The blood weeps from my heart when I do shape,
In forms
imaginary, th'unguided days
And
rotten times that you shall look upon
When I am
sleeping with my ancestors.
For when his headstrong riot hath no curb,
When rage and hot blood are his counsellors
When means and
lavish manners meet together,
O, with what wings shall his affections fly
Towards fronting peril and oppos'd decay!
WARWICK. My
gracious lord, you look beyond him quite.
The Prince but studies his companions
Like a strange tongue,
wherein, to gain the language,
'Tis needful that the most immodest word
Be look'd upon and
learnt; which once attain'd,
Your Highness knows, comes to no further use
But to be known and hated. So, like gross terms,
The Prince will, in the perfectness of time,
Cast off his followers; and their memory
Shall as a pattern or a
measure live
By which his Grace must mete the lives of other,
Turning past evils to advantages.
KING. 'Tis seldom when the bee doth leave her comb
In the dead carrion.
Enter WESTMORELAND
Who's here? Westmoreland?
WESTMORELAND. Health to my
sovereign, and new happiness
Added to that that am to deliver!
Prince John, your son, doth kiss your Grace's hand.
Mowbray, the Bishop Scroop, Hastings, and all,
Are brought to the
correction of your law.
There is not now a rebel's sword unsheath'd,
But Peace puts forth her olive everywhere.
The manner how this action hath been borne
Here at more
leisure may your Highness read,
With every course in his particular.
KING. O Westmoreland, thou art a summer bird,
Which ever in the haunch of winter sings
The lifting up of day.
Enter HARCOURT
Look here's more news.
HARCOURT. From enemies heaven keep your Majesty;
And, when they stand against you, may they fall
As those that I am come to tell you of!
The Earl Northumberland and the Lord Bardolph,
With a great power of English and of Scots,
Are by the shrieve of Yorkshire overthrown.
The manner and true order of the fight
This
packet, please it you, contains at large.
KING. And
wherefore should these good news make me sick?
Will Fortune never come with both hands full,
But write her fair words still in foulest letters?
She either gives a
stomach and no food-
Such are the poor, in health- or else a feast,
And takes away the
stomach- such are the rich
That have
abundance and enjoy it not.
I should
rejoice now at this happy news;
And now my sight fails, and my brain is giddy.
O me! come near me now I am much ill.
PRINCE HUMPHREY. Comfort, your Majesty!
CLARENCE. O my royal father!
WESTMORELAND. My
sovereign lord, cheer up yourself, look up.
WARWICK. Be patient, Princes; you do know these fits
Are with his Highness very ordinary.
Stand from him, give him air; he'll straight be well.
CLARENCE. No, no; he cannot long hold out these pangs.
Th'
incessant care and labour of his mind
Hath
wrought the mure that should
confine it in
So thin that life looks through, and will break out.
PRINCE HUMPHREY. The people fear me; for they do observe
Unfather'd heirs and loathly births of nature.
The seasons change their manners, as the year
Had found some months asleep, and leapt them over.
CLARENCE. The river hath
thrice flow'd, no ebb between;
And the old folk, Time's doting chronicles,
Say it did so a little time before
That our great
grandsire, Edward, sick'd and died.
WARWICK. Speak lower, Princes, for the King recovers.
PRINCE HUMPHREY. This apoplexy will certain be his end.
KING. I pray you take me up, and bear me hence
Into some other
chamber. Softly, pray. Exeunt
SCENE V.
Westminster. Another
chamberThe KING lying on a bed; CLARENCE, GLOUCESTER,
WARWICK, and others in attendance
KING. Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends;
Unless some dull and favourable hand
Will
whisper music to my weary spirit.
WARWICK. Call for the music in the other room.
KING. Set me the crown upon my pillow here.
CLARENCE. His eye is hollow, and he changes much.
WARWICK. Less noise! less noise!
Enter PRINCE HENRY
PRINCE. Who saw the Duke of Clarence?
CLARENCE. I am here, brother, full of heaviness.
PRINCE. How now! Rain within doors, and none abroad!
How doth the King?
PRINCE HUMPHREY. Exceeding ill.
PRINCE. Heard he the good news yet? Tell it him.
PRINCE HUMPHREY. He alt'red much upon the
hearing it.
PRINCE. If he be sick with joy, he'll recover without physic.
WARWICK. Not so much noise, my lords. Sweet Prince, speak low;
The King your father is dispos'd to sleep.
CLARENCE. Let us
withdraw into the other room.
WARWICK. Will't please your Grace to go along with us?
PRINCE. No; I will sit and watch here by the King.
Exeunt all but the PRINCE
Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow,
Being so troublesome a bedfellow?
O polish'd perturbation! golden care!
That keep'st the ports of
slumber open wide
To many a
watchful night! Sleep with it now!
Yet not so sound and half so deeply sweet
As he whose brow with
homely biggen bound
Snores out the watch of night. O
majesty!
When thou dost pinch thy
bearer, thou dost sit
Like a rich
armour worn in heat of day
That scald'st with safety. By his gates of breath
There lies a downy
feather which stirs not.
Did he suspire, that light and weightless down
Perforce must move. My
gracious lord! my father!
This sleep is sound indeed; this is a sleep
That from this golden rigol hath divorc'd
So many English kings. Thy due from me
Is tears and heavy sorrows of the blood
Which nature, love, and
filial tenderness,
Shall, O dear father, pay thee plenteously.
My due from thee is this
imperial crown,
Which, as immediate from thy place and blood,
Derives itself to me. [Putting on the crown] Lo where it sits-
Which God shall guard; and put the world's whole strength
Into one giant arm, it shall not force
This lineal honour from me. This from thee
Will I to mine leave as 'tis left to me. Exit
KING. Warwick! Gloucester! Clarence!
Re-enter WARWICK, GLOUCESTER, CLARENCE
CLARENCE. Doth the King call?
WARWICK. What would your Majesty? How fares your Grace?
KING. Why did you leave me here alone, my lords?
CLARENCE. We left the Prince my brother here, my liege,
Who
undertook to sit and watch by you.
KING. The Prince of Wales! Where is he? Let me see him.
He is not here.
WARWICK. This door is open; he is gone this way.
PRINCE HUMPHREY. He came not through the
chamber where we stay'd.
KING. Where is the crown? Who took it from my pillow?
WARWICK. When we
withdrew, my liege, we left it here.
KING. The Prince hath ta'en it hence. Go, seek him out.
Is he so hasty that he doth suppose
My sleep my death?
Find him, my lord of Warwick; chide him
hither.
Exit WARWICK
This part of his conjoins with my disease
And helps to end me. See, sons, what things you are!
How quickly nature falls into revolt
When gold becomes her object!
For this the foolish over-careful fathers
Have broke their sleep with thoughts,
Their brains with care, their bones with industry;
For this they have engrossed and pil'd up
The cank'red heaps of strange-achieved gold;
For this they have been
thoughtful to
investTheir sons with arts and
martial exercises;
When, like the bee, tolling from every flower
The
virtuous sweets,
Our thighs with wax, our mouths with honey pack'd,
We bring it to the hive, and, like the bees,
Are murd'red for our pains. This bitter taste
Yields his engrossments to the
ending father.
Re-enter WARWICK
Now where is he that will not stay so long
Till his friend
sickness hath determin'd me?
WARWICK. My lord, I found the Prince in the next room,
Washing with kindly tears his gentle cheeks,
With such a deep
demeanour in great sorrow,
That
tyranny, which never quaff'd but blood,
Would, by beholding him, have wash'd his knife
With gentle eye-drops. He is coming
hither.
KING. But
wherefore did he take away the crown?
Re-enter PRINCE HENRY
Lo where he comes. Come
hither to me, Harry.
Depart the
chamber, leave us here alone.
Exeunt all but the KING and the PRINCE
PRINCE. I never thought to hear you speak again.
KING. Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.
I stay too long by thee, I weary thee.
Dost thou so
hunger for mine empty chair
That thou wilt needs
invest thee with my honours
Before thy hour be ripe? O foolish youth!
Thou seek'st the
greatness that will
overwhelm thee.
Stay but a little, for my cloud of dignity
Is held from falling with so weak a wind
That it will quickly drop; my day is dim.
Thou hast stol'n that which, after some few hours,
Were thine without
offense; and at my death
Thou hast seal'd up my expectation.
Thy life did
manifest thou lov'dst me not,
And thou wilt have me die assur'd of it.
Thou hid'st a thousand daggers in thy thoughts,
Which thou hast whetted on thy stony heart,
To stab at half an hour of my life.
What, canst thou not
forbear me half an hour?