The Second Part Of King Henry The Fourth

1 Enter the King, Warwick, Thomas Duke of Clarence and Humphrey Duke of
2 Gloucester and others.
3 KING.
4 Now, lords, if God doth give successful end
5 To this debate that bleedeth at our doors,
6 We will our youth lead on to higher fields
7 And draw no swords but what are sanctified.
8 Our navy is address’d, our power collected,
9 Our substitutes in absence well invested,
10 And everything lies level to our wish.
11 Only we want a little personal strength;
12 And pause us till these rebels now afoot
13 Come underneath the yoke of government.
14 WARWICK.
15 Both which we doubt not but your Majesty
16 Shall soon enjoy.
17 KING.
18 Humphrey, my son of Gloucester,
19 Where is the Prince your brother?
20 GLOUCESTER.
21 I think he’s gone to hunt, my lord, at Windsor.
22 KING.
23 And how accompanied?
24 GLOUCESTER.
25 I do not know, my lord.
26 KING.
27 Is not his brother Thomas of Clarence with him?
28 GLOUCESTER.
29 No, my good lord, he is in presence here.
30 CLARENCE.
31 What would my lord and father?
32 KING.
33 Nothing but well to thee, Thomas of Clarence.
34 How chance thou art not with the Prince thy brother?
35 He loves thee, and thou dost neglect him, Thomas.
36 Thou hast a better place in his affection
37 Than all thy brothers. Cherish it, my boy,
38 And noble offices thou mayst effect
39 Of mediation, after I am dead,
40 Between his greatness and thy other brethren.
41 Therefore omit him not, blunt not his love,
42 Nor lose the good advantage of his grace
43 By seeming cold or careless of his will;
44 For he is gracious, if he be observed,
45 He hath a tear for pity, and a hand
46 Open as day for melting charity:
47 Yet notwithstanding, being incensed, he’s flint,
48 As humorous as winter, and as sudden
49 As flaws congealed in the spring of day.
50 His temper therefore must be well observed.
51 Chide him for faults, and do it reverently,
52 When you perceive his blood inclined to mirth;
53 But, being moody, give him time and scope,
54 Till that his passions, like a whale on ground,
55 Confound themselves with working. Learn this, Thomas,
56 And thou shalt prove a shelter to thy friends,
57 A hoop of gold to bind thy brothers in,
58 That the united vessel of their blood,
59 Mingled with venom of suggestion—
60 As, force perforce, the age will pour it in—
61 Shall never leak, though it do work as strong
62 As aconitum or rash gunpowder.
63 CLARENCE.
64 I shall observe him with all care and love.
65 KING.
66 Why art thou not at Windsor with him, Thomas?
67 CLARENCE.
68 He is not there today; he dines in London.
69 KING.
70 And how accompanied? Canst thou tell that?
71 CLARENCE.
72 With Poins, and other his continual followers.
73 KING.
74 Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds,
75 And he, the noble image of my youth,
76 Is overspread with them; therefore my grief
77 Stretches itself beyond the hour of death.
78 The blood weeps from my heart when I do shape
79 In forms imaginary th’ unguided days
80 And rotten times that you shall look upon
81 When I am sleeping with my ancestors.
82 For when his headstrong riot hath no curb,
83 When rage and hot blood are his counsellors,
84 When means and lavish manners meet together,
85 O, with what wings shall his affections fly
86 Towards fronting peril and opposed decay!
87 WARWICK.
88 My gracious lord, you look beyond him quite.
89 The prince but studies his companions
90 Like a strange tongue, wherein, to gain the language,
91 ’Tis needful that the most immodest word
92 Be looked upon and learned; which once attained,
93 Your Highness knows, comes to no further use
94 But to be known and hated. So, like gross terms,
95 The Prince will, in the perfectness of time,
96 Cast off his followers, and their memory
97 Shall as a pattern or a measure live,
98 By which his Grace must mete the lives of other,
99 Turning past evils to advantages.
100 KING.
101 ’Tis seldom when the bee doth leave her comb
102 In the dead carrion.
103 Enter Westmoreland.
104 Who’s here? Westmoreland?
105 WESTMORELAND.
106 Health to my sovereign, and new happiness
107 Added to that that I am to deliver!
108 Prince John your son doth kiss your Grace’s hand.
109 Mowbray, the Bishop Scroop, Hastings and all
110 Are brought to the correction of your law.
111 There is not now a rebel’s sword unsheathed,
112 But Peace puts forth her olive everywhere.
113 The manner how this action hath been borne
114 Here at more leisure may your Highness read,
115 With every course in his particular.
116 KING.
117 O Westmoreland, thou art a summer bird,
118 Which ever in the haunch of winter sings
119 The lifting up of day.
120 Enter Harcourt.
121 Look, here’s more news.
122 HARCOURT.
123 From enemies heaven keep your Majesty;
124 And when they stand against you, may they fall
125 As those that I am come to tell you of!
126 The Earl Northumberland and the Lord Bardolph,
127 With a great power of English and of Scots,
128 Are by the shrieve of Yorkshire overthrown.
129 The manner and true order of the fight
130 This packet, please it you, contains at large.
131 KING.
132 And wherefore should these good news make me sick?
133 Will Fortune never come with both hands full,
134 But write her fair words still in foulest letters?
135 She either gives a stomach and no food—
136 Such are the poor, in health; or else a feast
137 And takes away the stomach—such are the rich,
138 That have abundance and enjoy it not.
139 I should rejoice now at this happy news,
140 And now my sight fails, and my brain is giddy.
141 O me! Come near me, now I am much ill.
142 GLOUCESTER.
143 Comfort, your Majesty!
144 CLARENCE.
145 O my royal father!
146 WESTMORELAND.
147 My sovereign lord, cheer up yourself, look up.
148 WARWICK.
149 Be patient, princes; you do know these fits
150 Are with his Highness very ordinary.
151 Stand from him, give him air; he’ll straight be well.
152 CLARENCE.
153 No, no, he cannot long hold out these pangs.
154 Th’ incessant care and labour of his mind
155 Hath wrought the mure that should confine it in
156 So thin that life looks through and will break out.
157 GLOUCESTER.
158 The people fear me, for they do observe
159 Unfather’d heirs and loathly births of nature.
160 The seasons change their manners, as the year
161 Had found some months asleep and leap’d them over.
162 CLARENCE.
163 The river hath thrice flow’d, no ebb between,
164 And the old folk, time’s doting chronicles,
165 Say it did so a little time before
166 That our great-grandsire, Edward, sick’d and died.
167 WARWICK.
168 Speak lower, princes, for the King recovers.
169 GLOUCESTER.
170 This apoplexy will certain be his end.
171 KING.
172 I pray you take me up, and bear me hence
173 Into some other chamber: softly, pray.
174 [_Exeunt._]