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Henry IV, Pt. 2: Act I, Scene 3

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Henry IV, Pt. 2
Act I, Scene 3

York . A room in the Archbishop’s palace .

  1. Enter the Archbishop of York , Thomas Mowbray Earl Marshal ,
  2. the Lord Hastings , and Lord Bardolph .

Archbishop of York

1 - 4
  1. Thus have you heard our cause and known our means ,
  2. And , my most noble friends , I pray you all
  3. Speak plainly your opinions of our hopes .
  4. And first , Lord Marshal , what say you to it ?

Lord Mowbray

5 - 9
  1. I well allow the occasion of our arms ,
  2. But gladly would be better satisfied
  3. How in our means we should advance ourselves
  4. To look with forehead bold and big enough
  5. Upon the power and puissance of the King .

Lord Hastings

10 - 14
  1. Our present musters grow upon the file
  2. To five and twenty thousand men of choice ,
  3. And our supplies live largely in the hope
  4. Of great Northumberland , whose bosom burns
  5. With an incensed fire of injuries .

Lord Bardolph

15 - 17
  1. The question then , Lord Hastings , standeth thus :
  2. Whether our present five and twenty thousand
  3. May hold up head without Northumberland ?

Lord Hastings

18
  1. With him , we may .

Lord Bardolph

19 - 25
  1.                   Yea , marry , there’s the point !
  2. But if without him we be thought too feeble ,
  3. My judgment is we should not step too far
  4. Till we had his assistance by the hand .
  5. For in a theme so bloody - fac’d as this ,
  6. Conjecture , expectation , and surmise
  7. Of aids incertain should not be admitted .

Archbishop of York

26 - 27
  1. ’Tis very true , Lord Bardolph , for indeed
  2. It was young Hotspur’s cause at Shrewsbury .

Lord Bardolph

28 - 34
  1. It was , my lord , who lin’d himself with hope ,
  2. Eating the air , and promise of supply ,
  3. Flatt’ring himself in project of a power
  4. Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts ,
  5. And so with great imagination ,
  6. Proper to madmen , led his powers to death ,
  7. And winking , leapt into destruction .

Lord Hastings

35 - 36
  1. But by your leave , it never yet did hurt
  2. To lay down likelihoods and forms of hope .

Lord Bardolph

37 - 63
  1. Yes , if this present quality of war —
  2. Indeed the instant action , a cause on foot —
  3. Lives so in hope , as in an early spring
  4. We see th’ appearing buds , which to prove fruit
  5. Hope gives not so much warrant , as despair
  6. That frosts will bite them . When we mean to build ,
  7. We first survey the plot , then draw the model ,
  8. And when we see the figure of the house ,
  9. Then must we rate the cost of the erection ,
  10. Which if we find outweighs ability ,
  11. What do we then but draw anew the model
  12. In fewer offices , or at least desist
  13. To build at all ? Much more , in this great work
  14. ( Which is , almost , to pluck a kingdom down
  15. And set another up ), should we survey
  16. The plot of situation and the model ,
  17. Consent upon a sure foundation ,
  18. Question surveyors , know our own estate ,
  19. How able such a work to undergo ,
  20. To weigh against his opposite ; or else
  21. We fortify in paper and in figures ,
  22. Using the names of men in stead of men ,
  23. Like one that draws the model of an house
  24. Beyond his power to build it , who , half thorough ,
  25. Gives o’er , and leaves his part - created cost
  26. A naked subject to the weeping clouds
  27. And waste for churlish winter’s tyranny .
Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare

Thus have you heard our cause and known our means

From: Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare

Mary Cowden Clarke, Charles Cowden Clarke, 1870

Lord Hastings

64 - 68
  1. Grant that our hopes ( yet likely of fair birth )
  2. Should be still - born , and that we now possess’d
  3. The utmost man of expectation ,
  4. I think we are so a body strong enough ,
  5. Even as we are , to equal with the King .

Lord Bardolph

69
  1. What , is the King but five and twenty thousand ?

Lord Hastings

70 - 76
  1. To us no more , nay , not so much , Lord Bardolph ,
  2. For his divisions , as the times do brawl ,
  3. Are in three heads : one power against the French ,
  4. And one against Glendower ; perforce a third
  5. Must take up us . So is the unfirm King
  6. In three divided , and his coffers sound
  7. With hollow poverty and emptiness .

Archbishop of York

77 - 79
  1. That he should draw his several strengths together ,
  2. And come against us in full puissance ,
  3. Need not to be dreaded .

Lord Hastings

80 - 82
  1.                         If he should do so ,
  2. To French and Welsh he leaves his back unarm’d ,
  3. They baying him at the heels . Never fear that .

Lord Bardolph

83
  1. Who is it like should lead his forces hither ?

Lord Hastings

84 - 87
  1. The Duke of Lancaster and Westmorland ;
  2. Against the Welsh , himself and Harry Monmouth ;
  3. But who is substituted against the French ,
  4. I have no certain notice .

Archbishop of York

88 - 111
  1.                           Let us on !
  2. And publish the occasion of our arms .
  3. The commonwealth is sick of their own choice ,
  4. Their over - greedy love hath surfeited .
  5. An habitation giddy and unsure
  6. Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart .
  7. O thou fond many , with what loud applause
  8. Didst thou beat heaven with blessing Bullingbrook
  9. Before he was what thou wouldst have him be !
  10. And being now trimm’d in thine own desires ,
  11. Thou , beastly feeder , art so full of him ,
  12. That thou provok’st thyself to cast him up .
  13. So , so , thou common dog , didst thou disgorge
  14. Thy glutton bosom of the royal Richard ,
  15. And now thou wouldst eat thy dead vomit up ,
  16. And howl’st to find it . What trust is in these times ?
  17. They that , when Richard liv’d , would have him die ,
  18. Are now become enamor’d on his grave .
  19. Thou , that threw’st dust upon his goodly head
  20. When through proud London he came sighing on
  21. After th’ admired heels of Bullingbrook ,
  22. Cri’st now , “ O earth , yield us that king again ,
  23. And take thou this !” O thoughts of men accurs’d !
  24. Past and to come seems best ; things present worst .

Lord Mowbray

112
  1. Shall we go draw our numbers and set on ?

Lord Hastings

113
  1. We are time’s subjects , and time bids be gone .
  1. Exeunt .
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