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- $Unique_ID{SSP00717}
- $Title{King Henry IV, Part II: Act V, Scene II}
- $Author{Shakespeare, William}
- $Subject{}
- $Log{Dramatis Personae*00700.TXT}
-
- Portions copyright (c) CMC ReSearch, Inc., 1989
-
- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
-
- KING HENRY IV, PART II
-
-
- ACT V
- ................................................................................
-
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- SCENE II: Westminster. The palace.
- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-
- {Enter WARWICK and the Lord Chief-Justice, meeting.}
-
- WARWICK: How now, my lord chief-justice! whither away?
-
- Lord Chief-Justice: How doth the king?
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- WARWICK: Exceeding well; his cares are now all ended.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice: I hope, not dead.
-
- WARWICK: He's walk'd the way of nature;
- And to our purposes he lives no more.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice: 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.
-
- WARWICK: Indeed I think the young king loves you not. 10
-
- Lord Chief-Justice: 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.
-
- {Enter LANCASTER, CLARENCE, GLOUCESTER,
- WESTMORELAND, and others.}
-
- WARWICK: Here come the heavy issue of dead Harry:
- O that the living Harry had the temper
- Of him, the worst of these three gentlemen!
- How many nobles then should hold their places
- That must strike sail to spirits of vile sort!
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- Lord Chief-Justice: O God, I fear all will be overturn'd! 20
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- LANCASTER: Good morrow, cousin Warwick, good morrow.
-
-
- GLOUCESTER: \
- } Good morrow, cousin.
- CLARENCE: /
-
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- LANCASTER: We meet like men that had forgot to speak.
-
- WARWICK: We do remember; but our argument
- Is all too heavy to admit much talk.
-
- LANCASTER: Well, peace be with him that hath made us heavy.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice: Peace be with us, lest we be heavier!
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- GLOUCESTER: O, good my lord, you have lost a friend indeed;
- And I dare swear you borrow not that face
- Of seeming sorrow, it is sure your own. 30
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- LANCASTER: Though no man be assured what grace to find,
- You stand in coldest expectation:
- I am the sorrier; would 'twere otherwise.
-
- CLARENCE: Well, you must now speak Sir John Falstaff fair;
- Which swims against your stream of quality.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice: Sweet princes, what I did, I did in honor,
- 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, 40
- I'll to the king my master that is dead,
- And tell him who hath sent me after him.
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- WARWICK: Here comes the prince.
-
- {Enter KING HENRY V, attended.}
-
- Lord Chief-Justice: Good morrow; and God save your majesty!
-
- KING HENRY V: This new and gorgeous garment, majesty,
- Sits not so easy on me as you think.
- Brothers, you mix your sadness with some fear:
- This is the English, not the Turkish court;
- Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds,
- But Harry Harry. Yet be sad, good brothers, 50
- For, by my faith, it very well becomes you:
- 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,
- Than a joint burden laid upon us all.
- For me, by heaven, I bid you be assured,
- I'll be your father and your brother too;
- Let me but bear your love, I 'll bear your cares:
- Yet weep that Harry's dead; and so will I; 60
- But Harry lives, that shall convert those tears
- By number into hours of happiness.
-
- Princes: We hope no other from your majesty.
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- KING HENRY V: You all look strangely on me: and you most;
- You are, I think, assured I love you not.
-
- Lord Chief-Justice: I am assured, if I be measured rightly,
- Your majesty hath no just cause to hate me.
-
- KING HENRY V: No!
- How might a prince of my great hopes forget
- So great indignities you laid upon me? 70
- What! rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison
- The immediate heir of England! Was this easy?
- May this be wash'd in Lethe, and forgotten?
-
- Lord Chief-Justice: I then did use the person of your father;
- The image of his power lay then in me:
- 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,
- The image of the king whom I presented, 80
- And struck me in my very seat of judgment;
- Whereon, as an offender to your father,
- I gave bold way to my authority
- 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,
- 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 90
- And mock your workings in a second body.
- Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours;
- Be now the father and propose a son,
- Hear your own dignity so much profaned,
- See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted,
- 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;
- And, as you are a king, speak in your state 100
- What I have done that misbecame my place,
- My person, or my liege's sovereignty.
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- KING HENRY V: You are right, justice, and you weigh this well;
- Therefore still bear the balance and the sword:
- And I do wish your honors may increase,
- Till you do live to see a son of mine
- Offend you and obey you, as I did.
- 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; 110
- And not less happy, having such a son,
- 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 used to bear;
- 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:
- My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear, 120
- And I will stoop and humble my intents
- To your well-practised wise directions.
- And, princes all, believe me, I beseech you;
- 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,
- To frustrate prophecies and to raze out
- Rotten opinion, who hath writ me down
- After my seeming. The tide of blood in me 130
- Hath proudly flow'd in vanity till now:
- 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:
- 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
- As things acquainted and familiar to us; 140
- In which you, father, shall have foremost hand.
- Our coronation done, we will accite,
- As I before remember'd, all our state:
- 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.]
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