Henry IV, Part II by William Shakespeare (best way to read e books .TXT) 📕

Henry IV, Part II

By William Shakespeare.

Table of Contents Titlepage Imprint Dramatis Personae Henry IV, Part II Induction Act I Scene I Scene II Scene III Act II Scene I Scene II Scene III Scene IV Act III Scene I Scene II Act IV Scene I Scene II Scene III Scene IV Scene V Act V Scene I Scene II Scene III Scene IV Scene V Epilogue Colophon Uncopyright Imprint

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Dramatis Personae

Rumour, the Presenter

King Henry the Fourth

Henry, Prince of Wales, afterwards King Henry V, his son

Thomas, Duke of Clarence, his son

Prince John of Lancaster, his son

Prince Humphrey of Gloucester, his son

Earl of Warwick

Earl of Westmoreland

Earl of Surrey

Gower

Harcourt

Blunt

Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench

A servant of the Chief Justice

Earl of Northumberland

Scroop, Archbishop of York

Lord Mowbray

Lord Hastings

Lord Bardolph

Sir John Colevile

Travers and Morton, retainers of Northumberland

Sir John Falstaff

His page

Bardolph

Pistol

Poins

Peto

Shallow, country justice

Silence, country justice

Davy, servant to Shallow

Mouldy, Shadow, Wart, Feeble, and Bullcalf, recruits

Fang and Snare, sheriff’s officers

Lady Northumberland

Lady Percy

Mistress Quickly, hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap

Doll Tearsheet

Lords and attendants; porter, drawers, beadles, grooms, etc.

A dancer, speaker of the epilogue

Scene: England.

Henry IV, Part II Induction

Warkworth. Before the castle.

Enter Rumour, painted full of tongues. Rumour

Open your ears; for which of you will stop
The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks?
I, from the orient to the drooping west,
Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
The acts commenced on this ball of earth:
Upon my tongues continual slanders ride,
The which in every language I pronounce,
Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.
I speak of peace, while covert enmity
Under the smile of safety wounds the world:
And who but Rumour, who but only I,
Make fearful musters and prepared defence,
Whiles the big year, swoln with some other grief,
Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures,
And of so easy and so plain a stop
That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still-discordant wavering multitude,
Can play upon it. But what need I thus
My well-known body to anatomize
Among my household? Why is Rumour here?
I run before King Harry’s victory;
Who in a bloody field by Shrewsbury
Hath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops,
Quenching the flame of bold rebellion
Even with the rebels’ blood. But what mean I
To speak so true at first? my office is
To noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fell
Under the wrath of noble Hotspur’s sword,
And that the king before the Douglas’ rage
Stoop’d his anointed head as low as death.
This have I rumour’d through the peasant towns
Between that royal field of Shrewsbury
And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone,
Where Hotspur’s father, old Northumberland,
Lies crafty-sick: the posts come tiring on,
And not a man of them brings other news
Than they have learn’d of me: from Rumour’s tongues
They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true wrongs. Exit.

Act I Scene I

The same.

Enter Lord Bardolph. Lord Bardolph Who keeps the gate here, ho? The Porter opens the gate. Where is the earl? Porter What shall I say you are? Lord Bardolph

Tell thou the earl
That the Lord Bardolph doth attend him here.

Porter

His lordship is walk’d forth into the orchard:
Please it your honour, knock but at the gate,
And he himself wilt answer.

Enter Northumberland. Lord Bardolph Here comes the earl. Exit Porter. Northumberland

What news, Lord Bardolph? every minute now
Should be the father of some stratagem:
The times are wild; contention, like a horse
Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose
And bears down all before him.

Lord Bardolph

Noble earl,
I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury.

Northumberland Good, an God will! Lord Bardolph

As good as heart can wish:
The king is almost wounded to the death;
And, in the fortune of my lord your son,
Prince Harry slain outright; and both the Blunts
Kill’d by the hand of Douglas; young Prince John
And Westmoreland and Stafford fled the field;
And Harry Monmouth’s brawn, the hulk Sir John,
Is prisoner to your son: O, such a day,
So fought, so follow’d and so fairly won,
Came not till now to dignify the times,
Since Caesar’s fortunes!

Northumberland

How is this derived?
Saw you the field? came you from Shrewsbury?

Lord Bardolph

I spake with one, my lord, that came from thence,
A gentleman well bred and of good name,
That freely render’d me these news for true.

Northumberland

Here comes my servant Travers, whom I sent
On Tuesday last to listen after news.

Enter Travers. Lord Bardolph

My lord, I over-rode him on the way;
And he is furnish’d with no certainties
More than he haply may retail from me.

Northumberland Now, Travers, what good tidings comes with you? Travers

My lord, Sir John Umfrevile turn’d me back
With joyful tidings; and, being better horsed,
Out-rode me. After him came spurring hard
A gentleman, almost forspent with speed,
That stopp’d by me to breathe his bloodied horse.
He ask’d the way to Chester; and of him
I