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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    Not Peer Reviewed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)

    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