KING HENRY IV. PART FIRST. PERSONS REPRESENTED. KING HENRY THE FOURTH. HENRY, Prince of Wales, his Sons. NEVILLE, Earl of Westmoreland. THOMAS PERCY, Earl of Worcester. HENRY PERCY, his Son. Sir EDMUND MORTIMER. Sir MICHAEL, his Friend. ARCHIBALD, Earl of Douglas. PETO. BARDOLPH. LADY PERCY, Wife to Hotspur. LADY MORTIMER, Daughter to Glendower. Mrs. QUICKLY, Hostess in Eastcheap. Lords, Officers, Sheriff, Vintner, Chamberlain, Drawers, Carriers, Travel lers, and Attendants. SCENE. - England. ACT I. SCENE I. London. A Room in the Palace. Enter King HENRY, WESTMORELAND, Sir WALTER BLUNT, and others. King. So shaken as we are, so wan with care, Find we a time for frighted peace to pant, And breathe short-winded accents of new broils To be commenced in strands afar remote.1 No more the thirsty entrance 2 of this soil Shall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks, 1 It scarce need be said that here the image is of Peace so scared and out of breath with domestic strife, that she can but make a brief pause, and pant forth short and broken speech of new wars to be undertaken in foreign lands. This play is distinctly continuous with King Richard II., at the close of which we have Bolingbroke avowing it as his purpose to atone for the death of Richard by leading out another Crusade: I'll make a voyage to the Holy Land, To wash this blood off from my guilty hand. And in fact he was hardly more than seated on the throne before he began to be so harassed with acts of rebellion and threats of invasion, that he conceived the plan of drowning the public sense of his usurpation in an enthusiasm of foreign war and conquest. 2 Of course entrance here means mouth; for what but a mouth should have lips? So in Genesis, iv. II: "And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand." 3 Meteor was used in a much more general sense than we attach to the word. King John, page 98, note 19. It might include the Aurora Borealis, which sometimes has the appearance of hostile armies engaged in battle. So in Paradise Lost, ii. 533-8: As when, to warn proud cities, war appears Prick forth the aëry knights, and couch their spears, March all one way, and be no more opposed Whose soldier now, under whose blessèd cross But this our purpose is a twelvemonth old, And bootless 'tis to tell Therefore we meet not now.5 - Then let me hear Of you, my gentle cousin Westmoreland,6 What yesternight our Council did decree In forwarding this dear expedience.7 West. My liege, this haste was hot in question, many limits of the charge 8 set down And 4 Levying an army to a place is an elliptical form of expression. So in Gosson's School of Abuse, 1587: "Scipio, before he levied his forces to the walls of Carthage, gave his soldiers the print of the city in a cake, to be devoured." Here, as often, shall has the force of will; the two being used indifferently. 5 "We meet not on that question, or to consider that matter." Such is offen the meaning of therefore in old English. 6 Ralph Neville, the present Earl of Westmoreland, married for his first wife Joan, daughter to John of Gaunt, by Catharine Swynford, and therefore half-sister to King Henry the Fourth. Cousin, in old English, bears much the same sense as kinsman in our time. 7 The Poet uses expedience and expedition interchangeably: likewise, expedient and expeditious. By dear, the King probably means that he has his heart set upon it. 8" Limits of the charge" probably means appointments for the undertak To be commenced in strands afar remote.1 No more the thirsty entrance 2 of this soil Which, like the meteors 3 of a troubled heaven, Shall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks, 1 It scarce need be said that here the image is of Peace so scared and out of breath with domestic strife, that she can but make a brief pause, and pant forth short and broken speech of new wars to be undertaken in foreign lands. This play is distinctly continuous with King Richard II., at the close of which we have Bolingbroke avowing it as his purpose to atone for the death of Richard by leading out another Crusade: I'll make a voyage to the Holy Land, To wash this blood off from my guilty hand. And in fact he was hardly more than seated on the throne before he began to be so harassed with acts of rebellion and threats of invasion, that he conceived the plan of drowning the public sense of his usurpation in an enthusiasm of foreign war and conquest. 2 Of course entrance here means mouth; for what but a mouth should have lips? So in Genesis, iv. II: "And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand." 3 Meteor was used in a much more general sense than we attach to the word. King John, page 98, note 19. It might include the Aurora Borealis, which sometimes has the appearance of hostile armies engaged in battle. So in Paradise Lost, ii. 533-8: As when, to warn proud cities, war appears To battle in the clouds, before each van Prick forth the aëry knights, and couch their spears, Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms From either end of heaven the welkin burns. March all one way, and be no more opposed Whose soldier now, under whose blessèd cross Therefore we meet not now.5 - Then let me hear Of you, my gentle cousin Westmoreland," What yesternight our Council did decree In forwarding this dear expedience.7 West. My liege, this haste was hot in question, And many limits of the charge set down 4 Levying an army to a place is an elliptical form of expression. So in Gosson's School of Abuse, 1587: "Scipio, before he levied his forces to the walls of Carthage, gave his soldiers the print of the city in a cake, to be devoured." — Here, as often, shall has the force of will; the two being used indifferently. 5 "We meet not on that question, or to consider that matter." Such is offen the meaning of therefore in old English. 6 Ralph Neville, the present Earl of Westmoreland, married for his first wife Joan, daughter to John of Gaunt, by Catharine Swynford, and therefore half-sister to King Henry the Fourth. Cousin, in old English, bears much the same sense as kinsman in our time. 7 The Poet uses expedience and expedition interchangeably: likewise, expedient and expeditious. By dear, the King probably means that he has his heart set upon it. 8" "Limits of the charge" probably means appointments for the undertak |