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FIRST PART OF

KING HENRY IV.

ACT I. SCENE I.

London. A Room in the Palace.

Enter King HENRY, WESTMORELAND, Sir WALTER BLUNT, and Others.

K. Hen. So shaken as we are, so

care,

wan with

Find we a time for frighted peace to pant,
And breathe short-winded accents of new broils
To be commenc'd in stronds afar remote.
No more the thirsty Erinnys of this soil
Shall daub her lips with her own children's
blood;

No more shall trenching war channel her fields,
Nor bruise her flowrets with the armed hoofs
Of hostile paces: those opposed eyes,

Which, like the meteors of a troubled hea

ven.

All of one nature, of one substance bred,
Did lately meet in the intestine shock
And furious close of civil butchery,
Shall now, in mutual, well-hes ceming ranks,
March all one way; and be no more oppos'd
Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies:
The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife,

No more shall cut his master. Therefore, friends, As far as to the sepulcher of Christ,

(Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross We are impressed and engaged to fight,) Forthwith a power of English shall we levy; Whose arms were moulded in their mothers' womb

To chase these pagans, in those holy fields,
Over whose acres walk'd those blessed feet,
Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nail'd
For our advantage, on the bitter cross.
But this our purpose is a twelve-month old,
And bootless 'tis to tell you -we will go;
Therefore we meet not now:- Then let me

hear

Of you, my gentle cousin Westmoreland,
What yesternight our council did decree,
In forwarding this dear expedience.

West. My Liege, this haste was hot in question, And many limits of the charge set down

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But yesternight: when, all athwart, there came
A post from Wales, loaden with heavy news;
Whose worst was,
that the noble Mortimer,
Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight
Against the irregular and wild Glendower,
Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken,
And a thousand of his people butchered:
Upon whose dead corps there was such misuse,
Such beastly, shameless transformation,
By those Welshwomen done, as may not be,
Without much shame, retold or spoken of.

K. Hen. It seems then the tidings of this
broil

Brake off our business for the holy land. West. This match'd with other, did, my gracious Lord;

For more uneven and unwelcome news
Came from the north, and thus it did import.
On Holy-rood day, the gallaut Hotspur there,
Young Harry Percy, and brave Archibald,
That ever-valiant and approved Scot,

At Holmedon met,

Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour; As by discharge of their artillery,

And shape of likelihood the news was told; For he that brought them, in the very heat And pride of their contention did take horse, Uncertain of the issue any way.

K. Hen. Here is a dear and true-industrious

friend,

Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse, Stain'd with the variation of each soil

Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours; And he hath brought us smooth and welcome

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news.

The Earl of Douglas is discomfited;

Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights,
Balk'd in their own blood, did Sir Walter see
On Holmedon's plains; Of prisoners, Hotspur
took

Mordake the Earl of Fife, and eldest son
To beaten Douglas; and the Earl of Athol
Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith.

And is not this an honourable spoil?
A gallant prize? ha, cousin, is it not?

West. In faith,

It is a conquest for a Prince to boast of.

K. Hen. Yea, there thou makʼst me sad, and 'mak'st me sin

In envy that my lord Northumberland

Should be the father of so blest a son:

A son, who is the theme of honour's tongue;

Amongst a grove, the very straightest plant;
Who is sweet fortune's minion, and her pride:
Whilst I, by looking on the praise of him,
See riot and dishonour stain the brow

Of my young Harry. O, that it could be prov'd,
That some night-tripping fairy had exchang'd
In cradle-clothes our children where they lay,
And call'd mine- Percy, his Plantagenet!
Then would I have his Harry, and he mine.
But let him from my thoughts: What think you

coz',

Of this young Percy's pride? the prisoners,
Which he in this adventure hath surpriz'd,
To his own use he keeps; and sends me word,
I shall have none but Mordake Earl of Fife.
West. This is his uncle's teaching, this is
Worcester,
Malevolent to you in all aspects;

Which makes him prune himself, and bristle up
The crest of youth against your dignity.

K. Hen. But I have sent for him to answer this; And, for this cause, awhile we must neglect Our holy purpose to Jerusalem.

Cousin, on Wednesday next our council we
Will hold at Windsor, so inform the lords;
But come yourself with speed to us again;
For more is to be said, aud to be done,
Than out of anger can be uttered.
West. I will, my Liege,

[Exeunt,

SCENE II,

The same.

Another Room in the Palace.

Enter HENRY, Prince of Wales, and FALSTAFF.

Fal. Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?

P. Hen. Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack, and unbuttoning thee after supper, and sleeping upon benches after noon, that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which thou would'st truly know. What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the day? unless hours were cups of sack, and miuntes capons, and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the signs of leaping-houses, and the blessed sun himself a fair hot wench in flame-colour'd taffata; I see no. reason, why thou should'st be superfinous to demand the time of the day.

Fal. Indeed, you come near me, now Hal: for we, that take purses, go by the moon and seven stars; and not by Phoebus, he, that wandering knight so fair. And, I pray thee, sweet wag, when thou art King, as, God save thy grace, (majesty, I should say; for grace thou wilt have none,)P. Hen. What! none?

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Fal. No, by my troth; not so much as will serve to be prologue to an egg and butter,

P. Hen. Well, how then? come, roundly, roundly.

Fal. Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art King, let not us, that are squires of the night's body, be call'd thieves of the day's beauty; let us be Diana's foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the noon: And let men say, we be men of good government; being govern'd as the sea is, by our noble and chaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance we steal.

P. Hen. Thou say'st well; and it holds well too for the fortune of us, that are the moon's men, doth ebb and flow like the sea; been govern'd as the sea is, by the moon. As, for proof, now: A purse of gold most resolutely snatch'd

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