Enter the King ⌜in a chair,⌝ Warwick, Thomas Duke of
Clarence, Humphrey ⌜Duke⌝ of Gloucester, ⌜and
Attendants.⌝KING Now, lords, if God doth give successful end To this debate that bleedeth at our doors, We will our youth lead on to higher fields And draw no swords but what are sanctified.5 Our navy is addressed, our power collected, Our substitutes in absence well invested, And everything lies level to our wish. Only we want a little personal strength; And pause us till these rebels now afoot10 Come underneath the yoke of government.WARWICK Both which we doubt not but your Majesty Shall soon enjoy.KING Humphrey, my son of Gloucester, where is the Prince your brother?HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER 15 I think he’s gone to hunt, my lord, at Windsor.KING And how accompanied?HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER I do not know, my lord.KING Is not his brother Thomas of Clarence with him?HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER No, my good lord, he is in presence here.THOMAS OF CLARENCE, ⌜coming forward⌝ 20What would my lord and father?KING Nothing but well to thee, Thomas of Clarence.
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How chance thou art not with the Prince thy brother?25 He loves thee, and thou dost neglect him, Thomas. Thou hast a better place in his affection Than all thy brothers. Cherish it, my boy, And noble offices thou mayst effect Of mediation, after I am dead,30 Between his greatness and thy other brethren. Therefore omit him not, blunt not his love, Nor lose the good advantage of his grace By seeming cold or careless of his will. For he is gracious if he be observed;35 He hath a tear for pity, and a hand Open as day for ⟨melting⟩ charity; Yet notwithstanding, being incensed he is flint, As humorous as winter, and as sudden As flaws congealèd in the spring of day.40 His temper therefore must be well observed. Chide him for faults, and do it reverently, When you perceive his blood inclined to mirth; But, being moody, give him time and scope Till that his passions, like a whale on ground,45 Confound themselves with working. Learn this, Thomas, And thou shalt prove a shelter to thy friends, A hoop of gold to bind thy brothers in, That the united vessel of their blood,50 Mingled with venom of suggestion (As, force perforce, the age will pour it in), Shall never leak, though it do work as strong As aconitum or rash gunpowder.THOMAS OF CLARENCE I shall observe him with all care and love.KING 55 Why art thou not at Windsor with him, Thomas?
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THOMAS OF CLARENCE He is not there today; he dines in London.KING And how accompanied? ⟨Canst thou tell that?⟩THOMAS OF CLARENCE With Poins and other his continual followers.KING Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds,60 And he, the noble image of my youth, Is overspread with them; therefore my grief Stretches itself beyond the hour of death. The blood weeps from my heart when I do shape, In forms imaginary, th’ unguided days65 And rotten times that you shall look upon When I am sleeping with my ancestors. For when his headstrong riot hath no curb, When rage and hot blood are his counsellors, When means and lavish manners meet together,70 O, with what wings shall his affections fly Towards fronting peril and opposed decay!WARWICK My gracious lord, you look beyond him quite. The Prince but studies his companions Like a strange tongue, wherein, to gain the75 language, ’Tis needful that the most immodest word Be looked upon and learned; which, once attained, Your Highness knows, comes to no further use But to be known and hated. So, like gross terms,80 The Prince will, in the perfectness of time, Cast off his followers, and their memory Shall as a pattern or a measure live, By which his Grace must mete the lives of others, Turning past evils to advantages.
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KING 85 ’Tis seldom when the bee doth leave her comb In the dead carrion.Enter Westmoreland. Who’s here? Westmoreland?WESTMORELAND Health to my sovereign, and new happiness Added to that that I am to deliver.90 Prince John your son doth kiss your Grace’s hand. Mowbray, the Bishop Scroop, Hastings, and all Are brought to the correction of your law. There is not now a rebel’s sword unsheathed, But peace puts forth her olive everywhere.95 The manner how this action hath been borne Here at more leisure may your Highness read With every course in his particular.⌜He gives the King a paper.⌝KING O Westmoreland, thou art a summer bird, Which ever in the haunch of winter sings100 The lifting up of day.Enter Harcourt. Look, here’s more news.HARCOURT From enemies heavens keep your Majesty, And when they stand against you, may they fall As those that I am come to tell you of.105 The Earl Northumberland and the Lord Bardolph, With a great power of English and of Scots, Are by the shrieve of Yorkshire overthrown. The manner and true order of the fight This packet, please it you, contains at large.⌜He gives the King papers.⌝
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KING 110 And wherefore should these good news make me sick? Will Fortune never come with both hands full, But ⟨write⟩ her fair words still in foulest ⟨letters⟩? She either gives a stomach and no food—115 Such are the poor, in health—or else a feast And takes away the stomach—such are the rich, That have abundance and enjoy it not. I should rejoice now at this happy news, And now my sight fails, and my brain is giddy.120 O, me! Come near me, now I am much ill.HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER Comfort, your Majesty.THOMAS OF CLARENCE O, my royal father!WESTMORELAND My sovereign lord, cheer up yourself, look up.WARWICK Be patient, princes. You do know these fits125 Are with his Highness very ordinary. Stand from him, give him air. He’ll straight be well.THOMAS OF CLARENCE No, no, he cannot long hold out these pangs. Th’ incessant care and labor of his mind130 Hath wrought the mure that should confine it in So thin that life looks through ⟨and will break out.⟩HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER The people fear me, for they do observe Unfathered heirs and loathly births of nature. The seasons change their manners, as the year135 Had found some months asleep and leapt them over.THOMAS OF CLARENCE The river hath thrice flowed, no ebb between, And the old folk, time’s doting chronicles,
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Say it did so a little time before140 That our great-grandsire, Edward, sicked and died.WARWICK Speak lower, princes, for the King recovers.HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER This apoplexy will certain be his end.KING I pray you take me up and bear me hence Into some other chamber. ⟨Softly, pray.⟩⌜The King is carried to a bed on another
part of the stage.⌝145 Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends, Unless some dull and favorable hand Will whisper music to my weary spirit.WARWICK, ⌜to an Attendant⌝ Call for the music in the other room.KING Set me the crown upon my pillow here.⌜The crown is placed on the bed.⌝THOMAS OF CLARENCE, ⌜aside to the others⌝ 150 His eye is hollow, and he changes much.WARWICK Less noise, less noise.Enter ⟨Prince⟩ Harry.PRINCE Who saw the Duke of Clarence?THOMAS OF CLARENCE, ⌜weeping⌝ I am here, brother, full of heaviness.PRINCE How now, rain within doors, and none abroad?155 How doth the King?HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER Exceeding ill.PRINCE Heard he the good news yet? Tell it him.HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER He altered much upon the hearing it.
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PRINCE If he be sick with joy, he’ll recover without160 physic.WARWICK Not so much noise, my lords.—Sweet prince, speak low. The King your father is disposed to sleep.THOMAS OF CLARENCE Let us withdraw into the other room.WARWICK 165 Will ’t please your Grace to go along with us?PRINCE No, I will sit and watch here by the King.⌜All but Prince and King exit.⌝ Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow, Being so troublesome a bedfellow? O polished perturbation, golden care,170 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,175 When thou dost pinch thy bearer, thou dost sit Like a rich armor 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 down180 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,185 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 puts on the crown.⌝ Lo,190 where it sits,
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Which God shall guard. And, put the world’s whole strength Into one giant arm, it shall not force This lineal honor from me. This from thee195 Will I to mine leave, as ’tis left to me.He exits ⌜with the crown.⌝KING, ⌜rising up in his bed⌝ Warwick! Gloucester! Clarence!Enter Warwick, Gloucester, Clarence, ⌜and others.⌝THOMAS OF CLARENCE Doth the King call?WARWICK What would your Majesty? ⟨How fares your Grace?⟩KING 200 Why did you leave me here alone, my lords?THOMAS OF CLARENCE We left the Prince my brother here, my liege, Who undertook to sit and watch by you.KING The Prince of Wales? Where is he? Let me see him. [He is not here.]WARWICK 205 This door is open. He is gone this way.HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER He came not through the chamber where we stayed.KING Where is the crown? Who took it from my pillow?WARWICK When we withdrew, my liege, we left it here.KING 210 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.⌜Warwick exits.⌝ This part of his conjoins with my disease
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215 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 fathers220 Have broke their sleep with thoughts, Their brains with care, their bones with industry. For this they have engrossèd and ⟨piled⟩ up The cankered heaps of strange-achievèd gold. For this they have been thoughtful to invest225 Their sons with arts and martial exercises— When, like the bee, tolling from every flower ⟨The virtuous sweets,⟩ Our ⟨thighs⟩ packed with wax, our mouths with honey,230 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.Enter Warwick. Now where is he that will not stay so long Till his friend sickness ⟨hath⟩ determined me?WARWICK 235 My lord, I found the Prince in the next room, Washing with kindly tears his gentle cheeks, With such a deep demeanor in great sorrow That tyranny, which never quaffed but blood, Would, by beholding him, have washed his knife240 With gentle eyedrops. He is coming hither.KING But wherefore did he take away the crown?Enter ⟨Prince⟩ Harry ⌜with the crown.⌝ Lo where he comes.—Come hither to me, Harry.— Depart the chamber. Leave us here alone.⌜Gloucester, Clarence, Warwick, and others⌝ exit.
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PRINCE I never thought to hear you speak again.KING 245 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 my honors Before thy hour be ripe? O foolish youth,250 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.255 Thou hast stol’n that which after some few hours Were thine without offense, 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.260 Thou hid’st a thousand daggers in thy thoughts, Whom 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,265 And bid the merry bells ring to thine ear That thou art crownèd, 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.270 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 councillors,275 hence, And to the English court assemble now, From every region, apes of idleness.
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Now, neighbor confines, purge you of your scum. Have you a ruffian that will swear, drink, dance,280 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, honor, might,285 For the fifth Harry from curbed license 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,290 What wilt thou do when riot is thy care? O, thou wilt be a wilderness again, Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants.PRINCE, ⌜placing the crown on the pillow⌝ O pardon me, my liege! But for my tears, The moist impediments unto my speech,295 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. ⌜He kneels.⌝ If I affect it300 more Than as your honor 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.305 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 world310 The noble change that I have purposèd. Coming to look on you, thinking you dead, And dead almost, my liege, to think you were,
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I spake unto this crown as having sense, And thus upbraided it: “The care on thee315 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;320 But thou, most fine, most honored, 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,325 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 welcome330 Give entertainment to the might of it, Let God forever keep it from my head And make me as the poorest vassal is That doth with awe and terror kneel to it.KING ⟨O my son,⟩335 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 counsel340 That ever I shall breathe.⌜The Prince rises from his knees and sits
near the bed.⌝ 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.345 To thee it shall descend with better quiet, Better opinion, better confirmation,
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For all the soil of the achievement goes With me into the earth. It seemed in me But as an honor snatched with boist’rous hand,350 And I had many living to upbraid My gain of it by their assistances, Which daily grew to quarrel and to bloodshed, Wounding supposèd peace. All these bold fears Thou seest with peril I have answerèd,355 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.360 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,365 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,370 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,375 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 380⟨My gracious liege,⟩ You won it, wore it, kept it, gave it me.
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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 ⟨John of⟩ Lancaster ⌜and others.⌝KING 385 Look, look, here comes my John of Lancaster.JOHN OF LANCASTER Health, peace, and happiness to my royal father.KING Thou bring’st me happiness and peace, son John, But health, alack, with youthful wings is flown From this bare withered trunk. Upon thy sight390 My worldly business makes a period. Where is my Lord of Warwick?PRINCE My Lord of Warwick.⌜Enter⌝ ⟨Warwick.⟩KING Doth any name particular belong Unto the lodging where I first did swoon?WARWICK 395 ’Tis called Jerusalem, my noble lord.KING 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.400 But bear me to that chamber; there I’ll lie. In that Jerusalem shall Harry die.⟨They exit.⟩
Henry IV, Part 2: 
