Internet Shakespeare Editions

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Not Peer Reviewed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