I falsify men's hopes;
 28778     And, like bright metal on a sullen ground,
 28779     My reformation, glitt'ring o'er my fault,
 28780     Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes
 28781     Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
 28782     I'll so offend to make offence a skill,
 28783     Redeeming time when men think least I will.            Exit.
 28784 
 28785 
 28786 
 28787 
 28788 Scene III.
 28789 London. The Palace.
 28790 
 28791 Enter the King, Northumberland, Worcester, Hotspur, Sir Walter Blunt,
 28792 with others.
 28793 
 28794   King. My blood hath been too cold and temperate,
 28795     Unapt to stir at these indignities,
 28796     And you have found me, for accordingly
 28797     You tread upon my patience; but be sure
 28798     I will from henceforth rather be myself,
 28799     Mighty and to be fear'd, than my condition,
 28800     Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down,
 28801     And therefore lost that title of respect
 28802     Which the proud soul ne'er pays but to the proud.
 28803   Wor. Our house, my sovereign liege, little deserves
 28804     The scourge of greatness to be us'd on it-
 28805     And that same greatness too which our own hands
 28806     Have holp to make so portly.
 28807   North. My lord-
 28808   King. Worcester, get thee gone; for I do see
 28809     Danger and disobedience in thine eye.
 28810     O, sir, your presence is too bold and peremptory,
 28811     And majesty might never yet endure
 28812     The moody frontier of a servant brow.
 28813     Tou have good leave to leave us. When we need
 28814     'Your use and counsel, we shall send for you.
 28815                                                  Exit Worcester.
 28816     You were about to speak.
 28817   North. Yea, my good lord.
 28818     Those prisoners in your Highness' name demanded
 28819     Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took,
 28820     Were, as he says, not with such strength denied
 28821     As is delivered to your Majesty.
 28822     Either envy, therefore, or misprision
 28823     Is guilty of this fault, and not my son.
 28824   Hot. My liege, I did deny no prisoners.
 28825     But I remember, when the fight was done,
 28826     When I was dry with rage and extreme toll,
 28827     Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
 28828     Came there a certain lord, neat and trimly dress'd,
 28829     Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin new reap'd
 28830     Show'd like a stubble land at harvest home.
 28831     He was perfumed like a milliner,
 28832     And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held
 28833     A pouncet box, which ever and anon
 28834     He gave his nose, and took't away again;
 28835     Who therewith angry, when it next came there,
 28836     Took it in snuff; and still he smil'd and talk'd;
 28837     And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
 28838     He call'd them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
 28839     To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse
 28840     Betwixt the wind and his nobility.
 28841     With many holiday and lady terms
 28842     He questioned me, amongst the rest demanded
 28843     My prisoners in your Majesty's behalf.
 28844     I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold,
 28845     To be so pest'red with a popingay,
 28846     Out of my grief and my impatience
 28847     Answer'd neglectingly, I know not what-
 28848     He should, or he should not; for he made me mad
 28849     To see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet,
 28850     And talk so like a waiting gentlewoman
 28851     Of guns and drums and wounds- God save the mark!-
 28852     And telling me the sovereignest thing on earth
 28853     Was parmacity for an inward bruise;
 28854     And that it was great pity, so it was,
 28855     This villanous saltpetre should be digg'd
 28856     Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
 28857     Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd
 28858     So cowardly; and but for these vile 'guns,
 28859     He would himself have been a soldier.
 28860     This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord,
 28861     I answered indirectly, as I said,
 28862     And I beseech you, let not his report
 28863     Come current for an accusation
 28864     Betwixt my love and your high majesty.
 28865   Blunt. The circumstance considered, good my lord,
 28866     Whate'er Lord Harry Percy then had said
 28867     To such a person, and in such a place,
 28868     At such a time, with all the rest retold,
 28869     May reasonably die, and never rise
 28870     To do him wrong, or any way impeach
 28871     What then he said, so he unsay it now.
 28872   King. Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners,
 28873     But with proviso and exception,
 28874     That we at our own charge shall ransom straight
 28875     His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer;
 28876     Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betray'd
 28877     The lives of those that he did lead to fight
 28878     Against that great magician, damn'd Glendower,
 28879     Whose daughter, as we hear, the Earl of March
 28880     Hath lately married. Shall our coffers, then,
 28881     Be emptied to redeem a traitor home?
 28882     Shall we buy treason? and indent with fears
 28883     When they have lost and forfeited themselves?
 28884     No, on the barren mountains let him starve!
 28885     For I shall never hold that man my friend
 28886     Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost
 28887     To ransom home revolted Mortimer.
 28888   Hot. Revolted Mortimer?
 28889     He never did fall off, my sovereign liege,
 28890     But by the chance of war. To prove that true
 28891     Needs no more but one tongue for all those wounds,
 28892     Those mouthed wounds, which valiantly he took
 28893     When on the gentle Severn's sedgy bank,
 28894     In single opposition hand to hand,
 28895     He did confound the best part of an hour
 28896     In changing hardiment with great Glendower.
 28897     Three times they breath'd, and three times did they drink,
 28898     Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood;
 28899     Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks,
 28900     Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds
 28901     And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank,
 28902     Bloodstained with these valiant cohabitants.
 28903     Never did base and rotten policy
 28904     Colour her working with such deadly wounds;
 28905     Nor never could the noble Mortimer
 28906     Receive so many, and all willingly.
 28907     Then let not him be slandered with revolt.
 28908   King. Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou dost belie him!
 28909     He never did encounter with Glendower.
 28910     I tell thee
 28911     He durst as well have met the devil alone
 28912     As Owen Glendower for an enemy.
 28913     Art thou not asham'd? But, sirrah, henceforth
 28914     Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer.
 28915     Send me your prisoners with the speediest means,
 28916     Or you shall hear in such a kind from me
 28917     As will displease you. My Lord Northumberland,
 28918     We license your departure with your son.-
 28919     Send us your prisoners, or you will hear of it.
 28920                                  Exeunt King, [Blunt, and Train]
 28921   Hot. An if the devil come and roar for them,
 28922     I will not send them. I will after straight
 28923     And tell him so; for I will else my heart,
 28924     Albeit I make a hazard of my head.
 28925   North. What, drunk with choler? Stay, and pause awhile.
 28926     Here comes your uncle.
 28927 
 28928                           Enter Worcester.
 28929 
 28930   Hot. Speak of Mortimer?
 28931     Zounds, I will speak of him, and let my soul
 28932     Want mercy if I do not join with him!
 28933     Yea, on his part I'll empty all these veins,
 28934     And shed my dear blood drop by drop in the dust,
 28935     But I will lift the downtrod Mortimer
 28936     As high in the air as this unthankful king,
 28937     As this ingrate and cank'red Bolingbroke.
 28938   North. Brother, the King hath made your nephew mad.
 28939   Wor. Who struck this heat up after I was gone?
 28940   Hot. He will (forsooth) have all my prisoners;
 28941     And when I urg'd the ransom once again
 28942     Of my wive's brother, then his cheek look'd pale,
 28943     And on my face he turn'd an eye of death,
 28944     Trembling even at the name of Mortimer.
 28945   Wor. I cannot blame him. Was not he proclaim'd
 28946     By Richard that dead is, the next of blood?
 28947   North. He was; I heard the proclamation.
 28948     And then it was when the unhappy King
 28949     (Whose wrongs in us God pardon!) did set forth
 28950     Upon his Irish expedition;
 28951     From whence he intercepted did return
 28952     To be depos'd, and shortly murdered.
 28953   Wor. And for whose death we in the world's wide mouth
 28954     Live scandaliz'd and foully spoken of.
 28955   Hot. But soft, I pray you. Did King Richard then
 28956     Proclaim my brother Edmund Mortimer
 28957     Heir to the crown?
 28958   North. He did; myself did hear it.
 28959   Hot. Nay, then I cannot blame his cousin king,
 28960     That wish'd him on the barren mountains starve.
 28961     But shall it be that you, that set the crown
 28962     Upon the head of this forgetful man,
 28963     And for his sake wear the detested blot
 28964     Of murtherous subornation- shall it be
 28965     That you a world of curses undergo,
 28966     Being the agents or base second means,
 28967     The cords, the ladder, or the hangman rather?
 28968     O, pardon me that I descend so low
 28969     To show the line and the predicament
 28970     Wherein you range under this subtile king!
 28971     Shall it for shame be spoken in these days,
 28972     Or fill up chronicles in time to come,
 28973     That men of your nobility and power
 28974     Did gage them both in an unjust behalf
 28975     (As both of you, God pardon it! have done)
 28976     To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose,
 28977     And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke?
 28978     And shall it in more shame be further spoken
 28979     That you are fool'd, discarded, and shook off
 28980     By him for whom these shames ye underwent?
 28981     No! yet time serves wherein you may redeem
 28982     Your banish'd honours and restore yourselves
 28983     Into the good thoughts of the world again;
 28984     Revenge the jeering and disdain'd contempt
 28985     Of this proud king, who studies day and night
 28986     To answer all the debt he owes to you
 28987     Even with the bloody payment of your deaths.
 28988     Therefore I say-
 28989   Wor. Peace, cousin, say no more;
 28990     And now, I will unclasp a secret book,
 28991     And to your quick-conceiving discontents
 28992     I'll read you matter deep and dangerous,
 28993     As full of peril and adventurous spirit
 28994     As to o'erwalk a current roaring loud
 28995     On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.
 28996   Hot. If he fall in, good night, or sink or swim!
 28997     Send danger from the east unto the west,
 28998     So honour cross it from the north to south,
 28999     And let them grapple. O, the blood more stirs
 29000     To rouse a lion than to start a hare!
 29001   North. Imagination of some great exploit
 29002     Drives him beyond the bounds of patience.
 29003   Hot. By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap
 29004     To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon,
 29005     Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
 29006     Where fadom line could never touch the ground,
 29007     And pluck up drowned honour by the locks,
 29008     So he that doth redeem her thence might wear
 29009     Without corrival all her dignities;
 29010     But out upon this half-fac'd fellowship!
 29011   Wor. He apprehends a world of figures here,
 29012     But not the form of what he should attend.
 29013     Good cousin, give me audience for a while.
 29014   Hot. I cry you mercy.
 29015   Wor. Those same noble Scots
 29016     That are your prisoners-
 29017   Hot. I'll keep them all.
 29018     By God, he shall not have a Scot of them!
 29019     No, if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not.
 29020     I'll keep them, by this hand!
 29021   Wor. You start away.
 29022     And lend no ear unto my purposes.
 29023     Those prisoners you shall keep.
 29024   Hot. Nay, I will! That is flat!
 29025     He said he would not ransom Mortimer,
 29026     Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer,
 29027     But I will find him when he lies asleep,
 29028     And in his ear I'll holloa 'Mortimer.'
 29029     Nay;
 29030     I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak
 29031     Nothing but 'Mortimer,' and give it him
 29032     To keep his anger still in motion.
 29033   Wor. Hear you, cousin, a word.
 29034   Hot. All studies here I solemnly defy
 29035     Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke;
 29036     And that same sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales-
 29037     But that I think his father loves him not
 29038     And would be glad he met with some mischance,
 29039     I would have him poisoned with a pot of ale.
 29040   Wor. Farewell, kinsman. I will talk to you
 29041     When you are better temper'd to attend.
 29042   North. Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool
 29043     Art thou to break into this woman's mood,
 29044     Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own!
 29045   Hot. Why, look you, I am whipp'd and scourg'd with rods,
 29046     Nettled, and stung with pismires when I hear
 29047     Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke.
 29048     In Richard's time- what do you call the place-
 29049     A plague upon it! it is in GIoucestershire-
 29050     'Twas where the madcap Duke his uncle kept-
 29051     His uncle York- where I first bow'd my knee
 29052     Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke-
 29053     'S blood!
 29054     When you and he came back from Ravenspurgh-
 29055   North. At Berkeley Castle.
 29056   Hot. You say true.
 29057     Why, what a candy deal of courtesy
 29058     This fawning greyhound then did proffer me!
 29059     Look, 'when his infant fortune came to age,'
 29060     And 'gentle Harry Percy,' and 'kind cousin'-
 29061     O, the devil take such cozeners!- God forgive me!
 29062     Good uncle, tell your tale, for I have done.
 29063   Wor. Nay, if you have not, to it again.
 29064     We will stay your leisure.
 29065   Hot. I have done, i' faith.
 29066   Wor. Then once more to your Scottish prisoners.
 29067     Deliver them up without their ransom straight,
 29068     And make the Douglas' son your only mean
 29069     For powers In Scotland; which, for divers reasons
 29070     Which I shall send you written, be assur'd
 29071     Will easily be granted. [To Northumberland] You, my lord,
 29072     Your son in Scotland being thus employ'd,
 29073     Shall secretly into the bosom creep
 29074     Of that same noble prelate well-belov'd,
 29075     The Archbishop.
 29076   Hot. Of York, is it not?
 29077   Wor. True; who bears hard
 29078     His brother's death at Bristow, the Lord Scroop.
 29079     I speak not this in estimation,
 29080     As what I think might be, but what I know
 29081     Is ruminated, plotted, and set down,
 29082     And only stays but to behold the face
 29083     Of that occasion that shall bring it on.
 29084   Hot. I smell it. Upon my life, it will do well.
 29085   North. Before the game is afoot thou still let'st slip.
 29086   Hot. Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot.
 29087     And then the power of Scotland and of York
 29088     To join with Mortimer, ha?
 29089   Wor. And so they shall.
 29090   Hot. In faith, it is exceedingly well aim'd.
 29091   Wor. And 'tis no little reason bids us speed,
 29092     To save our heads by raising of a head;
 29093     For, bear ourselves as even as we can,
 29094     The King will always think him in our debt,
 29095     And think we think ourselves unsatisfied,
 29096     Till he hath found a time to pay us home.
 29097     And see already how he doth begin
 29098     To make us strangers to his looks of love.
 29099   Hot. He does, he does! We'll be reveng'd on him.
 29100   Wor. Cousin, farewell. No further go in this
 29101     Than I by letters shall direct your course.
 29102     When time is ripe, which will be suddenly,
 29103     I'll steal to Glendower and Lord Mortimer,
 29104     Where you and Douglas, and our pow'rs at once,
 29105     As I will fashion it, shall happily meet,
 29106     To bear our fortunes in our own strong arms,
 29107     Which now we hold at much uncertainty.
 29108   North. Farewell, good brother. We shall thrive, I trust.
 29109   Hot. Uncle, adieu. O, let the hours be short
 29110     Till fields and blows and groans applaud our sport!    Exeunt.
 29111 
 29112 
 29113 
 29114 
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 29123 
 29124 
 29125 
 29126 ACT II. Scene I.
 29127 Rochester. An inn yard.
 29128 
 29129 Enter a Carrier with a lantern in his hand.
 29130 
 29131   1. Car. Heigh-ho! an it be not four by the day, I'll be hang'd.
 29132     Charles' wain is over the new chimney, and yet our horse not
 29133     pack'd.- What, ostler!
 29134   Ost. [within] Anon, anon.
 29135   1. Car. I prithee, Tom, beat Cut's saddle, put a few flocks in the
 29136     point. Poor jade is wrung in the withers out of all cess.
 29137 
 29138                         Enter another Carrier.
 29139 
 29140   2. Car. Peas and beans are as dank here as a dog, and that is the
 29141     next way to give poor jades the bots. This house is turned upside
 29142     down since Robin Ostler died.
 29143   1. Car. Poor fellow never joyed since the price of oats rose. It
 29144     was the death of him.
 29145   2. Car. I think this be the most villanous house in all London road
 29146     for fleas. I am stung like a tench.
 29147   1. Car. Like a tench I By the mass, there is ne'er a king christen
 29148     could be better bit than I have been since the first cock.
 29149   2. Car. Why, they will allow us ne'er a jordan, and then we leak in
 29150     your chimney, and your chamber-lye breeds fleas like a loach.
 29151   1. Car. What, ostler! come away and be hang'd! come away!
 29152   2. Car. I have a gammon of bacon and two razes of ginger, to be
 29153     delivered as far as Charing Cross.
 29154   1. Car. God's body! the turkeys in my pannier are quite starved.
 29155     What, ostler! A plague on thee! hast thou never an eye in thy
 29156     head? Canst not hear? An 'twere not as good deed as drink to
 29157     break the pate on thee, I am a very villain. Come, and be hang'd!
 29158     Hast no faith in thee?
 29159 
 29160                            Enter Gadshill.
 29161 
 29162   Gads. Good morrow, carriers. What's o'clock?
 29163   1. Car. I think it be two o'clock.
 29164   Gads. I prithee lend me this lantern to see my gelding in the
 29165     stable.
 29166   1. Car. Nay, by God, soft! I know a trick worth two of that,
 29167     i' faith.
 29168   Gads. I pray thee lend me thine.
 29169   2. Car. Ay, when? canst tell? Lend me thy lantern, quoth he? Marry,
 29170     I'll see thee hang'd first!
 29171   Gads. Sirrah carrier, what time do you mean to come to London?
 29172   2. Car. Time enough to go to bed with a candle, I warrant thee.
 29173     Come, neighbour Mugs, we'll call up the gentlemen. They will
 29174     along with company, for they have great charge.
 29175                                               Exeunt [Carriers].
 29176   Gads. What, ho! chamberlain!
 29177 
 29178                             Enter Chamberlain.
 29179 
 29180   Cham. At hand, quoth pickpurse.
 29181   Gads. That's even as fair as- 'at hand, quoth the chamberlain'; for
 29182     thou variest no more from picking of purses than giving direction
 29183     doth from labouring: thou layest the plot how.
 29184   Cham. Good morrow, Master Gadshill. It holds current that I told
 29185     you yesternight. There's a franklin in the Wild of Kent hath
 29186     brought three hundred marks with him in gold. I heard him tell it
 29187     to one of his company last night at supper- a kind of auditor;
 29188     one that hath abundance of charge too, God knows what. They are
 29189     up already and call for eggs and butter. They will away
 29190     presently.
 29191   Gads. Sirrah, if they meet not with Saint Nicholas' clerks, I'll
 29192     give thee this neck.
 29193   Cham. No, I'll none of it. I pray thee keep that for the hangman;
 29194     for I know thou worshippest Saint Nicholas as truly as a man of
 29195     falsehood may.
 29196   Gads. What talkest thou to me of the hangman? If I hang, I'll make
 29197     a fat pair of gallows; for if I hang, old Sir John hangs with me,
 29198     and thou knowest he is no starveling. Tut! there are other
 29199     Troyans that thou dream'st not of, the which for sport sake are
 29200     content to do the profession some grace; that would (if matters
 29201     should be look'd into) for their own credit sake make all whole.
 29202     I am joined with no foot land-rakers, no long-staff sixpenny
 29203     strikers, none of these mad mustachio purple-hued maltworms; but
 29204     with nobility, and tranquillity, burgomasters and great oneyers,
 29205     such as can hold in, such as will strike sooner than speak, and
 29206     speak sooner than drink, and drink sooner than pray; and yet,
 29207     zounds, I lie; for they pray continually to their saint, the
 29208     commonwealth, or rather, not pray to her, but prey on her, for
 29209     they ride up and down on her and make her their boots.
 29210   Cham. What, the commonwealth their boots? Will she hold out water
 29211     in foul way?
 29212   Gads. She will, she will! Justice hath liquor'd her. We steal as in
 29213     a castle, cocksure. We have the receipt of fernseed, we walk
 29214     invisible.
 29215   Cham. Nay, by my faith, I think you are more beholding to the night
 29216     than to fernseed for your walking invisible.
 29217   Gads. Give me thy hand. Thou shalt have a share in our purchase, as
 29218     I and a true man.
 29219   Cham. Nay, rather let me have it, as you are a false thief.
 29220   Gads. Go to; 'homo' is a common name to all men. Bid the ostler
 29221     bring my gelding out of the stable. Farewell, you muddy knave.
 29222                                                          Exeunt.
 29223 
 29224 
 29225 
 29226 
 29227 Scene II.
 29228 The highway near Gadshill.
 29229 
 29230 Enter Prince and Poins.
 29231 
 29232   Poins. Come, shelter, shelter! I have remov'd Falstaff's horse, and
 29233     he frets like a gumm'd velvet.
 29234   Prince. Stand close.                        [They step aside.]
 29235 
 29236                              Enter Falstaff.
 29237 
 29238   Fal. Poins! Poins, and be hang'd! Poins!
 29239   Prince. I comes forward I Peace, ye fat-kidney'd rascal! What a
 29240     brawling dost thou keep!
 29241   Fal. Where's Poins, Hal?
 29242   Prince. He is walk'd up to the top of the hill. I'll go seek him.
 29243                                                   [Steps aside.]
 29244   Fal. I am accurs'd to rob in that thief's company. The rascal hath
 29245     removed my horse and tied him I know not where. If I travel but
 29246     four foot by the squire further afoot, I shall break my wind.
 29247     Well, I doubt not but to die a fair death for all this, if I
 29248     scape hanging for killing that rogue. I have forsworn his company
 29249     hourly any time this two-and-twenty years, and yet I am bewitch'd
 29250     with the rogue's company. If the rascal have not given me
 29251     medicines to make me love him, I'll be hang'd. It could not be
 29252     else. I have drunk medicines. Poins! Hal! A plague upon you both!
 29253     Bardolph! Peto! I'll starve ere I'll rob a foot further. An
 29254     'twere not as good a deed as drink to turn true man and to leave
 29255     these rogues, I am the veriest varlet that ever chewed with a
 29256     tooth. Eight yards of uneven ground is threescore and ten miles
 29257     afoot with me, and the stony-hearted villains know it well
 29258     enough. A plague upon it when thieves cannot be true one to
 29259     another! (They whistle.) Whew! A plague upon you all! Give me my
 29260     horse, you rogues! give me my horse and be hang'd!
 29261   Prince. [comes forward] Peace, ye fat-guts! Lie down, lay thine ear
 29262     close to the ground, and list if thou canst hear the tread of
 29263     travellers.
 29264   Fal. Have you any levers to lift me up again, being down? 'Sblood,
 29265     I'll not bear mine own flesh so far afoot again for all the coin
 29266     in thy father's exchequer. What a plague mean ye to colt me thus?
 29267   Prince. Thou liest; thou art not colted, thou art uncolted.
 29268   Fal. I prithee, good Prince Hal, help me to my horse, good king's
 29269     son.
 29270   Prince. Out, ye rogue! Shall I be your ostler?
 29271   Fal. Go hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent garters! If I be
 29272     ta'en, I'll peach for this. An I have not ballads made on you
 29273     all, and sung to filthy tunes, let a cup of sack be my poison.
 29274     When a jest is so forward- and afoot too- I hate it.
 29275 
 29276              Enter Gadshill, [Bardolph and Peto with him].
 29277 
 29278   Gads. Stand!
 29279   Fal. So I do, against my will.
 29280   Poins. [comes fortward] O, 'tis our setter. I know his voice.
 29281     Bardolph, what news?
 29282   Bar. Case ye, case ye! On with your vizards! There's money of the
 29283     King's coming down the hill; 'tis going to the King's exchequer.
 29284   Fal. You lie, ye rogue! 'Tis going to the King's tavern.
 29285   Gads. There's enough to make us all.
 29286   Fal. To be hang'd.
 29287   Prince. Sirs, you four shall front them in the narrow lane; Ned
 29288     Poins and I will walk lower. If they scape from your encounter,
 29289     then they light on us.
 29290   Peto. How many be there of them?
 29291   Gads. Some eight or ten.
 29292   Fal. Zounds, will they not rob us?
 29293   Prince. What, a coward, Sir John Paunch?
 29294   Fal. Indeed, I am not John of Gaunt, your grandfather; but yet no
 29295     coward, Hal.
 29296   Prince. Well, we leave that to the proof.
 29297   Poins. Sirrah Jack, thy horse stands behind the hedge. When thou
 29298     need'st him, there thou shalt find him. Farewell and stand fast.
 29299   Fal. Now cannot I strike him, if I should be hang'd.
 29300   Prince. [aside to Poins] Ned, where are our disguises?
 29301   Poins. [aside to Prince] Here, hard by. Stand close.
 29302                                       [Exeunt Prince and Poins.]
 29303   Fal. Now, my masters, happy man be his dole, say I. Every man to
 29304     his business.
 29305 
 29306                          Enter the Travellers.
 29307 
 29308   Traveller. Come, neighbour.
 29309     The boy shall lead our horses down the hill;
 29310     We'll walk afoot awhile and ease our legs.
 29311   Thieves. Stand!
 29312   Traveller. Jesus bless us!
 29313   Fal. Strike! down with them! cut the villains' throats! Ah,
 29314     whoreson caterpillars! bacon-fed knaves! they hate us youth. Down
 29315     with them! fleece them!
 29316   Traveller. O, we are undone, both we and ours for ever!
 29317   Fal. Hang ye, gorbellied knaves, are ye undone? No, ye fat chuffs;
 29318     I would your store were here! On, bacons on! What, ye knaves!
 29319     young men must live. You are grandjurors, are ye? We'll jure ye,
 29320     faith!
 29321                             Here they rob and bind them. Exeunt.
 29322 
 29323             Enter the Prince and Poins [in buckram suits].
 29324 
 29325   Prince. The thieves have bound the true men. Now could thou and I
 29326     rob the thieves and go merrily to London, it would be argument
 29327     for a week, laughter for a month, and a good jest for ever.
 29328   Poins. Stand close! I hear them coming.
 29329                                              [They stand aside.]
 29330 
 29331                        Enter the Thieves again.
 29332 
 29333   Fal. Come, my masters, let us share, and then to horse before day.
 29334     An the Prince and Poins be not two arrant cowards, there's no
 29335     equity stirring. There's no more valour in that Poins than in a
 29336     wild duck.
 29337 
 29338         [As they are sharing, the Prince and Poins set upon
 29339         them. THey all run away, and Falstaff, after a blow or
 29340         two, runs awasy too, leaving the booty behind them.]
 29341 
 29342   Prince. Your money!
 29343   Poins. Villains!
 29344 
 29345   Prince. Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse.
 29346     The thieves are scattered, and possess'd with fear
 29347     So strongly that they dare not meet each other.
 29348     Each takes his fellow for an officer.
 29349     Away, good Ned. Falstaff sweats to death
 29350     And lards the lean earth as he walks along.
 29351     Were't not for laughing, I should pity him.
 29352   Poins. How the rogue roar'd!                           Exeunt.
 29353 
 29354 
 29355 
 29356 
 29357 Scene III.
 29358 Warkworth Castle.
 29359 
 29360 Enter Hotspur solus, reading a letter.
 29361 
 29362   Hot. 'But, for mine own part, my lord, I could be well contented to
 29363     be there, in respect of the love I bear your house.' He could be
 29364     contented- why is he not then? In respect of the love he bears
 29365     our house! He shows in this he loves his own barn better than he
 29366     loves our house. Let me see some more. 'The purpose you undertake
 29367     is dangerous'- Why, that's certain! 'Tis dangerous to take a
 29368     cold, to sleep, to drink; but I tell you, my lord fool, out of
 29369     this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety. 'The purpose
 29370     you undertake is dangerous, the friends you have named uncertain,
 29371     the time itself unsorted, and your whole plot too light for the
 29372     counterpoise of so great an opposition.' Say you so, say you so?
 29373     I say unto you again, you are a shallow, cowardly hind, and you
 29374     lie. What a lack-brain is this! By the Lord, our plot is a good
 29375     plot as ever was laid; our friends true and constant: a good
 29376     plot, good friends, and full of expectation; an excellent plot,
 29377     very good friends. What a frosty-spirited rogue is this! Why, my
 29378     Lord of York commends the plot and the general course of the
 29379     action. Zounds, an I were now by this rascal, I could brain him
 29380     with his lady's fan. Is there not my father, my uncle, and
 29381     myself; Lord Edmund Mortimer, my Lord of York, and Owen
 29382     Glendower? Is there not, besides, the Douglas? Have I not all
 29383     their letters to meet me in arms by the ninth of the next month,
 29384     and are they not some of them set forward already? What a pagan
 29385     rascal is this! an infidel! Ha! you shall see now, in very
 29386     sincerity of fear and cold heart will he to the King and lay open
 29387     all our proceedings. O, I could divide myself and go to buffets
 29388     for moving such a dish of skim milk with so honourable an action!
 29389     Hang him, let him tell the King! we are prepared. I will set
 29390     forward to-night.
 29391 
 29392                          Enter his Lady.
 29393 
 29394     How now, Kate? I must leave you within these two hours.
 29395   Lady. O my good lord, why are you thus alone?
 29396     For what offence have I this fortnight been
 29397     A banish'd woman from my Harry's bed,
 29398     Tell me, sweet lord, what is't that takes from thee
 29399     Thy stomach, pleasure, and thy golden sleep?
 29400     Why dost thou bend thine eyes upon the earth,
 29401     And start so often when thou sit'st alone?
 29402     Why hast thou lost the fresh blood in thy cheeks
 29403     And given my treasures and my rights of thee
 29404     To thick-ey'd musing and curs'd melancholy?
 29405     In thy faint slumbers I by thee have watch'd,
 29406     And heard thee murmur tales of iron wars,
 29407     Speak terms of manage to thy bounding steed,
 29408     Cry 'Courage! to the field!' And thou hast talk'd
 29409     Of sallies and retires, of trenches, tent,
 29410     Of palisadoes, frontiers, parapets,
 29411     Of basilisks, of cannon, culverin,
 29412     Of prisoners' ransom, and of soldiers slain,
 29413     And all the currents of a heady fight.
 29414     Thy spirit within thee hath been so at war,
 29415     And thus hath so bestirr'd thee in thy sleep,
 29416     That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow
 29417     Like bubbles ill a late-disturbed stream,
 29418     And in thy face strange motions have appear'd,
 29419     Such as we see when men restrain their breath
 29420     On some great sudden hest. O, what portents are these?
 29421     Some heavy business hath my lord in hand,
 29422     And I must know it, else he loves me not.
 29423   Hot. What, ho!
 29424 
 29425                     [Enter a Servant.]
 29426 
 29427     Is Gilliams with the packet gone?
 29428   Serv. He is, my lord, an hour ago.
 29429   Hot. Hath Butler brought those horses from the sheriff?
 29430   Serv. One horse, my lord, he brought even now.
 29431   Hot. What horse? A roan, a crop-ear, is it not?
 29432   Serv. It is, my lord.
 29433   Hot. That roan shall be my throne.
 29434     Well, I will back him straight. O esperance!
 29435     Bid Butler lead him forth into the park.
 29436                                                  [Exit Servant.]
 29437   Lady. But hear you, my lord.
 29438   Hot. What say'st thou, my lady?
 29439   Lady. What is it carries you away?
 29440   Hot. Why, my horse, my love- my horse!
 29441   Lady. Out, you mad-headed ape!
 29442     A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen
 29443     As you are toss'd with. In faith,
 29444     I'll know your business, Harry; that I will!
 29445     I fear my brother Mortimer doth stir
 29446     About his title and hath sent for you
 29447     To line his enterprise; but if you go-
 29448   Hot. So far afoot, I shall be weary, love.
 29449   Lady. Come, come, you paraquito, answer me
 29450     Directly unto this question that I ask.
 29451     I'll break thy little finger, Harry,
 29452     An if thou wilt not tell my all things true.
 29453   Hot. Away.
 29454     Away, you trifler! Love? I love thee not;
 29455     I care not for thee, Kate. This is no world
 29456     To play with mammets and to tilt with lips.
 29457     We must have bloody noses and crack'd crowns,
 29458     And pass them current too. Gods me, my horse!
 29459     What say'st thou, Kate? What wouldst thou have with me?
 29460   Lady. Do you not love me? do you not indeed?
 29461     Well, do not then; for since you love me not,
 29462     I will not love myself. Do you not love me?
 29463     Nay, tell me if you speak in jest or no.
 29464   Hot. Come, wilt thou see me ride?
 29465     And when I am a-horseback, I will swear
 29466     I love thee infinitely. But hark you. Kate:
 29467     I must not have you henceforth question me
 29468     Whither I go, nor reason whereabout.
 29469     Whither I must, I must; and to conclude,
 29470     This evening must I leave you, gentle Kate.
 29471     I know you wise; but yet no farther wise
 29472     Than Harry Percy's wife; constant you are,
 29473     But yet a woman; and for secrecy,
 29474     No lady closer, for I well believe
 29475     Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know,
 29476     And so far will I trust thee, gentle Kate.
 29477   Lady. How? so far?
 29478   Hot. Not an inch further. But hark you, Kate:
 29479     Whither I go, thither shall you go too;
 29480     To-day will I set forth, to-morrow you.
 29481     Will this content you, Kate,?
 29482   Lady. It must of force.                                Exeunt.
 29483 
 29484 
 29485 
 29486 
 29487 Scene IV.
 29488 Eastcheap. The Boar's Head Tavern.
 29489 
 29490 Enter Prince and Poins.
 29491 
 29492   Prince. Ned, prithee come out of that fat-room and lend me thy hand
 29493     to laugh a little.
 29494   Poins. Where hast been, Hal?
 29495     Prince,. With three or four loggerheads amongst three or
 29496     fourscore hogsheads. I have sounded the very bass-string of
 29497     humility. Sirrah, I am sworn brother to a leash of drawers and
 29498     can call them all by their christen names, as Tom, Dick, and
 29499     Francis. They take it already upon their salvation that, though
 29500     I be but Prince of Wales, yet I am the king of courtesy; and tell
 29501     me flatly I am no proud Jack like Falstaff, but a Corinthian, a
 29502     lad of mettle, a good boy (by the Lord, so they call me!), and
 29503     when I am King of England I shall command all the good lads
 29504     Eastcheap. They call drinking deep, dying scarlet; and when
 29505     you breathe in your watering, they cry 'hem!' and bid you play it
 29506     off. To conclude, I am so good a proficient in one quarter of an
 29507     hour that I can drink with any tinker in his own language during
 29508     my life. I tell thee, Ned, thou hast lost much honour that thou
 29509     wert not with me in this action. But, sweet Ned- to sweeten which
 29510     name of Ned, I give thee this pennyworth of sugar, clapp'd even
 29511     now into my hand by an under-skinker, one that never spake other
 29512     English in his life than 'Eight shillings and sixpence,' and 'You
 29513     are welcome,' with this shrill addition, 'Anon, anon, sir! Score
 29514     a pint of bastard in the Half-moon,' or so- but, Ned, to drive
 29515     away the time till Falstaff come, I prithee do thou stand in some
 29516     by-room while I question my puny drawer to what end be gave me
 29517     the sugar; and do thou never leave calling 'Francis!' that his
 29518     tale to me may be nothing but 'Anon!' Step aside, and I'll show
 29519     thee a precedent.
 29520   Poins. Francis!
 29521   Prince. Thou art perfect.
 29522   Poins. Francis!                                  [Exit Poins.]
 29523 
 29524                     Enter [Francis, a] Drawer.
 29525 
 29526   Fran. Anon, anon, sir.- Look down into the Pomgarnet, Ralph.
 29527   Prince. Come hither, Francis.
 29528   Fran. My lord?
 29529   Prince. How long hast thou to serve, Francis?
 29530   Fran. Forsooth, five years, and as much as to-
 29531   Poins. [within] Francis!
 29532   Fran. Anon, anon, sir.
 29533   Prince. Five year! by'r Lady, a long lease for the clinking of
 29534     Pewter. But, Francis, darest thou be so valiant as to play the
 29535     coward with thy indenture and show it a fair pair of heels and
 29536     run from it?
 29537   Fran. O Lord, sir, I'll be sworn upon all the books in England I
 29538     could find in my heart-
 29539   Poins. [within] Francis!
 29540   Fran. Anon, sir.
 29541   Prince. How old art thou, Francis?
 29542   Fran. Let me see. About Michaelmas next I shall be-
 29543   Poins. [within] Francis!
 29544   Fran. Anon, sir. Pray stay a little, my lord.
 29545   Prince. Nay, but hark you, Francis. For the sugar thou gavest me-
 29546     'twas a pennyworth, wast not?
 29547   Fran. O Lord! I would it had been two!
 29548   Prince. I will give thee for it a thousand pound. Ask me when thou
 29549     wilt, and, thou shalt have it.
 29550   Poins. [within] Francis!
 29551   Fran. Anon, anon.
 29552   Prince. Anon, Francis? No, Francis; but to-morrow, Francis; or,
 29553     Francis, a Thursday; or indeed, Francis, when thou wilt. But
 29554     Francis-
 29555   Fran. My lord?
 29556   Prince. Wilt thou rob this leathern-jerkin, crystal-button,
 29557     not-pated, agate-ring, puke-stocking, caddis-garter,
 29558     smooth-tongue, Spanish-pouch-
 29559   Fran. O Lord, sir, who do you mean?
 29560   Prince. Why then, your brown bastard is your only drink; for look
 29561     you, Francis, your white canvas doublet will sully. In Barbary,
 29562     sir, it cannot come to so much.
 29563   Fran. What, sir?
 29564   Poins. [within] Francis!
 29565   Prince. Away, you rogue! Dost thou not hear them call?
 29566               Here they both call him. The Drawer stands amazed,
 29567                                     not knowing which way to go.
 29568 
 29569                          Enter Vintner.
 29570 
 29571   Vint. What, stand'st thou still, and hear'st such a calling? Look
 29572     to the guests within. [Exit Francis.] My lord, old Sir John, with
 29573     half-a-dozen more, are at the door. Shall I let them in?
 29574   Prince. Let them alone awhile, and then open the door.
 29575                                                   [Exit Vintner.]
 29576     Poins!
 29577   Poins. [within] Anon, anon, sir.
 29578 
 29579                           Enter Poins.
 29580 
 29581   Prince. Sirrah, Falstaff and the rest of the thieves are at the
 29582     door. Shall we be merry?
 29583   Poins. As merry as crickets, my lad. But hark ye; what cunning
 29584     match have you made with this jest of the drawer? Come, what's
 29585     the issue?
 29586   Prince. I am now of all humours that have showed themselves humours
 29587     since the old days of goodman Adam to the pupil age of this
 29588     present this twelve o'clock at midnight.
 29589 
 29590                          [Enter Francis.]
 29591 
 29592     What's o'clock, Francis?
 29593   Fran. Anon, anon, sir.                                 [Exit.]
 29594   Prince. That ever this fellow should have fewer words than a
 29595     parrot, and yet the son of a woman! His industry is upstairs and
 29596     downstairs, his eloquence the parcel of a reckoning. I am not yet
 29597     of Percy's mind, the Hotspur of the North; he that kills me some
 29598     six or seven dozen of Scots at a breakfast, washes his hands, and
 29599     says to his wife, 'Fie upon this quiet life! I want work.' 'O my
 29600     sweet Harry,' says she, 'how many hast thou  kill'd to-day?'
 29601     'Give my roan horse a drench,' says he, and answers 'Some
 29602     fourteen,' an hour after, 'a trifle, a trifle.' I prithee call in
 29603     Falstaff. I'll play Percy, and that damn'd brawn shall play Dame
 29604     Mortimer his wife. 'Rivo!' says the drunkard. Call in ribs, call
 29605     in tallow.
 29606 
 29607            Enter Falstaff, [Gadshill, Bardolph, and Peto;
 29608                    Francis follows with wine].
 29609 
 29610   Poins. Welcome, Jack. Where hast thou been?
 29611   Fal. A plague of all cowards, I say, and a vengeance too! Marry and
 29612     amen! Give me a cup of sack, boy. Ere I lead this life long, I'll
 29613     sew nether-stocks, and mend them and foot them too. A plague of
 29614     all cowards! Give me a cup of sack, rogue. Is there no virtue
 29615     extant?
 29616                                                     He drinketh.
 29617   Prince. Didst thou never see Titan kiss a dish of butter?
 29618     Pitiful-hearted butter, that melted at the sweet tale of the sun!
 29619     If thou didst, then behold that compound.
 29620   Fal. You rogue, here's lime in this sack too! There is nothing but
 29621     roguery to be found in villanous man. Yet a coward is worse than
 29622     a cup of sack with lime in it- a villanous coward! Go thy ways,
 29623     old Jack, die when thou wilt; if manhood, good manhood, be not
 29624     forgot upon the face of the earth, then am I a shotten herring.
 29625     There lives not three good men unhang'd in England; and one of
 29626     them is fat, and grows old. God help the while! A bad world, I
 29627     say. I would I were a weaver; I could sing psalms or anything. A
 29628     plague of all cowards I say still!
 29629   Prince. How now, woolsack? What mutter you?
 29630   Fal. A king's son! If I do not beat thee out of thy kingdom with a
 29631     dagger of lath and drive all thy subjects afore thee like a flock
 29632     of wild geese, I'll never wear hair on my face more. You Prince
 29633     of Wales?
 29634   Prince. Why, you whoreson round man, what's the matter?
 29635   Fal. Are not you a coward? Answer me to that- and Poins there?
 29636   Poins. Zounds, ye fat paunch, an ye call me coward, by the
 29637     Lord, I'll stab thee.
 29638   Fal. I call thee coward? I'll see thee damn'd ere I call thee
 29639     coward, but I would give a thousand pound I could run as fast as
 29640     thou canst. You are straight enough in the shoulders; you care
 29641     not who sees Your back. Call you that backing of your friends? A
 29642     plague upon such backing! Give me them that will face me. Give me
 29643     a cup of sack. I am a rogue if I drunk to-day.
 29644   Prince. O villain! thy lips are scarce wip'd since thou drunk'st
 29645     last.
 29646   Fal. All is one for that. (He drinketh.) A plague of all cowards
 29647     still say I.
 29648   Prince. What's the matter?
 29649   Fal. What's the matter? There be four of us here have ta'en a
 29650     thousand pound this day morning.
 29651   Prince. Where is it, Jack? Where is it?
 29652   Fal. Where is it, Taken from us it is. A hundred upon poor four of
 29653     us!
 29654   Prince. What, a hundred, man?
 29655   Fal. I am a rogue if I were not at half-sword with a dozen of them
 29656     two hours together. I have scap'd by miracle. I am eight times
 29657     thrust through the doublet, four through the hose; my buckler cut
 29658     through and through; my sword hack'd like a handsaw- ecce signum!
 29659     I never dealt better since I was a man. All would not do. A
 29660     plague of all cowards! Let them speak, If they speak more or less
 29661     than truth, they are villains and the sons of darkness.
 29662   Prince. Speak, sirs. How was it?
 29663   Gads. We four set upon some dozen-
 29664   Fal. Sixteen at least, my lord.
 29665   Gads. And bound them.
 29666   Peto. No, no, they were not bound.
 29667   Fal. You rogue, they were bound, every man of them, or I am a Jew
 29668     else- an Ebrew Jew.
 29669   Gads. As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh men sea upon us-
 29670   Fal. And unbound the rest, and then come in the other.
 29671   Prince. What, fought you with them all?
 29672   Fal. All? I know not what you call all, but if I fought not with
 29673     fifty of them, I am a bunch of radish! If there were not two or
 29674     three and fifty upon poor old Jack, then am I no two-legg'd
 29675     creature.
 29676   Prince. Pray God you have not murd'red some of them.
 29677   Fal. Nay, that's past praying for. I have pepper'd two of them. Two
 29678     I am sure I have paid, two rogues in buckram suits. I tell thee
 29679     what, Hal- if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face, call me horse.
 29680     Thou knowest my old ward. Here I lay, and thus I bore my point.
 29681     Four rogues in buckram let drive at me.
 29682   Prince. What, four? Thou saidst but two even now.
 29683   Fal. Four, Hal. I told thee four.
 29684   Poins. Ay, ay, he said four.
 29685   Fal. These four came all afront and mainly thrust at me. I made me
 29686     no more ado but took all their seven points in my target, thus.
 29687   Prince. Seven? Why, there were but four even now.
 29688   Fal. In buckram?
 29689   Poins. Ay, four, in buckram suits.
 29690   Fal. Seven, by these hilts, or I am a villain else.
 29691   Prince. [aside to Poins] Prithee let him alone. We shall have more
 29692     anon.
 29693   Fal. Dost thou hear me, Hal?
 29694   Prince. Ay, and mark thee too, Jack.
 29695   Fal. Do so, for it is worth the list'ning to. These nine in buckram
 29696     that I told thee of-
 29697   Prince. So, two more already.
 29698   Fal. Their points being broken-
 29699   Poins. Down fell their hose.
 29700   Fal. Began to give me ground; but I followed me close, came in,
 29701     foot and hand, and with a thought seven of the eleven I paid.
 29702   Prince. O monstrous! Eleven buckram men grown out of two!
 29703   Fal. But, as the devil would have it, three misbegotten knaves in
 29704     Kendal green came at my back and let drive at me; for it was so
 29705     dark, Hal, that thou couldst not see thy hand.
 29706   Prince. These lies are like their father that begets them- gross as
 29707     a mountain, open, palpable. Why, thou clay-brain'd guts, thou
 29708     knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson obscene greasy tallow-catch-
 29709   Fal. What, art thou mad? art thou mad? Is not the truth the truth?
 29710   Prince. Why, how couldst thou know these men in Kendal green when
 29711     it was so dark thou couldst not see thy hand? Come, tell us your
 29712     reason. What sayest thou to this?
 29713   Poins. Come, your reason, Jack, your reason.
 29714   Fal. What, upon compulsion? Zounds, an I were at the strappado or
 29715     all the racks in the world, I would not tell you on compulsion.
 29716     Give you a reason on compulsion? If reasons were as plentiful as
 29717     blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I.
 29718   Prince. I'll be no longer guilty, of this sin; this sanguine
 29719     coward, this bed-presser, this horseback-breaker, this huge hill
 29720     of flesh-
 29721   Fal. 'Sblood, you starveling, you elf-skin, you dried
 29722     neat's-tongue, you bull's sizzle, you stockfish- O for breath to
 29723     utter what is like thee!- you tailor's yard, you sheath, you
 29724     bowcase, you vile standing tuck!
 29725   Prince. Well, breathe awhile, and then to it again; and when thou
 29726     hast tired thyself in base comparisons, hear me speak but this.
 29727   Poins. Mark, Jack.
 29728   Prince. We two saw you four set on four, and bound them and were
 29729     masters of their wealth. Mark now how a plain tale shall put you
 29730     down. Then did we two set on you four and, with a word, outfac'd
 29731     you from your prize, and have it; yea, and can show it you here
 29732     in the house. And, Falstaff, you carried your guts away as
 29733     nimbly, with as quick dexterity, and roar'd for mercy, and still
 29734     run and roar'd, as ever I heard bullcalf. What a slave art thou
 29735     to hack thy sword as thou hast done, and then say it was in
 29736     fight! What trick, what device, what starting hole canst thou now
 29737     find out to hide thee from this open and apparent shame?
 29738   Poins. Come, let's hear, Jack. What trick hast thou now?
 29739   Fal. By the Lord, I knew ye as well as he that made ye. Why, hear
 29740     you, my masters. Was it for me to kill the heir apparent? Should
 29741     I turn upon the true prince? Why, thou knowest I am as valiant as
 29742     Hercules; but beware instinct. The lion will not touch the true
 29743     prince. Instinct is a great matter. I was now a coward on
 29744     instinct. I shall think the better of myself, and thee, during my
 29745     life- I for a valiant lion, and thou for a true prince. But, by
 29746     the Lord, lads, I am glad you have the money. Hostess, clap to
 29747     the doors. Watch to-night, pray to-morrow. Gallants, lads, boys,
 29748     hearts of gold, all the titles of good fellowship come to you!
 29749     What, shall we be merry? Shall we have a play extempore?
 29750   Prince. Content- and the argument shall be thy running away.
 29751   Fal. Ah, no more of that, Hal, an thou lovest me!
 29752 
 29753                              Enter Hostess.
 29754 
 29755   Host. O Jesu, my lord the Prince!
 29756   Prince. How now, my lady the hostess? What say'st thou to me?
 29757   Host. Marry, my lord, there is a nobleman of the court at door
 29758     would speak with you. He says he comes from your father.
 29759   Prince. Give him as much as will make him a royal man, and send him
 29760     back again to my mother.
 29761   Fal. What manner of man is he?
 29762   Host. An old man.
 29763   Fal. What doth gravity out of his bed at midnight? Shall I give him
 29764     his answer?
 29765   Prince. Prithee do, Jack.
 29766   Fal. Faith, and I'll send him packing.
 29767 Exit.
 29768   Prince. Now, sirs. By'r Lady, you fought fair; so did you, Peto; so
 29769     did you, Bardolph. You are lions too, you ran away upon instinct,
 29770     you will not touch the true prince; no- fie!
 29771   Bard. Faith, I ran when I saw others run.
 29772   Prince. Tell me now in earnest, how came Falstaff's sword so
 29773     hack'd?
 29774   Peto. Why, he hack'd it with his dagger, and said he would swear
 29775     truth out of England but he would make you believe it was done in
 29776     fight, and persuaded us to do the like.
 29777   Bard. Yea, and to tickle our noses with speargrass to make them
 29778     bleed, and then to beslubber our garments with it and swear it
 29779     was the blood of true men. I did that I did not this seven year
 29780     before- I blush'd to hear his monstrous devices.
 29781   Prince. O villain! thou stolest a cup of sack eighteen years ago
 29782     and wert taken with the manner, and ever since thou hast blush'd
 29783     extempore. Thou hadst fire and sword on thy side, and yet thou
 29784     ran'st away. What instinct hadst thou for it?
 29785   Bard. My lord, do you see these meteors? Do you behold these
 29786     exhalations?
 29787   Prince. I do.
 29788   Bard. What think you they portend?
 29789   Prince. Hot livers and cold purses.
 29790   Bard. Choler, my lord, if rightly taken.
 29791   Prince. No, if rightly taken, halter.
 29792 
 29793                          Enter Falstaff.
 29794 
 29795     Here comes lean Jack; here comes bare-bone. How now, my sweet
 29796     creature of bombast? How long is't ago, Jack, since thou sawest
 29797     thine own knee?
 29798   Fal. My own knee? When I was about thy years, Hal, I was not an
 29799     eagle's talent in the waist; I could have crept into any
 29800     alderman's thumb-ring. A plague of sighing and grief! It blows a
 29801     man up like a bladder. There's villanous news abroad. Here was
 29802     Sir John Bracy from your father. You must to the court in the
 29803     morning. That same mad fellow of the North, Percy, and he of
 29804     Wales that gave Amamon the bastinado, and made Lucifer cuckold,
 29805     and swore the devil his true liegeman upon the cross of a Welsh
 29806     hook- what a plague call you him?
 29807   Poins. O, Glendower.
 29808   Fal. Owen, Owen- the same; and his son-in-law Mortimer, and old
 29809     Northumberland, and that sprightly Scot of Scots, Douglas, that
 29810     runs a-horseback up a hill perpendicular-
 29811   Prince. He that rides at high speed and with his pistol kills a
 29812     sparrow flying.
 29813   Fal. You have hit it.
 29814   Prince. So did he never the sparrow.
 29815   Fal. Well, that rascal hath good metal in him; he will not run.
 29816   Prince. Why, what a rascal art thou then, to praise him so for
 29817     running!
 29818   Fal. A-horseback, ye cuckoo! but afoot he will not budge a foot.
 29819   Prince. Yes, Jack, upon instinct.
 29820   Fal. I grant ye, upon instinct. Well, he is there too, and one
 29821     Mordake, and a thousand bluecaps more. Worcester is stol'n away
 29822     to-night; thy father's beard is turn'd white with the news; you
 29823     may buy land now as cheap as stinking mack'rel.
 29824   Prince. Why then, it is like, if there come a hot June, and this
 29825     civil buffeting hold, we shall buy maidenheads as they buy
 29826     hobnails, by the hundreds.
 29827   Fal. By the mass, lad, thou sayest true; it is like we shall have
 29828     good trading that way. But tell me, Hal, art not thou horrible
 29829     afeard? Thou being heir apparent, could the world pick thee out
 29830     three such enemies again as that fiend Douglas, that spirit
 29831     Percy, and that devil Glendower? Art thou not horribly afraid?
 29832     Doth not thy blood thrill at it?
 29833   Prince. Not a whit, i' faith. I lack some of thy instinct.
 29834   Fal. Well, thou wilt be horribly chid to-morrow when thou comest to
 29835     thy father. If thou love file, practise an answer.
 29836   Prince. Do thou stand for my father and examine me upon the
 29837     particulars of my life.
 29838   Fal. Shall I? Content. This chair shall be my state, this dagger my
 29839     sceptre, and this cushion my, crown.
 29840   Prince. Thy state is taken for a join'd-stool, thy golden sceptre
 29841     for a leaden dagger, and thy precious rich crown for a pitiful
 29842     bald crown.
 29843   Fal. Well, an the fire of grace be not quite out of thee, now shalt
 29844     thou be moved. Give me a cup of sack to make my eyes look red,
 29845     that it may be thought I have wept; for I must speak in passion,
 29846     and I will do it in King Cambyses' vein.
 29847   Prince. Well, here is my leg.
 29848   Fal. And here is my speech. Stand aside, nobility.
 29849   Host. O Jesu, this is excellent sport, i' faith!
 29850   Fal. Weep not, sweet queen, for trickling tears are vain.
 29851   Host. O, the Father, how he holds his countenance!
 29852   Fal. For God's sake, lords, convey my tristful queen!
 29853     For tears do stop the floodgates of her eyes.
 29854   Host. O Jesu, he doth it as like one of these harlotry players as
 29855     ever I see!
 29856   Fal. Peace, good pintpot. Peace, good tickle-brain.- Harry, I do
 29857     not only marvel where thou spendest thy time, but also how thou
 29858     art accompanied. For though the camomile, the more it is trodden
 29859     on, the faster it grows, yet youth, the more it is wasted, the
 29860     sooner it wears. That thou art my son I have partly thy mother's
 29861     word, partly my own opinion, but chiefly a villanous trick of
 29862     thine eye and a foolish hanging of thy nether lip that doth
 29863     warrant me. If then thou be son to me, here lies the point: why,
 29864     being son to me, art thou so pointed at? Shall the blessed sun of
 29865     heaven prove a micher and eat blackberries? A question not to be
 29866     ask'd. Shall the son of England prove a thief and take purses? A
 29867     question to be ask'd. There is a thing, Harry, which thou hast
 29868     often heard of, and it is known to many in our land by the name
 29869     of pitch. This pitch, as ancient writers do report, doth defile;
 29870     so doth the company thou keepest. For, Harry, now I do not speak
 29871     to thee in drink, but in tears; not in pleasure, but in passion;
 29872     not in words only, but in woes also: and yet there is a virtuous
 29873     man whom I have often noted in thy company, but I know not  his
 29874     name.
 29875   Prince. What manner of man, an it like your Majesty?
 29876   Fal. A goodly portly man, i' faith, and a corpulent; of a cheerful
 29877     look, a pleasing eye, and a most noble carriage; and, as I think,
 29878     his age some fifty, or, by'r Lady, inclining to threescore; and
 29879     now I remember me, his name is Falstaff. If that man should be
 29880     lewdly, given, he deceiveth me; for, Harry, I see virtue in his
 29881     looks. If then the tree may be known by the fruit, as the fruit
 29882     by the tree, then, peremptorily I speak it, there is virtue in
 29883     that Falstaff. Him keep with, the rest banish. And tell me now,
 29884     thou naughty varlet, tell me where hast thou been this month?
 29885   Prince. Dost thou speak like a king? Do thou stand for me, and I'll
 29886     play my father.
 29887   Fal. Depose me? If thou dost it half so gravely, so majestically,
 29888     both in word and matter, hang me up by the heels for a
 29889     rabbit-sucker or a poulter's hare.
 29890   Prince. Well, here I am set.
 29891   Fal. And here I stand. Judge, my masters.
 29892   Prince. Now, Harry, whence come you?
 29893   Fal. My noble lord, from Eastcheap.
 29894   Prince. The complaints I hear of thee are grievous.
 29895   Fal. 'Sblood, my lord, they are false! Nay, I'll tickle ye for a
 29896     young prince, i' faith.
 29897   Prince. Swearest thou, ungracious boy? Henceforth ne'er look on me.
 29898     Thou art violently carried away from grace. There is a devil
 29899     haunts thee in the likeness of an old fat man; a tun of man is
 29900     thy companion. Why dost thou converse with that trunk of humours,
 29901     that bolting hutch of beastliness, that swoll'n parcel of
 29902     dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuff'd cloakbag of
 29903     guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with the pudding in his belly,
 29904     that reverend vice, that grey iniquity, that father ruffian, that
 29905     vanity in years? Wherein is he good, but to taste sack and drink
 29906     it? wherein neat and cleanly, but to carve a capon and eat it?
 29907     wherein cunning, but in craft? wherein crafty, but in villany?
 29908     wherein villanous, but in all things? wherein worthy, but in
 29909     nothing?
 29910   Fal. I would your Grace would take me with you. Whom means your
 29911     Grace?
 29912   Prince. That villanous abominable misleader of youth, Falstaff,
 29913     that old white-bearded Satan.
 29914   Fal. My lord, the man I know.
 29915   Prince. I know thou dost.
 29916   Fal. But to say I know more harm in him than in myself were to say
 29917     more than I know. That he is old (the more the pity) his white
 29918     hairs do witness it; but that he is (saving your reverence) a
 29919     whoremaster, that I utterly deny. If sack and sugar be a fault,
 29920     God help the wicked! If to be old and merry be a sin, then many
 29921     an old host that I know is damn'd. If to be fat be to be hated,
 29922     then Pharaoh's lean kine are to be loved. No, my good lord.
 29923     Banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Poins; but for sweet Jack
 29924     Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack
 29925     Falstaff, and therefore more valiant being, as he is, old Jack
 29926     Falstaff, banish not him thy Harry's company, banish not him thy
 29927     Harry's company. Banish plump Jack, and banish all the world!
 29928   Prince. I do, I will.                      [A knocking heard.]
 29929                         [Exeunt Hostess, Francis, and Bardolph.]
 29930 
 29931                      Enter Bardolph, running.
 29932 
 29933   Bard. O, my lord, my lord! the sheriff with a most monstrous watch
 29934     is at the door.
 29935   Fal. Out, ye rogue! Play out the play. I have much to say in the
 29936     behalf of that Falstaff.
 29937 
 29938                        Enter the Hostess.
 29939 
 29940   Host. O Jesu, my lord, my lord!
 29941   Prince. Heigh, heigh, the devil rides upon a fiddlestick!
 29942     What's the matter?
 29943   Host. The sheriff and all the watch are at the door. They are come
 29944     to search the house. Shall I let them in?
 29945   Fal. Dost thou hear, Hal? Never call a true piece of gold a
 29946     counterfeit. Thou art essentially mad without seeming so.
 29947   Prince. And thou a natural coward without instinct.
 29948   Fal. I deny your major. If you will deny the sheriff, so; if not,
 29949     let him enter. If I become not a cart as well as another man, a
 29950     plague on my bringing up! I hope I shall as soon be strangled
 29951     with a halter as another.
 29952   Prince. Go hide thee behind the arras. The rest walk, up above.
 29953     Now, my masters, for a true face and good conscience.
 29954   Fal. Both which I have had; but their date is out, and therefore
 29955     I'll hide me.                                          Exit.
 29956   Prince. Call in the sheriff.
 29957                             [Exeunt Manent the Prince and Peto.]
 29958 
 29959                     Enter Sheriff and the Carrier.
 29960 
 29961     Now, Master Sheriff, what is your will with me?
 29962   Sher. First, pardon me, my lord. A hue and cry
 29963     Hath followed certain men unto this house.
 29964   Prince. What men?
 29965   Sher. One of them is well known, my gracious lord-
 29966     A gross fat man.
 29967   Carrier. As fat as butter.
 29968   Prince. The man, I do assure you, is not here,
 29969     For I myself at this time have employ'd him.
 29970     And, sheriff, I will engage my word to thee
 29971     That I will by to-morrow dinner time
 29972     Send him to answer thee, or any man,
 29973     For anything he shall be charg'd withal;
 29974     And so let me entreat you leave the house.
 29975   Sher. I will, my lord. There are two gentlemen
 29976     Have in this robbery lost three hundred marks.
 29977   Prince. It may be so. If he have robb'd these men,
 29978     He shall be answerable; and so farewell.
 29979   Sher. Good night, my noble lord.
 29980   Prince. I think it is good morrow, is it not?
 29981   Sher. Indeed, my lord, I think it be two o'clock.
 29982                                             Exit [with Carrier].
 29983   Prince. This oily rascal is known as well as Paul's. Go call him
 29984     forth.
 29985   Peto. Falstaff! Fast asleep behind the arras, and snorting like a
 29986     horse.
 29987   Prince. Hark how hard he fetches breath. Search his pockets.
 29988             He searcheth his pockets and findeth certain papers.
 29989     What hast thou found?
 29990   Peto. Nothing but papers, my lord.
 29991   Prince. Let's see whit they be. Read them.
 29992 
 29993   Peto. [reads] 'Item. A capon. . . . . . . . . . . . .  ii s. ii d.
 29994                  Item, Sauce. . . . . . . . . . . . . .      iiii d.
 29995                  Item, Sack two gallons . . . . . . . . v s. viii d.
 29996                  Item, Anchovies and sack after supper.  ii s. vi d.
 29997                  Item, Bread. . . . . . . . . . . . . .          ob.'
 29998 
 29999   Prince. O monstrous! but one halfpennyworth of bread to this
 30000     intolerable deal of sack! What there is else, keep close; we'll
 30001     read it at more advantage. There let him sleep till day. I'll to
 30002     the court in the morning . We must all to the wars. and thy place
 30003     shall be honourable. I'll procure this fat rogue a charge of
 30004     foot; and I know, his death will be a march of twelve score. The
 30005     money shall be paid back again with advantage. Be with me betimes
 30006     in the morning, and so good morrow, Peto.
 30007   Peto. Good morrow, good my lord.
 30008                                                          Exeunt.
 30009 
 30010 
 30011 
 30012 
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 30021 
 30022 
 30023 
 30024 ACT III. Scene I.
 30025 Bangor. The Archdeacon's house.
 30026 
 30027 Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Lord Mortimer, Owen Glendower.
 30028 
 30029   Mort. These promises are fair, the parties sure,
 30030     And our induction full of prosperous hope.
 30031   Hot. Lord Mortimer, and cousin Glendower,
 30032     Will you sit down?
 30033     And uncle Worcester. A plague upon it!
 30034     I have forgot the map.
 30035   Glend. No, here it is.
 30036     Sit, cousin Percy; sit, good cousin Hotspur,
 30037     For by that name as oft as Lancaster
 30038     Doth speak of you, his cheek looks pale, and with
 30039     A rising sigh he wisheth you in heaven.
 30040   Hot. And you in hell, as oft as he hears
 30041     Owen Glendower spoke of.
 30042   Glend. I cannot blame him. At my nativity
 30043     The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes
 30044     Of burning cressets, and at my birth
 30045     The frame and huge foundation of the earth
 30046     Shak'd like a coward.
 30047   Hot. Why, so it would have done at the same season, if your
 30048     mother's cat had but kitten'd, though yourself had never been
 30049     born.
 30050   Glend. I say the earth did shake when I was born.
 30051   Hot. And I say the earth was not of my mind,
 30052     If you suppose as fearing you it shook.
 30053   Glend. The heavens were all on fire, the earth did tremble.
 30054   Hot. O, then the earth shook to see the heavens on fire,
 30055     And not in fear of your nativity.
 30056     Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth
 30057     In strange eruptions; oft the teeming earth
 30058     Is with a kind of colic pinch'd and vex'd
 30059     By the imprisoning of unruly wind
 30060     Within her womb, which, for enlargement striving,
 30061     Shakes the old beldame earth and topples down
 30062     Steeples and mossgrown towers. At your birth
 30063     Our grandam earth, having this distemp'rature,
 30064     In passion shook.
 30065   Glend. Cousin, of many men
 30066     I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave
 30067     To tell you once again that at my birth
 30068     The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
 30069     The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds
 30070     Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields.
 30071     These signs have mark'd me extraordinary,
 30072     And all the courses of my life do show
 30073     I am not in the roll of common men.
 30074     Where is he living, clipp'd in with the sea
 30075     That chides the banks of England, Scotland, Wales,
 30076     Which calls me pupil or hath read to me?
 30077     And bring him out that is but woman's son
 30078     Can trace me in the tedious ways of art
 30079     And hold me pace in deep experiments.
 30080   Hot. I think there's no man speaks better Welsh. I'll to dinner.
 30081   Mort. Peace, cousin Percy; you will make him mad.
 30082   Glend. I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
 30083   Hot. Why, so can I, or so can any man;
 30084     But will they come when you do call for them?
 30085   Glend. Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command the devil.
 30086   Hot. And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil-
 30087     By telling truth. Tell truth and shame the devil.
 30088     If thou have power to raise him, bring him hither,
 30089     And I'll be sworn I have power to shame him hence.
 30090     O, while you live, tell truth and shame the devil!
 30091   Mort. Come, come, no more of this unprofitable chat.
 30092   Glend. Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made head
 30093     Against my power; thrice from the banks of Wye
 30094     And sandy-bottom'd Severn have I sent him
 30095     Bootless home and weather-beaten back.
 30096   Hot. Home without boots, and in foul weather too?
 30097     How scapes he agues, in the devil's name
 30098   Glend. Come, here's the map. Shall we divide our right
 30099     According to our threefold order ta'en?
 30100   Mort. The Archdeacon hath divided it
 30101     Into three limits very equally.
 30102     England, from Trent and Severn hitherto,
 30103     By south and east is to my part assign'd;
 30104     All westward, Wales beyond the Severn shore,
 30105     And all the fertile land within that bound,
 30106     To Owen Glendower; and, dear coz, to you
 30107     The remnant northward lying off from Trent.
 30108     And our indentures tripartite are drawn;
 30109     Which being sealed interchangeably
 30110     (A business that this night may execute),
 30111     To-morrow, cousin Percy, you and I
 30112     And my good Lord of Worcester will set forth
 30113     To meet your father and the Scottish bower,
 30114     As is appointed us, at Shrewsbury.
 30115     My father Glendower is not ready yet,
 30116     Nor shall we need his help these fourteen days.
 30117     [To Glend.] Within that space you may have drawn together
 30118     Your tenants, friends, and neighbouring gentlemen.
 30119   Glend. A shorter time shall send me to you, lords;
 30120     And in my conduct shall your ladies come,
 30121     From whom you now must steal and take no leave,
 30122     For there will be a world of water shed
 30123     Upon the parting of your wives and you.
 30124   Hot. Methinks my moiety, north from Burton here,
 30125     In quantity equals not one of yours.
 30126     See how this river comes me cranking in
 30127     And cuts me from the best of all my land
 30128     A huge half-moon, a monstrous cantle out.
 30129     I'll have the current ill this place damm'd up,
 30130     And here the smug and sliver Trent shall run
 30131     In a new channel fair and evenly.
 30132     It shall not wind with such a deep indent
 30133     To rob me of so rich a bottom here.
 30134   Glend. Not wind? It shall, it must! You see it doth.
 30135   Mort. Yea, but
 30136     Mark how he bears his course, and runs me up
 30137     With like advantage on the other side,
 30138     Gelding the opposed continent as much
 30139     As on the other side it takes from you.
 30140   Wor. Yea, but a little charge will trench him here
 30141     And on this north side win this cape of land;
 30142     And then he runs straight and even.
 30143   Hot. I'll have it so. A little charge will do it.
 30144   Glend. I will not have it alt'red.
 30145   Hot. Will not you?
 30146   Glend. No, nor you shall not.
 30147   Hot. Who shall say me nay?
 30148   Glend. No, that will I.
 30149   Hot. Let me not understand you then; speak it in Welsh.
 30150   Glend. I can speak English, lord, as well as you;
 30151     For I was train'd up in the English court,
 30152     Where, being but young, I framed to the harp
 30153     Many an English ditty lovely well,
 30154     And gave the tongue a helpful ornament-
 30155     A virtue that was never seen in you.
 30156   Hot. Marry,
 30157     And I am glad of it with all my heart!
 30158     I had rather be a kitten and cry mew
 30159     Than one of these same metre ballet-mongers.
 30160     I had rather hear a brazen canstick turn'd
 30161     Or a dry wheel grate on the axletree,
 30162     And that would set my teeth nothing on edge,
 30163     Nothing so much as mincing poetry.
 30164     'Tis like the forc'd gait of a shuffling nag,
 30165   Glend. Come, you shall have Trent turn'd.
 30166   Hot. I do not care. I'll give thrice so much land
 30167     To any well-deserving friend;
 30168     But in the way of bargain, mark ye me,
 30169     I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair
 30170     Are the indentures drawn? Shall we be gone?
 30171   Glend. The moon shines fair; you may away by night.
 30172     I'll haste the writer, and withal
 30173     Break with your wives of your departure hence.
 30174     I am afraid my daughter will run mad,
 30175     So much she doteth on her Mortimer.                    Exit.
 30176   Mort. Fie, cousin Percy! how you cross my father!
 30177   Hot. I cannot choose. Sometimes he angers me
 30178     With telling me of the moldwarp and the ant,
 30179     Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies,
 30180     And of a dragon and a finless fish,
 30181     A clip-wing'd griffin and a moulten raven,
 30182     A couching lion and a ramping cat,
 30183     And such a deal of skimble-skamble stuff
 30184     As puts me from my faith. I tell you what-
 30185     He held me last night at least nine hours
 30186     In reckoning up the several devils' names
 30187     That were his lackeys. I cried 'hum,' and 'Well, go to!'
 30188     But mark'd him not a word. O, he is as tedious
 30189     As a tired horse, a railing wife;
 30190     Worse than a smoky house. I had rather live
 30191     With cheese and garlic in a windmill far
 30192     Than feed on cates and have him talk to me
 30193     In any summer house in Christendom).
 30194   Mort. In faith, he is a worthy gentleman,
 30195     Exceedingly well read, and profited
 30196     In strange concealments, valiant as a lion,
 30197     And wondrous affable, and as bountiful
 30198     As mines of India. Shall I tell you, cousin?
 30199     He holds your temper in a high respect
 30200     And curbs himself even of his natural scope
 30201     When you come 'cross his humour. Faith, he does.
 30202     I warrant you that man is not alive
 30203     Might so have tempted him as you have done
 30204     Without the taste of danger and reproof.
 30205     But do not use it oft, let me entreat you.
 30206   Wor. In faith, my lord, you are too wilful-blame,
 30207     And since your coming hither have done enough
 30208     To put him quite besides his patience.
 30209     You must needs learn, lord, to amend this fault.
 30210     Though sometimes it show greatness, courage, blood-
 30211     And that's the dearest grace it renders you-
 30212     Yet oftentimes it doth present harsh rage,
 30213     Defect of manners, want of government,
 30214     Pride, haughtiness, opinion, and disdain;
 30215     The least of which haunting a nobleman
 30216     Loseth men's hearts, and leaves behind a stain
 30217     Upon the beauty of all parts besides,
 30218     Beguiling them of commendation.
 30219   Hot. Well, I am school'd. Good manners be your speed!
 30220     Here come our wives, and let us take our leave.
 30221 
 30222             Enter Glendower with the Ladies.
 30223 
 30224   Mort. This is the deadly spite that angers me-
 30225     My wife can speak no English, I no Welsh.
 30226   Glend. My daughter weeps; she will not part with you;
 30227     She'll be a soldier too, she'll to the wars.
 30228   Mort. Good father, tell her that she and my aunt Percy
 30229     Shall follow in your conduct speedily.
 30230                Glendower speaks to her in Welsh, and she answers
 30231                                                 him in the same.
 30232   Glend. She is desperate here. A peevish self-will'd harlotry,
 30233     One that no persuasion can do good upon.
 30234                                        The Lady speaks in Welsh.
 30235   Mort. I understand thy looks. That pretty Welsh
 30236     Which thou pourest down from these swelling heavens
 30237     I am too perfect in; and, but for shame,
 30238     In such a Barley should I answer thee.
 30239                                         The Lady again in Welsh.
 30240     I understand thy kisses, and thou mine,
 30241     And that's a feeling disputation.
 30242     But I will never be a truant, love,
 30243     Till I have learnt thy language: for thy tongue
 30244     Makes Welsh as sweet as ditties highly penn'd,
 30245     Sung by a fair queen in a summer's bow'r,
 30246     With ravishing division, to her lute.
 30247   Glend. Nay, if you melt, then will she run mad.
 30248                                  The Lady speaks again in Welsh.
 30249   Mort. O, I am ignorance itself in this!
 30250   Glend. She bids you on the wanton rushes lay you down
 30251     And rest your gentle head upon her lap,
 30252     And she will sing the song that pleaseth you
 30253     And on your eyelids crown the god of sleep,
 30254     Charming your blood with pleasing heaviness,
 30255     Making such difference 'twixt wake and sleep
 30256     As is the difference betwixt day and night
 30257     The hour before the heavenly-harness'd team
 30258     Begins his golden progress in the East.
 30259   Mort. With all my heart I'll sit and hear her sing.
 30260     By that time will our book, I think, be drawn.
 30261   Glend. Do so,
 30262     And those musicians that shall play to you
 30263     Hang in the air a thousand leagues from hence,
 30264     And straight they shall be here. Sit, and attend.
 30265   Hot. Come, Kate, thou art perfect in lying down. Come, quick,
 30266     quick, that I may lay my head in thy lap.
 30267   Lady P. Go, ye giddy goose.
 30268                                                 The music plays.
 30269   Hot. Now I perceive the devil understands Welsh;
 30270     And 'tis no marvel, be is so humorous.
 30271     By'r Lady, he is a good musician.
 30272   Lady P. Then should you be nothing but musical; for you are
 30273     altogether govern'd by humours. Lie still, ye thief, and hear the
 30274     lady sing in Welsh.
 30275   Hot. I had rather hear Lady, my brach, howl in Irish.
 30276   Lady P. Wouldst thou have thy head broken?
 30277   Hot. No.
 30278   Lady P. Then be still.
 30279   Hot. Neither! 'Tis a woman's fault.
 30280   Lady P. Now God help thee!
 30281   Hot. To the Welsh lady's bed.
 30282   Lady P. What's that?
 30283   Hot. Peace! she sings.
 30284                                Here the Lady sings a Welsh song.
 30285     Come, Kate, I'll have your song too.
 30286   Lady P. Not mine, in good sooth.
 30287   Hot. Not yours, in good sooth? Heart! you swear like a
 30288     comfit-maker's wife. 'Not you, in good sooth!' and 'as true as I
 30289     live!' and 'as God shall mend me!' and 'as sure as day!'
 30290     And givest such sarcenet surety for thy oaths
 30291     As if thou ne'er walk'st further than Finsbury.
 30292     Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art,
 30293     A good mouth-filling oath; and leave 'in sooth'
 30294     And such protest of pepper gingerbread
 30295     To velvet guards and Sunday citizens. Come, sing.
 30296   Lady P. I will not sing.
 30297   Hot. 'Tis the next way to turn tailor or be redbreast-teacher. An
 30298     the indentures be drawn, I'll away within these two hours; and so
 30299     come in when ye will.                                  Exit.
 30300   Glend. Come, come, Lord Mortimer. You are as slow
 30301     As hot Lord Percy is on fire to go.
 30302     By this our book is drawn; we'll but seal,
 30303     And then to horse immediately.
 30304   Mort. With all my heart.
 30305                                                          Exeunt.
 30306 
 30307 
 30308 
 30309 
 30310 Scene II.
 30311 London. The Palace.
 30312 
 30313 Enter the King, Prince of Wales, and others.
 30314 
 30315   King. Lords, give us leave. The Prince of Wales and I
 30316     Must have some private conference; but be near at hand,
 30317     For we shall presently have need of you.
 30318                                                    Exeunt Lords.
 30319     I know not whether God will have it so,
 30320     For some displeasing service I have done,
 30321     That, in his secret doom, out of my blood
 30322     He'll breed revengement and a scourge for me;
 30323     But thou dost in thy passages of life
 30324     Make me believe that thou art only mark'd
 30325     For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven
 30326     To punish my mistreadings. Tell me else,
 30327     Could such inordinate and low desires,
 30328     Such poor, such bare, such lewd, such mean attempts,
 30329     Such barren pleasures, rude society,
 30330     As thou art match'd withal and grafted to,
 30331     Accompany the greatness of thy blood
 30332     And hold their level with thy princely heart?
 30333   Prince. So please your Majesty, I would I could
 30334     Quit all offences with as clear excuse
 30335     As well as I am doubtless I can purge
 30336     Myself of many I am charged withal.
 30337     Yet such extenuation let me beg
 30338     As, in reproof of many tales devis'd,
 30339     Which oft the ear of greatness needs must bear
 30340     By, smiling pickthanks and base newsmongers,
 30341     I may, for some things true wherein my youth
 30342     Hath faulty wand'red and irregular,
 30343     And pardon on lily true submission.
 30344   King. God pardon thee! Yet let me wonder, Harry,
 30345     At thy affections, which do hold a wing,
 30346     Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors.
 30347     Thy place in Council thou hast rudely lost,
 30348     Which by thy younger brother is supplied,
 30349     And art almost an alien to the hearts
 30350     Of all the court and princes of my blood.
 30351     The hope and expectation of thy time
 30352     Is ruin'd, and the soul of every man
 30353     Prophetically do forethink thy fall.
 30354     Had I so lavish of my presence been,
 30355     So common-hackney'd in the eyes of men,
 30356     So stale and cheap to vulgar company,
 30357     Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
 30358     Had still kept loyal to possession
 30359     And left me in reputeless banishment,
 30360     A fellow of no mark nor likelihood.
 30361     By being seldom seen, I could not stir
 30362     But, like a comet, I Was wond'red at;
 30363     That men would tell their children, 'This is he!'
 30364     Others would say, 'Where? Which is Bolingbroke?'
 30365     And then I stole all courtesy from heaven,
 30366     And dress'd myself in such humility
 30367     That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts,
 30368     Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths
 30369     Even in the presence of the crowned King.
 30370     Thus did I keep my person fresh and new,
 30371     My presence, like a robe pontifical,
 30372     Ne'er seen but wond'red at; and so my state,
 30373     Seldom but sumptuous, show'd like a feast
 30374     And won by rareness such solemnity.
 30375     The skipping King, he ambled up and down
 30376     With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits,
 30377     Soon kindled and soon burnt; carded his state;
 30378     Mingled his royalty with cap'ring fools;
 30379     Had his great name profaned with their scorns
 30380     And gave his countenance, against his name,
 30381     To laugh at gibing boys and stand the push
 30382     Of every beardless vain comparative;
 30383     Grew a companion to the common streets,
 30384     Enfeoff'd himself to popularity;
 30385     That, being dally swallowed by men's eyes,
 30386     They surfeited with honey and began
 30387     To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little
 30388     More than a little is by much too much.
 30389     So, when he had occasion to be seen,
 30390     He was but as the cuckoo is in June,
 30391     Heard, not regarded- seen, but with such eyes
 30392     As, sick and blunted with community,
 30393     Afford no extraordinary gaze,
 30394     Such as is bent on unlike majesty
 30395     When it shines seldom in admiring eyes;
 30396     But rather drows'd and hung their eyelids down,
 30397     Slept in his face, and rend'red such aspect
 30398     As cloudy men use to their adversaries,
 30399     Being with his presence glutted, gorg'd, and full.
 30400     And in that very line, Harry, standest thou;
 30401     For thou hast lost thy princely privilege
 30402     With vile participation. Not an eye
 30403     But is aweary of thy common sight,
 30404     Save mine, which hath desir'd to see thee more;
 30405     Which now doth that I would not have it do-
 30406     Make blind itself with foolish tenderness.
 30407   Prince. I shall hereafter, my thrice-gracious lord,
 30408     Be more myself.
 30409   King. For all the world,
 30410     As thou art to this hour, was Richard then
 30411     When I from France set foot at Ravenspurgh;
 30412     And even as I was then is Percy now.
 30413     Now, by my sceptre, and my soul to boot,
 30414     He hath more worthy interest to the state
 30415     Than thou, the shadow of succession;
 30416     For of no right, nor colour like to right,
 30417     He doth fill fields with harness in the realm,
 30418     Turns head against the lion's armed jaws,
 30419     And, Being no more in debt to years than thou,
 30420     Leads ancient lords and reverend Bishops on
 30421     To bloody battles and to bruising arms.
 30422     What never-dying honour hath he got
 30423     Against renowmed Douglas! whose high deeds,
 30424     Whose hot incursions and great name in arms
 30425     Holds from all soldiers chief majority
 30426     And military title capital
 30427     Through all the kingdoms that acknowledge Christ.
 30428     Thrice hath this Hotspur, Mars in swathling clothes,
 30429     This infant warrior, in his enterprises
 30430     Discomfited great Douglas; ta'en him once,
 30431     Enlarged him, and made a friend of him,
 30432     To fill the mouth of deep defiance up
 30433     And shake the peace and safety of our throne.
 30434     And what say you to this? Percy, Northumberland,
 30435     The Archbishop's Grace of York, Douglas, Mortimer
 30436     Capitulate against us and are up.
 30437     But wherefore do I tell these news to thee
 30438     Why, Harry, do I tell thee of my foes,
 30439     Which art my nearest and dearest enemy'
 30440     Thou that art like enough, through vassal fear,
 30441     Base inclination, and the start of spleen,
 30442     To fight against me under Percy's pay,
 30443     To dog his heels and curtsy at his frowns,
 30444     To show how much thou art degenerate.
 30445   Prince. Do not think so. You shall not find it so.
 30446     And God forgive them that so much have sway'd
 30447     Your Majesty's good thoughts away from me!
 30448     I will redeem all this on Percy's head
 30449     And, in the closing of some glorious day,
 30450     Be bold to tell you that I am your son,
 30451     When I will wear a garment all of blood,
 30452     And stain my favours in a bloody mask,
 30453     Which, wash'd away, shall scour my shame with it.
 30454     And that shall be the day, whene'er it lights,
 30455     That this same child of honour and renown,
 30456     This gallant Hotspur, this all-praised knight,
 30457     And your unthought of Harry chance to meet.
 30458     For every honour sitting on his helm,
 30459     Would they were multitudes, and on my head
 30460     My shames redoubled! For the time will come
 30461     That I shall make this Northern youth exchange
 30462     His glorious deeds for my indignities.
 30463     Percy is but my factor, good my lord,
 30464     To engross up glorious deeds on my behalf;
 30465     And I will call hall to so strict account
 30466     That he shall render every glory up,
 30467     Yea, even the slightest worship of his time,
 30468     Or I will tear the reckoning from his heart.
 30469     This in the name of God I promise here;
 30470     The which if he be pleas'd I shall perform,
 30471     I do beseech your Majesty may salve
 30472     The long-grown wounds of my intemperance.
 30473     If not, the end of life cancels all bands,
 30474     And I will die a hundred thousand deaths
 30475     Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow.
 30476   King. A hundred thousand rebels die in this!
 30477     Thou shalt have charge and sovereign trust herein.
 30478 
 30479                         Enter Blunt.
 30480 
 30481     How now, good Blunt? Thy looks are full of speed.
 30482   Blunt. So hath the business that I come to speak of.
 30483     Lord Mortimer of Scotland hath sent word
 30484     That Douglas and the English rebels met
 30485     The eleventh of this month at Shrewsbury.
 30486     A mighty and a fearful head they are,
 30487     If promises be kept oil every hand,
 30488     As ever off'red foul play in a state.
 30489   King. The Earl of Westmoreland set forth to-day;
 30490     With him my son, Lord John of Lancaster;
 30491     For this advertisement is five days old.
 30492     On Wednesday next, Harry, you shall set forward;
 30493     On Thursday we ourselves will march. Our meeting
 30494     Is Bridgenorth; and, Harry, you shall march
 30495     Through Gloucestershire; by which account,
 30496     Our business valued, some twelve days hence
 30497     Our general forces at Bridgenorth shall meet.
 30498     Our hands are full of business. Let's away.
 30499     Advantage feeds him fat while men delay.            Exeunt.
 30500 
 30501 
 30502 
 30503 
 30504 Scene III.
 30505 Eastcheap. The Boar's Head Tavern.
 30506 
 30507 Enter Falstaff and Bardolph.
 30508 
 30509   Fal. Bardolph, am I not fall'n away vilely since this last action?
 30510     Do I not bate? Do I not dwindle? Why, my skin hangs about me like
 30511     an old lady's loose gown! I am withered like an old apple John.
 30512     Well, I'll repent, and that suddenly, while I am in some liking.
 30513     I shall be out of heart shortly, and then I shall have no
 30514     strength to repent. An I have not forgotten what the inside of a
 30515     church is made of, I am a peppercorn, a brewer's horse. The
 30516     inside of a church! Company, villanous company, hath been the
 30517     spoil of me.
 30518   Bard. Sir John, you are so fretful you cannot live long.
 30519   Fal. Why, there is it! Come, sing me a bawdy song; make me merry. I
 30520     was as virtuously given as a gentleman need to be, virtuous
 30521     enough: swore little, dic'd not above seven times a week, went to
 30522     a bawdy house not above once in a quarter- of an hour, paid money
 30523     that I borrowed- three or four times, lived well, and in good
 30524     compass; and now I live out of all order, out of all compass.
 30525   Bard. Why, you are so fat, Sir John, that you must needs be out of
 30526     all compass- out of all reasonable compass, Sir John.
 30527   Fal. Do thou amend thy face, and I'll amend my life. Thou art our
 30528     admiral, thou bearest the lantern in the poop- but 'tis in the
 30529     nose of thee. Thou art the Knight of the Burning Lamp.
 30530   Bard. Why, Sir John, my face does you no harm.
 30531   Fal. No, I'll be sworn. I make as good use of it as many a man doth
 30532     of a death's-head or a memento mori. I never see thy face but I
 30533     think upon hellfire and Dives that lived in purple; for there he
 30534     is in his robes, burning, burning. if thou wert any way given to
 30535     virtue, I would swear by thy face; my oath should be 'By this
 30536     fire, that's God's angel.' But thou art altogether given over,
 30537     and wert indeed, but for the light in thy face, the son of utter
 30538     darkness. When thou ran'st up Gadshill in the night to catch my
 30539     horse, if I did not think thou hadst been an ignis fatuus or a
 30540     ball of wildfire, there's no purchase in money. O, thou art a
 30541     perpetual triumph, an everlasting bonfire-light! Thou hast saved
 30542     me a thousand marks in links and torches, walking with thee in
 30543     the night betwixt tavern and tavern; but the sack that thou hast
 30544     drunk me would have bought me lights as good cheap at the dearest
 30545     chandler's in Europe. I have maintained that salamander of yours
 30546     with fire any time this two-and-thirty years. God reward me for
 30547     it!
 30548   Bard. 'Sblood, I would my face were in your belly!
 30549   Fal. God-a-mercy! so should I be sure to be heart-burn'd.
 30550 
 30551                           Enter Hostess.
 30552 
 30553     How now, Dame Partlet the hen? Have you enquir'd yet who pick'd
 30554     my pocket?
 30555   Host. Why, Sir John, what do you think, Sir John? Do you think I
 30556     keep thieves in my house? I have search'd, I have enquired, so
 30557     has my husband, man by man, boy by boy, servant by servant. The
 30558     tithe of a hair was never lost in my house before.
 30559   Fal. Ye lie, hostess. Bardolph was shav'd and lost many a hair, and
 30560     I'll be sworn my pocket was pick'd. Go to, you are a woman, go!
 30561   Host. Who, I? No; I defy thee! God's light, I was never call'd so
 30562     in mine own house before!
 30563   Fal. Go to, I know you well enough.
 30564   Host. No, Sir John; you do not know me, Sir John. I know you, Sir
 30565     John. You owe me money, Sir John, and now you pick a quarrel to
 30566     beguile me of it. I bought you a dozen of shirts to your back.
 30567   Fal. Dowlas, filthy dowlas! I have given them away to bakers'
 30568     wives; they have made bolters of them.
 30569   Host. Now, as I am a true woman, holland of eight shillings an ell.
 30570     You owe money here besides, Sir John, for your diet and
 30571     by-drinkings, and money lent you, four-and-twenty pound.
 30572   Fal. He had his part of it; let him pay.
 30573   Host. He? Alas, he is poor; he hath nothing.
 30574   Fal. How? Poor? Look upon his face. What call you rich? Let them
 30575     coin his nose, let them coin his cheeks. I'll not pay a denier.
 30576     What, will you make a younker of me? Shall I not take mine ease
 30577     in mine inn but I shall have my pocket pick'd? I have lost a
 30578     seal-ring of my grandfather's worth forty mark.
 30579   Host. O Jesu, I have heard the Prince tell him, I know not how oft,
 30580     that that ring was copper!
 30581   Fal. How? the Prince is a Jack, a sneak-cup. 'Sblood, an he were
 30582     here, I would cudgel him like a dog if he would say so.
 30583 
 30584       Enter the Prince [and Poins], marching; and Falstaff meets
 30585           them, playing upon his truncheon like a fife.
 30586 
 30587     How now, lad? Is the wind in that door, i' faith? Must we all
 30588     march?
 30589   Bard. Yea, two and two, Newgate fashion.
 30590   Host. My lord, I pray you hear me.
 30591   Prince. What say'st thou, Mistress Quickly? How doth thy husband?
 30592     I love him well; he is an honest man.
 30593   Host. Good my lord, hear me.
 30594   Fal. Prithee let her alone and list to me.
 30595   Prince. What say'st thou, Jack?
 30596   Fal. The other night I fell asleep here behind the arras and had my
 30597     pocket pick'd. This house is turn'd bawdy house; they pick
 30598     pockets.
 30599   Prince. What didst thou lose, Jack?
 30600   Fal. Wilt thou believe me, Hal? Three or four bonds of forty pound
 30601     apiece and a seal-ring of my grandfather's.
 30602   Prince. A trifle, some eightpenny matter.
 30603   Host. So I told him, my lord, and I said I heard your Grace say so;
 30604     and, my lord, he speaks most vilely of you, like a foul-mouth'd
 30605     man as he is, and said he would cudgel you.
 30606   Prince. What! he did not?
 30607   Host. There's neither faith, truth, nor womanhood in me else.
 30608   Fal. There's no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune, nor no
 30609     more truth in thee than in a drawn fox; and for woman-hood, Maid
 30610     Marian may be the deputy's wife of the ward to thee. Go, you
 30611     thing, go!
 30612   Host. Say, what thing? what thing?
 30613   Fal. What thing? Why, a thing to thank God on.
 30614   Host. I am no thing to thank God on, I would thou shouldst know it!
 30615     I am an honest man's wife, and, setting thy knight-hood aside,
 30616     thou art a knave to call me so.
 30617   Fal. Setting thy womanhood aside, thou art a beast to say
 30618     otherwise.
 30619   Host. Say, what beast, thou knave, thou?
 30620   Fal. What beast? Why, an otter.
 30621   Prince. An otter, Sir John? Why an otter?
 30622   Fal. Why, she's neither fish nor flesh; a man knows not where to
 30623     have her.
 30624   Host. Thou art an unjust man in saying so. Thou or any man knows
 30625     where to have me, thou knave, thou!
 30626   Prince. Thou say'st true, hostess, and he slanders thee most
 30627     grossly.
 30628   Host. So he doth you, my lord, and said this other day you ought
 30629     him a thousand pound.
 30630   Prince. Sirrah, do I owe you a thousand pound?
 30631   Fal. A thousand pound, Hal? A million! Thy love is worth a million;
 30632     thou owest me thy love.
 30633   Host. Nay, my lord, he call'd you Jack and said he would cudgel
 30634     you.
 30635   Fal. Did I, Bardolph?
 30636   Bard. Indeed, Sir John, you said so.
 30637   Fal. Yea. if he said my ring was copper.
 30638   Prince. I say, 'tis copper. Darest thou be as good as thy word now?
 30639   Fal. Why, Hal, thou knowest, as thou art but man, I dare; but as
 30640     thou art Prince, I fear thee as I fear the roaring of the lion's
 30641     whelp.
 30642   Prince. And why not as the lion?
 30643   Fal. The King himself is to be feared as the lion. Dost thou think
 30644     I'll fear thee as I fear thy father? Nay, an I do, I pray God my
 30645     girdle break.
 30646   Prince. O, if it should, how would thy guts fall about thy knees!
 30647     But, sirrah, there's no room for faith, truth, nor honesty in
 30648     this bosom of thine. It is all fill'd up with guts and midriff.
 30649     Charge an honest woman with picking thy pocket? Why, thou
 30650     whoreson, impudent, emboss'd rascal, if there were anything in
 30651     thy pocket but tavern reckonings, memorandums of bawdy houses,
 30652     and one poor pennyworth of sugar candy to make thee long-winded-
 30653     if thy pocket were enrich'd with any other injuries but these, I
 30654     am a villain. And yet you will stand to it; you will not pocket
 30655     up wrong. Art thou not ashamed?
 30656   Fal. Dost thou hear, Hal? Thou knowest in the state of innocency
 30657     Adam fell; and what should poor Jack Falstaff do in the days of
 30658     villany? Thou seest I have more flesh than another man, and
 30659     therefore more frailty. You confess then, you pick'd my pocket?
 30660   Prince. It appears so by the story.
 30661   Fal. Hostess, I forgive thee. Go make ready breakfast. Love thy
 30662     husband, look to thy servants, cherish thy guests. Thou shalt
 30663     find me tractable to any honest reason. Thou seest I am pacified.
 30664     -Still?- Nay, prithee be gone. [Exit Hostess.] Now, Hal, to the
 30665     news at court. For the robbery, lad- how is that answered?
 30666   Prince. O my sweet beef, I must still be good angel to thee.
 30667     The money is paid back again.
 30668   Fal. O, I do not like that paying back! 'Tis a double labour.
 30669   Prince. I am good friends with my father, and may do anything.
 30670   Fal. Rob me the exchequer the first thing thou doest, and do it
 30671     with unwash'd hands too.
 30672   Bard. Do, my lord.
 30673   Prince. I have procured thee, Jack, a charge of foot.
 30674   Fal. I would it had been of horse. Where shall I find one that can
 30675     steal well? O for a fine thief of the age of two-and-twenty or
 30676     thereabouts! I am heinously unprovided. Well, God be thanked for
 30677     these rebels. They offend none but the virtuous. I laud them, I
 30678     praise them.
 30679   Prince. Bardolph!
 30680   Bard. My lord?
 30681   Prince. Go bear this letter to Lord John of Lancaster,
 30682     To my brother John; this to my Lord of Westmoreland.
 30683                                                 [Exit Bardolph.]
 30684     Go, Poins, to horse, to horse; for thou and I
 30685     Have thirty miles to ride yet ere dinner time.
 30686                                                    [Exit Poins.]
 30687     Jack, meet me to-morrow in the Temple Hall
 30688     At two o'clock in the afternoon.
 30689     There shalt thou know thy charge. and there receive
 30690     Money and order for their furniture.
 30691     The land is burning; Percy stands on high;
 30692     And either they or we must lower lie.                [Exit.]
 30693   Fal. Rare words! brave world! Hostess, my breakfast, come.
 30694     O, I could wish this tavern were my drum!
 30695 Exit.
 30696 
 30697 
 30698 
 30699 
 30700 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 30701 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 30702 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 30703 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 30704 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 30705 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 30706 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 30707 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 30708 
 30709 
 30710 
 30711 ACT IV. Scene I.
 30712 The rebel camp near Shrewsbury.
 30713 
 30714 Enter Harry Hotspur, Worcester, and Douglas.
 30715 
 30716   Hot. Well said, my noble Scot. If speaking truth
 30717     In this fine age were not thought flattery,
 30718     Such attribution should the Douglas have
 30719     As not a soldier of this season's stamp
 30720     Should go so general current through the world.
 30721     By God, I cannot flatter, I defy
 30722     The tongues of soothers! but a braver place
 30723     In my heart's love hath no man than yourself.
 30724     Nay, task me to my word; approve me, lord.
 30725   Doug. Thou art the king of honour.
 30726     No man so potent breathes upon the ground
 30727     But I will beard him.
 30728 
 30729                      Enter one with letters.
 30730 
 30731   Hot. Do so, and 'tis well.-
 30732     What letters hast thou there?- I can but thank you.
 30733   Messenger. These letters come from your father.
 30734   Hot. Letters from him? Why comes he not himself?
 30735   Mess. He cannot come, my lord; he is grievous sick.
 30736   Hot. Zounds! how has he the leisure to be sick
 30737     In such a justling time? Who leads his power?
 30738     Under whose government come they along?
 30739   Mess. His letters bears his mind, not I, my lord.
 30740   Wor. I prithee tell me, doth he keep his bed?
 30741   Mess. He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth,
 30742     And at the time of my departure thence
 30743     He was much fear'd by his physicians.
 30744   Wor. I would the state of time had first been whole
 30745     Ere he by sickness had been visited.
 30746     His health was never better worth than now.
 30747   Hot. Sick now? droop now? This sickness doth infect
 30748     The very lifeblood of our enterprise.
 30749     'Tis catching hither, even to our camp.
 30750     He writes me here that inward sickness-
 30751     And that his friends by deputation could not
 30752     So soon be drawn; no did he think it meet
 30753     To lay so dangerous and dear a trust
 30754     On any soul remov'd but on his own.
 30755     Yet doth he give us bold advertisement,
 30756     That with our small conjunction we should on,
 30757     To see how fortune is dispos'd to us;
 30758     For, as he writes, there is no quailing now,
 30759     Because the King is certainly possess'd
 30760     Of all our purposes. What say you to it?
 30761   Wor. Your father's sickness is a maim to us.
 30762   Hot. A perilous gash, a very limb lopp'd off.
 30763     And yet, in faith, it is not! His present want
 30764     Seems more than we shall find it. Were it good
 30765     To set the exact wealth of all our states
 30766     All at one cast? to set so rich a man
 30767     On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?
 30768     It were not good; for therein should we read
 30769     The very bottom and the soul of hope,
 30770     The very list, the very utmost bound
 30771     Of all our fortunes.
 30772   Doug. Faith, and so we should;
 30773     Where now remains a sweet reversion.
 30774     We may boldly spend upon the hope of what
 30775     Is to come in.
 30776     A comfort of retirement lives in this.
 30777   Hot. A rendezvous, a home to fly unto,
 30778     If that the devil and mischance look big
 30779     Upon the maidenhead of our affairs.
 30780   Wor. But yet I would your father had been here.
 30781     The quality and hair of our attempt
 30782     Brooks no division. It will be thought
 30783     By some that know not why he is away,
 30784     That wisdom, loyalty, and mere dislike
 30785     Of our proceedings kept the Earl from hence.
 30786     And think how such an apprehension
 30787     May turn the tide of fearful faction
 30788     And breed a kind of question in our cause.
 30789     For well you know we of the off'ring side
 30790     Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement,
 30791     And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence
 30792     The eye of reason may pry in upon us.
 30793     This absence of your father's draws a curtain
 30794     That shows the ignorant a kind of fear
 30795     Before not dreamt of.
 30796   Hot. You strain too far.
 30797     I rather of his absence make this use:
 30798     It lends a lustre and more great opinion,
 30799     A larger dare to our great enterprise,
 30800     Than if the Earl were here; for men must think,
 30801     If we, without his help, can make a head
 30802     To push against a kingdom, with his help
 30803     We shall o'erturn it topsy-turvy down.
 30804     Yet all goes well; yet all our joints are whole.
 30805   Doug. As heart can think. There is not such a word
 30806     Spoke of in Scotland as this term of fear.
 30807 
 30808                  Enter Sir Richard Vernon.
 30809 
 30810   Hot. My cousin Vernon! welcome, by my soul.
 30811   Ver. Pray God my news be worth a welcome, lord.
 30812     The Earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong,
 30813     Is marching hitherwards; with him Prince John.
 30814   Hot. No harm. What more?
 30815   Ver. And further, I have learn'd
 30816     The King himself in person is set forth,
 30817     Or hitherwards intended speedily,
 30818     With strong and mighty preparation.
 30819   Hot. He shall be welcome too. Where is his son,
 30820     The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales,
 30821     And his comrades, that daff'd the world aside
 30822     And bid it pass?
 30823   Ver. All furnish'd, all in arms;
 30824     All plum'd like estridges that with the wind
 30825     Bated like eagles having lately bath'd;
 30826     Glittering in golden coats like images;
 30827     As full of spirit as the month of May
 30828     And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer;
 30829     Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.
 30830     I saw young Harry with his beaver on
 30831     His cushes on his thighs, gallantly arm'd,
 30832     Rise from the ground like feathered Mercury,
 30833     And vaulted with such ease into his seat
 30834     As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds
 30835     To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus
 30836     And witch the world with noble horsemanship.
 30837   Hot. No more, no more! Worse than the sun in March,
 30838     This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come.
 30839     They come like sacrifices in their trim,
 30840     And to the fire-ey'd maid of smoky war
 30841     All hot and bleeding Will we offer them.
 30842     The mailed Mars Shall on his altar sit
 30843     Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire
 30844     To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh,
 30845     And yet not ours. Come, let me taste my horse,
 30846     Who is to bear me like a thunderbolt
 30847     Against the bosom of the Prince of Wales.
 30848     Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse,
 30849     Meet, and ne'er part till one drop down a corse.
 30850     that Glendower were come!
 30851   Ver. There is more news.
 30852     I learn'd in Worcester, as I rode along,
 30853     He cannot draw his power this fourteen days.
 30854   Doug. That's the worst tidings that I hear of yet.
 30855   Wor. Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound.
 30856   Hot. What may the King's whole battle reach unto?
 30857   Ver. To thirty thousand.
 30858   Hot. Forty let it be.
 30859     My father and Glendower being both away,
 30860     The powers of us may serve so great a day.
 30861     Come, let us take a muster speedily.
 30862     Doomsday is near. Die all, die merrily.
 30863   Doug. Talk not of dying. I am out of fear
 30864     Of death or death's hand for this one half-year.
 30865                                                          Exeunt.
 30866 
 30867 
 30868 
 30869 
 30870 Scene II.
 30871 A public road near Coventry.
 30872 
 30873 Enter Falstaff and Bardolph.
 30874 
 30875   Fal. Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry; fill me a bottle of
 30876     sack. Our soldiers shall march through. We'll to Sutton Co'fil'
 30877     to-night.
 30878   Bard. Will you give me money, Captain?
 30879   Fal. Lay out, lay out.
 30880   Bald. This bottle makes an angel.
 30881   Fal. An if it do, take it for thy labour; an if it make twenty,
 30882     take them all; I'll answer the coinage. Bid my lieutenant Peto
 30883     meet me at town's end.
 30884   Bard. I Will, Captain. Farewell.                         Exit.
 30885   Fal. If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a sous'd gurnet. I
 30886     have misused the King's press damnably. I have got in exchange of
 30887     a hundred and fifty soldiers, three hundred and odd pounds. I
 30888     press me none but good householders, yeomen's sons; inquire me
 30889     out contracted bachelors, such as had been ask'd twice on the
 30890     banes- such a commodity of warm slaves as had as lieve hear the
 30891     devil as a drum; such as fear the report of a caliver worse than
 30892     a struck fowl or a hurt wild duck. I press'd me none but such
 30893     toasts-and-butter, with hearts in their bellies no bigger than
 30894     pins' heads, and they have bought out their services; and now my
 30895     whole charge consists of ancients, corporals, lieutenants,
 30896     gentlemen of companies- slaves as ragged as Lazarus in the
 30897     painted cloth, where the glutton's dogs licked his sores; and
 30898     such as indeed were never soldiers, but discarded unjust
 30899     serving-men, younger sons to Younger brothers, revolted tapsters,
 30900     and ostlers trade-fall'n; the cankers of a calm world and a long
 30901     peace; ten times more dishonourable ragged than an old fac'd
 30902     ancient; and such have I to fill up the rooms of them that have
 30903     bought out their services that you would think that I had a
 30904     hundred and fifty tattered Prodigals lately come from
 30905     swine-keeping, from eating draff and husks. A mad fellow met me
 30906     on the way, and told me I had unloaded all the gibbets and
 30907     press'd the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I'll
 30908     not march through Coventry with them, that's flat. Nay, and the
 30909     villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had gyves on;
 30910     for indeed I had the most of them out of prison. There's but a
 30911     shirt and a half in all my company; and the half-shirt is two
 30912     napkins tack'd together and thrown over the shoulders like a
 30913     herald's coat without sleeves; and the shirt, to say the truth,
 30914     stol'n from my host at Saint Alban's, or the red-nose innkeeper
 30915     of Daventry. But that's all one; they'll find linen enough on
 30916     every hedge.
 30917 
 30918               Enter the Prince and the Lord of Westmoreland.
 30919 
 30920   Prince. How now, blown Jack? How now, quilt?
 30921   Fal. What, Hal? How now, mad wag? What a devil dost thou in
 30922     Warwickshire? My good Lord of Westmoreland, I cry you mercy. I
 30923     thought your honour had already been at Shrewsbury.
 30924   West. Faith, Sir John, 'tis more than time that I were there, and
 30925     you too; but my powers are there already. The King, I can tell
 30926     you, looks for us all. We must away all, to-night.
 30927   Fal. Tut, never fear me. I am as vigilant as a cat to steal cream.
 30928   Prince. I think, to steal cream indeed, for thy theft hath already
 30929     made thee butter. But tell me, Jack, whose fellows are these that
 30930     come after?
 30931   Fal. Mine, Hal, mine.
 30932   Prince. I did never see such pitiful rascals.
 30933   Fal. Tut, tut! good enough to toss; food for powder, food for
 30934     powder. They'll fill a pit as well as better. Tush, man, mortal
 30935     men, mortal men.
 30936   West. Ay, but, Sir John, methinks they are exceeding poor and bare-
 30937     too beggarly.
 30938   Fal. Faith, for their poverty, I know, not where they had that; and
 30939     for their bareness, I am surd they never learn'd that of me.
 30940   Prince. No, I'll be sworn, unless you call three fingers on the
 30941     ribs bare. But, sirrah, make haste. Percy 's already in the
 30942     field.
 30943 Exit.
 30944   Fal. What, is the King encamp'd?
 30945   West. He is, Sir John. I fear we shall stay too long.
 30946                                                          [Exit.]
 30947   Fal. Well,
 30948     To the latter end of a fray and the beginning of a feast
 30949     Fits a dull fighter and a keen guest.                  Exit.
 30950 
 30951 
 30952 
 30953 
 30954 Scene III.
 30955 The rebel camp near Shrewsbury.
 30956 
 30957 Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Douglas, Vernon.
 30958 
 30959   Hot. We'll fight with him to-night.
 30960   Wor. It may not be.
 30961   Doug. You give him then advantage.
 30962   Ver. Not a whit.
 30963   Hot. Why say you so? Looks he no for supply?
 30964   Ver. So do we.
 30965   Hot. His is certain, ours 's doubtful.
 30966   Wor. Good cousin, be advis'd; stir not to-night.
 30967   Ver. Do not, my lord.
 30968   Doug. You do not counsel well.
 30969     You speak it out of fear and cold heart.
 30970   Ver. Do me no slander, Douglas. By my life-
 30971     And I dare well maintain it with my life-
 30972     If well-respected honour bid me on
 30973     I hold as little counsel with weak fear
 30974     As you, my lord, or any Scot that this day lives.
 30975     Let it be seen to-morrow in the battle
 30976     Which of us fears.
 30977   Doug. Yea, or to-night.
 30978   Ver. Content.
 30979   Hot. To-night, say I.
 30980     Come, come, it may not be. I wonder much,
 30981     Being men of such great leading as you are,
 30982     That you foresee not what impediments
 30983     Drag back our expedition. Certain horse
 30984     Of my cousin Vernon's are not yet come up.
 30985     Your uncle Worcester's horse came but to-day;
 30986     And now their pride and mettle is asleep,
 30987     Their courage with hard labour tame and dull,
 30988     That not a horse is half the half of himself.
 30989   Hot. So are the horses of the enemy,
 30990     In general journey-bated and brought low.
 30991     The better part of ours are full of rest.
 30992   Wor. The number of the King exceedeth ours.
 30993     For God's sake, cousin, stay till all come in.
 30994 
 30995               The trumpet sounds a parley.
 30996 
 30997                  Enter Sir Walter Blunt.
 30998 
 30999   Blunt. I come with gracious offers from the King,
 31000     If you vouchsafe me hearing and respect.
 31001   Hot. Welcome, Sir Walter Blunt, and would to God
 31002     You were of our determination!
 31003     Some of us love you well; and even those some
 31004     Envy your great deservings and good name,
 31005     Because you are not of our quality,
 31006     But stand against us like an enemy.
 31007   Blunt. And God defend but still I should stand so,
 31008     So long as out of limit and true rule
 31009     You stand against anointed majesty!
 31010     But to my charge. The King hath sent to know
 31011     The nature of your griefs; and whereupon
 31012     You conjure from the breast of civil peace
 31013     Such bold hostility, teaching his duteous land
 31014     Audacious cruelty. If that the King
 31015     Have any way your good deserts forgot,
 31016     Which he confesseth to be manifold,
 31017     He bids you name your griefs, and with all speed
 31018     You shall have your desires with interest,
 31019     And pardon absolute for yourself and these
 31020     Herein misled by your suggestion.
 31021   Hot. The King is kind; and well we know the King
 31022     Knows at what time to promise, when to pay.
 31023     My father and my uncle and myself
 31024     Did give him that same royalty he wears;
 31025     And when he was not six-and-twenty strong,
 31026     Sick in the world's regard, wretched and low,
 31027     A poor unminded outlaw sneaking home,
 31028     My father gave him welcome to the shore;
 31029     And when he heard him swear and vow to God
 31030     He came but to be Duke of Lancaster,
 31031     To sue his livery and beg his peace,
 31032     With tears of innocency and terms of zeal,
 31033     My father, in kind heart and pity mov'd,
 31034     Swore him assistance, and performed it too.
 31035     Now, when the lords and barons of the realm
 31036     Perceiv'd Northumberland did lean to him,
 31037     The more and less came in with cap and knee;
 31038     Met him on boroughs, cities, villages,
 31039     Attended him on bridges, stood in lanes,
 31040     Laid gifts before him, proffer'd him their oaths,
 31041     Give him their heirs as pages, followed him
 31042     Even at the heels in golden multitudes.
 31043     He presently, as greatness knows itself,
 31044     Steps me a little higher than his vow
 31045     Made to my father, while his blood was poor,
 31046     Upon the naked shore at Ravenspurgh;
 31047     And now, forsooth, takes on him to reform
 31048     Some certain edicts and some strait decrees
 31049     That lie too heavy on the commonwealth;
 31050     Cries out upon abuses, seems to weep
 31051     Over his country's wrongs; and by this face,
 31052     This seeming brow of justice, did he win
 31053     The hearts of all that he did angle for;
 31054     Proceeded further- cut me off the heads
 31055     Of all the favourites that the absent King
 31056     In deputation left behind him here
 31057     When he was personal in the Irish war.
 31058     But. Tut! I came not to hear this.
 31059   Hot. Then to the point.
 31060     In short time after lie depos'd the King;
 31061     Soon after that depriv'd him of his life;
 31062     And in the neck of that task'd the whole state;
 31063     To make that worse, suff'red his kinsman March
 31064     (Who is, if every owner were well placid,
 31065     Indeed his king) to be engag'd in Wales,
 31066     There without ransom to lie forfeited;
 31067     Disgrac'd me in my happy victories,
 31068     Sought to entrap me by intelligence;
 31069     Rated mine uncle from the Council board;
 31070     In rage dismiss'd my father from the court;
 31071     Broke an oath on oath, committed wrong on wrong;
 31072     And in conclusion drove us to seek out
 31073     This head of safety, and withal to pry
 31074     Into his title, the which we find
 31075     Too indirect for long continuance.
 31076   Blunt. Shall I return this answer to the King?
 31077   Hot. Not so, Sir Walter. We'll withdraw awhile.
 31078     Go to the King; and let there be impawn'd
 31079     Some surety for a safe return again,
 31080     And In the morning early shall mine uncle
 31081     Bring him our purposes; and so farewell.
 31082   Blunt. I would you would accept of grace and love.
 31083   Hot. And may be so we shall.
 31084   Blunt. Pray God you do.
 31085                                                          Exeunt.
 31086 
 31087 
 31088 
 31089 
 31090 Scene IV.
 31091 York. The Archbishop's Palace.
 31092 
 31093 Enter the Archbishop of York and Sir Michael.
 31094 
 31095   Arch. Hie, good Sir Michael; bear this sealed brief
 31096     With winged haste to the Lord Marshal;
 31097     This to my cousin Scroop; and all the rest
 31098     To whom they are directed. If you knew
 31099     How much they do import, you would make haste.
 31100   Sir M. My good lord,
 31101     I guess their tenour.
 31102   Arch. Like enough you do.
 31103     To-morrow, good Sir Michael, is a day
 31104     Wherein the fortune of ten thousand men
 31105     Must bide the touch; for, sir, at Shrewsbury,
 31106     As I am truly given to understand,
 31107     The King with mighty and quick-raised power
 31108     Meets with Lord Harry; and I fear, Sir Michael,
 31109     What with the sickness of Northumberland,
 31110     Whose power was in the first proportion,
 31111     And what with Owen Glendower's absence thence,
 31112     Who with them was a rated sinew too
 31113     And comes not in, overrul'd by prophecies-
 31114     I fear the power of Percy is too weak
 31115     To wage an instant trial with the King.
 31116   Sir M. Why, my good lord, you need not fear;
 31117     There is Douglas and Lord Mortimer.
 31118   Arch. No, Mortimer is not there.
 31119   Sir M. But there is Mordake, Vernon, Lord Harry Percy,
 31120     And there is my Lord of Worcester, and a head
 31121     Of gallant warriors, noble gentlemen.
 31122   Arch. And so there is; but yet the King hath drawn
 31123     The special head of all the land together-
 31124     The Prince of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster,
 31125     The noble Westmoreland and warlike Blunt,
 31126     And many moe corrivals and dear men
 31127     Of estimation and command in arms.
 31128   Sir M. Doubt not, my lord, they shall be well oppos'd.
 31129   Arch. I hope no less, yet needful 'tis to fear;
 31130     And, to prevent the worst, Sir Michael, speed.
 31131     For if Lord Percy thrive not, ere the King
 31132     Dismiss his power, he means to visit us,
 31133     For he hath heard of our confederacy,
 31134     And 'tis but wisdom to make strong against him.
 31135     Therefore make haste. I must go write again
 31136     To other friends; and so farewell, Sir Michael.
 31137                                                          Exeunt.
 31138 
 31139 
 31140 
 31141 
 31142 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 31143 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 31144 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 31145 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 31146 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 31147 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 31148 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 31149 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 31150 
 31151 
 31152 
 31153 ACT V. Scene I.
 31154 The King's camp near Shrewsbury.
 31155 
 31156 Enter the King, Prince of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster, Sir Walter Blunt,
 31157 Falstaff.
 31158 
 31159   King. How bloodily the sun begins to peer
 31160     Above yon busky hill! The day looks pale
 31161     At his distemp'rature.
 31162   Prince. The southern wind
 31163     Doth play the trumpet to his purposes
 31164     And by his hollow whistling in the leaves
 31165     Foretells a tempest and a blust'ring day.
 31166   King. Theft with the losers let it sympathize,
 31167     For nothing can seem foul to those that win.
 31168 
 31169      The trumpet sounds. Enter Worcester [and Vernon].
 31170 
 31171     How, now, my Lord of Worcester? 'Tis not well
 31172     That you and I should meet upon such terms
 31173     As now we meet. You have deceiv'd our trust
 31174     And made us doff our easy robes of peace
 31175     To crush our old limbs in ungentle steel.
 31176     This is not well, my lord; this is not well.
 31177     What say you to it? Will you again unknit
 31178     This churlish knot of all-abhorred war,
 31179     And move in that obedient orb again
 31180     Where you did give a fair and natural light,
 31181     And be no more an exhal'd meteor,
 31182     A prodigy of fear, and a portent
 31183     Of broached mischief to the unborn times?
 31184   Wor. Hear me, my liege.
 31185     For mine own part, I could be well content
 31186     To entertain the lag-end of my life
 31187     With quiet hours; for I do protest
 31188     I have not sought the day of this dislike.
 31189   King. You have not sought it! How comes it then,
 31190   Fal. Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it.
 31191   Prince. Peace, chewet, peace!
 31192   Wor. It pleas'd your Majesty to turn your looks
 31193     Of favour from myself and all our house;
 31194     And yet I must remember you, my lord,
 31195     We were the first and dearest of your friends.
 31196     For you my staff of office did I break
 31197     In Richard's time, and posted day and night
 31198     To meet you on the way and kiss your hand
 31199     When yet you were in place and in account
 31200     Nothing so strong and fortunate as I.
 31201     It was myself, my brother, and his son
 31202     That brought you home and boldly did outdare
 31203     The dangers of the time. You swore to us,
 31204     And you did swear that oath at Doncaster,
 31205     That you did nothing purpose 'gainst the state,
 31206     Nor claim no further than your new-fall'n right,
 31207     The seat of Gaunt, dukedom of Lancaster.
 31208     To this we swore our aid. But in short space
 31209     It it rain'd down fortune show'ring on your head,
 31210     And such a flood of greatness fell on you-
 31211     What with our help, what with the absent King,
 31212     What with the injuries of a wanton time,
 31213     The seeming sufferances that you had borne,
 31214     And the contrarious winds that held the King
 31215     So long in his unlucky Irish wars
 31216     That all in England did repute him dead-
 31217     And from this swarm of fair advantages
 31218     You took occasion to be quickly woo'd
 31219     To gripe the general sway into your hand;
 31220     Forgot your oath to us at Doncaster;
 31221     And, being fed by us, you us'd us so
 31222     As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird,
 31223     Useth the sparrow- did oppress our nest;
 31224     Grew, by our feeding to so great a bulk
 31225     That even our love thirst not come near your sight
 31226     For fear of swallowing; but with nimble wing
 31227     We were enforc'd for safety sake to fly
 31228     Out of your sight and raise this present head;
 31229     Whereby we stand opposed by such means
 31230     As you yourself have forg'd against yourself
 31231     By unkind usage, dangerous countenance,
 31232     And violation of all faith and troth
 31233     Sworn to tis in your younger enterprise.
 31234   King. These things, indeed, you have articulate,
 31235     Proclaim'd at market crosses, read in churches,
 31236     To face the garment of rebellion
 31237     With some fine colour that may please the eye
 31238     Of fickle changelings and poor discontents,
 31239     Which gape and rub the elbow at the news
 31240     Of hurlyburly innovation.
 31241     And never yet did insurrection want
 31242     Such water colours to impaint his cause,
 31243     Nor moody beggars, starving for a time
 31244     Of pell-mell havoc and confusion.
 31245   Prince. In both our armies there is many a soul
 31246     Shall pay full dearly for this encounter,
 31247     If once they join in trial. Tell your nephew
 31248     The Prince of Wales doth join with all the world
 31249     In praise of Henry Percy. By my hopes,
 31250     This present enterprise set off his head,
 31251     I do not think a braver gentleman,
 31252     More active-valiant or more valiant-young,
 31253     More daring or more bold, is now alive
 31254     To grace this latter age with noble deeds.
 31255     For my part, I may speak it to my shame,
 31256     I have a truant been to chivalry;
 31257     And so I hear he doth account me too.
 31258     Yet this before my father's Majesty-
 31259     I am content that he shall take the odds
 31260     Of his great name and estimation,
 31261     And will to save the blood on either side,
 31262     Try fortune with him in a single fight.
 31263   King. And, Prince of Wales, so dare we venture thee,
 31264     Albeit considerations infinite
 31265     Do make against it. No, good Worcester, no!
 31266     We love our people well; even those we love
 31267     That are misled upon your cousin's part;
 31268     And, will they take the offer of our grace,
 31269     Both he, and they, and you, yea, every man
 31270     Shall be my friend again, and I'll be his.
 31271     So tell your cousin, and bring me word
 31272     What he will do. But if he will not yield,
 31273     Rebuke and dread correction wait on us,
 31274     And they shall do their office. So be gone.
 31275     We will not now be troubled with reply.
 31276     We offer fair; take it advisedly.
 31277                                     Exit Worcester [with Vernon]
 31278   Prince. It will not be accepted, on my life.
 31279     The Douglas and the Hotspur both together
 31280     Are confident against the world in arms.
 31281   King. Hence, therefore, every leader to his charge;
 31282     For, on their answer, will we set on them,
 31283     And God befriend us as our cause is just!
 31284                                 Exeunt. Manent Prince, Falstaff.
 31285   Fal. Hal, if thou see me down in the battle and bestride me, so!
 31286     'Tis a point of friendship.
 31287   Prince. Nothing but a Colossus can do thee that friendship.
 31288     Say thy prayers, and farewell.
 31289   Fal. I would 'twere bedtime, Hal, and all well.
 31290   Prince. Why, thou owest God a death.
 31291 Exit.
 31292   Fal. 'Tis not due yet. I would be loath to pay him before his day.
 31293     What need I be so forward with him that calls not on me? Well,
 31294     'tis no matter; honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick
 31295     me off when I come on? How then? Can honor set to a leg? No. Or
 31296     an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honour hath no
 31297     skill in surgery then? No. What is honour? A word. What is that
 31298     word honour? Air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? He that died a
 31299     Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth be bear it? No. 'Tis
 31300     insensible then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the
 31301     living? No. Why? Detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I'll
 31302     none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon- and so ends my catechism.
 31303 Exit.
 31304 
 31305 
 31306 
 31307 
 31308 Scene II.
 31309 The rebel camp.
 31310 
 31311 Enter Worcester and Sir Richard Vernon.
 31312 
 31313   Wor. O no, my nephew must not know, Sir Richard,
 31314     The liberal and kind offer of the King.
 31315   Ver. 'Twere best he did.
 31316   Wor. Then are we all undone.
 31317     It is not possible, it cannot be
 31318     The King should keep his word in loving us.
 31319     He will suspect us still and find a time
 31320     To punish this offence in other faults.
 31321     Suspicion all our lives shall be stuck full of eyes;
 31322     For treason is but trusted like the fox
 31323     Who, ne'er so tame, so cherish'd and lock'd up,
 31324     Will have a wild trick of his ancestors.
 31325     Look how we can, or sad or merrily,
 31326     Interpretation will misquote our looks,
 31327     And we shall feed like oxen at a stall,
 31328     The better cherish'd, still the nearer death.
 31329     My nephew's trespass may be well forgot;
 31330     It hath the excuse of youth and heat of blood,
 31331     And an adopted name of privilege-
 31332     A hare-brained Hotspur govern'd by a spleen.
 31333     All his offences live upon my head
 31334     And on his father's. We did train him on;
 31335     And, his corruption being taken from us,
 31336     We, as the spring of all, shall pay for all.
 31337     Therefore, good cousin, let not Harry know,
 31338     In any case, the offer of the King.
 31339 
 31340                Enter Hotspur [and Douglas].
 31341 
 31342   Ver. Deliver what you will, I'll say 'tis so.
 31343     Here comes your cousin.
 31344   Hot. My uncle is return'd.
 31345     Deliver up my Lord of Westmoreland.
 31346     Uncle, what news?
 31347   Wor. The King will bid you battle presently.
 31348   Doug. Defy him by the Lord Of Westmoreland.
 31349   Hot. Lord Douglas, go you and tell him so.
 31350   Doug. Marry, and shall, and very willingly.
 31351 Exit.
 31352   Wor. There is no seeming mercy in the King.
 31353   Hot. Did you beg any, God forbid!
 31354   Wor. I told him gently of our grievances,
 31355     Of his oath-breaking; which he mended thus,
 31356     By now forswearing that he is forsworn.
 31357     He calls us rebels, traitors, aid will scourge
 31358     With haughty arms this hateful name in us.
 31359 
 31360                        Enter Douglas.
 31361 
 31362   Doug. Arm, gentlemen! to arms! for I have thrown
 31363     A brave defiance in King Henry's teeth,
 31364     And Westmoreland, that was engag'd, did bear it;
 31365     Which cannot choose but bring him quickly on.
 31366   Wor. The Prince of Wales stepp'd forth before the King
 31367     And, nephew, challeng'd you to single fight.
 31368   Hot. O, would the quarrel lay upon our heads,
 31369     And that no man might draw short breath to-day
 31370     But I and Harry Monmouth! Tell me, tell me,
 31371     How show'd his tasking? Seem'd it in contempt?
 31372     No, by my soul. I never in my life
 31373     Did hear a challenge urg'd more modestly,
 31374     Unless a brother should a brother dare
 31375     To gentle exercise and proof of arms.
 31376     He gave you all the duties of a man;
 31377     Trimm'd up your praises with a princely tongue;
 31378     Spoke your deservings like a chronicle;
 31379     Making you ever better than his praise
 31380     By still dispraising praise valued with you;
 31381     And, which became him like a prince indeed,
 31382     He made a blushing cital of himself,
 31383     And chid his truant youth with such a grace
 31384     As if lie mast'red there a double spirit
 31385     Of teaching and of learning instantly.
 31386     There did he pause; but let me tell the world,
 31387     If he outlive the envy of this day,
 31388     England did never owe so sweet a hope,
 31389     So much misconstrued in his wantonness.
 31390   Hot. Cousin, I think thou art enamoured
 31391     Upon his follies. Never did I hear
 31392     Of any prince so wild a libertine.
 31393     But be he as he will, yet once ere night
 31394     I will embrace him with a soldier's arm,
 31395     That he shall shrink under my courtesy.
 31396     Arm, arm with speed! and, fellows, soldiers, friends,
 31397     Better consider what you have to do
 31398     Than I, that have not well the gift of tongue,
 31399     Can lift your blood up with persuasion.
 31400 
 31401                        Enter a Messenger.
 31402 
 31403   Mess. My lord, here are letters for you.
 31404   Hot. I cannot read them now.-
 31405     O gentlemen, the time of life is short!
 31406     To spend that shortness basely were too long
 31407     If life did ride upon a dial's point,
 31408     Still ending at the arrival of an hour.
 31409     An if we live, we live to tread on kings;
 31410     If die, brave death, when princes die with us!
 31411     Now for our consciences, the arms are fair,
 31412     When the intent of bearing them is just.
 31413 
 31414                   Enter another Messenger.
 31415 
 31416   Mess. My lord, prepare. The King comes on apace.
 31417   Hot. I thank him that he cuts me from my tale,
 31418     For I profess not talking. Only this-
 31419     Let each man do his best; and here draw I
 31420     A sword whose temper I intend to stain
 31421     With the best blood that I can meet withal
 31422     In the adventure of this perilous day.
 31423     Now, Esperance! Percy! and set on.
 31424     Sound all the lofty instruments of war,
 31425     And by that music let us all embrace;
 31426     For, heaven to earth, some of us never shall
 31427     A second time do such a courtesy.
 31428                           Here they embrace. The trumpets sound.
 31429                                                        [Exeunt.]
 31430 
 31431 
 31432 
 31433 
 31434 Scene III.
 31435 Plain between the camps.
 31436 
 31437 The King enters with his Power.  Alarum to the battle.  Then enter Douglas
 31438 and Sir Walter Blunt.
 31439 
 31440   Blunt. What is thy name, that in the battle thus
 31441     Thou crossest me? What honour dost thou seek
 31442     Upon my head?
 31443   Doug. Know then my name is Douglas,
 31444     And I do haunt thee in the battle thus
 31445     Because some tell me that thou art a king.
 31446   Blunt. They tell thee true.
 31447   Doug. The Lord of Stafford dear to-day hath bought
 31448     Thy likeness; for instead of thee, King Harry,
 31449     This sword hath ended him. So shall it thee,
 31450     Unless thou yield thee as my prisoner.
 31451   Blunt. I was not born a yielder, thou proud Scot;
 31452     And thou shalt find a king that will revenge
 31453     Lord Stafford's death.
 31454 
 31455     They fight. Douglas kills Blunt. Then enter Hotspur.
 31456 
 31457   Hot. O Douglas, hadst thou fought at Holmedon thus,
 31458     I never had triumph'd upon a Scot.
 31459   Doug. All's done, all's won. Here breathless lies the King.
 31460   Hot. Where?
 31461   Doug. Here.
 31462   Hot. This, Douglas? No. I know this face full well.
 31463     A gallant knight he was, his name was Blunt;
 31464     Semblably furnish'd like the King himself.
 31465   Doug. A fool go with thy soul, whither it goes!
 31466     A borrowed title hast thou bought too dear:
 31467     Why didst thou tell me that thou wert a king?
 31468   Hot. The King hath many marching in his coats.
 31469   Doug. Now, by my sword, I will kill all his coats;
 31470     I'll murder all his wardrop, piece by piece,
 31471     Until I meet the King.
 31472   Hot. Up and away!
 31473     Our soldiers stand full fairly for the day.
 31474                                                          Exeunt.
 31475 
 31476                  Alarum. Enter Falstaff solus.
 31477 
 31478   Fal. Though I could scape shot-free at London, I fear the shot
 31479     here. Here's no scoring but upon the pate. Soft! who are you?
 31480     Sir Walter Blunt. There's honour for you! Here's no vanity! I am
 31481     as hot as molten lead, and as heavy too. God keep lead out of me!
 31482     I need no more weight than mine own bowels. I have led my
 31483     rag-of-muffins where they are pepper'd. There's not three of my
 31484     hundred and fifty left alive; and they are for the town's end, to
 31485     beg during life. But who comes here?
 31486 
 31487                          Enter the Prince.
 31488 
 31489   Prince. What, stand'st thou idle here? Lend me thy sword.
 31490     Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff
 31491     Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies,
 31492     Whose deaths are yet unreveng'd. I prithee
 31493     Rend me thy sword.
 31494   Fal. O Hal, I prithee give me leave to breathe awhile. Turk Gregory
 31495     never did such deeds in arms as I have done this day. I have paid
 31496     Percy; I have made him sure.
 31497   Prince. He is indeed, and living to kill thee.
 31498     I prithee lend me thy sword.
 31499   Fal. Nay, before God, Hal, if Percy be alive, thou get'st not my
 31500     sword; but take my pistol, if thou wilt.
 31501   Prince. Give it me. What, is it in the case?
 31502   Fal. Ay, Hal. 'Tis hot, 'tis hot. There's that will sack a city.
 31503 
 31504     The Prince draws it out and finds it to he a bottle of sack.
 31505 
 31506     What, is it a time to jest and dally now?
 31507                               He throws the bottle at him. Exit.
 31508   Fal. Well, if Percy be alive, I'll pierce him. If he do come in my
 31509     way, so; if he do not, if I come in his willingly, let him make a
 31510     carbonado of me. I like not such grinning honour as Sir Walter
 31511     hath. Give me life; which if I can save, so; if not, honour comes
 31512     unlook'd for, and there's an end.                      Exit.
 31513 
 31514 
 31515 
 31516 
 31517 Scene IV.
 31518 Another part of the field.
 31519 
 31520 Alarum. Excursions. Enter the King, the Prince, Lord John of Lancaster,
 31521 Earl of Westmoreland
 31522 
 31523   King. I prithee,
 31524     Harry, withdraw thyself; thou bleedest too much.
 31525     Lord John of Lancaster, go you unto him.
 31526   John. Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too.
 31527   Prince. I do beseech your Majesty make up,
 31528     Lest Your retirement do amaze your friends.
 31529   King. I will do so.
 31530     My Lord of Westmoreland, lead him to his tent.
 31531   West. Come, my lord, I'll lead you to your tent.
 31532   Prince. Lead me, my lord, I do not need your help;
 31533     And God forbid a shallow scratch should drive
 31534     The Prince of Wales from such a field as this,
 31535     Where stain'd nobility lies trodden on,
 31536     And rebels' arms triumph in massacres!
 31537   John. We breathe too long. Come, cousin Westmoreland,
 31538     Our duty this way lies. For God's sake, come.
 31539                           [Exeunt Prince John and Westmoreland.]
 31540   Prince. By God, thou hast deceiv'd me, Lancaster!
 31541     I did not think thee lord of such a spirit.
 31542     Before, I lov'd thee as a brother, John;
 31543     But now, I do respect thee as my soul.
 31544   King. I saw him hold Lord Percy at the point
 31545     With lustier maintenance than I did look for
 31546     Of such an ungrown warrior.
 31547   Prince. O, this boy
 31548     Lends mettle to us all!                                Exit.
 31549 
 31550                          Enter Douglas.
 31551 
 31552   Doug. Another king? They grow like Hydra's heads.
 31553     I am the Douglas, fatal to all those
 31554     That wear those colours on them. What art thou
 31555     That counterfeit'st the person of a king?
 31556   King. The King himself, who, Douglas, grieves at heart
 31557     So many of his shadows thou hast met,
 31558     And not the very King. I have two boys
 31559     Seek Percy and thyself about the field;
 31560     But, seeing thou fall'st on me so luckily,
 31561     I will assay thee. So defend thyself.
 31562   Doug. I fear thou art another counterfeit;
 31563     And yet, in faith, thou bearest thee like a king.
 31564     But mine I am sure thou art, whoe'er thou be,
 31565     And thus I win thee.
 31566 
 31567    They fight. The King being in danger, enter Prince of Wales.
 31568 
 31569   Prince. Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like
 31570     Never to hold it up again! The spirits
 31571     Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt are in my arms.
 31572     It is the Prince of Wales that threatens thee,
 31573     Who never promiseth but he means to pay.
 31574                                      They fight. Douglas flieth.
 31575     Cheerly, my lord. How fares your Grace?
 31576     Sir Nicholas Gawsey hath for succour sent,
 31577     And so hath Clifton. I'll to Clifton straight.
 31578   King. Stay and breathe awhile.
 31579     Thou hast redeem'd thy lost opinion,
 31580     And show'd thou mak'st some tender of my life,
 31581     In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me.
 31582   Prince. O God! they did me too much injury
 31583     That ever said I heark'ned for your death.
 31584     If it were so, I might have let alone
 31585     The insulting hand of Douglas over you,
 31586     Which would have been as speedy in your end
 31587     As all the poisonous potions in the world,
 31588     And sav'd the treacherous labour of your son.
 31589   King. Make up to Clifton; I'll to Sir Nicholas Gawsey.
 31590 Exit.
 31591 
 31592                       Enter Hotspur.
 31593 
 31594   Hot. If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth.
 31595   Prince. Thou speak'st as if I would deny my name.
 31596   Hot. My name is Harry Percy.
 31597   Prince. Why, then I see
 31598     A very valiant rebel of the name.
 31599     I am the Prince of Wales; and think not, Percy,
 31600     To share with me in glory any more.
 31601     Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere,
 31602     Nor can one England brook a double reign
 31603     Of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales.
 31604   Hot. Nor shall it, Harry; for the hour is come
 31605     To end the one of us and would to God
 31606     Thy name in arms were now as great as mine!
 31607   Prince. I'll make it greater ere I part from thee,
 31608     And all the budding honours on thy crest
 31609     I'll crop to make a garland for my head.
 31610   Hot. I can no longer brook thy vanities.
 31611                                                      They fight.
 31612 
 31613                       Enter Falstaff.
 31614 
 31615   Fal. Well said, Hal! to it, Hal! Nay, you shall find no boy's play
 31616     here, I can tell you.
 31617 
 31618    Enter Douglas. He fighteth with Falstaff, who falls down as if
 31619       he were dead. [Exit Douglas.] The Prince killeth Percy.
 31620 
 31621   Hot. O Harry, thou hast robb'd me of my youth!
 31622     I better brook the loss of brittle life
 31623     Than those proud titles thou hast won of me.
 31624     They wound my thoughts worse than thy sword my flesh.
 31625     But thoughts the slave, of life, and life time's fool,
 31626     And time, that takes survey of all the world,
 31627     Must have a stop. O, I could prophesy,
 31628     But that the earthy and cold hand of death
 31629     Lies on my tongue. No, Percy, thou art dust,
 31630     And food for-                                        [Dies.]
 31631   Prince. For worms, brave Percy. Fare thee well, great heart!
 31632     Ill-weav'd ambition, how much art thou shrunk!
 31633     When that this body did contain a spirit,
 31634     A kingdom for it was too small a bound;
 31635     But now two paces of the vilest earth
 31636     Is room enough. This earth that bears thee dead
 31637     Bears not alive so stout a gentleman.
 31638     If thou wert sensible of courtesy,
 31639     I should not make so dear a show of zeal.
 31640     But let my favours hide thy mangled face;
 31641     And, even in thy behalf, I'll thank myself
 31642     For doing these fair rites of tenderness.
 31643     Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven!
 31644     Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave,
 31645     But not rememb'red in thy epitaph!
 31646                                He spieth Falstaff on the ground.
 31647     What, old acquaintance? Could not all this flesh
 31648     Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell!
 31649     I could have better spar'd a better man.
 31650     O, I should have a heavy miss of thee
 31651     If I were much in love with vanity!
 31652     Death hath not struck so fat a deer to-day,
 31653     Though many dearer, in this bloody fray.
 31654     Embowell'd will I see thee by-and-by;
 31655     Till then in blood by noble Percy lie.                 Exit.
 31656 
 31657                      Falstaff riseth up.
 31658 
 31659   Fal. Embowell'd? If thou embowel me to-day, I'll give you leave to
 31660     powder me and eat me too to-morrow. 'Sblood, 'twas time to
 31661     counterfeit, or that hot termagant Scot had paid me scot and lot
 31662     too. Counterfeit? I lie; I am no counterfeit. To die is to be a
 31663     counterfeit; for he is but the counterfeit of a man who hath not
 31664     the life of a man; but to counterfeit dying when a man thereby
 31665     liveth, is to be no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image
 31666     of life indeed. The better part of valour is discretion; in the
 31667     which better part I have saved my life. Zounds, I am afraid of
 31668     this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead. How if he should
 31669     counterfeit too, and rise? By my faith, I am afraid he would
 31670     prove the better counterfeit. Therefore I'll make him sure; yea,
 31671     and I'll swear I kill'd him. Why may not he rise as well as I?
 31672     Nothing confutes me but eyes, and nobody sees me. Therefore,
 31673     sirrah [stabs him], with a new wound in your thigh, come you
 31674     along with me.
 31675 
 31676    He takes up Hotspur on his hack. [Enter Prince, and John of
 31677                             Lancaster.
 31678 
 31679   Prince. Come, brother John; full bravely hast thou flesh'd
 31680     Thy maiden sword.
 31681   John. But, soft! whom have we here?
 31682     Did you not tell me this fat man was dead?
 31683   Prince. I did; I saw him dead,
 31684     Breathless and bleeding on the ground. Art thou alive,
 31685     Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight?
 31686     I prithee speak. We will not trust our eyes
 31687     Without our ears. Thou art not what thou seem'st.
 31688   Fal. No, that's certain! I am not a double man; but if I be not
 31689     Jack Falstaff, then am I a Jack. There 's Percy. If your father
 31690     will do me any honour, so; if not, let him kill the next Percy
 31691     himself. I look to be either earl or duke, I can assure you.
 31692   Prince. Why, Percy I kill'd myself, and saw thee dead!
 31693   Fal. Didst thou? Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying! I
 31694     grant you I was down, and out of breath, and so was he; but we
 31695     rose both at an instant and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury
 31696     clock. If I may be believ'd, so; if not, let them that should
 31697     reward valour bear the sin upon their own heads. I'll take it
 31698     upon my death, I gave him this wound in the thigh. If the man
 31699     were alive and would deny it, zounds! I would make him eat a
 31700     piece of my sword.
 31701   John. This is the strangest tale that ever I beard.
 31702   Prince. This is the strangest fellow, brother John.
 31703     Come, bring your luggage nobly on your back.
 31704     For my part, if a lie may do thee grace,
 31705     I'll gild it with the happiest terms I have.
 31706                                            A retreat is sounded.
 31707     The trumpet sounds retreat; the day is ours.
 31708     Come, brother, let's to the highest of the field,
 31709     To see what friends are living, who are dead.
 31710                           Exeunt [Prince Henry and Prince John].
 31711   Fal. I'll follow, as they say, for reward. He that rewards me, God
 31712     reward him! If I do grow great, I'll grow less; for I'll purge,
 31713     and leave sack, and live cleanly, as a nobleman should do.
 31714                                     Exit [bearing off the body].
 31715 
 31716 
 31717 
 31718 
 31719 Scene V.
 31720 Another part of the field.
 31721 
 31722 The trumpets sound. [Enter the King, Prince of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster,
 31723 Earl of Westmoreland, with Worcester and Vernon prisoners.
 31724 
 31725   King. Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke.
 31726     Ill-spirited Worcester! did not we send grace,
 31727     Pardon, and terms of love to all of you?
 31728     And wouldst thou turn our offers contrary?
 31729     Misuse the tenour of thy kinsman's trust?
 31730     Three knights upon our party slain to-day,
 31731     A noble earl, and many a creature else
 31732     Had been alive this hour,
 31733     If like a Christian thou hadst truly borne
 31734     Betwixt our armies true intelligence.
 31735   Wor. What I have done my safety urg'd me to;
 31736     And I embrace this fortune patiently,
 31737     Since not to be avoided it fails on me.
 31738   King. Bear Worcester to the death, and Vernon too;
 31739     Other offenders we will pause upon.
 31740                          Exeunt Worcester and Vernon, [guarded].
 31741     How goes the field?
 31742   Prince. The noble Scot, Lord Douglas, when he saw
 31743     The fortune of the day quite turn'd from him,
 31744     The Noble Percy slain and all his men
 31745     Upon the foot of fear, fled with the rest;
 31746     And falling from a hill,he was so bruis'd
 31747     That the pursuers took him. At my tent
 31748     The Douglas is, and I beseech Your Grace
 31749     I may dispose of him.
 31750   King. With all my heart.
 31751   Prince. Then brother John of Lancaster, to you
 31752     This honourable bounty shall belong.
 31753     Go to the Douglas and deliver him
 31754     Up to his pleasure, ransomless and free.
 31755     His valour shown upon our crests today
 31756     Hath taught us how to cherish such high deeds,
 31757     Even in the bosom of our adversaries.
 31758   John. I thank your Grace for this high courtesy,
 31759     Which I shall give away immediately.
 31760   King. Then this remains, that we divide our power.
 31761     You, son John, and my cousin Westmoreland,
 31762     Towards York shall bend you with your dearest speed
 31763     To meet Northumberland and the prelate Scroop,
 31764     Who, as we hear, are busily in arms.
 31765     Myself and you, son Harry, will towards Wales
 31766     To fight with Glendower and the Earl of March.
 31767     Rebellion in this laud shall lose his sway,
 31768     Meeting the check of such another day;
 31769     And since this business so fair is done,
 31770     Let us not leave till all our own be won.
 31771                                                          Exeunt.
 31772 
 31773 
 31774 THE END
 31775 
 31776 
 31777 
 31778 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 31779 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 31780 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 31781 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 31782 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 31783 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 31784 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 31785 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 31786 
 31787 
 31788 
 31789 
 31790 
 31791 1598
 31792 
 31793 
 31794 SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV
 31795 
 31796 by William Shakespeare
 31797 
 31798 
 31799 
 31800 Dramatis Personae
 31801 
 31802   RUMOUR, the Presenter
 31803   KING HENRY THE FOURTH
 31804 
 31805   HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES, afterwards HENRY
 31806   PRINCE JOHN OF LANCASTER
 31807   PRINCE HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER
 31808   THOMAS, DUKE OF CLARENCE
 31809     Sons of Henry IV
 31810 
 31811   EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND
 31812   SCROOP, ARCHBISHOP OF YORK
 31813   LORD MOWBRAY
 31814   LORD HASTINGS
 31815   LORD BARDOLPH
 31816   SIR JOHN COLVILLE
 31817   TRAVERS and MORTON, retainers of Northumberland
 31818     Opposites against King Henry IV
 31819 
 31820   EARL OF WARWICK
 31821   EARL OF WESTMORELAND
 31822   EARL OF SURREY
 31823   EARL OF KENT
 31824   GOWER
 31825   HARCOURT
 31826   BLUNT
 31827     Of the King's party
 31828 
 31829   LORD CHIEF JUSTICE
 31830   SERVANT, to Lord Chief Justice
 31831 
 31832   SIR JOHN FALSTAFF
 31833   EDWARD POINS
 31834   BARDOLPH
 31835   PISTOL
 31836   PETO
 31837     Irregular humourists
 31838 
 31839   PAGE, to Falstaff
 31840 
 31841   ROBERT SHALLOW and SILENCE, country Justices
 31842   DAVY, servant to Shallow
 31843 
 31844   FANG and SNARE, Sheriff's officers
 31845 
 31846   RALPH MOULDY
 31847   SIMON SHADOW
 31848   THOMAS WART
 31849   FRANCIS FEEBLE
 31850   PETER BULLCALF
 31851     Country soldiers
 31852 
 31853   FRANCIS, a drawer
 31854 
 31855   LADY NORTHUMBERLAND
 31856   LADY PERCY, Percy's widow
 31857   HOSTESS QUICKLY, of the Boar's Head, Eastcheap
 31858   DOLL TEARSHEET
 31859 
 31860   LORDS, Attendants, Porter, Drawers, Beadles, Grooms, Servants,
 31861     Speaker of the Epilogue
 31862 
 31863                        SCENE: England
 31864 
 31865 INDUCTION
 31866                          INDUCTION.
 31867            Warkworth. Before NORTHUMBERLAND'S Castle
 31868 
 31869             Enter RUMOUR, painted full of tongues
 31870 
 31871   RUMOUR. Open your ears; for which of you will stop
 31872     The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks?
 31873     I, from the orient to the drooping west,
 31874     Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
 31875     The acts commenced on this ball of earth.
 31876     Upon my tongues continual slanders ride,
 31877     The which in every language I pronounce,
 31878     Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.
 31879     I speak of peace while covert emnity,
 31880     Under the smile of safety, wounds the world;
 31881     And who but Rumour, who but only I,
 31882     Make fearful musters and prepar'd defence,
 31883     Whiles the big year, swoln with some other grief,
 31884     Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
 31885     And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe
 31886     Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures,
 31887     And of so easy and so plain a stop
 31888     That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
 31889     The still-discordant wav'ring multitude,
 31890     Can play upon it. But what need I thus
 31891     My well-known body to anatomize
 31892     Among my household? Why is Rumour here?
 31893     I run before King Harry's victory,
 31894     Who, in a bloody field by Shrewsbury,
 31895     Hath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops,
 31896     Quenching the flame of bold rebellion
 31897     Even with the rebels' blood. But what mean I
 31898     To speak so true at first? My office is
 31899     To noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fell
 31900     Under the wrath of noble Hotspur's sword,
 31901     And that the King before the Douglas' rage
 31902     Stoop'd his anointed head as low as death.
 31903     This have I rumour'd through the peasant towns
 31904     Between that royal field of Shrewsbury
 31905     And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone,
 31906     Where Hotspur's father, old Northumberland,
 31907     Lies crafty-sick. The posts come tiring on,
 31908     And not a man of them brings other news
 31909     Than they have learnt of me. From Rumour's tongues
 31910     They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true wrongs.
 31911  Exit
 31912 
 31913 
 31914 
 31915 
 31916 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 31917 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 31918 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 31919 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 31920 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 31921 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 31922 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 31923 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 31924 
 31925 
 31926 
 31927 ACT I. SCENE I.
 31928 Warkworth. Before NORTHUMBERLAND'S Castle
 31929 
 31930 Enter LORD BARDOLPH
 31931 
 31932   LORD BARDOLPH. Who keeps the gate here, ho?
 31933 
 31934                    The PORTER opens the gate
 31935 
 31936     Where is the Earl?
 31937   PORTER. What shall I say you are?
 31938   LORD BARDOLPH. Tell thou the Earl
 31939     That the Lord Bardolph doth attend him here.
 31940   PORTER. His lordship is walk'd forth into the orchard.
 31941     Please it your honour knock but at the gate,
 31942     And he himself will answer.
 31943 
 31944                       Enter NORTHUMBERLAND
 31945 
 31946   LORD BARDOLPH. Here comes the Earl.                Exit PORTER
 31947   NORTHUMBERLAND. What news, Lord Bardolph? Every minute now
 31948     Should be the father of some stratagem.
 31949     The times are wild; contention, like a horse
 31950     Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose
 31951     And bears down all before him.
 31952   LORD BARDOLPH. Noble Earl,
 31953     I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury.
 31954   NORTHUMBERLAND. Good, an God will!
 31955   LORD BARDOLPH. As good as heart can wish.
 31956     The King is almost wounded to the death;
 31957     And, in the fortune of my lord your son,
 31958     Prince Harry slain outright; and both the Blunts
 31959     Kill'd by the hand of Douglas; young Prince John,
 31960     And Westmoreland, and Stafford, fled the field;
 31961     And Harry Monmouth's brawn, the hulk Sir John,
 31962     Is prisoner to your son. O, such a day,
 31963     So fought, so followed, and so fairly won,
 31964     Came not till now to dignify the times,
 31965     Since Cxsar's fortunes!
 31966   NORTHUMBERLAND. How is this deriv'd?
 31967     Saw you the field? Came you from Shrewsbury?
 31968   LORD BARDOLPH. I spake with one, my lord, that came from thence;
 31969     A gentleman well bred and of good name,
 31970     That freely rend'red me these news for true.
 31971 
 31972                          Enter TRAVERS
 31973 
 31974   NORTHUMBERLAND. Here comes my servant Travers, whom I sent
 31975     On Tuesday last to listen after news.
 31976   LORD BARDOLPH. My lord, I over-rode him on the way;
 31977     And he is furnish'd with no certainties
 31978     More than he haply may retail from me.
 31979   NORTHUMBERLAND. Now, Travers, what good tidings comes with you?
 31980   TRAVERS. My lord, Sir John Umfrevile turn'd me back
 31981     With joyful tidings; and, being better hors'd,
 31982     Out-rode me. After him came spurring hard
 31983     A gentleman, almost forspent with speed,
 31984     That stopp'd by me to breathe his bloodied horse.
 31985     He ask'd the way to Chester; and of him
 31986     I did demand what news from Shrewsbury.
 31987     He told me that rebellion had bad luck,
 31988     And that young Harry Percy's spur was cold.
 31989     With that he gave his able horse the head
 31990     And, bending forward, struck his armed heels
 31991     Against the panting sides of his poor jade
 31992     Up to the rowel-head; and starting so,
 31993     He seem'd in running to devour the way,
 31994     Staying no longer question.
 31995   NORTHUMBERLAND. Ha! Again:
 31996     Said he young Harry Percy's spur was cold?
 31997     Of Hotspur, Coldspur? that rebellion
 31998     Had met ill luck?
 31999   LORD BARDOLPH. My lord, I'll tell you what:
 32000     If my young lord your son have not the day,
 32001     Upon mine honour, for a silken point
 32002     I'll give my barony. Never talk of it.
 32003   NORTHUMBERLAND. Why should that gentleman that rode by Travers
 32004     Give then such instances of loss?
 32005   LORD BARDOLPH. Who- he?
 32006     He was some hilding fellow that had stol'n
 32007     The horse he rode on and, upon my life,
 32008     Spoke at a venture. Look, here comes more news.
 32009 
 32010                         Enter Morton
 32011 
 32012   NORTHUMBERLAND. Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-leaf,
 32013     Foretells the nature of a tragic volume.
 32014     So looks the strand whereon the imperious flood
 32015     Hath left a witness'd usurpation.
 32016     Say, Morton, didst thou come from Shrewsbury?
 32017   MORTON. I ran from Shrewsbury, my noble lord;
 32018     Where hateful death put on his ugliest mask
 32019     To fright our party.
 32020   NORTHUMBERLAND. How doth my son and brother?
 32021     Thou tremblest; and the whiteness in thy cheek
 32022     Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand.
 32023     Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,
 32024     So dull, so dread in look, so woe-begone,
 32025     Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night
 32026     And would have told him half his Troy was burnt;
 32027     But Priam found the fire ere he his tongue,
 32028     And I my Percy's death ere thou report'st it.
 32029     This thou wouldst say: 'Your son did thus and thus;
 32030     Your brother thus; so fought the noble Douglas'-
 32031     Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds;
 32032     But in the end, to stop my ear indeed,
 32033     Thou hast a sigh to blow away this praise,
 32034     Ending with 'Brother, son, and all, are dead.'
 32035   MORTON. Douglas is living, and your brother, yet;
 32036     But for my lord your son-
 32037   NORTHUMBERLAND. Why, he is dead.
 32038     See what a ready tongue suspicion hath!
 32039     He that but fears the thing he would not know
 32040     Hath by instinct knowledge from others' eyes
 32041     That what he fear'd is chanced. Yet speak, Morton;
 32042     Tell thou an earl his divination lies,
 32043     And I will take it as a sweet disgrace
 32044     And make thee rich for doing me such wrong.
 32045   MORTON. You are too great to be by me gainsaid;
 32046     Your spirit is too true, your fears too certain.
 32047   NORTHUMBERLAND. Yet, for all this, say not that Percy's dead.
 32048     I see a strange confession in thine eye;
 32049     Thou shak'st thy head, and hold'st it fear or sin
 32050     To speak a truth. If he be slain, say so:
 32051     The tongue offends not that reports his death;
 32052     And he doth sin that doth belie the dead,
 32053     Not he which says the dead is not alive.
 32054     Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
 32055     Hath but a losing office, and his tongue
 32056     Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,
 32057     Rememb'red tolling a departing friend.
 32058   LORD BARDOLPH. I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead.
 32059   MORTON. I am sorry I should force you to believe
 32060     That which I would to God I had not seen;
 32061     But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state,
 32062     Rend'ring faint quittance, wearied and out-breath'd,
 32063     To Harry Monmouth, whose swift wrath beat down
 32064     The never-daunted Percy to the earth,
 32065     From whence with life he never more sprung up.
 32066     In few, his death- whose spirit lent a fire
 32067     Even to the dullest peasant in his camp-
 32068     Being bruited once, took fire and heat away
 32069     From the best-temper'd courage in his troops;
 32070     For from his metal was his party steeled;
 32071     Which once in him abated, an the rest
 32072     Turn'd on themselves, like dull and heavy lead.
 32073     And as the thing that's heavy in itself
 32074     Upon enforcement flies with greatest speed,
 32075     So did our men, heavy in Hotspur's loss,
 32076     Lend to this weight such lightness with their fear
 32077     That arrows fled not swifter toward their aim
 32078     Than did our soldiers, aiming at their safety,
 32079     Fly from the field. Then was that noble Worcester
 32080     Too soon ta'en prisoner; and that furious Scot,
 32081     The bloody Douglas, whose well-labouring sword
 32082     Had three times slain th' appearance of the King,
 32083     Gan vail his stomach and did grace the shame
 32084     Of those that turn'd their backs, and in his flight,
 32085     Stumbling in fear, was took. The sum of all
 32086     Is that the King hath won, and hath sent out
 32087     A speedy power to encounter you, my lord,
 32088     Under the conduct of young Lancaster
 32089     And Westmoreland. This is the news at full.
 32090   NORTHUMBERLAND. For this I shall have time enough to mourn.
 32091     In poison there is physic; and these news,
 32092     Having been well, that would have made me sick,
 32093     Being sick, have in some measure made me well;
 32094     And as the wretch whose fever-weak'ned joints,
 32095     Like strengthless hinges, buckle under life,
 32096     Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire
 32097     Out of his keeper's arms, even so my limbs,
 32098     Weak'ned with grief, being now enrag'd with grief,
 32099     Are thrice themselves. Hence, therefore, thou nice crutch!
 32100     A scaly gauntlet now with joints of steel
 32101     Must glove this hand; and hence, thou sickly coif!
 32102     Thou art a guard too wanton for the head
 32103     Which princes, flesh'd with conquest, aim to hit.
 32104     Now bind my brows with iron; and approach
 32105     The ragged'st hour that time and spite dare bring
 32106     To frown upon th' enrag'd Northumberland!
 32107     Let heaven kiss earth! Now let not Nature's hand
 32108     Keep the wild flood confin'd! Let order die!
 32109     And let this world no longer be a stage
 32110     To feed contention in a ling'ring act;
 32111     But let one spirit of the first-born Cain
 32112     Reign in all bosoms, that, each heart being set
 32113     On bloody courses, the rude scene may end
 32114     And darkness be the burier of the dead!
 32115   LORD BARDOLPH. This strained passion doth you wrong, my lord.
 32116   MORTON. Sweet Earl, divorce not wisdom from your honour.
 32117     The lives of all your loving complices
 32118     Lean on your health; the which, if you give o'er
 32119     To stormy passion, must perforce decay.
 32120     You cast th' event of war, my noble lord,
 32121     And summ'd the account of chance before you said
 32122     'Let us make head.' It was your pre-surmise
 32123     That in the dole of blows your son might drop.
 32124     You knew he walk'd o'er perils on an edge,
 32125     More likely to fall in than to get o'er;
 32126     You were advis'd his flesh was capable
 32127     Of wounds and scars, and that his forward spirit
 32128     Would lift him where most trade of danger rang'd;
 32129     Yet did you say 'Go forth'; and none of this,
 32130     Though strongly apprehended, could restrain
 32131     The stiff-borne action. What hath then befall'n,
 32132     Or what hath this bold enterprise brought forth
 32133     More than that being which was like to be?
 32134   LORD BARDOLPH. We all that are engaged to this loss
 32135     Knew that we ventured on such dangerous seas
 32136     That if we wrought out life 'twas ten to one;
 32137     And yet we ventur'd, for the gain propos'd
 32138     Chok'd the respect of likely peril fear'd;
 32139     And since we are o'erset, venture again.
 32140     Come, we will put forth, body and goods.
 32141   MORTON. 'Tis more than time. And, my most noble lord,
 32142     I hear for certain, and dare speak the truth:
 32143     The gentle Archbishop of York is up
 32144     With well-appointed pow'rs. He is a man
 32145     Who with a double surety binds his followers.
 32146     My lord your son had only but the corpse,
 32147     But shadows and the shows of men, to fight;
 32148     For that same word 'rebellion' did divide
 32149     The action of their bodies from their souls;
 32150     And they did fight with queasiness, constrain'd,
 32151     As men drink potions; that their weapons only
 32152     Seem'd on our side, but for their spirits and souls
 32153     This word 'rebellion'- it had froze them up,
 32154     As fish are in a pond. But now the Bishop
 32155     Turns insurrection to religion.
 32156     Suppos'd sincere and holy in his thoughts,
 32157     He's follow'd both with body and with mind;
 32158     And doth enlarge his rising with the blood
 32159     Of fair King Richard, scrap'd from Pomfret stones;
 32160     Derives from heaven his quarrel and his cause;
 32161     Tells them he doth bestride a bleeding land,
 32162     Gasping for life under great Bolingbroke;
 32163     And more and less do flock to follow him.
 32164   NORTHUMBERLAND. I knew of this before; but, to speak truth,
 32165     This present grief had wip'd it from my mind.
 32166     Go in with me; and counsel every man
 32167     The aptest way for safety and revenge.
 32168     Get posts and letters, and make friends with speed-
 32169     Never so few, and never yet more need.                Exeunt
 32170 
 32171 
 32172 
 32173 
 32174 SCENE II.
 32175 London. A street
 32176 
 32177 Enter SIR JOHN FALSTAFF, with his PAGE bearing his sword and buckler
 32178 
 32179   FALSTAFF. Sirrah, you giant, what says the doctor to my water?
 32180   PAGE. He said, sir, the water itself was a good healthy water; but
 32181     for the party that owed it, he might have moe diseases than he
 32182     knew for.
 32183   FALSTAFF. Men of all sorts take a pride to gird at me. The brain of
 32184     this foolish-compounded clay, man, is not able to invent anything
 32185     that intends to laughter, more than I invent or is invented on
 32186     me. I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in
 32187     other men. I do here walk before thee like a sow that hath
 32188     overwhelm'd all her litter but one. If the Prince put thee into
 32189     my service for any other reason than to set me off, why then I
 32190     have no judgment. Thou whoreson mandrake, thou art fitter to be
 32191     worn in my cap than to wait at my heels. I was never mann'd with
 32192     an agate till now; but I will inset you neither in gold nor
 32193     silver, but in vile apparel, and send you back again to your
 32194     master, for a jewel- the juvenal, the Prince your master, whose
 32195     chin is not yet fledge. I will sooner have a beard grow in the
 32196     palm of my hand than he shall get one off his cheek; and yet he
 32197     will not stick to say his face is a face-royal. God may finish it
 32198     when he will, 'tis not a hair amiss yet. He may keep it still at
 32199     a face-royal, for a barber shall never earn sixpence out of it;
 32200     and yet he'll be crowing as if he had writ man ever since his
 32201     father was a bachelor. He may keep his own grace, but he's almost
 32202     out of mine, I can assure him. What said Master Dommelton about
 32203     the satin for my short cloak and my slops?
 32204   PAGE. He said, sir, you should procure him better assurance than
 32205     Bardolph. He would not take his band and yours; he liked not the
 32206     security.
 32207   FALSTAFF. Let him be damn'd, like the Glutton; pray God his tongue
 32208     be hotter! A whoreson Achitophel! A rascal-yea-forsooth knave, to
 32209     bear a gentleman in hand, and then stand upon security! The
 32210     whoreson smooth-pates do now wear nothing but high shoes, and
 32211     bunches of keys at their girdles; and if a man is through with
 32212     them in honest taking-up, then they must stand upon security. I
 32213     had as lief they would put ratsbane in my mouth as offer to stop
 32214     it with security. I look'd 'a should have sent me two and twenty
 32215     yards of satin, as I am a true knight, and he sends me security.
 32216     Well, he may sleep in security; for he hath the horn of
 32217     abundance, and the lightness of his wife shines through it; and
 32218     yet cannot he see, though he have his own lanthorn to light him.
 32219     Where's Bardolph?
 32220   PAGE. He's gone into Smithfield to buy your worship horse.
 32221   FALSTAFF. I bought him in Paul's, and he'll buy me a horse in
 32222     Smithfield. An I could get me but a wife in the stews, I were
 32223     mann'd, hors'd, and wiv'd.
 32224 
 32225               Enter the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE and SERVANT
 32226 
 32227   PAGE. Sir, here comes the nobleman that committed the
 32228     Prince for striking him about Bardolph.
 32229   FALSTAFF. Wait close; I will not see him.
 32230   CHIEF JUSTICE. What's he that goes there?
 32231   SERVANT. Falstaff, an't please your lordship.
 32232   CHIEF JUSTICE. He that was in question for the robb'ry?
 32233   SERVANT. He, my lord; but he hath since done good service at
 32234     Shrewsbury, and, as I hear, is now going with some charge to the
 32235     Lord John of Lancaster.
 32236   CHIEF JUSTICE. What, to York? Call him back again.
 32237   SERVANT. Sir John Falstaff!
 32238   FALSTAFF. Boy, tell him I am deaf.
 32239   PAGE. You must speak louder; my master is deaf.
 32240   CHIEF JUSTICE. I am sure he is, to the hearing of anything good.
 32241     Go, pluck him by the elbow; I must speak with him.
 32242   SERVANT. Sir John!
 32243   FALSTAFF. What! a young knave, and begging! Is there not wars? Is
 32244     there not employment? Doth not the King lack subjects? Do not the
 32245     rebels need soldiers? Though it be a shame to be on any side but
 32246     one, it is worse shame to beg than to be on the worst side, were
 32247     it worse than the name of rebellion can tell how to make it.
 32248   SERVANT. You mistake me, sir.
 32249   FALSTAFF. Why, sir, did I say you were an honest man? Setting my
 32250     knighthood and my soldiership aside, I had lied in my throat if I
 32251     had said so.
 32252   SERVANT. I pray you, sir, then set your knighthood and your
 32253     soldiership aside; and give me leave to tell you you in your
 32254     throat, if you say I am any other than an honest man.
 32255   FALSTAFF. I give thee leave to tell me so! I lay aside that which
 32256     grows to me! If thou get'st any leave of me, hang me; if thou
 32257     tak'st leave, thou wert better be hang'd. You hunt counter.
 32258     Hence! Avaunt!
 32259   SERVANT. Sir, my lord would speak with you.
 32260   CHIEF JUSTICE. Sir John Falstaff, a word with you.
 32261   FALSTAFF. My good lord! God give your lordship good time of day. I
 32262     am glad to see your lordship abroad. I heard say your lordship
 32263     was sick; I hope your lordship goes abroad by advice. Your
 32264     lordship, though not clean past your youth, hath yet some smack
 32265     of age in you, some relish of the saltness of time; and I most
 32266     humbly beseech your lordship to have a reverend care of your
 32267     health.
 32268   CHIEF JUSTICE. Sir John, I sent for you before your expedition to
 32269     Shrewsbury.
 32270   FALSTAFF. An't please your lordship, I hear his Majesty is return'd
 32271     with some discomfort from Wales.
 32272   CHIEF JUSTICE. I talk not of his Majesty. You would not come when I
 32273     sent for you.
 32274   FALSTAFF. And I hear, moreover, his Highness is fall'n into this
 32275     same whoreson apoplexy.
 32276   CHIEF JUSTICE. Well God mend him! I pray you let me speak with you.
 32277   FALSTAFF. This apoplexy, as I take it, is a kind of lethargy, an't
 32278     please your lordship, a kind of sleeping in the blood, a whoreson
 32279     tingling.
 32280   CHIEF JUSTICE. What tell you me of it? Be it as it is.
 32281   FALSTAFF. It hath it original from much grief, from study, and
 32282     perturbation of the brain. I have read the cause of his effects
 32283     in Galen; it is a kind of deafness.
 32284   CHIEF JUSTICE. I think you are fall'n into the disease, for you
 32285     hear not what I say to you.
 32286   FALSTAFF. Very well, my lord, very well. Rather an't please you, it
 32287     is the disease of not listening, the malady of not marking, that
 32288     I am troubled withal.
 32289   CHIEF JUSTICE. To punish you by the heels would amend the attention
 32290     of your ears; and I care not if I do become your physician.
 32291   FALSTAFF. I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not so patient. Your
 32292     lordship may minister the potion of imprisonment to me in respect
 32293     of poverty; but how I should be your patient to follow your
 32294     prescriptions, the wise may make some dram of a scruple, or
 32295     indeed a scruple itself.
 32296   CHIEF JUSTICE. I sent for you, when there were matters against you
 32297     for your life, to come speak with me.
 32298   FALSTAFF. As I was then advis'd by my learned counsel in the laws
 32299     of this land-service, I did not come.
 32300   CHIEF JUSTICE. Well, the truth is, Sir John, you live in great
 32301     infamy.
 32302   FALSTAFF. He that buckles himself in my belt cannot live in less.
 32303   CHIEF JUSTICE. Your means are very slender, and your waste is
 32304     great.
 32305   FALSTAFF. I would it were otherwise; I would my means were greater
 32306     and my waist slenderer.
 32307   CHIEF JUSTICE. You have misled the youthful Prince.
 32308   FALSTAFF. The young Prince hath misled me. I am the fellow with the
 32309     great belly, and he my dog.
 32310   CHIEF JUSTICE. Well, I am loath to gall a new-heal'd wound. Your
 32311     day's service at Shrewsbury hath a little gilded over your
 32312     night's exploit on Gadshill. You may thank th' unquiet time for
 32313     your quiet o'erposting that action.
 32314   FALSTAFF. My lord-
 32315   CHIEF JUSTICE. But since all is well, keep it so: wake not a
 32316     sleeping wolf.
 32317   FALSTAFF. To wake a wolf is as bad as smell a fox.
 32318   CHIEF JUSTICE. What! you are as a candle, the better part burnt
 32319     out.
 32320   FALSTAFF. A wassail candle, my lord- all tallow; if I did say of
 32321     wax, my growth would approve the truth.
 32322   CHIEF JUSTICE. There is not a white hair in your face but should
 32323     have his effect of gravity.
 32324   FALSTAFF. His effect of gravy, gravy,
 32325   CHIEF JUSTICE. You follow the young Prince up and down, like his
 32326     ill angel.
 32327   FALSTAFF. Not so, my lord. Your ill angel is light; but  hope he
 32328     that looks upon me will take me without weighing. And yet in some
 32329     respects, I grant, I cannot go- I cannot tell. Virtue is of so
 32330     little regard in these costermongers' times that true valour is
 32331     turn'd berod; pregnancy is made a tapster, and his quick wit
 32332     wasted in giving reckonings; all the other gifts appertinent to
 32333     man, as the malice of this age shapes them, are not worth a
 32334     gooseberry. You that are old consider not the capacities of us
 32335     that are young; you do measure the heat of our livers with the
 32336     bitterness of your galls; and we that are in the vaward of our
 32337     youth, must confess, are wags too.
 32338   CHIEF JUSTICE. Do you set down your name in the scroll of youth,
 32339     that are written down old with all the characters of age? Have
 32340     you not a moist eye, a dry hand, a yellow cheek, a white beard, a
 32341     decreasing leg, an increasing belly? Is not your voice broken,
 32342     your wind short, your chin double, your wit single, and every
 32343     part about you blasted with antiquity? And will you yet call
 32344     yourself young? Fie, fie, fie, Sir John!
 32345   FALSTAFF. My lord, I was born about three of the clock in the
 32346     afternoon, with a white head and something a round belly. For my
 32347     voice- I have lost it with hallooing and singing of anthems. To
 32348     approve my youth further, I will not. The truth is, I am only old
 32349     in judgment and understanding; and he that will caper with me for
 32350     a thousand marks, let him lend me the money, and have at him. For
 32351     the box of the ear that the Prince gave you- he gave it like a
 32352     rude prince, and you took it like a sensible lord. I have check'd
 32353     him for it; and the young lion repents- marry, not in ashes and
 32354     sackcloth, but in new silk and old sack.
 32355   CHIEF JUSTICE. Well, God send the Prince a better companion!
 32356   FALSTAFF. God send the companion a better prince! I cannot rid my
 32357     hands of him.
 32358   CHIEF JUSTICE. Well, the King hath sever'd you. I hear you are
 32359     going with Lord John of Lancaster against the Archbishop and the
 32360     Earl of Northumberland.
 32361   FALSTAFF. Yea; I thank your pretty sweet wit for it. But look you
 32362     pray, all you that kiss my Lady Peace at home, that our armies
 32363     join not in a hot day; for, by the Lord, I take but two shirts
 32364     out with me, and I mean not to sweat extraordinarily. If it be a
 32365     hot day, and I brandish anything but a bottle, I would I might
 32366     never spit white again. There is not a dangerous action can peep
 32367     out his head but I am thrust upon it. Well, I cannot last ever;
 32368     but it was alway yet the trick of our English nation, if they
 32369     have a good thing, to make it too common. If ye will needs say I
 32370     am an old man, you should give me rest. I would to God my name
 32371     were not so terrible to the enemy as it is. I were better to be
 32372     eaten to death with a rust than to be scoured to nothing with
 32373     perpetual motion.
 32374   CHIEF JUSTICE. Well, be honest, be honest; and God bless your
 32375     expedition!
 32376   FALSTAFF. Will your lordship lend me a thousand pound to furnish me
 32377     forth?
 32378   CHIEF JUSTICE. Not a penny, not a penny; you are too impatient to
 32379     bear crosses. Fare you well. Commend me to my cousin
 32380     Westmoreland.
 32381                                 Exeunt CHIEF JUSTICE and SERVANT
 32382   FALSTAFF. If I do, fillip me with a three-man beetle. A man can no
 32383     more separate age and covetousness than 'a can part young limbs
 32384     and lechery; but the gout galls the one, and the pox pinches the
 32385     other; and so both the degrees prevent my curses. Boy!
 32386   PAGE. Sir?
 32387   FALSTAFF. What money is in my purse?
 32388   PAGE. Seven groats and two pence.
 32389   FALSTAFF. I can get no remedy against this consumption of the
 32390     purse; borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease
 32391     is incurable. Go bear this letter to my Lord of Lancaster; this
 32392     to the Prince; this to the Earl of Westmoreland; and this to old
 32393     Mistress Ursula, whom I have weekly sworn to marry since I
 32394     perceiv'd the first white hair of my chin. About it; you know
 32395     where to find me.  [Exit PAGE]  A pox of this gout! or, a gout of
 32396     this pox! for the one or the other plays the rogue with my great
 32397     toe. 'Tis no matter if I do halt; I have the wars for my colour,
 32398     and my pension shall seem the more reasonable. A good wit will
 32399     make use of anything. I will turn diseases to commodity.
 32400  Exit
 32401 
 32402 
 32403 
 32404 
 32405 SCENE III.
 32406 York. The ARCHBISHOP'S palace
 32407 
 32408 Enter the ARCHBISHOP, THOMAS MOWBRAY the EARL MARSHAL, LORD HASTINGS,
 32409 and LORD BARDOLPH
 32410 
 32411   ARCHBISHOP. Thus have you heard our cause and known our means;
 32412     And, my most noble friends, I pray you all
 32413     Speak plainly your opinions of our hopes-
 32414     And first, Lord Marshal, what say you to it?
 32415   MOWBRAY. I well allow the occasion of our amis;
 32416     But gladly would be better satisfied
 32417     How, in our means, we should advance ourselves
 32418     To look with forehead bold and big enough
 32419     Upon the power and puissance of the King.
 32420   HASTINGS. Our present musters grow upon the file
 32421     To five and twenty thousand men of choice;
 32422     And our supplies live largely in the hope
 32423     Of great Northumberland, whose bosom burns
 32424     With an incensed fire of injuries.
 32425   LORD BARDOLPH. The question then, Lord Hastings, standeth thus:
 32426     Whether our present five and twenty thousand
 32427     May hold up head without Northumberland?
 32428   HASTINGS. With him, we may.
 32429   LORD BARDOLPH. Yea, marry, there's the point;
 32430     But if without him we be thought too feeble,
 32431     My judgment is we should not step too far
 32432     Till we had his assistance by the hand;
 32433     For, in a theme so bloody-fac'd as this,
 32434     Conjecture, expectation, and surmise
 32435     Of aids incertain, should not be admitted.
 32436   ARCHBISHOP. 'Tis very true, Lord Bardolph; for indeed
 32437     It was young Hotspur's case at Shrewsbury.
 32438   LORD BARDOLPH. It was, my lord; who lin'd himself with hope,
 32439     Eating the air and promise of supply,
 32440     Flatt'ring himself in project of a power
 32441     Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts;
 32442     And so, with great imagination
 32443     Proper to madmen, led his powers to death,
 32444     And, winking, leapt into destruction.
 32445   HASTINGS. But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt
 32446     To lay down likelihoods and forms of hope.
 32447   LORD BARDOLPH. Yes, if this present quality of war-
 32448     Indeed the instant action, a cause on foot-
 32449     Lives so in hope, as in an early spring
 32450     We see th' appearing buds; which to prove fruit
 32451     Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair
 32452     That frosts will bite them. When we mean to build,
 32453     We first survey the plot, then draw the model;
 32454     And when we see the figure of the house,
 32455     Then we must rate the cost of the erection;
 32456     Which if we find outweighs ability,
 32457     What do we then but draw anew the model
 32458     In fewer offices, or at least desist
 32459     To build at all? Much more, in this great work-
 32460     Which is almost to pluck a kingdom down
 32461     And set another up- should we survey
 32462     The plot of situation and the model,
 32463     Consent upon a sure foundation,
 32464     Question surveyors, know our own estate
 32465     How able such a work to undergo-
 32466     To weigh against his opposite; or else
 32467     We fortify in paper and in figures,
 32468     Using the names of men instead of men;
 32469     Like one that draws the model of a house
 32470     Beyond his power to build it; who, half through,
 32471     Gives o'er and leaves his part-created cost
 32472     A naked subject to the weeping clouds
 32473     And waste for churlish winter's tyranny.
 32474   HASTINGS. Grant that our hopes- yet likely of fair birth-
 32475     Should be still-born, and that we now possess'd
 32476     The utmost man of expectation,
 32477     I think we are so a body strong enough,
 32478     Even as we are, to equal with the King.
 32479   LORD BARDOLPH. What, is the King but five and twenty thousand?
 32480   HASTINGS. To us no more; nay, not so much, Lord Bardolph;
 32481     For his divisions, as the times do brawl,
 32482     Are in three heads: one power against the French,
 32483     And one against Glendower; perforce a third
 32484     Must take up us. So is the unfirm King
 32485     In three divided; and his coffers sound
 32486     With hollow poverty and emptiness.
 32487   ARCHBISHOP. That he should draw his several strengths together
 32488     And come against us in full puissance
 32489     Need not be dreaded.
 32490   HASTINGS. If he should do so,
 32491     He leaves his back unarm'd, the French and Welsh
 32492     Baying at his heels. Never fear that.
 32493   LORD BARDOLPH. Who is it like should lead his forces hither?
 32494   HASTINGS. The Duke of Lancaster and Westmoreland;
 32495     Against the Welsh, himself and Harry Monmouth;
 32496     But who is substituted against the French
 32497     I have no certain notice.
 32498   ARCHBISHOP. Let us on,
 32499     And publish the occasion of our arms.
 32500     The commonwealth is sick of their own choice;
 32501     Their over-greedy love hath surfeited.
 32502     An habitation giddy and unsure
 32503     Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart.
 32504     O thou fond many, with what loud applause
 32505     Didst thou beat heaven with blessing Bolingbroke
 32506     Before he was what thou wouldst have him be!
 32507     And being now trimm'd in thine own desires,
 32508     Thou, beastly feeder, art so full of him
 32509     That thou provok'st thyself to cast him up.
 32510     So, so, thou common dog, didst thou disgorge
 32511     Thy glutton bosom of the royal Richard;
 32512     And now thou wouldst eat thy dead vomit up,
 32513     And howl'st to find it. What trust is in these times?
 32514     They that, when Richard liv'd, would have him die
 32515     Are now become enamour'd on his grave.
 32516     Thou that threw'st dust upon his goodly head,
 32517     When through proud London he came sighing on
 32518     After th' admired heels of Bolingbroke,
 32519     Criest now 'O earth, yield us that king again,
 32520     And take thou this!' O thoughts of men accurs'd!
 32521     Past and to come seems best; things present, worst.
 32522   MOWBRAY. Shall we go draw our numbers, and set on?
 32523   HASTINGS. We are time's subjects, and time bids be gone.
 32524                                                           Exeunt
 32525 
 32526 
 32527 
 32528 
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 32537 
 32538 
 32539 
 32540 ACT II. SCENE I.
 32541 London. A street
 32542 
 32543 Enter HOSTESS with two officers, FANG and SNARE
 32544 
 32545   HOSTESS. Master Fang, have you ent'red the action?
 32546   FANG. It is ent'red.
 32547   HOSTESS. Where's your yeoman? Is't a lusty yeoman? Will 'a stand
 32548     to't?
 32549   FANG. Sirrah, where's Snare?
 32550   HOSTESS. O Lord, ay! good Master Snare.
 32551   SNARE. Here, here.
 32552   FANG. Snare, we must arrest Sir John Falstaff.
 32553   HOSTESS. Yea, good Master Snare; I have ent'red him and all.
 32554   SNARE. It may chance cost some of our lives, for he will stab.
 32555   HOSTESS. Alas the day! take heed of him; he stabb'd me in mine own
 32556     house, and that most beastly. In good faith, 'a cares not what
 32557     mischief he does, if his weapon be out; he will foin like any
 32558     devil; he will spare neither man, woman, nor child.
 32559   FANG. If I can close with him, I care not for his thrust.
 32560   HOSTESS. No, nor I neither; I'll be at your elbow.
 32561   FANG. An I but fist him once; an 'a come but within my vice!
 32562   HOSTESS. I am undone by his going; I warrant you, he's an
 32563     infinitive thing upon my score. Good Master Fang, hold him sure.
 32564     Good Master Snare, let him not scape. 'A comes continuantly to
 32565     Pie-corner- saving your manhoods- to buy a saddle; and he is
 32566     indited to dinner to the Lubber's Head in Lumbert Street, to
 32567     Master Smooth's the silkman. I pray you, since my exion is
 32568     ent'red, and my case so openly known to the world, let him be
 32569     brought in to his answer. A hundred mark is a long one for a poor
 32570     lone woman to bear; and I have borne, and borne, and borne; and
 32571     have been fubb'd off, and fubb'd off, and fubb'd off, from this
 32572     day to that day, that it is a shame to be thought on. There is no
 32573     honesty in such dealing; unless a woman should be made an ass and
 32574     a beast, to bear every knave's wrong.
 32575 
 32576             Enter SIR JOHN FALSTAFF, PAGE, and BARDOLPH
 32577 
 32578     Yonder he comes; and that arrant malmsey-nose knave, Bardolph,
 32579     with him. Do your offices, do your offices, Master Fang and
 32580     Master Snare; do me, do me, do me your offices.
 32581   FALSTAFF. How now! whose mare's dead? What's the matter?
 32582   FANG. Sir John, I arrest you at the suit of Mistress Quickly.
 32583   FALSTAFF. Away, varlets! Draw, Bardolph. Cut me off the villian's
 32584     head. Throw the quean in the channel.
 32585   HOSTESS. Throw me in the channel! I'll throw thee in the channel.
 32586     Wilt thou? wilt thou? thou bastardly rogue! Murder, murder! Ah,
 32587     thou honeysuckle villain! wilt thou kill God's officers and the
 32588     King's? Ah, thou honey-seed rogue! thou art a honey-seed; a
 32589     man-queller and a woman-queller.
 32590   FALSTAFF. Keep them off, Bardolph.
 32591   FANG. A rescue! a rescue!
 32592   HOSTESS. Good people, bring a rescue or two. Thou wot, wot thou!
 32593     thou wot, wot ta? Do, do, thou rogue! do, thou hemp-seed!
 32594   PAGE. Away, you scullion! you rampallian! you fustilarian!
 32595     I'll tickle your catastrophe.
 32596 
 32597               Enter the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE and his men
 32598 
 32599   CHIEF JUSTICE. What is the matter? Keep the peace here, ho!
 32600   HOSTESS. Good my lord, be good to me. I beseech you, stand to me.
 32601   CHIEF JUSTICE. How now, Sir John! what, are you brawling here?
 32602     Doth this become your place, your time, and business?
 32603     You should have been well on your way to York.
 32604     Stand from him, fellow; wherefore hang'st thou upon him?
 32605   HOSTESS. O My most worshipful lord, an't please your Grace, I am a
 32606     poor widow of Eastcheap, and he is arrested at my suit.
 32607   CHIEF JUSTICE. For what sum?
 32608   HOSTESS. It is more than for some, my lord; it is for all- all I
 32609     have. He hath eaten me out of house and home; he hath put all my
 32610     substance into that fat belly of his. But I will have some of it
 32611     out again, or I will ride thee a nights like a mare.
 32612   FALSTAFF. I think I am as like to ride the mare, if I have any
 32613     vantage of ground to get up.
 32614   CHIEF JUSTICE. How comes this, Sir John? Fie! What man of good
 32615     temper would endure this tempest of exclamation? Are you not
 32616     ashamed to enforce a poor widow to so rough a course to come by
 32617     her own?
 32618   FALSTAFF. What is the gross sum that I owe thee?
 32619   HOSTESS. Marry, if thou wert an honest man, thyself and the money
 32620     too. Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet, sitting in
 32621     my Dolphin chamber, at the round table, by a sea-coal fire, upon
 32622     Wednesday in Wheeson week, when the Prince broke thy head for
 32623     liking his father to singing-man of Windsor- thou didst swear to
 32624     me then, as I was washing thy wound, to marry me and make me my
 32625     lady thy wife. Canst thou deny it? Did not goodwife Keech, the
 32626     butcher's wife, come in then and call me gossip Quickly? Coming
 32627     in to borrow a mess of vinegar, telling us she had a good dish of
 32628     prawns, whereby thou didst desire to eat some, whereby I told
 32629     thee they were ill for green wound? And didst thou not, when she
 32630     was gone down stairs, desire me to be no more so familiarity with
 32631     such poor people, saying that ere long they should call me madam?
 32632     And didst thou not kiss me, and bid me fetch the thirty
 32633     shillings? I put thee now to thy book-oath. Deny it, if thou
 32634     canst.
 32635   FALSTAFF. My lord, this is a poor mad soul, and she says up and
 32636     down the town that her eldest son is like you. She hath been in
 32637     good case, and, the truth is, poverty hath distracted her. But
 32638     for these foolish officers, I beseech you I may have redress
 32639     against them.
 32640   CHIEF JUSTICE. Sir John, Sir John, I am well acquainted with your
 32641     manner of wrenching the true cause the false way. It is not a
 32642     confident brow, nor the throng of words that come with such more
 32643     than impudent sauciness from you, can thrust me from a level
 32644     consideration. You have, as it appears to me, practis'd upon the
 32645     easy yielding spirit of this woman, and made her serve your uses
 32646     both in purse and in person.
 32647   HOSTESS. Yea, in truth, my lord.
 32648   CHIEF JUSTICE. Pray thee, peace. Pay her the debt you owe her, and
 32649     unpay the villainy you have done with her; the one you may do
 32650     with sterling money, and the other with current repentance.
 32651   FALSTAFF. My lord, I will not undergo this sneap without reply. You
 32652     call honourable boldness impudent sauciness; if a man will make
 32653     curtsy and say nothing, he is virtuous. No, my lord, my humble
 32654     duty rememb'red, I will not be your suitor. I say to you I do
 32655     desire deliverance from these officers, being upon hasty
 32656     employment in the King's affairs.
 32657   CHIEF JUSTICE. You speak as having power to do wrong; but answer in
 32658     th' effect of your reputation, and satisfy the poor woman.
 32659   FALSTAFF. Come hither, hostess.
 32660 
 32661                                Enter GOWER
 32662 
 32663   CHIEF JUSTICE. Now, Master Gower, what news?
 32664   GOWER. The King, my lord, and Harry Prince of Wales
 32665     Are near at hand. The rest the paper tells. [Gives a letter]
 32666   FALSTAFF. As I am a gentleman!
 32667   HOSTESS. Faith, you said so before.
 32668   FALSTAFF. As I am a gentleman! Come, no more words of it.
 32669   HOSTESS. By this heavenly ground I tread on, I must be fain to pawn
 32670     both my plate and the tapestry of my dining-chambers.
 32671   FALSTAFF. Glasses, glasses, is the only drinking; and for thy
 32672     walls, a pretty slight drollery, or the story of the Prodigal, or
 32673     the German hunting, in water-work, is worth a thousand of these
 32674     bed-hangers and these fly-bitten tapestries. Let it be ten pound,
 32675     if thou canst. Come, and 'twere not for thy humours, there's not
 32676     a better wench in England. Go, wash thy face, and draw the
 32677     action. Come, thou must not be in this humour with me; dost not
 32678     know me? Come, come, I know thou wast set on to this.
 32679   HOSTESS. Pray thee, Sir John, let it be but twenty nobles;
 32680     i' faith, I am loath to pawn my plate, so God save me, la!
 32681   FALSTAFF. Let it alone; I'll make other shift. You'll be a fool
 32682     still.
 32683   HOSTESS. Well, you shall have it, though I pawn my gown.
 32684     I hope you'll come to supper. you'll pay me all together?
 32685   FALSTAFF. Will I live?  [To BARDOLPH]  Go, with her, with her; hook
 32686     on, hook on.
 32687   HOSTESS. Will you have Doll Tearsheet meet you at supper?
 32688   FALSTAFF. No more words; let's have her.
 32689                           Exeunt HOSTESS, BARDOLPH, and OFFICERS
 32690   CHIEF JUSTICE. I have heard better news.
 32691   FALSTAFF. What's the news, my lord?
 32692   CHIEF JUSTICE. Where lay the King to-night?
 32693   GOWER. At Basingstoke, my lord.
 32694   FALSTAFF. I hope, my lord, all's well. What is the news, my lord?
 32695   CHIEF JUSTICE. Come all his forces back?
 32696   GOWER. No; fifteen hundred foot, five hundred horse,
 32697     Are march'd up to my Lord of Lancaster,
 32698     Against Northumberland and the Archbishop.
 32699   FALSTAFF. Comes the King back from Wales, my noble lord?
 32700   CHIEF JUSTICE. You shall have letters of me presently.
 32701     Come, go along with me, good Master Gower.
 32702   FALSTAFF. My lord!
 32703   CHIEF JUSTICE. What's the matter?
 32704   FALSTAFF. Master Gower, shall I entreat you with me to dinner?
 32705   GOWER. I must wait upon my good lord here, I thank you, good Sir
 32706     John.
 32707   CHIEF JUSTICE. Sir John, you loiter here too long, being you are to
 32708     take soldiers up in counties as you go.
 32709   FALSTAFF. Will you sup with me, Master Gower?
 32710   CHIEF JUSTICE. What foolish master taught you these manners, Sir
 32711     John?
 32712   FALSTAFF. Master Gower, if they become me not, he was a fool that
 32713     taught them me. This is the right fencing grace, my lord; tap for
 32714     tap, and so part fair.
 32715   CHIEF JUSTICE. Now, the Lord lighten thee! Thou art a great fool.
 32716                                                           Exeunt
 32717 
 32718 
 32719 
 32720 
 32721 SCENE II.
 32722 London. Another street
 32723 
 32724 Enter PRINCE HENRY and POINS
 32725 
 32726   PRINCE. Before God, I am exceeding weary.
 32727   POINS. Is't come to that? I had thought weariness durst not have
 32728     attach'd one of so high blood.
 32729   PRINCE. Faith, it does me; though it discolours the complexion of
 32730     my greatness to acknowledge it. Doth it not show vilely in me to
 32731     desire small beer?
 32732   POINS. Why, a prince should not be so loosely studied as to
 32733     remember so weak a composition.
 32734   PRINCE. Belike then my appetite was not-princely got; for, by my
 32735     troth, I do now remember the poor creature, small beer. But
 32736     indeed these humble considerations make me out of love with my
 32737     greatness. What a disgrace is it to me to remember thy name, or
 32738     to know thy face to-morrow, or to take note how many pair of silk
 32739     stockings thou hast- viz., these, and those that were thy
 32740     peach-colour'd ones- or to bear the inventory of thy shirts- as,
 32741     one for superfluity, and another for use! But that the
 32742     tennis-court-keeper knows better than I; for it is a low ebb of
 32743     linen with thee when thou keepest not racket there; as thou hast
 32744     not done a great while, because the rest of thy low countries
 32745     have made a shift to eat up thy holland. And God knows whether
 32746     those that bawl out of the ruins of thy linen shall inherit his
 32747     kingdom; but the midwives say the children are not in the fault;
 32748     whereupon the world increases, and kindreds are mightily
 32749     strengthened.
 32750   POINS. How ill it follows, after you have laboured so hard, you
 32751     should talk so idly! Tell me, how many good young princes would
 32752     do so, their fathers being so sick as yours at this time is?
 32753   PRINCE. Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins?
 32754   POINS. Yes, faith; and let it be an excellent good thing.
 32755   PRINCE. It shall serve among wits of no higher breeding than thine.
 32756   POINS. Go to; I stand the push of your one thing that you will
 32757     tell.
 32758   PRINCE. Marry, I tell thee it is not meet that I should be sad, now
 32759     my father is sick; albeit I could tell to thee- as to one it
 32760     pleases me, for fault of a better, to call my friend- I could be
 32761     sad and sad indeed too.
 32762   POINS. Very hardly upon such a subject.
 32763   PRINCE. By this hand, thou thinkest me as far in the devil's book
 32764     as thou and Falstaff for obduracy and persistency: let the end
 32765     try the man. But I tell thee my heart bleeds inwardly that my
 32766     father is so sick; and keeping such vile company as thou art hath
 32767     in reason taken from me all ostentation of sorrow.
 32768   POINS. The reason?
 32769   PRINCE. What wouldst thou think of me if I should weep?
 32770   POINS. I would think thee a most princely hypocrite.
 32771   PRINCE. It would be every man's thought; and thou art a blessed
 32772     fellow to think as every man thinks. Never a man's thought in the
 32773     world keeps the road-way better than thine. Every man would think
 32774     me an hypocrite indeed. And what accites your most worshipful
 32775     thought to think so?
 32776   POINS. Why, because you have been so lewd and so much engraffed to
 32777     Falstaff.
 32778   PRINCE. And to thee.
 32779   POINS. By this light, I am well spoke on; I can hear it with mine
 32780     own ears. The worst that they can say of me is that I am a second
 32781     brother and that I am a proper fellow of my hands; and those two
 32782     things, I confess, I cannot help. By the mass, here comes
 32783     Bardolph.
 32784 
 32785                          Enter BARDOLPH and PAGE
 32786 
 32787   PRINCE. And the boy that I gave Falstaff. 'A had him from me
 32788     Christian; and look if the fat villain have not transform'd him
 32789     ape.
 32790   BARDOLPH. God save your Grace!
 32791   PRINCE. And yours, most noble Bardolph!
 32792   POINS. Come, you virtuous ass, you bashful fool, must you be
 32793     blushing? Wherefore blush you now? What a maidenly man-at-arms
 32794     are you become! Is't such a matter to get a pottle-pot's
 32795     maidenhead?
 32796   PAGE. 'A calls me e'en now, my lord, through a red lattice, and I
 32797     could discern no part of his face from the window. At last I
 32798     spied his eyes; and methought he had made two holes in the
 32799     alewife's new petticoat, and so peep'd through.
 32800   PRINCE. Has not the boy profited?
 32801   BARDOLPH. Away, you whoreson upright rabbit, away!
 32802   PAGE. Away, you rascally Althaea's dream, away!
 32803   PRINCE. Instruct us, boy; what dream, boy?
 32804   PAGE. Marry, my lord, Althaea dreamt she was delivered of a
 32805     firebrand; and therefore I call him her dream.
 32806   PRINCE. A crown's worth of good interpretation. There 'tis, boy.
 32807                                                 [Giving a crown]
 32808   POINS. O that this blossom could be kept from cankers!
 32809     Well, there is sixpence to preserve thee.
 32810   BARDOLPH. An you do not make him be hang'd among you, the gallows
 32811     shall have wrong.
 32812   PRINCE. And how doth thy master, Bardolph?
 32813   BARDOLPH. Well, my lord. He heard of your Grace's coming to town.
 32814     There's a letter for you.
 32815   POINS. Deliver'd with good respect. And how doth the martlemas,
 32816     your master?
 32817   BARDOLPH. In bodily health, sir.
 32818   POINS. Marry, the immortal part needs a physician; but that moves
 32819     not him. Though that be sick, it dies not.
 32820   PRINCE. I do allow this well to be as familiar with me as my dog;
 32821     and he holds his place, for look you how he writes.
 32822   POINS.  [Reads]  'John Falstaff, knight'- Every man must know that
 32823     as oft as he has occasion to name himself, even like those that
 32824     are kin to the King; for they never prick their finger but they
 32825     say 'There's some of the King's blood spilt.' 'How comes that?'
 32826     says he that takes upon him not to conceive. The answer is as
 32827     ready as a borrower's cap: 'I am the King's poor cousin, sir.'
 32828   PRINCE. Nay, they will be kin to us, or they will fetch it from
 32829     Japhet. But the letter:  [Reads]  'Sir John Falstaff, knight, to
 32830     the son of the King nearest his father, Harry Prince of Wales,
 32831     greeting.'
 32832   POINS. Why, this is a certificate.
 32833   PRINCE. Peace!  [Reads]  'I will imitate the honourable Romans in
 32834     brevity.'-
 32835   POINS. He sure means brevity in breath, short-winded.
 32836   PRINCE.  [Reads]  'I commend me to thee, I commend thee, and I
 32837     leave thee. Be not too familiar with Poins; for he misuses thy
 32838     favours so much that he swears thou art to marry his sister Nell.
 32839     Repent at idle times as thou mayst, and so farewell.
 32840       Thine, by yea and no- which is as much as to say as
 32841         thou usest him- JACK FALSTAFF with my familiars,
 32842         JOHN with my brothers and sisters, and SIR JOHN with
 32843         all Europe.'
 32844   POINS. My lord, I'll steep this letter in sack and make him eat it.
 32845   PRINCE. That's to make him eat twenty of his words. But do you use
 32846     me thus, Ned? Must I marry your sister?
 32847   POINS. God send the wench no worse fortune! But I never said so.
 32848   PRINCE. Well, thus we play the fools with the time, and the spirits
 32849     of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us. Is your master here in
 32850     London?
 32851   BARDOLPH. Yea, my lord.
 32852   PRINCE. Where sups he? Doth the old boar feed in the old frank?
 32853   BARDOLPH. At the old place, my lord, in Eastcheap.
 32854   PRINCE. What company?
 32855   PAGE. Ephesians, my lord, of the old church.
 32856   PRINCE. Sup any women with him?
 32857   PAGE. None, my lord, but old Mistress Quickly and Mistress Doll
 32858     Tearsheet.
 32859   PRINCE. What pagan may that be?
 32860   PAGE. A proper gentlewoman, sir, and a kinswoman of my master's.
 32861   PRINCE. Even such kin as the parish heifers are to the town bull.
 32862     Shall we steal upon them, Ned, at supper?
 32863   POINS. I am your shadow, my lord; I'll follow you.
 32864   PRINCE. Sirrah, you boy, and Bardolph, no word to your master that
 32865     I am yet come to town. There's for your silence.
 32866   BARDOLPH. I have no tongue, sir.
 32867   PAGE. And for mine, sir, I will govern it.
 32868   PRINCE. Fare you well; go.            Exeunt BARDOLPH and PAGE
 32869     This Doll Tearsheet should be some road.
 32870   POINS. I warrant you, as common as the way between Saint Albans and
 32871     London.
 32872   PRINCE. How might we see Falstaff bestow himself to-night in his
 32873     true colours, and not ourselves be seen?
 32874   POINS. Put on two leathern jerkins and aprons, and wait upon him at
 32875     his table as drawers.
 32876   PRINCE. From a god to a bull? A heavy descension! It was Jove's
 32877     case. From a prince to a prentice? A low transformation! That
 32878     shall be mine; for in everything the purpose must weigh with the
 32879     folly. Follow me, Ned.
 32880                                                           Exeunt
 32881 
 32882 
 32883 
 32884 
 32885 SCENE III.
 32886 Warkworth. Before the castle
 32887 
 32888 Enter NORTHUMBERLAND, LADY NORTHUMBERLAND, and LADY PERCY
 32889 
 32890   NORTHUMBERLAND. I pray thee, loving wife, and gentle daughter,
 32891     Give even way unto my rough affairs;
 32892     Put not you on the visage of the times
 32893     And be, like them, to Percy troublesome.
 32894   LADY NORTHUMBERLAND. I have given over, I will speak no more.
 32895     Do what you will; your wisdom be your guide.
 32896   NORTHUMBERLAND. Alas, sweet wife, my honour is at pawn;
 32897     And but my going nothing can redeem it.
 32898   LADY PERCY. O, yet, for God's sake, go not to these wars!
 32899     The time was, father, that you broke your word,
 32900     When you were more endear'd to it than now;
 32901     When your own Percy, when my heart's dear Harry,
 32902     Threw many a northward look to see his father
 32903     Bring up his powers; but he did long in vain.
 32904     Who then persuaded you to stay at home?
 32905     There were two honours lost, yours and your son's.
 32906     For yours, the God of heaven brighten it!
 32907     For his, it stuck upon him as the sun
 32908     In the grey vault of heaven; and by his light
 32909     Did all the chivalry of England move
 32910     To do brave acts. He was indeed the glass
 32911     Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves.
 32912     He had no legs that practis'd not his gait;
 32913     And speaking thick, which nature made his blemish,
 32914     Became the accents of the valiant;
 32915     For those who could speak low and tardily
 32916     Would turn their own perfection to abuse
 32917     To seem like him: so that in speech, in gait,
 32918     In diet, in affections of delight,
 32919     In military rules, humours of blood,
 32920     He was the mark and glass, copy and book,
 32921     That fashion'd others. And him- O wondrous him!
 32922     O miracle of men!- him did you leave-
 32923     Second to none, unseconded by you-
 32924     To look upon the hideous god of war
 32925     In disadvantage, to abide a field
 32926     Where nothing but the sound of Hotspur's name
 32927     Did seem defensible. So you left him.
 32928     Never, O never, do his ghost the wrong
 32929     To hold your honour more precise and nice
 32930     With others than with him! Let them alone.
 32931     The Marshal and the Archbishop are strong.
 32932     Had my sweet Harry had but half their numbers,
 32933     To-day might I, hanging on Hotspur's neck,
 32934     Have talk'd of Monmouth's grave.
 32935   NORTHUMBERLAND. Beshrew your heart,
 32936     Fair daughter, you do draw my spirits from me
 32937     With new lamenting ancient oversights.
 32938     But I must go and meet with danger there,
 32939     Or it will seek me in another place,
 32940     And find me worse provided.
 32941   LADY NORTHUMBERLAND. O, fly to Scotland
 32942     Till that the nobles and the armed commons
 32943     Have of their puissance made a little taste.
 32944   LADY PERCY. If they get ground and vantage of the King,
 32945     Then join you with them, like a rib of steel,
 32946     To make strength stronger; but, for all our loves,
 32947     First let them try themselves. So did your son;
 32948     He was so suff'red; so came I a widow;
 32949     And never shall have length of life enough
 32950     To rain upon remembrance with mine eyes,
 32951     That it may grow and sprout as high as heaven,
 32952     For recordation to my noble husband.
 32953   NORTHUMBERLAND. Come, come, go in with me. 'Tis with my mind
 32954     As with the tide swell'd up unto his height,
 32955     That makes a still-stand, running neither way.
 32956     Fain would I go to meet the Archbishop,
 32957     But many thousand reasons hold me back.
 32958     I will resolve for Scotland. There am I,
 32959     Till time and vantage crave my company.               Exeunt
 32960 
 32961 
 32962 
 32963 
 32964 SCENE IV.
 32965 London. The Boar's Head Tavern in Eastcheap
 32966 
 32967 Enter FRANCIS and another DRAWER
 32968 
 32969   FRANCIS. What the devil hast thou brought there-apple-johns? Thou
 32970     knowest Sir John cannot endure an apple-john.
 32971   SECOND DRAWER. Mass, thou say'st true. The Prince once set a dish
 32972     of apple-johns before him, and told him there were five more Sir
 32973     Johns; and, putting off his hat, said 'I will now take my leave
 32974     of these six dry, round, old, withered knights.' It ang'red him
 32975     to the heart; but he hath forgot that.
 32976   FRANCIS. Why, then, cover and set them down; and see if thou canst
 32977     find out Sneak's noise; Mistress Tearsheet would fain hear some
 32978     music.
 32979 
 32980                         Enter third DRAWER
 32981 
 32982   THIRD DRAWER. Dispatch! The room where they supp'd is too hot;
 32983     they'll come in straight.
 32984   FRANCIS. Sirrah, here will be the Prince and Master Poins anon; and
 32985     they will put on two of our jerkins and aprons; and Sir John must
 32986     not know of it. Bardolph hath brought word.
 32987   THIRD DRAWER. By the mass, here will be old uds; it will be an
 32988     excellent stratagem.
 32989   SECOND DRAWER. I'll see if I can find out Sneak.
 32990                                  Exeunt second and third DRAWERS
 32991 
 32992                 Enter HOSTESS and DOLL TEARSHEET
 32993 
 32994   HOSTESS. I' faith, sweetheart, methinks now you are in an excellent
 32995     good temperality. Your pulsidge beats as extraordinarily as heart
 32996     would desire; and your colour, I warrant you, is as red as any
 32997     rose, in good truth, la! But, i' faith, you have drunk too much
 32998     canaries; and that's a marvellous searching wine, and it perfumes
 32999     the blood ere one can say 'What's this?' How do you now?
 33000   DOLL. Better than I was- hem.
 33001   HOSTESS. Why, that's well said; a good heart's worth gold.
 33002     Lo, here comes Sir John.
 33003 
 33004                           Enter FALSTAFF
 33005 
 33006   FALSTAFF.  [Singing]  'When Arthur first in court'- Empty the
 33007     jordan.  [Exit FRANCIS]- [Singing]  'And was a worthy king'- How
 33008     now, Mistress Doll!
 33009   HOSTESS. Sick of a calm; yea, good faith.
 33010   FALSTAFF. So is all her sect; and they be once in a calm, they are
 33011     sick.
 33012   DOLL. A pox damn you, you muddy rascal! Is that all the comfort you
 33013     give me?
 33014   FALSTAFF. You make fat rascals, Mistress Doll.
 33015   DOLL. I make them! Gluttony and diseases make them: I make them
 33016     not.
 33017   FALSTAFF. If the cook help to make the gluttony, you help to make
 33018     the diseases, Doll. We catch of you, Doll, we catch of you; grant
 33019     that, my poor virtue, grant that.
 33020   DOLL. Yea, joy, our chains and our jewels.
 33021   FALSTAFF. 'Your brooches, pearls, and ouches.' For to serve bravely
 33022     is to come halting off; you know, to come off the breach with his
 33023     pike bent bravely, and to surgery bravely; to venture upon the
 33024     charg'd chambers bravely-
 33025   DOLL. Hang yourself, you muddy conger, hang yourself!
 33026   HOSTESS. By my troth, this is the old fashion; you two never meet
 33027     but you fall to some discord. You are both, i' good truth, as
 33028     rheumatic as two dry toasts; you cannot one bear with another's
 33029     confirmities. What the good-year! one must bear, and that must be
 33030     you. You are the weaker vessel, as as they say, the emptier
 33031     vessel.
 33032   DOLL. Can a weak empty vessel bear such a huge full hogs-head?
 33033     There's a whole merchant's venture of Bourdeaux stuff in him; you
 33034     have not seen a hulk better stuff'd in the hold. Come, I'll be
 33035     friends with thee, Jack. Thou art going to the wars; and whether
 33036     I shall ever see thee again or no, there is nobody cares.
 33037 
 33038                             Re-enter FRANCIS
 33039 
 33040   FRANCIS. Sir, Ancient Pistol's below and would speak with you.
 33041   DOLL. Hang him, swaggering rascal! Let him not come hither; it is
 33042     the foul-mouth'dst rogue in England.
 33043   HOSTESS. If he swagger, let him not come here. No, by my faith! I
 33044     must live among my neighbours; I'll no swaggerers. I am in good
 33045     name and fame with the very best. Shut the door. There comes no
 33046     swaggerers here; I have not liv'd all this while to have
 33047     swaggering now. Shut the door, I pray you.
 33048   FALSTAFF. Dost thou hear, hostess?
 33049   HOSTESS. Pray ye, pacify yourself, Sir John; there comes no
 33050     swaggerers here.
 33051   FALSTAFF. Dost thou hear? It is mine ancient.
 33052   HOSTESS. Tilly-fally, Sir John, ne'er tell me; and your ancient
 33053     swagg'rer comes not in my doors. I was before Master Tisick, the
 33054     debuty, t' other day; and, as he said to me- 'twas no longer ago
 33055     than Wednesday last, i' good faith!- 'Neighbour Quickly,' says
 33056     he- Master Dumbe, our minister, was by then- 'Neighbour Quickly,'
 33057     says he 'receive those that are civil, for' said he 'you are in
 33058     an ill name.' Now 'a said so, I can tell whereupon. 'For' says he
 33059     'you are an honest woman and well thought on, therefore take heed
 33060     what guests you receive. Receive' says he 'no swaggering
 33061     companions.' There comes none here. You would bless you to hear
 33062     what he said. No, I'll no swagg'rers.
 33063   FALSTAFF. He's no swagg'rer, hostess; a tame cheater, i' faith; you
 33064     may stroke him as gently as a puppy greyhound. He'll not swagger
 33065     with a Barbary hen, if her feathers turn back in any show of
 33066     resistance. Call him up, drawer.
 33067                                                     Exit FRANCIS
 33068   HOSTESS. Cheater, call you him? I will bar no honest man my house,
 33069     nor no cheater; but I do not love swaggering, by my troth. I am
 33070     the worse when one says 'swagger.' Feel, masters, how I shake;
 33071     look you, I warrant you.
 33072   DOLL. So you do, hostess.
 33073   HOSTESS. Do I? Yea, in very truth, do I, an 'twere an aspen leaf. I
 33074     cannot abide swagg'rers.
 33075 
 33076                    Enter PISTOL, BARDOLPH, and PAGE
 33077 
 33078   PISTOL. God save you, Sir John!
 33079   FALSTAFF. Welcome, Ancient Pistol. Here, Pistol, I charge you with
 33080     a cup of sack; do you discharge upon mine hostess.
 33081   PISTOL. I will discharge upon her, Sir John, with two bullets.
 33082   FALSTAFF. She is pistol-proof, sir; you shall not hardly offend
 33083     her.
 33084   HOSTESS. Come, I'll drink no proofs nor no bullets. I'll drink no
 33085     more than will do me good, for no man's pleasure, I.
 33086   PISTOL. Then to you, Mistress Dorothy; I will charge you.
 33087   DOLL. Charge me! I scorn you, scurvy companion. What! you poor,
 33088     base, rascally, cheating, lack-linen mate! Away, you mouldy
 33089     rogue, away! I am meat for your master.
 33090   PISTOL. I know you, Mistress Dorothy.
 33091   DOLL. Away, you cut-purse rascal! you filthy bung, away! By this
 33092     wine, I'll thrust my knife in your mouldy chaps, an you play the
 33093     saucy cuttle with me. Away, you bottle-ale rascal! you
 33094     basket-hilt stale juggler, you! Since when, I pray you, sir?
 33095     God's light, with two points on your shoulder? Much!
 33096   PISTOL. God let me not live but I will murder your ruff for this.
 33097   FALSTAFF. No more, Pistol; I would not have you go off here.
 33098     Discharge yourself of our company, Pistol.
 33099   HOSTESS. No, good Captain Pistol; not here, sweet captain.
 33100   DOLL. Captain! Thou abominable damn'd cheater, art thou not ashamed
 33101     to be called captain? An captains were of my mind, they would
 33102     truncheon you out, for taking their names upon you before you
 33103     have earn'd them. You a captain! you slave, for what? For tearing
 33104     a poor whore's ruff in a bawdy-house? He a captain! hang him,
 33105     rogue! He lives upon mouldy stew'd prunes and dried cakes. A
 33106     captain! God's light, these villains will make the word as odious
 33107     as the word 'occupy'; which was an excellent good word before it
 33108     was ill sorted. Therefore captains had need look to't.
 33109   BARDOLPH. Pray thee go down, good ancient.
 33110   FALSTAFF. Hark thee hither, Mistress Doll.
 33111   PISTOL. Not I! I tell thee what, Corporal Bardolph, I could tear
 33112     her; I'll be reveng'd of her.
 33113   PAGE. Pray thee go down.
 33114   PISTOL. I'll see her damn'd first; to Pluto's damn'd lake, by this
 33115     hand, to th' infernal deep, with Erebus and tortures vile also.
 33116     Hold hook and line, say I. Down, down, dogs! down, faitors! Have
 33117     we not Hiren here?
 33118   HOSTESS. Good Captain Peesel, be quiet; 'tis very late, i' faith; I
 33119     beseek you now, aggravate your choler.
 33120   PISTOL. These be good humours, indeed! Shall packhorses,
 33121     And hollow pamper'd jades of Asia,
 33122     Which cannot go but thirty mile a day,
 33123     Compare with Caesars, and with Cannibals,
 33124     And Troiant Greeks? Nay, rather damn them with
 33125     King Cerberus; and let the welkin roar.
 33126     Shall we fall foul for toys?
 33127   HOSTESS. By my troth, Captain, these are very bitter words.
 33128   BARDOLPH. Be gone, good ancient; this will grow to a brawl anon.
 33129   PISTOL. Die men like dogs! Give crowns like pins! Have we not Hiren
 33130     here?
 33131   HOSTESS. O' my word, Captain, there's none such here. What the
 33132     good-year! do you think I would deny her? For God's sake, be
 33133     quiet.
 33134   PISTOL. Then feed and be fat, my fair Calipolis.
 33135     Come, give's some sack.
 33136     'Si fortune me tormente sperato me contento.'
 33137     Fear we broadsides? No, let the fiend give fire.
 33138     Give me some sack; and, sweetheart, lie thou there.
 33139                                          [Laying down his sword]
 33140     Come we to full points here, and are etceteras nothings?
 33141   FALSTAFF. Pistol, I would be quiet.
 33142   PISTOL. Sweet knight, I kiss thy neaf. What! we have seen the seven
 33143     stars.
 33144   DOLL. For God's sake thrust him down stairs; I cannot endure such a
 33145     fustian rascal.
 33146   PISTOL. Thrust him down stairs! Know we not Galloway nags?
 33147   FALSTAFF. Quoit him down, Bardolph, like a shove-groat shilling.
 33148     Nay, an 'a do nothing but speak nothing, 'a shall be nothing
 33149     here.
 33150   BARDOLPH. Come, get you down stairs.
 33151   PISTOL. What! shall we have incision? Shall we imbrue?
 33152                                         [Snatching up his sword]
 33153     Then death rock me asleep, abridge my doleful days!
 33154     Why, then, let grievous, ghastly, gaping wounds
 33155     Untwine the Sisters Three! Come, Atropos, I say!
 33156   HOSTESS. Here's goodly stuff toward!
 33157   FALSTAFF. Give me my rapier, boy.
 33158   DOLL. I pray thee, Jack, I pray thee, do not draw.
 33159   FALSTAFF. Get you down stairs.
 33160                                 [Drawing and driving PISTOL out]
 33161   HOSTESS. Here's a goodly tumult! I'll forswear keeping house afore
 33162     I'll be in these tirrits and frights. So; murder, I warrant now.
 33163     Alas, alas! put up your naked weapons, put up your naked weapons.
 33164                                       Exeunt PISTOL and BARDOLPH
 33165   DOLL. I pray thee, Jack, be quiet; the rascal's gone. Ah, you
 33166     whoreson little valiant villain, you!
 33167   HOSTESS. Are you not hurt i' th' groin? Methought 'a made a shrewd
 33168     thrust at your belly.
 33169 
 33170                         Re-enter BARDOLPH
 33171 
 33172   FALSTAFF. Have you turn'd him out a doors?
 33173   BARDOLPH. Yea, sir. The rascal's drunk. You have hurt him, sir, i'
 33174     th' shoulder.
 33175   FALSTAFF. A rascal! to brave me!
 33176   DOLL. Ah, you sweet little rogue, you! Alas, poor ape, how thou
 33177     sweat'st! Come, let me wipe thy face. Come on, you whoreson
 33178     chops. Ah, rogue! i' faith, I love thee. Thou art as valorous as
 33179     Hector of Troy, worth five of Agamemnon, and ten times better
 33180     than the Nine Worthies. Ah, villain!
 33181   FALSTAFF. A rascally slave! I will toss the rogue in a blanket.
 33182   DOLL. Do, an thou dar'st for thy heart. An thou dost, I'll canvass
 33183     thee between a pair of sheets.
 33184 
 33185                           Enter musicians
 33186 
 33187   PAGE. The music is come, sir.
 33188   FALSTAFF. Let them play. Play, sirs. Sit on my knee, Don. A rascal
 33189     bragging slave! The rogue fled from me like quick-silver.
 33190   DOLL. I' faith, and thou follow'dst him like a church. Thou
 33191     whoreson little tidy Bartholomew boar-pig, when wilt thou leave
 33192     fighting a days and foining a nights, and begin to patch up thine
 33193     old body for heaven?
 33194 
 33195        Enter, behind, PRINCE HENRY and POINS disguised as drawers
 33196 
 33197   FALSTAFF. Peace, good Doll! Do not speak like a death's-head; do
 33198     not bid me remember mine end.
 33199   DOLL. Sirrah, what humour's the Prince of?
 33200   FALSTAFF. A good shallow young fellow. 'A would have made a good
 33201     pantler; 'a would ha' chipp'd bread well.
 33202   DOLL. They say Poins has a good wit.
 33203   FALSTAFF. He a good wit! hang him, baboon! His wit's as thick as
 33204     Tewksbury mustard; there's no more conceit in him than is in a
 33205     mallet.
 33206   DOLL. Why does the Prince love him so, then?
 33207   FALSTAFF. Because their legs are both of a bigness, and 'a plays at
 33208     quoits well, and eats conger and fennel, and drinks off candles'
 33209     ends for flap-dragons, and rides the wild mare with the boys, and
 33210     jumps upon join'd-stools, and swears with a good grace, and wears
 33211     his boots very smooth, like unto the sign of the Leg, and breeds
 33212     no bate with telling of discreet stories; and such other gambol
 33213     faculties 'a has, that show a weak mind and an able body, for the
 33214     which the Prince admits him. For the Prince himself is such
 33215     another; the weight of a hair will turn the scales between their
 33216     avoirdupois.
 33217   PRINCE. Would not this nave of a wheel have his ears cut off?
 33218   POINS. Let's beat him before his whore.
 33219   PRINCE. Look whe'er the wither'd elder hath not his poll claw'd
 33220     like a parrot.
 33221   POINS. Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive
 33222     performance?
 33223   FALSTAFF. Kiss me, Doll.
 33224   PRINCE. Saturn and Venus this year in conjunction! What says th'
 33225     almanac to that?
 33226   POINS. And look whether the fiery Trigon, his man, be not lisping
 33227     to his master's old tables, his note-book, his counsel-keeper.
 33228   FALSTAFF. Thou dost give me flattering busses.
 33229   DOLL. By my troth, I kiss thee with a most constant heart.
 33230   FALSTAFF. I am old, I am old.
 33231   DOLL. I love thee better than I love e'er a scurvy young boy of
 33232     them all.
 33233   FALSTAFF. What stuff wilt have a kirtle of? I shall receive money a
 33234     Thursday. Shalt have a cap to-morrow. A merry song, come. 'A
 33235     grows late; we'll to bed. Thou't forget me when I am gone.
 33236   DOLL. By my troth, thou't set me a-weeping, an thou say'st so.
 33237     Prove that ever I dress myself handsome till thy return. Well,
 33238     hearken a' th' end.
 33239   FALSTAFF. Some sack, Francis.
 33240   PRINCE & POINS. Anon, anon, sir.                   [Advancing]
 33241   FALSTAFF. Ha! a bastard son of the King's? And art thou not Poins
 33242     his brother?
 33243   PRINCE. Why, thou globe of sinful continents, what a life dost thou
 33244     lead!
 33245   FALSTAFF. A better than thou. I am a gentleman: thou art a drawer.
 33246   PRINCE. Very true, sir, and I come to draw you out by the ears.
 33247   HOSTESS. O, the Lord preserve thy Grace! By my troth, welcome to
 33248     London. Now the Lord bless that sweet face of thine. O Jesu, are
 33249     you come from Wales?
 33250   FALSTAFF. Thou whoreson mad compound of majesty, by this light
 33251     flesh and corrupt blood, thou art welcome.
 33252                                     [Leaning his band upon DOLL]
 33253   DOLL. How, you fat fool! I scorn you.
 33254   POINS. My lord, he will drive you out of your revenge and turn all
 33255     to a merriment, if you take not the heat.
 33256   PRINCE. YOU whoreson candle-mine, you, how vilely did you speak of
 33257     me even now before this honest, virtuous, civil gentlewoman!
 33258   HOSTESS. God's blessing of your good heart! and so she is, by my
 33259     troth.
 33260   FALSTAFF. Didst thou hear me?
 33261   PRINCE. Yea; and you knew me, as you did when you ran away by
 33262     Gadshill. You knew I was at your back, and spoke it on purpose to
 33263     try my patience.
 33264   FALSTAFF. No, no, no; not so; I did not think thou wast within
 33265     hearing.
 33266   PRINCE. I shall drive you then to confess the wilful abuse, and
 33267     then I know how to handle you.
 33268   FALSTAFF. No abuse, Hal, o' mine honour; no abuse.
 33269   PRINCE. Not- to dispraise me, and call me pander, and
 33270     bread-chipper, and I know not what!
 33271   FALSTAFF. No abuse, Hal.
 33272   POINS. No abuse!
 33273   FALSTAFF. No abuse, Ned, i' th' world; honest Ned, none. I
 33274     disprais'd him before the wicked- that the wicked might not fall
 33275     in love with thee; in which doing, I have done the part of a
 33276     careful friend and a true subject; and thy father is to give me
 33277     thanks for it. No abuse, Hal; none, Ned, none; no, faith, boys,
 33278     none.
 33279   PRINCE. See now, whether pure fear and entire cowardice doth not
 33280     make thee wrong this virtuous gentlewoman to close with us? Is
 33281     she of the wicked? Is thine hostess here of the wicked? Or is thy
 33282     boy of the wicked? Or honest Bardolph, whose zeal burns in his
 33283     nose, of the wicked?
 33284   POINS. Answer, thou dead elm, answer.
 33285   FALSTAFF. The fiend hath prick'd down Bardolph irrecoverable; and
 33286     his face is Lucifer's privy-kitchen, where he doth nothing but
 33287     roast malt-worms. For the boy- there is a good angel about him;
 33288     but the devil outbids him too.
 33289   PRINCE. For the women?
 33290   FALSTAFF. For one of them- she's in hell already, and burns poor
 33291     souls. For th' other- I owe her money; and whether she be damn'd
 33292     for that, I know not.
 33293   HOSTESS. No, I warrant you.
 33294   FALSTAFF. No, I think thou art not; I think thou art quit for that.
 33295     Marry, there is another indictment upon thee for suffering flesh
 33296     to be eaten in thy house, contrary to the law; for the which I
 33297     think thou wilt howl.
 33298   HOSTESS. All vict'lers do so. What's a joint of mutton or two in a
 33299     whole Lent?
 33300   PRINCE. You, gentlewoman-
 33301   DOLL. What says your Grace?
 33302   FALSTAFF. His Grace says that which his flesh rebels against.
 33303                                                [Knocking within]
 33304   HOSTESS. Who knocks so loud at door? Look to th' door there,
 33305     Francis.
 33306 
 33307                               Enter PETO
 33308 
 33309   PRINCE. Peto, how now! What news?
 33310   PETO. The King your father is at Westminster;
 33311     And there are twenty weak and wearied posts
 33312     Come from the north; and as I came along
 33313     I met and overtook a dozen captains,
 33314     Bare-headed, sweating, knocking at the taverns,
 33315     And asking every one for Sir John Falstaff.
 33316   PRINCE. By heaven, Poins, I feel me much to blame
 33317     So idly to profane the precious time,
 33318     When tempest of commotion, like the south,
 33319     Borne with black vapour, doth begin to melt
 33320     And drop upon our bare unarmed heads.
 33321     Give me my sword and cloak. Falstaff, good night.
 33322 
 33323                         Exeunt PRINCE, POINS, PETO, and BARDOLPH
 33324 
 33325   FALSTAFF. Now comes in the sweetest morsel of the night, and we
 33326     must hence, and leave it unpick'd.  [Knocking within]  More
 33327     knocking at the door!
 33328 
 33329                       Re-enter BARDOLPH
 33330 
 33331     How now! What's the matter?
 33332   BARDOLPH. You must away to court, sir, presently;
 33333     A dozen captains stay at door for you.
 33334   FALSTAFF.  [To the PAGE]. Pay the musicians, sirrah.- Farewell,
 33335     hostess; farewell, Doll. You see, my good wenches, how men of
 33336     merit are sought after; the undeserver may sleep, when the man of
 33337     action is call'd on. Farewell, good wenches. If I be not sent
 33338     away post, I will see you again ere I go.
 33339   DOLL. I cannot speak. If my heart be not ready to burst!
 33340     Well, sweet Jack, have a care of thyself.
 33341   FALSTAFF. Farewell, farewell.
 33342                                     Exeunt FALSTAFF and BARDOLPH
 33343   HOSTESS. Well, fare thee well. I have known thee these twenty-nine
 33344     years, come peascod-time; but an honester and truer-hearted man
 33345     -well fare thee well.
 33346   BARDOLPH.  [ Within]  Mistress Tearsheet!
 33347   HOSTESS. What's the matter?
 33348   BARDOLPH.  [ Within]  Bid Mistress Tearsheet come to my master.
 33349   HOSTESS. O, run Doll, run, run, good Come.  [To BARDOLPH]  She
 33350     comes blubber'd.- Yea, will you come, Doll?           Exeunt
 33351 
 33352 
 33353 
 33354 
 33355 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
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 33363 
 33364 
 33365 
 33366 ACT III. SCENE I.
 33367 Westminster. The palace
 33368 
 33369 Enter the KING in his nightgown, with a page
 33370 
 33371   KING. Go call the Earls of Surrey and of Warwick;
 33372     But, ere they come, bid them o'er-read these letters
 33373     And well consider of them. Make good speed.        Exit page
 33374     How many thousands of my poorest subjects
 33375     Are at this hour asleep! O sleep, O gentle sleep,
 33376     Nature's soft nurse, how have I frightened thee,
 33377     That thou no more will weigh my eyelids down,
 33378     And steep my senses in forgetfulness?
 33379     Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
 33380     Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,
 33381     And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,
 33382     Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great,
 33383     Under the canopies of costly state,
 33384     And lull'd with sound of sweetest melody?
 33385     O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile
 33386     In loathsome beds, and leav'st the kingly couch
 33387     A watch-case or a common 'larum-bell?
 33388     Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
 33389     Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains
 33390     In cradle of the rude imperious surge,
 33391     And in the visitation of the winds,
 33392     Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
 33393     Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them
 33394     With deafing clamour in the slippery clouds,
 33395     That with the hurly death itself awakes?
 33396     Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose
 33397     To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude;
 33398     And in the calmest and most stillest night,
 33399     With all appliances and means to boot,
 33400     Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down!
 33401     Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
 33402 
 33403                     Enter WARWICK and Surrey
 33404 
 33405   WARWICK. Many good morrows to your Majesty!
 33406   KING. Is it good morrow, lords?
 33407   WARWICK. 'Tis one o'clock, and past.
 33408   KING. Why then, good morrow to you all, my lords.
 33409     Have you read o'er the letters that I sent you?
 33410   WARWICK. We have, my liege.
 33411   KING. Then you perceive the body of our kingdom
 33412     How foul it is; what rank diseases grow,
 33413     And with what danger, near the heart of it.
 33414   WARWICK. It is but as a body yet distempered;
 33415     Which to his former strength may be restored
 33416     With good advice and little medicine.
 33417     My Lord Northumberland will soon be cool'd.
 33418   KING. O God! that one might read the book of fate,
 33419     And see the revolution of the times
 33420     Make mountains level, and the continent,
 33421     Weary of solid firmness, melt itself
 33422     Into the sea; and other times to see
 33423     The beachy girdle of the ocean
 33424     Too wide for Neptune's hips; how chances mock,
 33425     And changes fill the cup of alteration
 33426     With divers liquors! O, if this were seen,
 33427     The happiest youth, viewing his progress through,
 33428     What perils past, what crosses to ensue,
 33429     Would shut the book and sit him down and die.
 33430     'Tis not ten years gone
 33431     Since Richard and Northumberland, great friends,
 33432     Did feast together, and in two years after
 33433     Were they at wars. It is but eight years since
 33434     This Percy was the man nearest my soul;
 33435     Who like a brother toil'd in my affairs
 33436     And laid his love and life under my foot;
 33437     Yea, for my sake, even to the eyes of Richard
 33438     Gave him defiance. But which of you was by-
 33439     [To WARWICK]  You, cousin Nevil, as I may remember-
 33440     When Richard, with his eye brim full of tears,
 33441     Then check'd and rated by Northumberland,
 33442     Did speak these words, now prov'd a prophecy?
 33443     'Northumberland, thou ladder by the which
 33444     My cousin Bolingbroke ascends my throne'-
 33445     Though then, God knows, I had no such intent
 33446     But that necessity so bow'd the state
 33447     That I and greatness were compell'd to kiss-
 33448     'The time shall come'- thus did he follow it-
 33449     'The time will come that foul sin, gathering head,
 33450     Shall break into corruption' so went on,
 33451     Foretelling this same time's condition
 33452     And the division of our amity.
 33453   WARWICK. There is a history in all men's lives,
 33454     Figuring the natures of the times deceas'd;
 33455     The which observ'd, a man may prophesy,
 33456     With a near aim, of the main chance of things
 33457     As yet not come to life, who in their seeds
 33458     And weak beginning lie intreasured.
 33459     Such things become the hatch and brood of time;
 33460     And, by the necessary form of this,
 33461     King Richard might create a perfect guess
 33462     That great Northumberland, then false to him,
 33463     Would of that seed grow to a greater falseness;
 33464     Which should not find a ground to root upon
 33465     Unless on you.
 33466   KING. Are these things then necessities?
 33467     Then let us meet them like necessities;
 33468     And that same word even now cries out on us.
 33469     They say the Bishop and Northumberland
 33470     Are fifty thousand strong.
 33471   WARWICK. It cannot be, my lord.
 33472     Rumour doth double, like the voice and echo,
 33473     The numbers of the feared. Please it your Grace
 33474     To go to bed. Upon my soul, my lord,
 33475     The powers that you already have sent forth
 33476     Shall bring this prize in very easily.
 33477     To comfort you the more, I have receiv'd
 33478     A certain instance that Glendower is dead.
 33479     Your Majesty hath been this fortnight ill;
 33480     And these unseasoned hours perforce must ad
 33481     Unto your sickness.
 33482   KING. I will take your counsel.
 33483     And, were these inward wars once out of hand,
 33484     We would, dear lords, unto the Holy Land.            Exeunt
 33485 
 33486 
 33487 
 33488 
 33489 SCENE II.
 33490 Gloucestershire. Before Justice, SHALLOW'S house
 33491 
 33492 Enter SHALLOW and SILENCE, meeting; MOULDY, SHADOW, WART, FEEBLE, BULLCALF,
 33493 and servants behind
 33494 
 33495   SHALLOW. Come on, come on, come on; give me your hand, sir; give me
 33496     your hand, sir. An early stirrer, by the rood! And how doth my
 33497     good cousin Silence?
 33498   SILENCE. Good morrow, good cousin Shallow.
 33499   SHALLOW. And how doth my cousin, your bed-fellow? and your fairest
 33500     daughter and mine, my god-daughter Ellen?
 33501   SILENCE. Alas, a black ousel, cousin Shallow!
 33502   SHALLOW. By yea and no, sir. I dare say my cousin William is become
 33503     a good scholar; he is at Oxford still, is he not?
 33504   SILENCE. Indeed, sir, to my cost.
 33505   SHALLOW. 'A must, then, to the Inns o' Court shortly. I was once of
 33506     Clement's Inn; where I think they will talk of mad Shallow yet.
 33507   SILENCE. You were call'd 'lusty Shallow' then, cousin.
 33508   SHALLOW. By the mass, I was call'd anything; and I would have done
 33509     anything indeed too, and roundly too. There was I, and little
 33510     John Doit of Staffordshire, and black George Barnes, and Francis
 33511     Pickbone, and Will Squele a Cotsole man- you had not four such
 33512     swinge-bucklers in all the Inns of Court again. And I may say to
 33513     you we knew where the bona-robas were, and had the best of them
 33514     all at commandment. Then was Jack Falstaff, now Sir John, boy,
 33515     and page to Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk.
 33516   SILENCE. This Sir John, cousin, that comes hither anon about
 33517     soldiers?
 33518   SHALLOW. The same Sir John, the very same. I see him break
 33519     Scoggin's head at the court gate, when 'a was a crack not thus
 33520     high; and the very same day did I fight with one Sampson
 33521     Stockfish, a fruiterer, behind Gray's Inn. Jesu, Jesu, the mad
 33522     days that I have spent! and to see how many of my old
 33523     acquaintance are dead!
 33524   SILENCE. We shall all follow, cousin.
 33525   SHALLOW. Certain, 'tis certain; very sure, very sure. Death, as the
 33526     Psalmist saith, is certain to all; all shall die. How a good yoke
 33527     of bullocks at Stamford fair?
 33528   SILENCE. By my troth, I was not there.
 33529   SHALLOW. Death is certain. Is old Double of your town living yet?
 33530   SILENCE. Dead, sir.
 33531   SHALLOW. Jesu, Jesu, dead! drew a good bow; and dead! 'A shot a
 33532     fine shoot. John a Gaunt loved him well, and betted much money on
 33533     his head. Dead! 'A would have clapp'd i' th' clout at twelve
 33534     score, and carried you a forehand shaft a fourteen and fourteen
 33535     and a half, that it would have done a man's heart good to see.
 33536     How a score of ewes now?
 33537   SILENCE. Thereafter as they be- a score of good ewes may be worth
 33538     ten pounds.
 33539   SHALLOW. And is old Double dead?
 33540 
 33541                     Enter BARDOLPH, and one with him
 33542 
 33543   SILENCE. Here come two of Sir John Falstaffs men, as I think.
 33544   SHALLOW. Good morrow, honest gentlemen.
 33545   BARDOLPH. I beseech you, which is Justice Shallow?
 33546   SHALLOW. I am Robert Shallow, sir, a poor esquire of this county,
 33547     and one of the King's justices of the peace. What is your good
 33548     pleasure with me?
 33549   BARDOLPH. My captain, sir, commends him to you; my captain, Sir
 33550     John Falstaff- a tall gentleman, by heaven, and a most gallant
 33551     leader.
 33552   SHALLOW. He greets me well, sir; I knew him a good back-sword man.
 33553     How doth the good knight? May I ask how my lady his wife doth?
 33554   BARDOLPH. Sir, pardon; a soldier is better accommodated than with a
 33555     wife.
 33556   SHALLOW. It is well said, in faith, sir; and it is well said indeed
 33557     too. 'Better accommodated!' It is good; yea, indeed, is it. Good
 33558     phrases are surely, and ever were, very commendable.
 33559     'Accommodated!' It comes of accommodo. Very good; a good phrase.
 33560   BARDOLPH. Pardon, sir; I have heard the word. 'Phrase' call you it?
 33561     By this day, I know not the phrase; but I will maintain the word
 33562     with my sword to be a soldier-like word, and a word of exceeding
 33563     good command, by heaven. Accommodated: that is, when a man is, as
 33564     they say, accommodated; or, when a man is being-whereby 'a may be
 33565     thought to be accommodated; which is an excellent thing.
 33566 
 33567                               Enter FALSTAFF
 33568 
 33569   SHALLOW. It is very just. Look, here comes good Sir John. Give me
 33570     your good hand, give me your worship's good hand. By my troth,
 33571     you like well and bear your years very well. Welcome, good Sir
 33572     John.
 33573   FALSTAFF. I am glad to see you well, good Master Robert Shallow.
 33574     Master Surecard, as I think?
 33575   SHALLOW. No, Sir John; it is my cousin Silence, in commission with
 33576    me.
 33577   FALSTAFF. Good Master Silence, it well befits you should be of the
 33578     peace.
 33579   SILENCE. Your good worship is welcome.
 33580   FALSTAFF. Fie! this is hot weather. Gentlemen, have you provided me
 33581     here half a dozen sufficient men?
 33582   SHALLOW. Marry, have we, sir. Will you sit?
 33583   FALSTAFF. Let me see them, I beseech you.
 33584   SHALLOW. Where's the roll? Where's the roll? Where's the roll? Let
 33585     me see, let me see, let me see. So, so, so, so,- so, so- yea,
 33586     marry, sir. Rafe Mouldy! Let them appear as I call; let them do
 33587     so, let them do so. Let me see; where is Mouldy?
 33588   MOULDY. Here, an't please you.
 33589   SHALLOW. What think you, Sir John? A good-limb'd fellow; young,
 33590     strong, and of good friends.
 33591   FALSTAFF. Is thy name Mouldy?
 33592   MOULDY. Yea, an't please you.
 33593   FALSTAFF. 'Tis the more time thou wert us'd.
 33594   SHALLOW. Ha, ha, ha! most excellent, i' faith! Things that are
 33595     mouldy lack use. Very singular good! In faith, well said, Sir
 33596     John; very well said.
 33597   FALSTAFF. Prick him.
 33598   MOULDY. I was prick'd well enough before, an you could have let me
 33599     alone. My old dame will be undone now for one to do her husbandry
 33600     and her drudgery. You need not to have prick'd me; there are
 33601     other men fitter to go out than I.
 33602   FALSTAFF. Go to; peace, Mouldy; you shall go. Mouldy, it is time
 33603     you were spent.
 33604   MOULDY. Spent!
 33605   SHALLOW. Peace, fellow, peace; stand aside; know you where you are?
 33606     For th' other, Sir John- let me see. Simon Shadow!
 33607   FALSTAFF. Yea, marry, let me have him to sit under. He's like to be
 33608     a cold soldier.
 33609   SHALLOW. Where's Shadow?
 33610   SHADOW. Here, sir.
 33611   FALSTAFF. Shadow, whose son art thou?
 33612   SHADOW. My mother's son, sir.
 33613   FALSTAFF. Thy mother's son! Like enough; and thy father's shadow.
 33614     So the son of the female is the shadow of the male. It is often
 33615     so indeed; but much of the father's substance!
 33616   SHALLOW. Do you like him, Sir John?
 33617   FALSTAFF. Shadow will serve for summer. Prick him; for we have a
 33618     number of shadows fill up the muster-book.
 33619   SHALLOW. Thomas Wart!
 33620   FALSTAFF. Where's he?
 33621   WART. Here, sir.
 33622   FALSTAFF. Is thy name Wart?
 33623   WART. Yea, sir.
 33624   FALSTAFF. Thou art a very ragged wart.
 33625   SHALLOW. Shall I prick him, Sir John?
 33626   FALSTAFF. It were superfluous; for his apparel is built upon his
 33627     back, and the whole frame stands upon pins. Prick him no more.
 33628   SHALLOW. Ha, ha, ha! You can do it, sir; you can do it. I commend
 33629     you well. Francis Feeble!
 33630   FEEBLE. Here, sir.
 33631   FALSTAFF. What trade art thou, Feeble?
 33632   FEEBLE. A woman's tailor, sir.
 33633   SHALLOW. Shall I prick him, sir?
 33634   FALSTAFF. You may; but if he had been a man's tailor, he'd ha'
 33635     prick'd you. Wilt thou make as many holes in an enemy's battle as
 33636     thou hast done in a woman's petticoat?
 33637   FEEBLE. I will do my good will, sir; you can have no more.
 33638   FALSTAFF. Well said, good woman's tailor! well said, courageous
 33639     Feeble! Thou wilt be as valiant as the wrathful dove or most
 33640     magnanimous mouse. Prick the woman's tailor- well, Master
 33641     Shallow, deep, Master Shallow.
 33642   FEEBLE. I would Wart might have gone, sir.
 33643   FALSTAFF. I would thou wert a man's tailor, that thou mightst mend
 33644     him and make him fit to go. I cannot put him to a private
 33645     soldier, that is the leader of so many thousands. Let that
 33646     suffice, most forcible Feeble.
 33647   FEEBLE. It shall suffice, sir.
 33648   FALSTAFF. I am bound to thee, reverend Feeble. Who is next?
 33649   SHALLOW. Peter Bullcalf o' th' green!
 33650   FALSTAFF. Yea, marry, let's see Bullcalf.
 33651   BULLCALF. Here, sir.
 33652   FALSTAFF. Fore God, a likely fellow! Come, prick me Bullcalf till
 33653     he roar again.
 33654   BULLCALF. O Lord! good my lord captain-
 33655   FALSTAFF. What, dost thou roar before thou art prick'd?
 33656   BULLCALF. O Lord, sir! I am a diseased man.
 33657   FALSTAFF. What disease hast thou?
 33658   BULLCALF. A whoreson cold, sir, a cough, sir, which I caught with
 33659     ringing in the King's affairs upon his coronation day, sir.
 33660   FALSTAFF. Come, thou shalt go to the wars in a gown. We will have
 33661     away thy cold; and I will take such order that thy friends shall
 33662     ring for thee. Is here all?
 33663   SHALLOW. Here is two more call'd than your number. You must have
 33664     but four here, sir; and so, I pray you, go in with me to dinner.
 33665   FALSTAFF. Come, I will go drink with you, but I cannot tarry
 33666     dinner. I am glad to see you, by my troth, Master Shallow.
 33667   SHALLOW. O, Sir John, do you remember since we lay all night in the
 33668     windmill in Saint George's Field?
 33669   FALSTAFF. No more of that, Master Shallow, no more of that.
 33670   SHALLOW. Ha, 'twas a merry night. And is Jane Nightwork alive?
 33671   FALSTAFF. She lives, Master Shallow.
 33672   SHALLOW. She never could away with me.
 33673   FALSTAFF. Never, never; she would always say she could not abide
 33674     Master Shallow.
 33675   SHALLOW. By the mass, I could anger her to th' heart. She was then
 33676     a bona-roba. Doth she hold her own well?
 33677   FALSTAFF. Old, old, Master Shallow.
 33678   SHALLOW. Nay, she must be old; she cannot choose but be old;
 33679     certain she's old; and had Robin Nightwork, by old Nightwork,
 33680     before I came to Clement's Inn.
 33681   SILENCE. That's fifty-five year ago.
 33682   SHALLOW. Ha, cousin Silence, that thou hadst seen that that this
 33683     knight and I have seen! Ha, Sir John, said I well?
 33684   FALSTAFF. We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow.
 33685   SHALLOW. That we have, that we have, that we have; in faith, Sir
 33686     John, we have. Our watchword was 'Hem, boys!' Come, let's to
 33687     dinner; come, let's to dinner. Jesus, the days that we have seen!
 33688     Come, come.
 33689                                 Exeunt FALSTAFF and the JUSTICES
 33690   BULLCALF. Good Master Corporate Bardolph, stand my friend; and
 33691     here's four Harry ten shillings in French crowns for you. In very
 33692     truth, sir, I had as lief be hang'd, sir, as go. And yet, for
 33693     mine own part, sir, I do not care; but rather because I am
 33694     unwilling and, for mine own part, have a desire to stay with my
 33695     friends; else, sir, I did not care for mine own part so much.
 33696   BARDOLPH. Go to; stand aside.
 33697   MOULDY. And, good Master Corporal Captain, for my old dame's sake,
 33698     stand my friend. She has nobody to do anything about her when I
 33699     am gone; and she is old, and cannot help herself. You shall have
 33700     forty, sir.
 33701   BARDOLPH. Go to; stand aside.
 33702   FEEBLE. By my troth, I care not; a man can die but once; we owe God
 33703     a death. I'll ne'er bear a base mind. An't be my destiny, so;
 33704     an't be not, so. No man's too good to serve 's Prince; and, let
 33705     it go which way it will, he that dies this year is quit for the
 33706     next.
 33707   BARDOLPH. Well said; th'art a good fellow.
 33708   FEEBLE. Faith, I'll bear no base mind.
 33709 
 33710                     Re-enter FALSTAFF and the JUSTICES
 33711 
 33712   FALSTAFF. Come, sir, which men shall I have?
 33713   SHALLOW. Four of which you please.
 33714   BARDOLPH. Sir, a word with you. I have three pound to free Mouldy
 33715     and Bullcalf.
 33716   FALSTAFF. Go to; well.
 33717   SHALLOW. Come, Sir John, which four will you have?
 33718   FALSTAFF. Do you choose for me.
 33719   SHALLOW. Marry, then- Mouldy, Bullcalf, Feeble, and Shadow.
 33720   FALSTAFF. Mouldy and Bullcalf: for you, Mouldy, stay at home till
 33721     you are past service; and for your part, Bullcalf, grow you come
 33722     unto it. I will none of you.
 33723   SHALLOW. Sir John, Sir John, do not yourself wrong. They are your
 33724     likeliest men, and I would have you serv'd with the best.
 33725   FALSTAFF. Will you tell me, Master Shallow, how to choose a man?
 33726     Care I for the limb, the thews, the stature, bulk, and big
 33727     assemblance of a man! Give me the spirit, Master Shallow. Here's
 33728     Wart; you see what a ragged appearance it is. 'A shall charge you
 33729     and discharge you with the motion of a pewterer's hammer, come
 33730     off and on swifter than he that gibbets on the brewer's bucket.
 33731     And this same half-fac'd fellow, Shadow- give me this man. He
 33732     presents no mark to the enemy; the foeman may with as great aim
 33733     level at the edge of a penknife. And, for a retreat- how swiftly
 33734     will this Feeble, the woman's tailor, run off! O, give me the
 33735     spare men, and spare me the great ones. Put me a caliver into
 33736     Wart's hand, Bardolph.
 33737   BARDOLPH. Hold, Wart. Traverse- thus, thus, thus.
 33738   FALSTAFF. Come, manage me your caliver. So- very well. Go to; very
 33739     good; exceeding good. O, give me always a little, lean, old,
 33740     chopt, bald shot. Well said, i' faith, Wart; th'art a good scab.
 33741     Hold, there's a tester for thee.
 33742   SHALLOW. He is not his craft's master, he doth not do it right. I
 33743     remember at Mile-end Green, when I lay at Clement's Inn- I was
 33744     then Sir Dagonet in Arthur's show- there was a little quiver
 33745     fellow, and 'a would manage you his piece thus; and 'a would
 33746     about and about, and come you in and come you in. 'Rah, tah,
 33747     tah!' would 'a say; 'Bounce!' would 'a say; and away again would
 33748     'a go, and again would 'a come. I shall ne'er see such a fellow.
 33749   FALSTAFF. These fellows will do well. Master Shallow, God keep you!
 33750     Master Silence, I will not use many words with you: Fare you
 33751     well! Gentlemen both, I thank you. I must a dozen mile to-night.
 33752     Bardolph, give the soldiers coats.
 33753   SHALLOW. Sir John, the Lord bless you; God prosper your affairs;
 33754     God send us peace! At your return, visit our house; let our old
 33755     acquaintance be renewed. Peradventure I will with ye to the
 33756     court.
 33757   FALSTAFF. Fore God, would you would.
 33758   SHALLOW. Go to; I have spoke at a word. God keep you.
 33759   FALSTAFF. Fare you well, gentle gentlemen.  [Exeunt JUSTICES]  On,
 33760     Bardolph; lead the men away.  [Exeunt all but FALSTAFF]  As I
 33761     return, I will fetch off these justices. I do see the bottom of
 33762     justice Shallow. Lord, Lord, how subject we old men are to this
 33763     vice of lying! This same starv'd justice hath done nothing but
 33764     prate to me of the wildness of his youth and the feats he hath
 33765     done about Turnbull Street; and every third word a lie, duer paid
 33766     to the hearer than the Turk's tribute. I do remember him at
 33767     Clement's Inn, like a man made after supper of a cheese-paring.
 33768     When 'a was naked, he was for all the world like a fork'd radish,
 33769     with a head fantastically carved upon it with a knife. 'A was so
 33770     forlorn that his dimensions to any thick sight were invisible. 'A
 33771     was the very genius of famine; yet lecherous as a monkey, and the
 33772     whores call'd him mandrake. 'A came ever in the rearward of the
 33773     fashion, and sung those tunes to the overscutch'd huswifes that
 33774     he heard the carmen whistle, and sware they were his fancies or
 33775     his good-nights. And now is this Vice's dagger become a squire,
 33776     and talks as familiarly of John a Gaunt as if he had been sworn
 33777     brother to him; and I'll be sworn 'a ne'er saw him but once in
 33778     the Tiltyard; and then he burst his head for crowding among the
 33779     marshal's men. I saw it, and told John a Gaunt he beat his own
 33780     name; for you might have thrust him and all his apparel into an
 33781     eel-skin; the case of a treble hautboy was a mansion for him, a
 33782     court- and now has he land and beeves. Well, I'll be acquainted
 33783     with him if I return; and 't shall go hard but I'll make him a
 33784     philosopher's two stones to me. If the young dace be a bait for
 33785     the old pike, I see no reason in the law of nature but I may snap
 33786     at him. Let time shape, and there an end.               Exit
 33787 
 33788 
 33789 
 33790 
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 33799 
 33800 
 33801 
 33802 ACT IV. SCENE I.
 33803 Yorkshire. Within the Forest of Gaultree
 33804 
 33805 Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, MOWBRAY, HASTINGS, and others
 33806 
 33807   ARCHBISHOP. What is this forest call'd
 33808   HASTINGS. 'Tis Gaultree Forest, an't shall please your Grace.
 33809   ARCHBISHOP. Here stand, my lords, and send discoverers forth
 33810     To know the numbers of our enemies.
 33811   HASTINGS. We have sent forth already.
 33812   ARCHBISHOP. 'Tis well done.
 33813     My friends and brethren in these great affairs,
 33814     I must acquaint you that I have receiv'd
 33815     New-dated letters from Northumberland;
 33816     Their cold intent, tenour, and substance, thus:
 33817     Here doth he wish his person, with such powers
 33818     As might hold sortance with his quality,
 33819     The which he could not levy; whereupon
 33820     He is retir'd, to ripe his growing fortunes,
 33821     To Scotland; and concludes in hearty prayers
 33822     That your attempts may overlive the hazard
 33823     And fearful meeting of their opposite.
 33824   MOWBRAY. Thus do the hopes we have in him touch ground
 33825     And dash themselves to pieces.
 33826 
 33827                           Enter A MESSENGER
 33828 
 33829   HASTINGS. Now, what news?
 33830   MESSENGER. West of this forest, scarcely off a mile,
 33831     In goodly form comes on the enemy;
 33832     And, by the ground they hide, I judge their number
 33833     Upon or near the rate of thirty thousand.
 33834   MOWBRAY. The just proportion that we gave them out.
 33835     Let us sway on and face them in the field.
 33836 
 33837                         Enter WESTMORELAND
 33838 
 33839   ARCHBISHOP. What well-appointed leader fronts us here?
 33840   MOWBRAY. I think it is my Lord of Westmoreland.
 33841   WESTMORELAND. Health and fair greeting from our general,
 33842     The Prince, Lord John and Duke of Lancaster.
 33843   ARCHBISHOP. Say on, my Lord of Westmoreland, in peace,
 33844     What doth concern your coming.
 33845   WESTMORELAND. Then, my lord,
 33846     Unto your Grace do I in chief address
 33847     The substance of my speech. If that rebellion
 33848     Came like itself, in base and abject routs,
 33849     Led on by bloody youth, guarded with rags,
 33850     And countenanc'd by boys and beggary-
 33851     I say, if damn'd commotion so appear'd
 33852     In his true, native, and most proper shape,
 33853     You, reverend father, and these noble lords,
 33854     Had not been here to dress the ugly form
 33855     Of base and bloody insurrection
 33856     With your fair honours. You, Lord Archbishop,
 33857     Whose see is by a civil peace maintain'd,
 33858     Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touch'd,
 33859     Whose learning and good letters peace hath tutor'd,
 33860     Whose white investments figure innocence,
 33861     The dove, and very blessed spirit of peace-
 33862     Wherefore you do so ill translate yourself
 33863     Out of the speech of peace, that bears such grace,
 33864     Into the harsh and boist'rous tongue of war;
 33865     Turning your books to graves, your ink to blood,
 33866     Your pens to lances, and your tongue divine
 33867     To a loud trumpet and a point of war?
 33868   ARCHBISHOP. Wherefore do I this? So the question stands.
 33869     Briefly to this end: we are all diseas'd
 33870     And with our surfeiting and wanton hours
 33871     Have brought ourselves into a burning fever,
 33872     And we must bleed for it; of which disease
 33873     Our late King, Richard, being infected, died.
 33874     But, my most noble Lord of Westmoreland,
 33875     I take not on me here as a physician;
 33876     Nor do I as an enemy to peace
 33877     Troop in the throngs of military men;
 33878     But rather show awhile like fearful war
 33879     To diet rank minds sick of happiness,
 33880     And purge th' obstructions which begin to stop
 33881     Our very veins of life. Hear me more plainly.
 33882     I have in equal balance justly weigh'd
 33883     What wrongs our arms may do, what wrongs we suffer,
 33884     And find our griefs heavier than our offences.
 33885     We see which way the stream of time doth run
 33886     And are enforc'd from our most quiet there
 33887     By the rough torrent of occasion;
 33888     And have the summary of all our griefs,
 33889     When time shall serve, to show in articles;
 33890     Which long ere this we offer'd to the King,
 33891     And might by no suit gain our audience:
 33892     When we are wrong'd, and would unfold our griefs,
 33893     We are denied access unto his person,
 33894     Even by those men that most have done us wrong.
 33895     The dangers of the days but newly gone,
 33896     Whose memory is written on the earth
 33897     With yet appearing blood, and the examples
 33898     Of every minute's instance, present now,
 33899     Hath put us in these ill-beseeming arms;
 33900     Not to break peace, or any branch of it,
 33901     But to establish here a peace indeed,
 33902     Concurring both in name and quality.
 33903   WESTMORELAND. When ever yet was your appeal denied;
 33904     Wherein have you been galled by the King;
 33905     What peer hath been suborn'd to grate on you
 33906     That you should seal this lawless bloody book
 33907     Of forg'd rebellion with a seal divine,
 33908     And consecrate commotion's bitter edge?
 33909   ARCHBISHOP. My brother general, the commonwealth,
 33910     To brother horn an household cruelty,
 33911     I make my quarrel in particular.
 33912   WESTMORELAND. There is no need of any such redress;
 33913     Or if there were, it not belongs to you.
 33914   MOWBRAY. Why not to him in part, and to us all
 33915     That feel the bruises of the days before,
 33916     And suffer the condition of these times
 33917     To lay a heavy and unequal hand
 33918     Upon our honours?
 33919   WESTMORELAND. O my good Lord Mowbray,
 33920     Construe the times to their necessities,
 33921     And you shall say, indeed, it is the time,
 33922     And not the King, that doth you injuries.
 33923     Yet, for your part, it not appears to me,
 33924     Either from the King or in the present time,
 33925     That you should have an inch of any ground
 33926     To build a grief on. Were you not restor'd
 33927     To all the Duke of Norfolk's signiories,
 33928     Your noble and right well-rememb'red father's?
 33929   MOWBRAY. What thing, in honour, had my father lost
 33930     That need to be reviv'd and breath'd in me?
 33931     The King that lov'd him, as the state stood then,
 33932     Was force perforce compell'd to banish him,
 33933     And then that Henry Bolingbroke and he,
 33934     Being mounted and both roused in their seats,
 33935     Their neighing coursers daring of the spur,
 33936     Their armed staves in charge, their beavers down,
 33937     Their eyes of fire sparkling through sights of steel,
 33938     And the loud trumpet blowing them together-
 33939     Then, then, when there was nothing could have stay'd
 33940     My father from the breast of Bolingbroke,
 33941     O, when the King did throw his warder down-
 33942     His own life hung upon the staff he threw-
 33943     Then threw he down himself, and all their lives
 33944     That by indictment and by dint of sword
 33945     Have since miscarried under Bolingbroke.
 33946   WESTMORELAND. You speak, Lord Mowbray, now you know not what.
 33947     The Earl of Hereford was reputed then
 33948     In England the most valiant gentleman.
 33949     Who knows on whom fortune would then have smil'd?
 33950     But if your father had been victor there,
 33951     He ne'er had borne it out of Coventry;
 33952     For all the country, in a general voice,
 33953     Cried hate upon him; and all their prayers and love
 33954     Were set on Hereford, whom they doted on,
 33955     And bless'd and grac'd indeed more than the King.
 33956     But this is mere digression from my purpose.
 33957     Here come I from our princely general
 33958     To know your griefs; to tell you from his Grace
 33959     That he will give you audience; and wherein
 33960     It shall appear that your demands are just,
 33961     You shall enjoy them, everything set off
 33962     That might so much as think you enemies.
 33963   MOWBRAY. But he hath forc'd us to compel this offer;
 33964     And it proceeds from policy, not love.
 33965   WESTMORELAND. Mowbray. you overween to take it so.
 33966     This offer comes from mercy, not from fear;
 33967     For, lo! within a ken our army lies-
 33968     Upon mine honour, all too confident
 33969     To give admittance to a thought of fear.
 33970     Our battle is more full of names than yours,
 33971     Our men more perfect in the use of arms,
 33972     Our armour all as strong, our cause the best;
 33973     Then reason will our hearts should be as good.
 33974     Say you not, then, our offer is compell'd.
 33975   MOWBRAY. Well, by my will we shall admit no parley.
 33976   WESTMORELAND. That argues but the shame of your offence:
 33977     A rotten case abides no handling.
 33978   HASTINGS. Hath the Prince John a full commission,
 33979     In very ample virtue of his father,
 33980     To hear and absolutely to determine
 33981     Of what conditions we shall stand upon?
 33982   WESTMORELAND. That is intended in the general's name.
 33983     I muse you make so slight a question.
 33984   ARCHBISHOP. Then take, my Lord of Westmoreland, this schedule,
 33985     For this contains our general grievances.
 33986     Each several article herein redress'd,
 33987     All members of our cause, both here and hence,
 33988     That are insinewed to this action,
 33989     Acquitted by a true substantial form,
 33990     And present execution of our wills
 33991     To us and to our purposes confin'd-
 33992     We come within our awful banks again,
 33993     And knit our powers to the arm of peace.
 33994   WESTMORELAND. This will I show the general. Please you, lords,
 33995     In sight of both our battles we may meet;
 33996     And either end in peace- which God so frame!-
 33997     Or to the place of diff'rence call the swords
 33998     Which must decide it.
 33999   ARCHBISHOP. My lord, we will do so.          Exit WESTMORELAND
 34000   MOWBRAY. There is a thing within my bosom tells me
 34001     That no conditions of our peace can stand.
 34002   HASTINGS. Fear you not that: if we can make our peace
 34003     Upon such large terms and so absolute
 34004     As our conditions shall consist upon,
 34005     Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.
 34006   MOWBRAY. Yea, but our valuation shall be such
 34007     That every slight and false-derived cause,
 34008     Yea, every idle, nice, and wanton reason,
 34009     Shall to the King taste of this action;
 34010     That, were our royal faiths martyrs in love,
 34011     We shall be winnow'd with so rough a wind
 34012     That even our corn shall seem as light as chaff,
 34013     And good from bad find no partition.
 34014   ARCHBISHOP. No, no, my lord. Note this: the King is weary
 34015     Of dainty and such picking grievances;
 34016     For he hath found to end one doubt by death
 34017     Revives two greater in the heirs of life;
 34018     And therefore will he wipe his tables clean,
 34019     And keep no tell-tale to his memory
 34020     That may repeat and history his los
 34021     To new remembrance. For full well he knows
 34022     He cannot so precisely weed this land
 34023     As his misdoubts present occasion:
 34024     His foes are so enrooted with his friends
 34025     That, plucking to unfix an enemy,
 34026     He doth unfasten so and shake a friend.
 34027     So that this land, like an offensive wife
 34028     That hath enrag'd him on to offer strokes,
 34029     As he is striking, holds his infant up,
 34030     And hangs resolv'd correction in the arm
 34031     That was uprear'd to execution.
 34032   HASTINGS. Besides, the King hath wasted all his rods
 34033     On late offenders, that he now doth lack
 34034     The very instruments of chastisement;
 34035     So that his power, like to a fangless lion,
 34036     May offer, but not hold.
 34037   ARCHBISHOP. 'Tis very true;
 34038     And therefore be assur'd, my good Lord Marshal,
 34039     If we do now make our atonement well,
 34040     Our peace will, like a broken limb united,
 34041     Grow stronger for the breaking.
 34042   MOWBRAY. Be it so.
 34043     Here is return'd my Lord of Westmoreland.
 34044 
 34045                        Re-enter WESTMORELAND
 34046 
 34047   WESTMORELAND. The Prince is here at hand. Pleaseth your lordship
 34048     To meet his Grace just distance 'tween our armies?
 34049   MOWBRAY. Your Grace of York, in God's name then, set forward.
 34050   ARCHBISHOP. Before, and greet his Grace. My lord, we come.
 34051                                                           Exeunt
 34052 
 34053 
 34054 
 34055 
 34056 SCENE II.
 34057 Another part of the forest
 34058 
 34059 Enter, from one side, MOWBRAY, attended; afterwards, the ARCHBISHOP,
 34060 HASTINGS, and others; from the other side, PRINCE JOHN of LANCASTER,
 34061 WESTMORELAND, OFFICERS, and others
 34062 
 34063   PRINCE JOHN. You are well encount'red here, my cousin Mowbray.
 34064     Good day to you, gentle Lord Archbishop;
 34065     And so to you, Lord Hastings, and to all.
 34066     My Lord of York, it better show'd with you
 34067     When that your flock, assembled by the bell,
 34068     Encircled you to hear with reverence
 34069     Your exposition on the holy text
 34070     Than now to see you here an iron man,
 34071     Cheering a rout of rebels with your drum,
 34072     Turning the word to sword, and life to death.
 34073     That man that sits within a monarch's heart
 34074     And ripens in the sunshine of his favour,
 34075     Would he abuse the countenance of the king,
 34076     Alack, what mischiefs might he set abroach
 34077     In shadow of such greatness! With you, Lord Bishop,
 34078     It is even so. Who hath not heard it spoken
 34079     How deep you were within the books of God?
 34080     To us the speaker in His parliament,
 34081     To us th' imagin'd voice of God himself,
 34082     The very opener and intelligencer
 34083     Between the grace, the sanctities of heaven,
 34084     And our dull workings. O, who shall believe
 34085     But you misuse the reverence of your place,
 34086     Employ the countenance and grace of heav'n
 34087     As a false favourite doth his prince's name,
 34088     In deeds dishonourable? You have ta'en up,
 34089     Under the counterfeited zeal of God,
 34090     The subjects of His substitute, my father,
 34091     And both against the peace of heaven and him
 34092     Have here up-swarm'd them.
 34093   ARCHBISHOP. Good my Lord of Lancaster,
 34094     I am not here against your father's peace;
 34095     But, as I told my Lord of Westmoreland,
 34096     The time misord'red doth, in common sense,
 34097     Crowd us and crush us to this monstrous form
 34098     To hold our safety up. I sent your Grace
 34099     The parcels and particulars of our grief,
 34100     The which hath been with scorn shov'd from the court,
 34101     Whereon this hydra son of war is born;
 34102     Whose dangerous eyes may well be charm'd asleep
 34103     With grant of our most just and right desires;
 34104     And true obedience, of this madness cur'd,
 34105     Stoop tamely to the foot of majesty.
 34106   MOWBRAY. If not, we ready are to try our fortunes
 34107     To the last man.
 34108   HASTINGS. And though we here fall down,
 34109     We have supplies to second our attempt.
 34110     If they miscarry, theirs shall second them;
 34111     And so success of mischief shall be born,
 34112     And heir from heir shall hold this quarrel up
 34113     Whiles England shall have generation.
 34114   PRINCE JOHN. YOU are too shallow, Hastings, much to shallow,
 34115     To sound the bottom of the after-times.
 34116   WESTMORELAND. Pleaseth your Grace to answer them directly
 34117     How far forth you do like their articles.
 34118   PRINCE JOHN. I like them all and do allow them well;
 34119     And swear here, by the honour of my blood,
 34120     My father's purposes have been mistook;
 34121     And some about him have too lavishly
 34122     Wrested his meaning and authority.
 34123     My lord, these griefs shall be with speed redress'd;
 34124     Upon my soul, they shall. If this may please you,
 34125     Discharge your powers unto their several counties,
 34126     As we will ours; and here, between the armies,
 34127     Let's drink together friendly and embrace,
 34128     That all their eyes may bear those tokens home
 34129     Of our restored love and amity.
 34130   ARCHBISHOP. I take your princely word for these redresses.
 34131   PRINCE JOHN. I give it you, and will maintain my word;
 34132     And thereupon I drink unto your Grace.
 34133   HASTINGS. Go, Captain, and deliver to the army
 34134     This news of peace. Let them have pay, and part.
 34135     I know it will please them. Hie thee, Captain.
 34136                                                     Exit Officer
 34137   ARCHBISHOP. To you, my noble Lord of Westmoreland.
 34138   WESTMORELAND. I pledge your Grace; and if you knew what pains
 34139     I have bestow'd to breed this present peace,
 34140     You would drink freely; but my love to ye
 34141     Shall show itself more openly hereafter.
 34142   ARCHBISHOP. I do not doubt you.
 34143   WESTMORELAND. I am glad of it.
 34144     Health to my lord and gentle cousin, Mowbray.
 34145   MOWBRAY. You wish me health in very happy season,
 34146     For I am on the sudden something ill.
 34147   ARCHBISHOP. Against ill chances men are ever merry;
 34148     But heaviness foreruns the good event.
 34149   WESTMORELAND. Therefore be merry, coz; since sudden sorrow
 34150     Serves to say thus, 'Some good thing comes to-morrow.'
 34151   ARCHBISHOP. Believe me, I am passing light in spirit.
 34152   MOWBRAY. So much the worse, if your own rule be true.
 34153                                                  [Shouts within]
 34154   PRINCE JOHN. The word of peace is rend'red. Hark, how they shout!
 34155   MOWBRAY. This had been cheerful after victory.
 34156   ARCHBISHOP. A peace is of the nature of a conquest;
 34157     For then both parties nobly are subdu'd,
 34158     And neither party loser.
 34159   PRINCE JOHN. Go, my lord,
 34160     And let our army be discharged too.
 34161                                                Exit WESTMORELAND
 34162     And, good my lord, so please you let our trains
 34163     March by us, that we may peruse the men
 34164     We should have cop'd withal.
 34165   ARCHBISHOP. Go, good Lord Hastings,
 34166     And, ere they be dismiss'd, let them march by.
 34167                                                    Exit HASTINGS
 34168   PRINCE JOHN. I trust, lords, we shall lie to-night together.
 34169 
 34170                       Re-enter WESTMORELAND
 34171 
 34172     Now, cousin, wherefore stands our army still?
 34173   WESTMORELAND. The leaders, having charge from you to stand,
 34174     Will not go off until they hear you speak.
 34175   PRINCE JOHN. They know their duties.
 34176 
 34177                         Re-enter HASTINGS
 34178 
 34179   HASTINGS. My lord, our army is dispers'd already.
 34180     Like youthful steers unyok'd, they take their courses
 34181     East, west, north, south; or like a school broke up,
 34182     Each hurries toward his home and sporting-place.
 34183   WESTMORELAND. Good tidings, my Lord Hastings; for the which
 34184     I do arrest thee, traitor, of high treason;
 34185     And you, Lord Archbishop, and you, Lord Mowbray,
 34186     Of capital treason I attach you both.
 34187   MOWBRAY. Is this proceeding just and honourable?
 34188   WESTMORELAND. Is your assembly so?
 34189   ARCHBISHOP. Will you thus break your faith?
 34190   PRINCE JOHN. I pawn'd thee none:
 34191     I promis'd you redress of these same grievances
 34192     Whereof you did complain; which, by mine honour,
 34193     I will perform with a most Christian care.
 34194     But for you, rebels- look to taste the due
 34195     Meet for rebellion and such acts as yours.
 34196     Most shallowly did you these arms commence,
 34197     Fondly brought here, and foolishly sent hence.
 34198     Strike up our drums, pursue the scatt'red stray.
 34199     God, and not we, hath safely fought to-day.
 34200     Some guard these traitors to the block of death,
 34201     Treason's true bed and yielder-up of breath.          Exeunt
 34202 
 34203 
 34204 
 34205 
 34206 SCENE III.
 34207 Another part of the forest
 34208 
 34209 Alarum; excursions. Enter FALSTAFF and COLVILLE, meeting
 34210 
 34211   FALSTAFF. What's your name, sir? Of what condition are you, and of
 34212     what place, I pray?
 34213   COLVILLE. I am a knight sir; and my name is Colville of the Dale.
 34214   FALSTAFF. Well then, Colville is your name, a knight is your
 34215     degree, and your place the Dale. Colville shall still be your
 34216     name, a traitor your degree, and the dungeon your place- a place
 34217     deep enough; so shall you be still Colville of the Dale.
 34218   COLVILLE. Are not you Sir John Falstaff?
 34219   FALSTAFF. As good a man as he, sir, whoe'er I am. Do you yield,
 34220     sir, or shall I sweat for you? If I do sweat, they are the drops
 34221     of thy lovers, and they weep for thy death; therefore rouse up
 34222     fear and trembling, and do observance to my mercy.
 34223   COLVILLE. I think you are Sir John Falstaff, and in that thought
 34224     yield me.
 34225   FALSTAFF. I have a whole school of tongues in this belly of mine;
 34226     and not a tongue of them all speaks any other word but my name.
 34227     An I had but a belly of any indifferency, I were simply the most
 34228     active fellow in Europe. My womb, my womb, my womb undoes me.
 34229     Here comes our general.
 34230 
 34231             Enter PRINCE JOHN OF LANCASTER, WESTMORELAND,
 34232                             BLUNT, and others
 34233 
 34234   PRINCE JOHN. The heat is past; follow no further now.
 34235     Call in the powers, good cousin Westmoreland.
 34236                                                Exit WESTMORELAND
 34237     Now, Falstaff, where have you been all this while?
 34238     When everything is ended, then you come.
 34239     These tardy tricks of yours will, on my life,
 34240     One time or other break some gallows' back.
 34241   FALSTAFF. I would be sorry, my lord, but it should be thus: I never
 34242     knew yet but rebuke and check was the reward of valour. Do you
 34243     think me a swallow, an arrow, or a bullet? Have I, in my poor and
 34244     old motion, the expedition of thought? I have speeded hither with
 34245     the very extremest inch of possibility; I have found'red nine
 34246     score and odd posts; and here, travel tainted as I am, have, in
 34247     my pure and immaculate valour, taken Sir John Colville of the
 34248     Dale,a most furious knight and valorous enemy. But what of that?
 34249     He saw me, and yielded; that I may justly say with the hook-nos'd
 34250     fellow of Rome-I came, saw, and overcame.
 34251   PRINCE JOHN. It was more of his courtesy than your deserving.
 34252   FALSTAFF. I know not. Here he is, and here I yield him; and I
 34253     beseech your Grace, let it be book'd with the rest of this day's
 34254     deeds; or, by the Lord, I will have it in a particular ballad
 34255     else, with mine own picture on the top on't, Colville kissing my
 34256     foot; to the which course if I be enforc'd, if you do not all
 34257     show like gilt twopences to me, and I, in the clear sky of fame,
 34258     o'ershine you as much as the full moon doth the cinders of the
 34259     element, which show like pins' heads to her, believe not the word
 34260     of the noble. Therefore let me have right, and let desert mount.
 34261   PRINCE JOHN. Thine's too heavy to mount.
 34262   FALSTAFF. Let it shine, then.
 34263   PRINCE JOHN. Thine's too thick to shine.
 34264   FALSTAFF. Let it do something, my good lord, that may do me good,
 34265     and call it what you will.
 34266   PRINCE JOHN. Is thy name Colville?
 34267   COLVILLE. It is, my lord.
 34268   PRINCE JOHN. A famous rebel art thou, Colville.
 34269   FALSTAFF. And a famous true subject took him.
 34270   COLVILLE. I am, my lord, but as my betters are
 34271     That led me hither. Had they been rul'd by me,
 34272     You should have won them dearer than you have.
 34273   FALSTAFF. I know not how they sold themselves; but thou, like a
 34274     kind fellow, gavest thyself away gratis; and I thank thee for
 34275     thee.
 34276 
 34277                        Re-enter WESTMORELAND
 34278 
 34279   PRINCE JOHN. Now, have you left pursuit?
 34280   WESTMORELAND. Retreat is made, and execution stay'd.
 34281   PRINCE JOHN. Send Colville, with his confederates,
 34282     To York, to present execution.
 34283     Blunt, lead him hence; and see you guard him sure.
 34284                                          Exeunt BLUNT and others
 34285     And now dispatch we toward the court, my lords.
 34286     I hear the King my father is sore sick.
 34287     Our news shall go before us to his Majesty,
 34288     Which, cousin, you shall bear to comfort him
 34289     And we with sober speed will follow you.
 34290   FALSTAFF. My lord, I beseech you, give me leave to go through
 34291     Gloucestershire; and, when you come to court, stand my good lord,
 34292     pray, in your good report.
 34293   PRINCE JOHN. Fare you well, Falstaff. I, in my condition,
 34294     Shall better speak of you than you deserve.
 34295                                          Exeunt all but FALSTAFF
 34296   FALSTAFF. I would you had but the wit; 'twere better than your
 34297     dukedom. Good faith, this same young sober-blooded boy doth not
 34298     love me; nor a man cannot make him laugh- but that's no marvel;
 34299     he drinks no wine. There's never none of these demure boys come
 34300     to any proof; for thin drink doth so over-cool their blood, and
 34301     making many fish-meals, that they fall into a kind of male
 34302     green-sickness; and then, when they marry, they get wenches. They
 34303     are generally fools and cowards-which some of us should be too,
 34304     but for inflammation. A good sherris-sack hath a two-fold
 34305     operation in it. It ascends me into the brain; dries me there all
 34306     the foolish and dull and crudy vapours which environ it; makes it
 34307     apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and
 34308     delectable shapes; which delivered o'er to the voice, the tongue,
 34309     which is the birth, becomes excellent wit. The second property of
 34310     your excellent sherris is the warming of the blood; which before,
 34311     cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the
 34312     badge of pusillanimity and cowardice; but the sherris warms it,
 34313     and makes it course from the inwards to the parts extremes. It
 34314     illumineth the face, which, as a beacon, gives warning to all the
 34315     rest of this little kingdom, man, to arm; and then the vital
 34316     commoners and inland petty spirits muster me all to their
 34317     captain, the heart, who, great and puff'd up with this retinue,
 34318     doth any deed of courage- and this valour comes of sherris. So
 34319     that skill in the weapon is nothing without sack, for that sets
 34320     it a-work; and learning, a mere hoard of gold kept by a devil
 34321     till sack commences it and sets it in act and use. Hereof comes
 34322     it that Prince Harry is valiant; for the cold blood he did
 34323     naturally inherit of his father, he hath, like lean, sterile, and
 34324     bare land, manured, husbanded, and till'd, with excellent
 34325     endeavour of drinking good and good store of fertile sherris,
 34326     that he is become very hot and valiant. If I had a thousand sons,
 34327     the first humane principle I would teach them should be to
 34328     forswear thin potations and to addict themselves to sack.
 34329 
 34330                            Enter BARDOLPH
 34331 
 34332     How now, Bardolph!
 34333   BARDOLPH. The army is discharged all and gone.
 34334   FALSTAFF. Let them go. I'll through Gloucestershire, and there will
 34335     I visit Master Robert Shallow, Esquire. I have him already
 34336     temp'ring between my finger and my thumb, and shortly will I seal
 34337     with him. Come away.                                  Exeunt
 34338 
 34339 
 34340 
 34341 
 34342 SCENE IV.
 34343 Westminster. The Jerusalem Chamber
 34344 
 34345 Enter the KING, PRINCE THOMAS OF CLARENCE, PRINCE HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER,
 34346 WARWICK, and others
 34347 
 34348   KING. Now, lords, if God doth give successful end
 34349     To this debate that bleedeth at our doors,
 34350     We will our youth lead on to higher fields,
 34351     And draw no swords but what are sanctified.
 34352     Our navy is address'd, our power connected,
 34353     Our substitutes in absence well invested,
 34354     And everything lies level to our wish.
 34355     Only we want a little personal strength;
 34356     And pause us till these rebels, now afoot,
 34357     Come underneath the yoke of government.
 34358   WARWICK. Both which we doubt not but your Majesty
 34359     Shall soon enjoy.
 34360   KING. Humphrey, my son of Gloucester,
 34361     Where is the Prince your brother?
 34362   PRINCE HUMPHREY. I think he's gone to hunt, my lord, at Windsor.
 34363   KING. And how accompanied?
 34364   PRINCE HUMPHREY. I do not know, my lord.
 34365   KING. Is not his brother, Thomas of Clarence, with him?
 34366   PRINCE HUMPHREY. No, my good lord, he is in presence here.
 34367   CLARENCE. What would my lord and father?
 34368   KING. Nothing but well to thee, Thomas of Clarence.
 34369     How chance thou art not with the Prince thy brother?
 34370     He loves thee, and thou dost neglect him, Thomas.
 34371     Thou hast a better place in his affection
 34372     Than all thy brothers; cherish it, my boy,
 34373     And noble offices thou mayst effect
 34374     Of mediation, after I am dead,
 34375     Between his greatness and thy other brethren.
 34376     Therefore omit him not; blunt not his love,
 34377     Nor lose the good advantage of his grace
 34378     By seeming cold or careless of his will;
 34379     For he is gracious if he be observ'd.
 34380     He hath a tear for pity and a hand
 34381     Open as day for melting charity;
 34382     Yet notwithstanding, being incens'd, he is flint;
 34383     As humorous as winter, and as sudden
 34384     As flaws congealed in the spring of day.
 34385     His temper, therefore, must be well observ'd.
 34386     Chide him for faults, and do it reverently,
 34387     When you perceive his blood inclin'd to mirth;
 34388     But, being moody, give him line and scope
 34389     Till that his passions, like a whale on ground,
 34390     Confound themselves with working. Learn this, Thomas,
 34391     And thou shalt prove a shelter to thy friends,
 34392     A hoop of gold to bind thy brothers in,
 34393     That the united vessel of their blood,
 34394     Mingled with venom of suggestion-
 34395     As, force perforce, the age will pour it in-
 34396     Shall never leak, though it do work as strong
 34397     As aconitum or rash gunpowder.
 34398   CLARENCE. I shall observe him with all care and love.
 34399   KING. Why art thou not at Windsor with him, Thomas?
 34400   CLARENCE. He is not there to-day; he dines in London.
 34401   KING. And how accompanied? Canst thou tell that?
 34402   CLARENCE. With Poins, and other his continual followers.
 34403   KING. Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds;
 34404     And he, the noble image of my youth,
 34405     Is overspread with them; therefore my grief
 34406     Stretches itself beyond the hour of death.
 34407     The blood weeps from my heart when I do shape,
 34408     In forms imaginary, th'unguided days
 34409     And rotten times that you shall look upon
 34410     When I am sleeping with my ancestors.
 34411     For when his headstrong riot hath no curb,
 34412     When rage and hot blood are his counsellors
 34413     When means and lavish manners meet together,
 34414     O, with what wings shall his affections fly
 34415     Towards fronting peril and oppos'd decay!
 34416   WARWICK. My gracious lord, you look beyond him quite.
 34417     The Prince but studies his companions
 34418     Like a strange tongue, wherein, to gain the language,
 34419     'Tis needful that the most immodest word
 34420     Be look'd upon and learnt; which once attain'd,
 34421     Your Highness knows, comes to no further use
 34422     But to be known and hated. So, like gross terms,
 34423     The Prince will, in the perfectness of time,
 34424     Cast off his followers; and their memory
 34425     Shall as a pattern or a measure live
 34426     By which his Grace must mete the lives of other,
 34427     Turning past evils to advantages.
 34428   KING. 'Tis seldom when the bee doth leave her comb
 34429     In the dead carrion.
 34430 
 34431                       Enter WESTMORELAND
 34432 
 34433     Who's here? Westmoreland?
 34434   WESTMORELAND. Health to my sovereign, and new happiness
 34435     Added to that that am to deliver!
 34436     Prince John, your son, doth kiss your Grace's hand.
 34437     Mowbray, the Bishop Scroop, Hastings, and all,
 34438     Are brought to the correction of your law.
 34439     There is not now a rebel's sword unsheath'd,
 34440     But Peace puts forth her olive everywhere.
 34441     The manner how this action hath been borne
 34442     Here at more leisure may your Highness read,
 34443     With every course in his particular.
 34444   KING. O Westmoreland, thou art a summer bird,
 34445     Which ever in the haunch of winter sings
 34446     The lifting up of day.
 34447 
 34448                         Enter HARCOURT
 34449 
 34450     Look here's more news.
 34451   HARCOURT. From enemies heaven keep your Majesty;
 34452     And, when they stand against you, may they fall
 34453     As those that I am come to tell you of!
 34454     The Earl Northumberland and the Lord Bardolph,
 34455     With a great power of English and of Scots,
 34456     Are by the shrieve of Yorkshire overthrown.
 34457     The manner and true order of the fight
 34458     This packet, please it you, contains at large.
 34459   KING. And wherefore should these good news make me sick?
 34460     Will Fortune never come with both hands full,
 34461     But write her fair words still in foulest letters?
 34462     She either gives a stomach and no food-
 34463     Such are the poor, in health- or else a feast,
 34464     And takes away the stomach- such are the rich
 34465     That have abundance and enjoy it not.
 34466     I should rejoice now at this happy news;
 34467     And now my sight fails, and my brain is giddy.
 34468     O me! come near me now I am much ill.
 34469   PRINCE HUMPHREY. Comfort, your Majesty!
 34470   CLARENCE. O my royal father!
 34471   WESTMORELAND. My sovereign lord, cheer up yourself, look up.
 34472   WARWICK. Be patient, Princes; you do know these fits
 34473     Are with his Highness very ordinary.
 34474     Stand from him, give him air; he'll straight be well.
 34475   CLARENCE. No, no; he cannot long hold out these pangs.
 34476     Th' incessant care and labour of his mind
 34477     Hath wrought the mure that should confine it in
 34478     So thin that life looks through, and will break out.
 34479   PRINCE HUMPHREY. The people fear me; for they do observe
 34480     Unfather'd heirs and loathly births of nature.
 34481     The seasons change their manners, as the year
 34482     Had found some months asleep, and leapt them over.
 34483   CLARENCE. The river hath thrice flow'd, no ebb between;
 34484     And the old folk, Time's doting chronicles,
 34485     Say it did so a little time before
 34486     That our great grandsire, Edward, sick'd and died.
 34487   WARWICK. Speak lower, Princes, for the King recovers.
 34488   PRINCE HUMPHREY. This apoplexy will certain be his end.
 34489   KING. I pray you take me up, and bear me hence
 34490     Into some other chamber. Softly, pray.                Exeunt
 34491 
 34492 
 34493 
 34494 
 34495 SCENE V.
 34496 Westminster. Another chamber
 34497 
 34498 The KING lying on a bed; CLARENCE, GLOUCESTER, WARWICK,
 34499 and others in attendance
 34500 
 34501   KING. Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends;
 34502     Unless some dull and favourable hand
 34503     Will whisper music to my weary spirit.
 34504   WARWICK. Call for the music in the other room.
 34505   KING. Set me the crown upon my pillow here.
 34506   CLARENCE. His eye is hollow, and he changes much.
 34507   WARWICK. Less noise! less noise!
 34508 
 34509                         Enter PRINCE HENRY
 34510 
 34511   PRINCE. Who saw the Duke of Clarence?
 34512   CLARENCE. I am here, brother, full of heaviness.
 34513   PRINCE. How now! Rain within doors, and none abroad!
 34514     How doth the King?
 34515   PRINCE HUMPHREY. Exceeding ill.
 34516   PRINCE. Heard he the good news yet? Tell it him.
 34517   PRINCE HUMPHREY. He alt'red much upon the hearing it.
 34518   PRINCE. If he be sick with joy, he'll recover without physic.
 34519   WARWICK. Not so much noise, my lords. Sweet Prince, speak low;
 34520     The King your father is dispos'd to sleep.
 34521   CLARENCE. Let us withdraw into the other room.
 34522   WARWICK. Will't please your Grace to go along with us?
 34523   PRINCE. No; I will sit and watch here by the King.
 34524                                        Exeunt all but the PRINCE
 34525     Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow,
 34526     Being so troublesome a bedfellow?
 34527     O polish'd perturbation! golden care!
 34528     That keep'st the ports of slumber open wide
 34529     To many a watchful night! Sleep with it now!
 34530     Yet not so sound and half so deeply sweet
 34531     As he whose brow with homely biggen bound
 34532     Snores out the watch of night. O majesty!
 34533     When thou dost pinch thy bearer, thou dost sit
 34534     Like a rich armour worn in heat of day
 34535     That scald'st with safety. By his gates of breath
 34536     There lies a downy feather which stirs not.
 34537     Did he suspire, that light and weightless down
 34538     Perforce must move. My gracious lord! my father!
 34539     This sleep is sound indeed; this is a sleep
 34540     That from this golden rigol hath divorc'd
 34541     So many English kings. Thy due from me
 34542     Is tears and heavy sorrows of the blood
 34543     Which nature, love, and filial tenderness,
 34544     Shall, O dear father, pay thee plenteously.
 34545     My due from thee is this imperial crown,
 34546     Which, as immediate from thy place and blood,
 34547     Derives itself to me.  [Putting on the crown]  Lo where it sits-
 34548     Which God shall guard; and put the world's whole strength
 34549     Into one giant arm, it shall not force
 34550     This lineal honour from me. This from thee
 34551     Will I to mine leave as 'tis left to me.                Exit
 34552   KING. Warwick! Gloucester! Clarence!
 34553 
 34554            Re-enter WARWICK, GLOUCESTER, CLARENCE
 34555 
 34556   CLARENCE. Doth the King call?
 34557   WARWICK. What would your Majesty? How fares your Grace?
 34558   KING. Why did you leave me here alone, my lords?
 34559   CLARENCE. We left the Prince my brother here, my liege,
 34560     Who undertook to sit and watch by you.
 34561   KING. The Prince of Wales! Where is he? Let me see him.
 34562     He is not here.
 34563   WARWICK. This door is open; he is gone this way.
 34564   PRINCE HUMPHREY. He came not through the chamber where we stay'd.
 34565   KING. Where is the crown? Who took it from my pillow?
 34566   WARWICK. When we withdrew, my liege, we left it here.
 34567   KING. The Prince hath ta'en it hence. Go, seek him out.
 34568     Is he so hasty that he doth suppose
 34569     My sleep my death?
 34570     Find him, my lord of Warwick; chide him hither.
 34571                                                     Exit WARWICK
 34572     This part of his conjoins with my disease
 34573     And helps to end me. See, sons, what things you are!
 34574     How quickly nature falls into revolt
 34575     When gold becomes her object!
 34576     For this the foolish over-careful fathers
 34577     Have broke their sleep with thoughts,
 34578     Their brains with care, their bones with industry;
 34579     For this they have engrossed and pil'd up
 34580     The cank'red heaps of strange-achieved gold;
 34581     For this they have been thoughtful to invest
 34582     Their sons with arts and martial exercises;
 34583     When, like the bee, tolling from every flower
 34584     The virtuous sweets,
 34585     Our thighs with wax, our mouths with honey pack'd,
 34586     We bring it to the hive, and, like the bees,
 34587     Are murd'red for our pains. This bitter taste
 34588     Yields his engrossments to the ending father.
 34589 
 34590                          Re-enter WARWICK
 34591 
 34592     Now where is he that will not stay so long
 34593     Till his friend sickness hath determin'd me?
 34594   WARWICK. My lord, I found the Prince in the next room,
 34595     Washing with kindly tears his gentle cheeks,
 34596     With such a deep demeanour in great sorrow,
 34597     That tyranny, which never quaff'd but blood,
 34598     Would, by beholding him, have wash'd his knife
 34599     With gentle eye-drops. He is coming hither.
 34600   KING. But wherefore did he take away the crown?
 34601 
 34602                         Re-enter PRINCE HENRY
 34603 
 34604     Lo where he comes. Come hither to me, Harry.
 34605     Depart the chamber, leave us here alone.
 34606                           Exeunt all but the KING and the PRINCE
 34607   PRINCE. I never thought to hear you speak again.
 34608   KING. Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.
 34609     I stay too long by thee, I weary thee.
 34610     Dost thou so hunger for mine empty chair
 34611     That thou wilt needs invest thee with my honours
 34612     Before thy hour be ripe? O foolish youth!
 34613     Thou seek'st the greatness that will overwhelm thee.
 34614     Stay but a little, for my cloud of dignity
 34615     Is held from falling with so weak a wind
 34616     That it will quickly drop; my day is dim.
 34617     Thou hast stol'n that which, after some few hours,
 34618     Were thine without offense; and at my death
 34619     Thou hast seal'd up my expectation.
 34620     Thy life did manifest thou lov'dst me not,
 34621     And thou wilt have me die assur'd of it.
 34622     Thou hid'st a thousand daggers in thy thoughts,
 34623     Which thou hast whetted on thy stony heart,
 34624     To stab at half an hour of my life.
 34625     What, canst thou not forbear me half an hour?
 34626     Then get thee gone, and dig my grave thyself;
 34627     And bid the merry bells ring to thine ear
 34628     That thou art crowned, not that I am dead.
 34629     Let all the tears that should bedew my hearse
 34630     Be drops of balm to sanctify thy head;
 34631     Only compound me with forgotten dust;
 34632     Give that which gave thee life unto the worms.
 34633     Pluck down my officers, break my decrees;
 34634     For now a time is come to mock at form-
 34635     Harry the Fifth is crown'd. Up, vanity:
 34636     Down, royal state. All you sage counsellors, hence.
 34637     And to the English court assemble now,
 34638     From every region, apes of idleness.
 34639     Now, neighbour confines, purge you of your scum.
 34640     Have you a ruffian that will swear, drink, dance,
 34641     Revel the night, rob, murder, and commit
 34642     The oldest sins the newest kind of ways?
 34643     Be happy, he will trouble you no more.
 34644     England shall double gild his treble guilt;
 34645     England shall give him office, honour, might;
 34646     For the fifth Harry from curb'd license plucks
 34647     The muzzle of restraint, and the wild dog
 34648     Shall flesh his tooth on every innocent.
 34649     O my poor kingdom, sick with civil blows!
 34650     When that my care could not withhold thy riots,
 34651     What wilt thou do when riot is thy care?
 34652     O, thou wilt be a wilderness again.
 34653     Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants!
 34654   PRINCE. O, pardon me, my liege! But for my tears,
 34655     The moist impediments unto my speech,
 34656     I had forestall'd this dear and deep rebuke
 34657     Ere you with grief had spoke and I had heard
 34658     The course of it so far. There is your crown,
 34659     And he that wears the crown immortally
 34660     Long guard it yours!  [Kneeling]  If I affect it more
 34661     Than as your honour and as your renown,
 34662     Let me no more from this obedience rise,
 34663     Which my most inward true and duteous spirit
 34664     Teacheth this prostrate and exterior bending!
 34665     God witness with me, when I here came in
 34666     And found no course of breath within your Majesty,
 34667     How cold it struck my heart! If I do feign,
 34668     O, let me in my present wildness die,
 34669     And never live to show th' incredulous world
 34670     The noble change that I have purposed!
 34671     Coming to look on you, thinking you dead-
 34672     And dead almost, my liege, to think you were-
 34673     I spake unto this crown as having sense,
 34674     And thus upbraided it: 'The care on thee depending
 34675     Hath fed upon the body of my father;
 34676     Therefore thou best of gold art worst of gold.
 34677     Other, less fine in carat, is more precious,
 34678     Preserving life in med'cine potable;
 34679     But thou, most fine, most honour'd, most renown'd,
 34680     Hast eat thy bearer up.' Thus, my most royal liege,
 34681     Accusing it, I put it on my head,
 34682     To try with it- as with an enemy
 34683     That had before my face murd'red my father-
 34684     The quarrel of a true inheritor.
 34685     But if it did infect my blood with joy,
 34686     Or swell my thoughts to any strain of pride;
 34687     If any rebel or vain spirit of mine
 34688     Did with the least affection of a welcome
 34689     Give entertainment to the might of it,
 34690     Let God for ever keep it from my head,
 34691     And make me as the poorest vassal is,
 34692     That doth with awe and terror kneel to it!
 34693   KING. O my son,
 34694     God put it in thy mind to take it hence,
 34695     That thou mightst win the more thy father's love,
 34696     Pleading so wisely in excuse of it!
 34697     Come hither, Harry; sit thou by my bed,
 34698     And hear, I think, the very latest counsel
 34699     That ever I shall breathe. God knows, my son,
 34700     By what by-paths and indirect crook'd ways
 34701     I met this crown; and I myself know well
 34702     How troublesome it sat upon my head:
 34703     To thee it shall descend with better quiet,
 34704     Better opinion, better confirmation;
 34705     For all the soil of the achievement goes
 34706     With me into the earth. It seem'd in me
 34707     But as an honour snatch'd with boist'rous hand;
 34708     And I had many living to upbraid
 34709     My gain of it by their assistances;
 34710     Which daily grew to quarrel and to bloodshed,
 34711     Wounding supposed peace. All these bold fears
 34712     Thou seest with peril I have answered;
 34713     For all my reign hath been but as a scene
 34714     Acting that argument. And now my death
 34715     Changes the mood; for what in me was purchas'd
 34716     Falls upon thee in a more fairer sort;
 34717     So thou the garland wear'st successively.
 34718     Yet, though thou stand'st more sure than I could do,
 34719     Thou art not firm enough, since griefs are green;
 34720     And all my friends, which thou must make thy friends,
 34721     Have but their stings and teeth newly ta'en out;
 34722     By whose fell working I was first advanc'd,
 34723     And by whose power I well might lodge a fear
 34724     To be again displac'd; which to avoid,
 34725     I cut them off; and had a purpose now
 34726     To lead out many to the Holy Land,
 34727     Lest rest and lying still might make them look
 34728     Too near unto my state. Therefore, my Harry,
 34729     Be it thy course to busy giddy minds
 34730     With foreign quarrels, that action, hence borne out,
 34731     May waste the memory of the former days.
 34732     More would I, but my lungs are wasted so
 34733     That strength of speech is utterly denied me.
 34734     How I came by the crown, O God, forgive;
 34735     And grant it may with thee in true peace live!
 34736   PRINCE. My gracious liege,
 34737     You won it, wore it, kept it, gave it me;
 34738     Then plain and right must my possession be;
 34739     Which I with more than with a common pain
 34740     'Gainst all the world will rightfully maintain.
 34741 
 34742        Enter PRINCE JOHN OF LANCASTER, WARWICK, LORDS, and others
 34743 
 34744   KING. Look, look, here comes my John of Lancaster.
 34745   PRINCE JOHN. Health, peace, and happiness, to my royal father!
 34746   KING. Thou bring'st me happiness and peace, son John;
 34747     But health, alack, with youthful wings is flown
 34748     From this bare wither'd trunk. Upon thy sight
 34749     My worldly business makes a period.
 34750     Where is my Lord of Warwick?
 34751   PRINCE. My Lord of Warwick!
 34752   KING. Doth any name particular belong
 34753     Unto the lodging where I first did swoon?
 34754   WARWICK. 'Tis call'd Jerusalem, my noble lord.
 34755   KING. Laud be to God! Even there my life must end.
 34756     It hath been prophesied to me many years,
 34757     I should not die but in Jerusalem;
 34758     Which vainly I suppos'd the Holy Land.
 34759     But bear me to that chamber; there I'll lie;
 34760     In that Jerusalem shall Harry die.                    Exeunt
 34761 
 34762 
 34763 
 34764 
 34765 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
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 34773 
 34774 
 34775 
 34776 ACT V. SCENE I.
 34777 Gloucestershire. SHALLOW'S house
 34778 
 34779 Enter SHALLOW, FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH, and PAGE
 34780 
 34781   SHALLOW. By cock and pie, sir, you shall not away to-night.
 34782     What, Davy, I say!
 34783   FALSTAFF. You must excuse me, Master Robert Shallow.
 34784   SHALLOW. I will not excuse you; you shall not be excus'd; excuses
 34785     shall not be admitted; there is no excuse shall serve; you shall
 34786     not be excus'd. Why, Davy!
 34787 
 34788                             Enter DAVY
 34789 
 34790   DAVY. Here, sir.
 34791   SHALLOW. Davy, Davy, Davy, Davy; let me see, Davy; let me see,
 34792     Davy; let me see- yea, marry, William cook, bid him come hither.
 34793     Sir John, you shall not be excus'd.
 34794   DAVY. Marry, sir, thus: those precepts cannot be served; and,
 34795     again, sir- shall we sow the headland with wheat?
 34796   SHALLOW. With red wheat, Davy. But for William cook- are there no
 34797     young pigeons?
 34798   DAVY. Yes, sir. Here is now the smith's note for shoeing and
 34799     plough-irons.
 34800   SHALLOW. Let it be cast, and paid. Sir John, you shall not be
 34801     excused.
 34802   DAVY. Now, sir, a new link to the bucket must needs be had; and,
 34803     sir, do you mean to stop any of William's wages about the sack he
 34804     lost the other day at Hinckley fair?
 34805   SHALLOW. 'A shall answer it. Some pigeons, Davy, a couple of
 34806     short-legg'd hens, a joint of mutton, and any pretty little tiny
 34807     kickshaws, tell William cook.
 34808   DAVY. Doth the man of war stay all night, sir?
 34809   SHALLOW. Yea, Davy; I will use him well. A friend i' th' court is
 34810     better than a penny in purse. Use his men well, Davy; for they
 34811     are arrant knaves and will backbite.
 34812   DAVY. No worse than they are backbitten, sir; for they have
 34813     marvellous foul linen.
 34814   SHALLOW. Well conceited, Davy- about thy business, Davy.
 34815   DAVY. I beseech you, sir, to countenance William Visor of Woncot
 34816     against Clement Perkes o' th' hill.
 34817   SHALLOW. There, is many complaints, Davy, against that Visor. That
 34818     Visor is an arrant knave, on my knowledge.
 34819   DAVY. I grant your worship that he is a knave, sir; but yet God
 34820     forbid, sir, but a knave should have some countenance at his
 34821     friend's request. An honest man, sir, is able to speak for
 34822     himself, when a knave is not. I have serv'd your worship truly,
 34823     sir, this eight years; an I cannot once or twice in a quarter
 34824     bear out a knave against an honest man, I have but a very little
 34825     credit with your worship. The knave is mine honest friend, sir;
 34826     therefore, I beseech you, let him be countenanc'd.
 34827   SHALLOW. Go to; I say he shall have no wrong. Look about,
 34828   DAVY.  [Exit DAVY]  Where are you, Sir John? Come, come, come, off
 34829     with your boots. Give me your hand, Master Bardolph.
 34830   BARDOLPH. I am glad to see your worship.
 34831   SHALLOW. I thank thee with all my heart, kind Master Bardolph.
 34832     [To the PAGE]  And welcome, my tall fellow. Come, Sir John.
 34833   FALSTAFF. I'll follow you, good Master Robert Shallow.
 34834     [Exit SHALLOW]  Bardolph, look to our horses.  [Exeunt BARDOLPH
 34835     and PAGE]  If I were sawed into quantities, I should make four
 34836     dozen of such bearded hermits' staves as Master Shallow. It is a
 34837     wonderful thing to see the semblable coherence of his men's
 34838     spirits and his. They, by observing of him, do bear themselves
 34839     like foolish justices: he, by conversing with them, is turned
 34840     into a justice-like serving-man. Their spirits are so married in
 34841     conjunction with the participation of society that they flock
 34842     together in consent, like so many wild geese. If I had a suit to
 34843     Master Shallow, I would humour his men with the imputation of
 34844     being near their master; if to his men, I would curry with Master
 34845     Shallow that no man could better command his servants. It is
 34846     certain that either wise bearing or ignorant carriage is caught,
 34847     as men take diseases, one of another; therefore let men take heed
 34848     of their company. I will devise matter enough out of this Shallow
 34849     to keep Prince Harry in continual laughter the wearing out of six
 34850     fashions, which is four terms, or two actions; and 'a shall laugh
 34851     without intervallums. O, it is much that a lie with a slight
 34852     oath, and a jest with a sad brow will do with a fellow that never
 34853     had the ache in his shoulders! O, you shall see him laugh till
 34854     his face be like a wet cloak ill laid up!
 34855   SHALLOW.  [Within]  Sir John!
 34856   FALSTAFF. I come, Master Shallow; I come, Master Shallow.
 34857  Exit
 34858 
 34859 
 34860 
 34861 
 34862 SCENE II.
 34863 Westminster. The palace
 34864 
 34865 Enter, severally, WARWICK, and the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE
 34866 
 34867   WARWICK. How now, my Lord Chief Justice; whither away?
 34868   CHIEF JUSTICE. How doth the King?
 34869   WARWICK. Exceeding well; his cares are now all ended.
 34870   CHIEF JUSTICE. I hope, not dead.
 34871   WARWICK. He's walk'd the way of nature;
 34872     And to our purposes he lives no more.
 34873   CHIEF JUSTICE. I would his Majesty had call'd me with him.
 34874     The service that I truly did his life
 34875     Hath left me open to all injuries.
 34876   WARWICK. Indeed, I think the young king loves you not.
 34877   CHIEF JUSTICE. I know he doth not, and do arm myself
 34878     To welcome the condition of the time,
 34879     Which cannot look more hideously upon me
 34880     Than I have drawn it in my fantasy.
 34881 
 34882               Enter LANCASTER, CLARENCE, GLOUCESTER,
 34883                      WESTMORELAND, and others
 34884 
 34885   WARWICK. Here comes the heavy issue of dead Harry.
 34886     O that the living Harry had the temper
 34887     Of he, the worst of these three gentlemen!
 34888     How many nobles then should hold their places
 34889     That must strike sail to spirits of vile sort!
 34890   CHIEF JUSTICE. O God, I fear all will be overturn'd.
 34891   PRINCE JOHN. Good morrow, cousin Warwick, good morrow.
 34892   GLOUCESTER & CLARENCE. Good morrow, cousin.
 34893   PRINCE JOHN. We meet like men that had forgot to speak.
 34894   WARWICK. We do remember; but our argument
 34895     Is all too heavy to admit much talk.
 34896   PRINCE JOHN. Well, peace be with him that hath made us heavy!
 34897   CHIEF JUSTICE. Peace be with us, lest we be heavier!
 34898   PRINCE HUMPHREY. O, good my lord, you have lost a friend indeed;
 34899     And I dare swear you borrow not that face
 34900     Of seeming sorrow- it is sure your own.
 34901   PRINCE JOHN. Though no man be assur'd what grace to find,
 34902     You stand in coldest expectation.
 34903     I am the sorrier; would 'twere otherwise.
 34904   CLARENCE. Well, you must now speak Sir John Falstaff fair;
 34905     Which swims against your stream of quality.
 34906   CHIEF JUSTICE. Sweet Princes, what I did, I did in honour,
 34907     Led by th' impartial conduct of my soul;
 34908     And never shall you see that I will beg
 34909     A ragged and forestall'd remission.
 34910     If truth and upright innocency fail me,
 34911     I'll to the King my master that is dead,
 34912     And tell him who hath sent me after him.
 34913   WARWICK. Here comes the Prince.
 34914 
 34915             Enter KING HENRY THE FIFTH, attended
 34916 
 34917   CHIEF JUSTICE. Good morrow, and God save your Majesty!
 34918   KING. This new and gorgeous garment, majesty,
 34919     Sits not so easy on me as you think.
 34920     Brothers, you mix your sadness with some fear.
 34921     This is the English, not the Turkish court;
 34922     Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds,
 34923     But Harry Harry. Yet be sad, good brothers,
 34924     For, by my faith, it very well becomes you.
 34925     Sorrow so royally in you appears
 34926     That I will deeply put the fashion on,
 34927     And wear it in my heart. Why, then, be sad;
 34928     But entertain no more of it, good brothers,
 34929     Than a joint burden laid upon us all.
 34930     For me, by heaven, I bid you be assur'd,
 34931     I'll be your father and your brother too;
 34932     Let me but bear your love, I'll bear your cares.
 34933     Yet weep that Harry's dead, and so will I;
 34934     But Harry lives that shall convert those tears
 34935     By number into hours of happiness.
 34936   BROTHERS. We hope no otherwise from your Majesty.
 34937   KING. You all look strangely on me; and you most.
 34938     You are, I think, assur'd I love you not.
 34939   CHIEF JUSTICE. I am assur'd, if I be measur'd rightly,
 34940     Your Majesty hath no just cause to hate me.
 34941   KING. No?
 34942     How might a prince of my great hopes forget
 34943     So great indignities you laid upon me?
 34944     What, rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison,
 34945     Th' immediate heir of England! Was this easy?
 34946     May this be wash'd in Lethe and forgotten?
 34947   CHIEF JUSTICE. I then did use the person of your father;
 34948     The image of his power lay then in me;
 34949     And in th' administration of his law,
 34950     Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth,
 34951     Your Highness pleased to forget my place,
 34952     The majesty and power of law and justice,
 34953     The image of the King whom I presented,
 34954     And struck me in my very seat of judgment;
 34955     Whereon, as an offender to your father,
 34956     I gave bold way to my authority
 34957     And did commit you. If the deed were ill,
 34958     Be you contented, wearing now the garland,
 34959     To have a son set your decrees at nought,
 34960     To pluck down justice from your awful bench,
 34961     To trip the course of law, and blunt the sword
 34962     That guards the peace and safety of your person;
 34963     Nay, more, to spurn at your most royal image,
 34964     And mock your workings in a second body.
 34965     Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours;
 34966     Be now the father, and propose a son;
 34967     Hear your own dignity so much profan'd,
 34968     See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted,
 34969     Behold yourself so by a son disdain'd;
 34970     And then imagine me taking your part
 34971     And, in your power, soft silencing your son.
 34972     After this cold considerance, sentence me;
 34973     And, as you are a king, speak in your state
 34974     What I have done that misbecame my place,
 34975     My person, or my liege's sovereignty.
 34976   KING. You are right, Justice, and you weigh this well;
 34977     Therefore still bear the balance and the sword;
 34978     And I do wish your honours may increase
 34979     Till you do live to see a son of mine
 34980     Offend you, and obey you, as I did.
 34981     So shall I live to speak my father's words:
 34982     'Happy am I that have a man so bold
 34983     That dares do justice on my proper son;
 34984     And not less happy, having such a son
 34985     That would deliver up his greatness so
 34986     Into the hands of justice.' You did commit me;
 34987     For which I do commit into your hand
 34988     Th' unstained sword that you have us'd to bear;
 34989     With this remembrance- that you use the same
 34990     With the like bold, just, and impartial spirit
 34991     As you have done 'gainst me. There is my hand.
 34992     You shall be as a father to my youth;
 34993     My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear;
 34994     And I will stoop and humble my intents
 34995     To your well-practis'd wise directions.
 34996     And, Princes all, believe me, I beseech you,
 34997     My father is gone wild into his grave,
 34998     For in his tomb lie my affections;
 34999     And with his spirits sadly I survive,
 35000     To mock the expectation of the world,
 35001     To frustrate prophecies, and to raze out
 35002     Rotten opinion, who hath writ me down
 35003     After my seeming. The tide of blood in me
 35004     Hath proudly flow'd in vanity till now.
 35005     Now doth it turn and ebb back to the sea,
 35006     Where it shall mingle with the state of floods,
 35007     And flow henceforth in formal majesty.
 35008     Now call we our high court of parliament;
 35009     And let us choose such limbs of noble counsel,
 35010     That the great body of our state may go
 35011     In equal rank with the best govern'd nation;
 35012     That war, or peace, or both at once, may be
 35013     As things acquainted and familiar to us;
 35014     In which you, father, shall have foremost hand.
 35015     Our coronation done, we will accite,
 35016     As I before rememb'red, all our state;
 35017     And- God consigning to my good intents-
 35018     No prince nor peer shall have just cause to say,
 35019     God shorten Harry's happy life one day.               Exeunt
 35020 
 35021 
 35022 
 35023 
 35024 SCENE III.
 35025 Gloucestershire. SHALLOW'S orchard
 35026 
 35027 Enter FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, SILENCE, BARDOLPH, the PAGE, and DAVY
 35028 
 35029   SHALLOW. Nay, you shall see my orchard, where, in an arbour, we
 35030     will eat a last year's pippin of mine own graffing, with a dish
 35031     of caraways, and so forth. Come, cousin Silence. And then to bed.
 35032   FALSTAFF. Fore God, you have here a goodly dwelling and rich.
 35033   SHALLOW. Barren, barren, barren; beggars all, beggars all, Sir John
 35034     -marry, good air. Spread, Davy, spread, Davy; well said, Davy.
 35035   FALSTAFF. This Davy serves you for good uses; he is your
 35036     serving-man and your husband.
 35037   SHALLOW. A good varlet, a good varlet, a very good varlet, Sir
 35038     John. By the mass, I have drunk too much sack at supper. A good
 35039     varlet. Now sit down, now sit down; come, cousin.
 35040   SILENCE. Ah, sirrah! quoth-a- we shall               [Singing]
 35041 
 35042               Do nothing but eat and make good cheer,
 35043               And praise God for the merry year;
 35044               When flesh is cheap and females dear,
 35045               And lusty lads roam here and there,
 35046                   So merrily,
 35047                 And ever among so merrily.
 35048 
 35049   FALSTAFF. There's a merry heart! Good Master Silence, I'll give you
 35050     a health for that anon.
 35051   SHALLOW. Give Master Bardolph some wine, Davy.
 35052   DAVY. Sweet sir, sit; I'll be with you anon; most sweet sir, sit.
 35053     Master Page, good Master Page, sit. Proface! What you want in
 35054     meat, we'll have in drink. But you must bear; the heart's all.
 35055  Exit
 35056   SHALLOW. Be merry, Master Bardolph; and, my little soldier there,
 35057     be merry.
 35058   SILENCE.  [Singing]
 35059 
 35060          Be merry, be merry, my wife has all;
 35061          For women are shrews, both short and tall;
 35062          'Tis merry in hall when beards wag an;
 35063            And welcome merry Shrove-tide.
 35064          Be merry, be merry.
 35065 
 35066   FALSTAFF. I did not think Master Silence had been a man of this
 35067     mettle.
 35068   SILENCE. Who, I? I have been merry twice and once ere now.
 35069 
 35070                           Re-enter DAVY
 35071 
 35072   DAVY.  [To BARDOLPH]  There's a dish of leather-coats for you.
 35073   SHALLOW. Davy!
 35074   DAVY. Your worship! I'll be with you straight.  [To BARDOLPH]
 35075     A cup of wine, sir?
 35076   SILENCE.  [Singing]
 35077 
 35078          A cup of wine that's brisk and fine,
 35079          And drink unto the leman mine;
 35080            And a merry heart lives long-a.
 35081 
 35082   FALSTAFF. Well said, Master Silence.
 35083   SILENCE. An we shall be merry, now comes in the sweet o' th' night.
 35084   FALSTAFF. Health and long life to you, Master Silence!
 35085   SILENCE.  [Singing]
 35086 
 35087          Fill the cup, and let it come,
 35088          I'll pledge you a mile to th' bottom.
 35089 
 35090   SHALLOW. Honest Bardolph, welcome; if thou want'st anything and
 35091     wilt not call, beshrew thy heart. Welcome, my little tiny thief
 35092     and welcome indeed too. I'll drink to Master Bardolph, and to all
 35093     the cabileros about London.
 35094   DAVY. I hope to see London once ere I die.
 35095   BARDOLPH. An I might see you there, Davy!
 35096   SHALLOW. By the mass, you'R crack a quart together- ha! will you
 35097     not, Master Bardolph?
 35098   BARDOLPH. Yea, sir, in a pottle-pot.
 35099   SHALLOW. By God's liggens, I thank thee. The knave will stick by
 35100     thee, I can assure thee that. 'A will not out, 'a; 'tis true
 35101     bred.
 35102   BARDOLPH. And I'll stick by him, sir.
 35103   SHALLOW. Why, there spoke a king. Lack nothing; be merry.
 35104     [One knocks at door]  Look who's at door there, ho! Who knocks?
 35105                                                        Exit DAVY
 35106   FALSTAFF.  [To SILENCE, who has drunk a bumper]  Why, now you have
 35107     done me right.
 35108   SILENCE.  [Singing]
 35109 
 35110          Do me right,
 35111          And dub me knight.
 35112            Samingo.
 35113 
 35114     Is't not so?
 35115   FALSTAFF. 'Tis so.
 35116   SILENCE. Is't so? Why then, say an old man can do somewhat.
 35117 
 35118                         Re-enter DAVY
 35119 
 35120   DAVY. An't please your worship, there's one Pistol come from the
 35121     court with news.
 35122   FALSTAFF. From the court? Let him come in.
 35123 
 35124                         Enter PISTOL
 35125 
 35126     How now, Pistol?
 35127   PISTOL. Sir John, God save you!
 35128   FALSTAFF. What wind blew you hither, Pistol?
 35129   PISTOL. Not the ill wind which blows no man to good. Sweet knight,
 35130     thou art now one of the greatest men in this realm.
 35131   SILENCE. By'r lady, I think 'a be, but goodman Puff of Barson.
 35132   PISTOL. Puff!
 35133     Puff in thy teeth, most recreant coward base!
 35134     Sir John, I am thy Pistol and thy friend,
 35135     And helter-skelter have I rode to thee;
 35136     And tidings do I bring, and lucky joys,
 35137     And golden times, and happy news of price.
 35138   FALSTAFF. I pray thee now, deliver them like a man of this world.
 35139   PISTOL. A foutra for the world and worldlings base!
 35140     I speak of Africa and golden joys.
 35141   FALSTAFF. O base Assyrian knight, what is thy news?
 35142     Let King Cophetua know the truth thereof.
 35143   SILENCE.  [Singing]  And Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John.
 35144   PISTOL. Shall dunghill curs confront the Helicons?
 35145     And shall good news be baffled?
 35146     Then, Pistol, lay thy head in Furies' lap.
 35147   SHALLOW. Honest gentleman, I know not your breeding.
 35148   PISTOL. Why, then, lament therefore.
 35149   SHALLOW. Give me pardon, sir. If, sir, you come with news from the
 35150     court, I take it there's but two ways- either to utter them or
 35151     conceal them. I am, sir, under the King, in some authority.
 35152   PISTOL. Under which king, Bezonian? Speak, or die.
 35153   SHALLOW. Under King Harry.
 35154   PISTOL. Harry the Fourth- or Fifth?
 35155   SHALLOW. Harry the Fourth.
 35156   PISTOL. A foutra for thine office!
 35157     Sir John, thy tender lambkin now is King;
 35158     Harry the Fifth's the man. I speak the truth.
 35159     When Pistol lies, do this; and fig me, like
 35160     The bragging Spaniard.
 35161   FALSTAFF. What, is the old king dead?
 35162   PISTOL. As nail in door. The things I speak are just.
 35163   FALSTAFF. Away, Bardolph! saddle my horse. Master Robert Shallow,
 35164     choose what office thou wilt in the land, 'tis thine. Pistol, I
 35165     will double-charge thee with dignities.
 35166   BARDOLPH. O joyful day!
 35167     I would not take a knighthood for my fortune.
 35168   PISTOL. What, I do bring good news?
 35169   FALSTAFF. Carry Master Silence to bed. Master Shallow, my Lord
 35170     Shallow, be what thou wilt- I am Fortune's steward. Get on thy
 35171     boots; we'll ride all night. O sweet Pistol! Away, Bardolph!
 35172     [Exit BARDOLPH]  Come, Pistol, utter more to me; and withal
 35173     devise something to do thyself good. Boot, boot, Master Shallow!
 35174     I know the young King is sick for me. Let us take any man's
 35175     horses: the laws of England are at my commandment. Blessed are
 35176     they that have been my friends; and woe to my Lord Chief Justice!
 35177   PISTOL. Let vultures vile seize on his lungs also!
 35178     'Where is the life that late I led?' say they.
 35179     Why, here it is; welcome these pleasant days!         Exeunt
 35180 
 35181 
 35182 
 35183 
 35184 SCENE IV.
 35185 London. A street
 35186 
 35187 Enter BEADLES, dragging in HOSTESS QUICKLY and DOLL TEARSHEET
 35188 
 35189   HOSTESS. No, thou arrant knave; I would to God that I might die,
 35190     that I might have thee hang'd. Thou hast drawn my shoulder out of
 35191     joint.
 35192   FIRST BEADLE. The constables have delivered her over to me; and she
 35193     shall have whipping-cheer enough, I warrant her. There hath been
 35194     a man or two lately kill'd about her.
 35195   DOLL. Nut-hook, nut-hook, you lie. Come on; I'll tell thee what,
 35196     thou damn'd tripe-visag'd rascal, an the child I now go with do
 35197     miscarry, thou wert better thou hadst struck thy mother, thou
 35198     paper-fac'd villain.
 35199   HOSTESS. O the Lord, that Sir John were come! He would make this a
 35200     bloody day to somebody. But I pray God the fruit of her womb
 35201     miscarry!
 35202   FIRST BEADLE. If it do, you shall have a dozen of cushions again;
 35203     you have but eleven now. Come, I charge you both go with me; for
 35204     the man is dead that you and Pistol beat amongst you.
 35205   DOLL. I'll tell you what, you thin man in a censer, I will have you
 35206     as soundly swing'd for this- you blue-bottle rogue, you filthy
 35207     famish'd correctioner, if you be not swing'd, I'll forswear
 35208     half-kirtles.
 35209   FIRST BEADLE. Come, come, you she knight-errant, come.
 35210   HOSTESS. O God, that right should thus overcome might!
 35211     Well, of sufferance comes ease.
 35212   DOLL. Come, you rogue, come; bring me to a justice.
 35213   HOSTESS. Ay, come, you starv'd bloodhound.
 35214   DOLL. Goodman death, goodman bones!
 35215   HOSTESS. Thou atomy, thou!
 35216   DOLL. Come, you thin thing! come, you rascal!
 35217   FIRST BEADLE. Very well.                                Exeunt
 35218 
 35219 
 35220 
 35221 
 35222 SCENE V.
 35223 Westminster. Near the Abbey
 35224 
 35225 Enter GROOMS, strewing rushes
 35226 
 35227   FIRST GROOM. More rushes, more rushes!
 35228   SECOND GROOM. The trumpets have sounded twice.
 35229   THIRD GROOM. 'Twill be two o'clock ere they come from the
 35230     coronation. Dispatch, dispatch.                       Exeunt
 35231 
 35232         Trumpets sound, and the KING and his train pass
 35233        over the stage. After them enter FALSTAFF, SHALLOW,
 35234                   PISTOL, BARDOLPH, and page
 35235 
 35236   FALSTAFF. Stand here by me, Master Robert Shallow; I will make the
 35237     King do you grace. I will leer upon him, as 'a comes by; and do
 35238     but mark the countenance that he will give me.
 35239   PISTOL. God bless thy lungs, good knight!
 35240   FALSTAFF. Come here, Pistol; stand behind me.  [To SHALLOW]  O, if
 35241     I had had to have made new liveries, I would have bestowed the
 35242     thousand pound I borrowed of you. But 'tis no matter; this poor
 35243     show doth better; this doth infer the zeal I had to see him.
 35244   SHALLOW. It doth so.
 35245   FALSTAFF. It shows my earnestness of affection-
 35246   SHALLOW. It doth so.
 35247   FALSTAFF. My devotion-
 35248   SHALLOW. It doth, it doth, it doth.
 35249   FALSTAFF. As it were, to ride day and night; and not to deliberate,
 35250     not to remember, not to have patience to shift me-
 35251   SHALLOW. It is best, certain.
 35252   FALSTAFF. But to stand stained with travel, and sweating with
 35253     desire to see him; thinking of nothing else, putting all affairs
 35254     else in oblivion, as if there were nothing else to be done but to
 35255     see him.
 35256   PISTOL. 'Tis 'semper idem' for 'obsque hoc nihil est.' 'Tis all in
 35257     every part.
 35258   SHALLOW. 'Tis so, indeed.
 35259   PISTOL. My knight, I will inflame thy noble liver
 35260     And make thee rage.
 35261     Thy Doll, and Helen of thy noble thoughts,
 35262     Is in base durance and contagious prison;
 35263     Hal'd thither
 35264     By most mechanical and dirty hand.
 35265     Rouse up revenge from ebon den with fell Alecto's snake,
 35266     For Doll is in. Pistol speaks nought but truth.
 35267   FALSTAFF. I will deliver her.
 35268                          [Shouts,within, and the trumpets sound]
 35269   PISTOL. There roar'd the sea, and trumpet-clangor sounds.
 35270 
 35271         Enter the KING and his train, the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE
 35272                                among them
 35273 
 35274   FALSTAFF. God save thy Grace, King Hal; my royal Hal!
 35275   PISTOL. The heavens thee guard and keep, most royal imp of fame!
 35276   FALSTAFF. God save thee, my sweet boy!
 35277   KING. My Lord Chief Justice, speak to that vain man.
 35278   CHIEF JUSTICE. Have you your wits? Know you what 'tis you speak?
 35279   FALSTAFF. My king! my Jove! I speak to thee, my heart!
 35280   KING. I know thee not, old man. Fall to thy prayers.
 35281     How ill white hairs become a fool and jester!
 35282     I have long dreamt of such a kind of man,
 35283     So surfeit-swell'd, so old, and so profane;
 35284     But being awak'd, I do despise my dream.
 35285     Make less thy body hence, and more thy grace;
 35286     Leave gormandizing; know the grave doth gape
 35287     For thee thrice wider than for other men-
 35288     Reply not to me with a fool-born jest;
 35289     Presume not that I am the thing I was,
 35290     For God doth know, so shall the world perceive,
 35291     That I have turn'd away my former self;
 35292     So will I those that kept me company.
 35293     When thou dost hear I am as I have been,
 35294     Approach me, and thou shalt be as thou wast,
 35295     The tutor and the feeder of my riots.
 35296     Till then I banish thee, on pain of death,
 35297     As I have done the rest of my misleaders,
 35298     Not to come near our person by ten mile.
 35299     For competence of life I will allow you,
 35300     That lack of means enforce you not to evils;
 35301     And, as we hear you do reform yourselves,
 35302     We will, according to your strengths and qualities,
 35303     Give you advancement. Be it your charge, my lord,
 35304     To see perform'd the tenour of our word.
 35305     Set on.                        Exeunt the KING and his train
 35306   FALSTAFF. Master Shallow, I owe you a thousand pounds.
 35307   SHALLOW. Yea, marry, Sir John; which I beseech you to let me have
 35308     home with me.
 35309   FALSTAFF. That can hardly be, Master Shallow. Do not you grieve at
 35310     this; I shall be sent for in private to him. Look you, he must
 35311     seem thus to the world. Fear not your advancements; I will be the
 35312     man yet that shall make you great.
 35313   SHALLOW. I cannot perceive how, unless you give me your doublet,
 35314     and stuff me out with straw. I beseech you, good Sir John, let me
 35315     have five hundred of my thousand.
 35316   FALSTAFF. Sir, I will be as good as my word. This that you heard
 35317     was but a colour.
 35318   SHALLOW. A colour that I fear you will die in, Sir John.
 35319   FALSTAFF. Fear no colours; go with me to dinner. Come, Lieutenant
 35320     Pistol; come, Bardolph. I shall be sent for soon at night.
 35321 
 35322             Re-enter PRINCE JOHN, the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE,
 35323                             with officers
 35324 
 35325   CHIEF JUSTICE. Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the Fleet;
 35326     Take all his company along with him.
 35327   FALSTAFF. My lord, my lord-
 35328   CHIEF JUSTICE. I cannot now speak. I will hear you soon.
 35329     Take them away.
 35330   PISTOL. Si fortuna me tormenta, spero me contenta.
 35331            Exeunt all but PRINCE JOHN and the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE
 35332   PRINCE JOHN. I like this fair proceeding of the King's.
 35333     He hath intent his wonted followers
 35334     Shall all be very well provided for;
 35335     But all are banish'd till their conversations
 35336     Appear more wise and modest to the world.
 35337   CHIEF JUSTICE. And so they are.
 35338   PRINCE JOHN. The King hath call'd his parliament, my lord.
 35339   CHIEF JUSTICE. He hath.
 35340   PRINCE JOHN. I will lay odds that, ere this year expire,
 35341     We bear our civil swords and native fire
 35342     As far as France. I heard a bird so sing,
 35343     Whose music, to my thinking, pleas'd the King.
 35344     Come, will you hence?                                 Exeunt
 35345 
 35346 EPILOGUE
 35347                            EPILOGUE.
 35348 
 35349   First my fear, then my curtsy, last my speech. My fear, is your
 35350 displeasure; my curtsy, my duty; and my speech, to beg your pardons.
 35351 If you look for a good speech now, you undo me; for what I have to say
 35352 is of mine own making; and what, indeed, I should say will, I doubt,
 35353 prove mine own marring. But to the purpose, and so to the venture.
 35354 Be it known to you, as it is very well, I was lately here in the end
 35355 of a displeasing play, to pray your patience for it and to promise you
 35356 a better. I meant, indeed, to pay you with this; which if like an
 35357 ill venture it come unluckily home, I break, and you, my gentle
 35358 creditors, lose. Here I promis'd you I would be, and here I commit
 35359 my body to your mercies. Bate me some, and I will pay you some, and,
 35360 as most debtors do, promise you infinitely; and so I kneel down before
 35361 you- but, indeed, to pray for the Queen.
 35362   If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me, will you command me to
 35363 use my legs? And yet that were but light payment-to dance out of
 35364 your debt. But a good conscience will make any possible
 35365 satisfaction, and so would I. All the gentlewomen here have forgiven
 35366 me. If the gentlemen will not, then the gentlemen do not agree with
 35367 the gentlewomen, which was never seen before in such an assembly.
 35368   One word more, I beseech you. If you be not too much cloy'd with fat
 35369 meat, our humble author will continue the story, with Sir John in
 35370 it, and make you merry with fair Katherine of France; where, for
 35371 anything I know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already 'a be
 35372 killed with your hard opinions; for Oldcastle died a martyr and this
 35373 is not the man. My tongue is weary; when my legs are too, I will bid
 35374 you good night.
 35375 
 35376 
 35377 THE END
 35378 
 35379 
 35380 
 35381 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 35382 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 35383 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 35384 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 35385 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 35386 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 35387 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 35388 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 35389 
 35390 
 35391 
 35392 
 35393 
 35394 1599
 35395 
 35396 THE LIFE OF KING HENRY THE FIFTH
 35397 
 35398 by William Shakespeare
 35399 
 35400 
 35401 
 35402 DRAMATIS PERSONAE
 35403 
 35404   CHORUS
 35405   KING HENRY THE FIFTH
 35406   DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, brother to the King
 35407   DUKE OF BEDFORD,       "     "  "    "
 35408   DUKE OF EXETER, Uncle to the King
 35409   DUKE OF YORK, cousin to the King
 35410   EARL OF SALISBURY
 35411   EARL OF WESTMORELAND
 35412   EARL OF WARWICK
 35413   ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
 35414   BISHOP OF ELY
 35415 
 35416   EARL OF CAMBRIDGE, conspirator against the King
 35417   LORD SCROOP,            "         "     "    "
 35418   SIR THOMAS GREY,        "         "     "    "
 35419   SIR THOMAS ERPINGHAM, officer in the King's army
 35420   GOWER,                  "      "  "    "     "
 35421   FLUELLEN,               "      "  "    "     "
 35422   MACMORRIS,              "      "  "    "     "
 35423   JAMY,                   "      "  "    "     "
 35424 
 35425   BATES,    soldier in the King's army
 35426   COURT,       "    "   "    "     "
 35427   WILLIAMS,    "    "   "    "     "
 35428   NYM,         "    "   "    "     "
 35429   BARDOLPH,    "    "   "    "     "
 35430   PISTOL,      "    "   "    "     "
 35431 
 35432   BOY                               A HERALD
 35433 
 35434   CHARLES THE SIXTH, King of France
 35435   LEWIS, the Dauphin                DUKE OF BURGUNDY
 35436   DUKE OF ORLEANS                   DUKE OF BRITAINE
 35437   DUKE OF BOURBON                   THE CONSTABLE OF FRANCE
 35438   RAMBURES, French Lord
 35439   GRANDPRE,    "    "
 35440   GOVERNOR OF HARFLEUR              MONTJOY, a French herald
 35441   AMBASSADORS to the King of England
 35442 
 35443   ISABEL, Queen of France
 35444   KATHERINE, daughter to Charles and Isabel
 35445   ALICE, a lady attending her
 35446   HOSTESS of the Boar's Head, Eastcheap; formerly Mrs. Quickly, now
 35447     married to Pistol
 35448 
 35449   Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, Attendants
 35450 
 35451 
 35452                               SCENE:
 35453                         England and France
 35454 
 35455 PROLOGUE
 35456                             PROLOGUE.
 35457 
 35458                           Enter CHORUS
 35459 
 35460  CHORUS. O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
 35461    The brightest heaven of invention,
 35462    A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
 35463    And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
 35464    Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
 35465    Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
 35466    Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire,
 35467    Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all,
 35468    The flat unraised spirits that hath dar'd
 35469    On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
 35470    So great an object. Can this cockpit hold
 35471    The vasty fields of France? Or may we cram
 35472    Within this wooden O the very casques
 35473    That did affright the air at Agincourt?
 35474    O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
 35475    Attest in little place a million;
 35476    And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,
 35477    On your imaginary forces work.
 35478    Suppose within the girdle of these walls
 35479    Are now confin'd two mighty monarchies,
 35480    Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
 35481    The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder.
 35482    Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts:
 35483    Into a thousand parts divide one man,
 35484    And make imaginary puissance;
 35485    Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them
 35486    Printing their proud hoofs i' th' receiving earth;
 35487    For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
 35488    Carry them here and there, jumping o'er times,
 35489    Turning th' accomplishment of many years
 35490    Into an hour-glass; for the which supply,
 35491    Admit me Chorus to this history;
 35492    Who prologue-like, your humble patience pray
 35493    Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.               Exit
 35494 
 35495 
 35496 
 35497 
 35498 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 35499 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 35500 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 35501 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 35502 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 35503 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 35504 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 35505 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 35506 
 35507 
 35508 
 35509 ACT I. SCENE I.
 35510 London. An ante-chamber in the KING'S palace
 35511 
 35512 Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY and the BISHOP OF ELY
 35513 
 35514  CANTERBURY. My lord, I'll tell you: that self bill is urg'd
 35515    Which in th' eleventh year of the last king's reign
 35516    Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd
 35517    But that the scambling and unquiet time
 35518    Did push it out of farther question.
 35519  ELY. But how, my lord, shall we resist it now?
 35520  CANTERBURY. It must be thought on. If it pass against us,
 35521    We lose the better half of our possession;
 35522    For all the temporal lands which men devout
 35523    By testament have given to the church
 35524    Would they strip from us; being valu'd thus-
 35525    As much as would maintain, to the King's honour,
 35526    Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights,
 35527    Six thousand and two hundred good esquires;
 35528    And, to relief of lazars and weak age,
 35529    Of indigent faint souls, past corporal toil,
 35530    A hundred alms-houses right well supplied;
 35531    And to the coffers of the King, beside,
 35532    A thousand pounds by th' year: thus runs the bill.
 35533  ELY. This would drink deep.
 35534  CANTERBURY. 'T would drink the cup and all.
 35535  ELY. But what prevention?
 35536  CANTERBURY. The King is full of grace and fair regard.
 35537  ELY. And a true lover of the holy Church.
 35538  CANTERBURY. The courses of his youth promis'd it not.
 35539    The breath no sooner left his father's body
 35540    But that his wildness, mortified in him,
 35541    Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment,
 35542    Consideration like an angel came
 35543    And whipp'd th' offending Adam out of him,
 35544    Leaving his body as a paradise
 35545    T'envelop and contain celestial spirits.
 35546    Never was such a sudden scholar made;
 35547    Never came reformation in a flood,
 35548    With such a heady currance, scouring faults;
 35549    Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulnes
 35550    So soon did lose his seat, and all at once,
 35551    As in this king.
 35552  ELY. We are blessed in the change.
 35553  CANTERBURY. Hear him but reason in divinity,
 35554    And, all-admiring, with an inward wish
 35555    You would desire the King were made a prelate;
 35556    Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
 35557    You would say it hath been all in all his study;
 35558    List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
 35559    A fearful battle rend'red you in music.
 35560    Turn him to any cause of policy,
 35561    The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,
 35562    Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks,
 35563    The air, a charter'd libertine, is still,
 35564    And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears
 35565    To steal his sweet and honey'd sentences;
 35566    So that the art and practic part of life
 35567    Must be the mistress to this theoric;
 35568    Which is a wonder how his Grace should glean it,
 35569    Since his addiction was to courses vain,
 35570    His companies unletter'd, rude, and shallow,
 35571    His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports;
 35572    And never noted in him any study,
 35573    Any retirement, any sequestration
 35574    From open haunts and popularity.
 35575  ELY. The strawberry grows underneath the nettle,
 35576    And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best
 35577    Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality;
 35578    And so the Prince obscur'd his contemplation
 35579    Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt,
 35580    Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,
 35581    Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.
 35582  CANTERBURY. It must be so; for miracles are ceas'd;
 35583    And therefore we must needs admit the means
 35584    How things are perfected.
 35585  ELY. But, my good lord,
 35586    How now for mitigation of this bill
 35587    Urg'd by the Commons? Doth his Majesty
 35588    Incline to it, or no?
 35589  CANTERBURY. He seems indifferent
 35590    Or rather swaying more upon our part
 35591    Than cherishing th' exhibiters against us;
 35592    For I have made an offer to his Majesty-
 35593    Upon our spiritual convocation
 35594    And in regard of causes now in hand,
 35595    Which I have open'd to his Grace at large,
 35596    As touching France- to give a greater sum
 35597    Than ever at one time the clergy yet
 35598    Did to his predecessors part withal.
 35599  ELY. How did this offer seem receiv'd, my lord?
 35600  CANTERBURY. With good acceptance of his Majesty;
 35601    Save that there was not time enough to hear,
 35602    As I perceiv'd his Grace would fain have done,
 35603    The severals and unhidden passages
 35604    Of his true tides to some certain dukedoms,
 35605    And generally to the crown and seat of France,
 35606    Deriv'd from Edward, his great-grandfather.
 35607  ELY. What was th' impediment that broke this off?
 35608  CANTERBURY. The French ambassador upon that instant
 35609    Crav'd audience; and the hour, I think, is come
 35610    To give him hearing: is it four o'clock?
 35611  ELY. It is.
 35612  CANTERBURY. Then go we in, to know his embassy;
 35613    Which I could with a ready guess declare,
 35614    Before the Frenchman speak a word of it.
 35615  ELY. I'll wait upon you, and I long to hear it.          Exeunt
 35616 
 35617 
 35618 
 35619 
 35620 SCENE II.
 35621 London. The Presence Chamber in the KING'S palace
 35622 
 35623 Enter the KING, GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND,
 35624 and attendants
 35625 
 35626   KING HENRY. Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?
 35627   EXETER. Not here in presence.
 35628   KING HENRY. Send for him, good uncle.
 35629   WESTMORELAND. Shall we call in th' ambassador, my liege?
 35630   KING HENRY. Not yet, my cousin; we would be resolv'd,
 35631     Before we hear him, of some things of weight
 35632     That task our thoughts, concerning us and France.
 35633 
 35634               Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY and
 35635                        the BISHOP OF ELY
 35636 
 35637   CANTERBURY. God and his angels guard your sacred throne,
 35638     And make you long become it!
 35639   KING HENRY. Sure, we thank you.
 35640     My learned lord, we pray you to proceed,
 35641     And justly and religiously unfold
 35642     Why the law Salique, that they have in France,
 35643     Or should or should not bar us in our claim;
 35644     And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
 35645     That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,
 35646     Or nicely charge your understanding soul
 35647     With opening titles miscreate whose right
 35648     Suits not in native colours with the truth;
 35649     For God doth know how many, now in health,
 35650     Shall drop their blood in approbation
 35651     Of what your reverence shall incite us to.
 35652     Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,
 35653     How you awake our sleeping sword of war-
 35654     We charge you, in the name of God, take heed;
 35655     For never two such kingdoms did contend
 35656     Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless drops
 35657     Are every one a woe, a sore complaint,
 35658     'Gainst him whose wrongs gives edge unto the swords
 35659     That makes such waste in brief mortality.
 35660     Under this conjuration speak, my lord;
 35661     For we will hear, note, and believe in heart,
 35662     That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd
 35663     As pure as sin with baptism.
 35664   CANTERBURY. Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers,
 35665     That owe yourselves, your lives, and services,
 35666     To this imperial throne. There is no bar
 35667     To make against your Highness' claim to France
 35668     But this, which they produce from Pharamond:
 35669     'In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant'-
 35670     'No woman shall succeed in Salique land';
 35671     Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze
 35672     To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
 35673     The founder of this law and female bar.
 35674     Yet their own authors faithfully affirm
 35675     That the land Salique is in Germany,
 35676     Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe;
 35677     Where Charles the Great, having subdu'd the Saxons,
 35678     There left behind and settled certain French;
 35679     Who, holding in disdain the German women
 35680     For some dishonest manners of their life,
 35681     Establish'd then this law: to wit, no female
 35682     Should be inheritrix in Salique land;
 35683     Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,
 35684     Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen.
 35685     Then doth it well appear the Salique law
 35686     Was not devised for the realm of France;
 35687     Nor did the French possess the Salique land
 35688     Until four hundred one and twenty years
 35689     After defunction of King Pharamond,
 35690     Idly suppos'd the founder of this law;
 35691     Who died within the year of our redemption
 35692     Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great
 35693     Subdu'd the Saxons, and did seat the French
 35694     Beyond the river Sala, in the year
 35695     Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,
 35696     King Pepin, which deposed Childeric,
 35697     Did, as heir general, being descended
 35698     Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair,
 35699     Make claim and title to the crown of France.
 35700     Hugh Capet also, who usurp'd the crown
 35701     Of Charles the Duke of Lorraine, sole heir male
 35702     Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great,
 35703     To find his title with some shows of truth-
 35704     Though in pure truth it was corrupt and naught-
 35705     Convey'd himself as th' heir to th' Lady Lingare,
 35706     Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son
 35707     To Lewis the Emperor, and Lewis the son
 35708     Of Charles the Great. Also King Lewis the Tenth,
 35709     Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,
 35710     Could not keep quiet in his conscience,
 35711     Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied
 35712     That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother,
 35713     Was lineal of the Lady Ermengare,
 35714     Daughter to Charles the foresaid Duke of Lorraine;
 35715     By the which marriage the line of Charles the Great
 35716     Was re-united to the Crown of France.
 35717     So that, as clear as is the summer's sun,
 35718     King Pepin's title, and Hugh Capet's claim,
 35719     King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear
 35720     To hold in right and tide of the female;
 35721     So do the kings of France unto this day,
 35722     Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law
 35723     To bar your Highness claiming from the female;
 35724     And rather choose to hide them in a net
 35725     Than amply to imbar their crooked tides
 35726     Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.
 35727   KING HENRY. May I with right and conscience make this claim?
 35728   CANTERBURY. The sin upon my head, dread sovereign!
 35729     For in the book of Numbers is it writ,
 35730     When the man dies, let the inheritance
 35731     Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord,
 35732     Stand for your own, unwind your bloody flag,
 35733     Look back into your mighty ancestors.
 35734     Go, my dread lord, to your great-grandsire's tomb,
 35735     From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit,
 35736     And your great-uncle's, Edward the Black Prince,
 35737     Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy,
 35738     Making defeat on the fun power of France,
 35739     Whiles his most mighty father on a hill
 35740     Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp
 35741     Forage in blood of French nobility.
 35742     O noble English, that could entertain
 35743     With half their forces the full pride of France,
 35744     And let another half stand laughing by,
 35745     All out of work and cold for action!
 35746   ELY. Awake remembrance of these valiant dead,
 35747     And with your puissant arm renew their feats.
 35748     You are their heir; you sit upon their throne;
 35749     The blood and courage that renowned them
 35750     Runs in your veins; and my thrice-puissant liege
 35751     Is in the very May-morn of his youth,
 35752     Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises.
 35753   EXETER. Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth
 35754     Do all expect that you should rouse yourself,
 35755     As did the former lions of your blood.
 35756   WESTMORELAND. They know your Grace hath cause and means and might-
 35757     So hath your Highness; never King of England
 35758     Had nobles richer and more loyal subjects,
 35759     Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England
 35760     And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France.
 35761   CANTERBURY. O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege,
 35762     With blood and sword and fire to win your right!
 35763     In aid whereof we of the spiritualty
 35764     Will raise your Highness such a mighty sum
 35765     As never did the clergy at one time
 35766     Bring in to any of your ancestors.
 35767   KING HENRY. We must not only arm t' invade the French,
 35768     But lay down our proportions to defend
 35769     Against the Scot, who will make road upon us
 35770     With all advantages.
 35771   CANTERBURY. They of those marches, gracious sovereign,
 35772     Shall be a wall sufficient to defend
 35773     Our inland from the pilfering borderers.
 35774   KING HENRY. We do not mean the coursing snatchers only,
 35775     But fear the main intendment of the Scot,
 35776     Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us;
 35777     For you shall read that my great-grandfather
 35778     Never went with his forces into France
 35779     But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom
 35780     Came pouring, like the tide into a breach,
 35781     With ample and brim fulness of his force,
 35782     Galling the gleaned land with hot assays,
 35783     Girdling with grievous siege castles and towns;
 35784     That England, being empty of defence,
 35785     Hath shook and trembled at th' ill neighbourhood.
 35786   CANTERBURY. She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, my liege;
 35787     For hear her but exampled by herself:
 35788     When all her chivalry hath been in France,
 35789     And she a mourning widow of her nobles,
 35790     She hath herself not only well defended
 35791     But taken and impounded as a stray
 35792     The King of Scots; whom she did send to France,
 35793     To fill King Edward's fame with prisoner kings,
 35794     And make her chronicle as rich with praise
 35795     As is the ooze and bottom of the sea
 35796     With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries.
 35797   WESTMORELAND. But there's a saying, very old and true:
 35798 
 35799           'If that you will France win,
 35800           Then with Scotland first begin.'
 35801 
 35802     For once the eagle England being in prey,
 35803     To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot
 35804     Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs,
 35805     Playing the mouse in absence of the cat,
 35806     To tear and havoc more than she can eat.
 35807   EXETER. It follows, then, the cat must stay at home;
 35808     Yet that is but a crush'd necessity,
 35809     Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries
 35810     And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves.
 35811     While that the armed hand doth fight abroad,
 35812     Th' advised head defends itself at home;
 35813     For government, though high, and low, and lower,
 35814     Put into parts, doth keep in one consent,
 35815     Congreeing in a full and natural close,
 35816     Like music.
 35817   CANTERBURY. Therefore doth heaven divide
 35818     The state of man in divers functions,
 35819     Setting endeavour in continual motion;
 35820     To which is fixed as an aim or but
 35821     Obedience; for so work the honey bees,
 35822     Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
 35823     The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
 35824     They have a king, and officers of sorts,
 35825     Where some like magistrates correct at home;
 35826     Others like merchants venture trade abroad;
 35827     Others like soldiers, armed in their stings,
 35828     Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds,
 35829     Which pillage they with merry march bring home
 35830     To the tent-royal of their emperor;
 35831     Who, busied in his majesty, surveys
 35832     The singing masons building roofs of gold,
 35833     The civil citizens kneading up the honey,
 35834     The poor mechanic porters crowding in
 35835     Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,
 35836     The sad-ey'd justice, with his surly hum,
 35837     Delivering o'er to executors pale
 35838     The lazy yawning drone. I this infer,
 35839     That many things, having full reference
 35840     To one consent, may work contrariously;
 35841     As many arrows loosed several ways
 35842     Come to one mark, as many ways meet in one town,
 35843     As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea,
 35844     As many lines close in the dial's centre;
 35845     So many a thousand actions, once afoot,
 35846     End in one purpose, and be all well home
 35847     Without defeat. Therefore to France, my liege.
 35848     Divide your happy England into four;
 35849     Whereof take you one quarter into France,
 35850     And you withal shall make all Gallia shake.
 35851     If we, with thrice such powers left at home,
 35852     Cannot defend our own doors from the dog,
 35853     Let us be worried, and our nation lose
 35854     The name of hardiness and policy.
 35855   KING HENRY. Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.
 35856                                           Exeunt some attendants
 35857     Now are we well resolv'd; and, by God's help
 35858     And yours, the noble sinews of our power,
 35859     France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe,
 35860     Or break it all to pieces; or there we'll sit,
 35861     Ruling in large and ample empery
 35862     O'er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms,
 35863     Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn,
 35864     Tombless, with no remembrance over them.
 35865     Either our history shall with full mouth
 35866     Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave,
 35867     Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth,
 35868     Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph.
 35869 
 35870                   Enter AMBASSADORS of France
 35871 
 35872     Now are we well prepar'd to know the pleasure
 35873     Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for we hear
 35874     Your greeting is from him, not from the King.
 35875   AMBASSADOR. May't please your Majesty to give us leave
 35876     Freely to render what we have in charge;
 35877     Or shall we sparingly show you far of
 35878     The Dauphin's meaning and our embassy?
 35879   KING HENRY. We are no tyrant, but a Christian king,
 35880     Unto whose grace our passion is as subject
 35881     As are our wretches fett'red in our prisons;
 35882     Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness
 35883     Tell us the Dauphin's mind.
 35884   AMBASSADOR. Thus then, in few.
 35885     Your Highness, lately sending into France,
 35886     Did claim some certain dukedoms in the right
 35887     Of your great predecessor, King Edward the Third.
 35888     In answer of which claim, the Prince our master
 35889     Says that you savour too much of your youth,
 35890     And bids you be advis'd there's nought in France
 35891     That can be with a nimble galliard won;
 35892     You cannot revel into dukedoms there.
 35893     He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,
 35894     This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this,
 35895     Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim
 35896     Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.
 35897   KING HENRY. What treasure, uncle?
 35898   EXETER. Tennis-balls, my liege.
 35899   KING HENRY. We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;
 35900     His present and your pains we thank you for.
 35901     When we have match'd our rackets to these balls,
 35902     We will in France, by God's grace, play a set
 35903     Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.
 35904     Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler
 35905     That all the courts of France will be disturb'd
 35906     With chaces. And we understand him well,
 35907     How he comes o'er us with our wilder days,
 35908     Not measuring what use we made of them.
 35909     We never valu'd this poor seat of England;
 35910     And therefore, living hence, did give ourself
 35911     To barbarous licence; as 'tis ever common
 35912     That men are merriest when they are from home.
 35913     But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state,
 35914     Be like a king, and show my sail of greatness,
 35915     When I do rouse me in my throne of France;
 35916     For that I have laid by my majesty
 35917     And plodded like a man for working-days;
 35918     But I will rise there with so full a glory
 35919     That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,
 35920     Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.
 35921     And tell the pleasant Prince this mock of his
 35922     Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones, and his soul
 35923     Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance
 35924     That shall fly with them; for many a thousand widows
 35925     Shall this his mock mock of their dear husbands;
 35926     Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;
 35927     And some are yet ungotten and unborn
 35928     That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn.
 35929     But this lies all within the will of God,
 35930     To whom I do appeal; and in whose name,
 35931     Tell you the Dauphin, I am coming on,
 35932     To venge me as I may and to put forth
 35933     My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause.
 35934     So get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin
 35935     His jest will savour but of shallow wit,
 35936     When thousands weep more than did laugh at it.
 35937     Convey them with safe conduct. Fare you well.
 35938                                               Exeunt AMBASSADORS
 35939   EXETER. This was a merry message.
 35940   KING HENRY. We hope to make the sender blush at it.
 35941     Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour
 35942     That may give furth'rance to our expedition;
 35943     For we have now no thought in us but France,
 35944     Save those to God, that run before our business.
 35945     Therefore let our proportions for these wars
 35946     Be soon collected, and all things thought upon
 35947     That may with reasonable swiftness ad
 35948     More feathers to our wings; for, God before,
 35949     We'll chide this Dauphin at his father's door.
 35950     Therefore let every man now task his thought
 35951     That this fair action may on foot be brought.         Exeunt
 35952 
 35953 
 35954 
 35955 
 35956 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
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 35964 
 35965 
 35966 
 35967 ACT II. PROLOGUE.
 35968 
 35969 Flourish. Enter CHORUS
 35970 
 35971   CHORUS. Now all the youth of England are on fire,
 35972     And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies;
 35973     Now thrive the armourers, and honour's thought
 35974     Reigns solely in the breast of every man;
 35975     They sell the pasture now to buy the horse,
 35976     Following the mirror of all Christian kings
 35977     With winged heels, as English Mercuries.
 35978     For now sits Expectation in the air,
 35979     And hides a sword from hilts unto the point
 35980     With crowns imperial, crowns, and coronets,
 35981     Promis'd to Harry and his followers.
 35982     The French, advis'd by good intelligence
 35983     Of this most dreadful preparation,
 35984     Shake in their fear and with pale policy
 35985     Seek to divert the English purposes.
 35986     O England! model to thy inward greatness,
 35987     Like little body with a mighty heart,
 35988     What mightst thou do that honour would thee do,
 35989     Were all thy children kind and natural!
 35990     But see thy fault! France hath in thee found out
 35991     A nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills
 35992     With treacherous crowns; and three corrupted men-
 35993     One, Richard Earl of Cambridge, and the second,
 35994     Henry Lord Scroop of Masham, and the third,
 35995     Sir Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland,
 35996     Have, for the gilt of France- O guilt indeed!-
 35997     Confirm'd conspiracy with fearful France;
 35998     And by their hands this grace of kings must die-
 35999     If hell and treason hold their promises,
 36000     Ere he take ship for France- and in Southampton.
 36001     Linger your patience on, and we'll digest
 36002     Th' abuse of distance, force a play.
 36003     The sum is paid, the traitors are agreed,
 36004     The King is set from London, and the scene
 36005     Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton;
 36006     There is the play-house now, there must you sit,
 36007     And thence to France shall we convey you safe
 36008     And bring you back, charming the narrow seas
 36009     To give you gentle pass; for, if we may,
 36010     We'll not offend one stomach with our play.
 36011     But, till the King come forth, and not till then,
 36012     Unto Southampton do we shift our scene.                 Exit
 36013 
 36014 
 36015 
 36016 
 36017 SCENE I.
 36018 London. Before the Boar's Head Tavern, Eastcheap
 36019 
 36020 Enter CORPORAL NYM and LIEUTENANT BARDOLPH
 36021 
 36022   BARDOLPH. Well met, Corporal Nym.
 36023   NYM. Good morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph.
 36024   BARDOLPH. What, are Ancient Pistol and you friends yet?
 36025   NYM. For my part, I care not; I say little, but when time shall
 36026     serve, there shall be smiles- but that shall be as it may. I dare
 36027     not fight; but I will wink and hold out mine iron. It is a simple
 36028     one; but what though? It will toast cheese, and it will endure
 36029     cold as another man's sword will; and there's an end.
 36030   BARDOLPH. I will bestow a breakfast to make you friends; and we'll
 36031     be all three sworn brothers to France. Let't be so, good Corporal
 36032     Nym.
 36033   NYM. Faith, I will live so long as I may, that's the certain of it;
 36034     and when I cannot live any longer, I will do as I may. That is my
 36035     rest, that is the rendezvous of it.
 36036   BARDOLPH. It is certain, Corporal, that he is married to Nell
 36037     Quickly; and certainly she did you wrong, for you were
 36038     troth-plight to her.
 36039   NYM. I cannot tell; things must be as they may. Men may sleep, and
 36040     they may have their throats about them at that time; and some say
 36041     knives have edges. It must be as it may; though patience be a
 36042     tired mare, yet she will plod. There must be conclusions. Well, I
 36043     cannot tell.
 36044 
 36045                      Enter PISTOL and HOSTESS
 36046 
 36047   BARDOLPH. Here comes Ancient Pistol and his wife. Good Corporal, be
 36048     patient here.
 36049   NYM. How now, mine host Pistol!
 36050   PISTOL. Base tike, call'st thou me host?
 36051     Now by this hand, I swear I scorn the term;
 36052     Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers.
 36053   HOSTESS. No, by my troth, not long; for we cannot lodge and board a
 36054     dozen or fourteen gentlewomen that live honestly by the prick of
 36055     their needles, but it will be thought we keep a bawdy-house
 36056     straight. [Nym draws] O well-a-day, Lady, if he be not drawn! Now
 36057     we shall see wilful adultery and murder committed.
 36058   BARDOLPH. Good Lieutenant, good Corporal, offer nothing here.
 36059   NYM. Pish!
 36060   PISTOL. Pish for thee, Iceland dog! thou prick-ear'd cur of
 36061     Iceland!
 36062   HOSTESS. Good Corporal Nym, show thy valour, and put up your sword.
 36063   NYM. Will you shog off? I would have you solus.
 36064   PISTOL. 'Solus,' egregious dog? O viper vile!
 36065     The 'solus' in thy most mervailous face;
 36066     The 'solus' in thy teeth, and in thy throat,
 36067     And in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw, perdy;
 36068     And, which is worse, within thy nasty mouth!
 36069     I do retort the 'solus' in thy bowels;
 36070     For I can take, and Pistol's cock is up,
 36071     And flashing fire will follow.
 36072   NYM. I am not Barbason: you cannot conjure me. I have an humour to
 36073     knock you indifferently well. If you grow foul with me, Pistol, I
 36074     will scour you with my rapier, as I may, in fair terms; if you
 36075     would walk off I would prick your guts a little, in good terms,
 36076     as I may, and thaes the humour of it.
 36077   PISTOL. O braggart vile and damned furious wight!
 36078     The grave doth gape and doting death is near;
 36079     Therefore exhale.                             [PISTOL draws]
 36080   BARDOLPH. Hear me, hear me what I say: he that strikes the first
 36081     stroke I'll run him up to the hilts, as I am a soldier.
 36082                                                          [Draws]
 36083   PISTOL. An oath of mickle might; and fury shall abate.
 36084                            [PISTOL and Nym sheathe their swords]
 36085     Give me thy fist, thy fore-foot to me give;
 36086     Thy spirits are most tall.
 36087   NYM. I will cut thy throat one time or other, in fair terms; that
 36088     is the humour of it.
 36089   PISTOL. 'Couple a gorge!'
 36090     That is the word. I thee defy again.
 36091     O hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get?
 36092     No; to the spital go,
 36093     And from the powd'ring tub of infamy
 36094     Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind,
 36095     Doll Tearsheet she by name, and her espouse.
 36096     I have, and I will hold, the quondam Quickly
 36097     For the only she; and- pauca, there's enough.
 36098     Go to.
 36099 
 36100                         Enter the Boy
 36101 
 36102   BOY. Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master; and your
 36103     hostess- he is very sick, and would to bed. Good Bardolph, put
 36104     thy face between his sheets, and do the office of a warming-pan.
 36105     Faith, he's very ill.
 36106   BARDOLPH. Away, you rogue.
 36107   HOSTESS. By my troth, he'll yield the crow a pudding one of these
 36108     days: the King has kill'd his heart. Good husband, come home
 36109     presently.                            Exeunt HOSTESS and BOY
 36110   BARDOLPH. Come, shall I make you two friends? We must to France
 36111     together; why the devil should we keep knives to cut one
 36112     another's throats?
 36113   PISTOL. Let floods o'erswell, and fiends for food howl on!
 36114   NYM. You'll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at betting?
 36115   PISTOL. Base is the slave that pays.
 36116   NYM. That now I will have; that's the humour of it.
 36117   PISTOL. As manhood shall compound: push home.
 36118                                            [PISTOL and Nym draw]
 36119   BARDOLPH. By this sword, he that makes the first thrust I'll kill
 36120     him; by this sword, I will.
 36121   PISTOL. Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their course.
 36122                                             [Sheathes his sword]
 36123   BARDOLPH. Corporal Nym, an thou wilt be friends, be friends; an
 36124     thou wilt not, why then be enemies with me too. Prithee put up.
 36125   NYM. I shall have my eight shillings I won of you at betting?
 36126   PISTOL. A noble shalt thou have, and present pay;
 36127     And liquor likewise will I give to thee,
 36128     And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood.
 36129     I'll live by Nym and Nym shall live by me.
 36130     Is not this just? For I shall sutler be
 36131     Unto the camp, and profits will accrue.
 36132     Give me thy hand.
 36133   NYM. [Sheathing his sword] I shall have my noble?
 36134   PISTOL. In cash most justly paid.
 36135   NYM. [Shaking hands] Well, then, that's the humour of't.
 36136 
 36137                        Re-enter HOSTESS
 36138 
 36139   HOSTESS. As ever you come of women, come in quickly to Sir John.
 36140     Ah, poor heart! he is so shak'd of a burning quotidian tertian
 36141     that it is most lamentable to behold. Sweet men, come to him.
 36142   NYM. The King hath run bad humours on the knight; that's the even
 36143     of it.
 36144   PISTOL. Nym, thou hast spoke the right;
 36145     His heart is fracted and corroborate.
 36146   NYM. The King is a good king, but it must be as it may; he passes
 36147     some humours and careers.
 36148   PISTOL. Let us condole the knight; for, lambkins, we will live.
 36149                                                           Exeunt
 36150 
 36151 
 36152 
 36153 
 36154 SCENE II.
 36155 Southampton. A council-chamber
 36156 
 36157 Enter EXETER, BEDFORD, and WESTMORELAND
 36158 
 36159   BEDFORD. Fore God, his Grace is bold, to trust these traitors.
 36160   EXETER. They shall be apprehended by and by.
 36161   WESTMORELAND. How smooth and even they do bear themselves,
 36162     As if allegiance in their bosoms sat,
 36163     Crowned with faith and constant loyalty!
 36164   BEDFORD. The King hath note of all that they intend,
 36165     By interception which they dream not of.
 36166   EXETER. Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow,
 36167     Whom he hath dull'd and cloy'd with gracious favours-
 36168     That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell
 36169     His sovereign's life to death and treachery!
 36170 
 36171                Trumpets sound. Enter the KING, SCROOP,
 36172                   CAMBRIDGE, GREY, and attendants
 36173 
 36174   KING HENRY. Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard.
 36175     My Lord of Cambridge, and my kind Lord of Masham,
 36176     And you, my gentle knight, give me your thoughts.
 36177     Think you not that the pow'rs we bear with us
 36178     Will cut their passage through the force of France,
 36179     Doing the execution and the act
 36180     For which we have in head assembled them?
 36181   SCROOP. No doubt, my liege, if each man do his best.
 36182   KING HENRY. I doubt not that, since we are well persuaded
 36183     We carry not a heart with us from hence
 36184     That grows not in a fair consent with ours;
 36185     Nor leave not one behind that doth not wish
 36186     Success and conquest to attend on us.
 36187   CAMBRIDGE. Never was monarch better fear'd and lov'd
 36188     Than is your Majesty. There's not, I think, a subject
 36189     That sits in heart-grief and uneasines
 36190     Under the sweet shade of your government.
 36191   GREY. True: those that were your father's enemies
 36192     Have steep'd their galls in honey, and do serve you
 36193     With hearts create of duty and of zeal.
 36194   KING HENRY. We therefore have great cause of thankfulness,
 36195     And shall forget the office of our hand
 36196     Sooner than quittance of desert and merit
 36197     According to the weight and worthiness.
 36198   SCROOP. So service shall with steeled sinews toil,
 36199     And labour shall refresh itself with hope,
 36200     To do your Grace incessant services.
 36201   KING HENRY. We judge no less. Uncle of Exeter,
 36202     Enlarge the man committed yesterday
 36203     That rail'd against our person. We consider
 36204     It was excess of wine that set him on;
 36205     And on his more advice we pardon him.
 36206   SCROOP. That's mercy, but too much security.
 36207     Let him be punish'd, sovereign, lest example
 36208     Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind.
 36209   KING HENRY. O, let us yet be merciful!
 36210   CAMBRIDGE. So may your Highness, and yet punish too.
 36211   GREY. Sir,
 36212     You show great mercy if you give him life,
 36213     After the taste of much correction.
 36214   KING HENRY. Alas, your too much love and care of me
 36215     Are heavy orisons 'gainst this poor wretch!
 36216     If little faults proceeding on distemper
 36217     Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye
 36218     When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd, and digested,
 36219     Appear before us? We'll yet enlarge that man,
 36220     Though Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey, in their dear care
 36221     And tender preservation of our person,
 36222     Would have him punish'd. And now to our French causes:
 36223     Who are the late commissioners?
 36224   CAMBRIDGE. I one, my lord.
 36225     Your Highness bade me ask for it to-day.
 36226   SCROOP. So did you me, my liege.
 36227   GREY. And I, my royal sovereign.
 36228   KING HENRY. Then, Richard Earl of Cambridge, there is yours;
 36229     There yours, Lord Scroop of Masham; and, Sir Knight,
 36230     Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours.
 36231     Read them, and know I know your worthiness.
 36232     My Lord of Westmoreland, and uncle Exeter,
 36233     We will aboard to-night. Why, how now, gentlemen?
 36234     What see you in those papers, that you lose
 36235     So much complexion? Look ye how they change!
 36236     Their cheeks are paper. Why, what read you there
 36237     That have so cowarded and chas'd your blood
 36238     Out of appearance?
 36239   CAMBRIDGE. I do confess my fault,
 36240     And do submit me to your Highness' mercy.
 36241   GREY, SCROOP. To which we all appeal.
 36242   KING HENRY. The mercy that was quick in us but late
 36243    By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd.
 36244     You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy;
 36245     For your own reasons turn into your bosoms
 36246     As dogs upon their masters, worrying you.
 36247     See you, my princes and my noble peers,
 36248     These English monsters! My Lord of Cambridge here-
 36249     You know how apt our love was to accord
 36250     To furnish him with an appertinents
 36251     Belonging to his honour; and this man
 36252     Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspir'd,
 36253     And sworn unto the practices of France
 36254     To kill us here in Hampton; to the which
 36255     This knight, no less for bounty bound to us
 36256     Than Cambridge is, hath likewise sworn. But, O,
 36257     What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop, thou cruel,
 36258     Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature?
 36259     Thou that didst bear the key of all my counsels,
 36260     That knew'st the very bottom of my soul,
 36261     That almost mightst have coin'd me into gold,
 36262     Wouldst thou have practis'd on me for thy use-
 36263     May it be possible that foreign hire
 36264     Could out of thee extract one spark of evil
 36265     That might annoy my finger? 'Tis so strange
 36266     That, though the truth of it stands off as gross
 36267     As black and white, my eye will scarcely see it.
 36268     Treason and murder ever kept together,
 36269     As two yoke-devils sworn to either's purpose,
 36270     Working so grossly in a natural cause
 36271     That admiration did not whoop at them;
 36272     But thou, 'gainst all proportion, didst bring in
 36273     Wonder to wait on treason and on murder;
 36274     And whatsoever cunning fiend it was
 36275     That wrought upon thee so preposterously
 36276     Hath got the voice in hell for excellence;
 36277     And other devils that suggest by treasons
 36278     Do botch and bungle up damnation
 36279     With patches, colours, and with forms, being fetch'd
 36280     From glist'ring semblances of piety;
 36281     But he that temper'd thee bade thee stand up,
 36282     Gave thee no instance why thou shouldst do treason,
 36283     Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor.
 36284     If that same demon that hath gull'd thee thus
 36285     Should with his lion gait walk the whole world,
 36286     He might return to vasty Tartar back,
 36287     And tell the legions 'I can never win
 36288     A soul so easy as that Englishman's.'
 36289     O, how hast thou with jealousy infected
 36290     The sweetness of affiance! Show men dutiful?
 36291     Why, so didst thou. Seem they grave and learned?
 36292     Why, so didst thou. Come they of noble family?
 36293     Why, so didst thou. Seem they religious?
 36294     Why, so didst thou. Or are they spare in diet,
 36295     Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger,
 36296     Constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood,
 36297     Garnish'd and deck'd in modest complement,
 36298     Not working with the eye without the ear,
 36299     And but in purged judgment trusting neither?
 36300     Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem;
 36301     And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot
 36302     To mark the full-fraught man and best indued
 36303     With some suspicion. I will weep for thee;
 36304     For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like
 36305     Another fall of man. Their faults are open.
 36306     Arrest them to the answer of the law;
 36307     And God acquit them of their practices!
 36308   EXETER. I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Richard Earl
 36309       of Cambridge.
 36310     I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Henry Lord Scroop
 36311       of Masham.
 36312     I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Thomas Grey,
 36313       knight, of Northumberland.
 36314   SCROOP. Our purposes God justly hath discover'd,
 36315     And I repent my fault more than my death;
 36316     Which I beseech your Highness to forgive,
 36317     Although my body pay the price of it.
 36318   CAMBRIDGE. For me, the gold of France did not seduce,
 36319     Although I did admit it as a motive
 36320     The sooner to effect what I intended;
 36321     But God be thanked for prevention,
 36322     Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice,
 36323     Beseeching God and you to pardon me.
 36324   GREY. Never did faithful subject more rejoice
 36325     At the discovery of most dangerous treason
 36326     Than I do at this hour joy o'er myself,
 36327     Prevented from a damned enterprise.
 36328     My fault, but not my body, pardon, sovereign.
 36329   KING HENRY. God quit you in his mercy! Hear your sentence.
 36330     You have conspir'd against our royal person,
 36331     Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd, and from his coffers
 36332     Receiv'd the golden earnest of our death;
 36333     Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter,
 36334     His princes and his peers to servitude,
 36335     His subjects to oppression and contempt,
 36336     And his whole kingdom into desolation.
 36337     Touching our person seek we no revenge;
 36338     But we our kingdom's safety must so tender,
 36339     Whose ruin you have sought, that to her laws
 36340     We do deliver you. Get you therefore hence,
 36341     Poor miserable wretches, to your death;
 36342     The taste whereof God of his mercy give
 36343     You patience to endure, and true repentance
 36344     Of all your dear offences. Bear them hence.
 36345                      Exeunt CAMBRIDGE, SCROOP, and GREY, guarded
 36346     Now, lords, for France; the enterprise whereof
 36347     Shall be to you as us like glorious.
 36348     We doubt not of a fair and lucky war,
 36349     Since God so graciously hath brought to light
 36350     This dangerous treason, lurking in our way
 36351     To hinder our beginnings; we doubt not now
 36352     But every rub is smoothed on our way.
 36353     Then, forth, dear countrymen; let us deliver
 36354     Our puissance into the hand of God,
 36355     Putting it straight in expedition.
 36356     Cheerly to sea; the signs of war advance;
 36357     No king of England, if not king of France!
 36358                                                 Flourish. Exeunt
 36359 
 36360 
 36361 
 36362 
 36363 SCENE III.
 36364 Eastcheap. Before the Boar's Head tavern
 36365 
 36366 Enter PISTOL, HOSTESS, NYM, BARDOLPH, and Boy
 36367 
 36368   HOSTESS. Prithee, honey-sweet husband, let me bring thee to
 36369      Staines.
 36370   PISTOL. No; for my manly heart doth earn.
 36371     Bardolph, be blithe; Nym, rouse thy vaunting veins;
 36372     Boy, bristle thy courage up. For Falstaff he is dead,
 36373     And we must earn therefore.
 36374   BARDOLPH. Would I were with him, wheresome'er he is, either in
 36375     heaven or in hell!
 36376   HOSTESS. Nay, sure, he's not in hell: he's in Arthur's bosom, if
 36377     ever man went to Arthur's bosom. 'A made a finer end, and went
 36378     away an it had been any christom child; 'a parted ev'n just
 36379     between twelve and one, ev'n at the turning o' th' tide; for
 36380     after I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers,
 36381     and smile upon his fingers' end, I knew there was but one way;
 36382     for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and 'a babbl'd of green
 36383     fields. 'How now, Sir John!' quoth I 'What, man, be o' good
 36384     cheer.' So 'a cried out 'God, God, God!' three or four times. Now
 36385     I, to comfort him, bid him 'a should not think of God; I hop'd
 36386     there was no need to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet.
 36387     So 'a bade me lay more clothes on his feet; I put my hand into
 36388     the bed and felt them, and they were as cold as any stone; then I
 36389     felt to his knees, and so upward and upward, and all was as cold
 36390     as any stone.
 36391   NYM. They say he cried out of sack.
 36392   HOSTESS. Ay, that 'a did.
 36393   BARDOLPH. And of women.
 36394   HOSTESS. Nay, that 'a did not.
 36395   BOY. Yes, that 'a did, and said they were devils incarnate.
 36396   HOSTESS. 'A could never abide carnation; 'twas a colour he never
 36397     liked.
 36398   BOY. 'A said once the devil would have him about women.
 36399   HOSTESS. 'A did in some sort, indeed, handle women; but then he was
 36400     rheumatic, and talk'd of the Whore of Babylon.
 36401   BOY. Do you not remember 'a saw a flea stick upon Bardolph's nose,
 36402     and 'a said it was a black soul burning in hell?
 36403   BARDOLPH. Well, the fuel is gone that maintain'd that fire: that's
 36404     all the riches I got in his service.
 36405   NYM. Shall we shog? The King will be gone from Southampton.
 36406   PISTOL. Come, let's away. My love, give me thy lips.
 36407     Look to my chattles and my moveables;
 36408     Let senses rule. The word is 'Pitch and Pay.'
 36409     Trust none;
 36410     For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes,
 36411     And Holdfast is the only dog, my duck.
 36412     Therefore, Caveto be thy counsellor.
 36413     Go, clear thy crystals. Yoke-fellows in arms,
 36414     Let us to France, like horse-leeches, my boys,
 36415     To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck.
 36416   BOY. And that's but unwholesome food, they say.
 36417   PISTOL. Touch her soft mouth and march.
 36418   BARDOLPH. Farewell, hostess.                     [Kissing her]
 36419   NYM. I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it; but adieu.
 36420   PISTOL. Let housewifery appear; keep close, I thee command.
 36421   HOSTESS. Farewell; adieu.                               Exeunt
 36422 
 36423 
 36424 
 36425 
 36426 SCENE IV.
 36427 France. The KING'S palace
 36428 
 36429 Flourish. Enter the FRENCH KING, the DAUPHIN, the DUKES OF BERRI
 36430 and BRITAINE, the CONSTABLE, and others
 36431 
 36432   FRENCH KING. Thus comes the English with full power upon us;
 36433     And more than carefully it us concerns
 36434     To answer royally in our defences.
 36435     Therefore the Dukes of Berri and of Britaine,
 36436     Of Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth,
 36437     And you, Prince Dauphin, with all swift dispatch,
 36438     To line and new repair our towns of war
 36439     With men of courage and with means defendant;
 36440     For England his approaches makes as fierce
 36441     As waters to the sucking of a gulf.
 36442     It fits us, then, to be as provident
 36443     As fear may teach us, out of late examples
 36444     Left by the fatal and neglected English
 36445     Upon our fields.
 36446   DAUPHIN. My most redoubted father,
 36447     It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe;
 36448     For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom,
 36449     Though war nor no known quarrel were in question,
 36450     But that defences, musters, preparations,
 36451     Should be maintain'd, assembled, and collected,
 36452     As were a war in expectation.
 36453     Therefore, I say, 'tis meet we all go forth
 36454     To view the sick and feeble parts of France;
 36455     And let us do it with no show of fear-
 36456     No, with no more than if we heard that England
 36457     Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance;
 36458     For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd,
 36459     Her sceptre so fantastically borne
 36460     By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth,
 36461     That fear attends her not.
 36462   CONSTABLE. O peace, Prince Dauphin!
 36463     You are too much mistaken in this king.
 36464     Question your Grace the late ambassadors
 36465     With what great state he heard their embassy,
 36466     How well supplied with noble counsellors,
 36467     How modest in exception, and withal
 36468     How terrible in constant resolution,
 36469     And you shall find his vanities forespent
 36470     Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,
 36471     Covering discretion with a coat of folly;
 36472     As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots
 36473     That shall first spring and be most delicate.
 36474   DAUPHIN. Well, 'tis not so, my Lord High Constable;
 36475     But though we think it so, it is no matter.
 36476     In cases of defence 'tis best to weigh
 36477     The enemy more mighty than he seems;
 36478     So the proportions of defence are fill'd;
 36479     Which of a weak and niggardly projection
 36480     Doth like a miser spoil his coat with scanting
 36481     A little cloth.
 36482   FRENCH KING. Think we King Harry strong;
 36483     And, Princes, look you strongly arm to meet him.
 36484     The kindred of him hath been flesh'd upon us;
 36485     And he is bred out of that bloody strain
 36486     That haunted us in our familiar paths.
 36487     Witness our too much memorable shame
 36488     When Cressy battle fatally was struck,
 36489     And all our princes capdv'd by the hand
 36490     Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales;
 36491     Whiles that his mountain sire- on mountain standing,
 36492     Up in the air, crown'd with the golden sun-
 36493     Saw his heroical seed, and smil'd to see him,
 36494     Mangle the work of nature, and deface
 36495     The patterns that by God and by French fathers
 36496     Had twenty years been made. This is a stern
 36497     Of that victorious stock; and let us fear
 36498     The native mightiness and fate of him.
 36499 
 36500                       Enter a MESSENGER
 36501 
 36502   MESSENGER. Ambassadors from Harry King of England
 36503     Do crave admittance to your Majesty.
 36504   FRENCH KING. We'll give them present audience. Go and bring them.
 36505                               Exeunt MESSENGER and certain LORDS
 36506     You see this chase is hotly followed, friends.
 36507   DAUPHIN. Turn head and stop pursuit; for coward dogs
 36508     Most spend their mouths when what they seem to threaten
 36509     Runs far before them. Good my sovereign,
 36510     Take up the English short, and let them know
 36511     Of what a monarchy you are the head.
 36512     Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin
 36513     As self-neglecting.
 36514 
 36515                Re-enter LORDS, with EXETER and train
 36516 
 36517   FRENCH KING. From our brother of England?
 36518   EXETER. From him, and thus he greets your Majesty:
 36519     He wills you, in the name of God Almighty,
 36520     That you divest yourself, and lay apart
 36521     The borrowed glories that by gift of heaven,
 36522     By law of nature and of nations, 'longs
 36523     To him and to his heirs- namely, the crown,
 36524     And all wide-stretched honours that pertain,
 36525     By custom and the ordinance of times,
 36526     Unto the crown of France. That you may know
 36527     'Tis no sinister nor no awkward claim,
 36528     Pick'd from the worm-holes of long-vanish'd days,
 36529     Nor from the dust of old oblivion rak'd,
 36530     He sends you this most memorable line,       [Gives a paper]
 36531     In every branch truly demonstrative;
 36532     Willing you overlook this pedigree.
 36533     And when you find him evenly deriv'd
 36534     From his most fam'd of famous ancestors,
 36535     Edward the Third, he bids you then resign
 36536     Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held
 36537     From him, the native and true challenger.
 36538   FRENCH KING. Or else what follows?
 36539   EXETER. Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown
 36540     Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it.
 36541     Therefore in fierce tempest is he coming,
 36542     In thunder and in earthquake, like a Jove,
 36543     That if requiring fail, he will compel;
 36544     And bids you, in the bowels of the Lord,
 36545     Deliver up the crown; and to take mercy
 36546     On the poor souls for whom this hungry war
 36547     Opens his vasty jaws; and on your head
 36548     Turning the widows' tears, the orphans' cries,
 36549     The dead men's blood, the privy maidens' groans,
 36550     For husbands, fathers, and betrothed lovers,
 36551     That shall be swallowed in this controversy.
 36552     This is his claim, his threat'ning, and my message;
 36553     Unless the Dauphin be in presence here,
 36554     To whom expressly I bring greeting too.
 36555   FRENCH KING. For us, we will consider of this further;
 36556     To-morrow shall you bear our full intent
 36557     Back to our brother of England.
 36558   DAUPHIN. For the Dauphin:
 36559     I stand here for him. What to him from England?
 36560   EXETER. Scorn and defiance, slight regard, contempt,
 36561     And anything that may not misbecome
 36562     The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.
 36563     Thus says my king: an if your father's Highness
 36564     Do not, in grant of all demands at large,
 36565     Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his Majesty,
 36566     He'll call you to so hot an answer of it
 36567     That caves and womby vaultages of France
 36568     Shall chide your trespass and return your mock
 36569     In second accent of his ordinance.
 36570   DAUPHIN. Say, if my father render fair return,
 36571     It is against my will; for I desire
 36572     Nothing but odds with England. To that end,
 36573     As matching to his youth and vanity,
 36574     I did present him with the Paris balls.
 36575   EXETER. He'll make your Paris Louvre shake for it,
 36576     Were it the mistress court of mighty Europe;
 36577     And be assur'd you'll find a difference,
 36578     As we his subjects have in wonder found,
 36579     Between the promise of his greener days
 36580     And these he masters now. Now he weighs time
 36581     Even to the utmost grain; that you shall read
 36582     In your own losses, if he stay in France.
 36583   FRENCH KING. To-morrow shall you know our mind at full.
 36584   EXETER. Dispatch us with all speed, lest that our king
 36585     Come here himself to question our delay;
 36586     For he is footed in this land already.
 36587   FRENCH KING. You shall be soon dispatch'd with fair conditions.
 36588     A night is but small breath and little pause
 36589     To answer matters of this consequence.      Flourish. Exeunt
 36590 
 36591 
 36592 
 36593 
 36594 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 36595 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 36596 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 36597 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 36598 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 36599 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 36600 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 36601 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 36602 
 36603 
 36604 
 36605 ACT III. PROLOGUE.
 36606 
 36607 Flourish. Enter CHORUS
 36608 
 36609   CHORUS. Thus with imagin'd wing our swift scene flies,
 36610     In motion of no less celerity
 36611     Than that of thought. Suppose that you have seen
 36612     The well-appointed King at Hampton pier
 36613     Embark his royalty; and his brave fleet
 36614     With silken streamers the young Phorbus fanning.
 36615     Play with your fancies; and in them behold
 36616     Upon the hempen tackle ship-boys climbing;
 36617     Hear the shrill whistle which doth order give
 36618     To sounds confus'd; behold the threaden sails,
 36619     Borne with th' invisible and creeping wind,
 36620     Draw the huge bottoms through the furrowed sea,
 36621     Breasting the lofty surge. O, do but think
 36622     You stand upon the rivage and behold
 36623     A city on th' inconstant billows dancing;
 36624     For so appears this fleet majestical,
 36625     Holding due course to Harfleur. Follow, follow!
 36626     Grapple your minds to sternage of this navy
 36627     And leave your England as dead midnight still,
 36628     Guarded with grandsires, babies, and old women,
 36629     Either past or not arriv'd to pith and puissance;
 36630     For who is he whose chin is but enrich'd
 36631     With one appearing hair that will not follow
 36632     These cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France?
 36633     Work, work your thoughts, and therein see a siege;
 36634     Behold the ordnance on their carriages,
 36635     With fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur.
 36636     Suppose th' ambassador from the French comes back;
 36637     Tells Harry that the King doth offer him
 36638     Katherine his daughter, and with her to dowry
 36639     Some petty and unprofitable dukedoms.
 36640     The offer likes not; and the nimble gunner
 36641     With linstock now the devilish cannon touches,
 36642                                    [Alarum, and chambers go off]
 36643     And down goes an before them. Still be kind,
 36644     And eke out our performance with your mind.             Exit
 36645 
 36646 
 36647 
 36648 
 36649 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 36650 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 36651 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 36652 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 36653 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 36654 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 36655 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 36656 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 36657 
 36658 
 36659 
 36660 SCENE I.
 36661 France. Before Harfleur
 36662 
 36663 Alarum. Enter the KING, EXETER, BEDFORD, GLOUCESTER,
 36664 and soldiers with scaling-ladders
 36665 
 36666   KING. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
 36667     Or close the wall up with our English dead.
 36668     In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
 36669     As modest stillness and humility;
 36670     But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
 36671     Then imitate the action of the tiger:
 36672     Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
 36673     Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
 36674     Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
 36675     Let it pry through the portage of the head
 36676     Like the brass cannon: let the brow o'erwhelm it
 36677     As fearfully as doth a galled rock
 36678     O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
 36679     Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
 36680     Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide;
 36681     Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit
 36682     To his full height. On, on, you noblest English,
 36683     Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof-
 36684     Fathers that like so many Alexanders
 36685     Have in these parts from morn till even fought,
 36686     And sheath'd their swords for lack of argument.
 36687     Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
 36688     That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
 36689     Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
 36690     And teach them how to war. And you, good yeomen,
 36691     Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
 36692     The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
 36693     That you are worth your breeding- which I doubt not;
 36694     For there is none of you so mean and base
 36695     That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
 36696     I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
 36697     Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
 36698     Follow your spirit; and upon this charge
 36699     Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'
 36700                            [Exeunt. Alarum, and chambers go off]
 36701 
 36702 
 36703 
 36704 
 36705 SCENE II.
 36706 Before Harfleur
 36707 
 36708 Enter NYM, BARDOLPH, PISTOL, and BOY
 36709 
 36710   BARDOLPH. On, on, on, on, on! to the breach, to the breach!
 36711   NYM. Pray thee, Corporal, stay; the knocks are too hot, and for
 36712     mine own part I have not a case of lives. The humour of it is too
 36713     hot; that is the very plain-song of it.
 36714   PISTOL. The plain-song is most just; for humours do abound:
 36715 
 36716         Knocks go and come; God's vassals drop and die;
 36717                     And sword and shield
 36718                     In bloody field
 36719                  Doth win immortal fame.
 36720 
 36721   BOY. Would I were in an alehouse in London! I wouid give all my
 36722     fame for a pot of ale and safety.
 36723   PISTOL. And I:
 36724 
 36725                If wishes would prevail with me,
 36726                My purpose should not fail with me,
 36727                    But thither would I hie.
 36728 
 36729   BOY.             As duly, but not as truly,
 36730                    As bird doth sing on bough.
 36731 
 36732                          Enter FLUELLEN
 36733 
 36734   FLUELLEN. Up to the breach, you dogs!
 36735     Avaunt, you cullions!                 [Driving them forward]
 36736   PISTOL. Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould.
 36737     Abate thy rage, abate thy manly rage;
 36738     Abate thy rage, great duke.
 36739     Good bawcock, bate thy rage. Use lenity, sweet chuck.
 36740   NYM. These be good humours. Your honour wins bad humours.
 36741                                               Exeunt all but BOY
 36742   BOY. As young as I am, I have observ'd these three swashers. I am
 36743     boy to them all three; but all they three, though they would
 36744     serve me, could not be man to me; for indeed three such antics do
 36745     not amount to a man. For Bardolph, he is white-liver'd and
 36746     red-fac'd; by the means whereof 'a faces it out, but fights not.
 36747     For Pistol, he hath a killing tongue and a quiet sword; by the
 36748     means whereof 'a breaks words and keeps whole weapons. For Nym,
 36749     he hath heard that men of few words are the best men, and
 36750     therefore he scorns to say his prayers lest 'a should be thought
 36751     a coward; but his few bad words are match'd with as few good
 36752     deeds; for 'a never broke any man's head but his own, and that
 36753     was against a post when he was drunk. They will steal anything,
 36754     and call it purchase. Bardolph stole a lute-case, bore it twelve
 36755     leagues, and sold it for three halfpence. Nym and Bardolph are
 36756     sworn brothers in filching, and in Calais they stole a
 36757     fire-shovel; I knew by that piece of service the men would carry
 36758     coals. They would have me as familiar with men's pockets as their
 36759     gloves or their handkerchers; which makes much against my
 36760     manhood, if I should take from another's pocket to put into mine;
 36761     for it is plain pocketing up of wrongs. I must leave them and
 36762     seek some better service; their villainy goes against my weak
 36763     stomach, and therefore I must cast it up.               Exit
 36764 
 36765                  Re-enter FLUELLEN, GOWER following
 36766 
 36767   GOWER. Captain Fluellen, you must come presently to the mines; the
 36768     Duke of Gloucester would speak with you.
 36769   FLUELLEN. To the mines! Tell you the Duke it is not so good to come
 36770     to the mines; for, look you, the mines is not according to the
 36771     disciplines of the war; the concavities of it is not sufficient.
 36772     For, look you, th' athversary- you may discuss unto the Duke,
 36773     look you- is digt himself four yard under the countermines; by
 36774     Cheshu, I think 'a will plow up all, if there is not better
 36775     directions.
 36776   GOWER. The Duke of Gloucester, to whom the order of the siege is
 36777     given, is altogether directed by an Irishman- a very vallant
 36778     gentleman, i' faith.
 36779   FLUELLEN. It is Captain Macmorris, is it not?
 36780   GOWER. I think it be.
 36781   FLUELLEN. By Cheshu, he is an ass, as in the world: I will verify
 36782     as much in his beard; he has no more directions in the true
 36783     disciplines of the wars, look you, of the Roman disciplines, than
 36784     is a puppy-dog.
 36785 
 36786                  Enter MACMORRIS and CAPTAIN JAMY
 36787 
 36788   GOWER. Here 'a comes; and the Scots captain, Captain Jamy, with
 36789     him.
 36790   FLUELLEN. Captain Jamy is a marvellous falorous gentleman, that is
 36791     certain, and of great expedition and knowledge in th' aunchient
 36792     wars, upon my particular knowledge of his directions. By Cheshu,
 36793     he will maintain his argument as well as any military man in the
 36794     world, in the disciplines of the pristine wars of the Romans.
 36795   JAMY. I say gud day, Captain Fluellen.
 36796   FLUELLEN. God-den to your worship, good Captain James.
 36797   GOWER. How now, Captain Macmorris! Have you quit the mines? Have
 36798     the pioneers given o'er?
 36799   MACMORRIS. By Chrish, la, tish ill done! The work ish give over,
 36800     the trompet sound the retreat. By my hand, I swear, and my
 36801     father's soul, the work ish ill done; it ish give over; I would
 36802     have blowed up the town, so Chrish save me, la, in an hour. O,
 36803     tish ill done, tish ill done; by my hand, tish ill done!
 36804   FLUELLEN. Captain Macmorris, I beseech you now, will you voutsafe
 36805     me, look you, a few disputations with you, as partly touching or
 36806     concerning the disciplines of the war, the Roman wars, in the way
 36807     of argument, look you, and friendly communication; partly to
 36808     satisfy my opinion, and partly for the satisfaction, look you, of
 36809     my mind, as touching the direction of the military discipline,
 36810     that is the point.
 36811   JAMY. It sall be vary gud, gud feith, gud captains bath; and I sall
 36812     quit you with gud leve, as I may pick occasion; that sall I,
 36813     marry.
 36814   MACMORRIS. It is no time to discourse, so Chrish save me. The day
 36815     is hot, and the weather, and the wars, and the King, and the
 36816     Dukes; it is no time to discourse. The town is beseech'd, and the
 36817     trumpet call us to the breach; and we talk and, be Chrish, do
 36818     nothing. 'Tis shame for us all, so God sa' me, 'tis shame to
 36819     stand still; it is shame, by my hand; and there is throats to be
 36820     cut, and works to be done; and there ish nothing done, so Chrish
 36821     sa' me, la.
 36822   JAMY. By the mess, ere theise eyes of mine take themselves to
 36823     slomber, ay'll de gud service, or I'll lig i' th' grund for it;
 36824     ay, or go to death. And I'll pay't as valorously as I may, that
 36825     sall I suerly do, that is the breff and the long. Marry, I wad
 36826     full fain heard some question 'tween you tway.
 36827   FLUELLEN. Captain Macmorris, I think, look you, under your
 36828     correction, there is not many of your nation-
 36829   MACMORRIS. Of my nation? What ish my nation? Ish a villain, and a
 36830     bastard, and a knave, and a rascal. What ish my nation? Who talks
 36831     of my nation?
 36832   FLUELLEN. Look you, if you take the matter otherwise than is meant,
 36833     Captain Macmorris, peradventure I shall think you do not use me
 36834     with that affability as in discretion you ought to use me, look
 36835     you; being as good a man as yourself, both in the disciplines of
 36836     war and in the derivation of my birth, and in other
 36837     particularities.
 36838   MACMORRIS. I do not know you so good a man as myself; so
 36839     Chrish save me, I will cut off your head.
 36840   GOWER. Gentlemen both, you will mistake each other.
 36841   JAMY. Ah! that's a foul fault.              [A parley sounded]
 36842   GOWER. The town sounds a parley.
 36843   FLUELLEN. Captain Macmorris, when there is more better opportunity
 36844     to be required, look you, I will be so bold as to tell you I know
 36845     the disciplines of war; and there is an end.          Exeunt
 36846 
 36847 
 36848 
 36849 
 36850 SCENE III.
 36851 Before the gates of Harfleur
 36852 
 36853 Enter the GOVERNOR and some citizens on the walls.  Enter the KING
 36854 and all his train before the gates
 36855 
 36856   KING HENRY. How yet resolves the Governor of the town?
 36857     This is the latest parle we will admit;
 36858     Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves
 36859     Or, like to men proud of destruction,
 36860     Defy us to our worst; for, as I am a soldier,
 36861     A name that in my thoughts becomes me best,
 36862     If I begin the batt'ry once again,
 36863     I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur
 36864     Till in her ashes she lie buried.
 36865     The gates of mercy shall be all shut up,
 36866     And the flesh'd soldier, rough and hard of heart,
 36867     In liberty of bloody hand shall range
 36868     With conscience wide as hell, mowing like grass
 36869     Your fresh fair virgins and your flow'ring infants.
 36870     What is it then to me if impious war,
 36871     Array'd in flames, like to the prince of fiends,
 36872     Do, with his smirch'd complexion, all fell feats
 36873     Enlink'd to waste and desolation?
 36874     What is't to me when you yourselves are cause,
 36875     If your pure maidens fall into the hand
 36876     Of hot and forcing violation?
 36877     What rein can hold licentious wickednes
 36878     When down the hill he holds his fierce career?
 36879     We may as bootless spend our vain command
 36880     Upon th' enraged soldiers in their spoil,
 36881     As send precepts to the Leviathan
 36882     To come ashore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur,
 36883     Take pity of your town and of your people
 36884     Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command;
 36885     Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace
 36886     O'erblows the filthy and contagious clouds
 36887     Of heady murder, spoil, and villainy.
 36888     If not- why, in a moment look to see
 36889     The blind and bloody with foul hand
 36890     Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters;
 36891     Your fathers taken by the silver beards,
 36892     And their most reverend heads dash'd to the walls;
 36893     Your naked infants spitted upon pikes,
 36894     Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confus'd
 36895     Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry
 36896     At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen.
 36897     What say you? Will you yield, and this avoid?
 36898     Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy'd?
 36899   GOVERNOR. Our expectation hath this day an end:
 36900     The Dauphin, whom of succours we entreated,
 36901     Returns us that his powers are yet not ready
 36902     To raise so great a siege. Therefore, great King,
 36903     We yield our town and lives to thy soft mercy.
 36904     Enter our gates; dispose of us and ours;
 36905     For we no longer are defensible.
 36906   KING HENRY. Open your gates. [Exit GOVERNOR] Come, uncle Exeter,
 36907     Go you and enter Harfleur; there remain,
 36908     And fortify it strongly 'gainst the French;
 36909     Use mercy to them all. For us, dear uncle,
 36910     The winter coming on, and sickness growing
 36911     Upon our soldiers, we will retire to Calais.
 36912     To-night in Harfleur will we be your guest;
 36913     To-morrow for the march are we addrest.
 36914                [Flourish. The KING and his train enter the town]
 36915 
 36916 
 36917 
 36918 
 36919 SCENE IV.
 36920 Rouen. The FRENCH KING'S palace
 36921 
 36922 Enter KATHERINE and ALICE
 36923 
 36924   KATHERINE. Alice, tu as ete en Angleterre, et tu parles bien le
 36925     langage.
 36926   ALICE. Un peu, madame.
 36927   KATHERINE. Je te prie, m'enseignez; il faut que j'apprenne a
 36928     parler. Comment appelez-vous la main en Anglais?
 36929   ALICE. La main? Elle est appelee de hand.
 36930   KATHERINE. De hand. Et les doigts?
 36931   ALICE. Les doigts? Ma foi, j'oublie les doigts; mais je me
 36932     souviendrai. Les doigts? Je pense qu'ils sont appeles de fingres;
 36933     oui, de fingres.
 36934   KATHERINE. La main, de hand; les doigts, de fingres. Je pense que
 36935     je suis le bon ecolier; j'ai gagne deux mots d'Anglais vitement.
 36936     Comment appelez-vous les ongles?
 36937   ALICE. Les ongles? Nous les appelons de nails.
 36938   KATHERINE. De nails. Ecoutez; dites-moi si je parle bien: de hand,
 36939     de fingres, et de nails.
 36940   ALICE. C'est bien dit, madame; il est fort bon Anglais.
 36941   KATHERINE. Dites-moi l'Anglais pour le bras.
 36942   ALICE. De arm, madame.
 36943   KATHERINE. Et le coude?
 36944   ALICE. D'elbow.
 36945   KATHERINE. D'elbow. Je m'en fais la repetition de tous les mots que
 36946     vous m'avez appris des a present.
 36947   ALICE. Il est trop difficile, madame, comme je pense.
 36948   KATHERINE. Excusez-moi, Alice; ecoutez: d'hand, de fingre, de
 36949     nails, d'arma, de bilbow.
 36950   ALICE. D'elbow, madame.
 36951   KATHERINE. O Seigneur Dieu, je m'en oublie! D'elbow.
 36952     Comment appelez-vous le col?
 36953   ALICE. De nick, madame.
 36954   KATHERINE. De nick. Et le menton?
 36955   ALICE. De chin.
 36956   KATHERINE. De sin. Le col, de nick; le menton, de sin.
 36957   ALICE. Oui. Sauf votre honneur, en verite, vous prononcez les mots
 36958     aussi droit que les natifs d'Angleterre.
 36959   KATHERINE. Je ne doute point d'apprendre, par la grace de Dieu, et
 36960     en peu de temps.
 36961   ALICE. N'avez-vous pas deja oublie ce que je vous ai enseigne?
 36962   KATHERINE. Non, je reciterai a vous promptement: d'hand, de fingre,
 36963     de mails-
 36964   ALICE. De nails, madame.
 36965   KATHERINE. De nails, de arm, de ilbow.
 36966   ALICE. Sauf votre honneur, d'elbow.
 36967   KATHERINE. Ainsi dis-je; d'elbow, de nick, et de sin. Comment
 36968     appelez-vous le pied et la robe?
 36969   ALICE. Le foot, madame; et le count.
 36970   KATHERINE. Le foot et le count. O Seigneur Dieu! ils sont mots de
 36971     son mauvais, corruptible, gros, et impudique, et non pour les
 36972     dames d'honneur d'user: je ne voudrais prononcer ces mots devant
 36973     les seigneurs de France pour tout le monde. Foh! le foot et le
 36974     count! Neanmoins, je reciterai une autre fois ma lecon ensemble:
 36975     d'hand, de fingre, de nails, d'arm, d'elbow, de nick, de sin, de
 36976     foot, le count.
 36977   ALICE. Excellent, madame!
 36978   KATHERINE. C'est assez pour une fois: allons-nous a diner.
 36979                                                           Exeunt
 36980 
 36981 
 36982 
 36983 
 36984 SCENE V.
 36985 The FRENCH KING'S palace
 36986 
 36987 Enter the KING OF FRANCE, the DAUPHIN, DUKE OF BRITAINE,
 36988 the CONSTABLE OF FRANCE, and others
 36989 
 36990   FRENCH KING. 'Tis certain he hath pass'd the river Somme.
 36991   CONSTABLE. And if he be not fought withal, my lord,
 36992     Let us not live in France; let us quit an,
 36993     And give our vineyards to a barbarous people.
 36994   DAUPHIN. O Dieu vivant! Shall a few sprays of us,
 36995     The emptying of our fathers' luxury,
 36996     Our scions, put in wild and savage stock,
 36997     Spirt up so suddenly into the clouds,
 36998     And overlook their grafters?
 36999   BRITAINE. Normans, but bastard Normans, Norman bastards!
 37000     Mort Dieu, ma vie! if they march along
 37001     Unfought withal, but I will sell my dukedom
 37002     To buy a slobb'ry and a dirty farm
 37003     In that nook-shotten isle of Albion.
 37004   CONSTABLE. Dieu de batailles! where have they this mettle?
 37005     Is not their climate foggy, raw, and dull;
 37006     On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale,
 37007     Killing their fruit with frowns? Can sodden water,
 37008     A drench for sur-rein'd jades, their barley-broth,
 37009     Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat?
 37010     And shall our quick blood, spirited with wine,
 37011     Seem frosty? O, for honour of our land,
 37012     Let us not hang like roping icicles
 37013     Upon our houses' thatch, whiles a more frosty people
 37014     Sweat drops of gallant youth in our rich fields-
 37015     Poor we call them in their native lords!
 37016   DAUPHIN. By faith and honour,
 37017     Our madams mock at us and plainly say
 37018     Our mettle is bred out, and they will give
 37019     Their bodies to the lust of English youth
 37020     To new-store France with bastard warriors.
 37021   BRITAINE. They bid us to the English dancing-schools
 37022     And teach lavoltas high and swift corantos,
 37023     Saying our grace is only in our heels
 37024     And that we are most lofty runaways.
 37025   FRENCH KING. Where is Montjoy the herald? Speed him hence;
 37026     Let him greet England with our sharp defiance.
 37027     Up, Princes, and, with spirit of honour edged
 37028     More sharper than your swords, hie to the field:
 37029     Charles Delabreth, High Constable of France;
 37030     You Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berri,
 37031     Alengon, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy;
 37032     Jaques Chatillon, Rambures, Vaudemont,
 37033     Beaumont, Grandpre, Roussi, and Fauconbridge,
 37034     Foix, Lestrake, Bouciqualt, and Charolois;
 37035     High dukes, great princes, barons, lords, and knights,
 37036     For your great seats now quit you of great shames.
 37037     Bar Harry England, that sweeps through our land
 37038     With pennons painted in the blood of Harfleur.
 37039     Rush on his host as doth the melted snow
 37040     Upon the valleys, whose low vassal seat
 37041     The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon;
 37042     Go down upon him, you have power enough,
 37043     And in a captive chariot into Rouen
 37044     Bring him our prisoner.
 37045   CONSTABLE. This becomes the great.
 37046     Sorry am I his numbers are so few,
 37047     His soldiers sick and famish'd in their march;
 37048     For I am sure, when he shall see our army,
 37049     He'll drop his heart into the sink of fear,
 37050     And for achievement offer us his ransom.
 37051   FRENCH KING. Therefore, Lord Constable, haste on Montjoy,
 37052     And let him say to England that we send
 37053     To know what willing ransom he will give.
 37054     Prince Dauphin, you shall stay with us in Rouen.
 37055   DAUPHIN. Not so, I do beseech your Majesty.
 37056   FRENCH KING. Be patient, for you shall remain with us.
 37057     Now forth, Lord Constable and Princes all,
 37058     And quickly bring us word of England's fall.          Exeunt
 37059 
 37060 
 37061 
 37062 
 37063 SCENE VI.
 37064 The English camp in Picardy
 37065 
 37066 Enter CAPTAINS, English and Welsh, GOWER and FLUELLEN
 37067 
 37068   GOWER. How now, Captain Fluellen! Come you from the bridge?
 37069   FLUELLEN. I assure you there is very excellent services committed
 37070     at the bridge.
 37071   GOWER. Is the Duke of Exeter safe?
 37072   FLUELLEN. The Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Agamemnon; and a
 37073     man that I love and honour with my soul, and my heart, and my
 37074     duty, and my live, and my living, and my uttermost power. He is
 37075     not- God be praised and blessed!- any hurt in the world, but
 37076     keeps the bridge most valiantly, with excellent discipline. There
 37077     is an aunchient Lieutenant there at the bridge- I think in my
 37078     very conscience he is as valiant a man as Mark Antony; and he is
 37079     man of no estimation in the world; but I did see him do as
 37080     gallant service.
 37081   GOWER. What do you call him?
 37082   FLUELLEN. He is call'd Aunchient Pistol.
 37083   GOWER. I know him not.
 37084 
 37085                             Enter PISTOL
 37086 
 37087   FLUELLEN. Here is the man.
 37088   PISTOL. Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours.
 37089     The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well.
 37090   FLUELLEN. Ay, I praise God; and I have merited some love at his
 37091     hands.
 37092   PISTOL. Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart,
 37093     And of buxom valour, hath by cruel fate
 37094     And giddy Fortune's furious fickle wheel,
 37095     That goddess blind,
 37096     That stands upon the rolling restless stone-
 37097   FLUELLEN. By your patience, Aunchient Pistol. Fortune is painted
 37098     blind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to signify to you that
 37099     Fortune is blind; and she is painted also with a wheel, to
 37100     signify to you, which is the moral of it, that she is turning,
 37101     and inconstant, and mutability, and variation; and her foot, look
 37102     you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, which rolls, and rolls, and
 37103     rolls. In good truth, the poet makes a most excellent description
 37104     of it: Fortune is an excellent moral.
 37105   PISTOL. Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him;
 37106     For he hath stol'n a pax, and hanged must 'a be-
 37107     A damned death!
 37108     Let gallows gape for dog; let man go free,
 37109     And let not hemp his windpipe suffocate.
 37110     But Exeter hath given the doom of death
 37111     For pax of little price.
 37112     Therefore, go speak- the Duke will hear thy voice;
 37113     And let not Bardolph's vital thread be cut
 37114     With edge of penny cord and vile reproach.
 37115     Speak, Captain, for his life, and I will thee requite.
 37116   FLUELLEN. Aunchient Pistol, I do partly understand your meaning.
 37117   PISTOL. Why then, rejoice therefore.
 37118   FLUELLEN. Certainly, Aunchient, it is not a thing to rejoice at;
 37119     for if, look you, he were my brother, I would desire the Duke to
 37120     use his good pleasure, and put him to execution; for discipline
 37121     ought to be used.
 37122   PISTOL. Die and be damn'd! and figo for thy friendship!
 37123   FLUELLEN. It is well.
 37124   PISTOL. The fig of Spain!                                 Exit
 37125   FLUELLEN. Very good.
 37126   GOWER. Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal; I remember him
 37127     now- a bawd, a cutpurse.
 37128   FLUELLEN. I'll assure you, 'a utt'red as prave words at the pridge
 37129     as you shall see in a summer's day. But it is very well; what he
 37130     has spoke to me, that is well, I warrant you, when time is serve.
 37131   GOWER. Why, 'tis a gull a fool a rogue, that now and then goes to
 37132     the wars to grace himself, at his return into London, under the
 37133     form of a soldier. And such fellows are perfect in the great
 37134     commanders' names; and they will learn you by rote where services
 37135     were done- at such and such a sconce, at such a breach, at such a
 37136     convoy; who came off bravely, who was shot, who disgrac'd, what
 37137     terms the enemy stood on; and this they con perfectly in the
 37138     phrase of war, which they trick up with new-tuned oaths; and what
 37139     a beard of the General's cut and a horrid suit of the camp will
 37140     do among foaming bottles and ale-wash'd wits is wonderful to be
 37141     thought on. But you must learn to know such slanders of the age,
 37142     or else you may be marvellously mistook.
 37143   FLUELLEN. I tell you what, Captain Gower, I do perceive he is not
 37144     the man that he would gladly make show to the world he is; if I
 37145     find a hole in his coat I will tell him my mind. [Drum within]
 37146     Hark you, the King is coming; and I must speak with him from the
 37147     pridge.
 37148 
 37149          Drum and colours. Enter the KING and his poor soldiers,
 37150                           and GLOUCESTER
 37151 
 37152     God pless your Majesty!
 37153   KING HENRY. How now, Fluellen! Cam'st thou from the bridge?
 37154   FLUELLEN. Ay, so please your Majesty. The Duke of Exeter has very
 37155     gallantly maintain'd the pridge; the French is gone off, look
 37156     you, and there is gallant and most prave passages. Marry, th'
 37157     athversary was have possession of the pridge; but he is enforced
 37158     to retire, and the Duke of Exeter is master of the pridge; I can
 37159     tell your Majesty the Duke is a prave man.
 37160   KING HENRY. What men have you lost, Fluellen!
 37161   FLUELLEN. The perdition of th' athversary hath been very great,
 37162     reasonable great; marry, for my part, I think the Duke hath lost
 37163     never a man, but one that is like to be executed for robbing a
 37164     church- one Bardolph, if your Majesty know the man; his face is
 37165     all bubukles, and whelks, and knobs, and flames o' fire; and his
 37166     lips blows at his nose, and it is like a coal of fire, sometimes
 37167     plue and sometimes red; but his nose is executed and his fire's
 37168     out.
 37169   KING HENRY. We would have all such offenders so cut off. And we
 37170     give express charge that in our marches through the country there
 37171     be nothing compell'd from the villages, nothing taken but paid
 37172     for, none of the French upbraided or abused in disdainful
 37173     language; for when lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom the
 37174     gentler gamester is the soonest winner.
 37175 
 37176                         Tucket. Enter MONTJOY
 37177 
 37178   MONTJOY. You know me by my habit.
 37179   KING HENRY. Well then, I know thee; what shall I know of thee?
 37180   MONTJOY. My master's mind.
 37181   KING HENRY. Unfold it.
 37182   MONTJOY. Thus says my king. Say thou to Harry of England: Though we
 37183     seem'd dead we did but sleep; advantage is a better soldier than
 37184     rashness. Tell him we could have rebuk'd him at Harfleur, but
 37185     that we thought not good to bruise an injury till it were full
 37186     ripe. Now we speak upon our cue, and our voice is imperial:
 37187     England shall repent his folly, see his weakness, and admire our
 37188     sufferance. Bid him therefore consider of his ransom, which must
 37189     proportion the losses we have borne, the subjects we have lost,
 37190     the disgrace we have digested; which, in weight to re-answer, his
 37191     pettiness would bow under. For our losses his exchequer is too
 37192     poor; for th' effusion of our blood, the muster of his kingdom
 37193     too faint a number; and for our disgrace, his own person kneeling
 37194     at our feet but a weak and worthless satisfaction. To this add
 37195     defiance; and tell him, for conclusion, he hath betrayed his
 37196     followers, whose condemnation is pronounc'd. So far my king and
 37197     master; so much my office.
 37198   KING HENRY. What is thy name? I know thy quality.
 37199   MONTJOY. Montjoy.
 37200   KING HENRY. Thou dost thy office fairly. Turn thee back,
 37201     And tell thy king I do not seek him now,
 37202     But could be willing to march on to Calais
 37203     Without impeachment; for, to say the sooth-
 37204     Though 'tis no wisdom to confess so much
 37205     Unto an enemy of craft and vantage-
 37206     My people are with sickness much enfeebled;
 37207     My numbers lessen'd; and those few I have
 37208     Almost no better than so many French;
 37209     Who when they were in health, I tell thee, herald,
 37210     I thought upon one pair of English legs
 37211     Did march three Frenchmen. Yet forgive me, God,
 37212     That I do brag thus; this your air of France
 37213     Hath blown that vice in me; I must repent.
 37214     Go, therefore, tell thy master here I am;
 37215     My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk;
 37216     My army but a weak and sickly guard;
 37217     Yet, God before, tell him we will come on,
 37218     Though France himself and such another neighbour
 37219     Stand in our way. There's for thy labour, Montjoy.
 37220     Go, bid thy master well advise himself.
 37221     If we may pass, we will; if we be hind'red,
 37222     We shall your tawny ground with your red blood
 37223     Discolour; and so, Montjoy, fare you well.
 37224     The sum of all our answer is but this:
 37225     We would not seek a battle as we are;
 37226     Nor as we are, we say, we will not shun it.
 37227     So tell your master.
 37228   MONTJOY. I shall deliver so. Thanks to your Highness.     Exit
 37229   GLOUCESTER. I hope they will not come upon us now.
 37230   KING HENRY. We are in God's hand, brother, not in theirs.
 37231     March to the bridge, it now draws toward night;
 37232     Beyond the river we'll encamp ourselves,
 37233     And on to-morrow bid them march away.                 Exeunt
 37234 
 37235 
 37236 
 37237 
 37238 SCENE VII.
 37239 The French camp near Agincourt
 37240 
 37241 Enter the CONSTABLE OF FRANCE, the LORD RAMBURES, the DUKE OF ORLEANS,
 37242 the DAUPHIN, with others
 37243 
 37244   CONSTABLE. Tut! I have the best armour of the world.
 37245     Would it were day!
 37246   ORLEANS. You have an excellent armour; but let my horse have his
 37247     due.
 37248   CONSTABLE. It is the best horse of Europe.
 37249   ORLEANS. Will it never be morning?
 37250   DAUPHIN. My Lord of Orleans and my Lord High Constable, you talk of
 37251     horse and armour?
 37252   ORLEANS. You are as well provided of both as any prince in the
 37253     world.
 37254   DAUPHIN. What a long night is this! I will not change my horse with
 37255     any that treads but on four pasterns. Ca, ha! he bounds from the
 37256     earth as if his entrails were hairs; le cheval volant, the
 37257     Pegasus, chez les narines de feu! When I bestride him I soar, I
 37258     am a hawk. He trots the air; the earth sings when he touches it;
 37259     the basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of
 37260     Hermes.
 37261   ORLEANS. He's of the colour of the nutmeg.
 37262   DAUPHIN. And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast for Perseus:
 37263     he is pure air and fire; and the dull elements of earth and water
 37264     never appear in him, but only in patient stillness while his
 37265     rider mounts him; he is indeed a horse, and all other jades you
 37266     may call beasts.
 37267   CONSTABLE. Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and excellent
 37268     horse.
 37269   DAUPHIN. It is the prince of palfreys; his neigh is like the
 37270     bidding of a monarch, and his countenance enforces homage.
 37271   ORLEANS. No more, cousin.
 37272   DAUPHIN. Nay, the man hath no wit that cannot, from the rising of
 37273     the lark to the lodging of the lamb, vary deserved praise on my
 37274     palfrey. It is a theme as fluent as the sea: turn the sands into
 37275     eloquent tongues, and my horse is argument for them all: 'tis a
 37276     subject for a sovereign to reason on, and for a sovereign's
 37277     sovereign to ride on; and for the world- familiar to us and
 37278     unknown- to lay apart their particular functions and wonder at
 37279     him. I once writ a sonnet in his praise and began thus: 'Wonder
 37280     of nature'-
 37281   ORLEANS. I have heard a sonnet begin so to one's mistress.
 37282   DAUPHIN. Then did they imitate that which I compos'd to my courser;
 37283     for my horse is my mistress.
 37284   ORLEANS. Your mistress bears well.
 37285   DAUPHIN. Me well; which is the prescript praise and perfection of a
 37286     good and particular mistress.
 37287   CONSTABLE. Nay, for methought yesterday your mistress shrewdly
 37288     shook your back.
 37289   DAUPHIN. So perhaps did yours.
 37290   CONSTABLE. Mine was not bridled.
 37291   DAUPHIN. O, then belike she was old and gentle; and you rode like a
 37292     kern of Ireland, your French hose off and in your strait
 37293     strossers.
 37294   CONSTABLE. You have good judgment in horsemanship.
 37295   DAUPHIN. Be warn'd by me, then: they that ride so, and ride not
 37296     warily, fall into foul bogs. I had rather have my horse to my
 37297     mistress.
 37298   CONSTABLE. I had as lief have my mistress a jade.
 37299   DAUPHIN. I tell thee, Constable, my mistress wears his own hair.
 37300   CONSTABLE. I could make as true a boast as that, if I had a sow to
 37301     my mistress.
 37302   DAUPHIN. 'Le chien est retourne a son propre vomissement, et la
 37303     truie lavee au bourbier.' Thou mak'st use of anything.
 37304   CONSTABLE. Yet do I not use my horse for my mistress, or any such
 37305     proverb so little kin to the purpose.
 37306   RAMBURES. My Lord Constable, the armour that I saw in your tent
 37307     to-night- are those stars or suns upon it?
 37308   CONSTABLE. Stars, my lord.
 37309   DAUPHIN. Some of them will fall to-morrow, I hope.
 37310   CONSTABLE. And yet my sky shall not want.
 37311   DAUPHIN. That may be, for you bear a many superfluously, and 'twere
 37312     more honour some were away.
 37313   CONSTABLE. Ev'n as your horse bears your praises, who would trot as
 37314     well were some of your brags dismounted.
 37315   DAUPHIN. Would I were able to load him with his desert! Will it
 37316     never be day? I will trot to-morrow a mile, and my way shall be
 37317     paved with English faces.
 37318   CONSTABLE. I will not say so, for fear I should be fac'd out of my
 37319     way; but I would it were morning, for I would fain be about the
 37320     ears of the English.
 37321   RAMBURES. Who will go to hazard with me for twenty prisoners?
 37322   CONSTABLE. You must first go yourself to hazard ere you have them.
 37323   DAUPHIN. 'Tis midnight; I'll go arm myself.               Exit
 37324   ORLEANS. The Dauphin longs for morning.
 37325   RAMBURES. He longs to eat the English.
 37326   CONSTABLE. I think he will eat all he kills.
 37327   ORLEANS. By the white hand of my lady, he's a gallant prince.
 37328   CONSTABLE. Swear by her foot, that she may tread out the oath.
 37329   ORLEANS. He is simply the most active gentleman of France.
 37330   CONSTABLE. Doing is activity, and he will still be doing.
 37331   ORLEANS. He never did harm that I heard of.
 37332   CONSTABLE. Nor will do none to-morrow: he will keep that good name
 37333     still.
 37334   ORLEANS. I know him to be valiant.
 37335   CONSTABLE. I was told that by one that knows him better than you.
 37336   ORLEANS. What's he?
 37337   CONSTABLE. Marry, he told me so himself; and he said he car'd not
 37338     who knew it.
 37339   ORLEANS. He needs not; it is no hidden virtue in him.
 37340   CONSTABLE. By my faith, sir, but it is; never anybody saw it but
 37341       his lackey.
 37342     'Tis a hooded valour, and when it appears it will bate.
 37343   ORLEANS. Ill-wind never said well.
 37344   CONSTABLE. I will cap that proverb with 'There is flattery in
 37345     friendship.'
 37346   ORLEANS. And I will take up that with 'Give the devil his due.'
 37347   CONSTABLE. Well plac'd! There stands your friend for the devil;
 37348     have at the very eye of that proverb with 'A pox of the devil!'
 37349   ORLEANS. You are the better at proverbs by how much 'A fool's bolt
 37350     is soon shot.'
 37351   CONSTABLE. You have shot over.
 37352   ORLEANS. 'Tis not the first time you were overshot.
 37353 
 37354                           Enter a MESSENGER
 37355 
 37356   MESSENGER. My Lord High Constable, the English lie within fifteen
 37357     hundred paces of your tents.
 37358   CONSTABLE. Who hath measur'd the ground?
 37359   MESSENGER. The Lord Grandpre.
 37360   CONSTABLE. A valiant and most expert gentleman. Would it were day!
 37361     Alas, poor Harry of England! he longs not for the dawning as we
 37362     do.
 37363   ORLEANS. What a wretched and peevish fellow is this King of
 37364     England, to mope with his fat-brain'd followers so far out of his
 37365     knowledge!
 37366   CONSTABLE. If the English had any apprehension, they would run
 37367     away.
 37368   ORLEANS. That they lack; for if their heads had any intellectual
 37369     armour, they could never wear such heavy head-pieces.
 37370   RAMBURES. That island of England breeds very valiant creatures;
 37371     their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage.
 37372   ORLEANS. Foolish curs, that run winking into the mouth of a Russian
 37373     bear, and have their heads crush'd like rotten apples! You may as
 37374     well say that's a valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the
 37375     lip of a lion.
 37376   CONSTABLE. Just, just! and the men do sympathise with the mastiffs
 37377     in robustious and rough coming on, leaving their wits with their
 37378     wives; and then give them great meals of beef and iron and steel;
 37379     they will eat like wolves and fight like devils.
 37380   ORLEANS. Ay, but these English are shrewdly out of beef.
 37381   CONSTABLE. Then shall we find to-morrow they have only stomachs to
 37382     eat, and none to fight. Now is it time to arm. Come, shall we
 37383     about it?
 37384   ORLEANS. It is now two o'clock; but let me see- by ten
 37385     We shall have each a hundred Englishmen.              Exeunt
 37386 
 37387 
 37388 
 37389 
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 37398 
 37399 
 37400 
 37401 ACT IV. PROLOGUE.
 37402 
 37403 Enter CHORUS
 37404 
 37405   CHORUS. Now entertain conjecture of a time
 37406     When creeping murmur and the poring dark
 37407     Fills the wide vessel of the universe.
 37408     From camp to camp, through the foul womb of night,
 37409     The hum of either army stilly sounds,
 37410     That the fix'd sentinels almost receive
 37411     The secret whispers of each other's watch.
 37412     Fire answers fire, and through their paly flames
 37413     Each battle sees the other's umber'd face;
 37414     Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighs
 37415     Piercing the night's dull ear; and from the tents
 37416     The armourers accomplishing the knights,
 37417     With busy hammers closing rivets up,
 37418     Give dreadful note of preparation.
 37419     The country cocks do crow, the clocks do ton,
 37420     And the third hour of drowsy morning name.
 37421     Proud of their numbers and secure in soul,
 37422     The confident and over-lusty French
 37423     Do the low-rated English play at dice;
 37424     And chide the cripple tardy-gaited night
 37425     Who like a foul and ugly witch doth limp
 37426     So tediously away. The poor condemned English,
 37427     Like sacrifices, by their watchful fires
 37428     Sit patiently and inly ruminate
 37429     The morning's danger; and their gesture sad
 37430     Investing lank-lean cheeks and war-worn coats
 37431     Presenteth them unto the gazing moon
 37432     So many horrid ghosts. O, now, who will behold
 37433     The royal captain of this ruin'd band
 37434     Walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent,
 37435     Let him cry 'Praise and glory on his head!'
 37436     For forth he goes and visits all his host;
 37437     Bids them good morrow with a modest smile,
 37438     And calls them brothers, friends, and countrymen.
 37439     Upon his royal face there is no note
 37440     How dread an army hath enrounded him;
 37441     Nor doth he dedicate one jot of colour
 37442     Unto the weary and all-watched night;
 37443     But freshly looks, and over-bears attaint
 37444     With cheerful semblance and sweet majesty;
 37445     That every wretch, pining and pale before,
 37446     Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks;
 37447     A largess universal, like the sun,
 37448     His liberal eye doth give to every one,
 37449     Thawing cold fear, that mean and gentle all
 37450     Behold, as may unworthiness define,
 37451     A little touch of Harry in the night.
 37452     And so our scene must to the battle fly;
 37453     Where- O for pity!- we shall much disgrace
 37454     With four or five most vile and ragged foils,
 37455     Right ill-dispos'd in brawl ridiculous,
 37456     The name of Agincourt. Yet sit and see,
 37457     Minding true things by what their mock'ries be.         Exit
 37458 
 37459 
 37460 
 37461 
 37462 SCENE I.
 37463 France. The English camp at Agincourt
 37464 
 37465 Enter the KING, BEDFORD, and GLOUCESTER
 37466 
 37467   KING HENRY. Gloucester, 'tis true that we are in great danger;
 37468     The greater therefore should our courage be.
 37469     Good morrow, brother Bedford. God Almighty!
 37470     There is some soul of goodness in things evil,
 37471     Would men observingly distil it out;
 37472     For our bad neighbour makes us early stirrers,
 37473     Which is both healthful and good husbandry.
 37474     Besides, they are our outward consciences
 37475     And preachers to us all, admonishing
 37476     That we should dress us fairly for our end.
 37477     Thus may we gather honey from the weed,
 37478     And make a moral of the devil himself.
 37479 
 37480                         Enter ERPINGHAM
 37481 
 37482     Good morrow, old Sir Thomas Erpingham:
 37483     A good soft pillow for that good white head
 37484     Were better than a churlish turf of France.
 37485   ERPINGHAM. Not so, my liege; this lodging likes me better,
 37486     Since I may say 'Now lie I like a king.'
 37487   KING HENRY. 'Tis good for men to love their present pains
 37488     Upon example; so the spirit is eased;
 37489     And when the mind is quick'ned, out of doubt
 37490     The organs, though defunct and dead before,
 37491     Break up their drowsy grave and newly move
 37492     With casted slough and fresh legerity.
 37493     Lend me thy cloak, Sir Thomas. Brothers both,
 37494     Commend me to the princes in our camp;
 37495     Do my good morrow to them, and anon
 37496     Desire them all to my pavilion.
 37497   GLOUCESTER. We shall, my liege.
 37498   ERPINGHAM. Shall I attend your Grace?
 37499   KING HENRY. No, my good knight:
 37500     Go with my brothers to my lords of England;
 37501     I and my bosom must debate awhile,
 37502     And then I would no other company.
 37503   ERPINGHAM. The Lord in heaven bless thee, noble Harry!
 37504                                          Exeunt all but the KING
 37505   KING HENRY. God-a-mercy, old heart! thou speak'st cheerfully.
 37506 
 37507                           Enter PISTOL
 37508 
 37509   PISTOL. Qui va la?
 37510   KING HENRY. A friend.
 37511   PISTOL. Discuss unto me: art thou officer,
 37512     Or art thou base, common, and popular?
 37513   KING HENRY. I am a gentleman of a company.
 37514   PISTOL. Trail'st thou the puissant pike?
 37515   KING HENRY. Even so. What are you?
 37516   PISTOL. As good a gentleman as the Emperor.
 37517   KING HENRY. Then you are a better than the King.
 37518   PISTOL. The King's a bawcock and a heart of gold,
 37519     A lad of life, an imp of fame;
 37520     Of parents good, of fist most valiant.
 37521     I kiss his dirty shoe, and from heart-string
 37522     I love the lovely bully. What is thy name?
 37523   KING HENRY. Harry le Roy.
 37524   PISTOL. Le Roy! a Cornish name; art thou of Cornish crew?
 37525   KING HENRY. No, I am a Welshman.
 37526   PISTOL. Know'st thou Fluellen?
 37527   KING HENRY. Yes.
 37528   PISTOL. Tell him I'll knock his leek about his pate
 37529     Upon Saint Davy's day.
 37530   KING HENRY. Do not you wear your dagger in your cap that day, lest
 37531     he knock that about yours.
 37532   PISTOL. Art thou his friend?
 37533   KING HENRY. And his kinsman too.
 37534   PISTOL. The figo for thee, then!
 37535   KING HENRY. I thank you; God be with you!
 37536   PISTOL. My name is Pistol call'd.                         Exit
 37537   KING HENRY. It sorts well with your fierceness.
 37538 
 37539                     Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER
 37540 
 37541   GOWER. Captain Fluellen!
 37542   FLUELLEN. So! in the name of Jesu Christ, speak fewer. It is the
 37543     greatest admiration in the universal world, when the true and
 37544     aunchient prerogatifes and laws of the wars is not kept: if you
 37545     would take the pains but to examine the wars of Pompey the Great,
 37546     you shall find, I warrant you, that there is no tiddle-taddle nor
 37547     pibble-pabble in Pompey's camp; I warrant you, you shall find the
 37548     ceremonies of the wars, and the cares of it, and the forms of it,
 37549     and the sobriety of it, and the modesty of it, to be otherwise.
 37550   GOWER. Why, the enemy is loud; you hear him all night.
 37551   FLUELLEN. If the enemy is an ass, and a fool, and a prating
 37552     coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we should also, look you, be
 37553     an ass, and a fool, and a prating coxcomb? In your own
 37554     conscience, now?
 37555   GOWER. I will speak lower.
 37556   FLUELLEN. I pray you and beseech you that you will.
 37557                                        Exeunt GOWER and FLUELLEN
 37558   KING HENRY. Though it appear a little out of fashion,
 37559     There is much care and valour in this Welshman.
 37560 
 37561           Enter three soldiers: JOHN BATES, ALEXANDER COURT,
 37562                        and MICHAEL WILLIAMS
 37563 
 37564   COURT. Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which breaks
 37565     yonder?
 37566   BATES. I think it be; but we have no great cause to desire the
 37567     approach of day.
 37568   WILLIAMS. We see yonder the beginning of the day, but I think we
 37569     shall never see the end of it. Who goes there?
 37570   KING HENRY. A friend.
 37571   WILLIAMS. Under what captain serve you?
 37572   KING HENRY. Under Sir Thomas Erpingham.
 37573   WILLIAMS. A good old commander and a most kind gentleman. I pray
 37574     you, what thinks he of our estate?
 37575   KING HENRY. Even as men wreck'd upon a sand, that look to be wash'd
 37576     off the next tide.
 37577   BATES. He hath not told his thought to the King?
 37578   KING HENRY. No; nor it is not meet he should. For though I speak it
 37579     to you, I think the King is but a man as I am: the violet smells
 37580     to him as it doth to me; the element shows to him as it doth to
 37581     me; all his senses have but human conditions; his ceremonies laid
 37582     by, in his nakedness he appears but a man; and though his
 37583     affections are higher mounted than ours, yet, when they stoop,
 37584     they stoop with the like wing. Therefore, when he sees reason of
 37585     fears, as we do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish
 37586     as ours are; yet, in reason, no man should possess him with any
 37587     appearance of fear, lest he, by showing it, should dishearten his
 37588     army.
 37589   BATES. He may show what outward courage he will; but I believe, as
 37590     cold a night as 'tis, he could wish himself in Thames up to the
 37591     neck; and so I would he were, and I by him, at all adventures, so
 37592     we were quit here.
 37593   KING HENRY. By my troth, I will speak my conscience of the King: I
 37594     think he would not wish himself anywhere but where he is.
 37595   BATES. Then I would he were here alone; so should he be sure to be
 37596     ransomed, and a many poor men's lives saved.
 37597   KING HENRY. I dare say you love him not so ill to wish him here
 37598     alone, howsoever you speak this, to feel other men's minds;
 37599     methinks I could not die anywhere so contented as in the King's
 37600     company, his cause being just and his quarrel honourable.
 37601   WILLIAMS. That's more than we know.
 37602   BATES. Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we know enough if
 37603     we know we are the King's subjects. If his cause be wrong, our
 37604     obedience to the King wipes the crime of it out of us.
 37605   WILLIAMS. But if the cause be not good, the King himself hath a
 37606     heavy reckoning to make when all those legs and arms and heads,
 37607     chopp'd off in a battle, shall join together at the latter day
 37608     and cry all 'We died at such a place'- some swearing, some crying
 37609     for a surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind them, some
 37610     upon the debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left. I
 37611     am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle; for how
 37612     can they charitably dispose of anything when blood is their
 37613     argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black
 37614     matter for the King that led them to it; who to disobey were
 37615     against all proportion of subjection.
 37616   KING HENRY. So, if a son that is by his father sent about
 37617     merchandise do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the imputation of
 37618     his wickedness, by your rule, should be imposed upon his father
 37619     that sent him; or if a servant, under his master's command
 37620     transporting a sum of money, be assailed by robbers and die in
 37621     many irreconcil'd iniquities, you may call the business of the
 37622     master the author of the servant's damnation. But this is not so:
 37623     the King is not bound to answer the particular endings of his
 37624     soldiers, the father of his son, nor the master of his servant;
 37625     for they purpose not their death when they purpose their
 37626     services. Besides, there is no king, be his cause never so
 37627     spotless, if it come to the arbitrement of swords, can try it out
 37628     with all unspotted soldiers: some peradventure have on them the
 37629     guilt of premeditated and contrived murder; some, of beguiling
 37630     virgins with the broken seals of perjury; some, making the wars
 37631     their bulwark, that have before gored the gentle bosom of peace
 37632     with pillage and robbery. Now, if these men have defeated the law
 37633     and outrun native punishment, though they can outstrip men they
 37634     have no wings to fly from God: war is His beadle, war is His
 37635     vengeance; so that here men are punish'd for before-breach of the
 37636     King's laws in now the King's quarrel. Where they feared the
 37637     death they have borne life away; and where they would be safe
 37638     they perish. Then if they die unprovided, no more is the King
 37639     guilty of their damnation than he was before guilty of those
 37640     impieties for the which they are now visited. Every subject's
 37641     duty is the King's; but every subject's soul is his own.
 37642     Therefore should every soldier in the wars do as every sick man
 37643     in his bed- wash every mote out of his conscience; and dying so,
 37644     death is to him advantage; or not dying, the time was blessedly
 37645     lost wherein such preparation was gained; and in him that escapes
 37646     it were not sin to think that, making God so free an offer, He
 37647     let him outlive that day to see His greatness, and to teach
 37648     others how they should prepare.
 37649   WILLIAMS. 'Tis certain, every man that dies ill, the ill upon his
 37650     own head- the King is not to answer for it.
 37651   BATES. I do not desire he should answer for me, and yet I determine
 37652     to fight lustily for him.
 37653   KING HENRY. I myself heard the King say he would not be ransom'd.
 37654   WILLIAMS. Ay, he said so, to make us fight cheerfully; but when our
 37655     throats are cut he may be ransom'd, and we ne'er the wiser.
 37656   KING HENRY. If I live to see it, I will never trust his word after.
 37657   WILLIAMS. You pay him then! That's a perilous shot out of an
 37658     elder-gun, that a poor and a private displeasure can do against a
 37659     monarch! You may as well go about to turn the sun to ice with
 37660     fanning in his face with a peacock's feather. You'll never trust
 37661     his word after! Come, 'tis a foolish saying.
 37662   KING HENRY. Your reproof is something too round; I should be angry
 37663     with you, if the time were convenient.
 37664   WILLIAMS. Let it be a quarrel between us if you live.
 37665   KING HENRY. I embrace it.
 37666   WILLIAMS. How shall I know thee again?
 37667   KING HENRY. Give me any gage of thine, and I will wear it in my
 37668     bonnet; then if ever thou dar'st acknowledge it, I will make it
 37669     my quarrel.
 37670   WILLIAMS. Here's my glove; give me another of thine.
 37671   KING HENRY. There.
 37672   WILLIAMS. This will I also wear in my cap; if ever thou come to me
 37673     and say, after to-morrow, 'This is my glove,' by this hand I will
 37674     take thee a box on the ear.
 37675   KING HENRY. If ever I live to see it, I will challenge it.
 37676   WILLIAMS. Thou dar'st as well be hang'd.
 37677   KING HENRY. Well, I will do it, though I take thee in the King's
 37678     company.
 37679   WILLIAMS. Keep thy word. Fare thee well.
 37680   BATES. Be friends, you English fools, be friends; we have
 37681     French quarrels enow, if you could tell how to reckon.
 37682   KING HENRY. Indeed, the French may lay twenty French crowns to one
 37683     they will beat us, for they bear them on their shoulders; but it
 37684     is no English treason to cut French crowns, and to-morrow the
 37685     King himself will be a clipper.
 37686                                                  Exeunt soldiers
 37687     Upon the King! Let us our lives, our souls,
 37688     Our debts, our careful wives,
 37689     Our children, and our sins, lay on the King!
 37690     We must bear all. O hard condition,
 37691     Twin-born with greatness, subject to the breath
 37692     Of every fool, whose sense no more can feel
 37693     But his own wringing! What infinite heart's ease
 37694     Must kings neglect that private men enjoy!
 37695     And what have kings that privates have not too,
 37696     Save ceremony- save general ceremony?
 37697     And what art thou, thou idol Ceremony?
 37698     What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more
 37699     Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers?
 37700     What are thy rents? What are thy comings-in?
 37701     O Ceremony, show me but thy worth!
 37702     What is thy soul of adoration?
 37703     Art thou aught else but place, degree, and form,
 37704     Creating awe and fear in other men?
 37705     Wherein thou art less happy being fear'd
 37706     Than they in fearing.
 37707     What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet,
 37708     But poison'd flattery? O, be sick, great greatness,
 37709     And bid thy ceremony give thee cure!
 37710     Thinks thou the fiery fever will go out
 37711     With titles blown from adulation?
 37712     Will it give place to flexure and low bending?
 37713     Canst thou, when thou command'st the beggar's knee,
 37714     Command the health of it? No, thou proud dream,
 37715     That play'st so subtly with a king's repose.
 37716     I am a king that find thee; and I know
 37717     'Tis not the balm, the sceptre, and the ball,
 37718     The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
 37719     The intertissued robe of gold and pearl,
 37720     The farced tide running fore the king,
 37721     The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp
 37722     That beats upon the high shore of this world-
 37723     No, not all these, thrice gorgeous ceremony,
 37724     Not all these, laid in bed majestical,
 37725     Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave
 37726     Who, with a body fill'd and vacant mind,
 37727     Gets him to rest, cramm'd with distressful bread;
 37728     Never sees horrid night, the child of hell;
 37729     But, like a lackey, from the rise to set
 37730     Sweats in the eye of Pheebus, and all night
 37731     Sleeps in Elysium; next day, after dawn,
 37732     Doth rise and help Hyperion to his horse;
 37733     And follows so the ever-running year
 37734     With profitable labour, to his grave.
 37735     And but for ceremony, such a wretch,
 37736     Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep,
 37737     Had the fore-hand and vantage of a king.
 37738     The slave, a member of the country's peace,
 37739     Enjoys it; but in gross brain little wots
 37740     What watch the king keeps to maintain the peace
 37741     Whose hours the peasant best advantages.
 37742 
 37743                        Enter ERPINGHAM
 37744 
 37745   ERPINGHAM. My lord, your nobles, jealous of your absence,
 37746     Seek through your camp to find you.
 37747   KING. Good old knight,
 37748     Collect them all together at my tent:
 37749     I'll be before thee.
 37750   ERPINGHAM. I shall do't, my lord.                         Exit
 37751   KING. O God of battles, steel my soldiers' hearts,
 37752     Possess them not with fear! Take from them now
 37753     The sense of reck'ning, if th' opposed numbers
 37754     Pluck their hearts from them! Not to-day, O Lord,
 37755     O, not to-day, think not upon the fault
 37756     My father made in compassing the crown!
 37757     I Richard's body have interred new,
 37758     And on it have bestowed more contrite tears
 37759     Than from it issued forced drops of blood;
 37760     Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay,
 37761     Who twice a day their wither'd hands hold up
 37762     Toward heaven, to pardon blood; and I have built
 37763     Two chantries, where the sad and solemn priests
 37764     Sing still for Richard's soul. More will I do;
 37765     Though all that I can do is nothing worth,
 37766     Since that my penitence comes after all,
 37767     Imploring pardon.
 37768 
 37769                          Enter GLOUCESTER
 37770 
 37771   GLOUCESTER. My liege!
 37772   KING HENRY. My brother Gloucester's voice? Ay;
 37773     I know thy errand, I will go with thee;
 37774     The day, my friends, and all things, stay for me.     Exeunt
 37775 
 37776 
 37777 
 37778 
 37779 SCENE II.
 37780 The French camp
 37781 
 37782 Enter the DAUPHIN, ORLEANS, RAMBURES, and others
 37783 
 37784   ORLEANS. The sun doth gild our armour; up, my lords!
 37785   DAUPHIN. Montez a cheval! My horse! Varlet, laquais! Ha!
 37786   ORLEANS. O brave spirit!
 37787   DAUPHIN. Via! Les eaux et la terre-
 37788   ORLEANS. Rien puis? L'air et le feu.
 37789   DAUPHIN. Ciel! cousin Orleans.
 37790 
 37791                         Enter CONSTABLE
 37792 
 37793     Now, my Lord Constable!
 37794   CONSTABLE. Hark how our steeds for present service neigh!
 37795   DAUPHIN. Mount them, and make incision in their hides,
 37796     That their hot blood may spin in English eyes,
 37797     And dout them with superfluous courage, ha!
 37798   RAMBURES. What, will you have them weep our horses' blood?
 37799     How shall we then behold their natural tears?
 37800 
 37801                         Enter a MESSENGER
 37802 
 37803   MESSENGER. The English are embattl'd, you French peers.
 37804   CONSTABLE. To horse, you gallant Princes! straight to horse!
 37805     Do but behold yon poor and starved band,
 37806     And your fair show shall suck away their souls,
 37807     Leaving them but the shales and husks of men.
 37808     There is not work enough for all our hands;
 37809     Scarce blood enough in all their sickly veins
 37810     To give each naked curtle-axe a stain
 37811     That our French gallants shall to-day draw out,
 37812     And sheathe for lack of sport. Let us but blow on them,
 37813     The vapour of our valour will o'erturn them.
 37814     'Tis positive 'gainst all exceptions, lords,
 37815     That our superfluous lackeys and our peasants-
 37816     Who in unnecessary action swarm
 37817     About our squares of battle- were enow
 37818     To purge this field of, such a hilding foe;
 37819     Though we upon this mountain's basis by
 37820     Took stand for idle speculation-
 37821     But that our honours must not. What's to say?
 37822     A very little little let us do,
 37823     And all is done. Then let the trumpets sound
 37824     The tucket sonance and the note to mount;
 37825     For our approach shall so much dare the field
 37826     That England shall couch down in fear and yield.
 37827 
 37828                         Enter GRANDPRE
 37829 
 37830   GRANDPRE. Why do you stay so long, my lords of France?
 37831     Yond island carrions, desperate of their bones,
 37832     Ill-favouredly become the morning field;
 37833     Their ragged curtains poorly are let loose,
 37834     And our air shakes them passing scornfully;
 37835     Big Mars seems bankrupt in their beggar'd host,
 37836     And faintly through a rusty beaver peeps.
 37837     The horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks
 37838     With torch-staves in their hand; and their poor jades
 37839     Lob down their heads, dropping the hides and hips,
 37840     The gum down-roping from their pale-dead eyes,
 37841     And in their pale dull mouths the gimmal'd bit
 37842     Lies foul with chaw'd grass, still and motionless;
 37843     And their executors, the knavish crows,
 37844     Fly o'er them, all impatient for their hour.
 37845     Description cannot suit itself in words
 37846     To demonstrate the life of such a battle
 37847     In life so lifeless as it shows itself.
 37848   CONSTABLE. They have said their prayers and they stay for death.
 37849   DAUPHIN. Shall we go send them dinners and fresh suits,
 37850     And give their fasting horses provender,
 37851     And after fight with them?
 37852   CONSTABLE. I stay but for my guidon. To the field!
 37853     I will the banner from a trumpet take,
 37854     And use it for my haste. Come, come, away!
 37855     The sun is high, and we outwear the day.              Exeunt
 37856 
 37857 
 37858 
 37859 
 37860 SCENE III.
 37861 The English camp
 37862 
 37863 Enter GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, ERPINGHAM, with all his host;
 37864 SALISBURY and WESTMORELAND
 37865 
 37866   GLOUCESTER. Where is the King?
 37867   BEDFORD. The King himself is rode to view their battle.
 37868   WESTMORELAND. Of fighting men they have full three-score thousand.
 37869   EXETER. There's five to one; besides, they all are fresh.
 37870   SALISBURY. God's arm strike with us! 'tis a fearful odds.
 37871     God bye you, Princes all; I'll to my charge.
 37872     If we no more meet till we meet in heaven,
 37873     Then joyfully, my noble Lord of Bedford,
 37874     My dear Lord Gloucester, and my good Lord Exeter,
 37875     And my kind kinsman- warriors all, adieu!
 37876   BEDFORD. Farewell, good Salisbury; and good luck go with thee!
 37877   EXETER. Farewell, kind lord. Fight valiantly to-day;
 37878     And yet I do thee wrong to mind thee of it,
 37879     For thou art fram'd of the firm truth of valour.
 37880                                                   Exit SALISBURY
 37881   BEDFORD. He is as full of valour as of kindness;
 37882     Princely in both.
 37883 
 37884                             Enter the KING
 37885 
 37886   WESTMORELAND. O that we now had here
 37887     But one ten thousand of those men in England
 37888     That do no work to-day!
 37889   KING. What's he that wishes so?
 37890     My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
 37891     If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
 37892     To do our country loss; and if to live,
 37893     The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
 37894     God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
 37895     By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
 37896     Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
 37897     It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
 37898     Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
 37899     But if it be a sin to covet honour,
 37900     I am the most offending soul alive.
 37901     No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
 37902     God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
 37903     As one man more methinks would share from me
 37904     For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
 37905     Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
 37906     That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
 37907     Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
 37908     And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
 37909     We would not die in that man's company
 37910     That fears his fellowship to die with us.
 37911     This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
 37912     He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
 37913     Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
 37914     And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
 37915     He that shall live this day, and see old age,
 37916     Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
 37917     And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
 37918     Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
 37919     And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
 37920     Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
 37921     But he'll remember, with advantages,
 37922     What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
 37923     Familiar in his mouth as household words-
 37924     Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
 37925     Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
 37926     Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
 37927     This story shall the good man teach his son;
 37928     And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
 37929     From this day to the ending of the world,
 37930     But we in it shall be remembered-
 37931     We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
 37932     For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
 37933     Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
 37934     This day shall gentle his condition;
 37935     And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
 37936     Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
 37937     And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
 37938     That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
 37939 
 37940                       Re-enter SALISBURY
 37941 
 37942   SALISBURY. My sovereign lord, bestow yourself with speed:
 37943     The French are bravely in their battles set,
 37944     And will with all expedience charge on us.
 37945   KING HENRY. All things are ready, if our minds be so.
 37946   WESTMORELAND. Perish the man whose mind is backward now!
 37947   KING HENRY. Thou dost not wish more help from England, coz?
 37948   WESTMORELAND. God's will, my liege! would you and I alone,
 37949     Without more help, could fight this royal battle!
 37950   KING HENRY. Why, now thou hast unwish'd five thousand men;
 37951     Which likes me better than to wish us one.
 37952     You know your places. God be with you all!
 37953 
 37954                      Tucket. Enter MONTJOY
 37955 
 37956   MONTJOY. Once more I come to know of thee, King Harry,
 37957     If for thy ransom thou wilt now compound,
 37958     Before thy most assured overthrow;
 37959     For certainly thou art so near the gulf
 37960     Thou needs must be englutted. Besides, in mercy,
 37961     The constable desires thee thou wilt mind
 37962     Thy followers of repentance, that their souls
 37963     May make a peaceful and a sweet retire
 37964     From off these fields, where, wretches, their poor bodies
 37965     Must lie and fester.
 37966   KING HENRY. Who hath sent thee now?
 37967   MONTJOY. The Constable of France.
 37968   KING HENRY. I pray thee bear my former answer back:
 37969     Bid them achieve me, and then sell my bones.
 37970     Good God! why should they mock poor fellows thus?
 37971     The man that once did sell the lion's skin
 37972     While the beast liv'd was kill'd with hunting him.
 37973     A many of our bodies shall no doubt
 37974     Find native graves; upon the which, I trust,
 37975     Shall witness live in brass of this day's work.
 37976     And those that leave their valiant bones in France,
 37977     Dying like men, though buried in your dunghills,
 37978     They shall be fam'd; for there the sun shall greet them
 37979     And draw their honours reeking up to heaven,
 37980     Leaving their earthly parts to choke your clime,
 37981     The smell whereof shall breed a plague in France.
 37982     Mark then abounding valour in our English,
 37983     That, being dead, like to the bullet's grazing
 37984     Break out into a second course of mischief,
 37985     Killing in relapse of mortality.
 37986     Let me speak proudly: tell the Constable
 37987     We are but warriors for the working-day;
 37988     Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirch'd
 37989     With rainy marching in the painful field;
 37990     There's not a piece of feather in our host-
 37991     Good argument, I hope, we will not fly-
 37992     And time hath worn us into slovenry.
 37993     But, by the mass, our hearts are in the trim;
 37994     And my poor soldiers tell me yet ere night
 37995     They'll be in fresher robes, or they will pluck
 37996     The gay new coats o'er the French soldiers' heads
 37997     And turn them out of service. If they do this-
 37998     As, if God please, they shall- my ransom then
 37999     Will soon be levied. Herald, save thou thy labour;
 38000     Come thou no more for ransom, gentle herald;
 38001     They shall have none, I swear, but these my joints;
 38002     Which if they have, as I will leave 'em them,
 38003     Shall yield them little, tell the Constable.
 38004   MONTJOY. I shall, King Harry. And so fare thee well:
 38005     Thou never shalt hear herald any more.                  Exit
 38006   KING HENRY. I fear thou wilt once more come again for a ransom.
 38007 
 38008                     Enter the DUKE OF YORK
 38009 
 38010   YORK. My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg
 38011     The leading of the vaward.
 38012   KING HENRY. Take it, brave York. Now, soldiers, march away;
 38013     And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day!          Exeunt
 38014 
 38015 
 38016 
 38017 
 38018 SCENE IV.
 38019 The field of battle
 38020 
 38021 Alarum.  Excursions.  Enter FRENCH SOLDIER, PISTOL, and BOY
 38022 
 38023   PISTOL. Yield, cur!
 38024   FRENCH SOLDIER. Je pense que vous etes le gentilhomme de bonne
 38025     qualite.
 38026   PISTOL. Cality! Calen o custure me! Art thou a gentleman?
 38027     What is thy name? Discuss.
 38028   FRENCH SOLDIER. O Seigneur Dieu!
 38029   PISTOL. O, Signieur Dew should be a gentleman.
 38030     Perpend my words, O Signieur Dew, and mark:
 38031     O Signieur Dew, thou diest on point of fox,
 38032     Except, O Signieur, thou do give to me
 38033     Egregious ransom.
 38034   FRENCH SOLDIER. O, prenez misericorde; ayez pitie de moi!
 38035   PISTOL. Moy shall not serve; I will have forty moys;
 38036     Or I will fetch thy rim out at thy throat
 38037     In drops of crimson blood.
 38038   FRENCH SOLDIER. Est-il impossible d'echapper la force de ton bras?
 38039   PISTOL. Brass, cur?
 38040     Thou damned and luxurious mountain-goat,
 38041     Offer'st me brass?
 38042   FRENCH SOLDIER. O, pardonnez-moi!
 38043   PISTOL. Say'st thou me so? Is that a ton of moys?
 38044     Come hither, boy; ask me this slave in French
 38045     What is his name.
 38046   BOY. Ecoutez: comment etes-vous appele?
 38047   FRENCH SOLDIER. Monsieur le Fer.
 38048   BOY. He says his name is Master Fer.
 38049   PISTOL. Master Fer! I'll fer him, and firk him, and ferret him-
 38050    discuss the same in French unto him.
 38051   BOY. I do not know the French for fer, and ferret, and firk.
 38052   PISTOL. Bid him prepare; for I will cut his throat.
 38053   FRENCH SOLDIER. Que dit-il, monsieur?
 38054   BOY. Il me commande a vous dire que vous faites vous pret; car ce
 38055     soldat ici est dispose tout a cette heure de couper votre gorge.
 38056   PISTOL. Owy, cuppele gorge, permafoy!
 38057     Peasant, unless thou give me crowns, brave crowns;
 38058     Or mangled shalt thou be by this my sword.
 38059   FRENCH SOLDIER. O, je vous supplie, pour l'amour de Dieu, me
 38060     pardonner! Je suis gentilhomme de bonne maison. Gardez ma vie, et
 38061     je vous donnerai deux cents ecus.
 38062   PISTOL. What are his words?
 38063   BOY. He prays you to save his life; he is a gentleman of a good
 38064     house, and for his ransom he will give you two hundred crowns.
 38065   PISTOL. Tell him my fury shall abate, and I
 38066     The crowns will take.
 38067   FRENCH SOLDIER. Petit monsieur, que dit-il?
 38068   BOY. Encore qu'il est contre son jurement de pardonner aucun
 38069     prisonnier, neamnoins, pour les ecus que vous l'avez promis, il
 38070     est content a vous donner la liberte, le franchisement.
 38071   FRENCH SOLDIER. Sur mes genoux je vous donne mille remercimens; et
 38072     je m'estime heureux que je suis tombe entre les mains d'un
 38073     chevalier, je pense, le plus brave, vaillant, et tres distingue
 38074     seigneur d'Angleterre.
 38075   PISTOL. Expound unto me, boy.
 38076   BOY. He gives you, upon his knees, a thousand thanks; and he
 38077     esteems himself happy that he hath fall'n into the hands of one-
 38078     as he thinks- the most brave, valorous, and thrice-worthy
 38079     signieur of England.
 38080   PISTOL. As I suck blood, I will some mercy show.
 38081     Follow me.                                              Exit
 38082   BOY. Suivez-vous le grand capitaine.       Exit FRENCH SOLDIER
 38083     I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart; but
 38084     the saying is true- the empty vessel makes the greatest sound.
 38085     Bardolph and Nym had ten times more valour than this roaring
 38086     devil i' th' old play, that every one may pare his nails with a
 38087     wooden dagger; and they are both hang'd; and so would this be, if
 38088     he durst steal anything adventurously. I must stay with the
 38089     lackeys, with the luggage of our camp. The French might have a
 38090     good prey of us, if he knew of it; for there is none to guard it
 38091     but boys.                                               Exit
 38092 
 38093 
 38094 
 38095 
 38096 SCENE V.
 38097 Another part of the field of battle
 38098 
 38099 Enter CONSTABLE, ORLEANS, BOURBON, DAUPHIN, and RAMBURES
 38100 
 38101   CONSTABLE. O diable!
 38102   ORLEANS. O Seigneur! le jour est perdu, tout est perdu!
 38103   DAUPHIN. Mort Dieu, ma vie! all is confounded, all!
 38104     Reproach and everlasting shame
 38105     Sits mocking in our plumes.                 [A short alarum]
 38106     O mechante fortune! Do not run away.
 38107   CONSTABLE. Why, an our ranks are broke.
 38108   DAUPHIN. O perdurable shame! Let's stab ourselves.
 38109     Be these the wretches that we play'd at dice for?
 38110   ORLEANS. Is this the king we sent to for his ransom?
 38111   BOURBON. Shame, and eternal shame, nothing but shame!
 38112     Let us die in honour: once more back again;
 38113     And he that will not follow Bourbon now,
 38114     Let him go hence and, with his cap in hand
 38115     Like a base pander, hold the chamber-door
 38116     Whilst by a slave, no gender than my dog,
 38117     His fairest daughter is contaminated.
 38118   CONSTABLE. Disorder, that hath spoil'd us, friend us now!
 38119     Let us on heaps go offer up our lives.
 38120   ORLEANS. We are enow yet living in the field
 38121     To smother up the English in our throngs,
 38122     If any order might be thought upon.
 38123   BOURBON. The devil take order now! I'll to the throng.
 38124     Let life be short, else shame will be too long.       Exeunt
 38125 
 38126 
 38127 
 38128 
 38129 SCENE VI.
 38130 Another part of the field
 38131 
 38132 Alarum. Enter the KING and his train, with prisoners; EXETER, and others
 38133 
 38134   KING HENRY. Well have we done, thrice-valiant countrymen;
 38135     But all's not done- yet keep the French the field.
 38136   EXETER. The Duke of York commends him to your Majesty.
 38137   KING HENRY. Lives he, good uncle? Thrice within this hour
 38138     I saw him down; thrice up again, and fighting;
 38139     From helmet to the spur all blood he was.
 38140   EXETER. In which array, brave soldier, doth he lie
 38141     Larding the plain; and by his bloody side,
 38142     Yoke-fellow to his honour-owing wounds,
 38143     The noble Earl of Suffolk also lies.
 38144     Suffolk first died; and York, all haggled over,
 38145     Comes to him, where in gore he lay insteeped,
 38146     And takes him by the beard, kisses the gashes
 38147     That bloodily did yawn upon his face,
 38148     He cries aloud 'Tarry, my cousin Suffolk.
 38149     My soul shall thine keep company to heaven;
 38150     Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast;
 38151     As in this glorious and well-foughten field
 38152     We kept together in our chivalry.'
 38153     Upon these words I came and cheer'd him up;
 38154     He smil'd me in the face, raught me his hand,
 38155     And, with a feeble grip, says 'Dear my lord,
 38156     Commend my service to my sovereign.'
 38157     So did he turn, and over Suffolk's neck
 38158     He threw his wounded arm and kiss'd his lips;
 38159     And so, espous'd to death, with blood he seal'd
 38160     A testament of noble-ending love.
 38161     The pretty and sweet manner of it forc'd
 38162     Those waters from me which I would have stopp'd;
 38163     But I had not so much of man in me,
 38164     And all my mother came into mine eyes
 38165     And gave me up to tears.
 38166   KING HENRY. I blame you not;
 38167     For, hearing this, I must perforce compound
 38168     With mistful eyes, or they will issue too.          [Alarum]
 38169     But hark! what new alarum is this same?
 38170     The French have reinforc'd their scatter'd men.
 38171     Then every soldier kill his prisoners;
 38172     Give the word through.                                Exeunt
 38173 
 38174 
 38175 
 38176 
 38177 SCENE VII.
 38178 Another part of the field
 38179 
 38180 Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER
 38181 
 38182   FLUELLEN. Kill the poys and the luggage! 'Tis expressly against the
 38183     law of arms; 'tis as arrant a piece of knavery, mark you now, as
 38184     can be offert; in your conscience, now, is it not?
 38185   GOWER. 'Tis certain there's not a boy left alive; and the cowardly
 38186     rascals that ran from the battle ha' done this slaughter;
 38187     besides, they have burned and carried away all that was in the
 38188     King's tent; wherefore the King most worthily hath caus'd every
 38189     soldier to cut his prisoner's throat. O, 'tis a gallant King!
 38190   FLUELLEN. Ay, he was porn at Monmouth, Captain Gower. What call you
 38191     the town's name where Alexander the Pig was born?
 38192   GOWER. Alexander the Great.
 38193   FLUELLEN. Why, I pray you, is not 'pig' great? The pig, or great,
 38194     or the mighty, or the huge, or the magnanimous, are all one
 38195     reckonings, save the phrase is a little variations.
 38196   GOWER. I think Alexander the Great was born in Macedon; his father
 38197     was called Philip of Macedon, as I take it.
 38198   FLUELLEN. I think it is in Macedon where Alexander is porn. I tell
 38199     you, Captain, if you look in the maps of the 'orld, I warrant you
 38200     sall find, in the comparisons between Macedon and Monmouth, that
 38201     the situations, look you, is both alike. There is a river in
 38202     Macedon; and there is also moreover a river at Monmouth; it is
 38203     call'd Wye at Monmouth, but it is out of my prains what is the
 38204     name of the other river; but 'tis all one, 'tis alike as my
 38205     fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmons in both. If you
 38206     mark Alexander's life well, Harry of Monmouth's life is come
 38207     after it indifferent well; for there is figures in all things.
 38208     Alexander- God knows, and you know- in his rages, and his furies,
 38209     and his wraths, and his cholers, and his moods, and his
 38210     displeasures, and his indignations, and also being a little
 38211     intoxicates in his prains, did, in his ales and his angers, look
 38212     you, kill his best friend, Cleitus.
 38213   GOWER. Our king is not like him in that: he never kill'd any of his
 38214     friends.
 38215   FLUELLEN. It is not well done, mark you now, to take the tales out
 38216     of my mouth ere it is made and finished. I speak but in the
 38217     figures and comparisons of it; as Alexander kill'd his friend
 38218     Cleitus, being in his ales and his cups, so also Harry Monmouth,
 38219     being in his right wits and his good judgments, turn'd away the
 38220     fat knight with the great belly doublet; he was full of jests,
 38221     and gipes, and knaveries, and mocks; I have forgot his name.
 38222   GOWER. Sir John Falstaff.
 38223   FLUELLEN. That is he. I'll tell you there is good men porn at
 38224     Monmouth.
 38225   GOWER. Here comes his Majesty.
 38226 
 38227             Alarum. Enter the KING, WARWICK, GLOUCESTER,
 38228             EXETER, and others, with prisoners. Flourish
 38229 
 38230   KING HENRY. I was not angry since I came to France
 38231     Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald,
 38232     Ride thou unto the horsemen on yond hill;
 38233     If they will fight with us, bid them come down
 38234     Or void the field; they do offend our sight.
 38235     If they'll do neither, we will come to them
 38236     And make them skirr away as swift as stones
 38237     Enforced from the old Assyrian slings;
 38238     Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have,
 38239     And not a man of them that we shall take
 38240     Shall taste our mercy. Go and tell them so.
 38241 
 38242                       Enter MONTJOY
 38243 
 38244   EXETER. Here comes the herald of the French, my liege.
 38245   GLOUCESTER. His eyes are humbler than they us'd to be.
 38246   KING HENRY. How now! What means this, herald? know'st thou not
 38247     That I have fin'd these bones of mine for ransom?
 38248     Com'st thou again for ransom?
 38249   MONTJOY. No, great King;
 38250     I come to thee for charitable licence,
 38251     That we may wander o'er this bloody field
 38252     To book our dead, and then to bury them;
 38253     To sort our nobles from our common men;
 38254     For many of our princes- woe the while!-
 38255     Lie drown'd and soak'd in mercenary blood;
 38256     So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs
 38257     In blood of princes; and their wounded steeds
 38258     Fret fetlock deep in gore, and with wild rage
 38259     Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters,
 38260     Killing them twice. O, give us leave, great King,
 38261     To view the field in safety, and dispose
 38262     Of their dead bodies!
 38263   KING HENRY. I tell thee truly, herald,
 38264     I know not if the day be ours or no;
 38265     For yet a many of your horsemen peer
 38266     And gallop o'er the field.
 38267   MONTJOY. The day is yours.
 38268   KING HENRY. Praised be God, and not our strength, for it!
 38269     What is this castle call'd that stands hard by?
 38270   MONTJOY. They call it Agincourt.
 38271   KING HENRY. Then call we this the field of Agincourt,
 38272     Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.
 38273   FLUELLEN. Your grandfather of famous memory, an't please your
 38274     Majesty, and your great-uncle Edward the Plack Prince of Wales,
 38275     as I have read in the chronicles, fought a most prave pattle here
 38276     in France.
 38277   KING HENRY. They did, Fluellen.
 38278   FLUELLEN. Your Majesty says very true; if your Majesties is
 38279     rememb'red of it, the Welshmen did good service in garden where
 38280     leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps; which your
 38281     Majesty know to this hour is an honourable badge of the service;
 38282     and I do believe your Majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek
 38283     upon Saint Tavy's day.
 38284   KING HENRY. I wear it for a memorable honour;
 38285     For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.
 38286   FLUELLEN. All the water in Wye cannot wash your Majesty's Welsh
 38287     plood out of your pody, I can tell you that. Got pless it and
 38288     preserve it as long as it pleases his Grace and his Majesty too!
 38289   KING HENRY. Thanks, good my countryman.
 38290   FLUELLEN. By Jeshu, I am your Majesty's countryman, care not who
 38291     know it; I will confess it to all the 'orld: I need not be
 38292     asham'd of your Majesty, praised be Got, so long as your Majesty
 38293     is an honest man.
 38294 
 38295                        Enter WILLIAMS
 38296 
 38297   KING HENRY. God keep me so! Our heralds go with him:
 38298     Bring me just notice of the numbers dead
 38299     On both our parts. Call yonder fellow hither.
 38300                                      Exeunt heralds with MONTJOY
 38301   EXETER. Soldier, you must come to the King.
 38302   KING HENRY. Soldier, why wear'st thou that glove in thy cap?
 38303   WILLIAMS. An't please your Majesty, 'tis the gage of one that I
 38304     should fight withal, if he be alive.
 38305   KING HENRY. An Englishman?
 38306   WILLIAMS. An't please your Majesty, a rascal that swagger'd with me
 38307     last night; who, if 'a live and ever dare to challenge this
 38308     glove, I have sworn to take him a box o' th' ear; or if I can see
 38309     my glove in his cap- which he swore, as he was a soldier, he
 38310     would wear if alive- I will strike it out soundly.
 38311   KING HENRY. What think you, Captain Fluellen, is it fit this
 38312     soldier keep his oath?
 38313   FLUELLEN. He is a craven and a villain else, an't please your
 38314     Majesty, in my conscience.
 38315   KING HENRY. It may be his enemy is a gentlemen of great sort, quite
 38316     from the answer of his degree.
 38317   FLUELLEN. Though he be as good a gentleman as the Devil is, as
 38318     Lucifier and Belzebub himself, it is necessary, look your Grace,
 38319     that he keep his vow and his oath; if he be perjur'd, see you
 38320     now, his reputation is as arrant a villain and a Jacksauce as
 38321     ever his black shoe trod upon God's ground and his earth, in my
 38322     conscience, la.
 38323   KING HENRY. Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meet'st the
 38324     fellow.
 38325   WILLIAMS. So I Will, my liege, as I live.
 38326   KING HENRY. Who serv'st thou under?
 38327   WILLIAMS. Under Captain Gower, my liege.
 38328   FLUELLEN. Gower is a good captain, and is good knowledge and
 38329     literatured in the wars.
 38330   KING HENRY. Call him hither to me, soldier.
 38331   WILLIAMS. I will, my liege.                               Exit
 38332   KING HENRY. Here, Fluellen; wear thou this favour for me, and stick
 38333     it in thy cap; when Alencon and myself were down together, I
 38334     pluck'd this glove from his helm. If any man challenge this, he
 38335     is a friend to Alencon and an enemy to our person; if thou
 38336     encounter any such, apprehend him, an thou dost me love.
 38337   FLUELLEN. Your Grace does me as great honours as can be desir'd in
 38338     the hearts of his subjects. I would fain see the man that has but
 38339     two legs that shall find himself aggrief'd at this glove, that is
 38340     all; but I would fain see it once, an please God of his grace
 38341     that I might see.
 38342   KING HENRY. Know'st thou Gower?
 38343   FLUELLEN. He is my dear friend, an please you.
 38344   KING HENRY. Pray thee, go seek him, and bring him to my tent.
 38345   FLUELLEN. I will fetch him.                               Exit
 38346   KING HENRY. My Lord of Warwick and my brother Gloucester,
 38347     Follow Fluellen closely at the heels;
 38348     The glove which I have given him for a favour
 38349     May haply purchase him a box o' th' ear.
 38350     It is the soldier's: I, by bargain, should
 38351     Wear it myself. Follow, good cousin Warwick;
 38352     If that the soldier strike him, as I judge
 38353     By his blunt bearing he will keep his word,
 38354     Some sudden mischief may arise of it;
 38355     For I do know Fluellen valiant,
 38356     And touch'd with choler, hot as gunpowder,
 38357     And quickly will return an injury;
 38358     Follow, and see there be no harm between them.
 38359     Go you with me, uncle of Exeter.                      Exeunt
 38360 
 38361 
 38362 
 38363 
 38364 SCENE VIII.
 38365 Before KING HENRY'S PAVILION
 38366 
 38367 Enter GOWER and WILLIAMS
 38368 
 38369   WILLIAMS. I warrant it is to knight you, Captain.
 38370 
 38371                          Enter FLUELLEN
 38372 
 38373   FLUELLEN. God's will and his pleasure, Captain, I beseech you now,
 38374     come apace to the King: there is more good toward you
 38375     peradventure than is in your knowledge to dream of.
 38376   WILLIAMS. Sir, know you this glove?
 38377   FLUELLEN. Know the glove? I know the glove is a glove.
 38378   WILLIAMS. I know this; and thus I challenge it.  [Strikes him]
 38379   FLUELLEN. 'Sblood, an arrant traitor as any's in the universal
 38380     world, or in France, or in England!
 38381   GOWER. How now, sir! you villain!
 38382   WILLIAMS. Do you think I'll be forsworn?
 38383   FLUELLEN. Stand away, Captain Gower; I will give treason his
 38384     payment into plows, I warrant you.
 38385   WILLIAMS. I am no traitor.
 38386   FLUELLEN. That's a lie in thy throat. I charge you in his Majesty's
 38387     name, apprehend him: he's a friend of the Duke Alencon's.
 38388 
 38389                   Enter WARWICK and GLOUCESTER
 38390 
 38391   WARWICK. How now! how now! what's the matter?
 38392   FLUELLEN. My Lord of Warwick, here is- praised be God for it!- a
 38393     most contagious treason come to light, look you, as you shall
 38394     desire in a summer's day. Here is his Majesty.
 38395 
 38396                   Enter the KING and EXETER
 38397 
 38398   KING HENRY. How now! what's the matter?
 38399   FLUELLEN. My liege, here is a villain and a traitor, that, look
 38400     your Grace, has struck the glove which your Majesty is take out
 38401     of the helmet of Alencon.
 38402   WILLIAMS. My liege, this was my glove: here is the fellow of it;
 38403     and he that I gave it to in change promis'd to wear it in his
 38404     cap; I promis'd to strike him if he did; I met this man with my
 38405     glove in his cap, and I have been as good as my word.
 38406   FLUELLEN. Your Majesty hear now, saving your Majesty's manhood,
 38407     what an arrant, rascally, beggarly, lousy knave it is; I hope
 38408     your Majesty is pear me testimony and witness, and will
 38409     avouchment, that this is the glove of Alencon that your Majesty
 38410     is give me; in your conscience, now.
 38411   KING HENRY. Give me thy glove, soldier; look, here is the fellow of
 38412       it.
 38413     'Twas I, indeed, thou promised'st to strike,
 38414     And thou hast given me most bitter terms.
 38415   FLUELLEN. An please your Majesty, let his neck answer for it, if
 38416     there is any martial law in the world.
 38417   KING HENRY. How canst thou make me satisfaction?
 38418   WILLIAMS. All offences, my lord, come from the heart; never came
 38419     any from mine that might offend your Majesty.
 38420   KING HENRY. It was ourself thou didst abuse.
 38421   WILLIAMS. Your Majesty came not like yourself: you appear'd to me
 38422     but as a common man; witness the night, your garments, your
 38423     lowliness; and what your Highness suffer'd under that shape I
 38424     beseech you take it for your own fault, and not mine; for had you
 38425     been as I took you for, I made no offence; therefore, I beseech
 38426     your Highness pardon me.
 38427   KING HENRY. Here, uncle Exeter, fill this glove with crowns,
 38428     And give it to this fellow. Keep it, fellow;
 38429     And wear it for an honour in thy cap
 38430     Till I do challenge it. Give him the crowns;
 38431     And, Captain, you must needs be friends with him.
 38432   FLUELLEN. By this day and this light, the fellow has mettle enough
 38433     in his belly: hold, there is twelve pence for you; and I pray you
 38434     to serve God, and keep you out of prawls, and prabbles, and
 38435     quarrels, and dissensions, and, I warrant you, it is the better
 38436     for you.
 38437   WILLIAMS. I will none of your money.
 38438   FLUELLEN. It is with a good will; I can tell you it will serve you
 38439     to mend your shoes. Come, wherefore should you be so pashful?
 38440     Your shoes is not so good. 'Tis a good silling, I warrant you, or
 38441     I will change it.
 38442 
 38443                       Enter an ENGLISH HERALD
 38444 
 38445   KING HENRY. Now, herald, are the dead numb'red?
 38446   HERALD. Here is the number of the slaught'red French.
 38447                                                  [Gives a paper]
 38448   KING HENRY. What prisoners of good sort are taken, uncle?
 38449   EXETER. Charles Duke of Orleans, nephew to the King;
 38450     John Duke of Bourbon, and Lord Bouciqualt;
 38451     Of other lords and barons, knights and squires,
 38452     Full fifteen hundred, besides common men.
 38453   KING HENRY. This note doth tell me of ten thousand French
 38454     That in the field lie slain; of princes in this number,
 38455     And nobles bearing banners, there lie dead
 38456     One hundred twenty-six; added to these,
 38457     Of knights, esquires, and gallant gentlemen,
 38458     Eight thousand and four hundred; of the which
 38459     Five hundred were but yesterday dubb'd knights.
 38460     So that, in these ten thousand they have lost,
 38461     There are but sixteen hundred mercenaries;
 38462     The rest are princes, barons, lords, knights, squires,
 38463     And gentlemen of blood and quality.
 38464     The names of those their nobles that lie dead:
 38465     Charles Delabreth, High Constable of France;
 38466     Jaques of Chatillon, Admiral of France;
 38467     The master of the cross-bows, Lord Rambures;
 38468     Great Master of France, the brave Sir Guichard Dolphin;
 38469     John Duke of Alencon; Antony Duke of Brabant,
 38470     The brother to the Duke of Burgundy;
 38471     And Edward Duke of Bar. Of lusty earls,
 38472     Grandpre and Roussi, Fauconbridge and Foix,
 38473     Beaumont and Marle, Vaudemont and Lestrake.
 38474     Here was a royal fellowship of death!
 38475     Where is the number of our English dead?
 38476                                  [HERALD presents another paper]
 38477     Edward the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk,
 38478     Sir Richard Kikely, Davy Gam, Esquire;
 38479     None else of name; and of all other men
 38480     But five and twenty. O God, thy arm was here!
 38481     And not to us, but to thy arm alone,
 38482     Ascribe we all. When, without stratagem,
 38483     But in plain shock and even play of battle,
 38484     Was ever known so great and little los
 38485     On one part and on th' other? Take it, God,
 38486     For it is none but thine.
 38487   EXETER. 'Tis wonderful!
 38488   KING HENRY. Come, go we in procession to the village;
 38489     And be it death proclaimed through our host
 38490     To boast of this or take that praise from God
 38491     Which is his only.
 38492   FLUELLEN. Is it not lawful, an please your Majesty, to tell how
 38493     many is kill'd?
 38494   KING HENRY. Yes, Captain; but with this acknowledgment,
 38495     That God fought for us.
 38496   FLUELLEN. Yes, my conscience, he did us great good.
 38497   KING HENRY. Do we all holy rites:
 38498     Let there be sung 'Non nobis' and 'Te Deum';
 38499     The dead with charity enclos'd in clay-
 38500     And then to Calais; and to England then;
 38501     Where ne'er from France arriv'd more happy men.       Exeunt
 38502 
 38503 
 38504 
 38505 
 38506 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
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 38508 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 38509 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
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 38514 
 38515 
 38516 
 38517 ACT V. PROLOGUE.
 38518 
 38519 Enter CHORUS
 38520 
 38521   CHORUS. Vouchsafe to those that have not read the story
 38522     That I may prompt them; and of such as have,
 38523     I humbly pray them to admit th' excuse
 38524     Of time, of numbers, and due course of things,
 38525     Which cannot in their huge and proper life
 38526     Be here presented. Now we bear the King
 38527     Toward Calais. Grant him there. There seen,
 38528     Heave him away upon your winged thoughts
 38529     Athwart the sea. Behold, the English beach
 38530     Pales in the flood with men, with wives, and boys,
 38531     Whose shouts and claps out-voice the deep-mouth'd sea,
 38532     Which, like a mighty whiffler, fore the King
 38533     Seems to prepare his way. So let him land,
 38534     And solemnly see him set on to London.
 38535     So swift a pace hath thought that even now
 38536     You may imagine him upon Blackheath;
 38537     Where that his lords desire him to have borne
 38538     His bruised helmet and his bended sword
 38539     Before him through the city. He forbids it,
 38540     Being free from vainness and self-glorious pride;
 38541     Giving full trophy, signal, and ostent,
 38542     Quite from himself to God. But now behold
 38543     In the quick forge and working-house of thought,
 38544     How London doth pour out her citizens!
 38545     The mayor and all his brethren in best sort-
 38546     Like to the senators of th' antique Rome,
 38547     With the plebeians swarming at their heels-
 38548     Go forth and fetch their conqu'ring Caesar in;
 38549     As, by a lower but loving likelihood,
 38550     Were now the General of our gracious Empress-
 38551     As in good time he may- from Ireland coming,
 38552     Bringing rebellion broached on his sword,
 38553     How many would the peaceful city quit
 38554     To welcome him! Much more, and much more cause,
 38555     Did they this Harry. Now in London place him-
 38556     As yet the lamentation of the French
 38557     Invites the King of England's stay at home;
 38558     The Emperor's coming in behalf of France
 38559     To order peace between them; and omit
 38560     All the occurrences, whatever chanc'd,
 38561     Till Harry's back-return again to France.
 38562     There must we bring him; and myself have play'd
 38563     The interim, by rememb'ring you 'tis past.
 38564     Then brook abridgment; and your eyes advance,
 38565     After your thoughts, straight back again to France.     Exit
 38566 
 38567 
 38568 
 38569 
 38570 SCENE I.
 38571 France.  The English camp
 38572 
 38573 Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER
 38574 
 38575   GOWER. Nay, that's right; but why wear you your leek to-day? Saint
 38576     Davy's day is past.
 38577   FLUELLEN. There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in all
 38578     things. I will tell you, ass my friend, Captain Gower: the
 38579     rascally, scald, beggarly, lousy, pragging knave, Pistol- which
 38580     you and yourself and all the world know to be no petter than a
 38581     fellow, look you now, of no merits- he is come to me, and prings
 38582     me pread and salt yesterday, look you, and bid me eat my leek; it
 38583     was in a place where I could not breed no contendon with him; but
 38584     I will be so bold as to wear it in my cap till I see him once
 38585     again, and then I will tell him a little piece of my desires.
 38586 
 38587                           Enter PISTOL
 38588 
 38589   GOWER. Why, here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock.
 38590   FLUELLEN. 'Tis no matter for his swellings nor his turkey-cocks.
 38591     God pless you, Aunchient Pistol! you scurvy, lousy knave, God
 38592     pless you!
 38593   PISTOL. Ha! art thou bedlam? Dost thou thirst, base Troyan,
 38594     To have me fold up Parca's fatal web?
 38595     Hence! I am qualmish at the smell of leek.
 38596   FLUELLEN. I peseech you heartily, scurvy, lousy knave, at my
 38597     desires, and my requests, and my petitions, to eat, look you,
 38598     this leek; because, look you, you do not love it, nor your
 38599     affections, and your appetites, and your digestions, does not
 38600     agree with it, I would desire you to eat it.
 38601   PISTOL. Not for Cadwallader and all his goats.
 38602   FLUELLEN. There is one goat for you.  [Strikes him]  Will you be so
 38603     good, scald knave, as eat it?
 38604   PISTOL. Base Troyan, thou shalt die.
 38605   FLUELLEN. You say very true, scald knave- when God's will is. I
 38606     will desire you to live in the meantime, and eat your victuals;
 38607     come, there is sauce for it.  [Striking him again]  You call'd me
 38608     yesterday mountain-squire; but I will make you to-day a squire of
 38609     low degree. I pray you fall to; if you can mock a leek, you can
 38610     eat a leek.
 38611   GOWER. Enough, Captain, you have astonish'd him.
 38612   FLUELLEN. I say I will make him eat some part of my leek, or I will
 38613     peat his pate four days. Bite, I pray you, it is good for your
 38614     green wound and your ploody coxcomb.
 38615   PISTOL. Must I bite?
 38616   FLUELLEN. Yes, certainly, and out of doubt, and out of question
 38617     too, and ambiguides.
 38618   PISTOL. By this leek, I will most horribly revenge- I eat and eat,
 38619     I swear-
 38620   FLUELLEN. Eat, I pray you; will you have some more sauce to your
 38621     leek? There is not enough leek to swear by.
 38622   PISTOL. Quiet thy cudgel: thou dost see I eat.
 38623   FLUELLEN. Much good do you, scald knave, heartily. Nay, pray you
 38624     throw none away; the skin is good for your broken coxcomb. When
 38625     you take occasions to see leeks hereafter, I pray you mock at
 38626     'em; that is all.
 38627   PISTOL. Good.
 38628   FLUELLEN. Ay, leeks is good. Hold you, there is a groat to heal
 38629     your pate.
 38630   PISTOL. Me a groat!
 38631   FLUELLEN. Yes, verily and in truth, you shall take it; or I have
 38632     another leek in my pocket which you shall eat.
 38633   PISTOL. I take thy groat in earnest of revenge.
 38634   FLUELLEN. If I owe you anything I will pay you in cudgels; you
 38635     shall be a woodmonger, and buy nothing of me but cudgels. God bye
 38636     you, and keep you, and heal your pate.
 38637  Exit
 38638   PISTOL. All hell shall stir for this.
 38639   GOWER. Go, go: you are a couterfeit cowardly knave. Will you mock
 38640     at an ancient tradition, begun upon an honourable respect, and
 38641     worn as a memorable trophy of predeceased valour, and dare not
 38642     avouch in your deeds any of your words? I have seen you gleeking
 38643     and galling at this gentleman twice or thrice. You thought,
 38644     because he could not speak English in the native garb, he could
 38645     not therefore handle an English cudgel; you find it otherwise,
 38646     and henceforth let a Welsh correction teach you a good English
 38647     condition. Fare ye well.                                Exit
 38648   PISTOL. Doth Fortune play the huswife with me now?
 38649     News have I that my Nell is dead i' th' spital
 38650     Of malady of France;
 38651     And there my rendezvous is quite cut off.
 38652     Old I do wax; and from my weary limbs
 38653     Honour is cudgell'd. Well, bawd I'll turn,
 38654     And something lean to cutpurse of quick hand.
 38655     To England will I steal, and there I'll steal;
 38656     And patches will I get unto these cudgell'd scars,
 38657     And swear I got them in the Gallia wars.                Exit
 38658 
 38659 
 38660 
 38661 
 38662 SCENE II.
 38663 France. The FRENCH KING'S palace
 38664 
 38665 Enter at one door, KING HENRY, EXETER, BEDFORD, GLOUCESTER, WARWICK,
 38666 WESTMORELAND, and other LORDS; at another, the FRENCH KING, QUEEN ISABEL,
 38667 the PRINCESS KATHERINE, ALICE, and other LADIES; the DUKE OF BURGUNDY,
 38668 and his train
 38669 
 38670   KING HENRY. Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met!
 38671     Unto our brother France, and to our sister,
 38672     Health and fair time of day; joy and good wishes
 38673     To our most fair and princely cousin Katherine.
 38674     And, as a branch and member of this royalty,
 38675     By whom this great assembly is contriv'd,
 38676     We do salute you, Duke of Burgundy.
 38677     And, princes French, and peers, health to you all!
 38678   FRENCH KING. Right joyous are we to behold your face,
 38679     Most worthy brother England; fairly met!
 38680     So are you, princes English, every one.
 38681   QUEEN ISABEL. So happy be the issue, brother England,
 38682     Of this good day and of this gracious meeting
 38683     As we are now glad to behold your eyes-
 38684     Your eyes, which hitherto have home in them,
 38685     Against the French that met them in their bent,
 38686     The fatal balls of murdering basilisks;
 38687     The venom of such looks, we fairly hope,
 38688     Have lost their quality; and that this day
 38689     Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love.
 38690   KING HENRY. To cry amen to that, thus we appear.
 38691   QUEEN ISABEL. You English princes an, I do salute you.
 38692   BURGUNDY. My duty to you both, on equal love,
 38693     Great Kings of France and England! That I have labour'd
 38694     With all my wits, my pains, and strong endeavours,
 38695     To bring your most imperial Majesties
 38696     Unto this bar and royal interview,
 38697     Your mightiness on both parts best can witness.
 38698     Since then my office hath so far prevail'd
 38699     That face to face and royal eye to eye
 38700     You have congreeted, let it not disgrace me
 38701     If I demand, before this royal view,
 38702     What rub or what impediment there is
 38703     Why that the naked, poor, and mangled Peace,
 38704     Dear nurse of arts, plenties, and joyful births,
 38705     Should not in this best garden of the world,
 38706     Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?
 38707     Alas, she hath from France too long been chas'd!
 38708     And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,
 38709     Corrupting in it own fertility.
 38710     Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart,
 38711     Unpruned dies; her hedges even-pleach'd,
 38712     Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair,
 38713     Put forth disorder'd twigs; her fallow leas
 38714     The darnel, hemlock, and rank fumitory,
 38715     Doth root upon, while that the coulter rusts
 38716     That should deracinate such savagery;
 38717     The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth
 38718     The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover,
 38719     Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank,
 38720     Conceives by idleness, and nothing teems
 38721     But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs,
 38722     Losing both beauty and utility.
 38723     And as our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges,
 38724     Defective in their natures, grow to wildness;
 38725     Even so our houses and ourselves and children
 38726     Have lost, or do not learn for want of time,
 38727     The sciences that should become our country;
 38728     But grow, like savages- as soldiers will,
 38729     That nothing do but meditate on blood-
 38730     To swearing and stern looks, diffus'd attire,
 38731     And everything that seems unnatural.
 38732     Which to reduce into our former favout
 38733     You are assembled; and my speech entreats
 38734     That I may know the let why gentle Peace
 38735     Should not expel these inconveniences
 38736     And bless us with her former qualities.
 38737   KING HENRY. If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace
 38738     Whose want gives growth to th' imperfections
 38739     Which you have cited, you must buy that peace
 38740     With full accord to all our just demands;
 38741     Whose tenours and particular effects
 38742     You have, enschedul'd briefly, in your hands.
 38743   BURGUNDY. The King hath heard them; to the which as yet
 38744     There is no answer made.
 38745   KING HENRY. Well then, the peace,
 38746     Which you before so urg'd, lies in his answer.
 38747   FRENCH KING. I have but with a cursorary eye
 38748     O'erglanced the articles; pleaseth your Grace
 38749     To appoint some of your council presently
 38750     To sit with us once more, with better heed
 38751     To re-survey them, we will suddenly
 38752     Pass our accept and peremptory answer.
 38753   KING HENRY. Brother, we shall. Go, uncle Exeter,
 38754     And brother Clarence, and you, brother Gloucester,
 38755     Warwick, and Huntington, go with the King;
 38756     And take with you free power to ratify,
 38757     Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms best
 38758     Shall see advantageable for our dignity,
 38759     Any thing in or out of our demands;
 38760     And we'll consign thereto. Will you, fair sister,
 38761     Go with the princes or stay here with us?
 38762   QUEEN ISABEL. Our gracious brother, I will go with them;
 38763     Haply a woman's voice may do some good,
 38764     When articles too nicely urg'd be stood on.
 38765   KING HENRY. Yet leave our cousin Katherine here with us;
 38766     She is our capital demand, compris'd
 38767     Within the fore-rank of our articles.
 38768   QUEEN ISABEL. She hath good leave.
 38769                    Exeunt all but the KING, KATHERINE, and ALICE
 38770   KING HENRY. Fair Katherine, and most fair,
 38771     Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms
 38772     Such as will enter at a lady's ear,
 38773     And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?
 38774   KATHERINE. Your Majesty shall mock me; I cannot speak your England.
 38775   KING HENRY. O fair Katherine, if you will love me soundly with your
 38776     French heart, I will be glad to hear you confess it brokenly with
 38777     your English tongue. Do you like me, Kate?
 38778   KATHERINE. Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell vat is like me.
 38779   KING HENRY. An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel.
 38780   KATHERINE. Que dit-il? que je suis semblable a les anges?
 38781   ALICE. Oui, vraiment, sauf votre grace, ainsi dit-il.
 38782   KING HENRY. I said so, dear Katherine, and I must not blush to
 38783     affirm it.
 38784   KATHERINE. O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont pleines de
 38785     tromperies.
 38786   KING HENRY. What says she, fair one? that the tongues of men are
 38787     full of deceits?
 38788   ALICE. Oui, dat de tongues of de mans is be full of deceits- dat is
 38789     de Princess.
 38790   KING HENRY. The Princess is the better English-woman. I' faith,
 38791     Kate, my wooing is fit for thy understanding: I am glad thou
 38792     canst speak no better English; for if thou couldst, thou wouldst
 38793     find me such a plain king that thou wouldst think I had sold my
 38794     farm to buy my crown. I know no ways to mince it in love, but
 38795     directly to say 'I love you.' Then, if you urge me farther than
 38796     to say 'Do you in faith?' I wear out my suit. Give me your
 38797     answer; i' faith, do; and so clap hands and a bargain. How say
 38798     you, lady?
 38799   KATHERINE. Sauf votre honneur, me understand well.
 38800   KING HENRY. Marry, if you would put me to verses or to dance for
 38801     your sake, Kate, why you undid me; for the one I have neither
 38802     words nor measure, and for the other I have no strength in
 38803     measure, yet a reasonable measure in strength. If I could win a
 38804     lady at leap-frog, or by vaulting into my saddle with my armour
 38805     on my back, under the correction of bragging be it spoken, I
 38806     should quickly leap into wife. Or if I might buffet for my love,
 38807     or bound my horse for her favours, I could lay on like a butcher,
 38808     and sit like a jack-an-apes, never off. But, before God, Kate, I
 38809     cannot look greenly, nor gasp out my cloquence, nor I have no
 38810     cunning in protestation; only downright oaths, which I never use
 38811     till urg'd, nor never break for urging. If thou canst love a
 38812     fellow of this temper, Kate, whose face is not worth sunburning,
 38813     that never looks in his glass for love of anything he sees there,
 38814     let thine eye be thy cook. I speak to thee plain soldier. If thou
 38815     canst love me for this, take me; if not, to say to thee that I
 38816     shall die is true- but for thy love, by the Lord, no; yet I love
 38817     thee too. And while thou liv'st, dear Kate, take a fellow of
 38818     plain and uncoined constancy; for he perforce must do thee right,
 38819     because he hath not the gift to woo in other places; for these
 38820     fellows of infinite tongue, that can rhyme themselves into
 38821     ladies' favours, they do always reason themselves out again.
 38822     What! a speaker is but a prater: a rhyme is but a ballad. A good
 38823     leg will fall; a straight back will stoop; a black beard will
 38824     turn white; a curl'd pate will grow bald; a fair face will
 38825     wither; a full eye will wax hollow. But a good heart, Kate, is
 38826     the sun and the moon; or, rather, the sun, and not the moon- for
 38827     it shines bright and never changes, but keeps his course truly.
 38828     If thou would have such a one, take me; and take me, take a
 38829     soldier; take a soldier, take a king. And what say'st thou, then,
 38830     to my love? Speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee.
 38831   KATHERINE. Is it possible dat I sould love de enemy of France?
 38832   KING HENRY. No, it is not possible you should love the enemy of
 38833     France, Kate, but in loving me you should love the friend of
 38834     France; for I love France so well that I will not part with a
 38835     village of it; I will have it all mine. And, Kate, when France is
 38836     mine and I am yours, then yours is France and you are mine.
 38837   KATHERINE. I cannot tell vat is dat.
 38838   KING HENRY. No, Kate? I will tell thee in French, which I am sure
 38839     will hang upon my tongue like a new-married wife about her
 38840     husband's neck, hardly to be shook off. Je quand sur le
 38841     possession de France, et quand vous avez le possession de moi-
 38842     let me see, what then? Saint Denis be my speed!- donc votre est
 38843     France et vous etes mienne. It is as easy for me, Kate, to
 38844     conquer the kingdom as to speak so much more French: I shall
 38845     never move thee in French, unless it be to laugh at me.
 38846   KATHERINE. Sauf votre honneur, le Francais que vous parlez, il est
 38847     meilleur que l'Anglais lequel je parle.
 38848   KING HENRY. No, faith, is't not, Kate; but thy speaking of my
 38849     tongue, and I thine, most truly falsely, must needs be granted to
 38850     be much at one. But, Kate, dost thou understand thus much
 38851     English- Canst thou love me?
 38852   KATHERINE. I cannot tell.
 38853   KING HENRY. Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I'll ask them.
 38854     Come, I know thou lovest me; and at night, when you come into
 38855     your closet, you'll question this gentlewoman about me; and I
 38856     know, Kate, you will to her dispraise those parts in me that you
 38857     love with your heart. But, good Kate, mock me mercifully; the
 38858     rather, gentle Princess, because I love thee cruelly. If ever
 38859     thou beest mine, Kate, as I have a saving faith within me tells
 38860     me thou shalt, I get thee with scambling, and thou must therefore
 38861     needs prove a good soldier-breeder. Shall not thou and I, between
 38862     Saint Denis and Saint George, compound a boy, half French, half
 38863     English, that shall go to Constantinople and take the Turk by the
 38864     beard? Shall we not? What say'st thou, my fair flower-de-luce?
 38865   KATHERINE. I do not know dat.
 38866   KING HENRY. No: 'tis hereafter to know, but now to promise; do but
 38867     now promise, Kate, you will endeavour for your French part of
 38868     such a boy; and for my English moiety take the word of a king and
 38869     a bachelor. How answer you, la plus belle Katherine du monde, mon
 38870    tres cher et divin deesse?
 38871   KATHERINE. Your Majestee ave fausse French enough to deceive de
 38872     most sage damoiselle dat is en France.
 38873   KING HENRY. Now, fie upon my false French! By mine honour, in true
 38874     English, I love thee, Kate; by which honour I dare not swear thou
 38875     lovest me; yet my blood begins to flatter me that thou dost,
 38876     notwithstanding the poor and untempering effect of my visage. Now
 38877     beshrew my father's ambition! He was thinking of civil wars when
 38878     he got me; therefore was I created with a stubborn outside, with
 38879     an aspect of iron, that when I come to woo ladies I fright them.
 38880     But, in faith, Kate, the elder I wax, the better I shall appear:
 38881     my comfort is, that old age, that in layer-up of beauty, can do
 38882     no more spoil upon my face; thou hast me, if thou hast me, at the
 38883     worst; and thou shalt wear me, if thou wear me, better and
 38884     better. And therefore tell me, most fair Katherine, will you have
 38885     me? Put off your maiden blushes; avouch the thoughts of your
 38886     heart with the looks of an empress; take me by the hand and say
 38887     'Harry of England, I am thine.' Which word thou shalt no sooner
 38888     bless mine ear withal but I will tell thee aloud 'England is
 38889     thine, Ireland is thine, France is thine, and Henry Plantagenet
 38890     is thine'; who, though I speak it before his face, if he be not
 38891     fellow with the best king, thou shalt find the best king of good
 38892     fellows. Come, your answer in broken music- for thy voice is
 38893     music and thy English broken; therefore, Queen of all, Katherine,
 38894     break thy mind to me in broken English, wilt thou have me?
 38895   KATHERINE. Dat is as it shall please de roi mon pere.
 38896   KING HENRY. Nay, it will please him well, Kate- it shall please
 38897     him, Kate.
 38898   KATHERINE. Den it sall also content me.
 38899   KING HENRY. Upon that I kiss your hand, and I can you my queen.
 38900   KATHERINE. Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez! Ma foi, je ne
 38901     veux point que vous abaissiez votre grandeur en baisant la main
 38902     d'une, notre seigneur, indigne serviteur; excusez-moi, je vous
 38903     supplie, mon tres puissant seigneur.
 38904   KING HENRY. Then I will kiss your lips, Kate.
 38905   KATHERINE. Les dames et demoiselles pour etre baisees devant leur
 38906     noces, il n'est pas la coutume de France.
 38907   KING HENRY. Madame my interpreter, what says she?
 38908   ALICE. Dat it is not be de fashion pour le ladies of France- I
 38909     cannot tell vat is baiser en Anglish.
 38910   KING HENRY. To kiss.
 38911   ALICE. Your Majestee entendre bettre que moi.
 38912   KING HENRY. It is not a fashion for the maids in France to kiss
 38913     before they are married, would she say?
 38914   ALICE. Oui, vraiment.
 38915   KING HENRY. O Kate, nice customs curtsy to great kings. Dear Kate,
 38916     you and I cannot be confin'd within the weak list of a country's
 38917     fashion; we are the makers of manners, Kate; and the liberty that
 38918     follows our places stops the mouth of all find-faults- as I will
 38919     do yours for upholding the nice fashion of your country in
 38920     denying me a kiss; therefore, patiently and yielding.  [Kissing
 38921     her]  You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate: there is more
 38922     eloquence in a sugar touch of them than in the tongues of the
 38923     French council; and they should sooner persuade Henry of England
 38924     than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes your father.
 38925 
 38926              Enter the FRENCH POWER and the ENGLISH LORDS
 38927 
 38928   BURGUNDY. God save your Majesty! My royal cousin,
 38929     Teach you our princess English?
 38930   KING HENRY. I would have her learn, my fair cousin, how perfectly I
 38931     love her; and that is good English.
 38932   BURGUNDY. Is she not apt?
 38933   KING HENRY. Our tongue is rough, coz, and my condition is not
 38934     smooth; so that, having neither the voice nor the heart of
 38935     flattery about me, I cannot so conjure up the spirit of love in
 38936     her that he will appear in his true likeness.
 38937   BURGUNDY. Pardon the frankness of my mirth, if I answer you for
 38938     that. If you would conjure in her, you must make a circle; if
 38939     conjure up love in her in his true likeness, he must appear naked
 38940     and blind. Can you blame her, then, being a maid yet ros'd over
 38941     with the virgin crimson of modesty, if she deny the appearance of
 38942     a naked blind boy in her naked seeing self? It were, my lord, a
 38943     hard condition for a maid to consign to.
 38944   KING HENRY. Yet they do wink and yield, as love is blind and
 38945     enforces.
 38946   BURGUNDY. They are then excus'd, my lord, when they see not what
 38947     they do.
 38948   KING HENRY. Then, good my lord, teach your cousin to consent
 38949     winking.
 38950   BURGUNDY. I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you will teach
 38951     her to know my meaning; for maids well summer'd and warm kept are
 38952     like flies at Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they have their
 38953     eyes; and then they will endure handling, which before would not
 38954     abide looking on.
 38955   KING HENRY. This moral ties me over to time and a hot summer; and
 38956     so I shall catch the fly, your cousin, in the latter end, and she
 38957     must be blind too.
 38958   BURGUNDY. As love is, my lord, before it loves.
 38959   KING HENRY. It is so; and you may, some of you, thank love for my
 38960     blindness, who cannot see many a fair French city for one fair
 38961     French maid that stands in my way.
 38962   FRENCH KING. Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities
 38963     turned into a maid; for they are all girdled with maiden walls
 38964     that war hath never ent'red.
 38965   KING HENRY. Shall Kate be my wife?
 38966   FRENCH KING. So please you.
 38967   KING HENRY. I am content, so the maiden cities you talk of may wait
 38968     on her; so the maid that stood in the way for my wish shall show
 38969     me the way to my will.
 38970   FRENCH KING. We have consented to all terms of reason.
 38971   KING HENRY. Is't so, my lords of England?
 38972   WESTMORELAND. The king hath granted every article:
 38973     His daughter first; and then in sequel, all,
 38974     According to their firm proposed natures.
 38975   EXETER. Only he hath not yet subscribed this:
 38976       Where your Majesty demands that the King of France, having any
 38977     occasion to write for matter of grant, shall name your Highness
 38978     in this form and with this addition, in French, Notre tres cher
 38979     fils Henri, Roi d'Angleterre, Heritier de France; and thus in
 38980     Latin, Praeclarissimus filius noster Henricus, Rex Angliae et
 38981     Haeres Franciae.
 38982   FRENCH KING. Nor this I have not, brother, so denied
 38983     But our request shall make me let it pass.
 38984   KING HENRY. I pray you, then, in love and dear alliance,
 38985     Let that one article rank with the rest;
 38986     And thereupon give me your daughter.
 38987   FRENCH KING. Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise up
 38988     Issue to me; that the contending kingdoms
 38989     Of France and England, whose very shores look pale
 38990     With envy of each other's happiness,
 38991     May cease their hatred; and this dear conjunction
 38992     Plant neighbourhood and Christian-like accord
 38993     In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance
 38994     His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France.
 38995   LORDS. Amen!
 38996   KING HENRY. Now, welcome, Kate; and bear me witness all,
 38997     That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen.       [Floulish]
 38998   QUEEN ISABEL. God, the best maker of all marriages,
 38999     Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one!
 39000     As man and wife, being two, are one in love,
 39001     So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal
 39002     That never may ill office or fell jealousy,
 39003     Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage,
 39004     Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms,
 39005     To make divorce of their incorporate league;
 39006     That English may as French, French Englishmen,
 39007     Receive each other. God speak this Amen!
 39008   ALL. Amen!
 39009   KING HENRY. Prepare we for our marriage; on which day,
 39010     My Lord of Burgundy, we'll take your oath,
 39011     And all the peers', for surety of our leagues.
 39012     Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me,
 39013     And may our oaths well kept and prosp'rous be!
 39014                                                   Sennet. Exeunt
 39015 
 39016 EPILOGUE
 39017                            EPILOGUE.
 39018 
 39019                           Enter CHORUS
 39020 
 39021   CHORUS. Thus far, with rough and all-unable pen,
 39022     Our bending author hath pursu'd the story,
 39023     In little room confining mighty men,
 39024     Mangling by starts the full course of their glory.
 39025     Small time, but, in that small, most greatly lived
 39026     This star of England. Fortune made his sword;
 39027     By which the world's best garden he achieved,
 39028     And of it left his son imperial lord.
 39029     Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown'd king
 39030     Of France and England, did this king succeed;
 39031     Whose state so many had the managing
 39032     That they lost France and made his England bleed;
 39033     Which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their sake,
 39034     In your fair minds let this acceptance take.            Exit
 39035 
 39036 THE END
 39037 
 39038 
 39039 
 39040 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 39041 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 39042 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 39043 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 39044 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 39045 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 39046 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 39047 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 39048 
 39049 
 39050 
 39051 
 39052 
 39053 1592
 39054 
 39055 THE FIRST PART OF HENRY THE SIXTH
 39056 
 39057 by William Shakespeare
 39058 
 39059 
 39060 Dramatis Personae
 39061 
 39062   KING HENRY THE SIXTH
 39063   DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, uncle to the King, and Protector
 39064   DUKE OF BEDFORD, uncle to the King, and Regent of France
 39065   THOMAS BEAUFORT, DUKE OF EXETER, great-uncle to the king
 39066   HENRY BEAUFORT, great-uncle to the King, BISHOP OF WINCHESTER,
 39067      and afterwards CARDINAL
 39068   JOHN BEAUFORT, EARL OF SOMERSET, afterwards Duke
 39069   RICHARD PLANTAGENET, son of Richard late Earl of Cambridge,
 39070     afterwards DUKE OF YORK
 39071   EARL OF WARWICK
 39072   EARL OF SALISBURY
 39073   EARL OF SUFFOLK
 39074   LORD TALBOT, afterwards EARL OF SHREWSBURY
 39075   JOHN TALBOT, his son
 39076   EDMUND MORTIMER, EARL OF MARCH
 39077   SIR JOHN FASTOLFE
 39078   SIR WILLIAM LUCY
 39079   SIR WILLIAM GLANSDALE
 39080   SIR THOMAS GARGRAVE
 39081   MAYOR of LONDON
 39082   WOODVILLE, Lieutenant of the Tower
 39083   VERNON, of the White Rose or York faction
 39084   BASSET, of the Red Rose or Lancaster faction
 39085   A LAWYER
 39086   GAOLERS, to Mortimer
 39087   CHARLES, Dauphin, and afterwards King of France
 39088   REIGNIER, DUKE OF ANJOU, and titular King of Naples
 39089   DUKE OF BURGUNDY
 39090   DUKE OF ALENCON
 39091   BASTARD OF ORLEANS
 39092   GOVERNOR OF PARIS
 39093   MASTER-GUNNER OF ORLEANS, and his SON
 39094   GENERAL OF THE FRENCH FORCES in Bordeaux
 39095   A FRENCH SERGEANT
 39096   A PORTER
 39097   AN OLD SHEPHERD, father to Joan la Pucelle
 39098   MARGARET, daughter to Reignier, afterwards married to
 39099     King Henry
 39100   COUNTESS OF AUVERGNE
 39101   JOAN LA PUCELLE, Commonly called JOAN OF ARC
 39102 
 39103   Lords, Warders of the Tower, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers,
 39104   Messengers, English and French Attendants. Fiends appearing
 39105     to La Pucelle
 39106 
 39107 
 39108 
 39109 
 39110 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 39111 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 39112 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 39113 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 39114 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 39115 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 39116 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 39117 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 39118 
 39119 
 39120 
 39121 SCENE:
 39122 England and France
 39123 
 39124 
 39125 
 39126 
 39127 The First Part of King Henry the Sixth
 39128 
 39129 
 39130 ACT I. SCENE 1.
 39131 
 39132 Westminster Abbey
 39133 
 39134 Dead March. Enter the funeral of KING HENRY THE FIFTH,
 39135 attended on by the DUKE OF BEDFORD, Regent of France,
 39136 the DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, Protector, the DUKE OF EXETER,
 39137 the EARL OF WARWICK, the BISHOP OF WINCHESTER
 39138 
 39139   BEDFORD. Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to
 39140     night! Comets, importing change of times and states,
 39141     Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky
 39142     And with them scourge the bad revolting stars
 39143     That have consented unto Henry's death!
 39144     King Henry the Fifth, too famous to live long!
 39145     England ne'er lost a king of so much worth.
 39146   GLOUCESTER. England ne'er had a king until his time.
 39147     Virtue he had, deserving to command;
 39148     His brandish'd sword did blind men with his beams;
 39149     His arms spread wider than a dragon's wings;
 39150     His sparkling eyes, replete with wrathful fire,
 39151     More dazzled and drove back his enemies
 39152     Than mid-day sun fierce bent against their faces.
 39153     What should I say? His deeds exceed all speech:
 39154     He ne'er lift up his hand but conquered.
 39155   EXETER. We mourn in black; why mourn we not in blood?
 39156     Henry is dead and never shall revive.
 39157     Upon a wooden coffin we attend;
 39158     And death's dishonourable victory
 39159     We with our stately presence glorify,
 39160     Like captives bound to a triumphant car.
 39161     What! shall we curse the planets of mishap
 39162     That plotted thus our glory's overthrow?
 39163     Or shall we think the subtle-witted French
 39164     Conjurers and sorcerers, that, afraid of him,
 39165     By magic verses have contriv'd his end?
 39166   WINCHESTER. He was a king bless'd of the King of kings;
 39167     Unto the French the dreadful judgment-day
 39168     So dreadful will not be as was his sight.
 39169     The battles of the Lord of Hosts he fought;
 39170     The Church's prayers made him so prosperous.
 39171   GLOUCESTER. The Church! Where is it? Had not churchmen
 39172     pray'd,
 39173     His thread of life had not so soon decay'd.
 39174     None do you like but an effeminate prince,
 39175     Whom like a school-boy you may overawe.
 39176   WINCHESTER. Gloucester, whate'er we like, thou art
 39177     Protector
 39178     And lookest to command the Prince and realm.
 39179     Thy wife is proud; she holdeth thee in awe
 39180     More than God or religious churchmen may.
 39181   GLOUCESTER. Name not religion, for thou lov'st the flesh;
 39182     And ne'er throughout the year to church thou go'st,
 39183     Except it be to pray against thy foes.
 39184   BEDFORD. Cease, cease these jars and rest your minds in peace;
 39185     Let's to the altar. Heralds, wait on us.
 39186     Instead of gold, we'll offer up our arms,
 39187     Since arms avail not, now that Henry's dead.
 39188     Posterity, await for wretched years,
 39189     When at their mothers' moist'ned eyes babes shall suck,
 39190     Our isle be made a nourish of salt tears,
 39191     And none but women left to wail the dead.
 39192   HENRY the Fifth, thy ghost I invocate:
 39193     Prosper this realm, keep it from civil broils,
 39194     Combat with adverse planets in the heavens.
 39195     A far more glorious star thy soul will make
 39196     Than Julius Caesar or bright
 39197 
 39198                           Enter a MESSENGER
 39199 
 39200   MESSENGER. My honourable lords, health to you all!
 39201     Sad tidings bring I to you out of France,
 39202     Of loss, of slaughter, and discomfiture:
 39203     Guienne, Champagne, Rheims, Orleans,
 39204     Paris, Guysors, Poictiers, are all quite lost.
 39205   BEDFORD. What say'st thou, man, before dead Henry's corse?
 39206     Speak softly, or the loss of those great towns
 39207     Will make him burst his lead and rise from death.
 39208   GLOUCESTER. Is Paris lost? Is Rouen yielded up?
 39209     If Henry were recall'd to life again,
 39210     These news would cause him once more yield the ghost.
 39211   EXETER. How were they lost? What treachery was us'd?
 39212   MESSENGER. No treachery, but want of men and money.
 39213     Amongst the soldiers this is muttered
 39214     That here you maintain several factions;
 39215     And whilst a field should be dispatch'd and fought,
 39216     You are disputing of your generals:
 39217     One would have ling'ring wars, with little cost;
 39218     Another would fly swift, but wanteth wings;
 39219     A third thinks, without expense at all,
 39220     By guileful fair words peace may be obtain'd.
 39221     Awake, awake, English nobility!
 39222     Let not sloth dim your honours, new-begot.
 39223     Cropp'd are the flower-de-luces in your arms;
 39224     Of England's coat one half is cut away.
 39225   EXETER. Were our tears wanting to this funeral,
 39226     These tidings would call forth their flowing tides.
 39227   BEDFORD. Me they concern; Regent I am of France.
 39228     Give me my steeled coat; I'll fight for France.
 39229     Away with these disgraceful wailing robes!
 39230     Wounds will I lend the French instead of eyes,
 39231     To weep their intermissive miseries.
 39232 
 39233                    Enter a second MESSENGER
 39234 
 39235   SECOND MESSENGER. Lords, view these letters full of bad
 39236     mischance.
 39237     France is revolted from the English quite,
 39238     Except some petty towns of no import.
 39239     The Dauphin Charles is crowned king in Rheims;
 39240     The Bastard of Orleans with him is join'd;
 39241     Reignier, Duke of Anjou, doth take his part;
 39242     The Duke of Alencon flieth to his side.
 39243   EXETER. The Dauphin crowned king! all fly to him!
 39244     O, whither shall we fly from this reproach?
 39245   GLOUCESTER. We will not fly but to our enemies' throats.
 39246     Bedford, if thou be slack I'll fight it out.
 39247   BEDFORD. Gloucester, why doubt'st thou of my forwardness?
 39248     An army have I muster'd in my thoughts,
 39249     Wherewith already France is overrun.
 39250 
 39251                    Enter a third MESSENGER
 39252 
 39253   THIRD MESSENGER. My gracious lords, to add to your
 39254     laments,
 39255     Wherewith you now bedew King Henry's hearse,
 39256     I must inform you of a dismal fight
 39257     Betwixt the stout Lord Talbot and the French.
 39258   WINCHESTER. What! Wherein Talbot overcame? Is't so?
 39259   THIRD MESSENGER. O, no; wherein Lord Talbot was
 39260     o'erthrown.
 39261     The circumstance I'll tell you more at large.
 39262     The tenth of August last this dreadful lord,
 39263     Retiring from the siege of Orleans,
 39264     Having full scarce six thousand in his troop,
 39265     By three and twenty thousand of the French
 39266     Was round encompassed and set upon.
 39267     No leisure had he to enrank his men;
 39268     He wanted pikes to set before his archers;
 39269     Instead whereof sharp stakes pluck'd out of hedges
 39270     They pitched in the ground confusedly
 39271     To keep the horsemen off from breaking in.
 39272     More than three hours the fight continued;
 39273     Where valiant Talbot, above human thought,
 39274     Enacted wonders with his sword and lance:
 39275     Hundreds he sent to hell, and none durst stand him;
 39276     Here, there, and everywhere, enrag'd he slew
 39277     The French exclaim'd the devil was in arms;
 39278     All the whole army stood agaz'd on him.
 39279     His soldiers, spying his undaunted spirit,
 39280     'A Talbot! a Talbot!' cried out amain,
 39281     And rush'd into the bowels of the battle.
 39282     Here had the conquest fully been seal'd up
 39283     If Sir John Fastolfe had not play'd the coward.
 39284     He, being in the vaward plac'd behind
 39285     With purpose to relieve and follow them-
 39286     Cowardly fled, not having struck one stroke;
 39287     Hence grew the general wreck and massacre.
 39288     Enclosed were they with their enemies.
 39289     A base Walloon, to win the Dauphin's grace,
 39290     Thrust Talbot with a spear into the back;
 39291     Whom all France, with their chief assembled strength,
 39292     Durst not presume to look once in the face.
 39293   BEDFORD. Is Talbot slain? Then I will slay myself,
 39294     For living idly here in pomp and ease,
 39295     Whilst such a worthy leader, wanting aid,
 39296     Unto his dastard foemen is betray'd.
 39297   THIRD MESSENGER. O no, he lives, but is took prisoner,
 39298     And Lord Scales with him, and Lord Hungerford;
 39299     Most of the rest slaughter'd or took likewise.
 39300   BEDFORD. His ransom there is none but I shall pay.
 39301     I'll hale the Dauphin headlong from his throne;
 39302     His crown shall be the ransom of my friend;
 39303     Four of their lords I'll change for one of ours.
 39304     Farewell, my masters; to my task will I;
 39305     Bonfires in France forthwith I am to make
 39306     To keep our great Saint George's feast withal.
 39307     Ten thousand soldiers with me I will take,
 39308     Whose bloody deeds shall make an Europe quake.
 39309   THIRD MESSENGER. So you had need; for Orleans is besieg'd;
 39310     The English army is grown weak and faint;
 39311     The Earl of Salisbury craveth supply
 39312     And hardly keeps his men from mutiny,
 39313     Since they, so few, watch such a multitude.
 39314   EXETER. Remember, lords, your oaths to Henry sworn,
 39315     Either to quell the Dauphin utterly,
 39316     Or bring him in obedience to your yoke.
 39317   BEDFORD. I do remember it, and here take my leave
 39318     To go about my preparation.                             Exit
 39319   GLOUCESTER. I'll to the Tower with all the haste I can
 39320     To view th' artillery and munition;
 39321     And then I will proclaim young Henry king.              Exit
 39322   EXETER. To Eltham will I, where the young King is,
 39323     Being ordain'd his special governor;
 39324     And for his safety there I'll best devise.              Exit
 39325   WINCHESTER.  [Aside]  Each hath his place and function to
 39326     attend:
 39327     I am left out; for me nothing remains.
 39328     But long I will not be Jack out of office.
 39329     The King from Eltham I intend to steal,
 39330     And sit at chiefest stern of public weal.             Exeunt
 39331 
 39332 
 39333 
 39334 
 39335                           SCENE 2.
 39336 
 39337                   France. Before Orleans
 39338 
 39339       Sound a flourish. Enter CHARLES THE DAUPHIN, ALENCON,
 39340            and REIGNIER, marching with drum and soldiers
 39341 
 39342   CHARLES. Mars his true moving, even as in the heavens
 39343     So in the earth, to this day is not known.
 39344     Late did he shine upon the English side;
 39345     Now we are victors, upon us he smiles.
 39346     What towns of any moment but we have?
 39347     At pleasure here we lie near Orleans;
 39348     Otherwhiles the famish'd English, like pale ghosts,
 39349     Faintly besiege us one hour in a month.
 39350   ALENCON. They want their porridge and their fat bull
 39351     beeves.
 39352     Either they must be dieted like mules
 39353     And have their provender tied to their mouths,
 39354     Or piteous they will look, like drowned mice.
 39355   REIGNIER. Let's raise the siege. Why live we idly here?
 39356     Talbot is taken, whom we wont to fear;
 39357     Remaineth none but mad-brain'd Salisbury,
 39358     And he may well in fretting spend his gall
 39359     Nor men nor money hath he to make war.
 39360   CHARLES. Sound, sound alarum; we will rush on them.
 39361     Now for the honour of the forlorn French!
 39362     Him I forgive my death that killeth me,
 39363     When he sees me go back one foot or flee.             Exeunt
 39364 
 39365        Here alarum. They are beaten hack by the English, with
 39366          great loss. Re-enter CHARLES, ALENCON, and REIGNIER
 39367 
 39368   CHARLES. Who ever saw the like? What men have I!
 39369     Dogs! cowards! dastards! I would ne'er have fled
 39370     But that they left me midst my enemies.
 39371   REIGNIER. Salisbury is a desperate homicide;
 39372     He fighteth as one weary of his life.
 39373     The other lords, like lions wanting food,
 39374     Do rush upon us as their hungry prey.
 39375   ALENCON. Froissart, a countryman of ours, records
 39376     England all Olivers and Rowlands bred
 39377     During the time Edward the Third did reign.
 39378     More truly now may this be verified;
 39379     For none but Samsons and Goliases
 39380     It sendeth forth to skirmish. One to ten!
 39381     Lean raw-bon'd rascals! Who would e'er suppose
 39382     They had such courage and audacity?
 39383   CHARLES. Let's leave this town; for they are hare-brain'd
 39384     slaves,
 39385     And hunger will enforce them to be more eager.
 39386     Of old I know them; rather with their teeth
 39387     The walls they'll tear down than forsake the siege.
 39388   REIGNIER. I think by some odd gimmers or device
 39389     Their arms are set, like clocks, still to strike on;
 39390     Else ne'er could they hold out so as they do.
 39391     By my consent, we'll even let them alone.
 39392   ALENCON. Be it so.
 39393 
 39394                    Enter the BASTARD OF ORLEANS
 39395 
 39396   BASTARD. Where's the Prince Dauphin? I have news for him.
 39397   CHARLES. Bastard of Orleans, thrice welcome to us.
 39398   BASTARD. Methinks your looks are sad, your cheer appall'd.
 39399     Hath the late overthrow wrought this offence?
 39400     Be not dismay'd, for succour is at hand.
 39401     A holy maid hither with me I bring,
 39402     Which, by a vision sent to her from heaven,
 39403     Ordained is to raise this tedious siege
 39404     And drive the English forth the bounds of France.
 39405     The spirit of deep prophecy she hath,
 39406     Exceeding the nine sibyls of old Rome:
 39407     What's past and what's to come she can descry.
 39408     Speak, shall I call her in? Believe my words,
 39409     For they are certain and unfallible.
 39410   CHARLES. Go, call her in.                       [Exit BASTARD]
 39411     But first, to try her skill,
 39412     Reignier, stand thou as Dauphin in my place;
 39413     Question her proudly; let thy looks be stern;
 39414     By this means shall we sound what skill she hath.
 39415 
 39416                   Re-enter the BASTARD OF ORLEANS with
 39417                           JOAN LA PUCELLE
 39418 
 39419   REIGNIER. Fair maid, is 't thou wilt do these wondrous feats?
 39420   PUCELLE. Reignier, is 't thou that thinkest to beguile me?
 39421     Where is the Dauphin? Come, come from behind;
 39422     I know thee well, though never seen before.
 39423     Be not amaz'd, there's nothing hid from me.
 39424     In private will I talk with thee apart.
 39425     Stand back, you lords, and give us leave awhile.
 39426   REIGNIER. She takes upon her bravely at first dash.
 39427   PUCELLE. Dauphin, I am by birth a shepherd's daughter,
 39428     My wit untrain'd in any kind of art.
 39429     Heaven and our Lady gracious hath it pleas'd
 39430     To shine on my contemptible estate.
 39431     Lo, whilst I waited on my tender lambs
 39432     And to sun's parching heat display'd my cheeks,
 39433     God's Mother deigned to appear to me,
 39434     And in a vision full of majesty
 39435     Will'd me to leave my base vocation
 39436     And free my country from calamity
 39437     Her aid she promis'd and assur'd success.
 39438     In complete glory she reveal'd herself;
 39439     And whereas I was black and swart before,
 39440     With those clear rays which she infus'd on me
 39441     That beauty am I bless'd with which you may see.
 39442     Ask me what question thou canst possible,
 39443     And I will answer unpremeditated.
 39444     My courage try by combat if thou dar'st,
 39445     And thou shalt find that I exceed my sex.
 39446     Resolve on this: thou shalt be fortunate
 39447     If thou receive me for thy warlike mate.
 39448   CHARLES. Thou hast astonish'd me with thy high terms.
 39449     Only this proof I'll of thy valour make
 39450     In single combat thou shalt buckle with me;
 39451     And if thou vanquishest, thy words are true;
 39452     Otherwise I renounce all confidence.
 39453   PUCELLE. I am prepar'd; here is my keen-edg'd sword,
 39454     Deck'd with five flower-de-luces on each side,
 39455     The which at Touraine, in Saint Katherine's churchyard,
 39456     Out of a great deal of old iron I chose forth.
 39457   CHARLES. Then come, o' God's name; I fear no woman.
 39458   PUCELLE. And while I live I'll ne'er fly from a man.
 39459                  [Here they fight and JOAN LA PUCELLE overcomes]
 39460   CHARLES. Stay, stay thy hands; thou art an Amazon,
 39461     And fightest with the sword of Deborah.
 39462   PUCELLE. Christ's Mother helps me, else I were too weak.
 39463   CHARLES. Whoe'er helps thee, 'tis thou that must help me.
 39464     Impatiently I burn with thy desire;
 39465     My heart and hands thou hast at once subdu'd.
 39466     Excellent Pucelle, if thy name be so,
 39467     Let me thy servant and not sovereign be.
 39468     'Tis the French Dauphin sueth to thee thus.
 39469   PUCELLE. I must not yield to any rites of love,
 39470     For my profession's sacred from above.
 39471     When I have chased all thy foes from hence,
 39472     Then will I think upon a recompense.
 39473   CHARLES. Meantime look gracious on thy prostrate thrall.
 39474   REIGNIER. My lord, methinks, is very long in talk.
 39475   ALENCON. Doubtless he shrives this woman to her smock;
 39476     Else ne'er could he so long protract his speech.
 39477   REIGNIER. Shall we disturb him, since he keeps no mean?
 39478   ALENCON. He may mean more than we poor men do know;
 39479     These women are shrewd tempters with their tongues.
 39480   REIGNIER. My lord, where are you? What devise you on?
 39481     Shall we give o'er Orleans, or no?
 39482   PUCELLE. Why, no, I say; distrustful recreants!
 39483     Fight till the last gasp; I will be your guard.
 39484   CHARLES. What she says I'll confirm; we'll fight it out.
 39485   PUCELLE. Assign'd am I to be the English scourge.
 39486     This night the siege assuredly I'll raise.
 39487     Expect Saint Martin's summer, halcyon days,
 39488     Since I have entered into these wars.
 39489     Glory is like a circle in the water,
 39490     Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself
 39491     Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought.
 39492     With Henry's death the English circle ends;
 39493     Dispersed are the glories it included.
 39494     Now am I like that proud insulting ship
 39495     Which Caesar and his fortune bare at once.
 39496   CHARLES. Was Mahomet inspired with a dove?
 39497     Thou with an eagle art inspired then.
 39498     Helen, the mother of great Constantine,
 39499     Nor yet Saint Philip's daughters were like thee.
 39500     Bright star of Venus, fall'n down on the earth,
 39501     How may I reverently worship thee enough?
 39502   ALENCON. Leave off delays, and let us raise the siege.
 39503   REIGNIER. Woman, do what thou canst to save our honours;
 39504     Drive them from Orleans, and be immortaliz'd.
 39505   CHARLES. Presently we'll try. Come, let's away about it.
 39506     No prophet will I trust if she prove false.           Exeunt
 39507 
 39508 
 39509 
 39510 
 39511                           SCENE 3.
 39512 
 39513                 London. Before the Tower gates
 39514 
 39515        Enter the DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, with his serving-men
 39516                        in blue coats
 39517 
 39518   GLOUCESTER. I am come to survey the Tower this day;
 39519     Since Henry's death, I fear, there is conveyance.
 39520     Where be these warders that they wait not here?
 39521     Open the gates; 'tis Gloucester that calls.
 39522   FIRST WARDER.  [Within]  Who's there that knocks so
 39523     imperiously?
 39524   FIRST SERVING-MAN. It is the noble Duke of Gloucester.
 39525   SECOND WARDER.  [Within]  Whoe'er he be, you may not be
 39526     let in.
 39527   FIRST SERVING-MAN. Villains, answer you so the Lord
 39528     Protector?
 39529   FIRST WARDER.  [Within]  The Lord protect him! so we
 39530     answer him.
 39531     We do no otherwise than we are will'd.
 39532   GLOUCESTER. Who willed you, or whose will stands but
 39533     mine?
 39534     There's none Protector of the realm but I.
 39535     Break up the gates, I'll be your warrantize.
 39536     Shall I be flouted thus by dunghill grooms?
 39537                   [GLOUCESTER'S men rush at the Tower gates, and
 39538                          WOODVILLE the Lieutenant speaks within]
 39539   WOODVILLE.  [Within]  What noise is this? What traitors
 39540     have we here?
 39541   GLOUCESTER. Lieutenant, is it you whose voice I hear?
 39542     Open the gates; here's Gloucester that would enter.
 39543   WOODVILLE.  [Within]  Have patience, noble Duke, I may
 39544     not open;
 39545     The Cardinal of Winchester forbids.
 39546     From him I have express commandment
 39547     That thou nor none of thine shall be let in.
 39548   GLOUCESTER. Faint-hearted Woodville, prizest him fore me?
 39549     Arrogant Winchester, that haughty prelate
 39550     Whom Henry, our late sovereign, ne'er could brook!
 39551     Thou art no friend to God or to the King.
 39552     Open the gates, or I'll shut thee out shortly.
 39553   SERVING-MEN. Open the gates unto the Lord Protector,
 39554     Or we'll burst them open, if that you come not quickly.
 39555 
 39556        Enter to the PROTECTOR at the Tower gates WINCHESTER
 39557                    and his men in tawny coats
 39558 
 39559   WINCHESTER. How now, ambitious Humphry! What means
 39560     this?
 39561   GLOUCESTER. Peel'd priest, dost thou command me to be
 39562     shut out?
 39563   WINCHESTER. I do, thou most usurping proditor,
 39564     And not Protector of the King or realm.
 39565   GLOUCESTER. Stand back, thou manifest conspirator,
 39566     Thou that contrived'st to murder our dead lord;
 39567     Thou that giv'st whores indulgences to sin.
 39568     I'll canvass thee in thy broad cardinal's hat,
 39569     If thou proceed in this thy insolence.
 39570   WINCHESTER. Nay, stand thou back; I will not budge a foot.
 39571     This be Damascus; be thou cursed Cain,
 39572     To slay thy brother Abel, if thou wilt.
 39573   GLOUCESTER. I will not slay thee, but I'll drive thee back.
 39574     Thy scarlet robes as a child's bearing-cloth
 39575     I'll use to carry thee out of this place.
 39576   WINCHESTER. Do what thou dar'st; I beard thee to thy face.
 39577   GLOUCESTER. What! am I dar'd and bearded to my face?
 39578     Draw, men, for all this privileged place
 39579     Blue-coats to tawny-coats. Priest, beware your beard;
 39580     I mean to tug it, and to cuff you soundly;
 39581     Under my feet I stamp thy cardinal's hat;
 39582     In spite of Pope or dignities of church,
 39583     Here by the cheeks I'll drag thee up and down.
 39584   WINCHESTER. Gloucester, thou wilt answer this before the
 39585     Pope.
 39586   GLOUCESTER. Winchester goose! I cry 'A rope, a rope!'
 39587     Now beat them hence; why do you let them stay?
 39588     Thee I'll chase hence, thou wolf in sheep's array.
 39589     Out, tawny-coats! Out, scarlet hypocrite!
 39590 
 39591          Here GLOUCESTER'S men beat out the CARDINAL'S
 39592         men; and enter in the hurly burly the MAYOR OF
 39593                   LONDON and his OFFICERS
 39594 
 39595   MAYOR. Fie, lords! that you, being supreme magistrates,
 39596     Thus contumeliously should break the peace!
 39597   GLOUCESTER. Peace, Mayor! thou know'st little of my wrongs:
 39598     Here's Beaufort, that regards nor God nor King,
 39599     Hath here distrain'd the Tower to his use.
 39600   WINCHESTER. Here's Gloucester, a foe to citizens;
 39601     One that still motions war and never peace,
 39602     O'ercharging your free purses with large fines;
 39603     That seeks to overthrow religion,
 39604     Because he is Protector of the realm,
 39605     And would have armour here out of the Tower,
 39606     To crown himself King and suppress the Prince.
 39607   GLOUCESTER. I Will not answer thee with words, but blows.
 39608                                       [Here they skirmish again]
 39609   MAYOR. Nought rests for me in this tumultuous strife
 39610     But to make open proclamation.
 39611     Come, officer, as loud as e'er thou canst,
 39612     Cry.
 39613   OFFICER.  [Cries]  All manner of men assembled here in arms
 39614     this day against God's peace and the King's, we charge
 39615     and command you, in his Highness' name, to repair to
 39616     your several dwelling-places; and not to wear, handle, or
 39617     use, any sword, weapon, or dagger, henceforward, upon
 39618     pain of death.
 39619   GLOUCESTER. Cardinal, I'll be no breaker of the law;
 39620     But we shall meet and break our minds at large.
 39621   WINCHESTER. Gloucester, we'll meet to thy cost, be sure;
 39622     Thy heart-blood I will have for this day's work.
 39623   MAYOR. I'll call for clubs if you will not away.
 39624     This Cardinal's more haughty than the devil.
 39625   GLOUCESTER. Mayor, farewell; thou dost but what thou
 39626     mayst.
 39627   WINCHESTER. Abominable Gloucester, guard thy head,
 39628     For I intend to have it ere long.
 39629                     Exeunt, severally, GLOUCESTER and WINCHESTER
 39630                                              with their servants
 39631   MAYOR. See the coast clear'd, and then we will depart.
 39632     Good God, these nobles should such stomachs bear!
 39633     I myself fight not once in forty year.                Exeunt
 39634 
 39635 
 39636 
 39637 
 39638                                SCENE 4.
 39639 
 39640                         France. Before Orleans
 39641 
 39642                Enter, on the walls, the MASTER-GUNNER
 39643                        OF ORLEANS and his BOY
 39644 
 39645   MASTER-GUNNER. Sirrah, thou know'st how Orleans is
 39646     besieg'd,
 39647     And how the English have the suburbs won.
 39648   BOY. Father, I know; and oft have shot at them,
 39649     Howe'er unfortunate I miss'd my aim.
 39650   MASTER-GUNNER. But now thou shalt not. Be thou rul'd
 39651     by me.
 39652     Chief master-gunner am I of this town;
 39653     Something I must do to procure me grace.
 39654     The Prince's espials have informed me
 39655     How the English, in the suburbs close intrench'd,
 39656     Wont, through a secret grate of iron bars
 39657     In yonder tower, to overpeer the city,
 39658     And thence discover how with most advantage
 39659     They may vex us with shot or with assault.
 39660     To intercept this inconvenience,
 39661     A piece of ordnance 'gainst it I have plac'd;
 39662     And even these three days have I watch'd
 39663     If I could see them. Now do thou watch,
 39664     For I can stay no longer.
 39665     If thou spy'st any, run and bring me word;
 39666     And thou shalt find me at the Governor's.               Exit
 39667   BOY. Father, I warrant you; take you no care;
 39668     I'll never trouble you, if I may spy them.              Exit
 39669 
 39670           Enter SALISBURY and TALBOT on the turrets, with
 39671             SIR WILLIAM GLANSDALE, SIR THOMAS GARGRAVE,
 39672                             and others
 39673 
 39674   SALISBURY. Talbot, my life, my joy, again return'd!
 39675     How wert thou handled being prisoner?
 39676     Or by what means got'st thou to be releas'd?
 39677     Discourse, I prithee, on this turret's top.
 39678   TALBOT. The Earl of Bedford had a prisoner
 39679     Call'd the brave Lord Ponton de Santrailles;
 39680     For him was I exchang'd and ransomed.
 39681     But with a baser man of arms by far
 39682     Once, in contempt, they would have barter'd me;
 39683     Which I disdaining scorn'd, and craved death
 39684     Rather than I would be so vile esteem'd.
 39685     In fine, redeem'd I was as I desir'd.
 39686     But, O! the treacherous Fastolfe wounds my heart
 39687     Whom with my bare fists I would execute,
 39688     If I now had him brought into my power.
 39689   SALISBURY. Yet tell'st thou not how thou wert entertain'd.
 39690   TALBOT. With scoffs, and scorns, and contumelious taunts,
 39691     In open market-place produc'd they me
 39692     To be a public spectacle to all;
 39693     Here, said they, is the terror of the French,
 39694     The scarecrow that affrights our children so.
 39695     Then broke I from the officers that led me,
 39696     And with my nails digg'd stones out of the ground
 39697     To hurl at the beholders of my shame;
 39698     My grisly countenance made others fly;
 39699     None durst come near for fear of sudden death.
 39700     In iron walls they deem'd me not secure;
 39701     So great fear of my name 'mongst them was spread
 39702     That they suppos'd I could rend bars of steel
 39703     And spurn in pieces posts of adamant;
 39704     Wherefore a guard of chosen shot I had
 39705     That walk'd about me every minute-while;
 39706     And if I did but stir out of my bed,
 39707     Ready they were to shoot me to the heart.
 39708 
 39709                 Enter the BOY with a linstock
 39710 
 39711   SALISBURY. I grieve to hear what torments you endur'd;
 39712     But we will be reveng'd sufficiently.
 39713     Now it is supper-time in Orleans:
 39714     Here, through this grate, I count each one
 39715     And view the Frenchmen how they fortify.
 39716     Let us look in; the sight will much delight thee.
 39717     Sir Thomas Gargrave and Sir William Glansdale,
 39718     Let me have your express opinions
 39719     Where is best place to make our batt'ry next.
 39720   GARGRAVE. I think at the North Gate; for there stand lords.
 39721   GLANSDALE. And I here, at the bulwark of the bridge.
 39722   TALBOT. For aught I see, this city must be famish'd,
 39723     Or with light skirmishes enfeebled.
 39724                      [Here they shoot and SALISBURY and GARGRAVE
 39725                                                       fall down]
 39726   SALISBURY. O Lord, have mercy on us, wretched sinners!
 39727   GARGRAVE. O Lord, have mercy on me, woeful man!
 39728   TALBOT. What chance is this that suddenly hath cross'd us?
 39729     Speak, Salisbury; at least, if thou canst speak.
 39730     How far'st thou, mirror of all martial men?
 39731     One of thy eyes and thy cheek's side struck off!
 39732     Accursed tower! accursed fatal hand
 39733     That hath contriv'd this woeful tragedy!
 39734     In thirteen battles Salisbury o'ercame;
 39735     Henry the Fifth he first train'd to the wars;
 39736     Whilst any trump did sound or drum struck up,
 39737     His sword did ne'er leave striking in the field.
 39738     Yet liv'st thou, Salisbury? Though thy speech doth fail,
 39739     One eye thou hast to look to heaven for grace;
 39740     The sun with one eye vieweth all the world.
 39741     Heaven, be thou gracious to none alive
 39742     If Salisbury wants mercy at thy hands!
 39743     Bear hence his body; I will help to bury it.
 39744     Sir Thomas Gargrave, hast thou any life?
 39745     Speak unto Talbot; nay, look up to him.
 39746     Salisbury, cheer thy spirit with this comfort,
 39747     Thou shalt not die whiles
 39748     He beckons with his hand and smiles on me,
 39749     As who should say 'When I am dead and gone,
 39750     Remember to avenge me on the French.'
 39751     Plantagenet, I will; and like thee, Nero,
 39752     Play on the lute, beholding the towns burn.
 39753     Wretched shall France be only in my name.
 39754                   [Here an alarum, and it thunders and lightens]
 39755     What stir is this? What tumult's in the heavens?
 39756     Whence cometh this alarum and the noise?
 39757 
 39758                           Enter a MESSENGER
 39759 
 39760   MESSENGER. My lord, my lord, the French have gather'd
 39761     head
 39762     The Dauphin, with one Joan la Pucelle join'd,
 39763     A holy prophetess new risen up,
 39764     Is come with a great power to raise the siege.
 39765                   [Here SALISBURY lifteth himself up and groans]
 39766   TALBOT. Hear, hear how dying Salisbury doth groan.
 39767     It irks his heart he cannot be reveng'd.
 39768     Frenchmen, I'll be a Salisbury to you.
 39769     Pucelle or puzzel, dolphin or dogfish,
 39770     Your hearts I'll stamp out with my horse's heels
 39771     And make a quagmire of your mingled brains.
 39772     Convey me Salisbury into his tent,
 39773     And then we'll try what these dastard Frenchmen dare.
 39774                                                   Alarum. Exeunt
 39775 
 39776 
 39777 
 39778 
 39779                              SCENE 5.
 39780 
 39781                           Before Orleans
 39782 
 39783          Here an alarum again, and TALBOT pursueth the
 39784       DAUPHIN and driveth him. Then enter JOAN LA PUCELLE
 39785        driving Englishmen before her. Then enter TALBOT
 39786 
 39787   TALBOT. Where is my strength, my valour, and my force?
 39788     Our English troops retire, I cannot stay them;
 39789     A woman clad in armour chaseth them.
 39790 
 39791                           Enter LA PUCELLE
 39792 
 39793     Here, here she comes. I'll have a bout with thee.
 39794     Devil or devil's dam, I'll conjure thee;
 39795     Blood will I draw on thee-thou art a witch
 39796     And straightway give thy soul to him thou serv'st.
 39797   PUCELLE. Come, come, 'tis only I that must disgrace thee.
 39798                                                [Here they fight]
 39799   TALBOT. Heavens, can you suffer hell so to prevail?
 39800     My breast I'll burst with straining of my courage.
 39801     And from my shoulders crack my arms asunder,
 39802     But I will chastise this high minded strumpet.
 39803                                               [They fight again]
 39804   PUCELLE. Talbot, farewell; thy hour is not yet come.
 39805     I must go victual Orleans forthwith.
 39806              [A short alarum; then enter the town with soldiers]
 39807     O'ertake me if thou canst; I scorn thy strength.
 39808     Go, go, cheer up thy hungry starved men;
 39809     Help Salisbury to make his testament.
 39810     This day is ours, as many more shall be.                Exit
 39811   TALBOT. My thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel;
 39812     I know not where I am nor what I do.
 39813     A witch by fear, not force, like Hannibal,
 39814     Drives back our troops and conquers as she lists.
 39815     So bees with smoke and doves with noisome stench
 39816     Are from their hives and houses driven away.
 39817     They call'd us, for our fierceness, English dogs;
 39818     Now like to whelps we crying run away.
 39819                                                 [A short alarum]
 39820     Hark, countrymen! Either renew the fight
 39821     Or tear the lions out of England's coat;
 39822     Renounce your soil, give sheep in lions' stead:
 39823     Sheep run not half so treacherous from the wolf,
 39824     Or horse or oxen from the leopard,
 39825     As you fly from your oft subdued slaves.
 39826                                  [Alarum. Here another skirmish]
 39827     It will not be-retire into your trenches.
 39828     You all consented unto Salisbury's death,
 39829     For none would strike a stroke in his revenge.
 39830     Pucelle is ent'red into Orleans
 39831     In spite of us or aught that we could do.
 39832     O, would I were to die with Salisbury!
 39833     The shame hereof will make me hide my head.
 39834                                     Exit TALBOT. Alarum; retreat
 39835 
 39836 
 39837 
 39838                              SCENE 6.
 39839 
 39840                               ORLEANS
 39841 
 39842         Flourish. Enter on the walls, LA PUCELLE, CHARLES,
 39843                 REIGNIER, ALENCON, and soldiers
 39844 
 39845   PUCELLE. Advance our waving colours on the walls;
 39846     Rescu'd is Orleans from the English.
 39847     Thus Joan la Pucelle hath perform'd her word.
 39848   CHARLES. Divinest creature, Astraea's daughter,
 39849     How shall I honour thee for this success?
 39850     Thy promises are like Adonis' gardens,
 39851     That one day bloom'd and fruitful were the next.
 39852     France, triumph in thy glorious prophetess.
 39853     Recover'd is the town of Orleans.
 39854     More blessed hap did ne'er befall our state.
 39855   REIGNIER. Why ring not out the bells aloud throughout the
 39856     town?
 39857     Dauphin, command the citizens make bonfires
 39858     And feast and banquet in the open streets
 39859     To celebrate the joy that God hath given us.
 39860   ALENCON. All France will be replete with mirth and joy
 39861     When they shall hear how we have play'd the men.
 39862   CHARLES. 'Tis Joan, not we, by whom the day is won;
 39863     For which I will divide my crown with her;
 39864     And all the priests and friars in my realm
 39865     Shall in procession sing her endless praise.
 39866     A statelier pyramis to her I'll rear
 39867     Than Rhodope's of Memphis ever was.
 39868     In memory of her, when she is dead,
 39869     Her ashes, in an urn more precious
 39870     Than the rich jewel'd coffer of Darius,
 39871     Transported shall be at high festivals
 39872     Before the kings and queens of France.
 39873     No longer on Saint Denis will we cry,
 39874     But Joan la Pucelle shall be France's saint.
 39875     Come in, and let us banquet royally
 39876     After this golden day of victory. Flourish.           Exeunt
 39877 
 39878 
 39879 
 39880 
 39881 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 39882 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 39883 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 39884 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
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 39889 
 39890 
 39891 
 39892 ACT II. SCENE 1.
 39893 
 39894 Before Orleans
 39895 
 39896 Enter a FRENCH SERGEANT and two SENTINELS
 39897 
 39898   SERGEANT. Sirs, take your places and be vigilant.
 39899     If any noise or soldier you perceive
 39900     Near to the walls, by some apparent sign
 39901     Let us have knowledge at the court of guard.
 39902   FIRST SENTINEL. Sergeant, you shall.           [Exit SERGEANT]
 39903     Thus are poor servitors,
 39904     When others sleep upon their quiet beds,
 39905     Constrain'd to watch in darkness, rain, and cold.
 39906 
 39907              Enter TALBOT, BEDFORD, BURGUNDY, and forces,
 39908           with scaling-ladders; their drums beating a dead
 39909                               march
 39910 
 39911   TALBOT. Lord Regent, and redoubted Burgundy,
 39912     By whose approach the regions of Artois,
 39913     Wallon, and Picardy, are friends to us,
 39914     This happy night the Frenchmen are secure,
 39915     Having all day carous'd and banqueted;
 39916     Embrace we then this opportunity,
 39917     As fitting best to quittance their deceit,
 39918     Contriv'd by art and baleful sorcery.
 39919   BEDFORD. Coward of France, how much he wrongs his fame,
 39920     Despairing of his own arm's fortitude,
 39921     To join with witches and the help of hell!
 39922   BURGUNDY. Traitors have never other company.
 39923     But what's that Pucelle whom they term so pure?
 39924   TALBOT. A maid, they say.
 39925   BEDFORD. A maid! and be so martial!
 39926   BURGUNDY. Pray God she prove not masculine ere long,
 39927     If underneath the standard of the French
 39928     She carry armour as she hath begun.
 39929   TALBOT. Well, let them practise and converse with spirits:
 39930     God is our fortress, in whose conquering name
 39931     Let us resolve to scale their flinty bulwarks.
 39932   BEDFORD. Ascend, brave Talbot; we will follow thee.
 39933   TALBOT. Not all together; better far, I guess,
 39934     That we do make our entrance several ways;
 39935     That if it chance the one of us do fail
 39936     The other yet may rise against their force.
 39937   BEDFORD. Agreed; I'll to yond corner.
 39938   BURGUNDY. And I to this.
 39939   TALBOT. And here will Talbot mount or make his grave.
 39940     Now, Salisbury, for thee, and for the right
 39941     Of English Henry, shall this night appear
 39942     How much in duty I am bound to both.
 39943              [The English scale the walls and cry 'Saint George!
 39944                                                      a Talbot!']
 39945     SENTINEL. Arm! arm! The enemy doth make assault.
 39946 
 39947            The French leap o'er the walls in their shirts.
 39948            Enter, several ways, BASTARD, ALENCON, REIGNIER,
 39949                      half ready and half unready
 39950 
 39951   ALENCON. How now, my lords? What, all unready so?
 39952   BASTARD. Unready! Ay, and glad we 'scap'd so well.
 39953   REIGNIER. 'Twas time, I trow, to wake and leave our beds,
 39954     Hearing alarums at our chamber doors.
 39955   ALENCON. Of all exploits since first I follow'd arms
 39956     Ne'er heard I of a warlike enterprise
 39957     More venturous or desperate than this.
 39958   BASTARD. I think this Talbot be a fiend of hell.
 39959   REIGNIER. If not of hell, the heavens, sure, favour him
 39960   ALENCON. Here cometh Charles; I marvel how he sped.
 39961 
 39962                     Enter CHARLES and LA PUCELLE
 39963 
 39964   BASTARD. Tut! holy Joan was his defensive guard.
 39965   CHARLES. Is this thy cunning, thou deceitful dame?
 39966     Didst thou at first, to flatter us withal,
 39967     Make us partakers of a little gain
 39968     That now our loss might be ten times so much?
 39969   PUCELLE. Wherefore is Charles impatient with his friend?
 39970     At all times will you have my power alike?
 39971     Sleeping or waking, must I still prevail
 39972     Or will you blame and lay the fault on me?
 39973     Improvident soldiers! Had your watch been good
 39974     This sudden mischief never could have fall'n.
 39975   CHARLES. Duke of Alencon, this was your default
 39976     That, being captain of the watch to-night,
 39977     Did look no better to that weighty charge.
 39978   ALENCON. Had all your quarters been as safely kept
 39979     As that whereof I had the government,
 39980     We had not been thus shamefully surpris'd.
 39981   BASTARD. Mine was secure.
 39982   REIGNIER. And so was mine, my lord.
 39983   CHARLES. And, for myself, most part of all this night,
 39984     Within her quarter and mine own precinct
 39985     I was employ'd in passing to and fro
 39986     About relieving of the sentinels.
 39987     Then how or which way should they first break in?
 39988   PUCELLE. Question, my lords, no further of the case,
 39989     How or which way; 'tis sure they found some place
 39990     But weakly guarded, where the breach was made.
 39991     And now there rests no other shift but this
 39992     To gather our soldiers, scatter'd and dispers'd,
 39993     And lay new platforms to endamage them.
 39994 
 39995                Alarum. Enter an ENGLISH SOLDIER, crying
 39996             'A Talbot! A Talbot!' They fly, leaving their
 39997                            clothes behind
 39998 
 39999   SOLDIER. I'll be so bold to take what they have left.
 40000     The cry of Talbot serves me for a sword;
 40001     For I have loaden me with many spoils,
 40002     Using no other weapon but his name.                     Exit
 40003 
 40004 
 40005 
 40006 
 40007                              SCENE 2.
 40008 
 40009                       ORLEANS. Within the town
 40010 
 40011             Enter TALBOT, BEDFORD, BURGUNDY, a CAPTAIN,
 40012                            and others
 40013 
 40014   BEDFORD. The day begins to break, and night is fled
 40015     Whose pitchy mantle over-veil'd the earth.
 40016     Here sound retreat and cease our hot pursuit.
 40017                                                [Retreat sounded]
 40018   TALBOT. Bring forth the body of old Salisbury
 40019     And here advance it in the market-place,
 40020     The middle centre of this cursed town.
 40021     Now have I paid my vow unto his soul;
 40022     For every drop of blood was drawn from him
 40023     There hath at least five Frenchmen died to-night.
 40024     And that hereafter ages may behold
 40025     What ruin happened in revenge of him,
 40026     Within their chiefest temple I'll erect
 40027     A tomb, wherein his corpse shall be interr'd;
 40028     Upon the which, that every one may read,
 40029     Shall be engrav'd the sack of Orleans,
 40030     The treacherous manner of his mournful death,
 40031     And what a terror he had been to France.
 40032     But, lords, in all our bloody massacre,
 40033     I muse we met not with the Dauphin's grace,
 40034     His new-come champion, virtuous Joan of Arc,
 40035     Nor any of his false confederates.
 40036   BEDFORD. 'Tis thought, Lord Talbot, when the fight began,
 40037     Rous'd on the sudden from their drowsy beds,
 40038     They did amongst the troops of armed men
 40039     Leap o'er the walls for refuge in the field.
 40040   BURGUNDY. Myself, as far as I could well discern
 40041     For smoke and dusky vapours of the night,
 40042     Am sure I scar'd the Dauphin and his trull,
 40043     When arm in arm they both came swiftly running,
 40044     Like to a pair of loving turtle-doves
 40045     That could not live asunder day or night.
 40046     After that things are set in order here,
 40047     We'll follow them with all the power we have.
 40048 
 40049                           Enter a MESSENGER
 40050 
 40051   MESSENGER. All hail, my lords! Which of this princely train
 40052     Call ye the warlike Talbot, for his acts
 40053     So much applauded through the realm of France?
 40054   TALBOT. Here is the Talbot; who would speak with him?
 40055   MESSENGER. The virtuous lady, Countess of Auvergne,
 40056     With modesty admiring thy renown,
 40057     By me entreats, great lord, thou wouldst vouchsafe
 40058     To visit her poor castle where she lies,
 40059     That she may boast she hath beheld the man
 40060     Whose glory fills the world with loud report.
 40061   BURGUNDY. Is it even so? Nay, then I see our wars
 40062     Will turn into a peaceful comic sport,
 40063     When ladies crave to be encount'red with.
 40064     You may not, my lord, despise her gentle suit.
 40065   TALBOT. Ne'er trust me then; for when a world of men
 40066     Could not prevail with all their oratory,
 40067     Yet hath a woman's kindness overrul'd;
 40068     And therefore tell her I return great thanks
 40069     And in submission will attend on her.
 40070     Will not your honours bear me company?
 40071   BEDFORD. No, truly; 'tis more than manners will;
 40072     And I have heard it said unbidden guests
 40073     Are often welcomest when they are gone.
 40074   TALBOT. Well then, alone, since there's no remedy,
 40075     I mean to prove this lady's courtesy.
 40076     Come hither, Captain.  [Whispers]   You perceive my mind?
 40077   CAPTAIN. I do, my lord, and mean accordingly.           Exeunt
 40078 
 40079 
 40080 
 40081 
 40082                              SCENE 3.
 40083 
 40084                       AUVERGNE. The Castle
 40085 
 40086                Enter the COUNTESS and her PORTER
 40087 
 40088   COUNTESS. Porter, remember what I gave in charge;
 40089     And when you have done so, bring the keys to me.
 40090   PORTER. Madam, I will.
 40091   COUNTESS. The plot is laid; if all things fall out right,
 40092     I shall as famous be by this exploit.
 40093     As Scythian Tomyris by Cyrus' death.
 40094     Great is the rumour of this dreadful knight,
 40095     And his achievements of no less account.
 40096     Fain would mine eyes be witness with mine ears
 40097     To give their censure of these rare reports.
 40098 
 40099     Enter MESSENGER and TALBOT.
 40100 
 40101   MESSENGER. Madam, according as your ladyship desir'd,
 40102     By message crav'd, so is Lord Talbot come.
 40103   COUNTESS. And he is welcome. What! is this the man?
 40104   MESSENGER. Madam, it is.
 40105   COUNTESS. Is this the scourge of France?
 40106     Is this Talbot, so much fear'd abroad
 40107     That with his name the mothers still their babes?
 40108     I see report is fabulous and false.
 40109     I thought I should have seen some Hercules,
 40110     A second Hector, for his grim aspect
 40111     And large proportion of his strong-knit limbs.
 40112     Alas, this is a child, a silly dwarf!
 40113     It cannot be this weak and writhled shrimp
 40114     Should strike such terror to his enemies.
 40115   TALBOT. Madam, I have been bold to trouble you;
 40116     But since your ladyship is not at leisure,
 40117     I'll sort some other time to visit you.              [Going]
 40118   COUNTESS. What means he now? Go ask him whither he
 40119     goes.
 40120   MESSENGER. Stay, my Lord Talbot; for my lady craves
 40121     To know the cause of your abrupt departure.
 40122   TALBOT. Marry, for that she's in a wrong belief,
 40123     I go to certify her Talbot's here.
 40124 
 40125                       Re-enter PORTER With keys
 40126 
 40127   COUNTESS. If thou be he, then art thou prisoner.
 40128   TALBOT. Prisoner! To whom?
 40129   COUNTESS. To me, blood-thirsty lord
 40130     And for that cause I train'd thee to my house.
 40131     Long time thy shadow hath been thrall to me,
 40132     For in my gallery thy picture hangs;
 40133     But now the substance shall endure the like
 40134     And I will chain these legs and arms of thine
 40135     That hast by tyranny these many years
 40136     Wasted our country, slain our citizens,
 40137     And sent our sons and husbands captivate.
 40138   TALBOT. Ha, ha, ha!
 40139   COUNTESS. Laughest thou, wretch? Thy mirth shall turn to
 40140     moan.
 40141   TALBOT. I laugh to see your ladyship so fond
 40142     To think that you have aught but Talbot's shadow
 40143     Whereon to practise your severity.
 40144   COUNTESS. Why, art not thou the man?
 40145   TALBOT. I am indeed.
 40146   COUNTESS. Then have I substance too.
 40147   TALBOT. No, no, I am but shadow of myself.
 40148     You are deceiv'd, my substance is not here;
 40149     For what you see is but the smallest part
 40150     And least proportion of humanity.
 40151     I tell you, madam, were the whole frame here,
 40152     It is of such a spacious lofty pitch
 40153     Your roof were not sufficient to contain 't.
 40154   COUNTESS. This is a riddling merchant for the nonce;
 40155     He will be here, and yet he is not here.
 40156     How can these contrarieties agree?
 40157   TALBOT. That will I show you presently.
 40158 
 40159                    Winds his horn; drums strike up;
 40160                   a peal of ordnance. Enter soldiers
 40161 
 40162     How say you, madam? Are you now persuaded
 40163     That Talbot is but shadow of himself?
 40164     These are his substance, sinews, arms, and strength,
 40165     With which he yoketh your rebellious necks,
 40166     Razeth your cities, and subverts your towns,
 40167     And in a moment makes them desolate.
 40168   COUNTESS. Victorious Talbot! pardon my abuse.
 40169     I find thou art no less than fame hath bruited,
 40170     And more than may be gathered by thy shape.
 40171     Let my presumption not provoke thy wrath,
 40172     For I am sorry that with reverence
 40173     I did not entertain thee as thou art.
 40174   TALBOT. Be not dismay'd, fair lady; nor misconster
 40175     The mind of Talbot as you did mistake
 40176     The outward composition of his body.
 40177     What you have done hath not offended me.
 40178     Nor other satisfaction do I crave
 40179     But only, with your patience, that we may
 40180     Taste of your wine and see what cates you have,
 40181     For soldiers' stomachs always serve them well.
 40182   COUNTESS. With all my heart, and think me honoured
 40183     To feast so great a warrior in my house.              Exeunt
 40184 
 40185 
 40186 
 40187 
 40188                             SCENE 4.
 40189 
 40190                    London. The Temple garden
 40191 
 40192          Enter the EARLS OF SOMERSET, SUFFOLK, and WARWICK;
 40193            RICHARD PLANTAGENET, VERNON, and another LAWYER
 40194 
 40195   PLANTAGENET. Great lords and gentlemen, what means this
 40196     silence?
 40197     Dare no man answer in a case of truth?
 40198   SUFFOLK. Within the Temple Hall we were too loud;
 40199     The garden here is more convenient.
 40200   PLANTAGENET. Then say at once if I maintain'd the truth;
 40201     Or else was wrangling Somerset in th' error?
 40202   SUFFOLK. Faith, I have been a truant in the law
 40203     And never yet could frame my will to it;
 40204     And therefore frame the law unto my will.
 40205   SOMERSET. Judge you, my Lord of Warwick, then, between us.
 40206   WARWICK. Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch;
 40207     Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth;
 40208     Between two blades, which bears the better temper;
 40209     Between two horses, which doth bear him best;
 40210     Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye
 40211     I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgment;
 40212     But in these nice sharp quillets of the law,
 40213     Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw.
 40214   PLANTAGENET. Tut, tut, here is a mannerly forbearance:
 40215     The truth appears so naked on my side
 40216     That any purblind eye may find it out.
 40217   SOMERSET. And on my side it is so well apparell'd,
 40218     So clear, so shining, and so evident,
 40219     That it will glimmer through a blind man's eye.
 40220   PLANTAGENET. Since you are tongue-tied and so loath to speak,
 40221     In dumb significants proclaim your thoughts.
 40222     Let him that is a true-born gentleman
 40223     And stands upon the honour of his birth,
 40224     If he suppose that I have pleaded truth,
 40225     From off this brier pluck a white rose with me.
 40226   SOMERSET. Let him that is no coward nor no flatterer,
 40227     But dare maintain the party of the truth,
 40228     Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me.
 40229   WARWICK. I love no colours; and, without all colour
 40230     Of base insinuating flattery,
 40231     I pluck this white rose with Plantagenet.
 40232   SUFFOLK. I pluck this red rose with young Somerset,
 40233     And say withal I think he held the right.
 40234   VERNON. Stay, lords and gentlemen, and pluck no more
 40235     Till you conclude that he upon whose side
 40236     The fewest roses are cropp'd from the tree
 40237     Shall yield the other in the right opinion.
 40238   SOMERSET. Good Master Vernon, it is well objected;
 40239     If I have fewest, I subscribe in silence.
 40240   PLANTAGENET. And I.
 40241   VERNON. Then, for the truth and plainness of the case,
 40242     I pluck this pale and maiden blossom here,
 40243     Giving my verdict on the white rose side.
 40244   SOMERSET. Prick not your finger as you pluck it off,
 40245     Lest, bleeding, you do paint the white rose red,
 40246     And fall on my side so, against your will.
 40247   VERNON. If I, my lord, for my opinion bleed,
 40248     Opinion shall be surgeon to my hurt
 40249     And keep me on the side where still I am.
 40250   SOMERSET. Well, well, come on; who else?
 40251   LAWYER.  [To Somerset]  Unless my study and my books be
 40252     false,
 40253     The argument you held was wrong in you;
 40254     In sign whereof I pluck a white rose too.
 40255   PLANTAGENET. Now, Somerset, where is your argument?
 40256   SOMERSET. Here in my scabbard, meditating that
 40257     Shall dye your white rose in a bloody red.
 40258   PLANTAGENET. Meantime your cheeks do counterfeit our
 40259     roses;
 40260     For pale they look with fear, as witnessing
 40261     The truth on our side.
 40262   SOMERSET. No, Plantagenet,
 40263     'Tis not for fear but anger that thy cheeks
 40264     Blush for pure shame to counterfeit our roses,
 40265     And yet thy tongue will not confess thy error.
 40266   PLANTAGENET. Hath not thy rose a canker, Somerset?
 40267   SOMERSET. Hath not thy rose a thorn, Plantagenet?
 40268   PLANTAGENET. Ay, sharp and piercing, to maintain his truth;
 40269     Whiles thy consuming canker eats his falsehood.
 40270   SOMERSET. Well, I'll find friends to wear my bleeding roses,
 40271     That shall maintain what I have said is true,
 40272     Where false Plantagenet dare not be seen.
 40273   PLANTAGENET. Now, by this maiden blossom in my hand,
 40274     I scorn thee and thy fashion, peevish boy.
 40275   SUFFOLK. Turn not thy scorns this way, Plantagenet.
 40276   PLANTAGENET. Proud Pole, I will, and scorn both him and
 40277     thee.
 40278   SUFFOLK. I'll turn my part thereof into thy throat.
 40279   SOMERSET. Away, away, good William de la Pole!
 40280     We grace the yeoman by conversing with him.
 40281   WARWICK. Now, by God's will, thou wrong'st him, Somerset;
 40282     His grandfather was Lionel Duke of Clarence,
 40283     Third son to the third Edward, King of England.
 40284     Spring crestless yeomen from so deep a root?
 40285   PLANTAGENET. He bears him on the place's privilege,
 40286     Or durst not for his craven heart say thus.
 40287   SOMERSET. By Him that made me, I'll maintain my words
 40288     On any plot of ground in Christendom.
 40289     Was not thy father, Richard Earl of Cambridge,
 40290     For treason executed in our late king's days?
 40291     And by his treason stand'st not thou attainted,
 40292     Corrupted, and exempt from ancient gentry?
 40293     His trespass yet lives guilty in thy blood;
 40294     And till thou be restor'd thou art a yeoman.
 40295   PLANTAGENET. My father was attached, not attainted;
 40296     Condemn'd to die for treason, but no traitor;
 40297     And that I'll prove on better men than Somerset,
 40298     Were growing time once ripened to my will.
 40299     For your partaker Pole, and you yourself,
 40300     I'll note you in my book of memory
 40301     To scourge you for this apprehension.
 40302     Look to it well, and say you are well warn'd.
 40303   SOMERSET. Ay, thou shalt find us ready for thee still;
 40304     And know us by these colours for thy foes
 40305     For these my friends in spite of thee shall wear.
 40306   PLANTAGENET. And, by my soul, this pale and angry rose,
 40307     As cognizance of my blood-drinking hate,
 40308     Will I for ever, and my faction, wear,
 40309     Until it wither with me to my grave,
 40310     Or flourish to the height of my degree.
 40311   SUFFOLK. Go forward, and be chok'd with thy ambition!
 40312     And so farewell until I meet thee next.                 Exit
 40313   SOMERSET. Have with thee, Pole. Farewell, ambitious
 40314     Richard.                                                Exit
 40315   PLANTAGENET. How I am brav'd, and must perforce endure
 40316     it!
 40317   WARWICK. This blot that they object against your house
 40318     Shall be wip'd out in the next Parliament,
 40319     Call'd for the truce of Winchester and Gloucester;
 40320     And if thou be not then created York,
 40321     I will not live to be accounted Warwick.
 40322     Meantime, in signal of my love to thee,
 40323     Against proud Somerset and William Pole,
 40324     Will I upon thy party wear this rose;
 40325     And here I prophesy: this brawl to-day,
 40326     Grown to this faction in the Temple Garden,
 40327     Shall send between the Red Rose and the White
 40328     A thousand souls to death and deadly night.
 40329   PLANTAGENET. Good Master Vernon, I am bound to you
 40330     That you on my behalf would pluck a flower.
 40331   VERNON. In your behalf still will I wear the same.
 40332   LAWYER. And so will I.
 40333   PLANTAGENET. Thanks, gentle sir.
 40334     Come, let us four to dinner. I dare say
 40335     This quarrel will drink blood another day.            Exeunt
 40336 
 40337 
 40338 
 40339 
 40340                              SCENE 5.
 40341 
 40342                        The Tower of London
 40343 
 40344          Enter MORTIMER, brought in a chair, and GAOLERS
 40345 
 40346   MORTIMER. Kind keepers of my weak decaying age,
 40347     Let dying Mortimer here rest himself.
 40348     Even like a man new haled from the rack,
 40349     So fare my limbs with long imprisonment;
 40350     And these grey locks, the pursuivants of death,
 40351     Nestor-like aged in an age of care,
 40352     Argue the end of Edmund Mortimer.
 40353     These eyes, like lamps whose wasting oil is spent,
 40354     Wax dim, as drawing to their exigent;
 40355     Weak shoulders, overborne with burdening grief,
 40356     And pithless arms, like to a withered vine
 40357     That droops his sapless branches to the ground.
 40358     Yet are these feet, whose strengthless stay is numb,
 40359     Unable to support this lump of clay,
 40360     Swift-winged with desire to get a grave,
 40361     As witting I no other comfort have.
 40362     But tell me, keeper, will my nephew come?
 40363   FIRST KEEPER. Richard Plantagenet, my lord, will come.
 40364     We sent unto the Temple, unto his chamber;
 40365     And answer was return'd that he will come.
 40366   MORTIMER. Enough; my soul shall then be satisfied.
 40367     Poor gentleman! his wrong doth equal mine.
 40368     Since Henry Monmouth first began to reign,
 40369     Before whose glory I was great in arms,
 40370     This loathsome sequestration have I had;
 40371     And even since then hath Richard been obscur'd,
 40372     Depriv'd of honour and inheritance.
 40373     But now the arbitrator of despairs,
 40374     Just Death, kind umpire of men's miseries,
 40375     With sweet enlargement doth dismiss me hence.
 40376     I would his troubles likewise were expir'd,
 40377     That so he might recover what was lost.
 40378 
 40379                      Enter RICHARD PLANTAGENET
 40380 
 40381   FIRST KEEPER. My lord, your loving nephew now is come.
 40382   MORTIMER. Richard Plantagenet, my friend, is he come?
 40383   PLANTAGENET. Ay, noble uncle, thus ignobly us'd,
 40384     Your nephew, late despised Richard, comes.
 40385   MORTIMER. Direct mine arms I may embrace his neck
 40386     And in his bosom spend my latter gasp.
 40387     O, tell me when my lips do touch his cheeks,
 40388     That I may kindly give one fainting kiss.
 40389     And now declare, sweet stem from York's great stock,
 40390     Why didst thou say of late thou wert despis'd?
 40391   PLANTAGENET. First, lean thine aged back against mine arm;
 40392     And, in that ease, I'll tell thee my disease.
 40393     This day, in argument upon a case,
 40394     Some words there grew 'twixt Somerset and me;
 40395     Among which terms he us'd his lavish tongue
 40396     And did upbraid me with my father's death;
 40397     Which obloquy set bars before my tongue,
 40398     Else with the like I had requited him.
 40399     Therefore, good uncle, for my father's sake,
 40400     In honour of a true Plantagenet,
 40401     And for alliance sake, declare the cause
 40402     My father, Earl of Cambridge, lost his head.
 40403   MORTIMER. That cause, fair nephew, that imprison'd me
 40404     And hath detain'd me all my flow'ring youth
 40405     Within a loathsome dungeon, there to pine,
 40406     Was cursed instrument of his decease.
 40407   PLANTAGENET. Discover more at large what cause that was,
 40408     For I am ignorant and cannot guess.
 40409   MORTIMER. I will, if that my fading breath permit
 40410     And death approach not ere my tale be done.
 40411     Henry the Fourth, grandfather to this king,
 40412     Depos'd his nephew Richard, Edward's son,
 40413     The first-begotten and the lawful heir
 40414     Of Edward king, the third of that descent;
 40415     During whose reign the Percies of the north,
 40416     Finding his usurpation most unjust,
 40417     Endeavour'd my advancement to the throne.
 40418     The reason mov'd these warlike lords to this
 40419     Was, for that-young Richard thus remov'd,
 40420     Leaving no heir begotten of his body-
 40421     I was the next by birth and parentage;
 40422     For by my mother I derived am
 40423     From Lionel Duke of Clarence, third son
 40424     To King Edward the Third; whereas he
 40425     From John of Gaunt doth bring his pedigree,
 40426     Being but fourth of that heroic line.
 40427     But mark: as in this haughty great attempt
 40428     They laboured to plant the rightful heir,
 40429     I lost my liberty, and they their lives.
 40430     Long after this, when Henry the Fifth,
 40431     Succeeding his father Bolingbroke, did reign,
 40432     Thy father, Earl of Cambridge, then deriv'd
 40433     From famous Edmund Langley, Duke of York,
 40434     Marrying my sister, that thy mother was,
 40435     Again, in pity of my hard distress,
 40436     Levied an army, weening to redeem
 40437     And have install'd me in the diadem;
 40438     But, as the rest, so fell that noble earl,
 40439     And was beheaded. Thus the Mortimers,
 40440     In whom the title rested, were suppress'd.
 40441   PLANTAGENET. Of Which, my lord, your honour is the last.
 40442   MORTIMER. True; and thou seest that I no issue have,
 40443     And that my fainting words do warrant death.
 40444     Thou art my heir; the rest I wish thee gather;
 40445     But yet be wary in thy studious care.
 40446   PLANTAGENET. Thy grave admonishments prevail with me.
 40447     But yet methinks my father's execution
 40448     Was nothing less than bloody tyranny.
 40449   MORTIMER. With silence, nephew, be thou politic;
 40450     Strong fixed is the house of Lancaster
 40451     And like a mountain not to be remov'd.
 40452     But now thy uncle is removing hence,
 40453     As princes do their courts when they are cloy'd
 40454     With long continuance in a settled place.
 40455   PLANTAGENET. O uncle, would some part of my young years
 40456     Might but redeem the passage of your age!
 40457   MORTIMER. Thou dost then wrong me, as that slaughterer
 40458     doth
 40459     Which giveth many wounds when one will kill.
 40460     Mourn not, except thou sorrow for my good;
 40461     Only give order for my funeral.
 40462     And so, farewell; and fair be all thy hopes,
 40463     And prosperous be thy life in peace and war!          [Dies]
 40464   PLANTAGENET. And peace, no war, befall thy parting soul!
 40465     In prison hast thou spent a pilgrimage,
 40466     And like a hermit overpass'd thy days.
 40467     Well, I will lock his counsel in my breast;
 40468     And what I do imagine, let that rest.
 40469     Keepers, convey him hence; and I myself
 40470     Will see his burial better than his life.
 40471                 Exeunt GAOLERS, hearing out the body of MORTIMER
 40472     Here dies the dusky torch of Mortimer,
 40473     Chok'd with ambition of the meaner sort;
 40474     And for those wrongs, those bitter injuries,
 40475     Which Somerset hath offer'd to my house,
 40476     I doubt not but with honour to redress;
 40477     And therefore haste I to the Parliament,
 40478     Either to be restored to my blood,
 40479     Or make my ill th' advantage of my good.                Exit
 40480 
 40481 
 40482 
 40483 
 40484 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 40485 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 40486 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 40487 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
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 40492 
 40493 
 40494 
 40495 ACT III. SCENE 1.
 40496 
 40497 London. The Parliament House
 40498 
 40499 Flourish. Enter the KING, EXETER, GLOUCESTER, WARWICK, SOMERSET, and SUFFOLK;
 40500 the BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, RICHARD PLANTAGENET, and others.
 40501 GLOUCESTER offers to put up a bill; WINCHESTER snatches it, and tears it
 40502 
 40503   WINCHESTER. Com'st thou with deep premeditated lines,
 40504     With written pamphlets studiously devis'd?
 40505     Humphrey of Gloucester, if thou canst accuse
 40506     Or aught intend'st to lay unto my charge,
 40507     Do it without invention, suddenly;
 40508     I with sudden and extemporal speech
 40509     Purpose to answer what thou canst object.
 40510   GLOUCESTER. Presumptuous priest, this place commands my
 40511     patience,
 40512     Or thou shouldst find thou hast dishonour'd me.
 40513     Think not, although in writing I preferr'd
 40514     The manner of thy vile outrageous crimes,
 40515     That therefore I have forg'd, or am not able
 40516     Verbatim to rehearse the method of my pen.
 40517     No, prelate; such is thy audacious wickedness,
 40518     Thy lewd, pestiferous, and dissentious pranks,
 40519     As very infants prattle of thy pride.
 40520     Thou art a most pernicious usurer;
 40521     Froward by nature, enemy to peace;
 40522     Lascivious, wanton, more than well beseems
 40523     A man of thy profession and degree;
 40524     And for thy treachery, what's more manifest
 40525     In that thou laid'st a trap to take my life,
 40526     As well at London Bridge as at the Tower?
 40527     Beside, I fear me, if thy thoughts were sifted,
 40528     The King, thy sovereign, is not quite exempt
 40529     From envious malice of thy swelling heart.
 40530   WINCHESTER. Gloucester, I do defy thee. Lords, vouchsafe
 40531     To give me hearing what I shall reply.
 40532     If I were covetous, ambitious, or perverse,
 40533     As he will have me, how am I so poor?
 40534     Or how haps it I seek not to advance
 40535     Or raise myself, but keep my wonted calling?
 40536     And for dissension, who preferreth peace
 40537     More than I do, except I be provok'd?
 40538     No, my good lords, it is not that offends;
 40539     It is not that that incens'd hath incens'd the Duke:
 40540     It is because no one should sway but he;
 40541     No one but he should be about the King;
 40542     And that engenders thunder in his breast
 40543     And makes him roar these accusations forth.
 40544     But he shall know I am as good
 40545   GLOUCESTER. As good!
 40546     Thou bastard of my grandfather!
 40547   WINCHESTER. Ay, lordly sir; for what are you, I pray,
 40548     But one imperious in another's throne?
 40549   GLOUCESTER. Am I not Protector, saucy priest?
 40550   WINCHESTER. And am not I a prelate of the church?
 40551   GLOUCESTER. Yes, as an outlaw in a castle keeps,
 40552     And useth it to patronage his theft.
 40553   WINCHESTER. Unreverent Gloucester!
 40554   GLOUCESTER. Thou art reverend
 40555     Touching thy spiritual function, not thy life.
 40556   WINCHESTER. Rome shall remedy this.
 40557   WARWICK. Roam thither then.
 40558   SOMERSET. My lord, it were your duty to forbear.
 40559   WARWICK. Ay, see the bishop be not overborne.
 40560   SOMERSET. Methinks my lord should be religious,
 40561     And know the office that belongs to such.
 40562   WARWICK. Methinks his lordship should be humbler;
 40563     It fitteth not a prelate so to plead.
 40564   SOMERSET. Yes, when his holy state is touch'd so near.
 40565   WARWICK. State holy or unhallow'd, what of that?
 40566     Is not his Grace Protector to the King?
 40567   PLANTAGENET.  [Aside]  Plantagenet, I see, must hold his
 40568     tongue,
 40569     Lest it be said 'Speak, sirrah, when you should;
 40570     Must your bold verdict enter talk with lords?'
 40571     Else would I have a fling at Winchester.
 40572   KING HENRY. Uncles of Gloucester and of Winchester,
 40573     The special watchmen of our English weal,
 40574     I would prevail, if prayers might prevail
 40575     To join your hearts in love and amity.
 40576     O, what a scandal is it to our crown
 40577     That two such noble peers as ye should jar!
 40578     Believe me, lords, my tender years can tell
 40579     Civil dissension is a viperous worm
 40580     That gnaws the bowels of the commonwealth.
 40581                   [A noise within: 'Down with the tawny coats!']
 40582     What tumult's this?
 40583   WARWICK. An uproar, I dare warrant,
 40584     Begun through malice of the Bishop's men.
 40585                               [A noise again: 'Stones! Stones!']
 40586 
 40587                 Enter the MAYOR OF LONDON, attended
 40588 
 40589   MAYOR. O, my good lords, and virtuous Henry,
 40590     Pity the city of London, pity us!
 40591     The Bishop and the Duke of Gloucester's men,
 40592     Forbidden late to carry any weapon,
 40593     Have fill'd their pockets full of pebble stones
 40594     And, banding themselves in contrary parts,
 40595     Do pelt so fast at one another's pate
 40596     That many have their giddy brains knock'd out.
 40597     Our windows are broke down in every street,
 40598     And we for fear compell'd to shut our shops.
 40599 
 40600         Enter in skirmish, the retainers of GLOUCESTER and
 40601                WINCHESTER, with bloody pates
 40602 
 40603   KING HENRY. We charge you, on allegiance to ourself,
 40604     To hold your slaught'ring hands and keep the peace.
 40605     Pray, uncle Gloucester, mitigate this strife.
 40606   FIRST SERVING-MAN. Nay, if we be forbidden stones, we'll
 40607     fall to it with our teeth.
 40608   SECOND SERVING-MAN. Do what ye dare, we are as resolute.
 40609                                                 [Skirmish again]
 40610   GLOUCESTER. You of my household, leave this peevish broil,
 40611     And set this unaccustom'd fight aside.
 40612   THIRD SERVING-MAN. My lord, we know your Grace to be a
 40613     man
 40614     Just and upright, and for your royal birth
 40615     Inferior to none but to his Majesty;
 40616     And ere that we will suffer such a prince,
 40617     So kind a father of the commonweal,
 40618     To be disgraced by an inkhorn mate,
 40619     We and our wives and children all will fight
 40620     And have our bodies slaught'red by thy foes.
 40621   FIRST SERVING-MAN. Ay, and the very parings of our nails
 40622     Shall pitch a field when we are dead.          [Begin again]
 40623   GLOUCESTER. Stay, stay, I say!
 40624     And if you love me, as you say you do,
 40625     Let me persuade you to forbear awhile.
 40626   KING HENRY. O, how this discord doth afflict my soul!
 40627     Can you, my Lord of Winchester, behold
 40628     My sighs and tears and will not once relent?
 40629     Who should be pitiful, if you be not?
 40630     Or who should study to prefer a peace,
 40631     If holy churchmen take delight in broils?
 40632   WARWICK. Yield, my Lord Protector; yield, Winchester;
 40633     Except you mean with obstinate repulse
 40634     To slay your sovereign and destroy the realm.
 40635     You see what mischief, and what murder too,
 40636     Hath been enacted through your enmity;
 40637     Then be at peace, except ye thirst for blood.
 40638   WINCHESTER. He shall submit, or I will never yield.
 40639   GLOUCESTER. Compassion on the King commands me stoop,
 40640     Or I would see his heart out ere the priest
 40641     Should ever get that privilege of me.
 40642   WARWICK. Behold, my Lord of Winchester, the Duke
 40643     Hath banish'd moody discontented fury,
 40644     As by his smoothed brows it doth appear;
 40645     Why look you still so stem and tragical?
 40646   GLOUCESTER. Here, Winchester, I offer thee my hand.
 40647   KING HENRY. Fie, uncle Beaufort! I have heard you preach
 40648     That malice was a great and grievous sin;
 40649     And will not you maintain the thing you teach,
 40650     But prove a chief offender in the same?
 40651   WARWICK. Sweet King! The Bishop hath a kindly gird.
 40652     For shame, my Lord of Winchester, relent;
 40653     What, shall a child instruct you what to do?
 40654   WINCHESTER. Well, Duke of Gloucester, I will yield to thee;
 40655     Love for thy love and hand for hand I give.
 40656   GLOUCESTER  [Aside]  Ay, but, I fear me, with a hollow
 40657     heart.
 40658     See here, my friends and loving countrymen:
 40659     This token serveth for a flag of truce
 40660     Betwixt ourselves and all our followers.
 40661     So help me God, as I dissemble not!
 40662   WINCHESTER  [Aside]  So help me God, as I intend it not!
 40663   KING HENRY. O loving uncle, kind Duke of Gloucester,
 40664     How joyful am I made by this contract!
 40665     Away, my masters! trouble us no more;
 40666     But join in friendship, as your lords have done.
 40667   FIRST SERVING-MAN. Content: I'll to the surgeon's.
 40668   SECOND SERVING-MAN. And so will I.
 40669   THIRD SERVING-MAN. And I will see what physic the tavern
 40670     affords.                         Exeunt servants, MAYOR, &C.
 40671   WARWICK. Accept this scroll, most gracious sovereign;
 40672     Which in the right of Richard Plantagenet
 40673     We do exhibit to your Majesty.
 40674   GLOUCESTER. Well urg'd, my Lord of Warwick; for, sweet
 40675     prince,
 40676     An if your Grace mark every circumstance,
 40677     You have great reason to do Richard right;
 40678     Especially for those occasions
 40679     At Eltham Place I told your Majesty.
 40680   KING HENRY. And those occasions, uncle, were of force;
 40681     Therefore, my loving lords, our pleasure is
 40682     That Richard be restored to his blood.
 40683   WARWICK. Let Richard be restored to his blood;
 40684     So shall his father's wrongs be recompens'd.
 40685   WINCHESTER. As will the rest, so willeth Winchester.
 40686   KING HENRY. If Richard will be true, not that alone
 40687     But all the whole inheritance I give
 40688     That doth belong unto the house of York,
 40689     From whence you spring by lineal descent.
 40690   PLANTAGENET. Thy humble servant vows obedience
 40691     And humble service till the point of death.
 40692   KING HENRY. Stoop then and set your knee against my foot;
 40693     And in reguerdon of that duty done
 40694     I girt thee with the valiant sword of York.
 40695     Rise, Richard, like a true Plantagenet,
 40696     And rise created princely Duke of York.
 40697   PLANTAGENET. And so thrive Richard as thy foes may fall!
 40698     And as my duty springs, so perish they
 40699     That grudge one thought against your Majesty!
 40700   ALL. Welcome, high Prince, the mighty Duke of York!
 40701   SOMERSET.  [Aside]  Perish, base Prince, ignoble Duke of
 40702     York!
 40703   GLOUCESTER. Now will it best avail your Majesty
 40704     To cross the seas and to be crown'd in France:
 40705     The presence of a king engenders love
 40706     Amongst his subjects and his loyal friends,
 40707     As it disanimates his enemies.
 40708   KING HENRY. When Gloucester says the word, King Henry
 40709     goes;
 40710     For friendly counsel cuts off many foes.
 40711   GLOUCESTER. Your ships already are in readiness.
 40712                          Sennet. Flourish. Exeunt all but EXETER
 40713   EXETER. Ay, we may march in England or in France,
 40714     Not seeing what is likely to ensue.
 40715     This late dissension grown betwixt the peers
 40716     Burns under feigned ashes of forg'd love
 40717     And will at last break out into a flame;
 40718     As fest'red members rot but by degree
 40719     Till bones and flesh and sinews fall away,
 40720     So will this base and envious discord breed.
 40721     And now I fear that fatal prophecy.
 40722     Which in the time of Henry nam'd the Fifth
 40723     Was in the mouth of every sucking babe:
 40724     That Henry born at Monmouth should win all,
 40725     And Henry born at Windsor should lose all.
 40726     Which is so plain that Exeter doth wish
 40727     His days may finish ere that hapless time.              Exit
 40728 
 40729 
 40730 
 40731 
 40732                              SCENE 2.
 40733 
 40734                       France. Before Rouen
 40735 
 40736        Enter LA PUCELLE disguis'd, with four soldiers dressed
 40737             like countrymen, with sacks upon their backs
 40738 
 40739   PUCELLE. These are the city gates, the gates of Rouen,
 40740     Through which our policy must make a breach.
 40741     Take heed, be wary how you place your words;
 40742     Talk like the vulgar sort of market-men
 40743     That come to gather money for their corn.
 40744     If we have entrance, as I hope we shall,
 40745     And that we find the slothful watch but weak,
 40746     I'll by a sign give notice to our friends,
 40747     That Charles the Dauphin may encounter them.
 40748   FIRST SOLDIER. Our sacks shall be a mean to sack the city,
 40749     And we be lords and rulers over Rouen;
 40750     Therefore we'll knock.                              [Knocks]
 40751   WATCH.  [Within]  Qui est la?
 40752   PUCELLE. Paysans, pauvres gens de France
 40753     Poor market-folks that come to sell their corn.
 40754   WATCH. Enter, go in; the market-bell is rung.
 40755   PUCELLE. Now, Rouen, I'll shake thy bulwarks to the
 40756     ground.
 40757 
 40758                                [LA PUCELLE, &c., enter the town]
 40759 
 40760         Enter CHARLES, BASTARD, ALENCON, REIGNIER, and forces
 40761 
 40762   CHARLES. Saint Denis bless this happy stratagem!
 40763     And once again we'll sleep secure in Rouen.
 40764   BASTARD. Here ent'red Pucelle and her practisants;
 40765     Now she is there, how will she specify
 40766     Here is the best and safest passage in?
 40767   ALENCON. By thrusting out a torch from yonder tower;
 40768     Which once discern'd shows that her meaning is
 40769     No way to that, for weakness, which she ent'red.
 40770 
 40771              Enter LA PUCELLE, on the top, thrusting out
 40772                          a torch burning
 40773 
 40774   PUCELLE. Behold, this is the happy wedding torch
 40775     That joineth Rouen unto her countrymen,
 40776     But burning fatal to the Talbotites.                    Exit
 40777   BASTARD. See, noble Charles, the beacon of our friend;
 40778     The burning torch in yonder turret stands.
 40779   CHARLES. Now shine it like a comet of revenge,
 40780     A prophet to the fall of all our foes!
 40781   ALENCON. Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends;
 40782     Enter, and cry 'The Dauphin!' presently,
 40783     And then do execution on the watch. Alarum.           Exeunt
 40784 
 40785               An alarum. Enter TALBOT in an excursion
 40786 
 40787   TALBOT. France, thou shalt rue this treason with thy tears,
 40788     If Talbot but survive thy treachery.
 40789   PUCELLE, that witch, that damned sorceress,
 40790     Hath wrought this hellish mischief unawares,
 40791     That hardly we escap'd the pride of France.             Exit
 40792 
 40793         An alarum; excursions. BEDFORD brought in sick in
 40794           a chair. Enter TALBOT and BURGUNDY without;
 40795          within, LA PUCELLE, CHARLES, BASTARD, ALENCON,
 40796                  and REIGNIER, on the walls
 40797 
 40798   PUCELLE. Good morrow, gallants! Want ye corn for bread?
 40799     I think the Duke of Burgundy will fast
 40800     Before he'll buy again at such a rate.
 40801     'Twas full of darnel-do you like the taste?
 40802   BURGUNDY. Scoff on, vile fiend and shameless courtezan.
 40803     I trust ere long to choke thee with thine own,
 40804     And make thee curse the harvest of that corn.
 40805   CHARLES. Your Grace may starve, perhaps, before that time.
 40806   BEDFORD. O, let no words, but deeds, revenge this treason!
 40807   PUCELLE. What you do, good grey beard? Break a
 40808     lance,
 40809     And run a tilt at death within a chair?
 40810   TALBOT. Foul fiend of France and hag of all despite,
 40811     Encompass'd with thy lustful paramours,
 40812     Becomes it thee to taunt his valiant age
 40813     And twit with cowardice a man half dead?
 40814     Damsel, I'll have a bout with you again,
 40815     Or else let Talbot perish with this shame.
 40816   PUCELLE. Are ye so hot, sir? Yet, Pucelle, hold thy peace;
 40817     If Talbot do but thunder, rain will follow.
 40818                  [The English party whisper together in council]
 40819     God speed the parliament! Who shall be the Speaker?
 40820   TALBOT. Dare ye come forth and meet us in the field?
 40821   PUCELLE. Belike your lordship takes us then for fools,
 40822     To try if that our own be ours or no.
 40823   TALBOT. I speak not to that railing Hecate,
 40824     But unto thee, Alencon, and the rest.
 40825     Will ye, like soldiers, come and fight it out?
 40826   ALENCON. Signior, no.
 40827   TALBOT. Signior, hang! Base muleteers of France!
 40828     Like peasant foot-boys do they keep the walls,
 40829     And dare not take up arms like gentlemen.
 40830   PUCELLE. Away, captains! Let's get us from the walls;
 40831     For Talbot means no goodness by his looks.
 40832     God b'uy, my lord; we came but to tell you
 40833     That we are here.                      Exeunt from the walls
 40834   TALBOT. And there will we be too, ere it be long,
 40835     Or else reproach be Talbot's greatest fame!
 40836     Vow, Burgundy, by honour of thy house,
 40837     Prick'd on by public wrongs sustain'd in France,
 40838     Either to get the town again or die;
 40839     And I, as sure as English Henry lives
 40840     And as his father here was conqueror,
 40841     As sure as in this late betrayed town
 40842     Great Coeur-de-lion's heart was buried
 40843     So sure I swear to get the town or die.
 40844   BURGUNDY. My vows are equal partners with thy vows.
 40845   TALBOT. But ere we go, regard this dying prince,
 40846     The valiant Duke of Bedford. Come, my lord,
 40847     We will bestow you in some better place,
 40848     Fitter for sickness and for crazy age.
 40849   BEDFORD. Lord Talbot, do not so dishonour me;
 40850     Here will I sit before the walls of Rouen,
 40851     And will be partner of your weal or woe.
 40852   BURGUNDY. Courageous Bedford, let us now persuade you.
 40853   BEDFORD. Not to be gone from hence; for once I read
 40854     That stout Pendragon in his litter sick
 40855     Came to the field, and vanquished his foes.
 40856     Methinks I should revive the soldiers' hearts,
 40857     Because I ever found them as myself.
 40858   TALBOT. Undaunted spirit in a dying breast!
 40859     Then be it so. Heavens keep old Bedford safe!
 40860     And now no more ado, brave Burgundy,
 40861     But gather we our forces out of hand
 40862     And set upon our boasting enemy.
 40863           Exeunt against the town all but BEDFORD and attendants
 40864 
 40865            An alarum; excursions. Enter SIR JOHN FASTOLFE,
 40866                            and a CAPTAIN
 40867 
 40868   CAPTAIN. Whither away, Sir John Fastolfe, in such haste?
 40869   FASTOLFE. Whither away? To save myself by flight:
 40870     We are like to have the overthrow again.
 40871   CAPTAIN. What! Will you and leave Lord Talbot?
 40872   FASTOLFE. Ay,
 40873     All the Talbots in the world, to save my life.          Exit
 40874   CAPTAIN. Cowardly knight! ill fortune follow thee!
 40875                                               Exit into the town
 40876 
 40877          Retreat; excursions. LA PUCELLE, ALENCON,
 40878                       and CHARLES fly
 40879 
 40880   BEDFORD. Now, quiet soul, depart when heaven please,
 40881     For I have seen our enemies' overthrow.
 40882     What is the trust or strength of foolish man?
 40883     They that of late were daring with their scoffs
 40884     Are glad and fain by flight to save themselves.
 40885             [BEDFORD dies and is carried in by two in his chair]
 40886 
 40887           An alarum. Re-enter TALBOT, BURGUNDY, and the rest
 40888 
 40889   TALBOT. Lost and recovered in a day again!
 40890     This is a double honour, Burgundy.
 40891     Yet heavens have glory for this victory!
 40892   BURGUNDY. Warlike and martial Talbot, Burgundy
 40893     Enshrines thee in his heart, and there erects
 40894     Thy noble deeds as valour's monuments.
 40895   TALBOT. Thanks, gentle Duke. But where is Pucelle now?
 40896     I think her old familiar is asleep.
 40897     Now where's the Bastard's braves, and Charles his gleeks?
 40898     What, all amort? Rouen hangs her head for grief
 40899     That such a valiant company are fled.
 40900     Now will we take some order in the town,
 40901     Placing therein some expert officers;
 40902     And then depart to Paris to the King,
 40903     For there young Henry with his nobles lie.
 40904   BURGUNDY. What Lord Talbot pleaseth Burgundy.
 40905   TALBOT. But yet, before we go, let's not forget
 40906     The noble Duke of Bedford, late deceas'd,
 40907     But see his exequies fulfill'd in Rouen.
 40908     A braver soldier never couched lance,
 40909     A gentler heart did never sway in court;
 40910     But kings and mightiest potentates must die,
 40911     For that's the end of human misery.                   Exeunt
 40912 
 40913 
 40914 
 40915 
 40916                              SCENE 3.
 40917 
 40918                       The plains near Rouen
 40919 
 40920         Enter CHARLES, the BASTARD, ALENCON, LA PUCELLE,
 40921                           and forces
 40922 
 40923   PUCELLE. Dismay not, Princes, at this accident,
 40924     Nor grieve that Rouen is so recovered.
 40925     Care is no cure, but rather corrosive,
 40926     For things that are not to be remedied.
 40927     Let frantic Talbot triumph for a while
 40928     And like a peacock sweep along his tail;
 40929     We'll pull his plumes and take away his train,
 40930     If Dauphin and the rest will be but rul'd.
 40931   CHARLES. We have guided by thee hitherto,
 40932     And of thy cunning had no diffidence;
 40933     One sudden foil shall never breed distrust
 40934   BASTARD. Search out thy wit for secret policies,
 40935     And we will make thee famous through the world.
 40936     ALENCON. We'll set thy statue in some holy place,
 40937     And have thee reverenc'd like a blessed saint.
 40938     Employ thee, then, sweet virgin, for our good.
 40939   PUCELLE. Then thus it must be; this doth Joan devise:
 40940     By fair persuasions, mix'd with sug'red words,
 40941     We will entice the Duke of Burgundy
 40942     To leave the Talbot and to follow us.
 40943   CHARLES. Ay, marry, sweeting, if we could do that,
 40944     France were no place for Henry's warriors;
 40945     Nor should that nation boast it so with us,
 40946     But be extirped from our provinces.
 40947   ALENCON. For ever should they be expuls'd from France,
 40948     And not have tide of an earldom here.
 40949   PUCELLE. Your honours shall perceive how I will work
 40950     To bring this matter to the wished end.
 40951                                           [Drum sounds afar off]
 40952     Hark! by the sound of drum you may perceive
 40953     Their powers are marching unto Paris-ward.
 40954 
 40955           Here sound an English march. Enter, and pass over
 40956                 at a distance, TALBOT and his forces
 40957 
 40958     There goes the Talbot, with his colours spread,
 40959     And all the troops of English after him.
 40960 
 40961             French march. Enter the DUKE OF BURGUNDY and
 40962                          his forces
 40963 
 40964     Now in the rearward comes the Duke and his.
 40965     Fortune in favour makes him lag behind.
 40966     Summon a parley; we will talk with him.
 40967                                        [Trumpets sound a parley]
 40968   CHARLES. A parley with the Duke of Burgundy!
 40969   BURGUNDY. Who craves a parley with the Burgundy?
 40970   PUCELLE. The princely Charles of France, thy countryman.
 40971   BURGUNDY. What say'st thou, Charles? for I am marching
 40972     hence.
 40973   CHARLES. Speak, Pucelle, and enchant him with thy words.
 40974   PUCELLE. Brave Burgundy, undoubted hope of France!
 40975     Stay, let thy humble handmaid speak to thee.
 40976   BURGUNDY. Speak on; but be not over-tedious.
 40977   PUCELLE. Look on thy country, look on fertile France,
 40978     And see the cities and the towns defac'd
 40979     By wasting ruin of the cruel foe;
 40980     As looks the mother on her lowly babe
 40981     When death doth close his tender dying eyes,
 40982     See, see the pining malady of France;
 40983     Behold the wounds, the most unnatural wounds,
 40984     Which thou thyself hast given her woeful breast.
 40985     O, turn thy edged sword another way;
 40986     Strike those that hurt, and hurt not those that help!
 40987     One drop of blood drawn from thy country's bosom
 40988     Should grieve thee more than streams of foreign gore.
 40989     Return thee therefore with a flood of tears,
 40990     And wash away thy country's stained spots.
 40991   BURGUNDY. Either she hath bewitch'd me with her words,
 40992     Or nature makes me suddenly relent.
 40993   PUCELLE. Besides, all French and France exclaims on thee,
 40994     Doubting thy birth and lawful progeny.
 40995     Who join'st thou with but with a lordly nation
 40996     That will not trust thee but for profit's sake?
 40997     When Talbot hath set footing once in France,
 40998     And fashion'd thee that instrument of ill,
 40999     Who then but English Henry will be lord,
 41000     And thou be thrust out like a fugitive?
 41001     Call we to mind-and mark but this for proof:
 41002     Was not the Duke of Orleans thy foe?
 41003     And was he not in England prisoner?
 41004     But when they heard he was thine enemy
 41005     They set him free without his ransom paid,
 41006     In spite of Burgundy and all his friends.
 41007     See then, thou fight'st against thy countrymen,
 41008     And join'st with them will be thy slaughtermen.
 41009     Come, come, return; return, thou wandering lord;
 41010     Charles and the rest will take thee in their arms.
 41011   BURGUNDY. I am vanquished; these haughty words of hers
 41012     Have batt'red me like roaring cannon-shot
 41013     And made me almost yield upon my knees.
 41014     Forgive me, country, and sweet countrymen
 41015     And, lords, accept this hearty kind embrace.
 41016     My forces and my power of men are yours;
 41017     So, farewell, Talbot; I'll no longer trust thee.
 41018   PUCELLE. Done like a Frenchman-  [Aside]  turn and turn
 41019     again.
 41020   CHARLES. Welcome, brave Duke! Thy friendship makes us
 41021     fresh.
 41022   BASTARD. And doth beget new courage in our breasts.
 41023   ALENCON. Pucelle hath bravely play'd her part in this,
 41024     And doth deserve a coronet of gold.
 41025   CHARLES. Now let us on, my lords, and join our powers,
 41026     And seek how we may prejudice the foe.                Exeunt
 41027 
 41028 
 41029 
 41030 
 41031                           SCENE 4.
 41032 
 41033                      Paris. The palace
 41034 
 41035          Enter the KING, GLOUCESTER, WINCHESTER, YORK,
 41036              SUFFOLK, SOMERSET, WARWICK, EXETER,
 41037            VERNON, BASSET, and others. To them, with
 41038                      his soldiers, TALBOT
 41039 
 41040   TALBOT. My gracious Prince, and honourable peers,
 41041     Hearing of your arrival in this realm,
 41042     I have awhile given truce unto my wars
 41043     To do my duty to my sovereign;
 41044     In sign whereof, this arm that hath reclaim'd
 41045     To your obedience fifty fortresses,
 41046     Twelve cities, and seven walled towns of strength,
 41047     Beside five hundred prisoners of esteem,
 41048     Lets fall his sword before your Highness' feet,
 41049     And with submissive loyalty of heart
 41050     Ascribes the glory of his conquest got
 41051     First to my God and next unto your Grace.           [Kneels]
 41052   KING HENRY. Is this the Lord Talbot, uncle Gloucester,
 41053     That hath so long been resident in France?
 41054   GLOUCESTER. Yes, if it please your Majesty, my liege.
 41055   KING HENRY. Welcome, brave captain and victorious lord!
 41056     When I was young, as yet I am not old,
 41057     I do remember how my father said
 41058     A stouter champion never handled sword.
 41059     Long since we were resolved of your truth,
 41060     Your faithful service, and your toil in war;
 41061     Yet never have you tasted our reward,
 41062     Or been reguerdon'd with so much as thanks,
 41063     Because till now we never saw your face.
 41064     Therefore stand up; and for these good deserts
 41065     We here create you Earl of Shrewsbury;
 41066     And in our coronation take your place.
 41067               Sennet. Flourish. Exeunt all but VERNON and BASSET
 41068   VERNON. Now, sir, to you, that were so hot at sea,
 41069     Disgracing of these colours that I wear
 41070     In honour of my noble Lord of York
 41071     Dar'st thou maintain the former words thou spak'st?
 41072   BASSET. Yes, sir; as well as you dare patronage
 41073     The envious barking of your saucy tongue
 41074     Against my lord the Duke of Somerset.
 41075   VERNON. Sirrah, thy lord I honour as he is.
 41076   BASSET. Why, what is he? As good a man as York!
 41077   VERNON. Hark ye: not so. In witness, take ye that.
 41078                                                    [Strikes him]
 41079   BASSET. Villain, thou knowest the law of arms is such
 41080     That whoso draws a sword 'tis present death,
 41081     Or else this blow should broach thy dearest blood.
 41082     But I'll unto his Majesty and crave
 41083     I may have liberty to venge this wrong;
 41084     When thou shalt see I'll meet thee to thy cost.
 41085   VERNON. Well, miscreant, I'll be there as soon as you;
 41086     And, after, meet you sooner than you would.           Exeunt
 41087 
 41088 
 41089 
 41090 
 41091 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
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 41093 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
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 41099 
 41100 
 41101 
 41102 ACT IV. SCENE 1.
 41103 
 41104 Park. The palace
 41105 
 41106 Enter the KING, GLOUCESTER, WINCHESTER, YORK, SUFFOLK, SOMERSET, WARWICK,
 41107 TALBOT, EXETER, the GOVERNOR OF PARIS, and others
 41108 
 41109   GLOUCESTER. Lord Bishop, set the crown upon his head.
 41110   WINCHESTER. God save King Henry, of that name the Sixth!
 41111   GLOUCESTER. Now, Governor of Paris, take your oath
 41112                                                [GOVERNOR kneels]
 41113     That you elect no other king but him,
 41114     Esteem none friends but such as are his friends,
 41115     And none your foes but such as shall pretend
 41116     Malicious practices against his state.
 41117     This shall ye do, so help you righteous God!
 41118                                    Exeunt GOVERNOR and his train
 41119 
 41120                     Enter SIR JOHN FASTOLFE
 41121 
 41122   FASTOLFE. My gracious sovereign, as I rode from Calais,
 41123     To haste unto your coronation,
 41124     A letter was deliver'd to my hands,
 41125     Writ to your Grace from th' Duke of Burgundy.
 41126   TALBOT. Shame to the Duke of Burgundy and thee!
 41127     I vow'd, base knight, when I did meet thee next
 41128     To tear the Garter from thy craven's leg,  [Plucking it off]
 41129     Which I have done, because unworthily
 41130     Thou wast installed in that high degree.
 41131     Pardon me, princely Henry, and the rest:
 41132     This dastard, at the battle of Patay,
 41133     When but in all I was six thousand strong,
 41134     And that the French were almost ten to one,
 41135     Before we met or that a stroke was given,
 41136     Like to a trusty squire did run away;
 41137     In which assault we lost twelve hundred men;
 41138     Myself and divers gentlemen beside
 41139     Were there surpris'd and taken prisoners.
 41140     Then judge, great lords, if I have done amiss,
 41141     Or whether that such cowards ought to wear
 41142     This ornament of knighthood-yea or no.
 41143   GLOUCESTER. To say the truth, this fact was infamous
 41144     And ill beseeming any common man,
 41145     Much more a knight, a captain, and a leader.
 41146   TALBOT. When first this order was ordain'd, my lords,
 41147     Knights of the Garter were of noble birth,
 41148     Valiant and virtuous, full of haughty courage,
 41149     Such as were grown to credit by the wars;
 41150     Not fearing death nor shrinking for distress,
 41151     But always resolute in most extremes.
 41152     He then that is not furnish'd in this sort
 41153     Doth but usurp the sacred name of knight,
 41154     Profaning this most honourable order,
 41155     And should, if I were worthy to be judge,
 41156     Be quite degraded, like a hedge-born swain
 41157     That doth presume to boast of gentle blood.
 41158   KING HENRY. Stain to thy countrymen, thou hear'st thy
 41159     doom.
 41160     Be packing, therefore, thou that wast a knight;
 41161     Henceforth we banish thee on pain of death.
 41162                                                    Exit FASTOLFE
 41163     And now, my Lord Protector, view the letter
 41164     Sent from our uncle Duke of Burgundy.
 41165   GLOUCESTER.  [Viewing the superscription]  What means his
 41166     Grace, that he hath chang'd his style?
 41167     No more but plain and bluntly 'To the King!'
 41168     Hath he forgot he is his sovereign?
 41169     Or doth this churlish superscription
 41170     Pretend some alteration in good-will?
 41171     What's here?  [Reads]  'I have, upon especial cause,
 41172     Mov'd with compassion of my country's wreck,
 41173     Together with the pitiful complaints
 41174     Of such as your oppression feeds upon,
 41175     Forsaken your pernicious faction,
 41176     And join'd with Charles, the rightful King of France.'
 41177     O monstrous treachery! Can this be so
 41178     That in alliance, amity, and oaths,
 41179     There should be found such false dissembling guile?
 41180   KING HENRY. What! Doth my uncle Burgundy revolt?
 41181   GLOUCESTER. He doth, my lord, and is become your foe.
 41182   KING HENRY. Is that the worst this letter doth contain?
 41183   GLOUCESTER. It is the worst, and all, my lord, he writes.
 41184   KING HENRY. Why then Lord Talbot there shall talk with
 41185     him
 41186     And give him chastisement for this abuse.
 41187     How say you, my lord, are you not content?
 41188   TALBOT. Content, my liege! Yes; but that I am prevented,
 41189     I should have begg'd I might have been employ'd.
 41190   KING HENRY. Then gather strength and march unto him
 41191     straight;
 41192     Let him perceive how ill we brook his treason.
 41193     And what offence it is to flout his friends.
 41194   TALBOT. I go, my lord, in heart desiring still
 41195     You may behold confusion of your foes.                  Exit
 41196 
 41197                        Enter VERNON and BASSET
 41198 
 41199   VERNON. Grant me the combat, gracious sovereign.
 41200   BASSET. And me, my lord, grant me the combat too.
 41201   YORK. This is my servant: hear him, noble Prince.
 41202   SOMERSET. And this is mine: sweet Henry, favour him.
 41203   KING HENRY. Be patient, lords, and give them leave to speak.
 41204     Say, gentlemen, what makes you thus exclaim,
 41205     And wherefore crave you combat, or with whom?
 41206   VERNON. With him, my lord; for he hath done me wrong.
 41207   BASSET. And I with him; for he hath done me wrong.
 41208   KING HENRY. What is that wrong whereof you both
 41209     complain? First let me know, and then I'll answer you.
 41210   BASSET. Crossing the sea from England into France,
 41211     This fellow here, with envious carping tongue,
 41212     Upbraided me about the rose I wear,
 41213     Saying the sanguine colour of the leaves
 41214     Did represent my master's blushing cheeks
 41215     When stubbornly he did repugn the truth
 41216     About a certain question in the law
 41217     Argu'd betwixt the Duke of York and him;
 41218     With other vile and ignominious terms
 41219     In confutation of which rude reproach
 41220     And in defence of my lord's worthiness,
 41221     I crave the benefit of law of arms.
 41222   VERNON. And that is my petition, noble lord;
 41223     For though he seem with forged quaint conceit
 41224     To set a gloss upon his bold intent,
 41225     Yet know, my lord, I was provok'd by him,
 41226     And he first took exceptions at this badge,
 41227     Pronouncing that the paleness of this flower
 41228     Bewray'd the faintness of my master's heart.
 41229   YORK. Will not this malice, Somerset, be left?
 41230   SOMERSET. Your private grudge, my Lord of York, will out,
 41231     Though ne'er so cunningly you smother it.
 41232   KING HENRY. Good Lord, what madness rules in brainsick
 41233     men, When for so slight and frivolous a cause
 41234     Such factious emulations shall arise!
 41235     Good cousins both, of York and Somerset,
 41236     Quiet yourselves, I pray, and be at peace.
 41237   YORK. Let this dissension first be tried by fight,
 41238     And then your Highness shall command a peace.
 41239   SOMERSET. The quarrel toucheth none but us alone;
 41240     Betwixt ourselves let us decide it then.
 41241   YORK. There is my pledge; accept it, Somerset.
 41242   VERNON. Nay, let it rest where it began at first.
 41243   BASSET. Confirm it so, mine honourable lord.
 41244   GLOUCESTER. Confirm it so? Confounded be your strife;
 41245     And perish ye, with your audacious prate!
 41246     Presumptuous vassals, are you not asham'd
 41247     With this immodest clamorous outrage
 41248     To trouble and disturb the King and us?
 41249     And you, my lords- methinks you do not well
 41250     To bear with their perverse objections,
 41251     Much less to take occasion from their mouths
 41252     To raise a mutiny betwixt yourselves.
 41253     Let me persuade you take a better course.
 41254   EXETER. It grieves his Highness. Good my lords, be friends.
 41255   KING HENRY. Come hither, you that would be combatants:
 41256     Henceforth I charge you, as you love our favour,
 41257     Quite to forget this quarrel and the cause.
 41258     And you, my lords, remember where we are:
 41259     In France, amongst a fickle wavering nation;
 41260     If they perceive dissension in our looks
 41261     And that within ourselves we disagree,
 41262     How will their grudging stomachs be provok'd
 41263     To wilful disobedience, and rebel!
 41264     Beside, what infamy will there arise
 41265     When foreign princes shall be certified
 41266     That for a toy, a thing of no regard,
 41267     King Henry's peers and chief nobility
 41268     Destroy'd themselves and lost the realm of France!
 41269     O, think upon the conquest of my father,
 41270     My tender years; and let us not forgo
 41271     That for a trifle that was bought with blood!
 41272     Let me be umpire in this doubtful strife.
 41273     I see no reason, if I wear this rose,
 41274                                          [Putting on a red rose]
 41275     That any one should therefore be suspicious
 41276     I more incline to Somerset than York:
 41277     Both are my kinsmen, and I love them both.
 41278     As well they may upbraid me with my crown,
 41279     Because, forsooth, the King of Scots is crown'd.
 41280     But your discretions better can persuade
 41281     Than I am able to instruct or teach;
 41282     And, therefore, as we hither came in peace,
 41283     So let us still continue peace and love.
 41284     Cousin of York, we institute your Grace
 41285     To be our Regent in these parts of France.
 41286     And, good my Lord of Somerset, unite
 41287     Your troops of horsemen with his bands of foot;
 41288     And like true subjects, sons of your progenitors,
 41289     Go cheerfully together and digest
 41290     Your angry choler on your enemies.
 41291     Ourself, my Lord Protector, and the rest,
 41292     After some respite will return to Calais;
 41293     From thence to England, where I hope ere long
 41294     To be presented by your victories
 41295     With Charles, Alencon, and that traitorous rout.
 41296                          Flourish. Exeunt all but YORK, WARWICK,
 41297                                                   EXETER, VERNON
 41298   WARWICK. My Lord of York, I promise you, the King
 41299     Prettily, methought, did play the orator.
 41300   YORK. And so he did; but yet I like it not,
 41301     In that he wears the badge of Somerset.
 41302   WARWICK. Tush, that was but his fancy; blame him not;
 41303     I dare presume, sweet prince, he thought no harm.
 41304   YORK. An if I wist he did-but let it rest;
 41305     Other affairs must now be managed.
 41306                                            Exeunt all but EXETER
 41307   EXETER. Well didst thou, Richard, to suppress thy voice;
 41308     For had the passions of thy heart burst out,
 41309     I fear we should have seen decipher'd there
 41310     More rancorous spite, more furious raging broils,
 41311     Than yet can be imagin'd or suppos'd.
 41312     But howsoe'er, no simple man that sees
 41313     This jarring discord of nobility,
 41314     This shouldering of each other in the court,
 41315     This factious bandying of their favourites,
 41316     But that it doth presage some ill event.
 41317     'Tis much when sceptres are in children's hands;
 41318     But more when envy breeds unkind division:
 41319     There comes the ruin, there begins confusion.           Exit
 41320 
 41321 
 41322 
 41323 
 41324                                SCENE 2.
 41325 
 41326                         France. Before Bordeaux
 41327 
 41328                    Enter TALBOT, with trump and drum
 41329 
 41330   TALBOT. Go to the gates of Bordeaux, trumpeter;
 41331     Summon their general unto the wall.
 41332 
 41333              Trumpet sounds a parley. Enter, aloft, the
 41334                  GENERAL OF THE FRENCH, and others
 41335 
 41336     English John Talbot, Captains, calls you forth,
 41337     Servant in arms to Harry King of England;
 41338     And thus he would open your city gates,
 41339     Be humble to us, call my sovereignvours
 41340     And do him homage as obedient subjects,
 41341     And I'll withdraw me and my bloody power;
 41342     But if you frown upon this proffer'd peace,
 41343     You tempt the fury of my three attendants,
 41344     Lean famine, quartering steel, and climbing fire;
 41345     Who in a moment even with the earth
 41346     Shall lay your stately and air braving towers,
 41347     If you forsake the offer of their love.
 41348   GENERAL OF THE FRENCH. Thou ominous and fearful owl of
 41349     death,
 41350     Our nation's terror and their bloody scourge!
 41351     The period of thy tyranny approacheth.
 41352     On us thou canst not enter but by death;
 41353     For, I protest, we are well fortified,
 41354     And strong enough to issue out and fight.
 41355     If thou retire, the Dauphin, well appointed,
 41356     Stands with the snares of war to tangle thee.
 41357     On either hand thee there are squadrons pitch'd
 41358     To wall thee from the liberty of flight,
 41359     And no way canst thou turn thee for redress
 41360     But death doth front thee with apparent spoil
 41361     And pale destruction meets thee in the face.
 41362     Ten thousand French have ta'en the sacrament
 41363     To rive their dangerous artillery
 41364     Upon no Christian soul but English Talbot.
 41365     Lo, there thou stand'st, a breathing valiant man,
 41366     Of an invincible unconquer'd spirit!
 41367     This is the latest glory of thy praise
 41368     That I, thy enemy, due thee withal;
 41369     For ere the glass that now begins to run
 41370     Finish the process of his sandy hour,
 41371     These eyes that see thee now well coloured
 41372     Shall see thee withered, bloody, pale, and dead.
 41373                                                  [Drum afar off]
 41374     Hark! hark! The Dauphin's drum, a warning bell,
 41375     Sings heavy music to thy timorous soul;
 41376     And mine shall ring thy dire departure out.             Exit
 41377   TALBOT. He fables not; I hear the enemy.
 41378     Out, some light horsemen, and peruse their wings.
 41379     O, negligent and heedless discipline!
 41380     How are we park'd and bounded in a pale
 41381     A little herd of England's timorous deer,
 41382     Maz'd with a yelping kennel of French curs!
 41383     If we be English deer, be then in blood;
 41384     Not rascal-like to fall down with a pinch,
 41385     But rather, moody-mad and desperate stags,
 41386     Turn on the bloody hounds with heads of steel
 41387     And make the cowards stand aloof at bay.
 41388     Sell every man his life as dear as mine,
 41389     And they shall find dear deer of us, my friends.
 41390     God and Saint George, Talbot and England's right,
 41391     Prosper our colours in this dangerous fight!          Exeunt
 41392 
 41393 
 41394 
 41395 
 41396                           SCENE 3.
 41397 
 41398                       Plains in Gascony
 41399 
 41400         Enter YORK, with trumpet and many soldiers. A
 41401                    MESSENGER meets him
 41402 
 41403   YORK. Are not the speedy scouts return'd again
 41404     That dogg'd the mighty army of the Dauphin?
 41405   MESSENGER. They are return'd, my lord, and give it out
 41406     That he is march'd to Bordeaux with his power
 41407     To fight with Talbot; as he march'd along,
 41408     By your espials were discovered
 41409     Two mightier troops than that the Dauphin led,
 41410     Which join'd with him and made their march for
 41411     Bordeaux.
 41412   YORK. A plague upon that villain Somerset
 41413     That thus delays my promised supply
 41414     Of horsemen that were levied for this siege!
 41415     Renowned Talbot doth expect my aid,
 41416     And I am louted by a traitor villain
 41417     And cannot help the noble chevalier.
 41418     God comfort him in this necessity!
 41419     If he miscarry, farewell wars in France.
 41420 
 41421                       Enter SIR WILLIAM LUCY
 41422 
 41423   LUCY. Thou princely leader of our English strength,
 41424     Never so needful on the earth of France,
 41425     Spur to the rescue of the noble Talbot,
 41426     Who now is girdled with a waist of iron
 41427     And hemm'd about with grim destruction.
 41428     To Bordeaux, warlike Duke! to Bordeaux, York!
 41429     Else, farewell Talbot, France, and England's honour.
 41430   YORK. O God, that Somerset, who in proud heart
 41431     Doth stop my cornets, were in Talbot's place!
 41432     So should we save a valiant gentleman
 41433     By forfeiting a traitor and a coward.
 41434     Mad ire and wrathful fury makes me weep
 41435     That thus we die while remiss traitors sleep.
 41436   LUCY. O, send some succour to the distress'd lord!
 41437   YORK. He dies; we lose; I break my warlike word.
 41438     We mourn: France smiles. We lose: they daily get-
 41439     All long of this vile traitor Somerset.
 41440   LUCY. Then God take mercy on brave Talbot's soul,
 41441     And on his son, young John, who two hours since
 41442     I met in travel toward his warlike father.
 41443     This seven years did not Talbot see his son;
 41444     And now they meet where both their lives are done.
 41445   YORK. Alas, what joy shall noble Talbot have
 41446     To bid his young son welcome to his grave?
 41447     Away! vexation almost stops my breath,
 41448     That sund'red friends greet in the hour of death.
 41449     Lucy, farewell; no more my fortune can
 41450     But curse the cause I cannot aid the man.
 41451     Maine, Blois, Poictiers, and Tours, are won away
 41452     Long all of Somerset and his delay.         Exit with forces
 41453   LUCY. Thus, while the vulture of sedition
 41454     Feeds in the bosom of such great commanders,
 41455     Sleeping neglection doth betray to loss
 41456     The conquest of our scarce cold conqueror,
 41457     That ever-living man of memory,
 41458     Henry the Fifth. Whiles they each other cross,
 41459     Lives, honours, lands, and all, hurry to loss.          Exit
 41460 
 41461 
 41462 
 41463 
 41464                              SCENE 4.
 41465 
 41466                      Other plains of Gascony
 41467 
 41468         Enter SOMERSET, With his forces; an OFFICER of
 41469                      TALBOT'S with him
 41470 
 41471   SOMERSET. It is too late; I cannot send them now.
 41472     This expedition was by York and Talbot
 41473     Too rashly plotted; all our general force
 41474     Might with a sally of the very town
 41475     Be buckled with. The over daring Talbot
 41476     Hath sullied all his gloss of former honour
 41477     By this unheedful, desperate, wild adventure.
 41478     York set him on to fight and die in shame.
 41479     That, Talbot dead, great York might bear the name.
 41480   OFFICER. Here is Sir William Lucy, who with me
 41481     Set from our o'er-match'd forces forth for aid.
 41482 
 41483                        Enter SIR WILLIAM LUCY
 41484 
 41485   SOMERSET. How now, Sir William! Whither were you sent?
 41486   LUCY. Whither, my lord! From bought and sold Lord
 41487     Talbot,
 41488     Who, ring'd about with bold adversity,
 41489     Cries out for noble York and Somerset
 41490     To beat assailing death from his weak legions;
 41491     And whiles the honourable captain there
 41492     Drops bloody sweat from his war-wearied limbs
 41493     And, in advantage ling'ring, looks for rescue,
 41494     You, his false hopes, the trust of England's honour,
 41495     Keep off aloof with worthless emulation.
 41496     Let not your private discord keep away
 41497     The levied succours that should lend him aid,
 41498     While he, renowned noble gentleman,
 41499     Yield up his life unto a world of odds.
 41500     Orleans the Bastard, Charles, Burgundy,
 41501     Alencon, Reignier, compass him about,
 41502     And Talbot perisheth by your default.
 41503   SOMERSET. York set him on; York should have sent him aid.
 41504   LUCY. And York as fast upon your Grace exclaims,
 41505     Swearing that you withhold his levied host,
 41506     Collected for this expedition.
 41507   SOMERSET. York lies; he might have sent and had the horse.
 41508     I owe him little duty and less love,
 41509     And take foul scorn to fawn on him by sending.
 41510   LUCY. The fraud of England, not the force of France,
 41511     Hath now entrapp'd the noble minded Talbot.
 41512     Never to England shall he bear his life,
 41513     But dies betray'd to fortune by your strife.
 41514   SOMERSET. Come, go; I will dispatch the horsemen straight;
 41515     Within six hours they will be at his aid.
 41516   LUCY. Too late comes rescue; he is ta'en or slain,
 41517     For fly he could not if he would have fled;
 41518     And fly would Talbot never, though he might.
 41519   SOMERSET. If he be dead, brave Talbot, then, adieu!
 41520   LUCY. His fame lives in the world, his shame in you.       Exeunt
 41521 
 41522 
 41523                                SCENE 5.
 41524 
 41525                    The English camp near Bordeaux
 41526 
 41527                     Enter TALBOT and JOHN his son
 41528 
 41529   TALBOT. O young John Talbot! I did send for thee
 41530     To tutor thee in stratagems of war,
 41531     That Talbot's name might be in thee reviv'd
 41532     When sapless age and weak unable limbs
 41533     Should bring thy father to his drooping chair.
 41534     But, O malignant and ill-boding stars!
 41535     Now thou art come unto a feast of death,
 41536     A terrible and unavoided danger;
 41537     Therefore, dear boy, mount on my swiftest horse,
 41538     And I'll direct thee how thou shalt escape
 41539     By sudden flight. Come, dally not, be gone.
 41540   JOHN. Is my name Talbot, and am I your son?
 41541     And shall I fly? O, if you love my mother,
 41542     Dishonour not her honourable name,
 41543     To make a bastard and a slave of me!
 41544     The world will say he is not Talbot's blood
 41545     That basely fled when noble Talbot stood.
 41546   TALBOT. Fly to revenge my death, if I be slain.
 41547   JOHN. He that flies so will ne'er return again.
 41548   TALBOT. If we both stay, we both are sure to die.
 41549   JOHN. Then let me stay; and, father, do you fly.
 41550     Your loss is great, so your regard should be;
 41551     My worth unknown, no loss is known in me;
 41552     Upon my death the French can little boast;
 41553     In yours they will, in you all hopes are lost.
 41554     Flight cannot stain the honour you have won;
 41555     But mine it will, that no exploit have done;
 41556     You fled for vantage, every one will swear;
 41557     But if I bow, they'll say it was for fear.
 41558     There is no hope that ever I will stay
 41559     If the first hour I shrink and run away.
 41560     Here, on my knee, I beg mortality,
 41561     Rather than life preserv'd with infamy.
 41562   TALBOT. Shall all thy mother's hopes lie in one tomb?
 41563   JOHN. Ay, rather than I'll shame my mother's womb.
 41564   TALBOT. Upon my blessing I command thee go.
 41565   JOHN. To fight I will, but not to fly the foe.
 41566   TALBOT. Part of thy father may be sav'd in thee.
 41567   JOHN. No part of him but will be shame in me.
 41568   TALBOT. Thou never hadst renown, nor canst not lose it.
 41569   JOHN. Yes, your renowned name; shall flight abuse it?
 41570   TALBOT. Thy father's charge shall clear thee from that stain.
 41571   JOHN. You cannot witness for me, being slain.
 41572     If death be so apparent, then both fly.
 41573   TALBOT. And leave my followers here to fight and die?
 41574     My age was never tainted with such shame.
 41575   JOHN. And shall my youth be guilty of such blame?
 41576     No more can I be severed from your side
 41577     Than can yourself yourself yourself in twain divide.
 41578     Stay, go, do what you will, the like do I;
 41579     For live I will not if my father die.
 41580   TALBOT. Then here I take my leave of thee, fair son,
 41581     Born to eclipse thy life this afternoon.
 41582     Come, side by side together live and die;
 41583     And soul with soul from France to heaven fly.         Exeunt
 41584 
 41585 
 41586 
 41587 
 41588                              SCENE 6.
 41589 
 41590                          A field of battle
 41591 
 41592          Alarum: excursions wherein JOHN TALBOT is hemm'd
 41593                   about, and TALBOT rescues him
 41594 
 41595   TALBOT. Saint George and victory! Fight, soldiers, fight.
 41596     The Regent hath with Talbot broke his word
 41597     And left us to the rage of France his sword.
 41598     Where is John Talbot? Pause and take thy breath;
 41599     I gave thee life and rescu'd thee from death.
 41600   JOHN. O, twice my father, twice am I thy son!
 41601     The life thou gav'st me first was lost and done
 41602     Till with thy warlike sword, despite of fate,
 41603     To my determin'd time thou gav'st new date.
 41604   TALBOT. When from the Dauphin's crest thy sword struck
 41605     fire,
 41606     It warm'd thy father's heart with proud desire
 41607     Of bold-fac'd victory. Then leaden age,
 41608     Quicken'd with youthful spleen and warlike rage,
 41609     Beat down Alencon, Orleans, Burgundy,
 41610     And from the pride of Gallia rescued thee.
 41611     The ireful bastard Orleans, that drew blood
 41612     From thee, my boy, and had the maidenhood
 41613     Of thy first fight, I soon encountered
 41614     And, interchanging blows, I quickly shed
 41615     Some of his bastard blood; and in disgrace
 41616     Bespoke him thus: 'Contaminated, base,
 41617     And misbegotten blood I spill of thine,
 41618     Mean and right poor, for that pure blood of mine
 41619     Which thou didst force from Talbot, my brave boy.'
 41620     Here purposing the Bastard to destroy,
 41621     Came in strong rescue. Speak, thy father's care;
 41622     Art thou not weary, John? How dost thou fare?
 41623     Wilt thou yet leave the battle, boy, and fly,
 41624     Now thou art seal'd the son of chivalry?
 41625     Fly, to revenge my death when I am dead:
 41626     The help of one stands me in little stead.
 41627     O, too much folly is it, well I wot,
 41628     To hazard all our lives in one small boat!
 41629     If I to-day die not with Frenchmen's rage,
 41630     To-morrow I shall die with mickle age.
 41631     By me they nothing gain an if I stay:
 41632     'Tis but the short'ning of my life one day.
 41633     In thee thy mother dies, our household's name,
 41634     My death's revenge, thy youth, and England's fame.
 41635     All these and more we hazard by thy stay;
 41636     All these are sav'd if thou wilt fly away.
 41637   JOHN. The sword of Orleans hath not made me smart;
 41638     These words of yours draw life-blood from my heart.
 41639     On that advantage, bought with such a shame,
 41640     To save a paltry life and slay bright fame,
 41641     Before young Talbot from old Talbot fly,
 41642     The coward horse that bears me fall and die!
 41643     And like me to the peasant boys of France,
 41644     To be shame's scorn and subject of mischance!
 41645     Surely, by all the glory you have won,
 41646     An if I fly, I am not Talbot's son;
 41647     Then talk no more of flight, it is no boot;
 41648     If son to Talbot, die at Talbot's foot.
 41649   TALBOT. Then follow thou thy desp'rate sire of Crete,
 41650     Thou Icarus; thy life to me is sweet.
 41651     If thou wilt fight, fight by thy father's side;
 41652     And, commendable prov'd, let's die in pride.          Exeunt
 41653 
 41654 
 41655 
