Henry IV, Part II by William Shakespeare
Act 4 - Scene 1
Yorkshire. Within the Forest of Gaultree
Lord Hastings : 'Tis Gaultree Forest, an't shall please your Grace.
Lord Hastings : We have sent forth already.
Lord Mowbray : Thus do the hopes we have in him touch ground
[p]And dash themselves
to pieces.
Lord Hastings : Now, what news?
Messenger : West of this forest, scarcely off a mile,
[p]In goodly form comes on
the enemy;
[p]And, by the ground they hide, I judge their
number
[p]Upon or near the rate of thirty thousand.
Lord Mowbray : The just proportion that we gave them out.
[p]Let us sway on and face
them in the field.
Lord Mowbray : I think it is my Lord of Westmoreland.
Lord Mowbray : Why not to him in part, and to us all
[p]That feel the bruises of the
days before,
[p]And suffer the condition of these times
[p]To lay a
heavy and unequal hand
[p]Upon our honours?
Lord Mowbray : What thing, in honour, had my father lost
[p]That need to be reviv'd
and breath'd in me?
[p]The King that lov'd him, as the state stood
then,
[p]Was force perforce compell'd to banish him,
[p]And then that
Henry Bolingbroke and he,
[p]Being mounted and both roused in their
seats,
[p]Their neighing coursers daring of the spur,
[p]Their armed
staves in charge, their beavers down,
[p]Their eyes of fire sparkling
through sights of steel,
[p]And the loud trumpet blowing them
together--
[p]Then, then, when there was nothing could have
stay'd
[p]My father from the breast of Bolingbroke,
[p]O, when the
King did throw his warder down--
[p]His own life hung upon the staff
he threw--
[p]Then threw he down himself, and all their lives
[p]That
by indictment and by dint of sword
[p]Have since miscarried under
Bolingbroke.
Lord Mowbray : But he hath forc'd us to compel this offer;
[p]And it proceeds from
policy, not love.
Lord Mowbray : Well, by my will we shall admit no parley.
Lord Hastings : Hath the Prince John a full commission,
[p]In very ample virtue of his
father,
[p]To hear and absolutely to determine
[p]Of what conditions
we shall stand upon?
Lord Mowbray : There is a thing within my bosom tells me
[p]That no conditions of our
peace can stand.
Lord Hastings : Fear you not that: if we can make our peace
[p]Upon such large terms
and so absolute
[p]As our conditions shall consist upon,
[p]Our peace
shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.
Lord Mowbray : Yea, but our valuation shall be such
[p]That every slight and
false-derived cause,
[p]Yea, every idle, nice, and wanton
reason,
[p]Shall to the King taste of this action;
[p]That, were our
royal faiths martyrs in love,
[p]We shall be winnow'd with so rough a
wind
[p]That even our corn shall seem as light as chaff,
[p]And good
from bad find no partition.
Lord Hastings : Besides, the King hath wasted all his rods
[p]On late offenders, that
he now doth lack
[p]The very instruments of chastisement;
[p]So that
his power, like to a fangless lion,
[p]May offer, but not hold.
Lord Mowbray : Be it so.
[p]Here is return'd my Lord of Westmoreland.
Lord Mowbray : Your Grace of York, in God's name then, set forward.
Previous: Act 3 - Scene 2
Next: Act 4 - Scene 2
