Westminster. An Apartment in the Palace. | |
| |
Enter WARWICK and the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE. | |
| War. How now, my Lord Chief Justice! whither away? | |
| Ch. Just. How doth the king? | 4 |
| War. Exceeding well: his cares are now all ended. | |
| Ch. Just. I hope not dead. | |
| War. He’s walk’d the way of nature; | |
| And to our purposes he lives no more. | 8 |
| Ch. Just. I would his majesty had call’d me with him: | |
| The service that I truly did his life | |
| Hath left me open to all injuries. | |
| War. Indeed I think the young king loves you not. | 12 |
| Ch. Just. I know he doth not, and do arm myself, | |
| To welcome the condition of the time; | |
| Which cannot look more hideously upon me | |
| Than I have drawn it in my fantasy. | 16 |
| |
Enter LANCASTER, CLARENCE, GLOUCESTER, WESTMORELAND and Others. | |
| War. Here come the heavy issue of dead Harry: | |
| O! that the living Harry had the temper | |
| Of him, the worst of these three gentlemen. | 20 |
| How many nobles then should hold their places, | |
| That must strike sail to spirits of vile sort! | |
| Ch. Just. O God! I fear all will be overturn’d. | |
| Lanc. Good morrow, cousin Warwick, good morrow. | 24 |
| Glo. Good morrow, cousin. | |
| Cla. | |
| Lanc. We meet like men that had forgot to speak. | |
| War. We do remember; but our argument | 28 |
| Is all too heavy to admit much talk. | |
| Lanc. Well, peace be with him that hath made us heavy! | |
| Ch. Just. Peace be with us, lest we be heavier! | |
| Glo. O! good my lord, you have lost a friend indeed; | 32 |
| And I dare swear you borrow not that face | |
| Of seeming sorrow; it is sure your own. | |
| Lanc. Though no man be assur’d what grace to find, | |
| You stand in coldest expectation. | 36 |
| I am the sorrier; would ’twere otherwise. | |
| Cla. Well, you must now speak Sir John Falstaff fair, | |
| Which swims against your stream of quality. | |
| Ch. Just. Sweet princes, what I did, I did in honour, | 40 |
| Led by the impartial conduct of my soul; | |
| And never shall you see that I will beg | |
| A ragged and forestall’d remission. | |
| If truth and upright innocency fail me, | 44 |
| I’ll to the king my master that is dead, | |
| And tell him who hath sent me after him. | |
| War. Here comes the prince. | |
| |
Enter KING HENRY THE FIFTH, attended. | 48 |
| Ch. Just. Good morrow, and God save your majesty! | |
| K. Hen. V. This new and gorgeous garment, majesty, | |
| Sits not so easy on me as you think. | |
| Brothers, you mix your sadness with some fear: | 52 |
| This is the English, not the Turkish court; | |
| Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds, | |
| But Harry Harry. Yet be sad, good brothers, | |
| For, to speak truth, it very well becomes you: | 56 |
| Sorrow so royally in you appears | |
| That I will deeply put the fashion on | |
| And wear it in my heart. Why then, be sad; | |
| But entertain no more of it, good brothers, | 60 |
| Than a joint burden laid upon us all. | |
| For me, by heaven, I bid you be assur’d, | |
| I’ll be your father and your brother too; | |
| Let me but bear your love, I’ll bear your cares: | 64 |
| Yet weep that Harry’s dead, and so will I; | |
| But Harry lives that shall convert those tears | |
| By number into hours of happiness. | |
| Lanc., &c. We hope no other from your majesty. | 68 |
| K. Hen. V. You all look strangely on me: [To the CHIEF JUSTICE.] and you most; | |
| You are, I think, assur’d I love you not. | |
| Ch. Just. I am assur’d, if I be measur’d rightly, | |
| Your majesty hath no just cause to hate me. | 72 |
| K. Hen. V. No! | |
| How might a prince of my great hopes forget | |
| So great indignities you laid upon me? | |
| What! rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison | 76 |
| The immediate heir of England! Was this easy? | |
| May this be wash’d in Lethe, and forgotten? | |
| Ch. Just. I then did use the person of your father; | |
| The image of his power lay then in me: | 80 |
| And, in the administration of his law, | |
| Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth, | |
| Your highness pleased to forget my place, | |
| The majesty and power of law and justice, | 84 |
| The image of the king whom I presented, | |
| And struck me in my very seat of judgment; | |
| Whereon, as an offender to your father, | |
| I gave bold way to my authority, | 88 |
| And did commit you. If the deed were ill, | |
| Be you contented, wearing now the garland, | |
| To have a son set your decrees at nought, | |
| To pluck down justice from your awful bench, | 92 |
| To trip the course of law, and blunt the sword | |
| That guards the peace and safety of your person: | |
| Nay, more, to spurn at your most royal image | |
| And mock your workings in a second body. | 96 |
| Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours; | |
| Be now the father and propose a son, | |
| Hear your own dignity so much profan’d, | |
| See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted, | 100 |
| Behold yourself so by a son disdain’d; | |
| And then imagine me taking your part, | |
| And in your power soft silencing your son: | |
| After this cold considerance, sentence me; | 104 |
| And, as you are a king, speak in your state | |
| What I have done that misbecame my place, | |
| My person, or my liege’s sov’reignty. | |
| K. Hen. V. You are right, justice; and you weigh this well; | 108 |
| Therefore still bear the balance and the sword: | |
| And I do wish your honours may increase | |
| Till you do live to see a son of mine | |
| Offend you and obey you, as I did. | 112 |
| So shall I live to speak my father’s words: | |
| ‘Happy am I, that have a man so bold | |
| That dares do justice on my proper son; | |
| And not less happy, having such a son, | 116 |
| That would deliver up his greatness so | |
| Into the hands of justice.’ You did commit me: | |
| For which, I do commit into your hand | |
| The unstained sword that you have us’d to bear; | 120 |
| With this remembrance, that you use the same | |
| With the like bold, just, and impartial spirit | |
| As you have done ’gainst me. There is my hand: | |
| You shall be as a father to my youth; | 124 |
| My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear, | |
| And I will stoop and humble my intents | |
| To your well-practis’d wise directions. | |
| And, princes all, believe me, I beseech you; | 128 |
| My father is gone wild into his grave, | |
| For in his tomb lie my affections; | |
| And with his spirit sadly I survive, | |
| To mock the expectation of the world, | 132 |
| To frustrate prophecies, and to raze out | |
| Rotten opinion, who hath writ me down | |
| After my seeming. The tide of blood in me | |
| Hath proudly flow’d in vanity till now: | 136 |
| Now doth it turn and ebb back to the sea, | |
| Where it shall mingle with the state of floods | |
| And flow henceforth in formal majesty. | |
| Now call we our high court of parliament; | 140 |
| And let us choose such limbs of noble counsel, | |
| That the great body of our state may go | |
| In equal rank with the best govern’d nation; | |
| That war or peace, or both at once, may be | 144 |
| As things acquainted and familiar to us; | |
| In which you, father, shall have foremost hand. | |
| Our coronation done, we will accite, | |
| As I before remember’d, all our state: | 148 |
| And, God consigning to my good intents, | |
| No prince nor peer shall have just cause to say, | |
| God shorten Harry’s happy life one day. [Exeunt. | |