William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition (259 page)

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Authors: William Shakespeare

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PRINCE JOHN

A famous rebel art thou, Coleville.

SIR JOHN And a famous true subject took him.

COLEVILLE

I am, my lord, but as my betters are
That led me hither. Had they been ruled by me,
You should have won them dearer than you have.

SIR JOHN

I know not how—they sold themselves, but thou
Like a kind fellow gav’st thyself away,
And I thank thee for thee.

Enter the Earl of Westmorland

PRINCE JOHN Have you left pursuit?

WESTMORLAND

Retreat is made, and execution stayed.

PRINCE JOHN

Send Coleville with his confederates 70
To York, to present execution.
Blunt, lead him hence, and see you guard him sure.

Exit Blunt, with Coleville

And now dispatch we toward the court, my lords.
I hear the King my father is sore sick.
(
To Westmorland
) Our news shall go before us to his
majesty,
Which, cousin, you shall bear to comfort him;
And we with sober speed will follow you.

SIR JOHN

My lord, I beseech you give me leave to go
Through Gloucestershire, and when you come to court
Stand, my good lord, pray, in your good report.

PRINCE JOHN

Fare you well, Falstaff. I in my condition
Shall better speak of you than you deserve.

Exeunt all but Sir John

SIR JOHN I would you had but the wit; ‘twere better than your dukedom. Good faith, this same young sober-blooded boy doth not love me, nor a man cannot make him laugh. But that’s no marvel; he drinks no wine. There’s never none of these demure boys come to any proof; for thin drink doth so overcool their blood, and making many fish meals, that they fall into a kind of male green-sickness; and then when they marry, they get wenches. They are generally fools and cowards—which some of us should be too, but for inflammation. A good sherry-sack hath a two-fold operation in it. It ascends me into the brain, dries me there all the foolish and dull and crudy vapours which environ it, makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and delectable shapes, which, delivered o’er to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit. The second property of your excellent sherry is the warming of the blood, which, before cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice. But the sherry warms it, and makes it course from the inwards to the parts’ extremes; it illuminateth the face, which, as a beacon, gives warning to all the rest of this little kingdom, man, to arm; and then the vital commoners and inland petty spirits muster me all to their captain, the heart; who, great and puffed up with his retinue, doth any deed of courage. And this valour comes of sherry. So that skill in the weapon is nothing without sack, for that sets it a-work; and learning a mere hoard of gold kept by a devil, till sack commences it and sets it in act and use. Hereof comes it that Prince Harry is valiant; for the cold blood he did naturally inherit of his father he hath, like lean, sterile, and bare land, manured, husbanded, and tilled, with excellent endeavour of drinking good, and good store of fertile sherry, that he is become very hot and valiant. If I had a thousand sons, the first human principle I would teach them should be to forswear thin potations, and to addict themselves to sack. 121

Enter Bardolph

How now, Bardolph?

BARDOLPH

The army is discharged all and gone.

SIR JOHN Let them go. I’ll through Gloucestershire, and there will I visit Master Robert Shallow, Esquire. I have him already tempering between my finger and my thumb, and shortly will I seal with him. Come, away!

Exeunt

4.3
Enter King Henry
⌈
in his bed
⌉,
attended by the Earl of Warwick, Thomas Duke of Clarence, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester,
⌈
and others
⌉

KING HENRY

Now, lords, if God doth give successful end
To this debate that bleedeth at our doors,
We will our youth lead on to higher fields,
And draw no swords but what are sanctified.
Our navy is addressed, our power collected,
Our substitutes in absence well invested,
And everything lies level to our wish;
Only we want a little personal strength,
And pause us till these rebels now afoot
Come underneath the yoke of government. 10

WARWICK

Both which we doubt not but your majesty
Shall soon enjoy.

KING HENRY Humphrey, my son of Gloucester,

Where is the Prince your brother?

GLOUCESTER

I think he’s gone to hunt, my lord, at Windsor.

KING HENRY

And how accompanied?

GLOUCESTER I do not know, my lord. 15

KING HENRY

Is not his brother Thomas of Clarence with him?

GLOUCESTER

No, my good lord, he is in presence here.

CLARENCE What would my lord and father?

KING HENRY

Nothing but well to thee, Thomas of Clarence.
How chance thou art not with the Prince thy brother?
He loves thee, and thou dost neglect him, Thomas.
Thou hast a better place in his affection
Than all thy brothers. Cherish it, my boy,
And noble offices thou mayst effect
Of mediation, after I am dead, 25
Between his greatness and thy other brethren.
Therefore omit him not, blunt not his love,
Nor lose the good advantage of his grace
By seeming cold or careless of his will;
For he is gracious, if he be observed; 30
He hath a tear for pity, and a hand
Open as day for melting charity.
Yet notwithstanding, being incensed, he is flint,
As humorous as winter, and as sudden
As flaws congealed in the spring of day.
His temper therefore must be well observed.
Chide him for faults, and do it reverently,
When you perceive his blood inclined to mirth;
But being moody, give him line and scope
Till that his passions, like a whale on ground,
Confound themselves with working. Learn this,
Thomas,
And thou shalt prove a shelter to thy friends,
A hoop of gold to bind thy brothers in,
That the united vessel of their blood,
Mingled with venom of suggestion—
As force perforce the age will pour it in-
Shall never leak, though it do work as strong
As aconitum or rash gunpowder.

CLARENCE

I shall observe him with all care and love.

KING HENRY

Why art thou not at Windsor with him, Thomas? 50

CLARENCE

He is not there today; he dines in London.

KING HENRY

And how accompanied? Canst thou tell that?

CLARENCE

With Poins and other his continual followers.

KING HENRY

Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds,
And he, the noble image of my youth,
Is overspread with them; therefore my grief
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
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
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
Shall as a pattern or a measure live
By which his grace must mete the lives of other,
Turning past evils to advantages.

KING HENRY

’Tis seldom when the bee doth leave her comb
In the dead carrion.

Enter the Earl of Westmorland

Who’s here? Westmorland? 80

WESTMORLAND

Health to my sovereign, and new happiness
Added to that that I am to deliver I
Prince John your son doth kiss your grace’s hand.
Mowbray, the Bishop Scrope, Hastings, and all
Are brought to the correction of your law.
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.

He gives the King papers

KING HENRY

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 heaven keep your majesty;
And when they stand against you, may they fall
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 sheriff of Yorkshire overthrown.
The manner and true order of the fight
This packet, please it you, contains at large.

He gives the King papers

KING HENRY

And wherefore should these good news make me sick?
Will fortune never come with both hands full,
But write her fair words still in foulest letters?
She either gives a stomach and no food—
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.

He 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 and will break out. 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 leaped 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.

KING HENRY

I pray you take me up and bear me hence
Into some other chamber; softly, pray.