Henry IV, Pt. 2
Act III, Scene 1
Westminster . A palace room .
- Enter the King in his night - gown , alone , followed by a Page .
King Henry the Fourth
1 - 31- Go call the Earls of Surrey and of Warwick ;
- But , ere they come , bid them o’er - read these letters
- And well consider of them . Make good speed .
- Exit Page .
- How many thousand of my poorest subjects
- Are at this hour asleep ! O sleep ! O gentle sleep !
- Nature’s soft nurse , how have I frighted thee ,
- That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down ,
- And steep my senses in forgetfulness ?
- Why rather , sleep , liest thou in smoky cribs ,
- Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee ,
- And hush’d with buzzing night - flies to thy slumber ,
- Than in the perfum’d chambers of the great ,
- Under the canopies of costly state ,
- And lull’d with sound of sweetest melody ?
- O thou dull god , why li’st thou with the vile
- In loathsome beds , and leavest the kingly couch
- A watch - case or a common ’larum - bell ?
- Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
- Seal up the ship - boy’s eyes , and rock his brains
- In cradle of the rude imperious surge ,
- And in the visitation of the winds ,
- Who take the ruffian billows by the top ,
- Curling their monstrous heads and hanging them
- With deafing clamor in the slippery clouds ,
- That with the hurly death itself awakes ?
- Canst thou , O partial sleep , give then repose
- To the wet sea - boy in an hour so rude ,
- And in the calmest and most stillest night ,
- With all appliances and means to boot ,
- Deny it to a king ? Then ( happy ) low , lie down !
- Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown .
- Enter Warwick , Surrey , and Sir John Blunt .
Earl of Warwick
32- Many good morrows to your Majesty !
King Henry the Fourth
33- Is it good morrow , lords ?
Earl of Warwick
34- ’Tis one a’ clock , and past .
King Henry the Fourth
35 - 36- Why then good morrow to you all , my lords .
- Have you read o’er the letters that I sent you ?
Earl of Warwick
37- We have , my liege .
King Henry the Fourth
38 - 40- Then you perceive the body of our kingdom
- How foul it is , what rank diseases grow ,
- And with what danger , near the heart of it .
Earl of Warwick
41 - 44- It is but as a body yet distempered ,
- Which to his former strength may be restored
- With good advice and little medicine .
- My Lord Northumberland will soon be cool’d .
King Henry the Fourth
45 - 79- O God , that one might read the book of fate ,
- And see the revolution of the times
- Make mountains level , and the continent ,
- Weary of solid firmness , melt itself
- Into the sea , and other times to see
- The beachy girdle of the ocean
- Too wide for Neptune’s hips ; how chance’s mocks
- And changes fill the cup of alteration
- With divers liquors ! O , if this were seen ,
- The happiest youth , viewing his progress through ,
- What perils past , what crosses to ensue ,
- Would shut the book , and sit him down and die .
- ’Tis not ten years gone
- Since Richard and Northumberland , great friends ,
- Did feast together , and in two year after
- Were they at wars . It is but eight years since
- This Percy was the man nearest my soul ,
- Who like a brother toil’d in my affairs ,
- And laid his love and life under my foot ,
- Yea , for my sake , even to the eyes of Richard
- Gave him defiance . But which of you was by —
- To Warwick .
- You , cousin Nevil , as I may remember —
- When Richard , with his eye brimful of tears ,
- Then check’d and rated by Northumberland ,
- Did speak these words , now prov’d a prophecy ?
- “ Northumberland , thou ladder by the which
- My cousin Bullingbrook ascends my throne ”
- ( Though then , God knows , I had no such intent ,
- But that necessity so bow’d the state
- That I and greatness were compell’d to kiss ),
- “ The time shall come ,” thus did he follow it ,
- “ The time will come , that foul sin , gathering head ,
- Shall break into corruption ”: so went on ,
- Foretelling this same time’s condition
- And the division of our amity .
Byam Shaw, 1901
Earl of Warwick
80 - 92- There is a history in all men’s lives ,
- Figuring the natures of the times deceas’d ,
- The which observ’d , a man may prophesy ,
- With a near aim , of the main chance of things
- As yet not come to life , who in their seeds
- And weak beginning lie intreasured .
- Such things become the hatch and brood of time ,
- And by the necessary form of this
- King Richard might create a perfect guess
- That great Northumberland , then false to him ,
- Would of that seed grow to a greater falseness ,
- Which should not find a ground to root upon
- Unless on you .
King Henry the Fourth
93 - 97- Are these things then necessities ?
- Then let us meet them like necessities ;
- And that same word even now cries out on us .
- They say the Bishop and Northumberland
- Are fifty thousand strong .
Earl of Warwick
98 - 108- It cannot be , my lord .
- Rumor doth double , like the voice and echo ,
- The numbers of the feared . Please it your Grace
- To go to bed . Upon my soul , my lord ,
- The powers that you already have sent forth
- Shall bring this prize in very easily .
- To comfort you the more , I have received
- A certain instance that Glendower is dead .
- Your Majesty hath been this fortnight ill ,
- And these unseasoned hours perforce must add
- Unto your sickness .
King Henry the Fourth
109 - 111- I will take your counsel ,
- And were these inward wars once out of hand ,
- We would , dear lords , unto the Holy Land .
- Exeunt .
Henry IV
late 18th C