KING
I , Harry, withdraw thyself, bleedest too much.
Lord John of Lancaster, go you with him.
LANCASTER
Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too.
PRINCE
I do beseech your Majesty, make up,
Lest your retirement do amaze your friends.
KING
I will do so. My Lord of Westmoreland,
Lead him to his tent.
WESTMORELAND
Come, my lord, I’ll lead you to your tent.
PRINCE
Lead me, my lord? I do not need your help,
And God forbid a shallow scratch should drive
The Prince of Wales from such a field as this,
Where stain’d nobility lies trodden on,
And rebels’ arms triumph in massacres!
LANCASTER
We breathe too long. Come, cousin Westmoreland,
Our duty this way lies. For God’s sake, come.
PRINCE
By Heaven, deceived me, Lancaster,
I did not think lord of such a spirit.
Before, I loved as a brother, John,
But now I do respect as my soul.
KING
I saw him hold Lord Percy at the point
With lustier maintenance than I did look for
Of such an ungrown warrior.
PRINCE
O, this boy
Lends mettle to us all!
DOUGLAS
Another king! They grow like Hydra’s heads.
I am the Douglas, fatal to all those
That wear those colours on them. What art
That counterfeit’st the person of a king?
KING
The King himself, who, Douglas, grieves at heart
So many of his shadows met,
And not the very King. I have two boys
Seek Percy and thyself about the field,
But, seeing fall’st on me so luckily,
I will assay , and defend thyself.
DOUGLAS
I fear art another counterfeit,
And yet, in faith, bearest like a king.
But mine I am sure art, whoe’er be,
And thus I win .
PRINCE
Hold up head, vile Scot, or art like
Never to hold it up again! The spirits
Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt are in my arms.
It is the Prince of Wales that threatens ,
Who never promiseth but he means to pay.
PRINCE
Cheerly, my lord. How fares your Grace?
Sir Nicholas Gawsey for succour sent,
And so Clifton. I’ll to Clifton straight.
KING
Stay and breathe awhile.
redeem’d lost opinion,
And show’d mak’st some tender of my life,
In this fair rescue brought to me.
PRINCE
O God, they did me too much injury
That ever said I hearken’d for your death.
If it were so, I might have let alone
The insulting hand of Douglas over you,
Which would have been as speedy in your end
As all the poisonous potions in the world,
And saved the treacherous labour of your son.
KING
Make up to Clifton. I’ll to Sir Nicholas Gawsey.
HOTSPUR
If I mistake not, art Harry Monmouth.
PRINCE
speak’st as if I would deny my name.
HOTSPUR
My name is Harry Percy.
PRINCE
Why then I see
A very valiant rebel of the name.
I am the Prince of Wales; and think not, Percy,
To share with me in glory any more.
Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere,
Nor can one England brook a double reign,
Of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales.
HOTSPUR
Nor shall it, Harry, for the hour is come
To end the one of us, and would to God
name in arms were now as great as mine!
PRINCE
I’ll make it greater I part from ,
And all the budding honours on crest
I’ll crop to make a garland for my head.
HOTSPUR
I can no longer brook vanities.
FALSTAFF
Well said, Hal! To it, Hal! Nay, you shall find no boy’s play here, I can tell you.
HOTSPUR
O Harry, robb’d me of my youth!
I better brook the loss of brittle life
Than those proud titles won of me;
They wound my thoughts worse than sword my flesh.
But thoughts, the slaves of life, and life, time’s fool,
And time, that takes survey of all the world,
Must have a stop. O, I could prophesy,
But that the earthy and cold hand of death
Lies on my tongue. No, Percy, art dust,
And food for—
PRINCE
For worms, brave Percy. Fare well, great heart!
Ill-weaved ambition, how much art shrunk!
When that this body did contain a spirit,
A kingdom for it was too small a bound;
But now two paces of the vilest earth
Is room enough. This earth that bears dead
Bears not alive so stout a gentleman.
If wert sensible of courtesy,
I should not make so dear a show of zeal.
But let my favours hide mangled face;
And even in behalf I’ll thank myself
For doing these fair rites of tenderness.
Adieu, and take praise with to heaven!
ignominy sleep with in the grave,
But not remember’d in epitaph!
PRINCE
What, old acquaintance, could not all this flesh
Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell!
I could have better spared a better man.
O, I should have a heavy miss of
If I were much in love with vanity.
Death not struck so fat a deer today,
Though many dearer, in this bloody fray.
Embowell’d will I see by and by,
Till then in blood by noble Percy lie.
FALSTAFF
Embowell’d! If embowel me today, I’ll give you leave to powder me and eat me too tomorrow. ’Sblood, time to counterfeit, or that hot termagant Scot had paid me scot and lot too. Counterfeit? I lie, I am no counterfeit. To die, is to be a counterfeit, for he is but the counterfeit of a man who not the life of a man: but to counterfeit dying, when a man thereby liveth, is to be no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life indeed. The better part of valour is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life. Zounds, I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead. How if he should counterfeit too, and rise? By my faith, I am afraid he would prove the better counterfeit. Therefore I’ll make him sure, yea, and I’ll swear I killed him. Why may not he rise as well as I? Nothing confutes me but eyes, and nobody sees me. Therefore, , with a new wound in your thigh, come you along with me.
PRINCE
Come, brother John, full bravely flesh’d
maiden sword.
LANCASTER
But soft, whom have we here?
Did you not tell me this fat man was dead?
PRINCE
I did; I saw him dead,
Breathless and bleeding on the ground.—Art alive?
Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight?
I , speak, we will not trust our eyes
Without our ears. art not what seem’st.
FALSTAFF
No, that’s certain, I am not a double man. But if I be not Jack Falstaff, then am I a Jack. There is Percy! If your father will do me any honour, so; if not, let him kill the next Percy himself. I look to be either earl or duke, I can assure you.
PRINCE
Why, Percy I kill’d myself, and saw dead.
FALSTAFF
? Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying! I grant you I was down and out of breath, and so was he, but we rose both at an instant, and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock. If I may be believed, so; if not, let them that should reward valour bear the sin upon their own heads. I’ll take it upon my death, I gave him this wound in the thigh. If the man were alive, and would deny it, zounds, I would make him eat a piece of my sword.
LANCASTER
This is the strangest tale that ever I heard.
PRINCE
This is the strangest fellow, brother John.—
Come, bring your luggage nobly on your back.
For my part, if a lie may do grace,
I’ll gild it with the happiest terms I have.
PRINCE
The trumpet sounds retreat; the day is ours.
Come, brother, let us to the highest of the field,
To see what friends are living, who are dead.
FALSTAFF
I’ll follow, as they say, for reward. He that rewards me, God reward him! If I do grow great, I’ll grow less, for I’ll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly as a nobleman should do.