List iconHenry IV, Part 1:
Act 4, scene 3List icon

Henry IV, Part 1
Act 4, scene 3

Synopsis:

Contents

Characters in the Play

Entire Play

Henry IV, Part 1, culminates in the battle of Shrewsbury between the king’s army and rebels seeking his crown. The…

Act 1, scene 1

King Henry meets with his advisers to discuss his proposed crusade to the Holy Land, but the discussion turns instead…

Act 1, scene 2

Prince Hal and Sir John Falstaff taunt each other, Hal warning Falstaff that he will one day be hanged as…

Act 1, scene 3

King Henry meets with Hotspur, Hotspur’s father (Northumberland), and his uncle (Worcester) to demand that Hotspur yield his prisoners to…

Act 2, scene 1

Gadshill, the “setter” for Falstaff and his fellow thieves, seeks information at an inn about the travelers whom they plan…

Act 2, scene 2

Falstaff, Peto, Bardolph, and Gadshill rob the travelers and are, in turn, robbed by Prince Hal and Poins in disguise.

Act 2, scene 3

Hotspur reads a letter from a nobleman who refuses to join the rebellion against King Henry. Lady Percy enters to…

Act 2, scene 4

At a tavern in Eastcheap, Prince Hal and Poins amuse themselves by tormenting a young waiter while waiting for Falstaff…

Act 3, scene 1

Hotspur, Worcester, Mortimer, and the leader of the Welsh rebels, Glendower, meet in Wales to make final the terms of…

Act 3, scene 2

Prince Hal reconciles himself with his father by swearing to fight the rebels and to defeat Hotspur.

Act 3, scene 3

Falstaff tries to swindle the Hostess of the inn. Prince Hal offers Falstaff a command in the infantry.

Act 4, scene 1

Hotspur, Worcester, and Douglas learn that Hotspur’s father, Northumberland, is too sick to join them in the coming battle. They…

Act 4, scene 2

Falstaff discloses to the audience how he has misused his commission as an officer to take money from men eager…

Act 4, scene 3

As Hotspur argues with his fellow commanders about when to fight, they are visited by Sir Walter Blunt, who brings…

Act 4, scene 4

The archbishop of York and Sir Michael, who sympathize with Hotspur, debate the chances of his success against the king’s…

Act 5, scene 1

Worcester and Vernon visit the king’s camp, where Worcester repeats the grievances that he says have led to the rebellion….

Act 5, scene 2

Worcester lies to Hotspur, telling him that the king made no offer of pardon and is ready to begin the…

Act 5, scene 3

The battle begins. Douglas kills Blunt, who is disguised as King Henry. Falstaff enters alone to disclose to the audience…

Act 5, scene 4

Prince Hal saves King Henry from death at the hands of Douglas. Hal then meets Hotspur. While they are fighting,…

Act 5, scene 5

The king’s forces having won, King Henry condemns Worcester and Vernon to death, and the king and his supporters prepare…
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⌜Scene 3⌝
Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Douglas, ⌜and⌝ Vernon.

HOTSPUR 
 We’ll fight with him tonight.
WORCESTER  It may not be.
DOUGLAS 
 You give him then advantage.
VERNON  Not a whit.
HOTSPUR 
5 Why say you so? Looks he not for supply?
VERNON So do we.
HOTSPUR His is certain; ours is doubtful.
WORCESTER 
 Good cousin, be advised. Stir not tonight.
VERNON , ⌜to Hotspur⌝ 
 Do not, my lord.
DOUGLAS 10 You do not counsel well.
 You speak it out of fear and cold heart.
VERNON 
 Do me no slander, Douglas. By my life
 (And I dare well maintain it with my life),
 If well-respected honor bid me on,
15 I hold as little counsel with weak fear
 As you, my lord, or any Scot that this day lives.
 Let it be seen tomorrow in the battle
 Which of us fears.
DOUGLAS Yea, or tonight.
VERNON 20Content.
HOTSPUR Tonight, say I.
VERNON 
 Come, come, it may not be. I wonder much,
 Being men of such great leading as you are,
 That you foresee not what impediments
25 Drag back our expedition. Certain horse
 Of my cousin Vernon’s are not yet come up.
175
Henry IV, Part I
ACT 4. SC. 3

 Your uncle Worcester’s ⌜horse⌝ came but today,
 And now their pride and mettle is asleep,
 Their courage with hard labor tame and dull,
30 That not a horse is half the half of himself.
HOTSPUR 
 So are the horses of the enemy
 In general journey-bated and brought low.
 The better part of ours are full of rest.
WORCESTER 
 The number of the King exceedeth ⌜ours.⌝
35 For God’s sake, cousin, stay till all come in.
The trumpet sounds a parley.

Enter Sir Walter Blunt.

BLUNT 
 I come with gracious offers from the King,
 If you vouchsafe me hearing and respect.
HOTSPUR 
 Welcome, Sir Walter Blunt, and would to God
 You were of our determination.
40 Some of us love you well, and even those some
 Envy your great deservings and good name
 Because you are not of our quality
 But stand against us like an enemy.
BLUNT 
 And God defend but still I should stand so,
45 So long as out of limit and true rule
 You stand against anointed majesty.
 But to my charge. The King hath sent to know
 The nature of your griefs, and whereupon
 You conjure from the breast of civil peace
50 Such bold hostility, teaching his duteous land
 Audacious cruelty. If that the King
 Have any way your good deserts forgot,
 Which he confesseth to be manifold,
 He bids you name your griefs, and with all speed
177
Henry IV, Part I
ACT 4. SC. 3

55 You shall have your desires with interest
 And pardon absolute for yourself and these
 Herein misled by your suggestion.
HOTSPUR 
 The King is kind, and well we know the King
 Knows at what time to promise, when to pay.
60 My father and my uncle and myself
 Did give him that same royalty he wears,
 And when he was not six-and-twenty strong,
 Sick in the world’s regard, wretched and low,
 A poor unminded outlaw sneaking home,
65 My father gave him welcome to the shore;
 And when he heard him swear and vow to God
 He came but to be Duke of Lancaster,
 To sue his livery, and beg his peace
 With tears of innocency and terms of zeal,
70 My father, in kind heart and pity moved,
 Swore him assistance and performed it too.
 Now when the lords and barons of the realm
 Perceived Northumberland did lean to him,
 The more and less came in with cap and knee,
75 Met him in boroughs, cities, villages,
 Attended him on bridges, stood in lanes,
 Laid gifts before him, proffered him their oaths,
 Gave him their heirs as pages, followed him
 Even at the heels in golden multitudes.
80 He presently, as greatness knows itself,
 Steps me a little higher than his vow
 Made to my father while his blood was poor
 Upon the naked shore at Ravenspurgh,
 And now forsooth takes on him to reform
85 Some certain edicts and some strait decrees
 That lie too heavy on the commonwealth,
 Cries out upon abuses, seems to weep
 Over his ⌜country’s⌝ wrongs, and by this face,
 This seeming brow of justice, did he win
90 The hearts of all that he did angle for,
179
Henry IV, Part I
ACT 4. SC. 3

 Proceeded further—cut me off the heads
 Of all the favorites that the absent king
 In deputation left behind him here
 When he was personal in the Irish war.
BLUNT 
95 Tut, I came not to hear this.
HOTSPUR  Then to the point.
 In short time after, he deposed the King,
 Soon after that deprived him of his life
 And, in the neck of that, tasked the whole state.
100 To make that worse, suffered his kinsman March
 (Who is, if every owner were well placed,
 Indeed his king) to be engaged in Wales,
 There without ransom to lie forfeited,
 Disgraced me in my happy victories,
105 Sought to entrap me by intelligence,
 Rated mine uncle from the council board,
 In rage dismissed my father from the court,
 Broke oath on oath, committed wrong on wrong,
 And in conclusion drove us to seek out
110 This head of safety, and withal to pry
 Into his title, the which we find
 Too indirect for long continuance.
BLUNT 
 Shall I return this answer to the King?
HOTSPUR 
 Not so, Sir Walter. We’ll withdraw awhile.
115 Go to the King, and let there be impawned
 Some surety for a safe return again,
 And in the morning early shall mine uncle
 Bring him our purposes. And so farewell.
BLUNT 
 I would you would accept of grace and love.
HOTSPUR 
120 And maybe so we shall.
BLUNT  Pray God you do.
⌜They exit.⌝



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