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Henry IV, Part 2 - Act 4, scene 1
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Henry IV, Part 2 - Act 4, scene 1Act 4, scene 1
⟨Scene 1⟩
Synopsis:
The leaders of the rebellion reach Gaultree Forest, where they present their grievances to Westmoreland. After Prince John promises redress for the grievances, the army of the rebellion is dismissed. John then arrests the Archbishop, Mowbray, and Hastings.
Enter the Archbishop ⌜of York,⌝ Mowbray, ⌜Lord⌝Bardolph, Hastings, ⌜and their officers⌝ within the Forest
of Gaultree.
ARCHBISHOP 1958 What is this forest called?
HASTINGS
1959 ’Tis Gaultree Forest, an ’t shall please your Grace.
ARCHBISHOP
1960 Here stand, my lords, and send discoverers forth
1961 To know the numbers of our enemies.
HASTINGS
1962 5 We have sent forth already.
ARCHBISHOP 1963 ’Tis well done.
1964 My friends and brethren in these great affairs,
1965 I must acquaint you that I have received
1966 New-dated letters from Northumberland,
1967 10 Their cold intent, tenor, and substance, thus:
1968 Here doth he wish his person, with such powers
1969 As might hold sortance with his quality,
1970 The which he could not levy; whereupon
1971 He is retired, to ripe his growing fortunes,
1972 15 To Scotland, and concludes in hearty prayers
1973 That your attempts may overlive the hazard
1974 And fearful meeting of their opposite.
MOWBRAY
1975 Thus do the hopes we have in him touch ground
1976 And dash themselves to pieces.
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Enter Messenger.HASTINGS 1977 20 Now, what news?
MESSENGER
1978 West of this forest, scarcely off a mile,
1979 In goodly form comes on the enemy,
1980 And, by the ground they hide, I judge their number
1981 Upon or near the rate of thirty thousand.
MOWBRAY
1982 25 The just proportion that we gave them out.
1983 Let us sway on and face them in the field.
Enter Westmoreland.
ARCHBISHOP
1984 What well-appointed leader fronts us here?
MOWBRAY
1985 I think it is my Lord of Westmoreland.
WESTMORELAND
1986 Health and fair greeting from our general,
1987 30 The Prince Lord John and Duke of Lancaster.
ARCHBISHOP
1988 Say on, my Lord of Westmoreland, in peace,
1989 What doth concern your coming.
WESTMORELAND 1990 Then, my lord,
1991 Unto your Grace do I in chief address
1992 35 The substance of my speech. If that rebellion
1993 Came like itself, in base and abject routs,
1994 Led on by bloody youth, guarded with rage,
1995 And countenanced by boys and beggary—
1996 I say, if damned commotion so ⌜appeared⌝
1997 40 In his true, native, and most proper shape,
1998 You, reverend father, and these noble lords
1999 Had not been here to dress the ugly form
2000 Of base and bloody insurrection
2001 With your fair honors. You, Lord Archbishop,
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145
2002
45 Whose see is by a civil peace maintained,2003 Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touched,
2004 Whose learning and good letters peace hath tutored,
2005 Whose white investments figure innocence,
2006 The dove and very blessèd spirit of peace,
2007 50 Wherefore do you so ill translate yourself
2008 Out of the speech of peace, that bears such grace,
2009 Into the harsh and boist’rous tongue of war,
2010 Turning your books to graves, your ink to blood,
2011 Your pens to lances, and your tongue divine
2012 55 To a loud trumpet and a point of war?
ARCHBISHOP
2013 Wherefore do I this? So the question stands.
2014 Briefly, to this end: we are all diseased
2015 ⟨And with our surfeiting and wanton hours
2016 Have brought ourselves into a burning fever,
2017 60 And we must bleed for it; of which disease
2018 Our late King Richard, being infected, died.
2019 But, my most noble Lord of Westmoreland,
2020 I take not on me here as a physician,
2021 Nor do I as an enemy to peace
2022 65 Troop in the throngs of military men,
2023 But rather show awhile like fearful war
2024 To diet rank minds sick of happiness
2025 And purge th’ obstructions which begin to stop
2026 Our very veins of life. Hear me more plainly.
2027 70 I have in equal balance justly weighed
2028 What wrongs our arms may do, what wrongs we
2029 suffer,
2030 And find our griefs heavier than our offenses.
2031 We see which way the stream of time doth run
2032 75 And are enforced from our most quiet there
2033 By the rough torrent of occasion,
2034 And have the summary of all our griefs,
2035 When time shall serve, to show in articles;
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2036
Which long ere this we offered to the King2037 80 And might by no suit gain our audience.
2038 When we are wronged and would unfold our griefs,
2039 We are denied access unto his person
2040 Even by those men that most have done us wrong.⟩
2041 The dangers of the days but newly gone,
2042 85 Whose memory is written on the earth
2043 With yet-appearing blood, and the examples
2044 Of every minute’s instance, present now,
2045 Hath put us in these ill-beseeming arms,
2046 Not to break peace or any branch of it,
2047 90 But to establish here a peace indeed,
2048 Concurring both in name and quality.
WESTMORELAND
2049 Whenever yet was your appeal denied?
2050 Wherein have you been gallèd by the King?
2051 What peer hath been suborned to grate on you,
2052 95 That you should seal this lawless bloody book
2053 Of forged rebellion with a seal divine
2054 [And consecrate commotion’s bitter edge?]
ARCHBISHOP
2055 My brother general, the commonwealth,
2056 [To brother born an household cruelty,]
2057 100 I make my quarrel in particular.
WESTMORELAND
2058 There is no need of any such redress,
2059 Or if there were, it not belongs to you.
MOWBRAY
2060 Why not to him in part, and to us all
2061 That feel the bruises of the days before
2062 105 And suffer the condition of these times
2063 To lay a heavy and unequal hand
2064 Upon our honors?
WESTMORELAND 2065 ⟨O, my good Lord Mowbray,
2066 Construe the times to their necessities,
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149
2067
110 And you shall say indeed it is the time,2068 And not the King, that doth you injuries.
2069 Yet for your part, it not appears to me
2070 Either from the King or in the present time
2071 That you should have an inch of any ground
2072 115 To build a grief on. Were you not restored
2073 To all the Duke of Norfolk’s seigniories,
2074 Your noble and right well remembered father’s?
MOWBRAY
2075 What thing, in honor, had my father lost
2076 That need to be revived and breathed in me?
2077 120 The King that loved him, as the state stood then,
2078 Was ⌜force⌝ perforce compelled to banish him,
2079 And then that Henry Bolingbroke and he,
2080 Being mounted and both rousèd in their seats,
2081 Their neighing coursers daring of the spur,
2082 125 Their armèd staves in charge, their beavers down,
2083 Their eyes of fire sparkling through sights of steel,
2084 And the loud trumpet blowing them together,
2085 Then, then, when there was nothing could have
2086 stayed
2087 130 My father from the breast of Bolingbroke,
2088 O, when the King did throw his warder down—
2089 His own life hung upon the staff he threw—
2090 Then threw he down himself and all their lives
2091 That by indictment and by dint of sword
2092 135 Have since miscarried under Bolingbroke.
WESTMORELAND
2093 You speak, Lord Mowbray, now you know not what.
2094 The Earl of Hereford was reputed then
2095 In England the most valiant gentleman.
2096 Who knows on whom fortune would then have
2097 140 smiled?
2098 But if your father had been victor there,
2099 He ne’er had borne it out of Coventry;
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2100
For all the country in a general voice2101 Cried hate upon him; and all their prayers and
2102 145 love
2103 Were set on Hereford, whom they doted on
2104 And blessed and graced, ⌜indeed⌝ more than the
2105 King.⟩
2106 But this is mere digression from my purpose.
2107 150 Here come I from our princely general
2108 To know your griefs, to tell you from his Grace
2109 That he will give you audience; and wherein
2110 It shall appear that your demands are just,
2111 You shall enjoy them, everything set off
2112 155 That might so much as think you enemies.
MOWBRAY
2113 But he hath forced us to compel this offer,
2114 And it proceeds from policy, not love.
WESTMORELAND
2115 Mowbray, you overween to take it so.
2116 This offer comes from mercy, not from fear.
2117 160 For, lo, within a ken our army lies,
2118 Upon mine honor, all too confident
2119 To give admittance to a thought of fear.
2120 Our battle is more full of names than yours,
2121 Our men more perfect in the use of arms,
2122 165 Our armor all as strong, our cause the best.
2123 Then reason will our hearts should be as good.
2124 Say you not then our offer is compelled.
MOWBRAY
2125 Well, by my will, we shall admit no parley.
WESTMORELAND
2126 That argues but the shame of your offense.
2127 170 A rotten case abides no handling.
HASTINGS
2128 Hath the Prince John a full commission,
2129 In very ample virtue of his father,
p.
153
2130
To hear and absolutely to determine2131 Of what conditions we shall stand upon?
WESTMORELAND
2132 175 That is intended in the General’s name.
2133 I muse you make so slight a question.
ARCHBISHOP, ⌜giving Westmoreland a paper⌝
2134 Then take, my Lord of Westmoreland, this schedule,
2135 For this contains our general grievances.
2136 Each several article herein redressed,
2137 180 All members of our cause, both here and hence
2138 That are insinewed to this action,
2139 Acquitted by a true substantial form
2140 And present execution of our wills
2141 To us and ⟨to⟩ our purposes confined,
2142 185 We come within our awful banks again
2143 And knit our powers to the arm of peace.
WESTMORELAND
2144 This will I show the General. Please you, lords,
2145 In sight of both our battles we may meet,
2146 ⌜And⌝ either end in peace, which God so frame,
2147 190 Or to the place of difference call the swords
2148 Which must decide it.
ARCHBISHOP 2149 My lord, we will do so.
Westmoreland exits.
MOWBRAY
2150 There is a thing within my bosom tells me
2151 That no conditions of our peace can stand.
HASTINGS
2152 195 Fear you not that. If we can make our peace
2153 Upon such large terms and so absolute
2154 As our conditions shall consist upon,
2155 Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.
MOWBRAY
2156 Yea, but our valuation shall be such
2157 200 That every slight and false-derivèd cause,
p.
155
2158
Yea, every idle, nice, and wanton reason,2159 Shall to the King taste of this action,
2160 That, were our royal faiths martyrs in love,
2161 We shall be winnowed with so rough a wind
2162 205 That even our corn shall seem as light as chaff,
2163 And good from bad find no partition.
ARCHBISHOP
2164 No, no, my lord. Note this: the King is weary
2165 Of dainty and such picking grievances,
2166 For he hath found to end one doubt by death
2167 210 Revives two greater in the heirs of life;
2168 And therefore will he wipe his tables clean
2169 And keep no telltale to his memory
2170 That may repeat and history his loss
2171 To new remembrance. For full well he knows
2172 215 He cannot so precisely weed this land
2173 As his misdoubts present occasion;
2174 His foes are so enrooted with his friends
2175 That, plucking to unfix an enemy,
2176 He doth unfasten so and shake a friend;
2177 220 So that this land, like an offensive wife
2178 That hath enraged him on to offer strokes,
2179 As he is striking holds his infant up
2180 And hangs resolved correction in the arm
2181 That was upreared to execution.
HASTINGS
2182 225 Besides, the King hath wasted all his rods
2183 On late offenders, that he now doth lack
2184 The very instruments of chastisement,
2185 So that his power, like to a fangless lion,
2186 May offer but not hold.
ARCHBISHOP 2187 230 ’Tis very true,
2188 And therefore be assured, my good Lord Marshal,
2189 If we do now make our atonement well,
2190 Our peace will, like a broken limb united,
2191 Grow stronger for the breaking.
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MOWBRAY
2192
235 Be it so.2193 Here is returned my Lord of Westmoreland.
Enter Westmoreland.
WESTMORELAND, ⌜to the Archbishop⌝
2194 The Prince is here at hand. Pleaseth your Lordship
2195 To meet his Grace just distance ’tween our armies.
Enter Prince John and his army.
MOWBRAY, ⌜to the Archbishop⌝
2196 Your Grace of York, in God’s name then set
2197 240 forward.
ARCHBISHOP
2198 Before, and greet his Grace.—My lord, we come.
⌜All move forward.⌝
JOHN OF LANCASTER
2199 You are well encountered here, my cousin
2200 Mowbray.—
2201 Good day to you, gentle Lord Archbishop,—
2202 245 And so to you, Lord Hastings, and to all.—
2203 My Lord of York, it better showed with you
2204 When that your flock, assembled by the bell,
2205 Encircled you to hear with reverence
2206 Your exposition on the holy text
2207 250 ⟨Than⟩ now to see you here, an iron man talking,
2208 Cheering a rout of rebels with your drum,
2209 Turning the word to sword, and life to death.
2210 That man that sits within a monarch’s heart
2211 And ripens in the sunshine of his favor,
2212 255 Would he abuse the countenance of the King,
2213 Alack, what mischiefs might he set abroach
2214 In shadow of such greatness! With you, Lord
2215 Bishop,
2216 It is even so. Who hath not heard it spoken
2217 260 How deep you were within the books of God,
p.
159
2218
To us the speaker in His parliament,2219 To us th’ ⌜imagined⌝ voice of God Himself,
2220 The very opener and intelligencer
2221 Between the grace, the sanctities, of heaven,
2222 265 And our dull workings? O, who shall believe
2223 But you misuse the reverence of your place,
2224 ⟨Employ⟩ the countenance and grace of heaven
2225 As a false favorite doth his prince’s name,
2226 In deeds dishonorable? You have ta’en up,
2227 270 Under the counterfeited zeal of God,
2228 The subjects of His substitute, my father,
2229 And both against the peace of heaven and him
2230 Have here up-swarmed them.
ARCHBISHOP 2231 Good my Lord of
2232 275 Lancaster,
2233 I am not here against your father’s peace,
2234 But, as I told my Lord of Westmoreland,
2235 The time misordered doth, in common sense,
2236 Crowd us and crush us to this monstrous form
2237 280 To hold our safety up. I sent your Grace
2238 The parcels and particulars of our grief,
2239 The which hath been with scorn shoved from the
2240 court,
2241 Whereon this Hydra son of war is born,
2242 285 Whose dangerous eyes may well be charmed asleep
2243 With grant of our most just and right desires,
2244 And true obedience, of this madness cured,
2245 Stoop tamely to the foot of majesty.
MOWBRAY
2246 If not, we ready are to try our fortunes
2247 290 To the last man.
HASTINGS 2248 And though we here fall down,
2249 We have supplies to second our attempt;
2250 If they miscarry, theirs shall second them,
2251 And so success of mischief shall be born,
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2252
295 And heir from heir shall hold his quarrel up2253 Whiles England shall have generation.
JOHN OF LANCASTER
2254 You are too shallow, Hastings, much too shallow
2255 To sound the bottom of the after-times.
WESTMORELAND
2256 Pleaseth your Grace to answer them directly
2257 300 How far forth you do like their articles.
JOHN OF LANCASTER
2258 I like them all, and do allow them well,
2259 And swear here by the honor of my blood
2260 My father’s purposes have been mistook,
2261 And some about him have too lavishly
2262 305 Wrested his meaning and authority.
2263 ⌜To the Archbishop.⌝ My lord, these griefs shall be
2264 with speed redressed;
2265 Upon my soul, they shall. If this may please you,
2266 Discharge your powers unto their several counties,
2267 310 As we will ours, and here, between the armies,
2268 Let’s drink together friendly and embrace,
2269 That all their eyes may bear those tokens home
2270 Of our restorèd love and amity.
ARCHBISHOP
2271 I take your princely word for these redresses.
⟨JOHN OF LANCASTER⟩
2272 315 I give it you, and will maintain my word,
2273 And thereupon I drink unto your Grace.
⌜The Leaders of both armies begin to drink together.⌝
⟨HASTINGS,⟩ ⌜to an Officer⌝
2274 Go, captain, and deliver to the army
2275 This news of peace. Let them have pay, and part.
2276 I know it will well please them. Hie thee, captain.
⌜Officer⌝ ⟨exits.⟩
ARCHBISHOP, ⌜toasting Westmoreland⌝
2277 320 To you, my noble Lord of Westmoreland.
WESTMORELAND, ⌜returning the toast⌝
p.
163
2278
I pledge your Grace, and if you knew what pains2279 I have bestowed to breed this present peace,
2280 You would drink freely. But my love to you
2281 Shall show itself more openly hereafter.
ARCHBISHOP
2282 325 I do not doubt you.
WESTMORELAND 2283 I am glad of it.—
2284 Health to my lord and gentle cousin, Mowbray.
MOWBRAY
2285 You wish me health in very happy season,
2286 For I am on the sudden something ill.
ARCHBISHOP
2287 330 Against ill chances men are ever merry,
2288 But heaviness foreruns the good event.
WESTMORELAND
2289 Therefore be merry, coz, since sudden sorrow
2290 Serves to say thus: “Some good thing comes
2291 tomorrow.”
ARCHBISHOP
2292 335 Believe me, I am passing light in spirit.
MOWBRAY
2293 So much the worse if your own rule be true.
Shout ⌜within.⌝
JOHN OF LANCASTER
2294 The word of peace is rendered. Hark how they
2295 shout.
MOWBRAY
2296 This had been cheerful after victory.
ARCHBISHOP
2297 340 A peace is of the nature of a conquest,
2298 For then both parties nobly are subdued,
2299 And neither party loser.
JOHN OF LANCASTER, ⌜to Westmoreland⌝ 2300 Go, my lord,
2301 And let our army be dischargèd too.
⌜Westmoreland⌝ ⟨exits.⟩
p.
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2302
345 ⌜To the Archbishop.⌝ And, good my lord, so please2303 you, let our trains
2304 March by us, that we may peruse the men
2305 We should have coped withal.
ARCHBISHOP 2306 Go, good Lord
2307 350 Hastings,
2308 And ere they be dismissed, let them march by.
⌜Hastings⌝ ⟨exits.⟩
JOHN OF LANCASTER
2309 I trust, lords, we shall lie tonight together.
Enter Westmoreland.
2310 Now, cousin, wherefore stands our army still?
WESTMORELAND
2311 The leaders, having charge from you to stand,
2312 355 Will not go off until they hear you speak.
JOHN OF LANCASTER 2313 They know their duties.
Enter Hastings.
HASTINGS, ⌜to the Archbishop⌝
2314 My lord, our army is dispersed already.
2315 Like youthful steers unyoked, they take their
2316 courses
2317 360 East, west, north, south, or, like a school broke up,
2318 Each hurries toward his home and sporting-place.
WESTMORELAND
2319 Good tidings, my Lord Hastings, for the which
2320 I do arrest thee, traitor, of high treason.—
2321 And you, Lord Archbishop, and you, Lord Mowbray,
2322 365 Of capital treason I attach you both.
MOWBRAY
2323 Is this proceeding just and honorable?
WESTMORELAND 2324 Is your assembly so?
ARCHBISHOP
2325 Will you thus break your faith?
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JOHN OF LANCASTER
2326
I pawned thee none.2327 370 I promised you redress of these same grievances
2328 Whereof you did complain, which, by mine honor,
2329 I will perform with a most Christian care.
2330 But for you rebels, look to taste the due
2331 Meet for rebellion ⟨and such acts as yours.⟩
2332 375 Most shallowly did you these arms commence,
2333 Fondly brought here, and foolishly sent hence.—
2334 Strike up our drums; pursue the scattered stray.
2335 God, and not we, hath safely fought today.—
2336 Some guard ⟨these traitors⟩ to the block of death,
2337 380 Treason’s true bed and yielder-up of breath.
⟨They exit.⟩