Original Text |
Translated Text |
| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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Enter the Archbishop of York, Mowbray, Lord
Bardolph, Hastings, and their officers within the Forest
of Gaultree. ARCHBISHOP What is this forest called? HASTINGS
’Tis Gaultree Forest, an ’t shall please your Grace. ARCHBISHOP
Here stand, my lords, and send discoverers forth
To know the numbers of our enemies. HASTINGS
We have sent forth already. 5 ARCHBISHOP ’Tis well done.
My friends and brethren in these great affairs,
I must acquaint you that I have received
New-dated letters from Northumberland,
Their cold intent, tenor, and substance, thus: 10
Here doth he wish his person, with such powers
As might hold sortance with his quality,
The which he could not levy; whereupon
He is retired, to ripe his growing fortunes,
To Scotland, and concludes in hearty prayers 15
That your attempts may overlive the hazard
And fearful meeting of their opposite. MOWBRAY
Thus do the hopes we have in him touch ground
And dash themselves to pieces. | In Gaultree Forest in Yorkshire, the rebels have gathered in anticipation of a showdown with the king's forces. The Archbishop of York gives orders for the other rebel leaders to send out some scouts to find out how many troops the king's army (led by Prince John) has amassed. Hastings says they've already done so. York tells the other leaders that he received a letter from Northumberland, which says something like this: "Sorry, but I won't be partaking in the rumble with the king. I'm going to chill out in Scotland for a while. Best Wishes, Northumberland." |
Enter Messenger. HASTINGS Now, what news? 20 MESSENGER
West of this forest, scarcely off a mile,
In goodly form comes on the enemy,
And, by the ground they hide, I judge their number
Upon or near the rate of thirty thousand. MOWBRAY
The just proportion that we gave them out. 25
Let us sway on and face them in the field. | A messenger arrives with word that about 30,000 troops are approaching from the west and they're barely a mile away. Mowbray says that's exactly the number of troops they estimated the king would have.
(Hmm. We seem to recall that Mowbray and company estimated 25,000. But, what's an extra 5,000 men, give or take?) |
Enter Westmoreland. ARCHBISHOP
What well-appointed leader fronts us here? MOWBRAY
I think it is my Lord of Westmoreland. WESTMORELAND
Health and fair greeting from our general,
The Prince Lord John and Duke of Lancaster. 30 ARCHBISHOP
Say on, my Lord of Westmoreland, in peace,
What doth concern your coming. WESTMORELAND Then, my lord,
Unto your Grace do I in chief address
The substance of my speech. If that rebellion 35
Came like itself, in base and abject routs,
Led on by bloody youth, guarded with rage,
And countenanced by boys and beggary—
I say, if damned commotion so appeared
In his true, native, and most proper shape, 40
You, reverend father, and these noble lords
Had not been here to dress the ugly form
Of base and bloody insurrection
With your fair honors. You, Lord Archbishop,
Whose see is by a civil peace maintained, 45
Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touched,
Whose learning and good letters peace hath tutored,
Whose white investments figure innocence,
The dove and very blessèd spirit of peace,
Wherefore do you so ill translate yourself 50
Out of the speech of peace, that bears such grace,
Into the harsh and boist’rous tongue of war,
Turning your books to graves, your ink to blood,
Your pens to lances, and your tongue divine
To a loud trumpet and a point of war? 55 | Just then, Westmoreland (one of the king's men) rides up on his horse. Westmoreland, whose feeling pretty snarky, says the Archbishop of York has done a swell job maintaining such a civil and peaceful diocese. Then he takes off his smart-aleck hat and accuses the Archbishop of abusing his power as a religious leader by organizing a rebellion against the King. Westmoreland wants to know what gives. |
ARCHBISHOP
Wherefore do I this? So the question stands.
Briefly, to this end: we are all diseased
And with our surfeiting and wanton hours
Have brought ourselves into a burning fever,
And we must bleed for it; of which disease 60
Our late King Richard, being infected, died.
But, my most noble Lord of Westmoreland,
I take not on me here as a physician,
Nor do I as an enemy to peace
Troop in the throngs of military men, 65
But rather show awhile like fearful war
To diet rank minds sick of happiness
And purge th’ obstructions which begin to stop
Our very veins of life. Hear me more plainly.
I have in equal balance justly weighed 70
What wrongs our arms may do, what wrongs we
suffer,
And find our griefs heavier than our offenses.
We see which way the stream of time doth run
And are enforced from our most quiet there 75
By the rough torrent of occasion,
And have the summary of all our griefs,
When time shall serve, to show in articles;
Which long ere this we offered to the King
And might by no suit gain our audience. 80
When we are wronged and would unfold our griefs,
We are denied access unto his person
Even by those men that most have done us wrong.
The dangers of the days but newly gone,
Whose memory is written on the earth 85
With yet-appearing blood, and the examples
Of every minute’s instance, present now,
Hath put us in these ill-beseeming arms,
Not to break peace or any branch of it,
But to establish here a peace indeed, 90
Concurring both in name and quality. | York says that he's turned to rebellion because the kingdom is
"diseased" and must be cured with a little bloodletting in order to be
saved from total ruin. The king has ignored their grievances so they
have no other choice but to fight. (By the way, York never says what his
beef is, exactly.) |
WESTMORELAND
Whenever yet was your appeal denied?
Wherein have you been gallèd by the King?
What peer hath been suborned to grate on you,
That you should seal this lawless bloody book 95
Of forged rebellion with a seal divine
And consecrate commotion’s bitter edge? ARCHBISHOP
My brother general, the commonwealth,
To brother born an household cruelty,
I make my quarrel in particular. 100 WESTMORELAND
There is no need of any such redress,
Or if there were, it not belongs to you. MOWBRAY
Why not to him in part, and to us all
That feel the bruises of the days before
And suffer the condition of these times 105
To lay a heavy and unequal hand
Upon our honors? WESTMORELAND O, my good Lord Mowbray,
Construe the times to their necessities,
And you shall say indeed it is the time, 110
And not the King, that doth you injuries.
Yet for your part, it not appears to me
Either from the King or in the present time
That you should have an inch of any ground
To build a grief on. Were you not restored 115
To all the Duke of Norfolk’s seigniories,
Your noble and right well remembered father’s? MOWBRAY
What thing, in honor, had my father lost
That need to be revived and breathed in me?
The King that loved him, as the state stood then, 120
Was force perforce compelled to banish him,
And then that Henry Bolingbroke and he,
Being mounted and both rousèd in their seats,
Their neighing coursers daring of the spur,
Their armèd staves in charge, their beavers down, 125
Their eyes of fire sparkling through sights of steel,
And the loud trumpet blowing them together,
Then, then, when there was nothing could have
stayed
My father from the breast of Bolingbroke, 130
O, when the King did throw his warder down—
His own life hung upon the staff he threw—
Then threw he down himself and all their lives
That by indictment and by dint of sword
Have since miscarried under Bolingbroke. 135
| Then Mowbray and Westmoreland bicker about some events that occurred in Richard II so we need a little background info. In Richard II Henry of Bolingbroke (who is now King Henry IV) accused Mowbray's father, the Duke of Norfolk, of treason and of conspiring to murder the late Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester. Henry and Norfolk challenged each other to a duel but before they could duke it out, King Richard II called the whole thing to a halt and banished both men. Then Richard stole a bunch of land from their families. Norfolk died in exile but Henry of Bolingbroke came back to England, deposed King Richard, and now sits on the throne as King Henry IV. Mowbray is feeling bitter about it. Mowbray chimes in that everyone has been injured by King Henry IV but Westmoreland points out that Mowbray shouldn't have any beef with the king, since Henry's the one who restored all of his family's land after King Richard II annexed it. Mowbray retorts that his father's death was all Henry's fault. King Richard, he says, only banished his father because Henry made such a big fuss and, if Richard hadn't stopped the duel, his father would have pummeled Henry into the earth. But now Henry has ruined the entire kingdom. |
WESTMORELAND
You speak, Lord Mowbray, now you know not what.
The Earl of Hereford was reputed then
In England the most valiant gentleman.
Who knows on whom fortune would then have
smiled? 140
But if your father had been victor there,
He ne’er had borne it out of Coventry;
For all the country in a general voice
Cried hate upon him; and all their prayers and
love 145
Were set on Hereford, whom they doted on
And blessed and graced, indeed more than the
King.
But this is mere digression from my purpose.
Here come I from our princely general 150
To know your griefs, to tell you from his Grace
That he will give you audience; and wherein
It shall appear that your demands are just,
You shall enjoy them, everything set off
That might so much as think you enemies. 155 | Westmoreland replies that Mowbray doesn't know what he's talking about. Everybody knows that Henry was the toughest nobleman around and would have mopped the floor with Norfolk if the fight had been allowed to continue. Besides, even if Norfolk had won the duel with Henry, the commoners would have killed him for it because Henry was the crowd favorite and more beloved than everyone else, including Richard II. Westmoreland then says he's come to tell the rebels that Prince John will listen to their grievances and will try to settle the dispute so that everybody's happy. |
MOWBRAY
But he hath forced us to compel this offer,
And it proceeds from policy, not love. WESTMORELAND
Mowbray, you overween to take it so.
This offer comes from mercy, not from fear.
For, lo, within a ken our army lies, 160
Upon mine honor, all too confident
To give admittance to a thought of fear.
Our battle is more full of names than yours,
Our men more perfect in the use of arms,
Our armor all as strong, our cause the best. 165
Then reason will our hearts should be as good.
Say you not then our offer is compelled. MOWBRAY
Well, by my will, we shall admit no parley. WESTMORELAND
That argues but the shame of your offense.
A rotten case abides no handling. 170 HASTINGS
Hath the Prince John a full commission,
In very ample virtue of his father,
To hear and absolutely to determine
Of what conditions we shall stand upon? WESTMORELAND
That is intended in the General’s name. 175
I muse you make so slight a question. | Mowbray says the prince is just doing this for political gain, not because he gives a rat's behind about the rebels. Hastings asks if Prince John has the king's permission to negotiate with the rebels and Westmoreland replies that, yes, Prince John speaks for the king. |
ARCHBISHOP, giving Westmoreland a paper
Then take, my Lord of Westmoreland, this schedule,
For this contains our general grievances.
Each several article herein redressed,
All members of our cause, both here and hence 180
That are insinewed to this action,
Acquitted by a true substantial form
And present execution of our wills
To us and to our purposes confined,
We come within our awful banks again 185
And knit our powers to the arm of peace. WESTMORELAND
This will I show the General. Please you, lords,
In sight of both our battles we may meet,
And either end in peace, which God so frame,
Or to the place of difference call the swords 190
Which must decide it. ARCHBISHOP My lord, we will do so. Westmoreland exits. MOWBRAY
There is a thing within my bosom tells me
That no conditions of our peace can stand. HASTINGS
Fear you not that. If we can make our peace 195
Upon such large terms and so absolute
As our conditions shall consist upon,
Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains. MOWBRAY
Yea, but our valuation shall be such
That every slight and false-derivèd cause, 200
Yea, every idle, nice, and wanton reason,
Shall to the King taste of this action,
That, were our royal faiths martyrs in love,
We shall be winnowed with so rough a wind
That even our corn shall seem as light as chaff, 205
And good from bad find no partition. ARCHBISHOP
No, no, my lord. Note this: the King is weary
Of dainty and such picking grievances,
For he hath found to end one doubt by death
Revives two greater in the heirs of life; 210
And therefore will he wipe his tables clean
And keep no telltale to his memory
That may repeat and history his loss
To new remembrance. For full well he knows
He cannot so precisely weed this land 215
As his misdoubts present occasion;
His foes are so enrooted with his friends
That, plucking to unfix an enemy,
He doth unfasten so and shake a friend;
So that this land, like an offensive wife 220
That hath enraged him on to offer strokes,
As he is striking holds his infant up
And hangs resolved correction in the arm
That was upreared to execution. HASTINGS
Besides, the King hath wasted all his rods 225
On late offenders, that he now doth lack
The very instruments of chastisement,
So that his power, like to a fangless lion,
May offer but not hold. ARCHBISHOP ’Tis very true, 230
And therefore be assured, my good Lord Marshal,
If we do now make our atonement well,
Our peace will, like a broken limb united,
Grow stronger for the breaking. MOWBRAY Be it so. 235
Here is returned my Lord of Westmoreland. Enter Westmoreland. WESTMORELAND, to the Archbishop
The Prince is here at hand. Pleaseth your Lordship
To meet his Grace just distance ’tween our armies. (Note: Scene 1 continues in the next section. Read on, Shmooper.) | The Archbishop of York whips out a laundry list containing the rebels' grievances and hands it over to Westmoreland, who promises to deliver it to Prince John. Mowbray says he's got a bad feeling about all of this but Hastings assures him that all will be well.
York and Hastings agree that Mowbray's got nothing to worry about. King Henry's got enough to worry about and doesn't want any more trouble with the rebels. Besides, he can't possibly punish everybody he's got beef with, can he? Westmoreland returns from delivering the rebels' list of complaints to Prince John. He says there's good news. Prince John wants to meet with the rebels halfway between the two enemy camps. |