I Will Redeem All This

Jeremy Irons as King Henry IV and Tom Hiddleston as Prince Hal in The Hollow Crown (2012)

Listen to:

I Will Redeem All This (2:09)

from Henry IV, Part I

by William Shakespeare

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

In Act 3, scene 2, Hal has audience with the king, his father. 

The prince’s lewd behavior, “barren pleasures and rude society” 

greatly pain his father, 

who accuses him of being more an enemy to him 

than Henry Percy, know as Hotspur, 

his rival for the throne. 

Thoroughly shamed by the accusation, 

Prince Hal answers his father:

PRINCE HENRY 

Do not think so; you shall not find it so:

And God forgive them that so much have sway'd

Your majesty's good thoughts away from me!

I will redeem all this on Percy's head

And in the closing of some glorious day

Be bold to tell you that I am your son;

When I will wear a garment all of blood

And stain my favours in a bloody mask,

Which, wash'd away, shall scour my shame with it:

And that shall be the day, whene'er it lights,

That this same child of honour and renown,

This gallant Hotspur, this all-praised knight,

And your unthought-of Harry chance to meet.

For every honour sitting on his helm,

Would they were multitudes, and on my head

My shames redoubled! for the time will come,

That I shall make this northern youth exchange

His glorious deeds for my indignities.

Percy is but my factor, good my lord,

To engross up glorious deeds on my behalf;

And I will call him to so strict account,

That he shall render every glory up,

Yea, even the slightest worship of his time,

Or I will tear the reckoning from his heart.

This, in the name of God, I promise here:

The which if He be pleased I shall perform,

I do beseech your majesty may salve

The long-grown wounds of my intemperance:

If not, the end of life cancels all bands;

And I will die a hundred thousand deaths

Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow.