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  • Title: Henry IV, Part 2 (Quarto 1, 1600)
  • Editor: Rosemary Gaby

    • 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    Not Peer Reviewed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 2 (Quarto 1, 1600)

    The second part of
    wit will make vse of any thing; I will turne diseases to commo-
    ditie.

    Enter th'Archbishop, Thomas Mowbray (Earle Marshall) the
    Lord Hastings, Fauconbridge, and Bardolfe.
    Bishop Thus haue you heard our cause, and knowne our(meanes,
    And my most noble friends, I pray you al
    Speake plainely your opinions of our hopes,
    And first Lord Marshall, what say you to it?
    505Marsh. I well allow the occasion of our armes,
    But gladly would be better satisfied,
    How in our meanes we should aduance ourselues,
    To looke with forehead, bold, and big enough,
    Vpon the power and puissance of the King.
    510Hast. Our present musters grow vpon the file,
    To fiue and twenty thousand men of choise,
    And our supplies liue largely in the hope
    Of great Northumberland, whose bosome burnes
    With an incensed fire of iniuries.
    515Bard. The question then Lord Hastings standeth thus,
    Whether our present fiue and twentie thousand,
    May hold vp head without Northumberland.
    Hast. With him we may.
    Bard. Yea mary, theres the point,
    520But if without him we be thought too feeble,
    My iudgement is we should not step too far.
    Bish. Tis very true lord Bardolfe, for indeede
    It was yong Hot-spurs cause at Shrewsbury.
    Bard. It was my Lord, who lined himselfe with hope,
    Eating the ayre, and promise of supplie,
    530Flattring himselfe in proiect of a power,
    Much smaller then the smallest of his thoughts,
    And so with great imagination,
    Proper to mad-men, led his powers to death,
    And winking, leapt into destruction.
    535Hast. But by your leaue it neuer yet did hurt,
    To
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