Henry Iv, Part Ii

A History

William Shakespeare

• Publisher: HarperPerennial Classics
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781443443319
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Shakespeare Drama
• Index: Literature

After thwarting a rebellion that threatened his throne, King Henry IV's attention is now more directly focused on his son and heir, Prince Hal. Hal is still distanced from the court, spending his time in frivolous ways, while his former companion, Falstaff, finds nothing but trouble in the London underworld. But as Hal witnesses his father's declining health, he must begin to take his responsibility to the throne more seriously. Henry IV, Part II is one of four connected plays about successive British monarchs, including Richard II, Henry IV, Part I and Henry V.

Known as "The Bard of Avon," William Shakespeare is arguably the greatest English-language writer known. Enormously popular during his life, Shakespeare's works continue to resonate more than three centuries after his death, as has his influence on theatre and literature. Shakespeare's innovative use of character, language, and experimentation with romance as tragedy served as a foundation for later playwrights and dramatists, and some of his most famous lines of dialogue have become part of everyday speech.

HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

ACT FOUR

SCENE I. Yorkshire. Within the Forest of Gaultree.

Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, MOWBRAY, HASTINGS, and Others.

ARCHBISHOP What is this forest call’d?

HASTINGS ’Tis Gaultree Forest, an’t shall please your Grace.

ARCHBISHOP Here stand, my lords, and send discoverers forth

To know the numbers of our enemies.

[5]

HASTINGS We have sent forth already.

ARCHBISHOP ’Tis well done.

My friends and brethren in these great affairs,

I must acquaint you that I have receiv’d

New-dated letters from Northumberland;

Their cold intent, tenour, and substance, thus:

[10]

Here doth he wish his person, with such powers

As might hold sortance with his quality,

The which he could not levy; whereupon

He is retir’d, to ripe his growing fortunes,

To Scotland; and concludes in hearty prayers

[15]

That your attempts may overlive the hazard

And fearful meeting of their opposite.

MOWBRAY Thus do the hopes we have in him touch ground

And dash themselves to pieces.

Enter a Messenger.

HASTINGS Now, what news?

MESSENGER West of this forest, scarcely off a mile,

[20]

In goodly form comes on the enemy;

And, by the ground they hide, I judge their number

Upon or near the rate of thirty thousand.

MOWBRAY The just proportion that we gave them out.

Let us sway on and face them in the field.

Enter WESTMORELAND.

[25]

ARCHBISHOP What well-appointed leader fronts us here?

MOWBRAY I think it is my Lord of Westmoreland.

WESTMORELAND Health and fair greeting from our general,

The Prince, Lord John and Duke of Lancaster.

ARCHBISHOP Say on, my Lord of Westmoreland, in peace,

What doth concern your coming.

[30]

WESTMORELAND Then, my lord,

Unto your Grace do I in chief address

The substance of my speech. If that rebellion

Came like itself, in base and abject routs,

Led on by bloody youth, guarded with rags,

[35]

And countenanc’d by boys and beggary –

I say, if damn’d commotion so appear’d

In his true, native, and most proper shape,

You, reverend father, and these noble lords,

Had not been here to dress the ugly form

[40]

Of base and bloody insurrection

With your fair honours. You, Lord Archbishop,

Whose see is by a civil peace mainlain’d,

Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touch’d,

Whose learning and good letters peace hath tutor’d,

[45]

Whose white investments figure innocence,

The dove, and very blessed spirit of peace –

Wherefore do you so ill translate yourself

Out of the speech of peace, that bears such grace,

Into the harsh and boist’rous tongue of war;

[50]

Turning your books to graves, your ink to blood,

Your pens to lances, and your tongue divine

To a loud trumpet and a point of war?

ARCHBISHOP Wherefore do I this? So the question stands.

Briefly to this end: we are all diseas’d

[55]

And with our surfeiting and wanton hours

Have brought ourselves into a burning fever,

And we must bleed for it; of which disease

Our late King, Richard, being infected, died.

But, my most noble Lord of Westmoreland,

[60]

I take not on me here as a physician;

Nor do I as an enemy to peace

Troop in the throngs of military men;

But rather show awhile like fearful war

To diet rank minds sick of happiness,

[65]

And purge th’ obstructions which begin to stop

Our very veins of life. Hear me more plainly.

I have in equal balance justly weigh’d

What wrongs our arms may do, what wrongs we suffer,

And find our griefs heavier than our offences.

[70]

We see which way the stream of time doth run

And are enforc’d from our most quiet there

By the rough torrent of occasion;

And have the summary of all our griefs,

When time shall serve, to show in articles;

[75]

Which long ere this we offer’d to the King,

And might by no suit gain our audience:

When we are wrong’d, and would unfold our griefs,

We are denied access unto his person,

Even by those men that most have done us wrong.

[80]

The dangers of the days but newly gone,

Whose memory is written on the earth

With yet appearing blood, and the examples

Of every minute’s instance, present now,

Hath put us in these ill-beseeming arms;

[85]

Not to break peace, or any branch of it,

But to establish here a peace indeed,

Concurring both in name and quality.

WESTMORELAND When ever yet was your appeal denied;

Wherein have you been galled by the King;

[90]

What peer hath been subom’d to grate on you

That you should seal this lawless bloody book

Of forg’d rebellion with a seal divine,

And consecrate commotion’s bitter edge?

ARCHBISHOP My brother general, the commonwealth,

[95]

To brother born an household cruelty,

I make my quarrel in particular.

WESTMORELAND There is no need of any such redress;

Or if there were, it not belongs to you.

MOWBRAY Why not to him in part, and to us all

[100]

That feel the bruises of the days before.

And suffer the condition of these times

To lay a heavy and unequal hand

Upon our honours?

WESTMORELAND O my good Lord Mowbary,

Construe the times to their necessities,

[105]

And you shall say, indeed, it is the time,

And not the King, that doth you injuries,

Yet, for your part, it not appears to me,

Either from the King or in the present time,

That you should have an inch of any ground

[110]

To build a grief on. Were you not restor’d

To all the Duke of Norfolk’s signiories,

Your noble and right well-rememb’red father’s?

MOWBRAY What thing, in honour, had my father lost

That need to be re...

Table of contents

• Contents
• Henry IV, Part II
• Dramatis Personae
• Induction
• Act One
• Act Two
• Act Three
• Act Four
• Act Five
• About the Author
• About the Series
• Copyright
• About the Publisher