Enter HOTSPUR. There did he pause: but let me tell the world, So much misconstrued in his wantonness. Hot. O Douglas, hadst thou fought at Holmedon thus, Hot. Cousin, I think thou art enamoured 70 I never had triumph'd upon a Scot. On his follies: never did I hear Of any prince so wild a libertine. But be he as he will, yet once ere night I will embrace him with a soldier's arm, That he shall shrink under my courtesy. Arm, arm with speed: and, fellows, soldiers, friends, Better consider what you have to do Than I, that have not well the gift of tongue, Enter a Messenger. you. Mess. My lord, here are letters for If die, brave death, when princes die with us! Enter another Messenger. 80 Mess. My lord, prepare; the king comes on apace. 90 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 100 [The trumpets sound. They embrace, and exeunt. SCENE III. Plain between the camps. The KING enters with his power. Alarum to the battle. Then enter DoUGLAS and SIR WALTER BLUNT. Blunt. What is thy name, that in the battle Thou crossest me? what honour dost thou seek Know then, my name is Douglas; Doug. The Lord of Stafford dear to-day hath Doug. All's done, all's won; here breathless lies the king. Hot. Where? Alarum. Enter FALSTAFF, solus. Fal. Though I could 'scape shot-free at London, I fear the shot here; here's no scoring but upon the pate. Soft! who are you? Sir 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 ragamuffins where they are peppered: there's not 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 the PRINCE. 40 Fal. Nay, before God, Hal, if Percy be alive, thou get'st not my sword; but take my pistol, if thou wilt. Prince. now? Prince. 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 it out, and finds it to be a bottle of sack. What, is it a time to jest and dally [He throws the bottle at him. 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 And thou shalt find a king that will revenge Walter hath: give me life: which if I can save, Lord Stafford's death. They fight. Douglas so; if not, honour comes unlooked for, and there's Thy likeness, for instead of thee, King Harry, kills Blunt. an end. [Exit. Enter DOUGLAS.* Fal. Well said, Hal! to it, Hal! Nay, you shall find no boy's play here, I can tell you, Doug. Another king! they grow like Hydra's Re-enter DOUGLAS; he fights with FALSTAFF, heads: I am the Douglas, fatal to all those That wear those colours on them: what art thou, King The king himself; who, Douglas, So many of his shadows thou hast met 30 It is the Prince of Wales that threatens thee; Thou hast redeem'd thy lost opinion, who falls down as if he were dead, and exit DOUGLAS. HOTSPUR is wounded, and falls. Hot. O, Harry, thou hast robb'd me of my youth! I better brook the loss of brittle life Than those proud titles thou hast won of me; But thought's the slave of life, and life time's fool; Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk! 90 Is room enough: this earth that bears thee dead I should not make so dear a show of zeal: And show'd thou makest some tender of my life, Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave, 100 But not remember'd in thy epitaph! He spieth Falstaff on the ground. What, old acquaintance! could not all this flesh Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell! I could have better spared a better man: O, I should have a heavy miss of thee, If I were much in love with vanity! Death hath not struck so fat a deer to-day, Though many dearer, in this bloody fray. Embowell'd will I see thee by and by: Till then in blood by noble Percy lie. [Exit. 110 Fal. [Rising up] Embowelled! if thou embowel me to-day, I'll give you leave to powder me and eat me too to-morrow. 'Sblood, 'twas time to counterfeit, or that hot termagant Scot had paid me scot and lot too. Counterfeit? I lie, I am no counterfeit: to die, is to be a counterfeit; for he is but the counterfeit of a man who hath not the life of a man: but to counterfeit dying, when a man thereby liveth, is to be no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life indeed. The better part of valour is discretion; in the which better part I have saved my life. 'Zounds, I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead: how, if he should counterfeit too and rise? by my faith, I am. afraid he would prove the better counterfeit. Therefore I'll make him sure; yea, and I'll swear I killed him. Why may not he rise as well as I? Nothing confutes me but eyes, and nobody sees me. Therefore, sirrah [stabbing him), with a new wound in your thigh, come you along with [Takes up Hotspur on his back. me. Re-enter the PRINCE OF WALES and LORD JOHN OF LANCASTER. Prince. Come, brother John; full bravely hast thou flesh'd Thy maiden sword. 'Lan. But, soft! whom have we here? Did you not tell me this fat man was dead? Prince. I did; I saw him dead, Breathless and bleeding on the ground. Art thou alive? Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight? I prithee, speak; we will not trust our eyes 139 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. I look to be either earl or duke, I can assure you. Prince. Why, Percy I killed myself and saw thee dead. Fal. Didst thou? Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying! I grant you I was down and out of breath; and so was he: but we rose both at an instant and fought a long hour by Shrews bury clock. If I may be believed, so; if not, let them that should reward valour bear the sin upon their own heads. I'll take it upon my death, I gave him this wound in the thigh: if the man were alive and would deny it, 'zounds, I would make him eat a piece of my sword. Lan. This is the strangest tale that ever I heard. Prince. This is the strangest fellow, brother John. 159 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 ours. Come, brother, let us to the highest of the field, To see what friends are living, who are dead. [Exeunt Prince of Wales and Lancaster. Fal. I'll follow, as they say, for reward. He that rewards me, God reward him! If I do grow great, I'll grow less; for I'll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly as a nobleman should do. [Exit. SCENE V. Another part of the field. The trumpets sound. Enter the KING, PRINCE King. Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke. King. With all my heart. Prince. 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. 31 Lan. I thank your grace for this high courtesy, Which I shall give away immediately. King. Then this remains, that we divide our power. You, son John, and my cousin Westmoreland Towards York shall bend you with your dearest speed, To meet Northumberland and the prelate Scroop, 41 INDUCTION. Warkworth. Before the castle. Enter Rumour, painted full of tongues. Rum. Open your ears; for which of you will stop The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks? That the blunt monster with uncounted heads, Among my household? Why is Rumour here? ΙΟ 20 Hath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops, Quenching the flame of bold rebellion Even with the rebel's blood. But what mean I SHALLOW,} SILENCE, country justices. DAVY, Servant to Shallow. MOULDY, SHADOW, WART, FEEBLE, and BULLCALF, recruits. FANG and SNARE, sheriff's officers. LADY NORTHUMBERLAND. LADY PERCY. MISTRESS QUICKLY, hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap. DOLL TEARSHEET. Lords and Attendants; Porter, Drawers, Beadles, Grooms, &c. A Dancer, speaker of the epilogue. SCENE: England. 30 To speak so true at first? my office is They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true wrongs, ACT I. SCENE I. The same. Enter LORD BARDOLPH. [Exit. 40 And he is furnish'd with no certainties Tra. My lord, Sir John Umfrevile turn'd me back 40 With joyful tidings; and, being better horsed, North. L. Bard. My lord, I'll tell you what; If my young lord your son have not the day, Upon mine honour, for a silken point I'll give my barony: never talk of it. 50 Say, Morton, didst thou come from Shrewsbury? North. 70 How doth my son and brother? Your brother thus: so fought the noble Douglas:' North. 80 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 others' eyes That what he fear'd is chanced. Yet speak, Morton; Tell thou an earl his divination lies, North. Yet, for all this, say not that Percy's dead. I see a strange confession in thine eve: 100 Mor. I am sorry I should force you to believe That which I would to God I had not seen : But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state, Rendering faint quittance, wearied and outbreathed, To Harry Monmouth; whose swift wrath beat down The never-daunted Percy to the earth, 110 North. Why should that gentleman that rode From whence with life he never more sprung up. In few, his death, whose spirit lent a fire Even to the dullest peasant in his camp, |