Stretches itself beyond the hour of death.

  The blood weeps from my heart when I do shape

  In forms imaginary th’unguided days

  And rotten times that you shall look upon

  60

  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,

  O, with what wings shall his affections fly

  65

  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 the language,

  ’Tis needful that the most immodest word

  70

  Be looked upon and learnt, which, once attained,

  Your highness knows, comes to no further use

  But to be known and hated. So, like gross terms,

  The Prince will in the perfectness of time

  Cast off his followers, and their memory

  75

  Shall as a pattern or a measure live

  By which his grace must mete the lives of other,

  Turning past evils to advantages.

  KING

  ’Tis seldom when the bee doth leave her comb

  In the dead carrion.

  Enter WESTMORLAND.

  Who’s here? Westmorland?

  80

  WESTMORLAND

  Health to my sovereign, and new happiness

  Added to that that I am to deliver.

  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.

  85

  There is not now a rebel’s sword unsheathed,

  But Peace puts forth her olive everywhere.

  The manner how this action hath been borne

  Here at more leisure may your highness read,

  With every course in his particular. [Offers a paper.]

  90

  KING

  O Westmorland, thou art a summer bird

  Which ever in the haunch of winter sings

  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

  95

  As those that I am come to tell you of.

  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

  100

  This packet, please it you, contains at large. [Offers packet.]

  KING

  And wherefore should these good news make me sick?

  Will Fortune never come with both hands full,

  But wet her fair words still in foulest terms?

  She either gives a stomach and no food –

  105

  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.

  110

  O me, come near me, now I am much ill. [Swoons.]

  GLOUCESTER

  Comfort, your majesty.

  CLARENCE O, my royal father!

  WESTMORLAND

  My sovereign lord, cheer up yourself. Look up!

  WARWICK

  Be patient, princes. You do know these fits

  Are with his highness very ordinary.

  115

  Stand from him; give him air. He’ll straight be well.

  CLARENCE

  No, no, he cannot long hold out these pangs.

  Th’incessant care and labour of his mind

  Hath wrought the mure that should confine it in

  So thin that life looks through.

  120

  GLOUCESTER

  The people fear me, for they do observe

  Unfathered heirs and loathly births of nature.

  The seasons change their manners, as the year

  Had found some months asleep and leapt them over.

  CLARENCE

  The river hath thrice flowed, no ebb between,

  125

  And the old folk, Time’s doting chronicles,

  Say it did so a little time before

  That our great-grandsire Edward sicked and died.

  WARWICK

  Speak lower, princes, for the King recovers.

  GLOUCESTER

  This apoplexy will certain be his end.

  130

  KING

  I pray you, take me up and bear me hence

  Into some other chamber.

  [A bed is thrust forth; the King is moved to it.]

  Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends,

  Unless some dull and favourable hand

  Will whisper music to my weary spirit.

  135

  WARWICK

  Call for the music in the other room.

  [Exit Attendant. Music within.]

  KING

  Set me the crown upon my pillow here.

  CLARENCE

  His eye is hollow, and he changes much.

  WARWICK

  Less noise, less noise.

  Enter FPRINCE Henry.F

  PRINCE Who saw the Duke of Clarence?

  CLARENCE

  I am here, brother, full of heaviness.

  140

  PRINCE

  How now, rain within doors and none abroad?

  How doth the King?

  GLOUCESTER Exceeding ill.

  PRINCE

  Heard he the good news yet? Tell it him.

  WARWICK

  He altered much upon the hearing it.

  PRINCE If he be sick with joy, he’ll recover without

  145

  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?

  150

  PRINCE

  No, I will sit and watch here by the King.

  [Exeunt all but the King and Prince.]

  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

  155

  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

  160

  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?

  165

  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

  170

  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. [Puts crown on his head.]

  Lo where it sits,

  Which God shall guard; and put the world’s whole strength

  175

  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.

  [The King awakes.]

  KING Warwick! Gloucester! Clarence!

  Enter WARWICK, GLOUCESTER [and] CLARENCE.

  CLARENCE

  Doth the King call?

  WARWICK What would your majesty?

  180

  KING

  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

  The Prince of Wales? Where is he? Let me see him.

  He is not here.

  185

  WARWICK

  This door is open; he is gone this way.

  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

  The Prince hath ta’en it hence. Go, seek him out.

  190

  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,

  195

  How quickly Nature falls into revolt

  When gold becomes her object?

  For this the foolish, over-careful fathers

  Have broke their sleep with thoughts,

  Their brains with care, their bones with industry.

  200

  For this they have engrossed and pill’d up

  The cankered heaps of strange-achieved gold.

  For this they have been thoughtful to invest

  Their sons with arts and martial exercises,

  When, like the bee tolling from every flower,

  205

  Our FthighsF 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.

  Enter WARWICK.

  Now, where is he that will not stay so long

  210

  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,

  215

  Would, by beholding him, have washed his knife

  With gentle eye-drops. He is coming hither.

  KING

  But wherefore did he take away the crown?

  Enter FPRINCE HenryF [carrying the crown].

  Lo where he comes. Come hither to me, Harry.

  – Depart the chamber; leave us here alone.

  220

  Exeunt [Gloucester, Clarence and Warwick].

  PRINCE

  I never thought to hear you speak again.

  KING

  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 honours

  225

  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.

  230

  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 lov’dst me not,

  And thou wilt have me die assured of it.

  235

  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,

  240

  And bid the merry bells ring to thine ear

  That thou art crowned, 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;

  245

  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,

  250

  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

  255

  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

  260

  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?

  265

  O, thou wilt be a wilderness again,

  Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants.

  PRINCE [Kneels.]

  O pardon me, my liege. But for my tears,

  The moist impediments unto my speech,

  I had forestalled this dear and deep rebuke

  270

  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,

  275

  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