London. A Room in the Palace. | |
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Enter KING HENRY, the PRINCE, and Lords. | |
| K. Hen. Lords, give us leave; the Prince of Wales and I | |
| Must have some private conference: but be near at hand, | 4 |
| For we shall presently have need of you. [Exeunt Lords. | |
| I know not whether God will have it so, | |
| For some displeasing service I have done, | |
| That, in his secret doom, out of my blood | 8 |
| He’ll breed revengement and a scourge for me; | |
| But thou dost in thy passages of life | |
| Make me believe that thou art only mark’d | |
| For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven | 12 |
| To punish my mistreadings. Tell me else, | |
| Could such inordinate and low desires, | |
| Such poor, such bare, such lewd, such mean attempts, | |
| Such barren pleasures, rude society, | 16 |
| As thou art match’d withal and grafted to, | |
| Accompany the greatness of thy blood | |
| And hold their level with thy princely heart? | |
| Prince. So please your majesty, I would I could | 20 |
| Quit all offences with as clear excuse | |
| As well as I am doubtless I can purge | |
| Myself of many I am charg’d withal: | |
| Yet such extenuation let me beg, | 24 |
| As, in reproof of many tales devis’d, | |
| Which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear, | |
| By smiling pick-thanks and base newsmongers, | |
| I may, for some things true, wherein my youth | 28 |
| Hath faulty wander’d and irregular, | |
| Find pardon on my true submission. | |
| K. Hen. God pardon thee! yet let me wonder, Harry, | |
| At thy affections, which do hold a wing | 32 |
| Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors. | |
| Thy place in council thou hast rudely lost, | |
| Which by thy younger brother is supplied, | |
| And art almost an alien to the hearts | 36 |
| Of all the court and princes of my blood. | |
| The hope and expectation of thy time | |
| Is ruin’d, and the soul of every man | |
| Prophetically do forethink thy fall. | 40 |
| Had I so lavish of my presence been, | |
| So common-hackney’d in the eyes of men, | |
| So stale and cheap to vulgar company, | |
| Opinion, that did help me to the crown, | 44 |
| Had still kept loyal to possession | |
| And left me in reputeless banishment, | |
| A fellow of no mark nor likelihood. | |
| By being seldom seen, I could not stir, | 48 |
| But like a comet I was wonder’d at; | |
| That men would tell their children, ‘This is he;’ | |
| Others would say, ‘Where? which is Boling-broke?’ | |
| And then I stole all courtesy from heaven, | 52 |
| And dress’d myself in such humility | |
| That I did pluck allegiance from men’s hearts, | |
| Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths, | |
| Even in the presence of the crowned king. | 56 |
| Thus did I keep my person fresh and new; | |
| My presence, like a robe pontifical, | |
| Ne’er seen but wonder’d at: and so my state, | |
| Seldom but sumptuous, showed like a feast, | 60 |
| And won by rareness such solemnity. | |
| The skipping king, he ambled up and down | |
| With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits, | |
| Soon kindled and soon burnt; carded his state, | 64 |
| Mingled his royalty with capering fools, | |
| Had his great name profaned with their scorns, | |
| And gave his countenance, against his name, | |
| To laugh at gibing boys and stand the push | 68 |
| Of every beardless vain comparative; | |
| Grew a companion to the common streets, | |
| Enfeoff’d himself to popularity; | |
| That, being daily swallow’d by men’s eyes, | 72 |
| They surfeited with honey and began | |
| To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little | |
| More than a little is by much too much. | |
| So, when he had occasion to be seen, | 76 |
| He was but as the cuckoo is in June, | |
| Heard, not regarded; seen, but with such eyes | |
| As, sick and blunted with community, | |
| Afford no extraordinary gaze, | 80 |
| Such as is bent on sun-like majesty | |
| When it shines seldom in admiring eyes; | |
| But rather drows’d and hung their eyelids down, | |
| Slept in his face, and render’d such aspect | 84 |
| As cloudy men use to their adversaries, | |
| Being with his presence glutted, gorg’d, and full. | |
| And in that very line, Harry, stand’st thou; | |
| For thou hast lost thy princely privilege | 88 |
| With vile participation: not an eye | |
| But is aweary of thy common sight, | |
| Save mine, which hath desir’d to see thee more; | |
| Which now doth that I would not have it do, | 92 |
| Make blind itself with foolish tenderness. | |
| Prince. I shall hereafter, my thrice gracious lord, | |
| Be more myself. | |
| K. Hen. For all the world, | 96 |
| As thou art to this hour was Richard then | |
| When I from France set foot at Ravenspurgh; | |
| And even as I was then is Percy now. | |
| Now, by my sceptre and my soul to boot, | 100 |
| He hath more worthy interest to the state | |
| Than thou the shadow of succession; | |
| For of no right, nor colour like to right, | |
| He doth fill fields with harness in the realm, | 104 |
| Turns head against the lion’s armed jaws, | |
| And, being no more in debt to years than thou, | |
| Leads ancient lords and reverend bishops on | |
| To bloody battles and to bruising arms. | 108 |
| What never-dying honour hath he got | |
| Against renowned Douglas! whose high deeds, | |
| Whose hot incursions and great name in arms, | |
| Holds from all soldiers chief majority, | 112 |
| And military title capital, | |
| Through all the kingdoms that acknowledge Christ. | |
| Thrice hath this Hotspur, Mars in swathling clothes, | |
| This infant warrior, in his enterprises | 116 |
| Discomfited great Douglas; ta’en him once, | |
| Enlarged him and made a friend of him, | |
| To fill the mouth of deep defiance up | |
| And shake the peace and safety of our throne. | 120 |
| And what say you to this? Percy, Northumberland, | |
| The Archbishop’s Grace of York, Douglas, Mortimer, | |
| Capitulate against us and are up. | |
| But wherefore do I tell these news to thee? | 124 |
| Why, Harry, do I tell thee of my foes, | |
| Which art my near’st and dearest enemy? | |
| Thou that art like enough, through vassal fear, | |
| Base inclination, and the start of spleen, | 128 |
| To fight against me under Percy’s pay, | |
| To dog his heels, and curtsy at his frowns, | |
| To show how much thou art degenerate. | |
| Prince. Do not think so; you shall not find it so: | 132 |
| 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 | 136 |
| 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: | 140 |
| 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. | 144 |
| 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 | 148 |
| 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 | 152 |
| 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: | 156 |
| The which, if he be pleas’d 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, | 160 |
| And I will die a hundred thousand deaths | |
| Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow. | |
| K. Hen. A hundred thousand rebels die in this: | |
| Thou shalt have charge and sovereign trust herein. | 164 |
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Enter SIR WALTER BLUNT. | |
| How now, good Blunt! thy looks are full of speed. | |
| Blunt. So hath the business that I come to speak of. | |
| Lord Mortimer of Scotland hath sent word | 168 |
| That Douglas and the English rebels met, | |
| The eleventh of this month at Shrewsbury. | |
| A mighty and a fearful head they are,— | |
| If promises be kept on every hand,— | 172 |
| As ever offer’d foul play in a state. | |
| K. Hen. The Earl of Westmoreland set forth to-day, | |
| With him my son, Lord John of Lancaster; | |
| For this advertisement is five days old. | 176 |
| On Wednesday next, Harry, you shall set forward; | |
| On Thursday we ourselves will march: our meeting | |
| Is Bridgenorth; and Harry, you shall march | |
| Through Gloucestershire; by which account, | 180 |
| Our business valued, some twelve days hence | |
| Our general forces at Bridgenorth shall meet. | |
| Our hands are full of business: let’s away; | |
| Advantage feeds him fat while men delay. [Exeunt. | 184 |