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HENRY IV 1
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
1 Henry IV
2 The Apprenticeship of Good Prince Hal
3 Act One, Scene 1. London. The palace.
4
5 A solemn Gregorian chant. KING HENRY prays, attended by his good son John, Sir Walter
6 Blunt, and others. Warwick crosses to the king.
7
8 KING HENRY : Ah, yes, my lord Chief Justice Warwick.
9 So shaken as we are, so wan with care,
10 Find we a time for frighted peace to pant,
11 Than breathe short-winded accents of new broils
12 To be commenced in strands afar remote
13 Against the irregular and wild Glendower.
14 A thousand of our people butcherèd!
15
16 WARWICK: And more uneven and unwelcome news
17 Comes from the north. The gallant Hotspur there –
18 Young Harry Percy – met the rebel Douglas
19 Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour,
20 Uncertain of the outcome either way.
21
22 SIR WALTER BLUNT: The Earl of Douglas is discomfited!
23
24 KING HENRY: (an introduction) Here is a dear, a true industrious friend,
25 Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse.
26 And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news:
27 Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights,
28 Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see
29 On Holmedon's plains.
30
31 SIR WALTER BLUNT: Of prisoners, Hotspur took
32 Mordake the Earl of Fife and eldest son / To beaten Douglas …
33
34 KING HENRY: …and the Earl of Athol,
35 Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith!
36 And is not this an honorable spoil?
37 A gallant prize? ha, cousin, is it not?
38
39 WARWICK: In faith. It is a conquest for a prince to boast of.
40
41 KING Yea, there thou makest me sad and makest me sin
42 In envy that my Lord Northumberland
43 Should be the father to so blest a son,
HENRY IV 2
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
44 Whilst I, by looking on the praise of him,
45 See riot and dishonor stain the brow
46 Of my young Harry. O that it could be proved
47 That some night-tripping fairy had exchanged
48 In cradle-clothes our children where they lay:
49 Then would I have his Harry, and he mine.
50 Can no one tell me of my unthrify son?
51 ‗Tis full three months since I have seen him last.
52 (Uncomfortable pause)
53 Inquire in London, ‗mongst the taverns there.
54 For there they say he daily doth frequent
55 With unrestrainèd loose companions.
56 But let him from my thoughts.
57 Cousin, on Wednesday next our council we
58 Will hold at Windsor; so inform the lords:
59
60 WARWICK: I will, my liege.
61
62 (The King exits. Warwick remains with the jailhouse keys.)
63
64
65
HENRY IV 3
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
1 Act One, Scene 2. London.
2
3 Prince Hal rises when Warwick unlocks the jailhouse door
4
5 PRINCE HAL: You are assured, I think, I love you not.
6 What! rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison
7 Th‘immediate heir of England?
8
9 WARWICK: Was this easy? (He exits)
10
11 FALSTAFF: (snorts awake with Hal‘s rough shove) Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?
12
13 PRINCE HAL: (He‘d like to blame this mess on Sir John) Thou art so fat-witted, with
14 drinking of old sack and unbuttoning thee after supper and sleeping upon benches after noon,
15 that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know.
16
17 FALSTAFF: What time of day?
18
19 PRINCE HAL: What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the day? Unless hours were
20 cups of sack and minutes capons and clocks the tongues of bawds and dials the signs of
21 leaping-houses and the blessed sun himself a fair hot wench in flame-coloured taffeta, I see no
22 reason why thou shouldst be so superfluous to demand the time of the day.
23
24 He leaves the cell. It‘s nighttime as they head toward the Boarshead Inn.
25
26 FALSTAFF: Indeed, you come near me now, Hal; for we that take purses go by the moon
27 and the seven stars, and not by Phoebus, he,'that wandering knight so fair.' And, I prithee,
28 sweet wag, when thou art king, as, God save thy grace,--majesty I should say, for grace thou
29 wilt have none--
30
31 PRINCE HAL: What, none?
32
33 FALSTAFF: No, by my troth, not so much as will serve to be prologue to an egg and butter.
34
35 PRINCE HAL: Well, how then? come, roundly, roundly.
36
37 FALSTAFF (slying making Hal complicit in criminal mischief)
38 Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not us that are squires of the night's
39 body be called thieves of the day's beauty. Let us be Diana's foresters, gentlemen of the
40 shade, minions of the moon; and let men say we be men of good government, being governed,
41 as the sea is, by our noble and chaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance we steal.
42
43 PRINCE HAL: Thou sayest well, and it holds well too; for the fortune of us that are the
44 moon's men doth ebb and flow like the sea, being governed, as the sea is, by the moon … now
45 in as low an ebb as the foot of the ladder and by and by in as high a flow (sudden edge:) … as
46 the ridge of the gallows.
47
48 FALSTAFF By the Lord, thou sayest true, lad…
HENRY IV 4
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
49 They‘re in the Tavern now, and HOSTESS, having poured them a drink, has her hand
50 out for payment) …and is not my hostess of the tavern a most sweet wench?
51
52 PRINCE HAL As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle. And is not a buff jerkin a
53 most sweet robe of durance?
54
55 FALSTAFF: How now, how now, mad wag! what, in thy quips and thy quiddities? what a
56 plague have I to do with a buff jerkin?
57
58 PRINCE HAL: Why, what a pox have I to do with my hostess of the tavern?
59
60 FALSTAFF: Well, thou hast called her to a reckoning many a time and oft.
61
62 PRINCE HAL: Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part?
63
64 FALSTAFF: No; I'll give thee thy due, thou hast paid all there.
65
66 PRINCE HAL Yea, and elsewhere, so far as my coin would stretch; and where it would not,
67 I have used my credit.
68
69 FALSTAFF: Yea, and so used it that were it not here apparent that thou art heir apparent--
70 But, I prithee, sweet wag, shall there be gallows standing in England when thou art king? Do
71 not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief.
72
73 PRINCE HAL: No. Thou shalt.
74
75 FALSTAFF: Shall I? O rare! By the Lord, I'll be a brave judge.
76
77 PRINCE HAL: Thou judgest false already: I mean, thou shalt have the hanging.
78
79 FALSTAFF: Thou hast the most unsavory similes. But, Hal, I prithee, trouble me no more
80 with vanity. Thou hast damnable allegations, and art indeed able to corrupt a saint.
81
82 PRINCE HAL: Wha…?
83
84 FALSTAFF: Thou hast done much harm upon me, Hal; God forgive thee for it!
85
86 PRINCE HAL: I!
87
88 FALSTAFF: Before I knew thee, Hal, I knew nothing; and now am I, if a man should speak
89 truly, little better than one of the wicked. I must give over this life, and I will give it over: by
90 the Lord, if I do not, I am a villain.
91
92 PRINCE HAL (beat)… Where shall we take a purse tomorrow, Jack?
93
94 FALSTAFF: 'Zounds, where thou wilt, lad. I'll make one; an I do not, call me villain and
95 baffle me.
96
97 PRINCE HAL: I see a good amendment of life in thee; from praying to purse-taking.
HENRY IV 5
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
98
99 FALSTAFF: Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal; 'tis no sin for a man to labor in his vocation.
100
101 • Enter POINS There is some occasionally prickly tension between Poins and Sir Jack, as
102 they both compete for Hal‘s favor.
103
104 POINS: What says Monsieur Remorse?
105
106 PRINCE HAL: Good morrow, Ned.
107
108 POINS: Good morrow, sweet Hal. (to FALSTAFF) Jack! How agrees the devil and thee
109 about thy soul?
110
111 FALSTAFF: (to HENRY) This is the most omnipotent devil that ever cried 'Stand' to a true
112 man.
113
114 POINS: Then art thou damned for keeping thy word with the devil.
115
116 FALSTAFF: Else thou had been damned for cheating the devil!
117
118 PRINCE HAL: Sir John stands to his word … he will give the devil his due.
119
120 POINS : Haha! But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning, by four o'clock, early at
121 Gadshill! there are pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders riding to
122 London with fat purses: I have vizards for you all; you have horses for yourselves: If you will
123 go, I will stuff your purses full of crowns; if you will not, tarry at home and be hanged.
124
125 FALSTAFF: Hear ye, Ned; if I tarry at home and go not, I'll hang you for going.
126
127 POINS: You will, chops?
128
129 FALSTAFF: Hal …? (Hal grows uneasy as Jack awaits.)… wilt thou make one?
130
131 PRINCE HAL: Who, I rob? I a thief? not I, by my faith.
132
133 FALSTAFF: (a gentle counselor) There's neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in
134 thee, nor thou camest not of the blood royal, if thou darest not stand for ten shillings.
135
136 PRINCE HAL: Well then, once in my days I'll be a madcap.
137
138 FALSTAFF: Why, that's well said. .
139
140 PRINCE HAL: Well, come what will. . .
141 (But he changes his mind as Jack heads for the bar)
142 I'll tarry at home.
143
144 FALSTAFF: (Halts in his tracks.) By the Lord, I'll be a traitor then, when thou art king.
145
146 PRINCE HAL: I care not.
HENRY IV 6
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
147
148 POINS: Sir John, I prithee, leave the prince and me alone: I will lay him down such reasons
149 for this adventure that he shall go.
150
151 FALSTAFF: Well, God give thee the spirit of persuasion and him the ears of profiting.
152 Farewell.
153
154 •Exit Falstaff
155
156 POINS Now, my good sweet honey lord, (embrace, then:) ride with us tomorrow. I have a
157 jest to execute that I cannot manage alone. Falstaff, Pistol, Nym and Bardolph shall rob those
158 men that we have already waylaid: yourself and I will not be there; and when they have the
159 booty, if you and I do not rob them, cut this head off from my shoulders.
160
161 PRINCE HAL (considers the idea) But 'tis like that they will know us by our horses, by our
162 habits and by every other appointment, to be ourselves.
163
164 POINS: Tut! our horses they shall not see: I'll tie them in the wood; our vizards we will
165 change after we leave them.
166
167 PRINCE HAL: Yea, but I doubt they will be too hard for us.
168
169 (Hal and Poins look at one another and laugh)
170
171 POINS: Well, for two of them, I know them to be as true-bred cowards as ever turned back;
172 and for the third, if he fight longer than he sees reason, I'll forswear arms.
173
174 PRINCE HAL: (beat) Hm.
175
176 POINS: The virtue of this jest will be, the incomprehensible lies that this same fat rogue will
177 tell us when we meet at supper: how thirty, at least, he fought with; what wards, what blows,
178 what extremities he endured; and in the reproof of this lies the jest.
179
180 PRINCE HAL: Well, I'll go with thee: provide us all things necessary and meet me here
181 tomorrow night. Farewell.
182
183 POINS: Farewell, my lord.
184
185 (POINS moves to exi…
186
187 PRINCE HAL
188 I know you all, and will awhile uphold
189 The unyoked humour of your idleness.
190
191 …but Hal‘s speech – typically a monologue to the audience – arrests him.)
192
193 Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
194 Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
195 To smother up his beauty from the world,
HENRY IV 7
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
196 That, when he please again to be himself,
197 Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at.
198
199 POINS: (tactfully) …By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
200 Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.
201
202 PRINCE HAL: Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins?
203
204 POINS: Yea, faith, and let it be an excellent good thing.
205
206 PRINCE HAL: It shall serve among wits of no higher breeding than thine.
207
208 POINS: (stung) Go to, I stand the push of your one thing that you will tell.
209
210 PRINCE HAL: (with an appreciative laugh) If all the year were playing holidays,
211 To sport would be as tedious as to work!
212 But when they seldom come, they wish'd for come,
213 And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
214 So, when this loose behavior I throw off
215 And pay the debt I never promised,
216 By how much better than my word I am,
217 By so much shall I falsify men's hopes;
218 And like bright metal on a sullen ground,
219 My reformation, glittering o'er my fault,
220 Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes
221 Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
222 I'll so offend, to make offence a skill;
223 Redeeming time when men think least I will.
224
HENRY IV 8
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
1 Act One, Scene 3. London. The palace.
2
3 King Henry enters with Warwick aloft; Worcester, Northumberland & Hotspur below.
4
5 WARWICK: (presenting) My lords of Worcester and Northumberland.
6
7 KING HENRY: And his most valiant son. (to Warwick) What think you, coz,
8 Of this young Percy's pride? the prisoners,
9 To his own use he keeps; and sends me word,
10 I shall have none but Mordake, Earl of Fife.
11
12 WARWICK: Malevolent to you in all respects.
13
14 WORCESTER: Our house, my sovereign liege, little deserves
15 The scourge of greatness to be used on it…
16
17 KING HENRY: Worcester, get thee gone, for I do see
18 Danger and disobedience in your eye.
19
20 NORTHUMBERLAND: My lord.—
21
22 KING HENRY (To Worcester)
23 You have good leave to leave us: when we need
24 Your use and counsel, we shall send for you.
25 •Exit Worcester
26 You were about to speak.
27
28 NORTHUMBERLAND : Yea, my good lord.
29 Those prisoners in your highness' name demanded,
30 Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took,
31 Were, as he says, not with such strength denied
32 As is deliver'd to your majesty:
33 Either envy, therefore, or misprision
34 Is guilty of this fault and not my son.
35
36 HOTSPUR : (with charming self-confidence) My liege, I did deny no prisoners.
37 But I remember, when the fight was done,
38 When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,
39 Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
40 Came there a certain lord, neat, and trimly dress'd,
41 He was perfumed like a milliner;
42 And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held
43 A pouncet-box, which ever and anon
44 He gave his nose and took't away again;
45 And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
46 He call'd them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
47 To bring a slovenly unhandsome corpse
48 Betwixt the wind and his nobility.
49 With many holiday and lady terms
HENRY IV 9
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
50 He question'd me; amongst the rest, demanded
51 My prisoners in your majesty's behalf.
52 I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold,
53 To be so pester'd with a popinjay,
54 Answer'd neglectingly I know not what,
55 He should or he should not; for he made me mad
56 To see him shine so brisk and smell so sweet
57 And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman
58 Of guns and drums and wounds,--God save the mark!—
59 And I beseech you, let not his report
60 Come current for an accusation
61 Betwixt my love and your high majesty.
62
63 WARWICK: The circumstance consider‘d, good my lord,
64 Whate‘er Lord Harry Percy then had said
65 May reasonably die … so he unsay it now.
66
67 KING HENRY IV: Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners,
68 But with proviso and exception,
69 That we at our own charge shall ransom straight
70 His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer.
71 No, on the barren mountains let him starve;
72 For I shall never hold that man my friend
73 Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost
74 To ransom home revolted Mortimer.
75
76 HOTSPUR: Revolted Mortimer!
77 He never did fall off, my sovereign liege;
78 Then let not him be slander'd with revolt.
79
80 KING HENRY IV: You tread upon my patience! But be sure:
81 Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou dost belie him;
82 Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer:
83 Send me your prisoners with the speediest means,
84 Or you shall hear in such a kind from me
85 As will displease you. My Lord Northumberland,
86 We license your departure (significantly…) with your son.
87 (to Hotspur) Send us your prisoners, or you will hear of it.
88
89 • Exeunt King Henry, Warwick, and train.
90
91 HOTSPUR: An if the devil come and roar for them,
92 I will not send them: I will after straight
93 And tell him so …
94
95 NORTHUMBERLAND: (as Worcester re-enters)
96 What, drunk with choler? Stay and pause awhile:
97 Here comes your uncle.
98
99 HOTSPUR: “Speak of Mortimer!‖
100 'Zounds, I will speak of him; and let my soul
HENRY IV 10
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
101 Want mercy, if I do not join with him!
102
103 NORTHUMBERLAND: Brother, the king hath made your nephew mad.
104
105 EARL OF WORCESTER: Who struck this heat up after I was gone?
106
107 HOTSPUR: He will, forsooth, have all my prisoners!
108 And on my face he turn‘d an eye of death
109 Trembling even at the name of Mortimer.
110
111 EARL OF WORCESTER: I cannot blame him: was not he proclaim'd
112 By Richard, that dead is, the next of blood?
113
114 HOTSPUR: O, pardon me that I descend so low,
115 To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose,
116 And plant this thorn, this canker, King Henry!
117
118 EARL OF WORCESTER: Peace, cousin, say no more:
119
120 NORTHUMBERLAND (explaining Hotspur‘s rudeness to Worcester)
121 Imagination of some great exploit
122 Drives him beyond the bounds of patience.
123
124 HOTSPUR: By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap..!
125
126 NORTHUMBERLAND: Good cousin, give me audience for awhile…!
127
128 HOTSPUR: (with effort) I cry you mercy, Uncle, I have done.
129
130 WORCESTER: Nay, if you have not, to it again,
131 We‘ll stay your leisure…
132
133 HOTSPUR: I have done, i‘faith.
134
135 EARL OF WORCESTER Then, once more to your Scottish prisoners…
136
137 HOTSPUR (cuts him off) I'll keep them all!
138 By God, he shall not have a Scot of them;
139
140 EARL OF WORCESTER: My lord…
141
142 HOTSPUR: No, if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not:
143 I'll keep them, by this hand.
144
145 EARL OF WORCESTER: You start away
146 And lend no ear unto my purposes!
147 Those prisoners you shall keep!
148
149 HOTSPUR: Nay, I will; that's flat:
HENRY IV 11
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
150 He said he would not ransom Mortimer;
151 Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer;
152 But I will find him when he lies asleep,
153 And in his ear I'll holla 'Mortimer!'
154 Nay, I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak
155 Nothing but 'Mortimer,' and give it him
156 To keep his anger still in motion.
157
158 EARL OF WORCESTER: Hear you, cousin; a word.
159
160 HOTSPUR: O that vile politician, King Henry!
161 And that same sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales,
162 But that I think his father loves him not
163 And would be glad he met with some mischance,
164 I would have him poison'd with a pot of ale.
165
166 EARL OF WORCESTER: Farewell, kinsman: I'll talk to you
167 When you are better temper'd to attend.
168 •Exit Worcester
169
170 HOTSPUR: Good Uncle Worcester, I have done, i‘faith!
171
172 NORTHUMBERLAND: Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool!
173
174 (Scolding his son as they exeunt. Hal finishes off the ale, and we‘re into the next scene)
175
176
HENRY IV 12
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
1 Act One, Scene 4. The highway, near Gadshill.
2
3 POINS’ VOICE (off) Prince Hal! (entering) Come, shelter, shelter: I have removed
4 Falstaff's horse, and he frets like a gummed velvet.
5
6 PRINCE HAL: Stand close.
7
8 Enter FALSTAFF (as Hal hurries Poins offstage)
9
10 FALSTAFF Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Poins!
11
12 PRINCE HAL (Shhh! they‘re about to perform a robbery, after all)
13 Peace, ye fat-kidneyed rascal! what a brawling dost thou keep!
14
15 FALSTAFF Where's Poins, Hal?
16
17 PRINCE HAL: He is walked up to the top of the hill: I'll go seek him. (exits)
18
19 FALSTAFF: I am accursed to rob in that thief's company: the rascal hath removed my horse,
20 and tied him I know not where. (beat; to the audience) If I travel but four foot further afoot, I
21 shall break my wind. Yet I am bewitched with the rogue's company. If the rascal hath not given
22 me medicines to make me love him, I'll be hanged; it could not be else: I have drunk medicines.
23 (a noise within) Poins? Hal! A plague upon it when thieves cannot be true one to another!
24 (Hal re-enters)
25 Give me my horse, ye rogues, and be hanged!
26
27 PRINCE HAL: Peace, ye fat-guts! lie down; lay thine ear close to the ground and list if thou
28 canst hear the tread of travellers.
29
30 FALSTAFF: Have you any levers to lift me up again, being down? I prithee, good Prince
31 Hal, help me to my horse, good king's son.
32
33 PRINCE HAL: Out, ye rogue! shall I be your servant?
34
35 FALSTAFF: Go, hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent garters!
36
37 Enter BARDOLPH, soon to be followed by PISTOL and NYM. BARDOLPH has a knife in
38 Falstaff‘s back and at first we think he‘s really going to rob Falstaff.
39
40 BARDOLPH : Stand.
41
42 FALSTAFF : So I do, against my will.
43
44 PISTOL (enters) …On with your vizards: there 's money of the king's coming down the hill.
45 Enough to make us all.
46
47 FALSTAFF: To be hanged.
48
HENRY IV 13
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
49 PRINCE HAL: Sirs, you four shall front them in the narrow lane; Ned Poins and I will walk
50 lower: if they 'scape from your encounter, then they light on us.
51
52 FALSTAFF: How many be there of them?
53
54 PISTOL: Some eight or ten.
55
56 FALSTAFF: Zounds, will they not rob us?
57
58 POINS: Sirrah Jack, thy horse stands behind the hedge: when thou needest him, there thou
59 shalt find him. Farewell, and stand fast.
60
61 FALSTAFF: (to Hal) Now cannot I strike him (Poins), if I should be hanged?
62
63 The Prince indicates no. Falstaff releases Poins and moves apart.
64
65 PRINCE HAL: Ned, where are our disguises?
66
67 POINS: Here, hard by: stand close.
68
69 Exeunt PRINCE HAL and POINS
70
71 FALSTAFF: Now, my masters, every man to his business.
72
73 Enter the Travellers
74
75 FIRST TRAVELER: (entering) Come, neighbour: the boy shall lead our horses down the
76 hill; we'll walk afoot awhile, and ease our legs.
77
78 The scene should be comic but scary. These are real thieves.
79
80 THIEVES: Stand!
81
82 TRAVELERS: Jesus bless us!
83
84 FALSTAFF: Strike; down with them; cut the villains' throats: ah! whoreson caterpillars!
85 bacon-fed knaves! They hate us youth: down with them: fleece them.
86
87 TRAVELERS: O, we are undone, both we and ours for ever!
88
89 FALSTAFF: Hang ye, gorbellied knaves, are ye undone? No, ye fat chuffs: I would your
90 store were here! On, bacons, on! What, ye knaves! young men must live. You are Grand-
91 jurors, are ye? we'll jure ye, 'faith.
92
93 They rob them and bind them and lead them off.
94
95 PRINCE HAL: The thieves have bound the true men.
96
97 POINS: Stand close; I hear them coming.
HENRY IV 14
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
98
99 Enter the Thieves again
100
101 FALSTAFF: Come, my masters, let us share, and then to horse before day. If the Prince and
102 Poins be not two arrant cowards, there's no equity stirring: there's no more valour in that
103 Poins than in a wild-duck.
104
105 PRINCE HAL: Your money!
106
107 POINS: Villains!
108
109 Falstaff escapes but tosses the money to them in fear of his life.
110
111 PRINCE HAL: Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse: The thieves are all scatter'd and
112 possess'd with fear, So strongly that they dare not meet each other.
113
114 POINS: Each takes his fellow for an officer!
115
116 PRINCE HAL: Away, good Ned. Falstaff sweats to death,
117 And lards the lean earth as he walks along:
118 Were 't not for laughing, I should pity him.
119
120 (But there is a note of disappointment)
121
122 POINS: How the rogue roar'd!
123 Exeunt
HENRY IV 15
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
1 Act One, Scene 5. Warworth castle
2
3 Enter HOTSPUR, solus, reading a letter
4
5 HOTSPUR: 'But for mine own part, my lord, I could be well contented to be there, in
6 respect of the love I bear your house.' He could be contented: why is he not, then? In respect
7 of the love he bears our house: he shows in this, he loves his own barn better than he loves our
8 house. Let me see some more. 'The purpose you undertake is dangerous;'--why, that's certain:
9 'tis dangerous to take a cold, to sleep, to drink; but I tell you, my lord fool, out of this nettle,
10 danger, we pluck this flower, safety. 'The purpose you undertake is dangerous; the friends you
11 have named uncertain; the time itself unsorted; and your whole plot too light for the
12 counterpoise of so great an opposition.' Say you so, say you so? I say unto you again, you are
13 a shallow cowardly hind, and you lie. What a lack-brain is this! By the Lord, our plot is a
14 good plot as ever was laid; our friends true and constant: a good plot, good friends, and full of
15 expectation; an excellent plot, very good friends. What a frosty-spirited rogue is this! Why,
16 my lord of York commends the plot and the general course of action. 'Zounds, an I were now
17 by this rascal, I could brain him with his lady's fan. Is there not my father, my uncle and
18 myself? Lord Edmund Mortimer, My lord of York and Owen Glendower? is there not besides
19 the Douglas? have I not all their letters to meet me in arms by the ninth of the next month?
20 and are they not some of them set forward already? What a pagan rascal is this! An infidel!
21 Ha! you shall see now in very sincerity of fear and cold heart, will he to the king and lay open
22 all our proceedings. O, I could divide myself and go to buffets, for moving such a dish of
23 skim milk with so honorable an action! Hang him! let him tell the king: we are prepared. I
24 will set forward to-night.
25
26 Enter LADY PERCY
27
28 HOTSPUR: How now, Kate! (She kisses him on the mouth.) I must leave you within these
29 two hours.
30
31 LADY PERCY: (She ‗s not put off) O? My good lord, why are you thus alone?
32 For what offence have I this fortnight been
33 A banish'd woman from my Harry's bed?
34 Tell me, sweet lord, what is't that takes from thee
35 Thy stomach, pleasure and thy golden sleep?
36
37 HOTSPUR: Hmm?
38
39 LADY PERCY: Why hast thou lost the fresh blood in thy cheeks;
40 And given my treasures and my rights of thee
41 To thick-eyed musing and cursed melancholy?
42 In thy faint slumbers I by thee have watch'd,
43 And heard thee murmur tales of iron wars;
44 Of prisoners' ransom and of soldiers slain,
45 And all the currents of a heady fight.
46 Thy spirit within thee hath been so at war
47 That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow
48 Like bubbles in a late-disturbed stream;
49 And in thy face strange motions have appear'd,
HENRY IV 16
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
50 Such as we see when men restrain their breath
51 On some great sudden hest. O, what portents are these?
52 Some heavy business hath my lord in hand,
53 And I must know it, else he loves me not.
54
55 HOTSPUR: (to a passing servant) What, ho!
56 Is Gilliam with the packet gone?
57
58 SERVANT: He is, my lord, an hour ago.
59
60 HOTSPUR: Hath Butler brought those horses from the sheriff?
61
62 SERVANT: One horse, my lord, he brought even now.
63
64 HOTSPUR: What horse? a roan, a crop-ear, is it not?
65
66 SERVANT: It is, my lord.
67
68 HOTSPUR: That roan shall by my throne!
69 Bid Butler lead him forth into the park.
70
71 Exit Servant
72
73 LADY PERCY: But hear you, my lord.
74
75 HOTSPUR: What say'st thou, my lady?
76
77 LADY PERCY: What is it carries you away?
78
79 HOTSPUR: Why, my horse, my love, my horse.
80
81 LADY PERCY: Out, you mad-headed ape!
82 A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen
83 As you are toss'd with. In faith,
84 I'll know your business, Harry, that I will.
85 I fear my brother Mortimer doth stir
86 About his title, and hath sent for you
87 To line his enterprise: but if you go,--
88
89 HOTSPUR: So far afoot, I shall be weary, love.
90
91 LADY PERCY: Come, come, you paraquito, answer me
92 Directly unto this question that I ask:
93 In faith, I'll break thy little finger, Harry,
94 An if thou wilt not tell me all things true.
95
96 HOTSPUR: Away,
97 Away, you trifler! Love! I love thee not,
98 I care not for thee, Kate: this is no world
HENRY IV 17
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99 To play with mammets and to tilt with lips:
100 We must have bloody noses and crack'd crowns,
101 And pass them current too. God's me, my horse!
102 What say'st thou, Kate? what would'st thou have with me?
103
104 LADY PERCY: Do you not love me? do you not, indeed?
105 Well, do not then; for since you love me not,
106 I will not love myself. Do you not love me?
107 Nay, tell me if you speak in jest or no.
108
109 HOTSPUR: Come, wilt thou see me ride?
110 And when I am on horseback, I will swear
111 I love thee infinitely. But hark you, Kate;
112 I must not have you henceforth question me
113 Whither I go, nor reason whereabout:
114 Whither I must, I must; and, to conclude,
115 This evening must I leave you, gentle Kate.
116 I know you wise, but yet no farther wise
117 Than Harry Percy's wife: constant you are,
118 But yet a woman: and for secrecy,
119 No lady closer; for I well believe
120 Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know;
121 And so far will I trust thee, gentle Kate.
122
123 LADY PERCY: How! so far?
124
125 HOTSPUR: Not an inch further. But hark you, Kate:
126 Whither I go, thither shall you go too;
127 To-day will I set forth, to-morrow you.
128 Will this content you, Kate?
129
130 LADY PERCY: It must of force.
131
132 Exeunt
133
134
HENRY IV 18
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
1 Act One, Scene 6 The Boarshead Inn, Eastcheap
2
3 Enter PRINCE HAL
4
5 PRINCE HAL Ned, prithee, come out of that fat room, and lend me thy hand to laugh a little.
6
7 POINS Where hast been, Hal?
8
9 PRINCE HAL a mixture of bravado and self contempt: With three or four loggerheads
10 amongst three or four score hogsheads. Sirrah, I am sworn brother to a leash of barkeeps; and
11 can call them all by their christen names, as Tom, Dick, and Francis.
12
13 FRANCIS: Anon, sir.
14
15 PRINCE HAL: By the Lord, when I am king of England, I shall command all the good lads
16 in Eastcheap!
17
18 MISTRESS QUICKLY: (enters) My lord, shall I let them in?
19
20 PRINCE HAL Open the door.
21 [Exit Mistress Q]
22 Sirrah, Falstaff and the rest of the thieves are at the door: shall we be merry?
23
24 POINS As merry as crickets, my lad.
25
26 [Enter PISTO &, BARDOLPH; FRANCIS following with wine, with a flushed and superior-
27 feeling Falstaff]
28
29 PRINCE HAL: Welcome, Jack: where hast thou been?
30
31 FALSTAFF Give me a cup of sack, boy. A plague of all cowards! Give me a cup of sack,
32 rogue, is there no virtue extant?
33
34 [He drinks]
35
36 PRINCE HAL Didst thou never see Titan kiss a dish of butter? If thou didst, then behold
37 that compound.
38
39 FALSTAFF (Spits out his wine which has been cut with lime & water) You rogue, here's
40 lime in this sack too: (Francis relieves Jack of his wine)…there is nothing but roguery to be
41 found in villanous man (back to Hal)…yet a coward is worse than a cup of sack with lime in
42 it. There live not three good men unhanged in England; and one of them is fat and grows old.
43
44 PRINCE HAL How now, wool-sack! what mutter you?
45
46 FALSTAFF A king's son! You! ―Prince of Wales!‖ Are not you a coward? answer me to
47 that: and Poins there?
48
49 POINS 'Zounds, ye fat paunch, an ye call me coward, by the Lord, I'll stab thee.
HENRY IV 19
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
50
51 FALSTAFF I call thee coward? I'll see thee damned ere I call thee coward: but I would
52 give a thousand pound I could run as fast as thou canst. You are straight enough in the
53 shoulders, you care not who sees your back--call you that backing of your friends? A plague
54 upon such backing! give me them that will face me. Give me a cup of sack: I am a rogue, if I
55 drunk to-day.
56
57 PRINCE HAL O villain! thy lips are scarce wiped since thou drunkest last.
58
59 FALSTAFF A plague of all cowards, still say I.
60
61 PRINCE HAL What's the matter?
62
63 FALSTAFF What's the matter! there be four of us here have ta'en a thousand pound this day
64 morning.
65
66 PRINCE HAL: Where is it, Jack? where is it?
67
68 FALSTAFF: Where is it! taken from us it is: a hundred upon poor four of us.
69
70 PRINCE HAL: What, a hundred, man?
71
72 FALSTAFF: I am a rogue, if I were not at half-sword with a dozen of them two hours
73 together. I have 'scaped by miracle. I am eight times thrust through the doublet, four through
74 the hose; my buckler cut through and through; my sword hacked like a hand-saw! I never
75 dealt better since I was a man: Let them speak: if they speak more or less than truth, they are
76 villains and the sons of darkness.
77
78 PRINCE HAL: Speak, sirs; how was it?
79
80 PISTOL: We four set upon some dozen--
81
82 FALSTAFF: Sixteen at least, my lord. And bound them.
83
84 BARDOLPH: No, no, they were not bound.
85
86 FALSTAFF: You rogue, they were bound, every man of.
87
88 PISTOL: As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh men set upon us--
89
90 FALSTAFF: And unbound the rest, and then come in the other.
91
92 PRINCE HAL: What, fought you with them all?
93
94 FALSTAFF: All! I know not what you call all; but if I fought not with fifty of them, I am a
95 bunch of radish!
96
97 PRINCE HAL: Pray God you have not murdered some of them.
98
HENRY IV 20
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
99 FALSTAFF: Nay, that's past praying for: I have peppered two of them; two I am sure I have
100 paid, two rogues in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face, call
101 me horse. Four rogues in buckram let drive at me--
102
103 PRINCE HAL: What, four? thou saidst but two even now.
104
105 FALSTAFF: Four, Hal; I told thee four.
106
107 POINS: Ay, ay, he said four.
108
109 FALSTAFF: These four came all a-front, and mainly thrust at me. I made me no more ado
110 but took all their seven points in my target, thus.
111
112 PRINCE HAL: Seven? why, there were but four even now.
113
114 FALSTAFF: In buckram?
115
116 POINS: Ay, four, in buckram suits.
117
118 FALSTAFF: Seven, by these hilts, or I am a villain else.
119
120 PRINCE HAL: Prithee, let him alone; we shall have more anon.
121
122 FALSTAFF: Dost thou hear me, Hal?
123
124 PRINCE HAL: Ay, and mark thee too, Jack.
125
126 FALSTAFF: Do so, for it is worth the listening to. These nine in buckram that I told thee of--
127
128 PRINCE HAL: So, two more already.
129
130 FALSTAFF: Their points being broken, began to give me ground: but I followed me close,
131 came in foot and hand; and with a thought, seven of the eleven I paid.
132
133 PRINCE HAL: O monstrous! eleven buckram men grown out of two!
134
135 FALSTAFF: But, as the devil would have it, three misbegotten knaves in Kendal green came
136 at my back and let drive at me; for it was so dark, Hal, that thou couldst not see thy hand.
137
138 PRINCE HAL: These lies are like their father that begets them; gross as a mountain. Why,
139 thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson, obscene, grease tallow-catch,--
140
141 FALSTAFF: What, art thou mad? art thou mad? is not the truth the truth?
142
143 PRINCE HAL: Why, how couldst thou know these men in Kendal green, when it was so
144 dark thou couldst not see thy hand? come, tell us your reason: what sayest thou to this?
145
146 POINS: Come, your reason, Jack, your reason.
147
HENRY IV 21
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
148 FALSTAFF: What, upon compulsion? Give you a reason on compulsion! If reasons were as
149 plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I.
150
151 PRINCE HAL I'll be no longer guilty of this sin; this sanguine coward, this bed-presser, this
152 horseback-breaker, this huge hill of flesh,--
153
154 FALSTAFF: (overlapping) 'Sblood, you starveling, you elf-skin, you dried neat's tongue,
155 you bull's pizzle, you stock-fish! O for breath to utter what is like thee! You tailor's-yard, you
156 sheath, you bowcase; you vile standing-tuck,--
157
158 PRINCE HAL: Well, breathe awhile, and then to it again: and when thou hast tired thyself in
159 base comparisons, hear me speak but this.
160
161 POINS: Mark, Jack.
162
163 PRINCE HAL: We two saw you four set on four and bind them, and were masters of their
164 wealth. Mark now, how a plain tale shall put you down. Then did we two set on you four;
165 and, with a word, out-faced you from your prize, and have it; yea, and can show it you here in
166 the house: and, Falstaff, you carried your guts away as nimbly, with as quick dexterity, and
167 roared for mercy as ever I heard bull-calf. What a slave art thou, to hack thy sword as thou
168 hast done, and then say it was in fight! What trick, what device, what starting-hole, canst thou
169 now find out to hide thee from this open and apparent shame?
170
171 POINS: Come, let's hear, Jack; what trick hast thou now?
172
173 FALSTAFF: By the Lord, I knew ye as well as he that made ye. (shouts down the scoffers)
174 Why, hear you, my masters: was it for me to kill the heir-apparent? should I turn upon the true
175 prince? why, thou knowest I am as valiant as Hercules…but beware instinct; the lion will not
176 touch the true prince. Instinct is a great matter; I was now a coward on instinct. But, by the
177 Lord, lads, I am glad you have the money. Hostess, clap to the doors: watch to-night, pray to-
178 morrow. Gallants, lads, boys, hearts of gold, what, shall we be merry? shall we have a play
179 extempore?
180
181 PRINCE HAL: Content; and the argument shall be thy running away.
182
183 FALSTAFF: sternly. Ah, no more of that, Hal, an thou lovest me!
184 [Enter Hostess]
185
186 HOSTESS: O Jesu, my lord the prince!
187
188 PRINCE HAL: How now, my lady the hostess! what sayest thou to me?
189
190 HOSTESS: Marry, my lord, there is a nobleman of the court at door would speak with you:
191 he says he comes from your father.
192
193 PRINCE HAL: Give him as much as will make him a royal man, and send him back again
194 to my mother.
195
196 FALSTAFF: What manner of man is he?
HENRY IV 22
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
197
198 HOSTESS: An old man.
199
200 FALSTAFF: What doth gravity out of his bed at midnight? Shall I give him his answer?
201
202 PRINCE HAL: Prithee, do, Jack.
203
204 FALSTAFF: 'Faith, and I'll send him packing.
205 [Exit FALSTAFF]
206
207 PRINCE HAL: Now, sirs: by'r lady, you fought fair; so did you, Bardolph: you are lions
208 too, you ran away upon instinct, you will not touch the true prince; no, fie!
209
210 BARDOLPH: 'Faith, I ran when I saw others run.
211
212 PRINCE HAL: He has to ask: 'Faith, tell me now in earnest, how came Falstaff's sword so
213 hacked?
214
215 PISTOL: (with some reluctance) Why, he hacked it with his dagger, and said he would
216 swear truth out of England but he would make you believe it was done in fight, and persuaded
217 us to do the like.
218
219 BARDOLPH: Yea, and to tickle our noses with spear-grass to make them bleed, and then to
220 beslubber our garments with it and swear it was the blood of true men. I did that I did not this
221 seven year before, I blushed to hear his monstrous devices.
222
223 PRINCE HAL O villain, thou stolest a cup of sack eighteen years ago, and wert taken with
224 the manner, and ever since thou hast blushed extempore.
225 [Re-enter FALSTAFF]
226 Here comes lean Jack!
227
228 FALSTAFF There's villanous news abroad: here was Sir John Bracy from your father; you
229 must to the court in the morning.
230
231 PRINCE HAL: … Oh?
232
233 FALSTAFF That same mad fellow of the north, Percy, and he of Wales, that gave Amamon
234 the bastinado and made Lucifer cuckold and swore the devil his true liegeman upon the cross
235 of a Welsh hook--what a plague call you him?
236
237 PRINCE HAL Oh. Glendower.
238
239 FALSTAFF: Owen, Owen, the same; and his son-in-law Mortimer, and old
240 Northumberland, and that sprightly Scot of Scots, Douglas, that runs o' horseback up a hill
241 perpendicular,--
242
243 PRINCE HAL: (scorning his reputation) -- and with his pistol kills a sparrow flying.
244
245 FALSTAFF: You have hit it.
HENRY IV 23
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
246
247 PRINCE HAL: So did he never the sparrow.
248
249 FALSTAFF: But tell me, Hal, art not thou horrible afeard? thou being heir-apparent, could
250 the world pick thee out three such enemies again as that fiend Douglas, that spirit Percy, and
251 that devil Glendower? Art thou not horribly afraid? doth not thy blood thrill at it?
252
253 PRINCE HAL: (pokerfaced) Not a whit, i' faith; I lack some of thy instinct.
254
255 FALSTAFF: Well, thou wilt be horribly chid tomorrow when comest to thy father: if thou
256 love me, practise an answer.
257
258 PRINCE HAL: Do. Thou stand for my father, and examine me upon the
259 particulars of my life.
260
261 FALSTAFF: Shall I? content: this chair shall be my state, this dagger my sceptre, and this
262 cushion my crown. Give me a cup of sack to make my eyes look red, that it may be thought I
263 have wept; for I must speak in passion...
264
265 PRINCE HAL Well, here is my leg. (bows)
266
267 FALSTAFF And here is my speech. Stand aside, nobility.
268
269 HOSTESS: O Jesu, this is excellent sport, i' faith!
270
271 FALSTAFF: For God's sake, lords, convey my tristful queen;
272 For tears do stop the flood-gates of her eyes.
273
274 HOSTESS: O Jesu, he doth it as like one of these harlotry players as ever I see!
275
276 FALSTAFF Peace, good tickle-brain. Harry, I do not only marvel where thou spendest thy
277 time, but also how thou art accompanied. That thou art my son, I have partly thy mother's
278 word, partly my own opinion. But if then thou be son to me, here lies the point; why, being
279 son to me, art thou so pointed at? There is a thing, Harry, which thou hast often heard of and it
280 is known to many in our land by the name of pitch: this pitch, as ancient writers do report,
281 doth defile; so doth the company thou keepest! (A moment…) and yet … there is a virtuous
282 man whom I have often noted in thy company, but I know not his name.
283
284 PRINCE HAL: What manner of man, an it like your majesty?
285
286 FALSTAFF: A goodly portly man, i' faith, and a corpulent; of a cheerful look, a pleasing
287 eye and a most noble carriage; and, as I think, his age some fifty, or, by'r lady, inclining to
288 three score; and now I remember me, his name is Falstaff: if that man should be lewdly given,
289 he deceiveth me; for, Harry, I see virtue in his looks. There is virtue in that Falstaff--him
290 keep with, the rest banish. And tell me now, thou naughty varlet, tell me where hast thou
291 been this month?
292
293 PRINCE HAL: Dost thou speak like a king? Do thou stand for me, and I'll play my father.
294
HENRY IV 24
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
295 FALSTAFF: Depose me? if thou dost it half so gravely, so majestically, both in word and
296 matter, hang me up by the heels for a rabbit-sucker or a poulter's hare.
297
298 PRINCE HAL: Well, here I am set.
299
300 FALSTAFF: And here I stand: judge, my masters.
301
302 PRINCE HAL: Now, Harry, whence come you?
303
304 FALSTAFF: My noble lord, from Eastcheap.
305
306 PRINCE HAL: The complaints I hear of thee are grievous.
307
308 FALSTAFF: 'Sblood, my lord, they are false: (nay, I'll tickle ye for a young prince, i' faith).
309
310 PRINCE HAL: Swearest thou, ungracious boy? henceforth ne'er look on me. Thou art
311 violently carried away from grace: there is a devil haunts thee in the likeness of an old fat
312 man; a tun of man is thy companion.
313
314 FALSTAFF: …a ton?
315
316 PRINCE HAL: Why dost thou converse with that trunk of humours, that bolting-hutch of
317 beastliness, that swollen parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuffed cloak-bag
318 of guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with the pudding in his belly? Wherein is he good, but to
319 taste sack and drink it? wherein neat and cleanly, but to carve a capon and eat it? wherein
320 cunning, but in craft? wherein crafty, but in villany? wherein villanous, but in all things?
321 wherein worthy, but in -- nothing?
322
323 FALSTAFF: (beat) I would your grace would take me with you: whom means your grace?
324
325 PRINCE HAL: That villanous abominable misleader of youth, Falstaff, that old white-
326 bearded Satan.
327
328 FALSTAFF: My lord, the man I know.
329
330 PRINCE HAL: I know thou dost.
331
332 FALSTAFF But to say I know more harm in him than in myself, were to say more than I
333 know. That he is old, the more the pity, his white hairs do witness it; but that he is, saving
334 your reverence, a whoremaster, that I utterly deny. If sack and sugar be a fault, God help the
335 wicked! if to be old and merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know is damned: if to be
336 fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh's lean kine are to be loved. No, my good lord; banish Pistol,
337 banish Bardolph, banish Poins: but for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack
338 Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant, being, as he is, old Jack Falstaff,
339 banish not him thy Harry's company, banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.
340
341 PRINCE HAL I do. I will.
342
343 [A knocking heard—Enter Bardolf, running]
HENRY IV 25
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
344
345 BARDOLF: O, my lord, my lord! the sheriff! With a most monstrous watch is at the door.
346
347 FALSTAFF: Out, ye rogue! Play out the play: I have much to say in the behalf of that Falstaff.
348
349 [Re-enter the Hostess]
350
351 HOSTESS: O Jesu, my lord, my lord!
352
353 PRINCE HAL Heigh, heigh! the devil rides upon a fiddlestick: what's the matter?
354
355 HOSTESS: The sheriff and all the watch are at the door: they are come to search the house.
356 Shall I let them in?
357
358 FALSTAFF: (fearful) Dost thou hear, Hal?
359
360 PRINCE HAL Go, hide thee behind the arras: the rest walk up above. Now, my masters, for
361 a true face and good conscience.
362
363 FALSTAFF: Both which I have had: but their date is out, and therefore I'll hide me.
364
365 PRINCE HAL: Call in the sheriff.
366
367 [Exeunt all except PRINCE HAL and POINS]
368 [Enter Sheriff]
369
370 PRINCE HAL: Now, master sheriff, what is your will with me?
371
372 SHERIFF: First, pardon me, my lord. A hue and cry
373 Hath follow'd certain men unto this house.
374
375 PRINCE HAL What men?
376
377 SHERIFF: One of them is well known, my gracious lord. A gross fat man. As fat as butter.
378
379 PRINCE HAL The man, I do assure you, is not here;
380 For I myself at this time have employ'd him.
381 And so let me entreat you leave the house.
382
383 SHERIFF: I will, my lord. There are two gentlemen
384 Have in this robbery lost three hundred marks.
385
386 PRINCE HAL: It may be so: if he have robb'd these men,
387 He shall be answerable; and so farewell.
388
389 SHERIFF: Good night, my noble lord.
390
391 PRINCE HAL: I think it is good morrow, is it not?
392
393 SHERIFF: Indeed, my lord, I think it be two o'clock.
HENRY IV 26
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
394
395 [Exeunt Sheriff and Carrier]
396
397 PRINCE HAL: This oily rascal is known as well as St. Paul's Cathedral. Go, call him forth.
398
399 POINS: Falstaff!--Fast asleep behind the arras, and snoring like a horse.
400
401 PRINCE HAL: Search his pockets. (Hal slips a ring of Falstaff‘s finger) What hast thou
402 found?
403
404 POINS: Nothing but papers, my lord.
405
406 PRINCE HAL: Let's see what they be: (reads) ―Item, a capon; Item, bread; Item,
407 sack…two gallons!‖ O monstrous! but one ha‘-penny-worth of bread to this intolerable deal
408 of sack! (with some concern) Hark, how hard he fetches breath. There let him sleep till day,
409 I'll to the court in the morning. Good morrow, Poins.
410
411 POINS: Good morrow, good my lord.
412
413 [Exeunt]
414
HENRY IV 27
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
1 Act One, Scene 7. Bangor. The Archdeacon's house.
2
3 KING HENRY speaks as he enters with Chief Justice, Warwick, Westmoreland, Blunt, and
4 Henry‘s son, John.
5
6 KING: Have you read o‘er the letters that I sent you?
7
8 WARWICK: We have, my liege.
9
10 KING: Then you perceive the body of our kingdom
11 How foul it is, what rank diseases grow,
12 And with what danger near the heart of it.
13
14 WARWICK: It is but as a body yet distempered
15 Which to his former strength may be restored
16 With good advice. And a little medicine.
17
18 KING: They count Lord Douglas and Northumberland
19 one hundred thousand strong.
20
21 WARWICK: It cannot be, my lord;
22 Rumor doth double, like the voice and echo,
23 The numbers of the feared. Please it your grace
24 To go to bed. Upon my soul, my lord,
25 The powers that you already bade go forth
26 Shall bring this prize in very easily.
27
28 •Enter PRINCE The King sees him, and conversation stops.
29
30 KING HENRY IV: Lords, give us leave; the Prince of Wales and I
31 Must have some private conference;
32 (And as the lords exit…)
33 but be near at hand,
34 For we shall presently have need of you.
35 (To Hal)
36 I know not whether God will have it so,
37 For some displeasing service I have done,
38 But thou dost in thy passages of life
39 Make me believe that thou art only mark'd
40 For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven
41 To punish my mistreadings. Tell me else,
42 Could such inordinate and low desires,
43 Such barren pleasures, rude society,
44 As thou art match'd withal and grafted to,
45 Accompany the greatness of thy blood
46 And hold their level with thy princely heart?
47
48 PRINCE HAL: So please your majesty, I would I could
49 Find pardon on my true submission.
HENRY IV 28
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
50
51
52 KING HENRY IV: God pardon thee! Yet let me wonder, Harry,
53 At thy affections, which do hold a wing
54 Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors.
55 Thy place in council thou hast rudely lost!
56 Which by thy younger brother is supplied--
57 And art almost an alien to the hearts
58 Of all the court and princes of my blood.
59 The hope and expectation of thy time
60 Is ruin'd, and the soul of every man
61 Prophetically doth forethink thy fall.
62 For thou has lost thy princely privilege
63 With vile participation: not an eye
64 But is a-weary of thy common sight …
65 Save mine. Which hath desired to see thee more.
66 Which now doth that I would not have it do:
67 Make blind itself with foolish tenderness.
68
69 PRINCE HAL: I shall hereafter, my thrice gracious lord,
70 Be more myself.
71
72 KING HENRY IV: Thrice hath this Hotspur, Mars in swathling clothes,
73 This infant warrior, in his enterprises
74 Discomfited great Douglas, ta'en him once,
75 Enlarged him and made a friend of him,
76 To shake the peace and safety of our throne.
77 And what say you to this? Percy, Northumberland,
78 The Archbishop's grace of York, Douglas, Mortimer,
79 Capitulate against us and are up!
80 But wherefore do I tell these news to thee?
81 Why, Harry, do I tell thee of my foes,
82 Which art my near'st and dearest enemy?
83 Thou that art like enough, through vassal fear
84 To fight against me under Percy's pay,
85 To dog his heels and curtsy at his frowns,
86 To show how much thou art degenerate.
87
88 PRINCE HAL; Do not think so; you shall not find it so:
89 And God forgive them that so much have sway'd
90 Your majesty's good thoughts away from me!
91 I will redeem all this on Percy's head
92 And in the closing of some glorious day
93 Be bold to tell you that I am your son;
94 And that shall be the day, whene'er it lights,
95 That this same child of honor and renown,
96 This gallant Hotspur, this all-praised knight,
97 And your unthought-of Harry chance to meet.
98 For I will call him to so strict account,
HENRY IV 29
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
99 That he shall render every glory up,
100 Or I will tear the reckoning from his heart.
101 This, in the name of God, I promise here:
102 And I will die a hundred thousand deaths
103 Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow.
104
105 KING HENRY IV: A hundred thousand rebels die in this.
106 Thou shalt have charge and sovereign thrust herein.
107 (Enter BLUNT and others)
108 How now, my lord! Thy looks are full of speed.
109
110 BLUNT: So hath the business that I come to speak of.
111 Lord Douglas and the English rebels meet
112 The eleventh of this month at Shrewsbury.
113
114 KING HENRY IV: (more confident now)
115 The Earl of Westmoreland set(s) forth to-day;
116 With him my son, Lord John of Lancaster.
117 On Wednesday next, Harry, you shall set forward;
118 Our hands are full of business: let's away;
119
120 Exeunt
121
122
123
HENRY IV 30
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
1 Article I. Act One, Scene 8
2
3 Eastcheap. The Boar's-Head Tavern.
4
5 Morning. FALSTAFF enters in nightgown, groggy with sleep. He catches sight of himself in
6 the mirror. A sleepy Doll Tearsheet enters behind him.
7
8 DOLL: Jack? (She hugs him from behind) Ah, rogue, ‗faith, I love thee.
9
10 FALSTAFF: I am old. I am old.
11
12 DOLL: I love thee better than I love e‘er a scurvy young boy of them all.
13
14 FALSTAFF: Why, my skin hangs about me like an like an old lady's loose gown.
15
16 DOLL: Sir John, you are so fretful, you cannot live long.
17
18 FALSTAFF: Company, villanous company, hath been the spoil of me. I was as virtuously
19 given as a gentleman need to be; virtuous enough; swore little; diced not above seven times a
20 week; went to a bawdy-house once in a quarter – of an hour…! You make fat rascals,
21 Mistress Doll.
22
23 DOLL: I make them! Gluttony and diseases make them; I make them not.
24
25 FALSTAFF: If the cook help to make the gluttony, you help make the diseases, Doll. We
26 catch of you, Doll, we catch of you.
27
28 DOLL: Hang yourself, you muddy conger, hang yourself!
29
30 Enter Hostess.
31
32 HOSTESS: You two never meet but you fall to some discord. You are both, i‘good truth, as
33 rheumatic as two dry toasts.
34
35 FALSTAFF: How now, have you inquired yet who picked my pocket?
36
37 HOSTESS: Why, Sir John, what do you think, Sir John? do you think I keep thieves in my house?
38 I have searched, I have inquired, man by man, boy by boy, servant by servant: the tithe of a hair was
39 never lost in my house before.
40
41 FALSTAFF: Ye lie, hostess: I'll be sworn my pocket was picked.
42
43 HOSTESS: Who, I? no; I defy thee…
44
45 FALSTAFF: Go to, you are a woman, go.
46
47 HOSTESS: God's light, I was never called so in mine own house before!
48
49 FALSTAFF: (embracing her) Go to, I know you well enough.
HENRY IV 31
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
50
51 HOSTESS: No, Sir John; You do not know me, Sir John. I know you, Sir John: you owe me
52 money, Sir John; and now you pick a quarrel to beguile me of it:
53
54 FALSTAFF: Come now, what is the gross sum that I owe thee?
55
56 HOSTESS: Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet, when the prince broke thy
57 head for liking his father to a singing-man of Windsor, thou didst swear to me then, as I was
58 washing thy wound, to marry me and make me thy lady, thy wife.
59
60 DOLL: (laughs) He what?
61
62 HOSTESS: Canst thou deny it? And didst thou not kiss me, and bid me fetch thee 30
63 shillings? I put thee now to thy book-oath: deny it, if thou canst.
64
65 FALSTAFF: You lie, Hostess! Go to then, I‘ll not pay thee in purse or in person.
66
67 HOSTESS: You owe money here besides, Sir John, for your diet and by-drinkings, and
68 money lent you, four and twenty pound.
69
70 FALSTAFF: (points to Bardolph) He had his part of it; let him pay.
71
72 HOSTESS: He? alas, he is poor; he hath nothing.
73
74 FALSTAFF: How! poor? I have lost a seal-ring of my grandfather's worth forty mark.
75
76 HOSTESS: O Jesu, I have heard the prince tell him, I know not how oft, that ring was
77 copper!
78
79 (Enter PRINCE and POINS, unobserved by Sir John)
80
81 FALSTAFF: How! if he were here, I would cudgel him like a dog, if he would say so. His
82 wit‘s as thick as a Tewkesbury mustard ball.
83
84 DOLL: They say Poins has a good wit..
85
86 FALSTAFF: He a good wit? Hang him, baboon!
87
88 DOLL: Why does the Prince love him so, then?
89
90 FALSTAFF: Because their legs are both of a bigness, and he plays at quoits well and rides
91 the wild mare with the boys! Kiss me, Doll.
92 (They do. Hal and Poins move closer.)
93
94 PRINCE: Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?
95
96 FALSTAFF: Ha! a bastard son of the king‘s? And art not thou Poins his brother? Thou
97 whoreson mad compound of majesty—(patting Doll‘s bum)--by this light flesh and corrupt
98 blood, thou art welcome.
HENRY IV 32
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
99
100 DOLL: (insulted) How, you fat fool! I scorn you!
101
102 PRINCE: Why, thou globe of sinful continents, how vilely did you speak of me even now
103 before this honest, virtuous, civil gentlewoman!
104
105 HOSTESS: God‘s blessing of your heart! and so she is, by my troth.
106
107 FALSTAFF: Didst thou hear me?
108
109 PRINCE: Yea; and you knew me, and spoke it on purpose to try my patience.
110
111 FALSTAFF: No, no, no, not so—I did not think thou wast within hearing.
112
113 PRINCE: I shall drive you, then, to confess the willful abuse.
114
115 FALSTAFF: No abuse, Hal, o‘ mine honor, no abuse.
116
117 POINS: No abuse!
118
119 FALSTAFF: No abuse, Ned, I‘the‘world. Honest Ned, none. I dispraised him before the
120 wicked, that the wicked might not fall in love with him.
121
122 PRINCE: This virtuous gentlewoman—is she of the wicked? Is thine hostess here of the
123 wicked?
124
125 FALSTAFF: For one of them, she is in hell already, and burns poor souls; for the other, I
126 owe her money, and whether she be damned for that, I know not.
127
128 HOSTESS: My lord, I pray you, hear me.
129
130 FALSTAFF: Prithee, let her alone, and list to me. The other night I fell asleep here behind
131 the arras and had my pocket picked: this house is turned bawdy-house; they pick pockets.
132
133 PRINCE HAL: What didst thou lose, Jack?
134
135 FALSTAFF: Wilt thou believe me, Hal? three or four bonds of forty pound apiece, and a
136 seal-ring of my grandfather's.
137
138 PRINCE HAL: A trifle, some eight-penny matter.
139
140 HOSTESS: So I told him, my lord; and I said I heard your grace say so: and, my lord, he
141 speaks most vilely of you, like a foul-mouthed man as he is; and said he would cudgel you.
142
143 PRINCE HAL: What? he did not!
144
145 HOSTESS: There's neither faith, truth, nor womanhood in me else.
146
147 FALSTAFF: There's no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune. Go, you thing, go!
HENRY IV 33
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
148
149 HOSTESS: Say, what thing? what thing?
150
151 FALSTAFF: What thing! why, a thing to thank God on. She's neither fish nor flesh; a man
152 knows not where to have her.
153
154 HOSTESS: Thou or any man knows where to have me, thou knave, thou!
155
156 PRINCE HAL: Thou sayest true, hostess; (stops laughing) and he slanders thee most grossly.
157 Charge an honest woman with picking thy pocket! (He returns Falstaff‘s ring) Why, thou
158 whoreson, impudent, embossed rascal, art thou not ashamed?
159
160 FALSTAFF: You confess then. You picked my pocket?
161
162 PRINCE HAL: It appears so by the story.
163
164 FALSTAFF: Hostess, I forgive thee: go, make ready breakfast; look to thy servants, cherish
165 thy guests. (She tries to speak) Nay, prithee, be gone.
166 Exit Hostess
167 Now Hal, to the news at court: for the robbery, lad, how is that answered?
168
169 PRINCE HAL: O, my sweet beef, I must still be good angel to thee: the money is paid back
170 again.
171
172 FALSTAFF: O, I do not like that paying back; 'tis a double labour.
173
174 PRINCE HAL: And we must all to the wars. I have procured thee, Jack, a charge of foot.
175 That announcement sobers up the room in a hurry.
176
177 FALSTAFF: I would it had been of horse… Well, God be thanked for these rebels, they
178 offend none but the virtuous. I laud them, I praise them!
179
180 PRINCE HAL: Pistol!
181
182 PISTOL: My lord?
183
184 PRINCE HAL: Go bear this letter to Lord John of Lancaster, to my brother John. Bardolph!
185
186 BARDOLPH: My lord.
187
188 PRINCE: This to my Lord of Westmoreland.
189 Exit Pistol and Bardolph
190 Jack, you must away to court, sir, presently! There shall thou know thy charge.
191 Hal is princely now, and speaks in verse.
192 ―The land is burning; Percy stands on high;
193 And either we or they must lower lie.‖
194
195 Exit PRINCE HAL.
196
HENRY IV 34
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
197 FALSTAFF: You see, good wenches, how men of merit are sought after? The undeserver
198 may sleep when the man of action is called on. Farewell, Hostess.
199
200 HOSTESS: Well, fare thee well. I have known thee these 29 years, come peascod time; but
201 an honester and truer-hearted man---well, fare thee well.
202
203 FALSTAFF: (to Doll) How now?
204
205 DOLL: I cannot speak; if my heart be not ready to burst--
206
207 FALSTAFF: Thou‘lt forget me when I am gone.
208
209 DOLL: By my troth, thou‘lt set me a-weeping an thou say‘st so. Thou whoreson little tidy
210 Bartholomew boar-pig. —well, sweet Jack, have a care of thyself.
211
212 The sound of drums, bells and horses‘ hooves draw Sir John to look out the window.
213 The lights fade on this tableau.
214
215 Section 1.01 End Act One
216 INTERMISSION
HENRY IV 35
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
1 ACT II, scene 1
2
3 Enter HOTSPUR, WORCESTER from one direction, MORTIMER, and GLENDOWER from
4 the other.
5
6 MORTIMER: These promises are fair, the parties sure,
7 And our induction full of prosperous hope.
8
9 HOTSPUR: Lord Mortimer, and cousin Glendower, will you sit down?
10 And uncle Worcester -- a plague upon it! I have forgot the map.
11
12 GLENDOWER: No, here it is.
13 (laughs, for he had himself lifted it from Hotspur when they embraced!)
14 Sit, cousin Percy; sit, good cousin Hotspur,
15 For by that name as oft as Lancaster
16 Doth speak of you, his cheek looks pale and with
17 A rising sigh he wisheth you in heaven.
18
19 HOTSPUR: And you in hell, as oft as he hears Owen Glendower spoke of.
20
21 GLENDOWER: (whose pleasing bravado suggest something of a Viking)
22 I cannot blame him! At my nativity
23 The frame and huge foundation of the earth
24 Shaked like a coward.
25
26 HOTSPUR: Why, so it would have done at the same season, if your mother's cat had but
27 kittened, though yourself had never been born.
28
29 GLENDOWER: I say the earth did shake when I was born.
30
31 HOTSPUR: And I say the earth was not of my mind,
32 If you suppose as fearing you it shook.
33
34 GLENDOWER: The heavens were all on fire, the earth did tremble.
35
36 HOTSPUR: O, then the earth shook to see the heavens on fire,
37 And not in fear of your nativity.
38
39 MORTIMER: Peace, cousin Percy; you will make him mad.
40
41 GLENDOWER: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
42
43 HOTSPUR: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
44 But will they come when you do call for them?
HENRY IV 36
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
45
46 GLENDOWER: Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command the devil.
47
48 HOTSPUR: And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil
49 By telling truth: tell truth and shame the devil!
50
51 MORTIMER: Come, come, no more of this unprofitable chat.
52
53 GLENDOWER: Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made head
54 Against my power; thrice from the banks of Wye
55 And sandy-bottom'd Severn have I sent him
56 Bootless home and weather-beaten back.
57
58 HOTSPUR: Home without boots, and in foul weather too!
59 How 'scapes he agues, in the devil's name? (Ah-choo!)
60
61 GLENDOWER: (false cheer) Come, here's the map: shall we divide our right
62 According to our threefold order ta'en?
63
64 MORTIMER: The archdeacon hath divided it
65 Into three limits very equally:
66 England, from Trent and Severn hitherto,
67 By south and east is to my part assign'd --
68 All westward, Wales beyond the Severn shore,
69 And all the fertile land within that bound,
70 To Owen Glendower -- and, dear coz, to you
71 The remnant northward, lying off from Trent.
72
73 HOTSPUR; Methinks my moiety, north from Burton here,
74 In quantity equals not one of yours:
75 See how this river comes me cranking in,
76 And cuts me from the best of all my land?
77
78 MORTIMER Yea, but mark how he bears his course, and runs me up
79 With like advantage on the other side?
80
81 EARL OF WORCESTER: Yea, but a little charge will trench him here
82 And then he runs straight and even.
83
84 HOTSPUR: I'll have it so: a little charge will do it.
85
86 GLENDOWER: I'll not have it alter'd.
87
88 HOTSPUR: Will not you?
89
90 GLENDOWER: No, nor you shall not.
91
92 HOTSPUR: Who shall say me nay?
93
HENRY IV 37
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
94 GLENDOWER: Why, that will I.
95
96 HOTSPUR: Let me not understand you, then; speak it in Welsh.
97
98 GLENDOWER: I can speak English, lord, as well as you!
99 For I was train‘d up in the English court;
100 Where, being but young, I framed to the harp
101 Many an English ditty lovely well
102 And gave the tongue a helpful ornament,
103 A virtue that was never seen in you.
104
105 HOTSPUR: Marry, and I am glad on it with all my heart:
106 I had rather hear a brazen canstick turn'd,
107 Or a dry wheel grate on the axle-tree.
108
109 GLENDOWER: (Laughs. He decides to be gracious.) Come, you shall have Trent turn'd.
110
111 HOTSPUR: I do not care: I'll give thrice so much land
112 To any well-deserving friend…
113
114 Glendower‘s smile vanishes. An owl hoots
115
116 GLENDOWER: The moon shines fair; you may away by night:
117 Break with your wives of your departure hence:
118 I am afraid my daughter will run mad,
119 So much she doteth on her Mortimer.
120 Exit GLENDOWER
121
122 MORTIMER: Fie, cousin Percy! how you cross my father!
123
124 HOTSPUR: I cannot choose: sometime he angers me.
125
126 MORTIMER: In faith, he is a worthy gentleman,
127 Exceedingly well read, and profited
128 In strange concealments, valiant as a lion--
129
130 EARL OF WORCESTER: In faith, my lord, you are too wilful-blame;
131 And since your coming hither have done enough
132 To put him quite beside his patience.
133
134 HOTSPUR: Well, I am school'd. Good manners be your speed!
135 Here come our wives, and let us take our leave.
136
137 Re-enter GLENDOWER with the ladies
138
139 MORTIMER: (to Glendower) This is the deadly spite that angers me.
140 My wife can speak no English, I no Welsh.
141
142 GLENDOWER: (interpreting) My daughter weeps: she will not part with you;
HENRY IV 38
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
143 She'll be a soldier too, she'll to the wars.
144
145 The lady speaks in Welsh. She is coaxing him far upstage to an imaginary riverbed.
146
147 MORTIMER: I understand thy looks…
148 O, I am ignorance itself in this!
149
150
151 GLENDOWER: She bids you on the wanton rushes lay you down
152 And rest your gentle head upon her lap.
153 And she will sing the song that pleaseth you
154 On on your eyelids crown the god of sleep.
155
156 MORTIMER: With all my heart I‘ll sit and hear her sing.
157
158 Harry & Lady Percy watch them leave, and kiss.
159
160 HOTSPUR: Come, Kate, thou art perfect in lying down. Come, quick, quick, that I may lay
161 my head in thy lap.
162
163 LADY PERCY: Go, ye giddy goose. Lie still, ye thief and hear the lady sing in Welsh.
164
165 HOTSPUR: I‘d rather hear Lady-my-Bitch howl in Irish.
166
167 LADY PERCY: Wouldst thou have thy head broken?
168
169 HOTSPUR: No.
170
171 LADY PERCY: Then be still.
172
173 The lady sings in Welsh
174
175 HOTSPUR: Come, Kate, I‘ll have your song too.
176
177 LADY PERCY: Not mine, in good sooth.
178
179 HOTSPUR: Come, sing.
180
181 LADY PERCY: I will not sing.
182
183 HOTSPUR: I'll away within these two hours; and so, come in when ye will.
184
185 Hotspur teases her with a kiss. Exit Hotspur-- Lady Percy follows.
186 The men laugh knowingly.
187
188 GLENDOWER: (robustly) Come, come, Lord Mortimer, you are as slow
189 As hot Lord Percy is on fire to go!
190
191 MORTIMER: With all my heart.
HENRY IV 39
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
192
193 (i) Exeunt
HENRY IV 40
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
1 ACT TWO, Scene 2. Justice Shallow’s House.
2
3 Scrawny, glum would-be recruits gather about the stage, gathered by Master SILENCE.
4 Enter Justice SHALLOW with a large book.
5
6 SHALLOW: Come on, come on, come on, sir give me your hand, sir give me your hand, sir.
7 An early stirrer, by the Rood! And how doth my good cousin, Silence?
8
9 SILENCE: Good morrow, good cousin Shallow.
10
11 SHALLOW: And how doth my cousin, your bedfellow? And your fairest daughter and
12 mine, my god-daughter Ellen?
13
14 SILENCE … (He opens his mouth to make a mournful reply, but Shallow cuts him off)
15
16 SHALLOW: I dare say my cousin William is become a good scholar—he is at Oxford still,
17 is he not?
18
19 SILENCE: Indeed, sir, to my cost.
20
21 SHALLOW: He must then to the Inns a‘Court shortly. I was once at Clement‘s Inn where I
22 think they will talk of ―mad Shallow‖ yet.
23
24 SILENCE: You were called ―Lusty Shallow‖ then, cousin.
25
26 SHALLOW: By the Mass, I was called anything, and I would have done anything indeed
27 too, and roundly, too. There was I, and little John Pickbone, and Jack Falstaff, now Sir John,
28 a boy and page to Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk.
29
30 SILENCE: This Sir John, cousin, that comes hither anon about soldiers?
31
32 SHALLOW: The same Sir John, the very same. I see him break Scoggin‘s head at the Court
33 gate when he was a crack not thus high, and the very same day did I fight with one Samson
34 Stockfish, a fruiterer, behind Gray‘s Inn. Jesu, Jesu, the mad days that I have spent! And to
35 see how many of my old acquaintances are dead!
36
37 SILENCE: We shall all follow, cousin.
38
39 SHALLOW: Certain, ‗tis certain, very sure, very sure. Death, as the psalmist saith, is certain
40 to all, all shall die.
41
42 SILENCE: Here comes one of Sir John Falstaff‘s men, as I think.
43
44 PISTOL enters. PISTOL holds his nose as he passes by the heap of recruits.
45
46 PISTOL: Whew!
47
48 SHALLOW: Good morrow, honest gentlemen!
49
HENRY IV 41
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
50 PISTOL: I beseech you, which of you is Justice Shallow?
51
52 SHALLOW: I am Robert Shallow, sir, a poor esquire of this county, and one of the King‘s
53 justices of the peace.
54
55 PISTOL: My captain commends him to you, my captain, sir, Sir John Falstaff, a tall
56 gentleman, by heaven, and a most gallant leader.
57
58 SHALLOW: He greets me well, sir. I knew him to be a goooood back-sword man. Now let
59 me see, let me see, where‘s the roll?
60
61 PISTOL: (points toward the gloomy recruits) The, uh, soldiers?
62
63 SHALLOW: Use these men well, sirrah, for they are arrant knaves, and they will backbite.
64
65 PISTOL: No worse than they are backbitten, sir, for they have marvelous foul linen.
66
67 SHALLOW: O, well conceited, sirrah! Ha ha! Look, here comes Sir John!
68
69 Enter Sir John .
70
71 SHALLOW: Give me your good hand, give me your worship‘s good hand. By my troth,
72 you like well and bear your years very well. Welcome, good sir John.
73
74 FALSTAFF: I am glad to see you well, good Master Robert Shallow. ‗Fore God, you have
75 here a goodly dwelling, and rich!
76
77 SHALLOW: (laughs it off) Barren, barren…
78
79 FALSTAFF: Rich! (to SILENCE) Master Scorecard, I think?
80
81 SHALLOW: Silence! (Sir John reacts) No, Sir John, it is my cousin Silence, in
82 commission with me.
83
84 FALSTAFF: Ah. (turning toward the pitiful recruits) Have you provided me with half a
85 dozen sufficient, uh…
86
87 SHALLOW: …men? We have, we have, sir. Come, sir, will you sit?
88
89 FALSTAFF: Let me see them.
90
91 SHALLOW: Let me see, let me see, let me see. Where‘s the roll? Where‘s the roll? Davy!
92
93 FALSTAFF: (with Shallow out of earshot, he turns toward PISTOL). Robert Shallow. I
94 remember him from Clement‘s Inn. When he was naked, he was, for all the world, like a
95 forked radish. He was the very genius of famine, yet lecherous as a monkey. And now is this
96 Vice‘s daggar become a squire.
97
98 PISTOL: Well?
HENRY IV 42
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
99
100 FALSTAFF: I‘ll become acquainted with him.
101
102 SHALLOW: (to his young ward) I will use him well, Davy, for a friend in the court is better
103 than a penny in the purse!
104
105 DAVY: (impressed by Sir John) A friend of court…!
106
107 SHALLOW: So, so, so, so, so, so. So, so…yea! Marry, sir. (calling out) Rafe Moldy!
108 (nobody stirs) Let them appear as I call, let them do so, let them do so! Let me see, where is
109 Moldy?
110
111 MOLDY: Here, an it please you.
112
113 SHALLOW: What think you, Sir John? A good-limbed fellow, young, strong, and of good
114 friends.
115
116 FALSTAFF: Is thy name ―Moldy?‖
117
118 MOLDY: Yea, an it please you.
119
120 FALSTAFF: Tis the more time thou wert used.
121
122 SHALLOW: Ha ha ha, most excellent, i‘faith. (explaining to Silence) Things that are
123 moldy lack use, very singular good, i‘faith. Well said, Sir John, very well said.
124
125 FALSTAFF: Prick him.
126
127 MOLDY: I was pricked well enough before, and you could have let me alone. My old dame
128 will be undone now for one to do her husbandry and her drudgery. You need not to have me
129 pricked, there are other men fitter to go than I.
130
131 FALSTAFF: Go to, peace, Moldy, you shall go, Moldy, it is time you were spent.
132
133 MOLDY: (aghast) Spent!?
134
135 SHALLOW: Peace, fellow, peace, stand aside, know you where you are? Let me see—
136 Simon Shadow! Where‘s Shadow?
137
138 SHADOW: Here, sir.
139
140 FALSTAFF: Shadow, whose son art thou?
141
142 SHADOW: My mother‘s son, sir.
143
144 FALSTAFF: Thy mother‘s son! Like enough, and thy father‘s shadow.
145
146 SHALLOW: Do you like him, Sir John?
147
HENRY IV 43
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
148 FALSTAFF: Yea marry, let me have him to sit under. Prick him.
149
150 SHALLOW: Thomas Wart!
151
152 FALSTAFF: Where‘s he?
153
154 WART: (tiny voice, tiny man) Here, sir.
155
156 SHALLOW: Shall I prick him, Sir John?
157
158 FALSTAFF: His whole frame stands upon pins. Prick him no more.
159
160 SHALLOW: Ha ha ha, you can do it, sir, you can do it, I commend you well. Francis
161 Feeble!
162
163 FEEBLE: Here, sir.
164
165 FALSTAFF: What trade art thou, Feeble?
166
167 FEEBLE: A woman‘s tailor, sir.
168
169 FALSTAFF: Wilt thou make as many holes in an enemy‘s battle as thou hast done in a
170 woman‘s petticoat?
171
172 FEEBLE: I will do my good will, sir, you can have no more.
173
174 FALSTAFF: Well said, good woman‘s tailor, well said, courageous Feeble, thou wilt be as
175 valiant as the most wrathful dove, or most magnanimous mouse. Prick the woman‘s tailor
176 well, Master Shallow. (lewdly) Deep, Master Shallow. Who‘s next?
177
178 SHALLOW: Peter Bullcalf of the green!
179
180 Bullcalf puts on a show of deep, tubercular coughing.
181
182 FALSTAFF: Yea, marry, let me see Bullcalf.
183
184 BULLCALF: Here, sir.
185
186 FALSTAFF: ‗Fore God, a likely fellow; come, prick Bullcalf till he roar again.
187
188 BULLCALF: (roars in fear) O LOOOORRRD, good my lord captain!
189
190 FALSTAFF: What, dost thou roar before thou art pricked?
191
192 BULLCALF: O Lord, sir, I am a diseased man.
193
194 FALSTAFF: What disease hast thou?
195
HENRY IV 44
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
196 BULLCALF: A whoreson cold, sir, a cough, sir, which I caught with ringing in the king‘s
197 affairs upon his coronation day, sir.
198
199 FALSTAFF: Prick him. Is here all?
200
201 SHALLOW: Here is more called than your number; you must have but four here, sir, and so
202 I pray you go in with me to dinner.
203
204 FALSTAFF: Come, I will go drink with you, but I cannot tarry dinner…
205
206 (EXIT Shallow & Falstaff. PISTOL pushes the motley crew forward)
207
208 BULLCALF: Good Master Corporate Captain, sir…
209
210 PISTOL: Go to.
211
212 BULLCALF: I had as lief be hanged, sir, as go to the wars.
213
214 MOLDY: Good master Captain…
215
216 BULLCALF: (whispers to PISTOL, who holds out his hand) Four Harry ten shillings in
217 French crowns for you. (He hands the money to PISTOL)
218
219 PISTOL: (motions him aside) Outside!
220
221 MOLDY: For my old dame‘s sake. She has nobody to do anything about her when I am
222 gone, and she is old and cannot help herself. (PISTOL holds out his palm) You shall have 40,
223 sir.
224
225 PISTOL: (takes the money) Stand aside!
226
227 (PISTOL offers his palm to Feeble, but Feeble shrugs.)
228
229 FEEBLE: A man can die but once. We owe God a death. I‘ll ne‘er bear a base mind—if it
230 be my destiny, so; if it be not, so. No man‘s too good to serve his prince.
231
232 PISTOL: Well said, th‘art a good fellow.
233
234 FEEBLE: Faith, I‘ll bear no base mind.
235
236 Enter Falstaff and Justices. PISTOL clandestinely pockets some of the pickings.
237
238 FALSTAFF: (confidentially) Come, sir, which men shall I have?
239
240 PISTOL: I have 3 pound to free Moldy and Bullcalf.
241
242 Hands over 3 pounds, but Falstaff pulls another coin from PISTOL‘s pocket.
243
244 PISTOL: …Four pound.
HENRY IV 45
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
245
246 FALSTAFF: Go to, well.
247
248 SHALLOW: Come, sir John, which four shall you have?
249
250 FALSTAFF: Do you pick for me.
251
252 SHALLOW: Marry then: Moldy, Bullcalf, Feeble, and Shadow.
253
254 FALSTAFF: (as though Shallow had made a terrible choice) Moldy and Bullcalf?? Moldy,
255 stay at home til you are past service; and for your part, Bullcalf, I will none of you.
256
257 SHALLOW: Sir John, Sir John, do not yourself wrong! They are your likeliest men, and I
258 would have you served with the best!
259
260 FALSTAFF: Will you tell me, Master Shallow, how to choose a man? Care I for the limb,
261 muscle, the stature, bulk and big assemblance of a man? Give me the spirit, Master Shallow.
262
263 SHALLOW: But…
264
265 FALSTAFF: Now here‘s Wart—you see what a ragged appearance it is! O give me the
266 spare men, and spare me the great ones. Put me a caliver into Wart‘s hand, Pistol.
267
268 PISTOL: (barking out commands) Hold, Wart! Traverse! Thas, thas, thas!
269
270 FALSTAFF: Very good, exceeding good!
271
272 SHALLOW: He is not his craft‘s master, he does not do it right!
273
274 FALSTAFF: These fellows will do well, Master Shallow. Fare you well, gentlemen both, I
275 thank you. I must a dozen mile tonight. Pistol, give the soldiers coats.
276
277 PISTOL: (incredulously) Coats?
278
279 FALSTAFF: Tis no matter, they‘ll find linen enough on every hedge. H1, IV.ii.
280
281 SHALLOW: Sir John!
282
283 FALSTAFF: (exiting) Keep well, Master Shallow!
284
285 SHALLOW: …the Lord bless you, God prosper your affairs. God send us peace!
286 (and as SILENCE takes his arm and they go off together, Shallow adds this hopeful thought)
287 Peradventure I will be with you to the court.
288 i) Exeunt
289
HENRY IV 46
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
1 Act Two, Scene 3. A public road near Conventry
2
3 Falstaff and troupe pass by Warwick and the Sheriff.
4
5 WARWICK: What‘s he that goes there?
6
7 SHERIFF: Falstaff, an‘t please your Lordship.
8
9 WARWICK: He that is in question for the robbery?
10
11 (The Chief Justice advances)
12
13 FALSTAFF: My Lord Chief Justice! I heard say your lordship was sick. I hope your
14 lordship goes abroad by advice. Your lordship, while not clean past his youth, has yet some
15 smack of age in him, some relish of the saltiness of time. (The Chief Justice faces him now,
16 and Falstaff would make haste out of there) But I most humbly beseech your lordship to have
17 a reverent care of your health.
18
19 (He starts away but sees WESTMORELAND & BLUNT, soldiers marching behind them)
20
21 FALSTAFF: Ah, my Lord Westmoreland! I heard say your lordship had already been at
22 Shrewsbury.
23
24 WESTMORELAND: ‗Tis more than time I were there, and you too.
25
26 FALSTAFF: What, is the king encamped?
27
28 WESTMORELAND: He is, Sir John. I fear we shall all stay too long.
29
30 Falstaff takes that as a cue to excuse himself from the disapproving presence of Lord Chief
31 Justice.
32
33 WARWICK: Sir John! (Falstaff turns) Methinks your soldiers are exceeding poor and
34 bare.
35
36 SHERIFF: Never have I seen such scarecrows.
37
38 FALSTAFF: I pressed me none but good householders. They‘ve bought out their services,
39 and now me whole charge consists of younger sons to younger brothers, revolted tapsters, and
40 ostlers, trade fallen, the cankers of a calm world and a long peace. If I‘m not ashamed of me
41 soldiers, I‘m a soused gurnet.
42
43 BLUNT: We must away all night, Falstaff.
44
45 WESTMORELAND: The King, I can tell you, looks for us all. (and they EXIT)
46
47 FALSTAFF: (calling after them) Goes the Prince with you?
48
HENRY IV 47
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
49 WARWICK: The Prince? You follow him up and down like his ill angel. Falstaff, you
50 have misled the youthful prince.
51
52 FALSTAFF: The young Prince has misled me.
53
54 WARWICK: The truth is, you live in great infamy. Your means are very slender and your
55 waste great. I would it were otherwise.
56
57 FALSTAFF: (nods) I would my means were greater and my waist slender.
58
59 WARWICK: There‘s not a white hair on your face but should have his effect on gravity.
60
61 SHERIFF: His effect on gravy.
62
63 FALSTAFF: Gravy? My lords, you that are old consider not the capacities of us that are
64 young.
65
66 WARWICK: Ha!
67
68 FALSTAFF: You do measure the heat of our livers with the bitterness of your galls.
69
70 WARWICK: (takes the bait) Do you set down your name in the scroll of youth? You that
71 are written down OLD with all the characters of age? Have you not a moist eye, a dry hand…
72
73 SHERIFF: …a yellow cheek, a white beard…
74
75 WARWICK: … a decreasing leg…
76
77 SHERIFF: …an increasing belly?
78
79 WARWICK: Is not your voice broken, your wind short..
80
81 SHERIFF: …your chin double…
82
83 WARWICK: …your wit single, and every part about you blasted with antiquity, and will
84 you yet call yourself ―young?‖
85
86 FALSTAFF: I was born about three o‘clock in the afternoon with a white head and
87 something of a round belly. For my voice, I have lost it with hallowing and singing of
88 anthems.
89
90 PISTOL: (to the rescue) Sir John! You loiter here too long, being as we‘re to take more
91 soldiers in counties as we go.
92
93 FALSTAFF: On, Captain.
94
95 WARWICK: Well, be honest, be honest, and God bless your expedition.
96
97 FALSTAFF: Could you lend me a thousand pound to furnish me forth?
HENRY IV 48
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
98
99 WARWICK: Not a penny. (he EXITS)
100
101 FALSTAFF: (to Sheriff, palm upward) My lord?
102
103 SHERIFF: (grimly) God send the Prince a better companion. (he EXITS)
104
105 FALSTAFF: God send the companion a better Prince. Pistol! (PISTOL appears) Go thee
106 before and fetch me a bottle of sack.
107
108 PISTOL: Will you give me money, captain?
109
110 Falstaff pushes Pistol ahead of him as they Exeunt
111
112
HENRY IV 49
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
1 Act Two, Scene 4. The Rebel Camp, near Shrewsbury
2
3 Enter Hotspur with Worcester, Douglas, and others. Enter Vernon.
4
5 HOTSPUR: Vernon! How now?
6
7 VERNON: The Earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong
8 Is marching hitherwards; with him Prince John.
9
10 HOTSPUR: No harm. What more?
11
12 VERNON: Further have we learned
13 The King himself in person is set forth.
14
15 HOTSPUR: He shall be welcome too. Where is his son,
16 The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales?
17 And his comrades?
18
19 VERNON: All furnished, all in arms.
20 Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.
21 I saw young Harry with his beaver on,
22 Rise from the ground like feathered Mercury
23 And witch the world with noble horsemanship.
24
25 HOTSPUR: (likes the challenge) O ho!
26
27 VERNON: For God sake, cousin, stay till all come in.
28 These letters come from your father…
29
30 HOTSPUR: Letters from him? Why comes he not himself?
31
32 VERNON: He cannot come, my lord, he is grievous sick.
33
34 HOTSPUR: Zounds, how has he the leisure to be sick
35 In such a jostling time? Who leads his power?
36 He snatches the letter and reads
37
38 VERNON: He writes thee here that inward sickness
39 And that his friends by deputation could not
40 So soon be drawn, nor did he think it meet
41 To lay so dangerous and dear a trust
42 On any soul removed but his own.
43
44 HOTSPUR: Yet doth he give us bold advertisement
45 That with our small conjunction we should on—
46 To see how fortune is disposed to us
47 For as he writes, there is no quailing now,
48 Because the King is certainly possessed
49 Of all our purposes. What say you to it?
HENRY IV 50
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
50
51 WORCESTER: Your father‘s sickness is a maim to us.
52
53 HOTSPUR: A perilous gash, a very limb lopp‘d off,
54 And yet, in faith, it is not! You strain too far.
55 I rather of his absence make this use:
56 It lends a lustre and more great opinion,
57 A larger dare to our great enterprise.
58 We‘ll fight with him tonight.
59
60 WORCESTER: It may not be.
61
62 DOUGLAS: (taking Hotspur‘s side of the argument) You give him then advantage.
63
64 WORCESTER: Not a whit.
65
66 DOUGLAS: Why say you so, looks he not for supply?
67
68 WORCESTER: So do we.
69
70 DOUGLAS: His is certain, ours is doubtful.
71
72 WORCESTER: (to Hotspur) Good cousin, be advised, stir not tonight.
73
74 VERNON: Do not, my lord.
75
76 DOUGLAS: You do not counsel well.
77 You speak it out of fear and cold heart!
78
79 WORCESTER: Do me no slander, Douglas, by my life!
80 Let it be seen tomorrow in the battle
81 Which of us fears!
82
83 DOUGLAS: (goading him) Yea, or tonight.
84
85 VERNON: (peacemaker) Content.
86
87 HOTSPUR: Tonight, say I.
88
89 WORCESTER: The number of the King exceedeth ours!
90
91 HOTSPUR: O gentlemen! The time of life is short.
92 Doomsday is near—die all, die merrily!
93
94 DOUGLAS: Aye!
95
96 HOTSPUR: And if we live, we live to tread on kings.
97 If die, brave death, when princes die with us!
98
99 Sound of distant thunder, wind and rain that carries into the next scene.
100
101
HENRY IV 51
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
102
HENRY IV 52
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
1 Act Two, Scene 5. The King’s Camp Near Shrewsbury
2
3 Trumpet. Enter King Henry, Prince Hal, his brother John, Sir Walter Blunt and Falstaff.
4
5 KING HENRY: How bloodily the sun begins to peer
6 Above yon bulky hill!
7
8 PRINCE HAL: The southern wind
9 Foretells a tempest and a blustering day.
10 KING HENRY: Then with the losers let it sympathize
11 For nothing can seem foul to those that win.
12
13 Exeunt all but Hal and Falstaff.
14
15 FALSTAFF: Hal? If thou see me down in the battle, bestride me…(demonstrates)…so. ‗Tis
16 a point of friendship.
17
18 PRINCE HAL: Nothing but a Colossus can do thee that friendship. Say thy prayers, and
19 farewell.
20
21 FALSTAFF: I would ‗twere bedtime, Hal, and all well.
22
23 PRINCE HAL: (warmly) Why? Thou owest God a death.
24 (Hal offers an affectionate hug or gesture, and exits.)
25
26 FALSTAFF: (laughs, calling after him) ‗Tis not due yet, I would be loath to pay him before
27 his day! (to the audience now) What need I be so forward with Him that calls not on me?
28 Well, ‗tis no matter, honor pricks me on. Yea, but how if honor prick me off when I come on,
29 how then? Can honor set to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound?
30 No! Honor hath no skill in surgery then, no! What is honor? Hm? A word. What is in that
31 word honor? What is that honor? (waits for a response, then) Air! A trim reckoning. Who
32 hath it, he that died a Wednesday! Doth he feel it, no. Doth he hear it, no. ‗Tis insensible,
33 then? Yea, to the dead! But will it not live with the living, no, why? Detraction will not
34 suffer it, therefore, I‘ll none of it. Honor is a mere scutcheon—and so ends my catechism.
35
36
HENRY IV 53
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
1 2) Act Two, Scene 6. The Percy Camp
2
3 DOUGLAS: Arm, gentlemen, to arms, for I have thrown
4 A brave defiance in King Henry‘s teeth!
5
6 HOTSPUR: Arm, arm with speed! And fellows, soldiers, friends,
7 Let each man do his best.
8 Come, let me taste my horse
9 That is to bear me like a thunderbolt
10 Against the bosom of the Prince of Wales.
11
12
13
14
HENRY IV 54
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
1 Act Two, Scene 7. The Battle Sequence.
2
3 Enter the King in all his power; all hell breaks loose. The din of voices and clashing metal is
4 deafening. Falstaff tries to tiptoe off the other way, but hides when he sees Douglas & Blunt.
5
6 Douglas chases down Blunt (who is disguised as the king).
7
8 BLUNT: What is thy name!
9
10 DOUGLAS: Knowst then my name is Douglas
11 And I do haunt thee in the battle thus
12 Because some tell me that thou art a king!
13
14 BLUNT: They tell thee true!
15
16 They fight, and Douglas kills Blunt. Hotspur enters.
17
18 HOTSPUR: O Douglas, hadst thou fought at Holmedon thus
19 I never had triumphed upon a Scot.
20
21 DOUGLAS: All‘s done, all‘s won—here breathless lies the King!
22
23 HOTSPUR: Where?
24
25 DOUGLAS: Here!
26
27 HOTSPUR: This, Douglas? No, I know this face full well;
28 A gallant knight he was, his name was Blunt,
29 Semblably furnished like the king himself.
30
31 DOUGLAS: (shouts at Blunt) Why didst thou tell me that thou wert a king!
32
33 HOTSPUR: The king hath many marching in his coats.
34
35 DOUGLAS: Now by my sword, I will kill all his coats;
36 I‘ll murder all his wardrobe, piece by piece,
37 Until I meet the king!
38
39 HOTSPUR: Up and away!
40
41 They exit amid alarum; re-enter Falstaff from hiding to examine the body.
42
43 FALSTAFF: Soft, who are you? Sir Walter Blunt…? (He recognizes the face, then appeals
44 to the audience) There‘s honor for you! But who comes here?
45
46 Enter Hal.
47
48 PRINCE HAL: (bursts onstage) What, stands thou idle here? Lend me thy sword.
49
HENRY IV 55
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
50 FALSTAFF: My sword? O Hal, I prithee give me leave to breathe awhile…
51
52 PRINCE HAL: Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff
53 Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies
54 Whose deaths are yet unrevenged, I prithee, lend me thy sword!
55
56 FALSTAFF: Nay, before God, Hal, if Percy be alive, thou gets not my sword, but take my
57 pistol if thou wilt.
58
59 PRINCE HAL: Give it me—what, is it in the case?
60
61 FALSTAFF: Ay, Hal, ‗tis hot, ‗tis hot…
62
63 Hal draws it out and finds it to be a bottle of sack.
64
65 FALSTAFF: (laughs uproarously) There‘s that will ―sack‖ a city! Ha ha ha ha! ―Sack? A
66 city…?‖
67
68 PRINCE HAL: What! Is it time to jest and dally now?
69
70 Throws the bottle at him, looks about, then relieves Blunt of his sword.
71
72 FALSTAFF: (shouts at Hal) Well, I like not such grinning ―honor‖ as Sir Walter hath!
73 (Hal rejoins the battles in disgust, and Falstaff calls after him) Give – me – life! (to the
74 audience) Which if I can save, so. If not, honor comes unlooked for and there‘s an end.
75
76 EXIT. Hal receives a wound protecting his brother as the King and Westmoreland enter.
77
78 KING HENRY: I prithee, Harry, withdraw thyself, thou bleed‘st too much.
79 Lord John of Lancaster, go you with him.
80
81 PRINCE JOHN: Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too.
82
83 PRINCE HAL: I beseech your Majesty, make up* *(go to the front)
84 Lest your retirement do amaze your friends.
85
86 KING HENRY: I will do so. My Lord of Westmoreland…?
87
88 WESTMORELAND: Come, my lord, I‘ll lead you to your tent.
89
90 PRINCE HAL: Lead me, my lord? I do not need your help,
91 And God forbid a shallow scratch should drive
92 The Prince of Wales from such a field as this!
93
94 PRINCE JOHN: We breathe too long—come, cousin Westmoreland,
95 Our duty this way lies—for God‘s sake, come!
96
97 Exit Prince John and Westmoreland
98
HENRY IV 56
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
99 PRINCE HAL: Before I loved thee as a brother, John.
100 But now I do respect thee as my soul.
101
102 HAL follows after his brother. Enter DOUGLAS
103
104 DOUGLAS: (to the audience) Another king! They grow like Hydra‘s heads!
105 (to King Henry) I am the Douglas, fatal to all those
106 That wear those colors on them. What art thou
107 That counterfeit‘st the person of a king?
108
109 KING HENRY: The King himself who, Douglas, grieves at heart
110 So many of his shadows thou hast met.
111 I will assay thee, and defend thyself!
112
113 Douglas wards off the King‘s attack like Douglas Fairbanks fencing with a child
114
115 DOUGLAS: (casually) I fear thou art another counterfeit.
116 But mine I am sure thou art, whoe‘er thou be,
117 And thus! (disarms the King) I win thee!
118
119 PRINCE HAL: (just in time!) Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like
120 Never to hold it up again! The spirits
121 Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt are in my arms.
122 It is the Prince of Wales that threatens thee,
123 Who never promiseth but he means to pay.
124
125 They fight. Douglas runs away.
126
127 PRINCE HAL: Cheerly, my lord, how fares your Grace?
128 Sir Nicholas Gawsey hath for succour sent,
129 And so hath Clifton, I‘ll to Clifton straight…
130
131 KING HENRY: Stay and breathe awhile…
132 But it‘s really King Henry who needs a moment to breathe
133 Thou has redeemed thy lost opinion
134 And show‘d thou mak‘st some tender of my life
135 In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me. (He touches his head as if faint…)
136
137 PRINCE HAL: My liege…!
138
139 KING HENRY: (a bit too gruffly) Make up to Clifton. I‘ll to Sir Nicholas Gawsey.
140
141 Hal watches the King exit, frustrated by his own bad reputation.
142
143 PRINCE HAL: … they did me too much injury
144 That ever said I harkened for your death:
145 If it were so, I might have let alone
146 The insulting hand of Douglas over you
147 And saved the treacherous labor of your son!
HENRY IV 57
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
148
149 Enter FALSTAFF
150
151 FALSTAFF: Hal! Turk Gregory never did such deeds as I have done this day.
152 (Brandishing a nasty club) I have paid Percy, I have made him sure!
153
154 PRINCE HAL: He is indeed, and living to kill thee.
155
156 Meanwhile… Hotspur has approached Hal from behind.
157
158 HOTSPUR: If I mistake not—thou art Harry Monmouth.
159
160 PRINCE HAL: Thou speakest as if I would deny my name.
161
162 HOTSPUR: My name is Harry. Percy.
163
164 PRINCE HAL: Why, then I see
165 A very valiant rebel of the name.
166 I am the Prince of Wales. And think not, Percy,
167 To share with me in glory any more.
168
169 FALSTAFF: Well said, Hal.
170
171 PRINCE HAL: Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere,
172 Nor can one England brook a double reign
173 Of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales.
174
175 HOTSPUR: Nor shall it, Harry, for the hour is come
176 To end the one of us.
177 They fight.
178 FALSTAFF: To it, Hal! Nay, you shall find no boy‘s play here, I can tell you! Hal! Hal!
179 Falstaff tries to position himself to club Hotspur if he gets a chance, but DOUGLAS enters
180 behind him. Unwittingly, he accidentally clubs Douglas before Douglas can overtake
181 Falstaff. Falstaff drops the club, and boy, he is in trouble now! Douglas picks up the club to
182 pursue him and Falstaff runs, shortwinded, to the rise behind. A frightened Falstaff actually
183 wrestles the club away from Douglas and is about to brain him when he suddenly is stricken
184 with a heart attack. It looks like the real thing, too—Falstaff drops like a stone. Douglas
185 would finish him off, but Prince John and Westmoreland appear and force him to flee.
186
187 The battle between Hal and Hotspur has reached a crescendo, and Hotspur is run through.
188
189 HOTSPUR: O Harry, thou has robbed me of my youth!
190 I better brook the loss of brittle life
191 Than those proud titles thou hast won of me;
192 They wound my thoughts worse than thy sword my flesh.
193 But thoughts, the slaves of life, and life, time‘s fool,
194 And time, that takes survey of all the world,
195 Must have a stop. O, I could prophesy,
HENRY IV 58
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
196 But that the earthy and cold hand of death
197 Lies on my tongue—no, Percy, thou are dust,
198 And food for— he dies
199
200 PRINCE: For worms, brave Percy. Fare thee well, great heart.
201 Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk!
202 When that this body did contain a spirit,
203 A kingdom for it was too small a bound;
204 But now two paces of the vilest earth
205 Is room enough. This earth that bears thee dead
206 Bears not alive so stout a gentleman.
207 Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven.
208 He spies Falstaff, apparently dead
209 What, old acquaintance, could not all this flesh
210 Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell.
211 I could have better spared a better man:
212 He does straddle him, as Sir Jack had requested
213 Death hath not struck so fat a deer today
214 Though many dearer, in this bloody fray.
215 Embowell‘d will I see thee by and by
216 Till then in blood by noble Percy lie.
217 Exit.
218 Pause. Falstaff springs up suddenly on the word:
219
220 FALSTAFF: Embowelled!? If thou embowel me today, I‘ll give you leave to salt me and
221 eat me too tomorrow. ‗Sblood, ‗twas time to counterfeit, or that hot termagant Scot had paid
222 me, scot and lot too! The better part of valor is discretion! In the which better part, I have
223 saved my life. Zounds, I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead—how if he
224 should counterfeit too and rise? By the faith, I am afraid he would prove the better
225 counterfeit, therefore, I‘ll make him sure—yea, and I‘ll swear I killed him. Why may not he
226 rise as well as I? Nothing confutes me but eyes, and nobody sees me: therefore, sirrah, (stabs
227 him) with a new wound in your thigh, come you along with me.
228 He takes up Hospur on his back.
229 Re-enter PRINCE and his brother, JOHN with SOLDIERS, hooded.
230
231 PRINCE HAL: Come, brother John, full bravely has thou flesh‘d
232 Thy maiden sword.
233
234 JOHN: But soft, whom have we here?
235 Did you not tell me this fat man was dead?
236
237 PRINCE HAL: I did, I saw him dead,
238 Breathless and bleeding on the ground. Art thou alive?
239
240 FALSTAFF: There is Percy (throws body down)! If your father will do me any honor, so.
241 If not, let him kill the next Percy himself.
242
243 PRINCE HAL: Why, Percy I kill‘d myself !
244
HENRY IV 59
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
245 FALSTAFF: Dids‘t thou?
246
247 PRINCE HAL: …and saw thee dead.
248
249 FALSTAFF: Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying!
250
251 JOHN: Lying?
252
253 FALSTAFF: I grant you I was down, and out of breath, and so was he, but we rose both at
254 an instant, and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock…
255
256 JOHN: This is the strangest tale that ever I heard.
257
258 PRINCE: This is the strangest fellow, brother John.
259 a TRUMPET SOUNDS
260 Shh! (to John) The trumpet sounds retreat--the day is ours!
261 Come, brother, let us to the highest of the field
262 To see what friends are living, who are dead.
263
264 FALSTAFF: My lords! (to John) I beseech you give me leave to go
265 Through Gloucestershire, and when you come to court
266 Stand my good lords, pray, in your good report …?
267
268 PRINCE HAL Ha. (to Falstaff) Come, bring your luggage nobly on your back.
269
270 FALSTAFF: (a promise) If I do grow great, I‘ll grow less, for I‘ll purge and leave sack!
271
272 PRINCE HAL: (dubiously) Mmmm hmmm…
273
274 FALSTAFF: …and live cleanly as a nobleman should do!
275
276 HAL: (I can‘t speak for my brother, but…) For my part, if a lie may do thee grace,
277 I‘ll gild it with the happiest terms I have. (He looks at John. How will he respond?)
278
279 JOHN: (a brief look to Prince Hal) Fare you well, Falstaff. I, in my condition
280 Shall speak better of you than you deserve.
281
282 Falstaff kisses both sets of hands before HAL & JOHN cross upstage. Now the soldiers
283 unhood. They are Ancient PISTOL and BARDOLF.
284
285 PISTOL: God save you, Sir John!
286
287 FALSTAFF: (surprised) Welcome, Ancient Pistol! Bardolph!
288
289 PISTOL: These be good humors, indeed!
290
291 FALSTAFF: I look to be an earl or duke, I warrant you.
292
293 PISTOL: Then feed and be fat, my fair Calipolis!
HENRY IV 60
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
294 Come, give us some sack.
295
296 FALSTAFF: O‘ my word, captain, there‘s none such here. For God‘s sake, be quiet.
297
298 KING: Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke!
299
300 ENTER KING HENRY attended; WORCESTER and VERNON enter bound, prisoners of the
301 guard. Hal and John postpone their journey to the ―highest of the field‖ when they hear
302 their father‘s voice.
303
304 KING: Ill-spirited Worcester, did not we send grace,
305 Pardon and terms of love to all of you?
306 And wouldst thou turn our offers contrary?
307 Misuse the tenor of thy kinsman‘s trust?
308
309 WORCESTER: What I have done my safety urged me to
310 and I embrace this fortune patiently.
311
312 KING HENRY: Bear Worcester to the death.
313
314 JOHN: And Vernon too.
315
316 The king discovers his sons, and smiles as John approaches his father.
317
318 KING: The others we will pause upon.
319
320 Exit Worcester & Vernon, attended. The king embraces Prince John
321
322 KING HENRY: John.
323 (to Westmoreland) I saw him hold Lord Percy at the point
324 With lustier maintenance than I did look for
325 Of such an ungrown warrior.
326
327 WESTMORELAND: O, this boy lends mettle to us all!
328 Now, Falstaff, where have you been all this while?
329 When everything is ended, then you come.
330
331 FALSTAFF: I would be sorry, my lord, but it should be thus. Do you think me a swallow?
332 an arrow? or a bullet? I have proceeded hither with the very extremest edge of possibility.
333 Have, in my pure and immaculate valor, taken a most furious knight and valorous enemy. I
334 may justly say, with the hook-nosed fellow of Rome, three words: I came, saw, and overcame.
335
336 KING: (evenly to Falstaff) These tardy tricks of yours will, on my life,
337 one time or other break a gallows‘ back.
338
339 Sir John offers an appropriately groveling bow.
340
341 KING: Then this remains: that we divide our power.
342 (points to Falstaff) You, son John, and Westmoreland
HENRY IV 61
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
343 To th‘ north shall bend you with your dearest speed.
344 Myself—and you, son Harry—will towards Wales.
345
346 (The King strides away; turns, waits for Hal to join him--
347 Exit King and Hal, together)
348
349 JOHN: cheerfully: Well, Falstaff! The King hath severed you and Prince Harry.
350
351 FALSTAFF: Yes, I thank your pretty wit for it.
352 John exits, and Falstaff turns back to his cohorts
353 Prince John of Lancaster. Good faith, this same sober-blooded boy doth not love me, nor a
354 man cannot make him laugh. But that‘s no marvel, he drinks no wine.
355 Falstaff produces another vial of wine.
356 There‘s never any of these demure boys come to any proof, for thin drink doth so over-cool
357 their blood that they are…generally…fools and cowards. Which some of us should be too,
358 but for inflammation.
359 In the background soldiers overhear him, and Falstaff ends up playing the crowd.
360 A good sherry-sack hath a twofold operation in it. It ascends me into the brain, and dries me
361 there all the foolish, dull, and cruddy vapors which environ it. Makes it apprehensive, quick,
362 forgetive, full of nimble, fiery and delectable shapes which, delivered o‘er t the voice, the
363 tongue…becomes excellent wit.
364
365 PISTOL: (as Falstaff serves each a small portion of sack). Excellent wit.
366
367 FALSTAFF: (Fills another cup) The second property of your excellent sherris is the
368 warming of the blood. The sherris warms it and makes it course from the inwards to the parts
369 extremes. And hereof comes it that Prince Harry is valiant! (huzza! from the soldiers) The
370 cold blood he did naturally inherit from his father -- he hath, like lean, sterile, and bare
371 land…(toasts) manured! (he sips). Husbanded. And tilled with excellent endeavor of
372 drinking good and good store of fertile sherris, that he has become very hot and valiant.
373 (a cheer)
374 PISTOL: …valiant…!
375
376 FALSTAFF: If I had a thousand sons, the first humane principle I would teach them would
377 be this: to forswear thin potations, and (another toast) to addict themselves to sack.
378
379 BARDOLPH: (merrily quoting Falstaff‘s earlier promise) ―I‘ll purge!‘ quoth a.
380
381 PISTOL: And leave sack! And live cleanly as a nobleman should do!‖ Ha ha ha!
382
383 FALSTAFF: Wherefore should I? O base nobility, thou art a Satan that would tempt poor
384 men even to suffer virtue in pursuit of thee. Behind me, tempter! Before me: life!
385
386 (b) The gallows doors drop. Vernon and Worcester’s legs shudder a bit, then…
387
388
HENRY IV 62
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
1 Act Two, Scene 8. Before the Boarshead Inn.
2
3 PRINCE HAL: (merrily enough) Does it show vilely in me to desire small beer?
4
5 POINS: Why, a prince should not be so loosely studied as to remember so weak
6 a composition.
7
8 PRINCE HAL: Belike then my appetite was not princely got, for by my troth, I now
9 remember the poor creature: (Enters the establishment, and orders some from Francis)
10 …small beer!
11
12 FRANCIS: (pleased to see Hal, he jokes:) “Anon sir, anon…‖
13
14 PRINCE HAL: (laughs) A crown‘s-worth of good interpretation: there ‗tis, boy.
15 Is your master Falstaff here in London?
16
17 FRANCIS: No, my lord, in Gloucestershire. O! there‘s a letter for you.
18 (he searches behind the bar, and brings it to Hal along with mugs of beer)
19
20 PRINCE: (To Poins) Before God, I am exceeding weary.
21
22 POINS: Is‘t come to that? I had thought weariness durst not have attached one of so
23 high a blood.
24
25 PRINCE: (a little testy) Faith, it does me.
26
27 POINS: (to Francis) Delivered with good respect. How doth Sir John?
28
29 FRANCIS: In bodily health, sir.
30
31 POINS: Marry, the immortal part needs a physician…
32
33 PRINCE HAL: (of the letter he‘s reading) I do allow this wen to be as familiar with me as
34 my dog, and he holds his place, for look you how he writes:
35
36 POINS: ( read)s: ‗John Falstaff, knight…‘ Every man must know that as oft as he has
37 occasion to name himself!
38
39 PRINCE HAL: (from memory) ―SIR John Falstaff, knight, to the son of the king nearest his
40 father, Harry, Prince of Wales, greeting…‖
41
42 POINS: Why, this is certificate.
43
44 PRINCE HAL: Peace. (Somberly signals Poins to read on.)
45
46 POINS: ((reading) ‗Be not too familiar with Poins. For he misuses thy favors so much that
47 he swears thou art to marry his sister Nell.‘ (uncomfortable pause) My lord, I‘ll steep this
48 letter in sack and make him eat it. (suddenly to Francis) Away, you whoreson upright rabbit,
49 away!
HENRY IV 63
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
50
51 PRINCE HAL: (to Francis) Fare you well. Go.
52 •Exit Francis. Poins knows his Prince is displeased.
53 Do you use me thus, Ned? Must I marry your sister?
54
55 POINS: God send the wench no worse fortune, but I never said so! Tell me, how many good
56 young princes would talk so idly, their fathers being so sick as yours at this time is.
57
58 PRINCE HAL: Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins?
59
60 POINS: Yea, faith, and let it be an excellent good thing.
61
62 PRINCE HAL: I tell thee my heart bleeds inwardly that my father is so sick; and keeping
63 such vile company as thou art hath in reason taken from me all ostentation of sorrow.
64
65 POINS: The reason?
66
67 PRINCE HAL: What woulds‘t thou think of me if I should weep?
68
69 POINS: I would think thee a most princely hypocrite.
70
71 PRINCE HAL: … and what accites your most worshipful thought to think so?
72
73 POINS: (honestly) Why, because you have been so lewd, and so much engraffed to Falstaff.
74
75 PRINCE HAL: And—to thee!
76
77 POINS: By this light, I am well spoke on. I can hear it with my own ears. The worst that
78 they can say of me is that I am a second brother, and that I am a proper fellow of my hands,
79 and those two things I confess I cannot help.
80
81 PRINCE HAL: Well—thus we play the fools with the time, and the spirits of the wise sit in
82 the clouds and mock us.
83
84 Makes a decision not to finish off his draft, and exits. Lights fade on Poins.
85
86
87
88
HENRY IV 64
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
1 Section 1.02 Act Two, Scene 10
2
3 Sound of laughter. Enter the King, Westmoreland, Warwick, and John
4
5 KING: (Laughing with his lords) O Westmoreland, thou art a summer bird,
6 Which ever in the haunch of winter sings
7 The lifting up of day.
8
9 WESTMORELAND: To comfort you the more, I have received
10 A certain instance that Glendower is dead. (a murmur of approval from all)
11 There is not now a rebel‘s sword unsheathed
12 But peace puts forth her olive everywhere.
13
14 WARWICK: (a toast) Health to my sovereign, and new happiness!
15
16 ―Here, here!‖ But the king drops his glass.
17
18 WARWICK: Please it your grace
19 To go to bed. Upon my life, my lord,
20 Your majesty hath been this fortnight ill,
21 And these unseasoned hours must perforce add
22 Unto your sickness.
23
24 KING: But wherefore should these good news make me sick?
25 (to John) O me, come near me now, now I am much ill. (Seizure)
26
27 JOHN: Comfort your majesty. O my royal father!
28
29 WESTMORELAND: Stand from him, give him air; he‘ll straight be well.
30 Be patient, lords. You do know these fits
31 Are with his Highness very ordinary.
32
33 PRINCE JOHN: No! No, he cannot long hold out these pangs.
34
35 WARWICK: Speak lower, princes, for the king recovers…
36
37 KING: Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends,
38 Unless some dull and favorable hand
39 Will whisper music to my weary spirit.
40
41 WARWICK: Call for the music in the other room.
42
43 KING: Set me the crown upon my pillow here.
44
45 JOHN: His eye is hollow, and he changes much.
46
47 WARWICK: Less noise, less noise…
48
49 Enter Hal
HENRY IV 65
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
50
51 PRINCE HAL: (upbeat) Who saw the prince my brother?
52
53 (Pause. No one is too pleased to see Hal right now. They perhaps wonder if he‘s drunk.)
54
55 PRINCE JOHN: I am here, brother, full of heaviness.
56
57 PRINCE HAL: How now, rain within doors, and none abroad? How doth the king?
58
59 WARWICK: Exceeding ill.
60
61 HAL: Heard he the good news yet? Tell it him.
62
63 WARWICK: He altered much on hearing it.
64
65 HAL: If he be sick with joy, he‘ll recover without physic!
66
67 WARWICK: Sweet prince, speak low. The king your father is disposed to sleep.
68
69 JOHN: Let us withdraw into the other room.
70
71 WESTMORELAND: Will it please your grace to go along with us?
72
73 HAL: No, I will sit and watch here by the king.
74 (Sweet music is heard. Reluctantly, they leave)
75 Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow
76 Being so troublesome a bedfellow?
77 (He smiles as he picks up the crown, but looking toward his father, he grows concerned.)
78 By his gates of breath
79 There lies a downy feather which stirs not…
80 Did he suspire, that light and weightless down
81 Perforce must move! My gracious lord, my father!
82 This sleep is sound indeed, this is a sleep
83 That from this golden circle hath divorced
84 So many English kings. Thy due from me
85 Is tears and heavy sorrows of the blood
86 Which nature, love, and filial tenderness
87 Shall, O dear father, pay thee plenteously.
88 My due from thee is this imperial crown;
89 Lo, where it sits— (placing it above his head) … Which God shall guard:
90 and put the world‘s whole strength
91 Into one giant arm, it shall not force
92 This lineal honor from me.
93
94 He lowers the crown onto his head. He quivers under its gravity, momentarily certain that he
95 will not be up to the challenge of wearing it. The moment passes, though, and he pauses to
96 kiss the king‘s forehead before he exits.
97
98 KING: (suddenly awakening) Warwick, Glouster, John!
99
HENRY IV 66
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
100 JOHN: Doth the king call?
101
102 WARWICK: What would your majesty?
103
104 KING: Why did you leave me here alone, my lords?
105
106 JOHN: We left the prince my brother here, my liege,
107 Who undertook to sit and watch by you.
108
109 KING: The Prince of Wales? Where is he? Let me see him. / He is not here.
110
111 WESTMORELAND This door is open. He is gone this way.
112
113 KING: Where is the crown? Who took it from my pillow?
114
115 WARWICK: When we withdrew, my liege, we left it there.
116
117 KING: The prince hath ta‘en it hence. Go seek him out.
118 Exit Westmoreland
119 KING: Is he so hasty, that he doth suppose my sleep my death?
120 (shouts after him) Find him, my Lord Westmoreland, chide him hither.
121 (to John) This part of his conjoins with my disease
122 And helps to end me. See, sons, what things you are,
123 How quickly Nature falls into revolt
124 When gold becomes her object.
125 (Shouts toward Westmoreland) Now where is he that will not stay so long
126 Till his friend sickness hath determined me?
127
128 Re-enter Westmoreland
129
130 WESTMORELAND: My lord, I found the prince in the next room
131 Washing with kindly tears his gentle cheeks.
132 He gives way, and Hal enters.
133
134 KING: Depart the chamber, leave us here alone.
135
136 All leave but King Henry & son. Hal, calm and powerful now, is able to comfort the King
137 much as Michael Corleone, late in the film “The Godfather,” comforts the old Don.
138
139 PRINCE HAL: I never thought to hear you speak again.
140
141 KING: Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.
142 I stay too long by thee. I weary thee.
143 What! canst thou not forbear me half an hour?
144
145 HAL: O pardon me, my liege. There is your crown--
146
147 KING: O foolish you! Thou seek‘st the greatness that will overwhelm thee.
148
149 HAL: God witness with me, when I here came in,
HENRY IV 67
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
150 Coming to look on you, thinking you dead,
151 And dead almost, my liege, to think you were—
152 I put it on my head—
153
154 KING: Harry the Fifth is crown‘d – up, vanity!
155 Down, royal state! all you sage counsellors, hence!
156
157 HAL: (more calmly still) Accusing it, I put it on my head,
158 To try with it—as with an enemy
159 That had before my face murdered my father,
160 But if it did infect my blood with joy,
161 Or swell my thoughts to any strain of pride,
162 Let God for ever keep it from my head.
163
164 KING: (beat) God put in thy mind to take it hence
165 That thou mightst win the more thy father‘s love.
166 (Hal sits next to him) …
167 How I came by the crown, O God forgive,
168 And grant it may with thee in true peace live.
169
170 HAL: You won it, wore it, kept it, gave it me;
171 Then plain and right must my possession be.
172
173 KING: (Bids Hal lean in closer:)
174 Be it thy course to busy giddy minds
175 With foreign quarrels. That action hence borne out
176 May waste the memory of thy former days.
177 Hal nods gravely.
178 Enter Lord JOHN of Lancaster.
179
180 KING: Look, look, here comes my John of Lancaster.
181
182 JOHN: Health, peace and happiness to my royal father.
183
184 KING: Thou bring‘st me happiness and peace, son John.
185 Doth any name particular belong
186 Unto the lodging where I first did swoon?
187
188 JOHN: ‗Tis called Jerusalem, my noble Lord.
189
190 KING: (He laughs at the delicious irony) Laud be to God, even there my life must end.
191 It hath been prophesied to me, many years,
192 Which vainly, I had supposed the Holy Land.
193 But bear me to that chamber, there I‘ll lie,
194 In that Jerusalem shall Harry die.
195
196 Exeunt, with the King, almost cheerful now, leading the way under his own power.
197
HENRY IV 68
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
198 The song that the madrigals have been quietly intoning in the background morphs now into
199 the naughty little song that SILENCE sings as he enters the next scene.
200
201
HENRY IV 69
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
1 Act Two, Scene 11
2
3 Enter Falstaff, Bardolph, Shallow, Silence, & Davy.
4
5 SHALLOW: Davy, some wine! Ha, cousin Silence, that thou hadst seen that that this knight
6 and I have seen! Ha, Sir John, said I well?
7
8 FALSTAFF: We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow.
9
10 SHALLOW: That we have, that we have, that we have; in faith, Sir John, we have! Do you
11 remember since we lay all night in the windmill in St. George‘s field?
12
13 FALSTAFF: embarrassed No more of that, good Master Shallow, no more of that.
14
15 SHALLOW: Ha, ‗twas a merry night. And is Jane Nightwork alive?
16
17 FALSTAFF: Old, old, Master Shallow.
18
19 SHALLOW: Nay she must be old, she cannot choose but be old; certain she‘s old. That was
20 55 years ago. And to think how many of my old acquaintances are dead!
21
22 SILENCE: Truly, cousin, we shall all follow.
23
24 SHALLOW: Certain, ‗tis certain, very sure, very sure. Death, as the psalmist saith, is
25 certain to all—all shall die. (gaily) I remember at Mile-end Green—when I lay at Clement‘s
26 Inn—there was a little quiver fellow, and he would manage you his piece thus: and he would
27 about and about and come you in and come you in, ―rah, tah, tah,‖ would he say, ―bounce‖
28 would he say, and away again would he go, and again would he come—I shall never see such
29 a fellow, do you remember? Dead. Is old Double of your town living yet?
30
31 SILENCE: Dead, sir.
32
33 SHALLOW: Jesu, Jesu, dead? He drew a good bow—and dead? He shot a fine shoot—
34 John o‘ Gaunt loved him well, and betted much money on his head. Dead?
35
36 SILENCE: Dead.
37
38 SHALLOW: Mm. (beat) Is old Double dead?
39
40 FALSTAFF: (roars with finality) Dead! Davy!
41
42 DAVY: Your worship, I‘ll be with you straight—a cup of wine, sir!
43
44 SHALLOW: Why, there spoke a king. Lack nothing, be merry. Look who‘s at the door
45 there, ho, who knocks?
46 Davy runs to see
47 Enter PISTOL
48
49 FALSTAFF: How now, Pistol!
HENRY IV 70
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
50
51 PISTOL: Sir John, God save you.
52
53 FALSTAFF: What wind blew you hither, Pistol?
54
55 PISTOL: Not the ill wind which blows no man to good. Sweet knight, thou art now one of
56 the greatest men in the realm.
57
58 SILENCE: (a joke) By‘r lady, I think he be, Goodman Puff.
59
60 PISTOL: Puff! Puff in thy teeth,most recreant coward base!
61 Sir John, I am thy Pistol and thy friend.
62 And helter-skelter have I rode to thee
63 And tidings do I bring, and lucky joys,
64 And golden times, and happy news of price.
65 Sir John, thy tender lambkin now is king.
66
67 FALSTAFF: Ha?
68
69 PISTOL: Harry the Fifth‘s the man! I speak the truth.
70
71 FALSTAFF: What, is the old king dead?
72
73 PISTOL: As nail in door.
74
75 FALSTAFF: Away, Bardolph, saddle my horse. Master Robert Shallow, choose what office
76 thou wilt in the land—‗tis thine.
77
78 BARDOLPH: O joyful day!
79
80 PISTOL: What, do I bring good news?
81
82 FALSTAFF: Carry Master Silence to bed. Master Shallow, my Lord Shallow, be what thou
83 wilt, I am fortune‘s steward. Get on thy boots, we‘ll ride all night. O, sweet Pistol! Away,
84 Bardolph. (EXIT BARDOLPH) Come, Pistol, utter more to me, and withal devise something
85 to do thyself good. Boot, boot, Master Shallow! I know the young king is sick for me. Let us
86 take any man‘s horses; the laws of England are at my commandment! Blessed are they that
87 have been my friends, and woe to my Lord Chief Justice!
88 (Exeunt)
89
HENRY IV 71
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
1 a) Act Two, Scene 12
2
3 Enter Chief Justice Warwick. He passes by Westmoreland, who stops him with…
4
5 WESTMORELAND: (a greeting) My Lord Chief Justice…
6
7 WARWICK: How doth the king?
8
9 WESTMORELAND: Exceeding well. His cares are now all ended.
10
11 WARWICK: I hope not dead. (Pause)
12 I would his majesty had call‘d me with him.
13 The service that I truly did his life
14 Hath left me open to all injuries.
15
16 WESTMORELAND: Indeed I think the young king loves us not.
17 And you of all—the least.
18
19 WARWICK: Westmoreland, what I did, I did in honor,
20 Led by th‘impartial conduct of my soul.
21
22 WESTMORELAND: Here comes the prince.
23
24 Enter KING HENRY V
25
26 WESTMORELAND: Good morrow; and God save your majesty!
27
28 ALL: God save your majesty.
29
30 HENRY V: This new and generous garment, majesty,
31 Sits not so easy on me as you think.
32 You all look strangely on me
33 (to Warwick) —and you most.
34 You are, I think, assured I love you not.
35
36 WARWICK: I am assured, if I be measured rightly,
37 Your majesty hath no just cause to hate me.
38
39 HENRY V: No? how might a prince of my great hopes forget
40 So great indignities you laid upon me?
41 What! rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison
42 Th‘immediate heir of England? Was this easy?
43
44 WARWICK: (with unruffled dignity) I then did use the person of your father;
45 And in the administration of his law,
46 Your highness pleased to forget my place,
47 The image of the king whom I presented.
48 Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours:
49 Be now the father, and propose a son—
HENRY IV 72
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
50 Behold yourself so by a son disdain‘d;
51 Hear your own dignity so much profaned,
52 See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted
53 And then imagine me taking your part,
54 And, in your power, soft silencing your son.
55
56 HENRY V: My Lord Chief Justice, you did commit me,
57 For which, I do commit into your hand
58 Th‘unstained sword that you have used to bear;
59 With this remembrance: that you use the same
60 With the like bold, just, and impartial spirit
61 As you have done ‗gainst me. There is my hand.
62 You shall be as a father to my youth.
63 And I will stoop and humble my intents
64 To your well-practised wise directions.
65 And nobles all, believe me, I beseech you:
66 You weep that Harry‘s dead, and so do I;
67 But Harry lives that shall convert those tears
68 By number into hours of happiness…
69 To mock the expectation of the world.
70
71 (Music. Ceremony. Enter Falstaff, Shallow, Pistol, Bardolph, and Francis)
72
73 FALSTAFF: No price nor peer shall have just cause to say, ―God shorten Harry‘s happy life
74 one day!‖ Stand here by me, Master Robert Shallow; I will make the king do you grace: I
75 will leer upon him as he comes by; and do but mark the countenance that he will give me.
76
77 PISTOL: God bless thy lungs, good knight.
78
79 FALSTAFF: Come here, Pistol; stand behind me! (to Shallow) O, if I had had time to have
80 made new liveries, I would have bestow‘d the thousand pound I borrow‘d of you. But ‗tis no
81 matter; this poor doth show better—this doth infer the zeal I had to see him…
82
83 SHALLOW: It doth so.
84
85 FALSTAFF: It shows my earnestness of affection…
86
87 SHALLOW: It doth so.
88
89 FALSTAFF: My devotion—
90
91 SHALLOW: It doth, it doth, it doth.
92
93 FALSTAFF: As it were, to ride day and night, and not to deliberate, not to remember, not to
94 have patience to shift me…
95
96 SHALLOW: It is best, certain.
97
HENRY IV 73
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
98 FALSTAFF: But to stand stain‘d with travel, and sweating with desire to see him; thinking
99 of nothing else, putting all affairs else in oblivion, as if there were nothing else to be done but
100 to see him.
101
102 SHALLOW: ‗Tis so indeed.
103
104 Trumpets; Enter KING and train, Chief Justice among them.
105
106 ALL: God save the King!
107
108 FALSTAFF: God save thy Grace, King Hal! my royal Hal!
109
110 PISTOL: The heavens guard thee and keep, most royal imp of fame!
111
112 FALSTAFF: God save thee, my sweet boy!
113
114 HENRY V: My Lord Chief Justice, speak to that vain man.
115
116 CHIEF JUSTICE: Have you your wits? Know you what ‗tis you speak?
117
118 FALSTAFF: My king! my Jove! I speak to thee, my heart!
119
120 HENRY V: I know thee not, old man. Fall to thy prayers.
121 Presume not that I am the thing I was.
122 For God doth know, and shall the world perceive
123 That I have turn‘d away my former self;
124 So will I those that kept me company.
125 When thou dost hear I am as I have been,
126 Approach me, and thou shalt be as thou wast.
127 The tutor and the feeder of my riots.
128 Till then, I banish thee, on pain of death—
129 As I have done the rest of my misleaders—
130 Not to come near our person by ten mile.
131 For competence of life I will allow you
132 That lack of means enforce you not to evil;
133 And as we hear you do reform yourselves,
134 We will, according to your strength and qualities,
135 Give you advancement. (to JUSTICE) Be it your charge, my lord
136 To see perform‘d the tenor of our word.
137 Set on.
138 (Exeunt KING and TRAIN)
139
140 FALSTAFF: Master Shallow, I owe you a thousand pound.
141
142 SHALLOW: Yea, marry, Sir John; which I beseech you to let me have home with me.
143
144 FALSTAFF: That can hardly be, Master Shallow. Do not you grieve at this; I shall be sent
145 for in private to him. Look you, he must seem thus to the world. Fear not your advancements,
146 I will be the man yet that shall make you great.
HENRY IV 74
Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Acting Script
147
148 SHALLOW: I cannot well perceive how, unless you should give me your doublet, and stuff
149 me out with straw. I beseech you, good Sir John, let me have five hundred of my thousand.
150
151 FALSTAFF: Sir, I will be good as my word: this that you heard was but a color.
152
153 SHALLOW: A color that I fear you will die in, Sir John. (He exits)
154
155 FALSTAFF: Fear no colors: go with me to dinner, come, Lieutenant Pistol—come,
156 Bardolph—come boy, I shall be sent for soon at night.
157
158 Falstaff is alone onstage for a long and terrible moment.
159
160 Pistol returns to hand Falstaff a mug of ale. Falstaff hesitates, but he accepts it. They laugh.
161 The bad old boys still have each other.
162
163 Blackout.
164
165
166
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