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Henry IV, Part 2 - Act 4, scene 3
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Henry IV, Part 2 - Act 4, scene 3Act 4, scene 3
⟨Scene ⌜3⌝⟩
Synopsis:
Just after receiving the good news about the defeat of all the rebel forces, Henry IV falls into a swoon. Prince Hal, sitting at the king’s bedside, thinks him dead and takes the crown. The king berates him, Hal explains and apologizes, and peace is made between them. The king is taken into the Jerusalem Chamber to die.
Enter the King ⌜in a chair,⌝ Warwick, Thomas Duke ofClarence, Humphrey ⌜Duke⌝ of Gloucester, ⌜and
Attendants.⌝
KING
2474 Now, lords, if God doth give successful end
2475 To this debate that bleedeth at our doors,
2476 We will our youth lead on to higher fields
2477 And draw no swords but what are sanctified.
2478 5 Our navy is addressed, our power collected,
2479 Our substitutes in absence well invested,
2480 And everything lies level to our wish.
2481 Only we want a little personal strength;
2482 And pause us till these rebels now afoot
2483 10 Come underneath the yoke of government.
WARWICK
2484 Both which we doubt not but your Majesty
2485 Shall soon enjoy.
KING
2486 Humphrey, my son of Gloucester, where is the
2487 Prince your brother?
HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER
2488 15 I think he’s gone to hunt, my lord, at Windsor.
KING
2489 And how accompanied?
HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER 2490 I do not know, my lord.
KING
2491 Is not his brother Thomas of Clarence with him?
HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER
2492 No, my good lord, he is in presence here.
THOMAS OF CLARENCE, ⌜coming forward⌝ 2493 20What would
2494 my lord and father?
KING
2495 Nothing but well to thee, Thomas of Clarence.
p.
179
2496
How chance thou art not with the Prince thy2497 brother?
2498 25 He loves thee, and thou dost neglect him, Thomas.
2499 Thou hast a better place in his affection
2500 Than all thy brothers. Cherish it, my boy,
2501 And noble offices thou mayst effect
2502 Of mediation, after I am dead,
2503 30 Between his greatness and thy other brethren.
2504 Therefore omit him not, blunt not his love,
2505 Nor lose the good advantage of his grace
2506 By seeming cold or careless of his will.
2507 For he is gracious if he be observed;
2508 35 He hath a tear for pity, and a hand
2509 Open as day for ⟨melting⟩ charity;
2510 Yet notwithstanding, being incensed he is flint,
2511 As humorous as winter, and as sudden
2512 As flaws congealèd in the spring of day.
2513 40 His temper therefore must be well observed.
2514 Chide him for faults, and do it reverently,
2515 When you perceive his blood inclined to mirth;
2516 But, being moody, give him time and scope
2517 Till that his passions, like a whale on ground,
2518 45 Confound themselves with working. Learn this,
2519 Thomas,
2520 And thou shalt prove a shelter to thy friends,
2521 A hoop of gold to bind thy brothers in,
2522 That the united vessel of their blood,
2523 50 Mingled with venom of suggestion
2524 (As, force perforce, the age will pour it in),
2525 Shall never leak, though it do work as strong
2526 As aconitum or rash gunpowder.
THOMAS OF CLARENCE
2527 I shall observe him with all care and love.
KING
2528 55 Why art thou not at Windsor with him, Thomas?
p.
181
THOMAS OF CLARENCE 2529 He is not there today; he dines in London.
KING
2530 And how accompanied? ⟨Canst thou tell that?⟩
THOMAS OF CLARENCE
2531 With Poins and other his continual followers.
KING
2532 Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds,
2533 60 And he, the noble image of my youth,
2534 Is overspread with them; therefore my grief
2535 Stretches itself beyond the hour of death.
2536 The blood weeps from my heart when I do shape,
2537 In forms imaginary, th’ unguided days
2538 65 And rotten times that you shall look upon
2539 When I am sleeping with my ancestors.
2540 For when his headstrong riot hath no curb,
2541 When rage and hot blood are his counsellors,
2542 When means and lavish manners meet together,
2543 70 O, with what wings shall his affections fly
2544 Towards fronting peril and opposed decay!
WARWICK
2545 My gracious lord, you look beyond him quite.
2546 The Prince but studies his companions
2547 Like a strange tongue, wherein, to gain the
2548 75 language,
2549 ’Tis needful that the most immodest word
2550 Be looked upon and learned; which, once attained,
2551 Your Highness knows, comes to no further use
2552 But to be known and hated. So, like gross terms,
2553 80 The Prince will, in the perfectness of time,
2554 Cast off his followers, and their memory
2555 Shall as a pattern or a measure live,
2556 By which his Grace must mete the lives of others,
2557 Turning past evils to advantages.
p.
183
KING 2558 85 ’Tis seldom when the bee doth leave her comb
2559 In the dead carrion.
Enter Westmoreland.
2560 Who’s here? Westmoreland?
WESTMORELAND
2561 Health to my sovereign, and new happiness
2562 Added to that that I am to deliver.
2563 90 Prince John your son doth kiss your Grace’s hand.
2564 Mowbray, the Bishop Scroop, Hastings, and all
2565 Are brought to the correction of your law.
2566 There is not now a rebel’s sword unsheathed,
2567 But peace puts forth her olive everywhere.
2568 95 The manner how this action hath been borne
2569 Here at more leisure may your Highness read
2570 With every course in his particular.
⌜He gives the King a paper.⌝
KING
2571 O Westmoreland, thou art a summer bird,
2572 Which ever in the haunch of winter sings
2573 100 The lifting up of day.
Enter Harcourt.
2574 Look, here’s more news.
HARCOURT
2575 From enemies heavens keep your Majesty,
2576 And when they stand against you, may they fall
2577 As those that I am come to tell you of.
2578 105 The Earl Northumberland and the Lord Bardolph,
2579 With a great power of English and of Scots,
2580 Are by the shrieve of Yorkshire overthrown.
2581 The manner and true order of the fight
2582 This packet, please it you, contains at large.
⌜He gives the King papers.⌝
p.
185
KING 2583 110 And wherefore should these good news make me
2584 sick?
2585 Will Fortune never come with both hands full,
2586 But ⟨write⟩ her fair words still in foulest ⟨letters⟩?
2587 She either gives a stomach and no food—
2588 115 Such are the poor, in health—or else a feast
2589 And takes away the stomach—such are the rich,
2590 That have abundance and enjoy it not.
2591 I should rejoice now at this happy news,
2592 And now my sight fails, and my brain is giddy.
2593 120 O, me! Come near me, now I am much ill.
HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER
2594 Comfort, your Majesty.
THOMAS OF CLARENCE 2595 O, my royal father!
WESTMORELAND
2596 My sovereign lord, cheer up yourself, look up.
WARWICK
2597 Be patient, princes. You do know these fits
2598 125 Are with his Highness very ordinary.
2599 Stand from him, give him air. He’ll straight be
2600 well.
THOMAS OF CLARENCE
2601 No, no, he cannot long hold out these pangs.
2602 Th’ incessant care and labor of his mind
2603 130 Hath wrought the mure that should confine it in
2604 So thin that life looks through ⟨and will break out.⟩
HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER
2605 The people fear me, for they do observe
2606 Unfathered heirs and loathly births of nature.
2607 The seasons change their manners, as the year
2608 135 Had found some months asleep and leapt them
2609 over.
THOMAS OF CLARENCE
2610 The river hath thrice flowed, no ebb between,
2611 And the old folk, time’s doting chronicles,
p.
187
2612
Say it did so a little time before2613 140 That our great-grandsire, Edward, sicked and died.
WARWICK
2614 Speak lower, princes, for the King recovers.
HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER
2615 This apoplexy will certain be his end.
KING
2616 I pray you take me up and bear me hence
2617 Into some other chamber. ⟨Softly, pray.⟩
⌜The King is carried to a bed on another
part of the stage.⌝
2618 145 Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends,
2619 Unless some dull and favorable hand
2620 Will whisper music to my weary spirit.
WARWICK, ⌜to an Attendant⌝
2621 Call for the music in the other room.
KING
2622 Set me the crown upon my pillow here.
⌜The crown is placed on the bed.⌝
THOMAS OF CLARENCE, ⌜aside to the others⌝
2623 150 His eye is hollow, and he changes much.
WARWICK
2624 Less noise, less noise.
Enter ⟨Prince⟩ Harry.
PRINCE 2625 Who saw the Duke of Clarence?
THOMAS OF CLARENCE, ⌜weeping⌝
2626 I am here, brother, full of heaviness.
PRINCE
2627 How now, rain within doors, and none abroad?
2628 155 How doth the King?
HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER 2629 Exceeding ill.
PRINCE
2630 Heard he the good news yet? Tell it him.
HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER
2631 He altered much upon the hearing it.
p.
189
PRINCE
2632
If he be sick with joy, he’ll recover without2633 160 physic.
WARWICK
2634 Not so much noise, my lords.—Sweet prince, speak
2635 low.
2636 The King your father is disposed to sleep.
THOMAS OF CLARENCE
2637 Let us withdraw into the other room.
WARWICK
2638 165 Will ’t please your Grace to go along with us?
PRINCE
2639 No, I will sit and watch here by the King.
⌜All but Prince and King exit.⌝
2640 Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow,
2641 Being so troublesome a bedfellow?
2642 O polished perturbation, golden care,
2643 170 That keep’st the ports of slumber open wide
2644 To many a watchful night! Sleep with it now;
2645 Yet not so sound and half so deeply sweet
2646 As he whose brow with homely biggen bound
2647 Snores out the watch of night. O majesty,
2648 175 When thou dost pinch thy bearer, thou dost sit
2649 Like a rich armor worn in heat of day,
2650 That scald’st with safety. By his gates of breath
2651 There lies a downy feather which stirs not;
2652 Did he suspire, that light and weightless down
2653 180 Perforce must move. My gracious lord, my father,
2654 This sleep is sound indeed. This is a sleep
2655 That from this golden rigol hath divorced
2656 So many English kings. Thy due from me
2657 Is tears and heavy sorrows of the blood,
2658 185 Which nature, love, and filial tenderness
2659 Shall, O dear father, pay thee plenteously.
2660 My due from thee is this imperial crown,
2661 Which, as immediate from thy place and blood,
2662 Derives itself to me. ⌜He puts on the crown.⌝ Lo,
2663 190 where it sits,
p.
191
2664
Which God shall guard. And, put the world’s whole2665 strength
2666 Into one giant arm, it shall not force
2667 This lineal honor from me. This from thee
2668 195 Will I to mine leave, as ’tis left to me.
He exits ⌜with the crown.⌝
KING, ⌜rising up in his bed⌝ 2669 Warwick! Gloucester!
2670 Clarence!
Enter Warwick, Gloucester, Clarence, ⌜and others.⌝
THOMAS OF CLARENCE 2671 Doth the King call?
WARWICK
2672 What would your Majesty? ⟨How fares your Grace?⟩
KING
2673 200 Why did you leave me here alone, my lords?
THOMAS OF CLARENCE
2674 We left the Prince my brother here, my liege,
2675 Who undertook to sit and watch by you.
KING
2676 The Prince of Wales? Where is he? Let me see him.
2677 [He is not here.]
WARWICK
2678 205 This door is open. He is gone this way.
HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER
2679 He came not through the chamber where we
2680 stayed.
KING
2681 Where is the crown? Who took it from my pillow?
WARWICK
2682 When we withdrew, my liege, we left it here.
KING
2683 210 The Prince hath ta’en it hence. Go seek him out.
2684 Is he so hasty that he doth suppose my sleep my
2685 death?
2686 Find him, my Lord of Warwick. Chide him hither.
⌜Warwick exits.⌝
2687 This part of his conjoins with my disease
p.
193
2688
215 And helps to end me. See, sons, what things you2689 are,
2690 How quickly nature falls into revolt
2691 When gold becomes her object!
2692 For this the foolish overcareful fathers
2693 220 Have broke their sleep with thoughts,
2694 Their brains with care, their bones with industry.
2695 For this they have engrossèd and ⟨piled⟩ up
2696 The cankered heaps of strange-achievèd gold.
2697 For this they have been thoughtful to invest
2698 225 Their sons with arts and martial exercises—
2699 When, like the bee, tolling from every flower
2700 ⟨The virtuous sweets,⟩
2701 Our ⟨thighs⟩ packed with wax, our mouths with
2702 honey,
2703 230 We bring it to the hive and, like the bees,
2704 Are murdered for our pains. This bitter taste
2705 Yields his engrossments to the ending father.
Enter Warwick.
2706 Now where is he that will not stay so long
2707 Till his friend sickness ⟨hath⟩ determined me?
WARWICK
2708 235 My lord, I found the Prince in the next room,
2709 Washing with kindly tears his gentle cheeks,
2710 With such a deep demeanor in great sorrow
2711 That tyranny, which never quaffed but blood,
2712 Would, by beholding him, have washed his knife
2713 240 With gentle eyedrops. He is coming hither.
KING
2714 But wherefore did he take away the crown?
Enter ⟨Prince⟩ Harry ⌜with the crown.⌝
2715 Lo where he comes.—Come hither to me, Harry.—
2716 Depart the chamber. Leave us here alone.
⌜Gloucester, Clarence, Warwick, and others⌝ exit.
p.
195
PRINCE 2717 I never thought to hear you speak again.
KING
2718 245 Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.
2719 I stay too long by thee; I weary thee.
2720 Dost thou so hunger for mine empty chair
2721 That thou wilt needs invest thee with my honors
2722 Before thy hour be ripe? O foolish youth,
2723 250 Thou seek’st the greatness that will overwhelm
2724 thee.
2725 Stay but a little, for my cloud of dignity
2726 Is held from falling with so weak a wind
2727 That it will quickly drop. My day is dim.
2728 255 Thou hast stol’n that which after some few hours
2729 Were thine without offense, and at my death
2730 Thou hast sealed up my expectation.
2731 Thy life did manifest thou loved’st me not,
2732 And thou wilt have me die assured of it.
2733 260 Thou hid’st a thousand daggers in thy thoughts,
2734 Whom thou hast whetted on thy stony heart
2735 To stab at half an hour of my life.
2736 What, canst thou not forbear me half an hour?
2737 Then get thee gone, and dig my grave thyself,
2738 265 And bid the merry bells ring to thine ear
2739 That thou art crownèd, not that I am dead.
2740 Let all the tears that should bedew my hearse
2741 Be drops of balm to sanctify thy head;
2742 Only compound me with forgotten dust.
2743 270 Give that which gave thee life unto the worms.
2744 Pluck down my officers, break my decrees,
2745 For now a time is come to mock at form.
2746 Harry the Fifth is crowned. Up, vanity,
2747 Down, royal state, all you sage councillors,
2748 275 hence,
2749 And to the English court assemble now,
2750 From every region, apes of idleness.
p.
197
2751
Now, neighbor confines, purge you of your scum.2752 Have you a ruffian that will swear, drink, dance,
2753 280 Revel the night, rob, murder, and commit
2754 The oldest sins the newest kind of ways?
2755 Be happy, he will trouble you no more.
2756 England shall double gild his treble guilt.
2757 England shall give him office, honor, might,
2758 285 For the fifth Harry from curbed license plucks
2759 The muzzle of restraint, and the wild dog
2760 Shall flesh his tooth on every innocent.
2761 O my poor kingdom, sick with civil blows!
2762 When that my care could not withhold thy riots,
2763 290 What wilt thou do when riot is thy care?
2764 O, thou wilt be a wilderness again,
2765 Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants.
PRINCE, ⌜placing the crown on the pillow⌝
2766 O pardon me, my liege! But for my tears,
2767 The moist impediments unto my speech,
2768 295 I had forestalled this dear and deep rebuke
2769 Ere you with grief had spoke and I had heard
2770 The course of it so far. There is your crown,
2771 And He that wears the crown immortally
2772 Long guard it yours. ⌜He kneels.⌝ If I affect it
2773 300 more
2774 Than as your honor and as your renown,
2775 Let me no more from this obedience rise,
2776 Which my most inward true and duteous spirit
2777 Teacheth this prostrate and exterior bending.
2778 305 God witness with me, when I here came in
2779 And found no course of breath within your Majesty,
2780 How cold it struck my heart! If I do feign,
2781 O, let me in my present wildness die
2782 And never live to show th’ incredulous world
2783 310 The noble change that I have purposèd.
2784 Coming to look on you, thinking you dead,
2785 And dead almost, my liege, to think you were,
p.
199
2786
I spake unto this crown as having sense,2787 And thus upbraided it: “The care on thee
2788 315 depending
2789 Hath fed upon the body of my father;
2790 Therefore thou best of gold art ⟨worst of⟩ gold.
2791 Other, less fine in carat, ⟨is⟩ more precious,
2792 Preserving life in med’cine potable;
2793 320 But thou, most fine, most honored, most renowned,
2794 Hast eat thy bearer up.” Thus, my most royal liege,
2795 Accusing it, I put it on my head
2796 To try with it, as with an enemy
2797 That had before my face murdered my father,
2798 325 The quarrel of a true inheritor.
2799 But if it did infect my blood with joy
2800 Or swell my thoughts to any strain of pride,
2801 If any rebel or vain spirit of mine
2802 Did with the least affection of a welcome
2803 330 Give entertainment to the might of it,
2804 Let God forever keep it from my head
2805 And make me as the poorest vassal is
2806 That doth with awe and terror kneel to it.
KING 2807 ⟨O my son,⟩
2808 335 God put ⟨it⟩ in thy mind to take it hence
2809 That thou mightst win the more thy father’s love,
2810 Pleading so wisely in excuse of it.
2811 Come hither, Harry, sit thou by my bed
2812 And hear, I think, the very latest counsel
2813 340 That ever I shall breathe.
⌜The Prince rises from his knees and sits
near the bed.⌝
2814 God knows, my son,
2815 By what bypaths and indirect crook’d ways
2816 I met this crown, and I myself know well
2817 How troublesome it sat upon my head.
2818 345 To thee it shall descend with better quiet,
2819 Better opinion, better confirmation,
p.
201
2820
For all the soil of the achievement goes2821 With me into the earth. It seemed in me
2822 But as an honor snatched with boist’rous hand,
2823 350 And I had many living to upbraid
2824 My gain of it by their assistances,
2825 Which daily grew to quarrel and to bloodshed,
2826 Wounding supposèd peace. All these bold fears
2827 Thou seest with peril I have answerèd,
2828 355 For all my reign hath been but as a scene
2829 Acting that argument. And now my death
2830 Changes the mood, for what in me was purchased
2831 Falls upon thee in a more fairer sort.
2832 So thou the garland wear’st successively.
2833 360 Yet though thou stand’st more sure than I could do,
2834 Thou art not firm enough, since griefs are green,
2835 And all ⌜my⌝ friends, which thou must make thy
2836 friends,
2837 Have but their stings and teeth newly ta’en out,
2838 365 By whose fell working I was first advanced
2839 And by whose power I well might lodge a fear
2840 To be again displaced; which to avoid,
2841 I cut them off and had a purpose now
2842 To lead out many to the Holy Land,
2843 370 Lest rest and lying still might make them look
2844 Too near unto my state. Therefore, my Harry,
2845 Be it thy course to busy giddy minds
2846 With foreign quarrels, that action, hence borne
2847 out,
2848 375 May waste the memory of the former days.
2849 More would I, but my lungs are wasted so
2850 That strength of speech is utterly denied me.
2851 How I came by the crown, O God forgive,
2852 And grant it may with thee in true peace live.
PRINCE 2853 380⟨My gracious liege,⟩
2854 You won it, wore it, kept it, gave it me.
p.
203
2855
Then plain and right must my possession be,2856 Which I with more than with a common pain
2857 ’Gainst all the world will rightfully maintain.
Enter ⟨John of⟩ Lancaster ⌜and others.⌝
KING
2858 385 Look, look, here comes my John of Lancaster.
JOHN OF LANCASTER
2859 Health, peace, and happiness to my royal father.
KING
2860 Thou bring’st me happiness and peace, son John,
2861 But health, alack, with youthful wings is flown
2862 From this bare withered trunk. Upon thy sight
2863 390 My worldly business makes a period.
2864 Where is my Lord of Warwick?
PRINCE 2865 My Lord of Warwick.
⌜Enter⌝ ⟨Warwick.⟩
KING
2866 Doth any name particular belong
2867 Unto the lodging where I first did swoon?
WARWICK
2868 395 ’Tis called Jerusalem, my noble lord.
KING
2869 Laud be to God! Even there my life must end.
2870 It hath been prophesied to me many years,
2871 I should not die but in Jerusalem,
2872 Which vainly I supposed the Holy Land.
2873 400 But bear me to that chamber; there I’ll lie.
2874 In that Jerusalem shall Harry die.
⟨They exit.⟩