CLARENCE

I am here, brother, full of heaviness.

PRINCE HARRY

How now, rain within doors, and none abroad?

How doth the King?

GLOUCESTER Exceeding ill.

PRINCE HARRY

Heard he the good news yet? Tell it him.

GLOUCESTER

He altered much upon the hearing it.

PRINCE HARRY If he be sick with joy, he’ll recover without physic. WARWICK

Not so much noise, my lords! Sweet prince, speak low.

The King your father is disposed to sleep.

CLARENCE

Let us withdraw into the other room.

WARWICK

Will’t please your grace to go along with us?

PRINCE HARRY

No, I will sit and watch here by the King.

Exeunt all but the King and Prince Harry

Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow,

Being so troublesome a bedfellow?

O polished 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

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.

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 divorced

So many English kings.—Thy due from me

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,

Derives itself to me.

He puts the crown on his head

Lo where it sits,

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

⌈Music ceases.⌉ The King awakes

KING HENRY

Warwick, Gloucester, Clarence!

Enter the Earl of Warwick, and the Dukes of

Gloucester and Clarence

CLARENCE Doth the King call?

WARWICK

What would your majesty? How fares your grace?

KING HENRY

Why did you leave me here alone, my lords?

CLARENCE

We left the Prince my brother here, my liege,

Who undertook to sit and watch by you.

KING HENRY

The Prince of Wales? Where is he? Let me see him.

WARWICK

This door is open; he is gone this way.

GLOUCESTER

He came not through the chamber where we stayed.

KING HENRY

Where is the crown? Who took it from my pillow?

WARWICK

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

KING HENRY

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

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

Have broke their sleep with thoughts, their brains with

care,

Their bones with industry; for this they have

Engrossed and piled up the cankered heaps

Of strange-achieved gold; for this they have

Been thoughtful to invest their sons with arts

And martial exercises; when, like the bee

Culling from every flower the virtuous sweets,

Our thighs packed with wax, our mouths with honey,

We bring it to the hive; and, like the bees, 206

Are murdered for our pains. This bitter taste

Yields his engrossments to the ending father.

Enter the Earl of Warwick

Now where is he that will not stay so long

Till his friend sickness have determined me?

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 quaffed but blood,

Would, by beholding him, have washed his knife 215

With gentle eye-drops. He is coming hither.

KING HENRY

But wherefore did he take away the crown?

Enter Prince Harry with the crown

Lo where he comes.—Come hither to me, Harry.

(To the others) Depart the chamber; leave us here

alone. Exeunt all but the King and Prince Harry

PRINCE HARRY

I never thought to hear you speak again.

KING HENRY

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

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

That it will quickly drop. My day is dim.

Thou hast stol’n that which after some few hours

Were thine without offence, and at my death

Thou hast sealed up my expectation.

Thy life did manifest thou loved’st me not,

And thou wilt have me die assured of it.

Thou hid’st a thousand daggers in thy thoughts,