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Henry IV, Pt. 2: Act IV, Scene 5

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Henry IV, Pt. 2
Act IV, Scene 5

Westminster . The Jerusalem Chamber .

Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow, being so troublesome a bedfellow?

Alfred Edward Chalon, circa 1800

King Henry the Fourth

1 - 3
  1. Let there be no noise made , my gentle friends ,
  2. Unless some dull and favorable hand
  3. Will whisper music to my weary spirit .

Earl of Warwick

4
  1. Call for the music in the other room .

King Henry the Fourth

5
  1. Set me the crown upon my pillow here .

Duke of Clarence

6
  1. His eye is hollow , and he changes much .

Earl of Warwick

7
  1. Less noise , less noise !
  1. Enter Prince Harry .

Prince Henry

8
  1.                         Who saw the Duke of Clarence ?

Duke of Clarence

9
  1. I am here , brother , full of heaviness .

Prince Henry

10 - 11
  1. How now , rain within doors , and none abroad ?
  2. How doth the King ?

Duke of Gloucester

12
  1. Exceeding ill .

Prince Henry

13 - 14
  1.                Heard he the good news yet ?
  2. Tell it him .

Duke of Gloucester

15
  1. He alt’red much upon the hearing it .

Prince Henry

16
  1. If he be sick with joy , he’ll recover without physic .

Earl of Warwick

17 - 18
  1. Not so much noise , my lords . Sweet Prince , speak low ,
  2. The King your father is dispos’d to sleep .

Duke of Clarence

19
  1. Let us withdraw into the other room .

Earl of Warwick

20
  1. Will’t please your Grace to go along with us ?

Prince Henry

21 - 49
  1. No , I will sit and watch here by the King .
  2. Exeunt all but the Prince .
  3. Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow ,
  4. Being so troublesome a bedfellow ?
  5. O polish’d perturbation ! Golden care !
  6. That keep’st the ports of slumber open wide
  7. To many a watchful night , sleep with it now !
  8. Yet not so sound , and half so deeply sweet ,
  9. As he whose brow with homely biggen bound
  10. Snores out the watch of night . O majesty !
  11. When thou dost pinch thy bearer , thou dost sit
  12. Like a rich armor worn in heat of day ,
  13. That scald’st with safety . By his gates of breath
  14. There lies a downy feather which stirs not .
  15. Did he suspire , that light and weightless down
  16. Perforce must move . My gracious lord ! My father !
  17. This sleep is sound indeed , this is a sleep
  18. That from this golden rigol hath divorc’d
  19. So many English kings . Thy due from me
  20. Is tears and heavy sorrows of the blood ,
  21. Which nature , love , and filial tenderness
  22. Shall , O dear father , pay thee plenteously .
  23. My due from thee is this imperial crown ,
  24. Which as immediate from thy place and blood ,
  25. Derives itself to me .
  26. Puts on the crown .
  27.                       Lo where it sits ,
  28. Which God shall guard ; and put the world’s whole strength
  29. Into one giant arm , it shall not force
  30. This lineal honor from me . This from thee
  31. Will I to mine leave , as ’tis left to me .
  1. Exit .

King Henry the Fourth

50
  1. Warwick ! Gloucester ! Clarence !
  1. Enter Warwick , Gloucester , Clarence , and the rest .

Duke of Clarence

51
  1.                                Doth the King call ?

Earl of Warwick

52
  1. What would your Majesty ? How fares your Grace ?

King Henry the Fourth

53
  1. Why did you leave me here alone , my lords ?

Duke of Clarence

54 - 55
  1. We left the Prince my brother here , my liege ,
  2. Who undertook to sit and watch by you .

King Henry the Fourth

56 - 57
  1. The Prince of Wales , where is he ? Let me see him .
  2. He is not here .

Earl of Warwick

58
  1. This door is open , he is gone this way .

Duke of Gloucester

59
  1. He came not through the chamber where we stay’d .

King Henry the Fourth

60
  1. Where is the crown ? Who took it from my pillow ?

Earl of Warwick

61
  1. When we withdrew , my liege , we left it here .

King Henry the Fourth

62 - 84
  1. The Prince hath ta’en it hence . Go seek him out .
  2. Is he so hasty that he doth suppose
  3. My sleep my death ?
  4. Find him , my Lord of Warwick , chide him hither .
  5. Exit Warwick .
  6. This part of his conjoins with my disease ,
  7. And helps to end me . See , sons , what things you are !
  8. How quickly nature falls into revolt
  9. When gold becomes her object !
  10. For this the foolish over - careful fathers
  11. Have broke their sleep with thoughts , their brains with care ,
  12. Their bones with industry ;
  13. For this they have engrossed and pil’d up
  14. The cank’red heaps of strange - achieved gold ;
  15. For this they have been thoughtful to invest
  16. Their sons with arts and martial exercises ;
  17. When like the bee tolling from every flower
  18. The virtuous sweets ,
  19. Our thighs pack’d with wax , our mouths with honey ,
  20. We bring it to the hive , and like the bees ,
  21. Are murd’red for our pains . This bitter taste
  22. Yields his engrossments to the ending father .
  23. Enter Warwick .
  24. Now , where is he that will not stay so long
  25. Till his friend sickness have determin’d me ?

My due from thee is this imperial crown

Alexandre Bida, 19th century

Earl of Warwick

85 - 90
  1. My lord , I found the Prince in the next room ,
  2. Washing with kindly tears his gentle cheeks ,
  3. With such a deep demeanor in great sorrow
  4. That tyranny , which never quaff’d but blood ,
  5. Would , by beholding him , have wash’d his knife
  6. With gentle eye - drops . He is coming hither .

King Henry the Fourth

91 - 93
  1. But wherefore did he take away the crown ?
  2. Enter Prince Harry .
  3. Lo where he comes . Come hither to me , Harry .
  4. Depart the chamber , leave us here alone .
  1. Exeunt Warwick and the rest .

Prince Henry

94
  1. I never thought to hear you speak again .

King Henry the Fourth

95 - 140
  1. Thy wish was father , Harry , to that thought :
  2. I stay too long by thee , I weary thee .
  3. Dost thou so hunger for mine empty chair
  4. That thou wilt needs invest thee with my honors
  5. Before thy hour be ripe ? O foolish youth ,
  6. Thou seek’st the greatness that will overwhelm thee .
  7. Stay but a little , for my cloud of dignity
  8. Is held from falling with so weak a wind
  9. That it will quickly drop ; my day is dim .
  10. Thou hast stol’n that which after some few hours
  11. Were thine without offense , and at my death
  12. Thou hast seal’d up my expectation .
  13. Thy life did manifest thou lov’dst me not ,
  14. And thou wilt have me die assur’d of it .
  15. Thou hid’st a thousand daggers in thy thoughts ,
  16. Whom thou hast whetted on thy stony heart
  17. To stab at half an hour of my life .
  18. What , canst thou not forbear me half an hour ?
  19. Then get thee gone , and dig my grave thyself ,
  20. And bid the merry bells ring to thine ear
  21. That thou art crowned , not that I am dead .
  22. Let all the tears that should bedew my hearse
  23. Be drops of balm to sanctify thy head ;
  24. Only compound me with forgotten dust ;
  25. Give that which gave thee life unto the worms ,
  26. Pluck down my officers , break my decrees ,
  27. For now a time is come to mock at form .
  28. Harry the Fifth is crown’d ! Up , vanity !
  29. Down , royal state ! All you sage counsellors , hence !
  30. And to the English court assemble now ,
  31. From every region , apes of idleness !
  32. Now , neighbor confines , purge you of your scum !
  33. Have you a ruffin that will swear , drink , dance ,
  34. Revel the night , rob , murder , and commit
  35. The oldest sins the newest kind of ways ?
  36. Be happy , he will trouble you no more .
  37. England shall double gild his treble guilt ,
  38. England shall give him office , honor , might ;
  39. For the fifth Harry from curb’d license plucks
  40. The muzzle of restraint , and the wild dog
  41. Shall flesh his tooth on every innocent .
  42. O my poor kingdom , sick with civil blows !
  43. When that my care could not withhold thy riots ,
  44. What wilt thou do when riot is thy care ?
  45. O , thou wilt be a wilderness again ,
  46. Peopled with wolves , thy old inhabitants !
Costume design for Earl of Warwick

Costume design for Earl of Warwick

John Miller, George Scharf, 1824

Prince Henry

141 - 179
  1. O , pardon me , my liege ! But for my tears ,
  2. The moist impediments unto my speech ,
  3. I had forestall’d this dear and deep rebuke
  4. Ere you with grief had spoke and I had heard
  5. The course of it so far . There is your crown ;
  6. And He that wears the crown immortally
  7. Long guard it yours ! If I affect it more
  8. Than as your honor and as your renown ,
  9. Let me no more from this obedience rise ,
  10. Kneels .
  11. Which my most inward true and duteous spirit
  12. Teacheth this prostrate and exterior bending .
  13. God witness with me , when I here came in ,
  14. And found no course of breath within your Majesty ,
  15. How cold it struck my heart ! If I do feign ,
  16. O , let me in my present wildness die ,
  17. And never live to show th’ incredulous world
  18. The noble change that I have purposed !
  19. Coming to look on you , thinking you dead ,
  20. And dead almost , my liege , to think you were ,
  21. I spake unto this crown as having sense ,
  22. And thus upbraided it : “ The care on thee depending
  23. Hath fed upon the body of my father ;
  24. Therefore thou best of gold art worst of gold .
  25. Other , less fine in carat , is more precious ,
  26. Preserving life in med’cine potable ;
  27. But thou , most fine , most honor’d , most renown’d ,
  28. Hast eat thy bearer up .” Thus , my most royal liege ,
  29. Accusing it , I put it on my head ,
  30. To try with it , as with an enemy
  31. That had before my face murdered my father ,
  32. The quarrel of a true inheritor .
  33. But if it did infect my blood with joy ,
  34. Or swell my thoughts to any strain of pride ,
  35. If any rebel or vain spirit of mine
  36. Did with the least affection of a welcome
  37. Give entertainment to the might of it ,
  38. Let God forever keep it from my head ,
  39. And make me as the poorest vassal is
  40. That doth with awe and terror kneel to it !

King Henry the Fourth

180 - 222
  1. O my son ,
  2. God put it in thy mind to take it hence ,
  3. That thou mightst win the more thy father’s love ,
  4. Pleading so wisely in excuse of it !
  5. Come hither , Harry , sit thou by my bed ,
  6. And hear ( I think ) the very latest counsel
  7. That ever I shall breathe . God knows , my son ,
  8. By what by - paths and indirect crook’d ways
  9. I met this crown , and I myself know well
  10. How troublesome it sate upon my head .
  11. To thee it shall descend with better quiet ,
  12. Better opinion , better confirmation ,
  13. For all the soil of the achievement goes
  14. With me into the earth . It seem’d in me
  15. But as an honor snatch’d with boist’rous hand ,
  16. And I had many living to upbraid
  17. My gain of it by their assistances ,
  18. Which daily grew to quarrel and to bloodshed ,
  19. Wounding supposed peace . All these bold fears
  20. Thou seest with peril I have answered ;
  21. For all my reign hath been but as a scene
  22. Acting that argument . And now my death
  23. Changes the mood , for what in me was purchas’d
  24. Falls upon thee in a more fairer sort ;
  25. So thou the garland wear’st successively .
  26. Yet though thou stand’st more sure than I could do ,
  27. Thou art not firm enough , since griefs are green ,
  28. And all my friends , which thou must make thy friends ,
  29. Have but their stings and teeth newly ta’en out ;
  30. By whose fell working I was first advanc’d ,
  31. And by whose power I well might lodge a fear
  32. To be again displac’d ; which to avoid ,
  33. I cut them off , and had a purpose now
  34. To lead out many to the Holy Land ,
  35. Lest rest and lying still might make them look
  36. Too near unto my state . Therefore , my Harry ,
  37. Be it thy course to busy giddy minds
  38. With foreign quarrels , that action , hence borne out ,
  39. May waste the memory of the former days .
  40. More would I , but my lungs are wasted so
  41. That strength of speech is utterly denied me .
  42. How I came by the crown , O God forgive ,
  43. And grant it may with thee in true peace live !

My gracious lord! My father!

Edwin Austin Abbey, circa 1904

Prince Henry

223 - 227
  1. My gracious liege ,
  2. You won it , wore it , kept it , gave it me ;
  3. Then plain and right must my possession be ,
  4. Which I with more than with a common pain
  5. ’Gainst all the world will rightfully maintain .
  1. Enter Prince John of Lancaster .

King Henry the Fourth

228
  1. Look , look , here comes my John of Lancaster .

Prince John of Lancaster

229
  1. Health , peace , and happiness to my royal father !

King Henry the Fourth

230 - 234
  1. Thou bring’st me happiness and peace , son John ,
  2. But health , alack , with youthful wings is flown
  3. From this bare wither’d trunk . Upon thy sight
  4. My worldly business makes a period .
  5. Where is my Lord of Warwick ?

Prince Henry

235
  1.                              My Lord of Warwick !
  1. Enter Warwick .

King Henry the Fourth

236 - 237
  1. Doth any name particular belong
  2. Unto the lodging where I first did swound ?

Earl of Warwick

238
  1. ’Tis call’d Jerusalem , my noble lord .

King Henry the Fourth

239 - 244
  1. Laud be to God ! Even there my life must end .
  2. It hath been prophesied to me many years ,
  3. I should not die but in Jerusalem ,
  4. Which vainly I suppos’d the Holy Land .
  5. But bear me to that chamber , there I’ll lie ,
  6. In that Jerusalem shall Harry die .
  1. Exeunt .
Costume design for Prince Henry

Costume design for Prince Henry

John Miller, George Scharf, 1824

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