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Henry IV, Pt. 2: Act IV, Scene 1

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Henry IV, Pt. 2
Act IV, Scene 1

Scene 1

Yorkshire . Within the Forest of Gaultree .

  1. Enter the Archbishop of York , Mowbray , Lord Bardolph ,
  2. Hastings , and others , within the forest of Gaultree .

Archbishop of York

1
  1. What is this forest call’d ?

Lord Hastings

2
  1. ’Tis Gaultree forest , and’t shall please your Grace .

Archbishop of York

3 - 4
  1. Here stand , my lords , and send discoverers forth
  2. To know the numbers of our enemies .

Lord Hastings

5
  1. We have sent forth already .

Archbishop of York

6 - 17
  1.                             ’Tis well done .
  2. My friends and brethren in these great affairs ,
  3. I must acquaint you that I have receiv’d
  4. New - dated letters from Northumberland ,
  5. Their cold intent , tenure , and substance thus :
  6. Here doth he wish his person , with such powers
  7. As might hold sortance with his quality ,
  8. The which he could not levy ; whereupon
  9. He is retir’d , to ripe his growing fortunes ,
  10. To Scotland , and concludes in hearty prayers
  11. That your attempts may overlive the hazard
  12. And fearful meeting of their opposite .

Lord Mowbray

18 - 19
  1. Thus do the hopes we have in him touch ground
  2. And dash themselves to pieces .
  1. Enter Messenger .

Lord Hastings

20
  1.                                Now , what news ?

Messenger

21 - 24
  1. West of this forest , scarcely off a mile ,
  2. In goodly form comes on the enemy ,
  3. And by the ground they hide , I judge their number
  4. Upon or near the rate of thirty thousand .

Lord Mowbray

25 - 26
  1. The just proportion that we gave them out .
  2. Let us sway on and face them in the field .

Archbishop of York

27
  1. What well - appointed leader fronts us here ?
  1. Enter Westmorland .

Lord Mowbray

28
  1. I think it is my Lord of Westmorland .

Earl of Westmorland

29 - 30
  1. Health and fair greeting from our general ,
  2. The Prince , Lord John and Duke of Lancaster .

Archbishop of York

31 - 32
  1. Say on , my Lord of Westmorland , in peace ,
  2. What doth concern your coming .

Earl of Westmorland

33 - 55
  1.                                Then , my lord ,
  2. Unto your Grace do I in chief address
  3. The substance of my speech . If that rebellion
  4. Came like itself , in base and abject routs ,
  5. Led on by bloody youth , guarded with rage ,
  6. And countenanc’d by boys and beggary —
  7. I say , if damn’d commotion so appear’d
  8. In his true , native , and most proper shape ,
  9. You , reverend father , and these noble lords
  10. Had not been here to dress the ugly form
  11. Of base and bloody insurrection
  12. With your fair honors . You , Lord Archbishop ,
  13. Whose see is by a civil peace maintain’d ,
  14. Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touch’d ,
  15. Whose learning and good letters peace hath tutor’d ,
  16. Whose white investments figure innocence ,
  17. The dove , and very blessed spirit of peace ,
  18. Wherefore do you so ill translate yourself
  19. Out of the speech of peace that bears such grace ,
  20. Into the harsh and boist’rous tongue of war ?
  21. Turning your books to graves , your ink to blood ,
  22. Your pens to lances , and your tongue divine
  23. To a loud trumpet and a point of war ?

Archbishop of York

56 - 90
  1. Wherefore do I this ? So the question stands .
  2. Briefly , to this end : we are all diseas’d ,
  3. And with our surfeiting and wanton hours
  4. Have brought ourselves into a burning fever ,
  5. And we must bleed for it ; of which disease
  6. Our late King Richard ( being infected ) died .
  7. But , my most noble Lord of Westmorland ,
  8. I take not on me here as a physician ,
  9. Nor do I as an enemy to peace
  10. Troop in the throngs of military men ;
  11. But rather show a while like fearful war
  12. To diet rank minds sick of happiness ,
  13. And purge th’ obstructions which begin to stop
  14. Our very veins of life . Hear me more plainly .
  15. I have in equal balance justly weigh’d
  16. What wrongs our arms may do , what wrongs we suffer ,
  17. And find our griefs heavier than our offenses .
  18. We see which way the stream of time doth run ,
  19. And are enforc’d from our most quiet there
  20. By the rough torrent of occasion ,
  21. And have the summary of all our griefs
  22. ( When time shall serve ) to show in articles ;
  23. Which long ere this we offer’d to the King ,
  24. And might by no suit gain our audience .
  25. When we are wrong’d and would unfold our griefs ,
  26. We are denied access unto his person
  27. Even by those men that most have done us wrong .
  28. The dangers of the days but newly gone ,
  29. Whose memory is written on the earth
  30. With yet appearing blood , and the examples
  31. Of every minute’s instance ( present now )
  32. Hath put us in these ill - beseeming arms ,
  33. Not to break peace , or any branch of it ,
  34. But to establish here a peace indeed ,
  35. Concurring both in name and quality .
Earl of Westmoreland

Earl of Westmoreland

John Miller, George Scharf, 1824

Earl of Westmorland

91 - 95
  1. When ever yet was your appeal denied ?
  2. Wherein have you been galled by the King ?
  3. What peer hath been suborn’d to grate on you ?
  4. That you should seal this lawless bloody book
  5. Of forg’d rebellion with a seal divine .

Archbishop of York

96 - 97
  1. My brother general , the commonwealth ,
  2. I make my quarrel in particular .

Earl of Westmorland

98 - 99
  1. There is no need of any such redress ,
  2. Or if there were , it not belongs to you .

Lord Mowbray

100 - 104
  1. Why not to him in part , and to us all
  2. That feel the bruises of the days before ,
  3. And suffer the condition of these times
  4. To lay a heavy and unequal hand
  5. Upon our honors ?

Earl of Westmorland

105 - 114
  1.                  O , my good Lord Mowbray ,
  2. Construe the times to their necessities ,
  3. And you shall say , indeed , it is the time ,
  4. And not the King , that doth you injuries .
  5. Yet , for your part , it not appears to me ,
  6. Either from the King or in the present time ,
  7. That you should have an inch of any ground
  8. To build a grief on . Were you not restor’d
  9. To all the Duke of Norfolk’s signories ,
  10. Your noble and right well - rememb’red father’s ?

Lord Mowbray

115 - 131
  1. What thing , in honor , had my father lost ,
  2. That need to be reviv’d and breath’d in me ?
  3. The King that lov’d him , as the state stood then ,
  4. Was force perforce compell’d to banish him ;
  5. And then that Henry Bullingbrook and he ,
  6. Being mounted and both roused in their seats ,
  7. Their neighing coursers daring of the spur ,
  8. Their armed staves in charge , their beavers down ,
  9. Their eyes of fire sparkling through sights of steel ,
  10. And the loud trumpet blowing them together ;
  11. Then , then , when there was nothing could have stay’d
  12. My father from the breast of Bullingbrook ,
  13. O , when the King did throw his warder down
  14. ( His own life hung upon the staff he threw ),
  15. Then threw he down himself and all their lives
  16. That by indictment and by dint of sword
  17. Have since miscarried under Bullingbrook .

Earl of Westmorland

132 - 148
  1. You speak , Lord Mowbray , now you know not what .
  2. The Earl of Herford was reputed then
  3. In England the most valiant gentleman .
  4. Who knows on whom fortune would then have smil’d ?
  5. But if your father had been victor there ,
  6. He ne’er had borne it out of Coventry ;
  7. For all the country in a general voice
  8. Cried hate upon him ; and all their prayers and love
  9. Were set on Herford , whom they doted on
  10. And bless’d and grac’d and did , more than the King —
  11. But this is mere digression from my purpose .
  12. Here come I from our princely general
  13. To know your griefs , to tell you from his Grace
  14. That he will give you audience , and wherein
  15. It shall appear that your demands are just ,
  16. You shall enjoy them , every thing set off
  17. That might so much as think you enemies .

Lord Mowbray

149 - 150
  1. But he hath forc’d us to compel this offer ,
  2. And it proceeds from policy , not love .

Earl of Westmorland

151 - 160
  1. Mowbray , you overween to take it so ;
  2. This offer comes from mercy , not from fear .
  3. For lo , within a ken our army lies :
  4. Upon mine honor , all too confident
  5. To give admittance to a thought of fear .
  6. Our battle is more full of names than yours ,
  7. Our men more perfect in the use of arms ,
  8. Our armor all as strong , our cause the best ;
  9. Then reason will our hearts should be as good .
  10. Say you not then our offer is compell’d .
Coat of Arms of Thomas de Mowbray, 4th Earl of Norfolk

Coat of Arms of Thomas de Mowbray, 4th Earl of Norfolk

SanglierT

Lord Mowbray

161
  1. Well , by my will we shall admit no parley .

Earl of Westmorland

162 - 163
  1. That argues but the shame of your offense :
  2. A rotten case abides no handling .

Lord Hastings

164 - 167
  1. Hath the Prince John a full commission ,
  2. In very ample virtue of his father ,
  3. To hear and absolutely to determine
  4. Of what conditions we shall stand upon ?

Earl of Westmorland

168 - 169
  1. That is intended in the general’s name .
  2. I muse you make so slight a question .

Archbishop of York

170 - 179
  1. Then take , my Lord of Westmorland , this schedule ,
  2. For this contains our general grievances :
  3. Each several article herein redress’d ,
  4. All members of our cause , both here and hence ,
  5. That are ensinewed to this action
  6. Acquitted by a true substantial form
  7. And present execution of our wills —
  8. To us and to our purposes confin’d
  9. We come within our awful banks again ,
  10. And knit our powers to the arm of peace .

Earl of Westmorland

180 - 184
  1. This will I show the general . Please you , lords ,
  2. In sight of both our battles we may meet ,
  3. And either end in peace , which God so frame !
  4. Or to the place of diff’rence call the swords
  5. Which must decide it .

Archbishop of York

185
  1.                       My lord , we will do so .
  1. Exit Westmorland .

Lord Mowbray

186 - 187
  1. There is a thing within my bosom tells me
  2. That no conditions of our peace can stand .

Lord Hastings

188 - 191
  1. Fear you not that ; if we can make our peace
  2. Upon such large terms and so absolute
  3. As our conditions shall consist upon ,
  4. Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains .

Lord Mowbray

192 - 199
  1. Yea , but our valuation shall be such
  2. That every slight and false - derived cause ,
  3. Yea , every idle , nice , and wanton reason ,
  4. Shall to the King taste of this action ,
  5. That were our royal faiths martyrs in love ,
  6. We shall be winnow’d with so rough a wind
  7. That even our corn shall seem as light as chaff ,
  8. And good from bad find no partition .

Archbishop of York

200 - 217
  1. No , no , my lord , note this : the King is weary
  2. Of dainty and such picking grievances ,
  3. For he hath found to end one doubt by death
  4. Revives two greater in the heirs of life ;
  5. And therefore will he wipe his tables clean
  6. And keep no tell - tale to his memory
  7. That may repeat and history his loss
  8. To new remembrance ; for full well he knows
  9. He cannot so precisely weed this land
  10. As his misdoubts present occasion .
  11. His foes are so enrooted with his friends
  12. That , plucking to unfix an enemy ,
  13. He doth unfasten so and shake a friend ,
  14. So that this land , like an offensive wife
  15. That hath enrag’d him on to offer strokes ,
  16. As he is striking , holds his infant up
  17. And hangs resolv’d correction in the arm
  18. That was uprear’d to execution .

Lord Hastings

218 - 222
  1. Besides , the King hath wasted all his rods
  2. On late offenders , that he now doth lack
  3. The very instruments of chastisement ,
  4. So that his power , like to a fangless lion ,
  5. May offer , but not hold .

Archbishop of York

223 - 227
  1.                          ’Tis very true ,
  2. And therefore be assur’d , my good Lord Marshal ,
  3. If we do now make our atonement well ,
  4. Our peace will , like a broken limb united ,
  5. Grow stronger for the breaking .

Lord Mowbray

228 - 229
  1.                                 Be it so .
  2. Here is return’d my Lord of Westmorland .
  1. Enter Westmorland .

Earl of Westmorland

230 - 231
  1. The Prince is here at hand . Pleaseth your lordship
  2. To meet his Grace just distance ’tween our armies .

Lord Mowbray

232
  1. Your Grace of York , in God’s name then set forward .

Archbishop of York

233
  1. Before , and greet his Grace .— My lord , we come .
  1. They march about the stage and then move forward to meet
  2. Prince John .
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