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Henry IV, Part 2 - Act 5, scene 2
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Henry IV, Part 2 - Act 5, scene 2Act 5, scene 2
⟨Scene 2⟩
Synopsis:
Prince Hal reassures an anxious Lord Chief Justice.
Enter Warwick ⌜and⌝ Lord Chief Justice.WARWICK
2965 How now, my Lord Chief Justice, whither away?
CHIEF JUSTICE 2966 How doth the King?
WARWICK
2967 Exceeding well. His cares are now all ended.
CHIEF JUSTICE
2968 I hope, not dead.
WARWICK 2969 5 He’s walked the way of nature,
2970 And to our purposes he lives no more.
CHIEF JUSTICE
2971 I would his Majesty had called me with him.
2972 The service that I truly did his life
2973 Hath left me open to all injuries.
WARWICK
2974 10 Indeed, I think the young king loves you not.
CHIEF JUSTICE
2975 I know he doth not, and do arm myself
2976 To welcome the condition of the time,
2977 Which cannot look more hideously upon me
2978 Than I have drawn it in my fantasy.
Enter John, Thomas, and Humphrey.
WARWICK
2979 15 Here come the heavy issue of dead Harry.
2980 O, that the living Harry had the temper
2981 Of he the worst of these three gentlemen!
2982 How many nobles then should hold their places
2983 That must strike sail to spirits of vile sort!
CHIEF JUSTICE
2984 20 O God, I fear all will be overturned.
JOHN OF LANCASTER
2985 Good morrow, cousin Warwick, good morrow.
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215
HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER, THOMAS OF CLARENCE
2986
Good morrow, cousin.JOHN OF LANCASTER
2987 We meet like men that had forgot to speak.
WARWICK
2988 We do remember, but our argument
2989 25 Is all too heavy to admit much talk.
JOHN OF LANCASTER
2990 Well, peace be with him that hath made us heavy.
CHIEF JUSTICE
2991 Peace be with us, lest we be heavier.
HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER
2992 O, good my lord, you have lost a friend indeed,
2993 And I dare swear you borrow not that face
2994 30 Of seeming sorrow; it is sure your own.
JOHN OF LANCASTER, ⌜to the Chief Justice⌝
2995 Though no man be assured what grace to find,
2996 You stand in coldest expectation.
2997 I am the sorrier; would ’twere otherwise.
THOMAS OF CLARENCE
2998 Well, you must now speak Sir John Falstaff fair,
2999 35 Which swims against your stream of quality.
CHIEF JUSTICE
3000 Sweet princes, what I did I did in honor,
3001 Led by th’ impartial conduct of my soul;
3002 And never shall you see that I will beg
3003 A ragged and forestalled remission.
3004 40 If truth and upright innocency fail me,
3005 I’ll to the king my master that is dead
3006 And tell him who hath sent me after him.
Enter the Prince, ⌜as Henry V,⌝ and Blunt.
WARWICK 3007 Here comes the Prince.
CHIEF JUSTICE
3008 Good morrow, and God save your Majesty.
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217
PRINCE 3009 45 This new and gorgeous garment majesty
3010 Sits not so easy on me as you think.—
3011 Brothers, you ⟨mix⟩ your sadness with some fear.
3012 This is the English, not the Turkish court;
3013 Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds,
3014 50 But Harry Harry. Yet be sad, good brothers,
3015 For, by my faith, it very well becomes you.
3016 Sorrow so royally in you appears
3017 That I will deeply put the fashion on
3018 And wear it in my heart. Why then, be sad.
3019 55 But entertain no more of it, good brothers,
3020 Than a joint burden laid upon us all.
3021 For me, by heaven, I bid you be assured,
3022 I’ll be your father and your brother too.
3023 Let me but bear your love, I’ll bear your cares.
3024 60 Yet weep that Harry’s dead, and so will I,
3025 But Harry lives that shall convert those tears
3026 By number into hours of happiness.
BROTHERS
3027 We hope no otherwise from your Majesty.
PRINCE
3028 You all look strangely on me. ⌜To the Chief Justice.⌝
3029 65 And you most.
3030 You are, I think, assured I love you not.
CHIEF JUSTICE
3031 I am assured, if I be measured rightly,
3032 Your Majesty hath no just cause to hate me.
PRINCE
3033 No? How might a prince of my great hopes forget
3034 70 So great indignities you laid upon me?
3035 What, rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison
3036 Th’ immediate heir of England? Was this easy?
3037 May this be washed in Lethe and forgotten?
CHIEF JUSTICE
3038 I then did use the person of your father;
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219
3039
75 The image of his power lay then in me.3040 And in th’ administration of his law,
3041 Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth,
3042 Your Highness pleasèd to forget my place,
3043 The majesty and power of law and justice,
3044 80 The image of the King whom I presented,
3045 And struck me in my very seat of judgment,
3046 Whereon, as an offender to your father,
3047 I gave bold way to my authority
3048 And did commit you. If the deed were ill,
3049 85 Be you contented, wearing now the garland,
3050 To have a son set your decrees at nought?
3051 To pluck down justice from your awful bench?
3052 To trip the course of law and blunt the sword
3053 That guards the peace and safety of your person?
3054 90 Nay more, to spurn at your most royal image
3055 And mock your workings in a second body?
3056 Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours;
3057 Be now the father and propose a son,
3058 Hear your own dignity so much profaned,
3059 95 See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted,
3060 Behold yourself so by a son disdained,
3061 And then imagine me taking your part
3062 And in your power soft silencing your son.
3063 After this cold considerance, sentence me,
3064 100 And, as you are a king, speak in your state
3065 What I have done that misbecame my place,
3066 My person, or my liege’s sovereignty.
PRINCE
3067 You are right, justice, and you weigh this well.
3068 Therefore still bear the balance and the sword.
3069 105 And I do wish your honors may increase
3070 Till you do live to see a son of mine
3071 Offend you and obey you as I did.
3072 So shall I live to speak my father’s words:
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221
3073
“Happy am I that have a man so bold3074 110 That dares do justice on my proper son;
3075 And not less happy, having such a son
3076 That would deliver up his greatness so
3077 Into the hands of justice.” You did commit me,
3078 For which I do commit into your hand
3079 115 Th’ unstainèd sword that you have used to bear,
3080 With this remembrance: that you use the same
3081 With the like bold, just, and impartial spirit
3082 As you have done ’gainst me. There is my hand.
⌜They clasp hands.⌝
3083 You shall be as a father to my youth,
3084 120 My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear,
3085 And I will stoop and humble my intents
3086 To your well-practiced wise directions.—
3087 And, princes all, believe me, I beseech you:
3088 My father is gone wild into his grave,
3089 125 For in his tomb lie my affections,
3090 And with his spirits sadly I survive
3091 To mock the expectation of the world,
3092 To frustrate prophecies, and to raze out
3093 Rotten opinion, who hath writ me down
3094 130 After my seeming. The tide of blood in me
3095 Hath proudly flowed in vanity till now.
3096 Now doth it turn and ebb back to the sea,
3097 Where it shall mingle with the state of floods
3098 And flow henceforth in formal majesty.
3099 135 Now call we our high court of parliament,
3100 And let us choose such limbs of noble counsel
3101 That the great body of our state may go
3102 In equal rank with the best-governed nation;
3103 That war, or peace, or both at once, may be
3104 140 As things acquainted and familiar to us,
3105 ⌜To the Chief Justice.⌝ In which you, father, shall
3106 have foremost hand.
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223
3107
Our coronation done, we will accite,3108 As I before remembered, all our state.
3109 145 And, God consigning to my good intents,
3110 No prince nor peer shall have just cause to say
3111 God shorten Harry’s happy life one day.
⟨They exit.⟩