The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works
Page 181
Which I with more than with a common pain
’Gainst all the world will rightfully maintain.
Enter PRINCE JOHN OF LANCASTER, WARWICK and others.
KING Look, look, here comes my John of Lancaster.
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LANCASTER
Health, peace, and happiness to my royal father!
KING
Thou bring’st me happiness and peace, son John,
But health, alack, with youthful wings is flown
From this bare wither’d trunk. Upon thy sight
My worldly business makes a period.
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Where is my Lord of Warwick?
LANCASTER My Lord of Warwick!
KING Doth any name particular belong
Unto the lodging where I first did swoon?
WARWICK ’Tis call’d Jerusalem, my noble lord.
KING Laud be to God! Even there my life must end.
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It hath been prophesied to me, many years,
I should not die but in Jerusalem,
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.
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5.1 Enter SHALLOW, FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH and page.
SHALLOW By cock and pie, sir, you shall not away
tonight. What, Davy, I say!
FALSTAFF You must excuse me, Master Robert Shallow.
SHALLOW I will not excuse you, you shall not be
excused, excuses shall not be admitted, there is no
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excuse shall serve, you shall not be excused. Why,
Davy!
Enter DAVY.
DAVY Here, sir.
SHALLOW Davy, Davy, Davy, Davy; let me see, Davy; let
me see, Davy; let me see – yea, marry, William cook,
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bid him come hither. Sir John, you shall not be
excused.
DAVY Marry, sir, thus: those precepts cannot be
served; and again, sir – shall we sow the hade land
with wheat?
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SHALLOW With red wheat, Davy. But for William cook
– are there no young pigeons?
DAVY Yes, sir. Here is now the smith’s note for shoeing
and plough-irons.
SHALLOW Let it be cast and paid. Sir John, you shall not
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be excused.
DAVY Now, sir, a new link to the bucket must needs be
had; and sir, do you mean to stop any of William’s
wages, about the sack he lost the other day at Hinckley
fair?
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SHALLOW A shall answer it. Some pigeons, Davy, a
couple of short-legged hens, a joint of mutton, and any
pretty little tiny kickshaws, tell William cook.
DAVY Doth the man of war stay all night, sir?
SHALLOW Yea, Davy, I will use him well: a friend i’th’
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court is better than a penny in purse. Use his men
well, Davy, for they are arrant knaves, and will
backbite.
DAVY No worse than they are backbitten, sir, for they
have marvellous foul linen.
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SHALLOW Well conceited, Davy – about thy business,
Davy.
DAVY I beseech you, sir, to countenance William Visor
of Woncot against Clement Perkes a’th’ Hill.
SHALLOW There is many complaints, Davy, against that
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Visor; that Visor is an arrant knave, on my knowledge.
DAVY I grant your worship that he is a knave, sir: but yet
God forbid, sir, but a knave should have some
countenance at his friend’s request. An honest man,
sir, is able to speak for himself, when a knave is not. I
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have served your worship truly, sir, this eight years;
and if I cannot once or twice in a quarter bear out a
knave against an honest man, I have but a very little
credit with your worship. The knave is mine honest
friend, sir, therefore I beseech your worship let him be
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countenanced.
SHALLOW Go to; I say he shall have no wrong. Look
about, Davy. Exit Davy.
Where are you, Sir John? Come, come, come, off with
your boots. Give me your hand, Master Bardolph.
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BARDOLPH I am glad to see your worship.
SHALLOW I thank thee with all my heart, kind Master
Bardolph; and [to the page] welcome, my tall fellow.
Come, Sir John.
FALSTAFF I’ll follow you, good Master Robert Shallow.
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Exit Shallow.
Bardolph, look to our horses.
Exeunt Bardolph and page.
If I were sawed into quantities, I should make four
dozen of such bearded hermits’ staves as Master
Shallow. It is a wonderful thing to see the semblable
coherence of his men’s spirits and his. They, by
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observing of him, do bear themselves like foolish
justices; he, by conversing with them, is turned into a
justice-like servingman. Their spirits are so married in
conjunction, with the participation of society, that
they flock together in consent, like so many wild geese.
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If I had a suit to Master Shallow, I would humour his
men with the imputation of being near their master: if
to his men, I would curry with Master Shallow that no
man could better command his servants. It is certain
that either wise bearing or ignorant carriage is caught,
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as men take diseases, one of another; therefore let men
take heed of their company. I will devise matter
enough out of this Shallow to keep Prince Harry in
continual laughter the wearing out of six fashions,
which is four terms, or two actions, and a shall laugh
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without intervallums. O, it is much that a lie with a
slight oath, and a jest with a sad brow, will do with a
fellow that never had the ache in his shoulders! O, you
shall see him laugh till his face be like a wet cloak ill
laid up!
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SHALLOW [within] Sir John!
FALSTAFF I come, Master Shallow, I come, Master
Shallow. Exit.
5.2 Enter WARWICK and the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE, meeting.
WARWICK
How now, my Lord Chief Justice, whither away?
CHIEF JUSTICE How doth the King?
WARWICK Exceeding well: his cares are now all ended.
CHIEF JUSTICE I hope, not dead.
WARWICK He’s walk’d the way of nature,
And to our purposes he lives no more.
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CHIEF JUSTICE
I would his Majesty had call’d me with him.
The service that I truly did his life
Hath left me open to all injuries.
WARWICK
Indeed I think the young King loves you not.
CHIEF JUSTICE I know he doth not, and do arm myself
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To welcome the condition of the time,
Which cannot look more hideously upon me
Than I have drawn it in my fantasy.
Enter PRINCE JOHN OF LANCASTER, CLARENCE, GLOUCESTER and others.
WARWICK Here come the heavy issue of dead Harry.
O that the living Harry had the temper
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Of he, the worst of these three gentlemen!
How many nobles then should hold their places
&n
bsp; That must strike sail to spirits of vile sort!
CHIEF JUSTICE O God, I fear all will be overturn’d.
LANCASTER
Good morrow, cousin Warwick, good morrow.
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GLOUCESTER, CLARENCE Good morrow, cousin.
LANCASTER We meet like men that had forgot to
speak.
WARWICK We do remember, but our argument
Is all too heavy to admit much talk.
LANCASTER
Well, peace be with him that hath made us heavy!
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CHIEF JUSTICE Peace be with us, lest we be heavier!
GLOUCESTER
O good my lord, you have lost a friend indeed;
And I dare swear you borrow not that face
Of seeming sorrow – it is sure your own.
LANCASTER
Though no man be assur’d what grace to find,
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You stand in coldest expectation.
I am the sorrier; would ’twere otherwise.
CLARENCE
Well, you must now speak Sir John Falstaff fair,
Which swims against your stream of quality.
CHIEF JUSTICE
Sweet Princes, what I did I did in honour,
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Led by th’impartial conduct of my soul.
And never shall you see that I will beg
A ragged and forestall’d remission.
If truth and upright innocency fail me,
I’ll to the King my master that is dead,
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And tell him who hath sent me after him.
WARWICK Here comes the Prince.
Enter KING HENRY THE FIFTH, attended.
CHIEF JUSTICE
Good morrow, and God save your Majesty!
KING This new and gorgeous garment, majesty,
Sits not so easy on me as you think.
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Brothers, you mix your sadness with some fear.
This is the English, not the Turkish court;
Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds,
But Harry Harry. Yet be sad, good brothers,
For by my faith it very well becomes you.
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Sorrow so royally in you appears
That I will deeply put the fashion on,
And wear it in my heart. Why then, be sad;
But entertain no more of it, good brothers,
Than a joint burden laid upon us all.
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For me, by heaven, I bid you be assur’d,
I’ll be your father and your brother too;
Let me but bear your love, I’ll bear your cares.
Yet weep that Harry’s dead, and so will I;
But Harry lives, that shall convert those tears
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By number into hours of happiness.
PRINCES We hope no otherwise from your Majesty.
KING You all look strangely on me – and you most;
You are, I think, assur’d I love you not.
CHIEF JUSTICE I am assur’d, if I be measur’d rightly,
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Your Majesty hath no just cause to hate me.
KING No?
How might a prince of my great hopes forget
So great indignities you laid upon me?
What! rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison
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Th’immediate heir of England? Was this easy?
May this be wash’d in Lethe and forgotten?
CHIEF JUSTICE
I then did use the person of your father;
The image of his power lay then in me;
And in th’administration of his law,
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Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth,
Your Highness pleased to forget my place,
The majesty and power of law and justice,
The image of the King whom I presented,
And struck me in my very seat of judgment;
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Whereon, as an offender to your father,
I gave bold way to my authority
And did commit you. If the deed were ill,
Be you contented, wearing now the garland,
To have a son set your decrees at naught?
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To pluck down justice from your aweful bench?
To trip the course of law, and blunt the sword
That guards the peace and safety of your person?
Nay more, to spurn at your most royal image,
And mock your workings in a second body?
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Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours,
Be now the father, and propose a son,
Hear your own dignity so much profan’d,
See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted,
Behold yourself so by a son disdain’d:
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And then imagine me taking your part,