Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Rosemary Gaby
Not Peer Reviewed

Henry IV, Part 1 (Quarto 1, 1598)

The Historie
And our induction ful of prosperous hope.
Hot. Lord Mortimer, and coosen Glendower wil you sit down?
and Vncle Worcester; a plague vpon it I haue forgot the map.
Glendow. No here it is; sit Coosen Percy, sit good Coosen
Hotspur, for by that name as oft as Lancaster doth speake of you,
his cheeke lookes pale, and with a rising sigh hee wisheth you in
heauen.
Hot. And you in hell, as oft as he heares Owen Glendower
spoke of.
1535Glen. I cannot blame him; at my natiuity
The front of heauen was full of fiery shapes
Of burning cressets, and at my birth
The frame and huge foundation of the earth
Shaked like a coward.
1540Hot. Why so it woulde haue done at the same season if your
mothers cat had but kittend, though your selfe had neuer beene
borne.
Glen. I say the earth did shake when I was borne.
Hot. And I say the earth was not of my mind,
1545If you suppose as fearing you it shooke.
Glen. The heauens were all on fire, the earth did tremble,
Hot. Oh then the earth shooke to see the heauens on fire,
1550And not in feare of your natiuity,
Diseased nature oftentimes breakes forth,
In strange eruptions, oft the teeming earth
Is with a kind of collicke pincht and vext,
By the imprisoning of vnruly wind
1555Within her vvombe, vvhich for enlargement striuing
Shakes the old Beldame earth, and topples down
Steeples and mossegrovvn towers. At your birth
Our Grandam earth, hauing this distemprature
In passion shooke.
1560Glen. Coosen of many men
I do not beare these crossings, giue me leaue
To tell you once againe that at my birth
The front of heauen vvas full of fiery shapes,
The goates ran from the mountaines, and the heards
1565Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields.
These