Shakespeare's Kings (42 page)

It
was
Saturday,
21
July.
Two
days
afterwards
Worcester,
together with
two
other
rebel
knights,
was
executed
as
a
traitor.
The
body
of Hotspur
was
buried
in
the
family
chapel
at
Whitchurch,
but
it
did
not remain
there
long.
To
scotch
the
inevitable
rumours
that
he
was
still alive
it
was
brought
back
to
Shrewsbury,
rubbed
in
salt
to
preserve
it

1.
See p.
118.

as
long
as
possible,
and
finally
propped
up
between
two
milestones
next to
the
town
pillory.
Later
the
head
was
cut
off
and
fixed
on
one
of
the gates
of
York;
the
trunk
was
quartered,
the
four
quarters
being
separately hung
above
the
gates
of
London,
Bristol,
Chester
and
Newcastle.

Henry
now
hurried
northwards
to
meet
Northumberland,
who submitted
to
him
at
York
on
11
August.
He
was
put
into
custody
and made
to
surrender
his
castles
,
but
his
life
was
spared.
The
King
then turned
back
towards
the
south-west
for
a
short
campaign
in
Wales, before
returning
to
London
for
the
winter.
His
problems
were
by
no means
over.
After
four
attempts
to
crush
it,
Glendower's
rebellion
still prospered;
the
French
were
threatening
-
and
occasionally
raiding
-the
south
coast,
and
the
financial
position
was
still
desperate.
His
victory at
Shrewsbury
and
his
successes
over
the
Percys
had
mildly
increased his
popularity,
and
his
son
had
distinguished
himself
by
his
courage; but
heaven,
he
believed,
continued
to
frown
on
the
usurper,
and
the future
looked
bleak.

Act
III
of
Henry IV Part I
is
virtually
all
the
work
of
Shakespeare's imagination.
It
begins
with
the
conspirators:
Hotspur,
Worcester, Mortimer
and
Owen
Glendower
himself.
The
meeting
does
not
augur well
for
the
coming
rebellion:
Hotspur
begins
by
announcing
that
he has
forgotten
the
map;
Glendower
reassures
him;
and
immediately
the two
begin
to
quarrel,
the
Welshman
boasting
of
the
dreadful
portents that
attended
his
birth,
¹
his
supernatural
powers
and
his
military
exploits, while
Hotspur
mocks
him
and
deliberately
makes
himself
as
objectionable
as
he
can.
Just
in
time,
it
seems,
Glendower
leaves
the
room,
to return
shortly
afterwards
with
his
daughter
Lady
Mortimer
and
Hotspur's wife,
Lady
Percy.
(In
line
190
Mortimer
is
made
to
refer
to
the
latter as
his
aunt:
she
was
in
fact
his
sister.)
Of
these
ladies
the
chroniclers
tell us
virtually
nothing;
it
is
Shakespeare
who
breathes
life
into
them.
He makes
gentle
fun
of
the
Mortimers'
problems
of
communication
—
they speak
not
a
word
of
each
other's
languages
-
but
gives
Lady
Mortimer Welsh
songs
to
sing.
Lady
Percy,
by
contrast,
whom
we
have
met before
in
the
previous
act,
is
full
of
spirit,
exchanging
good-humoured badinage
with
her
husband
-
although,
despite
his
insistence,
she
refuses

1
. These portents were said to have attended the birth of Mortimer, not Glendower. Shakespeare makes a common mistake in confusing the two.

to
compete
vocally
with
her
sister-in-law.
The
scene
ends
without
the conspirators'
plans
having
been
appreciably
advanced.

It
is
followed
by
a
confrontation
between
the
King
and
the
Prince of
Wales.
Henry
berates
his
son
for
his
dissolute
life,
the
Prince
claiming that
the
rumours
are
exaggerated.
At
the
same
time,
however,
he expresses
his
regrets
for
the
pain
he
has
given
his
father
and
promises not
only
to
change
his
ways
but
to
cover
himself
with
glory.
(That
the time
for
this
reform
has
not
yet
come
is
to
be
made
all
too
clear
by
the third
scene
of
the
act,
which
is
set
in
the
Boar's
Head.)
Just
before
the end
of
this
confrontation
scene
there
appears
Sir
Walter
Blunt
-
a
good deal
more
important
in
the
play
than
is
the
simple
standard-bearer
we know
from
Holinshed
-
with
a
report
that
the
rebels
are
on
the
march. They
were
not,
as
Blunt
reports,
at
Shrewsbury
but
at
Chester,
and
the orders
now
given
by
the
King
-
that
his
son
should
advance
through Gloucestershire
and
meet
him
at
Bridgnorth
—
are
still
more
at
variance with
the
facts,
if
only
because,
as
we
have
seen,
the
Prince
was
already in
the
west
when
the
news
broke.
But
such
minor
inaccuracies
fall
well within
the
bounds
of
normal
artistic
licence
and
should
not
be
taken too
seriously.

The
same
cannot
altogether
be
said
of
Shakespeare's
account
of
the battle
itself
which,
with
its
preliminaries
and
its
immediate
aftermath, takes
up
the
two
last
acts
of
Henry IV Part I.
Act
IV
begins
on
the
eve of
the
encounter,
Friday
20
July,
with
Hotspur
and
the
recently
released Douglas
learning
from
a
messenger
that
Northumberland
is
sick
and unable
to
join
them.
According
to
Holinshed
the
earl's
illness,
whatever it
may
have
been,
had
actually
struck
him
earlier;
by
the
time
the rebellion
began
he
had
recovered,
and
on
the
day
of
the
battle
he
was already
on
the
way
to
join
his
son.
But
Shakespeare,
building
up his
drama,
is
anxious
to
show
us
the
situation
in
the
Percys'
camp deteriorating
minute
by
minute.
There
now
arrives
Sir
Richard
Vernon —
by
Holinshed
barely
rated
a
mention
-
with
news
that
the
King
himself
is
on
the
march,
together
with
his
younger
son
John
of
Lancaster,
¹
the
Earl
of
Westmorland,
and
of
course
the
Prince
of
Wales
himself: