Page:Henry IV Part 2 (1921) Yale.djvu/110

98

For now a time is come to mock at form.

Harry the Fifth is crown'd! Up, vanity!

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,

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;

For the fifth Harry from curb'd licence plucks

The muzzle of restraint, and the wild dog

Shall flesh his tooth in every innocent.

my poor kingdom! sick with civil blows,

When that my care could not withhold thy riots,

What wilt thou do when riot is thy care?

O! thou wilt be a wilderness again,

Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants.

Prince. O! pardon me, my liege; but for my tears,

The moist impediments unto my speech,

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! If I affect it more

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,

And found no course of breath within your majesty,

 117 form: order

118 vanity: folly

134 care: special study

139 dear: earnest

143 affect: aspire to 