Enter a MESSENGER.

Mess. My lord, here are letters for you.
Hot. I cannot read them now.-

O gentlemen, the time of life is short:
To spend that shortness basely, were too long,
If life did ride upon a dial's point,

Still ending at the arrival of an hour.
An if we live, we live to tread on kings;
If die, brave death, when princes die with us!
Now for our conscience,-the arms are fair,
When the intent of bearing them is just.

Enter another MESSENGER.

Mess. My lord, prepare; the king comes on apace.

Hot. I thank him that he cuts me from my
tale,

For I profess not talking: Only this-
Let each man do his best: and here draw I
A sword, whose temper I intend to stain
With the best blood that I can meet withal
In the adventure of this perilous day.
Now, Esperance !-Percy !-And set on.
Sound all the lofty instruments of war,
And by that music let us all embrace:
For, heaven to earth, some of us never shall
A second time do such a courtesy.
[The Trumpets sound. They embrace, and

exeunt.

SCENE III.-Plain near Shrewsbury. Excursions, and Parties fighting. Alarum to the Battle. Then enter DOUGLAS and BLUNT, meeting.

Blunt. What is thy name, that in the battle

thus

Thou crossest me? what honour dost thou seek
Upon my head?

Doug. Know then, my name is Douglas;
And I do haunt thee in the battle thus,
Because some tell me that thou art a king.
Blunt. They tell thee true.

Doug. The lord of Stafford dear to-day hath bought

A gallant knight he was, his name was Blunt;
Semblably furnish'd like the king himself.

Doug. A fool go with thy soul, whither it A borrow'd title hast thou bought too dear. [goes: Why didst thou tell me that thou wert a king? Hot. The king hath many marching in his

coats.

Doug. Now, by my sword, I will kill all his

coats;

Walter Blunt; there's honour for you: Here's no vanity!-I am as hot as molten lead, and as heavy too: God keep lead out of me! I need no more weight than mine own bowels.-I have led my raggamuffins where they are peppered: there's but three of my hundred and fifty left alive; and they are for the town's end, to beg during life. But who comes here?

Enter Prince HENRY.

P. Hen. What, stand'st thou idle here? lend
me thy sword:

Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff
Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies,

Whose deaths are unreveng'd: Pr'ythee, lend
thy sword:

• In resemblance.

Fal. O Hal, 1 pr'ythee, give me leave to breathe a while.-Turk Gregory never did such deeds in arms, as I have done this day. I have paid Percy, I have made him sure.

P. Hen. He is, indeed; and living to kill thee. Lend me thy sword, I pr'ythee.

Fal. Nay, before God, Hal, if Percy be alive, thou get'st not my sword; but take my pistol, if thou wilt.

Thy likeness; for, instead of thee, king Harry,
This sword hath ended him so shall it thee,
Unless thou yield thee as my prisoner. [Scot,
Blunt. I was not born a yielder, thou proud
And thou shalt find a king that will revenge
Lord Stafford's death.

P. Hen. I do beseech your majesty, make up,
Lest your retirement do amaze your friends.
K. Hen. I will do so :-

[They fight, and BLUNT is slain.

Enter HOTSPUR.

Hot. O Douglas, hadst thou fought at Hol-
medon thus,

My lord of Westmoreland, lead him to his tent.
West. Come, my lord, I will lead you to
your tent
P. Hen. Lead me, my lord? I do not need
your help:

I never had triumph'd upon a Scot.

drive

Doug. All's done, all's won; here breathless And heaven forbid a shallow scratch should
lies the king.
Hot. Where?
Doug. Here.

Hot. This, Douglas? no, I know this face
full well:

P. Hen. Give it me: What, is it in the case! Fal. Ay, Hal; 'tis hot, 'tis hot; there's that will sack a city.

[The Prince draws out a bottle of sack. P. Hen. What, is't a time to jest and dally now? [Throws it at him and exit. Fal. Well, if Percy be alive, I'll pierce him. If he do come in my way, so if he do not, if I come in his willingly, let him make a carbonado of me. I like not such grinning honour as Sir Walter hath: Give me life: which if I can save, so; if not, honour comes unlooked for, and there's an end. [Erit.

SCENE IV.-Another part of the Field. Alarums.- Excursions. Enter the KING, Prince HENRY, Prince JOHN, and WEST

MORELAND.

K. Hen. I pr’ythee;
[much :-
Harry, withdraw thyself; thou bleed'st too
Lord John of Lancaster, go you with him.
P. John. Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed

too.

The prince of Wales from such a field as this;
Where stain'd nobility lies trodden on,
And rebel's arms triumph in massacres!

P. John. We breathe too long:-Come, con-
sin Westmoreland,

Our duty this way lies; for God's sake, come.
[Exeunt Prince JOHN and WESTMORELAND.
P. Hen. By heaven, thou hast deceiv'd me,
Lancaster,

I'll murder all his wardrobe, piece by piece,
Until I meet the king.

Hot. Up, and away;

Our soldiers stand full fairly for the day.
[Exeunt.

Other Alarums.-Enter FALSTAFF.

Fal. Though I could 'scape shot-free at London, I fear the shot here; here's no scoring, but upon the pate.-Soft! who art thou? Sir I am the Douglas, fatal to all those

I did not think thee lord of such a spirit:
Before I lov'd thee as a brother, John;
But now, I do respect thee as my soul.

K. Hen. I saw him hold lord Percy at the
point,
With lustier maintenance than I did look for
Of such an ungrown warrior.
P. Hen. Oh! this boy

Lends mettle to us all!

[Exit.

Alarums.-Enter DOUGLAS.

Doug. Another king! they grow like Hydra's heads:

A piece of meat cut crossways for the gridiron.

That wear those colours on them.-What art | P. Hen. For worms, brave Percy: Fare thee
That counterfeit'st the person of a king? [thou,
K. Hen. The king himself; who, Douglas,
grieves at heart,

So many of his shadows thou hast met,
And not the very king. I have two boys,
Seek Percy and thyself about the field:
But, seeing thou fall'st on me so luckily,
I will assay thee; so defend thyself.

Doug. I fear thou art another counterfeit ;
And yet, in faith, thou bear'st thee like a king:
But mine, I am sure, thou art, who'er thou be,
And thus I win thee.
(They fight; the KING being in danger, enter
Prince HENRY.

P. Hen. Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like

Never to bold it up again! the spirits
Of Shirley, Stafford, Blunt, are in my arms:
It is the prince of Wales that threatens thee;
Who never promiseth, but he means to pay.-
[They fight; DOUGLAS flies.
Cheerly, my lord; How fares your grace ?-
Sir Nicholas Gawsey hath for succour sent,
And so hath Clifton; I'll to Clifton straight.

[He sees FALSTAFF on the ground. What! old acquaintance! could not all this flesh Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell! I could have better spar'd a better man. OI should have a heavy miss of thee, If I were much in love with vanity. Death hath not struck so fat a deer to-day, Though many dearer, in this bloody fray :Embowell'd will I see thee by and by; Till then, in blood by noble Percy lie. [Exit. Fal. [Rising slowly.] Embowelled! if thou embowel me to-day, I'll give you leave to powder me, and eat me too, to-morrow. 'Sblood, 'twas time to counterfeit, or that hot termagant Scot had paid me scot and lot too. Counterfeit? I lie, am no counterfeit: To die, is to be a counterfeit; for he is but the counterfeit of a man, who hath not the life of a man: but to counterfeit dying, when a man thereby liveth, is to be no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life indeed. The better part of valour Nich-is-discretion; in the which better part, 1 have saved my life. 'Zounds, I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead: How, if he should counterfeit too, and rise? I am afraid he would prove the better counterfeit. Therefore I'll make him sure: yea, and I'll swear I killed him. Why may not he rise, as well as I nothing confutes me but eyes, and uobody sees me. Therefore, Sirrah, [Stabbing him.] with a new wound in your thigh, come you along with me. [Takes HOTSPUR on his back. Re-enter Prince HENRY and Prince JOHN. P. Hen. Come, brother John, full bravely hast thou flesh'd Thy maiden sword.

K. Hen. Stay, aud breathe a while :-
Thou hast redeem'd thy lost opinion; [life,
And show'd thou mak'st some tender of my
In this fair rescue thou hast brought to ine.

P. Hen. O heaven! they did me too much
injury,

That ever said I hearken'd for your death.
If it were so, I might have let alone
The insulting hand of Douglas over you ;
Which would have been as speedy in your end,
As all the poisonous potions in the world,
And sav'd the treacherous labour of your son.
K. Hen. Make up to Clifton, I'll to Sir
olas Gawsey. [Exit King HENRY.
Enter HOTSPUR.

Hot. If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth.

P. Hen. Thou speak'st as if I would deny
my name.

Hot. My name is Harry Percy.
P. Hen. Why, then I see

A very valiant rebel of the name.

I am the prince of Wales; and think not, Percy,
To share with me in glory any more :
Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere;
Nor can one England brook a double reign,
Of Harry Percy and the prince of Wales.

Hot. Nor shall it, Harry, for the hour is come
To end the one of us; And 'would to God,
Thy name in arms were now as great as mine!

P. Hen. I'll make it greater, ere I part from
And all the budding honours on thy crest [thee;
I'll crop to make a garland for my head.
Hot. I can no longer brook thy vanities.
[They fight.

Enter EALSTAFF.

Fal. Well said, Hal! to it, Hal!-Nay, you shall find no boy's play here, I can tell you. Eater DOUGLAS; he fights with FALSTAFF, who falls down as if he were dead, and exit DOUGLAS. HOTSPUR is wounded, and fall.

Het. O Harry, thou hast robb'd me of my
I better brook the loss of brittle life, [youth,
Than those proud titles thou hast won of me;
They wound my thoughts, worse than thy sword
my flesh;-
[fool
But thought's the slave of life, and life time's
And time, that takes survey of all the world,
Must have a stop. OI could prophesy,
But that the earthy and cold hand of death
Lies on my tongue :-No, Percy, thou art dust,
[Dies.

And food for

well, great heart!

Ill weav'd ambition, how much art thou shrunk!
When that this body did contain a spirit,
A kingdom for it was too small a bound:
But now, two paces of the vilest earth
Is room enough;-This earth, that bears thee
Bears not alive so stout a gentleman. [dead,
If thou wert sensible of courtesy,

There is no reason to suppose that Hotspur was " by the Prince of Wales: he probably tell by an

ankaran band.

Reputation.

I should not make so dear a show of zeal :-
But let my favours hide thy mangled face;
And, even in thy behalf, I'll thank myself
For doing these fair rites of tenderness.
Adieu, and take thy praise with thee tɔ heaven!
Thy ignomy sleep with thee in the grave,
But not remembered in thy epitaph!—

P. John. But, soft! whom have we here?
Did you not tell me, this fat man was dead?
P. Hen. I did; I saw him dead, breathless,
Upon the ground.-
[and bleeding
Art thou alive? or is it fantasy
[speak:
That plays upon our eyesight? I pr'ythee
We will not trust our eyes, without our ears :-
Thou art not what thou seem'st.

Fal. No, that's certain; I am not a double man but if I be not Jack Falstaff, then am I a Jack. There is Percy: [Throwing the body down.] if your father will do me any honour SO; if not, let him kill the next Percy himself. look to be either earl or duke, I can assure you.

P. Hen. Why, Percy I killed myself, and saw thee dead.

Ful. Didst thou? Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying!-I grant you, I was down, and out of breath; and so was he: but we arose both at an instant, and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock. If I may be believed, so; if not, let them that should reward valour bear the sin upon their own heads. I take it upon my death, I gave him this wound in the thigh: if the man were alive, and would deny it, I would make him eat a piece of my sword.

P. John. This is the strangest tale that e'er I heard.

Scarf, with which he covers Percy s face.

+ Salt.

K. Hen. Bear Worcester to the death, and
Vernon too :

Other offenders we will pause upon.-
[Exeunt WORCESTER and VERNON, guarded.
How goes the field?

P. Hen. The noble Scot, lord Douglas, when
he saw

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

K. Hen. With all my heart.

P. Hen. Then, brother John of Lancaster to
[you
This honourable bounty shall belong :
Go to the Douglas and deliver him
Up to his pleasure, ransomless, and free:
His valour, shown upon our crests to-day,
Hath taught us how to cherish such high deeds,
Even in the bosom of our adversaries.

K. Hen. Then this remains, that we divide
our power.—

You, son John, and my cousin Westmoreland,
Towards York shall bend you, with your dearest

speed,

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

Το

meet Northumberland and the prelate
Scroop,

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

Who, as we hear, are busily in arms:
Myself and you, son Harry, will towards Wales,
To fight with Glendower and the earl of March.
Rebellion in this land shall lose his sway,

Wor. What I have done, my safety urged me Meeting the check of such another day:

P. Hen. This is the strangest fellow, brother
John.-

Come, bring your luggage nobly on your back;
For my part, if a lie may do thee grace,
I'll gild it with the happiest terms I have.
[A Retreat is sounded.
The trumpet sounds retreat, the day is our's.
Come, brother, let's to the highest of the field,
To see what friends are living, who are dead.

[Exeunt Prince HENRY and Prince JOHN.
Fal. I'll follow, as they say for reward. He
that rewards me, God reward bim! If I do
grow great, I'll grow less; for I'll purge, and
leave sack, and live cleanly, as a nobleman
should do.
[Exit, bearing off the body.

SCENE V.-Another part of the Field. The Trumpets sound.-Enter King HENRY, Prince HENRY, Prince JOHN, WESTMORELAND and others, with WORCESTER and VERNON, prisoners.

P. Hen. Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke.

to;

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

And since this business so fair is done,
Let us not leave till all our own be won.

[Exeunt.

SECOND PART

OP

KING HENRY IV.

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE.

SHAKSPEARE is supposed to have written this play in 1598. Its action comprehends a period of nine years, commencing with Hotspur's death, 1403, and terminating with the coronation of Henry V. 1412-13. Many of the tragic scenes in this second portion of the history are forcible and pathetic; but the comedy is of a much looser and more indecent character, than any in the preceding part. Shallow is an odd though pleasing por. trait of a brainless magistrate; and a character, it is to be feared, not peculiar to Glostershire only. In thus exhibiting his worship to the ridicule of an audience, Shakspeare amply revenged himself on his old Warwickshire prosecutor. On the character of Falstaff, as exhibited in the two plays, Dr. Johnson makes the following admirable remarks: "Falstaff! unimitated, unimitable Falstaff, how shall I describe thee; thou compound of sense and vice; of sense which may be admired, but not esteemed; of vice which may be despised, but hardly detested. Falstaff is a character loaded with faults, and with those faults which naturally produce contempt. He is a thief and a glutton, a coward and a boaster; always ready to cheat the weak, and prey upon the poor; to terrify the timorous, and insult the defenceless. At once obsequious and malignant, be satirizes in their absence those whom he lives by flattering. He is familiar with the prince, only as an agent of vice; but of this familiarity he is so proud, as not only to be supercilious and haughty with common men, but to think his interest of importance to the Duke of Lancaster. Yet the man thus corrupt, thus despicable, makes himself necessary to the prince that despises him, by the most pleasing of all qualities, perpetual gaity; by an unfailing power of exciting laughter, which is the more freely indulged, as his wit is net of the splendid or ambitious kind, but consists in easy scapes and sallies of levity, which make sport, hat raise no envy. It must be observed, that he is stained with no enormous or sanguinary crimes, so that his ficentiousness is not so offensive but that it may be borne for his mirth."

INDUCTION.

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

KING HENRY THE FOURTH. HENRY, Prince of Wales, afterwards King Henry V. THOMAS, Duke of Clarence, PRINCE JOHN of Lancaster, afterwards Duke of Bedford; PRINCE HUMPHREY of Gloster, afterwards Duke of Gloster, EARL OF WARWICK,

EARL OF WESTMORE

of the King's Party.

LAND,
GOWER,-HARCOURT,
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE of the King's Bench.
A GENTLEMAN attending on the Chief Justice.
EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND,
SCROOP, Archbishop of York,
LORD MOWBRAY; LORD HASTINGS,
LORD BARDOLPH; SIR JOHN COLE-
VILE,

his Sons.

Enemies
to the
King.

TRAVERS and MORTON, Domestics of Northumberland.

Warkworth.-Before Northumberland's

Castle.
Eater RUMOUR, painted full of Tongues.
Rum. Open your ears; For which of you will
stop
The vent of hearing, when loud Rumour speaks?

SCENE, England.

and

Lords and other Attendants, Officers, Soldiers, Messenger, Drawers, Beadles,

Grooms, &c.

I, from the orient to the drooping west,
Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
The acts commenced on this ball of earth:
Upon my tongues continual slanders ride;
The which in every language I pronounce,
Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.
I speak of peace, while covert enmity,
Under the smile of safety wounds the world:
And who but Rumour, who but only I,

Make fearful musters and prepar'd defence; Whilst the big year, swoll'n with some other grief,

Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures;
And of so easy and so plain a stop,
That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still-discordant wavering multitude,
Can play upon it. But what need I thus
My well-known body to anatomize

Among my household? Why is Rumour here ?
I run before king Harry's victory;

troops,

Quenching the flame of bold rebellion
Even with the rebel's blood. But what mean I
To speak so true at first? my office is
To noise abroad,-that Harry Monmouth fell
Under the wrath of noble Hotspur's sword;
And that the king before the Douglas' rage
Stoop'd his anointed bead as low as death.
This have I rumour'd through the peasant
towns

Between that royal field of Shrewsbury
And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone,'
Where Hotspur's father, old Northumberland,
Lies crafty-sick: the posts come tiring on,
And not a man of them brings other news
Than they have iearn'd of me; From Rumour's

tongues

With joyful tidings; and, being better bors'd,
Out-rode me. After him, came spurring hard,

Who, in a bloody field by Shrewsbury,

Hath beaten down young Hotspur, and his A gentleman almost forspent with speed,
That stopp'd by me to breathe his bloodied
horse:

He ask'd the way to Chester; and of him
I did demand, what news from Shrewsbury.
He told me, that rebellion had bad luck,
And that young Harry Percy's spur was cold;
With that, he gave his able horse the head,
And, bending forward, struck his armed heels
Against the panting sides of his poor jade
Up to the rowel-head; and, starting so,
He seem'd in running to devour the way,
Staying no longer question.

They bring smooth comforts false, worse than [Exit.

true wrongs.

ACT I.

SCENE 1.-The same -The PORTER before the Gate; Enter Lord BARDOLPH.

Bard. Who keeps the gate here, ho?-
Where is the earl?

Port. What shall I say you are?

Bard. Tell thou the earl,

That the lord Bardolph doth attend him bere.

Port. His lordship is walk'd forth into the
orchard;

Please it your honour, knock but at the gate,
And he himself will answer.

I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury.
North. Good, an heaven will!

Bard. As good as heart can wish :-
The king is almost wounded to the death;
And, in the fortune of my lord your son,
Prince Harry slain outright; and both the
Blunts

Kill'd by the hand of Douglas: young prince
John,

And Westmoreland, and Stafford, fled the field;
And Harry Monmouth's brawn, the hulk Sir John,
Is prisoner to your son: O such a day,
So fought, so follow'd, and so fairly won,
Came not, till now, to dignify the times,
Since Cæsar's fortunes!

North. Here comes my servant, Travers whom I sent

On Tuesday last to listen after news.

Bard. My lord, I over-rode him on the way;
And he is furnish'd with no certainties,
More than he haply may retain from me.

North. How is this deriv'd?

Saw you the field? came you from Shrewsbury? Bard. I spake with one, my lord, that came from thence;

A gentleman well bred, and of good name,
That freely render'd me these news for true.

Enter TRAVERS.

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

Tra. My lord, Sir John Umfrevile turn'd me back

• Northumberland castle.
† Important or dreadful event.

North. Ha!Again.

Said he, young Harry Percy's spur was cold!
Of Hotspur, colispur ? that rebellion
Had met ill-luck!

Bard. My lord, I'll tell you what ;-
If any young lord your son have not the day,
Upon mine honour, for a silken point
I'll give my barony: never talk of it.
North. Why should the gentleman, that rede
by Travers,

Enter NORTHUMBERLAND.
Bard. Here comes the earl.
North. What news, lord Bardolph? every To fright our party.

minute now
Should be the father of some stratagem: +
The times are wild; contention, like a horse
Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose,
And bears down all before him.

Bard. Noble earl,

Give then such instances of loss?
Bard. Who, he?

The horse he rode on; and, upon my life,
He was some hilding fellow, that had stol'n
Spoke at a venture. Look, bere comes more

news.

Enter MORTON.

North. Yea, this man's brow, like to a title leaf,

Fortells the nature of a tragic volume:

So looks the strond, wheron the imperious flood
Hath left a witness'd usurpation.

Say, Morton, didst thou come from Shrews-
bury?

Mor. I ran from Shrewsbury, my noble lord; Where hateful death put on his ugliest mask,

North. How doth my son and brother?
Thou tremblest; and the whiteness in thy cheek
Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand.
Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,
So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone,
Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night,
And would have told him, balf his Troy was
burn'd:

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

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

North. Why, he is dead.

See, what a ready tongue suspicion hath ?
He that but fears the thing he would not
know,

Hath, by instinct, knowledge from other's eyes,
That what he fear'd is chanced. Yet speak,
Morton;
Tell thou thy earl, his divination lies;
• Lace tagged.

+ An attestation of its ravage.