Текст книги "William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition"

Автор книги: William Shakespeare

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4.2 Enter Sir John Oldcastle and Russell

SIR JOHN Russell, get thee before to Coventry; fill me a bottle of sack. Our soldiers shall march through. We’ll to Sutton Coldfield tonight.

RUSSELL Will you give me money, captain?

SIR JOHN Lay out, lay out. 5

RUSSELL This bottle makes an angel.

SIR JOHN giving Russell money⌉ An if it do, take it for thy labour; an if it make twenty, take them all; I’ll answer the coinage. Bid my lieutenant Harvey meet me at town’s end.

RUSSELL I will, captain. Farewell. Exit

SIR JOHN If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a soused gurnet. I have misused the King’s press damnably. I have got in exchange of one hundred and fifty soldiers three hundred and odd pounds. I press me none but good householders, yeomen’s sons, enquire me out contracted bachelors, such as had been asked twice on the banns, such a commodity of warm slaves as had as lief hear the devil as a drum, such as fear the report of a caliver worse than a struck fowl or a hurt wild duck. I pressed me none but such toasts and butter, with hearts in their bellies no bigger than pins’ heads, and they have bought out their services; and now my whole charge consists of ensigns, corporals, lieutenants, gentlemen of companies—slaves as ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth, where the glutton’s dogs licked his sores—and such as indeed were never soldiers, but discarded unjust servingmen, younger sons to younger brothers, revolted tapsters, and ostlers trade-fallen, the cankers of a calm world and a long peace, ten times more dishonourable-ragged than an old feazed ensign; and such have I to fill up the rooms of them as have bought out their services, that you would think that I had a hundred and fifty tattered prodigals lately come from swine-keeping, from eating draff and husks. A mad fellow met me on the way and told me I had unloaded all the gibbets and pressed the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I’ll not march through Coventry with them, that’s flat. Nay, and the villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had gyves on, for indeed I had the most of them out of prison. There’s not a shirt and a half in all my company; and the half-shirt is two napkins tacked together and thrown over the shoulders like a herald’s coat without sleeves; and the shirt, to say the truth, stolen from my host at Saint Albans, or the red-nose innkeeper of Daventry. But that’s all one; they’ll find linen enough on every hedge. 48

Enter Prince Harry and the Earl of Westmorland

PRINCE HARRY How now, blown Jack? How now, quilt?

SIR JOHN What, Hal! How now, mad wag? What a devil dost thou in Warwickshire? My good lord of Westmorland, I cry you mercy! I thought your honour had already been at Shrewsbury.

WESTMORLAND Faith, Sir John, ’tis more than time that I were there, and you too; but my powers are there already. The King, I can tell you, looks for us all. We must away all night.

SIR JOHN Tut, never fear me. I am as vigilant as a cat to steal cream.

PRINCE HARRY I think to steal cream indeed, for thy theft hath already made thee butter. But tell me, Jack, whose fellows are these that come after?

SIR JOHN Mine, Hal, mine.

PRINCE HARRY I did never see such pitiful rascals.

SIR JOHN Tut, tut, good enough to toss, food for powder, food for powder. They’ll fill a pit as well as better. Tush, man, mortal men, mortal men.

WESTMORLAND Ay, but Sir John, methinks they are exceeding poor and bare, too beggarly.

SIR JOHN Faith, for their poverty, I know not where they had that, and for their bareness, I am sure they never learned that of me.

PRINCE HARRY No, I’ll be sworn, unless you call three fingers in the ribs bare. But sirrah, make haste. Percy is already in the field. Exit

SIR JOHN What, is the King encamped?

WESTMORLAND He is, Sir John. I fear we shall stay too long. Exit⌉

SIR JOHN

Well, to the latter end of a fray

And the beginning of a feast

Fits a dull fighter and a keen guest. Exit

4.3 Enter Hotspur, the Earls of Worcester and Douglas, and Sir Richard Vernon

HOTSPUR

We’ll fight with him tonight.

WORCESTER It may not be.

DOUGLAS

You give him then 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.

WORCESTER

Good cousin, be advised. Stir not tonight.

VERNON (to Hotspur)

Do not, my lord.

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, 10

I hold as little counsel with weak fear

As you, my lord, or any Scot that this day lives.

Let it be seen tomorrow in the battle

Which of us fears.

DOUGLAS Yea, or tonight. 15

VERNON Content.

HOTSPUR Tonight, say I.

VERNON

Come, come, it may 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 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.

WORCESTER

The number of the King exceedeth our.

For God’s sake, cousin, stay till all come in.

The trumpet sounds a parley [within]. Enter Sir Walter Blunt

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.

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 performed 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, proffered him their oaths,

Gave him their heirs as pages, followed 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.

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 tasked the whole state;

To make that worse, suffered 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, 100

Rated mine uncle from the Council-board,

In rage dismissed 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 105

Into his title, the which we find

Too indirect for long continuance.

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 impawned 110

Some surety for a safe return again;

And in the morning early shall mine uncle

Bring him our purposes. And so, farewell.

BLUNT

I would you would accept of grace and love.

HOTSPUR

And maybe so we shall.

BLUNT Pray God you do.

Exeunt [Hotspur, Worcester, Douglas, and Vernon at one door, Blunt at another door⌉

4.4 Enter the Archbishop of York, and Sir Michael

ARCHBISHOP (giving letters)

Hie, good Sir Michael, bear this sealed brief

With winged haste to the Lord Marshal,

This to my cousin Scrope, and all the rest

To whom they are directed. If you knew

How much they do import, you would make haste.

SIR MICHAEL My good lord,

I guess their tenor.

ARCHBISHOP Like enough you do.

Tomorrow, good Sir Michael, is a day

Wherein the fortune of ten thousand men

Must bide the touch; for, sir, at Shrewsbury,

As I am truly given to understand,

The King with mighty and quick-raised power

Meets with Lord Harry. And I fear, Sir Michael,

What with the sickness of Northumberland,

Whose power was in the first proportion, 15

And what with Owain Glyndŵr’s absence thence,

Who with them was a rated sinew too,

And comes not in, overruled by prophecies,

I fear the power of Percy is too weak

To wage an instant trial with the King.

SIR MICHAEL

Why, my good lord, you need not fear; there is

Douglas

And Lord Mortimer.

ARCHBISHOP No, Mortimer is not there.

SIR MICHAEL

But there is Mordake, Vernon, Lord Harry Percy;

And there is my lord of Worcester, and a head

Of gallant warriors, noble gentlemen.

ARCHBISHOP

And so there is; but yet the King hath drawn

The special head of all the land together—

The Prince of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster,

The noble Westmorland, and warlike Blunt,

And many more corrivals, and dear men

Of estimation and command in arms.

SIR MICHAEL

Doubt not, my lord, they shall be well opposed.

ARCHBISHOP

I hope no less, yet needful ’tis to fear;

And to prevent the worst, Sir Michael, speed.

For if Lord Percy thrive not, ere the King

Dismiss his power he means to visit us,

For he hath heard of our confederacy,

And ’tis but wisdom to make strong against him;

Therefore make haste. I must go write again

To other friends; and so farewell, Sir Michael.

Exeuntseverally⌉

5.1 Enter King Henry, Prince Harry, Lord John of Lancaster, the Earl of Westmorland, Sir Walter Blunt, and Sir John Oldcastle

KING HENRY

How bloodily the sun begins to peer

Above yon bulky hill! The day looks pale

At his distemp’rature.

PRINCE HARRY The southern wind

Doth play the trumpet to his purposes,

And by his hollow whistling in the leaves 5

Foretells a tempest and a blust’ring day.

KING HENRY

Then with the losers let it sympathize,

For nothing can seem foul to those that win.

The trumpet soundsa parley within⌉. Enter the Earl of Worcester and Sir Richard Vernon⌉

How now, my lord of Worcester? ’Tis not well

That you and I should meet upon such terms 10

As now we meet. You have deceived our trust,

And made us doff our easy robes of peace

To crush our old limbs in ungentle steel.

This is not well, my lord, this is not well.

What say you to it? Will you again unknit 15

This churlish knot of all-abhorred war,

And move in that obedient orb again

Where you did give a fair and natural light,

And be no more an exhaled meteor,

A prodigy of fear, and a portent

Of broached mischief to the unborn times?

WORCESTER Hear me, my liege.

For mine own part, I could be well content

To entertain the lag-end of my life

With quiet hours; for I protest, 25

I have not sought the day of this dislike.

KING HENRY

You have not sought it? How comes it, then?

SIR JOHN Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it.

PRINCE HARRY Peace, chewet, peace!

WORCESTER (to the King)

It pleased your majesty to turn your looks

Of favour from myself and all our house;

And yet I must remember you, my lord,

We were the first and dearest of your friends.

For you my staff of office did I break

In Richard’s time, and posted day and night

To meet you on the way and kiss your hand

When yet you were in place and in account

Nothing so strong and fortunate as I.

It was myself, my brother, and his son

That brought you home, and boldly did outdare

The dangers of the time. You swore to us,

And you did swear that oath at Doncaster,

That you did nothing purpose ‘gainst the state,

Nor claim no further than your new-fall’n right,

The seat of Gaunt, dukedom of Lancaster.

To this we swore our aid, but in short space

It rained down fortune show’ring on your head,

And such a flood of greatness fell on you,

What with our help, what with the absent King,

What with the injuries of a wanton time,

The seeming sufferances that you had borne,

And the contrarious winds that held the King

So long in his unlucky Irish wars

That all in England did repute him dead;

And from this swarm of fair advantages

You took occasion to be quickly wooed

To gripe the general sway into your hand,

Forgot your oath to us at Doncaster,

And being fed by us, you used us so

As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo’s bird,

Useth the sparrow—did oppress our nest,

Grew by our feeding to so great a bulk

That even our love durst not come near your sight

For fear of swallowing. But with nimble wing

We were enforced for safety’ sake to fly 65

Out of your sight, and raise this present head,

Whereby we stand opposed by such means

As you yourself have forged against yourself,

By unkind usage, dangerous countenance,

And violation of all faith and troth

Sworn to us in your younger enterprise.

KING HENRY

These things indeed you have articulate,

Proclaimed at market crosses, read in churches,

To face the garment of rebellion

With some fine colour that may please the eye

Of fickle changelings and poor discontents,

Which gape and rub the elbow at the news

Of hurly-burly innovation;

And never yet did insurrection want

Such water-colours to impaint his cause,

Nor moody beggars starving for a time

Of pell-mell havoc and confusion.

PRINCE HARRY

In both our armies there is many a soul

Shall pay full dearly for this encounter

If once they join in trial. Tell your nephew

The Prince of Wales doth join with all the world

In praise of Henry Percy. By my hopes,

This present enterprise set off his head,

I do not think a braver gentleman,

More active-valiant or more valiant-young,

More daring, or more bold, is now alive

To grace this latter age with noble deeds.

For my part, I may speak it to my shame,

I have a truant been to chivalry;

And so I hear he doth account me too.

Yet this, before my father’s majesty:

I am content that he shall take the odds

Of his great name and estimation,

And will, to save the blood on either side,

Try fortune with him in a single fight.

KING HENRY

And, Prince of Wales, so dare we venture thee,

Albeit considerations infinite

Do make against it. No, good Worcester, no.

We love our people well; even those we love

That are misled upon your cousin’s part; 105

And will they take the offer of our grace,

Both he and they and you, yea, every man

Shall be my friend again, and I’ll be his.

So tell your cousin, and bring me word

What he will do. But if he will not yield,

Rebuke and dread correction wait on us,

And they shall do their office. So be gone.

We will not now be troubled with reply.

We offer fair; take it advisedly.

Exeunt Worcester [and Vernon]

PRINCE HARRY

It will not be accepted, on my life.

The Douglas and the Hotspur both together

Are confident against the world in arms.

KING HENRY

Hence, therefore, every leader to his charge,

For on their answer will we set on them,

And God befriend us as our cause is just!

Exeunt all but Prince Harry and Oldcastle

SIR JOHN Hal, if thou see me down in the battle, and bestride me, so. ’Tis a point of friendship.

PRINCE HARRY Nothing but a colossus can do thee that friendship. Say thy prayers, and farewell.

SIR JOHN I would ’twere bed-time, Hal, and all well.

PRINCE HARRY Why, thou owest God a death. Exit

SIR JOHN ‘Tis not due yet. I would be loath to pay him before his day. What need I be so forward with him that calls not on me? Well, ’tis no matter; honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on? How then? Can honour set-to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? No. What is honour? A word. What is in that word ‘honour’? What is that ‘honour’ ? Air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? He that died o’ Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. ’Tis insensible then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I’ll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon. And so ends my catechism.

Exit

5.2 Enter the Earl of Worcester and Sir Richard Vernon

WORCESTER

O no, my nephew must not know, Sir Richard,

The liberal and kind offer of the King.

VERNON

’Twere best he did.

WORCESTER Then are we all undone.

It is not possible, it cannot be,

The King should keep his word in loving us.

He will suspect us still, and find a time

To punish this offence in other faults.

Supposition all our lives shall be stuck full of eyes,

For treason is but trusted like the fox,

Who, ne‘er so tame, so cherished, and locked up,

Will have a wild trick of his ancestors.

Look how we can, or sad or merrily,

Interpretation will misquote our looks,

And we shall feed like oxen at a stall,

The better cherished still the nearer death.

My nephew’s trespass may be well forgot;

It hath the excuse of youth and heat of blood,

And an adopted name of privilege—

A hare-brained Hotspur, governed by a spleen.

All his offences live upon my head,

And on his father’s. We did train him on,

And, his corruption being ta’en from us,

We as the spring of all shall pay for all.

Therefore, good cousin, let not Harry know

In any case the offer of the King.

VERNON

Deliver what you will; I’ll say ’tis so.

Enter Hotspur and the Earl of Douglas

Here comes your cousin.

HOTSPUR My uncle is returned.

Deliver up my lord of Westmorland.

Uncle, what news?

WORCESTER

The King will bid you battle presently.

DOUGLAS

Defy him by the Lord of Westmorland.

HOTSPUR

Lord Douglas, go you and tell him so.

DOUGLAS

Marry, and shall, and very willingly. Exit

WORCESTER

There is no seeming mercy in the King.

HOTSPUR

Did you beg any? God forbid!

WORCESTER

I told him gently of our grievances,

Of his oath-breaking, which he mended thus:

By now forswearing that he is forsworn.

He calls us ‘rebels’, ‘traitors’, and will scourge

With haughty arms this hateful name in us.

Enter the Earl of Douglas

DOUGLAS

Arm, gentlemen, to arms, for I have thrown

A brave defiance in King Henry’s teeth-

And Westmorland that was engaged did bear it—

Which cannot choose but bring him quickly on.

WORCESTER (to Hotspur)

The Prince of Wales stepped forth before the King

And, nephew, challenged you to single fight.

HOTSPUR

O, would the quarrel lay upon our heads,

And that no man might draw short breath today

But I and Harry Monmouth ! Tell me, tell me,

How showed his tasking? Seemed it in contempt?

VERNON

No, by my soul, I never in my life

Did hear a challenge urged more modestly,

Unless a brother should a brother dare

To gentle exercise and proof of arms.

He gave you all the duties of a man,

Trimmed up your praises with a princely tongue,

Spoke your deservings like a chronicle,

Making you ever better than his praise

By still dispraising praise valued with you;

And, which became him like a prince indeed,

He made a blushing cital of himself,

And chid his truant youth with such a grace

As if he mastered there a double spirit

Of teaching and of learning instantly.

There did he pause; but let me tell the world,

If he outlive the envy of this day,

England did never owe so sweet a hope,

So much misconstrued in his wantonness.

HOTSPUR

Cousin, I think thou art enamoured

On his follies. Never did I hear

Of any prince so wild a liberty.

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,

Can lift your blood up with persuasion.

Enter a Messenger

MESSENGER My lord, here are letters for you.

HOTSPUR I cannot read them now. [Exit Messenger]

O gentlemen, the time of life is short.

To spend that shortness basely were too long

If life did ride upon a dial’s point,

Still ending at the arrival of an hour.

An if we live, we live to tread on kings;

If die, brave death when princes die with us!

Now for our consciences: the arms are fair

When the intent of bearing them is just.

Enter another Messenger

MESSENGER

My lord, prepare; the King comes on apace. [Exit]

HOTSPUR

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

A sword whose temper I intend to stain

With the best blood that I can meet withal

In the adventure of this perilous day.

Now Esperance! Percy! And set on!

Sound all the lofty instruments of war,

And by that music let us all embrace,

For, heaven to earth, some of us never shall

A second time do such a courtesy.

The trumpets sound. Here they embrace. Exeunt