SCENE I. The rebel camp near Shrewsbury. The First part of King Henry the Fourth  Shakespeare homepage  |  Henry IV, part 1  | Act 4, Scene 1 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE I. The rebel camp near Shrewsbury. 

 Enter HOTSPUR, WORCESTER, and DOUGLAS  HOTSPUR  Well said, my noble Scot: if speaking truth 

 In this fine age were not thought flattery, 

 Such attribution should the Douglas have, 

 As not a soldier of this season's stamp 

 Should go so general current through the world. 

 By God, I cannot flatter; I do defy 

 The tongues of soothers; but a braver place 

 In my heart's love hath no man than yourself: 

 Nay, task me to my word; approve me, lord. 

 EARL OF DOUGLAS  Thou art the king of honour: 

 No man so potent breathes upon the ground 

 But I will beard him. 

 HOTSPUR  Do so, and 'tis well. 



 Enter a Messenger with letters  What letters hast thou there?--I can but thank you. 

 Messenger  These letters come from your father. 

 HOTSPUR  Letters from him! why comes he not himself? 

 Messenger  He cannot come, my lord; he is grievous sick. 

 HOTSPUR  'Zounds! how has he the leisure to be sick 

 In such a rustling time? Who leads his power? 

 Under whose government come they along? 

 Messenger  His letters bear his mind, not I, my lord. 

 EARL OF WORCESTER  I prithee, tell me, doth he keep his bed? 

 Messenger  He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth; 

 And at the time of my departure thence 

 He was much fear'd by his physicians. 

 EARL OF WORCESTER  I would the state of time had first been whole 

 Ere he by sickness had been visited: 

 His health was never better worth than now. 

 HOTSPUR  Sick now! droop now! this sickness doth infect 

 The very life-blood of our enterprise; 

 'Tis catching hither, even to our camp. 

 He writes me here, that inward sickness-- 

 And that his friends by deputation could not 

 So soon be drawn, nor did he think it meet 

 To lay so dangerous and dear a trust 

 On any soul removed but on his own. 

 Yet doth he give us bold advertisement, 

 That with our small conjunction we should on, 

 To see how fortune is disposed to us; 

 For, as he writes, there is no quailing now. 

 Because the king is certainly possess'd 

 Of all our purposes. What say you to it? 

 EARL OF WORCESTER  Your father's sickness is a maim to us. 

 HOTSPUR  A perilous gash, a very limb lopp'd off: 

 And yet, in faith, it is not; his present want 

 Seems more than we shall find it: were it good 

 To set the exact wealth of all our states 

 All at one cast? to set so rich a main 

 On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour? 

 It were not good; for therein should we read 

 The very bottom and the soul of hope, 

 The very list, the very utmost bound 

 Of all our fortunes. 

 EARL OF DOUGLAS  'Faith, and so we should; 

 Where now remains a sweet reversion: 

 We may boldly spend upon the hope of what 

 Is to come in: 

 A comfort of retirement lives in this. 

 HOTSPUR  A rendezvous, a home to fly unto. 

 If that the devil and mischance look big 

 Upon the maidenhead of our affairs. 

 EARL OF WORCESTER  But yet I would your father had been here. 

 The quality and hair of our attempt 

 Brooks no division: it will be thought 

 By some, that know not why he is away, 

 That wisdom, loyalty and mere dislike 

 Of our proceedings kept the earl from hence: 

 And think how such an apprehension 

 May turn the tide of fearful faction 

 And breed a kind of question in our cause; 

 For well you know we of the offering side 

 Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement, 

 And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence 

 The eye of reason may pry in upon us: 

 This absence of your father's draws a curtain, 

 That shows the ignorant a kind of fear 

 Before not dreamt of. 

 HOTSPUR  You strain too far. 

 I rather of his absence make this use: 

 It lends a lustre and more great opinion, 

 A larger dare to our great enterprise, 

 Than if the earl were here; for men must think, 

 If we without his help can make a head 

 To push against a kingdom, with his help 

 We shall o'erturn it topsy-turvy down. 

 Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole. 

 EARL OF DOUGLAS  As heart can think: there is not such a word 

 Spoke of in Scotland as this term of fear. 



 Enter SIR RICHARD VERNON  HOTSPUR  My cousin Vernon, welcome, by my soul. 

 VERNON  Pray God my news be worth a welcome, lord. 

 The Earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong, 

 Is marching hitherwards; with him Prince John. 

 HOTSPUR  No harm: what more? 

 VERNON  And further, I have learn'd, 

 The king himself in person is set forth, 

 Or hitherwards intended speedily, 

 With strong and mighty preparation. 

 HOTSPUR  He shall be welcome too. Where is his son, 

 The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales, 

 And his comrades, that daff'd the world aside, 

 And bid it pass? 

 VERNON  All furnish'd, all in arms; 

 All plumed like estridges that with the wind 

 Baited like eagles having lately bathed; 

 Glittering in golden coats, like images; 

 As full of spirit as the month of May, 

 And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer; 

 Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls. 

 I saw young Harry, with his beaver on, 

 His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm'd 

 Rise from the ground like feather'd Mercury, 

 And vaulted with such ease into his seat, 

 As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds, 

 To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus 

 And witch the world with noble horsemanship. 

 HOTSPUR  No more, no more: worse than the sun in March, 

 This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come: 

 They come like sacrifices in their trim, 

 And to the fire-eyed maid of smoky war 

 All hot and bleeding will we offer them: 

 The mailed Mars shall on his altar sit 

 Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire 

 To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh 

 And yet not ours. Come, let me taste my horse, 

 Who is to bear me like a thunderbolt 

 Against the bosom of the Prince of Wales: 

 Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse, 

 Meet and ne'er part till one drop down a corse. 

 O that Glendower were come! 

 VERNON  There is more news: 

 I learn'd in Worcester, as I rode along, 

 He cannot draw his power this fourteen days. 

 EARL OF DOUGLAS  That's the worst tidings that I hear of yet. 

 WORCESTER  Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound. 

 HOTSPUR  What may the king's whole battle reach unto? 

 VERNON  To thirty thousand. 

 HOTSPUR  Forty let it be: 

 My father and Glendower being both away, 

 The powers of us may serve so great a day 

 Come, let us take a muster speedily: 

 Doomsday is near; die all, die merrily. 

 EARL OF DOUGLAS  Talk not of dying: I am out of fear 

 Of death or death's hand for this one-half year. 



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