The Civil Wars Between the Two Houses of Lancaster and York (Selection)
[Samuel Daniel (1562-1619), The Civil Wars between the Two Houses of Lancaster and York 1595. Samuel Daniel's verse account of The Civil Wars Between the Two Houses of Lancaster and York, was first published in 1595 under the title The First Four Books of the Civil Wars. It is written in ottava rima stanzas and draws on classical models to present English history in epic form. Some details from the third book of Daniel's work seem to have influenced the shape of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part One, most notably in relation to the figure of Henry Percy (Hotspur). Daniel describes him as "young Hotspur" even though historically he was two years older than Henry IV, and he is characterised as rash, courageous and perverse. Although Daniel does not claim that the prince killed Hotspur, the narrator of the poem imagines them meeting on the field as equally fierce opponents. Holinshed reports that the prince helped his father on the battlefield and that he was hurt in the face with an arrow, but in Daniel the prince saves his father from a ferocious encounter with Douglas. Such small touches of colour in Daniel's account were expanded in Shakespeare's 1 Henry IV into vividly realised dramatic events, and the rivalry between Hal and Hotspur gave the story focus, suspense, and a satisfying dramatic shape. This modern spelling version is based on the facsimile of the 1595 edition provided by the Early English Books Online database.]
[From Book 3, Verses 85-115, pages 59-63]
85
1And thus one king most near in blood allied
Is made th'oblation for the other's peace:
Now only one, both name and all beside
Entirely hath, plurality doth cease:
He that remains, remains unterrified
With others' right; this day doth all release:
And henceforth he is absolutely king,
No crowns, but one, this deed confirms the thing.
86
9And yet new Hydras lo, new heads appear
T'afflict that peace reputed then so sure,
And gave him much to do, and much to fear,
And long and dangerous tumults did procure,
And those even of his chiefest followers were
Of whom he might presume him most secure,
Who whether not so grac'd or so prefer'd
As they expected, these new factions stirr'd.
87
17The Percies were the men, men of great might,
Strong in alliance, and in courage strong
That thus conspire, under pretense to right
The crooked courses they had suffered long:
Whether their conscience urg'd them or despite,
Or that they saw the part they took was wrong,
Or that ambition hereto did them call,
Or others envied grace, or rather all.
88
25What cause soever were, strong was their plot,
Their parties great, means good, th'occasion fit:
Their practice close, their faith suspected not,
Their states far off and they of wary wit
Who with large promises draw in the Scot
To aid their cause, he likes, and yields to it,
Not for the love of them or for their good,
But glad hereby of means to shed our blood.
89
33Then join they with the Welsh, who fitly train'd
And all in arms under a mighty head
Great Glendower, who long warr'd, and much attain'd,
Sharp conflicts made, and many vanquished:
With whom was Edmund Earl of March retain'd
Being first his prisoner, now confedered,
A man the king much fear'd, and well he might
Lest he should look whether his crown stood right.
90
41For Richard, for the quiet of the state,
Before he took those Irish wars in hand
About succession doth deliberate,
And finding how the certain right did stand,
With full consent this man did ordinate.
The heir apparent in the Crown and land:
Then judge if this the king might nearly touch,
Although his might were small, his right being much.
91
49With these the Percies them confederate
And as three heads they league in one intent,
And instituting a Triumvirate
Do part the land in triple government:
Dividing thus among themselves the state,
The Percies should rule all the North from Trent
And Glendower Wales, the Earl of March should be
Lord of the South from Trent; and thus they [a]gree.
92
57Then those two helps which still such actors find,
Pretense of common good, the king's disgrace,
Doth fit their course, and draw the vulgar mind
To further them and aid them in this case:
The king they accus'd for cruel, and unkind
That did the state, and crown, and all deface;
A perjured man that held all faith in scorn,
Whose trusted oaths had others made forsworn.
93
65Besides the odious detestable act
Of that late murdered king they aggravate,
Making it his that so had will'd the fact
That he the doers did remunerate:
And then such taxes daily doth exact
That were against the orders of the state,
And with all these or worse they him assail'd
Who late of others with the like prevail'd.
94
73Thus doth contentious proud mortality
Afflict each other and itself torment:
And thus, O thou mind-tort[u]ring misery
Restless ambition, born in discontent,
Turn'st and retossest with iniquity
The unconstant courses frailty did invent:
And foul'st fair order and defil'st the earth
Fost[e]ring up war, father of blood and dearth.
95
81Great seem'd the cause, and greatly to, did add
The people's love thereto, these crimes rehears'd,
That many gathered to the troops they had
And many more do flock from coasts dispers'd:
But when the king had heard these news so bad,
Th'unlooked-for dangerous toil more nearly pers'd;
For bent t[o]wards Wales t'appease those tumults there,
H[e] is forc'd divert his course, and them forbear.
96
89Not to give time unto th'increasing rage
And gathering fury, forth he hastes with speed,
Lest more delay or giving longer age
To th'evil grown, it might the cure exceed:
All his best men at arms, and leaders sage
All he prepar'd he could, and all did need;
For to a mighty work thou goest, O king,
To such a field that power to power shall bring.
97
97There shall young Hotspur with a fury led
Meet with thy forward son as fierce as he:
There warlike Worcester, long experienced
In foreign arms, shall come t'encounter thee:
There Douglas to thy Stafford shall make head:
There Vernon for thy valiant Blunt shall be:
There shalt thou find a doubtful bloody day,
Though sickness keep Northumberland away.
98
105Who yet reserv'd, though after quit for this,
Another tempest on thy head to raise,
As if still wrong revenging Nemesis
Did mean t'afflict all thy continual days:
And yet this field he happily might miss
For thy great good, and therefore well he stays:
What might his force have done being join'd thereto
When that already gave so much to do?
99
113The swift approach and unexpected speed
The king had made upon this new-raised force
In th'unconfirmed troops much fear did breed,
Untimely hindring their intendeded course;
The joining with the Welsh they had decreed
Was hereby stopp'd, which made their part the worse,
Northumberland, with forces from the North
Expected to be there, was not set forth.
100
121And yet undaunted Hotspur seeing the king
So near approach'd, leaving the work in hand,
With forward speed his forces marshaling,
Sets forth his farther coming to withstand:
And with a cheerful voice encouraging
By his great spirit his well-emboldened band,
Brings a strong host of firm-resolved might
And plac'd his troops before the king in sight.
101
129"This day" (saith he), "O faithful valiant friends,
Whatever it doth give, shall glory give:
This day with honor frees our state, or ends
Our misery with fame, that still shall live.
And do but think how well this day he spends
That spends his blood his country to relieve:
Our holy cause, our freedom, and our right,
Sufficient are to move good minds to fight.
102
137Besides th'assured hope of victory
That we may even promise on our side
Against this weak-constrained company,
Whom force and fear, not will, and love, doth guide
Against a prince whose foul impiety
The heavens do hate, the earth cannot abide,
Our number being no less, our courage more,
What need we doubt if we but work therefore?"
103
145This said, and thus resolv'd, even bent to charge
Upon the king, who well their order view'd
And careful noted all the form at large
Of their proceeding, and their multitude:
And deeming better if he could discharge
The day with safety, and some peace conclude,
Great proffers sends of pardon, and of grace
If they would yield, and quietness embrace.
104
153But this refus'd, the king, with wrath incens'd,
Rage against fury doth with speed prepare:
And "O," saith he, "though I could have dispens'd
With this day's blood, which I have sought to spare
That greater glory might have recompens'd
The forward worth of these that so much dare,
That we might honor had by th'overthrown
That th'wounds we make, might not have been our own.
105
161"Yet since that other men's iniquity
Calls on the sword of wrath against my will,
And that themselves exact this cruelty,
And I constrained am this blood to spill:
Then on, my masters, on courageously,
True-hearted subjects against traitors ill,
And spare not them who seek to spoil us all,
Whose foul confused end soon see you shall."
106
169Straight moves with equal motion equal rage
The like incensed armies unto blood,
One to defend, another side to wage
Foul civil war. Both vows their quarrel good:
Ah, too much heat to blood doth now enrage
Both who the deed provokes and who withstood,
That valor here is vice, here manhood sin,
The forward'st hands doth, O, least honor win.
107
177But now begin these fury-moving sounds
The notes of wrath that music brought from hell,
The rattling drums which trumpets' voice confounds,
The cries, th'encouragements, the shouting shrill;
That all about the beaten air rebounds,
Thundring confused, murmurs horrible,
To rob all sense except the sense to fight,
Well hands may work, the mind hath lost his sight.
108
185O war! begot in pride and luxury,
The child of wrath and of dissension,
Horrible good; mischief necessary,
The foul reformer of confusion,
Unjust-just scourge of our iniquity,
Cruel recurer of corruption:
O, that these sin-sick states in need should stand
To be let blood with such a boisterous hand!
109
193And O, how well thou hadst been spar'd this day
Had not wrong-counsel'd Percy been perverse,
Whose young undanger'd hand now rash makes way
Upon the sharpest fronts of the most fierce:
Where now an equal fury thrusts to stay
And rebeat-back that force and his disperse,
Then these assail, then those chase back again,
Till stayed with new-made hills of bodies slain.
110
201There lo that new-appearing glorious star
Wonder of Arms, the terror of the field
Young Henry, laboring where the stoutest are
And even the stoutest forces back to yield,
There in that hand, boldened to blood and war,
That must the sword in wondrous actions wield:
But better hadst thou learn'd with others' blood
A less expense to us, to thee more good.
111
209Hadst thou not there lent present speedy aid
To thy endanger'd father nearly tired,
Whom fierce encountering Douglas overlaid,
That day had there his troublous life expired:
Heroical Courageous Blunt arrayed
In habit like as was the king attir'd
And deem'd for him, excus'd that fate with his,
For he had what his Lord did hardly miss.
112
217For thought a king he would not now disgrace
The person then suppos'd, but princelike shows
Glorious effects of worth that fit his place,
And fighting dies, and dying overthrows:
Another of that forward name and race
In that hot work his valiant life bestows,
Who bare the standard of the King that day,
Whose colors overthrown did much dismay.
113
225And dear it cost, and O, much blood is shed
To purchase thee this losing victory
O travail'd king: yet hast thou conquered
A doubtful day, a mighty enemy:
But O, what wounds, what famous worth lies dead!
That makes the winner look with sorrowing eye,
Magnanimous Stafford lost that much had wrought,
And valiant Shirley who great glory got.
114
233Such wrack of others' blood thou didst behold
O furious Hotspur, ere thou lost thine own!
Which now, once lost, that heat in thine wax'd cold,
And soon became thy Army overthrown;
And O, that this great spirit, this courage bold,
Had in some good cause been rightly shown!
So had not we thus violently then
Have term'd that rage, which valor should have been.
115
241But now the King retires him to his peace,
A peace much like a feeble sickman's sleep,
(Wherein his waking pains do never cease
Though seeming rest his closed eyes doth keep)
For O, no peace could ever so release
His intricate turmoils, and sorrows deep,
But that his cares kept waking all his life
Continue on till death conclude the strife.