The Illustrated Works of Shakespeare/Illustrated Works of Shakespeare, The (1990)(Animated Pixels)[!][CDTV-PC].iso/shakes/text/09/04_05

Text File | 1991-04-10 | 12KB | 307 lines

The KING is carried across the stage to his bed.

    let there be no noise made, my gentle friends,
    Unless some dull and favourable hand
    Will whisper music to my weary spirit.

Warwick    Call for the music in the other room.

King Henry IV    Set me the crown upon my pillow here.

Clarence    His eye is hollow, and he changes much.

Warwick    Less noise, less noise!

                           Enter PRINCE HENRY.

Prince Henry                                Who saw the Duke of Clarence?

Clarence    I am here, brother, full of heaviness.

Prince Henry    How now, rain within doors, and none abroad?
    How doth the king?

Gloucester    Exceeding ill.

Prince Henry                    Heard he the good news yet?
    Tell it him.

Gloucester    He altered much upon the hearing it.

Prince Henry    If he be sick with joy, he'll recover without physic.

Warwick    Not so much noise, my lords. Sweet prince, speak low;
    The king your father is disposed to sleep.

Clarence    Let us withdraw into the other room.

Warwick    Will't please your grace to go along with us?

Prince Henry    No, I will sit and watch here by the king.
                                        [Exeunt all but PRINCE HENRY.
    Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow,
    Being so troublesome a bedfellow?
    O polished perturbation! Golden care!
    That keep'st the ports of slumber open wide
    To many a watchful night! Sleep with it now;
    Yet not so sound, and half so deeply sweet,
    As he whose brow with homely biggen bound
    Snores out the watch of night. O majesty!
    When thou dost pinch thy bearer, thou dost sit
    Like a rich armour worn in heat of day,
    That scald'st with safety. By his gates of breath
    There lies a downy feather which stirs not:
    Did he suspire, that light and weightless down
    Perforce must move. My gracious lord! My father!
    This sleep is sound indeed; this is a sleep
    That from this golden rigol hath divorced
    So many English kings. Thy due from me
    Is tears and heavy sorrows of the blood,
    Which nature, love, and filial tenderness
    Shall, O dear father, pay thee plenteously.
    My due from thee is this imperial crown,
    Which, as immediate from thy place and blood,
    Derives itself to me.
                                [He takes the crown, and wears it.

                                    Lo where it sits,
    Which God shall guard; and put the world's whole strength
    Into one giant arm, it shall not force
    This lineal honour from me. This from thee
    Will I to mine leave, as 'tis left to me.
                                                    [Exit.
King Henry IV    [Waking.] Warwick! Gloucester! Clarence!

               Re-enter WARWICK, GLOUCESTER, and CLARENCE.

Clarence                                            Doth the king call?

Warwick    What would your majesty? How fares your grace?

King Henry IV    Why did you leave me here alone, my lords?

Clarence    We left the prince my brother here, my liege,
    Who undertook to sit and watch by you.

King Henry IV    The Prince of Wales - where is he? Let me see him.
    He is not here.

Warwick    This door is open, he is gone this way.

Gloucester    He came not through the chamber where we stayed.

King Henry IV    Where is the crown? Who took it from my pillow?

Warwick    When we withdrew, my liege, we left it here.

King Henry IV    The prince hath ta'en it hence. Go seek him out.
    Is he so hasty that he doth suppose
    My sleep my death?
    Find him, my Lord of Warwick; chide him hither.
                                                    [Exit WARWICK.
    This part of his conjoins with my disease,
    And helps to end me. See, sons, what things you are!
    How quickly nature falls into revolt
    When gold becomes her object!
    For this the foolish overcareful fathers
    Have broke their sleeps with thoughts,
    Their brains with care, their bones with industry.
    For this they have engrossd and piled up
    The cankered heaps of strange-achievd gold;
    For this they have been thoughtful to invest
    Their sons with arts nnd martial exercises;
    When, like the bee tolling from every flower
    The virtuous sweets,
    Our thighs packed with wax, our mouths with honey,
    We bring it to the hive; and like the bees
    Are murdered for our pains. This bitter taste
    Yields his engrossments to the ending father.

                            Re-enter WARWICK.

    Now where is he that will not stay so long
    Till his friend sickness have determined me?

Warwick    My lord, I found the prince in the next room,
    Washing with kindly tears his gentle cheeks,
    With such a deep demeanour in great sorrow
    That tyranny, which never quaffed but blood,
    Would, by beholding him, have washed his knife
    With gentle eye-drops. He is coming hither.

King Henry IV    But wherefore did he take away the crown?

                          Re-enter PRINCE HENRY.

    Lo where he comes. Come hither to me, Harry.
    Depart the chamber, leave us here alone.
                    [Exeunt all but the KING and PRINCE HENRY.

Prince Henry    I never thought to hear you speak again.

King Henry IV    Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought:
    I stay too long by thee, I weary thee.
    Dost thou so hunger for mine empty chair
    That thou wilt needs invest thee with mine honours
    Before thy hour be ripe? O foolish youth!
    Thou seek'st the greatness that will overwhelm thee.
    Stay but a little, for my cloud of dignity
    Is held from falling with so weak a wind
    That it will quickly drop; my day is dim.
    Thou hast stol'n that which after some few hours
    Were thine without offence; and at my death
    Thou hast sealed up my expectation.
    Thy life did manifest thou loved'st me not,
    And thou wilt have me die assured of it.
    Thou hid'st a thousand daggers in thy thoughts,
    Which thou hast whetted on thy stony heart,
    To stab at half an hour of my life.
    What, canst thou not forbear me half an hour?
    Then get thee gone and dig my grave thyself,
    And bid the merry bells ring to thine ear
    That thou art crownd, not that I am dead.
    Let all the tears that should bedew my hearse
    Be drops of balm to sanctify thy head;
    Only compound me with forgotten dust.
    Give that which gave thee life unto the worms.
    Pluck down my officers, break my decrees;
    For now a time is come to mock at form.
    Harry the Fifth is crowned! Up, vanity!
    Down, royal state! All you sage counsellors, hence!
    And to the English court assemble now
    From every region apes of idleness!
    Now, neighbour confines, purge you of your scum!
    Have you a ruffian that will swear, drink, dance,
    Revel the night, rob, murder, and commit
    The oldest sins the newest kind of ways?
    Be happy, he will trouble you no more:
    England shall double gild his treble guilt;
    England shall give him office, honour, might;
    For the fifth Harry from curbed licence plucks
    The muzzle of restraint, and the wild dog
    Shall flesh his tooth on every innocent.
    O my poor kingdom, sick with civil blows!
    When that my care could not withhold thy riots,
    What wilt thou do when riot is thy care?
    O, thou wilt be a wilderness again,
    Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants.

Prince Henry    [Kneeling.] O, pardon me, my liege! But for my tears,
    The moist impediments unto my speech,
    I had forestalled this dear and deep rebuke
    Ere you with grief had spoke and I had heard
    The course of it so far. There is your crown;
    And He that wears the crown immortally
    Long guard it yours! If I affect it more
    Than as your honour and as your renown,
    Let me no more from this obedience rise,
    Which my most inward true and duteous spirit
    Teacheth this prostrate and exterior bending.
    God witness with me, when I here came in
    And found no course of breath within your majesty,
    How cold it struck my heart. If I do feign,
    O, let me in my present wildness die,
    And never live to show th' incredulous world
    The noble change that I have purposd.
    Coming to look on you, thinking you dead,
    - And dead almost, my liege, to think you were -
    I spake unto this crown as having sense,
    And thus upbraided it: "The care on thee depending
    Hath fed upon the body of my father;
    Therefore thou best of gold art worst of gold.
    Other, less fine in carat, is more precious,
    Preserving life in med'cine potable;
    But thou, most fine, most honoured, most renowned,
    Hast eat thy bearer up". Thus, my most royal liege,
    Accusing it, I put it on my head,
    To try with it as with an enemy
    That had before my face murdered my father,
    The quarrel of a true inheritor.
    But if it did infect my blood with joy,
    Or swell my thoughts to any strain of pride;
    If any rebel or vain spirit of mine
    Did with the least affection of a welcome
    Give entertainment to the might of it,
    Let God for ever keep it from my head,
    And make me as the poorest vassal is,
    That doth with awe and terror kneel to it!

King Henry IV    O my son,
    God put it in thy mind to take it hence,
    That thou mightst win the more thy father's love,
    Pleading so wisely in excuse of it.
    Come hither, Harry; sit thou by my bed,
    And hear, I think, the very latest counsel
    That ever I shall breathe. God knows, my son,
    By what bypaths and indirect crook'd ways
    I met this crown; and I myself know well
    How troublesome it sat upon my head.
    To thee it shall descend with better quiet,
    Better opinion, better confirmation,
    For all the soil of the achievement goes
    With me into the earth. It seemed in me
    But as an honour snatched with boist'rous hand,
    And I had many living to upbraid
    My gain of it by their assistances;
    Which daily grew to quarrel and to bloodshed,
    Wounding supposd peace. All these bold fears
    Thou seest with peril I have answerd;
    For all my reign hath been but as a scene
    Acting that argument. And now my death
    Changes the mood; for what in me was purchased,
    Falls upon thee in a more fairer sort,
    So thou the garland wear'st successively.
    Yet though thou stand'st more sure than I could do,
    Thou art not firm enough, since griefs are green;
    And all my friends, which thou must make thy friends,
    Have but their stings and teeth newly ta'en out;
    By whose fell working I was first advanced,
    And by whose power I well might lodge a fear
    To be again displaced; which to avoid,
    I cut them off; and had a purpose now
    To lead out many to the Holy Land,
    Lest rest and lying still might make them look
    Too near unto my state. Therefore, my Harry,
    Be it thy course to busy giddy minds
    With foreign quarrels, that action hence borne out
    May waste the memory of the former days.
    More would I, but my lungs are wasted so
    That strength of speech is utterly denied me.
    How I came by the crown, O God forgive,
    And grant it may with thee in true peace live!

Prince Henry    My gracious liege,
    You won it, wore it, kept it, gave it me;
    Then plain and right must my possession be,
    Which I with more than with a common pain
    'Gainst all the world will rightfully maintain.

                     Enter Prince John of LANCASTER.

King Henry IV    Look, look, here comes my John of Lancaster.

Lancaster    Health, peace, and happiness to my royal father!

King Henry IV    Thou bring'st me happiness and peace, son John,
    But health, alack, with youthful wings is flown
    From this bare withered trunk. Upon thy sight
    My worldly business makes a period.
    Where is my Lord of Warwick?

Prince Henry                                    My Lord of Warwick!

                     Re-enter WARWICK and the OTHERS.

King Henry IV    Doth any name particular belong
    Unto the lodging where I first did swoon?

Warwick    'Tis called Jerusalem, my noble lord.

King Henry IV    Laud be to God! Even there my life must end.
    It hath been prophesied to me, many years,
    I should not die but in Jerusalem,
    Which vainly I supposed the Holy Land.
    But bear me to that chamber; there I'll lie;
    In that Jerusalem shall Harry die.
                                                    [Exeunt.