The Illustrated Works of Shakespeare/Illustrated Works of Shakespeare, The (1990)(Animated Pixels)[!][CDTV-PC].iso/shakes/text/09/03_01

Text File | 1991-04-10 | 5KB | 132 lines

Westminster. The Palace.

              Enter the KING in his nightgown, with a PAGE.

King Henry IV    Go, call the Earls of Surrey and of Warwick;
    But ere they come, bid them o'erread these letters,
    And well consider of them. Make good speed.
                                                    [Exit PAGE.
    How many thousand of my poorest subjects
    Are at this hour asleep? O sleep, O gentle sleep,
    Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
    That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down,
    And steep my senses in forgetfulness?
    Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
    Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,
    And hushed with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,
    Than in the perfumed chambers of the great,
    Under the canopies of costly state,
    And lulled with sound of sweetest melody?
    O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile
    In loathsome beds, and leav'st the kingly couch
    A watchcase or a common 'larum-bell?
    Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
    Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains
    In cradle of the rude imperious surge,
    And in the visitation of the winds,
    Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
    Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them
    With deafing clamour in the slipp'ry clouds,
    That, with the hurly, death itself awakes?
    Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose
    To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,
    And in the calmest and most stillest night,
    With all appliances and means to boot,
    Deny it to a king? Then happy low, lie down!
    Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

                        Enter WARWICK and SURREY.

Warwick    Many good morrows to your majesty!

King Henry IV    Is it good morrow, lords?

Warwick    'Tis one o'clock, and past.

King Henry IV    Why then, good morrow to you all, my lords.
    Have you read o'er the letters that I sent you?

Warwick    We have, my liege.

King Henry IV    Then you perceive the body of our kingdom
    How foul it is, what rank diseases grow,
    And with what danger, near the heart of it.

Warwick    It is but as a body yet distempered,
    Which to his former strength may be restored
    With good advice and little medicine.
    My Lord Northumberland will soon be cooled.

King Henry IV    O God, that one might read the book of fate,
    And see the revolution of the times
    Make mountains level, and the continent,
    Weary of solid firmness, melt itself
    Into the sea; and other times to see
    The beachy girdle of the ocean
    Too wide for Neptune's hips; how chance's mocks
    And changes fill the cup of alteration
    With divers liquors! O, if this were seen,
    The happiest youth, viewing his progress through,
    What perils past, what crosses to ensue,
    Would shut the book and sit him down and die.
    'Tis not ten years gone
    Since Richard and Northumberland, great friends,
    Did feast together, and in two years after
    Were they at wars. It is but eight years since
    This Percy was the man nearest my soul,
    Who like a brother toiled in my affairs
    And laid his love and life under my foot,
    Yea, for my sake, even to the eyes of Richard
    Gave him defiance. But which of you was by -
    [To WARWICK.] You, cousin Nevil, as I may remember -
    When Richard, with his eye brimful of tears,
    Then checked and rated by Northumberland,
    Did speak these words, now proved a prophecy?
    "Northumberland, thou ladder by the which
    My cousin Bolingbroke ascends my throne";
    - Though then, God knows, I had no such intent,
    But that necessity so bowed the state
    That I and greatness were compelled to kiss -
    "The time shall come", thus did he follow it,
    "The time will come that foul sin, gathering head,
    Shall break into corruption" - so went on,
    Foretelling this same time's condition,
    And the division of our amity.

Warwick    There is a history in all men's lives
    Figuring the nature of the times deceased;
    The which observed, a man may prophesy,
    With a near aim, of the main chance of things
    As yet not come to life, which in their seeds
    And weak beginning lie intreasurd.
    Such things become the hatch and brood of time;
    And by the necessary form of this
    King Richard might create a perfect guess
    That great Northumberland, then false to him,
    Would of that seed grow to a greater falseness,
    Which should not find a ground to root upon
    Unless on you.

King Henry IV                    Are these things then necessities?
    Then let us meet them like necessities;
    And that same word even now cries out on us.
    They say the bishop and Northumberland
    Are fifty thousand strong.

Warwick                                    It cannot be, my lord.
    Rumour doth double, like the voice and echo,
    The numbers of the feared. Please it your grace
    To go to bed. Upon my soul, my lord,
    The powers that you already have sent forth
    Shall bring this prize in very easily.
    To comfort you the more, I have received
    A certain instance that Glendower is dead.
    Your majesty hath been this fortnight ill,
    And these unseasoned hours perforce must add
    Unto your sickness.

King Henry IV                            I will take your counsel.
    And were these inward wars once out of hand,
    We would, dear lords, unto the Holy Land.
                                                    [Exeunt.