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Speeches (Lines) for Vernon
in "Henry IV, Part I"

Total: 14

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# Act, Scene, Line
(Click to see in context)
Speech text

1

IV,1,2311

Hotspur (Henry Percy). My cousin Vernon, welcome, by my soul.

Vernon. Pray God my news be worth a welcome, lord.
The Earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong,
Is marching hitherwards; with him Prince John.


2

IV,1,2315

Hotspur (Henry Percy). No harm: what more?

Vernon. And further, I have learn'd,
The king himself in person is set forth,
Or hitherwards intended speedily,
With strong and mighty preparation.


3

IV,1,2323

Hotspur (Henry Percy). He shall be welcome too. Where is his son,
The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales,
And his comrades, that daff'd the world aside,
And bid it pass?

Vernon. All furnish'd, all in arms;
All plumed like estridges that with the wind
Baited like eagles having lately bathed;
Glittering in golden coats, like images;
As full of spirit as the month of May,
And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer;
Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.
I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,
His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm'd
Rise from the ground like feather'd Mercury,
And vaulted with such ease into his seat,
As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds,
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus
And witch the world with noble horsemanship.


4

IV,1,2351

Hotspur (Henry Percy). No more, no more: worse than the sun in March,
This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come:
They come like sacrifices in their trim,
And to the fire-eyed maid of smoky war
All hot and bleeding will we offer them:
The mailed Mars shall on his altar sit
Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire
To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh
And yet not ours. Come, let me taste my horse,
Who is to bear me like a thunderbolt
Against the bosom of the Prince of Wales:
Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse,
Meet and ne'er part till one drop down a corse.
O that Glendower were come!

Vernon. There is more news:
I learn'd in Worcester, as I rode along,
He cannot draw his power this fourteen days.


5

IV,1,2357

Hotspur (Henry Percy). What may the king's whole battle reach unto?

Vernon. To thirty thousand.


6

IV,3,2455

Earl of Douglas. You give him then the advantage.

Vernon. Not a whit.


7

IV,3,2457

Hotspur (Henry Percy). Why say you so? looks he not for supply?

Vernon. So do we.


8

IV,3,2460

Earl of Worcester. Good cousin, be advised; stir not tonight.

Vernon. Do not, my lord.


9

IV,3,2463

Earl of Douglas. You do not counsel well:
You speak it out of fear and cold heart.

Vernon. Do me no slander, Douglas: by my life,
And I dare well maintain it with my life,
If well-respected honour bid me on,
I hold as little counsel with weak fear
As you, my lord, or any Scot that this day lives:
Let it be seen to-morrow in the battle
Which of us fears.


10

IV,3,2471

Earl of Douglas. Yea, or to-night.

Vernon. Content.


11

IV,3,2473

Hotspur (Henry Percy). To-night, say I.

Vernon. Come, come it nay not be. I wonder much,
Being men of such great leading as you are,
That you foresee not what impediments
Drag back our expedition: certain horse
Of my cousin Vernon's are not yet come up:
Your uncle Worcester's horse came but today;
And now their pride and mettle is asleep,
Their courage with hard labour tame and dull,
That not a horse is half the half of himself.


12

V,2,2772

Earl of Worcester. O, no, my nephew must not know, Sir Richard,
The liberal and kind offer of the king.

Vernon. 'Twere best he did.


13

V,2,2796

Earl of Worcester. Then are we all undone.
It is not possible, it cannot be,
The king should keep his word in loving us;
He will suspect us still and find a time
To punish this offence in other faults:
Suspicion all our lives shall be stuck full of eyes;
For treason is but trusted like the fox,
Who, ne'er so tame, so cherish'd and lock'd up,
Will have a wild trick of his ancestors.
Look how we can, or sad or merrily,
Interpretation will misquote our looks,
And we shall feed like oxen at a stall,
The better cherish'd, still the nearer death.
My nephew's trespass may be well forgot;
it hath the excuse of youth and heat of blood,
And an adopted name of privilege,
A hair-brain'd Hotspur, govern'd by a spleen:
All his offences live upon my head
And on his father's; we did train him on,
And, his corruption being ta'en from us,
We, as the spring of all, shall pay for all.
Therefore, good cousin, let not Harry know,
In any case, the offer of the king.

Vernon. Deliver what you will; I'll say 'tis so.
Here comes your cousin.


14

V,2,2825

Hotspur (Henry Percy). O, would the quarrel lay upon our heads,
And that no man might draw short breath today
But I and Harry Monmouth! Tell me, tell me,
How show'd his tasking? seem'd it in contempt?

Vernon. No, by my soul; I never in my life
Did hear a challenge urged more modestly,
Unless a brother should a brother dare
To gentle exercise and proof of arms.
He gave you all the duties of a man;
Trimm'd up your praises with a princely tongue,
Spoke to your deservings like a chronicle,
Making you ever better than his praise
By still dispraising praise valued in you;
And, which became him like a prince indeed,
He made a blushing cital of himself;
And chid his truant youth with such a grace
As if he master'd there a double spirit.
Of teaching and of learning instantly.
There did he pause: but let me tell the world,
If he outlive the envy of this day,
England did never owe so sweet a hope,
So much misconstrued in his wantonness.


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