Henry IV, Part I by William Shakespeare
Act 4 - Scene 1
The rebel camp near Shrewsbury.
Earl of Douglas : Thou art the king of honour:
[p]No man so potent breathes upon the
ground
[p]But I will beard him.
Messenger : These letters come from your father.
Messenger : He cannot come, my lord; he is grievous sick.
Messenger : His letters bear his mind, not I, my lord.
Earl of Worcester : I prithee, tell me, doth he keep his bed?
Messenger : He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth;
[p]And at the time of my
departure thence
[p]He was much fear'd by his physicians.
Earl of Worcester : I would the state of time had first been whole
[p]Ere he by sickness
had been visited:
[p]His health was never better worth than now.
Earl of Worcester : Your father's sickness is a maim to us.
Earl of Douglas : 'Faith, and so we should;
[p]Where now remains a sweet
reversion:
[p]We may boldly spend upon the hope of what
[p]Is to come
in:
[p]A comfort of retirement lives in this.
Earl of Worcester : But yet I would your father had been here.
[p]The quality and hair of
our attempt
[p]Brooks no division: it will be thought
[p]By some, that
know not why he is away,
[p]That wisdom, loyalty and mere
dislike
[p]Of our proceedings kept the earl from hence:
[p]And think
how such an apprehension
[p]May turn the tide of fearful
faction
[p]And breed a kind of question in our cause;
[p]For well you
know we of the offering side
[p]Must keep aloof from strict
arbitrement,
[p]And stop all sight-holes, every loop from
whence
[p]The eye of reason may pry in upon us:
[p]This absence of
your father's draws a curtain,
[p]That shows the ignorant a kind of
fear
[p]Before not dreamt of.
Earl of Douglas : As heart can think: there is not such a word
[p]Spoke of in Scotland
as this term of fear.
Earl of Douglas : That's the worst tidings that I hear of yet.
Earl of Worcester : Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound.
Earl of Douglas : Talk not of dying: I am out of fear
[p]Of death or death's hand for
this one-half year.
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Next: Act 4 - Scene 2
