Ch. Just. Sweet princes, what I did, I did in honour,35
Led by the impartial conduct of my soul;[4318]
And never shall you see that I will beg
A ragged and forestall'd remission.[4319][4320]
If truth and upright innocency fail me,[4320][4321]
I'll to the king my master that is dead,40
And tell him who hath sent me after him.
War. Here comes the prince.
Enter King Henry the fifth, attended.[4322]
Ch. Just. Good morrow; and God save your majesty![4323]
King. This new and gorgeous garment, majesty,[4324]
Sits not so easy on me as you think.45
Brothers, you mix your sadness with some fear:[4325]
This is the English, not the Turkish court;
Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds,[4326]
But Harry Harry. Yet be sad, good brothers,
For, by my faith, it very well becomes you:[4327]50
Sorrow so royally in you appears
That I will deeply put the fashion on
And wear it in my heart: why then, be sad;
But entertain no more of it, good brothers,
Than a joint burden laid upon us all.55
For me, by heaven, I bid you be assured,
I'll be your father and your brother too;
Let me but bear your love. I'll bear your cares:
Yet weep that Harry's dead; and so will I;[4328]
But Harry lives, that shall convert those tears60
By number into hours of happiness.
Princes. We hope no other from your majesty.[4329]
King. You all look strangely on me: and you most;[4330]
You are, I think, assured I love you not.
Ch. Just. I am assured, if I be measured rightly,65
Your majesty hath no just cause to hate me.
King. No![4331]
How might a prince of my great hopes forget[4331]
So great indignities you laid upon me?[4332]
What! rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison70
The immediate heir of England! Was this easy?
May this be wash'd in Lethe, and forgotten?[4333]
Ch. Just. I then did use the person of your father;
The image of his power lay then in me:
And, in the administration of his law,75
Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth,
Your highness pleased to forget my place,
The majesty and power of law and justice,
The image of the king whom I presented,
And struck me in my very seat of judgement;80
Whereon, as an offender to your father,
I gave bold way to my authority,
And did commit you. If the deed were ill,[4334]
Be you contented, wearing now the garland,[4334]
To have a son set your decrees at nought,[4335]85
To pluck down justice from your awful bench.[4335]
To trip the course of law and blunt the sword
That guards the peace and safety of your person;[4335]
Nay, more, to spurn at your most royal image
And mock your workings in a second body.[4335]90
Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours;
Be now the father and propose a son,
Hear your own dignity so much profaned,
See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted,
Behold yourself so by a son disdain'd;95
And then imagine me taking your part[4336]
And in your power soft silencing your son:[4337]
After this cold considerance, sentence me;
And, as you are a king, speak in your state
What I have done that misbecame my place,100
My person, or my liege's sovereignty.