Act IV, Scene 5

Westminster. Another chamber

The KING lying on a bed; CLARENCE, GLOUCESTER, WARWICK, and others in attendance

• Henry IV. Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends;
  Unless some dull and favourable hand
  Will whisper music to my weary spirit.

• Earl of Warwick. Call for the music in the other room. 2890

• Henry IV. Set me the crown upon my pillow here.

• Prince Thomas. His eye is hollow, and he changes much.

• Earl of Warwick. Less noise! less noise!

Enter PRINCE HENRY

• Henry V. Who saw the Duke of Clarence? 2895

• Prince Thomas. I am here, brother, full of heaviness.

• Henry V. How now! Rain within doors, and none abroad!
  How doth the King?

• Prince Humphrey. Exceeding ill.

• Henry V. Heard he the good news yet? Tell it him. 2900

• Prince Humphrey. He alt'red much upon the hearing it.

• Henry V. If he be sick with joy, he'll recover without physic.

• Earl of Warwick. Not so much noise, my lords. Sweet Prince, speak low;
  The King your father is dispos'd to sleep.

• Prince Thomas. Let us withdraw into the other room. 2905

• Earl of Warwick. Will't please your Grace to go along with us?

• Henry V. No; I will sit and watch here by the King.
  [Exeunt all but the PRINCE]
  Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow,
  Being so troublesome a bedfellow? 2910
  O polish'd perturbation! golden care!
  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 2915
  Snores out the watch of night. O majesty!
  When thou dost pinch thy bearer, thou dost sit
  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. 2920
  Did he suspire, that light and weightless down
  Perforce must move. My gracious lord! my father!
  This sleep is sound indeed; this is a sleep
  That from this golden rigol hath divorc'd
  So many English kings. Thy due from me 2925
  Is tears and heavy sorrows of the blood
  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, 2930
  Derives itself to me. [Putting on the crown] Lo where it
  Which God shall guard; and put the world's whole strength
  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 2935

• Henry IV. Warwick! Gloucester! Clarence!

Re-enter WARWICK, GLOUCESTER, CLARENCE

• Prince Thomas. Doth the King call?

• Earl of Warwick. What would your Majesty? How fares your Grace? 2940

• Henry IV. Why did you leave me here alone, my lords?

• Prince Thomas. We left the Prince my brother here, my liege,
  Who undertook to sit and watch by you.

• Henry IV. The Prince of Wales! Where is he? Let me see him.
  He is not here. 2945

• Earl of Warwick. This door is open; he is gone this way.

• Prince Humphrey. He came not through the chamber where we

• Henry IV. Where is the crown? Who took it from my pillow?

• Earl of Warwick. When we withdrew, my liege, we left it here. 2950

• Henry IV. 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.
  [Exit WARWICK] 2955
  This part of his conjoins with my disease
  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 over-careful fathers 2960
  Have broke their sleep with thoughts,
  Their brains with care, their bones with industry;
  For this they have engrossed and pil'd up
  The cank'red heaps of strange-achieved gold;
  For this they have been thoughtful to invest 2965
  Their sons with arts and martial exercises;
  When, like the bee, tolling from every flower
  The virtuous sweets,
  Our thighs with wax, our mouths with honey pack'd,
  We bring it to the hive, and, like the bees, 2970
  Are murd'red for our pains. This bitter taste
  Yields his engrossments to the ending father.
  [Re-enter WARWICK]
  Now where is he that will not stay so long
  Till his friend sickness hath determin'd me? 2975

• Earl of 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 quaff'd but blood,
  Would, by beholding him, have wash'd his knife 2980
  With gentle eye-drops. He is coming hither.

• Henry IV. But wherefore did he take away the crown?
  [Re-enter PRINCE HENRY]
  Lo where he comes. Come hither to me, Harry.
  Depart the chamber, leave us here alone. 2985

Exeunt all but the KING and the PRINCE

• Henry V. I never thought to hear you speak again.

• Henry IV. 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 2990
  That thou wilt needs invest thee with my honours
  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 2995
  That it will quickly drop; my day is dim.
  Thou hast stol'n that which, after some few hours,
  Were thine without offense; and at my death
  Thou hast seal'd up my expectation.
  Thy life did manifest thou lov'dst me not, 3000
  And thou wilt have me die assur'd of it.
  Thou hid'st a thousand daggers in thy thoughts,
  Which 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? 3005
  Then get thee gone, and dig my grave thyself;
  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; 3010
  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: 3015
  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, 3020
  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, honour, might; 3025
  For the fifth Harry from curb'd 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, 3030
  What wilt thou do when riot is thy care?
  O, thou wilt be a wilderness again.
  Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants!

• Henry V. O, pardon me, my liege! But for my tears,
  The moist impediments unto my speech, 3035
  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,
  And he that wears the crown immortally
  Long guard it yours! [Kneeling] If I affect it more 3040
  Than as your honour 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!
  God witness with me, when I here came in 3045
  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 world
  The noble change that I have purposed! 3050
  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,
  And thus upbraided it: 'The care on thee depending
  Hath fed upon the body of my father; 3055
  Therefore thou best of gold art worst of gold.
  Other, less fine in carat, is more precious,
  Preserving life in med'cine potable;
  But thou, most fine, most honour'd, most renown'd,
  Hast eat thy bearer up.' Thus, my most royal liege, 3060
  Accusing it, I put it on my head,
  To try with it—as with an enemy
  That had before my face murd'red my father—
  The quarrel of a true inheritor.
  But if it did infect my blood with joy, 3065
  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,
  Let God for ever keep it from my head, 3070
  And make me as the poorest vassal is,
  That doth with awe and terror kneel to it!

• Henry IV. O my son,
  God put it in thy mind to take it hence,
  That thou mightst win the more thy father's love, 3075
  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,
  By what by-paths and indirect crook'd ways 3080
  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 goes 3085
  With me into the earth. It seem'd in me
  But as an honour snatch'd with boist'rous hand;
  And I had many living to upbraid
  My gain of it by their assistances;
  Which daily grew to quarrel and to bloodshed, 3090
  Wounding supposed peace. All these bold fears
  Thou seest with peril I have answered;
  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 purchas'd 3095
  Falls upon thee in a more fairer sort;
  So thou the garland wear'st successively.
  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, 3100
  Have but their stings and teeth newly ta'en out;
  By whose fell working I was first advanc'd,
  And by whose power I well might lodge a fear
  To be again displac'd; which to avoid,
  I cut them off; and had a purpose now 3105
  To lead out many to the Holy Land,
  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, 3110
  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! 3115

• Henry V. My gracious liege,
  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. 3120
  Enter PRINCE JOHN OF LANCASTER, WARWICK, LORDS, and others

• Henry IV. Look, look, here comes my John of Lancaster.

• Prince John. Health, peace, and happiness, to my royal father!

• Henry IV. Thou bring'st me happiness and peace, son John;
  But health, alack, with youthful wings is flown 3125
  From this bare wither'd trunk. Upon thy sight
  My worldly business makes a period.
  Where is my Lord of Warwick?

• Henry V. My Lord of Warwick!

• Henry IV. Doth any name particular belong 3130
  Unto the lodging where I first did swoon?

• Earl of Warwick. 'Tis call'd Jerusalem, my noble lord.

• Henry IV. 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; 3135
  Which vainly I suppos'd the Holy Land.
  But bear me to that chamber; there I'll lie;
  In that Jerusalem shall Harry die. Exeunt