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  • Title: Henry IV, Part 1 (Quarto 1, 1598)
  • Editor: Rosemary Gaby
  • ISBN: 978-1-55058-371-7

    Copyright Rosemary Gaby. This text may be freely used for educational, non-profit purposes; for all other uses contact the Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Editor: Rosemary Gaby
    Not Peer Reviewed

    Henry IV, Part 1 (Quarto 1, 1598)

    of Henry the fourth.
    Ile keepe them by this hand.
    Wor. You, start away,
    545And lend no eare vnto my purposes:
    Those prisoners you shall keepe.
    Hot. Nay I will: thats flat:
    He said he would not ransome Mortimer,
    Forbad my tongue to speake of Mortimer,
    550But I will find him when he lies asleepe,
    And in his eare ile hollow Mortimer:
    Nay, ile haue a starling shalbe taught to speake
    Nothing but Mortimer, and giue it him
    To keepe his anger still in motion.
    555Wor. Heare you cosen a word.
    Hot. All studies here I solemnly defie,
    Saue how to gall and pinch this Bullenbrooke,
    And that same sword and buckler Prince of Wales,
    But that I thinke his father loues him not,
    560And would be glad he met with some mischance:
    I would haue him poisoned with a pot of ale.
    Wor. Farewel kinsman, ile talke to you
    When you are better temperd to attend.
    Nor. Why what a waspe-stung and impatient foole
    565Art thou? to breake into this womans moode,
    Tying thine eare to no toung but thine owne?
    Hot. Why looke you, I am whipt and scourg'd with rods,
    Netled, and stung with pismires, when I heare
    Of this vile polititian Bullingbrooke,
    570In Richards time, what do you call the place?
    A plague vpon it, it is in Glocestershire;
    Twas where the mad-cap duke his vncle kept
    His vncle Yorke, where I first bowed my knee
    Vnto this king of smiles, this Bullenbrooke:
    575Zbloud, when you and he came backe from Rauenspurgh.
    North. At Barkly castle. Hot. You say true.
    Why what a candy deale of curtesie,
    This fawning greyhound then did profer me,
    580Looke when his infant fortune came to age,
    And gentle Harry Percy, and kind coosen:
    C.1 O the