there's honour for you: Here's no vanity*!—I am as hot as molten lead, and as heavy too: God keep lead out of me! I need no more weight than mine own bowels.-I have led my raggamuffins where they are peppered: there's but three of my hundred and fifty left alive; and they are for the town's end, to beg during life. But who comes here! Enter PRINCE HENRY. P. Hen. What, stand'st thou idle here? lend me thy sword: Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies, Whose deaths are unreveng'd: Pr'ythee, lend me thy sword. Fal. O Hal, I pr'ythee give me leave to breathe a while.―Turk Gregory 5 never did such deeds in arms, as I have done this day. I have paid Percy, I have made him sure. P. Hen. He is, indeed; and living to kill thee. I pr'ythee, lend me thy sword. Fal. Nay, before God, Hal, if Percy be alive, thou get'st not my sword; but take my pistol, if thou wilt. 4' Here's no vanity,' the negative is here used ironically, to designate the excess of a thing. So in The Taming of a Shrew :'Here's no knavery!' And in Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour : O here's no foppery! 'Death, I can endure the stocks better.' 5 Turk Gregory' means Gregory the Seventh, called Hildebrand. This furious friar surmounted almost invincible obstacles to deprive the emperor of his right of investiture of bishops, which his predecessors had long attempted in vain. Fox, in his Martyrology, has made Gregory so odious that the Protestants would be well pleased to hear him thus characterized, as uniting the attributes of their two great enemies, the Turk and the Pope, in one. There was an old tragedy on the subject of Hildebrand, but not even the title of it has come down to us. P. Hen. Give it me: What, is it in the case? Fal. Ay, Hal: 'tis hot, 'tis hot; there's that will sack a city. [The Prince draws out a bottle of sack. P. Hen. What, is't a time to jest and dally now ? [Throws it at him, and exit. Fal. Well, if Percy be alive, I'll pierce him. If he do come in my way, so: if he do not, if I come in his, willingly, let him make a carbonado of me. I like not such grinning honour as Sir Walter hath : Give me life: which if I can save, so; if not, honour comes unlooked for, and there's an end. [Exit. SCENE IV. Another Part of the Field. Alarums: Excursions. Enter the KING, Prince HENRY, PRINCE JOHN, and WESTMORE LAND. K. Hen. I pr'ythee, Harry, withdraw thyself; thou bleed'st too much1:Lord John of Lancaster, go you with him. P. John. Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too. P. Hen. I beseech your majesty, make up, your friends. Lest retirement do amaze your K. Hen. I will do so : My lord of Westmoreland, lead him to his tent. West. Come, my lord, I'll lead you to your tent. P.Hen. Lead me, my lord? I do not need your help: And heaven forbid, a shallow scratch should drive The prince of Wales from such a field as this; 6 Well, if Percy be alive, I'll pierce him,' is addressed to the prince as he goes out; the rest of the speech is a soliloquy. Shakspeare was not aware that he ridiculed the serious etymology of the Scottish historian:- Piercy a penetrando oculum Regis Scotorum ut fabulatur Boetius.'-Skinner. 7 A rasher or collop of meat cut crosswise for the gridiron. 1 History says that the prince was wounded in the face by an arrow. Where stain'd nobility lies trodden on, P. John. We breathe too long:-Come, cousin Westmoreland, Our duty this way lies; for God's sake, come. I did not think thee lord of such a spirit; K. Hen. I saw him hold Lord Percy at the point, With lustier maintenance than I did look for Of such an ungrown warrior2. P. Hen. Lends mettle to us all! O, this boy [Exit. Alarums. Enter DOUGLAS. Doug. Another king! they grow like Hydra's heads; I am the Douglas, fatal to all those That wear those colours on them.-What art thou, That counterfeit'st the person of a king? So K. Hen. The king himself; who, Douglas, grieves at heart, many of his shadows thou hast met, And not the very king. I have two boys, Doug. I fear, thou art another counterfeit ; 26 the earle of Richmond withstood his violence, and kept him at the sword's point, without advantage, longer than his companions either thought or judged.'-Holinshed, p. 759. But mine, I am sure, thou art, whoe'er thou be, [They fight; the King being in danger, enter P. Hen. Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like Never to hold it up again! the spirits Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt, are in my arms : [They fight; DOUGLAS flies. And show'd, thou mak'st some tender of my life, In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me. P. Hen. O heaven! they did me too much injury, The insulting hand of Douglas over you; 3 Opinion for estimation, reputation, the opinion of the world. The word was then used in that sense. So in Thierry and Theodoret : What opinion will the managing Of this affair bring to my wisdom! my invention And in the Gamester, by Shirley :- Patience: I mean you have the opinion of a valiant gentleman; one that dares fight and maintain your honour against odds.' A Enter HOTspur. Hot. If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth. name. Hot. My name is Harry Percy. P. Hen. very valiant rebel of the name. Why, then I see I am the prince of Wales; and think not, Percy, Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere; I'll Enter FALSTAFF. [They fight. Fal. Well said, Hal! to it, Hal!-Nay, you shall find no boy's play here, I can tell you. Enter DOUGLAS; he fights with FALSTAFF, who falls down as if he were dead, and exit DOUGLAS. HOTSPUR is wounded, and falls*. Hot. O, Harry, thou hast robb'd me of my youth, I better brook the loss of brittle life, Than those proud titles thou hast won of me; 4 Shakspeare had no authority for making Hotspur fall by the hand of the prince. Holinshed says, The king slew that day with his own hand six and thirty persons of his enemies. The other of his party, encouraged by his doings, fought valiantly, and slew the Lord Percy, called Henry Hotspur.' Speed says that Percy was killed by an unknown hand. |