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Dramatis Personae
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/ Home / Library / Complete Shakespeare / King Henry IV Part 1 / Act IV Scene III
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King Henry IV Part 1: Act 4 Scene 3
Scene III The rebel camp near Shrewsbury.
- [Enter HOTSPUR, WORCESTER, DOUGLAS, and VERNON]
- HOTSPUR
- We'll fight with him to-night.
- EARL OF WORCESTER
- It may not be.
- EARL OF DOUGLAS
- You give him then the advantage.
- VERNON
- Not a whit.
- HOTSPUR
- Why say you so? looks he not for supply?
- VERNON
- So do we.
- HOTSPUR
- His is certain, ours is doubtful.
- EARL OF WORCESTER
- Good cousin, be advised; stir not tonight.
- VERNON
- Do not, my lord.
- EARL OF DOUGLAS
- You do not counsel well:
- You speak it out of fear and cold heart.
- VERNON
- Do me no slander, Douglas: by my life,
- And I dare well maintain it with my life,
- If well-respected honour bid me on,
- I hold as little counsel with weak fear
- As you, my lord, or any Scot that this day lives:
- Let it be seen to-morrow in the battle
- Which of us fears.
- EARL OF DOUGLAS
- Yea, or to-night.
- VERNON
- Content.
- HOTSPUR
- To-night, say I.
- VERNON
- Come, come it nay not be. I wonder much,
- Being men of such great leading as you are,
- That you foresee not what impediments
- Drag back our expedition: certain horse
- Of my cousin Vernon's are not yet come up:
- Your uncle Worcester's horse came but today;
- And now their pride and mettle is asleep,
- Their courage with hard labour tame and dull,
- That not a horse is half the half of himself.
- HOTSPUR
- So are the horses of the enemy
- In general, journey-bated and brought low:
- The better part of ours are full of rest.
- EARL OF WORCESTER
- The number of the king exceedeth ours:
- For God's sake. cousin, stay till all come in.
- [The trumpet sounds a parley]
- [Enter SIR WALTER BLUNT]
- SIR WALTER BLUNT
- I come with gracious offers from the king,
- if you vouchsafe me hearing and respect.
- HOTSPUR
- Welcome, Sir Walter Blunt; and would to God
- You were of our determination!
- Some of us love you well; and even those some
- Envy your great deservings and good name,
- Because you are not of our quality,
- But stand against us like an enemy.
- SIR WALTER BLUNT
- And God defend but still I should stand so,
- So long as out of limit and true rule
- You stand against anointed majesty.
- But to my charge. The king hath sent to know
- The nature of your griefs, and whereupon
- You conjure from the breast of civil peace
- Such bold hostility, teaching his duteous land
- Audacious cruelty. If that the king
- Have any way your good deserts forgot,
- Which he confesseth to be manifold,
- He bids you name your griefs; and with all speed
- You shall have your desires with interest
- And pardon absolute for yourself and these
- Herein misled by your suggestion.
- HOTSPUR
- The king is kind; and well we know the king
- Knows at what time to promise, when to pay.
- My father and my uncle and myself
- Did give him that same royalty he wears;
- And when he was not six and twenty strong,
- Sick in the world's regard, wretched and low,
- A poor unminded outlaw sneaking home,
- My father gave him welcome to the shore;
- And when he heard him swear and vow to God
- He came but to be Duke of Lancaster,
- To sue his livery and beg his peace,
- With tears of innocency and terms of zeal,
- My father, in kind heart and pity moved,
- Swore him assistance and perform'd it too.
- Now when the lords and barons of the realm
- Perceived Northumberland did lean to him,
- The more and less came in with cap and knee;
- Met him in boroughs, cities, villages,
- Attended him on bridges, stood in lanes,
- Laid gifts before him, proffer'd him their oaths,
- Gave him their heirs, as pages follow'd him
- Even at the heels in golden multitudes.
- He presently, as greatness knows itself,
- Steps me a little higher than his vow
- Made to my father, while his blood was poor,
- Upon the naked shore at Ravenspurgh;
- And now, forsooth, takes on him to reform
- Some certain edicts and some strait decrees
- That lie too heavy on the commonwealth,
- Cries out upon abuses, seems to weep
- Over his country's wrongs; and by this face,
- This seeming brow of justice, did he win
- The hearts of all that he did angle for;
- Proceeded further; cut me off the heads
- Of all the favourites that the absent king
- In deputation left behind him here,
- When he was personal in the Irish war.
- SIR WALTER BLUNT
- Tut, I came not to hear this.
- HOTSPUR
- Then to the point.
- In short time after, he deposed the king;
- Soon after that, deprived him of his life;
- And in the neck of that, task'd the whole state:
- To make that worse, suffer'd his kinsman March,
- Who is, if every owner were well placed,
- Indeed his king, to be engaged in Wales,
- There without ransom to lie forfeited;
- Disgraced me in my happy victories,
- Sought to entrap me by intelligence;
- Rated mine uncle from the council-board;
- In rage dismiss'd my father from the court;
- Broke oath on oath, committed wrong on wrong,
- And in conclusion drove us to seek out
- This head of safety; and withal to pry
- Into his title, the which we find
- Too indirect for long continuance.
- SIR WALTER BLUNT
- Shall I return this answer to the king?
- HOTSPUR
- Not so, Sir Walter: we'll withdraw awhile.
- Go to the king; and let there be impawn'd
- Some surety for a safe return again,
- And in the morning early shall my uncle
- Bring him our purposes: and so farewell.
- SIR WALTER BLUNT
- I would you would accept of grace and love.
- HOTSPUR
- And may be so we shall.
- SIR WALTER BLUNT
- Pray God you do.
- [Exeunt]
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