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No, yet time serves wherein you may redeem
Your banished honors and restore yourselves
Into the good thoughts of the world again,
Revenge the jeering and disdained contempt
Of this proud king, who studies day and night
To answer all the debt he owes to you.
(Act 1, scene 3, lines 184–89)
These lines mark the first turning point of the play, as the Percys, spurned by Henry’s refusal to help free their kinsman Mortimer, decide to join the rebellion against the king. Hotspur speaks these words to his father, Northumberland, and his uncle, Worcester. His language of redemption relates at once to moral vindication and to the settling of debts. After rehearsing the Percy family’s role in helping to establish Henry as king, Hotspur suggests that the Percys can redeem themselves morally for their shameful actions. He also hopes to settle the outstanding debt of gratitude that Henry owes them for their support, but which he hasn’t paid. Both types of redemption may be achieved by effecting Henry’s downfall.
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.
(Act 3, scene 2, lines 153–57)
These lines, which Prince Harry addresses to his father, are full of economic language. The words “factor,” “engross,” “account,” “render,” and “reckoning” work together to set up a notion that Hotspur (i.e., “Percy”) is somehow in Harry’s debt. Hotspur has managed to accumulate the honor and valor that rightly belong to Harry. By challenging him in battle, Harry indicates that he will call his rival “to so strict account / That he shall render every glory up.” In other words, Harry will force a “reckoning” in which he will take possession of all the honor and glory Hotspur has accumulated and claim it for himself.
Prince Harry: O, my sweet beef, I must still be good angel to thee. The money is paid back again.
Falstaff: O, I do not like that paying back. ’Tis a double labor.
(Act 3, scene 3, lines 188–91)
This exchange between Harry and Falstaff comes just after Falstaff’s argument with the tavern hostess about debts he owes her. Falstaff adamantly refused to pay her back and countered her with charges of stealing from him. The theme of debt and repayment resurfaces here, as Harry informs Falstaff that he has paid back the money they stole during the Gad’s Hill robbery. Falstaff is upset at this news, since he’d hoped to use that money to get drunk. His claim that “paying back” is “a double labor” indicates the extreme nature of his laziness. He seems to pun on the doubleness implicit in the idea of re-paying someone, even if to pay someone back only entails paying once. Though played out in a humorous way, this scene underscores the play’s more serious theme related to the question of paying one’s debts.
