Act 3, Scene 2

London. A Room in the Palace.

[Enter King Henry, Prince Henry, and Lords.]
King Henry IV
1604 Lords, give us leave; the Prince of Wales and I
1605 Must have some private conference: but be near at hand,
1606 For we shall presently have need of you.
[Exeunt Lords.]
King Henry IV
1607 I know not whether God will have it so,
1608 For some displeasing service I have done,
1609 That, in His secret doom, out of my blood
1610 He'll breed revengement and a scourge for me;
1611 But thou dost, in thy passages of life,
1612 Make me believe that thou art only mark'd
1613 For the hot vengeance and the rod of Heaven
1614 To punish my mistreadings. Tell me else,
1615 Could such inordinate and low desires,
1616 Such poor, such base, such lewd, such mean attempts,
1617 Such barren pleasures, rude society,
1618 As thou art match'd withal and grafted to,
1619 Accompany the greatness of thy blood,
1620 And hold their level with thy princely heart?
Prince Hal
1621 So please your Majesty, I would I could
1622 Quit all offences with as clear excuse
1623 As well as I am doubtless I can purge
1624 Myself of many I am charged withal:
1625 Yet such extenuation let me beg,
1626 As, in reproof of many tales devised
1627 By smiling pick-thanks and base news-mongers,—
1628 Which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear,—
1629 I may, for some things true, wherein my youth
1630 Hath faulty wander'd and irregular,
1631 Find pardon on my true submission.
King Henry IV
1632 God pardon thee! Yet let me wonder, Harry,
1633 At thy affections, which do hold a wing
1634 Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors.
1635 Thy place in Council thou hast rudely lost,
1636 Which by thy younger brother is supplied;
1637 And art almost an alien to the hearts
1638 Of all the Court and princes of my blood:
1639 The hope and expectation of thy time
1640 Is ruin'd; and the soul of every man
1641 Prophetically does forethink thy fall.
1642 Had I so lavish of my presence been,
1643 So common-hackney'd in the eyes of men,
1644 So stale and cheap to vulgar company,
1645 Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
1646 Had still kept loyal to possession,
1647 And left me in reputeless banishment,
King Henry IV
1648 A fellow of no mark nor likelihood.
1649 By being seldom seen, I could not stir
1650 But, like a comet, I was wonder'd at;
1651 That men would tell their children, This is he;
1652 Others would say, Where, which is Bolingbroke?
1653 And then I stole all courtesy from Heaven,
1654 And dress'd myself in such humility,
1655 That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts,
1656 Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths,
1657 Even in the presence of the crowned King.
1658 Thus did I keep my person fresh and new;
1659 My presence, like a robe pontifical,
1660 Ne'er seen but wonder'd at: and so my state,
1661 Seldom but sumptuous, showed like a feast,
1662 And won by rareness such solemnity.
1663 The skipping King, he ambled up and down
1664 With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits,
1665 Soon kindled and soon burnt; carded his state,
1666 Mingled his royalty, with capering fools;
1667 Had his great name profaned with their scorns;
1668 And gave his countenance, against his name,
1669 To laugh at gibing boys, and stand the push
1670 Of every beardless vain comparative;
1671 Grew a companion to the common streets,
1672 Enfeoff'd himself to popularity;
1673 That, being dally swallow'd by men's eyes,
1674 They surfeited with honey, and began
1675 To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little
1676 More than a little is by much too much.
1677 So, when he had occasion to be seen,
1678 He was but as the cuckoo is in June,
1679 Heard, not regarded; seen, but with such eyes
1680 As, sick and blunted with community,
1681 Afford no extraordinary gaze,
1682 Such as is bent on sun-like majesty
1683 When it shines seldom in admiring eyes;
1684 But rather drowsed, and hung their eyelids down,
1685 Slept in his face, and render'd such aspect
1686 As cloudy men use to their adversaries,
1687 Being with his presence glutted, gorged, and full.
1688 And in that very line, Harry, stand'st thou;
1689 For thou hast lost thy princely privilege
1690 With vile participation: not an eye
1691 But is a-weary of thy common sight,
1692 Save mine, which hath desired to see thee more;
1693 Which now doth that I would not have it do,
1694 Make blind itself with foolish tenderness.
Prince Hal
1695 I shall hereafter, my thrice-gracious lord,
1696 Be more myself.
King Henry IV
1697 For all the world,
1698 As thou art to this hour, was Richard then
1699 When I from France set foot at Ravenspurg;
1700 And even as I was then is Percy now.
1701 Now, by my sceptre, and my soul to boot,
1702 He hath more worthy interest to the state
1703 Than thou, the shadow of succession;
1704 For, of no right, nor colour like to right,
1705 He doth fill fields with harness in the realm,
1706 Turns head against the lion's armed jaws;
1707 And, being no more in debt to years than thou,
1708 Leads ancient lords and reverend bishops on
1709 To bloody battles and to bruising arms.
1710 What never-dying honour hath he got
1711 Against renowned Douglas! whose high deeds,
1712 Whose hot incursions, and great name in arms,
1713 Holds from all soldiers chief majority
1714 And military title capital
1715 Through all the kingdoms that acknowledge Christ:
1716 Thrice hath this Hotspur, Mars in swathing-clothes,
1717 This infant warrior, in his enterprises
1718 Discomfited great Douglas; ta'en him once,
1719 Enlarged him, and made a friend of him,
1720 To fill the mouth of deep defiance up,
1721 And shake the peace and safety of our throne.
1722 And what say you to this? Percy, Northumberland,
1723 Th' Archbishop's Grace of York, Douglas, and Mortimer
1724 Capitulate against us, and are up.
1725 But wherefore do I tell these news to thee?
1726 Why, Harry, do I tell thee of my foes,
1727 Which art my near'st and dearest enemy?
1728 Thou that art like enough,—through vassal fear,
1729 Base inclination, and the start of spleen,—
1730 To fight against me under Percy's pay,
1731 To dog his heels, and curtsy at his frowns,
1732 To show how much thou art degenerate.
Prince Hal
1733 Do not think so; you shall not find it so:
1734 And God forgive them that so much have sway'd
1735 Your Majesty's good thoughts away from me!
1736 I will redeem all this on Percy's head,
1737 And, in the closing of some glorious day,
1738 Be bold to tell you that I am your son;
1739 When I will wear a garment all of blood,
1740 And stain my favour in a bloody mask,
1741 Which, wash'd away, shall scour my shame with it:
1742 And that shall be the day, whene'er it lights,
1743 That this same child of honour and renown,
1744 This gallant Hotspur, this all-praised knight,
1745 And your unthought-of Harry, chance to meet.
1746 For every honour sitting on his helm,
1747 Would they were multitudes, and on my head
1748 My shames redoubled! for the time will come,
1749 That I shall make this northern youth exchange
1750 His glorious deeds for my indignities.
1751 Percy is but my factor, good my lord,
1752 T' engross up glorious deeds on my behalf;
1753 And I will call hall to so strict account,
1754 That he shall render every glory up,
1755 Yea, even the slightest worship of his time,
1756 Or I will tear the reckoning from his heart.
1757 This, in the name of God, I promise here:
1758 The which if I perform, and do survive,
1759 I do beseech your Majesty, may salve
1760 The long-grown wounds of my intemperance:
1761 If not, the end of life cancels all bands;
1762 And I will die a hundred thousand deaths
1763 Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow.
King Henry IV
1764 A hundred thousand rebels die in this.
1765 Thou shalt have charge and sovereign trust herein.—
[Enter Sir Walter Blunt.]
King Henry IV
1766 How now, good Blunt! thy looks are full of speed.
Sir Walter Blunt
1767 So is the business that I come to speak of.
1768 Lord Mortimer of Scotland hath sent word
1769 That Douglas and the English rebels met
Sir Walter Blunt
1770 Th' eleventh of this month at Shrewsbury:
1771 A mighty and a fearful head they are,
1772 If promises be kept on every hand,
1773 As ever offer'd foul play in a State.
King Henry IV
1774 The Earl of Westmoreland set forth to-day;
1775 With him my son, Lord John of Lancaster;
1776 For this advertisement is five days old.
1777 On Wednesday next you, Harry, shall set forward;
1778 On Thursday we ourselves will march:
1779 Our meeting is Bridgenorth: and, Harry, you
1780 Shall march through Glostershire; by which account,
1781 Our business valued, some twelve days hence
1782 Our general forces at Bridgenorth shall meet.
1783 Our hands are full of business: let's away;
1784 Advantage feeds him fat, while men delay.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 1609archaic vocab
“in His secret doom, out of my blood”
'Doom' here means a judgment or sentence decreed by God, not destruction in the modern sense. King Henry fears that God has secretly decreed that his own bloodline will become the instrument of divine punishment for the wrongs Henry committed in seizing the crown.
TLN 1613biblical allusion
“the hot vengeance and the rod of Heaven”
The 'rod of Heaven' is God's instrument of punishment — the biblical image of a rod or scourge God sends to chastise the wicked. Henry fears Prince Hal has been appointed by God as this punishing rod, sent to afflict Henry for his usurpation of Richard II.
TLN 1627archaic vocab
“smiling pick-thanks and base news-mongers”
A 'pick-thank' is a flatterer or informer — someone who curries favor by carrying tales to a superior. 'News-mongers' are gossips or rumor-peddlers. Prince Hal argues that many of the stories reaching the King about his wayward behavior come from self-serving courtiers trying to ingratiate themselves by reporting — and embellishing — bad news about the prince.
TLN 1643archaic vocab
“So common-hackney'd in the eyes of men, / So stale and cheap to vulgar company”
'Hackney'd' means hired out, worn out by common use — from the hackney horse, a horse let out for hire to anyone. 'Vulgar' means common or ordinary people, not shameful (its modern sense). Henry is saying that Richard II made himself as cheap and available as a hired horse, overexposed to ordinary crowds, which destroyed the mystique of royalty.
TLN 1650historical topical
“like a comet, I was wonder'd at”
Comets were regarded in Elizabethan England as extraordinary signs in the heavens, portending great events — war, plague, the death of kings. Henry says that his rare public appearances made him a wonder like a comet: people stopped and pointed. The image also carries an undercurrent of dread, since comets were ominous.
TLN 1653historical topical
“I stole all courtesy from Heaven, / And dress'd myself in such humility, / That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts”
Henry says he 'stole' courtesy from Heaven — meaning he borrowed or assumed the condescending grace of a monarch chosen by God. He performed humility so convincingly that he won the people's love away from the reigning King Richard II. The word 'stole' is revealing: Henry admits the divine sanction was not rightfully his.
historical The divine right of kings
TLN 1659historical topical
“like a robe pontifical, / Ne'er seen but wonder'd at”
A 'robe pontifical' is the ceremonial vestment of a bishop or pope ('pontiff'), brought out only for the most solemn occasions. Henry compares his carefully rationed royal presence to a bishop's most magnificent robes — items so rarely displayed that they are always objects of awe whenever they appear.
TLN 1663historical topical
“The skipping King, he ambled up and down / With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits, / Soon kindled and soon burnt; carded his state”
The 'skipping King' is Richard II, Henry's predecessor and the king he deposed. 'Bavin wits' are people as flimsy and quick-burning as bavin — bundles of small brushwood used only to kindle a fire. 'Carded his state' means he adulterated or degraded his royal dignity, as a cloth-maker cards (combs) wool by mixing in inferior fibers.
historical Holinshed's Chronicles
TLN 1672archaic vocab
“Enfeoff'd himself to popularity”
To 'enfeoff' (pronounced 'in-FEF') is a legal term from the feudal land system: to give someone possession of land with all its rights and obligations. Henry says Richard made himself the permanent property of the common crowd — surrendered his royal independence to the mob as absolutely as a lord grants land to a vassal.
TLN 1674rhetorical device
“They surfeited with honey, and began / To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little / More than a little is by much too much”
Henry uses the saying that too much of a sweet thing turns to disgust, then tightens it into a paradox: 'a little / More than a little is by much too much.' The final line is a deliberate rhetorical turn -- an epigram or sententia (a terse, memorable saying) meant to stamp the lesson in memory. Excess destroys not just satisfaction but the taste itself.
TLN 1678cultural context
“he was but as the cuckoo is in June, / Heard, not regarded; seen, but with such eyes / As, sick and blunted with community”
The cuckoo calls loudly and distinctively in spring (April-May), when it arrives from Africa, and is greeted with delight as a sign of the season; by June it is still calling, but people have stopped noticing. Henry uses it to describe how Richard's constant presence made people tune him out the way they tune out a familiar bird-call. 'Community' here means familiarity, over-exposure.
TLN 1699historical topical
“from France set foot at Ravenspurg”
Ravenspurgh (modern Spurn Head, Yorkshire) was the landing point on the north-east coast of England where Henry Bolingbroke came ashore in July 1399 after his exile in France, to begin the campaign that ended with his seizing the crown from Richard II. Henry is recalling the moment his usurpation began.
historical The great chain of being (order and degree)
TLN 1716classical allusion
“this Hotspur, Mars in swathing-clothes, / This infant warrior”
Mars was the Roman god of war -- the most feared and honored of battlefield deities. 'Swathing-clothes' are swaddling bands used to wrap a newborn infant tightly. Henry is calling Hotspur 'Mars still in his cradle': a war-god not yet fully grown but already terrifying. The hyperbole sets up the contrast with Prince Hal, who despite his age is doing nothing martial at all.
TLN 1724archaic vocab
“Capitulate against us, and are up”
'Capitulate' here does not mean 'surrender' (its modern meaning). In Elizabethan usage it means to draw up or agree to terms and articles — to form a formal covenant or league. The rebels have signed a compact of articles against the King and risen in arms ('are up').
TLN 1751archaic vocab
“Percy is but my factor, good my lord, / T' engross up glorious deeds on my behalf”
A 'factor' is a business agent who trades or collects goods on behalf of a principal employer. To 'engross' is to buy up wholesale, to accumulate in bulk. Prince Hal casts Hotspur as his commercial agent, stockpiling honor and glory that Hal will then claim by defeating him. The metaphor treats battlefield glory as a tradeable commodity.
TLN 1761archaic vocab
“the end of life cancels all bands”
'Bands' are bonds — legal obligations, written contracts. To 'cancel' a bond was to cross it through or cut it (literally scoring the document). Hal is saying that if he fails to keep his vow, death will at least wipe out all debts and promises, since no obligations survive the grave.
TLN 1784rhetorical device
“Advantage feeds him fat, while men delay”
Henry closes the scene with a sententious proverb: opportunity grows stronger while the cautious hesitate. 'Feeds him fat' means fattens the enemy's strength (as livestock are fattened for slaughter). This type of clinching maxim — a sententia — was standard for ending a scene, sending the audience away with a moral in mind.