[Exeunt Warwick and the rest.[4224]
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[4225]95
That thou wilt needs invest thee with my honours[4226]
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 wind100
That it will quickly drop: my day is dim.
Thou hast stolen that which after some few hours
Were thine without offence; and at my death
Thou hast seal'd up my expectation:
Thy life did manifest thou lovedst me not,105
And thou wilt have me die assured of it.
Thou hidest a thousand daggers in thy thoughts,[4227]
Which thou hast whetted on thy stony heart,[4228]
To stab at half an hour of my life.[4229]
What! canst thou not forbear me half an hour?110
Then get thee gone and dig my grave thyself,
And bid the merry bells ring to thine ear[4230]
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:115
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 crown'd: up, vanity![4231]120
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,[4232]125
Revel the night, rob, murder, and commit
The oldest sins the newest kind of ways?[4233]
Be happy, he will trouble you no more;
England shall double gild his treble guilt,[4234]
England shall give him office, honour, might;130
For the fifth Harry from curb'd license plucks[4235]
The muzzle of restraint, and the wild dog
Shall flesh his tooth on every innocent.[4236]
O my poor kingdom, sick with civil blows!
When that my care could not withhold thy riots,135
What wilt thou do when riot is thy care?
O, thou wilt be a wilderness again,
Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants!
Prince. O, pardon me, my liege! but for my tears,[4237]
The moist impediments unto my speech,[4238]140
I had forestall'd 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;[4239]
And He that wears the crown immortally
Long guard it yours! If I affect it more145
Than as your honour and as your renown,
Let me no more from this obedience rise,
Which my most inward true and duteous spirit[4240]
Teacheth, this prostrate and exterior bending.[4241][4242]
God witness with me, when I here came in,[4242]150
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 the incredulous world
The noble change that I have purposed!155
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,[4243]
And thus upbraided it: 'The care on thee depending
Hath fed upon the body of my father;160
Therefore, thou best of gold art worst of gold:[4244]
Other, less fine in carat, is more precious,[4245]
Preserving life in medicine potable;
But thou, most fine, most honour'd, most renown'd,
Hast eat thy bearer up.' Thus, my most royal liege,[4246]165
Accusing it, I put it on my head,
To try with it, as with an enemy
That had before my face murder'd my father,
The quarrel of a true inheritor.
But if it did infect my blood with joy,170
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,[4247]
Let God for ever keep it from my head[4248]175
And make me as the poorest vassal is
That doth with awe and terror kneel to it!
King. O my son,[4249]
God put it in thy mind to take it hence,[4248][4250]
That thou mightst win the more thy father's love,[4251]180
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,[4248]
By what by-paths and indirect crook'd ways[4252]185
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 goes190
With me into the earth. It seem'd in me
But as an honour snatch'd with boisterous hand,
And I had many living to upbraid
My gain of it by their assistances;
Which daily grew to quarrel and to bloodshed,[4253]195
Wounding supposed peace: all these bold fears[4254]
Thou see'st with peril I have answered;
For all my reign hath been but as a scene
Acting that argument: and now my death
Changes the mode; for what in me was purchased,[4255]200
Falls upon thee in a more fairer sort;[4256]
So thou the garland wear'st successively.[4257]
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,[4258]205
Have but their stings and teeth newly ta'en out;[4259]
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[4260]210
To lead out many to the Holy Land,[4261]
Lest rest and lying still might make them look
Too near unto my state. Therefore, my Harry,[4262]
Be it thy course to busy giddy minds
With foreign quarrels; that action, hence borne out,[4263]215
May waste the memory of the former days.[4264]
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;[4248][4265]
And grant it may with thee in true peace live![4265]220
Prince. My gracious liege,[4266]
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.225
Enter Lord John of Lancaster.[4267]
King. Look, look, here comes my John of Lancaster.[4268]
Lan. Health, peace, and happiness to my royal father![4269]
King. Thou bring'st me happiness and peace, son John;[4270]
But health, alack, with youthful wings is flown
From this bare wither'd trunk: upon thy sight230
My worldly business makes a period.
Where is my Lord of Warwick?