The Second Part Of King Henry The Fourth

1 Enter Warwick and the Lord Chief Justice, meeting.
2 WARWICK.
3 How now, my Lord Chief Justice, whither away?
4 CHIEF JUSTICE.
5 How doth the King?
6 WARWICK.
7 Exceeding well. His cares are now all ended.
8 CHIEF JUSTICE.
9 I hope, not dead.
10 WARWICK.
11 He’s walk’d the way of nature,
12 And to our purposes he lives no more.
13 CHIEF JUSTICE.
14 I would his Majesty had call’d me with him.
15 The service that I truly did his life
16 Hath left me open to all injuries.
17 WARWICK.
18 Indeed I think the young King loves you not.
19 CHIEF JUSTICE.
20 I know he doth not, and do arm myself
21 To welcome the condition of the time,
22 Which cannot look more hideously upon me
23 Than I have drawn it in my fantasy.
24 Enter Lancaster, Clarence, Gloucester and others.
25 WARWICK.
26 Here comes the heavy issue of dead Harry.
27 O that the living Harry had the temper
28 Of he the worst of these three gentlemen!
29 How many nobles then should hold their places,
30 That must strike sail to spirits of vile sort!
31 CHIEF JUSTICE.
32 O God, I fear all will be overturn’d.
33 LANCASTER.
34 Good morrow, cousin Warwick, good morrow.
35 GLOUCESTER & CLARENCE.
36 Good morrow, cousin.
37 LANCASTER.
38 We meet like men that had forgot to speak.
39 WARWICK.
40 We do remember, but our argument
41 Is all too heavy to admit much talk.
42 LANCASTER.
43 Well, peace be with him that hath made us heavy!
44 CHIEF JUSTICE.
45 Peace be with us, lest we be heavier!
46 GLOUCESTER.
47 O, good my lord, you have lost a friend indeed;
48 And I dare swear you borrow not that face
49 Of seeming sorrow; it is sure your own.
50 LANCASTER.
51 Though no man be assured what grace to find,
52 You stand in coldest expectation.
53 I am the sorrier; would ’twere otherwise.
54 CLARENCE.
55 Well, you must now speak Sir John Falstaff fair,
56 Which swims against your stream of quality.
57 CHIEF JUSTICE.
58 Sweet Princes, what I did I did in honour,
59 Led by th’ impartial conduct of my soul;
60 And never shall you see that I will beg
61 A ragged and forestall’d remission.
62 If truth and upright innocency fail me,
63 I’ll to the King my master that is dead,
64 And tell him who hath sent me after him.
65 WARWICK.
66 Here comes the Prince.
67 Enter King Henry the Fifth, attended.
68 CHIEF JUSTICE.
69 Good morrow, and God save your Majesty!
70 KING.
71 This new and gorgeous garment, majesty,
72 Sits not so easy on me as you think.
73 Brothers, you mix your sadness with some fear.
74 This is the English, not the Turkish court;
75 Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds,
76 But Harry Harry. Yet be sad, good brothers,
77 For, by my faith, it very well becomes you.
78 Sorrow so royally in you appears
79 That I will deeply put the fashion on
80 And wear it in my heart. Why then, be sad;
81 But entertain no more of it, good brothers,
82 Than a joint burden laid upon us all.
83 For me, by heaven, I bid you be assured,
84 I’ll be your father and your brother too;
85 Let me but bear your love, I’ll bear your cares.
86 Yet weep that Harry’s dead, and so will I;
87 But Harry lives, that shall convert those tears
88 By number into hours of happiness.
89 PRINCES.
90 We hope no otherwise from your Majesty.
91 KING.
92 You all look strangely on me. And you most;
93 You are, I think, assured I love you not.
94 CHIEF JUSTICE.
95 I am assured, if I be measured rightly,
96 Your Majesty hath no just cause to hate me.
97 KING.
98 No?
99 How might a prince of my great hopes forget
100 So great indignities you laid upon me?
101 What! rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison
102 Th’ immediate heir of England? Was this easy?
103 May this be wash’d in Lethe and forgotten?
104 CHIEF JUSTICE.
105 I then did use the person of your father;
106 The image of his power lay then in me;
107 And in the administration of his law,
108 Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth,
109 Your Highness pleased to forget my place,
110 The majesty and power of law and justice,
111 The image of the King whom I presented,
112 And struck me in my very seat of judgement;
113 Whereon, as an offender to your father,
114 I gave bold way to my authority
115 And did commit you. If the deed were ill,
116 Be you contented, wearing now the garland,
117 To have a son set your decrees at nought?
118 To pluck down justice from your awful bench?
119 To trip the course of law and blunt the sword
120 That guards the peace and safety of your person?
121 Nay more, to spurn at your most royal image,
122 And mock your workings in a second body?
123 Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours;
124 Be now the father and propose a son,
125 Hear your own dignity so much profaned,
126 See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted,
127 Behold yourself so by a son disdain’d,
128 And then imagine me taking your part
129 And in your power soft silencing your son.
130 After this cold considerance, sentence me;
131 And, as you are a king, speak in your state
132 What I have done that misbecame my place,
133 My person, or my liege’s sovereignty.
134 KING.
135 You are right, justice, and you weigh this well.
136 Therefore still bear the balance and the sword.
137 And I do wish your honours may increase
138 Till you do live to see a son of mine
139 Offend you and obey you, as I did.
140 So shall I live to speak my father’s words:
141 “Happy am I, that have a man so bold
142 That dares do justice on my proper son;
143 And not less happy, having such a son
144 That would deliver up his greatness so
145 Into the hands of justice.” You did commit me,
146 For which I do commit into your hand
147 Th’ unstained sword that you have used to bear,
148 With this remembrance: that you use the same
149 With the like bold, just, and impartial spirit
150 As you have done ’gainst me. There is my hand.
151 You shall be as a father to my youth,
152 My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear,
153 And I will stoop and humble my intents
154 To your well-practised wise directions.
155 And, princes all, believe me, I beseech you,
156 My father is gone wild into his grave,
157 For in his tomb lie my affections;
158 And with his spirit sadly I survive
159 To mock the expectation of the world,
160 To frustrate prophecies, and to raze out
161 Rotten opinion, who hath writ me down
162 After my seeming. The tide of blood in me
163 Hath proudly flow’d in vanity till now.
164 Now doth it turn and ebb back to the sea,
165 Where it shall mingle with the state of floods,
166 And flow henceforth in formal majesty.
167 Now call we our high court of parliament,
168 And let us choose such limbs of noble counsel
169 That the great body of our state may go
170 In equal rank with the best-govern’d nation;
171 That war, or peace, or both at once, may be
172 As things acquainted and familiar to us;
173 In which you, father, shall have foremost hand.
174 Our coronation done, we will accite,
175 As I before remember’d, all our state:
176 And, God consigning to my good intents,
177 No prince nor peer shall have just cause to say,
178 God shorten Harry’s happy life one day!
179 [_Exeunt._]