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Translated Text |
Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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Enter the King, Northumberland, Worcester, Hotspur, and Sir Walter Blunt, with others. KING, to Northumberland, Worcester, and Hotspur My blood hath been too cold and temperate, Unapt to stir at these indignities, And you have found me, for accordingly You tread upon my patience. But be sure I will from henceforth rather be myself, 5 Mighty and to be feared, than my condition, Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down, And therefore lost that title of respect Which the proud soul ne’er pays but to the proud. | King Henry meets with the Percy family (Hotspur, Northumberland, and Worcester) and tells them he's been acting too soft lately because the Percys are totally out of control. From here on out, though, Henry's putting the kibosh on their insubordination. |
WORCESTER Our house, my sovereign liege, little deserves 10 The scourge of greatness to be used on it, And that same greatness too which our own hands Have holp to make so portly. NORTHUMBERLAND My lord— | Worcester (Hotspur's uncle) mouths off to Henry and reminds him that his family helped him become king. |
KING Worcester, get thee gone, for I do see 15 Danger and disobedience in thine eye. O sir, your presence is too bold and peremptory, And majesty might never yet endure The moody frontier of a servant brow. You have good leave to leave us. When we need 20 Your use and counsel, we shall send for you. | King Henry tells Worcester to shut his face and get out of his sight before he lays a smack down on him. Henry will let him know when he's allowed to talk. |
You were about to speak. NORTHUMBERLAND Yea, my good lord. Those prisoners in your Highness’ name demanded, Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took, 25 Were, as he says, not with such strength denied As is delivered to your Majesty. Either envy, therefore, or misprision Is guilty of this fault, and not my son. | Worcester leaves in a huff and Northumberland (Hotspur's dad) tries to smooth things over for his kid. He doesn't deny that Hotspur refused to give the king his war prisoners but he says it's not as bad as it sounds. The whole thing is just a big misunderstanding. |
HOTSPUR My liege, I did deny no prisoners. 30 But I remember, when the fight was done, When I was dry with rage and extreme toil, Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword, Came there a certain lord, neat and trimly dressed, Fresh as a bridegroom, and his chin new reaped 35 Showed like a stubble land at harvest home. He was perfumèd like a milliner, And ’twixt his finger and his thumb he held A pouncet box, which ever and anon He gave his nose and took ’t away again, 40 Who therewith angry, when it next came there, Took it in snuff; and still he smiled and talked. And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by, He called them untaught knaves, unmannerly, To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse 45 Betwixt the wind and his nobility. With many holiday and lady terms He questioned me, amongst the rest demanded My prisoners in your Majesty’s behalf. I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold, 50 To be so pestered with a popinjay, Out of my grief and my impatience Answered neglectingly I know not what— He should, or he should not; for he made me mad To see him shine so brisk and smell so sweet 55 And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman Of guns, and drums, and wounds—God save the mark!— And telling me the sovereignest thing on Earth Was parmacety for an inward bruise, 60 And that it was great pity, so it was, This villainous saltpeter should be digged Out of the bowels of the harmless Earth, Which many a good tall fellow had destroyed So cowardly, and but for these vile guns 65 He would himself have been a soldier. This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord, I answered indirectly, as I said, And I beseech you, let not his report Come current for an accusation 70 Betwixt my love and your high Majesty. | Hotspur, who can hardly contain himself, chimes in and comes up with an excuse for disrespecting the king. He says he didn't deny the prisoners to the king, per se, but he did yell at the guy who came to collect them.
This guy, a "certain lord," ticked him off because he showed up on Hotspur's battlefield "fresh as a bridegroom," clean shaven, smelling like perfume, and acting all haughty at the sight of dead bodies scattered around. The guy also talked like a woman and complained about the smell of the corpses, which got on Hotspur's nerves. Hotspur admits he wasn't thinking when he told the guy to scram – he says didn't mean any disrespect to the king. |
BLUNT The circumstance considered, good my lord, Whate’er Lord Harry Percy then had said To such a person and in such a place, At such a time, with all the rest retold, 75 May reasonably die and never rise To do him wrong or any way impeach What then he said, so he unsay it now. KING Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners, But with proviso and exception 80 That we at our own charge shall ransom straight His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer, Who, on my soul, hath willfully betrayed The lives of those that he did lead to fight Against that great magician, damned Glendower, 85 Whose daughter, as we hear, that Earl of March Hath lately married. Shall our coffers then Be emptied to redeem a traitor home? Shall we buy treason and indent with fears When they have lost and forfeited themselves? 90 No, on the barren mountains let him starve, For I shall never hold that man my friend Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost To ransom home revolted Mortimer. | Sir Walter Blunt tries to help smooth things over too, but King Henry isn't having it. He points out that Hotspur still refuses to give up his prisoners unless the king agrees to pay for Mortimer's ransom. (Remember, Mortimer, who is Hotspur's brother-in-law, was captured by the Welsh Glendower back in Act one, scene one.) Henry says he won't ransom Mortimer because the guy's a traitor to England – Henry claims that Mortimer let the Welsh army slaughter 1,000 English soldiers on purpose. Henry also points out that Mortimer has since married a Welsh woman, the daughter of the rebel leader Glendower. There's no way Henry's going to pay Mortimer's ransom. |
HOTSPUR Revolted Mortimer! 95 He never did fall off, my sovereign liege, But by the chance of war. To prove that true Needs no more but one tongue for all those wounds, Those mouthèd wounds, which valiantly he took When on the gentle Severn’s sedgy bank 100 In single opposition hand to hand He did confound the best part of an hour In changing hardiment with great Glendower. Three times they breathed, and three times did they drink, 105 Upon agreement, of swift Severn’s flood, Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks, Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank, Blood-stainèd with these valiant combatants. 110 Never did bare and rotten policy Color her working with such deadly wounds, Nor never could the noble Mortimer Receive so many, and all willingly. Then let not him be slandered with revolt. 115 | Hotspur's outraged at the king's accusation that Mortimer's a traitor. According to Hotspur, Mortimer is a war hero and was wounded in battle against Glendower when he fought in man-to-man combat for over an hour. Mortimer's wounds are proof that he's not a traitor and it's totally not cool for the king to slander him this way. |
KING Thou dost belie him, Percy; thou dost belie him. He never did encounter with Glendower. I tell thee, he durst as well have met the devil alone As Owen Glendower for an enemy. Art thou not ashamed? But, sirrah, henceforth 120 Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer. Send me your prisoners with the speediest means, Or you shall hear in such a kind from me As will displease you.—My lord Northumberland, We license your departure with your son.— 125 Send us your prisoners, or you will hear of it. King exits with Blunt and others. | King Henry says Hotspur's full of bologna – according to Henry, Mortimer never fought Glendower. Henry forbids Hotspur from uttering Mortimer's name ever again. And another thing, says Henry, hand over the war prisoner, pronto. |
HOTSPUR An if the devil come and roar for them, I will not send them. I will after straight And tell him so, for I will ease my heart, Albeit I make a hazard of my head. 130 NORTHUMBERLAND What, drunk with choler? Stay and pause awhile. Here comes your uncle. Enter Worcester. HOTSPUR Speak of Mortimer? Zounds, I will speak of him, and let my soul Want mercy if I do not join with him. 135 Yea, on his part I’ll empty all these veins And shed my dear blood drop by drop in the dust, But I will lift the downtrod Mortimer As high in the air as this unthankful king, As this ingrate and cankered Bolingbroke. 140 | After the king leaves the room, Hotspur tells his dad he'll never give the king his prisoners. Northumberland says Hotspur's out of his mind but the young Percy insists that he'd die for Mortimer. He calls the king an "ingrate." |
NORTHUMBERLAND Brother, the King hath made your nephew mad. WORCESTER Who struck this heat up after I was gone? HOTSPUR He will forsooth have all my prisoners, And when I urged the ransom once again Of my wife’s brother, then his cheek looked pale, 145 And on my face he turned an eye of death, Trembling even at the name of Mortimer. WORCESTER I cannot blame him. Was not he proclaimed By Richard, that dead is, the next of blood? NORTHUMBERLAND He was; I heard the proclamation. 150 And then it was when the unhappy king— Whose wrongs in us God pardon!—did set forth Upon his Irish expedition; From whence he, intercepted, did return To be deposed and shortly murderèd. 155 WORCESTER And for whose death we in the world’s wide mouth Live scandalized and foully spoken of. HOTSPUR But soft, I pray you. Did King Richard then Proclaim my brother Edmund Mortimer Heir to the crown? 160 NORTHUMBERLAND He did; myself did hear it. | Worcester reenters and says that when King Richard II was alive, he named Mortimer as the heir to the throne. Northumberland says it's true – he heard it with his own ears, but later, when Richard was returning to England from fighting in Ireland, Henry (a.k.a. Bolingbroke) intercepted him and seized the crown. He then had Richard murdered.
Worcester says the Percy family has been blamed and scandalized for Richard's death and repeats that he heard Richard say Mortimer should be the heir to the throne. |
HOTSPUR Nay then, I cannot blame his cousin king That wished him on the barren mountains starve. But shall it be that you that set the crown Upon the head of this forgetful man 165 And for his sake wear the detested blot Of murderous subornation—shall it be That you a world of curses undergo, Being the agents or base second means, The cords, the ladder, or the hangman rather? 170 O, pardon me that I descend so low To show the line and the predicament Wherein you range under this subtle king. Shall it for shame be spoken in these days, Or fill up chronicles in time to come, 175 That men of your nobility and power Did gage them both in an unjust behalf (As both of you, God pardon it, have done) To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose, And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke? 180 And shall it in more shame be further spoken That you are fooled, discarded, and shook off By him for whom these shames you underwent? No, yet time serves wherein you may redeem Your banished honors and restore yourselves 185 Into the good thoughts of the world again, Revenge the jeering and disdained contempt Of this proud king, who studies day and night To answer all the debt he owes to you Even with the bloody payment of your deaths. 190 Therefore I say— WORCESTER Peace, cousin, say no more. And now I will unclasp a secret book, And to your quick-conceiving discontents I’ll read you matter deep and dangerous, 195 As full of peril and adventurous spirit As to o’erwalk a current roaring loud On the unsteadfast footing of a spear. HOTSPUR If he fall in, good night, or sink or swim! Send danger from the east unto the west, 200 So honor cross it from the north to south, And let them grapple. O, the blood more stirs To rouse a lion than to start a hare! NORTHUMBERLAND, to Worcester Imagination of some great exploit Drives him beyond the bounds of patience. 205 HOTSPUR By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap To pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon, Or dive into the bottom of the deep, Where fathom line could never touch the ground, And pluck up drownèd honor by the locks, 210 So he that doth redeem her thence might wear Without corrival all her dignities. But out upon this half-faced fellowship! WORCESTER He apprehends a world of figures here, But not the form of what he should attend.— 215 Good cousin, give me audience for a while. HOTSPUR I cry you mercy. WORCESTER Those same noble Scots That are your prisoners— HOTSPUR I’ll keep them all. 220 By God, he shall not have a Scot of them. No, if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not. I’ll keep them, by this hand! WORCESTER You start away And lend no ear unto my purposes: 225 Those prisoners you shall keep— HOTSPUR Nay, I will. That’s flat! He said he would not ransom Mortimer, Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer. But I will find him when he lies asleep, 230 And in his ear I’ll hollo “Mortimer.” Nay, I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak Nothing but “Mortimer,” and give it him To keep his anger still in motion. WORCESTER Hear you, cousin, a word. 235 HOTSPUR All studies here I solemnly defy, Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke. And that same sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales— But that I think his father loves him not And would be glad he met with some mischance— 240 I would have him poisoned with a pot of ale. | Hotspur seems not to have known that Richard II named Mortimer heir to the throne before he died. It's no wonder, he says, King Henry doesn't want to ransom Mortimer from the Welsh. As long as Mortimer's out of the picture, there's no immediate threat to the legitimacy of Henry's reign. Hotspur delivers a long speech about how the Percys have been dishonored by helping to depose King Richard II and place an inferior king on the throne. Now, said king is making the Percys look like a bunch of chumps. They should try to redeem their honor. Worcester cuts off Hotspur and says he's got a plan, but Hotspur is all fired up and keeps interrupting to talk about honor. |
WORCESTER Farewell, kinsman. I’ll talk to you When you are better tempered to attend. NORTHUMBERLAND, to Hotspur Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool Art thou to break into this woman’s mood, 245 Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own! | Worcester threatens to leave since Hotspur won't pipe down and listen. Northumberland tells his son that he's a hothead and acts like a mouthy woman in a bad mood who won't listen to anyone. (Don't get mad at us. Northumberland really does say that.) |
HOTSPUR Why, look you, I am whipped and scourged with rods, Nettled and stung with pismires, when I hear Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke. 250 In Richard’s time—what do you call the place? A plague upon it! It is in Gloucestershire. ’Twas where the madcap duke his uncle kept, His uncle York, where I first bowed my knee Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke. 255 ’Sblood, when you and he came back from Ravenspurgh. NORTHUMBERLAND At Berkeley Castle. HOTSPUR You say true. Why, what a candy deal of courtesy 260 This fawning greyhound then did proffer me: “Look when his infant fortune came to age,” And “gentle Harry Percy,” and “kind cousin.” O, the devil take such cozeners!—God forgive me! Good uncle, tell your tale. I have done. 265 | Hotspur says he can't help it – the two-faced king has him all riled up. The king was nice when he needed their help but now he's a jerk. |
WORCESTER Nay, if you have not, to it again. We will stay your leisure. HOTSPUR I have done, i’ faith. WORCESTER Then once more to your Scottish prisoners: Deliver them up without their ransom straight, 270 And make the Douglas’ son your only mean For powers in Scotland, which, for divers reasons Which I shall send you written, be assured Will easily be granted.—You, my lord, Your son in Scotland being thus employed, 275 Shall secretly into the bosom creep Of that same noble prelate well beloved, The Archbishop. HOTSPUR Of York, is it not? WORCESTER True, who bears hard 280 His brother’s death at Bristol, the Lord Scroop. I speak not this in estimation, As what I think might be, but what I know Is ruminated, plotted, and set down, And only stays but to behold the face 285 Of that occasion that shall bring it on. | Worcester reveals a plan – Hotspur will immediately release his prisoners without any ransom, but he'll keep one, who will be used to bargain with the Scots, who they want on their side. Worcester will send Hotspur a letter with specific instructions. Meanwhile, Northumberland will talk to the Archbishop of York, Richard Scroop about joining forces to overthrow King Henry. Worcester says the Archbishop will be down with the rebellion because Henry killed his brother for being one of King Richard's favorites. (Technically, Shakespeare's confused here. Richard II killed the Archbishop's cousin, not his brother, but we get the point.) |
HOTSPUR I smell it. Upon my life it will do well. NORTHUMBERLAND Before the game is afoot thou still let’st slip. HOTSPUR Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot. And then the power of Scotland and of York 290 To join with Mortimer, ha? WORCESTER And so they shall. HOTSPUR In faith, it is exceedingly well aimed. WORCESTER And ’tis no little reason bids us speed To save our heads by raising of a head, 295 For bear ourselves as even as we can, The King will always think him in our debt, And think we think ourselves unsatisfied, Till he hath found a time to pay us home. And see already how he doth begin 300 To make us strangers to his looks of love. HOTSPUR He does, he does. We’ll be revenged on him. WORCESTER Cousin, farewell. No further go in this Than I by letters shall direct your course. When time is ripe, which will be suddenly, 305 I’ll steal to Glendower and Lord Mortimer, Where you and Douglas and our powers at once, As I will fashion it, shall happily meet To bear our fortunes in our own strong arms, Which now we hold at much uncertainty. 310 NORTHUMBERLAND Farewell, good brother. We shall thrive, I trust. HOTSPUR Uncle, adieu. O, let the hours be short Till fields and blows and groans applaud our sport. They exit. | Eventually, the men agree, Worcester will also hook up with Glendower and Mortimer to raise a massive army against Henry's forces. In the meantime, they'll play it cool and pretend to be loyal subjects so the king doesn't get suspicious. Hotspur says he can't wait to get his battle on. He lives for war. |